"I wish these pictures reached leftists abroad," my friend said to herself Tuesday as she watched Hamas police use rifle butts and clubs to beat her friends - activists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Although my friend has never been a fan of the Fatah government in the West Bank, she is outraged by the romanticization of Hamas rule by foreign activists.
Refuseniks and Israeli Soldiers speak out
Ilan Pappe on "The Nakba of Palestine"
Palestinian minors suspected of perpetrating even minor crimes against settlers are subject to extreme pressure during detention and interrogation in an effort to extract a confession, the Palestinian branch of Defense for Children International claims.
Palestinian minors held 3 weeks on suspicion of arson
Palestine: Occupied, Divided, Isolated, Oppressed and Unaided:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/08/palestine-occupied-divided-isolate...
"Imagine the following: You're ruthlessly oppressed in an occupied country where a system of institutionalized racism, affords rights only to Jews. You have no recognized nation, no right of citizenship, no democratic freedoms or civil rights including no power over your daily life.."
1948 and Israel's Deceptive Bargaining Position:
http://www.salon.com/news/israel/?story=/politics/war_room/2010/08/19/is...
"In Israel in 2010, human rights defenders are persecuted.."
When You Say No (or: Poisonous Mushrooms)
BEFORE THE victory of feminism, there was a popular Israeli song in which the boy asks the girl: "When you say No, what do you mean?"
This question has already been answered. Now I am more and more tempted to ask: "When you say Zionism, what do you mean?"
That is also my answer when asked whether I am a Zionist.
When you say Zionist, what do you mean?
PFLP Rejects and Calls for Action Against Liquidationists return to Direct Negotiations
http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=pflp-rejects-and-calls-action-against-liqu...
"...the goal of direct negotiaitons between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is to liquidate the Palestinian cause, not to reach a political solution.."
The way the army and police treat Palestinian minors arrested in the West Bank is the focus of complaints filed recently with both Israeli legal authorities and the United Nations.
The Palestinian branch of Defence for Children International (DCI ) has taken affidavits from dozens of minors who have been arrested. According to DCI-Palestine Section, the minors' testimonies describe a policy of routine and painful abuse, involving various forms of physical and psychological pressure, in order to extract confessions from minors in custody.
UN receives over 100 complaints of police, IDF abuse of West Bank teenagers this year
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/amira-hass-what-west-bank-road-renovations-say-about-the-occupation-1.309641
Whenever I am driving uphill, I nearly always think of Abu Mazen, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. To be more precise, of two sentences he uttered during the sixth Fatah conference a year ago.
He did not know his speech was being broadcast live on television, and until he was informed of this, he spoke openly, as is natural in a closed party conference. The leader of Fatah, the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization lavishly praised his government's accomplishments. He spoke proudly, as if he were the head of a regional council, about enforcing traffic laws that require drivers to buckle their seat belts, and said, if my memory does not deceive me, that drivers no longer spit out their windows.
I know this has probably been debated and talked about before, but why are these threads titled "All hail the Israeli peace movement"? I've always thought of it as a wierd title.
First, the use of the phrase "Israel" in isolation is a little wierd, especially given that these threads talk about issues in Gaza and the West Bank, which are not a part of Israel, and in fact are under occupation by the Israeli state. Why are we using colonialist terminology in these thread titles?
Also, the "Israeli peace movement" is rather small and there are issues regarding a left-Zionist approach or something more radical, and probably a small player compared to the Palestinian resistance and the international movement for BDS and in solidarity with Palestinians.
Might I suggest something like "All hail the movement against apartheid in Israel/Palestine" instead?
Riz Khan - Gideon Levy on Middle East peace
Ties That Bind
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/3574
"Canadian military seeking lessons from Israeli occupying army.."
with respect to settler states and indigenous genocide and dispossesion - Canada has achieved what Israel can only dream of - the strong linkage between the two countries and now apparently their militaries, should come as no surprise.
Might I suggest something like "All hail the movement against apartheid in Israel/Palestine" instead?
That title is boring.
Look folks, I'll change the thread title one more time (this thread has so many articles relating to Palestinian peace makers and activists, changing it seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do) but this is the LAST CHANGE I WILLL MAKE. Anyone upset with the name of my archive after this alteration can start their own thread.
It should also be noted that the Israeli peace movement will continue to have a strong presence in these threads. Some of you may have a deep and abiding hatred of Israel, a hatred so strong that you would condemn every single Israeli Jew as a fanatical brute. I don't. The moderate Israeli voices published here are important. They prevent a wholesale demonization of the Jewish community in Israel/Palestine.
Ummm, excuse me but who exactly are you referring to by "Some of you"? Is it me? You're sounding almost like B'nai Brith here with these accusations.
