By Frank Schaeffer
"Huffington Post" - -Some of the nuttiest American religious leaders today (and in the past) have latched on to one form or another of Christian Zionism. These days Reverend John Hagee (pastor of a mega church with thousands of members in Houston) is a leading Far Right Evangelical and ardent fan of Israeli expansion into the disputed West Bank.
And the bestselling books of the Left Behind series of novels have fed the Evangelicals' fixation on End Times prophecy and the "imminent" return of Christ. To put it mildly, the Evangelical theological/biblical "reasons" have deformed US policy and made America act against its self interest. This has also harmed the state of Israel.
Here's a story in the New York Times that handily illustrates the price both America and Israel pay for allowing Evangelical mythology to inform, or should I say deform, US foreign policy.
According to the New York Times, "Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements in West Bank" (July 6, 2010), evangelical fans of the Apocalypse are hock deep in aiding and abetting illegal settlements while our government looks the other way!
HAR BRACHA, West Bank -- Twice a year, American evangelicals show up at a winery in this Jewish settlement in the hills of ancient Samaria to play a direct role in biblical prophecy, picking grapes and pruning vines.
Believing that Christian help for Jewish winemakers here in the occupied West Bank foretells Christ's second coming, they are recruited by a Tennessee-based charity called HaYovel that invites volunteers "to labor side by side with the people of Israel" and "to share with them a passion for the soon coming jubilee in Yeshua, messiah."
...
"Israel exists because of a covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 3,500 years ago -- and that covenant still stands," Mr. Hagee thundered. "World leaders do not have the authority to tell Israel and the Jewish people what they can and cannot do in the city of Jerusalem."
Conflict, Armageddon and the "End Times" is the Christian-Zionist agenda, not helping a child in Tel Aviv or Gaza live happily, have a normal life and walk to school safely. The Evangelicals who "love" the state of Israel would rather see an innocent Jewish or Palestinian child blown up in a rocket attack as long as the "Promised Land" is "fully reclaimed" to fulfill their harebrained ideas of biblical prophecy. With "friends" like the Christian Zionists Israel needs no enemies. With "citizens" like the Evangelicals rooting for Armageddon, America needs no traitors.
Hold the emails! The state of Israel has every much as a right to exist as countries like the United States, New Zealand and Australia where the land was also (relatively recently) forcibly taken from the previous occupants. And yes, Israel suffers from slander from many hypocrites in the world (Arab and otherwise).
That said, American Evangelicals have an unhealthy affinity with the idea of religion-based states. A bedrock article of faith among American Evangelicals is that America had "Christian origins," and that today America must be "restored" to our "Christian heritage." The "Puritan heritage" of America is constantly cited as evidence for our need to "return" to our biblical roots. (In order to "fulfill Biblical prophecy," so-called "Dispensationalists" have been working to ensure that the world's Jews return to Israel and occupy all of Palestine. Dispensationalists have been leading "pilgrims" to Israel ever since since Pastor Jerry Falwell's first visit in order to win financial and political support for the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.)
As I discuss in my book Crazy For God Puritans believed that they were carrying "authentic Christianity" to America, especially as written in the Old Testament. They said that they were on a divine mission, even called themselves; "the New Israel" and a "city set upon a hill." John Winthrop (governor of Massachusetts Bay) transferred the idea of "nationhood" in biblical Israel to the Massachusetts Bay Company. Puritans even said the Bible confirmed their status as the New Israel!
It is no coincidence that the self-consciously religious states of the Middle East are in perpetual conflict with other equally religion-based countries, for instance Islamic states like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia (that postures as the keeper of Islam) and Iran are in perpetual conflict with Israel the Jewish homeland. And it's no coincidence that America has paid dearly in blood and treasure in one Middle Eastern-incited and/or actual military entanglement after another because of our theology-based relationship with the state of Israel as well as our meddling in the affairs of the Islamic states like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.
What would you expect but conflict when modernity tangles with Bronze Age tribalism that's been given a biblical Evangelical "End Times" twist?!
As the Times story illustrates, Evangelical hardliners have a "prophetic" agenda when pushing Israel to keep all the West Bank and to be "tough on the Palestinians" that has nothing to do with what might bring peace (let alone justice) to the actual Jews and actual Arabs who are fated to be neighbors. Gleeful -- shamefully tax-deductible -- war mongering in the name of Jesus and/or "protecting Israel" -- from a safe distance, say from Houston! -- has everything to do with Evangelicals' ideas about what will hasten the "return of Christ" and nothing to do with what is actually good for the Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs, let alone the rest of us who long for peace.
Is international solidarity a hoax?
Revolutionary Fesenjan
I encountered a question today, should we believe that leftists must be active in the campaign against Sekineh Ashtiani's stoning or execution? and would such campaign be inherently imperialist?"
If campaigning for Sakineh in the US might be an imperialist act then what would happen to the concept of international solidarity? Is international solidarity an imperialist act unless it's set against some kind of imperialist power? Is it only related to the gender of Sakineh that international solidarity with her case should be cautioned since imperialists are interested in using women's domestic issues to "justify" attacking them with bombs? Or would supporting Reza Shahabi, Mansour Osanloo, Madadi, and all other imprisoned Iranian unionists be an imperialist act since it's somehow criticizing IR's mistreatment of Iranian workers and imperialist states might possibly (mis)use that info? So, when worker activists are in jail, should leftists go silent, not raise awareness, and possibly come up with some propaganda to cover up and distort the story so that imperialist states do not misuse the suffering of the workers in their own advantage? What is the difference between people being oppressed by their own government vs. by the imperialist states? Maybe one would say that in the case of Iran, the latter (like a war against Iran) would cause way more suffering to people than the former. But I think both internal and external oppression are somehow interconnected. I don't think going silent to internal oppression would decrease the risk of getting oppressed by the imperialist states as people will be disempowered by the brutality imposed on them by their own government and consequently may become more susceptible to imperialist states' oppression.
How can an imprisoned Iranian, who actually happens to be a hardcore anti-imperialist, oppose imperialism when s/he is in jail? How can workers of Iran join the workers in the US, Afghanistan, Iraq, Canada, etc. to oppose war and economic sanctions against Iran when they are denied the right to have a union and to organize? Then how can leftists justify not standing next to them in their struggle for such rights-- leftists claiming that they are busy fighting imperialism for them? How can Iranians stand against imperialism in a climate of fear exemplified by the government's stoning of a woman? I mean that the process of domestic empowerment should be as strongly supported as is the opposition to imperialism. I honestly can't see how a principled activist can disregard Iranian people get smashed to pieces by domestic violence, and s/he justifies her/his indifference by fighting imperialism for Iranian people in a paternalist fashion. Do such activists think justice and democracy are too fancy for the people of Iran and fighting imperialism is a good enough agenda for those who father them? Or does it make such activists or commentators feel "macho and strong" to fight for Iranian people against the big bullies but don't feel that way when stand against the government of a poor country who happen to be on the US bad guys' list? An example of such commentators is a blogger that I would call X to avoid making it personal. The only time X supports Iranian people is when s/he is opposing US or Israel's threats of war against Iranian people (standing against Israel or the US must make such commentators feel like a big body-builder), in other cases of Iranian people's suffering X would either bash/insult Iranians or whistles while pretending that nothing is happening to Iranian people in their country.
Link: revolutionaryfesenjan.blogspot.com/2010/07/is-international-solidarity-hoax.html
I encountered a question today, should we believe that leftists must be active in the campaign against Sekineh Ashtiani's stoning or execution? and would such campaign be inherently imperialist?"
If campaigning for Sakineh in the US might be an imperialist act then what would happen to the concept of international solidarity? Is international solidarity an imperialist act unless it's set against some kind of imperialist power? Is it only related to the gender of Sakineh that international solidarity with her case should be cautioned since imperialists are interested in using women's domestic issues to "justify" attacking them with bombs? Or would supporting Reza Shahabi, Mansour Osanloo, Madadi, and all other imprisoned Iranian unionists be an imperialist act since it's somehow criticizing IR's mistreatment of Iranian workers and imperialist states might possibly (mis)use that info? So, when worker activists are in jail, should leftists go silent, not raise awareness, and possibly come up with some propaganda to cover up and distort the story so that imperialist states do not misuse the suffering of the workers in their own advantage? What is the difference between people being oppressed by their own government vs. by the imperialist states? Maybe one would say that in the case of Iran, the latter (like a war against Iran) would cause way more suffering to people than the former. But I think both internal and external oppression are somehow interconnected. I don't think going silent to internal oppression would decrease the risk of getting oppressed by the imperialist states as people will be disempowered by the brutality imposed on them by their own government and consequently may become more susceptible to imperialist states' oppression.
How can an imprisoned Iranian, who actually happens to be a hardcore anti-imperialist, oppose imperialism when s/he is in jail? How can workers of Iran join the workers in the US, Afghanistan, Iraq, Canada, etc. to oppose war and economic sanctions against Iran when they are denied the right to have a union and to organize? Then how can leftists justify not standing next to them in their struggle for such rights-- leftists claiming that they are busy fighting imperialism for them? How can Iranians stand against imperialism in a climate of fear exemplified by the government's stoning of a woman? I mean that the process of domestic empowerment should be as strongly supported as is the opposition to imperialism. I honestly can't see how a principled activist can disregard Iranian people get smashed to pieces by domestic violence, and s/he justifies her/his indifference by fighting imperialism for Iranian people in a paternalist fashion. Do such activists think justice and democracy are too fancy for the people of Iran and fighting imperialism is a good enough agenda for those who father them? Or does it make such activists or commentators feel "macho and strong" to fight for Iranian people against the big bullies but don't feel that way when stand against the government of a poor country who happen to be on the US bad guys' list? An example of such commentators is a blogger that I would call X to avoid making it personal. The only time X supports Iranian people is when s/he is opposing US or Israel's threats of war against Iranian people (standing against Israel or the US must make such commentators feel like a big body-builder), in other cases of Iranian people's suffering X would either bash/insult Iranians or whistles while pretending that nothing is happening to Iranian people in their country.
Link: revolutionaryfesenjan.blogspot.com/2010/07/is-international-solidarity-hoax.html
We shall be as dreamers
The Palestinians' starting position is better than ours: They have fulfilled most of their obligations under the road map peace plan, while we have not removed even one of the illegal outposts we were supposed to dismantle.By Yossi Sarid
This column joins in the call: Let's have proximity talks. For the talks are close, but the proximity is far off.
It is not by chance that Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refrained from responding to the questions of the mediator who, had he not identified himself as the representative of a great power, would be suspected of loitering. Why reply, as long as it is possible to put him off with empty verbiage, and every delay is for the best?
In order to live for the moment and forfeit eternity, Netanyahu will never tire of searching for a new pretext for treading water. He will search every dark corner with candles, which are soon liable to turn into memorial candles.
First he made progress conditional on the Palestinians agreeing to recognize the Jewish state - as if Israel's existence depended on what they say, as if anyone but the person concerned can define his right to exist and his identity. Then he made it conditional on an end to violence: Let the terror stop, and then we'll talk. Now, we have his demand for direct negotiations.
Grant Netanyahu his wish, since he has promised to surprise everyone and sign an agreement within a year. Let the miracle happen, and we shall be as dreamers.
And indeed, a miracle is called for. The talks this time will be more complex than ever before, since everything has turned upside down.
This time, the Palestinians are the ones who will demand that Israel stop the terror, perpetrated by the cursed inhabitants of the Har Bracha settlement. Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad have succeeded where Netanyahu and Ehud Barak have failed.
The Palestinian Authority dealt with the terrorists in their territory and overcame them; it imposed law and order in the West Bank. The government of Israel, in contrast, has been defeated by the abominable hilltop youths of Yitzhar, who this week once again crawled out of their caves to set a "price tag," burning field after field.
And if the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service insist on their own contribution to the current quiet, the Palestinian security services are hereby invited to offer their help. Perhaps they, with their proven experience, can manage to catch the torchers of mosques who still walk free and the rabbis who incite to murder by basing themselves on Jewish religious law. A revolving door is better than a door that never closes on these Israeli pogromists.
The Palestinians' starting position is better than ours: They have fulfilled most of their obligations under the road map peace plan, while we have not removed even one of the illegal outposts we were supposed to dismantle. Moreover, they may demand at the outset that we put an end to the incitement against Israeli Arabs and their elected representatives and annul the racist laws the Knesset has recently been approving so lavishly.
