Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

• Reading Anne Frank in Gaza

• ‘Olive Revolution’ plans to march on Jerusalem from four directions this Friday

• The empty pieties of David Grossman

• Israel’s latest global weapon to hold occupied territories is SodaStream seltzer-maker

• Assad regime rushes to cover up bloodshed in Palestinian refugee camp

• ‘Politico’ features claim for Israeli sovereignty of W.B. where ‘Jews have been the majority’ since 1800s

• Another middle-of-the-night raid at Jenin Freedom Theatre, and another arrest

• Richmond ‘Times-Dispatch’ rejects piece criticizing Cantor’s Israel travels, so it runs in Culpeper paper

• Fearing international isolation, Israel refrains from escalating Gaza attacks

• 104 young Americans reported to go join Israeli army

Reading Anne Frank in Gaza

Aug 23, 2011

Mohammed Suliman

I always believed to write is to “make less the depth of grief.” But it’s been long since I wrote down anything, and indeed I spent long and hard time attempting to convince myself that this latest recurring experience of mine isn’t any different and, like many other episodes in my life, can be recorded well.

There is no phrase in regard to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that I hate as much as that of “the suffering of both peoples”, “the fear both peoples have to go through”, “the trauma both peoples experience” and the like, usually made in places like the U.N. General Assembly’s podiums, the International Court’s or even in the White House. Not that I care whether those neatly-suited, shiny-black-shoed politicians are neutral or one-sided— meaning pro-Israel, because there are definitely no such politicians who are on the side of the Palestinians— or whether they have the sort of genuine interest needed to solve this seemingly insoluble conflict. But considering the fact that I sometimes tend to be a little bit selfish, I hate that my personal suffering, let alone the suffering of 1.6 million Palestinians living in Gaza, be seriously sabotaged by such phrases once analogized, and hence diminished, to the state of fear felt by a few Israelis in the aftermath of firing often-homemade missiles onto Israel, occasionally not mistaking their target and falling into a huge deserted land in Israel and, once fallen, absolutely resulting in no casualties whatsoever except on very rare occasions.

However, the other day I was sitting in the heart of my pitch dark room, immersed in sweat and hemmed in by the wild hums of a few frenzied generators drifting through space and time and forcing their way into my head to crowd themselves into some little unengaged space of my racked brains meant to absorb the words neatly seated before my eyes onto the pages of The Diary of Anne Frank. I wiped sweat off my brows and continued reading. The unnerving hums of the generators swarmed into my brain like the throngs of mostly pale-faced short-tempered passengers with whom I was packed the other day in some little stuffy room, some puffing on their cigarettes, some fanning themselves with their official documents, all of us, however, waiting for our names to be called out to get a stamped ticket. Not that we were crossing into Egypt on that day but rather we were trying to ensure that, at least two months from that date, the time when our travelling has been scheduled, when we go to travel through the Rafah crossing, we won’t be turned back, having already reserved a place to travel two months in advance. Anyway, my pains paid off, and I got my ticket. That experience is past.

In my room, meanwhile, I was engaged in my life-time struggle against the unforgiving oppression I had always failed to familiarize myself with. I was being normally punished for a misdemeanor I have never committed in the first place.

It seemed then all the suffering in the world combined into one I was bound to endure. I was the center of the world’s unfortunate beings. The Wretched of the Earth. I was a starving child in Somalia, a Syrian demonstrator shot in the neck in the streets of Hama, a pregnant mother dying at a checkpoint in Palestine, a besieged Palestinian schoolboy in Gaza helplessly sinking into the depths of despair. “But I can’t be that selfish,” I would think, “here is a guiltless Anne Frank in a wardrobe hiding from her imminent death at the hands of a Nazi officer. And she wouldn’t complain!”

But while Anne hid in her wardrobe, and Iona confided in his mare, I had neither a wardrobe nor a mare. Darkness is the only place where one can hide from the dark. I had nowhere to hide, and I had no one “to whom I can tell my grief”.

I always told myself, “had it not been for these eight cursed hours when power was cut off, I would have never complained.” But now my wrath had grown so immense to be curbed. My chest is now brimming with pent-up ages-old anger the causes for which, unlike their united implications on me, vary disparagingly. I was stifled. I was half-way through my desperate endeavors to stop myself from cursing the place where I have grown and become a man whose tongue can strikingly respond to the most abominable of curses— having already learned them in the aisles of the camp and furnished myself with a remarkable arsenal of phrases and swear words.

I picked up the candle and looked at the clock as it ticked time away. 10:15 pm. I guessed, “I still have two more hours ahead before the power is turned back on,”

I had to think of some way to while away these two hours. “I can do anything but leave myself to my besetting thoughts,” I murmured trying to break the had-it-not-been-for-the-generators silence. I knew if I did, I would be eventually be left with nothing but a pathetic state of gloom and hopelessness. I couldn’t afford a new strike of despair; it would take me ages to recover from it. Not even the beautifully resuscitating spectacle of our neon bulbs flickering back into life would relieve me this time.

I wanted to escape this gruesomely fiendish place. I was exhausted. My breaths grew fast and short. Sweat started to flood down my body. I didn’t want to think anymore. I desperately attempted to shut the omnipresent scene of the dark out of my mind. One more moment contemplation of the flowing endless succession of the generators’ revs would cast me straight into an abysmal void where all I could do then is but scream at the top of my lungs.

Putting out the candlelight, I groped my way through the dark as fast as my feet could carry me, straight and out of the room, rushing down the stairs until I was out in the street. I leaned against a wall, drew a deep breath, and uttered a vile curse.

In a display of utter disregard to the generators all around me, I walked on and on curiously exploring the street lamps and flashing car lights. My thoughts immediately wandered to the several “foreigners” I had met and their naive remarks on living in Gaza. I thought wryly, “They don’t know a goddamn thing about living in Gaza! Gaza is such an awful place to live in!”

