The prime minister needs to make the difficult decision to secure Gilad Shalit’s release immediately and stop hiding behind security rationales to avoid that decision.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s explanations for the delay in a deal for the return of captive soldier Gilad Shalit are gradually being reduced to a single key argument: It is impossible to free heavyweight prisoners – people responsible for major terror attacks – because they will then endanger the welfare of all Israelis. In his speech last Thursday, Netanyahu explained that he is not willing to release such prisoners into the West Bank, because once there, they are liable to establish new terrorist networks that would threaten both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
To refute this argument, it is sufficient to listen to what GOC Central Command Avi Mizrahi told Haaretz about six weeks ago: “The IDF can deal with this. … I’m not afraid of the return of these terrorists; it takes them a long time to reconnect to the territory.”
Mizrahi, who is responsible for the West Bank, can be relied on to know what he is talking about, even if his view contradicts that of Netanyahu.
But one need not rely on the view of any particular officer, because it is clear that the decision is not military, but political. The Israel Defense Forces’ ability to deal with 40 or 400 terrorists is not in question. Were it not for this ability, these prisoners would not currently be in jail.
The prime minister’s argument essentially equates the threat that these dozens of terrorists would pose if released with the far greater threats posed, for example, by Hezbollah or Iran. Yet Netanyahu has never been heard to say that Israel is incapable of dealing with these threats.
There is no choice but to conclude that the prime minister is trying to hide behind security rationales in order to avoid a difficult political and diplomatic decision. No one disputes that the price Hamas is demanding for the kidnapped soldier is a heavy one, but both in principle and in practice, Israel has already agreed to pay it. The proof of this is those 1,000 prisoners whom Netanyahu himself described as the agreed-upon price.
The prime minister would be wise not to put the public and its support for the Shalit family to the test. His weak arguments merely deepen the public’s distrust of his position.
He must make the difficult decision to secure Shalit’s release immediately. Four years of negotiation are a heavy price in and of themselves – both for Shalit and his family, and for a frustrated public.
Barack Obama is anxious to build on what has been achieved since settlements freeze started in November
An armed Jewish settler in the occupied West Bank with Israeli soldiers during a demonstration in Beit Omar village near Hebron on Saturday. Photograph: Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images
Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, will come under intense pressure on Tuesday to extend his 10-month freeze on the building of settlements in the West Bank when he meets President Barack Obama in Washington – amid warnings from the Israeli right that they will vigorously oppose such a move.
An armed Jewish settler in the occupied West Bank with Israeli soldiers during a demonstration in Beit Omar village near Hebron on Saturday. Photograph: Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images
Despite the moratorium, building in settlements has continued in the past seven months thanks to loopholes and violations. Preparations are under way for a construction boom this autumn.
Obama is expected to press hard for a continuation of the ban in the knowledge that large-scale settlement expansion would imperil the fragile “proximity” talks between Israel and the Palestinians. White House aides last week made it clear that the president wants to “capitalise on the momentum” provided by the freeze.
Today, Netanyahu said the main goal of the White House meeting would be to move toward direct peace talks with the Palestinians. “Whoever wants peace must hold direct talks for peace. I hope this will be one of the results of the visit to Washington,” he said. But he has given little indication which concessions he is prepared to make and said in a TV interview on Friday that the government’s position on settlements had not changed.
The 10-month moratorium, which excludes building in East Jerusalem, is due to end at around the same time as the four-month period set for proximity talks comes to an end. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, set a building freeze as a precondition for entering talks.
Israel’s combative foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman – a settler himself – has publicly urged Netanyahu to resist pressure to extend the freeze, saying concessions to Palestinians have not brought results. September would pose a “big test” for Israel, he said.
At least two other members of Netanyahu’s inner cabinet of seven have made their position clear. “We will renew building when the moratorium ends,” said Moshe Ya’alon. “There is no chance that Netanyahu will extend the freeze,” said Benny Begin.
Last week, leaders of the settlers warned that they would launch an “unprecedented struggle” if they were not permitted to resume building.
“If Netanyahu returns from the US with another commitment to a freeze, he will encounter an unprecedented response of settlers who will hound him no matter where he goes,” they said in a statement.
Settlers’ organisations have taken advertisements in the Israeli press, accusing the prime minister of “trampling on” the settlements. And Settlement Watch, an Israeli organisation, said that preparations are being made for a massive construction boom this autumn on the assumption the moratorium will be lifted.
“There are approved plans for between 40,000 and 50,000 housing units waiting,” said Hagit Ofran. “The only thing they need is for the mayor [of each settlement] to sign the permit. On 26 September, those mayors will have a big pile of permits on their desks.”
Under the terms of the freeze, plans can be drawn up for new buildings, but construction cannot begin. The order, which covers both private and public projects, expires at midnight on 25 September.
There are more than 300,000 Israelis living in settlements on occupied land on the West Bank, which are illegal under international law. There are another 200,000 settlers in East Jerusalem. The Palestinians argue that the massive growth in settlements, along with their infrastructure of roads and services, plus military protection, is making a viable state an impossibility.
The freeze, which began last November, was wrung out of Netanyahu by the White House after months of negotiation and against the opposition of the prime minister’s rightwing coalition partners. Work that had already begun was exempted. In the months running up to November, when a moratorium was widely anticipated, there was “a race” to start new projects, according to Settlement Watch. Around three-quarters of the way through the freeze, there are more than 2,000 housing units under construction in West Bank settlements, she said.
The defence ministry said in February that 29 settlements – including Ma’ale Adumim, a massive settlement east of Jerusalem – were in breach of the freeze order. Settlement Watch claims another 14 are also in violation.
In the large settlement of Qiriyat Arba, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, building continued last week on a substantial number of homes. Settlement Watch says that work started on most of the units after the freeze and they are therefore in breach of the moratorium. No one from the settlement’s council was available for comment.
There are suggestions that, rather than a simple end or extension to the moratorium, Netanyahu could attempt to fudge the issue by granting more exemptions while maintaining that the “freeze” continues.
Deputy prime minister Dan Meridor has proposed lifting the moratorium in the big settlement blocs that are widely expected to remain part of Israel in a peace deal, but maintaining a freeze in smaller – often ideologically-driven – settlements.
“I have suggested that we build in areas that will remain part of Israel in the future, and not in those areas that won’t be part of Israel,” he said. “We have to build [in the settlements] wisely so as not to harm the negotiations with the Palestinians.”
EDITOR: The real face of the occupation
The next item is illuminating for those not fully cognisant of the brutality of the IOF. The danse macabre in this video is evidence of what soldiers really think, and how they are perceiving their function.
WATCH: Video of soldiers, armed and wearing bulletproof vests, patrolling as a Muslim call to prayer is heard. Then the music changes and they break into a Macarena-like dance.
A number of Israel Defense Forces soldiers could face disciplinary action after they uploaded to YouTube a video of themselves stopping a patrol in the West Bank to dance to American electro-pop singer Kesha’s hit Tick Tock.
The video “Batallion 50 Rock the Hebron Casbah” shows six dancing Nahal Brigade soldiers, armed and wearing bulletproof vests, patrolling as a Muslim call to prayer is heard. Then the music changes and they break into a Macarena-like dance.
The video was uploaded over the weekend, and quickly spread across Facebook pages and blogs.
By late afternoon on Monday, the video was removed by those who uploaded it. Another version of the video was then uploaded by a different YouTube user, who titled it “It’s easy to laugh at the occupation when you’re the repressor (and a douche bag).”
The IDF said the video was a stunt carried out a few soldiers and that the issue was being taken care of by the commanding officers.
Similar clips involving other armies have grabbed headlines in recent months, including one of American forces in Afghanistan doing their take on a Lady Gaga song.
The IOF is famous for its progressive attitudes, of course… so here is a new equality afforded for servicewomen: they can also kill, from the safe seat in the control centre!
The young women operating the ‘Spot and Strike’ monitoring and remote shooting system sit at a safe distance from the battlefield, but feel as if they are on ground.
A group of 19-year-old female soldiers are in a classroom reciting the material they learned that morning. One repeats the sequence of actions she will have to follow when the course is finished and she is posted back to her base near the Gaza Strip: “Is there permission to fire? Yes. I raise the safety catch. I lower the safety catch. I aim on the target.” She moves a black joystick on the desk near her and presses a button. “Boom, boom. I killed one.”
These young women know the “boom boom” they hear could soon, under different circumstances, actually mean there has been live fire – that a person has been killed by remote control .
The soldiers, trainees in the course for the “Spot and Strike” system, sit in a tower facing the wilderness of the southern Negev, at the far edge of the Field Intelligence School at the Sayarim base, not far from Ovda. Between their tower and the wide-open desert stands another tower topped by a metal dome. With the press of a button the dome opens to reveal a heavy machine gun. Small tweaks of the joystick aim the barrel. To the right of the gun is a camera, which transmits a clear picture of the target onto a screen opposite the soldier. A press of the button and the figure in the crosshairs is hit by a 0.5-inch bullet.
Spot and Strike was developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and was phased into use by the Israel Defense Forces two years ago. It is now deployed only on the security fence around the Gaza Strip. Every few kilometers there is an unmanned gun tower – another means of thwarting attempted terror attacks and infiltration, of supplementing the Infantry, Armored and Artillery Corps, as well as the air force.
The “Spot and Strike” system, phased into use two years ago, is the only “weapon” in the IDF operated exclusively by females. Photo by: Yaron Angel
This constitutes the only “weapon” in the IDF operated exclusively by women (due to manpower considerations ). The IDF decided to use female lookouts who sit in the operations room located in every battalion headquarters in the Gaza area. According to the (male ) head of the professional department of the Field Intelligence Corps, Maj. Uri Avital, it is operated only by women who have at least a year’s experience in the Gaza area (especially those who have completed a commanders’ training course ) and are very familiar with the characteristics of the terrain – and the people living there.
Like a PlayStation
These young women have already been watching the monitors for a long time – tracking Palestinian territory adjacent to the border. Day after day, they direct the movement of forces on the ground and in the air to targets, aim weapons fire and warn of people who may be security threats even before they get close to the border. The IDF refuses to say how many terrorists have been shot to date by the system operators, since the system came into use two years ago but the number apparently reaches several dozens.
“This is a significant difference,” says Shir Chekhov, 19, from Dimona, who serves at a base opposite the southern Gaza Strip. “You’re used to scanning and doing surveillance,” she explains. “You are the eyes of the forces in the field. But it’s different when you can also kill the terrorist.”
Even if the system operator is, as is usual, several kilometers away from the tower she operates, she has a means for hearing the gunfire.
“This gives you the feeling of, ‘Wow, I’ve fired now,'” says Bar Keren, 20, of Rishon Letzion, who is serving at the Kissufim base on the Gaza border. “It’s very alluring to be the one to do this. But not everyone wants this job. It’s no simple matter to take up a joystick like that of a Sony PlayStation and kill, but ultimately it’s for defense.”
The one-week training course the soldiers take is relatively simple, but it is based on the extensive training the lookouts already underwent at the start of their service, and the experience they have accumulated. From the advanced surveillance equipment in the operations room, each woman gains up-close knowledge of a certain block of land along the fence. She also learns to recognize the Palestinians who live and visit there, and she must be able to distinguish between who is an innocent civilian and who, by their gait and what they are carrying, might be a terrorist. This stage is called “incriminating.”
Avital stresses that ultimately, the lookouts do not determine if someone is an actual target who must be stopped: “The battalion commander or his deputy is the one who gives the ‘incriminated’ authorization. But the identification comes from the lookout. She is the professional, the authority. She is the one who says, ‘I see a terrorist and what he has in his hand is a weapon.’ The battalion commander is the one who decides whether to open fire. Sometimes he will only open the dome of the tower, as a deterrent. The Palestinians have already learned what to expect afterward. Sometimes the commander will give an order to shoot near the target, in order to scare him away but not harm him.”
The system is controlled from a low platform at the intelligence-gathering war room, its walls covered in screens. Only when an order is given, does a lookout who has been qualified for the task go sit there. The procedure to authorize opening fire is complex, but takes less than two minutes. Also, to maintain maximal supervision, the weapons system has a double safety-catch mechanism; one of them is operated by an officer in the adjacent battalion war room.
“The lookouts make the first identification,” explains Avital. “Immediately thereafter the shift commander will come to examine the screen. If she decides there is an incident, this is transmitted to the operations war room and there they decide whether to use Spot and Strike. The battalion commander himself will often come in to the war room and look at the system screen before deciding.”
When the training program for the operators was being developed, the IDF wanted to learn from the experience of another country’s army, but couldn’t find a force doing anything similar.
During the course, two days are devoted to a psychological workshop, in which the trainees talk with the training base’s organizational consultant about high-stress situations and their fears. In recent months a decision was made to follow up with the operators after the course as well, to enable them to talk with mental health officers about their situation.
“It’s always important to remember,” says Col. Tal Braun, commander of the Field Intelligence School, “that in the end, this isn’t just a technical act of pulling the trigger. It is responsibility for doing a deed that someone who doesn’t understand and isn’t knowledgeable could interpret as an overly violent act. But I don’t want them to feel like this is like a Sony PlayStation. It is not detached from the surroundings: The shooting is done in conformity with the orders for opening fire in the sector. It is a part of the operational reality.”
He adds there has not been any incident in which a soldier who has been through the course did not succeed in performing the task of shooting. “There is continuous follow-up on the ground – it isn’t enough that she has been through training once. This is part of our awareness in the corps and we are very sensitive to the signs.”
Keren admits that the job places a large burden on the shoulders of the female soldiers. “But I don’t just shoot because I feel like it,” she says. “It goes through a process and decisions by the operations officer, the deputy battalion commander, the battalion commander – he’s the one who decides yes or no. It is not [all done] at our rank. I can only make recommendations about incriminating.”
Avital believes the soldiers are well-trained and prepared for the task. “When a soldier is killed in a force to which she has given directions, because the terrorist nevertheless managed to open fire – for her it’s as though she’s there on the ground,” he says.
“She hears every breath of the company commander who is running and reporting over the communications system. She hears the shooting and the wounded man comes to her to the war room with the wound. She is not at all cut off. They feel very heavy responsibility when they are on the system. I haven’t seen a girl who has taken down a terrorist and crowed over this. But there is purely professional satisfaction, that she has succeeded in being effective and protecting the [civilian] areas.”
A bill seeking to outlaw boycotts of Israeli institutions and products – including in settlements – is diplomatically explosive
Miri Weingarten
30 June 2010 10.00 BST
A new “anti-boycott bill”, the third in a series of proposed laws that aim to curtail the ability of civil society to criticise Israeli government policy, will punish Israelis or foreign nationals who initiate or promote a boycott of Israel.
The bill not only prohibits boycotts of legal Israeli institutions, but also of settlement activities and products. It seeks to impose fines on Israelis who “promote boycotts” and transfer the fines to boycotted organisations.
