Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

 NOVANEWS

• Settlers destroy Beit Ommar farmer’s crops

• Israel ‘declares war’ on Bedouin, announces plan to relocate 30,000 people from their homes

• The legal flaws of the Palmer Commission flotilla report

• Jordan and Saudi Arabia sound warnings on blocking Palestinian statehood

• On September 11, we remember the… 1 percent

• Old neocons never die, they just keep testifying to Congress

• Brooklyn cong’l slugfest is no-holds-barred (except for one issue of course)

• ‘September: The Threat of an Opportunity’ – Israeli settlers plan to confront Palestinian demonstrators

• Who will fill Robert Mackey’s shoes?

• See the children’s drawings that terrified the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council and the Jewish Federation of the East Bay

Settlers destroy Beit Ommar farmer’s crops

Sep 12, 2011

Palestinian Solidarity Project

This morning, Beit Ommar farmers arrived at their lands to discover that large areas of grape vines had been attacked by settlers from the illegal settlement of Karmei Tsur. The farmers immediately notified Mahmoud Ahmad Coql, who owns the destroyed fields.

In total, the settlers severed two dunums (two thousand square meters) of Mahmoud’s grape vines in fields near the illegal Karmei Tsur settlement.

Israeli authorities and the Israeli civilian police – upon seeing a number of Palestinians, press, and international activists – soon arrived on the scene accompanied by roughly twenty-five soldiers.

The shock of seeing so much of his work and livelihood destroyed overwhelmed Mahmoud, and he began to struggle for breath and feel chest pains. A Red Crescent Society ambulance arrived and tended to Mahmoud. Meanwhile, the police and soldiers ‘gathered evidence.’

When Mahmoud is ready, he and the other farmers will be taken to the Israeli police station for questioning. The area of Mahmoud’s fields is covered by 24-hour CCTV surveillance from the Karmei Tsur settlement, which will have undoubtedly captured the crimes committed last night.

Such devastating damage to the livelihoods of Beit Ommar farmers is a common occurrence, as Israeli settlers from the five surrounding illegal settlements routinely attack and harass Beit Ommar farmers, and destroy their crops, often wiping out the whole season’s income for a family in one attack.

(Crossposted @ Palestine Solidarity Project. PSP is a Palestinian project dedicated to opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land through non-violent direct action. It was founded in the village of Beit Ommar. It is hosting the We are all Palestine Campaign– Call for International Volunteers 16th September – 3rd October 2011)

Israel ‘declares war’ on Bedouin, announces plan to relocate 30,000 people from their homes

Sep 12, 2011

Kate

Israel approves plan to relocate 30,000 Bedouin from unrecognized villages
Haaretz 11 Sept — Prawer Report plan envisions relocation of Bedouin to recognized settlements, would grant financial and land compensation to evacuees …As part of the plan, some 20,000 to 30,000 Bedouin will be relocated to recognized settlements including Rahat, Khura and Ksayfe. The plan also includes financial compensation for those relocated, as well as  alternate plots of land. The program is estimated to cost the state NIS 6.8 billion. Opponents of the plan have accusing the government of evacuating people from their homes for no justified reason and against their will. Bedouin representative called the decision “a declaration of war,” and some 150 members of the community gathered outside the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem on Sunday to protest the decision.

Israel pushes the Bedouins toward an intifada / Yossi Gurvitz
972mag 12 Sept — The government’s decision to adopt the Prawer report is the latest in a series of injustices towards Israel’s Bedouin citizens — As if the immolation of relations with Egypt and Turkey wasn’t enough, the Netanyahu government decided to open a new front, this time with the Israeli Bedouins … The official position of the authorities, parroted endlessly by hasbara trolls, is that the Bedouin are squatters and nothing more. In many case, this is not the case. The Bedouin hold their lands by Ottoman common law, recognized by the British, without official registration of lands … What we see here is the continuation of the “what’s mine is mine, what’s yours is mine” of the Zionist movement. When it so wishes, Ottoman laws serve its purposes in buying lands (or, in the West Bank, in stealing them); when it wishes otherwise, they are dead and gone.

The Arabs of the Negev are not Israel’s enemy / Oudeh Basharat
Haaretz 12 Sept — The Negev Arabs are fighting to protect their land, demanding some 600,000 dunams – only 5 percent of the Negev’s land — After endless discussions, the demolition of thousands of homes and the establishment of various committees, the last stop regarding Arab land in the Negev was the National Security Council. That’s the body that discusses the Iranian nuclear program. In both cases, the Iranian nuclear program and the Arab land in the Negev, the parties under discussion were absent. In the Negev case, no Arabs served on any of the official committees. Only an enemy receives such treatment.

