EDITOR: The Dangers of Human Rights Activism in Israel The Israeli regime is using the weapon of gagging the press and media more than ever before, and on the whole the legal system is serving the government ends. However, all truth outs in the end, and despite the gag, now partially lifted, the bizarre case of Mr Makhoul and Dr. Omar Sayid has now come to light. Like the earlier campaign against the political leader of Balad, Azmi Bishara, this is a case of trumped-up charges of ‘espionage’ against human rights activists. It is not going to be the last one either. Israel has now waging war on human righs organisations, on media and political activists, on international peace and human rights supporters… the real struggle is only starting now to expose Israel’s daily crimes and atrocities. From Rachel Corrie to Tom Hurndell, Azmi Bishara to Anat Kamm, the many activists killed, maimed, jailed and abused, and to Mr Makhoul and Dr. Omar Sayid – they are all non-violent fighters for rights, equality and justice. Much of today’s blog is given over to this latest case of trying to snuffle protest and silence opposition to the growing Israeli repression.
Ameer Makhoul’s Gag Order: IOA
Posted by admin on May 11th, 2010 and filed under FEATURED NEWS STORIES, Israel, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. Image of the original gag order (Hebrew) was first published by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam blog – 11 May 2010 www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2010/05/11/makhoul-secret-court-documents-gag-order-and-ruling-partially-lifting-it/ Ameer Makhoul’s gag order 
IOA Editor: In order to avoid misinterpretations, the following English translation was purposefully done on the literal side. It is factually accurate, even if the translator would have written it somewhat differently had the original text been written in English. [See notes in square brackets.] Police of Israel In Closed Doors Magistrate Court of Petach Tikva 22 April 2010 The Appellant – The State of Israel via the Israeli Police [Yakhbal-unit], Officer [rank] Sa’ar Shapira A request for a discussion in closed-doors and for the issuance of an order prohibiting publication – a security affair A request is hereby made to hold the discussion in closed-doors, in order to protect the security of the state and in order not to harm the investigation, in accordance with Section 68(b)(1)+(7) and also Section 68(c) of the Court Houses Law (combined version) 1984, and also a request to prohibit publication in accordance with Section 70(a) and (e) of the above law, and that for the following reasons: 1. The Israeli Police is conducting an investigation in which suspicions of security violations of contact with foreign agent and espionage, violations of Sections 114(a), 112(a) of the Penal Code of 1977, are being investigated. 2. Any publication about the investigation, or any detail of the investigation, may harm the security of the state, the investigation, obstruct or prevent evidence discovery to prove criminal violations and to investigate the truth. In view of the above, we are requesting that the honorable court will instruct to hold the discussion in closed-doors and for the issuance of an order prohibiting publication for 90 days, that will prohibit any publication on the matter of the investigation of file 151787/10 Yakhbal [unit], and any detail of the investigation, or its very existence, and all court discussions and decisions that took place or will take place in connection with the subject under investigation. Also, we are requesting that the order will instruct to prohibit any publication of the very filing of this request, its content, the very existence of the order, and any other publication that may result in the identification of the respondent, witnesses, suspects, and additional involved [parties] connected to the subject of the investigation, to the publication of their photographs, their addresses, and any other identifying detail. In order to effectuate the order, approval is requested to disseminate the fact of its existence to various media outlets, as necessary. For their information only (without publication by the media outlets that an order to prohibit publication of a security affair exists). [Rank] Sa’ar SHapira Yakhbal [unit] DECISION [Handwritten, at bottom, by Judge Einat Ron] After I heard the representatives of the appellant – and I was convinced that publication of this affair at this stage may harm the security of the state and the investigation in an actual manner, I found to accept the request as requested. An order to prohibit publication of this affair is hereby issued, on all that concerns the investigation on the matter of this affair, its content, [those] involved in it, and every detail related to them and could bring to their identification, as well as on request itself and its content – except the [annex?] to the request, in accordance with the judgment of the appellant. This order is for 30 days from today. Einat Ron, Judge Petach Tikva Magitrate Court 22 April 2010
Israel bows to pressure and admits arrest of rights activist: The Independent
By Catrina Stewart in Jerusalem Tuesday, 11 May 2010 The Israeli authorities finally revealed yesterday that they had been holding a prominent Israeli-Arab human rights activist for several days and had accused him of spying for Lebanon’s Hizbollah guerrillas.
