From blogger Alex Keller in Israel...
How exactly did the escalation start? Even though it happened only last week, it is by no means clear exactly how it started. Commentators argue about who was the first to shoot and who responded, and why, and just who wanted it (if at all anyone really wanted it, on either side of the border).
Alex Fishman, military commentator for Yediot Ahronot, who disposes of very good sources within the army, wrote a week ago a detailed and rather critical description under the headline "You told us to shoot – we shoot":
"It began accidentally, with a miscalculation, an excessive reaction to the shooting of a Qassam missile, which threatens to develop into a new comprehensive conflict. Now both sides already start pasting unto this chain of events their whole series of weighty political and security arguments. Both sides heat themselves up and lead Gaza towards an uncontrolled explosion. The army has in store a whole armory of retaliations to retaliations to retaliations and so on. (...)
The aggressive message sent down from the cabinet was well absorbed in the army – from now on, there should be a smashing response to each event. After a Qassam missile fired by an ephemeral group landed in an open field , the IDF struck at Netzarim, killing two Hamas militants, one of them apparently a senior member. Someone in the Southern Command went a step too far in translating the instructions of the political leadership - . - "You told us to shoot – we shoot".(...)
The army was waiting for a response, and hoping that also this time it will be limited to the shooting of some anti-tank missile. On Friday, the IDF was on alert because of the fog that prevailed in the area. Then, Hamas and Jihad opened up with 120mm mortars, aimed at six locations within Israel - with an emphasis on military camps. The IDF responded by firing rockets, mortars and tank guns at predetermined targets. At noon, when the fog dispersed, assault helicopters also went into action. The Dance of Fire started."
So wrote Alex Fishman on the pages of Yediot Ahronot last Sunday (March 20). On the following days, the Dance of Fire spun faster and faster, and the missiles fell at Be'er Sheva and Ashdod, and the pupils stayed home in fear for their lives in un-fortified shool buildings. Politicians competed with each other in crying out for war and war and war to the bitter end. In the Sajaya neighborhood of Gaza, four members of the Hilo Family were killed when an Israeli shell landed on their house by mistake. Sure, it was an unfortunate mistake by the army. As they explained, they had used an inaccurate mortar system because at that moment the more accurate system was not available. And the Government of Israel was quick to express its regret about the harm to innocents, but its expressions of sorrow were not really well received in Gaza where TV repeatedly broadcasted photos of the body of the 11-year-old Mohammed Jihad Al-Hilo who was killed by the shell. And the next day a bomb exploded on a crowded street in Jerusalem, killing a Christian British woman who came to Jerusalem to learn Hebrew so as to better translate the Bible to an African tongue, and some thirty-passers-by were wounded, some of whom would bear the scars long after we have all forgotten this incident. And banner headlines in Israel's newspapers said that Terrorism had come baack after a long absence, and horrible scenes were depicted on huge photographs of the scene of the attack, and politicians outdid themselves in competing with each other to make cries of war and war and war to the bitter end. And the army went on to kill more Palestinians in Gaza, and since these were confirmed as having been terrorists the government expressed no regret for killing them and in fact took some pride in it.
And in Yediot Aharonot, Alex Fishman played a quite different tune from that in his own article earlier in the week: "The army is pushing for an escalation. In a policy briefing held yesterday morning with the Prime Minister, the army manifested a very combative attitude. As the army sees it, an all-out confrontation with the Hamas government at Gaza is almost preordained. If not now, it will happen in another year or two. Unless we act today, we will pay the price for going gradually into the escalation. Israel, says the army, should restore its deterrence, which has been eroded since the days of "Cast Lead". We should have struck hard at Hamas already a month ago, when the Grad rocket came down on Beersheba for the first time. Now the blow must be even more painful. If not an overwhelming military strike, or a partial ground operation, the obvious next step on the scale of violence should be a return to the era of targeted killing of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaderships. In the IDF's view, this would be the most effective move, speaking the language which the Palestinian leadership understands best. "
So spoke – as of Wednesday, March 23 - Alex Fishman, the man who already for many years serves as an unofficial army spokesman.
"In the IDF's view, this would be the most effective move, speaking the language which the Palestinian leadership understands best." The problem is that this language was spoken quite often before, and where did it lead us?Posted by Adam Keller אדם קלר at 1:17 PM
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
counterpunch article
Israel's Latest Racist Laws
Who is Annexing Whom?
By URI AVNERY
IN A rare late-night session, the Knesset has finally adopted two obnoxious racist laws. Both are clearly directed against Israel’s Arab citizens, a fifth of the population.
The first makes it possible to annul the citizenship of persons found guilty of offences against the security of the state. Israel prides itself on having a great variety of such laws. Annulling citizenship on such grounds is contrary to international law and conventions.
The second is more sophisticated. It allows communities of less than 400 families to appoint “admission committees” which can prevent unsuitable persons from living there. Very shrewdly, it specifically forbids the rejection of candidates because of race, religion etc. – but that paragraph is tantamount to a wink. An Arab applicant will simply be rejected because of his many children or lack of military service.
