Jonathan Cook: Jaffa struggles to be left in peace: IOA
JAFFA, ISRAEL–Over the past few days graffiti scrawled on walls around the mixed Jewish and Arab town of Jaffa in central Israel exclaims: “Settlers, keep out” and “Jaffa is not Hebron”.
Although Jaffa is only a stone’s throw from the bustling coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv, Arab residents say their neighbourhood has become the unlikely battleground for an attempted takeover by extremist Jews more familiar from West Bank settlements.
Small numbers of nationalist religious Jews, distinctive for wearing knitted skullcaps, have begun moving into Jaffa’s deprived main Arab district, Ajami, over recent months.
Tensions have been simmering since a special seminary was established last year in the heart of Ajami for young Jewish men who combine study of the Bible with serving in the Israeli army. Many such seminaries, known as “hesder yeshivas”, are located in the occupied territories and have earnt a reputation for turning out extremists.
Last week Ajami’s residents were dealt a further blow when an Israeli court approved the sale of one of the district’s few remaining building plots to B’Emuna (Hebrew for “with faith”), a construction company that specialises in building subsidised homes for religious families, many of them in West Bank settlements.
The Association of Civil Rights in Israel, the country’s largest human rights law centre, which petitioned the courts on the Arab residents’ behalf, called the company’s policy “racist”.
B’Emuna, which is expected to complete 20 apartments in the next few months, is applying for approval for a further 180, as well as a second seminary and a synagogue.
“We have no problem living peacefully with Jewish neighbours,” said Omar Siksik, an Arab councillor representing Jaffa in Tel Aviv’s municipality. “But these Jews are coming here as settlers.
“Like in Hebron, their policy is to weaken us as a population and eventually push us out of our homes,” he said, referring to a West Bank city where an enclave of a few dozen settlers has severely disrupted life for tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Jaffa’s fortunes have changed dramatically since early last century when it was the commercial hub of Palestine, famously exporting its orange crop around the world. During Israel’s founding in 1948, most of the town’s Palestinians were expelled or forced to flee, with the few remaining inhabitants confined to Ajami.
Today, Jaffa’s 18,000 Arab inhabitants are outnumbered two to one by Jews, after waves of immigrants were settled in empty homes during the 1950s.
Arab residents have long complained of being neglected by a municipality controlled from Tel Aviv. Ajami’s crumbling homes, ramshackle infrastructure and crime-ridden streets were on show in this year’s much-feted eponymous movie, nominated for an Oscar as best foreign-language film.
But the latest arrivals in Ajami are causing considerable anxiety, even from officials in Tel Aviv. Gilad Peleg, head of the Jaffa Development Authority, said he was “deeply concerned” at the trend of extremist organisations arriving “to shake up the local community”.
Nasmi Jabali, 56, lives in a modest single-storey home close to the olive grove where the new apartments will be built. “We’ve seen on TV how these settlers behave in the occupied territories, and don’t want them living next to us,” she said. “They’ll come here with the same attitudes.”
But despite widespread opposition, the Tel Aviv District Court last week rejected a petition from 27 residents who argued that the Israel Lands Authority had discriminated against them by awarding the land to B’Emuna, even though its policy is to build apartments only for Jews.
Yehuda Zefet, the judge, accused the residents of “bad faith” in arguing for equality when they wanted the interests of the local Arab community to take precedence over the interests of Jews.
Mr Siksik said the judge had failed to take into account the historical injustice perpetrated on Ajami’s population. “For six decades the authorities have not built one new house for the Arab population, and in fact they have demolished many Arab homes, while building social housing for Jews.”
Fadi Shabita, a member of the local Popular Committee for the Defence of Jaffa’s Lands, said the plots in Ajami being sold by the government originally belonged to Palestinian families, some of whom were still in the district but had been forced to rent their properties from the state.
“The land was forcibly nationalised many years ago and the local owners were dispossessed,” he said. “Now the same land is being privatised, but Ajami’s residents are being ignored in the development plans.
“For the settlers, the lesson of the disengagement [from Gaza in 2005] was that they need to begin a dialogue with Jews inside Israel to persuade them that a settlement in the West Bank is no less legitimate than one in Jaffa.”
B’Emuna told Israel National News, a settler website, that it was developing Jewish-only homes in several of the half dozen “mixed cities” in Israel to stem the flow of Jewish residents leaving because of poverty and falling property values caused by the presence of an Arab population.
B’Emuna has said it is looking to buy more land in Jaffa.
A short distance from the olive grove that is about to be developed is the Jewish seminary established last year. An Israeli flag is draped from the front of the building and stars of David adorn the gate at its entrance.
The manager, Ariel Elimelech, who was overseeing two dozen young men on Sunday as they pored over the Torah, said he commuted daily to Ajami from his home in Eli, an illegal settlement deep in the West Bank south of the Palestinian city of Nablus.
Mr Elimelech said he favoured coexistence in Jaffa but added that the seminary’s goal was to strengthen Jewish identity in the area. “We don’t call this place Ajami; it’s known as Givat Aliyah,” he said, using a Hebrew name that refers to the immigration of Jews to Israel.
He said the students performed a vital service by visiting schools to help in the education of Jewish children before performing 18 months of military service.
Kemal Agbaria, who chairs the Ajami neighbourhood council, said residents would launch an appeal to the Supreme Court and were planning large-scale demonstrations to draw attention to their plight.
