Category: In the Media

Protest over Sheikh Jarrah house continues

Abe Selig | The Jerusalem Post

27 July 2009

A woman was arrested in east Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood on Monday evening, after a scuffle broke out between police and foreign left-wing activists who were protesting the entry of Jews into a nearby home the previous day.

The house is the subject of a legal dispute in which the Jewish claimants, who say they purchased the property legally, have been granted the right to enter the premises, although a stop work order had been issued for the property and was scheduled to take effect at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

Sheikh Jarrah residents, however, said on Monday that the home had belonged to an elderly woman, Mrs. Hijazi, who had recently passed away, and that the Jewish claimants had falsified their ownership papers for the house.

“We have papers dating back to the Turkish government that show this home to be Palestinian property,” said Mitri Nasrawi, who works for the Coalition for Jerusalem, a Palestinian group.

Monday’s protest followed a larger demonstration in front of the house on Sunday afternoon, in which seven people were arrested – including a former Palestinian Authority minister for Jerusalem affairs, Hatem Abdel Kader – after activists and Arab residents clashed with police and the Jews, who had arrived to begin renovating the property.

Activists and locals residents said on Monday they would not stop their protests until the group of Jews had left.

Yelling “settlers out!” and “thieves!” the protesters congregated outside the home as police barred them from entering.

After more than an hour, police began to push back the demonstrators, who were banging on sheet metal walls that had been set up around the property, setting off the scuffle.

“You’re terrorists!” some of the activists yelled as police began to clear the area. “We are here because you are fascists and terrorists!”

But the feelings of local residents ran the gamut from dismay over the new Jewish presence in their neighborhood to downright outrage.

One elderly man approached an Israeli reporter and asked him if “he was a Jew.”

“Yes,” the reporter replied, as the man made a disgusted hand gesture and walked away.

“I don’t have any problem with Jews, I work with them and grew up around them,” another resident, Osama Kedek, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. “But this is just a provocation here. What would happen if a secular Jew went to live in Mea She’arim? I think there would be protests there as well.”

Kedek also said that while he appreciated the concern of the foreign activists, “it would be better if they used their energy to show their governments what Israel is doing to our neighborhoods.”

A handful of foreign reporters and even a French Embassy worker were on hand to document the demonstration.

Etgar Lefkovits contributed to this report.

Remembering Rachel, and resisting without despair

Daily Kos

26 July 2009

The screening of ‘Rachel’ yesterday at the SF Jewish Film festival, and to say the least, it was a truly emotional moment for many people, and for many reasons. Of course there is the ‘controversy’ (can I say how much I like the alternative pronunciation of this word?) which has been diaried, but I’d like to discuss other feelings and thoughts this film brought up, with me, with friends, and so forth.

The film takes on the subject of Rachel Corrie in a very clinical way, in terms of its analytical structure. It asks some basic questions, and delves into resolving them by interviewing the people involved, and filming the places where events took place, as well as incorporating pictures and video of the events in question. This is done very thoroughly, and with the filmmaker (Simone Bitton) staying off camera, although we hear her questions from interview to interview.

But connecting this approach, are the words of Rachel Corrie, which as usual, jump off the page and from the lips of the people reading them. The words are direct, passionate, inquisitive, rooted in the person she was, as well as the experiences that she was trying to take in and make sense of in Gaza. Like many others, I find myself a part of that process as well, in my life, and in the many experiences that I have had, in Palestine, the US, Israel, and elsewhere. I have throughout my life always tried to learn from experiences, to grow, to connect with others, in many situations and circumstances diverse and disparate; Rachel was also on this path, a path that was so horribly cut short, like the paths of so many others as well.

Along with the words, there are the people and places that were just heartbreaking to see; again, our paths in Palestine were connected and crossed in many ways. This is not surprising, as Rachel was the catalyst for my decision to get involved with the ISM and the larger peace movement in I/P. There is a slow shot of the hostel in East Jerusalem that many ISMers have stayed at, which is just eerie and nostalgic. I practically slept in every bed in the place, and I don’t know how many cups of sweet tea I drank there as well. And right along with the scene were Rachel’s words, her arrival into Palestine, her beginnings and training, her determination to go to the area that was hit hardest in Palestine, to Rafah.

Much like the congruence between the recent soldiers’ testimony and the Palestinian victims of the Israeli assault in December-January, the tale of the ethnic cleansing of Rafah comes through in the film; the demolished buildings, flattened neighborhoods, the surviving buildings pockmarked with shelling and rifle fire. And then the Palestinians speak of countless demolitions, of round the clock rifle fire and shelling, of snipers killing indiscriminately and firing into buildings. Then a soldier testifies (with his face in the dark) that this was standard practice; they would fire all night at the buildings, under orders to do so, and he says that if your commander was ‘lazy’ you could pretty much shoot at anyone/anything. Add this to the mountains of information available from human rights organizations (Amnesty, HRW, Btselem, PCHR, etc) and you have a very clear picture of a community under siege.

