NOVANEWS
-
Israeli textbooks portray Palestinians as ‘terrorists, refugees, and primitive farmers’
-
Will the Palestinian Authority collide with popular resistance in September?
-
‘Call to action’ for September 15 cites U.S.’s global isolation in blocking Palestinian self-determination
-
‘One regime rules the land between the river and sea,’ Dana explains (in LRB and AJ, anywhere but here)
-
‘NYT’ editorial on stalemate reflects Israeli talking points
-
Israeli forces hold ambulance w/ Palestinian crash survivors at checkpoint for 1/2 hour
-
Only 20 percent of U.S. House of Representatives will visit Israel during summer recess
-
Dreams of a multi-ethnic democracy– Tent protesters cheer Palestinian demands
-
IslamoMaoists! Progressives in disguise!
-
DC Jewish Community Center axes Theater J’s ‘peace cafe’ collaboration with Muslim
Israeli textbooks portray Palestinians as ‘terrorists, refugees, and primitive farmers’
Aug 08, 2011
Omar Barghouti
This insightful research by respected Israeli scholar Nurit Peled-Elhanan will confirm what Palestinian researchers have always known: Israel’s prevailing culture of racism, fundamentalism, support for war crimes, and apartheid against Palestinians is mainly a product of an educational system that indoctrinates Jewish-Israeli students with militant colonial values and extreme racism that turn them into “monsters” once in uniform.
Guardian: Academic claims Israeli school textbooks contain bias “Nurit Peled-Elhanan of Hebrew University says textbooks depict Palestinians as ‘terrorists, refugees and primitive farmers“
“Peled-Elhanan, a professor of language and education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has studied the content of Israeli school books for the past five years, and her account, Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education, is to be published in the UK this month. She describes what she found as racism– but, more than that, a racism that prepares young Israelis for their compulsory military service.
“People don’t really know what their children are reading in textbooks,” she said. “One question that bothers many people is how do you explain the cruel behaviour of Israeli soldiers towards Palestinians, an indifference to human suffering, the inflicting of suffering. People ask how can these nice Jewish boys and girls become monsters once they put on a uniform. I think the major reason for that is education. So I wanted to see how school books represent Palestinians.”
In “hundreds and hundreds” of books, she claims she did not find one photograph that depicted an Arab as a “normal person”. The most important finding in the books she studied – all authorised by the ministry of education – concerned the historical narrative of events in 1948, the year in which Israel fought a war to establish itself as an independent state, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled the ensuing conflict.
The killing of Palestinians is depicted as something that was necessary for the survival of the nascent Jewish state, she claims.”
Those who see this as an aberration of Zionism seem to lack sufficient understanding of what Zionism really is and the central role it plays as a patently racist ideology in justifying ethnic cleansing and racist domination over Palestinians.
One should not wonder then why, at the height of the Israeli massacre in Gaza 2008-09, a Tel Aviv University poll (reported in the Jerusalem Post, Jan. ’09) of Jewish-Israeli opinion showed a shocking 94% support for the assault, despite full knowledge of the enormous suffering this Israeli aggression had inflicted upon the 1.5 million Palestinians incarcerated in the Gaza “prison camp” and of the massive destruction of their civilian infrastructure.
As in every other colonial system, only sustained and effective pressure from within as well as from without can put an end to this downward spiral of criminality, impunity and unspoken racism. More BDS is needed to end Israeli occupation, colonialism and apartheid. Other than the obvious benefits to indigenous Palestinians, suffering more than six decades of this three-tiered system of Israeli oppression, an end to this system of oppression may well transform most Israelis from colonial “monsters” into normal humans.
(ed note: Nurit Peled-Elhanan is author of Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education. International publisher I.B.TAURIS description: “She analyzes the presentation of images, maps, layouts and use of language in History, Geography and Civic Studies textbooks, and reveals how the books might be seen to marginalize Palestinians, legitimize Israeli military action and reinforce Jewish-Israeli territorial identity. This book provides a fresh scholarly contribution to the Israeli-Palestinian debate, and will be relevant to the fields of Middle East Studies and Politics more widely.”)
Will the Palestinian Authority collide with popular resistance in September?
Aug 08, 2011
Alex Kane
The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) bid for United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state remains on track, despite heavy pressure from the U.S. and Israel. But what has received scant attention is the possibility that the September bid may also result in a collision between popular, grassroots Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation and the PA’s preferred avenues to statehood.
Following imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti’s call for mass marches ahead of the September UN gambit for a state, the Palestinian Authority echoed Barghouti’s call.
“All of us are talking about resistance and it must be every day,” PA President Mahmoud Abbas said in late July. Al Jazeera English reported August 1 on the PA’s planned mass rallies:
Palestinian officials have said they will begin mass marches against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank on September 20, the eve of a largely symbolic UN vote expected to recognise their independence.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, a Palestinian official, said leaders hope to attract millions of people, and the protest will be the first of a prolonged effort.
He said the campaign would be called “Palestine 194″ because the Palestinians hope to become the 194th member of the UN.
“The appeal to the UN is a battle for all Palestinians, and in order to succeed, it needs millions to pour into streets,” Abed Rabbo said.
But this week, the form of the PA’s planned “resistance” became clear, and it will certainly not mark the end of coordination between PA security forces and the Israeli military, one of the most important–and disliked among Palestinians–results of the Oslo era.
Haaretz reported last Friday that:
The Palestinian Authority has ordered its security forces to prevent demonstrations planned for September from escalating into violent confrontations with Israel, especially in potential friction points like the roadblocks and settlements.
