Palestine is the barometer of Western integrity
HJFP MONTHLY PALESTINE REVIEW – DECEMBER 2013
Don’t call me a Palestinian of the Palestinian Territories because it is called Palestine.
Don’t give me a fraction of my homeland and call it a solution.
Don’t give me oppression and call it peace.
Don’t give me a Bantustan and call it a home.
Don’t give me a prison and call it freedom.
Don’t draw the borders of my existence according to your whims and interests and call it a state.
My Palestine is the home that is mine since the dawn of history till the end of history.

NEWS
Child Prisoners
02.12.2013
English translation of article in Al Quds re DCI tour by Mohammad Aburesh
I thought you would like to see the English translation of an article by one of the speakers on our recent UK tour organised in
conjunction with DCI-Palestine:
http://action4palestinianchildren.org/2013/12/01/exposing-the-abuse-of-palestinian-children-in-nine-british-cities-by-mohammadaburesh/
As you can see, the support and solidarity of the people of the UK (and other countries) is a great source of strength and hope for the
Palestinian people in their struggle for justice.
Media & Publicity
02.12.2013
'BBC intensifies its whitewashing of Israel'
Please see: BBC intensifies its whitewashing of Israel
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/amena-saleem/bbc-intensifies-its-whitewashing-israel
The article focuses on how the BBC has ignored Israel’s planned ethnic cleansing under the Prawer Plan, and the current desperate
situation in Gaza, but ran a report on the Today programme last week detailing Israel’s ‘humanitarian’ work in treating a handful of
Syrian refugees in one of its hospitals.
The article was written on Friday (29th Nov). Just before 11pm on Saturday (30th), BBC Online uploaded a small article about the Day of
Rage against the Prawer Plan. This could be seen as better than nothing, but the report fails to give any idea of the scale of the planned
ethnic cleansing, or how systematically it’s being planned. It also confines the Day of Rage to the OPT and Israel, without indicating that
this was a global event. The article is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25170855
Compare it, in length and content, with this BBC article from January (‘Israeli push to fulfill desert dream’):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20945253
Palestine Prisoners
02.12.2013
Call for the release of Palestinian political prisoner and activist Thamer
Saba'neh
Representatives from UFree Network and Yousef Al-Sedeeq institute for prisoners' protection (YAIPP) visited the family of Palestinian
political prisoner Thamer Saba'neh, 35, who has been detained for more than 9 months in Israeli jails. The visit came in light of the
efforts in support of Palestinian activists, journalists and writers who are being targeted by Israeli occupation authority in an attempt to
cover up its violations and crimes.
Thamer Saba’neh has served a total of 4 years in Israeli jails, where he first spent 40 days in 1998 and one year in 2000 while he was
studying at al-Najah University. He was then arrested in 2006 and sentenced for 2 more years. His last arrest was on the 6th of March,
2013 that still continued without charge or trial. Sab’aneh is well known by his support to the prisoners’ issue. He has written several
articles and books in to highlight on the plight of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, led to his repeated arrests by Palestinian and Israeli
authorities.
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Thamer is a father of three children: Watan is 7-year-old, Ezzedine is 4-year-old and Majed is only three months where she was born
while he is jailed. During the visit, Saba'neh's wife has called upon all international human rights organisations to reveal and expose the
Israeli racist policy against Palestinian activists, journalists and writers that aims at undermining their movement and activities in support
of prisoners' issue.
For his part, UFree Network chairman Mohammed Hamdan demanded the Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas to activate
Palestinian prisoners' issue on international forums and courts especially after granting Palestine non-member observer State status at
the United Nations.
UFree Network | An independent European-wide human rights network, set up to defend the rights of Palestinian political prisoners and
detainees.
http://facebook.com/ufreenetwork
http://twitter.com/ufreenetwork
http://youtube.com/ufreenetworkofficial
http://www.ufree-p.net
Join our mailing list: http://ymlp264.net/xgmmbeyhgmgh
Peace Talks
02.12.2013
December Guest Writer: Time to bury the two-state solution forever
Whatever international support and acceptance Israel has beyond western capitals is due to the Oslo Accords by which Israel was able
to show to the world that it has made peace with its victims and has solved the "Palestinian problem". In reality, though, Israel has only
created two Bantustans in Palestine on the South African apartheid model.
Head on over to our website to read Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan's full article.
Source: Middle East Monitor
[01.12.2013
Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan Time to bury the two-state solution forever]
Israel is a de facto, not a de jure, entity. The League of Nations' "mandate" given to Britain to turn Palestine into a "Jewish homeland"
was as baseless in law and morality as was its successor, the United Nations' partition plan of November 1947, because the UN charter
does not give that body any right to divide countries and create new ones. Even that dubious partition plan was later suspended and a
high-level UN representative, Count Bernadotte of Sweden, was despatched to Palestine in 1948 to try to find an amicable diplomatic
solution; he was murdered in broad daylight by Jewish terrorists in Jerusalem on 17 September, 1948. Thereafter, the UN abandoned its
efforts to find an amicable and just solution to the Palestinian problem. Hence the Israeli state, which appeared unilaterally on 15 May,
1948 after its forces had expelled the majority of the rightful inhabitants of the country and what was accepted by its neighbours as a
result of the Armistice agreements in April 1949, is only a de facto reality and will remain so until its Palestinian victims accept it. Israel is
the only state in the world which has not defined its borders because it believes in continuous territorial expansion at the expense of the
Palestinians and other neighbours.
Upon its acceptance as a member of the United Nations, Israel gave solemn pledges to the world body that it will allow the Palestinian
refugees to return to their homes, farms and orchards but this promise remains totally unfulfilled to this day. Meanwhile, Jews from any
part of the world are offered automatic citizenship of Israel by virtue of its 1950 "Law of Return". Even Palestinians living inside the pre1967 borders of the state do not enjoy full citizenship rights as they cannot buy Jewish lands and are under continuous threat of
expulsion by Jewish politicians who do not tire of repeating that Israel is a "Jewish state" and must remain so. Arab homes and Islamic
heritage sites inside Israel are demolished at will and land is confiscated as a matter of routine.
With the exception of the October (Ramadan) 1973 War, which was started by Egypt and Syria to liberate their lands occupied by the
Zionist state since 1967, Israel has started every single war in the Middle East in order to expand at the expense of its neighbours. With
blind American and western military and economic support, Israel has won every war against regular armies while it has lost every war
against popular movements. This was seen in May 2000 and again in June-July 2006 when it failed to defeat Hezbollah in Lebanon,
despite 32 long days of Israeli aggression. It again failed to defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip in the December 2008-January 2009
invasion despite using every possible conventional armament for 22 days against an unarmed, impoverished and exposed civilian
population and primitive armed resistance. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are the only movements which have forced Israel to seek
ceasefires and to withdraw from South Lebanon and the Gaza Strip respectively in 2000 and 2005.
There is a clear lesson for us in these examples: that the extraordinary Zionist settler-colonial project in Palestine can be pushed back
and defeated by popular resistance movements using unconventional tactics; not by under-equipped regular armies whose
governments are subject to regional and international pressures. Israel has been able to continue its occupation, oppression and
continuous expansion as a result of the vicious exploitation of world sympathy arising from the obscene Nazi Holocaust and cultivating
the false image of a small, defenceless country surrounded by powerful enemies. Today, this image lies shattered and the world is
increasingly questioning Israel's expansionist and colonial policies; there is a genuine question mark over the legitimacy of the Zionist
project at the expense of the Palestinians. There has also been an extraordinary show of support around the world for the Palestinians
in Gaza as people have realised the Israeli reality and the government's ruthless colonial policies as a western proxy. Today, Israel is the
only "democracy" implementing openly racist policies and denying rightful Palestinian refugees of their natural right to return to their
homes and lands.
The world is also beginning to understand that the Palestinians are fighting a just war against an occupying power and that this is a
legitimate resistance, the likes of which is a sacred right for all people living under occupation. This right is enshrined in The Hague
Agreements of 1899 and 1907, the Geneva Protocols of 1925, the International Human Rights Declaration of 1948, UN General
Assembly Resolution No. 1514 of 1960 and Article 51 of the UN Charter. Today the world has also revised its policies towards Hamas,
the main resistance force in Palestine. Many countries and international organisations have opened contacts and negotiations with the
Islamic Resistance Movement, directly or indirectly, because it has proved not only to be popular but also a sensible and responsible
party which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 under extremely difficult circumstances, not least an Israeli-led international blockade.
