NOVANEWS
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Kept from their land by the Separation Wall, Palestinians risk losing their land due to Israeli ‘absentee’ laws
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Real News Video: JNF ‘Judaizes’ Expropriated Land
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Israel’s mythological borders: an interview with Rachel Havrelock
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More responses to Ron Paul’s surge
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Expendables of a waning empire
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Thanks, my enemy. I love Palestine
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Occupation economy: taking from the very land they stand on
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On Iran sanctions, Clinton bowed to Israel lobby in first term and corporate lobby in his second
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Muslims ban Christmas and rape white women, in latest Latma satire
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Report: ‘Joker’ scratched Tel Aviv– in BDS victory
Kept from their land by the Separation Wall, Palestinians risk losing their land due to Israeli ‘absentee’ laws
Dec 31, 2011
Kate
Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid / Restriction of movement
Absentee landowners? West Bank landowners can’t get to their land
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) 30 Dec — Jamal Salman stood on one side of the double chain-link fence, on land belonging to his family. On the other side of the Israeli-erected fences, only a few hundred yards away but beyond his reach, was more family land with a grove of olive trees. In November, Salman and more than 180 Bethlehem landowners were informed that Israel had placed their olive groves — more than 1,700 acres of land located beyond the barrier — under the Guardian of Absentee Property, deeming the owners of these lands as “absentees.” This is the last step before formal confiscation … The 73-year-old is leading a campaign of mostly Christian landowners in an attempt to prevent yet more of their land from being confiscated. They are considering challenging the absentee decision in the Israeli Supreme Court, he said.
link to www.catholicnews.com
Israel to take over Palestinian land near Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM (WAFA) 29 Dec – Israeli forces Thursday handed Palestinian farmers from al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem, notices that they will take over their agricultural land, according to local sources. Coordinator of the committee against the Apartheid Wall, Ahmad Salah, said one Palestinian farmer found a notice by the Israeli authority to take over two dunums of land belonging to Palestinians. Head of the village Council, Ramzi Salah, said al-Khader is being attacked viciously by Israeli forces to steal more of its land and expel its residents. He said the Israeli government’s decision to declare tens of dunums a closed military area to continue building the Apartheid Wall aims to take over more of the village’s land. Salah said Israel authority intends to build a settlement between al-Khader town and Artas village, near Bethlehem.
link to english.wafa.ps
Occupation gives notice of demolition of 13 homes and confiscation of 160 dunams
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 30 Dec — Israeli occupation authorities have handed Palestinians notices of confiscation of 160 dunums (1 dunum=1000 square meters) and demolition of 13 homes in the village of Mneizel to the south east of Yatta in the southern West Bank district of al-Khalil. IOF troops closed all entrances to the village. Rateb al-Jubour, coordinator of the popular committee against the wall and settlement, said in press statements on Thursday that the notices of land confiscation affected residents of the village of Mneizel and the village of Samu‘ with the aim of expanding Karmael settlement … Jubour also said that the village of the Karmael settlement was built next the Palestinian village of Muneizel which has a population of 400 Palestinian who are living in constant fear because of harassment at the hands of settlers.
Link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Israel isolates 125,000 Palestinians from Jerusalem
MEMO 30 Dec — The Jerusalem-based Human Rights Centre has warned that Israel’s municipality has already started to apply its policy of isolating Palestinian districts from the rest of the city. In fact, claims the Centre, the process began two years ago. “The plans of Israeli Mayor Nir Barkat, suggest that the isolation of some Palestinian neighbourhoods are in fact old plans which were raised for the first time two years ago,” the HRC told Quds Press. In a statement, the HRC pointed out that this includes the exclusion of Jerusalem residents through the withdrawal of their residence permits; since the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem started in 1967, 14,266 Palestinians have had their permits withdrawn. The Centre noted that over the past two years it has received complaints from citizens of Jerusalem who live in the neighbourhoods in question that the occupation authorities have not been issuing local tax demands, claiming that they “live outside the wall” and “are, therefore, no longer in Jerusalem”.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/3232-israel-isolates-125000-palestinians-from-jerusalem
Israeli bulldozers demolish house in Naqab village
RAHAT (WAFA) 29 Dec – Israeli bulldozers Thursday demolished a house belonging to a Palestinian Bedouin family north of the city of Rahat, in Naqab [Negev], according to local sources. They said Israeli bulldozers accompanied by Israeli police and special forces demolished a house that houses nine Palestinian Bedouins.
link to english.wafa.ps
Israel could demand compensation for Jewish property in Arab lands
MEMO 30 Dec — The Director of Property Management at Israel’s Foreign Ministry is preparing a draft bill which, if passed into law, will see the Zionist state sending claims for compensation for Jewish property in a number of Arab countries. It is believed that the bill will be held back to be used during any negotiations discussing the situation of Palestinian refugees and their right of return. The bill is divided into two: the first will demand that Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Bahrain pay compensation for the properties of 850,000 Jews, with an estimated value of $300 billion. The figures are based on the 1948 census of Jews from each country. At a second stage, Saudi Arabia will be landed with a compensation bill of more than $100 billion for Jewish properties in the kingdom since the time of Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him).
