NOVANEWS
- Brandeis SJP protests outside ‘Israeli Peace Week’ Tel Aviv club party
- A Palestinian student asks, ‘Can I go on Birthright?’
- ‘Commentary’ says amount of US political money coming from Jews is ‘staggering’
- Gas prices have shot up 13% since AIPAC’s victory in Senate
- Hasbarapocalypse at Ynet: ‘Zionism will only cease being demonized when the West stops demonizing colonialism’
- ‘Blackwashing’ and the Israel lobby
- ‘New Yorker’ defends Rosenberg (and use of term ‘Israel firster’)
- What’s queer about the anti-occupation movement?
- Netanyahu says, You also refused to bomb Auschwitz
- Blasting Obama as ‘blurred,’ McConnell assures Israel lobby that bipartisan Congress will authorize ‘overwhelming force’ against Iran
Brandeis SJP protests outside ‘Israeli Peace Week’ Tel Aviv club party
Mar 06, 2012
Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine
Brandeis SJP protesting Tel Aviv Club Night (Photo: Zena Ozeir)
This past Saturday, some 20 members of Students for Justice in Palestine held a protest on the Brandeis University campus outside a party organized by the Brandeis Zionist Alliance. The title of the party was Tel Aviv Club Night and it marked the end of Israeli Peace Week. Israel Peace Week is the “Pro-Israel” response to Israeli Apartheid Week. It is an international initiative of Zionist organizations, including propaganda organizations such as Stand With Us and Hasbara Fellowships – an affiliate of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The week aimed to show a “more positive” picture of Israel, and by doing so to counter arguments that Israel is an apartheid state.
Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine sees Israel Peace Week as an attempt to whitewash Israel’s crimes, and as a gross misuse of the word “peace”. In response to the problematic nature of the week, SJP activists took to protest outside the week‘s closing event. The activists held a mock-wall and banners such as “political prisoners can’t party. Free Hana Al-Shalabi” in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoner who is on her third week of hunger strike, and chanted slogans such as “this beat is really great, but Israel is an apartheid state!” and “they say ‘party’ we say ‘apartheid’!”.
In a statement, which was handed to the party attendees, SJP explained why they chose to protest outside a party:
Why are we such party poopers?
It is normal to see demonstrations when Israeli officials are speaking, when racist, Islamophobic or anti Semitic speakers are invited to campus, but why on earth do we protest a party?
In order to answer this question, we need to ask ourselves what Israel Peace Week is all about? 8 years ago grassroots Palestine solidarity activists started an annual tradition of Israeli Apartheid Week. This initiative is aimed at raising awareness about the systematic oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip and in Israel. Hasbara organizations such as the David Project, Hasbara Fellowship, CAMERA, Stand With Us, and the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiated Israeli Peace Week and contributed funds to Zionist organizations on campus, including Brandeis Zionist Alliance, as an attempt to counter IAW and to spread a more favorable image of Israel.
Rather then countering the arguments made, IPW and other Hasbara attempts are trying to divert the conversation and refer to the achievements and the positive sides of Israel.
We will not deny the contributions of Israel to innovation in medicine, high tech, and the military industry. Indeed, many countries rely on Israeli industries, and many technologies that are being used widely were developed in Israel.
All of the above does not change the fundamental fact that Israel is an apartheid state. In order to maintain Jewish superiority, Israel implements a military occupation upon millions of Palestinians, that are denied the right to citizenship, and systematically discriminates 20% of it’s citizens, which Israel defines as a demographic threat to the Jewish state.Tel Aviv is one of the best cities in The world. It is known worldwide for it’s vivid nightlife. Internationally renowned artists such as Lady Gaga and Madonna are performing in Tel Aviv, and all diamonds in the world are refined in Ramat Gan.
