Treason in a time of struggle
By Khalid Amayreh, Alternative Information Center 7/30/2004
A cement scandal exposes rampant corruption among PA officials -- The Egyptian "cement-gate" affair has continued to reverberate across the occupied territories, causing embarrassment to an increasingly beleaguered Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership and seriously undermining its credibility. The latest available information indicates that a number of senior and junior PA officials were either directly or directly involved in the scandal. The officials reportedly received grafts, bribes, kickbacks, or other forms of payments in return for their silence, or for their role in facilitating the affair. PA leader Yasser Arafat has been refusing to talk openly about the scandal, claiming that doing so would create confusion within Palestinian society and serve as a serious distraction from the national struggle. Last week, Arafat said that the affair was giving Israel and the United States additional ammunition to vilify the Palestinian leadership. Likewise, Arafat''s aides have been seeking to downplay the seriousness of the issue on the grounds that the Palestinian people are facing more serious issues such as the building by Israel of the separation wall as well as the daily bloody incursions by the Israeli army into Palestinian population centres.
Ultra-right establish fake MachsomWatch website
By Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, Electronic Intifada 7/30/2004
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we should feel flattered. If imitation proves the settlers feel threatened, perhaps we should feel satisfied. If naive websurfers believe the fake is real, maybe we should be worried. If the settlers'' record of violence repeats itself, we should be aware of the danger and be ready to defend ourselves through the law courts. But if the issue is about the settlers having to defend themselves against the ordinary, average Israeli mainstream, well, hooray! Finally, Israelis are calling their bluff; standing up to their illegality. It takes the gentle push of woman power, it seems, just as it took woman power to get Israel out of its 18-year Lebanon quagmire - coincidentally, an enterprise started by the architect of the settlements, Israel''s Prime Minister of Botz[1], Ariel Sharon.
Vanunu: let me leave
By Mordechai Vanunu, The Guardian 7/29/2004
Letter: I have come to expect nothing close to justice from Israel and its legal system (Court refuses Vanunu''s appeal to leave, July 27). But while I am kept in Israel, am I wrong to appeal for freedom of speech and freedom of movement, protection of my human rights? Too often the courts have based decisions on the unsubstantiated and paranoid accusations of Israeli security services. Though there are no further criminal charges against me, I am now accused of having an excellent memory - is that now a crime in Israel? As I said outside the court, I have no more secrets: the only one which still has nuclear secrets is the Israeli government. I have no wish to harm Israel. I just want to be free and to leave.
The Threat of Disengagement: Can Israel Separate from the Palestinians?
Electronic Intifada/Editorial by Al Majdal 7/28/2004
On 6 June 2004 the Israeli cabinet voted in favor of a modified plan for ''disengagement'' from the Gaza Strip. The plan calls for the staged evacuation of 17 Jewish colonies in Gaza (4 in the West Bank) and the redeployment of Israeli military forces outside evacuated areas. The American administration hailed the plan as "historic and courageous". The remaining members of the Quartet were more cautious in their response. Shifting Discourse - What exactly does disengagement mean? Ariel Sharon''s plan speaks neither about ''redeployment'' (the term used to describe the relocation of Israeli forces under the Oslo agreements) nor ''withdrawal'' as in south Lebanon. No where does the modified disengagement plan (the Israeli cabinet rejected the first draft) speak about ending Israel''s 37-year-old illegal military occupation. In short, the plan creates the illusion of political momentum while shifting the political discourse to conceal the reality that even if Israel eventually disengages from Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, the occupation will continue.
Changes to the Barrier - Israeli and International Court Rulings Issued
B''tselem 7/15/2004
On 30 June 2004, the Israeli High Court of Justice voided part of the route of the separation barrier northwest of Jerusalem, between Maccabim and the Givat Ze''ev settlement. In its precedent-setting decision, the justices held that the planned route failed to properly balance security needs and the resultant harm to Palestinians living along the route, in the villages Beit Surik, Beit ''Annan, and Beit Liqya. The Court voided thirty kilometers of the forty-kilometer section that was challenged by the petitioners. Nine days later, on 9 July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague published its opinion regarding the separation barrier. The Court held that construction of the barrier inside occupied territory is forbidden under international law, and that it violates the rights of the Palestinian residents. In their ruling, the judges ruled that, "The infringement of Palestinian human rights cannot be justified by military exigencies or by the requirements of national security or public order. The construction of such a wall accordingly constitutes breaches by Israel of various of its obligations under the applicable international humanitarian law and human rights instruments." The ICJ held that Israel must tear down the sections of the barrier that it erected inside the occupied territory, compensate the Palestinians who were injured as a result of the construction of those sections, and refrain from building the wall on land situated outside the state''s sovereign territory.
"It''s a small world after all"
By Laurie King-Irani, Electronic Intifada 7/29/2004
On the decline of some American dreams A gleaming chrome heat. August 1964 in New York City. "Lean over and look up, honey; that''s the Empire State Building! The tallest building in the world!" I lie down on the scorching hot leather of the back seat of our 1960 Ford and twist my five-year-old head to gaze up according to my father''s instructions. A towering grey building looms impossibly large against a cloudless sky. Outside I can sense something immense and endless humming all around us. My first experience of a big city -- the big city: New York. This was nothing like the small town we lived in: Greensburg, Pennsylvania. New York was an engine of humanity, color, odor, and ideas all blending into something greater, grander and faster. In what was probably my first experience of patriotism, I felt my heart swell up with pride. This was what America was all about, and here we were--right in the middle of it, even a part of it!
Israeli Activists, Intellectuals Recognize Right of Return
By Israeli activistis, Miftah 7/27/2004
For Truth and Reconciliation, For Equality and Partnership The State of Israel was supposed to provide security for Jews -- It created a death-trap in which residents live in a constant danger unknown to any other Jewish community; The State of Israel was supposed to knock down the ghetto walls -- It is now constructing the biggest ghetto in Jewish history; The State of Israel was supposed to be a democracy -- It established a colonial regime, combining unmistakable elements of apartheid with the arbitrariness of a cruel military occupation. Israel 2004 is a state on the road to nowhere. Fifty six years after its establishment, in spite of its many achievements in agriculture, science, and technology, even as a regional superpower armed with the doomsday weapon, many of its citizens experience terrible existential distress and are fearful for their future. Since its establishment Israel has lived by its sword. An uninterrupted sequence of endless “retaliatory” actions, military operations, and wars have turned into the life elixir of Israeli Jews. Today, nearly four years since the advent of the second Palestinian Intifada, Israel is up to its neck in the mud of occupation and oppression, persistently expanding settlements and adding outposts, exhaustively persuading itself that “we have no partner for peace.
Nisanit-Jerusalem-Paris
By Akiva Eldar, Ha''aretz 7/27/2004
It is too bad the Zionist peace movements didn''t join the human chain yesterday from the north Gaza settlement of Nisanit to the Western Wall through East Jerusalem. It is hard to imagine a route that better symbolizes the chasm separating the Gaza Strip from the State of Israel. "The chain" started outside Israeli jurisdiction and ended in East Jerusalem, which has been annexed to Israel from the formal-legal perspective. All the governments, including distinctly right-wing governments, that have ruled in the past 37 years since the territories were occupied did not annex Dir El-Balach or even "City of the Patriarchs" Hebron. No country in the world supports perpetuating Israeli occupation in the territories. In contrast, even the Palestinian leadership has recognized the Israeli bond to the Western Wall and expressed willingness to leave the Old City''s Jewish Quarter and Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem in Israeli hands. Even Arab states and the international community - headed by the U.S. - understood a long time ago that the situation in East Jerusalem will never go back to what it once was. Right-wing protesters, who planned to connected Nisanit and Jerusalem, ignored the gap between a small controversial sphere and official Israeli sovereignty.
Yes, yes, yes, yes - but no
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha''aretz 7/27/2004
Can Yasser Arafat survive the current crisis? The turmoil surrounding him comes entirely from within the upper ranks of the Fatah movement. This is the Palestinian ruling party, and all the people involved in this turmoil are members of Fatah''s leadership - both Mohammed Dahlan, who is leading a quasi-rebellion in Gaza, and his rivals in the Strip, Mousa Arafat, Ghazi Jibali and others. Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala), his predecessor, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), and former minister Nabil Amr, who was seriously wounded in an attempt on his life, are all from Fatah. The other Palestinian factions, Hamas and the leftist organizations, are not involved in the severe crisis. What is being asked of Arafat is seemingly not much - no one is asking him to resign and give up his seat to a different chairman. What they are asking of him is to implement reforms in the Fatah movement and give more governing powers to his comrades in the movement. For instance, cabinet member Jamal Shubaki (from Fatah, of course) proposed over the weekend that all the problems be resolved by convening a general assembly of the Fatah movement and holding new internal elections for the movement''s institutions. There has not been a Fatah general assembly in 16 years, and the discontent among movement activists is great. In addition, Shubaki argues that the government should simply adhere to Palestinian law, which precisely defines the division of authority within its top echelons.