And more news from Today in Palestine:

Jerusalem man ordered to tear down own home
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 12 Sept — A Palestinian man in Jerusalem was ordered on Sunday to tear his own home in order to avoid paying NIS 20,000 in fines. The demolished home is a 70 square meter second floor attachment that includes a bedroom, a balcony, a living room, and other accessories, and housed Jerusalem native Taha Ahmed Obeidiya, his wife, and eight children.
link to www.australiansforpalestine.net

Jerusalem schools to strike Tuesday over Judaization of curriculum
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 12 Sept — Schools across Jerusalem will close on Tuesday in protest at the Jewish influence on the educational programs. Schools are to close after fourth period in all of Jerusalem’s Arab schools as an initial act of protest, the Jerusalem parent committees union said in a press statement on Monday, calling on schools not to use the “distorted” books issued by the Israeli Jerusalem municipality in place of the Palestinian study curriculum. The JPCU also called on school principals and teachers to reject all threats of dismissal and pay cuts by the Israeli municipality’s Arab education department.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Restriction of movement

Twilight Zone: No exit / Gideon Levy
Haaretz 9 Sept — Trivia questions: What country prevents doctors from traveling abroad to take part in international medical conferences? What government prevents a person from visiting daughters and grandchildren who live in another country? Under which regime is a person prevented from traveling abroad for medical treatment? Where does a resident need a permit to travel abroad? Where is he chased back home from the border station in humiliation, with no explanation? And finally, which regime arbitrarily tosses a pediatrician in jail for two months, with no trial and no explanation? North Korea? Yes. Iran? Maybe. Syria? Possibly. Hamas is also trying to do so now. And where else? In Israel. This is the story of Dr. Haitham Shehadeh, a Hebron pediatrician and neonatal specialist.
link to www.haaretz.com

Israel cancels annual Druze pilgrimage to Syria citing security concerns
Haaretz 11 Sept — The Israeli government has canceled an annual religious pilgrimage to Syria by Druze Arabs because of security concerns. Interior Ministry spokesman Roei Lachmanovich says his office withdrew travel permits because of warnings from security officials. He didn’t elaborate on the warnings but they appear linked to the anti-government uprising in Syria. Druze religious leader Hosam Nasser says about 550 Druze residents of the Golan Heights were waiting for U.N. buses to take them to Syria early on Sunday. The pilgrims learned of the cancellation when their buses didn’t arrive. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. The territory’s Druze residents remain loyal to Syria and some are allowed to cross the hostile frontier.
link to www.haaretz.com

Israeli army closes access road to Palestinian villages in South Heron Hills
AT-TUWANI, SOUTH HEBRON HILLS (WAFA) 11 Sept — The Israeli army set up roadblocks on August 26 on a series of roads in the south Hebron hills along bypass road 317 virtually closing main entrances to Palestinian villages located in areas adjacent to this road, Monday said a press release by two international aid organizations. The Israeli army escorted the bulldozers that worked throughout the day to put mounds of earth in areas adjacent to the entrances of local homes, said Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams … The communities affected are those of El Tair, Mantiqat Shi’b to Butum, Wadi Jehesh and Qawawis. In Wadi Jehesh, the Israeli human rights organization, Ta’ayush, removed the next day the mound of earth that prevented entrance to the village. Following this event, the Israeli police arrested 12 Israeli Ta’ayush activists and also two internationals that participated in the action.
link to english.wafa.ps

OCHA: Israel increases flying checkpoints in West Bank
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 12 Sept — The average number of flying checkpoints the Israeli army has set up in the West Bank has significantly increased from less than 350 in previous years (July 2007 – June 2010) to close to 500 over the last 12 months (June 2010 – July 2011), Monday said the weekly report [24 Aug-6 Sept] of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OCHA) Full report (much more than checkpoints)
link to english.wafa.ps

Settlers

‘September: the threat of an opportunity’ — Israeli settlers plan to confront Palestinian demonstrators / Paul Mutter
Mondoweiss 12 Sept — KM Ben-Ari of the National Unity Party has announced a call to action for Israeli settlers in the West Bank to march out and confront anticipated Palestinian demonstrations later this month, which he describes as delegitimizing provocations by “Arabs” and the “far-left.” … “The plan is to organize hundreds and even thousands of kids, children, women and old men (with the assistance of reinforcements) from the settlements and walk right up to the Palestinian demonstrators, waving Israeli flags as we march across Israeli territory. These actions will repeat themselves across Israel; the settlers will face down the opposing forces. No more [Israeli] soldiers and border guards in front of groups of Arab women and children. But children with children, boys with boys and women with women – it will destroy the “effect of September” and this will change the equation on the ground forever.”
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/september-the-threat-of-an-opportunity-israeli-settlers-plan-to-confront-palestinian-demonstrators.html#more-51856

