Карл Густав Юнг е казал:
Здравите не измъчват, а измъчваните стават мъчители.
През 1948г. тези, които са били деца, днес са вече доста възрастни. Тези, които са все още живи. Пазят ключовете от домовете си в несъществуващата държава Палестина.
Boycott israHell!
Бойкот на израел и печелещите от окупацията! Boycott israHell and those who profit from occupation!
Friday, July 31, 2009
За спомен
Има много хора, които отричат съществуването ИЗОБЩО на държавата Палестина.
Карл Густав Юнг е казал:
Здравите не измъчват, а измъчваните стават мъчители.
През 1948г. тези, които са били деца, днес са вече доста възрастни. Тези, които са все още живи. Пазят ключовете от домовете си в несъществуващата държава Палестина.
Карл Густав Юнг е казал:
Здравите не измъчват, а измъчваните стават мъчители.
През 1948г. тези, които са били деца, днес са вече доста възрастни. Тези, които са все още живи. Пазят ключовете от домовете си в несъществуващата държава Палестина.
Плаща се на Интернет юзери да правят Израелска пропаганда
Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 22 July 2009
Силната подкрепа за Израел, изразяваща се в разговори и коментари в Интернет страници, чатове и форуми, Twitter и Facebook не е точно това, което изглежда.
Съобщава се, че израелският външен министър е създал специален таен отряд от платени служители, чиято работа е да сърфират по 24 часа в Интенет и да разпространяват положителни новини за Израел.
Младежите, работещи добре с Интернет, наскоро завършили и демобилизирани войници с езикови умения, са назначени да се представят за обикновени сърфисти, докато прокарват правителствената линия за Близкоизточния конфликт.
„За всички намерения и цели, Интернет е театър в Палестинско-Израелския конфликт и ние трябва да бъдем активната страна, иначе ще сме от губещите”, казва Shturman, който отговаря за проекта.
Съществуването на „Екип за Интернет война” излезе на светло, когато бе включен тази година в бюджета на външното министерство. 150 000 $ са били отделени за първия етап на финансиране, като сумата ще нарастне през следващата година.
Екипът ще попадне под ръководството на голям департамент, който работи с това, което израелците наричат „хасбара”, официално преведено като „публично обяснение”, но по-добре познато като пропаганда. Това включва не само правителствените връзки с обществеността, но и засекретените сделки, които имат министерствата и акумулирани от частни организации и инциативи, представящи израелския образ в печата, телевизията и онлайн.
В интервю тази седмица за израелския бизнес вестник Calcalist, Shturman, заместник директор на департамента за министерския „хасбара” призна, че неговия екип ще работи тайно.
„Хората ми няма да казват: „Здравейте, аз съм от хасбара департамента на израелското външно министерство и искам да ви кажа какво следва”. Нито ще се идентифицират като израелци”, каза той. „Ще се изявяват като нет-сърфисти и като граждани, ще пишат отговори, изглеждащи лично, но които ще се основават на списък, изготвен от външнополитическото ведомство”.
Rona Kuperboim, журналист в най-популярния новинарски сайта на Израел Ynet, осъди тази инициатива, като каза, че тя показва, че държавата Израел е „държава на полицейското мислене”
Тя добави, че „добрите ПР не могат да покажат реалността в окупираните територии по-красива. Деца биват убивани, домовете – бомбардирани и семействата гладуват”.
Нейния материал беше посрещнат с интерес от няколко потребителя, които я попитаха как могат да кандидатстват за работа в този екип на ВнМ.
Проекта се явява формализация на практиката на ВнМ, разработен специално за израелското нападение над сектора Газа през декември и януари.
„По време на Operation Cast Lead ние призовавахме еврейската общност зад граница и с тяхна помощ набрахме няколко хиляди доброволци, които се присъединиха към израелските доброволци”, каза Shturman.
„Предоставихме им справочни и хасбара материали, и ги изпратихме да представят израелската гледна точка в новинарски уебсайтове и проучвания и форуми в Интенет”.
Израелската армия също има един от най-популярните сайтове за видео споделяне на YouTube и редовно качени клипове, въпреки че бяха подложени на критики от страна на правозащитни организации, че подвеждат зрителя от показаното в кадрите.
Shturman казва, че по време на войната министерството се концентрирало върху европейски уебсайтове, където посетителите били по-враждебно настроени към израелската политика.
Elon Gilad, който е шеф на Интернет екипа казал пред Calcalist, че много хора се свързали с министерството по време на атаките в Газа. „Хората просто искаха информация и след това виждахме, че тази информация беше разпространена в Интернет”.
Той предположил, че е било налице широкомащабно правителствено сътрудничество с министерствата за предаване на информация и детайли до десетки хиляди израелски емигранти по света, които да пишат про-Израелските материали на техния роден език за уебсайтовете.
Очаква се новия екип да увеличи тясната координация на министерството с частни пропагандистки групи, giyus.org (Give Israel Your United Support – дай на израел твоята международна подкрепа). Според съобщенията около 50 000 активисти са приобщени в програма наречена МегаФон, като при всяка статия в Интенет, критикуваща Израел, се изпраща съобщение в компютъра на всеки от тях. Тогава от тях се очаква да бомбардират сайта с коментари в подкрепа на Израел.
Nasser Rego, Илам, група базирана в Назарет, следи Израелските СМИ, казват арабски организации в Израел, които редовно са взимани на прицел от хасбара групи. Новия екип ще се опита да създаде такъв модел на работа, че професионално да се постигне повече убедителност.
„...Тяхната цел е ясна, ще се заключава в дискредитиране на тези, които се грижат за човешките права и законите в отношенията с палестинците”.
Когато този репортер призова външния министър, Yigal Palmor, официален говорител, отхвърли съществуването на интернет екипа, въпреки че призна съществуването на длъжностни лица, които отговарят за разработването на тази медия.
Той отказа да коментира кое от казаното от Shturman или Gilad е било неточно предадено на иврит от медиите и каза, че министерството няма да прави нищо срещу тези репортажи.
Израел е разработил усъвършенстван подход към новата медия, откакто стартира кампанията "Brand Israel" през 2005г.
Служители, извършващи пазарните проучвания са убедени, че Израел трябва да показва добри новини за успехи в бизнеса, за иновации в медицината и науката.
Shturman казва, че неговия сайт ще се стреми да подобрява „Израелския имидж на развиваща се държава, която помага за подобряване на околната среда и човечността”.
David Saranga, завеждащ PR на израелската общност в Ню Йорк, водеща в даването на тласък на оптимистични съобщения за Израел, водеше дискусии и доказваше тази седмица, че Израел е в наизгодна позиция спрямо застъпниците на Палестина.
„За разлика от мюсюлманския свят, които са стотици милиони прияърженици, прегърнали палестинската идея, застрашавайки израел, ние сме само 13 милиона”, пише той в Ynet.
Израел трябва да се замисли и да се погрижи за това, че подръжката ни сред младите в Европа и САЩ спада.
През 2007 стана ясно, че външното ведомство е позволило фотография да бъде публикувана в Maxim, популярно щатско мъжко списание, в което жени войници от Израел са снимани в плажни облекла.
===========================================
Jonathan Cook е писател и журналист в Назарет, Израел. Последната му книги са Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) и Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books)
Силната подкрепа за Израел, изразяваща се в разговори и коментари в Интернет страници, чатове и форуми, Twitter и Facebook не е точно това, което изглежда.
Съобщава се, че израелският външен министър е създал специален таен отряд от платени служители, чиято работа е да сърфират по 24 часа в Интенет и да разпространяват положителни новини за Израел.
Младежите, работещи добре с Интернет, наскоро завършили и демобилизирани войници с езикови умения, са назначени да се представят за обикновени сърфисти, докато прокарват правителствената линия за Близкоизточния конфликт.
„За всички намерения и цели, Интернет е театър в Палестинско-Израелския конфликт и ние трябва да бъдем активната страна, иначе ще сме от губещите”, казва Shturman, който отговаря за проекта.
Съществуването на „Екип за Интернет война” излезе на светло, когато бе включен тази година в бюджета на външното министерство. 150 000 $ са били отделени за първия етап на финансиране, като сумата ще нарастне през следващата година.
Екипът ще попадне под ръководството на голям департамент, който работи с това, което израелците наричат „хасбара”, официално преведено като „публично обяснение”, но по-добре познато като пропаганда. Това включва не само правителствените връзки с обществеността, но и засекретените сделки, които имат министерствата и акумулирани от частни организации и инциативи, представящи израелския образ в печата, телевизията и онлайн.
В интервю тази седмица за израелския бизнес вестник Calcalist, Shturman, заместник директор на департамента за министерския „хасбара” призна, че неговия екип ще работи тайно.
„Хората ми няма да казват: „Здравейте, аз съм от хасбара департамента на израелското външно министерство и искам да ви кажа какво следва”. Нито ще се идентифицират като израелци”, каза той. „Ще се изявяват като нет-сърфисти и като граждани, ще пишат отговори, изглеждащи лично, но които ще се основават на списък, изготвен от външнополитическото ведомство”.
Rona Kuperboim, журналист в най-популярния новинарски сайта на Израел Ynet, осъди тази инициатива, като каза, че тя показва, че държавата Израел е „държава на полицейското мислене”
Тя добави, че „добрите ПР не могат да покажат реалността в окупираните територии по-красива. Деца биват убивани, домовете – бомбардирани и семействата гладуват”.
Нейния материал беше посрещнат с интерес от няколко потребителя, които я попитаха как могат да кандидатстват за работа в този екип на ВнМ.
Проекта се явява формализация на практиката на ВнМ, разработен специално за израелското нападение над сектора Газа през декември и януари.
„По време на Operation Cast Lead ние призовавахме еврейската общност зад граница и с тяхна помощ набрахме няколко хиляди доброволци, които се присъединиха към израелските доброволци”, каза Shturman.
„Предоставихме им справочни и хасбара материали, и ги изпратихме да представят израелската гледна точка в новинарски уебсайтове и проучвания и форуми в Интенет”.
Израелската армия също има един от най-популярните сайтове за видео споделяне на YouTube и редовно качени клипове, въпреки че бяха подложени на критики от страна на правозащитни организации, че подвеждат зрителя от показаното в кадрите.
Shturman казва, че по време на войната министерството се концентрирало върху европейски уебсайтове, където посетителите били по-враждебно настроени към израелската политика.
Elon Gilad, който е шеф на Интернет екипа казал пред Calcalist, че много хора се свързали с министерството по време на атаките в Газа. „Хората просто искаха информация и след това виждахме, че тази информация беше разпространена в Интернет”.
Той предположил, че е било налице широкомащабно правителствено сътрудничество с министерствата за предаване на информация и детайли до десетки хиляди израелски емигранти по света, които да пишат про-Израелските материали на техния роден език за уебсайтовете.
Очаква се новия екип да увеличи тясната координация на министерството с частни пропагандистки групи, giyus.org (Give Israel Your United Support – дай на израел твоята международна подкрепа). Според съобщенията около 50 000 активисти са приобщени в програма наречена МегаФон, като при всяка статия в Интенет, критикуваща Израел, се изпраща съобщение в компютъра на всеки от тях. Тогава от тях се очаква да бомбардират сайта с коментари в подкрепа на Израел.
Nasser Rego, Илам, група базирана в Назарет, следи Израелските СМИ, казват арабски организации в Израел, които редовно са взимани на прицел от хасбара групи. Новия екип ще се опита да създаде такъв модел на работа, че професионално да се постигне повече убедителност.
„...Тяхната цел е ясна, ще се заключава в дискредитиране на тези, които се грижат за човешките права и законите в отношенията с палестинците”.
Когато този репортер призова външния министър, Yigal Palmor, официален говорител, отхвърли съществуването на интернет екипа, въпреки че призна съществуването на длъжностни лица, които отговарят за разработването на тази медия.
Той отказа да коментира кое от казаното от Shturman или Gilad е било неточно предадено на иврит от медиите и каза, че министерството няма да прави нищо срещу тези репортажи.
Израел е разработил усъвършенстван подход към новата медия, откакто стартира кампанията "Brand Israel" през 2005г.
Служители, извършващи пазарните проучвания са убедени, че Израел трябва да показва добри новини за успехи в бизнеса, за иновации в медицината и науката.
Shturman казва, че неговия сайт ще се стреми да подобрява „Израелския имидж на развиваща се държава, която помага за подобряване на околната среда и човечността”.
David Saranga, завеждащ PR на израелската общност в Ню Йорк, водеща в даването на тласък на оптимистични съобщения за Израел, водеше дискусии и доказваше тази седмица, че Израел е в наизгодна позиция спрямо застъпниците на Палестина.
„За разлика от мюсюлманския свят, които са стотици милиони прияърженици, прегърнали палестинската идея, застрашавайки израел, ние сме само 13 милиона”, пише той в Ynet.
Израел трябва да се замисли и да се погрижи за това, че подръжката ни сред младите в Европа и САЩ спада.
През 2007 стана ясно, че външното ведомство е позволило фотография да бъде публикувана в Maxim, популярно щатско мъжко списание, в което жени войници от Израел са снимани в плажни облекла.
===========================================
Jonathan Cook е писател и журналист в Назарет, Израел. Последната му книги са Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) и Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Израел отговорен за пиратски действия
Вижте видеото и решете сами колко международни и човешки закона е нарушил Израел.
Израелските военоморски сили са отвлекли Spirit of Humanity от международни води.
Израелското правителство отвлича палестински рибарски лодки от палестински териториални води, отвлича рибари, изпраща военни екипи да обстрелват, раняват и да ги убиват, докато те се борят за живота си.
След като гледате видеото ще бъдете убедени, че Израел извършва пиратски действия срещу палестинците и международните закони. На никоя друга страна не би било позволено да върши това, което Израел прави всеки ден.
Доброволци на Международното Движение за Солидарност (The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) са придружавали рибар, за да документират атаките срещу тях от Израелските сили и да осигурятзащита срещу тези атаки. (www.palsolidarity.org) За повече информация и текущи рапорти за рибарите от Газа: fishinunderfire.blogspot.com
Free Gaza Movement
Израелските военоморски сили са отвлекли Spirit of Humanity от международни води.
Израелското правителство отвлича палестински рибарски лодки от палестински териториални води, отвлича рибари, изпраща военни екипи да обстрелват, раняват и да ги убиват, докато те се борят за живота си.
След като гледате видеото ще бъдете убедени, че Израел извършва пиратски действия срещу палестинците и международните закони. На никоя друга страна не би било позволено да върши това, което Израел прави всеки ден.
Доброволци на Международното Движение за Солидарност (The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) са придружавали рибар, за да документират атаките срещу тях от Израелските сили и да осигурятзащита срещу тези атаки. (www.palsolidarity.org) За повече информация и текущи рапорти за рибарите от Газа: fishinunderfire.blogspot.com
Free Gaza Movement
Is Israel guilty of piracy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpqnMrLv1bQ
Watch the video and decide for yourself how many international and maritime laws Israel has broken. The Israeli navy hijacked the Spirit of Humanity in international waters. The Israeli government hijacks Palestinian fishing boats, in Palestinian territorial waters, kidnaps the fishermen, and sends its military out to shoot to wound and kill them as they struggle to make a living. After watching this video, you will be convinced that Israel has committed acts of piracy against Palestinians and against internationals. No other country would be allowed to do what Israel does on a daily basis.
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers were accompanying fishermen to document attacks on them by the Israeli Navy, and to provide a deterrence to these attacks. (www.palsolidarity.org) For more information and current reports about Gaza fishermen: fishinunderfire.blogspot.com
Please distribute this video to all of your lists. Thank you.
Free Gaza Movement
Watch the video and decide for yourself how many international and maritime laws Israel has broken. The Israeli navy hijacked the Spirit of Humanity in international waters. The Israeli government hijacks Palestinian fishing boats, in Palestinian territorial waters, kidnaps the fishermen, and sends its military out to shoot to wound and kill them as they struggle to make a living. After watching this video, you will be convinced that Israel has committed acts of piracy against Palestinians and against internationals. No other country would be allowed to do what Israel does on a daily basis.
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers were accompanying fishermen to document attacks on them by the Israeli Navy, and to provide a deterrence to these attacks. (www.palsolidarity.org) For more information and current reports about Gaza fishermen: fishinunderfire.blogspot.com
Please distribute this video to all of your lists. Thank you.
Free Gaza Movement
Lies and Israel's war crimes
Ben White, The Electronic Intifada, 28 July 2009
A Palestinian UN worker inspects debris after an Israeli air strike on a UN school in Gaza where civilians were seeking refuge, 17 January 2009. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)
This month marked six months since the "official" conclusion to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, "Operation Cast Lead." From 27 December to 18 January, the might of the one of the world's strongest militaries laid waste to a densely-packed territory of 1.4 million Palestinians without an escape route.