I'm not saying that the Israeli peace movement shouldn't be talked about or denying that it exists. There are a lot of dedicated people over there working very hard for peace and justice and against apartheid in difficult conditions, and against a colonialist mentality 60+ years in the making, one which keeps electing more and more extremist right-wing governments. All I did was suggest a different thread title for these threads which might be a bit more comprehensive and doesn't implicitly refer to Palestinian organizations and resistance as the "Israeli Peace Movement" - it seems awkward at best to apply that label to the PFLP. But, obviously I touched a nerve somewhere for you to come out swinging at "some of you" (me?) with such accusations.
Ummm, excuse me but who exactly are you referring to by "Some of you"? Is it me? You're sounding almost like B'nai Brith here with these accusations.
No. Not you.
It isn't like every single pro Palestinian activist hates Israel, but there are those who do, not because of anti Semitism, but because Israel is easy to hate. Israel's army is vicious, it's people arrogant, it's governing ideology undeniably racist. Many activists within Israel's left are so frightened of being osterasized that they dance to the music of a Zionist ideology, instead of attacking it. This is why it's doubly important we look for good people who fight against the Israeli establishment. Because in the end there are so few of them, and Israel has so little to recommend itself as a country.
Channel 10, one of Israel's three TV channels, aired a report this week that surely frightened a lot of viewers. Its title was "Who is Organizing the World-wide Hatred of Israel Movement?", and its subject: the dozens of groups in various countries which are conducting a vigorous propaganda campaign for the Palestinians and against Israel.
The activists interviewed, both male and female, young and old - quite a number of them Jews - demonstrate at supermarkets against the products of the settlements and/or of Israel in general, organize mass meetings, make speeches, mobilize trade unions, file lawsuits against Israeli politicians and generals.
Red and Green
Gen, it should be noted that these threads did start out dealing exclusively with Israeli activists. The content has changed, I've just been to lazy to alter the title of the archive. Thank you for the kick in the ass. ;)
Amira Hass / Who's suppressing opposition rallies in Ramallah?
The organizers could sense something was wrong about half an hour before the conference began last Wednesday morning.
About 60 people had been invited to what was termed a "national conference" (as opposed to a "popular" one, open to all ). But the hall in the Protestant Club in downtown Ramallah began to fill with hundreds of young men of similar appearance - well-developed muscles, civilian clothes and stern facial expressions. Some held what appeared to be rolled-up posters. They did not exactly look like senior PLO activists who oppose direct negotiations under American and Israeli pressure.
Israeli Shin Bet Electrocuted Child Prisoners to Extract Confessions
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/1482-israeli-shin-b...
"Following a visit yesterday to some young prisoners being held at the Megiddo Prison, lawyers for the Ministry of Detainees have stated that the young prisoners testified under oath that they have been interrogated, systematically electrocuted and tortured by Israeli intelligence officers in settlements near to Palestinian cities.."
Hundreds of Palestinians protested in Ramallah and Gaza yesterday against the start of direct peace talks, charging that Israel and the United States forced the talks' terms of reference on the Palestinian Authority.
The protesters, who included left-wing activists, academics and businessmen, said the negotiations set to begin today lack international commitments to ensure their success.
Palestinians protest start of direct negotiations
Damage Control
A DUTCH journalist asked me last Wednesday to try and divine the thoughts of Binyamin Netanyahu on his way to Washington.
It seems that she was satisfied with the results, because she asked me to divine the thoughts of Mahmoud Abbas, too.
She must have liked that as well, because then she asked me to do the same for Barack Obama.
Here, then, is what I told her:
NETANYAHU'S THOUGHTS on the way to Washington:
The main thing is to minimize the damage.
Oops!
Human Rights and Zionism in Israel, Part 1
No exit: A Palestinian legislator trapped in the West Bank
A month and a half has gone by since the doctor told Khaleda Jarrar she needed an urgent brain examination. Early tests were worrisome, but more information was needed to make an exact diagnosis. But Jarrar has not yet undergone the examination. And she knows, as do her partner and friends, the significance of each day of delay. During all the waiting, it's clear who the uber-doctor is who makes decisions about the health of the Palestinians, and the uber-doctor is not in a hurry.
'We Need to Nationalize The Resistance'
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11504.shtml
"After we started our demonstrations in al-Nabi-Saleh and I met the Israeli activists that would join us, I realized that once the mentality of the occupiers had been removed from their minds, they became human just like us. They became our friends..."
Jeff Halper; Israeli Speaks Out; from the University of Hawaii.
