EDITOR: The fascist attacks continue unabated
In Israel, few things are certain. Still, we can be certain about the continuation and increase of racism, fascism and extreme nationalism, stoked by the government and large sectors of society. The attacks on Palestinians in the Occupied Territories will continue, as their final aim is to rid the territory of its people, and replace them with settlers. It was ever thus, since Herzl wrote such lines in his diary in June 1896, and it has never changed. The differences are mainly of style. Some Zionist call it the ‘Lorry solution’, while others prefer better transportation for the expelees…
Mosque in West Bank village set alight in suspected ‘price tag’ attack: Haaretz
Unidentified vandals set fire to a Palestinian mosque, spray-paint graffiti on its walls; IDF: Attack could undermine security in the area.
By Chaim Levinson and Gili Cohen Jun.19, 2012
A mosque in the West Bank village of Jab’a, located south of Ramallah, was set on fire in a suspected “price tag” arson attack early Tuesday morning.
Graffiti carrying messages such as “The war has begun” and “You will pay the price” was spray-painted on the mosque’s walls.
Shin Bet agents and police, accompanied by a heavy contingent of IDF soldiers, were combing the area for clues and interrogating witnesses in the village on Tuesday morning.
The mosque appears to have been attacked around 1:30 A.M. While none of the villagers saw the arsonists, they noticed the fire following the attack and hurried to extinguish it.
According to villagers, while the incident was immediately reported to the IDF, the army only arrived on the scene around 6 A.M.
Jab’a is located near Highway 60, a central traffic artery in the West Bank, but the access road to the village is blocked by large dirt mounds. Police are still investigating whether the attackers arrived by car or on foot.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak condemned the attack on Tuesday morning, calling it “a grave and criminal act, meant to harm the fabric of life in the area and distract the IDF and the security forces from their missions, which include protecting Israeli citizens in the area.”
Barak added that he had instructed the IDF and Israel’s security forces to use “all means” to find the perpetrators of the attack and bring them to justice.
The IDF said it views the incident gravely and that it could undermine the stability of security in the area.
“Price tag” attacks are generally carried out by West Bank settlers and their supporters against Palestinian targets, often in retaliation for moves against settlements.
Tuesday morning’s attack followed an extensive drill by Israel Police on Monday, held in preparation for the expected evacuation of the Ulpana Hill neighborhood in the West Bank settlement of Beit El.
Earlier this month, vandals carried out similar actions in the East Jerusalem neighborhood Shuafat, as well as in the Jewish-Arab village of Neveh Shalom.
Also in early June, a number of Middle East experts warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that continued settlement construction or the burning of a major mosque by Jewish extremists could ignite a third intifada in the West Bank.
Amira Hass: The law, ass or donkey?: Haaretz on IOA
18 JUNE 2012
By Amira Hass, Haaretz – 18 June 2012
Three High Court justices sit down to familiarize themselves with the facts: The residents continue to build without construction permits. And the three justices issue an interim order against any such construction within the two clusters that the petition relates to. The order was issued on June 7, the day after the petition and had been discussed.
Subject of the petition: Illegal outpost
Essence of the petition: Disregard of the laws of symmetry and the failure to implement the house-demolition orders issued regarding the structures of the said outpost. The subtext is clear: You ruled against Migron and the Ulpana neighborhood; why are you silent this time?
The justices: Asher Grunis, Hanan Melcer and Daphna Barak-Erez
The buildings: Neither low-rise apartment blocks like the ones in the Ulpana neighborhood nor single-family villas similar to housing in the West Bank settlement of Ofra (the vast majority of which is constructed on private land belonging to the villages of Silwad and Ein Yabrud, and therefore also lacks a detailed construction and development plan ), not even trailers hooked up to water and electricity like the ones in Migron and Givat Assaf. Only a cluster of hovels, tents and concrete rooms slapped together in a hurry.
Guess: The residents are Palestinians (only Palestinian “illegal outposts” remain unconnected to the electricity grid, phone and water lines ).
