Yet another case of Israel’s shining democracy in the occupied territories: Israel’s military court system for Palestinian suspects in the West Bank produces almost automatic convictions, an Israeli human rights group charged Sunday. The group, Yesh Din, said in a new report that in 2006 more than 99.7 percent of those accused were convicted, 95…
Showing all posts tagged settlements
Who needs enemies?
John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, Los Angeles Times, January 6: Once again, as the presidential campaign season gets underway, the leading candidates are going to enormous lengths to demonstrate their devotion to the state of Israel and their steadfast commitment to its “special relationship” with the United States. Each of the main contenders…
Siding with brutality
Philip Weiss, January 5: Locked in a long-ago mindset of Holocaust guilt and Exodus triumph, never having visited the Jewish state, most American Jews go along with the Dershowitzes and neoconservative extremists who wish to ensure Israel’s “security” by having the U.S. government build a bloody iron wall in the Arab world. And in stark…
Jewish identity in an post-identity world
RicenPeas are one of Britain’s most interesting independent documentary film companies. In its monthly interview series, I was asked about the role of Israel/Palestine in my work: As a Jew living in Australia, I was always curious why most Jews expressed uncritical love towards Israel and were able to defend, justify and explain every single…
Filming Jewish crimes
Just when the Israelis thought they could secretly continue to get away with abusing Palestinians in the occupied territories, leading human rights group B’Tselem devises a solution. Video department co-ordinator Oren Yakobovich explains: Shooting Back,” it’s basically giving a Palestinian that’s living in high-risk areas that’s probably going to suffer from human rights violation by…
Words are cheap
Haaretz editorial, January 1: The announcement that the prime minister has directed cabinet ministers not to build in the territories behind his back sounds like a sleight of hand. The prime minister should not instruct his ministers to “increase awareness” of their ministries’ actions that might impair negotiations with the Palestinians, but rather he should…
This is how the IDF acts
Yotam Feldman, Haaretz, December 20: From his home on the Upper Galilee road between Safed and Rosh Pina, as Brigadier General (res.) Zvika Fogel looks out over Lake Kinneret, the Gaza Strip seems a distant memory. But four years after Fogel retired from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Gaza continues to preoccupy him. He became…
Hate Arabs? Join the queue
The face of fundamentalist American Zionism is Morton Klein, National President of the Zionist Organisation of America (ZOA.) Behold his hatred of Arabs, Palestinians, peace or compromise. And remember this is a man who speaks for millions of American Jews. Zionism is sick and in desperate need of a lobotomy.
Loving that ghetto feeling
Leading Jewish dissident blogger Philip Weiss, December 16: This is an American issue [the settlements]. There will be no Palestinian moderation, and no peace in the Middle East, till these insults are sanctioned by us. Nothing will change until the U.S. government does more than lip service in opposition. Nothing will change till Democratic politicians…
Jewish lessons in apartheid
Lesson one: A survey conducted by the Israeli military and published by leading Israeli daily, Yedioth Ahronoth, found that a quarter of soldiers serving at checkpoints in the West Bank perpetrated or witnessed abuse of Palestinians. In response, B’Tselem, said that the numbers are shocking, but not surprising. The organization commends the military for initiating…