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
MKs eye hurdles against outpost eviction
Ynet 29 Dec — The Ministerial Committee on Legislation will debate a new bill aiming to strip IDF commanders from the authority to evict illegal outposts in the West Bank, Ynet learned on Thursday. The bill states that a military order to that effect does not stand up to legal scrutiny and that such evictions must be court ordered. The proposed legislation has already been criticized as an attempt by the Right to hinder legal proceedings concerning illegal outposts.
link to www.ynetnews.com
UK condemns Israel’s ‘provocative’ plans in Jerusalem
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 30 Dec — Britain’s Minister for the Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt on Friday condemned Israel’s plans to expand an illegal settlement and build a tourism center in occupied East Jerusalem.
link to www.maannews.net
France condemns Israeli decision to build 130 new housing units
PARIS (WAFA) 29 Dec — France strongly condemned the decisions taken Wednesday by the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem to authorize the construction of 130 new homes in the settlement of Gilo and a tourist complex in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, according to a statement by Bernard Valero, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs spokesperson, on Thursday … France is deeply concerned by the acceleration in provocative announcements and decisions relating to Israeli settlement activities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, he said.
link to english.wafa.ps
Israel denies entry to American PNN editor, soldiers arrest PNN reporter in Nablus
PNN 29 Dec — Israeli authorities forbade entry into the West Bank to Brendan Work, English editor of the Palestine News Network on December 17, after he went to Jordan to renew his visa. Israeli forces also arrested a PNN reporter, Amin Abu Wardah, from his home city of Nablus … Abdul Nasser al-Najjar, head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, condemned the arrest of Abu Wardah and the denial of Work’s visa, and said he considered the steps part of a bigger campaign aimed at “silencing the Palestinian voice.”
link to english.pnn.ps
Violence and aggression
Settlers ‘attack school children” in Hebron
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 29 Dec — Israeli settlers on Thursday attacked schoolchildren in Hebron city center, witnesses said. Locals told Ma‘an settlers tried to stab Mustafa al-Qadi, a sixth-grade pupil at Qartaba primary school, and hit his friend who tried to defend him. Witnesses said Israeli soldiers watched the incident but did not intervene.
link to www.maannews.net
Laborer ‘attacked by settlers’
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 30 Dec — A Palestinian laborer was attacked on Friday at work in Betar Illit settlement near Bethlehem, medics said. Khaled Hussein Hamamra, 40, sustained facial wounds after a settler attacked him with a sharp tool, said Abdul Halim Jaafra, head of the Red Crescent’s Bethlehem office. Jaafra told Ma‘an the ambulance service was notified of Hamamra’s injuries by Israeli liaison officials. He said a Red Crescent ambulance entered the settlement to treat Hamamra, accompanied by Israeli police. Hamamra was taken to the Beit Jala Government Hospital.
link to www.maannews.net
Armed Israel settlers parade in West Bank town
BETHLEHEM (WAFA) 30 Dec – Around 200 armed Israeli settlers paraded in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem Friday morning and walked around the convention center and nearby Solomon’s Pools, said local activists. Awad Abu Sway, member of the local anti-settlements committee, said the settlers, protected by Israeli soldiers, took pictures of the convention center and the pools and held prayers in the area. The settlers then left the area and went to another neighborhood of al-Khader, where a settlement outpost was erected. Another area activist, Ahmad Salah, said settlers have increased their activities in that area of al-Khader. The Israeli army declared on Thursday dozens of dunums of al-Khader a closed military zone. He said area farmers are regularly harassed by settlers who prevent them from working on their land.
link to english.wafa.ps
Jewish settlers invade an archaeological area near Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM (PIC) 30 Dec — A large group of settlers Friday morning invaded the historic Berak Sulaiman and Qasr al-Mo’tamarat (Convention Palace) in the town of al-Khadr to the south of Bethlehem, in the southern West Bank. Local sources said that about 200 Jewish settlers invaded the two areas under IOF protection and they refuse to leave claiming ownership of the land. The sources said that the two sites are rich archaeological sites and the settlers have been trying to appropriate them for a long time claiming that they are Jewish sites and Palestinians have no right to them.
Link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Shepherd ‘injured by sound grenade’ in Beit Ummar
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 29 Dec — A shepherd sustained facial injuries on Thursday when Israeli soldiers threw sound grenades at him during clashes near Hebron, a local official said. Israeli forces raided Beit Ummar and briefly detained and attacked several locals, popular committee spokesman Muhammad Awad told Ma‘an. Soldiers fired tear gas and sound bombs after residents came to defend their relatives, he added. Ayed Mahmud Abu Maryeh, 42, was guarding his sheep when soldiers fired sound grenades at him, Awad said. He was taken to Hebron Hospital with minor injuries to his face, Awad said.
link to www.maannews.net
Gaza
1 killed as Israel shells Gaza
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 30 Dec — Israeli forces bombed Gaza City early Friday morning killing one man and wounding five others, medics said. Momen Abu Daf, a member of militant Salafi group Ansar al-Sunna, was killed when Israeli warplanes shelled an area southeast of Gaza City, local sources said. Five others were wounded, including one militant and four farmers, medics said. They were taken to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces “targeted a terrorist squad that was identified moments before firing rockets at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip.” Abu Daf had “orchestrated and executed numerous and varied terror attacks” and “was actively involved in the preparations of the attempted terror attack on the Israel-Egypt border that was thwarted this week,” the army added. That appeared to refer to Israel’s killing on Tuesday of another Salafi fighter, Abdallah Telbani, who the military said had been plotting strikes in which gunmen would circumvent the fortified Gaza border by attacking south Israel from the Sinai.
