Category: In the Media

Ha’aretz: “Despite High Court ban, settlers occupy Matityahu East homes”

By Dan Keidar and Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondents, 24th May 2006

At least two settler families moved on Tuesday into apartments in a neighborhood of the West Bank settlement of Upper Modi’in that was built illegally on land belonging to the neighboring Palestinian village of Bil’in.

The move came in flagrant disregard of a Supreme Court injunction forbidding the occupation, transfer of ownership, or use of structures in the Matityahu East neigborhood.

Palestinian farmers reported on Tuesday afternoon that they witnessed from their fields two families in the neighborhood unloading their belongings from moving trucks.

“We were working on our land when we saw moving trucks enter the neighborhood,” said Mohammed Hatib, a Bil’in resident. “We approached the area and saw families enter the apartments. We asked them not to enter, because the court made their entrance illegal.”

According to the Bil’in residents, their request was ignored, after which they attempted to physically stand in the way of the settlers.

Attorney Michael Sfard, who represents Bil’in residents, called the police, who arrived after he threatened to a file motion charging the them with contempt of court unless they stopped the settlers. However, their arrival did not prevent the settlers from moving in.

Last December, Haaretz exposed the construction of Matityahu East, which was acquired from Bil’in residents through suspected fraudulent land purchases. The affidavit affirming the transfer of ownership was signed by an attorney representing the settlers, instead of by the head of Bil’in, as is customary.

The separation fence under construction runs through Bil’in, and separates the village from substantial parts of its land, including the portion on which Matityahu East was built.

According to the Palestinians and Israeli activists, the construction of the neighborhood helped determine the route of the fence. They say that the settlers appropriated the private land and it leased to building contractors run by settler leaders, which helped, along with the separation fence, create facts on the ground.

Pictures from the original Hebrew version.

YNet op-ed: “Mr. Occupation Saw the Light”

From the Hebrew edition of Ynet. Translation by Rann.

With his own hands and orders Brigadier General Ilan Paz deepened the suffering in the Occupied Territories. Surprisingly, the political realization and moral insight broke through moments after he returned his equipment. And he’s not the first…

“Nothing good can come out of the humiliation of a neighboring people…the Convergence Plan won’t be implement even in another twenty years…if we do not transfer the land to the element that has a common interest with us to get to a two-state solution in the ’67 border, the situation will spiral out of control…the time has arrived to examine the saying that Abu Mazen is a weak leader and therefore isn’t a partner. We had a major part in creating this image…in Hebron there are terrible instances of violece against Palestinians, but also against the security forces. An entire settlement has taken the law into its own hands. I believe that there is no alternative but to remove the settlers from there…tems of settlements sit on private land that was stolen from Palestians and that contiunes to be developed under the sponsorship of the government.”

Who stands behind this range of quotations? Uri Avnery? Shulamit Alony? Perhaps a field activist from Ta’ayush? No. These logical statements were quoted in Ha’aretz from the mouth of Brigadier General (ret.) Ilan Paz, the head of the District Coordinating Office (DCO) until just a few months ago, when he left the army. The army received his equipment and we receieved a well-justified and harsh series of statements against the Occupation and the disaster of settlements. Paz got released, saw the light and hurried to tell all of us that the Occuapation is bad.

We are talking about a syndrome, that could be called ‘Denied Moral Failure’. A senior officer strips off his uniform and exactly then, not a minute before, his mind awakens to the fact that he dedicated his last few years in the army to the entrechment of a policy of occupation and violence that takes its toll in useless human sacrifices and undermines existential Israeli interests. Before Paz, there was Brigadier-General Giyora Inbar, the former commander of the Lebanese liason unit. Even before the small of gun oil left his clothing, the newly-made civilian hurried to give retirement interviews in which he stated that the Israeli presence in Lebanon was useless, creates pointless human sacrifices, and that we must get out of there immeadiately. Here too, surprisingly, the political realization and moral insight broke through not a moment before he returned his equipment.

Or maybe it was all previous? Is it possible that Ilan Paz and Gyora Inbar understood the size of the mistake and the depth of destruction while they were still in uniform? Which is worse: an IDF Brigadier-General whose uniform takes away his abililty to be logical and judge morally and independently, or maybe a Brigadier-General who knows full-well good from evil, and is aware of the disaster that he creates with his own hands and his orders, and despite this continues in the same path, because ‘an order is an order’?

Ilan Paz, like Gyota Inbar before him, cannot hide behind the duty to obey orders. We are not talking about some minor office here, but rather about the commander of the DCO himself. A man whose signature decorates thousands of orders and regulations, that themselves have turned the occupation into the curse that he now condemns with such vigor: checkpoints, theft of land, building roads on Palestinian lands, the impostion of a Kafka-esque regime of personal and trade permits, and reunification of families, and separation of familes and anything that happens to pop up in the military mind. In other words, during his three years in the job, Ilan Paz was Mr. Occupation himself, second only to the head of the army. Now he tells us ‘Na, I was just kidding. I actually hate the occupation and want to return to the ’67 borders.” Ilan Paze participated personally in the 2002 capture of Marwan Baghouti. Now he rebukes the state of Israel as one that with its own hands contributed the situation of ‘there is no partner’.

