Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

 

• Europe’s ‘cautious’ cant on Hamas

• Your $s at work– Israelis use new electrical device on protesters that stuns from several meters

• I left the corporate bubble — and am now trying to give a voice to the scores of Palestinian Gandhis

• Bromwich: Netanyahu found the chosenness recipe in America’s bad cookbook

• JPost revises ‘Nakba Day protests’ to ‘Nakba Day riots’

• Washington Post columnist reveals his inner child to be, well–

• Feeling the ignorance at AIPAC 2011

• Bi Bi Pro Americano

• Sen Udall: Arab Spring shows up the Patriot Act

• Rae Abileah takes on the ‘culture of silence’ in the Jewish community

Europe’s ‘cautious’ cant on Hamas

May 25, 2011

David Cronin

Is the European Union about to give its blessing to the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah? There is a possibility that it will but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, was trying to sound reasonable this week, while actually being distinctly unreasonable.  She appeared to declare support for the idea of a national unity government, led by Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. “I understand President Abbas’s desire to move forward on reconciliation,” Ashton said. “We have all argued there needs to be reconciliation and with caution we are moving to try and support his efforts. I say ‘with caution’ because we understand it needs to be based on principles of non-violence.”

It is telling that Ashton  has never called on Israel to observe the principle of non-violence.

A statement which she issued after Hamas fired rockets into southern Israel last month exemplified how she applies different rules to different parties to the conflict. While she directed the words “strongly condemn” at the “attacks” by Hamas and said that they  “must stop immediately”, she merely called on Israel to “show restraint”. There was no explicit acknowledgment of how Israel had killed three members of Hamas a few days earlier, inevitably provoking a response.

And why does Ashton laud Mahmoud Abbas at every available opportunity?  His term as president expired in January 2009; since then he has clung to power without any mandate.

Perhaps Ashton feels a sense of affinity with him as she has been a successful politician, without having to go through the messy business of winning elections. Her $435,000-a-year job was obtained thanks to her close ties with two UK prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Although she had sat in the elitist House of Lords, few of her compatriots had heard ofher until 2009, when she was appointed the closest thing that Europe has to a foreign minister by the Union’s heads of state and government. This explains her apparent bemusement at the warm reception she received when she met Libyan “rebels” last weekend. “I am more popular in Benghazi than in Britain,” she quipped.

Interestingly, the same unelected Ashton has been extolling the virtues of “democracy promotion” in the Middle East. In her contacts with Hillary Clinton, she has been exploring how Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites can help spread liberty, she stated on Wednesday.  Is she telling Arabs to stop worrying about the West’s indulgence of Israel and concentrate on tweeting their way to freedom?

David Cronin’s book Europe’s Alliance With Israel: Aiding the Occupation is published by Pluto Press (www.plutobooks.com)

Your $s at work– Israelis use new electrical device on protesters that stuns from several meters

May 25, 2011

Kate

and other news from Today in Palestine:

