Bethlehem Bloggers: Voices from the Bethlehem Ghetto

What planet is Rudolf Giuliani on?

2007-08-23T21:19:00.000+03:00

"It is not in the interest of the United States, at a time when it is being threatened by Islamist terrorists, to assist the creation of another state that will support terrorism ," stated the former New York mayor, of plans to create a Palestinian state through the Middle East Peace Process™, sponsored by President Bush.

Come off it, Rudy. Even ignoring the blatant racist orientalism of this statement, which infers that all Arabs, indeed, all Muslims, are terrorists, bent on the destruction of the United States and all her infidel values, you must know that you're talking nonsense.

Yet you still expect people to take your bid for the US presidency seriously? Even after showing your ignorance of foreign affairs with this statement. Even after a proven track record in mismanagement of emergency situations. Even after showing your ignorance of defense and security matters (one word: "Blowback").

You must know that creating a US puppet state in a strategic location is hugely advantageous to the United States, and the "sacred way of life" of its people. Or are you ignorant of the history of your own country, too?

Creating an independent Palestinian state gives you the following advantages:

- A massive boost for your esteemed leader, "solving" the key obstacle to Middle East peace, and "ending" the 40-year occupation of the West Bank.

- A tacit claim that US foreign policy is driven by peacemaking – even such an obvious lie might have some moral standing among the more upright members of your community.

- A nice, friendly, "moderate" Palestinian, an Arab Uncle Tom, wearing a suit and tie, to lie on your behalf to people who understandably are none too impressed by your armament of, and payment for, the brutal military occupation of their lands.

- The opening of US-Israeli trade with a literally captive market; the opportunity of labor savings with the employment of returning refugees in Israeli settlement sweatshops; the manipulation of the business environment through Foreign Direct Investment (with $300 million in loans promised by the US administration just a fortnight ago).

- Normalization of diplomatic relations with the Arab states and access to cheap oil, for the US and Israel. There's no need to address the globally-dangerous culture of consumption when you have access to fresh resources… Say, Rudy, why not fill that Hummer up with gasoline and go get a $5 coffee in a plastic cup – the Earth's resources belong to you, now, after all!

- Finally, the excuse, when it all falls apart, that the US tried her best to bring peace, "but these Arabs just don't understand democracy" – and justification for bringing the unending war of the military-industrial complex to a new part of the Middle East. Here's what you've all been waiting for: Now this is your new frontier for your "clash of civilizations". Great news for shareholders. This is big business. This is the American way.

The creation of a Palestinian state would only really to amount to a "solution" to Middle East peace if it were sustainable and just. Unfortunately, that's not the intention of your beloved President. He's after the quick money – get in, make a mess, spend a whole pile of taxpayers' money and declare victory before anyone notices that the whole lie is falling apart. Mind you, that's kind of his style, isn't it?

From your office in cloud-cuckoo-land, you state that "good governance", as defined by yourself, of course (renowned statesman that you are), is a prerequisite for the establishment of a Palestinian state. "Palestinian statehood will have to be earned through sustained good governance, a clear commitment to fighting terrorism, and a willingness to live in peace with Israel. America's commitment to Israel's security is a permanent feature of our foreign policy," you say.

But what is "good governance"? In terms of the more-than-adequate history of US military interventions in the affairs of other countries, "good governance" can be defined as the level of willingness of a state leader, "democratically-elected" or otherwise, to bend over and take the full girth of US imperialism, double-teamed with transnational corporate hegemony: exposing the natural resources of a country; animal, mineral and vegetable, for foreign exploitation, and signing themselves over to ownership by the US state pimp.

While you bolster the Fatah regime, while you assist the creation of a police state in the West Bank, your "good governance" will only succeed in alienating the poor, the isolated and the dispossessed. A state imposed on the Palestinian people, dependent on US-Israeli interests, is a recipe for disaster. Maybe you already know this, and are committed to "the long game", envisioned with such glee by the arms dealers and the warlords hiding among the Quartet diplomats. You know full well that the creation of a Palestinian state is within the traditional interests of America: Liberty (to do as you're told)! Freedom (to be enslaved by the global markets)! And huge profits for all (all the collaborators, anyway)!

Maybe, Mr Giuliani, you are simply in favor of the apartheid state initiated by Israel, the closest ally of the US. Or maybe you simply don't realize that government-sanctioned action to separate one ethnic group of people from another is apartheid. Maybe you don't understand that, under international law, an occupying power has a duty of care for the citizens of the occupied territories. Maybe it's not your fault. Maybe you've just seen too much of the nonsense which passes in the corporatized incantations of mainstream media as "news". Maybe you simply believe what you're told by your masters, that "the other" is uncivilized, a barbarian, a savage – while it is the noble task of the United States military (and their backers in the corporate media) to shine a light upon this darkness, to bring calm where there is chaos, to give the Disney channel to kids unenlightened by Western pop culture.

Rudy, a message to you: Given the above assertions, you are either too ignorant, too evil, or simply too naïve to become "the leader of the free world". Try reading a little more. Try meeting some of your Muslim neighbors. Better luck in 2012.

James Brownsell is an independent writer and DJ based in occupied Bethlehem. He can be contacted through http://bethlehemghetto.blogspot.com/ This piece was first published at http://www.imemc.org/

London's joy is Bethlehem's despair...

2007-06-30T16:50:00.000+03:00

Thanks to Cornelius Eacott for this post...
much love,
(jfd)

--

Ten long years after becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair has finally stepped down. Ten years which included the introduction of tuition fees for university students and the beginnings of the commercialization of Higher Education. Ten years which included mass privatization and the great auction of public services. Ten years which included involving Britain's armed forces in at least four wars of aggression (and who will ever know how many further actions were ordered covertly by the grinning First Lord of the Treasury). Ten years, blighted by failed Private Finance Initiatives, corruption in local councils, disastrous domestic policy and humiliating foreign policy.

Ten years, which included the ongoing "cash-for-honours" scandal, the $100 Billion BAE arms scandal (and its subsequent hush-up), his shameless media manipulation of Princess Diana's [suspicious] death, his complete and utter subservience to Rupert Murdoch, his attempt to suspend Habeas Corpus in Britain, the prohibition of free demonstration near Parliament, the continuing widening of the gap between rich and poor and the naming of Britain as one of the worst countries in child welfare. And that's before we even begin to think about Iraq.

In 1995, Tony proved his worthiness to inherit Maggie Thatcher's legacy when he changed Clause Four, the guiding statement of the Labour party constitution[1]. By reworking the text with beautiful, flowery language that meant nothing at all, Blair offered us a glimpse of the future. Just eight years later, in 2003, Tony Blair lied to the British Parliament about the existence of Saddam Hussein's "Weapons of Mass Destruction", citing a British intelligence report, which he must have known to be deficient, hastily assembled and politically skewed to serve his interests.

Lying to Parliament remains a treasonous crime in the United Kingdom. And although capital punishment was abolished in 1965 for the offence of murder, treason remained a hanging offence until 1998, interestingly, just one year after Blair's accession to power.

So now he has finally had the good grace to step down. That there was not a mass popular uprising, demanding his resignation, following the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 is a testament to the apathy he has inspired within the British population. Across Britain, and in foreign parts, parties were thrown to celebrate the end of the rule of this war criminal; yet, at the "Goodbye and Good Riddance" party I was attending here in Bethlehem, an air of melancholy dampened the party spirit.

Just hours earlier, our beloved helmsman had been confirmed as the new Quartet envoy to the Middle East Peace Process.

"He's screwed up his own country enough, now he's coming here to finish us off", wailed one disconsolate colleague.

Another bluntly asked, "How much arrogance does this murdering bastard have?"

Far be it for me to pre-judge the actions of another, but let us have a little foresight in this matter, given a reasonable body of experience drawn over the last decade. What can we expect from the rookie peacemaker?

We can expect smiles and friendly handshakes. We can expect smoothness without substance. We can expect endless speeches, praising moderates and condemning extremism.

We can expect complete silence over the illegality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, those fortress cities strategically built on hilltops which continue to expand, annexing more and more Palestinian agricultural land and water resources. We can expect complete silence over the failure of the Oslo accords to provide any basis for a just resolution between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

We can expect to hear about how "reasonable" the demands of the Quartet are: to recognize Israel, to renounce violence and to accept previously signed agreements.

We can expect to hear nothing about why the Hamas movement continues to reject the demands of the Quartet; indeed, we will not hear a word about the motivations of the Islamic resistance at all, save for pretty words about "not valuing freedom", or being "intent on Israel's destruction".

No mention will be made that Hamas have already tacitly, within the Prisoner's Accord Document, agreed to the recognition of the State of Israel within the June 4 1967 borders. Certainly no mention will be made that Israel has yet to define its own borders, and so cannot truly and emphatically be recognized by any other state in the world.

No mention will be made of precedents within international law which legitimize armed force used against an invading, or occupying, foreign power. Indeed, if Mr Blair demands that Israel renounces violence, I'll eat my hat.

No mention will be made that the principal "peace agreement", the Oslo accords, signed away Palestinian rights to land, to water, to freedom of movement (within their own territory) and to sovereignty over borders and airspace. It is also beyond doubt that no mention may be made of Israel's violations of the Oslo accords: the continuing construction of settlements within occupied territory, the theft of water from the river Jordan and the northern aquifer, the frequent Israeli military incursions into "Area A" districts – ostensibly under total Palestinian military and civil control – alongside arbitrary harassment, arrests, assassinations and the occasional under-reported massacre of human life.

Hamas want justice, so that the refugees may return and Palestinians may, once again, have sovereignty over their own destiny. Fatah want peace, so that trade and business may resume, and the rich can continue getting richer at the expense of all those in refugee camps who depend on the Israeli-imported business (and narcotics) of Fatah leaders.

Mr Blair likes the idea of peace. And Mr Blair likes the idea of business. Yes, indeed, Mr Blair will find willing "partners for peace" in the businessmen of the Fatah leadership.

"Free trade creates free people" states the tired maxim. Yet it doesn't. Free trade creates an elite of wealthy people, who live above the enclaves of the poor. In Israel and Palestine, the metaphor often becomes reality: Fatah will be willing to swallow any of Mr Blair's demands in order to stay "in power" (regardless of democratic process), and will submit to the island enclaves of Palestinian cities, with the ever-necessary "security" roadblocks and checkpoints isolating the inhabitants of each town – creating literally a captive market for their goods and services.

The wall, built by Israel and financed by the West exclusively on Palestinian land within the 1967 "Green line" border (which, like the settlements, annexes land and water resources, even tourist sites), will become the new border of the new "Free Palestine". Israel will retain control of borders and airspace, and will likely also continue to occupy the "closed military zone" of the Jordan valley, coincidentally the most fertile agricultural region in the area.

These violations of Palestinian sovereignty may bring a short-term Israeli military withdrawal from areas of the West Bank. While several settlements may be relocated under Olmert's "Convergence"/"Consolidation"/"Realignment" plan, sandwiched west of the wall and east of the green line, a military presence will be required to be deployed "to protect" those that remain deep within Palestinian territory.

This is the vision of the state of Palestine which is foreseen by Messrs Bush, Blair, and Olmert, and which is to be enacted by the recently-empowered Mr Blair himself. A state in name only, dependent on foreign aid, dependent on Israel, dependent on the whims of the Western powers – who know only too well that historic Palestine is both a microcosm of, and a tinder-box for, the wider "resource-heavy" Middle East.

This unsustainable vision will only lend strength to the masses who do not stand to gain from it: the poor, the dispossessed, the isolated. It will further polarize Palestinian society, with the Western-friendly overlords getting richer and fatter and neglecting to care about "the others". "The others", meanwhile, will be forced to seek help where they can get it: from Iran, from Syria. The growing divide will make the last bout of internecine fighting look like a spat among children in a kindergarten.

What is perhaps more concerning for Israel is that this potential future civil war may well coincide with the outbreak of a third Intifada stemming from within Israel itself, also led by groups isolated within fractured society – the Bedouin, the Druze, the Ethiopian immigrant population, the Arab population of Israel – all those currently treated as second-class citizens by the White-European-Jewish population.

From his displays over the last decade, even the last year, ignoring the traditional role of a diplomat in seeking mutual reciprocity, the application of international law or even a cessation to acts of mass violence, it is not difficult to predict on which side of the green line Mr Blair will have his holiday home.

Without wanting to resort to hyperbole, this appointment can only bring about war, famine, death and pestilence. With Mr Blair, we can expect neither peace nor justice, for without justice there can be no peace. London's joy is Bethlehem's despair.

--

Cornelius Eacott is a British peace worker, currently based in occupied Bethlehem. He can be contacted through: http://bethlehemghetto.blogspot.com/

--

This piece was originally published on Ma'an News at: http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23474

"Opinion" articles featured on Ma'an News reflect the views of the original author only, and do not necessarily represent the views of Ma'an Network, its funders, agencies, employees or directors.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clause_IV

Avaaz Petition for real Peace Talks

2007-03-29T15:56:00.000+02:00

Arab leaders are making a serious peace offer, and the world supports them. Ordinary Israelis want negotiations too - but their leaders risk losing this rare chance. Talks just about security will never bring peace. Tell Israeli and Arab leaders to make an urgent date for real talks – and we’ll put your message on billboards in Jerusalem where decision-makers will see it. Time is short - sign the petition and act now

http://www.avaaz.org/en/real_middle_east_talks/?cl=4200086

Gaza Sewage Tsunami

2007-03-28T10:40:00.000+02:00

A sewage reservoir in the northern Gaza Strip burst its banks yesterday; flooding the nearby Bedouin village of Umm Naser and killing 5 people, including two toddlers, two elderly women and one teenaged girl. A further 35 people were injured and 200 houses were damaged or destroyed as the wave of putrid water and excrement rolled over the village.

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/03/27/634172-sewage-flood-in-northern-gaza-kills-5

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/03/27/gaza_sewage_sweeps_through_village_three_dead/

This is a disaster that has been waiting to happen for some time, due to the shocking state of Gaza's wastewater infrastructure. The sewage plant in question serves two densely populated areas: Beit Lahiya and Jabalya, and has for many years been stretched way beyond its capacity. Development agencies and water engineers have been aware of this specific problem for years, and projects have been designed to improve facilities. However, all such projects stalled in 2005 due to the international aid boycott of the Palestinian Territories and escalating violence in the region.

The sewage problem in Gaza is extremely severe. 80% of sewage is discharged untreated into the environment and such treatment facilities as there are are overburdened to breaking point. Not only does this directly threaten human health; but it also causes severe and potentially irreversible environmental degradation, contaminating soil and groundwater supplies.

Last year the Israeli aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip followed by the ground invasion destroyed millions of dollars worth of infrastructure, further setting back development efforts. Maintenance personnel were unable to access facilities to collect waste or repair damage.

This situation is an infringement of basic human rights and urgent action must be taken to remediate it. The fact that Tuesday's disaster was allowed to happen is a disgrace to both Israel and the international aid community; who have been well aware of the danger for years.

2007-03-26T19:50:00.000+02:00

Honouring Past Agreements: Environmental Justice and Facts on the Ground in Palestine

by Frubious Bandersnatch

With the formation of a new Palestinian Unity government opening up the possibility of a shift in Palestine’s diplomatic relations, both with Israel and with the wider international community, there has been much focus in recent weeks upon the willingness of the new Palestinian government to submit to international pressure (particularly from the ‘Quartet’ which includes the US, the EU, Russia and the UN) to “acknowledge Israel, renounce violence and abide by past peace agreements”. These are the conditions for relaxing the international aid embargo that has been in force for the last year, throttling the Palestinian economy and causing widespread hardship throughout Palestinian society; and for resumption of peace negotiations with Israel, which could bring about an end to the military occupation of the Palestinian Territories, and the formation of a Palestinian State.

However, there has been no focus on the content of past peace agreements and hence the implications of adhering to them; neither has there been any similar pressure placed on Israel, or any examination, indeed scarcely even a mention, of Israel’s track record in keeping past agreements. With regard to the content of the agreements which it is demanded that Palestinians must abide by, this is a particularly serious omission, and does not bode well for the success of any future agreements. The pervading attitude in the international media appears to be a somewhat simplistic interpretation that unwillingness to honour the letter of past agreements implies unwillingness to make peace.

This is a totally misguided interpretation. The peace agreements in question, principally the Oslo Accords and the Road Map to Peace, cover not just undertakings to bring about the cessation of violence but also access to and control over natural resources and land, which are pivotal both to the daily lives of Palestinians and to the viability of a future Palestinian State. There are extremely good reasons for a Palestinian government to avoid committing themselves to abiding by the letter of past agreements with Israel. Namely that currently the agreements preclude Palestinians from effectively accessing resources that are vital for life, and from exercising effective environmental management, causing serious and potentially irreversible degradation of their homeland; and at the same time leave loopholes for Zionist expansionism, which are exploited by Israel. There is a need for recognition of the shortcomings of past agreements if future negotiations are to be effective in bringing about an end to the conflict. Where there is no justice, it is unlikely that peace will follow. What has been seriously lacking from past agreements is a concept of environmental justice, and this has undermined prospects for peace from the outset.

Oslo and the Palestinian Environment
In 1993, the year of the first Oslo Agreement, the World Bank published a report entitled “Developing the Occupied Territories: An Investment in Peace” in which it described the provision of public services and infrastructure in the Occupied Territories as ‘highly inadequate’. Water, solid waste and wastewater infrastructure were practically non-existent; hence the standard of living in Palestinian localities lagged way behind that enjoyed within Israel and also in other Middle Eastern countries; and poor waste management threatened the environment with serious pollution and degradation. The reason for this was essentially neglect and underinvestment during the Israeli Administration from 1967 to 1993. It is pointed out in the report that the investment in Palestinian infrastructure by the Israeli Civil Administration was not equal to the amount payed in taxes by Palestinians. Thus from its inception, the Palestinian administration had a gargantuan task in front of it to develop Palestinian infrastructure, bringing about a decent standard of living for Palestinians; and to implement programs of environmental protection, and halt the degradation of the Palestinian environment.

Despite high investment by many international donors, progress on the ground has been much slower than it ought to have been. This is due to the deficiencies and ambiguities in the Oslo Agreement, and the way in which it has been interpreted and implemented (and violated) by successive Israeli Administrations. More recently development has been as good as halted by escalating violence and the international aid boycott.

Oslo and Land:
The key to understanding how the Oslo Agreement has prevented Palestinians from exercising effective environmental management is the division of control of land under Oslo. According to the Oslo Interim Agreement (1995) the West Bank was divided up into three zones: Areas A, B and C. In Area A, which comprised 4 % of the land area of the West Bank, complete authority was granted to the PA. In Area B, which comprised 25 % of the West Bank, civil authority was given to the PA and military authority retained by Israel; whereas in Area C, some 71 % of the West Bank, Israel retained total control[1]. Under the Oslo Interim Agreement (1995) it was envisaged that Israel would gradually withdraw its military presence in three phases starting with Area A (major Palestinian towns to be evacuated before elections could take place), then Area B, followed by most of Area C, excluding settlements and military bases, over a period of 18 months:

“The two sides agree that West Bank and Gaza Strip territory, except for issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations, will come under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Council in a phased manner, to be completed within 18 months from the date of the inauguration of the Council.” (Oslo Interim Agreement, Article XI, Paragraph 2)

However, the exact nature of the redeployment of Israel’s military presence after withdrawal from Area A is not specified, nor is the amount of land they will withdraw from quantified. Today Area A comprises 17.8 % of the West Bank’s land area (up 13.8 % from 1995), Area B comprises 18.3 % (down 6.7 % from 1995), Area C comprises 61.5 % (down 9.5 % from 1995) and 3 % is classified as Nature Reserves. Thus whilst there has been some redeployment and some transfer of authority over some areas, the ability of Palestinians to control and develop their environment has been and continues to be extremely limited and has not lived up to the spirit of the peace agreements, which envisaged a transition from an occupied territory to a viable state. Instead, the Palestinian Territories are becoming a series of rotting Bantustans, without adequate access to resources to sustain themselves.

Urban centres in Areas A and B are becoming increasingly crowded as people migrate from the countryside, forced off their land by settlement expansion, land confiscation, military closures, lack of security and deteriorating socioeconomic conditions. The urban economy is not robust enough to absorb the influx of people and unemployment and poverty are escalating. Population density in Palestinian cities is among the highest in the world, exceeding 6000 people per square kilometre[2]. Provision of public services, already inadequate in the early 1990s, lags behind population growth. Sewage systems are strained and overflowing, and unmanaged dumping and burning of waste is an endemic problem in urban landscapes. This causes soil, water and air pollution; which in turn threaten public health.

Access to land is needed to develop sanitary landfill sites and sewage treatment facilities. However, this access is frequently delayed by cumbersome beaurocratic procedures or outright denied by Israeli authorities, who cite security concerns as a reason to prevent development from going forward. Closure of large tracts of land has increased pressure on the remaining open areas, encouraging intensive farming practices and overgrazing; which cause soil degradation and erosion, and loss of biodiversity. Since 2002, these problems have been exacerbated and escalated by the construction of the ‘Security Fence’ or ‘Segregation Wall’; which snakes deep inside Palestinian Territory, escalating land confiscation and environmental destruction, imposing worse movement restrictions, decreasing access to land, ghettoizing urban communities and isolating and impoverishing rural ones.

Oslo and Water
When Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, the second military order passed declared all water resources in the region to be ‘Israeli State Property’. Several subsequent military orders essentially froze water development in Palestine, fixing pumping quotas and prohibiting rehabilitation of wells or drilling of new wells without a permit. Additionally, all Palestinian pumping stations on the Jordan River were destroyed or confiscated, and Palestinians have had no access to the river since then. At the same time, Israel moved to exploit the water resources of the West Bank for its own ends, drilling 38 wells deep wells, largely to supply settlements. Between 1967 and 1990 only 23 permits were issued to Palestinians for drilling wells in the West Bank, of which 20 were for domestic use only[3]. The number of working wells in decreased from 413 in 1967 to 300 in 1983[4]. This was due to drying out of wells caused by the dropping water table and the drilling of deeper wells by Israel and also because owners could not obtain permits to rehabilitate wells or equipment.

By 1993, Palestinians had access to only 20 % of the water of the Mountain Aquifer system underlying the West Bank and no access to the Jordan River. Average water supply totalled just 60 litres per person per day[5], way below World Health Organization recommendations of 150 litres per person per day; and many Palestinian towns and villages were not even connected to the water network. Israel was utilizing 80 % of the Mountain Aquifer, both to supply settlements and communities in Israel. Disastrously for water starved Palestinian communities, the Oslo Interim Agreement did nothing the redress this inequality, and in fact reinforced it. Annex III, Article 40 of the agreement states that Israel "recognizes the Palestinian water rights in the West Bank" but that "these will be negotiated in the Permanent Status Agreement relating to the various water resources". In the meantime, it was agreed that "existing quantities of utilization" were to be maintained; although Palestinian were to be allowed to develop some additional water resources from the Eastern part of the Mountain Aquifer system (a total of 70-80 MCM per year). Israel’s exploitation of 80% of the Mountain Aquifer water was formally endorsed in the Oslo Agreement, until such a time as the Final Status Negotiation should take place.

It was further agreed that development of water and sewage systems would be coordinated by a Joint Water Committee a management institution containing equal numbers of Israeli and Palestinian representatives. All development of water resources in the West Bank must be approved by the JWC before it can go ahead. This includes rehabilitation of wells, drilling of new wells, increasing abstraction from any source, and construction of wastewater infrastructure and treatment plants. Furthermore, construction of pipelines in Israeli controlled areas and areas under joint control (Areas B and C) cannot go ahead without approval. Absolute authority over water resources is retained by the Water Officer of the Israeli Civil Administration, who has the power to veto JWC decisions.

There has been much criticism of the JWC since it began work, with accusations from the Palestinian side of obstruction and lack of cooperation by the Israelis[6]. It is undoubtedly the case that, despite appearing to be egalitarian in structure, containing as it does equal numbers of representatives from each side, the JWC in fact confers a large advantage to the Israelis for the simple reason that the Palestinians stand in much greater need of developing their water resources and distribution systems. The Israeli settler population of the West Bank number between 0.2 and 0.25 million (not including East Jerusalem settlers) and have access to ample water supplies – possibly up to 9 times as much per capita as an average West Bank Palestinian[7]. Therefore the capacity for Israelis to obstruct desperately needed Palestinian water developments is much greater than vice versa. In fact, what has ensued is a modus operandi whereby Palestinians have been forced to agree to new water infrastructure for illegal Israeli settlements in return for Israeli agreement to water developments for water starved Palestinian communities. In addition, wastewater treatment developments have been blocked unless Israeli settlements are also networked to them. The Oslo Agreement on water has been used as a tool to entrench Israeli Settlements in the West Bank.

To date the Oslo Agreement on water has not been fully implemented. However, even if it was, the quantity of water allotted to the Palestinians (including additional quantities) is not enough to meet the basic needs of the current population; and takes no account of population growth and economic development. Currently 13 % of the population of the West Bank remain unconnected to the water network[8], and only 46% of communities who are connected receive 100% coverage[9]. Lack of access to water is crippling the agricultural economy and decreasing overall food security. There is only one functioning wastewater treatment plant to serve a population of more than 2 million people, and wastewater collection infrastructure is far from adequate. In addition, construction of the Israeli Segregation Wall has caused the destruction of 29 wells and 32 springs and 35 km of water pipes as well as many cisterns and reservoirs[10]. Furthermore, 50 wells and 200 cisterns have been isolated behind the wall or confiscated for ‘security reasons’[11]. Thus the growing Palestinian population’s access to water is ever more restricted and present per capita availability of water is the lowest of all the countries in the Middle East.

Oslo and Settlements:
Since 1993, Israel has expanded civilian presence in the West Bank, creating a series of ‘facts on the ground’ which make eventual withdrawal seem increasingly unlikely. Existing settlements have been expanded, new settlements built, and a network of roads for the exclusive use of Israelis put into place, further fragmenting the Palestinian environment, and causing the destruction of thousands of acres of farmland (See Map). Furthermore, the construction of the Segregation Wall to protect these settlement blocks will annex 10 % of the West Bank to Israel (555 km2), and has already directly caused the destruction of over 1 million trees, thousands of acres of farmland and over 50 wells; causing a serious downturn in the rural economy and the quality of life in rural areas.

Besides this, the Settlements themselves constitute a serious environmental hazard as few of them implement any form of waste management or wastewater treatment; and in many cases both solid waste and untreated sewage are discharged into the surrounding Palestinian environment. In addition, over 160 Israeli industrial sites are attached to settlements, taking advantage of the lack of enforcement of environmental standards in the West Bank. These discharge industrial waste and effluents into the Palestinian environment, causing pollution of soil, water and air[12]. Damage to Palestinian farmland in the form of soil pollution from industrial effluents and untreated wastewater has further harmed the already struggling Palestinian agricultural sector[13].

The failure of the Oslo Accords to explicitly ban Settlement growth in the Occupied Territories is a serious flaw in the agreement. Article XXXI, Clause 7 of the Interim Agreement states that: “Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.” It has been argued by Palestinians that Settlement expansion is a direct contravention of this provision; however, Israelis have argued that expansion is due to ‘natural population growth’ (although in reality it far exceeds it), and that settlements do not constitute a ‘change in the status of the West Bank’, as they are not permanent structures. Although the Wall clearly does alter the status of the West Bank, it is justified by Israel under Article XII Clause 1 of the Oslo Interim Agreement which states: “Israel shall continue to carry the responsibility…..for overall security of Israelis and Settlements, for the purpose of safeguarding their internal security and public order, and will have all the powers to take the steps necessary to meet this responsibility.”

Settlements are essentially a tool used by Israel to appropriate land and resources in the West Bank, whilst systematically undermining the viability of the Palestinian State: fragmenting and degrading the Palestinian environment and turning it into a dumping ground for Israeli industries.

The Road Map to Peace
Following the collapse of the Oslo Process and the outbreak of the Second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) in September 2000 (largely as a result of the failure of Oslo to deliver promised improvements in standard of living and continuing Israeli Settlement expansion), the Road Map to Peace was drawn up by the Quartet in 2002, and implementation began in 2003. In its own words the Road Map is a “performance based and goal driven [agreement], with clear phases, timelines, target dates, and benchmarks aiming at progress through reciprocal steps by the two parties in the political, security, economic, humanitarian, and institution-building fields….. The destination is a final and comprehensive settlement of the Israel-Palestinian conflict by 2005”.

The Road Map was to be a two phase process, in which the first phase sought to create the conditions for Final Status Negotiation to take place in the second phase, which would conclude in the creation of an independent Palestinian State, living in peace with Israel. The first phase was to include a cessation in all terrorist activities by the Palestinians, and a freeze in all Settlement activity (including natural growth) by Israelis. Phase II was scheduled to begin between June and December of 2003, and was to include an International Conference to promote Palestinian economic recovery, a revival of multi-lateral cooperation on issues such as water, environment and arms control, and eventually, creation of an independent Palestinian State. Essentially it was an attempt to revert from the violence of the Intifada to the ‘peace process’ that had been in force before it broke out, and with the exception of banning settlement expansion, addressed none of the problems which had made Oslo such an unsatisfactory agreement in the first place. Like Oslo, it deferred resolution of these issues to ‘Final Status Negotiations’, which would take place at the end of the second phase.

The second phase of the Road Map never came about, and the timelines and target dates of the first phase are all long surpassed. The Hudna (ceasefire) that was called in 2003 has well and truly broken down, and settlement expansion in the West Bank continues apace, both on an official (Israeli government approved) and unofficial basis. For example, in February this year it was revealed that Israeli government bodies are currently promoting a plan to build a neighbourhood of 11 000 housing units in Arab East Jerusalem[14]; and in October 2006, a Haaretz exposé revealed that “a secret, two year investigation by the [Israeli] defense establishment shows that there has been rampant illegal construction in dozens of settlements, in many cases involving privately owned Palestinian properties”, as well as 107 new settlement outposts.[15]

Environmental Justice and the viability of the Palestinian State
While peace negotiations stall and the international community continue their aid boycott, environmental and humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian Territories are steadily worsening; and the dream of a viable, independent Palestinian state is receding further and further into the distance. Soil degradation, pollution of groundwater and air pollution are all consequences of poor waste management practices in Palestinian towns and Israeli settlements. Palestinians are hampered in dealing with these problems by the conditions imposed under past peace agreements, the ongoing conflict, Israeli obstruction and economic hardship. At the same time, Palestinian access to environmental goods and services is being eroded by land closure, settlement expansion, construction of Israeli by-pass roads and construction of the Segregation Wall.

Viability is intimately intertwined with sustainability and environmental justice. In order for a Palestinian State to be viable it must exist within an environment that allows it to sustain itself, with sufficient access to environmental goods and services to allow a decent standard of living for the Palestinian people. Environmental justice has been defined as: “a condition….when environmental risks and hazards and investments and benefits are equally distributed with a lack of discrimination, whether direct or indirect, at any jurisdictional level; and when access to environmental investments, benefits, and natural resources are equally distributed; and when access to information, participation in decision making, and access to justice in environment-related matters are enjoyed by all.”[16]

No past peace deal between Israel and Palestine has successfully incorporated this concept, and the situation in the Palestinian Territories today encapsulates environmental injustice. All past agreements have deferred definition of environmental rights to elusive ‘Final Status Negotiations’ which have never taken place. In order to address pressing environmental problems, which are also impacting severely on public health it is vitally important that these negotiations take place without further delay. A return to the status quo of Oslo is not adequate. A new deal is needed, that recognizes and addresses contemporary conditions in the Palestinian Territories, confers sufficient sovereignty on the Palestinian Authority to manage and develop the Palestinian environment and recognizes the environmental rights of the Palestinian people.

Suggestions that Final Status talks should take place at a recent US brokered tripartite summit in February this year were dismissed out of hand by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.[17] Currently the Israeli government refuses to recognize the Palestinian Unity government, and is calling on the International Community to continue the aid boycott which is stalling many desperately needed development projects and causing widespread economic hardship in the Palestinian population. In the meantime, Israeli settlement expansion continues, expanding Israeli control over Palestinian land and resources, and eroding the viability of the future Palestinian State. By turning all the focus on the Palestinian Governments’ willingness to abide by past peace agreements whilst ignoring Israeli violations, the international community create an unfavourable dynamic for the success of future negotiations, creating ideal conditions for yet another temporary peace with no justice.

