Where is the real power centre in Israel?
Monthly Archive for February, 2009
As co-founder of Independent Australian Jewish Voices, I was asked to contribute to this recently released British-collection of dissident Jewish voices, A Time to Speak Out.
The latest review of the book appears in The Jewish Quarterly:
Most of IJV’s [Independent Jewish Voices] founding statement consists of generalities in favour of human rights, peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians, and against racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. These are sentiments to which one hopes any mainstream British Jewish leader would subscribe. Similarly, the aspiration for a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians (without mentioning specifics in terms of timetable, territory, refugees, the status of Jerusalem or anything else) is not in itself especially contentious. What really caused the vitriol was IJV’s challenge to the institutions and attitudes within British Jewry in their declaration that ‘those who claim to speak on behalf of Jews in Britain and other countries consistently put support for the policies of an occupying power [the Israeli government] above the human rights of an occupied people [the Palestinians]’. They also reject accusations of ‘disloyalty’ made against Jews who oppose Israeli government policies. The bitterness that IJV generated was not really surprising; no issue has the potential to generate bad feeling more quickly among British Jews than the politics of Israel-Palestine. IJV’s platform was as much about this community as anything happening between the Mediterranean and the River Jordan.
Gideon Levy writes in Haaretz:
As the war in Gaza raged, Israel Defense Forces reservists apparently thought anything was permissible: It was possible, maybe even necessary, to kill innocents, in the West Bank, too. Under cover of war, they thought, they could also kill a handcuffed Palestinian.
It may not receive much international media coverage, but Israel’s occupation of the West Bank – which the Jewish state still plans to expand – is a daily violation of human rights:
“They started smashing down doors at 2 a.m. last Wednesday before moving through homes and destroying property,” says Jayyus Mayor Mohammad Taher Shamasni.
“Residents were assaulted, money was stolen, computers confiscated, over 60 young men arrested and the village placed under curfew. The Israeli soldiers came into my home and threw the contents of cupboards and closets onto the floor,” Shamasni told IPS.
Jayyus, an agricultural community of 3,500 inhabitants, located in the Qalqiliya district of the northern Occupied West Bank, was invaded by Israeli soldiers using police dogs and backed by military helicopters.
Meanwhile, Israel’s successful nationalist, Avigdor Lieberman, writes in America’s The Jewish Week paper that he resents being called a fascist. He just really wants Arabs in Israel to embrace his country as a Jewish state and even argues for a Palestinian state.
Israeli actions speak for themselves. The above examples are merely the latest in a litany of abuses.
The Rocky Mountain News ends publication in the latest casualty of an ailing newspaper industry.
Photographs by Louie Palu and audio clips recorded during his travels capture the violence and tranquility in everyday Afghan life:
Wow:
Wikileaks has cracked the encryption to a key document relating to the war in Afghanistan. The document, titled “NATO in Afghanistan: Master Narrative”, details the “story” NATO representatives are to give to, and to avoid giving to, journalists…
The encryption password is progress, which perhaps reflects the Pentagon’s desire to stay on-message, even to itself.
Among the revelations, which we encourage the press to review in detail, is Jordan’s presense as secret member of the US lead occupation force, the ISAF.
A group of former international peace negotiators on Thursday urged the world and Israel to abandon the policy of isolating Hamas and engage with the Islamist militant group.
“The policy of isolating Hamas cannot bring about stability. As former peace negotiators, we believe it is of vital importance to abandon the failed policy of isolation and to involve Hamas in the political process,” the group said in a letter published in the British newspaper The Times.
An intriguing Israeli satire about the messages and style of Israelis trying to justify Israeli policy to people living abroad:
Christopher Hitchens laments Israel’s political reliance on a Russian “thug”:
A reliable friend and colleague swears that he saw the following incident in the Israeli-occupied territories a couple of years ago. A Palestinian physician, in urgent need of permission to travel, was trying to persuade a soldier at a roadblock to allow him to hurry on to the next town. He first tried the stone-faced guard in Hebrew, in which many Arabs are fluent, but he received no response. He then made an attempt in English, which is something of a local lingua franca, yet he fared no better. After an unpleasant interval of mutual noncommunication, it transpired that the only word the Israeli soldier knew was no, and the only language in which he could speak it was Russian.
The words occupation and dispossession are flung around pretty freely, but I invite you to picture a life under occupation in which your unfriendly neighborhood cop did not even speak the language of the state that he served, let alone any tongue known to you. There is, by the way, a fair likelihood that the soldier was not even Jewish; it’s an open secret in Israel that tens of thousands of Russian immigrants used forged papers as a means of exiting their country of birth, pretending to exercise the “right of return.” So here is yet another insult to heap on those whose great-great-grandparents were born in Palestine yet are treated as if they live there only on sufferance.
White phosphorus bombs used by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip were produced and supplied by American arms manufacturers, according to an Amnesty International report that called for a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel.
