Israel housing ministry has approved plans to build almost 700 new apartments in three Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem.
Palestinian officials were quick to condemn Monday's move as incompatible with efforts to restart the stalled peace process. East Jerusalem was annexed after the 1967 Middle East war, a move not recognised by the international community.
"The Palestinian Authority strongly condemns the new decision to build in east Jerusalem and wonders whether there is a freeze of settlement activity or an intensification of it," Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said.
"The American administration needs to realise that the policies of the Israeli government embody settlements and not peace and that their choice is settlements and not peace."
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, declared a 10-month suspension of settlement construction in the occupied West Bank earlier this month but the temporary halt does not include east Jerusalem.
"We make a distinction between the West Bank and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is our capital and remains such,'' Mark Regev, a government spokesman, said on Monday.
Palestinian demands
The Palestinians have refused to reopen peace talks, which broke down a year ago, until Netanyahu halts all settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of any future state and consider Jewish neighbourhoods there to be settlements.
Monday's announcement invited construction companies to bid to build 198 housing units in Pisgat Zeev, 377 homes in Neve Yaakov and 117 dwellings in Har Homa.
The United States has been trying to bring together Palestinian and Israeli leaders to resume their negotiations in recent months.
A US official said the approval of new apartments in east Jerusalem was another blow to peace efforts.
"We feel that unilateral actions make it harder for people to get back together at the table, and that's what our goals are," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"We also have mentioned in the past, and Secretary [of state Hillary] Clinton has mentioned, that we consider all the Israeli settlements to be beyond the pale of what we wish to see going on, and are not helpful, again, to getting the two sides back to the table," he said.
On November 16, Israel gave its approval for 900 new housing units in another east Jerusalem settlement.
Israel's 10-month moratorium on construction in the West Bank, which Netanyahu said was to encourage the resumption of the peace talks, excludes public buildings and building on 3,000 settlement homes already under way.
About 190,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem and another 290,000 settlers currently live in the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu was due to travel to Egypt on Tuesday to meet Hosni Mubarak, the president, to discuss Middle East peacemaking.
December 28, 2009
'Israel resembles a failed state'
By Ali Abunimah
One year has passed since the savage Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, but for the people there time might as well have stood still. Since Palestinians in Gaza buried their loved ones - more than 1,400 people, almost 400 of them children - there has been little healing and virtually no reconstruction.
According to international aid agencies, only 41 trucks of building supplies have been allowed into Gaza during the year.
Promises of billions made at a donors' conference in Egypt last March attended by luminaries of the so-called "international community" and the Middle East peace process industry are unfulfilled, and the Israeli siege, supported by the US, the European Union, Arab states, and tacitly by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah, continues.
Policy of destruction
Amid the endless, horrifying statistics a few stand out: Of Gaza's 640 schools, 18 were completely destroyed and 280 damaged in Israeli attacks. Two-hundred-and-fifty students and 15 teachers were killed.
Of 122 health facilities assessed by the World Health Organization, 48 per cent were damaged or destroyed. Ninety per cent of households in Gaza still experience power cuts for 4 to 8 hours per day due to Israeli attacks on the power grid and degradation caused by the blockade.
Forty-six per cent of Gaza's once productive agricultural land is out of use due to Israeli damage to farms and Israeli-declared free fire zones. Gaza's exports of more than 130,000 tonnes per year of tomatoes, flowers, strawberries and other fruit have fallen to zero.
That "much of Gaza still lies in ruins," a coalition of international aid agencies stated recently, "is not an accident; it is a matter of policy".
This policy has been clear all along and it has nothing to do with Israeli "security".
Destroying resistance
From June 19, 2008, to November 4, 2008, calm prevailed between Israel and Gaza, as Hamas adhered strictly - as even Israel has acknowledged - to a negotiated ceasefire.
That ceasefire collapsed when Israel launched a surprise attack on Gaza killing six people, after which Hamas and other resistance factions retaliated.
Even so, Palestinian factions were still willing to renew the ceasefire, but it was Israel that refused, choosing instead to launch a premeditated, systematic attack on the foundations of civilised life in the Gaza Strip.
Operation Cast Lead, as Israel dubbed it, was an attempt to destroy once and for all Palestinian resistance in general, and Hamas in particular, which had won the 2006 election and survived the blockade and numerous US-sponsored attempts to undermine and overthrow it in cooperation with US-backed Palestinian militias.
Like the murderous sanctions on Iraq throughout the 1990s, the blockade of Gaza was calculated to deprive civilians of basic necessities, rights and dignity in the hope that their suffering might force their leadership to surrender or collapse.
In many respects things may seem more dire than a year ago.
Barack Obama, the US president, whom many hoped would change the vicious anti-Palestinian policies of his predecessor, George Bush, has instead entrenched them as even the pretense of a serious peace effort has vanished.
According to media reports, the US Army Corps of Engineers is assisting Egypt in building an underground wall on its border with Gaza to block the tunnels which act as a lifeline for the besieged territory [resources and efforts that ought to go into rebuilding still hurricane-devastated New Orleans], and American weapons continue to flow to West Bank militias engaged in a US- and Israeli-sponsored civil war against Hamas and anyone else who might resist Israeli occupation and colonisation.
Shifting public opinion
These facts are inescapable and bleak.
However, to focus on them alone would be to miss a much more dynamic situation that suggests Israel's power and impunity are not as invulnerable as they appear from this snapshot.
A year after Israel's attack and after more than two-and-a-half years of blockade, the Palestinian people in Gaza have not surrendered. Instead they have offered the world lessons in steadfastness and dignity, even at an appalling, unimaginable cost.
It is true that the European Union leaders who came to occupied Jerusalem last January to publicly embrace Ehud Olmert, the then Israeli prime minister, - while white phosphorus seared the flesh of Gazan children and bodies lay under the rubble - still cower before their respective Israel lobbies, as do American and Canadian politicians.
But the shift in public opinion is palpable as Israel's own actions transform it into a pariah whose driving forces are not the liberal democratic values with which it claims to identify, but ultra-nationalism, racism, religious fanaticism, settler-colonialism and a Jewish supremacist order maintained by frequent massacres.
The universalist cause of justice and liberation for Palestinians is gaining adherents and momentum especially among the young.
I witnessed it, for example, among Malaysian students I met at a Palestine solidarity conference held by the Union of NGOs of The Islamic World in Istanbul last May.
And again in November, as hundreds of student organisers from across the US and Canada converged to plan their participation in the global Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions modeled on the successful struggle against South African apartheid in the 1980s.
'Bankrupt' state
This week, thousands of people from dozens of countries are attempting to reach Gaza to break the siege and march alongside Palestinians who have been organising inside the territory.
Each of the individuals traveling with the Gaza Freedom March, Viva Palestina, or other delegations represents perhaps hundreds of others who could not make the journey in person, and who are marking the event with demonstrations and commemorations, visits to their elected officials, and media campaigns.
Against this flowering of activism, Zionism is struggling to rejuvenate its dwindling base of support.
Multi-million dollar programmes aimed at recruiting and Zionising young American Jews are struggling to compete against organisations like the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, which run not on money but principled commitment to human equality.
Increasingly, we see that Israel's hasbara [propaganda] efforts have no positive message, offer no plausible case for maintaining a status quo of unspeakable repression and violence, and rely instead on racist demonisation and dehumanisation of Arabs and Muslims to justify Israel's actions and even its very existence.
Faced with growing global recognition and support for the courageous non-violent struggle against continued land theft in the West Bank, Israel is escalating its violence and kidnapping of leaders of the movement in Bil'in and other villages [Muhammad Othman, Jamal Juma and Abdallah Abu Rahmeh are among the leaders of this movement recently arrested].
Travel fears
In acting this way, Israel increasingly resembles a bankrupt failed state, not a regime confident about its legitimacy and longevity.
And despite the failed peace process industry's efforts to ridicule, suppress and marginalise it, there is a growing debate among Palestinians and even among Israelis about a shared future in Palestine/Israel based on equality and decolonisation, rather than ethno-national segregation and forced repartition.
Last, but certainly not least, in the shadow of the Goldstone report, Israeli leaders travel around the world fearing arrest for their crimes.
For now, they can rely on the impunity that high-level international complicity and their inertial power and influence still afford them.
But the question for the real international community - made up of people and movements - is whether we want to continue to see the still very incomplete system of international law and justice painstakingly built since the horrors of the Second World War and the Nazi holocaust dismantled and corrupted all for the sake of one rogue state.
What we have done in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and the rest of Palestine is not yet enough. But our movement is growing, it cannot be stopped, and we will reach our destination.
 |
| More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed in Operation Cast Lead, but author says the war damaged Israel's standing in international public opinion [EPA] |
One year has passed since the savage Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, but for the people there time might as well have stood still. Since Palestinians in Gaza buried their loved ones - more than 1,400 people, almost 400 of them children - there has been little healing and virtually no reconstruction.
According to international aid agencies, only 41 trucks of building supplies have been allowed into Gaza during the year.
Promises of billions made at a donors' conference in Egypt last March attended by luminaries of the so-called "international community" and the Middle East peace process industry are unfulfilled, and the Israeli siege, supported by the US, the European Union, Arab states, and tacitly by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah, continues.
Policy of destruction
Amid the endless, horrifying statistics a few stand out: Of Gaza's 640 schools, 18 were completely destroyed and 280 damaged in Israeli attacks. Two-hundred-and-fifty students and 15 teachers were killed.
Of 122 health facilities assessed by the World Health Organization, 48 per cent were damaged or destroyed. Ninety per cent of households in Gaza still experience power cuts for 4 to 8 hours per day due to Israeli attacks on the power grid and degradation caused by the blockade.
Forty-six per cent of Gaza's once productive agricultural land is out of use due to Israeli damage to farms and Israeli-declared free fire zones. Gaza's exports of more than 130,000 tonnes per year of tomatoes, flowers, strawberries and other fruit have fallen to zero.
That "much of Gaza still lies in ruins," a coalition of international aid agencies stated recently, "is not an accident; it is a matter of policy".
This policy has been clear all along and it has nothing to do with Israeli "security".
Destroying resistance
From June 19, 2008, to November 4, 2008, calm prevailed between Israel and Gaza, as Hamas adhered strictly - as even Israel has acknowledged - to a negotiated ceasefire.
That ceasefire collapsed when Israel launched a surprise attack on Gaza killing six people, after which Hamas and other resistance factions retaliated.
Even so, Palestinian factions were still willing to renew the ceasefire, but it was Israel that refused, choosing instead to launch a premeditated, systematic attack on the foundations of civilised life in the Gaza Strip.
 |
| Author says the war aimed to erode support for Hamas but failed to do so [GALLO/GETTY] |
Like the murderous sanctions on Iraq throughout the 1990s, the blockade of Gaza was calculated to deprive civilians of basic necessities, rights and dignity in the hope that their suffering might force their leadership to surrender or collapse.
In many respects things may seem more dire than a year ago.
Barack Obama, the US president, whom many hoped would change the vicious anti-Palestinian policies of his predecessor, George Bush, has instead entrenched them as even the pretense of a serious peace effort has vanished.
According to media reports, the US Army Corps of Engineers is assisting Egypt in building an underground wall on its border with Gaza to block the tunnels which act as a lifeline for the besieged territory [resources and efforts that ought to go into rebuilding still hurricane-devastated New Orleans], and American weapons continue to flow to West Bank militias engaged in a US- and Israeli-sponsored civil war against Hamas and anyone else who might resist Israeli occupation and colonisation.
Shifting public opinion
These facts are inescapable and bleak.
However, to focus on them alone would be to miss a much more dynamic situation that suggests Israel's power and impunity are not as invulnerable as they appear from this snapshot.
A year after Israel's attack and after more than two-and-a-half years of blockade, the Palestinian people in Gaza have not surrendered. Instead they have offered the world lessons in steadfastness and dignity, even at an appalling, unimaginable cost.
It is true that the European Union leaders who came to occupied Jerusalem last January to publicly embrace Ehud Olmert, the then Israeli prime minister, - while white phosphorus seared the flesh of Gazan children and bodies lay under the rubble - still cower before their respective Israel lobbies, as do American and Canadian politicians.
But the shift in public opinion is palpable as Israel's own actions transform it into a pariah whose driving forces are not the liberal democratic values with which it claims to identify, but ultra-nationalism, racism, religious fanaticism, settler-colonialism and a Jewish supremacist order maintained by frequent massacres.
The universalist cause of justice and liberation for Palestinians is gaining adherents and momentum especially among the young.