As glamorous and fabulous as Tel Aviv is, it does not change the fact that if you take a 1 hour drive South, there are tens of thousands of Arabs living in unrecognized villages; A 40 minute drive south brings you to the Gaza Strip, where one and a half million Palestinians are living under blockade in the biggest open prison on earth; 25 minutes East in the West Bank and you’re where 3 million Palestinians are denied citizenship, and living under military dictatorship; 15 minutes South East and there’s Lod, Ramla and the unrecognized village, Dahmash; Or right in the back yard, in Yaffa, where you’ll see Palestinian houses being demolished, and housing permits not granted to Palestinians. Tel Aviv may be a grand and modern city, but it is surrounded by pain and suffering on all sides.Students for Justice in Palestine is trying to bring to campus the reality which Palestinians are facing under the Israeli regime. BZA, although self-identified as a cultural club, are part of the widespread attempt to whitewash apartheid, namely, trying to divert the attention from criticism towards Israel. A Tel Aviv party as part of Israeli Peace Week and as a response to Israel Apartheid Week is a political statement. It is political because it is a response to another political statement, and it is political because they are making their own judgment of Israel, that of a peaceful, happy, partying country. A Tel Aviv Party Night distracts students from the realities of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians by drawing attention to Israel’s vibrant nightlife. SJP is here, as usual, to show people the reality that they will not see on their Birthright trip, which is a fundamental part of the beautiful Israel that they know, and that we all know and care for deeply.
A Palestinian student asks, ‘Can I go on Birthright?’
Mar 06, 2012
Jamil Sbitan
Ghada Karmi and Ellen Siegel protesting in front of the Israeli Consulate in London, 1973.
Walking around campus these past few weeks, I couldn’t help but notice advertisements outside of Warren Towers and the Hillel House telling students to go register for Taglit-Birthright’s free 10-day trip to Israel that is happening this summer.
Birthright Israel is a program that is designed to take Jewish young adults on exclusive free trips to Israel through which, according to its website, it seeks to build a bond between the “land and the people of Israel,” among other things. The Israeli government, and other organizations and individual funders sponsor the program.
Birthright, although sounds like a harmless free trip, actually has stark similarity to the state it seeks to cement a bond with: one of maintaining ethnoreligious supremacy and settler-colonial apartheid. Indeed, the trip sounds similar to a hypothetical scenario, in which Apartheid South Africa is funding exclusive trips for young whites to go visit the country’s white enclaves, while denying its history of colonialism and its then-present apartheid structure.
In light of the political motives of these trips, my friend Francesca Contreras, a Mexican- American Jew who is active in the Palestine Solidarity Movement, and I decided to go to Hillel and see what they would tell us, a Palestinian and a Jew, ostensibly expressing interest in going on the trip.
Speaking to the representative, we quickly realized how naive she was about the historical context and the current situation in Israel-Palestine, and noted certain borderline racist things she said.
Taglit-Birthright participants, 2009 (Photo: Chelsey Lichtman)
With an Israeli flag draped in her background, she spoke to us for about twenty minutes and explained, according to her, what the trip is about. She said the trip begins in the (occupied) Golan Heights and Tiberias, and then they would go to Jerusalem, hike Masada, go to the Dead Sea, among other activities. She essentially painted a beautiful image of a country I had long heard about in stories, seen in pictures and in films but never been to due to a political reality. I wondered how my grandmother would feel about this program. I remembered the often-recounted story of when her and her family visited their stolen home in the village of Ramle a while after the creation of the State of Israel. The feeling of loss embodied in the key her mother held, while looking at her home now occupied by settlers epitomizes the type of privilege and supremacy this colonial project has created.
“What are the requirements?” Francesca asked.
The Birthright Coordinator confirmed our biases; she said the requirements are to have at least one Jewish grandparent and to consider oneself Jewish (without practicing any other religions), and having not gone on any previous peer-organized trips to Israel. She told Francesca (although having lived in Israel for three years when she was younger) that she is still eligible to go.
Jamil Sbitan: “So, what about non-Jews? Why are they not allowed to go?”
Birthright Coordinator: “The whole premise of this trip is connecting Jewish young adults to the land of Israel, to their heritage, to the Jewish state.”
I asked her why they don’t go to the West Bank on this trip, and she replied that they do. I was skeptical, so I rephrased my question. I then asked her if they go to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and she said that they don’t.
JS: “So, where would you go usually?”
BC: “The person who runs the organization, the trip organizer, they live in the West Bank in a settlement. So, he usually invites us over for dinner. It’s really pretty, you can see Jordan from there. It’s really cool.”
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are continuously eating up Palestinian land, are considered illegal, not “cool,” under international law. This, along with the fact that she informed us that eight Israeli soldiers take time off of facilitating continuous colonization and enforcement of apartheid to vacation with them, further confirms the fact that this trip is designed to create unconditional support for Israel and to sugarcoat its atrocities.
I asked whether she felt it important that Palestinians connect with their heritage and culture. She said that she does, but doesn’t know what their “communities provide for them.” This said, despite the fact that Israel ethnically cleansed 750,000 Palestinians to create a majority-Jewish state in 1948, and barred them from returning to their homes, in violation of UN resolution 194, which guarantees their right to return.
