NOVANEWS
Dear Friends,
Short but not so sweet. NGOs are again on the firing line.
The first of the 4 items below is a brief report on a new bill , which combines aspects of 2 former bills, and worsens them. This was clearer from the Israeli TV news on channel 2 this evening than from any report in English that I have been able to find. Tomorrow will probably bring fuller ones. The long and the short of it is that in the new bill certain organizations will be forbidden all funding. Among these are New Profile and Yesh Gvul. Hopefully the bill will not become law, but I wouldn’t bet on that happening.
Item 2 is a request for funds for organizations that support refusers. If you have any intentions of donating to any of these, you’d better do it quickly, before the new law (if it passes) takes effect.
Item 3 is a discussion about the ROR (Palestinians’ Right of Return). I agree that this is the crux of the problem, and that Israel does not recognize the right of Palestinian refugees to return, there is small chance of resolving the conflict. I have yet to meet a Palestinian who does not insist on this right, and justly so. There may be exceptions who are willing to forgo the ROR, but they are far from being anywhere near the majority.
In item 4 Amira Hass lashes out at the orthodoxation that Israel is now undergoing.
I wonder if the fascism and orthodoxation that Israel is now undergoing aren’t a blessing in disguise. These will surely give Jews abroad pause, and help them realize that Israel is not the country they want to support.
All the best,
Dorothy
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1. Jerusalem Post Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Photo by : Marc Israel Sellem
NGO bills revived in new, combined version
[see also ]
By LAHAV HARKOV
11/30/2011 22:26
Newest draft, written at PM’s request, divides organizations into 3 categories for potential foreign gov’t funding.
Talkbacks ()
At the request of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, MKs Ofir Akunis (Likud) and Faina Firschenbaum (Israel Beitenu) drafted a new version of the controversial NGO bill, which seeks to limit foreign government funding to political organizations. The Ministerial Committee on Legislation is expected to authorize the bill in 10 days.
Following Netanyahu’s call for Akunis to clarify further and define which organizations are political, the new version of the bill divides NGOs into three categories, combining elements of both MKs’ original bills.
The ministerial committee originally approved Kirschenbaum’s bill, which would levy a 45 percent tax on foreign governments’ donations to NGOs, and Akunis’s, which capped such contributions to political NGOs at NIS 20,000, but the initiatives were thwarted by an appeal from Minister without Portfolio Bennie Begin, who declared them “dead.”
On Monday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to attempt to pass Kirschenbaum’s bill despite the appeal, and Netanyahu’ s office hurried to find a compromise that both the prime minister and the foreign minister would find satisfactory.
The new draft, which is signed by both Akunis and Kirschenbaum, forbids any foreign government donations to NGOs that rejects Israel’s right to exist, incites racism, supports violence against Israel, supports putting Israeli politicians and IDF soldiers on trial in international courts, call for boycotts of the state or for IDF soldiers to refuse orders.
In addition, donations from within Israel to such organizations will be subject to a 45% tax.
Political organizations, such as Betselem or Peace Now , will also have to pay a 45% tax on donations. However, they will have the option of undergoing a hearing in the Knesset Finance Committee, which may decide to waive the tax.
Non-political organizations that receive state funding will be tax-exempt and may receive unlimited donations from foreign governments. This category includes Magen David Adom and Hebrew University , among other NGOs.
Earlier this week, Begin expressed confidence that the NGO bills are “practically dead,” due to his appeal, and said that Netanyahu is unlikely to allow them to pass when he and numerous other ministers oppose them.
When asked on Wednesday whether he would support the new version of the bill, he said he would not know until he reads it.
“I need to learn it in depth, meet with people, and after that I’ll decide,” Begin told The Jerusalem Post.
Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.
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2. Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Dear friend of the Refuser Movements,
Yes, it’s that time of the year. You are, no doubt, hearing from many groups, asking for your support. We hope that you will be able to extend some of that financial assistance to the refuser movements in Israel .
This has been a momentous year in so many ways, in the Middle East . The Arab Spring has led to “regime change” in several countries. The people of Egypt have shown their unwillingness to accept a replacement military regime. And the conflict in Syria deepens, as the Arab League takes strong steps to isolate Assad and hopefully compel him to stop attacking and killing Syrians. The Palestinian Authority has begun its push for recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations.