[1] Avi Shlaim, 2001. Peace confounded. In: Index on Censorship 1, pp 50-55. users.ox.ac.uk/~ssfc0005/Peace%20Confounded.html
[2] Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem, 2007. Status of the Environment in the Palestinian Territories. (In press)
[3] Yousef Nasser, Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, 2003. . Palestinian Water Needs and Rights in the Context of Past and Future Development. In: Water in Palestine: Problems – Politics – Prospects.
[4] Ibid.
[5] World Bank, Washington DC, September 1993. Developing the Palestinian Territories: An Investment in Peace.
[6] Directorate General of Resources and Planning, Palestinian Water Authority, 2003. Status of Wells in the Drilling Sub-Committee.
[7] Foundation for Middle East Peace, Washington DC, 1998. The Socioeconomic impact of Settlement on land, water and the Palestinian Economy
[8] Directorate General of Resources and Planning, Palestinian Water Authority, 2005. Quantities of Water Supply in the West Bank Governorates.
[9]Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Monitoring Project, Palestinian Hydrology Group, 2005. Water for Life: Continued Israeli Assault on Palestinian Water, Sanitation and Hygiene during the Intifada.
[10] Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem, 2006. Database on the Palestinian Environmental Conditions.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Foundation for Middle East Peace, 1998
[13] Applied Redearch Institute – Jerusalem, 2007
[14] Meron Rapoport, Haaretz Correspondent, February 28th, 2007. Government promoting plan for new Ultra-Orthodox East Jerusalem neighbourhood.
[15] Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, October 24th, 2006. Settlements grow on Arab land despite promises made to US. www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/778767.html
[16] Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_justice
[17] Gil Ronen, Arutz Sheva – Israel National News, February 13th 2007. Israel – No Final Status Talks at Summit. www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/121503

From the people of Gillingham to the people of Bethlehem.....

2007-03-26T19:31:00.000+02:00

Thanks to Peacewurzel for this report:

On Wednesday March 21st I visited the land of Bethlehem farmer Ibrahim Sbeih to plant 55 olive trees sponsored by the community of Gillingham, Dorset. The trees were principally sponsored by the congregation of St Mary’s Church, and Orchard Park Garden Centre, as well as a few individual sponsors.

Ibrahim Sbeih lives in Al Khader, a small farming community very near to the city of Bethlehem. He has been a farmer all his life and has a large family, including ten children of his own as well as several elderly dependents. He and his two brothers own land between Efrat settlement and Al Khader village. Currently their livelihood is threatened both by construction of the Segregation wall along the border of Al Khader village; and by illegal expansion of Efrat Settlement.

Ibrahim Sbeih, Al Khader farmer

When the Wall is finished, Israeli authorities say that farmers from Al Khader will be allowed to access their land through a tunnel that is being constructed that will pass underneath the Wall, and a gate that will be manned by Israeli security personnel. Farmers will be allowed to pass the gate on foot, when it is open, subject to security checks. In other parts of the West Bank such as Jayyous village in the north of the West Bank, similar promises have been made and broken. When I visited Jayyous in February 2005, farmers there told me of how they waited every morning for the gate allowing access to their land to be opened. Often they waited for hours before being allowed through. When they started to send one person to keep watch and call everyone when the gate was open, they were told that it would not be opened unless everyone was present. The farmers of Jayyous have lost thousands of dollars worth of productivity every year since the Wall was built.

Ibrahim’s land, besides being in the seam zone – between the Segregation Wall and the Green Line, is also bordered by Efrat Settlement, one of the largest settlements in the West Bank. Construction of Efrat began in the 1990s, with just a few houses and caravans. Now it is a large town with over 7000 residents, and it is still growing.

Efrat Settlement on the hilltop, seen across Ibrahim’s land

Ibrahim and his brothers have been asked repeatedly to sell their land to the settlers, but have refused. Now the settlers are taking it from them by force. They have already taken 18 dunums (1.8 hectares) of prime farming land; bulldozing the olive trees and fruit orchards to build more houses. A further 16 dunums (1.6 hectares) are threatened with destruction today.

On Wednesday we walked to Ibrahim’s land from Al Khader. Farm vehicles are no longer allowed access, so farmers must use public transport to get near to their land and then carry all their tools with them; or alternatively use donkeys and mules. This adds hours to their travel time every day and obviously hampers productivity. When the harvest time comes, the business of transporting produce from the fields to the village is back-breaking labour. The olive trees that were planted on Wednesday were transported on donkeys for 7 km across rugged terrain.

We followed with Ibrahim’s brother several hours later, and were stopped by armed security guards as we neared the land. They belong to a private security firm hired by the Settlers. They took our passports and the ID cards of our Palestinian escort, and we waited for over half an hour while they ascertained our identities, before being allowed to continue. Apparently this is a routine occurrence, and sometimes the land owners are not allowed to access their land at all.

On reaching the land we joined in the last of the olive tree planting (most of the work having been done by the time we got there), before touring Ibrahim’s land, right up to where it borders Efrat Settlement, and bulldozers are even now levelling the orchards on the upper terraces to build more houses, an activity that expressly contravenes previous peace deals made by Israel including the Road Map and the Oslo Agreement. Here things became somewhat surreal as Ibrahim greeted the bulldozer drivers in a friendly manner, before telling us that they are Palestinians from Hebron. This is the only work they can get at this time of economic strife in Palestine.

Ibrahim surveys the destruction of his land (left and talks to the construction workers (below).

“They have families too”, Ibrahim explains to us. “Everybody has to eat”. Apparently this too is common place. The only work many Palestinians can get is construction or destruction work on the Settlements that are expanding all over the West Bank, frequently on privately owned Palestinian land, such as Ibrahim’s. The stark choice facing them is between betrayal of their neighbours or betrayal of their families. With the settlements comes an infrastructure of settlement roads that Palestinians are not allowed to use, and sometimes not allowed to cross due to security fences that are erected. Every road has a buffer zone of 7-10 m. The quantity of land that is being lost is astronomical, and the roads isolate small rural communities one from the other; besides creating a nightmare in logistics for many farmers.

We return to the olive trees that were planted today – so fragile a shield to halt the destruction that threatens to beggar Ibrahim and his family. Next week we will return with the marble plaque that states that these are internationally sponsored olive trees; a gift from the people of Gillingham to the people of Bethlehem; to say that we are here, we are looking and we are listening. We are sharing, just a little, in the struggle and the pain of the Palestinian people, and we believe in a better future.

This was the last planting action of this year’s Olive Tree Campaign. More than 7000 trees have been planted throughout the Palestinian Territories this year; some in threatened land, others to replace some of the more than 500 000 uprooted trees that have been casualties of the Separation Wall. Any further money collected this year will be used to plant more trees next year. Details of the Olive Tree Campaign can be found online at www.jai-pal.org/content.php?page=1 .

A big thank you to the people of Gillingham for supporting Bethlehem’s farming community, and helping to keep hope alive.

Planting Olive Trees near Al Khader

2007-03-26T19:12:00.000+02:00

Thanks to Michael and the Peacewurzel for this vid:

Is Israel Falling Apart?

2007-03-07T10:24:00.000+02:00

By Dror Wahrman, March 5th, 2007

Mr. Wahrman is Ruth N. Halls Professor of History and
Director of the Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies
at the Indiana University History Department (adjunct
in English, Jewish Studies, Cultural Studies).

Foreign observers of Israel tend to focus so intently on the dangers the country faces from its Arab neighbours that they have largely missed an astonishing story that has been accelerating over the past few months: that of the Jewish state's possible move toward internal collapse. If you consider this an exaggeration, just take note of what the past couple ofweeks have brought about. A few days ago the chief ofthe Israeli police resigned after an investigation that found several of Israel's highest police officers guilty of corruption and negligence. This came within a week of the forced resignation of Israel's Chief ofStaff from the military because of the fiascos of the second Lebanon war. It was also some ten days afterIsrael's minister of justice was convicted of sexual assault while on duty, and a couple of weeks afterIsrael's president -- who holds a largely symbolic position -- resigned temporarily following charges of rape and sexual misconduct. It was also the same day that the head of Israel's tax authority resigned because of possible corruption charges. In the meantime, several other investigations are still pending, not least two or three directed at the Prime Minister himself, Ehud Olmert, concerning corruption and favoritism. And an appeal to the Supreme Court has already been filed against the minister of police's choice for a new police chief -- again, because of old charges of corruption of which the nominee had been acquitted only through a particularly narrow benefit of the doubt.

Do these events really presage the collapse of the Israeli system of governance and democracy? There certainly has never been such a deep crisis of leadership in the country that touts itself as the only democracy in the Middle East. The leader of the ruling parliamentary coalition, Avigdor Yitzhaki, said so publicly a few days ago. And the Minister of Education has suggested that all schools devote special classes to the "government crisis", so that children can speakout about what might well seem to them like a total collapse of all systems that control their lives. Suddenly the Palestinians and the Hizbullah, and even Iranian nukes, have taken a back seat: Israel doesindeed seem in danger of imploding from within, at least as a viable democracy.

There are at least two narratives that can help situate why Israel finds itself in such a worrying place on the eve of its sixtieth birthday. For convenience we can tag them by the country's most decisive formative moments: the story of 1948 and the story of 1967.

The story of 1948 is that of a country that underwent an almost miraculous process of birth and growth despite limited resources. From a tiny nation brought into the world by the twin handmaidens of war and seige, and immediately thereafter deluged with waves of immigration several times greater than its 1948 population, Israel managed to become in almost no time a thriving economic, scientific and military power. This unprecedented leap could not be achieved by following the rules. Not that there were too many rules to follow -- even those still had to be created. But the main ethos of Israel's founding fathers was one of in-the-field activism: to a man on the job -- and in those days it was always imagined to be a man, not a woman, undertaking a task that was indubitably essential to the building of the nation -- everything was permissible. In those early and exciting days, the most powerful compliment you could give an Israeli leader was to describe him as a "bulldozer": someone who was right there on the ground, moving mountains and paving roads, unstoppable by anything. Intertwined with the myth of the creation of Israel was a culturally sanctioned encouragement to disregard the rules.

The story continues, typically, that the founding fathers never abused this permission to transcend norms and regulations for their private gain. The supposed proof of this claim, endlessly and nostalgically reiterated, is Yitzhak Rabin's resignation from his first term as prime minister in 1976. It had been discovered that Rabin's wife retained a bank account abroad, which was prohibited by Israel's foreign currency laws at that time: a minor infraction that nonetheless led Rabin to throw in the towel. And yet the disregard for limitations on action, the lack of effective supervisory mechanisms, the advantage of local initiative, and the fact that activities were all undertaken by a small group of people who knew each other intimately, could easily shade into more serious forms of corruption. When Israel's most legendary soldier, Moshe Dayan, developed a penchant for archeology, not only did he allow himself to take home nearly any antiquity his heart desired, but when this antiquity happened to be sitting on top of Masada --the archeological dig that itself came to symbolize Israel's success -- he had no compunctions about enlisting an IDF helicopter to help lift it off the cliff. Few of these facts were secret; after Dayan's death the state paid a million dollars to his widow to move his antiquities collection to the Israel Museum, where it should have been all along. Public outrage was minimal.

The story of 1967 is darker. It is the story of occupation. To see the connection, here are two other news items from this past week, though neither has made it into the front pages. The Israeli courts are trying gingerly to evict a group of settlers who used shady real estate manipulation to invade a Palestinian village just south of the Old City of Jerusalem, and who built without a permit a seven story building(inside a traditional village!) for settler families. Meanwhile, inside the Old City, it was revealed that the Israeli government is withholding its formal recognition of the new leader of the Greek-Orthodox Church in the Holy Land, Patriarch Theophilus, because it wants him to sell prime real estate near Jaffa Gate to settlers as a condition for recognizing his official status. Both acts brazenly ignore Israeli law. Based on past experience, however, both are likely to succeed. And such events are common, the tail end of a history of forty years of illegal appropriations under occupation.

The infinite variety of devices through which Israel has condoned and often actively encouraged the breaking of the rules in its drive to expropriate Palestinian occupied land against both Israeli and international law has been documented not only by journalists,scholars and observers on the left: it was also the subject of a thick government judicial document, known as the "Sasson Report," which created something of a furore when it was handed to prime minister Ariel Sharon in March 2005. Within months, however, theSasson Report joined the mounting pile of legal and normative documents that have been effortlessly side-stepped by the settlers and their supporters in multiple branches of the government. It was only a matter of time, inevitably, before the lawlessness of the occupied territories -- and their support networks throughout the Israeli state apparatus -- began infecting Israel proper.

Both stories of disregard for law and norms, the nation- building drive of 1948 and the land-grabbing drive of 1967, have come together above all in one particular figure, mythological already in his lifetime: Ariel Sharon. Sharon was the ur-bulldozer. His name is virtually synonymous with dogged action combined with disrespect for law and authority. His public career as a soldier and as a civilian was built out of repeated acts of disobedience and of establishing facts on the ground; the first Lebanon War is only the most famous and disastrous example. In the occupied territories, nobody did more for the settlement movement than Sharon, who taught its leaders techniques to railroad the opposition. And then he did the same to them, in turn, when he suddenly shifted his loyalties and embarked on his "disengagement plan" in 2004.

It is therefore hardly a coincidence that Sharon's rise to the highest office in the state marked a decisive moment in this process of collapse: the moment when corruption and normlessness suddenly seemed to take over the system in all its nooks and crannies. Sharon's tenure in office was more autocratic than any Israel had previously seen. He bypassed even his own government and ministers through a small cabal of friends and family that came to be know as "The Ranch Forum" (named after Sharon's private ranch in theNegev, itself a manifestation of quasi-corrupt privilege). It also turned out that Sharon's unstoppable drive easily bled into self-serving corruption, funneling millions into his family's bank accounts. And yet, despite the multiple corruption scandals that swirled over his head, Sharon himself remained largely unscathed, saved in part by his mythical status, and in part by his conversion to the disengagement plan which suddenly gave his many critics on the left a surprising stake in his survival. He was also saved, in a sense, by falling into a coma in January 2006: only this personal catastrophe prevented him from seeing a few weeks later his son and political amanuensis, Omri Sharon, being carted off to jail for corruption charges.

So if Sharon's reign was the epitome of success for the activism of both 1948 and 1967, the reign of his successors has been the time of collapse and of reckoning. With Sharon's departure Israel has been left with a weak cadre of second-rate politicians, who seem even more puny in the shadow of Sharon's towering figure and tragic exit. The corrupt practices are all there, but no higher motives can be claimed for them,and no protection from public outrage can be afforded to their perpetrators. They are simply as petty and ugly as they look. Even when Dan Chaluz, the Army Chief of Staff, resigned for reasons ostensibly linked to the failed war in Lebanon, the one act of his that will be remembered with particular public disgust is that even as he ordered the bombing of Southern Lebanon on the 12th of July 2006, he paused to instruct his stockbroker to sell his portfolio; a callous, greedy mistake Sharon would never have committed.

So let us ask again: is Israeli democracy in danger? This democracy is young, evolving, and certainly not indestructible. For a while it has been showing clear signs of strain; not least, the inability to maintain reasonable political stability amid the frequent turnovers of ministers and administrations. Now it is showing even clearer signs of deep crisis. According to every survey and poll, levels of popular confidence in the system have never been so low. People are turning their backs on politics as never before. Indeed, the very violence with which the public is pouncing on every falling public figure is a sign of how deep the anger runs. The present void might well encourage those who promise a radical cleansing of the Augean stables in return for a different kind of political rule -- and is it such a stretch of the imagination to see them succeeding?

Two figures, indeed, have already been making such a pitch, and should therefore be listened to carefully. Both, probably not coincidentally, are Russian immigrants -- and thus even less wed to the Israeli democratic tradition, such as it is. One is a minister in the current Israeli government, Avigdor Lieberman, a self-proclaimed "strong man" with an abiding hatred of the legal system (and a few brushes with it in his past) who has already put forth a suggestion to turn Israel into more of a presidential system with few restraints on the chief executive (as Ben Lynfield reported in the Nation, Dec. 26th 2006). Lieberman's popularity keeps going up even as that of the political system falls. But in terms of being the most authentic symptom of how deep the malaise goes, as well as having the greater potential to change the rules of the game, Lieberman pales in comparison to a man who chose this same past week to announce his own arrival on the political scene: Arkadi Gaydamak.

Gaydamak is a Russian born billionaire who owes his wealth in part to shady arms dealings in Angola that led the French to issue arrest warrants for illegal arms dealings and money laundering. Having successfully fended off extradition to France, the oligarch has turned his attention in recent years to philanthropic work in Israel, with a keen interest on using it to create a public image for himself. When it turned out during the 2006 Lebanon war that the government was ineffective in caring for the civilian population under missile attacks in the north of Israel, Gaydamak stepped into the void and set up a 'tent city' on the Mediterranean beach for refugees, thus becoming Israel's most popular public figure at precisely the moment the political class was experiencing its greatest failure. No less dramatically -- and Gaydamak has nothing if not a flair for dramatic public relations -- when Sderot, a small town near the border with Gaza that is home to Minister of Defense Amir Peretz, was showered with Kassam missiles in the fall of 2006 and Peretz and his colleagues in government were wringing their hands, Gaydamak sent buses to take several thousand inhabitants for a vacation at the Red Sea. Peretz's angry reaction to this public gesture only underscored how impotent the establishment looked by comparison to this philanthropist with his bottomless pockets.

A couple of days ago Gaydamak announced, in a lavishly organized event, the foundation of a new political party called "Social Justice." At a moment when all other politicians are seen as guilty, at least by association, for sticking their hand in the till (or somewhere else where it does not belong), the founder of "Social Justice" is the gift that keeps on giving, rather than taking. Gaydamak does not want to enter politics himself -- or so he says. Indeed, he cannot even speak Hebrew -- his speeches are all translated. What Gaydamak wants, and says almost explicitly, is to use his money to become the king maker of Israeli politics: he wants to choose single handedly the next Israeli prime minister. And based on current polls, his ambitions cannot be set aside lightly. But if Gaydamak is convinced that the Israeli electorate is for sale, and if the voters are willing to prove him right; and if this transaction is now happening in the public eye, and met with more applause than dismay; then the problem is not one of the political class alone. Israeli democracy is in severe crisis: the friends of the Jewish state should be mobilizing post-haste to help Israeli citizens, jaded, disappointed and angry as they might be, ensure it is not a fatal one.

Settlement expansion continues

2007-02-28T13:14:00.000+02:00

I found this article in Ha'aretz today. What is particularly relevent is that settlement expansion directly contravenes both the Oslo Accords and the Road Map to Peace. What was that about abiding by past agreements?

It is worth mentioning that the government of Israel does not 'recognize Palestine', the government of Israel routinely uses violence against the Palestinian civilian population, and the government of Israel routinely breaks past peace agreements. The astounding hypocrisy of both the government of Israel and the International community in demanding that the Palestinian Unity government recognizes Israel, renounces violence and abides by past peace agreements is quite jaw dropping.

Settlement expansion, besides inflaming tensions and inciting violence also annexes Palestinian land in an ever expanding 'security zone' around the settlement; steals Palestinian resources such as water; causes environmental destruction as new roads and tunnels are built to connect the settlement to the Israeli road network thus also obstructing Palestinian movement as neighbourhoods become encircled by settlement bypass roads that are no-go zones to Palestinians; and pollute the Palestinian environment with untreated sewage and industrial pollutants through poor waste management practices.

Gov't promoting plan for new ultra-Orthodox East Jerusalem neighborhood
By Meron Rapoport, Haaretz Correspondent

Government bodies have been promoting a preliminary plan over the past few weeks to build a neighborhood of 11,000 units for the ultra-Orthodox near the East Jerusalem airport.The plan also calls for the construction of a tunnel under a Palestinian neighborhood to connect the new quarter to one of the settlements in the Beit El area east of Ramallah.MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) said Tuesday that the Housing Ministry is the body that developed a plan to erect a massive new ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The ministry denied any knowledge of the project.

Schneller also said Tuesday that the Jerusalem municipality was "happy with the idea." In response to Schneller's claims that the housing ministry hatched the plan, they said, "the ministry has no knowledge of this plan. At most, only the Jerusalem district of the ministry knew about it."The plan has not yet been submitted to the various planning committees since, according to Schneller, "it is only in the idea and feasibility stage."

The new neighborhood is to be built close to the separation fence near the Qalandiyah road block, which separates the Palestinian neighborhoods of north Jerusalem from Ramallah. If approved, it would be the largest building project over the Green Line in Jerusalem since the 1967 Six-Day War. The neighborhood, which will apparently be built on state or Jewish National Fund land would sit in the heart of one of the most crowded urban Palestinian areas in the West Bank. The architectural firm planning the project, Reches Eshkol, refused to divulge which government body had commissioned the plans. Despite the Housing Ministry's response, Haaretz has learned that the plan was presented a number of times to various official bodies, and that the director of the Housing Ministry's Jerusalem district, Moshe Merhavya, was present at least at one such instance.

Schneller said of the project: "I saw the plans in the programs division of the Housing Ministry and I very much enjoyed seeing them." Schneller explained that even though the Safdie Plan to construct housing in the western part of Jerusalem has been shelved, the need to build in Jerusalem still exists. "The ultra-Orthodox public needs its solutions," he said. "There is the possibility that it will conquer the inner city, and that this city will then become an ultra-Orthodox-Arab city, which I would not want to happen."

Schneller, who is the former head of the Yesha settlement council and now serves as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's liaison to the settlers, said he has not yet spoken to the prime minister about the plan. "But from what I know of the government's position, there is an Israeli interest in establishing a neighborhood in Atarot. The plan proposes connecting the new neighborhood to the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Kokhav Yaakov east of Ramallah, which is at present outside the planned route of the separation fence. To this end, a tunnel a few hundred meters long would be dug beneath the Palestinian village of Aqab and under the separation fence. The idea to build an "eastern fence" to separate the settlements of the Jordan Valley and the mountains from large Palestinian communities like Ramallah had been raised in the past. The construction of the tunnel might be the first step in this direction.

"If it is someday decided that Kokhav Yaakov will be part of the 'Jerusalem envelope' it would be logical to create such a link, but it has not yet been decided," Schneller said. The municipality said that "when the plan is officially presented to the municipality, it will be discussed and a decision will be made about it." Some of the neighborhoods built around Jerusalem after the Six-Day War were planned by the Housing Ministry and were established over the objections of then-mayor Teddy Kollek. Meron Benvenisti, who served as deputy mayor at that time, said that the area has complex problems: prior to the Six-Day war some of its land belonged to municipalities like al-Bireh, which are today in the Palestinian territories.

"It is complete insanity to place tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in the heart of a densely populated Arab area," he said. "No one thinks about how they will live there. It's like living in the middle of Ramallah." Attorney Danny Zindman of the Ir Amim association says such a plan will lead to the "balkanization" of Jerusalem.

A Post Modern Occupation

2007-02-20T19:33:00.000+02:00

Thanks to Whirling McDervish for this piece...

On Friday 09.02.07, Jerusalem’s old city was declared a military ‘no go’ area after clashes between IDF troops and Israeli Arab (Palestinian) youths flared up. Israeli excavation beneath the Dome of the Rock complex is steadily chipping away at the city’s precarious foundations. While for Muslims, the rock, beneath the dome, is where, according to Islam, the prophet Mohammed ascended to Heaven, for Jews, this is the supposed site of King Solomon’s temple, previously destroyed and supplanted by the Islamic Dome of the Rock. The ‘wailing wall’ represents the only surviving remnants of this temple as evidenced to date. Jews believe that the rebuilding of the temple will precede the return of the messiah. Muslims believe that the collapse of the dome of the rock will put apocalyptic events in motion.

After Muslim midday prayers on Friday, continued Israeli excavation work sparked a riot. Troops moved in, firing plastic bullets and tear gas at stone throwing youths, even storming and tear gassing protestors in the Dome of the Rock complex itself where, apparently, at a loss to find rubble ammunition in the austere grounds protestors took to throwing anything at hand, including shoes. On Sunday entrance to the old city itself was restricted by the IDF; only residents, Israeli Arabs above the age of 45, and, evidently, internationals were allowed in. Many of the old city’s narrow backstreets were strewn with stones from Friday’s clashes and alleyways leading to extremist Israeli settlements were heavily guarded by IDF soldiers.

Jerusalem is strange; the divide between old and new more so. Politically far removed from any West Bank city, there is a completely different atmosphere, perhaps one that belies the belittlement of Arabs with Jerusalem ID’s and their relative freedom compared to fellow Palestinians trapped behind the Apartheid wall just minutes away. Jerusalem’s old city is perhaps the only place in the world you can cross the Middle East / Europe divide in a matter of minutes, and so, from a western point of view, the local portal between eyed curiosity and anonymity. There couldn’t be a starker contrast leaving behind the complex maze of narrow heaving, bazaared streets of the Arab quarter and stepping into the uncluttered space of restauranted courtyards, art galleried parades, and cappuccino coffee shopped terraces of the Jewish quarter. Just a few streets away, back in the Arab quarter, extremist Jews hold out in occupied, backstreet apartments, conspicuously signposted by Star of David flags, draped and unmoving in the breezeless streets, barbed wire tangled across rooftops and balconies, and CCTV surveillance systems aimed accusingly upon Arab neighbourhoods. These Jews, many from Europe and the US, may have a zealous, even romantically misplaced, disposition for staking their claim to their utopian promised city, but rhetoric fuelled, barbed wired assault on the Arab quarter is an outwardly belligerent attack on the values and aesthetics of a once thriving old city culture. These implanted strongholds are not only dividing neighbourhoods but the minds and aspirations of a once prosperous people. Back in the Jewish quarter there is a different vibe altogether; none of the barbed wire, none of the despondent apathy so apparent among many of the Arabs, more the kitsch banter of pasty tourists perusing ‘jerUSAlem’ hats and t-shirts, and the flash of instamatic cameras unconsciously recording the history of a cultural whitewash, a little lost with every shutter release, every oblivious smile.

On the same day as the Jerusalem riots, we were in Hebron where it also kicked off. We were supposed to meet up with a demonstration in support of Palestinian families effectively imprisoned in Tal Rumeida, a now predominantly Jewish area, still home to a fast dwindling number of Palestinians. Largely due to the failure of the Israeli state to intervene in problems of a racially prejudiced nature, Tal Rumeidan Palestinians are experiencing harassment from Jewish extremist settlers, often violently so, as well as segregation and difficulty of movement in and out of their neighbourhoods. These Palestinians have, astoundingly, been completely banned from driving cars?!? We did not manage to meet up with the demonstration as we were stopped from entering Tal Rumeida, the checkpoint conveniently closed by the Israelis as we turned up, so, instead, we spent the afternoon with the Hebronites under incursion from the Israeli military.

There had been problems in the city the day before, also due to the excavation work beneath the Dome of the Rock, so tensions were expected to flare again after Friday’s Muslim prayers. In typical fashion, IDF soldiers waited tauntingly, idly draped across concrete roadblocks, M-16 nozzles directed vaguely down adjacent streets. It seemed like a bit of a show really, with a multitude of press, internationals, peace activists, and locals onlooking, evidently awaiting the inevitable; an unwittingly macabre bunch. The first incident we witnessed involved four young Israeli soldiers half-intent on getting even with a youth throwing pebbles from about 100m away. These stones rolled to a standstill at soldiers’ feet – hardly a threat. However, in an operation that resembled something out of Hollywood, these Raybanned soldiers went in, guns raised in terminator style poses, ducking and diving in and out of doorways, backs hard-up against walls, conscious austerity aimed at a multitude of poised cameras an open betrayal of ambitions to military cool. When they suddenly broke off the chase, it was as if they had forgotten what they set out to do, so lost were they in the process of themselves. While they were absorbed, the stone throwing youth had escaped, and all they could do was back up in the direction of the roadblock, slowly nodding, left and right, checking each other pull snapshot poses.

Later, in the market area, abandoned fruit and veg stalls fuelled a one sided food fight. Youths took to hurling oranges, apples and tomatoes, only to get tear gas and rubber bullets in return. Another Palestinian attack from the rooftops was medievally inspired; what seemed to be a wheelbarrow, or the like, full of stones emptied over the edge into a narrow soldier patrolled alley below. Soldiers, lucky to escape unscathed and largely saved by over hanging shop canopies, were quick to pop sound bombs and tear gas canisters onto the roofs. The sound bombs are loud, reverberating throughout the streets, up and down alleyways with solid sound waves. They can easily damage ear drums in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even when you know they are coming, they really jar you to the core.

During all this, weathered workmen continued road works down the central reservation of the adjacent street. One resting on a spade, woollen hat pushed to the back of his head, the other wading backwards through and levelling freshly poured concrete, casually pausing to flick away fallen ash from the fag drooping at the corner of his mouth. They did in fact smile at us as if to intimate the apparent comic nature of continuing work under the circumstances, but you can't escape the fact that they must see this sort of thing frequently. Thinking about it in terms of this, their smiles meant something completely different.

As we sheltered, out of soldiers’ field of fire, beneath overhead shopping parade canopies, also protecting us from short falling stones from the rooftops, soldiers and youths continued projectile exchanges, while unfazed children scampered about, the entrepreneurs among them trying to sell us token, souvenir spent rubber bullets collected from the street, another even boasting a tear gas grenade and proudly posing for photographs with a head wrapped keffiyah obscuring his features.

A brief burst of stones from the rooftops above us saw Israeli soldiers retaliate, this time returning stone projectiles in mocking condescension, dispelling any misplaced notion of an organised military operation. Events certainly portrayed the escapade as nothing more than a gangland streetfight, and did little to attest to professional conduct from an army whose command claim the occupation to be an administrative necessity in maintaining state security.

Infact, the IDF are a ragtag bunch. There does not seem to be any pervading ethic concerning rules of engagement, more individual snapping points, personal prejudices and unit vendettas. Some soldiers will fly into rages when challenged; others are more diplomatic, making it known that they can’t express true held views whilst in uniform. The image of a self-conscious, slightly paranoid, perhaps even post modern occupation is inescapable. Oversized khakis and clumpy boots impede gangly teenagers aspiring to institutionalised military cool; the cool being an image that you cant help but feel is the adhesive factor holding operations together. What else in a ground-level self-doubting occupation? Officers donned in Raybans or mirrored shades, exhaling toasted tobacco smoke in self-conceived ‘unparody’ of Vietnam platoon GI’s provide the role model, the hardened, aloof and indomitable hero to imitate whose buried ethics provide a simple framework for a conscript’s better self to hide behind. These are the collective heroes that sanctify occupation, the icons of self-denial that conscripts hold aloft in obscuring their own, disturbing and disconsonant views.

On that day in Hebron, if the soldiers had withdrawn there would have been no one for Palestinian youths to throw stones at. However, Israeli machismo, strutting a state funded brawl, and staged on the stomping grounds of hundreds of Palestinian malcontents could only see the situation escalate into a full blown riot.

Down otherwise deserted streets, tables and chairs borrowed from market stalls were piled up into crude roadblocks, tyres burnt in true Intifada style while mobs of youths darted from street to street retreating from the intermittent pops and bangs of further sound and tear gas grenades. In the city centre a loosely associated contingent of about hundred youths, attempting stealth behind the acrid smoke of burning tyres, rained stones toward four soldiers, stupidly pulled in and cut off, awaiting further military assistance. When it came the soldiers left veiled in clouds of tear gas, leaving the Palestinian mob elated at their small but significant victory. Crowds swarmed and cheered. Today they had seen the soldiers off.

Thanks to Laura for this video from the day...

2007-02-20T15:47:00.000+02:00

Bethlehemghetto supports Anarchists Against the Wall

Resistance to the injustice and inhumanity of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories is not limited to Palestinians, nor even to Palestinians and sympathetic internationals. A number of people in Israel itself oppose Israel's unjust treatment of the Palestinian people, and in particular the construction of the Apartheid Wall, which has been ruled as illegal by the International Court of Justice (2003). We received this report today of the trial and sentencing of one such activist, and would like to take this opportunity to send a message of support and respect to all Israelis who believe in the universality of human rights.

Report on the trial and sentencing of Jonathon Pollock:
Jonathan Pollak, an activist with Anarchists Against the Wall, an Israeli anti-Apartheid organisation was sentenced to a suspended sentence of 3 months in prison at a court hearing in Tel Aviv last week. This charge will be activated if he is convicted at a similar charge again.

Pollak was sentenced after he was convicted together with 10 other activist for blocking a road in Tel Aviv in protest of the construction of the wall. He asked theTel Aviv Magistrate's Court to sentence him to jail time, rather than community service or a suspended sentence, saying he has no intentionto stop resisting the occupation. The ten other convicted activistswere sentenced to 80 hours of community service.

In his sentencing statement Pollak said: "This trial, had it not takenplace in a court of the occupation, in the democracy imposed on 3.5 million Palestinian subjects devoid of basic democratic liberties - was supposed to be a trial of the wall. The same wall defined as a illegal by the highest legal authority in the world; the same wall that serves as a political tool in the campaign of ethnic cleansing Israel is running in the occupied territories.

