Israeli Occupation Archive – Israel’s war against Palestine

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Obama’s friend raising funds for new Gaza aid ship

25 July 2010

Rashid Khalidi: “The siege is not imposed on the Hamas government, or on a ‘terrorist entity’, as the Israeli government describes the entire Gaza Strip: it is imposed on a population of 1.5 million people, who are effectively imprisoned, and most of whom are deprived of living a normal life. Moreover, it hardly affects that government… This is collective punishment of a civilian population, pure and simple… That is potentially a war crime. Most of Gaza’s population, being children, did not vote for Hamas or anyone else. Any human being of any political orientation should oppose this siege.”

IOA Editor: This is a misleading headline in every respect: Rashid Khalidi (who’s also an IOA Advisory Board member) is not “Obama’s friend,” except for when Haaretz stoops to the level of Right-wing lunatic bloggers. As reported in this story, Khalidi is a sharp critic of the Obama administration, and is not one of the organizers of this project. He is not “raising funds” for this project either. Rather, he signed a letter in support of it.

Norman Finkelstein: ‘God Helps Those Who Help Themselves’

25 July 2010

The basic conflict can be understood in very conventional terms of people enduring and trying to resist an occupation. I don’t think it requires much more profundity in order to understand why Palestinians are opposed to their current condition, and I think Israel is behaving like most occupying powers behave — specifically, it is very hard to evict them.

Human Rights Watch: Israel – Withdraw Legislation Punishing Human Rights Activists

25 July 2010

Israel’s Knesset should reject proposed legislation that would weaken the country’s vibrant civil society, Human Rights Watch said today. Recent proposed bills would penalize human rights groups for critical reporting and advocacy, including publicizing information on war crimes, expressing support for boycotts, or helping refugees and asylum seekers.

Uri Avnery: Rosemary’s Baby

24 July 2010

Ethnic cleansing can be carried out dramatically (as in this country in 1948 and in Kosovo in 1998) or in a quiet and systematic way, by dozens of sophisticated methods, as is happening now in East Jerusalem. But there cannot be the slightest doubt that this is the final stage of the one-state vision of the rightists. The first stage will be an effort to fill the entire country with settlements, and to demolish any chance of implementing the two-state solution, which is the only realistic basis for peace.

David Gardner: Iraq intelligence fiasco could happen again

24 July 2010

“This process of exaggeration was gradual, and proceeded by accretion … in a way that allowed those participating to convince themselves that they were not engaged in blatant dishonesty. But this process led to highly misleading statements about the UK assessment of the Iraqi threat that were, in their totality, lies…” Why is all this so important? … There is now a ratcheting up of the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Hamoked’s Occupation quiz

24 July 2010

Hamoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual is an Israeli human rights organization whose main objective is to assist Palestinians of the Occupied Territories whose rights are violated due to Israel’s policies. At Hamoked, we work to expose and publicize essential truths about the occupation, in its manifold modes of operation.

Haneen Zoabi: “The largest threat to democracy is Zionism”

22 July 2010

They are trying to establish borders on our political identity and say that we cannot have relations with the broader Arab world. They want to redefine the margins of democracy to exclude any political program that calls for full equality. We are calling for equality without Zionism… The fact is, to demand full civic and national equality is actually to demand the end of Zionism. So we don’t hate Zionism. Zionism hates democracy.

Yaniv Reich: New Israeli report on Operation Cast Lead confirms Goldstone report’s main findings

22 July 2010

Several of the most dramatic instances of war crimes, which previously stirred Israel’s defenders into fits, are now publicly admitted by the IDF in the recent update to its official response. [Including: The use of] white phosphorous in urban areas … the murder of two unarmed Palestinians carrying white flags … the Al-Fakhura Street incident … the use of innocent Palestinians as human shields … the Al-Samouni family massacre … firing on Al Maqadmah and other mosques during prayer time.

