Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

By SHOAHMiddle East

Haniyeh says he is ready to step down as P.M. to further reconciliation

Apr 30, 2011

Kate

 

and other news from the Palestinian unity discussions, and from today in Palestine:

Palestinian Unity
Hamas PM ‘ready to resign’ for unity
GAZA CITY (AFP) 30 Apr — Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the Islamist Hamas movement in power in the Gaza Strip, said on Saturday he was “ready to resign.” “I am prepared to tender my resignation as part of the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah,” the secular party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. “This agreement is very important and should boost efforts to end the divisions and encourage unity among Palestinians,” he added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=383565
UN chief welcomes Palestinian unity deal
Reuters 30 Apr — Ban Ki-moon says the unity agreement should not undermine peace with Israel and wants Abbas’ more moderate Fatah movement to lead any unity government.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/un-chief-welcomes-palestinian-unity-deal-1.358913
Aid agency welcomes Palestinian reconciliation
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 29 Apr — International aid agency Oxfam called on the international community Friday to support Palestinian reconciliation, and “avoid adopting policies that would set unity efforts back.” The agency’s International Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs, said in a statement that “ordinary people [are] paying the highest price for the divide between Fatah and Hamas.” 
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=383174
Barak to UN chief: Hamas must recognize Israel
Reuters/Haaretz 30 Apr — Defense Minister Ehud Barak tells UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the world should only support a joint Palestinian government if it accepts the Quartet’s conditions
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/barak-to-un-chief-hamas-must-recognize-israel-1.358986
Factions review unity deal in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 30 Apr — Fatah and Hamas met with factions on Saturday in Gaza on Saturday to discuss the reconciliation agreement reached in Cairo to reunite the Palestinian territories. Islamic Jihad invited the parties to its Gaza City offices to review the details of the surprise agreement. It was the first meeting between Hamas and Fatah since the deal was announced in Cairo on Wednesday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=383518
Palestine Monitor editorial: The long road to unity
29 Apr — While the April 27 Cairo Agreement took much of the world by surprise, including the infamous security apparatus of Israel, the reunification of Palestine’s two major political factions was the work of years of careful diplomacy between Damascus, Ramallah, Gaza City and Cairo.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1781
Gaza
Egypt warns Israel: Don’t interfere with opening of Gaza border crossing
Haaretz 29 Apr — Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces General Sami Anan warned Israel against interfering with Egypt’s plan to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on a permanent basis, saying it was not a matter of Israel’s concern, Army Radio reported on Saturday … The opening of Rafah will allow the flow of people and goods in and out of Gaza without Israeli permission or supervision, which has not been the case up until now. 
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/egypt-warns-israel-don-t-interfere-with-opening-of-gaza-border-crossing-1.358969
Meridor: We have no right to interfere in Rafah decision
JPost 30 Apr — Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, who is in charge of intelligence and atomic affairs, said Saturday that Israel has no right to interfere in the decision to open the border with Gaza in Rafah, Channel 2 News reported. His comments come in response to Egypt’s plans to open the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip. He implied that it is important to have good relations with surrounding countries.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=218563
Egyptian foreign policy shifts to reflect popular opinion
France24 30 Apr — Egypt’s foreign policy direction has changed dramatically since former leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted and the new course will have a profound impact on its relationship with Israel and the US, according to Middle East experts. Scott MacLeod, editor of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs, said Egypt was reasserting its leadership in the Arab World and that its foreign policy would henceforth be “much more critical” of Israel … The Egyptian public at large was indignant over the blockade of Gaza, [Karim Bitar] said, and feels that in the post-Mubarak era, “business as usual cannot go on. Post-Revolutionary Egypt considers that Mubarak’s policy towards the Palestinian question was immoral and undignified,” he said. “He kowtowed to US pressures and that Egypt lost its historical standing in the region.”
http://www.france24.com/en/20110429-israel-egypt-foreign-policy-shift-hamas-fatah-gaza-MacLeod-Bitar
Gaza City homes flooded in downpour
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 30 Apr — Heavy rainfall flooded homes in Gaza City overnight Friday. Homes in Jaffa Street sustained damage as rainfall reached 50 centimeters within two hours of unusually stormy weather. Locals complained that water flooded their homes because drainage systems in the area were not functioning.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=383386
Sponsor a runner in the UNRWA Gaza marathon 2011
This summer, UNRWA will provide its biggest and best Summer Games in Gaza yet. In order to raise much-needed funds for the Games, we will hold the first-ever UNRWA Gaza Marathon on 5 May 2011. The marathon will span the entire Gaza Strip, from Beit Hanoun to Rafah, with children running in relays along the route, while adults (from professional Gazan athletes training for the Olympics to amateur international staff) will run the full marathon, half marathon or 10km at the end. Make a donation:
http://www.unrwa.org/gazamarathon
Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlers
Violence and mayhem ravages another Friday in Silwan
[many photos] Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 30 Apr — Violent clashes swept through Silwan yesterday following the midday prayer. Confrontations erupted after Israeli forces sealed off the main entrances to the village. An increased military presence was noted throughout the region, with several checkpoints established. Particularly militarised were the areas close to settlements, such as in Wadi Hilweh, ‘Ein Silwan, Baten al-Hawa and Wadi Rababa districts … Use of force was particularly heavy on the Israeli side, who employed heavy amounts of tear gas, rubber bullets and sound bombs. Palestinian youth responded by throwing stones … At least 5 [Palestinians] were injured by rubber bullets, including the Wadi Hilweh Information Center photographer Ahmed Siyam. One Israeli settler was also reported to have opened fire with an M16 rifle.
http://silwanic.net/?p=15276
Press TV: ‘Palestine, a possible mini-Dubai of ME’
29 Apr — Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and its aggressions against the Palestinians are aimed at plundering their natural wealth, says a Middle East expert. “… Given the opportunity, this small nucleus of two separate entities [Gaza Strip and the West Bank], if they come together, has got enough wealth to become what I call the mini-Dubai of the eastern Mediterranean –that is perfectly possible,” Eyre said. “People don’t understand that this conflict is also to do with natural resources because in the offshore Gaza area is vast reserves of natural gas,” Peter Eyre, a Middle East consultant in London, told Press TV on Thursday.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/177322.html
Detention
A minor, two others arrested amid West Bank raids
WEST BANK, (PIC) 30 Apr — Three Palestinians including a minor were assaulted amid Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raids sweeping the West Bank Saturday morning … IOF soldiers assaulted three men in Beit Ummar north of Al-Khalil on Friday evening. Among them was a youth aged 16. The minor was left with bruises all over his body after being severely beaten … Palestinian sources in Dora south of Al-Khalil said IOF soldiers opened fire at a Palestinian man before arresting him. The victim was transferred to a Beersheba hospital to receive treatment. Witnesses said police hounds were released against him and that he was severely beaten after his injury.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2b
Israeli police arrest dozens of Palestinian workers
JENIN, (PIC) 30 Apr — Israeli policemen arrested dozens of Palestinian workers in central Palestine occupied in 1948 after storming campaigns of workshops in Haifa, Khudera, and Tel Aviv. Workers in the West Bank told the PIC reporter on Saturday that more than 30 workers were arrested after chasing and assaulting some of them who escaped to nearby groves. They noted that most of those workers came from Jenin and nearby villages.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2BcO
