Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem Chair of West Midland PSC
Dear Friends,
Five items below. Have not included among them Gideon Levy’s latest, accusing Foreign Minister Lieberman of having no grasp of what democracy is. Actually, I don’t believe that Lieberman has any desire to have Israel be a democratic state, and unfortunately he is not alone. In fact, so long as emphasis is on a Jewish state, its foundation is demography, not democracy, no matter how many human rights organizations it allows. Of course I support human rights orgs no less than does Levy. They, however, can help keep us informed about what occurs, and can sometimes help ease a situation, but they cannot make Israel democratic.
Item 1 tells us that settlers intend to build 50 more housing units in addition to the 20 that were originally planned on the site of the historic Shepherd hotel, which is no more, having been demolished on Sunday. Israel’s leaders (including Jerusalem’s mayor) are rushing ahead to Judaize all of Jerusalem. Methinks that possibly this is the one final straw that might bring some countries at least to pressure Israel to stop. After all, East Jerusalem contains a large portion of sites dear to Christians. At the rate that Israel is going, many of these sites might be in danger of destruction to be replaced by some Jewish museum or other artifact supposedly from Jewish biblical history. Let’s hope that European states will open their eyes to what is likely to happen and stop it before it occurs.
Item 2 reveals what we already know, that money speaks louder than principles—well for some, at least. Israeli firms involved in the building of the new Palestinian city have had to sign that they would not use products manufactured in the colonies. I don’t know how many firms are involved. Israel is pressuring them to not sign. What the result will be we shall see anon.
In item 3 Netanyahu speaks of refugees and others who have entered Israel illegally, mostly via Egypt and the desert, as ‘infiltrators. At the end of the piece Netanyahu tells a tale about an incident that happened in his own family, which, in effect, made his grandfather and his uncle ‘refugees,’ or at least people seeking a safer place, and brought them to Palestine. Israel was not in existence them. You would think that the tale he tells would itself cause him to be more humane, to understand that not only Jews but also others sometimes need a refuge, or seek a better life. But for people like Netanyahu and most Israelis, demography takes precedence over humanism. Netanyahu forgets that Jews also were refugees, more than once in history.
In item 4 Terry Crawford-Browne updates us on what is happening in South Africa as concerns Israel, and as concerns the endeavors of a few South Africans to demean Archbishop Tutu, Judge Richard
Goldstone and Kader Asmal. Very informative.
Item 5 reports that ‘The Beatles of Palestine,’ a troupe comprised of Palestinian refugees recently set foot for the first time in Palestine. And why only now? Actually, I am surprised that Israel allowed them to enter at all. May the day come when Palestinian troupes can travel to their homeland as freely as most Jews and Christians can travel to their ancestral countries.
All the best,
Dorothy
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1. Haaretz,
January 12, 2011
Settlers seek to build 50 more housing units at E. Jerusalem hotel site
Right-wing activists detail plan to turn the main part of the historic building into a synagogue commemorating the victims of the Holocaust.
Despite international protest, reconstruction of the Shepherd Hotel in East Jerusalem continued yesterday. Jewish settlers reportedly plan to build 50 more housing units on the site, located in the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in addition to the 20 units already authorized and whose construction began on Sunday.
Right-wing activists also said they plan to turn the main part of the historic building – originally constructed by the mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini – into a synagogue commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. Activists see this move as all the more poignant as Husseini was known for his collaboration with the Nazis. However, contrary to some activists’ claims, the mufti never lived in the building himself, instead giving it to his personal secretary, George Antonius.
American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, a supporter of Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, purchased the Shepherd Hotel in 1985.
The wing added to the structure during the Jordanian rule of Jerusalem is set to be demolished, and 20 of the housing units will reportedly be built on the garden south of the building.
“As we were forced to preserve the building, we will turn it into the neighborhood synagogue and dedicate it to the memory of the Holocaust victims,” said Jerusalem councilman Elisha Peleg (Likud ). “The synagogue will be doubly symbolic: It will replace the house of the mufti and it will mark the point where 78 physicians, nurses and patients were murdered on their way to Mount Scopus in 1948.”
While the first phase of the project is getting underway, the settlers have also submitted a larger plan to the municipality, requesting to add another 50 housing units. All in all, the project intends to include 70 units meant for Jews. The sensitivity of the site, however, means the plan will likely be delayed for an extended period of time. Peleg, for his part, believes the proposal will eventually pass.
“There isn’t a chance in the world it won’t pass, because it follows the existing plans for the area,” he said. “Jewish construction in the eastern part of Jerusalem will continue, because time is working for the Palestinians, who are illegally building thousands of housing units without permission.”
