NOVANEWS
- Burying Ayoub Assalya
- Report from the Saturday morning settler ‘real estate tour’ in Hebron
- ‘I refuse to join an army that has, since it was established, been engaged in dominating another nation’: Interview with Israeli refuser Noam Gur
- Israel kills 23 in Gaza, wounds 73, most of them civilians –PCHR
- ’60 Minutes’ goes in for casual racism about ‘Arabs’
- MJ Rosenberg: why he is trying to stop the next war
- Israeli right wing’s vision for West Bank annexation (to ‘pull the rug out from under apartheid accusation’)
- Beinart: Time for a Jewish conversation about Jewish power and responsibility
- Massacre in Afghanistan
Burying Ayoub Assalya
Mar 12, 2012
Kate
Video: Burying Ayoub
ISM 11 Mar by Nathan Stuckey — Twelve year old Ayoub Assalya was murdered today. He was walking to school when an Israeli missile landed next to him. It was seven A.M. He is another casualty of Israel’s latest attack on Gaza. For three days now Gaza has been under bombardment. Eighteen people have been killed. Dozens have been injured. His funeral was held today in Jabalia, the refugee camp where he lived. We waited outside the mosque for midday prayers to end. The street outside was crowded with people waiting for the funeral. A bus was parked to carry those who could not walk the several kilometers to the cemetery … As we approached the cemetery you could see the border. This is the same border where the Israel shot four men yesterday. The four men had been attending the funeral of yesterday’s martyrs. The land leading up the border is barren, there are no trees, Israel bulldozed them all years ago
link to palsolidarity.org
Medics: 2 killed in Israeli airstrike east of Gaza City
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 12 Mar 22:15 — Two Palestinians were killed Monday evening in Israeli shelling east of Gaza City, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 25 since Friday, medics said. Bassam al-Ajla and Muhammad Thaher were killed in an airstrike on the Shujaiyeh neighborhood, medical officials told Ma‘an. They were members of the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, a Ma‘an reporter said. [Keep up on Twitter using #GazaUnderAttack. The attacks are continuing as of this writing.]
link to www.maannews.net
PCHR: IOF continues offensive on Gaza for 4th consecutive day: 5 Palestinians, including an old man and his daughter, killed and 38 others wounded since yesterday afternoon,raising deaths to 23 and injuries to 73
12 Mar — Investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) into alleged crimes committed by IOF from Friday evening, 09 March 2012 until Monday noon, 12 March 2012, indicate as follows: At approximately 01:40 on Monday, 12 March 2012, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at an agricultural plot on ‘Oujan Street in the east of al-Shuja’iya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. A number of nearby houses were damaged, and Ahlam ‘Arraf Jundiya, 18, was injured in her forehead by fragments of glass while she was at home. At approximately 02:00 also on Monday, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a house belonging to Bahjat Mohammed Hammad near Jabalya Martyrs Elementary School in ‘Izbat ‘Abed Rabbu in the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabalya. The missile hit the first floor of the three-storey house, where 9 individuals, including 3 children live. As a result, the house was completely destroyed and 7 members of the family, including 3 children and 3 women, were wounded. Eighteen neighboring houses were also affected by the missile, 3 of them sustained heavy damages….
link to www.pchrgaza.org
5 killed, 46 injured in fourth day of Gaza airstrikes
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 12 Mar — Israeli airstrikes killed two Islamic Jihad militants and three civilians on Monday, bringing the death toll since Friday to 23 people, medics and Ma‘an’s correspondent said. An airstrike on Monday afternoon in Beit Lahiya killed Muhammad al-Hasoumi, 65, and his daughter, 30, medical spokesperson in Gaza Abu Salmiya said.
Earlier, hospital officials said a 15-year-old schoolboy was killed in a separate air strike during the day on Monday. Nayif Shaaban Qarmout was killed in Beit Lahiya, north Gaza, Ma‘an’s correspondent said. Witnesses said that the 15-year-old was playing with friends in a play ground near his school when an Israeli missile hit the area. Five others were injured and taken to Shifa hospital in Gaza City…
Earlier, Israeli airstrikes had hit two homes in the northern Gaza Strip, injuring 33 civilians, most of whom were women and children, Abu Salmiya said….
A 17-year-old girl and another man were also injured as Israeli missiles struck a home in Gaza City, Abu Salmiya said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said aircraft had carried out six strikes on Monday. At least 20 rockets have been fired at Israel on Monday, she said.
link to www.maannews.net
Lessons canceled in northern Gaza amid Israeli strikes
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 12 Mar — The Ministry of Education in Gaza announced Monday that afternoon classes will be canceled after Israeli forces bombed a school playground killing a student … Officials at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told Ma‘an that Nayif Shaaban Qarmout, 15, was killed and five were injured Monday in an Israeli airstrike on Beit Lahiya. Witnesses said the teenager was playing with friends in a playground near his school when an Israeli missile hit the area … On Saturday, an Israeli missile killed Mahdi Abu Shawish, 24, and injured three others near Rabia al-Adawiya school in southern Gaza.
link to www.maannews.net
Gaza militants claim rocket fire into Israel
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 12 Mar — Militant groups in Gaza announced responsibility for firing rockets across the border as the Israeli army said 42 projectiles landed in Israel. The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said it fired 30 rockets into Israel. The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades, said it fired four Grad rockets toward Ashdod, while the An-Nasser Salah Ad-Din Brigades — affiliated with the Popular Resistance Committees — said it launched three Nasser rockets and four projectiles at Israeli targets … The projectiles caused no casualties but Israeli police said three people were wounded.
link to www.maannews.net
Netanyahu: Israeli is prepared to step up fighting against Gaza if rockets continue
Haaretz 12 Mar — Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israeli is prepared to step up its activities in the Gaza Strip if rocket fire continues. Speaking in the morning at a Likud faction meeting, the Prime Minister said, “The Israel Defense Forces is prepared to expand its activities [in the Gaza Strip] as much as is necessary.”… Labor faction chairman Isaac Herzog on Monday also expressed support for the decision to assassinate Zuhir al-Qaisi, the Popular Resistance Committee leader, on Friday, which ignited the current flare-up. “We hope that the current round of violence will end soon,” he added.
link to www.haaretz.com
IDF official: Army ready for ground op in Gaza
Ynet 12 Mar — Iran encouraging Islamic Jihad to fire rockets at Israel, escalation could prompt ground incursion, senior officer says. IDF hasn’t used all measures at its disposal, he says
link to www.ynetnews.com
‘Iron Dome has its failings’
Ynet 11 Mar — With Beersheba suffering two direct hits in less than an hour, Air Force tries to lower public’s expectations of rocket interception system. ‘There is no hermetic seal’
link to www.ynetnews.com
Egypt negotiating between Israel and Gaza factons for ceasefire, diplomats say
Haaretz 12 Mar — Egyptian diplomats in talks to bring about a ceasefire by Tuesday morning; Strategic Affairs Minister Ya’alon: Hamas approached Egypt to pass message to Israel about renewal of calm — …”We do not carry out negotiations with Hamas,” Ya’alon said. “Our response through the Egyptians was very simple, this is basically our policy since the beginning of the current administration: if you are quiet, we will be quiet, if you shoot, or plot attacks, we will hit you, and so the ball is certainly in their court.”
link to www.haaretz.com
Hamas: Egypt offered fuel in exchange for calm
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 12 Mar — Egypt offered to provide fuel to Gaza if militants agree to a ceasefire with Israel, Hamas-affiliated MP Younis al-Astal said Monday. The Gaza Strip has faced up to 18-hour blackouts per day since Egypt cut fuel supplies through an underground tunnel network … Speaking at a sit-in protest in Gaza, al-Astal said the Hamas-led government told Egyptian mediators that Israel had initiated the escalation and must also end it, echoing senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahhar, who said earlier the timing of a ceasefire would depend on Israel … Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees said that they would not accept a ceasefire with Israel while Israeli warplanes continued to kill Palestinians.
link to www.maannews.net
8 trucks of medicine arrive in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 12 Mar – Eight truckloads of medicine arrived in the Gaza Strip on Monday from the West Bank, a crossings official said. Amidst Israeli airstrikes that have killed 23 Palestinians and wounded more than 80 in four days, Gaza medical spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya had appealed for medical supplies to the blockaded coastal enclave.
link to www.maannews.net
Rights group says targeted killing a crime
GENEVA (WAFA)10 Mar – The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights (EMOHR) Saturday stressed that the continued Israeli policy of what it called ‘assassination of wanted people’ is a blatant violation of international law, describing it as a murder outside the law and without trial, said a press release issued by EMOHR … The center added that the Israeli killing of the two activists was similar to previous assassinations; where the victims were not in a situation of armed confrontation with the Israeli forces but were tracked down and pursued while they were exercising their ordinary life.
link to english.wafa.ps
Ashrawi: Israel is committing extrajudicial executions”
IMEMC 11 Mar — Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, stated Saturday that Israel is committing crimes and extrajudicial assassinations against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is seeking further provocation in order to destabilize the region, and to provoke the Palestinians into further retaliation.