The Only Democracy in the Middle East
Editorial, Miftah 7/27/2004
Israel, which purports to be “the only democracy in the Middle East,” regularly passes astonishingly racist laws that explicitly discriminate against its own citizens, laws which no right-minded democratically-elected legislature would pass anywhere else in the world; which no Supreme Court elsewhere would uphold; and which no executive body answerable to any democratic legislature anywhere in the world would be allowed to implement. And yet state-sponsored discrimination against non-Jews (Israeli-Arabs as well as immigrants), discrimination of the sort that negates the very essence of democracy, is so rampant in Israel that when the Knesset passes yet another racist law, barely anyone notices. The parliament of the only democracy in the Middle-East passed, on July 31 2003, “the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law.” The law, which is written specifically for and which therefore discriminates specifically against all non-Jewish citizens of Israel, was initially passed for a period of one year, and then extended for a period of six months last week. For the next six months, therefore, and presumably forever thereafter, citizenship and residency rights are denied to all non-Jewish spouses (and children) of non-Jewish Israeli citizens.
The 9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine; Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
By Bill and Kathleen Christison, CounterPunch 7/27/2004
Chapter 12 of the 9/11 Commission''s report, titled "What to Do? A Global Strategy," is the philosophical heart of the entire report. It is certainly the most important chapter for those who believe that nothing the U.S. can do in expanding and reorganizing its military and intelligence apparatus will contribute anything of value to the future peace and stability of the world. If implemented, the recommendations in this chapter will instead take U.S. foreign policies down precisely the wrong roads -- roads that will lead to less peace and greater instability for both the United States and the entire globe. Everyone had undoubtedly seen, if not read, the 567-page volume -- perhaps half the length of the bible -- issued on July 23, and the commission seems to hope that the book will achieve at least half the importance that is accorded the bible by good Christians. The executive summary, a separate document not included in the ten-dollar reprint of the report available in bookstores nationwide, begins with two ponderous statements that, in substantive and functional ways, set a tone of self-importance for the commission. On September 11, the commission declares, "the United States became a nation transformed." In almost the same breath, the commission congratulates itself for achieving unity in these difficult times: "Ten Commissioners -- five Republicans and five Democrats chosen by elected leaders from our nation''s capital at a time of great partisan division -- have come together to present this report without dissent."
Interview with Ahmed Yousef: Arab-American Muslims are under siege
By Hicham Chehab, Daily Star 7/27/2004
Academic speaks out on the post-Sept. 11 challenges facing his community -- Editor''s note: Ahmed Yousef, Director of the United American Studies and Research center in Washington, editor in chief of the Middle East Affairs Journal and a Muslim activist, will be releasing his latest book, "American Muslims - a Community under Siege," in September, to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The Daily Star interviewed Yousef, to discuss the situation of Arabs and Muslims in the United States. Q. Integrating into American society has often been a challenge for minorities in the United States. What can Muslim Americans do to tackle this issue, which has become one of the priorities after Sept. 11? A. The issue of integration is easier for Christian minorities, like Latinos, than Muslim Americans, because they are mostly Catholics and the US Catholic church can accommodate them and help them in the process of integration. Also, the government shares some of the blame because it does not put plans (out) that help immigrants in integrating with the American community.
The Skin of the Bear
By Uri Avnery, Palestine Chronicle 7/25/2004
I am writing this with an aching heart. I have postponed writing it as long as I could. In Jewish tradition, there is a searing phrase: “The Temple was not destroyed but for gratuitous hatred.” It sums up the events in beleaguered Jerusalem, in the year 70 AD, when the town was surrounded by the Roman legions. While Titus’ soldiers were maintaining the siege and the population was beginning to starve, inside the town ferocious battles took place between various factions of zealots, who killed each other and burnt each other’s last stores of wheat. Something like this is now taking place in the Palestinian territories. While the occupation forces are tightening the siege and carrying out “targeted killings”, battles between the Palestinians themselves have broken out, with militants shooting at each other, targeting leaders and burning headquarters. Occupation generals, politicians and commentators in Israel follow the events with glee or click their tongues sanctimoniously: “Didn’t we tell you? The Palestinians can’t rule themselves, there is no one to talk with, we have no partner for peace. When they are left to themselves, anarchy reigns.” On many Israeli tongues the Greek word “chaos” (pronounced with an American accent) was rolling.
Ramzy Baroud: ICJ Ruling Vindicates International Law, Not International Community
By Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle 7/25/2004
"Despite its political blurriness, Europe still holds a great political weigh in favor of a just solution to the Middle East conflict, than most, if not all Arab and Muslim countries .." -- The wait is over. The International Court of Justice at The Hague has finally ruled on Israel’s Separation Wall, kicking the ball out of its court, and into that of all major players in the Arab-Israeli conflict. But the question remains: Will the historic decision of July 9, 2004 become another memento of United Nations incompetence, US and Israeli arrogance and Arab political worthlessness? “The construction of the wall and its associated regimes are contrary to international law,” read the document of the ruling, leaving little room for intentional misinterpretation. The ruling was convincing, not only because of the clarity and meticulousness of the language used, but also because there was a near consensus on all the provisions it entailed. Only the American judge Thomas Buerghenthal opposed the ruling, in an obvious, albeit disheartening loyalty to political considerations than to the legal substance of the matter. The ICJ ruling went even further than expected: “All states are under obligations not to recognize the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall.” The court has successfully contextualized the wall within the framework of the overall conflict, in which the wall is only one disturbing product. Thus it reminded Israel that it’s “bound to comply with its obligations to respect the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and its obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”
Naked in Nablus - Part I
By Corinne Allan, Palestine Chronicle 7/15/2004
Winter in Nablus is like July in Canada, said Muna Dawani, a Palestinian school teacher visiting Canada. I was feeling a little depleted from the heat and humidity but Muna seemed comfortable in her new environment. Her ready smile and the soft lights in her dark eyes, her almost poetic way of speaking, are all belied by the camera. Muna came to Canada because of a miracle, she believes. In Nablus it''s often impossible to visit neighbours in the next street and travel abroad was, of course, completely out of the question. So impossible was it considered to be that the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv didn''t even bother to open a file when application was first made to obtain visitor visas for Rev. Hasam Naoum of St. Philip''s Anglican Church in Nablus, his pretty wife, Rafa, some members of a Nablus youth group, and the gentle, yet strong woman, Muna, who teaches in the little school located inside the church compound.
What is it all about?
By Samah Jabr, M.D, Israel Imperial News Winter 2004
The overwhelming and ceaseless atrocities of Israel''s government leave most Palestinians with little opportunity to reflect on the moral aspect of our resistance. Most often our reactions to events are immediate, instinctive and emotional. The few who still manage to consider the moral, political and strategic aspects of our struggle may find themselves all but stymied by the contradictions, the lack of choice, and the damage done by war to both reason and conscience. How can Palestinian resistance be fairly assessed, then, with due consideration given to the entire history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? The occupation of Palestine is based on a 19th century ideology that denied the very existence of the Palestinian people and pursued a colonial agenda asserting divine claims to a "land without a people". In response to this "theo-colonial" aggression, the Palestinian resistance adopted the strategy of "a protracted people''s war" to regain recognition as a dispossessed, rather than "nonexistent" nation.
Michelin Guides Sue Israeli Satirist over Spoof
By Shimon Tzabar, Oznik.com 7/19/2004
Michelin Guides have recently filed suite against Israeli expat satirist Shimon Tzabar, publisher of a pamphlet titled MUCH BETTER THAN THE OFFICIAL Michelin Guide to Israeli Prisons, Jails, Concentration Camps, and Torture Chambres. Below is an excerpt from the guide, followed by Tzabar''s defense submitted to the British Hight Court. Excerpt: The Guide (pp. 6-11): Before we start our guided tour of Israel''s prisons, concentration camps and torture chambers, it would make sense to ask why we are doing this. Why should anyone go on such a tour? The answer is simple: to see history in the making. Usually, it is through newspapers that history unfolds before our eyes. In the case of Israel however, we cannot trust newspapers. They mix everything up and make us confused. We cannot distinguish any more between anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Israeli government policy. The only way to know the truth is to go there in person and see with our own eyes and watch history, true history, in the making.
The Limits of International Law: Israel and the ICJ
Editorial, Islam Online 7/11/2004
After months of debate, the ICJ finally issued its ruling on the Israeli Wall, judging it a violation of international law. Unsurprisingly, Israel rejected the Court’s findings, following in the footsteps of its American patrons, who also rejected the ICJ ruling that found the US guilty of sponsoring terrorist groups in Nicaragua in the 80s. But to many, the ruling is meaningless: The impotent decision of a toothless and defunct international organ, to be added to the long list of resolutions and laws already ignored or violated by the Israelis. Already, observers await the matter to be referred to the UN Security Council, to be followed inevitably by a US veto to protect Israel. Doubtless, the debate on the Wall will cast further doubts on what little credibility the UN has left. ....For our readers’ reference, we provide the following special folder of previously published material on the Wall.