The land: Private Palestinian land, just like in Migron, Givat Assaf and Ofra, but unlike the Jewish outposts, this “outpost” is located on land owned by its inhabitants. No forged signatures or documents, no other acts of fraud perpetuated.
Name: Susya, southern slope of Mount Hebron
Some history: The adjacent Jewish West Bank settlement of Susya was erected in 1983.
1986: A confiscation order is issued against the lands of the Palestinian village Susya. The village is decreed an archaeological site (because of remnants of an ancient Jewish settlement ). And the Palestinian residents? Instead of treating them with respect and thanking them for preserving the location over the centuries, the IDF and Civil Administration expel them from their homes (caves located among ancient stone structures ), wells and fields.
And then? Susya’s Palestinian residents, members of the Nawaj’ah family, move onto the land they’ve been farming, into caves and tents.
July 2001: Under the guise of the second intifada, the IDF and Civil Administration expel the Nawaj’ah family for a second time. Tents are crushed, caves and wells sealed and wrecked, farmland destroyed, animals killed.
A small but surprising twist: On September 26, 2001, the High Court of Justice instructs the authorities to stop destroying the buildings at the height of a public campaign by the residents and left-wing groups, and the residents’ legal battle led by attorney Shlomo Lecker.
Despite the injunction, Jewish settlers and the army prevent the residents’ access to some 3,000 dunams (about 740 acres ) of their land.
The court orders an end to the demolition and expulsion, but does not instruct the Civil Administration to allow the Palestinians to build, forcing them to build without permits, for example, a school. As of May 2012, 18 demolition orders have been issued against hovels and buildings, including a school.
Another plot twist: Via the organization Rabbis for Human Rights, Susya residents appeal the blocked access to their private land and the fact that Jewish settlers are making a grab for it.
Another surprise twist: In October 2011, the military commanding officer declares a large part of their land as “closed to Israelis,” i.e., Jewish settlers, in order to stop the encroachment and land grab.
An attempt to fix the twist, February 2012: Regavim, a nonprofit association to protect the Jewish nation’s land, and the Jewish settlement of Susya petition the High Court to accelerate the pace of the Palestinian Susya demolition orders and to stop construction. In other words: a recipe for a third expulsion.
In her response, Attorney Avital Sharon of Rabbis for Human Rights points to the petition’s lack of good faith, and why it should be rejected outright. For example, she points to unauthorized construction in Jewish Susya and to the fact that the director general of Regavim himself lives in an unauthorized outpost.
Sharon also also gives reasons for the case in question: the earliest expulsion. The Civil Administration discriminates against Palestinians by not creating construction and development plans for them. Contrary to what is stated in the petition, the Civil Administration tirelessly demolishes Palestinian structures. In the last four years alone, 1,101 such structures have been demolished. Susya and the rabbis are busy working on a construction and development plan for the village (even though this is the responsibility of the official authorities ).
The judges listen to the supposed voice of symmetry coming from the petition submitted by Regavim and the Jewish settlement of Susya and do not reject the petition outright. They even issue an interim order to stop new construction in the village of Susya.
Construction in the Jewish settlement Susya continues, as it does in its satellite outposts.
As a result of the High Court ruling, officers of the Civil Administration show up in Susya on June 12 and hand out six collective demolition orders affecting 52 buildings, including a preschool, a clinic and a solar panel system supplying electricity to the village and its steadfast residents.
Demolition time frame: within three days (Attorney Quamar Mishirqi Assad of Rabbis for Human Rights manages to get a 10-day extension to submit challenges to the demolition orders ).
The residents of Susya ask the honorable justices Grunis, Melcer and Barak-Erez: Is this how you understand the word “justice” of your titles?
Israel uses Jenin murder probe as pretext to arrest, harass Freedom Theatre staff: Electronic Intifada
Since the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis, the Israeli army continues to harass and arrest members and staff of the Freedom Theatre.
Micaela Miranda’s two-year-old daughter is having nightmares, two weeks after her father was taken away in the middle of the night by the Israeli army.
“She saw her father being taken away,” Miranda said. “It’s very difficult. This is the second time that he was taken.”
