Coalition says investigations into campus Palestine activism chill student speech rights

Students for Justice in Palestine protesters at a mock checkpoint in Berkeley
(Photo: Tony Zhou/The Daily Californian)

Prolonged federal investigations of Palestine solidarity activism on campuses are chilling students’ constitutional rights to organize and speak out, a coalition of civil rights groups has charged in letters to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). The civil rights and advocacy groups are asking the federal government to take a number of steps to remedy what they say is the problem of investigations that are having a chilling effect on students’ speech.

The letters (read them here), sent to the DOE civil rights division in San Francisco and the DOE’s assistant secretary for civil rights, are a response to the spate of Title VI civil rights complaints that have been filed by Jewish students who advocate for Israel. These complaints allege that campuses have allowed an anti-Semitic environment to flourish, but they mostly concern Palestine solidarity activism. The Title VI complaints have sparked federal inquiries on a number of California campuses.

“The numerous complaints and continued threats of complaints...have resulted in universities increasing pressure on students advocating for Palestinian rights, often applying campus rules unequally and obstructing their activities to avoid accusations that the university is enabling an anti-Semitic environment by allowing students to express their views,” the groups, including the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the National Lawyers Guild and Jewish Voice for Peace say.

The detailed letters charge that the investigations are based on complaints that conflate political speech critical of Israel with anti-Semitism. The groups also state that the investigations have been prolonged--”well beyond the OCR’s internal benchmark of 180 days”--and have not allowed students most affected by these complaints to voice their concerns.

The civil rights groups’ statements request that the DOE take a number of steps to remedy the problems they bring up. Among the recommendations are that the DOE issue a letter stating that student political speech is protected under the First Amendment and that “advocacy for Palestinian human rights and criticism of Israeli government policies are not anti-Semitic.”

“The abuse of civil rights laws to silence political views tramples on the First Amendment, and is already causing a tangible, detrimental impact on Arab, Muslim, and other students who espouse particular views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said CCR Cooperating Counsel Liz Jackson in a statement. “That contravenes the spirit of Title VI and of our Constitution. And it wrongly conflates Jewish identity with uncritical support for Israel.”

The civil rights groups’ statements are a forceful rebuke to the DOE’s practice of opening up civil rights investigations based on the Israel-related complaints of Jewish students who charge that activities like mock checkpoints and Israel Apartheid Week are anti-Semitic. The letter recommends that the DOE “direct [civil rights] field offices not to investigate complaints where the facts alleged, even if true, constitute pure political speech or expressive activity.”

In 2010, after lobbying led by groups like the right-wing Zionist Organization of America, the DOE shifted policy to allow Title VI complaints to be filed from religious groups with shared ethnic characteristics. Title VI is the section of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits institutions that receive federal funding from discriminating based on race, color and national origin. The DOE's 2010 decision opened the gates for the current complaints from Jewish pro-Israel students.

Despite the fact that no campus has been found to be in violation of Title VI as a result of any of these complaints, civil rights groups charge that they are still having an impact on activism and speech on campus.

Currently, there are three cases in California that are being investigated in response to a Title VI complaint being filed. For instance, the University of California, Berkeley campus is being investigated as a result of a complaint filed by students who were affiliated with Tikvah Students for Israel. The UC Berkeley investigation started out as a lawsuit in 2011, which was ended after the school and the students reached an agreement in which the university said it would consider changes to policy on campus protests. The judge in the original lawsuit stated that “a very substantial portion of the conduct to which [the complainants] object represents pure political speech and expressive conduct, in a public setting, regarding matters of public concern, which is entitled to special protection under the First Amendment.”

On the same day the agreement with UC Berkeley was reached, the same students filed a Title VI complaint with the San Francisco Division of the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights. The complaint alleges that mock checkpoints and Israel Apartheid Week create “a disturbing echo of incitement, intimidation, harassment and violence carried out under the Nazi regime and those of its allies in Europe against Jewish students and scholars … during the turbulent years leading up to and including the Holocaust.”

The prolonged nature of the civil rights investigations is causing “harm,” the letter from the CCR and others state. “The courts have long recognized that even government scrutiny – let alone full-blown investigations such as those at issue here – has a marked potential to chill speech and other expressive activities.”

And the Berkeley investigation has had an impact on students, the civil rights groups say. Specifically, the letter to the San Francisco Division of the DOE states:

A graduate student active with one of the groups targeted by the lawsuit against UC Berkeley (Students for Justice in Palestine) was told by his adviser that his public status as a Palestinian rights activist would hinder his career.

An Arab Muslim student stated that he declined to get involved with the second group targeted by the Berkeley lawsuit (the Muslim Student Association), for fear that it would jeopardize his chances of getting into graduate school.

Pro-Palestinian students frequently express anxiety about being falsely branded as antiSemites.

Several students declined to have their names appear on declarations to OCR regarding the UC Berkeley complaint, for fear that they would be improperly smeared as anti Semites or otherwise targeted.

Alex Kane who wrote the above is an assistant editor for Mondoweiss and the World editor for AlterNet. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.

View all posts by Alex Kane →

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A Surveillance tool for activists

I haven't tried it; sounds intriguing

http://openwatch.net/

"OpenWatch is a participatory citizen media project which uses mobile technology to enable public monitoring of authority figures.

"Welcome to OpenWatch, a global participatory counter-surveillance project which uses cellular phones as a way of monitoring authority figures.

"OpenWatch.net is the web counterpart to the Cop Recorder and OpenWatch Recorder applications for Android and iPhone. [that leaves me out; maybe a reason to go iphone] The apps, which secretly record media, then anonymously upload it are available fordownload here.

To browse all of the recordings submitted by OpenWatch contributors, click here to see the Media gallery.

To read more about the OpenWatch philosophy, technology and ways you can get involved, visit the about page.

Want to get email updates about OpenWatch? Use the form below!

--

"Was Columbus a terrorist, or an illegal alien?" pf soto rule19.org UPandOUT.org AZAPOI.org

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

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Israeli Criticism of Zionism and of Israel's Treatment of the Palestinians: The Academics and Activists

Here is my follow up article on Israeli Criticism of Zionism, "The Academics and Activists." I hope you find it of interest and a useful resource.

Ed Corrigan

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Israeli-Criticism-of-Zioni-by-Edward-C-Corrigan-100815-905.html

---

By Edward C. Corrigan
There are many Israeli critics of Zionism and anti-Zionist Jews in Israel where the conflict with the Palestinians is most apparent.[1] In 1975 journalist Charles Glass estimated that 58 percent of Israel's Jewish population fell into the antiZionist category. Most of this opposition was of a "leftist" variety. However, Glass also stated that "they represent 50 percent of the only significant debate in the country."[2]
Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the renowned scholar of Judaism and philosophy and the editor of several volumes of the Encyclopedia Hebraica had the following to say about Zionism and Israel's policies toward the Palestinians:

The big crisis of the Jewish people is that the overwhelming majority of the Jews genuinely desire to be Jewish but they have no content for their Judaism other than a piece of colored rag attached to the end of a pole and a military uniform. The consciousness and the desire to be Jewish did not vanish, rather they are transformed today into a JudeoNazi mentality.[3]

Gideon Levy, the highly regarded columnist from the Israeli daily Haaretz, has also made a comparison between Germany in the 1930's and Israel today.

Thus comparing Germany of the 1920s and early '30s to Israel at the start of the third millennium is not only permissible but imperative for gaining an insight into how barbarous regimes develop, grasping the differences (and there are many profound ones), and discerning the similarities, which ought to worry us.[4]

Another Israeli intellectual Yitzhak Laor in an article, "The soft underbelly and the victim," published in Haaretz also makes an interesting allusion to the past.

The name of this Israeli ethos is "who are you to tell us?" We are destroying Arab East Jerusalem? Who are you to tell us that it is wrong? We killed masses of Palestinians in Gaza? Who are you to tell us anything? We have maintained a brutal dictatorship in the territories for 42 years longer than any other military occupation of the postWorld War II era? Who are you to tell us? We're allowed. We're your victims. The past belongs to us. We will do as we please with it.[5]

Here is what Gideon Levy writes on the prevalence of racism in Israeli society:

Now that we can use the term "racism," the time has come to admit our society is absolutely racist, that all its components are racist. The legal system, for example, is no less tainted than Petah Tikva's Morasha school. In many cases there is one law for a Jew and another for an Arab. The Bank of Israel, a state institution no less than the Morasha school, with 900 employees, has always been "clean" of Arab employees except sometimes one or two. Some 70,000 Israeli citizens, all Arab of course, are living in unrecognized villages, without electricity or running water, without an access road and sometimes without a school. Why? Because they are Arabs. Every week at soccer matches we hear racist epithets and chants, the kind teams in Europe are severely penalized for. Here, the referees do not even bother reporting them....
And we have said nothing yet about the attitude toward foreign workers, the occupation (the greatest racist curse) nor about the attitude toward Mizrahim since the founding of the state. The list is long and shameful.[6]

Here are the words of Yael Lotan, another Israeli author and journalist, on the subject of racism and criticism of Israel.

