NOVANEWS
09/28/2010
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The details of those killed on the Mavi Marmara
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Oren: Colonization benefits Palestinians
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Wolff: Peretz’s ‘vast corpus of disgusting statements’ stems from support for Israel
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Blogging Israel/Palestine
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Tutu: ‘The issue of a principled commitment to justice lies at the heart of responses to the suffering of the Palestinian people and it is the absence of such a commitment that enables many to turn a blind eye to it.’
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Why I protested AIPAC (and what brought me to that point)
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Bulldozers and caravans are Israel’s gift to Obama
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CAMERA will release motheaten lions to gobble up ‘Jewish defamers of Israel’
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An American sees the occupation for the first time and–
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NPR ombud says Israel lobby was ’successful’ in changing coverage
The details of those killed on the Mavi Marmara
Sep 27, 2010
Adam Horowitz
The following appears on pages 30 and 31 of the UN report into the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla:
Furkan Dogan, a nineteen-year old with dual Turkish and United States citizenship, was on the central area of the top deck filming with a small video camera when he was first hit with live fire. It appears that he was lying on the deck in a conscious, or semi-conscious, state for some time. In total Furkan received five bullet wounds, to the face, head, back thorax, left leg and foot. All of the entry wounds were on the back of his body, except for the face wound which entered to the right of his nose. According to forensic analysis, tattooing around the wound in his face indicates that the shot was delivered at point blank range. Furthermore, the trajectory of the wound, from bottom to top, together with a vital abrasion to the left shoulder that could be consistent with the bullet exit point, is compatible with the shot being received while he was lying on the ground on his back. The other wounds were not the result of firing in contact, near contact or close range, but it is not otherwise possible to determine the exact firing range. The wounds to the leg and foot were
most likely received in a standing position.
Ibrahim Bilgen, a 60 year old Turkish citizen, from Siirt in Turkey, was on the top deck and was one of the first passengers to be shot. He received a bullet wound to the chest, the trajectory of which was from above and not at close range. He had a further two bullet wounds to the right side of the back and right buttock, both back to front. These wounds would not have caused instant death, but he would have bled to death within a short time without medical attention. Forensic evidence shows that he was shot in the side of the head with a soft baton round at such close proximity and that an entire bean bag and its wadding penetrated the skull and lodged in the brain. He had a further bruise on the right flank consistent with another beanbag wound. The wounds are consistent with the deceased initially being shot from soldiers on board the helicopter above and receiving a further wound to the head while lying on the ground, already wounded.
Fahri Yaldiz, a 42 year old Turkish citizen from Adiyaman, received five bullet wounds, one to the chest, one to the left leg and three to the right leg. The chest wound was caused by a bullet that entered near the left nipple and hit the heart and lungs before exiting from the shoulder. This injury would have caused rapid death.
According to the pathology report, Ali Heyder Bengi, a 38 year old Turkish citizen from Diyarbakir, received six bullet wounds (one in the chest, one in the abdomen, one in the right arm, one in the right thigh and two in the left hand). One bullet lodged in the chest area. None of the wounds would have been instantly fatal, but damage to the liver caused bleeding which would have been fatal if not stemmed. There are several witness accounts which suggest that Israeli soldiers shot the deceased in the back and chest at close range while he was lying on the deck as a consequence of initial bullet wounds.
Cevdet Kiliçlar, a 38 year old Turkish citizen from Istanbul, was on the Mavi Marmara, in his capacity as a photographer employed by IHH. At the moment he was shot he was standing on the bridge deck on the port side of the ship near to the door leading to the main stairwell and was attempting to photograph Israeli soldiers on the top deck. According to the pathology reports, he received a single bullet to his forehead between the eyes. The bullet followed a horizontal trajectory which crossed the middle of the brain from front to back. He would have died instantly.
41 year old Cengiz Akyüz from Hatay and 46 year old Cengiz Songür from Izmir, both Turkish citizens, were injured on the bridge deck in close succession by live fire from above. They had been sheltering and were shot as they attempted to move inside the door leading to the stairwell. Cengiz Akyüz received a shot to the head and it is probable that he died instantly.
The pathology report shows four wounds: to the neck, face, chest and thigh. Cengiz Songür received a single bullet to the upper central thorax below the neck, shot from a high angle, which lodged in the right thoracic cavity injuring the heart and aorta. Unsuccessful efforts were made by doctors inside the ship to resuscitate him through heart massage.
