NOVANEWS
Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem Chair of West Midland PSC
Dear All,
Tonight’s message is full of bad news. Sorry. I don’t make it. I just report it. It seems ironic that whereas the populations of Israel’s neighbors– Egypt, Syria, Jordan–and those in other Arab countries are fighting for freedom and democracy, Israel (the so-called ‘only democracy in the ME’) is turning more and more fascist. It occurred to me lately, that if the same people who are writing these laws (the Nakba law, the communities law, and now the citizenship law) would have been Germans (not Jews) during the Nazi regime, they would have supported everything that the Nazis did. They are no different, except that they are Jewish fascists rather than German ones.
So, to the business at hand—there are 8 items below.
The first item relates that tonight the Knesset passed the Citizenship law—a law that strips citizenship from citizens who, supposedly are terrorists or traitors. To show how dangerous that is, some have labeled Hanin Zoabi a traitor and terrorist. If they can make that label stick, just because she was on the Mavi Marmara, then she can be stripped of her citizenship. My guess is that those who thought up the law will not stop with the Arab population. Jews will also be prone to being stripped of their citizenship should they do anything that the right wing disapproves.
Item 2 reports that Hanin Zoabi, who is a member of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) has been stripped of certain privileges. I wonder if Jews—Amira Hass, Jeff Halper, Yonathan Shapira, etc– who were on one or another of the boats attempting to break the blockade of Gaza had been Knesset members, would they have been treated the same as Zoabi. Probably yes. In this, I believe that there would be equality between Jews and Muslims/Christians. Meanwhile, Zoabi has taken her case to court. I would not count on it to reverse the Knesset decision. May I be proven wrong.
Item 3 relates that 2 foreign workers and their children are being deported. Both were here legally till they gave birth, which caused them to lose the right to work here. The main story is about one of the two. You’ll undoubtedly find it interesting. Also, it’s not long.
Item 4. is in 2 parts—the earlier report about this case of settler violence, and the current one which relates that the person who beat up a Palestinian 15 year old, and then tied his body to a tractor and drove over rough ground has been handed down a jail sentence of 1.5 years. Now, had a Palestinian done the same to an Israeli Jew, our law courts would probably have given him/her life imprisonment. Equality before the law? Not here.
Item 5 relates the plight of the Palestinian book-shop owner in Jerusalem who is trying to battle deportation.
Item 6 is interesting. About 2 hours ago, I checked Haaretz again to see if anything had been added, and indeed found that Abu Mazin said that the unity government with Hamas was worth giving up American aid. Five minutes later, the same article was given a new beginning: Netanyahu says that if Hamas joins the government, there will be no peace talks. For your info, I have added several links to various articles in which Hamas offers a long-term truce. I am not promoting Hamas. But I do think that one should realize that Hamas has several times tried to end the blockade against it in diplomatic ways, rather than by the use of missiles.
Item number 7 relates, as if Akiva Eldar foresaw what Bibi would say when Eldar penned his op-ed on Israel’s lost opportunity for peace when it refused to recognize or accept the Arab League peace proposal first made in 2002.
Lastly, item 8 reports on the threat to freedom of speech and art in the US by those who want to hear no criticism of Israel, and who have the money to quash at least some of that criticism if it comes in Jewish Community Centers.
All the best (I mean it! Maybe the best will yet come, notwithstanding that these are tough times),
Dorothy
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1. Jerusalem Post,
March 28, 2011
Photo by: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Israel Beiteinu’s Citizenship Bill passes into law
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=214202
By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
28/03/2011
Lieberman: We have fulfilled campaign promise – no citizenship without loyalty; Meretz MK Horowitz says bill delegitimizes Israeli-Arabs.
An Israel Beiteinu bill derided by critics as unfairly targeting Israeli Arabs passed into law late Monday night, and was welcomed by supporters as strengthening internal deterrence against would-be terrorists and traitors. The Citizenship Law enables courts to revoke citizenship, in addition to issuing prison sentences, against people who are convicted of treason, serious treason, aiding the enemy in a time of war, or having committed terror against the state.
Israel Beiteinu MKs David Rotem and Robert Ilatov co-sponsored the bill, which easily passed the plenum by a vote of 37-11.
Shin Bet backtracks on support for Citizenship Law
“Any normal state would have legislated this bill years ago,” said Rotem shortly after the bill passed. “I thank all of the legislators, who have sent a message tonight that citizenship and loyalty go hand and hand. There is no citizenship without loyalty.”
The bill originated in Israel Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman’s campaign promise of “no loyalty, no citizenship.” Initially, Israel Beiteinu pushed for legislation requiring a loyalty oath to a “Jewish and democratic” state, but the current law was the compromise that the faction managed to secure from the coalition.
