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

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Avi Shlaim: Cut off the cash and Israel might behave

21 March 2010

America subsidises Israel to the tune of $3bn a year. America is Israel’s principal arms supplier, enabling it to retain the technological edge over all its enemies, near and far. In the diplomatic arena too, America extends to Israel virtually unqualified support, including the use of the veto in the UN Security Council to defeat resolutions critical of Israel. America condemns Iran for its nuclear ambitions, while turning a blind eye to Israel’s possession of a large arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Udi Aloni: Israelis are behaving like spoiled rich brats

21 March 2010

The majority of Jewish Israelis are complicit in the perpetuation of the current state of affairs. When growing groups of conscientious people refuse to play the game of building a fictitious democratic sand castle on the shores of the Mediterranean, the Israeli Jew behaves like a spoiled rich brat, who would rather destroy his own castle than see natives share his world and his dreams.

‘Current Knesset is the most racist in Israeli history’

21 March 2010

The current Knesset is the most racist Israeli parliament since the country’s founding, according to a report published Sunday by the Coalition Against Racism and the Mossawa Center, which works to promote equality for the Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Arab family denied right to rent home

21 March 2010

Jonathan Cook: Israel has nationalised 93 per cent of the country’s territory, confining most of its 1.3 million Arab citizens, one-fifth of the population, to 120 or so communities that existed at the time of the state’s creation in 1948. Meanwhile, more than 700 rural communities, including Nevatim, have remained exclusively Jewish by requiring that anyone who wants to buy a home applies to local vetting committees, which have been used to weed out Arab applicants.

Haifa divides over restaurant’s ban on Israeli soldier

21 March 2010

Jonathan Cook: An Arab-owned restaurant in the Israeli city of Haifa has been caught in a whirlwind of legal action and threats of violence after staff refused to serve a soldier in military uniform, an incident that is rapidly tarnishing the city’s reputation as a model of good Jewish-Arabs relations.

Bashir Abu-Manneh: Notes on Israel’s Triumph to Disaster

20 March 2010

international public opinion would welcome a mass Palestinian revolt. Voices for boycott and sanctions against Israeli apartheid would grow. Voices to lift the siege on Gaza would strengthen. And Israel would again confirm itself in popular world opinion as a pariah state. Will that cause a crack in its own flawed self-image? One hopes so. Will Israelis come to see themselves for what they really are: brutal, self-indulgent occupiers who are holding a whole people hostage? They may well do. There are certainly some beleaguered Israeli anti-occupation groups who are in desperate need for supporters and sympathizers.

Haaretz: IDF vs. democracy and freedom of speech

20 March 2010

[T]he IDF harms not only one of the basic values of democratic rule, the freedom to demonstrate, but also discriminates in its policy, granting excessive liberty to lawless settlers while being heavy-handed with leftist protesters. The IDF order is therefore a revolting and ridiculous act, and the defense minister… must take immediate action to void it.

IOA Editor: It is extremely unlikely that General Barak will void the IDF decision, which he likely pre-approved.

Nurit Peled-Elhanan: I will mourn on Nakba Day

18 March 2010

I will mourn on Nakba Day. And also on the day that precedes it which we call Remembrance Day and which is nothing but a day dedicated to the cult of dead flesh, at the end of which everyone goes out and grills another kind of dead flesh on open flames, sings, dances, overeats and gets drunk. I will mourn for our Independence Day that is nothing but a celebration of the triumph of closure and subjugation.

Dr. Barghouthi Pledges Support To Beleaguered Jerusalemites

18 March 2010

Mustafa Barghouthi: “I do not have any permission issued by the Israeli authorities to enter East Jerusalem, and I do not recognise the fact that Israel has the power to issue permits to Palestinians to enter their city. We are here on the day in which Israel is establishing facts on the ground, to show that we will never give up Jerusalem.”

Report: Petraeus Warns Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mullen that Israel Is Jeopardizing US Security Interests

18 March 2010

DemocracyNow!: Veteran military and foreign affairs analyst and author Mark Perry reports that CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus dispatched a team of senior military officers in January to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Perry reports that the briefers told Mullen that “Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing US standing in the region.”

