zaterdag 8 januari 2011

De echte redenen achter het Arabisch-Israelische conflict - een Arabische mening


Een pro-Israel artikel van een Arabier, dat komt niet vaak voor. Vandaar dat zijn wat te grote enthousiasme hier en daar hem vergeven zij. Ik denk echter niet dat het volgende werkt:
 
Israel, for instance, could announce that it will build a certain number of new West Bank towns every year, or will annex land in the West Bank each year, unless and until Fatah and Hamas accept the minimal principles necessary for Israel to participate in any further negotiations.
 
In feit is het een tijd lang zo gegaan, dat de Palestijnen met hun afwijzing van ieder compromis steeds meer verloren. In 1937 konden ze meer land krijgen dan in 1947, en toen was het een stuk meer dan het voorstel van Barak en Clinton in 2000. Maar tegenwoordig weten de Palestijnen dat de internationale gemeenschap hun eisen kritiekloos steunt, en denken ze dat ze zonder enige concessies of garantie aan Israel een staat met pre-1967 wapenstilstandslijnen kunnen krijgen, met eventueel minimale grenscorrecties. Geen haan die kraait naar hun eis dat miljoenen nakomelingen van de vluchtelingen moeten kunnen terugkeren, dat ze de Klaagmuur opeisen en de Joodse begraafplaats en de Joodse wijk in de oude stad van Jeruzalem. Is allemaal 'bezet Palestijnse gebied', zo leggen journallisten en deskundologen ons steeds uit. Of het voorstel van Tawfik Hamid werkt (ook gepropageerd door sommige rechtse zionisten) waag ik toch te betwijfelen; het bevestigt hun slachtofferrol en zet meer kwaad bloed dan dat het begrip kweekt. Palestijnsen reageren niet op onderdrukking met de schade te beperken, maar door zich als ultieme slachtoffers te presenteren, en alleen maar meer de kont tegen de krip te gooien. Wat wel werkt, wat de idee bij hen wakker maakt dat de Joden en hun staat zullen blijven en ze er beter mee kunnen samenwerken, daar ben ik nog niet helemaal achter gekomen. Kleinschalige projecten van onderop, maar dan zonder dat men vervalt in het samen eens zijn hoe erg de bezetting is, zoals nu vaak gebeurt bij dat soort bijeenkomsten. En gegronde grieven serieus nemen natuurlijk, maar dat is wederzijds.
 
With Hamas still strong, Gazan Palestinians have zero interest in cooperating with peace arrangements negotiated by the West Bank's PLO leadership. To the contrary, their version of Islamic doctrine forbids any accommodation with the Jewish state.
 
Gaza Palestijnen hebben onder een sterk Hamas bewind vooral niet alteveel in te brengen, en kunnen zich beter koest houden als ze niet van verraad beschuldigd willen worden. Vorig jaar zijn meer dan 3000 leden/sympathisanten van Fatah opgepakt, en vele andere dissidenten en journalisten. En uiteraard geven de door Hamas gecontroleerde media een volkomen vertekend beeld van het vredesproces en dat duivelse Israel waar de PLO zich met huid en haar aan overgeeft.
 
Tawfik Hamid is een Egyptische moslims die naar het Westen vluchtte omdat zijn vredelievende boodschap niet door iedereen in zijn vaderland werd gewaardeerd. Hij heeft een eigen website.
 
RP
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The Real Reasons Behind the Arab-Israeli Conflict



Read more: The Real Reasons Behind the Arab-Israeli Conflict
 

Nederzettingen: "Bouwstop onofficieel verlengd"

 
Dit nieuws is mij, en velen met mij, ontgaan. De media blijven Israel de schuld geven van het mislukken van de vredesonderhandelingen, en dan past een feit als dit niet helemaal in het plaatje. Ik weet niet of je in dit geval echt van een bouwstop kunt spreken, maar het is duidelijk dat de regering niet enthousiast meewerkt aan het volbouwen van de bezette gebieden, zoals zovelen het doen voorstellen. Men houdt alles juist zoveel mogelijk tegen, aldus de burgemeesters van diverse Joodse nederzettingen, waardoor het ze nagenoeg onmogelijk wordt gemaakt om nog huizen te bouwen. Ondertussen beweert Peace Now dat er wel op grote schaal is gebouwd sinds het einde van de bouwstop. Het ging daarbij echter hoogstwaarschijnlijk om al eerder goedgekeurde bouwplannen.
 
RP
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Nederzettingen: "Bouwstop onofficieel verlengd"

di 04-01-2011  

De Israëlische regering dwingt een 'onofficiële' bouwstop af in de nederzettingen op de Westoever, hebben Joodse burgemeesters van Samaria deze week verklaard. "De bevordering van stedelijke bouwplannen wordt systematisch vertraagd en dat betekent dat we effectief met een bouwstop te maken hebben", schreef de burgemeester van Ariel, de op vier na grootste nederzetting, deze week aan de Israelische premier Benjamin Netanyahu.

In november 2009 kondigde Netanyahu een bouwstop van tien maanden af, die de groei van de nederzettingen tijdelijk stop zette, hetgeen een van de belangrijkste Palestijnse eisen was om directe vredesonderhandelingen te hervatten. Deze week onthulde Netanyahu dat hij bereid was om de bouwstop met drie maanden te verlengen.

De verlenging ging niet door, zo verklaarde hij tijdens een kabinetsvergadering, omdat de Amerikaanse regering van Barack Obama de vredesonderhandelingen snel nieuw leven in wilde blazen, in plaats van een 'reeks eindeloze bouwstoppen'.

De realiteit in de nederzettingen 'weerspreekt de beslissing van de regering' en weerlegt ook de positie die Netanyahu zelf inneemt, schreef de burgemeester van Ariel, Ron Nahman, aan Netanyahu. "Dit betekent dat de nederzettingen in Judea en Samaria langzaam weggevaagd zullen worden", zei Nahman.

Oded Revivi, de burgermeester van Efrat, een stad van ongeveer 8.000 inwonders in Samaria, schreef ook aan Netanyahu, om zijn beklag te doen over 'een onofficiële' bouwstop. "Efrat kan zich niet ontwikkelen,' zo schreef hij. 'Wij hebben uw hulp en de goedkeuring van de minister van Defensie nodig om bouwoffertes uit te schrijven voor onze kinderen."

Alle bouwplannen op de Westoever moeten officiële goedkeuring krijgen van de minister van Defensie, Ehud Barak, partijleider van de centrum-linkse Labor partij. Barak wordt steeds meer onder druk gezet door prominente leden van zijn partij om zich terug te trekken uit Netanyahu's rechtse coalitie, omdat deze niet genoeg zou doen om de vredesonderhandelingen te hervatten.

Benny Kashriel, burgemeester van de Westoever nederzetting Ma'aleh Adumim, klaagde op 12 december over een 'stille bouwstop' en schreef aan Netanyahu om nieuwe bouwvergunningen af te geven.

In 2001 kwamen Palestijnse onderhandelaars met Israel overeen dat Ariel, Efrat en Ma'aleh Adumim, samen met een aantal andere grote nederzettingen, onder Israelische controle zouden blijven, totdat er bij latere onderhandelingen definitieve afspraken vastgelegd zouden worden.

Sinds Netanyahu in maart 2009 aantrad, heeft hij geen offertes uitgeschreven voor de bouw van woonhuizen in de nederzettingen, hoewel hij voor het begin van het 10 maanden durende moratorium wel het bouwen van 492 huizen in de nederzettingen had goedgekeurd.

Volgens Peace Now hebben de kolonisten tussen het einde van het moratorium op 26 september en afgelopen november, de grondslag gelegd voor het bouwen van 1.126 nieuwe huizen in 61 Westoever nederzettingen.

