Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

• Israel moves forward on 6 factories and 100s of homes in occupied territories as Norway and Syria back Palestinian statehood

• Jeffrey Goldberg vs. The Truth

• Henning Mankell: ‘I promise that the Israeli regime won’t have a quiet moment until this illegal blockade is broken’

• American Zionist org supports new limits on free speech in the ‘human rights loving democracy’

• Desolate and empty the sea

• 100 hours in Israeli detention for trying to visit Bethlehem

• Turkish Jews say that when Israel does bad stuff, they get blamed as ‘Israelites’

• The Freedom Flotilla continues – French boat Dignité Al Karama leaves Greece on way to Gaza

• 4 Republican congresspeople ‘pledge’ to hold West Bank

• B’Tselem: In past the six years, only one Palestinian minor acquitted out of 835 charged with stone-throwing

Israel moves forward on 6 factories and 100s of homes in occupied territories as Norway and Syria back Palestinian statehood

Jul 18, 2011

Kate

and other news from Today in Palestine:

Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid

Israel plans hundreds more settler homes
Reuters 18 July — Israel announced plans on Monday to build another 294 homes in two Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and the Palestinians said the move hardened their resolve to seek statehood recognition from the United Nations. Israel’s Housing Ministry linked the new construction to a nationwide plan to lower housing prices, which have skyrocketed in recent years, and appease protesters demanding affordable living space.
link to old.news.yahoo.com
Tenders published for six West Bank factories
JPost 17 July — The Lands Authority last week published tenders for six factories in the Mishor Adumim Industrial Park located near [no, in] the Ma’aleh Adumimsettlement in the West Bank, according to Peace Now.  It said that five of those tenders were first issued in 2008 when Ehud Olmert was the prime minister, but that the projects had not gotten off the ground.
link to www.jpost.com
Palestinian Silwan family fined $10,000, face home demolition
IMEMC 18 July — The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported Monday that an Israeli court fined a Palestinian family $10,000 for building its Silwan home without a permit. Widad Tawil, the owner of the home, has been given until October to get a permit for the house from the Israeli municipality in Jerusalem. In the event they cannot do so she and her eight children will face demolition of their family home. Palestinians complain that is impossible to obtain permission to build housing from the Israeli authorities. Many face no choice but to build without official permission opening themselves up to the risk of a large fine, demolition as well as the bill for the demolition.
link to www.imemc.org
Police question youths at Jerusalem summer camp
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 18 July — Israeli police stormed a summer camp for children in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied east Jerusalem on Monday and interrogated campers, a Fatah official said. Munir Al-Jaghoub, spokesman for Fatah recruitment, says the camp is run by the Sheikh Jarrah Women’s Forum. About 50 children aged 12-17 joined the camp, called “Sheikh Jarrah will remain steadfast,” he added.
link to www.maannews.net
Settlers
Police: Settlers stab Palestinian farmers
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 18 July — A group of Israeli settlers attacked three Palestinian shepherds near Jerusalem on Monday, police said. The shepherds were tending to their sheep on a hillside near Mikhmas east of Jerusalem when they came under a “brutal” attack by the ultra-Orthodox settlers who beat and stabbed them, Palestinian police said in a statement. They were evacuated to hospital where medics said two victims sustained serious wounds, police said. The statement did not elaborate on their identities or say at which hospital they received treatment.
link to www.maannews.net
3 settlers detained on suspicion of attacking Palestinians
JPost 18 July — Three settlers from the Ramat Migron area have been detained and questioned over an incident earlier on Monday in which three Palestinians were assaulted, Judea and Samaria police said. In the attack, one person was seriously injured and another moderately injured. They were taken to the Ramallah hospital by the Red Crescent, police added. “We have launched an investigation and detained an adult and two minors,” a police spokeswoman said. “The circumstances of the incident are being examined,” she added.
link to www.jpost.com
Jewish settlers bulldoze Palestinian land
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 18 July — Jewish settlers bulldozed Palestinian land in Sa‘eer village, north of Al-Khalil city, on Sunday under protection of Israeli occupation forces, local sources said. The city’s research center said in a statement on Monday that settlers from a nearby settlement bulldozed a large area of agricultural land. It said that the bulldozing took place without prior notice, quoting owner of the land as saying that the settlers withdrew from the area when citizens started to gather near them. He urged the media and human rights groups to be present in the event the settlers returned as expected on Monday morning.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Video: Settlers injure 170 Palestinians in ’11
PressTV 18 July time: 2:08
link to www.presstv.ir
Israeli forces
Israeli forces raid village near Nablus
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 18 July — Israeli forces raided the northern West Bank village of Qaryut south of Nablus on Sunday firing gunshots into the air as well as stun grenades and tear gas canisters. The village was under curfew until late into the night. Eyewitnesses told Ma‘an that the invading troops shouted through loudspeakers using foul language and threatening to continue raiding the village for three days. “Israeli forces ransacked several homes beating its residents. A woman and a disabled man sustained bruises,” a local said. A minor, Ubada Mahmoud Hussein, 13, was detained after he was beaten by the soldiers. Israeli authorities have recently confiscated about 200,000 square meters of the village’s agricultural land to expand an illegal settlement outpost in the area.
link to www.maannews.net
Gaza
Two Qassam members wounded in Israeli air raid
KHAN YOUNIS (PIC) 18 July — Two members of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, were wounded at dawn Monday in an Israeli air strike on Khuza‘a to the east of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip. Spokesman for medical services Adham Abu Salmiya told the PIC reporter that one of the injured was in a serious condition, and that both were taken to the European Hospital in Khan Younis city. Local sources told the PIC reporter that an Israeli drone plane bombed an advanced observation post for the Qassam fighters wounding two of them. Three Palestinians were killed and more than 20 were wounded in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip over the past few days.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Gaza paper: IDF scattered warning flyers
Ynet 18 July — Flyers said to caution residents to keep away from security fence, request info on tunnel smugglers
link to www.ynetnews.com
Gaza power authority accuses Fayyad of withholding NIS 80m in entitlements
GAZA (PIC) 18 July — Gaza Energy Authority head Kanaan Obeid has accused Abbas-appointed prime minister Salam Fayyad of withholding an estimated NIS 80 million (US $23.25 million) in funds that should have been used to pay off the debts of the Gaza electricity distribution company.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Gaza exports stopped at the border / Eva Bartlett
[photos] GAZA CITY (IPS) 16 July — Waddah Bsaiso is ready to export, if the Israeli-imposed siege would allow him. He has the experience, the contacts, and the products, but is prevented by Israel’s strict ban on virtually all Gazan exports, save a token amount of flowers periodically allowed out of the Strip. “We started a furniture factory in 1996 and over the years exported to different European markets, as well as to Arab nations and the occupied West Bank,” Bsaiso says. Sitting at one of his tables, a dark wood dining table with a natural finish, Bsaiso says that his business, Bsaiso and Alami Company limited, formerly netted two million dollars per year. “Now we are lucky if we can earn 400,000 dollars per year,” he says … Despite Israel’s declared ‘easing’ in June 2010 of the total siege on Gaza, in June 2011 the World Food Programme (WFP) reported that “only 5% of the pre-blockade export volume was reached from November 2010 to April 2011.”
link to ingaza.wordpress.com
Palestine – ‘Occupation incorporated’ / Tim Marshall
Sky News blog 18 July — An African UN worker in the West Bank recently remarked to a mutual friend ‘When people see me coming they see a walking ATM machine’ … The Palestinian Authority likes to boast about the West Bank’ s 8% economic growth, so does the Israeli government, which uses it to suggest that a prosperous Palestine would make an easier negotiating partner. They also know the Palestinians have more lose if a 3rd Intifada breaks out. What they fail to remind us is that there are well over 200 NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza, and 30% of the GDP here comes from international aid. Palestinians are among the most foreign aid funded people in the world and the place is awash with money … No Palestinian business can compete with NGOs which routinely triple what a local firm would pay. Many NGOs fork out ‘danger money’ and even ‘hardship payments’ to both local and international staff which further undermines the local private businesses. So the NGOs get the brightest and the highest paid, and the private firms get the rest but without the tax exemptions.
link to blogs.news.sky.com
Freedom Flotilla II
French flotilla boat en route to Gaza
AFP 18 July — Pro-Palestinian activists on a French yacht which sailed from a Greek island over the weekend are expected to reach the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, organizers said …    “We hope to arrive between 12 and 2, we don’t want to go during the night,” he told AFP, adding that the yacht was carrying a “symbolic message of peace and hope and love.” Israel on Monday vowed to block any attempt to reach Gaza by sea. “If this boat is on its way to Gaza, which is a breach of international maritime law, and tries a provocative act, yes, we shall intercept it,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told reporters in Jerusalem. “But I assure you we shall try our best to make those on board very comfortable.” On board are 16 people, including three crew members and three journalists, among them Amira Hass, a veteran columnist with the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Detention
New film investigates Israel’s military justice system in the West Bank / Joseph Dana
[with video excerpt, 12:31] 972mag 18 July — According to the press release for the film, “The Law in These Partsexplores the four-decade-old military legal system in the Occupied Territories. Since Israel conquered the territories in the 1967 War, the Israeli Defense Forces legal corps have created and implemented thousands of military orders and laws, established military courts, sentenced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. This complex system which is invisible to most Israelis is very present in Palestinian daily life and is unique in the entire world. Till today, the IDF legal professionals face judicial and moral dilemmas as they develop and uphold a system of long-term ‘rule by law’ of an occupied population by an occupying army, all under the supervision of the Israeli High Court of Justice. Using interviews, archival footage and deep historical research, this film explores the formal legal mechanisms of Israel’s forty-year military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