It will impose a 10-year entry ban on foreign residents engaging in boycotts, and forbid them to carry out any economic activities in Israel.
Heavy sanctions will also be imposed on “foreign political entities” engaging in boycotts. Any government promoting a boycott will be “prohibited from carrying out any action in Israeli bank accounts, in shares traded in Israel, in land or in any other property requiring registration of transfer”, and no money or property will be transferred from Israel to that government.
Since the Palestinian Authority is defined by Israel as a “foreign political entity”, its recent decision to end its economic dependence on settlements for products, jobs and services will lead to punitive measures.
According to the bill, even money or property due to Palestinians and to the PA by virtue of previous “laws, agreements or governmental decisions” will not be transferred to them.
The geographical application of the anti-boycott bill to the West Bank (“Judea and Samaria”) and the potential annulment of prior agreements will signal a de jure annexation of the West Bank to Israel and a final demise of the Oslo accords signed by the PA and Israel in the mid-1990s.
This bill, like others recently tabled, comes against the backdrop of recent analysis by the current Israeli government and its advocates, who have sought to draw a distinction between “legitimate criticism of Israel” and criticism or campaigning that “delegitimises Israel” and is therefore beyond the pale.
Alan Dershowitz has called this approach “the 80% case for Israel” – that is, the possibility of criticising specific Israeli policies, such as the settlement project, while emphatically supporting Israel as a Jewish state.
Examples of “illegitimate” activities include universal jurisdiction (the prosecution of officials suspected of war crimes overseas), BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions), and questioning the definition of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. The recent series of proposed bills in Israel echoes each of these categories by seeking to prohibit them through law and to criminalise human rights activists who engage in such activities.
This approach is deeply flawed. There is a difference between disagreeing with criticism and seeking to silence it through law. If Israel is a democracy, its activists must be allowed to voice criticism and engage in protest, however unpopular.
By failing to distinguish between a boycott of settlements and that of Israel itself, the initiators of the bill are demonstrating that they are not “protectors of Israel” but promoters of a “Greater Israel”.
For them, a boycott of all Israeli products, as such, is no longer distinguishable from alternative, more limited options: the decision of Israeli or international activists to boycott settlement products in order to end the occupation, or the decision of the Palestinians themselves to stop supporting the very settlements that are denying them their sustenance.
The settlers and their supporters thus expect Palestinians not only to accept the divestment of their land and resources, but also to support those who have robbed them by buying their produce and working (for sub-minimum wages) on the very building sites that are encroaching on their lands.
The EU, also a “foreign political entity” under the Israeli definition, is likely to disagree strongly with this bill. The EU association agreements with Israel (1995) and with the PLO (1997) have a mutually exclusive territorial scope: the EC-Israel agreement applies to the territory of the state of Israel, whereas the EC-PLO agreement applies to the territory of the West Bank and Gaza.
When challenged on the issue of settlement products from the West Bank, the European court of justice recently ruled that only the Palestinian Authority can issue origin certificates for goods originating in the West Bank.
In court, the EU advocate-general was even clearer. He said that as a matter of international law, the borders of Israel are defined by the 1947 partition plan for Palestine, and any territories outside the 1947 borders do not form part of the territory of Israel for purposes of the association agreement.
If the bill passes into law, the EU would qualify as a “promoter of boycott”, whereas Israel could be seen to be breaking the terms of the association agreement. The implications of this could be explosive.
Ben-Eliezer and Davutoglu discussed during their meeting acceptable version of apology and compensation, amid covert efforts to rebuild shaky ties.
A senior Israeli minister indicated during secret talks in Turkey this week that Jerusalem may be willing to compensate the families of those killed in an Israel Navy raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reported on Thursday.
The clandestine meeting between Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in Brussels on Wednesday, which raised a storm both in Israel and in Turkey, was the first high-level talks between the tense allies since the May 31 raid that left nine Turkish national dead.
Thousands attended the funeral on Thursday June 3, 2010 in Istanbul for the activists killed in the IDF raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Photo by: AFP
“Davutoglu reminded Ben-Eliezer of Turkey’s demands from Israel, including an apology, payment of compensation to families of those killed and wounded, an international inquiry and an end to the blockade of Gaza,” a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters.
According to Hurriyet, moves toward such compensation would be made only after Israel completed its internal investigation into the raid.
Turkish sources have reported that during the meeting the two ministers tried to hammer out an acceptable version of the apology Turkey is demanding from Israel, as well as agree on compensation for the families of those killed in Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. “There has to be a clear Israeli statement that is not just an expression of regret at the deaths of the victims,” one Turkish source stated.
The Turkish foreign minister had originally asked the Turkish aid organization IHH to postpone its flotilla and allow the government to reach an agreement with Israel.
Davutoglu was concerned that such aid organizations might force Turkey into a foreign policy that conflicts with its own strategic interests. However, these organizations enjoy broad public support and can impact elections.
Davutoglu also believes both that Israel’s response was disproportionate and that it is not in Turkey’s interests to create an irreparable rift between the countries. This contradicts the position of several senior members of the ruling party who – more than they want to penalize Israel – fear a boosted Davutoglu seeking party leadership if not the premiership, should Erdogan run for the presidency.
Meanwhile, a Turkish human rights organization announced that preliminary findings indicate that some of the victims were killed by gunfire from inside Israel Navy helicopters and not by soldiers who had boarded the ship.
They cite the angle of the wounds and the type of head wounds of some victims. However, because the bodies were washed before they were transferred to Turkey, it is difficult to determine if they were shot from close or long range.
“Davutoglu reminded Ben-Eliezer of Turkey’s demands from Israel, including an apology, payment of compensation to families of those killed and wounded, an international inquiry and an end to the blockade of Gaza,” a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters.
According to Hurriyet, moves toward such compensation would be made only after Israel completed its internal investigation into the raid.
Turkish sources have reported that during the meeting the two ministers tried to hammer out an acceptable version of the apology Turkey is demanding from Israel, as well as agree on compensation for the families of those killed in Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. “There has to be a clear Israeli statement that is not just an expression of regret at the deaths of the victims,” one Turkish source stated.
The Turkish foreign minister had originally asked the Turkish aid organization IHH to postpone its flotilla and allow the government to reach an agreement with Israel.
Davutoglu was concerned that such aid organizations might force Turkey into a foreign policy that conflicts with its own strategic interests. However, these organizations enjoy broad public support and can impact elections.
Davutoglu also believes both that Israel’s response was disproportionate and that it is not in Turkey’s interests to create an irreparable rift between the countries. This contradicts the position of several senior members of the ruling party who – more than they want to penalize Israel – fear a boosted Davutoglu seeking party leadership if not the premiership, should Erdogan run for the presidency.
Meanwhile, a Turkish human rights organization announced that preliminary findings indicate that some of the victims were killed by gunfire from inside Israel Navy helicopters and not by soldiers who had boarded the ship.
They cite the angle of the wounds and the type of head wounds of some victims. However, because the bodies were washed before they were transferred to Turkey, it is difficult to determine if they were shot from close or long range.
Monday, 28 June 2010
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced Israel as a “genocidal” government yesterday as he hosted Syrian President Bashar Assad on his first visit to Latin America.
Chavez has drawn close to Syria and Iran, and cut ties with Israel last year to protest its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
“We have common enemies,” Mr Chavez said, describing them as “the Yankee empire, the genocidal state of Israel.”
Mr Chavez had particularly strong words for Israel throughout Assad’s visit. He reiterated his view on Saturday that the Golan Heights – captured from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war – should one day be returned to Syria.
“Someday the genocidal state of Israel will be put in its place, in the proper place and hopefully a real democratic state will be born,” Mr Chavez said. “But it has become the murderous arm of the Yankee empire – who can doubt it? – which threatens all of us.”
Yesterday Mr Assad called Israel a state “based on crime, slaughter.”
“It’s a state without limits,” he said through an interpreter.
Mr Assad praised Mr Chavez for standing up to the US and supporting the Palestinians. Mr Chavez’s outspoken stances in favour of Iran and against Israel have given him a following in the Middle East, and Assad referred to him at one point as an “Arab leader.”
The two allies spoke to an audience of Syrian immigrants at a Caracas hotel on Sunday before Mr Assad left for Cuba, where he did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport.
His regional tour will also eventually take him to Brazil and Argentina.
Before leaving Venezuela, the Syrian leader condemned Israel’s blockade of Gaza and said Syria wants peace in the Mideast but not “submission” on Israel’s terms.
Assad also sardonically suggested Venezuela and Syria could help form an “an organisation called the ‘axis of evil,’ in which good governments would participate.”
Former US President George Bush once used that term for enemies such as Iran and Syria.
By Terry Crawford-Browne, 30 June 2010
The international banking sanctions campaign in New York against apartheid South Africa during the 1980s is regarded as the most effective strategy in bringing about a nonviolent end to the country’s apartheid system. The campaign culminated in President FW de Klerk’s announcement in February 1990, releasing Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners, and the beginning of constitutional negotiations towards a non-racial and democratic society.
If international civil society is serious about urgently ending Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights, including ending the occupation, then suspension of SWIFT transactions to and from Israeli banks offers an instrument to help bring about a peaceful resolution of an intractable conflict. With computerization, international banking technology has advanced dramatically in the subsequent 20 years since the South African anti-apartheid campaign.
Although access to New York banks remains essential for foreign exchange transactions because of the role of the dollar, interbank transfer instructions are conducted through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which is based in Belgium. So, instead of New York — as in the period when sanctions were applied on South Africa– Belgium is now the pressure point.
SWIFT links 8,740 financial institutions in 209 countries. Without access to SWIFT and its interbank payment network, countries are unable either to pay for imports or to receive payment for exports. In short, no payment — no trade. Should it come to a point where trade sanctions are imposed on Israel, it may be able to evade them. Instead of chasing trade sanctions-busters and plugging loopholes, it is both faster and much more effective to suspend the payment system.
The Israeli government may consider itself to be militarily and diplomatically invincible, given support from the United States, and other governments, but Israel’s economy is exceptionally dependent upon international trade. It is thus very vulnerable to financial retaliation. South Africa’s apartheid government had also believed itself to be immune from foreign pressure.
Without SWIFT, Israel’s access to the international banking system would be crippled. Banking is the lifeblood of any economy. Without payment for imports or exports, the Israeli economy would quickly collapse. The matter has gained additional urgency with the bill now before the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to penalize any person who promotes the imposition of boycotts against Israel. Another important political factor is that SWIFT is not only outside American jurisdiction, it is also beyond the reach of Israeli military retaliation.
Israel has long experience in sanctions-busting since the 1948 Arab boycotts. Apartheid South Africa was also well experienced in sanctions-busting — breaking oil embargoes was almost a “national sport.” Trade sanctions are invariably full of loopholes. Profiteering opportunities abound, as illustrated by Iraq, Cuba and numerous countries against which for many years the United States unsuccessfully has applied trade sanctions. Iran conducts its trade through Dubai, which happily profits from the political impasse.
Suspension of bank payments plugs such loopholes, and also alters the balance of power so that meaningful negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians become even possible. This is because banking sanctions impact quickly upon financial elites who have the clout to pressure governments to concede political change. Trade sanctions, by contrast, impact hardest on the poor or lower-paid workers, who have virtually no political influence.
SWIFT will, however, only take action against Israeli banks if ordered to do so by a Belgian court, and then only in very exceptional circumstances. Such very exceptional circumstances are now well-documented by the UN-commissioned Goldstone report into Israel’s winter 2008-09 invasion and massacre in Gaza and by the attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on 31 May 2010. There is also a huge body of literature from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other organizations detailing Israeli war crimes and violations of humanitarian law.
The Israeli government, like that of apartheid South Africa, has become a menace to the international community. Corruption and abuses of human rights are invariably interconnected. Israel’s long military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, for example, has corrupted almost every aspect of Israeli society, most especially its economy. The Organization For Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported in December 2009 that the Israeli government lacks commitment in tackling international corruption and money laundering.
The international financial system is exceedingly sensitive about allegations of money laundering, but also to any associations with human rights abuses. Organized crime and money laundering are major international security threats, as illustrated by the United States subpoena after the 11 September 2001 attacks of SWIFT data to track terrorist financing. The website Who Profits? (www.whoprofits.org) lists hundreds of international and Israeli companies that illegally profiteer from the occupation.
Their operations range from construction of the “apartheid wall” and settlements to agricultural produce grown on confiscated Palestinian land. As examples, Caterpillar, Volvo and Hyundai supply bulldozing equipment to demolish Palestinian homes. British supermarkets sell fresh produce grown in the West Bank, but illegally labelled as Israeli. Ahava markets Dead Sea mud and cosmetics.
The notorious Lev Leviev claims in Dubai that Leviev diamonds are of African origin, and are cut and polished in the United States rather than Israel. They are sourced from Angola, Namibia and also allegedly Zimbabwe, and can rightly be described as “blood diamonds.” Israeli diamond exports in 2008 were worth $19.4 billion, and accounted for almost 35 percent of Israeli exports. Industrial grade diamonds are essential to Israel’s armaments industry, and its provision of surveillance equipment to the world’s most unsavory dictatorships. Such profiteering depends on foreign exchange and access to the international payments system. Hence interbank transfers are essential, and SWIFT — willingly or unwillingly — has become complicit, as were the New York banks with apartheid South Africa.
Accordingly, a credible civil society organization amongst the Palestinian diaspora should lead the SWIFT sanctions campaign against Israeli banks. And, per the South African experience, it should be led by civil society rather than rely on governments.
Each bank has an eight letter SWIFT code that identifies both the bank and its country of domicile. “IL” are the fifth and sixth letters in SWIFT codes that identify Israel. The four major Israeli banks and their SWIFT codes are Israel Discount Bank (IDBILIT), Bank Hapoalim (POALILIT), Bank Leumi (LUMIILIT) and Bank of Israel (ISRAILIJ).
Such a suspension would not affect domestic banking transactions within Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip — or international transfers to Palestinian banks that have separate “PS” identities. The campaign can be reversed as soon as the objectives have been achieved, and without long-term economic damage.
What is required is an urgent application in a Belgian court ordering SWIFT to reprogram its computers to suspend all transactions to and from Israeli banks until the Israeli government agrees to end the occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and that it will dismantle the “apartheid wall;” the Israeli government recognizes the fundamental rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and Israel recognizes, respects and promotes the rights of Palestinian refugees.
The writer is a retired banker, who advised the South African Council of Churches on the banking sanctions campaign against apartheid South Africa. He spent October 2009 to January 2010 in East Jerusalem monitoring checkpoints, house demolitions and evictions, and liaising with Israeli peace groups. He lives in Cape Town.