“Another promise made by Israel Beiteinu to its voters has been fulfilled,” responded Lieberman minutes after the vote. “Without loyalty, there can be no citizenship. Any person who harms the country cannot enjoy the benefits of citizenship and its fruit. The law will help confront the phenomenon by which there are those who take advantage of our democracy in order to undermine it, and by which those who are called citizens collaborate with the enemy.”
“Unfortunately, we are witness to these incidents even among members of the Knesset,” continued the Foreign Minister in a jibe at Arab MKs who presented outspoken and impassioned opposition to the bill.
Opponents of the bill, including Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz), cited the fact that the Shin Bet opposed the bill’s legislation.
The Shin Bet initially supported the bill, but changed its opinion and announced that it believes that the current laws offer sufficient recourse against such offenders. The current law allows for canceling citizenship for violation of trust, and there have been cases in which citizenship has been revoked.
During the bill’s final committee hearings, a Shin Bet attorney said that there are enough provisions in existing law to strip citizens’ citizenship as needed. He added that the bill itself was problematic and that Israeli Arabs indeed believe that the law is aimed at them.
“An absurd situation has been created in which the Shin Bet has to rein in the Knesset,” complained Horowitz. “In light of the Shin Bet’s position, it is impossible to hide behind the security excuse for this law. Why do you support a bill that the Shin Bet said is deleterious to law and security?”
Rotem, however, complained that according to recent reports, the Shin Bet’s change of heart came after former Meretz MK Haim Oron met with outgoing Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin – a fact that was not mentioned during committee hearings on the bill.
“The real plan behind the bill is to create an air of fear and threat among the Arab population as do other bills sponsored by the same Knesset faction,” Horowitz protested. “We have seen a series of bills that create de-legitimization of Arabs in Israel as citizens,” said Horowitz, and added that he “found it hard to believe that this law will be used in the case of Jewish terrorists.”
The vote on the bill was moved from Wednesday to Monday after Arab legislators requested that bills important to their constituents not be read on Wednesday in order to allow them to participate in Land Day commemorations.
Wednesday, the last day of plenum voting in the Knesset’s Winter Session, coincides with the annual commemoration of the 1976 anti-land appropriation protests held in Israeli Arab communities during which six protesters were killed by security forces.
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2, Ynet,
March 28, 2011
MK Hanin Zoabi Photo: Sharon Tzur
MK Zoabi: Right is punishing me
Arab MK attends court hearing on her petition against Knesset’s decision to revoke her rights for participating in Gaza flotilla. ‘Extreme Right has become face of Israeli society. Knesset grants immunity to racists,’ she says
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4048817,00.html
Omri Efraim
The Supreme Court began Monday to debate a petition filed by MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad), against a Knesset decision to revoke her rights for participating in the flotilla to Gaza last May.
“The rightist consensus in the Knesset is trying to punish me and not allow me freedom of expression,” Zoabi said. Rightists who awaited her exit from the court called her a “terrorist”.
“The extreme Right has become the face of the Knesset and Israeli society. The Knesset grants immunity to racist rightists,” she told Ynet after the hearing, which ended without a decision. Another hearing has been scheduled.
MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad), who accompanied Zoabi to court, told Ynet, “Balad is proud of what MK Zoabi did. We must remember that the Knesset has adopted the views of the Kahane-supporter Michael Ben Ari. The face of the Knesset has become that of Kahane.”
The Knesset revoked the Arab MK’s rights in July after she boarded the Mavi Marmara, whose passengers attacked IDF soldiers sent to raid it. Zoabi became one of Israel’s most vocal critics after the incident, in which nine Turkish civilians were killed.
Her diplomatic passport was revoked along with the privilege to leave the country if she commits a felony and the right to appeal to the Knesset to cover any legal fees if she faces trail.
The Knesset claimed in response to Zoabi’s petition that the rights were revoked legally and that the aim had not been to punish the MK for her political rights but rather to deter other MKs from engaging in acts perceived by the majority as wrongful, such as participating in the flotilla, which had an aim of encouraging Israel’s enemies.
Such actions “abuse the special rights given to Knesset members,” the Knesset responded, adding that there was no need for the court to become involved in the matter.
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) was also present at the court Monday morning. “I came to make sure that the spy Hanin Zoabi will not continue to scorn the State of Israel and fight IDF soldiers with the diplomatic passport she received from the Knesset,” he said.
Ben Ari was accompanied by extreme rightists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Gvir, who called out towards Zoabi after the hearing, “You’re a terrorist. Go to Gaddafi. In any other country you would be in jail.”