It should be perfectly legitimate to criticize Israel. Giving it uncritical, unqualified support in all its actions, its violations of dozens of UN Security Council resolutions, its policy of assassination and destruction that is a racist position, a position that says "Arabs don't count, Arabs have no rights, Arabs are vermin and whatever is done to them in Palestine, Syria, Iraq or Lebanon is legitimate. And Islam is the same as Fascism."
Now that is real antiSemitism.[7]

There was an interesting book review published in Haaretz, on February 29, 2008, written by Tom Segev. It was a review of a book titled, When and How Was the Jewish People Invented? (published by Resling in Hebrew). It is authored by Israeli historian Shlomo Zand (also spelled Sand). Prof. Zand teaches history at Tel Aviv University. The book became a best seller in Israel.[8] Segev writes:

...in one of the most fascinating and challenging books published here in a long time. There never was a Jewish people, only a Jewish religion, and the exile also never happened hence there was no return. Zand rejects most of the stories of nationalidentity formation in the Bible, including the exodus from Egypt and, most satisfactorily, the horrors of the conquest under Joshua. It's all fiction and myth that served as an excuse for the establishment of the State of Israel, he asserts.[9]

This information and arguments have been around for a long time but it is interesting to see them published in one of Israel's leading daily newspapers and presented in a best seller written by an Israeli historian.[10] Segev summarizes the arguments in Zand's book as referencing many existing studies on groups that converted to Judaism, "some of which were written in Israel but shunted out of the central discourse." According to Segev the book describes the Jewish kingdom of Himyar in the southern Arabian Peninsula, the Jewish Berbers in North Africa, Jews in Spain that arose from the Arab conquest, and Europeanborn individuals who had also become Jews. Zand also discusses the large Jewish Khazar Kingdom in the Caucasus. Segev writes,

We find, then, that the members of a variety of peoples and races, blond and black, brown and yellow, became Jews in large numbers. According to Zand, the Zionist need to devise for them a shared ethnicity and historical continuity produced a long series of inventions and fictions, along with an invocation of racist theses. Some were concocted in the minds of those who conceived the Zionist movement, while others were offered as the findings of genetic studies conducted in Israel.[11]

It is somewhat ironic that issues and subjects that relate to the Palestinians and Zionism that are virtually taboo in North America are openly discussed in Israel. These same subjects are much more openly discussed in Europe and in the rest of the World.[12]
The journalist Gideon Levy wrote the following commentary on Zionism and the Israeli Left in the Israeli daily Haaretz. Can you ever imagine seeing a similar opinion piece in the mainstream North American media? Levy wrote:

And what is Zionism nowadays? An archaic and outdated concept born in a different reality, a vague and delusive concept marking the difference between the permitted and the proscribed. Does Zionism mean settlement in the territories? Occupation? The legitimization of every act of violence and injustice? The left stammered. Any statement critical of Zionism, even the Zionism of the occupation, was considered a taboo that the left did not dare break. The right grabbed a monopoly on Zionism, leaving the left with its selfrighteousness.
A Jewish and democratic state? The Zionist left said yes automatically, fudging the difference between the two and not daring to give either priority. Legitimization for every war? The Zionist left stammered again yes to the beginning and no to the continuation, or something like that. Solving the refugee problem and the right of return? Acknowledgment of the wrongdoing of 1948? Unmentionable. This left has now, rightly, reached the end of its road.[13]

One of the most prominent Israeli critics is Avi Shlaim. He is professor of international relations at Oxford University. Shlaim is one of the world's foremost authorities on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and the author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World and many other books.[14] Shlaim has commented on the character of the debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in North America,

On the other side of the Atlantic, on the other hand, the public debate on the subject of Israel is much more fierce and partisan, leaving relatively little space for the dignity of difference. The passion with which many prominent American Jews defend Israel betrays an atavistic attitude of "my country, right or wrong."[15]

In an article published in the International Herald Tribune the Oxford professor addressed the question, "Is Zionism today the real enemy of the Jews?" His answer was Yes:

Sharon's government is waging a savage war against the Palestinian people. Its policies include the confiscation of land; the demolition of houses; the uprooting of trees; curfews, roadblocks and 736 checkpoints that inflict horrendous hardships; the systematic abuse of Palestinian human rights; and the building of the illegal wall on the West Bank, a wall that is as much about landgrabbing as it is about security.
It is this brand of cruel Zionism that is the real enemy of what remains of liberal Israel and of the Jews outside Israel. It is the enemy because it fuels the flames of virulent and sometimes violent antiSemitism. Israel's policies are the cause; hatred of Israel and antiSemitism are the consequences . . .
Israel's image today is negative not because it is a Jewish state but because it habitually transgresses the norms of acceptable international behavior. Indeed, Israel is increasingly perceived as a rogue state, as an international pariah, and as a threat to world peace.
This perception of Israel is a major factor in the recent resurgence of antiSemitism in Europe and in the rest of the world. In this sense, Zionism today is the real enemy of the Jews. It is a tragedy that a state that was built as a haven for the Jewish people after the Holocaust is now one of the least safe places on earth for Jews to live in. Israel ought to withdraw from the occupied territories not as a favor to the Palestinians but as a favor to itself and to world Jewry for, as Karl Marx noted, "a people that oppresses another cannot itself remain free."[16]

After Israel launched its attack on Gaza on December 27, 2009 Shlaim published the following statement criticizing Israel's actions.

The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel's vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration's complicity in this assault, have reopened the question.. . .
This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so.[17]

Many other Israelis also protested the Israeli assault on Gaza. For example there is a letter from 22 prominent Israelis who published an appeal in The Guardian. They wrote:

We, as Israeli citizens, raise our voices to call on EU leaders: use sanctions against Israel's brutal policies and join the active protests of Bolivia and Venezuela. We appeal to the citizens of Europe: please attend to the Palestinian Human Rights Organisation's call, supported by more than 540 Israeli citizens (http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/): boycott Israeli goods and Israeli institutions; follow resolutions such as those made by the cities of Athens, Birmingham and Cambridge (US). This is the only road left. Help us all, please!"[18]

Judge Richard Goldstone's UN Commission of Inquiry which investigated the December 27, 2008 Israeli attack on Gaza and the Palestinian response made a number of findings that were critical of both Israel and Hamas. As reported in the New York Times, when, "Asked about accusations that he was antiIsrael," Judge Goldstone acknowledged he was Jewish and said, "It is grossly wrong to label a mission or to label a report critical of Israel as being antiIsrael."[19] While the UN Commission of Inquiry was widely attacked in Israel there were a number of Israelis who supported its critical findings.[20]
One of the most outspoken and courageous Israeli journalists is Amira Hass. Since 2000, Amira Hass has been the only Jewish Israeli reporter living in Occupied Palestine - formerly in Gaza City, and now based out of Ramallah. She is a correspondent for the Israeli daily Haaretz.[i]

---

There are many Israeli academics and intellectuals who are extremely critical of Zionism and of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.[21] To quote a study published by a group affiliated with the Israel Academia Monitor:

...The opinions and claims of Israel academics against Jews, Zionism and Israel are discussed and analyzed in this study. It is estimated that some 20 to 25% of people who teach the Humanities and Social Sciences in Israel's universities and colleges have expressed extreme antiZionist positions, largely, though not exclusively, in regard to Israel's policies and actions visàvis the Arab Palestinians . . . [22]

The fact is that many Israelis academics and activists have voiced strong criticism of Zionism and Israeli state policy toward the Palestinians.
Occupation Magazine which is published by a group of anti-Occupation Israelis has an archive of over 36,000 articles, many written by anti-occupation Israelis and Jews from around the world.[88] It also provides links to dozens of Israeli human rights organizations, many not listed in this article.[89] These Israeli human rights organizations include B'Tselem,[90] Machsom Watch,[91] Rabbis for Human Rights,[92] and The Israeli Public Committee Against Torture,[93] Yesh Gvul, the movement for soldiers of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories[94] and Refusniks, young Israelis who refuse to serve in the Israeli military.[95] For a collection of Israeli opposition to Zionism and opposition to Israel's treatment of the Palestinians one can review The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent, edited by Roane Carey and Jonathan Shainin. It contains articles very critical of Israel's policies, written by 27 prominent Israelis. The Forward was written by a prominent Israeli author and journalist Tom Segev.[96]
The list of writers in The Other Israel include Ami Ayalon, former head of Israel's General Security Service or Shin Bet; Yigal Bonner professor at Tel Aviv University; author David Grossman; Aviv Lavie Haaretz media reporter; attorney Shamai Leibowitz; Ishai Menuchin, a major in the Israeli Defense Forces Reserves and head of Yesh Gvul (the Israelis organization of selective refusal); Dr. Yigal Shocat former Surgeon General for the Israeli Airforce; Gila Svirsky chair of B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories; and Sergio Yahni co-director of the Alternative Information Centre, among others already cited in this article.[97]
There is a growing concern amongst some Israelis that there is a growing rift between diaspora Jews and Israeli Jews. Professor Yehezkel Dror, the founding president of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI), "offered a somber take on relations between Israel and Diaspora Jewry" and pointed "the finger of blame at Israel's leadership for the growing rift between the two." Professor Dror stated that, "There is no ignoring the fact . . . that at the heart of the rift between Israel and Jewish communities abroad lies the notion that Diaspora youth have a negative views of Israel politically, nationally and socially." [98]
Gideon Levy in an interview with Mario Vargas Llosa, the prizewinning Peruvian writer and a laureate of the prestigious Jerusalem Prize, published in Haaretz quoted the distinguished author saying that "only the dissidents will save the State of Israel."[99]
Other critical voices from Israel's academia and activists circles include the late Professor Israel Shahak former Chair of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights;[23] the late Baruch Kimmerling, Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem;[24] retired Anthropology professor Jeff Halper now head of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions;[25] Tel Aviv University professor Gary Sussman;[26] Felica Langer, a well known human rights lawyer who left Israel and now resides in Germany;[27] Michael Warschawski, co-founder of the Alternative Information Center;[28] Eitan Bronstein Chair of Zochrot, which means "Remember," and works to remind Israelis about the Nakba or Palestinian catastrophe;[29] the late linguist and journalist Tanya Reinhart, Professor of theoretical linguistics and Media and Cultural Studies at Tel Aviv University and at the University of Utrecht;[30] the late Victoria Buch professor at Hebrew University;[31] Avi Kleinberg, professor of History at Tel Aviv University;[32] Dr. Yossi Dahan, Chair of the Adva Centre, manager of the Human Rights Division at the Academic College of Law in Ramat Gan, and an editor of Ha'Oketz;[33] author Gershom Gorenberg;[34] Sammy Smooha a sociologist who served as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Haifa;[35] Yossi Swartz professor at the Tel Aviv University Law School;[36] Allegra Pacheco, an Israeli human rights attorney, noted for prosecuting the first Israeli torture trial;[37] Rabbi Arik Ascherman, head of Rabbis for Human Rights; [38] Hannah Mermelstein, cofounder and codirector of Birthright Unplugged;[39] Carlo Strenger, professor of psychology at Tel Aviv University;[40] Oren Yiftachel, Geography professor Ben-Gurion University;[41] New Israeli Historian Ilan Pappe, presently the Chair of the History Department at the University of Essex in England, and formerly of history department of the University of Haifa in Israel;[42] world renown author Jacobo Timerman;[43] Neve Gordon Chair of the Political Science Department at Ben-Gurion University;[44] Avraham Oz, associate professor of theater at the University of Haifa;[45] Dror Etkes, who headed Peace Now's Settlements Watch Project for five years and now heads the Land Advocacy Project of Yesh Din, a group working against violation of Palestinians' rights by settlers;[46] Erik Schechter, the former military correspondent for The Jerusalem Post;[47] Yosefa Loshitzky, Professor of Film, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of East London;[48] Yacov Ben Efrat of Challenge Magazine;[49] Amos Oz, who Steven Plaut describes as "arguably Israel's bestknown writer;"[50] and another famous Israeli writer with an international reputation, A.B. Yehoshua;[51] Tikva Honig-Parnass, editor of Between the Lines;[52] author and journalist Amnon Kapeliouk;[53] Oren Ben-Dor, professor of Legal and Political Philosophy at the School of Law, University of Southampton, UK;[54] Gilad Atzmon, author of two books and numerous articles, and also one of the most accomplished jazz saxophonists in Europe;[55] prolific writer Israel Shamir;[56] Amia Lieblich, professor of Psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of numerous books on the psychology of Israeli society including Tin Soldiers on Jerusalem Beach;[57] Haaretz columnist Nehema Shtrasler;[58] IsraeliAmerican human rights lawyer Sari Bashi;[59] Adam Atsan an IsraeliAmerican who is involved in Kesher Enoshi: Progressives For Activism in Israel;[60] author Akiva Orr;[61] David Newman, professor of political geography at BenGurion University and editor of the International journal, Geopolitics;[62] author Susan Nathan;[63] author and journalist Yael Lotan;[64] Israeli Television correspondent Yigal Laviv;[65] professor of political science at Tel Aviv university Ze'ev Maoz;[66] Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken;[67] Haaretz editor Danny Rubinstein;[68] and Yitzhak Laor, one of Israel's most distinguished poets, novelists and a longtime editor and writer for the daily newspaper Haaretz, who also edits an independent journal of literature and political thought, Mita'am;[69] Adi Opir professor of philosophy at the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University and also a fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute;[70] Akiva Eldar, Israeli journalist and author, currently chief political columnist and editorial writer for Haaretz;[71] journalist Meron Rapoport;[72] an orthodox Jewish studies professor who writes under the nom de plume of Jeremiah (Jerry) Haber and runs the Magnes Zionist blog;[73] B. Michael one of Israel's most respected journalists who until recently with writing for Yedioth Aharonoth;[74] Ran HaCohen professor at Tel Aviv University's Department of Comparative Literature and a literary critic for the Israeli daily Yedioth Achronoth;[75] journalist Shraga Elam;[76] Hillel Cohen Research Fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem;[77] Haaretz journalist and editorial Board member Avirama Golan;[78] Shai Lahav Editor of the art and culture supplement to Ma'ariv, the country's most rightwing newspaper;[79] journalist and former IDF conscript Seth Freeman;[80] Yehouda Shenhav professor at Tel Aviv University and the editor of Theory Criticism, an Israeli journal in the area of critical theory and cultural studies;[81] Eyal Sivan, one of Israel's leading film makers;[82] Elana Maryles Sztokman, author, educator, writer, researcher and regular contributor to The Jerusalem Post;[83] Adam Keller journalist and a founder of The Other Israel;[84] and Gideon Spiro, a former Israeli Sergeant and journalist;[85] Israeli Professor Ada Yonath 2009 Nobel Prize winner for chemistry;[86] to name only a few of the many Israelis who are anti-Zionist, non-Zionist or extremely critical of Zionism and Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.[87]




