EDITOR: The BDS campaign wins more support!
An important development last week – Mike Leigh refuses to travel to Israel for a workshop at Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem, and speaks about it very openly in an interview with the Jewish Chronicle, on Friday 22nd October (further below). A large group of filmmakers from Palestine and Israel, as well as artists and academics, have written to him to applaud his action:
Open Letter to Mike Leigh
October 25, 2010
Dear Mike Leigh,
We are writing to you as a group of fellow filmmakers and academics, Palestinians, Israelis and others, to thank you for your principled and courageous step of withdrawing from the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School workshop and “implicitly” joining the cultural boycott of Israel. As admirers of your work, from Abigail’s Party to Another Year, we have long appreciated your commitment to those sectors of society that are disenfranchised and normally silenced. Now you have actively and openly intervened in defence of Palestinian rights, and we applaud you for doing so publicly. You have joined the growing ranks of artists and cultural producers who are refusing to lend their name and prestige to the cover-up of a brutal occupation, already more than four decades old.
Your action also challenges the long silence of most of Israel’s artists and intellectuals who have, unfortunately, been co-opted into the broad Israeli social coalition that supports the brutalities visited by Israel on the Palestinians. Some of those will certainly feel threatened by your stand; we feel supported by it. If a just peace is to be ever achieved in Palestine, Jews elsewhere have to stand together in support of the full rights of the Palestinians. Your action is striking evidence of growing cultural resistance abroad to Israel’s intransigence. We hope it will encourage others. Only by such concerted action will the situation change in the Middle East.
Thank you, Mike!
Signed by:
Hany Abu Assad – Filmmaker
Udi Aloni – Filmmaker
Oreet Asheri – Artist and researcher
Saleh Bakri – Filmmaker
Avia Ben David – Scriptwriter
Prof. Oren Ben-Dor
Simone Bitton – Filmmaker
Rani Blair – Director
Prof. Haim Bresheeth – Filmmaker
Shai Carmeli Pollak
Scandar Copti – Filmmaker
Anat Even – Filmmaker
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein – Actress
Ala Hlehel
Annemarie Jacir – Director
Prof. Ronit Lentin
Yael Lerer
Prof. Yosefa Loshitzky
Dr. Orly Lubin
Prof. Moshe Macover
Miriam Margolyes – Actress
Audrey Maurion Film Editor
Idit Nathan
Prof. Mica Nava
Osama Qashoo – Director
Prof. Steven Rose
Prof. Hilary Rose
Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead
Daniel Rubinstein
Prof. Ella Shohat
Eyal Sivan – Filmmaker
Ula Tabari – Actress
Yosi Wanunu – Theatre director
Einat Weizman – Actress
The mathematics of strangulation of Gaza: The Only Democracy?
October 25th, 2010, By Jesse Bacon
When the specifics of Israel’s siege of Gaza came to light, it appeared almost random in its insanity and cruelty. The famous example is the prohibiting of pasta while allowing rice, all the while claiming this was somehow ensuring Israel’s security. Well wonder no longer. Through the heroic efforts of Gisha, whose work we feature regularly here on The Only Democracy?, the actual policy has been released. It turns out there is a detailed series of charts and formulae that look like someone attempted to translate the lectures of Glenn Beck into public policy. In the driest of terms, it represents a calculus of human misery, equations of despair that add up to the starvation of Gazans and a protracted conflict.
Here is Gisha’s summary of the revealed policy, with my annotations.
“Policy of Deliberate Reduction”
The documents reveal that the state approved “a policy of deliberate reduction” for basic goods in the Gaza Strip (section h.4, page 5*). Thus, for example, Israel restricted the supply of fuel needed for the power plant, disrupting the supply of electricity and water. The state set a “lower warning line” (section g.2, page 5) to give advance warning of expected shortages in a particular item, but at the same time approved ignoring that warning, if the good in question was subject to a policy of “deliberate reduction“. Moreover, the state set an “upper red line” above which even basic humanitarian items could be blocked, even if they were in demand (section g.1, page 5). The state claimed in a cover letter to Gisha that in practice, it had not authorized reduction of “basic goods” below the “lower warning line”, but it did not define what these “basic goods” were (page 2).
So, the lower red line is to tell Israel that its policies were working as designed to cause shortages, thus allowing them to “ignore” the warnings. Even at the upper limit, Israel could keep denying goods if it saw fit to do so. I am reminded of one of those thermometers used to measure fundraising, only here the goal is deprivation not development.
“Luxuries” denied for Gaza Strip residents
In violation of international law, which allows Israel to restrict the passage of goods only for concrete security reasons, the decision whether to permit or prohibit an item was also based on “the good’s public perception” and “whether it is viewed as a luxury” (section c.b, page 16). In other words, items characterized as “luxury” items would be banned – even if they posed no security threat, and even if they were needed. Thus, items such as chocolate and paper were not on the “permitted” list. In addition, officials were to consider “sensitivity to the needs of the international community”.
These are the source of the infamous regulations on pasta v. rice, and coriander. With a great perversion of cultural sensitivity, the things that Gazans like are to be taken into account and restricted accordingly. International community members, on the other hand, are still able to access their favorite goodies lest they become too vocal in their opposition because of personal inconvenience.
Secret List of Goods
The procedures determine that the list of permitted goods “will not be released to those not specified!!” (emphasis in original) (section j, page 17), ignoring the fact that without transparency, merchants in Gaza could not know what they were permitted to purchase. The list itemized permitted goods only. Items not on the list – cumin, for example – would require a special procedure for approval, irrespective of any security consideration, at the end of which it would be decided whether to let it in or not.