==========================
3. Haaretz Monday, March 28, 2011
Latest update 02:08 28.03.11
Two foreign workers and their children nabbed for deportation
Both women came to Israel legally to work, but lost their visas after giving birth; one of the woman’s children is the son of a Turkish asylum seeker living in Israel legally.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/two-foreign-workers-and-their-children-nabbed-for-deportation-1.352215
By Dana Weiler-Polak
The state is continuing to deport illegal foreign workers despite the objections of aid groups: Two Filipina women were arrested Thursday and placed in Ben-Gurion International Airport’s detention facility with their young children. They are scheduled to be flown back to the Philippines on Monday.
Both came to Israel legally to work as home health care aides, but lost their visas after giving birth, an NGO spokesman said.
One of the women’s children, an 18-month-old child, is the son of a Turkish asylum seeker who is legally living in Israel, the spokesman said. The father’s name appears on the child’s birth certificate and the parents are registered as living at the same South Tel Aviv address, the spokesman added.
Immigration police said the father’s name was not on the birth certificate, but aid groups offered documents purporting to refute that claim.
A representative of the Population and Immigration Administration said in response that at first the woman claimed she had no documentation and then produced a birth certificate that lacked the father’s name.
“The mother’s official documents and investigation findings do not mention the child’s father. We don’t know where other documents came from that are inconsistent with the mother’s.
“It is also strange that the father submitted an asylum request in his name alone, without mentioning the mother or child. To remove any doubt on the matter, a father is not a defense for the mother and child.”
The organization Physicians for Human Rights criticized the government’s conduct in the case, saying: “The State of Israel continues to treat individuals it brought to the country as disposable slaves that can be expelled and deported after they have fulfilled their function.”
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4. International Middle East Media Center IMEMC
Son of Settler Leader Found Guilty of Severely Beating And Dragging Palestinian Child Behind Tractor
November 19, 2010
by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC News
http://www.imemc.org/index.php
One of a group of Israeli settlers who beat a 15-year old Palestinian boy, then tied him to a tractor and dragged him across rocky pavement, has been convicted of kidnap and abuse. The other perpetrator of the crime is still at large.
Amran Farah in the hospital after beating (photo from DCI)
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din brought the case against 28-year old Zvi Struk, son of Orit Struck, the right-wing leader of the Yesha settlement organization. Zvi Struck carried out the attack in 2007, along with at least one other settler who remains at large.
The two men attacked 15-year old Amran Farah on two separate occasions, while the child was out herding his sheep on al-Qasra village land. The first time, Struk hit and threatened the boy and killed one of his sheep. Israeli authorities did nothing, and two months later, Struk and his accomplice attacked again.
According to the indictment, 15-year old Farah, who was again out herding his sheep, raised his hands in surrender when he saw the two settlers approaching on a tractor. Struk and his accomplice began to beat the child, and to fire an M-16 rifle toward Farah and other shepherd boys, who scattered and ran.
Farah told Defence for Children International, “Both of them started hitting and kicking me with their hands and feet and their firearms for about 10 minutes. I was still conscious but I was in a lot of pain. I was screaming and saying “My head!!, My Head!!!” and “Mother!” “Father!” ‘Please come and help me!’”
They then tied the child to the back of the tractor, and dragged him across rocky ground. The boy lost consciousness while being dragged. Eeventually the two perpetrators stopped in an open field, where they stripped the child naked, beat him some more, then tied him up and left him for dead.
According to testimony collected by Defence for Children International, “Amran was blindfolded with the shirt that was ripped from his body, and his hands were bound behind his back with plastic cord. He was dragged into the tractor and taken to another location and beaten further. Amran lost consciousness several times during the assault. He heard the voice of women and children and thought he may have been taken to a settlement. During this second series of beatings he heard one of the settlers ask ‘Shall we shoot him?’”
Several hours later, the boy was able to regain consciousness, and stumbled across the field calling for help. Palestinian farmers who heard his cries took him to Nablus hospital, where he was treated for severe contusions and lesions all over his body.
The Israeli human rights group that filed the case said they were glad that one of the perpetrators was convicted, but emphasized that the other still remains at large, despite the fact that his identity is known. They also pointed out that these types of beatings of Palestinians are common, and rarely result in convictions or even arrests of the settlers and soldiers that carry out the attacks.
=====================================
Ynet,
March 27, 2011
Zvi Struck at court Photo: Gil Yohanan
Settler jailed for assaulting Palestinian teen
Court sentences Zvi Struck, who kidnapped, injured 15-year-old Palestinian in 2007, to 18 months in prison. ‘I cannot avoid expressing disgust, deep shock over the signs of trauma the minor suffered,’ Judge in case says
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4048471,00.html
Aviad Glickman
The Jerusalem District Court sentenced Zvi Struck, a 28-year-old resident of the Shilo settlement, to 18 months in prison for kidnapping and abusing a 15-year-old Palestinian boy.
