EDITOR: Forget about (Jewish) Democracy, now we have Jewish totalitarian theocracy instead!

Now that people cannot fly into Israel without being questioned by the police, and without agreeing to support the illegalities of Israel in the Occupied Territories; now that people who argue for BDS cannot come in without being criminalised by the new (illegal) legislation; now that Palestinian villagers are not allowed to voice their opposition to illegal measures of land theft – now we are at last free from the slogans of the past, which were nevr true – Israel is the Only Jewish Theocracy in the Middle East, and has joined the other theocracies: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain… Welcome into the Middle East!

Israel’s boycott ban is down to siege mentality: The Guardian

Carlo Strenger
July 12, 2011
The flood of anti-democratic laws that were proposed, and partially implemented, by the current Knesset, elected in February 2009, constitute one of the darkest chapters in Israeli history. The opening salvo was provided by foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party with its Nakba law, that forbids the public commemoration of the expulsion of approximately 750000 Palestinians during the 1948 war.

Since then, a growing number of attempts were made to curtail freedom of expression and to make life for human rights groups more difficult. The latest instance is the boycott law that was passed on Monday by the Knesset, even though its legal advisor believes it to be a problematic infringement on freedom of speech. This law makes any call for boycotting Israel economically, culturally or academically a civil offence that can be punished with a fine. Any public body making such a call will lose its legal status and will no longer be eligible for tax-deductible contributions.

The law, as Knesset member Nitzan Horowitz from the leftist Meretz party said, is outrageous, shameful and an embarrassment to Israel’s democracy.

Despite the outrage, I will try to analyse the question: what stands behind this frenzy of attempts to shut down criticism? The answer, I believe, is simpler than many assume: it is fear, stupidity and confusion.

It all starts with Binyamin Netanyahu’s political conundrum. He has been under great international pressure to move ahead with a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Neither his right-wing coalition nor his own Likud party allow for meaningful compromise with the Palestinians. Add to this that Netanyahu is far more of a hardline rightwinger than his sophisticated appearance might suggest. I think he actually believes that the 1967 borders are indefensible, and that Palestinians cannot be trusted.

To play for time, he has been selling the Israeli public the idea that the Palestinians have never accepted Israel’s existence; that the issue is not Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza blockade, but that the legitimacy of Israel’s very existence is being called into question. While this is true for Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, it is not true for the free world except for a relatively thin layer of extreme leftists who claim that Israel is by nature a racist, illegitimate state. Netanyahu’s fear-mongering is enhanced by Lieberman, who keeps accusing Israeli Arabs of being a security danger for Israel, and has initiated a number of anti-Arab proposed laws.

The result of Netanyahu and Lieberman’s systematic fanning of Israeli’s existential fears is tangible in Israel: polls show that Israelis are deeply pessimistic about peace; they largely do not trust Palestinians, and in the younger generation belief in democratic values is being eroded.

But this pessimism and siege mentality is not only found in ordinary Israeli voters, but also in the political class. After talking to a number of rightwing politicians, I am unfavourably impressed by their total lack of understanding of the international scene. They have profound misconceptions about the world’s attitude towards Israel, and very little real understanding of the paradigm shift towards human rights as the core language of international discourse. All they feel is that Israel is being singled out unfairly for criticism and that it has a PR problem rather than realising that Israel’s policies are unacceptable politically and morally.

This is certainly justified when it comes to the UN commission on human rights, which has a record of absurd over-emphasis on Israeli human rights violations compared with any number of countries ranging from China to Sudan. But these politicians genuinely do not understand that the international community, for good reasons, is sick and tired of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, and simply wants Israel to comply.

Add to this a small, but very powerful, group of ideological rightwingers who, on theological grounds, genuinely believe that Jews have a God-given right to the greater land of Israel, including Judea and Samaria, the heart of historical Israel. No Israeli governments except those of Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon have risked head-on confrontation with ideological rightwingers, among other reasons because of their potential for violence; Rabin, indeed, paid with his life for taking on these apocalyptic, messianic fanatics.

Out of their utter confusion between international criticism of Israeli policies and existential danger for Israel, the more moderate rightwingers look for a scapegoat for Israel’s unprecedented isolation. The Israeli left and human rights organisations are an easy target. Rightwingers claim that these provide the international community with ammunition for criticising Israel, and are trying to silence them.

Existential fear, confusion and ideology create the explosive mix that is drawing Knesset members into the maelstrom of ever more anti-democratic measures, of which the boycott law is the latest, but, I am afraid, not the last installment.

What will the future bring, then? In the short term, I am not optimistic. Ordinary citizens in Israel don’t trust the world; its politicians are richly rewarded for noisy declarations of undying patriotism and for defying the world. The result is a bunker mentality bolstered by melodramatic comparisons to the siege of Masada in the year 72CE that ended in mass suicide. All this is likely to keep the right in power for the time being.

In the long run, I think that Israel will come to its senses. The more recognition, including by the UN, a Palestinian state receives, the more Israel’s political class will come to the conclusion that the price for holding on to the West Bank is too high.

Until then Israel’s democracy will be beleaguered by the right, but it will survive.

Freedom of speech in Israel is intact; the Knesset’s more totalitarian leanings have been kept in check, and I do not expect their attempts to silence criticism to succeed.

Israel is too liberal in its basic structure, and its elites are too sophisticated and too committed to liberal democracy for any attempt to actually turn Israel into a totalitarian state to succeed. It is these elites’ task to sustain the structures of Israeli civil society, until the madness subsides.

EDITOR: A nationalist will remain a nationalist…

So Avneri is against the new law on BDS. But, more interestingly, he is also against the BDS movement – he strongly opposes boycott on Israel… He supports the boycott against the settlements as if the settlements are some private business, rather than the official arm of the Israeli state! If he is against the settleemnts, as he says he is, why is he not against those who put them there, who arm and finance them, who make it all possible? He opposes the phenomenon, but supports the system which created it. Try and bend your head around this kind of logic.

Uri Avnery, will the Boycott Law make you stop calling to boycott the settlements?: Haaretz

‘The Boycott Law turns the dictatorship of the settlers into the basis of Israeli law’.
By Jonathan Lis
Uri Avnery, one of Israel’s most prominent left-wing activists and the founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement, is one of the most vocal critics of the so-called “Boycott Law.” This bill, which has the government’s backing, would impose various sanctions on any person or organization that publicly calls for an economic, cultural or academic boycott of Israel in general or the settlements in particular. It was slated to come up for final approval in the Knesset plenum this evening, though a last-minute hitch may cause the vote to be postponed.

Uri Avnery, will the Boycott Law lead you to stop calling for a boycott of goods from the settlements?

“The boycott law is a sophisticated law. It doesn’t impose criminal sanctions on someone who calls for boycotting the settlements. If it did, we wouldn’t have the slightest problem; we would go to jail. Instead, this law makes everyone who calls for boycotting the settlements liable for paying millions of shekels in compensation to the settlers.

“There is no limit to the sum that the settlers can demand of us in compensation for damages, without their even having to prove it [the damages]. If I call for boycotting the produce of Yitzhar, then every resident of Yitzhar will be able to sue me for millions of shekels in compensation. This could amount to astronomical sums. I think this is a move that has no precedent anywhere else in the world.”

If so, do you fear the law’s effect on protests against the settlements’ existence?

“This law makes it unequivocally clear that it isn’t Israel that controls the settlements, but the settlers who control Israel. How is it possible not to fear this law? We will have to deal with the matter and see how to oppose it.

“This is most the draconian law in the history of Israel. Obviously I am concerned. It’s not a hollow, demonstrative law that is empty of content. It is a substantive law that turns the dictatorship of the settlers into the basis of Israeli law.”

But perhaps imposing boycotts is a problematic and dangerous tool? Perhaps the struggle should not be aimed at harming the settlers’ livelihood or their cultural life?

“There are dozens of boycotts in Israel every day. The religious impose boycotts on nonkosher stores. From their point of view, this is absolutely all right. No one can force them to buy in a store that sells pork or prevent them from announcing the boycott with posters in the streets.

“Vegetarians can boycott stores that sell meat. The secular can boycott religious people whom they don’t like. The religious [i.e the ultra-Orthodox] boycott bus companies that don’t separate men and women. The list is endless.

“All of us at one time boycotted products from South Africa. We boycotted the Soviet Union when it would not let Jews out. In 1933, all Jews boycotted the produce of Nazi Germany. Only one boycott has been banned – a boycott of the settlements. They are holier than all the other holies. We have created a monster here.

“You and I financed the cost of establishing the settlements out of our taxes. With our tax money, the Israel Defense Forces protect these settlements. With our tax money, infrastructure for water, electricity and roads is built on every far-flung illegal outpost. And now we see that the settlers have taken over the state.”

This law bans boycotts against the State of Israel in general, and as part of that, boycotts against the settlements. But you have voiced strong criticism only of the provision regarding boycotts against the settlements.

“Boycotts of the settlements are the reason for this law. All the rest is decoration. The articles that relate to the entire state of Israel can’t be implemented and are stupid.

“The fact that the law was drafted to prevent boycotts of the settlements was stated explicitly during a discussion of the matter by the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, headed by David Rotem. No one is trying to hide anything here.

“As for boycotts of the State of Israel, we all oppose that. I’m opposed to it. I’ve fought against it in dozens of lectures and speeches that I’ve given abroad.”

The law does not call for punishing citizens who participate in a boycott, only those who publicly call for carrying it out. In principle, no one would say anything to Israeli citizens who decided, for example, not to buy produce from the settlements.

“That is completely clear. The law does not threaten people who carry out the boycott, it threatens only those who call for a boycott. But calling for a boycott is like any other statement in a democratic country: It is a basic act of political and democratic expression.

“In America, during the black civil rights movement, they boycotted thousands of businesses that discriminated against blacks. Is it conceivable that anyone would punish someone who called for a boycott of this kind? Until not too long ago, there were hundreds of clubs in the United States that would not let Jews enter, and the Jews announced a boycott of them. Is it conceivable that anyone would have prevented this? That would be anti-democratic.

“This law is at bottom anti-democratic. It fundamentally undermines equality: Boycotts of one kind are permitted while boycotts of another kind are banned.”

The attorney general has announced that he will defend the law in its present version if a petition against it is submitted to the High Court of Justice. How do you explain the contradiction between his statement and your claim that the law is anti-democratic?

“The settlers have succeeded in terrorizing the prosecution and the legal system. These are the same settlers and hilltop youths whom we saw just last week blocking roads on behalf of settler rabbis who supported the murder of gentile babies.

“We don’t realize how quickly we are racing toward the abyss – not only toward a state governed by Jewish law, but a state in which the settlers’ rabbis rule. This is a dictatorship pure and simple, and a vengeful one.

“I spent the first 10 years of my life in Germany. I saw how Hitler rose to power. There was no great revolution when he rose to power. Nothing dramatic happened. It was a small step.

“When my father decided to leave Germany a few months after the Nazi regime came to power, all his relatives told him he was crazy. Today, all their names written on the list of Holocaust victims in that city’s town square.

“We are on a fast track to a regime of that kind. All my life I dreaded having to say those words. I always said: ‘Forget it, you can’t compare anything to the Nazis.’ That was a mistake. I’m sorry I spoke like that.”

Rachel Avnery, your wife of 58 years, died this May, and an evening to remember her will take place in Tel Aviv’s Tzavta Theater on Wednesday. In the notice you published, you said she was “a partner to the struggle.”

“I wanted this not to be a memorial service. There was no one who met her who wasn’t impressed by her unique personality. Rachel was a teacher for 28 years and taught only first and second grades. Hundreds of children were her pupils, but no one forgot her. Men of 40 stop me in the streets, as do middle-aged women, and tell me, ‘Rachel changed my life.’

“She was a life partner and a partner to the struggle. We were a single entity for 58 years. When someone loses an arm, he continues to feel as if it were there. I find myself in the same position. When I hear something, I want to run and tell it to Rachel, and then I have to remind myself that there is no one to tell. She had a very, very great influence on me.

“Rachel was not buried. At her request, her body was cremated and the ashes were scattered. Therefore, all those who loved her did not have an opportunity to take leave of her. This evening is going to be a farewell evening.”

The boycott law subverts Israeli democracy: Haaretz Editorial

Knesset members who vote for the anti-Boycott Law must understand they are supporting the gagging of protest in an effort to liquidate democracy.
Today, the Knesset was slated to approve the final reading of the Boycott Prohibition Law, which imposes severe punishments on anyone who calls, directly or indirectly, for boycotting Israel. Inter alia, the law says any person or organization that calls for boycotting Israel, including by calling for a boycott of the settlements, would be deemed guilty of a civil offense. Organizations that call for boycotts would not be entitled to receive tax-deductible donations or obtain funding from the state.

This contemptible law blatantly violates Israel’s Basic Laws. It is couched in vague language: It defines “a boycott of the State of Israel” very broadly, while the definition of causing a boycott is fluid. Under the law, it would suffice for a call to boycott Israel to have “a reasonable possibility” of leading to an actual boycott for the lawbreaker (under the Torts Ordinance, New Version ) to be defined as having committed a civil offense. The lawbreaker would then be deprived of significant economic benefits and would also have to pay high compensation to those purportedly harmed by the boycott.

This vagueness is intentional, designed to conceal the goal of spreading a wide protective net over the settlements, whose products, activities and in fact very existence – which is controversial to begin with – are the main reason for the boycott initiatives, both domestic and foreign. The legislators are thereby trying to silence one of the most legitimate forms of democratic protest, and to restrict the freedom of expression and association of those who oppose the occupation and the settlers’ violence and want to protest against the government’s flawed order of priorities.

The law’s sponsors are also creating a mendacious equivalence between the State of Israel and Israeli society as a whole, on one hand, and the settlements on the other. They are thereby granting the settlers sweeping legitimization.

This is a politically opportunistic and anti-democratic act, the latest in a series of outrageously discriminatory and exclusionary laws enacted over the past year, and it accelerates the process of transforming Israel’s legal code into a disturbingly dictatorial document. It casts the threatening shadow of criminal offense over every boycott, petition or even newspaper op-ed. Very soon, all political debate will be silenced.