Senior Palestinian Authority figures issued the orders to the Palestinian security forces in recent weeks out of concern that there may be violent clashes between thousands of Palestinian demonstrators and Israel Defense Forces at the end of September, following a vote at the United Nations General Assembly for recognition of a Palestinian state
In similar messages relayed to the IDF, the PA made clear that it intended to prevent largescale violent protests which would heighten tensions and undermine security cooperation between the two sides.
Last week PA President Mahmoud Abbas called on all Palestinians to participate in non-violent marches which are part of a series of events planned by the Authority for late September. Earlier this week, the General Secretary of the PLO Executive Committee, Yasser Abed Rabbo, announced that plans to hold a mass rally on September 20 when UN deliberations in New York begin.
The Palestinian demonstrations are scheduled to take place in the centers of Palestinian cities – and not in locations where they may lead to friction with Israelis. Moreover, the PLO is sponsoring the events and the security forces are charged with overseeing order.
The PA, it seems, intends to coopt Palestinian resistance against the occupation. But it ishighly unlikely that will fly with grassroots activists involved in the popular committees that demonstrate against the illegal separation barrier and settlements in the West Bank every week. A confrontation between the PA and Palestinians seems likely, and is not without precedent. As Adam Shatz pointed out in a recent piece in the London Review of Books, the PA turned back protesters who attempted to march to the Hawara checkpoint outside Nablus during the May 15 protests marking the Nakba.
In a statement sent to me by activists in the West Bank, a coalition of popular committees in the West Bank said July 29:
The popular committees against the wall and settlements confirms that next September is the immense popular battle for the recognition of the State of Palestine, number 194 at the UN.
The popular committees against the wall and settlements, in addition to the national committee for popular struggle and the popular struggle coordination committee, have discussed the issue regarding the intention of the Palestinian Authority to go the UN for the recognition of the Palestinian State.
All confirmed the right of the Palestinian people to have their state fully recognized with its capital Jerusalem through going to the UN, guaranteeing holding to the Palestinian fixed rights.
The committees consider the coming September a very important phase of struggle in the history of the Palestinian cause and calls upon the Palestinian people in its all categories wherever they are to actively engage and participate in such a phase. They also calls upon the Palestinian leadership not to tie going to the UN against going back to negotiations.
The committees commit themselves to initiate to work in order to develop intensive action and mobilize people to expand the struggle for recognition of a Palestinian State in the Palestinian and the international arenas using an immense popular struggle program.
Therefore, the committees call upon our Palestinian people in all their locations in Palestine and Diaspora, the fellow Arab countries and the International arena of supporters, solidarity movements and friends around the world to stand with us and act in their communities for the recognition of the Palestinian state to become the state number 194 in the United Nations.
Call on the International movements to mobilize with us on the 21 of September, to make the day a world wide day in support of the right of Palestian people to their own state in freedom, democracy and self determination.
While the popular committee statement expressed support for the UN bid, it is clear that popular struggle leaders are not going to simply gather in Palestinian cities and stay put, especially considering the fact that the popular struggle confronts the Israeli military head on every week. Come September, the PA’s statehood bid could lead to a confrontation with its own people.
Alex Kane, a freelance journalist currently based in Amman, Jordan, blogs on Israel/Palestine atalexbkane.wordpress.com, where this post originally appeared. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.
‘Call to action’ for September 15 cites U.S.’s global isolation in blocking Palestinian self-determination
Aug 08, 2011
Philip Weiss
A group called September 15 has issued a Call to Action for that day, in anticipation of the Palestinian Authority’s demand for statehood at the U.N. General Assembly. We’ll be doing lots more tubthumping for September events in days to come. (When I was a young journalist I was told not to do tubthumping. Oh well) (The group was founded by journalist Mya Guarneri and its personnel are here.)
From its call to action, emphases mine:
Not only are our tax dollars being squandered, the United States is facing isolation on the world stage thanks to its special relationship with Israel. And that isolation will come to a head in mid-September, when the United Nations General Assembly convenes.
A Palestinian state is on the UN’s table. Ignoring the fact that its own state was created by a UN declaration, Israel is fighting the move. Although the Palestinian bid has already gained a tremendous amount of international support, the US has aligned itself with Israel. And the US Senate has taken the highly unusual step of passing a resolution that would essentially punish the Palestinian Authority for turning to the UN.
We are not taking a stand on the UN vote. But, as American citizens who believe in democracy, we strongly object to the United States’ intention to prevent Palestinian self-determination.
Like the US-funded occupation, blocking the UN vote denies Palestinians the right to determine “their own political, economic, social, and cultural systems and their full participation in all aspects of their lives”–the UN’s definition of democracy.
So, on September 15–the International Day of Democracy and two days after the UN General Assembly convenes–we will take to the streets and demand that the United States government support true democracy in all of the Middle East, not just the places that are near and dear to special interest groups.
‘One regime rules the land between the river and sea,’ Dana explains (in LRB and AJ, anywhere but here)
Aug 08, 2011
annie
In light of the recent protests Joseph Dana’s interview with Al Jazeerah and London Review of Books article What about the Occupation? directs us to the most pressing concern impacting social justice in Israel today.
AJ: The government has tried to label these protesters ‘left wing’. Are they and why as far as the government is concerned is an accusation of being left wing such a slur?
DANA: In israeli politics everything is on a very stark left/right divide, the left being associated with Palestinian rights. The sad reality is that if Israelis discuss Palestinian rights and specifically the rights of Palestinians under Israeli occupation they very quickly lose public support. Now we’ve been waiting, as I’ve said, and given the protest a number of weeks here to develop any sort of criticism about the occupation and I think if there is no criticism of the occupation it will provide absolute proof that Israeli society is not ready or willing to discuss this occupation and will not be able to end it itself.
