Tag Archives: Israel/Palestine

Israeli soldiers shoot at Palestinian farmers, Human Rights Workers

Nothing the IDF does surprises me anymore. I’m ashamed my tax dollars are funding this.

“Israeli soldiers again opened fire on Palestinian farmers and international Human Rights Workers (HRWs) on Thursday 5th February, as they attempted to harvest parsley in agricultural land near the Green Line.

Returning to farm-land of Al Faraheen village, in the Abassan Jedida area, east of Khan Younis, where soldiers had opened fire on Tuesday 3rd February, farmers and HRWs were able to harvest the parsley crop for only half an hour, before soldiers again began to shoot. A number of shots were fired into the air, before the soldiers started to aim in the direction of the farmers and international accompaniment. Bullets were heard to whiz past, close to people’s heads.

. . . .

This behavior on the part of the Israeli soldiers was an almost exact repeat of their response to the presence of the farmers and internationals, in the same area of farm-land, two days before. On the Tuesday, however, the group was able to harvest for two hours before soldiers began to shoot. Whilst farmers had hoped to be able to wait-out the shooting, in order to continue harvesting, it quickly became clear that the situation was too dangerous for that to be possible.

The farmers of Al Faraheen are particularly aware of the level of danger they face when entering farm lands that are within 1 km of the Green Line – after watching their friend and colleague, 27 year old Anwar Il Ibrim, from neighboring Benesela, killed by a bullet to the neck while he was picking parsley in the same area, just one week before.

The owner of the land, Yusuf Abu Shaheen, commented after Tuesday’s gun-fire “If you [internationals] hadn’t been with us today, the soldiers would have killed us all”. (Read more from palsolidarity.org)

See Also:
Hampshire College becomes first college in U.S. to divest from Israeli Occupation

The Rewriting, Un-rewriting and Re-rewriting of History

“In the ‘Rejectionism and Accommodation’ chapter of Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel & The Palestinians, Noam Chomsky recounts how Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s 1971 peace initiative has been effaced from history. Sadat’s offer of ‘a full peace treaty on the pre-June 1967 borders, with security guarantees, recognized borders and so on’ was rejected by Israel with the backing of the U.S. Henry Kissinger ‘assumed that Israel’s power was unchallengeable’ and thus ignored Sadat’s warnings that ‘he would be forced to resort to war if his efforts at a peaceful settlement were rebuffed.'” (Read more from antiwar.com)

Israel ‘hides settlements data’

“The Israeli defence ministry has concealed information about the extent of illegal settlement-building in the West Bank, a leading newspaper reports.

A classified database of construction compiled by the ministry was leaked to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

It suggests most construction took place without the right permits, and more than 30 settlements were built in part on land owned by Palestinians” (Read more from news.bbc.co.uk)

Olmert boasts of ordering around Bush, humiliating Rice

‘”She was left shamed. A resolution that she prepared and arranged, and in the end she did not vote in favour,” Olmert said in a speech in the southern town of Ashkelon.

. . . .

“In the night between Thursday and Friday, when the secretary of state wanted to lead the vote on a ceasefire at the Security Council, we did not want her to vote in favour,” Olmert said.

“I said ‘get me President Bush on the phone’. They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn’t care. ‘I need to talk to him now’. He got off the podium and spoke to me.

“I told him the United States could not vote in favour. It cannot vote in favour of such a resolution. He immediately called the secretary of state and told her not to vote in favour.”‘ (Read more from news.yahoo.com)

See Also:
Inquiries show Olmert version of UN Gaza vote spat closer to truth than Rice’s (from Haaretz.com)

On the Gaza Invasion

– Dennis Kucinich on House Floor: US Weapons Used To Kill Children Paid For By US Taxpayers

– UN Expert: Compelling Evidence of Israeli War Crimes in Gaza
“UN human rights expert and retired Princeton law professor Richard Falk said today that there is compelling evidence that Israel violated the laws of war by “conducting a large-scale military operation against an essentially defenseless population.” . . .
“This is the first time I know of where a civilian population has been essentially locked into the war zone, not allowed to leave it despite the dense population and the obvious risks that were entailed,” Falk pointed out, “the civilians in Gaza were denied the option of becoming a refugee.”
Professor Falk made international news when, less than two weeks before Israel began the war on the Gaza Strip, he was detained by Israeli officials for over 20 hours at a Tel Aviv airport while trying to enter the country as the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories. He was eventually expelled from the country, provoking an angry response from the United Nations and human rights groups.
Unsurprisingly, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Aharon Leshno-Yaar made no attempt to answer the charges, choosing rather to attack Professor Falk’s history of criticism for Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, insisting “Professor Falk’s bias against Israel is well known.” (Read more from antiwar.com)