From the standpoint of peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the news is not good. Israel is pushing forward with aggressive, accelerated plans for construction of housing in many places in the West Bank. And, as the New York Times recently reported in its “Israel’s Other Occupation” article, there is a broad, multi-faceted campaign by the settler movement and most extreme right-wing elements in Israel to suppress opposition to the occupation and to isolate/attack the Arab citizens of Israel.
As is so often the case with this conflict, there is little good news to report. On the other hand, the refuser organizations have maintained and in some cases increased their levels of activity and impact.
We believe that the refusers remain among the most important voices and activists inside Israel (and, increasingly, among Palestinians as well, through Combatants for Peace). You will find detailed information from Yesh Gvul , New Profile and Combatants for Peace about their view of the situation and their plans for 2012.
We hope that you will continue your support of these organizations with an end of year, tax deductible contribution. You can do so very easily with your credit card by visiting http://www.refusersolidarity.net and clicking on the Donate Now button. If you would like to direct your contribution to a specific refuser group, be sure to select that group’s name in the “RSN Project” field. You will also find instructions on our website for donating by check.
Finally, we are saddened to report the death of Peretz Kidron , a longtime activist in Yesh Gvul , the oldest refuser movement in Israel . Active in the Israeli peace movement since the late 1960s, he was a founder member of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace and served on the steering committee of the human rights group B’Tselem. He died on 6 November 2011 after a lengthy battle against illness. We will miss him greatly.
Many thanks in advance for your support,
The RSN Board of Directors
Yesh Gvul
In response to the Israeli governments’ determination to expand the occupation of Palestine and increasingly anti-democratic and aggressive policies, Yesh Gvul is launching a new campaign in the next coming months, aimed at Israeli soldiers and inductees:
“Where’s your limit?”
The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness amongst Israeli soldiers regarding the occupation, Israeli aggression and attacks against civilians, and challenging them regarding their personal responsibility.
The campaign will be make extensive use of internet and social networking in order to reach men and women who are serving in the Israeli army or whom are now being drafted. These online tools will comprise an electronic version of our traditional leafleting to IDF soldiers.
Campaign methods will include:
Video clip “dialogues” with soldiers about the occupation
Banners and ads on Israeli news websites and Facebook ads geared to soldiers
Blogs
Online facebook reactions to events in Israel and the Occupied territories which stress our messages
In addition to the campaign Yesh Gvul’s plans for the near future include:
The third annual Yishiyahu Leibowitz Award (end of December). Yesh Gvul has organized this prize ceremony, which honours the memory of Prof. Leibowitz, an Israeli gadfly who warned Israelis about the dangers of the occupation in June 167, and was an early and steadfast supporter of Yesh Gvul and the refuser movement .The annual award is given to Israelis whose actions personify Leibowitz’s legacy.
Continuing our legal campaign against war crimes. We are continuing with our petition to the Israeli Supreme Court against the use of white phosphorus munitions in civilian areas, and are now working on an action against a former ranking officer who called on the army to kill Palestinian militants in their beds.
Appeal from New Profile
There is good reason to be concerned for Israel . Right wing influences are growing and and sanctioning limitations on Israel ‘s democratic freedoms. These limitations are regulated by the government and the Knesset, the two representative bodies who should be responsible for preserving and promoting democracy. During this present administration we are witness to a growing number of officials adopting anti-democratic legislation aimed at silencing opposition and the media. Additionally unsympathetic and accusing statements are made against peace and human rights organizations, political organizations, and minorities. New Profile stands with the many peace and human rights NGOs, in protest to these present policies and the ongoing attempts made to limit dissent and opposition.
However New Profile has already been singled out, and any of you have readily recognized the gravity of this turn of events and written us to express support and solidarity. We are very grateful for your support.
The bigger events are as follows:
In 2009 – 2010 New Profile was subject to a criminal investigation into our activities, during which many of our activists were interrogated by the police and their personal computers, and families’ computers were confiscated. The criminal charges were found to be baseless and were dropped.
Then New Profile was banned by direct order from Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar from participating in events in high schools.
