we actually cultivated a kind of carnivorous plant that is slowly devouring us
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- Written by David Grossman, Israeli author David Grossman, Israeli author
- Published: 12 April 2010 12 April 2010
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IDF order will enable mass deportation from West Bank
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- Written by Amira Hass Amira Hass
- Published: 11 April 2010 11 April 2010
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A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years.
When the order comes into effect, tens of thousands of Palestinians will automatically become criminal offenders liable to be severely punished.
Given the security authorities' actions over the past decade, the first Palestinians likely to be targeted under the new rules will be those whose ID cards bear home addresses in the Gaza Strip - people born in Gaza and their West Bank-born children - or those born in the West Bank or abroad who for various reasons lost their residency status. Also likely to be targeted are foreign-born spouses of Palestinians.
Until now, Israeli civil courts have occasionally prevented the expulsion of these three groups from the West Bank. The new order, however, puts them under the sole jurisdiction of Israeli military courts.
The new order defines anyone who enters the West Bank illegally as an infiltrator, as well as "a person who is present in the area and does not lawfully hold a permit." The order takes the original 1969 definition of infiltrator to the extreme, as the term originally applied only to those illegally staying in Israel after having passed through countries then classified as enemy states - Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.
The order's language is both general and ambiguous, stipulating that the term infiltrator will also be applied to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, citizens of countries with which Israel has friendly ties (such as the United States) and Israeli citizens, whether Arab or Jewish. All this depends on the judgment of Israel Defense Forces commanders in the field.
The Hamoked Center for the Defense of the Individual was the first Israeli human rights to issue warnings against the order, signed six months ago by then-commander of IDF forces in Judea and Samaria Area Gadi Shamni.
Two weeks ago, Hamoked director Dalia Kerstein sent GOC Central Command Avi Mizrahi a request to delay the order, given "the dramatic change it causes in relation to the human rights of a tremendous number of people."
According to the provisions, "a person is presumed to be an infiltrator if he is present in the area without a document or permit which attest to his lawful presence in the area without reasonable justification." Such documentation, it says, must be "issued by the commander of IDF forces in the Judea and Samaria area or someone acting on his behalf."
The instructions, however, are unclear over whether the permits referred to are those currently in force, or also refer to new permits that military commanders might issue in the future. The provision are also unclear about the status of bearers of West Bank residency cards, and disregards the existence of the Palestinian Authority and the agreements Israel signed with it and the PLO.
The order stipulates that if a commander discovers that an infiltrator has recently entered a given area, he "may order his deportation before 72 hours elapse from the time he is served the written deportation order, provided the infiltrator is deported to the country or area from whence he infiltrated."
The order also allows for criminal proceedings against suspected infiltrators that could produce sentences of up to seven years. Individuals able to prove that they entered the West Bank legally but without permission to remain there will also be tried, on charges carrying a maximum sentence of three years. (According to current Israeli law, illegal residents typically receive one-year sentences.)
The new provision also allow the IDF commander in the area to require that the infiltrator pay for the cost of his own detention, custody and expulsion, up to a total of NIS 7,500.
The fear that Palestinians with Gaza addresses will be the first to be targeted by this order is based on measures that Israel has taken in recent years to curtail their right to live, work, study or even visit the West Bank. These measures violated the Oslo Accords.
According to a decision by the West Bank commander that was not backed by military legislation, since 2007, Palestinians with Gaza addresses must request a permit to stay in the West Bank. Since 2000, they have been defined as illegal sojourners if they have Gaza addresses, as if they were citizens of a foreign state. Many of them have been deported to Gaza, including those born in the West Bank.
Currently, Palestinians need special permits to enter areas near the separation fence, even if their homes are there, and Palestinians have long been barred from the Jordan Valley without special authorization. Until 2009, East Jerusalemites needed permission to enter Area A, territory under full PA control.
Another group expected to be particularly harmed by the new rules are Palestinians who moved to the West Bank under family reunification provisions, which Israel stopped granting for several years.
In 2007, amid a number of Hamoked petitions and as a goodwill gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, tens of thousands of people received Palestinian residency cards. The PA distributed the cards, but Israel had exclusive control over who could receive them. Thousands of Palestinians, however, remained classified as "illegal sojourners," including many who are not citizens of any other country.
