EDITOR: While the world looks away, Israel prepares the next stage of the Nakba
An excellent thing, the Olympic Games… while the world is more interested in medals and sport nationalism, Israel is working away at the plan to expel tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, both in Israel and the West Bank. Zionism was never confused about its aims, only Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian seems to pretend such confusion – the ultimate aim was and is to rid Palestine of all its indigenous inhabitants, It takes time, it takes money, and it takes a lot of work, but that is what they are working on. As in Herzl’s plan – those who can be bought off, will be paid to go, those who insist on staying, will not be able to make a living, and forced to leave. There was no confusion then, and there is not any now. There is only pretense by nice people like Amos Oz, A B Yehoshua and Jonathan Freedland.
And we have not even started talking about nice Mr. Romney, the Mormon on Hormons, who forgot to speak about his co-religionists converting my Nazi-murdered family into proper Mormons after their death… the guy who cannot wait to see Israel attack Iran! What a prospect for the next four years, if this dangerous man wins the race to the White House!
Stop greatest forced displacement of Arab citizens of Israel since the 1950s: JFJFP
Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel, inhabitants of the Naqab (Negev) desert since the seventh century, are the most vulnerable community in Israel. For over 60 years, the indigenous Arab Bedouin have faced a state policy of displacement, home demolitions and dispossession of their ancestral land. Today, 70,000 Arab Bedouin citizens live in 35 villages that either predate the establishment of the State in 1948, or were created by Israeli military order in the early 1950s. The State of Israel considers the villages “unrecognized” and the inhabitants “trespassers on State land,” so it denies the citizens access to state infrastructure like water, electricity, sewage, education, health care and roads. The state deliberately withholds basic services from these villages to “encourage” the Arab Bedouin citizens to give up their ancestral land.In September 2011, the Israeli government approved the Prawer Plan, the brainchild of former Deputy Chair of the National Security Council, Mr. Ehud Prawer. If implemented, the Prawer Plan will result in the destruction of the unrecognized villages and the forced displacement of up to 70,000 Arab Bedouin citizens. This plan was completed without consultation of the local community, and is a gross violation of the constitutional rights of the Arab Bedouin citizens to property, dignity, equality, adequate housing, and freedom to choose their own residence. Prawer is Happening Now
Despite complete rejection of the plan by the Arab Bedouin, and strong disapproval from the international community, Prawer is happening now. Media reports indicate that on 1 August 2012, a special police force will begin work to implement Prawer and demolish homes. More than 1,000 houses were demolished in 2011 alone, and civil society is seeing the same practices in 2012. Since Prawer was announced, the government announced plans that will displace over 10,000 people and plant forests, build military centers, and establish new Jewish settlements in their place.
In March 2012, the UN Committee on the Elimination for Racial Discrimination called on Israel to withdraw the proposed implementing legislation of the Prawer Plan, on the grounds that it was discriminatory. If Israel applied the same criteria for planning and development that exist in the Jewish rural sector, all 35 unrecognized villages would be recognized where they are.
In July 2012, the European Parliament passed a historic resolution calling on Israel to Stop the Prawer Plan and its policies of displacement, eviction, and dispossession.
Adalah calls on the Israeli government to:
- Cancel the Prawer Plan
- Recognize the “unrecognized villages” and the land claims of the indigenous Arab Bedouin community
- Halt home demolitions and forced evictions
- Engage in meaningful dialogue with the Arab Bedouin community and the Arab political leadership to justly resolve the land claims
- Invest in greater health, education, and employment opportunities for Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel
Briefing Paper: The Prawer Plan Bill
Adalah and ACRI Press Release: Prawer Plan Law Violates Rights of Bedouin
Four Reasons to Reject the Prawer Plan
The Arab Bedouin: Myths and Misconceptions
UN CERD Calls on Israel to Withdraw the Prawer Plan Law
European Parliament Pass Resolution Calling on Israel to Stop the Prawer Plan
Romney backs Israel’s right to strike Iran
By Tobias Buck, Financial Times
July 29, 2012
Jerusalem–Mitt Romney would not stand in the way of an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, a senior adviser to the presumptive Republican presidential candidate has said.
“If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing that [nuclear weapons] capability, the governor would respect that decision,” said Dan Senor, a foreign policy adviser to Mr Romney, during the candidate’s visit to Israel.
The remarks, made to US journalists travelling with the candidate, came ahead of Mr Romney’s meeting on Sunday with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and other Israeli leaders.
They appear to set out a position that is more hawkish than that taken by the current US administration, which has made clear repeatedly that it opposes a military strike on Iran for the time being.