EDITOR: Meanwhile, on the farm: The great unexplained mysterious killing in Dubai…
When apart from Lieberman’s fingerprints, everything else points to a Mossad murder, Lieberman has an alibi, he was with his wife and friends playing canasta, and ate pizza and he has the the receipt to prove it… It is really beyond belief. But, what difference does it make? Britain and Ireland are keeping mum about Israel using their passports as cover, as are the other countries in Europe. Another example of Israeli exceptionalism. By denying it in this inept manner, Lieberman provides all the proof which is needed in Israel, as one can see from the many articles appearing on all channels, there is not even a single person who doubts this was the Mossad. I suspect there are few outside Israel.
Israel refuses to rule out Mossad plot in Dubai: The Guardian
Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, says there is no proof Mossad was behind Dubai killing of Hamas commander
Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman broke his government’s silence over the Dubai assassination of a Hamas commander today and said there was no proof the Mossad intelligence agency was behind the killing.
However, he did not explicitly deny any Israeli involvement, saying his government had a “policy of ambiguity” on intelligence issues.
“I don’t know why we take it for granted that it was Israel or Mossad that used those passports or the identities of that British citizen, yes or no. It’s just not correct. Why are we in such a hurry to take all kinds of tasks upon ourselves?” Lieberman said in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio.
He was speaking after details in the case began to point back to Israel. Seven Israelis with dual foreign citizenship, six of them apparently Britons and one American, had their identities stolen to be used in the forged passports relied on by the suspected assassins. The seven, who appear unconnected, have denied any involvement in the affair and say they have no idea how their identities were stolen.
Dubai police released on Monday the passport details of 11 people – six from Britain, three from Ireland and one each from France and Germany –that they said were behind the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was murdered in his Dubai hotel room last month.
The New York Times reported this morning that the hit team included a total of 17 people, six of whom had not yet been identified.
Some Israeli commentators delivered the first criticisms of Mossad today , saying the operation was beginning to look like a blunder. One even called on the Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, to resign and suggested the incident could provoke a diplomatic row with Britain over the use of forged British passports.
But Lieberman said he believed that relations with Britain would not be damaged. “I think Britain recognises that Israel is a responsible country and that our security activity is conducted according to very clear, cautious and responsible rules of the game. Therefore we have no cause for concern,” he said.
Rafi Eitan, a former Israeli minister and intelligence officer, told Army Radio that Mossad was not behind the killing and that a foreign organisation was trying to frame Israel.
There was a mixture of praise and criticism of the Mossad in the Israeli press. Yossi Melman, a respected security correspondent for Ha’aretz, said the agency had used forged passports on operations in the past and noted that in this case all the “operatives” involved in the assassination left Dubai safely without being caught.
“As such, unless dramatic evidence is found to definitively prove an Israeli connection, it is likely that the State of Israel will emerge from this affair unblemished and Mossad will continue enjoying a reputation of fearless determination and nearly unstoppable capabilities,” Melman wrote.
However, another Ha’aretz columnist, Amir Oren, said there were now “enormous question marks” over the operation and said the Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, who he described as “belligerent and heavy-handed,” should resign. He said the case would likely bring a diplomatic crisis for Israel and added: “Even if whoever carried out the assassination does reach some kind of arrangement with the infuriated western nations, it still has an obligation to its own citizens.”
Ben Caspit, in the Ma’ariv newspaper, described the incident as “a tactical operational success, but a strategic failure”. “When it becomes apparent that the passports belong to innocent Israeli citizens, who will now be subject to an international manhunt by Interpol, the embarrassment is great,” he wrote.
Shadowy and deadly – the long arm of the Mossad: The Guardian
Ian Black examines Israeli secret service’s long history of clandestine operations and use of false passports
Israel’s Mossad secret service, more formally known as the Institute for Espionage and Special Tasks, has a long history of carrying out clandestine operations, including several spectacular assassinations. Much remains secret but cases that are documented have involved large teams of agents using false or stolen passports to disguise their Israeli origins.
The Mossad’s assassination unit has been known at different times as Caesarea and Kidon (Bayonet). Women agents have often been involved – there was reportedly one in the Dubai killing.
Israel’s official silence does not mean that it cannot be heard trumpeting its success. “The intelligence [about Dubai] was reliable and accurate,” commented the respected national security specialist Yossi Melman in the newspaper Haaretz earlier this month. “Even though Mabhouh knew Israeli intelligence had him in its sights and took stringent precautions they still managed to get him.”
Information released by Dubai shows the professionalism of the suspected assassins and their methods, Melman commented today, citing a novel written by a former Mossad officer, Mishka Ben-David, the plot of which bears a close similarity to the abortive poison attack on the Hamas leader Khaled Misha’al in Jordan in 1997. That case caused huge political embarrassment when two agents using false Canadian passports fled to the Israeli embassy in Amman.
Israel’s isolation in the Middle East meant an early reliance on secret operations. The Mossad’s victims over the years – some avowed, others not – have included German scientists working on Egypt’s rocket programme in the 1960s, Iraqis working on nuclear projects in the 1980s, and, it is assumed, Iranians who are thought to be doing the same today. Mossad agents also carried out the kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann, the fugitive SS officer and architect of Hitler’s “final solution,” in Argentina in 1960. Eichmann was abducted and smuggled back to Israel, where he was tried and hanged.
