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

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Gideon Levy: Why can we talk to Hamas about Shalit, but not peace?

26 November 2009

Why is it permissible to talk to Hamas about the fate of one captive soldier and another several hundred prisoners, but forbidden to talk to them about the fate of two nations? Never has Israeli logic been so distorted… Israel must remove the criminal siege against Gaza and call on the international community to remove the boycott against Hamas, which was imposed under Israel’s leadership.

“We will have to kill them all”: Effie Eitam, thug messiah

25 November 2009

When Hillel [was asked] to cancel Eitam’s meeting because of his previous violence and hate speech… it refused. Hillel and other Eitam supporters responded that the scrupulously-documented charges made against him were a “medieval blood libel”; that Eitam never said or did these things; that he was misquoted… or quoted out of context; that the leading Israeli newspapers reporting his words and deeds were part of a vast left-wing conspiracy; and that even if Eitam did say and do these things, he represents an important sector of Israeli opinion that should be heard.

Amira Hass: Institutionalized voyeurism

25 November 2009

For years, Israel has developed an entire industry of institutionalized voyeurism. It is a bureaucratic apparatus employing high technology, which not only enhances its methods of control, but also manufactures justification for that control to persist. Israeli society warmly embraces these professional voyeurs and their explanation that their work stems from “security demands.”

IOA Editor: See also Jonathan Cook’s: Israeli spies ‘infiltrate’ Johannesburg airport.

Rights group: Not one indictment over damage to Palestinian olive groves

25 November 2009

The human rights organization Yesh Din says not one of the 69 complaints filed during the past four years on damage to Palestinians’ trees in the West Bank has resulted in an indictment.

US may allow Israeli upgrades to F-35 fighter jet

25 November 2009

The United States is expected to ease its opposition to incorporating Israeli systems in the F-35 if Israel expedites its order for the stealth strike fighter… a version of the F-35 that would include command and control systems developed in Israel, as well as the ability to carry advanced missiles that are made in Israel.

Reuven Pedatzur: Keeping the Golan won’t protect Israel from Syria

25 November 2009

On June 19, 1967, a week and a half after the end of fighting in the Six-Day War, ministers, including Menachem Begin, were willing to give up on the gains made on the Syrian front in exchange for peace.

Israel police ‘arrest Mossad spy on training exercise’

24 November 2009

The young trainee was spotted by a female passer-by as he planted a fake bomb under a vehicle in the capital.

IOA Editor: Israeli agents have a long history of bomb-planting throughout the Arab World, from Egypt in the 1950s to Syria and Lebanon in recent years.

Abbas: Obama is ‘doing nothing’ for Middle East peace

24 November 2009

“For now he is doing nothing, but he has invited us to revive the peace process. I hope that in the future he can play a more important role,” Abbas said in an interview.

Yoel Marcus: How we became a night unto the nations

24 November 2009

Of greatest concern is what is happening on American campuses, which are slowly becoming pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli. That is dangerous because this is where America’s future leaders are bred. But our opponents are not motivated by anti-Semitism, as our political hacks like to claim. If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, then anti-Semitism is the last refuge of the occupier.

IOA Editor: Marcus, historically, a defender of the Occupation, is beginning to appreciate the significance of Israel’s diminishing popularity. This Israel-centric commentator marks the early signs of change, and a welcome indication of the success of BDS and the global anti-Occupation movement.

Moshé Machover: Is it Apartheid?

23 November 2009

In recent months there is a growing tendency among opponents of Israeli oppression and defenders of Palestinian rights to refer to Israeli policy towards the Palestinians as “apartheid”… I would like to warn against an unthinking use of this misleading analogy between Israeli policy and that of the defunct apartheid regime in South Africa. It is theoretically false and politically harmful.

IOA Editor: This very important discussion of the similarities and differences between the Occupation and Apartheid, originally published in 2004, is again timely, in view of recent commentaries, including on the IOA.

Himmat Zoabi: Why do fewer Arab women have jobs in Israel than Saudi Arabia?

23 November 2009

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz appears to have been unaware of some important facts when he said at a recent conference on discrimination that Arab society in Israel is partially responsible for the low levels of employment for Arab women.

Israeli spies ‘infiltrate’ Johannesburg airport

23 November 2009

“Our research showed that the checks conducted by El Al at foreign airports had all the hallmarks of Shin Bet interrogations,” said Mohammed Zeidan, the director of the Human Rights Association. “Usually the questions were less about the safety of the flight and more aimed at gathering information on the political activities or sympathies of the passengers.”

Akiva Eldar: Jerusalem Syndrome

23 November 2009

First we shape a new reality for ourselves; then we expect the entire world to adopt it, demand that our neighbors pay the cost, and complain that we have no partner for peace.