Struck was convicted on the charges of aggravated battery, kidnapping with intention to injure, causing damage and three counts of assault. In addition to the prison term, the court sentenced him to one year of probation, and ordered him to pay the victim NIS 50,000 ($14,100) in compensation.
“There is no doubt that the actions harmed the complainant, who was 15 at the time, in a grievous manner,” Judge Amnon Cohen noted.
“I reviewed the medical records and the difficult photographs that were taken of the complainant immediately after the event, and I cannot avoid expressing disgust and deep shock over the signs of terrible trauma that the minor suffered.”
The incident took place in July 2007; Struck and another suspect kidnapped and beat the Palestinian teen, a resident of the West Bank village of Kusra. The teen was later found unconscious in an open field, naked, tied and injured, after making it to a main road on his own. Passersby rushed him to a hospital in nearby Nablus.
In addition to the assault, Struck was also convicted for a previous incident, during which he met with the teen on the outskirts of Kusra and demanded him to leave the area claiming he was trespassing on his land. At that time he slapped the teen, and killed a newborn goat by kicking it.
“The character testimonies that I heard are not in line with the difficult actions that the accused committed,” Cohen wrote. “Any punishment that does not include a prison sentence will not send the message that must come out of this court, considering the severity of his actions.”
‘Judge chose terrorist’s version’
Struck is the son of right-wing activist Orit Struck, the chairman of the Human Rights Organization of Judea and Samaria.
“The fact that Judge Cohen chose the Arabs’ version even though the primary witness is a terrorist, over the version of Zviki, an honest farmer, is appalling, insulting, erroneous and hostile,” Orit Struck said. “The court very easily skipped over the discrepancies in the testimonies of the witnesses, and was determined to convict my son, who didn’t do anything.”
She also claimed that the fact that she is a prominent figure in the Hebron settlements has motivated the elements involved in the case to convict her son. “We are paying a price for being loyal to Israel and working for its benefit.”
Zvi Struck insisted during the trial that he did not know the complainants and asserted that they were trying to incriminate him because they claim that he took over their lands.
Upon hearing the sentence, Struck’s attorney Haim Cohen motioned the court to hold off implementing the sentence until a verdict is reached in the appeal, which he plans to file with the Supreme Court. The judge accepted the request, with the prosecution’s consent. “We still claim that Struck is innocent, and hope that the Supreme Court proves his innocence.” Cohen said.
Representatives of Yesh Din, a human right organization that tracks the authorities’ handling of crimes perpetrated by Israelis against Palestinians and their property, said that this is a rare case in which the investigation and prosecution elements succeeded to convict the attacker on serious charges.
According to the organization’s data, about 90% of the complaints filed by Palestinians against Israeli citizens end up dismissed for reason that point to the failure of the investigators, including insufficient evidence and unidentified suspects.
The victim’s father expressed contentment with the verdict.
==================
5. Forwarded by David McReynolds
—– Original Message —–
From: “Bill Koehnlein”
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 11:50 AM
Subject: Israel to Deport Arab Bookstore Owner
Israel to Deport Arab Bookstore Owner
[Nothing Israel does is surprising anymore, even when it stoops to a
preposterous new low. –BK]
The New Yorker
March 25, 2010
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/03/fahmi-american-colony-hotel-jerusalem-deportation.html
A Fixture of Jerusalem Literary Life, Threatened with Deportation
by Mary Hawthorne
The other day, I received an unusual petition, addressed to the
interior minister of Israel (Eli Yishai, who is also the head of
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Shas Party), in behalf of a man named Munther
Fahmi, who is threatened with deportation. The thing that made it
unusual was that (a) the deportee in question was not a political
prisoner or militant or agitator but instead the founder and manager
of a civilized Jerusalem bookstore, and (b) there was no stated reason
for the deportation.
Fahmi runs the Bookshop at the American Colony Hotel, in Jerusalem; he
is a fixture of Jerusalem literary life, and the Bookshop is
considered one of the region’s best. It naturally caters to an élite
foreign intelligentsia —in its hundred-and-twenty-year-old history,
the hotel been host to numerous celebrity guests, from Winston
Churchill and Laurence of Arabia to Graham Greene and Joan Baez—as an
article on Fahmi’s plight, which appeared the other day in Haaretz,
suggests. But the shop is also beloved by the local population. Fahmi
is a friend and partner of the recently formed Palestine Festival of
Literature, which brings local, regional, and international writers
and artists to Palestinian audiences, and whose participants have
included Suad Amiry, Claire Messud, Najwan Darwish, and Esther Freud,
among many others. He also stocks one of the largest collections of
books on Middle East history and politics. It is not a stretch to say
that Fahmi’s Bookshop is a mainstay of Jerusalem cultural outreach.
