NOVANEWS
09/14/2010
- Crossing into Israel: ‘two highly-charged narratives’
- Hillel prepares from another year of BDS on campus
- Peretz issues 50 percent apology for latest anti-Muslim racism
- Remembering Gaza
- Notes on international law and the right of return
- Israel razes the Bedouin village Al-Araqib for the fifth time
Crossing into Israel: ‘two highly-charged narratives’
Sep 13, 2010
Philip Weiss
Yesterday my wife and I left Jordan and entered Israel at the southern border crossing, Aqaba-Eilat. We were in the Israeli baggage inspection hall when my wife said, “Who’s that handsome guy?”
On the wall was a very large black-and-white photograph from the 1940s of a young Israeli with a strong chin and light hair, alongside a darkhaired laughing woman. To the left of that photo was an older photograph of a happy jumping boy, and to its right, pictures of a soldier, a general walking through Jerusalem during the 1960s, and a full-on official portrait of Yitzhak Rabin in his 40s, when he was chief of staff.
I remembered that the crossing is the Yitzhak Rabin crossing. I told my wife who he was. She looked at the uncaptioned photographs of him getting his cigarette lit by King Hussein and standing with Bill Clinton, and the photograph of him as an old man with Leah Rabin, the woman in the second picture, in their house, likely months before his assassination.
My wife’s face was flushed. “I find this very moving,” she said.
When we were waiting for the cab a half hour later (getting through was a breeze, in spite of all my apprehensions), I asked what had upset her. She said, “I get the story, and it’s compelling. You can see it all there. You see him when he’s young and with that beautiful woman and so full of hope to save his people. They were being slaughtered in Europe and here he is in this rough tough land and trying to make a place for them. I’m moved by that. The world was all culpable in what happened. So I think I just clicked into the two-state solution.”
I nodded and didn’t say much. (It would have been preachy to tell her about Rabin’s role in ethnic cleansing Lydda in ’48.) The main reason I wanted to bring my wife here is that I trust her judgment so much and wanted her unfiltered impressions of a place I’ve been very judgmental about.
We got a bus in Eilat to go to Jerusalem via the Dead Sea, a 4-1/2 hour trip through the Negev and then the occupied West Bank. You don’t really know when you enter the occupied territories. Near Qumran, where a Bedouin boy found the Dead Sea Scrolls, we rumbled without pausing through a small checkpoint and I’m pretty sure that’s when we entered the territories. We didn’t see any Palestinians, there were no Palestinians on the bus. We were surrounded by an American or two on cell phones, and several young and slightly slothful Israeli kids, one carrying only a pillow to stretch out across the back seats with. They were indifferent to Masada, indifferent to the Dead Sea scrolls; and I could see how they normalize the occupation. There’s nothing to see. Now and then some Bedouin shacks near the road, but mostly you’re on a superhighway with a lot of fancy cars headed for Tel Aviv, and passing by settlements and countless signs for Ahava factories, the beauty products line that mines Palestinian lands for international profit.
So the 3 million Palestinians living around you are tucked safely out of sight, and then you come under the extended fortress that is Ma’ale Adumim, the settlement of 35,000 people or so on hills far east of Jerusalem, and after that it’s East Jerusalem and the naked structure of separation is more apparent.
You see the wall curving down past Abu Dis, separating a neighborhood that is supposed to be the capital of the Palestinian state from any connection to the Old City and its religious and commercial life. You see the new modern highway that the Israelis are building so that the occupied Palestinians can get from the north West Bank to the south West Bank without having anything to do with Israelis in settlements. You see Israeli roads built right alongside Palestinian roads with a high wall in between them. You see the wall. You understand why liberal Zionist Charney Bromberg, who loves Israel, came back from his last visit after a tour of the West Bank and said with torment that it reminded him of apartheid. Myself I was struck by the desire to keep the Jews and the Palestinians apart and drive the Palestinians away.
At dinner I asked my wife what she thought and she said, “There are two highly charged narratives, right alongside one another.”
I’m glad she’s here. I know that she’s right, that there is a compelling story to be told about that belief in Israel, but it feels historical to me; and when it was my turn, I told her my impression of the ride through the occupied territories. They have always wanted land and now they are taking much of the rest of it. You see why some people have given up on the idea of the two state solution. There’s no place for the Palestinians to even have a state, because the Israelis will never give up any of that real estate that we saw on this trip– the Ahava factories and the hilltops and the water and the roads.
“And that’s why some people are for a one state solution. Because it’s all under one state’s control right now. And then everyone would get to vote on the leadership, Palestinians and Jews.”
My wife said, “Why would someone be against that?”
Hillel prepares from another year of BDS on campus
Sep 13, 2010
Adam Horowitz
From the JTA:
As Daniel Sieradski pointed out on twitter, that is a rather awkward analogy between vampires and Palestinians towards the end of the video.
Peretz issues 50 percent apology for latest anti-Muslim racism
Sep 13, 2010
James North
Editor-in-chief Martin Peretz, who has become the crazy uncle in The New Republic’s attic, says he is sorry for half of his most recent anti-Muslim tirade. He has been under great pressure, from Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times and from an eloquent coalition of students at Brandeis, his alma mater.