In July 2011 Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman publically called New Profile and other human rights organizations ‘terrorist organizations”. Naturally New Profile refutes these allegations and continues to be committed to non-violence, while encouraging true and open civil discourse in Israel . Accordingly we feel that Minister Lieberman systematically leads and provokes incitement against human rights and civil society organizations in Israel . The attempt to slur us as ‘terrorist’, can only be deemed as outrageous, emphasizing the ruling power’s basic misunderstanding of democracy.
In spite these repeated allegations and accusations we continue to be committed to our goals, questioning Israeli society’s deep seeded militarism by offering alternative educational programs for demilitarization. We encourage rethinking conscription and give support to all refusers. Additionally we oppose the military means Israel uses to impose sovereignty in Palestine . In our charter we state, ‘We refuse to go on raising our children to see enlistment as a supreme and overriding value. We want a fundamentally changed education system, for a truly democratic civic education, teaching the practice of peace and conflict resolution, rather than training children to enlist and accept warfare.’
This October New Profile celebrated 13 years of activism as a movement. This in itself is a remarkable accomplishment. We aspire and rise to the challenge of engaging with the Israeli public in spite of present day policies. New Profile encourages new venues that allow for an open and frank discussion, similar to what we saw evolve during in the social uprising this summer, creating new hope for change.
New Profile continues to maintain several key projects, focusing on youth and refusal. These projects were established as the movement developed and continue to be the foundation for our activities with young people. The projects are as follows:
Youth groups : One of our oldest projects, the youth groups, presently located in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Kiryat Shmona, provide a safe space for high schools students to meet weekly and discuss matters of the day including: politics, activism, gender, conscription, refusal, ecology, globalization, and more. Each group has two facilitators who prepare the weekly discussion.
Refusers Counseling Network: Based on New Profile’s belief that there is a vast underground refuser movement amongst young Israelis today, the Network provides tools for rethinking conscription. Involving a team of active counselors nationwide, it is the Network’s directive to work with anyone and everyone who seeks information and/ or support on issues regarding refusal, discharge from the military, discharge from reserve duty, and military classifications, (called profiles in Hebrew). The counselors work with applicants specifically on a one-on-one basis, either in person or on the phone, as to ensure discretion. The majority of requests for counseling or receiving general information comes from teenagers who are considering the option of enlisting. But others, such as conscripts who are already serving in the army, and are resolved in terminating their military service, or reservists seeking information on how to be released from long-term military service, also apply for assistance. One new but growing phenomenon is that of parents seeking advice on how to support their children’s decisions to refuse to conscript. All applicants are informed in detail of their legal rights and options and provided with descriptions of others’ individual experiences.
Legal Aid Network : The network is an important component in our refusers’ support system and comprises work with several law firms, offering solid legal consultations, and support for draft resisters and their families. It is one of New Profile’s more expensive activities and is assigned high priority. The team, coordinates visits by lawyers to refusers in prison, and provides preliminary consultations and interventions. This team also maintains regular contact with the parents of imprisoned refusers. During 2011 we established a joined supervising team for the Counseling and Legal projects. One of the major roles of this new team is to strengthen the connection between the two projects.
Alternative Summer Camp: Following up on a six year long tradition, New Profile’s 7th Alternative Summer Camp for Youth took place in July at an ecological farm in Moshav Even Sapir. Some 80 participants, all aged 15-19, participated in the camp, making it a great success. An even greater success was the fact that for many attendees this was a first acquaintance with this project or with New Profile Most of the content of the summer camp was composed of workshops given by guest speakers on various issues such as education, the economy, the place of militarism in Israeli society and gender and sexuality. Other subjects that were touched on were the Israeli occupation, ecology, migrant workers and refugees and the internally displaced Palestinians within Israel .
The participants are encouraged to develop tools for critical thinking about society, media, politics, the environment and much more, enabling them to become activists for social change. A winter seminar/camp is planned for 2012.
We anticipate launching our new web site by the end of the year. In the meanwhile limited information can be on our temporary site www.newprofile.org/english Included on the site is our new digital and translated exhibit, which we use to show how militarization permeates all aspects of society. The link to the exhibit is http://www.newprofile.org/english.
Many of you have readily recognized the gravity of recent of events and have written us to express support and solidarity in light of the destructive anti-democracy policies now openly governing Israel/Palestine. We appreciate any small or large action you can take and truly need you, now and over the months and years to come. Your continued support is deeply meaningful.