Relative: 11-year-old detained in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 30 Apr — Israeli forces detained Friday an 11-year-old boy from a village northwest of Jerusalem, a relative said. Muhammad Hushiyeh was walking in the Qatanna village when youths threw stones at Israeli soldiers, his cousin Lubna told Ma‘an. She said soldiers arrested the stone-throwers and swept up Muhammad as well. He was not involved beforehand, she insisted. The boy is already in a difficult situation; his father was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers a year earlier, Lubna pointed out.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=383463
4 Palestinian detainees injured as Israeli forces raid prison
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 29 Apr — Four Palestinian detainees were injured Friday as Israeli forces raided Eshel prison, a prisoners’ society said. Clashes broke out when Israeli forces attacked detainee Imad Al-Mardawn, the society said, adding that forces threatened to use Taser guns. Detainees said they would go on hunger strike Saturday in protest over the incident, and would file a complaint to the Israel’s Supreme Court to demand an investigation.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=383321
Hunger strikes in Ashkelon, Beersheba prisons
JENIN, (PIC) 30 Apr — Prisoners in the Ashkelon and Beersheba prisons have begun a hunger strike to protest the treatment of the Israeli Prison Service, the Ahrar prisoner studies center reported on Friday. Palestinians held at the Beersheba facility began fasting after several prisoners sustained injuries during a violent crackdown on section 10, said Ahrar director Fuad el-Khuffash.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2
Detainee released after 10 years in prison
JENIN (Ma‘an) 30 Apr — Israel released Thursday detainee Samir Al-Fayed, 40, after 10 years behind bars. Samir, from Jenin refugee camp, was detained in 2001, accused of transferring a militant to attack Israelis. He was sentenced to 17 years, reduced to 10. Jenin residents and members of factions gathered on Thursday to receive Samir, who was released from Israel’s Negev prison. Samir was taken by car on a tour of the northern West Bank city, amid fireworks, before praying at the Jenin martyrs’ cemetery.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=383412
Report: Hamas military leader in Egypt for Shalit talks
Haaretz 30 Apr — Egypt may return to serve as mediator in talks between Israel and Hamas, Al-Hayat reports; parents of kidnapped IDF soldier meet new Israeli negotiator for their son’s release.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-hamas-military-leader-in-egypt-for-shalit-talks-1.358961
Other news
Hamas leader: Syria didn’t ask us to leave
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 30 Apr — A Hamas leader has denied media reports Saturday claiming Syria asked the movement to relocate its headquarters from Damascus to Qatar: “This is utterly false,” Salah Bardawil said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=383491
Paris trial: Al-Durrah beats Israeli doctor
A French court ruled Friday against Dr. David Yehuda, an Israeli doctor who was sued for slander by Jamal al-Durrah, the father of Second Intifada symbol Muhammad al-Durrah.The Israeli doctor, an orthopedic surgeon who operated on Jamal al-Durrah, exposed details from his medical file and claimed that his scars were the result of a surgery, and were not caused by IDF fire. 
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4062368,00.html
Islamic Jihad mourns West Bank leader
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 30 Apr — Islamic Jihad mourned the death of leader Raed Aref Faid Al-Mugheir on Saturday. Al-Mugheir, from ‘Arraba near Jenin, died aged 39 from kidney failure, a statement from the movement said. He suffered a kidney infection while detained in Israel’s Ad-Damon prison in 2000 and had ongoing kidney problems since then. Israel had imprisoned Al-Mugheir three times. He was one of Islamic Jihad’s pioneering fighters in the West Bank, along with Isam Baramah, Iyad Al-Hardan and Anwar Hamaran, all of whom were killed by Israeli forces, the statement said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=383536
Yisrael Beiteinu website hacked by pro-Palestinian activists
[with screenshot] Haaretz 30 Apr — The website of the Yisrael Beiteinu political party was hacked on Saturday by pro-Palestinian activists. The hackers placed on the front page of the website a picture of a Palestinian flag with the Egyptian pyramids in the background and wrote a message referring to party leader Avigdor Lieberman.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/yisrael-beiteinu-website-hacked-by-pro-palestinian-activists-1.359000
Surviving the Shoah – and beating Israel’s bureaucracy
JPost 29 Apr — Many Holocaust survivors live in severe poverty, unaware of the benefits owed them, and must fight the system to realize their rights — David Silberman, co-founder of the nonprofit organization Aviv Lenitzolei Hashoah (Spring for Holocaust Survivors), does not mince words when he proclaims that roughly NIS 250 million in funds meant to assist Holocaust survivors living in Israel remains unclaimed each year. 
http://www.jpost.com/Features/FrontLines/Article.aspx?id=218345
Analysis / Opinion
The flawed premises: two decades of failed state-making / Alistair Crooke
Foreign Policy 28 Apr — Europe and America have shared a settled conviction over the last decades: It is that Israel, out of its own necessity, must seek to conserve a Jewish majority within Israel. And that with time, and a growing Palestinian population, Israel will at some point have to acquiesce to a Palestinian state in order to maintain that Jewish majority: that is, only by giving Palestinians their own state and thereby shedding a part of the Palestinians it controls, can Israel’s Jewish majority be preserved. This simple proposition has given us the security-first doctrine: Meeting Israel’s self-definition of its own security needs — it is presumed — stands as the unique and sufficient principle, allowing Israel to transition with confidence to the two-state solution. But Israel has not done this — despite many opportunities over the last 19 years — and does not seem any more disposed to “give” a Palestinian state now. Seldom is it asked why, if the logic is indeed so compelling, have two states not emerged?  
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/04/27/the_flawed_premises_two_decades_failed_state_making
Publishing propaganda, ignoring fact: the NY Daily News puts the lies in editorialize / Nima Shirazi & Alex Kane
28 Apr …a recent editorial printed by the Zuckerman-owned New York Daily News is a particularly egregious example of U.S. media’s aversion to the facts on Israel/Palestine. The bald-faced lies — which follow recent Israeli pronouncements about the “terrorists” organizing the upcoming international flotilla to break the Israeli blockade — printed would be laughable only if it wasn’t going to be read by thousands of people. UPDATE – …The photo of the Gaza grocery store is clearly another piece of propaganda meant to signify to the reader, “hey, withstores like these, can we really believe that Gaza’s inhabitants are victims of deliberate deprivation, discrimination, and occupation?” Apparently, according to Zuckerman’s Daily Newseditors, where there’s a market, there’s no suffering, right? To answer this question, one need only look at these pictures of the Warsaw Ghetto marketplace in the 1940’s:
http://www.wideasleepinamerica.com/2011/04/publishing-propaganda-ignoring-facts-ny.html
One word / Uri Avnery
Gush Shalom 30 Apr — In one word: Bravo! The news about the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas is good for peace. If the final difficulties are ironed out and a full agreement is signed by the two leaders, it will be a huge step forward for the Palestinians — and for us. There is no sense in making peace with half a people. Making peace with the entire Palestinian people may be more difficult, but will be infinitely more fruitful. Therefore: Bravo! Binyamin Netanyahu also says Bravo. Since the government of Israel has declared Hamas a terrorist organization with whom there will be no dealings whatsoever, Netanyahu can now put an end to any talk about peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. What, peace with a Palestinian government that includes terrorists? Never! End of  discussion. Two bravos, but such a difference.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1304110046/
Jerusalem, Flower of Cities — sung by Fayrouz
A great revolutionary song by a great singer.  English subtitles.  [from Wikipedia: Fairuz (Arabic: فيروز, also spelled Fairouz or Fayrouz) is a Lebanese singer who is widely considered to be the most famous living singer in the Arab world and one of the best known of all time. She was born in Jabal al Arz (Cedar Mountain) to a Syriac Catholic father and a Maronite mother]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQJuPb_AZ-c&feature=related