Knesset members who vote for this law must understand that they are supporting the gagging of protest as part of an ongoing effort to liquidate democracy. Such moves may be painted as protecting Israel, but in reality, they exacerbate its international isolation.

Continue reading July 12, 2011

EDITOR: Israel passes illegal law! BDS has been made illegal, the earth is flat, and the moon is made of green cheese!

At last, the Israeli Parliament has surpassed itself, making speaking illegal. Now it is illegal and criminal to argue fora boycott of Israel. The next stage will be to ban evil thoughts. But what after that? Israel seems to be running out of options – sabotaging the Flotilla, legalising Newspeak, and now at last, thoughtcrime will be banned! A great day for the only Jewish “democracy” in the Middle East. At least, the pretense of democracy and freedom of speech is over.

Israeli lawmakers pass West Bank settlement boycott law: BBC

The West Bank settlement of Ariel was the focus of a boycott by Israeli artists and academics

The Israeli parliament has passed a controversial law that will punish any Israeli individual or organisation boycotting West Bank settlements.

Rights groups say the legislation stifles freedom of speech and compromises Israeli democracy.

After failed attempts to delay debate, it was voted through 47-36.

It follows several Israeli calls to boycott institutions or individuals linked to Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

The settlements are deemed illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this. Recent peace talks with the Palestinians were derailed over the issue of continued building in settlements.

The Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future state.

Among the recent initiatives that angered settlers and their influential political patrons was a pledge by Israeli academics and artists to boycott the West Bank settlement of Ariel.

Israeli developers also agreed not to use products or services from settlements when they signed on to help build a new modern Palestinian city, north of Ramallah.

Under the new law those who sponsor a “geographically based boycott” – which includes any part of the Jewish state or its settlements – could be sued for damages in a civil court by the party injured in the boycott call.

The petitioner is not required to prove that “economic, cultural or academic damage” was caused, only that it could reasonably be expected from the move.

“The State of Israel has for years been dealing with boycotts from Arab nations, but now we are talking about a homegrown boycott,” said the author of the legislation, lawmaker, Zeev Elvin, the Associated Press news agency reported.

“It is time to put an end to this travesty. If the State of Israel does not protect itself, we will have no moral right to ask our allies for protection from such boycotts.”

Fierce opposition
The new law has been strongly opposed by rights groups in Israel.

Israeli left-wing activists have campaigned against the bill
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) described it as “deeply anti-democratic” and a violation of Israelis’ freedom of speech.

“There is no question that promoting boycotts is a legitimate, democratic, non-violent form of protest that is being used by Israelis on a wide variety of issues from environmental issues to opposing the prices of certain products,” said ACRI executive director, Hagai el-Ad.

“No reasoning has been suggested to explain why the boycott of settlement goods should be uniquely cherished as opposed to the right of the Israeli citizen to protest.”

On Sunday, activists opposed to the boycott ban held a noisy demonstration outside the Justice Ministry. They carried banners which read “the boycott law boycotts democracy.”

There are plans to challenge the legislation in Israel’s Supreme Court.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has led an increasingly concerted campaign against the settlements.

Last year, it passed a law banning settlement produce from Palestinian shops in the West Bank. Traders who break the law face prison and a heavy fine.

However the PA has yet to pass promised legislation making it illegal for Palestinian labourers to work in settlements.

Israel passes law banning calls for boycott: Haaretz

Opposition blasts law, which penalizes persons or organizations who call for a boycott of Israel or the settlements, calling it unconstitutional and irresponsible.

The Knesset passed Monday a law penalizing persons or organizations that boycott Israel or the settlements, by a vote of 47 to 38.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not present during the vote. MK Zeev Elkin (Likud), who proposed the law, said the law is not meant to silence people, but “to protect the citizens of Israel.”

According to the law, a person or an organization calling for the boycott of Israel, including the settlements, can be sued by the boycott’s targets without having to prove that they sustained damage. The court will then decide how much compensation is to be paid. The second part of the law says a person or a company that declare a boycott of Israel or the settlements will not be able to bid in government tenders.

MK Nitzan Horowitz from Meretz blasted the law, calling it outrageous and shameful. “We are dealing with a legislation that is an embarrassment to Israeli democracy and makes people around the world wonder if there is actually a democracy here,” he said. Ilan Gilon, another Meretz MK, said the law would further delegitimize Israel.

Kadima opposition party spokesman said the Netanyahu government is damaging Israel. “Netanyahu has crossed a red line of political foolishness today and national irresponsibility, knowing the meaning of the law and it’s severity, while giving in to the extreme right that is taking over the Likkud.”

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held discussions with Speaker of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin and MK Elkin. The three discussed whether to have the Knesset vote on the law on Monday, a day after MK Dan Meridor warned that approving the law on the same day of the Quartet meeting may cause damage to Israel. Before midnight on Sunday the prime minister’s office announced there is no reason to delay the vote.

Before the vote, the Knesset’s legal adviser, attorney Eyal Yanon, published a legal assessment saying parts of the law edge towards “illegality and perhaps beyond.” He went on to warn that the law “damages the core of freedom of expression in Israel.” Yanon’s assessment contradicts that of Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, who said the bill is legal.

Peace Now movement announced Monday it opened a Facebook page calling for a boycott of products that come from the settlements. On Tuesday it plans to launch a national campaign, with the aim of convincing tens of thousands of people to support the boycott.

Noam Chomsky: In Israel, a Tsunami warning: Israeli Occupation Archive

9 JULY 2011
By Noam Chomsky
In May, in a closed meeting of many of Israel’s business leaders, Idan Ofer, a holding-company magnate, warned, “We are quickly turning into South Africa. The economic blow of sanctions will be felt by every family in Israel.”

The business leaders’ particular concern was the U.N. General Assembly session this September, where the Palestinian Authority is planning to call for recognition of a Palestinian state.

Dan Gillerman, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, warned participants that “the morning after the anticipated announcement of recognition of a Palestinian state, a painful and dramatic process of Southafricanization will begin” _ meaning that Israel would become a pariah state, subject to international sanctions.

In this and subsequent meetings, the oligarchs urged the government to initiate efforts modeled on the Saudi (Arab League) proposals and the unofficial Geneva Accord of 2003, in which high-level Palestinian and Israeli negotiators detailed a two-state settlement that was welcomed by most of the world, dismissed by Israel and ignored by Washington.

In March, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned of the prospective U.N. action as a “tsunami.” The fear is that the world will condemn Israel not only for violating international law but also for carrying out its criminal acts in an occupied state recognized by the U.N.

The U.S. and Israel are waging intensive diplomatic campaigns to head off the tsunami. If they fail, recognition of a Palestinian state is likely.

More than 100 states already recognize Palestine. The United Kingdom, France and other European nations have upgraded the Palestine General Delegation to “diplomatic missions and embassies _ a status normally reserved only for states,” Victor Kattan observes in the American Journal of International Law.

Palestine has also been admitted to U.N. organizations apart from UNESCO and the World Health Organization, which have avoided the issue for fear of U.S. defunding _ no idle threat.

In June the U.S. Senate passed a resolution threatening to suspend aid for the Palestine Authority if it persists with its U.N. initiative. Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., warned that there was “no greater threat” to U.S. funding of the U.N. “than the prospect of Palestinian statehood being endorsed by member states,” The (London) Daily Telegraph reports. Israel’s new U.N. Ambassador, Ron Prosor, informed the Israeli press that U.N. recognition “would lead to violence and war.”

The U.N. would presumably recognize Palestine in the internationally accepted borders, including the West Bank and Gaza, with the Golan Heights returned to Syria. The heights were annexed by Israel in December 1981, in violation of U.N. Security Council orders.

In the West Bank, the settlements and acts to support them are clearly in violation of international law, as affirmed by the World Court and the Security Council.

In February 2006, the U.S. and Israel imposed a siege in Gaza after the “wrong side” _ Hamas _ won elections in Palestine, recognized as free and fair. The siege became much harsher in June 2007 after the failure of a U.S.-backed military coup to overthrow the elected government.

In June 2010, the siege of Gaza was condemned by the International Committee of the Red Cross _ which rarely issues such reports _ as “collective punishment imposed in clear violation” of international humanitarian law. The BBC reported that the ICRC “paints a bleak picture of conditions in Gaza: hospitals short of equipment, power cuts lasting hours each day, drinking water unfit for consumption,” and the population of course imprisoned.

The criminal siege extends the U.S.-Israeli policy since 1991 of separating Gaza from the West Bank, thus ensuring that any eventual Palestinian state would be effectively contained within hostile powers _ Israel and the Jordanian dictatorship. The Oslo Accords, signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, proscribe separating Gaza from the West Bank.

A more immediate threat facing U.S.-Israeli rejectionism is the Freedom Flotilla that seeks to challenge the blockade of Gaza by bringing letters and humanitarian aid. In May 2010, the last such attempt led to an attack by Israeli commandoes in international waters _ a major crime in itself _ in which nine passengers were killed, actions bitterly condemned outside the U.S.

In Israel, most people convinced themselves that the commandoes were the innocent victims, attacked by passengers, another sign of the self-destructive irrationality sweeping the society.

Today the U.S. and Israel are vigorously seeking to block the flotilla. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton virtually authorized violence, stating that “Israelis have the right to defend themselves” if flotillas “try to provoke action by entering into Israeli waters” _ that is, the territorial waters of Gaza, as if Gaza belonged to Israel.

Greece agreed to prevent the boats from leaving (that is, those boats not already sabotaged) _ though, unlike Clinton, Greece referred rightly to “the maritime area of Gaza.”

In January 2009, Greece had distinguished itself by refusing to permit U.S. arms to be shipped to Israel from Greek ports during the vicious U.S.-Israeli assault in Gaza. No longer an independent country in its current financial duress, Greece evidently cannot risk such unusual integrity.

Asked whether the flotilla is a “provocation,” Chris Gunness, the spokesperson for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the major aid agency for Gaza, described the situation as desperate: “If there were no humanitarian crisis, if there weren’t a crisis in almost every aspect of life in Gaza there would be no need for the flotilla … 95 percent of all water in Gaza is undrinkable, 40 percent of all disease is water-borne … 45.2 percent of the labor force is unemployed, 80 percent aid dependency, a tripling of the abject poor since the start of the blockade. Let’s get rid of this blockade and there would be no need for a flotilla.”

Diplomatic initiatives such as the Palestinian state strategy, and nonviolent actions generally, threaten those who hold a virtual monopoly on violence. The U.S. and Israel are trying to sustain indefensible positions: the occupation and its subversion of the overwhelming, long-standing consensus on a diplomatic settlement.

An earlier version of this article was disseminated by a syndicate service.

Noam Chomsky’s most recent book, with co-author Ilan Pappe, is “Gaza in Crisis.” Chomsky is emeritus professor of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

Knesset votes in favor of ‘boycott bill’: YNet

Controversial bill which calls for imposing sanctions against anyone declaring embargo on Israel garners 47 ayes, 38 nays. Kadima: Bibi crossed red line of stupidity, national irresponsibility

The Knesset voted Monday in favor of the controversial “boycott bill,” which proposes imposing sanctions against anyone declaring a commercial embargo on Israel. The vote was carried 47 to 38.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were conspicuously absent from the vote, while Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin abstained. The Kadima faction voted against the bill, and members of the Independence faction abstained and were not present for the bill’s second and third readings.

The bill, which was backed by the cabinet, states that any boycott against Israel or any group located within its territory, including the West Bank, will be labeled a civil offense and its initiators will be subject to litigation. The legislation has been the focus of harsh criticism.

Kadima blasted Netanyahu for his absence from the vote: “Netanyahu’s government harms Israel and should be the first to pay the price… Netanyahu’s scuttle from tonight’s vote does not diminish the harm he has done. He has crossed a red line of stupidity and national irresponsibility.

“Netanyahu knows the gravity the law’s impact will have, but is demonstrating political flaccidity and total capitulation to the extreme right which is taking over the Likud. The boycott bill is a mark of disgrace for Netanyahu’s government and the State of Israel and its citizens will pay for it dearly.”

MK Eitan Cabel (Labor) called the bill “a cowardly law,” and “another law in a series of fascist laws drafted by the government.”

Several human rights groups, including Adalah – the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, The Public Committee against Torture in Israel and Physicians for Human Rights, immediately announced that they would file a High Court appeal against the new law, and asked that it be annulled.

The groups plan to argue the law is anti-constitutional, that it impedes political freedom of expression, and violates international law and the laws of torts.

Dr. Yishai Menuchin of the Public Committee Against Torture said: “The road to anti-democratic hell is sometimes paved with good intentions – but not this time. The Knesset is full of legislators who took it upon themselves to infringe on Israel’s democracy time and time again.

“The boycott law is just another step by the legislator to eradicate democracy in Israel. Warnings by human rights groups and many others in Israeli society had failed this time. The Knesset has led Israeli society another step closer to hell.”

Adalah Director Hassan Jabarin echoed the sentiment, saying that “Once more we are seeing how the Knesset is trying to promote legislation which does not coincide with international law… The (bill) fails to meet any criteria and we believe the High Court won’t accept it.”

‘Bill anti-democratic’
Ahead of the vote, the Knesset plenum convened for a filibuster, which saw heated arguments from both Left and Right.

The opposition vowed to fight the bill, which it labeled “anti-democratic”; several prominent legalists said that it was “grayish” at best, and unlikely to withstand High Court scrutiny.

Knesset Member Ilan Gilon (Meretz) was the first to speak before the Knesset plenum; he said the recent “anti-democratic” laws, in his words, legislated by the Knesset “black dysentery” that de-legitimizes the State of Israel.

“I know of nothing that causes more de-legitimization for Israel abroad than these acts of legislation,” he said, adding that they leave Israel in a position of “a nation on its own shall dwell.”

The Kadima faction said it would oppose the bill, with MK Shai Hermesh (Kadima) saying that the bill was a “muzzling bill, a bill that harms the basic rights.”

MK Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta’al) took things to a personal level, wondering from the podium if Likud faction Chairman MK Zeev Elkin’s “past as a shunned schoolboy who got beaten up” prompted him to initiate the bill.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said that “the majority of those who oppose the bill, do it in the name of freedom of expression. That begs the question – does freedom of expression in a democratic state includes the right to call for financial boycotts.