link to 972mag.com
UK court releases Raed Salah as government case flounders / Asa Winstanley
EI 18 July — After nearly three weeks in British jails, influential Palestinian activist and religious leader SheikhRaed Salah was conditionally released today. He had been granted bail in the High Court on Friday, where The Electronic Intifada watched as the British government’s case against him floundered. Leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Salah had been on a speaking tour in the UK when he wasabruptly arrested on the way back to his London hotel on the night of 28 June. The full legal case against a government order banning him from the country is likely to be heard in September … In a press release, Daud Abdullah, director of the Middle East Monitor (MEMO), who had invited Salah to Britain to give talks to politicians and academics, said: “We are confident that the release of Sheikh Raed will be the beginning of a successful attempt to exonerate him from the character slurs and allegations that have appeared in some sections of the media.”
link to electronicintifada.net
Video: Palestinian minors jailed for throwing stones
Al Jazeera’s Tom Ackerman reports from the occupied West Bank. Time: 2:14
link to palestinianpundit.blogspot.com
Israeli court extends administrative detention of Palestinian man for 4th time
NABLUS (PIC) 18 July — An Israeli court extended the period of administrative detention of Palestinian prisoner Ihab al-Qawasimi for four more months for the fifth time since he was first arrested. Qawasimi was detained while trying to cross borders to Jordan in August 2009 as he wanted to attend his uncle’s funeral. The arrest comes amid an Israeli campaign to detain Palestinians after failing to pin an indictment on them. The Ahrar prisoner studies center said the number of Palestinians with extended periods of administrative detention is increasing by the month.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Israel ‘detains Egyptian children’ in Beersheba
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma‘an) 18 July — An Israeli court has ordered the detention of three Egyptian children no older than 14 in Beersheba prison after they allegedly crossed into Israel illegally, an attorney said Sunday. Lawyer Asmahan Abed Al-Hadi’s request to free one of the children was turned down, she said. The children were detained near the border with Egypt, Al-Hadi explained. She said Israel enforces a 1954 law in such matters involving infiltrators from “enemy states”, but has not amended the law after the peace agreement with Egypt in 1978. On the other hand, when the Egyptians seize Israeli infiltrators on the Egyptian side near the border, they usually just send them back to the Israeli side, Al-Hadi added.
link to www.maannews.net
Jawwal employee seized at checkpoint
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 18 July — Israeli forces detained on Monday morning a young man at a military checkpoint while he was on his way from his hometown of Nablus to work in Ramallah, relatives said. Ghassan Shatawi, 25, was detained en route to the Jawwal telecommunications company in Ramallah, where he works. He was taken to an unknown destination, his family said. This is Shatawi’s fifth arrest, his relatives say.
link to www.maannews.net
Detainee Mona on hunger strike to protest isolation
JENIN (PIC) 18 July — Palestinian detainee Mona Qa‘dan has been on hunger strike for the past week to protest her isolation since her arrest on 31/5/2011 in Israeli occupation jails. Her relatives told the PIC reporter on Sunday that Mona, a senior official in the Islamic Jihad movement, was on her sixth day of hunger strike after being held in isolation for the past 50 days in Talmond jail for women. They said that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) promised during her hearing on 11/7 to take her out of isolation but did not live up to its promise. The Israeli court in Salem charged Qa‘dan with membership in an outlawed movement and chairmanship of an outlawed society. Qa‘dan is the chairwoman of Bara‘a society for Muslim women in Jenin, which was closed by the IOA on the same day she was detained. Qa‘dan was previously held in Israeli custody for three years on six separate occasions.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Political / Diplomatic / International news
Syria recognizes Palestinian state
DAMASCUS (AFP) 18 July — The Syrian foreign ministry said Monday that Damascus recognizes a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital within the borders in effect prior to the 1967 Six-Day War.
link to www.maannews.net
Norway backs Palestinian path to UN vote
OSLO (Reuters) 18 July — Norway, host of the 1993 Palestinian-Israeli peace accords, said on Monday it was “perfectly legitimate” for Palestinians to take their case for statehood to the United Nations for voting in September. “We will consider very carefully the proposed text that’s to be put forward by the Palestinians in the coming weeks,” said Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas beside him at a press conference.
link to uk.news.yahoo.com
EU presses Israel, Palestinians ahead of UN vote
BRUSSELS (AFP) 18 July  — European foreign ministers pressed Israel and the Palestinians on Monday to return to the negotiating table before a UN vote on recognising a Palestinian state, which could reveal divisions within the EU. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton sought to play down the risks involved in any UN resolution on a Palestinian state which is expected to be presented at the United Nations in September.
link to www.maannews.net
Israeli minister says Palestinians losing UN bid
JERUSALEM (AP) 18 July — International support for a planned Palestinian declaration of independence at the U.N. in September is waning, in large part because of intense Israeli lobbying against the initiative, a senior Israeli diplomat claimed Monday. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who has personally led Israel’s lobbying effort, said he does not expect to prevent a pro-Palestinian resolution from passing in the U.N. General Assembly, where it would have little more than symbolic value. But he believes a “moral majority” of Western countries will not support the Palestinians, further limiting the impact of any resolution.
link to news.yahoo.com
Report: Israel to get 6th submarine from Germany
Ynet 18 July — German defense minister authorized transfer of advanced vessel able to carry, launch nuclear weapons after years of delays, Der Spiegel reports
link to www.ynetnews.com
Other news
Arab MK stripped of further parliamentary privileges for role in Gaza flotilla
Haaretz 18 July — Balad MK Hanin Zuabi will no longer be allowed to address Knesset or vote in committee debates; last year, she lost her diplomatic passport, entitlement to aid for legal assistance, and right to visit countries without ties to Israel.
link to www.haaretz.com
Lieberman blasts PM, Likud for refusing to probe left-wing groups
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud ministers for their opposition to a bill calling for parliamentary investigations into left-wing organizations. Speaking during Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Lieberman said the bodies slated for investigation were not left-wing groups but terror organizations … Lieberman enumerated the organizations he wanted to see investigated. They included the Arab legal-aid center, Adalah, the Yesh Din human rights group, Breaking the Silence, a group established by Israel Defense Force veterans to provide testimony about military service in the occupied territories, and the conscientious objectors’ group, New Profile.
link to www.haaretz.com
Leftist groups to sue Lieberman
Ynet 18 July — Adalah, Yesh Din, and Breaking the Silence say they will sue foreign minister for libel after he called them ‘terror groups and terror supporters’. ‘Comments constitute mendacious, wild, and thuggish incitement,’ groups say
link to www.ynetnews.com
‘Hollywood producer was an Israeli nuclear agent’
Haaretz 18 July — According to a new biography, Arnon Milchan, close friend of Israeli prime ministers and Hollywood stars, was recruited by Shimon Peres to purchase equipment for Israel’s alleged nuclear program … One of the major sources for the book was Israeli President Shimon Peres, a close friend of Milchan. “I am the one who recruited him,” Peres is quoted as saying.
link to www.haaretz.com
Analysis / Opinion / Interviews
‘EU must do more than pay lip service’: Nariman Tamimi interviewed
Linah Alsaafin Nabi Saleh 18 July — The first time I went to Nabi Saleh someone pointed out Nariman Tamimi to me. I had already figured out she was the imprisoned grassroots activist Bassem Tamimi’s wife, and as we politely exchanged greetings I blurted out, “Your face is so familiar, like I know I’ve seen you before.””  “Probably at one of the protests in Ramallah or Qalandiya, I’m always demonstrating,” came the nonchalant reply …There’s a running joke in the village that Nariman unofficially adopts female activists as her daughters. Now as we sit at her kitchen table, chatting like old friends, it’s clear that she must not be characterized as just Bassem’s wife. She’s a mother of four studying international law and she’s been instrumental in documenting every Friday protest. At one point during the interview, Nariman looks straight at me with her clear blue eyes and declares, “I, Nariman Tamimi, was injured, arrested, had my son injured, a demolition order placed on my house and my husband arrested. But despite all of that I believe that having inculcated peace in my children, the kind that stems from the inside, it will give away to fruitful results. I can’t shout that I’m for peace while holding up a gun.”
link to electronicintifada.net
A Palestinian East Jerusalemite’s view of the joint march / Jalal Abukhater
972mag 17 July — The writer, a resident of East Jerusalem, does not favor a two-state solution, but the joint demonstration did leave him hopeful that Palestinians and Israelis can work together for a better future … I decided to attend this demonstration as an observer because I believed in the goodness of their short-term goals standing in solidarity with Palestinians living in threatened East Jerusalem neighborhoods like Shekh Jarrah, Silwan, Ras al-Amoud, A-Tur, and others and of course against illegal West Bank settlements. I decided to overlook the actual purpose they decided to march through the streets of Jerusalem. I simply despised the idea that many people there carried posters saying “Two People, Two States, One Future” That is an oxymoron. Three quarters of the Palestinian citizens in Gaza are refugees expelled from their homes back in 1948, and similar is the case in the West Bank. How would two separated peoples each living on a side of a border holding hostility to each other would have one future? If they reconcile they’d live together, or the idea of one future would be out of reach.
link to 972mag.com
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.theheadlines.org (archive)