Çetin Topçuoglu, a 54 year old Turkish citizen from Adana had been involved in helping to bring injured passengers inside the ship to be treated. He was also shot close to the door on the bridge deck. He did not die instantly and his wife, who was also on board the ship, was with him when he died. He was shot by three bullets. One bullet entered from the top the soft tissues of the right side of the back of the head, exited from the neck and then re-entered into the thorax. Another bullet entered the left buttock and lodged in the right pelvis. The third entered the right groin and exited from the lower back. There are indications that the victim may have been in a crouching or bending position when this wound was sustained.
The location and circumstances of the shooting and death of Necdet Yildirim, a 31 year old Turkish citizen from Istanbul, remain unclear. He was shot twice in the thorax, once from the front and once from the back. The trajectory of both bullets was from top to bottom. He also received bruises consistent with plastic bullet impact.
Oren: Colonization benefits Palestinians
Sep 27, 2010
Matthew Taylor
A howler from today’s NYT story about the expiration of the so-called settlement freeze:
Israeli officials said that Mr. Netanyahu felt it important for his credibility not to extend the moratorium beyond 10 months.
“It is a read-my-lips moment,” said Michael B. Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States. “This establishes credibility, not just for the Israelis but for the Palestinians. Establishing that the man is true to his word is going to be a very important asset going forward.”
Wow. Thanks, Bibi, for keeping your word that you would officially endorse continued and intensified violations of international law, land theft, colonization, and ethnic cleansing, ten months after you pretended to slow that stuff down a tad. We trust you, we trust you! You are a man of your word.
P.S.- Another gem from the story:
Several thousand supporters were bused in [to the Kiryat Netafim settlement], balloons were released and speeches were made about Jewish rights and a policy that bars only Jews from building homes there, which the settlers regard as racist.
When has the New York Times made even the slightest reference to Israeli policies towards Palestinians as racist? Oh, but a flimsy, hole-ridden policy intended to mildly inhibit Jews from stealing land violating international law is racist? Puh-lease.
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Wolff: Peretz’s ‘vast corpus of disgusting statements’ stems from support for Israel
Sep 27, 2010
Philip Weiss
UMass scholar Robert Paul Wolff participated in the Social Studies celebration at Harvard this weekend at which the Marty Peretz controversy burgeoned. Wolff has urged Harvard to refuse the scholarship given in Peretz’s name. The following account of one event is from Wolff’s blog. The excruciating/bizarre Michael Walzer moment to which Wolff refers is on the video above, at about 6:30. Notice the frank Israel lobby stuff in Wolff’s post. (thanks to Jeet Heer)
In the afternoon panel, several of the speakers alluded to Peretz, and many of the questioners from the floor brought it up. The defense of Marty was, I found, simply incredible. One person after another said that he was a much-loved teacher, as though that somehow excused thirty years of ugly, racist outbursts. The attitude was, if I may put it this way, as though Marty was a fine fellow with the unfortunate habit of farting in public. It was not until the very end of the afternoon session that a young women asked a question that should have been center stage throughout: How did Peretz’s appalling views affect his teaching?
The absolute low point of the day, for me, was Michael Walzer’s defense of his old friend. Walzer began by telling the audience that in 1969, when Harvard students seized the administration building in an anti-war protest, he and Marty formed a committee to defend them, and most of the advocacy for the students was carried out by Marty. This, we were supposed to conclude, earned Peretz a pass on four decades of ugly racist rants. Then Walzer, widely considered one of the preeminent political philosophers of the present day, sank to a really appalling low. He looked at one of the questioners who had attacked Peretz and said, “Have you examined every writing and footnote and every email of each member of the Standing Committee?” At that, the audience groaned, and he shut up.
What was really going on? I tried to explain this to the Crimson reporter, and a quote from me on this may appear in the story [in the middle of last night, the reporter emailed me to check the quotes before the story was put in final form.] Let me back up a bit and try to get some perspective. This was a gathering of more than four hundred former and present Social Studies majors — possibly the largest assemblage of sophisticated social theorists since the last garden party of the Frankfort School for Social Research. These are people who think nothing of discerning the deeper ideological meaning in Afghan popular music or Tibetan architecture, or teasing out the epistemological filiations between Foucault and Montesquieu. And yet, confronted at their own conference by a massive protest, the best they could come up with was “Marty is a nice guy.”