Settlers destroy Beit Ommar farmer’s crops
PSP 12 Sept — This morning, Beit Ommar farmers arrived at their lands to discover that large areas of grape vines had been attacked by settlers from the illegal settlement of Karmei Tsur. The farmers immediately notified Mahmoud Ahmad Coql [Aqel, according to PIC], who owns the destroyed fields. In total, the settlers severed two dunums (two thousand square meters) of Mahmoud’s grape vines in fields near the illegal Karmei Tsur settlement. Israeli authorities and the Israeli civilian police — upon seeing a number of Palestinians, press, and international activists — soon arrived on the scene accompanied by roughly twenty-five soldiers. The shock of seeing so much of his work and livelihood destroyed overwhelmed Mahmoud, and he began to struggle for breath and feel chest pains. A Red Crescent Society ambulance arrived and tended to Mahmoud. Meanwhile, the police and soldiers “gathered evidence.” … The area of Mahmoud’s fields is covered by 24-hour CCTV surveillance from the Karmei Tsur settlement, which will have undoubtedly captured the crimes committed last night.
link to palestinesolidarityproject.org

Israeli settlers burn protest tent in Jerusalem
IMEMC 12 Sept — Israeli settlers who forcefully occupied part of the house of Rifka Al-Kurd in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem, burned the protest tent setup in the backyard of the house. The lady reported that her son noticed some noise near the house after midnight and confirmed that the settlers set the tent on fire. Neighboring youth managed to put the fire out, but all the contents of the tent where charred.
link to www.imemc.org

Israeli Jews attempt to steal historical stones from Al-Aqsa courtyard
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 12 Sept — Israeli police Monday arrested two Jews who attempted to steal historical stones from the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the most important Islamic holy site in Jerusalem, said local witnesses. An Arab who was present at Al-Aqsa compound at the time tried to stop the Jews, which led to a fist fight. He was also arrested by the police.
link to english.wafa.ps

Price tag: Peace Now activist’s entryway vandalized
Ynet 12 Sept — Slogans spray-painted on leftist activist’s door and stairway, including ‘Peace Now, the end is near.’ Cars torched, graffiti painted in Arab villages near Ramallah, Palestinians report
link to www.ynetnews.com

US State Department condemns ‘dangerous’ settler attacks on West Bank mosques
Haaretz 10 Sept — Statement condemns attacks on the mosques in the villages of Yatma on September 8, and Qusra on September 5, calls on those responsible to be arrested and “subject to the full force of the law.”
link to www.haaretz.com

Detention

IOF snatched 40 Palestinians in West Bank last week
RAMALLAH (PIC) 11 Sept — Last week, Israeli occupation forces arrested a total 40 Palestinians across the West Bank, the Palestinian Center for the Defense of Detainees said in a fresh report. Among those arrested were minors and Palestinian MP Muhammad Abu Tir, the PCDD in Gaza said, adding that most of the arrests took place at dawn on checkpoints scattered across the region.
link to occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com

Over 30 Palestinians held beyond sentences in Negev prison
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 12 Sept — Over 30 Palestinians are being held two to four months beyond their sentences in the Israeli Negev prison, the Palestinian Prison Committee said Monday. The committee said that those prisoners were being kept in detention under a policy to stop a law passed by the Israeli occupation authorities in the mid-90s, where prisoners would be released early after deducting 21 days a year from their sentences.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOF soldiers detain six Palestinians in Al-Khalil
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 12 Sept — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up six Palestinian citizens during a search campaign in Al-Khalil [Hebron] city on Monday, local sources said … The IOF soldiers also stormed the Fawar refugee camp, south of Al-Khalil, and detained five youngsters.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Gaza

IOF soldiers open fire at Palestinian houses in central Gaza
GAZA (PIC) 12 Sept – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stationed to the east of the Gaza Strip opened machine gunfire at Palestinian homes in Juhr Al-Dik in central Gaza on Monday morning with no casualties reported, eyewitnesses said. They said that the soldiers suddenly opened fire for ten minutes at the citizens’ homes and nearby land lots. The machinegun fire damaged one of the houses that is 320 meters away from the border fence, the witnesses noted, adding that the house was riddled with bullets. A number of inhabitants and farmers evacuated the targeted areas fearing for their lives.
link to occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com

IOF troops shell northern Gaza Strip
BEIT LAHIA (PIC) 12 Sept — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired tank shells at an area north of Beit Lahia to the north of Gaza Strip at dawn Monday in a new military escalation causing damage to cultivated land lots but no casualties. Local sources told the PIC reporter that IOF tanks fired a number of shells at the open agricultural area, adding that the sound of explosion spread panic among the inhabitants.
A Palestinian security source had warned of Israeli military escalation against Gaza to foil any possible visit for Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the coastal enclave in the few coming days.
link to occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com