Jamil: “It just seems really unfair that people who are raised in other countries and have no connection to the land other than a religious one, can go and tour for free, whereas there are Palestinians who are living in refugee camps that are barred from entering or returning to their homes.”
BC: “Unfortunately, that’s the reality because of terrorism.”
The BC also said that there are Palestinians who claim to be Palestinian but are originally from Egypt and Jordan, denied the existence of historic Palestine, and said that land was offered to the Palestinians in 1948 but “they didn’t want to make peace, they didn’t want to have a state.”
Contrary to her orientalist use of the red herring word “terrorism,” the refugees were denied their return simply because they were not Jewish. Indeed, this is the nature of Israeli Apartheid. In order to maintain a Jewish state, the demographic within the country needs to maintain a Jewish majority, and separate laws are created for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, as are discriminatory laws targeting the Palestinian minority in Israel created to choke the Palestinians’ lives and pressure them to leave.
Juxtaposed, the image of young white Americans roaming wildly between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea, while Palestinian refugees wait in ghettos of refugee camps longing to return, is sickening. Just recently, a thirty-year old Palestinian friend from the West Bank told me of how liberating it was when he finally visited the sea in Jaffa for the first time, solely because Israel had granted him an entry permit to apply for a visa at the U.S. embassy. He said that he had been to the sea before when he traveled to Europe, but not in his historic homeland. And Palestinians living in the diaspora have recounted to me their horrifying experiences being racially profiled, strip searched and interrogated for hours while trying to visit the country.
Birthright embodies this exclusive apartheid nature of the state, which Israel is and continues to be. The fact that Israel practices apartheid has been articulated by figures like former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and renowned South African anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu. The Palestinians are engaged in a justified anti-apartheid movement for equality, self-determination and human rights, and those supporting ethno-religious supremacy and colonialism are on the wrong side of history.
Francesca: “So I’ll apply [to Birthright], and he won’t?”
BC: “Okay.”
‘Commentary’ says amount of US political money coming from Jews is ‘staggering’
Mar 06, 2012
Philip Weiss
I used to be shy about talking about Jewish money in the election process. But Sheldon Adelson has liberated us all. Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin agrees that Jewish money is an issue, even if it makes Jews “cringe.” He says 1/3 of Democratic money, when the estimates have actually been closer to half or more– 60 percent, from the Washington Post.
Note the obvious corollary of this truth, per Commentary; Obama is making all these pledges of support for Israel because he doesn’t want to alienate the Democratic donor base. Tobin:
Estimates of the amount of money Jews have donated to American politicians, parties, and causes are even less accurate than the loose estimates of Jewish votes, but there is little question that the figure is staggering. It is impossible to determine precisely the grand total contributed to only presidential candidates by individual Jewish donors, but it may well be as much or more than one third of all Democratic money and a lesser though still impressive percentage of the funds raised by Republicans…
Nevertheless, even though Jewish votes are important, Americans should expect far more media attention paid to Jewish fundraising. Thus, the true audience for the Democrats’ massive effort to convince Jews that Obama has stayed true to Israel may well not be the Jewish electorate but the Democrats’ base of Jewish donors. Reports about how his stance on Israel may affect his ability to raise money for his reelection are mixed so far. Anecdotal evidence and quotes from fundraisers about declining enthusiasm for the president are everywhere. But the vast majority of Jewish bundlers for both parties are not typical swing voters. They are in fact the most intense partisans. Given the proven willingness of many liberal Jews to grade any Democrat’s performance on Israel on a steep curve, it may be that Obama’s fundraising will not be substantially affected.
By the start of 2012, it was clear that even if reports of the Obama campaign’s ambition to raise a billion dollars were unrealistic, the amount of donated money would be enormous, if not record-setting. The same might be true of his Republican rival. Neither party nor the vast array of independent committees assisting the candidates’ efforts will lack funds in 2012.
Given the new freedom to spend money on advocacy as a result of Citizens United, one can expect that during the course of the 2012 campaign the question of the untoward influence of Jewish money will be raised repeatedly by Israel’s critics. This will make many Jews cringe, no matter where their political loyalties lie, but they should not shrink from defending the right of groups to highlight issues of importance….
Gas prices have shot up 13% since AIPAC’s victory in Senate
Mar 06, 2012
Philip Weiss
Last fall, the Israel lobby group AIPAC led the charge for stiffer sanctions against Iran.
