ביישוב הערבי נחנך מוזיאון לזכר השואה. ראש העיר יוביל תהלוכה כדי להזכיר את פשעי הנאצים – וגם למחות על הגדר. “אם ילכו נגד מדיניות היטלר, נחיה בשלום”, אמרו המארגנים
בימים בהם חלקים מהעולם המוסלמי משמיצים מעל במה בינלאומית את העם היהודי ומעוררים זכרונות מחרידים – בקרב ערביי הארץ יש מי שפועל להציג את זוועות השואה גם לבני עמו, ולהראות את מחירה הנורא של השנאה. בכפר הפלסטיני נעלין שליד רמאללה – שהפך לאחר מסמלי המאבק נגד הקמת גדר ההפרדה – נחנך היום (ג’) רשמית מוזיאון לזכר השואה, שנפתח לפני כמה חודשים כתערוכה. בצהריים צפויים תושבים, ובראשם ראש העיר, איימן נאפע, לקיים מה שהם מגדירים “מצעד חיים” משלהם.
An AIPAC-related intrigue has come to light. The National Security Agency (NSA) recorded a conversation that took place several years ago between a suspected Israeli agent and Rep. Jane Harman (a Democrat from California). In the conversation, Harman agrees to pressure the Justice Department to “reduce espionage related charges” against two AIPAC officials. In return, the suspected Israeli agent would help get Harman appointed chair of the Intelligence Committee.
This deal was known, or at least suspected, in 2006. An FBI investigation was begun, but ended for “lack of evidence.” What is new is first, that a recording of this conversation has surfaced (the recording came from of a court-approved wiretapping of the suspected agent); and second, that it appears that the FBI investigation against Harman was not dropped for lack of evidence after all. Rather, it was dropped because then-attorney general Alberto Gonzales intervened to get the charges dismissed, so that Harman, a big cheerleader for the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, could be free to defend it (this was at the time when news of the program was breaking in the New York Times).
The deal was ultimately unsuccessful, from the standpoint of the players involved: Harman never got her committee appointment after all, and the two AIPAC officials (Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman) still face trial (in June) – lest we be tempted to draw conclusions about the omnipotence of AIPAC. What happens next remains to be seen. see strand below:
WASHINGTON — One of the leading House Democrats on intelligence matters was overheard on telephone calls intercepted by the National Security Agency agreeing to seek lenient treatment from the Bush administration for two pro-Israel lobbyists who were under investigation for espionage, current and former government officials say. The lawmaker, Representative Jane Harman of California, became the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee after the 2002 election and had ambitions to be its chairwoman when the party gained control of the House in 2006. One official who has seen transcripts of several wiretapped calls said she appeared to agree to intercede in exchange for help in persuading party leaders to give her the powerful post.
One of the very few members of Congress with broad access to the most sensitive intelligence information, including aspects of the Bush administration’s wiretapping that were disclosed in December 2005, Ms. Harman was inadvertently swept up by N.S.A. eavesdroppers who were listening in on conversations during an investigation, three current or former senior officials said. It is not clear exactly when the wiretaps occurred; they were first reported by Congressional Quarterly on its Web site. The official with access to the transcripts said someone seeking help for the employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group, was recorded asking Ms. Harman, a longtime supporter of its efforts, to intervene with the Justice Department. She responded, the official recounted, by saying she would have more influence with a White House official she did not identify. In return, the caller promised her that a wealthy California donor — the media mogul Haim Saban — would threaten to withhold campaign contributions to Representative Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who was expected to become House speaker after the 2006 election, if she did not select Ms. Harman for the intelligence post. Ms. Harman denied Monday having ever spoken to anyone in the Justice Department about Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, the two former analysts for Aipac. Her office issued a statement saying, “Congresswoman Harman has never contacted the Justice Department about its prosecution of present or former Aipac employees.”
“My dear Palestinian brothers and sisters, I have come to your land and I have recognized shades of my own.” These are the first 20 words of an open letter written by Farid Esack, a South African scholar and political activist known for his role in the struggle against apartheid. The total length of his letter is 1,998 carefully chosen words in which he argues that the situation in Palestine is worse than it ever was in South Africa under apartheid rule. Esack, a black South African who worked closely with Nelson Mandela, is astonished at how ordinary people beat about the bush when it comes to Israel and the dispossession and suffering of the Palestinians. “Do ‘objectivity,’ ‘moderation,’ and seeing ‘both sides’ not have limits?” he asks. “Is moderation in matters of clear injustice really a virtue? Do both parties deserve an ‘equal hearing’ in a situation of domestic violence — wherein a woman is beaten up by a male who was abused by his father some time ago — because ‘he,’ too, is a ‘victim?'”
