EDITOR: The Chickens come home to roost
Ari Shavit is not exactly on the left in Israel, and his normal writing is quite nationalistic and main-stream. If he now compares the West Bank settlements to the striken nuclear plant in Fukushima, then something quite deep may be changing in Israeli society, maybe as a result of the changes in the Arab world since the beginning of this year.
West Bank settlements are Israel’s nuclear meltdown: Haaretz
The settlers are like the nuclear power station in Fukushima – a grandly built project of huge proportions, which was set up in the wrong place on the basis of false assumptions.
By Ari Shavit
On quite a few occasions this week, my mobile phone vibrated with text messages from the settlers’ lobby, Yesha. Once it was a quote from Minister Gideon Sa’ar (we must resume construction in Judea and Samaria ). Another time it was a quote from Minister Gilad Erdan (stop holding up the construction tenders in Judea and Samaria ). The third time it was a quote from MK Zeev Elkin (it’s time to build cities in Judea and Samaria ). The fourth time it was a quote from MK Yariv Levin (I demand the cabinet and Minister Barak approve construction in Judea and Samaria cities at once! ). The fifth time it was a quote from Minister Moshe Ya’alon (out of the mourning we must build and develop the settlements in Judea and Samaria ).
At first I thought all these texts were a Purim prank. After all, it’s inconceivable that intelligent people like Sa’ar, Erdan and Ya’alon still don’t understand what a disaster the settlements have brought upon us. It’s unthinkable that the sensible manager of the settlers’ council still doesn’t understand what a disaster additional construction in the settlements will bring upon us. It’s not possible that the settlers are still such space cadets.
But after six-seven texts, I realized it was no prank and no Purim. Those detached souls are really out of it. These delusionals are totally delusionary. The right has learned nothing and forgotten nothing, and continues to live in a parallel universe. There is no way out, then. A counter text must be sent to these guys from the right wing. Here is the text:
The settlers are like the nuclear power station in Fukushima – a grandly built project of huge proportions, which was set up in the wrong place on the basis of false assumptions. The builders of the Japanese power station didn’t take into account that one day the earth would quake and register a 9.0 magnitude on the Richter scale. Nor did the settlement builders. The Japanese power station builders didn’t take into account that one day the tsunami would strike it. Nor did the settlements’ builders. But both there and here the earth shook. The tsunami struck. The Fukushima power station turned into a nightmare; so did the settlements project.
The truth must be told: It was not the settlements that caused the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and stopping them will not end the conflict. But the settlements are escalating the conflict, and continuing construction in the settlements will cause Israel to lose it. So the settlements must be stopped not only for peace, but for national security. To ensure Israel’s future and to save Zionism.
The moral issue can be debated. The left will say the settlements are expressly immoral, and the right will say the settlements are supremely moral. But the realpolitik issue cannot be disputed. The settlers have won the campaign on the hills but lost the campaign in the world. For that reason, the settlements today are beyond the legitimate international fence. And they are putting Israel beyond the legitimate international fence.
The radioactive cloud of illegitimacy rising from the settlements is moving toward Israel and endangering its existence.
When the Fukushima power station was build in the ’70s, it was possible to hope that it would endure any earthquake and any surging wave. When the settlements were built in the ’70s and ’80s, it was possible to hope they would endure any political storm. Today it is clear that both hopes have been shattered. The Japanese power company’s basic assumptions and those of Gush Emunim (a messianic movement advocating Israeli sovereignty in the territories ) were found to be groundless. They led to building tremendous energy generators on the most dangerous fraction line possible.
It is inconceivable that after what has happened, the Japanese would set up a seventh and eighth reactor on the beach. It is inconceivable that after what has been discovered, the Israelis would set up more settlements on the mountain. The future is staring at us in the face – a massive project built 40 years ago is threatening the state that built it.
The radiation emanating from it is lethal. Enough with the texts, guys. Enough with floating out there in space. It’s time to cool down the settlements, extinguish them and look for alternative energy sources. It’s time to go back home.
EDITOR: Why the great shock?
The whole of Israeli society was deeply shocked after the murder of the settler family in Itamar, in the occupied West Bank. The same people were not in the least shocked when their troops murderted over 400 Palestinian children, and over 1000 adults, in the Cast Lead massacres in Gaza. Is Jewish blood thicker? It seems so.
A funeral for the State of Israel: Haaretz
In this unbearable week, the Fogel family has been all but forgotten in the welter of uses that have been made of them, polemic, political, personal.