I witnessed it, for example, among Malaysian students I met at a Palestine solidarity conference held by the Union of NGOs of The Islamic World in Istanbul last May.
And again in November, as hundreds of student organisers from across the US and Canada converged to plan their participation in the global Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions modeled on the successful struggle against South African apartheid in the 1980s.
'Bankrupt' state
This week, thousands of people from dozens of countries are attempting to reach Gaza to break the siege and march alongside Palestinians who have been organising inside the territory.
Each of the individuals traveling with the Gaza Freedom March, Viva Palestina, or other delegations represents perhaps hundreds of others who could not make the journey in person, and who are marking the event with demonstrations and commemorations, visits to their elected officials, and media campaigns.
Against this flowering of activism, Zionism is struggling to rejuvenate its dwindling base of support.
Multi-million dollar programmes aimed at recruiting and Zionising young American Jews are struggling to compete against organisations like the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, which run not on money but principled commitment to human equality.
Increasingly, we see that Israel's hasbara [propaganda] efforts have no positive message, offer no plausible case for maintaining a status quo of unspeakable repression and violence, and rely instead on racist demonisation and dehumanisation of Arabs and Muslims to justify Israel's actions and even its very existence.
Faced with growing global recognition and support for the courageous non-violent struggle against continued land theft in the West Bank, Israel is escalating its violence and kidnapping of leaders of the movement in Bil'in and other villages [Muhammad Othman, Jamal Juma and Abdallah Abu Rahmeh are among the leaders of this movement recently arrested].
Travel fears
In acting this way, Israel increasingly resembles a bankrupt failed state, not a regime confident about its legitimacy and longevity.
And despite the failed peace process industry's efforts to ridicule, suppress and marginalise it, there is a growing debate among Palestinians and even among Israelis about a shared future in Palestine/Israel based on equality and decolonisation, rather than ethno-national segregation and forced repartition.
Last, but certainly not least, in the shadow of the Goldstone report, Israeli leaders travel around the world fearing arrest for their crimes.
For now, they can rely on the impunity that high-level international complicity and their inertial power and influence still afford them.
But the question for the real international community - made up of people and movements - is whether we want to continue to see the still very incomplete system of international law and justice painstakingly built since the horrors of the Second World War and the Nazi holocaust dismantled and corrupted all for the sake of one rogue state.
What we have done in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and the rest of Palestine is not yet enough. But our movement is growing, it cannot be stopped, and we will reach our destination.
Settlers’ ‘Price Tag’ campaign hits Sheikh Jarrah
Slogan saying 'Price Tag' spray-painted on a car belonging to Palestinian family by settlers
Nadine Sabbagh 15-years-old, attacked in her home by settlers.
Just before midnight, on Christmas Day, 25 December 2009, the Sabbagh family was attacked by around 30 settlers. The settlers knocked at their door and told the family that they should come out of the house because it belongs to the settlers. They then broke in and injured 7 family members. Two were cut with a knife, two had their arm stretched and a pregnant woman was kicked in her stomach. She was taken to hospital where she remained at the time of writing this report. Another family member was hit in the face and had a gun pointed at her. She was threatened with being by the attackers.
The settlers continued their campaign of violence and intimidation on 26 December, when they attacked Palestinians from the neighbourhood with stones. Three children and one adult Palestinian were injured as result, and a French man who took pictures of the episode was attacked by a settler.
Palestinian resident of Sheikh Jarrah who was injured during a settler attack
Nadine Sabbagh told us the day after her and her family’s home got attacked by settlers that the attack started at around midnight and continued for around three hours. After the settlers broke into her house they kicked her pregnant aunt in her stomach and cut her brother in the neck with a knife. The attack continued as the settlers cut Nadine’s cousin in his arm with a knife while they were violently pushing her mother and another aunt. Her aunt told us that she stretched her shoulder in the attack and it will take at least two weeks for it to fully recover.
One settler brought a gun and used it to threaten Nadine: “He told me; if you will not stop talking I will kill you.” At that point Nadine attempted to push the gun out of the settlers hand, but he avoided her and hit her in the face.
This is the first time the Sabbagh family home has been directly attacked by settlers.
The wave of settler violence continued throughout the day, when a group of 20 young settlers attacked a group f Palestinians in front of the occupied Gawi family home with stones. At first, the Palestinians managed to push the attackers out of the neighbourhood, only for them to return shortly after, in even bigger numbers, attacking again, this time more intensively. Four Palestinians, three of them children, were hit by stones thrown by settlers and a French man was attacked by a settler beating him in the head. When an Israeli ambulance arrived to the neighbourhood, the medics refused to treat the injured children and transport them to the hospital. An ambulance from the Red Crescent had to be called in order for the injured to receive necessary treatment.
Israeli and Red Crescent ambulances that arrived at Sheikh Jarrah after Palestinians were injured during a settler attack.
The strategy emerged due to the decreasing support of unauthorized outposts and is launched by radical settler groups in order for the Palestinians all over the Occupied Territories to pay the price in form of attacks every time the settlers feel they are being mistreated by the Israeli authorities. The strategic attacks have contributed to the displacement of entire Palestinian neighbourhoods, both temporary and permanent.
Three Palestinian men executed by Israeli military during Nablus night invasion, several wounded
The Israeli army invaded the Palestinian city of Nablus shortly after midnight, Saturday 26 December, raided three houses and executed three men. Several family members have been injured and houses, where families of the three killed men lived, have been left completely destroyed. The army used live ammunition against the men, at least two of whom were unarmed and fired rockets at the houses, while their residents were still inside.
The Israeli military claims the men were wanted for their involvement in the recent West Bank killing of an Israeli settler near Tulkarem, for which a group associated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility. The killings are, however, in flagrant breach of international law and represent assassinations without trial.
The human rights organization B’Tselem, who collected testimonies from family members of the three killed men, issued a statement condemning these killings. According to B’tselem, evidence gathered in the houses suggests that the Israeli military acted as if they were carrying out executions, rather than arrests. Eyewitnesses and relatives told the organization that at least two of the three men were unarmed and did not attempt to escape. This was confirmed by a senior IDF official, who told Israel Radio that the three men had not fired at the Israeli soldiers and that two of them were unarmed. B’Tselem also stated that, according to eyewitnesses, the soldiers did not try to stop or arrest the men, but simply shot them from a close range after discovering their identities.
First house the Israeli army invaded was the house of Gassan Abu Sharkh in the Old City of Nablus. Just after midnight, the military forced open the entrance door and ordered twenty members of Ghassan’s extended family to leave the house. Ghassan, who remained in the hallway, was shot several times from a short distance in his head. Ghassan’s family reported to ISM activists, who visited the scene in the morning, that the army fire was so intense that his head was split in half as result and the room was covered in blood and remains of his brain. Windows, doors, furniture were all destroyed by the soldiers. Ghassan (38), who worked as an electrician, left behind a wife, three sons and one daughter.
Second invaded house was also in the Old City and belonged to the family of Nadar Sarakji. Israeli soldiers blew the door open with explosives at about 2.30am, entered the house and forced the entire family of twenty out of their home. They then opened fire on Nadar as he was coming down the stairs. He was left to bleed to death in front of his family. His pregnant wife was shot in her foot. The military destroyed furniture in the house and broke many windows and doors.
The third house was raided at 3am, when the Israeli military in the force of approximately 180 soldiers (30 army jeeps) entered the Rasalayn neighbourhood, close to the Old City, and occupied several houses surrounding the Subih family house. From the roofs of an adjacent house soldiers then fired several rockets at upper levels of the Subih house, leaving huge cavities in the walls and blowing a hole between the third and fourth levels of the house. The soldiers on the ground then blew open the door and entered the whole house, forcing the families one by one out into the street and firing live ammunition inside the house. The soldiers found and executed Anan Subih inside of the house, while members of his family were all detained outside. Anan was married and left behind five daughters and two sons. ISM activists reported bullet holes everywhere in the house, which was left ransacked and partially flooded after the army shot at the water tanks on its roof.
After the killings children gathered in the streets of Nablus throwing rocks at jeeps, to which the army responded by firing sound bombs and live ammunition. They left the city at 8am. Residents say Israeli spotter planes had been flying low over Nablus for the last two days, conducting reconnaissance missions.
Background
According to B’Tselem, during the second intifada, Israel formally adopted a policy of assassinating Palestinians suspected of membership in armed organizations. At least seventeen of the eighty-nine Palestinians killed by Israeli forces between 2004 and 2005, during arrest operations, were not wanted by Israel and were not suspected by Israel of having committed any offense. In addition, at least forty-three of those killed were unarmed, or were not attempting to use their arms against Israeli security forces at the time they were killed.
B’Tselem has documented cases in which Israeli soldiers besieged a house in which they claimed a wanted person was present, and then fired at another occupant of the house when he opened the door, without prior warning and without offering them a chance to surrender. In other cases, the security forces disarmed the wanted persons, but then shot and killed them. In all these cases, the security forces acted as if they were carrying out an assassination and not an arrest, in flagrant breach of international humanitarian law.
Based on the report’s findings, there is a grave suspicion that execution of Palestinians has become a norm among the Israeli forces. Since the beginning of the second intifada, only a few cases in which Palestinians were shot and killed by soldiers have been investigated and members of the security forces were not held accountable for their actions.
The Israeli military claims the men were wanted for their involvement in the recent West Bank killing of an Israeli settler near Tulkarem, for which a group associated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility. The killings are, however, in flagrant breach of international law and represent assassinations without trial.
The human rights organization B’Tselem, who collected testimonies from family members of the three killed men, issued a statement condemning these killings. According to B’tselem, evidence gathered in the houses suggests that the Israeli military acted as if they were carrying out executions, rather than arrests. Eyewitnesses and relatives told the organization that at least two of the three men were unarmed and did not attempt to escape. This was confirmed by a senior IDF official, who told Israel Radio that the three men had not fired at the Israeli soldiers and that two of them were unarmed. B’Tselem also stated that, according to eyewitnesses, the soldiers did not try to stop or arrest the men, but simply shot them from a close range after discovering their identities.
First house the Israeli army invaded was the house of Gassan Abu Sharkh in the Old City of Nablus. Just after midnight, the military forced open the entrance door and ordered twenty members of Ghassan’s extended family to leave the house. Ghassan, who remained in the hallway, was shot several times from a short distance in his head. Ghassan’s family reported to ISM activists, who visited the scene in the morning, that the army fire was so intense that his head was split in half as result and the room was covered in blood and remains of his brain. Windows, doors, furniture were all destroyed by the soldiers. Ghassan (38), who worked as an electrician, left behind a wife, three sons and one daughter.
Second invaded house was also in the Old City and belonged to the family of Nadar Sarakji. Israeli soldiers blew the door open with explosives at about 2.30am, entered the house and forced the entire family of twenty out of their home. They then opened fire on Nadar as he was coming down the stairs. He was left to bleed to death in front of his family. His pregnant wife was shot in her foot. The military destroyed furniture in the house and broke many windows and doors.
The third house was raided at 3am, when the Israeli military in the force of approximately 180 soldiers (30 army jeeps) entered the Rasalayn neighbourhood, close to the Old City, and occupied several houses surrounding the Subih family house. From the roofs of an adjacent house soldiers then fired several rockets at upper levels of the Subih house, leaving huge cavities in the walls and blowing a hole between the third and fourth levels of the house. The soldiers on the ground then blew open the door and entered the whole house, forcing the families one by one out into the street and firing live ammunition inside the house. The soldiers found and executed Anan Subih inside of the house, while members of his family were all detained outside. Anan was married and left behind five daughters and two sons. ISM activists reported bullet holes everywhere in the house, which was left ransacked and partially flooded after the army shot at the water tanks on its roof.
After the killings children gathered in the streets of Nablus throwing rocks at jeeps, to which the army responded by firing sound bombs and live ammunition. They left the city at 8am. Residents say Israeli spotter planes had been flying low over Nablus for the last two days, conducting reconnaissance missions.
Background
According to B’Tselem, during the second intifada, Israel formally adopted a policy of assassinating Palestinians suspected of membership in armed organizations. At least seventeen of the eighty-nine Palestinians killed by Israeli forces between 2004 and 2005, during arrest operations, were not wanted by Israel and were not suspected by Israel of having committed any offense. In addition, at least forty-three of those killed were unarmed, or were not attempting to use their arms against Israeli security forces at the time they were killed.
B’Tselem has documented cases in which Israeli soldiers besieged a house in which they claimed a wanted person was present, and then fired at another occupant of the house when he opened the door, without prior warning and without offering them a chance to surrender. In other cases, the security forces disarmed the wanted persons, but then shot and killed them. In all these cases, the security forces acted as if they were carrying out an assassination and not an arrest, in flagrant breach of international humanitarian law.