Jeffrey Goldberg vs. The Truth

Jul 18, 2011

Nima Shirazi

By now Mondoweiss readers have probably seen Jeffrey Goldberg’s updated post on supporting the boycott of Netanyahu here in the US. It includes this tidbit (emphasis added):

“…all I can say is this: Since 1948, Israel has been a besieged state that nevertheless has, with rare exceptions, defended the right of people to say whatever they have wanted to say. This is why Israel has the freest press in the world, and why Arab members of Knesset can scream down the prime minister and not get shot. Israel’s defense of freedom of speech, even in wartime, is one of the many reasons to be proud of it.

Ok, beyond the weirdness of the sentiment (an elected government official not getting shot in a country’s parliament for opposing occupation, ethnic cleansing, and discrimination is cause for celebration?!), is this inconvenient fact, from Ha’aretz today:

Israeli Arab MK Hanin Zuabi will be stripped of her right to address the Knesset and to participate in committee votes until the end of this parliamentary season, the Knesset Ethics Committee ruled on Monday.

The decision to penalize Zuabi, a lawmaker from the Balad party, comes in the wake of her participation in the Gaza-bound flotilla last year. Zuabi, who sailed on the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, had already had certain parliamentary rights revoked by Knesset last July.

The rights previously revoked are “her diplomatic passport, entitlement to financial assistance for legal assistance and the right to visit countries with which Israel does not have diplomatic ties.”

Last week, “Zuabi was being ushered out of the parliamentary session after interrupting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech and after being called to order three times by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin.”

