Category: In the Media

J-Post: Court to hear petition on Silwan digs

By Elana Kirsh

To view original article, published by the Jerusalem Post on the 18th June, click here

The High Court of Justice in Jerusalem will hear a petition on Wednesday on the issue of archaeological excavations being carried out in tunnels under the village of Silwan.

According to Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), the National Parks Authority gave almost all control of one of the most important and sensitive archaeological sites in the area to the non-profit organization Elad, a group which operates exclusively at the City of David archaeological site. Technically, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) carries out excavations at the site; however the Elad group organizes and finances them.

The IAA excavated a tunnel under land and houses of residents of Silwan in recent months, and RHR claims that the digs were carried out without residents’ awareness, causing damage to houses and roads, and disregarding residents’ rights.

The Jerusalem Post was unable to obtain a comment on the claims from Elad.

Residents of Silwan will tell the High Court that that the excavations are against the law and request that the IAA desist from further excavations until an appropriate solution is found.

The central question, according to RHR, is whether the High Court of Justice will authorize a decree to freeze the digs.

RHR stressed in a press release that specialists inspected the site, and confirmed that damage to houses was caused as a result of the excavations.

Haaretz: Civil Administration officials indicted in West Bank land steal

By Akiva Eldar

To view original article, published in Haaretz on the 18th June, click here

Two senior officials in the Civil Administration allegedly illegally collaborated with Jewish land dealers to take over land in the West Bank, according to an indictment issued Tuesday in the Jerusalem District Court. Lieutenant Colonel Yair Blumenthal and Major Ehud Brosh have been charged with taking bribes and favors from the dealers, brothers Yosef and Yaakov Amram.

Blumenthal, who headed of the Civil Administration’s infrastructure department, is charged with helping the brothers further fraudulent business deals by providing them with internal documents and equipment belonging to the Civil Administration in exchange for over $40,000.

Brosh, who was head of the lands department in the unit providing legal counsel to the Israel Defense Forces’ Judea and Samaria division, stands accused of taking bribes in the form of vacations abroad and in Israel, in return for furthering the Amram brothers’ business ventures.

The land is said to have been used to expand settlements in the Jericho and Hebron areas.

Blumenthal allegedly furnished the brothers classified aerial maps and land registration documents, which assisted them in locating lands whose owners were out of the country, making it easier for them to forge documents. Blumenthal is also said to have drafted a letter to himself in the brothers’ name, allowing them to receive increased compensation after land they supposedly owned – which he described as grapevine plantations – was expropriated.

Blumenthal also provided the Amram brothers with names, addresses, ages and dates of entry and exit from the country of Arab West Bank land owners, and verified whether they were alive and other details said to have assisted the dealers in forging powers of attorney and selling lands in the name of absentee or deceased Palestinian land owners.

From 2000 to 2003, the brothers obtained documents proving that their company owned lands in Hebron, El Jib north of Jerusalem, Jericho and Tubas in the northern West Bank. They then presented these documents to the Jewish National Fund subsidiary Himnuta, with an offer to sell land that in some cases Himnuta bought. The forgeries were sometimes carried out using Arab front men who presented themselves as the land owners.

The affair came to light after the heirs of Said Ali Salah Aldin, a minister in the Jordanian government in the 1960s who died in Jerusalem in 1985, discovered that 208 dunams (some 50 acres) of land near Jericho registered in their father’s name had been sold to Himnuta. The heirs went to the police, who discovered that the Amrams had located a Jordanian resident whose name and other details were identical to Aldin’s, and had him sign a document at the Israeli Embassy in Amman as the owner of the land, granting power of attorney to the Amram’s front man, Jawwad Kawasmeh. The brothers also instructed Jerusalem attorney Eitan Tzachi to sign an authorized copy of the power of attorney, and after receiving approval for the sale, sold the land to Himnuta for over NIS 2 million.

Tzachi, who was allegedly involved in several of the Amrams’ other deals, was being blackmailed by Yosef Amram who enticed him to a hotel and filmed him with a prostitute.