On the face of it, Fahmi’s predicament appears to be a bureaucratic
one, of the tedious, maddening, Michael Kohlhaas variety. Fahmi, who
is Palestinian, was born in Jerusalem in 1954, and lived there until
he was twenty-one, when he moved to the United States. After twenty
years in the U.S., during which time he married an American and
acquired a U.S. passport, he returned to Israel, following the signing
of the Oslo Accords. But on his arrival at the airport in Tel Aviv,
Fahmi claims he was told that his permanent-resident I.D.—after the
1967 war, all Arabs living in East Jerusalem who did not apply for
citizenship were given permanent-resident I.D. cards—was no longer
valid, and that he could return to his native city only on a tourist
visa, using his American passport, which is what he has been doing for
more than fifteen years. (Residency rights are revoked by the Israeli
government in the event of a prolonged absence, or when a resident
acquires a foreign passport; Israeli citizens, by contrast, may leave
the country for any period without relinquishing citizenship or any of
their rights.) Two years ago, Fahmi says, authorities began making his
visa applications more difficult, and last month the interior ministry
informed him that his visa, which expires on April 3rd, would no
longer be renewed. Fahmi has gone through legal and other channels to
reinstate his residency rights, but these efforts have so far been to
no avail. As for signatures in support of his petition, he has already
received hundreds, many of them attached to comments expressing
outrage at the prospect of the shop’s closing and at the injustice of
Fahmi’s prospective deportation:
“Munther Fahmy’s deportation is not only an infringement of the
human right to settlement, but to freedom of speech. Israel presents
itself in the international media as a democratic nation, using its
cultural and intellectual cachet to drive tourism to the country. This
deportation tarnishes and undermines that image.”
“Munther Fahmi is a central part of East Jerusalem’s cultural
life. The idea that he could be deported from the city is both
preposterous and evil. I personally and Zed Books will do all in our
power to help and support him and this campaign.”
“this is part and parcel of israel’s colonization of east
jerusalem as well as the project of erasing palestinian history. i
fervently hope munther fahmy and this vital bookstore remain in their
rightful place: jerusalem.”
But it remains unclear what effect, if any, this support will have on
Fahmi’s fate in the face of Israel’s juggernaut shift to the right and
its expansion into East Jerusalem. David Remnick recently asked Amos
Schocken how he would feel if the embattled Haaretz folded or if he
had to sell it to an owner with different principles. Schocken
replied, “If we weren’t around, it would be . . . sad.”
—
“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and
the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”
–Nineteenth century Nēhilawē (Cree) proverb
================
6. Haaretz,
March 28, 2011
Netanyahu to Abbas: You can’t have peace with both Israel and Hamas
Palestinian president willing to give up hundreds of million dollars in U.S. aid if necessary to forge a unity deal with Hamas, says top adviser.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-to-abbas-you-can-t-have-peace-with-both-israel-and-hamas-1.352404
By The Associated Press
Tags: Israel news Benjamin Netanyahu Mahmoud Abbas Palestinians
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that reconciliation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas could spell the end of the peace process, after an aide to Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinian president was would be willing to give up U.S. aid if needed to secure unity with the rival faction.
“You can’t have peace with both Israel and Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “Choose peace with Israel.”
Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Photo by: AP
Abbas is making a heavy push for reconciliation with Hamas, and a senior adviser said Monday that he was prepared to give up hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid if that was what it takes to forge a Palestinian unity deal.
“Of course we need the American money. But if they use it as a way of pressuring us, we are ready to relinquish that aid,” said adviser Azzam Ahmed.
Israel, the U.S. and the EU consider Hamas a terror group because of its rocket attacks and suicide bombings aimed at Israeli civilians.
The U.S. administration, the largest single donor to the Palestinians, withheld funds when Hamas was a part of a short-lived Palestinian unity government. The Palestinian Authority is heavily reliant on foreign aid and forgoing the funds could easily spark its own crisis.
The Palestinian unity government, isolated internationally because of Hamas’ refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist, collapsed during a five-day civil war in 2007 that ended with the Islamic militant group seizing power in the Gaza Strip.
Since then, the Palestinians have been divided between rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza, the two territories they hope to turn into an independent state.
With peace talks stalled since September, Abbas has begun an effort to win international recognition of Palestine, with or without an agreement with
Israel. That effort is to culminate at the United Nations in September.