Just Say No to Vetoes
By Gregory Khalil, New York Times 7/19/2004
oday the United Nations General Assembly is likely to vote to demand that Israel comply with the ruling of the International Court of Justice and dismantle its wall under construction in the West Bank. The court''s opinion marks a milestone in the Palestinian struggle. Yet its greatest impact may not be on Israel or its occupation of Palestinian territory. By calling on nations around the world to enforce international human rights law when enforcement is vetoed by a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, the court has essentially affirmed a power to "veto the veto." The significance of this ruling cannot be overstated. The Security Council is generally considered the only United Nations body with the authority to enforce international law. Yet the council is often prevented from taking action by its permanent members, who can veto any council resolution. The result is that the United Nations is often impotent in the face of international crises. The court''s opinion, however, has the potential to restore the United Nations to a position of authority and could transform international diplomacy.
When it Rains it Pours
Editorial, Miftah 7/20/2004
These are trying times indeed for the 75 year old Palestinian president, who, not so long ago, was so revered by his people that any criticism from any quarter smacked not only of ingratitude for all he had sacrificed for the cause, but amounted to a denigration of the cause itself. Things, however, have changed. As opinion polls show with what must seem to Mr. Arafat disheartening consistency, Palestinians have tired of the rampant corruption and lawlessness in the Occupied Territories, which, while they are quick to blame primarily on the debilitating effects of Israeli occupation and US support for such, they increasingly also blame what they perceive to be Arafat’s unwillingness to reform. As the tumultuous events leading up to the crisis this weekend in Gaza have shown, stringent criticism of Arafat within the Palestinian civil society is no longer limited to a few lone activists and intellectuals, but has now been taken up not only by the common man on the street but also by Arafat’s loyalists, friends, allies, and subordinates.
Utter chaos and its aftermath
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha''aretz 7/19/2004
Yasser Arafat and his fellow leaders in the Palestinian Authority are now paying the price of the wanton rule they imposed on the West Bank and Gaza. The events in Gaza attest to the crumbling of their regime, and not solely because of the Israeli policy that obliterated the Palestinian security system and administration. The Palestinian leadership is also at fault for having instituted reprehensible governing methods in the territories. The years in question are 1994-2000, during which the peace process was ongoing, though cumbersomely, and the Palestinian leadership had sufficient means to build apparatuses for the state in the making. Whoever glances through writings during those six years about the manner in which the Palestinian government apparatuses were established will find plenty of criticism, by Palestinians, as well. In 1995, for example, the Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said wrote: "Arafat is building in the territories a government that is a combination of Lebanon''s chaos and Saddam Hussein''s tyranny in Iraq." Said was opposed to the Oslo Accords, so perhaps his words are particularly harsh, but there is no shortage of criticism by others who saw what was happening in the territories.
The Case for Sanctions Against Israel: What Worked With Apartheid Can Bring Peace to the Middle East
By Gerald Kaufman, Miftah/The Guardian 7/12/2004
[The author is a Labour MP for Manchester, England] -- The bomb attack in Tel Aviv yesterday highlights the desperate need to achieve a peace settlement. It highlights, too, the futility of the wall Israel is building in Palestinian land, a wall condemned by the international court of justice last Friday and whose route was condemned by Israel''s supreme court last month. What action is needed to put an end to this dance of death? When the international court demanded the removal of the wall, the Israeli government replied that it had a "moral duty" to protect its citizens. Quite apart from the fact that this government - the most rightwing and bellicose in Israel''s 56-year history - could not recognise a moral duty if hit in the face by one, the protection of citizens is, above all, the duty in which it is failing. Since the second intifada was sparked in September 2000 by the provocative visit by Ariel Sharon (then an opposition leader) to the Temple Mount, sacred to Muslims, in Jerusalem, more than 1,000 Israelis have been killed by terrorist action - far more than in any comparable period since Israel was created. In the same period, of course, more than three times as many Palestinians have been killed by Israelis.
Facing My Forest
By Fadi Kiblawi, Palestine Chronicle 7/5/2004
Almost one year ago, I saw Palestine for the first time atop the nefarious Khiam prison in southern Lebanon. I remember going up to my family''s summer house in the mountain village Chemlane that evening, unable to sleep I wrote nostalgically of the seminal encounter. I always expected that when I would finally return to my ancestral villages, I would be paralyzed with joy perhaps, or some potent flood of emotions. I found Tarshiha and Lubya, and I wish it could have been one of those transcendent life experiences where time just stops and the gap in my identity would be closed for this everlasting, but fleeting, moment. Instead, when I stood inside my father''s grandfather''s house in Tarshiha, and more poignantly what I believe to be the remains of my mother''s father''s house in Lubya, I fell sick in silence. I have been in Palestine now for over one month. When I first arrived, I was overwhelmed with excitement and joy, reflected in the accounts I sent back. I have not conveyed any as of late because the euphoria has passed and what is left is the reality of the situation here.
Don''t blame Arafat
By David Hirst, The Guardian 7/17/2004
Camp David failed because Israeli hardliners manipulated intelligence -- In his memoirs, the former US president Bill Clinton writes that the Camp David summit, of which this month marks the fourth anniversary, was the greatest failure of his career. And that, he says, was overwhelmingly Yasser Arafat''s doing - for, unlike Israeli premier Ehud Barak, who had been ready for "enormous concessions", the Palestinian leader couldn''t "make the final jump from revolutionary to statesman". There is one reason that, even if he believes this, he should not, even now, be so publicly proclaiming it. Camp David was essentially Barak''s brainchild. Desperate for a breakthrough in the moribund peace process, he conceived the gambit of telescoping both the still unaccomplished "interim phases" of the Oslo agreement and "final-status" issues into one grand, climactic conclave that would "end the 100-year conflict". Clinton only persuaded a deeply reluctant Arafat to attend at all by pledging not to blame him for an inglorious outcome. But blame him is precisely what Clinton did at the time. And that he should still be doing so renders his partisanship even more grossly out of place. For the controversy of which it is a part has moved on - and much in Arafat''s favour. It revolves around a second case, almost as momentous as Iraq, where intelligence was politicised and corrupted to serve a preconceived agenda.
Impiety of Arab societies serves as main problem in region
By Tamim al-Barghouti, Daily Star 7/20/2004
Arab liberals and neoliberals typically believe that the European Renaissance was in essence a process of cultural selection. The new Europeans slowly but surely rejected the backward elements in their culture, namely religion, in favor of the more progressive secular ones. Accordingly, Arab liberals argue that we need to do the same; we need to quarantine Islam out of political and social life and depend instead on other secular historical institutions. The main difficulty faced by the proponents of such ideas, however, is that there are almost no such institutions. As far as the vast majority of the region''s population is concerned, before the first colonial encounters in the Middle East it was truly difficult to find any institution, from family to Empire that was not affected by Islam. Only the modern nation state, designed and installed in the Middle East by European colonial powers, is truly secular in that sense. This historical relationship between liberalism and colonialism has therefore caused many in the region to be suspicious of truly honest liberals. Many a Cambridge and Harvard educated Arab liberal were unable to overcome this obstacle.
If it were the reverse
By Gideon Levy, Ha''aretz 7/18/2004
What would happen if a Palestinian terrorist were to detonate a bomb at the entrance to an apartment building in Israel and cause the death of an elderly man in a wheelchair, who would later be found buried under the rubble of the building? The country would be profoundly shocked. Everyone would talk about the sickening cruelty of the act and its perpetrators. The shock would be even greater if it then turned out that the dead man''s wife had tried to dissuade the terrorist from blowing up the house, telling him that there were people inside, but to no avail. The tabloids would come out with the usual screaming headline: "Buried alive in his wheelchair." The terrorists would be branded "animals." Last Monday, Israel Defense Forces bulldozers in Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip, demolished the home of Ibrahim Halfalla, a 75-year-old disabled man and father of seven, and buried him alive. Umm-Basel, his wife, says she tried to stop the driver of the heavy machine by shouting, but he paid her no heed. The IDF termed the act "a mistake that shouldn''t have happened," and the incident was noted in passing in Israel. The country''s largest-circulation paper, Yedioth Ahronoth, didn''t bother to run the story at all. The blood libel in France - a woman''s tale of being subjected to an anti-Semitic attack, which later turned out to be fiction - proved a great deal more upsetting to people. There we thought the assault was aimed against our people. But when the IDF bulldozes a disabled Palestinian to death? Not a story. Just like the killing, under the rubble of her home, of Noha Maqadama, a woman in her ninth month of pregnancy, before the eyes of her husband and children, in El Boureij refugee camp a few months earlier.
Before and After the Wall in Jayyous
By Sharif Omar, Electronic Intifada 7/16/2004
The verdict is in at the International Court of Justice: Israel''s "security wall" is illegal. The US will doubtless use its veto in the Security Council to block the will of the Court, as it has done countless times before when measures were introduced to protect the rights of the Palestinian people. Nevertheless, the Court''s decision will encourage Palestinians in our nonviolent resistance to this Apartheid Wall, and to all other aspects of Israel''s illegal occupation. I am a farmer in Jayyous, a small village near the Palestinian city of Qalqilya and three miles from the 1967 border with Israel. For generations, Jayyous farmers have worked our fields on the outskirts of town each day, and returned to our homes each night. Now, the Wall cuts through Jayyous.