No sooner had this thought crossed my mind than I ducked at the sound of a missile being fired from a neighboring area. I instantly cursed. I needed to get back home as quickly as I could, for I had no doubt what would follow. And in no time, possibly before the fired missile had even reached its target, a deafeningly F-16 bomb hit the area and shook the ground from below my feet. My heart skipped a beat; I cursed and longed for home.

Back home, still teetering on the edge of despair, I lay on my bed, and, indifferent to the dark, the generators’ noise, the clock’s ticking and the Apache’s hovering, I kept on cursing knowing that somehow I would eventually fall asleep and that this misery of mine will come to an end. Somehow.

(Crossposted @ Mohammed Suliman’s blog Gaza Diaries of Peace and War and The Electronic Intifada)

 

‘Olive Revolution’ plans to march on Jerusalem from four directions this Friday

Aug 23, 2011

Adam Horowitz

The following press release was sent out by a group called the Olive Revolution, which describes itself as an “unarmed, popular, patriotic, and human revolution against Israeli occupation.” The release announces a day of action to “knock on Jerusalem’s gates” by marching on the city from four directions this Friday. You can follow the protest over Twitter and Facebook.

PRESS RELEASE
Olive Revolution
August 23, 2011

We from the Olive Revolution (popular revolution and national humanitarian non-armed revolution against the Israeli occupation) start the campaign ‘Knocking on Jerusalem’s Doors’ Part of Jerusalem week activities as a response to all the Israeli policies of Judaizing Jerusalem. We state that Jerusalem will remain the jewel of the Arabs and capital of our future country. Jerusalem is the symbol of our pride and our national dignity that’s why we are going to knock on its doors by popular demonstrations and non-violent activities which start with the Friday prayers on the 26th of August 2011. We are planning to knock on four doors:
1. The Northern section Qalandia.
2. The Western section of the Apartheid Wall in the village of Biddu, northwest of Jerusalem.
3. The Eastern door in Shufat.
4. The Southern door at Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem.
Members of the Legislative Council, Ministers, Members of the Central Committees & offices of political parties and factions will be present at the four doors.
We are also keen to organize a demonstration at Beit Hanoun set to take place simultaneously with ‘the people knocking on the doors’ of our beloved Jerusalem demonstrations.
Olive Revolution in coordination with the Central Committee for the right of return march declares that this event will take place within the week celebrating Jerusalem day/youm AlQuds in Palestine.
We would be honored by your participation; we welcome your ideas and suggestions for any further activities which express our appreciation and importance of the city of Jerusalem.
It’s an ongoing revolution until we achieve freedom, justice and peace for all.

 

The empty pieties of David Grossman

Aug 23, 2011

Eleanor Kilroy

Haaretz has reported on the publication of a long interview with the Israeli author David Grossman in the French newspaper, Libération, last month (the original article in French is here). The article’s headline,David Grossman doubts Arab states’ good intentions, is liberal Zionist speak for ‘he agrees they want to push us into the sea’. Read further and the ‘peace camp activist’ chastises Israel too. In what appears to be a gesture of humility, he goes on to acknowledge painful sacrifices must be made on both sides and regrets that “the Israelis and Palestinians are not going to fall in love with each other, but one does not seek love between nations”.

Disregarding the fact that this is not a clash between two national movements, but a settler colonial movement intent on the violent displacement of the indigenous inhabitants, he adds that in light of this ill-will of Arab states towards Israelis that constitute a ‘small minority’ of Jews in the Middle East, “We have, therefore, need of a strong army to defend our State”. Our state. Our Jewish State, it goes without saying.

The interview with Libération took place on the occasion of the publication in French of To the End of the Land (Une femme fuyant l’annonce), which he was writing when his son Uri – on active military service – was killed during the war on Lebanon in 2006. David Grossman is found by the interviewer to be ‘sometimes serious and intense, also lively, attentive and warm’, as befits a man of peace. As we saw during British writer, Ian McEwan’s and South African artist William Kentridge’s boycott-busting visits to Jerusalem, you can demonstrate your own ‘bonne volonté’ or good intentions towards the Jewish Israeli people – and from a safe distance your pity for the Palestinian predicament – just by spending some time in Grossman’s enlightened company. Aware of the ‘Grossman Effect’, the White House announced that President Obama’s vacation reading list includes To the End of the Land.

Early next month, the Israeli author will be in conversation with Alain Finkielkraut, philosopher and professor at the École Polytechnique, during his book tour of France. If you missed the fascinating piece inTablet Magazine in July, French Jews, confronting anti-Semitism in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair, created the figure of the intellectual. And now, arguing about Israel and Islam, they’re killing it, it provides historical context to the emergence of France’s new philosophers, including Bernard-Henri Lévy and Finkielkraut. While Robert Zaretsky quips that “the contents of Lévy’s shampoo were far richer than the contents of his writing”, he explains that in their 2011 book, L’antisémitisme partout – Aujourd’hui en France (The Anti-Semitism everywhere – Today in France), Eric Hazan and Alain Badiou argued Finkielkraut, “was guilty of doing to the Muslims what has once been done to the Jews, transforming the mostly Muslim youths of France’s blighted and blasted suburbs into an irreducibly foreign element in France, portraying them as a violent rabble who, when not whistling derisively during renditions of the Marseillaise, spend their time terrorizing French Jews.”

David Grossman will be in safe hands then. Nor can he expect any awkward questions about Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). Alain Finkielkraut and other signatories of the ‘European Jewish Call for Reason’ (JCall) deplore the Knesset’s new anti-boycott law precisely because of their ‘total opposition’ to the BDS movement. Contrary to the objectives of JCall – the protection of Israel – such a law, they argue, principally serves the interests of those who question the democratic character of the Israeli state and hope to see the spread of deligitimisation movements, such as BDS. Here you can see Finkielkraut call BDS ‘scandalous’ and ‘politically irresponsible’, during a 2010 TV debate with the indefatigable Stéphane Hessel, at a moment when the former insists ‘anti-Semitism is triumphing’. A conference on boycott in the presence of Hessel, French author of «Indignez-vous!», was scheduled at L’Ecole normale supérieure in January this year, and was cancelled at the last moment. Although Finkielkraut denied any part in it, headmitted he was alarmed by the announcement of this debate and added that it was “no secret that the L’Ecole normale supérieure had become a veritable forum of hate towards Israel, and there was a total prohibition on the expressions of Zionists at the moment”.

