Tag Archives: Settlements

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My visit to Palestine and why the wall will fall

Israeli separation barrier at Abu Dis, June 2004 (en wikipedia where it was uploaded as own work)

Israeli separation barrier at Abu Dis, June 2004 (en wikipedia where it was uploaded as own work)

I just came back from a short trip to Palestine and Israel. It felt good going home to Ramallah where I grew up and lived the first (and best) 17 years of my life. I also visited my extended family in Ramleh who stayed after 1948. The last time I was back was in 2003 in the midst of the 2nd intifada to see my grandmother for the last time. Things have changed since then. There are now fewer checkpoints but more security surrounding them. There is of course the eight meter separation wall built around towns and villages, cutting through streets, neighbourhoods and olive groves. Settlements surrounding Palestinian towns and villages are dotted all around the West Bank in full view. There are roads only used by settlers to reach their settlements and bypass Palestinian towns and villages. Palestinian homes now get water once or twice a week – I was very surprised that people run out of water and have to pay money to buy it.
Going back home brought back memories of the occupation while growing up in the 1970’s and 1980’s in Ramallah – the army Jeeps streaming through the streets, announcing curfews through the speakers, bloody demonstrations, smell of burning tyres, young boys dragged into the army Jeeps and the bizarre behaviour (that’s what I used to think anyway) by the soldiers when they see the Palestinian flag being raised at demonstrations (The good news that after 25 years the Palestinian flag is now flying on every building, street lights, inside cars and people’s homes. We now have progress. At least the demonstrations achieved something!)
Despite the insecurity, life with family and friends and living in a close community was beautiful. I was fortunate to have loyal and loving family, friends and neighbours. Everyone looked out for each other and despite the hardship of the surrounding occupation, we were relatively happy despite the international news that portrayed otherwise. My big family – my parents and 5 children – lived together in a small 2br apartment, five siblings slept in one small room on a double bed, and we ate and shared from the same plate on a small table in the kitchen that we also used to study on. We didn’t have the comforts of everything but we were happy and made sure we looked out for each other.
As a young girl I was not aware of why we had demonstrations and curfews all the time. My family made sure we didn’t talk about politics and I grew up illiterate about the Israel/Palestine conflict (except my grandmothers 1948 stories of course). My parents wanted us to know that Israelis were normal just like us and made sure that we visited my dad’s many Jewish friends in West Jerusalem and my mum made them Palestinian food (stuffed chicken with rice mince and pine nuts – very yummy – kobbe, tabouli, stuffed zucchini and eggplant) every time they came to Ramallah to visit on Saturdays. I knew the soldiers were the same as my dad’s friends but back then could never reconcile how they could be the same guys beating young boys and taking them away in their Jeeps.
My family packed up and left in 1986 to Australia due to the constant occupation and lack of future opportunities for five bright and talented children. It took me some time to adjust to a quiet and at times “boring” life without the constant curfews and demonstrations. My curiosity to understand what is happening in Palestine started then and I devoured books that explained the conflict. The books I read were more political and historical in nature of course.
But a chance encounter with an Israeli woman in 1996 at a personal development course in Sydney changed the way I thought about the political conflict. Batsheva heard me speak and asked me where I came from, I said “Palestine”. She stared at me for a while. I realised that she was Israeli because of her accent. I was concerned that she was going to scream or swear at me. But then she came close to me and said “I am sorry for what my people did to your people”. The long hug and cathartic cries followed. I could not let go of her. She became my second mum and we became good friends. Inviting her over my place for a taste of Palestinian food was a sign that she became family.
The experience made a difference in how I viewed the conflict. Political and historical narratives are dwarfed when people see each other as human beings. I was still young then to understand the importance of this chance encounter. Batsheva was on my mind last week as I was going through the streets of Bethlehem surrounded by the separation wall; as I was going through Kalandia checkpoint waiting my turn to get through the turnstiles to be scanned and asked why I was going to Jerusalem; as I saw the settlements surrounding Palestinian towns and wondering whether its inhabitants were just like Batsheva.
Batsheva is not your average person but she is like every other human being. We all have the capacity to open our hearts to see and hear each other’s narrative and source of suffering. Once we do, the separation wall will surely fall and the checkpoints will melt and disappear. That’s when Israel and Palestine will deserve to be called the “Holy Land”. Maybe then we will let go of labels, flags, checkpoints and borders. Who needs them when their neighbour is just like Batsheva?

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‘Um, You’ve Got an Olive in Your Hijab’

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Christopher Cottrell

During the olive harvest season in Beit Umreen, a northern village in the Occupied West Bank, many families’ daily routines shift to the vast green hillsides and fields peppered with olive trees.

The delectable fruit and the precious oil it produces represent a staple income source for many rural Palestinians. Grossing around 25 Sheikels per kilo, a family can earn around $900 per day harvesting olives.

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(For me, the sound of olives plopping onto the plastic tarps below reminded of raindrops on a tin roof, but I’m sure others also hear the “ka-ching” of a cash register.)

A tree is relinquished of its fruit by first beating the branches with hardwood sticks. Any leftover olives are then picked out by hand.

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Nestled within dusty branches, the vibrant green and purple olives are easy to spot.

The leaves and sticks are eventually sorted out, leaving just the olives to be poured into a burlap sack.

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After an hour of work, we reclined in the shade of an olive tree and ate pomegranates, falafel and za’atar – a Middle Eastern spice made from thyme, salt and toasted sesame seeds.

My friends’ mother gathered fallen olive tree branches and made a fire for tea. Passing me the first steaming cup, I saw that her hands were worn from many harvests past.

The serenity of our break was interrupted every few minutes by the sound of passing cars, their drivers honking to greet neighbors in adjacent fields.

Anytime a car drove by I instinctively checked the color of the license plate (yellow would have meant Israeli settlers). Especially during the olive harvest season, settlers frequently attack Palestinian farmers, often razing crops in their wake.

International activists often visit the Occupied West Bank during the olive harvest. The extra manpower reduces the amount of time farmers spend exposed in their fields and the mere presence of foreigners is sometimes enough to deter settler attacks.