link to www.imemc.org
China calls on Israel to cease fire in Gaza
BEIJING (WAFA) 12 Mar – The Chinese government Monday called on Israel to stop its airstrikes on Gaza, demanding an immediate cease-fire, according to a statement by China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin.
link to english.wafa.ps
British Foreign Office urges restraint in Gaza
LONDON (WAFA) 12 Mar – British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt Monday urged restraint following four days of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and rocket attacks by armed Palestinian groups on Israel
link to english.wafa.ps
Opinion on / Analysis of Gaza attacks
‘Mowing the lawn’: On Israeli’s latest massacre in Gaza and the lies behind it / Ali Abunimah
EI 11 Mar — By this Sunday evening in Gaza, a weekend of relentless Israeli bombing has left 18 people dead and dozens wounded. Israeli propaganda insists that the attacks are about preventing ‘terrorism’ and stopping ‘rockets’. But in fact, Israel provoked this violence and according to some Israeli commentators its goals are to escalate pressure for war with Iran and to drag Hamas away from diplomacy and back into violence. The latest of Israel’s victims today include Ayoub Useila, 12, of Jabalya refugee camp, whose seven year-old cousin was injured, and Adel al-Issi, 52, a farmer near Gaza City. Others suffered horrifying injuries, as recounted by doctors at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital.
link to electronicintifada.net
Way to go, IDF! / Gideon Levy
Haaretz 11 Mar — The cyclical ritual of bloodletting between Israel and Gaza always prompts two questions: ‘Who started it?’ and ‘Whose is bigger?’ — Here we go again – a targeted killing; retaliation; retaliation to the retaliation. Here we go again – The reflexive act; the harsh rhetoric; the blindness. The Israel Defense Forces carries out a targeted killing. The Palestinian organizations avenge it – and it’s the Palestinians instigating war and terrorism. MK Danny Danon (Likud) has, of course, already called for “all of those in possession of weapons in the Gaza Strip” to be targeted because of the “million people living under fire.” Those million people, in case you failed to get it, are the residents of southern Israel. Only they live under fire.
link to www.haaretz.com
Tolerable savagery: Israeli killing of Palestinians / As‘ad AbuKhalil
Al Akhbar 11 Mar — The carnage continues. Israel, or more accurately the Zionist movement, has not stopped its brutality and repression of Palestinians since the advent of the Zionist movement in Palestine in the late 19th century. Lately, we have been able to watch with disgust. Western hypocrisy knows no bounds in the Middle East …Western governments never expressed sympathy for the Syrian people: as victims of the Assad regime and as victims of Israeli occupation and brutality. Yet, Western governments were quick to call for arming the Syrian people only months after the uprising began. The Palestinians, however, have never been treated with such permissiveness. No matter how much massive violence is inflicted on them, and no matter how many massacres they suffer, Western governments insist that the Palestinian people (and any other people living under Israeli occupation) have no right to resort to arm to liberate their lands and to “protect their civilians.”
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Escalation is good for Israel / Zvi Bar’el
Haaretz 11 Mar — Hamas’ continued preference for diplomatic action in the face of Israel’s attacks on Gaza is less than convenient for those who desire an Israeli strike on Iran — …There is no alternative to striking Iran and there is no better time than the present, when the weather permits and world diplomacy is preoccupied with Syria. For Israelis, there is no better proof that no harm will come to them as a result of an attack on Iran than the performance of the Iron Dome anti-rocket system, which has demonstrated a 95% rate of effectiveness. The escalation in Gaza is good for Israel – that is, for that part of Israel that wants to strike Iran.
link to www.haaretz.com
Israeli forces – West Bank
Israeli officer ‘can’t remember’ why Palestinian was left to die by side of road
Haaretz 12 Mar — A policewoman in the trial of two colleagues charged with dumping a Palestinian car thief on the side of a road, where he died of dehydration, on Sunday repeatedly responded to questions in court by saying she did not remember. The testimony phase in the trial over the death of Omar Abu Jariban in 2008 began in Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Sunday. The policewoman, who was the main witness on Sunday, replied more than 100 times to questions by stating that she did not remember, and her testimony in court conflicted with prior statements given to investigators.
link to www.haaretz.com
Watch: YouTube video purports to show Israeli border police tossing gas grenade at Palestinians
Haaretz 12 Mar — In the video shot by freelance photographer, a tear gas grenade is tossed out of a Border Police jeep at a group of Palestinians who were apparently not involved in demonstrations; Border Police claims clip was staged … In early February, a French woman was injured during the weekly demonstration. After initially claiming that her injury was caused by rocks thrown by other protesters, the IDF later admitted that they may have been caused by a tear gas canister shot by the army after a video of the event was published..
link to www.haaretz.com
Israeli forces storm Palestinian house, attack its residents
HEBRON (WAFA) 11 Mar – Israeli forces Sunday stormed a Palestinian house in the old city of the Southern West Bank city of Hebron and attacked its residents, according to security sources. They said that Israeli forces stormed the house of Ishaq al-Maharbeh, fired tear gas bombs inside it before storming the house and locking the family inside while searching it.
link to english.wafa.ps
Settlers
Caught on tape: Drunk settlers in Al Khalil assault two international women; Israeli military admits special relationship with violent settlers
ISM 11 Mar — On March 9 2012, 6 volunteers of International Solidarity Movement were walking down Shuhada Street near Checkpoint 55 at approximately 11 AM, when drunk settlers attacked the group and injured one international volunteer. About 5 drunk male settlers began to scream at and surround the internationals, yelling “keffiyah,” the traditional Palestinian scarf, that two internationals were wearing. Settlers were visibly carrying bottles of alcohol. The drunk settlers shoved one woman from the back and then threw wine on her. At the point the group began filming the settlers continued to hit, shove and try to grab the cameras of all 6 people. A police car drove by and did not stop the attack. One settler, wearing a dinosaur tail costume on his back put a towel on his face before trying to grab the camera of a Canadian ISM volunteer and then punched a British ISM woman in the face. They then fled shouting.
link to palsolidarity.org
IDF brass clash over how to deal with settlers on West Bank farmland
Haaretz 11 Mar — In 2007, then GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh signed an order authorizing the Civil Administration to remove agricultural encroachments by Israelis from Palestinian land — Two top officials in the Central Command of the Israel Defense Forces are at loggerheads over how to address encroachment by Jewish settlers in the West Bank on land farmed by Palestinians. The legal adviser for Judea and Samaria, Col. Eli Bar On, recently accused the head of the Civil Administration, Brig. Gen. Motti Elmoz, of dereliction of his legal duty to end the encroachments. In a kind of punitive measure, Bar On also informed Elmoz that his office would begin referring Palestinian complainants to Elmoz’ office so that it could exercise its authority in the matter.
link to www.haaretz.com
Settlers attack Palestinian shepherds, international activists near Nablus
NABLUS (WAFA) 11 Mar – A group of masked Jewish settlers Sunday attacked a group of Palestinian shepherds along with International solidarity activists in Khirbat Yanun, a village southeast of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, according to an official. Ghassan Daghlas, in charge of settlements file in the Palestinian Authority in the northern part of the West Bank, told WAFA that a group of masked settlers from the settlements of Givat Ollam and Gidonim accompanied by dogs attacked the shepherds and the activists and threw stones at them.
link to english.wafa.ps
Israeli flags hanged in Yanoun are a reminder of settler violence
ISM 7 Mar by ‘Ramon Garcia’ — The illegal settlement of Itamar, constructed illegally on the land of Aqraba, Awarta, and Beit Furik, has taken a provocative step of incitement in the village of Yanoun, from which Zionists have also stolen land. On 7 March 2012 illegal settlers entered the village of Yanoun and rose the flag of Israel over the home of village elder Abu Muhmad al Ajoori, who resides in the lower part of the village. Another flag was suspended over a water reservoir in the upper part of the village. The settlers were then seen by locals wandering off into the hills … Residents of Yanoun have suffered many years of terrifying violence at the hands of Itamar settlers — the murder of villagers, slaughter of their livestock, desecration of crops, property destruction and daily invasions and intimidation by armed settlers. The increasing brutality climaxed in 2002 … Unable to stand the fear – and indeed reality – of terrorism any longer, the entire village evacuated at the time, mostly families fleeing to the nearby village of Aqraba … Over the 2002-06 period the entirety of the village’s families eventually came back to their homes and attempted to start their life in the shadow of Itamar’s ever-increasing outposts that dot the hills surrounding the village.
link to palsolidarity.org
Report from the Saturday morning settler ‘real estate tour’ in Hebron
Mondo 12 Mar by JoAnne Lingle, Christian Peacemaker Teams — …Every Saturday there is a “settler tour”. 100 plus Israeli settlers and their invited guests come through the Old City where our Palestinian friends live. The Israelis are escorted by a like number of IDF soldiers. I call this a “real estate tour” because they stop and ooh and ahh at the beautiful rehabilitation work that has been done by the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC). There is no doubt they expect to take ALL of Hebron’s Old City. During this ‘tour’, the Palestinian residents are not permitted to walk to or from their homes. We follow the soldiers to observe that Palestinians are not mistreated. At one point, we yelled at a soldier to stop pointing his gun at us, and others who were waiting to pass. A small Palestinian girl walked by me and suddenly became aware of the soldiers – she almost walked right up to a soldier’s gun. She looked up at him and wailed, crying for her mama.