Peretz says he is sorry for writing, “I wonder whether I need honor these people [Muslims] and pretend they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment, which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.” He admits he wrote the sentence, but he says now he does not believe it. Let’s take him at his word, although you wonder because it doesn’t read like he accidentally dropped something or misplaced a modifier. But maybe he just had a couple of extra glasses of wine before hitting the send button.
But he makes no apology at all for his other offensive sentence: “Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, especially for Muslims.” He writes, “This is a statement of fact, not value.”
Is there any other group of people that the editor-in-chief of an influential American publication could get away with libelling in this way?
Remembering Gaza
Sep 13, 2010
Ahmed Moor
The unending death-news maelstrom assaults the reader with what seems like daily frequency. Our digital distance simultaneously transports us to and shields us from the bedlam. We are assaulted virtually – our empathy enables that – but experience none of the flechette-mangled corpsifying assault that the victim does. We are free to imagine, knowing full well we are wholly incapable of adequately doing so.
News of the murders of Ibrahim Abu Sayed, Hossam Abu Sayed and Ismail Abu Oda struck me with a dull thump. I was saddened, but exhausted. The endgame is within reach – the end of apartheid is knowable and doable – and the Zionists destroy human lives senselessly. I can’t do anything for them. They’re dead already, so just stay focused on the horizon. Remember, this is a marathon effort.
I was surprised at my reaction, at the total absence of anger. I wondered if my rage nerves were temporarily frazzled. Being immersed in Palestine – constantly attuned to it – begins to take a psychological toll. One of our safety mechanisms is to divorce and disconnect. Reality is somewhere else, not here, not now, not on a Friday night.
But a more sinister possibility insistently pushed itself into my conscience. I began to think that I’d become desensitized to the deaths of small numbers of humans. Leave your TV on static long enough, and your brain will tune it out; maintain a steady death rate, and people will tune it out. There was truth in the thought and it horrified me.
I was born in Gaza. My entire extended family is in Gaza. I was there ten years ago, and visited the border recently in February. And yet, I allowed myself to grow numb, to slip into a superficial ritual of affirming their – my – humanity without remembering their daily trials. I found that my memory failed me, and something wooden had taken its place.
Adie Mormech’s piece helped me to remember Gaza. I was reading it when I had the haunting realization that I knew the Oda family. They’re Bedouin, just like the Abu Moors. Their farm is near my father’s farm. And I think that they’re also from Be’er Al Sabaa, and also members of the Tarabin tribe.
I began to wonder: Mohammed Abu Oda, the man interviewed in the article, is that the same Mohammed who greeted my father, my brother, and me early in the summer of 2000 with tea and watermelon at his family’s home? There were small children running around that day. They were shy and had snotty noses. They giggled and ran around, slapping at you when you weren’t looking. The 16-year-old corpse, Ismail Abu Oda, was he one of them?
I remembered my father marching my brother and me around our few dry dunums, triumphantly showing of his newly planted olive trees and fig trees. The Israelis razed them all some years ago. I felt a stultifying, enraged impotence when my father told me – I remember that. Those trees were my inheritance.
And I remember my great uncle – one of Ibrahim Abu Sayed’s contemporaries – rolling his tobacco with large, thick fingers. I remember the way the fat flies settled thick on everything when he looked at me and said, “The earth is like a woman, the more you plow it the more it yields.” He laughed and my father laughed, but warned me not to repeat what I’d heard.
My cousin Eyad later built a two-bedroom hovel on the land near the place where I captured that memory, on the farm he’d inherited from his dead father. I remember his bucked yellow-stained teeth when he laughed. He chain-smoked Viceroys and wasn’t very bright. My father helped him find a job making tea and sweeping floors in an office in Gaza city. I vaguely remember news of his wedding. And I remember the day in 2007 when I learned of his death.
The Israelis declared curfew but failed to tell anyone. Eyad stepped out of his home at dawn and had his face hole-punched open by a sniper’s bullet. Another one buried itself deep in his chest. He was 28 and had three children. His wife was pregnant with their fourth.
I remember that for days I grieved. Images of his decomposition flashed in the contours of my mind as I pictured what was happening to him underneath Gaza’s hard, dry earth. I remember the regret I felt that I’d ever condescended to him, or spoken harshly to him. Later that week, I went out with friends in New York and I remember the shame of having buried it – him – so quickly.
These and other thoughts cascaded into my head. And suddenly I was mourning Ibrahim and Hossam Abu Sayed and Ismail Abu Oda. These three human beings, two of whom hadn’t even begun to live, were murdered. They were family and now they’re gone.
There is no “Why?” here which makes coping difficult. There is nothing I can do for them and that makes it difficult, too. In the face of so much death we have no choice but to push ahead. We also have a responsibility to not forget. The difficulty isn’t going away and so we must watch ourselves lest we become become inured to it.
Notes on international law and the right of return
Sep 13, 2010
Ben Zakkai
My thanks to Ahmed Moor for his continuing efforts to advance the search for political solutions in Israel-Palestine, and I offer my apologies for my extended absence from the discussion. I hope to respond to his latest proposals in the near future, but first I’ll answer a question that Adam Horowitz raised in response to my previous post discussing the Palestinian right of return. The question was, “what is the relation of international law to the right of return?” I’ll refer to some long answers and short answers to that question before providing my own medium-length response.