A friend of mine here spent time in Rafah, after Rachel was killed, and he met one of the Palestinians in the film, Abu Jamil. You see him talking of the many meals he happily cooked for the internationals, even though he and so many families there were struggling to survive. They were happy to feed the people that came from so far, and still come, to help them in their struggle to survive and live in dignity. I never got to Gaza, but I felt the same love and hospitality from so many Palestinians and Israelis while I stayed there; I was fed by a total stranger and his family in Nazareth (a Palestinian) and given a ride hitching to Afula by an Israeli once; so many people took me in and helped me during my stay, despite the limited resources and the horrible violence. So many times, it was this kindness, resilience, and determination among Palestinians and Israelis that was my source of strength and resolve; and it still is.

There was a very touching interview with Jonathan Pollack, a good friend and someone I was beaten and tear-gassed with many times. He is a core member of the Anarchists Against the Wall, and he spoke poignantly of the need to resist, often without hope of victory, but without despair; he made an allusion to the resistance of the Warsaw Ghetto, pointing out that they must have known that they would not survive, but they felt it necessary to resist anyway (as this is in the film, I feel that it should be mentioned and is not as such an inflammatory Godwin-offense). He sees resistance as a truth in and of itself, and knowing him, I understand just what he means. When I told him I was leaving I/P, he replied tersely, “I did not approve of this;” I took this as a pretty high compliment, and I urge anyone interested to work with the Israeli Anarchists, among others.

But the person, aside from Rachel, who I felt elevated this film and the screening, was Cindy, Rachel’s mother. I have been friends with her for years now, and have drawn so much strength from her; I just don’t know what I would have done with out her friendship. We run into each other at marches, at events, and even in Palestine. Years ago, I helped ferry her and 20 others from Bethlehem after a non-violence conference, to Bil’in for a demonstration. During a 3-4 hour bus ride (on the Wadi Al-Nahr), I gave her and her husband Craig a crash course in ISM traning, expecting the worst violence from the Israeli military. But when we arrived, the army was all laid back and allowing the day to be a full on festival, with food and music and good times for all; Palestinians, Internationals, and Israelis all gathered together and had a wonderful time that day, and the Palestinians were so honored to have Cindy there; my friend Muhamad held her arm and told the soldiers that “here is my mother and my father,” and I too felt part of a larger family that day and many more since.

We had lunch with many other friends after the screening, and I look forward to seeing Cindy and Craig again. But I hope that we all take in the importance of the screening, of the message of the film, of Rachel, and the real location of the controversy. The Jewish community and other communities (the anti-war movement, ‘Progessives,’ Americans, you name it) are all struggling with a quickly shifting paradigm regarding I/P. I have seen in my own life and experience this shift take place, within me and without me; I have seen the same arguments regarding charters and leaders and recognition and peace processes being recycled, rehashed and practically zombified in the media and in popular discourse. I have also seen a remarkable level of change and upheaval; new information and unheard testimony, of narrative and points of view shifting, of new research and ideas becoming part of the popular discourse, and of the courage of people resisting without hope, but never with despair.

I wish Rachel, and so many others, could see it as well, for their lives have made it possible; I only hope that I too can contribute in a way that honors them, and brings the peace and justice that so many have been denied for so long.

Norway examines the ethics of its Israel investments

Amira Hass | Ha’aretz

28 July 2009

Norway is reexamining its investments in several Israeli companies, in particular Elbit Systems. Two representatives of the Council on Ethics of the Norwegian finance ministry visited Israel at the beginning of June, in the wake of growing criticism of Israel in Norway in the months following last winter’s Israeli offensive in Gaza. The representatives met with, among others, groups of Palestinians and Israelis who claim that Norway invests in businesses directly involved in the Israeli occupation, which, they say, contradicts its commitment to abide by international law and to a just solution for the area.

The Council on Ethics was established to insure that foreign investments by the Norwegian Government Pension Fund-Global meet its ethical guidelines. At the end of 2008, the fund was invested in about 8,000 international companies, to the tune of 2,275 billion kroner, approximately $365 billion, according to this week’s exchange rate.

Of that amount, the Norwegian investment in Israeli companies totaled some 2.67 billion kroner, about $428 million, with another 627 million kroner in bonds, about $100 million. According to the Central Bank of Norway, the investment in Elbit Systems, which manufactures electronic equipment used by military and other security organizations, was 35 million kroner at the end of 2008, about $5.75 million, a little under a third of 1 percent of the company’s stock. The year 2008 saw a significant increase in the number of Israeli companies whose stock the Norwegian fund purchased, from eight in January to 41 by December.