In the past, even Israeli rabbis have come to the defense of Palestinian farmers. Just last month, Jewish settlers clashed with activists of the Rabbis for Human Rights movement near the southern city of Hebron.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “activists were going to 40 Palestinian villages to protect olive growers and uphold their right to work the land, and harvest. They would act ‘as human shields’ if necessary.”



Christopher Cottrell is an independent American journalist based out of Nablus. Currently working as a part-time volunteer at An-Najah National University working with journalism students. You may also follow Chris at www.chris-cottrell.com.

Olive Harvest

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Christopher Cottrell

During the olive harvest season in Beit Umreen, a northern village in the Occupied West Bank, many families’ daily routines shift to the vast green hillsides and fields peppered with olive trees.

The delectable fruit and the precious oil it produces represent a staple income source for many rural Palestinians. Grossing around 25 Sheikels per kilo, a family can earn around $900 per day harvesting olives.

img_1777

(For me, the sound of olives plopping onto the plastic tarps below reminded of raindrops on a tin roof, but I’m sure others also hear the “ka-ching” of a cash register.)

A tree is relinquished of its fruit by first beating the branches with hardwood sticks. Any leftover olives are then picked out by hand.

img_17821

Nestled within dusty branches, the vibrant green and purple olives are easy to spot.

The leaves and sticks are eventually sorted out, leaving just the olives to be poured into a burlap sack.

screen-shot-2010-10-29-at-11-26-33-pm

After an hour of work, we reclined in the shade of an olive tree and ate pomegranates, falafel and za’atar – a Middle Eastern spice made from thyme, salt and toasted sesame seeds.

My friends’ mother gathered fallen olive tree branches and made a fire for tea. Passing me the first steaming cup, I saw that her hands were worn from many harvests past.

The serenity of our break was interrupted every few minutes by the sound of passing cars, their drivers honking to greet neighbors in adjacent fields.

Anytime a car drove by I instinctively checked the color of the license plate (yellow would have meant Israeli settlers). Especially during the olive harvest season, settlers frequently attack Palestinian farmers, often razing crops in their wake.

International activists often visit the Occupied West Bank during the olive harvest. The extra manpower reduces the amount of time farmers spend exposed in their fields and the mere presence of foreigners is sometimes enough to deter settler attacks.

In the past, even Israeli rabbis have come to the defense of Palestinian farmers. Just last month, Jewish settlers clashed with activists of the Rabbis for Human Rights movement near the southern city of Hebron.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “activists were going to 40 Palestinian villages to protect olive growers and uphold their right to work the land, and harvest. They would act ‘as human shields’ if necessary.”



Christopher Cottrell is an independent American journalist based out of Nablus.  Currently working as a part-time volunteer at An-Najah National University working with  journalism students. You may also follow Chris  at  www.chris-cottrell.com.

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Jerusalem: Closure Of Local NGOs Threatens Palestinian Identity

Mahmoud Jiddah (Nidal Center) Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

Palestine Monitor, 9 October 2010

Amidst the maze-like streets of Jerusalem’s Old City, the Nidal Center is difficult to find. The only evidence that a once-busting community center existed in the al-Jabasheh neighborhood is a beige sign and a small, green door adorned with stickers.

Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

The Nidal Center has been closed since July 2009. Last month, it received its newest closure renewal from the Israeli authorities: the green door must remain sealed for one more year, at least.

“We used to try to keep the children and youth away from the streets. Now they are once again in the streets,” said Mahmoud Jiddah, the Co-Founder of the Nidal Center.

Mahmoud Jiddah (Nidal Center) Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

Mahmoud Jiddah (Nidal Center) Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

“That’s the way [the Israeli authorities] like to see us: without any education and in the streets, making bad things. They don’t want to see Palestinians well educated,” he said.

The Nidal Center

Established in February 2000, the Nidal Center for Community Development is affiliated with Palestinian Health Work Committees, an umbrella organization mandated with providing Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza with a “comprehensive, culturally competent, community-based health care system that is committed to serving the needs of the individual and promoting community health.” According to Jiddah, while the Center was initially created to provide health services to residents of East Jerusalem, those involved quickly realized that community empowerment was needed instead.

Mahmoud Jiddah (Nidal Center) Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

Mahmoud Jiddah (Nidal Center) Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

Therefore, for nearly ten years, the Center offered educational and recreational services to children – including tutoring sessions led by local university students – and training programs for women.

“They say we are doing activities for the benefit of [the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine], which is not true,” Jiddah said. “It’s pressure. It’s politics. If we are really doing activities for the PFLP, why don’t they take the center to trial and judge us. If they have the proof, then prove it and we can go to court.”

The Israeli authorities in Jerusalem used Israel’s anti-terrorism laws to close the Nidal Center, arguing that the center and its activities constituted a security threat to Israelis.

“I dare if anybody can prove that we have political activities in this center. All that we do is high school education and general education and activities for women and children like summer camps or picnics. So what is this related to terrorism? I don’t know,” Jiddah said.

According to Human Rights in East Jerusalem: Facts and Figures, a report released by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) in May of this year, NGOs operating in East Jerusalem have faced a wave of pressure and harassment at the hands of the Jerusalem police force. “Various Palestinian communal and human rights organizations which provide aid to East Jerusalem residents have been closed off by the police on “security grounds”, which remain vague and unspecified,” the report stated.

The Israeli authorities have closed approximately 30 organizations serving the Palestinian community in Jerusalem since 2001, including the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce, the Arab Studies Society and the Orient House, the PLO Headquarters in East Jerusalem.

“The closure of these and other Palestinian institutions are part of a broader policy through which the Israeli Occupation Authority seeks to stifle Palestinian development in Jerusalem and increase control and strengthen the Israeli occupation over East Jerusalem,” wrote the Palestinian Institutions in Jerusalem in a statement released in response to the Nidal Center’s latest closure renewal.

“[We] call upon the international community to address these violations in their diplomatic relations with Israel and work to ensure that the Nidal Center and other Palestinian NGOs are allowed to reopen and operate without the imposed constraints of the Israeli occupation,” the statement continued.