It’s true that “being ushered out” is not the same as not getting shot. But it’s also true that physically preventing a Knesset member from voicing her views is certainly not an example of what Goldberg describes as Israel’s defense of “the right of people to say whatever they have wanted to say”.   Apparently, for Goldberg, anything short of murdering a Palestinian in cold-blood is grounds for lauding Israel’s democratic character…unless, of course, you count Palestinians inGaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Golan, or the past, of course.

Nima Shirazi is a political commentator from New York City. His analysis of United States foreign policy and Middle East issues is published at WideAsleepInAmerica.com. Follow him on Twitter @WideAsleepNima.

Henning Mankell: ‘I promise that the Israeli regime won’t have a quiet moment until this illegal blockade is broken’

Jul 18, 2011

Adam Horowitz

Swedish novelist Henning Mankell writing in Ha’aretz:

We will return with broader support and a bigger flotilla, and I promise that the Israeli regime won’t have a quiet moment until this illegal blockade is broken. Our action has had more impact this year – unlike last year when the media didn’t pay attention until the commandos started killing people.

Even though our ships didn’t move an inch, this is yet another failure for Israel. The regime’s desperate fear increases the opposition against human rights violations in Gaza. According to basic international law, it’s illegal to collectively punish people as is done in Gaza.

In the same way I always claim that Gilad Shalit should have been released long ago and that Hamas’ rocket attacks against Israel must stop, I claim that we must look at this situation from this perspective: What comes first, oppression or rebellion? Not even Israel’s intellectuals can wave their magic wand and make reality disappear – the reality that the Palestinians are treated as second-class citizens in their own country. The Gaza blockade is not mainly about concrete, diapers or medicine. It’s about the human dignity that Israel deprives its own citizens of. Thus, it provokes desperate actions.

But for me the biggest mystery is that the Israeli regime doesn’t realize that it’s digging holes for itself, and that the situation in the end will be unbearable. Why are they blindfolding themselves?

American Zionist org supports new limits on free speech in the ‘human rights loving democracy’
Jul 18, 2011 12:01 pm | Philip Weiss

In a reversal of an earlier statement seeming to oppose the Israeli law making it illegal to advocate for boycott,this statement by Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America says that the boycott movement is an existential threat to Israel, a human rights loving democracy, and so therefore American Zionists must maintain solidarity with the Jewish state… The whole Jewish state– i.e., the West Bank too:

A boycott against any part of the Jewish state of Israel, a human rights loving democracy, is wrong, immoral, despicable, and frequently anti-Semitic.

So the new battle line inside the Jewish community is, Boycott the settlements/Don’t boycott. I’m glad the line has moved. Not that I think it will make much difference.

Desolate and empty the sea

Jul 18, 2011

Mohammed Rmeih Monifi

Whenever the siege is mentioned, Gaza as a word is flashing through the mind. Siege and Gaza. Extraordinarily, Gaza is the perfect paragon of the blockade, if the historians want to teach the history of the blockades to their students. After the military coup carried out by the Hamas forces in Summer, 2007, which leads to the loss of Fatah’s control on Gaza Strip, Israel, in cooperation with the neighboring countries, has been tightening the blockade on Gaza. Consequently, humanitarian supplies are proscribed, which prepares the bells to be rung to warn Gaza people of the forthcoming umbrella of destruction. Quite quickly, the thrilling voices of the Humans are raised to extricate Gaza from this debacle. On May, 2010, Gaza Freedom Flotilla, stored with the humanitarian aid and construction materials, is launched to break the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip as a peaceful step to left the blockade. To welcome the peace activists, Gazans were waiting for the flotilla on the shore, gazing at the horizon to glimpse the sail. Yet–  Desolate and empty the sea. They did not know that Freedom was invaded. The Israeli navy killed nine activists on the vessel the Mavi Marmara, as a reaction to the tinny baseball bets hitting the heads of the Navy. The flotilla used the bats to protect their life and the life of 1,657,155 people; the Israeli Navy was attacking them with fire to save its security.

As a second peaceful step, “Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human” decided to sail towards Gaza on July 5, 2011, yet prevented internationally by the United States and United Kingdom. The momentous goal of these flotillas is not only to provide Gaza with the humanitarian needs, but also to break the blockade imposed on Gaza. But on the contrary, the western countries want to provide Gaza with aids through the authorized channels within the Red Cross/Red Crescent, without considering the lifting of the blockade. For them, Gazans deserve to be besieged, to be prevented from the freedom. As if, Gaza is a store of food.

They do not know that we are humans like them, not animals desiring food. We do not want food only.

We want to be like others living in USA, in UK. We want to move, to study abroad, to build our community by ourselves, to practice all freedoms, freely as well as peacefully without stealthy censorship. “Want” is the word we want. Though, they do not give us what we want but what they want. Because of the “want”, the children are dying in the hospitals beds, the adults losing their lives in the tunnels, the old waiting besides the crossings, sometimes the roads devoid of cars which are lacking gas, the cities in sheer blackout like dark caves, the boys queuing in about 10-meter organized line before the gates of the gas stations, the hospitals suffering from the shortage of medical materials, the shelves of the libraries vacant… The empty Gaza.

The voice of “I want to be free” is silenced by the international support for Israel. As an international fact, Israel has the right to self-defense, but the Palestinians have not the right to be free. Oh, my friend, do not cry, the UN investigative committee legitimizes the blockade. Asking for freedom is illegal now. Before, their mouths dried while advising the developing countries to practice the freedom as one of the Human Rights. The White House interfered in Saudi Arabia to “support” the women’s freedom to drive cars, entailing pressures on the Saudi government. Please, Obama entail pressures on Israel (while we are murdered slowly here), do not show your presidential competency before Arabs while you are not having the American courageous charisma before Israel.

And what’s the worst is United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the guard of security, who is strengthening the blockade on Gaza. Assiduously, he called the political leaders to prevent the flotilla towards Gaza. I do not know where was the violence in this flotilla? Where does the violence come from? From Israel or from the peaceful flotilla. Definitely, for him the violence is from the peaceful flotilla. Instead of saying these unreasonable words, he is supposed to raise the awareness of the disaster in which we live and denounce the blockade effectively.

Justly speaking, Ki-moon should have censured the excessive and violent reaction to the peaceful strategies, not charged the flotilla. The United Nations should encourage such nonviolent approaches to settle the conflict, not stimulating the other trends at the expense of frustrating the diplomacy. Otherwise, the nations are united against Gaza. It is known the United Nation is the institution of democracy, yet unfortunately heading towards the way of the institution of hypocrisy.

Mohammed Monifi is 21 and lives in Gaza. His title is taken from The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot.

100 hours in Israeli detention for trying to visit Bethlehem

Jul 18, 2011

Laura Durkay

“What is your father’s name?”

“James.”

“What is his father’s name?”

“Andrew.”

“Where are you going?”