The Obama administration, including Treasury Sec’y Timothy Geithner, said the legislation would send gas prices higher. As Reuters said, “The Obama administration’s chief concerns appear to be that the amendment could be a blunt instrument that might send oil prices higher…”
Obama sent two high officials to the Hill to testify against the legislation. On December 1:
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, who also appeared at the hearing, said the administration’s analysis concludes that “there is absolutely a risk that in fact the price of oil would go up..”
But the Obama opposition to the Israel lobby-sponsored legislation didn’t matter.
AIPAC has bragged that it could get 75 Senatorial signatures on a napkin if it wanted to, and it did even better than that: The Senate passed the sanctions amendment to the Defense Authorization Act, by 100-0.
And AIPAC celebrated the amendment, with tweets and victory parties.
Average gas price, December 1: $3.30.
Today: $3.71.
Is AIPAC tweeting about that?
Hasbarapocalypse at Ynet: ‘Zionism will only cease being demonized when the West stops demonizing colonialism’
Mar 06, 2012
Adam Horowitz
Jews Sans Frontieres tweeted out the following article with the challenge, “Ynet, or The Onion? You decide!” Please register your vote in the comment section.
From the article “Addressing anti-Zionism“:
The root of anti-Zionism must be sought elsewhere [from antisemitism] – in anti-colonialism. The belief that colonialism was an absolute evil is so deeply engrained in the contemporary Western psyche that all enterprises bearing any parallels to it are automatically censored. This explains why people whose heroes are Bolivar and Gandhi instinctively side with the Palestinians.
To these people, claims that God promised the Land of Israel to the Jews reek of religious fanaticism. To make the argument that Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East invites allegations that it pursues apartheid policies. To counter all these claims is time-consuming and requires a taste for nuances. But why should anyone trade nuances for the facile certainty that colonialism is inherently evil?
Zionism will only cease being demonized in the politically correct corners of the West once our schools and film industry cease to demonize colonialism. The politically correct depiction of the colonialist as a racist and covetous brute must give space to the majority of well-meaning administrators that helped build roads, schools, and hospitals for the natives.
It must be shown that colonialists administered law and justice far more fairly than most pre-colonial chieftains or post-colonial despots. It must be taught that human development indicators plummeted in the majority of African and Asian countries following independence.
Once an honest discussion about colonialism is tabled, hostility to Zionism will wane in leftist circles. Not because they will shed the belief that Zionism is a form of colonialism, but because it will be possible for them to appreciate the merits of Zionism.
‘Blackwashing’ and the Israel lobby
Mar 06, 2012
Today in Palestine
Ethnic Cleansing / Land Theft & Destruction / Apartheid
Israeli settlement waste ‘poisoning Palestinians’
NABLUS (Ma’an) — Sewage from Israeli settlements near Salfit in the northern West Bank is flowing into nearby Palestinian communities and causing serious disease, a health ministry official said Tuesday. Speaking at an environmental conference in Salfit, the head of Salfit’s ministry of health office said the situation had become “intolerable” for communities affected by disease from the sewage, including cases of cholera.
link to www.maannews.net
Israel Legalises Settlement Outpost in West Bank
Shvut Rachel, one of the oldest and largest settler outposts in the West Bank, was recently legalised by Israel. This move was strongly criticised by both Palestinian and Israeli activists ahead of talks scheduled for Monday between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and American President Barack Obama.
link to www.alternativenews.org
Report: Israel to dissect W. Bank with rail network reaching 1948 occupied land
The land research center said the IOA plans to annex vast tracts of Palestinian land in the West Bank to construct a railroad extending from its West Bank settlements to the 1948 occupied territory.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
IOA planning to turn Islamic museum into synagogue
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) is planning to turn an Islamic museum adjacent to the Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem into a Jewish synagogue.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Buildup of Israeli forces, new surveillance cameras
A heavy buildup of Israeli armed forces has been reported in recent days throughout Silwan, particularly at the entrances to its neighborhoods. A number of new surveillance cameras have also been set up near Silwan Club, adjacent to the Israeli settlement in Ras al-Amoud district. The settlement has been attempting to take over the nearby Palestinian family home of Jadallah, in what is viewed by residents as moves to expand the reaches of the settlement apparatus in Ras al-Amoud.