Palestinian officials acknowledge that they must solve their differences with Hamas before they can go to the United Nations. Abbas has made repeated overtures toward Hamas in recent weeks – including an offer to visit Gaza to lay the groundwork for national elections. Over the weekend, he met with local Hamas officials in the West Bank.
“The president is working hard in order to bring about a unified Palestinian territory before he goes to the UN,” Ahmed said.
Hamas leaders say they want a full power-sharing deal before meeting with the Palestinian president – including a deal on how to divide security responsibilities.
“This visit should be for the sake of achieving progress on the ground and not only for photos and media coverage, said Mushir al Masri,” a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. “The problem is not in forming the government; it’s in reaching an agreement.”
Hamas is demanding further gestures from Abbas before considering unity, such as a release of hundreds of Hamas prisoners locked up in the West Bank, re-opening closed Hamas charities and the removal of a ban on Hamas activities in the West Bank.
Palestinian analysts say Hamas has hardened its negotiating positions recently and is feeling empowered by the recent upheavals in the Arab world, particularly in Egypt, where its ally, the Muslim Brotherhood, is expected to play a key role in the new regime.
Ayman Hussein, a West Bank Hamas member who recently met Abbas in Ramallah, said Abbas appeared serious in his efforts to reach out to Hamas and was pessimistic about the peace process with Israel.
Hanna Amerah, a member of the PLO executive committee, said Abbas is waiting for an official response from Hamas about his initiative to go to Gaza and expects an answer within a few days.
He claimed Abbas has support for his move from the European Union, the UN and the Arab League. But giving up on the U.S. and Israel could come at a heavy price.
The Palestinians receive more than $470 million a year in direct financial assistance from the U.S. The U.S. hasn’t said what it will do if Hamas returns to power in the West Bank, but it will likely cut off the funds unless Hamas agrees to renounce violence and recognize Israel. Hamas has given no indication it is prepared to do either.
————
Hamas offers for truce
http://www.haaretz.com/news/hamas-we-will-accept-long-term-truce-if-gaza-borders-opened-1.269116
http://www.haaretz.com/news/egypt-brokering-hamas-israel-deal-on-long-term-gaza-truce-1.241874
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1510074/Hamas-offers-deal-if-Israel-pulls-out.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/opinion/01yousef.html
http://heathlander.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/statement-from-richard-falk-truce-offer-from-hamas/
================
7. Haaretz Monday, March 28, 2011
Latest update 02:08 28.03.11
Arab peace initiative is another missed opportunity for Israel
Today is the ninth anniversary of the approval of the Arab League Peace Initiative. Back then, all the Arab states followed by all member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, offered Israel the best deal the Jewish state has received since the Balfour Declaration.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/arab-peace-initiative-is-another-missed-opportunity-for-israel-1.352252
By Akiva Eldar
Once again, Jerusalem is “closely monitoring” the squabble at the neighbors’ – this time, in the form of the bloody clashes in Syria. Is the fall of President Bashar Assad good for the Jews? Could religious extremists replace the minority Alawite regime? What will happen to the separation of forces agreement on the Golan Heights? What will be the new regime’s policy concerning a negotiated end to the Arab-Israeli conflict? How will the political furor affect Syria’s intimate relations with Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah?
It’s hard to find a respected analyst willing to take the risk of tackling these questions. On the other hand, six weeks after the fall of the Mubarak regime, even dyed-in-the-wool pessimists aren’t suggesting the possibility of a renewed conflict with Egypt. The domestic shockwaves there have not crossed the border with Israel. The provisional government in Cairo responded with restraint to the Israel Air Force strikes in the Gaza Strip. And in an interview last week with a senior correspondent from the London-based Al Hayat newspaper, which appeared in The New York Times, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa – who is considered a front-runner in the Egyptian presidential election – stressed that if he takes office, he will honor the peace treaty with Israel.
Were it not for the narrow-mindedness and perhaps cowardice of those who call themselves leaders, Israel might have been able to be calmer also in regard to developments in the north.
Today is the ninth anniversary of the approval of the Arab League Peace Initiative. Back then, all the Arab states, including Syria, followed by all member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, offered Israel the best deal the Jewish state has received since the Balfour Declaration: an end to the hostile relationship with the Muslim world, the establishment of normalized relations with Arab states, a Palestinian state within the June 4, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and a just, negotiated solution to the refugee issue, in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194. The initiative also left an opening for territorial exchange, under which Israel could annex Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and some of the settlements, and for special arrangements for sacred sites.