“Bethlehem.”

“Where are you staying there?”

“At the Lajee Center in Aida Refugee Camp.”

That is as far as my conversation at Israeli passport control goes.  I am at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, one of dozens of activists who have flown in from across Europe and the US for the Welcome to Palestine mission, a week of cultural and solidarity activities organized by Palestinian civil resistance groups across the West Bank.

As part of our mission, our Palestinian hosts have asked us to honestly declare our goal of traveling to the West Bank to visit Palestinians.  Israel controls all access points into the West Bank.  While traveling to the Occupied Territories is not strictly illegal under Israeli law, internationals and Palestinians living abroad are commonly interrogated, searched, harassed, and often denied entry if they state their intention to visit or work with Palestinians.

The political policing at Israeli-controlled borders is just one facet of an elaborate system that keeps Palestinians in the Occupied Territories isolated and under siege.  The Welcome to Palestine mission is intended to be a mass challenge to these policies, so of course the Israeli government is doing everything it can to stop it.

In the days before July 8, when hundreds of nonviolent activists were scheduled to arrive at Ben Gurion Airport, the Israeli government’s hysteria about the action reached a fever pitch.  On July 5, Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said of the activists: “These hooligans who try to break our laws will not be allowed into the country and will be returned immediately to their home countries”—conveniently ignoring the fact that none of the activities of the Welcome to Palestine campaign are illegal under Israeli law.  In the days before our arrival, Israeli government officials issued numerous threats against us in the media and airport security was beefed up despite our clear statements that we were not planning to stage any demonstrations inside the airport and were committed to nonviolence in all our actions.

In a last-ditch effort to stop Welcome to Palestine activists from reaching Ben Gurion Airport, the Israeli government sent a blacklist to major European airlines containing 374 names of passengers to be barred from boarding their planes in Europe.  Most airlines seemed to comply with this list, sending last-minute letters or phone calls to some activists telling them in advance that they would not be allowed to fly.  Many more, including the majority of the French delegation, the largest component of the campaign, arrived at the airport and were simply refused permission to board their flights.  If the siege of Gaza extends to the shores of Greece, it seems the blockade of the West Bank covers all of Europe.

In London the night before departing, our group of about 15 Brits, Irish and Americans discussed what we would do if we were kept off our flight out of Luton Airport.  Those of us who had been speaking and writing openly about the Welcome to Palestine mission were quite sure we would be on the blacklist.

At the airport the next morning, one American is in fact kept off the plane by security at the very last minute.  But as the plane takes off, I and the other participants realized that we have cleared the first hurdle and are on our way to Palestine.

From the moment we land at Ben Gurion Airport around 4pm on Friday, it’s clear the security presence is intense.  Plainclothes security officers line the hallway leading from the gate to passport control, watching us as we disembark.  Mick Napier of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, our delegation leader, gives us hushed updates about other groups that have been stopped in Europe or here at the airport. As we approach passport control, he turns back to us and said simply, “Now it’s our turn.”  And it is.

At passport control, anyone who lists their destination as “Bethlehem,” “Palestine,” or “the West Bank” is quickly pulled aside, their passports disappearing into the hands of Israeli immigration officials.  After most of my group has been waylaid by security, we are herded into a basement immigration holding area, where a number of French, Belgian and German activists are already being detained.  There are about forty of us packed into the small waiting room.  The immigration officials are not interrogating us.  We think they are mostly just trying to figure out what to do with us.

We are held in the downstairs waiting area for about three hours.  During this time I am taking non-stop press calls from Israeli and international media.  I am shocked that the Israeli officials let me keep my phone (and even let me charge it) but determined to let as many people know what is happening as possible.  I also contact the US consulate in Tel Aviv—not that I expect them to do anything to help us, but on principle I think they should know that Americans are being detained.

Around 7pm, a large number of plainclothes and uniformed immigration officers, police, and Border Patrol soldiers suddenly enter the room.  I attempt to sneak a picture of the Border Patrol soldiers with my phone, only to have it roughly grabbed out of my hands by a burly immigration officer in a suit.  I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hang onto it indefinitely, but the loss of my only connection to the outside world still makes me nervous, especially since something is clearly about to go down.  We notice several officers filming us, including one who climbs onto a desk to get a better angle.

Suddenly, a couple of the officers grab a French man who looks to be of Arab descent and try to pull him out of the room by himself.  He protests that he wanted to stay with the group, and his comrades tried to nonviolently resist him being removed from the room.  This is all the excuse the police and soldiers needed to move in and start punching, hitting and shoving anyone they can reach.

It’s clear the whole event is a deliberate provocation staged for the camera—perhaps to demonstrate what “hooligans” we are.  At the same time, it’s hard to imagine us passively allowing someone to be removed from the group against their will—particularly someone of Arab origin who is quite right to believe they are more likely to be mistreated.

The upshot of the scuffle is that we are not removed from the room one by one, but in pairs or small groups.  (We still have no idea where we are being relocated to and no one will tell us.)  I pair up with a British woman named Fiona and we link arms so we can’t be separated.  I am still trying to regain possession of my phone, which I can see the immigration officers playing with behind the desk.  “I’ll turn it off, I’ll delete the pictures, I just want my phone back,” I tell one of the men in suits.  No go.  We are forcibly shoved out of the room, with one of the immigration officers pinching Fiona hard on the arm to make her comply.  When Fiona says something along the lines of “That’s not necessary, we’re going,” the only response is “You fucking bitch.”

We are taken up to a women’s bathroom inside the airport where our bags and persons are searched.  (Thankfully we are not strip-searched.)  From there we’re taken outside to an isolated corner of the airport where what looked like a normal tour bus with dark windows awaits us. “Get in the limo, you’re going to the Hotel of Immigration,” one of the officers says sarcastically.  We are pretty sure the Hotel of Immigration is prison.

Once we enter the bus we realized it has been converted to a paddy wagon on the inside, with metal grates on the windows and hard metal seats.  Men and women are separated and put in different sections of the bus.  While none of the women are handcuffed or shackled, several of the men were.  It is night by this point but still quite hot, and the bus is stifling and crawling with roaches.  We sit there for three hours, with no ventilation, no food or water, no toilet access and no information on what will happen next.  We finally get a few bottles of water by banging on the metal walls to demand them.  Everyone is nervous.  If this is how we are being arrested, are there worse things to come?

Around 11pm we finally started driving.  No one has told us where we are going, but those in the front of the bus are able to look out the tiny window and identify street signs for Ramla, a Palestinian town conquered in 1948 that is about 30km from Tel Aviv.  I know there is an immigration detention center there, which is normally filled with migrant workers who have lost their visas and African refugees who have attempted to cross Israel’s border through the Sinai.  Sure enough, Givon Detention Center, with its massive gate and barbed-wire-topped walls, is exactly where we end up.