Gaza
Egypt to open Rafah crossing
AP 25 May — Egypt’s official news agency says the Rafah border crossing with Gaza will be permanently opened for Palestinians on Saturday, a move that will significantly ease a blockade of the impoverished territory … This gives Gaza Palestinians a way to freely enter and exit their territory for the first time since 2007 … The statement said rules in effect before the blockade would be reinstated. At that time, European observers had a role in operating the crossing, and Israel monitored people and cargo to keep out militants and weapons.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4074059,00.html
Egypt to open Rafah border permanently
Al Jazeera 25 May — “It will allow basically all women to leave Gaza, also children under the age of 18 years will be allowed to leave as well as men over the age of 40 years. However, those between the age of 18 and 40 years will require Egyptian visa,” she said. “Visa would have to come from Ramallah. Sources in Hamas say, they have been told by the Egyptian authorities over the last few weeks that they [Egyptians] do intend to open some sort of representative office inside Gaza so that people can get the visa from there … “One of biggest problem for Gazans besides shortage of food and supplies has been the psychological impact of not allowing 1.5m people to move freely, there’s no doubt if the border is opened freely for all, there’s going to be a massive influx of Palestinians who would want to get out for the first time since the siege was put in place.”
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/2011525174117897741.html
Gaza: Revolution and change at the Rafah / Ramzy Baroud
ArabNews 25 May — …”Things will get better,” said a Palestinian engineer from Gaza, who once studied and now works in a Swedish town south of Stockholm. What he meant was that things will get better at the border crossing, in terms of the relationship between Gaza and Egypt. Without a decisive Egyptian decision to reopen the crossing – completely – Gaza will continue to reel under the Israeli siege. Others agree, but Gazans have learned not to become too confident about political statements promising positive changes …For now, things remain difficult at the border. When Egyptian border officials collect passports for examination, and return a few hours later to read aloud the names of those allowed in, a large crowd gathers around them. Tensions soon escalate to yelling, and occasional tears.”Go back or I will not give any his passport back,” shouted a large Egyptian officer with some disdain.
http://arabnews.com/opinion/columns/article427180.ece?comments=all
Palestinian embassy brokers Egypt medical support
CAIRO (Ma’an) 25 May — The Palestinian embassy in Egypt said Wednesday that it had provided treatment for Palestinian refugees suffering from cancer, and provide medicines needed by the Palestinian health ministry … The Cairo embassy’s medical advisor, Hussam Tukan …. added that the Palestinian health minister, Fathi Abu Mughli, had requested around 152 types of medicine and 160 types of medical equipment from Egypt for Gaza’s health system. Tukan said that communications were ongoing between the embassy and the Egyptian health ministry, in order to provide the medicines as soon as possible.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390950
Limited building materials cross into Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 25 May — Israeli authorities opened Gaza’s sole remaining commercial crossing terminal on Wednesday, for the limited import of building materials designated to international development projects … Supplies permitted to enter Gaza remain well below needs, UN reports say, showing pre-siege levels of almost 3,000 truckloads of goods a week down to just over 700 in the second week of May.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390856
Crime writer Mankell will be on next Gaza aid flotilla
STOCKHOLM (AFP) 25 May – Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell will take part in the next international flotilla that will attempt to bring aid to Gaza at the end of June, organisers said Wednesday. Mankell, the author of the popular Wallander series of detective novels, will be among a total of 20 Swedish participants in the “Freedom Flotilla 2,” Ship to Gaza Sweden said in a statement.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110525/wl_mideast_afp/israelconflictgazaswedenmankell
Campaign to vilify Gaza flotilla underway in Europe / David Cronin
EI 25 May — Over the past few weeks newspapers in the Netherlands have published articles alleging that some Dutch organizers of the flotilla are “terror supporters.” The main focus of these smears was Rob Groenhuijzen, chairman of the Netherlands Gaza Foundation, who was imprisoned for radical activities more than thirty years ago … “They don’t have the political or legal means [to stop the flotilla] and that’s why they try to criminalize the flotilla’s participants,” he told me. Unfortunately, the government in The Hague has proven receptive to the anti-flotilla campaign. A Dutch office of the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (known by the acronym IHH) was recently placed on a national list of banned organizations.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/campaign-vilify-gaza-flotilla-underway-europe/10009
Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlers
The expansion of the municipal border of Jerusalem
Settlement Watch 25 May — The Mayor of Jerusalem and the Minister of Interior will announce today in a press conference on the expansion of Jerusalem’s jurisdiction area with some 243 Dunams (60 Acres). Within the current political atmosphere, when every unilateral move by Israel in Jerusalem can cause a diplomatic crisis, this minor change in the Municipal borders of Jerusalem attracts a lot of public attention. The area that is being added to Jerusalem is of an enclave of the Ramat Rachel Kibbutz. 77% of the 243 Dunams to be added to Jerusalem are West of the Green Line (187 Dunams). Some 56 Dunams are in the “No Man’s Land” that was set up between Israel and Jordan, where no side was allowed to enter or to use the area according to the 1949 ceasefire agreement.
http://settlementwatcheastjerusalem.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/the-expansion-of-the-municipal-border-of-jerusalem/
An update on the Bustan
25 May — The Jerusalem Municipality refused to suspend the demolition orders in the Bustan neighborhood. The district court will hold another hearing on the issue at the 22th of June 2011. The Jerusalem Municipality have issued dozens of demolition orders to Palestinians in the Bustan neighborhood in Silwan, in order to use the land as a park. The Palestinian residents prepared a city plan that should legalize the illegal construction, while the Municipality have prepared another plan to demolish some of the houses and allow the construction of others near by, and to create a touristic park that will complete a park in the valleys around the Old City. Both plans are still pending in the planning committees. The Jerusalem Municipality insists to enforce the demolition order despite the fact the the plans are yet to be approved or rejected.
http://settlementwatcheastjerusalem.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/an-update-on-the-bustan/
Occupation bulldozers change features of Bab al-Amoud
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) 24 May — Israeli occupation bulldozers under protection of occupation police and soldiers started on Tuesday morning to uproot olive trees from a park close to Bab al-Amoud (Damascus Gate) in occupied Jerusalem … The Zionist municipality had announced intentions of building a Talmudic park near the walls of the old city to give the holy city a Talmudic feel. Palestinian youth in Jerusalem protested these acts and fist fights broke out between the protesting youth and the police and soldiers. Two Palestinian youth were arrested and taken to the police station in Salahuddin Street.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87
Occupation threatens Palestinian farm structures
AL-KHALIL, (PIC) 24 May — The Israeli occupation authorities have handed notices to six Palestinians in the southern West Bank district of al-Khalil giving them informing them that their farm structures will be demolished and their fields in the village of Beit Aula to the West of al-Khalil will be bulldozed. The head of the municipal council of Beit Aul, Rateb al-Emleh, said that according to the notices four water wells in the Jalmon and Twas neighbourhoods near the apartheid wall, as well as other farm structures will be demolished, large swathes of land will be bulldozed and trees uprooted.
Another sixteen such notices have been handed to Palestinians in the southern West Bank claiming that those lands were government properties and Palestinians have no right to develop them
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO
Israel plans annexation of Salfit land