And Ilan Paz is not apologetic. He doesn’t even dream of apologizing (Gyora Inbar also skipped over that embarrassing matter). From his point of view, thare is no contradiction between his activities as an army officer and his statements as a civilian. Privately, he brags about this cognitive separation wall: in battle you shoot, at home you talk. He did not refuse his commanders, he did not leave his job slamming the door behind him: a nine-month leave padded his retirement. Mabrook (congratulation, Arabic). This is what will be done to an officer that fulfills his duty, gets a bit disgusted, and shuts up.

It’s a pity that Brigadier-General Paz broke his silence upon his release. It’s a pity that he didn’t spare us the insights that burned in his bones. Now he feels brave, and we feel cheated. And it’s not all this will move the machine of occupation from its path, not even by a millimeter. This machine is built on thousands of such Ilan Paz’s, they are its cogs and screws; good, moral people who only do terrible things out of necessity. Indeed, few are in as strong a position as Paz, a position that could have enabled them to really rock the boat, with a brave act of refusal. But together they call continue to carry the burden; they all promise that the machine will never stop. Is it too much to ask that at least their futile remarks stop?

SchNEWS: “Wall of Shame – West pushes Palestinians further into crisis”

From SchNEWS number 544

The remnants of Palestinian civil society, brutalized by the occupation and ongoing encirclement by the apartheid wall, is now reeling under the shock of the sudden removal of all US and EU aid. Their crime? To have voted in free and fair elections for a movement, Hamas, which Bush and Blair argue is ‘terrorist’.

Bank transfers to the Palestinian Authority (PA) have been blocked by the US. Slowly but surely the PA is being starved of the funds needed to maintain basic services and infrastructure. The civil workforce have not been paid for two months and hospitals are desperately short of vital medicines. Jack Straw argued that aid to the PA had to be cut because Hamas refuses to recognise Israel or renounce the right to resist the occupation. Yet the UK is an enthusiastic backer of the Israel whose new Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said “I believe with all my heart in the people of Israel’s eternal historic right to the entire land of Israel.” – meaning a racially-exclusive state from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. Hamas’s claim to the same territory, with roots in living memory rather than biblical mythology is treated as terrorist rhetoric and attracts crippling sanctions from the West. Are we about to do to Palestine what was done in Iraq during the nineties?

Annual UK arms sales to Israel have doubled over the last year to £25m, and since 2000 the UK has sold £70m worth of arms to Israel, including tanks, helicopters, mines, rockets, machine guns, tear-gas, leg irons, components for fighter jets and surface-to-surface missiles. Over the last 30 years Israel has been by far the largest recipient of US foreign aid.

This sanctions regime is being conducted against an occupied people on behalf of an occupying power. While the West demands that Hamas renounce violence, the low intensity war against the civilian population in Palestine continues. In the months of April and May, over 40 Palestinians have been killed by the army – most of them civilians, at least eight of them children – with the most perfunctory coverage in the western press. Aggressive expansion of settlements together with the building of settler-only roads continues. Israel maintains a stranglehold over the Palestinian economy, meaning that the PA is totally dependent on external sources of funding.

The icon of this oppressive regime is the building of the apartheid wall – some 730km of concrete and steel which will annex huge swathes of Palestinian land and turn towns and villages into gated mini-prisons. If completed it will allow Israel to control all significant movement within the West Bank, allowing further degradation of daily life in the Occupied Territories. A bitter fight to resist this symbol of repression has been growing over the past few months, as SchNEWS’s correspondent in the village of Bil’Iin, near Ramallah, reports…

BIL’IN UP

“Bil’In is a small village close to Ramallah six kilometres inside the Green Line (the 1967 ceasefire line). For over eighteen months the villagers of Bil’In have been resisting attempts by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) to build a section of the apartheid wall on village lands.

At a demonstration on Friday 12th May, 300 Palestinians, international and Israelis converged at the gate of the wall, the villagers non-violent protest was met by a hail of plastic-coated steel bullets fired at close range. Two international activists were hospitalised with head injuries (one needing treatment for a brain hemorrhage) and dozens of Palestinians were also shot and injured.

As in other villages, the Israeli government argues that the route of the wall in Bil’in was determined purely for security reasons. However, a visit to Bil’In shows that the work is aimed at the annexation of the villages’ ancient olive groves in order to allow expansion of the illegal ‘Israeli-Jewish’ settlements of Mattiyahu East and Mod’In Illit. The annexation will directly benefit the Israeli real estate developers ‘Green Park’ and ‘Heftsiba’

.The villagers of Bil’In have gained large-scale support from Palestinian, Israeli and activists from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in their struggle against the construction. Since February 2005 villagers have staged hundreds of demonstrations at the route of the wall. The village has become a symbol of Palestinian non-violent resistance and the demos have become a regular feature in the Israeli press.
Israel has built an incomplete barrier separating the villagers of Bil’In from their olive groves. In 2005 the villagers built an ‘outpost’ on their own land, imitating the Israeli settler tactic of claiming Palestinian land through building illegal outposts, close to the settlement of Mod’In Illit. The outpost is constantly manned by Palestinian and international activists and has become a point where villagers can meet and discuss resistance to the construction.

