Scottish Friends of Palestine                                   

Briefing Paper                                                                                                     

June 2015

Long live Israel's new and honest government  Gideon Levy Ha’aretz   10/5/2015

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.655674

Israel's new government won't spout hollow slogans about peace, human rights, and justice. The truth will be thrust in the faces of Israelis - and the world.

The 34th government will deserve Israel; Israel will deserve the 34th government. This is an authentic and representative government, the true manifestation of the spirit of the times and the deepest feelings of most Israelis. It will be a true government, without pretense, without makeup and without self-justification. What we’ll see is what we’ll get. Welcome to the fourth Benjamin Netanyahu government.

                They won’t talk haughtily and they won’t spout hollow slogans. Not about peace and not about human rights; not about two states and not about negotiations; not about international law, justice or equality. The truth will be thrust in the faces of Israelis and the world. And the truth is this: The two-state solution is dead (it was never born), the Palestinian state will not arise, international law does not apply to Israel, the occupation will continue to crawl quickly toward annexation, annexation will continue to crawl quickly toward an apartheid state; “Jewish” supersedes “democratic,” nationalism and racism will get the government stamp of approval, but they’re already here and have been for a long time.

                Neither Netanyahu, nor Habayit Hayehudi’s chairman MK Naftali Bennett nor that party’s faction members MK Ayelet Shaked and MK Eli Ben-Dahan, started this whole thing. They only expedited things. And there should be no shock or outrage, no bewailing the bitterness of fate. This government is a government of continuation, not a government of change.

                True, some of its members are more extreme than their predecessors, but that is mainly about rhetorical differences. Even the most inflammatory appointment, of Shaked as justice minister, which reverberated throughout the world over the weekend, is less revolutionary than it seems. Shaked is blunt and violent, whereas Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni, her predecessor, was delicate and proper. But Justice Minister Shaked will not have to work hard to break open cracks in our democracy; they opened a long time ago. The best test of the nature of the regime in Israel is the test of the occupation and the war crimes: the foundations of apartheid are already deep and the war crimes remain uninvestigated.

                From her office in the heart of occupied Jerusalem, Livni has not made Israel more just in that respect. True, Shaked’s ideas are more nationalistic and her understanding of the essence of democracy is nil. True, many in the world were shocked that a person who identified with one of the most violent articles ever written here against the Palestinian people (by Uri Elitzur), was appointed minister of Israeli justice. But there’s no place for such sanctimoniousness. Elitzur expressed what many people are thinking.

                The appointment of another racist, Eli Ben-Dahan, as deputy defense minister, responsible for the Civil Administration, should not be earth-shattering either. True, Ben-Dahan said that “the Palestinians are animals, they are not human, they are not entitled to live” – but don’t these statements reflect the true attitude of many Israelis? Ben-Dahan will speak for them. That is how Israel has been treating the Palestinians for almost 50 years; Ben-Dahan is only saying things overtly. Now he will be responsible for the Civil Administration and the whole system of “humanitarian gestures” will be torn up. Ben-Dahan is the right man in the right place at the right time. An excellent appointment.

                A person who proudly says “I killed masses of Arabs” and calls them “shrapnel in the buttocks” will be education minister – and who in Israel doesn’t think that? The general of Operation Cast Lead, with its crimes, the man who contravened building restrictions, Yoav Galant, will be construction minister. Is that not a fine appointment? MK Uri Maklev of United Torah Judaism is to head the Knesset Science Committee? Does that not correctly reflect the attitude of some Israelis to science?

                Stop whining. Maybe Israel’s shadow government should be more enlightened, but not its real government. It is what the Israelis chose, it reflects their true stands. And so, long live the new government.

Netanyahu’s Win Is Good for Palestine  Yousef Munayyer        18/03/2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/opinion/netanyahus-win-is-good-for-palestine.html?smid=fb-share

 IF anyone doubted where Benjamin Netanyahu stood on the question of peace, the Israeli prime minister made himself clear just before Tuesday’s election, proclaiming that there would never be aPalestinian state on his watch. Then he decided to engage in a bit of fear-mongering against Palestinian citizens of Israel in hopes of driving his supporters to the polls. “The right-wing government is in danger,” Mr. Netanyahu announced on Election Day. “Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves.”

                But Mr. Netanyahu’s victory is actually the best plausible outcome for those seeking to end Israel’s occupation. Indeed, I, as a Palestinian, breathed a sigh of relief when it became clear that his Likud Party had won the largest number of seats in the Knesset. This might seem counterintuitive, but the political dynamics in Israel and internationally mean that another term with Mr. Netanyahu at the helm could actually hasten the end of Israel’s apartheid policies. The biggest losers in this election were those who made the argument that change could come from within Israel. It can’t and it won’t.

                Israelis have grown very comfortable with the status quo. In a country that oversees a military occupation that affects millions of people, the biggest scandals aren’t about settlements, civilian deaths or hate crimes but rather mundane things like the price of cottage cheese and whether the prime minister’s wife embezzled bottle refunds. For Israelis, there’s currently little cost to maintaining the occupation and re-electing leaders like Mr. Netanyahu. Raising the price of occupation is therefore the only hope of changing Israeli decision making. Economic sanctions against South Africa in the 1980s increased its international isolation and put pressure on the apartheid regime to negotiate. Once Israelis are forced to decide between perpetual occupation and being accepted in the international community, they may choose a more moderate leader who dismantles settlements and pursues peace, or they may choose to annex rather than relinquish land — provoking a confrontation with America and Europe. Either way, change will have to come from the outside.