– War casts pall on Israeli business overseas, tourism (from Haaretz.com)

– Farmers claim UK, Jordan boycotting Israeli fruit (from ynetnews.com)

– Gaza assault spurs calls for boycott (from radionetherlands.nl)

– Turkish group calls for boycott of Israel, backers over Gaza
“Turkish Consumers Association calls on Turkish citizens to boycott Israeli, US and British products.” (Read more from dunyabulteni.net)

– World Protests Gaza Slaughter, Boycott Israel Movement Grows (from tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com)

Bill Moyers criticizes Gaza offensive, gets called anti-semitic by ADL

It’s ridiculous to accuse Bill Moyers, a class-act journalist who’d been involved in the civil rights movement, of racism. This isn’t about him being racist. This is about intimidation. A message to him an other journalists: There will be no criticism of Israel in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

***

Mr. Moyers,

In less than a thousand words, you managed to fit into your January 9 commentary: (1) moral equivalency between Hamas, a radical Islamic terrorist group whose anti-Semitic charter cites the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and perhaps America’s greatest ally in the world; (2) historical revisionism, asserting that Canaanites were Arabs; (3) anti-Semitism, declaring that Jews are “genetically coded” for violence; (4) ignorance of the terrorist threat against Israel, claiming that checkpoints, the security fence, and the Gaza operation are tactics of humiliation rather than counter-terrorism; and (5) promotion of an individual, the Norwegian doctor in Gaza, who has publicly expressed support for the September 11 attacks.

I have seen and read serious critiques of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, and I have disagreed with many of them. Your commentary, however, is different, consisting mostly of intellectually and morally faulty claims that do a great disservice to the PBS audience. It invites not disagreement, but rebuke.

On one point you are correct – “America has officially chosen sides.” And rightly so. Fortunately for our nation, very few of our citizens engage in the same moral equivalency, racism, historical revisionism, and indifference to terrorism as you. If the reverse held, it would not be a country that any decent person would want to live in.

Sincerely,

Abraham H. Foxman
National Director
Anti-Defamation League

***

Dear Mr. Foxman:

You made several errors in your letter to me of January 13 and I am writing to correct them.

First, to call someone a racist for lamenting the slaughter of civilians by the Israeli military offensive in Gaza is a slur unworthy of the tragedy unfolding there. Your resort to such a tactic is reprehensible.

Earlier this week it was widely reported that the International Red Cross “was so outraged it broke its usual silence over an attack in which the Israeli army herded a Palestinian family into a building and then shelled it, killing 30 people and leaving the surviving children clinging to the bodies of their dead mothers. The army prevented rescuers from reaching the survivors for four days.”

When American troops committed a similar atrocity in Vietnam, it was called My Lai and Lt. Calley went to prison for it. As the publisher of a large newspaper at the time, I instructed our editorial staff to cover the atrocity fully because Americans should know what our military was doing in our name and with our funding. To say “my country right or wrong” is like saying “my mother drunk or sober.” Patriots owe their country more than that, whether their government and their taxes are supporting atrocities in Vietnam, Iraq, or, in this case, Gaza. . . .

(Read more at PBS.org)

Headlines from the Occupation

(Most of these headlines pre-date the current invasion of Gaza.)

Settler who shot a Palestinian in al-Khalil released “OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Israeli radio reported on Wednesday that an Israeli settler who shot a Palestinian in al-Khalil was set free by a magistrate who rebuked the IOF for not arresting the Palestinians who were throwing stones.” (Read more from atheonews.blogspot.com)

Israeli blockade ‘forces Palestinians to search rubbish dumps for food’ “UN fears irreversible damage is being done in Gaza as new statistics reveal the level of deprivation” (Read more from guardian.co.uk)

Gaza families eat grass as Israel locks border
“AS a convoy of blue-and-white United Nations trucks loaded with food waited last night for Israeli permission to enter Gaza, Jindiya Abu Amra and her 12-year-old daughter went scrounging for the wild grass their family now lives on. “We had one meal today – khobbeizeh,” said Abu Amra, 43, showing the leaves of a plant that grows along the streets of Gaza. “Every day, I wake up and start looking for wood and plastic to burn for fuel and I beg. When I find nothing, we eat this grass.”” (Read more from timesonline.co.uk)

from the Guardian: Having built a wall around Gaza before disengagement [in 2005], Israel then imposed a progressively tighter blockade, by barring Gazan labourers from entering Israel in late 2005, then by banning Gazan commercial trade in 2006 and finally in mid-2007 by squeezing humanitarian aid.” (Read more from guardian.co.uk)

Israel expels UN rights envoy Richard Falk – Dec 17, 08

Hmmm. I wonder if his expulsion had anything to do with the invasion which began shortly thereafter.