"It was not us who were supposed to stand here in the dock, but thosewho plan and carry into action the Israeli apartheid," Pollak continued. He also stated that while he is not surprised by his conviction, he does not recognize it as legitimate, explaining that is the reason he refused community service or cooperation with the probation authorities.To end his statement Pollak asked that the court punish him with a prison sentence and not a suspended one.

"In a state of things where any gathering in the territories is considered illegal because of a widespread anti-democratic policy of closed military zones, any suspended sentence given to me will quickly become a prison term" Pollak said, then turning to the judge personally, saying "if your honor believes one should be sent to prison for such acts, please take the liberty and personally send me to prison here and now".

The state prosecutor quickly responded by asking not to send Pollak to prison, but rather to pose a conditional sentence and a fine.

Jonathan Pollak's full sentencing statement:

From the first moment of this trial we took responsibility for our acts. We've never denied, even for an instant, that we sat on the road. Quite the opposite - we fully admitted this, and we explained why we did so. The defense was revolved around two central axes -exposing the police's lies and their invention of fictional accusations, which the court has already addressed, and on the principals of civil resistance.

In its decision, the court stated that we were attempting to drag this court into the political arena, which it should avoid like fire, lest it get burned. In fact, the state prosecution was the one doing the dragging. In every crime and in every trial, the question of motive is a central one. Our so called crime is clearly a political one, and so are its motives.

This trial, had it not taken place in a court of the occupation, in the democracy imposed on 3.5 million Palestinian subjects devoid of basic democratic liberties, would have been the trial of the Wall; that same wall that was defined as illegal by the highest legal authority in the world; that same wall that is used as a political tool in the campaign of ethnic cleansing being undertaken by Israel in the Occupied Territories; that same wall that in its previous route, that route of the relevant days, was thrown out even by Israeli courts!

It was not us who should have been standing accused here, but rather the architects and enforcers of Israeli Apartheid. To our assertion that there is a duty to violate the law at times, the court answered that in such times, one must accept the punishment as well. This response contains an obvious moral failure. The correct response would be that those who violate the law must expect punishment. Expect it, but under no circumstances accept its legitimacy.

I am not surprised that we were found guilty. But in spite of that, I cannot accept the legitimacy of the punishment. That is the reason I refused to cooperate with the parole agency, and I will refuse community service as well. I believe that at this stage of the trial the defense tends to state that this is the defendant's first conviction, that he is a normal human being, who is well within the bounds of civil society, that he works a steady job and so on and so forth. I will argue otherwise. I will state that while this is indeed my first conviction, it is unlikely to be my last.

I still believe that what I did was necessary and morally correct, and that resistance to oppression is the duty of every human being, even at a personal price. It is customary to ask for leniency - not to impose an active sentence, and to be satisfied with a conditional sentence. I will ask not to have a conditional sentence imposed on me, but an active one, since as things are, any demonstration taking place in the OccupiedTerritories is declared illegal assembly, according to the extensive and anti-democratic system of closed military zone warrants. In this state of affairs, any conditional sentence imposed upon me will quickly become an active one. If your honor believes one should be sent to prison for such acts, please take the liberty and personally send me to prison here and now.

2007-02-07T15:05:00.000+02:00

International Olive Tree Planting Day, February 3rd 2007
posted by Frubious Bandersnatch

At 9.30 am on Saturday February 3rd, a group of about 40 international volunteers gathered at the YMCA office in Beit Sahour for the first international planting day of the Joint Advocacy Initiative Olive Tree Campaign in 2007 (www.ej-ymca.org). The Olive Tree Campaign aims to replant uprooted trees, and to plant trees on land that is threatened with confiscation by the Israeli authorities, with the help of international church groups and peace activists. Since the outbreak of the Intifada, over half a million olive trees have been uprooted throughout the Palestinian Territories, decimating the rural economy and the morale of the people. International Planting Day is an exercise in awareness raising, as well as an opportunity for fundraisers to participate in olive tree planting. Besides this, the presence of international volunteers acts as some deterrent against unwarranted interference and sabotage by Israeli settlers or Security forces. The diverse group this year consisted of British, Norwegian, French, German, Italian and American volunteers, as well as both Palestinian and Israeli peace activists.
Planting for the Olive Tree Campaign began in mid January this year, and so far over 5000 trees have been planted in 78 fields in the Bethlehem, Salfit and Hebron areas of the West Bank. A further 2000 or more trees will be planted, mainly around Jenin and Gaza by mid March.

International planting day this year took place at Ein al Qassis (Reverend’s Spring) at Al Khader, a village very close to Bethlehem. This village is surrounded on three sides by the Israeli settlements of Har Gilo, Betar Illit, Neve Daniyyel and Efrat. Several of these settlements are currently expanding, with outposts of caravans occupying the hilltops bordering the villagers’ lands. It is worth noting that all of these settlements are well to the Palestinian side of the 1967 armistice line (Green Line), which runs to the north of Battir (see map), and hence are illegal under international law. Settlement expansion threatens Palestinian livelihoods as it goes hand in hand with land confiscation, harassment of civilians and appropriation of water resources.

Map of Bethlehem area showing Al Khader Village and the Israeli settlements around it (prepared by ARIJ - www.arij.org)

There have been several reports of increasingly violent behaviour by the settlers at the outposts around Al Khader, with farm animals being attacked and killed, trees and storage sheds destroyed, and farmers beaten and attacked by dogs whilst trying to access their fields. The settlers have a vested interest in preventing the farmers from working their land, as under Israeli law, dating back to the Ottoman era, land that is ‘abandoned’ and left uncultivated for a period of 4 years becomes state property. Thus if farmers cannot work their land it is seized by the Israeli government, and will doubtless be allocated to the settlers.

In addition, the route of the Separation Barrier is very close to the built-up part of Al Khader village, and when completed will cut off access to 90 % of the village’s agricultural land. In recent years, villagers have suffered greatly, both from land confiscation, destruction of property and settler violence and intimidation. According to the database of the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ, 2005), over 10 000 trees have been uprooted in this area since the year 2000. Furthermore, several wells and 25 homes have been demolished. As a farming community, the people of Al Khader have been economically decimated by these actions, as well as emotionally demoralized. The crumbling economy of Bethlehem city, which has suffered from the demise of the tourist industry in recent years, has no capacity to absorb the ruined farmers of Al Khader and if current trends continue, their future looks grim indeed.

On Saturday, over 250 trees were loaded onto trucks by the volunteers at the YMCA, and driven to fields belonging to three different farmers from Al Khader, to the south of the village, near Neve Danniyyel settlement. Here they were planted, with the help of the farmers whose land it is. Work went well apart from a brief interruption by settlers from a new caravan outpost nearby, who attempted to prevent the planting and called out the Israeli army to evict the volunteers and land owners. After some time, the army arrived and requested that the group leave the field closest to the settlement, brandishing a military order declaring it a closed military zone. They also attempted to arrest a young Palestinian volunteer, but after the intervention of Ecumenical Accompaniers and Israeli peace activists, he was released. The group moved on and continued planting at a field further from the outpost and closer to Al Khader village. Shortly after all the trees were planted, rain began to fall, watering these newest seeds of hope for Al Khader.

An olive to cultivate the hope in Palestine

2007-01-31T12:23:00.000+02:00

Thanks to Cara and Laura for this vid...

Al Khadir faces the wall

2006-12-28T18:40:00.000+02:00

Thanks to Whirling McDervish for this report...

Al Khadar community, right in the centre of the Bethlehem district, stands to lose the vast majority of its farmland if construction of the separation wall continues unheeded. Here the proposed route of the wall’s construction serves as a perfect example of Israeli policy in commandeering as much West Bank land and resources as possible. In brief, the wall, as a whole, does not stick to the pre-1967 borders but fully violates this UN recognised ‘green line’ between Israel and the West Bank. Snaking into the West Bank up to 11Km in places and all but severing the West Bank between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea, the wall is now outwardly a tool to segregate Palestinian communities and surround established, as well as new, internationally illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

In the not too distant past Al Khadar would have been home to a predominantly self-sufficient community of small holders and pastoralists, even an important centre for produce saleable to the rest of Bethlehem, but the present day situation has put many farmers off even tending to their lands, jeopardising not only the quality of the land but claims to inherited ownership as regards Israeli bureaucracy. The traditional unwritten way of handing land down from father to son is sadly working in Israel’s favour. Without paperwork to prove ownership, Israeli bureaucracy will absorb these lands with little struggle.

Arable land is effectively cut off from Al Khadar by a busy Israeli highway. While a single tunnel beneath the road does exist and will continue to remain open for farmers after completion of the wall, access to land will be severely hindered in comparison to past freedom of movement. This raises justified anxieties about increased costs of farming hence loss of already low profits. Not only, it seems, is the infrastructure intent on impairing Palestinians from farming their land but, as we learnt, farmers have, allegedly, been party to severe harassment from Israeli settlers. We spoke to one farmer who told us he had been shot at from the relatively new static caravan settlement at the top of the valley, the bullet narrowly missing him, ricocheting off the tractor he was driving at the time. The ‘outpost’ settlement in question “Sde Baz”, a crude encampment of static caravans sits mockingly atop the hills of Al Khadar. The settler inhabitants claim to own an area of land equivalent to 7,000 square metres, bought from a local Arab for close to US$ 1million. The local Palestinians dispute this citing that it is in fact illegal for such a transaction without the consent of the community at large. However, as I was told by another local, this story is probably true, the former owner likely escaping treatment as a collaborator by fleeing the country. Whatever the truth, the outcome will be the same if the situation remains unchallenged. A settler from the encampment, pickaxe in hand, that we unwittingly bumped into as we walked across disputed farmland, told us there were ten families living at “Ste Baz” and expected there to be perhaps 50 within the next ten years. When a Palestinian friend remarked on how he could understand why settlers would want to come a live amidst such beautiful lands the settler replied “Yes, but you are not welcome”. Without even an attempt to hide intentions for this settler community to expand, he laid bare the fact that they will inevitably outgrow the originally purchased 7000 square metres, and with construction of the wall just months away these people cannot fail to see the chance for further land acquisition; land which they know full well, in all likelihood, will end up theirs or at least their communities. With the already fully established colony of Neve Daniyyel – part of the Gush Etzion block – expanding northwards towards Sde Baz, it seems that this caravanned ‘outpost’ settlement is acting as nothing more than, on the one hand an institutional land grab, on the other a private land reclamation enterprise. In addition, as the settler community itself does not seem a wealthy one, questions are raised as to where $1 million, to purchase such a relatively small piece of land, came from. Considering that this settlement is supposedly illegal yet served by a well maintained, drivable track, electricity poles to one side adorned with CCTV cameras, it begs the question, does this money come from the state?; and if not, at least from the vested interests of developers, endorsed by the authorities?

Israel, in its virtuosity (sic), supposedly offers compensation to affected Palestinian farmers but the culture divide is so massive, and suspicion so justifiably rife that even if Israeli officials were to approach these farmers with the necessary dubious paperwork Palestinians would not, rightly, sign a thing. I met one such farmer, at his family smallholding, who had such a visit after notification that 6000 square metres of his land was to be confiscated and levelled to make way for the separation wall. Days later a bulldozer turned up and ripped through his land uprooting every last single olive tree. He watched to entire ‘operation’, two hundred years of love and sweat destroyed in less than an hour and he was powerless to do anything.

These fields, he told us, had been in his family for at least two hundred years. His grandfather was buried on this land. On taking us out to the fields to show us the destruction it was hard to know what to say. Attempts at consolation would be pointless and I could not help but feel ashamed of being part of a country, an economy that is endorsing this behaviour. A savage, twenty metre wide scar, bulldozer tracks still clearly visible parted his land. He felt, he told us, like his heart had been ripped out, that he was up against a machine and powerless to do anything. As we drove away and left him on his family land, he took to his knees, and in full Muslim prostration put his forehead to the earth that would soon be lost behind the wall, accessible only through a military checkpoint.

Checkpoint 300

2006-12-18T13:58:00.000+02:00

Apologies for not having posted anything here for a while... It's been a pretty busy period for us, I'm sure you'll appreciate... But we'll endeavour to keep you updated with all the events as they unfold over the Christmas period in the little town of Bethlehem...

Thanks to mic. for the production of this video...

In Bethlehem over Christmas? Fancy blogging for us? Let us know!
much love,
jfd...

2006-12-08T02:41:00.000+02:00

posted by Odog
House Demolitions are nothing new in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinian villages are routinely subjected to Israeli demolition orders for the purposes of contructing settlements, by-pass roads, the segregation barrier as well as building military installations required to protect Isreali infrastructure and police the local arab population.

Al Walaja village in Bethlehem Governorate is one such example where people's homes have been destroyed not for any "security" purpose other than to ensure Settlement expansion and construction of the Wall may continue unchallanged.

The policy of Israeli house demolitions however, goes further in explaining the psychology of Zionism which seeks to deny or deligitimise any concept of Arab existence and ownership of land prior to the State of Israel. Such a concept directly challages its narrow ideology which considers the Jewish people to be the sole and legitimate owners of the land know as Israel/Palestine.

The following report comes from the Negev.

Israeli police level 17 Arab homes in the Negev
-IMEMC

Officials from the Interior Ministry and Israel Land Authority demolished 17 homes in the unrecognized Negev village of Twayyil, local sources in the village reported.

This is the fourth demolition in this village since the beginning of the year.

According to the source, on Monday, the Interior Minister warned that 42,000 homes in the unrecognized villages will be demolished. The Israeli Land Authority says these houses were built without proper licenses.

Forty years ago the State of Israel moved the families of this village from their original land (8000 dunums) to the current location (400 meters squared per family) after the 1965 Planning and Construction law, yet the State of Israel never recognized the village, and to this day has not supplied it with the proper services even though the residents are Israeli citizens and pay taxes to the Israeli government.

Moreover, the families found out that the land they were forced to move to is not government land- it is private property.

“The minister forgot to mention that most of these villages predated the State and that all of them predated the 1965 Planning and Construction Law they use as a pretext for demolishing Arabs homes in the unrecognized villages, evacuating them and taking over their ancestral lands,” said Faisal Sawalha of the Regional Council for the Arab Unrecognized Villages in the Negev (RCUV).

The RCUV described this new wave of demolition as a “grave violation of citizen and human rights” and “an attempt to demolish and evacuate whole villages.” This is the first time that the authorities demolish such a large number of homes in one village at the same time, Sawalha said.

To protest the demolition, the RCUV erected a tent at the village, where supporters from other villages and international volunteers gather in solidarity with the villagers.

Troops invade village near Bethlehem, break into home

2006-11-13T03:41:00.000+02:00

-IMEMC

Israeli soldiers, and border-guard forces, invaded on Sunday at night Batteer village, near Bethlehem, broke into several houses and searched them, the Palestine News Network reported (PNN). The invasion is part of repeated invasions carried by the army into Bethlehem District over the past nine days. The army invaded the village from several directions, especially an the area where a train track being constructed by Israel passes through the Palestinian lands in Batteer and Al Walaja.

The train track, as planned by Israel, goes from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem passing through Palestinian lands in Bethlehem villages.The PNN said that soldiers fired flares over several fields and searched them after breaking into and searching dozens of houses there. Dozens of adults and youth were detained and interrogated after the soldiers forced them out of their homes; no residents were taken prisoner.

Al Walaja and Batir villages were some of the most heavily forested remaining in Bethlehem, however the Israeli government annexed most of the lands and declared it part of the “greater Jerusalem” area. Residents of the two villages reported that soldiers have significantly increased their presence in the area in recent days, and started using military helicopters to monitor the areas separating the area from Israeli controlled territories.

"Librairie Resistances".. Palestine & liberation movements history

2006-10-24T11:58:00.000+02:00

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to inform you of the creation of a new bookshop in Paris called "Librairie Resistances" which offers you :

- Several thousands of essays, novels and DVD's
- A reading and research room, with a multimedia space
- A room for exhibitions, lectures and projection of films

Specialised in the history of liberation movements and of all battles for human dignity across the world, this new space brings to life a wish to say :

- NO to the "clash of civilisations", to ethnic divisions, to colonialism and to racism
- YES to the right of peoples to be free to be themselves, to justice and solidarity, to resistance against all forms of oppression, especially that suffered for dozens of years by the people of Palestine.

Palestine having been occupied for so many years is effectively one of the most obvious symbols, on the surface of the planet, of the refusal of international law and human rights, replaced by reliance on force. An extrermely dangerous situation which we would like to change together with all those who place their hope in humanity against barbarity.

Culture is a force which should help us to win. This is why, with the help of Palestinian artists such as Kamal Boullata, Hani Zu'rob, Naseer Arafat, Najwan Darwish, Alia Rayyan, Nathalie Handal, Muthanna Al-Qadi, Steve Sabella, Taysir Batniji, who were willing to advice us in this field, the Résistances Bookshop will promote Palestinian talents all over the world, and will try to show through literature and other arts (cinema, paintings, photos..) that Palestinian culture is quite alive and does not oppose itself toother cultures, but vibrates with many influences and specificities, as Edward Saïd kept explaining during his whole life.

Algeria, Vietnam and South Africa - the fight against fascism. Palestine and Iraq - the fight against exclusion. The many battles waged across the world, yesterday as today, are rich in lessons for us. They allow us to understand what brings us together, the ties which unite the citizens of the whole world and the different cultures and civilisations.

In a world where objective information is a rarer and rarer commodity the Résistances Bookshop gives everyone the chance of judging on the basis of facts.

Coming Meetings with authors and artists:

Friday 27th October from 7.30pm: Eric HAZAN, writer and editor at the Editions La Fabrique, back from Palestine, will present his book: "Notes on the occupation : Nablus, Qalqilia, Hebron" (coming out the same day)

Saturday 4th November at 5pm: Said LALOUH-PREVOST, novelist, author of "The lift to Ursa Magna" (Editions Danger Public)

Thursday 9th November at 7.30pm: Serge PORTELLI, Judge and author of "Treatise of Appied Demagogy", and Jean-Pierre MIGNARD, Avocat and author of "The Clichy Affair" will discuss with us the situation in France, one year after the "crisis in the suburbs".

Saturday 18th November at 5pm: Richard LABEVIERE, journalist (RFI), will present his latest book "The Great U-turn", an enquiry into French policy in the Middle East, especially in the Lebanon.

Thursday 23rd November at 7.30pm: Recital of poems by the Franco-Maroccan writer Abdulatif LAABI

Thursday 7th December at 7.30pm: "The consequences of Israeli policy" : a debate led by Tanya REINHART and Aharon SHABTAI, Israeli writers

Librairie Résistances - 4 Villa Compoint, 75017 Paris - Métro Guy Moquet - Bus 31: stop Davy-Moines - Tel : 01 42 28 89 52 - Fax : 01 42 28 95 29

We are open from Tuesday to Saturday (2 pm to 8 pm). Please, come and visit us ! Circulate the information !

A site will shortly be at your service to allow you to know what works are available, as well as a complete list of events organised by the Librairie Résistances.

Best,

Olivia Zémor and Nicolas Shahshahani

2006-10-20T17:16:00.000+02:00

Bethlehem Ghetto: Tag the Apartheid Wall
Posted by Odog

2006-10-14T10:46:00.000+02:00

Israeli Occupation Forces Make Several Arrests in the Bethlehem Area

As with most arrest campaigns it is difficult to know who has been taken, where they are and for what purpose. Detainees may be affliliated with the armed resistance or maybe implicated through association. Detainees can be community leaders or academics who have arracted attention to themselves by criticising the occupation and are subsequently taken from their beds in the middle of the night. Detainees can be ordinary children throwing stones at armoured jeeps. Detainees may also have nothing to do with resistance and are arrested due to false information.

There are over 9000 political prisoners in Isreali jails of which approximately 1000 are being held indefinetely without trial. Both Israeli and Palestinian human rights organisations have indicated that prisoners are subjected to varying levels of physical torture and phychological abuse.

Its worth noting that detainees come from a variety of social, political, religious and economic backgrounds however, they all hold one thing in common. They have been arrested as part of the Israeli occupation's ambition to intimidate the Palestinian people and crush any form of dissent.

-IMEMC
Friday 13 2006

The Israeli forces invaded tTaqua, Za'tar and Al Khader village in Bethlehem district south of the West Bank on Friday at dawn and took three residents prisoner. Soldiers and jeeps stormed Taqua village, east of Bethlehem, taking Hanni Al Eroj, 33, to an unknown location after searching and ransacking his house.

Meanwhilem, Israeli force invaded Za'tra village, also east of Bethlehem, and searched several houses before taking Ahied Al Wahish, 24, to an unknown location. Al Wahish works as a Palestinian security officer in the city of Bethlehem, his family stated. In Al Khader, south of Bethlehem, more than 6 army vehicles entered the village and took Ramzi Salah, 32, to unknown location after searching his house.

2006-10-11T08:28:00.000+02:00

Peaceful Demonstrations in Al Khadr

Last sunday a peaceful demonstration was organized in the village of Al Khadr located on the outskirts of Bethlehem. One of the main food items to be produced by Al Khadr is grapes. The potest concerned the increasing ghettoization of the village which preventing access to external markets adding to already high levels of poverty in the area. Anyway there is no need to explain, when we have this action packed cartoon "The Grapes of Al Khadr" .

2006-10-10T09:27:00.000+02:00

Just Another Mother Murdered

Alison Weir - USA - Monday, 09 October 2006, 23:50

Almost no one bothered to report it. A search of the nation’s largest newspapers turned up nothing in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Houston Chronicle, Tampa Tribune, etc.There was nothing on CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, PBS, NPR, Fox News. Nothing.The LA Times, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Associated Press each had one sentence, at most, telling about her. All three left out the details, the LA Times had her age significantly off, and the Washington Post reported that she had been killed by an Israeli tank shell. It hadn’t been a tank shell that had killer her, according to witnesses. It had been bullets, multiple ones, fired up close.

Neighbors report that Israeli soldiers had been beating her husband because he wasn’t answering their questions. Foolishly or valiantly, how is one to say, the 35-year-old woman had interfered. She tried to explain that her husband was deaf, screamed at the soldiers that her husband couldn’t hear them and attempted to stop them from hitting him. So they shot her. Several times.

Her name was Itemad Ismail Abu Mo'ammar.She didn’t die, though. That took longer. It required her life to flow out of her in the form of blood for several hours, as Israeli soldiers refused to allow an ambulance to transport her to help. Her husband and children could do nothing to save her. Finally, after approximately five hours, an ambulance was allowed to take her to a hospital, where physicians were able to render one service: pronounce her dead, a few days before the commencement of Ramadan, a season of family gatherings much like the Christmas season for Americans. She left 11 children. None of this was in the Washington Post story, which had reported her death in one half of one sentence.

Her husband's brother, who lived in the same house, was also killed. He was a 28-year-old farmer.Why did this all happen? The family lived behind a resistance fighter wanted by Israel. They were simply “collateral damage” in a failed Israeli assassination/kidnapping operation. All together, five Palestinians were killed that day. The other three were young shepherds killed in another area, two 15 years old and one 14, who seem to have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Gaza.

None of this was reported in most of America's news media, and so the American public never learned about a mother bleeding to death in front of her children, or young shepherds being blown to pieces. Apparently, it just wasn't newsworthy.

A Case Study of “Good” News CoverageThe Washington Post at least mentioned these deaths, so perhaps those who care about journalistic standards should laud the Post for its coverage. And yet, the Post in its short report got so much so wrong. In addition to misreporting Itemad's cause of death and omitting critical facts, the Post's story portrayed the entire context incorrectly, telling readers that these five deaths had broken a period of “relative calm.”

The fact is that while it was true that in the previous six months not a single Israeli child had been killed by Palestinians, during this period Israelis had killed 75 Palestinian young people, including an 8-month-old and several three-year-olds. I phoned the Post and spoke to a foreign editor about the need to run a correction, providing information on Itemad's murder. The editor said that she would pass this on to their correspondent (who is based in Israel), but explained that it was "impossible for him to go to Gaza.” When I disagreed, she amended the "impossible" to "very difficult." She neglected to mention that the Post has access to stringers in Gaza available to check out any incident the editors deem important.

Next, I wrote a letter to the paper containing the above information. Happily, the Post letters department apparently checked it out and decided it was a good letter. They sent an email informing me that they were considering my letter for publication and needed to confirm that I was the one who had written it, and that I had not sent the information elsewhere.

I replied in the affirmative, we exchanged a few more messages, and everything appeared on target. Normally, when publications contact you in this way, your letter is published shortly thereafter. I waited in anticipation. And waited.

It is now almost two weeks after their report, and I have just been informed that the paper has decided not to print my letter. The Post has apparently determined that there is no need to run a correction. I think I understand.

Although the Washington Post's statement of principles proclaims, “This newspaper is pledged to minimize the number of errors we make and to correct those that occur... Accuracy is our goal; candor is our defense,” the American Society of Newspaper Editors clarifies these ethical requirements: corrections need only be printed when the error of commission or omission is “significant.” And, after all, these were only Palestinians, and it was just another mother dead.--

Alison Weir is Executive Director of If Americans Knew, which has produced in-depth studies and illustrative videos on American news coverage of Israel-

Palestine.http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/anothermother.html

2006-10-07T08:30:00.000+02:00

posted by odog

Israeli Border Gaurd Kills Palestinian Worker
Last wednesday an Israeli border guard shot and killed a Palestinian worker in an apparent case of "excessive force" and was later charged with "improper use of a firearm". The incident occured during an operation whereby Israeli forces were searching for illegal Palestinian workers. Appart from the obvious tragedy, this event highlights a number of wider issues within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

It is another example of abuse of power by Israeli forces which is effectively sactioned by the Israeli state and legal system.
This event is indicative of the severe economic crisis in Palestine, whereby at great personal risk Palestinians are willing to enter Israel illegally in order to work.
It raises the question of why there are so many illegal Palestinian workers in Israel when there is a "security barrier" which is apparently preventing unwarrented infiltration.

-IMEMC
A nineteen-year old Israeli security officer who shot and killed a Palestinian worker in Jaffa Wednesday lied under investigation, but was still released the same day, according to Israeli sources. The police investigation revealed that the officer cocked his weapon unprovoked, contrary to the officer's original version that Palestinian tried to snatch his weapon. The teen subsequently confessed to having lied about the worker attempting to grab the weapon. Police released him on bail the same day, saying he would be charged with 'improper use of a firearm'.

Human rights workers expressed outrage that this was the officer's only charge, adding that he should be charged with murder of the unarmed worker.The incident took place shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday when Border Guard officers were patrolling the market in search of illegal workers. The officers spotted several Arab-looking workers and signaled them to stop near a construction site.The police investigation team collected testimonies from all those involved, including eyewitnesses and other border officers. None of them confirmed the teen's account that the worker had tried to grab his weapon - instead, the officers and civilian witnesses confirmed that the Palestinian worker was quite a distance away from the teenage officer when he was shot and killed. The man who was killed was a resident of Tarqumiya, near Hebron in the southern West Bank, who had crossed into Israel illegally in order to work. Unemployment levels in many parts of Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) are over 70% in many areas, and a lot of Palestinians risk crossing the border to work for Israeli employers.

2006-10-05T08:58:00.000+02:00

Bad faith and the destruction of Palestine
-Jonathan Cook

A mistake too often made by those examining Israel’s behaviour in the occupied territories -- or when analysing its treatment of Arabs in general, or interpreting its view of Iran -- is to assume that Israel is acting in good faith. Even its most trenchant critics can fall into this trap.

Such a reluctance to attribute bad faith was demonstrated this week by Israel’s foremost human rights group, B’Tselem, when it published a report into the bombing by the Israeli air force of Gaza’s power plant in late June. The horrifying consequences of this act of collective punishment -- a war crime, as B’Tselem rightly notes -- are clearly laid out in the report. The group warns that electricity is available to most of Gaza’s 1.4 million inhabitants for a few hours a day, and running water for a similar period. The sewerage system has all but collapsed, with the resulting risk of the spread of dangerous infectious disease. In their daily lives, Gazans can no longer rely on the basic features of modern existence. Their fridges are as good as useless, threatening outbreaks of food poisoning. The elderly and infirm living in apartments can no longer leave their homes because elevators don’t work, or are unpredictable. Hospitals and doctors’ clinics struggle to offer essential medical services. Small businesses, most of which rely on the power and water supplies, from food shops and laundry services to factories and workshops, are being forced to close.

Rapidly approaching, says B’Tselem, is the moment when Gaza’s economy -- already under an internationally backed siege to penalise the Palestinians for democratically electing a Hamas government -- will simply expire under the strain. Unfortunately, however, B’Tselem loses the plot when it comes to explaining why Israel would choose to inflict such terrible punishment on the people of Gaza. Apparently, it was out of a thirst for revenge: the group’s report is even entitled “Act of Vengeance”. Israel, it seems, wanted revenge for the capture a few days earlier of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, from a border tank position used to fire artillery into Gaza.

The problem with the “revenge” theory is that, however much a rebuke it is, it presupposes a degree of good faith on the part of the vengeance-seeker. You steal my toy in the playground, and I lash out and hit you. I have acted badly -- even disproportionately, to use a vogue word B’Tselem also adopts -- but no one would deny that my emotions were honest. There was no subterfuge or deception in my anger. I incur blame only because I failed to control my impulses. There is even the implication that, though my action was unwarranted, my fury was justified. But why should we think Israel is acting in good faith, even if in bad temper, in destroying Gaza’s power station? Why should we assume it was a hot-headed over-reaction rather than a coldly calculated deed?

In other words, why believe Israel is simply lashing out when it commits a war crime rather than committing it after careful advance planning? Is it not possible that such war crimes, rather than being spontaneous and random, are actually all pushing in the same direction? More especially, why should we give Israel the benefit of the doubt when its war crimes contribute, as the bombing of the power station in Gaza surely does, to easily deciphered objectives? Why not think of the bombing instead as one instalment in a long-running and slowly unfolding plan?

The occupation of Gaza did not begin this year, after Hamas was elected, nor did it end with the disengagement a year ago. The occupation is four decades old and still going strong in both the West Bank and Gaza. In that time Israel has followed a consistent policy of subjugating the Palestinian population, imprisoning it inside ever-shrinking ghettos, sealing it off from contact with the outside world, and destroying its chances of ever developing an independent economy. Since the outbreak six years ago of the second intifada -- the Palestinians’ uprising against the occupation -- Israel has tightened its system of controls. It has sought to do so through two parallel, reinforcing approaches. First, it has imposed forms of collective punishment to weaken Palestinian resolve to resist the occupation, and encourage factionalism and civil war. Second, it has “domesticated” suffering inside the ghettos, ensuring each Palestinian finds himself isolated from his neighbours, his concerns reduced to the domestic level: how to receive a house permit, or get past the wall to school or university, or visit a relative illegally imprisoned in Israel, or stop yet more family land being stolen, or reach his olive groves. The goals of both sets of policies, however, are the same: the erosion of Palestinian society’s cohesiveness, the disruption of efforts at solidarity and resistance, and ultimately the slow drift of Palestinians away from vulnerable rural areas into the relative safety of urban centres -- and eventually, as the pressure continues to mount, on into neighbouring Arab states, such as Jordan and Egypt. Seen in this light, the bombing of the Gaza power station fits neatly into Israel’s long-standing plans for the Palestinians. Vengeance has nothing to do with it.

Another recent, more predictable example was an email exchange published on the Media Lens forum website involving the BBC’s Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen. Bowen was questioned about why the BBC had failed to report on an important peace initiative begun this summer jointly by a small group of Israeli rabbis and Hamas politicians. A public meeting where the two sides would have unveiled their initiative was foiled when Israel’s Shin Bet secret service, presumably with the approval of the Israeli government, blocked the Hamas MPs from entering Jerusalem. Bowen, though implicitly critical of Israel’s behaviour, believes the initiative was of only marginal significance. He doubts that the Shin Bet or the government were overly worried by the meeting -- in his words, it was seen as no more than a “minor irritant” -- because the Israeli peace camp has shown a great reluctance to get involved with the Palestinians since the outbreak of the intifada in 2000. The Israeli government would not want Hamas looking “more respectable”, he admits, but adds that that is because “they believe that it is a terrorist organisation out to kill Jews and to destroy their country”. In short, the Israeli government cracked down on the initiative because they believed Hamas was not a genuine partner for peace. Again, at least apparently in Bowen’s view, Israel was acting in good faith: when it warns that it cannot talk with Hamas because it is a terrorist organisation, it means what it says. But what if, for a second, we abandon the assumption of good faith?