[1] See "Jewish Criticism of Zionism," by Edward C. Corrigan, American Arab Affairs, Winter 199091, Number 35, pp. 94-116.
[2] Charles Glass, "Jews Against Zionism: Israeli Jewish AntiZionism," Journal of Palestine Studies, Autumn 1975/ Winter 1976, p. 57.
[3] "Professor Leibowitz Called for Counter Terror: 'Had I been Younger I Would Have Done It My Self,'" Yediot Aharonot, February 13, 1983, cited in Uri Davis, "Israel's Zionist Society: Consequences for Internal Opposition and the Necessity for External Intervention," Judaism or Zionism, eds. EAFORD and AJAZ, (London: Zed Books, 1986), p. 200. For more of his views see Joe Franklin, "Interview with Yeshayahu Leibowitz," AmericanArab Affairs, Fall 1988, pp. 7577.
[4] "Elsewhere, perhaps," by Gideon Levy, Haaretz, September 9, 2003. See also "One racist nation," by Gideon Levy, Haaretz, March 26, 2006; and "The threat of the demographic threat," by Gideon Levy, Haaretz, July 22, 2007.
[5] "The soft underbelly and the victim," by Yitzhak Laor, Haaretz, August 26, 2009.
[6] "Ethiopian students affair shows prevalent racism in Israel," by Gideon Levy, Haaretz, September 3, 2009.
[7] "Who is antiSemitic?," by Yael Lotan, Hagada Hasmalit, November 13, 2007.
[8] "Controversial Bestseller Shakes the Foundation of the Israeli State," by Joshua Holland, AlterNet, January 28, 2009.
[9] "An Invention Called 'The Jewish People,'" by Tom Segev, Haaretz, February 29, 2008.
[10] For a somewhat critical review of the book see, "Jewish History Inventing an invention," by Israel Bartal, Haaretz, July 2, 2008. It is interesting that this author also confirms many of the facts listed by Zand but contests the claim that this information was deliberately hidden as a way to promote the development of the concept of a common "national" origin of the Jewish people.
[11] Ibid. There is extensive documentation on Khazars' conversion to Judaism. See for example D.M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars, (Princeton University Press, 1954). Also See Arthur Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe, (New York: Random House, 1976); Peter B. Golden, Kharar Studies: A Historico-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars: Vol 1, (Budapest: Akademiai Kiado, 1980); "The Grand Illusion of Jewish Ethnicity," by Alfred Lilienthal, Middle East Policy, Fall 1992, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 106-117; Martin Gilbert, The Dent Atlas of Jewish History (5th ed.) (J. M. Dent: London, 1993) p.24. The Gilbert map shows Khazaria as being approximately the same size the present day Ukraine; Kevin Alan Brook, The Jews of Khazaria, (New York: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1999). The conversion of the Khazars is readily acknowledged in a number of Jewish Encyclopedias. See for example The Jewish Encyclopedia Vol IV, (Ktav Publishing House), "The Chazars," pp. 1-7; "Khazars," The Encyclopaedia Judaica, (The MacMillian Company) Vol. 10, pp. 944-954; "The Himyarites and the Khazar Kings," Medieval Jewish Civilization: An Encyclopedia, Norman Roth, Editor, (Routledge: New York and London, 2003), pp. 385-386; "Khazars," The New Standard Jewish Encvyclopedia,( 7th Edition), Geoffrey Wigoder Editor in Chief, (Facts on File: New York and Oxford, 1992) pp. 554-555.
[12] For example see, "Across West Bank daily tragedies go unseen," by Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, April 27, 2002; "New Israeli Scholars Face up to Israel's Origins," by Eric Rouleau and "Are the Jews an Invented People" by Eric Rouleau, Le Monde diplomatique, 10 May, 2008; "Israel's Lies," by Henry Siegman, London Review of Books, January 29, 2009; "A crisis in Judaism: For many Jews today, Israel is not a normal state - it is a cause or ideal, and therein lies the problem," by Brian Klug, The Guardian, January 15, 2009; "Israel's war crimes," by Richard Falk, Le Monde diplomatique, English edition, March, 2009; "Gaza, One More Bantustan: Palestine the view from South Africa," by Alain Gresh, Le Monde diplomatique, English edition, August, 2009, pp. 45; "Israel's state sponsored injustice," by Seth Freedman, The Guardian, August 17, 2009; and "Israel's culture of impunity," by Sharon Weill, Le Monde diplomatique, September 2009.
[13] "Does Zionism legitimize every act of violence," by Gideon Levy, Haaretz, February 12, 2009. For a similar opinion see, "Who is a terrorist?," by Gideon Levy, Haaretz, April 16, 2006; and "Someone must stop Israel's rampant madness in Gaza," by Gideon Levy, Haaretz, January 16, 2009.
[14] Among his books are Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 2001); and (as co-editor) The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001). His most recent book is Lion of Jordan: the Life of King Hussein in War and Peace, (London: Allan Lane/Penguin, 2007).
[15] "Israel free speech and the Oxford Union," by Avi Shalim, Alternet and Informed Comment, November 13, 2007.
[16] "Is Zionism today the real enemy of the Jews: Yes," by Avi Shlaim, International Herald Tribune, February 4, 2005.
[17] "How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe," by Avi Shlaim, The Guardian, January 7, 2009.
[18] See, "Words and deeds in the Middle East," The Guardian, January 17, 2009.
[19] "Inquiry Finds Gaza War Crimes From Both Sides," by Neil Macfarquhar, New York Times, September 15, 2009.
[20] For an opinion article critical of Goldstone's findings see, "Goldstone report unfair to Israel," by Jeremy Sharon, Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2009. Jeremy Sharon is a researcher and writer based in Jerusalem. He has worked at a number of Israeli think tanks and served in the IDF Spokesperson's Unit. See also "Disgrace in The Hague," by Gideon Levy, Haaretz, September 17, 2009. For a discussion of articles published in the Israeli press supporting Judge Goldstone see "The Goldstone Report and the Debate in Israel, " by Edward C. Corrigan, Dissident Voice, December 2, 2009. http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/12/the-goldstone-report-and-the-debate-in-israel/. It was also published in Occupation Magazine in Israel. http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=37067
[i] See for example her articles, "The founders of apartheid would be proud, The High Court of Justice is in no hurry," by Amira Hass, Haaretz, Janaury 17, 2007; "Pots of urine feces on walls how IDF troops vandalized Gaza homes," by Amira Hass, Haaretz, March 6, 2009; "Out of bounds?," by Amira Hass, Haaretz, September 3, 2009; "Mahmoud Abbas' chronic submissiveness," by Amira Hass, Haaretz, October 6, 2009. Amira Hass is the Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied Territories. Born in Jerusalem in 1956, Hass joined Haaretz in 1989, and has been in her current position since 1993. As correspondent for the Territories, she has spent three years living in Gaza, which served of the basis of her widely acclaimed book, Drinking the Sea at Gaza. She has lived in the West Bank city of Ramallah since 1997. Hass is also the author of two other books, both of which are compilations of her articles.
[21] See ALEF WATCH IsraCampus.Org "Big brother is watching, and "Monitoring Israel's Academic Fifth Column Following antiIsrael Extremism on the Israeli Campus." The site lists 119 Israeli academics who are targeted by the organization and deemed to be "extreme critics." Their web site is http://www.isracampus.org.il/index.htm. For an example an article critical of attacks made against Israeli academic's who are opposed to Israeli policies toward the Palestinians see, "A McCarthyite attempt to brand academics," by Lily Galili, Haaretz, November 30, 2007.
[22] "Our Inner Scourge: The Catastrophe of Israel Academics," by Shlomo Sharan, ACPR Policy Paper No, 171, 2007 in cooperation with the Israel Academia Monitor.
[23] Israel Shahak, "The Racist Nature of Zionism and the Zionistic State of Israel," The Link, Winter 19751976; and also Israel Shahak Jewish History, Jewish Religion, (London: Pluto Press, 1994); Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, 2nd ed. (London: Pluto Press, 2003). For an example of the work of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights see Report on the Violation of Human Rights in the Territories during the Uprising, 1988, (Tel Aviv: The Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, 1988). For a more recent report see "Civil rights group: Israel has reached new heights of racism," by Yuval Yoaz and Jack Khoury, Haaretz, December 9, 2007.
[24] "The Politicide of Palestinian People," by Baruch Kimmerling, Dissident Voice, June 11, 2002. See also Baruch Kimmerling, Politicide: Ariel Sharon's War Against the Palestinians, (London: Verso, 2003).
[25] "The 94 Percent Solution A Matrix of Control," by Jeff Halper, Middle East Report 116, Fall 2000; see also "An Israeli Jew in Gaza," by Jeff Halper, Counterpunch, August 5, 2008. Also "Dismantling the Matrix of Control," by Jeff Halper, Middle East Report, September 11, 2009.
[26] "The Challenge to the TwoState Solution," by Gary Sussman, Middle East Report 231, (Summer 2004).
[27] Felicia Langer, With My Own Eyes: Israel and the Occupied Territories 1967-1973, (London: Ithaca Press, 1975).
[28] Michel Warschawski, Toward an Open Tomb: The Crisis of Israeli Society, trans. Peter Drucker (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2004); also see "Citizenship Zionism and separation of religion and state," by Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center (AIC), December 31, 2007. Reprinted in Occupation Magazine, January 8, 2008. "Normalization or Sanctions?," by Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center (AIC), May 18, 2009. The Alternative Information Centre web site is http://www.alternativenews.org/
[29] "Eitan Bronstein Israelis confront Nakba denial," Institute for Middle East Understanding, March 10, 2008; see also "A response to the proposal to ban commemoration of the Nakba on Independence Day," by Eitan Bronstein, Zochrot, YNet News, May 28, 2009 (in Hebrew) republished in Occupation Magazine, Translated by Yuval Orr and Talia Fried. Zochrot's web site is found at http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/index.php?lang=english
[30] "Don't say You Didn't Know," by Tanya Reinhart, Yediot Aharonot, November 6, 2000; and Tanya Reinhart, Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948, (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2002).
[31] "Israel's Agenda For Ethnic Cleansing and Transfer," by Victoria Buch, Counterpunch, September 19, 2007.
[32] "Sale of JNF land to Jews only is blatant discrimination that must be stopped," by Avi Kleinberg, YNet News, September 26, 2007; "Nation of citations," Aviad Kleinberg disturbed by citations given to IDF soldiers for avoiding innocent casualties," by Aviad Kleinberg, YNet News, April 7, 2009.
[33] See IsraCampus.org.il and "Subversive Organizations" and Forbidden Words," by Yossi Dahan, Ha'Oketz, July 20, 2005, reprinted in Occupation Magazine, June 23, 2005; "Invasion of the Settlers," by Dr. Yossi Dahan, Ma'ariv/NRG, July 31, 2005 reprinted in Occupation Magazine, August 1, 2005.
[34] "The collapse began today," by Gershom Gorenberg, Haaretz, July 15, 2008. Gershom Gorenberg is the author of The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977. He blogs at southjerusalem.com. See also "The War to Begin All Wars," by Gershom Gorenberg, New York Review of Books, Volume 56 Number 9, May 28, 2009. See also "Settling for Radicalism : How the Israeli government has fostered religious extremism and fractured its own democracy," by Gershom Gorenberg, The American Prospect, June 15, 2009.
[35] Sammy Smooha, author of Israel: Pluralism and Conflict, (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul; Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978); The Orientation and Politicization of the Arab Minority in Israel, (Haifa: The JewishArab Center, University of Haifa, 1984); Arabs and Jews in Israel. Vol. 1: Conflicting and Shared Attitudes in a Divided Society, (Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1989); and Arabs and Jews in Israel. Vol. 2: Change and Continuity in Mutual Intolerance, (Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1992).
[36] "Tired but Satisfied Israels Strategies in the Demographic War Against the Palestinians from 1948 to the Present," by Yossi Schwartz, Alternative Information Center (AIC), October 7, 2008.