My analysis will focus primarily on the most weighty and controversial element of the right of return, which is the right of the descendants of the original 1948 Palestinian refugees to move to and live within the internationally recognized, pre-1967 borders of the State of Israel. The rights of the 1948 refugees themselves, while no less (and probably more) compelling, apply only to a small and dwindling number of individuals, and the rights of 1967 refugees from the Occupied Territories to return to those areas can be realized by the creation of a Palestinian state. It is the right of descendants of 1948 refugees to live in Israel that poses the toughest problem.
Many lengthy, complex and detailed answers to the question can be found in articles and position papers written by law professors and political activists. A fair sample of that literature might include, on the Palestinian side, Badil’s brief and bulletin, the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine’s information paper, and the Human Rights Watch position; and on the Israeli side, articles by professors Eyal Benvenisti, Ruth Lapidoth, and Yaffa Zilbershatz, and by journalist Matthew Kalman.
Readers with the patience and fortitude to study that literature will learn a great deal about international treaties and UN resolutions, but in the end they are likely to arrive at the following bottom line: Given the lack of effective mechanisms for interpreting and applying international law regarding the right of return, it makes more sense to seek political rather than legal solutions. In other words, unless and until some legal forum is empowered to decide, authoritatively, what international law regarding the right of return requires, and some executive body is empowered to enforce that decision, the competing claims of activists and professors will remain largely academic, without much practical effect.
If I nonetheless put myself in the position of a lawyer wishing to advocate for the right of return through legal action, I have to ask myself at least four pertinent questions: What legal standards should I invoke? By what authority do they bind the State of Israel? And again, What legal forum can apply those legal standards, and What executive body can enforce its decision?
Regarding the legal standards, a review of international treaties governing armed conflict, refugees, migration and nationality – four areas with great relevance to the Palestinian refugee problem – unfortunately provides little or no support for the right of return. While various provisions of such treaties are occasionally cited by right of return advocates, on examination they generally turn out to be designed for different types of situations, or advisory rather than compulsory, or both.
More commonly cited by right of return advocates are UN resolutions, particularly General Assembly (GA) Resolution 194, resolving that “the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date,” and international human rights law, especially Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which provides that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.”
The numerous UN-GA resolutions addressing the right of return reflect the shifting emphasis of politics at different points in history. A fair sampling of the seminal resolutions would include 194, adopted in 1948, which made a relatively strong statement in favor of repatriation; 393 and 394, adopted in 1950, as it became clear that near-term repatriation was unlikely to occur, and which therefore put additional emphasis on resettlement and compensation; 2452, adopted in 1968, the first of a series of resolutions strongly supporting the right of return of 1967 refugees to the Occupied Territories; and 3236 (1974), 37/120(E) (1982) and 38/83(J) (1983) – adopted as Israel’s standing and support began to decline due to the ongoing Occupation and the invasion of Lebanon – which expressed renewed support for the right of return of 1948 refugees.
However, there are at least three serious obstacles to enforcing UN-GA resolutions. First, they lack specificity and consistency. Second, the GA’s powers, delineated in Chapter IV and other parts of the UN Charter, are advisory, not compulsory. By way of contrast, Chapter VII of the Charter empowers the Security Council (SC) to make binding decisions and even to use military force to enforce them; however, the SC resolutions relevant to the right of return, like 237 and 242, are general and advisory.
Third, the UN’s judicial arm, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), whose jurisdiction is defined in Chapter 14 of the Charter and in an annexed statute, may deliver a judgment binding a member state only if that state has consented to the proceedings. The ICJ may also deliver advisory opinions without a state’s consent, as it did regarding Israel’s Separation Wall, but no advisory opinion has been delivered regarding the right of return.
Article 12 of the ICCPR was enacted to protect the individual’s freedom of movement, including his right to leave and enter his own country. In the wake of a number of refugee crises in the 1990’s, the UN Human Rights Committee issued an official comment applying Article 12 to refugee situations. The general language of the comment seems to support a fairly strong claim for many 1948 and 1967 refugees, and perhaps a weaker claim for their descendants. Again, though, the ICJ lacks jurisdiction to provide binding interpretation and application.
If a court did assume jurisdiction to define and implement the right of return, I think the most relevant precedent, which it could distinguish but probably not ignore, would be the body of law arising from the claims of Greek Cypriot refugees from the northern part of Cyprus.
In 1974 Greek Cypriots launched a military coup against the government of Cyprus, and shortly thereafter Turkish forces invaded the northern part of the island. More than 150,000 Greek Cypriots fled their homes in the north, while tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots fled their homes in the south. In 1983 the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) declared its existence as an independent state, which however was recognized only by Turkey, not by any other countries. In 1985 the TRNC enacted a constitution which purported to expropriate the property deserted by Greek Cypriot refugees. In addition, Turkey began to foster the migration of settlers from mainland Turkey to the TRNC.
However, since Turkey had previously agreed to be bound by the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Greek Cypriot refugees were able to assert their rights in that forum. In a series of decisions, most notably Loizidou v. Turkey (1996) and Cyprus v. Turkey (2001), the ECHR ruled that Greek Cypriot refugees retained legal title to their property and were also entitled to be paid damages for deprivation of its use.
The UN had previously adopted a number of resolutions supporting the rights of Cypriot refugees to return to their homes (SC 361, GA 3212, and others), but the ECHR did not rely on those resolutions, nor did it rely on ICCPR Article 12 regarding freedom of movement. Instead, the ECHR relied primarily on a protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights that protects property rights. The court held that since the TRNC was not recognized as a sovereign state, its laws purporting to expropriate refugee property were of no effect.