Here is the truly Kafkaesque part, Palestinians were not to know what was on the list and what was not, allowing the Israel to act as a vengeful and obscure deity determining what they could eat and build with. Whenever Israel (or the U.S.) government cites “security” , we should substitute the word “embarrassing.” Try it, it works.
Ban on Reconstructing Gaza
Although government officials have claimed that they will permit the rehabilitation of Gaza, the documents reveal that Israel treated rehabilitation and development of the Gaza Strip as a negative factor in determining whether to allow an item to enter; goods “of a rehabilitative character” required special permission (section g, page 16). Thus, international organizations and Western governments did not receive permits to transfer building materials into Gaza for schools and homes.
Those international organizations may be able to buy their own personal consumer products, but they are not allowed to import goods for Gazans to rebuild after the war. I am reminded of the US-backed, Central American death squads who targetted anyone doing community development work, only in this case the death squads wear suits and sit t desks far away.
Calculation of product inventory
The documents contain a series of formulas created by the Defense Ministry to compute product inventory (pages 8-10). The calculations are presumed to allow COGAT to measure what is called the “length of breath” (section i, page 8). The formula states that if you divide the inventory in the Strip by the daily consumption needs of residents, you will get the number of days it will take for residents of Gaza to run out of that basic product, or in other words, until their “length of breath” will run out.
See the photo below. But don’t allow the fancy graphs to obscure what is going on, which is calculating exactly how much suffering is being inflicted on the people of Gaza.
Although these memos described the policies as of April 2009, we should not hold out too much hope that matters have improved.
According to Gisha Director Sari Bashi: “Instead of considering security concerns, on the one hand, and the rights and needs of civilians living in Gaza, on the other, Israel banned glucose for biscuits and the fuel needed for regular supply of electricity – paralyzing normal life in Gaza and impairing the moral character of the State of Israel. I am sorry to say that major elements of this policy are still in place“.
Richard Silverstein, who also posted the above photo, describes how this policy was actually supposed to be implemented.
The data[on availability of items] will be collected in the economy division, once a week, on Tuesday, and a calculation compiled of products transferred, then added to existing inventories, and then consumed amounts will be deducted according to the models.
F.# After the calculation is performed, a draft of inventory estimates will be prepared…[and] the following data will be checked:
# 1. Upper level warning – in case inventory of one of the short shelf life products is over 21 days or long shelf life product inventory is over 80 days.
# 2. Lower level warning – in case inventory of one of the short shelf life products is under 4 days or long shelf life product inventory is under 20 days.
# 3. Shortage – in case inventory of one of the short shelf life products is under 2 days or long shelf life product inventory is under 5 days.
H. In case inventory of one or more products reached a ‘level of warning,’ the following actions will be taken:
1. Xxxx will verify the information with leading Palestinian merchants.
2. Xxxx will perform mathematical evaluation of the model to verify the data.
3. In case of an upper level warning, the issue will be brought up for discussion and update for a decision on policy of entering the # relevant product.
4.! In case of a lower level warning an update will be transferred, and Gaza DCO will take action to facilitate transferring the relevant product, unless it is an intentional policy of reduction. [ed., italics mine]
5. In case of shortage, the same actions as of ʻlower level warningʻ will be taken. In case it is an intentional policy of reduction, decision makers will be presented with the consequences of shortage of the relevant product.
“One wonders what warning the decision makers would be presented with: would they be warned that preventing entrance of a piece of medical equipment would cause the death of children? Or that the categorization of milk, or hummus or any number of staples of the Palestinian diet as “superfluous” might exacerbate the already existent malnutrition among children? Or that a shortage of fuel and hence water outages would cause women not to be able to cook properly or families to observe hygienic practices. What type of discussion do you think happened among the decision makers when they were ‘warned’ about these red lines?
Protesting the OECD Conference in Jerusalem: YouTube
Tutu Urges South African Opera Company Not to Perform in Israel: Artsbeat
By DAVE ITZKOFF
Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, has urged an opera company there not to perform in Israel, invoking South Africa’s long struggle against apartheid in criticizing Israel’s policy towards Palestinians, The Associated Press reported. The Cape Town Opera is scheduled to perform “Porgy and Bess” at the Tel Aviv Opera House beginning on Nov. 12. But Archbishop Tutu, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize who retired from his official duties earlier this month, said in a statement that the tour should be postponed “until both Israeli and Palestinian opera lovers of the region have equal opportunity and unfettered access to attend performances.”
“Just as we said during apartheid that it was inappropriate for international artists to perform in South Africa in a society founded on discriminatory laws and racial exclusivity, so it would be wrong for Cape Town Opera to perform in Israel,” Archbishop Tutu said in his statement. He added that it would be “unconscionable” for the opera company to perform “Porgy and Bess,” which he said has a “universal message of nondiscrimination.”
Hanna Munitz, the general director of the Israeli Opera, said in a statement that the intent of the collaboration between the companies “is culture and art, and definitely not politics,” adding: “Both houses relate to culture as a bridge, the aim of which is to be above any political dispute. Furthermore, the fact of the matter is that very big performance companies arrive in Israel from abroad all the time.”
