After 2 days of struggling with 3 different technicians, and without yet entirely solving the computer problem, we have at least found a reason for my messages coming out blank, and hope that this message will arrive in all your households with the material below. Computers are wonderful. I would have a really difficult time now without mine. But they can also be frustrating creatures—in some cases, apparently, even for the experts.
There are 8 items below, all home-grown. That is, they are either from Haaretz or from email messages about events and situations here in Isra-Pal.
Item 1 is about a usual subject here: house demolitions. This is a subject that I find particularly painful. I can’t help but wonder how I would feel were I suddenly to be deprived of my home. A house is more than just a place to rest one’s self or to eat or shower or sleep. It is part of one’s identity—the place where one raises or has raised children, a place full of memories, of pictures. For many it is also a work place, and so on and so forth. What a cruel miserable act, the demolition of a home!
Item 2 is along the same lines—not about demolitions but about collective punishment—another typical Israeli way of dealing with human beings who aren’t Jews.
Item 3 relates that the Higher Education Committee is to vote on a report that among other things claims that the politics-government faculty at BGU is tainted with too many leftists. Some object, but I’ll bet that the report goes through. TV news a few days ago announced that there is a possibility that the faculty will be shut down. Academic freedom, where art thou?
Item 4 demands that Israel lift the travel ban from Shawan Jabarin, the director of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq. In plain terms, the ban is in this case a human rights crime. But since governments in the world do nothing to stop Israel , its leaders do as they please.
In item 5 Israel , believe it or not , apologizes! The apology is to an American reporter who was pregnant and was nonetheless badly mistreated when entering Gaza . Notwithstanding her request not to be x-rayed, because it might harm the fetus, she was—not once, not twice, but thrice. Nice that the government is apologizing. But that will be of small help if the baby suffered any harm.
Item 6 is a longish article. It’s title in English, “A surefire way to keep Israeli Arabs from voting,” is appropriate to only one part of the subject. It does not say anything about the larger subject—that of how the ultra religious right is taking over Israel .
Item 7 is a poverty report for Israel . While Israel continues building colonies like crazy, and especially in and around Jerusalem , 1 of very 10 Israeli families lives under the poverty line. Not mentioned in this report but related on tonight’s TV news, 60% of Israel ’s elderly live in poverty. Many of these are Holocaust survivors.
Item 8 is Today in Palestine . There is some overlap with the above, but not much.
Hoping this reaches you, and hoping still for a better tomorrow.
Dorothy
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1. Demonstration against house evictions, Silwan, East Jerusalem . 25.11.2011. cc: flickr.
Parashat “Toldot” : The weekly report of Rabbis For Human Rights
This past week we succeeded, with public pressure, to prevent the eviction of Samarin family from their home in the Silwan neighborhood. We also succeeded to renew the harvest in El Jenia (but we found out that are problems again). However, the demolitions in South Hebron Hills continue and police violence during the anti social policy of the government protests have become routine. Please join our activities and read the newsletter of Parashat “Vayetze..Secure Donation. Shabbat Shalom.
From cpthebron@yahoogroups.com; on behalf of; Tuwani Team [cpttuwani@cpt.org]
On the night of November 28th, a Palestinian man threw two Molotov cocktails at the Israeli military checkpoint in the neighborhood of Qitoun in Hebron . In response, the military and border police fired tear gas, entered houses in the neighborhood and forced about 50 men to stand outside in the cold for almost exactly two hours while they checked their ID’s. The military arrested one Palestinian man and detained three more after they allowed the residents of the neighborhood to return to their homes.
At about 10:20 PM, soldiers came back from one of the houses with clothes that they claimed belonged to the man who threw the Molotov cocktails.
During the incident, Palestinians passing the checkpoint reported that soldiers were beating one of the detained men. Later on, other passersby reported that soldiers were holding a man on the ground and sitting on him.
At around 10:40 PM, the commander declared a closed military zone and ordered internationals to leave the area, including three members of Temporary International Presence in Hebron . Members of TIPH are allowed by mandate to observe the military. When internationals asked the commander to show them the order, he refused, saying that he didn’t have to show it. The military detained three members of International Solidarity Movement , but released them later.
Military actions that target groups of people in response to the actions of a few are illegal according to the Geneva Conventions.
Education body to vote on report on ‘slanted’ BGU faculty
Panel member admits criticism in report may also have been political.
By Talila Nesher
The Council for Higher Education is set to vote Tuesday to ratify the external report it commissioned on the political science faculties at Israel ‘s universities, including Ben-Gurion University of the Negev ‘s Politics and Government Department, which came under heavy criticism. The document lists a series of shortcomings at Ben-Gurion University and even advises, as a last resort, closing down the department entirely if the problems are not resolved.
