A bit more tonight than I feel comfortable sending. I almost omitted no. 10, as I did indeed several others. But have left it in just in case you want to read it. None of the items below are extensively long.
The first item furnished the headline in today’s Hebrew Haaretz. The Guardian report is more complete, so am sending it. We learn that between 1967 and 1994, Israel stripped 140,000 Palestinians of residency rights. Why Israel should have the prerogative to decide who resides in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem is beyond me. Unfortunately the Oslo accords signed by Arafat left that privilege in Israel’s hands so that it could continue its ethnic cleansing! Of course no Jewish Israeli loses citizenship no matter how many years he/she resides abroad. Apartheid? You bet.
In item 2 Amira Hass iterates the point of view that I expressed yesterday: Israel gets by with whatever it does. Oh, yes, the EU and the United States might shake their fingers at Israel. So? Does that change Israel’s behavior? No.
As for item 3–all the news today—radio, TV, newspaper—is full of ‘fear’ of what will take place this year during the commemoration of the Nakba on Sunday. I don’t understand why. Palestinians (along with some Jews who join to show solidarity) have been commemorating the Nakba for years. Last year the police did stir things up for some unknown reason. It was awful. Families come to these affairs with babies and small children. There was tear gas, horses, and beatings. The police have no right to make trouble where there is none. All the attention that the Nakba is receiving now makes me feel very uncomfortable. It’s as if in preparation for really mean behavior on the part of the police and military. Hope I am wrong. I might only add, Israel is probably the only country in the world that when holidays are in the offing, that we are warned of the dangers from ‘terrorist’ attacks. Fear mongering! That’s what all this is. I hope that it will not turn out to be more!
Item 4 tells us that the court for now protects 27 or more Palestinian homes from destruction—the emphasis being on “for now.”
Item 5 informs us that Hamas will honor the ‘truce’ but will not recognize Israel. Should Israel nevertheless agree to a pact with the Hamas-Fatah government? Yes, of course it should. If the truce goes well, if Palestinians have freedom and a degree of justice, have some future to look forward to, it is more than likely that Hamas will diminish in power. Most human beings—be they Palestinians, Israelis, or other–want just to live, to have a modicum of security. If they have that and also eventually justice, then peace will come. I still prefer a single secular state, but also think it likely that if 2 states initially emerge, they will eventually become one.
In item 6 Neve Gordon discusses some of Israel’s new laws that promote repression.
Item 7 informs us that construction of a portion of the ‘wall/fence’ has stopped for now. Also included in the report are the cost of the wall. Meanwhile, today’s TV news on channel 2 informed us that a premature baby had died in one Israeli hospital and others were infected with the virus that killed the one, partly because there are not enough nurses and doctors to attend to them. But Israel prefers stealing land rather that putting money in health, education, and other small basics as these.
Item 8 is a typical story of a political prisoner. So many Palestinians sit in jail for years not because they have committed a crime but because . . .just because. Ahmad Qatamesh is one such. Amnesty International has taken up his case. Will that help?
Item 9 informs us that guitarist Andy Mckee will not perform in Israel. He makes a point of saying that this is his decision, as if to imply that he is not bowing to bds pressure. Maybe.
Item 10 is Amy Goodman’s commentary on the case of Tony Kushner. I really hadn’t intended to send more about it. But Amy Goodman is always worth reading, even if she does not add much information that you did not already know.
All the best,
Dorothy
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1. The Guardian,
11 May 2011
Israel stripped 140,000 Palestinians of residency rights, document reveals
Thousands of Palestinians who left the West Bank to work or study between 1967 and 1994 had residency rights revoked
An Israeli soldier watches Palestinians flee the West Bank across the Allenby bridge into Jordan after the 1967 war. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Israel stripped thousands of Palestinians of their right to live in the West Bank over a 27-year period, forcing most of them into permanent exile abroad, a document obtained under freedom of information laws has disclosed.
Around 140,000 Palestinians who left to study or work had their residency rights revoked between 1967 and 1994.
Those leaving the West Bank across the Allenby bridge border crossing to Jordan were required to deposit their identity documents with Israeli officials. In return they were given a card, valid for three years, which could be extended three times for an additional year.