The Judaization of Jerusalem

Israeli settlement in the old city’s muslim quarter Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

Israeli settlement in the old city’s muslim quarter Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

According to Yoad Ghanadry, a Clinical Psychologist at the Palestinian Counseling Center in Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem, Palestinian children desperately need the physical space places like the Nidal Center offered. “In psychology, we talk about play therapy and the importance of having an external space where you can communicate your feelings, where you can move, where you can get energy and be exposed to other positive energies from outside,” Ghanadry said.

“If our children in East Jerusalem don’t have this external space, they also will not have enough internal space to deal with their emotions. We see many children not able to communicate their internal emotions. They act out their emotions. Instead of saying, ‘I’m angry,’ they act angrily. So actually it’s a devastating effect upon the mental health of children,” she explained. According to Jiddah, the closure of the Nidal Center is intended to pressure Palestinians to leave East Jerusalem and the Old City, in particular.

“I think the motivation is that they don’t want to see any organizations inside the Old City. They believe that Jerusalem is a Jewish city and there should only be Jewish [people] in the area. The mission is to try to control totally Jerusalem and especially the Old City of Jerusalem,” Jiddah said. “From our experience, all the organizations that have been closed since 2000 until today, none of them has been reopened.”

Jillian Kestler-D’Amours reporting from Jerusalem: http://jilldamours.wordpress.com

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Demonstration against water theft in Baqa’a Valley, Hebron

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23 August 2010 | ISM Media

Today (23 August 2010) a demonstration was held in the Baqa’a Valley, east of Hebron, against the theft of water from the Palestinian population in the area. About 15 water trucks were parked along Road 60, the road that runs through the valley. The intention was to protest against the fact that the farmers don’t get access to the water reservoirs in Kyriat Arba, the illegal settlement outside Hebron city. The demonstration was also attended by local farmers, standing on the side of the road with the truck drivers. Israeli police and army came to the spot, but did not interfere during the hour-long demonstration.

The water situation in Baqa’a Valley is critical, as the population depends on their farmland to support themselves, and they get a very limited amount of water from the municipality. The settlements in the Hebron district are supported by the Israeli government with the majority of the water resources, originally sourced from Bethlehem, going to settlements. The water is cut off from the Palestinian areas, which receive only a tiny percentage from the Hebron municipality, while most of it is confiscated by the Israeli state and distributed to illegal settlements like Kyriat Arba and Harsina. According to B’Tselem figures from 2008, residents in the Hebron district use on average 56 litres per capita daily – the third lowest amount in the West Bank. In general, Israelis have access to three and a half times more water than Palestinians living in the West Bank.

Baqa’a Valley is the most fertile land in the Hebron district, and the residents are living in constant fear of losing their homes and land, as the area is included in the Israeli state’s plan of dividing the West Bank and expanding and connecting the surrounding settlements. About 35 houses in Baqa’a Valley, in the so-called Area C are now facing eviction orders. In addition the residents frequently face vandalism of crops and water pipes from settlers intent on sabotaging Palestinian residents’ livelihoods. The video below from Tayush shows a recent incident in which settlers attempted to destroy water pipes in the Hebron district.

The water shortage in the Occupied Territories is a major violation of the basic human rights of Palestinians. Israel’s control over and unequal distribution of water resources has been an increasingly harmful policy since 1967 as Palestinian consumption needs have increased with population but not been met due to both neglect of existing infrastructure and failure to construct new water infrastructure, especially in rural areas. There are also numerous restrictions placed on Palestinians right to access water for example by constructing wells. As well as deliberate sabotage by settlers, leakage from pipes due to defective maintenance means that one-third of the amount of the water supplied to the West Bank annually is lost.

Under international law (Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 which prohibits an occupying state from discriminating between residents of occupied territory) Israel’s clear discrimination in terms of quantity and regularity of water to supply to settlements as opposed to Palestinian areas is illegal. During the summer Palestinians’ water supplies are often reduced even further in order to meet increased demand from settlements.

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BDS court victory in London: ‘Ahava four’ found not guilty of trespass in Israeli store

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11 August 2010 | ISM London

Four campaigners against Israeli apartheid were acquitted yesterday (August 10th) of all charges related to two direct action protests against the Israeli cosmetics retailer Ahava in Covent Garden, London. The campaigners locked themselves onto concrete-filled oil drums inside the shop, closing it down for two days in September and December of 2009.

The campaigners insist that they are legally justified in their actions as the shop’s activities are unlawful. All cosmetics on sale in the shop originate from Mitzpe Shalem, an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, and are deliberately mislabelled “Made in Israel”.

To date, no campaigner has been successfully prosecuted and Ahava has consistently refused to cooperate with the prosecuting authorities.

On the first day of trial, prosecutors dropped aggravated trespass charges. This would have required the prosecution to demonstrate Ahava was engaged in lawful activity. Significantly, the CPS decided that this was not something they would attempt to prove.

The primary witness for the prosecution, Ahava’s store manager, refused to attend court to testify despite courts summons and threats of an arrest warrant leading to the activist’s acquittal on all remaining charges.

Ms Crouch, one of the four acquitted today said: “This is a small victory in the wider campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. We’ll continue to challenge corporate complicity in the occupation and Israel’s impunity on the international stage.”

Mr Matthews, another acquitted campaigner, added: “The message is clear. If your company is involved in apartheid and war crimes and occupying Palestinian land, people will occupy your shop.”

The British government, the European Union, the United Nations and the International Court of Justice all consider Israel’s settlements to be illegal, as they are in breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention are also criminal offences under UK law (International Criminal Court Act 2001).

For more information please contact the defendant’s solicitor Simon Natas on: 0208 522 7707 (UK)

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. In December 2009, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) issued guidance to retailers concerning produce grown in the occupied Palestinian territories.

It states that: “The Government considers that traders would be misleading consumers and would therefore almost be certainly committing an offence, if they were to declare produce from the OPT (including from the West Bank) as ‘Produce of Israel’. This would apply irrespective of whether the produce was from a Palestinian producer or from an Israeli settlement in the OPT. This is because the area does not fall within the internationally recognised borders if the state of Israel.”