The report also refers to the fact that students at the Ben-Gurion University department are exposed to the personal political opinions of their professors, noting: “Lecturers must ensure that their personal opinions are presented as such, so that the students can judge things from a critical perspective and be exposed to a wide range of perspectives and alternatives.”
Further to claims by members of the teaching staff at Ben-Gurion’s Politics and Government Department that the committee’s work was motivated by political considerations, committee member Prof. Galia Golan , from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, has told Haaretz that the shortcomings exposed at the Negev institution may indeed have been politically biased.
“I felt that some of the committee members, with specific political opinions, were trying to find fault with the place,” Golan said. “I don’t know if these were instructions from above, but I felt that things were not being conducted fairly.”
According to Golan, the same supposed shortcomings that were revealed at Ben-Gurion University weren’t even mentioned in the reports on the other institutions, “because they weren’t perceived as problematic.”
Golan said that “with regard to Ben-Gurion University , [committee] members tended to ignore the positive things and underplay their significance.
“My efforts to convince the committee otherwise came to naught,” she added. “The attitude toward the university was unlike the attitude elsewhere.”
Golan, who refused to sign the section of the report dealing with the Ben-Gurion University department, also recently sent a letter to the Council for Higher Education warning of the document’s lack of fairness and urging that the matter be considered before the conclusions are adopted.
“Distinct political opinions influenced the judgment of some of the [committee] members,” Golan told Haaretz. “The chairman of the committee actually tried to be as neutral as possible; but in the end, people were guided by a political approach.”
According to Prof. David Newman , the dean of Ben-Gurion’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and one of the founders of its Politics and Government Department, “The department has become a target for attack by all those who wish to suppress any pluralist dialogue and trample every piece of academic freedom. One brief glance at this activity is enough to grasp the inherent danger it poses for the existence of Israeli democracy.”
A statement from the Council for Higher Education said: “We totally reject the claim of political considerations … The evaluation committee is made up of experienced individuals of academic renown in Israel and abroad. The assessment of the Political Science Department at Ben-Gurion University was conducted in the same manner in which the other institutions were assessed.
“The committee, which carried out an independent assessment, was of the opinion that the Ben-Gurion University department is acutely lacking senior staff at the core of the field, and that this requires immediate rectification.”
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4. November 29, 2011
[forwarded by Sam B]
Israel : Lift Travel Ban on Human Rights Defender [1]
Shawan Jabarin Unable to Receive Award, Attend Rights Meetings
http://www.hrw.orgHuman Rights Watch
( Jerusalem ) – Israeli authorities in the West Bank should lift the travel ban imposed since 2006 on West Bank resident Shawan Jabarin, the director of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B’Tselem said today. Israeli authorities violated Jabarin’s due process rights in imposing the ban and have not produced any evidence that would justify continuing to restrict him from travel, the groups said.
The ban has prevented Jabarin from leaving the West Bank to receive a prestigious human rights prize from the Danish PL Foundation, participate in a European Union forum on human rights, and attend a Human Rights Watch advisory committee meeting in New York City . Jabarin attempted to travel yesterday, but told the rights groups that Israeli authorities turned him back at the Allenby Bridge crossing with Jordan , citing the travel ban.
“The ban preventing Shawan Jabarin from traveling abroad to receive an award is emblematic of the arbitrary restrictions placed on Palestinian human rights defenders and civil society activists,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s interim MENA Programme Director. “It must be lifted, and the Israeli authorities must stop using unspecified security concerns to obstruct the work of Palestinian human rights activists.”
Israel , which controls all border crossings between the West Bank and Israel as well as Jordan , has prohibited Jabarin from traveling outside the West Bank since 2006, when he became director of Al-Haq, a leading human rights organization in the West Bank. Israel had allowed Jabarin to travel abroad eight times in the previous seven years.
The Israeli military previously claimed in court that Jabarin was an activist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which Israel considers a terrorist organization, and that his travel abroad for even a limited period would endanger Israel ’s security. However, Israeli authorities have not charged Jabarin with any crime or given him an opportunity to confront the allegations against him. The Israeli High Court of Justice has upheld Jabarin’s travel ban on security grounds, but did so based on secret information that Jabarin and his lawyer were not allowed to see or challenge.
“It is hard to believe any claim that Jabarin’s travel to Denmark to receive a human rights award would harm Israeli security, the more so when any evidence is kept secret,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “While civil society groups recognize Jabarin’s courageous work, Israel is punishing him with a travel ban.”
Under Jabarin’s leadership, Al-Haq has frequently criticized rights violations by Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Jabarin, for instance, last year confronted PA officials over allegations of torture on an Al Jazeera broadcast.
The Danish PL Foundation awarded its 2011 Prize for Freedom jointly to Al-Haq and the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. The Foundation was established in 1984 by Poul Lauritzen, a Danish businessman and member of the Danish resistance during World War II. Previous recipients of the foundation ’s annual prize include a Turkish playwright, Polish Solidarity members, and human rights activist Moncef Marzouki, currently the interim president of Tunisia .