As I argued in Europe embraces the silences of Aharon Appelfeld, the Palestinian narrative falls victim to the French media’s ‘absurd tone of reverence’ in its encounters with Israeli novelists. If you read the French interview with Grossman in its entirety, this man of peace is keen to absolve the Israeli apartheid state and settler colonial movement of its responsibility for the ongoing dispossession of the Palestinians. Instead he blames “a group of messianic Jews focused on kidnapping the entire state”. It is, he maintains, “the mentality of the colonies that have invaded the country”, rather than the other way round.

 

Israel’s latest global weapon to hold occupied territories is SodaStream seltzer-maker

Aug 23, 2011

Philip Weiss

Did you see the countertop SodaStream seltzer-maker on sale at the Park Slope coop in Kiera Feldman’s report yesterday? It’s made in a settlement in the West Bank. Well here’s that Sodastream at Saveurmagazine!

“instant thirst-quenching with no landfill guilt” spritzes Ganda Suthivarakom.

How does this work? How do these seltzer makers creep out into our media bloodstream, without guilt?

Assad regime rushes to cover up bloodshed in Palestinian refugee camp

Aug 23, 2011

annie

Ma’an News reports as a UN delegation arrives in Damascus, Syrian forces are scurrying to erase bloody evidence from their ‘crackdown’ in Latakia prior to the delegate’s inspections.

Security forces were seen scrubbing blood off the streets and walls of al-Ramel refugee camp ahead of the cross-agency mission’s anticipated arrival in the port city, which has faced a week of attacks.

…….

It fits “perfectly with the version of events which the regime is denying: that there was an attack on Latakia camp, home to thousands of UN registered Palestinian refugees who were forced to flee as they came under fire,” the diplomat said.

……

Security forces have said their campaign targeted “armed men” who “opened fire on residents” in Latakia, but witnesses said the assault began after a small group held a peaceful demonstration.

On Saturday, Assad regime officials brought state television crews to one section of Latakia which had been opened to inspection, rights activists told Ma’an. Prior to filming, however, security forces scrubbed off dried, days-old blood from the streets and planted flowers in a bid to present the area as a regular public space.

For readers who have not been following events in Latakia I recommend Thousands Flee Syrian Assault on Latakia from Adalah as well as a CNN’s cryptically titled Mission in Latakia completed.

‘Politico’ features claim for Israeli sovereignty of W.B. where ‘Jews have been the majority’ since 1800s

Aug 23, 2011

Philip Weiss

Josh Block used to work for AIPAC. Then he started a PR shop with Clintonite Lanny Davis, and now he’s at the Progressive Policy Institute. So he considers himself a liberal Democrat. And he gets a platform at Politico to spew falsehoods about Jewish numbers and sovereignty. This is what it means to be progressive in the U.S. establishment:

the fictional Palestinian state conjured up for the United Nations doesn’t meet international law standards. Its legislature hasn’t met in nearly five years; it can’t hold elections as required under its own law, and it doesn’t have defined territory — instead claiming land once held briefly by Jordan, where Jews have been the majority population since the 1800s, and now under Israeli sovereignty.

Another middle-of-the-night raid at Jenin Freedom Theatre, and another arrest

Aug 23, 2011

Philip Weiss

Jacob Gough reports that the Israelis have freed two of three members of the Jenin Freedom Theatre whom they arrested without charges weeks back.

Meantime, they have arrested yet another member of the theater in another nighttime raid. There are post-raid photographs of Mohammed Nagnaghiya’s house here on Facebook, including one of feces left by the Israeli attack dogs.

The head of the Friends of Jenin Freedom Theatre, Constance Romilly, told me yesterday that the arrests have nothing to do with solving the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis last April. “They don’t like the Freedom Theatre because it brings in too many internationals, to work and to help.”

An Israeli court ordered the men released, Romilly said, but Israeli forces treated the men abusively — denying them access to lawyers for weeks and taunting them with food during Ramadan fasts. And she described the Kafkaesque treatment of young actor Rami Hwayel, whom the Israelis arrested in early August and continue to hold. Under questioning, he said that he had entered Israel without a permit, and so he was charged with that crime, the crime of freedom of movement.

“Every young man has entered Israel without permission at some time, but this was a face-saving move by the Israelis– to charge him with this,” she said.

Here is Richard Lightbown at Palestine Chronicle, reporting on the latest arrest:

On 22 August at approximately 2:00 in the morning the IDF again raided the Freedom Theatre and the home of the Nagnaghiya family. Summoned by neighbours, Jacob Gough returned to the theatre where he was threatened with violence if he did not withdraw. After a second attempt he was forced to strip at gunpoint, detained and threatened with beating if he spoke. Meanwhile the theatre’s security guard (Mohammed, brother of Adnan Nagnaghiya) was beaten in his home, all three floors of which were ransacked before he was taken away in handcuffs. By this time youths had gathered and begun to throw stones. As they left the army attempted to disperse the crowd by firing live ammunition.

Theatre co-founder Jonatan Stanczak commented:

“This behaviour is mounting to systematic harassment of The Freedom Theatre by The Israeli army, it is scandalous. This proves that the Israeli army and security apparatus is either lost in their investigation or that they have the actual intention of damaging the theatre. It also seems that after the murder of Juliano Mer Khamis the Freedom Theatre is no longer exempted from the kind of oppression the Palestinian society is subjected to in general.”

Richmond ‘Times-Dispatch’ rejects piece criticizing Cantor’s Israel travels, so it runs in Culpeper paper

Aug 23, 2011

Philip Weiss

Josh Ruebner has published an op-ed criticizing Eric Cantor for going to Israel in the Culpeper, Virginia, Star-Exponent. “Put your constituents’ economic concerns before Israel’s,” writes Ruebner (of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation).