DEFRA Technical advice: labelling of produce grown in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 11 December 2009

2. The BDS initiative [7] was born in 2005 through a call by Palestinian civil society groups and organisations seeking a global non-violent means to challenge the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. It has been taken up by numerous groups and organisations internationally and has become a unifying global movement for those seeking justice for Palestine.

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All Quiet on the Eastern Front

Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery, July 31 2010

PEOPLE ENDOWED with sensitive political ears were startled this week by two words, which, so it seemed, escaped from the mouth of Binyamin Netanyahu by accident: “Eastern front”.

Once upon a time these words were part of the everyday vocabulary of the occupation. In recent years they have been gathering dust in the political junkyard.

THE VERBAL couple “Eastern front” was born after the Six-day War. It served to buttress the strategic doctrine that the Jordan River is Israel’s “security border”.

The theory: there is a possibility for three Arab armies – those of Iraq, Syria and Jordan – to gather east of the Jordan, cross the river and endanger the existence of Israel. We must stop them before they enter the country. Therefore, the Jordan Valley must serve as a permanent base for the Israeli army, our troops must stay there.

This was a doubtful theory to start with. In order to take part in such an offensive, the Iraqi army would have to assemble, cross the desert and deploy in Jordan, a lengthy and complex logistical operation that would give the Israeli army ample time to hit the Iraqis long before they reached the bank of the Jordan. As for the Syrians, it would be much easier for them to attack Israel on the Golan Heights than to move their army south and attack from the east. And Jordan has always been a secret – but loyal – partner of Israel (except for the short episode of the Six-day War.)

In recent years, the theory has become manifestly ridiculous. The Americans have invaded Iraq and defeated and disbanded Saddam Hussein’s glorious army, which turned out to be a paper tiger. The Kingdom of Jordan has signed an official peace treaty with Israel. Syria is using every opportunity to demonstrate its longing for peace, if Israel would only return the Golan Heights. In short, Israel has nothing to fear from its Eastern neighbors.

True, situations can change. Regimes change, alliances change. But it is impossible to imagine a situation in which three terrifying armies cross the Jordan into Canaan, like the children of Israel in the Biblical story.

Moreover, the idea of a ground attack, like the Nazi blitzkrieg in World War II, belongs to history. In any future war, long-range missiles will play a dominant role. One could imagine the Israeli soldiers in the Jordan valley reclining on deckchairs and observing the missiles flying over their heads in both directions.

So how did this silly idea gain new life?

IT MAY be useful to go 43 years back in time, in order to understand how this bogeyman was born.

Only six weeks after the Six-day War, the “Allon plan” was launched. Yigal Allon, then Minister of Labor, submitted it to the government. It was not adopted officially, but it did exercise a major influence on the Israeli leadership.

No authorized map of the plan was ever published, but the main points became known. Allon proposed to annex to Israel the Jordan Valley and the western shore of the Dead Sea. What was left of the West Bank would become enclaves surrounded by Israeli territory, except for a narrow corridor near Jericho which would connect the West Bank with the Jordanian kingdom. Allon also proposed annexing to Israel certain areas in the West Bank, the North of Sinai (“the Rafah Opening”) and the South of the Gaza Strip (“the Katif Bloc’).

He did not care whether the West Bank would be returned to Jordan or became a separate Palestinian entity. Once I attacked him from the Knesset rostrum and accused him of obstructing the establishment of the Palestinian state, which I advocated, and when I returned to my seat, he sent me a note: “I am for a Palestinian state in the West Bank. So how am I less of a dove than you?”

The plan was put forward as a military imperative, but its motives were quite different.

In those days I met with Allon fairly regularly, so I had the opportunity to follow his line of thought. He had been one of the outstanding commanders of the 1948 war and was considered a military expert, but above all he was a leading member of the Kibbutz movement, which at the time exercised a lot of influence in the country.

Immediately after the seizure of the West Bank, the people of the Kibbutz movement spread out across the ground, looking for areas that would be suitable for intensive modern agriculture. Naturally, they were attracted to the Jordan Valley. From their point of view, this was an ideal place for new kibbutzim. It has plenty of water, the terrain is flat and eminently suited to modern agricultural machinery. And, most important, it was sparsely populated. All these advantages were lacking in other West Bank regions: their population was dense, the topography mountainous and the water scarce.

In my opinion, the entire Allon plan was a fruit of agricultural greed, and the military theory was nothing but an expedient security pretext. And, indeed, the immediate result was the setting up of a great number of kibbutzim and moshavim (cooperative villages) in the valley.

Years passed before the limits of the Allon Plan were burst open and settlements were established all over the West Bank.

THE ALLON PLAN gave birth to the bogeyman of the “Eastern Front”’ and since then it has terrorized those who seek peace. Like a ghost, it comes and goes, materializes and vanishes, once in one form, once in another.

Ariel Sharon demanded the annexation of the “widened valley”. The valley itself, a part of the Great Syrian-African Rift Valley, is 120 km long (from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea) but only about 15 km wide. Sharon demanded almost obsessively the addition to it of the “back of the mountain”, meaning the eastern slope of the central West Bank mountain range, which would have widened it substantially.

When Sharon adopted the Separation Wall project, it was supposed to separate the West Bank not only from Israel proper, but also from the Jordan Valley. This would have enabled what was called the “Allon Plan plus”. The wall would have encircled the entire West Bank, without the Jericho corridor. This plan has not been implemented to date, both because of international opposition and because of lack of funds.

Since the Oslo agreement, almost all successive Israeli governments have insisted that the Jordan Valley must remain in Israeli hands in any future peace agreement. This demand appeared in many guises: sometimes the words were “security border”, sometimes “warning stations”, sometimes “military installations”, sometimes “long-term lease”, depending on the creative talents of successive Prime Ministers. The common denominator: the valley should remain under Israeli control.

NOW COMES Netanyahu and resurrects the verbal duo “Eastern Front”.

