NOVANEWS
10/13/2010
* And Tom Friedman says the Arab world is rife with conspiracy theory…
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Partners in occupation
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The settlements are illegal regardless of whether Israel is recognized as a ‘Jewish state’
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Israeli Jews don’t have to recognize Israel as Jewish state
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‘Hey BU you’ve been had, Dershowitz is WICKED bad!’: Boston University students protest CAMERA
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Israel-centric Ethan Bronner cites Israeli law on East J’lem and Golan, ignoring crystal clear int’l standards
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Question: How has activism changed your vision of the conflict?
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Several children, including 8 year old, arrested in Silwan
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Why I protested the Jewish National Fund
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NYC film screening with Zizek, Badiou and Aloni to support the Jenin Freedom Theatre
And Tom Friedman says the Arab world is rife with conspiracy theory…
Oct 13, 2010
Philip Weiss
Israel National News:
President Obama’s incoming National Security Adviser is well known for his close ties to the Jewish and pro-Israel community….
One of Donilon’s clients during his time as a lawyer was Penny Pritzker, daughter of Hyatt hotel chain founder Donald Pritzker and member of the notable Jewish American Pritzker business family. Penny Pritzker is one of President Obama’s strongest Jewish backers. She was the national finance chair of Obama’s presidential campaign…
Donilon’s appointment has also been backed and approved by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “Tom Donilon understands it’s a dangerous world,” said Committee spokesman Josh Block in a statement. “In every position he has held throughout his career in government, he has been a strong friend of the US-Israel relationship.”
Partners in occupation
Oct 12, 2010
Jesse Rosenfeld
Lacking popular legitimacy amongst Palestinians, de-facto control in Gaza and dependent on American and European aid to stay afloat, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is without a base to find strength in as he officially remains in a negotiations process that most of his constituents view skeptically.
As a result, the continued series of PA concessions illustrates the context of the August 31 settler assassinations, intended to derail talks before they began. Although these attacks were carried out by Hamas’ military wings, they received support from a wide coalition spanning the Palestinian political spectrum, including leftist PLO factions like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
However, this approach to derailment is different in reason and context to Hamas’ suicide bombing campaign of the Oslo period, which sought to send the message that the PLO lacked a monopoly on resistance. This target – against Hebron settler communities, especially known for violence and cruelty to Palestinians – was one of broad appeal, stating that resistance can still be mustered despite the continuous Israeli and PA security force crackdowns in the West Bank.
Although tit-for-tat internal reprisal and repression between PA forces in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza colors PA West Bank repression, it does not explain the depth of the crackdown which again climaxed during the lead up and commencement to negotiations. Even before the assassinations, a public meeting in Ramallah of civil society and political organizations opposing the talks, primarily from the Palestinian left, was infiltrated by PA general intelligence and violently dispersed before it could get underway.
Following the settler assassinations, PA forces swept through the West Bank arresting hundreds suspected of involvement with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a move condemned by the Palestinian human rights organization, Al Haq. On the night of the assassinations, PA forces reportedly entered the Deheisha refugee camp – regularly invaded by Israeli forces and one of the few remaining PFLP stronghold camps – shooting. Clashes with residents throwing stones then ensued and 13 people connected to the Popular Front were later arrested by the PA. The website Electronic Intifada has reported that the PFLP in the camp has since decided to move political activities underground and PA forces now patrol the camp, painting over gratified PFLP, Hamas and anti-negotiations slogans.
“The PA problem is their program matches Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia,” former Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader turned cultural activist with Jenin’s Freedom Theatre, Zakaria Zubeidi says, referring to the largest US military aid recipients in the Middle East after Israel. “They are all beholden,” he continues, contending that Iran sets Hamas’ program. Formerly topping Israel’s assassination list, Zubeidi says he gave up armed resistance after the internal split which he believes set back the Palestinian struggle 50 years. “The Palestinian yard is now empty of resistance,” he adds, overlooking the Jenin refugee camp from his porch – which was an Israeli army lookout point during the last Intifada.