By Bradley Burston
All this week I’ve resisted putting something terrible into words.
All this week I’ve been wondering why the Jerusalem burial ceremony for Ruth and Udi Fogel, their infant daughter Hadas and their two small sons Yoav and Elad, seemed so much like a funeral for the State of Israel itself.
What was the meaning of this funeral, and of the monstrous crime of slaughtering a lovely young family in its sleep? For the religious right, it seemed to be saying: This is what you can expect, now and forever, over and again, until the Messiah comes to put an end to this unbearable, unextinguished anguish.
For the rest of us, it seemed to be saying, if possible, something even worse:
This is exactly what you can expect. This is your future. An endless procession of killings and escalation and enmity and settlement and condemnation and heartbreak and no negotiations and a broken Jewish people and no compromise and more settlement and a shattered Judaism, until the day that a vote is taken and the Palestinians are more numerous than we, and the flag which is based on the prayer shawl and the Shield of David is pulled down for the last time.
For years now, and especially over the last decade, the adults on both sides have made children into legitimate targets. And now we, the adults on both sides, have made slain children into legitimate tools – for incitement, for escalation, for the production of more deaths of the innocent and the defenseless.
The length of this unbearable week, the Fogel family has been all but forgotten in the welter of uses that have been made of them, polemic, political, personal. No one felt this, nor expressed this, more powerfully than Motti Fogel, Udi’s younger brother, whose quiet words at the funeral struck chords deeper than did the agenda-ridden speechmaking of the high and mighty.
“All the slogans about Torah and settlement, the Land of Israel and the people of Israel are attempts to forget the simple and pain-torn fact: you are dead. You are dead, and no slogan will bring you back.
“You are not a symbol or a national event. Your life was a purpose in and of itself, and it should be forbidden for your terrible death to turn your life into some sort of tool.”
We are not the same people that we were before these murders. On both sides, the killing of children leaves terrible scars. The scars tempt us to feel the deaths of our own children and somehow process or deny or legitimize or excuse away the deaths on the side of our neighbor. Our enemy. Even worse, in some respects, than an eye for an eye, is the state to which we have descended – a blind eye for a blind eye.
If there is any meaning at all to this week and to this tragedy, it is this: No child is an enemy. No child.
If there is any hope in this, it may be in the words of a Palestinian shopkeeper in Nablus, the city a few miles north of the Fogels’ home in Itamar, a city Israelis have long feared as a center of some of the bitterest of their enemies.
“They were people who were at home, sleeping, in their place of safety,” the merchant said of the Fogels, out loud, on television. “Just like that – to come in and kill them with a knife? Where is your heart? Where is your sense of mercy? Where is your humanity? Where? This is simply – this man has no heart. He has nothing. Whoever did this is an animal.”
If there is any lesson in this, it is that the children of Itamar, of Nablus, of Jerusalem, of Rafah, of Tel Aviv, deserve better from us. We can choose to believe that the Gaza child throwing candies to celebrate the murders represents the will of the Palestinian people as a whole, just as Palestinians can decide that the Jewish child in the Sheikh Jarrah settlement who will on Sunday night sing Purim songs celebrating Baruch Goldstein, represents the will of the Jewish people as a whole.
Or we can choose to believe that all of us, Palestinian and Jew, are nothing more or less than human beings, loving, caring and, yes, mortally imperfect. And that most of us, on both sides, are people who, despite everything – despite their grief and their rage and their one-sided, blind-eye narrative and their truly unjust history and the guaranteed injustice of any possible solution – actually want the same thing: a future for their children in an independent country living alongside and at peace with the people who are now their enemy.
For every child. Both sides. For every child.
Richard Silverstein: The kidnapping of Dirar Abu Seesi: IOA
13 MARCH 2011
Not for the first time, Seattle, WA-based “blogger” Richard Silverstein plays a key role in revealing news stories about Israeli government activities — whether anti-democratic acts or outright crimes, as is the case now. Much more than a “blogger,” Silverstein’s role in exposing such Israeli actions has been very important in that it exposed Israeli acts against Palestinians and others who stand in the way of “The Only Democracy in the Middle East.”
The latest story involves the kidnapping in the Ukraine of a Palestinian man responsible for running the Gaza power plant, suspected to have been carried out by the Israeli Mossad, and his jailing at a secret location in Israel by the Shabak (Shin Bet). In addition to the kidnapping — Extraordinary Rendition — Israel has also placed a gag-order on the case, apparently including a prohibition on Mr. Abu Seesi’s state-appointed attorney to discuss the case.
