Dorothy Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

Dear Friends,

 

7 items below—none, however, about Israel striking Iran—a subject that is more and more discussed here with added tidbits from the US and other countries.  May it never happen!

Item 1 reports that 3 people were injured today at the weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh, one of the three, a French national, was apparently badly wounded.  Haaretz had less information than is in the 972 Magazine report below (http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-french-woman-wounded-by-idf-gas-grenade-in-west-bank-demonstration-1.410945 ).  Ynet has nothing, not even in its updates.  Nor did I find any report in France24.  Which means that we won’t know how badly she was injured until at least tomorrow.  There have been in the past lethal and almost lethal  injuries from canisters being shot by IOF soldiers at close range directly at demonstrators.  I hope that in the present case the injury will be less severe and that the person injured will soon be well.  Whoops, there’s an update that was not there 10 minutes ago, but not of her condition http://972mag.com/witnesses-video-challenge-army-account-of-nabi-saleh-shooting/34594/

Item 2 is commentary on Mohammed Bakri acting in a play at the Tzafta theater in Tel Aviv.

Item 3 informs us that Jerusalem Armenians are outraged because a parking lot near their homes has suddenly become for Jews only.  Yep.  That’s Israel.

In item 4 Ben White argues that Palestinian citizens of Israel will not enjoy equality.  I agree.

Item 5 is a further report on Professor Gur’s slurs regarding the BDS conference at the University of Pennsylvania.  The University responds to the complaint.

In item 6 Ban Ki Moon states that the Palestinians will have a state only via negotiations, which is the same as to say that the Palestinians will never have a state.  Israel uses ‘negotiations’ not to end the conflict but rather to win time until it takes over the entire West Bank. 

In item 7, the final item, Amira Hass poses the question ‘does helping a Palestinian beautify the occupation?’  Her essay, which is about Machsom Watch, which comprises women who monitor the checkpoints, reminds me of a piece that I wrote in 2004, when I still was quite active, and in which I acknowledged that I was a collaborator—not by choice, but by necessity.  Because the truth is that helping Palestinians—be it harvesting olives or driving them to hospitals or helping to get a permit (which often is impossible) or anything else can be done only by appealing to the occupation authorities.  Sad.

That’s it for today.

All the best,

Dorothy

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1 Friday, February 3 2012Independent commentary and news from Israel & PalestineCategories

http://972mag.com/reports-of-serious-injuries-at-weekly-west-bank-demonstration/34527/

Foreign national injured at weekly West Bank demonstration

A photographer and two women, one reportedly a French national, were injured by rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at this Friday’s anti-occupation demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. This is a developing story that will be updated as new information becomes available

http://972mag.com/witnesses-video-challenge-army-account-of-nabi-saleh-shooting/34594/

|Lisa Goldman

Three civilians were injured in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh today and required hospitalization, according to reports from several eyewitness. A French national, whose name is reportedly Amissy (unconfirmed), was hit in the neck with a projectile – either a tear gas canister or a steel-coated rubber bullet. The Israeli army reports that a border police officer was injured in the head by a rock.

 

French national injured at Nabi Saleh Friday demonstration (photo: ActiveStills / Oren Ziv)

 

Although photos show the woman bleeding profusely and obviously in pain, IDF spokesman Major Peter Lerner tweeted that she had been ‘lightly injured’ by a rock thrown by a ‘non-violent’ Palestinian.

 

Major Lerner’s tweet provoked jeers from eyewitnesses, with several tweeting that they had seen the incident and that an indisputable video would soon be available. +972 Magazine has confirmed that there is a video of the shooting; we will upload it as soon as it is available.

 

Eyewitnesses report that soldiers beat Nariman Tamimi, a Nabi Saleh woman who is a trained medic, as she tried to help the injured French woman. Ms. Tamimi is the wife of imprisoned activist Bassam Tamimi, whose jail sentence was handed down based on forced coercions taken from minors. Bassem Tamimi’s case has attracted the attention of French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé.