 

Ruim 3.000 Fatah leden door Hamas gearresteerd in 2010


Hamas stelt zich in Gaza heel pragmatisch op: politieke opponenten worden zoals in elke dictatuur massaal opgesloten en gemarteld, en in showprocessen veroordeeld, volgens Fatah zelfs tot de dood, maar daarover komt nauwelijks iets naar buiten. De aantijging van collaboratie met Israel doet het natuurlijk altijd goed, net als het 'schenden van Palestijnse of islamitische belangen'.
 
RP
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Hamas arrested 3,120 Fatah loyalists in 2010
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=201801
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH 
01/02/2011 01:13


Fatah Revolutionary Council members, including PA legislators and security force members, were detained, banned from traveling abroad
 
In the past year alone, Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip arrested 3,120 Fatah members and supporters, according to figures released by Fatah over the weekend.

The figures showed that among those detained were seven members of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, who were also banned from traveling abroad.

More than 700 of those arrested belonged to various branches of the Palestinian Authority security forces in the Gaza Strip. Another 120 Fatah members belonging to the faction's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, were taken into custody and had their weapons confiscated by Hamas during the same period.

Hamas security authorities also closed down the office of Fatah legislator Ashraf Juma'ah, as well as 23 Fatah-affiliated institutions, including sports clubs and social organizations.

During the same period, the figures revealed, some 213 Fatah members were put on trial and received various sentences, including life imprisonment and even death.

Fatah claimed that each time Israel bombed the Gaza Strip, Hamas security personnel would flee the jails, leaving Fatah prisoners behind handcuffed and blindfolded.
 
 

Arabische media berichten over misstanden in Gaza (met beperkingen...)

 
Ik verval in herhaling, maar waar blijven de media waar het de vele misstanden in Gaza betreft? Waarom moet je dergelijke dingen op pro-Israelische blogs of in Palestijnse media lezen? Dat de eerste veelvuldig gebruik maken van de laatste is overigens een interessant detail.
 
RP
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You need Arab media to find out the truth in Gaza
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2011/01/you-need-arab-media-to-find-out-truth.html
 
 
It is ironic that the Western media is not as critical of Hamas as some of the Arabic media are.

The latest example is an article in Dar Al Hayat (London), quoted in Palestine Press Agency and many other places in Arabic.

On Saturday, a Beit Lahiya resident named Ghassan Abu Nasr asked Hamas police why they were arresting his neighbor, Shadi Diab.

Because of that, the police took Abu Nasr and his neighbor, drove them to an empty area, beat them with a baton, then brought them to Hamas police station where they continued to beat them with rifle butts and batons.

Abu Nasr's knee and right hand were broken. Abu Diab fell into a coma and is now being hospitalized.

Al Hayat goes on to report that Gaza citizens are afraid of the endemic abuses of Gaza police. Even though Hamas claims that they are working to improve the situation, with training police on how to act and punishing those who abuse people, it is not working and Gazans still live in fear. There are many similar stories, including against journalists.

This article has been reproduced widely in the Arab media. Yet Western media remains silent.

Why are Arabs more critical of Hamas than the media of the free world?
 
----------------
 
Nee, de media hebben alleen aandacht voor het nieuws dat Hamas ze voorschotelt. Elder of Ziyon had de volgende foto op zijn blog, van een evenement dat, in tegenstelling tot het bovenstaande, wel ruim aandacht kreeg van reporters en fotografen. Om wat voor evenement gaat het? Juist, een performance georganiseerd door Hamas, in het kader van de herdenking van de Gaza oorlog twee jaar geleden.
 
----------------
 
So what are all of those reporters, photographers and stringers doing there?

Here's a clue:
Cameramen and photographers surround two Palestinians participating in a reenactment of an Israeli strike during a performance organized by Hamas, marking the second anniversary of theIsrael-Gaza war, in Jebaliya, northern Gaza strip, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2010. 
 
Snapped Shot counted 21 photographers in this photo that is literally staged by Hamas.

There is no doubt that a great number of so-called "journalists" in Gaza are simply shills for Hamas, ready to jump and photograph anything Hamas asks and happy to avoid all areas that Hamas tells them to stay away from (a very common occurrence, especially after "unexplained" explosions.)
 
 

IDF doodt per vergissing Palestijn in Hebron en eigen soldaat bij Gazastrook

 
Een groep Hamas terroristen uit Hebron die door Abbas waren vrijgelaten (op verzoek van de emir van Qatar), werden gisteren door de IDF gearresteerd, waarbij per vergissing een Palestijnse man werd doodgeschoten. Dezelfde dag werd bij een schietgevecht aan de grens met Gaza per ongeluk een eigen soldaat dodelijk getroffen door een granaat.
 
Dit zijn maar enkelen van de doden die wekelijks vallen, en het aantal valt in het niet bij vele conflicten elders in de wereld, die zelden het nieuws halen. Toch duurt dit conflict al zo ontzettend lang, dat iedereen snakt (of zou moeten snakken) naar een vredesakkoord. Hoog tijd dat Abbas en Netanjahoe weer om de tafel gaan zitten, en liefst met de deur op slot tot ze eruit zijn...
 
Vreemd is overigens dat Abbas de terroristen (een had een dodelijke zelfmoordaanslag mee voorbereid en daarna nog verschillende gepland die waren verijdeld) op verzoek van de emir van Qatar heeft vrijgelaten. Wat heeft de emir van Qatar ermee te maken en waarom doet Abbas wat hij zegt??

Wouter & Ratna
_________________


IDF says it regrets killing civilian in Hebron raid, but defends operation
IDF raided Hebron to re-arrest Hamas members, including senior member who assisted man who planned 2008 suicide bombing in Dimona.


The Israel Defense Forces said on Friday that it regrets the killing of a Palestinian man who was shot during a raid on a Hamas cell in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Amr Qawasme, a 65-year-old Hebron resident, was killed early Friday during an IDF raid during which six Hamas members were re-arrested after being released by the Palestinian Authority the previous day.

Medical sources said Qawasme, who was unarmed at the time, was brought dead to hospital with several bullet wounds to the upper part of his body. They said the man had been shot in a building the soldiers had raided to arrest one of the Hamas members.

The IDF confirmed that the man was "present in one of the terrorist's home." They further clarified that during the raid, they arrested Wael Mahmoud Said Bitar, a senior member of the Hamas armed infrastructure in the Hebron Region.

"Bitar was the assistant of Shehab Natshe, who planned the suicide bombing in Dimona of 2008, in which an Israeli woman was killed and ten civilians were injured," the IDF statement said. "After Natshe was killed, Bitar planned several suicide attacks that were eventually thwarted."

According to Qawasme's wife, Sobheye, he was asleep when soldiers broke into his home before dawn. She said the IDF troops brushed past her into the bedroom, where she heard several shots fired. When she went in, she found her husband in a pool of blood.

"I was praying when they entered. I do not know how they opened the door. They put their hand to my mouth and a rifle to my head," she told Reuters after Qawasme's body was removed.

"I was shocked. They did not allow me to talk. I asked them, 'What did you do?' They asked me to shut up."

Reuters Television footage showed Qawasme's sodden bed and bullet casings on the floor.

Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi responded to the IDF raid on Friday, calling it a "cold-blooded murder of an elderly man."

Tibi demanded that those responsible be put on trial so it would be made clear that Palestinian blood cannot be spilled without consequences.

The PA had taken the five men re-arrested by the IDF into custody in September in a campaign to detain Hamas activists after a drive-by shooting against Israeli settlers in the area. In September of 2010, four Israelis were killed and two injured in two separate shooting attacks in the West Bank.

The five Hamas members, all Hebron residents, were first held in a PA prison in Bethlehem, south of Hebron, but went on hunger strike, demanding to be moved to Hebron so that their families could visit them.

