P.O.Box 46081, London W9 2ZF jfjfp@jfjfp.org
Recommended reading
2008 Mailings
20th July
4th July
19th June
9th June
30th May
20th May
7th May
6th April
14th March
1st March
1st February
20th January20th July
CONTENTS
1. The Gaza Crisis and the ceasefire - an update
2. Israeli army harassment in Nablus
3. Settler Violence
4. Regional perspectives
5. Non-violent resistance
6. The water crisis in Palestine
7. 'This is like apartheid': ANC veterans visit West Bank
8. Israeli government to respect its own High Court
1. The Gaza Crisis and the ceasefire
a) Free Gaza Movement - Breaking into Gaza
b) Three more patients die in Gaza from lack of access to medical treatment
c) Academic freedom trashed by Israel - Gisha reports
d) Uri Avnery, All Quiet on the Gaza Front, 21/06/08
a) Breaking into Gaza - the Free Gaza Movement
Ramzi Kysia records that: 'Israel maintains complete control over Gaza's airspace and territorial waters, near complete control over travel into or out of Gaza, near complete control over Gaza's imports and exports, and near complete control over Gaza's own tax revenues. Little is allowed in. As a result, Gaza's economy has completely collapsed.'
As part of an attempt to undermine the siege his article Breaking into Gaza tells of the Free Gaza Movement's plans to sail from Cyprus to Gaza next month, carrying much needed medical supplies. The aim is to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of Gaza and to put substantial moral pressure on Israel and the international community.
b) Three more patients die in Gaza from lack of access to medical treatment
A brief update on the International Middle East Media Centre websit:
'Medical sources reported that the number of patients who died due to the Israeli siege on the Gaza strip reached 208 as three patients were announced dead on Monday morning.
'Medical sources reported that Latifa Kafina died on Monday morning of leukemia. she couldn't get the permission to leave the Gaza Strip and get treatment. The patient's family reported that they tried for over ten days to get permission, but they got it only after she was dead.
'Moreover sources in Gaza reported that 36 year old Suhaila Abu Hweshel died of cancer on Monday after being banned to leave the Gaza strip to outer hospitals for medical treatment.
'In addition Ahmad Abu Ajwa, an old man with diabetes, was pronounced dead on Monday for being unable to get life saving medical treatment out of The Gaza strip because the army banned him from getting the permission.'
c) Academic freedom trashed by Israel
Gisha, the Legal Centre for Freedom of Movment has produced an updated account of Israel's ongoing violation of the right to education in Gaza under the title Held Back: Students Trapped in Gaza June 2008. It says simply that 'The closure that Israel has imposed on Gaza is preventing these [hundreds of young Palestinian] students from exercising their right to freedom of movement, to access education and to develop their potential, and it is devastating the Palestinian academic community.'
The full report is exceptionally well-written and succinct, well worth reading. It can be downloaded from Gisha.
d) The Ceasefire
Belatedly, here is Uri Avnery's moving account of the muted Israeli reactions in the immediate aftermath of the cease-fire last month, All Quiet on the Gaza Front. Here's an extract:
"AND SUDDENLY: quiet. No Qassams. No mortar shells. The tanks are not rolling. The aircraft are not bombing.
In Sderot, sighs of relief. Children venture out. Inhabitants who have exiled themselves to other towns return home.
And the reaction? An outburst of jubilation? Dancing in the streets? Applause for the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense, who at long last have come to their senses?
Not at all. The expression on the nation's face is a grimace of disgust. What kind of thing is that? Where is our victorious army?
The people of Sderot are really angry. OK, so there are no Qassams, but this was supposed to happen only after the army had entered Gaza and wiped it out.
Haaretz headed its front page with the mendacious headline: "Israel pays with deeds - and gets promises".
"It's fragile," Ehud Olmert soothes us, it can come to an end any minute. And the other Ehud, Barak, who pushed for the cease-fire, has an excuse: we have to go through the motions before starting the Big Operation in Gaza. For the sake of Israeli and international public opinion.
And nobody says: Thank God, the killing has stopped!"
2. Israeli army harassment in Nablus
Israeli army shuts down six Hamas-affiliated associations in Nablus
Just as the ceasefire on the gaza border seems to be holding, Israel appears to be stepping up its incursions in to the West Bank. On 8 July the Ma'an News Agency reported that its inervention in Nablus:
'the Nablus Mall has 50 shops and offices, including the Al-Itiman company, which has a capital of 4 million Jordanian Dinars (5.64 million US dollars). Israel says this company funds Hamas and "encourages terrorism". The head of the Mall administration Adli Yayish has been in Israeli custody for a year and a half, accused of being affiliated to Hamas. The Israeli army commander in Nablus issued an order that anyone who now enters the Nablus Mall will be imprisoned for five years ( sic! ). The order will come into effect on August 15. The Israeli army issued a statement transferring the ownership of the Nablus Mall to the Israeli authorities from August 18.
3. Settler Violence
a) Ahmad Jaradat and Sara Venturini, Settler Violence Report: May and June 2008
b) Breaking the Silence under increasing harassment from settlers in Hebron
a) Settler Violence Report: May and June 2008 by Ahmad Jaradat and Sara Venturini is published by the Alternative Information Center
The first entry for Hebron and the southern West Bank is on 3 May, when settlers from Negohot settlement in the western Hebron District placed new mobile houses 600 meters to the southwest of the settlement, with the intention to build a new outpost in the area - on land which belongs to families from the Dora village. On 10 May, settlers from Efrat and additional settlements in the south of Bethlehem took over a Palestinian house which belongs to the Arts Church located in the south of the city. On 15 May, during Palestinian commemorations of the Nakba, approximately 60 settlers, some bearing weapons, entered Oush Ghrab, eastern Beit Sahour. They arrived with journalists and began drawing Jewish stars and racist slogans everywhere. They claimed the place is part of Israel and that Jews must therefore remain in Oush Ghrab...
These are the first three of 14 reports of settler violence listed in the Southern West Bank. In the Northern West Bank, on 3 May, 15 armed settlers from the Itshar settlement in the Nablus District attacked a Palestinian in Asera al-Qebliyya. On 9 May, tens of settlers returned to the place where the Homesh and Sanour settlements, in the Jenin district, were located before being dismantled by the military in the summer of 2005. On 26 May, settlers attempted to set up mobile houses on confiscated land in the village of Bili'in, west of Ramallah. These are merely three of 15 reports from Nablus and the Northern West Bank
The full listing.
b) Breaking the Silence has been under increasing harassment in Hebron
Many JfJfP signatories have been on Breaking the Silence tours of occupied Hebron. The last two, on 17 June and 27 June, were severely disrupted by settlers.
Anne Paq, a freelance photographer and member of the Israeli collective Activestills (activestills.org), gives a chilling account of her visit in Photostory: Breaking the Silence's tour disrupted (14 July 2008). It deals with settler intimidation, and with the police effectively allowing the settlers to run riot, blocking the tour at every turn. For example:
'They verbally abused us, calling us "Nazis" and "traitors."
People on the tour filming and photographing were harassed and it became impossible to document what was happening. The police made a rather timid attempt to remove the settlers from the road but they failed. The police then asked the tour to go back to the bus, and it drove away to the settlers' dancing and cheering the end of the Breaking the Silence tour in Hebron.'
And Jerry Haber on his great MagnesZionist blog comments acidly on the situation in Hebron in a piece entitled Police: Leftists in Hebron More Dangerous than Right-Wing Counterparts
'The police/settlers don't want this [the BtS tours], of course, And can you blame them? I mean, if you lived in a town like Tombstone, where the bad guys are in charge, and can do what they like with impunity, would you want to allow the good guys to have tours for the world to see what you are doing?'4. Regional Perspectives
a) Ali Abunimah, Palestine amidst a Region in Flux: Signs of Accommodation and Fears of War, Electronic Intifada
b) Uri Avnery, Why Not? 12 July 2008
These two articles provide an interesting regional perspective.
Ali Abunimah in Palestine amidst a Region in Flux: Signs of Accommodation and Fears of War argues that 'regional actors who staked all on support from the Bush administration now recognize how vulnerable this strategy has left them, they are trying their best to rearrange the political furniture and shore up their internal positions. Having failed to dislodge their rivals, U.S.-backed regimes are coming to terms with them. The direction of events points to an erosion of the U.S. effort to corral client states into an anti-Iran coalition anchored by Israel and Saudi Arabia and a realignment according to local interests and compromises.'
And veteran reporter and peace activist Uri Avnery gives a convincing analysis as to why the US and Israel will not attack Iran in his article Why Not? 12 July 2008
He comments wryly on his own analysis:
"As I write these lines, a little red light turns on in my head. It is related to a memory: in my youth I was an avid reader of Vladimir Jabotinsky's weekly articles, which impressed me with their cold logic and clear style. In August 1939, Jabotinsky wrote an article in which he asserted categorically that no war would break out, in spite of all the rumors to the contrary. His reasoning: modern weapons are so terrible, that no country would dare to start a war.
... President Bush is about to end his career in disgrace. The same fate is waiting impatiently for Ehud Olmert. For politicians of this kind, it is easy to be tempted by a last adventure, a last chance for a decent place in history after all.
All the same, I stick to my prognosis: it will not happen."
5. Non-violent resistance
a) Neve Gordon, A West Bank Town's Fight to Survive (on the struggle in Ni'lin)
b) Bassam Aramin, The Palestinian Bar-Mitzvah
c) Seth Freedman , A few good men, Guardian, July 8, 2008
a) In A West Bank Town's Fight to Survive, Neve Gordon tells the story of resistance in Ni'lin (the Nation, 17 July 2008) where construction of of the Wall now threatens the confiscation of 2,500 dunams of land.
In May the villagers launched a popular campaign to stop the dispossession. Non-violent, as the struggle at Bil'in, the IDF has responded brutal attempts to suppress the uprising--which has included a curfew and shootings that have left close to 200 people injured. And like at Bil'in Israelis and internationals are involved on the villagers' side.
Gordon points out how limited mainstream coverage of the reistance has been: 'The reason is straightforward: covering the struggle in Ni'lin would shatter the stereotypical perception of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict provided by mainstream news sources. Unlike the bulldozer attack, which reinforces the pervasive understanding of this conflict, the events in Ni'lin uncover a much more complex reality. This story does not involve Palestinians perpetrating terrorism against a civilian population but rather popular acts of civil disobedience that persist despite the ruthless repression of an occupying power...
'The story of Ni'lin is, in other words, the story of a colonized people resisting colonization. This is not the way the mainstream media has been accustomed to portraying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
b) In The Palestinian Bar-Mitzvah, Bassam Aramin, co-founder of Combatants for Peace, gives a moving account of the ill-treatment and humiliation of his 14-year old son, Arab, on returning home with friends after a day on the beach at Tiberias - and of the growing maturity of Arab's responses:
'Then he said something even more surprising. "I want you to take me with you when you go to one of your lectures in Israel so I can tell the Israelis about the practices of their soldiers on that night." I asked him if he was serious - Arab has always questioned my willingness to talk with the other side and sit down with Israelis in forums like those Combatants for Peace provides. But he insisted, saying, "They have to know what happened so the parents of those soldiers can forbid their children to act that way towards women and children again."'
c) The Villages Group
Under the title A few good men, the Guardian's Comment is Free, July 8, 2008, carries an article by Seth Freedman about 'Ehud, Noam and Elad [who] disprove the myth that Jews who venture into the West Bank are putting their lives in danger.’ Freedman, in a moving description of the Villages Group and the work they do among the villagers of the South Hebron hills, under increasing threat from Jewish settler encroachment, describes their presence "an oasis of humanity in a sea of malice."