As Zionism moves into its last frenetic stage, they up the stakes by going all out, ratcheting up violence and illegality, trying to grab all before the international starugle for just peace in Palestine is reaching its decisive juncture. This is the most dangerous time for all of us, and for a sane future in the Middle East – like South African apartheid in its last fateful years, they feel trapped and cornered, and will resort to desperate acts. This move is designed to start further trouble, so mass expulsions of Palestinians from the Jerusalem municipal area can be prepared as a method of changing the population balance in Jerusalem, before any international pressure on Israel can force it to share Jerusalem with Palestine.
We must redouble our efforts internationally, to isolate this criminal regime and all those who support its crimes, and the BDS campaign is one of the most effective tools at our disposal.
Approval of the plan is expected to result in a wave of protest from Palestinians and Arab states, as well as international criticism of the government in Israel.
By Akiva Eldar
The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee at the Interior Ministry will publish in the coming weeks a new blueprint program for development in Jerusalem that will include plans to expand Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Most of the land earmarked for this expansion is privately owned by Arabs. If the plan is approved, after objections to it are heard, it will grant official approval to an urban plan for the Israeli takeover of East Jerusalem.
Approval of the plan is expected to result in a wave of protest from Palestinians and Arab states, as well as international criticism of the government in Israel. The U.S. administration has made it clear to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it wants him to prevent all change to the status quo in Jerusalem until the completion of negotiations on a final-status settlement.
In October 2008, the District Planning and Building Committee decided to advance the blueprint plan, which was prepared by a team headed by Moshe Cohen, who was the Jerusalem planning official at the Interior Ministry.
Right wing elements and factions in the Jerusalem municipality complained to Interior Minister Eli Yishai that the plan would add large residential areas for the city’s Arab population, at the expense of open space and also argued it would take away from areas earmarked for Jews.
Mayor Nir Barkat ordered adjustments to the blueprint plan in line with his support for broadening Jewish presence in the Holy Basin in East Jerusalem.
Even though the National Planning and Building Committee had determined that the City of David would be categorized a “national park,” the blueprint plan allows the construction of residential areas there.
The Elad NGO, whose heads are close to Barkat, purchased in recent years homes in the village of Silwan, which is near the walls of the Old City, in order to “Judaize” the area.
Last week, the municipal planning and building committee approved Barkat’s plans to destroy 22 homes in the Al-Bustan neighborhood, in the southern part of Silwan. Barkat explained that illegal construction in the area is blocking the plan to transform Al-Bustan, also known as Gan Hamelech, into a part of the national park.
A spokesman for the Jerusalem municipality confirmed that “in the coming weeks the plan will be brought for discussion before the district committee.
A statement from the Interior Minister’s office said that “there are discussions at a professional level in order to approve the plan.”
Jaradat co-produced the recently released film Palestinian Window with Israeli producer Eran Torbiner. Additional information about the film, including how to order copies, may be found here:
Ahmad, thank you for speaking with us. You are one of the producers with Eran Torbiner of the new film Palestinian Window. Which kind of documentary is it?
Palestinian Window is an historical documentary film dealing with the Palestinian collective identity and culture through a direct portrait of different people, from the Nakba in 1948 until now. In their homeland and throughout thousands of years, Palestinians built and developed their identity and culture, which are now dispersed in the diaspora. Our life and our history – the most important elements for every nation – were attacked by the colonization of our land. You can lose one battle and then rise up but when you lose your identity, you have lost yourself.
Palestinians preserved their culture and identity despite very difficult events: the refugees took with them the keys of their homes and other symbols of their lands, villages and cities. They have strongly defended these values, fighting in the popular struggle and handing down their memory and culture for decades. From this perspective, we as the Alternative Information Center (AIC) and the Occupied Palestine and Syrian Golan Heights Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI) attempted through this film to show the common values and characteristics that the Palestinians aim to protect and promote. We interviewed Palestinians in West Bank, Gaza, Israel, Jordan and even in London. We asked simple questions and they also answered simply. We interviewed old men and women, boys and girls of different ages and socio-economic conditions. Deeply listening to them, we discovered that Palestine is still fixed in their minds and hearts: Palestine for them is their land, their villages and cities, the sea, the streets, the schools they attended. We unified all these elements in what we see as an educational film.
Which stories can you see through that “window”? What is the origin and the preparation of this documentary?
As anyone can see, the film is a portrait of different stories: the refugees in the camps, their exile walking through mountains and valleys, without anything but the keys and the memory of their homes and land; the stories of separation within families and between Gaza and West Bank, but also the Separation Wall, the checkpoints and all forms of limitations on freedom. We collected the story of a person who lost his son when the Israeli army killed him, and the life of a woman who lives in Jordan while her daughter lives on the other side of the mountains and they cannot meet together. These are the stories of millions of Palestinians: the story of a man who lives in Europe, far from his family and his people; a person who participated in the popular struggle and subsequently spent the most important years of his life, his youth, inside a prison; the story of those who live under threat and fear because of settler attacks. All these individual and collective memories live and resist the Israeli occupation in order to build a new future in which the next generations will live normal and comfortable lives, as everyone should.
The Israeli director Eran Torbiner and you visited Palestinian people living very close to the Tel Rumeida settlement, near the Wall in Bil’in and in the diaspora in Jordan. How did people react to an Israeli and Palestinian working together?
Through their experience and daily struggle, Palestinians know that many Israelis belonging to different social levels and associations call for equal rights and to end the occupation. There are many Jews who would prefer to live with Palestinians and share their life in solidarity and many Israelis have a very clear political vision against the occupation, so it is not a new phenomenon to meet or see Jews who do this kind of work. Palestinians told Eran their stories simply and clearly, as if they were speaking with any other Palestinian.
What is your dream for the future of this documentary and the people you met through its preparation?
My dream is to achieve what we are looking for in doing the documentary: to strengthen and educate Palestinian children to know more about their people and its story directly from the those whose stories make up the Palestinian people. These memories were written on their skin, on their faces, in their feelings and their hopes, and these stories are still vivid and living. In this framework, we started to distribute and promote the film, especially with organizations, schools and cultural institutions in Palestine/Israel and abroad. We will show it on many local television stations. We will screen it for the Israelis and their children so they can see how their state was established and to make them aware of the personal and political realities of their occupation.
EDITOR: Why are they not stopping this?
A number of us have said this fora long time – for number of years, practically. Now that the western powers and others also realise this, why do they stand aside, allowing yet another disastrous atrocity by Israel to be committed? This may well put the Middle East into permanent turmoil. If they continue to desist, they will become themselves partners to this crime being prepared by Israel.
World leaders meet in Ontario for two days of talks, urge Iran to ‘respect rule of law’ and ‘hold transparent dialogue’ over its nuclear program.
World leaders “believe absolutely” that Israel may decide to take military action against Iran to prevent the latter from acquiring nuclear weapons, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Saturday.
“Iran is not guaranteeing a peaceful production of nuclear power [so] the members of the G-8 are worried and believe absolutely that Israel will probably react preemptively,” Berlusconi told reporters following talks with other Group of Eight leaders north of Toronto.
The leaders of the G-8, which comprises Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Canada and the United States, devoted much of their two-day session to discussion of the contentious nuclear programs unfolding in North Korea and Iran.
The leaders issued a statement on Saturday calling on Iran to “respect the rule of law” and to “hold a “transparent dialogue” over its nuclear ambitions.
In their communiqué, the leaders of the world’s richest countries said they respected Iran’s right to a civilian nuclear program, but noted that such a right must be accompanied by commitment to international law.
“We are profoundly concerned by Iran’s continued lack of transparency regarding its nuclear activities and its stated intention to continue and expand enriching uranium, including to nearly 20 percent,” they said in a communique.
“Our goal is to persuade Iran’s leaders to engage in a transparent dialogue about its nuclear activities and to meet Iran’s international obligations,” adding that they urged the Islamic Republic “to implement relevant resolutions to restore international confidence in the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.”
Their conclusions followed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s declaration late last week that Tehran was prepared to lay down its conditions to the international community regarding discussion of its nuclear program.
EDITOR: You have read about the Israelis easing the Blockade. So now read about the real facts in Gaza…
Now that Tony Blair took the credit for changes in Gaza, standing on the blood of the nine activists murdered by Israel, and posed for lovely pictures with that other tzadik, Benjamin Netanyahu, just read about all the great changes which (never) took place in Gaza…
Seven machines donated by Norwegian agency confiscated en route to PA over chance generators attached could be used for purposes other than medical treatment, Ma’an reports.
Israel confiscated seven oxygen machines en route to hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza based on the claim that there was a chance the generators attached to the machines would not be used for medical purposes, Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported Saturday.
According to Ma’an, the Ramallah-based health ministry said that the generators, which were donated to the Palestinian Authority by a Norwegian development agency, were seized by Israeli officials despite the fact that only one machine was bound for Gaza.
The generators “came under the category of possible use for non-medical purposes” if they were delivered to southern Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement, adding that the six other machines were bound for government hospitals in the northern Gaza, inducing the European Hospital in Gaza City, the Rafdieyah hospital in Nablus, and other facilities in Ramallah and Hebron.
The Ministry of Health appealed to the Norwegian Development Agency, which supplied the machines, and asked that they intervene and demand the release of the equipment at the soonest possible date, Ma’an reported.
“Any delay in obtaining the medical equipment will negatively affect the health of patients,” the statement concluded.
After three years of deadlock, Palestinian businesses are hoping for a better future. But some fear that the new Israeli trade rules could actually mean a fresh squeeze. Donald Macintyre reports from Gaza City
Saturday, 26 June 2010
The chilled Tropika that Salama al-Kishawi proudly serves guests in his office tastes, unusually for a processed juice, of real oranges – especially refreshing on a 35C midsummer day in Gaza. But the flagship product of the Gaza Juice Factory has a significance that goes way beyond its taste.
The factory employs 65 workers and is one of very few industries to function despite the siege of Gaza imposed by Israel after Hamas seized full control of the territory three years ago this month.
How long it continues to function may well depend on just how the deal easing the Israeli blockade announced last Sunday works in practice. The future of Tropika has become a litmus test for Gaza’s real economy.
In diplomatic terms, the deal negotiated between Israel and international envoy Tony Blair was a breakthrough. Israel is still refusing – apart from internationally supervised exceptions – to allow in anything, including cement badly needed for rebuilding bombed out homes, which it deems Hamas could use for military purposes.
But the announcement signified a real change of policy: in theory at least, all other goods will, for the first time in three years, be allowed to enter.
But nearly a week after the announcement, the people of Gaza, while content about the prospect of an increase in consumer goods from Israel, are demanding that the much more fundamental promise in the agreement, to allow the expansion of “economic activity”, will also be honoured.
“If consumer items are allowed to come through the crossings, but at the same time we don’t allow materials and the means of production to enter, that will have a negative effect,” said Amr Hamad, Gaza director of the Palestinian Federation of Industries.
The Gaza Juice Factory, which is in the eastern suburb of Shajaia, in full view of the Israeli border, is a perfect illustration of the problem. Its neatly tended gardens and the bustle of forklift trucks loading the newly bundled bottles on to vans for shipment to local supermarkets testify that this is –unusually for Gaza – a going concern.
Their are tracks left by the Israeli tanks that smashed through the green metal perimeter fence during the military offensive of 2008-9, and the remains of what company boss Ayed abu Ramadan thinks must have been an Apache missile have been hung on the front wall as a memento to everything the factory has been through.
Its history is inextricably woven with that of the territory’s turbulent and blood-splashed politics over the last 15 years.
An imposing plaque reminds visitors that it was opened by Yasser Arafat just two days after his triumphant return to Gaza from exile in Tunis in July 1994. The factory became a success, exporting to Egypt, the US, Europe, and Israel itself for more than a decade.
In 2006, however, the exports ground to a halt. Hamas had won the elections, the land crossings were mostly closed. By then Gaza’s famous citrus groves had been almost destroyed by the Israeli military during its frequent incursions since the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000.
“Here in Gaza we have always had the best oranges in the world,” said Mr Kishawi. “Now most of it has gone.”
Yet the 87p bottles of Tropika on the shelves of Gaza stores today are a testament to the company’s remarkable adaptability. Its managers diversified into Tropika, but also strawberry and tomato juice, along with ketchup, jam, and a popular range of candied fruits.
From being a 100 per cent exporter, the company now caters 100 per cent for the home market. And although it would have greatly preferred to buy its raw materials much more cheaply from Israel, it was obliged by the closure to bring in bottles, packaging, flavouring and colouring additives through the tunnels from Egypt, paying what Mr Ramadan delicately calls the high “subway tolls” demanded by the tunnelers to pay their own costs – including levies to the Hamas de facto government.
Scarcity of fruit was the first problem. “Last year I needed 9,000 tonnes of citrus to meet demand,” said Mr Kishawi, “but I was only able to find 1,000 tonnes.”
Oranges from Israel were half of what they cost in Gaza but only eating – as opposed to juicing – oranges were allowed in by the Israeli authorities.
To underline the Alice in Wonderland economics of Gaza it was also possible to import from Egypt, through the tunnels, identical concentrate to that which it used to export to Egypt. “In June 2007 I was selling concentrate at $1,350 (£900) a ton but now it costs me $4,000 a ton to bring in,” explained Mr Kishawi. “Where is the competition in that?”
As if this wasn’t enough, eighteen months later the factory suffered devastating damage from Israeli ground and air assaults during the 2008-9 offensive, which hit hundreds of industrial sites. The damage prompted Amr Hamad of the Federation of Industries to remark: “What [Israel] were not able to reach by the blockade, they have reached with their bulldozers.”
The main tube in the juice factory’s key evaporator, wrecked by a missile, was quickly repaired, but the huge, 2,000-tonne capacity freezer, along with its contents, was destroyed. Then, toward the end of last year, the firm hit another obstacle. It thought it had done a deal with Israeli suppliers to supply 500 tonnes of badly-needed grapefruit.
“But then, when they realised that it was going to a juice factory and not the supermarkets, they stopped the grapefruits coming in,” said Mr Kishawi.
Two weeks ago, in the wake of the international outcry that followed the crisis over the pro-Palestinian flotillas, came the first stage of the easing of the embargo and, perversely, with it a fresh threat to Tropika. The company was happy to hear the blockade was being eased – anticipating that it would now be able to import from Israel much cheaper raw materials.
Instead, it found that it was facing new competition. For the first time in three years, Israel has permitted the entry of processed fruit juice – at the competitive price of five shekels (86p) a bottle. In a final irony (though its bosses are not sure how long this will last), the company, which is effectively owned by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and has a board of directors appointed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is now depending on a lifeline from the Hamas de facto government. It has issued a protectionist warning to traders not to order processed juice from Israel.
The company has already preemptively reduced Tropika’s own price, from six to five shekels a bottle, and would have no problem competing with the Israeli product if it was also to import the much cheaper raw materials available in Israel. “If we have a truly open market we can compete with anybody, including Israel,” says Mr Kishawi.