Dana’s LRB article draws our attention to the timeliness of addressing Palestinian rights given the United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood in September and the pressing choice facing Israeli protestors. Note the framing of the GOI: one regime rules the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
The protesters’ working definition of ‘social justice’, however, is unclear and full of contradictions. Most glaringly, they have yet to address the question of the Occupied Territories. From the start, organisers maintained that their protests were a rare instance of ‘apolitical’ social organising. The Palestinian issue was understood to be too divisive to be included under the umbrella of Israel’s social justice revolution, and there’s no doubt that, had protesters connected their struggle for social justice to the occupation, many fewer Israelis would have joined the protests.
The rights of Israelis, however, are inextricably tied with the rights of Palestinians, both inside the 1967 borders and in the Occupied Territories. The protesters, like most of Israeli society, are operating under the assumption that they are disconnected from the Palestinians who live under Israeli military occupation. But the fact is that one regime rules the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and any discussion of the allocation of resources here, not to mention social justice, must take into account the rights of everyone who lives under the regime.
(clip)
The protest as a whole will soon be forced to confront the question of the occupation. Last week the military announced that it will initiate a massive call up of reserves ahead of the United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood in September. Most of the protesters, young men and woman with reserve duty obligations, will have to decide whether to increase the pressure on the government by refusing to serve, or abandon their protest without having made any concrete gains. At the moment, the latter course seems more likely.
‘NYT’ editorial on stalemate reflects Israeli talking points
Aug 08, 2011
Matthew Taylor
Ali Abunimah said it best: you can’t negotiate over sharing a pizza when your adversary is eating the pizza during the negotiations. Well, the New York Times is back with more editorial page propaganda that blames the Palestinian Authority for not being willing to negotiate while Israel continues its pizza-gobbling colonial project.
All share blame for the stalemate… The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, seemed to give up on diplomacy when Mr. Obama could not deliver a promised settlement freeze.
Also, the NYT repeats Israel’s ‘no partner’ talking point by not mentioning the nine-year-old Arab Peace Initiative, which gives Israel plenty of incentive to compromise – full diplomatic relations, and acceptance of its conquest of 78% of historic Palestine!
“Arab leaders haven’t given the Israelis any incentive to compromise. “
Barf. Who writes this stuff, neutral journalists or Israel’s P.R. department?
Israeli forces hold ambulance w/ Palestinian crash survivors at checkpoint for 1/2 hour
Aug 08, 2011
Kate
and other news from Today in Palestine:
Land, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid
Palestinian residents of Silwan suffer under the City of David settlement ‘improvement’ program
[with photos] Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 8 Aug — Israeli developers overseeing the “Improvement of the City of David settlement” project in Silwan are engaging in underhanded retaliation to the Israeli Supreme Court’s ruling that an important part of the construction project is illegal. Those punished are the residents of Silwan themselves. Israeli construction crews have taken to working on the streets of Silwan themselves, leaving gaping holes in the roads, a serious safety issue for residents. Many children, women and elderly people have already been injured when falling into the holes, and indeed several cars have crashed as a result … The “Improvement” project is of benefit only to the settlement movement in Silwan and the associated tourism industry. The Municipality has a strong working relationship with settlement association Elad, a relationship that translates into unbridled support for the settlement enterprise in the village.
link to silwanic.net
The shooting of Ahmed al-Qaraeen: two years on
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 8 Aug — Two years have passed since the shooting of Wadi Hilweh resident Ahmed al-Qaraeen. Qaraeen was shot by an extremist Israeli settler armed with an M-16 machine gun in Wadi Hilweh district of Silwan in both his legs, an attack for which the settler knew he would go unpunished. Ahmed “Abu Wadee‘h” al-Qaraeen continues to walk with crutches to this day, and lacks the strength for normal mobility. Qaraeen’s injuries have led to the loss of work and the ability to support himself
link to silwanic.net
Israel to compensate contractor for canceling plan to build West Bank settlement
Haaretz 8 Aug — The state must compensate a contractor to the tune of almost NIS 5 million, plus alternate lands, because it canceled a plan to build a West Bank settlement and transferred the land to the Palestinian Authority. The Ramat Kidron project was conceived three decades ago, when Menachem Begin’s government decided to build a ring of settlements east of Jerusalem that would sever the capital from the West Bank. As part of this program, the government authorized the establishment of Ramat Kidron in July 1981.
link to www.haaretz.com
Conflict over religious sites in Jerusalem / Archaeology
Jewish settlers storm the Aqsa Mosque
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 8 Aug — Tension is running high in the holy Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem after Jewish settlers stormed and roamed the plazas of the holy site at the early morning hours on Monday. The Aqsa guards said that Israeli occupation police escorted the groups of settlers who were roaming the mosque in provocative tours. They said that the policemen were barricading the settlers in face of the angry Muslim worshippers, who were preparing to confront the settlers. Israeli policemen and special forces broke into the holy site on Sunday night and forced out worshippers for the third straight night.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Israeli police remove worshipers from Al-Aqsa
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 8 Aug — Israeli police entered the Jerusalem compound housing Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday evening and forcibly removed worshipers, a Ma‘an correspondent said. Israeli police forces raided the Haram Ash-Sharif complex after the Tarawih, the additional extended prayers performed during the holy month of Ramadan after the last obligatory prayer, Ma‘an’s reporter said. The police removed from the site a group of around 30 people, who were spending a special time of seclusion in the area where the mosque and Dome of the Rock stand, as part of Ramadan devotion. They had at first refused to leave, the correspondent said, as they wanted to prevent further raids by right-wing Israelis on the compound, which is revered as the third holiest site in Islam. On Friday night, a group of right-wing Israelis had entered the Haram Ash-Sharif where they clashed with local youth.