“It’s a principle of democracy that you don’t shun a public you disagree with by harming their livelihood. A boycott on a certain sector is not the proper manifestation of freedom of expression. It is an aggressive move meant to force a sector that thinks a different way to capitulate. Boycotts are aggressive and wrong,” he said.

Netanyahu initially wanted to defer the vote, to avoid presenting Israel in a negative light as the Quartet gears to meet for a crucial discussion over the intention of the Palestinian Authority to seek UN recognition for a Palestinian state.

The Palestinians also denounced the bill, saying that if it passes, “the content of an impending Quartet announcement regarding the possible renewal of negotiations will become irrelevant.”

Continue reading July 11, 2011

July 4th Update: US Boat to Gaza

We want to give you all a quick round up of several items related to the U.S. Boat to Gaza and the flotilla. But first….

Given the tremendous obstacles placed in the way of the flotilla we should not for a moment think this work has been in vain. Just the opposite. We have called greater attention to the urgent need to end the Israeli blockade and siege of Gaza, as well as the overall occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The lengths to which the Israeli government has gone to stop the boats only expose the real story: they are determined to hold on to their repressive, inhuman and illegal policies at any cost. Israel has outsourced its naval blockade of Gaza to Greece.

We cannot for one moment forget that the flotilla project is about our solidarity with the people of Gaza. Changing the Israeli policies and stopping the support they get from the U.S. government requires the strongest movement we can possibly build!

Here’s the latest news we have:

1) U.S. passengers harassed and arrested by Athens police
Nine of the passengers on the U.S. Boat to Gaza  began a fast last night (7/3). They are Ken Mayers, Carol Murry, Medea Benjamin, Paki Wieland, Ray McGovern, Brad Taylor, Kit Kitteridge, Kathy Kelly and Linda Durham. After a rousing gathering in front of the U.S. Embassy (see photos and video on our website), they were all “cited” by the Athens police with occupying the sidewalk across the embassy and they were let go right away.

Today, 6 members of the U.S. Boat to Gaza were held at an Athens police station after Greek police arrested them for sitting on a park bench across from the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Greece.  Ray McGovern, Linda Durham, Debra Ellis, Ridgeley Fuller, Ken Mayers and Carol Murry were put into squad cars and taken to the police station.  We are not sure of the status of these 6 people at the moment.

2) The captain of The Audacity of Hope – John Klusmire – is set to be at a hearing at 12 noon (Athens time) on Tuesday. There are 2 Greek lawyers serving as his defense council. It is important to keep the pressure on the U.S. State Department to make sure they in turn pressure the Greek government to release our captain. Below are numbers and email addresses you can use to contact them. Please keep the pressure on!

3) Status of some of the other boats in the flotilla
Shortly before 6 pm (Greek time) today the Canadian boat, named Tahrir, left its dock in Crete to set sail for Gaza. They got to within 4 miles of international waters when Greek Special Forces stopped them from going any further. The Greek military boarded the Canadian boat and there are reports that when they asked for the captain of the boat all 30 people on board answered, “I am the captain.” The Greeks took command of the boat and at least report where headed back to be docked. We have heard reports that all of the people on the boat will be arrested, but we do not have confirmation of that.

Two boats from France – a cargo ship and a smaller passenger boat – are in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea. (They did not set sail from Greece.) We are not sure what they are planning on doing.

The Irish boat was sabotaged beyond repair last week and the Greek boat was also sabotaged but we do not have an update on their status.

Be sure to check our website regularly for update, as well as photos and video footage of much of the activity in Greece.

Leslie Cagan
Coordinator, U.S. Boat to Gaza

——————————-

Keeping the pressure on the U.S. State Department

Let them know you want them to help secure the release of John Klusmire, as well as the release of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. Tell them you expect the U.S. government to support the right if its citizens to sail freely to Gaza.
State Department general number:  202-647-4000 – ask for the Overseas U.S. Citizen Services Duty Officer and you’ll get a live State Dept. official who has to hear you out.
The voicemail for Kim Richter – also at the State Dept. –  says she’s out of the office for several days, and that callers with urgent issues should contact a colleague at 202-647-4578. Hopefully, you will be able to reach Kim Richter’s office directly tomorrow by calling 202-647-8303. (She is in the office of Consular Affairs, Overseas American Citizen Services at the State Dept.
You can email the U.S. Embassy in Athens at:  athensamemb@state.gov or you can send an email to them at: athensamericancitizenservices@state.go
If you can place an international phone call, the number for the U.S. Embassy in Athens is 011-30-210-721-2951. There are several other “after hour” numbers that you can call for emergency situations:  011-30-210-729-4301,  011-30- 210-729-4444. And you might also be able to get through on these “after hour” numbers: 011-30-210-720-2490,  011-30-210-720-2491.

Please also try to call, fax or email your members of Congress as well.

More information is on our website: ustogaza.org

Help us keep the pressure up!!

Greek coastguard forces Gaza ‘freedom flotilla’ vessel back to port: The Guardian

Canadian ship Tahrir part of international attempt to break Israeli blockade of Palestinian territory

An attempt by one of the Gaza-bound “freedom flotilla” ships to defy the Greek government and escape from port was thwarted on Monday when armed coastguard officials caught up with the vessel and forced it back to shore.

On a day that activists had dubbed “make or break” for the international coalition of boats seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the Canadian ship Tahrir burst out of Agios Nikolaos port in Crete at 6pm local time after supporters blocked the coastguard with manned kayaks.

“We have left port [and] are full steam ahead – coastguard boat about 5-10 [minutes] behind us,” announced passengers on the ship’s official Twitter feed as they raced towards international waters. But the faster coastguard boat caught up with the Tahrir and prevented it from going any further.

“Our boat has just been illegally boarded by armed members of the Greek coastguard and commandeered against our will,” Dylan Penner, a member of Tahrir steering committee, told the Guardian by phone from the ship’s deck. “This is conclusive evidence that Israel’s unlawful siege on Gaza has now been extended to Greece.”

The captain of a US ship, The Audacity of Hope, was arrested after a similar failed attempt to flee the port in Athens last week.

The Greek government caused controversy on Friday when it banned all flotilla ships from leaving its ports, without explaining its reasons. Critics accused the beleaguered government of bowing to Israeli and US pressure and surrendering Greek sovereignty over its sea borders. The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, thanked his Greek counterpart for helping to stamp out “anti-Israeli provocation”.

The flotilla’s last hope now appears to lie with the Stefano Chiarini, a Dutch-Italian vessel currently docked on the island of Corfu. Campaigners on the boat say they are expecting to get legal clearance to sail on Tuesday and believe they have local political support for their mission, a claim seemingly confirmed on Monday by the local governor.

Spiros Spirou, the provincial official in charge of the Ionian islands, told the Guardian that he “admires and supports the activists’ struggle” and said he would make no attempt to stop the ship if it left harbour. “Greece loves peace, but at this moment it can’t confront more powerful economic forces,” claimed Spirou, adding that official attempts to tie the flotilla up in bureaucracy and paperwork were merely a pretext to preventing it from sailing at all.

“The ban has come from the ministries in Athens and I have no responsibility for it at all – I’ve tried to get in contact with them and get an explanation but I have not been able to get through,” he said. “Right now Greece is in crisis and decisions have been taken at an international level.”

Elsewhere, flotilla activists vowed not abandon their mission, despite the growing number of seemingly irreversible setbacks. “Everyone involved with this flotilla came with the determined intention to break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza,” said Penner. “This is not over yet.”

Israel, Turkey scramble to reach compromise on UN Gaza flotilla report: Haaretz

In last-minute effort ahead of the release of the UN report on last year’s Gaza flotilla, Israeli and Turkish officials meet in New York in attempt to mend ties.

Three days before a UN report on last year’s deadly flotilla raid is due, Israeli and Turkish officials were engaged in feverish behind-the-scenes diplomacy in an effort to mend the bilateral ties that ruptured after the death of nine passengers aboard a Turkish ship.

The activists were killed by Israeli naval commandos who encountered violent resistance when attempting to keep the vessel from breaching Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.

A meeting is scheduled for Tuesday in New York between Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon and senior Turkish officials. A government source in Jerusalem said the United States has been exerting heavy pressure on both sides to work out their differences by the time the report comes out Thursday.

If a compromise is not reached soon, the UN report will be released as is, and bilateral ties will likely be frozen for a long period, the source said. If a compromise is reached, the report will be reworded and toned down.

“We are at a critical stage,” the source said. “If things aren’t worked out, the report will be released and everybody loses.”

The UN committee reviewing the events of May 31, 2010, has sent a draft of its report to both Israel and Turkey.

According to a senior Israeli diplomatic source who read the draft, the committee concluded that the blockade of Gaza was legal, but that the naval commandos who seized the Mavi Marmara had used undue force.

Turkey, meanwhile, is concerned about the committee’s apparent criticism regarding Ankara’s role in the flotilla, particularly its ties with the group that organized it, IHH, which has links to Hamas.

Turkey has asked Israel to agree to have the report toned down as part of a deal meant to reconcile the two countries and bring the Turkish ambassador back to Tel Aviv.

The heart of the dispute remains Turkey’s demand that Israel apologize for its role in the events.

“Diplomats are working like linguists to find a word that will sound like an apology in Turkish, but won’t sound like an apology in Hebrew,” the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported Monday.

Britain to deport Israeli Islamic leader Sheikh Raed Salah: Jonathan Cook

NAZARETH // Efforts were under way by the British government yesterday to deport the leader of Israel’s largest Islamic group after he was arrested on charges of entering the country illegally.

Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement and a vocal critic of Israeli policies, was detained at his London hotel on Tuesday.

His arrest came as he was preparing to address a meeting yesterday in the British parliament attended by several MPs.

Sheikh Salah arrived in Britain on Saturday, clearing border checks, despite an exclusion order reportedly issued by the British home secretary, Theresa May, last week.

Yesterday, Mrs May said steps were being taken to remove Sheikh Salah from Britain. “A full investigation is now taking place into how he was able to enter,” she said.

The Home Office said his presence was “not conducive to the public good”.The government’s hard line against Sheikh Salah follows a campaign by pro-Israel groups in Britain, backed by right-wing newspapers, alleging he had a history of making anti-Semitic statements.

Sheikh Salah, who has denied the remarks, was reported to be planning to sue the newspapers over their reports. His lawyer, Farooq Bajwa, said Mr Salah hoped to fight his deportation, pointing out that he had made “no attempt” to conceal his identity or lie about the purpose of his visit.

Sheikh Salah is a controversial figure among Israeli Jews. He has been arrested several times and jailed twice, for contacting a foreign agent and spitting at a policeman.

He also travelled on last year’s aid flotilla to Gaza that was stormed by Israeli commandos, leading to the deaths of nine activists on-board.

Britain’s Daily Mail branded Sheikh Salah a “preacher of hate” and “a militant extremist” on Tuesday, before his arrest, describing Britain’s border controls as a “joke”.

Sarah Colborne, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which invited Sheikhr Salah to Britain, said: “This shocking move by the British government will deeply damage British relations in the Middle East.”

Arab leaders in Israel criticised the arrest, and were due to issue a formal protest to the British embassy in Israel. Haneen Zoubi, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, said the British government had “caved into pressure from the Zionist lobby”.

She said lobby groups wanted to “silence” Sheikh Salah for his criticisms of Israel’s “systematic discrimination” against its Arab citizens, a fifth of the population.

Sheikh Salah has angered Israeli officials by accusing Israel of trying to take over a holy compound in Jerusalem’s Old City that includes the al Aqsa mosque. “[Sheikh Salah] is not an extremist,” said Ms Zoubi. “But it is very easy for Zionsts in Britain to portray him as fundamentalist and racist by tapping into Islamophobic ideas.”

Sheikh Salah had spoken about the Arab Spring to large audiences in London and Leicester before his arrest.

However, an invitation for him to speak in the parliament building at a meeting entitled “Building peace and justice in Jerusalem”, had provoked fierce criticism from Jewish groups and some British politicians.

After criticism from the Board of Deputies, the main representative body for British Jews, officials from the opposition Labour party had urged three of its MPs not to attend.

Hassan Jabareen, the director of the Adalah centre for Israel’s Arab minority, said Sheikh Salah had never been accused of advocating or participating in armed struggle, and had not been charged with incitement or anti-Semitism.

“Israel is one of the most security-obsessed countries in the world. If it believed he was a threat of any kind, he would be under administrative detention, or at the very least subject to a travel ban.”

The Islamic Movement has accused the Israeli authorities of persecuting Sheikh Salah with a series of investigations and legal cases over many years.

In April he was arrested at a crossing into Jordan, after he was accused of hitting an Israeli interrogator.

He was freed from an Israeli prison in December after five months’ incarceration for spitting at a policeman during a confrontation over Israeli excavations close to the Al Aqsa mosque.

Israel, Greece mark growing ties with joint air force drill: Haaretz

Greek and Israeli air forces hold two-week-long drill as the two countries’ ties tighten following Greek government’s attempt to halt the Gaza-bound flotilla from departing.

Israel’s Air Force on Monday concluded a two-week drill with the Hellenic Air Force as the two nations cemented growing ties between their militaries, recently reflected in Greece’s recent move to halt a Gaza-bound flotilla set to depart from its shores.

The joint drill was held at Greece’s Larisa Air Base, and several elite Israeli squadrons, along with the IDF’s elite rescue unit 669 took part in the exercise along with the Greek military.

Over the past few days Greece has been working to stop the pro-Palestinian flotilla from departing to Gaza. On Sunday, the Greek government offered to transport the flotilla’s aid to Gaza as a compromise in order to end the affair.

According to the Greek initiative, the humanitarian aid aboard flotilla ships will be loaded onto watercraft of the Greek government and transferred to Gaza via the organized channels, as was requested by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon two weeks ago. This means the aid would go through either the Ashdod port or Arish, and from there be taken to the Gaza Strip under the supervision of Greek and UN authorities.

The Greek government has already approached the United Nations and Israel to assess the possibility of transferring the humanitarian aid via Israel or Egypt to the Gaza Strip using Greek governmental ships, under UN supervision.