“I deeply regret that at this important occasion, held in appreciation of the struggle for human rights, I will stand without Shawan at my side,” said Jessica Montell, executive director of B’Tselem. “Shawan’s absence is an example of the ongoing severe violation of the freedom of movement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.”
In 2009, Al-Haq and B’Tselem were also jointly awarded the Geuzen Medal, an annual human rights prize given by a Dutch group that had resisted the Nazi occupation in World War II. Israel barred Jabarin from traveling to the Netherlands to receive the award.
The PL Foundation prize ceremony will be held in Copenhagen on November 29. Nina Atallah, the head of Al-Haq’s monitoring and documentation department, will try to travel to the prize ceremony.
Human Rights Watch will host a meeting of its Middle East and North Africa Division’s advisory committee, of which Jabarin is a member, in New York City on December 6 to discuss the organization’ s work in the region. The advisory committee is comprised of independent human rights activists, legal scholars, journalists, and others from around the region.
On December 8 the EU-NGO Forum on Human Rights will convene EU states, institutions, and nongovernmental groups in Brussels . According to the invitation Jabarin received, the forum, organized by the European Commission and the European External Action Service , willdiscuss the implementation of the EU’s guidelines on international humanitarian law and its human rights strategy.
Article 12 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which the International Court of Justice and other legal bodies have determined applies to the occupied Palestinian territories, states that everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his or her own.
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5. Haaretz
Monday, November 28, 2011
Israel apologizes to American journalist for overly intrusive search
New York Times correspondent Lynsey Addario was strip searched at Gaza checkpoint despite asking not to go through X-ray machine out of concern for her unborn baby.
By The Associated Press
Tags: Gaza Israel US
Israel’s Defense Ministry apologized Monday for the treatment of a pregnant American news photographer who said she was strip searched and humiliated by Israeli soldiers during a security check.
Lynsey Addario, who was on assignment for the New York Times, had requested that she not be forced to go through an X-ray machine as she entered Israel from the Gaza Strip because of concerns for her unborn baby.
Instead, she wrote in a letter to the ministry, she was forced through the machine three times as soldiers “watched and laughed from above.” She said she was then taken into a room where she was ordered by a female worker to strip down to her underwear.
In the Oct. 25 letter sent by the newspaper said Addario, a Pulitzer Prize winner who is based in India and has worked in more than 60 countries, had never been treated with “such blatant cruelty.”
The ministry said an investigation found that the search followed procedures but noted that Addario’s request to avoid the X-ray machine had not been properly relayed.
Addario said she made the request not to go through the X-ray machine before arriving at the crossing.
“We would like to apologize for this particular mishap in coordination and any trouble it may subsequently have caused to those involved,” the statement said.
It said that security is tight on the border with Gaza “in order to prevent terror from targeting and reaching Israel ‘s citizens.”
The New York Times bureau chief in Israel , Ethan Bronner, welcomed the planned changes but said the newspaper remains shocked at the treatment Addario received and how long the investigation took.
Foreign journalists working in Israel have repeatedly complained of overly intrusive security checks by of Israeli authorities. Israel says the inspections are necessary measures.
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6. Haaretz
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
A surefire way to keep Israeli Arabs from voting
Against the wave of anti-democratic legislation, the meaning of conservatism is turned around; refraining from action becomes active political cooperation with the trampling of democracy.
By Sefi Rachlevsky
Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman David Rotem’s description of Zahava Gal-On as ” not even a beast” is, in his context, accurate. According to Rotem’s theology, and that of most Orthodox Jews in Israel , Gal-On is indeed barely a beast. You see, there’s a hierarchy. Everything living thing has a soul. Above that is the spirit, which is bestowed solely on Jewish men, but which enters the Jewish woman through a kosher union with her husband (which is why it is forbidden to marry a woman who was widowed three times; the assumption is that the spirit of her first husband is knocking off anyone else who enters ).
The highest essence of spirit, the neshama, is the privilege earned by Jewish men through the study of Torah. A heretical woman, who is a leader and who speaks out against religious extremism, is considered rabble and less than a “gentile” or a beast.
It’s not for nothing that several leading rabbis prefer a firing squad than hearing women sing. From the Shulhan Arukh code of Jewish law they draw the assertion that the most severe of all transgressions is the useless spilling of seed. This is compared to murdering one’s children, as it is written, “your hands become full of blood.” The demons responsible for tragedies are born from Jewish seed that was wasted. The Tikun Hatzot ritual of lamentation, a prayer recited after midnight, was created to combat them.
This is the reason for the hiding and silencing of women, so as not to excite the men, which might lead to improper ejaculation.