 

Ms. Tamimi’s cousin Mustafa Tamimi, 28, was killed at a Friday demonstration in early December 2011, when an Israeli border police officer shot a tear gas canister at his head from very short range.

 

Soldiers also reportedly shot directly at a photojournalist who was covering the demonstration, prompting several people present to comment that the Israeli army was targeting journalists. This would not be the first time journalists were targeted by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. Photojournalist Mati Milstein wrote this report for +972 Magazine after he and several colleagues were targeted by Israeli soldiers shooting tear gas canisters at close range.

 

Proper use of tear gas canisters, according to both IDF training manuals and the tear gas manufacturers, is to shoot it from a safe distance in arcs over the heads of demonstrators, in order to avoid injury.

 

Nabi Saleh is a small village of approximately 500 people, located in the Ramallah District. It has been the scene of weekly demonstrations since December 2009, shortly after Jewish residents of the neighbouring settlement of Halamish forcibly confiscated a water spring that is on Nabi Saleh-owned land.

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2  Thursday, February 2, 2012 Independent commentary and news from Israel & Palestine

Minister of Culture urges Tzavta Theater to ban Muhammad Bakri

 

http://972mag.com/minister-of-culture-urges-tzavta-theater-to-ban-muhammad-bakri/34511/

 

Ori J. Lenkinski

 

Mohammad Bakri in Tel Aviv last September (photo: Keren Manor / Activestills)

 

In response to Desmond Tutu’s call on the Capetown Opera Company to cancel their 2010 tour in Israel, director Michael Williams said, “arts and academics are never the right place to boycott.”

These words jumped into my mind this week as I read of the organization Im Tirzu’s demonstrations against actor and director Muhammad Bakri, and the urging of Minister of Culture and Sport Limor Livnat to ban Bakri from Israeli stages.

At present, Bakri is in rehearsals for an interpretation of Frederico Garcia Lorca’s 1936 play, The House of Bernarda Alba, which will run at Tzavta Theater. The participants in this production are Bakri’s theater students from the Academy of Performing Arts in Tel Aviv.

Since 2003, when Bakri released his film Jenin, Jenin, harsh criticism of the Palestinian artist has lurked around every corner. The film was about the events that took place during the 2002 clashes between the IDF and residents of the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.

Time and again, Bakri has been questioned about his film Jenin, Jenin. The Supreme Court of Israel ruled that Bakri broke no laws in the creation of this controversial piece. And yet, for the past eight years, Bakri has been all but blacklisted in Israel.

“We are the people of Israel,” shouted the director and spokesperson for Im Tirzu during a televised interview. “And the people of Israel are tired of letting terrorists perform on Tzavta’s stage.” The organization is an extra-parliamentary movement dedicated to strengthening Zionist values in Israel. Among their many activities, Im Tirzu’s members have been known to spy on university professors who they suspect of subversion.

There is no controversy surrounding Bakri’s talent as a performer. And though his work in the past has been directly connected to the political situation in Israel, this play is not.

Tzavta is a government-funded theater, and Livnat and Im Tirzu thus believe that it is not an appropriate venue for Bakri’s work. It should be noted that The House of Bernarda Alba is not a Tzavta production, but rather that of an outside entity that is being hosted by the theater.

“You can’t interfere with art,” said Yankale Mandel, founder and director of the Israeli Union for Performing Arts, in response to Livnat’s statement, which essentially left the decision whether or not to give Bakri the boot to the directors of Tzavta.

As far as I am concerned, the folks at Im Tirzu can think what they want and demonstrate to their hearts’ content. It’s a free country. However, when the Minister of Culture and Sport decides to chip in her two (I would argue McCarthyistic) cents, then there’s a problem.

The House of Bernarda Alba is a story of an overpowering mother who oppresses and dominates her five daughters excessively. It seems poetic that the narrative in this play mirrors Livnat’s actions so perfectly.

If, in the state of Israel, we accept the interference of politicians in the art sector, the  imposition of censors and blacklists, we are lost.