     

Cokie’s in Hadassah, Nelson’s in the Haggadah (and Israel’s in the West Bank)

Apr 30, 2011

Lydda Four Eight

 

With no accountability, context or synthesis to Palestine, Cokie Roberts’s husband Steve Roberts explains to an NPR interviewer that the politics of Zionism replaced Judaism/ Religion for Eastern European immigrants (though that question wasn’t the intention of the interview, they were promoting interfaith Haggadah). Listen to Steve and Cokie Roberts discuss seders, replacement religion/Zionism, interfaith, etc on NPR’s Talk of the Nation (3:00-4:30 or so), orread the NPR transcript below, or read my edited transcript further on.

ROBERTS: … When we got married, we agreed that we were going to be respecting and celebrating each other’s religions and traditions in our home. And after I went to my first Seder I loved it and understood that this was going to be something that I wanted to do. So, after a couple of years I got up the courage to do it myself and we’ve been doing it ever since.

Mr. ROBERTS: And you say that hard for Cokie, but in some ways is even harder for my mother. (Soundbite of laughter) As a Jewish woman who is deeply attached to her tribe and her culture but never darkened a synagogue, the whole notion of actually us celebrating the Seder was sort of strange to her. In fact, she often said, before she died last fall, that the first Seder she ever went to was organized by her Catholic daughter-in-law. So, go figure.

NEAL CONAN: So you were raised in a non-observant Jewish family…

Mr. ROBERTS: To say the least.

CONAN: …in Bayonne, New Jersey and these were people who were very political, and Zionist in some respects, but not necessarily Jewish.