Senior US officials – including President Barack Obama – have stated on many occasions that the military option against Iran must remain “on the table”. However, officials and analysts say that Washington has also put intense pressure on Israel for now to give more time to diplomacy and sanctions to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Mr Romney’s visit to Israel is widely seen as the most important, as well as the most sensitive, leg of his pre-election journey, which started in London last week. The former Massachusetts governor will be anxious not to repeat his widely criticised performance in the British capital, where he was publicly rebuked by political leaders for casting doubt over London’s readiness to host the Olympic Games.
The visit to Israel is significant above all because it comes amid a concerted Republican campaign to attract more votes from the American Jewish community, traditionally a bastion of Democrat support. At the heart of the Republican push is the claim that Mr Obama has not been sufficiently supportive of Israel, and the accusation that he has not been forceful enough in his dealings with Iran.
In an apparent bid to neutralise some of that criticism, the US leader on Friday announced a military aid package for Israel worth $70m.
Mr Romney himself has so far been careful not to voice direct criticism of the president’s policies while travelling abroad, in accordance with US political custom. However, he was due to give a foreign policy speech in Jerusalem on Sunday evening seeking to portray the Republican candidate as a staunch Israeli ally.
“When Iran’s leaders deny the Holocaust or speak of wiping this nation off the map, only the naive – or worse – will dismiss it as an excess of rhetoric,” according to extracts from the speech released by the Romney campaign on Sunday.
“Make no mistake: the ayatollahs in Tehran are testing our moral defences. They want to know who will object, and who will look the other way. My message to the people of Israel and the leaders of Iran is one and the same: I will not look away; and neither will my country.”
On Monday, Mr Romney is scheduled to hold a fundraising event in Jerusalem.
Israel coined the term “Nakba” and is still implementing it: The Electronic Intifada
Home demolitions carried out today are a continuation of the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
In the July lull between the two truces of the 1948 war that involved Israel and troops sent from neighboring Arab states to try and salvage Palestine, another stage in theethnic cleansing operation of the country was completed.
While in April 1948 the urban space of Palestine was almost completely destroyed by the Zionist forces, pockets of the rural areas and three towns, al-Lid, Ramleh andNazareth were still safe, but not for long.
Within the ten days of the lull (known in Israeli historiography as the “ten days war”), more Palestinian land was occupied and more people uprooted. The newly-born Jewish state promised the UN mediator at the time to cease fighting and explained that the July operations were just minor cleansing of pockets of resistance.
The UN did not buy the lie, but was already then a helpless and hapless organization. Only the city of Nazareth was spared and it is not very clear why. Zionist leader and Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who was very keen to depopulate it not only from its original inhabitants but also from the tens of thousands of refugees who found shelter there since May 1948, in the very last moment was convinced by someone to leave it intact.
But everywhere else the magnitude of the ruthless depopulation began to transpire clearly — before another two months passed it would be completed with the final destruction of the Palestinians in the Galilee and the Naqab (Negev) — respectively in the far north and south of Palestine.
Israel warned of “catastrophe”
Long before the Palestinians themselves understood what was the essence of the Israeli master plan to expel them, and the far-reaching implications of the country’s ethnic cleansing, the perpetrators themselves found an adequate term in Arabic to describe it: Nakba (catastrophe).
The term was mentioned for the first time not in Arab or Palestinian sources but in Israeli military intelligence sources. It appeared in leaflets the Israeli air force distributed during those ten days in July on the eve of a very singular attack on a village or a town.
The leaflets demanded in the main the “peaceful” eviction of the village and its surrounding areas. If not, the leaflets warned, the village would be severely punished. We do not have all the leaflets but here is the one rained on the huge and beautiful village of al-Tira near Haifa in the middle of July 1948:
“The sword will cut your throats without pity or compensation. If you insist and continue with your wrong doing … you should know that our airplanes, tanks and artillery will grind your village to dust, shell your houses, break you back, uproot you from your land … and your village will become a desert. Oh the people of al-Tira, if you wish to avoid a Nakba [sic] … surrender. The victorious Israeli army has already demolished the criminal hotbeds of Jaffa, Acre, Tiberias and Safad. It has occupied tens of villages in the south and the north, and this triumphant army will destroy you in several hours.”
Destruction and expulsion was a nakba in the eyes of the embryonic Israeli intelligence preparing the campaign of propaganda and intimidation against the native people of Palestine. Throughout the years, until this very day, the Nakba has continued by other means, this we know.
Dispossession
But in this summer of 2012 when our attention is focused on Syria, Egypt, Iran and the financial crisis — we are creating by this distraction from Palestine another lull in the never ending ethnic cleansing of Palestine. A dire situation helped also by the paralysis of Palestinian politics and the apathy of the international community.