Israel and economic “warfare” (video)

22 July 2010

The Israeli Parliament approved the first of three readings of a new law which, if passed, will make it illegal to declare a boycott on Israel or Israeli companies, participate in a boycott, or provide aid in the form of information to anyone who is part of the BDS campaign. The bill also penalizes the PA for its decision in May 2010 to ban the use by Palestinians of settlement products. The law even affects international citizens who will be banned from entry into Israel for 10 years and will be effective retroactively.

Jonathan Cook: “A regional bully with nuclear weapons”

22 July 2010

“The reason why Israel can’t allow Iran to have nuclear weapons is because if Iran developed its own nuclear arsenal, it would totally change the balance of power in the Middle East.” (Video)

Gaza food shortage drives dogs into Israel

22 July 2010

In the last couple of months, residents of the Israeli villages along the Gaza Strip complain about dozens of stray dogs, some possibly diseased, fleeing the Gaza area into Israel, passing underneath the “security fence.” They arrive in groups and cause damage by attacking farm animals, Haaretz reports.

IOA Editor: The story falls short of connecting the flight of the dogs with the severe Gaza-wide food shortage that would cause them to migrate en masse.

Yifat Susskind: In Israel, miscegenation equals rape

21 July 2010

Anyone from the US should recognize the Jerusalem District Court’s ruling for what it is: an anti- miscegenation measure on par with the now-defunct US laws against “race mixing” that were once used to uphold white supremacy… Only they like to call it “national purity,” since Jewish privilege in Israel depends on maintaining the Jewish character of the state. In fact, race-mixing is perceived as such a threat that more than half of all Israeli Jews agree that Jewish-Arab intermarriage is a form of treason.

IDF destroys West Bank village after declaring it military zone

21 July 2010

Amira Hass: Since 1967, Israel has prevented Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley from growing, whether by cutting off their water supply, declaring large areas as live fire zones or banning all construction.

Arab man who posed as Jew to seduce woman convicted of rape in Israel

20 July 2010

An Arab resident of Jerusalem who had consensual sex with a woman who believed him to be Jewish, was convicted yesterday of rape by deception and sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Jerusalem District Court… “The court is obliged to protect the public interest from sophisticated, smooth-tongued criminals who can deceive innocent victims at an unbearable price – the sanctity of their bodies and souls,” wrote the judge.

IOA Editor: We’ve yet to read about a similar sentencing of a man who falsely claimed to be wealthy, or a movie-director or, for that matter, single – all pretences that happen daily. For centuries, people have lied in the pursuit of sex, and this comment is not an attempt to justify it. But it is clear that only this one particular lie – for an Arab to dare pretend being a Jew(!), something which the accused denied doing – will land a Palestinian in jail for 18 months, “to protect the public interest.” In Israel, that is. Ethnic separation is very important to most Israelis (see Israel bids to stop interracial dating), and this court seems eager to comply. This is Apartheid-style racism that is deep-seated in Israel – including among the ‘educated classes,’ such as lawyers and judges.

Jonathan Cook: One-state debate explodes myth about the Zionist left

20 July 2010

We should not romanticise these Likud converts. They are not speaking of the “state of all its citizens” demanded by Israel’s tiny group of Jewish non-Zionists. Most would require that Palestinians accept life in a state dominated by Jews.

IOA Editor: Indeed, we shouldn’t. In the words of an important Beitar song – penned by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the Israeli Right’s spiritual leader – “two banks has the Jordan [River], this one is ours and so is the other.”

Ali Abunimah: Israeli right embracing one-state?

20 July 2010

Recently, proposals to grant Israeli citizenship to Palestinians in the West Bank, including the right to vote for the knesset, have emerged from a surprising direction: Right-wing stalwarts such as knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin, and former defence minister Moshe Arens, both from the Likud party of Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister.

Ahmed Tibi: Why are equal rights dangerous?

