Category: Journals - Page 114 - International Solidarity Movement

The “Only Democracy in the Middle East”

By Raad

In the last week we had two decisions by the Supreme Court of the Zionist state which reveal how racist this regime is. The first one is the citizenship law which will affect thousands of Palestinian families on both sides of the Green Line and the second is the Bil’in court case.

Citizenship Law
No one (including me) would have believed that Israel would take such a crazy step as this until the last few months. There is no country in the western world that has taken such a step, even the countries where terror attacks have occured on their civilians within their borders. Isreal is the only country that uses terror attacks as an excuse for legislating an apartheid law. There is no one in the world who can ethically say that if there is someone from a racial or religious minority who took a violent action against a country’s citizens that the entire community should be collectively punished. However, this was the reason that Isreali secret services used in court, and their game they love to play talking of the security of Isreal suceeded at convincing the judges.

It is known, though, that the real issue they are concerned with is the demographic issue. The president of Supreme Court even noted that since 1993 there was just 16,000 applications submitted from Palestinians to unite families, suggesting that there is no large demographic danger. But no one mentions the reality behind this law, which is that the Israeli state is a Jewish state. There is no place for anyone who is not Jewish!

This is the only democracy in the Middle East who builds their constitution on racist principles .

However the Israeli Supreme Court wasn’t going to approve a law such as this, despite the support from the international mainstream community and their disgraceful silence, which made Israel feel supported even in such a racist step as this. The silence that the international community continues, especially after 58 years of occupation to the historical Palestine, encourages Israel to continue to refuse to take responsibility for the refugees and the massacres that happened at that time. They have fallen silent in forcing Israel to recognize the UN security council resolutions 194, 242 and 338. They have been turning away as Israel declared the “unification” of Jerusalem as a capital for Israel, formally annexing it, even though East Jerusalem is an occupied territory according to international law. To consolidate their occupation, Israel continues building settlements in the West Bank and finally the Wall, or what is so-called the “security fence”, with full Western support. All of these facts on the ground makes me not really surprised to see the Supreme Court in Israel approving one more racist law which is just one piece in a series of acts that aims to “evacuate” or “transfer” the local and the legal owners of the land from their lands by making their life and existence impossible.

An Israeli friend stated accurately, “We are living in the 21st century and we can’t do the same things that we did in the past to continue the transfer. There are more inelegant ways for that by making life impossible for people so they leave without terrifying them in the way the Haganah and other Jewish milita groups did during the so called ‘war of independence’ “.

Bil’in court case
After I talked about the citizenship law and its consequences it’s obvious that Israel will continue the big story of security .

Last Sunday May 14th , the Supreme Court in Jerusalem was discussing one more important issue – the wall case in Bil’in, a small village west of Ramallah in the West Bank. Fortunately there is no final decision yet, even after a discussion which continued untill 9:00 pm local time. From the discussion there was an important thing that was mentioned, which again amounted to more racism and discrimination under the name of security. The thing the judge said was that the reason for building the wall was to protect the Jewish citizens from terrorist attacks with no regards to if the wall is built on the green line or not and with no regard to the legal rights of the owners of the land. However, the wall in Bil’in like in many places is built to protect settlers, who according to international law have no right to be there since they “settle” in a land that is stolen by force from its legal owners.

Building the wall to protect Jewish citizens conceals a dangerous fact: Israel has started with its own unilateral plan. Its an introduction to building the wall around the main settlement blocks such as Ma’ale Adumim, Gush Azion, Alfe Menashe and Ariel. The plan calls for the settlement blocks to be annexed to Israel under the name of “security” and “protection”, again with no regards to their legal status. This will set a horrible precedent allowing for the building of the wall in any place in the West Bank for the same reasons. It’s obvious to all that this is one more way to force the people to leave their homes.

I don’t know how far they can go using these justifications, but I would like to point out that from the Palestinian side, I don’t think the Palestinians want any more hassles in their life. We know the meaning of being a refugee – living in another country as a foreigner. The people have decided that they aren’t going to leave Palestine again. On the other hand, the international community should wake up and take their responsibilities to guarantee human rights and the application of international law, and sanction Israel for making more racist laws that transfer Palestinians from their homes.

This Is Apartheid

By Rann

The Israeli Supreme Court approved a law yesterday denying West Bank and Gaza Palestinians married to Israeli Palestinians residence or citizenship in Israel. As the linked Ha’aretz editorial states, this is a disgrace. Moreover, this is yet another grounding of apartheid by the Israeli ‘justice’ system.

“… not one single Western country discriminates against some of its citizens by passing laws that apply only to them, and that impose limits only on their choice of a partner with whom they can live in their homeland.”

Yes, five out of the eleven judges voted against the law. Yes, those included both the current president of the court and his replacement. Yes, this law has been contested over and over again and the legal system allowed it to be.

But no, that does not make a bit of difference. As of now, Israeli Palestinians who just happen to fall in love with someone from the West Bank or Gaza cannot do a thing about it.