Netanyahu is incarcerated in the jail of his coalition and fettered with the chains of his parental home. The cards he is holding close to his chest are bits of paper on which he has written the main points of speeches like the one he gave at Bar-Ilan University.
In two months' time, the momentum of construction in the settlements will be resumed - and this, too, is a kind of violence. And the roar of the bulldozers will shake the negotiating table.
At that point, the international community will have to figure out how to digest the goose it cooked for itself. America will have to decide how to handle Netanyahu: with the stick of Election Day or the stick of D-Day. The Palestinians will have to decide whether to switch to unilateral moves or continue moaning about their bad luck.
And we, the citizens of Israel, will have to consider the new proposal by the priests of the right - establishing a binational state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Perhaps that is the way - the last road of the Zionist enterprise. Perhaps the time has come to begin saying the "Hear O Israel" prayer that one recites before dying.
This column joins in the call: Let's have proximity talks. For the talks are close, but the proximity is far off.
It is not by chance that Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refrained from responding to the questions of the mediator who, had he not identified himself as the representative of a great power, would be suspected of loitering. Why reply, as long as it is possible to put him off with empty verbiage, and every delay is for the best?
In order to live for the moment and forfeit eternity, Netanyahu will never tire of searching for a new pretext for treading water. He will search every dark corner with candles, which are soon liable to turn into memorial candles.
First he made progress conditional on the Palestinians agreeing to recognize the Jewish state - as if Israel's existence depended on what they say, as if anyone but the person concerned can define his right to exist and his identity. Then he made it conditional on an end to violence: Let the terror stop, and then we'll talk. Now, we have his demand for direct negotiations.
Grant Netanyahu his wish, since he has promised to surprise everyone and sign an agreement within a year. Let the miracle happen, and we shall be as dreamers.
And indeed, a miracle is called for. The talks this time will be more complex than ever before, since everything has turned upside down.
This time, the Palestinians are the ones who will demand that Israel stop the terror, perpetrated by the cursed inhabitants of the Har Bracha settlement. Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad have succeeded where Netanyahu and Ehud Barak have failed.
The Palestinian Authority dealt with the terrorists in their territory and overcame them; it imposed law and order in the West Bank. The government of Israel, in contrast, has been defeated by the abominable hilltop youths of Yitzhar, who this week once again crawled out of their caves to set a "price tag," burning field after field.
And if the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service insist on their own contribution to the current quiet, the Palestinian security services are hereby invited to offer their help. Perhaps they, with their proven experience, can manage to catch the torchers of mosques who still walk free and the rabbis who incite to murder by basing themselves on Jewish religious law. A revolving door is better than a door that never closes on these Israeli pogromists.
The Palestinians' starting position is better than ours: They have fulfilled most of their obligations under the road map peace plan, while we have not removed even one of the illegal outposts we were supposed to dismantle. Moreover, they may demand at the outset that we put an end to the incitement against Israeli Arabs and their elected representatives and annul the racist laws the Knesset has recently been approving so lavishly.
Netanyahu is incarcerated in the jail of his coalition and fettered with the chains of his parental home. The cards he is holding close to his chest are bits of paper on which he has written the main points of speeches like the one he gave at Bar-Ilan University.
In two months' time, the momentum of construction in the settlements will be resumed - and this, too, is a kind of violence. And the roar of the bulldozers will shake the negotiating table.
At that point, the international community will have to figure out how to digest the goose it cooked for itself. America will have to decide how to handle Netanyahu: with the stick of Election Day or the stick of D-Day. The Palestinians will have to decide whether to switch to unilateral moves or continue moaning about their bad luck.
And we, the citizens of Israel, will have to consider the new proposal by the priests of the right - establishing a binational state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Perhaps that is the way - the last road of the Zionist enterprise. Perhaps the time has come to begin saying the "Hear O Israel" prayer that one recites before dying.
Why Muslims Should Rethink Palestine
By Ramzy Baroud
Thousands of faithful assiduously listened as I outlined the challenges facing Palestine and its people. Cries of 'Allahu Akbar’ – God is Great – occasionally resounded from a corner of the giant South African mosque. Many whimpered as I described the tragedy that had befallen Gaza as a result of the Israeli siege. They cheered, smiled and nodded as I emphasized how the will of the Palestinian people would not be defeated. A few older people at the front simply wept throughout my talk, which preceded a Friday sermon in Durban a few months ago.
If passion and kindness were powerful in and of themselves, then the compassion that poured from those Muslim faithful could surely better the world in a myriad ways. The sheer love and concern displayed by men and women of different races, age groups, class affiliation and languages was most uplifting and validating.
As a collective, Palestine and its struggle for freedom and justice is closer to the hearts and minds of Muslims all over the world than any other group I have reached out to. To garner support among Muslims, one is never obligated to make a case, to justify, or to respond to accusations heralded from left and right. Needless to say, Muslim affinity to Palestine is historic, based on Islamic principles articulated in the Holy Quran and the Sunnah (the legacy of Prophet Mohammed).
But over time, something went astray. While the sentiment remained strong, there was little unity in the way in which the energy was harnessed, or the consensus galvanized. In their attempts to reach out to Muslims, many manipulated the genuine feelings of ordinary Muslims for personal, political, ideological and even financial reasons. Various Muslim leaders, organizations, and individuals presented a limited understanding of the situation in Palestine, and offered an exclusivist roadmap as to how the agonizing conflict could be resolved.
The result was most disappointing. There was no clear strategy, no attempt at relevance, and no tangible difference to be yielded from the support of hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide.
In a way, such failure is symptomatic of a much greater ailment that has long befallen Muslims. After the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the concept of Muslim Ummah (nation) – demarcated by real spatial and political lines – was replaced by references to a nation that existed within indefinable intellectual boundaries. This concept was shrewdly patronized by various Arab and Muslim leaders throughout history, who insisted that they - and they alone - represented the political centrality of that impalpable Muslim body. Therefore, owing to the centrality of the Palestinian cause to Islam, these leaders also adopted the Palestinian cause as there own, even if that relationship remained confined to fiery speeches and heart-rendering Friday sermons.
In other words, Palestine, for many Muslims existed as part of a collective imagination, solidified with unifying symbols such as al-Aqsa Mosque, and references to specific verses in the Holy Quran. Such tactics worked wonders, as helpless but fervent Muslims donated generously, or chanted the name of whomever posed as the savior of the 'Islamic land of Palestine’ and its holy mosque.
Ultimately that rapport yielded three distinct groups. The first group is largely content with the mere designation of Palestine as a 'Muslim cause’, which they can serve through the occasional donation and regular supplication for Muslim victory in Palestine. Another group comprises those who have grown cynical of the mainstream Muslim interpretation of Palestine, and who have become increasingly radicalized and isolated. The third group is completely disenchanted, and thus removed.
Predictably, none of these groups was affectively involved in contributing to a long-term strategy of bringing the Israeli occupation to an end, or to empowering the Palestinian people in their resistant to achieve such an outcome.
Meanwhile, the Second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) of 2000 defined and successfully galvanized a growing international movement around Palestine. In this movement, Muslims, as a group, were no longer a primary contributor. There were a few resulting gains, such as depriving Israel and its allies from reducing the conflict to that of religious war, with Israel naturally serving the role of the bulwark of Judeo-Christian values. But there was also much to lose, as millions of ardently passionate supporters of the Palestinian cause reverted to their role of mass protest, flag-burning and angry chanting. That image too, was cleverly manipulated, especially after September 11, to link Palestine to Muslim extremism. Many were driven to believe that every bearded Muslim was somehow linked to al-Qaeda.
The rise of Hamas as a political power in the Palestinian elections of 2006 once again reaffirmed the Muslim relevance to Palestine. Hamas’ attempt at exploring its 'strategic depth’ by reaching out to Muslim countries did not translate into the desired political gains, but it did enliven the more or less dormant Muslim link to Palestine and to the conflict as a whole. More, thanks to Hamas’ ability to impress itself as a long-term actor in the conflict, some Muslims outside Palestine began exchanging sentimentalities with real political language. Meanwhile, many Muslim communities tried to find practical platforms to express their solidarity and to aid the Palestinian people, with Gaza representing the primary rally cry.
Unfortunately, some resorted to the same exclusivist language of the past, itself rich in religious positivism. This may not always be intentional, but it is likely to weaken international solidarity, or, at best, relegate Muslim relevance to a group of people whose link to Palestine is merely religious.
At this advanced stage of the solidarity, which shows Palestine once again at the top of international agenda – including in civil societies around the world – Muslims must redefine their link to Palestine, based on the values and principles reflected in Islam. But they must also present it in universally shared ideal, speaking a unified and unifying language. While they must proudly embrace their symbols, they should also understand that the fight is one for freedoms and rights, and not specific corporeal locations.
Muslims must stand, hand in hand, with people from all different backgrounds, not as exclusive owners of the Palestinian struggle, but as proud contributors to a global movement that wishes to ensure that justice is served, rights are attained and peace for all is realized.
- Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto Press, London), now available on Amazon.com
Thousands of faithful assiduously listened as I outlined the challenges facing Palestine and its people. Cries of 'Allahu Akbar’ – God is Great – occasionally resounded from a corner of the giant South African mosque. Many whimpered as I described the tragedy that had befallen Gaza as a result of the Israeli siege. They cheered, smiled and nodded as I emphasized how the will of the Palestinian people would not be defeated. A few older people at the front simply wept throughout my talk, which preceded a Friday sermon in Durban a few months ago.
If passion and kindness were powerful in and of themselves, then the compassion that poured from those Muslim faithful could surely better the world in a myriad ways. The sheer love and concern displayed by men and women of different races, age groups, class affiliation and languages was most uplifting and validating.
As a collective, Palestine and its struggle for freedom and justice is closer to the hearts and minds of Muslims all over the world than any other group I have reached out to. To garner support among Muslims, one is never obligated to make a case, to justify, or to respond to accusations heralded from left and right. Needless to say, Muslim affinity to Palestine is historic, based on Islamic principles articulated in the Holy Quran and the Sunnah (the legacy of Prophet Mohammed).
But over time, something went astray. While the sentiment remained strong, there was little unity in the way in which the energy was harnessed, or the consensus galvanized. In their attempts to reach out to Muslims, many manipulated the genuine feelings of ordinary Muslims for personal, political, ideological and even financial reasons. Various Muslim leaders, organizations, and individuals presented a limited understanding of the situation in Palestine, and offered an exclusivist roadmap as to how the agonizing conflict could be resolved.
The result was most disappointing. There was no clear strategy, no attempt at relevance, and no tangible difference to be yielded from the support of hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide.
In a way, such failure is symptomatic of a much greater ailment that has long befallen Muslims. After the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the concept of Muslim Ummah (nation) – demarcated by real spatial and political lines – was replaced by references to a nation that existed within indefinable intellectual boundaries. This concept was shrewdly patronized by various Arab and Muslim leaders throughout history, who insisted that they - and they alone - represented the political centrality of that impalpable Muslim body. Therefore, owing to the centrality of the Palestinian cause to Islam, these leaders also adopted the Palestinian cause as there own, even if that relationship remained confined to fiery speeches and heart-rendering Friday sermons.
In other words, Palestine, for many Muslims existed as part of a collective imagination, solidified with unifying symbols such as al-Aqsa Mosque, and references to specific verses in the Holy Quran. Such tactics worked wonders, as helpless but fervent Muslims donated generously, or chanted the name of whomever posed as the savior of the 'Islamic land of Palestine’ and its holy mosque.
Ultimately that rapport yielded three distinct groups. The first group is largely content with the mere designation of Palestine as a 'Muslim cause’, which they can serve through the occasional donation and regular supplication for Muslim victory in Palestine. Another group comprises those who have grown cynical of the mainstream Muslim interpretation of Palestine, and who have become increasingly radicalized and isolated. The third group is completely disenchanted, and thus removed.
Predictably, none of these groups was affectively involved in contributing to a long-term strategy of bringing the Israeli occupation to an end, or to empowering the Palestinian people in their resistant to achieve such an outcome.