link to www.maannews.net
IOA closes shops in Qatanin market
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 8 Aug — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) ordered the closure of all shops in Qatanin (textile) market in occupied Jerusalem on Monday. The Israeli police ordered the closure to facilitate influx of Jewish settlers who plan to perform religious rituals to mark the so-called “Destruction of the Temple” anniversary. The shop-owners said that they were told by the police to close their shops from 5pm to midnight Monday. They said that the IOA closes their market once each month to allow for similar rituals by the settlers.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Top Israeli archaeologists contest Jewish ties to Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 8 Aug — Top Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein has denied the existence of Jewish roots in the city of Jerusalem, contrary to Israel’s claims that have prompted continued Judaization of the city. Finkelstein, a professor at Tel Aviv University, said Jewish archaeologists have failed to unearth historic sites to support some of the stories in the Torah. Among those stories are the Jewish Exodus, the forty-year wandering in the Sinai desert, and Joshua’s victory over the Canaanites. He also said there was no archaeological evidence that concludes that the alleged Temple of Solomon ever existed.
For his part, Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University Raphael Greenberg said that the Israelis should have found something after digging for six weeks in the City of David in East Jerusalem’s Silwan district, but have found nothing in two years of continuous excavations.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Israeli archaeologists present Roman artifacts found in Jerusalem
Haaretz 8 Aug — Archaeologists say artifacts discovered in an ancient drainage tunnel under Jerusalem are left over from war 2,000 years ago. On Monday archaeologists presented a Roman legionnaire’s sword and sheath found in the tunnel late last month. They believe it dates to around 70 C.E., when Rome put down a Jewish revolt, razing the second biblical Jewish Temple and much of the city … The newly excavated tunnel is part of a growing network of subterranean passages under the city.
link to www.haaretz.com
Settlers
Report: Israeli security arrest 2 settlers accused of arson
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 8 Aug — Israeli security forces arrested two settlers on Sunday accused of violence against Palestinian communities, Israeli news site Walla reported. Both men, aged 16 and 22, were from the notoriously hard-line Yitzhar settlement near Nablus. The Israeli Shin Bet, or internal security service, suspect that the two settlers may be linked to a string of attacks on Palestinian mosques in the West Bank, the Israeli news site added. An Israeli army spokeswoman said there were inaccuracies in the event as reported by Walla, noting that one man was arrested near Tel Aviv.
link to www.maannews.net
Israeli forces
Witnesses: Ambulance held up at checkpoint after fatal crash
NABLUS (Ma‘an) — Israeli forces delayed an ambulance treating victims of a car crash in which a 13-year-old girl died, witnesses told Ma’an. Anhar Sandouk died at the scene of an accident near Zatara checkpoint south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, medics said. Four others, including Anhar’s parents, were injured in the crash. Witnesses told Ma‘an that Israeli forces held the Palestinian ambulance at Zatara checkpoint for 30 minutes … An Israeli military spokesman said he would look into the incident. The family, from Tulkarem, was traveling to an Iftar celebration, the traditional evening meal to break the daytime fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
link to www.maannews.net
Israeli army invades Nabi Saleh
IMEMC 8 Aug — Reports from Tamimi Press indicate that Sunday evening the Israeli army invaded the Palestinian town of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank. They fired live ammunition and gas bombs and clashed with local youth. The Israeli forces were described as “firing ammo and gas canisters indiscriminately on homes.” … In addition to the soldier attacks, Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement Halamish attacked cars on the main road of Nabi Saleh. No reason or justification for the Israeli invasion has been given, and there are no confirmed reports of any injuries yet. Nabi Saleh has been attacked many times in recent weeks by settlers and the Israeli army. 4-minute VIDEO from Nabi Saleh 7 August
link to www.imemc.org
Israeli forces reopen road connecting villages to Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 8 Aug — A Nablus thoroughfare was reopened by Israeli forces on Monday after a 9-year closure, a Nablus governorate spokesman said. The road to An-Naqura village, north of Nablus, was closed by Israeli forces in 2002 … Farmers with land on either side of the road were blocked from accessing their property, he said, and would now be allowed access.
link to www.maannews.net
Gaza
Gaza fishermen refuse return of confiscated ships stripped of motors, equipment
EI blog 7 Aug — After extensive correspondence between Palestinian human rights groups and the Israeli authorities, Israel agreed to return several fishing vessels confiscated off the coast of Gaza. On 2 August, Israel brought the stolen ships to the Karem Abu Salem crossing with Gaza to return the ships to their owners. However, the boats had been stripped of their motors and fishing equipment; in some cases the missing equipment was worth thousands of dollars. Israel also attempted to charge the boat owners for transportation fees to the Karem Abu Salem crossing — therefore the Palestinian fishermen refused the Israeli receipts for their vessels and returned to Gaza without their ships. The Palestinian rights groups Adalah and Al Mezan released a statement on 4 August explaining that the returned boats had been confiscated from eight fishermen over the course of 18 months.