Anat Matar: A superfluous show of sovereignty

23 November 2009

Currently around 130 Palestinian citizens of Israel are incarcerated as security prisoners. Hamas… is concentrating on the 22 who have been in jail for more than 15 years, much longer than the average for offenders sentenced to life… None are Hamas members. Some are serving life sentences, although they were not convicted of murder or manslaughter. In most cases, a minimum term before eligibility for parole has not been set, in others it has been set at 40 or 45 years.

Why is Israel laying claim to an Arab home in Jaffa?

22 November 2009

IOA Editor: Another example of Israeli takeover of land and property owned by Palestinian individuals or institutions by “legal” or illegal means – based on the winner’s ability to write the law. This convoluted case – based on special Israeli laws written to legalize, and thus legitimize, the takeover of “abandoned properties” left by Palestinians after the Nakba – shows how Israel’s war against Palestine continues, 61 years after 1948.

A current case, different circumstances, different legal basis, but the very same theme: HERE.

Lebanese forces fire at Israeli drone

21 November 2009

“To the best of my knowledge, there’s probably no other country in the world… which is subject to such an intrusive regime of aerial surveillance,” UN special envoy for Lebanon Michael Williams said this month.

The New York Mets and the business of terrorism

20 November 2009

[The US] defines terrorism as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.” The Hebron settlers’ violence is certainly premeditated. It is, by their own admission, politically motivated. It is perpetrated solely against noncombatant targets (overwhelmingly children), and it is obviously the work of a subnational group – the settlers themselves. The business of the Hebron settlers is terrorism, pure and simple.

Noam Chomsky: ME Questions

20 November 2009

Noam Chomsky in BBC interview:The war in Afghanistan is “immoral.” He spoke to Stephen Sackur and answered viewer questions, among them several on the Middle East.

Kahane tribute may damage peace talks

20 November 2009

US embassy: “To stir up controversy at the same time that we are trying to get people back to the [negotiating] table, is not productive… It is only natural that Senator Mitchell would be paying attention to that – and the US government as well.”

IOA Editor: The spirit of Kahane is alive and well (as they used to say, “Kahane Chai” – “כהנא חי”)… Thriving from the hills of the West Bank all the way into Israel’s Knesset. This would serve only as the latest excuse for the US failure to get “people back to the table,” with the primary reason being the woefully one-sided, twisted US foreign policy – one that accepts Occupation of one nation by another as a normal state of affairs.

Middle East Report: Apartheid and Beyond

20 November 2009

“Apartheid” is a word bomb akin to “lynching” or “untouchables.” It explodes upon the page, ripping the scabs off the wounds of state-enforced segregation in South Africa, a system that ended only in 1994… We have used the word “apartheid” to describe Israel’s system of rule over the Palestinians with eyes wide open to the incendiary quality of the term… Our purpose in making this comparison is not to shock… Rather, we seek… to stare hard, cold realities in the face and to participate in the discussion about how to transcend them without compounding the loss and dislocation they have already caused.

PCHR: Extensive Israeli Campaign Against Palestinian Civil Construction Activities in Area C

19 November 2009

Israeli Occupation Forces have escalated their systematic campaign against Palestinian civilian construction activities… Areas classified as Areas C in the West Bank are currently subjected to extensive Israeli campaigns aimed at undermining the Palestinian presence. Israel is also expanding construction activities in settlements and the annexation of new areas of Palestinian lands in Area C, including occupied East Jerusalem and its surroundings.

Virginia Tilley: Bantustans and the unilateral declaration of statehood

19 November 2009

[I]t’s no exaggeration to propose that this idea, although well-meant by some, raises the clearest danger to the Palestinian national movement in its entire history, threatening to wall Palestinian aspirations into a political cul-de-sac from which it may never emerge. The irony is indeed that, through this maneuver, the PA is seizing — even declaring as a right — precisely the same dead-end formula that the African National Congress (ANC) fought so bitterly for decades because the ANC leadership rightly saw it as disastrous. That formula can be summed up in one word: Bantustan.

IOA Editor: See comments on article page.

Victor Kattan: UDI won’t mean Palestinian statehood

19 November 2009

[Lacking] the most essential elements of statehood: independence and sovereignty, and effective control over its territory… A Palestinian state that is recognised under these circumstances, with its territory partitioned, and subdivided into cantons, surrounded by walls, fences, ditches, watchtowers, and barbed wire, would scarcely be a state worthy of the name.

Area C: Stopping the stadium in its tracks

19 November 2009

Officials at Al-Bireh city hall see a connection between the stop-work order, and the Palestinian refusal to return to the negotiating table as long as Israel does not freeze construction in the settlements… “This is a typical kind of Israeli pressure, which means: ‘Either you go back to negotiations or we’ll punish you. We’ll do whatever we can to upset your lives.’”

INN Poll: “Transfer” Tops Solutions to Arab-Israeli Problem

19 November 2009

Right-wing Arutz 7 (Israel National News) Poll: “What’s the best solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict?” 53% said “Transfer of Palestinians to another Arab country,” 31% said “two-states for two peoples,” and 14% said “Jordanian citizenship.”