According to Silverstein,
Israel, in kidnapping him, has violated at least one major UN human rights convention (and probably many other sections of international law), the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The document has been signed by 110 countries with several notable exceptions including Israel and the U.S.
TA University operates undercover campus security force: Haaretz
A recent announcement published by the TAU students union calls on students who served in elite IDF combat units to join the university’s security detail voluntarily.
Tel Aviv University operates an undercover security force on campus, in addition to the armed guards at the entrances. The undercover detail, consisting of volunteer students, is intended as emergency back-up in case of a terror attack in the university grounds, TAU sources said.
A recent announcement published by the TAU students union calls on students who served in elite IDF combat units to join the university’s security detail voluntarily.
“They gave them weapons owned by the university and very clear instructions, and they had a special shirt, hat and card they could pull out in case of emergency,” said a TAU graduate who was involved in setting up the security detail over five years ago.
A student who recently applied to join the detail says he was told “the job does not require training but going over several regulations,” he said. “The procedure is not expected to take more than two hours. [They said] the job is only when you’re on campus, and then if an event occurs you will be spoken to.”
TAU officials said the volunteer detail operates as part of the university’s security department as a reserve force in case of a terror attack. “The volunteers are armed with university-owned weapons and undergo a periodical training similar to the one given security guards. In case of a terror attack, they can be called in to help,” university spokeswoman Orna Cohen said, in answer to Haaretz’ query.
However, security officials who heard of the volunteer detail said excessive motivation, weapons and the lack of an organized unit could lead to disaster in case of emergency. “The university’s demand for former elite commandos implies it wants a force that can act in extreme cases, like when a terrorist holes up in the university or starts firing in all directions,” a reserve IDF commando officer said.
“Despite their past training and experience, they will find that without coordination and planning it is very difficult to act effectively in a terror incident,” he said.
TAU lecturers and staff members were surprised to hear of the semi-security detail consisting of students operating on campus.
Attorney Dan Yakir, legal advisor for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said “‘Secret agents’ units operating in TAU is worrying. The very operation of such a detail is wrong, as is basing it on volunteers. Academic campuses should by nature be free, safe places. The security guards in them should be employees who have been properly trained, act within clear rules and are identified by their uniform,” Yakir said.
TAU officials said the volunteers’ authorities are similar to those of the university’s security guards. The security guards’ instructions authorize them to detain a suspect up to three hours, search a person’s effects and vehicle and use reasonable force to catch a suspect and hold him until police arrive, prevent sabotage, stop the public disorder on campus, etc.
“They’re not looking for sheriffs,” a student explained. “They say if you have a weapon from your work in another place, the university would like to keep in touch with you. It’s a sort of on-call detail, but as far as I know it has never been activated.”
The TAU website says the security detail’s job is to maintain security and keep order on campus, deal with and enforce [the rules] of traffic and parking on campus, man the security hotline 24 hours a day and issue tags and entrance permits to the campus.
Students who volunteer for the undercover detail receive a parking permit on campus – an extremely coveted commodity.
Egypt’s opposition mulls to form coalition to run for elections: Ahram Online
ElBaradei supporters, traditional opposition parties and the Muslim Brotherhood prepare for legislative elections by announcing a common programme
Salma Hussein, Thursday 17 Mar 2011
A broad spectrum of opposition groups have adopted the initiative of the Muslim Brotherhood of forming a common front with a unified programme to run as one bloc for legislative elections.
The bloc includes, along with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Al-Wafd (liberal), Nasserist and Tagammu (leftist) parties, in addition to previously banned parties like Karama (Nasserist) and Labour (Islamist).
The National Association for Change of Mohamed ElBaradei adhered the initiative.
The fifth round of negotiations and coordination was held yesterday at the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo.
Al-Wafd party president, El-Sayed El-Badawi, announced in a press conference at the end of the meeting that the guidelines of a common programme are already in place. It includes political, social and economic features and even a foreign policy framework.
“Copts voiced their worries towards the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Wafd Party member Ramy Lakah, concerns that Muslim Brotherhood leaders saw as legitimate, promising to work on calming their fears through practical steps, without specifying these steps nor a timeline.