Other key killings include that of the PLO military chief Abu Jihad in Tunisia in 1988 and an Islamic Jihad leader in Malta in the mid-1990s. The Mossad was also held responsible for the assassination of the military chief of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Imad Mughniyeh, in Syria two years ago, but Israel has never formally avowed it. Most Mossad operations, like those of most intelligence agencies, have taken place in the shadows only to emerge in a blaze of publicity and political embarassment after the event.
So it was when Golda Meir ordered the agency to hunt down and kill the Palestinians who massacred 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 in the name of the Black September group. Eleven Palestinians were eliminated in a Mossad operation known as Wrath of God in killings in Rome, Cyprus, Paris, Beirut, Athens, Rome and a small town in Norway where an innocent Moroccan waiter was mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh, the alleged planner of Munich. Salameh was killed by a car bomb in Beirut in 1979.
Motives of revenge and deterrence appear to go hand in hand. “We tried not to do things just by shooting a guy in the streets, that’s easy – fairly,” said Dave Kimche, a former deputy head of the agency, talking of one assassination carried out by a bomb planted in a telephone. “By putting a bomb in his phone, this was a message that they can be got anywhere, at any time and therefore they have to look out for themselves 24 hours a day.”
Mabhouh was apparently targeted because of his role in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989 at the end of the first Palestinian intifada. But some question the sense, if not the morality, of such assassinations. “Every terrorist, no matter how senior, is soon replaced, sometimes by someone even better or more professional,” Melman wrote in Haaretz.
UK intelligence agencies hunt for clues on fake UK passports: The Guardian
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) leads full investigation into fraudulent use of British passports in Dubai
Britain’s crime and intelligence agencies were tonight searching for hard evidence of what they widely suspect to be Israeli involvement in the assassination of a senior Hamas official, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in a hotel in Dubai.
As Gordon Brown expressed concern about the use of six faked British passports in the names of British Israelis, Whitehall officials made clear they were frustrated and angry about the extent of such criminal activity, apparently by an ally.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said it was “leading a full investigation into the fraudulent use of British passports in Dubai, in close co-operation with the Emirati authorities”.
It added: “We received a request from the Dubai authorities for assistance with their investigation in relation to the fraudulent use of UK passports.” It confirmed that the photographs and signatures on the passports used in Dubai “do not match those of the passports issued by the UK”. It had received an Interpol red notice relating to the investigation. This is not in itself an international arrest warrant, but it enables a warrant to be circulated worldwide with the request that the wanted person be arrested with a view to extradition.
Officials said Soca’s immediate task was to investigate the fraudulent use of British passports, but not to get involved in a murder inquiry, which was up to the Dubai authorities. An official stressed the need to establish facts to back up assumptions about the murder.
The prime minister said earlier today: “The evidence has got to be assembled about what has actually happened and how it happened and why it happened and it is necessary for us to accumulate that evidence before we can make statements.”
Soca said: “We are assisting the Dubai authorities. The details are to be determined and meetings are currently taking place.” A number of Soca officers are permanently based in Dubai, one of the world’s crossroads for traders and smugglers. The team there may be now be reinforced by officers from London. The agency, chaired by Sir Ian Andrews, a former senior Ministry of Defence official, has investigated international drugs rings, people smuggling, and human trafficking, gun crime, fraud, computer crime, and money laundering. Its officers can use the combined powers of police, customs, and immigration officers.
Whitehall officials implied that the Soca investigation into the assassination plot would not be the only one. Investigations, they said, would be “cross-government”, involving the Home Office and Foreign Office.
The government, and its diplomats and intelligence officers in particular, will want to know more than the remit of the Soca investigation is likely to permit. They will want to know who concocted the assassination plot and who carried it out, which may have widespread implications for Britain’s diplomatic relations, and even intelligence co-operation, with Israel, and perhaps other countries in the Middle East. They could also raise broader issues of international law.
These are outside Soca’s terms of reference ‑ and may well be beyond the capacity of the Dubai police.
EDITOR: Needled by criticism from all sides about the HMG sitting on its hands, Brown has now stirred from hibernation to issue a damp squib. Do not hold your breath…
British PM: Probe use of U.K. passports in Hamas killing: Haaretz
Britain will launch a full investigation into the use of forged passports by a hit squad responsible for the murder of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday.
“We are looking into this at this very moment, we have got to carry out a full investigation into this. The British passport is an important document that has got to be held with care,” Brown said in a radio interview.
Opposition politicians in Britain have demanded that the Israeli ambassador be summoned over the affair, but the Foreign Office said Wednesday it had “not made any official representation to the Israeli ambassador about the case.”
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Brown said the British government would seek to accumulate evidence about “what actually happened” before making any official statements on the matter.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman earlier on Wednesday said that there was no proof Israel’s Mossad spy agency was behind the Mabhouh assassination, after it emerged that some members of the hit squad involved in the killing had used the identities of foreign-born Israelis.
Lieberman did not deny outright Israeli involvement in the killing, saying only that Israel has a “policy of ambiguity” on intelligence matters and there was no proof it was behind the assassination.
“There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief,” Lieberman said when asked about the operation and the identity-theft.
Rafi Eitan, a former government minister and high-ranking Mossad official, denied Israel’s involvement flat-out.
“The Mossad was not behind the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, but rather a foreign organization that is trying to frame Israel,” he told the radio station.
Men with the same names as seven of the 11 suspects whose European passport photos were distributed by Dubai this week reside in Israel, and those reached by reporters insisted their identities had been stolen and noted the pictures were not a match.