Hamas comprises a militant wing, a political wing and a network of welfare charities. Israel chooses to characterise all these activities as terrorist in nature, refusing to discriminate between the group’s different wings. It denies that Hamas could have multiple identities in the same way the Irish Republican Army, which included a political wing called Sinn Fein, clearly did. Some of Israel’s recent actions might fit with such a simplistic view of Hamas. Israel tried to prevent Hamas from standing in the Palestinian elections, only backing down after the Americans insisted on the group’s participation. Israel now appears to be destroying the Palestinians’ governing institutions, claiming that once in Hamas’ hands they will be used to promote terror. The Israeli government, it could be argued, acts in these ways because it is genuinely persuaded that even the political wing of Hamas is cover for terrorist activity. But most other measures suggest that in reality Israel has a different agenda. Since the Palestinian elections six months ago, Israel’s policies towards Hamas have succeeded in achieving one end: the weakening of the group’s moderates, especially the newly elected politicians, and the strengthening of the militants.

In the debate inside Hamas about whether to move towards politics, diplomacy and dialogue, or concentrate on military resistance, we can guess which side is currently winning. The moderates not the militants have been damaged by the isolation of the elected Hamas government, imposed by the international community at Israel’s instigation. The moderates not the militants have been weakened by Israel rounding up and imprisoning the group’s MPs. The moderates not the militants have been harmed by the failure, encouraged by Israel, of Fatah and Hamas politicians to create a national unity government. And the approach of the moderates not the militants has been discredited by Israel’s success in blocking the summer peace initiative between Hamas MPs and the rabbis.

In other words, Israeli policies are encouraging the extremist and militant elements inside Hamas rather the political and moderate ones. So why not assume that is their aim? Why not assume that rather than wanting a dialogue, a real peace process and an eventual agreement with the Palestinians that might lead to Palestinian statehood, Israel wants an excuse to carry on with its four-decade occupation -- even if it has to reinvent it through sleights of hand like the disengagement and convergence plans? Why not assume that Israel blocked the meeting between the rabbis and the Hamas MPs because it fears that such a dialogue might suggest to Israeli voters and the world that there are strong voices in Hamas prepared to consider an agreement with Israel, and that given a chance their strength and influence might grow? Why not assume that the Israeli government wanted to disrupt the contacts between Hamas and the rabbis for exactly the same reasons that it has repeatedly used violence to break up joint demonstrations in Palestinian villages like Bilin staged by Israeli and Palestinian peace actvists opposed to the wall that is annexing Palestinian farm land to Israel? And why, unlike Bowen, not take seriously opinion polls like the one published this week that show 67 per cent of Israelis support negotiations with a Palestinian national unity government (that is, one including Hamas), and that 56 per cent favour talks with a Palestinian government whoever is leading it? Could it be that faced with these kinds of statistics Israel’s leaders are terrified that, if Hamas were given the chance to engage in a peace process, Israeli voters might start putting more pressure on their own government to make meaningful concessions?

In other words, why not consider for a moment that Israel’s stated view of Hamas may be a self-serving charade, that the Israeli government has invested its energies in discrediting Hamas, and before it secular Palestinian leaders, because it has no interest in peace and never has done? Its goal is the maintenance of the occupation on the best terms it can find for itself. On much the same grounds, we should treat equally sceptically another recent Israeli policy: the refusal by the Israeli Interior Ministry to renew the tourist visas of Palestinians with foreign passports, thereby forcing them to leave their homes and families inside the occupied territories. Many of these Palestinians, who were originally stripped by Israel of their residency rights in violation of international law, often when they left to work or study abroad, have been living on renewable three-month visas for years, even decades. Amazingly, this compounding of the original violation of these Palestinian families’ rights has received almost no media coverage and so far provoked not a peep of outrage from the big international human rights organisations, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. I can hazard a guess why. Unusually Israel has made no serious attempt to justify this measure. Furthermore, unlike the two examples cited above, it is difficult to put forward even a superficially plausible reason why Israel needs to pursue this policy, except for the obvious motive: that Israel believes it has found another bureaucratic wheeze to deny a few more thousand Palestinians their birthright. It is another small measure designed to ethnically cleanse these Palestinians from what might have been their state, were Israel interested in peace. Unlike the other two examples, it is impossible to assume any good faith on Israel’s part in this story: the measure has no security value, not even of the improbable variety, nor can it be sold as an over-reaction, vengeance, to a provocation by the group affected.

Palestinians with foreign passports are among the richest, best educated and possibly among the most willing to engage in dialogue with Israel. Many have large business investments in the occupied territories they wish to protect from further military confrontation, and most speak fluently the language of the international community -- English. In other words, they might have been a bridgehead to a peace process were Israel genuinely interested in one. But as we have seen, Israel isn’t. If only our media and human rights organisations could bring themselves to admit as much. But because they can’t, the transparently bad faith underpinning Israel’s administrative attempt at ethnic cleansing may be allowed to pass without any censure at all.

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His book, Blood and Religion: the Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State, is published by Pluto Press. His website is www.jkcook.net

2006-10-02T09:03:00.000+02:00

Settlers attack, wound a Palestinian resident in Hebron
IMEMC & Agencies - Saturday, 30 September 2006, 13:41

Local sources in Hebron city, in the southern part of the West Bank, reported that one resident was injured in his face after he was attacked by a group of violent settlers in Tal Romeida area near the center of the city. The assailant are residents of the Ramat Yishai illegal settlement outpost, in the center of Hebron. Resident Hana' Abu Haikal, said that she saw at least twenty settlers attacking several Palestinian homes and throwing stones at them. One resident, identified as Hisham Al Azza, 45, was injured in his face after being hit with a stone hurled by the settlers at his house. Abu Haikal added that the settlers, for the third time in less than two weeks, sabotaged water pipes providing several Palestinian houses with drinking water while Israeli troops intensively deployed in the area did not attempt to stop them.

There is a big military camp in the area, but soldiers and despite of their intensive military presence, did not attempt to stop the settlers from attacking the Palestinian residents and their properties, and did not even arrest of file charges against them.

In the Name of Security: Historical Proofs of the Validity of Palestinian "paranoia"

2006-09-30T14:17:00.000+03:00

AMIRA HASS

Six Palestinian churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip suffered damage and arson attempts in reaction to the words of Pope Benedict XVI. Palestinian spokesmen of all stripes condemned these attacks and said that the Palestinian nation - Christians and Muslims alike - is one, and is united in its struggle against the occupation. Reports on the attacks in the Palestinian media described the perpetrators as "unknown." In the Palestinian subtext, "unknown" implies "of suspicious identity," a phrase that borders on a half-concealed accusation that Israel's Shin Bet security services sent agents provocateurs.

In Tubas, where an attempt to set fire to a church failed thanks to the residents' alertness, people said openly that the thrower of the Molotov cocktail might be connected to the Israeli occupation. But the mayor of Tubas, Oqab Darghmeh, who raised this possibility, also proposed another option: Perhaps the perpetrator acted out of ignorance.

Most of the critics, however, did not point an accusatory finger at the Shin Bet. They cannot deny the ills that have become so widespread in Palestinian society: criminal behavior and hooliganism masked by the images and jargon of a national struggle, and the growing use of weapons in personal and public conflicts, with the encouragement of Palestinian political actors, who are in need of the atmosphere of chaos in order to be seen as "strong."But is it possible to separate these ills completely from the Israeli occupation?

The latest book by historian Hillel Cohen, Aravim Tovim ("Good Arabs"), offers several historical proofs of the validity of Palestinian "paranoia" about the political motives behind security control. Although the subject of the book is the activity of Israeli security and intelligence agencies among Israeli Arabs immediately after 1948, a consistent policy of action and thought that stretches from the Mandate years until the present allows us to draw conclusions that also apply to Israeli control over the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Cohen's research relies mainly on police documents from the period, which have recently been opened for public perusal (the Shin Bet documents are still classified). They relate, for example, that the provision of weapons to collaborators by the local authorities was a way of rewarding them. However, the security forces' liaison committee mentioned in 1949 that "the distribution of weapons to an element or members of one group is likely to be useful to us; it will create the desired tension among the various parts of the population and enable us to control the situation." The security agencies, Cohen reveals on the basis of written documents, occasionally even initiated internal conflicts.

Moreover, the regional committee for Arab affairs in the Triangle (the body that coordinated among the various security agencies in this region) "does not approve of providing the residents of the region with higher education," according to the minutes of a 1954 meeting, and the committee worked to prevent Arabs from being accepted to institutes of higher education. Cohen allows himself to speculate that the motive was its desire to prevent the creation of an educated class that would succeed in organizing and making demands of the state.

In other words, the security services - even if they acted on their own initiative in various places - operated in the context of an official paradigm: continued theft of lands, continued fragmentation and weakening of Arab society, and undermining the possibility of the Arabs developing an independent leadership. Critics of the Military Administration's policies - Israeli Arabs and the main opposition party, Maki (the Israel Communist Party) - were described as "paranoid." But Cohen, in the many examples he brings in his book, retroactively proves that they were right.

Indirectly, this book by a former journalist says that one does not have to rely on written documents - which will be made public in another 50 years - in order to believe a political analysis that differs from that of the rulers. Hence, it was not simply shortsightedness and neglect that caused the Palestinian territories to be flooded with weapons during the 1990s. It was not "security" that led to the creation of a class of new mukhtars from Fatah, who received special privileges that were denied to other Palestinians and that deepened internal tensions. It was not "shortsightedness" that led to the weakening and political trivialization of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) as chairman of the Palestinian Authority, just as it was not simple naivete that omitted the main point from the Oslo Accords: the goal of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

It is not local decisions by regional military commanders that are fragmenting the West Bank into isolated "territorial cells." It is not security considerations alone that prevent Gazan students from studying in the West Bank and American academicians from teaching in Palestinian educational institutions. In the name of security - but not for its sake - Israel is exacerbating ignorance and economic deterioration in the occupied territories. According to this analysis, for which there is no shortage of evidence, the Israeli security services are careful to act within the framework of a clear political paradigm: maximum weakening, in every possible way, of the Palestinian national collective, so that it will not be able to realize its goal and establish a state worthy of the name, in accordance with international resolutions.

Amira Hass writes for Ha'aretz. She is the author of Drinking the Sea at Gaza.

2006-09-25T14:17:00.000+03:00

By Odog
25/09/06

Security Barrier or Segregation Wall: the Politicization of Language and the Wall as a Geopolitical Tool

As George Orwell once stated, if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought, suggesting that terminology in any political discourse can be actively recruited in shaping the nature of debate and the perception of any political issue. The construction of the West Bank barrier in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) is one of the most controversial and hotly debated issues in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Since the beginning of the wall’s construction in 2002, a whole range of terminologies have emerged reflecting the opposing perspectives on the wall’s fundamental purpose.

The wall in the West Bank consists of eight meter concrete slabs, watchtowers, razor wire, trenches, foot print tracking paths and electronic surveillance systems. In areas of high population or in the vicinity of the Green Line, the wall consists mainly of concrete slabs with watchtowers placed approximately 250 meters apart. Upon completion the wall is expected to stretch up to 680 km.

The discrepancies in terminology between the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives indicate both the increasing politicization of language and the growing significance terminology plays in shaping the political dialog of the conflict. Furthermore, attempts to monopolize and control language though the media have become a means by which certain political views and ideologies are expressed and widely understood.

The state of Israeli emphatically refers to the wall as a security barrier or anti-terrorist fence which supports the claim that the wall is necessary to protect Israeli citizens from suicide and other attacks. According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs the wall is a temporary measure and last resort for the protection of its civilians under imminent threat. Israeli statements highlight that construction of wall has saved lives whereby the number of suicide attacks in Israel have since decreased.

Critics of the Israeli occupation however, highlight the wall’s illegality under international law and attempts to dictate permanent status solutions overwhelmingly in Israel's favor. The construction of the wall annexes land, isolates wells, separates Palestinian communities and causes wide scale destruction of the environment. A wide variety of other terms are subsequently utilized including annexation wall, segregation barrier or even apartheid wall. According to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, the path of the wall was based on considerations completely unrelated to the security of Israeli citizens and that a major aim was to build the barrier east of as many settlements as possible, to make them easier to annex to Israel.

Israel's emphasis that the wall is a "security barrier" transforms the terminology into a political maneuver to shape the nature of the debate away from territorial expansion to a security issue. While Israel's security concerns may be genuine, the effective outcomes of the wall clearly indicate wider ambitions. In terms of understanding these, investigating the wall in terms of its geopolitical implications might be useful.

Upon completion, 46% of the West bank will be annexed by the wall and settlement blocks. The wall alone will de facto annex 9.5% of the West Bank whereas settlement blocks in the Jordan valley are likely to contribute an additional 36.5%. In September 2004, Israeli authorities issued a military order creating a buffer zone 100-200 meters on the Palestinian side of the wall making an additional 252km² inaccessible to the Palestinians. In addition to this, the wall has effectively cut Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank, severing historical links with other Palestinian cities which have existed for millennia.

The number of Palestinians trapped between the wall and the green line numbers approximately 242,000. Palestinians in these areas suffer significantly due to Israeli policies which encourage them to leave, paving the way for Israeli migration. In 2003, the Israeli Army issued an order declaring all land between the wall and the 1967 border to be closed military zones. The order requires that people to have permits to travel in and out of their lands. Residents often receive insufficient water and electricity while in many cases building permits for new housing structures are denied, forcing many Palestinians to build illegally, which are then subject to Israeli demolition orders.

Israel's claims that the wall is for solely for security are undermined by a variety of factors. Primarily, if the wall was just a security measure and not an effective attempt to annex land, it would have been built on Israel's internationally recognized border, the pre-1967 occupation line. Furthermore, the path of the wall more than doubles the pre-1967 boundary which would arguably make the border more difficult to patrol.

Another discrepancy in the claim for security is the provocative impact it has on Palestinians. Regarding the "temporary" nature of the wall, serious doubts also emerge when considering Israeli actions in the past which suggest the opposite. In 1967 when Israel began building settlements in the West Bank, it similarly claimed that these were temporary security measures. More than 39 years later, many settlements have not only have remained but have been further expanded.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) highlights other discrepancies in Israel's argument especially in reference that the wall has saved lives. The department indicates that between the September 2000 and July 2005, 4,681 Palestinian and Israeli civilians were killed. A total of 2,707 were killed after Israel began construction of the wall of which the vast majority were Palestinians living in the Gaza strip where a similar wall has existed since 1994. In other word there has not been a significant drop in the number of civilians killed. Although the number of Israeli casualties has diminished, the wall has not stopped Israel from killing Palestinians. Since the beginning of the Second Intifada to July 2005, Israel has continued to kill Palestinians at a rate of 53 per month.

Regarding the decrease in Israeli casualties a fundamental correlation with the wall has yet to be established. The diminished occurrence of suicide attacks is also likely to be related to the Hamas declared truce. As it stands, there are numerous points along the wall's path which are not completed. The borders between Israel and Palestine can be easily infiltrated, which is indicated everyday by Palestinians working illegally in Israel. Should another wave of terrorist attacks be declared, the wall will not be able to prevent it.

The construction of the wall is inherently tied with the Israeli policy of unilateral disengagement which has been adopted following popular resistance against the occupation. Prior to the first Intifada the Israeli government was opposed to handing back territory to the Palestinians. However, with the increasing costs and difficulties associated with the occupation, as well as the perceived need to preserve an ethnic Jewish majority, disengagement has been assimilated into Zionist strategy. The path of the wall encloses 98 illegal Israeli settlements accommodating 98% of Israel's settler population while simultaneously segregating the 86% of Palestinians east of the barrier. The path of the wall in this respect enables territorial expansion, annexation of key settlement blocks while preserving “Jewish” hegemony in Israel.

When one considers the geopolitical considerations for the wall's construction, the terminologies used by Palestinians appear less pejorative, but reflect a perspective whereby the wall is utilized as a tool of systemized oppression. Despite this, Israel has been highly effective in its manipulation of language in order to distort western media perceptions and avoid criticism. Israel presents a positive image to the outside world which suggests a close affiliation between Israel and “western” values. Since September 11 Israel has been a vocal supporter of the ensuing “war on terror” aligning itself with other western democracies in the apparent defense of democratic values. The electoral victory by Hamas and growing concern over Iran’s nuclear capabilities has further enabled Israel to portray itself as a country under imminent threat and the only democratic state in a sea of “terror”. The apparent legitimacy of the state of Israel juxtaposed to its "unruly" Arab neighbors creates the perception that Israel is acting in a reasonable manner.

Press coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict generally fails to place any analysis in the context of occupation and this has subsequently led to deterioration in press terminology. In this respect occupied East Jerusalem becomes Israeli "Jerusalem", illegal settlements become "Israeli neighborhoods" and terms like "segregation wall" have been replaced with the Israeli alternative "security barrier". In a conflict where language has been increasingly politicized for ideological ends, the press has adopted seemingly neutral language in it attempt to appear balanced. However, behind the benign sound of "security barrier", lies a calculated political agenda to blur the lines between Israel's geopolitical interests and safety of its civilians. Whether knowingly or not, the Western media utilizes the language of expansionist "doublespeak", and in doing so directly assists the political ambitions of the State of Israel.

Bibliography
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Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ) Monitoring Settlements and GIS Units (2005) Geopolitical Conditions in the Bethlehem Governorate Bethlehem: ARIJ, 2005

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http://www.btselem.org/English/

Falah W. (2005) The Geopolitics of 'Enclavisation' and the Demise of a Two State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Third World Quarterly 26 1341-1372

ICJ International Court of Justice (2004) Legal Consequences of the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory ICJ, 9 general list no. 131 para 140

Issac J. & Hrimat N. (2005) Assessing the Impact of Israel's Segregation Wall on the Palestinian Biodiversity International Conference: Promoting Community Driven Conservation and Sustainable Use of Dry-land Agro-biodiversity International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)

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http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/

Reuveny, R. (2005) The Binational State and the Colonial Imperative The Arab World Geographer 8 109-117

Yiftachel O. (2005) Neither Two States or One: The Disengagement and "Creeping Apartheid" in Israel/Palestine The Arab World Geographer 8 125-129

Speaking back in 2002 these words are still relevant

2006-09-20T15:03:00.000+03:00

Against Israeli Apartheid
Desmond Tutu & Ian Urbina
-The Nation 2002

The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of international pressure--in particular the divestment movement of the 1980s. Over the past six months a similar movement has taken shape, this time aiming at an end to the Israeli occupation.

Divestment from apartheid South Africa was fought by ordinary people at the grassroots. Faith-based leaders informed their followers, union members pressured their companies' stockholders and consumers questioned their store owners. Students played an especially important role by compelling universities to change their portfolios. Eventually, institutions pulled the financial plug, and the South African government thought twice about its policies.

Similar moral and financial pressures on Israel are being mustered one person at a time. Students on more than forty US campuses are demanding a review of university investments in Israeli companies as well as in firms doing major business in Israel. From Berkeley to Ann Arbor, city councils have debated municipal divestment measures.

These tactics are not the only parallels to the struggle against apartheid. Yesterday's South African township dwellers can tell you about today's life in the occupied territories. To travel only blocks in his own homeland, a grandfather waits on the whim of a teenage soldier. More than an emergency is needed to get to a hospital; less than a crime earns a trip to jail. The lucky ones have a permit to leave their squalor to work in Israel's cities, but their luck runs out when security closes all checkpoints, paralyzing an entire people. The indignities, dependence and anger are all too familiar.

Many South Africans are beginning to recognize the parallels to what we went through. Ronnie Kasrils and Max Ozinsky, two Jewish heroes of the antiapartheid struggle, recently published a letter titled "Not in My Name." Signed by several hundred other prominent Jewish South Africans, the letter drew an explicit analogy between apartheid and current Israeli policies. Mark Mathabane and Nelson Mandela have also pointed out the relevance of the South African experience.

To criticize the occupation is not to overlook Israel's unique strengths, just as protesting the Vietnam War did not imply ignoring the distinct freedoms and humanitarian accomplishments of the United States. In a region where repressive governments and unjust policies are the norm, Israel is certainly more democratic than its neighbors. This does not make dismantling the settlements any less a priority. Divestment from apartheid South Africa was certainly no less justified because there was repression elsewhere on the African continent. Aggression is no more palatable in the hands of a democratic power. Territorial ambition is equally illegal whether it occurs in slow motion, as with the Israeli settlers in the occupied territories, or in blitzkrieg fashion, as with the Iraqi tanks in Kuwait. The United States has a distinct responsibility to intervene in atrocities committed by its client states, and since Israel is the single largest recipient of US arms and foreign aid, an end to the occupation should be a top concern of all Americans.

Almost instinctively, the Jewish people have always been on the side of the voiceless. In their history, there is painful memory of massive roundups, house demolitions and collective punishment. In their scripture, there is acute empathy for the disfranchised. The occupation represents a dangerous and selective amnesia of the persecution from which these traditions were born.

Not everyone has forgotten, including some within the military. The growing Israeli refusenik movement evokes the small anticonscription drive that helped turn the tide in apartheid South Africa. Several hundred decorated Israeli officers have refused to perform military service in the occupied territories. Those not already in prison have taken their message on the road to US synagogues and campuses, rightly arguing that Israel needs security, but that it will never have it as an occupying power. More than thirty-five new settlements have been constructed in the past year. Each one is a step away from the safety deserved by the Israelis, and two steps away from the justice owed to the Palestinians.

If apartheid ended, so can the occupation, but the moral force and international pressure will have to be just as determined. The current divestment effort is the first, though certainly not the only, necessary move in that direction.

2006-09-19T11:11:00.000+03:00

posted by odog 19/9/06

Taybeh October Fest
Some might be aware that the annual Taybeh October Fest was held last weekend. Given the significance of this event, Bethlehem Bloggers sent a delegation on sunday to check out activities and evaluate the event (and maybe have a pint or two).

All we can say is: what a party! The event was held at the village town hall. In the building people were selling all sorts of neat stuff: local hand crafts, Taybeh T-shirts, palestinian folk clothing and locally produced honey. Outside in the plaza there was music and dabka dancing and of course the bar....

By the evening there were at least a couple hundred present. The place was packed, which we assumed was in anticipation for the final event of the night, a hip hop preformance by Palestinian rap artists. They went off, rapping in both arabic and english, sending a clear message of political defiance in their lyrics.

All in all the event was a sucess and fun family affair, showing that despite the occupation people still find time to kick back and enjoy themselves.

2006-09-18T09:09:00.000+03:00

Unity, Tolerance and Respect

posted by Odog 18/9/06

The purpose of this post is not to discuss the Pope's remarks which have caused so much outrage in the Muslim world, it is to condemm the attacks made by some members of the Muslim faithful against Palestinian churches. Unfortunately, the actions of a few misinformed extremists give the rest of Muslims a bad name and creates uneccessary division with christian Palestinians. These are critical times and unity is vital.

Muslim Leaders in Palestine reject attacks against Christians
-IMEMC

The supreme judge of Palestine Sheikh Tayseer At-Tamimi called Saturday on the Palestinian people not to be provoked by the Pope's words which have irritated Muslim's religious feelings.

In a phone call with Maan news agency, Tamimi called on Muslims in Palestine not to harm Christian churches, homes or people, as that would be a violation of the historical promise made by the Caliph Umar Ibn Al-Khattab to the Christians in Jerusalem more than 1400 years ago.

Firebombs hurled at two Nablus Churches 12:56

Unknown assailants attacked two churches in Rafidia village west of the West Bank city of Nablus late on Friday at night.The first attack targeted a Protestant church at midnight, the church was hit with several firebombs. Several hours later, more cocktail bombs hit the Greek Orthodox Church in the village, both churches were damaged, but no injuries were reported.

A group calling it self the Osoud Al Tawheed "Lions of Monotheism" claimed responsibility for the attack. The caller said the attacks were carried out to protest the Pope's remarks about Islam. The bombs damaged windows and left black scorch marks on the walls of the two churches. Father Yousef Saada, a priest at the Anglican Church, said several firebombs hit the outside wall of the church.

Father George Awwad, Greek Orthodox priest in the village condemned the attack and slammed the remarks of Pope Benedict XVI about Islam. Awwad described the act as “childish”. Awwad added that the Pope does not represent all Christians and called on the Palestinians to remain in unity. On Friday, Palestinians protested against the comments of the Pope, Christian churches in Palestine also slammed the comments. After the Tuesday speech of the Pope in Germany, and his remarks on Islam “spreading the violence”, anger spread among the Arab and Muslim world, thousands of Palestinians marched in Gaza and demanded him to apologize. Several churches in Palestine also slammed the Pope's statement, Father Awwad said that “the Palestinians are brothers and sisters during bad and good times, tolerance is the common oxygen Christians and Muslims breathe here in Palestine.

Adli Yaaish, Nablus Mayor and a Hamas leader, slammed the firebomb attack and described it as irresponsible. His statements came as several leaders gathered at the scenes of the attacks.“We condemn this irresponsible attack”, Yaaish said, “This will not affect our unity”.

2006-09-16T08:46:00.000+03:00

Posted by Odog 16/9/06

Nonviolent resistance continues as Israel confiscates another 100 dunams of Bethlehem

-IMEMC
The central West Bank’s Bethlehem is going piece by piece. Israeli army Commander of the Central Region, Yair Naveh, adopted a new resolution Friday providing for the confiscation of 100 additional dunams of Palestinian land. The Director of the Committee to Defend against Land Confiscation, Khalid Al Azzeh, told PNN today that the latest confiscation is set to take place in southwestern Bethlehem’s Al Khader Village.

Israeli forces dropped leaflets in the town Friday afternoon to inform residents that they will lose more of their land.The Israeli government will continue the Wall and settlement activity with a new settler bypass road through the Palestinian town. Al Azzeh said that Bethlehem will become more isolated from Hebron in the south and Jerusalem to the north. Bethlehem is surrounded by encroaching settlements and the Wall. Just recently 14 percent of the District was confiscated, with the northern city taken for military installations, a synagogue and a yeshiva, and put into the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem Municipality.

Al Azzeh issued an urgent appeal to the United Nations to force the implementation of its resolutions and international law to stop Israel from taking even more. Meanwhile Al Khader residents continue their weekly nonviolent resistance with hundreds gathering in the town square near the mosque after Friday noon prayers and walking together to the Wall site in protest.

2006-09-14T09:26:00.000+03:00

Posted by Odog 14/9/06

Palestine's Very Own October Fest

This weekend on the 16th-17th of September, the West Bank village of Taybeh, near Ramallah will be hosting its annual "October Fest". Now, the first thing I am sure you are wondering is why is it being held in September if its an "October Fest". Well, for those familiar with the Islamic calander, Ramadan is beginning soon and for cultural sensitivity the festival is being held early.

Taybeh Beer is one of Palestines rare economic success stories with exports throughout Europe. "Taybeh" in arabic means "delicious" and while Bethlehem Bloggers is not about edorsing certain commercial products, Taybeh certainly lives up to its name.

At the festival there will be music, dancing, art and of course, tastey cold beers. We encourage anybody who is interested to come! For Israeli's who can't make it, try demanding Taybeh at your local Bar especially in Jerusalem. For more information on Taybeh see the website.

http://www.taybehbeer.net/Home.html

Cheers!

2006-09-14T09:02:00.000+03:00

Funeral for child killed yesterday

IMEMC & Najib Farag, Palestine News Network - Wednesday, 13 September 2006, 23:42

The city of Bethlehem was closed Wednesday afternoon, with a general strike declared by all shops and businesses to mourn the death of 13-year old Mohammad Ali Showria,shot in the chest yesterday during an Israeli invasion of Bethlehem.

Crowds filled Bethlehem’s streets after noon prayers Wednesday. All were walking with the body of 13 year old . The funeral procession walked from Hussein Government Hospital to his father’s village eight kilometers away.

Residents and officials from the city and village joined the procession as it moved slowly in the afternoon sun to the eastern village’s cemetery.Mourners flew Palestinian flags and raised posters of the child made quickly to honor his death. Others called out that the Palestinian people would “not succumb to the Israeli war machine and occupation.”

During his burial many people spoke in memory of Showria and against “the new Israeli crime committed in Bethlehem that targeted women and children without any mercy.”

Speakers stressed that Israel and “the war machine will only reap failure from its repression in the face of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and our adherence to practicing our legitimate rights.”

Throughout the day Bethlehem City and surrounding villages conducted a commercial strike in memory of the slain child. The nine people injured in yesterday’s six-hour invasion are still hospitalized, and two remain in critical condition.

Israeli military officials have issued no statement on the attack. As Palestinians, the family of Showria have no legal right in Israeli courts to demand compensation or justice for their son's murder.

2006-09-13T10:07:00.000+03:00

Posted by Odog
13/9/06

Another Day in Bethlehem

I was walking home with a friend from work yesterday. Normal day like any other. However, when we reached the Nativity Church, the suspected birth place of Christ, it was clear that the Israeli army had invaded and a clash was ensuing. The reality of occupation. Scores of youths were huddled around the corner from the parked Israeli jeeps, about ten of them. As always, the shabab were throwing whatever they could as an act of defiance, mostly stones . Israeli soldiers fired back with everything they had, rubber bullets, sound bombs, tear gas and live ammunition. We were taking shelter behind the Church of the Nativity, rubber bullets flew in from different directions as they bounced off the adjacent buildings. Suddenly a tear gas canister flew over the roof of the church and we were choked by the noxious fumes. Later that afternoon I learnt that someone had been killed, a young boy about twelve years old. He had been shot with live ammunition. He had arrived dead at the hospital, the bullet penetrating his liver and heart. Another man was in a critical condition suffering wounds in his head and shoulders. Another women, who was on her way home caught a stray bullet and was shot in the abdomen. This is no way to live.

Divide and Conquor

2006-09-12T09:47:00.000+03:00

By Odog

The Segregation Wall continues to carve its way through the lands of Bethlehem destroying orchards, land, people's lives and the prospect of lasting peace.

Last week near the village of Al Walaja bulldozers arrived and began building access roads to facilitate the walls construction in coming months. The top photo depeicts the new access road. The one below indicates an Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Jerusalem which will be seperated by the wall....

Poetry Evening in Bethlehem

2006-09-11T18:20:00.000+03:00

The International Center of Bethlehem

Cordially invites you to attend the poetry evening with:

Najwan Darwish

On Friday, September 15th @ 7:00 p.m.
At the International Center of Bethlehem, Madbassa Square

* Najwan Darwish was born in Jerusalem 1978. He completed his academic education in law. He is the author of “He Was Knocking the Last Door” published in 2000 by the Arab Institute for Research & Publishing- Lebanon, which has been partially translated and published by some French literary magazines. Najwan participated in different international cultural events. Last year he was invited to the Intentional Biennale of Poets in Paris and to the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. Najwan is considered one of the important new voices in the Palestinian poetry.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The International Center of Bethlehem is a non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in 1995. Located in Madbass Square, 109 Paul VI. street, Bethlehem. Telephone number: 02-2770047, Fax number: 02-2770048. Websites: www.annadwa.org - www.bethlehemmedia.net

2006-09-11T09:55:00.000+03:00

posted by Odog

The Fifth Anniversary of September 11

As I am sure many are aware, today is the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks to which some comment is worthy. Given America's violent response, the ensuing war on terror and they way the event has been manipulated for political ends, talking about the September 11 can be difficult.

An understandable reponse by many who suffer the consequences of American foreign policy is to minimise the event. Considering the death toll in Iraq or the atrocities perpetrated by Israel at the bequest of the US, the casualties America suffered back in 2001 is nothing in comparison.

However, all of this I think misses the point. If one can strip away the political rhetoric, human tradgedy is human tradgedy. Seeing two pillars of American capitalism crumble before your eyes might fill your heart with ecstasy or even the feeling that just retribution has finally reached the shores of America, but people were in those buildings all the same, people like you and me.

While the anniversary will inevitably be exploited by Bush and Co. to further thier case for more bloodshed in the name of "freedom", September 11 can also be a means to send an alternative messege; a message in support of our universal humanity. As humans we are all equal and deserving of our freedoms. If one genuinly accepts this premise and not the view that "some are more equal than others", then the finacial and political systems which entrech exploitation and oppression fundamentally come into question.

Palestinian Artists condemn plagiarism in Gannit Ankori's "Palestinian Art"

2006-09-11T03:03:00.000+03:00

Statement issued by the League of Palestinian Artists:

After conducting a thorough review of Palestinian Art, by Israeli art historian Gannit Ankori; (ReaKtion Books Ltd. 2006) the League of Palestinian Artists deemed it necessary to release the following statement regarding "Part I-Foundations, pp.15-57" of the book. The three chapters making up this part are wrought with plagiarism, falsifications and the misrepresentation of sources which all lead to the distortion of facts in writing the history of Palestinian art. The author did not bother to comply with some of the most basic ethical codes of professional practice. Ankori's violations may be summed up as follows:

First: The author intentionally falsified and misrepresented the pioneering field research originally conducted by our Palestinian colleague, artist and researcher Kamal Boullata whose studies have appeared in books, encyclopedias, exhibition catalogues and academic journals. Published over the last three decades, Boullata's studies were the first to document a painting tradition in Palestine since the beginning of the nineteenth century. In light of the historical background he unraveled, he proceeded over the years to analyze the evolvement of Palestinian art in the aftermath of the 1948 national catastrophe (al-Nakba) that culminated in the uprooting and dispersal of Palestinian society.

