EDITOR: The problem is democracy, it seems!
Israel has called upon the few Jews living in Tunisia to leave and emigrate to Israel now. This is interesting – as long as Tunisia was a ruthless dictatorship, they had no problem with it; it is only now, wiuth the tyrant deposed, that they have become ‘worried’ about Tunisia’s Jews…
Tunisia condemns Israeli calls for Jews to emigrate: Haaretz
North African country denounces ‘ill-disposed’ call, which it warns amount to ‘meddling’ in Tunisia’s domestic affairs.
Tunisia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned a call by Israeli officials for Jews to emigrate to Israel over concerns about possible economic hardship ahead in the North African country.
“The ill-disposed call amounts to meddling in Tunisia’s domestic affairs and an attempt by Israel to tarnish the post-revolutionary image of Tunisia,” the ministry said.
Monday’s statement via state news agency TAP comes a day after Israel’s Cabinet said Prime Benjamin Netanyahu cited real distress among Tunisia’s Jews and pledged extra money and aid to help them immigrate.
Tunisia’s tourism industry has suffered after a popular uprising drove President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee in January. Two-thirds of Tunisia’s estimated 1,500 Jews live on the island of Djerba – a popular vacation spot.
Richard Silverstein: I delegitimize Occupation
27 MARCH 2011
I Deligitimize Occupation (Graphic: Michael Levin and Richard Silverstein): IOA
By Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam – 25 March 2011
www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/03/25/i-delegitimize-occupation/
After the IDF’s intelligence unit, Aman, came up with the bright idea to create a special unit to investigate, monitor and spy on Diaspora groups opposed to the Occupation (enemies now known by the catchy phrase, “delegitimizers”), I thought the only proper response was to step up proudly and say: “I am one.” Not a delegitimizer in the terms they employ since they falsely claim that delegitimizers wish Israel’s destruction. That’s not the kind of delegitimizer I am. I delegitimze Occupation as do all the groups they’ll be harrassing. So Michael Levin and I came up with this poster which we hope you will share, promote, circulate via social media, etc.
Let’s tell the generals, spooks, inquisitors and ideologues that we want to be first on the list to be investigated. I delegitimize Occupation. There. Now I said it. I feel better already. Now when can I be expecting that knock on the door in the middle of the night from someone from headquarters saying they just have a few questions?
EDITOR: The Law machine is working overtime…
There is hardlya day that the Knesset is not passing some law or other which is an attack on human rights, in the name of security. This one is supposedly against terrorists… but then we find that one of those supposed ‘terrorists’ is the ex-MK, Azmi Bishara. What maddness and hypocricy!
Knesset passes law to strip terrorists of Israeli citizenship: Haaretz
MK David Rotem: There is no citizenship without loyalty; lawmakers also agree to revoke stipend of MK Azmi Bishara, suspected of series of crimes against national security.
The Knesset plenum on Monday gave its final seal of approval to a law that would enable Israel’s Supreme Court to revoke the citizenship of anyone convicted of espionage, treason or aiding the enemy during war.
“Anyone who betrays the state and carries out acts of terror must know – citizenship and loyalty go together,” said Yisrael Beiteinu MK David Rotem, who initiated the bill, which passed in its second and third reading. “There is no citizenship without loyalty.”
The ‘citizenship loyalty’ law also allows the court to revoke the status of any permanent resident found guilty of assisting a terrorist organization.
Yisrael Beiteinu chairman, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, lauded the Knesset’s decision as a step toward “contending with the phenomenon of exploiting democracy in order to subvert it.”
According to the bill, only people with dual citizenship could be stripped of their Israeli citizenship entirely. Someone without dual citizenship could still lose his Israeli citizenship, but would be granted status equivalent to what Israel grants foreign workers.
However, the bill also states that someone convicted of terrorism would lose his right to all allowances paid by the state, such as child allowances or welfare.
The Knesset on Monday also approved by a majority of 29 to 8 a bill to strip the stipend of former MK Azmi Bishara, who fled the country to skip out on an investigation into a series of crimes against national security.
EDITOR: Fear of Unity
Israel is terrified of the possibility of Palestinian unity, though they should not really worry – as long as Abbas is there, there can hardly be such a move… After all, they have invested for years in the Palestinian split, and do not intend to see it healed now.