Underlining the present imbalance, however, the company’s chief buyer, Haitham Kannan, says: “Israel can produce a bottle of juice for around 25 cents – which is what the plastic bottle alone costs us.”
As his boss, Mr Ramadan, puts it: “This is like tying someone’s hands up and telling him to get into the boxing ring. After everything we have been through – closure, war, shortages, it would be crazy if we lost the business now.”
Yet the Gaza Juice Factory is still – for now – operating. More typical is the fate of the Aziz Jeans factory on the edge of the Jabalya, eerily silent now, four years after it was alive with the din of 100 employees stitching teenage fashion jeans for the Aziz family’s appreciative Israeli business partner.
Able neither to import the fabric or, even more importantly, export the finished jeans, the firm, like many hundreds of others, came to an abrupt halt almost immediately the blockade began.
Its highly skilled workforce dispersed – “a lot”, according to Aziz Aziz, on to the Hamas payroll. The last time The Independent was here, Mr Aziz had generated a modest income by assembling electric plugs – but the competition of ready-made plugs smuggled though the tunnels made this a hopeless task.
Mr Aziz says that if the big Karni cargo crossing terminal – through which he and his brothers used to import denim and export the finished garments – was re-opened, he would bring his sewing machines back out of storage and be ready to start the factory rolling in a week.
Mr Aziz is no friend of Hamas, and would like a change of government in Gaza. But he adds that by maintaining the blockade – including on exports – over the past three years, “Israel has to know that it is not besieging Hamas; it is besieging the people of Gaza”.
That view is now the consensus in the international Quartet. Israel is still resisting, on security grounds, the reopening of Karni, relying instead on an expansion of the much more limited Kerem Shalom crossing’s capacity.
Most experts are convinced that Karni will have to be reopened if any semblance of Gaza’s previously productive manufacturing capacity can be restored.
Nevertheless, the promised expansion of Kerem Shalom would be a modest start if it happens – provided Israel is also ready to allow exports to resume.
Israel itself is facing conflicting pressures; the fourth anniversary yesterday of the incarceration of abducted sergeant Gilad Shalit, still being denied even Red Cross visits – on the one hand, and the prospect of more pro-Palestinian flotillas on the other.
But without a jolt for Gaza’s collapsed economy, Israel risks being seen as using Gaza as a captive market for its consumer goods while doing little or nothing to get people back to work.
Sari Bashi, director of the Israeli human rights agency, Gisha, said this week she was “mildly encouraged” by the explicit mention of “economic activity” in this week’s government statement, but warned that this would not happen “unless Karni is opened and exports are allowed”.
She added: “Israel has to abandon its policy of economic warfare and accept that it has failed.”
How the blockade is changing life in Gaza
The number of trucks bringing goods from Israel into the Gaza Strip each day has not yet increased, according to Palestinian coordinators, but the range of goods – including books and children’s toys, long banned – has.
At Hazem Hasuna’s supermaket in Gaza City’s western Rimal district, Egyptian razors, smuggled in through tunnels, were summarily replaced on Thursday by Gillette Fusion razors legally imported from Israel. But the comprehensive range of smuggled goods has made some Gazans cynical about the new imports. “Nothing has really changed,” said Mr Hasuna, 38, “People haven’t been missing ketchup and mayonnaise [two of the newly permitted products]. The only real change will be if they start bringing in cement for reconstruction and what the factories need to give people work.”
One of his customers, Rasha Farhat, 33, was asked by her Saudi-based relatives, who came to visit after the opening of the Rafah crossing this month, what she needed. “I told them ‘nothing’.” She added that, thanks to the tunnels, “we have never had as many products as we have now”.
Up to a point. Although still active, the tunnels have shown a sharp drop in activity in the past two weeks as wholesalers wait to assess the new blacklist of security sensitive goods Israel has promised to substitute over the next week for its heavily restrictive “permitted” list as part of the new “liberalising” imports regime.
Acknowledging that Gazans have become used to “tunnel products” over the past three years, a prominent Gaza economist, who preferred not to be named, said: “Of course Israel is capable of saying one thing and then acting differently. We will have to wait to see what are the consequences of the new policy.” But confessing that he had just filled his own car with Israeli diesel in preference to Egyptian, he added: “Palestinians have been receiving Israeli goods for 40 years. They regard products from Israel as extremely high quality compared with their Egyptian equivalents.”
The UN has just discovered that Israeli demolishing and building in East Jerusalem is illegal… Well, they only done it for 43 years, which you would have thought is enough time for the UN to find out about this? Maybe not enough for the UN.
The demolition plans are strongly opposed by the Palestinians
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said the plan to demolish Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem to make way for a tourist park is illegal and unhelpful.
On Monday Jerusalem City Council approved the plan to demolish 22 Palestinian homes in Silwan – part of a major redevelopment of the area.
The move has drawn criticism both at home and from the Obama administration.
Mr Ban said the plan was “contrary to international law” and “unhelpful” to efforts to restart peace negotiations.
The scheme is still in an initial stage.
Settlement activity
“The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the decision by the Jerusalem municipality to advance planning for house demolitions and further settlement activity in the area of Silwan,” Mr Ban’s office said in a statement.
Israel’s government had a “responsibility to ensure provocative steps [were] not taken” that would heighten tensions in the city, he said.
On Tuesday, the US State Department criticised the move, saying it undermined trust and increased the risk of violence.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak also criticised Jerusalem’s municipality for “bad timing” and poor “common sense”.
Under the plan, 22 Palestinian homes would be demolished to make room for an Israeli archaeological park. Another 66 buildings constructed without Israeli permission would be legalised.
Israel has come under international pressure over its settlement plans in East Jerusalem, including the construction of 1,600 housing units in a Jewish neighbourhood there.
Under international law the area is occupied territory. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
Secretary-General calls move to raze Arab homes in Silwan ‘unhelpful’ and ‘contrary to international law.’
The United Nations late Wednesday called Israel’s plan to demolish Arab homes in East Jerusalem for the purpose of settlement construction “unhelpful” and “contrary to international law.”
“The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the decision by the Jerusalem municipality to advance planning for house demolitions and further settlement activity in the area of Silwan,” UN Chief Ban Ki-moon’s press office said in a statement. “The planned moves are contrary to international law, and to the wishes of Palestinian residents.”
Ban’s remarks came days after the municipality approved preliminary plans to demolish 22 Palestinian homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan as part of an initiative to build a recreational area there. The U.S. State Department criticized the decision, calling it the kind of step that undermines the trust fundamental to progress in the proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
“The secretary-general reminds the Israeli government of its responsibility to ensure provocative steps are not taken which would heighten tensions in the city,” added Ban’s statement. “The current moves are unhelpful, coming at a time when the goal must be to build trust to support political negotiations.”
Earlier Wednesday, Israeli right-wing groups threatened to forcibly evict four Palestinian families they claim are living on property belonging to Jews in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
MK Uri Ariel (National Union) announced from the Knesset podium yesterday that the settlers would hire private security firms to evict the four families, consisting of 40 persons, unless they evacuate by July 4.
The right-wing groups and settlers are furious that the police, probably on instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office, are not carrying out the eviction orders issued to the Palestinian families, who live in a building that served in the pre-state era as a synagogue.
The synagogue was built in the 19th century for the small Yemenite community in Silwan. For the past 50 years the Abu Nab family, who claims ownership of the building, has been living there.
In recent years heirs of the Yemenite community have reclaimed the building, supported by the nationalist association Ateret Cohanim, which holds the two adjacent buildings – the controversial Beit Yonatan and Beit Hadvash.
Beit Yonatan, a seven-story residential structure, was built illegally in the heart of the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood by Ateret Cohanim.
Despite police discussions in preparation for the evacuation of Beit Yonatan several weeks ago, the implementation has been postponed until at least the end of the month.
A standing order was issued two years ago to evacuate and seal Beit Yonatan, where 10 Jewish families reside. Jerusalem municipal officials have yet to enforce the order, despite court rulings and orders from the former attorney general.
The Beit Yonatan settlers said Wednesday that police have not evicted the Palestinian families due to political constraints; they have warned they would take matters onto their own hands next month. The settlers are justifying the eviction by claiming deeds for the property evidence that it was owned by Yemenite Jews who lived there from the late 19th century until the 1948 War of Independence.
Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said, in response to a parliamentary question, that the police are prepared to evacuate the structure, but that he has been instructed to delay the action due to political considerations.
“There is discrimination in everything related to the enforcement applied by the state and the prosecution in Jerusalem,” said a spokesperson for the Jewish community in Silwan. “It is unclear why the state insists on evacuating Beit Yonatan despite a proposed compromise over the matter. Meanwhile, the same authorities do not implement a court order that unequivocally called for the evacuation of Arab families who had invaded a synagogue belonging to Jews.”
Tzipi Livni, leader of centrist Kadima party, said Israel has to make decisions based on its own interests, not those of others
Tzipi Livni, the Israeli opposition leader, today attacked Binyamin Netanyahu for the way he eased the three-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, following pressure from the international community over its deadly interception last month of a flotilla attempting to break the siege.
“In the neighbourhood where we live Israel has to take decisions on the basis of its own interests and not under pressure,” she said. “Acting under pressure signals weakness and we cannot allow ourselves to do that.”
Livni, who heads the centrist Kadima party, said the prime minister had to realise that “policies require tough decisions, and those will not be made without understanding that an agreement is not a gift for the Arabs or the president of the United States but rather is in our own interest.”
Netanyahu has described the measures easing the Israeli blockade as undermining the propaganda of Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza.
PACE resolution calls on Israel to allow in goods by sea, ‘without prejudice to its own security.’
The Council of Europe parliamentarians Thursday called on Israel to completely end its siege of the Gaza Strip, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an ease of the land blockade.
Israel should allow goods to be delivered to the coastal enclave by land and sea, “without prejudice to its own security,” so Palestinians can enjoy “normal living conditions,” said the resolution adopted by a large majority of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
PACE, consisting of parliamentarians from the 47 members of the Council of Europe, meets four times a year to debate topical issues and give policy advice to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
The parliamentarians also criticized the Israeli raid of a Gaza- bound aid flotilla last month as a breach of international law, calling it “manifestly disproportionate.”
The group additionally called on Israel to halt the construction of new settlements in occupied territories and East Jerusalem.
Israel’s recent easing of the Gaza blockade was described as a “first step” by the assembly. But completely lifting the blockade is “essential” to lower tensions and revive the dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, the Italian social democrat and assembly rapporteur Piero Fassino said.
As part of its efforts to bring peace to the Middle East, PACE regularly brings together members of the Israeli Knesset and the Palestinian Legislative Council for talks.
The only way out of these failing policies is to actively seek Palestinian reconciliation, rather than veto it
It did not take long for the optimism generated by Israel’s decision to ease the blockade of Gaza to evaporate. The intention of moving from a system in which Israel states what it is prepared to allow in, to one in which it explicitly states what it would ban, was to increase the flow of goods into Gaza. Sweets, chocolate, nutmeg, vinegar, toys, stationery, mattresses and towels have no conceivable dual military use for the Hamas-run enclave. But until recently, dangerous spices such as sage and suspicious sweets such as halva were banned, in an exercise that was always designed to be a form of collective punishment for 1.5 million Gazans. The end of such an odious and self-defeating policy is obviously welcome, except that yesterday it emerged that the new list of forbidden materials could be thousands of items long. The real shortages in Gaza – medical instruments, aluminium, steel and cement – may not be addressed. A blockade that the US, Britain and the EU all insist is “unacceptable and unsustainable” could thus be set to continue.
Even if life on the ground in Gaza is not going to change radically, the new rules still represent a political retreat for the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, three weeks after his naval commandos stormed a flotilla, killing nine Turkish activists. If anyone is going to claim a moral victory, it will be Turkey, and the tactic of challenging the naval part of the blockade by sending more ships will surely continue, with participants from Arab countries, possibly even Saudi Arabia, taking part.
For its part, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas now has even less reason than it had before to be reconciled with the Palestinian Authority by signing a document drawn up by the Egyptians, by which it would accept the PLO agreement to recognise Israel. Why would Hamas stop being Hamas, after all Gaza has endured, and follow Fatah down its fruitless 17-year path searching for peace, at the very moment at which international support, particularly in Europe, for its contined isolation appears to be crumbling? The longer the stalemate continues, the more Hamas becomes part of the landscape. Even if it were incapable of governing, maintaining some form of collective discipline with other armed factions, Hamas would still retain its legitimacy. There is still, after four years, no convincing evidence that Hamas is losing the support it won in the only free election to be mounted in the Arab world. Political isolation has not worked any better than physical isolation. The only way out of these failing policies is to actively seek Palestinian reconciliation, rather than, as at present, to veto it. This has as much to do with US and the Quartet as it has to do with Israel. Conditions that demand the unilateral surrender of Palestinian militants before they even get to the negotiating table should be shelved and replaced by objectives that are achievable, such as a general ceasefire.
As things are, any attempt to allow Hamas into the ring would be regarded as a move against the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. This is a lose-lose situation for each side. The Palestinian president is losing authority by saying that now is not the time for the naval blockade to be lifted. But he is equally losing by failing to secure the three core demands of a viable Palestinian state – borders, the right of return and East Jerusalem as its capital. For Hamas, it means that the test of political negotiation – of keeping unity while redefining political goals in the light of what is achievable – can for ever be put off for another day. The pressure on both wings to react to the next hammer blow does not go away: the threatened resumption of large-scale settlement construction, the withdrawal of residency rights and the demolition of Arab homes in East Jerusalem. In the absence of peace, Israel continues to expand into the space surrendered by a divided Palestinian leadership.
By Jane Corbin
A freeze on new Jewish settlements in the West Bank drew protests
It has been called the ‘volcanic core’ of the conflict and if there is ever to be peace between Palestinians and Israelis it will have to be made in the alleyways of this ancient city – holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Jerusalem was first divided into east and west in 1948 when the state of Israel was created and then the east of the city was annexed by the Israelis in 1967 following war with its Arab neighbours.
Israel claims the city as its eternal undivided capital but the Palestinians believe that east Jerusalem is theirs and one day must become the capital of a Palestinian state.
My aim in coming here was to walk through the Holy Basin – the area of east Jerusalem outside the old city walls – to find out if Israel was trying to strengthen its claim to these Arab areas by changing the facts on the ground.
My first stop was Sheikh Jarrah to the north, recently targeted by Israeli settler groups. These religious nationalists believe they have a right to live in the ancient biblical area of Israel and have recently taken over several Palestinian houses. One hundred people from three extended families have been evicted and 26 more families are at risk of losing their homes. Eviction orders
Under an olive tree, I met the Hanoun family as they watched settlers come and go from their house.