Israel appeared to buckle under intense domestic pressure to release details of the case against Amir Makhoul after a gagging order issued by the courts had prevented the media from reporting details of the case. The order, which covered details including his identity, riled democracy advocates in Israel after a similar case last month involving the secret house arrest of an Israeli journalist. Mr Makhoul, the director of Palestinian non-governmental organisation (NGO) Ittijah, was arrested in a dawn raid on his home in the Israeli town of Haifa on Thursday last week. Israeli police said yesterday that they suspected Mr Makhoul and Omar Sayid, a member of the Arab political party Balad who was arrested on April 24, of spying for Hizbollah. Israel views Lebanon as an enemy state and fought a devastating month-long war against Hizbollah in 2006. In recent weeks, Israel has accused Hizbollah of obtaining Scud missiles from Syria. A lawyer acting for the two men said the charges had “no basis” and were merely a tool to clamp down on outspoken Israeli-Arabs, Palestinians who have taken Israeli citizenship. “Contacts with foreign agents has become a serious [tool] for criminalising Arabs in Israel,” said Hasan Jabareen, general director of the Adalah human rights organisation, and part of Mr Makhoul’s legal defence team. “Any contact, whether it is with human rights organisations or just social contacts, can be perceived by Israel as contact with foreign agents,” Mr Jabareen said, adding that lawyers had not been allowed to meet with Mr Makhoul. Mr Makhoul, whose brother Assam is a former member of Israel’s parliament, is a leading advocate on Palestinian rights issues, particularly within the Israeli-Arab community. Assam Makhoul told Ha’aretz newspaper that the family believed that Mr Makhoul had angered the Israeli authorities with his campaigns that fought the government’s “racist and discriminatory policies” towards Israeli-Arabs. Israel’s 1.5 million Arabs who took citizenship in 1948 when the country was formed remain a minority among the 7.5 million population, and have long claimed that they are treated as second-class citizens compared to Jewish Israelis; economic and educational standards for Arabs are much lower than in Jewish communities. Israeli police entered Mr Makhoul’s home at around 3am on 6 May. They searched his home, confiscating the family’s mobile phones, laptops and cameras, before taking him away for questioning. The family was given no explanation for the arrest, beyond unspecified “security” reasons. Ittijah’s offices were also searched. Prior to his arrest, Israel’s Interior Ministry issued an order banning Mr Makhoul from travelling abroad for two months because of security concerns. The arrest of the two men has inflamed tensions amongst the Arab-Israeli community. A demonstration was planned in Haifa to protest against the detentions. Several Palestinian and international rights bodies condemned the arrest, and said that Israel had “escalated” a sustained campaign against Arab rights groups. “In addition to arbitrary arrest and detention, Israeli authorities have met Palestinian human rights activism in recent months with a variety of measures, including raids, deportations, travel bans, visa denials and media attacks against nongovernmental organisations,” the groups said in a joint statement. Israeli NGOs have complained that they are witnessing a growing state-backed campaign to curb their freedom of operation, including a proposed new law that would strip many activist bodies of their NGO status. Right-wing activists have also stepped up their efforts to discredit organisations perceived as anti-Israeli. Because of the gagging order, Mr Sayid and Mr Makhoul’s arrest was initially only reported on blogs, while Israeli reporters made cryptic references to the case. The affair carried particular resonance in Israel, coming so soon after the case of Anat Kam, an Israeli whistle-blower who was placed under secret house arrest in December, but news of her detention was only made public at the end of March after Israeli newspapers dropped hints about the case.
About the Secret Empire that has decided to Criminalize Minority Dissent in Israel: The Only Democracy?
May 12th, 2010, by Assaf Oron No, this story does not come from the Occupied Territories, where residents are under a 43-year military rule and where wee-hour arrest raids are a routine occurrence. This comes from right inside Israel. Dr. Omar Sa’id, A Palestinian citizen of Israel and resident of Kafr Kana near Nazareth, was arrested by Israel’s secret police (known in English as Shin Bet and in Israel as Shabaak) two weeks ago. He is still in custody without access to a lawyer. Per Shin Bet request, the courts issued a gag order, with which the Israeli MSM complied. The Hebrew blogosphere has learned of the story a few days ago and ignores the gag. The gag was partially lifted Monday. This joins the better-known story of Ameer Makhoul, director of the Ittijah human rights group. The Shin Bet raided his Haifa home in the wee hours of May 6, kidnapped him, wreaked havoc and confiscated the family’s computers. He, too, is held incommunicado. That story, as well, has been gagged and the Israeli MSM doggedly obeys. Only on Monday, after a blogosphere frenzy led by the indomitable Richard Silverstein, did the Israeli press release oblique stories. A few hours later, shortly before a demonstration against the arrest took place in Haifa, the court partially lifted the gag and admitted that the two arrests are related. WTF?? More about the Arrested Men Dr. Omar Sa’id, A Palestinian citizen of Israel and resident of Kafr Kana near Nazareth, is a pharmacologist and entreprenur, co-founder and CEO of Antaki Center for Herbal Medicine. On April 25, en route to Jordan, he was arrested by Shin Bet. After interrogation he was transferred to police custody, where he is still held without access to a lawyer. Ameer Makhoul is director of the Ittijah organization, a coalition of Israeli-Palestinian civil society groups. Apparently he is also the brother of current Knesset Member Issam Makhoul (who survived a right-wing assassination attempt in 2004). Ameer Makhoul has been recently involved with the boycott-divestment-sanctions (BDS) movement, attempting to bring an end to the Occupation via nonviolent means. 2010: A Slew of Israeli Spook Scandals What’s up with Israel’s Secret Empire this year – and how much lower can Israel’s “Free press” sink? In January, the Mossad liquidates Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai. As world media place Mossad atop the suspect list, the Israeli media, that doggy-watch-dog of our “only democracy”, celebrates the feat. But – without saying Mossad did it. Only “the foreign press reports…”, a common refrain in Israeli MSM whenever they really want to gossip about something, but don’t want to get in trouble with the Secret Empire. So they sucked up to the immaculate execution and speculated wildly (and optimistically) about the great benefits to Israel and its fabled “deterrence power” that this assassination had restored. A few days pass, and the Dubai police rolls out pictures of 11 suspects, all with ties to Israel, and places them on the Interpol list. Friendly governments learn their passports have been forged. Israeli dual citizens learn their personal passports have been abused, placing them under direct threat of revenge. Then another 15 pictures released, with additional damaging details. The media celebration in Israel turns into a scapegoat-seeking and CYA exercise (“whose fault is this? We said it was a sloppy job from the start” etc.) Yet, I’ve heard several credible reports that on Purim this year, the most popular costume among Israeli teens and college gals was “Gail”, the assassin-assistant whose pretty passport picture circulated around the world. This brings us to March, when a new spook affair surfaces: rumors circulate in the Israeli blogosphere that Anat Kamm, a young journalist, is under house arrest with a gag order. I hear about it from fellow Seattelite and fellow progressive I-P blogger Richard Silverstein, who calls to seek my advice. He explains that Kamm is being indicted for