The new order is the latest step by the Israeli government in recent years to require permits that limit the freedom of movement and residency previously conferred by Palestinian ID cards. The new regulations are particularly sweeping, allowing for criminal measures and the mass expulsion of people from their homes.
The IDF Spokesman's Office said in response, "The amendments to the order on preventing infiltration, signed by GOC Central Command, were issued as part of a series of manifests, orders and appointments in Judea and Samaria, in Hebrew and Arabic as required, and will be posted in the offices of the Civil Administration and military courts' defense attorneys in Judea and Samaria. The IDF is ready to implement the order, which is not intended to apply to Israelis, but to illegal sojourners in Judea and Samaria."
Uri Avnery: The Big Gamble
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- Written by Uri Avnery Uri Avnery
- Published: 10 April 2010 10 April 2010
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Generally, I meet him at demonstrations, such as those at the Bil’in fence. This time, too, there was no opportunity for more than a perfunctory handshake and a few polite words.
We appeared together at the Land Day event in a small village near Qalqilyah, whose name is known only to a few: Izbat al-Tabib. The village was established in 1920, and the occupation authorities do not recognize its existence. They want to demolish it and transfer its extensive lands to the nearby Alfei Menashe settlement.
We were surrounded by a large group of respectable personalities – the heads of neighboring villages and officials of the parties that belong to the PLO – as well as the inhabitants of the village. I could speak to him only from the rostrum. I entreated him to strengthen the cooperation between the Palestinian leadership and the Israeli peace camp, a cooperation that has weakened since the assassinations of Yasser Arafat and Faisal Husseini.
IT IS impossible not to like Fayyad. He radiates decency, seriousness and a sense of responsibility. He invites trust. None of the filth of corruption has stuck to him. He is no party functionary. Only after much hesitation did he join a small party (“the Third Way”). In the confrontation between Fatah and Hamas, he does not belong to either of the two rival blocs. He looks like a bank manager – and that is what he indeed was: a senior official of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The 58-year old Fayyad is the very opposite of Yasser Arafat, who first appointed him as Finance Minister. The Ra’is radiated authority, the Prime Minister radiates diffidence. Arafat was an extrovert, Fayyad is an introvert. Arafat was a man of dramatic gestures, Fayyad does not know what a gesture is.
But the biggest difference between the two lies in their methods. Arafat did not put all his eggs into one basket, he used many baskets. He was ready to use – simultaneously or alternatively - diplomacy and the armed struggle, popular action and secret channels, moderate and radical groups. He believed that the Palestinian people were much too weak to dispense with any instrument.
Fayyad, on the other hand, puts all his – and the Palestinians’ - eggs in one basket. He chose a single strategy and sticks to it. That is a personal and national gamble – and bold and dangerous indeed.
FAYYAD BELIEVES, so it seems, that the Palestinians’ only chance to achieve their national goals is by non-violent means, in close cooperation with the US.
His plan is to build the Palestinian national institutions and create a robust economic base, and, by the end of 2011, to declare the State of Palestine.
This is reminiscent of the classic Zionist strategy under David Ben-Gurion. In Zionist parlance, this was called “creating facts on the ground”.
Fayyad’s plan is based on the assumption that the US will recognize the Palestinian state and impose on Israel the well-known peace terms: two states, return to the 1967 borders with small and agreed-upon land swaps, East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, evacuation of all settlements which are not included in the land swap, the return of a symbolic number of refugees to Israeli territory and the settlement of the others in Palestine and elsewhere.
THAT LOOKS like a sensible strategy, but it raises many questions.
First question: Can the Palestinians really rely on the US to play their part?
In the last few weeks, the chances of this happening have improved. After his impressive victories in the domestic and foreign arenas, President Obama is demonstrating a new self-confidence in Israeli-Palestinian matters. He may now be ready to impose on both parties an American peace plan that includes those elements.
The US has made it clear that this is not a side-show, but a strategy based on a sober assessment of American national interests, supported by the military leadership.
But the decisive battle has not yet been joined. One can expect a Battle of Titans between the two most powerful lobbies in Washington: the military lobby and the pro-Israel lobby. The White House versus the Congress. Fayyad’s gamble is based on the hope that Barack Obama, with the help of General David Petraeus, will win this struggle.