For instance, 'The Villages Group volunteers raised funds for solar panels and a wind turbine [for Abu Sami’s family], providing the basic electrical needs for the family, such as lighting and refrigeration. Their efforts have borne fruit, both in terms of bettering the family's standard of living, as well as breaking down the wall of silence that exists between the majority of Israelis and Palestinians.'
'"We don't talk politics [when we come to visit]," said Ehud. "We're here to help with the everyday situation; if we think of politics, then there's no motivation to carry on with our work."'
The Villages Group, incidentally, are supported in their work by the British Shalom Salaam Trust.
6. The water crisis in PalestineAlice Gray, Thirst In The Palestinian Territories, 13 July 2008
In our last mailing we carried a report that B'Tselem was warning of a grave water shortage in the West Bank this summer. Alice Gray is a co-founder of LifeSource, an initiative to stimulate grassroots movements for water access and sustainability in the Palestinian Territories and Israel. In Thirst In The Palestinian Territories (13 July 2008), she writes that, in a year of extremely severe drought, while Palestinians wait gasping for the first rains 'on the other side of the Wall, in Israel and in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, it is another story. Sprinklers play over green lawns, flowers bloom in well-kept gardens, children play in swimming pools, people are able to take two showers a day, and for the vast majority, the water crisis does not exist, or exists only in an abstract sense, as a hazy awareness that Israel is located in one of the most arid regions on earth.' And, in Gaza, a 'shocking 90% of water... does not meet World Health Organization drinking water standards.'
See the LifeSource website.
7. 'This is like apartheid': ANC veterans visit West Banka) Gideon Levy Twilight Zone / 'Worse than apartheid', Ha’aretz 12/07/2008
b) Donald Macintyre, The Independent, 11.7.08
There have been long and vigorous debates about whether or not the term 'apartheid' can be appropriately applied to the situation either in the occupied territories or in Israel. But what is not in doubt is that South African visitors routinely describe the situation under occupation as 'worse than apartheid'.
Gideon Levy (Ha’aretz, 12 July) and Donald MacIntyre (Independent, 11 July) both describe the visit of a high-powered delegation of 21 human-rights activists from South Africa in early July. The group included members of the African National Congress; at least one of whom took part in the armed struggle and at least two who were gaoled. There were also two South African Supreme Court judges, a former deputy minister, members of parliament, attorneys, writers and journalists - blacks and whites, about half of them Jews.
Levy describes where they went and how the reacted to what they saw.
He quotes, among many others, the editor-in-chief of the SA Sunday Times, Mondli Makhanya:
'The apartheid regime viewed the blacks as inferior; I do not think the Israelis see the Palestinians as human beings at all. How can a human brain engineer this total separation, the separate roads, the checkpoints? What we went through was terrible, terrible, terrible - and yet there is no comparison. Here it is more terrible. We also knew that it would end one day; here there is no end in sight. The end of the tunnel is blacker than black.'
It may or may not be apartheid (and many on the trip stressed the differences as well as the similarities) but none would seem to dissent from the quotation in MacIntyre's account of the visit
"The daily indignity to which the Palestinian population is subjected far outstrips the apartheid regime. And the effectiveness with which the bureaucracy implements the repressive measures far exceed that of the apartheid regime."
8. Israeli government fails to respect its own High CourtB'Tselem (9 July 2008) reports that Israel has not dismantled a single section of the Separation Barrier that was nullified by the High Court.
In descriptions of Israel's 'vibrant democracy' much is made of the 'bravery' of the High Court in standing up for justice against the state and the military. This was very effectively challenged by Gideon Spiro in an article published on the retirement of Supreme Court President Aharon Barak in January 2007, describing him as 'to a large extent, the judicial designer, enabler and backer of the regime of human-rights abuses in the Occupied Territories.'Nevertheless, on occasion, the Court has stood up - not against the occupation, but what it has considered the 'disproportionate' harm to the Palestinians, caused for example by the route (not the fact) of the Wall in a number of places. B'Tselem finds that these decisions have simply been ignored by the state: 'Four years after the Hague advisory opinion, the Separation Barrier has not been moved in any of the sections that were built and later nullified by the Israeli High Court of Justice.'
9. The case of Mohammed Omer
John Pilger tells the story of Gazan journalist Mohammed Omer recent treatment at the hands of the Israeli state on returning to his home in Gaza after a trip to London, in From triumph to torture, the Guardian July 2, 2008.
Omer, at 24, is the youngest-ever winner of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism which he received in London in June. Getting Omer to London was a minor triumph in its own right, Israel only allowing him out with a Dutch embassy escort. Getting back proved even more problematic. At the Allenby bridge crossing he was surrounded by eight armed Shin Bet officers, undressed and tortured:
"As they ridiculed me, they took delight most in mocking letters I had received from readers in England. I had now been without food and water and the toilet for 12 hours, and having been made to stand, my legs buckled. I vomited and passed out. All I remember is one of them gouging, scraping and clawing with his nails at the tender flesh beneath my eyes. He scooped my head and dug his fingers in near the auditory nerves between my head and eardrum. The pain became sharper as he dug in two fingers at a time. Another man had his combat boot on my neck, pressing into the hard floor. I lay there for over an hour. The room became a menagerie of pain, sound and terror."
As Pilger points out this is not an isolated incident, though the venom underlying this attack -with a Dutch official waiting on the other side of the crossing to receive Omer - is breath-taking.
You can sign a petition of protest organised by the Washington report on Middle East Affairs addressed to Condoleezza Rice.
4th July1. Entry into the Occupied Territories - as arbitrary as ever
2. Snippets from B'tselem's June 19 mailing
3. Don't travel on Route 443: The Apartheid Road - Silence of the Judges by Boaz Okon, Yediot Aharonot, June 10, 2008
4. Jewish Voice for Peace expresses outrage over Jewish groups' condemnation of Presbyterian Church USA
5. US trying to "legalize" permanent occupation of Iraq; shifting discourse on Israel-Palestine by Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies, 17 June 2008
6. Quiet is Muck by Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz 22 June 2008
7. Israel's New Diplomacy Needs Palestinians' New Unity by Rami G. Khouri, Editor-at-large of The Daily Star (Beirut), 22 June 2008
8. Why Israel Won't Accept A Two-state Solution, by Bernard Chazelle, in Princeton University, June 25, 2008
9. B'Tselem warns of grave water shortage in the West Bank (1 July report)
1. Entry into the Occupied Territories - as arbitrary as ever
The Israeli Committee for Right of Residency (ICRR) has produced a petition which states "Two years ago (in March 2006) it became evident that more and more people with foreign passports (of Palestinian descent and other) were being denied entry and re-entry into the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The situation not only continues, but has worsened this year."
The petition details the situation of three women in particular, all working in the film industry. None of the individuals understands why she has been denied entry. All three had legitimate plans to begin or complete film projects with Palestinians or to meet with Palestinians in the film industry. The work of these three women is strictly cultural:
* Norma Marcos Howard ("I am a French citizen of Palestinian origins and have been coming through Ben Gurion airport since 1989 with no problems. In 2005 the Israeli Authorities decided that I cannot do so any more. My mother is 87 years old and has had four strokes. I have not seen her for the last three years. My father died without my seeing him.")
* Anita Mosca, Italian citizen (not of Palestinian descent), was denied entry at Allenby Bridge. Mosca, an actress, directress and playwright, was to meet with a delegation from Italy headed by Campanias regional Minister for Culture.
* Palestinian-American filmmaker, Annemarie Jacir, traveling to the West Bank for the world premiere of her feature film "Salt of the Sea," was also denied entry at Allenby. Jacir was informed that the Israeli Ministry of Interior had denied her entry because "you spend too much time here."
Sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/entryOPT/petition.html
2. Snippets from B'tselem's 19th June mailing
Settlers attack Palestinian shepherds
On 8 June '08, four settlers attacked Palestinian shepherds in the Southern Hebron Hills, beating them severely. B'Tselem presents full coverage of the event, including footage filmed by the family as part of "Shooting Back". Police say two suspects have been arrested.
Report at http://www.btselem.org/English/Settler_Violence/20080608_Settler_assault_shepherd_in_Khirbet_Susiya.asp
Southern Hebron Hills: Fear of expulsion
Several thousand Palestinians live in caves and tents dotted throughout this arid expanse of land. In 2005, B'Tselem published a report on the relentless pressure the army and the Civil Administration impose on residents, apparently to drive them off the land, and the lack of law enforcement on violent settlers in the area.
Report at http://www.btselem.org/english/publications/summaries/200507_south_hebron.asp
Background: Settler lawlessness
When Palestinians attack Israelis, the authorities invoke all means at their disposal to bring the suspects to trial. In contrast, when Israeli civilians attack Palestinians, the Israeli authorities employ an undeclared policy of leniency toward the perpetrators.
Report at http://www.btselem.org/english/settler_violence/index.asp
Testimonies: Settler violence
Physical and verbal abuse of Palestinians by settlers is common in the West Bank. B'Tselem has collected numerous testimonies of victims to shooting, beating, stone-throwing and destruction of property by settlers, presented here.
Report at http://www.btselem.org/english/testimonies/index.asp?TF=01&image.x=13&image.y=11
Shooting Back: Video advocacy project
Over a year ago, B'Tselem launched "Shooting Back", providing Palestinians living in high-conflict areas with video cameras, with the goal of bringing the reality of their lives to the attention of the Israeli and international public. Footage allows a glimpse into life under occupation.
Video footage at http://www.btselem.org/english/video/shooting_back_index.asp
3. Don't travel on Route 443: The Apartheid Road - Silence of the Judges by Boaz Okon, Yediot Aharonot, June 10, 2008
Adam Keller writes: "Boaz Okon is a prominent jurist, was a judge on the Jerusalem District Court and registrar of the Supreme Court, and since his resignation in 2006 is the juridical commentator of Yediot Aharonot. The following article appeared not only on the op-ed page, but also with a box, containing a summary, placed conspicuously on the paper's front page - which is quite exceptional. Exceptional in the opposite direction is the fact that this article, unlike many others of Okon's, was not included in the Y-net website nor translated to English. This I have decided to do myself."
Article at http://www.jfjfp.org/background5_ethnicity-and-apartheid/okon_route443.htm
4. Jewish Voice for Peace expresses outrage over Jewish groups' condemnation of Presbyterian Church USAAfter careful reading of Church document grappling with moral responses to Israel's occupation, JVP asks: where is the anti-Semitism?
