Israel has called upon the few Jews living in Tunisia to leave and emigrate to Israel now. This is interesting – as long as Tunisia was a ruthless dictatorship, they had no problem with it; it is only now, wiuth the tyrant deposed, that they have become ‘worried’ about Tunisia’s Jews…
North African country denounces ‘ill-disposed’ call, which it warns amount to ‘meddling’ in Tunisia’s domestic affairs.
Tunisia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned a call by Israeli officials for Jews to emigrate to Israel over concerns about possible economic hardship ahead in the North African country.
“The ill-disposed call amounts to meddling in Tunisia’s domestic affairs and an attempt by Israel to tarnish the post-revolutionary image of Tunisia,” the ministry said.
Monday’s statement via state news agency TAP comes a day after Israel’s Cabinet said Prime Benjamin Netanyahu cited real distress among Tunisia’s Jews and pledged extra money and aid to help them immigrate.
Tunisia’s tourism industry has suffered after a popular uprising drove President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee in January. Two-thirds of Tunisia’s estimated 1,500 Jews live on the island of Djerba – a popular vacation spot.
Richard Silverstein: I delegitimize Occupation
27 MARCH 2011
By Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam – 25 March 2011
www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/03/25/i-delegitimize-occupation/
I Deligitimize Occupation (Graphic: Michael Levin and Richard Silverstein)
After the IDF’s intelligence unit, Aman, came up with the bright idea to create a special unit to investigate, monitor and spy on Diaspora groups opposed to the Occupation (enemies now known by the catchy phrase, “delegitimizers”), I thought the only proper response was to step up proudly and say: “I am one.” Not a delegitimizer in the terms they employ since they falsely claim that delegitimizers wish Israel’s destruction. That’s not the kind of delegitimizer I am. I delegitimze Occupation as do all the groups they’ll be harrassing. So Michael Levin and I came up with this poster which we hope you will share, promote, circulate via social media, etc.
Let’s tell the generals, spooks, inquisitors and ideologues that we want to be first on the list to be investigated. I delegitimize Occupation. There. Now I said it. I feel better already. Now when can I be expecting that knock on the door in the middle of the night from someone from headquarters saying they just have a few questions?
EDITOR: The Law machine is working overtime…
There is hardlya day that the Knesset is not passing some law or other which is an attack on human rights, in the name of security. This one is supposedly against terrorists… but then we find that one of those supposed ‘terrorists’ is the ex-MK, Azmi Bishara. What maddness and hypocricy!
MK David Rotem: There is no citizenship without loyalty; lawmakers also agree to revoke stipend of MK Azmi Bishara, suspected of series of crimes against national security.
The Knesset plenum on Monday gave its final seal of approval to a law that would enable Israel’s Supreme Court to revoke the citizenship of anyone convicted of espionage, treason or aiding the enemy during war.
“Anyone who betrays the state and carries out acts of terror must know – citizenship and loyalty go together,” said Yisrael Beiteinu MK David Rotem, who initiated the bill, which passed in its second and third reading. “There is no citizenship without loyalty.”
The ‘citizenship loyalty’ law also allows the court to revoke the status of any permanent resident found guilty of assisting a terrorist organization.
Yisrael Beiteinu chairman, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, lauded the Knesset’s decision as a step toward “contending with the phenomenon of exploiting democracy in order to subvert it.”
According to the bill, only people with dual citizenship could be stripped of their Israeli citizenship entirely. Someone without dual citizenship could still lose his Israeli citizenship, but would be granted status equivalent to what Israel grants foreign workers.
However, the bill also states that someone convicted of terrorism would lose his right to all allowances paid by the state, such as child allowances or welfare.
The Knesset on Monday also approved by a majority of 29 to 8 a bill to strip the stipend of former MK Azmi Bishara, who fled the country to skip out on an investigation into a series of crimes against national security.
EDITOR: Fear of Unity
Israel is terrified of the possibility of Palestinian unity, though they should not really worry – as long as Abbas is there, there can hardly be such a move… After all, they have invested for years in the Palestinian split, and do not intend to see it healed now.
Palestinian president willing to give up hundreds of million dollars in U.S. aid if necessary to forge a unity deal with Hamas, says top adviser.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that reconciliation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas could spell the end of the peace process, after an aide to Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinian president was would be willing to give up U.S. aid if needed to secure unity with the rival faction.
“You can’t have peace with both Israel and Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “Choose peace with Israel.”
Abbas is making a heavy push for reconciliation with Hamas, and a senior adviser said Monday that he was prepared to give up hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid if that was what it takes to forge a Palestinian unity deal.
“Of course we need the American money. But if they use it as a way of pressuring us, we are ready to relinquish that aid,” said adviser Azzam Ahmed.
Israel, the U.S. and the EU consider Hamas a terror group because of its rocket attacks and suicide bombings aimed at Israeli civilians.
The U.S. administration, the largest single donor to the Palestinians, withheld funds when Hamas was a part of a short-lived Palestinian unity government. The Palestinian Authority is heavily reliant on foreign aid and forgoing the funds could easily spark its own crisis.
The Palestinian unity government, isolated internationally because of Hamas’ refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist, collapsed during a five-day civil war in 2007 that ended with the Islamic militant group seizing power in the Gaza Strip.
Since then, the Palestinians have been divided between rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza, the two territories they hope to turn into an independent state.
With peace talks stalled since September, Abbas has begun an effort to win international recognition of Palestine, with or without an agreement with Israel. That effort is to culminate at the United Nations in September.
Palestinian officials acknowledge that they must solve their differences with Hamas before they can go to the United Nations. Abbas has made repeated overtures toward Hamas in recent weeks – including an offer to visit Gaza to lay the groundwork for national elections. Over the weekend, he met with local Hamas officials in the West Bank.
“The president is working hard in order to bring about a unified Palestinian territory before he goes to the UN,” Ahmed said.
Hamas leaders say they want a full power-sharing deal before meeting with the Palestinian president – including a deal on how to divide security responsibilities.
“This visit should be for the sake of achieving progress on the ground and not only for photos and media coverage, said Mushir al Masri,” a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. “The problem is not in forming the government; it’s in reaching an agreement.”
Hamas is demanding further gestures from Abbas before considering unity, such as a release of hundreds of Hamas prisoners locked up in the West Bank, re-opening closed Hamas charities and the removal of a ban on Hamas activities in the West Bank.
Palestinian analysts say Hamas has hardened its negotiating positions recently and is feeling empowered by the recent upheavals in the Arab world, particularly in Egypt, where its ally, the Muslim Brotherhood, is expected to play a key role in the new regime.
Ayman Hussein, a West Bank Hamas member who recently met Abbas in Ramallah, said Abbas appeared serious in his efforts to reach out to Hamas and was pessimistic about the peace process with Israel.
Hanna Amerah, a member of the PLO executive committee, said Abbas is waiting for an official response from Hamas about his initiative to go to Gaza and expects an answer within a few days.
He claimed Abbas has support for his move from the European Union, the UN and the Arab League. But giving up on the U.S. and Israel could come at a heavy price.
The Palestinians receive more than $470 million a year in direct financial assistance from the U.S. The U.S. hasn’t said what it will do if Hamas returns to power in the West Bank, but it will likely cut off the funds unless Hamas agrees to renounce violence and recognize Israel. Hamas has given no indication it is prepared to do either.
EDITOR: The fruits of democracy are nearby
The corrupt deal with Israel, allowing Israelis to buy Egyptain gas at cheaper prices than available to Egyptian consumers, is about to be overturned. Whoo has been paid for this deal? We can probably work this out.
Gas exports to Israel have not returned to their pre-revolution levels, according to one official, as legal experts scramble to find ways to renegotiate a deal that was agreed under Mubarak’s corrupt regime
Dina Ezzat, Monday 28 Mar 2011
An informed Egyptian official told Ahram Online that while Egypt had resumed its gas exports to Israel, this resumption is not at 100 per cent of the level prior to the interruption of the exports a few weeks ago as a result of an attack on the pipeline.
Speaking on condition of strict anonymity, the official said that when the resumption started some two weeks ago, it was around 40 per cent of the regular exports, and this amount has increased, but it is not at the level of cubic meters agreed upon according to the Egyptian-Israeli deal. “It is not even 80 per cent, but it is keeping the Israelis pleased for now,” he said.
According to the same official, the Israelis are “for sure expecting a wide range of changes in the overall volume of Egyptian-Israeli relations, in the wake of the regime change, and they certainly know that the gas issue might be one.”
The official suggested that the deal “which was negotiated and signed” away from the expected scrutiny of concerned government departments – including certain departments at the Ministry of Oil no less – pledges Egyptian exports of natural gas to Israel “at a clearly preferential price” to Israel “for twenty years”.
“Very few people know the exact details of the contract or how it was negotiated, but some have speculated that the price put on the contract is what actually goes to the state coffers and that there is some large amount of money that is channelled in parallel to someone else’s bank account – or maybe was channelled in advance.”
He added that very few people are privy to the details of the contract and even fewer people have seen a copy of it. “It was done in a very fishy way – it smelled bad right from the beginning”.
Meanwhile, Israel was not officially notified of any “planned changes on the side of Egypt with regards to its gas imports”, according to a Cairo-based Western source.
“Our understanding is that the situation should go back to normal shortly,” the source said. He added that the understanding is that any current shortage of exports is supposed to be for technical rather than political reasons. “We are not aware of a political decision on the part of Cairo to change the terms of the agreement,” he said.
During a recent meeting in Cairo, where he met with foreign minister Nabil El-Arabi, the director general of the Israeli foreign ministry did not dwell much on the issue of gas exports but expressed the expectation of his government to see relations return to normal on all fronts – politically, economically and in terms of security.
El-Arabi, who had underlined Cairo’s commitment to the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, made no promises.
The issue of Egyptian gas exports was one of the matters discussed recently by Washington and Tel Aviv. It was picked up in Cairo during the visit of the director general of the Israeli foreign ministry to the American ambassador in Cairo, a foreign diplomat told Ahram Online. Recently, the US has interceded with the Egyptian government to secure the resumption of crucial Egyptian gas exports to Israel.
Cairo is well aware that it might fall under considerable pressure from the US and other Western nations to stick to the unfair articles of the gas exports contract, concluded under the toppled regime of President Hosni Mubarak, but legal experts say that they are currently examining possible legally-viable exits, with a view to partially renegotiating the deal.
“It might be impossible to fully renegotiate the deal but we will see what we can do to improve the situation,” said one legal expert who is tasked with the mission. He added that given that the deal was signed in several phases, much research is still being done to fully acquire all the necessary papers before an attempt to renegotiate can be launched.
More and more it becomes clear to the few Israelis who have not forgotten how to think independently, the the illegal settlements built over the last four and a half decades are the problem rather than the solution, as the government wants them to believe. Abroad, this has been clear to most people for a long time, but Israel seems trapped in time warp, escaping from history into a pre-modern, colonial era where gun-boats resolve conflicts.
Enlisting Jewish communities against the peace process is within the framework of the “conventions” in relations between the communities and Israeli governments, and a praiseworthy act.
By Akiva Eldar
This week marked 16 years since the time when 93 American Senators wrote to President Bill Clinton, calling on him to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem. A few weeks later, the prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, who had gone to Washington to address the conservative pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC, discovered that his hosts had prepared a surprise for him. The Jewish activists had collaborated with their colleagues in Likud to turn this call into legislation in Congress. Rabin’s face turned red with anger. He said later, in a private conversation, that it was clear to all that the president would use his authority to delay the implementation of the legislation, and he had no doubt that the initiators wished to drive a wedge between the government and the Palestinian Authority.
The following day, when he addressed the convention, Rabin spoke highly of them. After all, how can an Israeli prime minister condemn people who are interested in the welfare of a united Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel? As we all know, the U.S. Embassy is still located on Hayarkon Street in Tel Aviv.
Prof. Itamar Rabinovich, who at the time was Israel’s ambassador to the United States, can tell how AIPAC, the Zionist Organization of America and Orthodox rabbis tried to undermine the efforts of the Rabin government to enlist economic aid for the PA that was aimed at strengthening its position vis-a-vis Hamas. Rabinovich, who in those days headed the Israeli team that was negotiating with Syria, was forced to deal with the campaign of incitement being carried out in Congress by those organizations against the proposal to position American forces on the Golan Heights as part of a peace agreement between Israel and Syria.
I was reminded of these events when I read the news item saying that MK Otniel Schneller had initiated a debate this week in the Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, about the “breaking of conventions of behavior between Jewish communities in the world and the governments of Israel by the Jewish-American organization J Street.” The anger of this resident of Ma’aleh Mikhmash in the heart of the West Bank, a former secretary general of the Yesha settlers’ council, was directed at the organization in the wake of its call on U.S. President Barack Obama not to impose a veto during the vote in the United Nations against expanding settlements.
Schneller, a member of the right wing who decided to settle in the Kadima party, condemned his colleagues from the faction who participated in J Street’s annual conference in Washington and described this as “an act of subversion against the state [of Israel].”
From now on, one must say that enlisting Jewish communities against the peace process is within the framework of the “conventions” in relations between the communities and Israeli governments, and a praiseworthy act. On the other hand, support for freezing the settlements in order to further the negotiations means “breaking conventions” as well as “a subversive act against the state.”
EDITOR: A voice in the wilderness
Even ardent Zionists like Carlo Strenger find the recent changes in Israel totally unacceptable, and cry in isolation, but without any chance of affecting anyone, as the Israeli public is trapped in its dream, or rather, in its favourite nightmare.
It needs to be made clear that the choice is not between a safe Israel that occupies the territories and an unsafe Israel alongside a Palestinian state.
By Carlo Strenger
The Netanyahu government’s refusal to meet with the leadership of J Street during its visit this week reflects a deep and truly worrying process, in which Israel’s government and the Knesset are progressively locked into a deep bunker with no communication with the outside world. The assumption is that J Street creates a problem for Israel, and that if Israel delegitimizes J Street, the problem will go away.
But Israel’s problem is not J Street. The problem is that an ever greater proportion of U.S. Jews feel that they are forced to choose between their values and their involvement with Israel. Their identities are defined by the idea of universal human rights and the equality of all human beings beyond race, religion and gender.
Since Israel violates these ideals, and demands unconditional support for its policies, these Jews basically have two choices: Either they adhere to their ideals or support Israel. The result, as Peter Beinart has argued in a much quoted essay, is that many Jews of the younger generation simply disengage from Israel.
J Street tries to solve this problem by giving America’s liberal Jews another option: you can be engaged with Israel, and it can be central to your Jewish identity even as you criticize Israel’s actions. It doesn’t take rocket science to see the logic behind this; true friendship often involves voicing frank and direct criticism. Nobody would have said that those who criticized U.S. policy during the McCarthy era or human rights violations of the G.W. Bush administration delegitimize or hate the U.S.
But like McCarthy, the Netanyahu government and many right-wing Knesset members throw sand in the eyes of Israel’s citizens by selling them an outright lie: that there is no connection between Israel’s policies and its isolation; that all criticism of Israel is equal to delegitimizing its existence. While it is true that there are anti-Semites who hate Israel no matter what, this is simply not the position of Europe’s mainstream, nor that of the many liberal-leaning Jews who criticize Israel.
The primal sin of the Netanyahu government is that it links Israel’s security concerns with settlement policy, with the expropriation of Palestinian property and the ‘Judaization’ of Jerusalem, a tactic that the world perceives as nothing less than ethnic cleansing. What the world sees is a country that tramples human rights and seeks territorial expansion. And it doesn’t see any logical connection between Israel’s security concerns and the current government’s racist rhetoric and actions, because there is no such connection. The Netanyahu government has a vested interest in maintaining this confusion, because many of its members do not want the two-state solution.
This systematic conflation of Israel’s security concerns with indefensible policies creates an unbridgeable communication chasm between Israel and the rest of the world. Israel’s citizens feel that the world doesn’t understand them, because they don’t realize that the Netanyahu government is delegitimizing Israel’s security concerns by the linkage to colonial expansion.