link to silwanic.net
West Bank Becoming “Settler State”
Last week, one of the West Bank’s oldest and largest settler outposts, Shvut Rachel, received legal status from the Israeli government. Under Israeli law, outposts – unlike settlements – have no legal status and are illegally built. According to Shvut Rachel’s acting mayor, Yaakov Moshe Levi, the Israeli government provided retroactive legal approval to Shvut Rachel’s 115 apartments and authorized the building of 500 more. Shvut Rachel was founded in 1991. According to the Associated Press, 95 families currently live in Shvut Rachel. The move was condemned by both Israelis and Palestinians.
link to english.pnn.ps
The highway robbery of Palestinians in Area C
Akiva Eldar – Haaretz – Israel is responsible for all civil affairs in Area C, and to develop infrastructure for all residents – around 300,000 Jewish residents and 150,000 Palestinians. Here is an example of how this equality is carried out in practice.
link to www.haaretz.com
Violence & Aggression
Medics: Blast kills 2 children near Hebron
HEBRON (Ma’an) — Two children were killed Tuesday as a mortar left by Israeli forces exploded near Hebron, medics and police said. Hamza Zayed Jaradat, 12, and Zayed Juma Jaradat, 12, were killed in the blast in Wadi Reem, east of Hebron in the southern West Bank, medics told Ma’an. Hebron police chief Ramadan Awad said the boys were killed when an old Israeli mortar exploded. Natheer Juma Jaradat, 16, and, Yasser Muhammad Jaradat, 19 and Hisham Zayed Jaradat were injured in the explosion and taken to Hebron Governmental Hospital. The group had been playing in a field filled with scrap metal in the nearby village of Sier, Awad said. The Israeli military was investigating the report, a spokesman said.
link to www.maannews.net
IOF soldiers assault citizens in Jordan Valley for collecting wild plant
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked a group of Palestinians while harvesting a favorite wild plant in the Jordan Valley on Monday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Israeli occupation police forces and intelligence officers broke into the Mohammed Al-Fateh mosque in Ras Al-Amod suburb in occupied Jerusalem on Monday evening.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
B’Tselem: Suspicion: Soldiers attacked Akram Hanatsheh in the village of a-Tabaqa, south-west of Hebron, on February 3, 2012
Akram Hanatsheh, 19, from the village of a-Tabaqa south-west of Hebron complained to B’Tselem that he was severely beaten by Israeli soldiers and attacked by an army dog. According to his testimony, on Friday afternoon, February 3, 2012, Hanatsheh, left his home in order to collect his car from a garage near the village. As he was walking near the village cemetery, he came across a clash between village youth and soldiers. The youth were throwing rocks at the soldiers, who reacted by firing riot control weapons at them. In his testimony to B’Tselem, Hanatsheh stated that he attempted to leave the area, but an army dog chased him, bit his arm and wouldn’t let go. Then, with the dog’s teeth still in his arm, some soldiers came over to him. Hanatsheh recounted that two soldiers held him down and another began punching and kicking him. At that point, a resident of the village alerted Akram Hanatsheh’s father and he arrived at the scene within minutes. In his testimony to B’Tselem, the father described what he saw.
link to www.btselem.org
Head of Israel’s anti-settlement Peace Now reports death threats
The head of Israel’s prominent anti-settlement group Peace Now filed a police complaint on Tuesday after an anonymous caller left a message on his phone apparently threatening to kill him.
link to english.alarabiya.net
Hana Shalabi & Other Hunger Strike News
20 Days On, Hana Shalabi is Still Steadfast
Photos by Dylan Collins and Silvia Boarini Hana Shalabi is on her 20th day of a hunger strike, protesting against the grossly unfair practice of administrative detention through which Israel holds Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial.
Hana al-Shalabi’s health worsens after 19 days hunger strike against no-charge detention by Israel, Ali Abunimah
Amnesty International has expressed concern over the worsening health of Hana al-Shalabi, a Palestinian woman who has been on hunger strike since 16 February against her detention without charge or trial by Israeli occupation authorities.
link to electronicintifada.net
Four administrative detainees join Shalabi’s hunger strike
Four Palestinians held in Israeli administrative custody have joined the hunger strike that was started by detainee Hana’a Shalabi 18 days ago, the prisoners’ studies center said in a statement.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and various other groups have called for this year’s International Women’s Day to be declared a day of solidarity with imprisoned Palestinian activist Hana Al-Shalabi.