What Eastern Front? What threats are there from our eastern neighbors? Where is Saddam Hussein? Where is Hafez al-Assad? Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad going to send the armored columns of the Revolutionary Guards rolling towards the Jordan crossings?

Well, it goes like this: the Americans are going to leave Iraq some day. Then a new Saddam Hussein will arise, this time a Shiite, and ally himself with Shiite Iran and the treacherous Turks, and how can you rely on the Jordanian king who abhors Netanyahu? Terrible stuff may happen if we don’t keep watch on the bank of the Jordan!

This is manifestly ludicrous. So what is the real aim?

The entire world is now busy with the American demand for starting “direct talks” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. One might be tempted to think that world peace depends on turning the “proximity talks” into “direct talks”. Never have so many words of sanctimonious hypocrisy been poured out on such a trivial subject.

The “proximity talks” have been going on for several months now. It would be wrong to say that their results have been close to zero. They were zero. Absolute zero. So what will happen if the two parties sit together in one room? One can predict with absolute certainty: Another zero. In the absence of an American determination to impose a solution, there will be no solution.

So why does Barack Obama insist? There is one explanation: throughout the Middle East, his policies have failed. He is in urgent need of an impressive achievement. He promised to leave Iraq, and the situation there makes it impossible. The war in Afghanistan is going from bad to worse, a general leaves and a general arrives, and victory is further away than ever. One can already imagine the last American climbing into the last helicopter on the roof of the American embassy in Kabul.

Remains the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here, too, Obama is facing failure. He hoped to achieve much without investing anything at all, and was easily defeated by the Israel lobby. To hide the shame, he needs something that can be presented to the ignorant public as a great American victory. The renewal of “direct talks” is meant to be such a victory.

Netanyahu, on his part, is quite satisfied with the situation as it is. Israel is calling for direct talks, the Palestinians refuse. Israel is extending its hand for peace, the Palestinians turn away. Mahmoud Abbas demands that Israel extend the freeze on the settlements and declares in advance that the negotiations will be based on the 1967 borders.

But the Americans are exerting tremendous pressure on Abbas, and Netanyahu fears that Abbas will give in. Therefore he declares that he cannot freeze the settlements, because in that case – God forbid! – his coalition would disintegrate. And if that does not suffice, here comes the Eastern Front. The Israeli government is giving notice to the Palestinians that it will not give up the Jordan Valley.

In order to emphasize the point, Netanyahu has started to remove the remaining Palestinian population in the valley, a few thousand. Villages are being eradicated, starting this week with Farasiya, where all the dwellings and the water installations were destroyed. This is ethnic cleansing pure and simple, much like the similar operation now going on against the Bedouins in the Negev.

What Netanyahu is saying, in so many words, is: Abbas should think twice before he enters “direct talks”.

THE JORDAN Valley descends to the lowest point on the surface of the earth, the Dead Sea, 400 meters below mean sea level.

The revival of the Eastern Front may indicate the lowest point of Netanyahu’s policy, with the intent of putting to death once and for all any remaining chance for peace.

permlink: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1280589635

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Bibi the Bamboozler to Settlers: ‘America Won’t Get in Our Way…It’s Easily Moved’

RealNetanyahu

Richard Silverstein, 17 July 2010

Israel’s Channel 10 secured a video (Hebrew) recorded in 2001 during the height of a Palestinian terror campaign against Israel and the settlements.  It records a condolence call Bibi Netanyahu, recently “retired” from politics after losing the prime ministership several years earlier, pays on a group of West Bank widows whose husbands had been killed by Palestinian attacks.

For those on the Israeli right who claim that the Oslo Accords broke down due to Palestinian terror or any such thing, watch this and you will see that Bibi brags that he destroyed Oslo.  Even if you discount this by half as the braggadocio of a macho Israeli politician, it’s still eye-opening.  Gideon Levy too has written about this footage in Haaretz.

Note in the first passage how Bibi brags that he has America wrapped around his thumb.  The cynicism is breathtaking.  Here is Dena Shunra’s translation:

Bibi:…The Arabs are currently focusing on a war of terror and they think it will break us. The main thing, first of all, is to hit them. Not just one blow, but blows that are so painful that the price will be too heavy to be borne. The price is not too heavy to be borne, now. A broad attack on the Palestinian Authority. To bring them to the point of being afraid that everything is collapsing…

Woman: Wait a moment, but then the world will say “how come you’re conquering again?”

Netanyahu: the world won’t say a thing. The world will say we’re defending.

Woman: Aren’t you afraid of the world, Bibi?

Netanyahu: Especially today, with America. I know what America is. America is something that can easily be moved. Moved to the right direction.

Child: They say they’re for us, but, it’s like…

Netanyahu: They won’t get in our way. They won’t get in our way.

Child: On the other hand, if we do some something, then they…

Netanyahu: So let’s say they say something. So they said it! They said it! 80% of the Americans support us. It’s absurd. We have that kind of support and we say “what will we do with the…”  Look. That administration [Clinton] was extremely pro-Palestinian. I wasn’t afraid to maneuver there. I was not afraid to clash with Clinton. I was not afraid to clash with the United Nations. I was paying the price anyway, I preferred to receive the value. Value for the price.

In the following segment, Bibi boasts about how he emptied the Oslo Accords of meaning by an interpretation that made a mockery of them:

Woman:  The Oslo Accords are a disaster.

Netanyahu: Yes. You know that and I knew that…The people [nation] has to know…

What were the Oslo Accords? The Oslo Accords, which the Knesset signed, I was asked, before the elections: “Will you act according to them?” and I answered: “yes, subject to mutuality and limiting the retreats.” “But how do you intend to limit the retreats?” “I’ll give such interpretation to the Accords that will make it possible for me to stop this galloping to the ’67 [armistice] lines. How did we do it?

Narrator: The Oslo Accords stated at the time that Israel would gradually hand over territories to the Palestinians in three different pulses, unless the territories in question had settlements or military sites. This is where Netanyahu found a loophole.

Netanyahu: No one said what defined military sites. Defined military sites, I said, were security zones. As far as I’m concerned, the Jordan Valley is a defined military site.