If they stayed abroad more than six months beyond the expiration of the card, Israel deemed them “NLRs” – no longer resident – and their right to return was revoked.
“The mass withdrawal of residency rights from tens of thousands of West Bank residents, tantamount to permanent exile from their homeland, remains an illegitimate demographic policy and a grave violation of international law,” said Hamoked, an Israeli NGO that filed the freedom of information request.
Some of the 140,000 were later allowed to return, but an estimated 130,000 are still deemed NLRs. “I doubt there is a family in the West Bank that does not have a relative who lost their residency rights in this way,” Dalia Kerstein of Hamoked said. Requests to extend residency rights while abroad nearly always went unanswered, she added.
Saeb Erekat, the former Palestinian chief negotiator whose brother lost his residency rights after leaving to study in the US, described the policy as a war crime.
Israel was “engaging in a systematic policy of displacement … to change the demographic composition of the occupied Palestinian territories”, he said in a statement.
“This policy should not only be seen as a war crime as it is under international law; it also has a humanitarian dimension. We are talking about people who left Palestine to study or work temporarily but who could not return to resume their lives in their country with their families.”
The process began at the start of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967 and ended in 1994 when the Palestinian Authority was established under the Oslo accords.
However, the practice of revoking the residency rights of Palestinians in east Jerusalem has accelerated in recent years.
Following the annexation of east Jerusalem, Israel distributed identity cards giving residency status – not citizenship – to Palestinians living in the city. They were permitted to apply for Israeli citizenship, but the vast majority refused on political grounds.
However, if they leave the city for more than seven years, their east Jerusalem residency rights are revoked. Israeli citizens are allowed to leave indefinitely without penalty.
Since 1995, Palestinians have also been required to prove their “centre of life” is in east Jerusalem or face having their residency rights revoked.
In 2008, more than 4,500 Palestinians had their east Jerusalem identity cards revoked, compared with 229 the previous year, according to the Association of Civil Rights in Israel.
Richard Falk, an investigator for the United Nations human rights council, described this as “the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians … [which] can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing”.
In a recent high-profile case, the Palestinian owner of a bookshop at the American Colony hotel in east Jerusalem is facing deportation after having lost his residency rights. Munther Fahmi, 56, who left Jerusalem in 1973 for 20 years, has since been given a series of tourist visas which will no longer be renewed. Among the signatories to a petition demanding he be allowed to stay are the authors Ian McEwan, Roddy Doyle and Orhan Pamuk.
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2, Haaretz,
May 11, 2011
Israel is getting away with robbing Palestinian taxes
Israel is getting away with ‘robbing’ the Palestinians of $105 million bu withholding tax funds; we all know that the robber will not be punished.
Once again, Israel is showing everyone who the real man is here. It is busy carrying out (yet another ) robbery in broad daylight of $105 million from the Palestinians. And as usual, it is going off without a hitch.
The sum that is being stolen consists of customs duties on Palestinian imports that were collected at border crossings under Israeli control. According to the Oslo accords, this money must be transferred at the start of every month to the Palestinian Authority treasury, where it constitutes some two-thirds of the PA’s revenues. The remainder is collected directly inside the West Bank.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz instructed Israeli treasury officials to freeze the transfer of the money because of the reconciliation agreement signed between Fatah and Hamas. Ostensibly, the goal is to ensure that the money does not reach terrorist hands. This is not merely robbery; it is also a false pretext.
First, the Palestinian unity government has not yet been established. Second, the money is mainly earmarked for paying the salaries of PA employees. These are the same employees who received their salaries when Fatah and Hamas were still publicly cursing each other.
Steinitz’s order follows warnings against the reconciliation agreement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. I won’t say those warnings constituted “blatant intervention” in another people’s internal affairs, because what is Israeli domination of the Palestinian people if not blatant intervention, to put it mildly?
The sum of $105 million is peanuts compared to the value of the lands that Israel has stolen, and continues to steal, from the Palestinians. It is nothing compared to the economic and social damage that Israel causes by its policy of restricting freedom of movement. But confiscating this sum does create a series of immediate problems.