Women Against the Wall
By Fatima Khaldi, Electronic Intifada 7/16/2004
Last Friday, as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel''s wall through the West Bank is a violation of international law, I stood with other Palestinian women in the olive groves of the village of Az Zawiya, protesting the destruction of our land. Throughout the West Bank, thousands of Palestinian women are peacefully protesting against the wall that the Israeli government claims aims to protect its citizens against terrorism. In 2002 women from Salfit, the region where Az Zawiya is located, formed a group named "Women Against the Wall," in order to coordinate women''s efforts against the wall. The Salfit region is heavily scarred by Israeli settlements. The wall is being built to surround those settlements and to seize much of Salfit''s agricultural land. In Az Zawiya it is cutting off 80% of the village''s agricultural land. Because the wall is cutting deep into Palestinian territory, separating Palestinians from their land, and trapping villages in isolated enclaves, we call it the "Apartheid Wall."
Peacefully Confronting the Wall in Budrus
By Iltezam Morrar, Electronic Intifada 7/16/2004
The International Court of Justice''s (ICJ) decision against Israel''s Apartheid Wall is an important step forward. It will not matter on the ground because Israel ignores many international decisions, but it will increase people''s trust in the justice of our struggle and their support for our cause. The Wall will affect my family as it affects many Palestinians. I live in Budrus, a village of 1,200 people, west of Ramallah. The Wall will completely surround Budrus and eight other villages, separating us from the rest of the West Bank, with just one gate connecting us to Ramallah. We fear that the gate will only be open for a few hours, like in other places where the Wall is finished. So if someone misses the opening they will spend the night outside their home waiting. There are no hospitals, universities, or civil institutions in these nine villages, and many of the people work in Ramallah. The Wall will prevent thousands of Palestinians from going to work, school, universities, and hospitals.
Coup d''Etat in America?
By Michel Chossudovsky, GlobalResearch 7/10/2004
Based on so-called "credible" reports, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has warned that Osama is now "planning to disrupt the November elections". A large scale attack on American soil is said to be planned by Al Qaeda during the presidential election campaign: "... Credible reporting indicates that Al Qaeda is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process... This is sobering information about those who wish to do us harm... But every day we strengthen the security of our nation." (Quoted in AP, 8 July 2004) "Possible targets" include the Democratic National Convention in July and the Republican Convention in New York in August. Barely a few days prior to Tom Ridge''s spectacular announcement, a spokesman of Northern Command Headquarters at Patterson Air Force Base in Colorado, confirmed that Northcom (which has a mandate to defend the Homeland) was "at a high level of readiness" and was proceeding with the (routine) deployment of jet fighters over major cities as well as the posting of troops at key locations. (Atlantic Journal and Constitution, 3 July 2004).
The Problem with Neutrality Between Palestinians and Israel
By Kathleen Christison, Miftah 7/13/2004
A friend recently said that she had come to believe the level of Israeli violence against Palestinians is now so great that a balanced approach to the two sides, the middle way promoted by so many peace groups, has become totally untenable. Another friend, an Israeli American just returned from several months in Israel, witnessed such a level of Israeli violence, not only against Palestinians but even against Israeli protesters, that she committed herself to oppose it. She decided she could no longer "protect my own skin" by simply standing by. "I no longer cared about protecting myself". She put her life in danger on behalf of justice for the Palestinians. These two friends have recognized and are strongly protesting the sham of taking a neutral position between the two sides in this most unbalanced of conflicts. Neutrality in any conflict in which there is a gross imbalance of power is probably an impossibility and certainly immoral. Treading a middle path between one utterly powerless party and another party with total power, effectively removes all restraints on behavior by the powerful party. Yet this is the posture of those American peace groups that put themselves forward as advocates for Palestinian-Israeli reconciliation. They take no position between the Palestinians and Israel, but only promote peace plans such as the unofficial Geneva Accord. without also taking action or even speaking out forcefully against Israel''s occupation. The consequence is that these groups have given Israel the time and the license to devastate the land, begin its ethnic cleansing, and destroy any prospect for Palestinian independence. Their refusal to take a clear stand against Israel''s oppressive policies is a statement that might makes right, that oppressive policies are acceptable, and most particularly that justice for Palestinians is less important than power for Israel. But when in history have decent people seriously accepted balance and neutrality as a proper response in moral conflicts or national conflicts that pit one very powerful party against a powerless party?
There are Judges in The Hague
By Uri Avnery, Palestine Chronicle 7/11/2004
"It is easy to imagine the officers and settlers bent over the map and planning the path – as though through an empty space, with nothing there.." -- One of the Israeli newspapers, Haaretz, put the two events on the front page: the 100th anniversary of the death of Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionist movement, and the judgement of the International Court of Justice, which declared the Israeli Separation Wall illegal. This coincidence may seem fortuitous. What connection could there possibly be between a historical anniversary and the latest topical event? But there is a connection. It is expressed in one sentence written by Herzl in Der Judenstaat, the book that became the cornerstone of Zionism. This is what it said: “There (in Palestine) we shall be a sector of the wall of Europe against Asia, we shall serve as the outpost of civilization against barbarism.” This sentence could easily be written today. American thinkers propound the “clash of civilizations”, with Western “Judeo-Christian” culture battling “Islamic barbarism”. American leaders declare that Israel is the outpost of Western civilization in the fight against Arab-Muslim “international terrorism”. The Sharon government is building a wall for the purpose, or so it says, of protecting Israel against Palestinian-Arab terrorism. It declares at every opportunity that the fight against “Palestinian terrorism” is a part of the struggle against “international terrorism”. The Americans support the Israeli wall with all their heart and their wallet.
Imperial Misconceptions
By Roni Ben Efrat, Electronic Intifada/Challenge Magazine 7/13/2004
In late May 2004, interviewed on CBS''s 60 Minutes, former US general Anthony Zinni castigated US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his coterie of neo-cons with regard to their misconceptions concerning the war in Iraq. He had already published his views in a book called Battle Ready, co-authored with Tom Clancy. Zinni claims that political ideologues have hijacked American policy in Iraq. It was the wrong war at the wrong time, he says, because "Saddam was effectively contained," whereas the real problem facing America was the war on terror. Moreover, on the way to achieving and justifying their end, the Pentagon and the civilian heads of the Bush Administration made every conceivable error: They relied on mistaken intelligence that was infected with ulterior motives. They underestimated the force that would be needed to rebuild Iraq. They disregarded international criticism and belittled the UN. We find a similar phenomenon in Israel. On June 10, 2004, Amos Malka, head of Military Intelligence (MI) from 1998 until 2001, was interviewed in Ha''aretz. He castigated the reigning Israeli conception with regard to the Palestinian leadership. This conception is the product of Amos Gilad, head of research in MI from 1996 until 2001 and Coordinator of Activities in the Territories from 2001 until 2003. The Gilad conception goes like this: The Oslo process was nothing more than a Trojan horse designed by Yasser Arafat to destroy the State of Israel. Arafat never intended that there should be two states living side by side; he claims the right of return for the Palestinian refugees in order to achieve his goal by demographic means; he planned and initiated the current Intifada. Gilad''s conclusion: only Arafat''s disappearance from the political arena will make a reasonable solution possible.
On Kangaroos and Courts
By Diana Buttu, Miftah 7/13/2004
Even prior to its ruling on the illegality of the wall, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was denounced by Israeli government pundits as a "kangaroo court." After the ruling, one commentator opined, "The court is biased," while another proudly proclaimed that the ICJ decision would "find its place in the garbage can of history." The same stance was not, however, taken with respect to the Israel High Court decision. Justice Minister Yosef Lapid aptly summarized Israel''s position on these two decisions: "We will comply with our High Court decisions, and not with the International Court, whose decision is in any case a legal opinion for the United Nations." Herein lies the fundamental problem: Israel reserves the right to act both as defendant and judge of any suit against it and will not accede to independent adjudication of its crimes. It would be easy to dismiss the decisions of the Israel High Court on the basis of its track record. This is the same court that has failed to outlaw completely the use of torture against Palestinians; legitimized the presence of Jewish-only colonies built on stolen Palestinian land (now a war crime under international law); and legitimized the demolition of homes of suspected offenders and their families as a form of punishment (a tactic also used by Saddam Hussein in Iraq).
Azmi Bishara Interview: “You need to alarm the world… to scream - to silently scream”
Palestine Media Center/Pacifica Radio 7/8/2004
...Dr Bishara – the crimes against the Palestinian people, under the 37 years of illegal Israeli occupation are uncountable. So, would you tell us why this particular crime, the Apartheid Wall, has moved you so strongly that you have decided to risk your livelihood, your health, your freedom – indeed your very life? AB - Well, I think this is exactly the question I want to raise. With all the details of the Occupation – and the Occupation itself is full of violence and oppression (Occupation, in itself is a milieu of violence you know, an environment of violence against the Occupied: there is no way to sustain an Occupation without humiliating the Occupied - there is no other way) - but we did not determine upon a Hunger Strike on the other crimes of the Occupation – so, why do we declare it now? Exactly because this is not just another detail. It is not just another characteristic of the Israeli Occupation. We believe that we see here something essentially different which has decisive implications for the lives of the Palestinian people, which I would sum up in the words ‘it is destroying the Palestinian society’.