Over time, the ECHR’s rulings created problems both for itself and for the TRNC. The ECHR was flooded with thousands of similar lawsuits, while as a practical matter it was unable to enforce the declared rights of refugees to return to their homes. Meanwhile, the TRNC faced ever-growing damages liability, and the legal validity of its title to refugee property was undermined.
Under those pressures, the ECHR and TRNC worked out a compromise arrangement over the last decade whereby the TRNC enacted a law and created a commission to process refugee claims, then amended its process in accordance with the ECHR’s recommendations. Eventually the TRNC began processing claims, paying damages, and in some case returning refugee property or exchanging it for refugee property in the south, while the ECHR began requiring claimants to exhaust the remedies provided by the TRNC before appealing to the ECHR.
Understandably, many Greek Cypriot refugees protested the ECHR’s diversion of their claims to an organ of the TRNC, where many would have to accept compensation rather than restitution of their property. However, the court, in the Demopoulos case decided last March, held that while the refugees were entitled to legal redress, after 35 years they could not expect to return to the status quo ante, nor would it be proper to force the eviction of large numbers of people who had come to live on refugee property. The court also acknowledged that it lacked the resources to handle all the pending claims and, of course, the power to engineer a political solution to the Cyprus conflict.
However, there’s one additional wrinkle. In a parallel development, a British couple purchased refugee property in northern Cyprus and built a house there, whereupon the original owner sued them in a Cypriot court and received a judgment requiring them to pay him damages and demolish the house. The owner then attempted to enforce his judgment against the couple in a UK court, which in turn asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which hears civil cases and operates parallel to the ECHR, whether it should hear the case. The ECJ gave the green light. Last January, the UK Court of Appeal, in Apostolides v. Orams, ruled that in light of the ECJ decision and ECHR precedent – and despite concerns that civil litigation of this kind might interfere with diplomatic efforts to broker a political solution to the ongoing Cyprus dispute – the UK courts would enforce the judgment of the Cypriot court.
Does that mean that the door is now open for a 1948 Palestinian refugee from West Jerusalem to sue a London resident who purchased his former home? Maybe. Since Israel is a sovereign state, UK courts would probably apply the “act of state” doctrine, according to which the courts of one state, for diplomatic reasons, almost always decline to hear civil claims where a decision would require the court to pass judgment on the validity of another state’s action – in this case, Israel’s expulsion of refugees and expropriation of their property. However, there have been exceptions to the rule, which readers can explore in the House of Lords decisions in Kuwait Airways v. Iraqi Airways and Oppenheimer v. Cattermole.
Sometimes surprising results can be achieved by a creative lawyer appealing to a sympathetic judge. And, of course, experienced litigators may think of many other approaches that I haven’t imagined. Legal efforts sometimes have a significant political impact, which is why lawyers and human rights activists are reportedly preparing to file a wave of lawsuits based on the IDF’s destruction of Palestinian property during Operation Cast Lead.
I’ve taken a legalistic approach to this topic rather than focusing on the declaratory moral force of international law, because when international law is invoked for moral suasion rather than legal enforcement, it becomes a political rather than a legal tool. It looks like the Israeli-Palestinian impasse will be broken primarily by political rather than legal means, and I hope to return to the sphere of political action in my next post.
Israel razes the Bedouin village Al-Araqib for the fifth time
Sep 13, 2010
Seham
And other news from Today in Palestine:
Land and Property Theft and Destruction/Ethnic Cleansing
Israel razes Bedouin village for fifth time
AL-ARAQIB, Israel (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities reportedly destroyed a rebuilt unrecognized Bedouin village in the Negev on Monday for the fifth time in two months. Bulldozers entered the Al-Araqib village to raze what residents had rebuilt after the village was destroyed less than a month earlier. Israeli police reportedly detained a number of peace activists present at the scene to stop the latest demolitions. A spokesman for Israel’s National Police did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the demolitions and arrests.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=314581
Peace Now: 2,066 settlement homes to be built as soon as freeze ends
New report indicates an overall of 13,000 previously authorized West Bank housing units, construction sites could be built after the Sept. 26 freeze expiration date.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/peace-now-2-066-settlement-homes-to-be-built-as-soon-as-freeze-ends-1.313429
‘13,000 West Bank housing units ready for construction’
Peace Now: At least 2,000 W. Bank units have foundations laid, ready to be built as freeze expires; 11,000 ready for construction without further gov’t approval.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=187864
Netanyahu silent on Obama settlement freeze remarks (Reuters)
Reuters – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored in public remarks on Sunday a nudge from U.S. President Barack Obama to extend a partial settlement freeze on land Palestinians want as part of their future state.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100912/ts_nm/us_palestinians_israel
PM: We won’t build massively in West Bank
Benjamin Netanyahu tells Quartet envoy Tony Blair that while Israel will not build tens of thousands of housing units, it will not freeze lives of Judea and Samaria residents either.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3953004,00.html
Settlers threaten to topple Netanyahu
Settlers upset over PM remarks suggesting partial construction freeze in store, say such move would terminate his term in office; Netanyahu again betraying his voters, settler leader says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3952886,00.html
Settlers vow to keep on building – at any cost
Catrina Stewart in Kiryat Arba–As Israeli and Palestinian leaders prepare for key peace talks in Egypt, hardline Jewish settlers are vowing to sabotage a political process that they fear, if successful, could endanger the survival of the Jewish state.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/settlers-vow-to-keep-on-building-ndash-at-any-cost-2076376.html
Israel rejects proposed visit by senior EU foreign ministers
A senior official in Jerusalem said the official reason Israel declined the request was scheduling problems, but the real reason was a desire to avoid heavy European pressure on Israel to extend the settlement construction freeze beyond the end of this month.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-rejects-proposed-visit-by-senior-eu-foreign-ministers-1.313283?localLinksEnabled=false
West Bank settlements seek to revolutionize image with a new kind of tour
Samaria Regional Council’s new strategy: forget politics and bring as many media personalities and opinion-makers as possible to see the region.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/west-bank-settlements-seek-to-revolutionize-image-with-a-new-kind-of-tour-1.313302?localLinksEnabled=false
Solidarity/Activism/Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment
Bil’in’s Abdallah Abu Rahmah’s Trial to Enter Sentencing Phase on Wednesday
The trial of Bil’in protest organizer, Abdallah Abu Rahmah will renew this Wednesday, after his conviction of incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations was harshly criticized by the EU, the Spanish Parliament and human rights organizations.
