NOVANEWS
1[firsthand experience on Israel’s military occupation—one that Dershowitz undoubtedly will explain away. D]
Haaretz
March 15, 2012
Israel Police expel Harvard students from Palestinian village
Confrontation occurs after a bus full of Harvard students began traveling along a security route inside the village of Walaja, which is intended solely for Israeli security vehicles.
By Oz Rosenberg
Tags: Jerusalem separation wall Israel occupation
Israel Border Police expelled a group of 55 students from Harvard University from a Palestinian village after a confrontation erupted along the separation fence near Jerusalem.
According to Border Police, the confrontation occurred after a bus full of Harvard students who were touring the area began traveling along a route inside the village of Walaja which is intended solely for Israeli security vehicles.
“They arrived on a Palestinian bus and traveled along the route of the fence,” said a Border Police spokesperson, calling the incident a “clear transgression.” The spokesperson also stated that none of the students were detained for question, but were forced to leave the area.
Border Police forces detained the tour leader and Walaja resident Shereen al-Araj for questioning. She was taken to a police base in Atarot and was released on bail after an investigation which lasted several hours.
According to al-Araj, the bus was on the way to look at one of the houses that is slated for demolition so that the security fence can be built. Once the bus arrived at the house, the students exited the bus, only to be met by a private security firm employed to protect bulldozers.
“The security guards approached us and said that we could not be there because it was a “closed military zone,” despite the fact that Israel’s High Court established that it is not.”
According to al-Araj, the private security guards called the Border Police, which eventually escorted the bus out of the village, but not before taking the I.D. cards of the Palestinian students on the bus, as well as that of the driver.
The students, who study at the Harvard Kennedy School, were part of a yearly tour to Israel and the West Bank which is put on by the Palestinian Committee.
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2 The Guardian
14 March 2012 07.00 GMT
[Israel’s means of ethnic cleansing. D]
Palestinians prepare to lose the solar panels that provide a lifelineIsrael is planning to demolish ‘illegal’ solar panels that are the only source of electricity for Palestinians in West Bank villages
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/mar/14/palestinians-prepare-to-lose-solar-panels
Phoebe Greenwood in Tel Aviv
A Palestinian man looks at a solar panel in the southern West Bank village of Imneizil. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images
Two large solar panels jut out of the barren landscape near Imneizil in the Hebron hills. The hi-tech structures sit incongruously alongside the tents and rough stone buildings of the Palestinian village, but they are fundamental to life here: they provide electricity.
Imneizil is not connected to the national electricity grid. Nor are the vast majority of Palestinian communities in Area C, the 62% of the West Bank controlled by Israel. The solar energy has replaced expensive and clunky oil-powered generators.
According to the Israeli authorities, these solar panels – along with six others in nearby villages – are illegal and have been slated for demolition.
Nihad Moor, 25, has three small children. The family live in a two-room tent kitted out with a fridge, TV and very old computer. She also has a small electric butter churn, which she uses to supplement her husband’s small income from sheep farming.
“The kids get sick all the time. At the moment, because of a change in the weather, they all have colds. Without electricity I wouldn’t even be able to see to help them when they need to use the [outdoor] toilet at night,” Moor says. “I don’t want to imagine what life would be like here if [the panels] were demolished.”
Imneizil’s solar system was built in 2009 by the Spanish NGO Seba at a cost of €30,000 to the Spanish government. According to the Israeli authorities, it was built without a permit.
Guy Inbar, a spokesperson for the Israeli authorities in the West Bank, explains: “International aid is an important component in improving and promoting the quality of life of the Palestinian population but this does not grant immunity for illegal or unco-ordinated activity.”
The problem for Palestinian communities here is that permission to build any infrastructure is very hard to come by. According to figures from the civil administration quoted by the pressure group Peace Now, 91 permits were issued for Palestinian construction in Area C between 2001 and 2007. In the same period, more than 10,000 Israeli settlement units were built and1,663 Palestinian structures demolished.