The parallel propaganda battle fought by Israel's official and unofficial apologists continued after the ceasefire, in a desperate struggle to combat the repeated reports by human rights groups of breaches of international law. This article will look at some of the strategies of this campaign of disinformation, confusion, and lies -- and the reality of Israel's war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Very early on in Operation Cast Lead, the scale of Israel's attack became apparent. In just the first six days the Israeli Air Force carried out more than 500 sorties against targets in the Gaza Strip. That amounted to an attack from the air roughly every 18 minutes -- not counting hundreds of helicopter attacks, tank and navy shelling, and infantry raids. All of this on a territory similar in size to the US city of Seattle.
As the International Committee of the Red Cross noted in a report published in June, "during the 22 days of the Israeli military operation, nowhere in Gaza was safe for civilians," with "whole neighborhoods" turned "into rubble." With areas looking "like the epicenter of a massive earthquake," there is still "half a million tons of concrete rubble" to clear. [1]
By the end of an assault which targeted schools, homes, mosques, university buildings, police stations, ministries and the legislative council building, 3,600 housing units were totally destroyed, 2,700 sustained major damage and 52,000 houses need minor repair, according to a joint UNRWA-UNDP housing survey.
Even though Israel had banned the international media from entering the Gaza Strip to see for themselves what was unfolding, enough visuals and testimonies were getting out of the fenced-in territory for Israel to have what it would call a "PR nightmare" on its hands. Israel's spinners and spokespersons fell back on a stock set of responses and talking points.
Israel, they insisted, never targeted civilians -- its military was the most moral army in the world going to extraordinary lengths to protect the innocent. Hamas, on the other hand, was cynically using human shields, firing rockets while hiding amongst their own people. Israel was said to be acting purely in self-defense -- which country, we were asked, would passively tolerate such attacks on its own population?
This latter argument has been ably dealt with elsewhere; this article is more interested in what was happening on the ground in the Gaza Strip. [2] Here the claims of a cowardly terrorist army willing to risk the lives of their own compatriots is key: in order to maintain the fiction that the Israeli army does not target civilians or civilian infrastructure, there must be doubt cast on the "civilian" identity of the dead. So Palestinian fatality statistics are questioned or even scorned -- are we sure the dead were civilians? And when this is harder to deny -- when the morgues are full of women and children -- then the fallback is that the amoral Hamas fighters are to blame for forcing Israel to kill these unfortunates.
Sometimes, however, there were specific incidents of sufficiently immediate shock value -- even for the mainstream Western media -- that simply repeating the standard propaganda lines was not good enough. In these cases, the Israeli army spokespersons would issue a series of conflicting statements of denial, admission, and counter-claim, all in the hope that enough doubt is sown as to draw the sting out of the charge being made.
Before looking at an example of this, there is one other public relations tactic worth examining, used by Israel's defenders in the media during and after the assault -- citing the Jenin "precedent." In 2002, according to this standard propaganda line here reproduced in a 16 February Jerusalem Post editorial ("The first casualty of war: Truth"), "a grossly false narrative of massacre and massed [sic] killings was disseminated by Palestinian officials," and now, in 2009 in Gaza, history was repeating itself, as "the figure '1,300 Palestinians killed, most/many of them civilians'" becomes "embedded in the public consciousness."
The comparison with Jenin is instructive, but not in the way Israel's propagandists suggest: like Gaza this year, Israeli war crimes are denied and obfuscated with a PR operation of moral bluster, claims and retractions. According to Israeli spin, Palestinian "atrocity propaganda" and claims of a massacre in Jenin were disproved when the facts became known. In fact, groups like Human Rights Watch concluded that "many of the civilian deaths" they documented "amounted to unlawful or willful killings by the IDF [Israeli army]." HRW estimated that from 52 Palestinian deaths, at least 22 were civilians "including children, physically disabled, and elderly people." In the Western media, half a dozen victims in a high school shooting is a "massacre" -- as are the suicide bombings inside Israel. But it seems Palestinians cannot be victims of a massacre; only "collateral damage."
This Israeli narrative of the "false massacre" came in useful both in the immediate aftermath of Jenin, and for propaganda purposes during and after Operation Cast Lead. Writing for The Huffington Post on 13 April, Mort Zuckerman asked readers, "Remember another urban myth alleging thousands of citizens massacred in the battle against terrorism in Jenin in 2002 when it turned out no more than 54 died, most of them combatants?" Such an approach forgets Israel's own role in spreading confusion about casualties, and more importantly does the crucial work of distracting from the documented atrocities.
A good example from Operation Cast Lead of Israel's PR machine in action is what happened in Jabaliya on 6 January, when Israeli mortar rounds landed in a busy street outside a school run by UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestine refugees) sheltering those seeking a safe haven from the fighting. A number of people inside the school were injured, and dozens of Palestinians were killed and injured in the street.
For Israeli apologists this became a notorious example of the kind of deception they say is so prevalent. Canada's Globe and Mail featured a story in February alleging that UNRWA officials had helped propagate the claim that Israeli fire had actually hit the school itself ("Account of Israeli attack on Gaza school doesn't hold up to scrutiny," 29 January 2009). Subsequently, newspapers like Haaretz and others led with headlines like "UN backtracks on claim that deadly IDF strike hit Gaza school" (3 February 2009).
The reality -- which was even buried within the very same articles in many cases -- was that UNRWA had always said the attack hit outside the school. In fact, the Israeli military itself, in the immediate aftermath of the strike, said that "it had been returning fire against Palestinian fighters who were shooting mortar shells from within the school" ("UN says school in Gaza where 43 died wasn't hit by Israeli fire," The Washington Post, 7 February 2009).
Jonathan Miller, a journalist with UK television's Channel 4, did an excellent job of exposing this "manufactured controversy." After noting that UNRWA had "said from the outset that the mortars hit outside the school," Miller described how "another UN agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in one of its reports on daily incidents, erroneously stated that the mortars had actually hit the school," something later clarified. ("A tale of two Gaza schools," Channel4.com, 6 February 2009)
As Miller commented, Israel was "seizing on a minor error buried in an online publication by a UN agency" and using it as "a smokescreen" to divert attention from more serious incidents, such as the deadly white phosphorus attack "on the last day of the war at another UN-run school just 800 yards up the road."
The one case of a clear lie was highlighted in the report of the UN committee set up by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to investigate attacks on UN property and staff during the hostilities, a 27-page published summary of which was sent to the UN Security Council in May. The first of 11 recommendations by the UN team calls for "formal acknowledgment by the Government of Israel that its public statements alleging that Palestinians fired from within the UNRWA Jabalya school on 6 January and from within the UNRWA Field Office compound on 15 January were untrue and are regretted."
The truth of what happened in Gaza though has been emerging over recent months in various reports that catalog the multitude of crimes committed by the Israeli army. Crucially, what has been documented is not a series of individual mistakes or "bad apples," but evidence of Israel's systematic assault on the fabric of life in the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported in March on fatalities during the offensive, confirming that there were over 1,400 Palestinians killed. Civilians made up 65 percent of the total, not including the 255 police officers killed by the Israeli army.
In April, Israeli human rights groups including B'Tselem and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel released a joint which said that "many civilians were killed in Gaza not due to 'mishaps' but as a direct result of the military's chosen policy implemented throughout the fighting." [3]
Earlier this month, Amnesty International published its own report into Operation Cast Lead, accusing Israel of committing "war crimes" and "acts of wanton destruction." Amnesty insisted that the hundreds of civilian deaths "cannot simply be dismissed as 'collateral damage' incidental to otherwise lawful attacks - or as mistakes." "Amnesty details Gaza 'war crimes," BBC News, 2 July 2009.
More evidence for the deliberate nature of the wide scale destruction has since emerged. On 23 April, Haaretz quoted "two infantry officers who held key positions during the fighting" who told how "we just leveled neighborhoods." British journalist Peter Beaumont wrote in May of "the aftermath of a wholesale urban un-planning through military force." ("Death and devastation in Gaza neatly filed and documented," The Guardian, 29 May 2009). Returning some weeks later, he noted that Israel's targets "suggested wider aims" than simply stopping rocket fire -- "not least the dismantling of Palestinian institutions." ("A life in ruins," The Observer, 5 July 2009)
In June, the BBC reported on the struggle of Gazan industries to rebuild, featuring a family-owned food manufacturer. The businessman, Yaser al-Wadiya, had "photographs of caterpillar tracks amid the ruins of the biscuit factory, which he believes the Israelis finished off with bulldozers after hitting it from the air." The same story then noted that "the UN's top humanitarian official, John Holmes, has accused Israel of the 'systematic levelling' of Gaza's industrial area." ("Gaza industries struggle to rebuild," BBC News, 26 June 2009)
With such a high proportion of civilian dead, it is no surprise that investigations into Israel's operation in Gaza have turned up shocking stories -- and asked difficult questions. In the introduction to Breaking the Silence's collection of testimonies by Israeli veterans of the Gaza assault, the group highlighted how the "bad apples" theory was insufficient: "the massive and unprecedented blow to the infrastructure and civilians of the Gaza strip were a direct result of IDF policy."
Just one month after Operation Cast Lead, Palestinian stories were being corroborated by the likes of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who said "there appeared to be a consistent pattern of Palestinian families being killed by Israeli tank shells fired into their homes, apparently as they approached windows or stepped on to balconies." [4] A delegation of US attorneys visited the Gaza Strip and concluded that "Israeli forces" had indeed "deliberately targeted civilians" during the offensive. [5]
Palestinian testimonies have flooded in of crimes committed by the Israeli army in Gaza, and so have the investigations by human rights groups. At the end of June, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on the use by Israel of aerial drones in attacks that killed dozens of Palestinian civilians. HRW noted that the drones are "one of the most precise weapons in Israel's arsenal" yet "killed civilians who were not taking part in hostilities and were far from any fighting."
Also recently, Amnesty International's detailed study on Operation Cast Lead included cases of "close-ranging shootings" by Israeli soldiers, most of which involved "individuals, including children and women, who were shot at as they were fleeing their homes in search of shelter." [6] Others were simply "going about the daily activities." The human rights body reiterated that "wilful killings of unarmed civilians are war crimes."
A report into the number of children killed by Israel during the war on Gaza (over 300) showed that 38 percent of child fatalities were aged 0-11 years old. The "overwhelming majority" were "killed either whilst inside their own homes or within the near vicinity of their homes." [7] Here is one story:
At approximately 16:00 on 5 January 2009, Amal Olaiwa and four of her children were killed in the kitchen of their home in Shijaiyeh in the east of Gaza City, when the house was struck by an artillery shell. The shell smashed through a bedroom window and landed in the kitchen, decapitating Amal Olaiwa and killing three of her sons and one of her daughters. Three other members of the Olaiwa family were injured in the attack, including Amal's husband, Haider, and her eldest son, Muntasser, who both witnessed the attack.
The victims were identified as: Amal Olaiwa, age 40, Motassem Olaiwa, age 14, Momen Olaiwa, age 13, Lana Olaiwa, age 9 and Ismail Olaiwa, age 7.
Pausing on just some of the names of the victims is perhaps a good moment to make one final point. What the Palestinians ultimately need is not more reports, but action. The investigations are invaluable, of course, helping to show up the Israeli spin for what it is. But unless there is action by both the same civil society producing the evidence of war crimes, as well as the politicians, then we can be sure that more Palestinian names will be added to those of the Olaiwa family, and the hundreds more who perished in Gaza.
Ben White is a freelance journalist and writer whose articles have appeared in the Guardian's 'Comment is free', The Electronic Intifada, the New Statesman, and many others. He is the author of Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide (Pluto Press). He can be contacted at ben A T benwhite D O T org D O T uk.
Endnotes
[1] "Gaza: 1.5 million people trapped in despair," International Committee of the Red Cross, 29 June 2009 (accessed 18 July 2009).
[2] See for example, Nancy Kanwisher et al., "Reigniting Violence: How Do Ceasefires End?," The Huffington Post, 6 January 2009; Jim Holstun and Joanna Tinker, "Israel's fabricated rocket crisis," The Electronic Intifada, 6 January 2009.
[3] "Independent apparatus needed for investigation of Operation Cast Lead," B'Tselem, 22 April 2009
[4] "Gaza case studies: Weapons use," BBC News, 23 February 2009
[5] "American NLG Lawyers Release New Findings that Israel Violated International Law, US Domestic Law in Gaza," National Lawyers Guild press release, 2 April 2009.
[6] "Amnesty accuses Israel of using human shields in Gaza," Agence France Presse, 1 July 2009.
[7] "War Crimes Against Children," Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), May 2009.
A Palestinian UN worker inspects debris after an Israeli air strike on a UN school in Gaza where civilians were seeking refuge, 17 January 2009. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)
This month marked six months since the "official" conclusion to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, "Operation Cast Lead." From 27 December to 18 January, the might of the one of the world's strongest militaries laid waste to a densely-packed territory of 1.4 million Palestinians without an escape route.
The parallel propaganda battle fought by Israel's official and unofficial apologists continued after the ceasefire, in a desperate struggle to combat the repeated reports by human rights groups of breaches of international law. This article will look at some of the strategies of this campaign of disinformation, confusion, and lies -- and the reality of Israel's war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Very early on in Operation Cast Lead, the scale of Israel's attack became apparent. In just the first six days the Israeli Air Force carried out more than 500 sorties against targets in the Gaza Strip. That amounted to an attack from the air roughly every 18 minutes -- not counting hundreds of helicopter attacks, tank and navy shelling, and infantry raids. All of this on a territory similar in size to the US city of Seattle.
As the International Committee of the Red Cross noted in a report published in June, "during the 22 days of the Israeli military operation, nowhere in Gaza was safe for civilians," with "whole neighborhoods" turned "into rubble." With areas looking "like the epicenter of a massive earthquake," there is still "half a million tons of concrete rubble" to clear. [1]
By the end of an assault which targeted schools, homes, mosques, university buildings, police stations, ministries and the legislative council building, 3,600 housing units were totally destroyed, 2,700 sustained major damage and 52,000 houses need minor repair, according to a joint UNRWA-UNDP housing survey.
Even though Israel had banned the international media from entering the Gaza Strip to see for themselves what was unfolding, enough visuals and testimonies were getting out of the fenced-in territory for Israel to have what it would call a "PR nightmare" on its hands. Israel's spinners and spokespersons fell back on a stock set of responses and talking points.
Israel, they insisted, never targeted civilians -- its military was the most moral army in the world going to extraordinary lengths to protect the innocent. Hamas, on the other hand, was cynically using human shields, firing rockets while hiding amongst their own people. Israel was said to be acting purely in self-defense -- which country, we were asked, would passively tolerate such attacks on its own population?
This latter argument has been ably dealt with elsewhere; this article is more interested in what was happening on the ground in the Gaza Strip. [2] Here the claims of a cowardly terrorist army willing to risk the lives of their own compatriots is key: in order to maintain the fiction that the Israeli army does not target civilians or civilian infrastructure, there must be doubt cast on the "civilian" identity of the dead. So Palestinian fatality statistics are questioned or even scorned -- are we sure the dead were civilians? And when this is harder to deny -- when the morgues are full of women and children -- then the fallback is that the amoral Hamas fighters are to blame for forcing Israel to kill these unfortunates.
Sometimes, however, there were specific incidents of sufficiently immediate shock value -- even for the mainstream Western media -- that simply repeating the standard propaganda lines was not good enough. In these cases, the Israeli army spokespersons would issue a series of conflicting statements of denial, admission, and counter-claim, all in the hope that enough doubt is sown as to draw the sting out of the charge being made.
Before looking at an example of this, there is one other public relations tactic worth examining, used by Israel's defenders in the media during and after the assault -- citing the Jenin "precedent." In 2002, according to this standard propaganda line here reproduced in a 16 February Jerusalem Post editorial ("The first casualty of war: Truth"), "a grossly false narrative of massacre and massed [sic] killings was disseminated by Palestinian officials," and now, in 2009 in Gaza, history was repeating itself, as "the figure '1,300 Palestinians killed, most/many of them civilians'" becomes "embedded in the public consciousness."
The comparison with Jenin is instructive, but not in the way Israel's propagandists suggest: like Gaza this year, Israeli war crimes are denied and obfuscated with a PR operation of moral bluster, claims and retractions. According to Israeli spin, Palestinian "atrocity propaganda" and claims of a massacre in Jenin were disproved when the facts became known. In fact, groups like Human Rights Watch concluded that "many of the civilian deaths" they documented "amounted to unlawful or willful killings by the IDF [Israeli army]." HRW estimated that from 52 Palestinian deaths, at least 22 were civilians "including children, physically disabled, and elderly people." In the Western media, half a dozen victims in a high school shooting is a "massacre" -- as are the suicide bombings inside Israel. But it seems Palestinians cannot be victims of a massacre; only "collateral damage."