Continue reading July 4, 2011

43 years to the Israeli Occupation!

1500 Days to the Israeli Blockade of Gaza:

End Israeli Apartheid Now!

Help to prevent the next war! Support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of the Israeli regime

Support Palestinian universities – spread the BDS campaign – it is what people under the Israeli jackboot ask you to do

Any army fighting against children, has already lost the war!

Israeli War Criminals and Pirates – to the International Criminal Court, NOW!

Make Zionism History!

Demand the destruction of Israeli WMDs NOW!

BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS!BREAKING NEWS!BREAKING NEWS!

Action Alert Update
July 3, 2011 – 6 pm NY time

Just got word from Athens: the 8 people who were fasting in front of the U.S. Embassy have been arrested. They are Ken Mayers, Carol Murry, Medea Benjamin, Paki Wieland, Ray McGovern, Brad Taylor, Kit Kitteridge and Kathy Kelly. We will not have any more news until the morning.

In the meantime, let’s keep the pressure on Washington. They need to pressure the Greek government to release our captain, our boat and now these 8 people as well! Let them sail to Gaza!!!

Throughout this country people have responded to our call to contact the U.S. State Department to demand that they take the steps necessary to ensure that the Greek authorities immediately release the captain and let our boat sail to Gaza. In fact, there has been such a strong response that we are hearing their voice mailboxes are full! That’s great, but of course frustrating for those of you trying to make those calls.

Here are some other phone numbers and email addresses to try:
State Department general number: 202-647-4000 – ask for the Overseas U.S. Citizen Services Duty Officer and you’ll get a live State Dept. official who has to hear you out.
The voicemail for Kim Richter – also at the State Dept. – says she’s out of the office for several days, and that callers with urgent issues should contact a colleague at 202-647-4578.
If you can place an international phone call, the number for the U.S. Embassy in Athens is 011-30-210-721-2951.
You can email the U.S. Embassy in Athens at: athensamemb@state.gov or you can send an email to them at: athensamericancitizenservices@state.gov

Please also try to call, fax or email your members of Congress as well.

Help us keep the pressure up!!

EDITOR: Pirates of the Med are joined by the Bent Sheriff

On top of all the bizarre imbroglios of the Greek government, this one wins the biscuit. While the ones responsible for the murders on the Mavi Marmara are invited to meet world ‘leaders’, the Gaza Flotilla II protesters, the once who are trying to break the illegal siege over two million civilians and bring them supplies and medicines, are the ones hounded, snatched on the high seas, and put into jail! Go on serving your masters, Papandreou, but your end must be nigh – the Greek people had enough, it seems, of this servant of the banking system and international capitalism.Read about the inhuman conditions the captain is held by the Greek authorities, not just in contravention of international law, but also against the Greek law. Viva Papandreou, Pirate of the Mediterreanean! If he can attack Greek protesters with impunity, why not attack the Flotilla, so Netanyahu can say Thank you?

Audacity of Hope stopped at sea (video): YouTube

2 JULY 2011
YouTube – 1 July 2011
The Audacity of Hope was stopped at sea by the Greek Coast Guard 20 minutes after leaving the port. Our captain refused to turn back despite the pleas of the Coast Guard commander. After about two hours, Greek commandos joined the Coast Guard vessel and the decision was made to turn back. We are currently at a military dock in Athens, unable to proceed. Johnny Barber, a passenger on the Audacity of Hope, recorded events as they happened.

U.S. Boat to Gaza Seized by Greek Authorities and Captain Jailed: UStogaza

Passengers Determined to Free Captain and Set Sail Again
July 2, 2011
Contacts:
In Athens – 30-694-266-3852
In New York – Leslie Cagan, 347-581-1782

After a two hour stand off at sea, the U.S. Boat to Gaza – The Audacity of Hope – was seized by the Greek Coast Guard and forced to return to the port of Piraeus under military escort. The boat’s captain has been put in jail, charged with disturbing sea traffic–which includes endangering the lives of those on the ships– and disobeying a police order to remain at dock. The crew is being detained on the boat, which is being held at a military dock just outside Athens. Most of the 36 passengers remain on the ship in solidarity with the captain and crew.

Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Colonel, responded strongly to the arrest of the American captain of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. “I think it’s outrageous what the Greek government is doing to our captain who was taking a group of Americans to challenge the illegal Israeli blockade. We call on the Greek government to release our Captain and dismiss all charges.”

Yonatan Shapira, a crew member on The Audacity of Hope and former Israeli Air Force captain, said the captain of the U.S. Boat should be praised, not condemned for his actions. “The captain acted out of concern for the safety of the passengers and boat by taking us away from the Greek port where other flotilla boats are being sabotaged,” Shapira said.

After five days of stalling, the Greek authorities produced the results of the inspection of the boat, which took place on Monday, June 27. The Greek government inspected the boat on the basis of an anonymous complaint alleging that the boat is not seaworthy. The anonymous complaint later turned out to have been filed by the Israel Law Center. The list of infractions cited on the inspection report included such things as technical details regarding the construction material of the hull and the fact that the private inspection report emailed to the authorities was unsigned. “None of these alleged infractions are actually regulations that boats are required to meet,” said group’s Greek lawyer Emmanuel Stephanakis. “It’s obvious that these are politically motivated, baseless charges calculated to stop the U.S. Boat to Gaza from sailing.”

“This shameful chapter in Greek history is symbolized by Prime Minister Netanyahu thanking his Greek counterpart Prime MInister Papandreou for his cooperation in helping thwart the flotilla, and by the fully-armed and masked Greek commandos at sea, pointing their guns at unarmed American civilians singing “We are a gentle, loving people,” says passenger Medea Benjamin.

The other boats in the flotilla that are docked in Greece have been denied permission to sail due to a variety of bureaucratic obstacles the Greek authorities have thrown in their way. Greece’s Civil Protection Authority confirmed Saturday the ban on departures of ships “with Greek and foreign flags from Greek ports to the maritime area of Gaza” was in place until further notice. Two of the boats have had physical damage done to them as well. All vow to pressure the Greek government to grant them permission to sail, and have activated their international networks. In the United States, the phones at the Greek Embassy and Consulates were so busy that callers could not get through.

While deeply disappointed that they have not yet been able to sail to Gaza, the passengers feel they have been successful at exposing the ongoing plight of the people of Gaza and the inhumanity of the Israeli government. “The success of the flotilla is shown by the huge expenditure of financial and personnel resources by the Israeli government to counter 10 civilian, unarmed ships with 300 citizen activists who simply want to sail to Gaza out of concern for the people of Gaza,” saya jazz musician and passenger Richard Lopez.

EDITOR: Israeli lies do not wash!

While Israel spread rumours that the Turkish authorities have announced that the Irish boat has not been sabotaged, and all Israeli papers published those reports without checking them for accuracy orveracity, feeding the Israeli public with more lies, the NYT has seen fit to publish the real story, for once.

Irish Flotilla Activists Show Damage to Their Boat: NYTimes

By ROBERT MACKEY

A YouTube video produced by pro-Palestinian activists from Ireland, showing damage to their ship they claim was the result of sabotage by Israeli divers.
Last year, when Israel launched a deadly commando raid on a flotilla of ships challenging its naval blockade of Gaza, many outraged opponents of that action demanded to know why the Israeli Navy had not taken some sort of less confrontational action. Like, for instance, disabling the propellers of the ships.

This week, as a new flotilla struggles to get under way, Irish activists claimed that damage to a propeller shaft on their boat, which forced them to withdraw it from the effort, must have been caused by underwater divers.

As my colleague Scott Sayare reports, the Irish activists in Turkey said on Thursday “that the damage was discovered on a trial run, but that otherwise the vessel might have sunk at sea, endangering the passengers and crew. Activists discovered nearly identical damage to a Greek-Swedish-Norwegian passenger boat earlier this week.”

After they discovered the problem with their ship, the Irish activists produced two YouTube videos to explain the damage and complain about what they presumed was an effort by Israel’s government to keep them from making it to Gaza.

In one clip, an activist named Fintan Lane said the damage could have endangered the lives of the passengers on the ship and described it as an act of “international terrorism” by Israel.

Appearing just a week after a YouTube clip was posted online by an Israeli actor who pretended to be an activist disillusioned with the flotilla, these clips, with their somewhat shaky images and poor sound, also serve to remind viewers that video shot by activists tends not to look like a slickly-produced commercial.

Gaza flotilla to set sail Monday despite numerous setbacks: Haaretz

Activists say all operational ships will be ready to depart, but exact number is yet unknown.

The organizers of the Gaza-bound flotilla said Sunday that all operational ships will set sail on Monday, despite the numerous delays the flotilla activists had encountered in the past week.

The decision to depart on Monday was made following several days of deliberations on the subject, and the exact number of ships due to sail is still unknown.

In contrast to recent reports, most of the Gaza flotilla activists are still participating.

Moreover, activists in several countries of origin of the ships participating in the flotilla such as Canada and Belgium held protests in support of the Gaza flotilla and against the Greek government, which had issued an order to bar the ships from leaving Greek ports.

An activist stands in front of the “Stefano Chiarini” ship, during a demonstration against the Greek authorities’ ban on Gaza-bound ships, July 2, 2011.

Photo by: Reuters
Eight of the ten ships due to participate in the Gaza flotilla were delayed over the weekend in various Greek ports, following an order by the Greek government to bar the departure of the vessels.

The activists as well as members of the leftist opposition in Greece accused the Socialist government of caving in to Israeli pressure. Greek Foreign Minister Stavros Lambrinidis said that the Greek government is preventing the departure of the vessels in order to avoid a ‘humanitarian disaster’ which will result from a violent confrontation with the Israeli navy.

The foreign minister also promised that he will continue to negotiate with the UN in order to find a solution to the flotilla crisis.

The Greek ban applies to all Greek and foreign vessels in Greek ports heading to Gaza.

The organizers of the flotilla were considering legal action to cancel the Greek ban on the departure of the ships. They were also trying to rally members of leftist parties in various countries and the European Parliament to convince the Greek government to change the orders.

Before the official publication of the instructions at 4:30 P.M. on Friday, the boat of the American delegation tried to set sail from the port of Perama without clearance from the Greek authorities. The ship was carrying 51 passengers, including five members of the crew and 11 journalists.

According to the flotilla organizers, the delays by the Greek authorities in granting permission to sail stemmed from political pressure.

The American ship, Audacity of Hope, named after President Barack Obama’s book, was blocked by a vessel of the Greek coast guard.

After the members of the American delegation were warned that their ship would be taken over by force they agreed to sail back to port, shadowed by the coast guard vessel.

Gaza flotilla prevented from leaving Greek port: The Observer

Campaigners accuse Israel of ‘outsourcing’ its blockade as Greek coastguard stops flotilla sailing from Athens

Greek police contain Gaza flotilla activists protesting against the blockade of their boats at Athens. Photograph: Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP/Getty Images
Greece has banned all ships in the Gaza-bound “freedom flotilla” from leaving port, dealing a further blow to activists trying to break Israel’s blockade on the Palestinian territory.

Greek authorities said an international group of vessels planning to sail from its ports and deliver aid to the Gazan population would be stopped, a move that lends the support of the Prime Minister, George Papandreou’s administration to Israel’s contentious four-year naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

An American boat participating in the flotilla was forced to return to shore after it tried to defy the ban and set sail from Athens on Friday. The Audacity of Hope was turned back by the Greek coastguard. Passengers claim Greek commandos pointed machine guns at those on board to stop the boat reaching open water.

Campaigners accused Israel of “outsourcing” its blockade to Greece. “Greece sold its body to the banks and its soul to Israel and the United States,” flotilla activist Dror Feiler told Israeli news outlet Ynet. “I don’t think – I know – that Israel and US pressure caused this.” Hamas also condemned the Greek decision, describing it as “inhumane” and “contrary to international regulations and norms”.

The Greek announcement is the latest in a series of setbacks for the organisers of this summer’s flotilla, which comes just over a year after a similar mission ended in the deaths of nine activists following the boarding of their boat by Israeli military forces. Participants claim that two of the 10 ships in the flotilla had been sabotaged by Israeli agents – a claim Israel dismissed as “ridiculous”.

The Israeli government has described the flotilla as an act of anti-Israeli provocation rather than an attempt to convey much-needed aid to Gaza’s 1.6 million inhabitants, who have lived under an economic blockade since Hamas took control of the territory in June 2007.

However, Israel has been embarrassed by the release of an anti-flotilla video which was later exposed as an elaborate hoax.

Continue reading July 3, 2011

Shame on Greece, Shame on USA for doing Israel’s Dirty work!

EDITOR: Pirates in the Med: The War Criminals strike again

The second Flotilla to Gaza is unable to move, as the crimes of Israel are exacerbated by Greek and American criminal behaviour. The US threatens to jail the participants, while Greece is plainly an agent of Israeli crimes, by detaining the boats and allowing Israel to sabotage them at will. It is no better in Turkey, where the Irish boat Saoirse was sabotaged by the Israelis. It seems that no law whatsoever is being applied to Israeli crimes, while the whole might of the west seems to be turned against the protesters. If this happened in Libya, we would fight it with force…

The Greek criminal towards the protesters on the flotilla boats is but an echo of the brutality shown this week during the police pogrom in Athens, where the centre of the city experienced unprecedented violence by the forces of Unlaw and Disorder, soaking the capital in gas, attacking protesters and passersby alike, and displaying the true face of European capitalism in crisis. The same aggression and illegality is now turned against the flotilla members.

Israel Attempts to Discredit Flotilla 2 & More From Max Blumenthal: YouTube

 

SABOTAGE OF M.V. SAOIRSE IN TURKEY ‘AN ACT OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM’: UStoGaza
IRISH SHIP TO GAZA CAMPAIGN – June 30, 2011

The Irish-owned ship, the MV Saoirse, that was meant to take part in Freedom Flotilla 2 has been sabotaged in a dangerous manner in the Turkish coastal town of Göcek, where it had been at berth for the past few weeks. Visual evidence of the undership sabotage, which was carried out by divers, will be presented today at a press conference in Dublin at 11am in Buswell’s Hotel. Photographs and video footage of the damage are available from the Irish Ship to Gaza campaign.