Hence it is up to Jewish liberals, in Israel and abroad, to create clarity. Mainstream Israelis are primarily worried about security. Since the second intifada and the shelling of southern Israel from Gaza, they ask the simple question, can anybody guarantee that there will never be any terror attacks on Israel from a future Palestinian state along the 1967 borders?
If J Street wants to reach the hearts and minds of Israel’s citizens, it needs to tell Israel’s citizens that its security concerns are legitimate. It also needs to tell the truth – that there are indeed no iron clad guarantees that there will never be any terror attacks after a final status agreement.
Moving towards peace means taking a calculated risk: Leaving the occupation behind opens the possibility of safety and peace in the long run, but also entails the risk of terror attacks. Yet horrible as these may be, they do not endanger Israel’s existence.
As opposed to that, continuing the occupation dooms Israel’s long-term future, because it will drive Israel into ever deeper isolation. It will lose its friends in the free world, and will live in everlasting conflict with the Arab world. And this does endanger Israel’s long term survival.
It needs to be made clear that the choice is not between a safe Israel that occupies the territories and an unsafe Israel alongside a Palestinian state. It is between an Israel that takes a limited security risk for long-term peace, and an Israel that threatens its own long-term existence.
It is this kind of straight talk that has been missing in Israel’s discourse. Israel’s left has disappeared because it never squarely addressed the risks involved in peace-making. If J Street commits to clarity of thought and an honest approach, it may create the model for a new Israeli left with a viable message.
EDITOR: History and memory outlawed
In one of its typical, defying gestural outburst, the Knesset has taken on history, memory and rememberance, in this latest of its logic-defying moves. There can be no better proof of the Nakba’s presence in every bit of Israeli and Palestinian reality, than this bizarre act of denial and erasure. Waging war on history is the last refuge of the politically deluded.
The apathy of the MKs that did not show up to the Knesset votes on the Nakba Law and Admission-Committees Law encourages the instigators of racism.
The votes on the so-called Nakba Law and the bill allowing small communities to set up admission committees, which the Knesset approved late Tuesday, add a shameful page to the parliament’s history. The two laws are the latest in a growing list of disgraceful legislation whose entire purpose is to discriminate against Israel’s Arab citizens, intimidate them and deny them their rights.
These laws – the parts that have been approved (such as the Nakba and admission-committees laws ) and those still pending (the bill to revoke citizenship for disloyalty and the bill on investigating human rights groups ) – are dangerously chipping away at Israeli democracy. The people directly responsible for this process are the same Knesset members from Yisrael Beiteinu, Kadima and Likud who sponsored the bills, as well as their colleagues from Shas, National Union and United Torah Judaism who voted for them. But the 60 MKs who did not take part in the vote are no less responsible.
Kadima leader Tzipi Livni and the whole faction but five MKs did not bother to show up for the vote on the Nakba Law. Nor did Atzmaut chief Ehud Barak and his entire faction, and most Likud MKs, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and Culture Minister Limor Livnat. Even the few remaining Kadima MKs were absent from the vote on the admission-committees bill, save for Shlomo Molla, who voted against it.
Their thundering silence enables the extreme right to lead parliament and all Israeli society on a path of incitement against an entire community, infringing on its rights for the imaginary purpose of protecting the state and its values. The silence is no less worrying and outrageous than the laws themselves.
No excuse will hold water – neither coalition agreements nor an attempt to display a “Zionist” or “national” image. Certainly not fear of the political damage that openly siding with the Arab community could incur. The apathy of the 60 silent MKs encourages the instigators of racism, creating a convenient fertile ground for them to continue their disastrous activities. They must wake up before it’s too late.
Spokesman for Hamas says Gaza militants committed to ceasefire as long as ‘the occupation was committed’ during meeting of faction heads over surge in cross-border tensions with Israel.
Hamas said on Saturday that Gaza militants had agreed to halt their rocket fire at Israel if Israel in turn stops launching strikes against targets in the coastal territory.
Hamas spokesman Ismail Rudwan said after a meeting with faction heads over a surge in cross-border tensions with Israel, that militants were “committed as long as the occupation [Israel] was committed” to restore a de-facto ceasefire.
Israel’s Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Tal Russo earlier on Saturday assessed that Gaza is in a state of anarchy, saying that neither Hamas nor other militant groups have control over the area, explaining the reason for the recent barrage of rocket fire coming from the Gaza Strip.
Asked if the IDF would launch a large ‘Operation Cast Lead 2′ type of military operation in Gaza as a response, Russo said that it is not dependent upon Israel but upon the other side. “We are trying to afford citizens of the south normal lives, and these aren’t exactly normal lives,” he said. “We will bring these citizens peace and quiet. That is our aim.”
Russo added, “The situation has eroded since Cast Lead. The other side is starting to get forgetful. I hope that they get a hold of themselves.”
On Saturday evening, a Qassam rocket fell in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council in the western Negev.
Overnight Friday, a Qassam rocket landed outside a family home in that same community, causing heavy damage, but no causalities. A second rocket fell overnight in an open field nearby, causing no damage to people or property.
The rocket attacks came hours after Defense Minister Ehud Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz announced the activation of the Iron Dome defense system in the south of the country. Barak said he approved the deployment of the system as an operational experiment and the IDF has said it will be operational in a few days.
Southern Israel has suffered several rocket and mortar attacks over the last week, and the Israel Defense Forces launched several strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’ intensification of rocket fire at Israel earlier this month is a move analysts link to efforts of political rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to heal a four-year rift with the group, which some in Hamas may perceive as a threat.
Abbas held a round of reconciliation talks with Hamas lawmakers on Saturday in the West Bank. He urged the group to resume its calmer stance towards Israel and avoid rocket attacks, the Palestinian news agency, Wafa reported.
MAD ISRAELIS section
EDITOR: It is Friday again, and Ynet feeds the web with more junk! Friday is the best day for Mad Israelis, as they are most welcome on Israel’s main daily, Yediot Achronot, where they freerly spout right wind and deluded poison every weekend. Israelis read this stuff like junkies, and it makes them feel special, it seems – they are the ‘only democracy’ and the ‘only reliable ally’ in the Middle East. It seems that the speeding up of the Arab Spring, has also quickened the pace of Israeli delusional change.
Guy Bechor is a frequent contributor to this section of the website…
Op-ed: As it turns out, Arab-Israeli conflict a marginal issue, not the key to regional stability
Guy Bechor
A terrible thing happened to the Middle East: The only glue that brought together all the sects, religions, tribes, nationalities and minorities – who all hate each other – was Israel, yet this glue no longer works.
Ever since Israel was established, we got accustomed to hearing global experts and the Arabs themselves claiming that Israel is at fault for the Mideast’s sorry state, that the Arabs are preoccupied with the struggle against Israel to the point of having no time for themselves, and that should Israel’s conflict vis-à-vis the Arab world be resolved, cosmic tranquility will sweep through the region, ushering in progress, prosperity and happiness.
This doctrine allowed Arab world leaders to make a living and also allowed Western states to blame us for all the region’s ills. This is the outdated doctrine that still guides Obama’s close associates. For example: The need to press for the establishment of a Palestinian state, as though that would bring stability to the Middle East.
This doctrine was false to begin with. It was created in order to slam Israel, secure a bogus common denominator for the Arabs, and prevent them from looking in the mirror. However, many people fell in the trap, even here. To this day, Shimon Peres claims that a solution to the Palestinian conflict will serve to stabilize the whole region.
The problem was proving that Israel has little to do with the disaster faced by the Arabs. This was the case until the arrival of the new era; the current age of revolutions and rebellions. Suddenly, it turned out that Israel is a rather marginal element in the Mideast and certainly does not constitute the heart of the conflict.
Israel has nothing to do with the Libyan civil war, Egypt is burning domestically, Syria approaches a violent regime change, Lebanon is being cooked in its own juices, Yemen is reaching boiling point, Saudi Arabia is shaking, Bahrain is battleground between Shiites and Sunnis, and so are Tunisia, Algeria and other states facing uprisings.
West’s only regional ally
The pathetic rulers of these countries attempted to blame us. This is what Yemen’s president, Iran’s shaky president and the murderer of his own people in Libya did – yet nobody in the region buys into these fables anymore. Even if we assume, for the sake of argument, that Israel will clash with the Palestinians, it will merely be yet another regional conflict amid many others, and certainly not the most brutal or lethal one.
Many people are having a tough time coping with the collapse of the “heart of the conflict theory” – for example, the Arabs and some Israeli and global leaders, who relied on this doctrine for many years. Yet one cannot argue with the facts. The United States, France and Britain are bombing and brutalizing the Arabs in Libya much more than Israel does. Perhaps these Western states are now the heart of the conflict?
The implication is that Israel, which until now was perceived as a problem, is turning into a sort of solution. As opposed to the sea of tribes, sects and religions in the Middle East, Israel is a stable, reliable, credible and democratic force. One can work with it and trust it to serve as the stabilizer of Western, democratic and international interests.
Once upon a time, people would say that there are some pro-Western rulers in the Middle East. Yet where are they today? Ranging from Mubarak to Ben Ali and from Gaddafi to the kings of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, they have all evaporated or greatly weakened. From now on, they shall keep their distance from the vengeful West. Israel is now not only the West’s most reliable regional ally, but its only ally in fact.
With Israel now clearing itself of the “root of all evil” blood libel and the demonization that surrounded it, the Jewish state can look straight ahead, hold its head up high, and resumes its relationship with the world on a new basis. We must repeat this insight everywhere: It has been proven that the old doctrine, whereby the Israeli-Arab or Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the key to Mideastern stability, is false, and apparently was never true.
For the Arab world, these are days of new self determination; as it turns out, the same is true for Israel as well.
Yes, they are very disturbed by the swift changes around them. Isrselis find it difficult to get used to the new democracies being born all around them, but they are not disturbed enough to think afresh about their own mission, which remains unchaged: agressive, brital colonialism, intent on dispossesing and opressing the Palestinians, as well as keeping up the level of agression against the other Arab countries. Until they are able to see themselves as the rest of the world is now starting to do, they stand no chance of real, just peace. At the moment it still looks as if they are both unwilling and unable to do so.
The occupation is even more dangerous than it was. The settlements are even more delusional than they were. The status quo has become a firetrap, and all the familiar ways of escaping it have been blocked.
By Ari Shavit
Say farewell to peace with Syria. Those who believe, like the writer of these lines, in the necessity of the Golan-for-peace formula cannot close their eyes to what is happening.
With the great Arab revolt threatening his regime, there is no chance that President Bashar Assad will choose the path of peace. With the Syrian masses rebelling against him, there is no chance that Assad will gamble on peace.
The Assad of 2011 lacks the legitimacy to negotiate for peace. The Assad of 2011 lacks the minimal maneuvering room needed to make peace. Even if he wanted peace when he was young, it’s too late now. There’s no chance that the Syrian dictator will carry out a Sadat-like peace move in the next year or two.
Say farewell to peace with Palestine. Those who believe, like the writer of these lines, in the necessity of the two-state solution cannot close their eyes to what is happening.
With the great Arab revolt sweeping up Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, there is no chance that he will pay the price needed to reach peace. With the Arab masses thronging the streets, Abbas cannot tell three million Palestinian refugees that he has forged a compromise on the right of return. With the Arab nations seething, Abbas cannot tell them he has compromised on Jerusalem.
The Abbas of 2011 lacks the legitimacy to make peace. The Abbas of 2011 lacks the minimal maneuvering room needed to make peace. Even if Abbas wanted peace, it’s too late now. There’s no chance that the moderate Palestinian leader will carry out a Sadat-like peace move in the next year or two.
Say farewell to a quiet environment. Even those who enjoy the quiet cannot close their eyes to what is happening. The great Arab revolt has yet to reach the occupied territories for three reasons: the trauma of Hamas’ rise in the Gaza Strip, the economic prosperity fostered by PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and the expectation that a Palestinian state will be established in September.
But the tide can’t be held off forever. Sooner or later, the Arab revolt will reach the territories. When the expectation of a Palestinian state blows up in September, economic prosperity will not stave off a political tsunami.
It’s impossible to know whether the scenario will be that of Tunisia, Egypt or the first intifada. But in any event, the quiet we have enjoyed is now being shattered. A torrent of rebellion will strike Israel.
Say farewell to everything you thought until January 2011. The Middle East has been transformed, root and branch. This is a new, fluid, revolutionary reality. There is no longer any foundation for a solid peace like that with Egypt. There are no longer any strong forces for peace like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf emirates. There are no longer any potential peace partners like Assad and Mahmoud Abbas.
On the other hand, there is also no longer any option of deploying force against the rebellious masses. The occupation is even more dangerous than it was. The settlements are even more delusional than they were. The status quo has become a firetrap, and all the familiar ways of escaping it have been blocked.
U.S. President Barack Obama bears a share of the responsibility for this new situation. When he decided to play an active role in ousting Egypt’s president, he didn’t realize that as a result of this move, he would be forced within a month to fire Tomahawk missiles at Libya. He didn’t understand that he was undermining the old Middle Eastern order without creating a new one. He didn’t understand that he was dooming Israeli-Syrian peace and Israeli-Palestinian peace and endangering Israeli-Egyptian peace.
It could be that Obama acted correctly. Perhaps he will be remembered in the end as the great liberator of the Arab peoples. Nonetheless, the U.S. president must acknowledge the consequences of his actions. He must realize that this new historical situation requires a new diplomatic paradigm. What was right in 2010 is no longer correct in 2011.
This means that Obama must reject the false dichotomy of total impasse or total peace. He must reject the dichotomy of historic reconciliation or corrupting occupation. Instead, he must propose a new type of diplomatic path based on a partial Israeli withdrawal and the strengthening of Fayyad. In order to stop the Cairo revolution from setting Jerusalem on fire, Obama must urgently forge a third way.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), representing a wide spectrum in the Palestinian academy, salutes our South African colleagues at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) for their principled support for the cause of justice in Palestine by upholding the 29 September 2010 UJ Senate resolution to sever its links with BGU [1]. The UJ press release notes that:
In a protracted and spirited debate, the Senate of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) today voted to allow its formal relationship with Ben-Gurion University (BGU) in Israel to lapse on 1 April 2011. [2]
The Senate’s decision is a commendable step in the direction of ending relations with Israeli institutions implicated in apartheid policies and in supporting the occupation. This decision is guaranteed to resound around the globe! The real victory also lies in the intensive mobilization and awareness-raising effort by key activists and academics in South Africa that indicated beyond any doubt the groundswell of support for Palestinian rights in the country and that played a key role in the UJ Senate vote.
A petition urging UJ to sever links with BGU remarkably gathered more than 400 signatures of academics from all academic institutions in South Africa, including 9 vice chancellors and deputy vice chancellors. The petition was also supported by main trade unions in the country, including COSATU and NEHAWU.[3] Moreover, there was unprecedented mainstream media attention, in South Africa as well as internationally, to the facts of BGU’s complicity and the heavy moral burden placed on the shoulders of South African institutions, in particular, to end all forms of cooperation with any Israeli institution practicing apartheid. In the end, views favorable to justice and upholding international law gained wide coverage and won the day.
PACBI warmly salutes all those who worked on and who endorsed the campaign to cut links with BGU. This precedent-setting initiative, endorsed by prominent leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Breyten Breytenbach, John Dugard, Antjie Krog, Barney Pityana, and Kader Asmal, does not mince words in calling for severing links with BGU; furthermore, it implies a termination of collaboration with all Israeli institutions complicit in violations of international law.