JVP believes that the church should be applauded, not condemned. It is a sad day when Jewish organizations condemn efforts to be vigilant against anti-Semitism. Read more at http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_1110.shtml
5. US trying to "legalize" permanent occupation of Iraq; shifting discourse on Israel-Palestine, by Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies, 17 June 2008
The second part of Bennis's article deals with changing perceptions and representations of Palestine in the media (the first part focuses on Iraq):
'[But] outside of AIPAC, what was different this year was that the massive media coverage of the overall celebration of the Israeli anniversary and the U.S.-Israeli "special relationship" actually acknowledged and gave voice to the nakba as a legitimate component of the narrative… The shift in discourse is huge, reflecting the massive change in public discussion of this issue that has been underway for the past year or more.'
Article at http://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?act_id=18393
6. Quiet is Muck, Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz 22 June 2008
"A great disaster has suddenly come upon Israel: The cease-fire has gone into effect. Cease-fire, cease-Qassams, cease-assassiations, at least for now. This good, hopeful news was received in Israel dourly, gloomily, even with hostility. As usual, politicians, the military brass and pundits went hand in hand to market the cease-fire as a negative, threatening and disastrous development."
Full article at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/994858.html
7. Israel’s New Diplomacy Needs Palestinians' New Unityby Rami G. Khouri, Editor-at-large of The Daily Star (Beirut), 22 June 2008
"A few things do stand out in the current situation:
First, this is the third time in three years that Hamas has forced Israel into accepting a cease-fire…
Second, Hamas' performance and posture are indicative of wider trends and have probably pushed Israel into exploring diplomatic possibilities instead of relying mainly on its ability to kill and colonize Arabs and relying on Washington’s blind support…
Third, Israel seems to have grasped the fact that Washington’s advice is lethal - maybe even fatal -- and best ignored when real Israeli national interests are at stake. The United States has persistently pushed Israel either to boycott or attack Hizbullah, Hamas, and Syria, and instead Israel is now negotiating with all three of them at once.
…
All the peace talks taking place these days will eventually stall and collapse if the Palestinians remain split and Israeli-Palestinian negotiations come to an end. The urgent need to re-establish order, efficacy, and legitimacy in domestic Palestinian governance is now the single most important issue facing the Arab world, because it could impact positively on so many other regional issues."
Article at http://www.agenceglobal.com/Article.asp?Id=1622
8. Why Israel Won't Accept A Two-state Solution by Bernard Chazelle, in Princeton University, June 25, 2008
A thoughtful, pessimistic analysis of the prospects of a two-state solution.
On the situation in the US:
"It is undeniable, however, that efforts to stifle public criticism of Israel have created a climate of intimidation. Not everyone enjoys being called an anti-Semite or a self-hating Jew for accurately describing the West Bank as an Apartheid society. Media gatekeepers and college administrators have been kept in line. The cranks at Campus Watch are shameless thugs, but what do we call the self-censoring academics and cowed public intellectuals who toss overboard any shred of moral courage to speed their ascension to power? Why must the New York Times feature opinions about Israel that cover only a fraction of the range on offer in Haaretz?"
On why in practice Israel makes no moves towards a Palestinian state:
"[T]he two-state solution demands of Israel the kind of concessions history wrests from nations defeated at war. Having been defeated at peace, not at war, Israel is psychologically unequipped for the task. All the giving must be, de facto, Israeli and the taking Palestinian—the neat thing about having nothing is that you have nothing to give. Of course, Israel would be "giving" nothing—only returning what it grabbed in contravention of international law—but it is indicative of its delusions of innocence that it should always speak of generous offers, never of legal redress."
Full article at http://serv01.siteground202.com/~atfp/news/article.php?id=774589092
9. B'Tselem warns of grave water shortage in the West Bank (1 July report)
The chronic water shortage in the West Bank, resulting from an unfair distribution of water resources shared by the Palestinians and Israel, will be much graver this summer because of this year’s drought. In the northern West Bank, water consumption has fallen to one-third of the minimal amount needed.
Read a summary of the impending crisis issued by Irin at http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79083 and the B'tselem report on which this summary is based at http://www.btselem.org/english/water/2008070_acute_water_shortage_in_the_west_bank.asp
[Irin (Integrated Regional Information Networks) is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.]
CONTENTS
1. On the upgrading of the EU-Israel Association Agreement
2. ACRI on Palestinians barred from Dead Sea beaches + Independent article
3. FFIPP-UK Latest Newsletter
4. Snippets from B'tselem
5. 'Israel's ambassador says Britain has become a hotbed of radical anti-Israeli feeling'
6. 'Ambassador's own goal', Brian Klug
7. Khalid Mishal: The Making of a Palestinian Islamic Leader interviewed by Mouin Rabbani
8. 'On the Future of Israel and Palestine', an Interview with Ilan Pappé and Noam Chomsky
9. 'No I Can't!', Uri Avnery on Barak Obama
10. An Apology, Uri Avnery
11. "The U.S. is sowing the seeds of a long term tragedy..." An interview with Gilbert Achcar on Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and the Anti-War Movement.
1. JfJfP Comments on the upgrading of the EU-Israel Association Agreement'As we understand it, there is an intention to upgrade the agreement in the form of a political declaration, rather than a new agreement, which will give Israel access to increased EU programming and will state clearly that there is a special relationship between the EU and Israel. The issue of Israel's compliance with the Association Agreement's human rights requirement will not, however, be mentioned. Amnesty International and other NGOs will be making a formal representation to the Council and the Commission.'
Full commentary by Arthur Goodman at http://www.jfjfp.org/background6_eu/jfjfp_briefing_on_upgrade_0806.htm
EJJP letter to MEPs
At the European Council meeting on 19-20 June, I understand that EU heads of state will consider upgrading political and economic ties with Israel under the EU's Euro-Med programme. I am writing to you on behalf of European Jews for a Just Peace, to request that you make the strongest representations possible to the EU governments that such an upgrade is deeply inappropriate at this time.
EU officials have emphasised that the importance of maintaining close relations with Israel, at a time when Israel is occupying or blockading Palestinian Territory, is to encourage Israel to adhere more closely to European norms of behaviour with respect to human rights, democracy and international law. This policy has failed.
The Barcelona Declaration governing the EuroMed process - signed by then Prime Minister, now Defence Minister Ehud Barak - commits signatories to:
"act in accordance with the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as other obligations under international law...
...develop the rule of law and democracy in their political systems...
respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and guarantee the effective legitimate exercise of such rights and freedoms, including freedom of expression, freedom of association for peaceful purposes..."
Israel is known to contravene international law, most obviously through the collective punishment of the population of Gaza, so described by External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner in January this year. Less widely known are the many instances where it shows contempt for the rules of its own laws. I have appended some instances for your information.
The intention to promote European values through closer economic, political and cultural ties is noble in principle. In practice, Israel shows no respect for the agreements it has already signed. Now is not the time for the EU to upgrade relations with Israel.
I would be grateful if you would convey these concerns to your foreign minister and let me know their response.
Yours sincerely
Dan Judelson, Secretary, European Jews for a Just Peace
June, 12th 2008
EU unanimously upgrades Israel ties, turning aside PA objections
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
The European Union, turning aside Palestinian objections, has announced upgraded relations with Israel in the form of a range of steps involving commerce, the economy, and academic ties as well as improvements in the diplomatic dialogue between the sides.
The decision was taken unanimously on Monday by the EU's 27 member nations, following an intense diplomatic effort by Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/993646.html
2. From ACRII am writing to update you about a petition that ACRI submitted to the High Court of Justice last week challenging the IDF's illegal prohibition on Palestinians from entering the beaches in the northern Dead Sea located in the occupied West Bank. Our petition highlights the fact that the prohibition was introduced following complaints by Israelis managing beaches in the area, who claim that a "mix" of patrons at their beaches hurts their businesses.
ACRI's petition challenges the Military Commander's exploitation of security arguments to serve extraneous interests, and highlights the IDF's widespread policies of discrimination which prohibit and restrict a person's freedom of movement solely on the basis of his or her national origin. Furthermore, the petition challenges the unlawful expropriation of the only strip of beach accessible to the Palestinian population of the West Bank for the exclusive use of Israelis and for the economic benefit of Israeli settlements established in occupied territory.
An in-depth article on our petition appeared in The Independent:
Palestinians barred from Dead Sea beaches to 'appease Israeli settlers'
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/palestinians-barred-from-dead-sea-beaches-to-appease-israeli-settlers-846948.html
3. A new FFIPP-UK Newsletter has just gone out (15 June2008).
It contains, among other things, links to articles and reports on the FFIPP-International Conference in Jerusalem at the beginning of July, updates on the Finkelstein and the Fulbright scholars affairs, articles on the recent UCU motion 25, and much else besides.
Available at http://www.ffipp-uk.org/FFIPP-UK_newsletters/newsletter_080615.htm
If you would like to be put on the FFIPP-UK mailing list contact info@ffipp-uk.org
4. Snippets from B’tselem:
(a) Video testimony: Heart patient dies after delay at checkpoint, reported in 12 June mailing
In February 2008, Fawziyeh a-Dark suffered a heart attack and died after soldiers prevented her passage to hospital. Now, her husband gives B'Tselem a video testimony of the events leading up to her death.
See http://www.btselem.org/english/video/20080611_death_of_fawziyah_a_dark.asp
(b)Israel denies unregistered Palestinians ability to obtain ID cards, report on 29 May
Israel refuses to provide a solution for residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip whose parents did not register them in the population registry at birth. Living without ID cards, these persons are often barred from realizing basic rights such as the right to work, to education, to family life, and more.
At http://www.btselem. org/english/Family_Separation/20080529_Unregistered_persons.asp
(c) Ministry of Justice skews facts in response to World Bank report, May 28
B'Tselem wrote to the Justice Ministry to protest its response to the World Bank's report on the effects on the Palestinian economy resulting from Israel's restrictions on movement in the West Bank. The response included distorted and misleading data regarding several issues, including roads forbidden to Palestinians and planning and building in Area C
At http://www.btselem.org/english/Special/20080529_Ministry_of_Justices_response_to_World_Bank_report.asp
5. Israel's ambassador says Britain has become a hotbed of radical anti-Israeli feeling, reported in the Daily Telegraph on 10 JuneSee report at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/2100428/Israel%27s-ambassador-says-Britain-has-become-a-hotbed-of-radical-anti-Israeli-feeling.html
6. Ambassador's own goal: Israel's ambassador in London is trying to delegitimise genuine debate about his country's future, says Brian Klug in a particularly well-aimed reply at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/13/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast
7. Khalid Mishal: The Making of a Palestinian Islamic Leader
Interviewed by Mouin Rabbani
Khalid Mishal (Abu Walid), a founder of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the head of its politbureau since 1996, has been the recognized head of the movement since the assassination of Shaykh Ahmad Yasin in spring 2004. A very intresting interview with him appears in the current issue of Journal of Palestine Studies, Issue 147 (Spring 2008). It is available for free download at http://www.palestine-studies.org/final/en/journals/content.php?aid=9851&jid=1&iid=147&vid=XXXVII&vol=207
8. On the Future of Israel and Palestine, an Interview with Ilan Pappé and Noam Chomsky, by FRANK BARAT, June 6, 2008
Interestingly, Pappé and Chomsly differ considerably on a range of issues.