The Culpeper paper is in the northern end of Cantor’s district, but I am informed that the piece was rejected by the Times-Dispatch in Richmond, where Cantor lives. Oh and by the way, Cantor’s wife Diana is on the board of the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s parent company’s board, Media General. Here’s Ruebner:

Americans are suffering massive cutbacks in social services, an unemployment rate stuck above 9 percent, and 10 million families face foreclosure on their homes by next year. As Majority Leader,Rep. Eric Cantor should be at home during this August congressional recess, meeting with constituents and proposing to them and the entire country how he will help them cope with their difficult circumstances.

Instead, the politician is gallivanting around Israel, leading one of three congressional delegations heading there this month on all-expense-paid junkets organized by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), a “charitable affiliate” of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most influential of the myriad pro-Israel lobbying outfits….

The House Committee on Ethics should open an investigation to determine if it is even legal for Rep. Cantor to be participating in junkets organized by AIEF. The guidelines of the committee are as bright and clear as the midday sun on a Tel Aviv beach in August. “The travel provisions of the gift rule severely limit the ability of Members and staff to accept travel from an entity that employs or retains a registered lobbyist.”

 

Fearing international isolation, Israel refrains from escalating Gaza attacks

Aug 23, 2011

Kate

Netanyahu tells cabinet: Israel lacks legitimacy for major Gaza operation
Haaretz 23 Aug — The cabinet voted Monday to refrain from any action that could lead to an escalation in the south and to cooperate indirectly with the truce Hamas declared on Sunday. So far, the truce has largely held, although three rockets did hit southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on Monday. . .

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak offered various arguments for why Israel must exercise restraint – its international isolation, the fact that the Iron Dome rocket interception system still offers only partial defense, and the fear of worsening the diplomatic crisis with Egypt. Under these circumstances, Netanyahu said, all-out war against Hamas-run Gaza would be inadvisable. . .

What emerged most clearly from Netanyahu’s and Barak’s statements to the cabinet was that Israel lacks the international legitimacy needed for a large-scale operation in Gaza. The diplomatic crisis with Egypt further constrains Israel’s freedom of action. . .

Several Netanyahu aides detailed the constraints on Israeli military action, most of which are diplomatic.

“There’s a sensitive situation in the Middle East, which is one big boiling pot; there’s the international arena; there’s the Palestinian move in the Untied Nations in September,” when the Palestinians hope to obtain UN recognition as a state, one advisor enumerated. “We have to pick our way carefully.”

Political source: We cannot rush into war
Ynet 22 Aug — Jerusalem is struggling to explain what has been criticized at its lax response to the escalation in southern Israel over the weekend.  A senior political source told Ynet on Monday that, “You cannot rush into war. It would be a mistake to allow a murderous terror cell to drag us into war in Gaza.”  The decision to defer any ground operation in the Gaza Strip, he added, stemmed from the need “to make any such decision in a responsible, smart manner. You don’t rush into war, nor do you enter it carelessly. The entire Middle East is boiling over now, and we have to choose our path very carefully,” he said. “We have to look at the entire region and decide how it could be affected, and what the consequences may be for us…”

And more news from Today in Palestine:

Israel to expel 384 activists from Jerusalem
Jerusalem (PNN) 22 Aug  – Israel has announced plans to expel 384 Palestinian activists from Jerusalem.  Israeli intelligence services summoned prominent Palestinian activists last week to inform them of the decision, which it claims will only affect those who continue to operate in September.  But the director of the Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER), Zaid Al-Hammouri, has warned in a conversation with PNN that the decision might affect any Palestinian living in Jerusalem, adding that ‘thousands’ may face expulsion. Critics have claimed that the plans are the most recent attempt by the Israeli government to reduce the number of Palestinians resident in occupied East Jerusalem, something Israel denies.

A provision of house arrest, trial extensions, and an arrest / Jawad
[photos; edited for clarity] Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 22 Aug — Last Monday, the Israeli court extended the arrest of Ibrahim Mousa Oudeh 20 years old after calling him for interrogation few days ago, and this was after they broke into his house in Al Bustan district in Silwan several times. Add to this the sabotaging, inspection operations for the house and its contents , the  kidnapping of his little brother Muslim 10 years old and his relative Hamadeh Oudeh 13 years old  and practicing all kinds of pressure against his family. Ibrahim decided to turn  himself to the police. Kathem Abu Shafeh 17 years old  who was arrested while storming al Bustan district in Silwan was released by the Israeli Forces but with a house arrest bond. In addition to the release of the two kids Muslim and Hamdeh Oudeh who were kidnapped by the Undercover Israeli Units at the same day.
link to silwanic.net

