NOVANEWS
PCHR
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights LTD(non-profit)
www.pchrgaza.org
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Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)
· IOF have continued to use force against peaceful protests in the West Bank.
– A Palestinian civilian was killed in a peaceful demonstration in al-Ram village, north of Jerusalem, protesting IOF attempts to raid the al-Aqsa Mosque.
– 5 protesters, including an Israeli Knesset Member and a member of the Palestinian National Council, were wounded in 2 peaceful demonstrations in the center of Hebron.
· IOF have continued bombardments and shootings in the Gaza Strip.
– A Palestinian resistance activist was wounded in the east of Gaza City.
– A tunnel and a container were destroyed in Rafah and damages were caused to 3 houses and offices of the International Federation of Football in the north of the Gaza Strip.
– IOF fired at Palestinian fishermen and their fishing boats.
· IOF conducted 58 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank
– IOF raided the offices of Watan and al-Quds local TV channels and confiscated broadcasting devices and other possessions.
– IOF arrested 40 Palestinians, including 2 children.
· Israel has continued efforts to create a Jewish majority in East Jerusalem.
– The Israeli Municipality in Jerusalem registered the lands in the Qalandia airport in its name in “Israel Lands Department”.
– The closure of Silwan Charity and Silwan Islamic club was extended for a year.
· IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.
– IOF bulldozed a water well, a water tank, an agricultural room and 22 dunums, and uprooted 960 fruit trees in Hebron.
– IOF confiscated 21 dunums of agricultural lands in Salfit.
– Israeli settlers carried out 2 attacks in Hebron.
– Israeli settlers organized provocative tours in Hebron under IOF protection.
– Israeli settlers raided Palestinian villages and wrote racist slogans against Arabs, and offending the Prophet Mohammed.
· IOF have continued to attack Palestinian fishermen at sea.
– IOF opened fire at Palestinian fishermen off the shore of Deir al-Balah and confiscated fishing nets.
· Israel has continued to impose a total closure on the OPT and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
– IOF arrested 9 Palestinians, including 3 children, at checkpoints in the West Bank.
– IOF maltreated a school student in Hebron.
Summary
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (23 – 29 February 2012):
Shooting:
In the West Bank, on 24 February 2012, IOF used excessive force to kill a Palestinian who was participating in a peaceful demonstration in al-Ram village, north of Jerusalem, in protest against IOF and Israeli settlers attempts to raid the al-Aqsa Mosque.
On 26 February 2012, IOF fired rubber-coated metal bullets and sound bombs at Palestinians in al-Ram village, north of Jerusalem, wounding a member of the Palestinian civil defense service.
Also in the West Bank, during the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest against Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall in the West Bank. As a result, 5 protesters, including an Israeli Knesset member and a member of the Palestinian National Council, sustained shrapnel wounds. Additionally, dozens of protesters suffered from tear gas inhalation. In the Gaza Strip, on 28 February 2012, IOF opened fire at participants in a peaceful demonstration in the north of the Gaza Strip but no casualties were reported.
The full report is available online at:
http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8216:weekly-report-on-israeli-human-rights-violations-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory-23–29-feb-2012&catid=84:weekly-2009&Itemid=183
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2 Forwarded by Alice Kisch
Below is the comment of a Mondoweiss reader on the type of brainwashing to which Israeli Jews are subjected from early childhood. The comment is in response to Rick Sterling and Henry Norr’s February 28, 2012 article on Gilad Atzmon’s recent appearance in Oakland. http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/adl-enlists-city-of-oakland-to-block-atzmon-event.html. ADK
Danaa says:
February 28, 2012 at 10:10 pm
Adam – from the cited article on Atzmon
“Gilad Atzmon is one of a very small and unrepresentative group of writers who have argued (in agreement with many Zionists) that there is no meaningful distinction to be made between Jews in general and Israeli atrocities. According to Atzmon, the latter are simply a manifestation of Jews’ historic relationship to gentiles, an authentic expression of an essentially racist, immoral, and anti-human “Jewish ideology.”