Mr. ROBERTS: And that’s actually quite typical of the Jew…

ROBERTS: Well, they were very Jewish.

Mr. ROBERTS: Yeah.

ROBERTS: They just weren’t religious.

Mr. ROBERTS: Well, they were tribally and culturally Jewish. If you woke my mother up in the middle of the night and said Dorothy Roberts, what are you, she probably would have said mother first and Jew second. But she never, ever went to a synagogue. My grandfather, her father was never bar mitzvahed. Neither of my grandfathers were ever bar mitzvahed or participated in any religious ritual. But as you point out, in that world of Eastern European immigrate Jews, often politics replaced religion. Zionism, socialism, Bundism -they were all very powerful. I used to say that my grandfather, his real rabbi was actually Larry Spivak, who was the host of “Meet the Press,” when he was growing up. And my grandfather’s religious devotion was to listen to Rabbi Larry. It wasn’t to go…

ROBERTS: But that grandfather had gone to Palestine as a young man, as a pioneer. So he was very much a Zionist.

CONAN: Well, Steve described how his mother came to some revelations at your Seder. What about your mom?

ROBERTS: Oh, my mother loves Seder. My mother’s 95 and she comes all the time and loves it. The only year she missed was the year she was at the Vatican. But she found some Seders to go to there as well. She was very close friends with the Israeli ambassador.

Mr. ROBERTS: Ambassador, right.

ROBERTS: And so they celebrated Passover there as well.

Mr. ROBERTS: You know, it’s funny, Neal, because you mentioned my mother-in-law. I’ve often kidded that I’m the only Jew from Bayonne, New Jersey whose mother-in-law was an ambassador to the Vatican. But now I’m the only Jew whose mother-in-law was an ambassador to the Vatican, whose wife, the esteemed National Public Radio correspondent, Cokie Boggs Roberts, is now a life member of Hadassah – thanks to the good women of Boca Raton, Florida. So… 

CONAN: You mention that – I just wanted to read a short excerpt: Rabbi Jill Jacobs of the Jewish Funds for Justice, suggests asking guests to bring something that reminds them of the Passover story, a memento from their own family’s immigration to America, for example, or a news story about a contemporary liberation struggle.

And then you have quotes from Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Gandhi, Sojourner Truth. It goes on and on and on.

Mr. ROBERTS: Well, it’s going to be easy this year. I mean, you know, you talk about – we’ve been kidding about this, but we do want to thank our new press agent, Hosni Mubarak, for reminding everybody how universal this story is. 

As Cokie says, it’s a Jewish holiday, but it’s a universal message, and your caller reinforced that, as well. And it is a year when the connection between the ancient Jewish story and the modern yearning for freedom is pretty tangible.

Ms. ROBERTS: In the first – in the early centuries, actually, Passover and Easter were the same celebration. Easter was a Passover celebration. And only in, you know, well into the establishment of the church, several centuries in, did Easter become a separate celebration.

my transcript with relevant points only:

“tribally and culturally Jewish … non-observant Jewish family … to say the least … you say it was hard for Cokie but it was hard for my mother, as Jewish woman who was very attached to her tribe and her culture but NEVER darkened a synagogue the whole notion of actually us celebrating (sarcastically gasping) who never set foot in a synagogue the notion of us actually celebrating the seder was as a Jewish woman deeply attached to tribe and culture … these were people who were very political and Zionist … that is actually quite typical … they were very Jewish just not religious … they were tribally and culturally Jewish … never went to a synagogue … never participated in any religious ritual … but as you point out in that world of Eastern European immigrant Jews often politics replaced religion –ionism, socialism, Bundism (replaced Judaism/ religion) … they were all very powerful I used to tell my grandfather his real Rabbi was actually Larry Spivak who was the host from Meet the Press when he was growing up … and my grandfather’s religious devotion was to listen to “Rabbi” Larry … but that grandfather had gone to Palestine as a young man and as a pioneer [pioneer? what!?] so he was very much a Zionist …”
    

Bad timing for ‘WSJ’ author who says Arab spring won’t leap the Sinai

Apr 30, 2011

Jeff Klein

 

The theme of posts here the other day was attitudes of “denial” regarding the Palestine issue. Nothing could illustrate this more than an op-ed a couple of days ago  by a “scholar” with a comfortable job at a right-wing think tank. Josef Joffe, former publisher of the influential German newspaper Die Zeit and now ensconced as the Marc and Anita Abramowitz Fellow in International Relations at the Hoover Institution. Joffe wrote a piece in the April 26 Wall Street Journal on The Arab Spring and The Palestine Distraction. His theme was to debunk the idea that the upheavals around the Arab world had anything to do with the Israel-Palestine conflict. (The subtitle was: Arab peoples aren’t obsessed with anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism. It’s their rulers who are.)

Shoddy political theories—ideologies, really—never die because they are immune to the facts. The most glaring is this: These revolutions have unfolded without the usual anti-American and anti-Israeli screaming. It’s not that the demonstrators had run out of Stars and Stripes to trample, or were too concerned about the environment to burn Benjamin Netanyahu in effigy. It’s that their targets were Hosni Mubarak, Zine el Abidine Ben-Ali, Moammar Gadhafi and the others—no stooges of Zionism they. In Benghazi, the slogan was: “America is our friend!” . . .[Palestine] is not the core conflict that feeds the despotism; it is the despots who fan the conflict, even as they fondle their U.S.-made F-16s and quietly work with Israel. Their peoples are the victims of this power ploy, not its drivers. This is what the demonstrators of Tahrir Square and the rebels of Benghazi have told us with their silence on the Palestine issue.