Nearly two-thirds of the 41 companies are involved in development and building in the occupied territories, including the parts that were annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 war. Another 11 international companies in which the Norwegians invest are also involved in the activities of Israeli companies on the other side of the Green Line, according to the “Who Profits from the Occupation” project of the Coalition of Women for Peace.

Earlier call for boycott

The Council on Ethics does not usually confirm or deny reports on the checks it conducts. But the examination of Israeli investments became known because representatives of the council met with the Israeli ambassador to Norway in Oslo before their visit to Israel. According to newspaper reports, Norwegian Finance Minister Kristin Halverson announced at the height of Operation Cast Lead, in Gaza last winter, that the pension fund was obligated to examine its Israeli investments.

The fund’s chairwoman, Gro Nystuen, told Haaretz that the Norwegian finance ministry itself published an announcement that investments in Elbit were under scrutiny, information that members of the council are themselves not allowed to volunteer. Finance Minister Halverson is a member of the Socialist Left Party, a partner of the Labor and Center parties in the coalition government. In 2005, when her party was in the opposition, Halverson called for a boycott of Israel. But after voicing a similar statement as a member of the government’s ruling coalition, she then recanted, when the government made clear that this was not official Norwegian policy toward Israel. The Socialist Left Party was among the most persistent political forces demanding the implementation of ethical guidelines for government investments.

The representatives’ June visit to Israel was also not a routine one. According to Nystuen, taking into consideration that Norway invests in 8,000 companies around the world, out of a potential 80,000, it is not possible to visit each relevant country. She said that one of the representatives was planning in any case to participate in a conference taking place in Israel, and so the examination, based on existing materials in writing, was combined with an on-site visit.

People who met the council representatives during their visit in the country said two major Elbit products – surveillance systems for the separation barrier and pilotless aerial vehicles (drones), both of them causes of the reexamination – were under special scrutiny, even though the drones are not included in the Norwegian category of forbidden weapons.

Erik Hagen, who works for the independent news service Norwatch, assumes that other Israeli companies are also under scrutiny. Norwatch is monitoring whether Norway’s foreign business investments match its criteria for human rights, workers rights and protection of the environment. Hagen’s previous reports in Norwatch led to the first exclusion recommended by the Council on Ethics – from the American oil-scouting firm formerly known as Kerr-McGee, which was operating in the Sahara, in territory occupied by Morocco.

The Government Pension Fund-Global, originally the Government Petroleum Fund, is meant to insure that Norway’s oil income will be available for the welfare of future generations; it began operating in the 1990s. The Council on Ethics was established in 2004, when the fact became known that – although Norway is party to the international demand for a ban on land mines – the fund was invested in a Singaporean company that manufactured mines, and the subject became a matter of public debate in Norway.

The council’s members include two lawyers, an economist, a biologist and a philosopher. The council’s ethical guidelines do not rule out investment in companies that produce weapons. A prohibition does, however, apply to producers of nuclear or chemical weapons, cluster bombs, land mines, and incendiary weapons of all types, such as napalm.

According to the guidelines, the fund may not invest in companies that “constitute an unacceptable risk of the Fund contributing to serious or systematic human rights violations, such as murder, torture, deprivation of liberty, forced labor, the worst forms of child labor and other forms of child exploitation, serious violations of individuals’ rights in situations of war or conflict, severe environmental damages, gross corruption or other particularly serious violations of fundamental ethical norms.” The council inspects the nature of the company’s products, and does not examine governments’ policies in countries where the Fund invests. Since its establishment, the council has recommended excluding some 30 companies and the Norwegian finance ministry adopted the majority of these recommendations.

The council has examined its holdings in Israel twice before: in 2006, when the fund was invested in only five Israeli companies, and in 2008 and 2009, when investments in Israel Electric Corporation bonds came under scrutiny. At that time the council decided there was no reason to withdraw its holdings, for it found no evidence that the electric company was involved as a company in the withholding of electric supply to the Gaza Strip. The examination and recommendation processes are likely to take many months; sometimes they can take as much as a year. If the recommendation is to exclude a company, and the Norwegian finance ministry adopts it, the decision will be made public only after the stocks are sold.

Two-day-old Silwan info center in jeopardy

Abe Selig | The Jerusalem Post

26 July 2009

“We built this place last Sunday, and on Tuesday, the police arrived with orders to knock it down,” said Ahmad Qara’een, as he sat inside the Wadi Hilwah Information Center, a 35-sq.m. covered wooden deck erected by residents of east Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood.

