Israel’s War Against Palestine: Documenting the Military Occupation of Palestinian and Arab Lands

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Noam Chomsky: Looking back on 9/11 a decade later (video)

14 September 2011

Ten years after 9/11, Noam Chomsky has just released an updated version of his book titled, “9-11: Was There An Alternative?,” which refers to the US assassination of Osama bin Laden and the continuity Chomsky sees between the Bush administration’s foreign policy and President Obama’s. “The policies change, but they are hostile. We should understand where atrocities come from. They do not come from nowhere. If we’re serious, we should try to do something about what is the basis for them.”

How Kobe Bryant blows a hole in the Irvine 11 prosecution’s case

13 September 2011

[N]ew evidence has surfaced that raises serious doubts about whether Oren even intended to deliver a question and answer session, and suggests he may have rushed out of the University of California-Irvine auditorium for reasons entirely unrelated to the student protest. In light of the evidence, there is good reason to believe that Oren’s speech was not “shut down” by anyone but himself.

Palestinian civil society welcomes Agrexco liquidation, calls for celebration of this BDS victory

13 September 2011

Campaigners for Palestinian rights are celebrating after the primary Israeli agricultural produce export company Agrexco, which has been a key target of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in support of Palestinian rights, has been ordered into liquidation after being unable to pay its creditors… Agrexco is a partially state-owned Israeli exporter responsible for the export of a large proportion of fresh Israeli produce, including 60-70% of the agricultural produce grown in Israel’s illegal settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

Shimon Tzabar, his life and work: a new website

11 September 2011

A new website honouring the life of Shimon Tzabar (1926, Palestine – 2007, London), an artist, writer, poet, satirist and a vocal fighter against the occupation of Palestinian land by Israel. Examples of his paintings and drawings, his journalistic output, plays and poetry, and excerpts from his memoirs and from writings by others about him are reproduced here, some in English and some in Hebrew.

IOA Editor: Do not miss this important website honoring the life and work of Shimon Tzabar: an outstanding artist and a vigorous opponent of the Israeli occupation, starting immediately after the 1967 war.

Amira Hass: Hummus starts trickling past Israel’s blockade on Gaza

10 September 2011

Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad, formerly acting Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), permitted bringing processed hummus into the Gaza Strip in July 2009, for the first time in two years. However, Gilad did not permit bringing hummus with extras, such as pine nuts or mushrooms, into the strip.

Ali Abunimah: Lawsuit filed against Olympia Food Co-op, seeks to force end to Israel boycott

10 September 2011

A group of pro-Israel activists has filed a lawsuit against the Olympia Food Co-op (OFC) [Washington State, US] to try to force it to end its boycott of Israeli goods.

Richard Falk: Disappointment at the Palmer Report on the Flotilla incident of 31 May 2010

10 September 2011

[T]he Palmer Report seems to fault seriously the manner by which the Israeli enforced the blockade, but unfortunately upheld the underlying legality of both the blockade and the right of enforcement, and that is the rub.

Peace Now: Construction per person in the settlements is nearly twice than in Israel

9 September 2011

Peace Now research has revealed that while in Israel the pace of construction since the so-called “settlement freeze” (Oct 2010) was one housing unit for every 235 residents, in the settlements the pace of construction was a housing unit for every 123 residents — nearly twice.

The National Building Museum and Caterpillar

9 September 2011

Thanks to more than 5,300 individuals and 55 organizations asking the National Building Museum to rescind its annual prize to Caterpillar for “innovation in construction technology,” the museum has cancelled its public award ceremony… However, we can’t be content with the National Building Museum’s decision because they have not yet completely agreed to rescind the award. Next week, Cindy and Craig Corrie (Rachel’s parents), will hand-deliver the petition to the National Building Museum urging them to rescind the award to Caterpillar. Let’s help them meet their goal of delivering 10,000 petition signatures.

UN Secretary General: Palestinian statehood is ‘long overdue’

9 September 2011

Ban Ki-moon: “The two state vision where Israel and Palestinians can live… side by side in peace and security — that is a still a valid vision and I fully support it… And I support also the statehood of Palestinians; an independent, sovereign state of Palestine. It has been long overdue…”

Amira Hass: Hamas regime needs the Gaza blockade

7 September 2011

Hamas needs a blockade to regulate from within so that the subjects of “independent Gaza” will be exposed as little as possible to different realities and will not question its policies. Hamas needs the blockade and needs Gaza to be cut off from the rest of Palestinian society to ensure the continuation of its regime.

Ali Abunimah: Israel’s role in planned US lawsuit to fight BDS

7 September 2011

A group of pro-Israel activists, backed by StandWithUs, a national US pro-Israel US organization, is planning to take legal action to force the Olympia Food Co-op to rescind its historic decision to boycott Israeli products.