The target of the new ethnic cleansing is, among others, the Bedouins of the Naqab. Next month, the Israeli authorities are going to begin to implement the Prawer plan for the dispossession of the Bedouins of the Naqab (named after Ehud Prawer, the deputy head of the Israeli National Security Council and head of the team of experts preparing it).
Until it was finalized and authorized in September last year by the government, the Israeli strategy to dislocate the 70,000 Palestinians from the south of the country was through strangulation: denying them electricity, water, education and access to any elementary infrastructure. A policy that by itself, had it been committed anywhere else in the world would have been condemned as a crime against humanity. But it has failed so far and did not deter or break the spirit and steadfastness of the Bedouins.
Hence the Prawer plan’s more active approach: it aims to destroy physically and by force the 35 villages in which these 70,000 people live. The early stages of this plan were already executed between last September and today: already 1,000 houses were demolished. The next stage would be far more comprehensive and deadly as a special police force has been established for its execution.
This is a test for a far more important Israeli master plan devised back in 2001 by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and perfected by a successor, Ehud Olmert, in 2007.
A unilateral — and if possible with at least a tacit Palestinian Authority agreement — scheme for the final demarcation of the 21st century state of Israel. The components of this strategy are a ghettoized Gaza Strip, annexation of Area C of the West Bank (a zone defined by the Oslo agreements, comprising more than 60 percent of the West Bank) to Israel, and the creation of a Palestinian Bantustan in the rest.
It also includes the ghettoization of the Palestinians in the Naqab; the strangulation of the Palestinians in the Galilee by an intensive construction of new Jewish settlementsthere; and the injection of Jewish population into the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Ramleh and al-Lid (accompanied by the instalment of a new and complex web of roads and highways inside these areas).
Nakba 2012 — in contrast to Nakba 1948 — is done through municipal master-planning, administrative regulations and special police forces. It is incremental and bureaucratic and hence off the radar of a world that anyway does not seem to care much.
But for various reasons this more subtle criminal policy cannot be fully executed in the Naqab. This particular juncture is a chance to expose it worldwide as well as bring home the message that those who invented the term Nakba are still determined to fully implement it.
The author of numerous books, Ilan Pappe is professor of history and director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter.
mistake: the ayatollahs in Tehran are testing our moral defences. They want to know who will object, and who will look the other way. My message to the people of Israel and the leaders of Iran is one and the same: I will not look away; and neither will my country.”
On Monday, Mr Romney is scheduled to hold a fundraising event in Jerusalem.
Israel obstructs the peace, and is paid handsomely for it: Jonathan Cook
Jul 29, 2012
Israel has barely put a foot right with the international community since its attack on Gaza more than three years ago provoked global revulsion.The right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu has serially defied and insulted foreign leaders, including US President Barack Obama; given the settlers virtual free rein; blocked peace talks with the Palestinians; intimidated and marginalised human rights groups, UN agencies and even the Israeli courts; and fuelled a popular wave of Jewish ethnic and religious chauvinism against the country’s Palestinian minority, foreign workers and asylum seekers.No wonder, then, that in poll after poll Israel ranks as one of the countries with the most negative influence on international affairs.And yet, the lower Israel sinks in public estimation, the more generous western leaders are in handing out aid and special favours to their wayward ally. The past few days have been particularly shameless.It was revealed last week that the European Union had approved a massive upgrade in Israel’s special trading status, strengthening economic ties in dozens of different fields. The decision was a reversal of a freeze imposed in the wake of the Gaza attack of winter 2008.
Amnesty International pointed out that the EU was violating its own commitments in the European Neighbourhood Policy, which requires that, as a preferred trading partner, Israel respect international human rights, democratic values and its humanitarian obligations.
Equally troubling, the EU is apparently preparing to upend what had looked like an emerging consensus in favour of banning settlement products – the only meaningful punishment the EU has threatened to inflict on Israel.
With some irony, Europe’s turnabout was revealed the same day that Israel announced it was planning to destroy eight villages in the West Bank, expelling their 1,500 Palestinian inhabitants, to make way for a military firing zone. Four more villages are also under threat.
The villagers’ expulsion was further confirmation that Israel is conducting a “forced transfer” of Palestinians, as recent EU reports have warned, from the nearly two-thirds of the West Bank under its control.
Europe’s only real leverage over Israel is economic: business between the two already accounts for about 60 per cent of Israeli trade, worth nearly 30 billion euros (Dh136 billion). But rather than penalising Israel for repeatedly stomping over the flimsiest prospects for a two-state solution, the EU is handsomely rewarding it.
It is not alone. The United States is also showering economic benefits and military goodies on Israel, in addition to the billions of dollars in aid it hands over every year.