The PA moved them to Hebron after about 40 days of the hunger strike and following coordination with Israel.

PA officials said Thursday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered their release after direct appeal from the emir of Qatar.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 IDF soldier killed, 4 injured along Gaza border




Initial investigation shows officers hit by friendly fire as Paratrooper Brigade forces misfire mortar shell in response to Palestinian ambush.

One IDF soldier was killed and four were injured by gunfire along the border fence of the central Gaza Strip Friday evening.

An initial IDF investigation suggested that friendly fire caused the death of Sergeant Nadav Rotenberg, 20, of Ramot Hashavim, and left one soldier in a moderate condition and three others lightly injured.

The investigation also suggested that forces from the Paratroopers Brigade fired three mortar shells at terrorists who clashed with IDF troops. Two of the mortar shells bombs hit their targets, however the third apparently missed its target and hit the soldiers.

According to preliminary reports, a cell of terrorists was situated along the fence near Kibbutz Nirim and opened fire on IDF troops with automatic weapons and mortars.

Palestinian sources reported that the firefight lasted 20 minutes and that tank shells were fired, according to AFP. There was no word of Palestinian casualties.

The cell apparently waited in ambush for an IDF patrol and opened fire when the patrol passed by. An officer in the Southern Command told Channel 10: "We are still learning the details of the event. The soldiers were transferred to the trauma center at Soroka Hospital [in Beersheba] where their condition will be determined."

The officer continued, "From initial details, it seems that we are dealing with a planned ambush by a terrorist cell that intended to observe IDF forces operating in the area where the incident occurred." He added that additional forces were quickly called to the location.

Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported that IAF helicopters fired missiles into the Strip in response to the incident, which the IDF spokesperson declined to confirm or deny.

Earlier Friday, a protest took place in the Gaza Strip over the death of 66-year-old Omar Kawasmeh, who was mistakenly killed during an IDF arrest raid in the West Bank city of Hebron Thursday night. During the Gaza rally, Hamas official Ismail Radwan made a call "to unleash the resistance to respond to [the death]," Ma'an reported.

Also on Friday, the PFLP claimed responsibility for firing a mortar shell into Israeli territory. The shell landed in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries were reported.
 
 

"Moge ons bloed vergoten worden", zingen kinderen in Oost-Jeruzalem op school


De gematigde Palestijnse Autoriteit blijft de kleintjes voorbereiden op vrede en verzoening met de Joden. Wanneer komen organisaties die de rechten van kinderen verdedigen hiertegen in verzet? Of bepaalde landen die de Palestijnse Autoriteit jaarlijks vele miljoenen betalen zodat zij kan blijven functioneren, staatsinstituties kan opbouwen en vrede sluiten met Israel?
 
RP
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http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2011/01/jerusalem-arab-kids-sing-may-our-blood.html

Jerusalem Arab kids sing "May our blood be shed" (PMW)

Some child abuse, discovered by Palestinian Media Watch:

A glimpse of the world of education in Sur Baher in East Jerusalem was recently made available by Hamas TV. A broadcast showed how the Jerusalem children in the Islamic Riyad (Gardens of) Al-Aqsa School were taught to sing about desiring death: "May our blood be shed."

They also sang the following in front of the cameras:
"How strong is the army of Al-Aqsa.
I am a soldier, defending its protected area.
How precious is the land of Al-Aqsa.
I shall give up my life for its sake."

See the video on YouTube

Onvermeld: het afscheidingshek bij Bilin wordt momenteel verplaatst

 
We schreven onlangs dat Israel een einde kan maken aan die vervelende protesten bij Bili'in door eindelijk het besluit van het Hooggerechtshof uit 2007 uit te voeren, waarin het leger werd opgedragen het hek bij Bili'in te verplaatsen. Het was even terugzoeken, maar in november jongstleden is het IDF inderdaad begonnen met de gewijzigde route aan te leggen (zie hieronder het artikel in de Jerusalem Post), en men verwacht binnen een paar maanden klaar te zijn. Beter laat dan nooit zullen we maar zeggen, maar men had wel wat voortvarender te werk mogen gaan. In november dacht men overigens nog eind van het (inmiddels afgelopen) jaar klaar te kunnen zijn.
 
Of dit een eind zal maken aan de wekelijkse protesten bij Bilin is nog de vraag, want tweederde van de Palestijnse landbouwgrond zou nog achter het hek blijven liggen: "We will still struggle in a nonviolent way until we have all of our lands," aldus een Palestijn. Helaas wordt tijdens de demonstraties regelmatig met stenen gegooid naar de soldaten, wat de nodige gewonden tot gevolg heeft, en zijn geregeld vernielingen aan het hek aangericht. Naast vele gewonden zijn er volgens de organisatoren aan Palestijnse kant 19 (nu dus 20) doden gevallen.
 
RP & WB
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Does Anyone Care That The Bilin Fence Is Already Being Replaced?

 
 
Now in tea and food calm down phase. Tough day but great turnout. And some of the wall was cut. Maybe next year the wall will come down.
Tweet from Jewish Voice For Peace, December 31, 2010

Maybe next year the wall will come down?

The fact is that in accordance with the Israeli High Court decision, a new fence is currently being built under the authority of the Defense Ministry, and is expected to be completed within the next several months.

When the new fence is complete, the current security fence will be removed.
Until then, it stays up for security reasons.

kungfujew19 tweeted yesterday:
The right-wing needs the distraction of Abu Rahmah's death to avoid the message of the protest:
Perhaps it is the left-wing that should practice staying on message.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

IDF rerouting barrier near Bil'in




"By nonviolent struggle we can achieve our goals," villager tells 'Post.'

In a boost to the Palestinian protest movement against the West Bank security barrier, the IDF began laying the groundwork this week to reroute 1,700 meters of of the high-voltage fence that has separated farmers in the village of Bil'in from their olive groves.

"It gives us hope, that by way of our nonviolent struggle we can achieve some of our [goals]," Muhammad Khatib, a member of the Bil'in Popular Committee, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

In one week, the village will mark five years since it began its campaign against the security barrier, and its Friday protests.

The IDF has rerouted small sections of the barrier in other areas of the West Bank. But no other village has rallied so long and so consistently against the barrier. In the nearby village of Ni'lin, Palestinians began protesting on a weekly basis only in 2008.

Palestinians from both villages and their supporters have thrown stones at border policemen and soldiers. The security personnel, in turn, have fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at the protesters.

On Thursday, however, it was quiet. Khatib spoke with the Post by the site of the current barrier.

The ground was littered with remnants of tear gas canisters and stun grenades. On the hilltop by the fence in Bil'in stands a memorial, in the shape of a tombstone, to Bassem Abu Rahmah, 31, a villager who was killed in the spring of 2009 when a tear gas canister hit him directly in the chest during a demonstration.

On a concrete block slightly down the hill, black graffiti in Hebrew reads, "The IDF is a terrorist organization" and "Soldiers go home." On a yellow gate, the words "Free Palestine" are scrawled.

The IDF began construction of the security barrier in 2002 to stop suicide bombings, which have killed more than 1,000 Israelis in the last decade.

But for Palestinians like Khatib, the barrier is one more attempt by Israel to rob them of their land, particularly given that the route often runs between a village and its farmland, as is the case in Bil'in.

On Thursday, however, just outside the Modi'in Illit settlement that borders Bil'in, a small yellow tractor moved dirt on a hilltop to create an access road for bulldozers so they could work on the barrier's revised route.

The tractor began work this week, two-and-a-half years after the High Court of Justice ordered the state to change the route of a 1,700-m. section of the barrier near Bil'in and more than one year after it was found in contempt of court for not doing so.