Last August, the family lost a 37 year legal battle when Israeli police threw them out at dawn. The settlers claimed through the courts they had owned the land but the Hanouns say they were given their properties in 1948 by the Jordanians – who controlled east Jerusalem – and the United Nations.
“The Israeli courts and police help the settlers,” Maher Hanoun told me. “We are fighting not just a settlers’ organisation but the whole government.”
I walked on to the Mount of Olives and the Arab neighbourhood of Ras al-Amoud where one of the largest Jewish settlements is growing.
“In 10 years we hope to have 250 families here,” said Arieh King, a settler. “Then we will be the majority in this area.”
Mr King is a key figure in the drive to change the demographics of east Jerusalem. He digs in the archives, identifies houses owned by Jews before 1948 and gets relatives, often abroad, to lay claim to them.
At night, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, he serves eviction orders.
“I am at the heart of the struggle for Jerusalem, to prevent it from being divided,” Mr King said. “My aim is to get Jews all over this area.”
I walked on through ancient olives groves into Silwan – a poor and overcrowded Arab village beneath the old city walls.
Demolition threat
As I arrived, Israeli bulldozers were moving in to knock down buildings constructed, like many here, without planning permission.
A local activist, Jawad Siam, led me through the back streets to a scene of devastation.
Palestinians screamed and threw stones at impassive black-clad Israeli riot police standing in front of the massive machines as chunks of concrete rained down.
“This is ethnic cleansing in east Jerusalem,” yelled Mr Siam. “By the most racist state in the world!”
He pointed out the only tall building in the area – a block where Israeli settlers live. It was built illegally and has a demolition order, yet it is still standing.
“The Israelis have a clear transfer agenda though they don’t say it,” said Mr Siam. “They want to get Palestinians out and bring in Israel families – Jewish settlers.”
The threat of demolition also hangs over 88 houses in Silwan which are in the way of a proposed tourist park.
The Palestinians say they are being squeezed out of east Jerusalem with only 13% of land allocated for them to build on and nearly 60% earmarked for settlements and parks. ‘Planning gaps’
Nearly 10 times more building permits are given to Jews in west Jerusalem than to Palestinians in the east of the city.
“You are right,” said Nir Barkat, the Mayor of Jerusalem. “There are gaps in the planning system – both in east and west Jerusalem.”
But he was adamant that the municipality had to act when houses were built illegally in what Israelis Jews consider to be parkland that has strategic importance in terms of the religious archaeology in the area.
Underneath Silwan, I trekked through the eerie tunnels of the City of David – one of Israel’s most visited archaeological sites.
It is controversial because it is run by Elad, a settler organisation which has bought up around 60 Arab houses in the streets above.
“This place is a goldmine,” Doron Spielman, from Elad explained. “The cornerstone of the archaeology of the Bible throughout the world.”
The Palestinians accuse Elad of undermining them both by digging under their houses and emphasising only Jewish history here.
Mr Spielman said no Arab history had been unearthed at the site, although some archaeologists disagree.
“Israel is the sovereign entity here,” said Mr Spielman. “And if we can enable more Jewish people to live here, more archaeology to become known here then I am proud of that.”
The Israeli Cabinet has authorised the Jerusalem municipality to strengthen Israel’s claim to east Jerusalem by building parks and trails which would link Jewish settlements and extend Israeli control over east Jerusalem.
My walk around the Holy Basin revealed how this is happening on the ground as settlers move in and archaeological sites and parks spread. The Israelis say Jerusalem is not negotiable – it must remain united – but the Palestinians will only take part in peace talks if east Jerusalem is part of the deal. A solution seems as far away as ever.
Before it started, the ‘investigation’ has concluded its work. One has to agree with at least one of its conclusion (though not in the way it was meant…): “The soldiers lacked intelligence”… There was no need to get any information from survivors, of course.Again, Israel is speaking mainly to itself, like some demented maniac, looking in the mirror and asking: “are you talking to me?
Investigation concludes that commando reaction was appropriate as the soldiers did not expect a mass offensive, lacked sufficient intelligence.
The Israel Navy’s internal probe into its deadly commando raid of a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip has found serious defects in the planning and intelligence aspects of the operation, Israel Radio reported on Sunday.
The internal Israel Navy probe concluded that the commando unit that embarked on the May 31 raid of the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara was inadequately prepared and lacked sufficient intelligence when approaching the activists.
The probe concluded that due to the fact that a mass offensive against Israel’s commando officers was not taken into account, the officers acted accordingly under the circumstances.
“The soldiers wanted to wear their ceremonial uniform, they expected to engage with the passengers in conversation, and that was a defect,” a military official told Israel Radio. “In light of the situation that developed they acted accordingly.”
The soldiers inquired during the investigation into the reason they lacked intelligence information of the fact that the passengers on board the Turkish-flagged aid ship were preparing an attack.
The investigation concluded that the raid on the ship should have only been conducted after hosing the attackers down with water hoses and smoke grenade.
“Operation Sky Winds 7,” the Navy commandos operation to takeover the ship, was carried out according to standard operating procedures established during a ‘mock exercise’ with more than 50 soldiers.
The navy admitted that they were prepared for “resistance like we encounter in Bil’in, but there wasn’t a sense that it would be a walk in the park,” an officer said, adding that there was a general consensus of a need for greater mental preparation of the force before the operation’s execution as not enough emphasis was placed on preparing for every possible contingency.
‘The major defect in the preparations and gathering of intelligence was that we did not know that we would be coping with tens of rioters,” the top military commander involved in the attack told Haaretz.
“This was not disorderly conduct that deteriorated,” he said, “This was a planned terrorist attack.”
Another commander involved in the attack said that “I still awake at three A.M. every morning and ask myself: Damn it, how did we not know more?”
Lebanese sources tell Al-Hayat that flotilla organizers had not filed for the necessary permits, adding that travel to an Israel-controlled port is illegal.
A reported Gaza-bound aid flotilla may not be allowed to depart from Lebanon, Lebanese sources told the Arab daily Al-Hayat on Sunday, saying it was illegal for a vessel leaving a Lebanese port to dock in a port under Israeli occupation.
Earlier Sunday, Haaretz reported that Israel had initiated diplomatic efforts designed to prevent the departure of at least one vessel, carrying 50 to 70 Lebanese women and food aid. Israel has been in touch with the UN, United States, France, Spain and Germany. It has also been speaking with the Vatican because the ship is expected to include several dozen Catholic nuns.
However, according to the Al-Hayat report, it is possible that the flotilla would not be allowed to leave Lebanese shores, as Lebanon forbids a vessel departing one of its ports to reach a port under Israeli occupation. This fact has led Lebanon officials to estimate that organizers would submit a travel plan to a different destination, perhaps Cyprus, only to change course during the course of their voyage.
Sources have also told Al-Hayat that organizers failed to appeal the government for the necessary permits, which include authorizing their departure as well as their travel.
Lebanese officials told the Arab daily that the bureaucratic procedures needed to approve such an endeavor included authorizing the ship’s permit by the Lebanese ministry of transportation, including the approving the intended travelers, as well as the type of cargo the flotilla is to hold.
A senior Lebanese official added that, regardless of the procedures required, Lebanese law did not permit the transport of weapons on board ships.
Lebanon’s Minister of Labor Ghazi Al Aridi told Lebanon’s Al-Nahar that no official “request regarding the flotilla had been submitted,” saying that Lebanon would not “allow anyone to preach us over our support of the Palestinians, but there are rules and they must be followed.”
Al Aridi added that a permit could be given to any port but Gaza, since it was under Israeli occupation.
Earlier Sunday, Israel informed the United Nations and – through diplomatic channels – the Lebanese government that it reserves the right to use all means necessary to stop ships seeking to breach the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.
In a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israel warned that the attempt by the organizers to sail from Lebanon and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza could escalate tensions and affect peace and security in the region.
“Israel reserves its right under international law to use all necessary means to prevent these ships from violating the existing naval blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip,” wrote Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev.
Cabinet agreed in principle last week to relax Israel’s four-year land siege, in plan coordinated with Mideast envoy Blair.
Senior cabinet ministerss on Sunday approved steps toward easing Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip, days after Jerusalem had issued a non-binding declaration supporting such a move.
The Prime Minister’s Office announced late last week that the security cabinet had agreed in principle to relax Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip. However, no binding decision was made during the cabinet meeting.
The ministers held a long discussion on Wednesday afternoon and another onThursday morning on the topic of altering Israel’s policy ,following the three-year siege on the Hamas ruled territory. The siege was imposed after Hamas violently seized control over the Gaza Strip in 2007.
The aim of the discussions was to approve a plan drafted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the envoy of the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators Tony Blair. The discussions spanned a total of six hours, but no decision was ever made.
During both meetings, many ministers voiced their opinions regarding the blockade, and the defense establishment presented the plans for the “liberalization” of the blockade. However, upon concluding the discussions, the ministers did not vote on any binding practical draft of the decision.
In fact, the policy by which the government is currently bound is the one decided by the security cabinet during the previous term of former prime minister Ehud Olmert, by which the blockade remains as it was.
A senior defense official said Thursday that Israel had “every intention to increase the transfer of goods into Gaza even before the cabinet meeting. We have notified the Palestinians, regardless of the cabinet meeting, that we will allow the entry of food items, house wares, writing implements, mattresses and toys. Beyond that, we have not said a thing.”
Sources at the Prime Minister’s Office admitted that there was no decision, and no vote, during the security cabinet meeting. One of the sources said that “it was a briefing by the prime minister,” and another source said it was a “declaration of intent.”
“A meeting will be held soon, and we hope that a binding decision will be taken then,” the prime minister’s office said, explaining that the reason for the delay is “the need for continued contact with allies within the international community in order to gain support for the liberalization plan.”
This despite the fact that most of the international community has already voiced support for the plan, following a campaign launched by Blair, who drafted the plan with Netanyahu.
The international community has welcomed Israel’s announcement, stating Israel’s intention to ease its land blockade of the Gaza Strip, with the White House saying the announcement was a “step in the right direction.”
Jonathan Cook is a journalist based in Nazareth. He is author of Blood and Religion (2006), Israel and the Clash of Civilizations (2008) and Disappearing Palestine (2008).
The first reports of Israel’s May 31 commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla surfaced among the country’s 1.4 million Palestinian citizens alongside rumors that Sheikh Ra’id Salah, head of the radical northern wing of the Islamic Movement of Israel, had been shot dead on the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara. Salah is alive, but at the time his demise seemed confirmed when it emerged that large numbers of police had been drafted into northern Israel, where most of the Palestinian minority lives, in expectation of widespread violence.
At the first spontaneous demonstrations in the north, participants expressed shock that Israel had killed international peace activists in international waters — a rumored number of 20 dead later dropped to nine. But in a community used to intermittent bouts of extreme violence from Israel’s security forces, few seemed to doubt that the order might have been given to execute Salah. The sheikh, who has repeatedly been arrested and is facing a series of trials, has long been public enemy number one among Israeli Jews for his campaign to protect the Haram al-Sharif from what he regards as an attempted Israeli takeover. The Haram al-Sharif is a compound of mosques in the Old City of Jerusalem that includes al-Aqsa and is believed by Jews to be built over two ancient Jewish temples. Half-jokingly, a protester in Nazareth wondered aloud whether a military commander had overheard the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ask: “Who will rid me of this turbulent sheikh?”
Breaking the Siege of Gaza
The flotilla, which was attacked more than 60 miles off Israel’s coast early in the morning, was not the first to bear aid for Gaza, but it was the first to include a delegation of Palestinian leaders from inside Israel. Palestinians are roughly one fifth of Israel’s population. Most of the main Israeli-Palestinian political factions and institutions were included: Salah and his counterpart in the Islamic Movement’s more moderate southern wing, Sheikh Hamad Abu Da‘bas; Muhammad Zaydan, head of the Higher Follow-Up Committee, the umbrella body dominated by local mayors; and Hanin Zu‘bi, a first-term member of the parliament, the Knesset, from the nationalist Tajammu‘ party (Balad in Hebrew). Alongside them was Lubna Masarwa, a resident of Kafr Qara‘ in northern Israel and an activist with the Free Gaza Movement, which organized the aid convoy.
Before they set off, the group of Palestinian-Israelis knew their participation would upset a broad swath of Israeli Jewish opinion. Since 2006, when Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections, Israel has been progressively tightening a blockade of Gaza to the point that today only a few dozen items are allowed in and less than a quarter of the cargo trucks that once entered the enclave each day are still permitted to do so. The policy has become more severe as its goal has become less clear: Is it to stop “arms smuggling” by Hamas, as Yuval Diskin, the head of the Shinbet, Israel’s secret police, claimed on June 15; or to wage “economic warfare,” as suggested by a recent Israeli document, punishing Gaza’s inhabitants for voting for Hamas; or to act as leverage on Hamas to stop rocket fire on nearby Israeli communities, although such attacks all but ceased long ago; or to force the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas since 2006? Most Israeli Jews do not seem overly concerned which justification is deployed.
Rather than investigating Israel’s deadly raid of the Gaza-bound aid flotilla, an international inquiry should look into how Israel managed to sell its destructive Gaza policies to the countries of the world.
By Zvi Bar’el
They want an international commission of inquiry to investigate the events of the raid on the Gaza flotilla? No problem – on condition that it is truly international: the kind that has UN secretaries-general over the years give testimony, as well as U.S. presidents, European leaders, Turkish presidents past and present, and all those who turned their backs when they knew what was going on in the Gaza Strip and agreed to the siege policy until the flotilla. All those who allowed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to go on undisturbed and who felt that Gaza was a humanitarian, not a political problem.
It is fascinating to read UN resolutions on the Gaza Strip. They are perfectly laid out and usually begin with words like “we call on the sides,” “we regard with gravity,” “we support the Arab initiative,” “we endorse previous UN resolutions,” which were never implemented, of course. Empty words that were wasted on the sentences in which they were used. There was no banging on the table, not a single resolution on dispatching an international force, as if Gaza were not a combat zone but an unavoidable natural disaster; something the aid organizations should handle, not the politicians; a solution with aid convoys, not sanctions.
True, Israel is the one that imposed the siege and jailed 1.5 million civilians in a prison into which it threw food and medicine, following a very orderly list and in line with the number of calories each person needs to survive. Everyone watched, heard and remained silent – the Turkish prime minister and president, who until Operation Cast Lead did not really raise their voices, two American presidents, two UN secretaries-general, and European heads of state. In other words, they spoke endlessly, initiated resolutions, tried to mediate, but in the end raised their hands in surrender. After all, it is an internal Israeli-Palestinian matter that does not really pose a threat to world peace. A million and a half jailed Palestinians? It’s Hamas’ fault, not Israel’s.