Ruth Hiller
International Network Coordinator
Appeal from Combatants for Peace
Combatants for Peace is a grass-roots, Israeli-Palestinian peace movement. It was founded in 2005 by Palestinians and Israelis who had taken an active part in the cycle of violence, and now work together to break it. CFP is committed to non-violence and conscientious objection. This means that the Israeli members refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories and the Palestinians publicly reject the armed struggle. Our movement is based upon the belief that only when Israelis and Palestinians join forces is it possible to break the cycle of violence, establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. CFP’s activity brings together growing numbers of people from both sides, and fosters the recognition that violence and the occupation are ruinous for the future of all. CFP has won numerous awards for its work, including The Anna Lindh Euro-Med Award for the Dialogue Between Cultures; the Livia Foundation Conflict Resolution Award and the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award.
Our Mission
To help put an end to the occupation and assist the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.
To raise awareness and promote an understanding among both publics regarding the hopes and suffering of the other side, and create partners for dialogue.
To educate both sides about reconciliation and non-violent struggle.
To put political pressure on both governments to demand that they stop the cycle of violence and the occupation and resume a constructive dialogue.
Our activities and projects 2010-2012
We stage high-profile events, such as the Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony, every year in May.. This ceremony commemorates both Israeli and Palestinian victims of violence in the belief that acknowledging the joint pain and loss can break down walls rather than perpetuate them. Instead of de-humanizing the other, Palestinians and Israelis mourn together for all victims of conflict. The annual ceremony has been held every year since 2006. The numbers grow every year, and last May, in Tel Aviv, 1,500 people attended. The event attracts a great deal of local and international media attention.
five bi-national peace-building groups based in different areas of the West Bank and Israel: Tel Aviv-Tulkarem; Beer Sheva-South Hebron; Jerusalem-Ramallah; Jerusalem-Bethlehem; Tel Aviv-Nablus. A group comprises approximately 15 Palestinians and 15 Israelis. About 600 active members fill the broader ranks. We have thousands of supporters.
The Tel Aviv-Tulkarem bi-national group, for example, meets regularly in the West Bank village of Shufa. Among the Israeli cohort are two theatre professors, who have influenced this group’s use of Theatre Workshops as an effective tool for dealing with oppression and bereavement. Through these workshops, the group is constantly improving the personal connections between its members. The group protests the hardships in the Palestinian villages of the Tulkarem region and has carried out a protest and advocacy campaign aimed at bringing electricity to Shufa.
The Beer Sheba-Hebron group is focused on two assignments: 1) organizing agricultural work with area Palestinian villagers: safeguarding shepherds, digging water holes, planting, plowing and harvesting. 2) creating the Palestinian Trail, a path connecting villages and offering a hiking route from South to North of the West Bank. 15 Kilometers have already been created.
The Jerusalem-Bethlehem Group is involved in the villages Wallajeh and Ma’asra, where we lead community rehabilitation projects, and a non-violent struggle approach to the separation wall built around the villages.
The Jerusalem/Al-Quds/Ramallah group is currently engaged in a video project of stories and testimonies.
The Tel Aviv/Nablus group is developing its work in the village of Yanoun, Nablus District. We started by erecting a community playground there.
We initiate and participate in various public activities, such as joint olive harvests, tree plantings, public demonstrations, tours for Israelis in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
We conduct public workshops, in which members of CFP meet members of the public, adult groups, and share with them our experience and the meaning of our work.
Impact & Assessment
In her new book titled The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Movement: Combatants for Peace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) Donna Perry suggests that “Members of the group have a mutually transformative effect upon one another and that they jointly sustain one another in the challenging process of building peace. Membership in the group influenced their very identity and the lens with which they viewed the world. Participants found their involvement in the group deeply meaningful and an important part of their lives. They felt that they were living up to their values and doing something good for themselves and their community”.
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3. [forwarded by Sam B.]
The Harper’s article mentioned in this article may be found here:
BEST TO READ BELOW ARTICLE AT URL GIVEN EMBEDDED LINKS:
Souciant
Geographies / Near & Middle East
Home and Garden
by Mitchell Plitnick on Nov 30, 2011
This week, Iceland became the first European country to recognize the State of Palestine. The declaration had a curious clause: “Iceland recalls also the right of Palestinian refugees to return to former homes in accordance with numerous UN resolutions.”