                The boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign (B.D.S.) has thrived while Mr. Netanyahu has led Israel. He has become the internationally recognized face of Israeli intransigence, settlement building and brazen disregard for Palestinian human rights. But while Mr. Netanyahu has become synonymous with the occupation, he is in many ways a product of it. There are also entrenched political and economic interests that benefit from maintaining the status quo. By monopolizing West Bank land and natural resources, Israel reaps the benefits of occupation with few costs. Settlements are a major state investment, and add both a geographic and political obstacle to peace since settlers play a key role in shaping Israeli politics and their interests cannot be ignored.

                Mr. Netanyahu’s style has certainly heightened tensions and harmed relations with Israel’s allies. He has clashed with President Obama and thumbed his nose at the Democratic Party by helping to make Israel a partisan political issue in America. His most recent speech before a joint session of Congress, which 60 members of Congress boycotted, was merely the latest incident.

                The old land-for-peace model must now be replaced with a rights-for-peace model. Palestinians must demand the right to live on their land, but also free movement, equal treatment under the law, due process, voting rights and freedom from discrimination. Mr. Netanyahu’s re-election has convincingly proved that trusting Israeli voters with the fate of Palestinian rights is disastrous and immoral. His government will oppose any constructive change, placing Israel on a collision course with the rest of the world. And this collision has never been more necessary.

 There won’t be real change on the ground or at the polls without further pressure on Israel. And now, that pressure will increase. For this, we have Mr. Netanyahu to thank.

Israel to sue Meshaal for closing Ben-Gurion airport  Middle East Monitor 20 Feb/02/2015

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/17087-israel-to-sue-meshaal-for-closing-ben-gurion-airport

The Shurat Hadin legal centre has announced its intention to prosecute the Head of Hamas's Political Bureau, Khaled Meshaal, as well as other Hamas officials on charges of obstructing air travel at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport during the most recent Israeli attack on Gaza. Israel's Channel 2 reported that the centre, which specialises in filing lawsuits against Israel's opponents in American and Canadian courts, has called on all Americans harmed by the obstructed air travel due to the rockets fired at the airport by the Al-Qassam Brigades to contact the centre in order for a lawsuit to be filed in their names. Channel 2 also quoted Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat Hadin, saying: "We are trying to find a way to put Khaled Meshaal on trial in the US. The war crimes that he conducted against Israel and its citizens can be heard also in other courts aside from the criminal court in the Hague." She said that the suit is made possible by the fact that Meshaal holds Jordanian citizenship, and also because the Palestinian Authority (PA) has requested to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Trial over attacks could hurt Palestinian war crimes push Ian Deitch Associated Press  20/02/15

Http://news.yahoo.com/us-trial-over-attacks-could-hurt-palestinian-war-061955717.html

Palestinian officials are nervously watching a landmark terrorism trial in the United States, brought by victims of Palestinian suicide bombings and shootings aimed at civilians. They fear a negative verdict could hurt their international image at a time when they are preparing to press war crimes charges against Israel. The $1 billion lawsuit was filed over a series of deadly attacks in or near Jerusalem that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, a decade ago. The plaintiffs have turned to the U.S. court because some of the victims were American citizens. Although the cases are not directly linked, a ruling against the Palestinian Authority in New York federal court threatens to undermine Palestinian efforts to rally international support for a brewing battle at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. With American plaintiffs seeking billions of dollars in damages, it could also deliver a tough financial blow to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority refused to comment on the lawsuit. But several senior Palestinian officials said the case is being closely watched in Ramallah and acknowledged they are worried about the outcome. The officials spoke anonymously on the advice of their lawyers.At issue are several Palestinian attacks between 2001 and 2004 targeting civilians,

Demolishing Arab women's homes - easy way out  Samah Salaime Egbariya 972 Mag  18/02/15

Http://972mag.com/demolishing-arab-womens-homes-is-the-easy-way-out/102904/

What are Arab citizens expected to do when the city only builds for Jews, and why do single mothers almost always pay the price? -- On the surface, it was just another illegal dwelling demolished in the city of Lyd (“Lod” in Hebrew). The image of a violence, crime-ridden city combined with that of too many law-breaking Arabs is particularly blinding for both the media and social activists. After all, we are simply talking about a municipality attempting to get its zoning matters straight, that’s all. But let me invite you to take a closer look at what is actually taking place in Lyd, where for the past 10 years, investment and high-momentum construction have been named national-level goals by one government decision after another. There has been no approved zoning plan for decades. Arabs cannot build on their own lands, and plans that are meant to authorize legal construction in the Arab neighborhoods are stuck in bureaucratic pipelines – at least according to the plan for the improvement of the Lyd municipality that was passed by Netanyahu’s government ... Not a single housing project has been built for Arabs, not even one meant for the general population where Arabs would also be permitted to purchase homes. None. On the other hand, thousands of new housing units have been built at lightning speed right across from the Arab neighborhoods for the latest gari’n of religious settlers (small communities of religious Jews who move, usually from the occupied territories, into cities with mixed Arab and Jewish population) or other religious groups ... if we look a little closer to see whose homes are destroyed time and time again, we will find that even when it comes to the worst attacks on the security of Arab citizens, there is an added layer of discrimination against women, and especially impoverished women.