Palestinian internet users stuck between Fatah, Hamas and Israel

19 November 2009

Israel prevents equipment meant for bettering the internet industry from entering the Palestinian Authority – equipment such as servers and routers. Moreover, Israel is delaying giving a permit to Wataniya, a second cell phone and internet provider in the West Bank, which bolsters the existing company PalTel’s monopoly.

Joe Klein: Israelophilia

19 November 2009

Dov Hikind is not only a U.S. citizen, but also a member of the NY state legislature… and he wants to buy property in an illegal Jewish settlement, in an East Jerusalem neighborhood that the U.S. government considers a disputed area where no additional construction should be taking place? Indeed, it is an area that would be the capital of Palestine, if and when we achieve a two-state solution.

IOA Editor: Irrespective of the warped comment on “the deal negotiated by Bill Clinton (and foolishly rejected by the Palestinians),” a view common in US media and among those not doing critical, careful fact-checking – including Klein, “a lifetime supporter of the Jewish state,” who feels the need to state it – this commentary shows the changes currently underway in how Israeli aggression is covered in the US.

For facts and myths on the Bill Clinton “deal,” see Gush Shalom’s presentation: Barak’s “Generous Offers”

Norman Finkelstein: A question of principle and practicality

19 November 2009

[T]here is a gradual mobilizing, galvanizing of public opinion such that… you can see the writing on the wall, that Israel is getting closer and closer to being held accountable… And in that respect you can say the Goldstone report marked a qualitative change. They recognized now for the first time that the shadow of accountability is hanging over them.

Barghouti wants popular, diplomatic action

19 November 2009

Marwan Barghouti, former Fatah leader in West Bank, says in interview from his prison cell that peace talks with Israel have failed and now Palestinians must launch popular and diplomatic campaigns to achieve statehood.

Read on Ynetnews.com

Yitzhak Laor: Why the left in Israel vanished

19 November 2009

The threats uttered against a possible Palestinian declaration of independence by our leaders… let the Israeli sanctimony (usually tedious and belabored) drop to the floor for a moment… It exposed the ugly skeleton of force that gives only us freedom of speech… We are allowed to reiterate Israel’s Declaration of Independence over and over. You are not allowed to do so with yours.

Akiva Eldar: Will Netanyahu’s behavior push Obama into Abbas’ arms?

19 November 2009

Obama’s fury was over not only the principle, but also the way Netanyahu handled the crisis… U.S. embassies in Arab countries are reporting that Obama’s charms are wearing off as it becomes clear that nothing has changed since his June speech in Cairo.

The Jordan Times: Moves against peace

19 November 2009

It seems Israel is taking full advantage of the crisis in the peace process to push its anti-peace agenda… It is a rogue state, in contravention of international law, occupying another people’s land in contempt of human rights law and common decent standards of human behaviour… Israel has been given a free pass for too long. Without returning occupied land, it cannot arrive at peace with the Palestinians and there can be no comprehensive peace in this region.

Real Estate Shopping Is Used as Political Theater on Jerusalem’s Contested Ground

18 November 2009

At noon, Mr. Hikind, [a member of the New York State Assembly,] led a group of about 50 American Jews in laying a cornerstone for the next phase of Nof Zion, with construction scheduled to start next spring. “I want to buy here,” Mr. Hikind said. “I might make a deal while I am here this time.”

IOA Editor: This Jerusalem ground is “contested” and the territory “disputed” only in the American media: all international organizations, and the vast majority of countries – including, most of the time, the US – treat East Jerusalem as occupied territory.

Hasan Abu Nimah: Olive oil and yoghurt, yoghurt and olive oil

18 November 2009

Despite the hype, [the new Mofaz "peace" plan] turned out to be nothing more than recycling of familiar worn-out schemes, repeatedly put forward by Israel and then abandoned: a Palestinian state with “temporary borders” on 50 to 60 percent of the West Bank with large Jewish-only settlement blocs annexed to Israel.

Rightist MK blasts ‘racist’ Obama demands on East Jerusalem

18 November 2009

“President Obama should not interfere with the rights of the Jewish people to live in Jerusalem,” said Danon. “This… is a racist demand, saying that Jews cannot live in Jerusalem, only Arabs.”

IOA Editor: Israeli decision-makers know that the surest way to ignite the ME and stop the “peace process” is to expand Jewish development activities in East Jerusalem. Is this why they’re doing just that? Your move, Mr. President.

Palestinians say Israeli move could kill peace process

18 November 2009

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: “This is a clear decision and a clear message… that Israel is not willing and is not ready to stop settlement activities and… that they are not ready for peace.” And: “The Americans should take seriously what is going on,” he added. “The whole situation is deteriorating. The Americans this time should change their policy, the change which we have been promised by President Obama.”

IOA Editor: Again, your move, Mr. President.