link to mondoweiss.net
Settlers destroy dozens of trees in Beit Ummar
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 12 Mar — Settlers uprooted dozens of trees in the town of Beit Ummar, Hebron on Monday, local officials said. Muhammad Awad, spokesman of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements, said settlers destroyed more than 31 grape trees and 15 olive trees, together with other shrubbery. The land belongs to Hamad Salibi and his family. It is the tenth time in three years that his land has been damaged by settler attacks. Israeli forces were aware of the attack but did not intervene, Awad said. The land provides a source of livelihood for more than 70 people.
link to www.maannews.net
Hebron man, teen ‘hospitalized after soldiers break up settler clash’
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 11 Mar — Israeli forces broke up a dispute between Palestinians and Israeli settlers near Hebron on Sunday, briefly detaining three Palestinians. Izhaq Izzat Jaber, 40, said Israelis from the Kiryat Arba settlement seized his mule and cart, prompting a heated argument between him and his son, and the group from the settlement. Israeli soldiers arrived and violently apprehended Jaber, his 16-year-old son, and neighbor Nimir Ghaleb, 26, who came to help, Jaber told Ma‘an. The three were taken to Etzion detention center, and Jaber suffered heart problems when transferred to Ofer jail, he said.
link to www.maannews.net
Settlers agree to leave illegal West Bank outpost (Reuters)
JERUSALEM (Reuters) 12 Mar — Settlers signed an agreement with the Israeli government on Sunday to leave the biggest illegal outpost in the occupied West Bank and move to a nearby site after months of negotiations to avoid their forced removal. But campaigners against settlements described the deal as a disgrace, as the families had been allowed to relocate to another already-established West Bank settlement a few kilometers away. Despite publicly endorsing the notion of an independent Palestinian nation, successive Israeli governments have nurtured settlements on the very land that the Palestinians claim as theirs. Over the past decade the government has spent at least 4 million shekels ($1.1 million) on establishing and maintaining the cluster of squat, prefab bungalows at Migron.
link to www.maannews.net
Hanaa’ al-Shalabi
#HanaShalabi – Health of hunger striker badly deteriorates
RAMALLAH (PIC) 12 Mar – Palestinian captive Hana’ al-Shalabi who has been on hunger strike over the past 26 days is suffering a serious deterioration to her health according Physicians for Human Rights. A medical examination of the captive revealed a low heartbeat rate, low blood sugar, suffering stomach aches and headaches. In addition Shalabi lost a lot of weight and she cannot stand up. Lawyer Sherin Iraqi who visited the captive said that Dr. Metyal Nassar of PHR visited Shalabi and examined her and found that her condition was serious.
link to occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com
Addameer –الضمير @Addameer_ps
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel doctor able to visit #HanaShalabi for the second time today. Updates to come on her health condition.
https://twitter.com/#!/Addameer_ps
Hana Shalabi: A brave act of Palestinian nonviolence / Richard Falk
10 Mar — No sooner had Khader Adnan ended his 66-day life-threatening hunger strike than new urgent concerns are being voiced for Hana Shalabi, another West Bank hunger strikernow without food for more than 24 days. Both strikes were directed by Palestinian activists against the abusive use of administrative detention by Israeli West Bank occupying military forces, protesting both the practice of internment without charges or trial and the degrading and physically harsh treatment administered during the arrest, interrogation, and detention process. The case of Hana Shalabi should move even the most hardhearted. She seems a young tender and normal woman who is a member of Islamic Jihad, and is dedicated to her family, hopes for marriage, and simple pleasures of shopping.
link to occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com
Political detention
Study: Children struggle to cope after Israeli detention
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 12 Mar — Thousands of Palestinian children struggle with mental health problems and reintegration into society after they are detained by Israel, a new report on child detention says. According to the study released by Save the Children Sweden and YMCA-East Jerusalem on Monday, 90.6 percent of detained children suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after release. Released minors often are unable to return to school, experience bed-wetting, anxiety attacks and nightmares, the report says. Families and communities suffer from stigmatization, and become increasingly conservative as fear grows of further detentions, it adds.
link to www.maannews.net
Two teenagers arrested without evidence amidst clashes in Ras al-Amoud
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 12 Mar — Confrontations erupted in Ras al-Amoud district of Silwan on 8 March, as a heavy build-up of Israeli forces triggered a Molotov cocktail thrown at an Israeli settler compound. Two young brothers, Basel al-Zagal (14) and Ismail al-Zagal (15) were arrested by Israeli forces, despite no evidence of their involvement in the clashes. The two boys were running through the neighborhood to reach a maths tutorial … The Zagal brothers are only the most recent youngsters amongst 11 that have been arrested in the past 4 days in Silwan.
link to silwanic.net
Israeli forces summon released prisoners near Hebron
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 12 Mar — Israeli forces raided the southern West Bank city of Yatta on Saturday evening, and delivered summons to three former prisoners to appear for questioning … All three were released under the October 2011 deal in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier in Gaza. Soldiers also raided the home of Muhammad Rashid, a 18-year-old detained on Thursday when forces surrounded the home of another released prisoner, Khaled Makhamreh … Since the prisoner swap last year, 16 of those released have been rearrested and at least seven are still in jail, according to latest figures from prisoners groups.
link to www.maannews.net
Prisoners refuse strip search, clash with police
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 12 Mar – Israeli police Monday clashed with Palestinian prisoners held in Asqalan prison, south of Israel, after police tried to force prisoners to strip for search, according to Minister of Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqi. He said 11 prisoners were injured, including one seriously. Qaraqi told WAFA that prison police brought dogs along with them as they entered the prisoners’ cells early Monday and ordered them to strip for search. Prisoners refused and clashed with the police who attacked them with gas bombs and clubs.
link to english.wafa.ps
Israeli forces arrest five Palestinians in the West Bank
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 12 Mar — Mohammad Awad, an activist with the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Hebron area, said forces arrested four Palestinians from Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, during a late night raid on the town. Three of the arrested were minors under 16 years of age. Israeli forces also arrested one Palestinian from the town of Arrabeh, south of Jenin, after raiding his house and tampering with his belongings, said Palestinian security sources.
link to english.wafa.ps
Political detainee in PA jail rushed to hospital
RAMALLAH (PIC) 11 Mar – The PA intelligence apparatus carried political detainee Anas Abu Markhia to hospital after one week of going on hunger strike, local sources in Al-Khalil said on Sunday. The sources said that Abu Markhia had gone on hunger strike a week ago to protest his continued incarceration despite a ruling ordering his release passed by the Palestinian higher court. The intelligence apparatus had moved Abu Markhia, 24, to Jericho jail to pressure him to end his strike, but his relatives quoted him as saying that he would not end his strike until his release.
link to occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com
Fatah: Hamas responsible for militant leader’s life
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) 12 Mar — Fatah on Monday accused Hamas of detaining militant leader John Misleh and called for his immediate release. Misleh is a leader in the Fatah-affiliated al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. He was detained by Hamas authorities as he returned to Gaza from Egypt on Sunday, Fatah said.
link to www.maannews.net
Land theft and destruction / Apartheid
I was born here, this is my land, if I die, I will die here
JVS 10 Mar — You can see our photos of IOF training on Palestinian land on Flickr here During the night of 8th March 2012, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) destroyed Palestinian agricultural land in the village of Al Farisiya. As women around the world celebrated International Women’s Day, the women of this community had their livelihoods destroyed. This was not an isolated incident – during the last week Israeli soldiers have been training extensively with tanks and armored vehicles in the northern Jordan Valley … The majority of families in Al Farisiya sustain themselves by raising animals. There are also farmers who grow vegetables and palm trees. For years they depended on a spring called Asshek in El Malih valley for irrigation. In 2008 the Occupation Authority stopped them from using Asshek spring, despite the spring being located on the villagers’ land and them having documentation to prove that they used the spring for generations. The Occupation Authority then issued demolition orders against everyone in the village.
link to www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org
Al Walajeh: Tunneling to get home
ISM 8 Mar by ‘Ramon Garcia’ — …The Apartheid Wall under construction in the village will leave the home of Omar and his family on the “wrong” side and separate it from the rest of the village. The Israeli military has thus constructed a ‘private’ tunnel for the family to use in order to access their home from the village. This tunnel is being dug up at the moment, and due to the heavy rains of last week, the family home was severely flooded. This is the price the family has to pay for having refused to leave their house. When the wall is finished, they will be surrounded by 4 electric fences. The constant harassment from the occupation forces and the construction of the wall seriously affected the health of a woman residing in the house. She had a nervous breakdown, and the stress made her lose her sight for 3 months. When asked what her biggest fear was, she responded, “The kind of men my children will grow up to be in these circumstances.” … As Al Walajeh is officially part of Jerusalem, military law does not apply here. The situation of the village is quite special, as the land was annexed to Jerusalem, but not the people, who are therefore considered as “present absentees”, staying illegally in their own houses. Two weeks ago, 14 demolition orders were handed out, and the village counts at least 100 in total.
