I spent the day doing various chores and the evening at Tel Aviv University listening to a panel on the situation at Al Arakib and Israel’s intentions with respect to Al Arakib in general and with the Bedouins in particular. As for the latter, in a word, the intentions are “ethnic cleansing.”
Am too emotionally worn out to start scanning newspapers. So am letting Shadi Fadda do the job for me. One of my favorites below is the poster at St Paul’s university. There are 2 items about the boycott call there, one of which has the poster that I refer to. Won’t spoil the fun by revealing what it says, but I think it is a novel initiative. I am sure that you will find much to read in Shadi’s compilation.
On Sunday, January 16th, 2011, the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) accompanied by a heavy police presence destroyed the Bedouin village of Al Araqib for the 9th time since its total destruction in July 2010. During the village’s destruction the police forces used large amounts of violent force, including sponge bullets (a police method of crowd dispersal) which injured eleven of the residents, one of them in his eye. This time it seems that the ILA has decided to expel the residents once and for all. This is corroborated by statements made by Shlomo Zeiser, the ILA officer in charge of inspection … The ongoing demolitions are not a coincidence. They are part of The 30 Day Plan, which is the plan to rid the Negev of its Bedouin residents.
Weekly Anti-Wall Protest Update
Jan 18, 2011– Bi’lin marches in solidarity with its prisoners and martyrs. Occupation forces injure one in Ni’lin and open fire with live ammunition in al Nabi Saleh, where protestors clashed with soldiers in the center of the village. http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2445.shtml
The Shepherd’s lost sheep–As Palestinians call for recognition of their state, its contours are blurring
FEW architectural sites in East Jerusalem, the side of the city that Palestinians see as their future capital, capture the flavour of Palestine’s British Mandate more acutely than the Shepherd Hotel. It was where British officers hobnobbed with Palestinian high society before the territory was partitioned in 1948. General Sir Evelyn Barker, in command of British troops under the mandate, dallied there with a celebrated Arab hostess, Katy Antonius. http://www.economist.com/node/17913606?story_id=17913606&fsrc=rss Israel’s ‘disobedient women’ questioned over illegal trips for Palestinians | Harriet Sherwood
Days out to Israel for West Bank women and children come under police scrutiny amid fears of rising intolerance. In a small village between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, I joined a remarkable group of women and children for lunch last weekend, a noisy and cheerful crowd enjoying plates of chicken, fish, rice and salad. All of them were breaking the law. The party consisted of around 20 mostly middle-aged Israeli women, slightly fewer and younger Palestinian women and a handful of the latter’s children. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/view-from-jerusalem-with-harriet-sherwood/
2011/jan/17/israel-s-disobedient-women-illegal-trips All paperwork was in place for the 8 and 9-year-olds to see the beach, and permission issued…, Jeff Loewenstein
It’s plain sick! There is nothing original in the statement that whatever one might have read, or seen, about Israel and the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians, can prepare one for seeing things for oneself “on the ground”. The large, obscene blot of a Wall (sometimes with gun towers) dominating the skyline and looking down on the people it surrounds. The checkpoints and border-crossings and everything associated with them. http://mondoweiss.net/2011/01/all-paperwork-was-
in-place-for-the-8-and-9-year-olds-to-see-the-beach-and-permission-issued.html Winter Break in Gaza, MAX AJL
I got to Gaza three weeks ago after being away for over five months, and almost nothing has changed. F-16s continue to unload their cargoes of heavy explosives on “suspected” military sites nearly every night, terrifying everyone in Gaza as we all wonder if this is the explosion which heralds Cast Lead II, while “suspected militants,” or any Palestinian male under the age of 80, are consistently shot down by the IDF for loitering within a couple hundred meters of the border, especially if a bit of debris kicked up by the wind scares a frazzled and homicidal IDF sniper. http://www.counterpunch.com/ajl01182011.html Amira Hass on the Israeli Policy of Separate Development
Amira Hass, an Israeli, moved to the Gaza Strip to cover the Palestinian side of the peace process for Israel’s oldest daily newspaper, Ha’aretz. She argues that over the past 20 years, Israel has placed the Palestinians under severe and complex movement restrictions, forcing them to live in disconnected and congested enclaves of limited self-rule. Perceived by many Israelis (and even Palestinians) as a coincidental process of ad hoc measures against terrorism, she has discovered a pattern at odds to both the Oslo accords and security considerations. http://pulsemedia.org/2011/01/17/
amira-hass-on-the-israeli-policy-of-separate-development/ I get a closeup picture of the health care system and women’s lives in Palestine, Alice Rothchild
For the second week of the delegation, we divide into different interest groups and the medical folks are based in Nablus, working with Palestinian Medical Relief Society. On the second day we are standing in the waiting area of the Community Based Rehabilitation offices when a staff member, a beautiful somewhat demure woman with large black eyes and a graceful white hijab framing her face, beams and offers us chocolates. I decline (I am still recovering from breakfast), but she insists. “You must, my father just got out of prison and we are celebrating.” We learn he was imprisoned for four years. I take the chocolate. http://mondoweiss.net/2011/01/i-get-a-
closeup-picture-of-the-health-care-system-and-womens-lives-in-palestine.html In Nablus, An Invasion of Cardboard Tanks