Demonstration in front of City of David settlement in Silwan / Jawad
[photos; edited for clarity] Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 22 Aug  — Immediately after the fast of Ramadan ended, tens [‘tens’ in Arabic is like ‘dozens’ in English] of the Sheikh Jarrah solidarity movement and Silwan residents protested  in front of the City of David settlement entrance in Wadi Hilweh neighborhood in Silwan. This mentioned site  was constructed on land owned by a Palestinian Family which was confiscated  by  the Authority of absentees properties law (the holder of discriminative and bad reputation)  for the sake of Elad Settlement Association, although the real and the legal inheritor of the land, Fatemah Shehadeh Qaraeen, lives in Silwan. The protesters gathered to protest against the musical parties which were organized by Elad Settlement Association during the month of Ramadan . Some who participated in the parties claimed that they were singing for peace … Palestinian locals justified the town anger by saying that these musical parties take place at night and exactly at the time of Ramadan prayers Taraweeh, in an attempt of judaizing the area.
link to silwanic.net
Settlers
15 settlers attack Palestinian child with iron bars
MEMO 22 Aug — Palestinian sources have said that around 15 Israeli settlers from the West Bank settlement of Ramat Migron, which is built on land belonging to the Makhmas village near Ramallah, attacked a 10-year-old Palestinian child with iron bars [Saturday]. The child suffered injuries to the head and several other parts of his body. The 10-year old, Bassam Daud, was transferred to the Palestinian Medical Complex in Ramallah where his injuries were described as middle-level. The beating he took to the head caused deep wounds. Radio Israel reported that the Israeli police force had arrested 13 settlers suspected of involvement in the assault who were refusing to cooperate with the police investigation. Radio Israel also stated that the circumstances of the incident were unclear.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
Girl injured by settler car
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 22 Aug — A Palestinian child was lightly injured after an Israeli settler’s car ran into her in the As-Salayma district of Hebron on Sunday. Medics said Narmin Rajeh Abu Rmeileh, 12, was taken to to Al-Ahli hospital in the southern West Bank city.
On Saturday, 19-year-old Bilal Idreis was moderately injured after a settler ran him over near the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement in eastern Hebron, medics said.
link to www.maannews.net
Israeli forces
Israeli army ‘systematically harassing’ iconic Jenin theater
JENIN (Ma‘an) 22 Aug — The Israeli army surrounded the Freedom Theater in Jenin early Monday, beating members of staff and raiding the home of a security guard, a statement from the iconic theater said. “As I literally entered my home I got a call from neighbors of the theater saying the army had surrounded the theater,” Jason Gough, acting general manager at the Freedom Theater, said. He returned to the theater where he found Israeli soldiers, who instructed him to turn back. After a second attempt to get closer to the theater, soldiers forced Gough to strip at gunpoint before detaining him, he said. “They said that they’ll beat me up if I even say a word or move.” The Israeli army also raided the home of Mohammed Naghnaghiye, a security guard at the theater, ransacking the house before beating and detaining him, a Freedom Theater statement said. The army also fired live ammunition in an attempt to disperse a young crowd who had gathered around the home, the statement added. An Israeli military spokeswoman said three people were detained in Jenin on Monday morning but could not specify if they were from the Freedom Theater. The incident comes amid a military court hearing on Sunday for three members of the Freedom Theater who were arrested in connection with the murder of former director Juliano Mer Khamis. The court found that all three had no connection to the murder and must be released within a week.
link to www.maannews.net
Israeli police shut Al-Aqsa Mosque to worshipers
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 22 Aug — Israeli police Sunday night closed Damascus Gate, one of the main gates of the Old City of Jerusalem, as well as Al-Aqsa Mosque with the worshipers locked inside, following rumors of  stabbing of an Israeli policeman during a protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza, witnesses said. While the Israeli police did not confirm the stabbing incident, police nevertheless used force to disperse the protesters and detained a number of them at the Russian compound in West Jerusalem. The protest started at Damascus Gate and proceeded through Sultan Suleiman Street, but police intervened to break it up before it got to Salah Eddin Street, East Jerusalem’s main business area. Police assaulted Palestinian medical staff and ambulance crews who tried to give assistance to people beaten up by police, said the witnesses.  In a later development, Al-Aqsa guards told WAFA that Israeli police provoked worshippers who were trying to hold the Monday dawn prayers at the Mosque, raising level of tension in the occupied city.
link to english.wafa.ps
Israeli soldiers assault Palestinian officer in Nablus
NABLUS (WAFA) 22 Aug — Israeli soldiers Monday beat a first sergeant who works in the Palestinian national security, near Burqa, a village north of Nablus, according to security sources. Sources told WAFA that Israeli soldiers set up a temporary checkpoint near the village of Burqa and when the 30- year-old sergeant stopped to pass through the checkpoint, as he was on his way to the city of Nablus, the soldiers severely beat him without any reason
link to english.wafa.ps
Al Khalil/Hebron: 55 Palestinians injured in clashes with IOF
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 22 Aug — Some 55 Palestinians were left injured Monday morning after violent clashes with Israeli occupation forces across Al-Khalil governorate in the West Bank. More than 55 Palestinians were hit by rubber bullets or suffered from the effects of breathing tear gas or were battered after IOF troops raided several homes and after clashes broke out in various parts of Al-Khalil city, Palestinian medical sources said.  Locals said IOF troops set off a blast inside the home a Hamas activist Mahmoud al-Qawasimi, who has been held in Israeli prisons for the past seven years, causing major damage. Scores of military vehicles raided the Wadi Abu Katila district in northwest Al-Khalil, where the Qawasimi residence sits. They detained and questioned on the ground dozens of locals, also raiding other homes. Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers responded with ammunition and tear gas as youths hurled stones and empty bottles at Israeli soldiers during sporadic clashes which broke out in the city’s Bab al-Zawya. Similar clashes erupted in the city’s Tariq ibn Ziyad junction, driving the IOF troops to call for large reinforcements to the area. A hunt for demonstrators was launched without report of arrest.
The clashes come a day after the IOF carried out one of the largest arrest raids in Al-Khalil since 2003.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Gaza
Doctor: Israel using new weapons against Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 22 Aug — The head of an emergency ward in a Gaza City hospital said Monday that Israeli forces were using new, more brutal weapons against residents of the Gaza Strip. On Thursday, Israeli forces began a four-day bombarded the coastal enclave killing 14 Palestinians and wounding dozens more in a series of airstrikes and drone attacks.
Dr. Ayman As-Sahbani said patients were admitted with horrific injuries and that some bodies delivered to Al-Shifa Hospital were so badly burned they were unrecognizable. He said Israeli weapons made no distinction between women, children and the elderly, pointing out that a two-year-old toddler and a 13-year-old boy were among those killed in the latest escalation.
link to www.maannews.net
PRC agrees to ceasefire deal
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 22 Aug 13:54 — The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees said Monday they had signed up to a temporary ceasefire deal agreed by Gaza’s rulers with Israel. The An-Nasser Salah Addin Brigades said they would temporarily stop firing projectiles into Israeli towns “for the sake of the Palestinian people’s interests.” At a press conference in Gaza City, the group’s military spokesperson Abu Ataya said several parties, including Arab nations, had attempted to broker the ceasefire deal, reached Sunday evening. But he insisted, “there is no room to talk about permanent truce with those who kill children, women, and Palestinian leaders,” referring to Israeli airstrikes on the coastal strip.
link to www.maannews.net
Hamas and IJM plan response
PNN 22 Aug 14:49 — Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement have decided to cooperate in their response against Israel, according to a prominent Gazan politician. A senior member of the Islamic Jihad Movement (IJM), Sheikh Ahmad Al-Mudalal, has said in a conversation with PNN: “There is now a consensus among the different factions of the Gazan resistance that we have every right to respond to Israeli crimes. For us to surrender whilst Israel continues their aggression is not an option.” According to Al-Mudalal, negotiations between the factions were focused on how to bring peace to the Strip, as well as retaliating against the recent Israeli attacks.
link to english.pnn.ps
Army: Gaza militants fire 3 rockets into southern Israel