link to electronicintifada.net
Medicine crisis mounts in the Gaza Strip
GAZA (PIC) 8 Aug — The medicine crisis in the Gaza Strip announced by the Health Ministry in early June has continued to mount amid accusations that the West Bank health ministry has been withholding medicines Gaza is entitled to. Officials in Gaza say they have yet to see their due 40 percent cut of the medicines provided to the split Palestinian territories by the World Bank. Among the greatest affected by the shortage are kidney patients, cancer patients, children, and patients awaiting surgery.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Islamic Jihad brigades claim fired on Israeli forces
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 8 Aug — Islamic Jihad’s military wing said Monday it had fired on Israeli military vehicles near the eastern Gaza City neighborhood Ash-Shuja‘iyeh overnight, whom it said were bulldozing Palestinian farm land. The Al-Quds brigades said in a statement that they launched three mortar shells at vehicles in the east of the district which abuts Israel’s border fence, adding that it was in “response to the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people in Gaza.” An Israeli military spokeswoman said “this is just rumors … it’s not true.”
link to www.maannews.net
Fire from Gaza intensifies as three mortars hit southern Israel
Haaretz 8 Aug — Three mortar shells fell Sunday night in Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, causing damage to a fence. No injuries were reported.
link to www.haaretz.com
Rafah crossing open Monday for end of July, early August applicants
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 8 Aug — The Ministry of Interior in Gaza said Sunday that travel via the Rafah crossing on Monday will only be for passengers who registered to travel on July 31 and August 2. The ministry instructed travelers registered for July 31 to proceed to Abu Yousef An-Najjar hall in the southern city of Khan Younis at 6.00.a.m., while passengers registered for August 2 should arrive at 8.00.a.m. Gaza residents must register with the Ministry of Interior if they want to travel via the Rafah crossing and a visit can take months to process due to the high number of applicants.
link to www.maannews.net
Video: Gaza women join struggling job market
PressTV 8 Aug — In this small workshop in Nusirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, this lady broke the traditional taboo in the Palestinian society in besieged Gaza. Using electrical machines and tools to make wooden items, the creative mother enjoys her job, working in silence to shape unique artistic works. 40-year old Amal Abu Raqeeq is Gaza’s first and only female carpenter, her hobby has become a profession through which she earns a living.
link to www.presstv.ir
Video: Palestinian artist uses sands to show cultural heritage
PressTV Aug — Sand art has become more popular in recent years but in Gaza artists use this unique art to decorate houses.
link to www.presstv.ir
‘Fanoos’ lights up Gaza Ramadan
Gaza (GulfNews) 8 Aug — Two carpenters from Gaza have created what they claim to be the world’s largest ‘Fanoos’, or lantern. Tinkering away at a tiny workshop that barely fits them both, Mustafa Masoud, 29, and Montaser Masoud, 17, designed and built the lantern — an emblem associated with Ramadan and considered to be a part of the holy month’s traditions. Merging Islamic traditions with modern art, the duo wanted to create in hope-starved Gaza, what they say is the biggest lantern in the world.
link to gulfnews.com
Detention
Detainees’ parents accused of smuggling cellphones
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 8 Aug — Israeli authorities have banned parents from visiting their detained children over suspicions they smuggled cell phones into the jail during visits, a detainees’ center reported. Detainees at Shatta prison in Israel said their parents had brought them books but Israeli guards suspected the books concealed cell phones. The prisoners’ parents have been banned from visiting the prison for up to seventeen years, the center said, adding that the relatives denied all accusations of smuggling.
link to www.maannews.net
IOA bans families from visiting their sons jailed in 1948 occupied lands
NABLUS (PIC) 8 Aug — …In a separate incident, the family of Fatima Takatiqa, a 72-year old mother from Beit Fajar town south of Bethlehem city, said the IOA prevents her from entering the occupied city of Jerusalem to receive medical treatment because of the security ban imposed on some prisoners and their families. Fatima is the mother of prisoner Mohamed Takatiqa who has been in jail since 1993 and is serving four life sentences on a charge of his affiliation with Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. The aged mother suffers from serious lung problems and tried hard to get permission to receive treatment in Al-Maqased hospital, but to no avail.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Wife of political prisoner detained in Al-Khalil
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 8 Aug — Security services in Al-Khalil summoned the wife of one of its prisoners on Sunday amid a continued arrest spree in the West Bank. Sources close to the prisoner’s family said she was questioned for five hours about a previous ten-year sentence her husband spent in Israeli custody. She was also questioned about taking part in a sit-in protesting political detention in the West Bank as well as a speech given by her son during the event, the sources said. During the interrogation, she was threatened with arrest and physical assault … The same security agency detained another political prisoner’s wife for four hours during a prison visit just a week ago.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority intelligence agency has declared its refusal to release four men despite rulings for their release by the civil courts in Al-Khalil, sources close to the men have said.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
BDS
Company targeted by boycott campaign announces losses
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 8 Aug — A French multinational company at the center of a global boycott campaign announced major financial losses on Thursday, a statement from Palestinian civil society groups said Monday. “Veolia is paying the price for its involvement in Israel’s policies of occupation and apartheid against the Palestinian people,” said Jamal Jumaa, coordinator of the Stop the Wall campaign.
link to www.maannews.net
Refugees
Palestinian killed in Syria
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 8 Aug — A young Palestinian died early Monday morning in Syria’s Hama refugee camp, bringing to six the number of Palestinians killed in Syria in a week, official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
link to www.maannews.net
Discrimination
AG reverses gender-biased student elections clause
Ynet 8 Aug — Yehuda Weinstein intervenes in haredi college’s student union elections due to gender-based code that leaves women out of race
link to www.ynetnews.com
Political / Diplomatic / International news
Unity committees to tackle reconciliation issues
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 8 Aug — Fatah parliamentary deputy Ashraf Jomah said Monday that four committees would begin work next week on outstanding areas in the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas. Jomah told Ma‘an that the committees would tackle prisoners, passports, social reconciliation and the institutions shut down in Gaza and the West Bank following the 2007 infighting that divided the Palestinian territories under separate governments.