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A Palestinian human rights group has filed a lawsuit at the High Court in London over the United Kingdom’s continuation of trade with Israel following that country’s offensive in Gaza.
A session at the Open Forum Institute in New York on February 10 about The Future of Freedom and Control in the Internet Age:
The Arab Association for Human Rights in Israel has released a new report:
In the current report HRA presents several principles and findings that emphasize the scale and scope of the discrimination faced by the Palestinian Arab population in Israel. The following are some examples:
- There is a proven and close correlation between individual and collective health and socioeconomic status. Poverty, limited education, overcrowding, and unemployment all lead to an increase in rates of morbidity and mortality. The Arab population continues to be poorer than the Jewish population, with higher unemployment and lower education levels. Gaps in health remain.
A study of public opinion in predominantly Muslim countries reveals that very large majorities continue to renounce the use of attacks on civilians as a means of pursuing political goals. At the same time large majorities agree with al Qaeda’s goal of pushing the United States to remove its military forces from all Muslim countries and substantial numbers, in some cases majorities, approve of attacks on US troops in Muslim countries.
Why Turkey will no longer remain silent in the face of Israeli crimes in Palestine. The Jewish state’s isolation over its barbarity grows. Over to you, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan:
We are always telling them [Hamas)]to act differently, that we are for a two-state solution: Palestine and Israel. They have to accept this, but Israel also has to accept Palestine. Is Israel right now accepting Palestine? They are still not accepting them. But it is being expected of the Palestinian people to accept Israel. Now go and ask Mr Netanyahu if he is accepting Palestine.
Hamas doesn’t have any planes. Hamas doesn’t have any tanks or artillery, and with the use of disproportionate force Gaza was being put under fire. One thousand, one hundred and 30people have died. We have more than 5,500 injured. Who is going to ask: what has happened here and who is going to pay the price for this?
A Jerusalem Post columnist asks the difference between the counter-insurgency tactics employed by Israel and Sri Lanka.
He can’t understand why the Jewish state is condemned for tackling “terrorism”, but Sri Lanka is seemingly praised for routing the Tamil Tigers.
In fact, both countries employ terror to achieve their goals and neither will succeed.
Of course, if Sri Lanka wants to use Israel as its model, it will soon find itself isolated by the bulk of the world.
European Union aid has been given to an Israeli oil company which has reduced the supply of fuel to Gaza as part of an economic blockade internationally recognized as illegal, Brussels officials have admitted.
Tony Karon, Time.com, February 12:
Fatah leaders see the Israeli election as confirming what they already knew: there’s nothing to be gained by continuing the charade of U.S.-sponsored talks about talks with the Israelis. Palestinians could not get what they needed from Olmert, and they know that his successors will take even more of a hard line. From the Palestinian perspective, the past eight years of waiting for negotiations with Israel have left Abbas empty-handed, while the latest Gaza conflict has put Hamas in a stronger position than ever in the court of Palestinian public opinion. Despite the violence by Hamas gunmen against Fatah activists in Gaza since the Israeli offensive, many in Fatah view their movement’s only hope of re-establishing a leading role in Palestinian politics as being to join a unity government with Hamas — and begin to directly challenge the Israeli occupation in the West Bank. The fact that such a sentiment coincides with Israel’s electing a more hawkish government suggests that the Middle East could be in for a long, hot summer.
…It’s time that Israel and virtually the entire international community be held to account for the humanitarian ramifications of the past 20 months’ economic warfare against the population of Gaza.
The following report, published in Hebrew in Ma’ariv on February 23, has been translated by Melbourne-based Sol Salbe.
The content speaks for itself and proves, yet again, that the Jewish state’s behaviour is causing anti-Semitism around the world:
Olmert: Antisemitism on the rise – because of the Occupation
During the weekly full ministry meeting Olmert argued that the rise in the level of antisemitism in the world is caused by the Occupation. “That situation provides an opening to attack Israel.”
22/02/2009 18.27 [Israel time]
Eli Bradenstein
During the weekly ministry meeting that took place yesterday (Sunday) the Prime Minster dealt with the rising tide of antisemitism throughout the world. He suggested that the reason for it was the blockade of the Gaza Strip. “We need to remember that the Occupation is a problem for us”, he explained.
During the discussion of annual report of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute report of the Jewish people, the Prime Minster emphasised that “As long as this situation exists, it provides an opening to attack Israel and provides an opportunity for anti-Jewish forces to raise their voice.”
According to him: “We need to remember that the complex situation in which we are in (ie the Occupation – EB) promotes antisemitism.”
He further argued: “As long as we are presented as Occupiers, we will continue to suffer from antisemitic incidents. It is best that we don’t forget the broad picture and the compound implication of being Occupiers.”
In addition Olmert warned against the formation of a government of the extreme Right: “It must be understood not only what we faced in the past but what we will face in the future, if we project a world outlook in which ruling over another people is an integral part of our world outlook, one in which we have no interest to change.