SALFIT, (PIC) 25 May — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has decided to annex 2000 dunums of Palestinian land in Salfit in the West Bank so as to expand Jewish settlements built in their vicinity. Mayor of Qarawat Bani Hassan village in Salfit Abdulkarim Rayyan said on Tuesday that the targeted land is to the north and east of the village and is rich in almond, olive, and fig trees … Rayyan affirmed that more than 40 Palestinian families in the area own documents proving their ownership of the land and would defend their land with all available means and would resist that scheme.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Israel continues to fence in Qalqiliya village
QALQILIYA (Ma‘an) 25 May — Construction continued Wednesday on a barbed wire fence encircling the northern flank of Izbat At-Tabib, a village east of Qalqiliya. Residents awoke Monday to Israeli soldiers guarding work crews, who were installing a barrier between the village and the nearby settler-bypass Road 55. An Israeli military spokeswoman said at the time that the installation was designed to prevent rock throwing. The road, a settler-only facility, was built on village lands, and the fence cuts off further access to properties abutting the road. Seventy meters of fence were installed Monday, residents said, noting work crews returned on Wednesday to continue the installation. Residents were given no warning that the fence would be installed, and were informed Monday by military order that any lands obstructed by the project were being confiscated for security.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390919
Bedouin refugees complain to UN about discrimination in West Bank
dpa 24 May — Representatives for Bedouin refugees living in an area under Israeli control in the West Bank since 1967 told the United Nations on Tuesday they were being discriminated against and losing their identity and culture. A group of Bedouin took part in the annual meeting on indigenous people at UN headquarters in New York in a program designed to uphold the human rights of the more than 300 million indigenous people worldwide.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/bedouin-refugees-complain-to-un-about-discrimination-in-west-bank-1.363875
Israeli police using new stunning device on protesters
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 25 May — Israeli undercover units are employing a new, unknown electrical device in crowd-control missions in East Jerusalem, say witnesses. Residents of Anata refugee camp stated that undercover police were witnessed brandishing a formerly unseen small electrical device at protesters during clashes in recent days that, when applied, temporarily cripple the movement of those targeted. The stunning device was not seen applied directly to the skin of targeted protesters, needing only to be activated from several metres away and generally pointed at the feet. The device was used as a means of crippling protesters to allow police to move in and arrest them with ease.
http://silwanic.net/?p=17053
Detention
Israel frees mother of exiled senior Hamas man
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) 24 May — The Israeli army released on Tuesday the elderly mother of Salah Aruri, a senior member of Hamas exiled in Syria, AFP reporters said. Aisha Yussef Salah, almost 80, said police had taken her for questioning about the activities of her son, who is considered to be a leader of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. The Israeli army had no comment on the arrest or the release of the mother of Salah Aruri. She was arrested in a night-time raid by the Israeli army on her West Bank home near the village of Arura, her daughter, Jamila Mohammed Yussef, told AFP.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110524/wl_mideast_afp/palestiniansisraelconflicthamasarrestsyria
Israeli forces detain 12 overnight
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 25 May — …Palestinian sources, however, said four were detained in raids on Nablus, while four were taken from homes in Jericho and five from the southern West Bank regions of Hebron and Bethlehem … Khatib was taken from his home in the Al-Ain refugee camp west of Nablus. While Khatib’s family says he was granted amnesty by Israel ten months ago, PA officials say there is no record of such a deal. Amnesty is granted under a deal between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, which sees former fighters sign declarations of non-violence and hand in their weapons. As they wait for Israel’s agreement to the declaration, the former fighters live under Palestinian Authority protective custody in prison. Upon their release they are supposed to be safe from pursuit.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390861
Israeli soldiers attack Palestinian boy in Bethlehem
Pal Tel 25 May — West Bank, (Pal Telegraph)-Israeli occupation forces attacked yesterday at night a mentally disabled boy in Al-Khader town in the south of Bethlehem. Security sources said that Israeli soldiers invaded the town arresting the boy,14, and severely beating him before being released. The boy was evacuated to a hospital in Bethlehem for medical treatment due to injuries inflicted on his body.
Today, Israeli forces arrested three Palestinian teens from Al-Uroob refugee camp in the north of Hebron after raiding and searching their homes. According to Israeli radio, the teens were taken after throwing stones at settlers vehicles passing near Al-Khader town without casualties reported.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/9260-israeli-soldiers-attack-palestinian-boy-in-bethlehem.html
Palestinians detained, five injured in Silwan
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) 25 May — Israeli occupation police forces assaulted inhabitants in Silwan town, south of the Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem , using pepper bombs, eyewitnesses said. They added that the policemen engaged in clashes with youths who threw stones at them, adding that the policemen fired pepper bombs at onlookers one of them a 47-year-old man was treated for breathing difficulty and his son was detained after being beaten. Four others including a photographer working for Wadi Halawa data center called Ahmed Siyam were hurt in the assault.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2b
Refugees
Palestinian workers to get indemnity benefits: NSSF
DS 25 May — BEIRUT: Palestinian refugees working in Lebanon are now eligible to receive indemnity benefits, the National Social Security Fund has announced. A memo issued by NSSF director-general Mohammad Karaki said end-of-service compensation for Palestinian workers would now be calculated based on length of time worked from Sept. 2, 2010. The memo dated May 23, 2011 said, however, that Palestinian workers would not benefit from the NSSF’s health, maternity care or family allowances. The EU estimates the number of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon at around 280,000, below the official registered number of 400,000.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/May-25/Palestinian-workers-to-get-indemnity-benefits-NSSF.ashx#axzz1NOZ3fFhY
Racism / Discrimination
Damaging affirmative action / Avirama Golan
Haaretz 25 May — Paranoid fabrications are being used to harm an entire community under the aegis of the law, and in effect to revoke their civil status.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/damaging-affirmative-action-1.363922
Woman sues Chevra Kadisha over funeral segregation
Ynet 25 May — A resident of Netanya recently filed a suit for NIS 32,000 (roughly $9,000) against Chevra Kadisha after she was asked to stand separate from men in a funeral she attended. “This is discriminatory and is against our world view,” she claimed.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4073579,00.html
Politics / Diplomacy / International
Cairo: Some names for new government selected
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 25 May — Several names have been agreed on for the new technocrat government being compiled by Fatah and Hamas officials in Cairo, a party member told Ma‘an on Tuesday … Al-Loh said none of the names would be announced until the government was set, and meetings between all factions were concluded.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390524
Palestinian unity deal exposes divisions in Hamas
GAZA (Reuters) 25 May – Divisions in Hamas have been brought to the surface by a reconciliation agreement with rival group Fatah, exposing splits in the Palestinian Islamist movement that could complicate implementation of the deal. It is the first time differences between Hamas leaders in Gaza and the movement’s exiled politburo in Damascus have been aired so openly in public, supporting a view that the group is far from united. The disagreements have embarrassed a movement that has always denied talk of internal divisions. But analysts do not believe they signal an imminent fracture: neither wing of the Hamas movement can survive without the other.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110525/wl_nm/us_palestinians_hamas_1