Netanyahu to Abbas: You can’t have peace with both Israel and Hamas: Haaretz
Palestinian president willing to give up hundreds of million dollars in U.S. aid if necessary to forge a unity deal with Hamas, says top adviser.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that reconciliation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas could spell the end of the peace process, after an aide to Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinian president was would be willing to give up U.S. aid if needed to secure unity with the rival faction.
“You can’t have peace with both Israel and Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “Choose peace with Israel.”
Abbas is making a heavy push for reconciliation with Hamas, and a senior adviser said Monday that he was prepared to give up hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid if that was what it takes to forge a Palestinian unity deal.
“Of course we need the American money. But if they use it as a way of pressuring us, we are ready to relinquish that aid,” said adviser Azzam Ahmed.
Israel, the U.S. and the EU consider Hamas a terror group because of its rocket attacks and suicide bombings aimed at Israeli civilians.
The U.S. administration, the largest single donor to the Palestinians, withheld funds when Hamas was a part of a short-lived Palestinian unity government. The Palestinian Authority is heavily reliant on foreign aid and forgoing the funds could easily spark its own crisis.
The Palestinian unity government, isolated internationally because of Hamas’ refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist, collapsed during a five-day civil war in 2007 that ended with the Islamic militant group seizing power in the Gaza Strip.
Since then, the Palestinians have been divided between rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza, the two territories they hope to turn into an independent state.
With peace talks stalled since September, Abbas has begun an effort to win international recognition of Palestine, with or without an agreement with Israel. That effort is to culminate at the United Nations in September.
Palestinian officials acknowledge that they must solve their differences with Hamas before they can go to the United Nations. Abbas has made repeated overtures toward Hamas in recent weeks – including an offer to visit Gaza to lay the groundwork for national elections. Over the weekend, he met with local Hamas officials in the West Bank.
“The president is working hard in order to bring about a unified Palestinian territory before he goes to the UN,” Ahmed said.
Hamas leaders say they want a full power-sharing deal before meeting with the Palestinian president – including a deal on how to divide security responsibilities.
“This visit should be for the sake of achieving progress on the ground and not only for photos and media coverage, said Mushir al Masri,” a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. “The problem is not in forming the government; it’s in reaching an agreement.”
Hamas is demanding further gestures from Abbas before considering unity, such as a release of hundreds of Hamas prisoners locked up in the West Bank, re-opening closed Hamas charities and the removal of a ban on Hamas activities in the West Bank.
Palestinian analysts say Hamas has hardened its negotiating positions recently and is feeling empowered by the recent upheavals in the Arab world, particularly in Egypt, where its ally, the Muslim Brotherhood, is expected to play a key role in the new regime.
Ayman Hussein, a West Bank Hamas member who recently met Abbas in Ramallah, said Abbas appeared serious in his efforts to reach out to Hamas and was pessimistic about the peace process with Israel.
Hanna Amerah, a member of the PLO executive committee, said Abbas is waiting for an official response from Hamas about his initiative to go to Gaza and expects an answer within a few days.
He claimed Abbas has support for his move from the European Union, the UN and the Arab League. But giving up on the U.S. and Israel could come at a heavy price.
The Palestinians receive more than $470 million a year in direct financial assistance from the U.S. The U.S. hasn’t said what it will do if Hamas returns to power in the West Bank, but it will likely cut off the funds unless Hamas agrees to renounce violence and recognize Israel. Hamas has given no indication it is prepared to do either.
EDITOR: The fruits of democracy are nearby
The corrupt deal with Israel, allowing Israelis to buy Egyptain gas at cheaper prices than available to Egyptian consumers, is about to be overturned. Whoo has been paid for this deal? We can probably work this out.
Officials deny full gas resumption to Israel, as experts seek a way to renegotiate contract: Ahram Online
Gas exports to Israel have not returned to their pre-revolution levels, according to one official, as legal experts scramble to find ways to renegotiate a deal that was agreed under Mubarak’s corrupt regime
Dina Ezzat, Monday 28 Mar 2011
An informed Egyptian official told Ahram Online that while Egypt had resumed its gas exports to Israel, this resumption is not at 100 per cent of the level prior to the interruption of the exports a few weeks ago as a result of an attack on the pipeline.
Speaking on condition of strict anonymity, the official said that when the resumption started some two weeks ago, it was around 40 per cent of the regular exports, and this amount has increased, but it is not at the level of cubic meters agreed upon according to the Egyptian-Israeli deal. “It is not even 80 per cent, but it is keeping the Israelis pleased for now,” he said.