http://josephdana.com/2010/09/bilins-abdallah-abu-rahmahs-trial-to-enter-sentencing-phase-on-wednesday/
Palestinian federation launches campaign against settlement products
RAMALLAH: The Palestinian federation of Laborers on Saturday launched an international campaign to boycott the products of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article134692.ece
Boycott leadership: solidarity with French activists
Uruknet September 10, 2010 – The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), on behalf of its constituent organizations and unions representing the majority of Palestinian civil society, strongly condemns the decision taken by French authorities to prosecute people of conscience for calling for a boycott of Israeli produce. These state-sanctioned forms of repression amount to active support for Israeli violations of international law and have serious implications on political freedoms in France and across Europe.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m69651&hd=&size=1&l=e
(en) Israel, Alasbarricadas interview with Ilan Shalif (Anarchists Against the Wall) (ca, it)
Alasbarricadas interview Shalif Ilan, a veteran Israeli anarchist activist. We discuss in this interview his views on the situation in Palestine-Israel, following the attack on the Freedom Flotilla, and the latest developments in those lands. The situation there is very interesting for anarchist action, since, as Ilan himself said: —- “No one would expect that anarchists could lead the main struggle of the radical left of a country. Nowhere in the world the anarchist confront state forces in a non-violent, week after week, gradually extending the scope. .. and still walk free, even if sometimes few of us are detained for a few hours… or a day or two in rare cases. No one would expect that the fundamentalists of Hamas will support in public the united struggle with the Jewish anarchists atheists. No one would expect the popularity of, and the media attention given to a few dozen anarchist activists, who in less than seven years changed the meaning of the label “anarchist” to the public. No one would expect the Israeli repressive machinery apparatus had to treat the anarchists’ activity as the legendary mosquitoes.” Ilan Shalif, August 3, 2007.
http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos24342.html
* The Siege (Gaza & West Bank)/Humanitarian/Restriction of Movement/Human Rights/Racism
Israel calls off Hague’s Gaza aid visit
Israel has called off a visit planned for this week by William Hague and a group of European Union foreign ministers after objecting to the bloc’s “gross insensitivity”.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7998047/Israel-calls-off-Hagues-Gaza-aid-visit.html
HEBRON: Israeli Military and Policemen Shut Three Palestinian Shops
Christian Peacemaker Teams – Palestine – Israeli soldiers and police weld shut three Palestinian shops near a regular “Open Shuhada Street” demonstration site, leaving one injured, one expelled, four imprisoned (and thousands still under military occupation).
http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2010/08/21/hebron-israeli-military-and-policemen-shut-three-palestinian-shops
Palestinian shopkeepers in Hebron are drowning in the rubbish of Israeli settlers
In Hebron, shopkeepers in the old town are obliged to cover their stalls with metal grills to protect them from rubbish thrown from the windows of Israeli settlers. On the West Bank, the town of Hebron is known for being the site of frequent incidents between the several hundred settlers, supported by the Israeli army, and the inhabitants of the town. It is the town’s shopkeepers who bear the brunt of these confrontations. Indeed, the Israelis who have houses which overlook the street do not hesitate to throw their rubbish onto the stalls below.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m69642&hd=&size=1&l=e
AL BWEIREH, PALESTINE: Settlers “heat up the air”; outpost dismantled
Christian Peacemaker Teams – Palestine – Roadblocks are emblematic of a decade of military and settler harassment of Palestinians in Al Bweireh. Will the new one be more than a bump in the road for the Hill 86 settlement outpost?