Six of the men are Britons who immigrated to Israel. The seventh is an American Israeli, whose name Dubai said was on a German passport used by one of the assassins.
As the mystery over suspects’ identities deepened, Britain and Ireland said they believed the British and Irish passports used by the alleged killers were forged.
In the radio interview, Lieberman shrugged off any prospect of diplomatic problems with Britain over suspicions a Mossad team had used counterfeit British passports.
“I think Britain recognizes that Israel is a responsible country and that our security activity is conducted according to very clear, cautious and responsible rules of the game. Therefore we have no cause for concern,” he said.
Hit squads dispatched by Mossad have used foreign passports in the past, notably in 1997 when agents entered Jordan on Canadian passports and bungled an attempt to kill Hamas leader Khaled Meshal with poison.
In 1987, Britain protested to Israel about what London called the misuse by Israeli authorities of forged British passports and said it received assurances steps had been taken to prevent future occurrences.
Dubai narrows down six more suspects
Dubai police have meanwhile narrowed down another six suspects in addition to the 11 European passport-holders named earlier this week, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
The names of the additional six have yet to be released and the actual identities of the other 11 suspects are still in question.
Dubai Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim announced on Monday that senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was murdered by an 11-member hit squad of mercenaries carrying European passports.
Tamim said that arrest warrants would be issued soon and while he did not accuse Israel directly, he did say it was possible that “leaders of certain countries gave orders to their intelligence agents.”
“We do not rule out Mossad, but when we arrest those suspects we will know who masterminded it. [We have not] issued arrest warrants yet, but will do so soon,” he told a press conference on Monday.
Two Palestinians have already been arrested in connection to the assassination.
The group was responsible for killing Mabhouh in his hotel room on January 20, a slaying that has elicited vows of revenge from the Palestinian militant group.
Israeli FM vague over Dubai murder: Al Jazeera online
At least seven of the 11 suspects are said to share names with foreign-born Israelis [AFP]
Israel’s foreign minister has said there is “no reason” to believe that his country’s spy agency was behind the killing of a senior Hamas figure in the United Arab Emirates, but did not explicitly deny involvement.
Hamas has blamed Israel for the murder in a Dubai hotel room last month and the emirate’s police force has refused to rule out the possibility that the 11 suspects wanted by investigators were working for Mossad.
Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, told Army Radio on Wednesday: “There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief.
However, he also said that Israel has a “policy of ambiguity” on intelligence matters.
Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai, told Al Jazeera the operation appeared “too sloppy” to have been carried out by Mossad.
“They were clearly unprofessional … in the sense that they were able to go out and come to Dubai knowing full well of the biometric system that’s in place here and the passport control.”
Dubai police have said that at least seven of the 11 members of the gang suspected of carrying out the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh share names with foreign-born Israelis.
‘Like an espionage movie’
Six of the men are Britons who immigrated to Israel. The seventh is an American-Israeli, whose name Dubai said was on a German passport used by one of the assassins.
‘To Israel I am stained with blood’ – Al-Mabhouh speaks to Al Jazeera 10 months before his murder
Alleged Israeli involvement could damage UK ties
Suspicions mount over Hamas murder
Blog: Murder and stolen passports
But the Israelis have insisted that their identities were stolen and said the passport pictures were not a match.
Paul John Keally, an Israeli-British citizen whose identity was apparently used by one of the group, said his life has become “like an espionage movie”.
“It is all very worrying but I know I have not done anything wrong,” he was quoted as saying by Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper.
The wife of Stephen Hodes, another British-Israeli living west of Jerusalem, told Israeli paper Maariv: “It started like a story that made us laugh, but now we don’t know how to take it.”
In a separate development on Wednesday, a rally to honour al-Mabhouh was expected to take place in Gaza.
Members of al-Mabhouh’s family are expected to address the crowd, with speculation they could reveal the names of two Palestinian men suspected of collaborating with Israel over the murder.
Counterfeit passports
On Tuesday British and Irish officials said that they had examined the details of the nine suspects’ passports purportedly issued by the two countries and said they believed they were fake.
Claims that Mossad may have counterfeited UK passports to allow Israeli agents to operate abroad triggered speculation that diplomatic relations between Britain and Israel could be harmed, but Lieberman said that was unlikely.
“I think Britain recognises that Israel is a responsible country and that our security activity is conducted according to very clear, cautious and responsible rules of the game”
“Therefore we have no cause for concern.”
Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister has called for a full investigation into how fraudulent UK passports were allegedly used in the operation.
Mossad hit squads have used foreign passports in the past, most notably in 1997 when agents entered Jordan on Canadian passports and bungled an attempt to kill Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas leader, with poison.
Britain has previously protested to Israel about what London called the misuse by Israeli authorities of forged British passports and said it received assurances steps had been taken to prevent future occurrences.
French authorities have said a national passport used by one of the suspects had a valid number but incorrect name, while Austria has launched an investigation into the suspected use of at least seven mobile phones with pre-paid Austrian chips.
The group of suspects were linked together through videos which show them entering and exiting the hotel and going in and out of the elevator on the floor where al-Mabhouh was staying.
Al-Mabhouh was born in the Gaza Strip, but had been living in Syria since 1989.
He is said to have engineered the capture of two Israeli soldiers during a Palestinian uprising in the 1980s.
