RePortersNoteBook.com: Mondoweiss

Apr 11, 2010

Mondoweiss

New Israeli military order on 'lawful permits' would seem to allow expulsion of all West Bank Palestinians
IDF to turn dogs loose on Palestinian kids who throw stones
1 out of 4 Israeli scholars work here
Tutu: Issue is the same in Palestine as it was in South Africa, 'equality'
Finkelstein is on the road
Eldar summons 'hundreds' more Anat Kams to save Israel from itself
Obama imposed 'peace plan' would deny basic Palestinian rights
Now think of all the U.S. synagogues with banners saying, 'We support Israel in its quest for peace'
Scottish minister is talking BDS
Israel is a society in crisis

New Israeli military order on 'lawful permits' would seem to allow expulsion of all West Bank Palestinians

Posted: 11 Apr 2010 10:05 AM PDT

Source files at: http://www.hamoked.org.il/news_main_en.asp?id=904

Israeli human rights organization HaMoked today distributed a press release warning that Israel had passed a new military order that requires all residents of the West Bank obtain an Israeli issued permit.

On Tuesday, April 13 2010, the Order regarding Prevention of Infiltration (Amendment No. 2) and the Order regarding Security Provisions (Amendment No. 112) are to enter into effect. The orders, signed by the previous GOC Central Command, Gadi Shamni but not revealed, are worded so broadly such as theoretically allowing the military to empty the West Bank of almost all its Palestinian inhabitants.

Despite the severe ramifications of the orders, the authorities did not publicize their existence among the Palestinian population as required, which raises grave concerns that they intended to pass them secretly without public debate or judicial review.

The orders substantively change the definition of "infiltrator" and in effect apply it to anyone who is present in the West Bank without an Israeli permit. The orders do not define what Israel considers a valid permit. The vast majority of people now living in the West Bank have never been required to hold any sort of permit to be present therein.

Israeli journalist Amira Hass reported in Ha'aretz today that the order would initially likely target Gazans living in the West Bank, as well as Gazan and foreign spouses of West Bank Palestinians.

It also seems clear that international activists and independent journalists living in the West Bank—to whom Israel is hardly likely to issue permits—would also be threatened, but the most disturbing fact remains that the wording of the order—as HaMoked warns—seems unambiguously to threaten the presence of all Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank.

The military order allows for violators to be imprisoned for up to seven years or deported.

Nigel Parry is a former webmaster of Birzeit University, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, and a longtime independent media activist. He currently lives in Pittsburgh, PA.

IDF to turn dogs loose on Palestinian kids who throw stones

Posted: 11 Apr 2010 10:01 AM PDT

The argument that the New York Times has been pushing that children who throw stones at occupying Israeli soldiers are important evidence of the violence of the Palestinian protests (rather than impulsive angry resistance) is echoed (what a surprise) by a new Israeli term: "popular terror," to label these bad children who throw stones. Journalist Didi Remez picks up the Maariv story on the IDF's use of dogs against these kids as a "non-lethal" option.

"Disturbances have increased throughout Judea and Samaria in recent months," says Maariv; thus the IDF will turn to the "Oketz dog." Oketz is an army unit, with the charmingly choppy resonance of totalitarian names across Europe back in the day. I tell you: this is a society in deep spiritual crisis, now in an apartheid struggle, no longer on the verge of one. But expect the U.S. press to catch up to this story in 3 years, when it is too late to avert worse bloodshed.

1 out of 4 Israeli scholars work here

Posted: 11 Apr 2010 09:41 AM PDT

More on Israel in crisis. David Horovitz, the editor of the Jerusalem Post, and a leading Israel lobbyist, publishes a soulless list of Israeli employment and education statistics compiled by an Israeli-American scholar, Dan Ben-David, that show that: Educated Israelis are fleeing the country, and that the growing Palestinian minority is not as educated as its Jewish counterpart, and the Palestinians are way underemployed.

The significance of these figures is, that it doesn't matter if you talk about the Green Line or the '48 territories, or the occupied territories, Israelis must learn to live with Palestinians. This is our Jewish test in the 21st century, to reckon with our power. To quote the great Meir Ariel song about the bifurcated soul of Israel/Palestine: "At the end of every sentence you say in Hebrew sits an Arab with a Nargilah."

Until Jews come to terms with their other, there will be no progress. Israelis must open their hearts, and emulate the gentile governors of the west, and liberalize their society and extend all the privileges of Jews to Palestinians. It's the only way. Imagine if Israel could be a light unto the world?

Here is Horovitz's analysis [emphases mine]:

For every 100 British academic scholars hard at work in Britain, the figures showed, 2.1 British scholars had moved to the US. For France, the number was 2.9. For Italy, 4.2. For Canada, where cross-border movement is a two-way street, the number is 12.2. And for Israel? For every 100 Israeli academic scholars hard at work in Israel, a staggering 24.9 have moved to the US.