[37] "Closure and Apartheid: Eight Years of "Peace" through Separation," by Allegra Pacheco, Media Monitors Network, February 15, 2001. Allegra Pacheco, an Israeli human rights attorney practicing in Bethlehem, is a founder of the Freedom of Movement Project.
[38] "If All Rabbis Were Like Arik Ascherman, Middle East Peace Would Be Attainable," by Pat McDonnell Twair, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, October 2001, page 15.
[39] "The end of Israel," by Hannah Mermelstein, The Electronic Intifada, December 19, 2007; see also, "This land was theirs," by Hannah Mermelstein, The Jewish Advocate (Boston), March 22, 2008. Hannah Mermelstein is cofounder and codirector of Birthright Unplugged, which takes mostly Jewish North American people into the West Bank to meet with Palestinian people and to equip them to return to their own communities and work for justice; and takes Palestinian children from refugee camps to Jerusalem, the sea, and the villages their grandparents fled in 1948, and supports them to document their experiences and create photography exhibits to share with their communities and with the world.
[40] "On the way to a pariah state," by Carlo Strenger, Haaretz, September 25, 2007; "Zionism? PostZionism? Just give arguments," by Carlo Strenger, Haaretz, December 20, 2007; and "I accuse," by Carlo Strenger, Haaretz, September 29, 2008.
[41] Oren Yiftachel, "The Jailer State," New Matilida.com, January 12, 2009, republished in Jewish Peace News, January 17, 2009. Professor Oren Yiftachel teaches political geography and urban planning at BenGurion University, Beersheba. Yiftachel has written extensively on the political geography of ethnic conflict. Among his books are: Ethnocracy: Land and Identity Politics in Israel/Palestine, (2006, Penn Press), and Israelis in Conflict, ed. (Sussex Academic Press, 2004). He is an occasional contributor to Israel's leading newspapers Haaretz and YNet News. Yiftachel is an active member in several peace and civil society organizations, including B'tselem, the Bedouin Council of Unrecognized Villages, Adva and is a founding member of Faculty for Israel Palestine Peace (FFIPP).
[42] Ilan Pappe, Britain and the ArabIsraeli Conflict, 194851, (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1988); and The Making of the ArabIsraeli Conflict, 19471951, (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1994).
[43] Jacobo Timerman, The Longest War: Israel in Lebanon, translated by Miguel Acoca, (New York: Vintage Books, 1982). He is the author of the best selling book Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number.
[44] "A state of all its citizens," by Neve Gordon, The Guardian, April 20, 2007. See also, "Boycott Israel: An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion that it's the only way to save his country," by Neve Gordon, Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2009. For the reaction this opinion piece evoked see, "Hysteria follows LA Times op-ed," MuzzleWatch click here See also "Education Minister slams Israeli lecturer's 'apartheid' oped," by Barak Ravid, Haaretz, Correspondent and Haaretz Services, Haaretz, August 23, 2009. For a balanced article see "University urges lecturer who endorsed boycott to resign," by Ilana Curiel, YNet News, August 28, 2009. For an Israel academic opinion in support of Gordon see, "Israeli academics must pay the price to end occupation," by Anat Matar, Haaretz, August 27, 2009. See also letter from the Middle East Studies Association Committee on Academic Freedom in Support of Professor Neve Gordon, dated August 27, 2009. See also "Ben-Gurion U. Debates Cost of Academic Freedom," by Nathan Jeffay, The Forward, September 11, 2009.
[45] See IsraCampus.org.il and see "How much blood should be spilled in vain?," by Avraham Oz, Occupation Magazine, August 23, 2005; "This is my country. As it is commonly known, "the only democracy in the Middle East," by Avraham Oz, Occupation Magazine, September 20, 2005; and "Toughts of an Israeli War Resister," by Avraham Oz, Occupation Magazine, July 25, 2006.
[46] "JNF's blatant hypocrisy: Why can JNF land be leased to nonJewish immigrants, but not to Arabs?," by Dror Etkes, YNet News, October 4, 2007.
[47] "Say goodbye to the JNF," by Erik Schechter, The Jerusalem Post, August 5, 2007. The writer is the former military correspondent for The Jerusalem Post and is based in Tel Aviv.
[48] See, "Israel's blonde bombshells and real bombs in Gaza," by Yosefa Loshitzky, Electronic Intafada, January 5, 2009. Her most recent books are Identity Politics on the Israeli Screen, (2001) and (as editor) Spielberg's Holocaust: Critical Perspectives on Schindler's List, (1997).
[49] "A Palestinian State Within Two Years," by Yacov Ben Efrat, Challenge Magazine, August 31, 2009. Challenge Magazine is an electronic publication which "covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Its web site is http://www.challengemag.com/en/home
[50] See, "Good Morning, Elijah: Amos Oz Does The Peace Tour," by Steven Plaut, The Jewish Press, May 21, 2008; "Israel partly at fault We must assume partial blame for refugee problem in order to resolve it," by Amos Oz, YNet News, April 29, 2007; "Amos Oz against Gaza invasion: 'Ceasefire with Hamas': "Kol Israel radio [interview], noted down [not verbatim] by Adam Keller, February. 12, 2008, interview on the occasion of Amos Oz receiving the Dan David Prize," published in Occupation Magazine, February 12, 2008; and "Don't march into Gaza," by Amos Oz, YNet News, February 13, 2008.
[51] See for example "Separating Religion from National Identity Interview with Avraham B.Yehoshua: How the link between religion and nationality is unhealthy and immoral, and why nationality cannot depend on religion," Palestine-Israel Journal, Vol. 8, No 4, 2001 and Vol. 9, No 1, 2002; "A.B. Yehoshua: Bush should recall ambassador until outposts dismantled Israeli novelist says Israel deceiving international community into focusing solely on illegal outposts, thus legitimizing settlement enterprise," by Menachem Gantz, YNet News, January 20, 2008; see also "An open letter to Gideon Levy," by A.B. Yehoshua, Haaretz, January 16, 2009; and reply "An open response to A.B. Yehoshua," by Gideon Levy, Haaretz, January 18, 2009; and "Lend an Ear to Breaking the Silence," by A. B. Yehoshua, Yedioth Ahronoth, July 21, 2009.
[52] See "Israeli WriterActivist Tikva HonigParnass, Who Fought for Israel's Founding in 1948, on 60 Years of Palestinian Dispossession and Occupation," Amy Goodman Interview, Democracy Now, May 16, 2008. Between the Lines address is P.O. Box 681, Jerusalem, Israel. Their web site is http//http://www.between-lines.org
[53] See Sabra & Shatila, inquiry into a massacre, by Amnon Kapeliouk, (Belmont, Mass: Association of ArabAmerican University Graduates, 1984); "The changing pattern of Israeli immigration," by Amnon Kapeliouk, Le Monde diplomatique, November 1997; and "The Sharon plan Gaza: why Israel wants to leave;" by Amnon Kapeliouk, Le Monde diplomatique, December 2004; "Israel's failed invasion," by Amnon Kapeliouk, Le Monde diplomatique, September 4, 2006; also see "Israel: an army in power: Israel's army no longer represents the Israeli people (religious exemptions have narrowed its conscript basis), while the people have lost confidence in the army. It has grown used to being an army of occupation and a police force for the settler movement, not to fighting wars - especially unwarranted wars," by Amnon Kapeliouk, Le Monde diplomatique, November 2007; also see "A Fearless Israeli Journalist: Remembering Amnon Kapeliouk," by Franklin Lamb, CounterPunch, July 1, 2009.
[54] "The Root Causes of Tragedy: The Ethical and Legal Challenges Facing Palestine," by Oren BenDor, CounterPunch, December 15, 2005; "Israeli Apartheid is the Core of the Crisis," by Oren BenDor, CounterPunch, June 23 / 24, 2007; "Despite It's Military Might Israel is a Weak and Dying State: The Self Defense of Suicide," by Oren BenDor, CounterPunch, January 1, 2009. His latest book, Thinking About Law: In Silence with Heidegger, was published in 2007 by Hart Publishing.
[55] "Israel's Raids on Gaza and Lebanon: Echoes of the Wehrmacht," by Gilad Atzmon, CounterPunch, July 1417, 2006; "From Delusion to Vindictiveness," by Gilad Atzmon, Information Clearing House, October 13, 2009. Gilad Atzmon was born in Israel and served in the Israeli military. He is the author of two novels: A Guide to the Perplexed and the recently released My One and Only Love. Atzmon is also one of the most accomplished jazz saxophonists in Europe. His recent CD, Exile, was named 2006's best jazz CD by the BBC. He now lives in London, England.
[56] "A Real Friend of Israel Wishes Its Army a Sound Defeat in South Lebanon", by Israel Shamir, CounterPunch, July 29/30, 2006. See also "Jewish apartheid state, that deserves to disappear," Media Monitors Network, April 2, 2002. Israel Shamir resides in Jaffa Israel. He originally from Russia and is an exIsraeli paratrooper. He has championed a "one state solution" for Palestine/Israel. He referred to Palestine as a "living country," and its people the Palestinians, as "her soul."
[57] "Sign of a society losing its mind," by Amia Lieblich, Haaretz, June 30, 2007. Prof. Amia Lieblich's book, Yaldey kfar etzion ("The Children of Kfar Etzion") was published by Keter and the University of Haifa (in Hebrew).
[58] See, "How Israel's gungho leaders turned victory into calamity: Our government, in its desperation to outgun its predecessor, spurned a glorious chance to come out of this with honour," by Nehemia Shtrasler, The Guardian, August 3, 2006; " So what have we done to them," by Nehemia Shtrasler, Haaretz, December 19, 2007.
[59] See "Amid broad Israeli support for Gaza war a rare dissenting voice," by Joshua Mitnick, Christian Science Monitor, January 16, 2009.
[60] "Coming Face To Face With Israeli Racism," by Adam Astan, Mondoweiss, 3 August, 2009. Astan is an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley.
[61] Akiva Orr, The unJewish State, (London: Ithaca Press, 1983) and Akiva Orr, Israel: Politics, Myths and Identity Crisis, (London and Boulder, CO: Pluto Press, 1994). Akiva was born in Berlin in 1931 and immigrated to Palestine with his family in 1934, growing up in Tel Aviv. He served in the Israeli Navy in 1948 and after the war studied mathematics and physics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In the early 1950s, he became critical of Zionism, joining the Israeli Communist Party in 1953. However, in 1962, he broke from the party and jointly founded the antiZionist Israeli organization Matzpen. He has written several other books including The Other Israel: The Radical Case Against Zionism and the Direct Democracy Manifesto.
[62] See "Israel's democracy and its Arab population," by David Newman, The Jerusalem Post, October 5, 2009.
[63] Susan Nathan, The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide, (New York and London: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2005); see also "Author no longer 'in love with the Zionist narrative,'" by Deaglan de Breadun, Irish Times, July 28, 2005.
[64] "Antisemites!," by Yael Lotan, Hagada Hasmalit, March 10, 2007; "Who is antiSemitic?," by Yael Lotan, Hagada Hasmalit, November 13, 2007; "Messing with the Public Mind," by Yael Lotan, Hagada Hasmalit, September 3, 2009, republished in Occupation Magazine, September 7, 2009.
[65] "The fascistization of Israel," by Yigal Laviv, Al Tzad Smol, January 24, 2008, translated and reprinted in Occupation Magazine, January 27, 2008; see also 'Still Small Voice' of Israeli Media Dissent Over Syrian Nuclear Story September 17th, 2007at Richard Silverstein's Tikun Olam web site, click here
[66] "Morality is not on our side," by Ze'ev Maoz, Haaretz, July 25, 2006. He was commenting on the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
[67] "Citizenship law makes Israel an apartheid state," by Amos Schocken, Haaretz, June 27, 2008.
[68] "No writing on the wall," by Danny Rubinstein, Haaretz, September 27, 2006; also see, "Haaretz Editor Refuses to Retract Israel Apartheid Statements," by Ezra HaLevi, Israel National News, July 31, 2008.