It’s a reasonable gamble, but a risky one.
SECOND QUESTION: Is it possible to build a Palestinian “state-to-be” under Israeli occupation?
As of now, Fayyad is succeeding. There is indeed some prosperity in the West Bank, which, however, benefits mainly a certain class. The Netanyahu government supports this effort, under the illusion that ”economic peace” can serve as a substitute for real peace.
But this entire effort stands on feet of clay. The occupation authorities can wipe everything out at one stroke. We have witnessed this already in the May 2002 “Defensive Wall” operation, when the Israeli army destroyed at one stroke everything the Palestinians had built following the Oslo agreement. I have seen with my own eyes the destroyed offices of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, the crushed computers, the heaps of ragged documents scattered over the floors of the Ministries of Education and Health, the broken walls of the Mukata’a.
If the Israeli government so decides, all the well-ordered government offices of Fayyad, all the new enterprises and economic initiatives, will go up in smoke.
Fayyad relies on the American security net. And indeed, it is questionable whether Netanyahu can do in 2010, in the Obama era, what Ariel Sharon did in 2002 under George W. Bush.
An important component of the new situation is “Dayton’s army”. The US general Keith Dayton is training the Palestinian security forces. Anyone who has seen them knows that this is for all practical purposes a regular army. (At the Land Day demonstration, the Palestinian soldiers, with their helmets and khaki uniforms, were deployed on the hill, while the Israeli soldiers, similarly attired, were deployed below. That was in Area C, which according to the Oslo agreements is under Israeli military control. Both armies used the same American jeeps, just differently colored.)
No doubt Fayyad is aware that there is only a narrow divide between his strategy and collaboration with the occupation.
THIRD QUESTION: What will happen if the Palestinians declare their state at the end of 2011?
Many Palestinians are sceptical. After all, the Palestinian National Council already declared an independent Palestinian state in 1988. On that festive occasion, the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, written by the poet Mahmoud Darwish, was read out. It had an uncanny resemblance to the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Dozens of countries recognized this state, and the PLO representatives there enjoy the official status of ambassadors. But did this improve the situation of the Palestinians?
The main question is whether the US will recognize the Palestinian state on the day of its foundation, and whether the UN Security Council will follow suit.
In May, 1948, the USA accorded to the new State of Israel de facto but not de jure recognition. Stalin forestalled them by recognizing Israel de jure right away.
If Fayyad’s hope comes true and the US recognizes the State of Palestine, the Palestinians’ situation will change dramatically. Almost certainly, the Israeli government will have no choice but to sign a peace agreement that will be practically dictated by the Americans. Israel will have to give up almost the entire West Bank.
FOURTH QUESTION: Will this apply to Gaza?
Probably yes. Contrary to the demonic image created by Israeli and American propaganda, Hamas wants a Palestinian state, not an Islamic emirate. Like our own Orthodox, who aim at a Jewish state ruled by religious law and the rabbis, they know how to compromise with reality. Hamas’ aims are not restricted to the small enclave they now control. They want to play a major role in the future State of Palestine.
The official position of Hamas is that they will accept an agreement signed by the Palestinian authority if it is ratified by the Palestinian people in a referendum or by an act of parliament. It should be noted that even now, Hamas treats the Fayyad experiment with relative indulgence.
Fayyad is a man of compromise. He would have reached a modus vivendi with Hamas long ago, if the US had not imposed a total veto.
The Palestinian split is, to a large extent, made in the US and Israel. Israel has contributed to it by disrupting all physical contact between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – in gross violation of the Oslo agreement, which defines the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as one integral territory. Israel undertook to open four “safe passages” between the two territories. They were not opened for a single day.
The Americans have a primitive model of the world, inherited from the days of the Wild West: everywhere there are Good Guys and Bad Guys. In Palestine, the Good Guys are the Palestinian Authority people, the Bad Guys are Hamas. Fayyad will have to work hard to convince Washington to adopt a stance a little bit more nuanced.
WHAT WILL happen if Fayyad’s gamble proves to be an historic mistake? If the pro-Israel lobby wins against the statesmen and the generals? Or if some world crisis diverts the attention of the White House into another direction?