This Israeli narrative of the "false massacre" came in useful both in the immediate aftermath of Jenin, and for propaganda purposes during and after Operation Cast Lead. Writing for The Huffington Post on 13 April, Mort Zuckerman asked readers, "Remember another urban myth alleging thousands of citizens massacred in the battle against terrorism in Jenin in 2002 when it turned out no more than 54 died, most of them combatants?" Such an approach forgets Israel's own role in spreading confusion about casualties, and more importantly does the crucial work of distracting from the documented atrocities.
A good example from Operation Cast Lead of Israel's PR machine in action is what happened in Jabaliya on 6 January, when Israeli mortar rounds landed in a busy street outside a school run by UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestine refugees) sheltering those seeking a safe haven from the fighting. A number of people inside the school were injured, and dozens of Palestinians were killed and injured in the street.
For Israeli apologists this became a notorious example of the kind of deception they say is so prevalent. Canada's Globe and Mail featured a story in February alleging that UNRWA officials had helped propagate the claim that Israeli fire had actually hit the school itself ("Account of Israeli attack on Gaza school doesn't hold up to scrutiny," 29 January 2009). Subsequently, newspapers like Haaretz and others led with headlines like "UN backtracks on claim that deadly IDF strike hit Gaza school" (3 February 2009).
The reality -- which was even buried within the very same articles in many cases -- was that UNRWA had always said the attack hit outside the school. In fact, the Israeli military itself, in the immediate aftermath of the strike, said that "it had been returning fire against Palestinian fighters who were shooting mortar shells from within the school" ("UN says school in Gaza where 43 died wasn't hit by Israeli fire," The Washington Post, 7 February 2009).
Jonathan Miller, a journalist with UK television's Channel 4, did an excellent job of exposing this "manufactured controversy." After noting that UNRWA had "said from the outset that the mortars hit outside the school," Miller described how "another UN agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in one of its reports on daily incidents, erroneously stated that the mortars had actually hit the school," something later clarified. ("A tale of two Gaza schools," Channel4.com, 6 February 2009)
As Miller commented, Israel was "seizing on a minor error buried in an online publication by a UN agency" and using it as "a smokescreen" to divert attention from more serious incidents, such as the deadly white phosphorus attack "on the last day of the war at another UN-run school just 800 yards up the road."
The one case of a clear lie was highlighted in the report of the UN committee set up by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to investigate attacks on UN property and staff during the hostilities, a 27-page published summary of which was sent to the UN Security Council in May. The first of 11 recommendations by the UN team calls for "formal acknowledgment by the Government of Israel that its public statements alleging that Palestinians fired from within the UNRWA Jabalya school on 6 January and from within the UNRWA Field Office compound on 15 January were untrue and are regretted."
The truth of what happened in Gaza though has been emerging over recent months in various reports that catalog the multitude of crimes committed by the Israeli army. Crucially, what has been documented is not a series of individual mistakes or "bad apples," but evidence of Israel's systematic assault on the fabric of life in the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported in March on fatalities during the offensive, confirming that there were over 1,400 Palestinians killed. Civilians made up 65 percent of the total, not including the 255 police officers killed by the Israeli army.
In April, Israeli human rights groups including B'Tselem and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel released a joint which said that "many civilians were killed in Gaza not due to 'mishaps' but as a direct result of the military's chosen policy implemented throughout the fighting." [3]
Earlier this month, Amnesty International published its own report into Operation Cast Lead, accusing Israel of committing "war crimes" and "acts of wanton destruction." Amnesty insisted that the hundreds of civilian deaths "cannot simply be dismissed as 'collateral damage' incidental to otherwise lawful attacks - or as mistakes." "Amnesty details Gaza 'war crimes," BBC News, 2 July 2009.
More evidence for the deliberate nature of the wide scale destruction has since emerged. On 23 April, Haaretz quoted "two infantry officers who held key positions during the fighting" who told how "we just leveled neighborhoods." British journalist Peter Beaumont wrote in May of "the aftermath of a wholesale urban un-planning through military force." ("Death and devastation in Gaza neatly filed and documented," The Guardian, 29 May 2009). Returning some weeks later, he noted that Israel's targets "suggested wider aims" than simply stopping rocket fire -- "not least the dismantling of Palestinian institutions." ("A life in ruins," The Observer, 5 July 2009)
In June, the BBC reported on the struggle of Gazan industries to rebuild, featuring a family-owned food manufacturer. The businessman, Yaser al-Wadiya, had "photographs of caterpillar tracks amid the ruins of the biscuit factory, which he believes the Israelis finished off with bulldozers after hitting it from the air." The same story then noted that "the UN's top humanitarian official, John Holmes, has accused Israel of the 'systematic levelling' of Gaza's industrial area." ("Gaza industries struggle to rebuild," BBC News, 26 June 2009)
With such a high proportion of civilian dead, it is no surprise that investigations into Israel's operation in Gaza have turned up shocking stories -- and asked difficult questions. In the introduction to Breaking the Silence's collection of testimonies by Israeli veterans of the Gaza assault, the group highlighted how the "bad apples" theory was insufficient: "the massive and unprecedented blow to the infrastructure and civilians of the Gaza strip were a direct result of IDF policy."
Just one month after Operation Cast Lead, Palestinian stories were being corroborated by the likes of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who said "there appeared to be a consistent pattern of Palestinian families being killed by Israeli tank shells fired into their homes, apparently as they approached windows or stepped on to balconies." [4] A delegation of US attorneys visited the Gaza Strip and concluded that "Israeli forces" had indeed "deliberately targeted civilians" during the offensive. [5]
Palestinian testimonies have flooded in of crimes committed by the Israeli army in Gaza, and so have the investigations by human rights groups. At the end of June, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on the use by Israel of aerial drones in attacks that killed dozens of Palestinian civilians. HRW noted that the drones are "one of the most precise weapons in Israel's arsenal" yet "killed civilians who were not taking part in hostilities and were far from any fighting."
Also recently, Amnesty International's detailed study on Operation Cast Lead included cases of "close-ranging shootings" by Israeli soldiers, most of which involved "individuals, including children and women, who were shot at as they were fleeing their homes in search of shelter." [6] Others were simply "going about the daily activities." The human rights body reiterated that "wilful killings of unarmed civilians are war crimes."
A report into the number of children killed by Israel during the war on Gaza (over 300) showed that 38 percent of child fatalities were aged 0-11 years old. The "overwhelming majority" were "killed either whilst inside their own homes or within the near vicinity of their homes." [7] Here is one story:
At approximately 16:00 on 5 January 2009, Amal Olaiwa and four of her children were killed in the kitchen of their home in Shijaiyeh in the east of Gaza City, when the house was struck by an artillery shell. The shell smashed through a bedroom window and landed in the kitchen, decapitating Amal Olaiwa and killing three of her sons and one of her daughters. Three other members of the Olaiwa family were injured in the attack, including Amal's husband, Haider, and her eldest son, Muntasser, who both witnessed the attack.
The victims were identified as: Amal Olaiwa, age 40, Motassem Olaiwa, age 14, Momen Olaiwa, age 13, Lana Olaiwa, age 9 and Ismail Olaiwa, age 7.
Pausing on just some of the names of the victims is perhaps a good moment to make one final point. What the Palestinians ultimately need is not more reports, but action. The investigations are invaluable, of course, helping to show up the Israeli spin for what it is. But unless there is action by both the same civil society producing the evidence of war crimes, as well as the politicians, then we can be sure that more Palestinian names will be added to those of the Olaiwa family, and the hundreds more who perished in Gaza.
Ben White is a freelance journalist and writer whose articles have appeared in the Guardian's 'Comment is free', The Electronic Intifada, the New Statesman, and many others. He is the author of Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide (Pluto Press). He can be contacted at ben A T benwhite D O T org D O T uk.
Endnotes
[1] "Gaza: 1.5 million people trapped in despair," International Committee of the Red Cross, 29 June 2009 (accessed 18 July 2009).
[2] See for example, Nancy Kanwisher et al., "Reigniting Violence: How Do Ceasefires End?," The Huffington Post, 6 January 2009; Jim Holstun and Joanna Tinker, "Israel's fabricated rocket crisis," The Electronic Intifada, 6 January 2009.
[3] "Independent apparatus needed for investigation of Operation Cast Lead," B'Tselem, 22 April 2009
[4] "Gaza case studies: Weapons use," BBC News, 23 February 2009
[5] "American NLG Lawyers Release New Findings that Israel Violated International Law, US Domestic Law in Gaza," National Lawyers Guild press release, 2 April 2009.
[6] "Amnesty accuses Israel of using human shields in Gaza," Agence France Presse, 1 July 2009.
[7] "War Crimes Against Children," Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), May 2009.
Palestinians in Israel forced to study Zionist anthem
Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 28 July 2009
A leading Arab educator in Israel has denounced the decision of Gideon Saar, the education minister, to require schools to study the Israeli national anthem.
Officials announced last week that they were sending out special "national anthem kits" to 8,000 schools, including those in the separate Arab education system, in time for the start of the new academic year in September.
The kits have been designed to be suitable for all age groups and for use across the curriculum, from civics and history classes to music and literature lessons.
The anthem, known as Hatikva, or The Hope, has long been unpopular with Israel's Palestinian minority because its lyrics refer only to a Jewish historical connection to the land.
Saar's initiative is widely seen among Israel's 1.3 million Palestinian citizens as a further indication of the rising nationalistic tide sweeping policymakers.
Last week the ministry also announced that textbooks recently issued to Arab schoolchildren would have expunged the word "nakba," or catastrophe, to describe the Palestinians' dispossession at Israel's founding in 1948.
Hala Espanioly, who chairs the education committee of the Arab minority's supreme political body, the Higher Follow-Up Committee, told the Israeli news website Ynet: "If there is an attempt to force the Hatikva anthem on Arab schools and Arab pupils, it will be akin to a kind of attempted rape of their identity."
The issue of the national anthem, based on a 120-year-old poem by Naftali Hertz Imber and an ancient folk melody, has been a running sore between Israel's Jewish and Arab populations for decades.
Arab citizens are unhappy with its heavily Zionist lyrics, which speak of how the "soul of a Jew yearns" to return to Zion, as well as referring to "The hope of two thousand years, To be a free nation in our land."
In 2005 some legislators were outraged when an Israeli parliamentary committee considered, among possible constitution changes, revising the anthem's lyrics from "the soul of a Jew'" to "the soul of an Israeli." The change was not approved.
Saar, then an ordinary politician, led the opposition to changing the lyrics: "In two words: definitely not. I wouldn't make any changes to Hatikva. It would be a compromise on the state's identity."
The refusal of prominent Arabs to sing the anthem in public has provoked several notable controversies.
The most high-profile concerned Raleb Majadele, of the Labor party, who was appointed Israel's first Arab cabinet minister in 2007. In an interview he said that, though he always stood during Hatikva, he drew the line at singing it.
He later defended his position to Israeli radio: "Where is it written that a person appointed to be a cabinet minister in Israel must stop being an Arab, and turn into a member of a different religion and ethnicity?"
Arab players in Israel's national football squad have also admitted being uncomfortable during the playing of the anthem before games. TV broadcasts often zoom in to show that their lips are not moving.
Abir Kupty, today an elected official with the Nazareth municipality, produced one of Israeli TV's most talked-about moments four years ago when she was filmed sitting down when the anthem was played. She was the only Arab contestant in a reality show to find Israel's future leaders.
Kupty said: "This decision by the education ministry is part of the current hysterical right-wing mood in Israel. They hope they can erase our Palestinian identity by making us love the anthem."
She added that Arab pupils were already deprived of the chance to learn about their own history, culture and identity. "The curriculum in Arab schools is heavily controlled by Jewish officials and by the security services."
Sofia Yoad, the education ministry's director of curriculum development, said the anthem kits included a book and two CDs containing 40 historic recordings of Hatikva, including it being sung in a concentration camp and at the Declaration of Independence.
"It is very important to learn about the national anthem even if pupils are not Jewish," she said. "After all, this is the story of a country's independence."
Astrith Baltsan, a pianist who researched and wrote the book over three years, said she had originally been commissioned to produce it for Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations last year.
But when Saar saw it, she said, he had been keen to use it in all schools. She added that, when she played the anthem at a ministry launch party last week, even the Arab schools inspectors stood. "When you know the story of the anthem, you show it respect," she said.
The Higher Follow-Up Committee, a national political body representing Israel's Arab minority, has staunchly opposed the use of the kits. It wrote last week to Saar, warning that the initiative would "only deepen the alienation of Arab students and teachers."
Figures released by the education ministry this month show that only 32 percent of Arab students passed their matriculation exam last year, compared to 60 percent of Jewish students. The pass rate was a dramatic drop from the 50.7 percent of Arab pupils who matriculated in 2006.
Yousef Jabareen, head of Dirasat, a Nazareth-based organization monitoring education issues, blamed the poor results on growing cultural bias in the Israeli education system as well as severe budgetary discrimination.
He said the increasing weight placed on Jewish heritage and Judaism lessons put Arab pupils at a severe disadvantage, and that further alienation was caused by the state's refusal to allow the Arab education system any autonomy in selecting its own curriculum.
A report published in March, he added, showed that the government invested $1,100 in each Jewish pupil's education compared to $190 for each Arab pupil. There was also a shortfall of more than 1,000 classrooms for Arab students.
Jabareen pointed out that a committee appointed last year by the dovish previous education minister, Yuli Tamir, had recommended curriculum reforms to encourage a "shared life" and common values among pupils, including more frequent encounters between Jewish and Arab students.
In April Saar quashed the committee's report.
Opposition to the study of Hatikva is shared by ultra-religious Jews known as the Haredim. They believe the anthem should include a reference to God in the lyrics, and have proposed an alternative entitled HaEmunah.
Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.
A version of this article originally appeared in The National, published in Abu Dhabi.
A leading Arab educator in Israel has denounced the decision of Gideon Saar, the education minister, to require schools to study the Israeli national anthem.
Officials announced last week that they were sending out special "national anthem kits" to 8,000 schools, including those in the separate Arab education system, in time for the start of the new academic year in September.
The kits have been designed to be suitable for all age groups and for use across the curriculum, from civics and history classes to music and literature lessons.
The anthem, known as Hatikva, or The Hope, has long been unpopular with Israel's Palestinian minority because its lyrics refer only to a Jewish historical connection to the land.
Saar's initiative is widely seen among Israel's 1.3 million Palestinian citizens as a further indication of the rising nationalistic tide sweeping policymakers.
Last week the ministry also announced that textbooks recently issued to Arab schoolchildren would have expunged the word "nakba," or catastrophe, to describe the Palestinians' dispossession at Israel's founding in 1948.
Hala Espanioly, who chairs the education committee of the Arab minority's supreme political body, the Higher Follow-Up Committee, told the Israeli news website Ynet: "If there is an attempt to force the Hatikva anthem on Arab schools and Arab pupils, it will be akin to a kind of attempted rape of their identity."
The issue of the national anthem, based on a 120-year-old poem by Naftali Hertz Imber and an ancient folk melody, has been a running sore between Israel's Jewish and Arab populations for decades.
Arab citizens are unhappy with its heavily Zionist lyrics, which speak of how the "soul of a Jew yearns" to return to Zion, as well as referring to "The hope of two thousand years, To be a free nation in our land."
In 2005 some legislators were outraged when an Israeli parliamentary committee considered, among possible constitution changes, revising the anthem's lyrics from "the soul of a Jew'" to "the soul of an Israeli." The change was not approved.
Saar, then an ordinary politician, led the opposition to changing the lyrics: "In two words: definitely not. I wouldn't make any changes to Hatikva. It would be a compromise on the state's identity."
The refusal of prominent Arabs to sing the anthem in public has provoked several notable controversies.
The most high-profile concerned Raleb Majadele, of the Labor party, who was appointed Israel's first Arab cabinet minister in 2007. In an interview he said that, though he always stood during Hatikva, he drew the line at singing it.
He later defended his position to Israeli radio: "Where is it written that a person appointed to be a cabinet minister in Israel must stop being an Arab, and turn into a member of a different religion and ethnicity?"
Arab players in Israel's national football squad have also admitted being uncomfortable during the playing of the anthem before games. TV broadcasts often zoom in to show that their lips are not moving.
Abir Kupty, today an elected official with the Nazareth municipality, produced one of Israeli TV's most talked-about moments four years ago when she was filmed sitting down when the anthem was played. She was the only Arab contestant in a reality show to find Israel's future leaders.
Kupty said: "This decision by the education ministry is part of the current hysterical right-wing mood in Israel. They hope they can erase our Palestinian identity by making us love the anthem."
