NOVANEWS
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A wedding under apartheid
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Boycott law is crossroads for U.S.’s liberal Zionists
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Arab countries see Israeli occupation and US interference as greatest threats to peace in Middle East (not Iran)
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Israel destroys Palestinian wells in West Bank while drilling more wells for settlers
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Boycott debate– in which a young, cosmopolitan, liberal-leaning Jewish man twists and writhes under the weight of half-truths and wispy contradictions
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Notes on the Egyptian Uprising
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This draconian law seeks to delegitimize nonviolent struggle
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‘Shocked’ by tour of occupation, 11 feminists led by Angela Davis ‘unequivocally’ support BDS
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Will boycott law shock American liberals into some realization about the character of the only democracy in the Middle East?
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How do you write the press release for the destruction of free speech?
A wedding under apartheid
Jul 12, 2011
annie
From Yousef Aljamal’s blog from Gaza, “A wedding under Apartheid.” I’m speechless. Extended excerpt:
Getting ready to head to my office, I have heard that my cousin is going to get married sometime this July. I thought for a while and said “What makes it distinctive?” It’s a wedding under Apartheid after all! A wedding in which most close relatives, like me and the rest of my family, will not be able to attend. A wedding that will take place somewhere in the other part of our homeland, but we will not take part in it, for committing the greatest sin, being Palestinians, Gazans.
It’s an apartheid wedding where very few will be allowed in, while many others will not have the opportunity of dreaming of being there, for a while. It’s how the state of occupation wants Palestinians to spend their happy moments, away. It’s the doctrine of separating Palestinians off from Palestinians, brothers from brothers, me from my cousins, uncles from aunts, families from families, beloved from beloved, sisters from sisters, me from my grandma and grandfather’s graves, a dad from his son, daughter. It’s separating us, people, from the place we belong to, separating our memories from our past and our present from our uncertain future. It’s removing cheers from children’s faces in such a time.
“Dear cousin, congratulations on your Wedding Day in advance. I wish you the best in your life. I hope these emotions get to you directly, without being asked to get permission, like us! All greeting to you, your dad whose hair turned white… your spirit of hope in the time of despair. Until we encounter once again, take care of yourself.”
Boycott law is crossroads for U.S.’s liberal Zionists
Jul 12, 2011
Matthew Taylor
Thanks to Bradley Burston for calling the fascist spade a spade. It’s better when Israeli Jewish journalists say this stuff about Israeli society, and we American Jews can quote them, thus making it harder to call us self-haters. Burston:
The Boycott Law is the litmus test for Israeli democracy, the threshold test for Israeli fascism…
This is the one. This is where the slope turns nowhere but down.
This an important historical moment.
When Israel’s apartheid regime comes crashing down, we will remember July 11, 2011 as the day Israel alienated itself from the bulk of its sane “moderate” supporters, and the beginning of the total demoralization of all but the most-right wing of the New Afrikaners. This law puts the J Streeters into a bind from which the only escape is to support BDS, in some form or other. Perhaps more than any other cruel and self-destructive act on the part of Israel, the boycott law will provoke the previously-silent to speak out.
Or not. Am I too optimistic? Do I have too much faith in the majority of world Jewry’s moral rectitude?
Arab countries see Israeli occupation and US interference as greatest threats to peace in Middle East (not Iran)
Jul 12, 2011
Philip Weiss
Just what we’ve been waiting for. Here’s a press release from the Arab American Institute on a Zogby poll they’re going to release tomorrow morning:
The Arab American Institute (AAI) will hold a press conference tomorrow, Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. at its offices at 1600 K St, NW Ste. 601 in Washington, DC, to release the findings of the latest AAI/Zogby International poll. Findings from the survey of six Arab nations show U.S. favorable ratings across the Arab world have plummeted.
With the 2008 election of Barack Obama, favorable attitudes toward the U.S. more than doubled in many Arab countries. But in the two years since his famous “Cairo speech,” ratings for both the U.S. and the President have spiraled downwards. The President is seen overwhelmingly as failing to meet the expectations set during his speech, and the vast majority of those surveyed disagree with U.S policies.
In five out of the six countries surveyed, the U.S. was viewed less favorably than Turkey, China, France—or Iran. Far from seeing the U.S. as a leader in the post-Arab Spring environment, the countries surveyed viewed “U.S. interference in the Arab world” as the greatest obstacle to peace and stability in the Middle East, second only to the continued Palestinian occupation.
While the vehemence of Arab reaction to the U.S. was startling, the general sentiment echoed points made in AAI President James Zogby’s 2010 book Arab Voices, in which he reflected on Arab opinions of both the U.S. and our foreign policies. “American democracy [seems] a lot like damaged goods to many Arabs… U.S. policy in the region has increasingly undermined Arab attitudes toward America as a global model.”
“This poll reaffirms what we’ve been saying,” said Zogby today. “Americans looked to Obama for change in 2008. The expectations were high, and we haven’t delivered. It seems that one thing that Americans and Arabs agree on is that the U.S. needs to make changes here at home before looking to build on changes abroad.”
Zogby added, “Here and abroad, people were looking for real changes in our domestic and foreign policies, for real engagement in the Arab world and for progress in Palestine. These numbers are a clear statement of their disappointment.”
Israel destroys Palestinian wells in West Bank while drilling more wells for settlers
Jul 12, 2011
Kate
and other news from Today in Palestine:
Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid
Aliyah arrivals destined for Palestinian areas of Israel
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 12 July — An Israeli organization has announced plans to bring more than 2,500 Jewish Americans and Canadians to Israel this summer, as it seeks to resettle the new arrivals in areas with high Palestinian populations. The organization, Nefesh B’nefesh, which promotes Aliyah, or Jewish-only immigration to Israel, said it would cooperate with the Jewish Agency and Israel’s migration ministry to arrange for the new arrivals, the organization’s website said. The first group of 245 immigrants is set to land on Tuesday, July 12 at Ben Gurion airport in Israel, the organization said.Nefesh B’nefesh recently launched a project encouraging the resettlement of immigrants in the northern region of Israel where there is a high concentration of Palestinians, a step observers say is an attempt to change the demographic features of the area.
link to www.maannews.net
Knesset approves Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance plans
JPost 12 July — The controversial Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance received final approval from the Ministry of the Interior’s District Planning and Construction Committee on Tuesday afternoon, meaning that work can begin on the site immediately. The building permit was awarded by the Interior Ministry, rather than the Jerusalem Municipality, due to the sensitivity of the site. Palestinian leaders claim the site, opposite Independence Park, is an ancient Muslim cemetery from the twelfth century.
link to www.jpost.com
ICJ ruling on illegal wall: Seven years on
Bethlehem, (Pal Telegraph) – PNN Exclusive – 12 July — Tomorrow, Palestinians will commemorate the seven year anniversary of the International Court of Justices (ICJ) ruling that the Israeli built wall and settlements in the Occupied Territories were against International law and International human rights. The ICJ at that ruling on July 9th 2004 called for the dismantling of the wall and compensation for those affected by it. The Israeli government has ignored these calls repeatedly. Although construction of the wall has slowed down, it is nearing completion, further forcing the abuses and human rights violations that tag along in its shadow to be imposed on more Palestinians.
link to www.paltelegraph.com
Israel opens Jesus baptism site in West Bank
QASR EL-YAHUD, West Bank (AP) 12 July — Israel has opened what some believe is the baptism site of Jesus to daily visits in a move that required the cooperation of Israel’s military and the removal of nearby mines along the border with Jordan. Some believe the West Bank site is where John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the waters of the Jordan River. However, Jordan says a site on its side of the river is where the baptism took place.