Meanwhile, the Second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) of 2000 defined and successfully galvanized a growing international movement around Palestine. In this movement, Muslims, as a group, were no longer a primary contributor. There were a few resulting gains, such as depriving Israel and its allies from reducing the conflict to that of religious war, with Israel naturally serving the role of the bulwark of Judeo-Christian values. But there was also much to lose, as millions of ardently passionate supporters of the Palestinian cause reverted to their role of mass protest, flag-burning and angry chanting. That image too, was cleverly manipulated, especially after September 11, to link Palestine to Muslim extremism. Many were driven to believe that every bearded Muslim was somehow linked to al-Qaeda.
The rise of Hamas as a political power in the Palestinian elections of 2006 once again reaffirmed the Muslim relevance to Palestine. Hamas’ attempt at exploring its 'strategic depth’ by reaching out to Muslim countries did not translate into the desired political gains, but it did enliven the more or less dormant Muslim link to Palestine and to the conflict as a whole. More, thanks to Hamas’ ability to impress itself as a long-term actor in the conflict, some Muslims outside Palestine began exchanging sentimentalities with real political language. Meanwhile, many Muslim communities tried to find practical platforms to express their solidarity and to aid the Palestinian people, with Gaza representing the primary rally cry.
Unfortunately, some resorted to the same exclusivist language of the past, itself rich in religious positivism. This may not always be intentional, but it is likely to weaken international solidarity, or, at best, relegate Muslim relevance to a group of people whose link to Palestine is merely religious.
At this advanced stage of the solidarity, which shows Palestine once again at the top of international agenda – including in civil societies around the world – Muslims must redefine their link to Palestine, based on the values and principles reflected in Islam. But they must also present it in universally shared ideal, speaking a unified and unifying language. While they must proudly embrace their symbols, they should also understand that the fight is one for freedoms and rights, and not specific corporeal locations.
Muslims must stand, hand in hand, with people from all different backgrounds, not as exclusive owners of the Palestinian struggle, but as proud contributors to a global movement that wishes to ensure that justice is served, rights are attained and peace for all is realized.
- Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto Press, London), now available on Amazon.com
Israel destroys a whole Negev Village – 200 Children left Homeless
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Destruction implemented though land ownership still pending in court Early this morning police raided the unrecognized Bedouin village of al-Arakib in the Negev, destroyed all 40 of its houses, and evicted more than 300 residents. The residents, mostly children, were left homeless. The unprecedented raid began at about 4:30 in the morning, residents were surprised to wake up surrounded by a huge force of 1,500 police with guns, stun grenades, helmets and shields, including hundreds of Special Riot Police (Yasam) as well as mounted police, helicopters and bulldozers. At the residents’ call, dozens of left-wing activists and volunteers arrived from all over the country, helping them to offer non-violent resistance. Several residents were bruised and beaten by police, thjough not needing medical attention. One woman demonstrator was detained by the police. The police removed the residents’ property into prepared containers, and bulldozers demolished the residential buildings and sheepfolds and destroyed the residents’ fruit orchards and olive tree groves. The villagers, mostly children and old people, were left stunned near the destroyed village, shelterless and waterless under the blazing sun The destruction of the village was carried out despite dispute over ownership of the land still pending in the courts. Residents of al-Arakib are neither squatters nor invaders: their village has existed many years before the creation of Israel in 1948. Residents had been evicted by the state in 1951, but returned to the land on which they live and which they cultivate. Ownership of the land is now the subject of proceedings in the Be’er Sheva District Court, where academic researchers have already testified in confirmation of the residents’ ownership right in the land. http://www.haaretz.co.il/ The destruction’s declared aim is to facilitate plans by the Jewish National Fund to plant a wood on the site. We regard this demolition as a criminal act. Bedouin citizens of Israel are not enemies, and forestation of the Negev is not a reasonable pretext for destroying a community which is more than 60 years old, dispossessing its residents, and violating the basic rights of hundreds of Israeli civilians, men, women and children. This act by the state authorities is no "law enforcement" – it is a act of war, such as is undertaken against an enemy. This act cannot be dissociated from yesterday’s statement by Prime Minister Netanyahu, who at the cabinet meeting sounded a warning about "a situation in which a demand for national rights will be made from some quarters inside Israel, for example in the Negev, should the area be left without a Jewish majority. Such things happened in the Balkans, and it is a real threat." Presenting the Bedouin citizens of Israel as "a real threat" gives legitimacy to the expulsion of Israel’s Bedouin citizens from the Negev in order to "Judaize" it. We call on all who care for democracy to give their support to this threatened community. Source: Haaretz.co |
Villagers Rebuild Razed Bedouin Village
Providence Knolls and Tania Kepler for the Alternative Information Center (AIC)
One day after Israeli authorities razed the Bedouin village of el Araqib, village residents joined with Palestinian, Israeli and international volunteers to rebuild the village.
"We successfully rebuilt all the structures and tents destroyed, noted Dr. Awad Abu Freih, spokesperson of the el Araqib village and member of the el Araqib Popular Committee and the Arab Education Forum in the Negev. In a conversation with the AIC, Dr. Abu Freih stated that the residents of el Araqib "plan on building more than what was destroyed, in an attempt to prevent future demolitions."
Over 300 Bedouins, mainly children, were forcefully removed from their village Tuesday morning (27 July) as they watched the Israeli police destroy their homes and property. The raid began at about 4:30 in the morning and residents woke up surrounded by a huge force of 1,500 police with guns, stun grenades, helmets and shields, including hundreds of Special Riot Police as well as mounted police, helicopters and bulldozers.
Despite being unrecognized by Israel, the village of el Araqib has existed since before the creation of Israel in 1948. Bedouin residents were evicted by the newly declared Israeli state in 1951, but returned to the land on which they live and where they cultivate. Ownership of the land is now the subject of proceedings in the Be'er Sheva District Court.
Dr. Abu Freih calls on internationals to help the Bedouins of El-Araqib in their struggle for survival to remain in their village. He states that they are currently in need of “everything,” from money to visits to media attention. He encourages anyone interested to speak to the villagers and spend the day or night with them.
Dr. Yeela Raanan of the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages urges fundraising efforts to raise much-needed money to rebuild the destroyed homes and recultivate the devastated land. Dr. Raanan emphasizes that the residents also need to know that they are not alone in this battle, explaining that the more support people will show them, the more strength they will have to remain firm in their resistance.
Dr. Raanan notes that the sole just solution to this issue is to simply allow the residents to remain on their property, grant them their land rights, and allow them access to their land resources. She urges Europeans and Americans in particular to demand that their governments recognize this issue of demolishing unrecognized villages and to pressure Israel into allowing the indigenous people access to their land.
A prayer ceremony open to the public will be taking place this Friday, July 30, at 11 AM in the village of El-Araqib.
. Contact Dr. Yeela Raanan for further details at +972 54 7487005 or yallylivnat@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Israeli activists have further planned a solidarity visit and voluntary work day for this coming Saturday, 31 July. For more details contact: manor12@zahav.net.il This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Dr. Awad Abu Freih concluded his conversation with the AIC by stating that “We want our voice to be heard around the world.”
For more information on how you can help, contact:
Dr. Awad Abu Freih: +972 (0) 52 2714020
Dr. Yeela Ranaan, Regional Council for the Unrecognised Villages (RCUV):
+972 (0)54 7487005; yallylivnat@gmail.com
Israeli data: Israel revoked residency of over 86,000 Jerusalemites since 1967
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) -- Official Israeli data obtained by the Jerusalem center for social and economic rights said Israel has deprived more than 86,000 Jerusalemite Palestinians of their residency rights in the holy city since it occupied the eastern side in 1967.
According to the center, the Israeli interior ministry revoked the residency of 721 Jerusalemites in 2009 and 108 others from the beginning of the current year to the sixth of June.
Based on these data, 14,371 Jerusalemite families composed of about 86,226 individuals have lost their residency permits since 1967.
However, director of the center Ziad Al-Hammouri questioned the validity of the figures and data provided by the interior ministry confirming that the numbers are much higher.
JCSER: “Hundreds of Palestinians Losing Residency Rights In Jerusalem”
The Jerusalem Center for Social and Economical Rights (JCSER) issued a report detailing the latest numbers of Palestinians who lost their residency rights in occupied East Jerusalem due to Israeli restrictions and measures.Two months ago, the center filed a request in this regard to the Israeli Interior Ministry and recently received a response regarding the number of Palestinian who lost residency rights since 2009 until June 6, 2010.
The Israeli Ministry revoked residency rights of 721 Palestinians, including 108 who lost this right since the beginning of this year until June 6. This means that a total of 829 Palestinians were stripped of their residency rights in 1.5 years.
The number of Palestinians who were stripped of their residency rights since Israel illegally captured and occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 until mid June 2010 has arrived to 86.226 (14371 families), while the year 2008 witnessed the largest number of Palestinians who were stripped of their residency rights.
Furthermore, Israel is ignoring and rejecting thousands of application of family unification and thousands of applications to register newborn Palestinians in the city.
The JCSER added that Israel only reinstated the residency rights of 95 Palestinians since the beginning of 2009 until July 6, 2010.
As for family reunification applications since 2009 until July 15 2010, a total of 1099 applications were filed and only 258 were approved in 2009 and only 22 in 2010. In the same period, Israel rejected 144 applications in 2009 and 12 this year so far,
while 631 applications are still under review.
Ziad Al Hammoury, head of the JCSER, said that the Israeli numbers are not accurate as the reality on the ground is much worse as it was portrayed by the Israeli list as hundreds of residents are being stripped of their residency rights in occupied East Jerusalem, hundreds of families are not granted family reunifications and not allowed to register their children as Jerusalem residents, while hundreds of Palestinians who study or work abroad were stripped of their ID cards at border terminals.
Al Hammoury added that Israel is still ongoing with this illegal policy and is escalating it, especially after its revoked residency rights of Jerusalem legislators and is trying to keep them out of the city.
But the issue, Al Hammoury said, is not only about the legislators as Israel revoked the residency rights of 4672 Palestinians in 2008 alone.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59189
The Israeli Ministry revoked residency rights of 721 Palestinians, including 108 who lost this right since the beginning of this year until June 6. This means that a total of 829 Palestinians were stripped of their residency rights in 1.5 years.
The number of Palestinians who were stripped of their residency rights since Israel illegally captured and occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 until mid June 2010 has arrived to 86.226 (14371 families), while the year 2008 witnessed the largest number of Palestinians who were stripped of their residency rights.
Furthermore, Israel is ignoring and rejecting thousands of application of family unification and thousands of applications to register newborn Palestinians in the city.
The JCSER added that Israel only reinstated the residency rights of 95 Palestinians since the beginning of 2009 until July 6, 2010.
As for family reunification applications since 2009 until July 15 2010, a total of 1099 applications were filed and only 258 were approved in 2009 and only 22 in 2010. In the same period, Israel rejected 144 applications in 2009 and 12 this year so far,
while 631 applications are still under review.
Ziad Al Hammoury, head of the JCSER, said that the Israeli numbers are not accurate as the reality on the ground is much worse as it was portrayed by the Israeli list as hundreds of residents are being stripped of their residency rights in occupied East Jerusalem, hundreds of families are not granted family reunifications and not allowed to register their children as Jerusalem residents, while hundreds of Palestinians who study or work abroad were stripped of their ID cards at border terminals.
Al Hammoury added that Israel is still ongoing with this illegal policy and is escalating it, especially after its revoked residency rights of Jerusalem legislators and is trying to keep them out of the city.
But the issue, Al Hammoury said, is not only about the legislators as Israel revoked the residency rights of 4672 Palestinians in 2008 alone.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59189
What's in a name? In a racist society, everything
Richard Irvine, The Electronic Intifada
Names have always been political. Throughout history different regimes have used naming as a means of racial or religious identification. In Nazi Germany a 1938 law obliged Jews to add Sara or Israel to their names so as to eliminate ethnic confusion. And in my own country, Northern Ireland, even without a law, a name could determine one's success in life.
Until comparatively recently many Catholic families I know chose Protestant Anglicized names so as their children could have a chance of escaping the discrimination inherent in the sectarian state. It rarely worked however, as there were always other ways one could tell someone's background. Indeed, even today most of us immediately conduct a sort of scan upon meeting a new acquaintance. If we can't tell by name then we move on to other questions like, "Where do you live?" or the clincher -- in a society where schools are largely segregated -- "What school did you go to?" This approach is not always successful but most times we can quite quickly classify who we think our new acquaintance is and how much we can reveal of ourselves to them.