Those who believe this are not a fringe group. Nearly 53 percent of first-graders classified as Jews now study in religious and ultra-Orthodox schools, and the prevailing theology in most of them teach these things as fact. Just as the Jewish man is a human being, those women who make their voices heard are less than beasts.
Those who fear the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood – and certainly those who would celebrate the victory of political Islam as an excuse for maintaining the settlements – ought to look in the mirror. The conclusion from the increasing control exerted by religious radicalism in the region is simple. The primary power of the various “Brotherhoods” stems from the subsidized religious and educational autonomy that has fashioned what has become the obvious for millions. This is what makes Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein’s decision to grant immunity to racist incitement presented as theology and Jewish law so serious. This immunity enables the flow of billions to incitement-ridden rabbinic education, which fashions an “obvious” that permits the killing of non-Jews and the silencing of women.
The resemblance to the “Brotherhoods” continues when it comes to practical politics. The Brotherhoods are prepared to be elected, but don’t want to allow anyone to defeat them. That’s the way Rotem’s gang operates. They’re interested in changing the rules so that no one can replace them at the ballot box.
The crushing of substantive democracy is but one stage. The main thing is to change the election laws. It’s not for nothing that the gang is working to retroactively change the rules governing elections within the Israel Bar Association. It’s not “merely” an effort to gain control over the Judicial Appointments Committee; what’s important is to set a precedent of changing election rules.
The political leader of the Jewish Brotherhood, who goes by the catchy name of “Ketzaleh,” Yaakov Katz, has revealed his plan. The so-called Grunis law, which he initiated, was, by his own declaration, an important stage in gaining control of the Supreme Court, silencing “that miserable bunch who believe in the laws of the gentiles” on the court and legislating wild laws to impose halakha (Jewish religious law ) on the State of Israel.
There were three reasons why Justice Asher Grunis “merited” to serve this plan to gain control, firstly, because it’s important to prevent another woman from serving as Supreme Court president. Jewish law, which forbids hearing women sing, also forbids listening to anything of importance they have to say. A female court president is like an idol in the sanctuary.
Secondly, it’s important to them to show that it is possible to change the rules on an ad-hoc, personal basis, and have the Supreme Court reconcile itself to being prevented from choosing a female president and instead, crowning Ketzaleh’s choice. Thirdly, Grunis is considered an opponent of judicial activism.
Rotem’s gang intends to change the laws for electing the Knesset in a way that will keep them in power, just like the other “brothers” in the region. The plan includes invalidating Arab lists like Balad, while an anti-activist court will not intervene. In response, Israeli Arabs are likely to boycott the ballot, leaving the general election for Jews only.
Also on the way are changes to laws and regulations that would permit voting from abroad, which would add right-wing emigrants to the voting rolls and later allow Orthodox hordes to vote from Brooklyn and impose the Rotem gang on all the country’s beasts.
The Supreme Court ought not cooperate with Ketzaleh’s plan; it should avoid using laws passed for specific persons and allow Miriam Naor to become its president, with Grunis as her deputy.
Against the wave of anti-democratic legislation, the meaning of conservatism is turned around. Refraining from action becomes active political cooperation with the trampling of democracy.
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Haaretz
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Israel ‘s National Insurance Institute : One in ten families suffer from hunger
Study involving 5,000 families finds 19 percent suffer from food insecurity; says solution lays in encouraging employment and increasing stipends.
By Dana Weiler-Polak
A survey conducted recently by Israel ‘s National Insurance Institute, the first of its kind, found that 19 percent of families in the country suffer from food insecurity, 10 percentsuffer from hunger and two percent suffer from severe hunger.
The survey, which included 5,000 families, corresponds with Israel ‘s poverty rate data, according to which 19 to 20 percent live under the poverty line.
The survey also found that 13 percent of families don’t have sufficient food, and a third of the families surveyed have opted to buy other products instead of food. 12 percent rely on the assistance of their family or friends.
The National Insurance Institute said that “encouraging fair employment of those who are capable of working may decrease the economic distress found in the survey.” An analysis of the report added that “this is the preferred solution for the needs of the poor population, which suffers from food insecurity and can make a living.”
However, the National Insurance Institute said that among the poor population there are those who do not work for various reasons. These include handicapped people and people who tend to sick family members. The proposed solution for this population, according to the report, is stipends.
The analysis also claims that the existing stipends are not enough for a dignified living, and urged the government to raise the payments significantly. “On the other hand,” the report said, “a government that widely supports charity food organizations contributes unwillingly to an increase in demand.”
Labor Party leader Shelly Yachimovich said that “an enlightened and modern society is judged by its poor and their ability to survive, and according to the state’s own data, the jungle economy – of which Netanyahu is an advocate – leaves… the weakest behind and sentences them to a life of poverty and survival.”