To be sure, this carries little weight; Iceland is a country of less than 320,000 people. It’s a political maverick, frequently charting its own course, and is not a member of the EU. While it’s unlikely that other European states will follow Iceland’s lead, the fact remains that a first world country has formally endorsed the return of Palestinian refugees.
Coincidentally, the issue of the Palestinian Right of Return (RoR), made some waves a few days earlier when the noted Zionist dove, Bernard Avishai, published a piece in Harpers (print only, but available here) which took on the issue directly and tried to find some resolution to it that both Israelis and Palestinians can live with.
This was no small task Avishai took on. For the overwhelming majority of Israelis, including most of the Israeli left, Right of Return is nothing more than code for the end of Israel as a Jewish state. For most as well, this has connotations of mass expulsions or fleeing the country at best, violent dangers at worst. Thus, even among most supporters of peace and withdrawal from all the Occupied Palestinian Territories, RoR is anathema to Israelis.
For Palestinians, the Right of Return is not just a negotiating point. It is the very heart of their nationalism, the focus of their historical claim to lands from which they were driven. It is both a national right, which can be negotiated by their leaders, but also an individual right, which cannot. It is at once the key elderly Palestinians still keep with them to the homes from which their families were driven more than 60 years ago; it is also the grievance they feel must be addressed, the fact of that expulsion, if there is ever to be reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis.
In more than a decade of activism, including many visits to Palestinian towns, cities and refugee camps, I have spoken with Palestinians from all parts of the political, cultural, religious and economic spectrum. I have heard many views regarding the implementation of RoR. But not a single man, woman or child has ever said they would give it up.
Except for the tiny minority of Israeli Jews who support the Right of Return, the mere mention of the idea casts a pall of terror across their faces. Many Israelis will withdraw from the West Bank, abandon the settlements and in smaller numbers, share Jerusalem. But RoR is an absolute non-starter.
It is little wonder, then, that there has been virtually no serious discussion about the Right of Return, in or outside of Israel/Palestine. There have been repeated declarations by both sides of the heartfelt, and absolutist, stances, but little real discussion. In peace proposals, the “refugee issue” is left to vague wording that promises nothing to the Palestinians, yet still raises Israeli anxiety to a boiling point. For this reason, both Iceland’s declaration and Avishai’s article are extremely important.
The Icelandic statement is a reminder to the West that this issue cannot be skirted around. The well-worn cliché about the only resolution being negotiations between the parties conducted in a fair and balanced atmosphere (that is, one where outside parties strive to balance the skewed power dynamics between the regional superpower, Israel, and the occupied, stateless and powerless Palestinians) is absolutely true in this case.
But instead of taking that on, the United States, Europe, and all the other major players have tried their best to avoid it. Frankly, this is absurd, and always has been.
No peace deal yet devised has ever taken a real look at RoR. Discussions ensue about what “the people” will accept, and it is usually, if quietly, assumed that the Palestinian position is so weak that they will swallow forgoing the Right of Return in order to end the occupation and build their state. Those making that assumption have never bothered to talk to an actual Palestinian. Whether in a café in Ramallah, a workshop in Gaza City, a refugee camp in Lebanon or an organizers’ meeting in Paris, they would have gotten a clear message that RoR must be seriously addressed if any peace proposal is to garner even moderate Palestinian support.
Avishai, who has come under some justifiable criticism for an approach to this issue reflective of his privileged Israeli position, must be applauded for finally bringing this question into mainstream US discourse.
It is the discourse, in the US, Europe and most of all in Israel and the Occupied Territories that has been missing for all these years. On all other issues, there have been the stated demands on both sides and then public discussion, within and across borders, about how to reconcile pragmatism with ideology, historical wrongs with present-day realities. But on RoR, there has been only the tense exchange of absolutism.
Avishai’s proposed solution may not seem realistic to many. However, the solution isn’t the point right now. Opening a discussion about this, allowing Palestinians to make their case in a public forum, and Israelis and their advocates to respond, like every other issue, is the task at hand.