The Jewish settlements in Area C are connected to the national water and electricity grids. But most Palestinian villages are cut off from basic infrastructure, including water and sewage services. Imneizil, which borders the ultra-religious settlement of Beit Yatir, currently has nine demolition orders on various structures, including a toilet block and water cistern for the school.
Comet ME is an Israeli NGO trying to circumvent these crippling restrictions on Palestinian development by harnessing Hebron’s abundant natural energy sources – wind and sun.
Funded largely by the German government, the organisation has already provided tens of Palestinian villages with electricity through solar panels and wind turbines. Its goal is to reach all villages in the southern Hebron area by the end of 2013.
“In technical terms it’s do-able, but it depends on Israeli policies,” says Elad Orian, Comet ME’s founder. “Power is a human right, like housing and education,” he says. “We deal with providing basic energy services. Renewable energy provides the best route to do it.”
The green energy solution has its flaws. At a cost of around $4,500 per family, it is expensive. Nor does it generate enough electricity to sustain a community. But it has offered a lifeline to the 150,000 Palestinians living in Area C’s impoverished communities.
However, it will become increasingly difficult to convince donors that alternative energy is worth investing in if the expensive technology they are funding is destroyed. After the order issued against the Imneizil solar panels in September, six alternative energy systems built by Comet ME in Hebron have received demolition orders.
A legal fight waged by Rabbis for Human Rights has succeeded in suspending, but not lifting, the demolition of Imneizil’s panels. The German foreign office has launched an intense diplomatic effort to save the others in nearby villages.
One UN expert, speaking anonymously as they are not authorised to talk to the media, believes the crackdown on the alternative energy movement by the Israelis is part of a deliberate strategy in Area C. “From December 2010 to April 2011, we saw a systematic targeting of the water infrastructure in Hebron, Bethlehem and the Jordan valley,” the source said. “Now, in the last couple of months, they are targeting electricity. Two villages in the area have had their electrical poles demolished.
“There is this systematic effort by the civil administration targeting all Palestinian infrastructure in Hebron. They are hoping that by making it miserable enough, they [the Palestinians] will pick up and leave.”
According to UN research, that is happening. Ten out of 13 Palestinian communities living in Area C surveyed by the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in 2011 reported that families had already left their land as a result of Israeli policies. Ali Mohamed Hraizat, 49, head of Imneizil’s village council, fears that if the solar panels are destroyed, his community will see an exodus.
“We’ve been here since 1948. We try to stay and maintain our lives, but people will leave if the electricity is cut off,” he says. “They are used for light for their children to study by and for televisions. They will move into town. The solar panel isn’t doing any harm … I just don’t see the point in demolishing it.”
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3 The Independent
14 March 2012
Israel ‘must end imputiny of violence by settlers’ [agreed, but unless Europe et al pressure Israel with sanctions, it will do nothing. D]
Donald Macintyre
EU governments, including Britain, have secretly been urged by their top diplomats in Jerusalem and the West Bank to press Israel to enforce laws against Jewish settlers responsible for an “alarming” rise in violence against Palestinians and their property.
A report sent to Brussels last month, which has been seen by The Independent, calls for an end to “the impunity” of acts that force Palestinians from their land near the settlements and increase the “opportunities” for settlers to expand. The report repeatedly stresses that settlements are illegal in international law and “threaten to make a two state solution impossible”.
Citing recent UN figures showing that the number of settler attacks in 2011 had tripled to 411 in two years, the diplomats also highlight the fact that more than 90 per cent of complaints filed with the Israeli police by Palestinians – against sometimes armed attacks on people, mosques, agricultural land and livestock –go unpunished.
Last month’s dispatch updates an also still confidential report produced by the EU’s diplomatic heads of mission last year, which warned that Israel’s failure to enforce the law risks “engendering more violence and jeopardises political dialogue”. The earlier report also recommended that the EU put settlers with a record of violence or incitement on a travel “watch list” to prevent them entering member countries.