stealing secret documents during her military service, and passing some of them after her discharge to an Israeli investigative journalist (for no payment). Silverstein feels she is a whistleblower who is being framed as a traitor via the way the Secret Empire treats her, including the gag order. The Israeli MSM obey the gag order; progressive bloggers post about it here and there, but here’s the catch: Kamm herself contacts them personally asking them to respect the order! The bloggers initially oblige, and one by one remove the story. At this point (mid-March) Richard feels that 1. Contrary to the perceptions of Kamm and her lawyer, respecting the gag actually makes her court prospects worse not better, and 2. The story itself – and the question whether Kamm is a whistleblower or a traitor – is a public issue, and the public should know about it. He calls me asking for my advice. Given that most of the details were total news to me, and that I was packing up to go to Israel on a Bar-Mitzva-laden visit, I couldn’t do much more than mumble lamely. Fortunately, Richard did what his heart told him, which was the right thing: he went out with the story and ultimately led to the gag’s implosion within a few weeks, even inside Israel. Right now, Kamm’s prospects still seem dim; the Shin Bet successfully framed her as a “traitor”, even though the documents she leaked were of the whistleblower kind: they showed how the IDF in the West Bank pissed all over Israel’s High Court ruling and continued to assassinate Palestinian targets even when a bloodless arrest was possible. The Israeli MSM, which towards the end of the gag complained loudly about it even as they obeyed, immediately turned to collaborate with the framing of Kamm, rather than open a debate about the true scandal. To be precise, the electronic media collaborated, while the printed press was split with two right-wing tabloids inciting against her, against the journalist (Uri Blau, arguably Israel’s top investigative journalist with a special knack for embarrassing the “security” Establishment) and even against his newspaper Haaretz, and with the centrist tabloid Yediot taking a more ambivalent stand. Blau himself is now in London; the Shin Bet will arrest him if he lands in Israel, an arrest that would violate a deal they struck with him and Kamm during the latter’s interrogation. Many speculate that Kamm herself was really the small fry, and that neutralizing the perennial scandal-finder Blau was the main goal. Anyway, in the aftermath of the Kamm story, one unanimous conclusion in the Israeli MSM conventional-wisdom was that gag orders on arrests have proven futile and only an idiot would try them again. Well, whadayaknow. A few weeks pass by, and not one, but two simultaneous arrests (not house arrest, real arrest) and gag orders. And not against a young person who prima facie did engage in wrongdoing (making illegal copies of secret documents) – but of well-known figures, an economic leader and a civic leader of the Palestinian-Israeli public. And the media obey yet again. What is this? A deliberate campaign by Shin Bet, to prove that indeed Israel is an Apartheid police state as its worst critics claim? I thought we Jews were supposed to be smart. I mean, forget for a second the human-rights, democracy and free-press teeny details. In many ways, it’s DAH STUPID that is scary here. What part of “Rebrand Israel” do these arrests fall under? And more importantly: Who the crap runs Israel nowadays? The Secret Empire that Snuggles Israel Israel is a pretty tiny nation, with a h-u-g-e secret apparatus: The Shin Bet, which runs the show in the West Bank and (to a lesser degree, but still more than you’d think) in Gaza – while keeping a friendly open eye on Israelis as well. The world-famous Mossad, whose “long hand” was what the Israeli MSM celebrated during these short happy days between the Dubai hit job and the appearance of pretty-Gail-passport-pics. The list doesn’t end there: The IDF toys with its own Shin-Bet-like operation in the West Bank (and formerly also in Lebanon). Known as Unit 504, its officers go around in civvies, recruit collaborators, etc. I escorted some of these creeps while serving in Lebanon in 1986. Our nuclear arsenal is of course, secret and off-limits, off-scrutiny to the common Israeli citizen or Israeli media. Under whose control? The military? A special unit directly reporting to the PM? I don’t know. But here are two agencies related to our little nuclear thingie one way or another: The Israeli outfit that recruited Jonathan Pollard was neither Shin Bet, nor Mossad. It was the “Bureau for Science Contacts”, a spook agency hardly anyone heard of till the Pollard affair broke out. Another less-known, but still notorious and extremely powerful secret agency, is known in Hebrew as MLMB (“Director of Security of the Defense Establishment”). This is essentially a one-man fiefdom, with the first director serving for nearly 40 years, and setting the agency’s trademark vindictive style. The MLMB played a key role in the Vanunu affair, and especially in Vanunu’s persecution since serving his “espionage” sentence. …and I bet there are more… A democracy cannot have such a disproportionate outsized Secret Empire. This in itself is mathematical proof, if you will, that Israel is not a democracy in the post-World-War-II sense. Add to this the lack of a constitution (mistakenly seen by some pro-status-quo commenters as a “triviality”), the inter-connectedness of the executive and legislative due to the parliamentary system (a mixed blessing: the check-and-balance becomes the power of coalition members to break it, but increasingly parties are bought off with ridiculously large numbers of ministerial posts), and last but not least, the fact that much of the judiciary began its career as military prosecutors and military judges – and the “democracy or not” debate is pretty much over. The Secret Empire wants an operation, it will get its operation regardless of what the government thinks. The Secret Empire wants a gag order, it will get its gag order no matter how outrageous. At least in the Kamm case, both judges who approved the gag and its extension were products of the military “justice” system. Consider also this: while, say, the CIA is under some sort of scrutiny however limited, and a large chunk of the CIA are publicly-known and publicly-accessible bureaus – the Israeli spooks are above the law and beyond reach. Until the late 1990’s we didn’t even know the name of the heads of Shin Bet and Mossad, let alone anyone else (unless you knew them personally; I personally know at least one Mossad agent, and a few more who seriously considered . The 1995 assassination of PM Rabin, a huge Shin Bet flop, led to the practice of making the heads’ names public and (supposedly) a bit more accountable. But they still take no one’s orders. Rather, as the years go by and our politicians become lamer and more corrupt, the head of Shin Bet is often the one dictating policy to the government rather than vice versa. A case in point is Yuval Diskin, the current Shin Bet chief. A few years ago he started a campaign framing civil-society groups of Israeli Palestinians as the enemy within. Going as far as stating that even actions which are considered legitimate in a democracy (lobbying for equality on a communal basis and not just a personal one; in truth our Arabs get neither), even such actions undermine the state. The arrests of Dr. Sa’id and Mr. Makhoul are a direct manifestation of Diskin’s world-view. Please make sure to contact your nearest Israeli embassy or consulate, and give them an earful of what you think about this. Oh, and join the Facebook group for Makhoul’s and Sa’id’s release. The gag and the MSM’s cowardice, though issues to deal with as well, pale in comparison to this escalating campaign to criminalize the leadership of Israel’s Palestinian citizens. Watch a video of Real News Network coverage of Makhoul and Sa’id’s case. (adapted from this Monday post on Daily Kos. Since then, the gag has been partially lifted, most probably due to the combined pressure of bloggers ignoring the gag and the Israeli-Palestinian community openly protesting the arrests.)