Archbishop Tutu defended the call to sever links with complicit Israeli institutions saying “It can never be business as usual. Israeli Universities are an intimate part of the Israeli regime, by active choice.” [4] Reiterating his unwavering support for the Palestinian-led global campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, he eloquently adds:
Together with the peace-loving peoples of this Earth, I condemn any form of violence – but surely we must recognize that people caged in, starved and stripped of their essential material and political rights must resist their Pharaoh? Surely resistance also makes us human? Palestinians have chosen, like we did, the nonviolent tools of boycott, divestment and sanctions. [5]
This decision cannot but be viewed as a triumph for the logic of academic boycott against Israel’s complicit academy, as consistently reflected in the positions of the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE) as well as PACBI and its partners worldwide, including in South Africa. It is, indeed, a significant step in the direction of holding Israeli institutions accountable for their collusion in maintaining the state’s occupation, colonization and apartheid regime against the Palestinian people. As former South African cabinet minister and ANC leader Ronnie Kasrils wrote in the Guardian, “Israeli universities are not being targeted for boycott because of their ethnic or religious identity, but because of their complicity in the Israeli system of apartheid.” [6]
BGU as an institution is as guilty of complicity in the Israeli occupation and apartheid policies as any other academic institution in Israel; nothing can make any “environmental” or “purely scientific” project it conducts with UJ morally acceptable until it comprehensively and verifiably ends this complicity. When science is used to cover up grave violations of human rights and international law, it forfeits any claim to “sanctity” and loses its moral raison d’etre. The culpability of the entire institution in violations of international law and human rights cannot be washed away by narrowing the focus or diverting attention only to details of the project with UJ.
As Archbishop Tutu said:
In the past few years, we have been watching with delight UJ’s transformation from the Rand Afrikaans University, with all its scientific achievements but also ugly ideological commitments. We look forward to an ongoing principled transformation. [7]
A post-apartheid South African university that is in the process of transforming itself to a truly democratic institution has proven that it cannot possibly complete this necessary transformation while maintaining a partnership with an apartheid institution elsewhere. We sincerely salute UJ for completely severing its institutional links with BGU and look towards other universities around the world to be inspired by this historic precedent by ending their own links with Israeli institutions complicit in violating international law and all basic tenants of human rights. We further call on all conscientious people in academies around the world to follow the path of UJ, adopt BDS as a comprehensive tool to end crimes against the Palestinian people, and call on their institutions to sever institutional ties with the Israeli academy.
Hamas officials in the coastal territory report at least three Israeli air strikes, on smuggling tunnels and training camps; some 5 mortars, 2 Qassams hit Israel by Thursday morning.
The Israel Air Force struck targets in the Gaza Strip before dawn on Thursday, as Palestinian militants persisted in volleying rockets and mortar shells across the border into southern Israel.
Approximately five mortar shells and two Qassam rockets struck Israeli territory overnight, and another rocket was fired at the Ashkelon coast on Thursday morning. The barrage came after militants fired about a dozen rockets and mortars into the western Negev on Wednesday, and dozens more in the days prior.
The Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip said early Thursday that the Israeli strikes had targeted smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border, as well as one of its training camps inside the Strip
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson confirmed an air operation, calling it a response to the rockets fired at southern Israel over the last few days.
One of the strikes hit a power transformer, causing blackouts in the area, Gaza witnesses said. Medical workers reported no casualties.
Palestinian police in the Gaza Strip reported that another strike hit an abandoned rocket launcher in the northern part of the territory, also causing no casualties.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that attack, as well, saying aircraft struck “a group of terrorists preparing to launch rockets at Israeli territory.”
Militants in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday fired two Grad-type Katyusha rocket at the southern city of Be’er Sheva and another at Ashdod and a barrage of mortar shells on the western Negev; another Grad was fired from Gaza before dawn on Wednesday.
The first rocket struck to hit Be’er Sheva hit a street in the middle of a residential area, damaging buildings including a synagogue. A piece of shrapnel penetrated a nearby third-floor apartment upon impact, lightly wounding one man. The second hit an open area in the city. A number of people were treated for shock in both incidents.
An Israel Air Force craft retaliated for the attack on Ashdod overnight on Wednesday, and struck Gaza again shortly after the second rocket hit Be’er Sheva. The Israel Defense Forces said the squad responsible for launching the rocket was hit.
Israel Police do not believe that the deadly Jerusalem bombing on Wednesday was connected to the increase in rocket fire on the south.
As a wave of pro-democracy protests sweep the region, both sides in Palestinian politics are facing calls to reconcile
As a wave of pro-democracy protests sweep the region, both sides in Palestinian politics are facing calls to reconcile
Gazans will often tell you they are a rare breed. Tough and resilient are two qualities sometimes attributed.
A friend of mine’s cat recently leapt from the tenth floor of a tower block in Gaza City, yet emerged with just a few grazes and a bit of a limp. It was a Gazan cat, I was told.
On Saturday afternoon, I witnessed toughness and resilience shown by two young Gazan women who had been trying to demonstrate in one of the main squares in Gaza city.
They were part of a small protest calling for political unity between Hamas, who are in power in Gaza, and Fatah, who run parts of the West Bank.
As they were surrounded by Hamas security officers wielding thick wooden batons and hurling abuse, the two slight young women remained firm, refusing to move.
Eventually, they were beaten by female Hamas officers, thrown into a police pick-up truck and driven away. It is not known what has happened to them.
A little earlier, one of my colleagues saw a young man being set upon and heavily beaten with sticks by up to 10 Hamas officers. The man was also arrested.
Hamas officials said the young people did not a have a permit to demonstrate and that the protest was illegal.
There was a strange atmosphere of menace and intimidation in the square. As many people simply went about their Saturday afternoon shopping, journalists and human rights workers tried to blend into the crowd, aware that anyone who raised a camera would have it taken away from them.
Later, armed men who said they were from Hamas’s internal security forces raided the offices of the Reuters news agency as well as CNN and the Japanese broadcaster NHK.
At the Reuters office, one journalist was beaten on the arm with an iron bar. Another was threatened with being thrown out of the window from the ninth floor.
The men smashed a television and other equipment and confiscated a camera. It was later returned.
Other news agencies have reported that their journalists have been arrested and attacked by police this week as they tried to cover pro-unity demonstrations.
The Hamas interior ministry has since condemned the attacks on journalists and said some of those involved have been arrested.
Opportunity for change
The demonstrators in Gaza say they have been inspired by the uprisings elsewhere in the region. You sense they see an opportunity to try and make a change.
They are calling for an end to the division between Hamas and its secular rival, Fatah.
For four years, Palestinians have been politically and geographically divided. The split happened a year after Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006.
Fierce fighting between the two factions in June 2007 led to Fatah being forced from Gaza.
Palestinian political leaders say they are listening to these calls for unity. Last week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is from the Fatah faction, accepted a Hamas invitation to visit Gaza within days to meet with Hamas leaders.
Hamas initially welcomed the move, but both sides now seem to be attaching conditions to the visit. It seems unlikely it will happen this week, if at all.
Many Palestinians see the lack of unity as a distraction from their main priority, their struggle to end Israel’s continuing occupation.
But so far here the popular protests have been relatively small-scale compared to elsewhere in the region.
The largest occurred on 15 March when more than 10,000 young Gazans took to the streets.
Hamas initially allowed that demonstration to happen. But in the evening, it was broken up with force, Hamas police again using batons to disperse the crowds.
Some protesters reported being beaten and even stabbed by Hamas security forces.
Hamas support
The question for the demonstrators here to be what next.
At the moment, their protests seem a little disjointed and disorganised. How far are they prepared to go? At the moment, not as far as in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain or Syria.
On Sunday, more than 1,000 students again gathered at the main campus of al-Azhar University in Gaza City.
This time, the police left them alone and remained outside the university gates. The university is regarded as a Fatah institution.
On one side of the campus, young women in a vibrant range of coloured headscarves and bling sunglasses chanted for unity.
On the other side, young men rode on each other’s shoulders, waving Palestinian flags.
The students did not demonstrate outside the campus, fearing this would receive a hostile response.
Hamas seems uncertain how to handle the protests. Publicly, some of the party’s leaders say they back the calls for unity. But on the ground, security forces and police are sending a different message.
The Islamic movement continues to have a large support base in Gaza. When it organises its own rallies, tens of thousands of people sometimes attend.
At the moment, many of the demonstrators say they are non-political and not anti-Hamas.
But that could change if the authorities continue to use force to suppress any future protests.
With the world taken with the tragedies in Japan and Libya, not to mention the revolt ongoing in other parts of the Arab world, this seems to Israel an excellent time to punish Gaza cvilians again. You have to ask yourself – do they really want children hurt, bearing in miond they keep singing the praises of their super-accurate weapons? Maybe they do. After all, it is punishment they mete out.
Or maybe they just think children in Gaza are just naturally part of the Hamas fighters. And please do not forget the booksellers, they are also very dangerous, as yoiu shall find out in one of the pieces below.
An interesting fact evident below – in the Guardian report there are no dead in Gaza, only ‘wounded’. The BBC reported 4 dead, and in Al Jazeera the real figure is reported, nine dead. All websites were checked at the same time…
Victims include children and armed fighters, as raids continue in the Gaza Strip.
Last Modified: 22 Mar 2011
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At least eight Palestinians, including children, have been killed in a Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip.
The deaths occurred in two separate attacks on the eastern part of Gaza City on Tuesday, witnesses said.
Two of the dead were aged 11 and 16, and four of them were from the al-Quds Brigade, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement.
Four people died when a shell slammed into a family home in Shejaiya, medical sources told AFP news agency. Several hours later, another four were killed – all of them fighters – in an air raid in the nearby Zeitun neighbourhood.
On Tuesday, the military said it was responding to rocket attacks from Gaza. They also confirmed it had fired mortar rounds towards the eastern outskirts of Gaza City on Tuesday, shortly after four rockets hit Israel, and expressed “regret” over reports that civilians had been hurt.
It was the third time Shejaiya had been targeted on Tuesday, following an earlier one which wounded one fighter and a burst of tank fire, which left two civilians wounded shortly after dawn.
Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from Gaza, said that more tit-for-tat attacks may be expected.
“Tensions look to be rising here, and violence could increase,” he said.
The latest incident also comes after at least 19 people were wounded in a series of raids on Monday, in the northern town of Beit Lahiya and Gaza City.
Witnesses said a security compound for Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, a training camp north of the city and a brickworks and metal foundry in northern Gaza were among the targets.
Rising cross-border violence has occurred, also increasing tensions between Israel and Hamas and once again raising fears of another large-scale Israeli invasion.
Seven Palestinian children among those hurt in raids retaliating against Hamas rocket attacks
The Israeli military confirmed one of the raids, saying several Hamas-affiliated militants were targeted in northern Gaza. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
At least 19 Palestinians were said to have been wounded in the Gaza strip as a result of air strikes launched by Israel on Monday after militants launched mortars and rockets into Israeli territory.
Among the wounded were seven children, two women and four militants, according to officials from Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza.
Hamas has stepped up rocket fire at Israel after a lengthy hiatus since the war of two years ago, claiming responsibility for the firing of more than two dozen mortars and rockets at the weekend.
The Israeli military confirmed one of the air raids, saying that several Hamas-affiliated militants were targeted in northern Gaza, as well as a tunnel used to smuggle weapons.
Witnesses in Gaza said Israeli warplanes fired a missile after three mortars were shot at Israel, and the Israeli missile landed harmlessly in a bin for animal feed.
Israel fired four other missiles at as many targets later in the evening, aiming at a Hamas security compound in Gaza City, a training camp north of the city, and a brickworks and metal foundry in northern Gaza, witnesses said.
Hamas fired two rockets into southern Israel on Sunday, a day after Palestinian militants fired more than 50 mortar shells into Israel in the the heaviest Palestinian barrage since a major Israeli military offensive in Gaza two years ago. In the evening, militants in Gaza fired another rocket into southern Israel, exploding near the city of Ashkelon. No one was hurt.
Medical officials in Gaza said on Sunday that the bodies of two Palestinian men who were killed overnight along the border had been recovered. The Israeli military said soldiers spotted two Palestinians crawling towards the border with what appeared to be a bomb. Soldiers called on them to stop, and opened fire after they continued moving.
Most rocket attacks from Gaza since the invasion have been carried out by small militant groups, although Hamas claimed responsibility.
Several Palestinians were also injured in Tuesday’s attack
Four Palestinian family members, including two children, have died in Gaza, in an Israeli artillery strike.
Another 12 people were wounded when an Israeli tank shell hit a home on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said it was an unfortunate mistake, but added that was “the price of dealing every day with the terrorists”.
In a second attack, three people – all members of Islamic Jihad – were killed during an air strike, medics said.
On Saturday, Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets over the frontier, prompting Israeli retaliation.
The BBC’s Jon Donnison, in Gaza City, says the exchanges are among the most serious since Israel’s major offensive in the coastal strip between December 2008 and January 2009.
Our correspondent adds that, unusually, the militant wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for at least a dozen of the mortars fired at Israel over the weekend.
In Tuesday’s first attack, a grandfather and two of his grandchildren were among those killed when artillery was fired at a house, reports said.
Witnesses said they were playing football when they died.
The Israeli defence minister said: “We were not glad of it but that’s the price of dealing every day with the terrorists attacking our civilian population from within civilian population on the other side.”
Palestinian emergency services said the second attack struck the Zeitun quarter of eastern Gaza City, AFP news agency reports.
Doctors from the health ministry in Gaza say those who died are believed to have been militants from the Islamic Jihad group.
The latest deaths came a day after Palestinian doctors said at least 17 people were injured in Israeli air strikes in Gaza.
IDF says Islamic Jihad group was about to launch Grad rocket, the same type that landed in Be’er Sheva last month; earlier in day, four Palestinians were killed when IDF fire struck a building near Gaza City.
An Israeli air strike killed four Palestinian militants who were preparing to launch a rocket from Gaza on Tuesday, Hamas officials said. Four Palestinians were killed earlier in the day when Israel Defense Forces returned fire towards a target in Gaza.
Palestinians survey the scene after IDF fire struck a home in Gaza City March 22, 2011. Photo by: Reuters
The Israel Defense Forces released a statement saying that the air force had fired on a group of terrorists in the northern part of the Strip that were about to launch a Grad rocket at Israel. Israel has stepped up strikes against Gaza militants in response to a surge in rocket and mortar fire at Israel in the past few days.
The IDF said Palestinian militants had launched mortars against Israeli troops earlier on Tuesday and the military shot mortars at the source of the firing.
Palestinian medics said the dead youths from the first attack were aged 12, 16 and 17. The 58-year-old owner of the house was also killed.
Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, an IDF spokeswoman, said the army did not know that civilians were in the area at the time of the strike and stressed that Israel had no desire to raise tensions and hoped that Hamas also didn’t have that intention. “We never operate when civilians are identified,” she said.
Locals said four Israeli tank shells struck the building east of Gaza City.
Israel hit a series of Palestinian militant targets in the Gaza Strip earlier Tuesday, damaging smuggling tunnels and suspected weapons sites.
Palestinian officials said 19 people were wounded in those attacks.
On Saturday, southern Israel was hit by over 50 rockets, of which Hamas claimed responsibility for 10. The Israeli Air Force struck Gaza targets in retaliation for the bombardment.
On Monday, an IAF fighter jet struck a Gaza tunnel running along the border with Israel, as well as Hamas militants in the northern Gaza strip, an IDF statement confirmed.
The IDF spokesperson’s office released a statement saying that the Gaza tunnel was used to smuggle terrorists into Israeli territory with the intent to execute attacks against Israeli citizens.
After many more deaths we are likely to see the partition of Libya – why has there been such a consensus for this military action?
A French Mirage 2000 jet fighter after returning from a mission over Libya. Photograph: ECPAD/HO/EPA
The House of Commons is debating the government stance on UN resolution 1973, having been invited to give its approval or withhold it. It’s a bit late, as the prime minister made a statement to the Commons on Friday and within 24 hours the bombing had started. We are presented with a fait accompli.
The debate, however, takes place against a background of growing concerns about the nature of the military operation, the intensity of the air strikes, the implications for the whole region, and the real motive behind the Arab League in calling for this in the first place. India is the first country to publicly call for a cessation of air strikes. Others are likely to follow.
UN security council resolution 1973 was heavily trailed as a no-fly-zone resolution. Like most UN resolutions it is very long. It specifically welcomed the appointment of the UN special envoy Abdel-Elah Mohamed Al-Khatib and in its proposals under chapter 7 of the UN charter (mandatory for all member states) demanded a ceasefire, stressed the need to find a solution to the conflict through the UN special envoy, and demanded that the Libyan authorities fulfil their international obligations under humanitarian law.