Sad though most of you must think this is, for people of my generation it is an automatic but unfortunate hangover from hundreds of years of mutual suspicion. Thankfully however, never did we have someone convicted for rape on the basis that the woman had mistaken her sexual partner as being of the same religious group as herself. This is what happened in an Israeli court last week.
For those unfamiliar with the case the story goes like this. A young Jewish Israeli woman and a young Palestinian Jerusalemite had consensual sex. Afterwards, the Jewish woman discovered that her partner was in fact not Jewish at all, but horror of horror, a Palestinian. But there was more, the Palestinian had called himself "Dudu," his nickname, but one most often used by Israeli Jews, and from this the young woman concluded she had been deliberately deceived and in fact raped.
In our society of course, refusal to contemplate a relationship with a person from another ethnic or religious background is described and denounced as racism or bigotry. In Israel it is now protected by law. The court found that indeed the young Jewish woman had in fact been raped, not by force of course, but by name. Finding the Palestinian guilty, district court Judge Zvi Segal stated, "The court is obliged to protect the public interest from sophisticated, smooth-tongued criminals who can deceive innocent victims at an unbearable price -- the sanctity of their bodies and souls."
Sadly, this all has very worrying historical echoes. It hints back to the Apartheid and Jim Crow Laws which presupposed dangerous Blacks waiting to pounce on virginal Whites. It also conjures up the notorious images from the Nazi publication Der Sturmer of supposedly lecherous Jews trying to seduce young Aryan Germans, no doubt also at the unbearable price of the sanctity of their bodies and souls. In part it also shares the Nazi obsession with racial mixing and the naming policy Germany introduced to eliminate any possible confusion in ethnicity. Except perhaps Nazi policy was more honest. In the Nuremberg Laws Germany explicitly outlawed sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews; Israel does no such thing, it merely makes it a crime if sex takes place without the actors being fully aware of each other's background. Perhaps then Israel should take a leaf of out of Germany's 1938 naming law: every Muslim to have the name Muhammad attached; every Christian, Jesus. But it won't do that, after all, that is racist.
Richard Irvine teaches a course at Queen's University Belfast entitled "The Battle for Palestine" which explores the entire history of the conflict. Irvine has also worked voluntarily in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and taken part in olive planting and harvesting in the West Bank.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11432.shtml
Names have always been political. Throughout history different regimes have used naming as a means of racial or religious identification. In Nazi Germany a 1938 law obliged Jews to add Sara or Israel to their names so as to eliminate ethnic confusion. And in my own country, Northern Ireland, even without a law, a name could determine one's success in life.
Until comparatively recently many Catholic families I know chose Protestant Anglicized names so as their children could have a chance of escaping the discrimination inherent in the sectarian state. It rarely worked however, as there were always other ways one could tell someone's background. Indeed, even today most of us immediately conduct a sort of scan upon meeting a new acquaintance. If we can't tell by name then we move on to other questions like, "Where do you live?" or the clincher -- in a society where schools are largely segregated -- "What school did you go to?" This approach is not always successful but most times we can quite quickly classify who we think our new acquaintance is and how much we can reveal of ourselves to them.
Sad though most of you must think this is, for people of my generation it is an automatic but unfortunate hangover from hundreds of years of mutual suspicion. Thankfully however, never did we have someone convicted for rape on the basis that the woman had mistaken her sexual partner as being of the same religious group as herself. This is what happened in an Israeli court last week.
For those unfamiliar with the case the story goes like this. A young Jewish Israeli woman and a young Palestinian Jerusalemite had consensual sex. Afterwards, the Jewish woman discovered that her partner was in fact not Jewish at all, but horror of horror, a Palestinian. But there was more, the Palestinian had called himself "Dudu," his nickname, but one most often used by Israeli Jews, and from this the young woman concluded she had been deliberately deceived and in fact raped.
In our society of course, refusal to contemplate a relationship with a person from another ethnic or religious background is described and denounced as racism or bigotry. In Israel it is now protected by law. The court found that indeed the young Jewish woman had in fact been raped, not by force of course, but by name. Finding the Palestinian guilty, district court Judge Zvi Segal stated, "The court is obliged to protect the public interest from sophisticated, smooth-tongued criminals who can deceive innocent victims at an unbearable price -- the sanctity of their bodies and souls."
Sadly, this all has very worrying historical echoes. It hints back to the Apartheid and Jim Crow Laws which presupposed dangerous Blacks waiting to pounce on virginal Whites. It also conjures up the notorious images from the Nazi publication Der Sturmer of supposedly lecherous Jews trying to seduce young Aryan Germans, no doubt also at the unbearable price of the sanctity of their bodies and souls. In part it also shares the Nazi obsession with racial mixing and the naming policy Germany introduced to eliminate any possible confusion in ethnicity. Except perhaps Nazi policy was more honest. In the Nuremberg Laws Germany explicitly outlawed sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews; Israel does no such thing, it merely makes it a crime if sex takes place without the actors being fully aware of each other's background. Perhaps then Israel should take a leaf of out of Germany's 1938 naming law: every Muslim to have the name Muhammad attached; every Christian, Jesus. But it won't do that, after all, that is racist.
Richard Irvine teaches a course at Queen's University Belfast entitled "The Battle for Palestine" which explores the entire history of the conflict. Irvine has also worked voluntarily in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and taken part in olive planting and harvesting in the West Bank.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11432.shtml
IOF imposes complete closure on Iraq Burin village
Nablus, July 31, (Pal Telegraph) Israeli occupation forces imposed today morning a full closure on the village of ‘Iraq Burin’, south of Nablus in the northern of the West Bank, blocking entry to journalists and international activists and medical staff. Witnesses said that the Israeli forces erected a checkpoint at the entrance of the village and prevented medical personnel, journalists and foreign activists entry to the village.
Witnesses added that the Israeli occupation forces had told them that they declared the village as a “closed military zone”.
The Israeli occupation forces have closed ‘Iraq Burin’ every Saturday for nearly two months to prevent foreign and local peace activists from entering in the awake of the anti-settlement marches organized by the villagers.
The town of ‘Iraq Burin’, near Nablus, faces chronic stress due to the frequent exposure to frequent attacks by Israeli settlers during the last week, villagers expect more attacks yet to come.
Activists work to stop tax-exempt donations to Israeli settlements
Alice Speri, The Electronic Intifada,
As Israel's illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied West Bank continues to be a strain on US-Israel relations, an unflattering light is being shone on US private donations towards the development of the settlements that are increasingly encroaching on Palestinian land.
Most of the construction work in the settlements is in the hands of American, Canadian and European developers. Much of the money needed for settlement development comes from private American donations. It is estimated that tens of millions of dollars reach the settlements in the form of charity, contributions that by virtue of their philanthropic nature enjoy tax-exempt status under the US' Internal Revenue Code.
An examination by this writer of IRS documentation led to at least 32 organizations registered in the US as tax-exempt charities that support Jewish settlements in the West Bank including East Jerusalem with sizable financial contributions ("From New York to the West Bank: Following US Tax Dollars into Israel's Settlements"). The groups, mostly Jewish but also Christian-Zionist, often adopt a particular community of settlers and for the most part claim on their tax forms to be contributing to charitable or educational projects.
The non-profit status some of these groups enjoy as designated 501(c)(3) organizations under IRS regulations implies an official US government recognition of their activity.
Some civil rights activists argue that private American funding of the settlements, while not necessarily illegal, does contradict stated US foreign policy as well as the government's commitment against racial discrimination. But others have started to accuse organizations registered as 501(c)(3)s and supporting settlements of repeatedly violating US tax laws.
"The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," US President Obama said in his celebrated Cairo address to the Arab and Muslim world in June 2009. "This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop." Obama's statement echoed those of previous US administrations, which have alternated in calling Israeli settlements "illegitimate" and "unhelpful."
Last November, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to a ten-month settlement freeze -- with the exception of East Jerusalem -- in order to resume peace talks. In January 2010, however, he also announced that the Etzion settlement block, south of Jerusalem, "will be an inseparable part of the State of Israel for eternity." Several news outlets continue to report that construction has yet to stop even in areas where the Israeli government has mandated a freeze.
Meanwhile, US aid to Israel -- the billions of dollars per year from the government as well as private donations -- continues to flow unabated.
According to a July 2009 report by the International Crisis Group, the Hebron Fund rises an average of $1.5 million a year to support Jewish settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron. The 700 Jewish settlers in Hebron, under the protection of the Israeli army, routinely physically harass the Palestinian community in the West Bank town and push them out of their homes.
The solidarity group Adalah-NY, based in New York City, mobilized to protest the Hebron Fund annual fundraiser at the Mets baseball team's CitiField last year. While Adalah-NY and the ten other groups that mobilized against the fundraiser were not able to get it cancelled, the effort was only the beginning of a larger campaign against the flow of US dollars into Israeli settlements.
Born to a Canadian father and an Israeli mother, Neil Strauss, who goes by a pseudonym, grew up between Canada and Efrat, one of the largest settlements in the occupied West Bank. Today, Strauss is a legal researcher for the Washington-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and a supervisor of the Free Palestine subcommittee of the National Lawyers Guild, the nation's first racially integrated bar association, which is committed to civil rights and social justice.
Strauss runs workshops inviting volunteer law students to look for violations of tax regulation, rather than broader political questions of international law, although he does stress that settlements and settlements support are contrary to both international law and American public policy.
"The IRS is staffed by professional tax people and bureaucrats are less susceptible to Zionist political pressure than elected officials," he said, explaining that turning to the IRS is "easier than challenging support to Israel, which is a political issue."
Since March 2009, the ADC has filed official complaints to the IRS -- accompanied by copious documentary evidence -- exposing what it claims are illicit practices by ten of these organizations. They now hope the IRS will audit the organizations in question.
"The law is pretty clear," Strauss said. "If these laws were applied honestly, these organizations would not have tax exemption."
According to IRS regulations, in order to obtain 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, an organization must set forth "charitable, religious, or educational purposes," including "lessening neighborhood tensions, eliminating prejudice and discrimination, defending human and civil rights." The ADC argues settlements do just the opposite.
Furthermore, a charity "may not be an action organization," meaning it must not engage in "political activities." A 501(c)(3) can also be disqualified if it engages in propaganda or if it operates in ways that do not pertain to its stated purposes.
The ADC also maintains that some of these organizations may be guilty of fraud and misrepresentation when they claim they operate in Israel but in fact operate in the West Bank and when they state charitable purposes when they actually buy military equipment and train paramilitary organizations.
"The smallest goal is to get their tax-exempt status removed," Strauss said. "If that happens people will continue donating to the settlements but the amounts will be smaller because the donor will have to pay taxes on it and the organization will have to pay taxes on the income."
For smaller organizations, the removal of the tax exemption could be fatal.
"Some organizations would die without it, especially in these days that donations are down," Strauss said. "Others would see a reduction in income."
The ADC is also hoping that larger, wealthier charities, such as the Jewish National Fund, which operate both in Israel and the occupied West Bank, will end their activities in support of settlers in order to protect their exemption.
The ADC claimed its first success in January 2010, when IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told National Public Radio that if the IRS did find these organizations to be breaking tax law, it would disqualify them from exemption, as it does many organizations every year. Some, however, argued Schulman's statement wasn't quite as resolute as the ADC later implied.
In addition to Adalah-NY and the ADC, at least five other organizations have formed a coalition against American support of settlements.
Among their complaints is the US government's reluctance to deal with groups they say are in flagrant violation of stated US policy and the double standard applied to US-based Arab and Muslim charities. For example, the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Islamic charity in the United States, was shut down in 2007 on the grounds that funding it raised ended up in the hands of Hamas, which the US lists as a terrorist organization.
Adalah-NY members say the double standards are blatant and refer to the case of Noam Arnon, a spokesman of the Hebron Jewish community and an honoree at the 2009 Hebron Fund dinner.
"Noam Arnon openly praises the murder of Palestinians and praises individuals like terrorist Baruch Goldstein," Andrew Kadi, a Palestinian-American member of Adalah-NY, charged, citing a report by the Associated Press.