Based on the report’s findings, there is a grave suspicion that execution of Palestinians has become a norm among the Israeli forces. Since the beginning of the second intifada, only a few cases in which Palestinians were shot and killed by soldiers have been investigated and members of the security forces were not held accountable for their actions.
Israeli forces kill six Palestinians in West Bank, Gaza
Press release, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
On Saturday morning, 26 December 2009, Israeli occupation forces killed six Palestinians in two separate attacks in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation forces employed excessive lethal force and killed three Palestinians, and Israeli undercover units extrajudicially executed three members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (the armed wing of Fatah movement) in Nablus. The three victims in Nablus had been granted amnesty, in coordination with the Palestinian National Authority, and had been allowed to freely move and live normally. Israeli occupation forces claimed that undercover unit fired at the three victims "as they refused to surrender." However, investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) conclude that the three victims were executed in cold blood.
PCHR strongly condemns these latest crimes, and reiterates the call for the international community to prosecute Israeli political and military officials suspected of committing such crimes. PCHR notes that these latest crimes occurred on the eve of the first anniversary of Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip. To date, none of those suspected of committing war crimes during the offensive have been prosecuted; this impunity serves to encourage further violations of international law. It is Palestinian civilians who suffer the consequences.
In the Gaza Strip, at approximately 00:30 on Saturday, 26 December 2009, Israeli troops stationed on observation towards along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the north of Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire at a number of Palestinians who got close to the border. The Israeli gunfire lasted for approximately 20 minutes, after which an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at the Palestinians. As a result, three Palestinians were killed:
1. Basheer Suleiman Mousa Abu Duhail, 20;
2. Mahmoud Jom'a Ibrahim al-Sharat'ha, 19; and
3. Hani Salem Ibrahim Abu Ghazal, 20.
The victims are all from al-Nasser village (the Bedouin village) to the north of Beit Lahia. They were unarmed and were apparently attempting to infiltrate into Israel to search for jobs. A fourth Palestinian survived the attack.
In the West Bank, at approximately 02:00 on Saturday, 26 December 2009, Israeli occupation forces, including undercover units, moved into Nablus. They positioned themselves near al-Nasser Mosque in the old town, where they surrounded and opened fire at a house belonging to the family of Ra'ed 'Abdul Jabbar Mohammed al-Sarkaji, 40. Using megaphones, they ordered al-Sarkaji out of the house. As soon as he opened the door, Israeli troops opened fired at him. He was hit by a gunshot to the forehead and fell down. Soon after, Israeli occupation forces fired at him from a very close range. He was killed by six gunshots to the head, the chest, the left forearm, the pelvis and the left leg. His wife, 32-year-old Tahani Farouq Ja'ara, was wounded by shrapnel to the leg.
At the same time, other Israeli units besieged a house belonging to the family of Ghassan Fat'hi Abu Sharekh, 38, near Qaderi fish market in the old town. Through megaphones they ordered residents of the house to get out. All the inhabitants left the building, Ghassan was the last to leave. Once he appeared, Israeli occupation forces opened fire at him. He was killed by sevem gunshots to the neck, the chest, the abdomen, the back and the left leg.
At approximately 02:30, Israeli occupation forces besieged the Sobeh five-story apartment building in Kshaika Street in Ras al-'Ein neighborhood in the southeast of Nablus. They called through megaphones on 'Anan Suleiman Mustafa Sobeh, 36, who lives on the second floor, to get out and surrender to them. They opened fire at the building. At approximately 08:00, Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the area, and residents of the area found 'Anan's body on the roof of a car washing yard near the building. He was hit by several gunshots to the chest, the right shoulder, the neck and the lower jaw.
PCHR strongly condemns crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and:
1) Asserts that these latest crimes are ones in a series of continuous crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces in the OPT in disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians.
2) Reiterates condemnation for the policy of extra-judicial executions adopted by Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian activists, and asserts that this policy serves to increase tension in the region and threatens the lives of Palestinian civilians.
3) Calls upon the international community to immediately intervene to stop such crimes, and calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to fulfill their obligation under article 1 of the Convention to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances, and their obligation under article 146 to search for and prosecute those who are responsible for perpetrating grave breaches of the Convention, as such breaches constitute war crimes according to article 147 of the Convention and the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I).
On Saturday morning, 26 December 2009, Israeli occupation forces killed six Palestinians in two separate attacks in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation forces employed excessive lethal force and killed three Palestinians, and Israeli undercover units extrajudicially executed three members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (the armed wing of Fatah movement) in Nablus. The three victims in Nablus had been granted amnesty, in coordination with the Palestinian National Authority, and had been allowed to freely move and live normally. Israeli occupation forces claimed that undercover unit fired at the three victims "as they refused to surrender." However, investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) conclude that the three victims were executed in cold blood.
PCHR strongly condemns these latest crimes, and reiterates the call for the international community to prosecute Israeli political and military officials suspected of committing such crimes. PCHR notes that these latest crimes occurred on the eve of the first anniversary of Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip. To date, none of those suspected of committing war crimes during the offensive have been prosecuted; this impunity serves to encourage further violations of international law. It is Palestinian civilians who suffer the consequences.
In the Gaza Strip, at approximately 00:30 on Saturday, 26 December 2009, Israeli troops stationed on observation towards along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the north of Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire at a number of Palestinians who got close to the border. The Israeli gunfire lasted for approximately 20 minutes, after which an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at the Palestinians. As a result, three Palestinians were killed:
1. Basheer Suleiman Mousa Abu Duhail, 20;
2. Mahmoud Jom'a Ibrahim al-Sharat'ha, 19; and
3. Hani Salem Ibrahim Abu Ghazal, 20.
The victims are all from al-Nasser village (the Bedouin village) to the north of Beit Lahia. They were unarmed and were apparently attempting to infiltrate into Israel to search for jobs. A fourth Palestinian survived the attack.
In the West Bank, at approximately 02:00 on Saturday, 26 December 2009, Israeli occupation forces, including undercover units, moved into Nablus. They positioned themselves near al-Nasser Mosque in the old town, where they surrounded and opened fire at a house belonging to the family of Ra'ed 'Abdul Jabbar Mohammed al-Sarkaji, 40. Using megaphones, they ordered al-Sarkaji out of the house. As soon as he opened the door, Israeli troops opened fired at him. He was hit by a gunshot to the forehead and fell down. Soon after, Israeli occupation forces fired at him from a very close range. He was killed by six gunshots to the head, the chest, the left forearm, the pelvis and the left leg. His wife, 32-year-old Tahani Farouq Ja'ara, was wounded by shrapnel to the leg.
At the same time, other Israeli units besieged a house belonging to the family of Ghassan Fat'hi Abu Sharekh, 38, near Qaderi fish market in the old town. Through megaphones they ordered residents of the house to get out. All the inhabitants left the building, Ghassan was the last to leave. Once he appeared, Israeli occupation forces opened fire at him. He was killed by sevem gunshots to the neck, the chest, the abdomen, the back and the left leg.
At approximately 02:30, Israeli occupation forces besieged the Sobeh five-story apartment building in Kshaika Street in Ras al-'Ein neighborhood in the southeast of Nablus. They called through megaphones on 'Anan Suleiman Mustafa Sobeh, 36, who lives on the second floor, to get out and surrender to them. They opened fire at the building. At approximately 08:00, Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the area, and residents of the area found 'Anan's body on the roof of a car washing yard near the building. He was hit by several gunshots to the chest, the right shoulder, the neck and the lower jaw.
PCHR strongly condemns crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and:
1) Asserts that these latest crimes are ones in a series of continuous crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces in the OPT in disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians.
2) Reiterates condemnation for the policy of extra-judicial executions adopted by Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian activists, and asserts that this policy serves to increase tension in the region and threatens the lives of Palestinian civilians.
3) Calls upon the international community to immediately intervene to stop such crimes, and calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to fulfill their obligation under article 1 of the Convention to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances, and their obligation under article 146 to search for and prosecute those who are responsible for perpetrating grave breaches of the Convention, as such breaches constitute war crimes according to article 147 of the Convention and the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I).
December 24, 2009
Settlers attack Palestinian family in Sheikh Jarrah
This is in the same area I have been.
Settlers attack Palestinian family in Sheikh Jarrah
Posted using ShareThis
Settlers attack Palestinian family in Sheikh Jarrah
Posted using ShareThis
Residents of Sheikh Jarrah celebrate Christmas despite ongoing settler expansion
Another report I worked on & the second picture.
Residents of Sheikh Jarrah celebrate Christmas despite ongoing settler expansion
Posted using ShareThis
Residents of Sheikh Jarrah celebrate Christmas despite ongoing settler expansion
Posted using ShareThis
Settlers attempt to destroy Christmas tree following Palestinian celebration in Sheikh Jarrah
This is what I have been working on all day!
Settlers attempt to destroy Christmas tree following Palestinian celebration in Sheikh Jarrah
Posted using ShareThis
Settlers attempt to destroy Christmas tree following Palestinian celebration in Sheikh Jarrah
Posted using ShareThis
Egypt tells Freedom march Gaza border shut due to tensions
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Delegates with the Gaza Freedom March were told by Egyptian authorities they would be unable to enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing since the terminal will be closed due to continuing border tension, a statement said.
According to march organizers, on 20 December officials from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry cited "escalating tensions on the Gaza-Egypt border" for the closure of the Rafah crossing from earlier in the week on through to January.
Responding to the announcement, the delegation noted, "No delegation, large or small, that has entered Gaza over the past 12 months has received a final OK before arriving at the Rafah border. Most delegations were discouraged from even heading out of Cairo to Rafah. Some had their buses stopped on the way. Some have been told outright that they could not go into Gaza. But after public and political pressure, the Egyptian government changed its position and let them pass."
The group, of more than 1,300 individuals, says it will "continue the journey."
This is very common now because of all the campaigns heading to Gaza. The need for people in the West bank is dire so I will be unable to join CodePink next week in their efforts to cross. There is not a high percentage of them getting though. I will keep up with the travelers by email & phone, while providing updates here.
According to march organizers, on 20 December officials from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry cited "escalating tensions on the Gaza-Egypt border" for the closure of the Rafah crossing from earlier in the week on through to January.
Responding to the announcement, the delegation noted, "No delegation, large or small, that has entered Gaza over the past 12 months has received a final OK before arriving at the Rafah border. Most delegations were discouraged from even heading out of Cairo to Rafah. Some had their buses stopped on the way. Some have been told outright that they could not go into Gaza. But after public and political pressure, the Egyptian government changed its position and let them pass."
The group, of more than 1,300 individuals, says it will "continue the journey."
This is very common now because of all the campaigns heading to Gaza. The need for people in the West bank is dire so I will be unable to join CodePink next week in their efforts to cross. There is not a high percentage of them getting though. I will keep up with the travelers by email & phone, while providing updates here.
Israeli settler killed in West Bank
An Israeli settler has been shot dead when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle in the West Bank, medics and police said.
The man in his 40s was found shot in the head in a bullet-riddled car on the road between the Jewish settlements of Einav and Shavei Shomron in the northern West Bank on Thursday, the head of Magen David Adom emergency services told AFP news agency.
He died of his wounds shortly after the attack, he said.
Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, said the assailants have not been caught but that security forces were combing the area near the site of the shooting in the northern West Bank.
The West Bank has seen little violence in recent years as Palestinian security forces have deployed in cities across the Israeli-occupied territory.
Nearly a half million Israelis live in dozens of illegal settlements scattered across the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories occupied in the 1967 Six Day War that the Palestinians have demanded as part of their future state.
The fate of the settlements has been one of the thorniest issues in past rounds of Middle East peace talks, and the Palestinians have demanded a complete halt to settlement building ahead of any new round of negotiations.
We are doing research into this now and hopefully I will have updates soon.
The man in his 40s was found shot in the head in a bullet-riddled car on the road between the Jewish settlements of Einav and Shavei Shomron in the northern West Bank on Thursday, the head of Magen David Adom emergency services told AFP news agency.
He died of his wounds shortly after the attack, he said.
Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, said the assailants have not been caught but that security forces were combing the area near the site of the shooting in the northern West Bank.
The West Bank has seen little violence in recent years as Palestinian security forces have deployed in cities across the Israeli-occupied territory.
Nearly a half million Israelis live in dozens of illegal settlements scattered across the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories occupied in the 1967 Six Day War that the Palestinians have demanded as part of their future state.
