Sabbah

Israel’s Slow-Motion Genocide In Palestine

2008-12-02T19:08:57Z

By Stephen Lendman

Imagine life under these conditions:

Living in limbo under a foreign occupier. Having no self- determination, no right of return, and no power over your daily life. Being in constant fear, economically strangled, and collectively punished.

Having your free movement denied by enclosed population centers, closed borders, regular curfews, roadblocks, checkpoints, electric fences, and separation walls. Having your homes regularly demolished and land systematically stolen to build settlements for encroachers in violation of international law prohibiting an occupier from settling its population on conquered land.

Having your right to essential services denied - to emergency health care, education, employment, and enough food and clean water. Being forced into extreme poverty, having your crops destroyed, and being victimized by punitive taxes. Having no right for redress in the occupier’s courts under laws only protecting the occupier.

Being regularly targeted by incursions and attacks on the ground and from the air. Being willfully harassed, ethnically cleansed, arrested, incarcerated, tortured, and slaughtered on any pretext, including for your right of self-defense. Having no rights on your own land in your own country for over six decades and counting. Vilified for being Muslims and called terrorists, Jihadists, crazed Arabs, and fundamentalist extremists. Victimized by a slow-motion genocide to destroy you.

According to Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, Israel has conducted state-sponsored genocide against the Palestinians for decades and intensively in Gaza. In a September 2006 Electronic Intifada article titled “Genocide in Gaza” he wrote:

“A genocide is taking place in Gaza….An average of eight Palestinians die daily in the Israeli attacks on the Strip. Most of them are children. Hundreds are maimed, wounded and paralyzed. (It’s become) a daily business, now reported (only) in the internal pages of the local press, quite often in microscopic fonts. The chief culprits are the Israeli pilots who have a field day,” like shooting fish in a barrel. Why not, they’re only Muslims, so who’ll notice or care.

International law expert Francis Boyle does and in March 1998 proposed that “the Provisional Government of (Palestine) and its President institute legal proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague for violating the” Genocide Convention. He stated that “Israel has indeed perpetrated the international crime of genocide against the Palestinian people (and the) lawsuit would….demonstrate that undeniable fact to the entire world.”

Israel is a serial human rights international law abuser. The UN Human Rights Commission affirms that it violates nearly all 149 articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention that governs the treatment of civilians in war and under occupation and is guilty of grievous war crimes. The Commission also determined that as an occupying power Israel has committed crimes against humanity as defined under the 1945 Nuremberg Charter.

Geneva, Nuremberg and other international human rights laws guarantee what Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: that everyone “has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Article 6 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also affirms it in saying that every “human being has the inherent right to life.” Official Israeli policy is to deny it to Palestinians under occupation, especially Gazans under siege.

On November 5, it was egregiously tightened after Israel closed all commercial crossings and banned virtually all permissible items - previously severely restricted and in limited amounts.

On November 21, Haaretz reported that Karen AbuZayd, United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) commissioner-general said Gaza faces a humanitarian “catastrophe” if Israel maintains its blockade. She called the current closure the gravest since the early days of the Second Intifada eight years ago. “It’s been closed for so much longer than ever before….and we have nothing in our warehouses….It will be a catastrophe if this persists, a disaster.”

Out of Gaza’s 1.5 million population, UNRWA provides vitally needed rations for 820,000 of its refugees, and the UN World Food Program aids another 200,000 people. They supply about 60% of daily needs, now effectively shut off and nearly exhausted - including food, medicines, fuel, and other basic essentials.

On November 17, 31 containers of foods and medicines were allowed in through Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, southeast of Rafah. It was closed, along with other border crossings, for the previous two weeks. These amounts are hugely deficient and amount to less than 10% of what entered Gaza before Israel’s June 2007 imposed siege.

Also allowed in was 427,000 liters of fuel or barely enough to operate Gaza’s power plant for a day. It’s effectively shut down, and at least 30% of the population is without electricity and around 70% experiences lengthy power outages for days or weeks.

On November 20, AP reported that Israeli officials “stood by (their) decision to shut cargo crossings into the Gaza Strip, brushing off pleas to ease the blockade from United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.” Of course, the Strip has been mostly isolated since Israel’s imposed siege 18 months ago that created a humanitarian crisis now intensified.

Why so was stated to the Jerusalem Post by senior IDF General Amos Gilad: Because “Hamas is committed to the destruction of the state….It (also) wants to take over the PLO.” Unmentioned are the facts that refute this assertion. After Ismail Haniyeh became Hamas prime minister in 2006, he offered the Bush administration peace and a long-term truce in return for an end to Israel’s (illegal) occupation. He was rebuffed the way he is from Israel for the same offer.

Again why so? Israel and Washington are allied in a joint enterprise and need enemies, aka “terrorists.” While maintaining an illusory “peace process,” none whatever exists nor is any effort made to address equity for the Palestinians. What matters is joint- control of the region. Israel as the local hegemon. America as part of its world empire and all vital resources in it, especially oil, of course.

In the 1980s, former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir admitted that Israel waged war against Lebanon in 1982 because there was “a terrible danger….not so much a military one as a political one.” So a pretext was arranged the way it always is to invent threats and avoid resolution.