Court: Israeli Arabs arrested over alleged spying to remain jailed: Haaretz
Israeli academics and international human rights activists protest outside Petah Tikva court in support of Omar Sayid and Ameer Makhoul.
The Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday ruled that two Israeli Arab men arrested last week over allegations of spying and ties to Hezbollah will remain jailed until early next week. Omar Sayid’s remand was extended until Sunday and Ameer Makhoul’s remand was extended until Monday, the men’s legal representatives told Haaretz. The lawyers, Hussein Abu Hussein and Orna Cohen, appealed on Wednesday the court’s decision the previous day to extend the prohibition on Makhoul from meeting with legal representation for an additional three days. The Petah Tikva court rejected the appeal, and ruled that Makhoul will not be able to see a lawyer until next Friday at the earliest. Dozens of activists gathered earlier Wednesday outside the Petah Tikva court to protest the arrest of the two Israeli Arabs over allegations of spying and ties to Hezbollah. The military censor on Monday lifted a gag order on news that Sayid, a member of the Balad movement, and Makhoul, director general of the charity Ittijah (Union of Arab Community-Based Associations) had been detained by the Shin Bet security service and police anti-terror squads. Among the protesters were Israeli academics, human rights activists and other representatives from international organizations. Yehuda Shenhav, a Tel Aviv University professor who was one of the organizers of the demonstration, said that many Jews were among the protesters. “It was important that Jews came to protest and to take a clear position,” he said. “We are worried about this phenomenon we are seeing, the arrest of one political activist after another on espionage charges.” Makhoul was arrested in the early hours of last Thursday morning, while Sayid was detained on April 24. Reports of the arrests circulated widely on unofficial websites and blogs but government censors had banned the Israeli press from reporting them until the gag order was lifted late Sunday night.
MK Mohammed Barakeh, do you really believe Israel is a fascist regime?: Haaretz
Hadash party chairman: There is no horizon of peace, there is no horizon of equality and there is no horizon of democracy. By Yossi Verter MK Mohammed Barakeh, chairman of the Hadash party and a resident of Shfaram, participated on Monday in a demonstration in Haifa demanding that the government “stop persecuting Arabs.” MK Barakeh, do you really believe there is a fascist regime in this country, as you said at the demonstration? “In the past, we shouted at demonstrations: ‘Fascism will not get through.’ But now, apparently, it is here at the door. A web of laws has been passed in the Knesset in recent years that don’t fit any democratic criterion. There is an assault on the Arab minority, as well as on its leadership and its media. Anywhere else in the world, they would have passed laws to punish war criminals. The only place where they are now thinking about a law to punish people who expose war crimes is Israel – and I am referring to the Anat Kamm case.” If there were a fascist regime here or anything resembling one, you wouldn’t be in the Knesset, but in prison. “When I talk about fascism, it’s not only the Arab minority’s freedom of speech, it’s the fact that the economy is in the hands of 20 families and the fact that the social gaps are growing. Therefore, to try to reduce this whole matter to a question of Jews against Arabs – that’s not what it’s about.” Nevertheless, even if the situation is not good, what’s the connection to fascism? This is a slogan you use very freely. “Racism has become more sophisticated over the years. It doesn’t have to be exactly according to Mussolini’s criteria. What is really outrageous is the silence of the lambs. People who consider themselves enlightened and democratic, disciples of human rights – they are remaining silent. They are letting it all happen. We’ve already been through this drama of ‘I didn’t see, I didn’t hear,’ until people wake up to an unpleasant reality. Today we are marching down a dark tunnel and there is no light at the end. There is no horizon of peace, there is no horizon of equality and there is no horizon of democracy.” When you talk about a reality of ‘I didn’t see, I didn’t hear,’ to what reality are you referring? “There were all kinds of attempts in the last century. The last of them was apartheid in South Africa, but then people abroad rose against it and brought about the end of the regime. I hope the Israeli public will understand that this isn’t just the Arabs’ fight. The Arabs have always suffered from dispossession and a military regime. But this path endangers every citizen. And if someone like Jack Teitel, who harmed both Arabs and Jews, is found unfit to stand trial and absolved of all responsibility, the conclusion is that the Israeli prosecution is incapable of securing justice.” It seemed to me you were referring to the Nazi period. Then, too, they were silent. “That analogy is incorrect, and it is not useful. If there is anyone who needs to rebel against signs of racism, it is those who were victims of racism in its darkest form. Today, I am going to speak at the [Knesset] debate marking the anniversary of the victory over Nazism, and yesterday, members of our party organized an event to mark that victory. I am loyal to the fight against fascism in all its forms.” You chose to make those accusations against the State of Israel at a demonstration connected to the arrest of two men suspected of espionage. It isn’t certain that this helps them. “The demonstration in Haifa was against the blanket of secrecy. They wrapped it around the whole issue and prevented them [the suspects] from seeing their lawyers. The investigation will continue, and in the end the truth will become clear. I hope a quarter of the coverage given to the emergence of the case will also be given to the revelation of the truth. Experience has already taught us how investigations begin and how they end, with half a line on the back page. I remember Alik Ron, the commander of the Northern District Police, once talked about a big investigation that was about to be opened against an Arab Knesset member over a serious incident. He was referring to me. Thanks to Alik Ron, I was accorded lead headlines in major newspapers. And in the end, the