Two short-range rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel on Thursday and five on Wednesday, the Israeli military said. There were no casualties. The Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility.
link to www.maannews.net
unclear how much of this is ‘fact’, but interesting
Reuters Factbox: Al-Qaeda-inspired groups in Hamas-ruled Gaza
30 Dec — Here are some facts about the constellation of ultra-conservative Islamists known as Salafis, who have challenged Hamas’s rule in the isolated enclave. GROUPS * Jaysh al-Islam (the Army of Islam) is closely linked to Gaza’s powerful Doghmush clan, which worked with Hamas to capture Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006 but broke with it over the Doghmushes’ four-month kidnap of a BBC journalist in 2007. * Tawheed and Jihad (One God and Holy War), linked by Gazan sources to the obscure “Jihadist Salafi” group, that in April abducted and killed a pro-Palestinian activist from Italy, Vittorio Arrigoni … * Ansar al-Sunna (Followers of al-Sunna, the words and deeds of the Prophet Mohammad), which carried out a lethal rocket attack on Israel last year and whose name had been used by, among others, al Qaeda-allied Sunni insurgents in Iraq. * Jund Ansar Allah (Warriors of God), which raided an Israeli border post on horseback. * Jaysh al-Ummah (Army of the Muslim Nation), whose leader, Abu Hafs, was detained by Hamas. * Jaljalat (Rallying Cry), which includes former Hamas members and is suspected of bombing several Internet cafes as part of its especially hard line against Palestinian “apostates.”
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/factbox-al-qaeda-inspired-groups-hamas-ruled-gaza-111621131.html
Witnesses: Israeli tanks shell eastern Gaza Strip
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 30 Dec — Israeli tanks on Friday opened fire on Zaitoun neighborhood south of Gaza City, witnesses said. Locals reported hearing huge explosions. Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said no injuries had been reported.
link to www.maannews.net
Egyptian medical aid convoy enters Gaza
RAFAH (PIC) 39 Dec — Egyptian authorities announced on Friday that it allowed an Egyptian medical aid convoy to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing. Secretary General of the North Sinai District and director of the Egyptian Red Crescent local branch, general Jaber al-Arabi said in a press statement that ten tons of medicines and medical supplies donated by the Egyptian Doctors’ Association.
link to www.palestine-info.co.ud
Gaza’s tunnels unleash building boom
Reuters 30 Dec — At last, Nael Zeyara has a steady job in construction, thanks to the smuggling of cement through Gaza’s network of tunnels to Egypt, an underground supply line that boosts the Israeli-blockaded enclave and creates jobs. Zeyara, 30, has been out of work for four years … Thanks to hundreds of tunnels in the sandy soil of the border zone, a construction boom has buoyed Gaza’s otherwise crippled economy, according to a United Nations report. Israel only allows construction materials into Gaza for the use of international relief agencies, including the building of houses and schools. It has recently permitted the import of limited quantities to rebuild some factories destroyed in its largest military offensive in Gaza, in 2009.
link to www.ynetnews.com
For Gazans, Operation Cast Lead will never really be over:
The Hamdan family
PCHR 30 Dec — “When I wake in the morning the first thing I do is remember my children. I come and sit outside and picture them where they used to play. I don’t want to go out and interact with other people anymore. I largely stay inside the home.” Talal Hamdan, 47, and Iman Hamdan, 46, are quietly contemplative about life since the loss of their three children Haya, Lama, and Ismail. The children were aged 12, 10, and 5 respectively, when on the morning of 30 December 2008 an Israeli F-16 dropped a bomb in the area they were walking in Beit Hanoun, killing all three. The children were walking with their father to a nearby rubbish site to drop off household waste when Israeli forces targeted the area.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/12/30-december-2008-the-hamdan-family/
Activism / Solidarity
Several hurt, including photojournalist, in weekly West Bank protests
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 30 Dec – A photojournalist and three people were hurt and many others suffered from tear gas inhalation during the weekly Friday protests in several West Bank areas, according to activists. The weekly protests took place in Nabi Saleh, Bil‘in, Ni‘lin, and Qalandia, all in the Ramallah area, al-Ma‘sara near Bethlehem, Kufr Qaddoum, near Qalqilia, and Kufr al-Dik, near Salfit.
In Nabi Saleh, where protests have been taking place every Friday for the past two years and where a Palestinian was recently killed when a tear gas canister fired by Israeli soldiers hit him in the face, a photojournalist and three other people were injured from tear gas canisters and rubber bullets fired at the protesters. The photojournalist, Issam Rimawi, was hit by a tear gas canister in the leg and another protester was hit in his hand. The others were hit by rubber bullets. Nine people were arrested, including two members of the international solidarity movement, said local activists….
link to english.wafa.ps
Ni‘lin honors its heroes and urges military to ‘stay human’
ISM West Bank 30 Dec — Volleys of tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition is how the Israeli Army met a small demonstration in remembrance of 2 martyrs, in Ni‘lin today. Starting after Friday prayers approximately 25 Palestinians and 6 internationals made their way from the village through olive groves to the Apartheid Wall to commemorate the murder of Mohammed Khawaje and Arafat Khawaje on the 28th December 2008. Mohammed was shot in the forehead with live ammunition and Arafat was fatally shot in the back when attempting to rescue another villager who had been shot by an Israeli sniper.
link to palsolidarity.org
Political detention
Zubeidi: Israel reneged on amnesty deal
29 Dec — Former al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades commander says Israeli authorities have revoked 2007 clemency agreement. Palestinian security forces accuse him of arms charges … After being awarded clemency, Zubeidi formed the “Freedom Theater” in Jenin. The theater was managed by Israeli-Arab actor Juliano Mer-Khamis until he was killed by unknown assailants in April. The investigation in his murder is ongoing. Last week, the Palestinians alleged that Israeli security forces raided the city and arrested nine Fatah members, including an officer in the Palestinian security forces. Zubeidi said he did not know whether Mer’s murder and the raid were connected. Speaking to Ynet on Thursday, Zubiedi said he did not know why the Israeli authorities decided to revoke his clemency deal
link to www.ynetnews.com
Int’l campaign urges Bensouda to address issue of Palestinian MPs
GAZA (PIC) 29 Dec — The international campaign for freeing kidnapped Palestinian MPs called on the incoming new chief prosecutor of the international criminal court Fatou Bensouda to address the issue of Palestinian lawmakers frequently kidnapped by Israel. Member states of the international criminal court elected Gambia’s Fatou Bensouda as their next chief prosecutor on Monday … The campaign denounced the criminal court’s silence on Israel’s crimes as unacceptable complicity and noted that the kidnapping of Palestinian lawmakers violates international law and the fourth Geneva convention … 20 Palestinian lawmakers affiliated with Hamas Movement are locked up in Israeli jails, most of these MPS were kidnapped many times before.