See http://www.counterpunch.org/barat06062008.html
9. No I Can’t!, Uri Avnery on Barak Obama, 7 June 2008
'And what was the first thing he did after his astounding victory? He ran to the conference of the Israel lobby, AIPAC, and made a speech that broke all records for obsequiousness and fawning.
That is shocking enough. Even more shocking is the fact that nobody was shocked.'
Full article at http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1212871846
10. An Apology, Uri Avnery, 14 June 2008
THIS WEEK, the Prime Minister of Canada made a dramatic statement in Parliament: he apologized to the indigenous peoples of his country for the injustices done to them for generations by successive Canadian governments...
The President of France has apologized on behalf of his people for the misdeeds of the Vichy regime, which turned Jews over to the Nazi exterminators. The Czech government has apologized to the Germans for the mass expulsion of the German population at the end of World War II. Germany, of course, has apologized to the Jews for the unspeakable crimes of the Holocaust. Quite recently, the government of Australia has apologized to the Aborigines. And even in Israel, a feeble effort was made to heal a grievous domestic wound, when Ehud Barak apologized to the Oriental Jews for the discrimination they have suffered for many years.
...
I BELIEVE that peace between us and the Palestinian people - a real peace, based on real conciliation - starts with an apology.
Full article at http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1213478638
11. "The U.S. is sowing the seeds of a long term tragedy..."An interview with Gilbert Achcar on Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and the Anti-War Movement, Znet 2 June 2008
A wide-ranging interview containing very interesting comment, especially on the one-state or two-state question (‘To be frank, I consider this debate to be largely a waste of time.’)
Full interview at http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/17808
1. The Bil'in conference on popular resistance ends with anti-wall nonviolent protest: video link
2. Anniversary events marking 41 years of Occupation - from Gush Shalom
3. Tutu: Gaza blockade abomination, BBC Report
4. Gaza Diary by Louisa Waugh
5. Between oppression and empowerment by Nimer Sultany
6. The Jordan Valley's forgotten Palestinians by Ben White
7. An open letter to the Minister of Defense, Mr. Ehud Barak by Bassam Aramin
8. The Fallacy of the Ticking Time Bomb by Aliya Mughal
9. Obama vs. The Lobby: No matter how much he grovels, it's never enough by Justin Raimondo
10. Memories of a promised land by Mike Marqusee and by Eliane Glaser
11. Palestinians can't obtain permits to build in Area C , United Nations Report
12. EU-Israel Relations - a letter from the Palestinian PM and an EP Delegation report
1. The Bil'in conference on popular resistance ends with anti wall nonviolent protest video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKcSnysC0O8
2. Anniversary events marking 41 years of Occupation - from Gush Shalom:
The march of Gush Shalom and coalition partners made it into Haaretz:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/990939.html
Adam Keller report: However long it takes
http://gush-shalom.org.toibillboard.info/41yr_report.htm
Hebrew-spoken film on the march & discussions by Ehud Shem Tov
http://www.tv.social.org.il/medini/41-years-of-occupation.htm
Some of us went June 4 with Peace Now to demonstrate in the Ariel settlement
Beate Zilversmidt report 'You are not going to stay! Forget it!'
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27287
3. Tutu: Gaza blockade abomination
Despite being denide entry many times by Israel, Archbishop Tutu finally managed to get into Gaza through the Rafah crossing. He was in Gaza on a delayed United Nations fact-finding mission into the killing of 19 Palestinians by Israeli shellfire in November 2006.
Tutu said simply that the humanitarian situation in Gaza could not be justified.
"My message to the international community is that our silence and complicity, especially on the situation in Gaza, shames us all. It is almost like the behaviour of the military junta in Burma."
BBC report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7425082.stm
4. Gaza Diary by Louisa Waugh, London Review of Books, 5 June 2008
'Don't ask me how I am,' a colleague said to me when I arrived at the office yesterday morning. 'You know how bad things are here now, so please don’t ask.'
Things are certainly very bad in the Gaza Strip. The fuel crisis grinds on, and though Israel has just allowed a small consignment of fuel in, nearly 90 per cent of private cars remain off the road. Bus and taxi services are overwhelmed, and since the taxis have more than doubled their rates, most of us are still walking. Black market fuel prices are extortionate, and the streets reek with gassy and oily fumes because drivers have resorted to converting their cars to use cooking gas, or even cooking oil. These crude conversions are potentially dangerous, liable to induce nausea, eye infections and asthma. The lack of industrial fuel has sparked widespread power cuts (Gaza's sole power plant is operating at partial capacity), as well as shortages of drinking water: the electric pumps shut down when the power goes off. Up to half of Gazans only have access to drinking water at home for between four and six hours a day. Domestic cooking fuel is increasingly scarce, and on some days there are long queues for bread, because bakers have started turning off their ovens to save gas.
Full article at http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n11/waug01_.html - (for subscribers).
Reprinted at http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2008/06/01/1857/
5. Between oppression and empowerment
by Nimer Sultany, The Electronic Intifada, 2 June 2008
'Defining the status of the Palestinian citizens of Israel has always been a puzzle for many scholars. One called the Palestinian citizens "semi-citizens" with accidental citizenship. Another distinguished between "liberal citizenship" granted to the Arabs and "republican citizenship" granted to the Jews. A third distinguished between "incidental citizenship" granted to the Arabs and "substantive citizenship" granted to the Jews. I have contributed to this discussion by claiming that the Palestinians are "citizens without citizenship."'
A very interesting account of two conflicting processes at work within Israel: intensification of the oppression of the Palestinian minority by the Israeli security forces, on the one hand; and a growing empowerment within this same group, on the other. More confrontation is likely…
Full article at http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9578.shtml
6. The Jordan Valley's forgotten Palestinians
by Ben White, The Electronic Intifada, 30 May 2008
"The Jordan Valley is an area that despite taking up over a quarter of the West Bank, is rarely subjected to the same kind of critical scrutiny afforded to, say, Jerusalem or settlement blocs like Gush Etzion or Ariel. This despite the Jordan Valley being not only essential for any future Palestinian state -- with regards to territorial continuity, agriculture, water, and border access -- but also having been the target of intense colonization by successive Israeli governments which have not only declared its strategic significance but also the intention of eventual annexation.
"In the Jordan Valley there are around 56,000 Palestinians and 9,400 illegal Israeli settlers spread out over 38 colonies."
More at http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9573.shtml
7. An open letter to the Minister of Defense, Mr. Ehud Barak
by Bassam Aramin, co-founder of the movement "Combatants for Peace", 15 May 2008
"The policy of occupation only creates more and more people who rise up to fight occupation and refuse to accept its burden. The Palestinian prisoners who sit in your jails are among the most learned and erudite of our people, those are the most sensitive and humanistic. They have become educated in the tradition of liberty and democracy - and for this reason they will never agree to accept the occupation and subjugation. It is these men and women who will fight for peace, and if you want to realize peace you have no option but to set free these soldiers of peace first and foremost."
http://www.jfjfp.org/background4_non-violent-resistance/bassam2barak.htm
8. The Fallacy of the Ticking Time Bomb by Aliya Mughal
A discussion about the use of torture in a wider context than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, these reflections from the Senior Press Officer of the Medical Campaign for the Care of Victims of Torture are nonetheless directly relevant to it.
Report at http://www.torturecare.org.uk/news/features/1813
9. Obama vs. The Lobby: No matter how much he grovels, it's never enough
by Justin Raimondo, May 14, 2008
You don't have to like Raimondo, described on Wikipedia as a ‘paleoconservative/libertarian’ to fail to see how badly 'the Lobby' is responding to the prospects of an Obama presidency.
Jeffrey Goldberg, who conducted an extended interview with Obama, throws this great question at him: "Go to the kishke question, the gut question: the idea that if Jews know that you love them, then you can say whatever you want about Israel, but if we don't know you - Jim Baker, Zbigniew Brzezinski - then everything is suspect. There seems to be in some quarters, in Florida and other places, a sense that you don't feel Jewish worry the way a senator from New York would feel it."
There is no question for Goldberg of making distinctions between an Israel Lobby, a Zionist Lobby or a Jewish Lobby!
Raimondo article at http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12834
And the full Goldberg interview is at http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/obama_on_zionism_and_hamas.php
10. Memories of a promised land
New Humanist, Volume 123 Issue 3 May/June 2008
Sixty years since its foundation Mike Marqusee and Eliane Glaser explore the state of Israel:
Mike Marqusee asks what it is to have a 'Jewish' state: 'Israel is "Jewish" in a sense that no existing state is Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist. Though these religions are privileged in various states, none of those states claims to be the sole global representative of the faith; none grants citizenship to people solely because of their religion (without regard to place of birth or residence).'
And on the nakba he says this: "Many Zionists who do acknowledge the Nakba characterise it as tragic but "irreversible". The Nakba was not, however, an isolated episode; it was a paroxysm in a process that continues to this day."
Elaine Glaser gives a more personal account, capturing well the ambiguous role Israel plays in the life on many non-Zionists:
"But arriving on that August day in 2005, those Stars of David struck me afresh as naïvely and archaically symbolic, and they reminded me of the early socialist idealism of Israel; something that, in some ways, I still find very attractive."
But she goes on to say she finds "even that idealism to be a corruption of what my ancestors stood for. My great-grandparents were bohemian, Middle-European intellectuals... [Some of that generaration of immigrants] recreated an atmosphere of European cosmopolitanism in their new Mediterranean outpost, but the majority embraced a very different set of values..."
Both articles at http://newhumanist.org.uk/1788
11. Palestinians can't obtain permits to build in Area C
United Nations Report
JERUSALEM, 3 June 2008 (IRIN) - Palestinians living in Area C of the West Bank, under Israeli control, have given up on obtaining construction permits from the authorities and instead build without them, leaving 3,000 structures in the territory under constant threat of demolition, according to a UN report.
"Over 94 percent of [Palestinian] applications for building permits in Area C, submitted to the Israeli authorities by Palestinians between January 2000 and September 2007, were denied," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report, 'Lack of Permit' Demolitions and Resultant Displacement in Area C, stated.
Download the report at http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/Demolitions_in_Area_C_May_2008_English.pdf
12. EU-Israel Relations
There is talk of upgrading the EU's relations with Israel at the Council meeting on 16 June. The Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, has written in protest; and a European Parliament Delegation visiting the occupied territories also raised its voice against such a step.