The West Bank site has not been regularly open to the public since the 1967 war, when Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan. Palestinian Tourism Minister Khouloud Daibes charges that Tuesday’s opening of the site is “illegal.” He calls it part of Israel’s “occupation” and “monopoly” of Palestinian historical and touristic resources.
link to old.news.yahoo.com
IOA forces Jerusalemite family to raze its own home
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 12 July — Maqdesi institution for social development has condemned the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) for ordering a Jerusalemite citizen to demolish part of his home. It said in a statement on Monday that the IOA told Khalil Dabash, who lives in Sour Baher in occupied Jerusalem, that he has to tear down an addition. It said that the Israeli interior ministry refused to consider his request for a building permit without first razing the 75-square meter area added to his first floor then turning the entire floor into a garage. Dabash demolished part of the addition in late 2010 but the ministry and the municipality were not satisfied and said that all added area should be demolished. Dabash has a family of 24 members half of them children who would be rendered homeless if he was forced to raze his house.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Israeli occupation forces destroy wells and confiscate pumps
[photos] JVS 12 July — This morning Israeli forces destroyed water wells in the villages of Al Nasaryah, Al Akrabanyah, Bet Hasan, in the Northern Jordan Valley. A big number of military jeeps, along with bulldozers and trucks entered villages located on the way between Tubas and Hamra checkpoint and demolished 3 water wells and confiscated the pumps. 5,000 people live in this region, classified “Area A” [full Palestinian civil and security control] by the Oslo Agreements. The destruction of these wells means the destruction of the only source of income of hundreds of Palestinian families who depend on agriculture.
link to www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org
Israel digs more water wells in the Jordan Valley
JVS 12 July — For few days Israel is expanding its water wells in Arab Il Kaabneh area, in the Southern Jordan Valley. The water well is located just beside a Palestinian Bedouin community. No Palestinians have access to this water which goes directly into the different settlements that surrounds the Palestinian communities. Palestinians have to buy their drinking water that runs under their feet to the Israeli water company Mekorot, driving dozens of kilometers with their tractor and mobile water tank
link to www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org
Al Khalil (Hebron): Mekorot Water Company again destroys Jaber family water pipes
[photos] Christian Peacemaker Teams 12 July — On 6 and 11 July, 2011 Atta Jaber called the Hebron CPT Office to report that the Mekorot Water Company had destroyed plastic irrigation pipes in his family’s gardens. Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, employed young Palestinians to cut the water lines and accused the Jabers of stealing water by tapping into lines that supply the nearby Israeli settler communities of Harsina and Kiryat Arba … The United Nations Covenant establishes that under international law it is illegal for Israel to expropriate the water of the Occupied Palestinian Territories for use by its own citizens, and doubly illegal to expropriate it for use by Israeli settlers … The extended Jaber family has deeds to their lands dating back to the time of the Ottoman Empire. Atta Jaber believes that the water that flows to the Beqa‘a valley comes from an aquifer under the town of Bethlehem. “Palestinians should not have to pay for what is already their own,” he told CPTers. If their gardens fail, the family fears, Israel will declare the empty dunums of land unused, or abandoned, and settlers will claim them.
link to cpt.org
Detention / Incursions
Israeli troops raid village in Jenin, detain 2 locals
JENIN (Ma‘an) 12 July — Israeli forces detained two men on Tuesday during a raid on Burqa village, south of Jenin. The army also reportedly handed out several orders summoning locals to appear before intelligence services at Salem military camp. Mahmoud Qasrawi, 30, and Adnan Subuh, 22, were both detained by soldiers in a dawn raid, security officials told Ma‘an. An Israeli army spokesman said there were no reports of such an incident.
link to www.maannews.net
IOF soldiers arrest 8 Palestinians, beat up others
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 12 July — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up eight Palestinians in the West Bank at dawn Tuesday half of them in Al-Khalil province, Palestinian sources reported. They said that the soldiers searched many houses in the process after forcing all occupants out including women and children. An IOF spokesman said that the arrests were mainly made in Al-Khalil and Qalqilia. Local sources in Al-Khalil said that the IOF detained the brother of a Hamas martyr in the city and three other citizens in two villages. They said that the soldiers stormed two other villages without arresting anyone, noting that the IOF was recently concentrating on Al-Khalil province.
Meanwhile, in Qaryut village, to the southeast of Nablus city, IOF soldiers last night detained then beat up ten Palestinian civilians, local sources said.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Gaza
IOF troops bulldoze lands in Gaza, detain citizens in a raid on Jenin
GAZA (PIC) 12 July — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) mounting a number of tanks escorted two military bulldozers into Zaitun suburb to the south east of Gaza city on Tuesday morning, local sources said. They told the PIC reporter that the IOF troops bulldozed land in the area amidst intermittent firing at nearby residential quarters.
Meanwhile, IOF units stormed five villages in Jenin province at dawn Tuesday and rounded up two young men in Burqin village after searching their homes and combing the vicinity of the village. Other units ordered two citizens in Arrabe village to report to the intelligence, warning their relatives against non compliance. A similar measure was made in nearby Fahme village during which the homes of the two citizens were damaged in the search process. Locals said that four IOF armored vehicles broke into the home of a citizen in Marka village and wreaked havoc on it and in the nearby village of Kufr Ra’ee the forces handed a citizen an order to report to the intelligence after ransacking his home.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Two Gaza rockets strike southern Israel
Haaretz 12 July — Two rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel on Tuesday night, causing minor damage to a house.One rocket landed in an open area in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council, while the other landed in Sdot Negev Regional Council, causing minor damage to a house. An alarm sounded throughout both areas prior to the explosion of the rockets
link to www.haaretz.com
Solidarity at sea aboard the Oliva / Rana Baker
EI 12 July –For years, Palestinian fishermen have been subject to routine attacks, shootings and arrests by the Israeli navy as they attempt to ply their trade in the seas off the coast of Gaza. A month ago, Oliva, the first boat to monitor human rights violations in the Palestinian territorial waters, was launched … Mahfouz al-Kabariti, the president of the Fishing and Marine Sports Association, explained to The Electronic Intifada how the idea of this monitoring boat came to life.