The PA, for all the talk about its institutions’ preparedness for statehood, suffers from chronic financial crisis and is dependent on donations and charity in order to survive from year to year. Those who marvel at the prosperity in Ramallah ignore the fact that it is artificial, stemming mainly from international assistance. Owing to Israel’s policy of closure and separation and its control over more than 60 percent of the area of the West Bank, the occupied Palestinian economy cannot increase its revenues from independent productive activity.
The head of the Ramallah government, Salam Fayyad, has decided that instead of paying only part of the salaries, he will wait until the entire confiscated sum is released – or for a miracle – in order to pay all of them. Now, at the end of the second week of May, 151,000 employees in the Palestinian public sector still do not know when their salaries will arrive in their bank accounts (a total of NIS 527 million ). Another NIS 193 million has not reached some 100,000 people who get monthly stipends (families of prisoners, families of the fallen, welfare recipients ).
With the PA’s encouragement, tens of thousands of families have in recent years taken out bank loans to buy apartments. True, the Palestinian Monetary Authority has instructed the banks not to fine those who can’t make their payments this month, but even without a fine, these families will find themselves with checks that bounce and accounts in overdraft.
Moreover, even when paid on time, PA salaries (NIS 2,000 for a teacher, for example, or NIS 3,400 for a department head in a government office ) have not kept up with the cost of living. Thus more families will now have to give up basic expenditures such as travel, medical care, cultural events and so forth.
We have been here before. As usual, the freeze has led to a rebuke from the UN secretary general, pleading from Quartet envoy Tony Blair and a statement that the move was premature on the part of the U.S. State Department. It would have been better if they had kept quiet.
We all know that the robber will not be punished. The robber will even get encouragement in the form of an emergency budget for the PA, put together by the United States and Europe. That budget will then enable them to make even more political demands of the Palestinians.
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3. Ynet,
May 11, 2011
Arab-Israeli rally Photo: AFP
Israel braces for ‘Nakba Day’
IDF boosts West Bank deployment as Palestinians prepare to mark ‘disaster’ of Jewish State’s establishment; police bracing for possible violence within Green Line, Arab-Israelis hold major rally Tuesday
Independence Day over, ‘Nakba Day’ looming: Israel’s defense establishment is preparing for a possibly turbulent weekend as Palestinians mark what they view as the disaster inherent in Israel’s establishment.
The annual ‘Nakba Day’ will be marked on May 15th, the date of the Jewish state’s inception.
Security officials have been assessing the volatile situation in the past week, and as of Wednesday the IDF will be boosting its deployment throughout Judea and Samaria. The army is preparing for various scenarios, including extreme violence, despite estimations that Palestinian security forces will aim to keep tensions low.
Several IDF regiments will be joining units already in place, in case Palestinian rallies turn violent and prompt dangerous friction with Israeli forces and settlers.
“We don’t want to be surprised or improvise a response at the last moment,” a military official said, while expressing his hope that quiet will prevail throughout ‘Nakba Day.’
Meanwhile, Israel Police officials are preparing for the possibility of Arab Israelis joining the protests and resorting to violence within the Green Line. Police officers fear that planned rallies and marches will turn into mass riots and will discuss the option of boosting police deployment over the weekend.
As opposed to previous years, the Palestinians have been calling for civil disobedience both in the West Bank and outside Israel, in states sharing a border with the Jewish state. The trend got underway with the launch of a Facebook page urging the Palestinians to embark on a third Intifada on May 15.
Elsewhere online, several groups are organizing with the aims of reaching Israel’s borders. One such initiative is being organized by the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt, with university students expected to depart from Cairo Friday en route to the Gaza Strip border.
‘Kfar Saba is occupied’
Tuesday evening, some 15,000 Arab Israelis took part in a ‘Nakba Day rally in the western Galilee region. The event was attended by Arab Knesset members and senior Islamic Movement figures.
Participants held up Palestinian flags and signs with anti-occupation slogans. Cities within Israel’s Green Line, including Kfar Saba and Petach Tikva, just north of Tel Aviv, were also declared as “occupied.” The rally also endorsed the recent Hamas-Fatah unity deal.
Unhappy on Independence Day (Photo: AFP)
However, it appears that there is no consensus on the Arab side, after the Islamic Movement walked out of the event because a female singer took the stage.