Abu Marzouq: Hamas will not make same ‘historic mistake’ as PLO
MOSCOW, (PIC) 15 May — Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouq has declared that Hamas will not repeat the “historic mistake” of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) when it recognized Israel in 1993. “In international laws and norms, no one demands a party, a group or an organization to recognize a state, so it’s unreasonable to demand that Hamas recognize Israel,” Abu Marzouq said during a press conference held by Palestinian factions visiting Russia. Abu Marzouq, who is the deputy chairman of Hamas’s Political Bureau, said that the PLO’s recognition of Israel was “a historic mistake, as it was not a state so as to recognize another state.” “If it was required to recognize it, the recognition should have been mutual, and not just from one side. Recognition should also have been in the last stage of negotiations, not at the beginning,” he said.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2
Europe set for key Palestine role
BRUSSELS (AP) 25 May — Europe, its global influence waning by the day, has long wished for more of a voice in a Middle Eastern diplomatic arena dominated by the U.S. That wish is now being granted, in a limited way: The position of key European nations could determine the impact of the Palestinians’ plan to ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state at its September annual meeting.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110525/ap_on_re_eu/eu_europe_recognizing_palestine
WATCH: Israeli behind Gadhafi spoof song lampoons Netanyahu’s Congress speech
31-year-old music journalist and producer Noy Alooshe remixed Netanyahu’s speech to the tune of the popularremix of Yolanda Be Cool’s “We No Speak Americano.”
http://www.haaretz.com/culture/watch-israeli-behind-gadhafi-spoof-song-lampoons-netanyahu-s-congress-speech-1.363999
Congress applause of Netanyahu ‘pathetic’
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 25 May — The warm reception of the Israeli prime Minister at the US Congress was “pathetic,” President Abbas’ secretary-general At-Tayyib Abdul-Rahim said Wednesday. Benjamin Netanyahu entered Congress to applause the day before, and received more than 25 standing ovations during a speech in which he ruled out international demands to return to the 1967 borders or share Jerusalem, and called on Mahmoud Abbas to “tear up” the reconciliation agreement his Fatah party signed two weeks ago with rival faction Hamas. “We felt as we watched the reception that we were watching a totalitarian parliament,” Abdul-Rahim said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390917
Haim Saban hints: No more donations to Obama
Ynet 25 May — Billionaire funder of 2008 Democratic campaign disappointed by Obama’s conduct towards Israel — Media mogul Haim Saban, who has donated millions to the Democratic Party — especially during its 2008 campaign, led by President Barack Obama — has hinted that he will not continue to donate in 2012.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4073720,00.html
Erekat: Netanyahu’s Congress speech full of lies, hampers peace
Haaretz 25 May — Chief Palestinian negotiator says peace process cannot have a chance unless Netanyahu agrees that the Palestinian state should be established along the 1967 borders
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/erekat-netanyahu-s-congress-speech-full-of-lies-hampers-peace-1.363894
The assault on Netanyahu’s heckler / Annie
“Police arrested CODEPINK peace activist Rae Abileah at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington DC. Abileah was taken to the hospital after having been assaulted and tackled to the ground by AIPAC members of the audience in the House Gallery during Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress… “I am in great pain, but this is nothing compared to the pain and suffering that Palestinians go through on a regular basis,” said Abileah from her hospital bed. “I have been to Gaza and the West Bank, I have seen Palestinians homes bombed and bulldozed, I have talked to mothers whose children have been killed during the invasion of Gaza, I have seen the Jewish-only roads leading to ever-expanding settlements in the West Bank. This kind of colonial occupation cannot continue. As a Jew and a U.S. citizen, I feel obligated to rise up and speak out against stop these crimes being committed in my name and with my tax dollars.”
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/05/the-assault-on-netanyahus-heckler-rae-abileah.html
Rightist MKs slam Netanyahu’s ‘painful compromises for peace’
dpa/Haaretz 25 May — MK Danny Danon, from Netanyahu’s own hawkish Likud party, told Army Radio that the premier’s positions, as outlined in the speech, did not represent the views of his party. “We were elected to safeguard, not hand over,” he said of Netanyahu’s comments about settlements remaining outside of Israel after a future peace deal.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/rightist-mks-slam-netanyahu-s-painful-compromises-for-peace-1.363980
Settlers: We won’t live in Palestinian state
Ynet 25 May — Jewish residents of West Bank concerned over Netanyahu’s Congress address. ‘We were sent here by state, if they abandon us to Palestinians’ mercy we’ll resist,’ says settler, slamming ‘talk of ceding ancestral Jewish land’ … “It’s mass suicide, they’ll just destroy us,” a settler claimed.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4073896,00.html
MK tries to hand in a ‘Jordan is Palestine’ petition at the Jordanian embassy
NAZARETH, (PIC) 24 May — The Israeli radio said that Knesset member Aryeh Eldad of the National Union went on Tuesday morning to the Jordanian embassy and tried to hand in a petition which states that Jordan is Palestine and that the Palestinian problem should be solved inside Jordan. The embassy officials refused to receive the petition which was signed by 6000 people from 69 countries around the world, according to the radio.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Analysis / Opinion
Netanyahu’s speech to Congress shows America will buy anything / Gideon Levy
Haaretz 25 May — It was an address with no destination, filled with lies on top of lies and illusions heaped on illusions. Only rarely is a foreign head of state invited to speak before Congress. It’s unlikely that any other has attempted to sell them such a pile of propaganda and prevarication, such hypocrisy and sanctimony as Benjamin Netanyahu did yesterday. The fact that the Congress rose to its feet multiple times to applaud him says more about the ignorance of its members than the quality of their guest’s speech.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-s-speech-to-congress-shows-america-will-buy-anything-1.363897
FACT CHECK: Netanyahu speech ignores rival claims
JERUSALEM (AP) 24 May — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an impassioned defense of his approach to peace during a speech to Congress on Tuesday. But the address reflected the world view of Israel’s nationalistic right wing, one of several conflicting narratives that divide Israelis and Palestinians. Here is a sampling of Netanyahu’s claims along with what he did not mention. NETANYAHU: “You don’t need to send American troops to Israel. We defend ourselves.” THE FACTS: Israel is a leading recipient of American foreign aid, including more than $1 billion in military assistance each year. | NETANYAHU: “In Judea and Samaria, the Jewish people are not foreign occupiers. We are not the British in India. We are not the Belgians in the Congo.” THE FACTS: While the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria, is promised to the Jewish people in the Bible, the international community considers the West Bank occupied territory. Israel captured the area in the 1967 Mideast war but has never annexed it. Its occupied status is underscored by the presence of tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers who protect Israeli settlements and control the movement of Palestinian residents in the name of security 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110524/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_us_fact_check
The facts and fictions of Netanyahu’s address to Congress
Haaretz 25 May — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes claims about the West Bank, Arab citizens of Israel and the Jewish people’s historic biblical connection to Israel – are these hollow statements or political truths? … “Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights.” When making this claim, Netanyahu failed to mention the “loyalty oath” blitz of Yisrael Beiteinu, that afforded preferential admission to civil service positions for those who served in the Israel Defense Forces and demanded that those seeking citizenship pledge allegiance to a “Jewish democratic” state. What about the law granting town councils the prerogative to selectively admit members into their communities? These examples all appear in a report compiled by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel that deemed the current Knesset “the most racist in state history”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/the-facts-and-fictions-of-netanyahu-s-address-to-congress-1.363976