Amira Hass acceptance speech for Anna Lindh award
By Amira Hass, Middle East Realities 6/18/2004
The first Anna Lindh award has been given to Haaretz journalist/reporter Amira Hass. -- ....The composition of the first sentence of any article or a feature is for me the most difficult, sometimes even agonizing. It''s doubly difficult now for me to locate the most suitable first words in this ceremony. After all, this ceremony should have never taken place, the memorial fund never been established, as the life and career and plans of Anna Lindh should have continued normally, should have not been cut so cruelly and abruptly by a murderer. How then can I express my words of thanks for the encouragement and appreciation your award represents, while each of you wishes it never had to be announced and given? So it''s almost needless to explain why I stand here with mixed feelings. Moreover, there are three other reasons for the mixed feelings I have, when I stand here, accepting with gratitude your generous award. The irony has not escaped my attention: here I find myself benefiting from a bloody conflict, from the reality of an on-going ruthless Israeli occupation and an apartheid sort of domination that my state, Israel, exercises over the Palestinians, a domination which robs them of their chances of free human development, and endangers the normal future of my people, the Israelis. I benefit from the fact that I report about and from the midst of a shattered Palestinian society, which became infamous and marginalized because of the suicide bombers and the cult of death it has been producing, a society which has so many varied, rich and wise voices but fails to make them heard and allows for two kinds mainly to dominate: that of victimhood and that of religious fanaticism. I benefit, then, from a miserable situation.
The Criminalization of the State
By Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research Spring 2004
America’s leaders in Washington and Wall Street firmly believe in the righteousness of war and authoritarian forms of government as a means to "safeguarding democratic values". According to Homeland Security "the near-term attacks will either rival or exceed the 9/11 attacks". An actual "terrorist attack" on American soil would lead to the suspension of civilian government and the establishment of martial law. In the words of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge: "If we go to Red [code alert]... it basically shuts down the country," "You ask, ''Is it serious?'' Yes, you bet your life. People don''t do that unless it''s a serious situation." (Donald Rumsfeld) The "Criminalization of the State", is when war criminals legitimately occupy positions of authority, which enable them to decide "who are the criminals", when in fact they are the criminals. A terrorist attack on American soil of the size and nature of September 11, would lead ---according to former CENTCOM Commander, General Tommy Franks-- to the downfall of democracy in America. In an interview last December, which was barely mentioned in the US media, General Franks outlined with cynical accuracy a scenario, which would result in the suspension of the Constitution and the installation of military rule in America...
The hands of Israel
By Ibrahim Nafie, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 7/8/2004
Recent confirmations of an Israeli presence in Iraq should inspire action to safeguard Iraq''s unity and cohesion -- New evidence has come to light of Israeli involvement in Iraq. The sources that revealed this evidence are not Arab but American, and their claims are backed by documentation of the network of relations Israeli security agencies have woven and used to infiltrate Iraq. This time, at least, it cannot be said that the Israeli presence in Iraq is a figment of Arab conspiracy theorising, as some like to brand our methods of political analysis. Although many Arab and international studies on the role Israel played in escalating the Iraqi-US crisis before the fall of Saddam Hussein have noted that this drive was part of Israel''s greater strategy to fragment multinational Arab political entities, they refrained from more intensive probing until more facts became available. These facts have now surfaced as the result of two recent developments. The first is a BBC interview with US Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, former military commander of Abu Ghraib prison. The second is the appointment of Salem Chalabi as head of the Iraqi Special Tribunal formed to prosecute former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and other members of his regime.
''Democratic'' racism (1)
By Jonathan Cook, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 7/8/2004
The State of Israel is both "democratic and Jewish", a first-ever Israeli constitution is set to declare. In a two-part article Jonathan Cook lays open a contradiction in terms -- An Israeli Knesset committee is currently formulating a constitution for Israel -- the first such attempt in its 56 years. The task was abandoned early in the state''s history, after the country''s founding fathers feared that giving a precise definition to the state''s character would tear apart the fragile consensus between secular and religious Jews and that a Bill of Rights would enshrine in law rights it wanted to deny the Palestinians. Instead, the founding document of the state, the Declaration of Independence, made a promise: that Israel would "uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of religion, race or sex". The Law, Justice and Constitution Committee is now holding regular sessions to establish a comprehensive set of Basic Laws which will comprise the constitution. The consensus among the Jewish committee members is that the preamble to the document will proclaim the state to be both "Jewish and democratic". The assumption is that an overwhelming majority of Knesset members will back such a constitution if it is put to a general vote of the parliament. The sole Arab committee member, Azmi Bishara, is not participating in the deliberations because he believes that such a formulation is nonsensical: the state cannot be both Jewish and democratic at the same time. Instead he is demanding that Israel become a state of all its citizens.
Another generous offer?
By Mustafa Barghouthi, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 7/8/2004
Mustafa Barghouthi questions the underlying intentions of Sharon''s unilateral withdrawal plan in Gaza -- Returning from the failed Camp David summit in 2000, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak first coined the mantra that has become the cornerstone of Ariel Sharon''s and other Israeli governments -- "We have no partner for peace." Citing this habitual mantra Israel''s current Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced in February that the Israeli state, with no credible negotiating partner, was now forced to take unilateral steps to break the bloody stalemate that gripped the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. In the months since February, however, the rhetoric surrounding Sharon''s unilateral disengagement has changed noticeably. Initially announcing an immediate, unprecedented and bold unilateral withdrawal from all settlements and military installations in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli political cavalcade between then and 6 June has not only produced a reworked and sufficiently vague protracted plan of redeployment, it has also unravelled the packaging of a scheme which will see the implementation of an equally harsh system of control over Gaza as exists currently under occupation.
The ways ahead
By Graham Usher, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 7/9/2004
Is a new form of Palestinian resistance being born? Graham Usher looks at walls, tents and court rulings in The Hague and Jerusalem -- Two futures this week were charted for the Israel-Palestinian conflict. One was fought in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp in Nablus, the other in a tent pitched beside four-metre high concrete pillars that, once erected, will constitute part of the wall Israel wants to build in and around occupied East Jerusalem. On Tuesday the Israeli army invaded Nablus, the latest in a relentless tide of assaults aimed at dredging the city of Palestinian militias. The quarries this time were Amjad Hanani and Yamen Faraj, local military leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The first was killed in a ferocious gun-battle that also left an Israeli soldier, Moran Vardi, dead. In revenge the army pursued Faraj to a four-story apartment block, flanked by helicopter gun-ships. These rocketed the building and killed him. They also killed 50-year old Nablus University professor, Dr Khaled Salah, and his 16-year old son, Mohamed.
Christian Zionists and the ICJ Ruling on the Israeli Wall
By Sherri Muzher, Palestine Chronicle 7/6/2004
"Many Christian Zionist leaders are exploiting the general lack of knowledge about the conflict, either for political gain or for religions reasons—or both.." -- One of the most disappointing aspects of the MidEast conflict has been the influence of Christian Zionists on U.S. foreign policy. Israel can do no wrong and that includes building a barrier or wall, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will rule on later this week. To its credit, the Israeli Supreme Court has ordered that the wall must be re-routed to reduce hardships on thousands of Palestinians. People who have seen the wall, such as Israeli Professor and literary critic Dr. Ran HaCohen, are not even sure what to call it. “Ghettos? Extra-judicial detention centers? Open-air prisons? A network of cages for humans? I am not sure there is a name for it; I am not sure it has a precedent in human history,” recently wrote HaCohen. The Rev. Donald Rooney and the Rev. John J. Podsiadlo, of the Holy Land Christian Society, wrote to President Bush on April 8 about their concerns, including the following....
Hitting the wall
By Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian 7/9/2004
Despite the international court of justice''s ruling, the West Bank barrier is likely to remain standing -- The barrier that Israel is building along the length of its border with the Palestinian West Bank and ruled illegal by the international court of justice today had a peculiar origin. These days, the barrier, which the Palestinians and most of the world refer to as a ''wall'' and the Israelis insist is a ''fence'', is identified with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. But it had its origins not on the Israeli right but within the normally doveish Israeli Labour party. The idea was first proposed about two years ago by Benjamin Ben-Elizier, one of the leaders of the Labour party which at the time was in coalition with Sharon. Ben-Elizier, on the right wing of the organisation, was at the time Israeli defence minister. ....It is for the United Nations to act on the court ruling and, with the US veto in the security council, the chances of the UN acting to enforce it through sanctions are approximately zero.