The fate of the settlements has been one of the thorniest issues in past rounds of Middle East peace talks, and the Palestinians have demanded a complete halt to settlement building ahead of any new round of negotiations.
We are doing research into this now and hopefully I will have updates soon.
Bethlehem's Christmas Blues
As Christians around the world prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, owners of tourism shops in Bethlehem are not seeing booming business they would expect this time of the year.
Nour Odeh reports on how Israel's illegal occupation may be keeping the West Bank's tourism industry from thriving.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009122461113232638.html
Nour Odeh reports on how Israel's illegal occupation may be keeping the West Bank's tourism industry from thriving.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009122461113232638.html
Ma'an News
This website is very good for updates in Palestine. If there are not any post here please check it out.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/Default.aspx
http://www.maannews.net/eng/Default.aspx
Check me out on Columbus Peace Network
A little bit of selfishness, which I would like to thank Connie for, please check out my listing on CPN!! :o)
http://www.columbuspeacenetwork.org/
http://www.columbuspeacenetwork.org/
December 22, 2009
Israel admits to organ thefts
Israel has admitted that it harvested organs from the dead bodies of Palestinians and Israelis in the 1990s, without permission from their families
ImageThe admission follows the release of an interview with Jehuda Hiss, the former head of Israel's forensic institute, in which he said that workers at the institute had harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers.
In the interview, which was conducted in 2000 when Hiss was head of Tel Aviv's Abu Kabir forensic institute, he said: "We started to harvest corneas ... Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family."
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, who conducted the interview, told Al Jazeera on Monday that Hiss had said the "body parts were used by hospitals for transplant purposes - cornea transplants. They were sent to public hospitals [for use on citizens].
"And the skin went to a special skin bank, founded by the military, for their uses", such as for burns victims.
The practice is said to have ended in 2000.
Guidelines 'not clear'
The interview was also reported on Israel's Channel 2 television, which quoted an Israeli military statement that said: "This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer."
Israel's health ministry said in the Channel 2 report that at the time the guidelines for transplants "were not clear" and that for the last 10 years "Abu Kabir has been working according to ethics and Jewish law".
Scheper-Hughes, who is a professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley, said that she made the interview public because of the controversy last summer over allegations of organ harvesting made by a Swedish newspaper.
In August the Aftonbladet newspaper ran an article alleging that the Israeli army had stolen body organs from Palestinian men after killing them.
Israel denied the claims, calling them anti-Semitic, and the incident raised tensions when Sweden refused to apologise for the article, saying that press freedom prevented it from intervening.
'Technically illegal'
Scheper-Hughes said that some of the dead Palestinians from whom organs were harvested were killed during military raids.
"Some of the bodies were definitely Palestinians who were killed in conflicts," she told Al Jazeera.
"Their organs were taken without consent of families and were used to serve the needs of the country in terms of hospitals as well as the army's needs."
She said that Hiss told her "that the people who did the harvesting were sent by the military. They were often medical students".
"He did it informally and without permission, and it was technically illegal," she said.
The military establishment gave their "sanction and approval" to the procedures, according to Scheper-Hughes.
During his interview with Scheper-Hughes, Hiss said that the eyelids of bodies were glued shut to prevent the removal of corneas being found out.
Hiss was dismissed as head of Abu Kabir in 2004 over irregularities in the use of organs, but charges against him were eventually dropped. He still holds the position of chief pathologist at the institute.
Palestine News Network
ImageThe admission follows the release of an interview with Jehuda Hiss, the former head of Israel's forensic institute, in which he said that workers at the institute had harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers.
In the interview, which was conducted in 2000 when Hiss was head of Tel Aviv's Abu Kabir forensic institute, he said: "We started to harvest corneas ... Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family."
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, who conducted the interview, told Al Jazeera on Monday that Hiss had said the "body parts were used by hospitals for transplant purposes - cornea transplants. They were sent to public hospitals [for use on citizens].
"And the skin went to a special skin bank, founded by the military, for their uses", such as for burns victims.
The practice is said to have ended in 2000.
Guidelines 'not clear'
The interview was also reported on Israel's Channel 2 television, which quoted an Israeli military statement that said: "This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer."
Israel's health ministry said in the Channel 2 report that at the time the guidelines for transplants "were not clear" and that for the last 10 years "Abu Kabir has been working according to ethics and Jewish law".
Scheper-Hughes, who is a professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley, said that she made the interview public because of the controversy last summer over allegations of organ harvesting made by a Swedish newspaper.
In August the Aftonbladet newspaper ran an article alleging that the Israeli army had stolen body organs from Palestinian men after killing them.
Israel denied the claims, calling them anti-Semitic, and the incident raised tensions when Sweden refused to apologise for the article, saying that press freedom prevented it from intervening.
'Technically illegal'
Scheper-Hughes said that some of the dead Palestinians from whom organs were harvested were killed during military raids.
"Some of the bodies were definitely Palestinians who were killed in conflicts," she told Al Jazeera.
"Their organs were taken without consent of families and were used to serve the needs of the country in terms of hospitals as well as the army's needs."
She said that Hiss told her "that the people who did the harvesting were sent by the military. They were often medical students".
"He did it informally and without permission, and it was technically illegal," she said.
The military establishment gave their "sanction and approval" to the procedures, according to Scheper-Hughes.
During his interview with Scheper-Hughes, Hiss said that the eyelids of bodies were glued shut to prevent the removal of corneas being found out.
Hiss was dismissed as head of Abu Kabir in 2004 over irregularities in the use of organs, but charges against him were eventually dropped. He still holds the position of chief pathologist at the institute.
Palestine News Network
The Settlement Freeze That Isn't
Please read:
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_settlement_freeze_that_isnt
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_settlement_freeze_that_isnt
December 21, 2009
Ramallah
Just a quick update on the situation in East Jerusalem. The neighborhood where the Settlers have taken over the houses is called Sheikh Jarrah. Three of the people I trained with have gone there tonight to keep watch IF the situation turns ugly they will call for more activists, the main ISM hostel in Jerusalem being pretty close by. The tents erected have been destroyed 5 times already by the settlers. The situation here is slightly more complex than the outright theft that’s occurred elsewhere. There is a Jewish holy site in the area, and the settlers claim that the land was owned by Jews prior to the short period of Jordanian rule (the houses themselves were only built in the 1950s). This has been ongoing since the 1970s and the area of land covers a population of approx 2,700 Palestinians. Several houses in the area have been taken over for some time now. The settler claim is flimsy, as they have no documentary proof to back it up, but it is a better effort that just saying that God promised them the land. Anyone interested in the details can read the UN factsheet here: http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/62542A1C86A18E5A852576150064C414
I however, am staying in Ramallah, where we completed training, as they have enough people there tonight. It was a 45 minute bus journey, and we breezed through the checkpoint, but I’m told it’s harder getting back in. Today we learnt that the army and Boarder Police have immense power over the lives of the Palestinians but all they can do to us is hold us for three hours until the regular Police with powers of Arrest arrive. We were briefed on how to avoid and resist arrest, and what to do if it happens. We can only be held for 24 hours by the Police before being bought before a civilian judge. The ISM operates within the law so generally they have to let you go after that. We do have slightly fewer rights than Israeli citizens under their civil code, as the Israelis bought in a second legal system to cover the immigrant workers (Philippinoes etc…) who replaced the Palestinians banned from coming in to Israel to work when the second Intifada Broke out in 2002 and this covers all foreigners.
The Palestinians are barely under a legal system at all, the Israelis basically kept the worst and most repressive elements of Ottoman (land uncultivated for three years can be confiscated), British Mandate (administrative detention, meaning they can hold people without charge for six months and then just roll it over for another six if they choose) and Jordanian laws, and then added some of their own to the mix. Palestinians can be held without charge for years, ans some are.
We also had a slightly worrying briefing on the weapons the Israeli military uses against protests, violent or otherwise. I now know what a rubber coated steel bullet lookes like (two types, on cylindrical with a heavy rubber casing and a heavy block of steel inside, one spherical and looking like an old fashioned musket ball with a very thin coating of rubber. We were also told how best to deal with tear gas and sound bombs, as well as various other weapons occasionally used.
I feel rather better prepared now.
I’m hoping to go deeper into the West Bank over the next few days, although Sheikh Jarrah is the main priority for the organization at the moment so if I’m asked I’ll stay of course. I think if I want to see Bethlehem at Christmas I’ll need to take a day off as it’s not a hotspot at the moment.
Incidentally one of our activists is being deported, which is the worst case scenario if you are arrested.
I however, am staying in Ramallah, where we completed training, as they have enough people there tonight. It was a 45 minute bus journey, and we breezed through the checkpoint, but I’m told it’s harder getting back in. Today we learnt that the army and Boarder Police have immense power over the lives of the Palestinians but all they can do to us is hold us for three hours until the regular Police with powers of Arrest arrive. We were briefed on how to avoid and resist arrest, and what to do if it happens. We can only be held for 24 hours by the Police before being bought before a civilian judge. The ISM operates within the law so generally they have to let you go after that. We do have slightly fewer rights than Israeli citizens under their civil code, as the Israelis bought in a second legal system to cover the immigrant workers (Philippinoes etc…) who replaced the Palestinians banned from coming in to Israel to work when the second Intifada Broke out in 2002 and this covers all foreigners.
The Palestinians are barely under a legal system at all, the Israelis basically kept the worst and most repressive elements of Ottoman (land uncultivated for three years can be confiscated), British Mandate (administrative detention, meaning they can hold people without charge for six months and then just roll it over for another six if they choose) and Jordanian laws, and then added some of their own to the mix. Palestinians can be held without charge for years, ans some are.
We also had a slightly worrying briefing on the weapons the Israeli military uses against protests, violent or otherwise. I now know what a rubber coated steel bullet lookes like (two types, on cylindrical with a heavy rubber casing and a heavy block of steel inside, one spherical and looking like an old fashioned musket ball with a very thin coating of rubber. We were also told how best to deal with tear gas and sound bombs, as well as various other weapons occasionally used.
I feel rather better prepared now.
I’m hoping to go deeper into the West Bank over the next few days, although Sheikh Jarrah is the main priority for the organization at the moment so if I’m asked I’ll stay of course. I think if I want to see Bethlehem at Christmas I’ll need to take a day off as it’s not a hotspot at the moment.
Incidentally one of our activists is being deported, which is the worst case scenario if you are arrested.
December 20, 2009
Heading to Ramallah
I had a wonderful day in Jerusalem today. I went on a free Old City tour & it was amazing. I should have pictures uploaded very soon. There are a ton so it might be better if you checked them out on facebook until I have a chance to upload them here. :o)
I also found out that I'm heading to Ramallah at 8:30am tomorrow (Monday) morning. I'm going for training with 2 other guys and Hashim, the trainer. I do not have my luggage yet but Hashim assured me that I would be able to go back through security to pick it up at the hostel. I have talked with the managers & they will hold it for me until I am able to pick it up. I will do my best to advise when I am in but it might be a few days before I am able to contact everyone.
Please pray as this is what I'm here to do & have been looking forward to for months!!
I also found out that I'm heading to Ramallah at 8:30am tomorrow (Monday) morning. I'm going for training with 2 other guys and Hashim, the trainer. I do not have my luggage yet but Hashim assured me that I would be able to go back through security to pick it up at the hostel. I have talked with the managers & they will hold it for me until I am able to pick it up. I will do my best to advise when I am in but it might be a few days before I am able to contact everyone.
Please pray as this is what I'm here to do & have been looking forward to for months!!
December 19, 2009
Finally in Jerusalem
It has been quite a trip so far but I am here. I have only had good personal experiences so that is helping the time pass. I know I have updated most of you who are following my wonderful trip so I will work on finding more important topics to write about.
I have heard a few stories of internationals who went to a peaceful protest of the third arrest of Shministim's (seniors refusing to serve in the IDF) that were brutally beaten and then taken to jail themselves. They were staging a peaceful sit in when the IDF started randomly beating the protesters and dragging them to jail. As far as we know they are still there and probably heading back to their home countries very soon.
For me hearing this made what I am about to do more real. Anything can happen at any time, so I just ask for continued prayers, not only for me but for all the internationals working for the same cause.
I have heard a few stories of internationals who went to a peaceful protest of the third arrest of Shministim's (seniors refusing to serve in the IDF) that were brutally beaten and then taken to jail themselves. They were staging a peaceful sit in when the IDF started randomly beating the protesters and dragging them to jail. As far as we know they are still there and probably heading back to their home countries very soon.
For me hearing this made what I am about to do more real. Anything can happen at any time, so I just ask for continued prayers, not only for me but for all the internationals working for the same cause.