Britain steps up fight against West Bank settlements “The British government is stepping up measures against settlements in the West Bank in an effort to stop their further expansion. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently instructed the Foreign Office to issue a warning to British citizens against the purchase of houses and real estate in the settlements.

Other measures recently imposed by London on West Bank settlements include tying the upgrade of relations between the European Union and Israel to the cessation of construction in the settlements in the West Bank and putting special labels on products denoting that they were made in West Bank settlements.” (Read more from Haaretz.com)

Austrian president in W. Bank: Settlement construction must stop “[Austrian President Heinz Fischer] was speaking at a press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah. “We demand that the settlement expansion stop,” he said, adding that settlements distance the opportunities for a just and comprehensive peace.” (Read more from Haaretz.com)

Settlers to Ethiopian troops: Niggers don’t expel Jews “Not only do they serve long and tiring hours in the reserve forces, and not only are they forced to deal with violent clashes with settlers, but now, Border Guard officers of Ethiopian descent are also faced with rising racism. “Niggers don’t expel Jews! This isn’t what we brought you to Israel for!” are just some of the degrading slurs Border Guard officers reported hearing from masked settlers. ” (Read more from ynetnews.com)

Bulldozing Bedouin (Read more from sundayherald.com)

On Gaza

Israel bombs University
“Gaza’s interior ministry and Islamic University were the latest targets.” (Read more from news.bbc.co.uk)

Israel kills scores in Gaza air strikes
“GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli warplanes pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 229 people in one of the bloodiest days for the Palestinians in 60 years of conflict with the Jewish state.” (Read more from reuters.com)

Gaza facing ‘critical emergency’
“The UN has warned that Palestinians in Gaza are facing a serious health and food crisis, as Israeli air strikes continued for a seventh day.” Read more from news.bbc.co.uk

Jewish Organizations Call For End to Gaza Bombings
“As Israeli air strikes continue to pummel the Gaza Strip for a fourth day and crude homemade rockets launched by Palestinian militants land in Israeli towns near the densely populated and besieged Strip, Jewish groups in the U.S. are taking two distinctly differing tacks at addressing the latest Middle East bloodshed.

Some of what are traditionally thought of as pro-Israel groups are undertaking a major public relations campaign to support the bombing runs against Hamas that have claimed more than 370 Palestinian lives – largely parroting the Israeli government line that the attacks are a justified defense of Israelis. . . .

But instead of offering unquestioning support of Israel’s latest military venture in the decades-long conflict, four major Jewish organizations are calling for an immediate end to the bombings, and for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.” (Read more from antiwar.com)

Iranian Jews protest Gaza ‘slaughter’
“Different groups representing Iran’s Jewish community on Tuesday gathered in front of the United Nations office in Teheran in order to protest “Israeli war crimes and the slaughter of the innocent people in Gaza Strip,” the Iranian IRNA news agency reported. The protesters, led by the Jewish representative in Parliament, Siamak Mara-Sedq, carried placards with anti-Israel slogans in both Farsi and Hebrew, the report said. ” (Read more from jpost.com)

Israel mounts PR campaign to blame Hamas for Gaza destruction
“So, while the military marshalled its forces, the foreign ministry honed its message and amassed its staff, ready for Saturday’s attack. Israeli diplomats were recalled from holidays and ordered back to work and in the rocket-bombarded southern Israeli town of Sderot, on Gaza’s northern perimeter, it opened a multilingual media centre to brief foreign journalists. . . .” (Read more from guardian.co.uk)

Israel to mount emergency international PR effort in wake of Gaza campaign
(Read more from Haaretz.com)

White House backs Israel’s attacks on Gaza Strip
(Read more from news.yahoo.com)

Violent protests at Israeli Embassy in London
“Violent confrontations broke out at the Israeli Embassy in London today as up to 1,500 protesters against Israel’s Gaza campaign gathered in a vociferous demonstration. Campaign supporters, Palestinians and British Muslims stood on the pavement of High Street Kensington, west London, and chanted in unison: “Five, six, seven, eight – Israel is a terror state.”” (Read more from timesonline.co.uk)

Protests in NYC
(Pictures at desertpeace.wordpress.com)

Israeli, foreign press more free than America’s on Gaza
“In the usual process, the U.S. government, media here – and most liberal bloggers – are silent or playing down questions about whether Israel overreacted in its massive air strikes on Gaza, while the foreign press, and even Haaretz in Israel, carries more balanced accounts.