There is something here that I feel needs to be made clear. Gilad is from Israel. What you are taught in Israel is much as he says: “[Israel as] a manifestation of Jews’ historic relationship to gentiles, an authentic expression of an essentially racist, immoral, and anti-human Jewish ideology”, minus perhaps the last two words**. The history we learnt in Israel was portrayed entirely from the Jewish viewpoint, the essence of which can be summed up as “all goys are anti-semitic at heart, and cannot be trusted. They resent us Jews because, well, we are so superior, and because we, not they, were chosen”. We learnt little that was not through the lens of persecution of the Jews, and what persecution there was was amplified a thousand times over through repetition and cultural references, all backed by the Holocaust as an exclamation mark. To learn about humanity through this lens is a kind of soul-killing distortion of the reality of Human history. It was – and is – akin to brain-washing of children – literally from infancy.
I too went through this indoctrination process, and it worked well enough until one day, it didn’t. And when I woke up, the anger over having been sold a bill of goods was, well, like that of anyone’s who escaped from the clutches of a sect. And this you may not understand, Adam, being a nice American and all, who learned of the values of liberty and justice and the pursuit of happiness as your individual birthright. For you, to be Jewish did not feel like the death of free thought. there were elements of choice – and a softening of any of Judaism’s messages, many of which were presented such that they seemed to resonate with American values, even reinforce them. But to me and to the millions who grew up in Israel, Judaism itself came to be seen as a soul killer. What we, as secular people, took away from our education, is that human solidarity is fundamentally suspect, because in the end – “they” are bound to rise and ask for your life. Why? becvause that’s who and what “they” are – goys, forever the unchosen.
The feeling of having – barely – escaped soul-crunching death is why Gilad resonates with me. It’s not always the words he chooses to say it (some of which I’d definitely quibble with) but the rage behind the words – it is there, unmistakable, and I think I know where it comes from. I am subject to it often enough which cause me to go all intemperate (at least till I remember I am still a recovering zio-addict).
This is where we, who grew up from very young age in Israel (and the age does matter) differ from Jewish people of the world. many of whom take umbrage with being described as belonging to an “immoral, racist, anti-human ideology” (Gilad’s words), and perhaps understandably so. You have had your Tikun Olam. We had nothing of the sort. We did too see Israel as the inheritors of the Maccabbi warrior traditions which we were taught to admire. We did too despise the Arabs and Palestinians as a lower caste of humans. And, to make matters worse, we also learnt to hold in contempt our fellow Jews who happen to reside outside the Israeli bubble. They were diaspora jews. Yehudim galutim miskenim.
On that last one, no Jewish person living in the UK or the US can possibly process just how deep the contempt is israelis feel towards them – the zionists and non-zionists alike. You won’t see that on +972 or in Gorenberg’s writing because they are, for the most part, Anglo acculturated. But what I see when I hear of AIPACers supporting israeli atrocities are the screeches and the braying for blood from the old killing fields of Judea. I hear echoes of god’s admonitions to Joshua to kill every living soul in the promised land. We learned that piece of beauty first when we were under 10 years of age. To be repeated twice over – in greater details – as we went through school. With nary a caveat or spiritual retreat. Just straight – like pure vodka served to babes.
All I want now is for the good Jews of the world is to accept that not only have they have taken a poisonous viper to their chest, but that they were complicit in the effects this poison has and is having on their much prized habitats. That in the hope that they can go on to forge their own destinies intertwined with those very excellent habitats – the US included.
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** for the record I really don’t like expressions like “Jewish ideology”. Way too imprecise, and way too open to misinterpretation. Plus, I don’t think there’s something like “A” Jewish Ideology. There are thousands of them, and most are not, by rights, what we’d call “ideologies”. But I also understand the temptation to come up with a single descriptive expression. It’s not one that’s always easy to resist. I hope Gilad will learn to resist as he goes traveling through the valleys of the shadows, within and without.