The world’s broken promises - the children will suffer  C Gunness The Guardian 21/02/2015

Http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/21/chris-gunness-gaza-aid-broken-promises-children-suffer

Baby Salma died of hypothermia at just 40 days old. Her body was drenched with freezing rainwater. It was frozen “like ice-cream”. Gaza was hit by a severe winter storm called “Huda” in January. Salma was its youngest victim. I meet Salma’s mother, Mirvat, and 14 members of her extended family in the very place, indeed the room, where Salma slept during her last night at home. They still live there in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, in a tiny three-room wooden structure, covered with plastic. When I see it from the road, I assume it houses animals. The door is a blanket which flaps in the biting wind. It is raining. Water flows in. Mirvat pulls back the sodden carpet that serves as flooring and scoops the wet sand below. Memories of Salma’s death on 9 January are painfully fresh. “The night she died the storm was strong. We were all soaking wet, but some of us managed to sleep. The rain came and in and drenched Salma’s blankets. I found her shaking. Her tiny body was frozen like ice-cream. We took her to hospital, but later the doctor called. Salma was dead. My beautiful girl weighed 3.1kg at birth. She was healthy and would be alive today if we had not been bombed out of our home in the war and reduced to living like this.”... The family tragedy does not end with Salma. Her sister Maes, aged three, is in hospital suffering from respiratory problems brought on by exposure to harsh weather. “I worry that Maes will die like Salma,” says Mirvat. Outside, I meet Mirvat’s sister-in-law, Nisreen, 28. Her son died at just 50 days old in the UNRWA school where the family had taken refuge. “Moemen’s death was unexpected. There was nothing anyone could do to save him. I felt that he was cold. I covered him up and I put him to sleep. The child was sleeping in my lap. When I woke up at four in the morning he was blue. Moemen was dead. I have waited for a boy for five years, and now he’s gone.” ...  UNRWA, the agency for which I work, was forced to suspend what for this family would have been a life-saving programme just three weeks ago. After the conference in Cairo last October at which donors pledged $5.4bn to rebuild Gaza, we created a $720m project. With the generous pledges at Cairo we were certain the funds would be there. Or so we thought.

Israel turns off power in the dead of winter          Annie Robbins    Mondoweiss           24/02/2015

Http://mondoweiss.net/2015/02/hundreds-thousands-palestinians

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are cash strapped this winter because Israel is withholding $240 million in tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority as punishment for joining the ICC. This is radical, though it’s not unusual and something we’ve come to expect. But turning off the electricity in the middle of winter as blizzards sweep across the Middle East is nothing short of sadistic. The Los Angeles Times reports Israel cut the power to more than 700,000 Palestinians in two of Palestine’s largest urban areas, Nablus and Jenin, for more than 45 minutes “and warned that more outages are coming if Palestinian officials don’t pay millions of dollars in outstanding debt.” Citing Yiftah Ron-Tal, the director of Israel Electric Corp. (IEC), the Times reports: "“Customers who do not pay electric bills are disconnected; yet here we have an entire population that doesn’t pay while we continue to supply electricity,” he said. “The Palestinian Authority owes the IEC --meaning the paying consumers -- nearly 2 billion Israeli shekels [about $500 million]. A year has passed since I said this last and nothing has changed. Starting today, we will begin restricting electricity.” The irony here, of withholding the months of  tax revenue while demanding payment of a debt, on top of occupation policy preventing Palestinians from being self sufficient, is not lost on anyone.

Dancing children attacked by Israeli forces    ISM     Khalil Team   25/02/2015

Http://palsolidarity.org/2015/02/dancing-children-attacked-by-israeli-forces/

On the 24th of February in occupied Al-Khalil (Hebron), Israeli forces opened fire on dancing Palestinian youth, firing tear gas and throwing stun grenades at group of young children performing a traditional Palestinian dance as a form of protest in front of Shuhada checkpoint. The fifteen young dancers, Palestinian girls and boys between the ages of six and twelve, gathered to perform dabke, a traditional Palestinian dance. They staged their dance in the open street in Bab Al-Zawiye (in the H1 – officially Palestinian Authority-controlled – part of Hebron) near Shuhada checkpoint, as part of a week of actions planned by Palestinian organizers around the annual Open Shuhada Street campaign. The children began performing under heavy military surveillance, as at least thirteen soldiers occupied roofs surrounding the entrance to the checkpoint ... “As soon as the dancing kids moved closer to the checkpoint, soldiers immediately attacked with two tear gas grenades and two stun grenades,” reported an ISM volunteer who witnessed the incident. “Israeli soldiers fired tear gas even though the children were not throwing stones.” After first fleeing the assault, the Palestinian children managed to continue dancing even as around twenty soldiers and eight border police advanced from the checkpoint into Bab Al-Zawiye. Israeli forces threw a dozen stun grenades after a few youth began throwing stones at the checkpoint. Clashes continued for about an hour and a half, as Israeli soldiers and border police fired even more rounds of tear gas, several additional stun grenades, and eventually rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian youth. Advancing further and further into the commercial center of Bab Al-Zawiye, they ended up shooting into the crowded streets of the city’s market area. Local activists reported that two Palestinians suffered injuries from rubber-coated steel bullets...

'Escalation' is when Palestinians cease their self-restraint  Amira Hass   Ha’aretz  01/03/15

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.644847

“[The Israel Defense Forces] Central Command is completing preparations for possible clashes in the West Bank beginning at the end of March,” Amos Harel reported in Haaretz (English edition, March 1). And in the Hebrew edition of Haaretz last week, Harel reported that reserve battalions from the Judea and Samaria Division have been called in for a series of stepped-up training exercises in advance of a possible escalation of the situation. This prompts several comments: 1. It becomes apparent from periodic reports of “preparations for escalation” that the IDF – in other words, that force defending the occupation – views itself as a party that is only reactive. It is not responsible for escalation and certainly isn’t initiating any such action. 2. If it were not for those Palestinians who got stuck between the military bases, the roadblocks, appearing on monitors in situation rooms and in the armored personnel carriers, the IDF could have fulfilled its real destination: as a society for the protection of nature ...  4. Here’s a case of non-escalation: Armed Israelis raided the Deheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank last Tuesday night. They killed a young Palestinian (because those insolent Palestinians resisted the intrusion into their homes). In a raid the previous evening on the Aida refugee camp, an armed Israeli force wounded five young Palestinians with live ammunition. They too had the nerve to resist the raid and a kidnapping attempt.