Recently published Al Jazeera documents disclosed the pragmatic approach taken by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in talks with then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, with respect to the issue of the return of refugees to Israel. At that same time, Assad tried to restart negotiations with Israel on various channels, and meekly swallowed the humiliation of the bombing of his nuclear facilities that foreign media reports have attributed to the long arm of Israel.
Instead of making peace with all the Arab states, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon launched a war against the Palestinians the day after the March 2002 Arab League summit: In response to the murder of 30 Israelis in the Hamas suicide attack at a Passover seder in Netanya’s Park Hotel, he ordered the army to reoccupy the territories (Operation Defensive Shield ). The Arabs offered Sharon a mile, but in fact he didn’t even consider giving them an inch. Actually, he was playing around with the idea, recently recycled by Netanyahu and Lieberman, of a “long-term interim plan.”
Like the other Arab League members, Syria responded mildly to the Israeli cabinet resolution of 2003 to append 14 reservations to the road map for peace, including rejection of the Arab peace initiative. Also like other Arab states, since March 28, 2007, Syria has voted eight times in favor of ratifying the initiative. And like its three predecessors, the Netanyahu government has ignored it.
Had the Arab League summit scheduled to convene in Baghdad next week not been postponed due to domestic unrest in a number of member states, the Arab leaders would almost certainly have declared the death of their peace plan. It’s obvious that negotiations based on that initiative are not in line with the proposal to declare at the United Nations the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
The leaders of Hamas, who are feeling their way toward a moderate unity government, are adjusting to the new situation being created in the Middle East. They know that representatives of Big Brother – i.e., the Muslim Brotherhood – will soon be in the Egyptian government, which will honor the peace treaty with Israel. And it’s possible that Damascus will no longer serve as a refuge for terrorists. Meanwhile, the Arab League initiative is still sitting on the shelf.
If Israel had a prime minister who wasn’t busy doing an advanced degree in survival studies, he would not have lent a hand to the criminal act of missing the Arab peace initiative – an initiative that might not be offered again.
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8. JCCs Are a New Front in the Culture War on Israel
Centers in D.C. and N.Y. Criticized for Showing Controversial Films, Plays
http://forward.com/articles/136437/#
STAN BAROUHHigh Drama: Rozina Kambos and Erez Kahana star in ‘Return to Haifa.’
By Nathan Guttman
Published March 23, 2011, issue of April 01, 2011.
Washington — Jewish Community Centers, known for their fitness facilities and child care services, are increasingly becoming the target of protesters taking issue with the artistic programs they offer.
In Washington, a new grassroots organization is calling on the local federation to adopt guidelines that will withhold funding from the JCC if the center’s theater puts on plays that “denigrate Israel and undermine its legitimacy.” In New York City, a group called JCCWatch is taking aim at the JCC in Manhattan for partnering with such groups as the New Israel Fund, B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch in supporting the Other Israel Film Festival.
In the middle of this fight stand the Jewish federations, the community’s philanthropic backbone, torn between their wish to maintain the artistic freedom of the community’s beneficiary agencies and their need to satisfy angry donors who control the purse strings.
“I don’t want to infringe on anyone’s freedom of expression, but why should it be from my federation contributions?” asked Louis Offen, who describes himself as a “significant donor” to the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.
Offen, a retired physician and lawyer from Chevy Chase, Md., has demanded that the federation put Ari Roth, artistic director of the Washington DC JCC’S Theater J, on “a shorter leash.” Two years ago, Offen cut back his charitable giving to the federation because of Theater J’s reading of the play “Seven Jewish Children” by British playwright Caryl Churchill. The theater held a critical reading of the play, which speaks of Israeli wrongdoings toward the Arab population, and coupled it with “dramatic responses” from other artists that presented Israel more favorably.
Offen increased his donation the next year, but said he is once again threatening to slash support for the federation. “They should know that I and others are dropping away,” he said. “If the federation decides it can live without donors like me, that’s fine, but I think they’re making a huge mistake.”
Roth, in response, said that intervening in artistic content “is not a prerogative of the donor.” The artistic director, who made Theater J a leading critically acclaimed company, added that attempts to limit the theater’s freedom amount to censorship or, worse, to blacklisting.
Under the name Citizens Opposed to Propaganda Masquerading as Art — the local D.C.-area organization seeking to rein in Theatre J has staged protests in the past outside the JCC. Its members met when they were active in a watchdog group that monitored The Washington Post’s coverage of Israel. A few are also active in the organization Holocaust Museum Watch. Their March 6 letter to Susie Gelman, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and to all board members, lists the group’s reservations over Theater J’s decision to read “Seven Jewish Children.”