In 1994, Brooklyn-born doctor Baruch Goldstein entered Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque and opened fire, killing 29 Palestinians gathered for Friday prayer, before being lynched to death. His burial place in the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba became a site of pilgrimage honored by many, including Noam Arnon, until the Israeli high court ordered the shrine to be removed, enforcing an Israeli law against the building of monuments for terrorists.
"Look at the statements made by Noam Arnon," said Ethan Heitner, an activist with Adalah-NY. "Can you imagine a Palestinian making these statements that is affiliated with a US 501(c)(3)? They would get shut down immediately."
While non-profits funding settlements have operated under the radar for some time, the case can no longer be made that their work is unknown to government. "I think there is a lot of willful blindness," Heitner said.
Some of these organizations in fact do more than collect contributions and have become vocal in their challenge to the Obama administration's position on settlements. For example, the projects of the One Israel Fund range from sponsoring "defense equipment" and a Tactical Response Team of volunteers trained to respond to terrorist attacks to covering wedding expenses for settlers who lost their homes when they were evicted from Gaza.
"Next on the chopping block: Judea and Samaria," is the title of one of the Fund's fliers, which quoted President Obama's remarks about settlements at his Cairo speech. "We're used to hearing the same old rhetoric from politicians: obstacles to peace, painful concession," the flier continues, soliciting donations. "Now we have a new buzzword: illegitimate. The only thing that doesn't seem to change is the terror."
Another such group is Shuva Israel, The Return to Israel Fund, a Texas-based 501(c)(3) of "Evangelical Christians Lovers of Zion." "What is our response to President Obama's pressure on Israel to freeze building in the communities of the Biblical Mountains of Judea and Samaria?" the group asks in gigantic font on the homepage of its Stand with Israel campaign. A link leads to the answer: "Become part of 12,000 Christian Zionists to sign up and give $12 a month, equaling $144,000 monthly to support the Jewish community settlements in the eternal biblical heartland of Israel."
If the spirited level of fundraising by such groups says anything, it is that settlers and their American supporters do feel threatened and do fear they are running out of time. While, even pre-recession, charitable donations in general were declining, many pro-settler groups have had their contributions increase remarkably. Construction and expansion of the settlements, too, has been bustling, the Israeli group Peace Now reports, something confirmed by settlers themselves.
Double standards aside, what the activities of settlement supporters have exposed is the inconsistency between stated US foreign policy and the administration's capacity to enforce that policy, not only overseas but first and foremost at home.
Alice Speri is a freelance journalist who has worked for Al-Jazeera English, Agence France Presse and The Christian Science Monitor. She is currently based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and has previously lived in Jenin and Ramallah. This story is adapted from her year-long research project on US-funded settlement expansion.
As Israel's illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied West Bank continues to be a strain on US-Israel relations, an unflattering light is being shone on US private donations towards the development of the settlements that are increasingly encroaching on Palestinian land.
Most of the construction work in the settlements is in the hands of American, Canadian and European developers. Much of the money needed for settlement development comes from private American donations. It is estimated that tens of millions of dollars reach the settlements in the form of charity, contributions that by virtue of their philanthropic nature enjoy tax-exempt status under the US' Internal Revenue Code.
An examination by this writer of IRS documentation led to at least 32 organizations registered in the US as tax-exempt charities that support Jewish settlements in the West Bank including East Jerusalem with sizable financial contributions ("From New York to the West Bank: Following US Tax Dollars into Israel's Settlements"). The groups, mostly Jewish but also Christian-Zionist, often adopt a particular community of settlers and for the most part claim on their tax forms to be contributing to charitable or educational projects.
The non-profit status some of these groups enjoy as designated 501(c)(3) organizations under IRS regulations implies an official US government recognition of their activity.
Some civil rights activists argue that private American funding of the settlements, while not necessarily illegal, does contradict stated US foreign policy as well as the government's commitment against racial discrimination. But others have started to accuse organizations registered as 501(c)(3)s and supporting settlements of repeatedly violating US tax laws.
"The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," US President Obama said in his celebrated Cairo address to the Arab and Muslim world in June 2009. "This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop." Obama's statement echoed those of previous US administrations, which have alternated in calling Israeli settlements "illegitimate" and "unhelpful."
Last November, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to a ten-month settlement freeze -- with the exception of East Jerusalem -- in order to resume peace talks. In January 2010, however, he also announced that the Etzion settlement block, south of Jerusalem, "will be an inseparable part of the State of Israel for eternity." Several news outlets continue to report that construction has yet to stop even in areas where the Israeli government has mandated a freeze.
Meanwhile, US aid to Israel -- the billions of dollars per year from the government as well as private donations -- continues to flow unabated.
According to a July 2009 report by the International Crisis Group, the Hebron Fund rises an average of $1.5 million a year to support Jewish settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron. The 700 Jewish settlers in Hebron, under the protection of the Israeli army, routinely physically harass the Palestinian community in the West Bank town and push them out of their homes.
The solidarity group Adalah-NY, based in New York City, mobilized to protest the Hebron Fund annual fundraiser at the Mets baseball team's CitiField last year. While Adalah-NY and the ten other groups that mobilized against the fundraiser were not able to get it cancelled, the effort was only the beginning of a larger campaign against the flow of US dollars into Israeli settlements.
Born to a Canadian father and an Israeli mother, Neil Strauss, who goes by a pseudonym, grew up between Canada and Efrat, one of the largest settlements in the occupied West Bank. Today, Strauss is a legal researcher for the Washington-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and a supervisor of the Free Palestine subcommittee of the National Lawyers Guild, the nation's first racially integrated bar association, which is committed to civil rights and social justice.
Strauss runs workshops inviting volunteer law students to look for violations of tax regulation, rather than broader political questions of international law, although he does stress that settlements and settlements support are contrary to both international law and American public policy.
"The IRS is staffed by professional tax people and bureaucrats are less susceptible to Zionist political pressure than elected officials," he said, explaining that turning to the IRS is "easier than challenging support to Israel, which is a political issue."
Since March 2009, the ADC has filed official complaints to the IRS -- accompanied by copious documentary evidence -- exposing what it claims are illicit practices by ten of these organizations. They now hope the IRS will audit the organizations in question.
"The law is pretty clear," Strauss said. "If these laws were applied honestly, these organizations would not have tax exemption."
According to IRS regulations, in order to obtain 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, an organization must set forth "charitable, religious, or educational purposes," including "lessening neighborhood tensions, eliminating prejudice and discrimination, defending human and civil rights." The ADC argues settlements do just the opposite.
Furthermore, a charity "may not be an action organization," meaning it must not engage in "political activities." A 501(c)(3) can also be disqualified if it engages in propaganda or if it operates in ways that do not pertain to its stated purposes.
The ADC also maintains that some of these organizations may be guilty of fraud and misrepresentation when they claim they operate in Israel but in fact operate in the West Bank and when they state charitable purposes when they actually buy military equipment and train paramilitary organizations.
"The smallest goal is to get their tax-exempt status removed," Strauss said. "If that happens people will continue donating to the settlements but the amounts will be smaller because the donor will have to pay taxes on it and the organization will have to pay taxes on the income."
For smaller organizations, the removal of the tax exemption could be fatal.
"Some organizations would die without it, especially in these days that donations are down," Strauss said. "Others would see a reduction in income."
The ADC is also hoping that larger, wealthier charities, such as the Jewish National Fund, which operate both in Israel and the occupied West Bank, will end their activities in support of settlers in order to protect their exemption.
The ADC claimed its first success in January 2010, when IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told National Public Radio that if the IRS did find these organizations to be breaking tax law, it would disqualify them from exemption, as it does many organizations every year. Some, however, argued Schulman's statement wasn't quite as resolute as the ADC later implied.
In addition to Adalah-NY and the ADC, at least five other organizations have formed a coalition against American support of settlements.
Among their complaints is the US government's reluctance to deal with groups they say are in flagrant violation of stated US policy and the double standard applied to US-based Arab and Muslim charities. For example, the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Islamic charity in the United States, was shut down in 2007 on the grounds that funding it raised ended up in the hands of Hamas, which the US lists as a terrorist organization.
Adalah-NY members say the double standards are blatant and refer to the case of Noam Arnon, a spokesman of the Hebron Jewish community and an honoree at the 2009 Hebron Fund dinner.
"Noam Arnon openly praises the murder of Palestinians and praises individuals like terrorist Baruch Goldstein," Andrew Kadi, a Palestinian-American member of Adalah-NY, charged, citing a report by the Associated Press.
In 1994, Brooklyn-born doctor Baruch Goldstein entered Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque and opened fire, killing 29 Palestinians gathered for Friday prayer, before being lynched to death. His burial place in the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba became a site of pilgrimage honored by many, including Noam Arnon, until the Israeli high court ordered the shrine to be removed, enforcing an Israeli law against the building of monuments for terrorists.
"Look at the statements made by Noam Arnon," said Ethan Heitner, an activist with Adalah-NY. "Can you imagine a Palestinian making these statements that is affiliated with a US 501(c)(3)? They would get shut down immediately."
While non-profits funding settlements have operated under the radar for some time, the case can no longer be made that their work is unknown to government. "I think there is a lot of willful blindness," Heitner said.
Some of these organizations in fact do more than collect contributions and have become vocal in their challenge to the Obama administration's position on settlements. For example, the projects of the One Israel Fund range from sponsoring "defense equipment" and a Tactical Response Team of volunteers trained to respond to terrorist attacks to covering wedding expenses for settlers who lost their homes when they were evicted from Gaza.
"Next on the chopping block: Judea and Samaria," is the title of one of the Fund's fliers, which quoted President Obama's remarks about settlements at his Cairo speech. "We're used to hearing the same old rhetoric from politicians: obstacles to peace, painful concession," the flier continues, soliciting donations. "Now we have a new buzzword: illegitimate. The only thing that doesn't seem to change is the terror."
Another such group is Shuva Israel, The Return to Israel Fund, a Texas-based 501(c)(3) of "Evangelical Christians Lovers of Zion." "What is our response to President Obama's pressure on Israel to freeze building in the communities of the Biblical Mountains of Judea and Samaria?" the group asks in gigantic font on the homepage of its Stand with Israel campaign. A link leads to the answer: "Become part of 12,000 Christian Zionists to sign up and give $12 a month, equaling $144,000 monthly to support the Jewish community settlements in the eternal biblical heartland of Israel."
If the spirited level of fundraising by such groups says anything, it is that settlers and their American supporters do feel threatened and do fear they are running out of time. While, even pre-recession, charitable donations in general were declining, many pro-settler groups have had their contributions increase remarkably. Construction and expansion of the settlements, too, has been bustling, the Israeli group Peace Now reports, something confirmed by settlers themselves.
Double standards aside, what the activities of settlement supporters have exposed is the inconsistency between stated US foreign policy and the administration's capacity to enforce that policy, not only overseas but first and foremost at home.
Alice Speri is a freelance journalist who has worked for Al-Jazeera English, Agence France Presse and The Christian Science Monitor. She is currently based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and has previously lived in Jenin and Ramallah. This story is adapted from her year-long research project on US-funded settlement expansion.
The Palestinian Authority is imprisoning Gazans
The same government that includes a call to end the blockade on Gaza, in practice aids in imprisoning the Gazans by preventing them from holding valid Palestinian passports.By Amira Hass
Lies and power go hand in hand. But what is considered outrageous in a sovereign state is catastrophic for a society fighting for its freedom. The Palestinians have two sets of leadership under occupation competing for the dubious title of "government" - and both are generating lies to perpetuate their status. The Hamas government, which won the majority of the vote in democratic Palestinian legislative elections, is not recognized by most countries. Yet these countries warmly accept the Palestinian Authority government, which was appointed by the president and leader of the party that lost the election, Fatah.
This is the government that has explained its decision to postpone the municipal and local elections, originally scheduled for July 17 this year, by its desire to prevent the political rift between the West Bank and Gaza from widening. Parallel elections would not have been possible in the Gaza Strip because of the split between the parties and clashes over authority and legitimacy.
It is possible to argue over the logic of the initial stubbornness to hold elections that would have fortified the double-rule reality (one political experience in Gaza, and a different one in the West Bank ). This is why, indeed, independent circles in Gaza welcomed the decision to postpone. But everyone knows the real reason behind the postponement was internal disputes within Fatah, as well as a possible fear that competing slates would succeed - despite the fact that Hamas announced it would boycott the elections.