Zionism? To hell with all that, says film director: Jewish Chronicle
Mike Leigh’s distaste for Israel is so bad he won’t even visit his 90-year-old aunt
By Stephen Applebaum and Simon Rocker, October 21, 2010
Mike Leigh, the film-maker and playwright who has cancelled a planned trip to Israel next month, has backed a cultural boycott of the country, calling its policies “suicidal”.
In an exclusive and personal outspoken interview in which he justified his decision not to teach a masterclass at a Jerusalem film school, the 67-year-old, Salford-born author said he was now “implicitly part” of the boycott.
Mr Leigh, director of award-winning films such as Secrets and Lies and Topsy-Turvy, had been invited by the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem to take a workshop for students. During the week that he was due to spend in Israel he had been scheduled to visit Palestinian film-makers in Jenin, on the West Bank, and also to give a wide-ranging press conference.
Mr Leigh admitted to having been “extremely uncomfortable” about agreeing to go to Israel in the first place, but the loyalty oath planned by the Israeli government for new immigrants had proved “the last straw”.
I don’t want to know about rockets. I am concerned with humanity
In his interview, given to publicise his new film, Another Year, Mr Leigh gave his angriest assessment yet of his life as a Jew and his feelings towards Israel.
He complained that he and his fellow former members of the left-wing Zionist movement, Habonim, had been duped by Israeli propaganda, and denounced religion in the strongest terms.
“Religion’s never been an issue. I’ve been sceptical about religion since I was born, basically. And certainly by the time I came to my barmitzvah I had long been sceptical. I think organised religion is bulls***. And I have thought that literally since before I could walk. So that’s not a problem for me. Although I grew up in the north Manchester Jewish scene, in a district that’s now completely where all the frummers live.”
He revealed that he had planned to take his sons with him to Israel, where he has a “lot of very close relatives. My mother’s surviving sister, who went on aliyah in 1949, is still alive. She’ll be 90 very shortly, and she was looking forward to seeing me…
“But in the end, to hell with all that. A decision had to be made that this simply wasn’t good enough.”
Although the argument might be put that “committed, serious, liberal, left artists are not responsible for the Israeli government,” he said, “that simply won’t wash. Because actually, the truth is that what Israel is doing… is suicidal.”
While cultural talks went on “in the nice cinematheques of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, it is hell on earth in Gaza and I wouldn’t want to be there basically”.
A former member of Habonim, he has only twice visited Israel, once in 1960 and again in 1990.
“Not only was I in Habonim, in the ’50s, but I actually happen to come from a very long, unusually Zionist background in Manchester, at a time when many Jews were not particularly Zionist,” he said. “In fact a lot of Jews were very sceptical about the whole notion of Zionism. My great-grandfather actually edited a Zionist newspaper in Manchester at the turn of the last century. So, I have struggled with this issue, the whole thing, for a very long time.”
All his close friends from Habonim had long since “walked away from Jewish life” but they talked about Israel, he added: “We wring our hands on a daily basis, saying ‘For f***’s sake, what are they doing? They are shooting themselves in the foot’.”
His 2005 play about Jewish identity, Two Thousand Years, would have been “tougher” if he had written it now, he said. He felt that not only had he done “the right thing” in deciding to call off his trip to Israel but “in so far as anything achieves anything, more publicity has come out of what I have done than would have been the case had I simply not gone, or had I gone and merely made a few statements that no one was listening to inside Israel.”
He said he had been “of course exhorted not to go to Israel by a number of factions. That included Israeli factions within Israel. Whilst I have been berated by some Israeli positions, there are also Israelis that are extremely pleased I made that decision.”
Mr Leigh, who insisted that all his work was “unquestionably Jewish”, was dismissive about rocket attacks on Israel. “I don’t want to know about rockets,” he said. “What I am concerned with is humanity, is life being lived properly. And you cannot deal with this issue from an Israeli perspective and not from a Palestinian or a Gaza perspective. You simply can’t. And if you do it’s totally unacceptable. And that’s the bottom line.”
Elbit Systems and Thales win British Army UAV deal: SUSANews
24 October 2010
UAS Tactical Systems Ltd., (U-TacS) a joint venture of Elbit Systems Ltd.(Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT) and Thales UK, has won a $70 million follow-on Urgent Operating Capability (UOR) contract with the British Army. U-TacS will provide an intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) support capability. The contract will be implemented over the next one and a half years.
This is third U-TacS UOR contract with the British Army, following contracts in 2007 and 2009. In all the contracts, Elbit Systems will provide and support its Hermes 450 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and train UK Ministry of Defence staff in the use and maintenance of the system. The company will also provide contractor logistic support and program management services, which will be managed by Leicester-based U-TacS.
Elbit Systems president and CEO Joseph Ackerman said, “The Hermes 450 continues to make a significant contribution to UK operations, under very demanding circumstances, achieving exceptionally high levels of operational availability.”
Elbit Systems own 51% of U-TacS, and Thales UK owns 49%.
Elbit Systems’ share closed at $52.98 on Nasdaq on Friday, giving a market cap of $2.26 billion. The share price fell 0.6% by mid-afternoon on the TASE today to NIS 192.
Report: Turkish intelligence severed relations with the Mossad: Haaretz
Turkish newspaper reports agencies stopped exchanging intelligence and conducting joint operations following Turkish government decision.
Amid the strained relations between Ankara and Jerusalem, Turkish intelligence has severed its working relations with the Mossad, the Turkish newspaper Sabah reported on Monday.
The report stated that the two agencies, which once enjoyed tight cooperation, had stopped exchanging intelligence and conducting joint operations following a Turkish government decision on the matter.