Until suddenly it turns out that the Gaza Strip, an empty area without petroleum or diamond wealth, strategically insignificant for the powers, could stir an international crisis. Relations between Israel and Turkey hit a reef, relations between the United States and Turkey are being reevaluated, the Jewish lobby is working overtime in Congress to push the administration to censure Turkey, Germany and the United States are trying to mediate between Israel and Turkey, and Turkish assistance to the international force in Afghanistan is being weighed. Meanwhile, Turkey enjoys great popularity in the Arab and Muslim world, but also threatens the Egyptian and Muslim monopoly for resolving the conflicts in the region. And Israel once more appears to be an irrational burden on U.S. policy in the region.
It also suddenly turns out that when the Gaza Strip manages to stir an international crisis, it is possible to ease the conditions of the siege. The list of items that can be imported is stretched like a rubber band. And people are beginning to talk about conditions for operating the Rafah crossing, the European Union is once more proposing to come back and supervise it, and mostly, Washington has awoken and is flexing a muscle. Not because the people of Gaza have been transformed into something the world is genuinely interested in; they have become a strategic threat. Where were all these critics, all the countries that have signed the UN’s human rights conventions, when the siege was put in place and the blockade became asphyxiating?
An international inquiry into the foolishness of Israel’s policy is unnecessary. There is no need to busy the world with something that is obvious and needs no proof. An international inquiry into the reasons and ways Turkish citizens were killed should also not be created. This is a subject for a joint Turkish-Israeli inquiry that should be set up quickly.
An international inquiry should have a different mandate: to look into how Israel managed to sell its destructive policy to the countries of the world, how they agreed to the jailing of 1.5 million people without a UN resolution. They should look into the international significance of the fact that a member of the UN decides to take such a step, and the international organization that now wants to investigate can’t prevent that step, or forcefully act to cancel it. This is not a commission of inquiry against Israel but against UN headquarters in Manhattan. This is also the reason that such a committee will not be formed. It is much simpler to reach a plea bargain with Israel.
20 June 2010
BBC News, Gaza City
“I don’t need ketchup or mayonnaise from Israel. I need my business back,” says Nasser al-Helo standing on a busy street in Gaza City.
Mr Helo used to run a business making steel doors in the Gaza Strip. Before the blockade he was able to import metal from Israel and would produce more than 300 doors a month.
“Now, it’s a big zero,” he says. “I’ve lost $300,000 in the past three years.”
Private industry has been devastated by Israel’s blockade, which was tightened in 2007 after the Islamist group Hamas seized control of the coastal territory.
Factories making anything from furniture to textiles, floor tiles to biscuits have gone under.
The Israeli blockade has starved them of the raw materials they need to produce their goods.
Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs. The United Nations estimates unemployment is at 40% in Gaza. Mr Helo used to employ 32 people at his factory. Now there are only four.
‘Not enough’
The overwhelming feeling among Gazans is that Israel’s announcement on Thursday that it is “easing the blockade” is simply not enough.
Continue reading the main story
We are living on a black-market economy
The details of how the blockade will be “liberalised” are still not clear, but reportedly the Israeli authorities will allow more civilian goods to enter, including all food items, toys, stationery, kitchen utensils, mattresses and towels. Construction materials for civilian projects will be allowed in under international supervision.
“Of course it’s not enough,” says Omar Shabban, an economist at the Gaza-based think tank PalThink.
“What about the blockade on people for starters?” he asks.
“One-and-a-half million people are trapped in a prison unable to leave.”
Israel maintains tight control of the border with Gaza, only allowing out a limited number of people to seek medical treatment. Israel says this is needed to protect itself from “terrorist” attacks.
The Rafah crossing into Egypt has also been closed since 2007, although special medical cases are also sporadically allowed to pass through it.
Desperate vendors
Mr Shabban argues that what is really needed in Gaza is not a few more food items – many of which are already available through smuggling tunnels running under the Egyptian border – but a total lifting of the blockade to allow people to work in Israel, as over 100,000 people used to do.
Gaza also used to export many goods to Israel and beyond. Strawberries and flowers are still two of Gaza’s most famous products, but most of them never get beyond the barrier into Israel.
Instead, in strawberry season in January they are sold dirt-cheap off huge wheelbarrows on street corners, the vendors desperate to sell them at any price before they rot.
Israel has argued that the blockade is necessary to put pressure on Hamas.
The group came out top in the Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, but the EU, the US and Israel refused to recognise Hamas in government unless it renounced violence and its commitment to destroy Israel.
Then in June 2007, Hamas ousted its secular rival, Fatah, and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority security forces from Gaza.
Rockets
Over the past decade, Hamas has fired thousands of rockets into Israel, killing more than 20 Israelis.
When in season, strawberries are available at rock-bottom prices
But since Israel’s major offensive on Gaza in 2009, which devastated the territory and left more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead, the number has dropped dramatically. One person – a Thai farm worker – has been killed in southern Israel by a rocket fired from Gaza in the past 12 months.
Hamas has tried to rein in rocket fire, but it does not control all the militant groups in Gaza and sporadic, usually ineffective rocket fire continues.
Israel says it is the responsibility of the Hamas authorities to stop all rocket attacks, and that the blockade is necessary to stop weapons being brought into Gaza.
But at least until now the list of items banned from entering Gaza has gone far beyond weapons. Coriander, chocolate and children’s toys have famously been excluded.
Low expectations
In actual fact, such things are readily available in the supermarkets in Gaza.
Millions of dollars worth of goods are smuggled in through tunnels from Egypt.
Most goods are smuggled in through tunnels from Egypt
There is food on the shelves and in the markets but the blockade means it is too expensive for most people to afford. A kilo of beef smuggled from Egypt costs around $15, more than most Gazans earn in a day.
“We are living on a black-market economy,” says Mr Shabban.
Gazans have little faith in Israel’s announcement. At best, they will wait and see if anything changes in the coming weeks and months.
Indeed, like most places in the world, people here are more preoccupied with the World Cup. The cafes of Gaza City on Friday were full of people cheering on Algeria as they thrashed out a dire draw with England.
The beaches in Gaza are packed this weekend with thousand of children enjoying summer camps and frolicking in the Mediterranean Sea.
But as they play in the water, a reminder that the blockade of Gaza is still very much in place – the sound of machine-gun fire just a few kilometres off the coast.
Israeli navy ships, which continue to occupy and control Gaza’s territorial water, regularly open fire on Palestinian fishing boats that stray beyond the limits of where Israel allows them to fish.
Yet most of the children did not even bat an eyelid at the gunfire.
The blockade here has been come a way of life. Few people are optimistic that will change.
KEY ENTRY POINTS INTO GAZA
• Rafah – under Egyptian control. Since flotilla deaths, opened indefinitely for people only. Has been closed for the vast majority of the time over the last three years. Makeshift tunnels in this area used to smuggle in goods, including weapons
• Erez – under Israeli control. Crossing for pedestrians and cargo. Access restricted to Palestinians under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority and to Egyptians or international aid officials
• Karni – main crossing point for commercial goods
• Sufa – official crossing point for construction materials
• Kerem Shalom – for commercial and humanitarian goods. These last three crossings have been frequently closed by Israeli army since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007
• Opening of seaport and bus routes to West Bank had been agreed in 2005 but plans since shelved
• Airport – bombed by Israel in early years of the 2000 Intifada
• ‘Buffer zone’ inside Gaza where it borders Israel. Gazan farmers forbidden to enter the zone
What does the Israeli patriot want? What state exactly does he dream of before falling asleep at night? What society does he hope for while immersed in his morning routine?
By Gideon Levy
What does the Israeli patriot want? What state exactly does he dream of before falling asleep at night? What society does he hope for while immersed in his morning routine? Incitement, slander and boycott campaigns have recently been launched here against Turkey, Sweden, the High Court of Justice, B’Tselem, the New Israel Fund, the media, Richard Goldstone, Noam Chomsky, Elvis Costello, the Pixies, Ahmed Tibi, Hanin Zuabi, Tali Fahima, Barack Obama, Anat Kamm and the rest of the world, and also a bit against yours truly. A hypocritical, fallacious and depressing worldview emerges from these campaigns.
No, he is not a villain, the Israeli patriot – he is merely brainwashed and blind.
He would like to live in a democracy – of course he wants democracy; after all, he was taught in school that it is a good thing, and he boasts to the world that Israel is “the only democracy in the Middle East.” But it’s a democracy without most of its mechanisms. He is satisfied with elections and majority rule: The majority will make the decisions, and to hell with the minority.
The Israeli patriot wants to open a newspaper and turn on the television and see what’s going on in the world – but only a world in which everything is good. Well, if not the entire world, then at least Israel, as long as it’s all good. He wants to take in lots of World Cup soccer, entertainment programs, loads of gossip, and most importantly – only good news. He wants only commentators who “smash” the Arabs and “bash” the left-wingers and other Israel haters, and who call for strikes on Gaza, Hezbollah, Iran and Istanbul again and again.
He is a man of peace, the patriot, but he also wants a war once every two to three years and he wants the media to say so, too. He doesn’t really want to know what happened during Operation Cast Lead, or what the world – which hates us – thinks of us and why. He doesn’t want to know what is going on in the territories or among the poor, screwed, underprivileged people.
But wonder of wonders, if he feels deprived, where does he run? To the newspapers and the TV, which he loves to hate. He also loves to hate those left-wingers from the High Court of Justice, but the moment he’s in any kind of trouble, where does he turn? To the court, of course.
The Israeli patriot wants the world to love us unconditionally and without limits. Yet at the same time, he wants to ignore the whole world and spit contemptuously on its institutions, conventions and laws. He wants a package deal with Turkey, all-inclusive, but not including listening to what the Turks have to say. He wants to spread white phosphorus in Gaza and have the world recite, like himself, that it’s white rain. He wants the United Nations to impose sanctions on Iran, but to disregard its own resolutions related to Israel. He wants a half-Iranian regime here, but portrayed as liberal in all the tourist guidebooks.
The world according to the Israeli patriot consists, in fact, only of the United States – but even then only to a certain extent. Obama’s America is also starting to get suspicious. The patriot wants America to foot the bill and shut up. He wants the Jewish world to contribute money, to embrace us, to come here in masses with the Taglit-Birthright program. But if J Street, JCall, Goldstone or Chomsky arise from among the Jews, he will hasten to brand them anti-Semites. They’re either with us or against us – even the Jews.
He wants a Knesset that represents the people, meaning his kind of people – without Ahmed Tibi and Hanin Zuabi, preferably without any Arabs at all, and if we must then only Ayoob Kara. Let them travel overseas to stretch out on tzadiks’ graves, but only in Jewish communities, not in Libya. Let them fight to free abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, but not the myriad prisoners of their own people.
Shalit? The Israeli patriot wants his release, as all Israelis do, but not, under any circumstances, in exchange for freeing terrorists. He also wants NGOs around and donations coming in from abroad, but only to synagogues and hospitals. And above all, he wants to protect Israeli soldiers and their commanders, unconditionally. They must remain immune from any criticism. They killed two women waving a white flag in Gaza? They shot a Jerusalem driver at close range? They killed – perhaps unnecessarily – Turks on a flotilla? Anyone who mentions such things is a traitor.
This is the patriot’s impossible country. It is doubtful whether even he actually enjoys living in it. So when will he criticize his beloved country? In the never-ending traffic jam, in the endless queue, and of course, when the IDF isn’t killing enough. Any other criticism? No thank you, I’m a patriot.
German development minister said Israel has made a ‘large foreign policy mistake’ by barring him from visiting the Gaza Strip.
Israel reacted with surprise Sunday to criticism by German Development Minister Dirk Niebel, who said Israel had made a “large foreign policy mistake” by not allowing him to visit the Gaza Strip.
“There is a clear policy,” an Israeli Foreign Ministry official said. “We have explained that we do not allow the entry of foreign politicians to the Gaza Strip.”
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the German Press Agency dpa that Israel feared the Islamist Hamas movement, which administers the coastal salient, would exploit visits by foreign politicians for propaganda purposes. This would also weaken the moderate, West Bank-based government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, he said.
He added that Israel had no problem with visits to the enclave by foreign experts and officials who wish to observe development projects, or by representatives from multi-lateral organizations, such as the United Nations.
Niebel had planned Saturday to visit a sewage plant financed by German development aid. He said Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip was “not a sign of strength, but evidence of unspoken fear.”
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle added his criticism of Israel’s stance on Sunday.
“I regret the decision by the Israeli government to deny minister Niebel entry to the Gaza Strip,” Westerwelle said in a statement, in which he also called on Israel to completely drop its blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Western countries have placed a diplomatic and political embargo on Hamas, after the organization, which won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, refused to change its charter to recognize Israel, renounce violence, and honor previous Israeli-Palestinian
agreements.
Israel imposed its blockade on the Gaza Strip in June 2006, after militants staged a cross-border raid and snatched an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who is still being held in the salient as negotiations for his release have so far come to naught.
The Israeli siege was tightened in June 2007, when Hamas militants seized control of the Strip’s security installations, after routing officials loyal to Abbas and to the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli President Shimon Peres said Sunday that Israel would end the siege if Hamas ended attacks against Israel and released Shalit.
The letter below, from human rights defender, Ameer Makhoul, was released and distributed today by Makhoul’s family and friends. It was written on May 30th, after Makhoul had spent 3 weeks in prison without access to even pen and paper, not to speak of lawyers, family visits, due process, humane and legal conditions. It made it’s way to his home by snailmail and then the original Arabic was translated into English.
Like many other citizens of Israel—both Jewish and Palestinian—who have held repeated protests against Makhoul’s imprisonment as well as that of Omar Said, I believe that that “Makhoul is being detained and severely harassed for exercising his right, under Israel’s Basic Laws, to free speech and political expression,” as pseudonymous publicist “Moshe Yaroni” put it (see previous JPN posting on the topic at: http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com/2010/05/is-israeli-democracy-losing-ground.html). Amnesty International has called on Israeli authorities to stop Makhoul’s mistreatment (see: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/israel-must-stop-harassment-human-rights-defender-2010-05-12).
As a long time activist, here in Israel, I am both dismayed and determined these days; Dismayed at how the state I share in proceeds, with great speed, to discard remaining vestiges of democratic governance. Determined to continue resisting this process with all the means at the disposal of activists and civil society.
For comprehensive information on the interrogation and almost definite torture of Makhoul and Said as well as contact information for taking action, see: http://freeameermakhoul.blogspot.com/. I hope that each of you will spread the information further and take action in other ways.
Rela Mazali
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May 30, 2010
Letter from Gilboa Prison, Ameer Makhoul
After being allowed to get a pen and a piece of paper, which has been banned for the last three weeks, and after being allowed to get out of my total isolation, it’s a moment to write a short letter from my jail (Gilboa).