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3  Haaretz

Friday, February 03, 2012

Jerusalem’s Armenians outraged as city approves Jews-only parking lot in Old City

For decades, the parking lot was open to all, though Jewish Quarter residents paid far less for a parking sticker than their Armenian neighbors.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/jerusalem-s-armenians-outraged-as-city-approves-jews-only-parking-lot-in-old-city-1.410694

By Nir Hasson

Tags: Jerusalem Old City

Armenian residents of Jerusalem’s Old City are protesting a municipal decision to designate a parking lot in the area solely for Jews, although part of it stands on land belonging to the Armenian Patriarchate.

 

Parking is a major problem in the Old City, and some residents of the Jewish Quarter claim it is one reason secular families have been moving out. One of the parking lots serving this quarter is adjacent to the Armenian Quarter and is partially built on land owned by the Patriarchate, though the land has been leased by the Jewish Quarter Development Company since the 1970s.

 

For decades, the parking lot was open to all, though Jewish Quarter residents paid far less for a parking sticker than their Armenian neighbors. But around two years ago, Armenians were forbidden to park there.

 

“One day I came home from work and the lot was closed,” said Mussa Marizian, an Armenian Quarter resident whose windows overlook the parking lot. “The quarter’s management decided we shouldn’t park there; they just got rid of us. Jews who live in the Muslim Quarter are allowed to park there, but I, who live right on top of the parking lot, am not allowed.”

 

The development company subsequently asked the municipality for a waiver to enable the lot to be permanently used for parking, even though it is zoned as open public land under Jerusalem’s master plan of 1978.

 

On Thursday, the city’s planning and building committee approved the waiver, over the protests of both Armenian residents and the

Patriarchate’s representative, attorney Mazen Qupty, who argued that most of the land was owned by the church.

 

“It was hard to hear the very inconsiderate arguments made by the people of the Jewish Quarter about the needs of their Armenian neighbors,” said Yosef “Pepe” Alalu, the Meretz deputy mayor, who voted against the waiver. “How can it be that the parking lot used to be open to all but now Armenians cannot enter?”

 

The Jerusalem Development Company said that less that 10 percent of the parking lot’s land was leased from the Patriarchate, and that the lease was for 99 years.

 

“The Armenians have a roomy parking lot 150 meters from that spot,” the company said. “The request for exceptional use was a procedural issue to renew the parking lot’s operating license and the objections were legally rejected.”

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4 The Guardian

Friday 3 February 2012

Equality for Palestinians? Israel won’t have it

Elected representatives of the Palestinian community in Israel face growing harassment by the state, fellow MKs and the media

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/03/equality-palestinians-israel

Ben White

Activists wave Palestinian flags in the East Jerusalem district of Sheikh Jarrah, September 2011. Photograph: Mahmoud Illean/Demotix/Corbis

 

The presence of a few Palestinian members in the Knesset (MKs) is often touted as a sign of Israel’s robust democracy. Yet elected representatives of the Palestinian community inside Israel face growing harassment by the state, by fellow MKs and the media.

 

On Monday, the trial of MK Said Naffaa, from the Balad party, opened in Nazareth. Naffaa is charged with “travelling illegally to an enemy state, assisting in organising a visit to an enemy state, and being in contact with a foreign agent” – all relating to a trip he made to Syria as part of a Druze delegation in 2007.

Naffaa has denied the charges, insisting that “all his activities and meetings fall within the framework of his duties as an elected public official”.

 

Two years ago the Knesset house committee voted overwhelmingly to strip Naffaa of his parliamentary immunity. At the time, the committee chair declared: “Holding a Knesset seat is not a permit to visit enemy countries and hold meetings with terrorists.” MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) suggested that Naffaa and “his colleagues go to the Syrian parliament and work from there”.

 

An editorial in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz has called the prosecution of Naffaa “unwarranted, harmful and smack[ing] of political persecution based on nationality”. It is part of the state’s efforts to use criminal law against the Palestinian leadership in Israel.

 

Another Arab MK, Mohammad Barakeh is still facing two charges (of an original four) relating to his participation in demonstrations in 2005 and 2007, and the allegation he assaulted or insulted police officers.