It’s not until one reaches point 6 of the resolution that the no-fly zone is mentioned, and even then it requests the secretary general to inform the security council of any actions taken in support of the no-fly zone. The rest of the resolution talks of the arms embargo, the asset freeze and the appointment of a panel of experts to consider the operation of this resolution and the implications for international law. The attacks on Libya take place with no assurance that depleted uranium weapons will be banned from the operation and come only a few weeks after Britain stopped trading with Libya and training Libyan security officials.
I welcome the popular demands all across the region, including Libya, for accountable government and an economic strategy that provides full employment for the burgeoning young populations. But abuses of human rights by Gaddafi’s government didn’t start three weeks ago, as any one of the Libyan opposition will attest, and a blind eye was turned to this when Libya said it was no longer developing weapons of mass destruction and British oil companies were encouraged by Tony Blair to strike long-term agreements.
The most likely outcome of this ghastly period is many more deaths, the long-term effects of depleted uranium (if it is being used), and the partition of Libya. With this strategy it is quite conceivable that the east of Libya will be partitioned into a client state centred upon Benghazi, and the west will be a pariah state led by Gaddafi.
One can’t help but be struck by the rush to military involvement by politicians of all countries and all persuasions. The contrast with the western treatment of the rest of the region could not be more stark. The Palestinian people have lived with occupation for 60 years, well over 1,000 died in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, settlements abound and Israel possesses nuclear weapons. I can’t remember anyone calling for a no-fly zone in Gaza in winter 2008-09 when phosphorous bombs were used against a largely unarmed and defenceless civilian population.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter, and the biggest importer of arms from Britain and other countries. The importance of Saudi Arabia to western economic interests cannot be overstated, otherwise why would Blair take such an extraordinary decision as to suspend the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the BAE contracts with Saudi Arabia? Britain is up to its neck in supporting the Saudi monarchy with all the denial of human rights and aggression that the regime has shown toward its opponents. Saudi armed forces have crossed into Yemen in recent times, and last week entered Bahrain to support the king in his suppression of democratic protest.
News today of huge demonstrations and growing isolation of the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, looks like almost a replay of what happened in Tunisia. I asked a young activist in Tunis just a few weeks ago if their revolution was asking for western help, his reply was: “No, we will do it ourselves; the problem with the west is, it never knows when to leave.”
Extremists are counting on those Knesset members who ignore the inflammatory and racist context from which recent bills arise, and who don’t discern their destructive consequences.
Two or three bills are to be voted on by the Knesset today on second and third reading, each of which is inappropriate in its own right. Taken together, however, just prior to the Knesset’s spring recess, they represent a discordant and worrying summation of the current Knesset session.
The so-called Nakba Law has deliberately vague wording. It would bar entities receiving public funding from organizing or themselves funding any activity “which would entail undermining the foundations of the state and contradict its values.”
Judging by the worldview of MK Alex Miller (Yisrael Beiteinu ), who initiated the legislation, such a definition is liable to apply to academic conferences and historical research and discussion focusing on various aspects of the War of Independence and the events preceding it. In essence, this is a law designed to shut people up.
The proposed law regarding resident admissions committees in certain small communities has undergone changes and has purportedly been softened. The maximum number of residents in the communities to which it would apply has been lowered to 400 and its application has been limited to the Negev and the Galilee. It is an outrageous bill, which would crudely trample the principle of equality and would limit Arab citizens choices of where to live.
An amendment allowing for the revocation of citizenship of those convicted of espionage or aiding terrorism, which was approved by the Knesset’s Interior and Environment Committee, encourages state abuse of power and would transform citizenship from an obvious right to a fragile privilege that the state can revoke at will.
The initiators of the bill have promised that they will attempt to pass the law before the end of the Knesset’s winter session, although even Shin Bet security service officials have argued that revocation of citizenship is a dangerous weapon that is liable to escalate tensions between Israel’s Arab citizens and the state.
It’s possible that such escalation is precisely what the initiators of the bill, both from Yisrael Beiteinu, want; in the constant battle between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yisrael Beiteinu, Arab citizens serve as a convenient punching bag.
The extremists, however, are also counting on those Knesset members who ignore the inflammatory and racist context from which these bills arise, and whom don’t discern the bill’s destructive consequences.
In advance of the vote, each Knesset member must therefore ask himself whether he is ready to take part in a process that will bring Israeli democracy to the edge of the abyss, or whether he will instead foil such a step.
Medicine and engineering among sectors in desperate need of funds and equipment
Youth in the Gaza strip lack educational and employment opportunities thanks to Israel’s blockade, says the UN. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/AP
The next generation in the Gaza Strip may be less educated, less professional and perhaps more radical because an Israeli blockade has restricted educational and employment opportunities, say UN and other sources.
The four-year blockade has particularly affected youths aged 18-24, limiting access to higher education, academic exchanges and professional development, says Gaza’s education ministry. About 65% of Gaza’s 1.6 million people are under 25, according to UN estimates.
“Higher education in all its forms is absolutely critical to a functioning society and the creation of a future Palestinian state,” UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory Max Gaylard told IRIN, and “to maintain a necessary level of skills in professional sectors, like medicine and engineering.”
Gaza’s unemployment rate – nearly 50% according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) – indicates dire prospects for the rapidly growing and youthful population.
The economic blockade, imposed by Israel after the Islamist movement Hamas took control of Gaza, has obstructed the import of books, science laboratory and other educational equipment to Gaza, according to the Unesco. Israel allows in limited humanitarian supplies.
The lack of facilities, new information and experiences has caused a marked deterioration of Gaza’s whole educational system. Noor, an English education student at Al-Azhar University, ranked second in Gaza, said she lacked essential books for her coursework and even chairs were missing from lecture halls.
“Our universities are not ready for new generations,” she said. “We only have one laboratory and two computer labs, and it is not enough.”
Enrolment levels at Gaza’s 14 public and private universities and colleges remain high, but conflict and the stringent blockade have seriously undermined access to, and the quality of, higher education, said UNESCO in a report.
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza (pdf), “Under the policy of complete closure imposed since June 2007, Palestinians from Gaza who once constituted some 35% of the student body at universities in the West Bank are virtually absent from West Bank education institutions.”
The development of two separate systems due to the Israeli-imposed movement restrictions meant fewer subjects and facilities for Gaza’s university students, said UNESCO.
About 80% of the Gaza population is aid dependent, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and higher education institutions in Gaza are feeling the financial strain.
According to Unesco, students are increasingly unable to pay tuition fees, resulting in drop-outs and postponement of studies.
The inability of students to cover fees has hit Gaza universities hard, since student fees provide about 60% of university running costs, according to Palestinian NGO Sharek Youth Forum (pdf).
“The level of education is being compromised and we have trouble hiring qualified professors and staff,” said Kamalain Shaath, president of the Islamic University, ranked top in Gaza and the West Bank. Half the students at the university, he added, were unable to meet tuition requirements this semester.
Islamic University’s first medical school class of about 50 promising young doctors will graduate this spring, and will be desperately needed in this conflict area, although the university science labs – destroyed during Israel’s 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead that aimed at ending rocket attacks into Israel – were never rebuilt.
Seven universities and colleges were damaged during the offensive, which ended in January 2009, with six buildings fully destroyed and 16 partially, according to Unesco. As of March 2011, rebuilding has not been possible thanks to the embargo on building materials.
Overcrowding in schools is another problem. About 80% of Gaza’s public schools operate on double shifts, according Gaza’s education ministry director-general, Sharif Nouman. In 2010, only three new schools were built due to lack of building materials, yet another 100 need to be built, he said.
Meanwhile, the internal conflict between Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas is putting pressure on the education system, thanks to a lack of communication between the Gaza and West Bank ministries, he added.
The unemployment rate among those aged 15-19 is about 72%, while unemployment affects 66% of those aged 20-24, according to a report in January by the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO). West Bank unemployment rates were 29% and 34% for these age groups, respectively.
When young people graduate they have almost no opportunity to find a job in a company or association. About 70% of industrial establishments in Gaza have closed under the blockade, according to OCHA, while 120,000 private sector jobs were lost in the first two years of closure. A recent easing has allowed the limited export of cut flowers and strawberries from Gaza to Europe.
“When young people graduate they have almost no opportunity to find a job in a company or association,” said Bassam, a multi-media student at Al-Azhar University. Some try to start their own businesses, but “this cannot succeed in Gaza now because of the blockade,” he added.
UN officials in the region have expressed concern that isolating youth in Gaza from broader values and opportunities will backfire. “A rapidly growing society, becoming poorer, that is subject to restrictions on education will encourage extremism in its worst forms,” warned Gaylard.
Deputy director-general of the Israeli ministry of public diplomacy, Danny Seaman, however, said: “Hamas uses access to Israel to perpetrate terror attacks against our civilians and this immediate threat outweighs the concern over increased militancy amongst youth in Gaza.”
Some 71% of university students surveyed by UNESCO reported (pdf) they were not hopeful about the future and almost the same number worried there will be another war.
“Most of my peers want to emigrate,” said Shadi, a 26-year-old physical therapist in Gaza City. “We are isolated and frustrated.”
The prime minister slammed the opposition for saying that they were close to reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians at one point.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed claims by the opposition that they had at one time been close to a peace deal with the Palestinians, saying “Palestinians are not ready for peace with Israel.”
Speaking to the Knesset on Tuesday, Opposition head Tzipi Livni said that Kadima had at one point been close to reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians.
The prime minister responded to Livni’s comments, saying “According to Palestinian publications, they demand the dismantling of Har Homa, Ariel, and Ma’ale Adumim. I assume that you in Kadima are against this. If you are against this, I want to know, where was the agreement?”
Har Homa, Ariel and Ma’ale Adumim are all large West Bank settlements that would be difficult to dismantle if a peace deal was reached with the Palestinians. It has been suggested that instead of dismantling them, Israel would keep them in exchange for giving the Palestinians additional land.
Netanyahu referred to the opposition’s position on refugees saying “I heard from the opposition chair a stance that I completely agree with: not one refugee. So they agreed to this? You were so close?”
If there wasn’t an agreement made with the Palestinians, Netanyahu said, then why does Kadima “attack the government all the time when you know the truth: that you were far from reaching an agreement.”
IDF officers say special department has been created to monitor left-wing groups that the army sees as aiming to delegitimize Israel; department will work closely with government ministries.
Military Intelligence is collecting information about left-wing organizations abroad that the army sees as aiming to delegitimize Israel, according to senior Israeli officials and Israel Defense Forces officers.
The sources said MI’s research division created a department several months ago that is dedicated to monitoring left-wing groups and will work closely with government ministries. In recent weeks, the head of the new unit has been taking part in discussions in the Prime Minister’s Office about how to prepare for the possible arrival of a Gaza-bound flotilla in May.
The undefined and potentially broad scope of such a venture, which IDF sources say is focusing on how to respond to maritime convoys aimed at breaching Israel’s Gaza blockade, has some Foreign Ministry officials concerned that the army is overreaching.
“We ourselves don’t know exactly how to define delegitimization,” said one ministry official. “This is a very abstract definition. Are flotillas to Gaza delegitimization? Is criticism of settlements delegitimization? It’s not clear how Military Intelligence’s involvement in this will provide added value.”
Military Intelligence officials said the initiative reflects an upsurge in worldwide efforts to delegitimize Israel and question its right to exist.
“The enemy changes, as does the nature of the struggle, and we have to boost activity in this sphere,” an MI official said. “Work on this topic proceeds on the basis of a clear distinction between legitimate criticism of the State of Israel on the one hand, and efforts to harm it and undermine its right to exist on the other.”
The new MI unit will monitor Western groups involved in boycotting Israel, divesting from it or imposing sanctions on it. The unit will also collect information about groups that attempt to bring war crime or other charges against high-ranking Israeli officials, and examine possible links between such organizations and terror groups.
MI decided to create the unit in the wake of investigations of Israel’s deadly takeover in May 2010 of a maritime convoy aimed at breaking the Gaza blockade, which found that the country’s intelligence agencies failed to provide information that could have helped Israel adequately prepare for the violent resistance that naval commandos encountered aboard the Mavi Marmara.
The unit’s other spheres of responsibility have yet to be clearly defined, but are expected to involve pinpointing the subjects that Israel’s other intelligence agencies should investigate, sources said.
The quality of intelligence information about groups aimed at delegitimizing Israel has improved and the quantity has increased in recent months, said an official in the Prime Minister’s Office.
“There is a demand for such information,” he said. “Officials need information on such topics, and it hasn’t always been available in the past, because there was a lack of awareness pertaining to this topic in the intelligence community. The new unit’s orientation will be to collect information and carry out intelligence research for the Foreign Ministry and other government ministries.
The unit has the support of Brig. Gen. (res. ) Yossi Kuperwasser, the director general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry and a previous head of MI’s research division. During the second intifada, he pushed for the intelligence community’s large-scale involvement in public advocacy and diplomatic matters, a stance that was criticized by other MI officers.
Discourses of "aid," "development" and "reconstruction" shield Israel's ongoing occupation and colonial project. (Khaleel Reash/MaanImages)
The “Palestine Papers” reveal fully the extent to which Palestinians have neither genuine leadership nor a partner for peace. At the foreground is an unrepresentative “authority” prepared to compromise the most fundamental of Palestinian aspirations for an unrelenting colonizer and its imperious supporter. In the background lies a key mechanism enabling Palestinian deprivation: the aid industry.
Palestinians are among the most aid-subsidized people on earth. Anne Le More’s International Assistance to the Palestinians after Oslo demonstrates how $8 billion of post-Oslo aid made its way to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip between 1994 and 2006 for the purposes of development, building Palestinian Authority capacity and increasingly for emergency relief operations. Much of this, it was claimed, was needed to build the institutions necessary for a two-state peace process and to support socioeconomic development.
However, the aid industry is a key factor in Palestinian de-development. Discourses of “aid,” “development” and “reconstruction” shield Israel’s ongoing occupation and colonial project. A full third of the Palestinian Authority budget is aid-subsidized. In addition to funding a distorted Palestinian political system, the aid industry directly removes from Israel the burden of responsibility for the destruction of Palestinian lives, livelihoods and infrastructure. In doing so, it allows Israel to focus its resources and efforts on the acceleration of Palestinian poverty, the expansion of settlements, the expropriation of Jerusalem and the destruction of Gaza.
The blinders through which most aid industry actors operate serve to de-politicize and de-contextualize Palestinian “poverty.” This was evident at a presentation by a representative of a large UN aid agency at a London-based university in late 2010. The presentation outlined a number of initiatives to feed destitute Palestinians and energize the economy of the West Bank, some being replicas of the organization’s work in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
After the presentation, the moderator made clear that the presenter represents an “apolitical” agency and thus would “not field political questions.” Of course, members of the audience could not resist the temptation to ask “political” questions, probing the possibility that de-politicizing aid plays a role in supporting and expediting Palestinian de-development. To this, the presenter posed a troubling dilemma: “Aid saves Palestinian lives.” Surely, it is not enough for aid to “save” Palestinians from their own “poverty,” so that they can continue to endure a devastating occupation and brutal dispossession. Must the choice be starvation on one hand, and on the other, a marginal survival with the dissipation of national aspirations for self-determination and the right of return?
The agency in question is representative of a majority, but not all, of the international aid organizations, agencies and donor projects servicing Palestinians.
By contrast, two international organizations manage to fulfill significant mandates without de-politicizing their work. The first is the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA). Writing on the UNRWA-Palestinian relationship, Randa Farah discusses the way in which the UN agency “is of vital importance to the Palestinian national struggle” (“Uneasy but Necessary: The UNRWA-Palestinian Relationship,” Al-Shabaka, 30 November 2010). UNRWA upholds its obligation to UN resolutions as a mechanism for maintaining Palestinian refugee visibility and collective memory, and as an organization embodying the mandate for refugee rights in absence of a functioning national Palestinian consensus. Of course, in the absence of a final settlement, UNRWA does play a significant role in supporting the limbo in which millions of Palestinian refugees exist.