Israel approves 500 new homes in West Bank settlements in response to Itamar attack: Haaretz
Ministerial committee on settlements with participation of Netanyahu and Barak approves further settlement building as response to the fatal stabbing in West Bank settlement in which family of five were slain.
The ministerial committee on settlement affairs decided Saturday night to approve the construction of hundreds of housing units in several West Bank settlements, a move that came in response to a deadly attack on a family of five in the settlement of Itamar on Friday.
The approval of further settlement building follows several long months wherein no construction was approved. The move involves measured construction of several hundred housing units within settlement blocs.
Some 500 housing units are due for construction in the settlements of Gush Etzion, Ma’ale Adumim, Ariel, and Kiryat Sefer.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak took part in the meeting on Saturday night. During the discussion, several alternatives to further settlement building were discussed, such as starting a new settlement, or widening the settlement of Itamar but the end the decision, supported by Barak, was to continue construction in settlement blocs.
The Fogel family was killed Friday night when a suspected terrorist broke into their home in the West Bank settlement of Itamar and stabbed them all to death.
The prime minister’s office notified the White House on Saturday night of Israel’s intention to approve new settlement construction. A government official said that this was a strategic decision to build in settlements that will remain in Israel’s control in any possible peace agreement with the Palestinians.
No let-up in Gaddafi offensive: Al Jazeera English
Libyan leader warns the people of Benghazi his army is coming with full force and there will be “no mercy”.
Last Modified: 17 Mar 2011 20:07
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Air strikes have been reported from the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, and fierce clashes elsewhere, as forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi continued their offensive against opposition forces.
In a radio address on Thursday, Gaddafi called pro-democracy fighters in Benghazi “armed gangsters” and urged residents to attack them.
“You all go out and cleanse the city of Benghazi,” he said.
“We will track them down, and search for them, alley by alley, road by road … Massive waves of people will be crawling out to rescue the people of Benghazi, who are calling out for help, asking us to rescue them. We should come to their rescue.”
He suggested that residents had been tricked by forces acting against Libya, and urged them to lay down their arms. he said those who did would not be harmed.
“And I, Muammar Gaddafi, I will die for my people. With God’s help,” he said.
Thousands of people gathered in the city as he spoke, chanting angry slogans in opposition to him.
Earlier in the day, Gaddafi promised a “decisive battle” to recapture the rebel-held town of Misurata, undaunted by growing international pressure for a UN-sponsored no-fly zone over Libya to rein him in.
“The battle continues at Misurata on Thursday, that will be the decisive battle,” state television quoted Gaddafi as saying.
“You are going to be called to take up arms and on Thursday you will take part in the battle,” he added, addressing a group of young people from Misurata.
Gaddafi urged his audience “not to leave Misurata hostage in the hands of a handful of madmen”.
Military threat
On Tuesday, Libyan state television said the army would soon move against the rebel-stronghold of Benghazi, while a day before Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam had predicted that everything would be over within 48 hours.
Mussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, said on Thursday that Misurata was “almost entirely under control. This is the final stage. It should be over by [Friday] morning”.
Meanwhile, fresh air strikes hit Benghazi on Thursday, Tony Birtley, Al Jazeera’s correspondent there reported. One of the strikes targeted the city’s airport at Benina. An opposition spokesman said the other strikes hit Buatani (to the east of Benghazi), an area to the northwest and the town of Qaminis, about 50km south of the city.
Al Jazeera’s Birtley said the Libyan people hope a no-fly zone will be enforced, however, “they are feeling more and more that basically everything lies in their own hands”.
“What they are calling for now is weapons and money to bolster and train their forces and to make a credible defence.
“They are still holding out, so fears that Benghazi is just going to fall are unfounded at the moment,” he said.
Essam Gheirani, an opposition spokesman, claimed that fighters in Benghazi had shot down two government warplanes, but when investigating the supposed site of one of the crashes, Birtley reported that he was unable to find any sign of a crashed aircraft.
Meanwhile, opposition fighters in the western city of Zintan, about 120km southwest of the capital Tripoli, said they were bracing for an attack by forces loyal to Gaddafi.
“According to the fighters, forces loyal to Gaddafi are trying to encircle Zintan. There are troop movements around the north and southwest. They expect a big attack on the city. I heard no gunfire this morning. They say they blocked the main column [of tanks] during the night,” a witness told the AFP news agency.
Fighting in Ajdabiya
Stung by an uprising against his more than 41-year-old rule, Gaddafi has unleashed his forces to wrest control of territories seized by the rebels.