According to attorney Michael Sfard, who represents the Palestinians in this case, the new route will restore about 650 dunams (65 hectares) of land belonging to Bil'in farmers to the "West Bank side" of the barrier. Nevertheless, roughly 1,300 dunams of private farmland will remain on the "Israeli side."

The petition against the segment of the route bisecting Bil'in's farmland was filed by Ahmed Yassin, head of the village council, on September 5, 2005. Among other things, the petitioner alleged that part of the route was designed to protect the new neighborhood of Modi'in Illit, known as Matityahu East, even though no one was living there. Although housing construction had begun in the western part of the neighborhood, there were no plans to build housing in the eastern part for the foreseeable future.

In other words, the security barrier was designed to protect nonexistent people.

According to Peace Now, there had been plans to construct 1,100 apartments in that area – which have now been thwarted by the court decision.

On September 4, 2007, the High Court rejected the route and ordered the state to propose a new one according to parameters set down by the court. These parameters included demands to design the route so that the eastern part of Matityahu East would be on the West Bank side and the barrier itself would be built on state-owned, rather than private Palestinian, land.

It took the army 10 months to propose a new route, and it allegedly did so only after the petitioners filed a contempt-of-court action in June 2008 because the state had failed to implement the High Court ruling until then.

When the army finally revealed its new proposed route, the court promptly rejected it on the grounds that it had failed to follow the parameters that it had set down. Among its many faults, the court ruled, the state had designed the new route, this time 2,000 m. in length, primarily on private Palestinian land, much of it cultivated. In addition, it left a substantial part of the eastern half of Matityahu East on the Israeli side of the barrier.

In a decision handed down on December 15, 2008, the court ruled that "the state is ordered to carry out the instructions of the [original] ruling without further delay and to design the route of the barrier in accordance with the criteria established in that ruling... and to do so as quickly as possible."

Almost 14 months after the contempt-of-court ruling, the state is apparently ready to carry out the court's instructions.

An IDF spokesman, however, said the delay was simply part of the planning procedure, which is often protracted and involves many stages in which objections to the route are raised and revisions are made.

He added that the IDF planned to finish the route by the end of the year.

As he watched the bulldozer work, Khatib said his feelings were mixed.

"It comes after we have paid a high price," he said.

Behind him were the olive groves that farmers would soon be able to freely access. Today, if they want to work their fields, they have to cross through the barrier, a process that often delays their journey by half an hour to an hour. Sometimes access is denied altogether.

In front of Khatib was the Matityahu East neighborhood, which he believed had been built on land owned by Bil'in.

"I'm proud that we managed to move the fence," he said, adding that he still felt the weight of the larger struggle – to free their land from Israeli occupation.

"It like the game of boxing. We won the first round, but we didn't win the game," he said. "We will still struggle in a nonviolent way until we have all of our lands."

There is no reason, Khatib said, that the barrier could not have been constructed along the pre-1967 lines.

He was also hesitant to believe that the IDF would go through with its plan, despite the bulldozer.

So on Friday, protesters will gather as usual in Bil'in to protest the barrier. Next week, they plan a larger event for the five-year anniversary of the protests.

Some 510 km. of the 805-km. route have been completed. According to Anarchists Against the Wall, 19 Palestinians have been killed in demonstrations against the barrier and hundreds wounded.

The Border Police said that scores of police officers had been wounded in these demonstrations.

vrijdag 7 januari 2011

Vrouw uit Bi'ilin niet overleden door traangas volgens IDF woordvoerder

 
Het heeft in Nederland niet meer zoveel aandacht, maar in Israel en op pro- en anti-Israel blogs wordt er nog druk over gediscussiëerd. Het feit dat het leger met deze officiële verklaring naar buiten komt duidt erop dat er nieuw bewijs is dat de vrouw uit Biílin niet door Israelisch traangas om het leven kwam.
 
RP
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IDF commander: Tear gas not cause of Bilin woman's death

Head of Judea and Samaria Division says documents received from Palestinians show Jawaher Abu-Rahma did not attend anti-fence rally, died of illness. Leftist: IDF's version not based on facts

Hanan Greenberg

Published: 01.07.11, 15:58

Israel Defense Forces officials said Friday that the army was about to reach an agreement with official Palestinian sources that the death of Jawaher Abu-Rahma in the West Bank village of Bilin last week was not caused by tear gas fired during an anti-fence rally in the area.

"Our assumptions were verified this week after we received additional documents from the Palestinians," said Judea and Samaria Division Commander Brigadier-General Nitzan Alon.

He added that "the documents and data we received strengthened the understanding that her death was caused by the method of the medical treatment and other medical aspects."

The division commander said some details remained to be examined on the matter, but that further talks would be held with the Palestinians in a bid to reach a final understanding.

"We now understand that she herself was not at the protest, but in a more distant place, where remains of the tear gas may have reached her. But this was not the cause of her death. She died from other illnesses and medical care."

Commenting on the weekly rallies against the separation fence, Nitzan said the IDF distinguishes between a quiet protest and a violent protest, in which demonstrators throw stones at soldiers and police officers.

"In such cases we must use the same crowd dispersal measures we have. We did not find that these measures caused Abu-Rahma's death. We will continue using these measures according to regulations."

Palestinians and left-wing activists have claimed that Abu-Rahma did take part in the rally. "I saw Jawaher actively participating in the protest," Yonatan Pollack of the Anarchists Against the Wall organization told Ynet, while presenting an update on the incident on his Twitter account.

"I saw how they put her in the ambulance that took her to the hospital. I know with certainty that she arrived there and stayed there, and later died at the hospital," he said. "I was in constant telephone contact with people who were at the hospital throughout the night and the following morning."

Despite the problematic findings presented by the army, Pollack insisted that "the IDF's version isn't based on any facts…the only thing the army's claims are based on is the error of a doctor who got one digit wrong when he wrote down the time."

=========

Medical Data: Did Palestinians lie about protestor's death? / Hanan Greenberg
Medical information handed over to Israel following death of 'Palestinian demonstrator' raises fundamental questions, IDF says; army says woman said to have been killed by tear gas may have not even attended protest  Full Story

 

Wikileaks bevestigt lekken donorgeld PA naar Hamas


Dat donorgeld van de EU aan de Palestijnse Autoriteit om haar salarissen te betalen, voor een deel werd doorgesluisd naar Hamas, werd al langer gezegd door critici, maar nu bevestigd door WikiLeaks. Het is een trieste maar wellicht niet echt opzienbarende vaststelling, die waarschijnlijk niet veel aandacht in onze 'kritische' media zal krijgen. De documenten die Israel indertijd aan de EU toonde waaruit glashelder bleek dat Arafat tot over zijn oren in het terrorisme van de Tweede Intifada zat, en dit met EU geld financierde, maakten ook weinig indruk. 'Die Hamas functionarissen moeten toch ook ergens van leven', zal men wellicht denken. Dat de belastingbetaler daardoor meebetaalt aan het in stand houden van een organisatie die de Holocaust ontkent en de Joden allemaal uit heel 'Palestina' wil verdrijven, dat neemt men voor lief.
 
Sorry, ik wordt hier een beetje cynisch van. En dan vervolgens heel onschuldig 'vaststellen' dat Hamas nou eenmaal een factor van betekenis is in de Palestijnse politiek en dus niet genegeerd kan worden, en de boycot averechts heeft gewerkt. Sorry, welke boycot?
 
RP
-------------
 
 
Wikileaks: "PA money going to Hamas"
 
 
 
From Aftenposten's Wikileaks collection, a cable dated December 4, 2008:

Econoff called Udi Levi, Counterterrorism Finance Bureau Director at the [Israeli] National Security Council (NSC) and a senior intelligence officer on December 2 to press for release of NIS 250 million to the Gaza banking system, as requested by the Palestinian Monetary Authority. Levi said continued rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza, stalemate in negotions on release of Hamas-held Israeli Defense Force soldier Gilad Shalit, and new information on Hamas access to the Palestinian Authority salary payments funded by the requested transfer all made it unlikely that the GOI would honor the request.