http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2010/08/12/al-bweireh-palestine-settlers-%E2%80%9Cheat-air%E2%80%9D-outpost-dismantled
Gaza poverty worse than Rwanda
A new study has revealed that the population of those living below the poverty line in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip exceeds the same population in Rwanda. The survey, carried out by the Palestinian Authority (PA), shows that 63.1 percent of the 1.5-million Palestinians in the impoverished coastal sliver, where Tel Aviv’s siege has prevented access to food, fuel and other necessities, live below the United Nations-defined poverty line, Press TV’s correspondent in the enclave Akram al-Satarri reported on Tuesday.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/141666.html
Stranded at Erez, Israel’s deportees mark Eid
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Thirteen Palestinians, who once had Israeli identity cards allowing them to live with their spouses, celebrated Eid alone, in Gaza City on Friday. The men, who lived in what is now the Israeli city of Beersheba (formerly Beir Seba) were detained and deported because of small mistakes or oversights in their registration processes with Israeli ministries. Under the passing of Military Order 1650, Israel’s military expanded the definition of an “infiltrator” to include any individual living in areas controlled by the country without express permission.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=314395
Israel to allow car parts into Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities will allow the entry of car oil and spare parts into Gaza on Monday for the first time since the blockade of the coastal territory was enforced in 2006, a Palestinian liaison official said. Raed Fattouh said one terminal, the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza, would be open for the transfer of five truckloads of car parts and oil, as well as 165 truckloads of other goods.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=314561
Israeli authorities continue to unjustly dictate lives of Palestinians
GAZA, Sept 13 (KUNA) — From demolishing Palestinian towns to the planning of more settlements, the Israeli authorities seemed to be determined to dictate the lives of Palestinians in an unjustified manner. Earlier Monday, Israeli police bulldozers demolished the Palestinian village of Al-Araqeeb in Negev, making such an incident the fifth of its kind in the history of the village. Meanwhile, Israeli (Peace Now) group noted that around 2,066 housing units are planned to be in 42 settlements within the occupied Palestinian lands with construction beginning on September 26. The settlement issue is one of the major key items within the direct peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis but such announcement reflects a sentiment that Israel is not planning of the halt of settlement plans anytime soon. More on the Tel Aviv policies, Israel allowed today the entrance of car parts to the Gaza Strip for the first time since the blockade began in 2007. Such steps are within the Israeli government decision in last July to ease the blockade on the strip which came after international pressure which came after the Israeli marine attack on the freedom Flotilla.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2110815&Language=en
East Jerusalem Palestinians Denied Basic Rights, Stephen Lendman
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) is the country’s leading human and civil rights organization through litigation, legal advocacy, education and public outreach. Its new report is titled, “Unsafe Space: The Israeli Authorities’ Failure to Protect Human Rights amid Settlements in East Jerusalem,” explaining how Judaization harms basic Palestinian freedoms. In fact, the Israeli military, police, and hostile settlers deny them, ACRI saying: Palestinians “complain of physical and verbal abuse (by police), settlers and their security guards; the intimidation of their children; various forms of harassment (including videotaping them in their homes); the barricading and closing off of streets and public areas; and more.”
http://www.opednews.com/articles/East-Jerusalem-Palestinian-by-Stephen-Lendman-100913-268.html
* Violence/Aggression & Provocations
Israel troops kill Palestinian grandfather, grandson: medics (AFP)
AFP – Israeli troops on Sunday shot dead three Palestinians, including a 91-year-old man and his teenage grandson, in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, a Palestinian medical official said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100912/wl_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictgazashooting
91 year old, and his grandson, among three farm workers killed by Israeli shells in Gaza, Adie Mormech
When 91 year old Ibrahim Abu Sayed left his home this morning to check on his land and animals by the remains of his old house, he took with him his 17 year old grandson Hossam and his friend and neighbour Ismail Abu Oda, who was 16. His son and Hossam’s father didn’t want to come because it was the final day of EID, the muslim celebration that follows Ramadan. Despite his age, Ibrahim Abu Sayed was still mobile enough to regularly check his three dunums of land, as he had done for decades, the last decade being the hardest as his house was destroyed in 2000 by Israeli bulldozers and his rebuilt house destroyed in the three-week attacks by Israel on Gaza over the new year of 2009.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/91-year-old-and-his-grandson-among-three-farm-workers-killed-by-israeli-shells-in-gaza.html
Settler Violence Report, July-August 2010
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/settlers-violence/2850-settler-violence-report-july-august-2010-
PA official: Settlers set fire to car in ‘revenge’
NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian-owned car in the Urif village in the northern West Bank district of Nablus on Monday, spraying the word “revenge” on it, a Palestinian Authority official said. Ghassan Doughlas, charged with the northern settlement activity file, said settlers from the Yizhar settlement in the district torched Daoud Hassan As-Safadi’s car, which was parked near his house at the village’s entrance. He added that settlers also tried to set fire to a number of other cars without success.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=314603
Soldiers pictured aiming rifle at Palestinian detainee
Nahal soldiers photograph themselves pointing rifles, making offensive gestures at blindfolded Palestinian detainee. Defense counsel: Many soldiers, officers have done the same.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3953086,00.html
Iftar with the army: a Hebron story