Other Detainee & Prisoner News
IOF soldiers round up 13 Palestinians in West Bank
Israeli occupation forces rounded up 13 Palestinians in various West Bank areas on Tuesday in line with its routine arrests of Palestinian civilians alleging they were planning resistance attacks.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Soldiers detain 20 across West Bank
HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli forces detained 20 people across the West Bank on Monday night, locals and security officials said. Seven people were detained in the southern city of Hebron in the evening, after they clashed with troops in the Johar mountain area. Locals named six of those detained as Munjed Yaraqan, Muhammad Al-Rajabi, Rafiq Az-Zarou, Wahid and Farid Abu Qweider and Munjed Al-Rajabi.
link to www.maannews.net
Report: Forces seize 2 near Nablus settlement
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) — Israeli troops detained two Palestinians carrying knives near an Israeli settlement in the northern West Bank on Monday, Israeli media reported. The pair, from Balata refugee camp in Nablus, fled from Elon Moreh settlement to Palestinian village Azmut, but were turned over to forces, Israeli news site Ynet reported.
link to www.maannews.net
Report: “Army Kidnaps Palestinians For Training Purposes”
The International Solidarity Institution for Human Rights reported that Israeli soldiers have been recently invading Palestinians area, breaking into homes at night and kidnapping Palestinian youths, in order to train new army recruits.
Israel extends administrative detention of MP Abu Tir
An Israeli military court on Monday renewed the administrative detention of Palestinian lawmaker Mohamed Abu Tir, who was exiled by force from his native city Jerusalem to Ramallah city.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
IOA renews administrative detention of PLC secretary MP Ramahi
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has renewed the administrative detention of Dr. Mahmoud Al-Ramahi, secretary of the Palestinian legislative council (PLC).
Int’l campaign blames world silence for persistent IOA practices against MPs
The international campaign for the release of Palestinian MPs detained in Israeli jails has blamed the world’s silence over the IOA persistence in its detention of Palestinian lawmakers.
The Israeli administration of Ofer jail shut down power at the Palestinian prisoners’ rooms on Saturday despite the freezing weather.
Gaza
Thousands of workers to lose their jobs due to power outage
The general syndicate of workshop owners in Gaza Strip has warned that thousands of workers would lose their jobs in the event the electricity crisis persisted in the enclave.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Oxfam: Over 300 Gaza families affected by storm flooding
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — More than 300 families were affected by flood damage in the Gaza Strip last week, an international aid group said Tuesday. Severe storms and heavy rainfall destroyed the homes of seven families and 15 families were evacuated in northern Gaza town Beit Lahiya, Oxfam said. Several families refused to move into temporary housing for fear their homes would not be repaired if they vacated, the aid group added. Gaza authorities have set up telephone line for families in need of help.
link to www.maannews.net
Introducing Bil’in: The ritual of resistance and oppression
Today we went to Bil’in, a small village 17 km from Ramallah. For decades it has been harassed by the Israeli army. When the Apartheid Wall was constructed, it separated the farmers from their land. Seven years ago, the villagers succeeded in moving the wall a bit towards the settlements again and gained back a few meters of the land where their great grandparents already lived. Every Friday after that, there where demonstrations organized. For my friend and I, this was our first demonstration in the West Bank. Luckily we had a bit of an idea about what to expect because the others told us about the situation. When we arrived in Bil’in we gathered together with the villagers and went together to the place where the demonstration was held. One of the villagers we met there had been already arrested 3 times. Still that doesn’t stop him for going on with fighting for his land and his people.
link to palsolidarity.org
Young activist disrupts AIPAC panel about ‘Israel on Campus’, Adam Horowitz
Liza Behrendt, 22 year old member of Young Jewish and Proud, the youth wing of Jewish Voice for Peace, stood up during a breakout session called “The Struggle to Secure Israel on Campus” to call attention to the silencing of Palestinians— and young Jews who support them — on U.S. campuses. Liza stood on stage and unfurled a banner that read, “Settlements Betray Jewish Values” and “Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof,” the Jewish text from Deuteronomy meaning “Justice, Justice, You Shall Pursue.”