“There’s nothing provocative about this site, it’s not in the heart of any Arab neighborhood,” Peleg added.
Meanwhile, members of the Husseini family, who claim ownership of the building, appealed to the Supreme Court, demanding the construction work be stopped. The process of expropriating the hotel from the mufti and selling it to Moskowitz was inappropriate, the family argues, saying the building still belongs to them.
Those claims were rejected on Tuesday by a Jerusalem District Court judge, who also removed the injunction that prevented the start of the construction work.
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2. The Guardian,
13 January 2011
Israeli firms on Palestinian building project sign anti-settlement clause. Agreements involving companies building new West Bank city spark call for counter-boycott from Jewish settler groups
An artist’s impression of the new city of Rawabi. Photograph: Guardian
A dozen Israeli companies working on a Palestinian construction project have signed contracts stipulating they must not use Israeli products originating in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.
The move has sparked calls from Jewish settler groups and their supporters for a counter-boycott.
The lucrative contracts are conditional on the firms agreeing to eschew “products of the territories” in line with the Palestinian Authority’s boycott of goods and services from settlements.
The companies have signed agreements with Bayti, a Palestinian-Qatari group building a new city in the West Bank intended to become a hub for the technology industry and house 40,000 people.
The £850m Rawabi project is a sign of the West Bank’s flourishing economy.
Israeli politicians and settlement supporters have condemned the contracts. Dozens of members of the Knesset (parliament) have called for the government to boycott Israeli companies that have signed the Rawabi deals, a demand backed by the Knesset’s economics committee.
“Anyone building Rawabi should know that they won’t build Tel Aviv,” the rightwing pro-settler Knesset member Aryeh Eldad said.
The Land of Israel Lobby, headed by Eldad, said in a statement: “This is shameful and shocking collaboration with Palestinian economic terrorism.” The companies had “sold their Zionist souls for a deal with the enemy”.
Bashar Masri, Bayti’s managing director, said the clause was not new, adding: “I have been insisting on this for three years at least. I always put this in as a condition up front. Someone has decided to make an issue of this now.
“It’s the norm that we don’t support the aggressor, those who take our land and make our lives miserable.”
He said he expected “a whole lot more” Israeli companies to agree to the clause in order to win contracts with Bayti. “None of the people who have already signed have backed out, despite the threats of the radicals,” he said.
The Samaria Settlers’ Committee this week offered a 500 shekel (£90) reward to anyone disclosing the identity of companies involved. Two companies have been named in the Israeli media.
One, Ytong, which makes concrete blocks, denied it had agreed to boycott settlement products. “Ytong is not a partner to this boycott or any other,” the firm said in a statement.
Another, Teldor Cables, has a factory in the occupied Golan Heights, according to a report in Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, has vigorously promoted a boycott of settlement produce in the West Bank, with shops ordered not to stock such goods.
The implementation of a law banning Palestinians from working in settlements has been delayed as alternative employment has not yet been found. An estimated 21,000 Palestinians work in construction, agriculture or industry in Jewish settlements.
The boycott movement has attracted support in other countries. Israel accuses its backers of trying to delegitimise the Jewish state.
An attempt by Masri to buy land from an Israeli company in East Jerusalem to build housing for Palestinians foundered this week after a campaign to block it.
The Jewish settlement of Nof Zion has been in financial difficulty for some time. “It’s in the heart of East Jerusalem, surrounded by thousands of Palestinian homes,” Masri said.
“But [the campaigners] wanted to block land going from a Jewish owner to a Palestinian owner. It’s a racist issue – they made this very clear.”
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3. Ynet,
January 13, 2011
Netanyahu: ‘Infiltrators’ occupying Tel Aviv
Prime minister claims only ‘one thousandth’ of asylum seekers ‘real’ refugees; says Israel building fence to stop wave which threatens Jewish state
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that “infiltrators had occupied Eilat and Arad and are occupying Tel Aviv from south to north.”
During a speech before a Manufacturers Association of Israel general meeting, the prime minister said only a “thousandth” of them were “real refugees,” adding that Israel is building a fence along the Egyptian border “to stop the flood, so that Israel will remain Jewish and democratic.”
It is estimated that some 36,000 foreign nationals have entered Israel via the Sinai in recent years. In addition, many migrant laborers who entered legally now reside in Israel.