Israel is galloping to the next war in Gaza  Gideon Levy   Ha’aretz 26/02/2015

Http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.644219

The next war will break out in the summer. Israel will give it another childish name and it will take place in Gaza. There’s already a plan to evacuate the communities along the Gaza Strip border. Israel knows this war will break out, it also knows why – and it’s galloping toward it blindfolded, as though it were a cyclic ritual, a periodical ceremony or a natural disaster that cannot be avoided. Here and there one even perceives enthusiasm. It doesn’t matter who the prime minister is and who the defense minister is – there’s no difference between the candidates as far as Gaza is concerned ...  The rest of the Israelis aren’t interested in Gaza’s fate either and soon it will be forced to remind them again of its disaster in the only way left to it, the rockets ... It’s hard to believe, but Israelis have invented a parallel reality, cut off from the real one, a callous, unfeeling, denying reality, while all this adversity, most of it of their own making, is taking place a short distance from their homes. Babies are freezing to death under the debris of their homes, youths risk their lives and cross the border fence just to get a food portion in an Israeli lock up. Has anyone heard of this? Does anyone care? Does anyone understand that this is leading to the next war?

Shin Bet Torture of Palestinian detainees rises sharply  Chaim Levinson  Ha’aretz  06/03/15

Http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.645587

In the second half of last year, there were 51 instances of torture reported, compared to eight in the first half of 2014 -- Mohammed Hatib, a Hamas activist from Hebron, is a childhood friend of Marwan Kawasme, who masterminded the abduction and subsequent murder of the three teens from Gush Etzion in June 2014. Hatib was arrested shortly after the kidnapping and interrogated by the Shin Bet security service. He denied any knowledge of the affair and said he had no idea where Kawasme had disappeared to. Hatib’s questioning very quickly turned into torture, what the Ofer Military Court judges call “required by necessity,” “exceptional questioning,” or “special means.” Under torture, Hatib admitted to serving as a lookout for Kawasme and his accomplice, Amar Abu-Aisha, on the night of the abduction. This was a lie; the investigation showed that there was no lookout. The Shin Bet and the military prosecution did not believe Hatib, as can be seen by the indictment he was served, in which there is no mention of involvement in the abduction. He stands accused of firing a rifle in the air in 2006 and later taking part in a large number of Hamas rallies and protests. Hatib’s questioning under torture is part of a trend, that began in the second half of 2014, of the increased use of torture by the Shin Bet, according to an attorney who represents many suspects accused of security offenses, information collected by Haaretz from military courts, and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.

School pupil on charge of having geometric compass    PNN    03/03/2015

Http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/national/9279-israeli-forces-detain-school-student-on-charge-of-having-geometric-compass

This morning, Israeli forces arrested Ihab Maher Abu Rmeileh, a seventh grader on his way to Al-Ibrahimia school inside the old city of Hebron, charged with having a geometric compass inside his schoolbag. According to the D.G of Field Follow-up in the Ministry, an Israeli force attacked the school child Abu Rmeileh, and dragged him to a military point inside the town after being severely beaten by a group of settlers. In a related context, a number of settlers attacked two students from the same school Nizar Ghalma (eighth grade) and Ahmed Rajaby (seventh grade), and then the Israeli forces arrested the students and took them to a military point there. These incidents come after a visit to this school by a group of international figures including, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Mr. James W. Rawley, together with diplomats from five countries and the European Union, as well as representatives from Save the Children and UNICEF.

ISIL, Israel and cultural cleansing   Marwan Bishara    Al Jazeera     09/03/2015

Http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/03/isil-israel-cultural-cleansing-150309103525975.html

When discussing ISIL's cleansing of pre-Islamic history, we must also consider Israel's erasure of Palestinian culture -- "How on earth one manages to mention Israel when discussing #ISIS destroying #Nimrud...smh, unbelievable! @marwanbishara." This was one of the reactions I got to my interview about the historic context of the bulldozing of archeological sites in Iraq's Hatra, Nimrud, and the destruction of various statues in Mosul museum by militants of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group. It's a rather predictable response from a Zionist, but it also shows how so many are in denial over their past and cannot see why the horrors in Iraq and Syria - as ugly as they might be - are neither new nor the exception ... [Some historians] argue that the only way to erect a Jewish state was to undo what's been there before it, hence destroying or erasing much of the Palestinian landscape. - Reconsecration of Palestine - In his book, Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, Meron Benvenisti, an Israeli political scientist and former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, writes: "The fate of the sites sacred to Muslims in the State of Israel can serve as an example of how victors arrogate for themselves sites that are sacred to their vanquished enemy and adapt them to their own needs, whether for worship or for secular purposes, even turning them to uses that are clearly sacrilegious. If they find no use for them, they leave them deserted and crumbling, and do not allow members of the defeated people to restore them, lest that serve as a 'precedent' for their return to the old landscape."

A soldier's best friend, a Palestinian's worst nightmare  Ha’aretz by Gideon Levy /Eva Illouz

Http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/twilight-zone/.premium-1.646594                                    14/03/15