A majority of members did not bother to show up for the vote. After all, it was late and they have families, too. Who knows, some may even have been ashamed to vote.
But far worse is a third law that is certain to pass its final stages within a few weeks: the law to outlaw the boycott of the settlements.
* * *
SINCE ITS early stages, the original crude text of this bill has been refined somewhat.
As it stands now, the law will punish any person or association publicly calling for a boycott of Israel – economic, academic or cultural. “Israel”, according to this law, means any Israeli enterprise or person, in Israel or in any territory controlled by Israel. Simply put: it is all about the settlements. And not only about the boycott of the products of the settlements, which was initiated by Gush Shalom some 13 years ago, but also about the recent refusal of actors to perform in the settlement of Ariel and the call by academics not to support the so-called University Center there. It also applies, of course, to any call for the boycott of an Israeli university or an Israeli commercial enterprise.
This is a fundamentally flawed piece of legislation: it is anti-democratic, discriminatory, annexationist, and altogether unconstitutional.
* * *
EVERYBODY HAS the right to buy or not to buy whatever he or she desires, from whomsoever he or she chooses. That is so obvious that it needs no confirmation. It is a part of the right to free expression guaranteed by any constitution worth its salt, and an essential element of a free market economy.
I may buy from the store on the corner, because I like the owner, and shun the supermarket opposite, which exploits its employees. Companies expend huge sums of money to convince me to buy their products rather than others.
What about ideologically motivated campaigns? Years ago, while on a visit to New York, I was persuaded not to buy grapes produced in California, because the owners oppressed the Mexican migrant workers. This boycott went on for a long time and was – if I remember right – successful. Nobody dared to suggest that such boycotts should be outlawed.
Here in Israel, rabbis of many communities regularly paste up posters calling upon their flock not to buy at certain shops, which they believe are not kosher, or not kosher enough. Such calls are commonplace.
Such publications are fully compatible with human rights. Citizens for whom pork is an abomination, have the right to be informed about which shops sell pork and which do not. As far as I know, no one in Israel has ever contested this right.
Sooner or later, some anti-religious groups will publish calls to boycott kosher shops, which pay the rabbis - some of them the most intolerant of their kind – heavy levies for their certificates. They support a vast religious establishment that openly advocates turning Israel into a “Halakha state” – the Jewish equivalent of a Muslim “Shari’a state”. Many thousands of Kashrut supervisors and myriads of other religious functionaries are paid for by the largely secular public.
So what about an anti-rabbinical boycott? It can hardly be forbidden, since religious and anti-religious are guaranteed equal rights.
SO IT appears that not all ideologically motivated boycotts are wrong. Nor do the initiators of this particular bill – racists of the Lieberman school, Likud rightists and Kadima “centrists” – claim this. For them, boycotts are only wrong if they are directed against the nationalist, annexationist policies of this government.
Full Article
Who is Annexing Whom?
By URI AVNERY
IN A rare late-night session, the Knesset has finally adopted two obnoxious racist laws. Both are clearly directed against Israel’s Arab citizens, a fifth of the population.
The first makes it possible to annul the citizenship of persons found guilty of offences against the security of the state. Israel prides itself on having a great variety of such laws. Annulling citizenship on such grounds is contrary to international law and conventions.
The second is more sophisticated. It allows communities of less than 400 families to appoint “admission committees” which can prevent unsuitable persons from living there. Very shrewdly, it specifically forbids the rejection of candidates because of race, religion etc. – but that paragraph is tantamount to a wink. An Arab applicant will simply be rejected because of his many children or lack of military service.
A majority of members did not bother to show up for the vote. After all, it was late and they have families, too. Who knows, some may even have been ashamed to vote.
But far worse is a third law that is certain to pass its final stages within a few weeks: the law to outlaw the boycott of the settlements.
* * *
SINCE ITS early stages, the original crude text of this bill has been refined somewhat.
As it stands now, the law will punish any person or association publicly calling for a boycott of Israel – economic, academic or cultural. “Israel”, according to this law, means any Israeli enterprise or person, in Israel or in any territory controlled by Israel. Simply put: it is all about the settlements. And not only about the boycott of the products of the settlements, which was initiated by Gush Shalom some 13 years ago, but also about the recent refusal of actors to perform in the settlement of Ariel and the call by academics not to support the so-called University Center there. It also applies, of course, to any call for the boycott of an Israeli university or an Israeli commercial enterprise.
This is a fundamentally flawed piece of legislation: it is anti-democratic, discriminatory, annexationist, and altogether unconstitutional.
* * *
EVERYBODY HAS the right to buy or not to buy whatever he or she desires, from whomsoever he or she chooses. That is so obvious that it needs no confirmation. It is a part of the right to free expression guaranteed by any constitution worth its salt, and an essential element of a free market economy.
I may buy from the store on the corner, because I like the owner, and shun the supermarket opposite, which exploits its employees. Companies expend huge sums of money to convince me to buy their products rather than others.