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/03/young-activist-disrupts-aipac-panel-about-israel-on-campus.html
Protesters disrupt conference of Israeli lobby group in Washington DC
The annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, held this weekend in Washington DC, was attended by US President Barack Obama and Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who both pledged unwavering support for the state of Israel. But the conference also faced a large group of protesters who gathered both outside and inside the conference itself to challenge US aid to Israel.
link to www.imemc.org
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/03/palestine-absent-not-at-occupy-aipac.html
Report Denounces Weapons to Israel as AIPAC Assembles
Washington, DC (Monday, March 5) — As members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) prepare to lobby tomorrow on Capitol Hill for more U.S. weapons for Israel, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation will launch its first policy paper, which calls for the United States to end military aid to Israel. The report release comes after President Barack Obama stated yesterday at AIPAC’s policy conference that “Despite a tough budget environment, our security assistance [to Israel] has increased every single year.”
link to blog.endtheoccupation.org
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) loudly condemned Israeli Apartheid Week events, and last weekend’s One State Conference at Harvard. With its latest smears, it is trying to conceal the fact that its fearmongering is failing to intimidate students, including Jewish students who attended and participated with open minds.
Maradona: `I am the number one fan of the Palestinian people`
NET2 News – “I am the number one fan of the Palestinian people. I respect them and sympathize with them. They need that we all stand by them,” said embattled Argentine superstar Diego Maradona in Dubai, where he coaches the al-Wasl football team. “I grew up on struggle and standing against injustice” he said.
link to www.medianet2.com
Israel’s Hebrew-language Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said yesterday that the country’s parliament, the Knesset, is to look into an unprecedented proposal submitted by extreme right-wing parliamentarian Danny Danon. The Likud MK wants the Knesset to establish a parliamentary committee to investigate the activities of its elected members who belong to Arab parties because of what he claims are “extremist activities”. The move is also intended to investigate the overseas trips made by Arab MKs to neighbouring countries, as well as their various comments and the decisions of Israeli courts not to file complaints or indictments against them.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
Are pro-Israel groups recruiting minority students to thwart human rights critics? In this episode of The Stream, we speak with journalist and author Max Blumenthal and Ben Shapiro, editor-at-large of Breitbart.com
Political Developments & Other News
Hamas rules out military support for Iran in any war with Israel
Senior figures say Gaza-based Islamic militants would not launch rockets into Israel at request of Tehran, a key sponsor. Hamas will not do Iran’s bidding in any war with Israel, according to senior figures within the militant Islamic group. “If there is a war between two powers, Hamas will not be part of such a war,” Salah Bardawil, a member of the organisation’s political bureau in Gaza City, told the Guardian. He denied the group would launch rockets into Israel at Tehran’s request in response to a strike on its nuclear sites. “Hamas is not part of military alliances in the region,” said Bardawil. “Our strategy is to defend our rights”
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Gas pipeline explosion in Egypt
The main gas pipeline sending supplies from Egypt to Jordan and Israel is attacked, causing a large explosion, officials say.
link to www.bbc.co.uk
Egypt tightens security in and around gas export facilities in Sinai
The Egyptian authorities have tightened security measures in and around gas export facilities in northern Sinai Peninsula to ward off future threats.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Hamas: Ending political arrests in W. Bank vital for the national reconciliation
Hamas said one of the most important steps for the success of the inter-Palestinian reconciliation is to end the political arrest of citizens carried out by its Fatah rival in the West Bank.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Peres says discussed Pollard pardon with Obama
Israeli president tells convicted spy’s wife he pleaded with American counterpart to free her husband; Netanyahu also expected to raise issue during White House meeting.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Debate: Attacking Iran, AIPAC, Israel-Palestine and Obama with Rashid Khalidi and Jonathan Tobin
President Obama addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Sunday, assuring the pro-Israel lobbying group he will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran and reiterating his unwavering support for Israel. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Obama at the White House today, we host a debate between Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University and Commentary magazine’s Jonathan Tobin. “It is true [Iran does not] have the weapon now, the question is are we going to wait until … they are one screwdriver away from doing it or not,” says Tobin. “[Iran’s] policy has been to forthrightly proclaim it wishes to destroy Israel — to wipe it off the map. Letting it have nuclear weapons is a threat to the entire region.” But Khalidi argues that war with Iran “would guarantee that no responsible Iranian leadership in the future would allow Iran to be without a nuclear weapon after it had been attacked in an unprovoked fashion either by the U.S. or Israel.” Khalidi adds, “It will be a disaster that would make Iraq and Afghanistan look like tea parties.” Tobin and Khalidi also debate the relationship between Iran and Syria.