case was closed.” Do you perceive Yisrael Beiteinu’s fingerprints on what you call a hunt for the Arab leadership? “Yisrael Beiteinu controls all the nodes of the rule of law, and I fear some of the agenda taking control of this system is Yisrael Beiteinu’s agenda. How is it possible that in an interview in Tokyo, [Foreign Minister Avigdor] Lieberman said there is more than conclusive evidence in the case of [espionage suspects Ameer] Makhoul and [Omar] Sayid? What does he know that the general public doesn’t know? Apparently, his emissaries are doing his work.” Are you 100 percent convinced the two are innocent? “With respect to the charge of espionage, I am 100 percent certain. What information do they have access to for spying? What do they know? We get our information from Google. What secret information are we sitting on that we could leak? Who among us has access to secret information? It could be that at some international conference, they met someone who is defined as a member of a hostile organization – which a year from now won’t be hostile – and conversed with him. What do they expect from us: that we should go around with a list of supposedly hostile organizations compiled by the Shin Bet security service in our pockets?” Will you continue to demonstrate for Makhoul and Sayid? “We are demonstrating over the collective slander. An Arab doesn’t commit a crime alone, but rather in the name of the Arab nation. This is plainly an attempt to isolate and exclude the Arab population from any circle of legitimacy. Anat Kamm is under house arrest, even though the store of information she had in her possession is immeasurably greater than anything Makhoul could have known, or even that I could have known as a Knesset member.” The defense establishment says Hezbollah is trying to recruit Israelis to its service. Do you know about this? “This is part of a campaign aimed at bolstering the accusations. Incidentally, if Hezbollah has had successes in recruiting, they have in fact been among Israeli officers. The two people who are now under arrest aren’t little children; they would not act stupidly and get into trouble over things like that. A person like Omar Sayid, who owns a tremendously rich company, isn’t going to play games like that, nor would Makhoul, who is a prominent public figure.” You said similar things about [former Balad MK] Azmi Bishara in the past. Yet he apparently has a lot to hide. Otherwise, he would return to Israel. “Bishara’s story was also blown out of proportion, and the accusations against him were exaggerated. I urged him at the time to deal with it – to stand here and face those accusations. He chose what he chose.”
Shin Bet recruiters enticing Palestinian medical students with Jerusalem entry permits: Haaretz
Students claim security service blocked medical training after they refused to spy for Israel. By Amira Hass The Shin Bet security service is trying to recruit Palestinian medical students as a condition for granting them entry permits to Jerusalem, according to two medical students at Al-Quds University pursuing internships in Palestinian university hospitals in the city. The two students told Haaretz that a “Captain Biran” who said he was the Shin Bet agent responsible for monitoring the university told them to report on other students and their activities as a condition for renewing their entry permits. After both refused, they were effectively prevented from choosing a residency specialty and continuing their medical training. The Shin Bet said in response that the two students’ entry permits had not been renewed for security reasons. The agency did not refer to the students’ allegations that agents tried to blackmail them in exchange for renewing their permits. A. and T., both 23, are fifth-year medical students at Al-Quds University in the village of Abu Dis near East Jerusalem. The medical faculty is affiliated with some of the oldest and largest hospitals in Jerusalem – including Augusta Victoria Hospital and Al-Makassed Islamic Charitable Society Hospital. Between 170 and 200 students of medicine, nursing and physiotherapy need entry permits to enter Jerusalem. Al-Makassed files requests to Civil Administration authorities stationed in the settlement of Beit El, and after the Shin Bet grants permission, Administration officials issue permits valid for between three and six months. After beginning their medical internships in September 2008, A. and T. were granted entry permits. Until June 2009, T. pursued his residency in various Jerusalem hospitals and passed through checkpoints daily. But after his pilgrimage to Mecca, T.’s entry permit was not renewed, and the Civil Administration told him to meet with a Shin Bet coordinator. In late June, he said, he had his first meeting with Biran. Biran asked T. if he was willing to “help” him by monitoring fellow students and activities at the Al-Quds campus. T. said he had no time because of his heavy workload. The student said Biran threatened that the Shin Bet could “interfere with your ability to finish your studies,” but that if he acceded to its request, the agency would “even grant you entry to Hadassah,” the prestigious medical center within the borders of pre-1967 Jerusalem. A. first met Biran in March of this year. On February 28, his entry permit to Jerusalem was confiscated at Zeitim checkpoint outside East Jerusalem. Soon he too was sent to meet with Biran at the checkpoint. A. was told that his entry permit had been seized because “some illegal things were found in your bag.” A. said Biran told him, “If you want to get your permit back, talk to me. If not, go.” The student said he was instructed to report to the Shin Bet about students traveling abroad. A. too turned the agent down. M., a student from the Nablus area, is also in her fifth year of medical studies at Al-Quds. Her entry permit to Jerusalem was also confiscated at Zeitim checkpoint in September 2009, shortly after she had returned from a visit to the United States. The Shin Bet told Haaretz in response that “the three individuals are welcome to make contact, once a year, with military officials responsible for granting entry permits to Israel to request that their files be reviewed again. Those requests will be examined by the relevant security authorities.” The three students have been in contact with the Tel Aviv-based advocacy group Physicians for Human Rights, with which they are considering how to proceed.