What about ideologically motivated campaigns? Years ago, while on a visit to New York, I was persuaded not to buy grapes produced in California, because the owners oppressed the Mexican migrant workers. This boycott went on for a long time and was – if I remember right – successful. Nobody dared to suggest that such boycotts should be outlawed.
Here in Israel, rabbis of many communities regularly paste up posters calling upon their flock not to buy at certain shops, which they believe are not kosher, or not kosher enough. Such calls are commonplace.
Such publications are fully compatible with human rights. Citizens for whom pork is an abomination, have the right to be informed about which shops sell pork and which do not. As far as I know, no one in Israel has ever contested this right.
Sooner or later, some anti-religious groups will publish calls to boycott kosher shops, which pay the rabbis - some of them the most intolerant of their kind – heavy levies for their certificates. They support a vast religious establishment that openly advocates turning Israel into a “Halakha state” – the Jewish equivalent of a Muslim “Shari’a state”. Many thousands of Kashrut supervisors and myriads of other religious functionaries are paid for by the largely secular public.
So what about an anti-rabbinical boycott? It can hardly be forbidden, since religious and anti-religious are guaranteed equal rights.
SO IT appears that not all ideologically motivated boycotts are wrong. Nor do the initiators of this particular bill – racists of the Lieberman school, Likud rightists and Kadima “centrists” – claim this. For them, boycotts are only wrong if they are directed against the nationalist, annexationist policies of this government.
Full Article
"No to Boycott, Yes to Suicide"
Excerpts from a Haaretz article by Moshe Shoked, a professor emeritus of anthropology at Tel Aviv University. It was published in Hebrew and translated by Ofer Naiman.
The Knesset is entitled to believe that the entire world is against us, and make laws in that spirit, but in the Middle East's only democracy, one is still allowed to argue that the state is committing suicide.
It is hard not to recall the 1930s and 1940s, when another great nation took its own life under a mad vision of border expansion. And the most terrible aspect of this is that before Berlin was destroyed, Germany's leaders, as well as the majority of its citizens, had not turned their backs on the insanity of the Greater Germany dream. Like the postcards circulated by the protagonists of Hans Fallada's book, "Alone in Berlin", my articles, and articles written by others, are disturbing the peace of the real patriots, the believers in the divine promise to Abraham, those who distort the lessons of the Holocaust, and the silent majority sheepishly following the vacuous, frightening slogans of the right wing.
...As part of the nationalist education at our schools, we lead our youth on expeditions to the killing furnaces of Poland, for the upkeep of the belief in our right way, and we lead them on visits to the tombs of our ancient patriarchs in Nablus and Hebron, to reaffirm the mythological right.
We have managed to coerce US President Barack Obama into making a fool of himself for us, in front of the whole world. Who will not believe now that the world is indeed ruled by Elders of Zion languishing on heaps of dollars, which serve them in the moving and shaking of the globe? Who will not look forward eagerly to the day when the Jewish lobby's power is eroded, and its "Zionist extension", guarding its patriarchs' tombs is left abandoned, exposed to the vengeance of its enemies?
The Knesset is entitled to believe that the entire world is against us, and make laws in that spirit, but in the Middle East's only democracy, one is still allowed to argue that the state is committing suicide.
It is hard not to recall the 1930s and 1940s, when another great nation took its own life under a mad vision of border expansion. And the most terrible aspect of this is that before Berlin was destroyed, Germany's leaders, as well as the majority of its citizens, had not turned their backs on the insanity of the Greater Germany dream. Like the postcards circulated by the protagonists of Hans Fallada's book, "Alone in Berlin", my articles, and articles written by others, are disturbing the peace of the real patriots, the believers in the divine promise to Abraham, those who distort the lessons of the Holocaust, and the silent majority sheepishly following the vacuous, frightening slogans of the right wing.
...As part of the nationalist education at our schools, we lead our youth on expeditions to the killing furnaces of Poland, for the upkeep of the belief in our right way, and we lead them on visits to the tombs of our ancient patriarchs in Nablus and Hebron, to reaffirm the mythological right.
We have managed to coerce US President Barack Obama into making a fool of himself for us, in front of the whole world. Who will not believe now that the world is indeed ruled by Elders of Zion languishing on heaps of dollars, which serve them in the moving and shaking of the globe? Who will not look forward eagerly to the day when the Jewish lobby's power is eroded, and its "Zionist extension", guarding its patriarchs' tombs is left abandoned, exposed to the vengeance of its enemies?
Monday, March 28, 2011
The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace
Today the Symphony Chorus of New Orleans sang the Armed Man: A Mass for Peace at the Holy Names Cathedral at Loyola University. The intensity of the piece kept hitting me as I heard it from the ears of a new audience. I got goosebumps when we sang the last line of Torches, and I was so happy to sing Better is Peace, as if we'd actually been through the war and it was finally over. I kept watching the people in the pews and wondering what they thought of the wars being fought now, and how much potential we had to make the end of our piece a reality. There's a question to keep pondering, in the meantime, check out the mass:
The Armed Man (medieval popular song)
The armed man is to be feared;
We must all protect ourselves with an iron coat of mail!