The report’s credibility remains unclear, but high-ranking Israeli officials privy to the matter neither confirmed nor denied it on Monday, and the prime minister’s bureau declined to comment.
In June, Amir Oren reported in Haaretz that Israeli security officials were deeply concerned by the appointment of Hakan Fidan to lead Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization. Fidan, a close associate of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is viewed as a proponent of closer relations between Turkey and Iran.
Meanwhile, Turkey has conditioned its consent to stationing a NATO missile-defense system on its territory on a guarantee that no information collected by the system be transferred to Israel.
Since the American-sponsored plan’s original purpose was to defend NATO countries against the possibility of an Iranian attack, this means Turkey is essentially demanding that Israel not be given vital information about Iranian missiles.
The previous U.S. administration had planned to station the system in eastern Europe. But due to fierce opposition from Russia, the Obama administration decided to relocate and scale back the system, which will now focus mainly on deterrence and on monitoring Iran’s missile program.
Turkey was initially reluctant to host the system at all, lest it damage Ankara’s relationship with Tehran. But since it is a NATO member, and since it faces growing criticism in the United States for its seeming turn away from the West, it said it would agree under certain conditions.
One was that the system officially be designated as aimed not against threats from Iran (or from Syria or Russia ), but against missile threats to Turkey and Europe in general. Another was direct Turkish access to any information gathered by the system. A third was full Turkish participation in any and all decisions stemming from information gathered by the system – which would enable it to work against any NATO move to attack Iran. And the fourth was that information gathered by the system not be given to any non-NATO member, and especially not to Israel.
Turkish sources said Washington has agreed to the demand that Iran not be designated as one of the system’s targets. They said it has also agreed that no information from the system will be shared with Israel, on the grounds that Israel has its own advanced missile-detection systems for tracking Iranian threats.
Washington, they noted, has little choice but to agree, since Turkey’s opposition would kill the plan: Aside from the fact that Washington needs Ankara’s consent to put the system on Turkish soil, the decision to establish the system requires unanimous consent by all NATO members. Moreover, Washington is under severe time pressure, as it hopes to get the project approved at the upcoming NATO summit on November 19.
Who Profits? – Financing the Israeli Occupation: Who Profits
To read the full report, follow this link
Israeli banks provide the financial infrastructure for all activities of companies, governmental agencies and individuals in the continuing occupation of Palestine and the Syrian Golan Heights. The services provided by the banks support and sustain these activities. Additionally, as this report shows, it is evident that the banks are well aware of the types and whereabouts of the activity that is being carried out with their financial assistance.
Our research has identified six categories of involvement of Israeli banks in the occupation. There is solid evidence of the involvement of most of the major Israeli commercial banks in these categories:
1. Providing mortgage loans for homebuyers in settlements
Israeli banks provide mortgages to individuals who wish to buy or build housing units in West Bank settlements. The purchased property is used as collateral for the return of the loan, as is standard with mortgage loans. Thus, the bank that provided the loan is a stakeholder in a real estate property in a settlement and, in cases of foreclosure, the bank may end up fully owning that property.
2. Providing special loans for building projects in settlements
Israeli banks provide loans for various construction firms for the explicit purpose of constructing housing projects in Israeli West Bank settlements. These are loans provided under terms which are regulated through “accompaniment agreements” (Heskemay Livuy), certain aspects of which are regulated under the Sale (Apartments) (Assurance of Investments of Purchasers of Apartments) Law – 1974. The relevant articles in the Sale Law ensure homebuyers that a bank vouches for the construction project, backs the construction company and protects the buyers’ investments by providing the purchasers with a bank guarantee. In some cases, the accompanying bank also holds the real estate property as collateral until all of the housing units in the project are sold to buyers. Homebuyers’ payments for the property are then all deposited in a dedicated bank account in the accompanying bank, and the bank monitors the financial status as well as the development of the project.
3. Providing financial services to Israeli local authorities in the West Bank and the Golan Heights
Regional councils, local councils and municipalities of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Golan Heights depend on the financial services provided by Israeli banks. Most importantly, Israeli banks provide loans to the local authorities of settlements, loans which are used for the development of infrastructure, the construction of public buildings and for providing municipal services to the residents of these settlements. Additional services to these local authorities include managing bank accounts, the provision of fund management services and the transfer of funds from the government and other sources, such as grants from the Israel National Lottery (Mifal HaPayis), to local authorities for the construction of schools, community centers and the like.
4. Operating branches in Israeli settlements
Most Israeli banks have several branches in Israeli settlements. Through these branches the banks provide financial services to settlers and to commercial companies in settlements. The bank branches are part of the service infrastructure that enables the continued development of the settlements.
5. Providing financial services to businesses in settlements
Israeli banks provide financial services to businesses in the settlements and to businesses whose entire commercial activity is related to the occupation. For instance, Israeli banks provide loans and offer bank accounts to factories which are in the industrial zones of settlements or whose main area of activity is the construction of settlements or infrastructure projects for the use of Israelis in the occupied area. The property of these businesses in the occupied area is, many times, used as collateral for such loans.