Bad timing. The next day it was announced that the new Egyptian regime, spurred on by popular demand, had brokered a reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas — against the clear wishes of the US and Israeli governments. Fatah may well have felt pressured to agree by the loss of their political patron with the fall of Hosni Mubarak. (It was a common complaint from Fatah supporters I met in the West Bank recently that the US made a big mistake in “letting Mubarak go” or that the Egyptian uprising was some kind of CIA-Al Jazeera plot.) Then there were a series of marches to the Israeli embassy in Cairo in support of the Palestinians and demanding that the Egypt-Israel peace treaty be abrogated. And finally, the new Egyptian government announced that it was ending collaboration with Israel in maintaining the siege of Gaza and would be opening its border to all traffic, making the 2007 agreement with Israel on controlling the Rafah Crossing a dead letter. The Egyptian foreign minister pointedly warned Israel “not to interfere” with a decision that was an internal matter to his country.

Glenn Greenwald (Strong anti-American sentiment in Egypt) usefully compiled polling results from Egypt indicating overwhelming sentiment in support of Palestine – and hostility to the US for its unwavering backing of Israel. 

What’s most remarkable about that 20/79 favorability disparity toward the U.S. is that it’s worse now than it was during the Bush years (a worldwide Pew poll of public opinion found a 30% approval rating in Egypt for the U.S. in 2006 and 21% in 2007). In one of the most strategically important countries in that region — a nation that has been a close U.S. ally for decades — public opinion toward the U.S. is as low as (if not lower than) ever, more than two years into the Obama presidency. . .

. . .this new polling data [reveals] the huge gap between the views of the Arab dictators we prop up and the Arab citizenry generally: the reason why the U.S., despite its lofty rhetoric, wants anything but democracy in that part of the world. Consider, for instance, that “54 percent [of Egyptians] want to annul the peace treaty with Israel, compared with 36 percent who want to maintain it.” 

And strong popular opinion in favor of the Palestinians is by no means a phenomenon limited to Egypt. Noam Chomsky also cited similar polling results in the Arab world: 

The U.S. and its Western allies are sure to do whatever they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world. To understand why, it is only necessary to look at the studies of Arab opinion conducted by U.S. polling agencies. . . . They reveal that by overwhelming majorities, Arabs regard the U.S. and Israel as the major threats they face: the U.S. is so regarded by 90% of Egyptians, in the region generally by over 75%. Some Arabs regard Iran as a threat: 10%. Opposition to U.S. policy is so strong that a majority believes that security would be improved if Iran had nuclear weapons — in Egypt, 80%. Other figures are similar.

Joffe, the author of the WSJ op-ed, is not a hard-core neocon. His academic and political associations suggest an alignment with the “realist” school of diplomacy. But on the Palestine issue, he should be more appropriately called “surrealist.” Or maybe it’s just denial.
     

When will the U.N. observe its own resolutions re borders and states?

Apr 30, 2011

Hostage

 

President Shimon Peres tells Ban ‘UN cannot remain neutral in light of the rockets fired from Gaza to Israel.’  In recent days Israel has been exploiting the attacks from both sides of the conflict and the Goldstone editorial in the Washington Post to demand that the UN Fact Finding report be retracted and to insist that the UN take action against the de facto government of Gaza. The UN Security Council has consistently violated neutrality and customary international practice by refusing to acknowledge the reports of its own human rights treaty monitoring bodies and fact finding missions that say the de facto government in Gaza is part of a belligerent community that is suffering the consequences of an illegal blockade. The rights and duties of the Hamas regime and the population of Gaza should be the same as those of any other State:

Once the decision has been taken to recognize an insurgent government as belligerent, the legal consequences of the decision are not limited to its concession of belligerent rights. So long as it maintains an independent existence, the insurgent government is considered to have all the normal rights and liabilities of a State. Its legal position is not merely that of a military occupant as defined by the Hague Convention No. IV, of 1907. — See Ti-chiang Chen, “The international law of recognition, with special reference to practice in Great Britain and the United States”, Nabu Press, 2010, page 307-308.

Chen also explained why non-recognition and collective punishment are not an acceptable solution. He said it could not be denied that a belligerent community enjoys authority in the territory under its control and that individuals living there have no choice but to submit to that authority. A third state can’t, without causing grievous hardships and inequities to the local inhabitants, deny the legal validity of the acts of the belligerent community which regulate life within its territory. UN Security Council Resolution 73 (1949):

Reaffirmed pending the final peace settlement, the order contained in its resolution 54 (1948) to the Governments and authorities concerned, pursuant to Article 40 [Chapter 7] of the Charter of the United Nations, to observe an unconditional cease-fire and, bearing in mind that the several Armistice Agreements include firm pledges against any further acts of hostility between the parties and also provide for their supervision by the parties themselves, relies upon the parties to ensure the continued application and observance of these Agreements;

The principles of international law codified in the UN Charter were subsequently studied and published by the General Assembly. The Charter principles establish that:

Every State… has the duty to refrain from the threat or use of force to violate international lines of demarcation, such as armistice lines, established by or pursuant to an international agreement to which it is a party or which it is otherwise bound to respect. …States have a duty to refrain from acts of reprisal involving the use of force. — See General Assembly resolution 2625 (XXV)“Declaration On Principles Of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations And Co-Operation Among States In Accordance With The Charter Of The United Nations”

Ironically, Israel refuses to withdraw its armed forces or recognize the armistice lines and has recently threatened unilateral steps if the UN Security Council recognizes them or a Palestinian state established in the Occupied Palestinian territory pending a final settlement. However, even legal experts who support the government of Israel, such as Professor Ruth Lapidot, haveexplained that:

Recognition of statehood is a political act, and every state has the right to decide for itself whether to recognize another state.