link to electronicintifada.net
UNRWA reinstates full name after outcry
Ramallah (PNN) 12 July — UN agency brings back ‘Reliefs’ and ‘Works’ to its full name on its website after Palestinian protests at name change … Last week a protest was held outside the UNRWA office in Gaza in opposition to the name change.The name change led many Palestinians to believe that services to Palestinian Refugees were being cut by the UN.
link to english.pnn.ps
Israel demands clarifications after demonstration at Red Cross headquarters in Gaza
JERUSALEM (AP) 11 July — Israel on Monday sought clarifications from the International Committee of the Red Cross, following a demonstration outside the organization’s Gaza headquarters Monday by families of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel … A Red Cross organizer said Monday’s event was special, marking the fourth anniversary of Israel’s refusal to allow Gaza families to visit prisoners. Israel bans most Gazans from entering Israel … At Monday’s event, Associated Press Television video showed speakers addressing the crowd from a podium emblazoned with the Red Cross emblem. Workers in Red Cross jackets were shown in the crowd … Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Red Cross involvement in the event appeared to violate its code of neutrality.
link to ca.news.yahoo.com
Qatar charity to begin QR13m Gaza project
DOHA (Peninsula) 12 July — Qatar Charity is preparing to implement a QR13m [about US$3.5m] reconstruction project for schools in the Gaza Strip in cooperation with the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) Gaza Reconstruction Programme … As part of the project, Qatar Charity will build 130 classrooms in more than 12 schools across the Gaza Strip to develop and expand the capacity of those schools.
link to www.menafn.com
Activism / Solidarity
Israeli forces disperse rally in Hebron, detain man in Beit Ummar
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 12 July – Israeli forces dispersed on Tuesday a non-violent rally against settlement construction and closure of shops in the center of the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Israeli soldiers fired stun grenades and tear-gas canisters at the protesters … The rally was initiated by a local group of Hebron youth called the Coalition Against Settlements. Protesters marched from Bab Az-Zawiya neighborhood toward Ash-Shuhada street. International solidarity activists joined the rally raising slogans demanding evacuation of Israeli settlers from the heart of the southern West Bank city, and re-opening its streets.
Separately, troops ransacked a printer in As-Salam street in Hebron, confiscating property. No arrests were reported.
In the nearby town of Beit Ummar, a few kilometers to the north, Israeli forces raided the home of 20-year-old Muhammad Ahmad Abu Mariyya in the early morning and detained him. On Monday, soldiers stormed a funeral procession in the town and assaulted four young men. Spokesperson of the town’s popular committees, Muhammad Ayyad Awad, said four young men were stopped at the funeral, taken to a military monitoring tower near the northern entrance where the soldiers beat them. He added that some soldiers tried to confiscate a camera he was using.
link to www.maannews.net
Activists launch summer camp to rebuild Palestinian home
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 12 July — Activists on Sunday launched the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions’ ninth summer rebuilding camp, doing work on a demolished home in the West Bank town of Anata. This year, some 30 volunteers will rebuild a Palestinian home belonging to the Abu Omar family. The house was demolished in 2005 under the pretext that it was built on land zoned as an agricultural area. ICAHD says it has rebuilt a total of 170 Palestinian homes demolished by Israel. Founder Jeff Halper calls the effort an “overtly political act of defiance. By rebuilding, we set alternative facts on the ground.”
link to www.maannews.net
Who framed pilot-turned-activist Yonatan Shapira? / Dimi Reider
972mag 12 July — “A concerned citizen” and a radical rightwing MK claim to have found in trash bin an air force helmet and some secret documents belonging to Yonatan Shapira, a former IDF pilot and one of the most recognized anti-occupation activists — Israeli news site Ynet is running today an exquisitely odd story, seemingly incriminating former Air Force pilot and prolific activist Yonathan Shapira. According to Ynet, a “concerned citizen” helping a friend repair a flat noticed a strange bundle in the trash bin. As a “reservist of 16 years” he was “shocked and appalled” to discover in the bundle a pilot’s helmet, secret navigation documents and other equipment, with the rucksack and the helmet bearing the name of Yonathan Shapira. Instead of taking it straight to the police, the citizen took his loot to the most Kahanist of MKs, Michael Ben Ari (National Union), for a photo-op, and only then did the pair take the items to the police, which in turn delivered them to the IDF.
link to 972mag.com
Fly-in / Flytilla
Israel deports more ‘flytilla’ activists
JERUSALEM (AFP) 12 July — Israel on Tuesday expelled 22 foreign pro-Palestinian activists detained after flying into Israel for protests at the weekend, and more were due to leave in the evening, an official said. Immigration service spokeswoman Sabine Hadad said that those who left during the day were put on flights to Italy, France and Austria. “Another 11 are on their way to an Alitalia flight,” she told AFP. “There could be more during the night. At the moment we have 23 (still in custody).”
link to old.news.yahoo.com
Flying into Israeli detention
AJ 11 July — Almost immediately after landing at Ben Gurion, Israeli security officers quickly separated a group of passengers for extra scrutiny at passport control, among them most of the activists. They were then taken to a police bus parked outside the terminal where men and women were separated and were shoved into tiny cells in the converted touring car after being stripped of their belongings. Ten men were crammed into a space of roughly 3,5 square metres that was infested with cockroaches. The activists on the bus started singing and chanting and demanded to see a lawyer, but were told by the Israeli border police to “shut up” and were threatened with violence if they didn’t. “I don’t want to hurt you but I certainly will if I have to,” shouted an officer after opening the door to the cell in which the activists were held. When the singing and chanting continued, the border police officers started spraying water through the bars of the cell. “Dogs are treated better in my country,” Bilal, a 24-year-old student from Brussels, said.
link to english.aljazeera.net
Israel airport arrests: Campaigners fly back to the UK
BBC 12 July –…The group had planned to attend events in support of Palestinians in the West Bank. About 700 people from around the world had intended to visit Bethlehem on the invitation of families there … University lecturer Mr Napier said the members of his group began a hunger strike after information on charges against them was not provided and they were denied a phone call. “We were chained, handcuffed and detained for no apparent reason – we had committed no crimes – no UK or Israeli law was breached. “We were denied any information about any charges against us and were also denied a telephone call over the entire period we were in prison. “It was a situation of lawlessness,” he said.