Anyone who cares should consult the respected Haaretz site often, if for no other reason than to learn that criticism of Israeli military actions are usually more heated inside that country than in the USA. You may recall the lockstep support (in the U.S.) for Israeli’s invasion of southern Lebanon, which included the use of U.S.-made cluster bombs.” (Read more from huliq.com)

Israeli troops mobilize as Gaza assault widens
“Israel widened its deadliest-ever air offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers Sunday, pounding smuggling tunnels and a central prison, sending more tanks and artillery toward the Gaza border and approving a reserves callup for a possible ground invasion.” (Read more from news.yahoo.com)

Gaza’s desperate hospitals overwhelmed by casualties
“Two of Gaza’s highest-ranking security officials are among the victims of Israeli airstrikes. Medical personnel scramble to treat the wounded in facilities left low on supplies by a blockade.” (Read more from latimes.com)

See Also: Sabbah Blog

Headlines from the Occupation

The New Face of Jewish Resistance
“We, high-school graduate teens, declare that we shall work against the Israeli occupation and oppression policy in the occupied territories and the territories of Israel. Therefore we will refuse to take part of these actions, which are being done under our name as part of the IDF. . . .” (Read more from desertpeace.wordpress.com)

IDF declares Hebron area closed military zone after settler rampage
“The Israel Defense Forces declared the area surrounding Hebron a closed military zone on Thursday after settlers rampaged through Palestinian neighborhoods in the West Bank city. The settlers, who opened fire on Palestinians and vandalized their property, were responding to the evacuation by Israeli security forces of a disputed house in Hebron earlier in the day. . . . During the riots, settlers had set fires to at least three Palestinian houses and burnt nine cars, the Palestinian fire chief said. . . . The Israeli rights group B’Tselem released a video that appeared to show a settler shooting a Palestinian in the stomach from point-blank range, and Palestinians pelting the settler with rocks. Palestinian hospital officials said 17 Palestinians were wounded, including five from bullets. Dozens of masked settlers surrounded the home of a Palestinian family in the city, setting its laundry ablaze and throwing stones at it. Haaretz correspondent Avi Issacharoff, who was inside the house at the time, was hit by a stone hurled by the group outside. . . . In other parts of the West Bank, settlers threw rocks at Palestinian vehicles and burned an olive grove, Palestinians said. . . . A police officer was moderately hurt when settlers threw acid in his face.” (Read more from Haaretz.com)

Me: I want Americans to understand what our tax dollar are funding. It’s true that Israeli security forces fought the settlers. It’s also true that settler families get tens of thousands of dollars in subsidies. It’s criminal. It’s a moral travesty. Our enemies don’t hate us because we’re free, or rich. They hate us because we’re funding a brutal, brutal, wholesale destruction of a people.

Unilever to sell stake in plant based in West Bank settlement
“The food and soap manufacturing multinational Unilever has announced that it will divest from an Israeli factory in a Jewish settlement illegally built on land confiscated from Palestinians. Unilever, which makes household staples such as Sunsilk shampoo, Surf washing powder and Vaseline, said it would sell its 51% stake in the Beigel & Beigel factory in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.” (Read more from desertpeace.wordpress.com)

Report: Israeli mineral water company closes site due to Scottish boycott
“A Gush Shalom report claims that European anger at Israeli companies producing goods beyond the Green Line is causing real harm to some companies, one of which is reportedly mineral water producer Mayanot Eden. The report claims Mayanot Eden (coloquially known as “Mei Eden”) had to close its warehouse in the town of Loanhead, south of Edinburgh. The shutdown reportedly followed an extended boycott campaign by pro-Palestinian organizations in Scotland, though the Israeli company claims the report to be untrue.” (Read more from normanfinkelstein.com)

UN agency warns of food shortage in Gaza due to Israeli blockade
“GAZA, Dec 07, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX News Network) – A UN agency in Gaza warned on Sunday that food aid would run out within the coming couple of days due to the ongoing Israeli tight blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip for a month.” (Read more from reliefweb.int)

Israeli Arab leaders vow to sail to Gaza to break blockade
“Leaders of Israel’s Arab community said Wednesday they’ll head to Gaza on a boat laden with humanitarian aid to defy their government’s blockade of the territory. . . .” (Read more from Haaretz.com)