She added that Arab pupils were already deprived of the chance to learn about their own history, culture and identity. "The curriculum in Arab schools is heavily controlled by Jewish officials and by the security services."
Sofia Yoad, the education ministry's director of curriculum development, said the anthem kits included a book and two CDs containing 40 historic recordings of Hatikva, including it being sung in a concentration camp and at the Declaration of Independence.
"It is very important to learn about the national anthem even if pupils are not Jewish," she said. "After all, this is the story of a country's independence."
Astrith Baltsan, a pianist who researched and wrote the book over three years, said she had originally been commissioned to produce it for Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations last year.
But when Saar saw it, she said, he had been keen to use it in all schools. She added that, when she played the anthem at a ministry launch party last week, even the Arab schools inspectors stood. "When you know the story of the anthem, you show it respect," she said.
The Higher Follow-Up Committee, a national political body representing Israel's Arab minority, has staunchly opposed the use of the kits. It wrote last week to Saar, warning that the initiative would "only deepen the alienation of Arab students and teachers."
Figures released by the education ministry this month show that only 32 percent of Arab students passed their matriculation exam last year, compared to 60 percent of Jewish students. The pass rate was a dramatic drop from the 50.7 percent of Arab pupils who matriculated in 2006.
Yousef Jabareen, head of Dirasat, a Nazareth-based organization monitoring education issues, blamed the poor results on growing cultural bias in the Israeli education system as well as severe budgetary discrimination.
He said the increasing weight placed on Jewish heritage and Judaism lessons put Arab pupils at a severe disadvantage, and that further alienation was caused by the state's refusal to allow the Arab education system any autonomy in selecting its own curriculum.
A report published in March, he added, showed that the government invested $1,100 in each Jewish pupil's education compared to $190 for each Arab pupil. There was also a shortfall of more than 1,000 classrooms for Arab students.
Jabareen pointed out that a committee appointed last year by the dovish previous education minister, Yuli Tamir, had recommended curriculum reforms to encourage a "shared life" and common values among pupils, including more frequent encounters between Jewish and Arab students.
In April Saar quashed the committee's report.
Opposition to the study of Hatikva is shared by ultra-religious Jews known as the Haredim. They believe the anthem should include a reference to God in the lyrics, and have proposed an alternative entitled HaEmunah.
Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.
A version of this article originally appeared in The National, published in Abu Dhabi.
Homeward bound: Gaza in 24 hours
Dr. Mona El-Farra writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 28 July 2009
International activists from the Viva Palestina US delegation arrive into the Gaza Strip from Egypt, 15 July 2009. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages)
As soon as I arrived home I felt a great relief, if that is the right word. I have been unable to return to Gaza before because of Israel's winter invasion and the ongoing siege. I am not sure that the word relief summarizes my intense and conflicting emotions. Mixed feelings of relief, happiness, but also disorientation continued to overwhelm me. Gaza my beautiful home, yes my beautiful home, my beautiful people, who are trying so hard to live. To continue from one day to another. Despite the odds, the hardships, the deaf ears of the world.
The same day I arrived home, 9 July, I could see from my balcony the rubble of what at one time was Yasser Arafat's headquarters. The whole building was completely demolished, leveled to the ground, blowing out the windows on one side of my apartment building. It is the same place where one of my cousins was killed the first day of Israel's assault in December.
I now see a different Gaza, and it is not the Gaza I have known, it is like a city after an earthquake.
Many of the historically important buildings were leveled to the ground. I decided to postpone my field visits to the different areas where the assaults were the most savage and brutal. I thought it might be a good idea to wait for the arrival of the delegation of US citizens who were due to cross the border.
In the meantime, I met some dear friends and coworkers who came to say hello. All of them were loaded with war stories and the panic they faced during the attacks against Gaza. One friend who was a political prisoner, who spent 15 years in the Israeli jails said to me, "I never felt afraid of anything there like the fear I felt this time." I find it strange to even write this sentence, but while we Palestinians are determined to continue our struggle, the reality is that this assault against Gaza was severe and fierce, and cannot be forgotten -- we will feel its effects as a people for a long time.
Our friends from the US were only granted visas from Egypt to visit Gaza for 24 hours. As I waited I pondered, "How can we condense or begin to understand what children, women and men went through during 23 days of the assault in a 24 hours visit?"
Upon the arrival of the Viva Palestina US delegation, I sat at the borders to receive the delegation with some colleagues from PNGO (Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations' Network). It was a touching and affectionate moment for me, to see American, British, and French activists of different ages and ethnicities united under one goal and voicing to the world: "Gaza you are not alone, you are not forgotten, despite the shameful stand of the governments of the world, we stand with you, the people of Gaza!"
We had to get to work immediately, and were fortunate to have a solid team of colleagues. I was accompanied by Barbara Lubin, Director of the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), Reem Salhi, an activist lawyer and human rights advocate, Danny Muller, a MECA colleague, Travis Wilkerson, a filmmaker and professor, Jaiel Kayed, a Palestinian-American computer expert, Talal Abu Shaweesh, Director of New Horizons, and Mohammed Magdalawi, a student from Gaza and MECA volunteer.
In the Nuseirat refugee camp, we were invited by New Horizons to see the activities of their project loosely translated as "Let them Play and Heal," a program treating childhood trauma sponsored by MECA. The project involves activities for mothers and their children to help the children recover after the war trauma. There were around 500 kids, 6-12 years old boys and girls with their mothers attending. We had the chance to see the little faces of hundreds of happy children, singing along with a traditional debka dance performance.
We then visited the al-Bureeg School, where MECA has implemented water purification and desalinization systems to provide clean drinking water for schoolchildren. This is one of three water treatment projects MECA has recently implemented in the refugee camps, and we aim to build many more with the help of our friends and allies. We then moved to the north and while the van was going on, we could clearly see many demolished homes everywhere, and tent cities around the homes where families now lived.
We could not miss the Zaytoun area, where one of the many tragic events of the war occurred at the home of the Samouni family. The van went through neighborhood after neighborhood, through areas of vast destruction. How can I convey to you what I have seen in the little faces, eyes of sadness mixed with hope and excitement? On top of that some of the kids who had broken or missing arms and legs, post-operative scars, who are living in the rubble of their former homes, and with their little voices they tried to tell us their stories.
I listened to their stories. I stopped writing about the rest of our activities, the rest of our day, the rest of my return home. At that moment I felt, and still feel, "I don't want to hear or listen, I just want to cuddle these children and help them to forget." But I want the world to remember what was done here in Gaza, and that those of who are picking up the pieces, as hard as we try, we cannot forget.
Mona El-Farra is a physician by training and a human rights and women's rights activist in practice in the occupied Gaza Strip. Her blog is From Gaza, with Love.
International activists from the Viva Palestina US delegation arrive into the Gaza Strip from Egypt, 15 July 2009. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages)
As soon as I arrived home I felt a great relief, if that is the right word. I have been unable to return to Gaza before because of Israel's winter invasion and the ongoing siege. I am not sure that the word relief summarizes my intense and conflicting emotions. Mixed feelings of relief, happiness, but also disorientation continued to overwhelm me. Gaza my beautiful home, yes my beautiful home, my beautiful people, who are trying so hard to live. To continue from one day to another. Despite the odds, the hardships, the deaf ears of the world.
The same day I arrived home, 9 July, I could see from my balcony the rubble of what at one time was Yasser Arafat's headquarters. The whole building was completely demolished, leveled to the ground, blowing out the windows on one side of my apartment building. It is the same place where one of my cousins was killed the first day of Israel's assault in December.
I now see a different Gaza, and it is not the Gaza I have known, it is like a city after an earthquake.
Many of the historically important buildings were leveled to the ground. I decided to postpone my field visits to the different areas where the assaults were the most savage and brutal. I thought it might be a good idea to wait for the arrival of the delegation of US citizens who were due to cross the border.
In the meantime, I met some dear friends and coworkers who came to say hello. All of them were loaded with war stories and the panic they faced during the attacks against Gaza. One friend who was a political prisoner, who spent 15 years in the Israeli jails said to me, "I never felt afraid of anything there like the fear I felt this time." I find it strange to even write this sentence, but while we Palestinians are determined to continue our struggle, the reality is that this assault against Gaza was severe and fierce, and cannot be forgotten -- we will feel its effects as a people for a long time.
Our friends from the US were only granted visas from Egypt to visit Gaza for 24 hours. As I waited I pondered, "How can we condense or begin to understand what children, women and men went through during 23 days of the assault in a 24 hours visit?"
Upon the arrival of the Viva Palestina US delegation, I sat at the borders to receive the delegation with some colleagues from PNGO (Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations' Network). It was a touching and affectionate moment for me, to see American, British, and French activists of different ages and ethnicities united under one goal and voicing to the world: "Gaza you are not alone, you are not forgotten, despite the shameful stand of the governments of the world, we stand with you, the people of Gaza!"
We had to get to work immediately, and were fortunate to have a solid team of colleagues. I was accompanied by Barbara Lubin, Director of the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), Reem Salhi, an activist lawyer and human rights advocate, Danny Muller, a MECA colleague, Travis Wilkerson, a filmmaker and professor, Jaiel Kayed, a Palestinian-American computer expert, Talal Abu Shaweesh, Director of New Horizons, and Mohammed Magdalawi, a student from Gaza and MECA volunteer.
In the Nuseirat refugee camp, we were invited by New Horizons to see the activities of their project loosely translated as "Let them Play and Heal," a program treating childhood trauma sponsored by MECA. The project involves activities for mothers and their children to help the children recover after the war trauma. There were around 500 kids, 6-12 years old boys and girls with their mothers attending. We had the chance to see the little faces of hundreds of happy children, singing along with a traditional debka dance performance.
We then visited the al-Bureeg School, where MECA has implemented water purification and desalinization systems to provide clean drinking water for schoolchildren. This is one of three water treatment projects MECA has recently implemented in the refugee camps, and we aim to build many more with the help of our friends and allies. We then moved to the north and while the van was going on, we could clearly see many demolished homes everywhere, and tent cities around the homes where families now lived.
We could not miss the Zaytoun area, where one of the many tragic events of the war occurred at the home of the Samouni family. The van went through neighborhood after neighborhood, through areas of vast destruction. How can I convey to you what I have seen in the little faces, eyes of sadness mixed with hope and excitement? On top of that some of the kids who had broken or missing arms and legs, post-operative scars, who are living in the rubble of their former homes, and with their little voices they tried to tell us their stories.
I listened to their stories. I stopped writing about the rest of our activities, the rest of our day, the rest of my return home. At that moment I felt, and still feel, "I don't want to hear or listen, I just want to cuddle these children and help them to forget." But I want the world to remember what was done here in Gaza, and that those of who are picking up the pieces, as hard as we try, we cannot forget.
Mona El-Farra is a physician by training and a human rights and women's rights activist in practice in the occupied Gaza Strip. Her blog is From Gaza, with Love.
Using the UN to undermine Palestinian rights
Hasan Abu Nimah, The Electronic Intifada,
29 July 2009
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana (second from right) at a joint press conference with the Middle East Quartet (US, EU, Russia, and UN), June 2009. (Mark Garten/UN Photo)
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana surprised observers on 11 July when he called, during a speech in London, for the UN Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state by a certain date even if no agreement had been reached between Israelis and Palestinians.
On its face, this proposal sounds dramatic. There must be some who still believe that a Security Council decision would result in real and drastic action. The reality, however, is that the Security Council is not the powerful executive organ it was created to be.
Yet Solana clearly angered Israel by daring to make such a proposal. Israel is not used to being surprised, and normally the big powers consult it before making any major statements about the Middle East situation. This time it seems Solana did not seek the proper Israeli permission. Yet the Israeli anger itself seemed to give added credence to the idea that Solana must have said something significant.
Solana praised the new peace initiative of US President Barack Obama and suggested that if that fails to bring about a binding agreement between the parties, then the "international community" should intervene through the Security Council. Specifically, Solana proposed:
"After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution. This should include all the parameters of borders, refugees, Jerusalem and security arrangements. It would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN, and set a calendar for implementation. It would mandate the resolution of other remaining territorial disputes and legitimize the end of claims."
What this seemingly bold statement boils down to is that Solana wants the Security Council to join the chorus of those who have been singing the two-state solution song for decades. Instead of suggesting concrete measures to enforce previous and long-ignored UN resolutions, or to check Israel's violations which made a Palestinian state impossible, Solana simply wants the UN to recognize an imaginary Palestinian state as a full member of the UN.
If we try to put a positive spin on it, we could say that the "two-state solution" is already half way to being achieved. After all, one of the two states -- Israel -- has been in existence for more than 60 years, and moreover has been expanding its territory for all that time.
The problem, however, is that this "success" means that there is nowhere left for a second state. Solana, like many others, finds it easy to parrot the two-state solution, but does not have the courage to demand a complete end even to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip which began on 4 June 1967.
Having himself been such a key part of the failed peace process, Solana now wants the Security Council to "mandate" a resolution of central issues -- borders, refugees, Jerusalem, settlements and security arrangements. He does not say how the UN would do this but merely throws it to them as if these matters are minor details.
Indeed, Solana could have recognized that the UN -- the Security Council in particular -- has already dealt with these matters. Hasn't the Security Council decided repeatedly that all of Israel's settlements beyond the line of 4 June 1967 are illegal and should be removed? Hasn't it declared that Israel's annexation of occupied East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights is null and void as are all legal and administrative changes made in these territories by Israel? Hasn't the Security Council declared clearly and repeatedly that Israel's efforts to change the demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian Territories are totally illegal and invalid?
Given that all this is the case, and the Security Council never once moved to enforce its own resolutions violated by Israel, why should its intervention matter now? If anything -- and this is likely why Solana is shy to say exactly what the Security Council should do -- he wants it to endorse fake solutions which legitimize illegality. For example, a UN resolution canceling the right of return, recognizing existing settlements, imposing on Palestinians a bantustan instead of state, and probably also mandating NATO or other international forces to occupy the state, as is the case in several Balkan countries created under Solana's stewardship.
There is no guarantee that Israel would comply with even such a resolution that endorses most of its demands. What would happen then? Is Solana proposing that the Security Council develop a backbone, that it enforce its own resolutions with sanctions against Israel? If so, that would be welcome of course, but the test is to enforce the existing resolutions which Israel and Solana, along with the rest of the peace process industry have ignored and undermined for so long.
It might have made some sense if Solana suggested that the Security Council recognize a Palestinian state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including East Jerusalem, on the borders exactly as they were on 4 June 1967. That would have signaled an intent to reinforce existing international law and bring an end to the illegal colonial occupation which the EU has subsidized and politically covered for so long.
Instead, Solana seems to be calling for the UN to endorse vague ideas and start again an entire process that has proven totally misguided and fruitless. The real worry, however, is that Solana, who has always taken his political cues from Washington, is launching a trial balloon. He may be proposing a course of action to save the Obama administration from the failure of the process being conducted by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
It is not far-fetched to imagine the United States, which effectively controls the Security Council, proposing a resolution embodying Solana-like ideas, and packaging this as being part of a new US commitment to international joint action and legitimacy. The Palestinians will be presented with a fait accompli where they will be told that any demands for the their legitimate and inalienable rights beyond what the resolution contains are now invalid.
Passing such a resolution, and calling it Middle East "peace" would mark a new low in the UN's abdication of its responsibilities. It would be the diplomatic equivalent of hanging up a banner declaring "Mission Accomplished" at the beginning of a long and disastrous war.
Hasan Abu Nimah is the former permanent representative of Jordan at the United Nations. This essay first appeared in The Jordan Times and is republished with the author's permission.
29 July 2009
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana (second from right) at a joint press conference with the Middle East Quartet (US, EU, Russia, and UN), June 2009. (Mark Garten/UN Photo)
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana surprised observers on 11 July when he called, during a speech in London, for the UN Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state by a certain date even if no agreement had been reached between Israelis and Palestinians.
On its face, this proposal sounds dramatic. There must be some who still believe that a Security Council decision would result in real and drastic action. The reality, however, is that the Security Council is not the powerful executive organ it was created to be.
Yet Solana clearly angered Israel by daring to make such a proposal. Israel is not used to being surprised, and normally the big powers consult it before making any major statements about the Middle East situation. This time it seems Solana did not seek the proper Israeli permission. Yet the Israeli anger itself seemed to give added credence to the idea that Solana must have said something significant.
Solana praised the new peace initiative of US President Barack Obama and suggested that if that fails to bring about a binding agreement between the parties, then the "international community" should intervene through the Security Council. Specifically, Solana proposed:
"After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution. This should include all the parameters of borders, refugees, Jerusalem and security arrangements. It would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN, and set a calendar for implementation. It would mandate the resolution of other remaining territorial disputes and legitimize the end of claims."