It is not at all difficult to figure out the real sources of the vast corpus of disgusting statements by Martin Peretz. The answer requires only one word: Israel. Why is it that while these high-powered social theorists were extolling Social Studies’ fruitful union of historical research and theoretical analysis, none of them could find a moment to refer to the transformation of left-wing Jewish social theorists into Neo-cons and Peretz’ transformation of The New Republic from a liberal journal into a right-wing apologist for war against Muslims?…
I have already told the story in my Memoir of my 1973 phone call to Michael Walzer, and the discovery that he and Peretz were supporting Nixon in the impeachment controversy because Nixon was a strong supporter of Israel. Well, here we were in this huge, elegant auditorium in Harvard’s Science Center, and the assembled intelligentsia, a great many of whom are indeed Jewish, evinced not the slightest interest in the historical and political roots of the controversy kept by Harvard’s security forces from intruding on their happy reminiscences.
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Blogging Israel/Palestine
Sep 27, 2010
Adam Horowitz
Last week I participated in an event at the Palestine Center called The New Media & the Palestine Question: Blogging Out of Conflict. The event also featured Jerome Slater, Stephen Walt and MJ Rosenberg. You can watch it in two parts below:
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Tutu: ‘The issue of a principled commitment to justice lies at the heart of responses to the suffering of the Palestinian people and it is the absence of such a commitment that enables many to turn a blind eye to it.’
Sep 27, 2010
Adam Horowitz
Archbishop Desmond Tutu writing in The Times in South Africa ahead of the University of Johannesburg’s Senate vote on whether to sever ties with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Struggles for freedom and justices are fraught with huge moral dilemmas. How can we commit ourselves to virtue – before its political triumph – when such commitment may lead to ostracism from our political allies and even our closest partners and friends? Are we willing to speak out for justice when the moral choice that we make for an oppressed community may invite phone calls from the powerful or when possible research funding will be withdrawn from us? When we say “Never again!” do we mean “Never again!”, or do we mean “Never again to us!”?
Our responses to these questions are an indication of whether we are really interested in human rights and justice or whether our commitment is simply to secure a few deals for ourselves, our communities and our institutions – but in the process walking over our ideals even while we claim we are on our way to achieving them?
The issue of a principled commitment to justice lies at the heart of responses to the suffering of the Palestinian people and it is the absence of such a commitment that enables many to turn a blind eye to it.
Consider for a moment the numerous honorary doctorates that Nelson Mandela and I have received from universities across the globe. During the years of apartheid many of these same universities denied tenure to faculty who were “too political” because of their commitment to the struggle against apartheid. They refused to divest from South Africa because “it will hurt the blacks” (investing in apartheid South Africa was not seen as a political act; divesting was).
Let this inconsistency please not be the case with support for the Palestinians in their struggle against occupation.
I never tire of speaking about the very deep distress in my visits to the Holy Land; they remind me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like we did when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. My heart aches. I say, “Why are our memories so short?” Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their own previous humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history so soon?
Have they turned their backs on their profound and noble religious traditions? Have they forgotten that God cares deeply about all the downtrodden?
Together with the peace-loving peoples of this Earth, I condemn any form of violence – but surely we must recognise that people caged in, starved and stripped of their essential material and political rights must resist their Pharaoh? Surely resistance also makes us human? Palestinians have chosen, like we did, the nonviolent tools of boycott, divestment and sanctions.
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Why I protested AIPAC (and what brought me to that point)
Sep 27, 2010
Russ Greenleaf
I’m not anti-Israel. I’m not a self-hating Jew. When Israel launched the Gaza war in 2008, I was a member of Brit Tzedek v’Shalom. We were committed to working politely within the Jewish community, promoting a two-state solution, stressing our pro-Israel credentials, refusing to do street protests.
The Gaza war was a wake-up call for me, and for thousands of other Jews. I was jarred by the sight of white phosphorus exploding over Gaza – the most densely populated place on earth. White phosphorus shells made in the USA, fired by the Israeli army. White phosphorus – the incendiary chemical weapon that burns flesh down to the bone – banned for use against people, even against soldiers. Now it was being used against Palestinian children. An illegal weapon. A terror weapon. Right on my TV screen – video evidence that Israel was committing war crimes.
Someone in Louisville called an urgent meeting of concerned Jews. We adjourned the meeting without doing anything. There was no Jewish group in town that was willing or able to organize a protest demonstration (although Jews were joining protests organized by others.)
As the death toll of Palestinian children killed by the IDF rose to almost 400, a group of right-wing Jews and Christian Zionists staged a demonstration in downtown Louisville waving Israeli flags and cheering the IDF on – and blaming the children’s deaths on the Palestinians. (‘Blaming the victim’ taken to a new level of chutzpah and absurdity.)