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 22 Aug 21:27 — Militants in northern Gaza fired several rockets into southern Israel on Monday evening, the Israeli military said, hours after a temporary truce was agreed. A Qassam rocket landed south of Ashkelon shortly after two rockets landed in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council causing no injuries but sparking a fire, an army spokeswoman said. Hamas spokesman Taher An-Nunu said Monday that factions in Gaza had committed to a truce with Israel. On Sunday night, the Hamas-run security forces were “instructed to stop the shooting” against Israel, with police checking cars in the border area, and checkpoints set up at the entrance to every town in Gaza. Israel police said seven rockets were fired from Gaza between midnight and 8:00 am, but nothing after that … Israel’s 15-member security cabinet was reportedly called to an emergency meeting at 3:00 am, army radio said, at which the military’s top brass presented various options for stopping the rocket fire. But after an hour of discussion, ministers decided against a ground operation for fear it “could trigger mass demonstrations in Egypt which could destabilize the regime in Cairo” and also harm Israeli interests in September when the Palestinian are planning to seek UN membership, the radio said.
link to www.maannews.net
Israeli defense sources: Gaza terror groups changing tactics to avoid Iron Dome system / Anshel Pfeffer
Haaretz 22 Aug — The terror organizations in the Gaza Strip have changed their rocket-launch tactics in an attempt to evade the two Iron Dome anti-missile batteries deployed by the Israel Air Force in southern Israel, security sources say. The new tactics include aiming more frequently at areas beyond the Iron Dome protection range … The Defense Ministry, for its part, has accelerated its timetable in order to double the number of available batteries within six months … After the Palestinian launch teams realized that the intercept systems deployed in the past two weeks around Ashkelon and Be’er Sheva provided near-perfect protection from rockets, they began targeting Ashdod and Ofakim more frequently. And when they did aim at Be’er Sheva on Saturday night, they did not fire one or two rockets, as in the past, but rather a volley of seven rockets almost simultaneously. Iron Dome intercepted five of them successfully [too bad there’s no Palestinian Iron Dome against Israeli terror – drones, tanks, F-16s….]
link to www.haaretz.com
Evidence undermines govt’s claim that terrorists were Gazans / Yossi Gurvitz
972mag 22 Aug — … During the weekend, the news website Real News interviewed a senior IDF Spokesman officer, Lt. Col. Avital Leibovitz, who’s in charge of the IDF Spokesman with the international media. Leibowitz denied that the IDF connects the PRC to the attacks, said she was not responsible for that the prime minister said, but claimed that the attackers did come from Gaza, citing as proof the fact they were using Kalashnikov assault rifies (Sic! 2:28 and onwards in the video). I dunno how to put it to Col. Leibovitz, but Kalashnikovs are the most common light assault rifle in the world – a gift that keeps on giving from the defunct Soviet Union – and are rather easy to get all over the Middle East. In a phone conversation with Leibovitz yesterday, she said “senior officials have already expressed themselves on the issue”, and declined to provide more information on the attackers, aside from insisting on them being Gazans.
link to 972mag.com
Detention
IOF soldiers detain 4 Palestinians
JENIN (PIC) 22 Aug — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up four Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp at dawn Monday including a father and his teen son. Eyewitnesses said the IOF soldiers mounting ten armored vehicles forced their way into ten homes and ransacked them before taking way the four civilians. They said that the soldiers combed the vicinity of the camp and installed a road barrier between it and Wadi Brukin and broke into a number of homes along the main road.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
PA security agencies arrest several Hamas supporters in West Bank
RAMALLAH (PIC) 22 Aug — Palestinian Authority security agencies arrested several Hamas supporters in the West Bank on Monday morning … At least five of the arrests by the PA security agencies took place in Al-Khalil governorate where the IOF had been operating. Al-Khalil preventive security agency raided Idhna south of Al-Khalil after night prayers and tried to gain custody of a number of youths there who had refused to turn themselves into the security services for questioning. Elements for the agencies hunted them down until late hours of the night without arrest.
The preventative and intelligence branches of PA security are still carrying out a campaign to summon Hamas supporters in Al-Khalil. They have amassed so far some 40 prisoners from Al-Khalil governorate, including 12 who are being held in the notorious Al-Dhahiriyya prison.
Also arrested in Jenin was Palestinian blogger Tamir Abdul-Ghani Sabaena from Qabatiya after he refused to respond to summonses by the PA security services. Sabaena is a known human rights activist who has written many political and intellectual articles. He was previously kept prisoner by the Israelis and Jenin security agencies.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s764u%2bq2xCM%2fLe0i1ujgntFnP4RxsPR6v8uwIVpbnalyCz%2bZPvTnfhApxikMCbdjK%2f%2f2%2f%2bKDGegxzwvPhRdFxF12x%2fKgY%2bH80Oravr1dIBt7s%3d
I was arrested for hiring a Palestinian tour guide / Aziz Abu Sarah
972mg 21 Aug — After the police ineptitude and harassment experienced today, it is clear that in certain situations, Palestinians are simply guilty until proven innocent — …Last week  my tour company, MEJDI, received a tour group from Washington DC. The group members are all part of the same Jewish congregation, and are here on a trip lead by their rabbi, who was inspired by our narratives-based approach to tourism. This morning we took the tour group to the Mount of Olives for a view of the Old City of Jerusalem, and spoke to them about the political and religious narratives of the city. While the tourists were wandering around and taking pictures, a policeman with another woman in civilian clothing approached our Palestinian tour guide, asked for his identity card and tourism license, and arrested him.
link to 972mag.com
Israel to release cancer detainee
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) — Israeli authorities said they will release a Palestinian detainee suffering from cancer, his family said Monday. Zakariyya Dawood Issa, from Al-Khader near Bethlehem in the southern west Bank, is in a critical condition after cancer spread throughout his body, medics say. The Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs said they will bring a lawsuit against Israeli authorities for delaying his medical treatment and thus precipitating a deterioration in his condition … Yahya Dawood Issa said the family is preparing to welcome him at home, before taking him to Beit Jala hospital … Zakariyya has three daughters and one son: Wisal, 20, Malak, 14, Dalal, 13, and Ahmad 19.
link to www.maannews.net
Racism / Discrimination
Israeli government promises to appoint Arab woman to socioeconomic panel
Haaretz 22 Aug — An Arab woman is to be appointed to the Trajtenberg Committee on socioeconomic change, according to the state’s response to a High Court of Justice petition against the original composition of the panel. “This is expected to be implemented as soon as possible,” the State Prosecutor’s Office wrote in the response. The petition, submitted Wednesday by Itach, Women Lawyers for Social Justice, in concert with 12 other women’s advocacy groups, demanded the immediate addition of Arab women to the panel, which was appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to the social protest movement sweeping the country
link to www.haaretz.com
Political / Diplomatic / International
West Bank: Palestinian Authority accuses Israel of trying to provoke violence
LA Times Babyon blog 22 Aug — Three days of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, two days of Israeli military operations in the southern West Bank city of Hebron and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in East Jerusalem have set off alarm bells for the Palestinian Authority. The authority accused Israel of trying to provoke a violent reaction that might undermine Palestinian efforts to obtain recognition of a Palestinian state by the United Nations. “These measures will not deter us or stop us from continuing on our road and just struggle to regain the legitimate national rights of our people,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said through a spokesman Sunday.
link to latimesblogs.latimes.com
Senior IDF officials: Israel should consider amending peace treaty with Egypt
Haaretz 22 Aug — Israel should consider amending its peace treaty with Egypt so as to allow the Egyptian Army to significantly increase its presence in Sinai in light of the deteriorating security situation there, senior Israel Defense Forces officials said Sunday. “In the past, there was complete opposition to this, but new voices are being heard of late and the matter is no longer being rejected out of hand,” a senior IDF officer said.
link to www.haaretz.com
Report: Egypt army blocks Israel ambassador recall
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 22 Aug — A last minute decision by Egypt’s military government head Muhammad Tantawi halted the recall of Egypt’s ambassador to Israel, Israel’s Hebrew-language daily said Monday. Amb. Yasser Rida “had already packed” when Field Marshall Tantawi overruled the Egyptian Prime Minister’s decision, the report said.
link to www.maannews.net
Israel seeks prosecution of Egyptian who removed Israel’s flag