6. Benefiting from access to the Palestinian monetary market as a captured market
Restricted by the agreements which were signed between the Palestinians and the Israelis as part of the Oslo process, the Palestinian monetary market cannot operate a currency of its own. Palestinian banks are therefore dependent on other banks for the provision of financial services. While there are four currencies that can be used in the Palestinian market (Israeli shekel, EU euro, Jordanian dinar and US dollar), the Israeli shekel dominates most of this market because of the subordination of the Palestinian market to that of Israel. This relationship also means that monetary policy made by the Bank of Israel applies in an undemocratic manner in occupied Palestine, with the controvercial policies such as inflation-targeting, purchase of foreign currencies and an export-oriented economic strategy imposed upon Palestinian businesses and households, with no opportunity for Palestinian entities to have inputs into monetary governance. As is most often the case with non-Israeli banks that deal with the Israeli shekel, Palestinian banks have to rely on Israeli banks, which serve as correspondence banks, for the transfer of funds and shekel-clearing services. However, according to official Palestinian sources, to provide these services, the Israeli banks which supply them demand high cash collaterals, of more than a billion shekels in total, which are deposited, by the Palestinian banks, in the Israeli banks. Additionally, the Israeli banks charge high commissions for these services and impose limitations on the transfer of money, both of which increase the costs of such operations and the risks involved for the Palestinian banks. It should be noted that the Israeli banks are only willing to work with some of the Palestinian banks; the banks refuse to include the newer banks in these agreements. Due to this restriction, the ability of the newer Palestinian banks to operate is severely impaired, since they cannot directly transfer shekels to the Israeli banks and, thus, become dependent on other Palestinian banks. Consequently, this restriction hinders the ability of the Palestinian monetary market to grow and develop.
Additionally, as of the end of 2008, Israeli banks have severed their contractual connections with the Palestinian banks in Gaza and stopped providing any and all services to them. This has had a significant impact on the financial market in Gaza, bringing it to the brink of total collapse.
The six categories of activity specified herein clearly portray the scope and extent to which banks in Israel are implicated in the financing of occupation-related endeavors. It is evident that Israeli banks provide the financial basis for the construction of settlements, for the sustainability and maintenance of the settlements and for Israeli commercial activity in the occupied territory. Our report clearly illustrates that Israeli banks do not only provide these services and enable these activities, but are also fully aware of the type of activities for which they provide financial support. In addition, Israeli banks reap financial benefits for Israeli financial institutions from the subordination of the Palestinian financial market as a captured market.
In a more general perspective, it can be stated that any and all aspects of Israeli control over the occupied territory have a financial foundation and that none of these financial activities of individuals, organizations, governmental institutions and commercial companies could take place without the active support of banks. The findings of this research show that as the providers of these services, Israeli banks are principle beneficiaries of financial activity in the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and in Israeli control over the Palestinian financial market.
Netanyahu ‘salutes’ commandos who raided Gaza flotilla: Haaretz
PM tours top-security Shayetet 13 base in show of defiance against international censure of raid on Mavi Marmara.
Saying “I salute you,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the headquarters on Tuesday of Israeli naval commandos who killed nine pro-Palestinian Turks aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship in May.
Netanyahu’s tour of the top-security Shayetet 13 base on the coast near Haifa was a show of defiance against international censure of the raid on the converted cruise liner Mavi Marmara.
It followed testimony on Sunday from Israel’s military chief, who told a state-appointed inquest into the operation that the commandos had come under pistol, knife and cudgel
attacks while boarding and fired 308 live bullets in response.
Activists from the Mavi Marmara have confirmed they resisted the Israeli boarding party but denied provoking lethal violence.
Netanyahu said the May 31 raid on the Turkish-flagged vessel, one of six ships trying to run Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, had been “crucial, essential, important and legal”.
“Gaza has turned into an Iranian terror base,” he said, referring to the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas Islamists, in a speech to around 200 members of the unit.
He heaped praise on the commandos, saying they had acted “courageously, morally and with restraint”.
The night-time interception on Mediterranean high seas and the ensuing bloodshed strained Israel’s once-close ties with Turkey, which has demanded an apology and compensation.
A United Nations probe last month condemned the attack as unlawful and said it resulted in violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. UN jurists also said the Gaza blockade had caused a humanitarian crisis and was unlawful.
‘I salute you’
Flotilla 13 commandos had been equipped with riot-dispersal gear but quickly switched to live fire during deck brawls with dozens of activists. The ship had ignored Israeli calls to stop.
Two commandos were shot and wounded and another five suffered other injuries, the navy said. In addition to the nine Turkish dead, 24 activists were hurt, many of them by gunfire.
“You acted against those who came to kill you and tried to kill you,” said Netanyahu. “There is no one better than you. I salute you.”
He then met some of the commandos who took part in the raid, shaking their hands on a prow-shaped veranda overlooking the craggy bay at their Atlit base. They were shadowed by bodyguards and, out to sea, a squad of commandos in a speed boat.
Bristling at Turkish and other foreign fury over the Mavi Marmara raid yet wary of international war crimes suits, Israel set up its own inquiry to help prepare its submission for a separate probe under U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon.
Interim findings from that inquest, under retired Supreme Court justice Jacob Turkel, are due out in mid-November and the final report by early 2011, a spokesman said. Another internal investigation by an Israeli ex-general is already complete.
Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Israel and cancelled joint military exercises in protest at the Mavi Marmara raid and has dismissed the Israeli inquiries as insufficient.
Report: Caterpillar to delay supply of D9 bulldozers to IDF: Jerusalem Post
10/25/2010 21:31
Caterpillar, the company which supplies the IDF with bulldozers, has announced that it is delaying the supply of D9 bulldozers during the time that the trial of Rachel Corrie proceeds, Channel 2 reported on Monday.