If Fayyad fails, every Palestinian will draw the self-evident conclusion: there is no chance whatsoever for a peaceful solution. A bloody intifada will follow, Hamas will take control of the Palestinian people - until they, too, are be supplanted by far more radical forces.
Salam Fayyad can indeed say: After me, the deluge.
The plight of Israel's 'targeted citizens'
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- Written by Rachel Shabi Rachel Shabi
- Published: 09 April 2010 09 April 2010
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A new documentary examines the many ways Arabs are discriminated against by the government and Israeli society
Of all the myriad tags used to define Israel's Palestinian population, "targeted citizen" has to be one of the more appropriate. It's the title both of a track by the "Arab-Israeli" rappers, Dam, and a short film in which they and others expose the persistent double dose of discrimination and suspicion meted out to "Arabs of Israel".
Produced by Adalah, the legal centre for Arab minority rights in Israel, Targeted Citizen spells out the core contradiction that informs such treatment in its opening frames: "As non-Jews living in a self-defined 'Jewish state', discrimination against them is institutionalised and intentional."
The film then runs through some of the more glaring instances of this inequality for Palestinian-Israelis, who comprise 20% of the population: the discriminatory and unequal allocation of state funding and resources and, as an inevitable consequence, higher unemployment, fewer university degrees and many more people living below the poverty line. Throughout, various Adalah professionals explain how the Israeli state consistently ignores its own equal opportunities objectives.
Then there's the curtailment of rights routinely dished out to a population that is viewed as a potential fifth column. Israel started its relations with the "Arab minority" population by putting them under direct military rule for around 20 years and, since then, "Arab citizens of Israel" have experienced the hostile glare of state scrutiny, the dull provocation of heavy policing and the grinding routine of mass arrests at demonstrations in Israel (such as during the Gaza assault of December 2009).
And sanctioning all of that is the sort of ambient, casual racism – and the accompanying blindness to it – that runs through contemporary Israeli society and is revealed through some of the street interviews featured within Adalah's film.
Released a few weeks ago to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, this work comes at a time when rights for "the Arab sector" seem at risk of further erosion, to a growing chorus of approval among Israel's Jewish population. Last month, the Nakba bill, which would criminalise commemoration of the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948, passed its first Knesset reading.
At around the same time, a poll showed that 50% of Jewish-Israeli school kids believe "Arab-Israelis" should not be granted equal rights.
In this context, Adalah's film is an urgent exposure of a problem that's routinely dismissed as fictional, or lost to the louder, deadlier cries of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is a plea to cut the bogus talk of equality or inclusion and a reminder that it is long past time for Israel to face up to the distinctly non-democratic treatment of its targeted citizens.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Israeli settlers attack Portland-church volunteer with stones in Jerusalem
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- Written by EAPPI - US EAPPI - US
- Published: 09 April 2010 09 April 2010
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April 9, 2010
Israeli settlers attack Portland-church volunteer with stones in Jerusalem
(Portland, Ore. April 9, 2010) -- Hardline Israeli settler youths assaulted three female Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs), including Kathy Preuss of Tigard, in Jerusalem on Monday, hurling rocks and bottles in an unprovoked attack.
Eight "adolescent Jewish settler boys congregated together and started yelling obscenities at us, 'Go back to German,' 'Go back to Jordan,' and 'This is Jewish,' says Preuss, a volunteer with the Ecumenical Accompaniement Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), an initiative of the World Council of Churches. EAs provide a nonviolent, "protective presence to vulnerable communities, monitor and report human rights abuses and support Palestinians and Israelis working together for peace," according to the program's website eappi.org.
"One young boy.. was fast approaching my colleague," relays Preuss. "Her back was to him as she was trying to walk away. With a clenched fist and arm raised over his head, I believed he was going to hit her. I yelled, 'No', and as she turned to face him, he quickly turned away. Rocks were now being thrown at us, and one of my teammates was hit in the arm." The rock was fist size and struck an EA who is in her sixties, bruising her arm.
Preuss felt surrounded. Then a "group of Sheikh Jarrah Palestinian residents positioned themselves between us and the settlers. The scene soon intensified. A large group of settler boys were on one side and the Palestinians on the other. Rocks and sticks were being thrown. These rocks were fist size and larger. It was chaotic. That confrontation ended with the settler boys running from the scene."