Mariam Said: Barenboim-Said Foundation does not promote normalization

17 March 2010

Edward [Said] was a visionary and constructive critic who spoke truth to power. He was a courageous and original thinker who was not afraid of taking risks and going against the grain, who always thought in alternative ways that led to opening roads and building bridges. The only thing he most abhorred was criticism that was destructive.

Jordan king says Jerusalem is ‘red line’

17 March 2010

Jordan’s King Abdullah II: “Jerusalem is a red line and the world should not be silent about Israel’s attempts to get rid of Jerusalem’s Arabs residents, Muslims or Christians,” the king told visiting EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, according to a palace statement.

49% Say Israel Should Stop Building Settlements As Part of Peace Deal

17 March 2010

Israel’s insistence on building new settlements in disputed Palestinian territory has heightened tensions with the United States. Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters think Israel should be required to stop those settlements as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.

‘Softened’ Nakba law passes 1st reading

16 March 2010

MK Taleb El-Sana (United Arab List-Ta’al): [The law] “proves the failure of Zionism, which needs to legislate a law in order to force the Zionist narrative and to rewrite history during which the Zionist movement committed crimes against humanity on the Palestinian people.”

Israeli Rightists prepare banner declaring Obama as ‘PLO agent’

16 March 2010

Israeli Right poster: “Caution! PLO agent in the White House!”

Rightist: “[W]e will teach those Leftists what democracy is,” he added. “Obama is anti-Semitic, pro-Arab, an agent of the PLO and we stand behind what the poster says.”

IOA Editor: Hardly – but there’s no reason for the Israeli Right not to try pushing Netanyahu further to the right. This latest, made-in-Israel diplomatic crisis is reminiscent of the Bush-Baker-Shamir mini-crisis. We know how quickly the US bounced back to letting Israel carry on with the Occupation and inflict a great deal more damage to the Palestinians.

Cindy Corrie: Today, do something for Rachel

16 March 2010

This month, a civil lawsuit in Israel in the case of our daughter Rachel Corrie will converge with the seven-year anniversary of her killing in Gaza. A human rights observer and activist, Rachel, 23, was crushed to death by an Israel Defense Force (IDF) Caterpillar D9R bulldozer as she tried nonviolently to offer protection for a Palestinian family whose home was threatened with demolition. This lawsuit is one piece of our family’s seven-year effort to pursue accountability for Rachel while, also, challenging the Occupation that claimed her life.

IDF declares West Bank protest villages a ‘closed military area’

15 March 2010

Amira Hass: The army has declared the West Bank villages of Bil’in and Ni’lin a ‘closed military area’ until August 17, it emerged Monday. In arresting a demonstrator on Friday, police cited a military edict closing off the two villages, where weekly protests against the barrier Israel is erecting around the West Bank have often turned violent.

IOA Editor: The latest IDF scheme against non-violent protest against the Wall: If you can’t beat them, ban them. Declaring a ‘closed military area’ is an old Israeli military administration trick used extensively in the 1950s and 1960s to confiscate Palestinian agricultural lands: Owners were first disallowed access to their land; subsequently, and under a seemingly unrelated regulation, the land was confiscated for being allowed to lie fallow. In this case, closing the area means that both protesters and the media will be banned from Bil’in and Na’alin.

Gideon Levy: Israel’s Arabs have been misbehaving lately

14 March 2010

The ultimate Israeli dream is that the Coptis and Tibis will disappear from sight. If the so-called demographic problem can’t be solved by driving Arabs out, we’ll try to get rid of them another way: destroy their identity, cloud their national memory and turn them into Israelis, not to mention Zionists. It won’t work. We are not only talking about economic discrimination, but about trampling on national heritage. This won’t work either.

