May 7, 2012

EDITOR: The old methods are the best…

Israel is proudly using the old methods of the czarist secret police, the Cheka. In order to make sure that violence erupts when they need it, they plant undercover agent provocateurs in the Palestinian villages, who proceed to ‘attack’ the IOF forces, hence supplying the necessary spark and excuse for brutal and illegal behaviour. It is good to hear it from the horse’s mouth, of course. If this is what they admit to, just imagine what they are not telling us… Please note that the photo is described as : ‘MK Mohammed Barakeh confronting IDF soldiers in Bil’in in 2005’… look at it and make up your own mind.

‘Undercover Israeli combatants threw stones at IDF soldiers in West Bank’: Haaretz

Testimony by commander of the Israeli Prison Service’s elite ‘Masada’ unit sheds light on IDF methods in countering demonstrations against barrier.

Undercover soldiers hurled stones in the “general direction” of IDF soldiers as part of their activity to counter weekly demonstrations in the Palestinian village of Bil’in, the commander of the Israeli Prison Service’s elite “Masada” unit revealed during his recent testimony in the trial of MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash).

MK Mohammed Barakeh confronting IDF soldiers in Bil’in in 2005. Photo by: Reuters

Barakeh has been charged with assaulting a border guard in Bil’in who was attempting to arrest a demonstrator.

Since 2005, the weekly protests against the separation barrier in Bil’in, which cuts the village off from much of its residents’ land, have attracted international attention as well as the participation of Israeli and international activists.

Several “Masada” fighters testified two weeks ago in Barakeh’s trial in the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s court. The fighters testified from behind a curtain and their identity is to remain secret. The central witness was “Fighter 102,” an officer in “Masada,” who told the court that “we were sent to counter the disruptions at the separation barrier in Bil’in. It was the first time I was undercover. Two men were arrested, they were Palestinians.”

When quizzed by defense attorney Orna Kohn if the undercover soldiers hurled stones, “102” answered that they did. When asked if he hurled stones toward IDF soldiers, he answered “in the general direction.”

The unit’s commander, “fighter 101,” who commanded the operation that day, shed light on the unit’s operational methods. “I was commander of the force, directed by the IDF, following intelligence about a huge demonstration due to take place in the Bil’in area. We had several forces in the field – one of them was an undercover force whose mission was to provide intelligence and carry out ‘quality’ arrests, if needed, and a rescue force which was wearing regular uniforms,” he revealed.

“An enormous demonstration began, coming down from the village. It seemed that the army was losing control. Some 500 demonstrators came down and ignored the orders of the deputy battalion commander, who was in charge of the operation, and simply passed by him without blinking. The army forces swiftly lost their ability to effectively control the situation,” the officer continued.

“At a certain stage the deputy battalion commander told me he had lost control and requested that we act to stop the demonstrators. We used equipment for dispersing demonstrations and managed to stop them. When the undercover unit reported, it identified ‘quality’ targets – that is substantial activists who led the demonstration, hurled stones and constituted a danger to the forces. I ordered the undercover forces to carry out arrests. I caught the back of a man who attacked one of my soldiers, and identified him as MK Barakeh. As far as I’m concerned if an undercover soldier arrested someone, he must be a quality target,” the commander told the court.

MK Barakeh originally faced four charges, but two were dropped in the preliminary proceedings. The second of the two remaining charges dates back to July 2006, when the prosecution alleges he assaulted a right-wing activist who attempted to attack peace activist Uri Avnery.

EDITOR: Supreme Court may go to hell, for all Netanyahu cares…

So, as the Supreme Court has not yet annulled its own ruling, that the buildings in Ulpana were erected illegally, and should be vacated, The IOF has found away of extending the building further, while making fun of Israel’s legal system. It is not clear who is left laughing after this, but the extreme right, Netanyahu’s power-base and reserve army of political violence. For the good souls in the west, still speaking of the Israeli legal system as some beacon in the darkness, this should come and welcome relief – every illegal crime has been legally carried out, like in some other regimes in the past. There is nothing like the law to make a crime kosher.

Military order allowed construction: Haaretz

The municipal boundaries of Beit El were effectively expanded without any public announcements that might have generated domestic or international protest.
By Akiva Eldar
The state’s request to delay the evacuation of the Ulpana neighborhood in Beit El reveals that a military order, giving the settlement jurisdiction over lands outside its borders, was part of the process leading to the construction of those homes.

Beit El’s Ulpana neighborhood. Photo by: Olivier Fitoussi

Section 2A (a ) of the military order relating to local authorities states that “The Israel Defense Forces commander in an area is allowed to announce that the regulations [meaning regulations governing the management of local authorities], in whole or in part, will also be applied in the event that a local authority decides to impose its authority under the regulations to people who are found ‘adjacent to its defining borders.’ This [IDF] order will determine to which kind of people or over which land the regulations will be applied.”

In accordance with the section of the military order, on July 1, 1997 the local military commander signed an “announcement relating to imposing authority in certain places, such as Beit El.”

According to the announcement, “The regulations … will apply to the area adjacent to and contiguous with the defining borders of the Beit El local authority as was valid on the date this announcement was signed … The Beit El local authority will impose its authority, under the regulations, on people in the adjacent area as well.

“This announcement applies to residents of Israel, whomever lives in the area and is an Israeli citizen or is eligible to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return … who lives in the adjacent area.”

In this way, the municipal boundaries of Beit El were effectively expanded without any public announcements that might have generated domestic or international protest.

In 2009, the Supreme Planning Council, the top planning body in Judea and Samaria, in a procedural announcement, further stated that the chairman of the Supreme Planning Council is allowed to determine “that any area will be seen as part of the local authority if he sees it having a close link to the local authority’s jurisdiction.”

The spokesman for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories refused to say which local authorities in the West Bank other than Beit El had been granted authority outside their jurisdictions under these regulations.