In January 2006, it was policy again after Hamas won a resounding democratic majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). As a result, they and the Palestinians paid dearly. Israel, America and the West ended all outside aid, imposed a crippling economic embargo and sanctions, and politically isolated the ruling Hamas government. An intensive crackdown followed that continues to this day - regular interventions, attacks, ruthless repression, and the imposition of a medieval siege on Gaza, now intensified.

On November 19, the Territory’s largest flour mill shut down for a lack of wheat, and the UN suspended cash grants to 98,000 poor Gazans because of a shortage of Israeli currency.

The world community has been silent. Conditions continue to deteriorate, and Christian Aid is speaking out. It accused Israel of collective punishment in violation of international law. Under Fourth Geneva’s Article 33:

“No protected person (under occupation) may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measure of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited (as well as) Reprisals against protected persons and their property.”

Costa Dabbagh from the Near East Council of Churches (a Christian Aid partner) says “Simply letting food into Gaza is not enough,” and precious little is arriving. Its people “are fed and kept alive without dignity and the international community should be blamed for it.” It’s “not acceptable to be waiting for food to come. (Gazans) want to live freely with Israel and other countries in peace. (They’re) not against any individual or government (but) are against imprisonment.”

They’re also against starving, extreme deprivation, no effective outside aid, and no support from world or other Arab leaders in their behalf. At the moment, three of five mills have stopped operating, and the two others are about to for lack of wheat. Several bakeries are closed for lack of flour, fuel, cooking gas and electricity.

Of Gaza’s 72 bakeries, 47 produce Syrian bread (the most popular kind); 29 of them stopped operating; eight others are at partial capacity; 10 bake Iraqi bread, and 15 others different varieties and pastries. None are in full operation, and all may have to close for lack of supplies and power. Gazans are being strangled and starved.

Health facilities are also in crisis and their patients endangered because of their limited ability to provide services. In addition, 45 vital medicines are embargoed and unavailable. Another unconscionable act.

Shifa Hospital is Gaza’s largest and seriously hampered. Besides a lack of power, medicines and other supplies, its equipment needs repair and has no readily available spare parts. Its main generator is in disrepair. Its MRI machine can’t operate without electricity. It’s short on gas for disinfection and to prepare food for patients. Concern is growing that much other essential equipment may also stop working or have to shut down for lack of power.

Shifa’s director, Hassan Khalaf, and the Red Cross describe the situation as critical. Lives are at risk. The intensive care unit can’t operate. Electronic equipment in the newborn baby unit doesn’t function, and the staff has to manually pump oxygen to all infants. In addition, stocks of about 160 essential medicines have run out and another 120 are running low. Shifa can’t run very long under these conditions.

Nor can Gaza’s other hospitals and all other operations in the Territory - an intolerable situation barely reported on in the dominant US media. Inverting the truth, they portray Israel heroically as a democratic island in a hostile Arab sea.

They won’t explain that Israel is obligated to provide essentials under Fourth Geneva’s Article 55. It states:

“To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other (essential) articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.” Israel continues to violate this law and all others.

As Andrea Becker of the UK-based Medical Aid for Palestinians states: For Israelis, “international law was tossed aside long ago.” The result for Gazans is “exhaustion gripping hold of (them) all. Survival leaves (them) little if no room for political engagement - and beyond exhaustion, anger and frustration are all that is left.”

A Partial Border Reopening

On November 24, Haaretz reported that “Israel partially (opened) its border crossings with the Gaza Strip (today) to allow the transfer of humanitarian aid (after) all but completely (keeping them) shut for (the past) 19 days.” Defense officials let in “44 trucks with basic goods….through Kerem Shalom crossings” in the South.

According to the Ma’an News Agency, another 200 truckloads of UN humanitarian aid and 25 more containing food will also be allowed through Kerem Shalom. This is helpful but woefully short of what the Strip needs regularly to care for its 1.5 million people, most of whom rely solely or mainly on outside aid.

Whether this additional aid will even arrive is now open to question, according to Haaretz (on November 25). It reported that Israel “closed its crossings with Gaza again,” supposedly after two Qassam rockets were fired on Sunday, one on Monday, and another on Tuesday. Unmentioned are the regular and devastating IDF attacks against Palestinian civilians who have little more than crude weapons for self-defense and are no match against Israel’s overpowering force.

According to Haaretz on November 26, some aid may be forthcoming and surprisingly from Libya. It “sent a ship carrying 3000 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza” to break Israel’s blockade. The International Middle East Media Center called on other Arab states to do the same - flout the blockade and send aid even with no assurance Israel will allow it in. It’s been very effective preventing most everything so far and shows no signs of relenting.

A Shocking Red Cross Report

On November 15, the London Independent headlined an article titled; “Chronic malnutrition in Gaza blamed on Israel.” Writer Donald Macintyre referred to a leaked Red Cross report he called “explosive.”

It chronicled “the devastating effect of the siege that Israel imposed after Hamas (took control of Gaza) in June 2007 and notes that the dramatic fall in living standards triggered a shift in diet that will damage the long-term health of (Gaza’s population). Alarming deficiencies (showed up) in iron, vitamin A and vitamin D.”

The report goes on to say that “heavy restrictions on all major sectors of Gaza’s economy, compounded by a cost of living increase of at least 40%, is causing progressive deterioration in food security for up to 70 per cent of (the) population. That in turn is forcing people to cut household expenditures down to survival levels.”