December 15, 2009
Egypt starts building steel wall on Gaza Strip border
Egypt has begun constructing a huge metal wall along its border with the Gaza Strip as it attempts to cut smuggling tunnels, the BBC has learned. When it is finished the wall will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and will extend 18 metres below the surface. The Egyptians are being helped by American army engineers, who the BBC understands have designed the wall. The plan has been shrouded in secrecy, with no comment or confirmation from the Egyptian government. The wall will take 18 months to complete. For weeks local farmers have noticed more activity at the border where trees were being cut down, but very few of them were aware that a barrier was being built.
'Impenetrable'
That is because the barrier, made of super-strength steel, has been hidden deep underground. The BBC has been told that it was manufactured in the US, that it fits together in similar fashion to a jigsaw, and that it has been tested to ensure it is bomb proof. US officials have though denied to the BBC that they are involved in building or supplying the wall. The reports say the wall cannot be cut or melted - in short it is impenetrable. Intelligence sources in Egypt say the barrier is being sunk close to the perimeter wall that already exists. They claim 4km of the wall has already been completed north of the Rafah crossing, with work now beginning to the south. The land beneath Egypt and Gaza resembles a Swiss cheese, full of holes and tunnels through which the Palestinians smuggle the everyday items they are denied by the blockade. But the Israelis say the tunnels are also used to smuggle people, weapons, and the components of the rockets that are fired at southern Israeli towns. The wall is not expected to stop all the smuggling, but it will force the Palestinians to go deeper and it will likely cut the hundreds of superficial tunnels closer to the surface that are used to move the bulk of the goods.
'Impenetrable'
That is because the barrier, made of super-strength steel, has been hidden deep underground. The BBC has been told that it was manufactured in the US, that it fits together in similar fashion to a jigsaw, and that it has been tested to ensure it is bomb proof. US officials have though denied to the BBC that they are involved in building or supplying the wall. The reports say the wall cannot be cut or melted - in short it is impenetrable. Intelligence sources in Egypt say the barrier is being sunk close to the perimeter wall that already exists. They claim 4km of the wall has already been completed north of the Rafah crossing, with work now beginning to the south. The land beneath Egypt and Gaza resembles a Swiss cheese, full of holes and tunnels through which the Palestinians smuggle the everyday items they are denied by the blockade. But the Israelis say the tunnels are also used to smuggle people, weapons, and the components of the rockets that are fired at southern Israeli towns. The wall is not expected to stop all the smuggling, but it will force the Palestinians to go deeper and it will likely cut the hundreds of superficial tunnels closer to the surface that are used to move the bulk of the goods.
December 13, 2009
I speak of Palestine by Robert L. Green
on believing what you’re told
to be so blind:
you must have learned
what not to know
to be so cold that you can say
“These people do belong
inside this tomb.”
They cannot move
or live
or eat
And, yes,
I speak of Palestine.
You cannot hold
its fate is just
and not be part
of grinding up
their bones and blood
to mix with desert earth
and olive oil
to build your state, your jail;
a wall surrounds
their place, like this:
a torture room
a starving field
a stolen home
a human shield
a bullet for a child
and poison gas on village streets
their food, their food!
Their food is gone
you cleanse
and push
and punish
taking what you want
to have for you alone.
We know it’s rape,
and though the world records
your names and deeds,
the future courts and trials
will not revive
the dead, displaced and missing.
And yes, I speak of Palestine.
Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques - IDF fashion 2009
Article by Uri Blau from Haaretz.com: Shirts made by Israeli soldiers with a picture of a pregnant Palestinian woman and a snipers scope pointed at her saying: 1 shot 2 killed.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072466.html
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072466.html
Gaza Freedom March less than one month away
The Gaza Freedom March that will take place in Gaza on 31 December is an historic initiative to break the siege that has imprisoned the 1.5 million people who live there. Conceived in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and nonviolent resistance to injustice worldwide, the march will gather people from all over the world to march — hand in hand — with the people of Gaza to demand that the Israelis open the borders.
Marking the one-year anniversary of the December 2008 Israeli invasion that left more than 1,400 dead, this is a grassroots global response to the inaction on the part of world leaders and institutions. More than 1,000 international delegates from 42 countries have already signed up and more are signing on every day.
Participants include Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker, leading Syrian comedian Duraid Lahham, French Senator Alima Boumediene-Thiery, author and Filipino Parliament member Walden Bello, former European Parliamentarians Luisa Morgantini from Italy and Eva Quistorp from Germany, President of the US Center for Constitutional Rights Attorney Michael Ratner, Japanese former Ambassador to Lebanon Naoto Amaki, French hip-hop artists Ministere des Affaires Populaires, and 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein.
We also have families of three generations, doctors, lawyers, diplomats, 70 students, an interfaith group that includes rabbis, priests and imams, a women’s delegation, a Jewish contingent, a veterans group and Palestinians born overseas who have never seen their families in Gaza.
The international delegates will enter Gaza via Egypt during the last week of December. In the morning 31 December, they will join Palestinians in a nonviolent march from northern Gaza to the Erez/Israeli border. On the Israeli side of the Erez border will be a gathering of Palestinians and Jews who are also calling on the Israeli government to open the border.
Inside Gaza, excitement is growing. Representatives of all aspects of civil society, including students, professors, refugee groups, unions, women’s organizations, nongovernmental organizations, have been busy organizing and estimate that at least 50,000 Palestinians will participate. People from the different sectors will march in their uniforms — fishermen, doctors, students, farmers, etc. Local Palestinian rappers, hip-hop bands and dabke dancers will perform on mobile stages.
http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?list=type&type=416
Marking the one-year anniversary of the December 2008 Israeli invasion that left more than 1,400 dead, this is a grassroots global response to the inaction on the part of world leaders and institutions. More than 1,000 international delegates from 42 countries have already signed up and more are signing on every day.
Participants include Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker, leading Syrian comedian Duraid Lahham, French Senator Alima Boumediene-Thiery, author and Filipino Parliament member Walden Bello, former European Parliamentarians Luisa Morgantini from Italy and Eva Quistorp from Germany, President of the US Center for Constitutional Rights Attorney Michael Ratner, Japanese former Ambassador to Lebanon Naoto Amaki, French hip-hop artists Ministere des Affaires Populaires, and 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein.
We also have families of three generations, doctors, lawyers, diplomats, 70 students, an interfaith group that includes rabbis, priests and imams, a women’s delegation, a Jewish contingent, a veterans group and Palestinians born overseas who have never seen their families in Gaza.
The international delegates will enter Gaza via Egypt during the last week of December. In the morning 31 December, they will join Palestinians in a nonviolent march from northern Gaza to the Erez/Israeli border. On the Israeli side of the Erez border will be a gathering of Palestinians and Jews who are also calling on the Israeli government to open the border.
Inside Gaza, excitement is growing. Representatives of all aspects of civil society, including students, professors, refugee groups, unions, women’s organizations, nongovernmental organizations, have been busy organizing and estimate that at least 50,000 Palestinians will participate. People from the different sectors will march in their uniforms — fishermen, doctors, students, farmers, etc. Local Palestinian rappers, hip-hop bands and dabke dancers will perform on mobile stages.
http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?list=type&type=416
Top Ten Brands to Boycott
While there are many Israeli and multinational companies that benefit from apartheid, we put together this list to highlight ten specific companies to target. Many of these produce goods in such a way that directly harms Palestinians — exploiting labor, developing technology for military operations, or supplying equipment for illegal settlements. Many are also the targets of boycotts for other reasons, like harming the environment and labor violations.
1. AHAVA
This brand’s cosmetics are produced using salt, minerals, and mud from the Dead Sea — natural resources that are excavated from the occupied West Bank. The products themselves are manufactured in the illegal Israeli settlement Mitzpe Shalem. AHAVA is the target of CODEPINK’s “Stolen Beauty” campaign.
2. Delta Galil Industries
Israel’s largest textiles manufacturer provides clothing and underwear for such popular brands as Gap, J-Crew, J.C. Penny, Calvin Klein, Playtex, Victoria’s Secret (see #10) and many others. Its founder and chairman Dov Lautman is a close associate of former Israeli President Ehud Barak. It has also been condemned by Sweatshop Watch for its exploitation of labor in other countries such as Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey.
3. Motorola
While many of us know this brand for its stylish cellphones, did you know that it also develops and manufactures bomb fuses and missile guidance systems? Motorola components are also used in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or “drones”) and in communications and surveillance systems used in settlements, checkpoints, and along the 490 mile apartheid wall. The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has launched the “Hang Up on Motorola” campaign.
4. L’Oreal / The Body Shop
This cosmetics and perfume company is known for its investments and manufacturing activities in Israel, including production in Migdal Haemek, the “Silicon Valley” of Israel built on the land of Palestinian village Al-Mujaydil, which was ethnically cleansed in 1948. In 1998, a representative of L’Oreal was given the Jubilee Award by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for strengthening the Israeli economy.
5. Dorot Garlic and Herbs
These frozen herbs that are sold at Trader Joe’s are shipped halfway around the world when they could easily be purchased locally. Trader Joe’s also sells Israeli Cous Cous and Pastures of Eden feta cheese that are made in Israel. QUIT, South Bay Mobilization, and other groups have targeted Trader Joe’s with a “Don’t Buy into Apartheid” campaign.
6. Estee Lauder
This company’s chairman Ronald Lauder is also the chairman of the Jewish National Fund, a quasi-governmental organization that was established in 1901 to acquire Palestinian land and is connected to the continued building of illegal settlements. Estee Lauder’s popular brands include Clinique, MAC, Origins, Bumble & Bumble, Aveda, fragrance lines for top designers, and many others. They have been the target of QUIT’s “Estee Slaughter Killer Products” campaign.
7. Intel
This technology company that manufactures computer processors and other hardware components employs thousands of Israelis and has exports from Israel totaling over $1 billion per year. They are one of Israel’s oldest foreign supporters, having established their first development center outside of the US in 1974 in Haifa. Al-Awda (the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition) has urged action against Intel for building a facility on the land of former village Iraq Al Manshiya, which was cleansed in 1949.
8. Sabra
This brand of hummus, baba ghanoush and other foods is co-owned by Israel’s second-largest food company The Strauss Group and Pepsico. On the “Corporate Responsibility” section of its website, The Strauss Group boasts of its relationship to the Israeli Army, offering food products and political support.
9. Sara Lee
Sara Lee holds a 30% stake in Delta Galil (see #2) and is the world’s largest clothing manufacturer, which owns or is affiliated with such brands as Hanes, Playtex, Champion, Leggs, Sara Lee Bakery, Ball Park hotdogs, Wonderbra, and many others. Similar to L’Oreal (see #4), a representative of Sara Lee received the Jubilee Award from Netanyahu for its commitment to business with Israel.
10. Victoria’s Secret
Most of Victoria’s Secret’s bras are produced by Delta Galil (see #2), and much of the cotton is also grown in Israel on confiscated Palestinian land. Victoria’s Secret has also been the target of labor rights’ groups for sourcing products from companies with labor violations, and by environmental groups for their unsustainable use of paper in producing their catalogues. That’s not sexy!
1. AHAVA
This brand’s cosmetics are produced using salt, minerals, and mud from the Dead Sea — natural resources that are excavated from the occupied West Bank. The products themselves are manufactured in the illegal Israeli settlement Mitzpe Shalem. AHAVA is the target of CODEPINK’s “Stolen Beauty” campaign.
2. Delta Galil Industries
Israel’s largest textiles manufacturer provides clothing and underwear for such popular brands as Gap, J-Crew, J.C. Penny, Calvin Klein, Playtex, Victoria’s Secret (see #10) and many others. Its founder and chairman Dov Lautman is a close associate of former Israeli President Ehud Barak. It has also been condemned by Sweatshop Watch for its exploitation of labor in other countries such as Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey.
3. Motorola
While many of us know this brand for its stylish cellphones, did you know that it also develops and manufactures bomb fuses and missile guidance systems? Motorola components are also used in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or “drones”) and in communications and surveillance systems used in settlements, checkpoints, and along the 490 mile apartheid wall. The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has launched the “Hang Up on Motorola” campaign.
4. L’Oreal / The Body Shop
This cosmetics and perfume company is known for its investments and manufacturing activities in Israel, including production in Migdal Haemek, the “Silicon Valley” of Israel built on the land of Palestinian village Al-Mujaydil, which was ethnically cleansed in 1948. In 1998, a representative of L’Oreal was given the Jubilee Award by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for strengthening the Israeli economy.