Call to Prayers (Adhaan)
God is Great
I bear witness that there is no God but the One God
I bear Witness that Mohammad is the Messenger of God
Make haste towards prayer
Make haste towards salvation
God is Great
There is no God but the One God
Kyrie (Catholic mass)
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.
Save Me from Bloody Men (Psalm 59)
Be merciful unto me, O God.
For man would swallow me up.
He fighting daily oppresseth me.
Mine enemies would daily swallow me up.
For they be many that fight against me.
O thou most high.
Defend me from them that rise up against me.
Deliver me from the workers of iniquity,
And save me from bloody men.
Sanctus (Catholic mass)
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Sabaoth!
Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory--Hosanna in the highest!
Hymn Before Action (Rudyard Kipling)
The earth is full of anger, The seas are dark with wrath,
The Nations in their harness Go up against out path:
Ere yet we loose the legions Ere yet we draw the blade,
Jehovah of the Thunders, Lord God of Battles, aid!
High lust and fro-ward bearing, Proud heart, rebellious brow
Deaf ear and soul uncaring, We seek They mercy now!
The sinner that forswore Thee, The fool that pssed thee by,
Our times are known before Thee, Lord grant us strength to die!
Charge! (John Dreyden/Jonathan Swift)
The trumpets loud Clangor Excites us to Arms, excites us to Arms,
With shrill notes of anger and mortal alarms, of anger and mortal alarms
How blest is he who for his country dies, who for his country dies?
The double, double beat of the thundering drum,
Cries Hark! The foes come. Hark! The foes come,
Charge 'tis, too late, too late to retreat,
Charge!
Angry Flames (Toge Sankichi)
Pushing up through smoke
From a world half darkened by overhanging cloud,
The shroud that mushroomed out
And struck the dome of the sky,
Black, red, blue, Dance in the air,
MERGE,
Scatter glittering sparks already tower OVER THE WHOLE CITY.
Quivering like seaweed
The mass of flames spurts forward.
Popping up in the dense smoke,
Crawling out
Wreathed in fire,
Countless human beings on all FOURS
In a heap of embers that erupt and subside,
Hair rent,
Rigid in DEATH
There smolders a curse.
Torches (The Mahabharata)
The animals scattered in all direcgtions,
Screaming terrible screams.
Many were burning, others were butnt,
All were shattered and scattered mindlessly,
Their eyes bulging,
Some hugged their sons,
Others their fathers and mothers,
Unable to let them go,
And so they died.
Others leapt up in their thousands, faces disfigured
And were consumed by the fire,
Everywhere were bodies sqirming on the ground,
Wings, eyes and paws all burning,
They breathed their last as living torches.
Agnus Dei (Catholic mass)
Lamb of God, who taest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us; Grant us peace.
Now the Guns Have Stopped (Guy Wilson)
Silent, so silent, now,
Now the guns have stopped.
I have survived all,
I who knew I would not.
But now you are not here.
I shall go home, alone;
And must try to live life as before
And hide my grief
For you, my dearest friend,
Who should be with me now,
Not cold, too soon,
And in your grave,
Alone
Benedictus (Catholic mass)
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosannah in the highest.
Better is Peace (Mallory/Anon/Tennyson/Revelations 21:4)
Better is peace than always war,
And better is peace than evermore war.
The armed man is to be feared;
We must all protect ourselves with an iron coat of mail!
Ring out the thousand wars of old.
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring happy bells across the snow.
The year is going, let him go,
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valient man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand.
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
The year is going, let him go,
Ring out the false, ring in the true!
God shall wipe away all tears
And there shall be no more death,
Neither sorrow not crying,
Neither shall there be anymore pain.
Praise the Lord.
The Armed Man (medieval popular song)
The armed man is to be feared;
We must all protect ourselves with an iron coat of mail!
Call to Prayers (Adhaan)
God is Great
I bear witness that there is no God but the One God
I bear Witness that Mohammad is the Messenger of God
Make haste towards prayer
Make haste towards salvation
God is Great
There is no God but the One God
Kyrie (Catholic mass)
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.
Save Me from Bloody Men (Psalm 59)
Be merciful unto me, O God.
For man would swallow me up.
He fighting daily oppresseth me.
Mine enemies would daily swallow me up.
For they be many that fight against me.
O thou most high.
Defend me from them that rise up against me.
Deliver me from the workers of iniquity,
And save me from bloody men.
Sanctus (Catholic mass)
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Sabaoth!
Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory--Hosanna in the highest!
Hymn Before Action (Rudyard Kipling)
The earth is full of anger, The seas are dark with wrath,
The Nations in their harness Go up against out path:
Ere yet we loose the legions Ere yet we draw the blade,
Jehovah of the Thunders, Lord God of Battles, aid!
High lust and fro-ward bearing, Proud heart, rebellious brow
Deaf ear and soul uncaring, We seek They mercy now!
The sinner that forswore Thee, The fool that pssed thee by,
Our times are known before Thee, Lord grant us strength to die!