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Alice Diane Kisch
San Francisco Bay Area, USA
bambi323@sbcglobal.net
“Podrán cortar todas las flores, pero no podrán detener la primavera.”
[You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.]
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)
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3 Haaretz
March 3, 2012
Israel is more focused on ‘hasbara’ than it is on policy
‘Hasbara,’ the act or profession of explaining, has become an excuse for not seriously addressing Israel’s real problems, and a substitute for policymaking.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-is-more-focused-on-hasbara-than-it-is-on-policy-1.415977
By Anshel Pfeffer
Zionism anti-Semitism AIPAC
Hasbara is one of those wacky Israeli words that defy translation. I say Israeli, because the Hebrew term can be translated – hasbara is simply the act or profession of explaining. But in the world of Israeli politics and diplomacy, hasbara has acquired a much more complex meaning.
Some would say that hasbara is a “laundered word,” the term used by David Grossman in his book “The Yellow Wind” to describe innocuous words used by Israelis to cover up inconvenient truths, and that hasbara’s true meaning is propaganda. But that equation totally misses the essence. While propaganda is invariably a mixture of half-truths, fabrications and downright lies, hasbara generally employs a highly selective version of true facts.
And though there are those who are deluded enough to believe their own propaganda, most propagandists know they are lying. The practitioners of hasbara – masbiranim – are totally convinced of the veracity of their arguments. Indeed, hasbara is now one of the basic tenets of 21st century Zionism, a veritable act of faith. Alas, it is a total fallacy.
The believers of hasbara are certain that if only Israel could find the proper way to frame their explanations and Israelis were brave enough to explain their case to the world, then surely fair-minded journalists, politicians and ordinary civilians – those not tainted by anti-Semitism, of course – would have to agree that the Jewish State is a shining beacon among the nations. Israel and its supporters must sally forth to the TV studios, the news rooms, on the blogosphere and in twitterverse, spreading the good word, attacking those who spread poison, rebutting and rooting out inaccuracies and calumnies.
The only problem is that for all the money spent by the State of Israel and Jewish philanthropists on the hasbara industry with its array of professional spokespeople, public affairs ministers, delegations of amateur masbiranim let loose on campuses, websites and blogs, and all the Israel projects, campaigns for accuracy and communications and research centers – none of it has ever worked.
The basic attitude of the Western media has not become more forgiving or friendly toward Israel – if anything, the opposite is true. And even if the budgets were increased tenfold and a university founded to educate battalions of hasbara warriors, it will never work.
But hasbara has become in recent years the new Jewish religion and a yardstick for every Israeli action and event. For many Israelis and Jews around the world, the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu is recognized as the ultimate hasbara grandmaster is reason enough for him to be the prime minister of Israel.
Next week, at AIPAC’s annual conference, they will applaud in their thousands his rousing, hand-crafted speech, delivered in faultless English. But would any of the assembled Jewish grandees have appointed a PR man as the CEO of their company, no matter what a wizard of his trade he may be?
Like every religion, hasbara is built on a series of myths. Here are three of them:
People are interested in the facts. Just present them in an appealing fashion and they will be persuaded. But the great majority of people are not that interested in facts – they prefer stories. Facts and figures are fun and interesting in very small quantities and are usually absorbed when they serve a wider narrative. The number of rockets fired from Gaza on Sderot, a much beloved factoid on hasbara websites, cannot change the classic underdog storyline that is a powerful and successful Israel surrounding poor, beleaguered Gaza. Neither will genocidal quotes from the Hamas covenant ever compete with pictures of suffering Palestinian children.
And don’t expect anything better from the press. The media survives by giving people what they want most of the time: easily digestible stories, and that means uncomplicated narratives.
Plucky, resourceful Israel was a good story when this was a young and poor nation facing incredible odds. A relatively wealthy country with one of the strongest armies in the world will find it harder to get a good-guy typecast in the liberal Western media – no statistics will change that. I think few Israelis would exchange their quality of life and security for a better write-up in The Guardian.