Concerns for the boat first emerged on Monday evening following a short trip near the Göcek marina and an inspection was carried out by divers and by skipper Shane Dillon on Tuesday morning. Evidence was found that the shaft of the starboard propeller has been interfered with and it was decided to take the boat out of the water for a further visual inspection. On Wednesday, the boat was put on land at a local shipyard and the extent of the sabotage was immediately visible.

The propeller shaft had been weakened by saboteurs who cut, gouged or filed a piece off the shaft. This had weakened the integrity of the shaft, causing it to bend badly when put in use. The damage was very similar to that caused to the Juliano, another flotilla ship, in Greece. The consequent damage would have happened gradually as the ship was sailing and would have culminated in a breach of the hull.

The Irish Ship to Gaza campaign believes that Israel has questions to answer and must be viewed as the chief suspect in this professional and very calculating act of sabotage.

Commenting on the attack from Göcek in Turkey, Dr Fintan Lane, national coordinator of Irish Ship to Gaza, who own the vessel, said: “This is an appalling attack and should be condemned by all right-thinking people. It is an act of violence against Irish citizens and could have caused death and injury. If we had not spotted the damage as a result of a short trip in the bay, we would have gone to sea with a dangerously damaged propeller shaft and the boat would have sunk if the hull had been breached. Imagine the scene if this had happened at nighttime.”

“Israel is the only party likely to have carried out this reckless action and it is important that the Irish government and the executive in Northern Ireland insist that those who ordered this act of international terrorism be brought to justice. This was carried out in a Turkish town and shows no respect for Turkish sovereignty and international law.”

He continued: “One of the most shocking aspects is the delayed nature of the sabotage. It wasn’t designed to stop the ship from leaving its berth; instead, it was intended that the fatal damage to the ship would occur while she was at sea and this could have resulted in the deaths of several of those on board. This was a potentially murderous act.”

Dr Lane, who was on board Challenger 1 in last year’s flotilla, said: “The Freedom Flotilla is a non-violent act of practical and humanitarian solidarity with the people of Gaza, yet Israel continues to use threats and violence to delay its sailing. They attacked us in international waters last year; now they are attacking us in Turkish and Greek ports. There is no line that Israel won’t cross.”

“We will not be intimidated by attacks like this – it simply highlights the aggression that the Palestinian people of Gaza have to put up with on a daily basis. It strengthens our determination to continue until this illegal and immoral blockade is lifted.”

Calling on the government and northern executive to demand safe passage for Freedom Flotilla 2, Dr Lane said: “The Irish government needs to publicly condemn this dangerous act of sabotage but it also should insist on the flotilla being allowed to make it to Gaza unhindered. Israel has no right to interdict the flotilla and even less right to carry out attacks against vessels in Greek and Turkish ports.”

“It is important that everybody make their voices heard in solidarity with the people of Gaza and in support of the flotilla. The Israeli embassy should become a focal point for street demonstrations. These saboteurs came very close to killing Irish citizens.”

Also speaking from Göcek, the skipper of the MV Saoirse, Shane Dillon, said: “The damage sighted and inspected on the starboard propeller shaft on the MV Saoirse had the potential to cause loss of life to a large number of those aboard. The nature of the attack and malicious damage was such that under normal circumstances the vessel would most likely have sunk at sea. If the ship was operating at high engine revs, the damage done by the saboteurs would have caused the shaft to shear and the most likely outcome would be the rupturing of the hull and the vessel foundering. If, as was intended, the vessel had proceeded to Gaza at reduced revs, the stern tube would have been forced off line and a large and rapid ingress of water would have resulted, sinking the vessel.”

Mr Dillon continued: “The shaft was filmed and photographed when the vessel was lifted from the water on Wednesday afternoon in a shipyard in the Turkish coastal village ofGöcek. A local marine engineer inspected the shaft and his opinion was that the interference was the work of professional saboteurs intent on disabling the Saoirse. However, the most shocking aspect of the attack was that its intention was to cause failure of the shaft when the vessel was offshore and this shows a total disregard for human life.”

He ended: “It is also worth noting that the damage inflicted on the Saoirse was identical to that that caused to the Greek/Swedish ship, the Juliano, which was sabotaged in the Greek port of Piraeus a few days ago.”

Pat Fitzgerald, a Sinn Fein member of Waterford County Council and chief engineer on the Saoirse, commented: “We were very lucky to discover this act of sabotage when we did. We felt vibrations from the shaft as we were returning to the berth on Monday evening following a short trip in the bay for refuelling purposes. Close inspection by divers on Tuesday and then on land on Wednesday revealed a large man-made gouge on one side of the propeller shaft. The integrity of the shaft had been compromised and a very serious bend had developed. This could have caused fatalities had we set to sea and almost certainly would have sunk the boat when the engine revs were increased. It was an act of sheer lunacy and endangered the lives of all on board.”

The sabotage has been reported to the harbour master in Göcek and Irish Ship to Gaza are asking for a full investigation by the Turkish police.

The repairs have yet to be fully costed but could be more than E15,000 and they will take some time, meaning that the Saoirse cannot participate in Freedom Flotilla 2.

However, six of the 20 crew and passengers aboard the Saoirse will transfer to another ship in the flotilla. The six Irish who will join the Italian/Dutch ship are Fintan Lane, national coordinator of Irish Ship to Gaza and a member of the Free Gaza Movement; Trevor Hogan, former Ireland and Leinster rugby player; Paul Murphy, Socialist Party MEP for Dublin; Zoe Lawlor of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Hussein Hamed, a Libyan-born Irish citizen; and Gerry MacLochlainn, a Sinn Fein member of Derry City Council.

The MV Saoirse will be repaired and used in future flotillas to Gaza if they are needed.

Getting on board with peace in Israel: LA Times
An Israeli American explains why she will be among many boat passengers trying to break through Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
By Hagit Borer
June 26, 2011
Israeli right wing activist holds a sign reading ‘No to 67 borders, Yes to Israel’s security’ during a counter demonstration against thousands of peace activists. (Oliver Weiken / EPA)

Later this month an American ship, the Audacity of Hope, will leave Greece on a journey to the Gaza Strip to attempt to break Israel’s blockade. It will join an expected nine other ships flying numerous flags and carrying hundreds of passengers from around the world. I will be one of those passengers.

I am an Israeli Jewish American. I was born in Israel, and I grew up in a very different Jerusalem from the one today. The Jerusalem of my childhood was a smallish city of white-stone neighborhoods nestled in the elbows of hills. Near the center, next to the central post office, the road swerved sharply to the left because straight ahead stood a big wall, and on the other side of it was “them.”

And then, on June 9, 1967, the wall came down. Elsewhere, Israeli troops were still fighting what came to be known as the Six-Day War, but on June 9, as a small crowd stood and watched, demolition crews brought down the barrier wall, and after it, all other buildings that had stood between my Jerusalem and the walls of the Old City, their Jerusalem. A few weeks later a wide road would lead from my Jerusalem to theirs, bearing the victors’ name: Paratroopers Way.

A soldier helped me sneak into the Old City. Snipers were still at large and the city was closed to Israeli civilians. By the Western Wall, a myth to me until then, the Israeli army was already evicting Palestinian residents in the dead of night and demolishing all houses within 1,000 feet. Eventually, the area would turn into the huge open paved space it is today, a place where only last month, on Jerusalem Day, masses of Israeli youths chanted “Muhammad is dead” and “May your villages burn.”

It is a different Jerusalem now. It is not their Jerusalem, for it has been taken from them. Every day the Palestinians of Jerusalem are further strangled by more incursions, by more “housing developments” to cut them off from other Palestinians. In Sheik Jarrah, a neighborhood built by Jordan in the 1950s to house refugees, Palestinian families recently have been evicted from their homes at gunpoint based on court-sanctioned documents purporting to show Jewish land ownership in the area dating back some 100 years. But no Palestinian proof of ownership within West Jerusalem has ever prevailed in Israeli courts. Talbieh, Katamon, Baca, until 1948 affluent Palestinian neighborhoods, are today almost exclusively Jewish, with no legal recourse for the Palestinians who recently raised families and lived their lives there.

In his speech on Jerusalem Day, Yitzhak Pindrus, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, assured a cheering crowd of the ongoing commitment to expanding the Jewish neighborhood of Shimon Hatzadik, as Sheik Jarrah has been renamed.

This is not my Jerusalem. The tens of thousands of jeering youths that swarmed through its streets on Jerusalem Day have taken the city from me as well. That they speak my native tongue is almost impossible for me to believe, for there is nothing about them or about the society that gave birth to them that I recognize.

Did we know in 1967, in 1948, that it would come to this? Some did. Some knew even then that a society built on conquest and dispossession would have to dehumanize the conquered in order to continue to dispossess and oppress them. A 1948 letter to the New York Times signed by Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt, among others, foretells much of the future. Martin Buber did not spare David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, his perspective on the expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948-49.

But too many others, including members of the U.S. Congress who recently cheered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are determined to not hold the Israeli government responsible or the Israeli-Jewish society culpable.

Let us note that some Israeli Jews do stand up and protest. There are soldiers who refuse to serve, journalists who highlight injustice, and human rights organizations, activist groups, information centers. In a sense, all of us seeking justice have been on a virtual boat to Gaza all these decades. We have been trying to break through the Israeli blockade, in its many incarnations. We wish to say to the Palestinians that, yes, there are people in Israel who know that any viable future for the Middle East must be based on a just peace — not the forced imposition spelled out by Netanyahu to Congress — or else we are all doomed. We want it known that the soldier is not the only face of Israeli Jews. There are those who say to the government of Israel, “You do not represent us.” We say to the people of the United States in general and to American Jews in particular that yes, you do have an alternative. You can support peace. A true peace.

Hagit Borer moved from Israel to the United States to study in 1977. She became an American citizen in 1992 and is currently a professor of linguistics at USC.

Continue reading July 2, 2011

43 years to the Israeli Occupation!

1460 Days to the Israeli Blockade of Gaza:

End Israeli Apartheid Now!

Help to prevent the next war! Support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of the Israeli regime

Support Palestinian universities – spread the BDS campaign – it is what people under the Israeli jackboot ask you to do

Any army fighting against children, has already lost the war!

Israeli War Criminals and Pirates – to the International Criminal Court, NOW!

Make Zionism History!

Demand the destruction of Israeli WMDs NOW!

EDITOR: The Second Flotilla is on the way!

As the Israeli army and navy are preparing for more carnage, a year after the first Flotilla murders on the Mavi Marmara, the second Flotilla is preparing to sail to Gaza. This time US and Canadian activists are also included in great numbers – Alice Walker has also joined the group – and the only cloud on the horizon is the cancellation of the Mavi Marmara’s sailing, as well as the pulling out of the HHI in Turkey, as a result of intense political pressure, especially by the EU, as Turkey prepares for its last attempt to join it.

John Greyson, the Canadian filmmaker, has just published a brilliant call to musicians to boycott Israel – a real gem!

Gaza Island from Albino Squirrel Channel on Vimeo.

The Freedom Flotilla 2, with 12+ boats carrying humanitarian aid and 1000+ peace activists, is sailing to Gaza in late June. Alice Walker, who’s sailing with us, calls this the Freedom Ride of our generation. We want to help open this Palestinian port and end the illegal Israeli blockade, which has caused so much suffering. Meanwhile, the global BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) movement is calling on Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Laurie Anderson and Kiri Te Kanawa to cancel their 2011 Israel concerts and get on the boat!

Note: all songs featured in Gaza Island are parodies of familiar songs, and as such are protected by fair use provisions of copyright law.

Watch: Video shows IDF preparing for next Gaza flotilla: Haaretz

The naval exercise includes intercepting ships of various sizes and handling both non-violent and violent passengers.

The Israeli Defense Forces held a large drill Wednesday in preparation of the flotilla that intends to set sail to the Gaza Strip later this month. The drill focused on different scenarios that might occur at sea and methods to deal with them.

Organizers of the Gaza flotilla said Wednesday that they are determined to set sail even if the heads of the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) do not participate. The flotilla is currently scheduled to depart in one week, marking the anniversary of last year’s raid by Israel on the Gaza-bound flotilla, in which nine Turkish activists died.

The naval exercise included intercepting ships of different sizes and handling both non-violent and violent passengers. The navy also improved the command and control abilities of its forces after boarding the ship. Real-time intelligence collection abilities have also been upgraded in order to enable commanders to make decisions at every stage based on the passenger’s behavior. The navy also upgraded the filming equipment and the methods of transferring them from the ships to the IDF spokesman office. Last year, hours passed before Israel released photographs of the Mavi Marmara takeover, while the IHH activists had sent their version of events to networks worldwide.

The navy does not know when and whether it will need to intercept the flotilla, or how many ships it will include. The organizers have said dozens of ships will take part, but currently they have managed to purchase and equip only four or five ships, which might delay their departure.

Israel warns Palestinians all deals are off if UN vote goes ahead: The Guardian

Foreign minister says past deals such as the Oslo accord will be threatened by efforts towards UN recognition of Palestinian state

Israel will renounce past agreements made with the Palestinians if they press ahead with unilateral plans to seek recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN, foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has said.

“A move like that will be a violation of all the agreements that were signed until today,” Lieberman told the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, in Jerusalem. “Israel will no longer be committed to the agreements signed with the Palestinians in the past 18 years.”

The principal agreement referred to is the Oslo accords, signed in September 1993, under which the Palestinian Authority (PA) was created with responsibility for administering parts of the West Bank and Gaza.

Lieberman’s comments further raise the stakes in the run up to the UN general assembly in September, at which a majority of the 192 countries are expected to back a Palestinian state. Israel and the US are fiercely opposed to such a move and pressure is being applied to the Palestinians to abandon their approach.

Ashton is visiting Jerusalem and the West Bank in an attempt to break the impasse in negotiations between the two sides. Talks collapsed last September after Israel refused to extend a temporary and partial freeze on settlement construction.

In May Barack Obama publicly backed the creation of a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, with agreed land swaps, as an outcome of talks. The US president’s move angered the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, who wants to retain the large settlement blocks in the West Bank. Obama’s speech was intended to hold out the prospect of a negotiated alternative to the Palestinians’ unilateral plan.