More than two months after being brutally attacked by a dog from the IDF canine unit, a Palestinian teenager remains in detention -- Hamzeh Abu Hashem, 16, is still incarcerated in an Israeli prison. He’s been in jail for more than two months. It wasn’t easy to find out, this week, exactly where the legal proceedings against him stand. Apparently, it didn’t occur to anyone in the Israel Defense Forces that maybe, after the experience the youngster endured – soldiers set one of their dogs on him brutally – he should be treated a little more humanely, leniently. Even though the army’s cruelty in the West Bank extends to children, too. On December 23, the soldiers in the Oketz canine unit were filmed releasing an attack dog on the petrified teen, and shouting at him, as the dog held him in a vice-like grip, “Who’s a chicken, who’s a chicken, you son of a bitch.” The soldiers are free; their victim is in prison, and no one knows when he will be released, despite the trauma he underwent. Forgiveness, pardon, consideration, humanity or at least psychological treatment for the boy – none are in evidence. Nor has there even been the possibility of letting his parents visit him after he was wounded, if only in order to help calm him down, and themselves, too. Helplessly, their hearts bleeding, the parents watched the video last week. They were under the impression that attorney Neri Ramati was handling their son’s case, but that turned out to be inaccurate. This week, Ramati referred them to another lawyer, Khaled al-Araj, who said he did not know what fate awaits his client. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit stated that because the case involves a minor, all legal proceedings are taking place behind closed doors and nothing about the discussions can be publicized, apart from the fact that he’s been charged with stone-throwing. The continuation of the trial, the IDF added, is set for March 30 ... As for the video, it was released by the ultranationalist former MK Michael Ben Ari, who wanted to bask in the glory of the abomination wrought by the bullying soldiers. “The soldiers taught the little terrorist a lesson,” Ben Ari tweeted basely. Ben Ari wanted to disseminate the video clip – to which no viewer can be indifferent – “so that every dinky terrorist who plans to harm our soldiers will learn that there’s a price [to be paid].”....

National Park growth hits Palestinian families hard  Bethan Staton  Middle East Eye 11/03/15

Http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israels-national-park-growth-hit-palestinian-families-hard-1640726012

Wa‘ad Mustafa and Baha‘a Turk were not shocked to see bulldozers in front of their home in ‘Issawiya, East Jerusalem. The boys could do little to stop the vehicles that rolled by from the Israeli base above their neighbourhood on Tuesday, leaving a trail of hard-packed, flattened clay and churned mud. The equipment was escorted, after all, by armed soldiers who fired tear gas at those who tried to stop them: one man, who was in his 80s and already suffering from health problems, was taken to hospital after inhaling the smoke. “We’re living under occupation, this is life,” Mustafa told Middle East Eye with a dry smile ... Yesterday, however, the damage was not restricted to homes. Israeli vehicles flattened several walls, storehouses and sheds used for keeping animals, as well as destroying the dirt tracks that local families depend on to reach their homes. Further up the hill, two olive trees were uprooted and pushed across the ridge, and by early afternoon residents of the village were picking through the tracks and assessing the damage. One man, attempting to drive his car down the hill, became immediately stuck in the mess of soil. When structures are destroyed here, authorities justify them in terms of illegality. But there is good reason why the area between Issawiya and al-Tur might be particularly hit by demolitions. This green hillside sloping southwards from the Hebrew University lies between Jerusalem and the West Bank, and borders the Route One road to Ma’ale Adumim. It’s also set to become Mount Scopus Slopes National Park. A controversial project of the National Parks Authority, Mount Scopus is currently being proposed in the Jerusalem area. Slated to be built on some 750 dunums of Issawiya and al-Tur land, it will turn an area that Palestinian residents badly need for development of their communities into nationally protected open space.

In Israel, a good Arab is an invisible Arab  Gideon Levy  Ha’aretz  12/03/2015

The woman who will light a torch on Independence Day is just the type of Arab that Israel likes -- an invisible one -- My hearty congratulations to television presenter Lucy Aharish, who was chosen to light one of the beacons on Independence Day. On the anniversary of her nation’s disaster she will stand on Mount Herzl, not far from the ruins of the Arab village of Deir Yassin, the separation barrier and the Aida refugee camp, and light the beacon to the glory of the State of Israel. Aharish recalled that she was moved by the invitation, even to the point of tears. Her mother said on hearing the news that it was “a slap to all the racists.” We can assume that many “non-racist” Israelis will also be moved at the sight of the Arab woman who grew up in Dimona and appears on Hebrew television without an accent, participating in the fundamental ceremonies of their Jewish, democratic state. This is the way Israel rewards her exemplary behavior. The committee that chooses those who light the beacons wrote that Aharish “promotes social pluralism and positions that call for coexistence in our country.” In the eyes of the Zionist establishment, Aharish is a good Arab. It turns out that in our enlightened state, a good Arab is an invisible Arab, when it comes to his identity. Why was Aharish chosen? Because she – how shall we put it – does not look Arab, sound Arab or dress like an Arab. The “coexistence” of the establishment that chose her is actually “uni-existence,” everyone in its image. The deal is obvious: If you act like Jews, talk like them and think like them, you will be considered good Arabs, and maybe even Israelis. Because that is how we want you to be – like us. Not like the Zoabis. In other words, you are better off assimilating. But that is a double standard. The same Zionist establishment whose representatives put a beacon in Aharish’s hand and that sees Jewish assimilation into the Diaspora as a national disaster enthuses over the assimilation of Arabs. Would the committee have rewarded assimilated Jews in Europe? Would it say to a Jewish television host in America who distanced himself from every symbol of his people that he was contributing to “pluralism” or to “coexistence”?

Http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.646426

Dahmash fears being wiped off Israel's map    Jonathan Cook   Middle East Eye  11/03/2015

Http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/arab-village-dahmash-fears-being-wiped-israel-s-map-1281091020