Israel as the powerful party should take the first clear step towards peace
By Jeff Handmaker and Adri, Electronic Intifada 7/7/2004
The pattern of bloody violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become tragically predictable. While senseless debates take place as to ''who fired the first shot'' or ''cast the first stone'', ordinary civilians long for peace, yet also insist on their fundamental rights. In attempting to explain or justify the use of violence, one can easily forget that that one party is a recognised country in international law, the other aspiring for such recognition. One has a heavily fortified military with nuclear weapons capability; the other a population so oppressed and desperate, that some are willing to sacrifice their lives in order to claim casualties on the other side. Moralistic discussions about who commits the violence, how that violence is committed and for what purpose are important from the perspective of a peace advocate concerned more about finding common ground. They are less important issues from the perspective of a human rights advocate concerned more about inequality.
Day 6: The Struggle Widens: Update on Hunger Strike Against the Israeli Apartheid Wall
By Mosa Diab & Awatef Shiekh, Miftah 7/8/2004
The hunger strike held at the northern entrance to Jerusalem to protest the Israeli apartheid wall has entered its sixth day amid growing local and international support. Today a large delegation of Palestinian judges from the Islamic Supreme Sharia Court, led by Chief Judge Tayseer Tamimi, himself on hunger strike, paid a solidarity visit to the hunger strikers. Justices came from all Palestinian counties, north and south. The Justices decided to hold their monthly meeting at the solidarity camp to discuss the impact of the Israeli Wall on Jerusalem where they issued a statement fully endorsing the actions called by the Central Popular Committee Against the Wall, and calling on people to participate in the Friday prayer at the solidarity tent set to take place tomorrow at noon. They also called on all national and Islamic organizations to set up solidarity tents in all Palestinian centers to rally people against the wall. Noon prayers were also held in the center of the tent, led by Tamimi and the rest of the delegation. Minutes earlier the Women’s Center of Shu’faat Refugee Camp brought the children attending their summer camp to the solidarity tent where they declared their support and sang songs in solidarity with strikers.
One Morning in Palestine
By Fadi Abu Sa''da, Electronic Intifada 7/8/2004
It was 2am Thursday morning, when I went to sleep, After following the news as usual, I was having a very tough migraine. I have experienced these tough migraines for a while because of the stress I have working as a journalist. I keep the walky-talky next to my head when I go to sleep, so that I can hear anyone calling me with urgent news, even while I''m having this migraine and at this time in the morning. I fell asleep, before someone began shouting on the walky-talky at 6am, and I jumped from bed to answer. His voice was deeply sad, and he was hardly able to talk, and he said "Fadi... Fadi... Ten Palestinians were just killed in Beit Hanoun village". While he was still talking, I jumped out of bed and turned on my computer to work.
What really influences the High Court
By Amira Hass, Ha''aretz 7/8/2004
There''s no way to know what really influenced the High Court justices when they decided last week to cancel 30 kilometers of the separation fence route that cuts through Palestinian areas northwest of Jerusalem. The naked facts presented to them in the petition by Mohammed Dahle? Or the voices around the facts, like the upcoming decision by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, or the photographs of elderly people clutching at trees and boulders while young soldiers scatter them with tear gas. We''ve grown up and know that judges, even justices of the highest court in the land, are not disconnected from their surroundings. The legal processing of the facts that are delivered to them is never done in laboratory conditions. They watch TV, maybe even the BBC. Hague, shmague, but as justices at the international level they have to deal with the possibly legal arguments of that court. Maybe Sharon''s conclusion, that their ruling presents Israel in all its glory as a democratic state, also guided their decision. But they are also private individuals, who know that their judgments will be examined in legal publications and international conferences.
Israel''s poisonous aerial spraying of Negev crops illegal, endangers health of Bedouin villagers
Electronic Intifada/Arab Association for Human Rights 7/6/2004
On seven occasions, over a period of two years, the Israeli government has sent planes to the Negev to spray the crops of Bedouin farmers with toxic chemicals. Some 7,500 acres of Bedouin fields have been destroyed since February 2002. The last such incident occurred as recently as March 2004, at Qtamat and Abeida villages, ruining some 750 acres of crops shortly before the harvest. Today, the Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) publishes "By All Means Possible: Destruction by the State of Crops of Bedouin Citizens in the Naqab (Negev) by Aerial Spraying with Chemicals", the first detailed report into the crop destruction, investigating both the legality of the government''s actions and the dangers posed to the local inhabitants'' health. The report also challenges the government''s arguments that it needs to use these drastic methods to evict the Bedouin farmers from lands it claims as state owned. The HRA argues instead that the government is in an unresolved legal dispute with the Bedouin over land ownership and that the state is trying to bypass proper legal channels by inflicting physical and financial damage on the Bedouin communities to force them to leave.
The Rootless Cosmopolitan: Edward Said
By Tony Judt, The Nation 7/1/2004
When Edward Said died in September 2003, after a decade-long battle against leukemia, he was probably the best-known intellectual in the world. Orientalism, his controversial account of the appropriation of the East in modern European thought and literature, has spawned an academic subdiscipline in its own right: A quarter of a century after its first publication, it continues to generate irritation, veneration and imitation. Even if its author had done nothing else, confining himself to teaching at Columbia University in New York--where he was employed from 1963 until his death--he would still have been one of the most influential scholars of the late twentieth century. But he did not confine himself. From 1967, and with mounting urgency and passion as the years passed, Edward Said was also an eloquent, ubiquitous commentator on the crisis in the Middle East and an advocate for the cause of the Palestinians. This moral and political engagement was not really a displacement of Said''s intellectual attention--his critique of the West''s failure to understand Palestinian humiliation closely echoes, after all, his reading of nineteenth-century scholarship and fiction in Orientalism and subsequent books (notably Culture and Imperialism, published in 1993). But it transformed the professor of comparative literature at Columbia into a very public intellectual, adored or execrated with equal intensity by many millions of readers.
The price of refusal
By Anat Matar, Maariv 7/7/2004
On Monday, the IDF refused to shorten the sentences of five conscientious objectors. Anat Matar, the mother of one of those objectors tries to understand. -- Almost two years ago, my son Haggai refused to be inducted into the IDF. He was convicted in January of this year, along with four of his friends, of refusing to obey a direct order, and was sentenced to one year in jail. On Monday, the five were brought before an army tribunal for a hearing on whether their jail time would be shortened—as is the procedure for every prisoner with good behavior. The army’s prosecutor opposed shortening their sentence by one third. Less than a week ago the annual report of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel was published with very little fanfare. Since news coverage was slim, I’d like to quote some of the passages here that deal with the civil rights in the occupied territories: “The infringement of civil rights and the seriousness of those infringements in the territories this year have reached unprecedented levels. The IDF''s actions in Rafah in May 2004 were described as callous violation of the inhabitants civil rights. Soldiers fired without caution, prevented the evacuation of the injured, killed dozens of people, some of them armed, but many of them innocent children, women and men. Dozens of homes were destroyed in the name of the army’s need to widen a road, and hundreds of people were expelled from their poor hovels, losing everything in them. The government’s decision to build a security fence within the West Bank contravenes international law and infringes on human rights.
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People of Palestine, Toward a Single State Solution
By Noel Ignatiev, Miftah/International News 7/7/2004
Zionism as a political movement developed in the late 19th century.. Its founder, Theodore Herzl, was influenced by two phenomena: the extent of French anti-Semitism revealed by the Dreyfus Trial, and nationalist ideals then popular in Europe. Herzl held that Jews cannot be assimilated by the nations in which they live, and that the only solution to the "Jewish question" was the formation of a "Jewish state" in which all the Jews would come together. The early Zionists contemplated as the site of the future state Argentina or Uganda, among other locales. Herzl favored Palestine, because, although an agnostic, he wanted to make use of the custom, widespread among Jewish mystics, of going on pilgrimages to the "holy land" and establishing religious communities there. In 1868, there were 13,000 Jews in Palestine, out of an estimated population of 400,000. The majority were religious pilgrims supported by charity from overseas. They encountered no opposition from the Muslims, and their presence led to no clashes with the Arab population, whether Muslim or Christian. In 1882, Baron Rothschild, combining philanthropy and investment, began to bring Jewish settlers from Eastern Europe to build a plantation system along the model the French used in Algeria. They spoke Yiddish, Arabic, Persian, and Georgian. Significantly, Hebrew was not among the languages spoken. The outcome of Rothschild''s experiment was predictable: Jews managed the land, while Arabs worked it. This was not the result the Zionists had in mind; a Jewish society could not be based on Arab labor. Consequently, they began to encourage the immigration of Jews to work in agriculture, industry, and transport.
Starving for Justice
Editorial, Miftah 7/7/2004
Those who think that Palestinian leaders lack the will and the political savvy to organize effective peaceful protests against Israeli occupation would do well to visit a bustling tent off the Ar-Ram checkpoint on the road between Jerusalem and Ramallah, in which an extraordinary sit-in hunger strike, called five days ago by Dr. Azmi Bishara, the charismatic Israeli-Arab political leader and intellectual, is gathering momentum exponentially. Whether the strikers will eventually achieve their stated goal of bringing to an end Israel’s construction of the controversial separation barrier is debatable, but it is clear, from the conviction expressed by them, that they believe strongly enough in their cause to risk their lives for it. Dr. Bishara, a member of the Israeli Knesset and leader of the National Democratic Assembly (NDA), and an articulate and principled advocate of the Palestinian cause, began his open-ended hunger strike on Saturday to protest the “continued construction of Israel’s separation wall in the occupied West Bank and in the surrounding areas of Jerusalem.” He was immediately joined, upon his announcement, by several political and religious leaders from a wide array of Palestinian political and civil society institutions. By Wednesday morning, the fifth day of the strike, the ranks of those holding their grim vigil in the tent had swollen to seventeen and included a prominent leader of the local Greek Orthodox Church, the Chief Judge of the Islamic Court, as well as a long-time Israeli peace activist.....