[69] "You are terrorists, we are virtuous," by Yitzhak Laor, London Review of Books, Vol. 28, No. 16, August 17, 2006; "Democracy for Jews only," by Yitzhak Laor, Haaretz, May 30, 2007; see also, "A history of discrimination," by Yitzhak Laor, Haaretz, May 27, 2009. Yitzhak Laor, is an Israeli poet, author, and journalist. He was born in Pardes Hanna, Israel in 1948. He is the author of five poetry books, 19 novels, plays, and article collections. He is mostly known for his poetry of political protest, particularly about the Lebanese War of 1982 and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. In his poem, "In a Village whose Name I don't even know," he imagines himself stranded in a Lebanese village: "For a moment I hoped that I would be caught." He has published several collections of poetry, as well as short stories, essays, a play and two novels. His book The Myths of Liberal Zionism was published in English by Verso Books in February 2009.
[70] "A Response to Benny Morris: Genocide Hides Behind Expulsion," by Adi Ophir, CounterPunch, January 16, 2004.
[71] See for example, "Palestinian state is not synonym for terrorist entity," by Akiva Eldar, Haaretz, August 17, 2009. See also "U.S. is blind to limits of Palestinian politics," by Akiva Eldar, Haaretz, September 14, 2009. Eldar's columns also appear regularly in the HaaretzInternational Herald Tribune edition, as well as in the Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun. He has lectured at the School of Journalism in Tel Aviv University and is also a consultant at CBS News. Eldar graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he majored in Economics, Political Science and Psychology. After that he served as spokesperson for former Mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek. Then he was reporter and editor at the Israeli Public Radio. Eldar has been with Haaretz since 1978, in 19831993 he was the diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz. In 19931996 he served as Haaretz United States Bureau Chief and Washington, D.C. correspondent, covering the peace process, IsraelUnited States relations, American issues and IsraelDiaspora relations. He was a special consultant to Abba Eban's PBS television documentaries on the history of Israel and the Oslo accords. In October 2007 Akiva Eldar has won the annual EliavSartawi award for Middle Eastern journalism, awarded by Search for Common Ground, an international conflict transformation organization, sharing it with Jordanian journalist Salameh Nematt. Akiva Eldar is the coauthor of the biography of Shimon Peres; he is also the coauthor (with Prof. Idith Zertal) of book Lords of the Land: The War Over Israel?s Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 19672007, (Nation Books, 2007).
[72] "Was 1967 a victory too far for Israel?," by Meron Rapoport, Le Monde diplomatique, June 2007; "History Erased," by Meron Rapoport, Haaretz, July 6, 2007; and also "Fifteen minutes of hate in Silwan," by Meron Rapoport, The Guardian, August 31, 2009.
[73] "Zionism without a Jewish State," The Magnes Zionist, August 12, 2007. "SelfCriticism from an Israeli, American, and Orthodox Jewish Perspective." http://themagneszionist.blogspot.com The picture is not of him, but of his kind of Zionist, Judah Magnes.
[74] "We didn t mean to kill them Israel says it doesn t mean to kill Palestinian children yet they keep on dying," by B. Michael, YNet News, May 4, 2008; "Stop the Lying," by B. Michael, Yedioth Aharonoth, September 5, 2008. To my knowledge this article was not published in English on Yedioth Aharonoth's English internet site YNet News. B. Michael is one of Israel's most respected journalists. Article was translated by George Malent and published by the Israeli peace activist publication Occupation Magazine on September 10, 2008. Here is a quote from the article. "Everybody knows they all lie. And they all lie under oath. Because that's the procedure." If only the North American press would report what is written in the Israeli press. However, B. Michael was later fired from Yedioth Aharonoth see "B. Michael's last column was censored by the newspaper," Occupation Magazine, June 7, 2009. See also "Anti occupation columnist B. Michael fired please protest to Yediot Aharonot by phone," Occupation Magazine, June 2, 2009. See also "What about the real sins?" B. Michael, YNetNews, March 6, 2009, republished by Occupation Magazine, March 3, 2009.
[75] See for example, "The Seeds of Fascism," by Ran HaCohen, Antiwar.com, July 2, 2005; "Pacifying Gaza," by Ran HaCohen, Antiwar.com., December 30, 2008; "Abe Foxman's 'AntiSemitic Pandemic,'" by Ran HaCohen, Antiwar.com., February 17, 2009.
[76] "Peace" with Violence or Transfer," by Shraga Elam, Between the Lines, December 2000; "The Holocaust Industry Doesn't act Against Israel as it did Against Switzerland," by Shraga Elam, AlMajdal, (Autumn 2005); "Hamas's Electoral Victory Serves the Israeli Government," by Shraga Elam, Global Research, February 3, 2006. "The courage to refuse," by Shraga Elam, Haaretz, September 20, 2007.
[77] "How has Israel dealt with the Internally Displaced?," by Hillel Cohen, "Palestinian Internally Displaced Persons," Al Majdal, (SummerAutumn 2006); see also Army of Shadows, Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 19171948, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2008).
[78] See for example, "Enough of this demographic panic," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, February 17, 2004; "Caught between Jewish character and Jewish law," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, June 4, 2004; "Invitation to a kulturkampf," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, September 10, 2004; "Answers for the confused Israeli soul," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, October 12, 2004; "The Jews versus the Israelis," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, October 26, 2004; 'Jew' or 'Israeli'?," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, February 9, 2005; "Where the 'alliance of blood' has led," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, February 17, 2005; "Less democratic, more 'Jewish'," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, November 1, 2005; "The failure of multiculturalism," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, November 14, 2006; "Report: Israeli Jews increasingly antiArab," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, March 19, 2008; "Racist? Us?," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, March 19, 2008; "Democracy in a panic,"by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, January 14, 2009; "Zionism for Arabs," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, June 17, 2009; "Don't convert," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, September 9, 2009; "When Judaism and Zionism lose all meaning," by Avirama Golan, Haaretz, August 28, 2009.
[79] "Israelis who care," by Shai Lahav, Breaking the Silence, July 29, 2009; "With baton in hand: that's us," by Shai Lahav, Maariv/Middle East News Service, original in Hebrew English translation August 23, 2009 published in Occupation Magazine.
[80] "Betraying our history," by Seth Freedman, The Guardian, March 19, 2008; "All citizens must be equal," by Seth Freeman, The Guardian, July 30, 2008; "Remove the blinkers and see the truth," by Seth Freedman, The Guardian, December 17, 2008; and "How Israel drowns dissent, Firefighters turned their hoses on a peaceful antiwar protester last week: Their attitude reflects a worrying shift in public opinion," by Seth Freedman, The Guardian, January 21, 2009.
[81] See "Arab Jews, Palestinian Refugees and Israel's Folly Politics," by Yehouda Shenhav, Sephardic Heritage Update, 13 December 2006. He is the author of The Arab Jews, (Stanford University Press, 2006).
[82] "Filmmaker: Israel regime like East German Stasi," Interview in Yedioth Ahronoth Magazine Seven Days, November 6, 2006; and "AntiZionist Israeli to direct movie for Israel's 60th birthday," by Haaretz Service, Haaretz, April 29, 2007.
[83] "Racism in the name of religion,"by Elana Maryles Sztokman, The Jerusalem Post, September. 23, 2008.
[84] See "Paving the Way to the Abyss: The Gaza War and the wall of denial," by Adam Keller, The Other Israel, May 2009. The Other Israel's web site is http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/
[85] "The Israeli soldiers who say 'There is a limit,'"by Gideon Spiro, Middle East International, September 9, 1988, pp. 1819. "Bad things happen when we are silent," by Gideon Spiro, Red Rag Weekly, November 3, 2008, Translated and published in Occupation Magazine. See also, "Did it happen or not?," by Gideon Spiro, Red Rag Weekly, August 24, 2009, translated and published in Occupation Magazine, August 27, 2009.
[86] "Israeli Nobel Laureate calls for release of all Hamas prisoners," by Haaretz Service and Army Radio, Haaretz, October 10, 2009.
[87] See ALEF WATCH IsraCampus.Org "Big brother is watching," and "Monitoring Israel's Academic Fifth Column Following antiIsrael Extremism on the Israeli Campus." The site lists 119 Israeli academics who are targeted by the organization and deemed to be "extreme critics." Some of the Israeli critics I have listed are not even on their list. Isracampus web site is http://www.isracampus.org.il/index.htm. For a viewpoint criticizing the attacks against Israeli academics who criticize policies toward the Palestinians see, "A McCarthyite attempt to brand academics," by Lily Galili, Haaretz, November 30, 2007. For more examples of writings see for example, "The Strategy Behind Israel's Migrant Labor Policies," by Yonatan Preminger, CounterPunch, August 20, 2009; and also see Michael Jansen, Dissonance in Zion, (New Jersey: Zed Books, 1987); see also "Key Zionist pioneer renounces Zionism," by Helena Cobban, 'Just World News', August 4, 2009. Also see also "Israel's Own Psyche," by Uri Avnery, Kaaleji Times, August 11, 2009. .
[88] Occupation Magazine's website is http://www.kibush.co.il/index.asp
[89] For the links to the Israeli human rights organizations see http://www.kibush.co.il/links.asp?lang=1
[90] See, "One Big Prison: Freedom of Movement to and from the Gaza Strip on the Eve of the Disengagement Plan," B'Tselem Report, March , 2005; and "Utterly Forbidden: The Torture and Ill-treatment of Palestinian Detainees," B'Tselem Report, April 2007. "Beating & Abuse: B'Tselem and ACRI demand investigation of officers who testified to a policy of routine use of violence against Palestinian civilians," B'Tselem, May 21, 2009.
[91] See http://www.machsomwatch.org/
[92] "Counterpoint: Rabbis for Human Rights the 20th anniversary," by David Forman, The Jerusalem Post, August 28, 2008; "Rabbis call for immediate truce in Gaza: Dozens of members of Rabbis for Human Rights organization issue letter urging all those involved in fighting to work for immediate, comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza Strip, southern Israel. 'The sanctity of life is a supreme value in Jewish tradition,' letter says," by Yaheli Moran Zelikovich, YNet News, January 13, 2009; "Authors Oz, Grossman sign petition calling for external probe of Gaza op: Following publication of soldiers' testimonies according to which commanders in Gaza told them to shoot first and worry later, Rabbis for Human Rights calls on Netanyahu, Barak to order nonmilitary probe of IDF offensive," by Tal Rabinovsky, YNet News, July 22, 2009. Rabbis for Human Rights web site is http://www.rhr.org.il/index.php?language=en
[93] "Ticking Bombs" Testimonies of Torture Victims in Israel," Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), May, 2007. "Shackling as a Form of Torture and Abuse," PCATI Report, June 2009."HCJ: Using threats, false promises and false presentations relating to the welfare of relatives of interrogees is prohibited," PCATI Report, September 9, 2009. For examples of major articles published in Israeli media based on PCATI work see "Gazans detained in 'giant pit' during Cast Lead," by Amira Hass, Haaretz, August 15, 2009; and "Out of bounds?," by Amira Hass, Haaretz, September 3, 2009. Their web site is http://www.stoptorture.org.il/en
[94] Yesh Gvul's web site is http://www.yeshgvul.org/english.html
[95] At the time of writing 628 young Israelis had signed the pledge not to serve. Their web site is http://www.seruv.org.il/english/default.asp
[96] See my review, "The Other Israel, Voices of Refusal and Dissent," Foreword by Tom Segev and Introduction by Anthony Lewis, edited by Roane Carey and Jonathan Shainin. (New York: New Press, 2002), Middle East Policy, Fall 2006, Number 3, pp. 140150.
[97] The Other Israel, Voices of Refusal and Dissent, Foreword by Tom Segev and Introduction by Anthony Lewis, edited by Roane Carey and Jonathan Shainin. (New York: New Press, 2002), pp. 207-208.
[98] "Prof Dror Israel, world Jewry drifting apart," YNet News, January 23, 2008.
[99] "A writer's reality," by Gideon Levy, Haaretz, September 16, 2005.