Whatever international support and acceptance Israel has beyond western capitals is due to the Oslo Accords by which Israel was able
to show to the world that it has made peace with its victims and has solved the "Palestinian problem". In reality, though, Israel has only
2
created two Bantustans in Palestine on the South African apartheid model. While the Palestinian Authority (PA) areas in the West Bank
have 560 Israeli army checkpoints today and witness ever-increasing Jewish settlement activity on what is supposed to be PAadministered land, the Gaza Strip remains under a strict and almost total economic and humanitarian blockade, imposed since early
2006 when Hamas won a clear victory in democratic elections. In effect, the Palestinian Bantustans are worse than those which were
created by the apartheid government in South Africa, but the PA leaders do not have the courage to say so in public. They are fearful of
telling the world that Oslo has collapsed and failed due to Israeli insincerity and that a new and serious effort should be made to solve
the Palestine-Israel issue. The endless process of "negotiations" between Israel and PA interlocutors for the past two decades
demonstrates that this barren route is going nowhere, even if it continues for another two decades. The only option available to the
Palestinian negotiators in this process is to surrender to Israeli diktats.
The PA, in its present form, serves only two purposes: it shows to the world that the "Palestinian problem" has been solved to some
extent, and it provides security to Israel and prevents resistance activity in the occupied West Bank. Even Yossi Beilin, the Israeli
interlocutor during the Oslo negotiations, advised PA President Mahmoud Abbas in December 2012 to disband the failed authority in
order to expose Israel. The state of Israel should be taken to the international criminal court wherever possible and tried for its war
crimes and possible crimes against humanity, especially those committed in the Gaza Strip, where a totally unnecessary and one-sided
war was waged on an unarmed and impoverished civilian population which has been resisting against occupation and the unjust
blockade. Israel should also be made to pay reparations for the wanton damage to life and properties it inflicted and continues to inflict
on Gaza due to its illegal blockade and intermittent attacks and military incursions. However, what we see instead is that Israel is
threatening to wage another, more ferocious, war on the people of Gaza. Even if Israeli war criminals' prosecution at the ICC is thwarted
by its western backers, more credit and notice should be given to the Russell Tribunal, which has examined Israel's record and found it
wanting; the final session of the tribunal took place in Brussels, 16-17 March 2013. A similar tribunal was established to look at the US
military's record in Vietnam.
The time has come to punish Israel for its crimes and force it to become an ordinary state in the region forsaking its hegemonic dreams
over the Middle East and role as a western policeman in the area. Our failure to bring the Zionist state to its senses will waste a great
opportunity. Already, Israel is feeling the heat. A committee has been formed in the office of the Israel prime minister to tackle this very
likely eventuality and Israeli army officers and political leaders, who are widely suspected of having a role in war crimes, are being
advised by the Israeli government to skip certain capitals where they may be arrested and put on trial.
The Oslo Accords are long dead and there is no hope that any other "two-state solution" based on the ideas of the "International
Quartet" or other regional or international forces will ever succeed due to the refusal of Israel to give back the fruits of its past
aggression. The fact that it has ignored dozens of UN Resolutions and continues to trample over Palestinian rights speaks volumes
about its sincerity and intentions. The time has come for the notion of a viable two-state solution to be buried forever. We must revive
the original plan for a single democratic state in Palestine free of Zionist ideology, where Jews and Arabs will enjoy equal political and
democratic rights. This is the only solution to allow the right of return of the Palestinian refugees; absorb the illegal Jewish settlements
built on stolen lands; and cater for the illegal immigrants flooding Israel who are most vocal about expelling the original inhabitants from
their historic homeland. This practical, just and humanitarian solution will also contain Israel as an expansionist and threatening entity
which has become a danger to the peace and stability of the whole region. The Middle East will have no security or stability without the
effective "de-Zionisation" of Palestine.
The writer is chief editor of The Milli Gazette, New Delhi
Child Prisoners
04.12.2013
Newsletter - October 2013
Detention figures – According to the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), as of 30 September, there were 4,806 Palestinians held in Israeli
detention facilities including 179 children. In the case of children, this represents a monthly decrease of 0.6 percent. However, there has
been an annual increase of 7.1 percent in the average number of children detained compared with 2012. According to the IPS, 52
percent of children, and 89 percent of adults were detained in facilities inside Israel, in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention. Read more
Testimony from a 16-year-old boy – On 27 August 2013, a 16-year-old boy from Haris village was released after spending five months
in prison for throwing stones. “I was asleep when my father woke me up at around 2:30 a.m. He told me Israeli soldiers were in our
house. I quickly got dressed and went to see what was happening. A soldier introduced himself as Commander Avik. He told me he was
in possession of confessions my friends had made against me and that I must come for questioning. He said I would be back home the
next day. My hands were then tied behind my back with three plastic ties, wrapped around my wrists three fold. I complained that the
ties were too tight and caused me pain, but nobody paid any attention. I was also blindfolded.” Read more
Dutch Foreign Minister raises concerns – On 4 October, Minister Timmermans stated that the Dutch Government is concerned about
the circumstances in which Palestinian minors are being arrested and detained by Israel. These prove to be in violation of international
law and treaties Israel has signed and ratified. Read more
UNICEF issues progress report - On 14 October, UNICEF issued a statement reviewing progress made in implementing the 38
recommendations contained in the organisation’s report on children held in Israeli military detention published in March 2013. The
UNICEF report – Children in Israeli Military Detention – found that: “The ill-treatment of children who come in contact with the military
detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized throughout the process, from the moment of arrest until the
child’s prosecution and eventual conviction and sentencing.” Seven months after the publication of UNICEF’s report, MCW is still unable
to confirm that any of the report’s 38 recommendations have been satisfactorily implemented. Read more
Military court decisions – A 14-year-old boy was arrested in Hebron after two soldiers claimed they could positively identify him as the
boy who threw stones at them from a distance of 200 metres at night. The boy was taken to an Israeli police station in the West Bank for
questioning. The court found that:
·
His family was not notified of the arrest;
·
He was interrogated at 11:00 p.m.;
·
He did not consult with a lawyer prior to interrogation;
·
Neither parent was present during interrogation; and
·
He was not informed of his right to silence.
At the conclusion of the interrogation the boy confessed to throwing stones at Israeli soldiers on three occasions. Judge Avri Eynhorn
questioned why the boy was interrogated at night without appropriate safeguards. Nevertheless the judge ruled that bail be denied
and the boy be held until the end of the legal process on the grounds that he had provided a confession and it was alleged that he had
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used a slingshot. Read more
Media – Haaretz – “The Israel Defense Forces is introducing changes to its policies regarding the arrest and interrogation of
Palestinian minors in the West Bank, UNICEF said in a statement issued Monday. The agency called the statement a first progress
report after the March 2013 publication of a briefing paper, “Children in Israeli military detention,” that has led to ongoing cooperation on
the matter between UNICEF and Israel’s Military Advocate General, among other Israeli and Palestinian government agencies and
organizations. According to the latest statement, in September the IDF Central Command agreed to pilot-test a new approach in two
unspecified regions of the West Bank. Instead of arresting children wanted for questioning at their homes at night, any such arrests will
take place during daylight hours. But Haaretz has learned that this policy has yet to be implemented, and the UNICEF announcement
was a surprise to officers who are involved.” Read more
Testimony from a former soldier (Breaking the Silence) – He was “15 years old. His name was Daoud. We stopped our vehicle, ran
out, he was in total shock. We took him to Gross Post, to the Jewish side, and he began to cry, scream, he was just streaming sweat
and tears. We had nothing to do with him, suddenly you end up with a crying kid. A second ago he was throwing roof tiles at the army
post, and you’re dying to beat him to a pulp, and you’re alerted out there in that heat. You want to kill him but he’s crying. We didn’t know
what to do, so we put him under watch. Once someone who was with him went wild, did something to him and left. At some point when I
was with him I tried to calm him down because he was tied, blindfolded, and crying, tears and sweat streaming out all over. I began to
shake him, then the deputy company commander tried. He grabbed him and began to shake him: 'Shut up, shut up, enough, cut it out!’
Read more
Testimonies – Soldiers, parents and children testify. Read more
Detention Figures - End of October 2013:
Adults: 4,594
Children: 159
Total: 4,753
Detention Figures - Percentage held in Israel:
Adults: 89%
Children: 51%
More statistics
Source: Military Court Watch – Monitoring the treatment of children in Israel military detention [www.militarycourtwatch.org]
Gaza
04.12.2013
Stop the inhuman treatment of Palestinians in Gaza
Don’t let the inhuman treatment of Palestinians in Gaza go unnoticed. Join the protest on Saturday 18th January from 12-2pm outside
the Israeli Embassy. A revealing and heartbreaking blog in the Independent reveals just how unbearable – and unsustainable - life in
Gaza has become: most of the day is spent in darkness due to electricity cuts; rubbish piling up due to the lack of fuel to remove it;
sewage filling the streets, and on-going Israeli attacks during the night.