According to the same official, the Israelis are “for sure expecting a wide range of changes in the overall volume of Egyptian-Israeli relations, in the wake of the regime change, and they certainly know that the gas issue might be one.”
The official suggested that the deal “which was negotiated and signed” away from the expected scrutiny of concerned government departments – including certain departments at the Ministry of Oil no less – pledges Egyptian exports of natural gas to Israel “at a clearly preferential price” to Israel “for twenty years”.
“Very few people know the exact details of the contract or how it was negotiated, but some have speculated that the price put on the contract is what actually goes to the state coffers and that there is some large amount of money that is channelled in parallel to someone else’s bank account – or maybe was channelled in advance.”
He added that very few people are privy to the details of the contract and even fewer people have seen a copy of it. “It was done in a very fishy way – it smelled bad right from the beginning”.
Meanwhile, Israel was not officially notified of any “planned changes on the side of Egypt with regards to its gas imports”, according to a Cairo-based Western source.
“Our understanding is that the situation should go back to normal shortly,” the source said. He added that the understanding is that any current shortage of exports is supposed to be for technical rather than political reasons. “We are not aware of a political decision on the part of Cairo to change the terms of the agreement,” he said.
During a recent meeting in Cairo, where he met with foreign minister Nabil El-Arabi, the director general of the Israeli foreign ministry did not dwell much on the issue of gas exports but expressed the expectation of his government to see relations return to normal on all fronts – politically, economically and in terms of security.
El-Arabi, who had underlined Cairo’s commitment to the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, made no promises.
The issue of Egyptian gas exports was one of the matters discussed recently by Washington and Tel Aviv. It was picked up in Cairo during the visit of the director general of the Israeli foreign ministry to the American ambassador in Cairo, a foreign diplomat told Ahram Online. Recently, the US has interceded with the Egyptian government to secure the resumption of crucial Egyptian gas exports to Israel.
Cairo is well aware that it might fall under considerable pressure from the US and other Western nations to stick to the unfair articles of the gas exports contract, concluded under the toppled regime of President Hosni Mubarak, but legal experts say that they are currently examining possible legally-viable exits, with a view to partially renegotiating the deal.
“It might be impossible to fully renegotiate the deal but we will see what we can do to improve the situation,” said one legal expert who is tasked with the mission. He added that given that the deal was signed in several phases, much research is still being done to fully acquire all the necessary papers before an attempt to renegotiate can be launched.
Arab peace initiative is another missed opportunity for Israel: Haaretz
Today is the ninth anniversary of the approval of the Arab League Peace Initiative. Back then, all the Arab states followed by all member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, offered Israel the best deal the Jewish state has received since the Balfour Declaration.
By Akiva Eldar
Once again, Jerusalem is “closely monitoring” the squabble at the neighbors’ – this time, in the form of the bloody clashes in Syria. Is the fall of President Bashar Assad good for the Jews? Could religious extremists replace the minority Alawite regime? What will happen to the separation of forces agreement on the Golan Heights? What will be the new regime’s policy concerning a negotiated end to the Arab-Israeli conflict? How will the political furor affect Syria’s intimate relations with Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah?
It’s hard to find a respected analyst willing to take the risk of tackling these questions. On the other hand, six weeks after the fall of the Mubarak regime, even dyed-in-the-wool pessimists aren’t suggesting the possibility of a renewed conflict with Egypt. The domestic shockwaves there have not crossed the border with Israel. The provisional government in Cairo responded with restraint to the Israel Air Force strikes in the Gaza Strip. And in an interview last week with a senior correspondent from the London-based Al Hayat newspaper, which appeared in The New York Times, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa – who is considered a front-runner in the Egyptian presidential election – stressed that if he takes office, he will honor the peace treaty with Israel.
Were it not for the narrow-mindedness and perhaps cowardice of those who call themselves leaders, Israel might have been able to be calmer also in regard to developments in the north.
Today is the ninth anniversary of the approval of the Arab League Peace Initiative. Back then, all the Arab states, including Syria, followed by all member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, offered Israel the best deal the Jewish state has received since the Balfour Declaration: an end to the hostile relationship with the Muslim world, the establishment of normalized relations with Arab states, a Palestinian state within the June 4, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and a just, negotiated solution to the refugee issue, in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194. The initiative also left an opening for territorial exchange, under which Israel could annex Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and some of the settlements, and for special arrangements for sacred sites.