Author's Bio: Ed Corrigan holds a B.A. in History and a Master's Degree in Political Science from the University of Western Ontario. Ed also has a Law Degree from the University of Windsor and was called to the Bar of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1992. He has distinguished himself as a lawyer and is recognized as one of the top Immigration and refugee lawyers in Canada. On the June 29th, 2004 the Law Society of Upper Canada certified Ed Corrigan as a specialist in Citizenship and Immigration law and Immigration and Refugee Protection. His academic area of expertise is the Middle East and he has published numerous articles in academic and journalistic publications. Between 2000-2003 he served as a Councillor on the City of London, Ontario, Canada municipal City Council. Revised November 19, 2009

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THE TRIAL OF AMEER MAKHOUL ENTERS A NEW PHASE: A Call for Support

Dear Friends:

I am writing you in my recently assumed capacity as the head of the Public Committee for Defense of Ameer Makhoul. Ameer is my former colleague and outstanding human rights campaigner on behalf of our community, the Palestinian citizens of Israel. Please read the attached file, circulate it widely and
consider in what ways you can act to bring about his release. Here are two links to appeals that have been launched on Ameer's behalf as examples:
http://www.civicus.org/component/content/article/1551-civil-society-calls-on-the-israeli-government-to-release-ameer-makhoul


http://nlginternational.org/freepalestine/?p=89

Despite the extreme seriousness and the high significance of Ameer's case for the entire Palestinian community in Israel and to all public figures from this community, or perhaps because of it, I find it appropriate to refer you to a tongue-in-cheek piece by Sayed Kashua in the Friday issue of Haaretz. It
reflects in full measure the inner musings of Palestinian citizens of Israel when meeting someone for the first time: Every new contact could be construed by the Israeli secret service as a plot against the state.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/daddy-what-s-a-revolution-1.316618

Also, you may be interested in a relevant piece on my blog regarding one court session in Ameer's case which I attended:
http://a-doctor-in-galilee.blogspot.com/2010/07/ameer-makhouls-day-in-court.html

I would like to end by asking all of you to assist us in our effort to engender maximum awareness of this clear case of political imprisonment and suppression of thought and public activism.

Sincerely
Hatim Kanaaneh, MD, MPH
Author of 'A Doctor in Galilee: the Life and Struggle of a Palestinian in Israel', Pluto Press, 2008
Active Blog: http://a-doctor-in-galilee.blogspot.com/

THE TRIAL OF AMEER MAKHOUL ENTERS A NEW PHASE

      A Call for Support

Recent Developments  

The campaign to free Ameer Makhoul, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and political and human rights activist falsely accused of espionage, has achieved significant advances. Makhoul’s attorneys challenged the legality of the circumstances of his arrest and undermined the prosecution’s core allegations against him on September 16^th in the Haifa District Court. State Prosecutors admitted that no evidence of espionage had been found in any of the computers and cellular phones seized from Makhoul’s home and office. Nor was any evidence of espionage found, they admitted, in the transcripts of thirty thousand wiretapped telephone conversations.