Please make sure that we have a huge expression of our anger at the Israeli Government for bringing this desperate situation onto
Palestinian people in Gaza; the Egyptian Government for cutting off the lifeline that had existed via Rafah; and our own Government for
allowing this suffering to continue. Make sure that you join us on Saturday 18th January to demonstrate your solidarity. This will be the
5th anniversary of the end of the 2008/9 war on Gaza. Show the people of Palestine we will never forget.
01 December 2013 Life in Gaza: ‘We wake up to terrifying sonic booms and try to sleep while Israelis are shelling’
Last week, the United Nations warned that a blockade on the Gaza Strip imposed by Israel and Egypt was making Gaza ‘uninhabitable’.
The following is a personal account of what life is like for one resident, Sally Idwedar, in Gaza City
I was thinking about how I would start to write about life in Gaza – how I would lay the words out with eloquence – when suddenly an
explosion boomed close by and those thoughts fled my mind. I didn’t know the source; maybe it was internal training or perhaps another
air strike. Movement and horns stopped on the street below, a brief pause to make sure it wasn’t anyone close that was hit, then
movement resumed. My heart is still pounding and my mind racing and, like every other woman in Gaza, I say a quick prayer of thanks
that my family is near and safe and hope no one was hurt. My husband lights a cigarette in the next room while reports come in that it
was an “internal” explosion from training. Either way I guess it doesn’t really matter, it is just enough to remind us nothing in Gaza is
ever normal.
I like to stand out on my balcony in the wee hours of the morning just before the call to prayer. Everything is so silent and still and the
stars above are so close you can touch them. It is easy to forget in those few minutes where I am, so easy to forget the challenges that
plague our daily life. The UN issued a report last week saying Gaza is becoming uninhabitable and the humanitarian conditions are
deteriorating – sadly that is true. We wake up to terrifying sonic booms and try to sleep while the Israeli navy is shelling. Simple things
like daily running water and a full day of electricity have now become luxuries. Nearly four weeks ago the sole power generator in Gaza
stopped working due to lack of fuel. We had become used to the eight hours of electricity we were allotted but now we are down to four
to six hours at a time and lengthy 12-14 hour blackouts. At any given moment at least one-third of Gaza will be in the dark. During the
long days of summer it is much easier to cope but now the days are much shorter and it seems most of our time is spent in the dark.
Students study by candlelight and women cook by flashlight. Men gather on the balconies to smoke and talk politics – the only light that
can be seen are the small red dots of their glowing cigarettes.
Some families are able to afford a converter than runs on a car battery and can power a few small items. The cost for the unit is about
700 shekels (£120) and the batteries cost another 700 shekels. This might not seem like much but even that is out of reach for a
majority of families especially now the unemployment rate is nearly 40 per cent. Stores, restaurants and larger apartment buildings often
use gas generators. These days, however, it is nearly impossible to get fuel and queues are very long with some people waiting 24
hours just for a few litres. Drivers are feeling the shortage and finding a taxi is impossible at times. Yet everyone knows how hard it is
and we try to help each other as much as possible. People pile as many in as can fit in a car, sometimes sitting on laps, just to make
sure others can get to their homes. It is not uncommon to see three or even four people squeezed into the front seat of a taxi going from
Gaza City to the refugee camps in the middle of Gaza. Some cars are now running on a mixture of cooking oils and the smell of falafel
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and French fries trails after them. Cooking gas supply runs low every winter but this year it is the worst shortage in a long time. An
average family goes through one 12kg gas cylinder a month and it costs 65 shekels. It takes more than a month to get a refill.
Neighbours are helping each other and women rotate cooking duties to save gas-cooking large meals for multiple families at one time.
Others less fortunate are resorting to cooking over open fires outside, burning paper and cardboard as fuel. I am constantly worried
what will happen when the cold and wet weather arrives next month. Rubbish collection has nearly stopped in the densely populated
city. Swarms of flies, wild cats and dogs hover around the rubbish piles. In an attempt to help alleviate the situation, donkey carts have
now been deployed to collect what they can. So far it is not making a dent. Two weeks ago the sewage pumping stations stopped
working in many areas – they simply did not have the fuel to work. Raw sewage leaks into the streets. Fathers carry their children to get
to school and most cars won’t venture into it. The sludge reeks and brings mosquitoes in swarms.
There is fear it will end up in the water supply as well. The Al-Shati refugee camp, also known as Beach camp, has reported foul
smelling and discoloured water this week and many have fallen ill with stomach maladies already. My area has been lucky so far, no
sewage in the streets but unfortunately we don’t have any water at all. As I write this we are beginning the fourth day with dry taps. With
the erratic electricity schedule the water pumping station is rarely working when my building has electricity so even when there is water
in the lines there is no way to get it up to the flats. Before the fuel crisis we only received water from the municipal lines three or four
times a week, now it is half of that if we are lucky. We fill old bottles when we do have water. This is life in Gaza now: a constant
struggle to find the bare necessities. Gaza life is about always being prepared for the worst case scenario because normally that is what
happens. It has been a year since the last major Israeli aggression here and we are trying to pick up the pieces. Constructions materials
are now refused entry so repairs have ground to a halt.
Our life lines – the tunnels from Egypt – have been severed. Without them we don’t have a consistent flow of food, medicine and fuel.
The border with Israel is often closed and only half of the needed trucks of aid are allowed in when it is open. The items on the market
shelves are withering away and prices are getting higher and higher. Sometimes I think someone has hit the pause button on life but
then I see all that we have survived and realise we continue on just as before: couples get married, babies are born and children go to
school. We laugh with our friends, we love each other and, most importantly, we live.
Sally Idwedar is a blogger and resident of Gaza City. She was born in New York and her family is originally from Yibna,
Palestine.
Child Deaths
08.12.2013
Palestinian boy dies from gunshot, president and family blame Israel
A 15-year-old Palestinian boy died of a gunshot wound in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, hospital officials said, and his father
and two friends blamed Israeli troops guarding a nearby settlement for the shooting. An Israeli military spokeswoman said a military
police investigation had been opened but she did not have more details of events. Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, blamed
Israel in a statement for the "cold-blooded assassination" and said it was destructive to the peace process.
Doctors at the Ramallah
hospital where Wajih Wajdi Al-Ramahy was taken, said he died of a single gunshot wound. His father, Wajdi, said Israeli soldiers had
shot him without being provoked.
The father, from the Jalazoun refugee camp near the town of Ramallah, said his son had left a grocery store when he was shot from the
nearby settlement, about 300 metres away. "I will send the body of my son for autopsy to prove he was killed by Israeli army gunfire
and I will sue them," he said. Two boys who said they were friends of Ramahy and that they were with him when he was shot also
blamed Israeli soldiers. "Soldiers who appeared from an area at the fence fired at Wajih and killed him," one said. The two boys refused
to give their names. There was no unrest in the area when the shooting occurred, the father said. Seventeen Palestinians and four
Israelis have been killed since US-brokered talks began in July. Palestinian officials say the sides remain far apart on the central issues
of borders, security, Jerusalem's status and Palestinian refugees.
Source: theguardian.com, Sunday 8 December 2013
Ethnic Cleansing
5
09.12.2013
'BBC ignores ethnic cleansing'
Please see, ‘BBC ignores ethnic cleansing in two interviews with Bedouin activist’: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/amena-saleem/bbcignores-ethnic-cleansing-two-interviews-bedouin-activist
War Crimes
09.12.2013
Israeli War Crimes
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/an-obsessives-documenting-of-israeli-war-crimes-in-lebanon-can-show-us-how-thewest-lost-respect-for-international-law-8991627.html
An obsessive’s documenting of Israeli war crimes in Lebanon can show us how the West lost respect for international law One Norwegian officer left Lebanon with a typed report on torture taped to his chest
Odd Karsten Tveit was always a very obsessional chap. Every story he covered, he always wanted to dig deeper, study further, hear
one more tale of horror, one more joke, one more historical fact. We all covered the story of Israel’s wars in Lebanon, in 1978, in 1982,
in 1996, in 2006. Over the years, I covered the story of Israel’s torturers in Khiam jail in southern Lebanon, the massive Ansar prison
camp in 1982, the frightful interrogation of Lebanese and Palestinian inmates.
