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About petty criminalization & the greater wisdom of
women
Email updates April 14, 2007
TOI-Billboard in cooperation with
Occupation
Magazine
Two phenomena in the news of this week at first glance seem to
contradict each other:
- The campaign against Arab Knesset Member Azmi
Bishara (including a criminal file & gag order), and
through him against Israel's Arab community;
- A beginning of pressure on
the Israeli government not to reject the peace proposal of Israel's
Arab
environment.
For
today's headlines www.kibush.co.il
(including action alerts in the activism box on the left)
For Hebrew
information www.kibush.co.il/index_h.asp
Hereafter a choice from the past week's
articles
Reality of the
occupation
Night in Jenin Camp: family forced outside in
the cold while Israeli soldiers destroy belongings
Ali Samoudi -
PNN - “It is clear that the occupation wants to punish every Palestinian family
without cause, firing at everything, destroying our senses and terrorizing the
children. They destroy every aspect of our lives, now under the pretext of a
search for he `wanted.` But they destroy my mother`s cooking oil and flour, they
shoot our clothes. It is clear that this is general prosecution, bleak and
terrible, the acts of occupation and the continued assault on Jenin Refugee
Camp.”
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19408
Incursion in Qalqilia leaves two women
severely injured and several houses destroyed
Ma`an - Both women
were transported to Qalqilia hospital and medical sources said that they had
sustained serious injuries. The Israeli forces bombed the house of Shukri after
forcing the residents to evacuate. The house was demolished using explosives,
causing severe damage to neighbouring houses.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19406
Salem military court treats elected members of
government like criminals
Mustafa Sabri - IMEMC - Dr. Abdel Raziq
was brought to the court with his legs bound. The 47-year-old Member of
Parliament was kidnapped during the 2006 Israeli attacks against members of the
elected Hamas government. Another MP, Yasser Mansour, was in a cage in the
courtroom after being transported from Majido Prison, clearly ill. His parents
looked on in horror. 14 Palestinian MPs and Ministers had their sentences
extended again, this time until 12 June, bringing their imprisonment to nearly a
year.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19395
Hebron update: 25-31 March
Christian
Peacemaker Team - ..."The soldiers then invaded the home and ordered the men and
boys to leave, sending the father and his son down to the street where they were
detained for between 30 and 45 minutes. The soldiers proceeded to thoroughly
search the house, throwing blankets and mattresses around, throwing clothes out
of the dresser, and stepping on the dough the mother was preparing for bread,
ruining it. They found nothing. The family also showed their neighbor, the
CPTers and the ISMers their back room, which had a wall of windows to let the
sun in, facing Avraham Avinu settlement. Israeli settlers had previously broken
all the windows with stones. "
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19324
Wall threatens national economy: stone
production and environment in trouble
Najib Farag -- PNN -- “Israeli
forces have begun building the Wall in the area [of Beit Fajar, south of
Bethlehem] […] digging up huge expanses of land and causing significant damage
to the trees which are vital to keeping environmental damage to a minimum. A
thousand dunams of agricultural land are being confiscated”
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19314
Protest on the
ground
Four non violent demonstrators injured south of Bethlehem -
in anti-Wall protest of Juret al Sham`a village
Najeb Faraj - IMEMC
- International and Israeli activists along with local villagers marched to the
construction site of the wall that is being built on land confiscated from the
village Juret Al sham`a. Upon arrival, protesters tried to stop the bulldozers
from destroying the villagers` farmland. Soldiers attacked the protesters using
batons, rifle butts and concussion grenades. Four protesters were lightly
wounded. Among those injured was Sami Awad, the director of the Holy Land Trust,
an organization that deals with non violence organizing.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19394
14 injured in Bilin protest, among them three
journalists
Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC - In the weekly non-violent
protests against the illegal separation wall in the village of Bil`in near the
West Bank city of Ramallah, 14 protesters were injured including three
journalists. 2)
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19393
Beit Ommar, Palestine: Our Roads WILL Remain
Open!
Infoshop News - "There are 4 major roadblocks throughout Beit
Ommar preventing vehicular traffic from several neighborhoods to the main
highway. They are part of a larger `matrix of control` designed by the Israeli
Army to maintain complete control over the movements of Palestinians. The people
of Beit Ommar and PSP are committed to maintaining freedom of movement to and
from their village and others. The Israeli Army will NOT be allowed to make the
people of Beit Ommar prisoners in their own village."
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19355
Occupation criticism in the media
IDF suspends officer over troops` use of Palestinians as
human shields
Ali Waked - Ynet - Peace activist films IDF soldiers
ordering two Palestinian youths to stand in front of their vehicle to prevent
locals from stoning it; military advocate general orders investigation into
incident, commanding officer suspended. // AP - Ha`aretz - Palestinian
Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti denounced the suspension as
window-dressing ("treating it as an isolated incident").