Though his well-trained and heavily armed forces have registered significant successes in recent days, a rebel spokesman in Misurata, which lies 150km from the capital Tripoli, said on Wednesday they had beaten back an attack by loyalist forces on the city, killing 80 of Gaddafi’s men.
Meanwhile, fighting is raging for the control of Ajdabiya, the gateway to Benghazi.
A doctor told the AFP news agency that fighting was still going on in and around the town, which also guards the road to Tobruk and the Egyptian border in the rebel-held east.
“We received four bodies today, all rebel fighters,” Abdelkarim Mohammed said, adding that 22 bodies, mainly civilians killed by artillery or air strikes, had been brought in on Tuesday.
In Tobruk, Al Jazeera’s James Bays reported that there was concern on the part of pro-democracy fighters that Gaddafi’s forces were attempting to encircle the opposition-held areas.
UN vote
The battles raged as the United Nations Security Council planned to vote on Thursday on a draft resolution that would not only introduce a no-fly zone over Libya but may also authorise the use of air strikes to stop the advance of forces loyal to Gaddafi.
Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to the UN, said that his country would be pushing for an agreement to reached by 2200GMT on Thursday. Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, said his country will be pushing for a strengthening of economic sanctions on Libya.
Martin Nesirky, a spokesman of Ban Ki-moon, said the secretary-general was “gravely concerned” about signs that Gaddafi was preparing to attack Benghazi.
“A campaign to bombard such an urban centre would massively place civilian lives at risk,” he said.
“The secretary-general is urging all parties in this conflict to accept an immediate ceasefire and to abide by Security Council resolution 1970.”
“In the coming hours we will see a real genocide if the international community does not act quickly”
Ibrahim Dabbashi,
Deputy Libyan UN ambassador
UN passed a resolution on February 26 which called for an end to Gaddafi’s onslaught against his opponents and imposed sanctions against his regime.
Ibrahim Dabbashi, the deputy Libyan UN ambassador, warned that, “in the coming hours we will see a real genocide if the international community does not act quickly.”
Dabbashi, who defected early on from the Gaddafi regime, said “about five” Arab states were ready to help police the no-fly zone if it was adopted.
In Cairo on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said: “We want to do what we can to protect innocent Libyans against the marauders let loose by the Gaddafi regime.
“And yes, time is fast upon us. There is an urgency to it,” she said.
Clinton stopped short of explicitly backing a no-fly zone, saying only that it was one of several options under consideration.
Washington joined Britain and France in pressing for a Security Council vote Thursday on a no-fly zone to halt Gaddafi’s attacks.
Britain, France and Lebanon, on behalf of the Arab League, have been seeking to overcome resistance to a no-fly zone.
Al Jazeera’s Bays in Tobruk said that people in the city said they were confident of winning against Gaddafi, but still needed international help.
“I can tell you that when you speak to the people here, they say they’re winning, they say they’re beating back Gaddafi. Then you ask them the question should the international community do more, and they say ‘Yes, we’re all going to die if they don’t help’. So very contradictory answers to those questions,” Bays reported on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Libyan military on Thursday warned that any foreign military intervention in the country would endanger air and sea traffic in the Mediterranean.
“Any military operation against Libya will expose all air and maritime traffic in the Mediterranean to danger,” the state Jana news agency quoted Libya’s defence ministry spokesman as saying.
“And any civilian or military moving traffic will be the target of a Libyan counter-offensive,” he said. “The Mediterranean basin will be exposed to grave danger, not just in the short term but also in the long term.”
Israeli Security Shifts Focus from Armed Palestinian Resistance to Suppressing Non-Violent Activists: Alternet
Abdullah Abu Rahmah served 16 months in prison for his role in organizing demonstrations against Israeli land annexation in his West Bank border village.
March 16, 2011
Entering his home in the West Bank village of Bi’lin for the first time in 16 months, after being released from an Israeli military prison, Palestinian popular struggle leader Abdullah Abu Rahmah was enthusiastically welcomed as a hero by family, villagers and supporters.
In a house now draped in banners featuring his image alongside that of Yasser Arafat and jailed Second Intifada resistance leader, Marwan Baraghouti, Abu Rahmah expressed mixed emotions about returning from prison into regular life under occupation.
“I’m very happy to be with my family and friends but at the same time I’m very sad about the people still in jail, all the people denied their friends and family. This makes me very angry and all Palestinians must be released,” he said between embraces.