Secondly: While purporting to present an academic historic study based on her personal findings, Ankori employed different forms of plagiarism. To deflect exposure, at times she included incomplete quotations or selective citations from Boullata's studies that serve her claimed thesis; at other times, she disregarded all proper attribution to her source. Thus, original ideas developed and analyses revealed in Boullata's writings were wholly appropriated and presented by Ankori as if they were her own.

Based on our examination of both parties’ texts, and regardless of the author in quesiton being an Israeli, the League of Palestinian Artists expresses its full solidarity with artist and researcher Kamal Boullata – not on the basis of his being a Palestinian, but rather because his pioneering studies and historic findings, which concern us in the first place, have been mangled and fraudulently appropriated. Gannit Ankori’s plagiarism did not only violate Boullata's rights as a writer but we consider her own writing as an assault on the very historicity of Palestinian art.

Thus, in the name of the League of Palestinian Artists, we ask researchers, art historians, the mass media and all cultural workers to take note of this highly camouflaged case of plagiarism. Readers should approach Ankori's writing with a critical eye that allows them to recognize what appears to be a genuine contribution to documenting a history of Palestinian art, as nothing more than a rehashing of conclusions reached by someone else as verified by published evidence. We must realize that such insidious practices perpetuated by some Israeli researchers who appoint themselves in a position to speak for the Palestinians could only be understood in the context of a colonialist mentality. This kind of appropriation of intellectual property is taking place at the same time in which the Israeli authorities are continuing to seize the remaining lands in our country, and in the process burying its actual history.

Finally, in response to Gannit Ankori's dedication of her book to Palestinian artists: We, the League of Palestinian Artists, reject her dedication and demand from her an apology for violating the intellectual rights of artist and researcher Kamal Boullata.

The League of Palestinian Artists
Palestine- Ramallah 2006

* Translated from the Arabic, dispatched by WAFA Palestine News Agency on 20/08/2006 and published in the Arabic press.

2006-09-09T08:43:00.000+03:00

Families challenge Israel's newly-imposed policy of expulsion of foreign passport holders

-IMEMC

At a press conference on Wednesday, foreign passport holders, human rights organizations, and representatives of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem charged Israel with separating families that have long lived together in the West Bank and Gaza by expelling and refusing entry to foreign passport holders."This is one of the more blatantly unjust and blatantly stupid things the government has ever done," said Gershon Baskin, an Israeli who co-directs the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI). "This is a policy that cannot be sustained or continue."According to a report in today's Jerusalem Post newspaper, "The Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, which organized the event, charged that the policy has effectively separated foreign spouses from their families in the West Bank and Gaza, trapped others who fear they won't be able to return should they leave, and hurt businesses that rely on Palestinian expatriates coming from abroad.

The B'Tselem human rights organization presented a report at Wednesday's event which estimated that since the year 2000, Israel has refused 120,000 family reunification requests of Palestinians who want their foreign spouses to reside with them in the West Bank or Gaza. In the past, most Western spouses could get in anyway by entering on tourist visas. But B'Tselem and IPCRI said that since March, those visas have routinely been refused.The move also affects Palestinian dual citizens who don't have Palestinian ID cards - which would automatically grant them entry rights - as well as foreign students, human rights workers and businessmen, according to IPCRI.

"A press release by the newly-formed Committee for the Protection of Foreign Passport Holders stated, "Families are being separated, investors are exiting the country, educators are unable to reach their schools and universities, students' education is being disrupted, and elderly are being left without caretakers, just to state some of the ramifications of such a policy. This undeclared Israeli policy of 'denying entry' is currently in effect and can only be attributed to the Israeli Government's continued actions of unilateralism which defies International and Humanitarian Law, agreements previously signed and witnessed by international parties, Israel's own legal system's decisions, as well as sheer common sense.

The press release continues "Until such a time that Israel's military occupation of Palestine ends, it is imperative under International and Humanitarian Law that Israel respects basic human needs of the occupied population. Therefore, we declare our insistence on the most basic human rights:-The protection of the right of Palestinian ID holders to have their non-ID spouses/children/parents/caretakers reside with them in the occupied Palestinian territory.-Guaranteed permanent 'visitation' rights of spouses and family members of Palestinian I.D. holders to the occupied Palestinian territory. -Guaranteed visitation rights by foreign nationals, including professionals, foreign eyewitnesses and peace activists who are in solidarity with the Palestinian people, to the occupied Palestinian territory without discriminating against their ethnic origin or religious affiliation. -The immediate cessation of Israeli interference in the development of the Palestinian economy, education and health systems, and civil society through the occupier's denial of entry of those seeking to contribute to Palestinian development."

2006-09-06T13:28:00.000+03:00

Powerlessness and Oppression
Posted by Frubious Bandersnatch

Powerlessness of the oppressed - this is what is so phenomenally depressing about Palestine. The West Bank is terrorized by raids, curfews and closures, Gaza is bombarded with missiles, land is seized on slim security pretexts, and what can anybody do?

Any response by the Palestinians is branded as terrorism, and greeted with heavy reprisals - almost universally condemned by the International community - it is an accepted norm in today's "War on Terror" climate that all terrorists must be condemned. But what of State terrorism? What of a State that routinely terrorizes a civilian population; sending loud and clear the message "we can do whatever we like to you, whenever we like and wherever we like".

In Al Walladjah, near Bethlehem, people are arrested in their own living rooms for being "illegal in Jerusalem" - because Israel decided to move the municipal boundaries, redrawing the map under the feet of the people of Al Walladjah, whilst simultaneously refusing to grant Jerusalem ID cards. Everyone in Walladjah is illegal in Jerusalem. Anyone can be arrested at any time.

Earlier this year, targetted assassinations rocked Bethlehem every Sunday for 5 consecutive weeks. Videos of the torture of a captured militant were released into the community. In Nablus incursions happen on a daily basis and the death toll creeps up slowly week by week. And in Ramallah, the de facto capital of Palestine, the Occupation forces walk brazenly into the middle of the city and gun down a man outside a family restaurant, and then walk out again.

If we are to condemn terrorism, should we not condemn all terrorism?

Killings in Ramallah
Eliza Ernshire writing from Ramallah, Live from Palestine, 4 September 2006

It is only now that the gunfire saluting the killed young man has become sporadic and no longer constant, and that the verses of the Koran, chanted in farewell of him, have ceased. But the streets are full; and full too are the hearts of all who had to witness an attack that should only have been imaginable in the darkest back-alleys of some underworld city. By thugs, wielding heavy M-16s.

At 9 pm, undercover Israeli Special Forces walked down the main street of Ramallah. They wore civilian clothes and Palestinian police caps. They carried M-16s as all the police force does. No one looked at them twice. They walked straight past us where we stood, at Al-Manara, discussing work with a third colleague. They walked straight past the Palestinian Police Force as well, which is always stationed there. They continued walking straight down Rukab Street until they were opposite the famous Rukab ice cream shop where families gather every evening in the summertime. And then they opened fire. They opened fire after they failed to catch two 'wanted' men who were also in Rukab Street along with half the population of Ramallah. The two men wouldn't come when called and so the undercover Israeli officers opened fire.

It is not easy to explain the horror of seeing the cold-blooded murder of the young man who had turned to escape after realising his situation. It is not easy to explain the horror of hearing the name of the killed youth, spreading from mouth to mouth until the whole of Ramallah knows that the young man killed was A. from the village of Deir Ghassan. Nor is it easy to explain the horror of rushing with everybody else who knows A. from that village or a nearby one to the hospital. The relief, if the body pulled from the fridge is not your A. The anguish if it is. Grown men falling on the ground to beat at the dirt and cry.

The parents of the killed man stumbled into the hospital at midnight. The father could not even see his son because he was temporarily blinded by shock, and the screams of the mother could be heard from the street. Young men were also in shock, wandering around and wondering why they had not even had a chance to fight back. There was an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness. Palestine has been so reduced and so humiliated that it is now a country where the occupying force can walk into a main city at nightfall, can walk down the main street of that city and kill a man, and then walk away again as if that is a damn right of theirs and no one is going to blink an eye. It is not their damn right to come and terrorise the people of a city night after night on some hyped up 'security' reason! This is no human being's right.

I have been accused of not understanding how people are feeling on the other side of the Wall. People have written to me 'You don't know what it is like to be driving behind a bus when it explodes' and I say this is true. But I do know what it is like to see fifteen thugs walk down a main street of a city at nightfall and murder in cold-blood outside a family restaurant and then walk away again. And I call that the worst kind of terror.

The boy they killed was just a village boy. And the children who witnessed this killing were just children. As in all parts of the world — children who had begged their parents for an ice cream before going to bed. And now must live with this violation of their sensitivity forever. And the thugs could just walk away! They did not even need jeeps to perform their action of terror. These men were not desperate. Not one of them would tie an explosive belt around his waist. And what I am most afraid of is that they enjoy what they do. To them and to too many others, the lives of Palestinians are, at most, only countable.

There was a three second coverage of this news item on BBC. 'Three militants killed in the West Bank. One in Ramallah and two in Nablus; all were from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.' One second for each man killed. I won't begin a discussion on why, by naming the Martyrs Brigade, the West is somehow justifying the deaths, because the purpose of this article is only to register horror at the night time terror that came in so particularly a disgusting way to the streets of Ramallah four hours ago. And also to say that now the city is angry.

The young men who have been gathering for hours in groups on street corners are angry. Some have been crying, and all have been voicing their disbelief at how on earth Israel can continue to get away with their inhuman actions; not only nightly midnight raids and arrests but also this gangster plot that has left the main street of their city stained with blood again.

In the past two weeks, Israeli forces have come to Ramallah every single night. There is now a vigil in the dark hours of these nights; from 2 am till 5 am, half the city is awake watching and wondering where Israel's eyes are turned and what neighborhood they are targeting. In the past week Israel has made daily incursions into Nablus and has destroyed houses and killed 16-year-old boys in broad daylight, and has raided the city every night. For the past month the whole village district of Ramallah and Nablus have been enduring invasions and raids, house searches and arrests.

While Olmert is taking a few blows about his conduct of the war in Lebanon, the Palestinians are having to endure being his 'dog-under-the-table'. And I voice my protest with the people of the West Bank: How on earth is he getting away with it? It is not enough that Israel has made the token effort of standing by a ceasefire in Lebanon. The international community cannot be satisfied with this.

Eliza Ernshire can be reached at eliza_ernshire@yahoo.co.uk. This article was originally published on August 29 on CounterPunch

The Occupations's Onslaught is Relentless

2006-09-05T15:07:00.000+03:00

By Odog

The State of Israel is a war monger whose policy towards Palestinians borders on fascism. Beneath the political rhetoric lies the justification of many of Israel's policies: "we will do this to you because we can, because we are stronger". Their is little room for morality when it comes to Israel's geopolitical ambitions.... only money, resources and power.

News reports announced today the the State of Israel will again annex more of Bethlehem's land. As if Israel hasn't stolen enough? What kind of message does this send? I fear for the day when the patience of the peaceful city of Bethlehem finally runs out. I fear for the loss of lives on both sides of the Apartheid wall, Israeli and Palestinian. This onslaught is relentless and must be stopped.

-IMEMC

More lands to be annexed in Bethlehem for Wall construction and Settler Roads

The Israeli forces Commander for the Central Region of the occupied West Bank, Major General Yair Naveh, has decided to confiscate 152 Dunams of southern Bethlehem. The annexation order aims at using the annexed Palestinian lands for the Wall and for “military purposes”. Head of the Wall Resistance department at the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government, Khaled Al Azza, stated that the annexed lands will be used for the construction of a section of the Wall that will run alongside a new settler road linking several settlements surrounding Bethlehem. The roads will be “settler only” as Palestinians will not be allowed to use them which will result in the isolation of several Palestinian villages in Bethlehem district. The Annexation Wall will extend from Al Khader village, south of Bethlehem, to Beit Ummar village, near Hebron in the southern part of the West Bank.

The lands which Israel intends to annex in Hebron is currently used as grazing land and for agricultural purposes.

The new orders comes as Israel continues to tighten its siege and blockage over Bethlehem. Recently, the northern side of Bethlehem was annexed to the boundaries of the Jerusalem municipality. The new north of Bethlehem is now totally closed by the segments of the annexation Wall as more areas became isolated. Northeast of Bethlehem is blocked by the construction of Abu Ghneim (Har Homa) settlement, which is built over a small Palestinian green mountain Israel annexed and uprooted its trees. Efrat settlement already blocks Bethlehem from the south and and leads into the military compound of Gush Etzion and the Bitar Illit Settlement to the southwest. Gilo Settlement in built on lands that was annexed from the residents of Beit Jala, the northwest of Bethlehem and completely isolated the Palestinian areas there from Jerusalem. On Monday, the Israeli government issued enders to construct 690 settlement homes in the Occupied West Bank. The new units will be constructed in large settlement blocs in the West Bank and is coherent with Olmert's “Convergence Plan”. The bids are the biggest since Olmert officially took office.

Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli government issued tenders to construct at least 788 units. The new settlement houses will be built in large settlements; 342 houses will be built in Bitar Ilit settlement near Ramallah, while 348 houses in Ma'aleh Adumim near Jerusalem. Al Azza issued a press release urging, Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, that the UN take the responsible acts in order to apply the several UN resolution against land confiscation in Palestine. The press release calls for presenting the the ruling of the International Court of Justice in the Hague against the Israeli Wall inside the West Bank, to the UN Security Council for adoption, and calls for the implementation of the International Law.

2006-09-04T11:31:00.000+03:00

Al Khader in Pictures:
by Frubious Bandersnatch

The building of the Wall around Al Khader village to the north of Bethlehem continues apace. This wall will isolate Al Khader, a farming based community, from 90 % of the land upon which its economy depends, amalgamating it into the larger Bethlehem ghetto. The economy of Bethlehem does not have the capacity to absorb all the extra workers from Al Khader; who will be made jobless either through confiscation of their land or through loss of access to the Israeli jobs market, where many work in construction and other low-paid labouring jobs. Thus the wall literally spells ruin to many families.

Demonstrations at Al Khader have been ongoing all summer, with locals, internationals and Israelis turning out to protest the building of this illegal wall. On some occasions, the demonstration has reached the nearby Israeli by-pass road, where it has been greeted with mixed reactions by passers by. It is sobering to reflect that these may be some of the last times Israelis and residents of Al Khader will see each other for many years; as the wall closes around the village and isolating it from its surroundings.

The atmosphere at demonstrations has generally been fairly good-natured: on one occasion an IDF soldier was spotted turning a sign written in Hebrew and held by a child from Al Khader the right way up, as he was holding it upside down. Many of the IDF soldiers attending the demonstrations have expressed their unhappiness at being there, and have looked fairly uncomfortable at confronting small children with guns and tear gas. Fortunately there have been no incidents of gassing or firing of rubber bullets.

Sadly it seems that the demonstration is running out of energy; partially as a result of the Lebanon war, which coincided with a lack of attendance by Israeli activists who had previously supported the action, and partially due to natural fatigue, as the wall continues to go up, piece by piece, depressingly blocking the view of the surrounding countryside and imprisoning the residents of Al Khader into a ghetto.

This ghettoization of Palestinian communities is something that is ongoing - often overshadowed by noisier and more explosive events. Al Khader is just one community suffering from the effects of this horrific phenomenon. There are many more throughout the south of the West Bank, whereas construction in the North has already crippled many communities such as Qalquiliya and Jayyus to name only a couple. The Israeli government have vowed to finish construction of the Wall by the end of 2007, although due to political tension within Israel it is not clear whether the Kadima party will remain in power and be capable of keeping this pledge. What is clear is that the Wall spells the destruction of livelihoods and the imprisonment of people wherever it is built. Who will stop it?

Protest held in solidarity with a Bethlehem resident who lost his shop to the Israeli Wall

2006-09-03T10:58:00.000+03:00

- IMEMC

Friday, a group of Palestinian residents of Bethlehem and international peace activists held a solidarity act in the city in support of a poor resident who lost his small shop for the construction of the Israeli Annexation Wall. The shop was the only source of livelihood for the man and his family. As the army continued the construction of the Wall, the area around the man's shop was annexed and isolated because his shop is close to the already walled Rachel Tomb, which is frequently visited by religious Jews.

Troops installed a gate and closed the uncompleted section of the Wall, the owner of the shop and his costumers used to cross through the gate to reach the shop, but recently soldiers attacked him and forced him to leave the area. The purpose of Friday's protest was to enable as many residents and internationals to be able to reach the shop and buy their food from there as a means to support the man and to enable him keep his store opened.

Soldiers stationed in the area barred the residents and internationals from reaching the shop but agreed after negotiations that the man could enter the area alone, go to his shop and bring the food out to the protesters. The Annexation Wall in the OPT is being constructed in a way that enables settlement expansion, annexation of land including Palestinian orchards as well as preventing framers from reaching their remaining isolated land.

Israel formally annexes 14% of northern Bethlehem

2006-09-02T14:37:00.000+03:00

Those familiar with the situation in Bethlehem will be aware of the contruction of the segregation wall in Bethlehem's northern suburbs. This has been part of Israel's ambition to annex Rachel' s Tomb, a sight that is holy to all three major religions in Israel/Palestine: Christians, Muslims and Jews. In addition to denying Palestinian Christians and Muslims access to this holy site, the segregation wall has effectivily destroyed the economic viability of the area. Streets that were once bustling and full of life are now dead and empty.

Palestine News Network - Saturday, 02 September 2006

Israel has both effectively and officially overtaken northern Bethlehem, swallowing the entire Rachel’s Tomb area. The process was slow enough, ongoing for the past two years, however it all occurred with very little fuss. Those that did protest were gassed, shot at, imprisoned, or ignored.

Now historic Bethlehem is entirely cut off from its twin city Jerusalem by a kilometer stretch of the Wall. Hundreds of shops, factories, cultural institutions, religious and social centers, and residential homes were either confiscated or annexed to Jerusalem and under complete Israeli control.

Although Rachel’s Tomb has been a military installation for years, it looks quite different now surrounded by the Wall and higher sniper towers. The Israeli government confiscated what was once northern Bethlehem and is converting it into a militarized Jewish enclave like any settlement in the West Bank.

An official Israeli spokesperson announced Friday that control of the region has been transferred from army control into the custody of border guards and police overseen by the Israeli controlled Jerusalem Municipality. This indicates that the confiscation is complete. Israelis no longer need obtain permits from their government in order to travel into the West Bank if they want to go to Rachel’s Tomb.

Northern Bethlehem is no longer in the West Bank according to the Israeli announcement and the new facts on the ground. Northern Bethlehem is not even in Bethlehem. It is now in Israel where Jerusalem is, the future capital of the Palestinian state.

Bethlehem’s Mayor, Dr. Victor Batarsa denounced the Israeli actions as contravening international law and any sense of justice. There is no logic in the international silence in a world that refers to itself as “free,” yet stands by and watches without a word. The Israeli government just confiscated 14 percent of the birthplace of Christ.

Dr. Batarsa explained that the Bethlehem Municipality sent formal protests to foreign consuls in the region alerting them to the Israeli unilateral steps that converted the city of Bethlehem into a closed canton, confined and surrounded all sides.

"Fourteen percent of the historic city was confiscated for the sole benefit of the occupying Israeli state. This damages all Christians" the Mayor continued.

"We have all been raped, including the Vatican, the Pope, Arab states, and all the mayors and their cities worldwide that are sister cities with Bethlehem".He stressed that once again a major obstacle is thrown in the face of the so-called peace process.

Hassan Abed Rabbo of the Factional Coordinating Committee maintains that the Israeli procedures in overtaking northern Bethlehem were done in relative silence. The Wall takes a chunk, the new “border crossing” checkpoint takes another, the soldiers and settlers occupying even more space. All of it was done under the auspices of “security,” and northern Bethlehem has become southern Jerusalem, according to the Israeli government.

Traditional Christian Churches in Jerusalem Slam Christian Zionism

2006-09-02T09:17:00.000+03:00

"The Jerusalem Declaration On Christian Zionism"

Statement by the Patriarch and Local Heads of Churches In Jerusalem

08/25/06

Christian Zionism is a modern theological and political movement that embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, thereby becoming detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel. The Christian Zionist programme provides a worldview where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism. In its extreme form, it laces an emphasis on apocalyptic events leading to the end of history rather than living Christ's love and justice today.

We categorically reject Christian Zionist doctrines as false teaching that corrupts the biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation.

We further reject the contemporary alliance of Christian Zionist leaders and organizations with elements in the governments of Israel and the United States that are presently imposing their unilateral pre-emptive borders and domination over Palestine. This inevitably leads to unending cycles of violence that undermine the security of all peoples of the Middle East and the rest of the world.

We reject the teachings of Christian Zionism that facilitate and support these policies as they advance racial exclusivity and perpetual war rather than the gospel of universal love, redemption and reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ. Rather than condemn the world to the doom of Armageddon we call upon everyone to liberate themselves from the ideologies of militarism and occupation. Instead, let them pursue the healing of the nations!

We call upon Christians in Churches on every continent to pray for the Palestinian and Israeli people, both of whom are suffering as victims of occupation and militarism. These discriminative actions are turning Palestine into impoverished ghettos surrounded by exclusive Israeli settlements. The establishment of the illegal settlements and the construction of the Separation Wall on confiscated Palestinian land undermines the viability of a Palestinian state as well as peace and security in the entire region.

We call upon all Churches that remain silent, to break their silence and speak for reconciliation with justice in the Holy Land.

Therefore, we commit ourselves to the following principles as an alternative way:

We affirm that all people are created in the image of God. In turn they are called to honor the dignity of every human being and to respect their inalienable rights.

We affirm that Israelis and Palestinians are capable of living together within peace, justice and security.

We affirm that Palestinians are one people, both Muslim and Christian. We reject all attempts to subvert and fragment their unity.

We call upon all people to reject the narrow world view of Christian Zionism and other ideologies that privilege one people at the expense of others.

We are committed to non-violent resistance as the most effective means to end the illegal occupation in order to attain a just and lasting peace.

With urgency we warn that Christian Zionism and its alliances are justifying colonization, apartheid and empire-building.

God demands that justice be done. No enduring peace, security or reconciliation is possible without the foundation of justice. The demands of justice will not disappear. The struggle for justice must be pursued diligently and persistently but non-violently.

"What does the Lord require of you, to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

This is where we take our stand. We stand for justice. We can do no other. Justice alone guarantees a peace that will lead to reconciliation with a life of security and prosperity for all the peoples of our Land. By standing on the side of justice, we open ourselves to the work of peace - and working for peace makes us children of God.

"God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." (2 Cor 5:19)

His Beattitude Patriarch Michel Sabbah

Latin Patriarchate,

Jerusalem Archbishop Swerios Malki Mourad,

Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate,

Jerusalem Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal,

Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East

Bishop Munib Younan,

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land

http://www.j-diocese.com/DiocesanNews/view.asp?selected=238#slbl238

Unfolding the Zionist Dream

2006-08-31T11:03:00.000+03:00

"Neither side shall take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip…" Article XXXI, Oslo II, 1995.

The following photos depict the construction of Har Homa settlement on the outskirts of Bethlehem. Abu Gneim moutain, where the illegal settlement was eventually completed, possesed one of the few remaining tracks of forest left in Palestine.

Construction of Har Homa began back in 1997.

An example of shameful and unnecessary environmental destruction.

An industrial complex which makes no attempt to blend with the environment.

Settlements like Har Homa are not there to live in… they are there to dominate and control.

Har Homa scars and dominates the Bethlehem landscape. From virtually every corner of the city, Har Homa looms.

Israeli citizens recruited in a brutal and illegal occupation…innocently guilty.

The ugly face of the machine.

Is this the Zionist dream?

Hamas Figure Slams Gaza 'Anarchy'

2006-08-30T11:01:00.000+03:00

BBC

The Gaza Strip is in the grip of anarchy and Palestinians must stop blaming Israel for all their problems, a senior Hamas figure has said.

Ghazi Hamad, chief spokesman for the Hamas government, said the hope that followed Israel's pull-out last year had been replaced with "a nightmare". Gaza is at the mercy of thugs, he said, and pleaded for an end to deadly clan rivalries. "Let Gaza breathe," he said.

Such frank self-criticism is rare among Palestinian leaders, analysts say.
Mr Hamad's comments came in an article, which was published in Palestinian newspapers on Monday.

He said they were his own views and did not represent the position of his government.
"I am not interested in discussing the ugliness and brutality of the occupation because it is not a secret. Instead, I prefer self-criticism and self evaluation," Mr Hamad wrote.

Overwhelming problems

He said life in Gaza City now involved "unimaginable chaos, careless policemen, young men carrying guns and strutting with pride, and families receiving condolences for their dead in the middle of the street."

And he was also critical of militants who fire crudely-made rockets into Israel, saying ordinary Palestinians paid a high price when Israel responded militarily to such attacks.

Mr Hamad said Gazans should stop laying the blame for their mistakes at the door of the Israeli occupation. "Our extreme joy at their departure made us forget the most important question: What is our next step?" he went on.

Hamas swept to power in elections in January and promised to bring law and order to the Gaza Strip. Mr Hamad's remarks would seem to be an admission that it has completely failed to do so, the BBC's Alan Johnston in the West Bank says. But he adds that the best government in the world would have struggled to cope with Gaza's overwhelming social and economic problems.

Hamas has also been paralysed by the crushing Western and Israeli economic boycott imposed because it has refused to renounce violence and accept Israel's right to exist.

Bethlehem Checkpoint the Clinical Touch

2006-08-29T15:43:00.000+03:00

By Odog

When comparing checkpoints throughout Palestine one will immediately notice their differences in the design. Bethlehem checkpoint is an example of how the Israeli occupation utilizes clinical methods in which to restrict the movement of Palestinians while simultaneously presenting to foreign visitors the impression of legitimacy, by making them look like international borders.

Checkpoints in more remote corners of Palestine consist mainly of metal barriers and caged turnstiles. The whole structure covered by an iron roof bearing resemblance to a kind of sophisticated cattle run. Bethlehem checkpoint is the direct opposite. It is enclosed within an entire building, well lit, clean and painted with pastel colors.

Soldiers who control the checkpoint come into no contact with the people who are forced to use them and speak to them behind glass and through loud speakers. A metal runway stretches above you which soldiers patrol in an idle and uninterested manor.

Bethlehem obviously receives a lot of international visitors and pilgrims which has compelled Israel to save face and construct this monstrosity. However, the checkpoint's high tech equipment and camera system also allows occupation forces to efficiently monitor and control undesirables i.e. anyone with a West Bank identity card.

On the Israeli side of the wall, in the checkpoint car park, stands a massive colorful sign with 'Peace', written in English, Arabic and Hebrew. A clearly cynical and offensive message when one considers the true motives behind the wall. Tourists and Pilgrims who are not booked on Israeli tours and bundled into buses, get a rare opportunity to walk out of the checkpoint and see a different perspective. The Palestinian side the wall is plastered with slogans, challenges and messages of support. No wonder Israel doesn't want people to see that.

International Funk Party Rocks Beit Sahour

2006-08-28T13:19:00.000+03:00

The international funk party rocked until 1 am in Beit Sahour Saturday night attracting a mixed crowd of internationals and Palestinians. The event was held as a charity gig in order to raise money for the people of Lebanon after the devestating war with Israel.

The Funk gig, featuring DJ Jimmifondu (supported by DJ Frubias Bandersnatch) was a phenominal success. Tracks ranged from traditional funk, world music and Arabic tunes.
The Beit Sahour YMCA generously donated a number of "Free Palestine" t-shirts and these helped raise funds; people donating whatever they liked for one.

All in all, the gig managed to raise 936 shekels and all profits will be donated to the Save Beruit campaign.

Bethlehem ghetto hopes to see more events like this in the future: people from different backgrounds united in their desire for a better world and getting funky on the dance floor.

Peace.

Killing continues in Gaza

2006-08-28T10:00:00.000+03:00

first published in Haaretz, 27/08/2006

UN: 202 Palestinians killed since operation 'Summer Rain'
By Itim

A new United Nations report claims that Israel Defense Forces soldiers have killed 202 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Operation "Summer Rain," launched in the wake of the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in June. The report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the territories also says that 44 children are among the dead.The authors of the report claim that the military operation, which has lasted about two months, is still taking a severe toll on 1.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

According to the report, thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee their homes following continuing IDF incursions into the Strip and heavy shelling. The report states that since the operation began, the Israel Air Force has conducted 247 aerial assaults in Gaza. During the same period, one IDF soldier was killed and 26 Israelis were wounded.Refering to the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the report states that because of the complete closure on the Karni crossing, the sole commercial crossing between Israel and Gaza, only limited amounts of provisions have entered the Strip in the last ten days.

According to the report, Israel has destroyed 120 structures, including homes and shops, and damaged 160 additional structures. The UN Development Program reports that the electricity grid and the bridges in the Gaza Strip have suffered the most damage. The program estimates that the damage Israel has caused to the electricity network stands at about $1.8 million. Consequently, more than a million people have been left with no regular supply of water and electricity.

Since August 15, no humanitarian aid has passed the Karni crossing, closed by Israel for security reasons. On August 23, the Sufa crossing was opened as an alternative route for the provision of aid and food supplies.

Hafle hafle!!

2006-08-26T11:17:00.000+03:00

Sorry for the short notice folks, but for any of you in the area, fi hafle kbir il yom. Ask in Beit Sahour for directions to the double four bar (aka Ibrahim's) and there shall be dancing and merriment. Donations to savebeirut.org to aid Lebanese civilians. Hope to see you there, with love from

Bethlehembloggers

Restarting the 34 Day War

2006-08-24T10:03:00.000+03:00

By Mike Whitney “I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war” - Cicero

"Information Clearing House " - --Israel is in a state of post-war trauma. Its 34 day pounding of Lebanon achieved none of the stated goals and has left the public furious at the incompetence of the Olmert government. 118 soldiers were killed in the conflict and Israel’s celebrated "power of deterrents" has been smashed to smithereens. Nothing was gained. In the north, industry was brought to a complete standstill while the local people were shunted off to fallout shelters for weeks on end. What for? Hezbollah hasn’t been “disarmed” and the 2 captured Israeli soldiers haven’t been returned. The whole travesty was a dead loss. The war ended as abruptly as it started. It was suddenly called off when Olmert couldn't bear the rising death-toll, a fact that was not lost on Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah said from the very beginning that the only way to beat Israel was by “killing soldiers and destroying weapons”. Olmert’s retreat just proves that that Nasrallah was right.

Kenneth Besig summarized the feelings of many Israelis in his comments in the Jerusalem Post: “Fewer than 5,000 poorly-armed Hezbollah terrorists stood off the mighty IDF for over a month. An Islamic terrorist gang with no tanks, no artillery, no fighter jets, no attack helicopters, and just a few RPG’s and rifles held to a standstill nearly 30,000 crack IDF troops with the finest tanks, the best artillery, the fastest and most advanced fighter-jets and attack helicopters in the world. And they can still empty our northern communities with their rockets whenever they want. If that is not a victory, then the word has no meaning.” Besig may be wrong when he calls Hezbollah “terrorists”, but many Israelis agree with his overall analysis. Israel may have decimated Lebanon, but no one believes they won the war.

Since the ceasefire began, the recriminations and finger-pointing have only gotten worse. The daily gnashing-of-teeth in the media has reached a crescendo with every major newspaper calling for the resignations of Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz and “George Armstrong” Halutz. Disgruntled reservists are flocking to the streets in public protests calling for “heads-to-role” while hundreds of IDF regulars have signed petitions demanding an independent inquiry into the botched war plans. “I’m telling Ehud Olmert and Emir Peretz to look me in the eye and tell me they are fit to hold their posts,” said Sgt. Major Lior Vilnes one of the many protestors.