link to palsolidarity.org
The strangulation of a village
ISM 10 Mar by ‘Sylvia’ — Sheikh Nasri looks resigned as he describes his home as “the most terrorised village in the country”. With 34,000 uprooted trees in the last two years and some 4,800 dunams of land stolen, the village of Al Jab‘a has little to smile about. Eighteen of the one hundred houses in Jab‘a have demolition orders on them, their inhabitants unsure of when the Israeli army will storm their homes with bulldozers. Even the Mosque has a demolition order. Homes with licenses from the Israeli courts are none-the-less destroyed to make way for the ever expanding Israeli borders. Nasri laughs as he points out the demolished “Welcome to Al’ Jab‘a” sign … In 1997 Nasri’s wife was turned away from a checkpoint whilst in labor, forcing her to give birth at home. His 14 year old son was badly beaten by a soldier 6 months ago when he ask him not to turn his jeep around on his fathers crops. His 15 year old son was held for over 6 months in an Israeli prison for attempting to farm part of Nasri’s confiscated land. [with video interview uploaded to YouTube 10 Oct]
link to palsolidarity.org
Idhna: A family without windows
ISM 12 Mar by ‘Peige’ — After three years of marriage Amani and Hussein Batran wanted a house of their own, somewhere to raise their two children, 4 year old Khalil and 3 year old Layali. They took out two loans from the bank and construction began. Now, three years later, the house is still unfinished and no new work has been done for over a year. One year ago, shortly after the Batran family moved into their nearly finished house, they received an order from the Israeli military forbidding further construction, followed seven months later by a demolition order. The reason given is that their house blocks the view of a camera mounted on the illegal segregation wall Israel has constructed inside of the West Bank. The sight of glass-less windows and wires protruding from half-sanded walls speaks of dreams put on hold, a family living in limbo.
link to palsolidarity.org
Israel orders Jordan Valley ponds demolished
JORDAN VALLEY (WAFA) 12 Mar – The Israeli military authorities in the West Bank Monday handed Palestinian farmers orders to demolish two ponds used for collecting rain water in the northern Jordan Valley, according to local sources. Aref Daraghme, head of Al-Maleh village council, said Israeli soldiers ordered the village residents to demolish the ponds that benefit local farmers and shepherds by the end of the month.
link to english.wafa.ps
New military gate limits access to Beit Iksa land
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 12 Mar – A new military-controlled road gate the Israeli army had set up on Monday in the village of Beit Iksa, northwest of Jerusalem, raised concern of possible takeover of almost 2000 dunums of land as it limits access to agricultural land, according to residents. The soldiers also took over a house in the area and turned it into a military outpost, said residents.
link to english.wafa.ps
Activism / Solidarity
After much injustice, Beit Dajan debuts its peaceful resistance
ISM 9 Mar by ‘Jonas Weber’ — Several hundred villagers gathered today in Beit Dajan to the first ever demonstration against the roadblock that has been obstructing access to the village since the beginning of the second Intifada. The peaceful demonstration was met with a heavy tear gas from the Israeli military. Since 2000, the main road from Beit Dajan to Nablus [9 km away] has been blocked by the military … It wasn’t until 2009 that anyone could go to Nablus after 5 pm without coordination with the District Coordination Office, the link between the PA and the Israeli military. Not even ambulances have been let through at the checkpoint which has led to a lot of complications with the health care in the village. Education has also become a problem because of the logistical difficulties set by these Apartheid roads and checkpoints. And water supplies are cut because of the roadblock, forcing the village to now import expensive water from the Jordan Valley. And as if this is not enough, the village has suffered four deaths at the roadblock.
link to palsolidarity.org
Al Ma‘sara demonstrates the meaning of peace
ISM 9 Mar by ‘Ramon Garcia’ — The people of Al Ma‘sara gathered after praying time to march to their land, confiscated for the nearby illegal settlement. Approximately 70 internationals were present, most of them Christians coming back from a conference in Bethlehem titled, “Christ at the Checkpoints.” The crowd marched peacefully to the end of the village, where occupation forces were waiting. As they outnumbered the military present, they were able to pass through the soldiers and march towards the land of locals. The marchers advanced peacefully and were stopped when reinforcement arrived. The crowd stood their ground, facing the army. Slogans against the occupation were chanted, and many demonstrators started talking to the soldiers. “A good way to start building bridges instead of walls,” said one of the activists. [a naive one, it appears]
link to palsolidarity.org
Political / diplomatic news
US, Jordan urge Abbas to refrain from threats to dismantle Palestinian Authority
Haaretz 12 Mar — Both the U.S. and Jordan are working tirelessly to prevent Abbas from sending Netanyahu a letter that would put the burden of the occupation back in hands of the Israelis and could lead to a third intifada.
link to www.haaretz.com
There can be no election without Jerusalem and Hamas / Oraib Rantisi
MEMO 11 Mar — It looks as if Israel intends to put many obstacles in the way of the proposed Palestinian election, not least that it does not want polling stations in Jerusalem – “the eternal capital of the unified state for Jews only” and it does not want Hamas to participate, directly or indirectly, until the movement accepts the Quartet’s conditions. In 1996 and 2006, Israel allowed the inclusion of occupied Jerusalem as a Palestinian electoral district; in 2006 it even allowed Hamas to take part. Nobody, especially the Israelis, expected Hamas to win, but win it did, taking a majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Will, therefore, the Netanyahu government prohibit what previous Israeli governments have permitted?
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
Egyptian parliamentary committee urges recall of Israel envoy in response to IDF strikes on Gaza
Haaretz 12 Mar – Egyptian parliamentary committee for Arab affairs decides to urge government to recall ambassador to Israel from Tel Aviv, deport Israel’s ambassador in Egypt.
link to www.haaretz.com
Israel MK delegation cannot travel to US after Ben Ari denied entry visa
Haaretz 12 Mar — Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin announced Monday he is banning a delegation of MKs from attending a women’s conference in Washington this month because the United States has denied entry to MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union) … The U.S. refusal to grant entry to Ben Ari because of what it said are his ties to a terrorist group amounts to “an assault on the Knesset as a whole,” Rivlin said Monday. “The United States’ allegation that an MK is a terrorist is unacceptable.” Ben Ari is a long-time follower of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose Kach party is outlawed in Israel and is considered a terrorist organization in the United States.
link to www.haaretz.com
Other news
Report: Cairo airport officials warn Israeli bodyguard carrying weapon
CAIRO (Ma‘an) 12 Mar — Egyptian security officials at Cairo airport remonstrated the bodyguard of the Israeli ambassador for flying on a civilian air carrier while carrying weapons, Egyptian press said on Monday. Israeli embassy staff arrived in Egypt from Tel Aviv on the Air Sinai airline on Sunday, when a gun and live ammunition were found in the possession of the bodyguard to Amb. Yakov Amitai, Egyptian news site Akbar Masr reported.
link to www.maannews.net
Al-Quds TV resumes broadcast
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 8 Mar – Al-Quds Educational Television resumed on Thursday broadcast, a week after Israeli soldiers raided the Ramallah-based TV station and seized its transmitters and other equipment. The resumption of broadcast was done in the presence of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who praised the station for resuming broadcast within a short time. Soldiers raided Al-Quds Educational Television, which is part of Al-Quds University and its media campus, and Wattan TV during the same night and seized their broadcast equipment … Wattan has not yet resumed broadcast.
link to english.wafa.ps
The multiple deaths of Nisreen Karim
Al Akhbar 9 Mar by Qassam Qassam — Her name is Nisreen Karim. Her Nationality: Lebanese, from the village of Deir Siryan. She is 34 years old. Family status: Married to Palestinian Kamal Sulayman and mother of four. Social status: Died on the road traveling between hospitals. Her husband, Sulayman, accuses UNRWA of “negligence.” Um Hussein is not the first patient, and certainly not the last, to die because of the delay “by the UNRWA doctor in giving her a transfer slip to get into a hospital,” her husband said.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Other opinion / analysis
Israel’s Red Riding Hood and the Arab wolf / Akiva Eldar
Haaretz 12 Mar — The prime minister is certainly correct that Israel has the right to defend itself. But don’t we have the right to know at long last which Israeli state he is referring to? — During a quiz show on Channel 2 television last week, a contestant was asked which of three towns – Kalansua, Tul Karm or Jenin – was located within the Green Line. The contestant, a nurse with an M.A., hesitated for quite a while and then said she thought the answer was Tul Karm. In order to verify her answer, she requested the assistance of 71 fellow contestants. Seventeen of them – almost one in four – responded that either Tul Karm or Jenin was an Israeli town. Kalansua, Tul Karm, Ariel, Hebron – they are all the same to them. Give us the Iron Dome missile defense system from the sea to the Jordan River, shell Gaza even harder and tell us the fable about the good Israeli that the wicked Palestinian wolf is waiting to devour.