Robert Fisk: Passport to the truth in Dubai remains secret: The Independent
It’s a propaganda war. Whoever killed the Hamas official in Dubai – let’s speak frankly – it’s part of an old, dirty war between the Israelis and the Palestinians in which they have been murdering their secret police antagonists for decades. Whose were the passports? Or should we say “passports”. So here’s a moment to reflect on realities.
Many Dubaians believe that the collapse of the emirate’s economy last year was the revenge of Western banks – spurred on, of course, by the Americans – to punish them for allowing Iranian shell companies to use Dubai as a sanctions-busting base during the cold-hot war between the US-Israeli alliance and Iran. Now the Americans (or the Israelis – you can take your pick) want to turn Dubai into the Beirut of the Gulf. That was actually a headline last week – in The Jerusalem Post, of course – which painted Dubai as dangerous as it was economically calamitous.
But hold on a minute. According to a Dubai “source” of The Independent – readers will have to judge what this means – the security forces of the aforesaid emirate informed a “British diplomat” in Dubai (presumably the consul, since the embassy is in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi) of the UK passport details almost six days ago and “did not receive an appropriate reply”. If this is true – the Foreign Office will be wrathful in its denials – then why didn’t the British immediately express their outrage at the use of forged British passports and cough up details of the equally outrageous frauds a week ago? This misuse puts every British citizen at risk.
Yet the Foreign Office – so keen to warn British citizens of the dangers they face in the Middle East – sat on their large behind and did bugger all. I’m sorry. If they had the details, they had a duty to UK citizens to speak up. If they hadn’t got the details, they should have told us. But they were silent. Why? Was there a cold breeze coming beneath a closed door?
Far too many police forces are now sending their minions to Israel to learn about “terror”. The Canadians actually dispatched a team of cops to Tel Aviv who allowed themselves to wear “suicide vests” for publicity pictures. Air France now hands the US details of all its passengers’ profiles – which, of course, go straight to the Israelis – despite the fact that Israeli security officers (like hundreds of Arab security officers in the Middle East) may well be involved in war crimes.
Now a small addendum. The Dubai authorities apparently gave the British the (allegedly) forged Irish passports under the misapprehension that Dublin was still a major city of the United Kingdom. Things, needless to say, changed in Dublin almost a hundred years ago – although how many readers can name the date of Dubai’s independence from British rule? – but this elementary mistake suggests that the Dubai version of events (the inexplicable failure of the British to explain their silence) may contain a distressing truth. Don’t we (the British? Gordon Brown? etc, etc) care when killers use supposedly British passports?
It is too soon to give a reply. But I should add that the Dubai authorities have other information which they have not yet revealed. The world awaits.
Dubai murder: The British-Israelis who had their identities stolen: The Guardian
Men unconnected to Hamas assassination tell media about their shock over the use of their stolen identities
The seven Israelis with dual foreign citizenship caught up in a major international investigation into the assassination of a Hamas commander do not appear connected: they live in different parts of Israel and none appears to have visited Dubai.
None have had their passports stolen, but all have had their identities stolen. Since discovering their names on a most-wanted list they have spoken out about their anger, frustration and fear.
Stephen Hodes, a British-Israeli living in Ramat Beit Shemesh, said he was deeply concerned. “I’m shocked. I don’t know how they got to me,” he told Israel Radio. Like the others, he said the photograph beside his name in the suspect’s forged passport was not him. “Those aren’t my photographs, of course. I don’t know how they got to my details, who took them … I’m simply afraid. These are powerful forces.” He had not left Israel for two years, he said, and had never visited Dubai.
Another British-Israeli, Paul Keeley, 43, who lives on Kibbutz Nahsholim, in northern Israel, said he too was scared. “I’m in absolute and total shock,” he told the Ma’ariv newspaper. “The whole world is asking whether that’s me, what I am, who I am. I’m a home renovator who earns his living in and around Nahsholim. What do they want from me?”
His passport had not been stolen and he had not left the country, he said. “It wasn’t lost. It’s in my hand. I’m holding it. They simply stole my identity … I don’t even know from whom I’m supposed to get answers and if anyone will bother at all to give me an official explanation of what happened.
“One thing is clear to me: I never left the country,” he said. “From the moment I heard about it I was very worried. I’m worried for my family.”
Michael Barney, another British-Israeli whose identity was stolen, lives in a kibbutz in the western Galilee. He too said his passport had not been taken, but described the incident as “very grave”. “I’m angry and very surprised,” he was quoted as saying. “This is a mistake or a case of identity theft.”
In Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem, another British-Israeli, Melvyn Mildiner, 31, said he was “angry, upset and scared” at the apparent theft of his ID. “That’s horrid,” he said, adding: “I have never been to Dubai. I don’t know how this happened or who chose my name or why, but hopefully we’ll find out soon.” Mildiner revealed that although the name and number of the travel papers matched his own, the date of birth was off by a few days.
Two other men named as identity theft victims in the case were James Clark, a British-Israeli living in a kibbutz in central Israel, and Michael Boden heimer, who studies at a religious school in Bnei Barak and who moved to Israel more than 20 years ago from the US. His name appeared in a forged German passport used by one of the suspects.
EDITOR: The idea of BDS is spreading to those circles which were strongly opposed… The Israeli government seems to have changed its principles, now turning the byocott weapon against its own supporters, such as the Zionist J Street in the US:
U.S. lawmakers in Israel ‘puzzled’ by Ayalon boycott: Haaretz
A delegation of U.S. Congress members on Wednesday said they would seek clarification from Israel after an apparent snub by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon.