Sidqi Musa – Nablus – PNN – He lines up the Israeli army tanks on a street in Zawata, a small village west of Nablus in the northern West Bank, reminiscent of scenes from the Israeli invasions of the Second Intifada. Except this time, the tanks are cardboard, made by twin brothers Sabhi and Bakr Saleh. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9424&Itemid=1 Obama puts peace process in concrete shoes and pushes it off the Staten Island ferry, Philip Weiss
Laura Rozen at Politico reports that Obama administration is seeking “new ideas” on the Middle East “from outside experts on how to advance the peace process.” Can you believe this roster? One of em’s a Bush neocon! Anyone who’s failed or who has street cred with the Israel lobby counts. Obama thinks he can put everything in Park till 2012. This is why civil society is so important. http://mondoweiss.net/2011/01/
obama-puts-peace-process-in-concrete-shoes-and-pushes-it-off-the-staten-island-ferry.html Majida Abu Rahmah: A Melancholy Martin Luther King Day in Bil’in
As the people of the United States commemorate the non-violent leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, they must be reminded of the Palestinian sisters, fathers and husbands held in Israel. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/majda-abu-rahmah/a-melancholy-martin-luthe_b_809918.html Levy: Labor never really took on nationalist Revisionism, Philip Weiss
Smart analysis of Labor Party’s dissolution in Israel, from Daniel Levy at Foreign Policy. A few different moods in the piece. http://mondoweiss.net/2011/01/levy-labor-never-really-took-on-nationalist-revisionism.html Bra-gate, the plot thickens, Annie
Did you read about Israel’s new charm offensive? Me too, but apparently I failed to grasp the “charm” of strip searching pregnant journo Najwan Simri of Al Jazeera (left) down to her birthday suit was for the purpose of stimulating positive coverage of Israel! Eyewitness Roee Ruttenberg reports +972blog (my bold): Inside the hotel ballroom, Netanyahu was lecturing (yes, lecturing!) the foreign press, asking why they are not covering Israel’s more positive image? He cited the strong economy, booming tourism, vastly advanced R&D facilities, and the standard bearers of Israeli self-defined success. All the while, an invasive strip search was taking place on the other side of the door. Did he really expect Simri to leave the event only to go home and blog about Tel Aviv’s beaches? http://mondoweiss.net/2011/01/bra-gate-the-plot-thickens.html An educated Palestinian explains her rightslessness, Alice Rothchild
I thought my last day in Ramallah, January 15, would be a reflective, low key day to catch up, finish blogging, look at my 700+ emails, and pack, when my host asks me to join him and the US student he is mentoring on an extraordinary visit to the village of Al Walajeh near Bethlehem. Soon we are in a taxi hurtling along Wadi El Nar Road, with hair-raising rollercoaster curves and more USAID road building projects. My friend reflects on the changes underway in the West Bank: in particular a huge NGO, donor, and governmental focus on security. I have noticed the PA forces in their fresh new uniforms standing on many corners. He tells me that under the guise of “law and order, justice, and building prisons,” there is now one Palestinian policeman, security agent, or intelligence officer for every 50 West Bankers. Prime Minister Fayyad, the World Bank trained technocrat, is getting everything under control. During Eid this year, my friend reports that every kid wanted a plastic gun, wanted to be powerful. http://mondoweiss.net/2011/01/an-educated-palestinian-explains-her-rightslessness.html Road Map to Peace Beginning with Justice (An Open Letter to Sandy Berger and Stephen Hadley), William A. Cook
Let me introduce myself lest you discard a letter from someone you do not know. I am a citizen of this nation having lasted beyond the biblical three score and ten with an ancestry that can be traced back to 1636. That’s not necessarily a positive thing as our own ethnic cleansing of the natives of this continent can testify. But as a professor who has written three books about the mid-East, Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy, The Rape of Palestine, and an edited work, The Plight of the Palestinians, all specifically focused on Israel and Palestine, and, let me add, a novella that drew its inspiration from Ariel Sharon, a morality tale The Chronicles of Nefaria, I do my best to find recourse in the moral premise that underlies America and its potential for good in the world. http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16559 Hollywood, Israel and the Pursuit of Normalcy, Basil Abdelkarim
While flipping through channels on television last week, I ran across an episode of Friends, the long running hit NBC sitcom (1994-2004), which grabbed my attention. In this episode from 2004, paleontologist and professor Ross Geller proudly announces to his circle of attractive young friends that he has just earned tenure at a New York university. This glorious occasion prompts the young dinosaur expert to break out a bottle of Israeli champagne in celebration. There are actually two references to Israeli champagne (‘Israel’s finest’) in this episode, and these moments are played ostensibly for laughs. (Israel? Champagne? Whoda thunk it?) http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16560 ‘Sumoud’ in Palestine: To Exist is to Resist, Kim Bullimore
On Tuesday, the Israeli military demolished the dreams of a family of five in the Palestinian village of Azzoun Atma. At 8.30am, on January 11, more than 100 Israeli soldiers surrounded their home, forced them onto the street and then locked them in the neighouring house for the next three and half hours. As “the most moral army in the world” stood guard around the neighbouring house, ensuring the family could do nothing to stop what was about to happen, a heavily armoured Caterpillar bulldozer smashed down the walls of the home they had lived in for more than 8 years. The Israeli occupation forces then made their way to the other side of the village and demolished a farm house belonging to another family, along with their agricultural pens. http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16561 Israel’s Actions Reflects the Arrogant Mentality of an Occupier, Daoud Kuttab