The General Assembly affirmed a long time ago that Palestinian statehood is not dependent on the peace process or subject to any veto. Judge Rosalyn Higgins advised:

This is not difficult – from Security Council resolution 242 (1967) through to Security Council resolution 1515 (2003), the key underlying requirements have remained the same – that Israel is entitled to exist, to be recognized, and to security, and that the Palestinian people are entitled to their territory, to exercise self-determination, and to have their own State.

Judge Theodor Meron was the Chief Legal Counsel of the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli government’s expert on international law in 1967 . He pointed out that responsibility for the outbreak of the Six Day War has never been authoritatively established. See “Henry’s wars and Shakespeare’s laws”, Oxford University Press, 1993, page 45-46. Israel frequently cites security or a state of necessity to justify the occupation and its other measures, but the International Court of Justice determined that Israel could not preclude the wrongfulness of its actions on those grounds because it had contributed to the state of necessity. In the Targeted Killings case, the Israeli Supreme Court established that a state of belligerency exists when itdetermined:

“that between Israel and the various terrorist organizations active in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip (hereinafter “the area”) a continuous situation of armed conflict has existed since the first intifada.”

Israel routinely submits formal complaints to the UN “as if” Hamas is a full member state with obligations under the UN Charter and international law. Israel officially designated Gaza an“enemy entity” after it had privately confided to the United States government that it would be would be “happy” if Hamas took over because the IDF could then deal with Gaza as a hostile state. Despite the fact that Israel has pursued a deliberate policy of isolating and separating Gaza from the West Bank, Israel’s representative at the UN asked who exactly is the “Palestinian side” that should follow-up on the Goldstone report in conducting an investigation? The Parliamentary Union of the Organization of the Islamic Conference member states haveurged the international community to recognize Hamas. Russia and Turkey have been criticized by Israel for suggesting that Hamas be included in the Middle East Peace process. Despite the fact that the majority of UN member states have formally recognized the State of Palestine, Israel still insists that it does not exist. Therefore, the Palestinian community as a whole does not enjoy the protections contained in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibit the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state or territory delimited by armistice lines. ________________ ______________ Both the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories have highlighted the fact that the Middle East Quartet, including the UN Secretary-General, are attempting to impose a lopsided final settlement on the Palestinians by working outside of the normative framework of the organization. In the process, the members of the Quartet are ignoring international law; the resolutions of the Security Council and General Assembly; and the advisory opinion of the UN’s own judicial organ. The Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process noted the lack of any formal mandate from the members or organs of the UN for the Secretary-General to participate as a member of the Quartet. He criticized the lack of normatively based and even-handed positions. In his 2007 “End of Mission Report”, Alvaro de Soto said:

Since the election of Hamas, I have been “The Secretary-General’s Personal Representative to the Palestinian Authority” for about ten or fifteen minutes in two phone calls and one handshake. …I could live with the arrangements until the point came when the Quartet started taking positions which are not likely to gather a majority in UN bodies, and which in any case are at odds with UN Security Council resolutions and/or international law or, when they aren’t expressly so, fall short of the minimum of even-handedness that must be the lifeblood of the diplomatic action of the Secretary-General.

John Dugard reported that UN participation in the Quartet under such circumstances was completely improper:

In 2004 the International Court of Justice handed down an advisory opinion in which it condemned as illegal not only the construction of the wall but many features of the Israeli administration of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The advisory opinion was endorsed by the General Assembly on 20 July 2004 in resolution ES-10/15. Since then little effort has been made by the international community to compel Israel to comply with its legal obligations as expounded by the International Court. The Quartet, comprising the United Nations, the European Union, the United States of America and the Russian Federation, appears to prefer to conduct its negotiations with Israel in terms of the so-called road map with no regard to the advisory opinion. The road map seems to contemplate the acceptance of certain sections of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the inclusion of major Jewish settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in Israeli territory. This process places the United Nations in an awkward situation as it clearly cannot be a party to negotiations that ignore the advisory opinion of its own judicial organ.

In a subsequent report Dugard advised that Israel’s occupation had taken on ominous characteristics of collective punishment, colonialism and apartheid. Worse still, he noted that the Quartet had taken Israel’s side and was behaving like a co-belligerent:

Gaza has become a besieged and imprisoned territory as a result of the economic sanctions imposed on the Occupied Palestinian Territory by Israel and the West, following Hamas’ success in the January 2006 elections… To aggravate matters the Quartet has gone along with this policy of political and financial isolation. …In effect, the Palestinian people have been subjected to economic sanctions – the first time an occupied people have been so treated. This is difficult to understand. Israel is in violation of major Security Council and General Assembly resolutions dealing with unlawful territorial change and the violation of human rights and has failed to implement the 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, yet it escapes the imposition of sanctions. Instead, the Palestinian people, rather than the Palestinian Authority, have been subjected to possibly the most rigorous form of international sanctions imposed in modern times.

The most pressing problem is not that Hamas or Fatah lack legitimacy with the Palestinian people, or whether there ought to be one state or two. It is that the UN has been Israel’s willing accomplice in permitting acts to be perpetrated against the Palestinians that international law would otherwise prohibit if they had been directed toward another State.
     