See http://www.jfjfp.org/background6_eu/palPM2EU_080527.htm
and http://www.jfjfp.org/background6_eu/ep_press-release_080602.htmCONTENTS
1. Video from the Abir Aramin Memorial Garden
2. The latest FFIPP-UK Newsletter
3. 1948 by Uri Avnery
4. Escaping Forwards by Uri Avnery
5. U.S. prof. gives Israeli prize money to Palestinian university by Ofri Ilani
6. Prophecy of retribution by Rabbi Dr David Goldberg
7. UN says number of West Bank checkpoints on the rise
8. Israeli settlers and army started to expand illegal settlement on Bil'in land by Ghassan Bannoura
9. Road map to nowhere by Daniel Levy
1. Video from the Abir Aramin Memorial Garden
(JfJfP signatories contributed £1975 via the British Shalom-Salaam Trust) following an appeal)
http://www.combatantsforpeace.org/video.asp?lng=eng&id=playground_Abir.wmv&type=video
2. The latest FFIPP-UK Newsletter has just gone out.
It includes material on, among other things, the University and College Union 2008 Congress; Norman Finkelstein being barred entry to Israel; sending books to Palestine; and Nadia Abu El-Haj's tenure battle at Barnard
See the mailing at http://www.ffipp-uk.org/FFIPP-UK_newsletters/newsletter_080530.htm
To subscribe to the FFIPP-UK mailings email info@ffipp-uk.org
3. Uri Avnery: 1948
ONE DAY, I hope, a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission", on the South African model, will be set up here. It should be composed of Israeli, Palestinian and international historians, whose job will be to establish what really happened in this country in 1948.
Article at http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1210454063
4. Escaping Forwards by Uri Avnery, 24 May
Despite some cynicism as to why Olmert has launched talks with Syria at this juncture ("His situation is desperate… The Attorney General is liable to indict him any time, and this will compel him to resign.") Avnery finds reasons to be hopeful that something positive can come out of this development
Article at http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english/index.html
5. U.S. prof. gives Israeli prize money to Palestinian university by Ofri Ilani
The American mathematician David Mumford, co-winner of the 2008 Wolf Foundation Prize in Mathematics, announced upon receiving the award yesterday that he will donate the money to Bir Zeit University, near Ramallah, and to Gisha, an Israeli organization that advocates for Palestinian freedom of movement.
Article at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/986898.html
6. Prophecy of retributionThe 1907 writings of one traveller to Palestine vividly describe the roots of the region's enmity
By Rabbi Dr David Goldberg
Article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/29/israelandthepalestinians
7. ISRAEL-OPT: UN says number of West Bank checkpoints on the rise
Irin (The Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN), the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (www.IRINnews.org).)
"During the reporting period to April 2008 some 103 obstacles were removed but 144 were added…
In April, the Israeli government announced it had removed 61 obstacles in the West Bank, though OCHA said that only 44 had been taken away and 11 had never existed. Of the 44, only five were deemed to be significant, leaving the agency to conclude that the move had "little or no impact on movement and access in the West Bank".
News report at http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=78455
Full Ocha May report downloadable at http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/UpdateMay2008.pdf
8. Israeli settlers and army started to expand illegal settlement on Bil'in land, Ghassan Bannoura 26 May 2008
Judith Norman of Jewish Peace News writes: "The West Bank village of Bil'in has become famous for several years now as the site of weekly protests against the construction of the wall. The route of the wall separates the village itself from 60% of its farmland (mostly olive groves). The weekly protests are themselves non-violent, they but have often met with violent responses on the part of the Israeli military, which is adopting an increasingly belligerent attitude towards the protests."
Here is an extract from the latest International Middle East Media Centre report:
"Israeli settlers under the protection of the Israeli army started on Monday morning to install homes on lands that belong to villagers from Bil'in, located near the central West Bank city of Ramallah. Iyad Burnat, of the local committee against the wall and settlement construction, said that villagers noticed the construction since early morning on Monday. Villagers tried to reach their land in order to stop the settlers but Israeli troops prevented them from crossing the wall.
…
In 2007 the villagers of Bil'in won an Israeli high court of Justice decision to remove the Israeli wall that separates the village from its land and move it away. The Israeli army refused to comply with the order for "security reasons."
Full report at http://www.imemc.org/article/55064
For more information about Bil’in see: http://www.bilin-village.org/english/
9. Road map to nowhere, Daniel Levy, International Herald Tribune, 14 May.
A few weeks old, appearing when Bush was in the Middle East, but of interest coming as it does from Daniel Levy, co-founder of the Washington-based J Street, "the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement" set up to challenge Aipac.
"[A]s it currently stands, the Annapolis process is a chimera, and one likely to do more harm than good."
Article at http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/14/opinion/edlevy.php
20th May mailing
Much has appeared in recent weeks on Israel at 60 and on the nakba as well as on the overall prospects for peace. Some articles have been included in previous mailings but here is a selection of good recent material.
1. Rethinking Israel after Sixty Years by Jeff Halper
2. Israel is 60, Zionism is Dead, What Now? Tony Karom 8th May 2008
3. A Somber Anniversary by Avi Shlaim The Nation May 8,
4. Remembering the Nakba during Israel's 60th anniversary, Jewish Voice for Peace
5. The Wandering Palestinian The Economist, May 8th 2008
6. Palestine: Liberation Deferred by Rashid Khalidi, The Nation May 8, 2008
7. Tough Love for Israel Henry Siegman, the Nation 17th April 2008
8. Hamas and Peace Financial Times editorial, 21 April 2008
9. Israel's secret fears Haim Baram, New Statesman 15 May 2008
10. As It Turns 60, The Fear Is Israel Has Decided It Can Get By Without Peace by Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian May 7, 2008
1. Rethinking Israel after Sixty Years by Jeff Halper
"Only [by] a reconciling of our celebration with Palestinian loss will we finally begin to deal with the presence 'in our country' of another people with equal claims and rights, paving the way to a just peace, reconciliation and the securing of a Jewish national presence in the Land of Israel – whatever political form that might take."
Full article at http://www.jfjfp.org/background5_general/israel@60_halper.htm
2. Israel is 60, Zionism is Dead, What Now? Tony Karom 8th May 2008
Interesting and thoughtful as always, Karom provides a wide-ranging and political and personal account of Zionism and its current obsolescence:
"Israel may be an intractable historical fact, but the Zionist ideology that spurred its creation and shaped its identity and sense of national purpose has collapsed – not under pressure from without, but having rotted from within. It is Jews, not Jihadists, that have consigned Zionism to the dustbin of history."
Full article at http://tonykaron.com/2008/05/08/israel-is-alive-zionism-is-dead-what-now/
3. A Somber Anniversary by Avi Shlaim, The Nation May 8, 2008 (print edition 26 May)
"The question now is whether Israel will give the Palestinians a chance to build that state or strive endlessly to frustrate it. That is the real test of statesmanship as Israel enters its seventh decade. At the time of writing there is precious little evidence to suggest that Israel's leaders are willing to rise to the challenge."
Full article at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080526/shlaim
4. Remembering the Nakba during Israel's 60th anniversary, Jewish Voice for Peace
Today, Jews around the world are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. These celebrations reflect the understandable joy of Jews who view Israel as the symbol of 60 years of freedom from centuries of persecution, culminating in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, not all Jews will be celebrating...
Full statement at http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_1061.shtml
Download JVP's informational fact sheets about the Nakba and Jews in the Middle East at http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/nakba.shtml
5. The Wandering Palestinian The Economist, May 8th 2008
"Whether they be in Nahr al-Bared, Nazareth or Nablus, Palestinians are united by loss and by hope"
An informed overview of the Palestinians over the last sixty years
Full report at http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_ID=11332217
6. Palestine: Liberation Deferred by Rashid Khalidi, The Nation 8 May 2008 (print edition 26 May)
"Another thing has become clearer and clearer over these sixty years: a just resolution of the Palestine question will be far from simple, if it is indeed possible at all; and if it is ever to be resolved, this will depend in large measure on the Palestinians themselves, whose current status is perhaps as desperate as it has been since 1948."
Full article at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080526/khalidi
7. Tough Love for Israel Henry Siegman, the Nation 17th April 2008 (print edition 5 May)
"The scandal of the international community's impotence in resolving one of history's longest bloodlettings is that it knows what the problem is but does not have the courage to speak the truth, much less deal with it."
Full article at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080505/siegman
8. Hamas and Peace Financial Times editorial, 21 April 2008
"Mr Carter's perception, shared by two thirds of Israelis, is that Israel cannot make war on half the Palestinian people and expect to make peace with the other half; if there is ever going to be a solution to this conflict, Hamas has to be part of it."
Full text at http://www.jfjfp.org/background3_hamas/hamas_ft-apr08.htm
9. Israel's secret fears Haim Baram, New Statesman 15 May 2008
"Israel marks its 60th birthday in a climate of increasing racism, intolerance, corruption and militarism. A nation that has long seen itself as one of the most misunderstood is now almost unable to understand the world beyond its borders. Fear and anxiety provide the mood music of the celebrations."
Article at http://www.newstatesman.com/200805150023
10. As It Turns 60, The Fear Is Israel Has Decided It Can Get By Without Peace by Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian May 7, 2008
"And yet, there are few signs of a genuinely urgent Israeli desire for an accord with the Palestinians. The appearance of efforts for peace, in order to placate the legacy-hungry Bush, most certainly, but a fierce yearning for peace is harder to detect...
Israelis have grown cynical about peacemaking... and few Israelis like to say this out loud, they believe they can get by without peace."
Article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/07/israelandthepalestinians?gusrc=rss&feed=fromtheguardian
We haven't had a recommended reading mailing for a while. As Israel's 60th anniversary approaches, here is a catch-up.
1. Gaza
a) The United Nations, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has issued a GAZA HUMANITARIAN SITUATION REPORT Impact of Fuel Shortages on Gaza Sanitation - Polluting the Sea 29 April 2008
b) This report and others are discussed by Donald Macintyre under the heading Blockade puts Gaza on brink of serious food crisis
c) A more personal account is given by the same reporter in the Independent under the title 'We didn't eat at all in the day,'
2. Miscellaneous
a) First-hand report on current conditions in the "Holy Land" by Ed Abington former U.S. Consul-General in Jerusalem, April 2008
b) Healing Israel's Birth Scar, Tony Karom
c) Peace talk: Despite the despondent atmosphere, this is a propitious moment to bring the Israel-Palestine conflict to an end by Tony Klug
d) Palestinian Prisoners Day 2008: Challenging Military Courts by Isabelle Guitard
e) New kid on the block by Richard Silverstein, Comment is Free
f) Press statement on the current situation by John Dugard, the retiring UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 - 17 April 2008
3. Two articles on the politics of archeology in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
a) Digging for Trouble: The politics of archaeology in East Jerusalem by Yigal Bronner & Neve Gordon
b) A separate peace by Meron Rapoport
4. Two articles on Israel's 60th Anniversary by Uri Avnery
a) Manifest Destiny? 12 April 2008
b) "... Namely the State of Israel" 3 May 2008
5. Jewish Chronicle
a) JfJfP organised pesach advert in the Jewish Chronicle, 18 April 2008
b) the JC's response: leader
c) the JC's response: article postscript
d) JC readers respond in the following week
e) Advert signatories respond the week after
f) Developments at the Jewish Chronicle (last Friday's issue)
1. Gaza, the humanitarian crisis deepens
1a) The United Nations, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has issued a GAZA HUMANITARIAN SITUATION REPORT Impact of Fuel Shortages on Gaza Sanitation - Polluting the Sea 29 April 2008
Its key observations are that "[B]etween 50 and 60 million litres of partially treated and untreated sewage from the Gaza Strip have been flowing daily into the Mediterranean Sea since 24 January" and that "This sewage cannot be treated due to the lack of a steady electricity supply within the Gaza Strip, Israel's restrictions on fuel imports, and prohibitions on the import of materials and necessary spare parts."