According to NGOs and local authorities, Tel Aviv tops the rate of asylum seekers living in the city. Some 15,000 to 17,000 live in Tel Aviv, while Eilat has the highest proportion of asylum seekers with between 4,000 and 7,000. Some 500-2,000 live in Ashdod, 800-1,000 in Jerusalem, and 400-600 in Arad.
In last year’s Manufacturers Association meeting, Netanyahu also referred to this issue. “We have become almost the only first world country that can be entered by foot from the third world,” he said. He warned of a “wave of refugees that threatens to wash away our achievements and undermine our existence as a Jewish and democratic state.”
Haredi proud of IDF uniform
In Thursday’s speech, the prime minister also referred to the issue of haredi military service and the recently-approved program which aims to double the number of ultra-Orthodox serving in the army or performing National Service within five years.
“The willingness of the haredi population to contribute and serve is growing,” he said. “I have recently spoken to haredim in the Nahal unit and they told me that two years ago they would hide the uniform they hung out to dry. Now they hang it outside openly and proudly.”
He also related an anecdote from his own family. “I told them about my grandfather, who was a yeshiva student in Lithuania and son of a large family of rabbis,” the prime minister said. “He told me that he once stood on a railway station with his brother during the winter, and a group of thugs shouted at them, calling them ‘Yids’ and beating them.
“They pushed his brother into the mud, and he tried to defend his brother and fell into the mud too. Then he said to himself, ‘what a disgrace that the sons of King David and the Maccabees are pushed into the mud like this. If I live, I’ll make aliyah to the Land of Israel.'”
In addition, the prime minister promised that Israel will not demolish the houses of Major Eliraz Peretz and Major Roi Klein, who were killed on the Gaza border during the second Lebanon war.
“I will not allow the demolition of the houses of these heroes, who sacrificed their lives for Israel’s security,” he said. The houses of the two soldiers were built without a permit in the West Bank settlement Eli.
[They were not only built without permit, they were also built on private Palestinian owned land. Dorothy]
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4. From Terry Crawford-Browne
January 13, 2011
Subject: South Africa
Hi Friends
1. Now that the country has “reopened” this week, the Palestine issue is
again HOT in South Africa. Three right-wing Zionists on Monday began an internet petition demanding that Archbishop Tutu, Judge Goldstone and
Professor Asmal should resign as patrons of the Holocaust Centres in Cape
Town and Johannesburg. This all flows from the Cape Town Opera Company performances of Porgy and Bess in Tel Aviv in November.
A counter-petition launched by Open Shuhada Street to support the Arch has not only received much greater support, but the SA Zionist Federation has now issued a statement that the three right-wingers are no longer, as
claimed, directors of the Federation. It is the lead story on the front page
of the Cape Times both yesterday and today.
My friend Terry Bell, a journalist commentator, wrote the following comment:
THE petition by assorted Zionists to have Archbishop Tutu, Judge Richard
Goldstone and Kader Asmal removed as patrons of the Holocaust Centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town should be welcomed. Because it provides an object lesson to us all, being the clearest indication of the abuse, both of
Judaism and the Holocaust, by more extreme adherents of the fundamentally racist political philosophy of Zionism.
Judaism is a religion to which Jews of the political left, right and centre
belong; the Holocaust is one of the greatest human tragedies in which Jews
were not the only victims. The fantasy of Jews as a national or racial
category – an article of faith to both Nazis and Zionists – was the reason
that Jews were murdered in the death camps of Germany’s Third Reich. But, on exactly the same basis the Roma or Sinti, commonly known as Gypsies, were also slaughtered, along the “racially impure” offspring of World War I African-American soldiers and German women.
Then, of course, there were the socialists, communists and trade unionists,
among them people professing various religious beliefs and none. They too ended their lives in the death camps of a regime based on the ideology of race, nation and intolerance of diversity. Against this background, the
mission statement of the Holocaust Foundation makes perfect sense. It
states that the object is to “build a more caring and just society in which
human rights and diversity are respected and valued”.
Archbishop Tutu in particular, could never be accused of not striving for
precisely such a goal. Zionists, by the mere nature of an ideology based on
the fallacy of race and nationhood, would not qualify. And, for Zionists to
claim ownership of the Holocaust as well as to equate Israel with Judaism is not just false, it is an obscenity.
2. Now it appears that the leader of KADIMA and former foreign minister
Tzipi Livni is visiting Johannesburg and Cape Town later this month, and
will be speaking at the Holocaust Centre here on the 27th. So there is a
move afoot to arrest her as a war criminal given her roles in the Lebanon
war in 2006 and Operation Cast Lead in 2008/2009. The Palestine Support
Group is meeting this evening, so no doubt this will now be added to the
agenda.