link to www.haaretz.com
Hillary Clinton, Gaza, and the right of civilians to self-defense / Ali Abunimah
EI 12 Mar — …It was however on Gaza that Hillary’s hypocrisy truly shone. Here’s what she said regarding Syria: “Now the United States believes firmly in the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all member-states, but we do not believe that sovereignty demands that this council stand silent when governments massacre their own people, threatening regional peace and security in the process. And we reject any equivalence between premeditated murders by a government’s military machine and the actions of civilians under siege driven to self-defense.” Clinton was explicitly supporting the right of Syrians to use armed struggle to resist the government, and even claimed that such armed struggle is morally superior. Very well. What did she say about Gaza, which has been under unprovoked Israeli bombardment for five days killing more than twenty people and injuring dozens? “And let me also condemn in the strongest terms the rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel which continued over the weekend. We call on those responsible to take immediate action to stop these attacks. We call on both sides – all sides – to make every effort to restore calm.” That was it. Not one word of sympathy for the families of Palestinian civilians killed in the Israeli attacks. She failed to mention that Israel began the round of violence on Friday with the premeditated murders by its military machine of Palestinians Israel accuses of ‘masterminding’ attacks.
link to electronicintifada.net
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.theheadlines.org (archive)
Report from the Saturday morning settler ‘real estate tour’ in Hebron
Mar 12, 2012
JoAnne Lingle
Golani Brigade in Hebron/al-Khalil. (Photo: Alternative Information Center)
Friday, March 9: first full day on team
On the way to join Friday prayers at a protest tent in Tel Rumeida, three of us stopped to stand with a Palestinian man who was being detained by a soldier on Shuhada Street near Beit Hadassah, an Israeli settlement. The soldier immediately said to us, “Go, you cannot stay here!”. We told him it was our job to stay until he released the man. At that, he threatened to arrest us. We said “OK, call the police if you like. We are not leaving.” He picked up his phone, then immediately gave the Palestinian his ID back so he could go on his way. We left.
(Note: Soldiers cannot arrest internationals, they have to call the Israeli police to make the arrests).
We learned that one and a half hours after we were on Shuhada Street, two women from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) were assaulted by settler men. One woman was punched in the face, the other was pushed to the ground, and had wine poured over her while soldiers stood by and did not intervene.
The protest tent was set up after a car owned by the Abu Heikal family was set afire by settlers while soldiers watched. The family filed over 200 complaints with the Israeli police, but has received no response to date. A female member of the family fasted for forty days in the protest tent.
On mats scattered on the ground, 50 plus men and youth with hands held toward the sky offered praise to Allah and implored Allah’s aid. As we watched from the tent, we were moved by their implicit trust in their God. After prayers, a friend translated the imam’s message for us. He thanked the people for their steadfastness, talked about the IDF’s escalation of violence—the 16 year old boy who was shot in the back by an Israeli soldier in Yatta village in the south Hebron Hills and the two 11 year olds who were killed by an unexploded ordinance left by IDF soldiers in Sa’ir village near Hebron.
In the afternoon, Hamed Qawasmeh from the UN, invited the Christian Peacemaker Team and ISM for lunch to thank them for the report about the Golani Brigade’s abuses of Hebron Palestinians. We have had word from the U.S. Consulate and TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron, an NGO created by the Olso Peace Process) that the Golanis will be leaving in a few dates. They were supposed to be here until the end of May. Il’humdilla (thanks be to God) !!!
Saturday, March 10
Every Saturday there is a “settler tour”. 100 plus Israeli settlers and their invited guests come through the Old City where our Palestinian friends live. The Israelis are escorted by a like number of IDF soldiers. I call this a “real estate tour” because they stop and ooh and ahh at the beautiful rehabilitation work that has been done by the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC). There is no doubt they expect to take ALL of Hebron’s Old City.
During this “tour”, the Palestinian residents are not permitted to walk to or from their homes. We follow the soldiers to observe that Palestinians are not mistreated. At one point, we yelled at a soldier to stop pointing his gun at us, and others who were waiting to pass. A small Palestinian girl walked by me and suddenly became aware of the soldiers—she almost walked right up to a soldier’s gun. She looked up at him and wailed, crying for her mama. I took her hand and began to walk with her to look for her mother or someone who might know her. We waited until finally a young girl (maybe her sister) picked her up. Later, I thought about the soldier and wondered if his heart was moved when he saw the beautiful little Palestinian girl terrified of him and his gun.
We hosted two lovely guests for the night. I took them on a tour of the old city and they were amazed at the friendliness and hospitality of our friends in the souq (market).
Around 9:30pm, soldiers knocked down the door of the Palestinian Municipality Inspectors Office, which is across the street from us. They detained two of the men, took them to Beit Hadassah where they beat them badly. After the men were released around midnight, they went to the hospital for treatment of their injuries.
‘I refuse to join an army that has, since it was established, been engaged in dominating another nation’: Interview with Israeli refuser Noam Gur
Mar 12, 2012
Annie Robbins
Friend and contributor Dena Shunra put us in contact with Noam Gur, currently undergoing the process of refusing to serve in the Israeli army. Noam is an 18 years old, queer feminist vegan activist currently living in Kiryat Motzkin, near Haifa, but was born and raised in Nahriyya, near Akka and the Lebanese border.
Noam Gur Hebron Photo:Eshraq Hajo
Annie: When did you first realize you didn’t want to serve in the military?
Noam: When I was about 15 years old I started understanding what was really happening in Palestine and Israel, after years of being told scary stories and lies by the educational system, the family, and Israeli society in general. At that stage, I believed that something like “enlightened occupation” could actually exist – in other words, that I’d go to the army and serve anywhere I’m sent, but that I’d do that with pity, compassion and “a smile”, that I wouldn’t hurt anyone without cause, and I’d refuse to obey illegal orders, etc.
That stage passed pretty quickly, when I understood there was not really any such thing as an enlightened occupation, and that in order to stop the occupation and work for peace I had to decide not to operate in the Occupied Territories. That phase passed pretty quickly, too.
When I was about 16, I understood that the only right way to act was to refuse completely to take part in the military, for the reasons I indicated in the declaration that I have attached.
Annie: Are your parents activists or are they supportive in your decision?
Noam: To tell you the truth, my parents are really not activists. Both my parents served in the army, my father was even a warrior and was wounded in the first Lebanon War. My big sister also served in the army, in a Border Patrol unit, at the Erez Crossing. My parents do not support the decision, but they are thoroughly aware of the fact that it is my decision, and that they cannot influence it. I do not know what will happen when the date of my imprisonment approaches and if the issue becomes one of public interest – that could hurt the, and turn them into a target. It is also entirely possible that my mother would decide that as long as I’m refusing, I don’t belong in her household.
Annie: Dena references the process of refusal as “torturous”, can you elaborate? Are you still in this process? It repeats itself from what I understand, is that correct?
Noam: Ok, this is a bit on the long side. The process of refusing is indeed long and tiresome, as Dena said it was. About a year ago I got the first call-up date. That’s a day when youths come [to a draft board-style of location] and the question of whether they are fit for [military] service is determined. It was decided that I am fit for military purpose. Then I went to a thing called a Conscience Board [ethics or conscientious objection board], a committee that on principle releases only radical pacifists, but I thought I should give it a try even if I’m not a pacifist. The army has recently refused my application to be seen by the board.
The date of my enlistment is April 16th. On that day I will go to the Ramat Gan Draft Bureau and declare my refusal to be drafted. In the course of that day I’ll be judged by a minor officer, in a kind of shortened trial that is primarily for show, and I’ll be sent to military prison for a period of between 7 days and a month. Then I’ll be released from prison, and I’ll have to go back to Ramat Gan, declare again that I refuse to be drafted, be judged to serve another week to a month, and again and again, until either I or the army gives up. If I give up first, I’ll have to see a military psychologist, and persuade him that I am not mentally capable of service. If the army gives up force (which is what I hope will happen, of course, but hasn’t happened for quite a lot of time) I’ll be released for “unsuitability” [or “failing to fit in” or “adjustment failure”]. There is a small chance that the army will decide to send me to court, which would mean that I could be imprisoned for a long time (the most time refusers were sentenced two was two years, in 2003). By the way, repeated jailing for the same offense is considered unlawful by the U.N., and it constitutes gross violation of human rights. So yes, we’ve repeated go-arounds in prison, which could take a lot of time. The last of the well-know refusers, a Druze guy from Beit Jan, was sent to seven rounds of prison before the army released him.
Phil: I admire you and want to believe I might have been as courageous as you, in similar circumstances…
Maya and Neta spoke of the incredible social isolation they face. They were making a hugely unpopular decision in a society that believes it needs a strong military to survive. Can you speak at all about your social isolation? Have you lost friends? Who has given you support? Have you been scorned/attacked?