20 July 2010

Palestinian freedom and equal rights are unlikely to be secured by a United States committed to false notions of Israeli security. Since his Cairo speech, President Barack Obama has failed to pursue new policies. In the Middle East, he is regarded as full of fine but empty words. Empty because securing Palestinian freedom and equal rights requires standing up to Israel.

Cynthia McKinney: US voters can demand Palestine’s freedom

20 July 2010

This movement is taking upon itself what governments have failed to do: to hold Israel accountable for its crimes. The dockworkers’ refusal to deal with Israeli ships is part of this vibrant movement and comes in response to the appeal in 2005 from Palestinian civil society. Other initiatives include campaigns for the boycott of Israeli products, divestment from companies aiding Israeli war crimes, and cultural isolation, so as to not entertain Israeli apartheid.

Iara Lee: Slandering the Good Guys – Some Basic Facts About IHH

20 July 2010

Like the physical assault on the boat, the Israeli media assault was also reckless, clumsy, malicious, and dangerous… I am a firm believer that actions speak louder than words, and in this spirit I thought it might help to take a closer look at IHH, and judge this group based on their actions, rather than empty words.

Food co-op in Rachel Corrie’s hometown boycotts Israeli goods

20 July 2010

Board member: “I am trying to be realistic – the Olympia Food Co-Op boycott is not going to change the Israeli policy, but I believe that these small drops will eventually have an effect. I would like to see more co-ops joining the boycott and more voices involved.”

Israeli Conscientious objector Yonatan Shapira questioned by Shin Bet

19 July 2010

Almost immediately, Shapira related, she began talking about his activity in Global BDS Movement: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions for Palestine, which supports measures against Israel… The agent reminded Shapira the Knesset was expected shortly to outlaw calls for sanctions against Israel.

Jonathan Cook: Netanyahu admits on video he deceived US to destroy Oslo accord

19 July 2010

[Netanyahu's] has so far avoided engaging meaningfully in the limited talks the White House is promoting with the Palestinians while the pace of settlement building in the WB has been barely affected by the 10-month freeze, due to end in September. In the meantime, planning officials have repeatedly approved large new housing projects in E. Jerusalem and the WB that have undercut the negotiations and will make the establishment of a Palestinian state – viable or otherwise – far less likely.

UPDATE Watch Video – Netanyahu: “At that moment I actually stopped the Oslo accord”

Israel eyes ‘legal’ takeover of abandoned East Jerusalem properties

19 July 2010

Pending court approval, government could assume control over properties of people who moved to enemy states during the War of Independence, as well as structures that belong to people now residing in the [occupied] territories.

IOA Editor: Not “legal” and not “abandoned.” The term “abandoned property” was created by the Israeli legal system after Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine’s Arab population in 1948, specifically to acquire Palestinian owned properties. In many cases, then and now, the “abandoned” properties belong to a population that was forcibly evicted, or kept out, of the very property that was subsequently deemed “abandoned.”

550 IDF officers and soldiers interrogated about possible war crimes in Gaza

19 July 2010

Brigadier Ilan Malka is not alone. More than 550 [IDF] officers and men of IDF who participated in the “Cast Lead” operation have been interrogated by the investigative military police of the IDF in the last 18 months.

Amira Hass: The brain tumor method of leaving Gaza

19 July 2010

There are about 35,000 Palestinians who live in the West Bank but are registered as Gazans. Due to Israel’s successful 20-year-old policy of isolating the population of the Strip, they are in permanent danger of deportation.

Netanyahu: “At that moment I actually stopped the Oslo accord” (video)

19 July 2010

Jonathan Cook: The “one video Benjamin Netanyahu … must be praying never gets posted on YouTube with English subtitles… Its contents threaten to gravely embarrass not only Mr. Netanyahu but also the US administration of Barack Obama.”