Link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Protest in Al-Khalil calls for release of political prisoners
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 30 Dec — Muslim Youth Association and the committee representing families of political prisoners demonstrated on Thursday at noon calling for the release of all political prisoners from PA jails in the West Bank without any conditions. They also called for an end to the policy of summoning activists and for reinstatement of those sacked from their jobs because of their political sympathies. Dozens of activists, university students as well as families of prisoners participated in the protest.
The mother of Ahmad al-Za‘tari said that her son is exposed to physical torture causing him to start stuttering when he talks, something which his family noticed in during a court session on Thursday. The family held the PA security responsible for his wellbeing.
The committee said that there were 1,010 cases of political arrest in 2011, 464 of them since the signing of the reconciliation in May. Since the meeting between Abbas and Mishaal about a month ago there has been 110 political arrests and the number of political prisoners still remaining in PA jails is 110 prisoners.
Link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Hamas’ security forces kidnap 16 leaders from Fatah, Gaza Strip
PNN 31 Dec — On Friday, Hamas’ Security forces kidnapped 16 leaders from the north region of Gaza, one day before Fatah commemorates the 47th anniversary of the establishment of Fatah movement …Fatah sources confirmed that the kidnapped leaders: Ra‘ed Salah, Nasser Sahwel and Mohammad Diab started a hunger strike protesting Hamas continuous procedures against Fatah members. Hamas’ Security forces also kidnapped the secretary of Fatah in central Khan Younes, Attef Shaath, from his house, and the secretary of Fatah in the eastern area in Khan Younes, Saleh Abh Hammed, and took them to one of their headquarters at the area.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11013&Itemid=61
International Women’s Peace Service meet with prisoner released in Shalit deal
ISM posted 29 Dec — …Eight years previously, during the Second Intifada, SH – a 27 year old villager of Kifl Haris – had been imprisoned for his political activities against the occupation. He was a member of the Fateh political party and was involved in organising resistance. We spoke to him on 26thDecember, 8 days after his release, in a room full of his family and friends, who were still gathering to celebrate. The house was festooned in flags, bunting and the celebratory poster published by Fateh on his release … For the first seventeen days, SH said that he was held in solitary confinement – seeing only one policeman and his interrogator. He only found out how long he had been held afterwards, as his cell had no windows, meaning he had no concept of night and day. The disorientation was compounded by enforced sleep deprivation – he would be woken by the guard every time he managed to fall asleep,…
link to palsolidarity.org
Jihad detainee on hunger strike over Israel prison treatment
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 29 Dec — An Islamic Jihad leader detained in Israel on Thursday entered his 12th day on hunger strike in protest over his treatment, the Palestinian Prisoners Society said. Khader Adnan says an Israeli interrogator dragged him to the floor by his beard. The Israeli officer then used Adnan’s beard to polish his shoes, Adnan told the society’s lawyer. Prison authorities had also threatened to stop Adnan’s family visits for two months, the lawyer said. Palestinian Prisoner Society head Qadura Fares says Adnan is a political prisoner targeted because he is a Palestinian leader.
link to www.maannews.net
Political developments
Washington asks Israel to release Marwan Barghouthi for Palestinian elections in May
PNN 30 Dec — According to Israeli army radio, the American government has expressed its desire to see Israel release the Fatah Central Committee member Marwan Barghouthi, sentenced to life imprisonment, to lead Fatah against Hamas in Palestinian elections scheduled for May. The sources said that the American government is worried about the prospects of Hamas winning the elections in the West Bank and Gaza and with current Fatah leader and PA President Mahmoud Abbas signaling his imminent retirement, the need for a new candidate is pressing. Army radio said Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected the idea of releasing Barghouthi
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11012&Itemid=61
Reconciliation committee cancels Gaza meeting
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 30 Dec — A committee overseeing national reconciliation has canceled a meeting scheduled to be held Saturday in Gaza City, committee member Hani Abu Arma said Friday. Abu Amra, a representative of the Palestinian Arab Front, told Ma‘an the meeting was canceled for “technical reasons.” He said he hoped a new date for the meeting would be arranged on Friday evening.
link to www.maannews.net
Dweik: PLC to resume sessions in January
RAMALLAH (PIC) 29 Dec — Speaker of the Palestinian legislative council (PLC) Dr. Aziz Al-Dweik has said that the PLC would resume sessions next February to assume its duties according to the law … Dweik said that the PLC would have to tackle with a number of “difficult” issues such as the legislation and laws that were passed in Gaza and the West Bank over the past four and a half years of internal division.