EDITOR: European Politician Prove Again Their Immunity to Justice The OECD members have voted to admit Israel, despite the huge campaign against such a move at time when the revulsion from Israeli crimes has never been so rife and wide-spread. It is not just the economy that those leaders got wrong! They hardly represnt the millions of Europeans now organising against the continued atrocities in Palestine by the occupation regime, and the public which joins the various boycotts. The NY Times, which stays silent on most crucial issues in Palestine, is happy to publisha ‘good news’ story about Israel at last…
Israel Will Join Economic Group of Developed Nations: NY Times
By ETHAN BRONNER Published: May 10, 2010 JERUSALEM — The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a 31-country group often seen as an exclusive club of rich countries, voted unanimously on Monday to admit Israel. Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians, and its war in Gaza in late 2008, had drawn strong criticisms from a number of European members, raising the possibility of delays or blocks to its admission to the group, an association of market-oriented democracies that promotes international trade. The decision to accept Israel came despite a letter by the Palestinian Authority asking the O.E.C.D. not to admit Israel. On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called a news conference to hail the acceptance as a “seal of approval,” saying it would “open doors and provide access to many fields” and increase foreign investment here. Israel’s economy was close to collapse in the 1980s, but because of a series of difficult market-oriented changes it has grown into a technological powerhouse with an annual per capita gross domestic product approaching $30,000, not far from Germany’s. In a statement issued from its Paris headquarters, the O.E.C.D. announced the acceptance of three countries: Israel, Estonia and Slovenia. In saluting their strengths, the statement said that “Israel’s scientific and technological policies have produced outstanding outcomes on a world scale.” Earlier this year, the organization’s secretary general, Ángel Gurría, was here to discuss several issues, including strengthening laws against bribery in international business, mostly focused on Israel’s weapons trade and patent rules involving its large generic drug industry. Those issues were resolved. But Riad Malki, the foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority, sent a letter on Friday to all O.E.C.D. nations expressing “serious reservations” about Israel’s membership. “Israel has acted in complete disregard of O.E.C.D. values during its decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory,” said the letter, which was provided by the media office of the Palestinian Authority. It added that Israel’s blockade of Gaza denied civilians there “the basic human dignity of rebuilding their shattered lives after its devastating December 2008 to January offensive.” The letter also complained about Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, saying its policies “frustrate our efforts to build a politically, territorially and economically viable Palestinian state on the 1967 border with East Jerusalem as its capital.” Israeli and Palestinian officials are starting indirect talks on these issues that are brokered by the Obama administration. Top Israeli financial officials, including Stanley Fischer, the governor of the Bank of Israel, had been lobbying O.E.C.D. members with data and assurances regarding Israel’s economy and economic practices, saying that membership would help the country improve its transparency and market orientation, while its technological prowess would be helpful to other members.
Could the Middle East become a nuclear-free zone?: BBC
By Barbara Plett BBC News, New York Western concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme have so far dominated the latest UN conference on the treaty aimed at stopping the spread and stockpiling of nuclear weapons. Israel has not signed up to the NPT, so does not attend review conferences But another state is sharing centre stage at the month-long negotiations in New York to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), despite its complete absence from the hall. “Israel’s nuclear arsenal stands like the radioactive elephant in the room,” says blogger and journalist Khaled Diab. Israel is widely believed to have between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads. Yet it has never declared them, signed on to the NPT, or opened its nuclear facilities to inspection. Calls from NPT podiums for it to do all three are common enough. But with the US homing in on the potential proliferation risk posed by Iran, Arab and Islamic states have raised the volume on the threat they say is posed by Israel’s actual nuclear arsenal. Crucially, the debate has galvanised long-standing demands for a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East. Egyptian leadership A resolution to create such a zone was adopted at an NPT review conference in 1995 to win Arab support for the indefinite extension of the treaty. Washington sponsored the proposal, but has done nothing to implement it. Iran says it favours a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone This has been a bone of contention at every NPT conference since. Now the controversy over Iran has made it impossible to ignore. Egypt, which is taking the lead on the Middle East zone, makes the link explicit. “If major countries wish to address Iran’s nuclear dossier, they can do that by bringing Israel and Iran to the negotiating table,” Egypt’s UN ambassador Maged Abdel Aziz recently told the Al-Ahram newspaper. Iran has defied UN resolutions demanding that it halt uranium enrichment, a programme it says is designed to produce nuclear energy, but which the West believes has military aims. At the same time, however, Tehran supports the “immediate and unconditional” implementation of the 1995 resolution, declares the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Israel also backs a nuclear-weapons-free zone in principle, but only after peace agreements with all the countries in the region. And Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has made it abundantly clear that he does not see peace happening any time soon. Israel would consider joining the NPT “if the Middle East one day advances to a messianic age where the lion lies down with the lambs,” he told the US TV network ABC. ‘Practical measures’ The US broadly agrees with Israel that conditions for a nuclear-weapons-free-zone do not yet exist in the Middle East. Success in dealing with Iran will depend to a large extent on how successfully we deal with the establishment of a nuclear-weapons-free zone Yet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the NPT conference that Washington was prepared to support “practical measures for moving toward” such a goal. So are the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council: Russia, China, Britain and France. It is the agenda of President Barack Obama that has created this shift, say analysts. He has made a reinvigorated non-proliferation regime a centrepiece of his foreign policy. He also needs Arab and Islamic support to put pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme. The price of that support has to be tangible progress toward the 1995 Resolution on the Middle East, says ambassador Abdel Aziz. “Success in dealing with Iran will depend to a large extent on how successfully we deal with the establishment of a nuclear-weapons-free zone,” he told UN journalists. Changing the rules Egypt says it wants a conference to be held next year at which all regional states, including Israel and Iran, start negotiations on this zone. That may be too much for the Americans. However, diplomats say Washington may accept a special co-ordinator who would work at preparing the ground for a future conference by holding informal talks with Israel and its neighbours. After 15 years, Cairo says it is flexible but will not accept window dressing. “We are not into convening a conference only to see it fail,” says ambassador Abdel Aziz. No-one has any illusions that a nuclear-weapons-free zone is imminent in the Middle East. Even Egypt accepts it will be a long process, perhaps one that could run parallel to any Arab-Israeli peace talks. But President Obama’s decision to get tough with proliferation may be slowly changing the nuclear rules in the Middle East, both for Iran and for Israel.