Noam: It’s a little hard for me to respond to this, because I have only recently decided to make a public declaration of refusal, but yes – Israeli society does not greet this with a smile at all. The opposite is true.
I haven’t run into any actual violence, but I did indeed come across silencing, at school, for example. Not serving in the military was a subject that could not even be discussed. I assume that I’ll start running across violence the closer I come to refusing, and if and when the story makes it into the media or the social media. I don’t know if people broke off contact with me, but since everyone in my class is in the army now, or about to be drafted, I did not see much point in keeping in touch with most of them. So yes, there is no doubt that there’s a feeling of isolation from society. I get quite a bit of support from activists, Jews and Palestinians, but unfortunately there are only few such activists, so that the support is limited.
There’s also the organization New Profile, which is important for me to note: it accompanies refusers in the refusal process, and helped me a lot, from the beginning of the road to this day, with lawyers, information, support, etc.
Annie: Noam, when you say it could turn your parents into a target what do you mean? Is there a precedence for this? Do you mean society shuns them? Your mother possibly deciding you do not belong in her household sounds devastating.
Noam: I think that society will eventually blame them for my refuse, “how could they have a daughter that “betray” her own society”? It happened in past years, families of refusniks received hate letters, hate graffiti on the house walls etc. To be honest, Israel is becoming less tolerance for other views, “price tags” are now common against individuals and that’s something I’m keeping in mind, that someone can choose to target me or my family. My mom basically told me that she’d rather I leave the house if I’m going to get involved with jail and the army police, since she does not support this. That happened two years ago too, one of the refusnik’s was kicked out of the house short while before his jail time.
I used to laugh with mom (she did not find that funny though) that she’ll be so much prouder if I die or be kidnapped during a war. The Israeli society still worship the dead far more the the living. I’m not sure if I mentioned that but the refuse date is pretty bad – it’s the month of the Holocaust Remembrance Day, Memorial Day for IDF soldiers and the Israeli independence day. April is always a month when you can see how much Israel invests in the dead.
Annie: The more I know, the more daunting it seems to me, what you are going through.
Noam: I just wanna point out that I’m not going through this process as an heroic action. I really do believe that this kind of public action and support for the non-violent resistance could make a (small) difference. I could, indeed, just go to a mental officer and be released in a few days, but that would mean cooperating with the army silencing system.
Annie: What is the army silencing system?
Noam: The Israeli army is doing everything it can in order to silence any kind of criticism. Sending refusniks to mental officers, for example. People feel like they can just go to a mental officer without jail and it will have the same effect and final result – getting a release of the army. I will not be silenced, I will let people know that I oppose this terrible crimes and make my refuse public, instead of just getting out of the army in the easiest way possible.
Annie: Thank you very much Noam. It’s very brave what you are doing. We look forward to hearing more from you in the future.
Below is Noam Gur’s refusal statement published here for the first time:
אני מסרבת לקחת חלק בצה”ל, כי אני מסרבת להצטרף לצבא שמאז הקמתו עסוק בשליטה בעם אחר, גזל, והטלת טרור על אוכלוסייה אזרחית הנמצאת תחת שליטתו. ההרס והנישול השיטתי כחלק ממדיניות טרנספר ארוכת שנים, רצח מפגנים לא אלימים, חומת האפרטהייד, “מבצעי” הטבח שצה”ל בוחר לבצע ושאר הפרות זכויות האדם היומיות של הפלסטינים הובילו וממשיכים להוביל למעגל דמים ארוך וסתמי שניתן למניעה.
במשך שנים נאמר לי ששליטה זו אמורה להגן עליי, אך המידע אודות הסבל הנגרם כתוצאה מהטרור המופעל על האוכלוסייה הפלסטינית נשמט מהסיפור. הדרך לפירוק האפרטהייד והשגת שלום אמיתי וצודק היא ארוכה וקשה, אך פעולות אלו של צה”ל רק מרחיקות אותו, לתפיסתי. העם הפלסטיני מתחיל להיאבק יותר ויותר בעשור האחרון בדרכים לא-אלימות מתוך הבנה זו, ואני בוחרת להצטרף לדרך זו, ולפנות למאבק עממי לא אלים בפלסטין, במקום לשרת בצה”ל ולהמשיך את האלימות.
I refuse to take part in the Israeli army because I refuse to join an army that has, since it was established, been engaged in dominating another nation, in plundering and terrorizing a civilian population that is under its control. The systematic destruction and dispossession that form part of a long-established policy of population-transfer, murder of non-violent demonstrators, the Apartheid wall, the massacre “operations” that the Israeli army chooses to carry out, and the rest of the daily violations of the human rights of the Palestinians have led, and continue to lead, to a long, indefinite, and preventable cycle of bloodshed.
For years I have been told that this control is supposed to protect me, but information about the suffering caused due to terrorizing the Palestinian population is omitted from the story. The road to dismantling this Apartheid and achieving true and just peace is long, and hard, but as I see it, these actions by the Israeli army only push it further away. Over this past decade, the Palestinian people have been increasingly choosing the path of nonviolent resistance, and I choose to join this path and to turn to a popular, nonviolent struggle in Palestine – this, rather than to serve in the Israeli army and continue the violence.
أنا ارفض الخدمة في جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي لأني ارفض الانضمام لجيش الذي عمل منذ قيامه على الهيمنة على شعب أخر, سرقته وعلى فرض الإرهاب على الناس العزل الموجودون تحت سيطرته. وعمل على الهدم, السلب المنهجي كجزء من سياسة التهجير المتبعة منذ سنين, قتل متظاهرين عزل, بناء جدار الفصل العنصري, “حملات” القتل التي يتبعها جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي والعديد من انتهاكات أليوميه لحقوق الإنسان الفلسطيني التي قادت وما زالت تقود نحو سكب المزيد من الدماء وبشكل متواصل الذي لا يمكن إيقافه.
قيل لي على مر السنين أن هذا هيمنة وجدت لحمايتي, لكن المعلومات عن الإرهاب الذي يمارس ضد الشعب الفلسطيني لم تصل إلى أذني. الطريق إلى تفكيك نظام الفصل العنصري وتحقيق السلام الحقيقي والعادل هو طويل وصعب, ولكن في وجهة نظري, الأعمال التي بقوم بها جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي تبعدنا أكثر وأكثر عن تحقيق هذا الهدف.
في العقد الأخير بدأ الشعب الفلسطيني في النضال أكثر وأكثر في طرق سلميه انطلاقا من فهمه لهذا الأمر, وأنا اخترت للانضمام في هذا الاتجاه, نحو مناهضه شعبية سلميه, بدلا من الخدمة في جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي، ومواصلة العنف.
(Hat tip Dena Shunra)
Israel kills 23 in Gaza, wounds 73, most of them civilians –PCHR
Mar 12, 2012
Alex Kane
(Photo: Reuters/Ma’an)
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have continued into their fourth day, and reports from sources on the ground say that today’s bombings have killed three civilians.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), which holds consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations, has been producing detailed dispatches on the Israeli airstrikes’ toll. Its latest dispatch reports:
Today, 3 Palestinian civilians (a child and an old man and his daughter) have been killed and 36 others, including 19 children and 7 women, have been wounded. Two members of resistance have been killed, and two others have been also wounded by a series of Israeli air strikes. Thus, the number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of this offensive has risen to 23 and the number of those wounded has risen to 73, most of them civilians.
Ma’an News is also reporting that “Israeli airstrikes killed two Islamic Jihad militants and three civilians on Monday.”
The PCHR report contains more on the impact the latest Israeli raids are having on civilians in Gaza:
At approximately 02:00 also on Monday, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a house belonging to Bahjat Mohammed Hammad near Jabalya Martyrs Elementary School in ‘Izbat ‘Abed Rabbu in the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabalya. The missile hit the first floor of the three-storey house, where 9 individuals, including 3 children live. As a result, the house was completely destroyed and 7 members of the family, including 3 children and 3 women, were wounded. Eighteen neighboring houses were also affected by the missile, 3 of them sustained heavy damages. Twelve members of the Abu al-‘Eish family, including 3 children and two women, and 7 members of the Sukkar family, including 5 children, were also wounded. The houses of the two families are adjacent to the targeted house. In addition, 350 windows, 7 wooden and 3 iron doors in the above school were damaged. Two windows from the Palestine Red Crescent Society premises were also destroyed…
At approximately 09:25, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a gathering of Palestinian civilians, mostly children, near al-Khuzondar fuel station in the west of the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabalya. As a result, Nayef Sha’ban Nayef Qarmout, 14, was killed, and another 5 children were wounded by shrapnel.
At approximately 13:30, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at Mohammed Mustafa al-Hussoumi, 65, and his daughter Faiza, 30, when they were on their agricultural plot near Tal al-Za’tar School in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. The old man was instantly killed, and his daughter died a few minutes after her admission in Kamal ‘Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia.
The current fighting was sparked by Israel’s assassination of a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees. This round of attacks is even deadlier than what occurred in August 2011, when Israel falsely blamed a murderous attack in Eilat on Gazans, then killed five PRC members, igniting another flare-up in which at least eight Palestinian civilians died, according to Human Rights Watch.