Link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Hamas’ Mashaal to visit Jordan
Ynet 30 Dec — Jordanian government spokesman denies receiving Qatari request to take in Hamas leaders but suggests issue may be discussed after Mashaal’s visit — Jordanian government spokesman Rakan al-Majali confirmed Friday that Jordan is expecting a visit from Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal and Qatari Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamas al-Thani, the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper reported.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Racism / Discrimination
Israeli intolerance: Palestinian citizens are ‘barred’ from governing coalition / Philip Weiss
30 Dec — At the Daily Beast, Peter Beinart has a fine post on the haredi-secular tensions in Israel being related to the discrimination against Palestinian citizens. He avoids saying what he said at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations a month back, that Palestinians under occupation must get the vote for the government that controls their lives. But he makes the political point that I have made over and over here: that Arab parties inside Israel are excluded from governing coalitions. So of course they’re right wing. This is the Jim Crow south, this is 1964 and the Democratic Party excluding the Mississippi Freedom delegation of black delegates to the nominating convention.
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/12/israeli-intolerance-palestinian-citizens-are-barred-from-governing-coalition.html
Education ministry blasts Israeli Arab school for taking students to human rights march
30 Dec — ‘The students carried signs against racism, house demolitions, etc., which violates the director general’s circular [i.e. ministry regulations],’ ministry tells school.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/education-ministry-blasts-israeli-arab-school-for-taking-students-to-human-rights-march-1.404479
Other news
Palestinian film: Jihad drove Israel away from Strip
Ynet 30 Dec — New movie recreates 2005 shooting attack near Kissufim checkpoint, suggests terror led to Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Director reveals some footage obtained through IDF officer
link to www.ynetnews.com
Fatah official quizzed for blocking meeting between Israeli, Palestinian activists / Amira Hass
30 Dec — Detective tells Fatah that preventing events in East Jerusalem is a blow to Israeli sovereignty, and only the Israel Police has the authority to cancel them.
link to www.haaretz.com
Israel’s population stands at 7.8 million with 2012 around the bend
29 Dec — Year-end Central Bureau of Statistics report shows 166,000 new babies born in Israel throughout 2011, with 17,500 new immigrants arriving … According to the ICBS report, Jews comprise 75.3 percent of the country’s population, with 5.901 million people, with Arab citizens making up another 20.5 percent, or 1.610 million. Another 4.2 percent of Israel’s population, some 325,000 people, is comprised by non-Arab Christians and those whom the Interior Ministry doesn’t classified by religion. The survey also indicated that 2011 saw a 1.8 percent increase in Israel’s population
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-s-population-stands-at-7-8-million-with-2012-around-the-bend-1.404388
IDF report: Home front unprepared for rocket fire
29 Dec — Despite Iron Dome missile defense system, Home Front Command report obtained by Ynet reveals hundreds of thousands of residents have little or no access to fortified spaces
link to www.ynetnews.com
Iron Dome missiles fall off military vehicle, none wounded
29 Dec — IAF chief Ido Nehushtan orders cessation of all maintenance activity in the Israeli Air Defense Command after dozens of projectiles roll of near earlier this week … No one was hurt following the accident, despite the heavy charge of explosive each projectile bears. Some of the missiles were damaged from the two-meter drop, with estimated damages which could reach hundreds of thousands of NIS. .
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iron-dome-missiles-fall-off-military-vehicle-none-wounded-1.404333
Israel arrests extremists for tracking IDF forces in West Bank
29 Dec — Overnight operation takes place in Jerusalem, settlements of Yitzhar, Itamar, Harsha, and Kiryat Arba; activists: Israel Police has gone mad.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-arrests-extremists-for-tracking-idf-forces-in-west-bank-1.404319
Analysis / Opinion
Shocking Nakba testimony by former Israeli Palmach fighter
29 Dec (ROME) – Ethnic cleansing, massacres, colonization and a great deal of racism are all revealed in this shocking video testimony of Amnon Neumann, who fought with the terrorist force (elite of the Haganah), Palmach, during the Nakba of 1948 … Despite some moments of remorse, the former member of this terror group tells the interviewer that he refuses to talk about the massacres, in particular, because he participated in them. He also tries to portray Palestinian villages as all made of straw and mud houses! Perhaps the selective amnesia that has afflicted almost all Jewish Israelis has not spared Neumann. Warning to Palestinian refugees watching this: it can be really difficult to listen to parts of this testimony. I had to stop the video twice … the nonchalance with which Neumann describes (in clearly sanitized language) the forced expulsion, the killings of farmers tending their grapevines, … is overwhelming.
http://salem-news.com/articles/december292011/palmach-fighter.php
Shooting Israel — Between Israel and the West Bank
30 Dec — He came here believing in a two-state solution, but after living here for four years and photographing West Bank communities, Nick Waplington ‘learned that this is nonsense.’
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/shooting-israel-between-israel-and-the-west-bank-1.404555
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.theheadlines.org (archive)
Real News Video: JNF ‘Judaizes’ Expropriated Land
Dec 31, 2011
Annie Robbins
The Real News Network has stepped up to the plate once again. They continually blow me away with their coverage of Israel and Palestine. Their new episode Israeli Tree Campaign “Judaizes” Expropriated Land focuses on the Jewish National Fund’s role, past and present, in Judaizing the region.
From the founding of the JNF at the 5th Zionist Congress in 1901, for the purpose of purchasing land for Jewish settlement in Palestine culminating in the purchase of only 6% of the land by 1948, thru the evolvement of this organization in the expropriation of land belonging to Palestinians exclusively for Jewish use (still going on today), Real News has produced an excellent JNF 101, a short 12 minute episode worth volumes.