In stark contradiction to UNRWA’s mandate is the support provided to Israel by its largest donors, the United States and the European Commission. The US is UNRWA’s largest donor ($268 million in 2009), and Israel’s largest trading partner and provider of blind political and military support. Next is the European Commission ($232.7 million in 2009), which plays a significant role in Israel’s economy and supports Israeli military research. Together, US and EU support amount to over half of UNRWA’s annual funding. Within the confines of this donor-UNRWA mandate contradiction, UNRWA attempts to operate with full acknowledgment of the political reality and context in which it works. Importantly, it maintains elements of Palestinian rights and aspirations as part of its core mandate.
Next, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (RLF) recognizes that the institutions of foreign aid create dependencies where local organizations are unable to exert and promote their own agendas and aspirations. RLF explicitly acknowledges the decades-long failure of the aid industry, and that Palestinian social, economic, and institutional capacity will continue to erode without the support of grassroots and progressive political organizing as well as a Palestinian-owned development agenda.
A large number of Palestinian civil society organizations and individuals embody the aspirations of their people through the peaceful boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. Those who support BDS refuse the colonial project of economic normalization and demand a forum through which to express their socioeconomic and political aspirations. In harmony with BDS standards, international aid organizations too must consider the role they — and their donors — play in driving Palestinian de-development.
The aid industry in Palestine must choose between either the blind subsidizing of oppression, or a recognition and cessation of its support for it by adopting Mary B. Anderson’s Do No Harm framework — an approach for analyzing the interrelations between international aid in conflict contexts and the dynamics of those conflicts — as well as codes of ethics developed by the UN, bilateral donors and international and national nongovernmental organizations. Subsidizing a brutal occupation and illegitimate authority translates into the deliberate crushing of Palestinian aspirations and hence the very tools for creating lasting peace. As the world has witnessed through the “Palestine Papers,” when aid is de-politicized, donors and international organizations are able to pour billions of dollars into a colonial project under the masks of institution building and poverty reduction. Standing in stark opposition to the stated objectives of aid to Palestinians is the reality of subjugation so clearly evoked in Malcolm X’s “Message to the Grassroots”: the facade of a government pandering to an uncompromising colonial project bent on the destruction of Palestinian human rights and national aspirations.
As a first step out of this inadvertent (or intended) collaboration, well-meaning aid workers should embrace the Do No Harm framework within their organizations to ensure that their work does not simply serve to “rebuild” what Israel deliberately destroys. Aid organizations and agencies must seriously rethink the claim that their work is “apolitical,” should immediately publicize the extent of potential harm caused throughout their chain of operations and outline a transparent action plan for eliminating potential harm in their work. Areas for consideration include: securing funds from donor countries that support Israeli military or economic activity, objectifying Palestinian “poverty” through literature and marketing materials, working through or with Israeli state agencies and explicating how aid is employed in relation to Israeli policy and military activity.
Aid agencies must attempt to hold Israel politically, fiscally and morally accountable for past and ongoing destruction rather than contributing to the creation and perpetuation of an illusory Palestinian leadership and Palestinian de-development. Otherwise, massive aid subsidies under the masks of “development,” “reconstruction” and “institution-building” make the aid industry complicit in the deliberate devastation of the people it claims to serve.
Samer Abdelnour is completing a PhD in Management at the London School of Economics. His doctoral research examines nongovernmental organizations and humanitarian response, and the role of community and collective enterprise in postwar peace-building and development in Sudan. A version of this essay was first pubilshed by Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.
Posted on: March 20, 2011
19 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement
During the five day curfew in the village of Awarta, south of Nablus, the Israeli military raided homes and detained around 300 people, the youngest 14 years old. Some of the men were taken to the local boy school were they had to leave their finger prints and DNA and some were taken to the military base at Huwwra checkpoint. According to mayor, Qays Awwad, 55 men are still in Israeli custody. Some of the detainees reported that they had been abused by the soliders while they were detained and handcuffed. It has been reported that a 75 year old woman was handcuffed and had to sit on the ground while the soliders went through her home, and that an 80-year-old woman was beaten by soliders.
Three scandinavian ISM activists were in Awarta during the five day curfew, from saturday afternoon until wednesday noon. From the roofs of people’s houses they witnessed how the Israeli soliders went into homes, arrested men and made the familes wait outside while they raided their homes resulting in large scale damage to property. The ISM activists also visited homes that soldiers had searched to find broken windows, cut fuse-cables, smashed furniture, and polluted drinking water caused by Israeli soldiers.
Hundreds of soldiers entered the village in military vehicles early on the morning of the 12th of march, following the murder of five members of a settler family in the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Itamar. According to the soliders, they were searching for the murderer and would continue until they found one. One soldier told ISM activists, ”we will search this village until we find someone.” In the process of ”searching” the houses the sodiers damaged framed pictures, funiture, Tv-sets, gasheaters, smashed holes in floors and walls, stole money and jewlery, and poured liquids over computers. The Israeli forces occupied around 30 houses to sleep in during the four nights they remained in Awarta. In some of the houses they evicted the families who had to seak shelter outdoors or in neighbours homes during the night; in others they forced the families to stay in one room as the soldiers occupied the rest of the house. In occupied houses the sodiers deficated in the rooms and used the famlies bed sheets as toilet paper.
Alot of the houses were ”searched” and wrecked up to three times over five days. The soldiers did not seem to follow any apperent pattern when choosing which house to search or who to arrest, ”It all looked very random ” one activist said. In at least one case, on monday the 14th of march, the soldiers still did not know the name of the man that they had previously arrested and had to ask his family for it. The man that they had arrested was village council member Salim Qawaric. Approxametely 25 soliders entered his house causing severe damage on the family’s property while the family had to wait in the backyard. The following day the soldiers came back and searched the home once again resulting in further damage to the family’s home and property.
The ISM activists were not allowed to take pictures, and when they did it anyway, they soldiers pointed their guns at them shouting: ”Do not take pictures!” One of the activists had her memory card stolen by a soldier who took her camera from her by force.
During the curfew many families ran short of gas, food, water and medicine.
There have been numerous reports of physical abuse. According to eyewitnesses, Mashmod Zaqah, 28, had his hands cuffed behind his back and was blindfolded before he was beaten by at least six soldiers during a period of two hours, periodicly he lost consciousness and couldnt feel his legs or fingers. His family managed to smuggle him to Rafidia hospital in Nablus. He suffers a dislocated shoulder, back injuries, and a badly twisted ankle.
Accourding to eyewitnesses, around 300 israeli settlers, of whom some were masked, entered the village on saturday the 12th of March and threw stones at windows, injuring two Awarta residents by breaking their arms. Villagers tried to protect homes while israeli soldiers responded by shooting teargas at the villagers.
It has been reported that children were bitten by the israeli military dogs that the soldiers had with them. A young physically disabled man was bitten by a dog which resulted in his hospitalisation. Loay Medjet Abdet is now scared to go inside his own home because he believes the dogs will attack him again.
For the activists, it was clear that the repression against Awarta was only a form of collective punishment. When one activist asked: ”Why do you have to punish all this people?” The solider responded with: ”We have to punish these people so they will understand.”
Even though this kind of systematic collective punishment is illegal according to International law, is it frequently used by the Israeli military all over the West Bank and in Gaza.
When medical vehicles tried to access the area they were stopped by Israeli forces. ISM activists went to the checkpoint near Awarta on March 15 and reported that ambulances were being held several hours before they could enter the village. As an occupying force, Israel is obligated under article 56 of the Geneva Conventions not to hinder the work of medical personnel in a conflict zone.
Munther Fahmi, a Palestinian, was born in Jerusalem and lived there until he was 21, when he left for the United States for 20 years.
By Nir Hasson
Munther Fahmi is a well-known figure in Jerusalem’s diplomatic community and among the city’s foreign press corps. A visit to his small bookstore at the American Colony Hotel is a must for anyone seeking to immerse himself in the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Among his many and well-known patrons are ambassadors, authors and politicians, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
But it appears all the connections in the world are no match for Israel’s Interior Ministry, which is now seeking to have Fahmi deported.
Fahmi, a Palestinian, was born in Jerusalem and lived there until he was 21, when he left for the United States for 20 years. He married in the U.S. and acquired an American passport.
He visited Israel often and ultimately returned to Jerusalem to live in 1993, though his Israeli residency rights were revoked in the interim.
Like most Arab residents of East Jerusalem who chose not to apply for Israeli citizenship, Fahmi had Israeli residency, but not citizenship. Residency is automatically revoked in the event of an absence of many years or the acquisition of citizenship from another country.
Over the past 17 years, Fahmi has entered and left Israel using his American passport and was generally here on a tourist visa. Whenever the visa expired, he would leave the country and reenter so that it would renew.
A year and a half ago, however, Fahmi was informed by the Interior Ministry that his visa would no longer be renewed and he should leave the country permanently.
All of his requests to reconsider in light of the fact that his family and his business are in Jerusalem were turned down. He also filed a petition to the High Court of Justice seeking legal status here.
The three-judge panel suggested that he withdraw his petition and seek permanent resident status through an inter-ministerial humanitarian committee, which has the authority to consider factors beyond the letter of the law. The court also suggested that Fahmi’s lawyer had raised other issues that the Interior Ministry would consider.
His lawyer cited evidence that the center of Fahmi’s life was in Israel and that this could be attested to by a number of Israeli institutions here, including Haaretz and the Steimatzky bookstore chain.
The Interior Ministry said in response that the matter had been considered by the High Court of Justice and that they accepted the state’s position at that time.
Since then, there have been no new developments, the ministry said, adding that if Fahmi files a request to the inter-ministerial humanitarian committee, the matter will be handled according to procedure.
“One way or another,” the ministry said, “what was provided up to this point was a letter sent less than a week ago, and it will be dealt with, as stated in accordance with procedures.”
A petition to Interior Minister Eli Yishai that has been circulated on Fahmi’s behalf has been signed by hundreds of people, including journalists, publishers and academics. The petition notes the importance of Fahmi’s bookstore as a meeting place for authors, diplomats, journalists and others.
The United States Department of Commerce and the US embassy in Tel Aviv are co-promoting the Israel Unmanned Systems 2011 trade mission from 27 March to 1 April. Their partner — and the primary organizer — is Airlift, inc., an aerospace and consulting firm based in the settlement of Talpiot Mizrach (East Talpiot) in occupied East Jerusalem. This raises troubling questions about why Washington is promoting the Israeli arms trade and why it is doing so with a firm based in an illegal colony which explicitly contradicts official US policy as well as international law.
Airlift was founded in 2007 by Marc-Philippe Rudel, a French-Israeli electrical engineer and businessman, to “promote economic cooperation and the establishment of global partnerships.” The company brings foreign arms industry and military officials to Israel for arranged business-to-business meetings, specially tailored seminars, industry workshops and visits to major Israeli armament firms and research institutes. Airlift’s website states that its “offices are located in the heart of Jerusalem” but the address given puts them in occupied East Jerusalem. Airlift’s Spanish subsidiary, Airlift Iberia, was established in September 2010.
Though considered a mainstream Jerusalem neighborhood by most Israelis — including Rudel, judging by his activism in the secular liberal/centrist “Awakening in Jerusalem” movement — East Talpiot is unanimously considered an illegal settlement by the international community including the United Nations, the International Court of Justice and the US government whose pronouncements consistently oppose Israeli settlements. However, Washington regularly takes actions — such as the recent veto of a UN Security Council resolution condemning settlements — to shield Israel from international condemnation and formerly contributed economic aid that was used directly for settlement infrastructure and construction. Promoting a trade mission with a firm based in a settlement points to the latter as being more representative of US policy, in spite of official pronouncements to the contrary. American sponsorship comes at a time when governments like Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are actively distancing themselves from settlement-related businesses. Requests for comment from the US State Department and Department of Commerce were not answered.
The trade mission’s program includes visits to the facilities of several Israeli arms manufacturers deeply involved in the occupation. Israel Aerospace Industries, Aeronautics Defense Systems, BlueBird Aero Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems are all on the schedule for the visiting delegation as well as an “upscale” reception at the US embassy in Tel Aviv. There will also be panels on the market for unmanned systems (drones) and an optional tour on the last day through the occupied Old City of Jerusalem.
Israel is a world-leader in the design and export of unmanned systems, especially unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It also deploys them extensively in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and over Lebanon. This battlefield experience, the history of deployment in service of military occupation, is a key marketing aspect for the tools. The website for the trade mission notes, for example, that BlueBird Aero Systems is an “official supplier of the Israeli Ministry of Defense and Israeli Air Force.”
There is already a history of partnerships between Israeli UAV manufacturers and American arms and aerospace firms, some of which pre-date Airlift’s founding. Boeing, AAI and General Dynamics have all signed marketing agreements to promote Aeronautics Defense Systems models in the US. General Dynamics also helps promote Elbit Systems models, and Advanced Ceramics Research and Cubic Advanced Tactical Systems formerly helped market Rafael’s now-discontinued Skylite drone. These firms and others are also engaged in research and development for their own production of UAVs. It is only the US arms industry’s UAVs, in fact, which compete with those from Israel.
This is also not Airlift’s first joint mission with the US Department of Commerce. In January 2010, they jointly organized and promoted the Israel Space 2010 Trade Mission which brought participants from Brazil, Belgium and the US to learn about and engage with many of the same arms manufacturers involved in the pending Unmanned Systems mission. Airlift regularly participates in trade and aerospace events promoted by the French, Brazilian, Canadian and other embassies. Rudel too is a consultant in charge of the aerospace industry sector for the Economic Mission of the Embassy of France.
The promoters are well aware that the same battlefield experience that gives Israeli UAVs a marketing edge is also a potential liability. A document from the 2010 Space Trade Mission available on the US Department of Commerce’s BuyUSA.gov website notes that “geo-political concerns” are “potential obstacles” to Israeli firms tapping international markets more successfully. A recent example of this was Brazil’s hesitancy in buying Israeli UAVs, as revealed by Wikileaks. The 2009 US diplomatic cable notes that Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim prepared arrangements to “prevent Brazil [from] having to buy UAVs from Israel, which had become politically sensitive” (15 January 2009 diplomatic cable, Wikileaks). With the increasing activity and popularity of the boycott, divestment and sanctions efforts aimed at ending the occupation, perhaps “potential obstacles” to future sales will prove more formidable.
Jimmy Johnson lives in Detroit and runs www.NegedNeshek.org, a news, data and analysis project researching Israeli arms exports. He can be reached at jimmy [at] negedneshek [dot] org.
Subsidies are the target of new Egyptian minister of petroleum’s agenda, due to popular support; Israel gas subsidies are on the negotiation table but local subsidies are untouched
Monday 21 Mar 2011
Egypt is in a strong position to raise gas price to all importers, Minister of Petroleum, Abdallah Ghurab stated on Monday in a press conference.
Ghurab revealed that Egypt is negotiating with Jordan and Israel to raise export prices. Currently, they receive a generous below-market discount on gas from Egypt, which Egyptians resent, particularly with regard to Israel.
“Public opinion and pressure supports the difficult negotiations we are leading now with Israel” stated Ghurab. The minister declined, however, to unveil the current price of Egyptian exported gas.
He did promise to bow to public opinion by changing the price of gas and announcing shortly an index price. “This will affect our contracts with other importers,” he nailed the point.
Egypt exports 4 per cent of their gas to Israel, according to figures released in the press conference by the head of petrol authority, who was appointed ten days ago.
Regarding local subsidies, the minister of petroleum vows to keep the price of gas barrels untouched at LE3, but says, grudgingly “…I find it strange that consumers pay LE15 a barrel to a private trader but refuse to allow the government to raise its original price by [even] one pound.”
Ghurab calculates that the energy subsidy bill, which is currently budgeted at LE72bn will rise by LE10bn to LE82bn, due to a hike in international oil prices.