Chronic malnutrition is rising steadily, and “micronutrient deficiencies are of great concern.” Since 2007, the reported cited a switch to “low cost/high energy” cereals, sugar and oil and away from higher-cost animal products, fresh fruits and vegetables. This type diet assures long-term harmful consequences for people on it.

The Red Cross said that “the (18 month) embargo has had a devastating effect for a large proportion of households who have had to make major changes on the composition of their food basket.” They now rely 80% on cereals, sugar and oil. In addition, people are selling assets, cutting back on clothing and children’s education, scavenging for discarded items, and doing virtually anything to survive.

The report refers to economic disintegration and that prolonging the current situation risks permanently damaging households and their capacity to recover. The study was conducted from May to July 2008.

Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, had little response except to say that the people of Gaza were being “held hostage” to Hamas’ “extremist and nihilist” ideology. In fact, Hamas wants peace, has repeatedly been conciliatory, and its founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, said earlier that armed struggle would cease “if the Zionists ended (their) occupation of Palestinian territories and stopped killing Palestinian women, children and innocent civilians.”

That offer is repeatedly rejected. More recently, Hamas offered to maintain peace and recognize Israel in return for a Palestinian state inside pre-1967 borders, its Occupied Territories. That, as well, is a non-starter for Israel. It conflicts with its West Bank plan to colonize the Territory and ethnically cleanse its rightful inhabitants in violation of international law.

Israeli Clampdown on Human Rights Organizations and the Media

Over 20 human rights organizations sought entry to Gaza but were denied to prevent them from seeing and reporting on conditions on the ground. A delegation representing the Coordination Forum of The Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) arrived at Erez Crossing with the required permit and were still prevented from entering.

International journalists are also banned. The AP head and Israeli Foreign Press Association chairman, Steven Gutkin, said journalists called and complained. In response, the association appealed to the government without success. “We consider it a serious problem for freedom of the press. We think that journalists have to be placed in a special category. A blanket ban on people going into Gaza should not apply to journalists,” Gutkin explained.

“We are hoping that this is not the start of a policy of banning journalists from Gaza. We would like to point out that when times are tough, and when things heat up, it is important for journalists to be able to enter” and report on it.

A BBC media crew was also refused entry along with Conny Mus from Dutch television station RTL after being told he and his crew had permission.

Even Haaretz objected in a recent editorial titled: “Open Gaza to media coverage.” It stated: “To serve their function sufficiently, representatives of the Israeli and international press must be in Gaza, just like in any other conflict region around the world. There is no way to cover (events there) without free access….”

Haaretz called on the Israel Press Council, journalist associations, editors, writers, and the public to “raise their voices in protest.” It also asked the defense establishment “to immediately lift the media closure.”

The Israeli press has been banned from entering Gaza for the past two years. Only Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass has been there. She then left and could only get back in by sea, and not easily or safely.

Orwell would appreciate how Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Peter Lerner responded: “There is no decision not to allow journalists in.” The Israeli foreign ministry said no restrictive order was issued in spite of clear evidence it’s being enforced.

Hostilities in Gazan Waters

The Israeli navy is also in action. It arrested three human rights activists: Darlene Wallach from America, Andrew Muncie from Britain, and Vittorio Arrigoni from Italy as they accompanied Gaza fishermen in waters nowhere near ones under Israeli control. The three were imprisoned, are on hunger strike in protest, and may face deportation or worse as Israeli justice is harsh and not forthcoming against opponents of its policies.

Under the Oslo Accords, Palestinians can fish as far out as 30 kilometers. Forty thousand fishermen and their dependents rely on their catch for their livelihoods and sustenance. Israel egregiously impedes them, and after Hamas took control of Gaza, it restricted fishing to within six kilometers of shore (in less productive shallow waters) and rigorously enforces it. Those exceeding the limit risk being shot or arrested and their boats confiscated or destroyed - another serious international law violation.

Saber Al-Hissie is one of them. He’s been fishing in Gazan waters for 15 years, his father and grandfather before him. He spent half his life at sea, “but every day we face problems from Israeli gunboats,” he explained. “They follow us, and then they start shooting at us because they want to force us to stop working.”

Thousands of fishermen live in Gaza, mostly in and around Gaza City where the main harbor is located. Al-Hissie is one of them and describes the restrictions Israel imposes on him and others trying to earn a living from the sea.

“If we sail six miles out to sea, then maybe we will be safe. But if we go any further, the Israelis always harass us. They circle the boats, they shoot towards us, and recently they started using water cannon to attack us.” He won’t exceed the limit to protect his boat, but it’s scared with bullet holes anyway.

He and others aren’t safe wherever they fish. They’re harassed and attacked daily. “Unless you see it for yourself, you cannot believe the situation we are facing,” he explains. It decimated local fishing. Ten years ago, Gazan fishermen caught about 3000 tons a year. It’s now less than 500 and another part of the Gaza siege, Israel’s war on its people, and its ongoing slow-motion genocide. “We just want to fish and support our families,” says Saber. “We are not committing any crimes, but they are.”

End the Israeli Blockade and Stop the Genocide

On November 24, UN General Assembly president Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann said Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians was like “the apartheid of an earlier era.” His remarks were at an annual debate marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. He added: “We must not be afraid to call something what it is” since the UN passed the International Convention against the crime of apartheid.

Israel’s response was familiar. Its UN ambassador, Gabriela Shalev, called Brockmann an “Israel hater.” He’s a 75-year old Catholic priest. If he were Jewish, she’d have accused him of being “self- hating.”