The company does not usually manufacture a military version of the D9 but it has many features that make desirable for military applications and the IDF has used them extensively for operations.
Rachel Corrie was a US activist who was killed in Gaza seven years ago by a bulldozer driver who struck and killed her. Her family charged that the IDF and its officers had acted recklessly, using an armored Caterpillar D9R bulldozer without regard to the presence in the area of unarmed and nonviolent civilians.
Call for an academic and cultural boycott of the state of Israel
The state of Israel occupies Palestinian territory, and denies the Palestinian inhabitants basic human rights. The attacks on Gaza in 2009, and the brutal and illegal siege has shocked a whole world . Being in control of all of historic Palestine, Israel subjects the Palestinian population to daily harassment, forces them to abandon more and more areas and treats them as second-class citizens.. The situation has rightly been compared to the apartheid era in South Africa.
Israel refuses to comply with United Nation decisions and with international law, but is still not met with international sanctions. It is therefore imperative that ordinary people take up the challenge and put pressure on Israel. Israeli universities, research communities and cultural institutions play a key role in the continued occupation. Extensive cultural and research cooperation between Israel and the West has contributed to legitimize the Israeli policy of oppression.
We do not want to end the dialogue, but we want to resume responsibility and explain to our colleagues why we hold the position that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is unacceptable. The future for both Palestinians and Israelis depends on ending the occupation and on securing basic human rights for everybody living in the area. We do not believe this will happen without external pressure. There are also scientists, students, artists and cultural workers within Israel, who are publicly opposing the occupation. These groups are in need of international support.
Palestinian academics and intellectuals have repeatedly called upon their colleagues abroad to boycott academic and cultural institutions in Israel in order to end occupation and oppression.
We who sign this call – cultural workers and employees at universities, colleges, research institutions and cultural institutions in Norway – are heeding their call. We ask all cultural workers and artists, employees and students at Norwegian universities and colleges, as well as employees at research institutions and cultural institutions, to join us in this, by refraining from:
Research and cultural cooperation with the state of Israel’s universities, research institutions, art and cultural institutions, and representatives of these institutions.
Exchange of guest researchers, lecturers, exhibitors and artists with these institutions.
Awarding scholarships and research funds to such institutions and their representatives.
Participation at scientific conferences and cultural events in Israel with representatives of such institutions.
At the same time we call for cooperation with and support for organizations and individuals in Israel, including research workers, students, artists and cultural workers who are working to end the occupation and the denial of human rights for Palestinians.
We finally call on the boards of Norwegian academic and cultural institutions, and on the associations and unions of artists and of employees at universities, colleges and research institutions, as well as on student organizations in Norway, to support this boycott.
100 persons from the Norwegian cultural and academic field support the boycott at launching:
Fritz Albregtsen, professor UiO
Vanja Alling, PhD-student UiO
Paal Bjelke Andersen, forfatter/forlegger
Bård Berg, førsteaman. UiT
Sissel Mutale Bergh,billedkunstner/skribent
Bjørn Bjarre, billedkunstner
Aud Karin Bjørn, forsker
Mari Boine, musiker
Agnes Bolsø, førsteaman. NTNU
Aslak Borgersrud, musiker
Ole Jacob Bull, rådgiver
Bjørgulf Claussen, professor UiO
Torstein Dahle, høgskolelektor HiB
Ingegjerd Dillan, billedkunstner
Anneli Drecker, musiker
Hans Ebbing, magister UiB
Lasse Efskind, ortoped/forfatter
Anders Eiebakke, billedkunstner
Arild Eriksen, sivilarkitekt
Åshild Fause, førsteaman. UiT
Gro Finne, billedkunstner
Jan Terje Faarlund, professor UiO
Mads Gilbert, professor/overlege UiT
Roger Gjerstad, billedkunstner
Espen Goffeng, stud.samf.geo.
Toril Goksøyr, billedkunstner
Nadir Guendouz, Nordic Black Theatre
Øystein Grønning, arkitekt
Willy Guneriussen, professor UiT
Line Halvorsen, filmskaper
Hannah Helseth, sosiolog/forfatter
Kirsti Henriksen, univ. lektor UiT
Erik Hillestad, musikkprodusent KKV
Ingvild Holm, scenekunstner Ketil Hylland, professor UiO
Marianne Hølmebakk, billedkunstner
Arnold Johansen, billedkunstner
Svein Flygari Johansen, billedkunstner
Morten Krogh, billedkunstner/prof. emer.