link to www.maannews.net
Resheq: Our meeting with Fatah delegation in Cairo positive
CAIRO (PIC) 8 Aug — Member of Hamas’s political bureau Ezzat Al-Resheq said there was a positive atmosphere during the meeting between Hamas and Fatah delegations in Cairo on Sunday. Resheq stated yesterday in Cairo that the delegations agreed on a number of points on the agenda of their meeting, including the issues of political arrest and passport issuing … The official also said the parties agreed on holding, at the invitation of Egypt, two meetings in Gaza and the West Bank to discuss the remaining issues.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Ministers divided over September threat
Ynet 8 Aug — Special eight-minister forum discordant over possible implications of Palestinian statehood bid — Vice Premier and Minister for Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon said on Monday that he does not share Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s ominous predictions of unprecedented violence come September. “The Palestinians’ options are very limited,” Yaalon said in reference to the Palestinians’ planned UN bid for statehood. “In all likelihood, the only thing that will happen in September is that it will be followed by October.”
link to www.ynetnews.com
Sri Lanka supports Palestinian plan to seek UN recognition
COLOMBO (WAFA) 8 Aug – Sri Lanka Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gamini Peiris, Monday affirmed his country’s support of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) intention to seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state in September.
link to english.wafa.ps
EU diplomats: Israel’s national security adviser reprimanded us over our critical policy
Haaretz 8 Aug — European diplomats have called National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror aggressive and arrogant for “reprimanding” EU countries for their policies toward Israel, during what was supposed to be a routine briefing … “He was aggressive, contemptuous and arrogant,” one of the ambassadors told Haaretz. “Some of the ambassadors were genuinely traumatized.”
link to www.haaretz.com
Israeli soldiers cross into Lebanon
PressTV 8 Aug — Israeli troops crossed the UN-drawn Blue Line and entered the southern village of Kfar Shouba on Monday, moving 150 meters into Lebanon, a Press TV correspondent reported. According to Lebanese sources, the 12 Israeli soldiers left the Lebanese territory after 30 minutes. The violation of Lebanon’s airspace, territorial waters, and border by the Israeli Military occurs on an almost daily basis. Earlier this month, Beirut submitted a complaint to the United Nations Security Council over Israel’s violation of the country’s sovereignty.
link to www.presstv.ir
Israel deputy PM: Turkey ‘rude’ to demand apology
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 8 Aug — Israel’s deputy prime minister on Monday described as “rude” Turkey’s demand that Israel apologize for the death of nine Turkish nationals killed in last year’s raid on a Gaza bound aid flotilla, Israeli media said. Speaking to Israeli Radio, Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said “there was a provocation here that the Turkish government is also responsible for.”
“It wasn’t our side that spoiled relations, and I expect they will not [restore diplomatic relations] even after the apology,” Yaalon told the radio station, according to Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post.
link to www.maannews.net
Report: Israel wages cyber war on Iran
LONDON (Ma‘an) 8 Aug — Israel has set up a cyber command center in a military defense unit in order to wage cyber war on Iran, according to a report in the British weekly The Sunday Times. The newspaper quoted a defense source saying Israel’s cyber targets in Iran included the military nuclear program and military establishment, as well as civilian infrastructure. “Attacking both, we hope, will cripple the entire country’s cyberspace,” the sources told The Sunday Times.
link to www.maannews.net
British minister condemns Israel settlement construction in Jerusalem
MEMO 8 Aug — Britain’s minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, has condemned the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s announcement approving the construction of over 900 new housing units in the settlement of Har Homa (Jabal Abu Ghneim) in Jerusalem.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
Japan condemns Israeli settlement plans
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 8 Aug — The Japanese government expressed its “disappointment” on Monday at recent Israeli plans to build 900 homes in Har Homa settlement, a statement said. “The Government of Japan does not recognize any act that prejudges the final status of the territories in the pre-1967 borders, and Israeli settlement activities should be fully frozen…”
link to www.maannews.net
Chinese military chief to visit Israel
Ynet 8 Aug — The Chinese military’s chief of staff will visit Israel next week for the first time, the Israeli military said Monday, in what may signal a renewed warming of ties between the Jewish state and Beijing. Chen Bingde will be a guest of the IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the military said.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Other news
Video: Palestinian banker hires women to win client trust
Bloomberg 8 Aug — Bloomberg’s Simon Clark reports on the gender-focused recruitment strategy at Bank of Palestine Plc and its impact on the company’s financial performance.
link to www.bloomberg.com
Video: ‘War spending wears out Israeli economy’
PressTV 8 Aug — “The problem with the Israeli society is that the government spends a lot of its budget, a lot of its money, on military spending,” Mukhaimer Abu Seada, professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, told Press TV on Sunday. “In addition to that, the government poured millions of US dollars in expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem instead of spending that money on the Israeli population and the Israeli citizens,” he added.
link to www.presstv.ir
Knesset panel denies defense ministry request for NIS 620m increase
Haaretz 8 Aug — The defense budget will not be getting the NIS 620 million increase requested by the Defense Ministry, after it emerged at a Knesset meeting yesterday that the ministry was planning to pay off debts with the money, rather than use it for army units as requested.