Woman: Right [laughs]…The Beit She’an Valley.

Netanyahu: How can you tell. How can you tell? But then the question came up of just who would define what Defined Military Sites were. I received a letter – to my and to Arafat, at the same time – which said that Israel, and only Israel, would be the one to define what those are, the location of those military sites and their size. Now, they did not want to give me that letter, so I did not give the Hebron Agreement. I stopped the government meeting, I said: “I’m not signing.” Only when the letter came, in the course of the meeting, to my and to Arafat, only then did I sign the Hebron Agreement. Or rather, ratify it, it had already been signed. Why does this matter? Because at that moment I actually stopped the Oslo Accord.

Woman: And despite that, one of our own people, excuse me, who knew it was a swindle, and that we were going to commit suicide with the Oslo Accord, gives them – for example – Hebron…

Netanyahu: Indeed, Hebron hurts. It hurts. It’s the thing that hurts. One of the famous rabbis, whom I very much respect, a rabbi of Eretz Yisrael, he said to me: “What would your father say?”  I went to my father. Do you know a little about my father’s position?

…He’s not exactly a lily-white dove, as they say. So my father heard the question and said: “Tell the rabbi that your grandfather, Rabbi Natan Milikowski, was a smart Jew. Tell him it would be better to give two percent than to give a hundred percent. And that’s the choice here. You gave two percent and in that way you stopped the withdrawal. Instead of a hundred percent.” The trick is not to be there and be broken. The trick is to be there and pay a minimal price.

Here are a few of Levy’s choice characterizations of Bibi’s performance in this video:

…Israel has had many rightist leaders since Menachem Begin…but there has never been one like Netanyahu, who wants to do it by deceit, to mock America, trick the Palestinians and lead us all astray. The man in the video betrays himself in his own words as a con artist, and now he is again prime minister of Israel. Don’t try to claim that he has changed since then. Such a crooked way of thinking does not change over the years.

Forget the Bar-Ilan University speech…this is the real Netanyahu. No more claims that the Palestinians are to blame for the failure of the Oslo Accords. Netanyahu exposed the naked truth to his hosts at Ofra: he destroyed the Oslo accords with his own hands and deeds, and he’s even proud of it. After years in which we were told that the Palestinians are to blame, the truth has emerged from the horse’s mouth.

…The government of Israel is led by a man who…thinks that Washington is in his pocket and that he can pull the wool over its eyes.

It should be noted that Bibi isn’t the only prime minister who boasted of such manipulation of the U.S.  Dov Weisglass, Ariel Sharon’s Mephisto bragged of “putting the peace process in formaldehyde” via the Gaza withdrawal.  He too claimed he had George Bush wrapped around his little finger (though he didn’t say which one).

This seems to be a fashion among right-wing Israel prime ministers.  They come to believe their own press clippings.  But really who is to blame for this but American presidents who allow Israeli leaders to outwit and outmaneuver them?  When has an American president, except perhaps George Bush pere, ever stood up to Israel and won?  And I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion it won’t ever happen with the current president.

Source: Bibi the Bamboozler to Settlers: ‘America Won’t Get in Our Way…It’s Easily Moved’

See also:


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Judaizing Jerusalem

Holy Sepulture - Crosses etched in wall (Nick Marouf)

Stephen Lendman. 6 July 2010

The Middle East Monitor (MEM) covers significant regional issues and events through its weekly newspaper and reports like Samira Quraishy’s September 2009 Briefing Paper titled, “The Judaization of Jerusalem,” discussing Israel’s “escalating campaign of land seizures, house demolitions and eviction(s) of Palestinians.”

Israeli scholars agree, including Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Professor Oren Yiftachel, in a 1999 paper titled “Ethnocracy: the Politics of Judaizing Israel/Palestine,” saying Israel is an ethnocratic regime “enhanc(ing) a rule by, and for, a specific ethnos, and a dominance of ethnicity over citizenship (by) facilitat(ing) the expansion of one ethnic group over contested territory or polity.” It evolved around “the central Zionist (uni-ethnic) project of Judaizing and de-Arabising Israel/Palestine, (and as a consequence undermining) equal citizenship and popular sovereignty,” reserving it solely for Jews, exposing the myth of a democratic nation.

Hebrew University Professor Moshe Ma’oz, Ankara’s Bilkent University Professor Jeremy Salt, Professor Norman Finkelstein, Professor James Petras, and many other scholars agree that Israel pursued this policy since 1967, planning it decades earlier, based on the Zionist notion of dispossessing Arabs to make greater Israel an exclusive Jewish state.

Jerusalem is its epicenter, a religiously important city for Christians, Muslims and Jews, today the scene of epic injustice and discrimination of its Palestinian residents.

For Zionists, the city is politically important, as its historic capital, national and religious center, as well as the symbol of Judaism’s revival and prominence. For Christians, it’s where Jesus lived and died, and for Muslims it’s their third holiest site (the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa Mosque) after Mecca’s Sacred Mosque and the Mosque of the Prophet in Madina.

Settlement Expansions 2009

Settlement Expansions 2009 (Click for larger image)

After its 1967 annexation, East Jerusalem underwent legal and bureaucratic changes to its physical, cultural and spiritual character under Israel’s Judaization plan. Settlements were established and expanded, at the expense of land expropriations, dispossessions, home demolitions, the Separation Wall, and other draconian measures to transform the city to an entirely Jewish one. As a result, Palestinian culture and religious heritage are threatened by the establishment of “facts on the ground,” a process begun after the city’s annexation that continues relentlessly to this day.

At the time, official annexation would have caused rupture or confrontation with the international community, because of the city’s symbolic, religious and historic importance. In addition, international laws would have been hard to get around besides ideological differences among Israeli officials. Further, direct annexation would have forced the government to make all city inhabitants citizens, contrary to the plan to Judaize the entire city

On the Six Day War’s final day, Israeli leaders ordered the demolition of the Old City’s Moroccan Quarter, allowing for easier access to the Western Wall. It left 650 residents homeless, many others killed, two mosques destroyed along with other religious and cultural sites, and set the tone for what continued.