And even though the Israeli military itself has acknowledged that what happened in Eilat was carried out by Egyptians, it has reverted to lying about who perpetrated the attack to justify this latest assault on Gaza.
’60 Minutes’ goes in for casual racism about ‘Arabs’
Mar 12, 2012
Philip Weiss

Lesley Stahl1
I was very pleased that “60 Minutes” used its lead piece last night, an interview by Lesley Stahl of former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, to try and stop war on Iran. Dagan is against it.
But I was disgusted by the talk about “Arabs.” Just read the transcript below. Beheading Arabs, eating Arabs for breakfast, the Arab world. Would any American network speak about black people in such repulsive terms? Stahl says, “Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon used to say Dagan’s expertise was, quote, ‘separating an Arab from his head.'” Sorry but the quotation marks don’t justify quoting racism.
And then there are what Stahl describes as “exquisitely” executed assassinations of Israel’s enemies. She tries to get Dagan to talk about it with a coy smile on her face. Oh, I know: Israel lives in a very tough neighborhood. But how do Arabs feel, listening to such talk? (I can’t help pointing out, Lesley Stahl and Dagan are Jewish, and I’m betting the producer, Shachar Bar-On, also is. So, an argument against war from an Israeli is deemed to be more powerful than such an argument from Paul Pillar or Stephen Walt. Boy, this sure feels like an entre-nous Jewish conversation, with a lot of traditional racism.)
Stahl: Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon used to say Dagan’s expertise was, quote, “separating an Arab from his head.”
Dagan: I never ever killed nobody or we were engaged in killing somebody who was unarmed.
Stahl: Here are some of the things that have been said and written about you. “Hard charging.” “Stop at nothing.” Somebody who, quote, “eats Arabs for breakfast.”
Dagan: I am not responsible for what you are describing.
Stahl: But have you killed a lot of people?
Dagan: Unfortunately, I was involved in some engagement that people were killed.
Stahl: Any with your bare hands?
Dagan: Never. I know the stories. It’s simply not true. Look, there is no pleasure in killing. There’s no joy in killing people.
[Stahl voice-over] Sitting in his apartment, we were surprised that the walls were covered with pictures that he himself had painted.
Stahl: I see a lot of humanity in your paintings and I see paintings of Arabs.
Dagan: I know it would sound anti-Semitic if I said some of my best friends are Arabs, but I truly, really admire some of the qualities of Arabs…
[Stahl voiceover] And then, one by one, Iranian nuclear scientists started disappearing and getting killed, blown up by shadowy men on motorcycles. But no matter how hard we tried, whenever we asked about any of this, he stonewalled.
Dagan: I’m not going to discuss anything about this issue.
Stahl: Okay, but that’s pretty well known.
Dagan: Nice try.
Stahl: Nice try! That must kill you not to take credit for it. I mean, even in the Arab world, do you know what they call you? They call you Superman!
Dagan: I don’t have my costume.
Stahl: In Superman’s time, Mossad was credited with a string of daring, exquisitely executed, covert missions and assassinations from Damascus to Sudan.
MJ Rosenberg: why he is trying to stop the next war
Mar 12, 2012
Philip Weiss
MJ Rosenberg says he won’t be using the term Israel Firster but it was an effective tool in the work to stop a war on Iran.
It has proven to be a distraction, allowing the pro-war lobby to focus on my choice of words rather than the substance of my arguments. I will not be using it again, for many reasons including the fact that some good people were genuinely offended by it. That was not my intention. My intention is to focus like the proverbial laser on the threat posed by war with Iran and the 45 year occupation.
Perhaps I feel that threat more than some. My wife was born in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany to Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust. Many in the family didn’t including my wife’s uncle, for whom our oldest son is named, who was caught by the Nazis putting up posters in Warsaw urging resistance. He was gassed in Maidanek along with his young sister, just engaged to be married. They were both Zionists who dreamed of living in Israel. How amazed and happy they would be to know that a vibrant Israel exists. How horrified they would be to know that its existence is jeopardized by an unnecessary war, one that can be avoided by diplomacy….
My message is this.
Many of the same people who pushed us into Iraq are doing the same thing with Iran. They are pressuring Congress to prevent the president of the United States from negotiating with the Iranian government. They are banning diplomatic contacts. They are (as they have for a decade) hyping the Iranian threat, in part because they want a war and, in part, because they want to use President Obama’s reluctance to jeopardize lives as a tool to defeat him In November. And they are demanding that should Iran develop a nuclear bomb, we must not contain the threat (as we did with the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Pakistan, etc) but should immediately go to war.
I have been fighting to help achieve a secure Israel, at peace with its neighbors, for more than 43 years. I continue to do that by fighting against a war that could eradicate Israel and endanger Jewish security in the United States and throughout the world. This war has to be prevented. The issue must not be what label I use to describe the war agitators. It is what the Iran war agitators are doing. They must be stopped.
Israeli right wing’s vision for West Bank annexation (to ‘pull the rug out from under apartheid accusation’)
Mar 12, 2012
Philip Weiss
Today Avigdor Lieberman says that there will be no corridor between Gaza and the West Bank. That is part of the rightwing’s new vision for breaking up Palestinian life into cantons. Under this plan, Israel would annex 60 percent of the West Bank containing the settlements and allow Palestinian freedom of movement within the remaining areas, but cut the West Bank Palestinians off from Gaza.
The plan was recently offered in Hebrew by Naftali Bennet, a former chief of staff to Netanyahu and former general manager of the Yesha Council, the political organization of West Bank settlers. It was published in Makor Rishon and translated at a settlers’ site.
Gaza would be left to be absorbed by Egypt; and Israel would maintain full military control over the West Bank. (So much for the end of occupation.) And no refugees would be allowed to return to any Palestinian area. Though Israel would grant full citizenship for the 50,000 Palestinians inside the annexed areas. “This will pull the rug out from under the Apartheid accusation.”
During the two years I spend at the Council of Judea and Samaria [the Yesha Council], not a day passed without someone saying to me: Okay, we understand that a Palestinian state is a terrible idea. But what is your solution? What do you suggest?
They had a point.
In the market of ideas today there are only two solutions for sale: The establishment of a Palestinian state on most of the area of Judea and Samaria, or total annexation of the area and its two million Arabs.
By now, the public understands that the two solutions are untenable and that both endanger the future of the state of Israel for security reasons as well as demographic and ethical ones.
The time has come to suggest a solution that is feasible, level-headed and that serves the interests of the state of Israel.
The idea presented here, one that is now being formulated in detail, does not pretend to solve the entire gamut of problems once and forever, because there is no solution that can do that.
This initiative, whose goals are modest, gives Israel three advantages: retaining the vital areas, strengthening international standing by neutralizing the ‘apartheid’ issue – and it creates stable conditions on the ground for the next several decades.
And most important: it is achievable and doable.
The following is a brief summary of the plan: “The 7 Point Program for Administering the Arab-Israeli Cpnflict in Judea and Samaria:
1. Israeli will extend full sovereignty over Area C. By doing this, Israel will take the initiative and ensure its vital needs: security for the coast and Jerusalem, keeping the settlements intact and sovereignty over national heritage sites.
The world will not recognize our sovereignty in the area, just as it does not recognize our sovereignty at the Western Wall, in the Ramot and Gilo neighborhoods of Jerusalem and in the Golan Heights. Not to worry, the world will get used to it.
Area C forms a contiguous Israeli land mass and includes the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, Ben Gurion airport and surrounding area, Maaleh Adumim and all the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
Residents of Tel Aviv, the coastal plain, and the entire country will live in security and be protected from the threats from the east.
2. Full citizenship for the 50,000 Arabs who live in Area C. That is all the Arabs who are there, just 4% of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria. This will pull the rug out from under the Apartheid accusation. There are 350,000 Jews in Area C today and only 50,000 Arabs. Those Arabs can become full-fledged Israeli citizens. And they will all realize that no Arab or Jew will be expelled from his home there.
3. The PA will have full autonomy and contiguous public transportation in the areas under its control. Arabs there will be able to go from one place to another without roadblocks and soldiers. Arabs hate long lines and traffic jams as much as Israelis do. This contiguous route is not easy to achieve but can be done for a one time investment of a few hundredmillion dollars.
We can improve Arab lives and at the same time, remove the international humanitarian pressure on Israel.
4. No ‘refugee’ from Arab countries will be allowed to enter Judea and Samaria. This negates the PA state concept that allows for millions of ‘refugees’ and their descendants to flow into the area from Arab countries. It is unfortunate that Netanyahu, in his Bar Ilan speech, said that the “refugees” could return to the Palestinian State he envisaged.
That is an egregious mistake that would lead to an irreversible demographic catastrophe. From the moment that millions of “refugees” from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and other Arab countries flood Judea and Samaria, there is no turning back the clock, so we cannot allow that to occur. The descendants of the refugees must be absorbed by the nations wherein they reside, and in no case west of the Jordan River.