Almost five years after the International Court of Justice declared the wall that Israel built on Palestinian land “illegal” and ruled that it should be dismantled, Palestinians have started to spray-paint Esack’s letter along a three kilometer (1.85 miles) stretch of the structure. This is done as part of the Dutch-Palestinian collaborative project www.sendamessage.nl. Since 2007, this project has allowed Internet users from anywhere in the world to ask for an 80-character message to be spray-painted on the wall on their behalf, in exchange for a 30 euro ($40) donation. The bulk of the money raised supports small grassroots social, cultural and educational projects in Palestine. Some of the messages already sent vary from the romantic to the humorous to complete recipes. The messages remind Palestinians trapped inside the wall they have not been forgotten. Since its inception, more than 800 people from around the world have sent messages through sendamessage.nl.
Farid Esack’s open letter also aims to give Palestinians hope. “We stand by you in your vision to create a society wherein everyone, regardless of their ethnicity, or religion shall be equal and live in freedom,” he writes. “In the face of this monstrosity, the Apartheid Wall, we offer an alternative: Solidarity with the people of Palestine. We pledge our determination to walk with you in your struggle to overcome separation, to conquer injustice and to put end to greed, division and exploitation.”
Representing over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) launches its Israel Review Conference under the title: “United Against Apartheid, Colonialism and Racism: Justice and Dignity for the Palestinian People.” The conference takes place in Geneva between the 17-18 April 2009 on the eve of the United Nation’s Durban Review Conference.
At the conference, internationally renowned legal experts, researchers, academics and activists from five continents will discuss legal strategies to hold Israel accountable for its illegal policies and practices of racial discrimination. Participants at the conference are also scheduled to discuss strategies for linking global struggles against racism, and concrete steps to challenge Israeli apartheid within the framework of the rapidly growing global movement calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law.
“The Israel Review Conference has received added importance in recent weeks since the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) banned side events examining the Israeli regime at the official Durban Review Conference” explains Rania Madi, one of the Israel Review Conference organizers based in Geneva. “Despite the fact that Israel’s racism against Palestinians has been one of the most highlighted issues in the lead-up to the Durban Review, the BNC’s Israel Review Conference has become the only place where this issue will actually be discussed.”
“The only justification for preventing side-events discussing racism faced by Palestinians is that UN officials want to avoid offending Israeli sensibilities and those of its allies, such as the US and Canada,” states Ingrid Jaradat Gassner, Director of the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, a member-organization of the BNC. “This is especially troubling because Palestinians were identified as victims of racism at the original Durban Conference in 2001, and the effects of Israel’s racist regime against Palestinian have only worsened since then” says Jaradat Gassner.
Despite the OHCHR’s complete ban on any mention of Palestine and Palestinians at the Conference and at side-events, those parties who are boycotting the Conference have maintained their boycott. Jaradat Gassner commented that “it would seem that by trying to appease Israel and its allies, the UN diluted its message against racism without the added benefit of the presence of those parties.”
BETHLEHEM, occupied West Bank (IPS) – As the wreckage from Israel’s recent siege on Gaza continues to smolder, international civil society organizations are assembling this week in Switzerland to address Israel’s crimes of military occupation and racism. But any discussion on Israel’s actions in Palestine will be excluded from the formal framework at the Durban Anti-Racism Review Conference in Geneva Monday. Israel-Palestine has been deliberately eliminated from the official program, structured by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR). Civil society groups believe that the United States, countries within the European Union and Israel pressured the UN to omit a review of Israel’s racial discrimination against Palestinians. Hundreds of delegations from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and human rights organizations will converge in Geneva for the Durban Review Conference on Racism. The conference is a follow-up to the 2001 World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa, that outlined an international legal and political concept to deal with global issues of race and human rights. Immediately following that conference, the WCAR NGO forum recommended an international campaign of isolation towards Israel’s institutionalized “brand of apartheid and other racist crimes against humanity.” The Durban Review Conference website states that the 2009 Geneva symposium is designed to “review progress and assess the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA).” Adopted by general consensus at the 2001 WCAR in Durban, “the DDPA is a comprehensive, action-oriented document that proposes concrete measures to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. It is holistic in its vision, addresses a wide range of issues, and contains far-reaching recommendations and practical measures.” In order to assess and review any progress made since the 2001 WCAR in Durban, Palestinian human rights organizations planned several side events that were to take place within the schedule of the conference.
Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) – “Intifada,” scream the animals as they chase Jones from the farm. Strobe lights flash and loud music blares as the packed audience sits captivated, eyes trained on the stage below. “We are exhausted not because we are hungry. We are exhausted because of human oppression, and we can’t work out how to resolve our problems,” shouts Old Major, one of the senior pig revolutionaries.