The Israelis say they are ready to resume negotiations on the basis of the Palestinians recognising Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians reject this on the grounds it pre-empts talks on the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

Lieberman, a hawkish member of the Israeli coalition government, said on Friday: “In light of [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas’s current stance, the chances for negotiations are zero … Israel is prepared to renew negotiations. The ball is in the Palestinians’ court.”

Israel has launched a global campaign through its embassies against the Palestinian move to garner support for its state ahead of the UN meeting. It is particularly worried about the position of European countries.

David Cameron indicated to Netanyahu in London last month that Britain might back a Palestinian state if there was no substantial progress in negotiations.

Germany and Italy have said they will oppose the Palestinians’ move. France’s position is thought to be similar to the UK’s although it is trying to broker a peace conference as an alternative.

The US is expected to vote against the Palestinian move, and to use its veto in the UN security council over a Palestinian application for membership of the UN. It is applying pressure on Abbas and his officials to rethink their strategy.

However, Palestinian negotiator Muhammad Shtayeh told journalists on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority would press ahead with seeking recognition and membership of the UN regardless of whether talk resume.

“We are by all means going to the United Nations, whether there are negotiations or no negotiations,” he said. “We think that is not either/or. We think that going to the United Nations and negotiations can go hand in hand and they are complementary to each other.”

Both the Palestinians and the Israelis were focusing on the stance of European countries, he said. “For us and the Israelis the battle is over Europe because the issue is not how many states, the issue is also quality states, with all respect to everybody,” he said.

A spokesman for Ashton said: “It is more urgent than ever to engage in meaningful negotiations and move the peace process forward … What is needed is a clear reference framework to allow both sides to return to the negotiating table.”

Ashton had called for a new meeting of the Middle East quartet, comprising the EU, US, Russia and the UN, to discuss the issues, he added.

If the Palestinian Authority was dismantled Israel would be obliged under international law to assume full responsibility for the administration of all the territory it has occupied since 1967.

Meanwhile the Turkish humanitarian organisation IHH has announced it is pulling out of the flotilla of ships taking aid to Gaza later this month after the Turkish authorities refused to give permission for the Mavi Marmara to sail.

Nine Turkish activists were killed on board the Mavi Marmara a year ago when Israeli commandos stormed on board in an attempt to prevent it breaching Israel’s sea embargo around Gaza.

Other organisations participating in this year’s flotilla have said they will go ahead without the IHH.

A senior Israeli military official has said the navy will stop the flotilla, using force if necessary.

Egypt: Shalit will disappear unless Israel compromises with Hamas: Haaretz

New Israeli negotiator reportedly told Egyptian intelligence officials that if Hamas did not agree to latest deal for prisoner swap, there would be no deal at all.

The fifth anniversary this Saturday of the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has seen a burst of activity on all sides to negotiate his release.

Egyptian security officials involved in the talks told Haaretz over the weekend that the approach by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new envoy to the talks, David Meidan, could scuttle the negotiations and lead to Shalit’s “disappearance.”

The Egyptians said Meidan told Egyptian intelligence officials in Cairo last week that if Hamas did not agree to the latest deal proposed by Israel, there would be no deal at all.

The Egyptians said the Hamas negotiators, headed by the group’s military chief, Ahmed Jabari, had responded to the Israeli approach with a clear threat that the talks would end and a deal for Shalit would be off the table.

Hamas said Israel’s unwillingness to go further than its last offer would lead to Shalit’s disappearance, the Egyptians added.

The Egyptians said that after Meidan arrived in Cairo, it was obvious that Israel had no intention of compromising. In contrast, the officials said, Hamas and Jabari were willing to change their positions.

The officials said they had told Meidan he does not know Hamas and its leadership well enough to understand that an uncompromising position that contains an implicit threat would achieve the opposite result.

The Egyptians explained that it was now necessary to take one more step forward. “The parties can conclude the talks within hours, but at the same time, the talks can get stuck for many months,” one said.

Noam Shalit, the captured soldier’s father, said he knows of no new details or new proposal by Israel, including by Meidan. Shalit said he did not even know that Meidan had been speaking to Hamas.

“The last proposal I know about is the German one,” he said, referring to reports in recent years of a deal brokered by former German mediator Gerhard Conrad in exchange for the release of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Shalit met last week with French officials and President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss his son’s release in light of developments in Syria and the Palestinian Authority, and French influence in both these arenas.

Shalit also filed a suit in France to open a criminal investigation against the people responsible for his son’s abduction. The family is waiting for the appointment of an investigative judge.

Meanwhile, the family and the Israeli organization working for Shalit’s release is planning a number of events to mark the fifth anniversary of his abduction. Activities are planned for next week, especially on Saturday, to be held in and around the protest tent near the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem.

The officials said there were two key obstacles to clinching a deal. The first is the Israeli demand to expel more than half the 450 senior prisoners on the Hamas list handed to Israel years ago. According to the Egyptians, this figure is unreasonable. They say Hamas would be willing to see a few dozen freed prisoners expelled from the West Bank to Gaza and abroad, but certainly not the 230 prisoners Israel wants to exile.

The second obstacle involves disagreement over the release of the prisoners known as “VIPs” – prisoners who are leaders of Hamas and other organizations such as Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Saadat, the secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The officials warned that time was working against Shalit and said pressure must be applied to see a deal through. But Israeli officials have rejected such criticism and continue to view Egyptian mediation as essential.

Meanwhile, Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for Shalit’s speedy release at a joint press conference Friday in Berlin.

Merkel and especially Sarkozy – Shalit also holds French citizenship – have issued similar calls in the past, but this joint call seems to have greater significance. This is particularly so because it came during the two leaders’ urgent meeting to discuss Greece’s economic crisis.

A senior government official in Jerusalem said Sarkozy and Merkel had consulted with Netanyahu before releasing their statement to make sure they would not jeopardize the talks by placing the main responsibility for the delay in releasing Shalit on Hamas. On Thursday, Netanyahu encouraged them to go ahead with the statement, the official said.

Sarkozy has been very active in recent years vis-a-vis Egypt, Syria and Qatar about Shalit’s relase. He reportedly got the idea for the joint statement with Merkel after meeting with Noam Shalit last week.

Sources close to the talks told Haaretz that Merkel and Sarkozy’s call was very significant because it reflected a broad international effort to move the deal forward.

Sources in Merkel’s office told Reuters Friday that the parties had received the draft of an agreement to release 1,000 prisoners for Shalit and that Hamas’ military wing was delaying the swap. But it is unclear how much is new in that report, since according to earlier reports, the German proposal called for the release of that number – 450 senior prisoners and 550 other Palestinian prisoners.

The current deal, which Hamas rejected the last time the parties were near a decision, in July 2009, was brokered by Conrad.

But Egypt has recently ratcheted up its involvement in the talks after a long period in which is had been playing a secondary role only, according to foreign sources.

Egypt’s renewed involvement in the Shalit swap is closely linked to former President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster and closer ties between the new regime and Hamas. These were evident in the Cairo-brokered reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah, and in the opening of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Egypt, which is seeking to reposition itself vis-a-vis the Arab world following Mubarak’s downfall, would also reap prestige internationally if it played a key role in Shalit’s release.

Jabari has been called to Cairo for consultations three times in an effort to soften his positions. Israeli commentators have accused Jabari of intentionally sabotaging the talks. The Israelis say they have the impression that Jabari and his fellow military leader, Mohammed Deif, will not agree to a swap that is not perceived as deeply humiliating to Israel and total acquiescence to Hamas’ demands.

Continue reading June 19, 2011

EDITOR: Obama rides again, full speed to Nowhere!

Again, like after the Ciro declaration in 2009, Obama the speechmaker is speaking, while Obama the President is silent. All those words mean less than nothing, of course. The record is clear – the one person who has recived a Bobel Prize for Peace before he did anything, proves to also be one who will never earn the prize…

His talk about Israel is empty repetition – he is NOT about to do anything to make Israel do anything – and he is the only person in the position to so do! It is clear that Obama has achieved the impossible: He has done less than George (Dubya) Bush towards just peace in the Middle East!

Many of the pieces below deal with this show of oratory.

Obama to Israel: Take whatever you want: Al Jazeera English

In his latest speech, Obama’s thinly veiled rhetoric proves he will do anything to satisfy his pro-Israel voter base.
Lamis Andoni Last Modified: 23 May 2011 16:02

”]In 2008, Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, pandered to pro-Israeli voters and Israel by promising in a speech addressed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), that Jerusalem would forever remain “the undivided capital of Israel”.

 

 

 

 

Three years later, Obama is on another pre-campaign trail in order to improve his chances for re-election in 2012. As part of this campaign, he has made a new round of half-hearted attempts to revive the stalled “peace process” completely under Israel’s terms.

In his latest speech addressed to AIPAC, Obama promised Israel everything short of allegiance by reaffirming America’s commitment to Israel’s political and security goals. His speech denied the right of Palestinians to declare a nation and he even vowed to block any peaceful Palestinian efforts to claim their legal rights at international organisations.

Obama’s lip service to Palestinian “self-determination” is nothing more than vacuous rhetoric – as he clearly implied that Israeli interests, especially its security, remain the top priority for American foreign policy in the region.

He mechanically repeated his commitment to the vision of a two-state solution – establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. However, as expected, he left the borders and terms of the creation of such state subject to Israel’s “security interests”.

His reference to resuming peace negotiations on the basis of the 1967 borders (also known as the Green Line) means neither a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories nor the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state on all of the land within the Green Line, including East Jerusalem.

There is a significant difference in negotiations “lingo” and even legal language between saying that the establishment of a Palestinian state “will be based on” 1967 borders as opposed to saying it “will be established on” the 1967 borders.

The first leaves ample room for Israel to continue occupying and even annexing vast settlement blocs (and perhaps even all of the illegal, Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem) for “security reasons”.

Take whatever you can

Just in case his pro-Israel support base misunderstood the thinly veiled statements from his Middle East speech last Friday, Obama made sure to clarify to his definitively pro-Israeli view that there is no going back to the true 1967 borders:

“[The statement] means that the parties themselves – Israelis and Palestinians – will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 196… It allows the parties themselves to account for the changes that have taken place over the last forty-four years, including the new demographic reality.”

In clearer words, the president is effectively, although not explicitly, equating the presence of Palestinians on their own land with the illegal presence of Israeli settlers living on land confiscated forty-four years ago from the Palestinians.

Basically, despite the fact that settlers live on that land illegally under international law, because they are physically there, the land becomes theirs.

This confirms the belief of many in the region that the construction of Israeli settlements and of the Separation Wall inside the 1967 borders is Israel’s way of slowly completing a de facto annexation of Palestinian land.

This latest of Obama’s statements may be the closest the president has come to legitimising illegal Israeli settlements.

Obama’s message to Israel appeared to confirm that he is ready to keep former president George Bush’s 2005 promise that Israel would be able to keep their largest settlements blocs as a result of any negotiated solution for the conflict.

In other words, Obama’s idea of Palestinian self-determination is for Palestinians to accept whatever Israel decides.

In his AIPAC speech, and the previous speech addressed to the Middle East, Obama seemed to have either  been out of touch with, or to have simply ignored, the changes brought about by the Arab Spring. For while he argued that Israel should understand that the Arab Spring has altered the political balance in the region, and that Israel should understand it now has to make peace not with corruptible Arab leaders, but with the Arab people themselves.

So much for hope and change

In fact, when it comes to the Palestinian cause, Obama is speaking and acting as if the Arab Spring has not taken place. He has to remember that even America’s most loyal Arab allies in the region could not openly support the American-Israeli formula for peace with the Palestinians. So, why then would it be acceptable to millions of pro-Palestinian Arabs?

The Arab Spring may have affected the semantics of American discourse on Palestinian rights but it has not created anything close to a real shift in American policies.

Once again, Obama has succumbed to political blackmail by Netanyahu – whose main goal of raising objections to the peace process is to make sure that Israel continues undisturbed with its expansionist polices, and not because of any real fear from the president’s weak demands.

Yes, there is no doubt that Netanyahu wants to see any reference to 1967 borders dropped from the discourse, because Israel is currently busy drawing its own militarily imposed future borders, he could not have misunderstood Obama’s clearly pro-Israeli statements.

As the American president pointed out in his speech, he has made good on his declaration of “full commitment” to Israeli interests and security needs: “That’s why we’ve increased cooperation between our militaries to unprecedented levels. It’s why we’re making our most advanced technologies available to our Israeli allies.”

“And it’s why, despite tough fiscal times, we’ve increased foreign military financing to record levels.”

Obama has not only been consistent in maintaining full US support for Israel but has also articulated a new, more decisive stance which explicitly confirms the long-standing American policy of blocking any peaceful Palestinian efforts through international law and the United Nations.

“…The United States will stand up against efforts to single Israel out at the UN or in any international forum. Because Israel’s legitimacy is not a matter for debate”, he promised the gathering of the staunchest and most influential supporters of Israel.

By siding with Israel against the Palestinian Authority’s plan to seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, the US has in effect declared war on all Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority and activists alike.

He will unabashedly thwart any efforts to pursue legal and peaceful means of challenging the continued Israeli colonisation of their land.

But by labeling such campaigns aimed at recognition of a Palestinian state as an attempt “to delegitimise” Israel, the president is inadvertently recognising that those Israeli policies themselves lack legitimacy.

A rights based discourse?

Furthermore, while Obama’s assertion that UN recognition alone cannot create a Palestinian state is technically true, it will restore the topic within a legal rights discourse – which would not be defined by Israel’s security concerns as it has in the past.

Such UN recognition, of course, would work towards the establishment a Palestinian state defined by the 1967 borders – meaning that all Israeli settlements within that border would have to be evacuated. Without this, it would only legitimise and perpetuate the American-Israeli negotiations formula.

But Obama has not taken any risks in order to promote peace.

He fears foiling decades of American policies that have aimed to veto any UN resolution pertaining to Israeli crimes and, starting a new discourse about the conflict that would be rights-based.