We’re brought into a large open room to wait while we are processed for detention extremely slowly.  Around 1am, after nine hours of detention, we’re finally given some food, which the guards film us eating so they can demonstrate how humanely they’re treating us.  We’re allowed to keep our carry-on luggage with us, although our IDs, money, credit cards, and any media and electronics are confiscated.  Those of us (like me) who had been stupid enough to check a bag have not been reunited with it, and therefore have no toiletries and no change of clothes.  I’m finally processed and put in a cell with five other women around 2:30am—only to be woken up for a headcount at 6:30 the next morning.

It doesn’t matter how “humane” the conditions are—waking up in prison sucks.  There’s a lot of anxiety on the first day, since no one knew how long we’ll be here and how the guards might treat us.  At one point, a rumor goes around that they’re trying to photograph and fingerprint us all and we must all resist because we are not criminals.  I imagine being in a room full of guards, alone, outnumbered, having to physically resist being fingerprinted, and get quite scared.  That threat turns out not to materialize—either the rumor wasn’t accurate or they gave up that project after they realized we were all going to resist.  But it’s a shaky first day or so.

My first cell contains one Austrian, one German-Palestinian woman whose father was from Gaza, and three Belgians.  We’re all between 23 and 31, and four of us are Muslim.  Needless to say, these ladies do not exactly fit the stereotype of the meek, submissive Muslim woman.

Some of the women in my cell had been part of a small group of mostly young Arabs who were separated from the large group at the airport and put in a smaller arrest van with a large number of soldiers and police, who filmed them and made sexually suggestive comments.  One French Algerian woman was very roughly arrested, beaten, kicked, and put in handcuffs and leg irons before being thrown in the arrest van.

Someone has markers and we distract ourselves by graffiting all over the walls and lockers in our cell.  When the guards finally open the doors and allowed us out into the closed-off hall of our cellblock a few hours later, we see that almost every cell had graffiti written on the walls and doors.  Many cells have used soap or toothpaste to write “Free Palestine” on the inside of the doors.  The prison toothpaste takes the paint off the doors, which is funny until you think about the fact you’ve been brushing your teeth with that.

Consular officials begin arriving that morning.  The two people from the American consulate are friendly and do call our families, but they don’t seem to have much power or information about what will happen to us.  They initially tell us we will be deported that night—it turns out they’re off by three days.

On Saturday, when the consular officials are present, our cell doors are kept open most of the day.  We’re still confined to a closed hallway, but at least we can move about and talk to each other.  The next day, Sunday, we’re locked up 21 out of 24 hours.  We demand phone calls, only to be told “later.”  We start to joke that in Hebrew, later means never.  When we point out that it says on the “prisoners’ rights” document on the wall that we are to be allowed phone calls within 24 hours, we are told: “You’re special—those rights don’t apply to you.”

On the second night, I switch to the cell across the way without asking permission.  It turns out the guards aren’t keeping track of us that carefully and no one notices.  I want to be with Donna, the other American, since there are only two of us.

One of the prisoners in my second cell is Pippa Bartolotti, the only Brit who made it through passport control, perhaps because she is very posh and does not look like a “typical activist,” whatever that is.  She is a Brit with an Italian name because her grandfather was sent out of fascist Italy as a teenager—other family members did not survive.  On Friday, she made it out of the airport only to get a frantic text from one of us while we were being attacked by security in the basement.  Her no-nonsense approach to getting back into the airport was effective (you can, and really must, watch the video here) but did result in her getting thrown to the ground and roughly handcuffed with someone’s knee on her back.  The marks from the handcuffs are still visible and the bruises are just beginning to appear.

There is also an older French woman in our cell who has diarrhea.  Her requests to see a doctor are being ignored.  We take care of her—thankfully Donna is a nurse—but it’s not until the day we’re released that she’s finally able to see a doctor to her satisfaction.  It’s pure luck that she doesn’t become seriously ill.

A sort of primitive communism develops in which everyone instinctively shares food, clothing, toiletries, and the most precious resource, information. Enough people speak either French or English that those become the common languages.  When French and Belgian activists come back from their consular visits reporting that our story is huge in the European media and there are protests in support of us in Paris and Brussels, it’s like a ray of light.

We find ways to entertain ourselves, sharing stories and singing songs.  The light switches for our cells are outside in the hall, so once the doors are locked at 8pm, there is no way to turn the lights off.  The girls across the hall from us work out an ingenious solution that involves a spoon attached to a mop head and some feeling around for the light switch with the guidance of your cellmates across the hall.

Some of us begin to be allowed to see lawyers, although who is permitted to go seems totally random.  We have two wonderful Palestinian lawyers, Anan and Samer, from Addameer, a prisoners’ rights organization, who are representing us pro bono.  They are allowed to see us between 2pm and 5pm—not nearly enough time to talk to the approximately 120 of us who are here.  I am the last person of the day to see them on Sunday, and they spend half our meeting arguing with the guards, who are trying to kick them out before they can give us any information.  The guards seem determined to humiliate them, but they somehow maintain their dignity.  I guess they’ve had a lot of practice.

The main thing they are able to tell us is that we are in a sort of legal black hole.  The Israeli government is arguing that we have not formally entered Israel and are still “in transit,” as we would be as if we were being detained at the airport.  Our lawyers are countering that this is absurd since we have now spend several days in a prison 30km from the airport.  They warn us in no uncertain terms not to sign anything the Israelis give us.  They tell us that it can take up to four days to get a deportation hearing, at which point the judge can decide, arbitrarily, to hold us for another four days—meaning we could be here for up to a week.  This seems to me to be a pale shadow of the system of administrative detention that Palestinians face—except what’s days for us can be months or years for them.

At 1pm on Monday—almost three full days into our detention—I am finally allowed to make my phone call.  I go with Pippa, whose phone was confiscated and still has not been returned.  While Pippa is arguing with the guards, demanding to use their phone (request denied), I’m able to send some surreptitious text messages.  I call my parents and tell them to call an activist friend in New York.  “Tell her to call the media, tell everyone what’s happening, do something to get us out,” I say.  At that point I’m promptly told, “Your time is up now.”

On Monday afternoon some people start to be deported.  We hear that two of the British men have left.  We later learn that there were numerous empty seats on the flight they were on.  I think it’s just pure disorganization that some of the women were not put on that flight.

On Tuesday afternoon, eight of our English-speaking crew are finally driven to the airport.  We are taken to a completely empty security screening area, made to sit down and surrounded by about twenty immigration officers and police.  Suddenly we are told: “You can go to Bethlehem now.”  No one is sure exactly what is going on, but being surrounded and outnumbered two to one by threatening security officers makes it really hard to believe this is a sincere offer.  We are at the airport—surely they have already secured seats for us on the EasyJet flight that’s about to depart.  We notice they are filming us again.  Maybe the point of this is to film us refusing their offer—which we do on principle since dozens of our comrades have already been deported—so they can say “Look, we offered them the chance to go to Bethlehem and they didn’t really want it, so that proves they were just here to make trouble.”