On November 20, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, called for an immediate end to Israel’s blockade. In response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) audaciously expressed shock at what it called a one-sided statement.

The High Commissioner’s call came after mounting reports of human rights and humanitarian concerns. For its part, Israel claims its siege is a necessary response to mortar and rocket attacks on Israeli towns and military posts. They’re little more than pin pricks and only occur in response to sustained and brutal Israeli attacks against Gazan civilians, including men, women and children - a long-standing practice for decades with overwhelming force against light arms and homemade weapons as well as children throwing rocks. It hardly justifies a medieval siege against 1.5 million people and the horrific fallout it causes. And for what?

For five months through November 3, Hamas and Israel were at peace as a result of an agreed on Egyptian-brockered hudna (or truce). On November 4 it ended when the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) entered Gaza (without cause) and killed six Hamas officers supposedly because of tunnels close to the Kisufim roadblock. Thereafter, and in spite of both sides calling for peace, IDF hostilities continued.

Israel is a serial aggressor. Hamas responds in self-defense (as do West Bank Palestinians). Reality is turned on its head. Lightly- armed Gazans are called terrorists, and the world’s fourth most powerful military its victims.

In fact, Gazans are grievously harmed, impoverished, slaughtered and now starved. Israel claims it as a right. International law is a non-starter, and a state of war exists against innocent men, women and children with no world efforts made to stop it.

The Washington - Israeli axis believes strife, instability, and a “war on terror” can remake the Middle East and place it firmly under their control. No matter that it failed hugely in Iraq, the same in Afghanistan, and for over six decades in Occupied Palestine.

Today starving Gazans won’t be silenced. They keep protesting, and according to Hamazah Mansur, head of the Jordanian-based Islamic Action Front’s six-member parliamentary bloc: If conditions in the Territory worsens, “Arab rulers should expect an earthquake that would shake their countries and regimes.” It’s high time something shook them out of their silent complicity with decades of slow- motion genocide, now worse than ever in Gaza under siege.

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Urgent Action Needed - Contact your MEP now!

2008-12-01T14:07:19Z

No New EU-Israel Action Plan!!

(forwarded from the Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign)

The European Parliament (EP) has recently announced that a vote will be held on December 4 to enter into force the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which will enable far greater Israeli participation in European Community programs. Originally, the EU had stated that the vote on this issue would not take place until 2009, but it seems clear that the EU and Israel are attempting to minimize the voice of international civil society by suddenly announcing that it has been moved up to December 4.

The proposed agreement offers to Israel full access to the EU scientific, academic, research and technical programmes, and will significantly deepen EU-Israeli cooperation and integration in many important sectors. It ignores the fact that these sorts of cooperation agreements that increase Israel’s relationships with the international community are one of Israel’s primary means of its ongoing occupation, the displacement of and systematic racial discrimination against the Palestinian people. By engaging in this agreement, the EU sends the message that it effectively condones the Israeli apartheid regime, and that it will not challenge Israel on its massive violations of Palestinian rights.

It is urgent that all civil society organizations, and especially those in Europe, take action against the EU-Israel Association Agreement. We must not submit to the EU and Israel’s attempt to manipulate the democratic process by silencing the voice of civil society. We must respond to this injustice, and we must ensure that our collective voice to oppose the agreement is heard loud and clear.

We therefore ask you to:

1) Send a letter or a fax to your MEP (Pro forma letter attached below)

For a list of MEPs: http://tinyurl.com/5q5zqn

2) Phone your MEP or meet with them in person

3) Have your organization, institution, union, or network endorse the Palestinian BNC call against the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and send it to your MEP.

http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/179

Please let us know when you have contacted your MEP!

*****************************************************

Pro forma letter:

Dear Member of European Parliament,

As a member of your constituency and as a concerned citizen of the world, I urge you to vote against the EU-Israel Association Agreement on December 4. This agreement involves the strengthening of a broad spectrum of ties with Israel - including economic, trade, academic, security and diplomatic relations - at a time when the European Union should be challenging Israel and holding it accountable for its persistent violations of human rights and international law.

The EU is well aware of Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the massive colonization of the latter; after all, the EU member-states have regularly voted for UN resolutions condemning Israel’s human rights violations, collective punishment and construction of settlements and the Wall. Moreover, in 2002 the EU Parliament voted to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement on the grounds of Israel’s violations of human rights. Since these violations are still ongoing, there is no reason for the EU to change its decision to suspend the agreement.

Indeed, Israel still maintains its criminal one-year-long siege on Gaza - described by the current UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Prof. Richard Falk as a “prelude to genocide” - that has already cost the lives of hundreds of patients, mainly children and elderly, all denied freedom of movement to access treatment outside Gaza. Israel’s siege has intentionally and systematically impoverished hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza, more than 50% by now, shutting down most of the industrial sector and ruining agriculture. Most vital infrastructure has been destroyed and the economy has completely collapsed; malnourishment among children has increased sharply, as noted in various UN reports.

Furthermore, Israel has continuously disregarded basic human rights by the enclosure and forced displacement of entire Palestinian communities behind the illegal Wall, the imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians without trial, and its policy of extra-judicial assassination. Israel has also stubbornly refused, for over 60 years and despite its obligations under international law, to recognize and implement the right of millions of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, as stipulated in UNGA resolution 194. Last, but certainly not least, for 60 years, Israel has enacted a system of state-sanctioned racial discrimination against Palestinians with Israeli citizenship in vital domains, including land ownership and employment, simply because they are “non-Jews.”