Recently published Al Jazeera documents disclosed the pragmatic approach taken by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in talks with then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, with respect to the issue of the return of refugees to Israel. At that same time, Assad tried to restart negotiations with Israel on various channels, and meekly swallowed the humiliation of the bombing of his nuclear facilities that foreign media reports have attributed to the long arm of Israel.
Instead of making peace with all the Arab states, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon launched a war against the Palestinians the day after the March 2002 Arab League summit: In response to the murder of 30 Israelis in the Hamas suicide attack at a Passover seder in Netanya’s Park Hotel, he ordered the army to reoccupy the territories (Operation Defensive Shield ). The Arabs offered Sharon a mile, but in fact he didn’t even consider giving them an inch. Actually, he was playing around with the idea, recently recycled by Netanyahu and Lieberman, of a “long-term interim plan.”
Like the other Arab League members, Syria responded mildly to the Israeli cabinet resolution of 2003 to append 14 reservations to the road map for peace, including rejection of the Arab peace initiative. Also like other Arab states, since March 28, 2007, Syria has voted eight times in favor of ratifying the initiative. And like its three predecessors, the Netanyahu government has ignored it.
Had the Arab League summit scheduled to convene in Baghdad next week not been postponed due to domestic unrest in a number of member states, the Arab leaders would almost certainly have declared the death of their peace plan. It’s obvious that negotiations based on that initiative are not in line with the proposal to declare at the United Nations the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
The leaders of Hamas, who are feeling their way toward a moderate unity government, are adjusting to the new situation being created in the Middle East. They know that representatives of Big Brother – i.e., the Muslim Brotherhood – will soon be in the Egyptian government, which will honor the peace treaty with Israel. And it’s possible that Damascus will no longer serve as a refuge for terrorists. Meanwhile, the Arab League initiative is still sitting on the shelf.
If Israel had a prime minister who wasn’t busy doing an advanced degree in survival studies, he would not have lent a hand to the criminal act of missing the Arab peace initiative – an initiative that might not be offered again.
Egyptian arrested in Syria for allegedly spying for Israel: Ahram Online
The family of an Egyptian detainee in Syria denies that he visited Israel and as yet have no knowledge of his whereabouts
Sunday 27 Mar 2011
An Egyptian-born American was arrested by Syrian authorities on suspicion of being an Israeli spy, but his relative, Tarek Shalaby defends him to German news agency DPA, stating that “Radwan never went to Jerusalem or the West Bank.”
Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana) said that Mohamed Radwan was detained, along with a number of foreign residents, for supposedly having visited Israel recently and spying for them.
“The family is still trying to know his whereabouts. We have contacted the Egyptian and American authorities to help us.”
According to Sana, Radwan confessed that he received money to record videos and take pictures of the ongoing troubles in Syria. He reportedly said he was selected for that job because he is based in Syria.
Mass protests erupted recently in the country to demand immediate political reforms. The demonstrations follow popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, which toppled presidents Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak, respectively.
There are also ongoing protests in Yemen, Bahrain and Libya, with the latter being the subject of a Western-led attack on Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in a bid to protect civilians.
Government must act against ‘price tag’ phenomenon: Haaretz
The ‘price tag’ people are knowingly playing with matches next to a barrel of explosives in order to threaten the government. They are not only criminals – they are a threat to Israel’s security and must be treated as such.
By Alexander Yakobson
How many people are sitting in prison today for “price tag” acts? I don’t know the precise number, but the general picture is clear – and bleak: The state is not fulfilling its obligation to protect those living under its jurisdiction from this kind of violent crime, which has become systematic. Clearly, there are many difficulties in enforcing the law, but it is also clear that this is fundamentally a question of priorities.
The security establishment has a lot on its plate. It is not obvious that a few Arabs beaten up here and there, and a few West Bank mosques set on fire, are high on its list of priorities. The upshot is that shamefully, these incidents have become routine.
The term “price tag” refers to harm inflicted on Palestinians in response to government actions deemed hazardous to the settlement project. For the most part, this is not revenge for Arab terror, which might be considered legitimate by people who embrace the barbaric principle of taking revenge on innocent bystanders.