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19398
An ominous house of contention
Talia Sasson -
Ha`aretz - As far as is known, no one is claiming that the Defense Minister and
the head of the Civil Administration approved the purchase of the [Hebron]
house. Since the required permit was not presented to the army, the Israel
Defense Forces had an obligation to prevent the entry of the settlers before it
took place. Certainly the Defense Minister and the Prime Minister should have
announced the intention of evicting the settlers at once, as soon as they became
aware of the situation, and issued orders for their eviction and held a hearing
without delay, without waiting for about 20 days before a political
decision.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19404
Back to the wall - about working conditions in settlements
Simone Korkus - Ma`an News - "In my place the boss can find ten
others immediately", M. explains. And therefore he leaves his home by five in
the morning, does not ask for the minimum salary, works when he is ill or during
the holiday of Id Al Adha and he has never heard of vacation.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19399
Oxfam calls for end to Palestinian blockade
Ian
Black - Guardian - Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are suffering
"devastating" humanitarian consequences as incomes plummet, debts mount and
essential services face meltdown, Oxfam says in a report that calls for an
immediate end to the international financial blockade of the Hamas-led
government. Oxfam reports that 46% of Palestinians now do not have enough food
to meet their needs; that the number of people in deep poverty (defined as those
living on less than 50 cents a day) nearly doubled in 2006 to over one million;
and that incomes of PA workers had fallen to 40% of their normal levels. A
November 2006 poll of government workers showed an increase in poverty from 35%
to 71%.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19390
Prisoners or criminals?
Amira Hass - Haaretz -
"The common denominator of these axioms is the distinction between blood and
blood and person and person. The Jew is always worth more, much much more, when
he is a victim, when he is a soldier, when he is a POW. This distinction plays a
significant role in Palestinian support for the tactic of abduction. If
political logic, diplomatic negotiations and a basic premise of equality have
not led to the release of Palestinian prisoners, the abduction of Israelis will
do this."
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19356
Azmi Bishara as an example
Uzi Benziman -
Ha'aretz - Bishara`s case highlights the crossroads that relations between Jews
and Arabs inside the Green Line have hit. The turning point was in
the formulation of position papers by leading organizations of the Arab
community (`Ten Points,` `The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel,`
a proposed constitution and the `Haifa Declaration,` which has yet to be
officially published). The documents are being woven like an orderly ideological
and political doctrine challenging the current character of the State of Israel
- the way it views itself, the structure of its government, and its Zionist
identity. In practice, these documents lay the ideological foundation for the
uprising of the Arab Israelis against their state. This is a mutiny that,
for the time being, is being carried out through entirely legitimate means -
submitting petitions to court, developing position papers, initiating research,
rallying public opinion. But it paves the way for radicals to act by
illegitimate methods. (This article is important because
it represents explicitly the limitations of Israeli mainstream
liberalism as soon as basic Zionist principles are questioned - such
as replacing the definition of Israel as "a Jewish
state" by "a state of all its citizens". The following article, by Avnery, can
be read as an answer to this one. [ed])
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19350
Shalom, Shin Bet
Uri Avnery - Gush Shalom -
Evidently, in the view of the chief of the Security Service, a central figure in
the Israeli leadership, the task of the Shin Bet (now commonly known in Israel
as Shabak) is not only to protect the state from spies and terrorists, but also
from any challenge to its ideological designation, like the KGB in the former
Soviet Union and the Stasi in communist East Germany. (The excellent
Oscar-winning movie "The Life of the Others", now screening in Israel, shows how
this worked in practice.)
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19294
The negotiations
discourse
Talks about talks
Reuters, DPA and Haaretz
Service - Among Israeli politicians due to visit Jordan next week is Knesset
Speaker Dalia Itzik. Jordan`s King Abdullah II plans to discuss "means of
reviving the peace process on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative"
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19403
Finding Mandela
Byron Bland - Ynet - Israelis
need to find a Palestinian Mandela, and Palestinians need to find an Israeli
Mandela. However, the Mandela they need to find is not the leader who will make
the concessions they seek but the one to whom they can make the concessions they
say they cannot offer.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19405
Have we become afraid of peace?
David Kimche -
Jerusalem Post - I asked one of the former Arab Prime Ministers present at the
recent Madrid peace conference how he thought we could accept 194. "You don`t
have to," he replied. "The key word in the refugee article is `agreed.` You can
say you are willing to negotiate on the basis of the initiative and state your
reservations about 194. We would understand it and accept it. No Arab leader
believes you are willing to accept the return of the refugees." [This is how
Kimche, a former director-general of the Foreign Ministry, calls upon Olmert to
accept the Riyadh offer - ed.]
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19402
What the Arabs propose, and what they do
not
Henry Siegman - IHT - "There are no grounds for Israel`s
rejection of the Arab initiative."
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19338
Israeli women more favorable than men for release of
Palestinian prisoners
Ma`ariv/Teleseker - 53% of Israeli women but
only 36% of Israeli men support the release of Palestinian prisoners convicted
of the murder of Israelis in return for the release of captured soldier Gil`ad
Shalit. Altogether, there are 45% of Israelis in favor of such a deal and 36%
against.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19389
The stale myth of battlefield bravado
Meron
Benvenisti - Haaretz - "Only the naive expected a positive government response
to the Arab initiative offering normalized relations in return for a withdrawal
and a resolution to the refugee problem. The knee-jerk skepticism to peace
offers has characterized the response of nearly all Israeli governments since
1949, and not only during the years after 1967 and the occupation of the
territories. "
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19368
More articles are easy accessible through the "categories" of
the archive of www.kibush.co.il:
<Documents and
Facts>
http://www.kibush.co.il/datapage.asp?lang=1%20§ion=1
<Commentary
on current events>
http://www.kibush.co.il/datapage.asp?lang=1%20§ion=8
<Opposing
Occupation>
http://www.kibush.co.il/datapage.asp?lang=1%20§ion=5
<Life under occupation>
http://www.kibush.co.il/datapage.asp?lang=1%20§ion=3
and there is more, all at the top of www.kibush.co.il
--
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