Year's end in Jayyous - TOI-Billboard, Jan. 1, 2005

Joint action of replanting trees
Steven Erlanger on Jayyous in the New York Times of Dec. 29
The Dec. 29 uprooting in photos
Students at Tel Aviv high school protest militarization
Women's "end of year" event
Throwing the book at Tali Fahima
The Writing on the Wall, Hania Batar interviewed by Toine van Teeffelen
U.S. peace activist facing second deportation, by Daphna Berman
Blair??™s Descent into ???Poodledom??™ by Reuven Kaminer
Which Israel do you support? A letter to Europeans - by Yuval Halperin

This last week the world seems united in mourning and awe for the subterranean shivering with such devastating results. In such a week we feel nearly embarassed to write, as always, about the struggle for Israeli-Palestinian peace. But then, the people of Jayyous who this week saw hundreds of their olive trees uprooted by settlers may indirectly also be Tsunami victims, or is it a coincidence that exactly in such a week settlement expansion is put into higher gear? It is to be hoped that the concerted efforts of Palestinians, internationals and Israeli peace activists did wake up some powers who can stop Sharon's efforts of filling the space between the Wall and the Green Line with ever new settlements. (That's what he does while he speaks of "disengagement".)

Joint action of replanting trees

"Two years ago, when the fence was built here, we had a hard time convincing people in Israel that the purpose of the fence was not security or prevention of suicide bombings, but that there were political and settlement interests. First they separated the people of Jayyous from their land, preventing them from working on it. And now, everything is clearly visible: they are passing over the land to settler possession. That is part of the plan of Ariel Sharon, to annex into Israel 58% of the lands of the West Bank and to leave the Palestinians in isolated enclaves, which means never ending war with the Palestinians and with the entire Arab world" (Uri Avnery of Gush Shalom at the Friday tree replanting action initiated by Ta'ayush  and joined by several coalition partners.)

For a full report on the action http://www.geocities.com/keller_adam/Replanting_the_trees_of_Jayyous.htm

Steven Erlanger on Jayyous in the New York Times of Dec. 29

"Of course I want peace and reform," Mr. Salim said, gesturing to the vista below, where the electrified fence and its accompanying security road for army vehicles snakes through the landscape, dividing Jewish settlements from Palestinian villages. "But I also want my land and my water," he said. "Which is more important to my people?"

Full text at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/29/international/middleeast/29mideast.html?oref=login&oref=log

The Dec. 29 uprooting in photos: http://www.chris-on-the-bike.de/eappi_uprooting08.htm

Also this week:

Students at Tel Aviv high school protest militarization

(...) the guest speaker, an Air Force brigadier general invited to inject a little fighting spirit into students and motivation to enlist, [was confronted by] three seniors chained to the entrance in protest over "the school's militarization." ."

Full text http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/520381.html 

Gush Shalom wrote about this demonstrators in its weekly ad in Ha'aretz: "With such youth we have a future!

                                    ***

Women's "end of year" event 

On Dec. 30,  the long prepared event in Tel-Aviv of the Coalition of Women for Peace attracted some 200 women. It was a combination of protest & culture in which the keynote speaker - none other than the mother of Tali Fahima (see following article). Moreover, on the preceding evening - a television interview with Adi Dagan, a Coalition member who organizes informative women's groups touring the Wall, and Irith Lapidot, living at kibbutz Mizra who after one such tour cannot anymore appreciate the wall, supposedly protecting her.

"Throwing the book at Tali Fahima, by Orit Shohat

It turns out that she did not engage in terrorism, did not transfer combat material and did not plan a terrorist attack - and no one is claiming any longer that she endangered human life. But, instead of asking her pardon and sending her home, the state has mobilized to fill the overinflated balloon a little more. Not only was Fahima remanded again, but the less serious the suspicions became, the graver the counts in the indictment. Fahima is going to be tried for the most serious charges on the books, which carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Fulll text in English
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=Fahima&itemNo=521424

Hebrew
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=521302

>More must reads<

The Writing on the Wall, Hania Batar interviewed by Toine van Teeffelen, 29 Dec. 2004

 "We are being really separated from going to wherever we want. Even our social life became a disaster. I remember my birthday; it was just a while ago. None of my sisters, nephews and nieces to whom I am very close could make it. We turned from a very busy family where all came to see each other very often, having all those big lunches and dinners and so on, into a family where the phone replaces the face to face meeting of each other and the social events." 

Full text: http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article3464.shtml

                                ***

U.S. peace activist facing second deportation, by Daphna Berman

She has briefly considered applying for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, but said that she needed a "really overpowering reason to assert [her] right to live here as a Jew" before doing so

Full text http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=Kate&itemNo=521447

"Of course, the disastrous Iraq adventure demonstrated Blair was unable to resist even the most unreasonable and irresponsible actions taken by the United States on the tortuous road to disaster. However, Blair did still have the Israeli-Palestinian issue up his sleeve for proving that there was such a thing as a British policy in the Middle East. Every few months, Blair came out with a statement on the pressing need to do something to end the tension between Israel and the Palestinians, implying that he was pushing his U.S. partner to stop ignoring this issue. Somehow, Blair managed to convey the message that he was going to put an end to George Bush??™s infatuation with Sharon and his policies.