In the past few days alone, President Obama signed a new law greatly expanding military cooperation with Israel and donated a further $70 million to develop its Iron Dome missile defence system; the Pentagon arm-twisted Lockheed Martin into collaborating with Israeli firms in revamping the new F-35 fighter jet; and Congress approved a four-year extension of US loan guarantees to make it cheaper for Israel to borrow money on the international markets.
All this munificence is coming from the two dominant parties to the Quartet – the international group comprising the US, the EU, the United Nations and Russia. The Quartet’s role is to champion the very two-state solution Israel is striving so strenuously to destroy.
In a further irony, the World Bank issued last week its latest report on the state of the Palestinian economy, concluding that its situation was so dire the Palestinian government-in-waiting, the Palestinian Authority, could not be considered ready for independent statehood. The report noted that the Palestinians were heavily reliant on foreign donors and that local private businesses, agriculture and manufacturing were all in decline.
With feigned obtuseness, the World Bank recommended that the PA increase exports to foreign markets, glossing over the biggest impediment to such trade: the severe restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of people and goods into and out of Palestinian territory.
As the Quartet has grown ever more silent in the face of Israeli transgressions, US politicians have stepped in with cynical manoeuvres to shore up Israel’s intransigence and destroy any hopes of a peaceful solution.
Last week, for example, US lawmakers were reported to have put their names to a congressional resolution recognising the recent report of Israel’s controversial Levy Committee. The report concluded that Israel was not occupying the West Bank and that consequently the settlements there are legal.
The topsy-turvy character of international diplomacy was acknowledged this month by a recently retired British ambassador to the Middle East. Tom Philips, who served in Israel and Saudi Arabia, writes in the latest edition of Prospect magazine that Europe and the US need to use “big carrots and big sticks” if there is to be any hope of reviving the peace process.
But Mr Philips believes the US is “genetically indisposed” to forcing change on Israel. He proposes instead choking off donor money to the PA so as “to put the full weight of the occupation on Israel, a burden I do not think they would be able to endure”.
In another of the rich ironies of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it now seems even some diplomats are concluding that the Palestinians will be best served by destroying the fledgling government that was supposed to be the harbinger of their independence.
The real obstacles to peace – Israel, its occupation and western complicity – might then be laid bare for all to see.
Mitt Romney would support Israeli military strike against Iran, says aide: Guardian
US presidential candidate to say in speech in Israel that stopping Iran’s nuclear arms capability must be ‘highest priority’
Mitt Romney would back unilateral military action by Israel against Iran‘s nuclear sites, a senior aide said as the presumptive Republican candidate embarked on a series of high-level meetings in Jerusalem.
“If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing that capability, the governor would respect that decision,” Dan Senor, Romney’s senior national security aide, told reporters accompanying the candidate.
Romney arrived in Israel on Saturday evening for a brief visit, during which he will meet the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and president, Shimon Peres, as well as the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad. The visit is aimed at reinforcing Romney’s support for Israel and his personal friendship with Netanyahu, and appealing to Jewish voters in the US ahead of November’s presidential contest.
He will also make a speech on Sunday on foreign policy and US-Israeli relations. It is expected to focus on the Iranian nuclear issue and the common interests of Israel and the US.
In comments echoing Netanyahu’s position that a nuclear Iran is the biggest threat to the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Romney will say: “We have seen the horrors of history. We will not stand by. We will not watch them play out again.”
Preventing the Iranian regime developing a nuclear weapons capability “must be our highest national security priority,” Romney will say according to excerpts of the speech released in advance. “The security of Israel is in the vital national security interests of the United States.”
Romney is seeking to sharply differentiate his position from that of President Obama, who has urged caution on Israel’s leaders regarding a military strike against Iran. Sanctions and diplomacy must be given time to reap results, Obama has said.
However, a report in the Israeli daily Haaretz said a senior US official briefed Netanyahu on America’s contingency plans for possible military action in the event of sanctions and diplomacy failing.
National security adviser Tom Donilon, who visited Israel two weeks ago, shared details of the preparations, including US weaponry and military capability for striking underground facilities, during a three-hour meeting with the Israeli prime minister, according to the report which was sourced to “a senior American official”.
The timing of the story suggests a desire by the administration to pre-empt Romney’s presentation of himself as a more robust supporter of tough action against Iran.
However, the report was denied by a senior Israeli official. “Nothing in the article is correct. Donilon did not meet the prime minister for dinner, he did not meet him one-on-one, nor did he present operational plans to attack Iran,” said the official, speaking anonymously.