In the West Bank it has been more than a two-year process of blanket Israeli repression followed by PA security force clean up and behind-the-scenes debilitating of resistance. A prime example is the town of Ni’lin – located near the 1967 green line and waging popular demonstrations since 2008 against Israeli land annexation stemming from the Wall. Once a forceful and broad struggle that was an example for national unity, it now faces consistently shrinking participation.
“When [the Israelis] kill five people, shoot 45 with live ammunition and arrest 150, people start to ask who will look after my family if I go to jail or am killed,” says Ni’lin resident Saeed Ibrahim Amira, a young man who spent four and half months in an Israeli jail for activism against the Wall. According to Amira, the PA has also fallen short in supporting those injured by Israeli soldiers and done nothing to deal with spiraling unemployment stemming from denials of work permits to Israel for town residents because of the anti-Wall campaign. As the wall construction was completed, unity began to break down and in June PA general intelligence began summoning residents suspected of Hamas affiliation and then arresting 15, including people involved in the popular struggle.
Like Ni’lin and Deheisha, Jenin has also experienced the impact of duel Israeli and PA force presence, starting in 2008 with an unpopular mass policing operation in the city and refugee camp. Yet, when the Israeli army enters, the PA security forces disappear from sight (as they do across the West Bank). “The PA come in and [have a] ‘peaceful’ occupation of the camp. Since this started, Zakariah [Zubeidi] and the resistance has been losing power,” says Mustafa Staiti, a local resident who grew up in the refugee camp and now lives in the city. “People are not close with the PA and most people are skeptical about the negotiations,” he adds contending that Fatah’s internal resistance was broken at its last conference in Bethlehem.
With Israelis clearly looking to use these negotiations as cover for expanding occupation – as all governments since Rabin have done – the PA presence can only be that of an unpopular authority openly embracing its only remaining source of marginal power: Israel and the US. Where an ability to convince Palestinians that this style of talks will lead to freedom has failed, a systematic campaign to break resistance so the status quo can continue has emerged.
The post originally appeared on The Daily Nuisance.
The settlements are illegal regardless of whether Israel is recognized as a ‘Jewish state’
Oct 12, 2010
Maggie Sager
In the newest development concerning peace negotiations between Israel and the PA, Netanyahu has offered to partially extend the fake settlement freeze in exchange for recognition of Israel’s Jewish character. In a startling spectacle of rationality, the PA has rejected the offer in kind. BBC reports:
The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said Mr. Netanyahu was “playing games” with his offer, and that there was no connection between settlements and the national character of Israel.
“I don’t see a relevance between his obligations under international law and him trying to define the nature of Israel,” he added. “I hope he will stop playing these games and will start the peace process by stopping settlements.”
He’s right. Settlement activity in the West Bank is illegal under international law regardless of Israel’s “Jewishness”. Perhaps Bibi Netanyahu forgot the following:
Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development [… and] have been established in breach of international law. -International Court of Justice Ruling, July 9, 2004
Or operative paragraph one of UNSC Resolution 242, in which the Security Council unanimously:
…Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of…the following principles:
(i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict…
Or UNSC Resolution 446, which affirmed in explicit terms the conclusions of UNSC Resolution 242 (three abstentions) as did UNSC Resolution 452 (one abstention) UNSC Resolution 465 (unanimous), and UNSC Resolution 471 (one abstention)?
Or the portion of UNSC Resolution 252, passed with two abstentions, in which the Security Council:
…Considers that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, including expropriation of land and properties thereon, which tend to change the legal status of Jerusalem are invalid and cannot change that status; [and] Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind all such measures already taken and to desist forthwith from taking any further action which tends to change the status of Jerusalem…
Or UNSC Resolution 267, unanimously adopted, which affirmed the conclusions of UNSC Resolution 252, as did UNSC Resolution 298 (one abstention), UNSC Resoluition 476 (one abstention) and UNSC Resolution 478 (one abstention)?
Maybe Bibi forgot that, unlike the General Assembly, resolutions passed by the Security Council are indeed binding?
Maybe he forgot that in 1993 the UNSC approved a report by the Secretary General which concluded beyond doubt that the law applicable in armed conflict as embodied in the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and the Hague Convention (IV) of 18 October 1907 had become part of international customary law, and thus applied even if the other party was not a High Contracting Party (as is the case in Palestine)?