Hamas: Relations with Egypt stable
GAZA (PIC) 12 Sept — Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri has said that his movement’s relations with Egypt were “stable” and that contacts were underway with Cairo to ensure safety and stability of those ties.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Hamas affirms offices would remain in Syria
DAMASCUS (PIC) 12 Sept — Hamas movement has affirmed that its offices would not be moved out of Syria denying press reports to that effect. Hamas issued a press release on Monday denying the media speculations that claimed the move was at the request of Syrian security apparatuses, describing them as completely baseless.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Haneyya invites Libyan TNC chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil to visit Gaza
GAZA (PIC) 11 Sept — Gaza prime minister Ismail Haneyya has reached Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the head of the Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC), over the phone on Sunday and congratulated him on victory of the Libyan people’s revolution … Abdul Jalil affirmed his country’s backing for the central cause of the Arab Nation namely that of Palestine.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Hamas slams UNRWA for interfering in union activities
GAZA (PIC) 11 Sept — The Hamas Movement’s department of refugee affairs criticized the UNRWA administration for intervening in the work of labor unions in Gaza and suspending head of the UNRWA’s Arab staff union Suhail Hindi for three weeks.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Gaza’s tunnels back in the spotlight / Saleh Al-Naami
Al Ahram 9 Sept — Salah Al-Aydi, 54, was ecstatic during Eid as he received guests in his home in Berkat Al-Wez west of Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in central Gaza. This was the first Eid in three years that Al-Aydi was able to host family and friends in his own home … His three-storey home was one of the first to be destroyed by the Israeli army during its war on Gaza at the end of 2008. Although Al-Aydi was only able to rebuild one floor of his home, he cannot stop expressing his joy over what he has accomplished. He would not have been able to achieve this feat if it wasn’t for suppliers bringing construction materials from Egypt into the Gaza Strip through underground tunnels, since Israel adamantly refuses to allow building materials into Gaza
link to weekly.ahram.org.eg

End of summer brings bigger backlogs at Rafah
Al Jazeera 10 Sept — Corruption and a backlog of 21,000 travelers mean a months-long wait to use the Egypt-Gaza border crossing — Bassim Odeh stared wearily at the police manning the gate outside the Rafah border crossing, wondering if this visit – his third in as many days – would be his last. He stood with dozens of other people under a ragged awning, scant relief from the midday heat, and watched other travelers try to negotiate their way through. “I’ve been trying to travel for three days. First the Palestinians rejected me, and then the Egyptians did,” Odeh said, throwing up his hands. “The Egyptians said ‘security reasons.’ The Palestinians didn’t even say why.” The man standing next to him, Saleem Abed, an engineer trying to get back to his job in Saudi Arabia, rolled his eyes. “They are idiots here,” he muttered.
link to www.aljazeera.com

Video: From NY to Gaza: Swept up in post-9/11 raids
Al Jazeera 11 Sept — Palestinian man living in Queens was detained for three years, then deported, despite never being charged with a crime … Mosallam’s own three-year incarceration was largely due to his status as a Palestinian refugee. The Israeli government, which occupies Mosallam’s native Gaza, did not want to take him back. The US offered him a choice of two neighbouring countries, but that also proved unsuccessful. “Egypt didn’t want me. Jordan didn’t want me,” he said. Israel eventually agreed to his return, so he was flown from New York to Jordan, and then transported overland to Gaza. And as a final insult  — even though the US never formally charged him with terrorism — the Egyptian government placed a 10-year travel ban on Mosallam, forbidding him from leaving Gaza through Egypt.
link to www.aljazeera.com

Activism / Solidarity

B’Tselem: Israeli soldiers infringe Palestinians’ right to demonstrate
TEL AVIV (WAFA) 12 Sept — B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territory said in a report on Monday titled ‘show of force’  that the Israeli soldiers infringe Palestinians’ right to demonstrate. B’Tselem said that in advance of the expected vote on including a Palestinian state in the United Nations on 20 September 2011, the Israeli security establishment is preparing to cope with wide scale demonstrations in the Occupied Territory. This report describes how the forces currently respond to demonstrations in the Occupied Territory, even when these are limited in scope, by describing the army’s and Border Police’s handling of the demonstrations in a-Nabi Saleh.
link to english.wafa.ps

Background on demonstrations in the territories
B’Tselem 12 Sept — In the past few years, Palestinian, Israeli, and foreign activists have held regular demonstrations at several locations in the West Bank against the building of the Separation Barrier. Since the beginning of 2010, the Israeli military has changed its response to these demonstrations and has taken various steps to quell them … The order regulating demonstrations in the West Bank is Order No. 101, of 1967 – “Order Regarding Prohibition of Incitement and Hostile Propaganda Actions“. This order imposes extreme restrictions on the right of Palestinians to organize or take part in demonstrations.  [See also Israeli law International law Military law  Military order 101 ]
link to www.btselem.org

Statehood bid

Hamas: Palestinian statehood bid at UN does not include us
Haaretz 12 Sept — The Palestinian Authority’s push to achieve recognition of an independent Palestinian state in the United Nations has nothing to do with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials said on Monday, adding that the campaign was launched without consulting Hamas leaders.
link to www.haaretz.com

Jordan is Jordan and Palestine is Palestine, says King Abdullah
MEMO 12 Sept — The Jordanian monarch has stressed his country’s independence and the Palestinians’ right to an independent Palestinian state. “Jordan is Jordan and Palestine is Palestine,” King Abdullah II told a meeting of writers, intellectuals and academics in Amman. “We haven’t changed politically and we will not change,” he said. “The ‘alternative Palestinian homeland’ will never be part of the discussion; it is not an option and is not in the Jordanian lexicon.” … “I want to reassure everyone that Jordan is not an alternative [homeland] for anyone. Will we sit still and let Jordan become such an alternative? We have an army and we are ready to fight for our country and for Jordan’s future.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk

Leading EU countries support Palestinian statehood bid in UN
Haaretz/AP 12 Sept — A new opinion poll published Monday shows that a majority of people in Germany, France and Britain — three countries that are critical votes in the battle over the Palestinian bid for statehood — all want their leaders to vote in favor of a UN resolution to support recognition of a Palestinian state when it’s discussed in New York.
link to www.haaretz.com

Ashton: No unified EU stance on UN recognition of Palestinian state
DPA/AP 12 Sept — Comment by EU Foreign Minister comes as PA says Germany was against the planned UN General Assembly vote; top Russian official: Moscow will back Palestinian independence.
link to www.haaretz.com

Egypt – Israel

Shots fired from Egypt toward IDF vehicle on Israel border
Haaretz 11 Sept 22:16 — Shots were fired from Egypt across the border with Israel on Sunday, near the site of last month’s terror attack in which eight Israelis were killed. According to initial reports, no one was wounded as a result of the shooting, which was apparently intended for an Israel Defense Forces vehicle.
link to www.haaretz.com

Top IDF official in Egypt to discuss Sinai security arrangements
Amir Eshel, Head of the IDF Planning Unit, to meet Egyptian security officials to discuss joint investigations into the recent killing of five Egyptian policemen on the Israeli border … Thousands of people in the southern city of Luxor on Monday also attended the funeral of a sixth policeman, who died Sunday from injuries sustained during the border assault.
link to www.haaretz.com

Israel’s diplomatic ties with Egypt down to bare minimum
Haaretz 12 Sept by Barak Ravid — Egyptian senior defense and foreign ministry officials say in recent years, and much more since revolution in Egypt, channels of communication with Israel have diminished … The fact that no direct contact was established during the incident with the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and that Israel was forced to rely on the U.S. in relaying messages to Egypt, are proof of the depth of the problem.
link to www.haaretz.com

Embassy raid: Egyptian military arrests 92 suspects
Ynet 11 Sept — The Egyptian military police on Sunday arrested 92 additional people suspected of involvement in the riots at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, bringing the number of detainees up to 111.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Egypt: Documents taken during raid on Israeli Embassy worthless
Ynet 11 Sept — Cairo media inspects documents found during mob’s raid on Israeli embassy, says they consists mostly of mundane forms … A senior Egyptian security source said Sunday that Israel’s claim regarding classified documents was “a conspiracy meant to escalate the situation.”
link to www.ynetnews.com

Palestinians warned Israel at start of Arab Spring: Ties with Egypt will change / Akiva Eldar
Haaretz 11 Sept — Shortly after the masses began crowding into Cairo’s Tahrir Square earlier this year, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a senior official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to prepare for a dramatic change in the relations between Israel and Egypt. The adviser estimated that the nascent Egyptian protest movement would not stop at regime change, and told his counterpart in Jerusalem that if the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories continued, the new Arab world would show the Israelis that solidarity with oppressed brothers is not exclusively a Jewish tradition.
link to www.haaretz.com

Video: Egypt and Israel: a troubled peace
Al Jazeera 11 Sept — What does the future hold for relations between Israel and its biggest Arab neighbour? … Joining Inside Story to discuss this are guests: Robert Fisk, the Middle East correspondent for The Independent newspaper; Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist and commentator; and Omar Ashour, the director of Middle East Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter.
link to english.aljazeera.net

Turkey – Israel

Erdoğan says misquoted on warships
Ynet 10 Sept — Turkish PM’s office softens threat of military clash at sea, says country ‘won’t send vessel to Mediterranean Sea as long as Israel avoids intervening in freedom of movement in international waters’
link to www.ynetnews.com

Report: Turkey to defuse Israeli Navy weapons
Ynet 12 Sept — …daily newspaper Sabah on Monday reported that the Turkish Navy is preparing to deploy three warships in the Mediterranean Sea, in order to “safeguard the freedom of navigation.”  According to a report, Turkish navy echelons decided that if one of its ships crosses paths with an Israeli vessel outside of the latter’s territorial waters, it will be instructed to come within 100 meters of the ship and neutralize its weapons system.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Turkey FM condemns Israeli plan to support PKK
Haaretz 11 Sept — Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoğlu on Sunday condemned the plan proposed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, in which Israel should punish Turkey by supporting the terrorist organization PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). “No one will be able to blackmail us,” said Davutoğlu during a press conference in Ankara. “We hope that Israel’s denial [of supporting the PKK] will also be accompanied by actions.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/turkey-fm-condemns-israeli-plan-to-support-pkk-1.383801