5. Israel will keep an IDF security “umbrella” open over all of Judea and Samaria.
The necessary condition for the plan’s success is tranquillity. Quiet is possible only if the IDF is in charge of security. If the IDF leaves, Hamas will take its place. That is what Hamas did in Gaza and it is what Hizbullah did in Lebanon [once the IDF left, ed.]
6. Gaza will be separate from Judea and Samaria.
The “secure passage” idea between Gaza and Yesha is passé. It would only lead to all of Gaza’s troubles stirring up violence in quiet Judea and Samaria.
Gaza is joining Egypt little by little. It is already happening. We have no responsibility for Gaza. We expelled 8,000 Israelis from their Gush Katif homes there, we left every centimeter of land on which we had built communities there and in return, we got Hamastan. Let Egypt deal with it.
7. There will be massive economic investment to help Jews and Arabs live together in Area C: better infrastructure, highway interchanges, shared industrial areas. Peace begins with day to day living, with ordinary citizens. Instead of useless diplomatic cocktail parties in Oslo, Geneva and Camp David, there has to be an improvement on the ground, helping ordinary people.
For example, an interchange at the Hizme checkpoint in Binyamin is long overdue. Every morning, thousands of Jews and Arabs sit out an unnecessary traffic jam together there. The roads also cause accidents because of their condition. I would transfer the money from the Geneva Proposal to the Department of Public Works and build this interchange.
In Conclusion:
We must admit that there is no great love between Arabs and Jews in Judea and Samaria. But both sides realize by now that the other side is not going to evaporate Therefore, instead of wasting our time, money and blood on solutions that lead only to frustration and violence, we should concentrate on realistic plans that lead to stability and improved conditions.
It is time for a fresh approach in which we give up – at present – on the maximum in order to obtain the optimium, the perfect for the good. It is also time for the state of Israel to take the initiative.
Beinart: Time for a Jewish conversation about Jewish power and responsibility
Mar 12, 2012
Philip Weiss
Beinart
Peter Beinart rolls out the “Zion Square” blog at Daily Beast today with a fabulous post about Jewish power and responsibility. The two state solution is probably dead, and Jews are capable of massacre.
The most important part of Beinart’s intervention is his acknowledgement of Jewish power. He is obviously going to talk about Jewish power in the U.S. establishment and surely will do some counting of Jews in prominent places. Good for him. Though the obvious problem with his “Zion Square” is that he calls this a “Jewish conversation.” This cannot be a Jewish conversation– particularly when it is hosted by Newsweek; no, it is an American conversation. Yes Jews are powerful; but are we so powerful that we must exclude all the other Americans who are affected by these policies? Including war! Help. Such framing only solidifies the problem it would address. (Jews cannot do this on their own. They need the strong voices of the people we victimized: the Palestinians. As Chris Hayes demonstrated yesterday. Beinart would seem to be rationalizing the fact that 7/10 speakers at his site are Jewish.)
My Beinart excerpt begins with Netanyahu’s gift of the Purim story to Obama last week.
But the Purim story doesn’t end with Haman’s plot being foiled; that’s the Disney version. It actually ends with Persia’s Jews retaliating with a massacre of their own.
Why didn’t Netanyahu tell that part of the story? Why don’t most American Jews know about it? For the same reason the American Jewish establishment doesn’t talk about [the settlement] Ariel: because in official Jewish discourse, the Jewish story begins with victimhood and end with survival. On the one hand, Jews delight in our newfound power. What could be more exhilarating for a people that seven decades ago were impotent to stop the Holocaust than seeing a Jewish state with nuclear weapons and an American Jewish community capable of making politicians pander in the most obsequious of ways? What is the AIPAC Conference if not a celebration of our own Purim-like transformation from terrifying weakness to intoxicating strength?
But because the Jewish establishment still depicts Jews as victims, this celebration of power comes without the burden of responsibility. Again and again, Jewish power is described merely as a vehicle for Jewish survival. As if Jewish history means that Jews—unlike other human beings—can use power only to survive and not to destroy…
The US-led peace process is dead, perhaps permanently. The Zionist consensus that once undergirded diaspora Jewish life is collapsing. The two state solution for which many of us yearn grows ever more remote. Israel, America and Iran may soon be at war. It is time for a Jewish conversation that faces—rather than evades—the realities of our time.
P.S. Will Beinart talk about the Jewish (neocon/neolib) role in fomenting the Iraq war? I am holding my breath.
Massacre in Afghanistan
Mar 12, 2012
Annie Robbins
Afghan police and residents gather around a van containing the bodies of civilians killed in the shooting. Photograph: I Sameem/EPA
The news of a horrific brutal massacre of civilians in Afghanistan arrived in spurts yesterday accompanied with the news one lone soldier had come forward to turn himself in.
16 people, 9 of them children murdered in the middle of the night.
Not long after the initial report Reuters included some horrific witness accounts claiming the victims were murdered by a group of drunken American soldiers. This second account has traveled far and wide.
The online versions from multiple sources seem to have morphed so fast it’s difficult keeping track of changes but blogger b at Moon of Alabama copied a segment of the early Washington Post article that mentioned nothing of the witness accounts now included in their report .
U.S. military officials stressed that the shooting was carried out by a lone, rogue soldier, differentiating it from past instances of civilians killed accidentally during military operations.
But that story made little sense to me. Why would someone go out into the dark of the night and break into three houses and deliberately kill everyone there with shots to the head? That didn’t sound like a panic reaction. And why then return to the base?
The Reuters report first carried witness accounts along with an official denial:
A senior U.S. defense official in Washington rejected witness accounts that several apparently drunk soldiers were involved. “Based on the preliminary information we have this account is flatly wrong,” the official said. “We believe one U.S. service member acted alone, not a group of U.S. soldiers.”
“I saw that all 11 of my relatives were killed, including my children and grandchildren,” said a weeping Haji Samad, who said he had left his home a day earlier.
BLOOD-SPATTERED WALLS
The walls of the house were blood-splattered.
“They (Americans) poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them,” Samad told Reuters at the scene.
Neighbors said they had awoken to crackling gunfire from American soldiers, who they described as laughing and drunk.
“They were all drunk and shooting all over the place,” said neighbor Agha Lala, who visited one of the homes where killings took place.
“Their (the victims’) bodies were riddled with bullets.”
A NATO spokesperson has confirmed no military operations were taking place in the area when the massacre occurred.
The New York Times article ‘U.S. Sergeant Is Said to Kill 16 Civilians in Afghanistan’ offered an account that, if true, confirmed the bodies had been burned:
In Panjwai, a reporter for The New York Times who inspected bodies that had been taken to the nearby American military base counted 16 dead, and saw burns on some of the children’s legs and heads. “All the family members were killed, the dead put in a room, and blankets were put over the corpses and they were burned,” said Anar Gula, an elderly neighbor who rushed to the house after the soldier had left. “We put out the fire.”
I’m not really understanding the logic in a bunch of witnesses claiming there were multiple soldiers if there weren’t but I can see the logic in one man taking the fall for the team.
Mr. Hadi said there was more than one soldier involved in the attacks, and at least five other villagers described seeing a number of soldiers, and also a helicopter and flares at the scene. But that claim was unconfirmed — other Afghan residents described seeing only one gunman — and it was unclear whether extra troops had been sent out to the village after the attack to catch the suspect.
This reminds me of similar attacks in Iraq — the burning cover up of the rape of Abeer andexecution of her and her family, along with those in Haditha, and Ishaqi. As Olbermann’s Ishaqi clip explains:
Wikileaks releases a diplomatic cable bolstering claims that US military personnel executed Iraqi civilians then called in an air strike to cover up evidence of that. The Pentagon today again denying those claims as it has since they first surfaced 5 years ago…. all corpses were shot in the head and handcuffed.
There is a commonality here with these latest executions in Afghanistan:
“They entered the room where the women and children were sleeping, and they were all shot in the head,” Esaqzai said, adding that he was doubtful of the U.S. account suggesting that the killings were the work of a lone gunman. “They were all shot in the head.”
Shot in the head. The burning of the bodies..will we ever know? Was this carried out by multiple drunken soldiers or one rogue crazed man? Were soldiers called in to cover up the crime which may explain why witnesses viewed multiple soldiers or was every single witness who saw multiple soldiers…delusional or lying? Did one man take the fall for a massacre committed by a group of drunken soldiers or did one man act alone? The chance we will ever know the answers is slim to none. What we do know is, for the most part, our military’satrocities are covered up and go unpunished. The lives of civilians in the regions in which our military operates are, for the most part, not cherished by most Americans. We are not there to protect the lives of these innocents, we are there to exploit strategic geopolitical opportunities.
I cannot stand this, and yes there will be an investigation. My apology means nothing. In the crazed ‘privileged’ world we live in we are brainwashed not to consider the devastation, pain and loss of people who will wake up tomorrow knowing they will never see their loved ones again. Somehow perhaps we imagine their pain is less than ours would be if it was our child or mother or father or lover or best friend who was violently ripped from our lives, forever. There is a dehumanization taking place and it begins with us.
I pray for the healing.