At about 17.00 on the 9th September 2010, right before Atta Jaber and his family were about to sit down to break the fast on the last day of Ramadan, eight soldiers appeared on the doorstep. One of them said that they wanted to come into the house, in the Baqa’a Valley, east of Hebron, to “have a look”. Atta Jaber opened the door, and did not ask for further explanation, as over the years he has become accustomed to soldiers turning up in this way. His four kids, aged 10 to 17 have all grown up with daily harassment by soldiers and settlers. Still, they seemed anxious and stressed as eight armed soldiers made their way through the hallway and into the living room, most armed with M-16s, one with a machine gun. A couple of soldiers asked for Atta’s son’s name, and shook the 13 year old boy’s hand, before searching the house. The boy replied to the greetings politely.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/09/14445/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29
Israeli extremist settlers break into Al Aqsa
Jerusalem, September 13, (Pal Telegraph) Dozens of Jewish extremists stormed today morning Al Aqsa Mosque from the Mughrabi Gate, accompanied by reinforced Israeli police forces.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6952:israeli-extremist-settlers-break-into-al-aqsa&catid=59:west-bank&Itemid=135
* Detainees
IOF raids Hebron, arrests 1
Hebron, September 13, (Pal Telegraph) Israeli occupation forces arrested at dawn today a citizen resides in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, after a raid on his house. Security sources said that the Israeli occupation forces arrested citizen Dirar Abu Monshar (30 years), after raiding his house in Hebron and tampering with its contents, pointing out that he was taken to an unknown location.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6950:iof-raids-hebron-arrests-1&catid=59:west-bank&Itemid=135
Al Jazeera English: Palestinian prisoners denied visits
Muslims around the world are celebrating Eid, a festival that brings families together. However, Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails find it very difficult to receive visits from their families and relatives. Human rights organizations say that while Israeli convicts are allowed family and home visits, Palestinians are denied even a phone call . Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh reports from the West Bank in the Palestinian Territories.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bH105wyONA&feature=youtube_gdata
* Israel’s Arab Helpers
Hamas: PA detains 35 affiliates in West Bank
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Hamas accused Palestinian Authority forces of detaining 35 party affiliates across the West Bank and summoning dozens to the intelligence services. The Islamist movement said in a statement Monday that the PA has “renewed its campaign against [Hamas] leaders and affiliates” in the West Bank, claiming that forces opened fire in the air as they detained an affiliate in the Nablus district village of Tel. Hamas said the arrest was met by stone-throwing by those seeking to thwart the detention. On Wednesday, Hamas called on party members and supporters in the West Bank not to turn themselves in to PA security forces and “to confront all attempts at arrest.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=314599
Hamas: PA night raids target 2 leaders
NABLUS (Ma’an) — Hamas officials in the West BAnk accused Palestinian Authority security services of raiding the homes of two leaders overnight on Saturday and detained relatives of the men. A statement released by officials on Sunday said the Nablus homes of Sheikh Hamed Bitawi, elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006, and a second Hamas leader Majed Hamami. In Bitawi’s home, forces reportedly detained Fadel Al-Bitawi, son of the PLC member, and Hamami himself was taken by the officers.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=314506
Muhammed Natshe freed from Zionist custody, PA tries to disrupt hero-reception
Muhammed Jamal Natshe, a prominent Islamic leader from al-Khalil, was freed from Zionist custody on Sunday, after spending more than eight years in Israeli dungeons and detention camps. [Hamas website, some might not be able to access]
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz
* “Peace” Talks/Political Developments
Palestinians: Netanyahu to accept understandings reached by Olmert
PA sources say prime minister will respect understandings reached by his predecessors despite his reservations; Palestinians decide renewed settlement construction insufficient reason to stop talks.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3953106,00.html
Israel and Palestinians clash over agenda for Sharm peace talks
Netanyahu wants to begin with security arrangements, recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and a Palestinian willingness to declare an end to the conflict when an agreement is signed – but Abbas and his colleagues want to begin by defining the borders of a future state.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-and-palestinians-clash-over-agenda-for-sharm-peace-talks-1.313290?localLinksEnabled=false
Minister: PA issues not Iran’s business
9/11/2010 – RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Palestinain Authority Minister of Waqf and Religious Endowments Mahmoud Al-Habbash called Hamas leaders “preachers of sedition,” at an Eid Al-Fitr prayer at the government headquarters in Ramallah on Friday. Ramping up the rhetoric, Al-Habbash called on Hamas leaders to “stop their deeds,” and to take responsibility for the “coup in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=314429
Abbas phones Assad to thank him for supporting Palestinians
Jeruslalem Post 11 Sep 2010 – PA chairman calls talks “important period in history,” completes week of holiday greeting calls to Peres, Netanyahu, and Mitchell, many of them touching of the progress of peace talks.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=187740&R=R3
Who will replace Abbas in peace talks?; Al-Ahram reports Shaath, Erekat waging ‘silent battle’ over substituting for head of negotiation team
Two Palestinian Authority officials are waging a quiet battle over who will stand at the head of the negotiating team in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, in case President Mahmoud Abbas cannot be present or requires assistance. The Egyptian Al-Ahram reported Saturday that Palestinian leaders were divided over Nabil Shaath and Saeb Erekat, both of whom are members of the Fatah central council and both of who have experience in heading negotiations with Israel.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3952515,00.html
Maariv: French and American envoys working to re-start Israeli-Syrian talks
Maariv summarizes a news item from the Lebanese A-Safir. It’s unclear, however, whether the section on Mitchell visit is also from that source. The byline is unusual. Bardenstein is the junior diplomatic affairs correspondent and probably does not speak Arabic. Items based on direct monitoring of the Arab press are usually bylined by the Arab or Palestinian affairs correspondents. Bardenstein’s sources are almost exclusively in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office.