Gilbert Achcar: Israel’s Propaganda War – Blame the Grand Mufti: Le Monde Diplomatique
By Gilbert Achcar – 14 May 2010 Many Israelis and Palestinians would like peaceful coexistence, but myths, propaganda and denial have a habit of getting in the way Israel’s propaganda war with the Palestinians and the Arab world has intensified in recent years, and partisans of both sides in Europe and the US have been active in this. Israel needs to cultivate the support of the West to survive, so this aspect of the conflict has always been of crucial importance.
Israel’s image in the West first suffered significantly during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The long siege of Beirut, the massacres in the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shatila, perpetrated while Israel looked on, shocked the world. The impact of these events, comparable to that of the Vietnam war on the US, is still felt even in Israel (1). Between the invasion of Lebanon and the start of the first intifada (at the end of 1987), Israel’s “new historians” (2) re-examined the central myths of Zionist ideology critically, and their rewriting of the story of Israel’s origins gave rise to the small but significant movement of “post-Zionism”. But it failed to prevent a gradual ideological shift to the right in Israeli society, the premature collapse of the Oslo accords and the emergence of an aggressive “neo-Zionism”. According to the Israeli sociologist Uri Ram, “post-Zionism is citizen-oriented, supporting equal rights, and in that sense favouring a state of all its citizens within the boundaries of the Green Line [the border between Israel and the West Bank prior to the 1967 war], universal and global. Neo-Zionism is particularist, tribal, Jewish, ethnic nationalist, fundamentalist and even fascist on the fringe” (3). Israel’s sabotage of the peace talks, its rapid colonisation of the occupied Palestinian territories and its deadly incursions into Lebanon (2006) and Gaza (2008-9) worsened the deterioration of its image. In an attempt to halt this decline, the Israeli authorities, and their unconditional supporters in the West, continue to invoke the memory of the Holocaust in the hope that it will legitimise their actions (4). They have also attempted to implicate the Palestinians and the Arabs in the Nazi genocide. The Zionist authorities started accusing the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini (5) soon after 1945. A figurehead of Palestinian nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s, he was exiled from Palestine by the British in 1937. After a short time in Iraq, he joined the Axis cause in 1941 and spent the war in Berlin and Rome, contributing actively to the propaganda efforts of the Axis powers, helping to set up Bosnian Muslim units of the German Waffen-SS – which did not, however, commit any acts of anti-semitic violence. A propaganda puppet Even before his exile, Husseini had been discredited in the Arab world, if not in Palestine, and his exhortations to join the Axis cause made little impression. According to a US military historian, only 6,300 soldiers from Arab countries passed through German military organisations – 1,300 from Palestine, Syria and Iraq, the rest from North Africa. The British army was able to recruit 9,000 Arab soldiers from Palestine alone while 250,000 North African troops served in the French Army of Liberation and accounted for the majority of its dead and wounded (6). But the Zionists claimed the mufti was an official representative of the Palestinians and Arabs and in 1945 demanded (without success) that he be handed over to the international military tribunal at Nuremberg, as if he had been a key part of the Nazi genocide machine. Articles, pamphlets and books were produced to present Husseini as a candidate for prosecution. The mufti served a symbolic purpose, allowing the Zionists to claim that the Palestinians shared responsibility for the genocide, and justify the creation of a “Jewish state” on the territory of their homeland. This motive became a constant in the propaganda of the state of Israel. It explains the extraordinary importance accorded to the mufti in the Holocaust memorial museum, in Jerusalem. Tom Segev observes that the wall dedicated to al-Husseini gives the impression of a convergence between the Nazis’ genocide plans and Arab hostility towards Israel. Peter Novick points out that the entry on the mufti in the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, published in association with Yad Vashem (the Holocaust remembrance authority), is much longer than those on Himmler, Goebbels or Eichmann, and only a little shorter than that on Hitler (7). Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 there have been many publications claiming that Jews in Palestine in 1948 faced the threat of genocide. They suggest that the Arabs were (and still are) moved by the same hatred of Jews as the Nazis, meaning that the expulsion of the Palestinians when the state of Israel was created – and their continued subjugation by Israel – should be regarded as legitimate acts of self-defence. Two books, by Klaus-Michael Mallman and Martin Cüppers (8), and by Jeffrey Herf (9), appear to be serious works as they are based on studies of Nazi, American and British archives, but the authors know very little about the Arab world and do not speak Arabic. An excellent collection of critiques of Mallman and Cüppers’ work appears in the Auschwitz Foundation’s review Témoigner: Entre Histoire et Mémoire (Bearing Witness: Between History and Memory), in which Dominique Trimbur observes that their book is part of “a historic trend marked by the spirit of the time in which it was written – the early 2000s. The whole argument lacks subtlety, especially when the authors refer to ‘the Arabs’ and ‘the Muslim world’, generalisations typified by the reproduction, or deliberate appropriation of the expression ‘clash of civilisations’.” In response, two contradictory trends have emerged on the Arab side: one is the comparison of Israel’s actions to Nazism, the other is Holocaust denial. Sign of