Egypt produces 700 thousand barrels a day and 6.3m cubic metres of natural gas. “If all of this was sold at market price the government would be rich,” he says. Nevertheless, subsidies will remain untouched “because this is a sovereign decision,” rather than economic one.
Energy subsidies in Egypt are criticised as it benefits the rich more than the poor.
Despite the escalation, it seems for now that neither Israel nor Hamas is seeking a broad confrontation.
Yesterday’s mortar barrage on the western Negev is the most extensive operation by Hamas since Operation Cast Lead ended in January 2009. The group has been involved in a few incidents with the Israel Defense Forces since then, but usually on a smaller scale, and it has rarely claimed responsibility.
Yesterday, Hamas publicly announced that its people were behind the latest incident. They said the reason was the Israel Air Force’s attack Wednesday on the Hamas training camp in the ruins of the settlement of Netzarim in which two people were killed. That attack had been precipitated by a Qassam strike a few hours earlier near Sderot.
Hamas said – and to a certain extent justifiably – that Israel had exceeded the unwritten rules of the game. The Qassam had been fired by a marginal Palestinian group, and the accepted response would have been a bombing of empty Hamas offices or an escape tunnel without casualties.
As in the previous rounds of violence, the two sides apparently have more in common than they are willing to admit. Hamas coldly calculated the escalation of fire on Israel yesterday, as Israel did in attacking the Netzarim camp.
Officially, Israel says the bombing of a populated camp was not an extreme departure from an acceptable response. It says it had to remind Hamas of its responsibility to rein in the smaller factions.
In fact, it’s not impossible that the response reflected the general atmosphere after the murder of the Fogel family in Itamar in the West Bank and the interception of the ship carrying missiles from Iran bound for the Gaza Strip the day before.
Despite the escalation, it seems for now that neither Israel nor Hamas is seeking a broad confrontation. The shortening of the periods between attacks – the previous escalation was a month ago, when Islamic Jihad fired a Katyusha at Be’er Sheva – increases the risk that things will spin out of control to a broader campaign against Gaza later in the year.
Hamas says that all it wants is to bring back the status quo on the border with the Gaza Strip. But Palestinian sources in Gaza say they doubt Hamas’ explanation.
The sources say the reason for yesterday’s massive barrage is Hamas’ concerns about Fatah’s calls for reconciliation and unity among Palestinian factions. Last Tuesday, the Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to visit Gaza to reopen discussions on a unity government. Abbas quickly responded that he is ready to come “tomorrow.”
However, Haniyeh’s invitation was issued without the knowledge or approval of Hamas leaders in Damascus and the group’s military wing in Gaza, who see a possible Abbas visit to Gaza as a problem and risk. Reconciliation could lead to elections, which could jeopardize Hamas’ control over the Gaza Strip. A Hamas leader in Damascus, Mohammed Nazzal, said yesterday in an interview on the Hamas website that Abbas’ announcement was mere spin.
Clearly, Hamas has a problem with Abbas’ move and demonstrations throughout the West Bank for reconciliation. While Ramallah is allowing such demonstrations, Hamas is fighting them. It seems that sympathy for Hamas among the Palestinians is waning, and people are daring to protest publicly against it.
If Hamas leaders had thought that the revolution in Egypt and events elsewhere in the Arab world would play into their hands, things now seem more complex. Over the weekend they felt for the first time, even in Damascus – that bastion of Hamas support – the shock waves of the Arab Spring.
The UK, US and France have attacked Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in the first action to enforce a UN-mandated no-fly zone.
Pentagon officials say the US and the UK have fired more than 110 missiles, while French planes struck pro-Gaddafi forces attacking rebel-held Benghazi.
Col Gaddafi has vowed retaliation and said he would open arms depots to the people to defend Libya.
Cruise missiles hit air-defence sites in the capital, Tripoli, and Misrata.
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
Allan Little The capital this morning is relatively calm, with traffic moving around as normal, although the atmosphere is quite tense.
At 0230 there was a loud barrage of anti-aircraft fire, but I could hear no sounds of incoming ordnance, and apart from that there’s been no audible sign of the war here in Tripoli.
That is not to say targets on the periphery of the city have not been hit. State TV says 48 civilians have been killed and more than 100 wounded. Last night the speaker of the parliament said hospitals were filling up and that there had been a bombardment of a civilian part of the city, but there’s been no independent confirmation of that.
We’re reporting under restricted circumstances and can’t go out independently. It’s easy to find people swearing undying loyalty to Col Gaddafi – and there’s no doubting their sincerity – but you wonder what’s in the heads of the many millions who do not take part in these angry demonstrations of support for the leader.
Libyan state TV broadcast footage it says showed some of the 150 people wounded in the attacks. It said 48 people had been killed. There was no independent confirmation of the deaths.
Military officials are said to be assessing the damage from the overnight raids before deciding on their next move.
At least 14 bodies were lying in and around the remains of military vehicles which littered the road leading to Benghazi after the French strikes, Reuters reports.
Rebel forces are now heading from Benghazi to the town of Ajdabiya, which has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent days, the agency says.
Hundreds of Col Gaddafi’s supporters have gathered at his Bab al-Aziziyah palace and the international airport to serve as human shields, state TV said.
The AFP news agency reports that bombs were dropped near the palace, which the US also attacked in 1986.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, heavy bursts of anti-aircraft fire arced into the sky above Tripoli and several explosions were heard.
Sources in Tripoli told BBC Arabic that the attacks on the city had so far targeted the eastern areas of Sawani, Airport Road, and Ghasheer. These are all areas believed to host military bases.
The Western forces began their action on Saturday, after Libyan government forces attacked the main rebel-held city of Benghazi – Col Gaddafi’s allies accused the rebels of breaking the ceasefire:
A French plane fired the first shots against Libyan government targets at 1645 GMT on Saturday, destroying military vehicles near Benghazi, according to a military spokesman
At least 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from US destroyers and submarine, said a Pentagon official
A British submarine and Tornado jets fired missiles at Libyan military targets, the UK Ministry of Defence said
There were also strikes near the western city of Misrata
France has denied Libyan claims to have shot down a French plane
A naval blockade against Libya is being put in place.
“It’s a first phase of a multi-phase operation” to enforce the UN resolution, said US Navy Vice-Adm William E Gortney.
The BBC’s Kevin Connolly, in the rebel-held eastern city of Tobruk, says that once the air-defence systems are taken out, combat aircraft can patrol Libyan airspace more widely and it will then become clear to what extent they will attack Col Gaddafi’s ground forces.
This will determine the outcome of the campaign, he adds.
Russia and China, which abstained from the UN Security Council resolution approving the use of force in Libya, have urged all parties to stop fighting, as has the African Union.
After the missile bombardment and the air strikes, Col Gaddafi made a brief speech calling on people to resist.
“Civilian and military targets in the air and sea will be liable to serious danger in the Mediterranean,” he said.
The Libyan leader called the attacks “a colonialist crusade of aggression. This can lead to open a new crusade war.”
Our correspondent says it is now clear that Col Gaddafi’s strategy is to portray the attacks as an act of colonialist aggression and rally enough of the Libyan people behind him to maintain his grip on power.
‘Legal and right’
US President Barack Obama, speaking during a visit to Brazil, said the US was taking “limited military action” as part of a “broad coalition”.
“We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy,” he said.
He repeated that no US ground troops would take part.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that launching military action against Libya was “necessary, legal and right”.
The international community was intervening to stop the “murderous madness” of Col Gaddafi, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
“In Libya, the civilian population, which is demanding nothing more than the right to choose their own destiny, is in mortal danger,” he warned. “It is our duty to respond to their anguished appeal.”
Canada is also sending warplanes to the region, while Italy has offered the use of its military bases.
Rebels in Benghazi said thousands of people had fled the attack by Col Gaddafi’s forces, heading east, and the UN refugee agency said it was preparing to receive 200,000 refugees from Libya.
Col Gaddafi has ruled Libya for more than 40 years. An uprising against him began last month after the long-time leaders of neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt were toppled.
Nobel Oeace Prize Winner strikes Again, by Carlos Latuff
As revolutions continue to sweep the Arab world, and the days of dictators seem numbered, we are learning a lot about the ties and alliances that have long characterized the west’s dealing with tyrants around the globe. “Stability,” apparently, requires us to make deals with the devil. And so we discover that the United States has long known about the human rights abuses of deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, deposed Tunisian president Zine el-Abedine Ben Ali, and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. But it was willing nonetheless not only to turn a blind eye to these, but even to enable and fund, directly or indirectly, oppressive regimes, for the sake of what exactly? Oil? Corporations? The so-called “peace process?” Iraqi “freedom?” Israel’s security?
And as Arab tyrants are challenged, one by one, social media are abuzz with the embarrassing and numerous compliments and kind remarks that western heads of state, academics, pundits, and entertainers have given these deposed dictators. In a typical statement, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for example, said in 2009: “I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family.” Apparently, the Clinton-Mubarak friendship goes back about 20 years. Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam, a close friend of Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth’s second son and fourth in line to the British throne, has been a guest at Windsor Castle and Buckingham palace. The list is long.
But as the people seem determined to overthrow all those oppressive regimes, liberal Americans are openly questioning the wisdom and morality of “dealing with the devil.” In a highly critical segment on Anderson Cooper’s program AC 360, Cooper, a CNN journalist exhibiting an unusual level of courage and integrity among mainstream American media personalities, called out the various US presidents who have welcomed Gaddafi into their diplomatic circles, even as they acknowledged his tendency towards malice and mental instability, best epitomized by Ronald Reagan’s name for him: “the madman of the desert” (KTH: The West and Gadhafi’s regime,” 24 February 2011).
In that same episode, Cooper was critical of American artists Beyonce, Usher, and Mariah Carey, all three of whom gave private performances for the Gaddafis. Carey apparently received one million dollars for performing four songs for the Gaddafis on New Year in 2009. The following year, it was Beyonce and Usher who graced the Libyan dictator’s New Year’s celebration. Cooper asked why artists would perform for tyrants, and suggested that they donate the money they received to the Libyan people.
The news item was quickly picked up by other media. Rolling Stone magazine also ran an article stating that the music industry is lashing out at these artists, and quoting David T. Viecelli, agent for Arcade Fire and many other acts, as saying “Given what we know about Qaddafi and what his rule has been about, you have to willfully turn a blind eye in order to accept that money, and I don’t think it’s ethical” (Industry Lashes Out at Mariah, Beyonce and Others Who Played for Qaddafi’s Family,” 25 February 2011).
Amid all this uproar, Canadian singer Nelly Furtado announced on Twitter that she would donate to charity a one million dollar fee she received to perform for the Gaddafi family in 2007 (“Nelly Furtado to give away $1 million Gaddafi fee,” Reuters, 1 March 2011).
Those of us who have long been engaged in Palestine justice activism cannot help but notice glaring double-standards in these denunciations of the various deals with devils. And at this critical point in the history of the Arab world, we must request that our readers begin to “connect the dots” throughout the region. Is entertaining dictators a lesser crime than normalizing Israeli apartheid?
Why hold artists accountable for performing at the behest of tyrants, and let them off the hook for whitewashing Israel’s regime which engages in massive human rights abuses, all subsidized by the United States government?
Why not call artists who have performed in Israel, a state which practices a form of apartheid worse than anything the South African apartheid government had ever done? In 1973, the United Nations General Assembly defined the crime of Apartheid as “inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.” As Israel’s official policy privileges Jewish nationals over non-Jewish citizens, creating de facto and de jure discrimination against the indigenous Palestinian people, it is hard to dispute that this supposed “democracy” is in reality an apartheid state.
Many of the discriminatory measures Israel practices today were unthought of in apartheid South Africa. In his powerful essay, “Apartheid in the Holy Land,” penned shortly after his return from a visit to the West Bank, Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote: “I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa” (“Apartheid in the Holy Land,” The Guardian, 29 April 2002).
In 2009, a comprehensive study by South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council confirmed that Israel is practicing both colonialism and apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories.
That study was inspired by the observations of John Dugard, South African law professor and former UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, who wrote in 2006: “Israel’s large-scale destruction of Palestinian homes, leveling of agricultural lands, military incursions and targeted assassination of Palestinians far exceeded any similar practices in apartheid South Africa. No wall was ever built to separate blacks and whites.” And no roads were ever built for whites only in South Africa either, while Israel continues to build Jewish-only roads, cutting through the Palestinian landscape.
Israel’s form of apartheid includes the crippling blockade of Gaza; the ongoing seizure of Palestinian land and water sources; construction of the West Bank apartheid wall declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in The Hague; the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem; the denial of the rights of Palestinian refugees and discriminatory laws and mounting threats of expulsion against the 1.2 million Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship.
And as word inevitably gets out, because we are no longer pleading for permission to narrate, but seizing our right to expose these crimes, Israel is hard at work trying to fix its image, without changing the policies and actions that have tarnished that image. As it cements its apartheid policies, Israel is funneling millions of dollars into burnishing its public image as a culturally vibrant, progressive, and thriving democracy.
Among its PR moves is the cultural “Re-Brand” campaign. Israel is intentionally inviting international artists to such “hip” places as Tel Aviv to mask the ugly face of occupation, apartheid, displacement, and dispossession. If we are to hold artists accountable for their choice of performance venues and income sources — as indeed we should — then we should hold them accountable for complicity in normalizing apartheid no less than for entertaining dictators.
In an important article that appeared in The Grio, Lori Adelman also asks: “Why are black pop stars performing at the behest of dictators?” before making the comparison to Sun City, the extravagant whites-only entertainment resort city in apartheid South Africa. And she reminds her readers of the impact of the Artists United Against Apartheid music project, which contributed one million dollars for anti-Apartheid efforts and, most importantly, raised awareness about the global power of artists to influence political discourse on human rights issues (“Why are black pop stars performing at the behest of dictators?,” 24 February 2011).
Today, there is global awareness of Israel’s numerous crimes. And there is a call for artists to boycott Israel, until the country abides by international law. The call was issued in 2005 by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (www.pacbi.org/). In the US, where we live, the campaign is coordinated by the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. When we learn of an artist who is planning to perform in Tel Aviv, we contact them, inform them of the reality on the ground (should they need such information), and urge them to reconsider and cancel any concerts they may have scheduled. Many have already done so, including the industry’s biggest names: Carlos Santana, Bono, The Pixies, Elvis Costello and Gil Scott-Heron. Folk legend Pete Seeger also recently announced his support for boycotting Israel.
In what may be the most eloquent statement to date, Costello wrote: “One lives in hope that music is more than mere noise, filling up idle time, whether intending to elate or lament. Then there are occasions when merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act that resonates more than anything that might be sung and it may be assumed that one has no mind for the suffering of the innocent. … Some will regard all of this an unknowable without personal experience but if these subjects are actually too grave and complex to be addressed in a concert, then it is also quite impossible to simply look the other way” (“It Is After Considerable Contemplation …,” 15 May 2010).
Today, Artists Against Apartheid are still around, and they are active in promoting the boycott of a country that is practicing apartheid in the 21st century, namely Israel. The question should be, then, if artists boycotted Sun City, shouldn’t they also boycott Tel Aviv? Why the outrage when Beyonce entertains Gaddafi, but not when Madonna, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and so many more, entertain apartheid in Israel?
Editor’s note: this article originally incorrectly stated that Mariah Carey and Usher had performed in Israel but they have not done so. This version of the article reflects that correction.
Laurie King, an anthropologist, is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada.
Nada Elia is a member of the Organizing Committee of USACBI, the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (Facebook).
Hamas security personnel were among those wounded by Israeli shelling
Hamas security personnel were among those wounded by Israeli shelling
Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired dozens of missiles into southern Israel in what appears to be their heaviest such barrage in two years.
About 50 mortars were fired – two Israelis were hurt, Israel says.
Israeli tanks later shelled targets in the coastal strip, wounding at least five people, Palestinian officials say.
The Islamist group Hamas, which runs Gaza, said it fired some of the mortars. Three days ago an Israeli air strike killed two of its members.
The BBC’s Jon Donnison in Gaza says this seems to be an escalation – both in terms of the number of rockets fired from Gaza and the fact that Hamas said it was responsible.