link to www.haaretz.com
Arab media calls social protests ‘Israeli Spring’
Haaretz 8 Aug — Many Arabic-language papers compare local struggle to the Arab world’s recent revolutions and boast that Israel is following in their footsteps.
link to www.haaretz.com
Social protest: ‘This is why we left Israel’
Ynet 8 Aug — Dozens of Israelis gather in Los Angeles park in show of solidarity with social protesters, claim cost of living led them to leave Israel
link to www.ynetnews.com
Libyans cherish shared history with Jews
AFP 8 Aug — Every hamlet around Yafran bears mark of Jews, who arrived in country 2,300 years ago and, until their departure soon after Israel’s creation in 1948, constituted half of city’s population. ‘All I know is that we used to live together and that there were no problems,’ says local
link to www.ynetnews.com
Throng of US congressmen to visit Holy Land in next few weeks
PNN 8 Aug — Over the next three weeks during the US Congress’s summer recess, 81 congressman, some 20 percent of the US House of Representatives, will visit Israel. A group of 26 Democrats plan to arrive on Monday. Two Republican delegations, totaling 55 members, will then follow the Democratic one. Freshman congressman will make up most of the number, with half of the freshman Republicans voted into office in 2010, 47 members, departing for Israel … The congressmen will visit both Israel and the West Bank, and plan to meet with President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
link to english.pnn.ps
Analysis / Opinion
Jamal Juma‘: PA ‘killing popular resistance’ / Ida Audeh
EI 8 Aug — Few Palestinians are as closely identified with the struggle against Israel’s wall in the West Bank as Jamal Juma’. The coordinator of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign since its establishment in 2002, Juma’ has suffered because of his political activities … Juma‘ spoke to The Electronic Intifada contributor Ida Audeh about the dearth of popular resistance in areas of the West Bank under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction, the UN statehood bid and the role of the Palestinian diaspora in national liberation.
link to electronicintifada.net
New book exposes brutal treatment of Palestinian prisoners / Asa Winstanley
EI 5 Aug —Threat: Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israel is a collection of essays from Pluto Press edited by Abeer Baker and Anat Matar. The contributors focus on different aspects of Israel’s system of political prisons. It is rare for such an anthology to be of such consistently high quality. Quite often essay collections can be a mixed bag but Threat is rarely less than interesting. Palestinian prisoners and the solidarity movements of their families and supporters have long been emblematic in the Palestinian liberation struggle. So the book is an important and welcome attempt to educate English-speakers on this neglected topic. Consider, for example, this astonishing statistic: “almost half of all the prisoners held by the Israeli prison system are Palestinians who have been sent to prison by the military courts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)”
link to electronicintifada.net
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.theheadlines.org (archive)
Only 20 percent of U.S. House of Representatives will visit Israel during summer recess
Aug 08, 2011
Jeff Blankfort and Phil Weiss
From Jerusalem Post, 81 congressmen to visit Israel during the summer recess, including leaders Steny Hoyer and Eric Cantor:
Most of the representatives are freshmen congressmen, with 47 – or fully half of the freshmen Republicans voted into office in 2010 – making the trip.
For many of them, this will be their first trip to Israel.
The week-long trips are sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, a charitable organization affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which brings large delegations of congressmen here every other August.House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) will head the Democratic delegation, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) will lead one of the Republican groups.
This is just another example of how we are living in inflationary times. In 2009, the year before the last election there were only 55 members of Congress going to Israel during the August recess, 25 Republicans followed by 30 Democrats. This brings up the old joke: “Why doesn’t Israel want to become the 51st state? Because then it would only have two senators.”
Dreams of a multi-ethnic democracy– Tent protesters cheer Palestinian demands
Aug 08, 2011
Philip Weiss
Dimi Reider at +972 reports that the tent protests are such a profound movement inside Israeli society that they are blowing away ethnic distinctions. And he says they threaten not just the occupation, but the ideologies of the Jewish state. Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies! is one chant. And Tahrir has informed the protests. See the sign above, which was taken by Oren Ziv at Active Stills, and says “Go! [the big slogan in Tahrir]” and “Egypt Is Here.” Reider:
First, a tent titled “1948″ was pitched on Rothschild boulevard, housing Palestinian and Jewish activists determined to discuss Palestinian collective rights and Palestinian grievances as a legitimate part of the protests. They activists tell me the arguments are exhaustive, wild and sometimes downright strange; but unlike the ultra-right activists who tried pitching a tent calling for a Jewish Tel Aviv and hoisting homophobic signs, the 1948 tenters were not pushed out, and are fast becoming part of the fabric of this “apolitical” protest.
A few days after the 1948 tent was pitched, the council of the protests – democratically elected delegates from 40 protest camps across the country – published their list of demands, including, startlingly, two of the key social justice issues unique to the Palestinians within Israel: Sweeping recognition of unrecognised Bedouin villages in the Negev; and expanding the municipal borders of Palestinian towns and villages to allow for natural development. The demands chimed in perfectly with the initial drive of the protest – lack of affordable housing.
The demands chimed in perfectly with the initial drive of the protest – lack of affordable housing. Neither issue has ever been included in the list of demands of a national, non-sectarian movement capable of bringing 300,000 people out into the streets.
And, finally, on Wednesday, residents of the Jewish poverty-stricken neighbourhood of Hatikva, many of them dyed-in-the-wool Likud activists, signed a covenant of cooperation with the Palestinian and Jewish Jaffa protesters, many of them activists with Jewish-Palestinian Hadash and nationalist-Palestinian Balad. They agreed they had more in common with each other than with the middle class national leadership of the protest, and that while not wishing to break apart from the J14 movement, they thought their unique demands would be better heard if they act together. At the rally, they marched together, arguing bitterly at times but sticking to each other, eventually even chanting mixed Hebrew and Arabic renditions of slogans from Tahrir.