The Reconciliation… and the football match

Apr 30, 2011

Sarah Ali

 

When I first read the news about the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, I simply thought the site I was surfing was outdated or something. It was not. On Wednesday 27 April, 2011, and to my surprise, the two major Palestinian parties, Fatah and Hamas, agreed on a reconciliation deal after secret meetings were held between the two groups. I felt shocked, happy and, of course, scared. “They’ve done this many times, but they never pulled if off,” everyone started to say. People were happy, though. I was happy.

I almost forgot about the match.. yeaaa.. the MATCH!

Most of the Gazans like to watch football games. I can never blame my people for “liking” to watch football. I simply can’t. Football seems to be one of the very few refuges the besieged Gazans resort to when they need a break (In case you’re not following: a break from being oppressed, shelled, murdered, injured.. every single day). Still, you can never tell how safe a refuge football is. You can get shot—while watching a football game.

A few hours after we knew of the reconciliation, there was this football game between Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two most famous Spanish teams. I’m not really interested in football, but I had to show some excitement as everyone (At that moment, it seemed to me that all Gazans were fans of Barcelona) was shouting and celebrating the 2 goals Barcelona scored. Yeah, Barcelona won the game.

Some streets got crowded, and people, say kids and young men, rushed to the streets yelling and screaming and shooting in the air (Yea shooting; we cannot help it). I couldn’t actually tell whether they were shouting because of the reconciliation or because of the match. They were shouting anyway. They were happy. I was happy.

Today, and because I am happy, I repeat the cliché which I’ve always loved, “We are all brothers.” Today I tell Fatah and Hamas, “Please, work it out.” Today I beg them, “Don’t disappoint us this time.”
Today I say, “Congratulations, Barcelona!”

crossposted @ Here We Are “I didn’t ask to be Palestinian; I just got lucky.”

 

It’s like fluoride, in the water (Mario Cuomo narrates Masada oratorio at Temple Emanu-El)

Apr 30, 2011

Philip Weiss

 

I was told that on Thursday former NY Governor Mario Cuomo, who happens to be the father of the current NY governor, was making public remarks about Masada, the mountain near the Dead Sea that was the scene of a mass suicide by Jewish soldiers after the destruction of the second temple and that today is used by the Israeli army for inducting soldiers. And oh ye of little faith, I did not believe that Cuomo was doing such a thing. But google said I was wrong:

On April 28, the Boris Lurie Art Foundation will present a free concert at New York’s historic Temple Emanu-El. On the program is the world premiere of Marvin David Levy’s oratorio Atonement, a reworking of three of Levy’s previous pieces that have never before been performed in New York City. Exploring three critical moments of Jewish history – “Holocaust”, “Inquisition”, and “Masada”, Atonement will be performed by Grammy Award-winning soprano Ana María Martínez and tenor Michael Fabiano, a Grand Prize Winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, with narration by Mario M. Cuomo, former governor of the state of New York and father of current governor Andrew M. Cuomo. Eugene Kohn, who boasts an extensive recorded discography with Plácido Domingo, will lead a full choir and orchestra for the concert, which will be filmed for future television broadcasts on dates and networks to be announced. Full concert details follow below.

Mer Khamis will be memorialized by Kushner, Jabara, Aloni, Chalfant, Angelou, el-Ra’ee

Apr 30, 2011

Philip Weiss

 

I just got this update from the Friends of the Jenin Freedom Theatre about the celebration of Juliano Mer Kahmis on Tuesday night, May 4 in New York. Quite an evening: 

**CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF JULIANO MER KHAMIS**
MAY 4, 2011, 7 P.M.
Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Columbus Avenue between 59th and 60th Streets
remarks by
TONY KUSHNER, UDI ALONI, ABDEEN JABARA, KATHLEEN CHALFANT and others
music by
SIMON SHAHEEN AND LIZ MAGNES
Video appearances by Nabeel el-Ra’ee of The Freedom Theater, Maya Angelou, and others
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., program starts promptly at 7 p.m.

Helen Thomas will cover Move Over AIPAC conference, doesn’t want to speak at it

Apr 30, 2011

Philip Weiss

 

The MoveOverAipac conference is in 3 weeks. The organizers have just issued a statement to endorsers explaining the Helen Thomas invitation, and Thomas’s withdrawal from the conference. Medea is Medea Benjamin of CodePink, who met with Helen Thomas yesterday, and Rae is Rae Abileah. Great women. Here it is:

Thank you for your support of Move Over AIPAC (www.MoveOverAIPAC.org) and your concern about Helen Thomas’ participation. We’d like to clarify what has happened to date since it seems there have been many versions of what happened.  CODEPINK has appreciated and admired Helen Thomas’ courageous journalism since our start, honoring her with a pink badge of courage, and being one of the groups that organized “Jews for Helen” after she was fired.  In inviting Helen Thomas to speak, it was our hope that her name would draw more attendance and excitement for the MOA events.  Unfortunately, we did not talk over this invitation with the other coalition members and only found out–after the fact–that several groups and individuals thought it was a bad move on our part because the press would focus on Helen and not our critique of AIPAC.  When we at CODEPINK told Helen’s assistant about these concerns, her assistant called back and said Helen preferred not to speak. We want to make it clear that no groups within the coalition pressured us to “disinvite” Helen and that she was never disinvited.  

This morning Medea met with Helen to make it clear to her that there was still an open, welcoming invitation for her to speak. Helen reaffirmed that she does not wish to speak at Move Over AIPAC and she did so on film, which we will post. She also stated she would prefer to attend the conference as a journalist and cover the events, and has agreed to speak at a post-AIPAC Policy Conference event at Bus Boys and Poets on May 4, which CODEPINK will help publicize. 
Senator James Abourezk, who wrote an article saying that Helen was disinvited, has now put out this statement: “I understand that Helen Thomas does not want to speak at Move Over AIPAC and instead wants to cover it as a journalist. I encourage everyone who agrees with the premise of this gathering to move forward and help make this a successful event.”
 