Did he simply imagine that at the end of each of these resolutions is the caveat “if and only if Israel is recognized as a Jewish state,” thus exempting Israel from its legal obligations?
Or perhaps Erekat is right, and Bibi really is just playing games. Setting aside the composition of Israel’s demand of recognition as a Jewish state (which is ridiculous in and of itself), the mere act of setting preconditions for compliance with international law attests to Netanyahu’s seemingly limitless arrogance. He honestly thinks he can shift the blame for the disintegration of peace talks by throwing bones to the PA, which already affirmed Israel’s right to exist (sans the racist classification) in 1993.
He clearly believes that through slight of hand he can simultaneously eviscerate the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees, and strengthen the codification of Arab subjugation in Israel all in exchange for what exactly? “An additional suspension of building for a limited period of time,” says Bibi. Will this be the same kind of “suspension” that still allowed for unhindered construction in East Jerusalem, for the razing of Palestinian villages and confiscation of private Palestinian property, and for continued work on current projects which would most likely include the 3,000 that began as soon as the last “suspension” ended?
Let’s just hope this doesn’t constitute the kind of gesture Obama promised to prostitute US taxpayers in order to coax out of the Israeli government.
Maggie Sager is currently a student at Mills College in Oakland, California. You can find her work at http://www.resistingoccupation.com.
Israeli Jews don’t have to recognize Israel as Jewish state
Oct 12, 2010
annie
A Palestinian professor whom I cited yesterday in this post regarding Israel’s new declaration of loyalty legislation has asked me to post these intriguing clarifications.
“The Jewish State” is defined by and was established by means of Israel’s Declaration of Establishment in 1948, which acts as a sort of preamble to Israel’s basic laws. The Declaration however does not compel Israel’s Jewish or non-Jewish citizens (or anyone else) to recognize this or its other historical narratives. That would go against the spirit of the Declaration, which essentially affords Israel’s citizens the ability and right to remain silent on the issue (and even contradict and oppose the historical narrative in the Declaration).
In the contemporary struggle between Netanyahu and Lieberman for leadership of the right in Israel, both seek to make this notion not something declared by the Jewish leadership upon the establishment of Israel but something declared by Palestinians as well as Arab citizens of Israel; but at the same time maintaining the status quo that allows Jews to remain silent on or contradict the Declaration. So they want to restrict the rights afforded by the Declaration to Jews only.
In that regard it is well understood that both Natenyahu and Lieberman are using such demands to indefinitely delay the formation of a Palestinian state and withdrawal back to Israel’s 1967 international borders as well as entertain fantasies about the expulsion of Israel’s Arab citizens.
But why do they seek to maintain the status quo that allows Jews to remain silent on or contradict the Declaration? Because, they cannot conceivably reconcile the right of all Jews to live as citizens in Israel with a requirement that all these Jews recognize Israel as the Jewish state defined in the Declaration of Establishment. For example, Jewish religious authorities do not explicitly recognize this, nor does their congregation. They have different ideas regarding Israel and these are not consistent with the Declaration of Establishment: Further, the traditional secular (shrinking) majority in Israel rejects the rabbinical notion of the nature of Israel. Not to mention that there are Jews happily living as citizens in Israel who reject the Declaration for leftist liberal reasons.
Thus, Jews are not and will never be required to declare loyalty or even acceptance of Israel’s Jewishness in accordance to the Declaration or in accordance to any other conception. Even, Ehud Barak’s recent insistence that non-Jews declare loyalty to the Jewish State as conceived in the Declaration was rejected.
There is, however, almost unanimity among Jews in israel that though they themselves will not be encumbered with recognizing Israel’s nature in any way; non-Jews, in particular Palestinians, should recognize and even define Israel as a Jewish state. It is as though internal tensions regarding Israel’s nature are being diverted to outsiders.
We the Palestinians will have nothing to do with this and understand fully well that the Declaration of Establishment at the very least allows us to remain mute regarding Israel’s nature. As it allows Jewish israelis to remain mute on this issue and does not compel anyone to recognize Israel beyond being a state like any other sovereign state.