Romney’s efforts to win over American Jewish voters are having limited success, according to a recent opinion poll, which puts support for Obama at 68% among US Jews compared with 25% for the Republican candidate. Although a drop from the 75% of American Jews who backed Obama in the 2008 election, the latest figures also represent sliding support for Romney compared with a Gallup poll in June, which gave 29% of the Jewish vote to the Republican and 64% to Obama.
Romney has attacked the US president – who has not visited the Jewish state since his election – for publicly criticising Israel. Although custom dictates that presidential candidates refrain from criticising their opponents while abroad, in his speech Romney will reiterate the strong ties between the US and Israel.
“We’re part of the great fellowship of democracies. We speak the same language of freedom and justice, and the right of every person to live in peace. We serve the same cause and provoke the same hatreds in the same enemies of civilisation,” he will say.
Romney’s visit falls on the Jewish religious day of Tisha B’Av, a day of fasting and mourning the destruction of the First and Second Temples. A fundraising event had to be postponed until Monday morning when it was realised it had been scheduled before the end of the fast at sunset.
Romney and his wife, Ann, are scheduled to dine with the Netanyahus at their residence on Sunday evening. Netanyahu and Romney have had a warm personal relationship since working together in the US in the 1970s. Following controversy over the candidate’s comments on the preparedness of London to host the Olympic Games, his aides will be anxious to avoid further gaffes. Media access to events during the visit has been tightly restricted, and there are expected to be no opportunities to put questions to Romney.
The media has been barred from access to Monday’s fund-raiser at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, at which the minimum donation from participants is $50,000. Among those expected to attend is Sheldon Adelson, a high-profile billionaire Jewish American casino magnate and major supporter of and donor to the Romney campaign. Adelson also owns Israel Hayom, Israel’s biggest circulation newspaper, which is distributed free and takes a strong pro-Netanyahu line.
The Romney entourage is to fly to Poland on Monday.
Defence secretary Panetta meets with Middle Eastern leaders in five-day trip: Guardian
Visit to Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Tunisia comes on the heels of Mitt Romney’s trip to Israel and during increasing strife in Syria
Defence secretary Leon Panetta embarked on a five-day trip to the Middle East on Sunday during which he is expected to meet the new leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and hold bilateral talks with long-standing US allies Israel and Jordan.
High on the agenda at each stop is expected to be the accelerating crisis in Syria amid ongoing clashes between government troops and rebels in the strife-torn country.
The visit to Israel will come just days after Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney tours the country in a politically significant visit, given his past sharp criticism of the White House over its handing of Middle East policy.
Panetta’s press secretary, George Little, said the trip is intended to affirm a US commitment to stability in the region at a time when the US military is shifting more of its attention to Asia.
“That will require strengthening traditional alliances with countries like Israel and Jordan and building strong partnerships with new democratic governments,” Little said last week in previewing the trip.
The visits to Egypt and Tunisia come as the White House attempts to cultivate new ties between Washington and the emerging Islamist leaders in the two countries.
In Tunis, Panetta plans to meet with his Tunisian counterpart as well as President Moncef Marzouki, leader of the small, secular Congress for the Republic party.
Panetta is scheduled to visit the North Africa American Cemetery near Tunis, resting place for 2,841 US military members killed in the World War II invasion and occupation of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia in 1942-43.
Among them is army air corps pilot Foy Draper, who won a gold medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics as a member of the U.S. 400 meter relay team. He was killed on a mission over Tunisia in January 1943.
During his visit to Jerusalem, Panetta is expected to highlight cooperation with Israel on building more effective missile defences, including the Iron Dome system that is designed to shoot down short-range rockets and artillery shells.
The US has provided $205m for the project, and on Friday, Obama announced the release of a further $70m.
Romney Backs Israeli Stance on Threat of Nuclear Iran: NYTimes
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Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
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Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
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Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
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Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Mitt Romney, on a seven-day overseas trip, met with President Shimon Peres of Israel at his residence in Jerusalem on Sunday.
“We have a solemn duty and a moral imperative to deny Iran’s leaders the means to follow through on their malevolent intentions,” Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told an audience of about 300, including a large contingent of American donors who flew here to accompany him. “We must not delude ourselves into thinking that containment is an option.”
The speech, delivered at dusk overlooking the Old City, was short on policy prescriptions, as Mr. Romney tried to adhere to an unwritten code suggesting that candidates not criticize each other on foreign soil. But there were subtle differences between what he said — and how he said it — and the positions of his opponent.
While the Obama administration typically talks about stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, Mr. Romney adopted the language of Israel’s leaders, who say Tehran must be prevented from even having the capability to develop one.