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/3/5/debate_attacking_iran_aipac_israel_palestine
The Hunger Strike Defeated the Secret Evidence: The Case of Khader Adnan
With a hunger strike lasting 66 days, Khader Adnan, a Palestinian baker from the village of Arabeh in the West Bank, successfully undermined the seemingly incontestable system of administrative detention in Israel and revealed the injustice of secret evidence. Administrative detention, a form of punishment in which a person can be detained on the basis of secret evidence and held in prison without charge, is based on three sources of law: Military Order No. 1591 Regarding Administrative Detention – 2007 that applies in the West Bank; the Emergency Powers (Detention) Law – 1979 that applies in Israel; and the Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law – 2002. Most administrative detentions are imposed in accordance with Order No. 1591, which authorizes any military commander to incarcerate Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) for a period of six months, which can then be extended for additional periods of time by the military courts.
link to www.jadaliyya.com
California congresswoman: ‘Some would call that apartheid’, Philip Weiss
People are talking about Linda Gradstein’s report at JTA on a delegation of six congresswomen brought to the occupied territories by J Street. Piece is notable for Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco) likening the prospective political situation in the territories to apartheid (it’s there already, if only reporters would say what they see…). And by a settler telling the politicians to forget about the two state solution. And by Rep Eddie Bernice Johnson saying the situation is a powder keg.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/03/california-congresswoman-some-would-call-that-apartheid.html
Audio: Ali Abunimah and Ilan Pappe keynote speeches at Harvard One State Conference, Ali Abunimah
On March 3 and 4 many speakers gave presentations and took part in discussions at the Harvard One State Conference. The two keynote speeches, by Ali Abunimah and Ilan Pappe, were captured by participants.
link to electronicintifada.net
Movie Review: The Law in These Parts
To anyone with a history of the Israeli occupation of Palestinians, the mainstay concept that Israel so proudly applauds itself on being a democratic state is met with derision and refutations, especially to the Palestinians who are still living under the military system that has entered its 45th year. The Law in These Parts is an innovative award-winning film by Israel director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, a momentous factual work of art that talks about a subject whose mechanisms are relatively esoteric to the general public. The documentary does not seek to explain the history of Israel’s ethnic cleansing and colonialism of the indigenous population of Palestine, but rather sheds an important and much needed light on the foundations of the Israeli military legal system that continues to govern the 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to this day.
link to www.palestinemonitor.org
UK university launches new Palestinian research center
The launch of a new Palestinian study center in London has raised hopes for greater academic cooperation on Palestinian issues. The Center for Palestine Studies (CPS), part of the London-based School of Oriental and African Studies’ Middle East Institute, aims to focus on Palestinian politics, history, economics, law, and culture, according to the news agency WAFA. “Though we are just starting, my plan is to expand cooperation on Palestine studies,” the CPS’ inaugural chair Gilbert Ashcar said. Though structurally unrelated to existing centers at the universities of Exeter in the UK and Columbia in the US, Ashcar said they hoped to work with other organizations. Ilan Pappe, chair of the University of Exeter’s European Center for Palestine Studies, spoke at the CPS’ launch. Ashcar said he had high hopes the new center would help bring justice for Palestine.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Palestinians taken aback by Obama embrace of Israel, but expect little in US election year
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinians say they are disappointed in President Barack Obama but not surprised by his especially warm embrace of Israel in an election year., Still, his weekend speech to the powerful pro-Israel lobby AIPAC was perceived in the West Bank as unprecedented in its show of support for Israel. It raised eyebrows even among hardened skeptics who have lost faith in Washington’s ability to serve as an honest Mideast broker.
link to www.washingtonpost.com
Israel, Democracy and the Arabs
The prolongation of the Arab-Israeli conflict is all about the illegal occupation, expropriation, colonization, and annexation of Arab territory by Israel. And beneath the armor of the Israeli military machine is the systematic exclusion of the Other — the Arabs. Jewish Israelis are xenophobic towards Arabs not so much because they fear them as an existential military threat, as Likud and Labour are prone to repeat, but rather because of the intrinsic demographic threat they present to the national identity of a Jewish State. The Balfour Declaration helped create Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people; it did not stipulate a Jewish state. The exclusive nature of Israel’s national identity would consolidate over the decades with contradictory implications for representative democracy.
link to palestinechronicle.com
AIPAC Works for the 1 Percent
Chris Hedges – Truthdig – AIPAC does not speak for Jews or for Israel. It is a mouthpiece for right-wing ideologues, some of whom hold power in Israel and some of whom hold power in Washington, whose loyalty, in the end, is not to the citizens of Israel or Palestine or the United States but the corporate elites, the defense contractors, those who make war a business. [Text of the speech, March 3, at the Occupy AIPAC protest of CODEPINK Women for Peace and other groups.