Satan of the Details
THERE IS a story about the man who dictated his will. He divided his property generously, provided for all the members of his family, rewarded his friends and did not forget his servants.
He finished off with a short paragraph: "In case of my death, this will is null and void."
Lauren Booth: An Open Letter to Israel (vid)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgp_3_rPWwo
Must See!
Graduates of the Shin Bet security service pride themselves on being able to recite Arabic proverbs, claiming this is the way to win over an Arab interlocutor. If it sounds to you as if I'm a bit envious of the linguistic training they receive, you are not mistaken; in my sort of school - the field - I have been able to memorize only a few Arabic adages.
Jerusalem or Gaza - where is it worse to be Palestinian?
Void of Responsibility
Where has the hypocrisy gone?
In the late 1970s or early 1980s, Professor Asa Kasher spoke at a conference of some kind about the differences between Labor Party governments and Likud governments. The Labor governments were hypocritical, and there is something positive about hypocrisy, Kasher said. At least the hypocrite knows there is a binding system of values, and that he is not acting according to them. As a result, he disguises his actions.
Concept and Contempt
IN THE main thoroughfare, beneath my window, there was absolute silence. Not a single vehicle was moving.
We were sunk in conversation with a friend of ours, when something unbelievable happened.
The air-raid sirens started to wail.
Within minutes, cars started to race down the street at a crazy speed, men were leaving their houses in haste, wearing their reserve uniforms, bearing backpacks.
The 'Havel Grovel' - Havel Joins Israel-friendly Initiative
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/the-havel-grovel/
"Former Czech President Vaclav Havel joined an initiative to defend Israel in Europe and the West. The Friends of Israel announced the participation of Havel, a champion of human rights, on Tuesday during the group's inaugural Washington tour.."
Jews Who Stand With Palestinians Against the State of 'Israel' (vid)
http://derisraelit.blogspot.com/2010/09/jews-who-stand-with-palestinians...
"Zionism is a political ideology that has nothing to do with Judaism." Neturei Karta
Gandhi's Wisdom
SURFING THE television channels, I came across an interview with the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi on an American network (Fox - would you believe it).
"My grandfather told us to love the enemy even while fighting him," he said, "he fought against the British resolutely, but loved the British." (I quote from memory.)
My immediate reaction was baloney, the pious wish of do-gooders! But then I suddenly remembered that in my youth I had felt exactly the same, when I joined the Irgun at the age of 15. I liked the English (as we called all the British), the English language and English culture, and I was ready to put my life on the line in order to drive the English out of our country. When I said so to the Irgun's recruitment committee, while sitting with a bright light shining in my eyes, I was almost rejected.
Shir Hever: Why Does Israel Still Occupy Palestinians?
http://www.counterpunch.org/hever09242010.html
"The majority of Israel's anti-occupation movement, unfortunately does not focus on the rights of Palestinians to live free, but on the damage that the Occupation causes to Israeli society.."
Article on/interview with Gideon Levy.
Jewish Tribalism in the Interests of Empire
http://www.maxajl.com/?p=4185
"The latest bit to emerge about the F-35 fighter jets reveals a great deal about the dynamics of the relationship between those empty nouns, 'Israel' and the 'United States'.."
Riots Grip East Jerusalem
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52978
"...the beginning of the fifth day Monday of continuous rioting in East Jerusalem.."
Two Fingers
EHUD OLMERT raised his hands before his face, two fingertips almost touching: "We were that close!"
He was talking about the negotiation he had conducted personally with Mahmoud Abbas, just before he himself was forced to vacate the Prime Minister's office.
That was the climax of the speech he made last week at a meeting of the "Geneva Initiative". Before analyzing it, a few words about the host and about the speaker.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-bars-arab-teen-s-lawyer-from-abuse-testimony-1.317010
The investigation unit of the Military Police is refusing to allow a lawyer to be present when a 15-year-old Palestinian gives his account of what he said was in an attack on him by Israeli soldiers. Due to the demand for a lawyer, the investigation unit has stopped pursuing the case.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/we-were-supposed-to-enter-quietly-instead-we-threw-grenades-1.317038
I was traveling abroad when a thunderstorm struck, but nevertheless the first thought that entered my head was, So whom are we shelling now? Local elders later said they could not remember such frightening thunder, but for me, the amazement contained no fear, that is to say, no feeling of danger. Despite my automatic thoughts, the scenery and time left no room for doubt that this was not man-made thunder.
Far from home, therefore, I understood that these primeval sounds, so full of power, had been permanently distorted, disrupted and spoiled. And this is just another conclusion for the week marking 10 years since the start of the second intifada - in Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip there are hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps even more, who confuse the sound of thunder for something else. For them, the memories of Israeli shellings have wiped out the amazement over nature's wonders. Instead, they arouse fear.