‘EID SHIP’ HIJACKED BY ISRAELI NAVY
“The Israeli navy barred on Sunday morning a ship which was supposed to sail from Jaffa port to the Gaza Strip carrying medical and humanitarian supplies. The ship was organized by Arab leaders and leftist activists in Israel, the Arabs48 news website reported. The ship, was dubbed “the Eid Ship”, as the Muslims will be marking the Adha Eid (feast) on Monday. The Israeli navy took the ship to the Tel Aviv port, Arabs48 added. The Israeli police said that the ship carried medical equipment and medicine, and that three activists were detained. . . .” (Read more from desertpeace.wordpress.com)

COMMANDMENT # 11 ~~ THOU SHALT NOT SPEAK THE TRUTH – Haaretz writer held for entering Gaza
(Read more from desertpeace.wordpress.com)

Peres: Obama told me he was ‘very impressed’ with Arab peace plan

“LONDON – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama proclaimed himself ‘very impressed’ with the Arab League’s peace plan when he discussed it with President Shimon Peres during a brief visit to Israel four months ago, Peres said Tuesday.

Peres, who had just arrived in London for an official visit, made the comment in interviews to be published in the British media. He was responding to questions about whether he thought Obama would advance the Middle East peace process in general and the Arab League’s plan in particular.

But he denied a Sunday Times report earlier this week which claimed that Obama had said Israel would be “crazy” to reject the Arab initiative.

On Monday, former American envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross, who has been advising Obama on the subject, also denied reports that Obama had said while visiting Israel in July that he supported the Arab initiative and would base his own diplomatic policy on it.

The plan, originally proposed by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in 2002 and later adopted by the Arab League, states that Israel would receive full relations with the entire Arab world in exchange for a full withdrawal from all the territory it captured in 1967, including East Jerusalem, plus a solution to the refugee problem. The Bush Administration has said it views the plan positively, but its own road map peace plan and the understandings reached at last year’s Annapolis summit have served as the basis of its diplomatic program.” (Read more from Haaretz.com)

I predict AIPAC will mobilize monstrous opposition to any hint of support for the Arab peace plan in our government or media. They will try to kill it the same way they killed Bush’s much more modest “Road Map.”

Report: US Asked Israel Not to Start Any Major Wars Until Obama Takes Office

from antiwar.com:

Amid several bellicose comments about the possibility of an impending Israeli strike against Iran Israeli Defense Ministry officials say they have been contacted by US officials who have asked them to refrain from launching any attacks against Iran until after President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January. Likewise, the officials reportedly have cautioned Israel not to launch its long-reported ground invasion of the Gaza Strip until after the inauguration.

An Israeli attack on Iran would almost certainly be interpreted as an American attack, and would likely spark a broad war between Iran and the United States. That prospect, with less than two months before the administration change and President Bush keeping a close eye on his legacy, seems unappealing.

The Israeli military insists that, despite reports to the contrary, it has no intentions of launching a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip any time soon. On the other hand Israel’s elections are scheduled for early February, and with the hawkish opposition Likud Party leading in the polls the outgoing government might gamble on its ability to reap political advantage from a dramatic move on one or both fronts.

Headlines from the Occupation

–Blackouts in Gaza after Israel stops fuel
–Israel breaks Gaza ceasefire, assassinates six
–Ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem will be destroyed to build “Museum of Tolerance”
–Settlers preparing for war, says Shin Bet chief “The scope of the conflict will be much larger than it is today and than it was during the disengagement,” Diskin warned. “Our investigation found a very high willingness among this public to use violence – not just stones, but live weapons – in order to prevent or halt a diplomatic process.” While Diskin did not comment explicitly on the danger of another political assassination, the timing of his warning – just days before the anniversary of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination – was not lost on cabinet members.
–Shin Bet Chief warns of political assassination
–UN to suspend food distribution in Gaza The United Nations will suspend its food distribution to half of Gaza’s 1.5 million people on Thursday after Israel failed to allow emergency supplies into the Palestinian territory, a spokesman said. Israel initially said it would allow 30 trucks to deliver supplies to Gaza on Thursday after it sealed off the Gaza Strip on November 5, but later said mortar fire by Gaza militants made it impossible to do so.
–EU lawmakers: Israel should be punished over Gaza A group of European lawmakers said Tuesday they will petition the European Union to suspend a preferential trade agreement with Israel because of what they described as its “cruel” blockade of Gaza.
–Britain to crack down on exports from Israeli settlements The initiative is the strongest sign yet of deepening official frustration in Whitehall at Israel’s persistent flouting of international exhortations to halt the construction of settlements – which are seen by Britain and most other countries as illegal. Moderate Palestinian leaders say continued settlement building is a major problem.