Rep. William Delahunt (D-Massachusetts) is touring the region with a congressional delegation hosted by J Street, a liberal Jewish lobbying group that describes itself as pro-Israel and pro-peace.
“It was with real surprise and disappointment that we read a headline in this morning’s paper saying, ‘Foreign Ministry Boycotts Members of Congress,'” said Delahunt, who is heading the group of Democratic Congress members visiting Israel.
“We were puzzled that the Deputy Foreign Minister has apparently attempted to block our meetings with senior officials in the Prime Minister’s office and Foreign Ministry – questioning either our own support of Israel or that we would even consider traveling to the region with groups that the Deputy Foreign Minister has so inaccurately described as ‘anti-Israel,'” Delahunt continued.
“In our opinion this is an inappropriate way to treat elected representatives of Israel’s closest ally who are visiting the country – and who through the years have been staunch supporters of the U.S.-Israeli special relationship.”
Regarding J Street, Ayalon on Tuesday said, “The thing that troubles me is that they don’t present themselves as to what they really are. They should not call themselves pro-Israeli.”
Delahunt went on to ask the government for clarification regarding Ayalon’s boycott, saying, “We ask the Israeli government to clarify its position toward this delegation and future congressional delegations.”
As a member of the House Subcommittee on Europe, Delahunt said he became familiar with Ayalon’s behavior during a recent diplomatic crisis with Turkey in which the Deputy Foreign Minister humiliated Ankara’s envoy.
During a meeting between the two to protest a television show in Turkey that Israel viewed as anti-Semitic, Ayalon told cameramen in Hebrew: “Pay attention that he is sitting in a lower chair … that there is only an Israeli flag on the table and that we are not smiling.”
Ayalon later issued an apology for the incident.
Delahunt said that there are a range of opinions in Israel and in the U.S. about “how best to secure our common goal of peace and security for Israel and all the peoples of the region.”
However, he added, “It is unwise for anyone to take disagreements as to how to accomplish our common goals and purpose – which is to achieve peace and security – and to misrepresent those differences as questioning support and concern for the state of Israel itself.”
EDITOR: The new face of Feminism in Israel
As part of the BBC’s support of the Israeli position, read this piece of pure Israeli propaganda, which is totally disgusting. Can you imagine such an article by a member of Fatah or Hamas, published by the Beeb? In its language and attitude it helps to normalise the murderrous role of the Isrtaeli army, even to ‘feminise’ it.
Women at war: How roles are changing: BBC
Yael Kidron is 21 years old and a combat soldier in the Israeli Defence Forces’ mixed-sex Karakal Battalion, based in the Negev desert. She argues that it is only fair to allow women to take on physically challenging army roles.
I decided to come and serve in a combat unit, because for one thing I grew up with five brothers and I needed to do something physical. It’s not just sitting down and doing paperwork. I wanted to do something more challenging, and this is why I am here.
It’s a very, very, very cool experience, to shoot a gun – I love it!
Yael Kidron
I came to serve in Karakal. It’s a girls and guys unit. You basically do everything like the guys, you work hard.
Our base is in the middle of the desert, the middle of nowhere, kind of. We have very nice views here, sunset, sunrise. You’ve got a lot of wide open space here – and a lot of space where they can make you run when you get punished.
We live in tents. The tents are very sturdy, although honestly, to go from a nice cosy bed to a tent, living in these little beds… but it’s awesome, I love it. I think it’s a great experience.
WOMEN AT WAR
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are the first in which tens of thousands of women have fought alongside men for prolonged periods. This week the BBC World Service is taking an in-depth look at women’s stories from the frontline.
Every day when I wake up in the morning, I don’t say, ‘Ooh what am I going to wear this morning?’ It’s the same thing every single morning. It’s not a very nice colour of clothing – kind of olive-greenish pants and a shirt.
Not feminine
We actually name our weapons. I named my gun Jack, Jack Black. Why? Because it’s black, and I like the name.
It’s an Israeli-made machine gun, it’s got nice, smooth shooting. It’s a very comfortable gun.
The gun is basically on you every single day. Even when you sleep it has to be under your head.
And it’s a very, very, very cool experience, by the way, to shoot with a gun. I love it.
It’s not a very feminine weapon at all. It’s actually more manly than some of the other weapons that they have, but that’s the whole point of being in a combat unit – you’re not feminine.
Only when you go home that’s when you can be a little more feminine, in your own time.
Snipers
What we end up doing, after all the training, when it comes to an actual war, we guard the borders and we make sure nothing comes in.
WOMEN IN THE IDF
The Karakal Battalion, which guards Israel’s borders with Egypt and Jordan, is 70% female
Women have served in combat roles in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) since the mid-1990s
During the 2006 Lebanon conflict, women fired artillery, served on warships, and piloted aircraft
All Israelis except Arabs and ultra-orthodox Jews are conscripted
Women serve for about two years, unless they volunteer for a combat unit – then they serve three, like men
It’s a very important job, because honestly you can’t do without your support group, and that is what we basically are for the men.
I think the fact that Israel has girls in combat units is a good idea. I think it is only fair that they let us be part of the actual physical, challenging jobs.
I told my dad that I wanted to go into paratroopers like my brother, and he started laughing at me. He said, ‘You know there’s no girls in paratroopers.’ So that was kind of a let-down.
Right now, women in combat units can be snipers, combat doctors, officers. There are also women who go into the pilot unit.