Speaking at the event, MK Ahmed Tibi said: “In 1948, ethnic cleansing was carried out through the destruction of 531 villages, the expulsion of hundreds of thousands, and the pulverizing of the Palestinian people.”
Referring to the so-called Nakba Law, aimed at combating displays rejecting the Jewish state’s existence, Tibi said: “This is an open wound in our heart, a narrative that is alive and kicking, and no law would change that. The Nakba Law deserves to be violated, and that’s what we did.”
Hasan Shaalan, Hanan Greenberg, Elior Levy and Omri Efraim contributed to the report
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4. Ynet,
May 11, 2011
Jerusalem News
Al-Bustan neighborhood Photo: Noam Moskowitz
Court protects Palestinian homes, for now
Judge delays demolition of 22 homes in east Jerusalem until mayor’s plans for park approved
Palestinian homes in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Bustan are not to be demolished until plans are finalized and approved for the park that is to be established in their stead, the Jerusalem District Court ruled Wednesday.
Mayor Nir Barkat is promoting the plans, which require the demolition of 22 illegally-built homes. In exchange, the Arabs who reside in these homes will receive permits to build new homes legally on the other side of the neighborhood, at their expense. In addition, the 66 other homes in the neighborhood will be legalized retroactively.
Judge Yoram Noam said that according the municipality’s plans, there was no need to raze the homes yet. But municipality officials say the approval would take up to two years. “We will meet again when the plans are approved in 2012-2013. Debating it today is just unnecessary,” Noam said at the hearing.
Arab residents of al-Bustan have also filed construction plans of their own, and the planning and construction committee will have to decide between the two.
“I am pleased with the judge’s decision not to carry out the demolitions,” said Dr. Ziyad Kawar, who represents the residents. He said the plans they have offered will turn the neighborhood into “a nice place to visit, with infrastructure, coffee shops, hotels, paths, and running water”.
‘Al-Bustan lacks infrastructure, schools’
Kawar added that he believes the municipality will end up demolishing more than the 22 homes it has so far listed “because the archaeological-national-religious park Nir Barkat wants to establish requires demolishing many more (homes)”.
“It’s unfortunate that the Jerusalem Municipality is ignoring the suffering and neglect the residents must deal with in addition to the lack of infrastructure, roads, and schools. It is an unacceptable reality for people to dream at night of bulldozers come to destroy their homes,” he said.
Amnon Merhav, Jerusalem Municipality’s legal consultant, told a crowd of upset men and women from al-Bustan that the plans for the park will improve the quality of life for many of the city’s residents.
Regarding claims that the residents do not have the money to rebuild their homes on the other side of the neighborhood, Merhav said the municipality would discuss the issue after the plans are approved and that residents are invited to “negotiate the matter”.
“In any case, they are currently building homes so they must have most of the resources,” he said, defining the problem as “solely hypothetical”.
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5. Haaretz,
May 11, 2011
Hamas accepts 1967 borders, but will never recognize Israel, top official says
Speaking to Palestinian news agency Ma’an, Mahmoud Zahar says recognition of Israel would deprive future Palestinian generations of the possibility to ‘liberate’ their lands.
Hamas would be willing to accept a Palestinian state within 1967 borders, a leader of the militant group, Mahmoud Zahar, told the Palestinian news agency Ma’an on Wednesday, adding, however, that Hamas would never recognize Israel since such a move would counter the group’s aim to “liberate” all of Palestine.
Zahar’s comments come amid Palestinian efforts to form a unity government that would include former rivals Fatah and Hamas, following a reconciliation agreement the two factions signed last week in Cairo.
Speaking to Ma’an on Wednesday, Zahar, hinting at the possible political line of a future Palestinian unity cabinet, said that recognizing Israel would “preclude the right of the next generations to liberate the lands,” wondering: “What will be the fate of the five million Palestinians in the diaspora?”
The Gaza strongman went on to tell Ma’an that Hamas would be willing to recognize a Palestinian state “on any part of Palestine,” as opposed to the group’s proclaimed aim to form a state “from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.”
Zahar also referred to the future of Hamas’ military truce with Israel, confirming that the movement would continue to honor the cessation of fighting, following a joint decision made with its new Fatah partners. The Hamas leader, however, reiterated that the truce was “part of the resistance not its rejection,” adding that a “truce is not peace.”