Miranda’s husband, Nabil al-Raee, is the artistic director of the renowned Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. A group of armed Israeli soldiers arrested him at the family’s home in the early morning hours of 6 June.
Currently held in Jalameh prison in northern Israel, al-Raee has, to date, been denied access to a lawyer and from contacting his family. According to Miranda, his arrest and detention seem to be related to the investigation into the 2011 murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis, a founder of the Freedom Theatre.
“For us, this is not acceptable because we have been in interrogation before. We went by our own feet and we talked with them. They don’t have anything else so they just keep him in prison,” Miranda said.
“I see it as harassment. I don’t know why the Israeli authorities are doing this. Do they have the wrong information from the Palestinian Authority? Or are they doing this for several reasons: to harass the theater, to shut down the theater, or to see what is the reaction of other people while Nabil is under arrest?” she said.
Meant to intimidate
Al-Raee is the latest in a string of people affiliated with the Freedom Theatre — including a young lead actor and a member of the theater’s board of directors — who have been arrested over the past year.
The Israeli army has also broken theater windows and equipment and shot live ammunition during night raids conducted in the camp, and intimidated and ransacked homes of theater employees.
Mer-Khamis, a well-known actor and director, was an Israeli citizen born to a Palestinian father and Jewish Israeli mother. He was shot and killed in front of the theater in April 2011. The Israeli authorities continue to say that the arrests were related to the probe into his murder.
But most people close to the theater aren’t convinced.
“These kinds of abductions and attacks on the Freedom Theatre physically have happened too many times now, which leads us to believe that maybe this is not conducted entirely, or even at all, as part of an investigation surrounding Juliano’s murder,” explained Jonatan Stanczak, the theater’s managing director. “It may actually be a way for the Israeli army to harass and break the Freedom Theatre.”
Stanczak said that since Freedom Theatre staff members have cooperated with the Israeli authorities in their investigation into Mer-Khamis’s death, arresting people in the middle of the night is an unnecessary measure.
“We are calling for people of conscience around the world to talk to their local Israeli representative in order to get an explanation of what motivates a large scale military operation in order to abduct the artistic director of the Freedom Theatre, and why this could not have been done through a simple phone call?” he said.
The Jenin refugee camp is a 0.42-square kilometer area in the north of the occupied West Bank that is home to approximately 16,000 registered Palestinian refugees, more than half of whom are under the age of 24.
Today, the Palestinian Authority has jurisdiction over the camp, and it began a criminal investigation into Mer-Khamis’ death immediately after he was killed. The Israelis also began their own investigation shortly thereafter, run jointly by the Israeli army, police and the Shabak security agency, also known as the Shin Bet (according to its Hebrew acronym).
To date, no one has been charged.
International pressure building
On 13 June, 50 European parliamentarians sent a letter to Catherine Ashton, theEuropean Union’s foreign policy chief, demanding al-Raee’s release. The letter was published on the Freedom Theatre’s website.
“We consider that it is a duty of the international community and much more of the European Union, to demand from the leaders of the State of Israel to respect international law and cease maintaining the repressive and brutal wave of detentions, contrary to the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” the letter stated.
“Furthermore, the EU should support the cultural work done that helps bring about a climate of understanding. Given the urgency of the situation, we would appreciate your response to safeguard and protect the life of Nabil al-Raee,” it added.
Petitions demanding that al-Raee be released from prison are also circulating across Europe and North America, and the Freedom Theatre has encouraged individuals to appeal directly to Israeli politicians and to the Israeli army’s District Coordination Office.
Not losing hope
The next hearing into Nabil al-Raee’s arrest and detention is scheduled for 19 June at Israel’s Salem Detention Center, near Jenin. According to Micaela Miranda, the Palestinian Authority should also be held responsible for her husband’s fate.
“There is cooperation between the PA and the Israelis. We don’t even know if this arrest has its origin in wrong information from the PA because they’re supposed to be giving the Israelis information from inside [about] what is going on [in Jenin],” Miranda told The Electronic Intifada, adding that the Israeli army enters Jenin at least three times each week to make arrests.