 

MK Haneen Zoabi, while not facing criminal charges, has been the target of the most vicious incitement and smears. Two weeks ago, a photograph was published in the Israeli media of her meeting with the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) speaker Aziz Dweik in the West Bank. That was followed by reports that two other Arab MKs had met with Dweik.

 

The response was an outpouring of invective. MKs from prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud urged the state to “immediately remove the fifth column from the Knesset”, while the chair of the house committee, MK Levin described Arab MKs as “competing [to be] the greatest traitor and terrorist sponsor”. Another Likud MK, Miri Regev, said that “the time has come for Arab Knesset members to realise their place”.

 

MK Alex Miller, from Yisrael Beiteinu (a partner in the coalition government) urged that it was time to disqualify Balad, while MK Uri Ariel said Zoabi should be tried as a traitor. Some analysts have noted the strong possibility that Zoabi, as well as her Balad party, and maybe also the United Arab List, will be banned from the next election. In 2010, the chair of the committee that removed Naffaa’s immunity said: “We must make a serious decision on whether or not these parties can continue to sit in the Israeli parliament, even while they operate against the country”.

 

Along with articles calling Zoabi a “clear and present danger” to Israel’s national security, I found myself being used in the campaign against her, on account of the fact she wrote the foreword to my new book. The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot ran a pathetic smear piece in both the Hebrew print edition and the online English version. Readers’ comments included numerous attacks on Zoabi as a “traitor” – including a call for the death sentence.

 

So why are representatives of the Palestinian minority being targeted so viciously? First, the current Knesset includes political parties shaped by hard-right nationalist ideology, including those in the coalition government. Second, the likes of MK Ahmad Tibi, Zoabi, and Barakeh have forged links with Palestinians in the occupied territories – as well as those working for Palestinian rights regionally and internationally. These are seen as dangerous solidarity ties, and go against the efforts made by the Israeli state since 1948 to isolate “Israeli Arabs” from the wider Arab world and Palestinian struggle.

 

Finally, Zoabi and other community leaders are at the forefront of the Palestinian political struggle inside the state, especially the demand that Israel be a state of all its citizens. This is beyond the pale for the Zionist political-security establishment, who continue to define the boundaries of “acceptable” dissent with regard to Palestinian citizens, an approach that goes all the way back to the era of military rule between 1948 and 1966.

 

In 2007, Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, stated it would “thwart the activity of any group or individual seeking to harm the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel, even if such activity is sanctioned by the law”. In 2008, Shin Bet’s chief, Yuval Diskin, told US officials that many of the “Arab-Israeli population” are taking their rights “too far”. Last month, MK Tibi had two proposed bills thrown out by the Knesset presidency on the grounds that they undermined “Israel’s existence as the state of the Jewish people” (in accordance with the Knesset’s rules of procedure).

 

Thus, as Palestinian citizens work for an end to decades of ethno-religious discrimination, a clear message is being sent through the targeting of their political leadership. The threat that is deemed intolerable by the state is devastatingly simple: the demand for equality.

 

+++++++

5 Amy Gutmann

 

Organizers of the BDS conference (boycott, divestment and sanctions) at the University of Pennsylvania this weekend are facing mounting incitement against the conference and rising security costs. Today they called on Penn president Amy Gutmann to condemn an article in the school newspaper that called their work “genocidal” and likened them to Nazis. Tonight Gutmann’s office issued a statement condemning the article.

 

Their letter deploring the “atmosphere of fear”– and Penn’s president’s response:

Dear President Gutmann,

 

We are the organizers of the upcoming BDS conference. First, we want to thank you for upholding our freedom of expression on campus. We would expect no less from such a prestigious university.

 

The purpose of this letter is to express our deep and serious dismay at the opinion piece published in yesterday’s Daily Pennsylvanian by Professor Ruben Gur of Penn’s Department of Psychiatry, Radiology and Neurology. With no evidence whatsoever, and in complete contradiction to every statement we’ve ever issued, Professor Gur designates our student group “genocidal” and equates our upcoming conference with Nazi anti-Semitism. He compares our Jewish participants and student organizers to “Capos”–that is, Jews who policed other Jews in German concentration camps–and accuses us of attempting to bring a second Holocaust to Penn.