Levi did say that the GOI is considering a policy to permit about NIS 40 million in new liquidity to enter the Gaza Strip banks on a monthly basis. The exact amount is still under discussion, said Levi, but the Israeli security services have agreed that monthly transfers of some amount of shekels to Gaza are necessary to avoid collapse of the banking system there.

However, Levi noted GOI intelligence has indications that Gaza banks are being forced by Hamas to underreport their true reserve holdings, so it is difficult for the GOI to assess the current state of the banking system in Gaza. He said that the banks have had no choice but to follow Hamas instructions and conduct business as if they were operating on insufficient reserves. He posited that the present pre-Eid crisis might be an attempt by Hamas to further consolidate its power in Gaza though he was vague on how the crisis would forward the Hamas agenda. Regarding the PA's payroll, Levi told Econoff that it included Hamas members and many other questionable individuals that the GOI did not believe to be working as civil servants for the Fatah-controlled PA. He offered to share all GOI information on the topic in a meeting with relevant USG officials at their earliest convenience. We will take him up on that offer and report septel.
A cable from November gives some background:
The PA contends that Hamas' ability to pay its workers' salaries each month combined with the inability of the PA to do so causes further deterioration in support for PA/Fatah relative to Hamas (reftel &I8). The GOI, on the other hand, believes that many of the estimated 77,000 wage earners on the PAs payroll may actually be Hamas members or affiliates. Israeli security analysts argue that a considerable portion of the civil service salaries that the PA attempts to pay each month to its Gazan employees actually find their way to Hamas or Hamas supporters (see reftel "D"). They have therefore determined that full coverage of the payroll is contrary to Israel's security interests, even if Hamas gains some political advantage from being able to pay its salaries in full.

Furthermore, GOI officials, while often praising the credentials of PA technocrats, doubt the effectiveness and authority of the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) to regulate and police Palestinian, and especially Gazan banks.
 
 

CIDI wijst Knesset onderzoek naar financiering NGO's af

 
De ultranationalistische notoire oorlogszuchtige oppermachtige zionistische Israellobby het CIDI keurt de Knesset commissie die de financiering van Israelische mensenrechtenorganisaties moet gaan onderzoeken, af. Overigens is de ergernis over die organisaties wel begrijpelijk, die met miljoenen subsidies van veelal EU lidstaten continu eenzijdig Israel zwartmaken. Beslist op het randje is dat buitenlandse organisaties (zoals het Nederlandse SIVMO) Israelische dienstweigeraars steunen. Zeker een land als Israel is voor zijn veiligheid afhankelijk van het leger, en het is toch beter als juist ook kritische dienstplichtigen in de bezette gebieden dienen en daar willekeur en misstanden tegengaan?
 
In Nederland zet het ook terecht kwaad bloed als blijkt dat Marokkaanse organisaties of moskeen met geld van rijke Saoedische oliesheiks worden gefinancierd die hier het salafisme promoten, en antizionisten beweren graag dat het CIDI door Israel wordt gefinancierd en daarmee een agent van een buitenlandse mogendheid is. Dit laatste is, even voor de duidelijkheid, onjuist: het CIDI is geheel onafhankelijk en ontvangt geen geld van welke overheid dan ook.
 
Een belangrijke vraag is in hoeverre de buitenlandse organisaties of overheden ook invloed op het beleid van een organisatie uitoefenen. Die indruk heb ik bij organisaties als Betselem en Breaking the Silence niet. Of het mogelijk (en gebruikelijk) is dat regeringen zich bemoeien met de (buitenlandse) financiering van maatschappelijke organisaties, weet ik niet. Het lijkt mij echter dat men daar zeker terughoudend in moet zijn, gezien de vrijheid van organisatie en meningsuiting die in een democratie van levensbelang zijn.
 
Het onderzoek dat de Knesset commissie wil gaan doen is overigens redelijk onzinnig, want de informatie over de financiering van de betreffende organisaties is openbaar toegankelijk.
 
RP & WB
-----------
 

CIDI wijst instelling Knesset commissie af

vr 07-01-2011
 
 
CIDI wijst de instelling van een Knesset Commissie die de financiering van Israelische mensenrechten groeperingen moet gaan onderzoeken, af. Een motie voor het in het leven roepen van zo'n commissie werd deze week aangenomen. CIDI directeur Ronny Naftaniel is bang dat het debat rondom het onderzoek tot een 'heksenjacht' zal leiden.

Het is natuurlijk heel vervelend als je in een regeringscoalitie zit en allerlei mensenrechten organisaties je constant het vuur aan de schenen leggen. Tenminste, dat vond Fania Kirshenbaum van de regeringspartij Yisrael Beiteinu en zij heeft daarom een voorstel ingediend bij de Knesset tot het oprichten van een commissie, die de financiering van een aantal Israëlische mensenrechtenorganisaties onder de loep moet nemen. Het voorstel hiervoor is dinsdag in de Knesset met 47 tegen 16 stemmen aangenomen.

Niets te verbergen

De reden voor het onderzoek is dat er gesuggereerd is dat sommige van die organisaties banden zouden hebben met terrorisme, maar uit het Knesset debat is gebleken dat het eigenlijk gaat om de kritiek die de organisaties hebben over misstanden in de IDF. Deze organisaties functioneren echter binnen het rechtssysteem van de staat Israel en zij hebben dan ook verklaard dat alle informatie die de commissie nodig heeft bij de belastingdienst, op hun websites en bij het registratieorgaan voor NGO's te vinden is. "Wij hebben niets te verbergen", luidde een gezamenlijke verklaring van meer dan twaalf organisaties die verwachten dat ze onderzocht zullen worden. De commissie heeft niet de macht om mensen te dwingen een getuigenis af te leggen, of papieren af te geven, maar de organisaties vrezen wel dat hun reputaties hier onder te lijden zullen hebben.

B'Tselem noemde de kritiek op de regering noodzakelijk om Israel democratisch te houden. Het Publieke Comité Tegen Marteling in Israel (PCATI) reageerde met de woorden: 'Als [Kirshenbaum] zich zorgen maakt over wat de wereld zal vinden van Israel, dan moet ze wetten introduceren die straffeloosheid beëindigen en afdwingen dat alle klachten over overtredingen van mensenrechten onafhankelijk en objectief worden onderzocht." MK Shlomo Molla van Kadima noemde het een treurige dag voor de Israelische democratie, anderen vergeleken de beslissing met McCarthy-isme en uitten hun vrees voor het democratische proces in Israel.

CIDI

De directeur van het CIDI, Ronny Naftaniel, spreekt zijn afkeuring uit over de wijze waarop een aantal parlementariërs uit de regeringspartijen de Israëlische mensenrechten organisaties verdacht probeert te maken en zegt bang te zijn dat er hierdoor een heksenjacht wordt ontketend. Hij acht het van belang dat deze mensenrechten organisaties in een democratie vrijelijk kunnen functioneren. Naftaniel tekent daarbij overigens aan in principe tegenstander te zijn van het subsidiëren van dit soort clubs door buitenlandse regeringen, maar dat is een zaak van de subsidiërende landen en niet van Israel. Als er meer dan geruchten zouden zijn over banden met terroristische organisaties, zou het onderzoek gerechtvaardigd zijn, maar een bron binnen Yisrael Beiteinu verklaarde aan Haaretz dat het naar verwacht alleen zal gaan om organisaties die betrokken zijn bij de 'delegitimering' van de IDF, door het bestempelen van IDF militairen als 'oorlogsmisdadigers' en door 'het bevorderen van het ontduiken van de dienstplicht.'