In another case Amram flew with Tzachi to Cyprus in July 2001 to complete a real estate deal in which a Jordanian citizen, Sherif Zayad, sold him 530 dunams (about 132 acres) near Jericho. Amram demanded that Zayad signs a declaration that he had received the full sale price ($1,270,000) and was lending Amram $1,000,000. When Zayad balked, Amram threatened he would have Hamas men deal with Zayad. Tzachi, who witnessed the exchange,
told Amram he would not have Zayad sign under such conditions. Amram then escorted Tzachi to a hotel balcony, where he beat him and threatened to make the tape with the prostitute public, after which Zayad signed the papers and Tzachi signed as notary.

The Amram brothers have also been charged with tax evasion of more than NIS 10 million.

The Guardian: Shooting back at the settlers

By Mustafa Qadri

To view original article, published by the Guardian on the 18th June, click here

Last week the BBC carried video footage of a Jewish settler attack on Palestinian farmers in the West Bank. The attack was filmed thanks to a video advocacy project arranged by the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem. The aim of the project is to empower Palestinian families and increase public awareness of their harassment. The over 100 cameras distributed by B’Tselem give Palestinian communities the opportunity to document attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers in a medium that is less likely to be ignored or disputed by Israeli authorities than oral testimony.

The video depicts three people, an old couple and their nephew, being lynched by four youths near the village of Susia, south of Hebron. The BBC should be applauded for giving the story major coverage on its World News service. Jewish settler violence towards Palestinians is widespread but is rarely given widespread media coverage.

The attack represents a microcosm of Palestinian dispossession in the West Bank. Indeed the village is a story of dispossession and violence in itself. The people of Susia used to live in a number of ancient cave dwellings, one of the oldest and most unique habitats in the region. In 1986 they were evicted by the Israeli army to make way for a Jewish settlement. They managed to hold on to some of the cave dwellings in the outskirts of the town but that was only a temporary reprieve. “In 1997 I went to register our land [with the Israeli authorities],” recalls the farmer Muhammed Nawaja, “but they refused saying we were not allowed. They did not give any reason.” In 2001 Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of these remaining dwellings.

Such acts are not out of the ordinary. According to a United Nations report last year, Israel denies permission to 94% of Palestinian structures in areas of the West Bank under its full control like Susia. Israel has full control of around 64% of the West Bank. Dwellings not authorised by Israel are liable to be demolished at any time.

As I saw with my own eyes three weeks ago, Susia is now a collection of tents and partially-built structures surrounded on three sides by Israeli settlements and a military outpost. Where once there were 800 families living in Susia, today there are only 26 left. From time to time even these humble dwellings are at risk. At one point in the summer of 2001 the villagers were forced to live under trees for four months after their tents were destroyed. They were eventually replaced by the Red Cross although there is lingering uncertainty as to their continued presence. Settlers frequently set fire to crops and the tents, particularly on Friday and Saturday after Sabbath prayers.

So far, the Israeli authorities have appeared unwilling to investigate settler violence. There are now reports from Israel that two youths have been arrested in relation to the attack documented in the video. If they are prosecuted it will be the first of its kind in the Susia region. Villagers in Susia say that settlers shot dead two elderly farmers after their eviction in 1986 and routinely harass others. According to B’Tselem, no one from the settlements has ever been convicted for those murders or attacks.

Despite their indifference towards the Palestinian population, Israeli police and military forces provide 24-hour protection to every Jewish settlement. After I witnessed a clash between settlers and Palestinian villagers at at-Tuwani, a Palestinian village close to Susia, two Israeli army jeeps arrived within 10 minutes. The soldiers duly confronted the Palestinian community and ignored the settlers who continued to hurl abuse.

Most Palestinian men in the region have been detained at some point in their adult lives, often merely for not possessing a valid ID card or on the suspicion that they were involved in clashes with settlers. While Israeli law allows settlers to carry weapons, and it is not uncommon to see teenage settler boys carrying M-16s, Palestinians are forbidden from carrying even rudimentary weapons such as knives or clubs.