Sometime over the weekend and somewhere within the Israeli military’s decision making apparatus, a decision was taken. Thousands of decisions like this are taken daily. For sure no one thought much of it, after all, who cares about such insignificant decisions that affects the Palestinian population. The Israeli army which is generally in charge of the occupied territories and specifically in charge of all declared military areas, decided to close a particular area off for security reasons. The area in question is the King Hussein bridge, the only crossing point in and out of the occupied Palestinian territories for three million Palestinians. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9423&Itemid=58
Lebanon
Shami summons U.S. ambassador: Minister tells Connelly her visit to Fattoush counts as meddling in country’s internal affairs
BEIRUT: Caretaker Foreign Minister Ali Shami summoned the United States ambassador to Lebanon Monday over what he termed “interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs.” Shami, a March 8 figure, told U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly that her visit Sunday to M.P. Nicholas Fattoush “is interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs that violates diplomatic tasks stipulated by national and international conventions and laws, especially the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1962.” Connelly held a one-hour meeting with Fattoush at his hometown of Zahle. The visit came on the eve of parliamentary deliberations that President Michel Sleiman was scheduled to carry out Monday and Tuesday to nominate a prime minister, but which he later postponed for one week to help reach a consensus over a prime minister-designate. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=123797
Hezbollah’s Nasrallah Could Be Right, Alan Hart
It’s not impossible that Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was right when he described the tribunal investigating the assassination of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 as “an American and Israeli tool”. Though I, myself, see Israel’s military and political leaders as those with most to gain – I mean thinking they have most to gain – from a successful attempt to pin the blame on Hezbollah. http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/01/hezbollah%e2%80%99s-nasrallah-could-be-right/
Iraq
Tunisian anger at ‘unity govt’
A new national unity government has been announced in Tunisia, but protesters are angry at how many members of the previous government have been allowed to keep key posts, including the ministers of defence, finance, the interior and foreign affairs. Tear gas and water cannons were used by police to disperse demonstrators, who have demanded, along with opposition parties, a government consisting of more members not belonging to the ruling RCD party. Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin reports from the Tunisian capital, Tunis. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXvbiTMXfkc&feature=youtube_gdata Tunisian vegetable seller a resistance symbol-brother
TUNIS, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Mohamed Bouazizi, the vegetable seller whose self-immolation inspired protests that toppled the Tunisian ruler, has become a “symbol of resistance” against Arab autocrats, his brother said. “Freedom is expensive and my brother paid the price of freedom,” Salem Bouazizi told Reuters by telephone from the central town of Sidi Bouzid, where the revolt began. Bouazizi set himself on fire on Dec. 17 after police seized the vegetable cart by which he earned his living, becoming a martyr to crowds of students and the unemployed protesting against poor living conditions. http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/tunisian-vegetable-seller-a-resistance-symbol-brother Ex Tunisia President’s Wife Left with 1.5 Tons of Gold: Report
The French government suspects that former Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family may have fled the country with 1.5 tons of gold, French daily Le Monde reported Monday. http://www.cnbc.com/id/41115532 Tunisian events likely to spark wider Arab reforms, but not revolutions
A number of copycat self-immolations across the Middle East are raising questions about whether the protests that drove Tunisia’s Ben Ali could soon threaten other Arab autocrats. http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/9cDaYaUFQns/
Tunisian-events-likely-to-spark-wider-Arab-reforms-but-not-revolutions Dyab Abou Jahjah, “Tunisia: The Struggle for Legitimacy”
In Tunisia, a new government is being formed under the leadership of the RCD (the party of the fallen dictator) and with the participation of some legalized opposition parties. All parties that were illegal under the old regimes are being excluded, however, and this is stirring up a lot of controversy among parts of the Tunisian population who feel that the Revolution is being driven away from its ideals. . . . In my opinion, the Americans and the French have certainly played a role in convincing parts of the mild opposition to support this government in order to guarantee continuation of the old economic structure and its integration as a service economy for France, plus the political and military alliance with the U.S and NATO. . . . The risk is that this government will not be so transitory after all and will only serve as an excuse to win more time and allow intelligent services and regime loyalists to work on their strategy to take back control of the country, albeit under another leader who will govern slightly differently than Ben Ali but will be just as autocratic and corrupt and pro-Western. This is a real risk and the people started protesting against this government today and in Tunis the governmental police used tear gas against the demonstrators. http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/jahjah170111.html
U.S. and Other World News