So what does this firestorm of public outrage auger for Lebanon and the prospects for peace in the region? The probability of peace “breaking out” has never looked more dismal. Public opinion is thrusting Olmert towards another war. Already, government officials have begun talking about a “second round” of hostilities, a euphemism that is being reiterated with worrisome regularity in the press. The mood in Israel is ugly and many believe that it foreshadows greater violence ahead. Olmert is surrounded by “hawks” from the Sharon era who brush aside any plan that doesn’t involve force. That makes military action all the more likely even though the objectives are as ambiguous as they were before. Eli Yishai, Vice Prime Minister, sums up the current thinking in the Olmert administration: “No army in the world is more moral than the IDF….We cannot be bleeding hearts while our citizens are being hurt. If Lebanese citizens pay the price, they will rise up against Hezbollah. I have proposed that we damage infrastructure and flatten villages because Hezbollah personnel must know they are not immune. We should make it clear to them that all residents in villages from which firepower is launched at IDF soldiers will be warned and required to leave their homes in 48 hours. And later these villages will be bombed from the air. That policy would have assured that Lebanese citizens would not permit Hezbollah to live next to them.” (Haaretz)

Isn’t this the same flawed-logic that led to “shock and awe”? What gives people like Yishai and Olmert such confidence in violence when it hasn’t worked in 40 years of occupation? The penchant among the Israeli high-command for resolving political issues with brute force doesn't bode well for Lebanon. Israel wants to settle accounts with Nasrallah and reestablish its dominance in the region, but that can only be accomplished by dealing a knockout blow to Hezbollah. Olmert has no chance of defeating Hezbollah. Guerilla groups disappear in one place and pop up in another; crushing them is nearly impossible. The clueless Prime Minister is probably more interested in salvaging his own carreer than in protecting Israel’s national security. In truth, Olmert’s bruised vanity won’t allow him to be remembered as the “man who lost the war to Hezbollah”. This will lead to a steady escalation of incitements (like yesterday’s commando raid on Balbak) which will eventually trigger an all-out war.Restarting the conflict will only create greater threats to Israel’s security. It will strengthen the Lebanese resistance, weaken the already-feeble Siniora government, rouse more hatred for the United States, destabilize friendly Arab regimes, and further erode the perception of Israeli invincibility.

Israel has little to gain and everything to lose. Never the less, Olmert seems to be disregarding the consequences and blundering ahead in the futile hope of silencing his critics while indulging his right-wing allies. Anything less than a full-blown assault on his Lebanese arch-rival would be tantamount to political seppuku. Former Shin Bet chief and current Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter, made a reasonable proposal that could mitigate the tensions and extract Olmert from his current predicament. Dichter said, “We must not sit and wait for the next war. A peace agreement in exchange for giving back the Golan Heights would disconnect Syria from Iran and disarm Hezbollah.”

Bingo. Dichter's advice is dead-on. If Israel conceded the Golan to Syria, then Syria would cut-off supplies and weaponry to Hezbollah setting the stage for a comprehensive peace treaty between the 3 nations. It’s a long-shot, but it could work and it reduces the liklihood of more fighting. Unfortunately, Olmert quickly dismissed Dichter’s plan saying, “We are not going into any adventure when terror is on their side. When Syria stops support for terror, then we will be happy to negotiate with them.” Blah, blah, blah; terror, terror, terror; the same worn mantra we’ve heard from Bush for the last 5 years while the entire Middle East is doused in gasoline and ready to explode like a stick of dynamite. Olmert has erected another road-block to peace and set the stage for a “second round” of destruction and bloodshed. His choice is bound to create more enemies for Israel while condemning thousands of Lebanese civilians to death. That’s a strategy for failure, not success.

The Lowest Points in Israel

2006-08-23T11:46:00.000+03:00

"The lowest points in Israel are to be found, of all places on the mountain peaks and hill tops. It is no mere chance that the settlements built by Israel in the territories it has occupied have positioned themselves on these lofty heights. The settlements are almost always up there, scarring the landscape, dominating the plateau, challenging, provoking, picking a fight. Down in the flatlands live the 'natives'- the Palestinians, who built their houses in order to live in them, not in order to taunt and defy and provoke hatred. The settlers up above, the Palestinians down below- this is the essence of the story. In the spring of 2002 you cannot drive along the roads of the West Bank for more than a few minutes without catching sight of them towering above you. In the spring of 2002 you can hardly find a window in a Palestinian house that does not open on to the red-tiled roofs or orange-tinted security lighting of the neighboring settlement. Neighboring? You can find everything over there- everything but neighbors. One beside the other, two communities living in hatred and fear of each other. One on top, armed with tanks, roadblocks and helicopters, the other below, armed only with their steadfast hold on the land. Which is stronger? And which will survive...

...From the window of a burnt clothing store in re-occupied Bethlehem, from a bathroom window in Kafr Beth-Dajan, from a living room window in the village of Sinjel, from the mouth of a cave belonging to the cave dwellers in southern Mount Hebron, from an office in Nablus, from a store in Ramallah- from everywhere you can spot the settlement on the hilltop, looming, threatening, dreadfully colonial. Ganim and Kasdim over Jenin, Psagot over Ramallah, Ariel over Salfit, Elon Moreh over Askar refugee Camp, Ma'ale Edummin over Azariyah, Beitar Ilit over Nahalin, Bracha over Borin, Yizhar over Hawara: alienated, threatening, conquering houses, lusting for more. The breaching of the international law that explicitly prohibits the transfer of civilian population into occupied territory- an act that is considered a war crime by the Fourth Geneva Convention- is overlooked by Israel. International law? The Geneva Convention? Not for the Israelis, who willfully ignore the legal aspects of the settlements. America and Russia, China and Japan, France and Germany, Egypt and Morocco, Chad and Sri Lanka- what other issues summon such complete agreement? Nevertheless, Israel holds its own."

Sample from: Gedeon Levy (2002) The Lowest Points in Israel in Segal R. & Weizman E. (eds) 'A Civilian Occupation: the Politics of Israeli Architecture' Cromwell Press: 2002; London

Suggested reading from Odog

Israeli Apartheid: Segregation, Control and the Creation of Bantustans in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

2006-08-21T10:24:00.001+03:00

By Odog

The question of Israel as an apartheid state has received increasing attention over the last years as Israel has continued colonial expansion in the West Bank while simultaneously attempting to diverge itself from the Palestinians. The purpose of this post is to highlight the growing systemization of apartheid in the OPT with particular reference to Israel's policy of unilateral disengagement. The need for this debate is highlighted by the effective outcomes of disengagement which has already resulted in the segregation of Palestinian communities and delineation of exclusive Jewish space by means of the segregation barrier. Furthermore the creation of Palestinian enclaves or ghettos in the OPT bears a striking resemblance to the South African policies during the apartheid era which sought the establishment Bantustans as a means to facilitate segregation and to secure privileges for an ethnic minority.

The term "Bantustan" refers to an apartheid regime policy which set about the creation of "independent" homelands for black South Africans. These homelands possessed no genuine sovereignty and consisted of fragmented pieces of land in which the white authorities attempted to force people to live. Boundaries of the Bantustans were typically drawn to exclude valuable resources and arable land. The Bantustan policy was policy designed to facilitate the control of natural resources, exploitation of black South Africans and the delineation of excusive "white" space.

South African Bantustans, Palestinian Enclaves and the Segregation Wall

(Sources: Wikipedia, 2006; ARIJ, 2006)

Expression of the term "apartheid" has been used to describe Israel's policies by a variety of prominent individuals including anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu, Israeli academics, left wing members of Israel's parliament and Palestinian human rights campaigners. Comparing the above figure shows the similarity of Zionist agenda to the racist ambitions of the South African apartheid regime. Enclaves in the West Bank are defined by the segregation wall, Jewish colonies, by pass roads, Israeli military orders and land restrictions. The Palestinian ghettos like the Bantustans are designed specifically to separate the native population for their land and resources and to enable the growth of Israeli settlements. In addition to this, the creation of enclaves surrounded by Israeli territory enables enhanced monitoring while acting as captive markets for Israeli goods and services.

Origins of Israeli apartheid date back to the occupation of West Bank and Gaza. Colonization of these areas immediately raised the question of what to do with the native inhabitants who would be act as an obstacle to colonial expansion while presenting a demographic threat to Israel's Jewish character. Up until the fist Intifada, the Zionist elite did not attempt to comprehensively address the Arab question. For instance, mass forced transfer of Palestinians was discussed but ultimately not adopted. Instead Israel preferred to ignore the presence of Arabs and continue building settlements and appropriating resources; attempting to create "positive" conditions in the OPT for the continued out migration of Palestinians particularly in East Jerusalem and along Israel's border regions. In this sense apartheid has not been an official policy of the state of Israel. Instead it has gradually manifested in the OPT as the logical conclusion to Zionist colonial ambitions which wants the land without the people.

Israel's unilateral disengagement is the final phase of the systemization of Israeli apartheid and adaptation to the social and political realities of occupation. The first Intifada sent a message to the Zionist elite that Palestinians would no longer tolerate occupation and the denial of their rights. More importantly it highlighted that in Palestinian areas would be difficult to control thus necessitating some form of disengagement.

Prior to the fist Intifada Israel was opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state considering all of Palestine to be rightful property of the Jewish people. However, with the emergence of resistance the two-state solution has been assimilated within Zionist colonial ambitions as a means of finally addressing the "Arab question". The creation of Palestinian Bantustans has enabled Israel to appear to be appeasing Palestinians by ending the occupation and giving them an independent "homeland". However, its ultimate purpose is to facilitate the preservation of Jewish space while increasing Israel's territory and control over resources for the benefit of its Jewish citizens.

(Source: ARIJ, 2006)

Despite the apparent "closure" of unilateral disengagement, by observing population and social trends, this policy will ultimately fail in addressing Israel's security and demographic concerns. Palestinian populations in both Israel and the OPT are rapidity increasing and will continue to challenge the validity of a Jewish state where a sizable proportion of the population will be non-Jewish. Furthermore, as Israel continues colonization there is no guarantee that Palestinians will stop fighting for their rights and accept the "state" that Israel hands them. In twenty years time we might be seeing the Palestinian struggle less in terms of a national liberation movement but something similar to the black South African struggle against apartheid within a single state.

Bibliography
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Falah GW. (2005) The Geopolitics of 'Enclavisation' and the Demise of a Two State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Third World Quarterly 26 1341-1372

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Moughrabi F. (2005) Waiting for the Barbarians: When Palestine Becomes Finland The Arab World Geographer 8 130-132

Reuveny, R. (2005) The Binational State and the Colonial Imperative The Arab World Geographer 8 109-117

Schnell I. (2005) A Route Leading to Separation and Peace The Arab World Geographer 8 147-152

Tillely V. (2005) From "Jewish State and Arab State" to "Israel and Palestine"? International Norms, Ethnocracy, and the Two-State Solution The Arab World Geographer 8 140-146

Yiftachel O. (2005) Neither Two States or One: The Disengagement and "Creeping Apartheid" in Israel/Palestine The Arab World Geographer 8 125-129

2006-08-18T12:04:00.000+03:00

Lebanon Oil Spill spells Environmental Catastrophe
By Frubious Bandersnatch

As if the murder of 1,300 civilians and the wide scale destruction of homes and property were not enough, Lebanon's population will suffer for years to come from the effects of the massive oil spill caused by an Israeli attack on the Jiyyeh power station on July 14th. Due to the unrelenting violence over the last month, it has so far been impossible for remedial action to be taken.

The fuel oil contains a toxic cocktail of chemicals including benzene, a Class 1 carcinogen. Volatile, carcinogenic chemicals have dispersed into the air, in a 'toxic spray' that has drifted over Beirut, putting the health of its 2 million inhabitants at grave risk.

The oil slick is drifting north to Syria and there is concern that it may reach the coasts of Turkey and Cyprus, where it will also pose health risks to the civilian populations. The uncontained oil spill has also poisoned the marine environment, killing fish and birds and further adding to Lebanon's troubles by ruining the livelihoods of the fishermen.

Following the ceasefire that went into effect on Monday, crisis talks are taking place in the international community to start a clean up operation (see BBC news report below).

The clean-up operation will cost millions of dollars, which can be added to the $1.6 billion dollar Israeli war costs and the as yet unquantified reconstruction costs in Lebanon.

The cost in human lives from the toxic poisoning and cancer caused by the oil spill can be added to the 1,300 dead Lebanese civilians, uncounted dead Hezbollah fighters and the 154 dead Israelis (117 of them soldiers).

The consequences, if the ceasefire does not hold will not just be catastrophic politically, the "collateral damage" will not be limited to the direct effect of the missiles and bombs. It will also have catastrophic consequences for the east Mediterranean marine and coastal environment, the livelihoods of the people dependent upon it, and the health of the millions of people affected by the toxic chemicals released into the air, water and foodchain.

When it is explained to us once again by chuntering politicians why it was necessary to wreak so much destruction and kill so many people for the sake of releasing two captive soldiers who would sooner have been released through negotiation, who ultimately will still be released by negotiation we should recall the Jiyyeh power station and the oil spill.

Because it was not destroyed by mistake. The politicians will say again and again that they 'had no choice' but to go to war, that Hezbollah are terrorists who must be destroyed, that they are cowards who shelter behind civilians, that they are an intolerable security risk to the State of Israel. Even if all of these things were true, it would not justify the destruction of the eastern Mediterranean environment and the indiscriminate poisoning of the civilian populations of Lebanon and Syria.

War does not stop when the soldiers go home. Death does not stop when the bullets stop flying. The pain and suffering of millions does not end when the journalists move on.

The Israeli-Hizbollah war has been a tragedy from start to finish, punctuated by slaughter, war crimes and crass disregard for human life and the environment.

See images of the oil spill at http://www.cleanupoil.com/gallery.htm

Crisis talks on Lebanon oil spill
Wednesday 16th August 2006, BBC News

Officials have warned of an increased risk to public health. An action plan to tackle the massive oil spill off Lebanon's coastline caused by the conflict is due to be discussed in Greece on Thursday.

Officials from the UN, the EU and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) are meeting to agree a way to halt the spread in the Mediterranean. Oil spilled into the sea following Israel's bombing of a power station.

The slick now covers 170km (105 miles) of Lebanon's coastline and is spreading out to sea.
Environmentalists and health officials have warned that the spill poses a direct threat to marine life and could increase the risk of cancer among people living in the affected areas.
It could take up to 10 years for the affected coastline to recover, they say.

Volunteers
The UN Environment Programme (Unep) and the IMO are jointly hosting Thursday's meeting in the Greek port town of Piraeus.

The objective is "to co-ordinate a common strategy to confront the pollution and to devise actions to prevent the possible expansion of the oil spill," they said in a statement.

Once agreed, the plan will be swiftly put into action, Luisa Colasimone of Unep's Mediterranean Action Plan said.

"A team of volunteers led by experts will clean up the coastline bit by bit. We now have the problem of it spreading out to sea, which will require technical expertise," she said.

Opec's humanitarian arm said on Wednesday it was providing $200,000 to help towards the clean-up effort.

Up to 15,000 tonnes of oil spilled into the sea after Israeli planes bombed the Jiyyeh power plant in mid-July.

Stories from An-Najah: Violations to the Right to Education

2006-08-17T13:04:00.000+03:00

By Odog

Bethlehem Ghetto has extensively focused on the Israeli occupation’s violations to human rights in the Palestinian territories. However, less attention has been given to the fundamental right to education which is denied to many. The Israeli Occupation is not only is responsible for the physical dismemberment and destruction Palestine’s assets, it is also socially destructive. Denying Palestinians their right to education prevents the development of young people’s minds as well as the creation of a body of professionals and leaders necessary for Palestine’s future. Environmental degradation (discussed previously) and social disintegration are two fundamental and interlinking components which are precluding the development of a viable Palestinian state. The following accounts have been collected by the Zajel Youth Exchange Program of An-Najah National University in Nablus. These are but a small selection of the daily harassment and abuse students and education workers receive at the hands of the Israeli occupation.

The Israeli occupation’s ongoing siege against the Palestinians impacts education in a variety of ways. Checkpoints often prevent teaches and students getting to classes while closures prevent them from returning to their families. Military incursions interrupt classes in addition to causing wide scale damaged to school property. In numerous cases schools and educational institutions have been transformed into military bases during incursions. Israeli authorities which control Palestine’s borders have on numerous occasions prevented students from undertaking scholarships abroad (this happened to a personal friend of mine because of “security” reasons). The segregation barrier has cut communities in half and forced many teachers and students to pass through gates which are only open at particular times, thus forcing many students to leave classes early. Compared to Bethlehem the movement restrictions in Nablus are extremely severe. However, stories like those you are about to read are happening all over the occupied territories.

Faculty Member Detained in his House
12th, July 2006
Nablus
Armoured vehicles invaded the city this morning, and went to the Majeen neighborhood where teacher Mustapha Shunnar was detained by the Israeli soldiers. Mr. Shunnar is 45 years old, married with children and teaches in the Social Science Department. Witnesses said that six Israeli jeeps surrounded the No 3 building of the university housing estate, where many of the university employees live. The masked Israeli soldiers who were accompanied by dogs were seen ringing on the door and then entering and detaining Mr Shunnar. His home was searched in detail, and then he was taken away to an unknown destination.

Another Tradgedy
Asef Issa, a 19 years old student, was leaving Monday the April 24th 2006 from An-Najah National University to his home. Israeli soldiers prohibited him from passing through Beit Iba checkpoint which he usually used in his way back to his residence in Kofor Tholoth village in the region of Qalqilia City.

Under the heavy rain Asef was forced to head back to the village in the company of another person through the rough roads next to the checkpoint. Due to the heavy rain of that day a flood pulled Asef into a tunnel at the time they were passing close to the Saloous stone quarries. This happened as they were trying to take an alternative route through difficult roads in order to avoid being stopped by Israeli soldiers, who have tightened the siege around the city particularly during the past three weeks.

The fire brigades of Nablus’ Municipality managed to rescue the person who accompanied Asef, while he was found dead; water pulled him all the way to Al-Madina Club, on the side of Tulkarim City road. His identity could not be retrieved as a result of the water’s destructive force. Sources of the Fire Brigades explained that Asef had got some bruises after slipping into the water, having also suffered from a number of tough impacts, several medical crews of Nablus showed in the area of the accident and Asef was about to be taken by the Red Crescent ambulance when an Israeli force appeared and decided to take the body by force claiming that the absence of an identification means that he might be a wanted Palestinian resistant, seems that even in death Asef couldn’t rest. The Palestinian crew of the Red Crescent didn’t agree to this obvious stealing operation but decided to follow the Israeli army vehicle to Kadomeem settlement where the Israelis gave the crew a paper confirming they have the body and promised to return the corps once it could be identified. Few hours later the body was moved to Abu Kbeer Morgue near Tel Aviv, and the Palestinian medical crews to come pick the corpse.

Education Student Killed at Road Block
(12/13/2003)
Kamleh Muhammad Shuli, a 20 year old student in the Faculty of Education, An-Najah National University, was killed this morning when Israeli soldiers opened fire on the taxi she was in. At the time, she was in the process of going to Ramallah so that the younger of her two children could receive medical treatment. She was with several other passengers at the Imatin road block, near the Kadomim settlement. Kamleh was shot twice in the chest, and died on the scene. Afterwards, her body was briefly taken by Israeli soldiers. None of the passengers in her taxi were armed or wanted, and there was no reason for the use of lethal force. Kamleh is survived by her husband and two young children.

Palestinian Academic Denied Freedom to Practice Religion
The Israeli Supreme Court ruled against instructor Adnan Idrees who had requested to leave the country to visit the Holy Land of Saudi Arabia. He has been denied permission to leave the country several times since 1997, when he first attempted to visit Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage (Haj). The Israeli Court did not give the reasons for its decision. An-Najah National University appeals to human rights organizations and all NGO's working for justice and freedom to put pressure on the Israelis to stop their abuse of Palestinian citizens’ rights.

Respected Academic Abused and Humiliated at Checkpoint
(3/19/2005) Dr. Muhammad Sharaqa, 45 Years, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law/ An-Najah National University

Dr. Sharaqa lives in Asira Alshamaleya village. From here, the journey should take seven minutes. However, with the occupation and impending siege around Nablus and its surrounding villages the journey becomes a three hour long farce. Dr. Sharaqa has to endure four roadblocks on the short journey including one right in front of his apartment. Dr. Sharaqa states 'I became familiar to the Israeli soldiers and my face is well known to them as far as I am passing through the roadblocks twice a day in order to go to my work at the university and to send my children to school. However, they still search me and search whatever I carry with me.

One day, at around eight in the evening whilst returning home from visiting family an Israeli jeep stopped me and the soldier and his captain ordered me from my car. There had been no incidents recently and I was the solitary figure in the area. I was harassed and interrogated, in the pouring rain I was forced at gunpoint to lay face down in the mud whilst they proceeded to trample on me. They broke my mobile and took my ID.

They asked what I taught at the university and I confirmed I was a professor of Law and Human Rights in the Faculty of Law. They accused me of lecturing in how to become at terrorist to which I replied that I was an advocate of tolerance and peace and that is how I teach my students. I went on to explain how I was the UNESCO director for human rights for seven years and had never previously had problems with the Israeli soldiers. They increased their insalivations to me for a further forty minutes. After this, despite being but meters from my home the soldiers ordered me back down the road I had come down, I pleaded to them to let me past but I was rejected and forbidden to take my car with me

Ever since I must get up early at six o'clock in order to get through the checkpoints, rush my children to school and then arrive at the university on time. It is incredibly ironic that I then teach the principles of Human Rights and the Geneva Convention. It frustrates and depresses me that a 'democratic' state can behave in such a way, allowing its soldiers to dehumanize the Palestinian civilians and insult them day and night. Life is so precious and a sacred right to everybody. Israeli's should not cross the red line of human dignity; the freedom of movement is also a nonnegotiable right to all humans. I have been in many workshops with Israeli activists to defend the rights of Palestinians in the occupied territories. I believe that my own experiences spur me onwards to continue to demand the implementation of the global community's laws and demand Israel to respect international agreements in regards to human rights and the Geneva Convention in particular.

Peace Delegate Jailed by Israeli Occupation Forces
(6/5/2004) Moein Masod, Journalism Department
I attended several conferences about peace and stability in the Middle East in the United States, invited by the A.B.L.E. International “Association for Better Living and Education” and ”Association for Peace and Understanding in the Middle East." These conferences, meetings, and sessions were attended by Muslims, Christians, and Jews from all over the world, and focused on building peace, stability and understanding between nations, with particular focus placed upon the conflict between Palestine and Israel.
During my return trip from the States, I was arrested by the Israelis on the 3rd of April 2003 at the Allenby Bridge. Without any investigation, I was placed in administrative detention for a period of 6 months, and was given no chance to defend myself. My time in detention was an awful experience. I was first kept at the Huwwara Detention Camp where I spent 75 days surrounded by hostile guards, being beaten, and deprived of food. After this, I was moved to the Kitseot Detention Camp in the Negev desert to serve out the rest of my detention time. I was in a bad state of health when I arrived there, which only continued to deteriorate during the rest of my imprisonment. Consequently, I am still receiving medical treatment to deal with the health problems caused by my detention.

Student Loses an Eye
Sunday the 9th of April 2006 began just like any other day for Shireen and Ruba, 20- and 21-year-old students at the Information Technology Faculty. How could they know this day was going to carry an incident that would change their lives forever...

That day, the two girls left the university towards the city center to buy some things before heading to their homes, the villages of Nisf Jbeel and Beit Mreen near the city of Tulkarim. Before even starting their shopping, news of Israeli occupation force, IOF, having invaded Faysal Street, east of the city was spread. This made the girls hurry up in order to leave the city before the situation would get critical. On their way to the western garage where they were supposed to pick up their bus, they passed through Falasteen Street -known for being a crowded, commercial street-, where the presence of over 8 army vehicles got them by surprise. Unexpectedly they found themselves amidst the Israeli forces, which started to shoot randomly as a few kids threw stones at them. Without realizing what was happening, these bullets made the two girls new victims of the IOF’s brutal non-stop violations on Palestinian civilians. Shireen tells the story with her own words: "Suddenly I felt something hitting my hand. I don't know what happened to me after that, it wasn't a faint, it was just a deep pain in my hand. We were all close to a Sport's Shop. They took me inside and then the shop owner drove me in his car to Rafidia hospital. I didn't know that Ruba had got injured too, I just heard about her in the car, when the son of the shop-keeper told us that the girl who was wearing the gown got a bullet into her eye. There I realized that this girl was my friend Ruba".

Nevertheless, Shireen didn’t realize what exactly had happened to Ruba until she started to wake up from the shock. She received treatment for her injured hand and started to feel better but her mind was with Ruba, since deep inside she knew that Ruba's injury was much more serious than hers: "I cared about her more than anybody else, even more than for myself. I was allowed to see her later at the hospital, she was taken to the emergencies section". Ruba’s family was called, although telling them the whole truth was not easy. At the beginning the family was only informed that the injury was located close to her right eye, while her papers were ready to be transferred to Saint John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem.

The same day in the evening Shireen called her friend’s family to check on her condition, but till that time they didn’t know their daughter had lost her right eye forever. Ruba left the hospital a couple of days afterwards. As Shireen sadly comments, "I can't believe that this ambitious girl has lost her eye, but I believe that Ruba has strong moral values and will accept destiny and God's will".

This is only one example of the aggressions An-Najah National University students daily encounter on their way to and from university... at checkpoints, on rough roads, or even inside the campus. Over the past five years dozens of students have been insulted, harassed, detained and injured just because they were trying to pursue their basic right of going to university. Due to economical difficulties and restrictions over mobility, as well as constant siege and incursions, education in Palestine is becoming a privilege, not a right. 52 students of An-Najah have lost their lives while struggling for their right to education.

University Professor Suffering Health Conditions under Israeli Dentention
On the night of Thursday March the 2nd 2006, an Israeli force broke into the residence of Prof. Esam Al-Ashqar, of An-Najah National University Physics Department and arrested him with no clear justification. Israeli soldiers brutally searched the house accompanied by dogs causing damage and chaos in the house belongings, then dragged Prof. Al-Ashqar bare-footed and without giving him the time to wear proper clothes; his wife says:” I couldn’t bear this violent scene, my two children were crying and he was treated in the most inhuman way, I don’t know where I got the courage from, I started shouting at them…Don’t treat him this way, he’s a respectful university professor with serious health problems”. Without giving that much attention to the grieving wife he was taken to an unknown destination.

Apparently Prof. Al-Ashqar suffered that night from a severe elevation in the blood pressure, two weeks later after the arrest the family found out that he was kept all that time in Belenson Military Hospital before moving him to Ofer detention camp, a formal accusation wasn’t yet presented against him, he was kept without any charges and experienced hard arrest circumstances. No communication between him and the family was allowed except the two short phone calls he managed to make from the jail administration office.

The wife says that during all this period Prof. Al-Ashqar was not investigated or accused with any charges, the only explanation given was that he is a “threat to Israeli security”. He was later given a trial without his presence and was charged for six months of administrative detention, the violation lies not only in the illegality of such a trial but in the fact that such trials usually give the Israeli military courts the right to keep extending such detaining periods every six months without giving any clear accusations and without giving the detained the right to get an appropriate investigation or pleading. Fares Abu Al Hassan, the lawyer of Prof Al-Ashqar, mentions that an appealing session will be taking place in the coming few days, and that he will ask for the release of Al-Ashqar as no charges are presented and especially that keeping him in the detention facility is becoming a threat to his life.

The wife complains that until now the family wasn’t allowed to visit Prof. Al-Ashqar, they applied for permissions of visit through the Red Cross Office in Nablus, and while her permission was refused, the mum was asked to prove her relation with her son to get the permission, “what an irony” the wife says, “ his mum was asked to prove that she’s actually his mum, my permission was refused, and we got no response for the sister’s and children’s permissions”. She also mentions that she contacted several local and international human rights organizations asking for help to release the husband or at least make sure he gets the needed medical care as he takes more than ten different kinds of medication; and lawyer informed her that he started to gain new symptoms as a result of constant high blood pressure; like change in the color of the skin plus exhaustion, nobody was able to help yet.

Prof. Esam Al-Ashqar who is an associate professor at the Physics Department of the Science Faculty, obtained in 1990 his Ph.D. condensed matter physics major from Ohio University, USA, he obtained his Bachelor and masters degrees from Jordanian Universities and was supervising a number of master thesis before his arrest.

(International Volunteers at the University)

Photos from this post are courtesy of Zajel.

For more testimonies and information on the Zajel program see http://www.zajel.org/

Checkpoint Humiliation and Bullets at Peaceful Demonstrations

2006-08-12T20:27:00.000+03:00

Jenny Digi is an activist, street medic and advocate who is currently travelling her way around the West Bank. She's been up in Nablus a little while, which, as you might know, is a little hairy. Bethlehem's a great place to chill out, and we've been friends a long time, so she came to visit us for a few days. This is her report of her trip down here.

Bear witness and spread the word.
jfd.

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Checkpoint Humiliation and Bullets at Peaceful Demonstrations

Jenny Digi

On Thursday I left Nablus to travel to Bethlehem, Bil’in and Hebron, never an easy journey. The checkpoint just outside Nablus, Huwarra, was in a bad state when we arrived. 100s of Palestinians; men and women, children and the old, doctors, ambulances, Red Cross vehicles, trucks loaded with fruit and vegetables, students, everyone was being held in the burning hot afternoon sun. As my friend and I debated what to do, either to try and use our passports to get through the queue quicker (which always feels wrong), to leave the Palestinians behind, or to stand in solidarity with them, the decision was taken from us. Suddenly, at the front of one of the waiting groups, shouting broke out and we could see soldiers surrounding one of the men. We pushed our way to the front to try and intervene, both of us on the phone; myself to international human rights workers in the city who could come out to help with the situation, and my friend to an Israeli law group who are able to work on the Israeli commanders to stop them behaving so badly.

As the man who was being beaten was dragged away, the penned in crowd were shouting out to the soldiers to stop, to calm down and to let him go and the rest of them through the checkpoint. We questioned the soldiers about why they wouldn’t let people through, one young soldier, not even in his twenties, replied that the commander had given an order that no-one was to be let through, not even women giving birth. When asked what the justification was, he could give none, adding that just because he was serving in the army didn’t mean he didn’t have a conscience.

There was a family with three young children, the eldest, a girl of about seven, was cradled in the arms of her father - obviously quite unwell, and they were pleading with the soldiers to let them pass. Repeatedly, they were physically forced back by the soldiers pushing them away. I spoke to the soldiers, pointing out the obvious to them, that the child was ill, that she was just a child, and asking them to be let through, eventually after about 15 minutes they were. One of the soldiers kept on pushing towards the crowd, shouting angrily that they had to go back, others fingered the triggers on the guns and pushed them against those of us at the front, sometimes not even seeming to notice when they hit us in the face with them.

Another woman came up holding the hand of her son, a young boy of about 3 or 4 who had just been discharged from hospital, on his other hand was a bandage covering where his IV had been. The mother was unable to afford to pay for a taxi or ambulance to get him home so she was stuck at the checkpoint, having to ask permission from soldiers (who have no right to be there) to get her child somewhere safe. She asked me to help, passing me the letter from the hospital explaining that he had been treated for severe asthma and was only being allowed home under strict instructions, which included avoiding too much heat, dust and smoke. None of the soldiers would let her through, one claimed she was using her son, another kept telling her to go and wait in the immobile line. All the while we were trying to get the soldiers to open the checkpoint, and to at least let the women and children through the waiting crowd, who were getting understandably more agitated. One man who had been shouting at the soldiers was dragged off, his crying wife following behind him. As the woman got increasingly distraught, the crowd pushed forwards a little, then, with no warning the soldier I had spoken to earlier, grabbed hold of her child and as he stepped back towards the military vehicles behind him, the woman and I grabbed the bewildered child and had to pull him from the soldiers arms.

Behind us a young girl with a clown mask pushed up into her hair had her face screwed up in fear as she pushed torn plastic into her mouth to try and stifle her screams. Shortly after that, in an apparent acceptance that touching the boy had been very wrong, we were able to get them to let the woman and child through and we accompanied them to the other side. Soon after, other people started following us through in dribs and drabs, though it would have taken hours for them all to get passed, having to go through the ritual humiliation of ID checks and searches.

Today there was a demonstration in the small village of Bil’in, near to Ramallah. There has been a weekly protest there for months now, against the construction of the Apartheid Wall, and an illegal Settlement, which is stealing yet more land, and more water, from the Palestinians. 10 Palestinians, internationals and Israeli peace activists gathered, at the front of the march, where there were about 10 of us carrying mock bodies of children, signifying those who have died in Palestine and Lebanon, to lay near the gate in the barrier. Before we got near to the site, a line of Israeli soldiers were waiting in a line across the road, in some of their hands were orange sound grenades, others had wooden batons and all had their guns. Our group walked peacefully towards them until we were within a few feet, then, with little warning, a soldier pulled the pin on a sound grenade and rolled it straight at us. The people behind us rushed backwards as we moved quickly to the side, our fingers pushed in to our ears to soften the deafening explosion that soon followed. As we took cover behind a pile of bricks, rubber bullets, more sound grenades and tear gas canisters were flying over us and landing around us.