A top Palestinian official said on Tuesday that a new unity government between recently reconciled Hamas and Fatah will be formed in 10 days.
In an interview with Ma’an news agency, Fatah leader Nabil Shaath said that although the prime minister of a future interim unity government has yet to be announced, current PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is still in the running for the position.
Fayyad has taken unprecedented steps in recent months toward Palestinian statehood, recently presenting proposal in Brussels delineating a three-year aid plan that would allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the foreseeable future.
Palestinian leaders plan to ask the United Nations General Assembly in September to recognize a Palestinian state in all the lands Israel occupied in 1967.
Fayyad has made it clear that in the event that Israel and the Palestinians do not reach a negotiated settlement, a Palestinian state will be declared unilaterally.
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6, Al Jazeera Last Modified: 10 May 2011 15:23
Israel’s new laws promote repression
As Arabs across the region struggle for freedom and democracy, Israeli law seems to be headed in the opposite direction.
The Israeli Knesset has passed some 20 new laws that have been characterised as undemocratic and racist – and target the country’s Arab minority and the occupied Palestinians [GALLO/GETTY]
“Bad laws,” Edmund Burke once said, “are the worst sort of tyranny.”
The millions of people who have been protesting – from Tunis, Egypt and Libya, to Bahrain, Yemen and Syria – appear to have recognised this truism and are demanding the end of emergency law and the drafting of new constitutions that will guarantee the separation of powers, free, fair and regular elections, and basic political, social and economic rights for all citizens.
To put it succinctly, they are fighting to end tyranny.
Within this dramatic context it is also fruitful to look at Israel, which is considered by many as the only democracy in the Middle East and which has, in many ways, been an outlier in the region. One might ask whether Israel or not stands as a beacon of light for those fighting tyranny.
On the one hand, the book of laws under which Israel’s citizenry live is – with the exception of a handful of significant laws that privilege Jews over non-Jews – currently very similar to those used in most liberal democracies, where the executive, legislative and judicial powers are separated, there are free, fair and regular elections, and the citizens enjoy basic rights – including freedom of expression and association.
Israel’s double standard
However, on the other hand, the Israeli military law used to manage the Palestinians are similar to those deployed in most Arab countries, where there is no real separation of powers and people are in many respects without rights. Even though there has been a Palestinian Authority since the mid-1990s, there is no doubt that sovereignty still lies in Israeli hands.
One accordingly notices that in this so-called free and democratic country, there are in fact two books of laws, one liberal for its own citizenry and the other for Palestinians under its occupation. Hence, Israel looks an awful lot like apartheid or colonialism.
But can Israel’s democratic parts serve as a model of emulation for pro-democracy activists in the neighbouring Arab countries?
The answer is mixed – because as Arab citizens across the region struggle against tyranny, in Israel there appears to be an opposite trend, whereby large parts of the citizenry are not only acquiescent but have been supportive of Knesset members who are drafting new legislation to silence public criticism and to delegitimize political rivals, human rights organizations, and the Palestinian minority. The idea is to legally restrict individuals and groups that hold positions at odds with the government’s right-wing agenda by presenting them as enemies of the State.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel recently warned that the laws promoted by the Knesset are dangerous and will have severe ramifications for basic human rights and civil liberties. The association, which is known for its evenhanded approach, went on to claim that the new laws “contribute to undemocratic and racist public stands, which have been increasingly salient in Israeli society in the past few years”.
New wave of repressive laws
Here are just a few examples of approximately twenty bills that have either been approved or are currently under consideration.
• The Knesset approved a new law stating that organisations and institutions that commemorate Nakba Day, “deny the Jewish and democratic character of the State”, and shall not receive public funds. Thus, even in the Arab schools within Israel, the Nakba must be erased. So much for democratic contestation and multiculturalism.
• Another new law states that “acceptance committees” of villages and communities may turn down a candidate if he or she “fails to meet the fundamental views of the community”. According to ACRI, this bill intends to deny ethnic minorities’ access to Jewish communities set up on predominantly public lands. So unless the new Arab pro-democracy movements want to base their countries on apartheid-like segregation, this is also not a law to emulate.