Full report downloadable at http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/Gaza_Situation_Report_2008_April.pdf
1b) This report and others are discussed by Donald Macintyre under the heading Blockade puts Gaza on brink of serious food crisis, says UN at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/blockade-puts-gaza-on-brink-of-serious-food-crisis-says-un-819731.html
1c) A more personal account is given by the same reporter in the Independent under the title 'We didn’t eat at all in the day,' says father plunged into poverty
"On Wednesday this week, Mr Yusef explains, his family didn't eat during daylight at all. "We had our breakfast in the evening. My wife said: 'All day you haven't been able to find something.' A visiting friend overheard and lent Mr Yusef 10 shekels to buy some luncheon meat, which provided their one meal of the day. The last time his family ate meat was on 5 April when his son, a member of the old Fatah-dominated security forces, was paid his £220 monthly salary from Ramallah."
Full report at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/we-didnt-eat-at-all-in-the-day-says-father-plunged-into-poverty-819730.html
2a) First-hand report on current conditions in the "Holy Land" by Ed Abington former U.S. Consul-General in Jerusalem, April 2008"There is a sense of despair among almost all Palestinians I talked to. They see no willingness on the part of the Israelis to engage in meaningful final status talks. In fact, they say, the talks are frozen, yet settlement expansion is going on at a steady and growing rate. Tenders for new housing units are being approved almost every day, not only in East Jerusalem but elsewhere in the West Bank. No Palestinian building for any purpose is allowed in area c, even if Palestinians have owned the land for generations. The IDF destroys any building done by Palestinians in area c. The West Bank is now truly fragmented by checkpoints, Israeli-only roads, closed military areas and permanent "border-crossing"-like terminals around all the major Palestinian cities. Someone shipping goods to or from Nablus, for example, must off-load/on-load their trucks at least twice on any trip."
Full report at http://www.jfjfp.org/background3_gaza-crisis_2007-08/abingdon.htm
2b) Healing Israel's Birth Scar, Tony Karom, April 9th, 2008 "There are growing numbers of Israelis who want to confront the reality of the fact that much of the "Jewish State" is built on the ruins of homes, lands and villages seized at gunpoint from others, before laws were passed legalizing what was, in a moral sense, essentially theft justified by war, and then simply flattening and building over them."
Full article at http://tonykaron.com/2008/04/09/healing-israels-birth-scar/
2c) Peace talk: Despite the despondent atmosphere, this is a propitious moment to bring the Israel-Palestine conflict to an end by Tony Klug, 01 April 2008
"... it is strongly in the interests of the principal parties to encourage the evolution of Hamas from a paramilitary organization to a serious political player by allowing the internal political processes within Palestinian society some breathing space to develop. Whether in or out of government, the movement will remain a significant force among the Palestinian people. However, if forced from power, it may abandon the political path altogether and revert to its more belligerent demands and violent deportment. Or it may give way to 'jihadist' forces, including al-Qaida whose advances it has so far rejected. So what may be done to avoid this and advance an authentic peace process?"
Full article in at http://www.progressonline.org.uk/magazine/article.asp?a=2613
2d) Palestinian Prisoners Day 2008: Challenging Military Courts by Isabelle Guitard
On 17 April 2008, DCI/PS announced a groundbreaking decision to challenge the Israeli Military Court system, and published a report revealing that over 6,000 Palestinian children have been arrested by Israel since the beginning of the Intifada. Guitard is International Advocacy Officer, Defence for Children International-Palestine Section
Press release and full report: http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=726&CategoryId=1
2e) New kid on the block by Richard Silverstein, Comment is Free
The American-Jewish lobbying group J Street, co-founded by Daniel Levy and Jeremy Ben Ami. hopes to provide a fresh approach to Israeli-Palestinian peace - but it may face opposition from Aipac
"J Street proposes an overarching US approach to the Middle East that eschews military conflict and embraces diplomatic negotiation, and advocates multilateralism over unilateralism and dialogue over confrontation. It proposes negotiation with Syria and Iran rather than diplomatic isolation and threats. And it will advance these goals both in the legislative and electoral process as well as the media.
Daniel Levy is a British Jew and son of a senior Labour minister in the Blair government, Lord Levy..."
Article at http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_silverstein/2008/04/new_kid_on_the_block.html
2f) Press statement on the current situation by John Dugard, the retiring UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 - 17 April 2008
GENEVA- -The blood-letting in Gaza, and to a lesser extent, the West Bank continues. On Wednesday 16 April, around 20 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military operations. The majority of those killed were civilians and five were children. On the same day three Israeli soldiers were killed.
How long is this madness to continue without serious international intervention? It has become clear to many responsible persons with experience of the conflict, both in Israel and elsewhere, that only direct negotiations or talks between the real parties involved - Israel and Hamas - can stop the killings.
Israel's unwillingness to talk to Hamas is understandable, given Hamas' hostility to the State of Israel. But there is no reason why the United Nations, acting through the Security Council or the Secretary-General, should not intervene and assert its role as mediator. This is a role that the United Nations has traditionally played, even where one of the parties has been labelled as "terrorist". It is the responsibility of the United Nations, as the ultimate guardian of human rights and international peace, to open lines of communication between Israel, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, and to bring them to the negotiating table. Such a step would also contribute to the advancement of Palestinian national unity - another area which the United Nations has to date failed to address.
The right to life is the most precious and important human right. The United Nations, acting through the Security Council or the Secretary-General, must do its utmost to protect the lives of both Palestinians and Israelis. Surely it is not too much to ask of the Security Council, and if it cannot act, the Secretary-General, to protect human life, even if it means talking to a group of which it may disapprove politically.
At http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/8547BF048156F2D3C125742E00555289?opendocument
3. Two articles on the politics of archeology in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Rebecca Vilkomerson, Guest Editor for Jewish Peace News writes: "Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past." --George Orwell, 1984.
The struggle for Silwan, an extremely poor Palestinian village in East Jerusalem, is a small microcosm of all the ways the occupation is perpetrated: the tag team of settlers and the state, the passive acquiescence of academics, the use of language to obscure reality, and the long term strategy being used to enlarge Jewish territory, backed by foreign money. It is also an inspiring example of a coalition of Palestinian and Israel activists and scholars who are working to save the village - against very high odds.
The article by two Israeli scholars in the April 25th edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education describes the struggle being waged in Silwan. A shadowy settler organization called Elad (largely funded, it is conjectured - because they refuse to reveal the names of their major donors - by Russian and American millionaires), uses its financial muscle to obtain land in Silwan, through methods both legitimate and less so, and install Jewish settlers throughout the Palestinian village.
The way Elad and the government use one another to further the goals of the occupation are illustrative. Elad was hired by the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority and Jerusalem Municipality as a subcontractor administering the "City of David" archaeological park in Silwan. That work was then outsourced back by Elad to the Israel Antiquities Authority, which as part of its work has authorized the demolition of 88 Palestinian homes in service of archaeological "explorations." In this way Elad, an extremist settler organization, gains official legitimacy as well as additional legal muscle, while the state reaps its rewards in archaelogical "evidence" and new settlers. The many tourists to the area, now marketed as the "City of David" get a one-sided, nationalistic view of the archaeological evidence.
These archaeological explorations are ethically dubious even beyond their use of home demolitions and intimidation, because they focus on "proving" the Jewish provenance of the area, to the exclusion of Muslim history. The "City of David" ignores the 3,000 years of history since David's time and doesn't include a single Muslim structure.
A few renegade Israeli archaelogists are actively fighting back—in their opinion simply defending the integrity of their profession. The article reports that a list of prominent international academics is joining the movement to protect Silwan from this slow-moving catastrophe for the residents, but the Israeli scholars who have joined are embarrassingly few. Over the past two years, the Palestinian residents themselves, joined by Jewish activists, have slowly built a coalition actively fighting the situation through grassroots protest and the courts.
Check out www.alt-arch.org to learn more, especially if you're planning a visit to Israel or Palestine and are interested in "alternative" tours.
3a) Digging for Trouble: The politics of archaeology in East Jerusalem by Yigal Bronner & Neve Gordon, Counterpunch 11 April and Chronicle of Higher Education 25 April 2008 at http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i33/33b00101.htm and http://www.counterpunch.org/bronner04112008.html
3b) The second article, by Meron Rappaport in Ha'aretz, is even more interesting in the context of the story of Silwan. It looks at efforts to coordinate the archaeological heritage of Israel and Palestine in case of a future final agreement. Professor Nazmi Jubeh, a member of the Palestinian archeological negotiating team, encapsulates the potential of archaeology to integrate the rich histories of the peoples of the region in support of peace, despite the current barriers. While the article calls it "surprising" that he would advocate for such a position, it seems he is simply reflecting the ethics of archaeology untainted by politics: "…he thinks the very fact that doubts are raised about his readiness to preserve Jewish finds pulls the ground from under him as an archaeologist. By raising these questions, you present Israel as having singular ownership of the Muslim history in Israel," Jubeh says. "The history of this land is the sum of all the histories of the people who lived in it. The Roman period does not belong to the Romans. You will not want the synagogue at Na'aran to be dismantled, just as I will not want to dismantle the Jazar Mosque in Acre. You cannot deprive me of the Jewish past of this land. It belongs to everyone.
A separate peace by Meron Rapoport, 14 April 2008 at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/973870.html
4. Two articles on Israel's 60th Anniversary by Uri Avnery
4a) Manifest Destiny? 12 April 2008
"There is no escape from the inevitable conclusion: the government is not working for peace. It does not want peace. And, also, that there is no effective parliamentary opposition pressing for peace, nor any pressure from the media.
What does all this mean? That there is no agenda? No, it means that behind the fictitious agenda, which appears in the media, there hides another agenda that does not meet the eye.
THE HIDDEN agenda is opposed to peace. Why?"
Full article at http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1208037443
4b) "... Namely the State of Israel" 3 May 2008
"WITH THE 60th Independence Day approaching, a committee sat down to choose an emblem for the event. The one they came up with looks like something for Coca Cola or the Eurovision song contest.
The real emblem of the state is quite different, and no committee of bureaucrats has had to invent it. It is fixed to the ground and can be seen from afar: The Wall. The Separation Wall."
Full article at http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1209841842
5. The Jewish Chronicle5a) JfJfP's Pesach advert in the Jewish Chronicle, 18 April 2008
As you are probably aware our ad appeared in the Pesach edition of the JC with over 400 signatories. A photo of the ad can be viewed at http://www.jfjfp.org/images/JC_ad_080418.jpg - please ask if you'd like the pdf.