But Karsten has put together a book of immense research which will remain the volume on Israel’s shame in Lebanon and its historical
defeat. That’s the title of the English edition – Goodbye Lebanon: Israel’s First Defeat. His detailed questioning of torture victims –
hanged by their arms, electrocuted, in one case apparently raped and in another mistreated in an Israeli hospital – have an unstoppable
power to convince. Not only did he cover the events on the ground in southern Lebanon, he interviewed Israeli veterans in Israel itself.
He reported constantly on Norwegian television and radio; he wanted to learn so much of the vicious Israeli-Hezbollah guerrilla war that
he actually took time off to serve in the Norwegian UN battalion n southern Lebanon, wearing the blue beret. Now that is obsession for
you.
It is a terrible tale, stories which upset many of the UN peacekeepers, especially military doctors, as evidence mounted of the Israeli
brutality on prisoners in Lebanon and inside Israel itself. One Norwegian officer even left Lebanon via Tel Aviv with a typed report on
torture taped to his chest for the eyes of a Norwegian government minister. Prisoners at Ansar were grossly mistreated. Outside the
walls of Khiam prison, I visited a post of UN unarmed truth supervisors who told me they could hear the screams of tortured m en and
women at night. Karsten did the same. Israeli interrogators were present, Karsten says. Israel denied responsibility, saying Khiam was
under the control of their local Lebanese militia. The UN did not believe it. There are also stories of great courage. Two out of the four
men who managed to escape from Khiam were hunted through the night and only reached Beirut with the secret help of UN soldiers.
They had been inspired by Allied escapes from prison camps in the Second World War. “The prisoners in Stalag III had managed to get
hold of equipment by bribing a German guard,” Karsten writes. “In Khiam, such an attempt would likely have meant more torture and
confinement in the ‘chicken cage’, the 90-cubic-centimetre enclosure used for extra-severe punishment.”
It was only thanks to an Israeli lawyer that Lebanese prisoners held in Israel – illegally under international law – managed to have their
cases heard. Many were held for years without trial, as they were in Khiam, naked during interrogations, refused visits from the
International Red Cross, wounds untended or untreated for days. And I wondered, reading this shameful narrative, why we were so
surprised when we found that the American military were torturing and killing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. Karsten says at one
point that Israeli soldiers in the occupation zone in southern Lebanon – the Israelis called it a ‘security zone’, a description that many
newspapers gutlessly repeated – were joint Israeli-American nationals. Did any of them also serve in the American army in Iraq? The
mass prison camp at Ansar sounds like a hot version of Guantanamo. And when the US repeatedly vetoed UN Security Council
resolutions condemning Israel’s treatment of Lebanese civilians, I wonder whether somehow that’s when American governments lost
their respect for international law – as they showed in their treatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan (or the Iraqi invasion itself).
There are painful details of the torment of Western hostages in Lebanon and the merciless judgements bestowed on informers by
Hezbollah. There are not many good guys in Karsten’s reporting. In the end, it turned out that the prisoners of the Israelis were
hostages too – the Israelis called them “bargaining chips”, another phrase the press used freely – and they were freed to secure the
release of Israeli prisoners or their bodies. Khiam is long gone. The war in Lebanon is now outclassed by the bloodbath in Syria.
Karsten’s work is a reminder that cruelty has no geographic boundaries. How much more is there to learn about the horrors of
Lebanon? Or Afghanistan? Or Iraq? Or Syria?
Parallels with Ireland not so clear
I see that Mustafa Barghouti, the leader of the Palestinian National Initiative – which holds no truck with either Hamas or the Palestinian
Authority – has been holding forth in Dublin about the parallels of Irish and Palestinian history. “I find great similarity between the
struggle of Irish people and the Palestinian struggle for independence and freedom,” he says. That deserved one response: Hmmm.
Visiting Kilmainham jail, he told the Irish Times that he intended to read more about Robert Emmett, executed for a hopeless rising in
1803. “We were also colonised by the British colonial system,” said Barghouti . “My grandfather and uncle were imprisoned in similar
prisons.” Now, he says, the Netanyahu government is “bulldozing the two-state solution and the possibility of a Palestinian state”.
Barghouti wants Ireland’s political help, claiming that without “international solidarity” for a peaceful solution, the Palestinians will not
have a state. But I’m not sure Barghouti has chosen quite the right period of Irish history. I would have thought the dispossession of the
Catholics and the Protestant settlement in the Pale was a more likely parallel with Netanyahu’s colonial expansion. Getting rid of the
Penal Laws wasn’t much of a prospect at the time. Catholics couldn’t even buy land. And “international solidarity” with the Irish wasn’t
much use then.
Source: Robert Fisk, Independent 08 December 2013
Drones
11.12.2013
Take action against Israel’s arms companies - new Killer Drones report launched
Israel is one of the most heavily militarised states on earth. It is the single largest exporter of drones in the world, responsible for 41% of
all UAVs exported between 2001 and 2011. War on Want’s new report Killer Drones: UK complicity in Israel’s crimes against the
Palestinian people exposes the devastating effect Israel’s drones have on the population and infrastructure of occupied and besieged
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Gaza. Israeli companies, such as Elbit and Israel Aerospace Industries are happy to market their equipment globally as ‘field tested’ in
‘real life situations’.
Take action to end research subsidies for Israel’s arms companies
The British army has awarded Israeli company Elbit and its partner company Thales UK a contract worth nearly £1 billion for the
development of the Watchkeeper drone. This drone is based on the Israeli Hermes 450 model, described as the ‘workhorse’ of Israel’s
military in its operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. By trading in arms with Israel, the British government is giving direct
support for Israel’s aggression and sending a clear message of approval for its action. The EU is also aiding Israel’s arms companies by
allowing them to take part in public research projects. Currently, in the European Security Research Programme Israeli organisations including Elbit and Israel Aerospace Industries - participate in 46 projects.
In light of Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian human rights, the British government and the European Union must
implement an immediate two-way arms embargo on Israel. Today I urge you to demand an end to your taxes being used to subsidise
Israeli dronemakers and their attacks on Palestinian civilians.
Media &Publicity
11.12.2013
Censorship - Apartheid - it is NOT "hard to remember today the full evil of apartheid"
Formal Complaint to the BBC and to the Archbishop of Canterbury
What makes the issue of the silence of those in authority who see and witness apartheid in Israel and the illegally occupied lands of
Palestine, so utterly disgraceful is the conspiracy by the media and in particular the BBC News Programs to censor such appalling
behavior by the Apartheid regime in Israel and Occupied Palestine, at a time when the whole world appears to be condemning "the
racist apartheid regime". The attitude of the press and people in powerful positions, such as the Arch Bishop of Canterbury, condone
the apartheid regime which is fast becoming more like one other notorious European Government that brought humanity to its knees,
aided and abetted as it was by the international press and persons in high office, who by their silence condoned or approved of the
ethnic cleansing of European Jews, and Communists.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the BBC stay silent whilst Gaza is swimming in sewage, 70,000 Bedouin Palestinians await imminent
ethnic cleansing, and children as young as 5 are arrested at gun point. Shame on the Arch Bishop, the BBC, and the hypocritical press
and persons in public office who speak nice words about Nelson Mandela when dead, but not a word of support whilst he was fighting
apartheid, and saying that his freedom is complete whilst Palestine remains unfree. It is small wonder that Church congregations are
dwindling, when its leadership appears to side with the Roman Governor rather than the campaigner amongst the poor, sick and dying.
The delapidation of the remaining churches in Britain reflect the widening gap between what Jesus Christ (and indeed Nelson Mandela,
Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Bishop Tutu) lived and died for.
It is small wonder too that the BBC is no longer the iconic figure of truth, but the censor of truth, resulting in the mass of British people
place our trust in TV from other countries, including many Eastern Countries in order to glean - completely free of charge - some truth
that the BBC License payers have already paid for, but are denied by BBC censorship.
Source: London activist
Palestine Prisoners
11.12.2013
International Human Rights Day | Remember Palestinian Political Prisoners and
Detainees in Israeli jails
FEMALE PRISONERS AND DETAINEES IN ISRAELI JAILS
IMPRISONMENT OF MOTHERHOOD
Background:
Since the occupation of Palestine in 1948, more than 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned. Different groups of the Palestinian
society are exposed to Israeli arrest campaigns, including children, women and the elderly. For decades, Palestinian female prisoners
and detainees have been jailed by Israel and exposed to physical and psychological torture, in violation of humanitarian law. Mothers
are disconnected from their families and young female prisoners grow up within jails. The result: a humanitarian crisis storming in a
large number of Palestinian families.
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International law: The treatment of female Palestinian prisoners is a violation of Articles 32, 49 and 76 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Article 27 of this convention asserts that women should enjoy
special protection, a right ignored by Israel.