3. The Convenor of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, Pierre Galand will
be visiting South Africa in February to begin planning the third session of
the Tribunal in October, hopefully to be held in Parliament here in Cape
Town, on Israeli apartheid as a crime against humanity.
4. Clint le Bruyn and I will be speaking on the 19th at an Anglican church
to report back on our experiences in Palestine. I am arranging to speak at
St George’s Cathedral on either the 23rd or 30th.
5. Given these foci on Palestine, we must now work on cancellation of
Ladysmith Black Mambaza’s planned tour of Israel in July.
Regards Terry
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5. Haaretz,
January 13, 2011
‘The Beatles of Palestine’ give their first homeland performance
For decades, the band Al-Ashequeen has provided a soundtrack to life in the Palestinian territories. Last month, the group of Palestinian refugees set foot in the West Bank for the first time.
For decades the music band Al-asheqeen has provided a soundtrack to life in the Palestinian territories; their songs are heard at weddings, funerals, and in daily living.
The band, which was created in Damascus by Palestinians from refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon, has become a symbol of national heritage and a bastion of Palestinian cultural and religious tradition. But until last month, the group had never set foot on Palestinian land.
Under the auspices of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the group of 33 singers and dancers performed in ten concerts across the West Bank’s major cities and towns, including Ramallah, Jericho, Bethlehem, Jenin, Nablus, Hebron and Abu Dis.
In a semi-circular amphitheatre in Abu Dis, the Jerusalem neighborhood that leans against the West Bank side of the separation barrier, the band performed for a diverse and passionate crowd.
“They are the Beatles of Palestine!” a man in the audience shouted during the show.
An elderly woman donning traditional Palestinian garments swayed, her eyes closed, lost in the music reminiscent of times past. Teenagers sung the lyrics earnestly, drawing the air from the bottom of their lungs and waving the Palestinian flag high overhead. A three-year-old stood next to his mother clasping his hands together, mouthing the words.
“I have been in the United States for 30 years, but I know all the songs,” says a middle-aged man named Ahmed.
Following a medley of upbeat tunes the mood darkens and the rhythm slows. The song ‘From Akka Prison’ speaks of three Palestinians who were hung during the 1933 British Mandate period. Each man wants to be killed first so as not to have to see his friends die.
This is one of the darker songs of the band, which has historically been associated with Palestinian political resistance. Their songs often invoke a spirit of revolution, speaking of the 700,000 Palestinians who became refugees following the 1948 creation of the State of Israel.
“Despite the sadness of this song, we always listen to it, we often play this in our weddings” says Nasser Abu Khadder, a Political Science professor at Al-Quds University. “It brings us together.”
The music, explains Khadder, combines classical religious beats with nationalist feeling. The lyrics incorporate the words of famous Palestinian poets including Mahmoud Darwish.
Much of the music and dances are rooted in Palestinian folklore. In front of the stage, Palestinian women dancers move in traditional steps, their garments swirling around them.
Their dresses glint deep velvet purple and emblazoned on them are olive trees, almonds and flowers. The hand stitched Palestinian tapestry on each dress can take over one month to create.
The costume changes reflect territory’s regions and their inhabitants. “We have different areas of Palestine,” says Khadder. “Each region has its own dress code; the northern dress has lighter colors, while the south is made of darker shades and heavier material. And each area inside that is divided between Bedouins, villagers and city dwellers”.
Al-ashekqeen were founded in 1977 in Damascus by the prominent composer Hussein Nazek and lyricist Ahmad Dahbour. They soon became ‘Arafat’s band’, the musical accompaniment to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and its leader Yasser Arafat. But the deteriorating political situation and internal divisions led to the band’s separation and the group disappeared for nearly 25 years.
Today’s Al-asheqeen has changed its tracks. Only one of the original members of the group remains – Age Abu Ali. Today’s band consists largely of Palestinians residing in London, and their tone is decidedly moderate.
Singer and songwriter Nizzar al-Issa used to play at human rights groups’ events including for the London based Jews for Justice for Palestinians. “We are working on making a new look,” says al-Issa. “We want to transfer the message to the world that we look for peace.”
Mohammed Diab, from Safed refugee camp in Syria, has been singing with Al-Ashekeen since he was 18 years old. “We are not advocating violence in our songs,” says Diab. “I love life, and my people love life, and we have to resist to stay alive”.
Al-Issa insists that today’s ‘resistance’ comes in a call for peace. “Your weapon is your tongue,” he says “use it the right way; to achieve peace.”