As such, I am appalled that the EU refuses to take concrete action to condemn Israel on any of these accounts. Instead, the EU is proposing to turn a blind eye to Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights by deepening its relations with the occupying power. These sorts of cooperation agreements that increase Israel’s relationships with the international community are one of Israel’s primary means of its ongoing occupation, the displacement of and systematic racial discrimination against the Palestinian people. By engaging in this agreement, the EU sends the message that it effectively condones the Israeli apartheid regime, and that it will not challenge Israel on its massive violations of Palestinian rights.

I therefore urge you, as a representative of the European Union and as a global citizen of conscience, to vote against the EU-Israel Association Agreement. In so doing, you would be heeding the call from the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), which represents the entire spectrum of Palestinian civil society, and which has been endorsed by over 100 international organizations, to exert pressure on Israel and to isolate it, rather than to strengthen ties with it (http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/179). This call was taken up by Father Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, President of the UN General Assembly, who urged the United Nations to consider following the lead of this generation of civil society who are calling for a campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations. I believe it is high time that the EU adopt this position as well.

As such, your vote is an important one in suspending the agreement, thereby standing up to injustice in Palestine. I urge you to listen to your constituents, and to the hundreds of civil society organizations from around the world who call upon the EU to stop rapprochement with Israel, and instead to hold it accountable for its ongoing violations of human rights and international law.

Sincerely,

==========================================

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) aims to raise public awareness about the occupation of Palestine and the struggle of the Palestinian people. PSC seek to bring pressure on both the British and Israeli government to bring their policies in line with international law. PSC is an independent, non-governmental and non-party political organisation with members from communities across the UK. Join PSC today!

Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Box BM PSA
London
WC1N 3XX

Tel: 020 7700 6192
Fax: 020 7609 7779

Email: info@palestinecampaign.org

Web: www.palestinecampaign.org

Nominated for Best Mideast Blog - Vote for Sabbah!

2008-11-30T21:16:58Z

I just came to know that once again this year, this blog - Sabbah’s Blog - was nominated for the Fifth Annual Brass Crescent Awards 2008. Polls close Friday, December 19!

Last year, our sister Laila El-Haddad (of Raising Yousuf, Unplugged) won the first position and my blog was given a “Honerable mention”.

So what are you waiting for? To vote for Sabbah, go to “BEST MIDEAST BLOG” section and give me a tip

The Financial Meltdown for Dummies

2008-11-30T19:14:29Z

Once upon a time a business man goes to a distant village and offers the villagers to buy their donkeys for $10 each, so some sell their donkeys to him. Then he raises the price to $15 per donkey, and more villagers sell their donkeys. The businessman then offers $30 per donkey, so all remaining villagers sell their donkeys. At this point the businessman knowing that no more donkeys are left, he offer $50 per donkey and leaves for a weekend break.

During the weekend his assistant goes to same villagers and offers to sell them donkeys for $40 each (their donkeys). The villagers borrow money from the local bank, which offers all its fund to support them buy these donkeys and get ready for the businessman return to sell it at $50 each, but the businessman never comes back.

So the villagers end up in debt, broken bank and a lot of donkeys!

Music: Chinese Democracy

2008-11-30T17:39:11Z

Guns n’ Roses
Album: Chinese Democracy
Song: Chinese Democracy (What is Chinese Democracy?)
Lyrics can be found here.

Dedicated to those fighting oppression (in collaboration with mondediplo.com, btselem.org and un.org/unrwa).

[Hat tip: Robin]

Palestinian Villagers Destroy Wall at Jayyous; Five Internationals Detained

2008-11-29T16:15:13Z

Written by Corey Balsam for the Alternative Information Center (AIC)

On Friday, 21 November, upwards of 500 people-Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals-marched toward the gate of the Wall in the West Bank Palestinian village of Jayyous, and within a few minutes the gate was open and in pieces.

The villagers were ecstatic at what had been accomplished, waving pieces of the gate in the air with smiles ear-to-ear.

Yet, when Israeli soldiers arrived on the scene, they responded by shooting live and rubber bullets at villagers and firing teargas canisters into the air. Five villagers were injured.

After the violence subsided, the soldiers took control of the village, imposed a curfew, and declared it a closed military zone.

Approximately one hour later, the soldiers detained five internationals as they attempted to leave the village in a car along with a number of Palestinians.

“This was a clear message to internationals that they will pay for being present at these demonstrations” said one of the internationals. “The Israeli authorities do not want us here so that they can do what they want with the Palestinians.”

Jayyous was the first village to engage in regular nonviolent protests against the Wall six years ago this month. The situation was so bad for Jayyous that the municipality actually managed to get their case heard at the Israeli High Court.

After years of debate and legal charades, the Court finally ruled on 4 November that the Wall should be moved back by two kilometers.

While sounding like a positive development, the decision will actually make things worse for this small farming community.

Prior to the decision, Jayyous villagers were able to cross the Wall through a gate twice per day to access their olive and citrus groves on the other side of the Wall. Now, the gate will permanently be shut, leaving plenty of space for the expansion of Zufit settlement and the development of an Israeli industrial zone.

The High Court decision is notably in direct contradiction with the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 2004, which states that the Wall is illegal in international law, that farmers should be compensated, and that all settlers should be repatriated to the other side of the Green Line.