Statistics: Since 1967, it is estimated that more than 15,000 Palestinian women were arrested by Israel. No accurate data is available
for the period since the establishment of Israel in 1948 up to 1967. According to human rights organisations, the number of female
political prisoners and detainees was 110 at the beginning of 2011. About 35 of them were released in a prisoner swap deal conducted
between Hamas and Israel. In February 2013, there were twelve female political prisoners and detainees. The Israeli authorities
continue to arrest women on a regular basis.
Causes of Arrests: Women are arrested and jailed for different periods of time, ranging from a couple of hours to several years. The
main cause for arresting them is to put pressure on their imprisoned partners or relatives. In order to obtain confessions from prisoners,
the male prisoners are being threatened that their imprisoned partner or relative will be harmed.
The majority of male Palestinian political prisoners and detainees are accused of ‘resisting’ Israel’s occupation or supporting ‘resistance’.
Often, the political prisoners and detainees are public figures including political personalities, intellectuals and members of religious
groups.
Intimidation and Torture: In order to obtain information, that in many cases does not exist, physical and psychological torture is
exerted by Israeli prison authorities. Furthermore, religious freedom is often restricted, exemplified by the confiscation of the Holy book
of the Qur’an and other religious books. Examples of violent torture are beating, prolonged handcuffing and plucking locks of hair. Given
their gender, female prisoners are extremely vulnerable to sexual harassment. Some female prisoners were stripped searched and
obliged to get naked and to set in squat position for a long period of time.
PALESTINIAN CHILD PRISONERS | DENIED ALL BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS
Background: Different groups of the Palestinian society are exposed to Israeli arrest campaigns in the past six decades, including
women, children and the elderly. Children have been imprisoned on a regular basis and are, in the majority of cases, accused of
throwing stones. This crime is punishable under military law by up to 20 years in prison.
The treatment of Palestinian child prisoners by Israel is a violation of Articles 2, 3, 37(b), 37(c), 37(d) and 40 of the UN Convention on
the Rights of the Child. Additionally, Israel is in breach of Articles 65 and 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relating to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
Scale: According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed and ratified by Israel in November 1991, a child is any
individual under the age of 18.
Approximately 700 Palestinian children under the age of 18 from the occupied West Bank are prosecuted annually through Israeli
military courts after being arrested, interrogated and detained by Israeli forces. History learns that Israel has targeted children aged
between 12 and 17 and at times children as young as 9 were arrested. At the end of July 2013, nearly 320 children are held in detention
centres in Israel.
8
Impact: The majority of the arrests of Palestinian children are made at checkpoints, on the street, or at their homes by armed Israeli
soldiers in the middle of the night. The children are taken to detention centres where they are interrogated which, almost always,
involves some form of torture or abuse. Sometimes these children have to sign ‘confessions’ in Hebrew, which they can’t understand.
The total conviction rate is 99.74%.
The majority of the child prisoners are not informed about the charges they face. Their families are only informed about the place of
detention or the charges faced by their child in a later stage.
Financial fines and penalties are imposed on child prisoners and their families, which might impose a heavy burden on the family.
Furthermore, child prisoners are regularly denied visits from lawyers and family members and, whilst imprisoned, education is often not
provided.
Case study: Sultan Madi, 15, was kidnapped from his house in Aroub refugee camp. He was interrogated for a long period of time by
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Israeli forces. Whilst being interrogated, different torture techniques were used. Sultan Madi was imprisoned for 50 days in an Israeli jail
with criminals, drug addicts and dangerous prisoners. During his time in prison, he was beaten repeatedly by those prisoners, without
interference of the prison authorities.
ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION | JUSTIFYING HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Background: Israeli jails are considered to be the toughest, most cruel and unliveable facilities for prisoners and detainees in the world.
Human rights violations take different forms, including the denial of medical care, physical and psychological torture, inhumane
treatment and humiliation. Human rights organisations, like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, condemned Israel for its practices
breaching international law.
One of these practices is ‘administrative detention’, an integral feature of occupying powers and repressive regimes. The Israeli
authorities use ‘administrative detention’ to suppress people seeking their freedom. Since the occupation of Palestine, thousands of
Palestinians have been held in Israeli custody as administrative detainees for long periods of time.
What is administrative detention? Administrative detention is the detention of an individual by the state and occupying power for a
long period of time without trial. This law has also been titled ‘emergency law’. Different regimes, including democracies and occupying
powers, use administrative detention and justify the use as a preventive action to assure security. In practice, the main motivating factor
for Israel authorities to use administrative detention is to suppress opposition. Unlike criminals, who are charged and convicted,
prisoners held under administrative detention are detained without accusations.
Scale: Israeli occupation authorities regularly use the administrative detention law. In November 1989 a mass arrest of 1749
Palestinians took place, all of them were placed under administrative detention. The number of prisoners held under administrative
detention fluctuated over the years and reached over a thousand in the early years of the second Intifada in 2000.
In 2011, the number of Palestinian detainees held under administrative detention was 219 and increased to 309 detainees in 2012,
however in 2013, the number decreased to 198 Prisoners.
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Impact: The impact of administrative detention of prisoners is immense as they are deprived from family visits, placed in solitary
confinement and in many ways discriminated. These conditions pushed more than 2000 prisoners on 17th April 2012 to start a mass
hunger strike to end administrative detention policy, solitary confinement and improving the living conditions in prisons.
International law: Although international law restricts the use of administrative detention, Israel is using it regularly. Article 10 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, state prisoners should
have a fair trial. The arrest and deportation of prisoners and administrative detainees is a violation of Articles 49 and 76 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention.
ELIMINATING PALESTINIAN DEMOCRACY
Background: Almost every Palestinian has been confronted with one or more of the different Israeli occupation methods. Hundreds of
thousands of innocent civilians were either killed, wounded, arrested or exiled. Teachers, students, journalists, human rights activists,
politicians and many others have all been victims. Despite the numerous peace accords signed between Israel and the Palestinian
authority, the former continues to neglect such agreements.
Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC):
One of the Israeli goals is to limit the freedom of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), through the imprisonment of its members.
Early in the second Intifada, Israel arrested parliamentarian Mirwan al Barghouti, a key leader in the Fateh movement. In 2006, a new
parliament was elected which was a genuine representation of all fractions. Shortly after the election, Israeli army carried out a widescale campaign targeting a number of PLC members affiliated to Hamas movement. Out of 132 elected parliamentarians, 50 were
arrested. They were imprisoned under the administrative detention law without trial while some of them were exiled to other cities than
their hometowns. The most prominent figure was Dr. Aziz Dwaik, speaker of the PLC.
International law:
International law bans all forms of abduction, arrests or harming of officials and civilians of any sovereign state. Domestic and
International laws give politicians and lawmakers immunity whilst they are performing their duties.
Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest detention or exile”,
whereas Article 11 point out that “Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty
according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence”. Articles 5, 7 and 10 affirm similar
rights in the case of prisoners. The Israeli practices towards Palestinian lawmakers, are in breach of the aforementioned rules and
regulations.
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Suppressing Democracy and Peace:
The arrests of the lawmakers and politicians froze the work of the PLC, which is supposed to serve democracy and people.
Ms. l. Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, argues that
“Effective democratic governance therefore rests on the responsible exercise of power by an executive that respects the prerogatives of
other branches of governance, as well as a parliament and an independent judiciary that are vigilant and assertive in protecting the
constitutional powers vested in them.Furthermore, Israel is hindering the peace process as they are aggressive against the Palestinian
state and, in doing so, violating Palestinian sovereignty.”
UFree Network | An independent European-wide human rights network, set up to defend the rights of Palestinian political prisoners and
detainees.
http://facebook.com/ufreenetwork
http://twitter.com/ufreenetwork
http://youtube.com/ufreenetworkofficial
http://www.ufree-p.net
Gaza
12.12.2013
MAP Christmas Appeal
A few weeks ago I launched an appeal to help the children of Palestine. Many of our supporters have responded but we still have a long
way to go to ensure we can reach all the children who need our help. The situation in Gaza has taken a turn for the worst. A few weeks
ago airstrikes in the north of Gaza have shattered the small communities living there in one of the poorest parts of the region. Reports
are coming in daily from our field team of constant military flights over Gaza, while families in the east have been under tank fire from
the border. It was only one year ago that more than 170 Palestinians were killed during Israel’s last offensive. The current escalation in
military action is very worrying. MAP is working closely with Gaza’s hospitals to ensure they are prepared in case of another major
assault. They are dangerously ill-equipped to cope in the event of another bombardment.