5. Dorot Garlic and Herbs
These frozen herbs that are sold at Trader Joe’s are shipped halfway around the world when they could easily be purchased locally. Trader Joe’s also sells Israeli Cous Cous and Pastures of Eden feta cheese that are made in Israel. QUIT, South Bay Mobilization, and other groups have targeted Trader Joe’s with a “Don’t Buy into Apartheid” campaign.
6. Estee Lauder
This company’s chairman Ronald Lauder is also the chairman of the Jewish National Fund, a quasi-governmental organization that was established in 1901 to acquire Palestinian land and is connected to the continued building of illegal settlements. Estee Lauder’s popular brands include Clinique, MAC, Origins, Bumble & Bumble, Aveda, fragrance lines for top designers, and many others. They have been the target of QUIT’s “Estee Slaughter Killer Products” campaign.
7. Intel
This technology company that manufactures computer processors and other hardware components employs thousands of Israelis and has exports from Israel totaling over $1 billion per year. They are one of Israel’s oldest foreign supporters, having established their first development center outside of the US in 1974 in Haifa. Al-Awda (the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition) has urged action against Intel for building a facility on the land of former village Iraq Al Manshiya, which was cleansed in 1949.
8. Sabra
This brand of hummus, baba ghanoush and other foods is co-owned by Israel’s second-largest food company The Strauss Group and Pepsico. On the “Corporate Responsibility” section of its website, The Strauss Group boasts of its relationship to the Israeli Army, offering food products and political support.
9. Sara Lee
Sara Lee holds a 30% stake in Delta Galil (see #2) and is the world’s largest clothing manufacturer, which owns or is affiliated with such brands as Hanes, Playtex, Champion, Leggs, Sara Lee Bakery, Ball Park hotdogs, Wonderbra, and many others. Similar to L’Oreal (see #4), a representative of Sara Lee received the Jubilee Award from Netanyahu for its commitment to business with Israel.
10. Victoria’s Secret
Most of Victoria’s Secret’s bras are produced by Delta Galil (see #2), and much of the cotton is also grown in Israel on confiscated Palestinian land. Victoria’s Secret has also been the target of labor rights’ groups for sourcing products from companies with labor violations, and by environmental groups for their unsustainable use of paper in producing their catalogues. That’s not sexy!
Quotations: Gandhi on Palestinian resistance
“I am not defending Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightfully regard as an unacceptable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted cannons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.” (Martin Buber and Paul R. Mendes-Flohr, A Land of Two Peoples)
~Mahatma Gandhi
Quotations: Modern Israeli historian on the discrepancy between the collective understanding and the reality illustrated by these candid quotations
“When it comes to the dispossession by Israel of the Palestinians in 1948, there is a deep chasm between reality and the representation. This is most bewildering, and it is difficult to understand how events perpetrated in modern times and witnessed by foreign reporters and UN observers could be systematically denied, not even recognized as historical fact, let alone acknowledged as a crime that needs to be confronted, politically as well as morally. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the ethnic cleansing of 1948, the most formative event in modern history of the land of Palestine, has been almost entirely eradicated from the collective global memory and erased from the world’s conscience.”
~Ilan Pappe, prominent Israeli “New Historian,” 2006
Quotations: Former Israeli leader on Jewish resistance to British occupation
“Neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat … First and foremost, terrorism is for us a part of the political battle being conducted under the present circumstances, and it has a great part to play … in our war against the occupier.” (Chomsky, Fateful)
~Yitzhak Shamir, 7th Israeli Prime Minister
Quotations: Quotes from modern Israeli leaders
“It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is no Zionism, colonialization [sic], or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands. (Finkelstein, Image) Everybody has to move, run, and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours… Everything we don’t grab will go to them.”
“The vision I would like to see here is the entrenching of the Jewish and the Zionist state…. I very much favor democracy, but when there is a contradiction between democratic and Jewish values, the Jewish and Zionist values are more important.” (Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada)
~Ariel Sharon, Israeli Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006
“The vision I would like to see here is the entrenching of the Jewish and the Zionist state…. I very much favor democracy, but when there is a contradiction between democratic and Jewish values, the Jewish and Zionist values are more important.” (Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada)
~Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli Minister of Strategic Threats, 2006
December 12, 2009
Quotations: Reflections of the 1967 War
“I do not think that Nasser wanted war. The two divisions he sent to the Sinai would not have been sufficient to launch an offensive war. He knew it and we knew it.” (Le Monde)
“In June 1967, we again had a chance. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.” (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
“I know how at least 80 percent of the incidents with Syria started. In my opinion, more than 80 percent … It would go like this: we would send a tractor to plow … in the demilitarized area, and we would know ahead of time that the Syrians would start shooting. If they did not start shooting, we would inform the tractor to progress further, until the Syrians, in the end, would get nervous and would shoot. And then we would use guns, and later, even air force, and that is how it went…. We thought … that we could changes the lines of the cease-fire by military actions that were less then war. That is, to seize some territory and hold it until the enemy despairs and gives it to us.” (Finkelstein, Image)
~Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s 5th Prime Minister, 1968
“In June 1967, we again had a chance. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.” (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
~Menachem Bagin, 6th Israeli prime Minister, 1982
“I know how at least 80 percent of the incidents with Syria started. In my opinion, more than 80 percent … It would go like this: we would send a tractor to plow … in the demilitarized area, and we would know ahead of time that the Syrians would start shooting. If they did not start shooting, we would inform the tractor to progress further, until the Syrians, in the end, would get nervous and would shoot. And then we would use guns, and later, even air force, and that is how it went…. We thought … that we could changes the lines of the cease-fire by military actions that were less then war. That is, to seize some territory and hold it until the enemy despairs and gives it to us.” (Finkelstein, Image)
~Moshe Dayan, Israeli Defense Minister, 1976
Quotations: Leading up to the 1967 War and the Occupation
“[Israel must] invent dangers, and to do this it must adopt the method of provocation-and-revenge … And above all-let us hope for a new war with the Arab countries, so that we may finally get rid of our troubles and acquire space.” (Livia Rokach, Israel’s Sacred Terrorism)
“In the case of a new war, we must avoid the historic mistake of the War of Independence [1948 War] and, later, the Sinai Campaign. We must not cease fighting until we achieve … the territorial fulfillment of the Land of Israel.” (Michael Brecher, Decisions in Crisis)
~Moshe Sharatt, Israeli Prime Minister in 1953-1955
“In the case of a new war, we must avoid the historic mistake of the War of Independence [1948 War] and, later, the Sinai Campaign. We must not cease fighting until we achieve … the territorial fulfillment of the Land of Israel.” (Michael Brecher, Decisions in Crisis)
~Yigal Allon, Interim Prime Minister in 1969, Architect of the Allon Plan
Quotations: After the establishment of Israel
“In our country there is only room for the Jews. We shall say to the Arabs: Get out! If they don’t agree, if they resist, we shall drive them out by force.” (History of the Haganah)
“Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them?... They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? They may perhaps forget in one or two generations’ time, but for the moment there is no chance.” (Nahum Goldmann, The Jewish Paradox)
~Ben-Zion Dinur, Israeli Minister of Education and Culture, 1954
“Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them?... They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? They may perhaps forget in one or two generations’ time, but for the moment there is no chance.” (Nahum Goldmann, The Jewish Paradox)
~ David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, 1956
Quotations: Early Zionist leaders on Partition
“The debate has not been for or against the indivisibility of Ezretz Israel [the “Land of Israel,” including the West Bank and Gaza]. No Zionist can forgo the smallest portion of Eretz Israel. The debate was over which of two routes would lead quicker to the common goal.” (Chomsky, Fateful)
“I have no doubt that our army will be among the world’s outstanding-and so I am certain that we won’t be constrained from settling in the rest of the country, whether out of accord and mutual understanding with the Arab neighbors or otherwise.” (Yosef Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs)
“After the formation of a large army in the wake of the establishment of the state, we will abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine” (Remi Kanazi, “Transferring the Truth”)
“The partition of the Homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized…. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will forever be our capital. Eretz Israel [the “Land of Israel,” including the West Bank and Gaza] will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And forever.” (Menachem Begin, “The Revolt”)
“I have no doubt that our army will be among the world’s outstanding-and so I am certain that we won’t be constrained from settling in the rest of the country, whether out of accord and mutual understanding with the Arab neighbors or otherwise.” (Yosef Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs)
“After the formation of a large army in the wake of the establishment of the state, we will abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine” (Remi Kanazi, “Transferring the Truth”)
~ David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, 1937
“The partition of the Homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized…. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will forever be our capital. Eretz Israel [the “Land of Israel,” including the West Bank and Gaza] will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And forever.” (Menachem Begin, “The Revolt”)
~Menachem Begin, 6th Israeli Prime Minister, 1954
Quotations: During the War of 1948
"In the Negev we will not buy land. We will conquer it." (Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem)
"These operations can be carried out in the following manner: either by destroying villages (by setting fire to them, by blowing them up, and by planting mines in their rubble), and especially those population centers that are difficult to control permanently; or by mounting combing and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the villages, conducting a search inside them. In case of resistance, the armed forces must be wiped out and the population expelled outside the borders of the state."
"[Capturing the village] without a fight, [Zionist forces first] killed about 80-100 [male] Arabs, women and children. The children they killed by breaking their heads with sticks. There was not a house without dead…. One soldier boasted that he had raped a woman and then shot her. One woman, with a newborn baby in her arms, was employed to clear the courtyard where the soldiers ate. She worked a day or two. In the end they shot her and her baby." (Frinkelstein, Image)
~ David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father and first prime minister
"These operations can be carried out in the following manner: either by destroying villages (by setting fire to them, by blowing them up, and by planting mines in their rubble), and especially those population centers that are difficult to control permanently; or by mounting combing and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the villages, conducting a search inside them. In case of resistance, the armed forces must be wiped out and the population expelled outside the borders of the state."
~From Operation Dalet, adopted by the Zionist leadership in 1948
"[Capturing the village] without a fight, [Zionist forces first] killed about 80-100 [male] Arabs, women and children. The children they killed by breaking their heads with sticks. There was not a house without dead…. One soldier boasted that he had raped a woman and then shot her. One woman, with a newborn baby in her arms, was employed to clear the courtyard where the soldiers ate. She worked a day or two. In the end they shot her and her baby." (Frinkelstein, Image)
~Eyewitness soldier of the massacre at Ad-Dawayima village in October 1948
Quotations: Early Zionist leaders on the fulfillment of Zionism
"We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border procuring employment for them in the transit countries while denying any employment in our country. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly." (Raphael Patai, The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl)
"We must expel the Arabs and take their places and if we have to use force to guarantee our own right to settle in those places-then we have force at our disposal." (Nur Masalha, Expulsion of Palestinians)
"In Palestine we do not propose to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants … The four great powers are committed to Zionism and Zionism, be right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long tradition, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit the ancient land." (Edward Said, The Question of Palestine)
"Zionist colonization, even the most restricted, must either be terminated or carried out in defiance of the native population." (Valdimir Jabotinsky, The Iron Wall: We and the Arabs)
"I support compulsory transfer. I do not see in it anything immoral … The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war." (Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine)
~Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, 1897
"We must expel the Arabs and take their places and if we have to use force to guarantee our own right to settle in those places-then we have force at our disposal." (Nur Masalha, Expulsion of Palestinians)
~ David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, 1937
"In Palestine we do not propose to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants … The four great powers are committed to Zionism and Zionism, be right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long tradition, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit the ancient land." (Edward Said, The Question of Palestine)
~Lord Balfour, British Foreign Secretary, author of the Balfour Declaration, promising a “homeland for the Jews” in Palestine, 1919
"Zionist colonization, even the most restricted, must either be terminated or carried out in defiance of the native population." (Valdimir Jabotinsky, The Iron Wall: We and the Arabs)
~Valdimir Jabotinsky, founder of revisionist Zionism, 1923
"I support compulsory transfer. I do not see in it anything immoral … The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war." (Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine)
~ David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, 1937
Frequently Asked Questions about the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (As stated in ‘Witness in Palestine’)
FAQ #1: There are many terrible things happening around the world. Why should Americans care so much about this particular conflict?
Whether they know it or not, Americans are deeply involved in the Israel/Palestine conflict because they are Israel’s financial sponsors. US tax-payers are funding Israel’s aggression and therefore have a right and a responsibility to demand that those tax dollars not be used to violate international law and human rights.