It’s a great opportunity for me to express my sincere thanks, greetings & appreciation to all the colleagues, friends and solidarity groups, organizations & persons, internationals, Arabs in the region, Israelis & Palestinians in the homeland & in the Diaspora. A very special salute to all those who visited my family and supported them after the trauma they passed in May 6 & since that late night.
It’s a moment to express my great appreciation to all the international & local human rights organizations which raised their voices loudly.
Also to Ittijah partner organizations all around the world which supported my/our struggle for justice and for a fair trial in order to get to prove my innocence.
Physically I am still suffering very much but morally it’s a great feeling to know what solidarity means.
My story is that the Israeli intelligence, “the shabak”, assumed something without knowing & without any evidence. I was requested and forced to explain to them in a very detailed way how exactly I did what I didn’t do, ever. In case of any logical problem for them to complete the puzzle, they have the legal tools to fill it in by so-called secret evidence, which my lawyers and I have no legal right to know about.
According to the media in Israel, I’m already guilty, a terrorist & a supporter terror. The rule of the game here is that I’m guilty whether or not I prove that I’m not. This collective assumption is prior to court & trial procedures.
The abuse of evidence & fair legal procedures are crucial. The Shabak can tell lies to the court by so called “secret evidence”, “banning meetings with lawyers”, “banning the publication of information,” “imposing total isolation” & other very sophisticated ways of torture, which leave no direct evidence although it is very harsh. (See Adalah: www.adalah.org). I believe that my case is an opportunity to examine these tools as tools for the criminalization of human rights defenders.
I would like to highlight again your support & solidarity. I look to it as a very essential & crucial message of support the victim and to stop the oppressor. Thank you. Let us continue with the way for justice, human dignity, human rights and ensuring an opportunity for a fair trial.
by Ram Cohen
Ynet Hebrew, June 18 2010
http://www.mynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3907144,00.html
Translation Adam Keller
On Monday, June 21, I am to appear before the Knesset Education Committee and the Minister of Education, Mr. Gideon Saar, following my unequivocal words to my students, condemning the 43 year-old occupation and rule over the life of the Palestinian people.
A school principal should have a clear and unequivocal moral position about any subject and issue on the agenda of Israeli society. A principal is not an educational clerk. A principal must have, for example, something to say about the deportation of the children of migrant workers, trafficking in women, the separation fence, the withdrawal from Gaza, minimum wage law, settlers attacking Palestinian villagers to exact a `price tag`, the removal of Arabs from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, the siege on Gaza, corruption in government, or the relations of religion and state.
It is the duty of a school principal to take a stand and to defend it if necessary. A principal can not rest content with nodding and mumbling when students ask questions about the conflicts in Israeli society. The one who gives evasive answers is a hollow person, not worthy of being called an educator. Being an educator means to uphold a set of universal and national values which deserve to be part of the state`s symbols.
Being at the storm center of controversy, I was recently obliged to introduce for discussion at our school a spectrum of opinion for and against our presence in the Occupied Territories, and I must admit that this was very difficult for me. When I believe that our country does not respect International Law and its own laws, nor does it have proper regard for human rights – I frankly find it hard to admit into the school representatives of views which support the status quo. Since the expulsion from Paradise it is our duty to distinguish right from wrong. It is my duty to point out the wrong, and to strongly condemn it.
Those who demand that I prepare students for recruitment should know that my duty is also to tell them that they would enter a territory which was occupied 43 years ago, in which human rights are being shamefully violated on a daily basis by means of our military superiority. In future, these children will have to account for themselves, and they will ask if their school has revealed to them the terrible secret called occupation. Yes, occupation. An occupation, not a liberation, not a return to an ancestral land. Not even a return to dry water holes which have been re-filled with tears. *
In the school which I run, there is no entry to proponents of the racist Kahane ideology. There is no place for people who advocate the use of drugs for relieving stress, nor to rabbis who argue that discrimination of Sephardi girls is justified due to the internal codes of their religious community, to those who promote a multiculturalism which includes female genital mutilation – and to those who justify the discrimination against Arab residents of this country or the `encouraging` of them to emigrate.
Wherever there is a conflict, any decision will be a political decision. When I decided seven years that this school would teach Arabic rather than French, that was a political decision. The same when I decided that school hikes will not include the `City of David` settlers.**
On the other hand, also school principals who let their students go to a protest against the withdrawal from Gaza and who present it as the deportation of Jews from their land are performing a political act. To talk to students about a holy duty of settling Jews from the sea to the Jordan River, on the basis of a Divine promise, is a political act. Expressing opposition or support to the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilead Shalit – what is that if not taking a political stand?
So what are the limits of freedom of expression at school? My answer is: everything is permitted provided that it does not contradict such basic values as democracy, universalism and humanism, as well as observing the laws of the State of Israel which should conform to the norms of the Family of Nations.
I can not end this statement without noting that this Knesset debate would probably not have taken place had Professor Yuli Tamir still been Minister of Education and Haim Oron Still headed the Education Committee***. The obvious conclusion is that free speech in the schools is not determined solely by the innocuous expedient of `examining the boundaries`. Rather, it varies according to the political perceptions of those who at the moment occupy the top positions in the educational system, the Knesset and the government.
Ram Cohen is an educator and principal of the Aleph High School in Tel Aviv.
* This is a reference to the song `Jerusalem of Gold`, embodying the nationalist euphoria of 1967, which includes the words `We have come back to the waterholes`.
** The settlers group known as `Elad` have established themselves at Silwan Village, directly south of the Old City of Jerusalem, where they claim King David had his palace 3000 years ago, with the proclaimed aim of `Judaising` it. They have expelled Palestinian residents from several homes and took them over, and the `archeological` diggings conducted by settlers undermine the foundations of many other houses. The `National Park` maintained by the settlers is recommended by the Ministry of Education as a venue for school hikes.
*** Yuli Tamir and Haim Oron, of respectively the Labor Party and the Left-Zionist Meretz Party, held the positions mentioned until the accession of Binyamin Netanyahu to power.
Mad Israelis section
This section is devoted to the many unhinged in Israel whose voice should be heard…. to separate its contributors from others, less nutty correspondents, their names have been coloured red.
EDITOR: The world is upside down
Against all that we have been told, it is the Palestinians who have occupied the territories and are building settlements, not the Israelis…You live and learn. How come we got it wrong for so long? That we did not know that the victims of apartheid are the Israeli Jews? Well, at least we know now.
While Jews can’t build in West Bank, Palestinians constructing new city Yoaz Hendel, 06.13.10
A total of 4,000 housing units at the heart of Samaria, bulldozers working day and night, construction companies and contractors gaining profits, Palestinian laborers and Jewish architects, and warm support from Obama, Qatar’s government, and Tel Aviv too – this is no dream, ladies and gentleman; this is the city of Rawabi, a Palestinian vision that is turning into reality.
Here, there are no construction freezes, no crises vis-à-vis the White House, and no enraged op-eds by people who usually enjoy making dire predictions in respect to the construction of homes in occupied areas.
Among the parties involved in this enterprise we find businesspeople, Palestinian leaders Abbas and Fayyad, officials in Washington, and of course us Israelis, who for years now had been longing for some settlement activity without provoking the world’s wrath. And so, even the Jewish National Fund (JNF), an organization whose officially declared goal is to “salvage Eretz Israel land for the benefit of the Jews” ends up planting tree in the territories, but not for the benefit of Jews, but rather in support of the Palestinian vision.
I am not envious of the new Palestinian town, or the $700 million being invested there, or of the replacement of empty hills with modern homes. I’m not even jealous of their vision vis-à-vis our vacuum. People, whether Palestinian or Jewish, need homes, communities, and cities, regardless of which ethnic group or religion they belong to.
Used to being guilty
Yet I am bothered when I see the attitude of the very same people who support Rawabi and its residents to their future neighbors, those natives who the world refers to as settlers. While monitoring the construction of balconies in the settlements has turned into a noble sport among Europeans and on the White House lawns, the members of other religions are allowed and encouraged to build in the area.
We got used to the world referring to the war against Palestinian terrorism as apartheid, we got so used to being guilty, to the point of failing to notice that the construction apartheid is happening to be directed against us. The Arabs are allowed to buy homes anywhere, while the Jews are not. The Arabs are allowed to build, expand, and engage in family-reunification. The Jews are forbidden.
What we have here is not an American attempt to decipher the depth of Israel’s willingness to compromise, as nobody over there no longer believes in a solution. All we have here are the narrow interests of a different Administration, issues of image vis-à-vis the Arab world, and the desire of a president who is indifferent to Israel to reject the Jewish settlement enterprise (at this time, in Judea, Samaria, and in Jerusalem, and if necessary, tomorrow it will expand to the Galilee and Negev.)
Indeed, in this game, there is no room for the JNF and the other remnants of Zionism
EDITOR: Another honorary Israeli…
While Julie Burchill is not Israeli, she admits she is Gaga on Israel. In a piece which should get the Melanie Phillips Hold Me Down award, she proves to be worthy of the title of Honorary Israeli.
By JULIE BURCHILL
06/18/2010
In Britain, tabloids get excited about roistering royals, fickle footballers and sex maniac MPs. But broadsheet papers only really get excited about Israel.
Over here in Britain, the tabloid newspapers get excited about roistering royals, fickle footballers, priapic pop stars and sex maniac MPs, among other things. They get excited about celebrity love-rats, three-in-a-bed romps and cocaine hells. They’re pretty excitable all round, bless ’em! But some of the broadsheet newspapers only really get excited – really excited, parasexual excited – about one thing: Israel behaving badly!
Of course, one hack’s bad is another hack’s baaad, and of course my first reaction was, “Ooo, which part of ‘don’t mess with Israel’ don’t these bed-wetters understand?”
On the phone later with my equally philo-Semitic gentile friend, she predicted that “if there’s any English on board, one of them will have a hyphen. You wait and see!”
I must point out here that unlike the situ in your gorgeous country, having a hyphenated name here doesn’t mean you’re the proud son of someone, i.e. Ben-Whoever. Rather, it means that you’re an upper-class, peasant-exploiting, in-bred half-wit.
In some extreme cases of overcompensation for what is clearly lacking in other departments, a mere double-barrelled name is considered too, too common, and families will add yet another hyphen – hence the Cave-Browne-Cave (sounds like code for a a pervy sex act) and Vane-Tempest-Stewart (one of the daughters, Annabel, left her husband for a Jew – an exception to the half-witted rule). And imagine how tragic your sense of your own worth must be to actually bother with four surnames (Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax) or even five (Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Greville – you’d have nodded off by the time the introductions were done). For some reason (and while not implicating any of the above named), the spawn of the ruling class is often drawn to anti-Israel activity.
IF YOU read Agatha Christie’s stories from before she realized she shouldn’t call people names any more (pre-1950s, or maybe the year when her publishers decided that the next printing of Ten Little Niggers should instead be called And Then There Were None would be the watermark), you’ll find loads of dodgy stuff. There’s “men of Hebraic extraction, sallow men with hooked noses, wearing flamboyant jewelry.”
There’s “the long-nosed Mr. Lazarus,” of whom somebody says, “He’s a Jew, of course, but a frightfully decent one.” And Christie was a smart toff!
Jews are very clever and the English ruling class are very stupid, so naturally English Jews have taken from the poshos a bit of the wealth and property that once was theirs, snatched from the peasantry and bequeathed by robber barons long ago. Nowadays their thick, unemployable children can find an outlet for their inborn anti-Semitism in pro-Palestinian protest. And sure enough I turned on the TV the day after the flotilla was floored, and there was a man called Lort-Phillips, bewailing the plight of his sister, one Alexandra Lort-Phillips, late of the ship of fools, who was now hopefully getting what she deserved in Eretz Yisrael.
A few days later a piece turned up on the society page of the Daily Mail explaining that Lort-Phillips is the great-niece of Dame Frances Campbell-Preston, a woman of the bedchamber (not as fun as it sounds) and friend of the late queen mother of England, who inexplicably claimed, “I am very proud of her. She is standing up for her principles.”
Wow, from royalty-flunky to Hamas-groupie in two generations – that’s the spirit that made this country great! At least, though, the old broad has the excuse of being 91 years old to spout such twaddle. What’s everyone else’s excuse?
It was poor Mark Regev, your charming spokesman, who took most of the flak. On BBC’s Newsnight, the female presenter allowed the love boat cheerleader enough time and space to practically make the Gettsysburg Address on behalf of these savage clowns (they came off like a pair of those weird women who write offering marriage to serial killers, to be frank) before subjecting Regev to such a relentless interrogation that he had to plead to be allowed to make his point.
Over on Channel 4, Jon Snow (a respected journalist but rather strange man, who several years ago refused to wear a red paper poppy – the British symbol of respect for fallen soldiers – in the week approaching Remembrance Day on the grounds that doing so was “poppy fascism”) took up the war of words against Regev, becoming as overheated as a teenage fan of Justin Bieber on coming face-to-face with a supporter of Miley Cyrus, claiming that – ahem – the Turkish president might be about to order warships to accompany Turkish aid vessels headed for Israel.
“What are you gonna do, what are you going to do, eh? What are you going to do if Turkish warships show up?” Snow railed, basically doing a Chris Morris “it’s war!” routine which had Regev incredulous. Cut to the end of the show, when Snow had to make a grovelling apology. The Turks had obviously been on the blower; the president never ordered any warships. And Snow had used a heated exchange to provoke and promote some very dangerous propaganda.
Not once did I hear a British interviewer ask any of the so-called secular radicals participating in the flotilla why they are allied with Islamic supremacists who subjugate women, persecute gays, oppress non-Islamic minorities and seek to impose Islam globally. But Sarah Montague on Radio 4 was a breath of fresh air in her interview with a Gaza-groupie:
Sarah Montague: Are you saying that Israeli soldiers who boarded that ship opened fire and there was no provocation for it?
Sarah Colborne: That’s what I am saying, yes.
SM: You saw that. You saw them fire when there was no attack on them?
SC: I saw them, well, I saw them, what I saw was them coming down from a helicopter onto the roof, I saw them trying to board the boat via dinghies.
SM: Were they attacked by those on board?
SC: They – the people on board, as you can see, were trying to stop…
SM: Hitting them with metal bars…
A JEWISH lawyer I know, as level-headed and laid-back a man as you could find, told me that he has never seen the British Jewish community as frightened as it is now. With the honorable exception of people such as Miss Montague and the brilliant Brendan O’Neill on spiked.com (who doesn’t even support the State of Israel, but writes with sparkling contempt of the reason he despises the Gaza-groupies), the British media must take some responsibility for creating this climate of fear. When British Jewish children are beaten up on school buses, as has happened increasingly over the past few years, I hope they feel proud of themselves and their mission to inform and enlighten.
The writer has been a journalist since the age of 17 and an admirer of Israel since the age of 12. The television adaptation of her teenage novel Sugar Rush won an International Emmy in 2006.