And while President Obama and his aides always acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself, they put an emphasis on sanctions and diplomacy; Dan Senor, Mr. Romney’s senior foreign policy aide, went further on Sunday, suggesting that Mr. Romney was ready to support a unilateral military strike by Israel.
“If Israel has to take action on its own,” Mr. Senor said in a briefing before the speech, “the governor would respect that decision.”
The visit to Jerusalem, in the middle of a seven-day overseas tour that began in London and continues on Monday in Poland, was largely a series of photo opportunities intended to shore up support among evangelical Christians who have been wary of Mr. Romney’s candidacy, and to peel off some votes from American Jews dissatisfied with Mr. Obama’s handling of Israel. It went smoother than the London stop, in which Mr. Romney appeared to be insulting his hosts by questioning their preparations and enthusiasm for the Olympic Games, but the campaign struggled somewhat with the delicate diplomacy of being a candidate abroad.
After reports of Mr. Senor’s comments were published, he issued a new statement that did not mention unilateral action, and later he said he was not necessarily referring to a military strike. In an interview with CBS News, Mr. Romney stuck with the softer stance, saying only, “we respect the right of a nation to defend itself,” and also hinted at the strained choreography of the day.
“Because I’m on foreign soil,” he said, “I don’t want to be creating new foreign policy for my country or in any way to distance myself from the foreign policy of our nation.”
A few hours later, his 15-minute speech did include one vague shot at Democrats.
“We cannot stand silent as those who seek to undermine Israel voice their criticisms,” he said. “And we certainly should not join in that criticism. Diplomatic distance in public between our nations emboldens Israel’s adversaries.”
He also referred pointedly to Jerusalem as “the capital of Israel,” something Obama administration officials are loath to do, because Palestinians also imagine the city as the future capital of their hoped-for state. The line drew a standing ovation from some in the crowd and, later, an echo from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who underscored, “Jerusalem will always be the capital of Israel.”
Mr. Netanyahu, whose relationship with Mr. Obama has been rocky, was generous in his praise of Mr. Romney. “Mitt, I couldn’t agree with you more, and I think it’s important to do everything in our power to prevent the ayatollahs from possessing the capability” to develop a nuclear weapon, the prime minister said earlier in the day. “We have to be honest and say that all the sanctions and diplomacy so far have not set back the Iranian program by one iota.”
The visit, Mr. Romney’s fourth to Israel, coincided with the solemn fast day of Tisha B’av, which commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Jewish Temples of Jerusalem. Between meetings with Mr. Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Romney and his wife, along with several of the donors, made a pilgrimage to the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism and a central symbol of the holiday.
Standing with the chief rabbi of the wall, Mr. Romney, in a black velvety skullcap, was handed Psalm 121 — “He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” — and later inserted a note into a crack between the stones, as is traditional (campaign aides declined to reveal its contents).
The scene was more like a campaign rally than a solemn place of prayer. Women stood on chairs to peer over the fence that divides them from the men, many of whom clapped and waved as the candidate and his entourage snaked through; people actually praying were pushed to the back as security officers cordoned off a space for the candidate.
“Jerusalem, the capital of Israel,” one man called out. “Beat Obama, Governor!” said another.
Israel restricts Jordan Valley water access: Al Jazeera TV English |
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Palestinians in the Jordan Valley have very little access to water, living on 10-20 litres a day [EPA]
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At a time when the Palestinian Authority is facing a severe financial crisis, a report by the UK-based non-governmental organisation Oxfam International has revealed that Palestinians could generate an extra $1bn a year by some estimates if Israel removes restrictions on the use of land, water and movement in the Jordan Valley.”The Jordan Valley… has the potential to be the Palestinian bread basket,” the organisation said in the report, On the Brink: Israeli settlements and their impacts on Palestinians in the Jordan Valley. “However, the persistent expansion of Israeli settlements and other restrictions on Palestinian development have made life extremely difficult for Palestinian communities.”The Jordan Valley and Dead Sea area holds nearly one-third of the West Bank’s land and is home to roughly 60,000 Palestinians. Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, which delegated various degrees of autonomy to the Palestinian Authority (PA) around built up and urban areas, Israel retained full civil and military control over 60 per centof the West Bank. This is now known as Area “C”. Some 87 per cent of the Jordan Valley lies within this classification.Area “A” is defined as under full PA control and Area B is under Israeli military control; the PA here is in charge of civilian affairs. These designations have effectively divided the West Bank into three main non-contiguous areas.Permits denied
Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley are mainly farmers or Bedouins, mostly living in enclaves hemmed in by closed Israeli military zones, checkpoints and more than 30 Israeli settlements. Their movement is severely hindered by a stringent permit system and by “live fire” zones. Here, the Israeli military sometimes carries out training exercises in close proximity to Palestinian communities – and even inside population centres and villages. This was the case in Al Aqaba, a herding and agricultural community located on the Western edge of the Jordan Valley. Before 1967, around 2,000 Palestinians lived in this small village. There are fewer than 300 inhabitants today, after Israeli authorities created three military camps on its outskirts, and began military “training exercises” – using live ammunition – often within the village itself. Paralysed from the waist down after he was shot by Israeli soldiers, Al Aqaba’s mayor, Haj Sami Sadeq, led a campaign for years against these operations in order to sustain the existence of the village. In 2001, the Israeli High Court ruled that Israeli soldiers must stop using Al Aqaba’s land for training exercises, and remove one of their military camps located at the entrance of the village. But Mayor Sadeq said this wasn’t enough. “The village is constantly under the threat of extinction. Its land is constantly being confiscated, its homes demolished, its crops burned and there is often little access to water,” he said. In 2003, Israeli authorities began issuing demolition orders against most of Al Aqaba, including the nursery school,medical centre, mosque and nearly all the homes. The village council turned once more to the Israeli High Court, which upheld the orders, saying the buildings – owned and built by Palestinians on Palestinian land, albeit within “Area C” – had been constructed without permits issued by Israeli officials. According to Sadeq, the village had submitted several “master plans” to Israeli authorities to get these permits, one of which dates back to 1998. “The Civil Administration rejected the [latest] master plan a few days ago, and gave five more families in Al Aqaba demolition petitions,” he said. Permits are rarely given to Palestinians, even for structures such as tents and water containers. Because of this restrictive planning system, most Palestinians are forced to build without a permit, knowing that their structures might be demolished at any time. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented that, in 2011, Israeli authorities demolished 200 Palestinian structures in the area, including water tanks and homes made out of metal and plastic sheets, displacing 430 people and affecting the livelihoods of 1,200 others. Israel’s systemic policy According to OCHA, 90 per cent of demolitions occur in agricultural and pastoral communities in Area C. Khalil Tafakji, director of the Mapping and GIS Department at the Jerusalem-based Arab Studies Society, said: “Israel’s goal is [to] use the Jordan Valley as a way to control Palestinian space.” He cites several methods of “control”, including designating areas as closed military zones, nature reserves and settlements. “Palestinians need a strategic plan to safeguard the area, similar to the one we have for Jerusalem. We need to make the Jordan Valley a national priority,” Tafakji said. UN agencies and Israeli human rights groups have concluded in several reports that Israel has imposed a policy designed to restrict the development of the Palestinian communities in the area. According to Israeli human rights group, BIMKOM: Planners for Planning Rights: “The restrictive Israeli planning policy is a central tool in the ongoing struggle for control of land and the [Israeli] Civil Administration’s attempt to secure large reserves of land for Israeli interests, primarily for the settlements.” In the meantime, settlement activity has continued unabated, rising by 20 per cent in 2011 across the West Bank as compared with 2010, according to Oxfam. In the same period, the number of Palestinians displaced by demolitions reportedly doubled, with 60 per cent of these demolitions carried out in areas close to settlements. Control of water sources The Jordan Valley is home to some of the most fertile land in all of the occupied territories and Israel itself. Arable farming is deemed a lifeline for many rural Palestinian communities, yet Israel controls most water sources in the area, and 28 of its 42 drillings in the area in the Jordan Valley, according to B’Tselem.