But while the updated report was endorsed by 21 out of 22 EU Consuls-General – ambassador-level representatives to the Palestinians who have offices in Jerusalem or Ramallah – attempts at unanimity have been undermined by the refusal of The Netherlands to sign the document.
The Dutch government is rapidly emerging as the most reluctant in Western Europe to criticise Israeli policy in the occupied West Bank. Close ties between The Hague and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud government were further cemented by the Israeli Prime Minister’s two-day visit to The Netherlands in January.
The updated report acknowledges that, thanks to an enhanced presence by the Israeli military, last year’s olive harvest, which has traditionally seen a spike in settler attacks on Palestinians and their olive groves, was a “notable exception” to the general steep rise in settler violence. It adds that eight settlers were killed in three separate attacks in 2011, including one on a family in the Itamar settlement, for which two Palestinians were convicted. Three Palestinians were also killed by settlers in 2011.
But the earlier report warned that the Israeli military has limited authority to confront settlers attacking Palestinians, while by contrast they routinely intervene against Palestinians.
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4. Haaretz
March 15, 2012
The storm over Bamba and apathy concerning Gaza
In an alert civil society – you keep things clean and throw the Bamba in the garbage bin. However on the other side of the colorful bag of snacks lurks a destructive apathy.
By Gideon Levy
For four consecutive days and nights, millions of citizens of this country once again lived under conditions of fear and terror. The innovation was that, this time, no one tried to whitewash things. The mass terror was to be expected and it stemmed directly from an Israeli act of violence. Nevertheless, no one thought of expressing opposition. Better not to even ask whether indeed a terror attack had been foiled; whether the secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees was one of those rare people in human history for whom there is no replacement; or whether indeed his assassination was beneficial or legal.
The assassination and the revenge were seen here as a divine edict, as a force majeure, as a storm in the southern skies – a quick strike that would blow away with the wind. The south was scared, the north turned a blind eye, and all together were amazed at the way Iron Dome successfully intercepted the missiles. And at times like these, there is no opposition in Israel.
Not just at times like these. It is possible to imagine a situation in which Israel would have continued with another ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. And would anyone have raised his voice against that? Of course not. Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s chairman Shaul Mofaz would be in favor of course, and so apparently would opposition leader Tzipi Livni (whose voice was once again not heard this week ); Labor Party leader Shelly Yachimovich is busy to the hilt with the tycoons; Knesset hopeful Yair Lapid would have made do with another ideological “okay, bye!”; the summer protest movement leader Daphni Leef is traveling across the seas to explain that Israel is not an apartheid nation; on the Facebook page of Meretz leader Zahava Gal-On there is no mention of what happened in the south; and the Arab members of the Knesset are isolated as usual from the public discourse.
And as if that was not enough – it seems to everyone that this is a normal situation. That’s how things are and there is nothing we can do about it. A difficult reality in the south following an act of choice by Israel and no one even considers asking questions, casting doubts, offering alternatives. Hamas held its fire? Rubbish. It announced it had renounced violence? Nonsense. Once again Egypt turned out to be the only party that could bring back quiet despite its Muslim Brothers? So what? Speak with Hamas? What, have we lost our minds? Only a stand-up artist in the south raised that brilliant idea on television: To continue with assassinations in Gaza “until the inventory is completed.” That’s an idea and that’s an idea. Laughter. An Israeli democracy that lacks an opposition, free of any alternative ideas for government – a global innovation.
But just a minute, there are storms here nevertheless. For two days a storm has been raging here over [the children’s snack] Bamba, a storm which was almost wilder than the storm in the south. Had it not been for the summer social protest, the baby icon of the Bamba snack would have turned into the official mascot of Israel’s Olympic team. Only decent public intervention prevented the disgrace.