What this seemingly bold statement boils down to is that Solana wants the Security Council to join the chorus of those who have been singing the two-state solution song for decades. Instead of suggesting concrete measures to enforce previous and long-ignored UN resolutions, or to check Israel's violations which made a Palestinian state impossible, Solana simply wants the UN to recognize an imaginary Palestinian state as a full member of the UN.
If we try to put a positive spin on it, we could say that the "two-state solution" is already half way to being achieved. After all, one of the two states -- Israel -- has been in existence for more than 60 years, and moreover has been expanding its territory for all that time.
The problem, however, is that this "success" means that there is nowhere left for a second state. Solana, like many others, finds it easy to parrot the two-state solution, but does not have the courage to demand a complete end even to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip which began on 4 June 1967.
Having himself been such a key part of the failed peace process, Solana now wants the Security Council to "mandate" a resolution of central issues -- borders, refugees, Jerusalem, settlements and security arrangements. He does not say how the UN would do this but merely throws it to them as if these matters are minor details.
Indeed, Solana could have recognized that the UN -- the Security Council in particular -- has already dealt with these matters. Hasn't the Security Council decided repeatedly that all of Israel's settlements beyond the line of 4 June 1967 are illegal and should be removed? Hasn't it declared that Israel's annexation of occupied East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights is null and void as are all legal and administrative changes made in these territories by Israel? Hasn't the Security Council declared clearly and repeatedly that Israel's efforts to change the demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian Territories are totally illegal and invalid?
Given that all this is the case, and the Security Council never once moved to enforce its own resolutions violated by Israel, why should its intervention matter now? If anything -- and this is likely why Solana is shy to say exactly what the Security Council should do -- he wants it to endorse fake solutions which legitimize illegality. For example, a UN resolution canceling the right of return, recognizing existing settlements, imposing on Palestinians a bantustan instead of state, and probably also mandating NATO or other international forces to occupy the state, as is the case in several Balkan countries created under Solana's stewardship.
There is no guarantee that Israel would comply with even such a resolution that endorses most of its demands. What would happen then? Is Solana proposing that the Security Council develop a backbone, that it enforce its own resolutions with sanctions against Israel? If so, that would be welcome of course, but the test is to enforce the existing resolutions which Israel and Solana, along with the rest of the peace process industry have ignored and undermined for so long.
It might have made some sense if Solana suggested that the Security Council recognize a Palestinian state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including East Jerusalem, on the borders exactly as they were on 4 June 1967. That would have signaled an intent to reinforce existing international law and bring an end to the illegal colonial occupation which the EU has subsidized and politically covered for so long.
Instead, Solana seems to be calling for the UN to endorse vague ideas and start again an entire process that has proven totally misguided and fruitless. The real worry, however, is that Solana, who has always taken his political cues from Washington, is launching a trial balloon. He may be proposing a course of action to save the Obama administration from the failure of the process being conducted by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
It is not far-fetched to imagine the United States, which effectively controls the Security Council, proposing a resolution embodying Solana-like ideas, and packaging this as being part of a new US commitment to international joint action and legitimacy. The Palestinians will be presented with a fait accompli where they will be told that any demands for the their legitimate and inalienable rights beyond what the resolution contains are now invalid.
Passing such a resolution, and calling it Middle East "peace" would mark a new low in the UN's abdication of its responsibilities. It would be the diplomatic equivalent of hanging up a banner declaring "Mission Accomplished" at the beginning of a long and disastrous war.
Hasan Abu Nimah is the former permanent representative of Jordan at the United Nations. This essay first appeared in The Jordan Times and is republished with the author's permission.
Why Obama's peace process is still going nowhere
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada
30 July 2009
Appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad meets US special Middle East envoy George Mitchell (left) in the West Bank city of Ramallah on 27 July 2009. (Mustafa Abu Dayeh/MaanImages)
Much of the debate about US President Barack Obama's push for Middle East peace resembles the proverbial argument about whether the glass is half full or half empty. But even a full glass is not very useful if you need to fill an entire reservoir.
A common assumption is that earlier American administrations were insufficiently "engaged." Obama's early moves, including the appointment of former Northern Ireland mediator George Mitchell as his envoy, have therefore been widely welcomed.
The problem was never a lack of American engagement, but what kind. Indeed, the Bush administration took engagement to unprecedented lengths. It pushed for Palestinian elections, and then when Hamas defeated the US-backed Fatah faction, America attempted to overturn the result. The Bush administration helped arm and train Palestinian militias opposed to Hamas and vetoed a Palestinian "national unity government." It supported the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and politicized financial aid to bolster Palestinian leaders whose legitimacy, as they have effectively become Israeli quislings, has all but vanished. At the same time, the United States and the Quartet imposed lopsided preconditions for dialogue that they well know Hamas cannot accept.
Absolutely none of this has changed under the Obama administration. Despite lip service about easing it, the United States continues to support Israel's criminal blockade of the Gaza Strip, and like the Bush administration, Obama has never criticized Israel's attack on Gaza despite incontestable evidence of atrocities and war crimes.
America continues to funnel arms and money to Fatah-controlled militias, encouraging them to attack Hamas in the West Bank, sabotaging the possibility of intra-Palestinian reconciliation.
And while the Obama administration and the British government prepare for negotiations with the Taliban in Afghanistan, they intransigently reject talks with Hamas despite that group's electoral mandate, its repeated offers of a reciprocal long-term ceasefire with Israel and its acceptance of a two-state solution.
The Obama administration has used up its first six months negotiating a settlement freeze with Israel (with little to show). At this rate, how long would it take to negotiate the core issues in the century-long conflict resulting from the Zionist effort to transform an almost entirely Arab (Muslim and Christian) country, into a "Jewish state" with a permanent Jewish majority?
The constant focus on process and gimmicks -- like trying to get Arab states to normalize ties with Israel -- has obscured the reality that Obama's stated goal -- a workable two-state solution -- is almost certainly unachievable. The idea of separating Palestinians and Israelis into distinct ethno-national entities has become an article of faith within peace process circles, but rarely are its supporters asked to justify why a "solution" that has eluded them for decades has any merit.
Today, as a result of natural growth, Palestinians form half of the population living in historic Palestine despite decades of expulsion and exile. Within a few years they will once again be the majority. A two-state solution as currently envisaged would leave Palestinians with a state on no more than a fifth of the land, with less of the water and no real sovereignty. Even if Palestinian refugees agreed to return to such a state, there would be no room for them.
Nor would repartition actually separate the populations: no one involved in the "peace process" is talking about removing all, or even most of the half million Israeli settlers implanted illegally in the West Bank -- especially around Jerusalem -- since 1967. There is talk of compensating Palestinians for the land taken by settlers with "equivalent" land elsewhere. But whoever can find land that can "compensate" Palestinians for Jerusalem, would be just as likely to find land that could "compensate" the British for London or the French for Paris.
As for the 1.5 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, a two-state solution would only make their situation worse. Already treated as second-class citizens, they face escalating racist campaigns and a raft of legislation proposing to ban them from commemorating Israel's near-destruction of Palestine in 1948, forcing them to take loyalty oaths, or even to sing the explicitly Jewish Israeli national anthem. If Israel remains an unreformed ultra-nationalist "Jewish state," its Palestinian citizens are more likely to face apartheid conditions at best or ethnic cleansing at worst, than be allowed to live as equal citizens in the land of their birth. Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman represents the growing number of Israeli Jews who think a Jewish state should be cleansed of non-Jews.
This is why an increasing number of Palestinians, conflict resolution experts, and a small but growing number of Israelis are giving serious attention to the idea of a one-state, or bi-national solution for Palestine/Israel. This would dismantle the current system of Israeli ethno-religious domination and institute a democratic system guaranteeing the civic, political, religious and cultural rights of all citizens and communities.
Although peace process insiders constantly dismiss these ideas as far-fetched, utopian or naive, they continue to gain adherents. After all, similar, but even deeper-rooted conflicts between settler-colonial and indigenous communities were resolved peacefully along such democratic principles in Northern Ireland and South Africa.
As George Mitchell surely knows from his experience in Northern Ireland, when two national communities lay claim to the same land and one dominates the other by force, partition only changes the contours of the conflict. It was by dismantling the "Protestant state for a Protestant people" in the north of Ireland and replacing it with a bi-national democracy, increasingly integrated with the rest of the island, that the 1998 Good Friday Agreement ended a conflict long thought to be insoluble.
Neither South Africa nor Northern Ireland offer exact analogies or ready-made blueprints for Palestine/Israel. But to continue to pretend that these working bi-national and one-state models have nothing to teach is to condemn Palestinians and Israelis to decades more of conflict, as diplomats chase mirages and Israel pursues its colonial policies unchecked.
Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. This article was originally published as part of debate hosted by The Economist and is republished with permission.
30 July 2009
Appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad meets US special Middle East envoy George Mitchell (left) in the West Bank city of Ramallah on 27 July 2009. (Mustafa Abu Dayeh/MaanImages)
Much of the debate about US President Barack Obama's push for Middle East peace resembles the proverbial argument about whether the glass is half full or half empty. But even a full glass is not very useful if you need to fill an entire reservoir.
A common assumption is that earlier American administrations were insufficiently "engaged." Obama's early moves, including the appointment of former Northern Ireland mediator George Mitchell as his envoy, have therefore been widely welcomed.
The problem was never a lack of American engagement, but what kind. Indeed, the Bush administration took engagement to unprecedented lengths. It pushed for Palestinian elections, and then when Hamas defeated the US-backed Fatah faction, America attempted to overturn the result. The Bush administration helped arm and train Palestinian militias opposed to Hamas and vetoed a Palestinian "national unity government." It supported the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and politicized financial aid to bolster Palestinian leaders whose legitimacy, as they have effectively become Israeli quislings, has all but vanished. At the same time, the United States and the Quartet imposed lopsided preconditions for dialogue that they well know Hamas cannot accept.
Absolutely none of this has changed under the Obama administration. Despite lip service about easing it, the United States continues to support Israel's criminal blockade of the Gaza Strip, and like the Bush administration, Obama has never criticized Israel's attack on Gaza despite incontestable evidence of atrocities and war crimes.
America continues to funnel arms and money to Fatah-controlled militias, encouraging them to attack Hamas in the West Bank, sabotaging the possibility of intra-Palestinian reconciliation.
And while the Obama administration and the British government prepare for negotiations with the Taliban in Afghanistan, they intransigently reject talks with Hamas despite that group's electoral mandate, its repeated offers of a reciprocal long-term ceasefire with Israel and its acceptance of a two-state solution.
The Obama administration has used up its first six months negotiating a settlement freeze with Israel (with little to show). At this rate, how long would it take to negotiate the core issues in the century-long conflict resulting from the Zionist effort to transform an almost entirely Arab (Muslim and Christian) country, into a "Jewish state" with a permanent Jewish majority?
The constant focus on process and gimmicks -- like trying to get Arab states to normalize ties with Israel -- has obscured the reality that Obama's stated goal -- a workable two-state solution -- is almost certainly unachievable. The idea of separating Palestinians and Israelis into distinct ethno-national entities has become an article of faith within peace process circles, but rarely are its supporters asked to justify why a "solution" that has eluded them for decades has any merit.
Today, as a result of natural growth, Palestinians form half of the population living in historic Palestine despite decades of expulsion and exile. Within a few years they will once again be the majority. A two-state solution as currently envisaged would leave Palestinians with a state on no more than a fifth of the land, with less of the water and no real sovereignty. Even if Palestinian refugees agreed to return to such a state, there would be no room for them.
Nor would repartition actually separate the populations: no one involved in the "peace process" is talking about removing all, or even most of the half million Israeli settlers implanted illegally in the West Bank -- especially around Jerusalem -- since 1967. There is talk of compensating Palestinians for the land taken by settlers with "equivalent" land elsewhere. But whoever can find land that can "compensate" Palestinians for Jerusalem, would be just as likely to find land that could "compensate" the British for London or the French for Paris.
As for the 1.5 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, a two-state solution would only make their situation worse. Already treated as second-class citizens, they face escalating racist campaigns and a raft of legislation proposing to ban them from commemorating Israel's near-destruction of Palestine in 1948, forcing them to take loyalty oaths, or even to sing the explicitly Jewish Israeli national anthem. If Israel remains an unreformed ultra-nationalist "Jewish state," its Palestinian citizens are more likely to face apartheid conditions at best or ethnic cleansing at worst, than be allowed to live as equal citizens in the land of their birth. Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman represents the growing number of Israeli Jews who think a Jewish state should be cleansed of non-Jews.
This is why an increasing number of Palestinians, conflict resolution experts, and a small but growing number of Israelis are giving serious attention to the idea of a one-state, or bi-national solution for Palestine/Israel. This would dismantle the current system of Israeli ethno-religious domination and institute a democratic system guaranteeing the civic, political, religious and cultural rights of all citizens and communities.
Although peace process insiders constantly dismiss these ideas as far-fetched, utopian or naive, they continue to gain adherents. After all, similar, but even deeper-rooted conflicts between settler-colonial and indigenous communities were resolved peacefully along such democratic principles in Northern Ireland and South Africa.
As George Mitchell surely knows from his experience in Northern Ireland, when two national communities lay claim to the same land and one dominates the other by force, partition only changes the contours of the conflict. It was by dismantling the "Protestant state for a Protestant people" in the north of Ireland and replacing it with a bi-national democracy, increasingly integrated with the rest of the island, that the 1998 Good Friday Agreement ended a conflict long thought to be insoluble.
Neither South Africa nor Northern Ireland offer exact analogies or ready-made blueprints for Palestine/Israel. But to continue to pretend that these working bi-national and one-state models have nothing to teach is to condemn Palestinians and Israelis to decades more of conflict, as diplomats chase mirages and Israel pursues its colonial policies unchecked.
Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. This article was originally published as part of debate hosted by The Economist and is republished with permission.
Гледайте видеото: Заселник атакува активисти на Peace Now документиращи разрушенията
10:18 - Гледайте видеото: Заселник атакува активисти на Peace Now документиращи разрушенията
От: Haaretz Service
Двама представители на организацията Peace Now, екип на Израелската телевизия са нападнати миналата седмица от заселник, който бил обект на тяхното заснемане на разрушенията от заселвашите се.
Материала, оригинално представен от Channel 2 Television и публикуван онлайн от Peace Now, показва охранител в колонията Долев да удря и поврежда камерата и оборудването на телевизионния екип и по-късно атакува автомобила им с камъни.
От: Haaretz Service
Двама представители на организацията Peace Now, екип на Израелската телевизия са нападнати миналата седмица от заселник, който бил обект на тяхното заснемане на разрушенията от заселвашите се.
Материала, оригинално представен от Channel 2 Television и публикуван онлайн от Peace Now, показва охранител в колонията Долев да удря и поврежда камерата и оборудването на телевизионния екип и по-късно атакува автомобила им с камъни.
The Shepherd Hotel Story: Netanyahu Is Hard-Pressed
By peacenowisrael
Something went awry for Bibi Netanyahu. He thought he could play the game his predecessors played and fool the Americans on freezing the settlements (”of course we’ll freeze settlements; only not those in settlement blocs, and not natural growth, and not within the “construction boundaries” of the settlements, and neither the projects that have already started, nor the plans we’ve already approved…. In short, we’ll go on building as we please”).
Trying to avoid a clash, he was stalling. He sent Barak time and again, with such or other compromise formula on the settlement freeze, hoping that in the meantime, his friends in the US Congress and media will manage to somewhat shake President Obama’s determined stand and the extensive support he has. That too is not working all that well.
One of the first rules of negotiations, as well as politics, says: Try to pull the discussion to a field that is convenient for you. A crisis with the Americans in view of construction for the settlers’ children on some Samaria hill would be very uncomfortable for Netanyahu. He knows perfectly well that the world would not tolerate the continued settlement expansion, and that construction in the settlements is no longer popular even in Israel. For example, a public opinion poll that Yedioth Ahronoth carried in June 2009, showed that even some 60% of Lieberman’s voters feel he must not quit the coalition if the settlements are frozen.
This is why Netanyahu decided to take the crisis to a field that he finds convenient: Jerusalem. Now, this is a different story altogether. Jerusalem is a symbol. The Israeli public and perhaps even the US public opinion treat it differently. If there is a crisis with the American concerning sovereign Israel’s right to build in Jerusalem, Netanyahu has better chances of winning the support of the Israeli public, and perhaps even the Americans too.
Pulling a “brilliant stunt,” Netanyahu decided to leak to senior Maariv and Yedioth Ahronoth reporters that Israel’s ambassador in Washington had been summoned for a conversation about the intention to build 20 housing units for Jews in Shepherd Hotel in the heart of the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Thus Netanyahu created the “crisis” with the Americans singlehandedly.