I guess it’s just one more element to add to the list:

Separate roads for Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank (and Gaza pre-disengagement) – see Road Networks in the legend here.
Different ID cards, giving different privileges (see here).
Massive discrimination on access to water (see here).
Israeli Palestinian districts inside Israel get far less funding for schools, health and other services than Jewish areas (see here).
Israelis can move around…see here.

And so on and so forth…

The country I was born in is a racial pseudo-democracy. That makes me sad and extremely angry. So many of the comments on the Ha’aretz article linked above are sickeningly racist: “Arabs commit horrible acts of terror and behave like animals, and they expect equal rights?!?”

You see? They are animals, they are terrorists. All of them. Sound familiar?

Therein lies the essence of racism: generalization. This law is fundamentally racist in that in it punishes enormous numbers of innocents for the actions of the very very few.

¡YA BASTA!

The Double Standards of the Israeli Army

“I Am Not a Good Jew”: Israeli Soldier Brutality and Incompetence
An editorial by a human rights worker in Hebron

Israeli settler children throw rocks while soldier does nothing

Yesterday I went to the demonstration in Bil’in which started out fun and happy, with people singing songs and generally having a good time as we usually do at these demonstrations.

Upon confronting the soldiers there was some pushing and shoving, some sound bombs were tossed into the crowd by soldiers, and soon the soldiers started firing rubber coated metal bullets without provocation. Two ISM activists were hit in the head with rubber bullets, one seriously. He suffered a brain hemorrhage but doctors say he is going to be okay. The other ISM activist required stitches.

So, this is what happens at demonstrations. This is how the soldiers react. Are you ready to learn about what happens when soldiers are put in a situation where they are supposed to control violent Israeli settlers? Ok here we go!

Today in Tel Rumeida, a fellow ISM volunteer and I were walking a Palestinian child home. In order to reach his home, he has to pass by the Tel Rumeida settlement where settler children and teenagers were standing around, waiting for him to pass so they could throw rocks at him. This happens on a daily basis, so we are prepared.

We accompanied him so that, hopefully, the rocks would hit us and not the child. I had a video camera ready to record the rock throwing. We walked up the hill and, predictably the kids started throwing rocks. There were three soldiers standing around who — instead of controlling the children — came after me.

They asked me to stop filming, I said no. They demanded that I give them the camera, I refused. Then, as the settler children were throwing rocks and me, my fellow ISMer and the Palestinian child, the three soldiers tried to take the camera from me. They were unsuccessful because they were fat and they have not studied Kung Fu.

While my fellow ISMer was trying to get the soldiers to control the kids, a teenaged settler girl said “Jews do not throw rocks, Arabs throw rocks,” and she was standing in front a bunch of settler children who were throwing rocks at us!

At this point more soldiers arrived. I asked them to control the settler children so the Palestinian child could go home. They told me they couldn’t control the children. I told them, “All it would take to control these kids is some tear gas or a sound bomb, or, you know, how about some rubber bullets or live ammunition like you shoot at Palestinian kids who throw rocks?”

They kept covering the lens of my camera with their hand and I kept avoiding them. At one point three soldiers and a bunch of kids cornered me. The soldiers tried to take my camera, and the kids hit and kicked me. When I used my arms to block their attacks, the settler girls who were attacking screamed at me “don’t touch me, you fucking pedophile, you’re just filming so you can go home and masturbate to your porno.” and “The Arabs will kill you if you don’t watch out, just like they kill the Jews.” I said “I am a Jew and they don’t kill me.” A teenaged settler girl yelled back “You are not a good Jew!”

Eventually, I decided it would be better off if I went up to the apartment to film. That way I would not get attacked. A soldier saw me retreating, and tried to take my camera again. He was unsuccessful. I began filming from the second floor balcony of the apartment building. I caught the soldiers and settlers attacking members of TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron). As soon as the settlers saw me filming, they started throwing rocks at me again and yelling they hope the Arabs kill us.

In my opinion, if these people want to get good at throwing rocks, they ought to take lessons from the Palestinians, because they couldn’t hit a fucking elephant if it was standing in front of them. Eventually I went into the apartment to film from the window so I would not have to dodge rocks. The police finally arrived and the situation died down.

So, this is the irony of the situation. Palestinians and internationals peacefully demonstrate and get shot with rubber bullets. Israeli settler children throw rocks and hit and kick people and the soldiers refuse to stop them and instead attack the internationals.

Later in the day I was down on Shuhada street with another ISMer and settler children began throwing rocks at us again. The soldiers made a halfhearted attempt to control them but gave up. I called the police. The children kept throwing rocks and tried to prevent a Palestinian family from passing. I went over to where the family was and attempted to escort them past. The kids kept throwing rocks and the soldiers kept doing nothing. After I made a second call to the police, they finally showed up and got the children under control. I asked the police officer to remain there to control the children. He told me I should leave if I didn’t want to be attacked. Fortunately though, he stayed and got the children under control. After about 20 minutes, he left and the children began throwing rocks again.