They start off in the Bedouin village of Al Araqib in the Negev desert interviewing Aziz Sayah Al-Turi, son of Al-Araqib’s Shiekh Al-Turi, as he motions his arm over a desolate barren landscape marked by only the cruel tracks of JNF bulldozers. Where once his family’s 4500 olive and carob trees grew and his house once stood near the homes of other villagers, now nothing. Aziz Sayah Al-Turi explains:
“If we were the Jews, the government would have honored us for making the desert bloom. But we are Arabs, what can we do?”
Interviewing Tel Aviv University history professor Gadi Algazi as he briefly explains how the 1949 Absentee Property Law, in regulating the possession of the Palestinian refugees, facilitated the JNF acquiring the land from ‘custodians’:
‘Ben Gurion circumvented any future action by simply selling, absolutely illegally, selling the land entrusted to the custodians to some third party so that the State of Israel, in case of an international debate, can safely say ‘sorry’ like any bicycle thief,…’it’s not in my hand anymore’..within a few days a million dunam was sold to the JNF. It took about 8 days to realize one of the biggest business deals in the history of Israel…and the JNF never even paid for most of this land.’
From JNF boxes to the recent resignation of board member Seth Morrison, current evictions in Silwan and EJ, to Israel’s supreme court forcing the JNF, through the efforts of Zochrot to post the history of ethnically cleansed villages of Beit Nuba, Yalu and Imwas where Canada Park now stands, this video is a must see.
Israel’s mythological borders: an interview with Rachel Havrelock
Dec 30, 2011
David Zlutnick
Rachel Havrelock is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and its historical interpretation. She is an associate professor of Jewish Studies and English at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author of three books as well as the writer/director of the play, From Tel Aviv to Ramallah. Her latest work, River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing Line (2011, University of Chicago Press), examines five national myths in the Hebrew Bible and examines which have had political currency and which have been repressed.
While in San Francisco to promote River Jordan, I interviewed Havrelock about the Israel of biblical mythology and its impact on the present day conflict in Israel/Palestine. She argues that while certain interpretations favor expansion and conquest, others may provide an inspiration for coexistence, while colonial ideas of partition and rigid borders need to be thrown out to favor a new post-national model. What follows is an edited transcript of the full interview. To view an eleven minute edited selection of the videoclick here.
river jordan book
San Francisco, CA. November 22, 201
DZ: What led you to take on the subject of your book, River Jordan?
RH: I initially approached the topic with an interest to how biblical paradigms impacted modernity, or in other words: what is the connection between Biblical Israel and Modern Israel? So I really began almost with the issue of the map. How is it that in both Israeli and Palestinian national traditions that the Jordan is a central border that seems to define the collective, impact national identity in a very dramatic way, and how did this biblical symbol become realized in modernity?… Ultimately what I write about is that those things—the line from one to the other, especially the line from the bible to modernity is not so straight, and rather contested and circuitous.
What did your research on biblical history tell you about the current conflicts over land in this area? What did you discover as you were making your way through this subject?
When we as scholars look at the Bible, we don’t see a uniform document, but instead we have collated traditions and documents and political ideas that come from very different quarters. So some of the sources in the Bible come from really different historical periods, and some of the sources in the Bible come from really different ideological or political schools. So there were about five different “maps” as it were that emerged from the Hebrew Bible. Now there are no cartographic maps—it’s all words. But there are boundary lists, which is the ancient Hebrew way of talking about space and imagining it. So there are these five different maps: one of them reaches all the way to the Euphrates River [in present-day Iraq]; one of them ends at the Jordan River; one of them encompasses both sides of the [Jordan] River Valley; one of them is a very constricted area around Jerusalem; and one of them is a very fluid regional model where national groups or tribal groups aren’t really so discreet, but rather they overlap and have competing claims[…].
So then I started thinking, “How did this Jordan border end up as a contested border between Israelis and Palestinians?” And here the answer is neither the Bible, nor the fact that it is, as many would say, a “natural border.” Right? Many would say: “It’s a river, it’s a natural border. So of course that’s always been the border.” And to begin with, I don’t think that rivers necessarily are borders. I mean, a river can connect people just as much as it can divide them.
The real answer as to how the Jordan comes into Israeli and Palestinian national traditions is through a group called the Palestinian Exploration Fund [PEF]—a group of explorers, erstwhile archaeologists who are also members of the British Royal Engineers. And they were sent [in 1871] by the British military, but also by this subscriber-based organization [the PEF] to produce a map. And the British imagined ousting the Ottoman Empire from the region, and you can’t oust an empire without a map. So the PEF map ultimately went from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, and also adhered to another geographical formula from Dan in the north, to Be’er Sheva in the south. So the PEF map, the twenty-six sheets [of maps], really formed the British idea of what Palestine would look like. And when General Allenby went into battle to fight the Ottomans [in 1917] he had the PEF map and the land that he conquered basically conformed to it. Ultimately this was the British idea, and so in 1922 they created Palestine and Transjordan, and created geographical entities that really correlated with that map[…].
Ultimately it’s neither the Bible, nor Islamic traditions, nor long ethnic ideas that led to these borders, they were British lines on a map to facilitate oil export and administrative units of the British Mandate. And so these borders are the ones that become so contested and so sensitive within the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
How did these British-drawn borders become such a driving force in the ideology of the Zionist movement?
In the first and second Zionist Congresses there were a lot of motivations, whether it came from pogroms in Eastern Europe, or the Dreyfus Affair—the idea that even in enlightened France Jews were never fully going to be citizens—so the driving force—I mean again it came from many quarters, but the idea was that Europe was going to likely become increasingly dangerous for the Jews. And we have to realize that this is the nineteenth century, so European nationalism is the reigning movement. Everybody in Europe is thinking in terms of national borders, national language, a long ancient history that justified the new national configurations. And of course in a world of nationalism, especially nationalist Europe, the Jews were the odd people out. I mean they couldn’t, for a lot of reasons, quite be nationalized, however much they wanted to be in places like Germany or France. So Jewish nationalism really arises from—initially—from systems of European nationalism.