‘Hey BU you’ve been had, Dershowitz is WICKED bad!’: Boston University students protest CAMERA
Oct 12, 2010
Adam Horowitz
Alan Dershowitz takes a photo of the protest outside CAMERA’s conference at Boston University.
The following statement was sent by protest organizers:
On Sunday, October 10th, students from Boston University’s Students for Justice in Palestine group and their allies (American Jews for a Just Peace, ItisApartheid, and students from several other Boston Palestine groups) assembled to demonstrate against the university’s hosting of “War by Other Means: the Global Campaign to Delegitimize Israel,” a conference put on by the anti-Palestinian group CAMERA (the Committee For Accuracy in Middle East Reporting). As a result of the growing success of the international Palestine solidarity movement, Israel’s supporters increasingly feel that they are en route to a South African like pariah status.
According to CAMERA, “Israel faces a convergence of global forces that may undermine its legitimacy in the eyes of the world community.” Its conference contained many prominent Israel supporters including keynote speaker and Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz, Daniel Pipes, and Gerald Steinberg of NGO monitor.
As conference attendees arrived, they were met with a mock “apartheid wall” assembled by protesters symbolizing the nearly 440 mile long wall Israel has used to seize and carve up Palestinian territory beyond the 1967 Green line. The Brass Liberation Orchestra, a marching band which incorporates socio-political messages into its often theatrical performances, accompanied several dozen protesters as they held banners, sang, and handed out hundreds of fliers. Protestors used chants such as “BU, US, it’s time for BDS!” and “Hey BU you’ve been had, Dershowitz is WICKED bad!” (as Alan Dershowitz photographed a banner with his name on it).
BDS or boycott, divestment, and sanctions, is a global non-violent movement that aims to put economic pressure on the Israeli state to end the occupation of the territories seized in 1967, recognize international law, and grant full and equal rights to Arab-Palestinians living within Israel.
Israel-centric Ethan Bronner cites Israeli law on East J’lem and Golan, ignoring crystal clear int’l standards
Oct 12, 2010
Alex Kane
Nestled in this all over-the-place article written by Ethan Bronner in today’s New York Times is this factually-challenged nugget:
Both East Jerusalem and the Golan were officially annexed by Israel through parliamentary votes, so by Israeli law they count as Israeli territory. That is not true of the West Bank, which the Palestinians want as their future state and where Israel has settled more than 300,000 Jewish citizens.
That paragraph is in the middle of an article that, in part, is about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s support for a bill that would require a national referendum in Israel on giving up the occupied territories.
Bronner’s reporting gives readers no substantive understanding of why East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are a huge part of the Israel/Palestine conflict. Those territories, captured by Israel during the 1967 War, were indeed unilaterally annexed by the Israeli government. So it’s true, as Bronner writes, that they “count as Israeli territory” under Israeli law.
But not under international law, which is really the relevant body of law to look at when discussing Israel/Palestine. This is how the United Nations’ Goldstone report describes East Jerusalem:
After 1967, the two areas [referring to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip] were administered directly by military commanders until 1981 and since then through a “Civil Administration” established by the Israeli armed forces. “Military orders” were used to rule the civil affairs of the Palestinian population superimposing and often revoking pre-existing Jordanian laws in the West Bank and Egyptian laws in the Gaza Strip. East Jerusalem was annexed to the Israeli municipality of the city and in 1980 the Knesset passed a law which declared that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel”. With Security Council resolution 478 (1980), the United Nations declared this law “null and void”, condemning any attempt to “alter the character and status of Jerusalem”. No member of the United Nations, apart from Israel, recognizes the annexation of East Jerusalem.
This is how UN Security Council Resolution 497, passed in the aftermath of Israel’s declaration of the Golan Heights in Syria as falling under the laws, jurisdiction and administration of the State of Israel, characterized the Syrian territory:
The Security Council,
Having considered the letter of 14 December 1981 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic contained in document S/14791,
Reaffirming that the acquisition of territory by force is inadmissible, in accordance with the United Nations Charter, the principles of international law, and relevant Security Council resolutions,
1. Decides that the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect;
2. Demands that Israel, the occupying Power, should rescind forthwith its decision;
3. Determines that all the provisions of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 continue to apply to the Syrian territory occupied by Israel since June 1967;
4. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Security Council on the implementation of this resolution within two weeks and decides that in the event of non-compliance by Israel, the Security Council would meet urgently, and not later than 5 January 1982, to consider taking appropriate measures in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
The whole focus on whether Israelis will voluntarily give up illegally occupied territory is irrelevant. International law is crystal clear, and it doesn’t bend to the popular will of Israeli citizens.