CAIRO (PIC) 22 Aug — Israel has filed a complaint with the Egyptian Attorney General against Ahmed al-Shahat, the Egyptian who became a hero after tearing the Israeli flag from the Israeli building in Cairo. Israeli media said Monday quoting sources that Tel Aviv had assigned its ambassador in Cairo to seek immediate prosecution against Shahat for breaching the embassy’s security and the security barriers atop the building where the embassy sits. Thousands of Egyptians roared for joy after Shahat managed to climb a 21-story building alongside the Israeli embassy and burn the Israeli flag after replacing it with Egypt’s and Palestine’s.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Peres hosts Ramadan dinner
Ynet 21 Aug — President invites Egypt’s deputy ambassador amid quarrel over apology, rocket fire in south — …”We have had seven wars, in all of which we lost. We lost good children — boys and girls. We don’t want this anymore. Why should we have more wars, more conflict?” Peres said Israel has great respect for the Egyptian and Jordanian people, as well as the Palestinian Authority. “We have invested so much money in wars which we could have invested in our children. We cannot fix the past, but we can fix the future. There are differences of religion between us, but there is no reason there should be hatred. We are all children of Abraham and all of us pray to one God,” he explained.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Egyptian FM: Quartet overlooked our victims, meddled in internal affairs
CAIRO (PIC) 22 Aug — Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammad Amr criticized the International Quartet for overlooking the Egyptian victims and discussing Egyptian internal affairs in a statement it released regarding the escalating developments in the region. The FM’s condemnation came during a meeting with UN Special Envoy to the Middle East Robert Serry, said the Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Menha Bakhoum. “Egypt considers dealing with the security situation in Sinai an internal affair involving Egypt and there is no room for addressing it in statements such as this one,” Amr said.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Announcement of UN flotilla report postponed
ANKARA (AFP) 22 Aug — A UN report due out this week into Israel’s deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla has been delayed again, the Turkish foreign ministry said Monday. “The demand to postpone [the announcement] came from Israel, like the previous demands,” Selçuk Ünal, the spokesperson of the ministry told Turkey’s Anatolia news agency.
link to www.maannews.net
Turkey to move to Plan B in relations with Tel Aviv
MEMO 22 Aug — Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has hinted that his country would resort to its ‘Plan B’ as a new strategic policy for dealing with Tel Aviv if Israel continued to refuse to apologize for its military attack on the Mavi Marmara; the Turkish ship that formed part of the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla in May, 2010. Nine Turkish nationals were killed during the IDF attack on Flotilla activists seeking to break the Israel-imposed siege on Gaza. Erdoğan said that without an Israeli apology before the release of the UN Palmer Commission report, he would move on to ‘Plan B’, which includes a series of punitive measures against Israel as well as the formation of an international lobby to campaign in favour of Palestine’s membership to the UN, support for Palestinians in all international institutions, and downgrading diplomatic relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv to that of second secretary.  Israel’s refusal to formally apologize to Turkey could also cost it a complete severance of military, economic, social, and cultural relations with Ankara.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
Abbas postpones local elections in West Bank
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 22 Aug — President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on Monday postponing local West Bank elections scheduled for October 22.
link to www.maannews.net
Fatah: Reconciliation on hold until September
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 22 Aug — Fatah and Hamas have agreed to delay efforts to implement the reconciliation agreement until September, Fatah official in Gaza Diab Al-Loh said. Reconciliation committees will resume work after Eid-Al-Fitr, the three-day festival after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at the end of August, the Fatah official said in a statement. Al-Loh said the hiatus was due to the escalation in aggression on the Gaza Strip, which has come under heavy fire from Israeli war planes since Thursday.
link to www.maannews.net
Anti-corruption committee says agriculture minister to face court
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 22 Aug — The Palestinian Authority anti-corruption committee on Monday said it had referred Minister of Agriculture Ismail Daiq to court, but the minister denied any knowledge of the decision. Daiq told Ma’an he had not been informed of the case but said he was confident any allegations of corruption were fabricated.
link to www.maannews.net
WFTU announces international campaign for Palestinian recognition
Bethlehem (PNN) 22 Aug — The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) announced today its international campaign for the recognition of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. A statement released by the organization called for ‘the end of the Israeli occupation and the barbarity of the Israeli’s army forces’ [sic].The campaign will demand an end to settlement activities by the Israeli government, the release of ‘imprisoned Palestinians and other political prisoners’ in Israeli prisons as well as the honouring of Palestinian refugees’ Right of Return. The WFTU also called for the demolition of the separation wall in Jerusalem, although no mention was made of the rest of the wall’s length.
link to english.pnn.ps
Shaath: Thailand will support UN statehood bid
BANGKOK (Ma‘an) 22 Aug — Thailand will support the recognition of Palestine as an independent state at the United Nations in September, PLO member Nabil Shaath said Monday.
link to www.maannews.net
Jerusalem rebukes Spanish envoy over PA statement
Ynet 22 Aug — Ambassador Alvaro Iranzo explains Madrid’s support of Palestinian bid for statehood depends on EU’s stance, requests phrasing before UN — The Foreign Ministry summoned Spain’s ambassador to Israel on Monday, following a statement by Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jiménez suggesting that Madrid will support the Palestinian Authority UN bid for statehood in September.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Central America ‘battles’ over PA’s UN bid
Ynet 22 Aug — Recent regional summit of Latin America, Caribbean nations becomes stage for diplomatic squabble over future Palestinian bid for statehood …  As the summit was set to begin, the [Israeli] Foreign Ministry got wind of the fact that Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki officially applied to speak at the conference, despite the fact that the matter of the PA’s UN bid was never included in its agenda. The Foreign Ministry then decided to appeal to the summit’s president, El Salvador, and ask that it stop al-Malki from addressing the conference.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Other news
OPT: Palestinians feel the pinch as Arab donors stay away
RAMALLAH (IRIN) 22 Aug – Palestinian families in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) are facing increasing financial woes this Ramadan, as the Palestinian Authority (PA) juggles with its dwindling budget. August salary payments for the PA’s estimated 150,000 employees, about half in the West Bank and half in the Gaza Strip, arrived late and it is unclear when September payments will arrive … Although the reasons for the shortfalls are difficult to gauge, he says. “Mostly Arab donors are not paying,” Ghassan Khatib, spokesperson for Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad’s office, told IRIN … Saudi Arabia made a partial payment of $30 million in July. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the largest Arab donors to the PA. Experts say Arab nations have been focused on other concerns since the January revolution erupted in Egypt, and crises in other parts of the Arab world, like Libya and Syria …
“Last year my family had two or three types of food on our iftaar [daily meal to break the Ramadan fast] table and now we barely have enough,” said Mohammed Musa, 48, a guard at a municipal building in Ramallah and a PA employee.   His monthly salary of about $460 supports a family of 10 living in Am’ari refugee camp in Ramallah, which has high unemployment and a population of about 10,000. In response to the crisis, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas ordered PA institutions to stop holding official Ramadan iftaar dinners and to divert the allocated funds to poor Palestinians. Several public and private institutions followed suit
link to www.irinnews.org
Farmers union seeks compensation for fake Israeli seeds
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 22 Aug –The Palestinian farmers union have filed a lawsuit against an Israeli crop-provider for selling Palestinians fake seedlings, union board chair Ibrahim Idieq said Monday. The suit comes after an expert investigation into the case, Idieq said, adding that the union is seeking $400,000 compensation for farmers. The case follows a lawsuit in 2006 against an Israeli plantation in which 54 farmers received $500,000 for 1,270 seedlings, the union chief said.
link to www.maannews.net
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.theheadlines.org (archive)