The group also opposed the theater’s invitation in January to Israel’s Cameri Theater to perform “Return to Haifa,” a play adapted from a novella by Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani, who died in a Beirut car bomb attack in 1972. The author was also a spokesman of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group that conducted terrorist actions during the 1970s. The play, which won praise from Washington theater critics, tells the intertwining stories of an Arab family that fled its house in Haifa during the 1948 war and a Jewish family of Holocaust survivors now living in that house.
“Showing it in Israel is different. Showing it in any theater in America is fine, but people don’t give money to the federation to support the denigration of Israel,” COPMA treasurer Carol Greenwald argued.
In their letter to federation leaders, COPMA demands the adoption of guidelines “for withholding funding from partner agencies that engage in political propaganda and activism denigrating Israel and undermining its legitimacy as a strong, secure and independent Jewish state.”
In response, the Washington federation provided the Forward with a written statement saying, “Federation leadership considers this to be a serious matter and is taking the issue of funding guidelines under advisement.” The federation declined to comment on specific questions relating to funding the JCC and Theater J.
The model suggested by COPMA for guidelines is the one adopted early last year by the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, following a similar debate in the community. These guidelines state that the federation will not fund grantees that advocate or endorse the undermining of Israel’s legitimacy “as a secure, independent, democratic, Jewish state,” including through participation in boycott, divestment and sanctions.
“There are things a Jewish community shouldn’t be doing, like serving a bacon cheeseburger on Yom Kippur,” said Andrew Apostolou, a local Jewish Community Relations Council member who has asked for a public discussion over funding guidelines. “Putting on an anti-Semitic play is one of these things.”
But professionals in the field of Jewish arts and culture view the San Francisco guidelines as bad news. “They had a very chilling effect on the cultural community, because they are too vague,” said Elise Bernhardt, President and CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Culture. She explained that with no clear definition of what constitutes de-legitimization of Israel, the guidelines serve only to make artists’ life “very difficult.” Bernhardt’s group, which funds programs in all fields of art, has also faced debates within its board about borders and rules. But only once was there a decision not to fund a film. “If we tell artists what to say or what to do, we won’t get good art,” Bernhardt said.
The debate is not only over artistic principle. For JCCs, it is also about real money. The DCJCC receives $600,000 a year from the federation, a sum that makes up about 8% of its annual budget. A drive for guidelines that would deprive the JCC of federation money because of unacceptable shows put on by Theater J could limit the JCC’S ability to provide other services. “I don’t believe in formal guidelines,” said Arna Meyer Mickelson, CEO of the DCJCC, ”but that does not mean we don’t have a philosophy that guides our work.” This philosophy, she explained, includes “welcoming multiple voices” while rejecting the principle and tactics of BDS. In practice, this translates to including BDS supporters in panel discussions, but keeping the debate balanced and expecting “that the discussion will not support BDS.”
The Washington debate echoes a similar discussion in New York. There, too, community leaders have lately advocated for a “big tent” approach. Writing in the New York Jewish Week on February 15, John Ruskay, executive vice president and CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, spoke out in defense of the JCC in Manhattan, which has come under attack following the Other Israel Film Festival, a showing of films highlighting the lives of Arabs and other minorities in Israel.
“This is the same JCC that hosts the only ongoing Ulpan program in New York, sponsors Birthright Israel trips for our young, undertakes annual leadership missions to Israel, created the Israel Film Center, presented a 24-hour “Israel Non-Stop” cultural marathon, and far more,” Ruskay wrote.
Nevertheless, in 2007, UJA-Federation itself abruptly pulled out of co-sponsoring that year’s Other Israel Film Festival at the JCC at the 11th hour. Festival promotional materials had already been distributed bearing UJA-Federation’s logo. Nevertheless, the federation’s name was pulled from the festival’s website.
Speaking on background, federation sources told the press that pressure from major donors had spurred the pullout. A statement issued then by UJA-Federation denied this, claiming incorrectly that “an Israeli political party” was also a cosponsor, preventing the philanthropy from participating without compromising its nonpartisan status. The federation sponsorship then involved no funds.
This year, JCCWatch, composed, according to press reports, of a handful of JCC members, has put forth a demand for the community center to establish “public and transparent guidelines that will distance it from organizations supporting BDS.”
In an official statement, the JCC countered that it “does not support BDS, and we do not partner with organizations that support BDS. We stand with Israel against de-legitimization and support open and respectful dialogue within our community.”
The debate, said Stephen Hazan Arnoff, executive director of New York’s 14th Street Y, a community center not targeted by protesters, reflects similar trends in Israel, where tolerance of dissenting views is in decline. Attacks on JCCs and Jewish cultural institutions, he said, “are a sign of weakness” of the community. “If the community cannot accommodate diversity, the community is not healthy.”
Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com