In all, 5,585 dunam of land will be confiscated from Jayyous once construction of the new Wall is complete, leaving the majority of Jayyous’ farmers stripped of their livelihoods and unemployed.

Given these circumstances, it is certain that the villagers of Jayyous will continue to protest against the Wall, despite the recent High Court decision.

And, as in other villages adversely affected by the Wall, internationals will continue to maintain their presence, despite the arrests and intimidations.

Video: Israel demolish Al-Alami house

2008-11-29T12:10:15Z

By Hiba al-’Almi, a student

My family’s dream was to buy our own house. In 2002, my father bought an apartment from Mr. Majed Abu ‘Isha, who had built an apartment house. My father paid $200,000 for it, investing all his savings. The contractor showed him the building permit he had received.

In 2005, we received the apartment from Mr. Majed. My father completed the interior work and furnished it gradually. We did without a lot of things to save money to buy the furniture.

On 12 June 2006, we moved in. The next day, policemen and Jerusalem Municipality officials came and handed us a demolition order. When my father received the order, he went to Mr. Majed and asked him about it. He replied that he had deviated slightly from the building permit. Later, we learned that he had deviated a lot.

On 18 October 2006, the final order was posted on the wall of the building, and we began to remove our furniture. My father retained the lawyer Mu’in Khoury, who managed to postpone the demolition a few times. In November 2006, we returned the furniture and moved back in. The legal proceedings continued, and we knew our problem had not been resolved. My father had to borrow money to pay the lawyer.

In July 2008, teams of inspectors and Border Police forces came to the house a few times. The inspectors took pictures of the building without telling us why.

Last Sunday [27 July], around 11:30 A.M., my parents were abroad and I was home alone. The bell rang and when I opened the door, I saw three Jerusalem Municipality inspectors and a Border Police officer with high-rank insignias on his shoulder. The officer said he was a senior official in the army. They came into the house and went from room to room. I didn’t think it important because this wasn’t the first time that municipal officials and police had come to the house.

That evening, I went to spend the night at my aunt’s house, which is situated next to ours, because I didn’t want to sleep at home alone.

Around 1 A.M., a neighbor called and told me the municipality and the police might come at night to the building, and that I should be at home. Around 2, I returned home, with my aunt. We waited and couldn’t sleep. We heard the neighbors moving about on the stairs.

Around 3:30 A.M., I heard the sound of stun grenades exploding. After that, there was banging on the door. My aunt and I went to open it. When I opened the door, a few policemen burst in with black masks on their faces. They had five huge dogs with them. They ordered us to leave the building immediately. I told one of them that I wanted to get dressed because I was in pajamas. He said he would go into the room with me and I shouted at him and didn’t agree. He swore at me. Then the policemen hit me in the back and slapped me. One of the dogs came over to my leg and almost attacked me. Out of fear, I kicked it. Because I kicked the dog, the policemen hit me again, and one of them grabbed me by the hair and threw me to the floor. One of the policemen stepped on my back and the others kicked me and continued to swear at me.

This lasted for a few minutes. Then one of the policemen grabbed me by the shoulder and lifted me up. He pushed me out of the apartment and down the stairs. There were lots of policemen in the stairway, and they hit and punched me. While they were removing me, I begged them to let me go back to the house so I could at least take my passport and jewelry, which was worth more than $50,000. I had diamonds and there was also lots of money in the apartment, about $50,000 that my father was holding for some people. In my study there was my final project that I was working on for school, and I had things for school I wanted to take off the computer.

A few minutes later, I found myself outside the building, on the main road. I tried to go back to the apartment a few times, but the policemen didn’t let me. When I insisted that I take personal things of mine from the apartment, they said everything would be brought out with the furniture.

Around 11:30 A.M., my father returned from Cairo, He didn’t look good. The area around the building was still closed, and they didn’t let us enter.

Around 6:30 P.M., I heard a loud explosion. I was about 150 meters from the building. The whole building collapsed, and my life was buried with it. All my mementos and pictures of the family were buried in the ruins. I cried and felt that we had been uprooted, and had nothing. Since then, we have been living with my aunt.

After we recovered a bit, we asked the lawyer to check where our things were. He sent us to Kfar Saba [not far from Tel Aviv]. When we got there, we found that about twenty percent of our clothes and property were missing, including about $40,000. My jewelry box was empty.
I found the case for my laptop, but the computer wasn’t there. I got some sacks with my clothes in them, but the expensive clothes weren’t there. We also lost all the furniture that was in the house.

We now live in a rented house again.

Hiba Khalil Ahmad al-’Almi, 26, is a student and a resident of Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem. Her testimony was given to Kareem Jubran on 3 August 2008 at the witness’s home.

Video: Israeli Policeman Head-butts Palestinian Woman

2008-11-29T11:45:41Z

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem films violence at demonstrations as Israeli police move in to destroy Palestinian homes.

WEST BANK - An Israeli policeman wearing a hard helmet is shown headbutting a Palestinian woman in a video released by a human rights group today.

The short film was recorded by the Israeli group B’Tselem during a protest against the demolition of Palestinian homes.

The Jerusalem municipality destroyed two houses because it said they were built without permission.

The pictures, taken on November 5 but not released until today, show the actions of one policeman whose reinforced visor is pushed back above his helmet.