Sonja Krohn, billedkunstner
Andrea Lange, billedkunstner
Benjamin Endré Larsen, stipendiat UiO
Søren Larsen, dr. philos. UiO
Morten Levin, professor NTNU
Sonja Lid, forfatter
Truls Lie, redaktør/filmskaper
Arild Linneberg, professor UiB
Mass Soldal Lund, forsker
Liv Lundberg, professor UiT/poet
Peder Martin Lysestøl, førstelektor HiST
Ketil Magnussen, leder, Oslo Dokumentarkino
Anna Lange Malmanger, kunsthistoriker
Camilla Martens, billedkunstner
Pierre Matte, billedkunstner
Elisabeth Medbøe, billedkunstner
Georges Midré, professor UiT
Trond Peter Stamsøe Munch, skuespiller
Brit Mæhlum, professor NTNU
Trond Nordby, professor UiO
Torill Nustad, leder NTL v UiT
Gert Nygårdshaug, forfatter
Egil Drillo Olsen, landslagstrener
Ole Johnny Olsen, førsteaman. UiB
Ragnar Olsen, musiker/dramatiker
Tommy Olsson, kunstkritiker/kunstner
Torgeir Rebolledo Pedersen, forfatter/dramatiker
Beate Petersen, billedkunstner/skribent
Henrik Placht, billedkunstner Per Platou, kunstner/kurator
Brita Pollan, religionsforsker/forfatter
Hege Ramson, skribent
Jan Åge Riseth, seniorforsker NORUT
Ingvild H Rishøi, forfatter
Arne Ruste, forfatter
Per Rygvold, kurator
Kjetil Røed, kunstkritiker
Knut H Røed, professor NVH
Gerdi Schjelderup, skuespiller
Tore Sivertsen, førsteaman. NVH
Rune Skarstein, førsteaman. NTNU
Tom Skauge, førsteaman. HiB.
Eystein Skjerve, professor NVH
Ánde Somby, førsteaman. UiT
Bente Sommerfeldt-Colberg, billedkunstner
Willibald Storn, billedkunstner
Morten Strøksnes, forfatter/journalist
Jørn H Sværen, forfatter/musiker
Ann Rudinow Sætnan, professor NTNU
Pia Tellefsen, skuespiller
Kjell Underlid, professor HiB
Jan Vardøen, musiker/restaurantør
Pål Vigeland, billedkunstner
Edvard Vogt, prof. emer. UiB
Tor Øystein Vaaland, journalist/teolog
Bo K. Wallström, kunstner/rådgiver KORO
Ebba Wergeland, dr. med.
Lene Westerås, redaktør/forfatter
Snorre Ytterstad, billedkunstner
Audun Øfsti, prof. emer. NTNU
Nils Aarsæther, professor UiT
Uproar at Tel Hai College: Nakba marked on calendar: Ynet
Tomer Velmer
20.10.10
Students return identity cards after finding out college calendar marks Palestinian commemoration days. `What`s next? Will they mark Six-Day War as national occupation day?` One of them asks
Students at the Tel Hai Academic College discovered Wednesday that Nakba Day, Land Day and a day commemorating the Arab-Israelis killed during the October 2000 events are marked on the Student Union`s calendar.
On Nakba Day Palestinians commemorate the `catastrophe` of Israel`s inception in 1948, while Land Day commemorates the Israeli government`s announcement in 1976 of a plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of land for security and settlement purposes.`
The outraged students returned their student cards as an act of protest and said, `It cannot be that in a community which symbolizes Zionism the symbols of Israel`s enemies are sanctified.`
Thousands of students at Tel-Hai received the calendar as a gift from the Student Union for the beginning of the academic year. `I was sitting in class with some friends, and out of boredom we looked through the calendar. We came across a page in which Nakba Day was marked proudly, as if it were the Jewish New Year or Passover eve,` said one of the students. `It was so bizarre that at first we didn`t comprehend what we were seeing.`
Nelson Mandela`s statement, `For to be free is not merely to cast off one`s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others` was written under `Nakba Day,` leading the protesting students to believe that the Palestinian days of commemoration were purposely marked on the calendar.
`As students we have no problem with any political affiliation, and the calendar should of course include dates that are important to all religions, but marking the Palestinian commemoration days is disrespectful and shames the State of Israel,` another student said.
`What`s next? Will they mark the Six Day War as the `Day of national occupation`? There are those in our college who are ashamed of our Zionist identity, but we are proud to be studying in Yosef Trumpeldor`s community,` he added.
Zeev Greenberg, dean of students at Tel Hai College, said the chairman of the Student Union was not aware that the Palestinian days of commemoration were marked in the calendar.
`The union was told that if another such incident repeats itself the college will stop funding it,` he stressed.
The Student Union expressed regret over the `unfortunate mishap,` but added, `We represent the entire student body at the college, Arabs and Jews alike, and therefore it was important for us to mark the holidays of all the students who are enrolled here.`
The Student Union said the calendar was produced off campus, adding that it did not sanction the addition of the Palestinian commemoration days to the calendar.
OECD and Israel’s “tourist” colonization of Syria’s Golan: The Electronic Intifada
Charlotte Silver, 25 October 2010
On 20 and 21 October, the 86th session of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) tourism committee was held in Jerusalem. Leading up to the conference, there was conjecture on how the member countries in attendance would handle Israel’s tourism policies regarding the occupied territories: the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights.
The Palestine Liberation Organization called on countries to boycott the meeting, saying that it served to condone Israel’s illegal annexation of Jerusalem. The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee also called on the OECD to relocate the conference.
After failing to be accepted into the OECD in 1994 and 2000, Israel became a member of the international organization in May 2010. Membership to the OECD is considered a mark of prestige, as it is restricted only to developed democracies, making it known as an “exclusive club.”
Israel’s ascension into the OECD has stirred debate over whether or not Israel’s policies regarding the territories it occupies prevent it from meeting the OECD’s allegedly high standards for membership. However, the OECD asserts it can see beyond Israel’s occupation policies and simply focus on the country’s economy.
In the Alternative Information Center’s publication “Israel and the OECD,” economist Shir Hever points out that this distinction is dubious because while internationally-accepted borders date to before the June 1967 War, Israel actually controls much more land. “Israeli statistics render it impossible to get an accurate view of the Israeli economy excluding the occupied territories, as the illegal settlements are included in every piece of data,” Hever writes.