link to www.bbc.co.uk
Flotilla
Action alert, July 12 — from the Audacity of Hope
Athens, July 12, 2011, At 10 am Greek time today, the shore electricity was cut off to the Audacity of Hope, the U.S. Boat to Gaza, leaving us with no power. The boat has been imprisoned at the US Embassy/Greek Coast Guard dock, near Piraeus, Greece, just outside of Athens, since we tried to sail to Gaza on July 1. The Greek Coast Guard intercepted our small boat and hauled us into this compound. It is over 100 degrees inside the boat, and a Russian ship is spewing grain and dust over the entire area as it unloads grain. In addition, the off-loading noise the ship is making is above environmentally acceptable limits, sounding like a bad rock concert playing at the back of our boat! Six women are staying on board to protect the Audacity of Hope, since two boats heading to Gaza were already sabotaged in an attempt to prevent us from sailing to Gaza. Four of us are over 60 … Call the Greek Embassy in Washington and .the Greek consulates around the Country and demand that they release the Audacity of Hope.
link to ustogaza.org
Obama administration using anti-terror laws to intimidate and harass American pro-Palestinian activists / Alex Kane
AlterNet 8 July — For the past year, as activists prepared for the participation of an American boat in the flotilla seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, organizers tried to come up with a way to circumvent a major obstacle: the prohibition against “material support” for State Department-designated terrorist groups … In the months leading up to the second Freedom Flotilla, U.S. Boat to Gaza activists decided to carry cargo of a much different sort than earlier Gaza-bound boats: 3,000 letters from American citizens addressed to the citizens of Gaza as a symbolic act of solidarity … That cargo, they reasoned, couldn’t be construed as material support for a designated terrorist group, Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip after being democratically elected in 2006 … But much to the chagrin of the U.S. Boat to Gaza, it looks like the American flotilla activists will have to deal with the specter of prosecution.
link to www.alternet.org
The story of the flotilla is not over / Ewa Jasiewicz
EI 12 July — …Israel’s actions suggest that the diversity of voices and forces opposing Israeli impunity and illegality have no right to exist and must be silenced, deterred from activism, reporting and revealing. The second Freedom Flotilla challenges this doctrine head-on. In the case of the occupation and blockade on Gaza, this action represents a global democratic movement of delegitimization of the illegal blockade. The Freedom Flotilla has played outside the worn-out chessboard of diplomatic state maneuverings, negotiations and lobbying. The lesson learned from Greece serving as Israel’s mercenary by intercepting the flotilla boats shows the lack of democracy, autonomy and accountability states have when pressured by the bullies of the global school-yard. However, it also shows the power democratic movements have in creating scenarios and actions which propel them into the arena of state-level politics and force these actors to have to deal with democracy from below.
link to electronicintifada.net
Suppression of dissent
Yisrael Beiteinu advances anti-leftist bill
Ynet 12 July — The Yisrael Beiteinu faction is planning to arrange a Knesset vote on a proposal to set up a commission of inquiry against leftist groups less than a day after the ‘boycott bill’ passed a Knesset vote.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Rights groups: Anti-boycott law is legal annexation
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 12 July — Israeli human rights groups condemned on Tuesday a new law which prohibits the boycott of businesses, universities and social or cultural institutions based in Israel and settlements in the Palestinian West Bank. … Human rights groups say that it seriously harms freedom of expression and freedom of association and gives protection to illegal West Bank settlements by penalizing opponents. “The bill seeks to enforce legal protection for an illegal project,” Hadas Ziv of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said in a statement. “In other words, it signals a de-jure annexation of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank,” he added.
link to www.maannews.net
Israeli groups to challenge boycott law in court
JERUSALEM (AP) 12 July — A new law that seeks to impede boycotts against West Bank settlements sparked a ferocious debate Tuesday — with proponents praising a new bulwark against efforts to isolate Israel and critics fearing for its embattled democracy … The dispute reflects a growing chasm separating Israelis who support the country’s 44-year-old occupation of the war-won West Bank and others who view the presence of soldiers and settlers in the territory — claimed by Palestinians for their own hoped-for state — as a national calamity.
link to old.news.yahoo.com
US on Israeli boycott law: Freedom to protest is a basic democratic right
Haaretz 12 July — The U.S. State Department responded Tuesday to the new anti-boycott law passed in Israel, saying that the freedom to organize and protest is a democratic value Israel and the U.S. have long shared … When asked to comment on the anti-boycott law, the U.S. State Department said the law was an “Israeli internal matter” but also hinted its criticism by pointing out the right to peaceful protest in democratic countries …The Anti-Defamation League also expressed its criticism regarding the new law on Tuesday, saying that despite its opposition of boycotts of Israel, it is concerned the new law impinges on the “basic democratic rights of Israelis to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.” “To legally stifle calls to action – however abhorrent and detrimental they might be – is a disservice to Israeli society,” ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said in a statement.
link to www.haaretz.com
Refugees
Palestinian Open University project back on track
DailyStar 12 July — …Palestinian students are still treated as foreigners at Lebanese universities. Scholarship money has decreased. And a group of young Palestinians have revived an idea from decades past. For the past two months they have been conducting workshops in UNRWA schools, gathering information, and garnering support for the building of a Palestinian university in Lebanon … Organizers recently presented Salvatore Lombardo, UNRWA’s director of affairs, with a petition 10,000 signatures strong requesting the university. All of the signatories are Palestinian students from the country’s 12 refugee camps … There is opposition, too. Khaled said he received one email that read, “You want a Palestinian university? Please get out of Lebanon.” Another said, “please give up your weapons from inside the camps and you can make anything [you want].”
link to www.dailystar.com.lb
Racism / Discrimination
Women banned from economic conference
Ynet 12 July — Haredi, secular women refused entry to event organized by ultra-Orthodox newspaper at Jerusalem International Convention Center. ‘It was humiliating and incomprehensible,’ one of them says. Organizers: Women excluded for modesty reasons
link to www.ynetnews.com
Knesset passes bill against discrimination in schools
JPost 12 July — The Knesset plenum passed a bill late Monday night banning all forms of discrimination in the school system based on the country of origin of a student or their parents. “In light of numerous incidents of both covert and overt discrimination against students simply because of their country of origin, the Knesset today has made it clear that there is no place for such incidents in an advanced country, which has in its laws the protection of an individual’s dignity and freedom,” initiator of the bill, MK Alex Miller (Israel Beitenu) said on Monday.
link to www.jpost.com
Political / Diplomatic / International news
Greek president visits Palestine
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 12 July — Greek president Karolos Papoulias arrived in Ramallah on Tuesday as part of an official visit to the Palestinian territories … The visit comes as the Greek government recently prevented Gaza-bound flotillas from leaving its ports, leading to an outcry by international activists who questioned the government’s motives. A youth group in Ramallah were set to hold a demonstration on Tuesday in protest against the Greek president’s visit.
link to www.maannews.net
Hamas objects to Abbas’s welcoming of Greek president
GAZA (PIC) 12 July — Hamas has rejected Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s conduct in welcoming Greek President Karolos Papoulias after Greece issued a ban on Gaza flotilla ships docked at its ports … Senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil said in a press statement on Tuesday: “At a time when the Palestinians are outraged at Greece’s official position…in response to Zionist pressure…Abbas shocks us by receiving Greek president Karalos Papoulias in Ramallah.” Bardawil also objected to the fact that the move came after Papoulias visited Israeli President Shimon Peres and Peres thanked Papoulias for support of Israel’s position on the flotilla.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Mideast mediators fail to agree on new peace talks
WASHINGTON (AP) 12 July — Already dim prospects for any quick resumption to Mideast peace talks have been dealt a blow as international mediators failed to reach agreement on how to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and a confrontation that is likely to set back efforts even further looms at the United Nations.