The same government that includes a call to end the blockade on Gaza in every one of its statements, in practice aids in imprisoning the Gazans by preventing many of them from holding valid Palestinian passports. Not only does the Fatah government refuse to send blank passports to Gaza to be filled out, thus forcing Gazans to use the services of special go-between agencies which send the applications to Ramallah, but its general intelligence service even intervenes - as has been revealed lately - and in many cases vetoes passports for Gaza residents.
Now, with Egypt easing the restrictions on entry through its border with Gaza, this arbitrary cruelty has become even more pronounced. The feeling of imprisonment, and the lies accompanying it, generates bitterness toward the government in Ramallah - even among those who are not Hamas supporters.
Security forces in the West Bank continue to arrest people identified with Hamas. The fact that the vast majority of these people are imprisoned for extended periods without a trial or any charges brought against them, raises the suspicion that this practice is not meant to foil security risks, but to actually take revenge for Fatah's defeat in Gaza and to repress its political opponents.
Take Murad Amira, for example, from the village of Na'alin. As a volunteer paramedic in the Red Crescent he goes every Friday to the demonstrations held in his village against the separation wall. He was arrested by the Palestinian general security service six weeks ago and only released yesterday - without any explanation provided to him, his family or friends.
The Ramallah government supports the popular struggle in its words, but at the same time its security services continuously harass activists in Na'alin who are close to Hamas: They arrest them for two or three days, release them, and arrest them again. That is why official support for the popular struggle is viewed as just another fabrication. It's no surprise the protests have remained the private domain of those directly affected by the lands expropriations and haven't drawn the masses, certainly not those who fill the coffee houses, restaurants and festivals in Ramallah.
These are the same security authorities that have won praise from the occupier for the quiet they've achieved while the occupier acts: confiscating land, demolishing homes, expelling people, arresting children, preventing free movement and killing. The lies that accompany these activities and their close affiliation with Fatah cast a shadow over the trustworthiness of the leadership in the eyes of its people.
Lies and power go hand in hand. But what is considered outrageous in a sovereign state is catastrophic for a society fighting for its freedom. The Palestinians have two sets of leadership under occupation competing for the dubious title of "government" - and both are generating lies to perpetuate their status. The Hamas government, which won the majority of the vote in democratic Palestinian legislative elections, is not recognized by most countries. Yet these countries warmly accept the Palestinian Authority government, which was appointed by the president and leader of the party that lost the election, Fatah.
This is the government that has explained its decision to postpone the municipal and local elections, originally scheduled for July 17 this year, by its desire to prevent the political rift between the West Bank and Gaza from widening. Parallel elections would not have been possible in the Gaza Strip because of the split between the parties and clashes over authority and legitimacy.
It is possible to argue over the logic of the initial stubbornness to hold elections that would have fortified the double-rule reality (one political experience in Gaza, and a different one in the West Bank ). This is why, indeed, independent circles in Gaza welcomed the decision to postpone. But everyone knows the real reason behind the postponement was internal disputes within Fatah, as well as a possible fear that competing slates would succeed - despite the fact that Hamas announced it would boycott the elections.
The same government that includes a call to end the blockade on Gaza in every one of its statements, in practice aids in imprisoning the Gazans by preventing many of them from holding valid Palestinian passports. Not only does the Fatah government refuse to send blank passports to Gaza to be filled out, thus forcing Gazans to use the services of special go-between agencies which send the applications to Ramallah, but its general intelligence service even intervenes - as has been revealed lately - and in many cases vetoes passports for Gaza residents.
Now, with Egypt easing the restrictions on entry through its border with Gaza, this arbitrary cruelty has become even more pronounced. The feeling of imprisonment, and the lies accompanying it, generates bitterness toward the government in Ramallah - even among those who are not Hamas supporters.
Security forces in the West Bank continue to arrest people identified with Hamas. The fact that the vast majority of these people are imprisoned for extended periods without a trial or any charges brought against them, raises the suspicion that this practice is not meant to foil security risks, but to actually take revenge for Fatah's defeat in Gaza and to repress its political opponents.
Take Murad Amira, for example, from the village of Na'alin. As a volunteer paramedic in the Red Crescent he goes every Friday to the demonstrations held in his village against the separation wall. He was arrested by the Palestinian general security service six weeks ago and only released yesterday - without any explanation provided to him, his family or friends.
The Ramallah government supports the popular struggle in its words, but at the same time its security services continuously harass activists in Na'alin who are close to Hamas: They arrest them for two or three days, release them, and arrest them again. That is why official support for the popular struggle is viewed as just another fabrication. It's no surprise the protests have remained the private domain of those directly affected by the lands expropriations and haven't drawn the masses, certainly not those who fill the coffee houses, restaurants and festivals in Ramallah.
These are the same security authorities that have won praise from the occupier for the quiet they've achieved while the occupier acts: confiscating land, demolishing homes, expelling people, arresting children, preventing free movement and killing. The lies that accompany these activities and their close affiliation with Fatah cast a shadow over the trustworthiness of the leadership in the eyes of its people.
Israel refuses to pay medical bills for American-Jewish protester who lost eye
By Avi Issacharoff
The Israeli government is refusing to pay the cost of medical care for an American-Jewish activist who lost an eye when Border Police officers fired a tear gas canister at her during a demonstration.
Emily Henochowicz, who studying at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem and also holds Israeli citizenship, took part in a protest on May 31, shortly after Israel killed nine pro-Palestinian activists in a raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
Dozens of activists took part in the protest against the Israeli blockade of Gaza next to the Qalandia checkpoint, south of Ramallah.
According to the IDF, demonstrators began to throw stones at the Border Police, after which the army responded by firing tear gas canisters.
According to Henochowicz, one policeman shot a canister directly at her face, shattering her jaw and causing her to lose her left eye. A Haaretz reporter witnessed the incident.
Following her her treatment at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Henochowicz's father, who had traveled from the U.S., was handed a bill for NIS 14,000. Under advice from his lawyer, Michael Sfard, he asked the Defense Ministry cover the expense, but officials refused.
In justifying the refusal, the Defense Ministry claimed the tear gas was not fired directly at Henochowicz.
"The canister ricocheted at her after it rebound off a concrete barrier and changed direction - it was not shot directly at her," the ministry said in a statement drafted by lawyer Sharon Zimmerman. The statement also accused Henochowicz of putting herself at risk by voluntarily participating in a breach of the peace.
In response, Sfard said that as police were still investigating the incident, it was impossible for the Defense Ministry to judge exactly what occurred.
"Either way, even if wounding of my client was the result of negligence and not criminal intent -even then the State of Israel has a moral, ethical and legal obligation to pay for her treatment," Sfard wrote.
The Defense Ministry responded: "From our reports, we know that the Border Police acted in accordance with the law at the violent demonstration at Qalandia, and that the shooting of tear gas canisters at demonstrators was justified. Of course, we regret that Emily Henochowicz was wounded in her eye. But under such circumstances, the Defense Ministry does not cover the expenses of medical treatment."
Check out this Palestinian Students' Rights blog:
http://lifeonbirzeitcampus.
See also Lowkey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Lowkey, Long Live Palestine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Long Live Palestine Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Video: Israeli border officials harass, summon Bethlehem University professor (formerly of Yale) for interrogation
Email from Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh:
After attending a workshop on developing curricula for nonviolence/popular resistance, I returned with a harrowing 12+ hour experience at the crossing from Jordan to the occupied Palestinian territories.
This included being served with an order/warrant for an appearance at the apartheid colonial ‘security’ offices in ten days and rifling through the books I brought back. I recorded a 10 minute video telling of this experiences (common for Palestinians):
SEE VIDEO:
http://www.israel-
Israel cracks down on dissent
AlJazeeraEnglish
The Israeli parliament is considering several new laws that could seriously impact the ability of citizens to criticise the government, according to rights groups.
Human Rights Watch is reporting a crackdown on political activists who criticise Israeli's treatment of the Palestinians.
In what rights groups consider part of an alarming pattern, Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, recently admitted to spying on a young Australian activist in the West Bank.
Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reports from Jerusalem.
SEE VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
SEE VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Aid, Solidarity, and the Search for Accountability
For the past two days, in the halls of Birzeit University, against the backdrop of the hills of Ramallah, students from around the world have convened to discuss strategies to hold Israel accountable. On this campus, which was the site of many of the early moments of the first intifada, the conference, run by Right to Education is giving hope that a new uprising, a non-violent, energetic, tenacious campaign, is gaining momentum.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice declared the building of the separation wall between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) illegal. Construction, however, continued unabated. A year later, members of Palestinian civil society put out a call for Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS), to hold Israel accountable until it complies with international law. The movement has been endorsed by over 170 Palestinian parties, organizations, and trade unions, and is essentially a call from the civil society of Palestine to the civil society of the world to join in solidarity, to stand up in our capacity as citizens and consumers, as individuals and communities, against the violations of the rights of Palestinians.
Indeed, Israel continues to break many international laws and surprise the public with its ongoing aggression: the building of settlements in the OPT is a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention; the Goldstone Report declared that Israel’s operations in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead amounted to war crimes; the International Committee of the Red Cross has condemned the siege of Gaza; and many around the world have been shocked at the violence Israel displayed against the members aboard the humanitarian Freedom Flotilla. Amidst all these declarations of discontent, which nevertheless fail to amount to any concrete action, Palestinian civil society activists are saying: Enough is enough. Israel must be held accountable.
When one considers the word “accountability,” a host of connotations emerges, such as accounting, counting, numbering and enumerating. Despite the fact that, until the present BDS campaign, little has been done to keep Israel accountable, there are many other kinds of counting and accounting going on in this conflict. Finances and budgets, and all the accoutrements of economic plans, are significant actors in this drama. The website WhoProfits.org aims to expose how Israeli and international companies benefit from the occupation, from the construction of infrastructure, through control of the population and economic exploitation. It investigates the position of the settlements and the economic benefits they provide. BDS is a way of engaging with the economics of the occupation, a non-violent way to expose and punish all those who benefit from the abuse of human rights.
A central aspect of the BDS message is that, in a world as interconnected and integrated as ours is, this conflict is not simply local, isolated to an argument between Israelis and Palestinians. With our global economy and webs of commerce and technology, many of us are complicit in the crimes that are perpetrated against Palestinians. It is therefore, the responsibility of individuals and communities globally to examine the ways in which their actions facilitate this conflict. BDS is thus an attempt to hold, not only Israel, but the international community accountable as well.
But advocates for BDS have an even more penetrating point to make: It is not only the explicit cases of profiting from private contracts and construction that are important to expose. It is crucial to examine ways in which the entire structure of aid and development in the OPT also works subtly to facilitate the occupation. Activists articulate frustration with the fact that the international community treats the situation here as if it were the effect of a natural disaster. “Palestine was not hit by a tsunami” one presenter at the Right to Education conference said. We don’t need food; we need rights. Because of legal and physical restrictions on trade – how the delays at the borders make exports inefficient and uncompetitive, for example - a huge portion of the Palestinian economy comes from foreign aid. But what are the effects of this economy of aid? What are the webs of accountability to which it gives rise?
In offices both governmental and non-governmental across the OPT, thousands of employees are forced to attend constantly to counting costs, drafting grant proposals, applying for funding. One NGO worker said recently that the non-profit sector is a surprisingly close mirror of the private sector and is fundamentally based on a market model: You must evaluate your projects, quantify your results and demonstrate to your foreign funders that your organization is effective and efficient and worthy investment. In this competitive system, amidst all the pressures to perpetuate their own existence, many organizations are forced to focus on tasks that are not in line with their original priorities. In a survey done by the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, 67% of Palestinians who were polled thought that foreign aid is given not according to the needs of Palestinians, but according to the political interests of the donors. While they agree that aid is beneficial in easing living conditions, a majority nevertheless believe that international aid helps reinforce the occupation, rather than supports Palestinian interests (see http://www.ndc.ps/uploads/File/Researches/Tracking%20External%20Donor%20Funding.pdf). USAID, for example, has been particularly troublesome on this front, in its participation in funding the occupation. Reports in May revealed that the agency is helping in the construction of an “apartheid road,” which will provide Palestinians with a separate road system to connect Palestinian cities, and thereby give settlers in the West Bank exclusive access to the main roads. Essentially, the road system will limit Palestinians' freedom of movement, isolating them to select enclaves, while increasing and easing the travel of settlers, making the settlements more attractive places to which to move (see Jonathan Cook’s article, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11267.shtm). Far from holding Israel accountable, therefore, or even ensuring that aid efforts and NGOs are
accountable to Palestinians, it is international donors who are pulling the strings, giving or withholding at their own whims, and meanwhile demanding that Palestinians and aid workers on the ground be held accountable to the desires expressed, and decisions made, in Brussels and New York.