The rest of the world should also consider having girls in the army, because we have a lot to offer.
I think it’s vital for the army. It makes it better.
EDITOR: Please read the following short item in Haaretz, asking yourself one simple question: what would have been the result of this event, if the teenagers were Palestinians? We all can work it out – many dead and injured Palestinians. In this simple contrast lies the full power of apartheid – one law for the whites, another, quite other, for blacks:
3 hurt as West Bank settlers mistake IDF drill for eviction: Haaretz
A soldier and two Border Police officers were hurt in the West Bank on Wednesday when settlers mistook a military exercise for an attempt to evict them.
Commanders of the Israel Defense Forces’ West Bank division had coordinated the drill with leaders in the Yitzhar hilltop settlement near Nablus.
But it appears no one had told the settlement’s teenagers, some 30 of whom attack soldiers and border guards with stones – apparently fearing the latest enforcement of a government crackdown on building in the West Bank.
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Rioters also slashed the tires of military vehicles before blocking the gate to the settlement, preventing the troops from withdrawing.
The army condemned the attack and promised to respond firmly to any future breaches of the peace.
EDITOR: More support to Israel by East European proto-fascist regimes
So here is the action by Poland, which together with the Czech Republic, a fellow proto-fascist regime, is one of the strongest supporters of Israel in the ‘New Europe’. It goes quite well with racism and anti-semitism in those countries, for sure. Both countries, foe many centuries, have long traditions of pogroms and murder aginst Jews and the Roma people, so obviously supporting Israel is working to lower the critique against those continuing crminal social trends.
Poland tightens military alliance with Israel: The Electronic Intifada
Ewa Jasiewicz, 17 February 2010
The Polish army’s announcement that it will buy seven Aerostar Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from Israel’s Aeronautics earlier this month was heralded as a step forward for Poland’s “stabilization” mission in Afghanistan. The UAV, or drone, has long been a key tool in the military arsenals of both the United States and Israel. The US leads the export market, followed by Israel, which as of last year was the planet’s third-biggest arms exporter, arming regimes around the world to the tune of $6.75 billion in 2009
The drone is more than simply a flying camera; it is killing machine in itself. American-made “Predator” and “Reaper” drones are currently used above Afghanistan and Pakistan and carry a payload of 200 kilograms — the weight of three adult men. In January 2010 alone, Predators killed 123 innocent civilians in Pakistan. During this period only two missiles hit their intended targets, in the extrajudicial killings of three al-Qaeda leaders.
Israel’s “Hermes 450” drone was used extensively during the invasion of Gaza last winter, dubbed “Operation Cast Lead” by the Israeli military. Like its American counterparts, the Hermes can also fire missiles, including the “Spike” missile which weighs up to 150 kilograms. Despite being defined as a “battlefield reconnaissance” weapon, drone-launched missiles were the biggest single cause of death during the 23-day invasion. According to Palestinian human rights organization Al Mezan, 519 persons — more than a third of the total casualties — were killed by UAVs. The next closest were 473 Palestinians killed by Israeli warplanes, including American-made F-16s.
The majority of Palestinians killed during the invasion were civilians. Palestinian medics reported a preponderance of civilian deaths by drones — families like the Berbakhs in Rafah who lost five members or the Abed Rabbo family’s six members who were killed by UAV-launched missiles. During the fighting it was common to find the mangled bodies of unarmed men cut down in the streets at night — victims of Israel’s UAV-enforced “aerial curfew.”
Poland’s military has embarked on a “Polonization of Israeli technology” drive, coupling Israeli weapons-manufacturing technology with Polish manpower and raw materials. Poland’s Bumar Group has a 10-year offset deal worth $400 million with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to produce Spike missiles for drones and helicopter gunships. Under the deal, Rafael must accept Polish components in its own weapons.
The Spike missiles are currently produced at the ZM Mesko factory in southern Poland. During the Second World War Mesko was occupied by German forces and both Jewish Polish and Polish slave-workers manufactured ammunition for the Third Reich. According to the Israeli Embassy’s Defense Attache here, the venture at Mesko represents the most successful example of the Polonization of Israeli technology. He told this writer, “Now, 60 years after the Holocaust, this company is providing Israeli technologies with Polish manpower for the benefit of the whole world.” The residents of Afghanistan, Palestine and West Papua wouldn’t agree.
The current round of UAVs being sold to Poland are unarmed but will be used to guide F-16 bombing missions in Afghanistan. Poland, with 2,600 troops occupying the country is one of the US’s top ten biggest recipients of Foreign Military funding. Following the completion of a $3.8 billion contract for delivery of 42 F-16s in 2003, the US Air Force has been training Polish pilots on how to use the new planes. According to Colonel Timothy Burke, Chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the US Embassy in Warsaw, “The pilots should be qualified in the next few years. Once training has been completed, they will be using the F-16s for aerial missions” armed with laser-guided, GPS-enabled “smart-weapons.”
The first Polish S-70i Blackhawk helicopter is also ready to roll this year. It is the product of a trilateral geopolitical military alliance comprised of Israel’s Elbit Systems, the US’s United Technology Corporation and Poland’s PZL Mielec. This alliance is expected to deepen in the coming years.
Israel has also given regular strategic and technical advice to the Polish military command. According to the Polish Ministry of Defense, between 1995 and 2009 there were more than 200 activities including mutual trainings of military units, exchange of expertise, courses, seminars and symposiums organized by the Polish-Israeli Working Group. The working group is comprised of officials from the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs of both countries.