Zvi Barel: Israel demands peace from Palestinians as its own racism spreads

14 March 2010

The Strategic Affairs Ministry [General Yaalon] never ceases to bring us peace of mind. How nice to know that someone in Israel is monitoring Palestinian incitement, ensuring they “create an environment of peace” and striving “to push them toward a culture of peace”. After all, what do we care about construction in Jerusalem, Efrat or Ramat Shlomo, or about checkpoints, arrests, home demolitions, the army’s “neighbor policy,” bone breaking, land appropriation or the blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza?

Jonathan Cook: The Decline of Israel and the Prospects for Peace

12 March 2010

[Israel] is a democracy that historically gerrymandered its electoral constituency by expelling most of the indigenous population outside its borders – now referred to as the Palestinian refugees – to ensure a Jewish majority. It has continued to gerrymander its voting base by giving one ethnic group, Jews around the world, an automatic right to become citizens while denying that same right to another ethnic group, Palestinian Arabs.

Jerome Slater: The Failure of the American and Israeli Peace Organizations

12 March 2010

[T]he failure of the peace groups is not simply a strategic one but one of understanding and analysis as well: an inability to fully confront the overwhelming evidence that demolishes the most cherished mythologies in Israel and the American Jewish community.

Abe Hayeem: Israel’s unfair ‘law of return’

12 March 2010

Today there are more than seven million Palestinian refugees around the world. Israel denies their right to return to their homes and land – a right recognised by UN resolution 194, the Geneva convention, and the universal declaration of human rights. Further, “an occupier may not forcibly deport protected persons… or transfer parts of its own civilian population into occupied territory” (article 49).

Child’s testimony incriminates soldiers

12 March 2010

“I thought they would kill me. I became very scared and wet my pants. I could not shout or say anything because I was too afraid… He pushed me towards the small corridor in front of the bathrooms. He began shouting at me and speaking a language I did not understand… There were two bags in front of me. I grabbed the first one as he stood one and a half meters away. I opened the bag as he pointed his weapon directly at me. I emptied the bag on the floor. It contained money and papers. I looked at him and he was laughing. I grabbed the second bag to open it but I could not. I tried many times but it was useless, so he shouted at me. He grabbed my hair and slapped me very hard across the face.”

IOA Editor: No matter how this indictment turns out, or whether the IDF finds it politically convenient to sacrifice two soldiers for the sake of international propaganda — “the most moral army in the world,” etc. — this is a testimony to the IDF’s actual behavior: one of thousands of rarely told stories that emerges more than a year after the crimes were committed.

Poll: Half of Israeli high schoolers oppose equal rights for Arabs

12 March 2010

Nearly half of Israel’s high school students do not believe that Israeli-Arabs are entitled to the same rights as Jews in Israel, according to the results of a new survey released yesterday. The same poll revealed that more than half the students would deny Arabs the right to be elected to the Knesset.

Akiva Eldar: US gave Israel green light for East Jerusalem construction

12 March 2010

To wipe the spit off his face, Biden had to say it was only rain. Therefore, he lauded Netanyahu’s assertion that actual construction in Ramat Shlomo would begin only in another several years. Thus Israel essentially received an American green light for approving even more building plans in East Jerusalem.

Ashkenazi raises over $20m. at IDF fundraiser in NY

11 March 2010

“The idea that there’s a 501c3 non-profit that raises money for a foreign army seems a little odd,” said Nancy Kricorian, coordinator of CODEPINK in New York, who said “there was something about Cast Lead that was a turning point for us.”

IOA Editor: Video of the demonstration
Also, photos of the demonstration

Israel planning 50,000 housing units in East Jerusalem

11 March 2010

If the East Jerusalem construction plans are implemented, they will make it impossible to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said [Orly Noy,] an activist of the left-wing Ir Amim non-governmental organization. [T]he East Jerusalem construction “will move Israel beyond the point of no return, as far as an agreed solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is concerned,” she said.