Charge! (John Dreyden/Jonathan Swift)
The trumpets loud Clangor Excites us to Arms, excites us to Arms,
With shrill notes of anger and mortal alarms, of anger and mortal alarms
How blest is he who for his country dies, who for his country dies?
The double, double beat of the thundering drum,
Cries Hark! The foes come. Hark! The foes come,
Charge 'tis, too late, too late to retreat,
Charge!
Angry Flames (Toge Sankichi)
Pushing up through smoke
From a world half darkened by overhanging cloud,
The shroud that mushroomed out
And struck the dome of the sky,
Black, red, blue, Dance in the air,
MERGE,
Scatter glittering sparks already tower OVER THE WHOLE CITY.
Quivering like seaweed
The mass of flames spurts forward.
Popping up in the dense smoke,
Crawling out
Wreathed in fire,
Countless human beings on all FOURS
In a heap of embers that erupt and subside,
Hair rent,
Rigid in DEATH
There smolders a curse.
Torches (The Mahabharata)
The animals scattered in all direcgtions,
Screaming terrible screams.
Many were burning, others were butnt,
All were shattered and scattered mindlessly,
Their eyes bulging,
Some hugged their sons,
Others their fathers and mothers,
Unable to let them go,
And so they died.
Others leapt up in their thousands, faces disfigured
And were consumed by the fire,
Everywhere were bodies sqirming on the ground,
Wings, eyes and paws all burning,
They breathed their last as living torches.
Agnus Dei (Catholic mass)
Lamb of God, who taest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us; Grant us peace.
Now the Guns Have Stopped (Guy Wilson)
Silent, so silent, now,
Now the guns have stopped.
I have survived all,
I who knew I would not.
But now you are not here.
I shall go home, alone;
And must try to live life as before
And hide my grief
For you, my dearest friend,
Who should be with me now,
Not cold, too soon,
And in your grave,
Alone
Benedictus (Catholic mass)
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosannah in the highest.
Better is Peace (Mallory/Anon/Tennyson/Revelations 21:4)
Better is peace than always war,
And better is peace than evermore war.
The armed man is to be feared;
We must all protect ourselves with an iron coat of mail!
Ring out the thousand wars of old.
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring happy bells across the snow.
The year is going, let him go,
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valient man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand.
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
The year is going, let him go,
Ring out the false, ring in the true!
God shall wipe away all tears
And there shall be no more death,
Neither sorrow not crying,
Neither shall there be anymore pain.
Praise the Lord.
Starting this fall, I'll be going to the demonstrations in Bil'in/Nabi Saleh every Friday. Bil'in is very supportive of Nabi Saleh, as they undergo many of the same hardships: night raids, arrests of minors, detention of prominent organizers--Bil'in's Abdullah Abu Rahma was just released after serving 15 months for incitement, and a few days ago the IDF stormed the house of Nabi Saleh's Bassem Tamimi, the coordinator of the Nabi Saleh Popular Committee, hitting his wife and daughter in an attempt to seize their cameras during his arrest. Aside from being illegal, unethical, and well, a little fascist, it's just impractical. Does anyone really believe that arresting non-violent activists for incitement will have anything but an inciting effect?
Joseph Dana-Waves of Arrests in Weekly Nabi Saleh Demonstrations
Only a day after the arrest of Bassem Tamimi, the coordinator of the village’s popular committee, the IDF has escalated its attempts to suppress protest in Nabi Saleh. During the early hours of the morning, long before the weekly demonstration began, large groups of Israeli soldiers and Border Police deployed on the three roads leading into Nabi Saleh, and in the groves surrounding the village, bringing movement in and out of the village to a standstill. Three Israeli activists were detained in the groves as they tried to march, despite the siege ... When the demonstration began, protesters skirted the soldiers by walking between the houses, and managed to reach the road leading to the spring threatened by settler takeover. When the soldiers noticed the march peacefully heading towards the spring, they immediately opened fire at it, shooting tear-gas projectiles directly at the crowd.
The following article in YNet describes the organization of the Nabi Saleh demonstrations as semi-militaristic and funded by the Palestinian Authority and foreign sources. It's so disheartening to read the comments on YNet and see that people actually believe this garbage.
YNet-Secrets of Nabi Saleh protests
Left-wing activist Jonathan Pollack said, "It is intriguing that the police forgot to mention that the wild tales described in the article are all based on the testimony of a fourteen year-old boy who was taken from his bed in the dark of night and on gunpoint, beaten by the soldiers and then interrogated the morning after without being allowed sleep. It is even more fascinating that the police forgot to mention that it has already been proved in court that the boy was questioned in absence of his parents, albeit obliged by law, was not informed of his right to remain silent, and was denied legal consul.
Joseph Dana-Waves of Arrests in Weekly Nabi Saleh Demonstrations
Only a day after the arrest of Bassem Tamimi, the coordinator of the village’s popular committee, the IDF has escalated its attempts to suppress protest in Nabi Saleh. During the early hours of the morning, long before the weekly demonstration began, large groups of Israeli soldiers and Border Police deployed on the three roads leading into Nabi Saleh, and in the groves surrounding the village, bringing movement in and out of the village to a standstill. Three Israeli activists were detained in the groves as they tried to march, despite the siege ... When the demonstration began, protesters skirted the soldiers by walking between the houses, and managed to reach the road leading to the spring threatened by settler takeover. When the soldiers noticed the march peacefully heading towards the spring, they immediately opened fire at it, shooting tear-gas projectiles directly at the crowd.