Hamas’s military wing said it launched dozens of rockets, our correspondent reports.
Hamas and Israel have largely halted hostilities since the end of the Gaza war in January 2009, but skirmishes often break out around the border area.
Although members of Hamas’s military wing rarely carry out attacks, the Israeli military says it holds the group responsible for all militant activity in the Gaza Strip.
In message to UN, Lieberman warns against supporting a future Palestinian ‘terrorist state who’s first and foremost goal is the destruction of Israel.’
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman instructed Israel’s United Nations envoy to lodge a formal complaint with the organization after Israel was hit by over 50 mortars fired from Gaza on Saturday morning.
Two people were lightly wounded and a home was damaged by the mortars. Hamas has claimed responsibility for 10 of the mortars.
Lieberman, in a message to the UN, warned that a future Palestinian state would be a “terrorist state who’s first and foremost goal is the destruction of Israel.”
The offensive from Gaza took place while “Hamas and the Palestinian Authority were talking about reunification,” Lieberman’s message said.
In the past week, there have been rallies in Hamas-ruled Gaza and Fatah-ruled West Bank calling for Palestinian reunification. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced two days ago that he intends to go to Gaza to end the more than three years of internal division between his Fatah party and Hamas.
Liberman wrote that the talk of reunification during the barrage of rockets shows that “the international support that the Palestinians are trying to garner would be support for the creation of a terrorist state.”
The Palestinians have been pressing leaders worldwide to recognize an independent Palestinian state, an issue they plan on bringing to a vote at September’s United Nations General Assembly.
Other Israeli officials also responded harshly to Saturday’s bombardment, with Kadima head Tzipi Livni saying that “the right way to contend with Hamas is with force.”
Likud MK Danny Danon said it was up to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to respond harshly to the morning’s offensive.
IDF spokesman says soldiers identified terrorists and launched strike; Israel strikes Gaza after 50 mortars fired at Israel earlier Saturday.
IDF forces killed two Palestinian terrorists near the Gaza border on Saturday.
The IDF spokesperson said the terrorists were identified as nearing Israel’s border with Gaza so IDF armored forces launched a strike at the two Gazans, killing them both.
The attack comes after more than 50 mortars were fired from Gaza into southern Israel earlier Saturday, wounding two Israelis. Hamas claimed responsibility for 10 of the more than 50 mortars fired.
In response, IDF forces struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, wounding five Hamas security officers and a boy, Gaza medics reported.
By Suleiman al-Khalidi, Reuters
Saturday, 19 March 2011 Thousands of mourners called on Saturday for “revolution” at the funeral of protesters killed by Syrian security forces, the boldest challenge to Syria’s rulers since uprisings began sweeping the Arab world.
Security forces responded by firing tear gas to disperse crowds in Deraa, a tribal region south of the capital where at least 10,000 people demonstrated on Saturday at the funeral of two protesters, among at least four who were killed on Friday.
“Revolution, revolution. Rise up Hauran,” chanted the mourners in Deraa, administrative capital of the strategic Hauran plateau, as they marched behind simple wood coffins of Wissam Ayyash and Mahmoud al-Jawabra.
“God, Syria, Freedom. Whoever kills his own people is a traitor,” they said. Some of the mourners exited a mosque and headed for the centre to protest.
The city was less tense by late afternoon after security forces dispersed most of the crowd and adopted less aggressive tactics than the previous day, residents said.
The two were killed when security forces opened fire on Friday on civilians taking part in a peaceful protest demanding political freedoms and an end to corruption in Syria, which has been ruled under emergency laws by President Bashar al-Assad’s Baath Party for nearly half a century.
A third man who was killed on Friday, Ayhem al-Hariri, was buried in a village near Deraa earlier on Saturday. A fourth protester, Adnan Akrad, died on Saturday from his wounds.
Secret police at the main funeral in Deraa arrested at least one mourner, activists said. Security was heavy in the city, especially around police stations.
The city of Deraa is home to thousands of displaced people from eastern Syria, where up to 1 million people have left their homes because of a water crisis over the past six years. Experts say state mismanagement of resources has worsened the crisis.
The Hauran region, once a Middle East bread basket, has also been affected by diminishing water levels, with yields per hectare falling by a quarter in Deraa last year.
Protests against Syria’s ruling elite, inspired by revolts in the Arab world, have gathered momentum this week after a silent protest in Damascus by 150 people demanding the release of thousands of political prisoners.
At least one activist from Deraa, Diana al-Jawabra, took part in the protest. She was arrested faces charges of weakening national morale, along with 32 jailed protesters, a lawyer said.
Jawabra, who is from a prominent tribe, was campaigning for the release of 15 schoolchildren arrested in Deraa this month after writing slogans on walls, inspired by revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia that swept their autocratic leaders from power.
Residents say the children’s arrests deepened feelings of repression and helped fuel the protests in Deraa, the biggest threat yet to the authority of Assad.
Assad said in a January interview Syria’s leadership was “very closely linked to the beliefs of the people” and there was no mass discontent.
“The leadership have given a clear signal that they are not in any hurry to embark on fundamental political reform,” said a diplomat in the Syrian capital.
In a move seen as an attempt to address the discontent, Assad issued a decree on Saturday lessening mandatory army conscription from 21 months to 18 months.
The long conscription period has generated discontent, especially among the youth who resent state tactics to bring them into service, such as random ID checking, and the withholding of food aid from families whose members escaped conscription.
Security forces open fire in southern city of Aden, a day after emergency was declared following a bloody crackdown.
Last Modified: 19 Mar 2011
Yemen seethed with anger on Saturday as medics raised the death toll from a sniper attack on protesters to 52 [AFP]
Police have stormed a protest camp in southern Yemen where thousands are calling for the ouster of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country’s longtime president.
Saturday’s raid was the latest attempt by security forces to quell growing unrest.
Protesters say police fired tear gas and live rounds in the southern port city of Aden, wounding three anti-government protesters.
Meanwhile, two prominent members of Yemen’s ruling party resigned on Saturday in protest against the killing of the anti-government protesters a day before.
“I find myself compelled to submit my resignation … after the heinous massacre in Sanaa yesterday,” Nasr Taha Mustafa, head of the state news agency and a leading ruling party member, said.
While, Mohamed Saleh Qara’a, another party member, told Reuters he had quit because of the “completely unacceptable” violence.
Saleh declared on Friday a nationwide state of emergency after a violent crackdown on anti-government protests left at least 52 people dead and scores more wounded in the capital, Sanaa.
He said that the decision to impose the state of emergency was made by the country’s National Security Council, but there was no immediate indication of how long it would last.
“The National Security Council announces a state of emergency across Yemen, and a curfew is set upon
armed people in all Yemeni provinces. And the security forces with the army will take responsibility for
stability,” he said.
He also expressed “sorrow for what happened in the university square” on Friday.
Sources told Al Jazeera the security forces opened fire in attempts to prevent protesters from marching out of the square where they were gathered. Medical sources said the death toll was likely to rise.
The attack came as thousands gathered across the country, continuing to demand that Saleh – the country’s ruler of 32 years – step down.
Al Jazeera correspondents in Sanaa reported that many protesters were shot in the head and neck; most of the injured were shot with live ammunition.
Medics at a nearby medical centre told Al Jazeera almost 200 people were injured; many were in critical condition. One medic called the attack a “massacre”.
Anti-government demonstrations were also held in other cities including Taiz, Ibb, Hodeidah, Aden, and Amran following Muslim midday prayers on Friday.
Government forces have previously used live fire, rubber bullets, and tear gas on anti-regime rallies, in the government’s increasingly violent crackdown on protests.
Yemen, the Arabian peninsula state neighbouring Saudi Arabia, has been hit by weeks of protests set in motion by uprisings in North Africa that toppled long-serving leaders in Tunisia and Egypt and spread to the Gulf states of Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Saleh has maintained a firm grip on power for over three decades and has scoffed at calls to step down, saying he will only do so when his current term of office expires in 2013.
Despite violence and threats, anti-government protesters refuse to cease demonstrating until Saleh’s removal.
Ari Shavit is not exactly on the left in Israel, and his normal writing is quite nationalistic and main-stream. If he now compares the West Bank settlements to the striken nuclear plant in Fukushima, then something quite deep may be changing in Israeli society, maybe as a result of the changes in the Arab world since the beginning of this year.
The settlers are like the nuclear power station in Fukushima – a grandly built project of huge proportions, which was set up in the wrong place on the basis of false assumptions.
By Ari Shavit
On quite a few occasions this week, my mobile phone vibrated with text messages from the settlers’ lobby, Yesha. Once it was a quote from Minister Gideon Sa’ar (we must resume construction in Judea and Samaria ). Another time it was a quote from Minister Gilad Erdan (stop holding up the construction tenders in Judea and Samaria ). The third time it was a quote from MK Zeev Elkin (it’s time to build cities in Judea and Samaria ). The fourth time it was a quote from MK Yariv Levin (I demand the cabinet and Minister Barak approve construction in Judea and Samaria cities at once! ). The fifth time it was a quote from Minister Moshe Ya’alon (out of the mourning we must build and develop the settlements in Judea and Samaria ).
At first I thought all these texts were a Purim prank. After all, it’s inconceivable that intelligent people like Sa’ar, Erdan and Ya’alon still don’t understand what a disaster the settlements have brought upon us. It’s unthinkable that the sensible manager of the settlers’ council still doesn’t understand what a disaster additional construction in the settlements will bring upon us. It’s not possible that the settlers are still such space cadets.
But after six-seven texts, I realized it was no prank and no Purim. Those detached souls are really out of it. These delusionals are totally delusionary. The right has learned nothing and forgotten nothing, and continues to live in a parallel universe. There is no way out, then. A counter text must be sent to these guys from the right wing. Here is the text:
The settlers are like the nuclear power station in Fukushima – a grandly built project of huge proportions, which was set up in the wrong place on the basis of false assumptions. The builders of the Japanese power station didn’t take into account that one day the earth would quake and register a 9.0 magnitude on the Richter scale. Nor did the settlement builders. The Japanese power station builders didn’t take into account that one day the tsunami would strike it. Nor did the settlements’ builders. But both there and here the earth shook. The tsunami struck. The Fukushima power station turned into a nightmare; so did the settlements project.
The truth must be told: It was not the settlements that caused the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and stopping them will not end the conflict. But the settlements are escalating the conflict, and continuing construction in the settlements will cause Israel to lose it. So the settlements must be stopped not only for peace, but for national security. To ensure Israel’s future and to save Zionism.
The moral issue can be debated. The left will say the settlements are expressly immoral, and the right will say the settlements are supremely moral. But the realpolitik issue cannot be disputed. The settlers have won the campaign on the hills but lost the campaign in the world. For that reason, the settlements today are beyond the legitimate international fence. And they are putting Israel beyond the legitimate international fence.
The radioactive cloud of illegitimacy rising from the settlements is moving toward Israel and endangering its existence.
When the Fukushima power station was build in the ’70s, it was possible to hope that it would endure any earthquake and any surging wave. When the settlements were built in the ’70s and ’80s, it was possible to hope they would endure any political storm. Today it is clear that both hopes have been shattered. The Japanese power company’s basic assumptions and those of Gush Emunim (a messianic movement advocating Israeli sovereignty in the territories ) were found to be groundless. They led to building tremendous energy generators on the most dangerous fraction line possible.
It is inconceivable that after what has happened, the Japanese would set up a seventh and eighth reactor on the beach. It is inconceivable that after what has been discovered, the Israelis would set up more settlements on the mountain. The future is staring at us in the face – a massive project built 40 years ago is threatening the state that built it.
The radiation emanating from it is lethal. Enough with the texts, guys. Enough with floating out there in space. It’s time to cool down the settlements, extinguish them and look for alternative energy sources. It’s time to go back home.
EDITOR: Why the great shock?
The whole of Israeli society was deeply shocked after the murder of the settler family in Itamar, in the occupied West Bank. The same people were not in the least shocked when their troops murderted over 400 Palestinian children, and over 1000 adults, in the Cast Lead massacres in Gaza. Is Jewish blood thicker? It seems so.
In this unbearable week, the Fogel family has been all but forgotten in the welter of uses that have been made of them, polemic, political, personal.
By Bradley Burston
All this week I’ve resisted putting something terrible into words.
All this week I’ve been wondering why the Jerusalem burial ceremony for Ruth and Udi Fogel, their infant daughter Hadas and their two small sons Yoav and Elad, seemed so much like a funeral for the State of Israel itself.
What was the meaning of this funeral, and of the monstrous crime of slaughtering a lovely young family in its sleep? For the religious right, it seemed to be saying: This is what you can expect, now and forever, over and again, until the Messiah comes to put an end to this unbearable, unextinguished anguish.
For the rest of us, it seemed to be saying, if possible, something even worse:
This is exactly what you can expect. This is your future. An endless procession of killings and escalation and enmity and settlement and condemnation and heartbreak and no negotiations and a broken Jewish people and no compromise and more settlement and a shattered Judaism, until the day that a vote is taken and the Palestinians are more numerous than we, and the flag which is based on the prayer shawl and the Shield of David is pulled down for the last time.
For years now, and especially over the last decade, the adults on both sides have made children into legitimate targets. And now we, the adults on both sides, have made slain children into legitimate tools – for incitement, for escalation, for the production of more deaths of the innocent and the defenseless.
The length of this unbearable week, the Fogel family has been all but forgotten in the welter of uses that have been made of them, polemic, political, personal. No one felt this, nor expressed this, more powerfully than Motti Fogel, Udi’s younger brother, whose quiet words at the funeral struck chords deeper than did the agenda-ridden speechmaking of the high and mighty.
“All the slogans about Torah and settlement, the Land of Israel and the people of Israel are attempts to forget the simple and pain-torn fact: you are dead. You are dead, and no slogan will bring you back.
“You are not a symbol or a national event. Your life was a purpose in and of itself, and it should be forbidden for your terrible death to turn your life into some sort of tool.”
We are not the same people that we were before these murders. On both sides, the killing of children leaves terrible scars. The scars tempt us to feel the deaths of our own children and somehow process or deny or legitimize or excuse away the deaths on the side of our neighbor. Our enemy. Even worse, in some respects, than an eye for an eye, is the state to which we have descended – a blind eye for a blind eye.
If there is any meaning at all to this week and to this tragedy, it is this: No child is an enemy. No child.
If there is any hope in this, it may be in the words of a Palestinian shopkeeper in Nablus, the city a few miles north of the Fogels’ home in Itamar, a city Israelis have long feared as a center of some of the bitterest of their enemies.
“They were people who were at home, sleeping, in their place of safety,” the merchant said of the Fogels, out loud, on television. “Just like that – to come in and kill them with a knife? Where is your heart? Where is your sense of mercy? Where is your humanity? Where? This is simply – this man has no heart. He has nothing. Whoever did this is an animal.”
If there is any lesson in this, it is that the children of Itamar, of Nablus, of Jerusalem, of Rafah, of Tel Aviv, deserve better from us. We can choose to believe that the Gaza child throwing candies to celebrate the murders represents the will of the Palestinian people as a whole, just as Palestinians can decide that the Jewish child in the Sheikh Jarrah settlement who will on Sunday night sing Purim songs celebrating Baruch Goldstein, represents the will of the Jewish people as a whole.
Or we can choose to believe that all of us, Palestinian and Jew, are nothing more or less than human beings, loving, caring and, yes, mortally imperfect. And that most of us, on both sides, are people who, despite everything – despite their grief and their rage and their one-sided, blind-eye narrative and their truly unjust history and the guaranteed injustice of any possible solution – actually want the same thing: a future for their children in an independent country living alongside and at peace with the people who are now their enemy.
13 MARCH 2011
Not for the first time, Seattle, WA-based “blogger” Richard Silverstein plays a key role in revealing news stories about Israeli government activities — whether anti-democratic acts or outright crimes, as is the case now. Much more than a “blogger,” Silverstein’s role in exposing such Israeli actions has been very important in that it exposed Israeli acts against Palestinians and others who stand in the way of “The Only Democracy in the Middle East.”