UPDATED   Ali Abunimah: Lawsuit filed against Olympia Food Co-op, seeks to force end to Israel boycott

Moshé Machover: Israel rocked by protests

7 September 2011

The protest is supported by 90% of Israelis. It is led mainly by students and white-collar workers who are described by the media, somewhat misleadingly, as ‘middle class’. In fact, the demands raised by them indicate that they feel they are being proletarianised, and display solidarity with the poor. The prevailing spirit is that of egalitarianism, self-activity and grassroots direct democracy.

Israeli Arab couple wins legal battle to build home in northern Jewish town

6 September 2011

Palestinian residents of Sahknin, an Arab Galilee town, petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice five years ago over rejection by Rakefet’s admissions committee.

IOA Editor: The admission-committees system enables hundreds of Israeli Jewish towns and villages to reject individuals seeking to reside in them based on “incompatibility” – a sufficiently general term used to reject Palestinian citizens of Israel. The Israel Lands Administration’s reversal of a long standing policy of systematic discrimination against Israel’s Palestinian citizens, in this instance only, is merely a tactical move designed to deal with this potentially precedent-setting legal case: All discriminatory laws and practices remain unchanged, continuing a long history of ethnic cleansing efforts on the part of all Israeli governments, “Right” and “Left” alike.

Noam Chomsky: Was there an alternative?

6 September 2011

We are approaching the 10th anniversary of the horrendous atrocities of September 11, 2001, which, it is commonly held, changed the world. On May 1st, the presumed mastermind of the crime, Osama bin Laden, was assassinated in Pakistan by a team of elite US commandos, Navy SEALs, after he was captured, unarmed and undefended, in Operation Geronimo…

“Return” plan for al-Bared: displacing the displaced

6 September 2011

WikiLeaks documents now reveal that one of the options secretly discussed was to relocate the residents of Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon to the West Bank, possibly to the newly constructed Rawabi urban complex.

Lia Tarachansky: Half million march in Israel

6 September 2011

Israel’s “March of the Million” brought out more people than any other protest in Israel’s history. Meanwhile the government has decided to keep quiet, only appointing a committee to look into the demands of the J14 movement. While many on the street have different ideas about how to move ahead, most have little faith in the committee.

WikiLeaks: IDF uses drones to assassinate Gaza militants

4 September 2011

Human rights groups and international media have been reporting for years that the IDF uses unmanned drones armed with missiles in order to attack targets in Gaza. This is the first instance of it being published in WikiLeaks, quoting the words of the IDF Advocate-General.

Israeli Arab MKs laud Turkey move to expel Israeli envoy over Gaza flotilla

2 September 2011

Haneen Zoabi: “Just as Israelis are beginning to seriously consider a new social order, they must also consider a new diplomatic order in which Israel will pay a heavy price for its policy of oppression, occupation, and belligerence.”

Mehdi Hassan: a State of Palestine would backfire on its own people

2 September 2011

The Palestinians are walking into a trap of their own making. With the so-called “peace process” going nowhere, and with the number of Israeli settlements on the rise, the UN vote is an act of desperation, not strength, on the part of the Palestinian leadership.

Anti-Israel protest disrupts Philharmonic show in UK

2 September 2011

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators interrupt Israeli orchestra’s London performance. BBC Radio forced to suspend broadcast. UK minister tweets: Demonstrators turned entire audience pro-Israel.

IOA Editor: Indeed, the minister might be right. Unlike the disruption of speeches by Israeli officials, where irritating the audience may well be part of the objective, interrupting a concert is likely to generate total resentment by audience members who paid (often dearly) for tickets and whose attendance may have more to do with music and less to do with support of Israel. On the other hand, direct action outside the box office or music hall offers at least a chance of causing a few people to reconsider their attendance. Not that every action need result in immediate sympathy, but turning the audiences against one’s cause is hardly an effective BDS tactic.

Max Blumenthal, Joseph Dana: The exclusive revolution – Israeli social justice and the separation principle

1 September 2011

The mainstream of the Jewish public decided on its own, and without much internal reflection, that social justice could exist alongside a system of ethnic exclusivism. Thus, while the July 14 movement proceeded through cities across Israel bellowing out cries for dignity and rights, Palestinians remained safely tucked away behind an elaborate matrix of control — the Iron Wall. Ten years of separation had not only rendered the Palestinians invisible in a physical sense. It had erased them from the Israeli conscience.

IOA Editor: A very important article that puts Israel’s July 14 protest movement in an historical context: the Zionist settlement in, and occupation of, Palestine — before and after 1967. So far, there is no evidence that the massive wave of Israeli Jews calling for “social justice” has any intentions of improving the lives of Palestinian citizens of Israel. And it is absolutely clear that ending the Occupation is not on its agenda either.