It is in this context that members of the BDS campaign are trying to shift the priorities of the struggle. It is incumbent upon the international community to recognize its levels of complicity, the fact that it cannot buy off its obligations with gestures of benevolence and charity. Efforts are fruitless unless they involve keeping Israel accountable. It is time to hear the message and to join the call of Palestinian civil society. It is time to offer, not aid, but solidarity.
Leah Hunt-Hendrix is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice declared the building of the separation wall between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) illegal. Construction, however, continued unabated. A year later, members of Palestinian civil society put out a call for Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS), to hold Israel accountable until it complies with international law. The movement has been endorsed by over 170 Palestinian parties, organizations, and trade unions, and is essentially a call from the civil society of Palestine to the civil society of the world to join in solidarity, to stand up in our capacity as citizens and consumers, as individuals and communities, against the violations of the rights of Palestinians.
Indeed, Israel continues to break many international laws and surprise the public with its ongoing aggression: the building of settlements in the OPT is a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention; the Goldstone Report declared that Israel’s operations in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead amounted to war crimes; the International Committee of the Red Cross has condemned the siege of Gaza; and many around the world have been shocked at the violence Israel displayed against the members aboard the humanitarian Freedom Flotilla. Amidst all these declarations of discontent, which nevertheless fail to amount to any concrete action, Palestinian civil society activists are saying: Enough is enough. Israel must be held accountable.
When one considers the word “accountability,” a host of connotations emerges, such as accounting, counting, numbering and enumerating. Despite the fact that, until the present BDS campaign, little has been done to keep Israel accountable, there are many other kinds of counting and accounting going on in this conflict. Finances and budgets, and all the accoutrements of economic plans, are significant actors in this drama. The website WhoProfits.org aims to expose how Israeli and international companies benefit from the occupation, from the construction of infrastructure, through control of the population and economic exploitation. It investigates the position of the settlements and the economic benefits they provide. BDS is a way of engaging with the economics of the occupation, a non-violent way to expose and punish all those who benefit from the abuse of human rights.
A central aspect of the BDS message is that, in a world as interconnected and integrated as ours is, this conflict is not simply local, isolated to an argument between Israelis and Palestinians. With our global economy and webs of commerce and technology, many of us are complicit in the crimes that are perpetrated against Palestinians. It is therefore, the responsibility of individuals and communities globally to examine the ways in which their actions facilitate this conflict. BDS is thus an attempt to hold, not only Israel, but the international community accountable as well.
But advocates for BDS have an even more penetrating point to make: It is not only the explicit cases of profiting from private contracts and construction that are important to expose. It is crucial to examine ways in which the entire structure of aid and development in the OPT also works subtly to facilitate the occupation. Activists articulate frustration with the fact that the international community treats the situation here as if it were the effect of a natural disaster. “Palestine was not hit by a tsunami” one presenter at the Right to Education conference said. We don’t need food; we need rights. Because of legal and physical restrictions on trade – how the delays at the borders make exports inefficient and uncompetitive, for example - a huge portion of the Palestinian economy comes from foreign aid. But what are the effects of this economy of aid? What are the webs of accountability to which it gives rise?
In offices both governmental and non-governmental across the OPT, thousands of employees are forced to attend constantly to counting costs, drafting grant proposals, applying for funding. One NGO worker said recently that the non-profit sector is a surprisingly close mirror of the private sector and is fundamentally based on a market model: You must evaluate your projects, quantify your results and demonstrate to your foreign funders that your organization is effective and efficient and worthy investment. In this competitive system, amidst all the pressures to perpetuate their own existence, many organizations are forced to focus on tasks that are not in line with their original priorities. In a survey done by the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, 67% of Palestinians who were polled thought that foreign aid is given not according to the needs of Palestinians, but according to the political interests of the donors. While they agree that aid is beneficial in easing living conditions, a majority nevertheless believe that international aid helps reinforce the occupation, rather than supports Palestinian interests (see http://www.ndc.ps/uploads/File/Researches/Tracking%20External%20Donor%20Funding.pdf). USAID, for example, has been particularly troublesome on this front, in its participation in funding the occupation. Reports in May revealed that the agency is helping in the construction of an “apartheid road,” which will provide Palestinians with a separate road system to connect Palestinian cities, and thereby give settlers in the West Bank exclusive access to the main roads. Essentially, the road system will limit Palestinians' freedom of movement, isolating them to select enclaves, while increasing and easing the travel of settlers, making the settlements more attractive places to which to move (see Jonathan Cook’s article, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11267.shtm). Far from holding Israel accountable, therefore, or even ensuring that aid efforts and NGOs are
accountable to Palestinians, it is international donors who are pulling the strings, giving or withholding at their own whims, and meanwhile demanding that Palestinians and aid workers on the ground be held accountable to the desires expressed, and decisions made, in Brussels and New York.
It is in this context that members of the BDS campaign are trying to shift the priorities of the struggle. It is incumbent upon the international community to recognize its levels of complicity, the fact that it cannot buy off its obligations with gestures of benevolence and charity. Efforts are fruitless unless they involve keeping Israel accountable. It is time to hear the message and to join the call of Palestinian civil society. It is time to offer, not aid, but solidarity.
Leah Hunt-Hendrix is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
Gaza children shelled with flechette bombs
Adie Mormech writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine,"She came in through the front door and it wasn't clear she was injured. Suddenly a lot of blood came from her nose and she vomited, all of the family saw this -- her little brothers were very scared. She had just been playing in the front of the house."
That is how Nihed al-Massry describes what happened to her daughter, nine-year-old Samah Eid al-Massry, after the Israeli army reportedly shelled and fired four bombs into and around a residential area in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, on 21 July. Samah is now being hospitalized in serious condition, suffering from extensive blood loss and very low haemoglobin. She was hit by shrapnel and flechettes from a nail bomb that landed 100 meters away, causing internal bleeding to the chest and severe head trauma. Nails are now embedded throughout her body.
Shells containing flechettes are illegal under international law if fired into densely-populated civilian areas. Three other children were wounded in the attack.
Two young men were killed; Muhammad al-Kafarneh, 23, suffered severe shrapnel injuries to the back and chest and Kasim al-Shinbary, 19, was wounded by nails embedded in his skull and shrapnel his back. It was unclear earlier whether they were resistance fighters or if they were civilians.
Haitham Thaer Qasem, a four-year-old boy and an only child, was asleep on a hospital bed, occasionally gasping for breath through the apparatus around his nose. He had suffered deep nasal trauma, and flechette darts from the bomb were still embedded in his tiny body, through his back, right elbow and right leg. He was 200 meters from the impact of the bomb.
Haitham's mother was standing off to the side, quietly crying while one of his aunts at his bedside explained what happened.
"We had asked Haitham to get shopping for [his mother] from the market, then we heard the bombings and somebody came to our home and told our family that he was in the hospital and was injured in the bombing. We came quickly to the hospital."
Meanwhile, Samah's doctor explained that the girl's blood loss was a major concern. Her injuries are exacerbated by the fact that she, like three of her brothers, already suffers from the blood condition thalassemia and the drug to treat the condition, Exjade, is scarce because of the Israeli blockade. She was clearly in pain and confused, trying to remove the nasal tubes. Her mother showed us the bandages on her chest.
Her doctor, Muhammad Abu Hassan, described her situation as "semi-critical."
"She was in very bad condition when she arrived -- it's difficult for children and very traumatic to insert a chest tube for small children -- very painful. Blood was mainly coming from the chest. We will have to perform surgery and we will further explore her abdominal pain," he explained.
The al-Massry family has been affected by Israeli attacks before. Samah's four-year-old brother Ryad was injured during Israel's three weeks of attacks on the Gaza Strip during winter 2008-09 when more than 400 Palestinian children were killed.
"Our house was hit during the war, a neighbor was killed inside and our son suffered severe head injuries. He wasn't cared for and because of this his sight is now permanently damaged."
As we left Samah, she had begun to cry, moaning in serious discomfort and confusion. There were two more injured children in the hospital from the attack, also from the al-Massry family in Beit Hanoun: Azzam Muhammad al-Massry, 11, who suffered a severely fractured left elbow and Ibrahim Wasseem al-Massry, 4, with light injuries to his abdomen.
The previous week in Gaza, Nema Abu Said, a 33-year-old mother of five, was killed by Israeli shelling as she went outside frantically looking for her youngest son after a previous round of shelling. Three more family members were injured by the flechette shells, many of the darts remaining permanently embedded in their bodies.
Adie Mormech is a human rights advocate based in the Gaza Strip who was previously abducted by the Israeli navy from the eighth Free Gaza Movement boat, the Spirit of Humanity. He volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement.
That is how Nihed al-Massry describes what happened to her daughter, nine-year-old Samah Eid al-Massry, after the Israeli army reportedly shelled and fired four bombs into and around a residential area in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, on 21 July. Samah is now being hospitalized in serious condition, suffering from extensive blood loss and very low haemoglobin. She was hit by shrapnel and flechettes from a nail bomb that landed 100 meters away, causing internal bleeding to the chest and severe head trauma. Nails are now embedded throughout her body.
Shells containing flechettes are illegal under international law if fired into densely-populated civilian areas. Three other children were wounded in the attack.
Two young men were killed; Muhammad al-Kafarneh, 23, suffered severe shrapnel injuries to the back and chest and Kasim al-Shinbary, 19, was wounded by nails embedded in his skull and shrapnel his back. It was unclear earlier whether they were resistance fighters or if they were civilians.
Haitham Thaer Qasem, a four-year-old boy and an only child, was asleep on a hospital bed, occasionally gasping for breath through the apparatus around his nose. He had suffered deep nasal trauma, and flechette darts from the bomb were still embedded in his tiny body, through his back, right elbow and right leg. He was 200 meters from the impact of the bomb.
Haitham's mother was standing off to the side, quietly crying while one of his aunts at his bedside explained what happened.
"We had asked Haitham to get shopping for [his mother] from the market, then we heard the bombings and somebody came to our home and told our family that he was in the hospital and was injured in the bombing. We came quickly to the hospital."
Meanwhile, Samah's doctor explained that the girl's blood loss was a major concern. Her injuries are exacerbated by the fact that she, like three of her brothers, already suffers from the blood condition thalassemia and the drug to treat the condition, Exjade, is scarce because of the Israeli blockade. She was clearly in pain and confused, trying to remove the nasal tubes. Her mother showed us the bandages on her chest.
Her doctor, Muhammad Abu Hassan, described her situation as "semi-critical."
"She was in very bad condition when she arrived -- it's difficult for children and very traumatic to insert a chest tube for small children -- very painful. Blood was mainly coming from the chest. We will have to perform surgery and we will further explore her abdominal pain," he explained.
The al-Massry family has been affected by Israeli attacks before. Samah's four-year-old brother Ryad was injured during Israel's three weeks of attacks on the Gaza Strip during winter 2008-09 when more than 400 Palestinian children were killed.
"Our house was hit during the war, a neighbor was killed inside and our son suffered severe head injuries. He wasn't cared for and because of this his sight is now permanently damaged."
As we left Samah, she had begun to cry, moaning in serious discomfort and confusion. There were two more injured children in the hospital from the attack, also from the al-Massry family in Beit Hanoun: Azzam Muhammad al-Massry, 11, who suffered a severely fractured left elbow and Ibrahim Wasseem al-Massry, 4, with light injuries to his abdomen.
The previous week in Gaza, Nema Abu Said, a 33-year-old mother of five, was killed by Israeli shelling as she went outside frantically looking for her youngest son after a previous round of shelling. Three more family members were injured by the flechette shells, many of the darts remaining permanently embedded in their bodies.
Adie Mormech is a human rights advocate based in the Gaza Strip who was previously abducted by the Israeli navy from the eighth Free Gaza Movement boat, the Spirit of Humanity. He volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement.
Thirsty? How about an ice-cold glass of sewage-infested water?