The latest story involves the kidnapping in the Ukraine of a Palestinian man responsible for running the Gaza power plant, suspected to have been carried out by the Israeli Mossad, and his jailing at a secret location in Israel by the Shabak (Shin Bet). In addition to the kidnapping — Extraordinary Rendition — Israel has also placed a gag-order on the case, apparently including a prohibition on Mr. Abu Seesi’s state-appointed attorney to discuss the case.
According to Silverstein,
Israel, in kidnapping him, has violated at least one major UN human rights convention (and probably many other sections of international law), the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The document has been signed by 110 countries with several notable exceptions including Israel and the U.S.
A recent announcement published by the TAU students union calls on students who served in elite IDF combat units to join the university’s security detail voluntarily.
Tel Aviv University operates an undercover security force on campus, in addition to the armed guards at the entrances. The undercover detail, consisting of volunteer students, is intended as emergency back-up in case of a terror attack in the university grounds, TAU sources said.
A recent announcement published by the TAU students union calls on students who served in elite IDF combat units to join the university’s security detail voluntarily.
“They gave them weapons owned by the university and very clear instructions, and they had a special shirt, hat and card they could pull out in case of emergency,” said a TAU graduate who was involved in setting up the security detail over five years ago.
A student who recently applied to join the detail says he was told “the job does not require training but going over several regulations,” he said. “The procedure is not expected to take more than two hours. [They said] the job is only when you’re on campus, and then if an event occurs you will be spoken to.”
TAU officials said the volunteer detail operates as part of the university’s security department as a reserve force in case of a terror attack. “The volunteers are armed with university-owned weapons and undergo a periodical training similar to the one given security guards. In case of a terror attack, they can be called in to help,” university spokeswoman Orna Cohen said, in answer to Haaretz’ query.
However, security officials who heard of the volunteer detail said excessive motivation, weapons and the lack of an organized unit could lead to disaster in case of emergency. “The university’s demand for former elite commandos implies it wants a force that can act in extreme cases, like when a terrorist holes up in the university or starts firing in all directions,” a reserve IDF commando officer said.
“Despite their past training and experience, they will find that without coordination and planning it is very difficult to act effectively in a terror incident,” he said.
TAU lecturers and staff members were surprised to hear of the semi-security detail consisting of students operating on campus.
Attorney Dan Yakir, legal advisor for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said “‘Secret agents’ units operating in TAU is worrying. The very operation of such a detail is wrong, as is basing it on volunteers. Academic campuses should by nature be free, safe places. The security guards in them should be employees who have been properly trained, act within clear rules and are identified by their uniform,” Yakir said.
TAU officials said the volunteers’ authorities are similar to those of the university’s security guards. The security guards’ instructions authorize them to detain a suspect up to three hours, search a person’s effects and vehicle and use reasonable force to catch a suspect and hold him until police arrive, prevent sabotage, stop the public disorder on campus, etc.
“They’re not looking for sheriffs,” a student explained. “They say if you have a weapon from your work in another place, the university would like to keep in touch with you. It’s a sort of on-call detail, but as far as I know it has never been activated.”
The TAU website says the security detail’s job is to maintain security and keep order on campus, deal with and enforce [the rules] of traffic and parking on campus, man the security hotline 24 hours a day and issue tags and entrance permits to the campus.
Students who volunteer for the undercover detail receive a parking permit on campus – an extremely coveted commodity.
EDITOR: World public not fooled by its own corrupt rulers
The BBC survey below has confirmed again that people everywhere are not as stupid as their leaders take them to be. With Israel being one of the most popular countries with warmongering leaders of the west, it is interesting that people when asked, place it where it belongs, with the odious and brutal regimes of North Korea and Iran. A good place for the ‘only democracy in the Middle East’… and they also claim this is an .improvement on last year’!
22 out of 27 different countries that took part in the survey leaned toward a negative view of Israel – giving it an overall 49-percent negative rating.
Israel is one of the least popular countries in the world, right down there with Iran, North Korea and Pakistan – this, according to a new BBC World Service Country Rating poll carried out between December 2010 and February this year and released yesterday.
As part of the poll, 28,619 participants from 27 different countries were presented with a list of 16 countries and the EU, and asked the following question about each one: “Please tell me if you think each of the following countries is having a mainly positive or mainly negative influence in the world.” The possible responses were: “mainly positive,” “mainly negative,” “depends” and “neutral.”
The result was that 22 out of 27 countries leaned toward a negative view of Israel – giving it an overall 49 percent negative rating. Only 21 percent rated Israel as having a mainly positive influence. The margin of error per country ranges from 2.8 percent to 4.9 percent.
Overall, the order of popularity of the countries ranked in the poll, which was carried out for the BBC by international polling firm GlobeScan and the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, was: Germany, the UK, Japan, Canada, France, U.S., Brazil, China, South Africa, India, South Korea, Russia, Israel, Pakistan, North Korea and Iran. The three countries less popular than Israel – Pakistan, North Korea and Iran – had 17% and 16% percent positive ratings, respectively, and more than 55% of those polled expressed a negative attitude toward those states.
Israelis did not take part in the poll as participants. The participant countries with the most uniformly negative opinion of Israel were Egypt (where only a meager 5 percent rated Israel favorably ), Turkey and Indonesia. The countries which had the most positive view of Israel were the U.S. (with 43% expressing a positive view of Israel ), Russia (where the ratio was 35 percent positive to 27 percent negative ), Ghana (32 percent to 27 percent ) and India (21 percent to 18 percent ). China was the only country in which support for Israel grew – by 10% – but it remained at a ratio of 40 percent to 48 percent.
Believe it or not, these results mark a slight improvement for Israel over last year, when it garnered just a 19 percent positive assessment overall. According to the poll, positive views of Israel increased by 2 percent while negative views remained mostly same as in 2010.
Interestingly, this improvement was not reflected in either U.S. or British views of Israel. In the U.S., while positive ratings of Israel remained stable in the poll since 2010 at about 43 percent, many more Americans chose to rate Israel negatively in 2011, marking a 10 percent increase in the past year, from 31 percent to 41 percent. In Britain, the negative rating went from 50 percent to 66 percent.
Negative perceptions of Israel also grew stronger in Canada, Indonesia, Australia, Portugal, Spain and Kenya. The U.S., meanwhile, improved its standing for the fourth year running, but lagged behind Canada, the EU, Japan, France and Brazil. It received negative responses mainly from Muslim states such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt. In other changes this year, Brazil made the biggest gains, jumping from 40 percent to 49 percent in terms of being viewed favorably, while South Africa, which hosted the World Cup in 2010, also improved its status, going from a 35 percent to a 42 percent favorable rating.
By Bradley Burston A BBC World Service-commissioned poll released this week proves, if nothing else, that the nature of the question pollsters ask will determine the answers they receive.
It also suggested, without having to say so explicitly, that Israel is the bastard child of Satan, the troublemaking twin of its arch-nemesis Iran.
The poll, a survey of more than 28,000 people in 27 countries, asked respondents to rate 12 countries – Britain, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia, the USA, Venezuela, and the European Union – as having a positive or negative influence.
Who, in other words, is a bad influence? Who’s the kid down the block you want your kids to play with, and who’s the one – for whatever reason, behavior, stigma, cooties – you want your precious one to avoid.
Significantly, the poll was taken beginning in November, when the memory of the second Lebanon war, bitter, bloody, and high in civilian casualties, was fresh.
According to the BBC, the survey “gave respondents a list of 12 countries and asked whether they had a ‘mostly positive or mostly negative influence in the world. “The country with the highest number of mostly negative responses overall is Israel (56% negative, 17% positive), followed by Iran (54% negative 18% positive), the United States (51% negative, 30% positive), and North Korea (48% negative, 19% positive).”
Wait, there’s more.
“Israel also stands out for having the largest number of countries (23 of 27) viewing it negatively. Iran is regarded unfavorably in 21 countries, the United States and North Korea in 20.”
One suspects that somewhere in the BBC’s august headquarters in London, the poll elicited more than one thin smile of satisfaction.
After all, this is the same news organization accused by an internal inquiry less than a year ago of painting too rosy a picture of Israel.
No further inquiry needed.
For the record, the kids down the block to encourage your kids to cultivate are Canadian. A total of 54 percent said they viewed Canada positively and 14 percent negatively, followed by Japan and France.
“It appears that people around the world tend to look negatively on countries whose profile is marked by the use or pursuit of military power,” said pollster Steven Kull, who directed the survey. “This includes Israel and the US, who have recently used military force, and North Korea and Iran, who are perceived as trying to develop nuclear weapons.
“Countries that relate to the world primarily through soft power, like Japan, France, and the EU in general, tend to be viewed positively,” he added.
The BBC poll coincides with a Gallup survey of Americans’ attitudes toward Israel and the Palestinians, as detailed by Shmuel Rosner in his current blog. As he notes, the poll shows sympathy for the Palestinian side rebounding, reaching its highest level since 1989.
In Jerusalem, a morning radio news report of the BBC poll noted that “Israel invests only $35 million a year for hazbara [loosely, political public relations], and even that budget was cut recently by 5 percent.
Perhaps more telling was the musical frame for the report – an old song whose lyrics go “The whole world is against us.”
Most people believe Israel and Iran have a mainly negative influence in the world with almost as many saying the same about North Korea and the United States, according to a BBC World Service poll of 28,000 people across 27 countries.
People were asked to rate 12 countries—Britain, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia, the USA, Venezuela, and the European Union—as having a positive or negative influence.
Canada, Japan, the European Union, and France were judged most positively. Britain, China and India received more positive than negative evaluations while Russia was viewed slightly more negatively than positively. Opinions about Venezuela were evenly divided.
(Details of the evaluations of the United States were released separately by the BBC on 23 January).
The BBC has been tracking opinions about countries influence in the world over three years (2005–2007). During that time most ratings have remained relatively stable. There has been improvement in the case of India, a slight decline in views about Britain and a significant fall in positive evaluations of the United States. Russia, China, and France also lost ground over the period, mainly between 2005 and 2006.
Steven Kull, Director of PIPA, commented: “It appears that people around the world tend to look negatively on countries whose profile is marked by the use or pursuit of military power. This includes Israel and the US, who have recently used military force, and North Korea and Iran, who are perceived as trying to develop nuclear weapons.”
“Countries that relate to the world primarily through soft power, like Japan, France, and the EU in general, tend to be viewed positively,” he added.
GlobeScan president Doug Miller said: “India is the only country that has significantly improved its global stature in the past year, and is now even with China. Britain, while slipping a bit since 2005, appears to be avoiding the steep decline that its war partner, the US, is suffering. And it is fascinating that Chavez’s Venezuela seems to be appealing to as many people as it is displeasing.”
The poll was conducted for the BBC World Service by the international polling firm GlobeScan together with the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland. GlobeScan coordinated the fieldwork between November 2006 and January 2007. Each country’s rating is based on half-samples.
calls for a reconciliation in Palestine, by Carlos Latuff
Israeli Prime Minister appoints well-known hardliner to head the Israeli cabinet’s National Security Council
AFP , Wednesday 9 Mar 2011
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday he was appointing Yaakov Amidror, a hawkish former general, to head the National Security Council (NSC).
“Amidror does not hesitate to express his professional opinion. He is extremely knowledgeable and very experienced in the fields of military, security and strategic issues,” a statement from Netanyahu’s bureau said.
The appointment of Amidror as a key player within Netanyahu’s inner circle of advisers is an indicator that it is unlikely the Israeli premier is planning any far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians to reinvigorate the stalled peace talks.
Amidror is a reserve major general who formerly headed the Israel Defence Forces’ research and assessment division and is considered a military hawk.
He opposed Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and has in recent years called for the reoccupation of entire areas of the coastal enclave.
The appointment comes just days after Israeli press reports suggested Netanyahu was planning a new political initiative which would see the establishment of a Palestinian state in temporary borders as a way to restart stalled peace talks.
Direct talks broke down just weeks after they were relaunched on September 2 when Israel refused to renew a partial freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinians say they will not negotiate while Israel builds on land it wants for a future state. The statement said Amidror will replace outgoing NSC chair Uzi Arad following a handover period. Arad, who announced he was stepping down in February, has said he plans to return to academia.
Israel’s National Security Council, created in 1999, includes 20 advisers from various backgrounds who are charged with drafting reports on potential government security policy but lacks any decision-making power.
The world is not interested in Israel’s housing and bureaucratic problems, or in the achievements of its students in mathematics. The world is looking at how the only democracy in the Middle East conducts itself in the occupied territories.
By Niva Lanir
Whether or not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu uses “a supertanker against the bureaucracy,” as he calls it, to alleviate the housing shortage, a no-fly zone for supertankers already exists. It exists whether his idea crashes in the Knesset debates on housing reforms, or flies high above the railway line that’s supposed to be extended to Irbid in Jordan – in the East, where there are no procedures or bureaucracy.
Here is its description, from an article in these pages earlier this (“Gilad Farm has been sacrificed,” Karni Eldad, March 6 ): “At age 15, they expelled Elisaf Orbach from his home in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip. He was paid a small amount of compensation and went to Samaria, to build a small, 90-square-meter house to meet his needs until he gets married and has children.” Despite the sad continuation – “With his hands bound, on the way to the police van, Orbach heard a tractor destroying his house, five years after his house in the Gaza Strip had been leveled” – I clicked “Like.”
The concepts and the division of labor did that to me: expulsion and settling. A small house and a comfortable future, and even a twist in the plot: The forces of evil (police, army, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak ) gang up on Elisaf and his friends and destroy all that good. And the Palestinians? In this story there are no Palestinians. Go see another movie.
Stealing land and illegal construction, evacuating a few buildings and rebuilding them, the state’s report to the High Court of Justice that by the end of the year it would evacuate all outposts built on private Palestinian land – all this is not new. These events repeat themselves like the periodic table. And yet, who would have believed that Netanyahu would get stuck in his second term in the construction business, of all things: freezing construction in the territories, the real-estate bubble, the housing shortage and the sky-rocketing prices. And who would have believed that the housing shortage, of all things, would threaten his coalition?
A few days ago he was still acknowledging that the U.S. veto at the United Nations showed that Israel’s status was in trouble. So to reduce political pressure, he sent up a trial balloon by talking to the media about a second Bar-Ilan speech on the peace process. The trial had not yet begun, Shas was already threatening to join in a no-confidence motion, and along came another trial balloon: the National Housing Commissions. Give that man a supertanker and he’ll leap the bureaucratic hurdles.
If the Hebrew children’s book “The Story of Five Balloons” had been written about Benjamin, the number of his balloons and their colors would have doubled, if not tripled, over the years. And that’s how many would have burst. Netanyahu, to his credit or discredit, is still able to create news from a non-item and extricate himself from crises. But another day is waiting. The sun will rise from the region where supertankers do not fly – the territories. The occupation.
On the day this week when the BBC released a survey ranking Israel at the bottom of a list of countries by popularity, Britain announced that it had upgraded the Palestinian delegation’s status in London. With this came, apparently coincidently, interviews with our ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, who is on his way to the United Nations. “After the fall of apartheid and the the Communist bloc in Europe,” he told radio and television journalist Yaron Dekel, “Israel is meeting the need of the British, the Spanish and the Scandinavians to be against.”
Here’s the problem: The world is not interested in Israel’s housing and bureaucratic problems, or in the achievements of its students in mathematics. The world is looking at how the only democracy in the Middle East conducts itself in the occupied territories. It’s looking at events in Bil’in and Sheikh Jarrah, at the olive trees that are uprooted, and at the checkpoints. It’s looking at the settlers who are shooting and setting fires, and at their leaders, MK Michael Ben-Ari, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel, bullying their way through Jaffa and Umm al-Fahm.
The world is looking at Israel as it looked at South Africa during apartheid. And the world that doesn’t know what Bar-Ilan 2 is will eventually find out. That’s not unpleasant, it’s terrible. Continue reading March 9, 2011