exasperation That many Arabs can hold these contradictory positions is a clear indication that they are trying to compensate for an inability to respond effectively to real violence by resorting to symbolic violence. Iran is attempting to use this tide of reactive and emotional denial in vying with Saudi Arabia for the affections of Sunni Arab Muslims. In reality, those in the Arab world who seriously support the arguments of western Holocaust denial – “the anti-Zionism of fools”, to paraphrase August Bebel’s famous remark that anti-semitism was “the socialism of fools” – are a tiny minority. In most cases, denialist attitudes stem from exasperation. This much is suggested by opinion polls among Palestinians in Israel, the Arab population best informed about the Holocaust, a subject thoroughly covered by the school syllabus in Israel (10). A first poll conducted by the University of Haifa in 2006 found, to general surprise, that 28% of all Arabs in Israel denied the Holocaust, the percentage being higher among the best educated (11). Two years later, against escalating violence, the same poll found a denial rate of 40% (12). The current situation makes dialogue and communication seem more impossible than ever. Yet anyone familiar with the irreconcilable differences that separated Israelis and Arabs in the decades leading up to 1948 and 1967, will realise that many more Arabs and Palestinians today are able to contemplate peaceful coexistence with their Israeli neighbours, and far more Israelis acknowledge that their country is guilty of persecuting the Palestinians. We must hope that the region will avoid a new catastrophe – the common meaning of shoah and nakba Gilbert Achcar is professor of development studies and international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, and author of The Arabs and the Holocaust: the Arab-Israeli War of Narratives, Metropolitan Books, New York, 2010, and Saqi Books, London, published this month
Israelis’ state of denial over treatment of Palestinians: Haaretz
By Yitzhak Laor Israelis love military secrets. Books by retired security officers, former spies and former members of the Shin Bet security service and Mossad sell well. An entire culture is built around “what it is forbidden to talk about but nevertheless we like to know.” Not merely stories from the past – for example, how the “Red Prince” (Ali Hassan Salameh of Black September ) was assassinated in Beirut in 1979 – but also the Dubai affair, which is an excellent example of the public’s lust to know, hear, see and consume news. Even the failure was of interest to the public, and the matter had moral backing. This moral backing goes well with the desire to know: “Even if we did not kill him, he deserved to die,” they said on TV.
There is one thing the public does not want to know, or perhaps “most of the public” is a more cautious expression, and we are not talking about a military secret. A survey carried out two weeks ago by the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, which was published in Haaretz, touched on the issue: The only thing the public does not want to hear about is the repression of the Palestinians. This is not a matter of keeping secrets, but of denial. It is doubtful whether a survey is necessary. It suffices to watch the news on commercial television in order to understand that what is going on in the territories “doesn’t sell.” But the matter is more grave. What is happening in the territories is becoming taboo. Not only do people not want to know because there is something to know (otherwise people would not refuse to know ), the army is seen as the sole legitimate source of information about events in the territories. But the army lies, to put it mildly. The language it uses to describe firing at non-violent Palestinian demonstrators is always laden with euphemisms, and the need to explain arises only when organizations like B’Tselem publish pictures in which it can be seen, for example, how settlers open fire and the army does not lift a finger. That is an example of the kind of things Israelis do not want to know about. The territories are far away. The Palestinians live far away. This hallucination can be attributed to the walls, the separation roads, the army and the TV news. “Judea and Samaria” are close. The settlers live among us. There are photographs of them, their homes are photographed. They are in the army. They are the army. But the separation between those who are very close, who have the right to vote, weapons, rights and state financial support, and those who live at the same physical distance but must be left far away, on the other side of the walls, the fences, the roadblocks – this separation is made with the aid of the refusal to know. The denial. Human rights organizations are persecuted – simple as that – exactly in the name of the refusal to know. “It is forbidden to know” means that it is forbidden for our consciousness to move freely among the facts, the scenes, the voices, the options. All these were supposed to comprise the awareness of the Israeli who lives five minutes from these unimaginable things – 43 years of military dictatorship over another people. The security claims are dwarfed by the opposite claim – that the security situation is a function of the disinheriting (of the Palestinians ), the control of their natural resources and the never-ending restrictions on their way of life. But the other claim can in no way compete with the Israeli way of thinking: We are here and they are not here. The only freedom is the freedom to be and to blot out whatever casts doubt on the safety of the knowledge that denies this. When the principal of the Ironi Aleph school in Tel Aviv wanted to take his teachers to see the roadblocks, they attacked him angrily and demanded that he be called for a hearing. The few prophesies of Karl Marx that came true included one that he wrote about in a short article in 1870: “The nation that oppresses another nation forges its own chains,” he said. There is no better historic moment to demonstrate this prophesy than the moment we are now living.