Dahmash residents say they are being targeted because they are the only Palestinian community that remains in central Israel -- According to Israel’s official records, the 600 inhabitants of Dahmash village live a single building - one that no longer exists. The villagers’ story may sound like the basis for a sinister fairy tale, but their plight is all too real. Next week their case reaches Israel’s highest court and the outcome is likely to decide whether Dahmash, survives or is destroyed. For decades officials have refused to recognise the village’s 70 actual homes, trapped between the towns of Ramle and Lod, and only 20 minutes’ drive from Tel Aviv, Israel’s most vibrant city. Arafat Ismail, the village leader, said that while industrial parks, shopping malls and estates of luxury villas had sprung up all around them, Dahmash’s residents had been treated like “illegal squatters”. Deprived of recognition in their own village, all the families have been registered as living in a building on the edge of the neighbouring town of Ramle. However, that house was destroyed years ago as nearby rail and road arteries expanded. “Now, unless we can stop them, the authorities will wipe our real homes off the map too,” said Ismail, aged 54.  - ‘Stick in their throat’ - What distinguishes Dahmash from the communities around it is that it is Arab, an apparently unwelcome relic from a time when the country was called Palestine. Dahmash’s inhabitants belong to Israel’s large Palestinian minority, which is descended from those who managed to remain inside the borders of the new state of Israel in 1948. Today, these 1.5 million Palestinian citizens comprise a fifth of Israel’s population, but complain of systematic discrimination. Most of their deprived communities are to be found in Israel’s so-called peripheries, in the north or south, out of view of most Israeli Jews. But located in the midst of Tel Aviv and its satellite towns, “Dahmash is like a stick in their throat,” said Ali Shaaban, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, who raises sheep and goats in the village. His own smartly appointed, two-storey home is one of 16 that face immediate demolition if the villagers lose next week’s court hearing ... Such fears have only been heightened by bellicose statements from local officials. Yoel Lavi, Ramle’s long-time mayor, told a journalist in 2006 that the government should send in special armed units and military bulldozers as it does in the occupied territories. “When you give the first shock with the crane everyone runs from their houses, don't worry," he said.

To see how racist Israel has become, look to the left   Gideon Levy  Ha’aretz  15/03/2015

Http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.646914

The new levels of Arab-hatred being displayed are shocking, and so are the Israeli public's acceptance of them -- ...The racism of the campaign season has been planted well beyond the rotten, stinking gardens of Lieberman, Naftali Bennett, Eli Yishai and Baruch Marzel. It is almost everywhere. Our cities have recently been contaminated by posters whose evil messages are nearly on a par with the slogans “Kahane was right” and “death to Arabs.” “With BibiBennett, we’ll be stuck with the Palestinians forever,” threaten the posters plastered on every overpass and hoarding, on behalf of the Peace and Security Association of National Security Experts. It is impossible to know their level of expertise on matters of peace and security, but they are clearly experts in incitement. The message and its signatories are considered center-left, but it too spreads hate and racism. “We’ll be stuck with the Palestinians forever”? Yes. The Palestinians aren’t going anywhere. Even if a Palestinian state is established, some of them will remain in Israel. What are the country’s Arabs supposed to feel when they see such hateful ads directed against them? And what’s so bad about being “stuck” with them? Are they infected with some disease? Being stuck with Lieberman is much worse. Such is the state of public discourse in Israel. Yair Lapid and “the Zoabis,” in reference to Haneen Zoabi, Moshe Kahlon who says he won’t sit in a government coalition “with the Arabs,” Isaac Herzog who will conduct coalition negotiations with all the parties with the exception of the Arab ones, Tzipi Livni and her obsession with her Jewish -- and also nationalistic and ugly -- state.

700 Israelis whose homes don't exist   Gideon Levy & Alex Levac   Ha’aretz 20/03/2015

Http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/twilight-zone/.premium-1.647815

No authority wants anything to do with the unrecognized village of Dahamesh, whose residents hoped for good news at the High Court this week. But discussion on their future was deferred again -- Hall No. 4 of the Supreme Court building in Jerusalem was packed this week: Residents of the village of Dahamesh, near Ramle, were there for a hearing about their petition. Row upon row they sat, in Israel’s highest temple of justice, the day before the general election, in the only democracy in the region. Women in head coverings, men with grim looks and lawyers in black ties bearing the logo of the Israel Bar Association. Some of residents carried rolled-up maps and aerial photographs as irrefutable evidence of their plight, living in what has been deemed an illegal village, but no one asked to see them. It was hard to know, after so many years of waging a legal and public battle, how much trust and hope they still had in the three honorable justices sitting as the High Court of Justice before them: Esther Hayut, Anat Baron and Zvi Zylbertal. The latter were whispering among themselves, as though there were no audience, before finally deciding to defer discussion of the villagers’ fate. A village goes to the capital city to request recognition. The village wants the court to compel the government to recognize its existence. Only in Israel, surely. Yet another of the many wounds from 1948 that continue to fester and refuse to heal. Another “unrecognized” village, but this one’s in the center of the country, between depressed Ramle and Lod and the prosperous moshav (cooperative village) of Nir Zvi. The forebears of Dahamesh’s residents arrived there in 1951, after being removed by the state from their fields and homes on the coastal plain, and being offered alternative land. And indeed they built new homes on the land they received, which was earmarked for farming – and, horror of horrors, the village even expanded over time, as villages are wont to do. The state never recognized it. There is no village. Until 2004, however, Dahamesh was allowed to exist. That year, the authorities suddenly remembered there was a village, albeit an unrecognized one. They began issuing – and implementing – demolition orders. In 2010, Human Rights Watch called on the Israeli government to grant Dahamesh legal status. Here’s what Menashe Moshe, head of the Emek Lod Regional Council, to which the village belongs and to which it pays taxes, wrote in 2010, in response to a question put to him by a local newspaper: “The notion implicit in your query, that this is a ‘village’ and that it has a name, ‘Dahamesh,’ and that [its residents] are being harassed because they are ‘Arabs,’ is incorrect. There is no village, there is no name and there are no Arabs ...” It’s hard to believe the conditions in which these 700 people live, in 2015, half an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv.  A scarred and battered gravel road, studded with potholes and lined with garbage, is the high road, the only road, into the “non-village.” Its nonexistent Arabs dwell in 73 houses....