 

104 young Americans reported to go join Israeli army

Aug 23, 2011

Philip Weiss

I can’t vouch for the source, but this item is getting a lot of airtime on American nationalists’ sites– 360 Americans immigrate to Israel, and 104 of them want to join the army. The airtime is itself a trend: Americans who are scratching their heads about the dual-loyalty issues involved in support for Israel right or wrong. (What we saw at Congressman Pat Meehan’s site, too….) Update: JTA has the story here. From Big News Network:

“It’s an honor to have you join the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and the Israeli nation,” the Brig. Gen. [Eli Shermeister] said. “There are no words to describe my appreciation for you, your courage and the Zionistic values you hold. The State of Israel is coping with security threats every day and defending its security is the main goal of the IDF.”

…All 104 of the IDF’s inductees want to see action. The boys (61 of them) have applied to join Israel’s elite special forces units, while the the girls (43 of them) have asked to serve in either the combat canine unit, as medics, injury NCOs, education NCOs or as shooting instructors.
“My brother enlisted with the same program two years ago and he currently serves in the Givati Brigade. He told me a lot of stories and encouraged me to enlist,” Idan from New Jersey said Tuesday. “My mom lives in New Jersey and my dad lives in Israel so I’ve always had these two worlds and a deep connection to Israel. And now I am here, waiting to started my military service hopefully in the Paratroopers Brigdae.”