link to old.news.yahoo.com
Obama administration defends aid to Palestinians
WASHINGTON (AP) 12 July — The Obama administration is defending U.S. aid to the Palestinian authority, telling Congress the assistance is critical to peace and stability in the Mideast … Last week, the House overwhelmingly backed a resolution calling on the Obama administration to consider suspending aid to the Palestinian Authority in light of the deal between the government and Hamas — considered a terrorist group by Israel and the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jacob Walles said the administration will closely monitor whether a new government emerges and will reassess the aid.
link to old.news.yahoo.com
US officials urge Arabs to resume Palestinian aid
WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Wednesday called on Arab governments to resume previous levels of assistance to the Palestinians [read: PA], and raised warning flags over aid cuts contemplated by U.S. lawmakers. State Department officials appearing before Congress emphasized the benefits of assistance to the Palestinian Authority, including a newly trained cadre of Palestinian security forces they said were boosting regional security by pursuing militants in the West Bank.
link to www.trust.org
China supports Palestinian membership in UN
BEIJING (WAFA) 12 July — China expressed its support Tuesday of Palestinian membership in the United Nations. The statement was made by the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi during a meeting in Beijing with a Palestinian delegation that included Azzam al-Ahmed, member of Fatah Central Committee, and Bassam al-Salhi, general secretary of the Palestinian People’s Party.
link to english.wafa.ps
Kazakhstan supports Palestinian plan to seek UN recognition
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 12 July – Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Jordan, Bulat Sarsenbayev, reiterated Monday his country’s support of the Palestinian plan to seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders.
link to english.wafa.ps
Israeli students fly to South Africa to improve their country’s image
Haaretz 12 July — One of Israel’s most serious image problems is how it is perceived on campuses around the world. Now, a group of 27 Israeli students are planning to tackle the issue head-on, funding their own trips to South African universities … On the first trip, scheduled to depart August 11, the participants will spend 10 days visiting universities in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town and try to convince students there that Israel is not an apartheid state. Pro-Palestinian activities are held almost daily on these campuses.
link to www.haaretz.com
Video: Gunmen blow up Egyptian gas pipeline to Israel
AP 12 July — At least four assailants drive away guards, blow up terminal in El-Arish in fourth attack on pipeline since Mubarak’s ouster [click on left-facing arrow at right of screen to watch video]
link to www.ynetnews.com
Al Jazeera: We’re the target of a threat campaign
DOHA (DailyStar) 11 July — Al-Jazeera satellite news channel Sunday condemned what it called a campaign of threats against its journalists because of its coverage of uprisings in the Arab world. “Al-Jazeera presenters have been the targets of a campaign of threats, with in some cases their own safety and that of family members being threatened,” the Doha-based channel said in a statement. The campaign “is aimed at influencing Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the uprisings and protests that have swept many Arab countries,” it said … a source at the broadcaster said the threats emanated from Syria,
link to www.dailystar.com.lb
Other news
4.2 million Palestinians in West Bank, Gaza Strip
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 12 July — On World Population Day 2011, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics announced that the total population of the Palestinian territory stood at 4.2 million people. Some 2.6 million live in the West Bank and 1.59 million in Gaza, the PCBS report said. Among the other findings: More than one-fifth of participants in the Palestinian labor force are unemployed
link to www.maannews.net
Investigator: PA corruption suspects to be named ‘soon’
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 12 July– Head of the Palestinian Authority’s anti-corruption commission Rafiq An-Natsheh said Sunday that several suspects would be identified soon. “The commission will surprise the citizens and will reveal its accomplishments in the near future as well as publish the names of those involved in corruption,” he said. “The investigation is moving along two lines,” An-Natsheh told Ma‘an. “One is internal and another is external, through cooperation with our embassies abroad…”
link to www.maannews.net
81% of Israelis support EU membership, BGU poll finds
JPost 12 July — Sixty-four percent of Israelis would support a NATO deployment of peacekeeping troops to the West Bank and Gaza, according to a survey published by the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev on Monday. The survey, compiled by Sharon Pardo, Jean Monnet Chair in European Studies in the Department of Politics and Government at BGU, found that the level of support for such a move was the same for both Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel.
link to www.jpost.com
Fasayel vs. Al Awja: a goal for the Palestinian Jordan Valley
JVS 11 July — Yesterday, July 10th, was launched the third edition of the Jordan Valley football tournament in Al Awja. Yousef Lafi, from the Palestinian Football Federation, along with Al Awja club manager, Fathy Khderat and Ibrahim Sawafta, from the JVS campaign, opened the football tournament. Every speaker emphasized the importance of this tournament as a way of putting light on the Jordan Valley and its specific situation.
link to www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org
Banksy in the West Bank / Adrian Margaret Brune
[with photos] HuffPost 11 July — …Banksy, the subversive British artist who started his career with a can of spray paint and a graffiti rat tag, has become as popular around the West Bank as Naji Salim al-Ali, the iconic and martyred political cartoonist. In fact, even more so, if imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery. It takes a trained eye to spot the real Banksy from his legion of protégés, who have colored their side of the 425-mile-long Geder Hafrada (separation barrier) — or as the Palestinians call it, “jidar al-fasl al-‘unsuri” (racial segregation wall) — with an incredible panoply of resistance art. In many ways, it’s difficult to know who inspired whom. In 2005, Banksy traveled for the first time to the West Bank and painted, in Bethlehem, thetrompe-l’oeil scenes of a beaches peeking through smashed holes in the wall. They were a huge hit with the Palestinians — not so with the Israelis, who fired their guns in the air to scare off the enigmatic, misanthrope who already relishes in disdain.
link to www.huffingtonpost.com
Remi Kanazi’s poetry of struggle / Alexander Billett
EI 11 July – It’s early June, a few days after Gil Scott-Heron’s death. There’s something about the passing of an icon like him that makes the search for new, vibrant rebel art all the more urgent. In a strange twist of serendipity, I just happen to be sitting down to readPoetic Injustice by Remi Kanazi. The first lines hit me like a punch in the gut: I never saw death / until I saw the bombing / of a refugee camp / craters filled with / dismembered legs / and splattered torsos / but no sign of a face / the only impression / a fading scream
link to electronicintifada.net
Embracing the land / Reham Alhelsi
[photos] 11 July — Every morning he wakes up, prays, prepares tea, carries the old tea pot and a small glass and goes to check on his trees and plants. He wanders between the loquat tree and the apple tree and the vineyard, between the jasmine, the sage and the thyme bushes. He checks on them, waters them, removes unwanted weeds and collects some mint for his tea. He then sits in a corner, under the shade of the loquat tree, sips his hot tea and watches the leaves dance with the cool morning breeze. All his life he had been a villager, a farmer, a land-worker, a land-lover. His father and grandfather and forefathers before him were villagers, farmers, land-workers and land-lovers. They all used to wake up with the first rays of sunlight, often race the sun to the land. They, his father, grandfather and forefathers, all planted olive trees, apple trees, carob trees, loquat trees, apricot trees and fig trees and created a green heaven, a paradise, a home. They all worked the vast areas of the land that was and is theirs, the land that was and is part of them and they part of.