In the early congresses it was really just “where could the Jews go to?” So there’s the so-called “Uganda Plan,” about settling Jews in [present-day] Kenya [and Uganda]; there was the Argentina plan that led to one sort of cooperative settlement that ultimately faded; there were even some American ideas at that point. And then Theodor Herzl, kind of the initial ideological father of Zionism, realizes that there’s simply no way for world Jewry to get behind political Zionism if the terrain to which they aspired was something that had no connection to Jewish tradition. So ultimately before his death Herzl and the Zionist movement in general decided that they were going to aspire to biblical Israel in some form or another. Going back to the earlier piece, there’s still the question of where biblical Israel is. And from the Bible itself you come up with at least five possibilities that have different political corollaries.
So the Zionists did not draw a map and did not define biblical Israel until 1919 at the point of the Paris Peace Conference. At this point the Zionists drew a map that in the east went almost all they way to the Hijaz Railway [well into present-day Jordan], a railway that the Ottomans had built to bring pilgrims into the Saudi peninsula—it was supposed to take them to Mecca, but it never ended up going all the way to Mecca. So they aspired to that to the East, Be’er Sheva [now in Israeli territory] in the south, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and the Litani River [in today’s Lebanon] in the north. And they drew this map on the basis of biblical traditions [from one interpretation found in the Book of Joshua] and they submitted this to the British… And so this was the first map. Before this Jewish geographic traditions were really imaginations that facilitated Jewish ritual and Jewish life.
One thing you note in your writing is that various interpretations of the map of Israel have coexisted throughout history.
We tend to think that that people in antiquity knew who they were and where they belonged, but it was a very fluid model. And, in fact, it really seems that the beginnings of ancient Israel was a tribal confederation. And a tribal confederation had groups constantly coming in and moving out… So groups would enter into an alliance and their traditions would become incorporated—whether those were political traditions, cultural traditions, geographical contributions—and sometimes groups would leave… So it’s a constantly morphing idea, it’s not as if there’s this ancient Israel that remains stable throughout time. It was always changing. And so those changing instantiations of Israel are recorded ultimately in the Hebrew Bible in terms of these geographic traditions. People were coming in and out. It was not stable, it wasn’t something that was fixed[…].
Book of Joshua has been the most influential book in the Zionist movement and influenced it in some very militarized ways, so it’s a little ironic. But there also is a very potent geographic tradition in the Book of Joshua. In chapters twelve through twenty-one there are all these regional maps, or boundary lists, if you will. And they talk about the tribes of Israel ultimately settling and living, and they concede to the fact that Israel under Joshua did not expel everyone or exterminate them, but rather that they live alongside them.
And so, we see in these traditions in the Book of Joshua the coexistence of overlapping claims, the simultaneity of different identities and different peoples, and we also really get to a regional model. In chapter fifteen of the Book of Joshua there’s even a verse that says, “Until today the Tribe of Judah and the Jebusites live in Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is divided between them. So there, right in the Bible, is the idea of a shared Jerusalem, which really is much closer to the reality of contemporary Jerusalem and it has biblical precedent. So I would say to those who say, “Wait, Jerusalem must be Judaized. Palestinians must be run out of their neighborhoods,” and the ideas that this has to be done in the name of King David—I would tell them to look closer at the text and see how these traditions of coexistence have as much root in the bible as the military traditions that inspired the early [Zionist] movement and the wars, in many ways.
More responses to Ron Paul’s surge
Dec 30, 2011
Philip Weiss
Ron Paul
A Ron Paul morning wrapup. As Paul surges, the media are trying to get their heads around the phenomenon, figure out who he is. On NBC Nightly News last night, Chuck Todd likened Ron Paul’s youth army (chronicled in the NYT yesterday) to Gene McCarthy’s Clean-for-Gene antiwar army of 1968.
Meantime, Robert Siegel on NPR did a piece highlighting Ron Paul’s antiwar positions and asked reporter Don Gonyea about the belief (expressed by neoconservative David Brooks on NPR) that these views would hurt Paul in Iowa:
SIEGEL: Don, a lot of people thought that Ron Paul’s ideas about defense would hurt him in the Republican nominating contest, but he’s been front and center with them and it seems to be working.
Gonyea said these views have helped Paul stand out. Siegel then asked about Paul’s racist newsletters and “his opposition to the U.S. relationship with Israel.” Gonyea said this hasn’t come up at town hall meetings.
Alternet went after Paul’s relationship with a minister who favors the death penalty for gays here:
The campaign issued a press release lauding [endorsement by Nebraska evangelical pastor Phillip] Kayser and trumpeting his endorsement, citing “the enlightening statements he makes on how Ron Paul’s approach to government is consistent with Christian beliefs.” Then came word of Kayser’s “Christian belief” in applying the death penalty for gay male sex, and the Paulites got busy scrubbing their press release from the campaign Web site…
Hard-core Christian Reconstructionists like Kayser and Phillips (who is also a founder of the modern religious right and a close ally of Ron Paul) aren’t easy to come by, despite the profound but often undetected influence of Reconstructionist thought on right-wing evangelical churches. One area of difference between Reconstructionists and more garden-variety evangelicals is toward Israel and the vision of the end-times. The more common position among evangelicals is premillennialist, meaning that Israel must be constituted as a nation before Jesus will return to rule the righteous. As we reported last August, Reconstructionists adhere to the view expressed by Ron Paul at a “Pastor’s Forum” at Chuck Baldwin’s Pensacola, Fla., church — that Christians are the new “chosen people,” and the righteous must rule for 1,000 years before Jesus will return.