 

Statements like these by a tenured professor in a school newspaper are not only outrageous, deplorable, and frankly unprecedented, but they also incite against and endanger both the speakers and organizers of this weekend’s conference. This is not only our opinion: in response to this op-ed, Officer Leddy of the Penn police has called an emergency meeting to consider increasing the security at the conference, at significant cost to our group.

 

Tenure does not, on our understanding of it, permit professors to incite hostility and aggression against students with whose political positions they disagree. Professor Gur has created an atmosphere of fear for PennBDS members and our guests. We hope you will publicly condemn his article and seek whatever administrative redress might be available to ensure nothing like this happens in the future.

 

It is the University’s responsibility and burden to protect its students. This includes both safeguarding our physical security at events like our conference and taking all appropriate action against language with the potential to incite.

 

And the response to Penn BDS from Gutmann’s office:

 

Thank you for your note concerning the letter to the editor of the Daily Pennsylvanian by Professor Gur, a faculty member who does not represent the University in this matter.  President Gutmann asked that I respond on her behalf.

 

Much of Dr. Gutmann’s academic career has been devoted to the importance of civil discourse to a democratic society.  It is always unfortunate when people make personal or ad hominem attacks against others in the course of that discourse.  This kind of attack is counter to her personal values and the goal of civility on campus.

 

It is, however, neither possible, nor consistent with the value of free expression, for me or the Administration to intervene in the exchange of words that will inevitably occur in the context of highly controversial and deeply emotional issues.   It is not an appropriate role (nor that of the University’s), to be the referee of individual’s comments, regardless of how overheated or ill-advised they may be.

 

We certainly appreciate the concern that you feel over this matter.  We are doing everything we can to ensure the safety of all participants in this debate.

 

Sincerely,

Steve MacCarthy

Stephen J. MacCarthy

Vice President for University Communications

University of Pennsylvania

 

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.

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 6.  Haaretz

Friday, February 3, 2012

 

UN chief to Haaretz: Palestinians will only get a state through negotiations

On visit to Israel, Ban Ki-moon calls on leaders to show courage to resolve conflict.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/un-chief-to-haaretz-palestinians-will-only-get-a-state-through-negotiations-1.410687

 

By Barak Ravid

Tags: UN Middle East peace Gaza Palestinians Jerusalem

  

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is worried by the collapse of the Middle East peace talks brokered by Jordan and by the Palestinians’ drive for UN recognition. In an interview with Haaretz, Ban said he is concerned by possible damage to various UN institutions if the Palestinian Authority presses ahead with its membership requests to them. The stalled peace talks under the auspices of King Abdullah only started last month.

 

“The Palestinians’ aspirations for a state must be realized as part of a negotiation process,” Ban says, adding the aspiration to establish a sovereign Palestinian state is long overdue.

 

This is Ban’s third visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and the first during his second term as UN secretary-general.

While the Palestinians’ bid for full UN membership is still stuck in the UN Security Council, the PA was received as a member in UNESCO. Consequently, the American administration cut back the organization’s annual budget, causing immediate damage. Plans and projects were suspended, salaries were slashed and employees were fired.

The Palestinians are threatening to request membership in 16 other UN agencies, especially if the talks with Israel in Amman quagmire.

 

Ban and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who met in Ramallah on Wednesday, spent a large part of the meeting dealing with this issue, UN diplomats said.

 

Ban told Abbas that continued bids for UN membership would harm the organization, due to further cuts in American funding.

On Thursday morning, on the sixth floor of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Ban was still worried.

“Admission of the Palestinians and funding of UN agencies are separate issues, but unfortunately they has been linked in practical terms and that is what I am very much concerned about,” he said.

 

“At the same time, the aspiration of the Palestinian people to establish a viable and sovereign state is long overdue. I have been urging that these aspirations could be realized in the context of a two-state vision. That requires negotiations. Everything should be addressed in a negotiated process.”