...Turning to employment, Ben-David again unveiled a picture still grimmer than conventional wisdom holds. Focusing on men aged 35-54, "those in the age group who have no excuse for not working," he showed nonemployment in the OECD averaging 11.9%, with Spain the worst afflicted at 14.5%. InIsrael, the rate is 18.9%.

The most troubled sectors, as is widely known, are the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors: some 27% of Israeli Arab males and a staggering 65.1% of haredim in that age group aren't working.

And here's where Ben-David's economically and socially terrifying peek into the future really begins to resonate. Because if you look at who the Israelis of tomorrow are going to be, you realize that, as things stand, we are becoming a country of more and more nonworkers. In 1960, 15% of kids going into primary school came from the Arab and haredi sectors – the sectors so blighted by not working. By the 1980s, Arabs and haredim were up to 26% of new primary school kids. In 2000, that figure hit 40% and, as of 2008, it had shot up still further, to 48%. By 2040, according to current projections, Ben-David said soberly, "78% of primary school enrollment will be haredi and Arab. If we don't grapple with these sectors, we're goners."

...The employment rates of Israelis aged 29-54 with a university degree contrast utterly with all the negative statistics. Among Arab women in that age range who don't finish high school, fewer than 10% have work, but among Arab women with a degree, the figure is 70%. And it's around 90% for Arab men and for non-haredi Jewish men and women.

Put simply: Employment is a function of education. Get a degree, get a job. Improve education here, and you raise growth, tackle poverty, raise incomes.

Tutu: Issue is the same in Palestine as it was in South Africa, 'equality'

Posted: 11 Apr 2010 09:26 AM PDT

A letter from Desmond Tutu to the divestment-sponsors at the University of California, circulated by Emily Schaeffer, human right lawyer in Israel/Palestine, who asked Archbishop Tutu to write the letter.

Dear Student Leaders at the University of California – Berkeley

It was with great joy that I learned of your recent 16-4 vote in support of divesting your university's money from companies that enable and profit from the injustice of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and violation of Palestinian human rights. Principled stands like this, supported by a fast growing number of US civil society organizations and people of conscience, including prominent Jewish groups, are essential for a better world in the making, and it is always an inspiration when young people lead the way and speak truth to power.

I am writing to tell you that, despite what detractors may allege, you are doing the right thing. You are doing the moral thing. You are doing that which is incumbent on you as humans who believe that all people have dignity and rights, and that all those being denied their dignity and rights deserve the solidarity of their fellow human beings.

I have been to the Ocupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid. I have witnessed the humiliation of Palestinian men, women, and children made to wait hours at Israeli military checkpoints routinely when trying to make the most basic of trips to visit relatives or attend school or college, and this humiliation is familiar to me and the many black South Africans who were corralled and regularly insulted by the security forces of the Apartheid government.

In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime.

Students played a leading role in that struggle, and I write this letter with a special indebtedness to your school, Berkeley, for its pioneering role in advocating equality in South Africa and promoting corporate ethical and social responsibility to end complicity in Apartheid. I visited your campus in the 1980's and was touched to find students sitting out in the baking sunshine to demonstrate for the University's disvestment in companies supporting the South African regime.

The same issue of equality is what motivates the divestment movement of today, which tries to end Israel's 43 year long occupation and the unequal treatment of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government ruling over them. The abuses they face are real, and no person should be offended by principled, morally consistent, non-violent acts to oppose them. It is no more wrong to call out Israel in particular for its abuses than it was to call out the Apartheid regime in particular for its abuses.

To those who wrongly accuse you of unfairness or harm done to them by this call for divestment, I suggest, with humility, that the harm suffered from being confronted with opinions that challenge one's own pales in comparison to the harm done by living a life under occupation and daily denial of basic rights and dignity. It is not with rancor that we criticize the Israeli government, but with hope, a hope that a better future can be made for both Israelis and Palestinians, a future in which both the violence of the occupier and the resulting violent resistance of the occupied come to an end, and where one people need not rule over another, engendering suffering, humiliation, and retaliation. True peace must be anchored in justice and an unwavering commitment to universal rights for all humans, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, national origin or any other identity attribute. You, students, are helping to pave that path to a just peace.

I heartily endorse your divestment vote and encourage you to stand firm on the side of what is right,

God bless you richly,

Desmon/d Tutu. Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town.

Finkelstein is on the road

Posted: 11 Apr 2010 07:43 AM PDT

Norman Finkelstein and Jody McIntyre are on a speaking tour that takes them through the Midwest over the next few days, then to New York, and then on to the west. Hope to catch them. I keep wanting to have a two-state-one-state dialogue with Finkelstein, ask him why he's convinced that two-state is a viable option or, more to the point, is dismissive of one-state thinking.

Eldar summons 'hundreds' more Anat Kams to save Israel from itself

Posted: 10 Apr 2010 08:57 PM PDT

This is a society in crisis. Can you imagine an American newspaper printing this column? Akiva Eldar in Haaretz:

Right now, hundreds of clerks and officers are sitting in the Defense Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the army lacking the courage to contact a journalist and divulge that the ministers or commanders in charge are endangering their children's future.