The US government also perpetuates the conflict by preventing the United Nations from taking decisive action against Israel’s crimes. A University of Cambridge study found that the US veto has ensured that Israel enjoys “virtual immunity” from the enforcement measures typically adopted by the UN against countries committing identical violations of international law. (Chomsky, Fateful) According to President Carter: “The United Sates has used its U.N. Security Council veto more than forty times to block resolutions critical of Israel. Some of those vetoes have brought international discredit on the United Sates, and there is little doubt that the lack of a persistent effort to resolve the Palestinian issue is a major source of anti-American sentiment and terrorist activity throughout the Middle East and the Islamic world.”
FAQ #2: Why does the US continue to give Israel so much aid and political support?
The main reasons of US support of Israel can be summed up as follows:
1. The second most-powerful lobby in the US is the “Zionist lobby” (often mislabeled the “Jewish Lobby” even though it is composed of many non-Jews, and many Jews oppose it), led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). (Daniel Kurtzman, “AIPAC listed 2nd most powerful group on Fortune list”) Described in the New York Times as “the most important organization affecting America’s relationship with Israel,” (AIPAC homepage) AIPAC has more than 100,000 US members and an annual budget of as much as $40 million, which it uses to promote US policy aligned with Israeli interests. AIPAC has successfully defeated numerous senators who were perceived to be insufficiently pro-Israel. (Mitchell Kaidy, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs) Senator William Fulbright wrote in The Price of Empire: “AIPAC … and its allied organizations have effective working control of the electoral process. They can elect or defeat nearly any congressman or senator that they wish, with their money and coordinated organization”. University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Harvard professor Stephen Walt published a controversial article entitled “The Israel Lobby,” outlining various ways in which the lobby’s control over US policies actually functions to detriment of US strategic interests.
2. Some argue that the US would never pursue another country’s interests above its own and that US support for Israel is due to the countries’ twin interests in military and spin-off development projects and the storage and base facilities that Israel provides for US forces targeting oil-rich countries in the region. Still others believe that it is a combination of the Zionist Lobby and US strategic interests that perpetuates US support for Israeli violations of international law.
3. No small number of American industries are profiting from US support for Israel. Most notable among those are US arms manufacturers. In addition to American weapons that are donated to Israel, two-thirds of US financial aid to Israel is earmarked for purchase of more US arms. Other groups profiting from the conflict include the oil industry, Arab leaders, and the US elected representatives who receive generous election donations for maintaining the status quo or increasing US unconditional support for Israel.
4. Finally, American public opinion about Israel tends to be sympathetic for two reasons: First, people are sensitive to the tragic plight of Jews throughout history. Against this historic backdrop, people are resistant to criticizing Israel and seeing Jews as anything other than the victims. Second, although American tax-payers give more foreign aid to Israel than to any other country in the world, many remain largely ignorant to the uses of this aid and therefore do nothing to change it. This is due in large part to what many perceive as a US mainstream media pro-Israel bias, which is documented extensively by the organization If Americans Knew. One of the group’s studies found that the Associated Press reported deaths of Israeli children more often than occurred but failed to cover 85% of the deaths of Palestinian children. Another study on the San Francisco Chronicle made 30 mentions of Israeli children dying for every 20 who died (i.e., some deaths were reported more than once), but reported on only 1 in 20 deaths of Palestinian children. Studies on the New York Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, and other media sources revealed similar trends. Stories about torture, hunger strikes, Israeli refuseniks, and the Palestinian nonviolence movement were grossly underreported. As long as Americans remain ignorant of Israeli’s atrocities, they are unlikely to pressure their government to stop funding them.
Whether they know it or not, Americans are deeply involved in the Israel/Palestine conflict because they are Israel’s financial sponsors. US tax-payers are funding Israel’s aggression and therefore have a right and a responsibility to demand that those tax dollars not be used to violate international law and human rights.
The US government also perpetuates the conflict by preventing the United Nations from taking decisive action against Israel’s crimes. A University of Cambridge study found that the US veto has ensured that Israel enjoys “virtual immunity” from the enforcement measures typically adopted by the UN against countries committing identical violations of international law. (Chomsky, Fateful) According to President Carter: “The United Sates has used its U.N. Security Council veto more than forty times to block resolutions critical of Israel. Some of those vetoes have brought international discredit on the United Sates, and there is little doubt that the lack of a persistent effort to resolve the Palestinian issue is a major source of anti-American sentiment and terrorist activity throughout the Middle East and the Islamic world.”
FAQ #2: Why does the US continue to give Israel so much aid and political support?
The main reasons of US support of Israel can be summed up as follows:
1. The second most-powerful lobby in the US is the “Zionist lobby” (often mislabeled the “Jewish Lobby” even though it is composed of many non-Jews, and many Jews oppose it), led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). (Daniel Kurtzman, “AIPAC listed 2nd most powerful group on Fortune list”) Described in the New York Times as “the most important organization affecting America’s relationship with Israel,” (AIPAC homepage) AIPAC has more than 100,000 US members and an annual budget of as much as $40 million, which it uses to promote US policy aligned with Israeli interests. AIPAC has successfully defeated numerous senators who were perceived to be insufficiently pro-Israel. (Mitchell Kaidy, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs) Senator William Fulbright wrote in The Price of Empire: “AIPAC … and its allied organizations have effective working control of the electoral process. They can elect or defeat nearly any congressman or senator that they wish, with their money and coordinated organization”. University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Harvard professor Stephen Walt published a controversial article entitled “The Israel Lobby,” outlining various ways in which the lobby’s control over US policies actually functions to detriment of US strategic interests.
2. Some argue that the US would never pursue another country’s interests above its own and that US support for Israel is due to the countries’ twin interests in military and spin-off development projects and the storage and base facilities that Israel provides for US forces targeting oil-rich countries in the region. Still others believe that it is a combination of the Zionist Lobby and US strategic interests that perpetuates US support for Israeli violations of international law.
3. No small number of American industries are profiting from US support for Israel. Most notable among those are US arms manufacturers. In addition to American weapons that are donated to Israel, two-thirds of US financial aid to Israel is earmarked for purchase of more US arms. Other groups profiting from the conflict include the oil industry, Arab leaders, and the US elected representatives who receive generous election donations for maintaining the status quo or increasing US unconditional support for Israel.
4. Finally, American public opinion about Israel tends to be sympathetic for two reasons: First, people are sensitive to the tragic plight of Jews throughout history. Against this historic backdrop, people are resistant to criticizing Israel and seeing Jews as anything other than the victims. Second, although American tax-payers give more foreign aid to Israel than to any other country in the world, many remain largely ignorant to the uses of this aid and therefore do nothing to change it. This is due in large part to what many perceive as a US mainstream media pro-Israel bias, which is documented extensively by the organization If Americans Knew. One of the group’s studies found that the Associated Press reported deaths of Israeli children more often than occurred but failed to cover 85% of the deaths of Palestinian children. Another study on the San Francisco Chronicle made 30 mentions of Israeli children dying for every 20 who died (i.e., some deaths were reported more than once), but reported on only 1 in 20 deaths of Palestinian children. Studies on the New York Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, and other media sources revealed similar trends. Stories about torture, hunger strikes, Israeli refuseniks, and the Palestinian nonviolence movement were grossly underreported. As long as Americans remain ignorant of Israeli’s atrocities, they are unlikely to pressure their government to stop funding them.
December 8, 2009
Myths of the Palestine/Israel Conflict (As stated in 'Witness in Palestine')
Myth #1: This is an ancient war between Jews and Muslims.
The Israel-Palestine conflict actually began quite recently. Jews and Palestinians had traditionally coexisted with little if any conflict between then before Zionist immigration began. European settlers started purchasing land from absentee Arab owners for exclusive Jewish labor and settlement, leading to the dispossession of non-Jewish peasants living on that land. (Don Pertz, The Arab-Israel Dispute; as cited in The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict, published by Jews for Justice in the Middle East, third edition)
This is not a conflict of the Jewish people versus the Muslim people. First of all, 20% of Palestinians worldwide are Christians, and they are subject to the same restrictions as their Muslim counterparts. Israel has a strong peace movement calling for an end to the mutually-destructive Occupation, and many Jews find Zionist itself antithetical to Jewish principles.
Myth #2: Jewish Israelis are the descendants of the original inhabitants of Israel/Palestine.
Before the Hebrews first migrated there around 1800 B.C., present day Israel/Palestine was inhabited by Canaanites. The Jewish kingdoms ruled for 414 years, just one of the many periods in the land of Canaan. Palestinians are the descendents of intermarried Canaanites and Arabs who arrived in the 600s. (The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict, published by Jews for Justice in the Middle East, third edition)
Genetic studies have shown that Sephardic Jews (descendents of Canaanites who migrated to the Iberian peninsula and then to North Africa and the Middle East) are actually closer to Palestinians than they are to Ashkenazi Jews (concentrated in Eastern Europe). This is because Ashkenazi Israelis are largely the descendents of Turkic kahazars (of Slavic ancestry) who converted to Judaism in the 700s or 800s, not the descendents of Canaanites. According to geneticist Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, “the Zionist concept of ‘return’ is flawed, at least with respect to Ashkenazi Jews … Return implies that one’s ancestors originated from the area in question”. (Qumsiyeh)
The idea that anyone has claim to land based on blood or religion rather than geography is inherently problematic and dangerous, but for those inclined to argue in the basis of ancient inheritance, it is instructive to know that Palestinians have as much-if not more- ancestral claim to the land as Jews do.
Myth #3: Israel is a democracy.
Israel is the state of the Jewish people, not the state of its citizens. Non-Jewish citizens are excluded from many things granted automatically to Jews. Palestinian citizens of Israel are largely prevented from buying or leasing 93% of the land in Israel, much of it owned by the Jewish National Fund and thus exclusively reserved for Jews. Although they pay taxes, Palestinian citizen of Israel living in non-Jewish neighborhoods receive only a fraction of the resources and services granted to Jewish neighborhoods. Palestinian citizens of Israel are allowed to vote, and they can even run for office, unless they run on a platform advocating that Israel become the state of all its citizens rather than the state only of the Jews, in which case they can be disqualified. (www.Adalah.org) A 1989 High Court case challenging the law found that “it is necessary to prevent a Jew or Arab who calls for equality of rights for Arabs from sitting in the Knesset [Israeli Parliament] or being elected to it.” One Justice stated that a political party should be disqualified if it advocates “a state, as all democratic states, of the totality of its citizens, without any advantage to the Jewish people as such.” (Chomsky, Fateful)
Moreover, more than one third of the people living under Israeli rule are denied Israeli citizenship and the rights and protections that come along with it, including the right to participate in the government that controls their lives. These are the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. The government in which non-Jews in the Occupied Territories can participate is not allowed to do basic things like control its peoples own borders, security, or finances.
It is worth noting that Israel is a democracy for Jews. In other words, Israel is an ethnocracy.
Myth #4: The return of the Palestinian refugees would mean the displacement of Jewish Israelis, and is therefore impossible.
Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, a former member of the Palestinian National Council and the founder of the Palestine Land Society, has conducted extensive research on the possibility of refugees returning to their villages, many of which no longer exist. At an international convention on the right of return in July of 2006, he clarified his findings in four illustrative points:
• The land of the refugees, roughly 93% of present day Israel, is currently inhabited by 1.5% of Israeli Jews.
• Of the more than 500 Palestinian villages from which the refugees were expelled, 90% are still vacant (many planted over with trees), 7% are partially built-over, and just 3% are completely built over-those in Tel Aviv and West Jerusalem.
• A full 97% of the refugees live within 62 miles of their homes, and 50% of them live within 25 miles. Many can see their land from their camp but cannot go there.
• The population density of Gaza is roughly 15,500 people/square mile, while Gaza’s refugees’ land nearby is practically empty-fewer than 16 Israelis/square mile. There are fewer Jews in the half of Israel closest to Gaza (from Ramleh to Eilat) than the population of a single Gaza refugee camp. Israel has welcomed as many Russian immigrants as there are Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Gaza combined, and has been clear that it would make room for millions more Jewish immigrants of such a possibility arose. (Al-Awad’s 4th International Convention)
The issue is not about space; it’s about demographics. The issue is that allowing Palestinian refugees to return would alter the ethnic character of Israel.
Myth #5: Israel has no genuine partner for negotiations or peace.
The most common example cited as “proof” that Palestinians don’t want peace is Yasser Arafat’s rejection of the offer presented by Israeli Prime Minister Barak at Camp David in 2000. Widely perceived as generous, in fact the proposal fell far short of Israel’s responsibilities to the Palestinians under international law in numerous ways:
• The proposal suggested that Israel annex 10% of the West Bank, including some of its most fertile and water rich areas, also home to more than 80,000 Palestinians.