Het CIDI is niet de enige niet-Israelische organisatie die het niet eens is met het doel van de commissie. Een woordvoeder van het Nieuw Israel Fonds in New York zei dat "een gezonde democratie de mensenrechten respecteert en beschermt. Het probeert niet internationaal gerespecteerde mensenrechtenorganisaties de das om te doen. Mensenrechtenorganisaties opereren vrijelijk in een democratie, maar dit is duidelijk niet doorgedrongen tot Yisrael Beiteinu."

 

Hamas bobo Zahar ontkent Holocaust weer eens

Zahar: chagrijnige woordvoerder van de democratisch gekozen Hamas regering van Gaza. 
 
 
Machmoud Zahar heeft weer eens een antisemitische uitspraak gedaan. Het stond uiteraard niet in onze kranten (niet online in ieder geval) want die waren te druk met melden dat Israelische grenswachten bij de Gazastrook corrupt waren en smeergeld vroegen aan bedrijven om goederen naar Gaza te exporteren. Inderdaad niet fraai, maar noem mij een land in het Midden-Oosten waar geen corruptie is? Maar natuurlijk: als de zionisten het doen is het tien keer erger want zij weten wat het is om onderdrukt en uitgebuit te worden, zij noemen zich Westers en menen zelf beter te zijn dan de buurlanden... Hoe dan ook: Zahar kan zeggen wat hij wil en het zal de Westerse media, politici en Midden-Oosten deskundologen en oorlogsactivisten een zorg zijn, maar als Ovadia Yosef zijn mond weer eens open doet dan schreeuwen ze moord en brand.
 
RP
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Hamas leader claims Holocaust was a lie




Anti Defamation League condemns the remarks saying, "comments are a disturbing reminder of the virulent anti-Semitism promoted by Hamas."

The Anti Defamation League condemned the remarks made by a senior Hamas official on Thursday, who claimed that the Holocaust was "a lie that has crumbled," and suggested that Israel had committed "countless Holocausts" on the Palestinian people.

Mahmud Zahar, a senior leader of Hamas made the remarks during a memorial service for 43 Palestinians killed at a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp during an Israeli military incursion into Gaza in December 2008.

ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman issued a statement, "once again, the abhorrent and hateful philosophy of Hamas has reared its ugly head, polluting the public square with Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism.  These comments are a disturbing reminder of the virulent anti-Semitism promoted by Hamas and the ongoing threat the group poses to Israel.

"To compare the atrocities of the Holocaust to the actions of "Zionists" is an affront to truth and history.  It is an insult to the six million Jews and millions of others who perished as a result of the Final Solution, and to those who fought the Nazis during World War II.

We must never forget that the Holocaust was a systematic effort to rid the world of the Jewish people," he continued.

Foxman concluded by stating that, "Through its incitement against Israel, Hamas continues to show that it is not a partner for peace and reconciliation, nor a force of moderation.  The anti-Semitic ideas expressed by Zahar do not occur in a vacuum, but are a carbon copy of the rhetoric of Hamas's major supporters, Iran and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."
 

Knesset stemt voor onderzoek naar financiering linkse organisaties


Het besluit van de Knesset is misschien wel begrijpelijk, maar zeker niet handig.
Niet handig omdat het de schijn tegen heeft en lijkt alsof men deze organisaties monddood wil maken en als vijanden van Israel neerzet, wat niet geheel terecht is.
Begrijpelijk omdat veel van deze organisaties wel steeds munitie geven aan antizionisten en vijanden van Israel, en daar ook geen enkel probleem mee lijken te hebben. Zelden of nooit spreekt men zich uit tegen bijvoorbeeld boycotinitiatieven of nazivergelijkingen, zelden of nooit zegt men dat ondanks alle kritiek op Israel niet vergeten moet worden dat Israel ook reële bedreigingen het hoofd moet bieden, en velen in de Arabische wereld haar nog steeds weg willen hebben.
 
Overigens lijkt het erg disproportioneel hoeveel geld er vanuit het buitenland vloeit naar organisaties die het Israelische overheidsbeleid aanvechten; dat men dit kritisch tegen het licht wil houden hoeft niet te verbazen, zeker niet daar veel van dat geld van buitenlandse regeringen afkomstig is; dat gaat toch in de richting van 'inmenging in binnenlandse aangelegenheden', waar weinig landen van gediend zijn.
 
Het is erg jammer dat er zo weinig gematigde en evenwichtige organisaties zijn. Er zijn de linkse vredes- en mensenrechtenorganisaties, die zo fel en ongenuanceerd zijn in hun kritiek dat ze maar een klein deel van het Israelische publiek bereiken, en dan zijn er NGO Monitor, Im Tirtzu etc. ter rechterzijde, die het vaak niet alleen voor Israels bestaansrecht maar ook voor haar recht op de Westoever opnemen en alleen de Palestijnen/Arabieren de schuld geven van het conflict.
 
Ook in Nederland zijn er weinig beetje neutrale of evenwichtige organisaties die zich met het conflict bezig houden, al is bijvoorbeeld het CIDI behoorlijk gematigd, en Ronny Naftaniel was bijvoorbeeld bijzonder kritisch over dit nieuwe wetsvoorstel. Desondanks wordt het CIDI steeds weggezet als machtige en duistere Israellobby, en dat is wellicht het lot van een ieder die niet continu kritiek uit op Israels beleid.
 
RP & WB
_____________

 
The Jerusalem Post
Knesset votes to probe left-wing NGOs
By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
01/05/2011 20:45
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=202367


Commission to check sources of funding of groups; MK Dov Henin calls panel "McCarthy-esque"; NGOs: "We have nothing to hide."

Left-wing NGO's ralied Wednesday evening against the Knesset's vote to establish a parliamentary committee of inquiry to probe foreign funding of Israeli organizations. The plenum voted 41 to 16 to establish the probe, initially proposed by MK Faina Kirschenbaum (Israel Beiteinu), to examine international sources of funding for Israeli organizations who "aid the de-legitimization of Israel through harming IDF soldiers."

Kirschenbaum's proposal, together with a proposal by MK Danny Danon to establish a similar probe to investigate NGOs' land purchases in Israel, will now be discussed in the House Committee. The committee will delineate the parameters of the probe, and will then return the decision to the Knesset floor for a final approval of the parameters.

Israel Beiteinu issued a statement shortly after the vote welcoming the Knesset's decision. "The committee is meant to examine the activities and funding for those groups who habitually support terror organizations, including open support for Hezbullah during the Second Lebanon War and Hamas during Operation Cast Lead."

"It is the right and the obligation of the Israeli public to know that the majority of the false testimonies that were written in the Goldstone Report were handed over by these organizations, the same ones who handed over the names of IDF officers and encouraged legal actions against them, and their representatives have even been wandering for years in Israeli schools and tell the youth to evade military service," continued the statement. "These organizations do not really care about the state of human rights, a fact evidenced by the fact that they have never worked for the rights of women in the Arab society, nor discussed the status of democracy in Saudi Arabia, a state that funds some of these organizations themselves. The entire goal of these organizations is to deter the IDF in its struggle against terror organizations and to weaken the determination of soldiers to defend the citizens of Israel, and the Israeli Knesset has the obligation to fight against this."

Outside of the Knesset, the Im Tirzu Organization, which has worked extensively throughout the past year to publish information regarding funding sources for left-wing groups, expressed satisfaction with the vote. "We congratulate the Knesset on their brave decision to investigate the sources of funding for these organizations," said the student group in a statement hours after the decision.

But the Knesset vote also met with impassioned criticism, both inside and outside of the government.

Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog warned that "the establishment of this committee will cause unnecessary diplomatic damage to Israel and to Israel's image. This is a political proposal that is appropriate for shady regimes, and Israel must not be similar to them. The use of the excuse of defending IDF soldiers, which is a very important value, in order to carry out a political witch hunt of the basest and most dangerous kind hurts the deepest soul of Israeli democracy."

"The State of Israel, as the state of the Jewish people, must be a light to the world in terms of freedom of speech and freedom to express beliefs and to repel proposals that have the scent of McCarthyism," Herzog concluded.

MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) asked the Knesset legal advisor to examine the legal basis for the committee, describing it as a politically-motivated body. "The members of Knesset from the radical right are trying to use parliamentary tools and the Knesset's budget in order to have a political investigation that is suitable for dark states, with the goal of silencing legitimate criticism, and in doing so, harming the basic rights of those with different opinions."

In voting to establish the committee, complained Horowitz, "the Knesset has far exceeded its boundaries as a body that oversees the government's activities. If the House Committee accepts the proposal, then a red line has been crossed."

Israeli NGOs quickly responded to the Knesset decision, with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and more than a dozen left-leaning NGOs jointly signed a message of solidarity of support, in which they challenged MKs: "You wish to investigate? Go ahead and interrogate all of us. We have nothing to hide. You are invited to read our reports and publications, and we will welcome if for a change you will answer our questions instead of slandering us time and again. Similar attempts to silence criticism have failed in the past, this attempt will fail too".

B'Tselem, one of the organizations named in the decision, responded that "we are proud of our work to promote human rights in the Occupied Territories, which is conducted legally and with complete transparency. Persecution and attempts at silencing will not stop us. In a democracy, criticism of the government is not only legitimate – it is essential."

The organization added that it "is absurd to claim that a committee of enquiry with no real powers can uncover information unknown to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits. The purpose of the inquiry is not to establish the facts, they are well known. B'Tselem's list of donors is available online. Our financial reports are available at the office of the NGO Registrar, which just recently issued B'Tselem a Certification of Proper Administration. Therefore, it is clear that the motive behind the investigation is an attempt to hinder our work through smears and incitement."

The vote on the proposal came after Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein decided in August that an inquiry will not be conducted into the activities of the left-wing organizations, and the proposal has garnered criticism from human rights and opposition groups.

Het zicht van Palestijnse wandelingen door de heuvels van de Westoever

 
Israelische Joden en Palestijnse Arabieren kijken verschillend tegen het conflict aan, tot zover geen verrassing.
 
Bevolkingsgroei en technologische 'vooruitgang' hebben ook in Nederland veel mooie eeuwenoude landschappen en pictoresque dorpjes naar de vernieling geholpen, maar levend onder een bezetting door een vreemde mogendheid is het niet vreemd alle teloorgang daaraan te wijten, intussen de vooruitgang als vanzelfsprekend te zien. (Onder Jordaans bestuur leefde men nog veelal zonder electriciteit, waterleiding en andere moderne gemakken, en reed over wegen die grotendeels nog door de Britten waren aangelegd, zoals hieronder gememoreerd.)
 
Bij de tweede 'Oops' had ik iets anders verwacht:
 
"Some of the names are Arabic, others Canaanite or Aramaic, evidence of how ancient the land is and how it has been continuously inhabited over many centuries..."
 
Lozowick is het schijnbaar ontgaan, maar mij viel op hoe in deze opsomming het Hebreeuws ontbreekt: de Palestijnen laten collectief na de Joodse geschiedenis in het land te erkennen, zoals ze weigeren Joodse nationale rechten te erkennen, en dat is een van de struikelblokken om tot een welgemeend compromis te komen...
 
Wouter
______________
 
Sunday, October 3, 2010

Reflections on Palestinian Walks

http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/2010/10/reflections-on-palestinian-walks.html
 
 
David asked me a while ago if I'd perhaps read Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape, by Raja Shehadeh. I hadn't. David is a bit of a lapsed Zionist, or a disappointed one or something, and he and I disagree regularly about Israel's policies. He was of the opinion that it would be healthy for me to read Shehadeh's book, and perhaps go one day to visit him: David lives very far away, but Shehadeh lives a mere 15 miles from here. I'm not certain David is aware that it's much easier for both Shehadeh and myself to visit him than each other. Anyway, he sent me the book for my improvement.

Alas, I fear I haven't been improved. It's a very interesting book, but I expect I read it differently than David hoped.

Shehadeh is a Ramallah lawyer in his late 50s, so he's only a few years older than I. He loves walking in the hills and the idea of the book is that he describes a series of walks he's taken from the late 1970s until earlier this decade, each more hemmed in than the previous one by the Israelis, who are literally stealing his land; indeed, the power of the book is that we see how there's ever less land for him to walk on. No-one should be surprised that it was widely acclaimed, well reviewed, and was awarded the George Orwell Prize.

The book starts out badly.
When I began hill walking in Palestine a quarter of a century ago, I was not aware that I was traveling through a vanishing landscape. For centuries the central highland hills of Palestine, which slope on one side towards the sea and on the other towards the desert, had remained relatively unchanged. As I grew up in Ramallah, the land from my city to the northern city of Nablus might, with a small stretch of the imagination, have seemed familiar to a contemporary of Christ.(p.xi)
Oops. And who, pray tell, was Christ? Of what group? Assuming his contemporaries might have recognized the hills - a plausible assumption - why choose him and not, say, King David, or Jeremiah, or Isaiah? A couple pages later we're told that
In Palestine every wadi, spring, hillock, escapement and cliff has a name, usually with a particular meaning. Some of the names are Arabic, others Canaanite or Aramaic, evidence of how ancient the land is and how it has been continuously inhabited over many centuries(p. xviii).
Oops again.

The first chapter describes a walk in Spring 1978, and here I warmed towards Shehadeh. Not only because his love for the hills is palpable and a-political, but because he describes things I've also often seen and enjoyed. Indeed, the years between 1974-1982 were the heyday of my own hill-walking times, as my friends and I explored the hills, wadis and, as we gained confidence and experience, went out in lengthening arcs to the deserts; I've taken some of the same walks he has. Not since many years, though: it would be too dangerous.

In spite of the book's title, the walks rather recede into the background, as the double themes of Israelis stealing land and desecrating it move ever to the foreground. So let's think about them.

There is truth to the first theme: indeed, Israeli settlements have been taking over land. If you read carefully you'll note that no Palestinians are losing their homes in the process, and certainly not their lives; the Israeli occupation is far less brutal than many such exercises worldwide. The settlements are on the hill-tops, which were previously empty, yet they and the land confiscated for road-building often belonged to Palestinian individuals, who lost them in the process. Shehadeh represented many Palestinian land owners, and his descriptions of the legal machinations which have enabled Israel to set up settlements are, sadly, true. He is of course correct in saying that the settlement project has been engineered to dominate the terrain and cut the Palestinian territories into segments.

It's also hard to argue with his perspective that identifies settlements as a long-term Israeli policy. I think it isn't, not only because many Israelis such as myself have been consistently against if for decades, but also because my reading of the story is that after the mid-1980s at the very latest there was never any strategic government project of settlement. Yet this doesn't convince Shehadeh, who sees the settlements growing, and correctly understands from close up that this couldn't be happening without the connivance of many government agencies. To my mind, this demonstrates how adept the settlers have become at manipulating the system - but perhaps it's a moot discussion. The settlements are growing, in spite of the fact that it has been decades since they enjoyed broad public support.

The story of the disappearing countryside as Shehadeh tells it is wrong. He would have us believe that it was pristine and untouched, along came the Israelis with their bulldozers and constructions companies, then with their fences and walls, and now the hills are effectively gone. Not so.