While Israel collects data on Israeli citizens living in settlements built on occupied land, it ignores Palestinians living in those same territories. Hever writes that “By excluding almost four million Palestinian subjects of Israeli occupation from the statistics, Israel creates a distorted and unrealistic image of its economy. It masks the stark inequality in income and in standards of living; it masks the deep poverty of large segments of the population.”
Thus, the OECD has accepted an economic profile of Israel that is deceptive as it portrays the country as possessing a standard of economic welfare and equality that does not exist. “[Joining the OECD] was part of a strategy adopted by Israel in 1990 to use the Oslo process as leverage to become more integrated and positively viewed in the international community,” writes Hever.
Tourism
Earlier this month, Israel’s minister of tourism, Stas Misezhnikov, claimed that the OECD had recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by agreeing to hold the tourism conference there. Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the OECD, publicly corrected this assertion, and reproached Misezhnikov for making it, stating that the claims were “factually incorrect and quite unacceptable.”
Gurria’s comment revealed the crucial contradiction in the OECD’s association with Israel. It may have slapped Israel on the wrist for Misezhnikov’s bold claim, but meanwhile it is entering into a collaborative and supportive relationship that will no doubt serve to expand Israel’s tourism activities in occupied areas.
While the OECD may have been able to convince itself that it is possible to separate Israel’s tourism industry and economy from its occupation policies, Israel knows how crucial it is to do quite the opposite. Misezhnikov’s claim reflects that Israel sees tourism as playing a pivotal role in suppressing the country’s controversial and highly politicized character.
The website of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism spotlights the many natural as well as historic and religious sites that are unique to Israel. Moreover, it unapologetically promotes regions and attractions that are laden with political controversy.
For example, the site touts the Bedouin community as a tourist attraction, boasting their great hospitality and authentic lifestyle in the face of the sixth demolition of al-Arakib, the Bedouin village in the Negev.
In similar fashion, the tourism website features the occupied Golan Heights as a “geographic region” of Israel, and describes its stunning scenery, archaeological sites and many environmental tourism features.
Golan Heights
The Golan Heights was captured and occupied by Israel during the June 1967 War. It was annexed in 1981, in violation of international law, UN Security Council resolutions and Israel’s treaty arrangements with Syria as well as the 1978 Camp David Accords. There are currently 21,000 Syrian nationals and 19,083 Jewish settlers living in the Golan Heights, according to the Golan for Development group and Foundation for Middle East Peace, respectively.
As a tourist in the Golan Heights, I was shown the various layers of historical rule of the land — from the Greek to the Roman, Mamluk and Ottoman Empires. Ancient ruins scattered throughout the Golan Heights are neatly connected by roads, signs and directions provided by the Israel Nature and Parks Authorities. However, on my way from one ancient ruin to the next, I also saw the remains of other buildings — “ruins” that appeared to be of more recent creation.
These are the remnants of some of the 134 Arab villages that were destroyed by Israel during and after the 1967 war, and are left with no commentary and no explanation. By expunging the recent traces of Syrian identity to the land, Israel entrenches its control over the Golan Heights.
According to Dr. Taiseer Maray, the General Director of Golan for Development, a nonprofit organization located in the Syrian village of Majdal Shams, Israel has employed various tactics in an effort to erase the Syrian historical and national identity in the Golan Heights.
There are five surviving Syrian villages that comprise five percent of the Golan Heights, the area that was not confiscated by Israel in 1967. These Syrian villages remain steadfast in their resistance to Israeli domination.
Israel adopted the Golan Heights Law in 1981, extending Israeli civil administration to the territory. This replaced the harsh military rule that had governed the region since it was occupied in 1967. Maray says that “Military government was very strict and tried to break us from the beginning but the outcome was the opposite. People united with each other and started resisting.”
According to Maray, in the 1980s there were many clashes between Syrian nationals and the Israeli army, reaching a peak in 1982 when villagers held a six-month strike after Israel demanded Syrians become Israeli citizens.
In the last five years, Israel has adopted a new strategy to break Syrian will for independence: allowing more Syrian businesses to develop for tourism. In this way, Israel hopes to make Syrians less interested in resisting the occupation, and more interested in making a profit.
For example, five years ago it was nearly impossible for any Syrian national living in the Golan Heights to obtain a permit to rent rooms to tourists. Now, Israel has permitted enough business development so that there is a hotel in Majdal Shams, and there is currently a master plan for tourism being developed.
“It’s one of the ways to make us assimilate in Israeli society; by making life easier, they hope to make us busy with business and not think about resisting Israel,” Maray said. “In this way they hope we will forget our historical and national identity.”
Founded in 1991, Golan for Development aims to counter this push for assimilation through dispersing information and through alternative tourism and educational forums.
“Israel tries to present the Golan Heights as part of Israel and we try to present the reality of the occupation,” Maray said.
Meanwhile, Israel’s attempts to normalize the occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem through the conference were frustrated. Norway, Spain, Britain and Turkey all refused to participate in the Jerusalem meeting. This sanction signals that the reasoning behind boycotting Israeli institutions — whether they are overtly political or not — has begun to supplant the tired rhetoric that tries to sell engagement as a means to peace.
Charlotte Silver is a litigation assistant at the American Civil Liberties Union, Immigrant Rights Project and was active in the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement at Stanford. She lives in San Francisco and can be reached at charlottesilver A T gmail D O T com.