IOA Editor: The history of the past 100 years clearly indicates that this is the intended purpose of the planned projects. Bit by bit – “dunam here and dunam there,” as the old Zionist adage goes – the carefully planned expansion will forever eliminate even the theoretical possibility of a Palestinian state. For example, see the following:

Orly Noy: New Construction in East Jerusalem – What It Really Means
EU envoys: Israel trying to sever East Jerusalem from West Bank
New West Bank roads jeopardizing chances for peace accord
Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement

Gideon Levy: Thank you, Eli Yishai, for exposing the peace process masquerade

11 March 2010

What’s the big deal? Another 1,600 apartments for ultra-Orthodox Jews on occupied, stolen land? Jerusalem won’t ever be divided, Benjamin Netanyahu promised, in another applause-winning move. In that case, why not build in it? The Americans have agreed to all this, so they have no reason to pretend to be insulted.

Israeli court to hear civil case over death of Rachel Corrie in Gaza

10 March 2010

Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother, said the family was still waiting for the credible, transparent investigation Israel first promised into her daughter’s death. “I just want to say to Rachel that our family is here today trying to just do right by her and I hope that she will be very proud of the effort we are making,” she said.

David Kimche dies; Israeli spy involved in Iran-contra scandal

10 March 2010

He had been “the man with the suitcase,” who would “appear in an African country a day or two before a major coup and leave a week later after the new regime was firmly in control, often with the aid of Israeli security teams.” Mr. Kimche later supervised agents who infiltrated Arab countries. Haaretz said he was… a founder of Mossad’s research department.

IOA Editor: Kimche was probably involved in the Mossad’s assassination campaign in Europe in the 1970s-1980s, specifically targeting moderate Palestinians – those who posed the greatest threat to Israel’s occupation of lands conquered in the 1967 war.

US: East Jerusalem plan undermines peace talks

9 March 2010

Meir Margalit, Meretz’s representative to the Jerusalem city council, claimed that the statement was meant to disrupt a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden, saying that he had “no doubt that the timing isn’t coincidental,” calling the announcement Interior Minister “Eli Yishai’s answer to Netanyahu’s willingness to renew indirect peace talks with the Palestinians.”

IOA Editor: Business as usual, Occupation as usual. As we already know, Israel often behaves as an ungrateful client-state. The Obama White House accepts such behavior with love and understanding.

Jonathan Cook: Israel Set to Join Club of Richest Nations

8 March 2010

“The OECD seems to be so determined to get Israel through its door that it is prepared to cover up the crimes of the occupation,” said Shir Hever, a Jerusalem-based economist. Israel has been lobbying for nearly 20 years to be admitted to the OECD, founded in 1961 for wealthy industrialized democracies to meet and coordinate economic and social policies. It includes the United States and most of Europe.

Left-wing groups to protest NY visit of Ashkenazi

8 March 2010

A massive demonstration will greet IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi when he arrives at the luxury Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan this week to speak at a Friends of the IDF fund-raiser.

UPDATE: It was a large turnout and we marched around the midtown block filled by the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Some so-called “pro-Israel” folks tried to change our minds… and a separate Palestinian protest took place nearby. The authorities were not unfriendly, and one or two individuals — working on behalf of one or more, local or foreign, government agencies — recorded the images of each of us as we passed by their lenses.

Assaf Kfoury: Whither Hezbollah

8 March 2010

Hezbollah is the guerilla force that stymied the Israeli military in southern Lebanon in the 1990’s. The Israeli occupiers and their proxies in the South Lebanon Army finally gave up and withdrew in May 2000. In a return confrontation in July-August 2006, Hezbollah again stood its ground, and the Israeli military was again stunned by a gritty enemy.

Top Fatah official faces jail over Jerusalem protests

7 March 2010

Jerusalem – Ma’an – Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein filed a litany of charges against senior Fatah official Hatem Abdul Qader, all in relation to recent civil unrest among Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Moshé Machover: Israeli Socialism and anti-Zionism

7 March 2010

[The] main theses are two sides of one medal:

1. In Israel the struggle for socialism must be part of a regional struggle; and it necessarily implies a struggle to overthrow Zionism.

2. Conversely, a defensive struggle against the worst effects of Zionism can be waged on its own as a series of one-issue campaigns, by single-issue groupings; but Zionism cannot and will not be overthrown in this way. It can only be overthrown as part of a socialist transformation of the entire region, the Arab East. And it requires an organization set up according to this strategy.