http://coteret.com/2010/09/13/maariv-french-and-american-envoys-working-to-re-start-israeli-syrian-talks/
*Other News
‘Arab spy’ released from jail
Upon leaving prison, Dr. Omar Said tells Ynet his arrest was ‘political’.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3953316,00.html
Israel’s Gaza flotilla probe panel summons Mavi Marmara captain
Turkel committee approaches Turkish embassy in bid to compel captain of ship, aboard which 9 activists were killed on May 31, to testify.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-s-gaza-flotilla-probe-panel-summons-mavi-marmara-captain-1.313559
EU court clears Aqsa foundation of terror charges
A European Union court ruled Thursday that the EU acted illegally when freezing the assets of the Aqsa charity foundation’s Holland branch. [Hamas website, some might not be able to access]
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq
Poll: Fewer than half of Israelis see themselves as secular
8% of Jewish Israeli adults define themselves as ultra-Orthodox, 12% as religious, 13% as traditional-religious, and 25% as traditional but ‘not very religious,’ according to Central Bureau of Statistics survey.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/poll-fewer-than-half-of-israelis-see-themselves-as-secular-1.313462?localLinksEnabled=false
‘Auschwitz being promoted as a ‘Disney-style’ tourist site’
Notorious Holocaust-denying historian defends decision to set up tour of Nazi sites as an alternative to what he sees as Poland’s fixation with Auschwitz.
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/auschwitz-being-promoted-as-a-disney-style-tourist-site-1.313263?localLinksEnabled=false
‘Gaza’ premiere set to shake up TIFF; Anti-war doc offers first-hand account of Gaza bombings
Anti-war documentaries are a popular staple of the festival circuit, but few will be as emotionally devastating, or controversial, as “Tears of Gaza,” which has its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival today. Norwegian director Vibeke Lokkeberg, with her unvarnished, first-hand account of Palestinian children killed or maimed during the Israeli military’s bombing of Gaza in 2008 and 2009, will have it no other way. “We need to bring reality of war to the screen,” she said of the English and Arabic-language documentary from Nero Media that shuttles between footage of bombs dropping on screaming children as they run for cover, and the aftermath on the streets and in the hospitals of Gaza.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/world/news/e3iafc531ef3af052c76557e5d4f57387fe
* Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
Remembering Gaza, Ahmed Moor
The unending death-news maelstrom assaults the reader with what seems like daily frequency. Our digital distance simultaneously transports us to and shields us from the bedlam. We are assaulted virtually – our empathy enables that – but experience none of the flechette-mangled corpsifying assault that the victim does. We are free to imagine, knowing full well we are wholly incapable of adequately doing so. News of the murders of Ibrahim Abu Sayed, Hossam Abu Sayed and Ismail Abu Oda struck me with a dull thump. I was saddened, but exhausted. The endgame is within reach – the end of apartheid is knowable and doable – and the Zionists destroy human lives senselessly. I can’t do anything for them. They’re dead already, so just stay focused on the horizon. Remember, this is a marathon effort.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/remembering-gaza.html
Fatah: Collaborationist Israeli Ally, Stephen Lendman
At least since the Oslo Accords, Fatah has served Israel more than its own people. On August 25, Haaretz highlighted the latest example, headling “PA arrests dozens of Hamas, Islamic Jihad militants in West Bank,” saying, a PA source confirmed dozens made, including “high ranking officials in (both) organizations.” On September 6, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said hundreds were made in response to the killings of four West Bank settlers, adding, “The decision to carry out the attack was politically motivated and intended to embarrass the Palestinian Authority.”
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Fatah-Collaborationist-Is-by-Stephen-Lendman-100912-825.html
Jerusalem or Gaza – where is it worse to be Palestinian?, Amira Hass
Is it the isolation and insulation that Israel has imposed on Gaza, or the cynicism with which the decision makers continue to turn the population of East Jerusalem into welfare clients and slum dwellers, and then pride themselves of the national insurance payments they grant them?
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/jerusalem-or-gaza-where-is-it-worse-to-be-palestinian-1.313485?localLinksEnabled=false
Gazans Desert Their Donkey-Zebra, Eva Bartlett
ZEITOUN, Gaza, Sep 12, 2010 (IPS) – “We haven’t had a single visit yet through Ramadan, what kind of zoo doesn’t get visitors during holidays?” asks Mahmoud Barghoud, 22, co-creator of the Marha zoo.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52796
Ofra Yeshua-Lyth: National Jewish State: Not a Good Idea, for Palestinian and Jews Alike
The concept of the “nation state for the Jewish People” entails a green light for human rights violations sanctioned by the openly xenophobic decrees of a very ancient, unreformed and outdated version of the Jewish religion.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ofra-yeshualyth/national-jewish-state-not_b_714040.html
Palestine’s Gain is Lebanon’s Pain, Greg Felton
The greatest effects of the Cast Lead massacre and the murders aboard the aid ship Mavi Marmara have been the confirmation of Israel as a criminal state, and the outpouring of overwhelming support for Palestinians as victims of Jewish fascism. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement has become so successful that its effects have felt in the Jewish colonies and the foreign companies that trade with Israel. Perhaps most important is the BDS cultural component. Most recently, 150 Irish artists announced a boycott of Israel; 53 Israeli actors, playwrights and directors pledged not to perform in Ariel, the largest illegal Jewish colony; and more than 150 U.S. actors and actresses endorsed the Ariel boycott.
* Lebanon