At one point he grasps the hands of a Palestinian woman and slams against the top of her head with his protective headgear. She reels back, clutching her head. Other residents object, and the policeman is seen grabbing the wrists of a Palestinian man and headbutting him as well.

According to an Israeli police spokesperson, the family living in the house that was destroyed refused to leave the building, and local residents threw stones and firebombs at officers.

“[On] the day, severe riots took place in Silwan,” Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman told Reuters.

“As a result five policemen were wounded and evacuated to hospital, 11 locals were arrested for assaulting policemen and throwing firebombs and six police vehicles were damaged. This event was exceptional and is now being examined by an external police investigation unit.”

Police were said by B’Tselem to have used stun grenades to break up the crowds. Witnesses later claimed police fired live ammunition in the air.

Silwan is in Arab East Jerusalem, an area annexed by Israel in 1967. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city to be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

B’Tselem monitors human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.

In July, B’Tselem activists filmed two Israeli soldiers shooting a bound Palestinian with a rubber bullet. They were later charged by the army.

B’Tselem in Hebrew literally means “in the image of” but, the group explains, it is also used as a term meaning human dignity.
© 2008 Guardian News and Media Limited

A whoring, lying state

2008-11-28T18:48:45Z

By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

IOF troops paint over graffiti daubed on the walls of a mosque by Jewish settlers.

Israel routinely claims to be “civilized, and democratic.” However, in truth, Israel is neither civilized nor democratic. In fact, one can safely claim that Israel is actually a criminal, barbarian and utterly uncivilized state that lives and thrives on murder, theft and mendacity.

The following observations are an irrefutable proof showing that Israel differs very little from criminal states throughout history, past and present.

Take, for example, the ongoing daily rampages by Jewish thugs, otherwise known as settlers, against Palestinians and their property in the southern West Bank town of Hebron.

On Wednesday, 26 November, dozens of Jewish hoodlums attacked a Palestinian neighborhood in the heart of the southern West Bank town, causing much damage to residents, their homes and cars.

The gravity of this criminal behavior doesn’t stem only from the damage wreaked on innocent people, but rather from the stunning passivity displayed by the Israeli occupation army and the Israeli state in general toward organized Jewish terror.

The latest rampage is only the latest spate of violence by the thugs of Gush Emunim (Bloc of Faithful) against the Palestinians of the city of al-Khalil, or Hebron.

Last week, dozens of settlers attacked, shortly after midnight, the homes, cars and property of Palestinians in the vicinity of the colony of Kiryat Arba. The attackers smashed window glass, car windshields and vandalized property. The thugs also scrawled offensive graffiti on the wall of a local mosque, including the blasphemous graffiti “Muhammed is Pig.”

Unfortunately, very few Jewish religious leaders in Israel or abroad probably with the exception of the anti-Zionist group Naturi Karta, have condemned the sacrilegious acts. Well, Jews shouldn’t think that such virulent behavior is not going to be noticed by Muslims around the world.

The next time Jews complain about anti-Semitism in the Muslim or Arab world, they should be reminded of their despicable silence and indifference toward the anti-Islam behavior of their people in Hebron.

What is even more shocking is the refusal of the Israeli occupation army, which according to international law should protect local Palestinians from settler barbarianism and savagery.

This writer on many occasions witnessed settler thugs beat, stone and even shoot Palestinians while Israeli occupation soldiers were standing passively as if nothing wrong or abnormal was happening.

There is only one explanation and one interpretation of army passivity in this regard. It means coordination, connivance, acquiescence, collusion and coordination.

It means that the Israeli army doesn’t really object to settlers attacking Palestinians and vandalizing their property as long as this behavior doesn’t provoke an international outcry.

In short, Israel is simply sanctioning the organized terror and violence against innocent Palestinians in Hebron.

Doesn’t this remind us of how the Nazi authorities treated anti-Jewish thugs who attacked Jewish property and places of worship in November, 1938?
Yes, it is true, the scope of Jewish violence and terror in Hebron has not yet assumed genocidal proportions.

However, it is also true that even genocides start with relatively minor incidents, very much like what the settlers are doing to innocent Palestinians in Hebron these days.

Furthermore, it is imperative to remember that the thugs of Gush Emunim don’t really differ in substance from the Hitler Youth and other Nazi groups in terms of ideology and racism.

These thugs say openly and unhesitatingly that their goal is to exterminate non-Jews in Palestine or at least expel them, in order to establish a Talmudic Jewish kingdom that would rule according to Halacha or Jewish religious law. Well, a law, religious or otherwise, that advocates extermination, enslavement or collective deportation of an entire people from their homeland must not be hallowed or respected.

Hence, the ideology of Jewish messianic fundamentalism must be isolated and fought relentlessly.

Just imagine if these thugs, who are supported by powerful political parties and nearly 50% of Israeli lawmakers, were to control Israel’s vast nuclear arsenal.

Another stark example of Israeli barbarianism is the recent revelation by the Israeli media that the Israeli occupation army has been carrying out extra-judicial executions of innocent Palestinians.

According to reports published in the Israeli press this week, the Israeli army issued orders allowing soldiers to murder innocent Palestinians in the process of murdering so-called “wanted persons.”

One Israeli soldier was quoted as saying that “we killed innocent Palestinians knowingly and deliberately.”

Of course, none of the murderers has been prosecuted.

This is the state that keeps telling the world that it is the only true democracy in the Middle East and that its conduct is determined by the rule of law.