It was no surprise either when Obama declared the reconciliation agreement between Fateh and Hamas, signed earlier this month, to be an “obstacle” to peace in the region. After all, in his purely pro-Israeli mindset, any attempt at Palestinian unity – regardless of how feeble – does not serve Israeli interest and its tried and true “divide and conquer” method has prevented any real progress for years.

Obama’s repeated refrain about Hamas being an unacceptable peace partner, sounds not only like a broken record, but also like a lame excuse for Israeli extremism and intransigence.

If he wants to know who the true unacceptable partners for peace are, all he has to do is get an English transcript of discussions from the Israeli Knesset (parliament) and read how members from the political right call Arabs “animals” and make all manner of racist slurs against Palestinians.

But if Obama is willing to encourage Israeli policies such as ‘land transfers’, which aim to displace whole Palestinian communities and refers to them as mere “demographic changes”, then why would he care about racist rhetoric and threats by right-wing Israelis?

In his latest speeches, Obama did not refer once to the events that took place on the May 15 ‘Nakba Day’ protests. During these peaceful demonstrations, the Israeli military responded in a predictable way, in the only way they know – by firing indiscriminately on unarmed protesters. By the end of the shooting spree, more than 20 people were killed at the Syrian and Lebanese borders.

Perhaps the most disturbing part of Obama’s speech is his exaggerated attempt to adopt the Israeli narrative and by default, his complete denial of Palestinian national rights.

In the end of his speech, Obama’s claim that Israel’s history could be characterised by a struggle for freedom (a repeat from his 2008 AIPAC speech) says it all:

The American president refuses to see Israeli oppression and repression. He refuses to recognise the legitimacy of the Palestinian struggle for freedom – because if he did, he just might hurt his chances at winning a second term as US president.

Lamis Andoni is an analyst and commentator on Middle Eastern and Palestinian affairs.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

 

Hamas: Obama will not force Israel recognition: Ma’an News

Published Sunday 22/05/2011 (updated) 23/05/2011

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri on Sunday slammed Barack Obama’s speech to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, saying the US president’s call on the party to recognize Israel would go unanswered.

In Washington, Obama addressed the powerful pro-Israel lobby group and elaborated on statements made Thursday in his Mideast policy speech, urging calls to democracy and reform across the region.

He re-stated his position that the 1967 armistice lines should be the basis of negotiations between Israel and Palestine, saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejection of the call Friday was due to a misunderstanding.

Obama called on Hamas to recognize Israel and renounce violence and also reaffirmed his support for Israel and Washington’s commitment to go “beyond” regular military assistance to Tel Aviv in order to help “maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge.”

The Hamas spokesman said the speech showed the US administration was “not a friend to the people of the region.”

Abu Zuhri said Obama’s continued support of Israel showed the US was biased, and would “support the occupation at the expense of the freedom of the Palestinian people.”

The spokesman called Obama’s statements on the inevitability of the failure of a Palestinian move seeking statehood at the UN an effective denial of the right for Palestinians to have an independent and sovereign state.

Abu Zuhri also spoke out on the widely accepted stance of starting negotiations based on a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders, saying it revealed the mistake that was the “gamble on the American role” in negotiations.

While Hamas has said it would recognize Israel once it withdraws to the 1967 borders, the party holds that negotiations should be based on the borders of historic Palestine, resulting in far fewer concessions for Palestinians who would start out with a much stronger bargaining position.

“The US administration will fail, just as all others have in the past, in forcing Hamas to recognize the occupation,” Abi Zuhri said of the request to recognize Israel ahead of talks.

Netanyahu to Congress: Ready to make painful compromises, but Jerusalem will not be divided: Haaretz

The prime minister was welcomed to the U.S. Congress by a long standing ovation, after which he praised the U.S. for their strong ties and shared values with Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened his speech at the United States Congress on Tuesday by reiterating Israel’s strong ties with the U.S., saying “Israel has no better friend than the U.S. and the U.S. has no better friend than Israel.”

The prime minister’s speech was briefly disrupted by a heckler, who was quickly escorted out by security. Netanyahu said about the heckler, “I appreciate that protesting is aloud” adding “this is the real democracy.”

Netanyahu rejected those that call Israel a “foreign occupier”, saying that no one could deny the “4,000 year old bond between the Jewish people and the Jewish land.”

“Why has peace eluded us?” the prime minister posed as he began to discuss the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. “Because so far, the Palestinians have been unwilling to accept a Palestinian state if it meant accepting a Jewish state alongside it.”

Reiterating a point he has made several times throughout his official trip to Washington, Netanyahu said that Israel “will not return to the indefensible borders of 1967.”

“Israel will be generous on the size of a Palestinian state, but will be very firm on where we put the border with it,” Netanyahu said.

At the start of his speech, the prime minister congratulated the U.S. on getting Osama Bid Laden, adding “good riddance”.

“I am dearly moved by this warm welcome,” Netanyahu said, after being received in Congress by a long standing ovation. He received another standing ovation after mentioning that he saw many friends in the audience “both Democrats and Republicans.”

As part of his visit to Washington the prime minister had earlier met with U.S. President Barak Obama, after which he reiterated his stance that Israel cannot go back to the “indefensible” borders of 1967.

The two leaders’ meeting came a day after the U.S. president’s Mideast policy speech called for negotiations for a two-state solution based on 1967 lines.

On Monday, Netanyahu spoke at the AIPAC policy conference where he spoke about Obama’s “ironclad commitment” to Israel’s security.

He also reiterated his rejection of Obama’s call for an Israeli-Palestinian peace based on 1967 lines.

Israel has historically enjoyed broad support from the U.S. Congress, a sign of which was seen at the AIPAC dinner when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid challenged Obama’s on the border issue, saying “No one should set premature parameters about borders, about building or about anything else.”

U.S. sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been at a standstill since an Israeli freeze on West Bank settlement building expired in September. Palestinians insist that a building freeze be reinstated before they return to the negotiating table, while Israel has said that they must return to negotiations with no preconditions.

Palestinians have said that they will meet in Ramallah on Wednesday to determine what their next step will be, following Netanyahu’s visit to Washington.

Continue reading May 24, 2011

NAKBA DAY, May 15th 2011

EDITOR: 63 years to the Nakba, and it is still continuing

After more than six decades, the UN resolutions of 1947 and 1949/50 are just the useless paper they were at the time. Israel did now allow the creation of the Arab state in Palestine, has expelled most of the Palestinians from their home and land, and refused to let them back into their country. Following the UN resolution 194, calling for all refugees to be allowed back into their homes, Israel has destroyed more than 500 towns and villages, razing them to the ground, and making a return (Awda) impossible. Not only the houses and villages were destroyed, but even the ground cover was replaced with European fir trees, to remove all signs of the indigenous population and its habitation in Palestine.

Today, hundreds of Nakba events are taking place across Palestine, and many hundreds have already been arrested as these lines are written. Since 2010, the commemoration of the Nakba is illegal in Israel. History is illegal; memory is illegal; reality is illegal, in the state which breaks every law in the book. Until now, Israel has already murdered 12 Palestinian protesters in the Syrian Golan Heights alone, today.

Israel is illegal. It laws are a travesty. They will not defeat memory and history.

Israeli forces open fire at Palestinian protesters: BBC

Israeli forces have fired on groups of protesters at borders with the Palestinian territories, Syria and Lebanon.

Reports say that at least 12 people have died and dozens more have been injured.

In one incident, thousands of Palestinian supporters from Syria entered the Golan Heights, Israel says.

Palestinians are marking the Nakba or Catastrophe, their term for the founding of the Israeli state in 1948.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out of their homes in fighting after its creation.

Responding in a televised address to Sunday’s violence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped “calm and quiet will quickly return, but let nobody be mistaken, we are determined to defend our borders and sovereignty”.

Impetus
Clashes have been taking place at four separate borders or crossing points – at Erez in Gaza, near Ramallah in the West Bank, on the Golan Heights and at the border with Lebanon.

The BBC’s Jon Donnison, in the West Bank town of Ramallah, said this year’s Nakba protests have been given impetus by the uprisings in countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

Our correspondent, at the Qalandiya checkpoint there, says there is a stand-off now, but dozens of Palestinians have been injured.

Palestinian protesters have been throwing stones at Israeli security forces, who have been firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

On the occupied Golan Heights, the Israeli military said it had only fired warning shots as a large number of protesters tried to breach a border fence near the village of Majdal Shams.

But reports said at least two people had been killed and dozens injured.

Israel’s army says this is a “serious” incursion. Brig Gen Yoav Mordechai said soldiers were still trying to control the crowds and that dozens of protesters had crossed.

The army has reportedly sealed off Majdal Shams and is carrying out house-to-house searches for “infiltrators”.

Israel seized the strategic territory from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Six-Day War.

On the Lebanon-Israel border, a large number of protesters also approached the crossing with Israel.

Dozens of buses had brought protesters to the area under the rally slogan of “March for the return to Palestine”.

Lebanese soldiers had fired in the air to try to disperse the protesters, who were chanting: “By our soul, our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for you, Palestine.”

Gen Mordechai says Israeli troops fired as demonstrators began vandalising the fence.

Lebanese military officials say 10 people have been killed and scores wounded.

“We are seeing here an Iranian provocation, on both the Syrian and the Lebanese frontiers, to try to exploit the Nakba day commemorations,” Gen Mordechai said.

A spokesman for the UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon called on both sides there to show restraint.

Syria denounced Israeli actions in the Golan Heights and Lebanon as “criminal”, Agence France-Presse news agency reported.

“Israel will have to bear full responsibility for its actions,” the foreign ministry said.

However, one Israeli official told AFP: “Syria is a police state. Demonstrators do not randomly approach the border without the prior approval of the central government.”

On the Israel-Gaza frontier, at the Erez border crossing, Israeli troops opened fire with tanks and machine guns, injuring dozens, Palestinian medical officials said.

Meanwhile in Tel Aviv, Israeli police are investigating whether an Arab-Israeli lorry driver deliberately ploughed into pedestrians, killing one Israeli man.

Eight killed as Israeli troops open fire on Nakba Day border protests: The Guardian

Many more wounded in clashes at Israel’s borders with Syria, Gaza and Lebanon, as UN appeals for ‘maximum restraint’

A Palestinian woman and child are helped to safety during Nakba Day violence north of Jerusalem. Photograph: Jim Hollander/EPA
Israeli troops opened fire on pro-Palestinian demonstrators attempting to breach its borders on three fronts, killing at least eight people. Scores more were wounded at Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza.

Clashes also erupted in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as Palestinians commemorated Nakba Day, the anniversary marking the 1948 war in which hundreds of thousands of people became refugees after being forced out of their homes.

Thousands of Palestinian refugees in Syria marched towards the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967. At least four people were killed by Israeli troops as they crossed the border, Israel Radio reported. Up to 20 were injured, according to the Israeli Magen David Adom ambulance service.

A statement from the Israeli military said: “Thousands of Syrian civilians breached the Israel-Syria border near the Israeli village of Majdal Shams.

“IDF forces opened fire in order to prevent the violent rioters from illegally infiltrating Israeli territory. A number of rioters have infiltrated and are violently rioting in the village. From initial reports there are dozens of injured that are receiving medical care in a nearby hospital.”

Most of the inhabitants of Majdal Shams, a large village close to the border, hold Syrian citizenship and have family on the other side of the border, from whom they are cut off. The Israeli army declared the area, which is heavily mined, a closed military zone on Sunday.

Despite being occupied by Israel for 44 years, the Golan is usually calm. Syria has repeatedly demanded Israel hand back the area.

A similar Nakba Day protest on the Lebanon border led to four people being killed and around 15 wounded, according to Lebanese media reports. Dozens of protesters approached the border from the Lebanese town of Maroun a-Ras.

Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, an Israeli military spokesman, said soldiers fired when demonstrators began vandalising the border fence. The army was “aware” of casualties on the other side, he said.

Witnesses said that Israeli troops had fired across the border at protesters throwing stones from within Lebanon, a move that could have serious repercussions and prompt further cross-border incidents.

UN peacekeepers on the Lebanese side of the border appealed for “maximum restraint” to prevent casualties.

In Gaza, around 60 people were injured by shelling and machine-gun fire when protesters approached the heavily fortified Erez border crossing, according to Palestinian medical sources. Israelis living near Gaza were advised to stay inside bomb shelters.

The Israeli security forces were braced for wide-scale protests on Nakba Day – the most highly charged day in the Palestinian calendar – and had deployed around 10,000 troops and police along the country’s borders and in the Palestinian territories. The West Bank was subject to a 24-hour closure, with only emergency access permitted.

The Israeli authorities warned that the first Nakba Day following uprisings across the region could herald riots across the Palestinian territories.

In the West Bank, rubber bullets were fired at about 200 Palestinians and supporters who marched towards the Qalandia crossing on the edge of Jerusalem.

There was also unrest in East Jerusalem, fuelled by the death of a 17-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot in the stomach during clashes on Friday. He died in hospital on Saturday.

In Tel Aviv, an Israeli man was killed and 17 injured when a truck ran into vehicles and pedestrians. It was not clear whether the incident was an accident or a deliberate attack. The truck’s 22-year-old Israeli-Arab driver said he lost control of the vehicle due to faulty brakes.

EDITOR: The language of resporting the events is more revealing than the report itself…

In this Haaretz report, the Palestinians who crossed what most reports called the ‘border’ between Israel and Syria (It is no such thing – it is a ceasefire line, as both sides are on Syrian territory) were called ‘infiltrators’. This is an interesting term to use, especially on Nakba day; Israel’s regime and media has used this term for decades, when describing Palestinians returning to their land after 1948 under cover of darkness. Normally they were shot on the spot, like today. People returning to their country are ‘infiltrators’ and those who took their land and killed them are the ‘law’.

Last infiltrators return to Syria after day of bloody clashes on northern borders: Haaretz

IDF sources say Lebanese demonstrators were killed by gunfire from the Lebanese army during Nakba Day protests on the border; Syria foreign ministry condemns Israel.

The last of the protesters who infiltrated across the border into Israel from Syria on Sunday have been returned to Syria by Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Israel police.

At least one demonstrator was killed and around 40 more wounded in the incident near Majdal Shams on the Syrian border, according to the IDF.