So, this is Tel Rumeida during Shabbat, the Jewish holy day, and the Jews here act like fucking animals. I wonder, what would Moses do if a Palestinian child was walking past him. Would he throw rocks? Are Jews obligated under Jewish law to throw rocks at Palestinians? I feel like I am obligated under human law to protect anyone from attacks from these fucking religious extremists.

Oh, and by the way, while I’m still pissed off, I should write about the fact that Palestinians here are suffering severely from the funding cuts. People are so poor. A friend of mine who works for the Palestinian Authority hasn’t been to work in 20 days because they can’t pay him and he has $30 to his name.

The international community is punishing Palestinians because they voted for Hamas and it’s turning into a tragedy. One man told me today that economically, the past 3 months has been the worst it has ever been. So please, people in the United States, if you have not written to your congressperson to vote against the so-called Palestinian “anti-terrorism act,” HR 4681 You can do this by email here.

Trying to provide health care in Tubas

By Tom

At the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Tubas we heard about the impact of the occupation, the checkpoints, and the road blocks on the ambulance staff. When we heard that ambulance staff had been made to walk on the bodies of dead people by the Israeli Army we didn’t want to believe it, but it was clearly true.

Tubas is a town of 24,000 people. It is in the west of Tubas region, which covers an area aproximately 24km accross and 28km north to south. Most of the Tubas region is in the Jordan Valley and only accessible by via checkpoints.

In 1999, the PRCS (an NGO) was set up in Tubas. They have the only ambulance in the area. A part-time ambulance from Jericho is stationed at Al Jifflik in the Jordan Valley from 8am-2pm each day. What happens if soembody needs an ambulance at any other time? To try and overcome this problem, they are training local volunteers who can set up ’spot centres’ if there is a major incident in their area.

The Tubas Red Crescent provides:

* Primary health care
* Mental healthcare
* Rehabilitation for adults and children with physical and learning disabililties
* A phyco-social project for children affected by armed conflict (funded by the EU)
* An ambulance

They never charge for service costs and charge as little as possible for medicines. Despite this, they are operating against the odds. They have constant problems of being held up at road blocks, with the ambulance often being stuck for hours. As if the army wanted to prove to us that this was true, when we left the area the next day, we saw them causually holding up and searching an ambulance at Huawa Checkpoint. I wanted to photograph this, but was warned that the army could use this as an excuse to close the checkpoint altogether.

So far this year, they have had to perform two births at checkpoints, and 3 people have died because an ambulance could not get to them.

They have to run a psycho social project specifically for the ambulance staff who continuously have to deal with traumatic situations. We were given the following examples:

* People have been injured by landmines left in the mountains by the Israeli army
* Tayasir school was attacked by the army, who fired bullets and rockets into the school
* Ambulances are fired at by the army
* On one occaision, the ambulance was on its way to see a sick man when they found the army there. it was dark and the army directed them where to walk – they found themselves walking on the bodies of people who had just been shot by the army.
* We met an ambulance man who told us about a time when he had been doing a long shift with nothing to eat. He stopped for something to eat, and the army informed him to eat his food off of the body of soembody they had just shot.

They have international volunteers working with their ambulances because they are deperately short of money and staff, and they believe that the presence of internationals can curtail some of the more extreme behaviour of the army.

http://brightonpalestine.org/blog/?p=21

Tel Rumeida Journal

Monday, April the 24th

Today was a quiet day. Volunteers doing a lot of work preparing for the press conference on Wednesday. A Press release and open letter to the police and army about rising settler violence are being drafted.

Jerusalem Post visit Tel Rumeida and visit two families who recount stories of settler and IDF violence. I hope their words get through to the journalists because it is obviously painful for the people to tell their stories. While we are with the journalists and international and a Palestinian are spat at and threatened by settler children on Schuhada Street.

Tuesday, April the 25th

The morning school run goes well. Three settler visitors wearing the orange threads signifying opposition to disengagement come to talk to the soldiers.

As we are leaving a soldier comes to check our passports, he grabs our passports out of our hands and tells us we are being detained. We try to reason with him but he is obviously intent on causing us as much trouble as he can. In the end five internationals from CPT and ISM are detained for three hours at the Bab-a-Zawiyye Machsom. After three hours the shift changes and we are released immediately – it is patently obvious that this particular soldier does not like the internationals and wants to cause as much trouble as he can, his peers do not seem to share his animosity.

The Jerusalem Post are here again and watch what we on the school run with interest. Surely they must wonder why so many internationals are needed to watch this group of schoolchildren walking home.

The soldiers stationed near the Tel Rumeida settlement stop three schoolgirls from walking home. The family that these girls belong to has won a court battle for access to the land below the Tel Rumeida settlement. However, today the soldiers are not aware that the family have permission to use the path to their home and they have to wait by the guards post dangerously close to the settlement buildings. A settler child emerges and throws a stone before he is shooed away by the soldier. This exact same situation occurred last week and could be avoided if IDF soldiers were properly briefed.

Wednesday April the 26th

Men doing building work at the school are stoned by settlers and later a large group of settlers come and destroy the building work.