Well, Nazi Germany, too, followed the rule of law, that is the Nazi rule of law.

Some Zionists, who prefer argumentative prevarication and linguistic sophistry over honesty would claim that Israeli troops, unlike Palestinian guerillas, don’t deliberately target civilians.

But this argument is a big lie, because Israel has murdered thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians, and it is unlikely that all of them were killed by mistake.

Indeed, when mistakes are made every hour, every day, it means deliberate killing of innocent people is official policy.

Besides, when the number of victims is so large, as is the case in Gaza, for example, even intent becomes irrelevant.

Finally, Israeli military courts have lately been passing hefty prison sentences, ranging from 30-55 months, on Palestinian lawmakers affiliated with the Hamas movement.

We are talking about people who committed no misdemeanor or felony or violated any law. Their only “crime” is their decision to participate in the Palestinian general elections which took place in January 2006.

Needless to say, these elections had been okayed by both the United States and Israel, in the hope pro-American groups, such as Fatah, would win, which would allow for the liquidation of the Palestinian cause, especially the paramount right of return.

However, when Hamas won the elections, Israel, in collusion with the US and the PA, arrested nearly all Hamas’s lawmakers, charging them with affiliation with an illegal organization.

So, this is the behavior of the only democracy in the Middle East, a whoring democracy by every shred of imagination.

Zionism in Leeds University Campus

2008-11-28T15:14:51Z

Leeds University Union to vote on a motion to referendum which will label anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism and silence pro-Palestinian groups on campus.

For immediate release

Leeds University Union agreed last week, by a vote of 12 to 11, to send a motion to referendum which will label anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism and silence pro-Palestinian groups on campus.

The motion, shrouded in the language of combating anti-Semitism, is a reversal of a motion passed 2 years ago which gave Palestinian activists at Leeds University the rights enjoyed by their counterparts throughout the country. If passed, organisations which have an anti-Zionist platform, such as the Socialist Workers Party and the Palestine Solidarity Group will be prevented from receiving funding from the union and prevented from holding many of their events.

The motion claims, without providing any supporting evidence, that “Anti-semitism is increasing significantly both across the country and within universities and student unions.” and resolves to adopt the seemingly innocuous EUMC working definition of anti-Semitism. The EUMC working definition, which the British government has so far refrained from explicitly adopting has been seized upon by pro-Israeli groups across the country and used to silence criticism of Israel by claiming that anti-Semitism includes “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination”.

If adopted, the motion will be shut down debate on the extent to which Israel should label itself as a state for the Jewish people as opposed to a state for all its citizens, such as the UK and all other liberal democracies. Thus an issue, which is openly discussed in academia, civil society and even within the Israeli government itself, will become forbidden on the Leeds campus.

Commenting on the motion, the Jewish peace group, Jews for Justice for Palestinians state that “We find this unhelpful, to put it mildly, and believe that it harms the struggle against antisemitism rather than helping it, by severely distorting what the real problems are.” They continue, “We hope that the University of Leeds Student Union will not be foolish enough to adopt the motion on the topic when it comes up for debate. It will do nothing to help counter the real dangers of antisemitism in our society because so much of the working definition is, in our view, misdirected“.

One of the many parts of the definition they opposed is the example of how ‘anti semitism manifests itself’: by ‘applying double standards by requiring of it (Israel) a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation’. As another peace organization, European Jews for a Just Peace noted, ‘this is a formulation that allows any criticism of Israel to be dismissed on the grounds that it is not simultaneously applied to every other defaulting state at the same time …’

Jews against Zionism, an organisation which represents over 150,000 Jews world-wide commented that “One of the well-known tactics of Zionists to silence their critics is to accuse them of anti-Semitism. Of course, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are two separate things.”

They also take issue with another part of the working definition which classes “Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.” as anti-Semitic. They assert that whether it is anti-Semitic or not “depends if the accusation is made at the Jews in general, or at particular Jews. We are greatly pained when we hear blanket accusations against our people, or any people, for that matter. But certain Jews may, by their actions and words, demonstrate a greater loyalty to the Zionist state than to their own country. There is nothing wrong with pointing this out.”

A representative of the Leeds Student Palestine Solidarity Group commented that “Under current Union policy we are well within our rights to express our opposition to Zionism and defend the rights of Palestinians who suffer discrimination and human rights abuses on the basis of their race, within Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The passing of this motion would mean, however, a serious curtailment of the activities of the PSG on campus simply to satisfy the political views of another section of the student body. We believe that people should be allowed to hear both sides of the debate and make up their own minds.”

The motion will go to referendum the week beginning Friday the 28th of November and the results will be announced on Friday December the 5th.

To register your opposition to the motion contact:

University Secretary Roger Gair

j.r.gair@adm.leeds.ac.uk

University Vice-Chancellor Michael Arthur

m.j.p.arthur@adm.leeds.ac.uk

Chief Executive of Leeds University Union Leslie Dixon

l.dixon@luu.leeds.ac.uk

Highlighting:

* The status of Leeds University as an institution which encourages free thought.

* The fact that the motion will shut down an area of perfectly legitimate debate.

* That the reputation of Leeds University will be seriously undermined if this motion if passed.

* Asking these officials to ensure that freedom of speech at Leeds is protected.

To learn more about how you can support the campaign contact the Palestine Solidarity Group at info@leedspsg.org

*END*