Freedom Theater, in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied Palestinian West Bank, one and a half hours drive north of Ramallah, has been running a play based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm that was about the corruption of revolutionaries in Stalinist Russia. The play at the refugee camp is presented with a decidedly Palestinian twist; a cast of animals eventually overthrow their human oppressor Jones, only to then turn on one another. The play, adapted from the original Animal Farm by director Nabil al-Raee, is about the social restrictions within Palestinian society and the corruption in Palestinian leadership. And, about the difficulties of living under Israeli occupation. Busloads of Palestinians, from students to politicians, come every evening from all over the West Bank and Israel to watch the play, filling the 250-seat theater to capacity.
Rave reviews from Palestinians, extensive coverage in the media, and the extremely controversial subject matter have ensured a lot of attention to the play, not all of it positive. What are presumed to be fundamentalist elements in Jenin tried to burn down the theater recently. A nearby music center was burnt down several weeks earlier. “We are pushing the envelope and deliberately being controversial,” Juliano Mer Khamis, the Israeli-Palestinian director of the theater told IPS. Freedom Theater had planned to tour Ramallah with the production, but the local theater withdrew, scared of the controversy the play would create. The Palestinian leadership based in Ramallah’s government headquarters, or Muqata, does not take kindly to criticism. An application for funding for the production from a Palestinian cultural foundation was declined.
Veolia and Alstom, the two large French companies involved in the illegal “Jerusalem Light Rail” project, are suffering more setbacks, in court and on the ground.
A French court in Nanterre rejected the two companies’ claim that it had no jurisdiction in the case against them (presented by French NGO AFPS), reaffirmed that Israel is the occupying power in East Jerusalem, not the sovereign, and confirmed the illegality of Israeli colonies built on occupied Palestinian land, including in East Jerusalem. On the ground, Veolia lost another vote of confidence. A motion that passed with overwhelming majority (12 to 2) in Galway, Ireland read:
“That Galway City Council follow the example of Stockholm Community Council (who have decided not to renew the contract with Veolia to operate the City’s underground system as a result of Veolia’s involvement in a controversial tramway project that would connect Israeli-West Jerusalem with illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory) and not renew the Veolia contract for Galway Water Services.” Resisting Israel’s systematic ghettoization and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem cannot be done any more effectively than this. By making companies that profit from the Israeli occupation, colonization and apartheid lose money and reputation over it, an example is set and a moral red line is drawn. A legal precedent may also soon be set, making life much more difficult for all companies implicated in Israel’s illegal colonial enterprise.
(text by Omar Barghouti, from the Palestine BDS campaign)
PARIS — Palestinian lobby groups that contest Israel’s authority over East Jerusalem have found they might be helped via an unexpected route: a French court. The court decided to take up the case against French companies contracted by Israel to build a tram line that runs deep into East Jerusalem from West Jerusalem. A Franco-Palestinian human-rights association challenged the companies’ participation, arguing that the line is designed to consolidate Israeli control over Arab districts seized after the Six-Day War in 1967. Most Israelis regard East Jerusalem as part of Israel’s undivided capital.
The group, Association France-Palestine Solidarité, filed the complaint against Alstom SA and Veolia Environnement SA two years ago, arguing that the 8.3-mile project violates international law because East Jerusalem isn’t sovereign Israeli territory. About half of the line is already built.
Veolia and Alstom quickly responded to the complaint by saying that the Nanterre court had no jurisdiction over the case and that the association’s claims were groundless. An official of the tribunal of Nanterre near Paris said the court ruled late Wednesday that it does have jurisdiction in the case. The tribunal, however, rejected on technical grounds a request by the Palestine Liberation Organization to be a co-plaintiff, the court official said. PLO representatives didn’t return calls seeking comment. Now the court will start looking into the substance of the complaint unless Alstom and Veolia exercise their right to appeal within one month. The companies both said they had been notified of the ruling, and an Alstom spokesman added the company will take time to study the ruling before deciding whether to appeal. “The tribunal has backed our arguments; it’s a positive step,” said the association’s secretary-general, Sylviane de Wangen.
Jerusalem, April 20, 2009 — The World Bank published a report today entitled Assessment of Restrictions on Palestinian Water Sector Development. The report is the Bank’s first on the issue of water in the West Bank and Gaza (WBG). Together with two other recent reports, examining access to West Bank land and to telecommunication frequencies, it provides comprehensive insight into a critical, but largely unaddressed component of the economic restrictions impeding Palestinian economic development — limited access to natural resources.