Polish-Jewish sociologist compares West Bank separation fence to Warsaw Ghetto walls

1 September 2011

Sygmunt Bauman: “Israel does not see the missiles falling on communities along the border as a bad thing. On the contrary, they would be worried and even alarmed were it not for this fire.”

Settlement produce exporter Agrexco set for liquidation

1 September 2011

While certainly factors besides the mounting pressure on Agrexco from the BDS movement were at work here, the movement has made an impact on the Israeli economy.

Mustafa Barghouthi: there may be massacres after Israel arms, trains settlers

1 September 2011

Palestinian MP Mustafa al-Barghouthi warned that Jewish settlers may massacre Palestinians after the Israeli government supplied them with arms and training.

Analysis: West Bank dogged by high cost of trade

1 September 2011

“Under normal trade and transit conditions … Israel would no longer enjoy overwhelming dominance as the leading OPT trading partner,” the UNCTAD report says.

Mya Guarnieri: Language becomes a political weapon in Israel

1 September 2011

Whenever a conflict between democracy and Jewish values arises, the new definition of Israel would allow courts and legislators to favour the latter. The proposed bill will also make halacha, Jewish religious law, “a source of inspiration to the legislature and the courts”. And, in the spirit of favouring the Jewish character of the state over a state for all its citizens, the legislation would also downgrade Arabic from an official language to one with “special status”.

Lia Tarachansky: Palestinian rights absent from Israeli protest demands

1 September 2011

Last week an unofficial group of protesters released an 11 page document to the media with a list of demands. While the document listed the end of privatization policies as well as housing, education, health care, and taxation reforms, it did not include previously discussed points about the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel that make up a fifth of the population.

Rashid Khalidi: An invitation Rep. Jackson should have declined

31 August 2011

Jackson explicitly lectured Palestinians for not using nonviolence, ignoring a long tradition of nonviolent resistance by occupied and disenfranchised Palestinians. In so doing he also implicitly placed blame on Palestinians for their miserable lot, apparently forgetting that it is they, not the Israelis, who are subjugated.

Noam Chomsky: ‘As long they get the backing of dictators, it doesn’t matter to western governments what Arab populations think’

31 August 2011

The 19th century … 2001 … today. Noam Chomsky sees hegemonic powers showing extreme contempt for democracy – and acting in ways they know will increase terrorism.

Zvi Bar’el: The junta alliance

31 August 2011

We liked military juntas in the Arab world, and in Chile, Argentina and Ethiopia. Military juntas speak a similar language. They understand one another; their interests are narrow and specific; they are scornful of civilians, certain that without them their countries will fall into chaos, and that civilian politics – democracy – is a recipe for the country’s collapse. Juntas operate in the name of a desired value that is supreme to all other values: security.

Amira Hass: Israel must get ready for its own Hurricane Irene

31 August 2011

The one government determines the separate and unequal course of development of each people. An upper-country people and a lower-country people. Those on the first course have the right to live in the country because their forefather immigrated 3,000 years ago. Those on the second course do not have the right to live in their home, because their refugee fathers were born there 80 years ago.

Larry Derfner: The awful, necessary truth about Palestinian terror

30 August 2011

What’s needed very badly … is for Israelis to realize that the occupation is hurting the Palestinians terribly, that it’s driving them to try to kill us, that we are compelling them to engage in terrorism, that the blood of Israeli victims is ultimately on our hands, and that it’s up to us to stop provoking our own people’s murder by ending the occupation. And so long as we who oppose the occupation keep pretending that the Palestinians don’t have the right to resist it, we tacitly encourage Israelis to go on blindly killing and dying in defense of an unholy cause.

IOA Editor: Larry Derfner was fired from The Jerusalem Post after posting this article on his personal blog – despite subsequently removing it and apologizing. Without Derfner, a liberal-Zionist with a strong anti-Occupation record, the Post remains the same house of venom it has long been, even more so now.

Thousands of SoCal Muslims praying for ‘Irvine 11’ night before trial begins

30 August 2011

Peaceful protesters, especially on college campuses, usually never face criminal charges. This has led some to believe that District Attorney Tony Rackaukas is singling the students out because of their faith and the politics involved.

Google Street View comes to Israel but won’t reveal its plans for the occupied territories

29 August 2011

If Google intends to operate Street View in occupied territory, it may face strong resistance from activists. Already activists are planning to organize demonstrations along the routes of the Google Street View vehicles, which must be published in advance according to Google’s agreement with the Ministry of Justice.

Gideon Levy: The reason why the Egyptians hate us

28 August 2011

The rules of the game in the new Middle East changed… From now on, the people are speaking; they will not stand for violent or colonialist behavior toward Arabs, and their leaders will have to take this into consideration. The occupation, and Israel’s exaggerated shows of force in response to terror attacks, are now being put to the test of the peoples, not just their rulers.