 

Asked whether the talks between Israel and the Palestinians are on the verge of breaking up, Ban said, “Israel and the Palestinians have wasted two years without moving forward. Considering what is happening in this region, this is the right moment for Israelis and Palestinians to agree on a better future for the two peoples.

 

“There is lack of confidence and mutual trust,” Ban continued. “It is understandable because of this long-standing conflict. But to overcome this, they need to sit down and resolve this issue. This is a time when the leaders must show a vision of courage and determination.”

 

A few minutes before the interview, Ban read a news summary his aides prepared for him. One of the items was about eight rockets fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip during the night.

 

An hour later, Ban was on his way to Gaza and Sderot. At the entrance to the Gaza Strip, he was met by Palestinian demonstrators, who threw shoes at his car.

 

Asked if he was worried Israel may launch another military operation in the strip, Ban said: “For many years I have been fully condemning those rocket attacks on civilians. This is totally unacceptable and against the fundamental principals of human rights.”

Since the Turkish aid flotilla to Gaza in May 2010, Israel has removed most of the restrictions on merchandise, and even building materials, going into Gaza, after years of arguing that building materials would serve Hamas to build bunkers. UN agencies are building 2,000 housing units in Gaza. Israel has approved 170 UN projects there, including building and renovating 60 schools and kindergartens.

 

“I appreciate that Israel has allowed construction materials and other humanitarian goods to be shipped into Gaza,” Ban said. “What is important is that all the restrictions imposed on Gaza are lifted unconditionally and completely. They have the right to live in peace and enjoy freedom of movement.

 

“I urge Israel to lift those restrictions completely,” he added. “Those impositions in Gaza have generated illegal trade through tunnels. For a normal economy to work, this is not good.”

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7 Haaretz

Monday, January 30, 2012

Does helping Palestinians beautify the occupation?

The women of MachsomWatch have helped some 5,000 people through the process of appealing their travel ban to Israel.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/does-helping-palestinians-beautify-the-occupation-1.409946

By Amira Hass

Tags: Shin Bet Palestinians West Bank

  

There is a thorn in the side of the Israeli prohibitions industry, in the guise of several stubborn and persistent women of retirement age. In a word: nudniks. They are the MachsomWatch volunteers, who during the past seven years have been offering their persistence in order to appeal the travel ban that the Shin Bet security service imposes on Palestinians who seek work in Israel.”

The MachsomWatch organization of female volunteers, which began over a decade ago with the monitoring of physical and administrative checkpoints on the West Bank, has developed various areas of expertise: travel bans for security reasons, the military courts, police fines, permits for reasons of health, restrictions in the Jordan Valley and more.

During their shifts at the checkpoints the women have come to know the Palestinian workers and tradesman who depend on Israel for their livelihood, and who one murky day discover that their exit permit has been revoked and a “security prevention” imposed on them. After becoming acquainted and having conversations with hundreds of people, and later with thousands, the women reject the automatic interpretation that the average Israeli attributes to the pair of words “security prevention”: “The Shin Bet knows what it’s doing. If the permit was revoked, that means that the man is dangerous.”

They began waiting for hours with the workers and tradesman who went to appeal the “security prevention” in the offices of the Coordination and Liaison Administration, and afterwards they helped to fill out forms and submit requests to overturn the prevention. They called everyone possible in the Civil Administration to find out why someone waits for hours and never gets to the window of a clerk, why he is not given a receipt for submitting the request, why a reply to a previous request doesn’t arrive, and why there are no forms in Arabic. They wrote letters to the officer of the employment department in the Civil Administration, to the Military Advocate General in Judea and Samaria, to the head of the Shin Bet and to the head of the Civil Administration.

The pestering brings results: To date they have helped some 5,000 people through the appeals process. The “security prevention” evaporated for 35 percent of them already in the initial stage of handling the case. Some go on to judicial institutions, despite the financial outlay. Attorney Tamir Blank is a partner to the women of MachsomWatch, whose volunteer work lowers the cost to the Palestinian worker. The security denial of about 70 percent of the 283 people who turned to the courts via MachsomWatch evaporated, usually before the deliberations stage.