Will you help us to ensure they have the surgical items they need to manage an influx of emergency cases? As well as the
threat of further violence, Gaza’s life lines are being cut, one by one. At least 80% of the tunnels to Egypt have been destroyed. Since
July there has been a 95% drop in supplies coming through the Rafah crossing. Most of Gaza’s fuel, medications and other essential
supplies came through these routes. Gaza’s central power plant shut down completely due to critical fuel shortages. Electricity outages,
typically lasting for eight hours a day, have increased to up to 18 hours a day. Families, many of them with young infants, are struggling
to cope without pumped water. A major waste treatment plant shut down in Gaza city after running out of fuel, causing sewage to flood
the streets.
MAP has a permanent team of aid workers in Gaza. They know how to reach the most vulnerable families and provide the support they
need.
£40 would cover the costs of a basic hygiene kit for those who are living without electricity or running water. On the frontline of
this power crisis are Gaza’s hospitals. Hospitals cannot function without power and medical supplies. They depend on back-up
generators to keep vital equipment like breathing apparatus, heart monitors and dialysis machines working. Many of these generators
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are old and unreliable but are now being used for 18 hours a day. Last week, I received an urgent request from Dr. Nafiz, the head of
the Burns Unit at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza. He needed five vials of a drug called albumin to treat a three-year-old child for burns
covering 40% of his body. Without it the child’s immunity will plummet and any infection could kill him. He contacted MAP because the
Ministry of Health has no supplies of albumin left.
The impact of this one missing drug is deeply disturbing, and there are many other essential medicines that are out of stock.
Will you help us to restock Gaza’s hospital shelves this winter and ensure these young lives are not lost?
Across the border in Lebanon, there are now almost 50,000 Palestinian refugees who have escaped the violence in Syria, many of
them children. Some of them arrived with their grandparents who had to leave everything behind, just as they did from Palestine
decades ago. It must be heartbreaking for them to see their grandchildren suffering a similar fate to theirs, deprived of basic civil and
legal rights and with few resources. Our team in Lebanon is working tirelessly to provide medical relief to refugee families, providing a
vital link between hospital staff and the dangerously overcrowded camps. Despite the recent suicide bombs in Beirut, they have not
paused in their efforts to ensure that those who need help have rapid access to medical treatment. I couldn’t be more proud of them,
but I am also very concerned about their capacity. With many more refugees arriving daily in the already overcrowded camps, and
fewer resources than ever, they are under huge strain. With everything else that is happening in the Middle East at present, it’s even
harder to hear the voices of the children. If nothing else, I have a duty to bring their message to you, as our supporters.
Your help this year has reached some of the most isolated Palestinian refugees. Please continue to give what you can.
Tony Laurance CBE
CEO
Medical Aid for Palestinians
BDS
13.12.2013
Light at the end of the tunnel
The attached piece appeared today in Haaretz behind a paywall
Swell of boycotts driving Israel into international isolation. Western activists and diplomats are gunning for Israel's
settlements in the Palestinian territories, and if peace talks fail, the rain of boycotts and sanctions could turn into a flood.
A senior European diplomat met with an Israeli counterpart a few weeks ago and one of the topics they discussed was the continued
European Union sanctions against the settlements. They raised in their conversation the possible scenario that Israeli produce from the
West Bank would be marked as such in European supermarkets. The conversation points to one of the gravest threats Israel will face in
the coming year, namely its growing international isolation. “The marking of produce from the [Palestinian] territories is on hold at this
stage," the European diplomat said to his Israeli interlocutor. “However, should the negotiations with the Palestinians run aground you
should expect a deluge of sanctions.” The Israeli official was taken aback by the sharp words. “Aren’t the circumstances of a breakdown
in negotiations relevant,” he asked. The European replied laconically, “the way things look now, you will be the losers in the blame
game.”
There are five months left in the time frame set for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Against a backdrop of limping
talks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is preparing to present the two sides with a “framework agreement" in an attempt to achieve a
breakthrough in the impasse and to force leaders to reach decisions. Kerry has warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a drive
to delegitimize Israel and of a “boycott campaign on steroids” that will unfold if talks fail. These dire warnings by the Secretary of State
and the European diplomat are already starting to play out. There is not yet a deluge of boycotts and sanctions by Western states, but
flow is certainly increasing. The main target of this campaign are the settlements and any entity associated with them.
An increasing number of supermarket chains are not waiting for directives from above and are already labeling produce that originate in
settlement farms. There is an increasing campaign to boycott any Israeli products from the West Bank, such as dates from the Jordan
Valley, or equipment and bottles made by SodaStream, which has a factory in the settlement of Mishor Adumim. There is a concerted
effort ahead of Christmas to bring about a consumer boycott of SodaStream in Britain, Italy, Canada, the United States and Australia. A
few weeks ago, Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, an Israeli cosmetics company, ceased operations in South Africa following a similar
campaign.
It is not only Israeli companies that have been targeted. International firms that operate beyond the Green Line have also come under
fire by boycott campaigns. The French giant Veolia Transport is facing heavy pressure due to its presence in East Jerusalem and other
West Bank locations. Veolia’s subsidiary in Israel just announced it would stop operating buses on Route 443, a highway that connects
the West Bank to Jerusalem. Another example is the British security services company G4S, which has lost contracts in South Africa
due to its contracts in West Bank settlements. There are also campaigns at Kings College and Sheffield University in Britain calling for
withdrawal of investments in Israel. Last week, there were more examples of such efforts. The British government published
recommendations against investing in, transferring money to or purchasing real estate in the settlements. The report warned of
"potential reputational implications" of such business dealings. The largest water company in the Netherlands announced that after
“consultations” with the Hague's Foreign Ministry it was cutting ties with Israel’s water supplier Mekorot, due utility's activities in the
Palestinian territories. Even Romania, not known to be tough on Israel's occupation of the West Bank, demanded Romanian workers
sent to Israel would not be employed in the settlements.
The Foreign Ministry is helpless in face of these developments. With Prime
Minister Netanyahu announcing construction of 5,000 more units in the settlements and Housing Minister Uri Ariel launching a tsunami
with new tenders for 24,000 units in the Palestinian territories, it is hard to convince anyone that Israel is invested to reaching a twostate solution to the conflict with the Palestinians.
All that Israeli diplomats can do is lodge objections with foreign governments. They have told the Foreign Office in London that warnings
to businessmen hurt the peace process. They protested to the Dutch ambassador in Tel Aviv about “the atmosphere created by the
Dutch Foreign Ministry, which only encourages a boycott of Israel." They delivered an ultimatum to the Romanian government over its
demand about workers coming to Israel - and Romania seems for now to have reconsidered its position.
Senior Foreign Ministry officials admit that these are band-aid measures at best, or at worst, attempts to revive the dead. The waves of
construction that follow each phase of Palestinian prisoner release may placate the Judea and Samaria Council and the Habayit
Hayehudi party, but they infuriate the international community and drive it to consider further sanctions against the settlements. The
Foreign Ministry says the new guidelines of the European Union prohibiting the funding of activities or organizations in settlements are a
new strategic landmark in the European Union's attitude toward the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The guidelines prohibit the
granting of any funds, scholarships or prizes to any agencies in these settlements, as well as prohibiting loaning money to any Israeli
agency which has any ties to the settlements. While these EU sanctions garnered widespread media coverage, other sanctions went
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almost unnoticed. It did not escape the attention of the Foreign Ministry, however, when in June, the European Union issued new
directives on quality control certification for agricultural produce. A senior Foreign Ministry official said the European Union would no
longer accept a stamp of approval by Israel’s Plant Inspection and Protection Services for produce from the West Bank. The policy
began applying to any organic produce since July. Not an outright a prohibition on importing produce from the settlements, these moves
will nevertheless make it very difficult for Israeli farmers in the West Bank to market their produce in Europe, causing growers financial
trouble.
Relations between the Foreign Ministry and the European Union’s foreign affairs council are faring very poorly. Suspicion and animosity
mar contacts between Israeli official and Brussels. The feeling in Jerusalem is that EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton's staff in
Brussels, East Jerusalem and even Tel Aviv are constantly pushing for more pressure and sanctions on Israel over the settlement
issue, infecting many individual European diplomats with their enthusiasm. A senior Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem says there is a
“Brusselization” process which is taking over foreign ministries in European capitals. The wave of boycotts is spilling over from Europe
to North America. Last week, the American Studies Association passed an unprecedented resolution calling to boycott Israeli
universities. Later this month, lecturers in the association will vote on whether to ratify the resolution. A few weeks earlier, the annual
convention of the American Public Health Association was held. This association represents thirty thousand doctors, nurses and
nursing aides. A resolution declaring that Israel is harming the health of Palestinians failed to pass only due to months of lobbying
efforts by Jewish organizations. Boycott initiatives are also popping up in liberal churches in North America. The United Church of
Canada, the largest Christian denomination in the country, has started a campaign to boycott products made in the settlements and by
companies that operate beyond the Green Line.