A group of soldiers went by where we now stood, some people had their legs hit with the wooden batons and more sound grenades were thrown all over. None of us reacted in a violent manner; the Israeli activists tried to reason with the soldiers, some internationals and Palestinians just sat in the way of the soldiers - trying to calm the situation down. Still the soldiers fired at people, one passing by me, pushing his gun against me as he reached for more plastic bullets, most people had returned towards the village, not wanting people to be seriously injured. A young Swedish woman was screaming, holding her ears after a sound bomb had been thrown just in front of her whilst she sat in the road, the woman next to her was bleeding from her arm, hit by flying plastic from the same grenade. The young soldiers seemed both out of control and unsure of what they should be doing; some would start hitting out with the batons only after their colleagues did it, or load their bullets when reminded and when they ran towards the demonstrators it was with little coherence.

As I headed back to the village, between the two lines of soldiers, I saw a small group of people, soldiers and demonstrators, crouched by the side of the road with an obviously injured lad in the middle. Pulling my gloves on (first aid training coming to the fore), I ran up to them, I could see a heavily bloodied bandage lying next to his head, crouching down to get a better look I saw his skull was fractured and there appeared to be white matter showing through. Again, the soldiers didn’t know what they were doing, whilst treating him - doing the little we could under the circumstances - some of them were still firing from nearby, even through their colleagues asked them not to. When we were finally able to move him onto a stretcher the soldiers wouldn’t let us take him to the waiting vehicle at first, as some of the young Palestinians were throwing stones, holding the life of the shot lad hostage. The injured lad, one of the Israeli peace activists, was evacuated to hospital where he has just undergone emergency surgery to remove the plastic bullet lodged in his head.

Plastic bullets are supposed to be a “gentle” way to subdue protests. The unlawful, inhumane and immoral actions of the soldiers today at a peaceful protest are abhorrent. Using tear-gas, bullets, batons and sound grenades against peaceful protestors is another example of how out of control the military are in this country. This lad was shot twice, in the head and in the neck, his only crime was to try and demonstrate for a more peaceful and just world, he stood up against his country and spoke out about the crimes being committed in his name and now he is lying in hospital and may not live.

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For subsequent reports and photos, see the International Solidarity Movement website

2006-08-12T11:03:00.000+03:00

By Frubious Bandersnatch

"Positive Conditions" - The Water Crisis in Gaza

The political rhetoric and frequent violence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict often serve to mask underlying environmental issues which, if not resolved, may pose an even greater threat to the well-being of the Palestinian population than the guns and bombs of the military occupation. Environmental degradation threatens to undermine the viability of any future Palestinian state and create conditions that will make life in many parts of the Palestinian Territories impossible. Many environmental problems are accelerated and exacerbated by Occupation practices, which prevent effective environmental management. This problem is particularly acute in Gaza in relation to the water resources and the ongoing military conflict.

The roots of Gaza's water problem lie in the over-population of the area due to a high influx of refugees in 1948, when approximately 200 000 people fled to Gaza from the Jaffa and Beersheva areas of what is now Israel following Israel's War of Independence. The original population of the Gaza Strip at that time was 80 000 people, thus this represented an increase of some 250 %. Today, over three quarters of the estimated Gazan population of 1.4 million are registered refugees (UNRWA, 2006).

The Gaza Strip is a very small area of land with a total area of only 360 km2. It is underlain by a shallow aquifer, which is contiguous with the Israeli Coastal Aquifer to the north. Gaza is the 'downstream user' of the Coastal Aquifer system, and hence water abstraction in Gaza does not affect Israeli water supplies. The Gaza Aquifer has a natural recharge rate of approximately 65 million cubic metres (MCM) of water per year from rainfall and lateral inflow of water from Israel and Egypt (CAMP, 2000).

This aquifer is essentially the only source of fresh water in the Gaza Strip. By 1967, when Israel occupied Gaza, the sustainable yield of the aquifer was being fully utilized (Nasser, 2003). Since then, as the population has grown, so too has the demand for fresh water. No serious attempt was made at exercising any water management strategy in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli administration, with the number of registered wells increasing from 1200 in 1967 to 2100 in 1993 (Nasser, 2003). Abstraction from the aquifer was approximately 110 MCM per year by 1993, resulting in falling water levels and degrading water quality due to seawater infiltration, caused by the over-pumping that had been taking place. Likewise, there was little investment in maintaining or improving the deteriorating water infrastructures of Palestinian municipalities during this period, despite taxes being payed by Palestinians to the Israeli government (World Bank, 1993).

In 1994, the Gaza-Jericho agreement placed water resources in the Gaza Strip under the control of the newly formed Palestinian Authority and in 1995 the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) was formed and given the mandate for managing water in the Palestinian Territories. At this time it was widely recognized that there was a serious environmental problem with the Gaza Aquifer, with experts predicting that if nothing was done, the entire aquifer would become unusable by the year 2000 (Bleier, 1994). In addition, the water infrastructure was in a very poor state, with 50 % of water being lost through leaking pipes (PWA, 2003). Therefore the PWA, with the help of international donors (principally the United States Agency for International Development - USAID), set out to develop a management strategy for the Gaza Aquifer and engaged the engineering firm Metcalf & Eddy to carry out an environmental survey and draw up a management plan. The Integrated Coastal Aquifer Management Plan (CAMP) was drawn up in 2000, with an implementation period of 20 years.

The main components of the CAMP included reducing the amount of water pumped from the aquifer for agricultural irrigation whilst simultaneously improving supply of drinking water to the population by providing additional water from sources other than the Aquifer. These included import of water from Israel, construction of seawater desalination plants and improving wastewater treatment to allow it to be used for irrigation and managed aquifer recharge. It was envisaged that, in the longer term, following a political settlement with Israel and resolution of the Palestinians' water rights in the West Bank, a pipeline could be constructed between the West Bank and Gaza to ensure adequate supplies for the growing population.

Map of the water resources of Israel/Palestine, and water utilization along the Jordan River. From the Palestinian Academic Society for the study of International Affairs (PASSIA) 2002 (www.passia.org).

If implemented on schedule, it was expected that the CAMP would bring the Gaza Aquifer back into a positive water balance by 2007, whereas "failure to implement the CAMP in accordance with the schedule will result in continuing decline in the quantity and quality of the aquifer water " (CAMP, 2000).

Unfortunately, completion of the CAMP (May, 2000) narrowly preceded the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000. Despite initial attempts to implement the plan, and small progress in some areas, little has been achieved since then. The number of agricultural wells, many of them unregistered, has increased to approximately 4000 (PCBS, 2004); the supply of water from Israel has declined by approximately half from 1998 to 2004 in breach of the Oslo Accords (WaSH MP, 2005); construction of the planned regional desalination plant halted in 2003 when one of the workers was killed; and Gaza's wastewater treatment facilities are still vastly inadequate with 80 % of sewage being discharged untreated into the environment (UNEP, 2003).

In addition, missile strikes and ground incursions have repeatedly damaged and destroyed pipelines, and maintenance personnel have been arrested, shot at or even killed whilst trying to carry out repairs (E-WaSH 2002). Inadequate sewage treatment infrastructure and damage to wastewater and drinking water pipelines has allowed sewage water to contaminate drinking water supplies, leading to sharp increases in water borne diseases in many areas. Failure to control over-pumping has led to sea-water intrusion into the aquifer to the extent that, in 2003, only 10 % of the wells produced water of World Health Organization (WHO) drinking water standards (UNEP, 2003). Most recently, this years' Israeli invasion of Gaza (Operation Summer Rain, June 2006) has caused untold damage to water infrastructure, with destruction of the Gaza Electric Station affecting the operation of the majority of wells, pumping stations and sewage treatment facilities (CMWU, 2006).

In short, Gaza teeters on the brink of a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe and urgent action is required to prevent widespread suffering. To compound matters, USAID have recently pulled out of the Palestinian water sector, abandoning ongoing projects and closing their contactors' offices, in an international aid embargo aimed at undermining the Hamas government. As has proved to be the case with so many international sanctions and embargoes (like Iraq for example), the result of this move is the communal punishment of every man, woman and child in the country targeted. It is a clumsy, inept and immoral means of pressuring the government to fall into line; and primarily hurts the most vulnerable members of the society.

The options for improving the water situation in Gaza remain effectively unchanged since 2000. Namely, additional supplies must be made available: through desalination, wastewater treatment and reuse, import from Israel, or import from the West Bank. Currently, the unstable conditions in the Gaza Strip make large scale engineering projects impossible to implement. The less technically difficult options of water import from Israel or the West Bank are loaded with political implications and complexities. Both require the cooperation of Israel to ensure their implementation as additional pipelines would need to be constructed, and in the first case, the Israeli water company, Mekorot, would have to supply the water; whereas in the second, a pipeline would have to be constructed across Israeli territory and furthermore, an agreement would have to be reached on Palestinian water rights in the West Bank.

The water situation in the West Bank is almost the exact inverse of Gaza, in that there are relatively abundant water resources in the Mountain Aquifer system and Jordan River, but there is very little access to or sovereignty over them. This is due to the fact that Palestinians have been denied any access to the Jordan River waters since 1967, and 80 % of the Mountain Aquifer water is utilized by Israel, which is downstream of the West Bank in terms of water usage. Thus control over water resources was very tight during the Israeli administration (1967 – 1995), with only 23 licenses being granted for new wells, and the number of working wells in fact decreasing from 413 in 1967 to 300 by 1983 (Nasser, 2003). Many communities in the West Bank currently suffer from severe water shortages, and 13 % of the West Bank population are not connected to any form of water network (WaSH MP, 2005). The Oslo Agreements of the 1990s deferred definition of Palestinian water rights in the West Bank to final status negotiations, which have not yet taken place.

Thus resolution of Palestine's water problems is utterly dependent on cooperation from Israel; and inaction will lead to a serious environmental disaster in Gaza and to continued suffering for many water starved communities in the West Bank. Water shortage also undermines the agricultural sector and prevents it from developing, with consequences for the food security and economic well-being of the Palestinian population. In short, access to adequate water supplies underpins the viability of life in the Palestinian Territories.

When considering the likelihood of cooperation being forthcoming from Israel, it is worth reviewing several statements that have been made by Israel's leaders in recent years. Yitzak Rabin, the architect of the Oslo Peace Process stated in 1974, during his tenure as Israeli Minister of Defense stated that:

"Israel will create in the course of the next 10 or 20 years conditions which would attract natural and voluntary migration of the refugees from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to Jordan." (Yitzak Rabin, former Labor Party Prime Minister)

It may be that he had changed his mind by the time he made the historic move of shaking hands with Yasser Arafat and legitimizing the Palestinian Authority. It is possible, although various features of the Oslo Accords, such as the minimal transfer of sovereignty over environmental resources would suggest otherwise. It is possible. No-one can tell what Israel and Palestine would have looked like today if Rabin had not been assassinated by a far right Jewish extremist. However, if Rabin no longer believed in transfer of the West Bank and Gazan populations, Ariel Sharon, architect of the Gaza Disengagement Plan certainly did:

"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonization or Jewish state without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands." (Ariel Sharon, former Likud Party Prime Minister, Agence France Press, November 15, 1998).

"You don’t simply bundle people onto trucks and drive them away. I prefer to advocate a positive policy, to create, in effect, a condition that in a positive way will induce people to leave." (Ariel Sharon, August 24, 1988)

Olmert, Sharon's heir, has also recently avowed his commitment to the ideal of 'Eretz Israel':

"Only a person in whose soul Eretz Yisrael burns knows the pain of letting go of our ancestral heritage" (Ehud Olmert, May 4th 2006, speech to the Knesset whilst presenting the Unilateral Disengagement Plan)

"I believed, and to this day still believe, in our people’s eternal and historic right to this entire land." (Ehud Olmert, Israeli Prime Minister, to the US House of Representatives, June 2006)

What can be perceived here is that many of Israel's leaders, whilst appearing to make concessions to the Palestinians, have in fact retained an ideological commitment to 'Eretz Israel from the river to the sea', and have concentrated their policy towards creating 'facts on the ground' that will make life for the Palestinians impossible, hence creating the 'positive conditions' required to induce people to leave. A close examination of the Gazan water crisis illustrates this point very well. If nothing is done, there will be no usable water resources in Gaza and it will become impossible to live there. Nothing can be done without Israeli cooperation. Thus whilst Israel may not have intentionally set out to create the Gaza water crisis, it fits in rather well with Zionist expansionist aspirations to perpetuate the situation and prevent meaningful action being taken to resolve it.

If one examines the process that is taking place in the West Bank, whereby a series of Bantustans are being created through land confiscation, settlement expansion and the building of the 'Separation Barrier', with the population becoming ever more urbanized and access to resources such as water and land becoming ever more restricted, it is possible to see that what in effect is happening is the creation of a number of 'mini Gazas'. To illustrate this point: the building of the Wall in the north of the West Bank led to the destruction of 25 wells and the isolation of 50 more (WaSH MP 2004), isolating many localities from their only source of water and destroying the irrigated farming industry. One estimate anticipates that when completed, the Wall will isolate Palestinians from 65 % of their water resources (CAABU, 2003), although so much uncertainty surrounds its final route that no solid predictions can be made. Thus a number of highly urbanized communities will be created, with poor economic and social conditions and inadequate resources to sustain themselves. This is the manifestation of Sharon's "positive policy", which essentially amounts to ethnic cleansing by other means, causing widespread suffering, illness and death.

Palestinian water resources, the Separation Barrier and the Eastern Segregation Zone (ARIJ GIS, 2005)

It is clear that the viability of the Palestinian state and the livelihoods of the Palestinian people are being systematically undermined. The situation is not yet so far gone that it is irreversible. However, given the advantages to Israel of allowing the current state of affairs to persist, and the urgency of immediate action to avert catastrophe in Gaza, it is clear that international intervention is required to protect the human rights of the Palestinian people and prevent humanitarian and environmental disaster. The current violent conflict in the region should not blind us to the pressing need to address underlying environmental issues, which have the potential to cause as much, indeed possibly much greater suffering, than direct military actions.

References:
UNRWA (2006) The Gaza Refugees - http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/gaza.html United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.

CAMP (2000) Integrated Aquifer Management Plan, Coastal Aquifer Management Program. Metcalf & Eddy in cooperation with the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA). United States Agency for International Development, May 2000.

Nasser Y (2003) Palestinian Water Needs and Rights in the Context of Past and Future Development. In Water in Palestine: Problems – Politics – Prospects. Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA), Jerusalem.

PCBS (2004) – Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics http://www.pcbs.gov.ps

World Bank (1993) Developing the Occupied Territories – An Investment in Peace. Washington, USA, 1993.

Bleier R (1994) Israel's Appropriation of Arab Waters: an Obstacle to Peace. Middle East Labor Bulletin, 1994.

PWA (2003) Quantities of Water Supply in the West Bank Governorates. Directorate General of Resources and Planning, Palestinian Water Authority.

E-WaSH (2002) 'Nablus Water Situation', 'Ramallah Water Situation', Tulkarm Water Situation'; Internal Reports; 14th April 2002. Emergency Water, Sanitation and Health Committee.

WaSH MP (2004) Water for Life: Israeli Assault on Palestinian Water, Sanitation and Hygiene during the Intifada. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Monitoring Project (WaSH MP), Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG).

WaSH MP (2005) Water for Life: Continued Israeli Assault on Palestinian Water, Sanitation and Hygiene during the Intifada. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Monitoring Project (WaSH MP), Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG).

UNEP (2003) Desk Study on the Environment in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. United Nations Environment Programme, 2003.

CAABU (2003) Fact Sheet: 'Israel's Security Wall: It's Impact on Palestinian Communities.' Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, October, 2003.

CMWU (2006) Latest Situation Report about Water and Wastewater Due to Prevailing Security Conditions. Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, July 4th 2006, Gaza, Palestine.

Bethlehemghetto supports Investigation into possible Israeli use of illegal WMD's

2006-08-10T16:08:00.000+03:00

New and unkown deadly weapons used by Israeli forces
'direct energy' weapons, chemical and/or biological agents, in a macabre experiment of future warfare

by Professor Paola Manduca
August 7, 2006
GlobalResearch.ca

By now there are countless reports, from hospitals, witnesses, armament experts and journalists that strongly suggest that in the present offensive of Israeli forces against Lebanon and Gaza 'new weapons' are being used.

New and strange symptoms are reported amongst the wounded and the dead.

Bodies with dead tissues and no apparent wounds; 'shrunken' corpses; civilians with heavy damage to lower limbs that require amputation, which is nevertheless followed by unstoppable necrosis and death; descriptions of extensive internal wounds with no trace of shrapnel, corpses blackened but not burnt, and others heavily wounded that did not bleed.

Many of these descriptions suggest the possibility that the new weapons used include 'direct energy' weapons, and chemical and/or biological agents, in a sort of macabre experiment of future warfare, where there is no respect for anything: International rules (from the Geneva Convention to the treaties on biological and chemical weapons), refugees, hospitals and the Red Cross, not to mention the people, their future, their children, the environment, which is poisoned through dissemination of Depleted Uranium and toxic substances released after oil and chemical depots are bombed.

Right now, the Lebanese and Palestinian people have many urgent and impellent problems, yet many people believe that these episodes cannot and must not pass ignored. In fact several appeals have been launched to scientists and experts with a view to investigating the issue.

With the intent of responding to such appeals, we have set up a team to investigate the testimonies, the images, and possibly the material evidence that delegations and NGOs will be able to bring from the affected areas. We want to offer support to the health institutions of Lebanon and Palestine, which ask constantly for help and external verification and monitoring, and we are examining all available materials in order to formulate hypotheses which can be verified or disproved.

We ask for the active participation of our (Italian) scientific institutions, and, following the request from medical personnel in the conflict area, we are requesting that the UN set up an international independent verification and investigation committee, with a view to facilitating entry into the conflict zone, as well as collecting material and testimonies directly in the field, and undertaking inquries and verifications concerning the various claims regarding these new kinds of weapons of mass destruction being used by Israeli forces in Lebanon. We request that such investigating teams be set up immediately, and that procedures be defined and implemented with a view to supporting future investigations. Of particular concern is the issue of how to collect and store samples from the different theatres, with a view to preserving important information regarding the various impacts of these weapons.

We ask that the international committee have access to all sources of information, that it be fully operational, while abiding by relevant investigative procedures, including cross-checking of information between different laboratories. The international committee is to report to the competent authorities, including the Human Rights tribunals and international courts, if appropriate..

As people and as scientists, we are offering our time and expertise in order to reach an understanding of the underlying facts, in the belief that a perspective of justice, equity and peace among people can be reached only with the respect of the rules defined up to now within the international community of nations. The issue pertains to the behavior of the parties in an armed conflict.

We ask that the respect of these rules be verified in the context of the present conflict.

We invite scientists to contribute to this effort by offering their specific competences. In particular we seek collaboration of toxicology experts, pharmacologists, anatomy pathologists, doctors with an expertise in trauma and burns, chemists.

They can reach the working group at the E-mail address: nuovearmi@gmail.com Paola Manduca, Professor of.Genetics, University of Genova, Italy

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To The readers of 'The Independent'

2006-08-10T16:01:00.000+03:00

This morning we were pleased to discover that an article in 'The Independent' drew attention to the work we do here at the BethlehemGhetto. Welcome to all Independent readers!

The BethlehemGhetto publishes posts from both locals and international expatriates living in the Bethlehem area. The Blog was founded to give a voice to people living in the Bethlehem ghetto in order to enable them to communicate the surreal day to day life here to the outside world. If you are interested in receiving regular updates on what life is like in one of the largest man made prisons on earth, from a variety of different people on the ground, please add the Bethlehemghetto to your favorites list and circulate the web address to your contacts.

In spite of the feeling we sometimes get here behind the wall, we realize that our 4km wide ghetto does not exist in isolation, and is in fact merely an island in the sea of growing chaos that is the current Middle East. For this reason we also publish various comment articles as well as republishing interesting posts from other websites across the region which we think apply to our situation.

At the moment most of our energy is dedicated to trying to draw attension to the war crimes being committed against civilians in the Lebanon and Gaza Strip. Living in Bethlehem we know what it is like to feel helpless in the face of one of the largest military machines in the world.

Thank you for visiting the Bethelehem Ghetto.

Gaialing

The siege of Gaza continues.....

2006-08-09T11:21:00.000+03:00

Israel Tightens The Siege Of Gaza
By Rick Kelly

07 August 2006 World Socialist Web

While the world’s media has focused attention on Israel’s four-week offensive in Lebanon, a no less ferocious assault is also underway in Gaza. The Palestinian territory’s 1.4 million residents have been subjected to an unrelenting Israeli military offensive, as well as an air, land, and sea blockade which threatens a humanitarian catastrophe.
Seizing upon the pretext of the capture of Corporal Gilad Shalit by Palestinian militants on June 25, the Israeli military has mounted a six-week campaign aimed at annihilating the West Bank and Gaza’s entire social, economic, and political infrastructure.

According to figures published in last Saturday’s Haaretz, Israeli ground forces have fired 12,000 artillery shells into Gaza in the past five weeks. This is an average of more than 300 shells a day. In addition, at least 220 aerial strikes take place each day. Israeli ground forces, including infantry, tanks, and bulldozers have launched regular incursions into the area. This firepower is concentrated on one of the world’s most densely populated areas, which is seven times smaller than Rhode Island, the smallest US state.

In the latest bombardment, Israeli forces have launched a sustained operation in Rafah in south Gaza over the past five days. Tanks and soldiers have taken over the area, conducting house-to-house searches, and destroying greenhouses and farmlands. Eight Palestinians were killed Saturday. At least three of these were civilians—including an eight-year-old boy—who were bombed as they fled Israeli gunfire.

Raids and assassinations have also taken place in the West Bank. In the latest provocation, two Hamas legislators, on of them Abdel Aziz Duaik, the speaker of the parliament, were kidnapped on the weekend. Israel has now imprisoned 33 parliamentarians, including eight Hamas cabinet members.

The Israeli military actions in Gaza and the West Bank demonstrate that its offensive has nothing to do with recovering the captured soldier, or with preventing “terrorism”. The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has rejected repeated Hamas offers of a ceasefire, and has refused to accept proposals by Palestinian militants for a prisoner exchange. Every Palestinian offer is met with renewed Israeli bombardment.

Countless war crimes have been committed in Gaza. An investigation by the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem found that half of all those killed in the territory last month—178 people—were civilians. Hundreds of others have suffered terrible injuries. At one Gaza hospital, surgeons told the BBC that of 100 operations, one-third were amputations caused by Israeli attacks.

“There are many more mutilations requiring amputations as well as severe burns now than there were before,” William Dufourcq from the aid organisation Médecins du Monde reported. “This means the hospitals stay full for longer and there is a greater need for skilled specialists as well as more drugs, which were already in short supply. These people will be handicapped for life.”

July was the bloodiest month in the Occupied Territories since April 2002. In an indication of the one-sided nature of the “war”, just one Israeli soldier has been killed in the past five weeks, and that was in a “friendly-fire” incident.

B’Tselem also catalogued a series of incidents in which Palestinian civilians, including children and the elderly, had been deliberately bombed by Israeli fighter planes and helicopters. Just as in Lebanon, Israel’s offensive is calculated to terrorise the entire population and suppress all resistance to the Israeli occupation.

In a new tactic, the Israeli army now telephones Palestinian residents and warns them to flee their home just moments before it is bombed. While the military claims that this practice is designed to reduce civilian casualties, it is in fact intended to instil fear into the thousands of families who receive such calls.

“Some families, convinced by such calls, have left their homes at two o’clock in the morning only to see them bombed directly by Israeli F-16 fighters,” Al-Ahram Weekly reported. “Others have abandoned their homes and seen them stand untouched. So fearful are they that they refuse to return in case bombings are merely delayed.”

The IDF has also dropped leaflets in many areas of Gaza demanding that people flee their homes. With every border sealed off, however, there is nowhere for people to go. That there is not an exodus from the Palestinian territory equivalent to that in Lebanon is due to the fact that Gazan residents are hemmed in on all sides by Israel.

The Israeli blockade has greatly exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the Occupied Territories. Nine UN humanitarian organisations working in Gaza last week issued a joint statement expressing their “deep alarm” at the impact of the ongoing violence. “We are concerned that with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten,” the statement read.

One aid organisation reported that Israel was permitting just 150 food and aid trucks into Gaza each day—just enough to keep the population from starving. More than 400 daily truckloads are estimated to be required to meet people’s nutritional needs and provide some measure of food security.

Gaza is also suffering from worsening power and fuel shortages. Israel destroyed the territory’s only electricity station on June 28. Some Palestinian homes receive 6 to 8 hours of electricity each day, while others face constant blackouts. Several hospitals rely on generators to operate minimal services but are running out of fuel. Many medical services and operations have been cancelled, while hospitals’ food supplies, medicines, blood banks, and vaccines have been destroyed, as refrigerators no longer work.

Israeli attacks on Gaza’s infrastructure have also caused water shortages and damaged sewerage systems. Humanitarian organisations have warned of epidemics as a result of the increasingly unsanitary conditions in the territory.

Gaza’s economy has been crippled by Israeli border closures, and destruction of infrastructure, factories, and farmlands. Poverty and unemployment have skyrocketted, following the imposition of the Israeli and international financial embargo of the Palestinian Authority following Hamas’s victory in the January elections. Many of the PA’s 140,000 employees have not received their wages in months.

The UN’s World Food Program has increased the number of people it feeds by 38 percent since the beginning of the year. Shortages have led to price rises, making basic foodstuffs unaffordable and threatening mass malnutrition. The cost of wheat flour, for example, has increased by 15 percent since January. Other foods have entirely disappeared from markets. Fish is no longer available due to an Israeli ban on Palestinian fishing, which has also eliminated the income of about 35,000 people.

As in Lebanon, Israel’s war crimes in the Occupied Territories have received the full backing of the US. Washington has failed to even issue the once customary calls for “restraint” on both sides. The Bush administration makes no secret of the fact that it considers the destruction of all Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation an essential part of its drive to forge a “new Middle East” under US domination. This is why Israel feels free to continue its onslaught on Gaza.

Destruction and transformation of the Palestinian environment

2006-08-02T14:34:00.000+03:00

By Odog

Comments on this blogspot, often by those unfamiliar with the situation in Palestine, have typically ignored the environment as a key component to the conflict. The purpose of this update is to provide a brief summary of the environmental conditions in Palestine and bring them to the forefront of debate. After decades under occupation the Palestinian environment has become severely degraded. The Israeli occupation has caused significant damage to the Palestinian environment due to unsustainable exploitation
of natural resources and by its geopolitical ambitions in the West Bank such as building settlements, roads, and conducting military incursions which have destroyed vital infrastructure. (photo; Olive trees destroyed for the construction of seperation barrier.)

Environmental destruction and occupation have accompanied significant deterioration in economic conditions and the social fabric of Palestinian society highlighting the intrinsic relationship between society and the environment. While the Israel can not be blamed for all of Palestine's problems, the occupation and Israel's ongoing policy of disengagement are significant cross cutting themes. Environmental destruction has particular significance to the peace process (or lack of it) and the viability of the two state solution. Presenting a brief summary of the environmental problems in Palestine will highlight why this solution is becoming increasingly irrelevant and divorced from the realities of the Israeli occupation.

So what are the major environmental problems in Palestine?

Water Concerns
Unsustainable utilization and management of both surface and groundwater resources in Palestine has led to their depletion and deterioration in quality. Current extraction from groundwater is exceeding recharge and ground water levels are decreasing rapidly. Similar conditions exist for the Jordan River where upstream extraction has dramatically reduced flow. Depletion of water resources is largely due to Israeli consumption which utilizes more than 80 percent of Palestinian ground water and denies Palestinians their rightful utilization of the Jordan River. Israel allocates Palestinians 93 million cubic meters (MCM) per year for industrial use, and 153 MCM per year for agricultural use, leaving per capita consumption for domestic use at less than 30 cubic meters per year. Settlers in the Occupied Territories are consuming Palestinian water at the rate of more than 100 MCM per year. On an annual, per capita basis, Israelis consume more than four times as much water as Palestinians.

Water quality in Palestine has deteriorated due to a number of factors. Management of waste water has been neglected throughout Palestine and in many cases it is discharged into the environment without prior treatment. Israeli settlements exacerbate this problem as they generate large amounts of untreated waste water which is discharged into Palestinian areas. Groundwater contamination in Palestine is further associated with agriculture. The widespread and excessive use of fertilizers, pesticides and other farm chemical contaminate aquifers during heavy rains where they are leached from the soil. Water Quality issues in the Gaza strip have reached critical levels due to high population densities, subsequent environmental impacts and extraction of groundwater. In Gaza, ground water has been over-pumped which has resulted in lowering the water table below sea level and saline water intrusion in many areas. In addition to this, waste water from deficient sewerage networks has contaminated ground water.

Solid Waste
The disposal of solid wastes in Palestine is a major environmental hazard as it is generally not controlled allowing dumping site to accumulate a variety of hazardous chemicals which contaminate soil and groundwater. Military operations and curfews in Palestinian areas have contributed by denying citizens freedom of movement, forcing them to dispose of wastes in illegal open sites. Israeli settlers living in the West Bank exacerbate Palestine’s solid waste problem. The 450,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, generate 471 tonnes of solid waste a day, 80% of which is dumped on Palestinian land and dumping sites. Urbanization and population growth has made solid waste disposal a significant environmental concern highlighting the need for recycling and solid waste facilities. Lack of available space for municipal planning due to Israeli land restrictions dictates that dumping sites are invariably close to wells and urban centers

Poverty
Poverty is a major issue both from an environmental and social perspective. Poverty and lack of financial resources limits government capacity to fund projects and maintain vital infrastructure while from a social perspective, poverty and lack of opportunities for the young exacerbate the potential for social unrest. Since the second Intifada economic conditions in Palestine have deteriorated significantly. Prior to recent hostilities close to 150,000 Palestinians found work in Israel and settlements. Over the past 5 years, under the pressure of closure the numbers of workers employed in Israel and settlements have declined by 56%. The subsequent losses in jobs has not been replaced by increases in Palestinian exports and services and historically high levels of donor assistance haven't been capable of replacing lost Palestinian incomes. Unemployment has now reached 23.5 percent in the Palestinian Territories and is concentrated in the ages between 15-24. (Photo: Rafa refugee camp)

Land Confiscation
The construction of Israeli infrastructure in the Palestinian areas occupied in 1967 requires the confiscation of land through “legal proceedings”. The primary Military Order used to legitimate the confiscation of Palestinian land is Military Order 58 of 1967, known as the Absentee Property Law. The Military Order transfers lands and properties of absentee Palestinians to the Civil Administration. In addition to this, in 1969 the Civil Administration issued Military Order 321, which gave the military the power to confiscate land for public services. Thus “Public” works in the Palestinian territory are inevitably those that benefit the Jewish colonies and bypass roads. (Photo: House demolition Al Walaja)

Colonies
The growth of colonies is mainly geared to the formation of blocks; i.e. they grow outwards and towards each other. Successive Israeli governments have encouraged the development of specific blocks more than others which enable linking of Israeli colonies and the enclosing of Palestinian areas. In June 2004, Israeli authorities announced the construction of a new Israeli settlement in Al Walaja village northwest of Bethlehem. The plan will involve the construction of "Givat Yael" settlement on 2000 dunums of Palestinian land. Combining with other expanded colonies, this settlement will physically complete the ring of settlements that separate Jerusalem and encircle Bethlehem. (Photo: Har Homa Settlement, Bethlehem)

Check Points
Checkpoints constitute another form of fragmentation and often consist of permanent or temporary road blocks placed in Palestinian areas to control or restrict the flow of movement. Many checkpoints such as Kalandia checkpoint outside Ramallah, are similar to international borders whereby Palestinian's must have identification cards in which to pass through. In addition to checkpoints, Israeli authorities utilize a wide rage of other methods in which to restrict and control movement of Palestinians including road blocks, observation towers, earth mounds, trenches, and agricultural gates. (Photo: Huwara Checkpoint, Nablus)

By-Pass roads
By-pass roads were created by the Israeli Government to link colonies with each other and with Israel proper. The Israeli army controls the bypass roads, and enforces a 50 to 75 meter buffer zone on each side of the road in which no Palestinian construction is allowed.The construction of by-pass roads commonly occurs along the perimeter of Palestinian built-up areas. In the major towns bypass roads form asphalt boundaries that limit the expansion and development of Palestinian communities. (Photo: Israeli Bypass Road)

Segregation Barrier
Construction of the segregation barrier is a fundamental component of Israel's geopolitical strategy. While the Israeli government declared the barrier a security measure it has clearly been shown to be part of Israel’s “land grab” policy. In 2005, the Israeli government published a revised plan whereby the wall will run for 683 km in the West Bank. Only 138 km (20.2% of the total length) runs on the green line. The wall dips significantly into the Palestinian territory dividing Palestinian communities, annexing land and appropriating vital resources. The segregation wall encloses 98 Israeli settlements accommodating 83% of the Israeli settler population and 55 Palestinian localities. (Photo: Wall Section, Kalandia)

Concluding remarks
Israel's unilateral withdrawal indicates Israel wishes to continue its occupation of Palestinian land while avoiding responsibilities to provide equal rights and services. The Israeli policy of fencing Palestinians into "Bantustans" will ensure Palestinians live in manageable sized ghettos which the State of Israel Israelis may monitor and control while exploiting as captive markets. The physical environment is the very foundation of human society in its ability to function and exist. A prosperous and viable state logically can not arise from unsatisfactory conditions. Environmental justice and equitable allocation of resources remains the focal point of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The State of Israel has systematically manipulated, exploited and damaged the Palestinian environment in order to undermine any capacity for viability or genuine independence. Until the issue of environmental justice is addressed the potential for a lasting peace will be unlikely except for a continuation of the current pattern of Palestinian resistance and Israeli repression. (Photo: Bili'n Anti Wall protest)

Sign a petition to end the violence in Lebanon

2006-07-26T14:55:00.000+03:00

Please go to http://julywar.epetitions.net/ywar.epetiti ons.net/ and sign the Save the Lebanese Civilians Petition and forward this invitation to your friends.