After the terrible murder of the Fogel family in Itamar, there were those who must have breathed a sigh of relief when it became clear that for the meantime, the “price tag” people had sufficed with an attack by eight bullies on an Arab worker at the settlement of Shiloh, spraying him with tear gas and beating him up with bats and bricks. Responding to this attack, the commander of the Judea and Samaria Regional Division said the following: “The price tag incidents do not embody values, contrary to our values as Israelis and Jews. The settlement heads . . . understand full well that the extremist margins are damaging the settlements. [But] I am not always satisfied with the level of condemnation.”
The officer undoubtedly had good intentions. But there is something problematic in the didactic tone of his remarks – as though he were leading an activity in a Scouts troop. The authorities do not usually define incidents of rape, bank robbery or attacks on old women as “events that do not embody values.” Rather, they call them crimes. The “price tag” acts are crimes. Moreover, they jeopardize Israel’s security. These are not ordinary acts of bullying, however ugly they may be. Directed and organized violence against Palestinians in the territories threatens to ignite a huge conflagration and cause escalation which will claim many lives. Preventing violence of this sort – violence for which Jewish extremists are to blame – is clearly an Israeli diplomatic and security interest. The “price tag” people are knowingly playing with matches next to a barrel of explosives in order to threaten the government. They are not only criminals – they are a threat to Israel’s security and must be treated as such.
The government must act against this phenomenon with the legal tools at its disposal in order to protect the well-being of the public and the security of the state. I am not among those who turn up their noses every time the phrase “security considerations” is cited. We must not discount real threats because that ultimately means discounting human lives. By the same token, we must not “discriminate” among threats on the basis of the religion and nationality of the perpetrator or victim.
Of course there is always a risk because far-reaching security powers, such as administrative detention, can be abused. To prevent that, there is judicial review when such powers are exercised, and that is a good thing. The courts have proved they are not rubber stamps in this context. This does not mean the danger of abuse is eliminated. But sometimes a point is reached when not using drastic means to protect the victims of violence violates human rights more than using them would.
Israeli strike kills 2 in Gaza after call for calm: Ahram Online
Air strikes hit an alleged terrorist cell attempting to fire a rocket a day after Hamas said it will escalate or decrease the violence in measure to Israel’s actions
AFP , Sunday 27 Mar 2011
An Israeli air strike killed two people in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, medics said, a day after the Palestinian resistance declared they were committed to calming tensions if Israel reciprocated.
“Two Palestinians were killed and another wounded Sunday morning in an Israeli air raid on targets east of Jabaliya,” said Adham Abu Senmya, spokesman for the Gaza emergency services.
An army spokeswoman confirmed the raid, saying “an air force plane attacked on Sunday morning a terrorist cell that was preparing to fire a rocket at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip.”
A witness said the men were in a car, but did not elaborate.
The army also confirmed Israel would begin deploying on Sunday its multi-million-dollar “Iron Dome” missile defence system in the south in the wake of rocket attacks from Gaza.
The system is designed to intercept rockets and artillery shells fired from between four and 70 kilometres.
On Saturday, after a week of bloody clashes with Israel that killed eight Palestinians, the resistance led by the Hamas rulers of Gaza met and declared they wanted to restore calm in the coastal enclave.
Hamas official, Ismail Radwan, told reporters after a meeting with Islamic Jihad and other factions that “we are committed to calm as long as the occupation [Israel] commits to it.”
There was no immediate reaction from the Israeli government, but the cabinet is due to meet later Sunday morning.
On Friday, however, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to act with “great force,” in response to rocket and mortar fire.
Netanyahu said Israel had been “subjected to bouts of terror and rocket attacks” and that “we stand ready to act with great force and great determination to put a stop to it.”
Following Saturday’s meeting, Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, told AFP that “everybody confirmed that they respect the national consensus by calming things with the Zionist enemy.”
But he said this “depends on the nature of Israeli behaviour, and we insist on the need to respond immediately to each escalation by the occupiers.”
And Osama Al-Haj Ahmed, a Popular Front leader, said “the factions confirmed their commitment to national consensus in order not to give the aggressors any pretext” for attacking.
Just before the Gaza meeting started, the army said, a rocket was fired from Gaza on the Israel town of Sderot, causing no casualties or damage.
And Gazan combatants fired two rockets into Israel on Friday night, with one damaging a house where Israeli media said eight sleeping people were unharmed.
Visiting the site, Israel’s southern front commander Major General Tal Russo said it appeared Hamas was unable to impose calm on Gaza.
“There is currently anarchy on the other side,” the Ynet website quoted him as saying. “Hamas is finding it difficult to turn the clock back.”