On Saturday 31 July, Amnesty International members will be handing out free samples of bottled water to people in Dublin, Cork and Galway.The only trouble is that the water – like 90 percent of water available to Palestinians in Gaza, is filthy.
On a sizzling hot day in Ireland, all we have to do to cool off is reach for the tap. For Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, there’s no such relief. Almost 200,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank have no running water, making ordinary tasks, like washing and cooking, that we take for granted almost impossible.
Israeli settlers enjoy refreshing dips in brimming swimming pools while only miles away, Palestinian water reservoirs stand empty.
“The Israeli Government is deliberately taking water from Palestinians in the hope of driving them off their land,” said Amnesty International Campaigns Officer EilÃs NÃ ChaithnÃa.
“Diseases from drinking sewage-infested water are rife in parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories because Israeli authorities restrict the water sources.”
To send a message to the Israeli authorities, Amnesty International will be doling out bottles of dirty water to thirsty passers-by this Saturday (31 July) - to see how we like it.
EilÃs NÃ ChaithnÃa will be on hand at the entrance to St Stephen’s Green, Dublin city centre at 2pm to give interviews and answer any questions about our “Thirst for Justice” campaign.
Volunteers will hand out free samples of bottled water in pairs, while also collecting signatures for a petition to the Israeli authorities demanding a fair share of water for Palestinian communities.
Amnesty International will also hold the day of action in Galway city, Cork city and Clonakilty this Saturday afternoon.
Amnesty International is calling on the Israeli government to ensure Palestinians get a fair share of the water supply.
Currently Israelis consume four times as much water per person as the Palestinian community does.
“The Irish Government needs to put pressure on Israel to ensure that it upholds international law by immediately lifting all restrictions on Palestinians' access to water,” said EilÃs NÃ ChaithnÃa.
(The remains of a destroyed water cistern in a West bank town)
Israeli settlers enjoy refreshing dips in brimming swimming pools while only miles away, Palestinian water reservoirs stand empty.
“The Israeli Government is deliberately taking water from Palestinians in the hope of driving them off their land,” said Amnesty International Campaigns Officer EilÃs NÃ ChaithnÃa.
“Diseases from drinking sewage-infested water are rife in parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories because Israeli authorities restrict the water sources.”
To send a message to the Israeli authorities, Amnesty International will be doling out bottles of dirty water to thirsty passers-by this Saturday (31 July) - to see how we like it.
EilÃs NÃ ChaithnÃa will be on hand at the entrance to St Stephen’s Green, Dublin city centre at 2pm to give interviews and answer any questions about our “Thirst for Justice” campaign.
Volunteers will hand out free samples of bottled water in pairs, while also collecting signatures for a petition to the Israeli authorities demanding a fair share of water for Palestinian communities.
Amnesty International will also hold the day of action in Galway city, Cork city and Clonakilty this Saturday afternoon.
Amnesty International is calling on the Israeli government to ensure Palestinians get a fair share of the water supply.
Currently Israelis consume four times as much water per person as the Palestinian community does.
“The Irish Government needs to put pressure on Israel to ensure that it upholds international law by immediately lifting all restrictions on Palestinians' access to water,” said EilÃs NÃ ChaithnÃa.
The Anti-Semitism Trump Card Used Again after judge gives speech against Israel
Judge faces anti-Semitism probe after speech attacking Israel helps free arms factory protesters
Remarks: Judge Bathurst-Norman is being investigated after summing up in a trial which led to protesters being acquitted A senior judge was under investigation yesterday after being accused of making anti-Semitic remarks in court that may have swayed his jury into acquitting a group of protesters.
Judge George Bathurst-Norman was said by critics to have persuaded a jury to clear a group of campaigners who smashed up a factory making parts for Israeli warplanes.
Summing up in the criminal damage trial, he compared Israel to the Nazi regime and accused the country of ignoring international law.
The judge added that 'there may be much to be admired' about the chief protester, and that 'in the last war he would probably have received a George Medal'.
The Office for Judicial Complaints, which deals with objections over the conduct of judges and magistrates, confirmed that an inquiry into how Judge Bathurst-Norman handled the trial of five political activists at Hove Crown Court in June is under way.
Its findings will be considered by Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge and Lord Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, who have the final say on any disciplinary action.
A number of complaints are said to have accused the judge not just of anti-Israel rhetoric but specifically of anti-Semitism.
The case involved a group of activists who broke into and vandalised a Brighton factory run by engineering firm EDO MBM.
The company was making parts for use in the bomb-aiming equipment on Israeli F16 warplanes.
The invasion shut the factory for a week and caused £187,000 worth of damage. But five men and women who appeared in court claimed they had done nothing wrong under criminal damage law.
The law says someone is not guilty of causing damage if they believed it was necessary for the immediate protection of someone else's property.
It is framed to protect, for example, someone who smashes a neighbour's door down if they believe their house is on fire.
Under attack: The judge criticised the actions of Israel in bombing parts of Gaza in January 2009 which prompted protesters to storm the arms factory However, in the Brighton case, the activists claimed they believed their invasion was necessary for the protection of property in Gaza.
Several similar defences by protesters have been successful in recent years.
In 2008, six Greenpeace protesters were acquitted after causing £30,000 worth of damage at a coal-fired power station.
The jury in that case accepted they had acted to prevent climate change causing greater damage.
Describing evidence shown in court, Judge Bathurst-Norman told the jury that he could only describe the 'horrific' events shown as 'scenes which one would rather have hoped to have disappeared with the Nazi regimes of the last war'.
In his summing up, he gave his backing to the evidence of one defendant, Ornella Saibene, a former Greenham Common activist.
The judge said: 'She took us through the horrors, and there really is no other word for it than horrors, that emerged in the press and on the news and the footage as to what the Israelis were doing in Gaza.
'You may think that perhaps "Hell on Earth" would be an understatement of what the Gazans endured.'
Among groups complaining was the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
Its president, Vivian Wineman, said: 'The judge's comments give rise to profound concerns about the appropriateness of his directions to the jury.'
Jonathan Hoffman, of the Zionist Federation, said: 'This opens the door to any group which thinks the British presence in Afghanistan is wrong to go and smash up plants supplying British forces.'
By Steve Doughty, Social Affairs Correspondent
Remarks: Judge Bathurst-Norman is being investigated after summing up in a trial which led to protesters being acquitted Judge George Bathurst-Norman was said by critics to have persuaded a jury to clear a group of campaigners who smashed up a factory making parts for Israeli warplanes.
Summing up in the criminal damage trial, he compared Israel to the Nazi regime and accused the country of ignoring international law.
The judge added that 'there may be much to be admired' about the chief protester, and that 'in the last war he would probably have received a George Medal'.
The Office for Judicial Complaints, which deals with objections over the conduct of judges and magistrates, confirmed that an inquiry into how Judge Bathurst-Norman handled the trial of five political activists at Hove Crown Court in June is under way.
Its findings will be considered by Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge and Lord Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, who have the final say on any disciplinary action.
A number of complaints are said to have accused the judge not just of anti-Israel rhetoric but specifically of anti-Semitism.
The case involved a group of activists who broke into and vandalised a Brighton factory run by engineering firm EDO MBM.
The company was making parts for use in the bomb-aiming equipment on Israeli F16 warplanes.
The invasion shut the factory for a week and caused £187,000 worth of damage. But five men and women who appeared in court claimed they had done nothing wrong under criminal damage law.
The law says someone is not guilty of causing damage if they believed it was necessary for the immediate protection of someone else's property.
It is framed to protect, for example, someone who smashes a neighbour's door down if they believe their house is on fire.
Under attack: The judge criticised the actions of Israel in bombing parts of Gaza in January 2009 which prompted protesters to storm the arms factory Several similar defences by protesters have been successful in recent years.
In 2008, six Greenpeace protesters were acquitted after causing £30,000 worth of damage at a coal-fired power station.
The jury in that case accepted they had acted to prevent climate change causing greater damage.
Describing evidence shown in court, Judge Bathurst-Norman told the jury that he could only describe the 'horrific' events shown as 'scenes which one would rather have hoped to have disappeared with the Nazi regimes of the last war'.
In his summing up, he gave his backing to the evidence of one defendant, Ornella Saibene, a former Greenham Common activist.
The judge said: 'She took us through the horrors, and there really is no other word for it than horrors, that emerged in the press and on the news and the footage as to what the Israelis were doing in Gaza.
'You may think that perhaps "Hell on Earth" would be an understatement of what the Gazans endured.'
Among groups complaining was the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
Its president, Vivian Wineman, said: 'The judge's comments give rise to profound concerns about the appropriateness of his directions to the jury.'
Jonathan Hoffman, of the Zionist Federation, said: 'This opens the door to any group which thinks the British presence in Afghanistan is wrong to go and smash up plants supplying British forces.'
By Steve Doughty, Social Affairs Correspondent
Israelis celebrating what the Bernadotte’s murder achieved
Larry Derfner has a great piece in the JPost laying out the hypocrisy of Israel's extolling terrorists while condemning Palestinians when they do the same. It's a wonderful argument, but for me what leaped out was the Bernadotte bit. Consider, that Count Bernadotte, who saved Jews from the Nazis during the war, wanted to internationalize Jerusalem, as Herzl had promised it would be, and get the Palestinian refugees back to their homes, and more equitably divide historical Palestine than the division created by the armistice. Well Bernadotte was killed; and as you can see in this piece, some Israelis love it that he was killed. And of course we are still dealing with the injustice of the resulting arrangement. Derfner:http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/
After the War of Independence, [Menachem] Begin was a terrorist in the eyes of some Israelis, but by now he is a supreme, unchallenged national hero. Remembered as a gentleman, he is the most beloved leader in Israeli history.Derfner also mentions he standard hasbara line about the King David Hotel bombing in 1946 that killed 91 people: the Irgun warned the British ahead of time, by half an hour or so. Apparently one of the women who called the hotel was lately interviewed, and said she blamed the British for not evacuating the hotel. This is absurd. I had a really smart girlfriend once who went to Harvard Law School. Responding to some piece of trickery/declaration I was trying to get over on her once, she said, "You know it doesn't make it any better if you tell someone you're going to run over them with a car, and then you actually run over them with a car." There was a principle of law that embodied this principle, I seem to recall; and it surely applies to putting bombs in someone's basement and then phoning them up.
We see no reason why he shouldn’t be. But when the Palestinians, beginning with their leaders, eulogize Muhammad Oudeh, who planned the Munich Olympics killings of 11 Israeli athletes, or name a square in Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, leader of the Coastal Road bus hijacking that killed 37 Israelis, then we are outraged.
“Whoever sponsors and supports naming a square in Ramallah after a terrorist who murdered dozens of Israelis on the Coastal Road encourages terror,” said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in March. He called on Palestinian leaders to “stop the incitement.”
But four years ago, when Etzel veterans commemorated the 60th anniversary of the King David bombing, Netanyahu, scion of a proud Revisionist family, was the featured speaker. “It’s very important to make the distinction between terror groups and freedom fighters, and between terrorist action and legitimate military action,” he told the audience.
IN THE hypocrisy that characterizes Israel’s view of Palestinians, this is the height of it: The greatest denouncers of Palestinian violence against Israel also tend to be the greatest defenders of pre-state Zionist violence against Britain.
After electing Begin prime minister, we elected Yitzhak Shamir, who had been one of the leadership trio of Lehi (the Hebrew acronym for “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel”). Lehi went Etzel one better – not only did it kill for Israeli statehood, it killed after statehood, too. On September 17, 1948, Lehi men in Jerusalem shot to death Count Folke Bernadotte, the UN’s envoy to the Middle East (who, as a Swedish diplomat during World War II, had saved many thousands of Jews from the Nazi death camps).
At Lehi’s 70th anniversary celebration in Jerusalem last month, National Union MK Arye Eldad (whose father, Yisrael, had been one of Shamir’s partners in the leadership) said from the podium: “Count Bernadotte wanted to internationalize Jerusalem. In response, Lehi killed him. With his death, the concept of taking Jerusalem away from the Jewish people died with him.”
Hooray. And after Yitzhak Shamir dies, there will be highways, neighborhoods, hospitals and schools named after him, too.
It seems to me that if you are going to condemn the Munich Olympics killings and the Coastal Road Massacre, you also have to condemn the King David Hotel bombing and the Bernadotte assassination.
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