But then, something went awry. The trick was too obvious. The New York Times reported that the story was leaked to the media by Netanyahu himself, while the Israeli media stopped discussing the “crisis” with the Americans and started dealing with the leak. They started asking why Netanyahu bothered to turn a routine conversation with the Israeli ambassador in Washington into a crisis with America. The Israeli right has already started complaining that Netanyahu decided to focus on Jerusalem so that he could freeze construction in other settlements (see Makor Rishon, 20 July 2009).
Netanyahu is hard-pressed. Clearly the leak affair did not serve him well. The little credit he may have had when he first started is running out. His attempts to mislead the public (and the Americans) with old tricks – showing an alleged willingness to freeze the settlement while expanding them in practice – were not well-received by the Americans. The attempt to manipulate the US Administration and drive it into a public, head-on clash over Jerusalem is, as far as the administration is concerned, is unsportsmanlike, foul play.
Still, Netanyahu will lose in this debate too. Shepherd Hotel is not some innocent construction project. Millionaire Irwin Moskowitz, patron of the East Jerusalem settlers, bought that site many years ago. His request to allow construction there has been submitted to the Jerusalem Municipality long ago, but even when Sharon and Olmert were prime ministers, they did not dare raise it for discussion. Cooperating with new Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Netanyahu decided to bring up that which his predecessors avoided.
Building 20 new apartments in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood is meant to prevent the option of attaining a peace arrangement. Today, everyone is clear that the Jerusalem solution will have to be based on dividing it so that the Arab neighborhoods are part of the Palestinian capital, while the Jewish neighborhoods remain Israel’s capital. In recent years, the settlers have been making concentrated efforts to bring Jews to visit and move into the Arab neighborhoods, which should make a compromise deal there impossible, and thus prevent a permanent arrangement.
If Netanyahu was serious when he declared there is “a national consensus on the two-state issue,” he must make sure that it could also materialize. Building in Shepherd Hotel and in East Jerusalem might deny the chance of attaining the two-state solution.
This entry was posted on July 22, 2009 at 10:25 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Something went awry for Bibi Netanyahu. He thought he could play the game his predecessors played and fool the Americans on freezing the settlements (”of course we’ll freeze settlements; only not those in settlement blocs, and not natural growth, and not within the “construction boundaries” of the settlements, and neither the projects that have already started, nor the plans we’ve already approved…. In short, we’ll go on building as we please”).
Trying to avoid a clash, he was stalling. He sent Barak time and again, with such or other compromise formula on the settlement freeze, hoping that in the meantime, his friends in the US Congress and media will manage to somewhat shake President Obama’s determined stand and the extensive support he has. That too is not working all that well.
One of the first rules of negotiations, as well as politics, says: Try to pull the discussion to a field that is convenient for you. A crisis with the Americans in view of construction for the settlers’ children on some Samaria hill would be very uncomfortable for Netanyahu. He knows perfectly well that the world would not tolerate the continued settlement expansion, and that construction in the settlements is no longer popular even in Israel. For example, a public opinion poll that Yedioth Ahronoth carried in June 2009, showed that even some 60% of Lieberman’s voters feel he must not quit the coalition if the settlements are frozen.
This is why Netanyahu decided to take the crisis to a field that he finds convenient: Jerusalem. Now, this is a different story altogether. Jerusalem is a symbol. The Israeli public and perhaps even the US public opinion treat it differently. If there is a crisis with the American concerning sovereign Israel’s right to build in Jerusalem, Netanyahu has better chances of winning the support of the Israeli public, and perhaps even the Americans too.
Pulling a “brilliant stunt,” Netanyahu decided to leak to senior Maariv and Yedioth Ahronoth reporters that Israel’s ambassador in Washington had been summoned for a conversation about the intention to build 20 housing units for Jews in Shepherd Hotel in the heart of the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Thus Netanyahu created the “crisis” with the Americans singlehandedly.
But then, something went awry. The trick was too obvious. The New York Times reported that the story was leaked to the media by Netanyahu himself, while the Israeli media stopped discussing the “crisis” with the Americans and started dealing with the leak. They started asking why Netanyahu bothered to turn a routine conversation with the Israeli ambassador in Washington into a crisis with America. The Israeli right has already started complaining that Netanyahu decided to focus on Jerusalem so that he could freeze construction in other settlements (see Makor Rishon, 20 July 2009).
Netanyahu is hard-pressed. Clearly the leak affair did not serve him well. The little credit he may have had when he first started is running out. His attempts to mislead the public (and the Americans) with old tricks – showing an alleged willingness to freeze the settlement while expanding them in practice – were not well-received by the Americans. The attempt to manipulate the US Administration and drive it into a public, head-on clash over Jerusalem is, as far as the administration is concerned, is unsportsmanlike, foul play.
Still, Netanyahu will lose in this debate too. Shepherd Hotel is not some innocent construction project. Millionaire Irwin Moskowitz, patron of the East Jerusalem settlers, bought that site many years ago. His request to allow construction there has been submitted to the Jerusalem Municipality long ago, but even when Sharon and Olmert were prime ministers, they did not dare raise it for discussion. Cooperating with new Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Netanyahu decided to bring up that which his predecessors avoided.
Building 20 new apartments in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood is meant to prevent the option of attaining a peace arrangement. Today, everyone is clear that the Jerusalem solution will have to be based on dividing it so that the Arab neighborhoods are part of the Palestinian capital, while the Jewish neighborhoods remain Israel’s capital. In recent years, the settlers have been making concentrated efforts to bring Jews to visit and move into the Arab neighborhoods, which should make a compromise deal there impossible, and thus prevent a permanent arrangement.
If Netanyahu was serious when he declared there is “a national consensus on the two-state issue,” he must make sure that it could also materialize. Building in Shepherd Hotel and in East Jerusalem might deny the chance of attaining the two-state solution.
This entry was posted on July 22, 2009 at 10:25 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
WATCH: Settler attacks Peace Now activists documenting settlement construction
By Haaretz Service
Two representatives of the Peace Now organization and members of an Israeli television crew were attacked last week by a settler who objected to their presence in the West Bank as they documented construction in the settlements.
The footage, originally broadcast on Channel 2 Television and posted online by Peace Now, shows a security guard at the Dolev settlement snatching and destroying the TV crew's camera equipment and later attacking the activists' car with rocks.
Two representatives of the Peace Now organization and members of an Israeli television crew were attacked last week by a settler who objected to their presence in the West Bank as they documented construction in the settlements.
The footage, originally broadcast on Channel 2 Television and posted online by Peace Now, shows a security guard at the Dolev settlement snatching and destroying the TV crew's camera equipment and later attacking the activists' car with rocks.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Завръщането е право, а не съгласие или отстъпка
Седмата конференция на палестинците в Европа на тема „Завръщането е право, а не съгласие или отстъпка” приключи в Милано, Италия, на 2 май 2009 г. със значителен успех. Хиляди палестинци от цяла Европа взеха участие в работата на конференцията, на която присъстваха изтъкнати палестински лидери от окупираните територии и чужбина, както и голям брой известни личности и представители на арабски, ислямски и европейски институции и съмишленици. Седмата конференция бе организирана от Генералния секретариат на Конференцията на палестинците в Европа, Палестинския център за завръщане, Лондон, и Палестинската асоциация в Италия, както и от палестински институции в Италия и в чужбина.
Седмата конференция на палестинците в Европа, проведена в Милано:
- Потвърждава резолюциите, приети от предишните шест конференции на палестинците в Европа, проведени с участието на техните асоциации, институции, съюзи, а също и на общностите в Лондон (2003), Берлин (2004), Виена (2005), Малмьо (2006), Ротердам (2007) и Копенхаген (2008).
- Свидетелства за широкомащабните дебати, консултации и дейности с участието на голям брой палестински общности от цяла Европа.
- Припомня еднаквостта на тяхното състояние и съдба с мнозинството палестинци, независимо къде се намират.
- Приема темата за ежегодното възпоминание и за 61-та годишнина от Накба "Завръщането е право, а не съгласие или отстъпка”.
- Изразява специално задоволството си от усилията на палестинската общност в Италия, която работи в сътрудничество с ислямската и арабската общност и със съмишленици от италианското общество, за да свика конференцията и да гарантира успешното й провеждане с помощта на всемогъщия Аллах.
- Приветства участниците от различните палестински общности в Европа и гостите от родна Палестина и диаспората.
- Високо оценява усилията на представителите на европейските, арабските и ислямските институции и организации на тази конференция и обръща специално внимание на усилията на арабските и ислямските общности за нейния успех.
- Припомня историческите предизвикателства, които палестинският народ преодоля.
- Обявява приемането на следните резолюции:
1. Потвърждава: че палестинците в Европа са част от палестинския народ с цялата негова историческа дълбочина, историческо наследство и арабска и ислямска идентичност; че палестинският народ, независимо от това къде се намира, е едно неделимо цяло и отказва да бъде разделен. Също така палестинците в Европа обявяват своята силна привързаност към националната палестинска идентичност и култура. Те споделят общия палестински опит и борба за справедливите права на палестинците, за които пренебрегването, разделението, пазарлъците и сделките са неприемливи.
2. Потвърждава силната ангажираност към правото на палестинците да се завърнат по домовете си, от които са били прогонени, подчертавайки отхвърлянето на всички опити, които имат за цел подкопаването на това право, пренебрегването или отстъпването му. Палестинците никога няма да направят компромис с правото си да се завърнат в Палестина и не са упълномощили никого или никоя партия да приеме, да сключи сделка или да го размени. Палестинците в Европа настояват за незабавно то прилагане на правото им да се завърнат, като им бъде позволено, независимо къде е тяхното постоянно место жителство, да се завърнат в родните си земи и бъдат компенсирани за всички загуби, които са претърпели предшествениците им и следващите поколения –психологически и материални, причинени от жестокото им изгонване и дългите години в изгнание и разделение.
3. Припомня престъпната агресивна война, водена от израелската военна машина срещу палестинския народ ивицата Газа в продължение на 23 дни, по време на която бяха извършени масови кланета, военни престъпления и зверства срещу цивилното палестинско население, сред което деца, жени, възрастни и болни, свидетел на които бе целият свят. С огромна гордост палестинците в Европа отбелязват непреклонността на палестинския народ в Газа, благодарение на която силите на съпротивата, силната ангажираност, честта и човешкото достойнство успяха независимо от огромните жертви. В този критичен момент палестинският народ заслужава необходимото признание и подкрепа от света и от онези, които обичат свободата и справедливостта и правдата на неговата кауза.
4. Осъжда официалната позиция на някои европейски страни, която създаде погрешна представа за преобладаващата позиция на Европа спрямо войната срещу палестинския народ в Газа и наложената му обсада. Палестинците в Европа предупреждават, че тази политика, която не може да бъде смятана за представителна за народите от този континент и за ценностите, с които те се гордеят, е предизвикала съмнения относно надеждността на политиката на Европа и политиката за човешките права и това изисква да бъдат предприети съответните мерки. Всяка друга позиция, различна от настоящата, няма да бъде приета при никакви обстоятелства.
5. Отбелязва обезпокоителното влошаване на европейската външна и военна политика и политиката за сигурност, която застава на страната на тираничен Израел за сметка на човешките права и справедливостта. Това стана ясно по време на агресивната война срещу палестинския народ от ивицата Газа. Всичко свидетелства, че израелският окупатор е изтълкувал тази позиция като легитимизация на агресията срещу палестинците. Той капитализира тези официални позиции за продължаване на ужасните военни престъпления и счита тези позиции за форма на подкрепа на неговата политика за подчиняване на палестинския народ, като атакува достойнството му и пречупва волята му.
6. Предупреждава всички официални лица и онези, които отговарят за взимането на решения, както и архитектите на общественото мнение в Европа, че палестинският народ плати висока цена в резултат на официалната подкрепа на Европа за израелската военна машина, чиито жертви станаха деца, жени, възрастни и болни хора, загинали по жесток начин. Докато всичко това бе извършвано в рамките на политическата и военната подкрепа и подкрепата на сигурност и засилването на обсадата на ивицата Газа, Западният бряг стана свидетел на засилените ограничения и кампаниите за етническо прочистване в Ерусалим, както и на разпространението на расистки кампании срещу палестинците на окупираната през 1948 г. територия.
7. Припомня, че участието във възстановяването на ивицата Газа е последица от израелската агресивна война, и отбелязва важността това да не бъде подчинено на някаква форма на политическа експлоатация или да бъде използвано като разменна монета срещу палестинския народ. Палестинците в Европа предупреждават също, че призивите за участие във възстановяването на Газа няма да успеят от само себе си в коригирането на европейската политика спрямо палестинския проблем или да подобрят нейния имидж, защото моралната и човешката отговорност, която имат европейските официални лица, изисква те да настояват да упражнят влиянието си, за да се сложи край на израелската агресия, разрушенията и катастрофите, преди да е станало твърде късно.
8. Подчертава необходимостта от подлагане на окупационната власт на обстойно разследване и търсене на отговорност от нейните лидери за военните престъпления и сериозните нарушения на международното хуманитарно право, като се гарантира, че израелските военнопрестъпници няма да избегнат наказанието на международното право. Палестинският народ приветства всички правни инициативи, целящи преследването на израелските военнопрестъпници, и твърдо заявява своята подкрепа за подобни инициативи.
9. Наблюдава със сериозно безпокойство настойчивостта на окупатора да приложи политиката на „свършен факт” в Палестина чрез изграждане на селища, експанзионистична стена, изземване и заграбване на земи, разрушаване на домове, нарушаване на ежедневния ритъм на живот на палестинските граждани и превръщане на местата за живеене в разпръснати и изолирани острови и затваряне на прозорците на надеждата.
10. Преживява с огромна тревога засилващите се атаки, които израелските окупатори извършват по различен начин срещу Ерусалим и законното му население, като се увеличава масовото изгонване и разрушаване на домовете. Затова палестинците в Европа предупреждават за институционалния расизъм, който окупаторът преднамерено упражнява срещу палестинците в Ерусалим и конфискацията на документите им за самоличност по различни поводи и отказа за пребиваване наред със заграждането в града на териториите, в които живеят палестинци, със селища и расистка разделителна стена.
11. Предупреждава за последствията от нанесените щети на свещената джамия „Ал Акса“, оскверняването на нейната святост и на ислямските и християнските светини и имоти в Ерусалим, както и за последствията от системната агресия срещу сторическите и цивилизационни символи на Ерусалим, столицата на арабската култура, разрушаването на неговата културна идентичност и обезобразяването му със селища и засилени разкопки.
12. Потвърждава осъждането на престъпната обсада на населението на ивицата Газа и предупреждава за последствията от това организирано престъпление и скандално нарушаване на всички човешки права и морални норми, в това число отказването на стоки от първа необходимост на милион и половина души. Палестинците в Европа настояват всички, които са част от това, да сложат край на обсадата. Прекратяването на обсадата е истински тест за ангажираността на Европа към човешките права. Това е също и пряка отговорност на арабските и ислямските страни, най-вече на Египетската арабска република за нейното задължение да прекрати обсадата и да отвори пропускателния пункт Рафах.
13. Потвърждава верността си към палестинското национално единство и програмата за истински и всеобхватен диалог, в който да бъдат разгледани проблемите на палестинците. Това единство е задължително за укрепването на палестинския народ и е средство, използвано от палестинския народ, за да се противопостави на окупатора и да защити постоянните национални и висшите интереси и да попречи на вредните външни интервенции на враговете на палестинския народ и на тези, които нарушават неговите права. Задължително е всички палестински партии да насочат вниманието си върху програмата за диалог и да предотвратят вътрешното разцепление сред палестинците, да превъзмогнат различията и да продължат към включваща всички ефективна национална палестинска програма за прекратяване на окупацията и за възстановяване на отнетите права на палестинците.
14. Подчертава необходимостта да се засили тяхното участие в палестинските обществени дела, преди всичко чрез свободен и прозрачен демократичен процес, който ще увеличи ефективното представяне на палестинския народ и на всички части от палестинското население както по родните земи, така и навън. Палестинците в Европа подчертават необходимостта от възобновяване на институциите на Организацията за освобождение на Палестина (ООП) и настояват за възстановяването й и нейното реформиране.
15. Подчертава, че с участието на силите на истината и справедливостта на този континент палестинците в Европа ще продължат усилията си за подкрепа на народа си и за облекчаване на болките, причинени от израелската война на агресия, престъпната обсада и потисническите ограничения. По този начин корабите, които се опитват да преминат през блокадата, ще продължат да плават и конвоите на братска солидарност и делегациите ще продължат своя ход. Всички програми, проекти и конструктивни инициативи ще се увеличават с помощта на всевишния Аллах в потвърждение на единството ни и на похода на нашия палестински народ, където и да се намира.