Last autumn, Poland’s Chief of Staff Gen. Franciszek Gagor participated in a training session with Israeli defense specialists on lessons learned from “Cast Lead” and “how to deal with the headlines.” According to the Israeli government, “Information warfare is one of the most developed issues of the past two decades. We have built a structure in the Israeli Defense Forces which includes information warfare. Coping with media challenges is one of our biggest issues.”
The Polish Ministry of Defense’s Vision of the Armed Forces 2030 Plan has a similar structure including “Information Forces” to police enemy media. According to the plan, “The enemy shall use a broad range of mass media in order to support its actions. By diffusing images displaying inhumane aspects of military operations, suffering of the civilian population, including children and persons advanced in years, the enemy shall try to preserve perception of the intervention forces as occupying troops which do not respect human rights. Based on the ideology or religion, it will instill fear, feed hatred and strive for mobilization of the local and international public opinion against military forces and states fulfilling mandate of international organizations.”
By equating the broadcast of the horrific realities of war and particularly its effects on a civilian population with “propaganda” and de facto enemy activity, this policy risks censoring and criminalizing investigative journalism and respect for human rights and international law. We journalists and human rights activists could be the enemy. And if we step out of line, the “Information Forces” could whip us into shape as “The units shall be intended for offensive and defensive actions carried out in order to get information predominance over the enemy and to achieve expected military [political] results of the conducted operation.”
As modern warfare takes on an ever more aerial, alienated and indiscriminate approach to “the enemy,” governments are forcing us to keep our distance. Whether it is soldiers in bunkers guiding UAVs with joysticks or keeping the men, women and children being bombed by our militaries out of our sight through media gagging orders, it is ever more urgent that this distance be closed and those in charge of military policy be held accountable for their devastating results.
Ewa Jasiewicz is a co-Editor of Le Monde Diplomatique Polish Edition where a version of this article was originally published.
EDITOR: The strange case of Israeli invisibility from New York
You hopefully will not be surprised that this paragon of news reporting, the New York Times, has managed to totally avoid the murder saga in Dubai, when the rest of the media swims in this material. But, thankfully they managed to put on the good news, at least… This is how the US Jewish Lobby works together with the Israeli propaganda machine in order to whitewash Israeli war crimes. Thank you, NYT, for defiling your long history of media responsibility!
Positive Views of Israel, Brought to You by Israelis: NY Times
JERUSALEM — The Israeli government, deeply worried about the country’s declining international image, began a campaign on Wednesday to turn every Israeli — and ultimately every Jew — into a traveling public relations agent.
With a Web site backed by an advertising blitz, the Information and Diaspora Affairs Ministry began issuing Hebrew pamphlets to passengers on Israeli airlines and offering coaching courses to groups heading abroad. The message: “Are you fed up with the way we are portrayed around the world? You can change the picture.”
The information minister, Yuli Edelstein, said in a statement that a poll he had commissioned found that 91 percent of Israelis believed their country had a poor image and that the vast majority wanted to play a role in improving it.
“To counter the big money invested by Arab states in propaganda against Israel, we have to mobilize our human capital, meaning the residents of Israel,” Mr. Edelstein said.
The new Web site presents a conservative interpretation of the issues over which Israel is most often criticized abroad — its settlements in the West Bank and treatment of Palestinians, including the war in Gaza a year ago. But it also seeks to puncture what the ministry considers common myths about Israel — that it is a big and primitive country, that food consists of little more than hummus and falafel, and that Israelis as a group do not seek peace.
On the Web site, fake news clips show a British television journalist asserting that in Israel the camel is the main means of transportation and a Spanish reporter claiming that Israelis grill meat outdoors because they lack kitchens. A French news anchor is seen saying that life here is a series of endless explosions.
The launch coincided with a growing controversy over the killing of a Hamas official in Dubai. Many Israelis have wondered if the assassination was the work of their Mossad spy agency, especially because a number of the false identities used by the killers were of Britons who had immigrated here.
One main message of the campaign is that Israel is a technically advanced and diverse society and that its government policies are not the source of regional conflict. It notes that a number of important agricultural breakthroughs have occurred here, including drip irrigation and the development of the cherry tomato.
“The campaign stems from a genuine fear that Israel is misrepresented, sometimes in very vicious ways,” observed Shlomo Avineri, who teaches political science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “On this level it is understandable. But I think it is puerile. Some of the information is ridiculous, and behind it I find a Bolshevik mentality — to make every citizen an unpaid civil servant for the policy of the government. There is never any intimation that some of our problems have to do with actual policies.”
Mr. Avineri said this was the first time in decades Israel has had a separate Information Ministry, and its existence, in his view, was a sign that the government was approaching the issue without sophistication.
Eytan Gilboa, director of the Center for International Communications at Bar-Ilan University outside Tel Aviv and a longtime advocate of improved public diplomacy for Israel, said some of what the ministry published was fine, but he did not believe that country’s poor image had to do with a misperception that it is primitive.
“This country’s main challenges are the false comparison people make with an apartheid state and the questioning of its right to exist,” Mr. Gilboa said. “And the pamphlets don’t deal with those.”
Anat Weinstein-Berkovits, the Information Ministry’s spokeswoman, said the material would be translated into a number of languages so that Jews everywhere could use it in defense of Israel. In a later phase of the program, citizens would be trained in how to speak on foreign television and radio broadcasts about their lives and experiences.