The following article in YNet describes the organization of the Nabi Saleh demonstrations as semi-militaristic and funded by the Palestinian Authority and foreign sources. It's so disheartening to read the comments on YNet and see that people actually believe this garbage.
YNet-Secrets of Nabi Saleh protests
Left-wing activist Jonathan Pollack said, "It is intriguing that the police forgot to mention that the wild tales described in the article are all based on the testimony of a fourteen year-old boy who was taken from his bed in the dark of night and on gunpoint, beaten by the soldiers and then interrogated the morning after without being allowed sleep. It is even more fascinating that the police forgot to mention that it has already been proved in court that the boy was questioned in absence of his parents, albeit obliged by law, was not informed of his right to remain silent, and was denied legal consul.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
On World Water Day, support the academic boycott call
I didn't recognize her name until I got to the end of this article, but I met Susan last fall at the Middle East Film Fest. She was on a solo speaking tour, talking about her experience working with LifeSource in the West Bank.
Full article by Susan Koppelman and Nidal Hatim
Palestinian water rights denied
Israel prevents Palestinians from developing normal water infrastructure and from continuing to use the natural resources that Palestinians have been using for centuries. According to consumption figures from the Israeli Hydrological Service and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Palestinians are limited to merely 17 percent of the water under the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, even though more than 80 percent of the rain that recharges the shared groundwater falls over the West Bank. Israelis consume on average more than 3.5 times as much water per capita than Palestinians (see B'Tselem, "The gap in water consumption between Palestinians and Israelis"). Israeli settlers in the Jordan Valley export water-intensive crops to Europe, virtually exporting an amount of water equal to about one quarter of the total amount of water that 2.5 million Palestinians have for domestic purposes, agriculture and industry -- while many Palestinians survive on just twenty liters of water per person per day! Meanwhile, springs located amid Palestinian farmland between Palestinian villages continue to be stolen by illegal Israeli settlers with the support of the Israeli military, such as those at Nabi Saleh in the northern Ramallah district and Wadrahal in the Bethlehem district, just to name two recent examples where the theft is current or only recently transpired.
Discriminatory policies in wastewater infrastructure development are also appalling, and particularly relevant to understanding why we are getting behind this call on the University of Johannesburg to terminate its cooperation with Ben-Gurion University.
The biggest obstacle to wastewater treatment in the West Bank is Israeli negotiators, Israeli policy-makers and the Israeli military. The Palestinian Authority has funds ready from the international donor community for the development of wastewater infrastructure, the plans are ready, everything is ready -- but Israeli permission is denied. Even one time, in a 15-year window, when Israeli permission was given for the Salfit Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Israeli military interfered and shut down the project (see World Bank, "Assessment of Restrictions on Palestinian Water Sector Development" [PDF]). Israel paid the German contractors an apology worth one million shekels for shutting down the project after it had been fully permitted. Meanwhile, the rest of the wastewater projects applied for from 1996 on, still were not permitted by 2010, again, despite millions of dollars of funds at the ready, leaving only one completed wastewater treatment facility in the West Bank, one that was built in the tiny window after the Oslo accords before the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee was formed.
Today in Gaza, Israel's blockade is preventing the import of building materials, spare parts and energy needed for even the most basic treatment of wastewater. Even PVC for the pipe factory is prohibited. Chemicals for desalinating the brackish water that comes from the ground are prohibited. Several sewage basins built as a project of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Rafah, along Gaza's southern border with Egypt, were lined with slabs from the cement wall that once existed along the border between Gaza and Egypt and which was dismantled when Hamas came to power. In Beit Lahiya, in the north of the Gaza Strip, a foreseeable collapse of a sewage basin caused five residents of the village Umm al-Nasser to drown to death in sewage, because materials needed were denied entry despite desperate calls on Israel from local authorities and the UN to avert this disaster. The UN and other agencies continue to invest hundreds upon thousands of hours in negotiating with Israeli authorities for the entrance of certain priority materials, including the most basic spare parts and building supplies needed for safe water and sewage infrastructure.
For Palestinian citizens of Israel, despite paying equal or higher taxes (for not serving in the army), sewage infrastructure is not a given. Some Palestinian neighborhoods of Lydd, for example, do not have basic sewage pipes, while Jewish Israelis who have moved to the city in recent years receive necessary sewage infrastructure.