Turkey: Erdoğan will not visit Gaza during regional tour
Agencies 11 Sept — Turkey’s foreign minister said on Sunday that the prime minister will not cross the border into the Gaza Strip during his trip to Egypt but warned that Israel faces “growing isolation” in the region.  Ahmet Davutoğlu said Sunday that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who visits Egypt Monday, will also travel to Tunisia and Libya, but will limit his itinerary to those destinations.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Turkey: Israel’s raid on Gaza flotilla was ’cause for war’
Haaretz 12 Sept — …Erdoğan said Israel’s deadly raid last year on the Gaza-bound flotilla would have justified going to war: “The attack that took place in international waters did not comply with any international law. In fact, it was cause for war. However, befitting Turkey’s greatness, we decided to act with patience,” he said.
link to www.haaretz.com

Racism / Discrimination

Jerusalem: 2 Arabs attacked with tear gas
Ynet 11 Sept 22:04 — Maintenance workers say four men in haredi dress attacked them without provocation. Police believe incident nationalistic [is this the same incident as the one in the following story?]
link to www.ynetnews.com

Jerusalem: Police suspect 4 Arabs attacked by haredim
Ynet 11 Sept 13:43 — Four Arab municipal workers were attacked Sunday in Jerusalem’s Givat Shmuel neighborhood. They were taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem sustaining light wounds. Police estimate the attack was of nationalistic nature.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Other news

World Bank report warns Palestinians headed for acute fiscal crisis
Haaretz 12 Sept — A World Bank report, to be released on Monday, warned that the Palestinian Authority is headed for “acute fiscal crisis” due to lower economic growth and a drop in aid money, according to a Financial Times report.
The report lauded the Palestinian government for its efforts to create a foundation for statehood, arguing that in areas such as security, justice, economic development and service delivery the “Palestinian public institutions compare favorably with other countries in the region”, the Financial Times reported.
link to www.haaretz.com

Culture

The ‘Queen of Palestine’
Haaretz 9 Sept — A ‘non-meeting’ in the Jordanian capital with the woman who owns and knows more about Palestinian dresses than anybody else, but is convinced there is no one left that even cares about them … the name of  [her] book is “Threads of Identity: Preserving Palestinian Costume and Heritage.” It came out a few months ago in English, published by Rimal Publications of Nicosia, Cyprus … Another special thing about this book is the attention it pays to urban dresses. For the Queen of Palestine refuses to allow entrenchment of the stereotype that the Palestinian dress was worn only in villages, and in general, that Palestinians lived in villages and were not city dwellers. That is not the case: After all, her personal story shows that it is not.
link to www.haaretz.com

Opinion / Analysis

Otherwise occupied: On obedience / Amira Hass
Haaretz 12 Sept — Future researchers will ask: Was the person who did not permit toilet paper to be brought into the Gaza Strip in a life-threatening situation? … Presumably, or hopefully, 50 years from now, we will understand what is today so difficult to explain – that the documents of the controlling power do not teach about the people who are being controlled, but rather about the master; and that an Israeli prohibition does not tell us something about “the unfortunate Palestinian.” The bans on building a school, toilet or a cistern to collect rainwater, and on seeing family or leaving to study, tell us something about the people who formulated them and their implementers – not about anyone else. Those at the top make the decisions, and entire generations of Israelis deploy and faithfully carry them out.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/otherwise-occupied-on-obedience-1.383898

groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.theheadlines.org (archive)

The legal flaws of the Palmer Commission flotilla report

Sep 12, 2011

Richard Falk and Phyllis Bennis

The latest United Nations report on last year’s lethal flotilla incident – in which nine people were killed and many injured by Israeli commandos on board a humanitarian ship bound for Gaza – was released at the beginning of September, and generated much controversy. On the one hand, the report makes clear that Israel’s use of force on board the Mavi Marmara and in the treatment of those detained on the ship was excessive and unreasonable. It acknowledges that forensic evidence indicates at least seven were shot in the head or chest, five of them at close range, and recognizes that Israel still refused to provide any accounting of how the nine people were killed. It calls on Tel Aviv to compensate the families of those killed, eight Turks and one American, and also those who were seriously injured during and after the incident, passengers roughed up while in Israeli custody and whose cameras, cell phones and other belongings were confiscated .

The unusually small inquiry panel itself lacked credibility. It was chaired by former New Zealand prime minister and international environment law expert Geoffrey Palmer. Astonishingly, the only other independent member was its vice-chair, the former president of Colombia. Alvaro Uribe’s notorious history as a human rights abuser who called human rights advocates such as Amnesty International “rats,” as well as his legacy of seeking out the closest possible ties to and defense of Israel while in office, make him wildly inappropriate for such an assignment. The panel was rounded out with two members appointed by Israel and Turkey, each of whom appended a partisan dissent to the report.

It is therefore particularly significant that the report, despite several notable shortcomings, still confirmed several longstanding criticisms of Israel’s policies, especially the habitual reliance on excessive and unreasonable force when dealing with Palestinian issues.