• The Knesset has approved a bill that pardons most of the protesters who demonstrated against Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Although legislation easing punitive measures against persons who exercise their right to political protest is, in principle, positive, this particular bill blatantly favours activists with a certain political ideology. This does not bode well for the basic notion of equality before the law.
• An amendment to the existing Penalty Code stipulates that people who publish a call that denies the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state shall be imprisoned. This extension of the existing law criminalises political views that the ruling political group does not accept. It is supported by the government and has passed a preliminary reading. Burgeoning democracies should definitely shy away from such legislation.
• There is currently a proposed bill to punish persons who initiate, promote, or publish material that might serve as grounds for imposing a boycott. The bill insists that these people are committing an offence and may be ordered to compensate parties economically affected by that boycott, including fixed reparations of 30,000 New Israeli Shekels (US$8,700), without an obligation on the plaintiffs to prove damages. This bill has already passed the first reading.
• Finally, a bill presented to the Knesset in October would require members of local and city councils, as well as some other civil servants, to pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
Democracy for a few
There is a clear logic underlying this spate of new laws; namely, the Israeli government’s decision to criminalise alternate political ideologies, such as the idea that Israel should be a democracy for all its citizens.
Hence, one witnesses an inverse trend – as the Arab citizens in the region struggle for more openness and indeed democracy, toppling dictators and pressuring governments to make significant liberal reforms, the Israeli book of laws is being rewritten so as to undercut democratic values.
Israelis celebrating the state’s 63rd birthday should closely examine the pro-democracy movements in Tahrir, Deraa and across the Arab world. They might very well learn a thing or two.
Neve Gordon is the author of Israel’s Occupation and can be reached through his website.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
Source: Al Jazeera
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7. The Guardian Wednesday 11 May 2011 15.52 BST
A section of the West Bank barrier under construction. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images
Israel has suspended construction work on a 25-mile section of its controversial separation barrier in the West Bank in order to save money, it says.
A defence ministry document, revealed by Army Radio, says work near a group of settlements known as Gush Etzion has been frozen but is expected to resume at the end of next year.
Construction of the barrier – mainly an electrified fence, but in some places an eight metre-high concrete wall – has slowed considerably in the last few years after starting at a frenetic pace in 2003.
When complete, it will take about 12% of the West Bank on to the Israeli side of the barrier.
The area in which work has been suspended is close to a settlement bloc that Israel is intent on keeping in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians under which final boundaries would be drawn.
Israel has long maintained that Gush Etzion, along with Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel, other major settlements, will not be relinquished.
Army Radio quoted the defence ministry document as saying Israel “realises the importance of erecting the fence and retains all of the claims to its construction despite a lack of funding”.
The cost of the barrier is thought to have risen considerably since it was estimated to be about $3.5bn (£2.1bn) five years ago.
A spokesman for the defence minister, Ehud Barak, said “the construction of the fence continues and will continue” but acknowledged the project was “complex from both a judicial and engineering point of view”.
The section of the barrier around Gush Etzion has been the subject of several legal challenges. Its planned route would cut off at least 20,000 Palestinians from the rest of the West Bank.
As well as the mounting cost of the barrier, continued construction around Gush Etzion is politically highly sensitive and would be seen as pre-judging the outcome of negotiations on the borders of a future Palestinian state.
The route of the barrier has been the subject of numerous legal challenges in the Israeli courts brought on behalf of Palestinian villages that faced losing access to their land or being cut in two.
Israel has always argued that the barrier is necessary to prevent suicide bombers reaching targets and to protect its settlements, all of which are illegal under international law.
However, Palestinians and many in the international community say its purpose is to annex territory and create a de facto border in advance of any peace deal. In 2004, the international court of justice ruled that the barrier was “contrary to international law”.
Along most of its route – which, in places, juts deep into the West Bank – it is an electrified fence with a border of barbed wire and patrol roads, cutting a 60 metre-wide swath through what is often prime Palestinian agricultural land.
In urban areas, it is a reinforced concrete wall that often slices through Palestinian neighbourhoods.
Israeli authorities should release or charge a Palestinian writer and academic held for almost three weeks in the occupied West Bank, Amnesty International said today.
The Israel Security Agency (ISA) say they want to keep Ahmad Qatamesh in detention in connection with allegations of involvement with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which he denies.