At this point I feel they’re just screwing with us and get quite angry.  I stand up and start questioning the head immigration officer, the thug who orchestrated the attack on us in the basement holding area on Friday night.  “If you say you’re letting us in now, why didn’t you let us in four days ago?”  He says something about there being dangerous people in our midst.  “Who?” I demand.  “You know.”  “No, I don’t know.  Tell me who.”  I try to get him to say something about “terrorist” Arabs or Muslims among us, which I’m sure is what he means, but he, at least, is too smart for that.

Finally we are put on the plane, separated from all the other passengers.  We get our passports back from a flight attendant.  Most people’s are stamped ENTRY DENIED, but mine is stamped with nothing.  It’s as if I never entered the country, even though I’ve been in prison for the past four days.  It is 8pm on Tuesday when the plane finally takes off.  We have been detained for 100 hours.

Throughout the whole process, we never saw a single piece of paper stating why we were being detained.  If we have deportation orders, we did not see or sign them.  We have no information about whether we are banned from re-entering Palestine, although I don’t think any of us expect a problem-free entry in the future.

We are well aware, as we fly off from a country we supposedly never entered, that things could have been much worse.  We all know that the way we were treated is nothing—nothing—compared to what happens to Palestinians.  As internationals, we have the luxury of only encountering the repressive system on its mildest setting.  Our prison experience was full of barked orders, petty meanness, and lies upon lies upon lies, but we learned by the end that the guards were very much unwilling to use violence against us.  Not because they were particularly nice, but because they knew the story would get out.  As westerners our lives are still perceived as having some value.  Less so for the poor migrants who filled the rest of the prison, and not at all for Palestinians.

Like the response to the Flotilla, like the violence against the Nakba and Naksa Day protests and the brutality that unarmed protesters in Palestine face every day, the Israeli government’s response to the Welcome to Palestine mission shows that they know only one way to react to nonviolent protest—with brute repression and total stupidity.  If they had simply let us in, there would have been no story.  Instead they created a multi-day media embarrassment for themselves and ensured that all of us came out of prison more determined to fight.

By detaining dozens of Europeans and Americans for simply declaring their intent to visit Palestinian cities, the Israeli government has only internationalized the struggle.  We will return to our countries and build the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.  We will continue to speak out against Israeli apartheid and for Palestinian human rights.  And we will return to Palestine.  We know we are always welcome.

Laura Durkay is a member of Siegebusters Working Group and the International Socialist Organization in New York City.  You can follow her on Twitter at @lauradurkay.

Turkish Jews say that when Israel does bad stuff, they get blamed as ‘Israelites’

Jul 18, 2011

Philip Weiss

Max Blumenthal is interested in what I’m interested in: the construction of Jewish identity in the wake of Zionism, the ways that Jewish “nationality” has affected our status as a minority in other countries than Israel, and the apprehension of anti-Semitism… He’s been in Istanbul, interviewing Sephardic Jews. Some interesting comments. I’ve included excerpts of two interviews below, but you should read the whole thing at Blumenthal’s site. Here’s his first interview with a Turkish Jew:

MB: What about the relationship of Turkish Jews to Israel? Are they pro-Israel?

E: They are basically pro-Israel and believe Israel’s side of the story, that Israel is defending itself and that the Palestinians use terror and provocations. But they don’t like the trouble Israel causes them….

MB: But you can’t understand why people feel angry about the way Israel treats Palestinians?

E: I understand they feel bad about the treatment of Palestinians. People in the world see us creating a Jewish nation that only benefits us at the expense of others. Sometimes I wonder why we can’t be accepted as normal in the world….

MB: What about you? Do you feel like Israel is part of your Jewish identity?

E: I don’t see Israel as a holiday place like other Jews do. It’s too much trouble and the food is horrible. I’m from here, I’m pretty much comfortable being Turkish, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be willing to cry out, “I’m Jewish!”

[Blumenthal’s friend] DUYGU: Do you think you could ever marry a non-Jew?

E: I dated Christian and Muslim men but parents want me to marry a Jew. An Ashkenazi Jew would be better than a non-Jew but they’re not Sephardic and it really comes down to preserving our culture. The community is so small that a lot of people are having trouble finding someone to date. So a lot of them are going to the US or Israel to find someone.

D: So being half-Jewish is not acceptable then?

E: It’s really not convenient to wind up with a non-Jew. It would be terrible for a child to be only half Jewish. They would have no community.

MB: Why couldn’t they just belong to humanity?

E: Humanity? Humanity doesn’t exist when you’re a teenager!

The second interview:

MB: Yesterday “E” told me that Israel’s actions sometimes cause problems for the Jewish community here. Do you agree?

B: Definitely. The big problem is that whenever something happens with Israel we automatically become “Israelites,” not Jews. I don’t see myself as an Israeli Jew — I’m Turkish. But whatever happens in Israel affects us here and safety becomes an issue. Some people here have fish minds and can’t distinguish between Jews and Israelis.

MB: So how has the phenomenon played out in your personal life?

B: I can give you an example. I was importing lingerie for five years. When Israel began bombing Gaza, I was importing all these brands from the states. And a trade magazine for the lingerie retailers [in Turkey] put out a boycott list that focused on Jewish owned brands. My brands were on the list. I’m not a public person so it’s hard to know that I’m Jewish at all. But my brands were listed because I’m Jewish. … The [Facebook] page said, “The owners of these brands help Israel in its efforts against Gaza.” What the hell do I have to do with Israel? These people don’t know the difference between Jews and Israelis. And the extremists take advantage of this [lack of distinction]…

MB: Do you think the government played a productive role at all?

B: The Prime Minister [Recep Erdogan] took a stand saying Jews are not Israelis, they are Turkish. He made the differentiation clearly. That was a very positive thing for us.

MB: Are you a Zionist? It seems like Israel does not factor into your identity very much.

B: I’m not a Zionist. Israel is an abstract place for me just like France. But there is a connection as a Jew and it is a safe haven in a sense. They are welcoming you with open arms and there is a sense of community. At least it’s better to be attacked as a community than on your own. Of course I’d rather go to London but if another Holocaust happens where will I go?

MB: Do you seriously think the Holocaust could happen again? It seems a little far-fetched to me.

B: Maybe? Who knows? It happened before and no one expected it.

MB: Do you have any interest in learning more about the history of the conflict in Israel-Palestine? Or what about taking a tour of the West Bank and seeing the occupation up close for yourself?

B: No, I don’t think I’d be interested in something like that. Right now Israel’s just an abstract place. I have been three times. Basically I go to the beach in Tel Aviv and come back…

The Freedom Flotilla continues – French boat Dignité Al Karama leaves Greece on way to Gaza

Jul 18, 2011

annie

The following press release was sent out by the Dignité Al Karama:

The Freedom Flotilla lives on; the French boat, Dignité Al Karama has reached international waters. The voyage has begun… let us continue! Respect our right of passage!