Overall, however, the report of the Palmer Commission is severely flawed from an international law perspective. The most significant finding of the report is its most dangerous and legally dubious: the conclusion that Israel’s blockade of Gaza, in effect since mid-2007, was somehow, despite being severely harmful to the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza, a legitimate act of self-defense. The report gives considerable attention to the illegal rockets fired into Israel by Palestinian militants mainly associated with Hamas, and notes, appropriately, that “stopping these violent acts was a necessary step for Israel to take in order to protect its people.” But while that justifies protective action, it does not make the case for a valid claim of self-defense under international law.

The report ignores altogether the crucial fact that a unilateral ceasefire had been observed by Hamas ever since the end of the Gaza War in early 2009. An earlier joint Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire had been declared in July 2008, and had led to a virtual halt in rocket attacks until it was broken by Israel in November of that year, in a lethal assault on Gaza that led to a crumbling of the ceasefire and thereafter to Israel’s Operation Cast Lead on December 27, 2008. The Palmer report cannot be legally persuasive on the central issue of self-defense without addressing the relevance of these ceasefires that gave Israel a viable security alternative to blockade and force. The fact that the word “ceasefire” does not even appear in the 105-page document underscores why this report is so unconvincing except to Israel’s partisans.

Instead of trying diplomacy, which had shown itself effective, Israel relied on a naval blockade, which prevented every boat from reaching the Gaza Strip, establishing a military siege, cruelly confining all Gazans, children, women and men (more than 50 percent of Gaza’s population is below the age of 15) living under occupation in what amounts to an open-air prison. Such a blockade is a massive and sustained example of collective punishment, unequivocally prohibited by Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The main goal of the flotilla was to bring desperately needed humanitarian goods, primarily medical equipment, to Gaza’s hospitals and clinics. But a second important goal was to challenge the illegal blockade, end the siege, and protect the rights of the people of Gaza. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every human being has the right to freedom of movement both within and between all countries yet for more than four years Israel’s siege of Gaza has denied Gazans their right to leave this crowded, impoverished territory, and denied entry to foreign visitors and even to family members. With all land borders closed and the UN and neighboring states unwilling to do more than call repeatedly but futilely on Israel to fulfill its obligation toward an occupied people, the flotilla movement was a peaceful and powerful way to expose the criminality of the siege and blockade of Gaza.

We should not lose sight of the essential nature of the incident. Israel launched a naval attack in the middle of the night on a humanitarian flotilla in international waters, whose six ships had been publicly inspected by harbor and police officials in a number of European countries to ensure there were no weapons on board before heading into international waters and had been tracked from the time they left port. It was neither reasonable nor necessary to mount such an attack for the sake of Israeli security. Allowing a naval blockade – which the Palmer Commission acknowledges to be an act of war – to be imposed by Israel against the helpless civilian population of Gaza and then accepted as ‘legal’ by the UN, it is a sad day for both the global rule of law and the well-being of some of the most vulnerable and abused people on the planet.

Richard Falk is a professor of international law and serves as the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory; Phyllis Bennis is a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and author of Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer.

Jordan and Saudi Arabia sound warnings on blocking Palestinian statehood

Sep 12, 2011

annie

Wow, things are really moving fast. The NYT has published a must read Op-Ed by Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi ambassador, titled Veto a State, Lose an Ally  stating if the U.S. doesn’t support the Palestinian bid for statehood,  Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with the U.S. as it has in the past. Referencing the peace process as an “epic injustice” and “fruitless” al-Faisal also writes the least we can do is “step aside”:

Jidda, Saudi Arabia

The United States must support the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations this month or risk losing the little credibility it has in the Arab world. If it does not, American influence will decline further, Israeli security will be undermined and Iran will be empowered, increasing the chances of another war in the region.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has. With most of the Arab world in upheaval, the “special relationship” between Saudi Arabia and the United States would increasingly be seen as toxic by the vast majority of Arabs and Muslims, who demand justice for the Palestinian people.

Saudi leaders would be forced by domestic and regional pressures to adopt a far more independent and assertive foreign policy.

…….

American support for Palestinian statehood is therefore crucial, and a veto will have profound negative consequences. In addition to causing substantial damage to American-Saudi relations and provoking uproar among Muslims worldwide, the United States would further undermine its relations with the Muslim world, empower Iran and threaten regional stability. Let us hope that the United States chooses the path of justice and peace.

He certainly doesn’t mince words. Turki al-Faisal was once Director General of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency and is the nephew of King Abdullah.

And this is from Ami Kaufman at +972: “King Abdullah II of Jordan used some harsh words against Israel yesterday:”

“Jordan and Palestine’s future (prospects) are stronger than Israel today and that it is the Israeli who is afraid now. When I was in the United States, an Israeli intellectual talked to me and said that what is going on in the Arab world is in the best interest of Israel; but I answered him and said: on the contrary; your situation today is harder than ever before.

“We support the Palestinian people right to a Palestinian state; our political stance did not and will not change and that the alternative homeland issue must not be part of the discussion.”