Full article by Susan Koppelman and Nidal Hatim
Palestinian water rights denied
Israel prevents Palestinians from developing normal water infrastructure and from continuing to use the natural resources that Palestinians have been using for centuries. According to consumption figures from the Israeli Hydrological Service and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Palestinians are limited to merely 17 percent of the water under the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, even though more than 80 percent of the rain that recharges the shared groundwater falls over the West Bank. Israelis consume on average more than 3.5 times as much water per capita than Palestinians (see B'Tselem, "The gap in water consumption between Palestinians and Israelis"). Israeli settlers in the Jordan Valley export water-intensive crops to Europe, virtually exporting an amount of water equal to about one quarter of the total amount of water that 2.5 million Palestinians have for domestic purposes, agriculture and industry -- while many Palestinians survive on just twenty liters of water per person per day! Meanwhile, springs located amid Palestinian farmland between Palestinian villages continue to be stolen by illegal Israeli settlers with the support of the Israeli military, such as those at Nabi Saleh in the northern Ramallah district and Wadrahal in the Bethlehem district, just to name two recent examples where the theft is current or only recently transpired.
Discriminatory policies in wastewater infrastructure development are also appalling, and particularly relevant to understanding why we are getting behind this call on the University of Johannesburg to terminate its cooperation with Ben-Gurion University.
The biggest obstacle to wastewater treatment in the West Bank is Israeli negotiators, Israeli policy-makers and the Israeli military. The Palestinian Authority has funds ready from the international donor community for the development of wastewater infrastructure, the plans are ready, everything is ready -- but Israeli permission is denied. Even one time, in a 15-year window, when Israeli permission was given for the Salfit Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Israeli military interfered and shut down the project (see World Bank, "Assessment of Restrictions on Palestinian Water Sector Development" [PDF]). Israel paid the German contractors an apology worth one million shekels for shutting down the project after it had been fully permitted. Meanwhile, the rest of the wastewater projects applied for from 1996 on, still were not permitted by 2010, again, despite millions of dollars of funds at the ready, leaving only one completed wastewater treatment facility in the West Bank, one that was built in the tiny window after the Oslo accords before the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee was formed.
Today in Gaza, Israel's blockade is preventing the import of building materials, spare parts and energy needed for even the most basic treatment of wastewater. Even PVC for the pipe factory is prohibited. Chemicals for desalinating the brackish water that comes from the ground are prohibited. Several sewage basins built as a project of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Rafah, along Gaza's southern border with Egypt, were lined with slabs from the cement wall that once existed along the border between Gaza and Egypt and which was dismantled when Hamas came to power. In Beit Lahiya, in the north of the Gaza Strip, a foreseeable collapse of a sewage basin caused five residents of the village Umm al-Nasser to drown to death in sewage, because materials needed were denied entry despite desperate calls on Israel from local authorities and the UN to avert this disaster. The UN and other agencies continue to invest hundreds upon thousands of hours in negotiating with Israeli authorities for the entrance of certain priority materials, including the most basic spare parts and building supplies needed for safe water and sewage infrastructure.
For Palestinian citizens of Israel, despite paying equal or higher taxes (for not serving in the army), sewage infrastructure is not a given. Some Palestinian neighborhoods of Lydd, for example, do not have basic sewage pipes, while Jewish Israelis who have moved to the city in recent years receive necessary sewage infrastructure.
Boycotting Israel ... from within
Israelis explain why they joined the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement by Mya Guarnieri
'Renouncing my privileges'
Ronnie Barkan, 34, explains that he took his first step towards the boycott 15 years ago, when he refused to complete his mandatory military service.
"There's a lot of social pressure [in Israel]," Barkan says. "We're raised to be soldiers from kindergarten. We're taught that it's our duty [to serve in the army] and you're a parasite or traitor if you don't want to serve."
"What is even worse is that people are raised to be deeply racist," he adds. "Everything is targeted at supporting [Jewish] privilege as the masters of the land. Supporting BDS means renouncing my privileges in this land and insisting on equality for all."
Barkan likens his joining of the boycott movement to the "whites who denounced their apartheid privileges and joined the black struggle in South Africa".
When I cringe at the "a-word," apartheid, Barkan counters: "Israel clearly falls under the legal definition of the 'crime of apartheid' as defined in the Rome Statute."
'Never again to anybody'
Some oppose BDS because it includes recognition of the Palestinian right of return. These critics say that the demographic shift would impinge on Jewish self-determination. But Barkan argues that "the underlying foundation [of the movement] is universally recognised human rights and international law".
He emphasises that BDS respects human rights for both Palestinians and Jews and includes proponents of a bi-national, democratic state as well as those who believe a two-state solution is the best answer to the conflict.
He also stresses that BDS is not anti-Semitic. Nor is it anti-Israeli.
"The boycott campaign is not targeting Israelis; it is targeting the criminal policies of Israel and the institutions that are complicit, not individuals," he says.
"So let's say an Israeli academic or musician goes abroad and he is turned away from a conference or a venue just because he's Israeli ... " I begin to ask.
"No, no, this doesn't fall under the [boycott guidelines]," Barkan says.
"Because that's not a boycott. It's racism," I say.
"Exactly," Barkan responds, adding that the Palestinian call for BDS is "a very responsible call" that "makes a differentiation between institutions and individuals and it is clearly a boycott of criminal institutions and their representatives".
"Whenever there is a grey area," he adds, "we take the gentler approach."