New research published by the Molad Center for Renewal of Democracy addresses Israel’s standing in the world. It determined that
Israel is particularly vulnerable to sanctions and boycotts by Western countries due to the animosity of neighboring countries, and
because 40% of Israel's Gross National Product is based on exports, primarily to Europe. The research also pointed to a less known
phenomenon of concealed boycotts. The findings show that Israeli businessmen, artists and academics are confronting increasing
refusal of international agencies and potential partners to collaborate with them, due to the political baggage that the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict brings with it. It’s hard to assess how much damage this does to the Israel's economy. The study says that despite the
difficulties facing Israel since its founding, it succeeded in forging alliances with the United States and Europe. These relationships have
deteriorated in recent years and are in now jeopardy. The researchers examined cultural and scientific ties as well as economic and
political relations, and found that most of the tension with Western countries stems from the occupation. The study determined that this
trend would only get worse with time unless there was a change to Israeli policy. “The continued occupation and the insistence of the
government to continue with the settlement enterprise are directly responsible for the erosion of Israel’s international standing. As long
as the settlements continue, the risk of Israel becoming more isolated will grow.” The researchers don’t believe that Western
governments and publics wish to boycott Israel or to put its right to exist in doubt. As evidence, they point out that the boycotts have
only targetted the occupied territories and settlements.
“The international consensus clearly differentiates between the legitimacy of Israel and that of the settlements. Just as the commonality
in values and strategy strengthens Israel’s ties with the West, the divide over the occupation weakens them.” The researchers claim
that it’s not too late to reverse this trend and to block the threat of isolation facing Israel, but that the window of opportunity is not without
limits. “Israel is enjoying a period of grace in which its traditional allies support it and the countries around it are locked in internal
struggles. Nearly any plan that goes beyond futile negotiations and that calls for an end to the occupation will help Israel. Such a step
will draw a clear line between opposition to the existence of Israel and to its occupation of the West Bank.”
Source: Barak Ravid, Haaretz 12 December 2013
Media & Publicity
15.12.2013
Max Blumenthal's new book, Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel
An appropriate gift for someone who does not believe that Israel is now in the hands of the extreme right, and still going right
An extract from Max Blumenthal's new book, Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel,
"During the attack on Gaza, IDF soldiers killed an eight-year-old child, one Ibrahim Awajah, and used his corpse for target practice? This
was no isolated incident: one by one we read the stories of disgusting atrocities carried out by the IDF – how they lobbed a shell into the
living room of Izeldeen Abuelaish, a Harvard-trained fertility doctor and medical researcher who had helped many Israelis have children.
The shell decapitated two of his daughters and "shredded" his other children "to pieces." As this was going on, Israelis sat on Parash
Hill, near Sderot, which offers a clear view of the Gaza Strip, watching the slaughter and cheering as if it were the latest hit movie –
spectators to their own moral degeneration."
A critique by by Justin Raimondo, 13 December 2013
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2013/12/12/goliath-the-book-that-may-delegitimize-israelsapartheidstate/
Gaza
16.12.2013
MAP SUPPORTING DISASTER RELIEF IN GAZA
10,000 DISPLACED BY FLOODING
MAP urgently needs your support to help the 10,000 residents in Gaza who have been displaced by the severest storms that the region
has seen in decades. MAP is working with local and international aid organisations in Gaza to coordinate relief operations to support
those most affected by the storms. Our emergency preparedness programme is ensuring that desperately needed blankets, mattresses
and hygiene kits are available to those whose homes have been inundated by rain and sewage.
You can help MAP's efforts by donating to MAP's Christmas Appeal now.
MAP's Director of Programmes in Gaza, Fikr Shaltoot, said: "We’ve never seen anything like it. There is real misery and there simply
isn’t the infrastructure to deal with the floods.”
Gaza’s 1.7 million people have faced power outages of up to 21 hours a day as a result of the storm. Many cannot afford fuel for
heating and are resulting to dangerous alternatives in desperation. Access to clean water is infrequent and many on the upper floors of
apartment blocks do not get water due to power outages. UNRWA's spokesperson for Gaza, Chris Gunness, said: "Any normal
community would struggle to recover from this disaster. But a community that has been subjected to one of the longest blockades in
human history, whose public health system has been destroyed and where the risk of disease was already rife, must be freed from
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these man made constraints to deal with the impact of a natural calamity such as this. And of course it is the most vulnerable – the
women and children, the elderly – who wil pay the highest price of failure to end the blockade." The flooding has exacerbated public
health concerns with Gaza's 291 water and sewage treatment facilities unable to function properly given the fuel and power crisis.
Several water storm lagoons and pumping stations across Gaza city have overflowed, flooding extensive residential areas with water
and sewage.
Your support will enable MAP to provide urgent support where it is most needed.
Source: Jo O'Neill, Director of Fundraising, Medical Aid for Palestrinians
Media & Publicity
19.12.2013
Petition: BBC News and Current Affairs
You may be interested in signing this petition, considering how many supposedly independent think tanks are funded by pro-Zionist
groups. BBC News and Current Affairs: Think Tanks cannot voice opinions on the BBC without stating their funders
https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/bbc-news-and-current-affairs-think-tanks-cannot-voice-opinions-on-the-bbc-without-statingtheir-funders
Every week Think Tank organisations such as The Tax Payers' Alliance, The Adam Smith Institute, The Centre for Policy Studies, The
Policy Exchange and Civitas are granted national airtime on key BBC programmes to air their views on the current affairs of the day.
These organisations do not simply just appear, they are paid for and funded by powerful individuals and organisations promoting their
own financial and political interests. Often, as in the case of The Tax Payers' Alliance, they are happy to perpetuate an impression that
they are grass roots organisations simply representing the tax-paying population of the UK. This is not the case. Think Tanks - both on
the left and right - should have the right to exist but in the name of transparency they should be obliged to state whose interests they
exist to promote before being allowed airtime on the BBC. Only then can we the public make a judgement as to the veracity of their
argument.
Fair News - Monitoring the Media's Coverage of Palestine and Israel, PSC
BDS
23.12.2013
Ending U.S. Complicity in Israel’s Denial of Palestinian Rights
Rashid Khalidi’s latest book, Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East, examines how the United
States, for the past 35 years, has “posed as an unbiased intermediary between Israel and the Palestinians, but in fact it operated
increasingly in defense of Israel’s interests, and to the systematic detriment of those of the Palestinians. All of this dissembling was
cloaked in high-sounding but dishonest language.” Sadly, this U.S. approach has continued unabated into President Obama’s second
term. Today, Secretary of State John Kerry tries unsuccessfully to convince us that a breakthrough in the current round of negotiations
is imminent. Meanwhile, Israel has used these talks as a cover to announce the construction of nearly 6,000 new settlement units, a
brazen theft and colonization of yet more Palestinian land under the guise of this sham “peace process.”
In the book, George Orwell, is cited; he warned: “The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish
thoughts…If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even
among people who should and do know better.” Unfortunately, too many people and organizations who should and do know better
continue to wrongfully insist that the resolution of Israeli-Palestinian conflict can come about only through the intensification of deceitful
U.S. mediation. Not so with the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a national coalition of more than 400 organizations, on
whose Advisory Board I proudly serve. The US Campaign understands that we first need to change the fundamental premises of U.S.
policy toward Israel and the Palestinians to one that supports human rights, international law and equality, rather than Israeli military
occupation and apartheid policies, before we can have any hope of brokering a just and lasting peace. Whether it’s sending resources
to thousands of volunteers to educate and organize people to end the flow of U.S. weapons to Israel that play such an integral part in
maintaining its military occupation, or whether it’s successfully pressing the State Department to investigate Israeli settlements
contaminating Palestinian farming areas in Wadi Foquin, or whether it’s organizing a Capitol Hill briefing for Addameer’s director
Sahar Francis to discuss Israel’s torture of Palestinians before a Congressional audience, the US Campaign is at the forefront of
national efforts to mobilize the grassroots and coordinate the efforts of national organizations to move U.S. policy in the direction we
need it go so that we can truly be an honest broker in the future.