In reviewing the sequence of events, we realize that have erred in our communication with endorsing organizations and wish to apologize for this.  We are relatively new to this movement for justice in Israel/Palestine and have much to learn from those of you who have been doing this work for decades.  And we all have much to learn about how to work effectively, respectfully and in integrity with each other. 
Move Over AIPAC is a unique hybrid experience – CODEPINK is coordinating the conference, events and actions, and has asked for endorsements, most of which have been endorsements in name only thus far.  We assumed that there was trust in groups that we could make decisions about speakers, workshops, actions.  To date we’ve had two meetings in Washington DC, two conference calls, and have sent out numerous emails to endorsers inviting suggestions for speakers, performers, and creative actions. We are appreciative to the input we’re received thus far, but we hoped there would be more engagement from groups willing to help outreach and organize.  
We hope that if there is something positive to come out of this, in addition to the clarity around Helen’s wishes and her participation in Move Over AIPAC, it might be a renewed sense of interest in working together to make this event a success. So far we have only 130 registrants. We hope to reach 300 in the next three weeks and need everyone’s help to reach that goal.
Moving forward, we’d like to establish clear lines of communication, particularly with partnering groups that are sending members to the conference and organizing to make it a success.  ..
In Solidarity,
Medea, Rae and Shaden

Holbrooke couldn’t get a meeting with Obama because he saw Af/Pak surge as sabotaging Middle East policy

Apr 30, 2011

Philip Weiss

 

I haven’t read Ryan Lizza’s piece in the New Yorker on how the Arab spring has remade Obama’s foreign policy. ( was put off by the title, the Consequentialist, it sounded astrological, and isn’t this just a fancy way of saying Pragmatist?) I have to read it. But I have smart friends, and one sent this assessment along:

I felt the ghost of cuts. Especially around the division between the State Department and the WH in “the first two years” (i.e. almost all) of the administration. It seems to me that Lizza, who doesn’t care for Obama and who shows it more than he thinks (and as much as Remnick allows), portrays a foreign policy in nearly complete dishevelment, with the lack of co-ordination emanating from the top. It is astonishing that Holbrooke couldn’t be scheduled for a meeting with the president, and now we know why: the special envoy on Afghanistan/Pakistan was opposed to sending the additional 40,000 troops; he saw it as completely sabotaging Obama’s declared intentions in the Middle East, West Asia and China. (The Woodward book gave hints about Holbrooke’s doubts but pulled this punch.) The quotation from Brzezinski is precise and very damaging:

“I greatly admire [Obama’s] insights and understanding… [But] the rhetoric is
always terribly imperative and categorical: ‘You must do this,’ ‘He must do
that,’ ‘This is unacceptable.'”  Brzezinski added, “He doesn’t strategize. He
sermonizes.”

Lawyer at ‘Counterpunch’ validates Palestinian right of armed resistance to occupation

Apr 30, 2011

Philip Weiss

 

Lynda Burstein Brayer is a South African, Israeli-trained human rights lawyer. She has worked in the West Bank. This is at Counterpunch, in a takedown of the Goldstone reconsideration, a discussion of the Palestinian right to self-determination and thus, violent resistance. Others have said the same thing, of course; Michael Neumann said so, at Counterpunch during Cast Lead. Palestinians make this point too. And in our Goldstone volume, Jerry Slater wrote that Israel had no right to launch Cast Lead when it had an alternative response to the Hamas rockets, of negotiations.

There is one outstanding question and issue which Justice Goldstone chose not to address: neither in the original commission nor in his retraction. This is the question of the right of a people to resist an aggressor and/or an oppressor, and the legitimacy of such resistance. I would argue that according to international law today, Israel has no rights to or in the Occupied territories of Palestine. According to the same international law, the occupation ought to have ceased one year after its beginning, that is by June 1968. The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution requiring Israel to withdraw from all occupied territories, Resolution 242 in November 1967. 

I would contend that the continuing presence of Israel in these occupied territories, its building of settlements and the transfer of a huge Jewish population into it, and an infrastructure built from Palestinian assets to serve those settlements, its control over the use of land and water, and its continuing oppression of the indigenous population, should be classified as a colonialist venture. From the Palestinian point of view, the Israeli policies and practices are formulated and executed for the destruction of Palestinian society, private and public life, and their material assets.

In this situation of continuing oppression, dispossession, detention, killing and destruction of social frameworks, are Palestinians not permitted to resist all or any of this? If Israel is a colonizing power over and above its status as Military Occupier, precisely because of its settlement activity and control of the resources of the territory in Occupied Palestine then it would seem that the Declaration on Granting Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 1960 General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV), December 14, 1960 applies to Palestinians today. I quote two relevant articles. 

1. The subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and co-operation.

2. All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

Above and beyond the basic right of all human beings to resist their being killed and harmed, and a society to take armed actions to protect itself, this document legitimizes also national liberation struggles, including, at this time in history, most particularly, the Palestinian people’s struggle for its own freedom. It is this right which legitimizes all Palestinian attempts to lift the yoke of Israeli oppression from Palestine, including all the actions taken by the Palestinians during Operation Cast Lead.

And is not the right to resist oppression universal? Does this right not justify the American Revolut8ion and then the French Revolution and the wars of liberation in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

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