Poll: Netanyahu, US Congress, AIPAC stand to the right of Israeli public / Noam Sheizaf
972mag 25 May — According to Maariv’s poll, 57 percent of Israelis accept the principles outlined in president Obama’s Middle East speech. By being more pro-Israeli than the Knesset, the US Congress indicates that the road to peace and justice in the region cannot pass through Washington … What’s even more interesting is how far to the right the Washington establishment is on these issues. If they were Israelis, all of those attacking President Obama on Israel — from the Senate majority leader to the Washington Post’s editorial page — would have been part of the right flank of the Likud, or a moderate settler party. Right now, the Israeli consensus — if such thing exists — is to the left of the beltway (though Netanyahu is working very hard to change that).
http://972mag.com/poll-netanyahu-us-congress-aipac-stand-to-the-right-of-israeli-public/
Congress to Palestinians: Drop dead / MJ Rosenberg
HuffPost 24 May — If anyone had any doubt about whether the Palestinians would declare a state in September, they can’t have them now. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delivered a speech to Congress that essentially was a series of insults to Palestinians and every insult was met by applause and standing ovations …Congress cheered and cheered and when Netanyahu was finished, they climbed over each other to touch the hem of his garment, hoping that AIPAC’s donors saw them groveling before a foreign leader as they never would for a U.S. President. It was as if Congress thought that no Palestinians or other Arabs (or Muslims) would be watching. It was as if it believes that it can shout its lungs out for Netanyahu (and thereby secure those campaign contributions from AIPAC), without any consequences to U.S. policy and national interests in the Arab world. But Congress is wrong. The message it sent to the Middle East today, to the whole world, in fact, was that Palestinians cannot count on the United States to ever play the role of “honest broker” between Israel and the Palestinians..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/congress-to-palestinians-_b_866565.html
Analysis: 29 years of non-violent resistance to occupation / Mya Guarnieri
Ma‘an 25 May — “Here comes your nonviolent resistance,” The Economist proclaimed in an article two days after the events of Nakba Day. The writer pointed out that the demonstrations demanding an end to occupation and the right of return for Palestinian refugees that took place on May 15 were in the spirit of the First Intifada which was, by and large, nonviolent. My colleague Joseph Dana voiced the same sentiment, in an article on Alternet: “Many in the international press are claiming the Nakba day protests show that the Arab spring has arrived in Palestine…It was Palestinians who organized mass unarmed resistance against Israeli occupation in the late 1980s…” I endorse these articles. They offer important, nuanced takes on the Nakba Day protests, the First Intifada, and Palestinian resistance to the occupation. But they’re both wrong. … Nonviolent resistance began in 1982, in the Golan Heights.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390802
How Obama became the unlikely ally of an illegal West Bank outpost / Akiva Eldar
Haaretz 24 May — The state prosecutor is arguing that outposts can’t be torn down as long as the delicate ‘diplomatic discourse’ is ongoing.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/how-obama-became-the-unlikely-ally-of-an-illegal-west-bank-outpost-1.363664
Defensible borders for Israel: the 1967 lines are just fine / Gil Maguire
21 May — What are the legitimate security concerns of Israel, and what would be acceptable defensible borders?  Martin van Crevald, Israel’s preëminent military historian and theorist, recently analyzed this issue in the Jewish Daily Forward on December 15, 2010 in an article entitled: “Israel Doesn’t Need the West Bank to be Secure”.  He concluded that an invasion of Israel from Jordan through the West Bank would be suicidal for the attacker … His conclusion is both powerful and persuasive: … it is crystal-clear that Israel can easily afford to give up the West Bank. Strategically speaking, the risk of doing so is negligible. What is not negligible is the demographic, social, cultural and political challenge that ruling over 2.5 million — nobody knows exactly how many — occupied Palestinians in the West Bank poses.
http://savingisrael.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/defensible-borders-for-israel-the-1967-lines-are-just-fine/
The Palestinian right to dream / Peter Beinart
DB 25 May — As Congress applauded Netanyahu’s tough speech, a young Ramallah man talked about creating a Palestinian Tahrir Square, using nonviolence — and the hope that American Jews would back such a civil rights approach. Political reality suggests otherwise, writes Peter Beinart, but Palestinians should be allowed to dream.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/20110525/ts_dailybeast/14321_benjaminnetanyahusspeechandthepalestinianrighttodream_1
Neighbors: The Nakba is over / Zvi Bar’el
Haaretz 25 May — Lebanon likely won’t be seeing any more protests at the Israeli border, which were seemingly unhelpful to the tumultuous country’s interests — Last Friday, residents of the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras expected large numbers of Palestinians to come and hold prayers to mark the death of the 11 protesters who were killed during Nakba Day protests on May 15. The Lebanese Army was on alert for memorial gatherings and even another attempt to dash to the border fence. But none of this took place. There were no gatherings, no prayers and no marches.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/neighbors-the-nakba-is-over-1.363920
Teaching Nakba in the education system: tools or weapons? / Dahlia Zonzstein
972mag 25 May — Israelis and Palestinians obviously have competing ‘historical truths’ or narratives, but if we are to cultivate a next generation on both sides that can tolerate each other, shouldn’t we be teaching the conflicting narratives as a bridge towards reconciliation, and not as a weapon with which to crush the other? — Speaking at an education conference in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Israel Minister of Education Gideon Saar addressed the question(Hebrew) of teaching the Palestinian narrative in Israeli schools for the first time explicitly. He asserted (predictably) that Israel’s Ministry of Education will never permit the instruction of the Nakba or anything related to the Palestinian narrative in Israeli schools since “Israeli Independence shall not be treated like the Holocaust.”
http://972mag.com/%E2%80%9Chistorical-truths%E2%80%9D-in-the-education-system-tools-or-weapons/
The absurd US stance on Israel’s nukes: a VIDEO sampling of denial / Sam Husseini
23 May — …Yesterday at AIPAC Obama spoke of the “existential fear of Israelis when a modern dictator seeks nuclear weapons and threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the map — face of the Earth.” He spoke of “our commitment to our shared security in our determination to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.” Obama said to applause from the attendees at the pro-Israel group: “So let me be absolutely clear — we remain committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. … Its illicit nuclear program is just one challenge that Iran poses.” Of course, Netanyahu is ever more vociferous in his accusations regarding Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. But at his first news conference at the White House in February of 2009, Obama was asked by Helen Thomas if he knew of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons. Obama replied that he didn’t want to “speculate.”
http://www.washingtonstakeout.com/index.php/2011/05/23/the-absurd-u-s-stance-on-israels-nukes-a-video-sampling-of-denial/
The perks of traveling while Palestinian / Mohammed-Naji AlKhodari
EI 24 May — As I stood in the line waiting to check in at the Bradley International Airport in the US state of Connecticut, I wondered how overweight my luggage would be. After I handed my Palestinian passport to the woman sitting behind the desk, she paused for a minute.  “What’s wrong?” I asked.. “Nothing, but this is the first time I’ve held a Palestinian passport, which is kind of exciting for me as pro-Palestinian,” she replied. After she gave me the boarding pass, she asked me to put my luggage on the scale…
http://electronicintifada.net/content/perks-traveling-while-palestinian/10006
www.theheadlines.org (archives)
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)