Gaza
24.12.2013
Deadly Air Strikes on Gaza
Israel has launched deadly air strikes on Gaza
http://www.dawn.com/news/1076137/palestinian-girl-killed-in-israel-strike-on-gaza-medics
GAZA CITY: A three-year-old Palestinian girl was killed on Tuesday and at least six other people wounded in a series of Israeli air and
tank strikes on the Gaza Strip, medical sources said. Medics named the girl as Hala Abu Sabikha from the central Gaza Strip, noting
“three other members of her family were wounded.” Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said six people had been
wounded in a series of strikes, which came in response to the shooting to death earlier of an Israeli repairing the security fence
separating Gaza from Israel. The Hamas interior ministry said Abu Sabikha and her family were injured in an air strike on a refugee
camp in central Gaza. It also said a person was moderately wounded in a tank shelling near the Karni crossing in northern Gaza and
that there were two other air strikes on militant positions in northern Gaza, where no casualties were reported. The Israeli army said
aircraft, tanks and infantry “targeted terror sites in the Gaza Strip” in retaliation for the shooting of the Israeli, noting that the man was the
“first Israeli civilian killed in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip” since a major eight-day outbreak of fighting in and around Gaza in November
2012. “The sites targeted were a weapon-manufacturing facility and a terror infrastructure in the southern Gaza Strip, a terror site and
another terror infrastructure in the central Gaza Strip and a concealed rocket launcher in the northern Gaza Strip,” a statement said.
Media & Publicity
26.12.2013
Xmas activities at St James'
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London church blocks its facade with replica of Israeli wall around Bethlehem
Replica Palestine Separation Wall Built in Central London | 'Bethlehem Unwrapped' Opens
St. James’ Church in central London unveiled an eight-meter-high replica of the Israeli-built concrete wall that entirely surrounds the
Palestinian city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, the traditional birthplace of Jesus. It is an effort to bring to London some of the
reality of what it is like to live in Bethlehem in 2013. The wall deliberately obscures the facade of the historic St.
James’ Church
“because that is what has happened to Bethlehem’s holy sites and historic places.” “This Christmas we’ve built a huge wall across the
front of our church. We’d really like you to come and see it because it’s what the people of Bethlehem are experiencing today,” explains
Reverend Lucy Winkett, rector of the church, in the brief video above. The wall is part of the “Bethlehem Unwrapped” festival, which
features a week of events, starting on 29 December, including music by Reem Kelani and Nigel Kennedy, comedy with Jeremy Hardy
and Mark Steel, as well as films and panels.
“Unwrapping” traditional images
“We’re unwrapping the traditional, Victorian, sentimental images of Christmas and showing this is what Bethlehem today looks like – an
eight-meter high concrete separation wall surrounding it,” explains Justin Butcher, the festival’s director. Butcher said that the replica
took eight months to plan and eight days to build before it was unveiled on 23 December. During the time it is up, people are invited to
write their own messages on it. In what appears to be a concession to apartheid supporters, however, one of the panels features Israeli
embassy spokesperson Yiftah Curiel and Alan Johnson of the Israel lobby group Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre
(BICOM), in what is likely to be a spirited debate with Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
and Leila Sansour, Bethlehem resident, filmaker and founder of Open Bethlehem. “This wall is symbolic of walls all over the world that
divide and confine peoples, restricting free movement and dominating the imagination of those who live behind them,” the festival
website explains. “We believe that bridges not walls are the only lasting foundation for peace. On Sunday 5th January at the end of the
festival, the eve of the Feast of the Epiphany, the Wall itself will be transformed into a symbol of peace and hope.”
O Little Town of Bethlehem
This short film, posted last Christmas, is “the story of the birth of Jesus told by the people of Bethlehem” themselves. The video, made
by St Paul’s Church, Auckland, New Zealand, shows what the real wall looks like as citizens of Bethlehem talk about its devastating
impact.
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on 25 December 2013
Gaza
27.12.2013
5th anniversary of the Israeli war on Gaza
Special Report on Palestinian Political Prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip
Introduction:
Since 1967 the Israeli occupation arrested more than 700,000 Palestinians, 250,000 of whom were residents of the Gaza Strip making
up 35% of all arrests, a high percentage considering the small size of the Strip, and the small population compared to the number of
Palestinians in the West Bank and 1948 occupied Palestine.
Numbers today:
By the end of October 2013 around 4,996 Palestinian political prisoners and detainees and prisoners in Israeli jails, 386 from the Gaza
Strip. Amongst them who have been in detention for over 25 years. Prisoners from Gaza are often in ill health, isolation and have life
sentences, as well as other prisoners who although their sentences have ended but still in detention which comes under the ‘Unlawful
Combatant’ Law. What is noteworthy is that the Israeli occupation adds to the total systematic violations against Palestinian political
prisoners and detainees, three additional violations specific and dedicated against prisoners from the Gaza Stip. Gazan detainees have
been prevented from receiving visits from family members from July 2007 until May 2012 after Gilad Shalit swap deal.They also face
insistence that they be treated according to ‘Unlawful Combatant’ laws. In addition, tens of Gazans are abducted due to Israeli invasions
and detained without charge under the pretext of crossing the boarders of the land and sea blockade imposed upon the Strip seven
years ago.
Collective Punishment Policy:
Since the capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006 by Palestinian faction groups, Israel imposed a collective punishment policy
against Palestinian political prisoners and detainees. Gazan prisoners were also victims of this policy as the occupation approved in July
2007 a legislation that would ban prisoners from the Gaza Strip from receiving any visits from their relatives and loved ones. More than
two thousand Gazan prisoners were affected since the enforcement of this law in 2007, while number of them still suffer this ban. This
move has seen a lot of condemnation and denunciation from Palestinian and International organisations and bodies which all called for
real pressure to be exerted upon Israel to end such blatant violations of prisoner rights. Such violations contradict entirely with the
Fourth Geneva Convention where it is clearly stated in Article number (116) that prisoners have the right to be periodically and routinely
visited at least once every two months. Human rights activists also regarded the Israeli occupation’s insistence to impose collective
punishment policies as ones that would further establish Israel’s image as a racist entity which still employs
The ‘Unlawful Combatant’ Law an Illegitimate Law:
In 2002, the Israeli occupation authorities enacted the ‘Unlawful Combatant’ law in an attempt to give false legitimacy to its repressive
practices against prisoners, and to evade any legal accountability for stripping them of their legal and humanitarian rights. The law
defines unlawful combatants as ‘persons acting against the security of Israel’, a loose definition which the occupation authorities made
to be used as a pretext against Palestinian prisoners whenever it wanted. The law gives the Israeli army broad powers to arrest and
indict Palestinian citizens for indefinite periods without filing an indictment or presenting evidence of conviction before the courts, and of
course without the detainee or his lawyers knowing the reason for the arrest. The Israeli occupation had stepped up the use of this law
against the people of the Gaza Strip since 2007 when it declared Gaza as ‘hostile entity’, and started treating detainees on the basis of
this law and not as ‘prisoners of war’. This is a fact that human rights activists consider an evasion of international humanitarian laws
where the occupation escapes from legal accountabilities with respect to the rights of these detainees. This presents clear evidence of
Israeli violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Fourth Geneva Convention confirms under articles 66, 71, 72, 73 and 74 the right
of a detainee to receive a fair trial before an independent body, as well as his/her rights to be informed of the charges against him/her
and to defend or assign a lawyer to defend him/her. Israel absolutely violates this through its enforcement of the ‘Unlawful Combatant’
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law.
Through monitoring of these violations under the pretext of the new law, it was found that 15 prisoners were arrested and dealt with
according to this law during the war on Gaza in late 2008. It should be noted that this figure is that of documented cases only and that
the occupation often conceals the true figures for such cases.
By mid of 2011, 6 prisoners from the Gaza Strip had completed their sentences but remained imprisoned under the excuse that they
were unlawful combatants, another violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states in articles 132 and 134 that prisoners have
the right to be freed immediately after his/her sentence finishes.
Frequent kidnapping of fishermen:
The Oslo Peace agreement that was signed between the Palestinian Authority and Israel states that Palestinian fishermen are permitted
the sail to a depth of 20 miles from the shores of Gaza. The Israeli occupation did not commit to this agreement, and ever since the
agreement was signed began reducing the sailing distance stipulated by the agreement. Today, Israeli forces do not permit Gazan
fishermen from sailing a distance of more than 3 miles, although the minimum distance to make fishing possible is no less than 10 miles
into the sea. Gaza’s fishermen now constantly face shooting, shelling, raids on their boats and arrests from the Israeli naval forces.
Seven fishermen were kidnapped by the occupation during January 2012 alone.
Source: UFree Network, An independent European-wide human rights network, set up to defend the rights of Palestinian political
prisoners and detainees.
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
Haringey Justice for Palestinians
[Affiliated to Palestine Solidarity Campaign]
[Part of the Britain Palestine Twinning Network]
Write to: secretary@hjfp.org.uk
Go to: www.hjfp.org.uk
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