5b) the JC's response: leader
An editorial attacking it appeared in the same issue and a couple of paragraphs were tacked on to a report about the Ham & High taking a paid ad from the BNP where the JC editor explained why he was willing to take our money for an offensive ad! These are given below. There were also a large number of letters published on it the next week and the week after. They can be found in full at http://www.jfjfp.org/archive/pesach-ad_jc2008.htm
Editorial Pesach politics 18/04/2008
If everything is political, then how much more so a festival whose main theme is one of liberation. Pesach has much contemporary relevance, especially when we consider Tibet's struggle for autonomy, the political turbulence in Zimbabwe and, yes, the search for a peaceful and equitable solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But this does not mean that the festival should become a cynical lever for interested parties to exploit. This week, consistent with our policy not to censor lawful ads from Jewish organisations, the JC is running a full-page plea from Jews for Justice for Palestinians which rather crassly appears to equate "the bitterness of slavery" with the situation in Gaza. This, they imply, is "the enduring message of Pesach". In Israel itself, the strictly Orthodox parties have chosen to make political capital over whether goods containing chametz can be sold openly during Pesach or not. Having been thwarted in their intention of banning such goods during the festival, Shas is threatening a terrible revenge for next year. And in Jerusalem, as they have done for the last two decades, residents will be drawing their water from sources other than the Kinneret just in case some inconsiderate fishermen had thrown their sandwiches into the lake, thus making it treif. All of the above goes a long way to distorting both the spirit and the unique meaning of this festival. The JC wishes all its readers a happy and reflective Pesach.
http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m12s29&SecId=29&AId=59568&ATypeId=1
5c) the JC's response: article postscript
Papers faces backlash over BNP election ads 17/04/2008 by Dana Gloger
Final two paras:
Jews for Justice for Palestinians has taken a full-page advert, with many celebrity endorsements, in this week's JC to ask whether Jews can enjoy their Seder while Palestinians are suffering "slavery".
JC editor David Rowan said: "Although I understand that many readers will object to the sentiments in this advert, it has not been this newspaper's policy to censor lawful advertisements from Jewish organisations - even where they conflict with the newspaper’s editorial position."
5d) JC readers respond in the following week
Half a dozen letters appeared attacking the ad the following week but there was a fine one from Keith Kahn-Harris:
At the end of your story on the Ham & High accepting adverts from the BNP, there were two paragraphs on the JC advert from JfJfP. The unmistakable inference was that JfJfP and the BNP are similar pariahs in the Jewish community, different only in that the JC (apparently with heavy heart) prints adverts from the former. I was not a signatory to the JfJfP advert, but I do not accept that its call for justice towards the Palestinians at Pesach necessarily equates to support for the racist far right. It is precisely these kind of semi-hysterical insults that disfigure our Jewish community.
Dr Keith Kahn-Harris, kkahnharris@blueyonder.co.uk
5e) Advert signatories respond the week after
The next week the letters on the topic were entirely devoted to ones defending the advert (apart form one from Roslyn Pines). Letter were published from John Strawson, Deborah Maccoby, Dan Judelson, Murray Glickman and Diana Neslen
Signatories of the gaza-blockade ad reply to their JC critics 02/05/2008
As a signatory of the Jews for Justice for Palestinians advertisement on Gaza, I must correct Eylon Levy's assertion that "Israel has no legal obligation for provide Gaza with anything...as it unilaterally withdraw in 2005" (Letters, April 25). As a matter of fact Israel neither withdrew in 2005, nor indeed suggested that withdrawal was its intention.
Under the disengagement plan issued by the Cabinet on June 6, 2004, the future status of Gaza is dealt with in section B (3) entitled "security situation following the relocation". Paragraph (1) reads: "The state of Israel will guard and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, will continue to maintain exclusive authority in Gaza airspace and will continue to exercise security activity in the sea off the coast of the Gaza strip."
Thus the military control of Gaza that began in June 1967 continued after what Israel called variously "disengagement" or "relocation" from Gaza. As a consequence the occupation of Gaza continues and Israel remains obliged by the relevant provisions of the Hague and Geneva Conventions for the welfare of the civilian population under occupation.
It is in Israel's hands to end this situation immediately by unconditionally withdrawing from all the territory it occupied in 1967.
John Strawson, University of East London, Stratford High Street, London E15
There was by no means any "admission" in the JC advertisement that "the violence in Gaza, Sderot or Ashkelon was initiated by Hamas and that the Israeli response was self-defence", as is claimed by Byran Reuben (Letters, April 25). To quote the actual words of the ad: "We condemn all violence against civilians, whether Israeli or Palestinian. We also insist that the rocket attacks on Sderot and Ashkelon cannot justify the scale of death and suffering wrought by Israel's action against Gaza. The blockade of Gaza will simply perpetuate the vicious cycle of terror rooted in the long Israeli occupation and settlement of Palestinian land."
This makes clear the root cause of the cycle of terror, in which Israel's retaliation for Palestinian revenge attacks is grossly disproportionate and only produces more violence against Israeli civilians.
Deborah Maccoby, Clapton, London E5
I do worry when "free speech" has to be bought at the price of several thousand pounds before it can appear. It would be even better if the content was what was debated rather than the permissibility of making it in the first place. The JC has carried adverts from JfJfP and other peace groups before and has not felt the need for an exceptional editorial as on this occasion. The same issue was accompanied by an interesting and varied collection of articles in the magazine celebrating 60 years of Israel's independence. Where was the editorial comment on the acceptance of adverts there - including one censured recently by the Advertising Standards Authority for suggesting that the Occupied West Bank constituted part of Israel? Where is the editorial comment on the acceptance of adverts in the magazine (and in a recent property supplement) on the acceptance of adverts promoting homes for sale in the Occupied Territories?
Dan Judelson, Chair, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, info@jfjfp.org
The recent JfJfP advertisement with its traditional Pesach message drawing attention to hunger, suffering and affliction has evoked some "traditional" responses from contributors to your letters pages.
First there was the casuistical son. What did he say? "What occupation? Gaza's no longer occupied. Everyone knows that."
Then there was the rape-apologist son. What did he say? "Look at the way these Arabs carry on. They just ask for it. So we give it to them."
Then there was the simply paranoid-racist son. What did he say? "The Arabs, they're just out to get us. That's what they're brought up to."
And what of those other thousands of sons and daughters, readers of the JC? Their personal sense of decency is in such conflict with their identification with Israel that they are silent. They know not how to ask its government: "Why are you doing this to the people of Gaza?" That is why we have to ask for them.
Murray Glickman, Ilford, Essex
These words at the opening of the Haggadah: "This is the bread of affliction, let all who are hungry enter and partake thereof", have a particular resonance for me as, perhaps, for many Jews.
This year, as I read them, I felt the horror of Israel's blockade of Gaza. Together with the fuel blockade which is making the delivery of food by UNRWA all but impossible, the siege is inducing real starvation. This strategy was developed by Ariel Sharon's henchman, Dov Weissglas, who laughingly said Israel would put "the people of Gaza on a diet". This demonstrates that Israel, who controls all access to Gaza since its "withdrawal" in 2005, is responsible directly for the damage it is inflicting on a subject population.
It is therefore reasonable to enquire how far our own Jewish community goes in its efforts to react to our sages' plea to dispel hunger, especially at Passover. If the responses of the letter writers and the extraordinary JC editorial, castigating those, like me, who signed the JfJfP advertisement, are anything to go by, it would seem that many in mainstream British Jewry have little awareness of our proud heritage of social justice.
I read with anguish the insensitive letters trying to defend this wholly indefensible siege and would say that if we Jews are so immune to the suffering cries of those over whom we hold dominion, we are indeed, as a community, in desperate straits.
Diana Neslen, D.Neslen@dsl.pipex.com
When fringe groups like JfJfP place full-page ads in our national newspapers, such as the one that appeared in the JC before Peasach, the response must take the same format, so that the lies, distortions and absence of context are exposed to the same readers. There is no better use of funds for Israel's hasbarah, for silence is invariably interpreted as a tacit admission of guilt.
Roslyn Pine, Upper Park Road, Manchester
5f) Developments at the Jewish Chronicle.
A comment from Richard Kuper:
Can I add that something quite interesting seems to be taking place at the JC. Don't get obsessed with the letters page. Just take a look at the JC 'Israel at 60' supplement edited by Daniella Peled. Of course a paean of praise to Israel, but not uncritical for all that, carrying articles by e.g.
* Uri Avnery on how he met Arafat during the first Lebanon war in 1982;
* David Landau outgoing editor of Haaretz on '1967', ending with the words: "I remember vividly the intoxicating sweetness of that (pseudo-) messianic moment. Now it tastes like ashes."
* 'Israel's other citizens' by Ghaida Zoabi in which she says: "Israel's 60th anniversary does not mean anything to me."
* An interview with rock star Aviv Geffen for whom hope in Israel died with the assassination of Rabin: "Geffen's antipathy towards the Israeli administration is focused on the country's macho culture, the compulsory three-year stint in the army... and the occupation."
Or look at the current issue. Not just the letters page, but also:
- a sympathetic interview with Zacharia Zubeida from the Jenin refugee camp http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11s19&SecId=19&AId=59777&ATypeId=1
- a full-page story on how a Muslim family saved their Jewish neighbours in Nazi-occupied Sarajevo http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m14s44&SecId=44&AId=59870&ATypeId=1
- a full-page story of how barrister Philippe Sands is 'trying to put Rumsfield in the dock' http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m14s44&SecId=44&AId=59871&ATypeId=1
- a sympathetic interview with Ofira Henig http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m14s150&SecId=150&AId=59895&ATypeId=1 who is directing the Palestinian play 'In Spitting Distance' at the Barbican,
- Filmmaker Raneen Geries receives death threats for showing the Palestinian view of the events of 1948.
http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m14s150&SecId=150&AId=59897&ATypeId=1
- Rabbi Elizbeth Sarah Tikvah's extensive piece 'Torah says you can be for Israel... and for Palestine'. http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m13&SecId=13&AId=59788&ATypeId=1
Of course nine-tenths of it is rather more predictable, but even so!
Opinion within Britain's Jewish community has shifted massively in recent years and the JC seems to be making an effort to catch up. Or perhaps the editor is on holiday and the mice are playing! I'd like to think the former.
See the last two sentences of their leader,Tragedy and regret, on 02/05/2008:
"But what is in no doubt is that this event was a tragedy. And if spectators to this conflict have reached the point where the death of four children and their mother in one single, brutal moment no longer moves them, then that is another."
This echoes Diana [Neslen]'s final para:
"I read with anguish the insensitive letters trying to defend this wholly indefensible siege and would say that if we Jews are so immune to the suffering cries of those over whom we hold dominion, we are indeed, as a community, in desperate straits."