Under military occupation, Israel transformed Jerusalem from a multi-cultural, multi-religious city into a predominantly Jewish one under exclusive Israeli control toward the final goal of making the entire city exclusively Jewish – meaning Arabs had to go, voluntarily, by dispossessions, or other means.

Thereafter, Israel manipulated city demographics in its favor toward establishing a Greater Jerusalem by reinforced municipal boundaries – separating Jerusalem from the West Bank by land seizures, dispossessions, home demolitions, the Separation Wall, and a matrix of restrictions over Palestinian residents in the Old City as well as 64 additional square kilometers from surrounding West Bank areas, affecting 28 villages inside the new municipal boundary. As a result, the demographic balance shifted markedly to one predominantly Jewish.

On July 30, 1980, the Knesset introduced the Jerusalem Law, officially annexing the city as Israel’s unified capital – a ceremonial move as East Jerusalem residents were already under military occupation rule.

Yet on March 1, 1980, UN Security Council Resolution 465 declared that:

“all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant (Fourth Geneva) violation….and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”

On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development (and) have been established in breach of international law.”

Throughout its history, Israel routinely defied all UN resolutions and court rulings against its interests, knowing it can get away with it, always with Washington’s backing. Instead, it’s intensified efforts to annex East Jerusalem through continued settlement expansions on expropriated land. For the West Bank, E. Jerusalem and Golan combined, they’re home for a 500,000 Jewish population, growing at around 4 – 6% yearly.

Extremist groups spearhead it, supported generously by Washington, the Jewish diaspora, and others, contributing billions of dollars annually for Israeli occupation, militarism, and settlement expansions.

Through 2009, settlements covered over one-third of East Jerusalem land, and another 30% is designated as “unplanned area” where little or no development is allowed.

In 2009, OCHA reported that Palestinian construction is allowed only in 13% of East Jerusalem, provided required permits are issued. Because of the bureaucratic nightmare getting them, a huge housing shortage exists, exacerbated by regular home demolitions to provide more space for Jews.

Religious, cultural and archeological sites aren’t spared either to accommodate them, Silwan a notable example. Occupied in 1967, Judaizing followed to change its religious and demographic character, an initiative promoted by ELAD (the Hebrew acronym for the City of David), a Jewish organization wanting full control of the area, using extremist measures to achieve it, including excavations destroying priceless antiquities.

Ones below the Al-Aqsa Mosque continue. Others also to control the town through more land ownership, Palestinian dispossessions, and destruction of Islamic and Christian heritage sites.

In 2004, 88 Al Bustan neighborhood homes were demolished to create King’s Garden, an archeological park located where King David established his kingdom.

Islamic cemetery excavations also aroused anger, including converting Bab al-Rahmad into recreational biblical gardens. So far, the cemetery has lost 1,800 square meters on which new burials are prohibited, a portion already converted into a park.

Ma’man Allah Cemetery is Jerusalem’s largest, reputed to hold the remains of important Islamic figures, including Companions of Prophet Muhammad and Muslim intellects and soldiers who fought the Crusaders.

Yet Israel intends a Museum of Tolerance there, turning it into a large excavation site, over 300 skeletons removed, contrary to international law. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, they were desecrated – dumped into a single mass grave.

Worse still may await the Al-Aqsa Mosque because of excavations under and around it, weakening its foundation, threatening its existence. In 2007, Israel began excavating a pathway from the Western Wall to the compound, sparking Muslim outrage.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock Restoration Committee, established in 1956 to restore it and other Jerusalem holy sites, warned that further excavations would imperil the structural integrity, most seriously by the western tunnel (one of 60) near the Mosque.

Deputy Committee head, Ra’if Najm also said chemicals used to break up rocks are causing more damage. As a result, the Security Council and UNESCO demanded that Israel comply with international law, halting further excavations and related operations. Israel didn’t respond.

Other excavations in the Old City and Silwan have also been damaging, Adnan Al-Hussaini, special PA adviser on Jerusalem Affairs warning that Israel is destroying Islamic antiquities, “replacing them with other ones.”

PA legislator Hatem Abdul Qader threatened an International Court of Justice (ICJ) lawsuit to stop the looting. In early 2009, an Umayyad-era artifact was stolen, an ancient stone, transferred to the Knesset’s courtyard, Israel blocking demands to return it.

The Separation Wall, checkpoints, and other restrictions have also been devastating, impeding Palestinian access to, in and around Jerusalem. Yet prohibiting them from worshipping at Al-Aqsa and nearby mosques violates Fourth Geneva, Christians wanting access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other religious sites also affected.

The extremist Netanyahu government exacerbates the problem, Palestine’s Chief Justice, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Al-Tamimi, expressing deep concern about outlandish racist policies threatening “to cancel Arab identity.”

On March 28, 2010, the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported that he urged Palestinians “to exert more efforts and unite in order to protect the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque (by) defy(ing Jewish extremists) attempts to storm the holy shrine,” adding that Judaizing has been ongoing since 1967, in calling for efforts to stop it.

PA Authority under Fatah

Shortly after assuming office, Abdul Qader, PA Minister for Jerusalem, resigned in protest, saying inadequate funding defends Palestinian interests in the city – for law suits, against land confiscations, home demolitions, Israeli security force and settler violence, and the destruction of the city’s religious, historical, cultural and demographic character.

Final Comments

Throughout 43 years of colonization, displacement, land seizures, and East Jerusalem annexation, Judaization continues relentlessly to establish irreversible “facts on the ground (to) cancel Arab identity” by making the entire city exclusively Jewish along with the West Bank’s most valued areas.

MEM supports efforts to stop it and demands accountability. “The Israeli authorities and settlers who impede the civil liberties of the rightful Palestinian owners should be brought (before) an open and fair court of law,” to halt Israeli lawlessness, ensure holy, historic Muslim sites are protected, preserved and restored, and to defend their right to a sovereign state, East Jerusalem its capital, or a one-state solution for all.