Yesteday’s mega-rally was also where Palestinian partnership in the protests came to a head, when writer Odeh Bisharat spoke to nearly 300,000 people – overwhelmingly, centrist Israelis Jews – of the grievances of Palestinians in Israel and was met with raucous applause.
IslamoMaoists! Progressives in disguise!
Aug 08, 2011
Paul Mutter
Twitter user “The Dersh” (no, not that Dersh) invented the word “IslamoMaoist” to describe “anyone who wants Israel to be a state of all its citizens with full & equal rights for everyone.” Journalist Joseph Dana, of +972 Magazine, has picked up that word to describe himself and like-minded individuals. And Dana came up with “Bibicon” to describe Jewish conservatives while covering the protests in Israel.
These labels – IslamoMaoist and Bibicon – got me to thinking. We, that is, “anyone who wants Israel to be a state of all its citizens with full & equal rights for everyone,” need a catchy theme song that people will associate with us.
I propose the following song, to be sung to the tune of the 1980s Transformers TV show theme song:
IslamoMaoists! More than meets the eye!
IslamoMaoists wage their battle to delegitimize the heroic forces of the Bibicons!
IslamoMaoists! Progressives in disguise!
IslamoMaoists! More than meets the eye!
IslamoMaoists!
I should note that there are no similarities between the Bibicons and the Decepticon faction of Transformers from the TV show, besides some shared letters in their names. Fans of the show may think I am implying that there are similarities, but this is the furthest thing from my mind.
The Decepticons seek to gain total control over their ancestral home planet of Cybertron even though it means displacing millions of Autobots (also Transformers) who have lived there for as long as anyone can remember. Decepticon ideology clearly states that Cybertron belongs to the Decepticons and no one else, no matter how long anyone else has lived there and might also regard it as their home planet.
And since Autobots don’t subscribe to the same ideology as the Decepitcons, well, that’s just too bad. They have to leave, convert, or get shot at.
Bibicons think nothing like this.
DC Jewish Community Center axes Theater J’s ‘peace cafe’ collaboration with Muslim
Aug 08, 2011
Philip Weiss
The frustration, and joy, of Walt and Mearsheimer’s golden spike of 6 years ago — The Israel Lobby– was that it should have rung in a golden age of journalism about the Israel lobby. How large a force is this in our public life? How much of our foreign policy has it affected? Georgia? India/Pakistan? Do our universities really need Israel Studies departments? When did the American Enterprise Institute convert to Zionism? Do George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter believe that they were one-termers because they went up against the lobby? Ask them. How much of American Jewish donorship has a pro-Israel bias? Talk to the money-boys. Etc. Etc.
These are great stories, and I thought that Walt and Mearsheimer would inaugurate a feast of reporting.
Well it didn’t happen. But maybe it’s starting to? The Washington Post’s Peter Marks does some fine reporting here on the decision by the D.C. Jewish Community Center to end the hosting at its Theater J space of Peace Cafes organized by Andy Shallal, a charismatic Muslim restaurateur who runs Busboys and Poets. It is funny to me that the most important part of the story is in a parenthesis (the funding issue!), but Marks is correct to say that the incident is “further evidence of the corrosive turn that the political and artistic dialogues over matters related to Israel have taken of late in this country…” Yeah: it’s a huge story, and the grass roots are pushing it in.
Now to the censorship.
[S]uddenly, a few months ago, a curtain was drawn. The [Jewish] community center’s then-chief executive officer, Arna Meyer Mickelson, told Shallal that the Peace Cafe could no longer use the facilities of the center, at 16th and Q streets NW. “She said, ‘We appreciate what you’ve done, but we can’t have Peace Cafes at Theater J anymore,’ ” Shallal recalls. “I think she was waiting for the right moment to cut the strings.”…
In cities such as New York and Washington, ad hoc watchdog groups have formed to pressure Jewish federations to cease funding nonprofit groups that they deem critical of Israel. Locally, a portion of their ire has been directed at Theater J, one of the nation’s most successful — and dramatically adventurous — theater groups operating from within the structure of a Federation-funded Jewish community center.
In March, a group calling itself Citizens Opposed to Propaganda Masquerading as Art, headed by Potomac lawyer Robert G. Samet, asked that the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington look at imposing curbs on financing for Theater J. As evidence of the theater company’s intent to produce works that “demonize Israel and the Jewish people,” Samet cited “Return to Haifa,” a work by an Israeli playwright, Boaz Gaon, that was performed at Theater J last winter by Israel’s most renowned company, the Cameri Theater of Tel Aviv…
In a March 6 letter to the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, Citizens Opposed to Propaganda Masquerading as Art said the play [Return to Haifa] “distorts history” by comparing the death of a Jewish child in the Holocaust “to the fabricated and utterly fantastical story of an Arab child allegedly abandoned by his fleeing parents in Haifa in 1948.” Arguing that through its Peace Cafes, Theater J had featured “groups and speakers . . . intensely hostile to the existence of the State of Israel,” the group questioned “the appropriateness of Federation funds being used to support activities by its partner agencies that undermine Israel’s legitimacy and security.”… (The Washington Federation gives about $600,000 a year to the DCJCC, which in turn supports Theater J by giving it a theater space, the Goldman, and providing other amenities such as utilities, officials say. Theater J balances its $1.4 million annual budget through ticket sales and donations.)