link to avoicefrompalestine.wordpress.com
Analysis / Opinion
Counting the cost of a Palestinian state / Yousef Munayyer
AJE 11 July — …the intended goal has focused on a Palestinian state in name only, without much regard for what that state would look like or whether it would afford Palestinians their rights. This peace process would seemingly go forward endlessly if it could loosely attach the concept of a state to any hilltop in the West Bank, so long as there was a Palestinian leadership willing to go along with it. Palestinians cannot and should not accept a “state” at any cost … For 20 years, the Washington-led peace process has succeeded in doing one thing better than anything else; giving Israel every incentive to maintain its occupation. By assigning the policing responsibilities for the urban centers to the Palestinian Authority and having the Europeans and the Americans pay for this project, Israel has effectively retained the security domination and colonial usurpation benefits inherent in occupation without having to be responsible for any of the costs.
link to english.aljazeera.net
Video – Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery: ‘We’ve become the Goliath’
VJMovement 28 March — He speaks about the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians, the ‘unique’ colonial situation, Israeli contempt for Palestinians and Arabs
link to www.youtube.com
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.theheadlines.org (archive)
Boycott debate– in which a young, cosmopolitan, liberal-leaning Jewish man twists and writhes under the weight of half-truths and wispy contradictions
Jul 12, 2011
Ahmed Moor
I had the privilege of attending the boycott debate in London with Eleanor Kilroy, which she wrote about here. I only wanted to add a few more points:
For those of you who haven’t seen Omar Barghouti debate or speak, he is an unnaturally gifted communicator. He made the case for BDS with overwhelming moral force in an understated way. And he remained unperturbed for the duration of the debate – despite some of the howlers unleashed by the other side.
Eleanor pointed out that the Zionists’ most potent talking point (rather, the one they seem to think is potent) was, “Why Israel when other countries are also behaving badly?” Jonathan Freedland in particular seemed to think that our focus ought to be on Syria under Assad or Sri Lanka’s mass murder of civilians instead. Significantly, he made this point after insisting that he was a liberal who supported the boycott of Apartheid South Africa.
I had a question lined up for Freedland: Was the international community wrong to boycott Apartheid South Africa because Hafez Al Assad was in control of Syria at the time?
No, of course not.
Overall, the night was uplifting. The case for BDS is very strong and the audience’s tremendous support for the motion was a reflection of that. But Freedland depressed me a little with his performance. I spent the night watching a young, cosmopolitan, privileged Jewish man with liberal leanings twist and writhe under the heavy weight of petty half-truths and wispy contradictions.
In service of what? Aren’t “liberal Zionists” ever going to grow tired of their forced contortionism? What will it take to pierce their ugly self-deception? Will they ever grow embarrassed of play-acting either liberal or Zionist?
PS. The highlight of the night came for me when Freedman suffered an apoplectic fit. The reason? Omar explained that the BDS call would remain in effect until Israel implemented UN Resolution 194.
Notes on the Egyptian Uprising
Jul 12, 2011
Max Ajl
The ripples from the January 25 insurrection continue to rock Egyptian society. On July 8, hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in squares across the country on the Friday of Determination. As Al-Ahram reports, “retribution against ‘the killers of the martyrs’ undoubtedly stands out as the foremost demand raised by demonstrators from Alexandria on the country’s northern coast all the way down to Aswan, in the deep south.”
Among the demonstrators were trade unionists as well as university teachers from the Coalition of Egyptian Universities Faculty, mobilizing under the slogan, “We want a free university and the National Democratic Party out” and “the people demand the cleansing of universities.”
Spot fire strike activity and union organizing is continuing, and mounting –including a three-week long strike by the workers of the Suez Canal Authority, who are agitating for higher wages and better working conditions.
On Tuesday, tens of thousands of protesters streamedinto Tahrir Square, where, as 3arabawy blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy reports, “The demonstrators’ fury was further inflamed…by a threatening speech from theSupreme Council of Armed Forces, which constituted an official declaration of war on the revolution.” He adds that he “heard strong chants against the police, PM Essam Sharaf, and the military junta generals.”
Meanwhile, in America, machinations to control the course of the uprising continue. Against the backdrop of the pitchfork-bearing Islamophobia of the reactionary wing of the business class, housed in the Republican Party, the Muslim Brotherhood has cozied up to the Obama administration and the Obama administration to the Muslim Brotherhood, as the latter has promised to retain the 1979 peace treaty with Israel, against the wishes of the Egyptian electorate, 54 percent of which has called for annulling the treaty.
It was only reluctantly, under pressure from its lower ranks, that the Muslim Brotherhood participated in last Friday’s massive demonstrations.
As the most organized political force, the Muslim Brotherhood is best poised to take control of the country during the upcoming elections.
Its political orientation will most likely be conservative – having nothing to do with religion and everything to do with the fact that it spent years as the “official opposition,” while its leadership has come out againstindependent working-class action.
There is a temptation amongst those recoiling from Western Islamophobia to support the Muslim Brotherhood in performative defiance of Western racism. That temptation should not be indulged: the Muslim Brotherhood has been pro-business and anti-redistribution, a reminder that political Islam can as easily resist Western power – Hamas and Hezbollah – as augment it: Wahhabi Saudi Arabia.
Against this tableau, with revolt and reaction jostling uneasily between Tahrir and Heliopolis, it’s probably premature to speak of revolution. Or at least, to speak without an awareness that the counter-revolution is struggling to break the grassroots surge.
One sector where policy-making continues with barely a hiccup is US arms sales to Egypt, the foundation stone of the Egyptian army’s repressive capacity. Congress was notified on the same Friday that saw the massive demonstrations about a possible sale of 125 M1A1 Abrams tanks to Egypt. Including weapons, equipment, parts, and logistical support, the total will be about 1.2 billion dollars, most of it going to the Abrams’ manufacturer – the American arms corporation General Dynamics.
The Pentagon is peddling the sale to Congress under the premise that it would “contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that has been and continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.”