We started a Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapter in Louisville so there will be a Jewish peace group here to stand in protest across the street from those cheerleaders next time, to stand with the other peace groups in town, and to make it clear that most Jews don’t support war crimes.
The Torah says, “You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.” Those 400 Palestinian children were my neighbors. Joining Jewish Voice for Peace was a mitzvah for me. Starting a JVP chapter in Louisville was a mitzvah. I did it for the children, and for the Torah. We did it to save Judaism from being hijacked by war criminals who use it to drum up support for their crimes. I did it to save my own soul. Because “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor” (Bishop Desmond Tutu). And “If not now, when?” (Rabbi Hillel).
50,000 people added their names to the JVP email list during the Gaza war. Now the Jewish peace groups in America have more supporters than AIPAC. JVP chapters are popping up spontaneously in various cities. Below is the latest press release from Louisville JVP. We organized this protest because AIPAC, which lobbied in support of the Gaza war, is now lobbying for war with Iran.
Press Release
Louisville Jewish Voice for Peace
(Louisville, KY) Louisville Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organized a Demonstration Against Another War on Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 7:00 pm on the sidewalk in front of 21c Museum Hotel, 700 West Main Street.
This demonstration was in response to a fundraiser being held in the hotel at that time by AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, also known as the Israel Lobby).
The money raised at that fundraiser will be used by AIPAC to lobby against JVP’s efforts to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians. AIPAC routinely lobbies Congress to support everything the Israeli government does, regardless of whether it undermines peace.
AIPAC’s lobbying provides political cover for pro-war elements in Israel to pursue destructive policies like the invasion of Lebanon, the Gaza war, and the continuing expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land. These all undermine prospects for peace. They all advance AIPAC’s view that the only way to ensure Israel’s security is to use pre-emptive war and violence as a first resort.
The money raised at the fundraiser also will be used by AIPAC to lobby the US government to start a war with Iran. AIPAC is claiming that war is the only answer to Iran’s nuclear program. AIPAC is pushing for the US to bomb Iran or give Israel the green light to do it.
JVP was not demonstrating in support of the current Iranian government or President Ahmadinejad. JVP was demonstrating against AIPAC’s proven track record of supporting war and violence as the first solution to problems.
JVP believes the real solution to Iran’s nuclear program is comprehensive negotiations between America and Iran that will guarantee Iran’s security against a US invasion (which was threatened by George W. Bush) and that will guarantee the security of Iran’s neighbors.
Any country that was threatened with invasion by the United States might be motivated to want a nuclear bomb for self-defense and deterrence against that invasion. The solution to this problem is not to start the very war that Iran fears, but to negotiate with Iran.
JVP believes an American or Israeli attack on Iran would be disastrous for Israelis, Americans, Iranians, and the world.
The attack could kill or injure many Iranian civilians, including the 30,000 Jewish citizens of Iran who are currently safe and enjoying the protection of the Iranian government and do not want to leave Iran.
The attack could trigger violence and retaliation that could engulf the Middle East. This would harm Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans, especially US troops stationed in the region. It would harm many other innocent people as well.
An attack on Iran could trigger retaliation against Americans and Jews throughout the world. For many reasons, war is not the answer. It would cause many more problems than it would solve.
For all these reasons, Jewish Voice for Peace organized this demonstration against another war, and invited many other peace groups in Louisville to participate.
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Bulldozers and caravans are Israel’s gift to Obama
Sep 27, 2010
Seham
and other news from Today in Palestine:
* Land and Property Theft and Destruction/Ethnic Cleansing
Settlement Activities Did Not Stop During Settlement Freeze, Research Center Says
The Land and Research Center reported that Israel was ongoing with its settlement activities during the co-called temporary settlement freeze that officially expired by midnight Sunday.