Still, Barkan has faced criticism for his role in the boycott movement.
"My grandmother who went to Auschwitz tells me, 'You can think whatever you want but don't speak up about your politics because it's not nice,' I tell her, 'You know who didn't speak up 70 years ago.'"
Barkan adds: "I think that the main lesson to be learned from the Holocaust is 'never again to anybody' not 'never again to the Jews.'"
'Renouncing my privileges'
Ronnie Barkan, 34, explains that he took his first step towards the boycott 15 years ago, when he refused to complete his mandatory military service.
"There's a lot of social pressure [in Israel]," Barkan says. "We're raised to be soldiers from kindergarten. We're taught that it's our duty [to serve in the army] and you're a parasite or traitor if you don't want to serve."
"What is even worse is that people are raised to be deeply racist," he adds. "Everything is targeted at supporting [Jewish] privilege as the masters of the land. Supporting BDS means renouncing my privileges in this land and insisting on equality for all."
Barkan likens his joining of the boycott movement to the "whites who denounced their apartheid privileges and joined the black struggle in South Africa".
When I cringe at the "a-word," apartheid, Barkan counters: "Israel clearly falls under the legal definition of the 'crime of apartheid' as defined in the Rome Statute."
'Never again to anybody'
Some oppose BDS because it includes recognition of the Palestinian right of return. These critics say that the demographic shift would impinge on Jewish self-determination. But Barkan argues that "the underlying foundation [of the movement] is universally recognised human rights and international law".
He emphasises that BDS respects human rights for both Palestinians and Jews and includes proponents of a bi-national, democratic state as well as those who believe a two-state solution is the best answer to the conflict.
He also stresses that BDS is not anti-Semitic. Nor is it anti-Israeli.
"The boycott campaign is not targeting Israelis; it is targeting the criminal policies of Israel and the institutions that are complicit, not individuals," he says.
"So let's say an Israeli academic or musician goes abroad and he is turned away from a conference or a venue just because he's Israeli ... " I begin to ask.
"No, no, this doesn't fall under the [boycott guidelines]," Barkan says.
"Because that's not a boycott. It's racism," I say.
"Exactly," Barkan responds, adding that the Palestinian call for BDS is "a very responsible call" that "makes a differentiation between institutions and individuals and it is clearly a boycott of criminal institutions and their representatives".
"Whenever there is a grey area," he adds, "we take the gentler approach."
Still, Barkan has faced criticism for his role in the boycott movement.
"My grandmother who went to Auschwitz tells me, 'You can think whatever you want but don't speak up about your politics because it's not nice,' I tell her, 'You know who didn't speak up 70 years ago.'"
Barkan adds: "I think that the main lesson to be learned from the Holocaust is 'never again to anybody' not 'never again to the Jews.'"
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Jordan Vally Blues
This is a documentary by an organization called Life Source, which monitors water distribution in the West Bank.
Did you know that Israeli settlers get 73 times more water per person than Palestinians in the West Bank? Al Aqaba, mentioned below, hasn't received permission from the Israeli government to build a pipe system, so it has to buy its water from Israel. I'll be taking some short showers.
Jordan Valley Blues
Water is a Life Source: The View from the West Bank by Nicky Elliot
A few miles south of where we catch our breath, the situation for farmers is even worse. Residents of the Jordan Valley once labelled the ‘vegetable basket’ of Palestine, have to contend with serious and increasing obstacles to water access. In many villages, such as Al Aqaba, there is no pipe system to serve the residents or the agriculture they rely on. In order to have such an extravagant infrastructure as running water the residents must apply for permits: permission is regularly denied without reason. Instead of piped water, they must buy tanks of water from the Israeli company Merkolat at inflated prices (as well as paying a high fee to transport the water). Agriculture then, is a costly business to get into in the Jordan Valley. Meanwhile, nearby settlements thrive (and where business is tough massive government subsidies ease financial concerns) and when the summer months roll in the residents will enjoy well-watered lawns and swimming pools.
Did you know that Israeli settlers get 73 times more water per person than Palestinians in the West Bank? Al Aqaba, mentioned below, hasn't received permission from the Israeli government to build a pipe system, so it has to buy its water from Israel. I'll be taking some short showers.
Jordan Valley Blues
Water is a Life Source: The View from the West Bank by Nicky Elliot
A few miles south of where we catch our breath, the situation for farmers is even worse. Residents of the Jordan Valley once labelled the ‘vegetable basket’ of Palestine, have to contend with serious and increasing obstacles to water access. In many villages, such as Al Aqaba, there is no pipe system to serve the residents or the agriculture they rely on. In order to have such an extravagant infrastructure as running water the residents must apply for permits: permission is regularly denied without reason. Instead of piped water, they must buy tanks of water from the Israeli company Merkolat at inflated prices (as well as paying a high fee to transport the water). Agriculture then, is a costly business to get into in the Jordan Valley. Meanwhile, nearby settlements thrive (and where business is tough massive government subsidies ease financial concerns) and when the summer months roll in the residents will enjoy well-watered lawns and swimming pools.
Friday, March 25, 2011
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