Qara’een does not dispute the lack of a building permit, although he does maintain that the center was built on privately-owned Palestinian land, with the consent of its owner.

The issue for Qara’een and his colleagues, who built the center to disseminate information about Silwan they say is not made available to the tourists who throng the area, is what they see as a double standard. A number of structures belonging to Jews in Silwan – some only a few doors down from the center – also lack permits, but the city has not issued demolition orders for them.

“It’s like a state within a state here,” Qara’een said. “The settlers get to do what they want, but we can’t have anything. It’s like the law doesn’t apply to them.”

The Jerusalem Municipality on Sunday disputed Qara’een’s assertion that the center had been slated for destruction, telling The Jerusalem Post, “They were not given demolition orders, just a notice that their building is illegal. Furthermore, the municipality is working in all areas of Jerusalem to enforce the law when it comes to illegal buildings.”

Still, Qara’een and others at the Wadi Hilwah Center said that permits were not the issue.

“This has nothing to do with permits,” said Nihad Siam, who works with Qara’een. “It’s all about politics and the desire of the government to shut us up and push us out of here.”

Silwan’s Wadi Hilwah neighborhood has emerged as one of the main points of friction between east Jerusalem’s Palestinians and Jewish residents, who are increasingly moving into eastern neighborhoods of the capital.

Silwan, just outside the Old City, has seen a rise in Jewish residents in recent years, many inhabiting homes purchased by the Elad and Ateret Cohanim organizations. Additionally, the city has drawn up plans to raze a significant number of homes in the area to begin work on a City of David archeological park – a move residents like Qara’een and Siam said would “turn the neighborhood into Hebron.”

“Is it my fault that I was born here?” asked Qara’een. “Is it my fault that King David walked here over 3,000 years ago? Why should I have to pay the price?”

A report released on Sunday by Peace Now, however, stated that “the hasty response of Israeli authorities to the opening of the makeshift Palestinian information center clearly points not only at the discriminatory use of law enforcement against Palestinians in East Jerusalem but also at an effort to silence the voices of the local residents.”

The report goes on to say that the “City of David Visitor’s Center, which is approximately 50 meters away from the Wadi Hilwah Information Center, and was established by the Elad organization, includes mobile and non-mobile structures including a shop, a cashier’s office, general office space and bathrooms.

“An application for a permit for these structures was submitted by Elad in November 2007, but was rejected by the municipality,” the report says.

Settlers occupy and damage Sheikh Jarrah home

Ma’an News

26 July 2009

Residents on Sunday tried unsuccessfully to prevent Israeli settlers and police from reaching a home owned by Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

During the incident former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Hatim Abdul Qader was detained, apparently while trying to block more attacks on a home that had earlier been ransacked by a group of rightist settlers.

The former minister had not been released by early afternoon on Sunday. Abdul Qader resigned his post earlier this month, but remains in charge of Jerusalem affairs within the Fatah movement.

Another Palestinian and eight foreign solidarity activists were also detained by Israeli forces operating in the area when, according to Ma’an’s correspondent, they tried to prevent settlers and police from occupying the home of Darwish Hijazi.

A number of local residents reportedly sat on the road leading to the home in an effort to stop Israeli bulldozers moving near the house, and Israeli policy attacks and injured several protesters, according to witnesses.

Dimitri Diliani, spokesman for Fatah in Jerusalem, and Abdul Qader were quoted as saying that residents were adamant about preventing settlers from occupying the Hijazi home.

Diliani added that dozens of Fatah activists had meanwhile managed to expel a group of settlers from a nearby piece of land, while Israeli police nonetheless brought backup forces and threatened to arrest protesters who refused to leave the area.

The arrests came just 48 hours after Abdul Qader warned on Friday that Israel risks provoking a new upheaval if it continues destroying Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem.

“After the incident of opening the tunnel in 1996 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu said that ‘no one warned me of the consequences of opening the tunnel and if I received a warning then I would not have done it,'” he said, referencing riots that cost 70 Palestinians and 17 Israeli soldiers their lives after the opening of the Western Wall tunnels.

“We are warning [Netanyahu] now of the consequences of the demolitions, because the consequences will surpass those of opening the tunnel in Jerusalem,” Abdul Qader said.

Abdul Qader made his remarks alongside hundreds of residents of the Bustan neighborhood in East Jerusalem’s Silwan area. Some 88 houses on the sliver of land near the Old City are slated for demolition because they were built without permits from the Israeli municipal authorities. But some of the structures were built before Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

The official alleged that Israeli authorities in Jerusalem are enabling settler groups to take control of Palestinian neighborhoods.