This post originally appeared on Alex Kane’s blog.
Question: How has activism changed your vision of the conflict?
Oct 12, 2010
Philip Weiss
Question for Joseph Dana:
I’m going to put up a post today for your event in New York City next week. A question, one I’d ask at the event, but maybe you want to respond to now:
You have spent a couple years now working with activists across ethnic, religious, national lines against the occupation. How has this experience changed your political vision of the future of the country and the OPT?
Dana responds:
The last three years of activism have driven home a very important point which is that co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians which could form the basis of a one state solution is entirely possible and could be realized in the near future. I do not feel pessimistic about the future of the conflict, in fact, I feel the optimist about our ability to defeat the occupation via grassroots and unarmed joint struggle.
Several children, including 8 year old, arrested in Silwan
Oct 12, 2010
Seham
And more news from Today in Palestine:
Settlers/ Land, Property, Resource Theft & Destruction/Ethnic Cleansing
Civil Administration razes farmland in Beit Fajjar
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel’s Civil Administration razed farmland and a barn owned by a resident of the Beit Fajjar village in the southern West Bank district of Bethlehem on Monday. Raed Taqatqa, the land owner, said Israeli forces sought to control the area near the village’s main road and that of Al-Ma’sara, the site of demonstrations against Israel’s separation wall.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=323174
Settlers: No Jewish state without West Bank construction
Leaders of Jewish communities in West Bank slam PM’s offer for new construction freeze in exchange for Palestinian recognition of Israel as Jewish state, say he will be put in ‘political slaughterhouse’ if plan implemented. ‘It is our Zionist right and duty to build here,’ they declare.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3967977,00.html
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment
Bil’in’s Abdallah Abu Rahmah sentenced to a year in prison, Joseph Dana
Bil’in protest organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment today, for his involvement in his village’s unarmed struggle against the wall.
http://josephdana.com/2010/10/bilins-abdallah-abu-rahmah-sentenced-to-a-year-in-prison/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bilins-abdallah-abu-rahmah-sentenced-to-a-year-in-prison
Free Abdallah Abu Rahmah, Joseph Dana
Bil’in Popular Committee Chairman Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced to one year in jail this afternoon for non-violent resistance to Israeli occupation. The time for international support of Abdallah Abu Rahmah and the popular unarmed struggle is now! Please visit the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee for more information on how you can help Abdallah’s case and share the below poster.
http://josephdana.com/2010/10/free-abdallah-abu-rahmah/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=free-abdallah-abu-rahmah
Vanunu`s freedom denied again
Eileen Fleming – Salem News – Having recently spent three months in detention for the “crime” of talking to foreigners, whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu returned to the Supreme Court, seeking to rescind the restrictions imposed on him the government. As on previous occasions, his appeal was denied. On 12 December this year, Vanunu is due to be granted the Carl-von-Ossietzky-Medal for 2010. Evidently, he will be able to arrive at the Berlin ceremony.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=42742
Photo essay of a West Bank demonstration against the occupation in Nabi Saleh, Joseph Dana
Every Friday the village of Nabi Saleh holds an unarmed demonstration against the occupation and continued Israeli settlement expansion. The following is a photo essay of last Friday’s demonstration in which the IDF used live ammunition against unarmed protesters and six Palestinians were injured.