Andrew Sullivan has my view of the matter, that Paul represents a strong grassrootsantiwar feeling, and that people like David Brooks are seeking to delude us on this score. And he explains the youth attraction to Paul as not being xenophobic.
So most Americans seem to disagree with the Beltway that Ron Paul is somehow an impermissible candidate for president. Why am I not surprised?
Meanwhile, Ron Paul has grasped the Iran question more aggressively as the voting nears. He is the only candidate who has taken military force off the table with respect to Iran’s nuclear program. Obama is still threatening, with poor Leon Panetta being dragged back and forth in public by the Greater Israel lobby. Paul, in other words, is the only candidate we can be sure will not take us into a third war with a Muslim country in a decade. And he seems to believe this is a strength. No wonder Washington is still scratching its collective head.
The mindset that the world is our plaything remains entrenched. Only Paul has moved beyond that. If you ask me, that’s the core of his appeal to the young.
I do wonder if any of those young people are ethnic minorities…
Leon Hadar of The American Conservative worked for Ron Paul last time round and wrote a month back that libertarians and antiwar left have to join forces.
libertarians can only do foreign policy by working with other groups on the left and the right, including the members of the somewhat dormant realist wing of the Republican Party, traditional conservatives, and progressive Naderites. This is their only hope to counter the influence of neoconservatives and liberal interventionists.
In Haaretz today Hadar swears that Ron Paul likes Jews– Haaretz, which yesterday extracted pro-Israel statements from Paul, including the idea that Israel should be free to attack Iran. While at American Conservative today Hadar writes:
Paul’s strong opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq and to President George Bush’s “Freedom Agenda” in the Middle East, as well as his refusal to support an American military campaign against Iran, reflects his commitment to these libertarian non-interventionist principles. He believes that Iran — with or without nukes — does not pose a direct threat to U.S. interests, and that nuclear Israel has the capabilities to contain a nuclear Iran.
There is nothing “anti-Israeli” in Paul’s resistance to providing aid to Israel. He has been a long-time opponent of providing American economic aid to all foreign countries, which, he believes, amounts to wasting U.S. tax-payer money on sustaining policies that do not necessarily align with American interests and values.Instead, he would encourage the promotion of trade and investment ties with Israel and other countries.
Hence, that Paul regards Israel as “our close friend” is not inconsistent with his opposition to providing aid to Israel or resisting a war with Iran. Paul has stressed that when it comes to pursuing its own national interests vis-a-vis Iran or the Palestinians, Washington should not “dictate how Israel runs her affairs,” Paul stressed.
Like me, antiwar leftwinger Robert Scheer at truthdig has embraced a lot of the Paul agenda in a post titled, Marginalizing Ron Paul:
[Opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964], along with the decade-old racist comments in the newsletters Paul published, is certainly worthy of criticism. But not as an alternative to seriously engaging the substance of Paul’s current campaign—his devastating critique of crony capitalism and his equally trenchant challenge to imperial wars and the assault on our civil liberties that they engender.
Paul is being denigrated as a presidential contender even though on the vital issues of the economy, war and peace, and civil liberties, he has made the most sense of the Republican candidates. And by what standard of logic is it “claptrap” for Paul to attempt to hold the Fed accountable for its destructive policies? That’s the giveaway reference to the raw nerve that his favorable prospects in the Iowa caucuses have exposed. Too much anti-Wall Street populism in the heartland can be a truly scary thing to the intellectual parasites residing in the belly of the beast that controls American capitalism.
It is hypocritical that Paul is now depicted as the archenemy of non-white minorities when it was his nemesis, the Federal Reserve, that enabled the banking swindle that wiped out 53 percent of the median wealth of African-Americans and 66 percent for Latinos, according to the Pew Research Center.
Back to the critics. In 2003, Ron Paul expressed concern about the alleged war on Christmas. Digby offers this criticism of Paul’s “antebellum” states’ rights views here.
And Bruce Wolman offers the following analysis:
What is the hierarchy of values/principles that drive Paul’s politics?
On the top of the heap for Ron Paul is “states rights” and “private property rights”. We all know the history of those two marching songs. While Paul’s anti-war stances and liberalism can attract adherents, if he were to become President those positions wouldn’t necessarily have the consequences many supporters might think. Let’s say Paul becomes President and does reduce US militarism, foreign interventionism, eliminate Federal drug laws, etc. His States Rights position would allow states to pick up the slack in all of these areas. From my reading of Paul, the Federal Government would stop supporting Israel, but he would have not hinder New York and California cutting their own deals with the Israelis if the states so chose. Nor would he have any problem with Israel handling the Palestinians, Iranians and its Arab neighbor problems anyway it saw fit. The US government would simply not intervene. While US military aid would end, US defense corporations could sell their wares abroad without government control or intervention. While the Federal Government would restrict its own violations of civil liberties, the states would be able to run their own affairs and corporations would be without regulation or interference of their fundamental right to use their property and capital as they saw fit, including spending on political involvement.
One of the reasons Christian extremists are attracted to Paul despite his libertarian positions is that they believe his states rights priority would allow them to regulate private behavior on the state level. Paul in fact does argue that there is no federal right to privacy. As a result, many of Paul’s libertarian positions are simply not relevant to the Presidency or the Federal Government as he conceives those institutions. In fact I would argue that if Paul was running for Governor of Iowa as opposed to President of the USA, he would attract a smaller following. His message of resonance is getting the Feds out of one’s life.