I left the corporate bubble — and am now trying to give a voice to the scores of Palestinian Gandhis

May 25, 2011

Pam Bailey

I am an American “corporate refugee” – a woman who worked for 20+ years making a six-figure salary, with my eyes fixed on the next rung up the ladder (in “big pharma” no less). I was aware that there were parallel worlds, and that I was living in what could be called the “Comfort Corridor.” But I didn’t do anything concrete about it, other than read voraciously.

And then I began the odyssey that ejected me from my protected bubble. I acted on an adventurous whim — made possible by a particularly good bonus — and travelled to Palestine in 2007. It changed my life. That first educational trip led to a second one just a year later, this time as an ISM (International Solidarity Movement) volunteer during the olive harvest and protests in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah. The conversion into an activist was nearly complete. The last step was a corporate acquisition that gave me the excuse I was looking for to break free of my “golden handcuffs.” I walked away from my profit-driven existence and…took my first trip to Gaza, a Codepink delegation for International Women’s Day, 2009. Those who have been to Palestine understand how it gets into your blood. I had the extra advantage of now having a “tabula rasa” – a chance to re-invent my work, or at least to try. It wasn’t long before I decided to live and volunteer in the Gaza Strip for six months; if I ever hoped to eke out a living in this arena, I needed a deeper understanding. Six months isn’t long compared to a lifetime, but I felt it was enough to put “my feet firmly on the ground,” as well to teach me the diversity and nuances within the overall culture.