Illegal removal of solar panels in Khan al-Ahmar    IMEMC/Agencies 12/04/15

Http://www.imemc.org/article/71209

Solar panels finally brought electricity to the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the West Bank, but the residents’ joy was short-lived. A few weeks after the panels were installed, Israeli authorities confiscated them, indicating the latest chapter in Israel's long battle to quash the strategically located village. PNN reports that, on Wednesday, policemen and Israeli soldiers escorted employees of the Israeli Civil Administration (the governing body of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank) on a trip to Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin village located a few kilometers from occupied East Jerusalem. There, they dismantled 11 solar panels, most of which had just been donated and installed by the Palestinian NGO Future for Palestine to give this village a few hours of electricity a day. Israel has a long history of opposing any construction or development projects in Khan al-Ahmar, which is the last Palestinian outpost in the E1 zone in the West Bank. Though the total area of the zone is only about 12 km², it has both strategic and symbolic importance for Israel because it connects the northern and southern West Bank. According to numerous analysts, local NGOs and UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Israel is looking to expel the last Palestinian residents of Khan al-Ahmar in order to connect the Israeli settlement Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem.  Moreover, cutting the last direct link between the north and south parts of the West Bank would further break up the Palestinian Territories, which are already dotted with Israeli settlements, and would create one more barrier to the development of a Palestinian state in the future.

The Palestinians of Yarmouk    Mehdi Hasan    The Guardian Comment Is Free 12/04/15

Http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/12/refugees-yarmouk-israel-palestinians-arab-isis

Palestinian refugees are being starved, bombed and gunned down like animals. “If you want to feed your children, you need to take your funeral shroud with you,” one told Israeli news website Ynet. “There are snipers on every street, you are not safe anywhere.” This isn’t happening, however, in southern Lebanon, or even Gaza. And these particular Palestinians aren’t being killed or maimed by Israeli bombs and bullets. This is Yarmouk, a refugee camp on the edge of Damascus, just a few miles from the palace of Bashar al-Assad. Since 1 April, the camp has been overrun by Islamic State militants, who have begun a reign of terror: detentions, shootings, beheadings and the rest. Hundreds of refugees are believed to have been killed in what Ban Ki-moon has called the “deepest circle of hell”. But this isn’t just about the depravity of Isis. The Palestinians of Yarmouk have been bombarded and besieged by Assad’s security forces since 2012. Water and electricity were cut off long ago, and of the 160,000 Palestinian refugees who once lived in the camp only 18,000 now remain. The Syrian regime has, according to Amnesty International, been “committing war crimes by using starvation of civilians as a weapon”, forcing residents to “resort to eating cats and dogs”. Even as the throat-slitters took control, Assad’s pilots were continuing to drop barrel bombs on the refugees. “The sky of Yarmouk has barrel bombs instead of stars,” said Abdallah al-Khateeb, a political activist living inside the camp ... In Yarmouk, throughout 2014, residents were forced to live on around 400 calories of food aid a day – fewer than a fifth of the UN’s recommended daily amount of 2,100 calories for civilians in war zones – because UNRWA aid workers had only limited access to the camp. Today, they have zero access.“To know what it is like in Yarmouk,” one of the camp’s residents is quoted as saying on the UNRWA website, “turn off your electricity, water, heating, eat once a day, live in the dark.” Their plight should matter to us all – regardless of whether their persecutors happen to be Israelis, Syrians, Egyptians or, for that matter, fellow Palestinians.

Boy freed from jail, but not from nightmares   Gideon Levy & Alex Levac  Ha’aretz 9/04/15

Http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/twilight-zone/.premium-1.651051

Hamzeh Abu Hashem, who was wounded by dogs from the IDF canine unit, is finally free from prison. We met a broken and shaken boy -- This teenager needs psychological therapy. He stares at the floor, grimaces when asked to relate what happened to him a few months ago, and doesn’t sleep at night. His parents are aware of his situation. But there’s no one to help him, much less pay for any sort of therapy. Apart from one visit by members of Doctors Without Borders, no one has diagnosed or treated him ... Hamzeh, terrified that soldiers will come back to his house in the dead of night, as they have more than once in the past, and still shaken by the barking of stray dogs, is waiting for better times ... IDF soldiers sicced dogs on Hamzeh last December. Two months later, the ultranationalist former MK Michael Ben Ari posted a video clip documenting the event on his Facebook page, writing, “The soldiers taught the little terrorist a lesson.” His purpose in posting the clip, he explained, was to ensure “that every dinky terrorist who plans to harm our soldiers will learn that there’s a price [to be paid].” Soldiers from the Oketz canine unit were seen in the clip taunting the petrified boy as one of their dogs sank its teeth into him and held him in a vice-like grip. “Who’s a chicken, who’s a chicken, you son of a bitch,” they yelled at the teen, urging the dogs on. The video generated a furor. The IDF, admitting that what had happened was a “serious incident,” suspended the use of dogs to neutralize stone-throwing children, at least temporarily. But no one thought to free the victim of the attack after what he’d gone through. Hamzeh remained in prison. His parents were not allowed to visit him even once.

Israel's twist on international law   Charlotte Silver    Al Jazeera    26/04/15

Http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/04/israel-international-law-icc-war-crimes-150419044229850.html

Israel's laws are meant to save them from the past and protect them from the future -- In the coming days, Israel will announce whether an incident known as "Black Friday" will warrant a criminal investigation. On that day, August 1, 2014, with no warning, the Israeli army let loose a torrent of shells, missiles, drone strikes and mortars on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, in order to prevent the capture of an Israeli soldier by ensuring his death. The army killed at least 123 Palestinians. The act was derived from the Hannibal Directive, a policy developed in the 1980s that calculated a soldier was of more strategic value dead than alive and turned into something with which to be bartered by an enemy army. Since Israel began its internal investigations into its 51-day assault on Gaza last summer, the Military Advocate General (MAG) has opened 19 criminal investigations. That's a handful more than were opened after Israel's 2008-2009 assault on Gaza. Those investigations led to a single criminal indictment and a firm scolding by Israeli human rights organisations, B'tselem and Yesh Din, for their inexorable ties to the military's interests. - Self-investigation process - The army has insisted that its self-investigation process has since sufficiently improved to satisfy critics (and the International Criminal Court) since it implemented the recommendations of the Turkel Commission from 2013. But comparing the list of cases already closed without further investigation with those that have been opened makes it clear that the MAG is determined to exonerate the policies that wreaked the most systematic death and destruction on civilian life in Gaza while, maybe, scapegoating a few low-ranking soldiers....