Israel will react violently, viciously, and illegally against it, its customary behavior as a rapacious occupier, defying the rule of law in pursuit of a Greater Israel and regional dominance, partnered with Washington in its global imperial agenda, threatening all humanity unless stopped.

  • Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

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Protestors hold firm around Palestine this week

Palestinian children confront Israeli soldiers (ISM, 2010)

International Solidarity Movement, 6 July 2010

An Nabi Salih

The Friday protest in An Nabi Salih was passionate and vibrant as ever. Israeli Army jeeps pre-emptively invaded the village, setting up a roadblock at the main crossroads. Dozens of villagers, joined by a handful of international and Israeli activists, marched down the main street to meet them. The number of protestors soon grew as most of the people in the village came out into the streets to demonstrate against the soldiers.

The An Nabi Salih demonstration is specifically against the expansion of the nearby Halamish settlement, annexing An Nabi Salih’s land. But there is also a strong message against the Occupation in general.

Palestinian children confront Israeli soldiers (ISM, 2010)

Palestinian children confront Israeli soldiers (ISM, 2010)

Crowds of women and children in particular assailed the soldiers, singing and clapping. Chanting went on for almost two hours, with the soldiers still refusing to leave the village, until some local youths began throwing a few stones down the main street. The Israeli soldiers responded with disproportionate violence, firing volleys of tear gas canisters up the street at head-height, making a mockery of this supposed crowd-dispersal technique.

Skirmishes between soldiers and local youth went on almost until sundown, with the soldiers making forays deeper into the village but failing to capture any of the stone-throwers. Two Israeli activists were detained, however, for no other reason but criticising the soldier’s illegal invasion of the village. Both were later released without charge.

After some five hours of confrontation, the soldiers left An Nabi Salih, to the joy and relief of the villagers.

Ni’lin

This Friday, as every Friday for over two years, the villagers in Ni’lin together with international activists gathered to protest against the illegal annexation wall.

The demonstrators gathered in the olive groves outside the village after noon-day prayers, then marched towards the wall. When the march neared the wall the Palestinians chanted and waved their flags. Some shabaab (Palestinian youths) threw stones against and over the wall. Surprisingly there was no reaction from the soldiers on the other side, besides taking pictures of the shabaab. After about half an hour the protest ended and the protesters walked back to the village.

Bil’in

At the Bil’in weekly demonstration about 150 protestors carried a message to the Palestinian leadership, expressing the need for unification. A large banner showed a picture of Arafat and Yaseen together. The Israeli army was waiting on the other side of the Wall, responding with tear gas and stun grenades which set fire to several olive trees. Soldiers then charged through a gate in the Wall, chasing protestors back towards the village. Soldiers continued to fire on the retreating crowd, though luckily there were no injuries.

Heat from tear gas canisters and sound grenades set fire to the dry ground in several places, with smoke and gas forcing the people of Bil’in further back. Ammunition starting fires is a serious problem this time of the year, when the ground is dry. Many olive trees have been severely damaged, resulting in fewer olives for harvest this year.

Wadi Rahal

A few dozen Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals walked Friday at noon from Wadi Rahal to the site where Israel plans to build the illegal Apartheid Wall. There was plenty of energy, chanting and drumming (local and Israeli drummers). The army did not allow passage, and tried to push the demonstrators backwards. After a long non-violent struggle (i.e. the demonstrators acting non-violently) the soldiers started shooting tear gas and sound bombs, the first landing on a little boy’s leg. Two Israeli activists were arrested, illegally, for participating in the non-violent protest. The demonstration went on in a schoolyard nearby, still with great spirit and energy.

Iraq Burin

Some 50 villagers from Iraq Burin gathered for the regular Saturday afternoon protest this week, supported by five ISM activists. The Israeli Army attempts to completely close off the village each week, clearly hoping that the disproportionate violence of their behaviour will be invisible outside Iraq Burin. Activists are forced to take extraordinary measures to reach the village and document military violence.

tear gas attack (ISM)

tear gas attack (ISM)

On arrival in the village, ISM activists met with a local man, 22, who was detained and beaten after last week’s protest. He confirmed that he was punched and kicked repeatedly in police custody; he now walks with a pronounced limp and has constant pain in his back. He will not be able to continue his regular work for at least three months, and will have no income for that period.

After noon-day prayers, the protest group marched up a hill, across village land that is threatened by settler violence. As usual the group was met by a unit of dozen soldiers waiting at the top of the hill. There was some chanting against the Occupation, and a tense stand-off for a few minutes, the two groups standing about 50 metres apart. One of the Palestinian youths threw a single, small stone at the soldiers, falling well short of their group. Soldiers responded by firing tear gas at the Palestinians and internationals, aiming their canisters directly at the demonstrators, at head height. Some canisters narrowly missed hitting both Palestinians and internationals, and there were a few minutes of panic as the protestors retreated across the rocky, open ground, desperately hoping not to be hit.

Lighter skirmishes followed, until the soldiers left the village land after about an hour, bringing the demonstration to an end.

Hebron

On Saturday around two hundred Palestinian and International protesters gathered in the Old City of Hebron to protest against the illegal settlements and the closure of Shuhada street. Speeches were held by politicians from different parties, including Mustafa Barghouti. A massive amount of soldiers attempted to intimidate the participants and block their way into the Old City. But the demonstrators resisted non-violently and despite persistent violence from soldiers successfully paraded the Old City.

Beit Jala

On Sunday in Beit Jala some 30 protesters marched through a street that leads to the Apartheid Wall’s construction site. To the sound of the working bulldozers nearby, the march was stopped by a group of soldiers and a barbed wire they had installed earlier. The protesters demanded to go through to the Palestinian land being annexed and destroyed by the wall construction, and some touched the barb wire to show their contempt to the occupying army.

The soldiers soon launched an assault with sound bombs and then tear gas canisters, which were shot at the populated street far beyond the protesters. One person was treated for heavy tear gas inhalation. At a different spot the army incursion was met with stone throwers. The army then began terrorizing a main street in Beit Jala, traumatizing passers-by and the entire population of the area.