When I returned, I spent the next three weeks on a speaking tour from one coast to the other…and thinking about what I could do as an individual to make a difference, to not squander the experience and connections I now had. I didn’t want to focus on political activity alone; it’s a given for me, but progress just seems too slow. I also feel a need to do something that has a real, concrete, practical impact.

So, I asked myself, what can I do that will use my education and experience in communications to both help the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and chip away at the ignorance and stereotypes that prevent more Americans from empathizing with their plight? (Most Gazans will tell you that the greatest contribution you can make to their cause is to change our own government’s discriminatory and biased policies. The only way to do that, I’ve concluded, is to change public opinion, so that pressure is eventually exerted on their elected officials.)

One of the most common comments I hear when I return from Palestine and speak to various groups, even from relatively educated activists, is “what the Palestinians need is a Gandhi, or Martin Luther King Jr.” It’s the same “cult of the leader” we saw in the United States when Obama was running for president and so many people saw him as a “savior” of sorts. Yet, what the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions should have shown us all once again is that we cannot always wait for a strong leader to emerge, and one is not necessary to bring about the change we need. Palestinians have many “Gandhis” among them who are resisting occupation and corrupt government every day in very creative ways. So, I have joined with a friend of mine to document these stories and given them an audience. The individuals we are interviewing do not have the notoriety of Gandhi and MLK, but all they need is a platform, which we hope to help provide. They also do not have a similar mass following — in many cases, because Israel has attempted to snuff out their budding fame by raiding their homes and imprisoning them or their family members. Others are still young, only needing encouragement and recognition to become the leaders of the future. We hope to provide them a platform to amplify their voices.

When I returned to Gaza this January, I decided to invest some of the funds I still had to kickstart the project by filming interviews with individuals such as:

· The organizer for the popular resistance committee who led weekly protests in the deadly “buffer zone” by the Israeli border, learning from the growing support for protests against the “separation wall” in the West Bank. (Unfortunately, those protests came to a stop the week of my return. The Israeli military began shooting everyone who entered.)

· A businessman who responded to the ban on imports of glass and other construction materials by making tiles, ashtrays and decorative sculptures out of recycled glass from the destroyed buildings.

· Youth who are telling their stories and expressing their emotions through blogs, painting – and even sculpture made from cacti and spent munitions. (I partnered with a graphic artist to produce a poster showcasing some of these powerful images.)

· Troupes who are “acting out” through breakdance and rap, while helping other youth do the same instead of turning to militias or giving in to apathy.

· A young professional who is planning for the return of Gaza’s former status as a favorite tourist spot in the region, refusing to give in to the lack of hope for a “normal” future to which so many others have succumbed.

There are so many Palestinians who need a megaphone. I heard a young Palestinian poet, Dina Omar, recently, who said that sometimes she wants to shout at all the activists to be quiet just a minute and listen to the voices of the occupied. That is what this project is all about, and we hope to expand it into a library that includes voices from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the refugee camps of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon (which are almost totally ignored). You can help make it happen: here at Palestinian Gandhis.

Bromwich: Netanyahu found the chosenness recipe in America’s bad cookbook

May 25, 2011

Philip Weiss

David Bromwich responds to a post from earlier today suggesting that Congress’s docility before Netanyahu means that the Israel/Palestine conflict has become an irrepressible conflict.

I think your comments about the lobby, in the “irrepressible conflict” piece,
are right but I also think there’s a terrible, and largely separate source of
mischief, from American arrogance and superiority and “exceptionalism,” our own “chosen people” myth; doubly dangerous by its affinity with the Israeli myth. Netanyahu played on this resemblance, to the hilt.
We Americans had a narrow window to outgrow the myth–circa 1975-1980–but Carter’s bad luck (and want of a certain resourcefulness) and Reagan’s good luck in getting credit for the collapse of the Soviet system, drove us back into immaturity.

Obama’s wisest path as leader would have been to inoculate American public opinion against an arrogance that he distrusts, simply by never pandering to the myth. Speak of America with pride, yes, but as a society more than a nation; and don’t hide the madness. Instead, he pandered. Most of all in his Nobel Prize speech, of all places; where, in a setting most definitive of internationalism, he preached the doctrine of the legitimacy of American nationalist pride. As a nation of peace and good wars. Now, he is the captive of a bad cookbook of persuasion–too used to that cooking to find a way out on his own.
About those applauding congressmen: I agree, a sign of prejudice and craven submission to propaganda (supported by money and threats). But I wouldn’t underrate sheer ignorance as a factor. When they heard Netanyahu say Jerusalem must remain undivided and the capital of Israel, how many members of Congress even knew that its status as a capital is (to say the least) disputed and that it was undivided in the sense of being accessible to three religions, without being under Israeli rule, for most of the 20th century?

JPost revises ‘Nakba Day protests’ to ‘Nakba Day riots’

May 25, 2011

Circarre Parrhesia

This article, published a couple days ago on the Jerusalem Post website, was originally entitled “Palestinian group calls for more ‘Nakba Day’ style protests”.

Within moments of the original posting an editor for Jpost dove in and made a simple amendment to the title replacing “protests” with “riots”.

Interestingly, within the body of the article, reporting on the call for a repeat of the non-violent protests carried out on this year’s Nakba Day on June 5, the anniversary of the beginning of the Six Day War, the word protest remains.

The use of the term riot is frequently used by the office of the IDF Spokesperson to characterize non-violent protest throughout the West Bank each Friday and Saturday in their English language releases in an attempt to justify the use of violence against the attendees of such protests, whether Palestinian, Israeli or international.