Noting the complete dependence of WBG on scarce water resources shared and largely controlled by Israel, the report finds that the joint governance rules and water allocations established under the 1995 Oslo interim agreement, still in effect today, fall short of the needs of the Palestinian people. Because of the imbalance in power, capacity and information between parties, interim governance rules and practices have resulted in systematic and severe constraints on Palestinian development of water resources, water uses, and wastewater management. Furthermore, since 2000, the Israeli-imposed movement and access restrictions, consisting of physical impediments, but also of permitting and decision-making practices, have further impaired Palestinian access to water resources, infrastructure development and utility operations.
When combined with governance and capacity weaknesses in Palestinian institutions, these rules and restrictions have resulted in an underdeveloped Palestinian water sector. Even though the PA and many donors have invested in establishing a sustainable and equitable water sector, access to water resources, water infrastructure and institutions remain inadequate. The sector continues to operate in a very inefficient emergency mode, with far reaching economic, social and environmental consequences. Water-related humanitarian crises are in fact chronic in Gaza and in parts of the West Bank.
Indeed, availability of water resources is highly disparate, with fresh water per capita in Israel approximately four times that of WBG. Whereas Israel has established efficient water infrastructure and management, the PA is struggling to attain the basic level of infrastructure and service of a low-income country. Water investment in WBG has dropped to very low levels, is fragmented and inefficient, and perpetuates low utility performance. In Gaza, marginal water and sanitation investment is contributing to an unchecked water quality crisis with severe public health and environmental impacts.
To begin ameliorating the situation, , the study recommends the adoption of an agenda that clearly addresses identified shortcomings in water resource development and management, a low and declining investment rate, and weak management of water services. This would require formulation of effective solutions to the following existing problems:
A joint governance system asymmetrical in power and capacity, which does not facilitate the rational planning and development of Palestinian water resources and infrastructure;
An investment environment that creates huge costs and delays;
Implementation restrictions that can make the movement of a single pipe a logistical and administrative challenge;
Weak institutional capacity of the PA and of most sector actors (such as operators and municipalities) for planning, implementation and management of water infrastructure;
Development partnerships that move uneasily between the political context and the development challenge and are often stuck in emergency rather than strategic mode.
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Palestinian civil society groups called on Tehran to cut ties with two French companies profiting from work in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. A day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took center stage as a critic of Israel at a UN conference in Geneva, the Palestinian Campaign for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) criticized Iran for business ties with Veolia Environment and Alstrom. According to the Tehran Times, the Tehran Municipality is involved in negotiations with Veolia Environment for the development of the city’s urban transport system.
Alstom has a headquarters in Tehran and received a number of large contracts, including a 192 million euro contract with Iran’s state railways in 1999 and a larger 375 million euro contract to supply 50 turbo compressors to Iran in 2002. The two firms are the investors behind the Citypass consortium that won a 2002 tender issued by Israeli authorities for a light rail line that connects Jerusalem to settlements in the occupied West Bank. The consortium is responsible for construction, operation and maintenance of the system for a 30-year period.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) called on Tehran to “take the necessary steps to ban Veolia and Alstom and their subsidiaries from any contracts and operations in the country.” Veolia and Alstom have already been targeted for boycott in countries across Europe. In 2006 the Dutch ASN Bank decided to exclude Veolia from its portfolio on account of the firm’s actions in occupied Jerusalem. In 2008, the company lost its bid to for a contract with Stockholm for eight years, worth 3.5 billion euro, partially due to a strong public sentiment against the company due to its involvement the Jerusalem rail project. Later, the Swedish national pension fund AP7 blacklisted Alstom, partially for its Jerusalem involvement. Less than a week ago Veolia lost a contract worth 750 million euro in Bordeaux, France after to pressure from pro-Palestine activists. President Ahmadinejad’s speech to the UN’s Durban Review Conference against racism sparked a walkout by European diplomats and drew condemnation from Israeli and Western officials.
Ahmadinejad called Israel the “most cruel and racist regime” during his speech.
British arms were used by Israel during recent operations in Gaza, the foreign secretary has admitted.
The revelation is acutely embarrassing for David Miliband, who assured the Commons this was not the case during the fighting at the turn of the year. During a Commons debate on January 12th this year, Mr Miliband told his Liberal Democrat counterpart: “…we have no evidence of any of the exports that he has pointed to being used in this operation.
“As for some of the allegations that are around – for example, in the Guardian on Friday, which the hon. gentleman did not repeat, but it might help the House if I make this point clear – there is no truth in the suggestion that those exports are used by the IDF [Israeli Defence Force] or are being used by the IDF in this operation. “I assure him that the criteria that we use remain very strict, and they were recently examined in judicial review to confirm the way that they operate.” Today, Mr Davey mocked the foreign secretary for his mistake.
“At the time of the conflict, the foreign secretary claimed there was no evidence that recent British arms exports were used in Gaza and that export rules were robust,” he said. “This statement is effectively an admission that the British arms control system broke down on his watch.”