The BBC report finally exposes the everyday violence many Palestinians face. Sadly, however, it is but the tip of the iceberg.

Haaretz: A Dubious Israeli Spring in Europe

By Gideon Levy

To view article, published in Haaretz on the 15th June 2008, click here

How pleasant it is to be an official representative of Israel in Europe right now. It hasn’t been so pleasant for a long time. And not just because of the spectacular spring in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, the crowded pubs in Athens or the young people sunbathing nude in Stockholm. This is about the fresh sympathy for Israel blowing in from almost every capital. French newspapers went all out for our 60th anniversary, Israeli women soldiers starred on the covers of magazines, and even the Swedish papers lost a little of their interest in the Palestinians’ suffering, which had for years won such deep sympathy.

Last week, when the Olof Palme International Center in Stockholm held a symposium on peace in the Middle East, a scandal broke out because the organizers dared invite a professor of Islamic studies, Azam Tamimi, a Hamas sympathizer from London. Even in Sweden. This sympathy for Israel, along with seething antipathy for Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, includes, of course, active European participation in the boycott of Gaza and Hamas, which may reach new heights this week. The Council of Foreign Ministers of the European Union is slated tomorrow to discuss upgrading Israel’s standing in the EU, and later in the week ministers of the EU member states will also do so. It only takes opposition by one country to prevent the upgrade of ties, which would have significant economic ramifications for Israel.

But there is a good chance that exactly as Europe decided unanimously to boycott Gaza, it will say yes to an upgrade of Israel’s ties with the EU. For official Israel, this is excellent news. Perhaps for the first time, a very strange set of circumstances prevails: Europe, which holds high the standard of human rights and liberty, is boycotting the occupied entity. As if that were not enough, it is even upgrading its ties with the occupier. While Europe is perceived by most Israelis as hostile to Israel, not to say anti-Semitic, its governments are uniting to support Israel almost no matter what it does.

Europe’s blind obedience to the United States, which led it into Afghanistan and Iraq, combined with guilt over the Holocaust, is manifest in its relationship toward us. Xenophobia, and particularly hatred of Muslims, Hamas’ rise in Gaza and that organization’s perception in Europe as part of a dangerous Islamic conspiracy whose other members are Al-Qaida and Hezbollah, are now also finding expression in the relationship to Israel.

It is true that Israel’s representatives continue to complain bitterly about hostility. Israel’s envoy to London last week lamented that Britain had become a hotbed of radical anti-Israel views; it always pays to complain. It is also true that public opinion in Europe is still more sympathetic to the Palestinians. But the European governments are turning their backs on this sentiment and are conducting a quite amazingly sympathetic policy toward Israel. There is practically no country that has not sent an official to Israel recently; they are all rushing to Sderot to take their picture with a Qassam, and staying away from Gaza in droves, despite the much greater suffering there.

This false magic charm should not be allowed to trick us. This is not good news for those who wish for an end to the Israeli occupation and still believe that Europe can and should play a useful role in achieving peace in the region. Europe, which is now incomprehensibly and blindly following the U.S., is not just a Europe ignoring the values it proclaims; it is also a Europe that will lose any possibility to influence the region. That is not good for the Middle East and it is bad for Europe, too, in whose backyard our conflict begins.

We already have a one-sided mediator of the type that gives Israel free rein to follow every whim of its occupation: America. We have no need for another. Europe’s special status – as Israel’s major economic market that maintains an extensive network of relations with the Arab world as well – is eroding. Instead we are getting a West that no longer makes demands on Israel, comes to terms with the criminal occupation and is heavy-handed only when it comes to the Palestinians. True, Europe is also the biggest donor to the Palestinian Authority, but in so doing it subsidizes the occupation, nothing more.

When PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the darling of Israel and the U.S., dared recently to work against the upgrade, Israel quickly hit the PA in its pocketbook and confiscated the tax money belonging to it; a scandal in itself. Thus will be done to the man who tries to demand that Europe maintain some measure of balance.