It was the first public appearance for the leading figure of the village’s six-year struggle since he appeared on a cold January morning in a packed military courtroom to hear that his sentence had been extended, after more than a year in prison.
Sentenced in December 2010 to 12 months in prison for his role in organizing demonstrations against Israel’s wall and land annexation in his West Bank border village, Abu Rahmah’s imprisonment was extended by four months on appeal by the military prosecution. European diplomats present at the hearing responded by issuing statements calling him a prisoner of conscience and condemning his jailing.
Abu Rahmah’s completed incarceration is the most high-profile example of what appears to be a shift in Israel’s security priorities — from targeting the armed Palestinian resistance to primarily focusing on Palestinian and Israeli activists involved in popular protest and building international pressure abroad. It was a point made clear during the verdict on the prosecution’s appeal. When I approached the Palestinian grassroots activist in the prisoner’s box for comment before the proceedings began, the military prison security became visibly nervous, intervening immediately and silencing Abu Rahmah before he could get a sentence out.
The first signs of this new focus could be seen as early as 2007 when Shin Bet head, Yuval Diskin, sent a letter to organizations that defend the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel. In the letter, Diskin stated that the intent of Israel’s General Security Services was to “thwart the subversive activity of entities seeking to harm the character of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, even if their activity is conducted through democratic means.”
The target of this rhetoric was then expanded in December 2010 when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would “use all the resources at its disposal” to “delegitimize the delegitimizers.” The statement was directed at Palestinian and Israeli activists bringing international attention to Israeli abuses of Palestinians, particularly the growing international Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The BDS movement seeks to help achieve equal rights for Palestinians, such as the right to self determination and the right of return for refugees, through building international pressure on Israel and its supporters.
“With BDS so widely spread and rooted globally, non-violent resistance leaders are seen by Israel as even more dangerous, as their struggle is far more likely today to inspire and mobilize even more boycotts against Israel,” says Omar Barghouti, a founding member of the Palestinian Boycott National Committee (BNC), about Abu Rahmah.
Meeting in Ramallah, he said that attempts to silence West Bank popular struggle leaders is in part a product of boycotts becoming a tool of international support for Palestinians’ popular struggles, rather than a direct result of their leaders endorsing BDS.
NETANYAHU’S EXPLOITATION OF THE MURDERS AT ITAMAR: apjp
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2011 AT 11:21PM
TO RIGHT-WING POLITICOS, CABINET MINISTERS, KNESSET MEMBERS AND WEST BANK RABBIS, THE FIVE MURDERED MEMBERS OF THE FOGEL FAMILY ARE A CATALYST FOR REALIZING THE GREAT DREAM: THE DREAM OF MESSIANIC REDEMPTION, OF THE GREATER LAND OF ISRAEL.
By Nehemia Shtrasler
15 March 2011
The horrific murders in Itamar were a crime against humanity. Entering a home in that manner and slaughtering five people in their sleep is a base, cowardly act, and it makes no difference whether the victim is an adult or an infant. Murder is murder is murder.
Motti Fogel, brother of Udi Fogel, said at the Har Hamenuhot cemetery on Sunday that the funeral should have been a private affair. “A person is born for himself, to his parents and siblings, and dies for himself, he is not a symbol or a national event, and death must not be allowed to become an instrument of something.”
But it was not Motti who decided. Right-wing politicos, cabinet ministers, Knesset members and West Bank rabbis expropriated the murder of his brother and his family from Motti and made it a political event. To them the five murdered members of the Fogel family are a catalyst for realizing the great dream: the dream of messianic redemption, of the Greater Land of Israel.
Above the freshly dug graves the speakers competed among themselves as to who could be more extreme. Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, said there is no partner for talks on the Palestinian side, and the small community of Itamar should be turned into a major Israeli city – an extreme-right agenda voiced by a figure who is supposed to be the voice of the state.
“How long will you stay silent, how long will you grovel?” cried Udi Fogel’s father, Haim Fogel, as if we weren’t mistreating the Palestinians sufficiently, not burning enough mosques, not destroying enough olive trees, not expropriating enough of their lands and not killing enough of them.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin seized the opportunity to declare that Israel “shall continue to build anywhere and at any time.” Samaria Regional Council chairman Gershon Mesika said, “All the talk of peace delusions must stop.”
Interior Minister Eli Yishai was quick to demand the construction of 5,000 homes in the settlements, while Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon denounced incitement by the Palestinians, as if he had never heard of the incitement by West Bank rabbis, for whom the Palestinians are gentiles not created in God’s image.