Already, Avishai’s piece stirred up intense debate on the very nature of Zionism and the Jewish State. And that is precisely the discussion that Right of Return is going to provoke. Instead of running away from that discussion, it should be embraced.
More than any other issue, RoR both challenges the status quo and stirs serious legal and ethical questions of history. Until they are grappled with, we are likely to see a continuation of the polarization we have seen in recent years and an ongoing stalemate which only leads to more violence and insecurity.
The Right of Return is the very heart of the conflict, the definition of Palestinian dispossession and the cause of the fear, born (for the many Israelis of conscience) of historical guilt in Israel. Resolving it in a manner that both sides can live with is indispensable. Who knows. Maybe Avishai is right, and the road to resolving it, whether on his path or some other, contains the key to resolving the conflict as a whole.
– Jaffa tanner’s home portrait courtesy of gnuckx. Published under a Creative Commons license.
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4. Haaretz
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
The Zionist ultra-Orthodox are cashing in their I.O.U.
Those spending their Saturdays having fun rather than defending shepherds and farmers should not be surprised if the day after, Jewish fundamentalism even invades their bedrooms.
By Amira Hass
The Haredim and Hardalim, as the non-Zionist and Zionist ultra-Orthodox are respectively known, are now cashing in their promissory note from Israeli society. Their bitterness at an ungrateful secular-nationalist public is certainly justified. For what is doing without women’s singing in comparison to the direct line to God they offer us? And what are advertisements featuring men only compared to the blank check God gave all of us to be the masters of the entire Promised Land?
Haredi and Hardali Judaism sold three assets on credit to the Israel that desecrates the Sabbath and loves the charming, Arab-free views from the Galilee kibbutzim and the West Bank outposts. These are the assets that enable Israel to be indifferent to both the history that was and the history now in the making, and to live as an armed, gilded ghetto, a beloved outpost of the “developed” and “civilized” Christian West in the Muslim East.
We could have clung to the historical, secular explanations for our ingathering in this land (briefly, the “final solution” of that same civilized Christian West, which also expelled us from the countries of the Diaspora ). This would have committed us to the humanitarian and earthly values and perceptions that have emerged from every struggle against ethnic persecution and oppression. But the historical explanation would also have obliged us to admit our similarity to other colonialist movements, and to understand that what was possible in the 18th and 19th centuries in America and Australia is not possible here and now.
To escape the contradictions created by history and its lessons, we chose to buy the meta-historical explanation of our armed, fortified presence here: no more and no less than God’s promise to Abraham, from whom all of us are directly descended. This promise is what permits us, in our view, to do whatever we please to the people that dwells here, the natives of this land: to expel, to concentrate, to divide, to blockade, to impoverish, to dry out, to bomb, to uproot, to dispossess.
This same divine promise grants all Jews everywhere – even those who have never set foot in Israel – more rights in this land than any Palestinian who was born here. This land is ruled by a state that refuses to be a state of its actual citizens and thinks only of potential citizens from the Diaspora.
Ethnic head-counting is second nature to this state. Thus the Haredim and Hardalim know that the second asset they are selling is beyond price: their high birthrate. In the Haredi view, this high birthrate is worth more than any military service or tax payment could ever be.
The Hardalim, in contrast, combine this with a third asset for sale: lust for battle, and for ascending the military ranks, and a willingness to “die for our country” – all of which have been on the wane, relatively speaking, among other sectors of the population. In a state that has done everything in its power over the last several decades to miss any opportunity for peace, this military enthusiasm is a vital asset – especially as good neighborly relations in this region now seem more unachievable than ever before.
Hardalim and Haredim see that most of the Israeli Jewish public has eagerly bought these inexhaustible assets, so now they are continuing down the same consistent path. The Haredim and Hardalim simply long for wholeness: the divine promise and the laws of kashrut. They are offering soldiers in the demographic warfare in exchange for the non-mixing of women and men in the army.
The problem then is not the sellers but the buyers. The secular Jews who allow or even encourage the expulsion of Arab residents of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, Al-Arakib and Safed, should not complain if tomorrow, theaters and concert halls are required to set up separate sections for the female portion of the audience. And those who spend their holy Saturdays having fun rather than going out to defend shepherds and farmers from skullcap-wearing Salafists should not be surprised if the day after, Jewish fundamentalism even invades their bedrooms.