“We fear that Ahmad Qatamesh may be behind bars for no reason other than the peaceful expression of his political views,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“If this is so, Amnesty International would consider him a prisoner of conscience and call for his immediate and unconditional release.”
Israeli security forces raided Ahmad Qatamesh’s family home in Ramallah at around 1am on 21 April. When they did not find him at home they arrested him at his brother’s house nearby. He was questioned for 10 minutes after his arrest, the only time he has been asked about the allegations.
Ahmad Qatamesh became one of Israel’s longest-serving administrative detainees in the 1990s. He was arrested by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1992 and reportedly tortured, then placed in administrative detention more than a year later. Despite a lack of evidence presented against him, his detention orders were continually renewed until 1998 when he was freed in the midst of a sustained international campaign for his release.
Ahmad Qatamesh is known for his memoir of this time in detention, entitled “ I shall not wear your tarboosh [fez]”.
Twelve days after his recent arrest, Ahmad Qatamesh was issued with a six-month administrative detention order after a military judge refused a request from the ISA to extend, for the second time, his detention for questioning.
The detention order appeared to have been produced for another person entirely – a Hamas suspect whose name was erased using correction fluid and replaced with that of Ahmad Qatamesh.
“The use of someone else’s detention order to hurriedly renew Ahmad Qatamesh’s detention seems to be a sign of the Israeli security forces’ cavalier attitude to due process for Palestinian detainees,” said Philip Luther.
On 8 May, the authorities replaced the flawed administrative detention order with a fresh one and presented it to a military judge, who will decide whether to reduce, cancel or confirm the period of detention.
The order now says Ahmad Qatamesh is being held for posing an unspecified security risk, but no evidence has been presented.
The judge has asked to see any secret evidence against Ahmad Qatamesh, which the ISA must present at a hearing on Thursday. The hearing will be closed with neither Ahmad Qatamesh nor his lawyer allowed to be present.
Israel’s administrative detention procedures allow for indefinite detention without charge or trial.
The authorities say that the detainees are a “security risk”, but do not tell them or their lawyers how they have made this assessment in order to allow them an effective opportunity to contest it.
“The Israeli authorities have used administrative detention to lock up hundreds of Palestinians arbitrarily for prolonged periods,” said Philip Luther. “Ahmad Qatamesh must either be released or be charged and given the chance to have his case heard in an open court.”
The PFLP is a left-wing Palestinian political party which also has an armed wing. While Ahmad Qatamesh was a political and intellectual supporter of the PFLP in the 1990s, he says he has not been involved with them for 13 years.
To Amnesty International’s knowledge, he has never been involved with the PFLP’s armed wing or advocated violence.
Read More
Palestinian facing indefinite detention (Urgent Action, 6 May 2011)
Five years after the Oslo Accords: Human rights sacrificed for security (Report, 31 August 1998)
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9. [forwarded by Ruth]
Attention to my Israeli Fans and Friends: Important announcement concerning the June concerts
Hey guys. Well I’ve got some bad news, the shows this summer in Israel are canceled. I absolutely hate to have to say those words to you all as I know many of you have been waiting many months, or even years to come to a show.
Over the last week on tour, I’ve come to realize that I can not be away from home for a month or more at a time with my new son back at home. The maximum is probably more like less than 3 weeks. Right now I am scheduled for a full month of touring in June so I’ve had to shorten my away time from home.
The rest of 2011 is pretty relaxed compared to the first half, so no other dates should be affected but of course I will let you know immediately if anything else changes.
Additionally, I try to always be transparent with you guys so I should also say that at least part of the decision to cancel the shows also concerns the stability of the region. I’m becoming more aware that I am very sensitive (perhaps a character flaw) to traveling to areas that are in turmoil or that are facing geo-political threats and other discord. My booking agents arrange shows up to a year in advance and I commit to shows at that time. However, if things come up that give me reason to be uncomfortable performing in a region (the bus attack in Jerusalem last march, the Fatah-Hamas pact and Netanyahu’s labeling it a “victory for terrorism”, the 48 rocket attacks on the Gaza Strip so far this year) than I won’t be performing there until peace and acceptance are the norm.