On Saturday July 16th, the French boat Dignité al-Karama finally passed the multitude of obstacles and obstructions put in its way by Greek authorities. Departing from the Greek port of Kastellorizo, Dignité has reached international waters. On board, in addition to the French activists, is a delegation representing all the international campaigns comprising Freedom Flotilla II – “Stay Human”.

The Dignité, sailing under a French flag, left Corsica in late June, and has, over the past weeks, been in Greek waters. It is the only boat of the Flotilla that has so far escaped the prohibition against sailing imposed by Greek authorities at the request of the Israeli government. The campaign, “A French Boat to Gaza” therefore decided to continue its voyage, serving as spokesperson for the whole of the Freedom Flotilla, denouncing the blockade of Gaza and demanding it be immediately lifted, and bringing a message of solidarity to the Palestinians in Gaza.

The Dignité Al Karama carries with it the spirit and principles of the campaign ‘A French Boat to Gaza’ and of the international coalition: a demand for justice and legality by putting an end to the illegal blockade of Gaza, condemned repeatedly by the international community. In the face of Israeli threats, we reaffirm our commitment to non-violence in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

The Dignité has now departed: Let our people go !

Passengers on board the Dignité:

Stéphan Corriveau, Coordinator of Canadian boat to Gaza

Ayyache Derradji, Journalist from Al Jazeera

Dror Feiler, spokesperson of Ship to Gaza-Sweden, President of the European Jews for a Just Peace, musician

Hilaire Folacci, Mariner

Jérôme Gleizes, member of the executive board of « Europe Ecologie Les Verts »

Stéphane Guida, Cameraman from Al Jazeera

Amira Hass, Israeli journalist – Haaretz

Jacqueline Le Corre, France, Médecin-Collectif 14 (Calvados region) de soutien au peuple palestinien, member of the French Communist Party

Jean Claude Lefort, former MEP

Jo Leguen, Navigator

Claude Léostic, spokesperson of Un bateau français pour Gaza/ vice president of the France Palestine Solidarity Association

Yamin Makri, France, Collectif 69 (Lyon region) de soutien au peuple palestinien

Omeyya Naoufel Seddik, Fédération des Tunisiens pour une citoyenneté des deux rives (FTCR), and Ligue tunisienne des Droits de l’Homme (LTDH), Phd in Political Science

Vangelis Pissias, spokesperson of Ship to Gaza-Greece, Professor at Technical University of Athens

Thomas Sommer-Houdeville, spokesperson of Un bateau français pour Gaza, Researcher, Political Science, Middle East Studies, at the Institut francais du proche Orient

Yannick Voisin, Captain

Amira Hass reports:

On Saturday evening a Gaza-bound boat left Greek territorial waters. Its 10 participants regard themselves as representatives of the entire abortive flotilla to Gaza, and are determined to exhaust all possibilities in order to reach their destination, or at least carry out the symbolic act of protesting the blockade. They are well aware of the Lilliputian dimensions of their venture, compared with the massive impact organizers had initially planned to have with the 10-odd vessel flotilla.

Dignite-Al Karama, one of two yachts purchased by the French delegation in the second Freedom Flotilla, left a port in Corsica on June 25. Thus, it was spared the fate of eight other boats which were supposed to sail out of Greek ports, but were impounded by Greek authorities.

Last Wednesday Karama left the port of Sitia in Crete, where it had been anchored for a week, awaiting the other boats in vain. Once it was clear that Greece, under strong Israeli pressure, would not allow those boats to sail, its remaining passengers ¬ three French nationals and one Tunisian ¬ were joined by three representatives of other delegations, a Greek, Swede and a Canadian, and by three more French activists who arrived from France. Also on board are three crew members and three journalists from Al Jazeera and Haaretz.

4 Republican congresspeople ‘pledge’ to hold West Bank

Jul 18, 2011

Philip Weiss

According to a rightwing Israeli news site, settler lobbyist David Ha’Ivri met with four Republican congresspeople and got them to “pledge” to support settlements in the West Bank (language is vague). The congresspeople include Nan Hayworth (I live in her district), Michael Grimm (he took a district in Staten Island/Brooklyn in the last election, and raised rightwing Jewish money to do so and has taken hardline positions on Israel), Allen West of Florida (who knocked off progressive-on-everything-but-Palestine Alan Grayson) and Pete Sessions of Texas.

The trend reinforces the point that Republicans are drawing the line on the West Bank, they regard it as Israel.  And they surely have a financial interest in doing so.

Drawing the line on the Democratic side, Jeffrey Goldberg says this Republican trend is dangerous to Israel, because it must remain a Jewish-majority country. And he does the usual pinkwashing. He brags on Israel’s gay-pride parade and says Michelle Bachmann, who also supports the settlements, would be upset by that.

As if these American stances mean anything. Nothing will change…Especially because Goldberg says the left holds Israel “to an impossible standard of moral and political behavior.” Oh please.

B’Tselem: In past the six years, only one Palestinian minor acquitted out of 835 charged with stone-throwing

Jul 18, 2011

Seham

From B’Tselem:

New B’Tselem report reveals for the first time official data on treatment of Palestinian minors in Israeli military court system in the West Bank: 93% of all minors convicted of stone throwing were given jail sentences. This includes 19 children under age 14, who under domestic Israeli law could not be held in detention.

The rights of Palestinian minors who are suspected of stone-throwing in the West Bank are violated severely throughout the criminal justice process. These are the finding of No Minor Matter, a new B’Tselem report, published today (Monday, 18 July).

The report brings, for the first time, full official data on Palestinian minors tried for stone-throwing in the past six years, and is based on dozens of court cases, and on interviews with 50 Palestinian minors who had been arrested on suspicion of stone throwing, and with defense attorneys.

Here are some statistics presented in the report dealing with Palestinian minors charged with stone throwing between 2005-2010:

• 835 Palestinian minors were tried in military courts in the West Bank on charges of stone throwing. Thirty-four of them were aged 12-13; 255 were 14-15; 546 were 16-17.

• Only one minor was acquitted during that time (0.11 percent of the total), a conviction rate far higher than the extremely high conviction rate in Israel.

• Of the 642 files where B’Tselem received details about the conclusion, 624 (97 percent) ended with a plea bargain; in only five of the cases (0.77%) was a full trial held. In Israel, about half of criminal cases are resolved in a plea bargain.

• 19 minors aged 12-13 who were convicted of stone-throwing served a jail sentence ranging from a few days to two months. In Israel, it is forbidden to impose any prison sentence on a child under age 14.

• 26% of the minors aged 14-15 and about 59% of minors between 16-17 served a jail sentence of four months or more.

Read the full report here.