Many others spoke of “hastening the redemption” – meaning extending Jewish control over the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River while “transfering” the Arabs to the other side of the river.
The murders strengthened the hands of extremists on both sides. Those on the Palestinian side want young settlers to launch a revenge campaign in their villages that will set off a third intifada.
Our extremists want that intifada to become an all-out war, the war of Gog and Magog, that will end in victory and the “cleansing” of Arabs from the land.
The only problem is that while both sides are confident in their own victory, only one side can prevail, and sometimes both lose.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, too, hastened to move the attack to the political arena. He promised to build 400 homes in the main settlement blocs and even declared, during a condolence visit, “We shall build our land,” thus disclosing his true thoughts.
Netanyahu, after all, never believed in the two-state solution, despite his Bar-Ilan speech. To him, the entire land belongs to us, and the two-state shibboleth is meant only to buy a little sympathy from U.S. President Barack Obama.
Netanyahu believes in force and deterrence, and as the familiar saying in these parts goes, if force doesn’t work, use more force.
Netanyahu’s real plan is “to annex as much of the open territory as possible,” as he said some years ago – somewhere around the 50 percent mark, while holding on to the Jordan Valley as a safety belt to the east. In the small, noncontiguous area that remains he would be prepared to give the Palestinians autonomy that would be called a “state.”
In his opinion, because any significant chunk of territory that Israel leaves would soon become an Islamic base, and every concession would play into the hands of Hamas and Iran, as few concessions should be made as possible.
Netanyahu is consistent in this regard. He never believed in a peace deal entailing genuine concessions. He opposed the Oslo Accords when he was a Knesset member and shattered them after he won the 1996 election. Now, in his second go-round as prime minister, he maintains the exact same policy, with an extreme-right cabinet and with the aid of his natural partners, Yishai and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Netanyahu’s real vision is to live by the sword. He will lead us from intifada to intifada, from war to war, and the murders in Itamar were just one more opportunity to heighten construction in the territories as well as the walls of hatred and blood between us and them.
Johannesburg U mulls cutting ties with BGU: Jerusalem Post
By BEN HARTMAN
South African university studying report on Israeli institution’s “collaboration with military, occupation and apartheid practices.”
The University of Johannesburg held a seminar on Wednesday to begin deliberating the future of its academic ties with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Academics from across South Africa, as well as officials from Amnesty International, gathered to discuss a report released by UJ on Tuesday titled “Findings on Ben-Gurion University of the Negev: Institutional Complicity and Active Collaboration with Israeli Military, Occupation and Apartheid Practices.”
The seminar – itself titled “The Politics of Water Research and the Ethics of Academic Engagement – Should UJ terminate its water research with Israel?” – was the latest development in a campaign launched by UJ in September 2010, when more than 250 South African academics and supporters such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu called on the university to sever ties with BGU. In particular, the move would end cooperation on water purification research, a program launched about a year and a half ago.
The group later set several conditions for the relationship to continue, and gave the Israeli university six months to comply. In a follow-up move, it sent a fact-finding mission to Israel and the West Bank in February 2011 to “examine BGU’s compliance with UJ’s Senate Resolution as well as get input and guidance from Palestinians and Israelis.”
Meetings held with the Palestine Water Authority resulted in the report released on Tuesday.
The report details what it calls BGU’s “active role in supporting and extending the efficacy of the Israeli military and the occupation.” It cites “BGU’s development of research specifically aimed for application in military uses (such as un-manned robot technologies) as well as BGU’s participation in programs specifically sponsored by and benefiting the Israeli Defense Forces (such as an advanced technologies park and the Israeli state’s atomic research programs and facilities).” It also documents what it claims are BGU’s “ongoing, deliberate, and wide-ranging support for the Israeli military and illegal occupation.”
While the report contains some examples of BGU’s alleged links to the IDF – for instance, that it awards academic scholarships to students who are army reservists, helps Israel Air Force pilots obtain university degrees, and helps cover the tuition of veterans of Operation Cast Lead – for the most part it appears to make the case that BGU is guilty by association in that it is a state university of Israel.
“As a university embedded in a highly militarized Israeli society, BGU’s obligation to implement state policies, and its research and other relationships with the Israeli armed forces, does have a significant impact on the society, and therefore on the continued subjugation of the Palestinian population in Israel,” the report states, continuing that “it is therefore accepted that BGU maintains material links to both the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), as well as the arms industry, and in doing so structurally supports and facilitates the Israeli occupation.”