Israel is right even when it is wrong. The hasbara exponents do not deny that occasionally Israel’s soldiers commit crimes or that Israeli society has problems. In principle, they are in favor of an open debate on Israel’s policies, but the reality is that they have a bunker mentality. Every Israeli aberration is explained away as being a “rotten apple,” unrepresentative of the collective.
It’s hard to blame them – Israel is unfairly criticized, disproportionately covered and held to often impossible standards by much of the international media. This is not the place to go into all the reasons for this treatment, but the forceful hasbara response is self-delusional and will never change the media’s attitude. The fact remains that Israel faces incredible challenges and still has a long way to go before it realizes its founding principles, which aspired to a higher standard than any other country in the region, and they confer on Israel a responsibility to live up to them. Hasbara is a wasteful diversion of resources and attention from that responsibility.
The media is all-powerful, and therefore the battle over its agenda is crucial. For all the whining over the bad rap Israel gets in the media, you would think that the country was isolated, cut off from the civilized world. But the facts on the ground prove the opposite – as Israel has been pilloried in the media, its international situation has only improved. In recent years Israel has been accepted to the OECD, its credit rating has crept upward while many other Western economies have been downgraded, tourism is booming, technology giants open up research centers here and new markets in the East are opening to Israeli products. And it’s not only the American administration that continues to favor Israel. The number of foreign governments eager to sign economic, technological and cultural agreements with Israel has grown exponentially.
Despite the success of the BDS (“Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” ) movement to convince a few musicians to cancel their Israeli concerts and one British academic union’s on-off boycott of Israeli universities, top-bill performers are arriving in unprecedented numbers and the level of local academia is recognized by the most prestigious awards. We journalists may be influential and sometimes we succeed in setting the agenda, but there are so many other factors that determine foreign policy and economic relations.
These are but some of the myths which underpin the false religion of hasbara. But it is not only a waste of valuable time and resources. Hasbara has become an excuse for not seriously addressing Israel’s real problems. It is a substitute for policymaking. The focus on hasbara is becoming a threat to Israel, since it serves as a diversion from confronting the other threats.
To use another wacky Israelism, hasbara is a chaltura, an amateurish diversion, a poor excuse for a real job. Statesmanship is what Israel needs.
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4-one state solution
An expanded/improved article in the Huffington Post. HP has mishandled the article because they say its is above the 800 word limit which mean 5 day delay and missing the right slot. However its available for researchers on google etc
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nehad-ismail/the-twostatesolution-is-d_b_1295961.html
From: Roger Higginson <roger.higginson@talktalk.net>
To: ‘nehad ismail’ <nedq125@ymail.com>
Sent: Saturday, 25 February 2012, 22:49
Subject: RE: one state solution
Nehad,
Very many thanks, it will be interesting to see if it generates any interest or debate.
Best Wishes,
Roger
From: nehad ismail [mailto:nedq125@ymail.com]
Sent: 25 February 2012 10:05
To: Roger Higginson
Subject: one state solution
UK Defence Forum
One-State solution
http://www.defenceviewpoints.co.uk/articles-and-analysis/a-one-state-solution-to-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict
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5 Friday, March 2, 2012
Forwarded by the JPLO List
Source: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150587146906662
David Grossman: Why? Who died?
by Sol Salbe on Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 2:53am ·
Last Friday Haaretz did something unusual: it placed an opinion piece on top of its front page. But it wasn’t just an ordinary opinion piece, it was written by one of the country foremost novelists, David Grossman. The article, like Emile Zola’s J’accuse, to which it has been compared, was a moral critique. Many who read it were very moved. But the moral missive never appeared in English (at least to my knowledge). The English Haaretz has always been somewhat reticent in presenting Israel to the world. And of course translating Grossman is not easy, he is a master of the language and the art of writing.I have no idea whether I have done justice to this work. But it needed to be translated. The message is too important.*Hebrew original:http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/1.1649589
*Translated by Sol Salbe of the Middle East News Service, Melbourne Australia https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=523794418*
Why? Who died?