What Does Changing 30 kms of the Wall’s Path Really Mean??
PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign 7/6/2004
This map shows the different, “alternative routes” of sections of the originally planned Wall around the North West Jerusalem villages affected by the recent Israeli High Court ruling: 1- The Apartheid Wall around these villages was planned by the Occupation military in a way that isolates large areas of lands that belong to these villages. It also surrounds them, separating them from Jerusalem and closes them off from Ram and the main road to Ramallah. By Cutting these villages off from Jerusalem and leaving them only a tenuous long linkage to Ramallah, it will mean that the Wall will severely hinder people‘s access to their markets and services in Jerusalem and Ramallah, inducing unsustainable transportation and transaction costs. 2- This map features the “alternative” wall route that was proposed by the retired generals (CPS) (2). This “alternative” Wall route shows that Occupation Forces may not annex Mount Maqtam and Sheikh Zeitun, which would therefore leave Beit Inan and Betunia with some of their lands for cultivation. This “alternative” wall route would also keep Beit Iksa linked to the other villages within the walled area. 3- The map also shows the Wall route as suggested by the village petitioners to the Occupation High Court (3)....
Palestinians, Egypt and Sharon’s Gaza Plan
By Alex Ionides, Palestine Media Center/Egypt Today 7/6/2004
HE HAD TO fire two ministers to guarantee a vote, but Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has finally managed to get his Cabinet to approve in principle his Gaza pullout plan. True, the move cost him the resignation of two extreme right-wing ministers, plus his parliamentary majority due to the protest, but what’s a sacrifice or two if it’s all for the nation’s good? As it turned out, Sharon didn’t even have to sack the two ministers — on June 6, the leader’s plan was voted through with a comfortable margin of 14 to seven, although the approved initiative is a watered-down version of his previous proposal, which was rejected by his Likud Party on May 2. The previous plan proposed a one-step withdrawal of all Israeli forces and settlements from the Gaza Strip and the dismantlement of a small number of settlements in the West Bank. Ministers have still voted to remove all 21 illegal settlements in the Gaza Strip — home to 7,500 Jewish settlers — along with four more in the West Bank, but in a phased dismantlement that won’t begin before next year, and which will require Cabinet approval at every stage.
Islamic Mediation Techniques for Middle East Conflicts
By George E. Irani, Mediate.com September 2000
Many Middle Eastern scholars and practitioners trained in the United States have returned to their countries of origin ready to impart what they learned about Western conflict resolution techniques. In Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and other countries in the region, the teaching and practice of conflict resolution is still a novel phenomenon. Conflict resolution is viewed by many as a false Western panacea, a program imposed from outside and thus insensitive to indigenous problems, needs, and political processes. Indeed, many people in the Middle East view conflict resolution as a scheme concocted by the United States meant primarily to facilitate and hasten the processes of peace and "normalization" between Israel and its Arab neighbors.[1] In assessing the applicability of Western-based conflict resolution models in non-Western societies, theoreticians and practitioners alike have begun to realize the importance of being sensitive to indigenous ways of thinking and feeling, as well as to local rituals for managing and reducing conflicts. Middle East peacemaking has been a rather superficial phenomenon in the sense that diplomatic agreements have not "trickled down" to the grassroots. Peace treaties based solely on economic and political enticements, coercion or purely strategic considerations cannot last if they are not accompanied by a sincere, profound exploration of the underlying, emotional legacies of fear, hatred, sorrow, and mistrust resulting from decades of warfare and unending cycles of victimization and vengeance. In order to bring peace to the Middle East, policymakers must foster and encourage a dialogue that takes into consideration indigenous rituals and processes of reconciliation.
The second intifada - an Israeli strategy
By Khalid Amayreh, Al-Jazeera 7/6/2004
Israel''s hawkish Chief of Staff Moshe Ya''alon last week lashed out at the Knesset''s influential committee on defence and foreign affairs, accusing some members of disclosing "classified army secrets". Ya''alon scolded the committee for revealing that the Israeli occupation army effectively provoked the Palestinians into escalating the violence during the first few months of the second intifada in order to give the army a pretext to hit hard on the Palestinian society and bully it into unconditional surrender. Earlier, an acrimonious debate ensued between Israel''s current military chief, Amos Gilaad, and the former chief, Amos Malka, who held conflicting assessments of Palestinian intentions on the eve of the outbreak of the uprising in September 2000. Malka, in an interview with the Israeli paper Ha''aretz on 14 June, revealed that during the first few days of the intifada, Israeli occupation soldiers fired 1,300,000 bullets on Palestinian population centres and other targets.
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
By James Brooks, CounterPunch 7/5/2004
How Israel "Disperses" Demonstrations -- "On June 10th, 2004, the two clinics in Al-Zawiya treated 130 patients for gas inhalation. The patients were children, women, old people and young men. Dr. Abu Madi related that there was a high number of cases of [tetany], spasm in legs and hands, connected to the nervous system. Pupils were dilated...Other symptoms included shock, semi-consciousness, hyperventilation, irritation and sweating." (1) Thus reads a report by medical units serving the West Bank village of Al-Zawiya, where nonviolent resistance to Israel''s impending wall has been extraordinarily resolute. According to the medical report (procured by the International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC), "the gas used against the protestors is not tear gas but possibly a nerve gas." The following day, Israel''s ''Peace Bloc'', Gush Shalom, began a press release with the following quote from Al-Zawiya: "What the army used here yesterday was not tear gas. We know what tear gas is, what it feels like. That was something totally different.... When we were still a long way off from where the bulldozers were working, they started shooting things like this one (holding up a dark green metal tube with the inscription "Hand and rifle grenade no.400" - in English). Black smoke came out. Anyone who breathed it lost consciousness immediately, more than a hundred people. They remained unconscious for nearly 24 hours. One is still unconscious, at Rapidiya Hospital in Nablus. They had high fever and their muscles became rigid. Some needed urgent blood transfusion. Now, is this a way of dispersing a demonstration, or is it chemical warfare?" (2) [see also: http://www.vtjp.org/report/]
Contextualising Israel
By Rima Merriman, Miftah/Jordan Times 7/2/2004
A recent Glasgow University study of Middle East coverage by BBC and ITV in the United Kingdom found that Britons confuse Palestinians with Afghans. Incredibly, many believe that Israeli territory is occupied by Palestinians and not vice versa. How can that be? Hundreds of hours of coverage are devoted to the conflict, and yet the British public knows little, apparently, of the context or history of this conflict. Many reasons are given for such a finding: that Israeli official views predominate in the news, that Israeli actions are contextualised, but not Palestinian actions, that Israeli casualties are given prominence. Journalists shy away from doing otherwise because of Jewish pressure and fear of being labelled Nazis or anti-Semitic. Additionally, with America''s so-called war on terror dominating and framing the news everywhere day in day out, all non-state-initiated violence in the Middle East is now labelled terror and dismissed. So here is a little context. After decades of conflict, with the Palestinians getting the worst of it by far, the two sides want peace, but because each starts from a different premise, there is no meeting of the minds. The Israeli premise: we have defeated the Palestinians twice already, in 1948 when the state of Israel was established and populated by Jewish emigrants, displacing hoards of Palestinians who were not allowed to return, and in 1967, when we occupied the West Bank and Gaza, creating more Palestinian refugees and taking all of Jerusalem. On our side is the reality of power.
Suffering, twice induced
By Faisal Abu Khadra, Jerusalem Times 7/1/2004
In statements, issued by officialdom, the people of Palestine under the control of the PNA are referred to as ''giants of the earth'' and as ''heroes.'' These turns of phrase sit rather uncomfortably with another type of description - private reports by visitors to cities, villages and refugee camps in the PNA areas which state that the chief occupation of many is to spend their days looking for something to survive on. A visitor to the West Bank told me recently of the case of a mother of three who for three consecutive days and nights could find no food and had to send her children to bed on an empty stomach. It is quite plain that there are many Palestinian families today whose only source of nutrition is the water they boil as a substitute for soup. In extreme cases, and they are reported to stretch their diet of dry bread over a number of days. This picture depicting the state of the populace is offset by another - that of Palestinian officials living in clover. They are pictured cruising around in expensive cars which they habitually change, once a week or even every other day. To this add the wardrobe and sartorial touches - finely tailored suits and silk ties in the latest French and Italian styles and constant trips abroad complete with expense account to assure that they and their assistants lack for nothing.