Europe must come to its senses this week. It must condition the upgrade of relations with Israel on a series of practical steps Israel must take, in the spirit of its declared values. Want an upgrade? Please conduct yourselves according to international law, please respect the most basic human rights, please lift the siege on Gaza. That is how the EU behaves toward the rest of the countries knocking at its door. An unconditional upgrade will be a prize for settlements, a medal for siege, closures and starvation. Is that the way Europe wants to see itself? Lavishing gifts on the occupier, boycotting the occupied, and becoming an American puppet?

ei: Quebec Student Federation Joins International Boycott Movement

To view original article, published in Electronic Intifada, click here

Press release, Tadamon, 9 June 2008

Across the world grassroots movements struggling in opposition to Israeli apartheid are marking the 60th year of the Palestinian Nakba (“catastrophe”) — 60 years of dispossession, ethnic cleansing and exile for Palestinians resulting from the creation of the state of Israel.

A grassroots response in opposition to Israeli apartheid is growing throughout the world sparked by an appeal launched by Palestinian civil-society organizations in 2005 for an international campaign directed at the government in Israel, a campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions. This critical campaign is modeled on a successful international campaign similar in nature that played a critical role in bringing an end to the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Today students in Quebec are now joining the international boycott campaign in large numbers including L’Association pour une Solidarite Syndicale Etudiante (ASSE), an important Quebec-wide student federation representing over 42,000 students.

ASSE voted to support the international campaign against Israeli apartheid at a Quebec-wide level after several local assemblies at university and Cegep campuses across the province voted at a local level within general student assemblies to support the boycott campaign. ASSE’s boycott resolution marks the first time that a major student union in Quebec or Canada has voted to support the international boycott campaign opposing Israeli apartheid.

Throughout the 2007-2008 school year ASSE in collaboration with Tadamon! Montreal, with support from Federation nationale des enseignantes et enseignants du Quebec — Quebec’s largest college level teachers union — and the Quebec Public Interest Research Group organized multiple workshops throughout Quebec at Cegep and university campuses bringing together hundreds of students for popular education workshops outlining the critical importance for Quebec’s student movement to stand against Israeli apartheid.

ASSE represents the grassroots face of Quebec’s powerful student movement, with tens-of-thousands of members and a strong position against privatization and for free post-secondary education in Quebec.

In 2005 ASSE launched and lead a historic student strike across Quebec, with over one-hundred student unions participating at the height of a strike rooted in a demand for a cancellation on all student debt and free post-secondary education in Quebec.

Utilizing mass protest, creative direct actions and grassroots campus-based organizing ASSE has successfully fought against neo-liberal economic policies fronted by the Liberal government of Jean Charest, who upon taking governmental power moved to make important changes to financial aid program for students in Quebec, including a $103 million cut. After major protests lead by ASSE across Quebec the Liberal government was forced to reverse their cuts to student funding, marking one of the only times in Quebec’s recent history that grassroots social mobilization has successfully reversed unpopular government policy.

ASSE represents a grassroots power base within Quebec’s student movement, one that draws parallels between the struggle for accessible and free education in Quebec to larger movements for social justice in the Americas, the Middle East and internationally.

ASSE has now taken an important and courageous stand to support the international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions, as a tangible step in solidarity with struggles against Israeli apartheid in Palestine and throughout the Middle East. This resolution marks the growing momentum behind the international movement against Israeli apartheid and a willingness to take action at a local level within progressive student networks in Quebec to challenge Israeli apartheid.

ASSE’s important stand also marks a critical opportunity for grassroots student and social movements in Quebec to challenge the Quebec and Canadian government complicity towards Israeli apartheid and today the outright support towards Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza by Canada’s Conservative government.

Today we call on all student and labor unions to join L’Association pour une Solidarite Syndicale Etudiante in creating a strong and effective boycott movement against Israeli apartheid.

View the signatories here

Tadamon! (“Solidarity!” in Arabic) is a Montreal-based collective of social-justice organizers & media activists, working to build relationships of solidarity with grassroots political movements for social and economic justice between Beirut and Montreal.