Some are keeping to themselves the real story behind the big lie peddled by Ehud Barak, Shaul Mofaz and Moshe Ya'alon - the falsehood that "Yasser Arafat planned the intifada," which gave rise to the disastrous "there is no partner" ideology. The real story, of course, is contained in documents stamped with the words "Top Secret".

h/t Dan Sisken

Obama imposed 'peace plan' would deny basic Palestinian rights

Posted: 10 Apr 2010 08:49 PM PDT

Reports in the New York Times and Washington Post that the Obama administration is considering presenting its plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have created a lot of buzz and pushback from supporters of Israel.

However, the reports do not address the fundamental question: what would the plan mean for Palestinians and Israelis? In a sentence, it would mean the continuation of a pattern where the Palestinian leadership agrees to major concessions to secure an agreement with Israel, an agreement that would have little basis in international law

The basic outline being talked about is based on the so-called "Clinton Parameters" that were presented after the breakdown of the Camp David talks.

Here's Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera English's senior political analyst, on what the "Clinton Parameters" mean:

After US president Bill Clinton failed in 2000 to get Ehud Barak, the Israeli premier and Yasser Arafat, the PLO chairman, to sign a comprehensive agreement at the Camp David summit, he made clear where he stood.

Sharing of Jerusalem; no right of return for the Palestinians; a return to the 1967 borders with mutual adjustments to allow Israel to annex big settlement blocks; and a demilitarised Palestinian state.

That's how Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security advisor, conveyed them to the Washington Post's David Ignatius before his meeting with Obama, along with other former national security advisors.

Bishara rightly points out that the terms presented above wouldn't be "fair or just," because they would relinquish the "right of return" for Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Nakba, a right "enshrined in international law and international humanitarian law, and isn't for Obama to deny, nor even for Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO chairman, to give away."

And a demilitarized Palestinian state? With Israel keeping a presence "in fixed locations in the Jordan Valley under the authority of the International force for another 36 months" and having Israeli "early warning stations" inside the West Bank (as the "Clinton Parameters" state)? That doesn't sound like an end to the occupation.

Also not considered is the fact that, as Dr. As'ad Ghanem, writing in Haaretz, says, the current Palestinian Authority, with Prime Minister Salam Fayyad at the helm, "is seen by the Palestinians as an American puppet. His government is not legitimate, even according to the Palestinian constitution." A Palestinian government with no legitimacy agreeing to an American-imposed peace plan won't do any good, especially with a Prime Minister who has been sharply criticized for apparently giving up the right of return to areas within Israel.

Helena Cobban, blogging at Just World News, has also criticized the potential Obama peace plan:

Clearly, it's time for something new. Like taking the whole issue back to the U.N. Security Council where it rightly belongs, and where it should and can be addressed on the clear basis of international law and international legitimacy. No more of this unworkably-complex business of redrawing loopy boundaries around illegal Israeli settlements and requiring millions of Palestinians to simply sign away their rights.

Now think of all the U.S. synagogues with banners saying, 'We support Israel in its quest for peace'

Posted: 10 Apr 2010 08:39 PM PDT

haitham I'm told that documentary photographer Haitham Al Khatib, who was arrested in Bil'in on Friday, has been released by the Israelis. Above is a photograph by Hamde Abo of Haitham's arrest, during a protest at the wall which confiscates Bil'in's land. You can see the camera in his right hand, at far right. Kiera Feldman says, "This leaves the village of Bil'in with five people in Israeli jail, out of 1800 residents. And with Haitham's release, that still leaves over 6,700 Palestinians in Israeli jails--over 300 of them are children, according to the Guardian."

Scottish minister is talking BDS

Posted: 10 Apr 2010 08:24 PM PDT

Report at Pulse on two events of note in Scotland: the First Minister calls for a review of trading relationships with Israel because of the Dubai passport abuse, and five Palestinian protesters who had disrupted the Edinburgh festival in 2008 to decry actions in Gaza were cleared of an anti-Semitism charge.

Israel is a society in crisis

Posted: 10 Apr 2010 07:39 PM PDT

Headline in Haaretz: "IDF order will enable mass deportations from West Bank."

A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years...

The new order defines anyone who enters the West Bank illegally as an infiltrator, as well as "a person who is present in the area and does not lawfully hold a permit." The order takes the original 1969 definition of infiltrator to the extreme, as the term originally applied only to those illegally staying in Israel after having passed through countries then classified as enemy states - Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.

The order's language is both general and ambiguous, stipulating that the term infiltrator will also be applied to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, citizens of countries with which Israel has friendly ties (such as the United States) and Israeli citizens, whether Arab or Jewish. All this depends on the judgment of Israel Defense Forces commanders in the field.

The new guidelines are expected to clamp down on protests in the West Bank.