16. Следи с огромна болка борбата на палестинските бежанци в Ирак и на онези, които са били прогонени след окупацията и съпътстващите я бедствия, гонения, изгнание и престъпления. Това нещастие изисква намесата на всички страни, за да се сложи край на страданието и да се затвори тази глава в съответствие с правото на палестинците да се завърнат по домовете си, в това число и на териториите, окупирани през 1948 г., и в съответствие с човешките права, достойнството, гражданските и социалните права на палестинския народ, където и да се намира.
17. Припомня страданията, в бежанския лагер Нахр ал Баред след разрушаването на домовете им и прогонването им, като съдбата им беше поставена в ръцете на палестинци, ливанци, араби и на международната общност. Това налага спешното възстановяване и съхранение на лагера, тъй като лагерите са крайната и отправната точка на връщащите се по отнетите им родни земи палестинци.
18. Потвърждава възгледа, че Европа носи историческа отговорност за тяхната катастрофа. Това не може да бъде оспорено и всички следващи поколения, дори и днес, продължават на плащат цената на Накба, наложена на палестинците през 1948 г. Наистина Европа и нейните правителства носят специална отговорност заради подкрепата на проекта да бъде окупирана Палестина и в подпомагане на продължаващата окупация и агресията.
19. Заявява, че проблемът с репатрирането на палестинците, тяхното самоопределение, освобождението от окупацията и независимостта на тяхната историческа родина изисква подкрепата на всички онези, които са на страната на справедливостта, защитниците на истината и човечността.
Палестинският народ се отнася с дълбока благодарност към братските усилия и солидарността, подкрепящи каузата им в Европа. Те считат това като друго ценно качество наред с истината и справедливостта на този свят, които ще окажат решително въздействие върху палестинския народ и подкрепата на неговата кауза.
20. С огромна гордост оценява непреклонността на палестинския народ и саможертвата на мъчениците, ранените, затворниците и всички онези, които защитават родината и светите места. Палестинците в Европа са признателни за усилията на тези, които защитават техните права, свобода и достойнство. Техните непрестанни усилия проправят пътя на завръщането в родината, самоопределението, освобождението от окупацията и установяването на пълен суверенитет в родината.
Седмата конференция на палестинците в Европа, проведена в Милано:
- Потвърждава резолюциите, приети от предишните шест конференции на палестинците в Европа, проведени с участието на техните асоциации, институции, съюзи, а също и на общностите в Лондон (2003), Берлин (2004), Виена (2005), Малмьо (2006), Ротердам (2007) и Копенхаген (2008).
- Свидетелства за широкомащабните дебати, консултации и дейности с участието на голям брой палестински общности от цяла Европа.
- Припомня еднаквостта на тяхното състояние и съдба с мнозинството палестинци, независимо къде се намират.
- Приема темата за ежегодното възпоминание и за 61-та годишнина от Накба "Завръщането е право, а не съгласие или отстъпка”.
- Изразява специално задоволството си от усилията на палестинската общност в Италия, която работи в сътрудничество с ислямската и арабската общност и със съмишленици от италианското общество, за да свика конференцията и да гарантира успешното й провеждане с помощта на всемогъщия Аллах.
- Приветства участниците от различните палестински общности в Европа и гостите от родна Палестина и диаспората.
- Високо оценява усилията на представителите на европейските, арабските и ислямските институции и организации на тази конференция и обръща специално внимание на усилията на арабските и ислямските общности за нейния успех.
- Припомня историческите предизвикателства, които палестинският народ преодоля.
- Обявява приемането на следните резолюции:
1. Потвърждава: че палестинците в Европа са част от палестинския народ с цялата негова историческа дълбочина, историческо наследство и арабска и ислямска идентичност; че палестинският народ, независимо от това къде се намира, е едно неделимо цяло и отказва да бъде разделен. Също така палестинците в Европа обявяват своята силна привързаност към националната палестинска идентичност и култура. Те споделят общия палестински опит и борба за справедливите права на палестинците, за които пренебрегването, разделението, пазарлъците и сделките са неприемливи.
2. Потвърждава силната ангажираност към правото на палестинците да се завърнат по домовете си, от които са били прогонени, подчертавайки отхвърлянето на всички опити, които имат за цел подкопаването на това право, пренебрегването или отстъпването му. Палестинците никога няма да направят компромис с правото си да се завърнат в Палестина и не са упълномощили никого или никоя партия да приеме, да сключи сделка или да го размени. Палестинците в Европа настояват за незабавно то прилагане на правото им да се завърнат, като им бъде позволено, независимо къде е тяхното постоянно место жителство, да се завърнат в родните си земи и бъдат компенсирани за всички загуби, които са претърпели предшествениците им и следващите поколения –психологически и материални, причинени от жестокото им изгонване и дългите години в изгнание и разделение.
3. Припомня престъпната агресивна война, водена от израелската военна машина срещу палестинския народ ивицата Газа в продължение на 23 дни, по време на която бяха извършени масови кланета, военни престъпления и зверства срещу цивилното палестинско население, сред което деца, жени, възрастни и болни, свидетел на които бе целият свят. С огромна гордост палестинците в Европа отбелязват непреклонността на палестинския народ в Газа, благодарение на която силите на съпротивата, силната ангажираност, честта и човешкото достойнство успяха независимо от огромните жертви. В този критичен момент палестинският народ заслужава необходимото признание и подкрепа от света и от онези, които обичат свободата и справедливостта и правдата на неговата кауза.
4. Осъжда официалната позиция на някои европейски страни, която създаде погрешна представа за преобладаващата позиция на Европа спрямо войната срещу палестинския народ в Газа и наложената му обсада. Палестинците в Европа предупреждават, че тази политика, която не може да бъде смятана за представителна за народите от този континент и за ценностите, с които те се гордеят, е предизвикала съмнения относно надеждността на политиката на Европа и политиката за човешките права и това изисква да бъдат предприети съответните мерки. Всяка друга позиция, различна от настоящата, няма да бъде приета при никакви обстоятелства.
5. Отбелязва обезпокоителното влошаване на европейската външна и военна политика и политиката за сигурност, която застава на страната на тираничен Израел за сметка на човешките права и справедливостта. Това стана ясно по време на агресивната война срещу палестинския народ от ивицата Газа. Всичко свидетелства, че израелският окупатор е изтълкувал тази позиция като легитимизация на агресията срещу палестинците. Той капитализира тези официални позиции за продължаване на ужасните военни престъпления и счита тези позиции за форма на подкрепа на неговата политика за подчиняване на палестинския народ, като атакува достойнството му и пречупва волята му.
6. Предупреждава всички официални лица и онези, които отговарят за взимането на решения, както и архитектите на общественото мнение в Европа, че палестинският народ плати висока цена в резултат на официалната подкрепа на Европа за израелската военна машина, чиито жертви станаха деца, жени, възрастни и болни хора, загинали по жесток начин. Докато всичко това бе извършвано в рамките на политическата и военната подкрепа и подкрепата на сигурност и засилването на обсадата на ивицата Газа, Западният бряг стана свидетел на засилените ограничения и кампаниите за етническо прочистване в Ерусалим, както и на разпространението на расистки кампании срещу палестинците на окупираната през 1948 г. територия.
7. Припомня, че участието във възстановяването на ивицата Газа е последица от израелската агресивна война, и отбелязва важността това да не бъде подчинено на някаква форма на политическа експлоатация или да бъде използвано като разменна монета срещу палестинския народ. Палестинците в Европа предупреждават също, че призивите за участие във възстановяването на Газа няма да успеят от само себе си в коригирането на европейската политика спрямо палестинския проблем или да подобрят нейния имидж, защото моралната и човешката отговорност, която имат европейските официални лица, изисква те да настояват да упражнят влиянието си, за да се сложи край на израелската агресия, разрушенията и катастрофите, преди да е станало твърде късно.
8. Подчертава необходимостта от подлагане на окупационната власт на обстойно разследване и търсене на отговорност от нейните лидери за военните престъпления и сериозните нарушения на международното хуманитарно право, като се гарантира, че израелските военнопрестъпници няма да избегнат наказанието на международното право. Палестинският народ приветства всички правни инициативи, целящи преследването на израелските военнопрестъпници, и твърдо заявява своята подкрепа за подобни инициативи.
9. Наблюдава със сериозно безпокойство настойчивостта на окупатора да приложи политиката на „свършен факт” в Палестина чрез изграждане на селища, експанзионистична стена, изземване и заграбване на земи, разрушаване на домове, нарушаване на ежедневния ритъм на живот на палестинските граждани и превръщане на местата за живеене в разпръснати и изолирани острови и затваряне на прозорците на надеждата.
10. Преживява с огромна тревога засилващите се атаки, които израелските окупатори извършват по различен начин срещу Ерусалим и законното му население, като се увеличава масовото изгонване и разрушаване на домовете. Затова палестинците в Европа предупреждават за институционалния расизъм, който окупаторът преднамерено упражнява срещу палестинците в Ерусалим и конфискацията на документите им за самоличност по различни поводи и отказа за пребиваване наред със заграждането в града на териториите, в които живеят палестинци, със селища и расистка разделителна стена.
11. Предупреждава за последствията от нанесените щети на свещената джамия „Ал Акса“, оскверняването на нейната святост и на ислямските и християнските светини и имоти в Ерусалим, както и за последствията от системната агресия срещу сторическите и цивилизационни символи на Ерусалим, столицата на арабската култура, разрушаването на неговата културна идентичност и обезобразяването му със селища и засилени разкопки.
12. Потвърждава осъждането на престъпната обсада на населението на ивицата Газа и предупреждава за последствията от това организирано престъпление и скандално нарушаване на всички човешки права и морални норми, в това число отказването на стоки от първа необходимост на милион и половина души. Палестинците в Европа настояват всички, които са част от това, да сложат край на обсадата. Прекратяването на обсадата е истински тест за ангажираността на Европа към човешките права. Това е също и пряка отговорност на арабските и ислямските страни, най-вече на Египетската арабска република за нейното задължение да прекрати обсадата и да отвори пропускателния пункт Рафах.
13. Потвърждава верността си към палестинското национално единство и програмата за истински и всеобхватен диалог, в който да бъдат разгледани проблемите на палестинците. Това единство е задължително за укрепването на палестинския народ и е средство, използвано от палестинския народ, за да се противопостави на окупатора и да защити постоянните национални и висшите интереси и да попречи на вредните външни интервенции на враговете на палестинския народ и на тези, които нарушават неговите права. Задължително е всички палестински партии да насочат вниманието си върху програмата за диалог и да предотвратят вътрешното разцепление сред палестинците, да превъзмогнат различията и да продължат към включваща всички ефективна национална палестинска програма за прекратяване на окупацията и за възстановяване на отнетите права на палестинците.
14. Подчертава необходимостта да се засили тяхното участие в палестинските обществени дела, преди всичко чрез свободен и прозрачен демократичен процес, който ще увеличи ефективното представяне на палестинския народ и на всички части от палестинското население както по родните земи, така и навън. Палестинците в Европа подчертават необходимостта от възобновяване на институциите на Организацията за освобождение на Палестина (ООП) и настояват за възстановяването й и нейното реформиране.
15. Подчертава, че с участието на силите на истината и справедливостта на този континент палестинците в Европа ще продължат усилията си за подкрепа на народа си и за облекчаване на болките, причинени от израелската война на агресия, престъпната обсада и потисническите ограничения. По този начин корабите, които се опитват да преминат през блокадата, ще продължат да плават и конвоите на братска солидарност и делегациите ще продължат своя ход. Всички програми, проекти и конструктивни инициативи ще се увеличават с помощта на всевишния Аллах в потвърждение на единството ни и на похода на нашия палестински народ, където и да се намира.
16. Следи с огромна болка борбата на палестинските бежанци в Ирак и на онези, които са били прогонени след окупацията и съпътстващите я бедствия, гонения, изгнание и престъпления. Това нещастие изисква намесата на всички страни, за да се сложи край на страданието и да се затвори тази глава в съответствие с правото на палестинците да се завърнат по домовете си, в това число и на териториите, окупирани през 1948 г., и в съответствие с човешките права, достойнството, гражданските и социалните права на палестинския народ, където и да се намира.
17. Припомня страданията, в бежанския лагер Нахр ал Баред след разрушаването на домовете им и прогонването им, като съдбата им беше поставена в ръцете на палестинци, ливанци, араби и на международната общност. Това налага спешното възстановяване и съхранение на лагера, тъй като лагерите са крайната и отправната точка на връщащите се по отнетите им родни земи палестинци.
18. Потвърждава възгледа, че Европа носи историческа отговорност за тяхната катастрофа. Това не може да бъде оспорено и всички следващи поколения, дори и днес, продължават на плащат цената на Накба, наложена на палестинците през 1948 г. Наистина Европа и нейните правителства носят специална отговорност заради подкрепата на проекта да бъде окупирана Палестина и в подпомагане на продължаващата окупация и агресията.
19. Заявява, че проблемът с репатрирането на палестинците, тяхното самоопределение, освобождението от окупацията и независимостта на тяхната историческа родина изисква подкрепата на всички онези, които са на страната на справедливостта, защитниците на истината и човечността.
Палестинският народ се отнася с дълбока благодарност към братските усилия и солидарността, подкрепящи каузата им в Европа. Те считат това като друго ценно качество наред с истината и справедливостта на този свят, които ще окажат решително въздействие върху палестинския народ и подкрепата на неговата кауза.
20. С огромна гордост оценява непреклонността на палестинския народ и саможертвата на мъчениците, ранените, затворниците и всички онези, които защитават родината и светите места. Палестинците в Европа са признателни за усилията на тези, които защитават техните права, свобода и достойнство. Техните непрестанни усилия проправят пътя на завръщането в родината, самоопределението, освобождението от окупацията и установяването на пълен суверенитет в родината.
West Bank: illegal settlements cause hardship for Palestinians
Settler violence and severe restrictions on movement are affecting the daily lives of Palestinians in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, especially in the old town of Hebron. Matteo Benatti has been head of the ICRC's office in Hebron since September 2007. He explains the situation.
What are the humanitarian issues in Hebron?
The settlements have made many aspects of life very difficult for Palestinians. In the old city of Hebron, about 600 settlers live in colonies, in close proximity to some 30,000 Palestinians. The Israeli authorities impose tight security measures and have set up many checkpoints in this area of the city, which includes the Cave of the Patriarchs, an important place of worship for both Jews and Muslims. A number of roads are closed to the Palestinians and they are not allowed to bring cars into the areas where they live.
Movement restrictions, together with recurrent violence by settlers, are affecting the Palestinians in their daily life.
How does this affect them?
Hundreds of Palestinian families have to pass checkpoints in order to buy food, for instance. They often face intimidation by settlers at the checkpoints. Women are particularly vulnerable to this form of abuse, the more so because Palestinians are not allowed to drive along many of these streets, forcing women to cross the checkpoints on foot. Because of closed roads, old people are forced to lug shopping bags over extended distances.
Ambulances taking Palestinian residents to hospital in emergencies can face long delays at checkpoints. Families have been forced to carry their sick relatives on stretchers or use donkeys to transport them to a pickup point where an ambulance is waiting.
The economic life of the old city has almost died out because of movement restrictions and settler violence. Some shopkeepers have been ordered to close down by the army. Others have lost their customers, because Palestinians are afraid to go close to the Jewish settlements. Poverty is rampant. According to an ICRC study of households in the restricted areas of the old city last summer, 86 percent of families live in relative poverty, as they have only $ 97 per person per month for food, clothes and all other living expenses.
Most Palestinians living in the old city have had to put wire in front of their windows and have to keep them shut as they risk having urine, rotten vegetables or stones thrown at them through the windows. For children, even the daily walk to school can be frightening, as settlers may threaten them or throw stones. It is extremely tiring for families to live in this constant atmosphere of tension.
What is the ICRC able to do in this kind of situation?
We regularly receive calls from Palestinian families in the middle of the night who are being attacked by settlers or are desperately waiting for an ambulance stuck at a checkpoint. When people are in difficulty, we liaise with the local civil administration and with the Israeli armed forces. Luckily, this does help in many instances, and in general I think we have a good working relationship with the local Israeli authorities.
We are also able to help families in practical ways. We provide close to 7,000 people with food every month, for instance. In addition, a number of families have received bee hives and produce excellent honey for themselves and for the market. We have helped establish roof gardens for others so that they can grow their own fresh vegetables. Of course, this is not a real solution to their problems, but it does help to alleviate their difficult economic situation.
Under international humanitarian law, the Israeli authorities, as an occupying power, must ensure the provision of food and medical care to the population under occupation, as well as public order and safety. For us at the ICRC, it is frustrating that we are not able to help as much as we would like and that we see no improvement. That being said, we are still hopeful that the restrictions on movement will ease.