EDITOR: And another honorary Israeli…
Melnie Phillips is not a stranger to our readers, one hopes… She has been the Shining Light of the Loony Right for a long time, and a supporter of Israel as long as one wishes to go back, whatever Israel might do. Her antipodean logic is on record.
The reaction to Israel exercising its legal right is but the latest example of the West’s willingness to wallow in lies and hypocrisy
By Melanie Phillips, June 10, 2010
The flotilla episode provided the trigger for a frenzied demonstration of the world’s collective loss of mind over Israel.
Israel did what it was entitled to do and what any other country at war would do: intercept boats that might be carrying weapons for an aggressor regime. Since six out of the seven intercepted boats then proceeded peacefully to Ashdod where their cargo was checked, this was demonstrably not an Israeli “attack”.
Conversely, as everyone could see from the video evidence, on the main boat the attack took place against the Israelis – who then killed nine of their jihadi assailants solely to protect themselves from being lynched, kidnapped and murdered.
Yet, for this, Israel has been hysterically denounced across the world for an act of aggression and even piracy – an onslaught, in effect, upon Israel’s right to defend itself, without which no country can exist.
How is it possible that so many – Jews included – believe all these lies?
The claim that Gaza is starving is the opposite of the truth: its markets are stacked with produce, and every week Israel allows in thousands of tons of aid across the border. As its organiser admitted, the flotilla was not about humanitarian aid at all but was designed to break the sea blockade – and thus open up a weapons channel for Hamas. This manipulative and mendacious exercise was but the latest attempt to weaken Israel ready for the slaughter through an ever tightening noose of lies, demonisation and delegitimisation.
We have endured the fabricated claims of Israeli massacres in Jenin, the 2006 Lebanon war and Cast Lead; the charge that Israel is an “apartheid” state, that it has committed genocide, ethnic cleansing and is starving the people of Gaza; that it is the aggressor in the Middle East.
How is it possible that so many believe all these lies? How can so many Jews believe them? As I have described in my new book, The World Turned Upside Down (please forgive the commercial) the witch-hunt against Israel is the pivotal example of the West’s repudiation of reason itself, leading to a widespread inversion of truth and lies, justice and injustice, right and wrong.
The “progressive” left-wing intelligentsia now subscribes to a world-view that, over a wide range of issues, subordinates truth to ideology. This manifests itself in utopian creeds that hold that the world would attain a state of perfection if only it wasn’t for capitalism/America/ industrialisation/men/the nation state/those damned Jews.
Since these creeds are axiomatically the embodiment of virtue, all who dissent must be treated as moral outcasts and their views stifled. From this Manichean mindset, which decrees that all who are not the left are a) the right, and b) intrinsically evil, it follows that anyone who challenges the lies generated by ideological dogma is by definition right-wing and evil. As a result of this knee-jerk name-calling, people dismiss such inconvenient truths even when they stare them in the face.
This terrifying mindset is the left’s default position. That is why this madness towards Israel is not confined to gentiles. Indeed, even Jews who consider themselves to have the interests of Israel at heart sometimes tragically end up believing the lies and supporting positions that would destroy it.
Which partly explains why some communal leaders busily suck up to the enemies of Israel in the faith or political worlds, even telling them on occasion that “in private I agree with you”.
So we find ourselves in this nightmare situation. The Great Flotilla Derangement has created the impression that, as Iran moves towards completing its genocide bomb, the rest of the world senses an endgame and is moving in on Israel for the kill.
Turkish PM says ‘Turkey’s problem is with Israel’s government, not its people,’ says the country will continue to fight Israel’s ‘piracy,’ seek solutions to fight Gaza flotilla raid within international law.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov slammed Turkish Prime Minister Recap Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday, saying that while Turkey isn’t Israel’s enemy, Erdogan is.
“The Turkish people aren’t the enemy, but Erdogan is Israel’s enemy,” said Misezhnikov in response to Erdogan’s earlier comments that Turkey’s problem is with the Israeli government, and not the Israeli people.
“This isn’t a healthy situation, and unless he leaves office there is no room for optimism,” Misezhnikov said during a cultural event in Bat Yam. He added that there are indications that Erdogan isn’t speaking as a representative of the Turkish people and that the country is divided in its support for him.
The tourism minister also called on Israelis to heed the government’s warnings and refrain from traveling to Turkey. The tourism ministry is due to meet on Sunday to discuss ways to draw travelers toward staying in Israel for their summer vacation.
Earlier on Saturday, Erdogan said that his country did not have a problem with Israel’s people but rather with its government’s policies, the Turkish news agency Andolu reported.
The Turkish PM stressed that his country would continue to investigate Israel’s attack on the Turkish-flagged aid flotilla the Mavi Marmara in which nine activists were killed.
“We have not remained silent against this piracy and injustice, and we will not do so, and we will seek solutions within the framework of international law,” Erdogan told reporters in Ankara.
Meanwhile United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Israel to agree to an international investigation of its deadly commando raid on the Turkish ship trying to bring aid to Gaza and do “much more” to meet the needs of the Palestinians living there.
Ban said Friday that Israel’s investigation of the May 31 flotilla raid is important but won’t have “international credibility,” which is why he is continuing to urge the Israeli government to agree to an international panel with Israeli and Turkish participation.
Last week Israel, under mounting international pressure, formed an internal five-person panel – including two foreign observers – to investigate events surrounding its May 31 interception of a six ship convoy heading to the Gaza Strip.
‘Ajami’ reveals the brutality of life in Tel Aviv’s ethnically mixed Jaffa neighbourhood through the eyes of those who live there. As the film is released in Britain, Donald Macintyre meets its stars
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Dusk is falling rapidly as Esther Saba – Arab, Israeli citizen and Christian – sits in her yard dispensing lemonade and mint tea to her visitors and talking about her problems.
She mentions the eviction order hanging over her home, her husband’s heroin addiction, the wealthy new Jewish residents moving into her home town’s rapidly gentrifying neighbourhoods and the worry of bringing up three children safely in a district where there was yet another fatal drive-by shooting only a fortnight ago.
At an intersection a couple of blocks away, armed police use their two Jeeps as a temporary checkpoint to examine the IDs of passing local Arab youths. The checkpoint would seem entirely normal in the West Bank – but not here on Israel’s picturesque Mediterranean coast, less than five minutes’ drive from the heart of Tel Aviv.
For this is the Ajami district of Jaffa, the eponymous setting for the relentlessly gripping Jewish-Arab feature film of crime, poverty and violent feuding in an ethnically-mixed community. It took less than a month to shoot on a shoestring budget with local amateur actors, but has won a string of awards and was nominated for an Oscar. It went on release in Britain for the first time yesterday.
One of the film’s stars Shahir Kabaha is now back working in his father’s bakery, after a trip to Hollywood for the Oscar ceremony. He acknowledges that the film initially upset some of the city’s residents for unflinchingly “washing their laundry in public”. But Mrs Saba, in her yard, says emphatically: “This movie is my reality; the reality of each one of us.”
The film grew out of Jaffa’s streets as well as being filmed on them. Scandar Copti, the co-director with his Jewish colleague Yaron Shani, is from here. He is a Christian, Palestinian-Israeli son of a local school principal who trained as a civil engineer before becoming a film-maker.
The story captures with vivid authenticity what the producers describe as the “the tragic fragility of human existence in the enclosed community of Ajami, where enemies must live as neighbours”.
It is told first through the eyes of Nasri, a sensitive 13-year-old, whose family is at risk after his uncle killed a member of a Bedouin clan running a protection racket. A neighbour fixing his car is killed in a drive-by shooting when he is mistaken for the teenager’s older brother, Omar. There is a weave of other characters: Malek, the West Bank Palestinian with a desperately ill mother who sneaks into Israel to work; Dando, the hard-bitten Jewish Israeli cop, haunted by the disappearance of his own brother; Abu Elias, a well-off Christian restaurant owner whose daughter is in love with Omar but cannot marry him because he is a Muslim; Brinj – played by Copti himself – whose dreams of a future with his Jewish girlfriend are upset by a street brawl in which his brother is accused of involvement in the stabbing of a Jewish neighbour. But at the core of the film is Omar’s desperate struggle to raise a huge sum – agreed at a reconciliation meeting, a sulha – to end the feud.
If Ajami sounds over-plotted – and this is only the half of it – it doesn’t seem like it. It has been compared to City of God. While the Brazilian film is much more violent, the two share a willingness to confront the audience with an uncomfortable reality; one that has no neat, happy ending. While Ajami exposes the tensions within as well as between ethnic, religious and socio-economic groups, it never treats its main characters – Arab or Jewish – as cardboard cut-outs but as suffering, painfully understandable, individual human beings. The constant use of improvisation, albeit within a tightly scripted storyline, often gives it the spontaneous feel of a documentary. All but three of the actors in the riveting sulha sequence were told that it was for real, making the tension and anger all the more credible. Every Saturday for six months, Copti went to genuine sulhas to understand how they worked. “Then I brought a lot of people to Jaffa for what they thought was a real sulha and told them that there would be a crew filming it for a documentary. We filmed about an hour and twenty minutes, including the eating of the lamb [which ritually celebrates the reconciliation] and then cut it to about four or five.”
Yaron Shani had originally conceived an urban crime drama shot in this way when he was a student at Tel Aviv’s famous film school. But the idea only came alive years later when he met Copti, who had entered a short film in a contest Shani was helping to organize. Shani asked Copti if was interested on working on “something bigger” and the seven-year, intensely co-operative, mutually dependent process of bringing Ajami to the screen was born. Shani had thought a Jewish-Arab setting might be “very interesting” but until he met Copti he was, by his own admission, among the many Israeli Jews who know little about the country’s 1.5m Arab citizens, despite the fact that most speak Hebrew as well as Arabic (the reverse is only true for a minority of Israeli Jews) and vote in the same elections. A characteristically Israeli row erupted over the film hours before the Oscars, when Copti said he did not see himself as representing Israel “because I cannot represent a country that does not represent me.” Right wing politicians queued up to denounce what they saw as Copti’s ingratitude for state funding which had helped to finance the film. Yet Copti’s remark – and the film – highlights some of the underlying problems of the Arab minority in Jaffa and, by extension, that in Israel.
You don’t have to spend long in the real Ajami to have a glimpse of what a few of the grievances are: employment discrimination, municipal neglect; a hostile police force; poor schooling. Mrs Saba is convinced that the recent murder – a drive-by from a motorcycle just like in the film in a suspected gang hit – will remain unsolved, like dozens of others in the last decade. “I can take you to Kedem [a street in Ajami] and there’s a police patrol going by every five minutes,” she says. “Yet it took them half an hour to get to where the shooting happened.” Perhaps the murders are unsolved because witnesses won’t talk to the police? “That’s true,” says Mrs Saba’s friend Theodora Deeb. “If the people who did this found out you had talked, you would be the next one in the grave.” Mrs Saba agrees, but insists – an almost universal complaint by Palestinians in Jaffa – that there is a completely different standard of law enforcement between cases in which Arabs and Jews are the victims. “If the government really wanted to make Jaffa a better place they could. They know exactly who the killers are, but they think: ‘Let them [the Arabs] kill each other.'”
As with the police, so with education and employment, say the two women. The 49 per cent drop-out rate at Arab Jaffa state schools is much worse than in neighbouring, overwhelmingly Jewish Tel Aviv and Mrs Saba believes the municipality just doesn’t care. “I can take you to a park near here where you will see all the nine-year-olds hanging out instead of going to school. But nobody calls the parents.” Mrs Saba, a manicurist and the household’s only breadwinner, says there are few role models and incentives to suggest that education is worthwhile. “If a youngster goes for a job from high school what is the first question they ask? What he did in the Army? What is his ethnicity? They have left the Arabs the jobs like drug dealing, killing, shooting and stealing.” It’s a relief, against this bleak background, to meet Shahir Kabaha, who plays Omar in the film. Over a narghila in his local café, Mr Kabaha, 25, defends Copti’s remark. “If Tarantino made a film about the war in Iraq, does that mean his movie represents America or Iraq? No, it’s a Tarantino movie.” He says that a loss of traditional control by the sheikhs – or community leaders – in Jaffa has much to do with crime and schools that are “out of control”. But he agrees with Mrs Saba about the police. “About 15 years ago three Arab guys killed a Jewish guy in Jaffa and one of them ran away to Gaza. They got him even in Gaza. But if an Arab kills an Arab they don’t do anything.” Mr Kabaha, who wants to act full-time, is too intelligent to give up his day job for now. He works in Abu Shadi, the bakery run by his father, which is famous for its stuffed pastries, or bourekas. He admits to being “frustrated” by finding he cannot get Jewish roles – the large majority – in television drama. He could do it with consummate ease, as he was partly educated at a Jewish school, speaks faultless Hebrew and is physically indistinguishable from any other Israeli 25-year-old in his trainers, jeans and t-shirt. Mr Kabaha is proud of having “many” Jewish friends. Almost half the customers at Abu Shadi are Jewish. But he distinguishes between the many Jewish residents of Jaffa, who relish living in a mixed community, from two other groups. The most recent arrivals are ideologically-minded former settlers evacuated from Gaza in 2005 who have come to Ajami with the deliberate goal of helping to “Judaise” a mainly Arab neighbourhood. The others are wealthy Jewish incomers eager for a substantial home by the sea, sometimes in a gated complex, close to the historic Old City of Jaffa.
Every Palestinian in Jaffa believes that eviction orders have been served on around 500 houses, including Mrs Saba’s, to make way for such developments. In the 1948 war, Jaffa was bombarded relentlessly for three days by Jewish paramilitary forces. The fighting and the flight of refugees from Jaffa reduced the Palestinian population from more than 70,000 to around 4,000 (a number which has now more than quadrupled). Most of those that remained had to rent houses that had been confiscated by Israel after the war. From the early seventies, in exchange for paying “key money” to the public housing authority, most tenants in the Arab quarters like Ajami paid low rents, which were often not even collected. But from the nineties, the land developers moved in and the authorities began to issue eviction orders, for previously overlooked “offences” like rent arrears or, in as in Mrs Saba’s case, for adding extensions without a permit, something that is notoriously hard to come by. “They want to push out the people from Jaffa,” says Mr Kabaha. “This would be the most perfect country in the world if it was based on people who want to solve problems and not on people who want to make money on the back of those problems.” One of the several achievements of Ajami is not only that, as Copti puts it, it digs “deep into Palestinian society”, but also that it tells its compelling story without clunking exposition of all this political context. Instead it shows the consequences of it, leaving debate for after the film has ended. “We felt that dealing with the human side is the only way to address the big issues that are behind everything,” as the two directors, one a Jew the other an Arab, put it jointly in the promo notes for the film. “But all the social problems revealed in the stories of Ajami are governed and generated by politics.”