Among other justifications for the boycott, the report describes how BGU researchers “have been working on developing unmanned ground vehicles – autonomous robotic systems capable of traversing rough terrain. BGU researchers note that these robots can be used for military search and rescue applications.”
The report also claims that “due to the entrenched complicity of BGU, like other Israeli universities, in the practices of the Israeli military and state, the academic environment in Israel is characterized by stringent limits on academic freedom and free expression.”
To back up its claim that BGU is complicit in the violation of free speech, the report cites a quote attributed to BGU Prof. Neve Gordon, a prominent supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement and author of a highly controversial pro-boycott article. The quote leads into a section of the report titled “BGU limits the ability of academics to voice political views.”
Gordon was discussed by Prof. David Newman, dean of BGU’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and a Jerusalem Post columnist, who told the Post on Wednesday that his colleague “was never disciplined by the university, although there was major criticism throughout the university of his pro-boycott article. During the past year he has been promoted, due to his excellent academic record, to associate professor status, and the politics was not allowed to interfere in this process.”
Newman also stated that among Israeli universities, BGU’s faculty is considered the most critical of the occupation and that, if anything, ending the joint research project would only end up harming people in South Africa who lack access to safe drinking water. Newman’s claim was given credence by the NGO Im Tirtzu, which last August sought to persuade BGU donors to withhold funding to force the school to hire a faculty that was less critical of Israeli policies.
In response to Wednesday’s seminar in Johannesburg, BGU released a statement saying “the senior administration of the University of Johannesburg recently visited Ben-Gurion University and saw for themselves the reality of a vibrant university that is dedicated to the values of academic freedom, regional cooperation and the advancement of social justice through education and research.”
The statement also said BGU feels the administrators would “reject this so-called ‘report,’ as it is a collection of lies and mistruths about BGU and the State of Israel. It would be unfortunate to cancel a research agreement that is meant solely to improve the quality of life for the residents of South Africa.”
Edinburgh University students vote overwhelmingly for boycott of Israeli goods: BRICUP
A motion to boycott Israel was overwhelmingly passed at the Edinburgh University Students Association (EUSA) General Meeting on Monday 14th March. In what was described as a ‘landslide’, the motion, ‘Boycott Israeli Goods in EUSA shops and supply chains’ received around 270 votes in favour, with only 20 students voting against.
Despite the meeting requiring over 300 students to attend for it to be quorate and for decisions taken to be binding, the huge level of student support for the motion means that EUSA will be under severe student pressure to adopt it as official policy.
Proposed by students from Edinburgh University Students for Justice in Palestine, the motion noted that Israel is an apartheid state and resolved to affiliate EUSA to the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, to boycott Israeli goods in EUSA supply chains and shops, and to mandate the EUSA executive to lobby the University to do the same.
After the motion was discussed for around 15 minutes, it was put to a vote and the result was so comprehensive that no count was required. The passing of the motion led to rapturous applause in the George Square Lecture Theatre, where the General Meeting was held, and was by far the most welcomed result of the night.
Similar motions have been passed at SOAS, Manchester, and Sussex Universities in recent years. This latest result seems a clear indication that students in the UK are continuing to play a prominent role in the campaign for a just peace in Palestine.
The motion came in the wake of recent protests against Israeli officials speaking at the University. In February, student activists shut down a talk by Ishmael Khaldi, advisor to Israeli foreign minister Avidgor Lieberman, and, two weeks ago, over 100 students protested against the invitation of Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor to the University.
The proposer of the motion, second year Maths and Music student Daniel Beesley said “I am overwhelmed with the outcome of the General Meeting. It is great to see students of Edinburgh University once again standing up against injustice, just as they did during Apartheid South Africa. EUSA represents the views of students and we are sure they they will take on board what was clearly the opinion of the vast majority who attended the GM, and endorse the boycott.|”
The motion’s seconder, Liam O’Hare, a student of International Relations, said: “Israel has occupied, ethnically cleansed and practised apartheid against the Palestinians for 63 years. The BDS movement seeks to force Israel to abide by international law and is gathering huge momentum year on year. I think the General Meeting proved that the student population at Edinburgh University do not want goods from an Apartheid state on campus and, despite the meeting narrowly not being quorate, I fully expect EUSA to act upon this motion.”