Palestinians condemn Israeli ruling on Jerusalem property  Majeda El-Batsh   AFP  23/04/15

Http://news.yahoo.com/palestinians-condemn-israeli-ruling-jerusalem-property-194510375.html

A lawyer representing Palestinians attacked on Thursday a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court that he said could enable confiscation of east Jerusalem property owned by residents of the occupied West Bank. The April 15 decision brings such assets within the scope of the 1950 "Absentee Property Law," which places in state custody all property inside Israel owned by Arabs who were living outside the state at the time of its founding in 1948. The court declared that the law also applies to east Jerusalem -- captured by Israel in 1967 and then annexed -- in cases in which Palestinian property-owners fled to the neighbouring West Bank. Many petitions have been lodged with the courts by Palestinians in the past seeking to reclaim confiscated property. Some have been successful but the Supreme Court judgement closes the door to future appeals. Lawyer Mohannad Gebara said the absentee property law is intended "to seize the property of Palestinian refugees in order to make them (Israeli) state property... and to legalise the seizure of Palestinian assets." "The law determines that property in east Jerusalem belonging to a Palestinian living in Hebron or Ramallah has to be seized by Israel if he was at the time of the Israeli occupation in Ramallah or Hebron or any other city or area of the West Bank," he told a press conference in east Jerusalem. Israel has confiscated dozens of properties, particularly in Jerusalem's Old City and the Silwan neighbourhood in order to pass them to settler organisations, Gebara added.

Likud minister: Drowning of migrants justifies Israeli policy  Lisa Goldman  +972 mag 20/04/15

Http://972mag.com/likud-minister-drowning-of-migrants-justifies-israeli-policy/105738/

Just one day after 950 asylum seekers drown on their way to Italy, Israel’s transportation minister praises the government for preventing migrants from entering the country -- ...Posting a photo showing rows of corpses brought to shore by rescue workers, [Transportation Minister Yisrael] Katz wrote the following caption, which is translated here from Hebrew: “Hundreds of migrants from Africa drowned to death close to Italy in a disaster that horrified all human beings. Europe is having a difficult time dealing with the migrants, and with creating solutions for this difficult issue. While there are differences between us (the migrants traveling to Europe must cross a sea while those heading for Israel have a direct overland connection), you can see the rectitude of our government’s policy to build a fence on the border with Egypt, which blocks the job-seeking migrants before they enter Israel ... Katz seems not to remember some basic historical information about events leading up to and immediately after the Holocaust. When Israeli and Jewish schoolchildren around the world are taught about the Shoah, one of the most-emphasized points is that the Jews trying to escape the Nazis were denied refuge by nearly every country in the world. And that the Nazi regime felt it had carte blanche to carry out its genocide because the world had demonstrated its indifference to the fate of the Jews.

Jordan Valley villagers call for international help   AIC0 5/05/15

Http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/special-reports/area-c/736-jordan-valley-villagers-call-for-int-help

Besieged Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank's Jordan Valley have called on the international community to immediately intervene to halt Israeli military training in the area, which has already resulted in the temporary deportation of residents from four villages from their homes and threatens the future livelihood of these communities. Massive Israeli military training in the northern Jordan Valley began on Sunday, with forces using live ammunition around the homes and farms of Palestinian communities. The army ordered residents from four villages to leave their homes for the duration of the training (until Thursday): 18 families from Humsa, 30 families from Hammamaat al Maleh, 5 families from Frush Beit Dejan and 13 families from Ibziq. The families have not been given anywhere to stay, nor have they been given any type of support. Most of the deported families have babies and small children..... Deported residents, almost all of whom make a living from farming and livestock, will further be unable to provide food and ensure adequate shelter for their sheep, goats and other animals.

Lawmaker’s call for genocide gets thousands of Facebook likes   Ali Abunimah  EI Update 08/05/15 

Http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-lawmakers-call-genocide-palestinians-gets-thousands-facebook-likes

In light of Ayelet Shaked’s appointment as justice minister in the new Israeli coalition government, and renewed interest in her anti-Palestinian views, an image of her now-deleted Facebook posting has been added below, along with the full translation. – Original post – A day before Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khudair was kidnapped and burned alive allegedly by six Israeli Jewish youths, Israeli lawmaker Ayelet Shaked published on Facebook a call for genocide of the Palestinians. It is a call for genocide because it declares that “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy” and justifies its destruction, “including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.” It is a call for genocide because it calls for the slaughter of Palestinian mothers who give birth to “little snakes.” … Shaked is a senior figure in the Habeyit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) party that is part of Israel’s ruling coalition. Her post was shared more than one thousand times and received almost five thousand “Likes.”

Israel plants mines around water spring  WAFA 07/05/15

http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=28448

Israeli forces Thursday planted explosive mines and placed barbed wire around a water spring in Um Lasfeh area to the south of Hebron, depriving locals of a main water source used by shepherds for grazing purposes, said a local activist. Coordinator of the anti wall and settlement national committee, Rateb Jabour, informed WAFA that Israeli forces planted mines and placed a 250-square-meter long [stretch of] barbed wire around the spring, preventing locals’ access to  it. He called on all relevant sides to intervene and protect the locals from Israel’s ‘arrogant’ measures, which he stressed, aim to force Palestinians out of their land in order to hand it over to illegal settlers.

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