Lieberman's 'Truth
http://www.countercurrents.org/efrat041010.htm
"When the Israeli Foreign Minister denies any chance of reaching a peace agreement, it is fair to assume that he has backing - and not just from Netanyahu..The dominant trend of Israel's present government is best expressed in the following words from Lieberman's speech:
'The final agreement between Israel and the Palestinians must be based on exchanges of territories and populations. This does not mean an arrangement for moving populations about, but the establishment of borders that will better reflect the demographic reality.."
Behind a modest desk with a view of Beit Jala sits a nameless Shin Bet security service officer who is very pleased with himself. He has just saved the Jewish people in Israel from yet another grave security risk by preventing a 47-year-old woman, for five weeks now, from going abroad for urgent medical tests.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-is-now-punishing-pal...
His Father's Boy
WHICH IS the real Netanyahu?
The real Netanyahu - stand up!
The Jewish Republic of Israel - by Gideon Levy
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-jewish-republic-of-isra...
"Granted, the loyalty oath bill that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to have passed purportedly only deals with new citizens who are not Jewish, but it affects the fate of all of us. From now on, we will be living in a new, officially approved, ethnocratic, theocratic, nationalistic and racist country. Anyone who thinks it doesn't affect them is mistaken...Swearing an oath to a Jewish state will decide its fate.."
Why I am Not an Israeli Peace Activist
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004122
"...The key to a proper understanding of the conflict is that it is an entirely asymmetric one: between settler-colonisers and the indigenous people. It is about dispossession and oppression. As was the case in other colonial conflicts, the Israeli Palestinian conflict has involved real wars between Israel and the neighboring states; but these were spin-offs, consequences of the fundamental cause: the Zionist colonisation of Palestine.
As this colonisation proceeds and expands, Israel will attempt to maintain its regional hegemony as western imperialism's local sub-contractor, and new wars will no doubt be provoked.."
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/gaza-teens-brave-idf-fire-to-collect-salvaged-building-materials-1.318121
In the course of three months this summer Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 10 Palestinian teenagers who collect building materials from demolished structures in the former Israeli settlements and the Erez industrial zone in the northern Gaza Strip, dozens or hundreds of meters from the border. Palestinians believe the shootings are aimed at keeping people away from these areas, but despite the great risk dozens of nearby residents, many of them minors, continue to come in order to collect bits of cement and gravel from inside the buildings that were destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces around the time of the 2005 disengagement, and sell them to contractors and factories in the Strip.
According to Gisha, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that monitors the effects of the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the quantity of building materials that Israel has permitted into the Strip since a partial lifting of the closure was announced, in June, is around 4 percent of what is needed. The cement that is imported from Egypt via the tunnels is insufficient, and too expensive, to fill the gap.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/otherwise-occupied-the-palace-lie-on-gaza-1.318325
The nine "Turkish" dead on the flotilla to Gaza have succeeded where other flotillas failed, including the "Jewish" flotilla of two weeks ago. Through their deaths, the nine bequeathed to us an ongoing debate over the policy of blockading the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian and Israeli organizations, and a number of journalists, are trapped in the Sisyphean attempt to repulse the far from realistic official descriptions of the situation in Gaza and to penetrate the public's lack of willingness to know. They offer the public (including bored diplomats ) exact details about the siege in weekly reports on user-friendly Internet sites, in eyewitness reports from the field and petitions to the courts. But the right to provide the public with information, which is honored in Israel, does not entail the need that the public will know. Thus, the official stand (mainly that "in effect, Gaza is no longer under siege" ) keep gaining strength. But thanks to the flotilla, whose participants were mainly Turks, independent organizations are now receiving much more respectable forums.
The State of Bla-Bla-Bla
WILL GERMANY enact a law that demands that every Turk aspiring to citizenship swear allegiance to the "German Federal Republic, the Nation-State of the German People"? Sounds like a ridiculous idea.
Will the US Senate adopt a law that would compel every candidate for citizenship to swear allegiance to "The United States of America, the Nation State of the..." Of whom? "The American People"? "The Anglo-Saxon People"? "The Christian People"? An absurd idea.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/turkish-citizens-find-new-ways-to-deal-with-regime-s-tyranny-1.319689
Turkey for beginners is filled with endless surprises. One, which you won't find in the travel guides, is well-known citizens' participation in acts of civil disobedience. These are people who do not allow their respectable status to deter them from being brought to trial for violating the law (alongside Kurds, Armenians and left-wing activists). Isn't it inevitable that a law meant to suppress will be violated? Is this not a civic duty when the law perpetuates privileges?
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