Makhoul’s lawyers further secured a ruling from the Nazareth District Court, September 14^th, upholding Makhoul’s right to direct and confidential access to counsel. Makhoul’s right to counsel as a citizen of Israel had been routinely violated by prison authorities, who had been officially and conspicuously wire-tapping his conversations, conducted across glass barriers via telephone, with his lawyers.

Background

Sixteen members of Israel Security Agency, commonly known in English as the Shin Bet, abducted Mr. Makhoul from his home at 3:00 am on May 6th, 2010. They searched his home and office, seizing personal items belonging to Makhoul and his family, as well as office equipment, documents and databases.  Makhoul was detained incommunicado. A sweeping “gag order” was placed on the case forbidding publication by Israeli media of any information relating to the interrogation and the arrest. For twelve days he was subjected to torturous  interrogation techniques including excessively prolonged sleep deprivation—a technique Makhoul’s interrogators have openly stated they used. When Makhoul complained of being in excruciating pain, the Shin Bet interrogators cuffed his legs to a chair with shortened legs and threatened that he would be permanently crippled from the interrogation.

Three weeks after his detention, Makhoul was charged with espionage, assistance to the enemy in a time of war, contact with a foreign agent, and other trumped up security charges. When he finally appeared in open court, Makhoul categorically denied the relevance of all charges against him.

On June 14^th, State Prosecutors announced their possessing of   'Secret Evidence' against Makhoul. That evidence, they stated, would not be disclosed to his legal defense team for security reasons. Meanwhile, Makhoul’s repeated requests for a medical exam and blood test by an independent doctor from the Association of Physicians for Human Rights were continually postponed. Makhoul was unable to discuss these matters with his lawyers without having his conversations wiretapped.

Public Committee for the Defense of Ameer Makhoul Established

The Committee for the Defense of Ameer Makhoul was established in a public meeting held at the headquarters of the Galilee Society for Health Research and Services in Shafa Amr on September 8^th. Participating in the meeting were 47 representatives of grassroots networks and professional associations, as well as concerned Jewish and Arab public figures. At this meeting, the Committee and those it represents assumed collective responsibility for the defense of Ameer Makhoul. It took such a step for the following reasons.

Ameer Makhoul was not arrested as an individual. He was not arrested due to any serious contention that he conducted illegal activities--let alone espionage. Makhoul was arrested to send a message to Palestinian citizens of Israel. That message was formulated by extreme right wing parties in the current Israeli government. They are targeting Makhoul because he is a legal, legitimate, and effective voice of a politically disadvantaged group –Israel’s Palestinian Arab citizens.

Makhoul has been a voice of this disadvantaged group of Israeli citizens in numerous public meetings around the world. He is internationally recognized as a human rights defender and as a member of international coalitions and networks of international and regional organizations. In his capacities as Chairman of the Public Committee for the Protection of Political Freedoms in Israel  and as General Director of Ittijah --a network of Arab NGOs in Israel with consultative status in the United Nations Economic and Social Council —Makhoul regularly encounters and talks to citizens of foreign countries—including Arab countries. Simply talking to another Arab does not constitute espionage in the legal framework of Israel or any other country. But contacting an Arab colleague seems to be the core of the espionage charges against Makhoul.

In 2009, the Shin Bet promised Ameer Makhoul that they would “tailor a file for his disappearance and prolonged separation from his family” if he would not tone down his political and human rights activism. They were incensed by his legal, outspoken statements against Israel’s 2009 invasion of Gaza and his repeated reference to Israel’s use of phosphorus bombs against civilian populations in Gaza --including a majority of children. Spurious charges of espionage, the use of illegal interrogation techniques, and fabricated claims of evidence that evaporate in the open air seem to fulfill that threat to disappear Makhoul. Amnesty International has called his arrest and continued detention “pure harassment designed to hinder his human rights work.”

The Tasks at Hand for All of Us

The Committee for the Defense of Ameer Makhoul faces two urgent tasks. But first, we want to note what has already been achieved—despite all of the obstacles. A gag order against discussion of Makhoul’s case crumbled – thanks to appeals by the defense, community protest and solidarity and Israeli and foreign bloggers who ignored the order and opened the way to public pressure. The legal team has won important victories. Illegal practices of prison authorities that violated citizens’ right to counsel have been waylaid.

The obstacle presented by state prosecutors’ invocation of “secret evidence” to silence activists remains to be challenged and ultimately undermined. The incrimination of talking to foreigners must be challenged as well.  Already, it has become a tiny bit harder, we hope, for Israel to lock up intellectuals and activists under vague charges of “contact with a foreign agent” in the global village of the internet era.

Now, we have urgent and specific tasks at hand. The Committee for the Defense of Ameer Makhoul is working to mobilize legal and medical international observers for the trial of Ameer Makhoul and to raise funds to cover lawyer fees and related expenses for Makhoul’s defense. We have launched local publicity and fundraising campaigns to achieve those goals. We need your help to make our efforts even more effective.

We reach out to the friends of Ameer and supporters of his work on behalf of Palestinian citizens of Israel and human rights victims everywhere. At this critical moment, we ask for your direct involvement in the campaign for his freedom. Ameer’s trial is scheduled to proceed Tuesday October 5^th.  The time is now for you to get involved.

All interested individuals and groups are invited to contact the Chairman of the Committee for the Defense of Ameer Makhoul: Dr. Hatim Kanaaneh, Phone- 972-(0)522-414 126.  email:kanaaneh@hotmail.com, 

Checks can be made out to The Committee for Defense of Ameer Makhoul   

Account details for direct bank transfers are as follows:

Bank: Arab Israel Bank- ltd. 

Bank no.: 34. 

Branch no.: 001 Haifa. 

Beneficiary Name: The Committee for Defense of Ameer Makhoul- Haifa. 

Account Humber  IBAN= IL 890340010000000818780  (8187/80) 

Swift Code: Lumiilittlv- 794 Branch

Online Donations through Pay pal can be made at:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=SDH7XCZQ4XLG4

CHECK OUT PICS OF AMEER MAKHOUL:

http://www.google.be/images?q=AMEER+MAKHOUL&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=6ieqTOz_AsKSjAfw5PW9DA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDkQsAQwAw&biw=1280&bih=809

Audio: "They persecuted Ameer to keep us silent"

Hyun Lee writing from Haifa, Live from Palestine, 16 September 2010

The trial of Palestinian citizen of Israel and civil society leader Ameer Makhoul resumes today in Haifa. Charged with espionage and other trumped-up security allegations, Makhoul denies the charges and maintains that "evidence" gathered by the state was obtained through coercion. Last month The Electronic Intifada contributor Hyun Lee interviewed Makhoul's wife, activist Janan Abdu, and Gabrielle Rubin, media coordinator with Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel about Makhoul's case.

Download MP3 of the interview (6.9 MB)

Janan Abdu (Ben White)

Hyun Lee: First, tell us: who is Ameer Makhoul?

Janan Abdu: Ameer is the leader of Ittijah, the Union of Arab Community Associations. He is also a political activist. A long time ago, he was the chairman of the Arab student movement. And that's how we met. Ameer, as part of his work, participated in international and local conferences and meetings with people from abroad, from the Arab world. His opinion was that the Arab world is not our enemy. He was writing about the right of return of Palestinian [refugees] and about the one-state solution.

HL: And recently, the GSS, the General Security Services of Israel, the equivalent of the FBI in the United States, raided your home. Tell us what happened.

JA: One and half years ago, the GSS interrogated him about his activities. They said to him, "We can disappear you. We are building a case against you. And the next time we invite you to come to us, you can say goodbye for a long time to your family."

And this is exactly what happened. On 6 May, three months ago, at 3am, we had been sleeping, and we heard a very hard knock at the door. Someone [was] calling Ameer, "Open the door!" We opened the door and saw a huge group of policemen and people from the GSS. And they entered our home. My daughter told me there were 16 people -- 15 men and one woman. And directly as they entered our home, they caught Ameer, and they said to him, "You are under arrest." And the director of the group came to me and said, "We are arresting your husband and we are searching your home." I attempted to see if he has any [court] order to identify [himself], but he refused. He just said to me, "Keep silent. Sit down." I said, "No, you are violating our rights. I don't trust you. You are like a thief coming to my home at this time and terrifying my two daughters, [aged] 12 and 17."

I refused to let them continue the search, but they continued. They took all the computers -- mine, my daughters', not just Ameer's things. They took my tape recorder and a lot of things. I argued with [the commander] and he started laughing and said, "Who's the man here! Who's the man here!" and he said, "Shut up and sit. Otherwise, we can use violence and we can arrest you." He caught my hand and tried to force me to sit. All of this was in front of my two daughters. I continued to say, "I know the law. I know my rights. What you are doing now is violent and a violation of our rights," but he didn't want to hear anything. They continued to search and take things, and after about half an hour, they took Ameer away with them. And I [came to] know later that they took him to the Ittijah office and they did the same thing at the Ittijah office. They took the computers, a lot of papers, a lot of things, and they made a mess there.

For longer than two hours, they kept us as prisoners at our home. In the middle of the search, I heard the phone ringing and I wanted to answer, and I said, "I ask you to let me answer. My mother is in a bad situation in the hospital." And later, one month later, she died in the hospital. But they didn't let me answer. And another thing, just one note -- when I attempted to see if they have any permission to do the search, I saw that they had one and it was written on 22 April. So the judge signed the order on 22 April. That means they had two weeks of opportunity to come to our home or to his office and [they did] not [have] to choose to come in the middle of the night.

HL: After your husband was arrested, he was held for 12 days and tortured. He didn't have access to lawyers or communication with anyone on the outside. What was going through your mind during that time?

JA: All the 12 days, I kept thinking about if they could do what they have done to a woman and two daughters, what can they do to Ameer when they kidnap him, with nobody knowing about what's going on? There was a gag order, no permission for an objective doctor to see him, no permission for lawyers to see him. After 12 days, when the lawyers were allowed to see him, I heard about the torture, I heard about the violations.