As usual, stability needs to be translated from the bureaucratic jargon of Pentagonese into the English language: the US interest in the Middle East has never been regional stability, but stability of friendly regimes and instability of the rest of them. So weapons suffuse Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Egypt, while bombs carpet Libya, Lebanon, and Iraq, with Iran perpetually under the gun.
Commentary magazine, the house organ of the Israel lobby, has come out against the sale, worried about the power of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. The Obama administration, awash in campaign dollars from wealthy Jews, doesn’t seem to care so much.
The weapons are useful both in sowing chaos and in keeping American arms manufacturers marinating in profits: the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute notes that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was the biggest weapons importer in the region between 1990 and 2009, so that Saudi Arabia can “deter and defend against threats on its borders and to its oil infrastructure.” Since 1967, the region has been the major recipient of US arms exports, keeping major production lines thrumming during lulls in Pentagon purchasing.
Germany also is getting in on the looting of Arab oil wealth. The Tehran Times reports that the German coalition government has confirmed – unofficially – that it has approved the export of 200 tanks to Saudi Arabia, worth roughly 1.8 billion Euro, or 2.6 billion dollars. Apparently, the “the delivery of the Leopard tanks to Saudi Arabia was supported by the governments of the United States and Israel.”
So long as Israel maintains its Qualitative Military Edge, reactionary sectors of its American supporters may quaver about the arms sales to the Arab states, but are unlikely to do much more.
And as long as ties continue between Egypt and America, and especially between the Egyptian army and the Pentagon, the trajectory of the Egyptian insurrection will remain unclear.
One hopeful sign is the awareness of diverse social sectors that the major cleavages within their societies have more to do with access to social power than their stance on religiosity. The increasing radicalization of the lower layers of the Muslim Brotherhood is one example of that awareness. Egyptian liberals may fret about Palestinian suffering, but too many want to maintain Egypt as an Arab buttress of the Israeli regime that perpetuates Palestinian suffering.
Another more transnational example of those cleavages was the coalescing of the European, American, and Israeli governments around blocking the Freedom Flotilla.
The sooner we can recognize that similar cleavages exist in our own societies, and the sooner we can organize and mobilize on their basis, the sooner we can bring the liberatory energy of the Arab Spring across the Atlantic, and the sooner we can make America cease its major exports to the Middle East – reaction, repression, and destitution – break the Special Relationship, and start using American resources to build America and not to turn the Middle East into rubble.
If anything, that should be the lesson from and reaction to the Tahrir demonstrations: that the time for replicating them was yesterday, and that if we want to see them in our own societies tomorrow, we better start organizing to that end today.
Max Ajl blogs at www.maxajl.com, and is on Twitter at@maxajl
This draconian law seeks to delegitimize nonviolent struggle
Jul 12, 2011
Philip Weiss
The following statement was issued today by the U.S. Committee for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and endorsed by five Palestine solidarity groups (named below):
On Monday, 11 July 2011, the Israeli Knesset passed new legislation outlawing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a non-partisan grassroots initiative that seeks to pressure Israel to comply with international law and recognize fundamental Palestinian rights.
The bill bans all advocacy and action to boycott any Israeli companies, within Israel and the occupied Palestinian West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. Furthermore, any company can be awarded compensation without even having to prove direct damage. The law is so broad that it could potentially be used not only against citizens of Israel, but also against Palestinians living under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. The legislation leaves Palestinian and Israeli solidarity groups who promote the boycott of any Israeli company liable to be sued and the vagueness of the bill opens all activists to arbitrary persecution.
We, Palestine solidarity and social justice groups based in the United States, reiterate our support and endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement. We stand by our friends who will be legally subject to this draconian bill, which seeks to further deligitimize the non-violent struggle against Israeli apartheid.
This latest escalation in Israeli repression tactics aims to stifle the BDS movement. The call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, endorsed by over 170 Palestinian civil society groups in 2005, has been adopted by hundreds of solidarity organizations worldwide that seek to put pressure on Israel until it complies with international law.
Not only do Palestinian and Israeli groups actively organize campaigns within Israel and occupied Palestine; but projects like Who Profits? also educate the international community by researching the true dealings of Israeli companies and enable many campaigns in the justice for Palestine movement.
This bill follows upon the ‘Nakba law’, which defunded any institution that acknowledged the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948. Such repressive legislation particularly targets Palestinians inside Israel, who are already subject to apartheid and extensive institutionalized racism as well as political persecution.
Israel has maintained such discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel, alongside its illegal siege of Gaza, its brutal military occupation of the West Bank, its de facto annexation of East Jerusalem, its ongoing denial of the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees and its policies of ethnic cleansing since before 1948.
Additionally, Israel recently suppressed other non-violent initiatives; pressuring foreign governments to obstruct the Freedom Flotilla II, which was organized to challenge the illegal blockade and siege of the Gaza Strip and the “Flytilla” which brought to light that Palestinians cannot even receive visitors.
The global BDS Movement will not be stopped, intimidated or harmed by this latest Israeli attempt to repress the legitimate struggle for Palestinian rights. We will heed the Palestinian call to escalate our BDS campaigns. We stand side by side with our sisters and brothers in this struggle for rights and justice.
Signed:
The US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
Al-Awda New York, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
CODEPINK Women for Peace
International Solidarity Movement -USA Free Gaza Movement -USA
Siege Busters Working Group
‘Shocked’ by tour of occupation, 11 feminists led by Angela Davis ‘unequivocally’ support BDS
Jul 12, 2011
annie
The following statement is titled, “A Call to Action from Indigenous and Women of Color Feminists.” Its 11 signatories are at bottom:
Between June 14 and June 23, 2011, a delegation of 11 scholars, activists, and artists visited occupied Palestine. As indigenous and women of color feminists involved in multiple social justice struggles, we sought to affirm our association with the growing international movement for a free Palestine. We wanted to see for ourselves the conditions under which Palestinian people live and struggle against what we can now confidently name as the Israeli project of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. Each and every one of us—including those members of our delegation who grew up in the Jim Crow South, in apartheid South Africa, and on Indian reservations in the U.S.—was shocked by what we saw. In this statement we describe some of our experiences and issue an urgent call to others who share our commitment to racial justice, equality, and freedom.
During our short stay in Palestine, we met with academics, students, youth, leaders of civic organizations, elected officials, trade unionists, political leaders, artists, and civil society activists, as well as residents of refugee camps and villages that have been recently attacked by Israeli soldiers and settlers. Everyone we encountered—in Nablus, Awarta, Balata, Jerusalem, Hebron, Dheisheh, Bethlehem, Birzeit, Ramallah, Um el-Fahem, and Haifa—asked us to tell the truth about life under occupation and about their unwavering commitment to a free Palestine. We were deeply impressed by people’s insistence on the linkages between the movement for a free Palestine and struggles for justice throughout the world; as Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted throughout his life, “Justice is indivisible. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Traveling by bus throughout the country, we saw vast numbers of Israeli settlements ominously perched in the hills, bearing witness to the systematic confiscation of Palestinian land in flagrant violation of international law and United Nations resolutions.