Palestinians in the Jordan Valley have very little access to water, living on 10-20 litres a day, far less than the 100 litres recommended by the World Health Organisation. In comparison, residents of Britain use around 150 litres a day, according to the UK Environment Agency. The situation is far worse for those not connected to a formal water system, such as Bedouin communities, who are forced to buy bottled or tanked water at inflated prices.According to OCHA, families living on tanked water pay up to 400 per cent more for every litre than those connected to a water network. In contrast, the 9,500 Israeli settlers living in the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea area use roughly 300 litres per person per day, according to OCHA. This is more water per capita than the average household inside Israel is allocated, B’Tselem said: “The generous [water] allocation to the settlements has enabled [settlers] to develop intensive agriculture that operates year round.” Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley are frequently denied permits to restore old wells or dig new ones, while Israeli authorities also often destroy water cisterns and confiscate tanks. The latest incident occurred last month in Ein El Hilweh, a Jordan Valley pastoral community whose water storage tanks were confiscated. B’Tselem estimates that the Palestinians have access to 89 wells in the area, down from 209 before 1967. “The reduction in the amount of water accessible to Palestinians [has] led to a decline in the amount of land cultivated by Palestinian and to a drop in competitiveness of the crops they grow,” the Israeli group said. Israel under pressure Earlier this week, Israel responded to OCHA’s ongoing work in the Jordan Valley and Area C by threatening sanctions against the organisation and formally asking for clarifications on its mandate. Israel is accusing the UN agency of supporting “unauthorised building” by Palestinians in Area C. Oxfam called upon the European Union and its member states to pressure Israel to “end the construction of illegal settlements and [to] comply with its responsibilities under international law”. The recommendation followed a statement made by EU foreign ministers, who called upon Israel to alleviate living conditions of Palestinians living in Area C, “by accelerated approval of Palestinian master plans, halting forced transfer of population and demolition of Palestinian housing and infrastructure, simplifying administrative procedures to obtain building permits, ensuring access to water and addressing humanitarian needs”. Israel has repeatedly said that the Jordan Valley is essential to its long-term security. In March 2012, Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel would never withdraw from the Jordan Valley under any future peace agreement signed with the Palestinians. He said the strategic importance of the area along the eastern border of the West Bank prevented Israel from doing so. In February, the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying: “We cannot secure the state of Israel without maintaining control of the Jordan Valley.” Many Israeli leaders often cite Yigal Allon, a former Israeli general and deputy prime minister, who, in 1967, outlined a plan to control the Jordan Valley in order to act as a buffer area between Israel and its neighbours. Yet some Israeli experts say that in the age of long-range missiles, securing a specific geographic area may not be as relevant as it was years ago. Hebrew University political science professor Yaron Ezrahi said Netanyahu was probably aware of this, “but he won’t say it because it would weaken his land-grabbing policy”. However, “Players like al-Qaeda work by infiltration and terror. And here, borders are important, because we see instability in Jordan. We see demonstrations there and the king is facing some troubles. Instability creates questions about borders.” Meanwhile, Mayor Sadeq and the residents of Al Aqaba are still entangled in legal battles that will determine the future of their village. Home demolitions in the Jordan Valley continue at a record pace while Israeli settlements continue to expand, taking control of water and land resources. |
Romney outrages Palestinians by suggesting Israeli culture is superior: Haaretz
During a fundraiser for Jewish-American supporters, Romney hinted that the Israeli economy is prospering, unlike the Palestinian Authority, due to its superior culture.
With the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City as a backdrop, Romney stressed that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital during a speech he made on Sunday. Although he did not preface the word “Jerusalem” with the word “united” – the preferred locution of the right – it was enough to earn him words of praise from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Not long before his address, Romney did an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, during which he committed himself to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Perhaps that shouldn’t excite anyone too much; several of his predecessors, including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, also promised to do this during their campaigns and then promptly stowed the idea somewhere in the White House basement after becoming president.
When asked by Blitzer, Romney said that he viewed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“Yes, of course,” he said. “A nation has the capacity to choose its own capital city, and Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.”
When Blitzer then asked if he would move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, Romney replied: “I think it’s long been the policy of our country to ultimately have our embassy in the nation’s capital, Jerusalem. The decision to actually make the move is one, if I were president, I would want to take in consultation with the leadership of the government which exists at that time. So I would follow the same policy we have in the past. Our embassy would be in the capital.”
Romney skipped Ramallah and did not meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, nor did he mention the peace process in his speech. Romney made do with a short meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel.
Romney’s people claimed that the candidate’s tight schedule made a meeting with Abbas impossible, but the assumption is that Romney, who was making this visit to help attract Jewish voters, didn’t want to anger his Jewish supporters, most prominent among them Sheldon Adelson, nor did he wish to annoy Netanyahu.
The Palestinians, who were already suspicious of Romney, were furious about his comments on Jerusalem. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called Romney’s remarks about Jerusalem “absolutely unacceptable.”
“I don’t think occupation and aggression [should be] rewarded even during an election campaign,” he said, according to CNN.
But what infuriated the Palestinians even more was a semi-racist remark Romney made during a fundraiser Monday morning in Jerusalem attended by some 40 wealthy American-Jewish supporters.
Romney spoke about the economic differences between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, ignoring the limitations that the occupation puts on Palestinian economic development, saying instead that the reason for the gap was due to cultural differences between Israelis and Palestinians.
“As you come here and you see the GDP [gross domestic product] per capita, for instance, in Israel, which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality,” Romney said.
He then cited the book “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations” and explained what he believed to be author David Landes’ thesis.
“He says if you can learn anything from the economic history of the world, it’s this: culture makes all the difference. Culture makes all the difference. And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things,” Romney said, citing an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and “the hand of providence.”
Erekat sharply criticized Romney’s remarks, calling them “a racist statement. This man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation.
“It seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people,” Erekat added. “He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves. I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority.”