Defence Minister Ehud Barak toured the Gaza border on Friday with army Chief Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, saying calm seemed to be returning to the area.
He also claimed that if the rocket attacks stopped, Israel would also halt its strikes into Gaza.
“We don’t intend to let the terror organisations again disturb the order, but we will do all we need to to return the [military] activity to the border line itself,” Barak said.
Israel’s leaders have appeared reluctant to be dragged into another bloody war with Hamas, especially as they lack international support for any new offensive on Gaza.
Reacting to persistent attacks from Gaza, Israel launched a three-week assault on the strip over New Years 2009, in which some 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 13 Israelis died.
MK Zoabi: Right is punishing me: YNet
Arab MK attends court hearing on her petition against Knesset’s decision to revoke her rights for participating in Gaza flotilla. ‘Extreme Right has become face of Israeli society. Knesset grants immunity to racists,’ she says
The Supreme Court began Monday to debate a petition filed by MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad), against a Knesset decision to revoke her rights for participating in the flotilla to Gaza last May.
“The rightist consensus in the Knesset is trying to punish me and not allow me freedom of expression,” Zoabi said. Rightists who awaited her exit from the court called her a “terrorist”.
“The extreme Right has become the face of the Knesset and Israeli society. The Knesset grants immunity to racist rightists,” she told Ynet after the hearing, which ended without a decision. Another hearing has been scheduled.
MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad), who accompanied Zoabi to court, told Ynet, “Balad is proud of what MK Zoabi did. We must remember that the Knesset has adopted the views of the Kahane-supporter Michael Ben Ari. The face of the Knesset has become that of Kahane.”
The Knesset revoked the Arab MK’s rights in July after she boarded the Mavi Marmara, whose passengers attacked IDF soldiers sent to raid it. Zoabi became one of Israel’s most vocal critics after the incident, in which nine Turkish civilians were killed.
Her diplomatic passport was revoked along with the privilege to leave the country if she commits a felony and the right to appeal to the Knesset to cover any legal fees if she faces trail.
The Knesset claimed in response to Zoabi’s petition that the rights were revoked legally and that the aim had not been to punish the MK for her political rights but rather to deter other MKs from engaging in acts perceived by the majority as wrongful, such as participating in the flotilla, which had an aim of encouraging Israel’s enemies.
Such actions “abuse the special rights given to Knesset members,” the Knesset responded, adding that there was no need for the court to become involved in the matter.
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) was also present at the court Monday morning. “I came to make sure that the spy Hanin Zoabi will not continue to scorn the State of Israel and fight IDF soldiers with the diplomatic passport she received from the Knesset,” he said.
Ben Ari was accompanied by extreme rightists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Gvir, who called out towards Zoabi after the hearing, “You’re a terrorist. Go to Gaddafi. In any other country you would be in jail.”
On Land Day, 30 March 2011, join international efforts to stop the Jewish National Fund: IOA
The Palestinian BDS National Committee has called for a Global Day of Action to commemorate Palestinian Land Day.
On March 30, 2011, join the international campaign to Stop the Jewish National Fund
Palestinian Land Day is the annual commemoration of the 1976 general strike and marches against massive land expropriation by Israel in which six Palestinians were killed and hundreds of others were jailed and wounded.Since then it has been a day to recall many decades of Palestinian resistance to historic and on-going displacement and dispossession.
A key pillar of the colonization of Palestine – from the founding of the State of Israel to the present – has been the Keren Kayemet LeIsrael (KKL), commonly known in English as the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The JNF enjoys charity status in over 50 countries. This is despite its role in the on-going displacement of indigenous Palestinians from their land, the theft of their property, the funding of historic and present-day colonies, and the destruction of the natural environment.
(Download the Stop the JNF Campaign fact sheet)
Join the campaign to Stop the JNF. The campaign is already underway in Britain, Canada, France and the US, and challenges to the JNF continue across Palestine, including in Israel.
To join the campaign:
Sign your organization to the international call at http://www.stopthejnf.org/callforaction.html.
Include the JNF in your BDS and Palestine solidarity work.
Bring the campaign to your city or region.
Tell us about your activity at info@stopthejnf.org
The campaign to challenge the JNF will launch on Land Day 2011. As part of the global movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle, and until such time as the State of Israel respects and implements international law, we call on global civil society to join in a campaign to challenge the JNF.