This semantic correlation between the armed branch of the State of Israel and its media is, in this reporter’s opinion, yet another example of the intertwined nature of the State and Israeli media, which is an incredible shame considering that the Israel has far greater laws protecting the freedom of the press than many countries in the world.

I wonder if a young reporter at the Jpost is being given a stern lecture on his or her choice of language as I type this.

Circarre Parrhesia is an editor and writer for the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, based in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour.

Washington Post columnist reveals his inner child to be, well–

May 25, 2011

Philip Weiss

Dana Milbank in the Washington Post concludes that Obama made a terrible blunder in his speech on the Middle East, based on the responses to Bibi Netanyahu’s speech from “Inna Graizel, my daughter’s 21-year-old Israeli au pair, who is spending a year with my family, learning about America…” I’m guessing they don’t talk about the right of return in that household?

Feeling the ignorance at AIPAC 2011

May 25, 2011

Max Blumenthal

On May 22, thousands of supporters of America’s most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, converged on Washington for the group’s annual conference. For two days they watched Democratic and Republican congressional leaders pledge their undivided loyalty to the state of Israel, and by extension, to AIPAC’s legislative agenda. Speeches by President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the conference, with Obama attempting to clarify his statement demanding that 1967 borders be the “starting point” for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

I interviewed several AIPAC delegates in the streets outside the conference. While few, if any, of them were able to demonstrate the slightest degree of sophistication in their understanding of the Israel-Palestine crisis, they had been briefed inside on how to respond to critics. No one I spoke to would concede that Israel occupied any part of Palestinian territory; none would concede that Israel had committed acts of indiscriminate violence or that it had transferred Palestinians by force; one interviewee could not distinguish Palestine from Pakistan. With considerable wealth and negligible knowledge — few had spent much time inside Israel — the delegates were easily melded by the cadre of neoconservative and Israeli “experts” appearing in AIPAC’s briefing sessions.

As the day wore on, many delegates waded into confrontations with members of Code Pink and Palestine solidarity demonstrators who had set up a protest camp across the street. With conflict intensifying on the sidewalk, Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin invited AIPAC delegates to express themselves from the protest stage. There, their most visceral feelings and deeply held views about Israel-Palestine crisis were revealed. See it for yourself.

Video and text crossposted @ Max Blumenthal

Bi Bi Pro Americano

May 25, 2011

annie

Haaretz:

31-year-old music journalist and producer Noy Alooshe remixed Netanyahu’s speech to the tune of the popular remix of Yolanda Be Cool’s “We No Speak Americano.”

(hat tip Kate)

Sen Udall: Arab Spring shows up the Patriot Act
May 25, 2011 02:57 pm | Philip Weiss

Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, in an insurgent Senate debate today on the Patriot Act led by Rand Paul of Kentucky:

“In the Middle East…” people are “striving for more freedom, striving for more democracy,” and we support them. “Here on the floor of the United States Senate we are not willing to analyze what this so-called Patriot Act has done to our freedom.”

Paul: “We are being quieted down. We are being told to sit quietly in the back of the room and not make waves.. They call this the world’s greatest deliberative body. We’re unwilling to deliberate [this issue].”

Rae Abileah takes on the ‘culture of silence’ in the Jewish community

May 25, 2011

annie

AMY GOODMAN: What were you just saying? You were tackled by members of AIPAC?

RAE ABILEAH: I just wanted to say that the people that were sitting around me in the gallery of Congress yesterday were mostly wearing badges from the AIPAC Israel lobby conference. And I did not expect that people holding such power and representing such a huge lobby group would respond so violently to my peaceful disruption. And after I spoke out, Netanyahu said, you know, “This is what’s possible in a democracy. And you wouldn’t be able to get away with this in other countries like Tunisia.” And I think that is ridiculous and absurd. If this is what democracy looks like, that when you speak out for freedom and justice, you get tackled to the ground, you get physically violated and assaulted, and then you get hauled off to jail, that’s not the kind of democracy that I think I want to live in.

An awesome interview, read the whole thing.

AMY GOODMAN: And what does it mean for you to speak out? Often in this country, the Jewish community is portrayed as monolithic when it comes toward—to dealing with Israel policy and supporting the Israeli government. Your thoughts on that? And what does it mean for you to speak out, with your family from Israel?

RAE ABILEAH: I’ve been to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza several times. And after witnessing the destruction, the Jewish-only roads, the wall, the bombing of Gaza and the inequality there, I feel like, when I returned to the U.S., I had no option but to speak out for justice. And I feel this tremendous responsibility as a Jewish American to speak out for justice and against these war crimes that are being committed in my name as a Jew, as a U.S. taxpayer. But it’s not easy, for sure. There’s a culture of silence and fear in the Jewish community around speaking out about this. And it’s certainly—I get some blowback from family and friends. But I think it’s so important to follow my principles, my integrity and my heart. And I urge other especially young Jews to do the same. I think that us, as the next generation, we see things differently than the kind of brainwashing—or, we call it “bluewashing”—that we’ve been fed, sometimes by our congregations or by Israel. We have to see through the veil of religious narrative to see that what Israel is doing is not in the best interest of Judaism either. And you were just asking Mr. Barghouti about the Jewish state. I think that what Israel is doing is completely out of line with Jewish values. The value of tikkun olam, of repairing and healing the world, is totally absent from the Netanyahu administration. So we have to reclaim those values—

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you—

RAE ABILEAH:—and say that it’s not in the best interest of any faith to do this.