Save the Lebanese Civilians Petition:

To The Concerned Citizen of The World:"Killing innocent civilians is NOT an act of self-defense. Destroying a sovereign nation is NOT a measured response."Lebanese civilians have been under the constant attack of the state of Israel for several days. The State of Israel, in disregard to international law and the Geneva Convention, is launching a maritime and air siege targeting the entire population of the country.

Innocent civilians are being collectively punished in Lebanon by the state of Israel in deliberate acts of terrorism as described in Article 33 of the Geneva Convention.The Lebanese people feel left out by the world that is turning a blind eye on the savagery of the Israeli state. Israel does not seem to be capable of approaching any problem outside the realm of the military power bestowed on it by the government of the United States of America and other western governments. We are writing you this letter in the hope that this massacre is immediately stopped. It is the universal duty of each individual to defend the innocents and expose the truth.
The numerous civilian victims of the Israeli operations are increasing by the hour. The viciousness of the attacks has attained terrifying levels where a child has been cut in three while another was half burned. The Israeli war machine, in its blind savagery, is destroying not only our lives but the foundations that could help the civilians survive beyond their massacre. The Israeli Defense Forces are destroying in few hours what Lebanon has spent years and billions of dollars to rebuild.

Up until now more than 300 Lebanese civilians have been killed and thousands missing under the rubbles , thousands wounded, bridges and infrastructure destroyed, refugees are leaving Beirut in droves and worst of all the enforced siege might lead to a human catastrophe in the next few days. There must be an end to this cycle of violence and continuous violation of international laws and basic ethical behavior.

Between the blindness of the international community and the deafness of the Arab one, the besieged Lebanese population has no way out.

Peace begins with justice

This petition is going to be sent to all representatives (Senate, Congress, Assembly, etc.) in the USA, Canada, France, Germany, UK and European Union. Moreover, it will be sent to more than 500 media outlets around the world. If you have the contacts of the representatives of your country (not listed above), please email us the list and we will include you country representatives as recipients.

http://julywar.epetitions.net/ywar.epetiti ons.net/

2006-07-25T10:54:00.000+03:00

UK Govt Sources Confirm War With Iran Is On

In the last few days, I learned from a credible and informed source that a former senior Labour government Minister, who continues to be well-connected to British military and security officials, confirms that Britain and the United States. "... will go to war with Iran before the end of the year."By Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed 07/24/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -

As we now know from similar reporting prior to the invasion of Iraq, it's quite possible that the war planning may indeed change repeatedly, and the war may again be postponed. In any case, it's worth noting that the information from a former Labour Minister corroborates expert analyses suggesting that Israel, with US and British support, is deliberately escalating the cycle of retaliation to legitimize the imminent targeting of Iran before year's end. Let us remind ourselves, for instance, of US Vice President Cheney's assertions recorded on MSNBC over a year ago. He described Iran as being "right at the top of the list" of "rogue states". He continued: "One of the concerns people have is that Israel might do it without being asked... Given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards."

But the emphasis on Israel's pre-eminent role in a prospective assault on Iran is not accurate. Israel would rather play the role of a regional proxy force in a US-led campaign.

"Despite the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, the Bush Administration has not reconsidered its basic long-range policy goal in the Middle East..." reports Seymour Hersh. He quotes a former high-level US intelligence official as follows:"This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone. Next, we're going to have the Iranian campaign. We've declared war and the bad guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last hurrah-we've got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism."

Are these just the fanatical pipedreams of the neoconservative faction currently occupying (literally) the White House?Unfortunately, no. The Iraq War was one such fanatical pipedream in the late 1990s, one that Bush administration officials were eagerly ruminating over when they were actively and directly involved in the Project for a New American Century. But that particular pipedream is now a terrible, gruelling reality for the Iraqi people. Despite the glaring failures of US efforts in that country, there appears to be a serious inability to recognize the futility of attempting the same in Iran. The Monterey Institute for International Studies already showed nearly two years ago in a detailed analysis that the likely consequences of a strike on Iran by the US, Israel, or both, would be a regional conflagaration that could quickly turn nuclear, and spiral out of control. US and Israeli planners are no doubt aware of what could happen.

Such a catastrophe would have irreversible ramifications for the global political economy. Energy security would be in tatters, precipitating the activation of long-standing contingency plans to invade and occupy all the major resource-rich areas of the Middle East and elsewhere (see my book published by Clairview, Behind the War on Terror for references and discussion). Such action could itself trigger responses from other major powers with fundamental interests in maintaining their own access to regional energy supplies, such as Russia and particularly China, which has huge interests in Iran. Simultaneously, the dollar-economy would be seriously undermined, most likely facing imminent collapse in the context of such crises.

Which raises pertinent questions about why Britain, the US and Israel are contemplating such a scenario as a viable way of securing their interests. A glimpse of an answer lies in the fact that the post-9/11 military geostrategy of the "War on Terror" does not spring from a position of power, but rather from entirely the opposite. The global system has been crumbling under the weight of its own unsustainability for many years now, and we are fast approaching the convergence of multiple crises that are already interacting fatally as I write. The peak of world oil production, of which the Bush administration is well aware, either has already just happened, or is very close to happening. It is a pivotal event that signals the end of the Oil Age, for all intents and purposes, with escalating demand placing increasing pressure on dwindling supplies.

Half the world's oil reserves are, more or less, depleted, which means that it will be technologically, geophysically, increasingly difficult to extract conventional oil. I had a chat last week with some scientists from the Omega Institute in Brighton, directed by my colleague and friend Graham Ennis, who told me eloquently and powerfully what I already knew, that while a number of climate "tipping-points" may or may not have yet been passed, we have about 10-15 years before the "tipping-point" is breached certainly and irreversibly. Breaching that point means plunging head-first into full-scale "climate catastrophe".

Amidst this looming Armageddon of Nature, the dollar-denominated economy itself has been teetering on the edge of spiralling collapse for the last seven years or more. This is not idle speculation. A financial analyst as senior as Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan's immediate predecessor as chairman of the Federal Reserve, recently confessed "that he thought there was a 75% chance of a currency crisis in the United States within five years."

There appears to have been a cold calculation made at senior levels within the Anglo-American policymaking establishment: that the system is dying, but the last remaining viable means of sustaining it remains a fundamentally military solution designed to reconfigure and rehabilitate the system to continue to meet the requirements of the interlocking circuits of military-corporate power and profit.The highly respected US whistleblower, former RAND strategic analyst Daniel Ellsberg, who was Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam conflict and became famous after leaking the Pentagon Papers, has already warned of his fears that in the event of "another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country, detention camps for middle-easterners and their quote 'sympathizers', critics of the President's policy and essentially the wiping-out of the Bill of Rights."

So is that what all the "emergency preparedness" legislation, here in the UK as well as in the USA and in Europea, is all about? The US plans are bad enough, as Ellsberg notes, but the plans UK scene is hardly better, prompting The Guardian to describe the Civil Contingencies Bill (passed as an Act in 2004) as "the greatest threat to civil liberty that any parliament is ever likely to consider."As global crises converge over the next few years, we the people are faced with an unprecedented opportunity to use the growing awareness of the inherent inhumanity and comprehensive destructiveness of the global imperial system to establish new, viable, sustainable and humane ways of living.

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is the author of The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry (London: Duckworth, 2006). He teaches courses in International Relations at the School of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, where he is doing his PhD studying imperialism and genocide. Since 9/11, he has authored three other books revealing the realpolitik behind the rhetoric of the "War on Terror", The War on Freedom, Behind the War on Terror and The War on Truth. In summer 2005, he testified as an expert witness in US Congress about his research on international terrorism. Visit his website http://www.independentinquiry.co.uk/

The New Middle East

2006-07-24T09:58:00.000+03:00

By Frubious Bandersnatch

As the world watches open mouthed the escalation of violence in the Middle East, we are forced to wonder what is driving these events and to what end? Is it about three kidnapped soldiers?

One suspects that it is not. That there is a plan, a reason and a goal. There is evidence that this 'operation' in Lebanon has been on the cards for some time - (see Matthew Kalman article - http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14127.htm). Furthermore, Israel is receiving support from the USA, with emergency shipments of bunker busting bombs to drop on Lebanese and doubtless also Gazan targets. The links there are very strong. What are Israel and America planning? A region wide conflagration? An escalation that will draw Syria and Iran into the conflict? Would there be a war now, and on this scale, if Israel and by extension, America, did not want there to be a war? Can we define the bombing of Beirut as an act of self-defense?

We must ask ourselves these questions. And as our minds wonder the abstract paths of global geopolitics, it is of paramount importance never to lose sight of the human cost of these strategies, which are paid for in human blood and destroyed lives. If your stomach is feeling strong, follow the link below to see the true price of the "birth pangs of a new Middle East", as Condoleeza Rice recently described events in Lebanon.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14069.htm

It is not yet clear what this will mean for us in Bethlehem, or for Palestinians throughout the West Bank. Like the rest of the world, we can only look on in shock and awe as the tragedy unfolds, and hope the war does not come home to roost in our town, that the next victims are not our families and friends. They are already our neighbours. In Lebanon and Gaza. Just people like us, who would like to live their lives in peace. On Wednesday night alone, Israeli sources admitted dropping 23 tonnes of explosives on Beirut in an effort to penetrate what was believed to be a bunker used by senior Hezbollah officials. The damage wrought on the infrastructure of the city will take years to repair. The damage wrought on the people will never heal, and nobody can bring back the dead.

After this, can anyone expect the Lebanese to be good neighbours to Israel? Will the population support a government friendly to Israel? Or will young men flock to the resistance movements, eager for vengeance and with little to lose? Will this conflict escalate until every country in the region is involved and the blood spilt swells from a trickle to a raging torrent? And the bitterness of the people whose lives have been so brutally shattered hardens into implacable hatred?

What a price to pay. We owe it to those people to ask 'why?' What vision drives this? What is the 'new Middle East' referred to by Condoleeza Rice and what will it look like on the ground? What is the true scale of this operation, and what does it hope to achieve?

And if we do not find that it is worth it, we must strain every sinew to hold back this war in any way that we can. From Palestine to the USA and from Israel to Australia. Even if we cannot do much we must do something, even if something is small it is better than nothing. In recognition of the common humanity of all people, in recognition that it is not necessary to hate each other, in recognition that the shattered body of a child killed in a war that it will never understand shames us all, we must act to stop this.

From Bethlehem Ghetto we call for peace, and we hope you will join us.

From Bethlehem to Gaza - our thoughts are with you

2006-07-13T08:29:00.000+03:00

PCHRPalestinian Centre for Human Rights
PRESS RELEASE
Ref: 68/2006
Date: 12 July 2006
Time: 10:00 GMT

In the Latest Example of State Terrorism:
IOF Bomb a House in the Sheikh Radwan Quarter, Killing a Palestinian, his Wife, and 7 Children; 34 Civilians were Injured
“My name is Jihad Mohammad El-Saloul. I’m 49 years old, and work as a teachers. I’m a neighbor of Dr. Nabil Abu Salmeya.
Tonight at approximately 2:45 in the morning, I heard a small explosion. My wife, our children, and I woke up. I thought it was a sound bomb. My children were standing near the window. After about 10 minutes I heard a second explosion. The glass fell over our heads. I got out of the house to see what happened. One of our neighbors is Ahmad Bahar “Abu Akram,” a political leader in Hamas. I thought the explosion was in his home. As I walked, I was surprised that the explosion was in Dr. Nabil Abu Salmeya’s house. I went towards the bombed house. Smoke and thick dust was issuing from the house. I saw an injured, bearded man among the rubble (El-Ja’bari). We put him in a blue Fiat with 3 young men from among the neighbors. After that, I went to help save others.
We found Abu Salmeya’s son Ahmad, who studies engineering at university. He was injured in the face. He was in pain, and was standing on the balcony of the bombed house. He was calling us. We took him to an ambulance.
After that I saw a girl, Abu Salmeya’s daughter, who was about 17. She was handicapped. Her body was thrown on the ground, between the trees in the garden.
Then we found the body of his son, Yehya, who is in fourth grade. It was a headless body. We found the head in the hallway of a neighbor’s house, from Abass family. I knew Yehya and the girl well.
Then I found another son. He was dead and on the ground.
Then we found the body of the mother. He leg was torn off.
Then we found two arms of a man among the trees.
As to the house next to Abu Salmeya’s house, it belongs to my neighbor Rajih Abbas. Most of the household was injured by glass and brick shrapnel. We took out an elderly woman (65) who is
Rajih’s mother. She injured in the leg, which was broken. We took out a child from the same room, from under the rubble and dust. The child was still breathing. I couldn’t believe that the child was still alive.
The Civil Defense Corps started to search the rubble immediately after the bombardment. At approximately 7:00 in the morning, they found Awad Nabil Abu Salmeya (19), who studies engineering. He was suffering from moderate injuries. He survived by a miracle.
Dr. Abu Salmeya’s family consisted of 11 members: himself, his wife, 5 girls, and 4 boys.
We only saw his sons Mohammad and Awad. Till now, we don’t know anything about 3 of his girls, who are still under the debris.
This is a residential area. Even if there were one or two wanted (activists), how can a whole neighborhood be targeted and bombed by planes, causing all this death and destruction to us, them and neighbors who are civilians. They do not want to kill the wanted, but to destroy civilians, kill them, and terrorize them.
The house is built on an area of 200 square meters. It is two parts. The southern part is old, and consists of a ground floor and a second floor. The second part is an open area with two rooms and a salon for the children.
The southern part was targeted. The deaths were there.
This are is called “Shanti neighborhood, Amer Project, Sheikh Radwan Quarter.
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have committed a new war crime against Palestinian civilians, flagrantly breaching the Fourth Geneva Convention. IOF fighter jets dropped 2 bombs at a 2-story house in a crowded neighborhood in the town of Jabalia. The house belonged to a Hamas leader. The house owner was killed, and so were his wife and 7 of their children. The house was completely destroyed. In addition, 34 civilians were injured, including 5 children and 6 women. Extensive damage was inflicted on 15 houses surrounding the targeted house.
After committing the crime, IOF declared that the bombardment targeted Mohammad El-Deif, the commander of the Hamas military wing, and others with him, claiming that they were in the house. For their part, Hamas confirmed that El-Deif is safe.
This crime is a reminder of the war crime perpetrated on 23 July 2003 to assassinate Salah Shehada, a Hamas leader. In that incident, IOF targeted a residential building in the densely-
populated El-Daraj neighborhood. More than 20 people were killed, including women and children, and dozens were injured.
The latest war crime comes within Israel’s policy of extra-judicial assassinations against Palestinian activists. This policy is criticized by the international community as it leads to casualties among innocent civilians.
With this crime, the number of Palestinians killed since the start of Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip rises to 68, including 33 innocent civilians. Two women and 14 children are among the dead.
PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 2:45 on Wednesday, 12 July 2006, an IOF fighter jet dropped 2 bombs at the house belonging to Nabil Abdel Latif Abu Salmeya (46), a leader in Hamas who works as a lecturer in the Islamic University. The 2 bombs hit the 2-story house built on 200 square meters in the Shanti lands are in the town of Jabalia. The house was destroyed on top of the occupants. The owner was killed, and so were his wife Salwa Ismail Abu Salmeya (42) and 7 of their children: Basma (16), Somaya (17, handicapped), Aya (9), Yehya (10), Nasr (7), Huda (13), and Eman (12). The son Awad (19) was rescued, and is suffering from serious injuries. Eyewitnesses indicate that the bodies of the dead were torn and scattered. Work continues to clear the rubble and search for bodies and survivors.
PCHR is greatly concerned over the IOF crimes against Palestinian civilians that have become a trend. The Centre stresses that an arbitrary attack that endangers the lives of civilians and their properties, especially if prior knowledge indicates that civilians could be killed, injured, or have property damaged, is a war crime in the first protocol additional to the Fourth Geneva Convention.
In the Center’s view, the complacency of the international community and the High Contracting Parties of the 4th Geneva Convention and their failure tot take effective steps to stop Israeli war crimes has been a supporting and encouraging element for Israel to continue perpetrating additional war crimes against Palestinian civilians. The legal cover provided to Israel by the US, which purposely hinders International Humanitarian Law, and the conspiracy of silence by Europe encourage Israeli to continue to perpetrate war crimes unchecked, placing it above international law.
The Centre reminds the High Contracting Parties of:
- Their obligations under article 1 of the convention to ensure respect of the convention under all circumstances;
- Their obligations in article 146 of the convention to pursue suspects of committing serious violations of the convention, noting that these violations are war crimes according to article 147, as specified in the first protocol additional to the convention
The Centre calls upon the Swiss Government to:
- to take a leading role in highlighting and acting to stop the grave breaches of international law that are currently taking place in the Gaza Strip, as is its obligation as the depository of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
- to make efforts to mobilise the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to intervene in this situation and meet their obligations to protect the rights of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip under International Humanitarian Law.
- to call on the Security Council to send an international protection force for the Palestinian civilian population of the Gaza Strip.
The Centre calls upon the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to:
- to issue a statement strongly condemning Israel’s grave breaches of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
- to make a visit to the OPT in order to see for yourself the long term damage that has already been and is currently being inflicted on the civilian population – a population who should be enjoying protection under International Humanitarian Law.
- to call a meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention in order to ensure that these states fulfil their obligation under international law to protect the civilian population of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

-End-

Summer Rain Over Gaza Waters the Seeds of Hatred

2006-07-06T15:47:00.000+03:00

Summer Rain over Gaza
by Frubious Bandersnatch

Consider this: an 8 km wide by 23 km long strip of arid land by the Mediterranean Sea containing a population of one and a half million people. This is Gaza, one of the most densely populated regions in the world, and the one of the most water poor, second only to Kuwait. Over half of the population are refugees, expelled from Israel following the 1948 and 1967 wars.

The Strip bears the scars of 40 years of military occupation. The economy is in crisis, with over 30 % unemployment (PCBS, 2005) and over half the population living below the official poverty line of less than $2 per person per day (PCBS, 2004). Despite efforts by the Palestinian Authority and international donors, infrastructure is completely inadequate to serve the needs of the population. The decaying water system was running at 50 % losses when it was passed over to Palestinian control after the peace agreements of the early 90s. The situation has not been improved by repeated Israeli missile strikes since 2000, smashing pipelines and destroying pumping stations.

The sewage system is even more inadequate. Only 60 % of the population are connected to any form of sewage network and there are only 3 poorly functioning treatment plants. Thus 80 % of wastewater is discharged untreated into the environment, infiltrating the ground and poisoning the groundwater, which is the only source of fresh water in the area (UNEP, 2003). The quantity of freshwater available does not come close to meeting the basic demands of the population and as a consequence, the aquifer has been heavily overabstracted for years, causing infiltration of sea water and deterioration of water quality. Currently only 10 % of the water distributed in Gaza meets World Health Organization drinking water standards (UNEP, 2003).

Demand for food for the inflated population is high and cultivable land is scarce. Hence agricultural practices are intense, relying heavily on toxic agrochemicals which wreak further environmental destruction. Even so there is no food security and a high dependency on imported food from Israel, a supply that can readily be cut off by the simple expedient of closing the border crossings. The water shortage is so severe and the demand for food so high that sewage water is sometimes used to irrigate crops, with obviously appalling health consequences. Put quite simply, Gaza is in a state of escalating humanitarian crisis: a large population with resources inadequate to sustain itself in a poisoned and deteriorating environment.

Consider this: Summer Rain over Gaza. A rain of missiles shattering roads, schools, powerstations, pipelines and people. Shooting fish in a barrel. In such a densely populated area, it would be difficult not to hit something important. Power stations and main transport routes have been deliberately targetted. The consequences? Inability to move food supplies, breakdown of water pumping stations and sewage treatment plants, further contamination of drinking water supplies as ruptured sewage pipes mingle their contents with drinking water supplies. Most of the water wells in Gaza and all of the sewage treatment plants were powered by the destroyed power station which also constituted the only source of domestic electricity in the region (CMWU, 2006). In short, a humanitarian disaster has been precipitated, as food and water supplies run dry and hunger, thirst and disease become the daily reality of the beleaguered population. Summer Rain over Gaza: what exquisite irony.

The reason that has been given by Israeli leaders for this deliberate targeting of Gaza's life support systems has been that it is necessary to "tear down the infrastructure of terrorism". This statement begs two vital questions: firstly, what is meant by "terrorism", and secondly, what is the "infrastructure of terrorism" or what sustains terrorism?

Terrorism is a controversial and subjective term with multiple definitions. One definition is "a violent action targetting civilians exclusively" (Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism). However, terrorism is defined by the US Department of Defense as "the unlawful use of -- or threatened use of -- force or violence against individuals or property to coerce or intimidate governments or societies, often to achieve political, religious, or ideological objectives." The government of Israel, it seems, defines terrorism as any act of violence against any Israeli target, civilian or military, perpetrated by any Palestinian. Any use of force by Palestinians against Israelis is 'unlawful'.

The current Israeli invasion of Gaza was ostensibly caused by the killing of two Israeli soldiers and the kidnapping of one more (Gilad Shalit) by Palestinian militants connected with the elected Palestinian government (Hamas). There are two points that are extremely pertinent here. One is that the action was against a military target; and the other is that Palestine has no 'lawful' army. This being the case, actions undertaken by the military wing of the elected government against the deployed military personnel of an Occupying power are somewhat subject to interpretation in terms of their 'lawfulness' or otherwise.

The Israeli invasion, and indeed the entire military occupation of the Palestinian Territories, are themselves on similarly shaky ground with regard to their 'lawfulness'. Civilian individuals and infrastructure have been repeatedly targeted and multiple UN resolutions have been passed declaring the illegality of such actions. Furthermore, the objective of these actions, namely the furthering of the Zionist ideal, is political, religious and ideological, and few could argue that they do not constitute "coercion" of a democratically elected government. Hence under US Department of Defense definitions, Israel is certainly perpetrating acts of terrorism against the Palestinian government and society.

However, let us return to the question of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis. Whilst there is some question as to whether the stated cause of the current conflict constitutes terrorism, the firing of Qassam rockets into Israeli civilian settlements and the suicide bombing of civilian population centres which have taken place in recent months fit more easily into generally accepted definitions of terrorism. So the question we must now ask is what drives such acts? Will destroying civilian infrastructure in Gaza help to prevent further terrorism?

It is doubtless true that terrorists, as human beings, are ultimately sustained by water, food and heat. Also, by Israeli definition, Gaza is a 'haven for terrorists'. Thus by denying water, food and heat to large sections of the Gazan population, Israel will almost certainly harm some terrorists. However, such a strategy could only really be effective in eradicating terrorism if the entire population of Gaza were annihilated along with the terrorists. In short: by genocide and ethnic cleansing. The absolute immorality of such a solution should be clear to the meanest intelligence. And yet, let us be clear, this is the strategy that Israel is currently pursuing.

This is quite simply not a sustainable solution to the problem and it is doubtful that it will be permitted by the International community. Hence if there is to be any resolution to the conflict, it is worth considering in slightly more depth what sustains Palestinian 'terrorism' against Israelis. What can drive people to have such a disregard for human life that they are prepared to indiscriminately murder people they have never met and will never know, to take their own lives in the process, to abandon home and family and all that so many of us hold dear in life? What is the psychological infrastructure of terrorism?

It is popularly held that Palestinian terrorists are motivated primarily by religious idealism and rabid anti-semitism; that they are determined to wage a 'jihad' against Israel and all things Jewish, possessed by an innate hatred of Jews in general. There is certainly an element of this in the rhetoric of a number of resistance groups operating in Palestine which is avidly seized upon by Israeli politicians to reinforce the notion that there is 'no partner for peace' in Palestine. Thus it is assumed that the roots of Palestinian terrorism lie in an unreasoning hatred of Jews and that there is nothing that can be done about this.

It is the 'unreasoning' and 'nothing to be done' parts of this interpretation that are fundamentally flawed. The roots of terrorism against Israelis lie in hatred of Israelis. However, to assume that this is just some innate quality of Palestinians, or even to assume that the motivation for this hatred is simple anti-semitism is to remove it from the context in which it occurs. It is inaccurate. In truth, what sustains terrorism and fuels anti-semitic rhetoric is the daily misery to which the people of Gaza are subjected. The wrenching grief and impotent fury of a caged, abused and traumatized population living in a rotting cesspool of poverty and despair. It is the lack of hope for a better life, the grinding poverty and the killing of loved ones that fuels terrorism. As of May 2006, 2162 Gazans had been killed by the Israeli military since the outbreak of the Intifada (PCBS, 2006). 451 of these people were children. In the past month the killing has accelerated and the destruction escalated. Re-read the opening paragraphs of this article. Put yourself in the place of a Gazan. This is not unreasoning hate. And it is not an insoluble problem.

Gaza has been for 40 years under the heel of Israeli occupation. Half the population are refugees. The overcrowding, the poverty and the environmental degradation are direct results of the expulsion of Arabs from Israel proper and of retarded development since then due to Israeli Occupation. Not only is it in Israel's interests to alleviate the suffering of the Gazans, but it is furthermore their moral responsibility. Only when the Gazans are given the opportunity to experience emotions other than impotent fury and crushing grief will the infrastructure of terrorism be torn down. The current Israeli strategy of communal punishment in reality strengthens that infrastructure, with every missile that falls, with every death.

The ghettoization of the West Bank is pushing the entire Palestinian population in the same direction, with Gaza standing as a stark and terrifying example of what lies ahead. From where we stand in Bethlehem, as the Wall closes around the city and incursions and targeted assassinations become more and more common occurrences; as the economic foundations of the society are undermined and the means of self-support confiscated and destroyed, we are forced to contemplate Gaza and wonder if, five or ten years down the line, the whole of the West Bank will be in the same state.

It is very clear that this strategy is quite simply ineffectual in terms of quashing terrorism. It does not make Israel safer; it in no way furthers reconciliation or peace, and it destroys the lives of thousands and millions of innocent people Summer Rain over Gaza waters only the seeds of hatred and the harvest will be bitter indeed.

References:
PCBS (2006) Intifada Statistics. See Website.
PCBS (2005) Labour Force Survey Annual Report. Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), 2005.
PCBS (2004) Deep Palestinian Poverty in the Midst of Economic Crisis. Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), 2004
UNEP (2003) Desk Study on the Environment in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. United Nations Environment Programme, 2003.
CMWU (2006) Affect of Israeli Operations on the Water & Wastewater Sector in Gaza Strip. Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), Project Management Unit (PMU), Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU), July 4th 2006.

Websites:
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism
PCBS - http://www.pcbs.gov.ps

The author is a Research Associate at the Applied Research Intitute of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and holds MPhil and BSc degrees in Environmental Science and Ecology.

Israeli Army Invades Sleepy Beit Sahour Suburb; arrests woman, 22.

2006-07-06T13:27:00.001+03:00

Two nights ago, at around 1:00am local time, as the Italian football team booked a place in the World Cup finals, and enthusiastic young supporters were driving through the town, beeping their horns and shouting in celebration, seven heavily armoured Israeli army jeeps made an incursion into the town of Beit Sahour, a suburb to the east of Bethlehem city.

After detaining a man in the Abu Sa'ada neighbourhood, still left with his hands bound together, the soldiers stormed a nearby house, home to the Douka family. The soldiers forcibly removed the daughter, Neveen Douka, 22, and questioned her outside the house, while her parents were forced into silence at gunpoint, eyewitnesses report. The soldiers then took the girl back into her home and ransacked the entire building, before arresting her and taking her to an undisclosed location.

The incursion and arrest comes as a surprise to the normally quiet town of Beit Sahour, with the last incursion of this sort happening some three months ago, but does coincide with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's alleged comments that 'No Palestinians shall sleep this week'.

Neveen Douka now joins some 1300 Palestinian civilians being held in Administrative Detention within Israel without charge or trial.

Three of the seven jeeps it took to seize a girl in the night

Israeli Army Invades Sleepy Beit Sahour Suburb; arrests woman, 22.

2006-07-06T13:27:00.000+03:00

Three of the seven jeeps it took to seize a girl in the night

Israeli invasion of Gaza condemned by Israeli Newspaper

2006-07-01T08:33:00.000+03:00

Although lacking in many details, this article in Haartz deserves some special attension. It emphasises how the Israeli states actions in Gaza are so disproportionate that large sections of the Israeli public cannot take them seriously.

By Destroying the central power station in Gaza, the State has committed a war crime of august proportions. An estimated 700,000 people will be without electricty for some months. In practicle terms this means alot more than the powering down of TV's and electronic home luxuries. The entire sewage system, water system and various other critical systems (hospitals?) will also cease to function as they depend upon electricty.

This is collective punnishment on a grand scale. Something which is in total contravention of international law. Gaza is already the worlds largest open air prison, with little hope for the future. Over the last few days, life in half of the prison has just become alot darker.

So what is behind such actions? Why would Israel treat the people of Gaza so badly if they have already decided that the territory is too over populated and too difficult to rule directly?

"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands." -- Ariel Sharon, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.

Haaretz- The government is losing its reason

By Haaretz Editorial 06/30/06 "Haaretz" -- --

Bombing bridges that can be circumvented both by car and on foot; seizing an airport that has been in ruins for years; destroying a power station, plunging large parts of the Gaza Strip into darkness; distributing flyers suggesting that people be concerned about their fate; a menacing flight over Bashar Assad's palace; and arresting elected Hamas officials: The government wishes to convince us that all these actions are intended only to release the soldier Gilad Shalit.

But the greater the government's creativity in inventing tactics, the more it seems to reflect a loss of direction rather than an overall conception based on reason and common sense. On the face of it, Israel wishes to exert increasing pressure both on Hamas' political leadership and on the Palestinian public, in order to induce it to pressure its leadership to release the soldier. At the same time, the government claims that Syria - or at least Khaled Meshal, who is living in Syria - holds the key. If so, what is the point of pressuring the local Palestinian leadership, which did not know of the planned attack and which, when it found out, demanded that the kidnappers take good care of their victim and return him?

The tactic of pressuring civilians has been tried before, and more than once. The Lebanese, for example, are very familiar with the Israeli tactic of destroying power stations and infrastructure. Entire villages in south Lebanon have been terrorized, with the inhabitants fleeing in their thousands for Beirut. But what also happens under such extreme stress is that local divisions evaporate and a strong, united leadership is forged. In the end, Israel was forced both to negotiate with Hezbollah and to withdraw from Lebanon. Now, the government appears to be airing out its Lebanon catalogue of tactics and implementing it, as though nothing has been learned since then. One may assume that the results will be similar this time around as well. Israel also kidnapped people from Lebanon to serve as bargaining chips in dealings with the kidnappers of Israeli soldiers.

Now, it is trying out this tactic on Hamas politicians. As the prime minister said in a closed meeting: "They want prisoners released? We'll release these detainees in exchange for Shalit." By "these detainees," he was referring to elected Hamas officials. The prime minister is a graduate of a movement whose leaders were once exiled, only to return with their heads held high and in a stronger position than when they were deported. But he believes that with the Palestinians, things work differently.

As one who knows that all the Hamas activists deported by Yitzhak Rabin returned to leadership and command positions in the organization, Olmert should know that arresting leaders only strengthens them and their supporters. But this is not merely faulty reasoning; arresting people to use as bargaining chips is the act of a gang, not of a state. The government was caught up too quickly in a whirlwind of prestige mixed with fatigue. It must return to its senses at once, be satisfied with the threats it has made, free the detained Hamas politicians and open negotiations. The issue is a soldier who must be brought home, not changing the face of the Middle East.

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