[Here is the full editorial:]
"On Monday morning, as they sat down to breakfast in their Gaza home, Miyasar Abu Meatak and her four children - Salah, four, Musad, 18 months, Hanaa, three, and Rudeynah, six - died in a massive explosion. The dust had barely settled on this nightmarish scene before claims and counter-claims began flying over just who was responsible. The IDF at first insisted that the family was killed when explosives carried by wanted men detonated after they were struck by an Israeli missile. The Palestinians claimed that Israeli troops had fired a tank shell which hit the family’s building. In the midst of urban, asymmetrical warfare, the precise sequence of events is not always immediately clear. So what should Israel do at a time like this - admit responsibility, deny involvement, express "regret"? An initial Israeli promise to show journalists footage to back up its version of events was quickly retracted after the IDF admitted this evidence was inconclusive. It seems almost distasteful to mention hasbarah in this context. Yet it took 24 hours for a measured, human response to emerge from the Israeli side and for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, to say, quite simply, that Israel felt deep remorse for the tragic incident, that the exact circumstances were still unclear, and that the IDF would carry out an investigation and publicise its findings. From the Israeli perspective, this incident only lasted for one domestic news cycle, and privately is not being seen as an international debacle. The truth of the events of Monday morning has yet to emerge. But what is in no doubt is that this event was a tragedy. And if spectators to this conflict have reached the point where the death of four children and their mother in one single, brutal moment no longer moves them, then that is another."
CONTENTS
Settlements
(a) Olmert and Settlements: Lofty Goals Betrayed by Actions on the Ground by Geoffrey Aronson
(b) Permanent Settlements or "Temporary Outposts" -- Is There a Difference?
(c) Grab more hills, expand the territory by Henry Siegman
Bassam Aramin
(a) I am Bassam Aramin by Rami Elhanan
(b) Bassam's letter to the Israeli TV: So Sad
The Next War
US Politics
(a) The senator, his pastor and the Israel lobby by Ali Abunimah
(b) The Strange Case of Robert Malley by Gershom Gorenberg
(c) Dozens of Jewish Super-Delegates May Hold Key to Democratic Race by Jennifer Siegel
(d) The new dovish Jewish lobby, an item in Rosner's blog
Human Rights
(a) Mossawa Center releases Racism Report
(b) High Court ruling closes off Route 443 to Palestinians by Akiva Eldar
(c) Israel: End Systematic Bias Against Bedouin says Human Rights Watch
Whose state or states?
(a) One State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism by Jonathan Cook
(b) One State or Two? by Mick Dumper
(c) Death to the Arabs by Uri Avnery
Settlements
(a) Olmert and Settlements: Lofty Goals Betrayed by Actions on the Ground by Geoffrey Aronson of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, Feb-Mar 2008
"In stark contrast to Olmert's rhetoric, however, the settlement machine grinds on. Many Israelis and others are now asking whether Olmert means what he says when he voices a need to end occupation, evacuate settlements, and agree to the creation of a Palestinian state."
Full report at http://fmep.org/reports/vol18/no2/01_olmert_and_settlements.html
(b) Permanent Settlements or "Temporary Outposts" -- Is There a Difference?
Settlement Report | Vol. 18 No. 1 | January-February 2008 at http://fmep.org/reports/vol18/no1/06_Permanent_Outposts.html
(c) Grab more hills, expand the territory by Henry Siegman, London Review of Books, 10 April 2008
An important review of two recently published books on the settlement enterprise: The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-77 by Gershom Gorenberg and Lords of the Land: The War over Israel's Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007 by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar
"These books give the lie to the carefully cultivated narrative that has sustained the occupation. According to that narrative, the government of Israel offered peace to the Palestinians and to its Arab neighbours in the aftermath of the war of 1967 if they would agree to recognise the Jewish state. But at a meeting of the Arab League in Khartoum on 1 September 1967, the Arab world responded with 'the three "no"s of Khartoum': no peace, no recognition and no negotiations. This left Israel no choice but to continue to occupy Palestinian lands. Had Palestinians not resorted to violence in resisting the occupation, the story goes, they would have had a state of their own a long time ago. The story is a lie."
Full review at http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n07/sieg01_.html
Bassam Aramin
(a) I am Bassam Aramin by Rami Elhanan, Common Ground News Service, 27 March 2008
Rami Elhanan is the father of Smadar, who was killed in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in September, 1997. Bassam Aramin is a co-founder of Combatants for Peace. His daughter Abir was killed leaving school on 9 February 2007.
This report provides a moving account of Rami's trip to Warsaw with Bassam - except that Bassam was not allowed to ravel because he is a Palestinian. Rami also recalls the curious behaviour of the Israeli ambassador: "He stands and takes the single microphone, and everyone, including the Palestinian ambassador, sits admonished like disobedient children, listening to the words of His Lordship."
And then Rami Elhanan speaks: "That same morning, across from the remains of the Warsaw ghetto wall, I had asked myself how I, as a Jew, as an Israeli and as a human, could express my feelings about Bassam's loss. Then, I was not able to come to any conclusion. And now, in a split-second decision, I said to those assembled at the screening, "I am Bassam Aramin! I represent here the missing character of this brave and noble combatant for peace."
I told them that the fact that Palestinians are missing from nearly every international forum that speaks about the conflict is a source of embarrassment. I said that this absent bereaved father, this ex-prisoner who chose the path of reconciliation and peace, is a powerful voice against the glaring injustice that continues to assert that there is no one to talk with, that there is nothing to talk about, and that we should give up talking.
At that point, the ambassador assembled his bodyguards and left in a suitably royal huff..."
Full report at http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=22853&lan=en&sid=0&sp=0
(b) Nurit Peled writes:
There is going to be A play in Israel about Bassam Aramin, with actor Shlomo Vishinsky (bereaved Jewish father) as Bassam. In a morning talk show in the Israeli prime channel, Bassam and Shlomo were interviewed together but the talk was mostly about the courage of the actor to play 'an Arab' (with a wide consent of all but Bassam, that "it will not do in the Arab sector"). Bassam's daughter, Abir, was murdered in cold blood by an Israeli soldier last year at 10 years old. Bassam is a co-founder and activist of Combatants for Peace. At the end of the show, a photograph of Shlomo Vishinsky's son, fallen on duty as a soldier in Gaza. Not a photo of little Abir, who was neither a soldier nor a killer, just a frightened little girl who stood by her school's wall, hoping to escape the soldiers' attention, but in vain. She was shot in the head from a well-protected Jeep. No inquiry , trial or punishment will ever occur.
I attach Bassam's letter to the Israeli TV. A document of sadness and greatness.
Subject: So Sad
Hi there
My name Bassam Aramin, I want to say to you in RASHET, that I am very sad because I don't see my Abir's picture at your TV show during the interview with me and Mr. Shlomo Vishinski, I want to ask you when the Israeli media will have the courage to defend the humanity of the Palestinian children as children, equal to the Israeli children. Abir is a child and not a fighter or a warrior. I received a lot of emails which protest against your TV policy, not against me, because they know me. I respect my message and my self. Kids are kids according to me. I hope that you will change your mind one day, and understand that its our responsibility to fight against the occupation and the slavery.
Together we must put an end to our suffering.
All the best, and believe me the Palestinian Israeli conflict is more important than your other programs.
Bassam Aramin
The Next War by M.J.Rosenberg, March 28, 2008
M.J. Rosenberg assesses the possibilities for peace - and war - in his weekly column in IPF Friday, Washington, DC, | Issue # 361
"According to a report in Yedioth Achronoth this week, Israel's Emergency Economic Administration has produced a report about what the next Arab-Israeli war will look like. The report comes at a time when Israeli military and intelligence circles are expecting some sort of Hezbollah attack in response to the assassination of its leader, Imad Mughniyeh on February 12th. The report describes a 'reasonably grave' situation rather than a 'worst case scenario.' But it's quite bad enough. The Emergency Economic Administration predicts that the next war would last a month. There would be 'missile barrages hitting the greater Tel-Aviv area and other urban conglomerates, a total shut-down of Ben-Gurion Airport, roads bombed incessantly, nationwide power cuts for many hours and the collapse of the water supply. . . .' This is not the Iran nuclear nightmare scenario, the realization of which requires a technological breakthrough. It is rather an attack that could happen right now. So what is Israel doing about it? "
Full article at http://www.israelpolicyforum.org/display.cfm?rid=2591
US Politics
Something is moving in American politics. Below are four separate items which have appeared very recently, all relevant in one way or another to the Israel lobby.
(a) The senator, his pastor and the Israel lobby by Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 31 March 2008 Interesting comments on the role of Israel in American politics and the partisan role of the ADL, by Ali Abunimh, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada.
Article at http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9427.shtml
(b) The Strange Case of Robert Malley by Gershom Gorenberg, The American Prospect, 27 March 2008 The recent hounding of Barack Obama for the supposed anti-Israel stance of his informal adviser Robert Malley is just the most recent of the outsized attacks that have marked the Democratic primary. Full article at http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_strange_case_of_robert_malley
(c) Dozens of Jewish Super-Delegates May Hold Key to Democratic Race
by Jennifer Siegel, The Forward 20 March 2008
"According to a new survey conducted by the Forward, a disproportionately large share of the Democratic party’s super-delegates are Jewish. Many of them have declared their support for Hillary Clinton, accounting for more than 15% of her current backers."
Full article at http://www.forward.com/articles/12998/
(d) The new dovish Jewish lobby, an item in Rosner's blog, Haaretz 27 March 2008
"According to James Besser of the Jewish Week, the new dovish pro-Israel-pro-peace looby is ready to launch... Almost a year after reports of an 'alternative AIPAC' emerged in the middle of the Jewish political world, many of the same players are on the verge of announcing a revised initiative intended to get the message to politicians that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is not the only pro-Israel voice in town."
More at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerBlog.jhtml?itemNo=865078
Human Rights
(a) Mossawa Center releases Racism Report detailing over 169 cases , Haifa, 18 March 2008
The Mossawa Center released its annual Racism Report at a press conference in Nazareth today detailing 169 incidences of racism against Arab minority of Israel, including the killings of Arab citizens. In preparation for the report, Mossawa staff examined and detailed hundreds of reports of racism, in particular cases against Arab citizens. The report also deals with incidences of racism against refugees, labour immigrants and Jewish immigrants, especially Ethiopians. "Lack of indifference towards racism against Arabs leads to amplified racist events against marginalized Jewish groups," says Rabbi Gilad Kariv, associate director of the Israel Religious Action Center. "As a rabbi, I'm concerned by religious personalities that are involved in incitement. It's alarming that Rabbis who receive their salaries from the state budget speak against renting apartments to Arabs, and send inspectors to look for Arab workers in stores." The Mossawa Center, the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that works to promote equality for the Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel. Established in 1997, the Mossawa Center strives to improve the social, economic and political status of the Arab citizens of Israel, while preserving their national and cultural rights as Palestinians.
Full report at http://www.mossawacenter.org/default.php?lng=3&dp=2&fl=25&pg=1
(b) High Court ruling closes off Route 443 to Palestinians by Akiva Eldar, Ha'aretz 20 March 2008
The interim decision issued 10 days ago by the High Court of Justice on the use of Route 443 marks the first time the justices have issued a ruling to close a road traversing occupied territory to Palestinian use, for the convenience of Israeli travelers... ACRI officials say they fear the High Court stamp of app