Gideon Levy: “Outrageous”

IOA Editor: Here it is, with English subtitles, the ‘smoking gun’ with which Netanyahu killed the “peace process.” And continues to do so.

Israeli doctors in Congo to aid burn victims get slammed for occupation

18 July 2010

“I came to save lives, but also because it’s important to me to show that Israel is not the Flotilla Country that it is painted out to be,” said the Israeli doctor… “International aid organizations here are very pro-Palestinian and not too friendly to Israelis,” said an American training specialist.

Gideon Levy: Tricky Bibi

18 July 2010

Forget the Bar-Ilan University speech, forget the virtual achievements in his last visit to the US; this is the real Netanyahu. No more claims that the Palestinians are to blame for the failure of the Oslo Accords. Netanyahu exposed the naked truth…: he destroyed the Oslo accords with his own hands and deeds, and he’s even proud of it. After years in which we were told that the Palestinians are to blame, the truth has emerged from the horse’s mouth.

Al-Khalil/Hebron: Israeli Border Police destroy vegetable fields in Al Beqa’a Valley (video)

18 July 2010

Israeli border police destroyed several Palestinian fields in Al Beqa’a Valley just east of Hebron on 6 July 2010, directly affecting the livelihood of more than one hundred Palestinians.

Greater US military aid should assist Israel’s ‘tough’ peace talks decisions, official says

16 July 2010

An expanded security aid package should allow Israel to reach tough decisions in its peace talks with the Palestinians, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Andrew J. Shapiro said Friday, adding that Washington planned to provide Israel with its most extensive security aid package in history.

IOA Editor: If you believe this, we have a local bridge to sell you. An important update from an Administration that, when it comes to the ME, is no better than its predecessors, and possibly even worse. Wearing his horse-blinds tightly, Mr. Obama is telling us he didn’t mean a word he said in Cairo last year (“A New Beginning“).

David Landau: Boycott the Knesset

16 July 2010

I am hastening to call for this boycott because I want to earn a footnote in Jewish history: He tried, Canute-like, to stand against the wave of fascism that engulfed the Zionist project.

Jonathan Cook: Israel Stops Listening to Its Judges

16 July 2010

The Israeli government is facing legal action for contempt over its refusal to implement a Supreme Court ruling that it end a policy of awarding preferential budgets to Jewish communities, including settlements, rather than much poorer Palestinian Arab towns and villages inside Israel.

Gideon Levy: Gestures to the Palestinians

16 July 2010

Which is crueler? Expelling an urban family from its home in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, or bulldozing a meager tent encampment of shepherds living on private Jordan Valley land they leased, destroying their water tanks, their tents and their sheep pens, and expelling families with many children from the land on which they live? It’s hard to say.

David Shulman: Sheikh Jarrah – July 9, 2010

15 July 2010

Some things are amazingly simple. In Sheikh Jarrah you can see pure theft in all its starkness. The Bible says “Thou shalt not steal,” and it – God, that is – was referring to Sheikh Jarrah. Any one can see it. The shocking thing, of course, is that the whole apparatus of the modern state – the municipality, its committees and master plans and grey bureaucrats, the mayor, the government, the Prime Minister, the cabinet, the courts, the police, the secret services – all these have colluded in actively perpetrating the theft.

Lamis Andoni: PA ‘must not bow to blackmail’

15 July 2010

Vague promises to extend the partial freeze on settlement building and to alleviate some of the daily hardships encountered by Palestinians are no more than the blackmail tactics Israel has always employed against those under its control.

Shir Hever: The political economy of Israel’s Occupation

15 July 2010

A seven-part series on the political economy of the Israeli Occupation. Paul Jay of The Real News Network interviews Shir Hever, an Israeli economist and expert in the political economy of the Occupation whose forthcoming book is The Political Economy of Israel’s Occupation.

IOA Editor: This is a very important series. Among other things, it confirms Amira Hass’s assertions, made regularly, that Israel knows that peace just doesn’t pay.