You can''t see that you''re stuck
By Gideon Samet, Ha''aretz 7/2/2004
The title of this piece is a line from a hit song by Kobi Oz and his band Teapacks, one of the more interesting products of culture from the periphery, which burst out of Sderot into the centers of pop and musical assertiveness. The contribution of that stuck town does not lie in the export of amulets, messianic services and astrological advice, as in the case of another southern development town, Netivot. Despite chronic unemployment and a low self-image, something good happened to Sderot in the past decade. It made itself a name on the Israeli achievement track. This week, because of a completely wrongheaded national policy, it once again became clear, in the sharpest possible way, that Sderot has very few prospects of advancing further. "What didn''t we do, where did we go wrong/the country has gone bust," Oz sang at the time. He and other local successes, such as Knesiyat Hasechel, another rock band, and the talented poet and editor Shimon Adaf, know how to do more than lament about the situation. Adaf has published important personal intimations of the socialization process in the southern town and the path he took to break out of it.....
A member of a disappearing tribe
By Meron Benvenisti, Ha''aretz 7/3/2004
Songwriter Naomi Shemer passed away, and an entire nation mourned her, as befits someone who succeeded in expressing the essence of the Israeli spirit and the feelings of the individual and the community. Despite her desire for a funeral without any trappings of national mourning, she wouldn''t have been surprised to see how her final journey turned into a nationalized state ceremony. After all, she composed the national anthems, and the songs played beside her grave, as she stipulated in her will, were no less ceremonial than the funerary blasts of military trumpets. Among the masses who attended her funeral were men and women in their 60s, 70s and 80s, who, had they not been embarrassed to isolate themselves, would have appropriated Naomi Shemer to themselves and mourned her as a member of a disappearing tribe - the tribe of native born Israelis, the sons of the founders. This group of natives - which personally remembers the day when the state of Israel was established, and was at least of kindergarten age at the time - numbers fewer than one percent of all Israeli citizens....
Anatomy of a Home Demolition
By Am Johal, Electronic Intifada 7/1/2004
In the Moredechai Richler novel, while growing up in the heart of Montreal''s Jewish ghetto, Duddy Kravitz is obsessed with his grandfather''s saying, ''A man without land is nothing.'' Here in the Middle East, in this land of the Torah, the Bible and the Koran there are stories of families and villages where houses and land were bartered for two chickens. Those were simpler times. In February of this year in Israel, I arrived in the Upper Galilee Village of al-Bea''neh a few hours after it had been under siege during a house demolition. In its wake, it left over twenty injured, five houses destroyed, the uprooting of an olive grove and dozens of kindergarten students traumatized by the effects of tear gas. For a period of time, ambulances were refused entry to the village area.
IRmep Poll: US Support of Proposed Israeli Annexations could Increase Terrorism
4/24/2004 Institute for Resear
A poll of 100 US academics with advanced degrees in Middle East studies reveals concern over proposed Israeli plans to withdraw from Gaza. Negotiations underway between the White House and an Israeli delegation are discussing possible US recognition or approval of Israeli annexation of territories and settlements seized by Israel in the 1967 war. In exchange, Israel would unilaterally withdraw from Gaza. Question #1 Does the US currently have the global credibility and legal authority to legitimize a unilateral settlement giving Israel lands outside of 1967 borders? Yes 4% No 96% Question #3 How would the formal US recognition of annexation of territory outside the 1967 borders likely affect terrorist attacks in the United States? Diminish attacks, 4%, No effect 21%, Increase attacks, 75%
Blind, Or A Coward?
By Bob Dreyfuss, TomPaine.com 6/30/2004
One of the first things I did when I got back from vacation was to go see Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. It’s a brilliant piece of propaganda, entertaining and funny, and it skewers the president deliciously. But am I the only one to notice that in one critically important way, it entirely misses the boat and gets nearly everything wrong? Maybe this has been said before—I’ve hardly read all of the criticism of Moore—but if so, I haven’t seen it. Moore totally avoids the question of Israel. Not only that, but the opening polemic of the movie ties President Bush and company mightily to Saudi Arabia. In one sequence, what seems like several dozen images flash by showing Bush and his advisers shaking hands and chumming it up with leading members of the Saudi royal family. Moore says outright that while Bush is paid $400,000 by U.S. taxpayers in salary, Saudi Arabia has supported Bush and his family with more than $1 billion in business-related subsidies. (That amount, it seems to me, is ridiculously inflated and must be nonsense.) The stated implication is that Bush is more loyal to the Saudis than he is to America.
The fence will fall
By Ahmed Tibi, Maariv 7/1/2004
MK Ahmed Tibi congratulates the High Court for agreeing that the fence represents draconian measures against the Palestinians. -- For decades, since 1967, the army has assumed that it could always depend upon the High Court of Justice. The court has taken just about every single injustice of the occupation and made it “kosher”. The expropriation of lands, the expulsions, the assassinations and the curfews, the checkpoints and the rules of disengagement—all the things that have exacted such a heavy human toll. Once in a while the High Court would criticize here, or make a remark there, but it always left the door open to the IDF, as an occupying army, to do whatever it felt like doing—and it did a lot. Under the title of “warlike atmosphere”, everything was allowed.
Israeli wall splitting neighborhood down middle of street
By Bill Glauber, Kansas City Star/Chicago Tribune 6/30/2004
JERUSALEM - (KRT) - The workers at the El-Ghazali family furniture store aren''t sure whether they''re following Israel''s so-called security barrier or the barrier is following them. They have set up shop in three different locations since February, trying to find the perfect spot on the "right" side of the serpentine barrier that is designed to wall off Israel from the West Bank. But after shifting around the city and its Palestinian suburbs in a bid to maintain access to customers, factories and warehouses on both sides of the barrier, the workers now find themselves in the worst possible situation - at the dividing line that is taking shape down the middle of the main road linking Jerusalem to Ramallah. "You know, animals don''t accept to be trapped in a cage," said Said Jinini, the furniture store''s showroom manager. "What about human beings? This reality isolates us, separates us, imprisons us in a cage."
Analysis / Fencing in the fence
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha''aretz 7/1/2004
For quite some time now, the disputes surrounding the separation fence have not been ones of principle with regard to the very construction of the barrier, but rather over its route. The Palestinian public at large doesn''t want the fence along any route whatsoever, and neither is the Palestinian Authority very enthusiastic, to put it mildly, about the principle of erecting walls and fences between Israel and the territories. For some 26 years (1967-1993), there were no fences and not a single roadblock between Rafah and Jenin, and the residents of the territories were able to move totally free throughout the country. They took advantage of this for the purpose of employment and commerce. They spent time at the country''s vacation sites and beaches, visited relatives, and made Israeli friends. And on the backdrop of this came the official Palestinian position, which says: Israel has the right to build fences and walls anywhere it chooses - but only within the borders of the state.
A Clean Break for Israel
By Sadi Baig, Miftah/Asia Times 7/1/2004
Israeli involvement with the Kurds is not a new phenomenon. In its search for non-Arab allies in the region, Israel has supported Kurdish militancy in Iraq since the 1960s. In 1980, Israeli premier Menachem Begin publicly acknowledged that besides humanitarian aid, Israel had secretly provided military aid to Kurds in the form of weapons and advisers. Later on, that relationship was kept low profile due to Washington''s alliances in the region; first with Iran during the Shah''s monarchy, and then with Saddam Hussein''s Iraq when he fought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini''s Iran. Israel''s partnership with Turkey that was founded mainly to counter threats from Iran, Syria and Iraq, was also a factor. Israel and the Kurds also share a common bond through the Kurdish Jews in Israel, who number close to 50,000. Prominent among them is Itzhak Mordechai, an Iraqi Kurd who was defense minister during Benjamin Netanyahu''s last term as prime minister.
A message of violence and hatred
By Akbar Ahmed, The Independent 7/1/2004
I''ve been denounced as an Uncle Tom, branded a Zionist agent and received threats. My wife begged me to keep quiet -- For me, the enduring image of the poor treatment by modern Muslim society of the gentle voices of Islam is that of Yusuf Ali in the last days of his life: 81 years old, a homeless down-and-out, ill, impoverished and disoriented, sitting on the doorstep of a poor house in London in 1953. Ali had resigned from the élite Indian Civil Service to dedicate his life to scholarship. His monumental translation of the Koran into English is perhaps the most popular version even today. Ali''s reward for attempting to bring together West and East was to be vilified and spurned by his own society. His lament is moving: "I had not imagined that so much human jealousy, misunderstanding and painful misrepresentation should pursue one who seeks no worldly gain and pretends to be no dogmatic authority." It is a tragic story, but there is an even more tragic story in our midst now. The problem appears to be with the Muslim world itself, which currently is dominated by voices of violence. Osama bin Laden is an icon, a cult figure from Morocco to Indonesia. Here in British the loudest voice is that Sheikh Omar Bakri, leader of the extremist al-Muhajiroun, who speaks on behalf of bin Laden and is a darling of the media. Both bin Laden and Bakri reject any dialogue with Jews or Christians. Instead their message is one of violent confrontation and hatred.
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