The IDF said that the incident clearly bore Iran’s fingerprints and served Syrian interests.

According to Lebanese security sources, at least 10 Palestinian protesters were killed at a demonstration near the Lebanese-Israeli border.

The sources said more than 100 people had been wounded in the shooting incident in the border village of Maroun a-Ras.

The protests were held to mark Nakba Day, which mourns the creation of the State of Israel.

Syria condemned Israel’s “criminal activities” on Sunday.

State news agency SANA quoted the Syrian foreign ministry as saying it called on the international community to hold Israel responsible for the incidents, the deadliest such confrontation along the borders in years.

The IDF had no prior information of the intention of demonstrators to break through the border fence. IDF forces had been deployed at several points along the Syrian and Lebanese borders but there was no expectation that violence would break out in the Majdal Shams area, where numerous demonstrations have occurred in the past that all ended without violence.

Hundreds of demonstrators tried to break through the border fence in the Maroun a-Ras area of Lebanon. IDF and Lebanese forces opened fire to prevent to prevent demonstrators from crossing the border.

According to IDF sources, IDF soldiers fired shots in the air and at the legs of protesters while Lebanese forces opened fire indiscriminately.

The IDF sources said that three to five demonstrators were killed by Lebanese gunfire.

10 IDF soldiers and three IDF officers were injured in the incidents on the Syrian and Lebanese borders.

Palestinians killed in ‘Nakba’ clashes: Al Jazeera English

Several killed and scores wounded in Gaza, Golan Heights, Ras Maroun and West Bank, as Palestinians mark Nakba Day.

”]Several people have been killed and scores of others wounded in the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, Ras Maroun in Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as Palestinians mark the “Nakba”, or day of “catastrophe”.

 

 

 

 

 

The “Nakba” is how Palestinians refer to the 1948 founding of the state of Israel, when an estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled following Israel’s declaration of statehood.

At least one Palestinian was killed and up to 80 others wounded in northern Gaza as Israeli troops opened fire on a march of at least 1,000 people heading towards the Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

A group of Palestinians, including children, marching to mark the “Nakba” were shot by the Israeli army after crossing a Hamas checkpoint and entering what Israel calls a “buffer zone” – an empty area between checkpoints where Israeli soldiers generally shoot trespassers, Al Jazeera’s Nicole Johnston reported from Gaza City on Sunday.

“We are just hearing that one person has been killed and about 80 people have been injured,” Johnston said.

“There are about 500-600 Palestinian youth gathered at the Erez border crossing point. They don’t usually march as far as the border. There has been intermittent gunfire from the Israeli side for the last couple of hours.

“Hamas has asked us to leave; they are trying to move people away from the Israeli border. They say seeing so many people at the border indicates a shift in politics in the area.”

Separately in south Tel Aviv, one Israeli man was killed and 17 were injured when a 22-year-old Arab Israeli driver drove his truck into a number of vehicles on one of the city’s main roads.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the driver, from an Arab village called Kfar Qasim in the West Bank, was arrested at the scene and is being questioned.

“Based on the destruction and the damage at the scene, we have reason to believe that it was carried out deliberately,” Rosenfeld said. But he said he did not believe the motive was directly linked to the anniversary of the Nakba.

West Bank clashes

One of the biggest Nakba demonstrations was held near Qalandiya refugee camp and checkpoint, the main secured entry point into the West Bank from Israel, where about 100 protesters marched, Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El-Shamayleh reported from Ramallah.

Some injuries were reported from tear gas canisters fired at protesters there, El-Shamayleh said.

Small clashes were reported throughout various neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem and cities in the West Bank, between stone-throwing Palestinians and Israeli security forces.

Israeli police said 20 arrests were made in the East Jerusalem area of Issawiyah for throwing stones and petrol bombs at Israeli border police officers.

About 70 arrests have been made in East Jerusalem throughout the Nakba protests that began on Friday, two days ahead of the May 15 anniversary, police spokesman Rosenfeld said.

Tensions had risen a day earlier after a 17-year-old Palestinian boy died of a gunshot wound suffered amid clashes on Friday in Silwan, another East Jerusalem neighbourhood.

Police said the source of the gunfire was unclear and that police were investigating, while local sources told Al Jazeera that the teen was shot in random firing of live ammunition by guards of Jewish settlers living in nearby Beit Yonatan.

‘Palestinians killed’

Meanwhile, Syrian state television reported that Israeli forces killed four Syrian citizens who had been taking part in an anti-Israeli rally on the Syrian side of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights border on Sunday.

Israeli army radio said earlier that dozens were wounded when Palestinian refugees from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights border were shot for trying to break through the frontier fence. There was no comment on reports of the injured.

There have also been reports that Israeli gunfire killed up to 10 people and injured scores more in the Lebanese town of Ras Maroun, on the southern border with Israel.

Matthew Cassel, a journalist in the town, told Al Jazeera that he saw at least two dead Palestinian refugees.

“Tens of thousands of refugees marched to the border fence to demand their right to return where they were met by Israeli soldiers,” he said.

“Many were killed. I don’t know how many but I saw with my own eyes a number of unconscious and injured, and at least two dead.

“Now the Lebanese army has moved in, people are running back up the mountain to get away from the army.”

‘End to Zionist project’

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the events of “Nakba Day” in a televised statement on Sunday, particualrly referring to attempts to infiltrate Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, saying “we are determined to defend our borders”.

Netanyahu said that he instructed Israeli forces to act with restraint, but to stop all attempts at infiltration and challenges to Israel’s sovereignty.

He said that the “Nakba Day” protesters were not fighting for the 1967 borders as they claim, but were denying Israel’s right to exist.

“We must understand who and what we are up against,” Netanyahu said.

Earlier on Sunday Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of Hamas-controlled Gaza, repeated the group’s call for the end of the state of Israel.

Addressing Muslim worshippers in Gaza City on Sunday, Haniyeh said Palestinians marked this year’s “Nakba” “with great hope of bringing to an end the Zionist project in Palestine”.

“To achieve our goals in the liberation of our occupied land, we should have one leadership,” Haniyeh
said, praising the recent unity deal with its rival, Fatah, the political organisation which controls the West Bank under Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’ leadership.

Meanwhile, a 63 second-long siren rang midday in commemoration of the Nakba’s 63rd anniversary.

Over 760,000 Palestinians – estimated today to number 4.7 million with their descendants – fled or were driven out of their homes in the conflict that followed Israel’s creation.

Many took refuge in neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere. Some continue to live in refugee camps.

About 160,000 Palestinians stayed behind in what is now Israeli territory and are known as Arab Israelis. They now total around 1.3 million, or some 20 percent of Israel’s population.

Clashes erupt as Nakba Day protests sweep Palestinian territories: Haaretz

At least 45 youths hurt by IDF fire along Gaza fence; in West Bank, troops attempt to disperse protesters; firebomb hurled at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem.

There were widespread protests throughout the Palestinian territories on Sunday, as fears that the annual Nakba Day commemorations would spiral into violence seemed to be realized as reports emerged of repeated clashes and arrests. Nakba Day is a Palestinian day to mourn the creation of the State of Israel.

Israel fired two tank shells and several rounds from machine guns as dozens of Palestinian protesters approached the heavily fortified border in the Gaza Strip over the course of the day, wounding at least 45 people, a Palestinian health official said.

On Sunday afternoon, IDF forces fired on a suspect planting an explosive device along the border in the northern Gaza Strip. A hit was identified, the IDF said.

Across the West Bank, thousands of Palestinians took to the streets, waving flags and holding old keys to symbolize their dreams of reclaiming property they lost when Israel was created on May 15, 1948.

In a West Bank refugee camp and on the outskirts of Jerusalem, IDF troops fired tear gas to break up large crowds of stone throwers.

Demonstrators gathered at a gas station near the village of Isawiyah in East Jerusalem early Sunday, hurling rocks at the security forces. One police officer was injured and at least 13 protesters were arrested during those clashes, some of them with the aid of a helicopter team.

Palestinians demonstrating near Mount Scopus in Jerusalem hurled firebombs at the back of the Hadassah University Hospital. No one was wounded in the incident and there were no reports of damage.

In the West Bank city of Qalandiya, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, some 200 protesters began marching toward a local checkpoint. Police attempted to disperse those protesters by firing tear gas canisters. 20 protesters were lightly hurt.

Other protesters gathered near the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank; Palestinian security forces arrested some rioters, but left other demonstrations to continue unhindered.

Israel had instituted a 24-hour closure on the West Bank and deployed thousands of security forces across the West Bank to stave off potential violence on Nakba Day. Even so, officials had said they expected calm to prevail.

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch arrived at the Western Wall and said that security forces are mobilized to the maximum in light of the events. “The police are on high alert, so the day can pass quietly,” Aharonovitch said.

Aharonovitch stated that until now there have not been any incidents that were out of the ordinary and estimated that “the situation is under control, but we must keep in mind that everything could change.”

Also Sunday, a resident of the Arab village of Kafr Qasem in northern Israel plowed a truck into vehicles and pedestrians on a busy Tel Aviv road at the tail end of rush hour. One man was killed and at least 16 others were wounded.

Refugees march to return: The Electronic Intifada

Matthew Cassel, 13 May 2011

A Palestinian refugee and Nakba survivor in Lebanon’s Ein al-Helwe refugee camp. (Matthew Cassel / JustImage)
Long before Muhammad Bouazizi there was Muhammad al-Dura. The horrific footage of the 12-year-old Palestinian boy gunned down by Israeli soldiers while seeking refuge alongside his father in September 2000 was one of the sparks that made protests spread across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The second intifada, like the first intifada (1987-1993) before it, was a popular grassroots uprising against Israeli occupation. It was these intifadas that have made the Arabic word for uprising largely synonymous with the Palestinian liberation struggle — and made the word universally understood all over the world.

Since the wave of recent Arab uprisings began in Tunisia late last year after the self-immolation by Bouazizi, many have asked when the Palestinians will follow suit and lead a revolt of their own.

In the decade after the second intifada began, Palestinians have faced violent Israeli repression — thousands were killed and injured, and tens of thousands have been detained and imprisoned. Entire cities, villages and refugee camps have been subject to invasion and curfew, often for weeks at a time. And in recent years, the Palestinian Authority has become a repressive force of its own, forcefully quelling protests in the occupied territories and working in open coordination with the Israeli army.

Despite this, the spirit of the Palestinian liberation movement has continued unabated. Protests by Palestinians inside the occupied territories, Israel and the diaspora are commonplace, particularly the ongoing weekly protests in West Bank villages like Bilin and Nilin that have gone on for years.

Solidarity with Palestine in the Arab world has always existed. Not only did Arabs protest in support of Palestinians early in the intifada, but more recently, during Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza in the winter of 2008-09, hundreds of thousands protested across the Arab world, from Yemen to Morocco, against the attack that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, the overwhelming majority civilians.

However, Arab despots, many of whom have become the target of popular protests calling for their ouster, have often either suppressed or co-opted protests in solidarity with Palestine. During the various uprisings and protests in the Arab world, other than the flag of the respective nations being waved, the Palestinian flag has also been present in almost every country, a symbol of just how important Palestine and the intifada are in the greater Arab world.

Now, inspired by the recent Arab revolts, Palestinians are planning for their own uprising in a day activists are calling the “third intifada.” What initially started as a call for a protest on Facebook has transformed into a grassroots movement led by Palestinians around the world.

On Sunday, 15 May, Palestinian activists, political factions and non-governmental organizations, are participating in various coordinated actions to protest Israeli occupation and call for the right of return for some six million Palestinian refugees. The significance of this date is that it is Nakba day — the day Palestinians annually commemorate their ethnic cleansing from Palestine as British forces departed in 1948 and Zionist forces took over much of the country to establish Israel.

Protests are planned in Ramallah, Gaza City, Amman, Damascus, Cairo and other cities. Egyptian activists are also planning to go to Gaza and challenge their government’s complicity with Israel in the siege of the territory. Here in Lebanon, organizers are calling for an unprecedented “Right of Return” march to the border that they were forced to cross 63 years ago this week.

Unlike Tunisians, Egyptians and other peoples in revolt, Palestinian refugees don’t have the luxury of living under only one oppressor. In Lebanon, for example, hundreds of thousands of refugees live with few civil rights; many are restricted to refugee camps enclosed by the Lebanese army.

In recent years, activists have waged a campaign demanding civil rights in Lebanon in order to return home to Palestine. In the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, after it was destroyed in 2007, Palestinians had to first demand a return to the camp where they had sought refuge six decades ago before demanding a return home to Palestine. Conditions in Syria and Jordan also restrict refugees’ freedoms and deny them many political rights. While most Palestinian refugees declare only one goal — to return to Palestine — they also admit that getting there is a long and circuitous path.

Sharif Bibi, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon and one of the organizers of the 15 May Right of Return March, told me, “Palestinians have always dreamed of an Arab revolt since they believe that Palestine won’t be liberated until the Arab world is liberated. The fall of Mubarak in Egypt gave hope to people and made the idea that ‘we can do it’ into something real.”

Bibi says there are already more than 500 buses planned to transport an estimated 35,000 persons — mostly Palestinian refugees — from across Lebanon to the village of Maroun al-Ras on the boundary with Israel. Very few mainstream Lebanese political groups are endorsing the march, except for Hizballah, the Shia Islamic resistance movement celebrated for liberating southern Lebanon from 22 years of Israeli occupation in 2000.

It was soon after that liberation that hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon traveled to the boundary. Many greeted family members whom they had been separated from for decades or never met before, on the other side of the fence in Israel. Also around this time is when a now-famous photograph of the late Palestinian scholar Edward Said throwing a stone across the border emerged.

According to Bibi, the march this weekend will have a different purpose. Located hundreds of meters away from the border fence, Sunday’s demonstration aims to show that Palestinian refugees have not given up on their inalienable right to return home.

Given their history, it’s easy for one to assume that Palestinians will play a central role in any larger uprising in the Arab world. After this weekend, that role should be clear.

Matthew Cassel, a former editor of The Electronic Intifada, is a journalist and photographer based in the Middle East. His website is justimage.org. Follow him on twitter (@justimage) for live coverage of Sunday’s march in Lebanon.