http://josephdana.com/2010/10/photo-essay-of-a-west-bank-demonstration-against-the-occupation-in-nabi-saleh/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=photo-essay-of-a-west-bank-demonstration-against-the-occupation-in-nabi-saleh
Al-Ma’sara commemorates 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Che Guevara
Oct 9, 2010– Tens of people were suffocated by tear gas at the Al-Masara weekly protest on 8 October marking the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Che Guevara and in solidarity with Ahmed Sadat, the general secretary of the PFLP who has been in solitary confinement for more than 500 days.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2372.shtml
Activists disrupt JNF conference, including ‘Not in my name’ Jews who are labeled ‘traitors’, Philip Weiss
The Jewish National Fund, which pays for the purchase of land for Jews in Israel, and of trees to cover up Palestinian villages, is holding a national conference in Atlanta. Activists picketed the conference, and several walked in on the conference yesterday, some identifying themselves as Jews. Among them is Lisa Adler, above, being pulled out of the room by a JNF’r.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/10/activists-disrupt-jnf-conference-including-not-in-my-name-jews-who-are-labeled-traitors.html
PLO calls for boycott of OECD Jerusalem summit
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The PLO has called on member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development to boycott a summit on sustainable tourism which will be held in West Jerusalem in mid-October, a statement issued Tuesday read. The PLO said convening the summit in West Jerusalem “under current conditions is a reward to Israel and grants legitimacy to the Israeli occupation of the city [East Jerusalem] and all its racist and oppressive measures against Palestinians in Jerusalem.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=323362
Groups plan 2nd aid flotilla to Gaza from February (AP)
AP – Pro-Palestinian groups plan to sail a flotilla of boats through Israel’s sea blockade of Gaza as early as February in the second such attempt in less than a year, activists said Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101011/ap_on_re_eu/eu_switzerland_gaza_flotilla
Swiss ship to join Gaza-bound flotilla
A ship with Swiss nationals aboard is scheduled to take part in an aid flotilla bound for Gaza next spring, a solidarity group announced on Monday. Nathan Finkelstein, a spokesman with the Geneva-based Collectif Urgence Palestine, said about 45 people could be aboard the ship as part of a flotilla with vessels from 17 countries. It could set sail as early as February.
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/Swiss_ship_to_join_Gaza-bound_flotilla.html?cid=28522022
Slain US activist’s parents seek justice in Israel (AP)
AP – The parents of a young American activist crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer seven years ago as she tried to save a Palestinian home from demolition never saw the soldier who killed her or his commanders put on trial or punished.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101012/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_rachel_corrie
‘We wouldn’t eat their sandwiches!’ –an interview with Lillian Rosengarten, Philip Weiss
Lillian Rosengarten, the only American on the Jewish boat to Gaza, lives near me in the Hudson Valley, and the other day I visited her to interview her about her experience on the British-flagged catamaran that the Israelis had intercepted on the high seas on September 28. I hoped the activist/therapist/poet could answer a big question. How did she reconcile two important events in her life: her family had fled Nazi Germany when she was a toddler, but now, 73 years later, the state created to rescue the Jews had deported her and said she could never come back?
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/10/we-wouldnt-eat-their-sandwiches-an-interview-with-lillian-rosengarten.html
8th Week against the Apartheid Wall, November 9 – 16 2010
Sep 1, 2010– Eight years into the construction of the Apartheid Wall, over 60% has already been built to ghettoize communities, threatening over 260,000 people with displacement and stealing land and water resources.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2361.shtml
Calendar of collective olive harvest initiatives
Oct 12, 2010– The Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and its popular committees are coordinating collective efforts to safeguard the annual olive harvest. Click here to see the dates and locations of the olive harvest initiatives.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2374.shtml
More ‘best shots of Israel’
Lara Elborno sent the following email and photos to the Israel Project as part of its “Best Shots of Israel” contest. Elborno is a Palestinian-American and currently a 2nd year law student in Chicago.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/10/more-best-shots-of-israel.html
Breaking the Silence nominated for EU peace prize
Breaking the Silence documents testimony of soldiers who served in the West Bank and Gaza; right-wing group calls on parliament members not to let it win award.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/breaking-the-silence-nominated-for-eu-peace-prize-1.318535
Siege (Gaza & West Bank)/Rights Violations/Restriction of Movement
Gaza power problem ‘partially solved’
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The Gaza Electricity Company said several improvements in supply have led to a partial solution to the electricity crisis in the coastal enclave, which has been plagued with power cuts since January. A statement issued by the GEC on Monday said the crisis was also partly solved through a government-enforced salary deduction, which was implemented to pay outstanding electricity bills. As a result, the GEC wrote, the company was able to cover the fuel costs for running the sole power plant’s generators.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=323282
Anger at Israel’s controversial oath
Israel’s Arab community has been angered by the government’s proposal requiring any non-Jew taking Israeli citizenship to swear allegiance to the country as a Jewish and democratic state. The controversial phrase added to citizenship law in move is seen by critics as attempt to get support for new settlement freeze. Palestinians say the law would legitimise discrimination and the dispossession of the indigenous people. Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros reports from Jerusalem.