Shehadeh was born on a Jordanian-controlled West Bank that had about 500,000 people. By the time the Israelis arrived, in 1967, it had something like 700,000. Today there are maybe 2,500,000 Palestinians, and 300,000 Israelis. Do the maths: it's a vastly more crowded place than it used to be, most of the added population are Palestinians, and the picturesque but primitive little villages he and I both remember from our youth are gone forever, with or without Israeli settlers. As for the roads, not long ago I was driving along Route 60, the main north-south artery of the West Bank, which in its present form has been paved by Israel. About 90% of the vehicles had Palestinian license plates, and I doubt their drivers were complaining that the road is much better than the original one paved by the British in the 1920s. If ever both sides manage to agree on partition, the Israelis will leave the infrastructures for the Palestinians, and probably also the settlements.

At one point he bemoans the ugly growth of Jerusalem, no longer a picturesque town in his mind. In 1967 there were 250,000 people there, 70,000 Palestinians; today there are 670,000, 270,000 of them Palestinians. Again, do the maths.

Also, I might add, the statement that settlements of Jews are always esthetically uglier than Arab towns is racist. No author could get away with making such a statement unless it be about Jews.

Then there's the matter of the violence. The meta-narrative, the atmosphere of the book, is all about the violence Israel is committing on the Palestinians.Yet when you read the book, the actual violence - shooting at the author, threatening to arrest him or kill his companion - those incidents are all committed by Palestinians, never by Israelis. Israelis use those legal machinations to take land, but they don't shoot or arrest hikers. That's done by Palestinians: the author implies they've been brutalized by Israel, but it's an unconvincing implication. Even odder, there are repeated cases in the book in which the author encounters settlers. Close up, they turn out to be just as human as anyone else. Shehadeh doesn't like their presence, but he's honest enough to admit that they're just people.

Finally, there's the context. If you know how to look - I did, but most English-speaking readers won't - you'll find that even Shehadeh alludes to Palestinian violence against Israeli hikers. But it's only an allusion or two. Nowhere in the book will you come across any of the following pertinent ideas: There has been a mutually waged war going on between Palestinians and Israelis for almost a century, a war in which both sides are actors, and both sides bear responsibility. This war has carved borders, and borders have consequences. Reaching peace will not make the borders go away, on the contrary, it will mean that they're permanent and mutually recognized. Most of the present security measures - walls, armed settlers, mutual suspicion when meeting - were never an Israeli policy but evolved as responses. The fact that most non-settler Israelis haven't been walking the hills of the West Bank since the late 1980s is because they're afraid (and consequently, they've written off the entire area and wish the Palestinians would take it already). Nor will the reader find any mention in this book of Israeli offers to dismantle most settlements, of their dismantling of settlements in Sinai and Gaza, and of repeated offers to partition the land between both peoples, nor of Palestinian violence that has followed such Israeli moves. (The book was first published in 2007; the Israelis left Gaza in 2005, and Hamas won the elections in 2006).

Ultimately it's a depressing book. Shehadeh comes across as a moderate, reasonable man, non-violent and rational. Yet there's no acceptance anywhere in his book - not that I could see, and I looked for it - that this very small place is the homeland of both our nations, each with legitimate claims to all of it, each with an urgent need to reconcile themselves to the loss of parts of it. He accepts that Israel is powerful and implicitly here to say, but gives no inkling of recognition that there's justice in that. The Israelis are aggressors, the Palestinians are victims, and that's the whole story.

It's hard to see how any of this will lead to reconciliation and peace.
 
 

Brief van koptische christen aan president Obama

 
Een koptische christen waarschuwde al voor kerst voor geweld tegen koptische christenen:
 
Sadly, I fear another attack will happen again sometime in the near future.

Mr. President, in light of numerous acts of incitement and previous acts of violence, I fear that Coptic Christians in Egypt are going to have a very tough Christmas season. I implore you to use your good offices to insist that the Egyptian government protect the rights of its Christian citizens.

Gelukkig is er - hier en in Egypte - vandaag geen geweld meer geweest, en riepen lokale moslims zelfs op tot steun en bescherming aan de Kopten.
 
Een zalig kerstfeest!
 
Wouter
______________
 

Letter from a Coptic Christian to President Obama

http://www.zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2011/01/04/letter-from-a-coptic-christian-to-president-obama/

This letter was forwarded by a trusted source. It states:

"To put it bluntly, I fear that something very bad is going to happen to this community in the very near future."

A few days after the letter was written, there was a massacre of Copts in Egypt. Please do your best to make certain Americans and others are aware of the plight of Copts.

Ami Isseroff

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday, December 24, 2010

Letter from a Coptic Christian

Mike, a Coptic Christian who has immigrated to the United States, has asked Restrain the Blade to publish this letter to President Barack Obama. Out of concern for his safety, only the author's first name is made public.

President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington D.C.

Dear President Obama,

I am writing to you as Coptic Christian who immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s.

I am an American citizen.

I have grave concerns about what is going in Egypt regarding the Copts.

To put it bluntly, I fear that something very bad is going to happen to this community in the very near future.

Coptic Christians have been the victims of systematic abuse and oppression in Egypt for a long time. On November 17, 2010, the U.S. Department of State recently issued a report on religious freedom in Egypt that details the abuses they suffer on a daily basis. January of this year, six Coptic Christians were murdered outside their church after celebrating Christmas.

Sadly, I fear another attack will happen again sometime in the near future.

The tendency of blaming the State of Israel for every problem in Egypt, and linking it to the Copts, is on the rise, especially in the past a few months. By associating the Copts with the Jewish state, extremists and government officials are inciting hostility toward a beleaguered, defenseless minority.

The anti-Israel polemic is fairly well known. One official accused recent shark and jellyfish for attacks on swimmers at Sharm el-Sheikh on the Mossad. The alleged goal was to kill the tourism season.

What is less well known is that Muslim Imams throughout the Middle East are demonizing Coptic Christians in Egypt. One oft-repeated claim is that Israel is using Coptic churches to store all kinds of weapons to attack Muslims. Such accusations lead to threats of violence.

For example, Sheik Wagdi Ghoneim recently said in a video message from the State of Qatar "I swear by God, you will not have time stay alive until America and the West arrive, this is for your own good, if you understand. Do you think the Muslims inside Egypt will say thank you and may Allah give you health? "No, by God."

And on September 16, 2010 Mr., Muhammad Salim Al-Awa, Secretary-General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars announced on Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar): Copts Amass Weapons in Egyptian Churches and Are "Preparing for War against the Muslims".

Copts are even being blamed for the violence perpetrated against them by Muslim extremists in Egypt. For example, after a mob of 5,000 Egyptians recently attacked a Christian service building, President's Mubarak former assistant, Dr. Mustafa El- Feki from Ain Shams University stated that Israel and the Copts were at fault for the attack and the two deaths that resulted from it. Dr. El Feki stated that Israel was behind the subsequent protests: ""It is almost certain that the Mossad is involved in these events. The State is dealing with dangerous events that could not have succeeded without external intervention with Israel at its head."

Here, it is important to note why the mob attacked the building in the first place. While the Egyptian government does not allow Christians to build churches, it does allow them to build "service buildings" where social services can be provided to the elderly and to young people in the Coptic Christian community. The mob attacked this service building after hearing rumors that the building itself was going to be used as a church and not merely to provide social services to its members.

Mr. President, in light of numerous acts of incitement and previous acts of violence, I fear that Coptic Christians in Egypt are going to have a very tough Christmas season. I implore you to use your good offices to insist that the Egyptian government protect the rights of its Christian citizens.

For reasons of my own safety, I can only sign my first name, but nevertheless, I offer wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I ask that you use your influence to make sure Christians in Egypt can celebrate their holidays in safety.

Michael
Dec. 24, 2010~