I think it was a message to our community, [as if to say] "We can hold you. We are above the law." And we can see that [the GSS is] controlling all the procedures. They're controlling the court hearings. They can control even the medical treatment. The doctor who came to Ameer's prison was a doctor paid by the prison, and Ameer cannot see his own medical report.

It's obvious that it's part of the persecution of Arab activists and political leaders. It's a message to all of us, to keep us silent, to make us afraid. [Israel is] supposed to be the only democratic state in the area, [but] you can see that all the laws, even the racist procedures, are all controlled by the GSS. When you are talking about the security of Israel, everything [the GSS does] is legal, everything [the GSS does] is accepted, and every Arab is a suspect. It's so hard. It's unfair. But we have no other choice. We have one choice -- to believe in Ameer, to believe in his right to be free. This is the only solution that we have -- to continue -- and this is also what Ameer believes and needs.

HL: Where is he detained and have you gone to see him?

JA: [Ameer is detained at] Gilboa jail, near the border with Jordan. Last Monday, we were there. We arrived at about 10:30am. We were supposed to see him in half an hour, maximum one hour. We waited there about four hours on a very hot day. It's a way of making us feel frustrated, to discourage us from coming to visit. But you know, they're trying to make it harder, but when we feel this, we get more courage and the power to continue.

HL: What are the charges against Ameer?

Gabrielle Rubin: If I remember correctly, it's three counts -- there's espionage and aggravated espionage, which are two separate counts, and assisting a foreign agent in a time of war.

HL: Many Palestinians who are in the Israeli prison system for asserting their rights as Palestinians are classified by the Israeli government as "security prisoners." How are they treated differently by the prison and the court system?

GR: We call them political prisoners, because [it is overwhelmingly] Palestinians who are indicted and imprisoned for political actions ... Israel calls this blanket [category] "acts against the security of the state." What this means in practice while you're in prison is that beyond the fact that you're jailed, there are many so-called privileges that you are not provided. One of the main things is this whole issue of physical contact during visits. Security prisoners are prevented from having physical contact during visits. It's like what you see in the movies; it's through a glass window, through a phone. There's also the issue -- and this is something that was experienced by Ameer -- it's known that the conversations are recorded, because of "security reasons." And [there are] also a lot of other limitations -- limitation on the kinds of books, the number of books you can have, what you can study, how you can study.

I also want to give more background on the first 12 days when Ameer was prevented from meeting with any attorneys and this sweeping gag order which prevented any [publicity] about his case. There's a process where a person is arrested and he's banned from meeting with a lawyer, and every few days, a judge needs to authorize the continuation of his arrest. This process is done ex parte, which means that Ameer, because he's banned from meeting with his lawyers, is not present in the courtroom. He's present in the structure of the court in case the judge wants to ask him anything. The evidence that is provided by the GSS and the state is secret evidence, meaning that the only person who gets to see them is the judge. Obviously the lawyer representing Ameer is not allowed to see this evidence. And once you talk about "security offenses," it's this blanket over-broad definition, and I dare say that judges are rubber-stamping these decisions and don't really look into the merits of the case.

So this went on for 12 days, but if I remember correctly, on day ten, the legal defense team decided to do something that was very extraordinary. They said, "We're not going to continue with this farce, and the next time there's a detention extension, if Ameer is not there and we're not allowed to meet with him, we're just not going to appear and participate in this game." And it worked, because basically, on the same day, the ban was lifted and for the first time, Ameer was allowed to meet with his lawyers.

And this is something that is not extraordinary with Palestinian detainees in Israel, and of course the occupied territories. There, [Palestinians are tried in] military courts and of course this happens all the time, this very problematic use of denying people the right to meet with their attorneys, the gag order preventing the media from reporting on it, and the use of secret evidence that the lawyer of the defendant doesn't have any access to and isn't allowed to review.

HL: And what is the current status of Ameer's case now?

JA: The next hearing is in the middle of September and by then, Ameer is supposed to be read his charges and is supposed to meet with his lawyers but until now the lawyers still cannot see him.

HL: And how's Ameer's health?

JA: He's getting better. Two months passed since he was tortured. We know that he suffered from head pain and back pain.

GR: He's had issues with deterioration of his vision.

HL: Is there support for Ameer from the Jewish public?

JA: In the solidarity movement, there are a lot of Jewish people from Israel and outside [supporting Ameer]. And it's so important to say that, because the Israeli media and the GSS are always trying to deal with these issues like the Arabs are the enemy of the Jews, and it's not like that. The problem is with Zionism and not with the Jews. And we have the solidarity of professors and academics in Israel. They wrote [letters] and participated in demonstrations in Petach Tikva [where Ameer was initially detained and tortured] and Haifa and they continue to believe that it's not only an "Arab problem" or "Palestinian problem." It's a problem of the undemocratic state. Maybe Arabs pay the price, but it's a problem of all of the citizens of Israel.

Based in New York City, Hyun Lee is a member of Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, which fights against US war and militarism on the Korean peninsula. She traveled to Palestine in August 2010 as part of a delegation organized by the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11523.shtml

"Solidarity tastes different inside prison"

Ameer Makhoul writing from Gilboa prison, Live from Palestine, 30 August 2010

Ameer Makhoul (Adri Nieuwhof)

The following is an edited excerpt from a 7 August 2010 letter written by Ameer Makhoul from Israeli prison. A human rights defender, the director of the Arab nongovernmental organization network Ittijah, a leading voice of the Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and a Palestinian citizen of Israel, Makhoul was arrested during a raid of his family home in Haifa in the early morning hours of 6 May. For the following eleven days Makhoul was held in isolation, denied access to a lawyer, and subjected to torture. Rights groups have condemned his political persecution and the criminal proceedings launched against him.

My trail is still somehow stuck. The system is structurally and politically Shabak-oriented, not justice-oriented. My human dignity, basic human rights and constitutional rights are suffering from basic violations. I still have no permit to meet my lawyers without being recorded. The ruling of the three judges is to justify the decision of the attorney general of Israel and the Shabak to ban free meeting with my lawyers in prison. The judges insist that such a meeting should be done through the glass separation wall and through a telephone in order to ensure recording of the whole conversation.

On its face the process as well as the procedures look fair, but essentially, systematic, structural and political violations of my basic right to fair procedure are practiced. The role of the attorney general is to criminalize me, not to seek truth.

In Gilboa prison there are approximately 600 Palestinian and Arab prisoners of freedom distributed into sections/branches. The distribution of prisoners is geopolitically oriented: prisoners of the West Bank, prisoners of 1948 (including occupied East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights) are together, while in the prisons located in the Naqab [Negev], prisoners of the West Bank are separated from those from Gaza. And prisoners from Gaza are separated along affiliation to Fatah or Hamas. The borders on the ground of the occupation based on the Apartheid Wall are valid in the prison demographic policy of distribution. It is the nature of imposed fragmentation in order to undermine the struggle against one of the biggest systematic colonial crimes and to weaken the collective struggle by destructing its structure of continuity and interaction.

I am doing a lot of efforts to bring hope and steadfastness to freedom prisoners. It is one of my missions inside prison. I have to keep in contact with Ittijah and the community and all solidarity movements, groups and persons, but most of all I have to correspond intensively as much as possible with my daughters Hind and Huda, who have become mature fighters for freedom, justice and dignity and mostly bringing back the happiness of life which was highjacked on 6 May at 2:30am. My wife Janan is leading in a heroic way the whole campaign as well as facing huge tasks at home.

Your letters are needed; the taste of solidarity is different in prison than being outside. The taste reflects the great solidarity, support and empowering acts.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11496.shtml


A LETTER OF AN ACTIVIST FROM AUSTRIA:
Dear  Brother  Ameer,

I do not know, but I just guess the feelings you encounter in one of the innumerable jails of the Israeli state and its staff who ignore everything about human dignity, to a point that one will ask if the majority of the Israeli  jewish citizens have not been deeply perverted by the seventy years of brutality and cynicism practiced by the  former terrorists  who became their leaders,  as a form of mass sequestration.
I would like to share with you a moment, because we are related by our need of justice and dignity, expressed through the solidarity with the Palestinian People.
You did an enormous work in your life, as a Palestinian human rights defender, and I can imagine this mountain of work. Of course, for the Israeli rulers, you are more dangerous than the handicraft rockets falling to a small Israeli community, which never endangered their lifes, because you defend something which the Israeli people would like to defend, but they cannot, because they are caught in the oppression of prisons, walls and checkpoints. They are caught in an endless nightmare of a “special people” instead of enjoying free feelings and looking around for the enrichment of cultures. How can a normal Israeli jewish citizen accept that thousands of jews coming from all over the world by waves of immigration to settle into a stolen land and the original inhabitants are denied the most fundamental rights of life?  How can the world accept such a monstrous crime being happen in our days without daily mass demonstrations all over the world?
  I do not know, how the situation in Palestine (I take the name of the two thousand year region and not the 62 year region, which is far to short for the history of humanity) will evolve, but the weight of justice and dignity is now a necessary factor in our human existence, as we know so well, as never before, that we cannot accept oppression nowhere without degrading our life in a common world of disdain, hypocrisy and ugliness.
People hanker for freedom, justice and dignity and not for morbidity.
 I am sorry, I tell you things that you are feeling very deeply since longtime.
Thank you for your strength. As we know here outside (of Israel) too, the Shabak is a political instrument of oppression and in no way there is justice. There is no justice in Israel as long as their rulers exert oppression and land robbery as a state ruling and their institutions are compromised with a Mafiosi system.
Since the rulers of Israel need to imprison people like you, for your human rights work and peaceful protests against illegal activities, which are the basis of a democratic state, they have lost legitimacy. Unfortunately they do not recognize their blindness and took the path to international isolation.
We, the civil society, are aware of the necessity of fighting until justice is given to the Palestinians. We cannot stop on the half way. There will be one state of all citizens, with equal rights for all of them, Palestinians and Israeli Jews etc… This is the struggle of the international civil society. This long lasting injustice exerted by  “the only democratic state in the Middle East”  is not bearable for us, especially because of the long lasting lies and myths about Israel in the western mass media.  We can not accept being a manipulated mass for the very doubtful interests of some fools handling too much power and too much money.
I send you a lot of thanks,  to your wife Janan and your daughters Hind and Huda for their work of information and steadfastness. This is very necessary for all of us.
With all my love and appreciation
Frigga Karl
human rights activist

--
“They have succeeded in dominating us more
through ignorance, than through force”.
Simon Bolivar

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."  Voltaire

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