“[When] we see there is no PA [police] in the street, we know they’re all inside and the [Israeli] army’s coming. For us, it’s clear that the PA is not here to protect the Palestinians.”
Despite this reality, Miranda said she continues to hope that her husband will soon be released.
“The pressure we can make is very small because the Israeli system and Israeli law is built in a very smart way, and so we feel helpless. We just have to accept it like this and wait and see how it goes,” she said. “We are continuing and hoping for Nabil to come home.”
Jillian Kestler-D’Amours is a reporter and documentary filmmaker based in Jerusalem. More of her work can be found at http:jkdamours.com.
Arab educators in uproar over plan to study Begin and Ben-Gurion: Haaretz on IOA
18 JUNE 2012
By Jack Khoury and Talila Nesher, Haaretz – 18 June 2012
Principals and teachers at Arab schools in Israel are furious over the Education Ministry’s plans to make all the country’s schools – including those in Arab towns – focus their curriculum next year on two of Israel’s most prominent leaders.
Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced several weeks ago that the curriculum for the next school year will focus on the leadership of the late prime ministers David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin. Students will be visiting Ben-Gurion’s home in the Negev and the Etzel Museum, which commemorates the pre-state underground militia led by Begin.
Over the last few days, educators at the country’s Arab schools have come to realize that the Ben-Gurion-Begin curriculum may be used in their schools too. Arab principals, teachers and intellectuals have asked the Follow-up Committee on Arab Education, a professional body addressing pedagogic issues related to Israeli Arabs, to take action.
“From the perspective of the Arab population, which was part of the Palestinian people, David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin are not just prime ministers,” said committee spokesman Raja Zatara. “The former is identified with the Nakba, from our perspective, and with the repression and land appropriation during military rule, while the latter is identified with the activities of Etzel, with the Lebanon War and the massacre at Sabra and Chatila, and with the use of emergency measures for oppressing the Arab population.”
He said the issue shows that the Arab school system needs to be governed independently and should have its known autonomous pedagogic secretariat made up of Arab educators and other experts.
The Arab education committee is considering creating an alternative curriculum that addresses the way many Arabs think of Ben-Gurion and Begin, and focuses on two Arab figures as a counterweight to the Jewish ones. Two of the figures being considered are Palestinian literary theorist Edward Said, who next year will have been dead a decade, and the poet Abdelrahim Mahmud, who was born in 1913. The committee will make a final decision in the coming days.
The founding director of the Arab Center for Law and Policy, also called Dirasat, said the Education Ministry’s move is alienating Arab students.
“This is a continuation of the Education Ministry’s policy of denying the cultural and national uniqueness of Arab students, and pours oil on the fire of the exclusion and alienation of the Arab students in the system,” said Yousef Jabareen. “Proper treatment of Arab education would have required sensitivity to the special situations of the Arab students,” which could be shown in the selection of Arab leaders whom the Arab population sees as heroes, like Nazareth Mayor Tawfik Ziad, a former MK, or former MK Tawfik Toubi. Both of those people “fought for the equality of the Arab population for decades,” said Jabareen.
The Dirasat director said the Education Ministry decision seeks to force the Zionist narrative on Arab students.
Professional educators are seeking to match the curriculum to Arab schools by integrating figures from Palestinian history and presenting all the historical facts about Begin and Ben-Gurion, “and not just the positive side,” said one.
The Education Ministry said it was in the process of discussing a possible alternative curricular focus for non-Jewish schools next year. But in his initial announcement, Sa’ar said in a press release in Hebrew and Arabic that the topic was chosen because next year marks the 100th anniversary of Begin’s birth and the 40th anniversary of Ben-Gurion’s death.
“Engaging with their visions and actions will allow students an in-depth familiarity with figures who left their mark on the nature and character of the State of Israel, along with historic events in the history of the state,” Sa’ar said. He added that students would learn about the significant decisions Ben-Gurion and Begin made, and examine the complexity of those decisions, the considerations that went into them and the values that guided the leaders.