(hat tip Anna Rogers)

 

On September 11, we remember the… 1 percent

Sep 12, 2011

 David Samel

Yesterday, the nation paused to remember the horrifying attacks of September 11, 2001, and the victims whose lives were cut short by the brutal calculations of those who place a higher value on their self-centered geopolitical theories than on human life. Well, at least one percent of the victims were so honored.

While the death toll of September 11 is officially 2977 not counting the 19 hijackers, with all the victims identified and their family histories and personal relationships accessible to the public, the true toll is far higher, and cannot be limited to the dead on “American soil.” Over the last decade, our response to that attack was to launch major wars of supposed retaliation in two countries that have taken many times the number of lives lost on 9/11. Unlike our own dead, we have no reliable count of the anonymous hundreds of thousands whose lives were cut short by our bombs, bullets and artificially imposed shortages of the necessities of life. Estimates of Iraqi dead range from about 100,000 to 1,000,000; those honored yesterday are a tiny fraction of those totals. In addition to the staggering number of corpses on our ledger, in Iraq alone, our aggression has caused millions(!) more to flee their homes in terror. Today, the killing continues unabated, and our wars have expanded into Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia.

And yet we remember only “our victims,” and not the much higher number of “victims of ours.” We painfully recall the heroic last acts of first responders, hear the desperate telephone messages of good people simply going about their daily business when they were suddenly confronted with their impending death, and tearfully sympathize with the struggles of those left behind to cope with their unimaginable losses. The necessary foundation of this national catharsis is a refusal to recognize that there is a similar heartbreaking story in every one of the human beings whose lives we have cut short halfway around the globe.

The mindset behind this is quite simple. We count and they don’t. This is all about what “they” did to “us” and never the other way around. The very moving Vietnam War memorial in Washington lists the 58,000 U.S. military victims of politicians’ folly while ignoring the millions of anonymous Southeast Asians killed defending their countries against our invasions or caught in the crossfire while desperately trying to escape it. Even legitimate and sincere antiwar activists often display such national bias. Many who attended antiwar rallies in the 1960’s and 70’s sported black armbands inscribed with numbers like 30,000, 40,000, 45,000, representing the approximate number of American soldiers killed at the time. Today one often hears criticism, heartfelt and sincere, of our ongoing wars only in terms of lost American servicemen and women and loss to the American treasury.

The worst consequence of this tunnel vision is its role in enabling the continuing carnage. We must establish ourselves as a “victim” rather than “aggressor” in order to adorn our military actions, by far the most destructive in the world over the past 65 years, with the imprimatur of righteous self-defense. But if we recognize equal value in the lives of a Cantor Fitzgerald broker or secretary and an Afghan villager or Iraqi doctor, we would be as repulsed by our own actions as we are by al-Qaeda’s. Politicians who swore not to commit such crimes would be elected in a landslide, and those responsible for “legalized” mass murder would serve the remainder of their days in a miserable prison. So we do not. Our dead are precious and their dead insignificant footnotes to what they force us to do to “them.”

There is no reason to believe this self-imposed myopia is peculiarly American. It is universally human. The Japanese have been stubbornly resistant to acknowledging the awful crimes their parents and grandparents committed against neighboring countries in the 1930’s and 1940’s. The Turks persecute and prosecute anyone who publicizes the crimes of their ancestors against Armenians nearly 100 years ago. One can add any number of examples to this list.

The sentiment on display yesterday – commemoration of a large number of our own dead while refusing to acknowledge our indefensible wanton slaughter of many more – is symptomatic of the evil we supposedly are trying to eradicate. Indifference to the suffering of others is an awful human characteristic, made far worse when we are indifferent to human suffering we are actually causing and are able to stop.

 

Old neocons never die, they just keep testifying to Congress

Sep 12, 2011

Philip Weiss

Wow is this crazy. The House Committee on Foreign Affairs is threatening to punish the Palestinian Authority for daring to ask for a state from the int’l community and it’s convening a hearing of neoconservatives on Wednesday. Well I don’t know about this guy Phillips, but the other three– Makovsky, Elliott Abrams, and Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies? My god. It never ends. Apparently Makovsky is the soft neocon, acceptable to Democrats. From the announcement:

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs will hold a hearing on Wednesday entitled, “Promoting Peace? Reexamining U.S. Aid to the Palestinian Authority, Part II.”

The Committee will examine U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority, a central pillar of the Administration’s policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This hearing will offer Members an opportunity to hear testimony on various aspects of this policy, especially in light of recent developments on the ground and the upcoming potential Palestinian action at the United Nations.

When: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 10:00 a.m.

Where: 2172 Rayburn House Office Building

Who:

The Honorable Elliott Abrams Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies Council on Foreign Relations

Mr. James Phillips Senior Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs The Heritage Foundation

Jonathan Schanzer, Ph.D. Vice President of Research Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Mr. David Makovsky Ziegler Distinguished Fellow Director of Project on the Middle East Peace Process The Washington Institute