I am very sorry if this impacts you. You have every right to be upset, but I hope this explanation helps in some small way. This decision is entirely my own and was made only after much thought and discussion with my immediate and extended family.
With sincerest apologies,
Andy McKee
This entry was written by andymckee, posted on May 9, 2011 at 2:55 am, filed under News. Bookmark the permalink.
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10. The Guardian Wednesday 11 May 2011 07.30 BST
Tony Kushner: an angel in AmericaKushner’s drama has explored the McCarthyite witchhunts. How ironic that he was persecuted for criticising Israel’s government
Playwright Tony Kushner speaks out on the CUNY controversy, academic freedom and Israel. Video: DemocracyNow!
Tony Kushner will be receiving an honorary degree from John Jay College of criminal justice in New York City. This shouldn’t be big news. Kushner is a renowned playwright who won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, along with an Emmy award and two Tonys. The degree became big news when it was abruptly shelved by the City University of New York board of trustees during its 2 May meeting, after a trustee accused Kushner of being anti-Israel.
A campaign grew almost immediately, first calling on previous recipients of honorary degrees from CUNY colleges (of which John Jay College is one) to return them. Within days, what would have been a quickly forgotten bestowal of an honorary degree erupted into an international scandal. The chair of the board, Benno Schmidt, former president of Yale University, convened an emergency executive session of the board, which voted unanimously to restore the honour to Kushner.
The controversy exposed the extreme polarity that increasingly defines the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the willingness by some to suppress free speech and vigorous dialogue to further rigid, political dogma. The trustee who attacked Kushner, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, began his tirade at the original board meeting with an attack on Mary Robinson, who was formerly both the president of Ireland and the United Nations high commissioner for human rights. He then went on:
“There is a lot of disingenuous and nonintellectual activity directed against the state of Israel on campuses throughout the country, the west generally, and oftentimes the United States, as well.”
He presented several quotes that he attributed to Kushner to make his case, ending with, “I don’t want to bore you all with the details.”
Tony Kushner told me:
“[W]hat he’s doing is sparing them not boring details, but the full extent of the things that I’ve said about the state of Israel that would in fact make it clear to the board that I am in no way an enemy of the state of Israel, that I am, in fact, a vocal and ardent supporter of the state of Israel, but I don’t believe that criticism of state policy means that one seeks the destruction of a state. I’ve been very critical of the policies of my own government.”
First, a little history on Kushner’s work. He won the Pulitzer for his play “Angels in America”. The play is subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes”, and addresses the HIV/Aids epidemic and the struggle that many gay and lesbian people endure in the United States. A key character in the play is a fictionalised version of Roy Cohn, a prominent attorney who, early in his career, was a key adviser to Senator Joseph McCarthy. Cohn helped McCarthy with his fanatical pursuit of suspected communists in the US government and beyond. He was considered a lifelong closeted gay man, despite the fact that he helped target people for political persecution for being gay. Cohn died in 1986 of complications due to Aids, although he publicly described his illness as liver cancer. Thus, in a dramatic, real-life turn of events, Kushner, who has written extensively on the witchhunts of the McCarthy era, has now become the object of such a witch hunt himself.
The CUNY Board of Trustees’ version of Roy Cohn here is Wiesenfeld, appointed by a former Republican governor of New York, George Pataki.
I interviewed Tony Kushner soon after he got word that his honorary degree had been restored. He said US policy toward the Middle East “based on rightwing fantasies and theocratic fantasies and scripture-based fantasies of what history and on-the-ground reality is telling us, is catastrophic and is going to lead to the destruction of the state of Israel”. He went on:
“These people are not defending it. They’re not supporting it. They’re, in fact, causing a distortion of US policy regarding Israel and a distortion of the internal politics of Israel itself, because they exert a tremendous influence in Israel and support rightwing politicians who, I think, have led the country into a very dark and dangerous place.”
During the McCarthy era, the US was a dark and dangerous place as well. Now, amid the uprisings in the Arab and Muslim world, the recent rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas, and the likely recognition of Palestinian statehood by the United Nations general assembly, there is no more urgent time for vigorous and informed debate.
The future of peace in the Middle East depends on dissent. Those, like Tony Kushner, with the courage to speak out are the true angels in America.
• Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column