• The proposal kept Israel in control of the West Bank’s border with Jordan, thereby creating a defacto Palestinian island within Israel.
• The proposal offered the Palestinians control over the Arab sections of Jerusalem, but kept all of the city-as well as 85.3% of settlers-under Israeli sovereignty.
• The proposal specified that the Palestinian state would not control airspace or water, and could not have an army.
• The proposal cut the Palestinian state into three separate cantons: the Gaza Strip, the north West Bank, and the south West Bank. Gaza had no clear territorial link to the West Bank.
• The proposal denied Palestinians refugees their right to return to their homes and land to live in peace with their neighbors. (Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, 2002)
Arafat’s rejection of Barak’s offer does not seem so shocking when you see a map of what the finial effect would have looked like. President Jimmy Carter writes about Camp David: “There was no possibility that any Palestinian leader could accept such terms and survive, but official statements from Washington and Jerusalem were successful in placing the entire onus for the failure on Yasir Arafat.” (Carter) Even Barak’s foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami-a key player at Camp David-later admitted publicly: “If I were a Palestinian I would have rejected Camp David as well.” (As cited by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East)
One could argue that Arafat should have agreed to the proposal because now the Palestinians are even worse off, but that’s not a logic employed by many Palestinians. Most of them would prefer being forced into oppression than signing away their rights to freedom. Maybe this way they can still hope for change.
In fact, Israel has been offered peace in exchange for compliance with international law several times, and rejected each offer. Here are some examples:
• In the mid-1970’s, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) endorsed a comprehensive peace with Israel in exchange for its full withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza. Israel rejected the offer. (Finkelstein, Image)
• In March 2002, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, along with 21 other members of the Arab League, proposed not only peace but normal relations and regional integration with Israel in exchange for an end to the Occupation and a “just solution” to the refugee problem. Israel rejected the offer. (Ibid)
• Israel effectively rejected the Saudi Initiative a second time when the proposal was included as part of the “Roadmap” announced by the UN. Wrote Carter: “The Palestinians accepted the road map in its entirety, but the Israeli government announced fourteen caveats and prerequisites, some of which preclude any final peace talks.”
The Palestinians long ago joined the international consensus advocating two states based on the 1967 borders, shared Jerusalem, and a joint solution for the refugees. Fatah recognized Israel’s right to exist and renounced violence in 1988.(PASSIA) Hamas has also announced its willingness to establish peace with Israel along its internationally recognized borders. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told Newsweek and the Washington Post: “If Israel withdrawals to the 1967 borders, then we will establish a peace in stages. We will establish a situation of stability and calm which will bring safety for our people…a long term hudna [ceasefire].” (Yitzhak Ben-Horin, Israel News)
Israel has refused to negotiate with the democratically elected Palestinian government of Hamas for three official reasons: (1) failure to renounce violence, (2) failure to recognize and abide by previous agreements, and (3) failure to recognize the right of a state besides one of its own to exist in historic Palestine. Interestingly, Israel is guilty of all three of the very things for which it faults Hamas.
Myth #6: Israel only uses violence as a last resort, to defend itself and to prevent terror attacks.
Human rights organizations have documented extensive disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli army for over 40 years. For example, according to Amnesty International, most of the children killed by soldiers in 2002 were attacked “when there was no exchange of fire and in circumstance in which the lives of the soldiers were not at risk.” B’tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, described the situation as follows: “In every city and refugee camp that they entered, IDF soldiers have repeated the same pattern: indiscriminate firing and then killing of innocent civilians, intentional harm to water, electricity and telephone infrastructure, taking over civilian houses, extensive damage to civilian property, shooting at ambulances and prevention of medical care to the injured.” (A Deadly Pattern, B’tselem March 2002)
The Israel-Palestine conflict actually began quite recently. Jews and Palestinians had traditionally coexisted with little if any conflict between then before Zionist immigration began. European settlers started purchasing land from absentee Arab owners for exclusive Jewish labor and settlement, leading to the dispossession of non-Jewish peasants living on that land. (Don Pertz, The Arab-Israel Dispute; as cited in The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict, published by Jews for Justice in the Middle East, third edition)
This is not a conflict of the Jewish people versus the Muslim people. First of all, 20% of Palestinians worldwide are Christians, and they are subject to the same restrictions as their Muslim counterparts. Israel has a strong peace movement calling for an end to the mutually-destructive Occupation, and many Jews find Zionist itself antithetical to Jewish principles.
Myth #2: Jewish Israelis are the descendants of the original inhabitants of Israel/Palestine.
Before the Hebrews first migrated there around 1800 B.C., present day Israel/Palestine was inhabited by Canaanites. The Jewish kingdoms ruled for 414 years, just one of the many periods in the land of Canaan. Palestinians are the descendents of intermarried Canaanites and Arabs who arrived in the 600s. (The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict, published by Jews for Justice in the Middle East, third edition)
Genetic studies have shown that Sephardic Jews (descendents of Canaanites who migrated to the Iberian peninsula and then to North Africa and the Middle East) are actually closer to Palestinians than they are to Ashkenazi Jews (concentrated in Eastern Europe). This is because Ashkenazi Israelis are largely the descendents of Turkic kahazars (of Slavic ancestry) who converted to Judaism in the 700s or 800s, not the descendents of Canaanites. According to geneticist Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, “the Zionist concept of ‘return’ is flawed, at least with respect to Ashkenazi Jews … Return implies that one’s ancestors originated from the area in question”. (Qumsiyeh)
The idea that anyone has claim to land based on blood or religion rather than geography is inherently problematic and dangerous, but for those inclined to argue in the basis of ancient inheritance, it is instructive to know that Palestinians have as much-if not more- ancestral claim to the land as Jews do.
Myth #3: Israel is a democracy.
Israel is the state of the Jewish people, not the state of its citizens. Non-Jewish citizens are excluded from many things granted automatically to Jews. Palestinian citizens of Israel are largely prevented from buying or leasing 93% of the land in Israel, much of it owned by the Jewish National Fund and thus exclusively reserved for Jews. Although they pay taxes, Palestinian citizen of Israel living in non-Jewish neighborhoods receive only a fraction of the resources and services granted to Jewish neighborhoods. Palestinian citizens of Israel are allowed to vote, and they can even run for office, unless they run on a platform advocating that Israel become the state of all its citizens rather than the state only of the Jews, in which case they can be disqualified. (www.Adalah.org) A 1989 High Court case challenging the law found that “it is necessary to prevent a Jew or Arab who calls for equality of rights for Arabs from sitting in the Knesset [Israeli Parliament] or being elected to it.” One Justice stated that a political party should be disqualified if it advocates “a state, as all democratic states, of the totality of its citizens, without any advantage to the Jewish people as such.” (Chomsky, Fateful)
Moreover, more than one third of the people living under Israeli rule are denied Israeli citizenship and the rights and protections that come along with it, including the right to participate in the government that controls their lives. These are the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. The government in which non-Jews in the Occupied Territories can participate is not allowed to do basic things like control its peoples own borders, security, or finances.
It is worth noting that Israel is a democracy for Jews. In other words, Israel is an ethnocracy.
Myth #4: The return of the Palestinian refugees would mean the displacement of Jewish Israelis, and is therefore impossible.
Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, a former member of the Palestinian National Council and the founder of the Palestine Land Society, has conducted extensive research on the possibility of refugees returning to their villages, many of which no longer exist. At an international convention on the right of return in July of 2006, he clarified his findings in four illustrative points:
• The land of the refugees, roughly 93% of present day Israel, is currently inhabited by 1.5% of Israeli Jews.
• Of the more than 500 Palestinian villages from which the refugees were expelled, 90% are still vacant (many planted over with trees), 7% are partially built-over, and just 3% are completely built over-those in Tel Aviv and West Jerusalem.
• A full 97% of the refugees live within 62 miles of their homes, and 50% of them live within 25 miles. Many can see their land from their camp but cannot go there.
• The population density of Gaza is roughly 15,500 people/square mile, while Gaza’s refugees’ land nearby is practically empty-fewer than 16 Israelis/square mile. There are fewer Jews in the half of Israel closest to Gaza (from Ramleh to Eilat) than the population of a single Gaza refugee camp. Israel has welcomed as many Russian immigrants as there are Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Gaza combined, and has been clear that it would make room for millions more Jewish immigrants of such a possibility arose. (Al-Awad’s 4th International Convention)
The issue is not about space; it’s about demographics. The issue is that allowing Palestinian refugees to return would alter the ethnic character of Israel.
Myth #5: Israel has no genuine partner for negotiations or peace.
The most common example cited as “proof” that Palestinians don’t want peace is Yasser Arafat’s rejection of the offer presented by Israeli Prime Minister Barak at Camp David in 2000. Widely perceived as generous, in fact the proposal fell far short of Israel’s responsibilities to the Palestinians under international law in numerous ways:
• The proposal suggested that Israel annex 10% of the West Bank, including some of its most fertile and water rich areas, also home to more than 80,000 Palestinians.
• The proposal kept Israel in control of the West Bank’s border with Jordan, thereby creating a defacto Palestinian island within Israel.
• The proposal offered the Palestinians control over the Arab sections of Jerusalem, but kept all of the city-as well as 85.3% of settlers-under Israeli sovereignty.
• The proposal specified that the Palestinian state would not control airspace or water, and could not have an army.
• The proposal cut the Palestinian state into three separate cantons: the Gaza Strip, the north West Bank, and the south West Bank. Gaza had no clear territorial link to the West Bank.
• The proposal denied Palestinians refugees their right to return to their homes and land to live in peace with their neighbors. (Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, 2002)
Arafat’s rejection of Barak’s offer does not seem so shocking when you see a map of what the finial effect would have looked like. President Jimmy Carter writes about Camp David: “There was no possibility that any Palestinian leader could accept such terms and survive, but official statements from Washington and Jerusalem were successful in placing the entire onus for the failure on Yasir Arafat.” (Carter) Even Barak’s foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami-a key player at Camp David-later admitted publicly: “If I were a Palestinian I would have rejected Camp David as well.” (As cited by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East)
One could argue that Arafat should have agreed to the proposal because now the Palestinians are even worse off, but that’s not a logic employed by many Palestinians. Most of them would prefer being forced into oppression than signing away their rights to freedom. Maybe this way they can still hope for change.
In fact, Israel has been offered peace in exchange for compliance with international law several times, and rejected each offer. Here are some examples:
• In the mid-1970’s, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) endorsed a comprehensive peace with Israel in exchange for its full withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza. Israel rejected the offer. (Finkelstein, Image)
• In March 2002, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, along with 21 other members of the Arab League, proposed not only peace but normal relations and regional integration with Israel in exchange for an end to the Occupation and a “just solution” to the refugee problem. Israel rejected the offer. (Ibid)
• Israel effectively rejected the Saudi Initiative a second time when the proposal was included as part of the “Roadmap” announced by the UN. Wrote Carter: “The Palestinians accepted the road map in its entirety, but the Israeli government announced fourteen caveats and prerequisites, some of which preclude any final peace talks.”
The Palestinians long ago joined the international consensus advocating two states based on the 1967 borders, shared Jerusalem, and a joint solution for the refugees. Fatah recognized Israel’s right to exist and renounced violence in 1988.(PASSIA) Hamas has also announced its willingness to establish peace with Israel along its internationally recognized borders. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told Newsweek and the Washington Post: “If Israel withdrawals to the 1967 borders, then we will establish a peace in stages. We will establish a situation of stability and calm which will bring safety for our people…a long term hudna [ceasefire].” (Yitzhak Ben-Horin, Israel News)
Israel has refused to negotiate with the democratically elected Palestinian government of Hamas for three official reasons: (1) failure to renounce violence, (2) failure to recognize and abide by previous agreements, and (3) failure to recognize the right of a state besides one of its own to exist in historic Palestine. Interestingly, Israel is guilty of all three of the very things for which it faults Hamas.
Myth #6: Israel only uses violence as a last resort, to defend itself and to prevent terror attacks.
Human rights organizations have documented extensive disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli army for over 40 years. For example, according to Amnesty International, most of the children killed by soldiers in 2002 were attacked “when there was no exchange of fire and in circumstance in which the lives of the soldiers were not at risk.” B’tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, described the situation as follows: “In every city and refugee camp that they entered, IDF soldiers have repeated the same pattern: indiscriminate firing and then killing of innocent civilians, intentional harm to water, electricity and telephone infrastructure, taking over civilian houses, extensive damage to civilian property, shooting at ambulances and prevention of medical care to the injured.” (A Deadly Pattern, B’tselem March 2002)
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