The Internet was flooded with reactions, the minister of sports and culture threatened to intervene, the chairman of the Knesset’s Education Committee called for an emergency meeting, columnists joined in the struggle, and the cute little Bamba baby will not march at the London Olympics. Psychosis and neurosis. Two days of newspaper headlines. All of a sudden, everyone is interested in sports and concerned about the moral standards of the Olympic team, and they have reservations about using a commercial symbol. Suddenly there is a protest, there is an opposition and there is a popular uprising. Even if this protest is justified in principle and there really is no place for commercial sponsorship of a national mascot, what about the proportions? Where is the proportionality? This exaggeration was intended for one purpose only – to cover the shame of apathy and to give ourselves the superficial appearance of involvement.
That is the other side of the apolitical nature of the summer protest movement – the connection between a vacuous patriot and a hollow protester. Because that’s how things are in an involved democracy, that’s how things are when there is an alert civil society – you keep things clean and throw the Bamba in the garbage bin. However on the other side of the colorful bag of snacks lurks a destructive apathy.
All the futile storms of the past months – Bamba, Big Brother, Pesek-Zman, Hatikva, and even the scandal of cancelling free train rides for soldiers for three consecutive hours per week – cannot hide the disgrace: In the land of Bamba, in Bamba Land, people come to life only the marginal and the meaningless. Let it be known: there is a direct link between the storm over Bamba and the apathy concerning Gaza. Both are driven by blind and cheap patriotism. And which mascot will march in our name at the Olympic stadium in London? That affects us much more deeply than what is done in our name in Gaza.
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5. Ynet
March 15, 2012
Jerusalem: Soldier, 19, stabbed on Light Rail
[sad, but I suspect that we shall see much more of this as things continue to get continuously worse for Palestinians. Poor ignorant girl to ask ‘what she did to deserve this.’ It wasn’t her that the boy was looking at but her uniform. Who knows, perhaps he had someone in Gaza or the WB that soldiers had killed, detained, beaten? That doesn’t excuse violence. It only explains a possible reason for it. I continue to believe in non-violent means, both morally and tactically, but understand why some will nevertheless choose violence. D]
Suspected terror attack: Female soldier sustains moderate wounds after being stabbed in her chest, hand as train pulled into station. Suspect arrested in Qalandiya
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4203323,00.html
Yair Altman
A 19-year-old female soldier was stabbed in her chest and hand on Jerusalem’s Light Rail on Thursday. She was treated at the scene by United Hatzalah medics and taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in moderate condition.
A suspect who fled the scene was arrested at the Qalandiya checkpoint. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said that the army placed roadblocks and held extensive checks in the Gaza vicinity checkpoints. Several suspects were detained for questioning.
An initial police investigation suggests that the woman was stabbed by an Arab man who escaped the scene.
The scene of the attack (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
The probe indicated that the assailant waited for the train to stop and then stabbed the woman and immidiately fled the scene. Light Rail traffic in northern Jerusalem has been suspended.
The victim has been put on the respirator machine and is undergoing a series of tests to see whether surgery will be necessary. Her mother is at her bedside. The suspect was arrested at the Qalandiya checkpoint by a police officer and security guard who recognized him. He is being questioned and his personal details are under a gag order.
An eye witness said: “I was sitting on the train, there were no screams or anything to indicate something had happened. When I looked back I suddenly saw people crowding around and as I approached I saw the young woman bleeding. She mumbled, ‘why did this happen to me’ and ‘why do I deserve this’.”
A United Hatzalah medic, Dvir Adani, described the scene: “As I arrived I saw a young woman with stab wounds to her chest. She had a low pulse, as she lost a lot of blood. We treated her until she was taken to hospital.”
The first attempt at a terror attack on the Light Rail occurred six months ago as stones were hurled at the train in Shufat. A window was shattered but no passenger were injured.
6 Today in Palestine for March 14, 2011
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi/message/3428