What is the situation in the southern area of the West Bank?
The most southern area of the West Bank, Masafer Yatta, is also a hotspot of settler violence. This area is home to thousands of herders and Bedouins who are used to moving around freely in the grazing areas with their sheep and goats. People looking after the animals, including women and children, are often attacked. Some villages are also situated in what has become an Israeli military training area and it can be quite dangerous to move around.
To make matters worse, the climate is extremely harsh. The land is arid and barren and the hills only take on a slightly green tinge for a couple of months in spring. A number of the families have had to reduce the size of their herds because they could not find enough food and water.
How do families manage under such harsh conditions?
Coping is becoming increasingly difficult. It looks like we are heading for another drought this year, which compounds the fact that many of the families in the Southern Hebron Hills suffer from a chronic lack of water. The Israeli authorities do not allow Palestinians to build new rainwater cisterns, so the ICRC provides mobile water tanks for those families with the most acute problems.
This reduces the time they spend fetching water, as the tanks can normally hold a week’s drinking water. Families used to pay someone else with a water tank to bring water to them – and this can be quite expensive. Now, they can save this money for other essentials.
What are the humanitarian issues in Hebron?
The settlements have made many aspects of life very difficult for Palestinians. In the old city of Hebron, about 600 settlers live in colonies, in close proximity to some 30,000 Palestinians. The Israeli authorities impose tight security measures and have set up many checkpoints in this area of the city, which includes the Cave of the Patriarchs, an important place of worship for both Jews and Muslims. A number of roads are closed to the Palestinians and they are not allowed to bring cars into the areas where they live.
Movement restrictions, together with recurrent violence by settlers, are affecting the Palestinians in their daily life.
How does this affect them?
Hundreds of Palestinian families have to pass checkpoints in order to buy food, for instance. They often face intimidation by settlers at the checkpoints. Women are particularly vulnerable to this form of abuse, the more so because Palestinians are not allowed to drive along many of these streets, forcing women to cross the checkpoints on foot. Because of closed roads, old people are forced to lug shopping bags over extended distances.
Ambulances taking Palestinian residents to hospital in emergencies can face long delays at checkpoints. Families have been forced to carry their sick relatives on stretchers or use donkeys to transport them to a pickup point where an ambulance is waiting.
The economic life of the old city has almost died out because of movement restrictions and settler violence. Some shopkeepers have been ordered to close down by the army. Others have lost their customers, because Palestinians are afraid to go close to the Jewish settlements. Poverty is rampant. According to an ICRC study of households in the restricted areas of the old city last summer, 86 percent of families live in relative poverty, as they have only $ 97 per person per month for food, clothes and all other living expenses.
Most Palestinians living in the old city have had to put wire in front of their windows and have to keep them shut as they risk having urine, rotten vegetables or stones thrown at them through the windows. For children, even the daily walk to school can be frightening, as settlers may threaten them or throw stones. It is extremely tiring for families to live in this constant atmosphere of tension.
What is the ICRC able to do in this kind of situation?
We regularly receive calls from Palestinian families in the middle of the night who are being attacked by settlers or are desperately waiting for an ambulance stuck at a checkpoint. When people are in difficulty, we liaise with the local civil administration and with the Israeli armed forces. Luckily, this does help in many instances, and in general I think we have a good working relationship with the local Israeli authorities.
We are also able to help families in practical ways. We provide close to 7,000 people with food every month, for instance. In addition, a number of families have received bee hives and produce excellent honey for themselves and for the market. We have helped establish roof gardens for others so that they can grow their own fresh vegetables. Of course, this is not a real solution to their problems, but it does help to alleviate their difficult economic situation.
Under international humanitarian law, the Israeli authorities, as an occupying power, must ensure the provision of food and medical care to the population under occupation, as well as public order and safety. For us at the ICRC, it is frustrating that we are not able to help as much as we would like and that we see no improvement. That being said, we are still hopeful that the restrictions on movement will ease.
What is the situation in the southern area of the West Bank?
The most southern area of the West Bank, Masafer Yatta, is also a hotspot of settler violence. This area is home to thousands of herders and Bedouins who are used to moving around freely in the grazing areas with their sheep and goats. People looking after the animals, including women and children, are often attacked. Some villages are also situated in what has become an Israeli military training area and it can be quite dangerous to move around.
To make matters worse, the climate is extremely harsh. The land is arid and barren and the hills only take on a slightly green tinge for a couple of months in spring. A number of the families have had to reduce the size of their herds because they could not find enough food and water.
How do families manage under such harsh conditions?
Coping is becoming increasingly difficult. It looks like we are heading for another drought this year, which compounds the fact that many of the families in the Southern Hebron Hills suffer from a chronic lack of water. The Israeli authorities do not allow Palestinians to build new rainwater cisterns, so the ICRC provides mobile water tanks for those families with the most acute problems.
This reduces the time they spend fetching water, as the tanks can normally hold a week’s drinking water. Families used to pay someone else with a water tank to bring water to them – and this can be quite expensive. Now, they can save this money for other essentials.
Израелска организация разкрива план за завладяване околностите на джамията „Ал Акса”
Текстът по-долу е превод на статия от арабския вестник "Ерусалим" (Ал Кудс)
Оригиналът можете да видите тук: http://www.alquds.com/node/179281 от 24.07.09 г.
"Израелска неправителствена организация разкри, че еврейския Градски съвет на окупирания Ерусалим планира да разруши цял палестински жилищен квартал. Организацията „Ер Амим” („Градът на народите”), която наблюдава действията по евреизирането на окупирания Ерусалим, посочва в свой доклад вчера, че председателят на съвета Нир Беракат е изготвил план за разрушаване на района „Ал Бустан”, който се смята за част от стария арабски квартал Селуан в града и се намира близо до Храмовия хълм, срещу Стената на плача, като на негово място бъде изграден еврейски квартал заедно с т.нар. „старозаветни градини”. Организацията твърди, че съветът е прехвърлил собствеността върху 14 имота на това място на организацията „Ел Ад” – еврейска полуправителствена организация, която изкупува и управлява земи в полза на заселническите колонии, и на екстремистки организации, които работят в сферата на засилване на еврейското присъствие в арабските квартали на Светия град. Според „Ер Амим” съветът е прехвърлил собствеността, без да е получил съгласието на юридическия съветник на правителството в подготовка за изпълнение на плана. Това пише в. „Аш Шарк Ал Аусат” в броя си от днес, петък.
„Ер Амим” отбелязва, че докладът, приет в пълна секретност, представлява „крещящо нарушение на правилата на правителството, а в отделни случаи и нарушение на закона, при липсата на официално публично решение, прието от правителството или кнесета, и без публично обсъждане.” „Ер Амим” предупреждава, че квартал „Силуан” е „крайъгълният камък в един голям проект, който има за цел слагане ръка върху палестинските земи в околностите на стария град, изолиране на стария град от урбанистичната тъкан на Източен Ерусалим и свързването му с еврейските заселнически комплекси” североизточно от Стария град.
Докладът на „Ер Амим” идва да предупреди „Християнско-ислямския комитет в подкрепа на Ерусалим” за съществуването на израелски план, целящ двата квартала – „Ал Бустан” и „Шейх Джаррах”. В своя декларация комисията посочва, че квартал „Ал Бустан” представлява зона за сигурност по отношение на джамията „Ал Акса” и стария град от юг. Комисията предупреждава, че в случай, че израелските власти премахнат кв. „Ал Бустан”, това ще даде възможност на окупацията да надвисне над джамията „Ал Акса” и Стария град от три страни. Общинският съвет е връчил на голям брой семейства от кв. „Ал Бустан” нова партида предупреждения за разрушаване под предлог, че строежът е извършен без разрешение или върху инфраструктурен терен.
Споменава се, че собствениците на 88 жилища от квартала са получили от съвета предупреждение за разрушаване, в което им се нарежда да опразнят тези жилища и да ги напуснат в полза на изграждането на „старозаветни градини”.
Според доколада на „Ер Амим”: организацията „Ел Ад”, ръководена от бившия член на израелските специални части Давид Бери, който от края на 80-те години работи съвместно с Еврейския национален фонд, управлява в кв. „Силуан” парка „Националните стени на Ерусалим” по силата на пълномощно, изготвено също тайно през 1997 г. между организацията и Генерално управление на парковете, а не след публичен търг, както изисква законът.
Когато за това узнала Израелската агенция за археологическите паметници, тя подала жалба против това упълномощаване във Върховния арбитраж, който отсъдил в нейна полза. Въпреки това решение обаче през 2002 г. Генералното управление на парковете повторно упълномощило организацията „Ел Ад” да управлява обекта. „Ел Ад” сложила ръка на сгради, дотогава собственост на палестинци в квартала. Някои от тези сгради са били продадени на еврейски организации, други обаче са придобити при съмнителни обстоятелства, включително чрез използване на фалшифицирани документи, както твърди „Ер Амим”.
От друга страна Радиостанцията на израелската армия разкри, че стотици активисти на крайната десница планират да щурмуват Храмовия хълм и джамията „Ал Акса” на 9 август с цел отправяне на предизвикателство към администрацията на американския президент Барак Обама. Радиостанцията отбелязва, че активистите на десницата ще се съберат пред вратите към „Ал Акса” и по улиците, водещи към тях, за да я щурмуват и да извършат в нея своите религиозни обреди. Посочва се, че всяка година на този ден евреите извършват религиозни ритуали, посветени на празника „Шафаот”, на който потвърждават ангажимента си да възстановят върху развалините на „Ал Акса” храма, за който претендират, че е съществувал.
Мюфтията на Ерусалим и Палестина шейх Мухаммад Хусейн заяви, че многократните опити на еврейските екстремисти да щурмуват Благословената джамия „Ал Акса” идват в рамките на опитите им за променят реалността в „Ал Акса”. Шейх Хусейн се ангажира „Пазителите на „Ал Акса”, населението и богомолците с всички сили да дадат отпор, за да я защитят и да попречат на пълчищата заселници да извършат посегателство срещу нея.”
Министърът на вакъфите и религиозните въпроси в правителството в оставка д-р Талиб Абу Шаар осъди извършения от полицията и разузнаването на окупатора щурм срещу залата с електронното оборудване и звуковия контрол към Джамията „Ал Акса”. В декларация Абу Шаар посочи, че „Опасните прояви, които имат място в благословената джамия „Ал Акса”, като цяло представляват факти, сочещи, че ционистката окупация планира и крои нещо, което ще причини щети на благословената „Ал Акса”.”
Информация от независими източници за плановете за разрушаване на къщи в Ерусалим и опитите за кражба на земя в разрез с международното право можете да прочетете оттук:
На български език:
- разследване на двама френски журналисти:
http://bg.mondediplo.com/spip.php?article148
- както и:
http://bg.mondediplo.com/spip.php?article147
http://bg.mondediplo.com/spip.php?article146
На английски:
Информация на Червения кръст:
http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/palestine-interview-090609;
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/06/200962193549660239.html
Оригиналът можете да видите тук: http://www.alquds.com/node/179281 от 24.07.09 г.
"Израелска неправителствена организация разкри, че еврейския Градски съвет на окупирания Ерусалим планира да разруши цял палестински жилищен квартал. Организацията „Ер Амим” („Градът на народите”), която наблюдава действията по евреизирането на окупирания Ерусалим, посочва в свой доклад вчера, че председателят на съвета Нир Беракат е изготвил план за разрушаване на района „Ал Бустан”, който се смята за част от стария арабски квартал Селуан в града и се намира близо до Храмовия хълм, срещу Стената на плача, като на негово място бъде изграден еврейски квартал заедно с т.нар. „старозаветни градини”. Организацията твърди, че съветът е прехвърлил собствеността върху 14 имота на това място на организацията „Ел Ад” – еврейска полуправителствена организация, която изкупува и управлява земи в полза на заселническите колонии, и на екстремистки организации, които работят в сферата на засилване на еврейското присъствие в арабските квартали на Светия град. Според „Ер Амим” съветът е прехвърлил собствеността, без да е получил съгласието на юридическия съветник на правителството в подготовка за изпълнение на плана. Това пише в. „Аш Шарк Ал Аусат” в броя си от днес, петък.
„Ер Амим” отбелязва, че докладът, приет в пълна секретност, представлява „крещящо нарушение на правилата на правителството, а в отделни случаи и нарушение на закона, при липсата на официално публично решение, прието от правителството или кнесета, и без публично обсъждане.” „Ер Амим” предупреждава, че квартал „Силуан” е „крайъгълният камък в един голям проект, който има за цел слагане ръка върху палестинските земи в околностите на стария град, изолиране на стария град от урбанистичната тъкан на Източен Ерусалим и свързването му с еврейските заселнически комплекси” североизточно от Стария град.
Докладът на „Ер Амим” идва да предупреди „Християнско-ислямския комитет в подкрепа на Ерусалим” за съществуването на израелски план, целящ двата квартала – „Ал Бустан” и „Шейх Джаррах”. В своя декларация комисията посочва, че квартал „Ал Бустан” представлява зона за сигурност по отношение на джамията „Ал Акса” и стария град от юг. Комисията предупреждава, че в случай, че израелските власти премахнат кв. „Ал Бустан”, това ще даде възможност на окупацията да надвисне над джамията „Ал Акса” и Стария град от три страни. Общинският съвет е връчил на голям брой семейства от кв. „Ал Бустан” нова партида предупреждения за разрушаване под предлог, че строежът е извършен без разрешение или върху инфраструктурен терен.
Споменава се, че собствениците на 88 жилища от квартала са получили от съвета предупреждение за разрушаване, в което им се нарежда да опразнят тези жилища и да ги напуснат в полза на изграждането на „старозаветни градини”.
Според доколада на „Ер Амим”: организацията „Ел Ад”, ръководена от бившия член на израелските специални части Давид Бери, който от края на 80-те години работи съвместно с Еврейския национален фонд, управлява в кв. „Силуан” парка „Националните стени на Ерусалим” по силата на пълномощно, изготвено също тайно през 1997 г. между организацията и Генерално управление на парковете, а не след публичен търг, както изисква законът.
Когато за това узнала Израелската агенция за археологическите паметници, тя подала жалба против това упълномощаване във Върховния арбитраж, който отсъдил в нейна полза. Въпреки това решение обаче през 2002 г. Генералното управление на парковете повторно упълномощило организацията „Ел Ад” да управлява обекта. „Ел Ад” сложила ръка на сгради, дотогава собственост на палестинци в квартала. Някои от тези сгради са били продадени на еврейски организации, други обаче са придобити при съмнителни обстоятелства, включително чрез използване на фалшифицирани документи, както твърди „Ер Амим”.
От друга страна Радиостанцията на израелската армия разкри, че стотици активисти на крайната десница планират да щурмуват Храмовия хълм и джамията „Ал Акса” на 9 август с цел отправяне на предизвикателство към администрацията на американския президент Барак Обама. Радиостанцията отбелязва, че активистите на десницата ще се съберат пред вратите към „Ал Акса” и по улиците, водещи към тях, за да я щурмуват и да извършат в нея своите религиозни обреди. Посочва се, че всяка година на този ден евреите извършват религиозни ритуали, посветени на празника „Шафаот”, на който потвърждават ангажимента си да възстановят върху развалините на „Ал Акса” храма, за който претендират, че е съществувал.
Мюфтията на Ерусалим и Палестина шейх Мухаммад Хусейн заяви, че многократните опити на еврейските екстремисти да щурмуват Благословената джамия „Ал Акса” идват в рамките на опитите им за променят реалността в „Ал Акса”. Шейх Хусейн се ангажира „Пазителите на „Ал Акса”, населението и богомолците с всички сили да дадат отпор, за да я защитят и да попречат на пълчищата заселници да извършат посегателство срещу нея.”
Министърът на вакъфите и религиозните въпроси в правителството в оставка д-р Талиб Абу Шаар осъди извършения от полицията и разузнаването на окупатора щурм срещу залата с електронното оборудване и звуковия контрол към Джамията „Ал Акса”. В декларация Абу Шаар посочи, че „Опасните прояви, които имат място в благословената джамия „Ал Акса”, като цяло представляват факти, сочещи, че ционистката окупация планира и крои нещо, което ще причини щети на благословената „Ал Акса”.”
Информация от независими източници за плановете за разрушаване на къщи в Ерусалим и опитите за кражба на земя в разрез с международното право можете да прочетете оттук:
На български език:
- разследване на двама френски журналисти:
http://bg.mondediplo.com/spip.php?article148
- както и:
http://bg.mondediplo.com/spip.php?article147
http://bg.mondediplo.com/spip.php?article146
На английски:
Информация на Червения кръст:
http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/palestine-interview-090609;
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/06/200962193549660239.html
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