On November 9, 2009 an officer in the Population Registry department of the Military Advocate General in Judea and Samaria wrote to them: “Recently our office has been receiving on a weekly basis a large number of copies of requests to revoke the “security prevention” of residents whose request to enter Israel for employment purposes was denied … Our office is not the authorized administrative institution for handling such requests … [and] complaints about the conduct of the Civil Administration. I ask that the sending of these copies be stopped. [They create] a burden on the fax machine and also waste precious ecological resources.”

The MachsomWatch activists had the fax number of the advocate general because until June 2007 he was, in fact, the address for appealing security prevention. Later the rule was changed and he stopped being the address, and again the rules were changed, then again something changed and there was a wave of cancellation of permits of veteran workers. Then for some reason, from July 2009 until March 2010 there was nobody to turn to in order to appeal.

The women faxed a reply to the officer: “Employers [who under the new procedures were asked to personally request that the security prevention of a Palestinian laborer be revoked] don’t receive replies. Attorneys don’t receive replies … The Coordination and Liaison Office offers no reply regarding the reason for the confiscation of a permit … [The workers] try to meet with a Shin Bet [representative], who makes them wait for hours and sends them away saying: ‘You aren’t needed.’ When a Shin Bet representative consents to meet with the Palestinian resident, the crushing statement is: ‘Help us and we’ll help you, and if not, you’ll never receive a permit.’ And when they appeal the prevention together with their employers there is no reply. There’s a sealed wall ….

“Israel’s control of the area is that of belligerent occupation, and therefore it has obligations toward [its residents], and among other things the obligation to take care of their welfare and their needs. Therefore along with the complaint about the ecological damage that we are causing, we would expect at least a minimal reference to the human damage …”

Kafkaesque sagas

A second report by this group of experts was posted on the MachsomWatch website, which sums up its activity since June 2007 and is called “Invisible Prisoners – Don’t Know Why and There’s Nowhere to Turn.” It was written by Sylvia Piterman, a retired senior economist.

She has reason for beginning the report with a scene from Kafka’s “The Castle.” There is no shortage of Kafkaesque sagas of individual Palestinians in the mazes of the occupation in our newspapers. But the report tells a saga of thousands. That is why throughout the report one can hear the refrain: There’s a method here, there’s a purpose behind the wholesale denial of permits and of restrictions of movement.

“This is a system that is designed to continue and maintain the occupation. And for that purpose the population has to be kept afraid, in a situation of uncertainty and without social solidarity. The

method is also designed to maintain a large reservoir of Palestinians … in order to enlist them [as informants to the Shin Bet], while cynically exploiting their most urgent needs,” writes Piterman.

It would have been worthwhile to add: The method is designed to reduce to a minimum the number of Palestinian workers in Israel, on the way to completing the policy of demographic separation that governments have been practicing since the early 1990s.

Another thing that the report outlines – and here, too, more details would have been welcomed – is the gradual inclusion of the Palestinian workers in Israel in the category of “foreign workers.” Israel is establishing many facts on the ground in order to create the false presentation that Areas A and B are a “state” rather than occupied territory. For example, the checkpoints are called “terminals” or “crossings.” Placing Palestinian laborers under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry (rather than the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry, as used to be the case ) and treating them as though they were from Thailand and Colombia, are another such fact.

Doesn’t the assistance to individuals (even when there are thousands ) beautify the system? That is a question that comes up in the report, as in the constant conversations of the activists. This is a dilemma that faces every anti-occupation group in Israel. In the overall battle against a regime of privileges for Jews, Jewish Israelis exploit their superior rights in order to try and help people (usually of those classes which are not wrapped with money and connections ) in their daily dealings with the empire of prohibitions: to go to Israel for medical treatment, to overturn a home demolition order, to prepare a building plan, to dig a water cistern, to file a complaint with the police against settler harassment, to go to study, to visit a sick mother.

 

 

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