Settlement Activities Did Not Stop During Settlement Freeze, Research Center Says
Settlement Activities Did Not Stop During Settlement Freeze, Research Center Says
Israeli settlers sieze lands in WB
Nablus, September 25, (Pal Telegraph) Dozens of acres were seized by Israeli settlers on Saturday morning in the villages of “Deir Estia” and “Hares” located to the west of “Salfit” in the West Bank. The mayor of “Deir Estia” village, Nazmi Salman, said that Israeli settlers have put 20 mobile-houses on the territory that belongs to the Palestinian citizens. Salman said in a statement to the press that the land owners located in the area of Wadi Abu Ali located to the west side of town, were surprised by the existence of more than 20 mobile-houses have been erected on agricultural land owned by Abu Mansour and Abdul Haq families. Salman said that the work of dredging continues until this very moment , to control more lands belonging to farmers of the town.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/7108-Israeli-settlers-sieze-lands-in-WB.html
West Bank settlement construction resumes
NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israelis resumed construction across several illegal West Bank settlements on Monday, following the expiration of Israel’s 10-month partial moratorium at midnight. Israel’s Channel 2 said construction would be resumed in at least eight illegal West Bank settlements, including Kiryat Arba in Hebron. Ghassan Doughlas, the Palestinian Authority chief of the northern settlement file, said settlers installed four caravans over the last 48 hours near the Qusra village in the northern Nablus district, adding that bulldozers have begun wide-scale diggings around the Yitzhar settlement in the district.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=318410
Construction begins in Ariel
After prime minister declares West Bank construction freeze over, bulldozers begin to lay groundwork for neighborhood set to house dozens of Gaza evacuees still living in caravans. ‘Talks are show waiting to explode,’ says resident.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3960536,00.html
Zionist settlers bulldoze lands in Yatta
Zionist settlers started on Sunday to bulldoze Palestinian land near the village of Yatta, south of Al-Khalil, in preparation to re-establish the settlement of Havat Ma’on.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz
The Village Of Burin: Under Attack By Surrounding Settlements
The village of Burin is located less than 10 kilometers south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. With a population of approximately 3,500 that is wholly dependent on the yields of their olive trees, Burin’s lands are hemmed in by two settlements on the North and South ends of the village, named Bracha and Yitzhar respectively. In addition to these government-sanctioned settlements, there are four outposts that have taken root up on these hilltops over the last 10 years. The center of Burin, where most families live, lies at the base of these hills. For decades the surrounding hills of Burin are filled with their olive groves and farmlands.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1548
Settlements are not just a political issue, B’Tselem
In an article on the eve of the settlement-freeze expiration, B’Tselem’s Executive Director shows that settlements are not only a political/diplomatic issue, but also prevent Palestinians from realizing their rights and living in dignity.
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/24/not_settling_on_the_settlement_freeze_expiration
Israel defies building freeze calls
Netanyahu allows partial freeze on settlement construction to expire, but urges Palestinians not to abandon peace talks.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/09/2010926225933392129.html
Abbas delays decision on talks
Palestinian president holds back from quitting talks with Israel as Netanyahu allows construction freeze to end.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/09/2010927124355488501.html
Abbas says settlements block Mideast peace deal (AP)
AP – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday there will be no peace deal with Israel unless the Jewish state stops settlement construction in areas the Palestinians claim for their future state.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100925/ap_on_re_us/un_un_world_summit_mideast
Netanyahu to Abbas as settlement freeze ends: Let’s continue talks to achieve peace
The United States, Israel and the Palestinian Authority are conducting talks on how to continue peace negotiations, despite the expiration of Israel’s freeze on settlement construction.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-to-abbas-as-settlement-freeze-ends-let-s-continue-talks-to-achieve-peace-1.315832?localLinksEnabled=false
Hamas: Settlement activity shows Israel’s intentions
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The escalation of settlement building in the West Bank indicates Israel’s intention to use negotiations as a cover to Judaize Palestinian land, Hamas said Monday. Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called on President Mahmoud Abbas to make a swift decision to withdraw from the peace talks, which relaunched less than a month earlier in Washington.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=318586
Fatah wing vows response to settlement activity
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Fatah’s armed wing vowed to respond to renewed settlement expansion in the West Bank on Sunday. The Al-Aqsa Brigades urged the Palestinian Authority to maintain its resolve to walk out of recently relaunched peace talks if full-scale settlement expansion resumed.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=318201
Settlers prepare to mark freeze expiration with construction surge
Thousands expected to attend rally to show the world that construction in the West Bank is resuming.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/settlers-prepare-to-mark-freeze-expiration-with-construction-surge-1.315706?localLinksEnabled=false
Israeli settlers rev bulldozers as settlement freeze nears end (The Christian Science Monitor)
The Christian Science Monitor – With Israel and Palestinian negotiators deadlocked over settlement expansion just hours before the expiration of a 10-month Israeli settlement freeze, Jewish settlers vowed to renew building during symbolic celebrations in the West Bank.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100926/wl_csm/328180
Settlers threaten hunger strike if freeze extended
‘Netanyahu has shown he can withstand pressure, but this will mean nothing in coming days,’ Shomron Settlers’ Committee head says hours before construction moratorium set to expire.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3960262,00.html
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment
*Gaza