Bahar: Loyalty oath another nakba
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Israel’s new loyalty oath requiring non-Jews to to swear allegiance to “a Jewish and democratic state” was described as a new catastrophe or nakba for Palestinians living in Israel by the Palestinian Legislative Council’s deputy speaker on Monday. Speaking to reporters in Gaza City, Ahmad Bahar said the recent amendment to Israel’s citizenship law would lead to a catastrophe leading to the forced immigration of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=323132
Assad says ‘racist’ oath proves Israel doesn’t want peace (AFP)
AFP – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday slammed an Israeli citizenship law that he said was proof the Jewish state does not want to make peace with the Palestinians.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101011/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestinianspoliticscitizenshipsyriaturkey
EU says Israel must guarantee equality for all (AFP)
AFP – The European Union on Tuesday urged Israel to guarantee the equality of all its citizens after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Palestinians to recognise Israel’s Jewish identity.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101012/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestinianpeaceeu
Violence
Israeli soldiers ‘shot at children collecting gravel by Gaza border’
The Israeli military has been urged to investigate the shootings of at least 12 impoverished young Palestinians collecting gravel in an effort to eke out an income within 800 metres of Gaza’s heavily guarded northern border.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-soldiers-shot-at-children-collecting-gravel-by-gaza-border-2103992.html
Israeli troops accused of shooting children in Gaza
• Victims were scavenging for rubble, say rights groups
• Attacks allegedly took place outside 300-metre buffer zone
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/11/israeli-troops-accused-children-gaza
Child injured in Silwan clashes
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — A Palestinian child sustained a rubber bullet wound to the leg and another injury to his face after he was hit by a stun grenade during clashes in the flashpoint East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Monday afternoon, locals said. Locals identified the child as Suleiman Siyam, 12, who was injured when clashes broke out in Silwan after undercover Israeli forces raided the Beir Yacoub neighborhood.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=323178
Three men sustain bruises, fractures during IOF attack in Al-Khalil
Three Palestinians were injured and one of them arrested after a brutal assault by Israeli soldiers in the Al Tawana region south of Yatta, Al-Khalil.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Q
Detainees
Center: 8 year old child detained in Silwan
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — The Wad Hilweh Information Center said an eight-year-old Palestinian resident of Silwan was detained at dawn on Tuesday by Israeli police. Center director Jawad Siyam said police raided Omran Mansour’s home in the Beir Ayoub neighborhood of the flashpoint area. The center had said they believed the child was the one seen being struck down by an Israeli car days earlier but later said he was not.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=323238
Israeli Army Invades Silwan and Arrests Children
Tuesday night Israeli troops launched large-scale raids of homes in several neighbourhoods and battled with children in the town of Silwan near the Al Aqsa Mosque.
2 youth arrested and their father beaten by the Occupying Forces
Oct 9, 2010– The Israeli Occupying Forces arrested two teenagers this afternoon, Jihad Jamal Currency (17 years), and Iyad Jamil Currency (18 years), while they were harvesting olives in the town of Beit Ula west of Hebron. The arrest took place at the start of the annual olive harvesting season. Their father, Iyad Jamal, was also severely beaten by the Occupying Forces.
http://www.stopthewall.org/
Israeli Soldiers Arrest A Student From Hebon University
On Monday the Israeli military arrested Sajeda Al-‘Awawda, 20, a student at the Hebron University, and moved her to an unknown destination.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59593
Israeli Military Arrests Five Citizens From Hebron
On Monday, the Israeli army arrested five citizens from the Hebron area and invaded several other areas in the same region.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59591
Political Developments