We met with refugees across the country whose families had been evicted from their homes by Zionist forces, their land confiscated, their villages and olive groves razed. As a consequence of this ongoing displacement, Palestinians comprise the largest refugee population in the world (over five million), the majority living within 100 kilometers of their natal homes, villages, and farmlands. In defiance of United Nations Resolution 194, Israel has an active policy of opposing the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homes and lands on the grounds that they are not entitled to exercise the Israeli Law of Return, which is reserved for Jews.
In Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in eastern occupied Jerusalem, we met an 88-year-old woman who was forcibly evicted in the middle of the night; she watched as the Israeli military moved settlers into her house a mere two hours later. Now living in the small back rooms of what was once her large family residence, she defiantly asserted that neither Israel’s courts nor its military could ever force her from her home. In the city of Hebron, we were stunned by the conspicuous presence of Israeli soldiers, who maintain veritable conditions of apartheid for the city’s Palestinian population of almost 200,000, as against its 700 Jewish settlers. We crossed several Israeli checkpoints designed to control Palestinian movement on West Bank roads and along the Green Line. Throughout our stay, we met Palestinians who, because of Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem and plans to remove its native population, have been denied entry to the Holy City. We spoke to a man who lives ten minutes away from Jerusalem but who has not been able to enter the city for twenty-seven years. The Israeli government thus continues to wage a demographic war for Jewish dominance over the Palestinian population.
We were never able to escape the jarring sight of the ubiquitous apartheid wall, which stands in contempt of international law and human rights principles. Constructed of twenty-five-foot-high concrete slabs, electrified cyclone fencing, and winding razor wire, it almost completely encloses the West Bank and extends well east of the Green Line marking Israel’s pre-1967 borders. It snakes its way through ancient olive groves, destroying the beauty of the landscape, dividing communities and families, severing farmers from their fields and depriving them of their livelihood. In Abu Dis, the wall cuts across the campus of Al Quds University through the soccer field. In Qalqiliya, we saw massive gates built to control the entry and access of Palestinians to their lands and homes, including a gated corridor through which Palestinians with increasingly rare Israeli-issued permits are processed as they enter Israel for work, sustaining the very state that has displaced them. Palestinian children are forced through similar corridors, lining-up for hours twice each day to attend school. As one Palestinian colleague put it, “Occupied Palestine is the largest prison in the world.”
An extensive prison system bolsters the occupation and suppresses resistance. Everywhere we went we met people who had either been imprisoned themselves or had relatives who had been incarcerated. Twenty thousand Palestinians are locked inside Israeli prisons, at least 8,000 of them are political prisoners and more than 300 are children. In Jerusalem, we met with members of the Palestinian Legislative Council who are being protected from arrest by the International Committee of the Red Cross. In Um el-Fahem, we met with an Islamist leader just after his release from prison and heard a riveting account of his experience on the Mavi Marmara and the 2010 Gaza Flotilla. The criminalization of their political activity, and that of the many Palestinians we met, was a constant and harrowing theme.
We also came to understand how overt repression is buttressed by deceptive representations of the state of Israel as the most developed social democracy in the region. As feminists, we deplore the Israeli practice of “pink-washing,” the state’s use of ostensible support for gender and sexual equality to dress-up its occupation. In Palestine, we consistently found evidence and analyses of a more substantive approach to an indivisible justice. We met the President and the leadership of the Arab Feminist Union and several other women’s groups in Nablus who spoke about the role and struggles of Palestinian women on several fronts. We visited one of the oldest women’s empowerment centers in Palestine, In’ash al-Usra, and learned about various income-generating cultural projects. We also spoke with Palestinian Queers for BDS [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions], young organizers who frame the struggle for gender and sexual justice as part and parcel of a comprehensive framework for self-determination and liberation. Feminist colleagues at Birzeit University, An-Najah University, and Mada al-Carmel spoke to us about the organic linkage of anti-colonial resistance with gender and sexual equality, as well as about the transformative role Palestinian institutions of higher education play in these struggles.
We were continually inspired by the deep and abiding spirit of resistance in the stories people told us, in the murals inside buildings such as Ibdaa Center in Dheisheh Refugee Camp, in slogans painted on the apartheid wall in Qalqiliya, Bethlehem, and Abu Dis, in the education of young children, and in the commitment to emancipatory knowledge production. At our meeting with the Boycott National Committee—an umbrella alliance of over 200 Palestinian civil society organizations, including the General Union of Palestinian Women, the General Union of Palestinian Workers, the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel [PACBI], and the Palestinian Network of NGOs—we were humbled by their appeal: “We are not asking you for heroic action or to form freedom brigades. We are simply asking you not to be complicit in perpetuating the crimes of the Israeli state.”
Therefore, we unequivocally endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Campaign. The purpose of this campaign is to pressure Israeli state-sponsored institutions to adhere to international law, basic human rights, and democratic principles as a condition for just and equitable social relations. We reject the argument that to criticize the State of Israel is anti-Semitic. We stand with Palestinians, an increasing number of Jews, and other human rights activists all over the world in condemning the flagrant injustices of the Israeli occupation.
We call upon all of our academic and activist colleagues in the U.S. and elsewhere to join us by endorsing the BDS campaign and by working to end U.S. financial support, at $8.2 million daily, for the Israeli state and its occupation. We call upon all people of conscience to engage in serious dialogue about Palestine and to acknowledge connections between the Palestinian cause and other struggles for justice. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Rabab Abdulhadi, San Francisco State University*
Ayoka Chenzira, artist and filmmaker, Atlanta, GA
Angela Y. Davis, University of California, Santa Cruz*
Gina Dent, University of California, Santa Cruz*
G. Melissa Garcia, Ph.D. Candidate, Yale University*
Anna Romina Guevarra, author and sociologist, Chicago, IL
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, author, Atlanta, GA
Premilla Nadasen, author, New York, NY
Barbara Ransby, author and historian, Chicago, IL
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Syracuse University*
Waziyatawin, University of Victoria*
*For identification purposes only
Will boycott law shock American liberals into some realization about the character of the only democracy in the Middle East?
Jul 12, 2011
Philip Weiss
Even the New York Times gets it; the Knesset’s passage of a law making boycott-advocacy punishable is an historic restriction on free speech. In the only democracy in the Middle East! Two friends’ responses– neither of them people who follow the issue:
–I all but had to revive my husband a few moments ago after he read about the boycott bill in Israel. “It’s insane! Do they have a first amendment there?” he asked. And then: “Is there any reality-based community left in Israel?”
–What imaginable federal law in the U.S. circa 1962 prohibiting interference
with Southern segregation might have been analogous to the Israeli boycott law?
What effect would the passage and the enforcement of such a law have had on the history of the American civil rights movement whose triumph we celebrate?