The villagers hold a demonstration at the gate to their lands every Friday. On one such demo in April, villagers’ protests centred around the boycott of apartheid Israel. Protesters burned Israeli products in front of border police in riot gear, before breaking down the gate in the wall and trying to access their land. The demonstrators were met with with batons, tear gas and rubber bullets.

Mohammed Khatib, a member of the Bil’In Popular Committee Against the Wall, said… ‘in the face of our non-violent resistance, Israeli soldiers have attacked our peaceful protests with teargas, clubs, rubber-coated steel bullets and other ammunition. They have injured over 400 villagers, they invade the village at night, entering homes, pulling families out and arresting people.’

The IOF have repeatedly arrested youths from the village in attempts to intimidate those taking part in resistance, often demanding large sums of money in bail. In April two children were arrested while herding goats.The two boys picked up one of the pieces of scrap metal that litter the fields next to the construction site. One of the settlers noticed and called the police, accusing them of theft. The police arrested the pair and later made additional charges of entering Israel illegally and throwing stones at a recent demonstration. The boys’ release was secured by the ISM for 5000 NIS (Israeli shekels) each.

Despite IOF repression, the resistance raises the spirits of the people of Bil’In in the face of the brutal Israeli occupation. Tom Hayes, a volunteer in Bil’In with the ISM, an organisation aimed at supporting Palestinian non-violent resistance, said that, ‘the atmosphere in Bil’In is one of hope – the villagers respond to Israel’s apartheid policies with increased resistance and are confident that they will win their fight.’

Similar widespread resistance in the nearby villages of Budrus and Biddu, where other sections of the wall have been built, has lead to Israeli Supreme Court decisions limiting the amount of land which the IOF can annex behind the wall. The villagers of Bil’In are hoping to draw international pressure and media attention to influence the court’s decision.

The villagers of Bil’In have issued three petitions against the wall to the Supreme Court. The most recent, filed on May 14th, states that the route of the wall is specifically designed to benefit real estate companies and should be removed. Supreme Court Judge Salim Jubran ordered the state to respond to the villagers’ request for a temporary injunction within seven days.

The ISM has worked in Bil’In for over a year and is committed to supporting the villagers’ struggle. Contact www.palsolidarity.org to join us in Palestine.”

  • www.brightonpalestine.org – blog of ISM activist working in Palestine
  • www.palestinecampaign.org – Palestine Solidarity Campaign
  • www.ism-london.org.uk – ISM London
  • www.stopthewall.org – Palestinian anti Apartheid Wall Campaign

Solidarity Events

  • May 20th – Demonstrate for Palestine, March and Rally, assemble 12 noon, Embankment, London
  • May 24th – Introduction to ISM – Wednesday 24th May 7.30pm @ The Bread And Roses Pub, Clapham
  • May 27-28th – ISM Training Weekend – @ The Square, 21 Russell Sq, London, WC1.
  • May 30th – International Work in Palestine, discussion, 6.30pm, Cowley Club, 12 London Rd, Brighton

Ha’aretz: “British professor confirms ‘silent’ boycott of Israel”

By Tamara Traubmann, Ha’aretz, 19th May 2005

A British professor has refused a request to write an article for an academic journal funded by Israeli universities, saying that he was taking part in a boycott of Israel.

“Alas, I am unable to accept your kind invitation, for reasons that you may not like. I have, along with many other British academics, signed the academic boycott of Israel, in the face of the brutal and illegal expansionism and the slow-motion ethnic cleansing being practiced by your government,” wrote Professor Richard Seaford, from the University of Exeter in England.

Seaford wrote to Bar-Ilan University’s Dr. Daniella Dueck, a member of the Scripta Classica Israelica editorial board who had requested that the British academic write a book review for the journal.

Seaford, the head of the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Exeter University, told Haaretz that the academic boycott “is just a small contribution to the long-term raising of international consciousness which represents the only hope for an eventual just peace in the Middle East. In this respect, there is a parallel with the academic boycott of apartheid South Africa.”

On May 27-29, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will debate a proposal in favor of an academic boycott against Israel.

The International Advisory Board for Academic Freedom (IAB), established at Bar-Ilan University to take action against academic boycotts, published a statement yesterday in which it “warns that a silent boycott by British and Israeli academics is already taking place,” and called on an anti-boycott network of some 500 academics around the world to oppose it.

In March, the London Jewish Chronicle reported that U.K. magazine Dance Europe refused to publish an article on Sally Ann Freeland, an Israeli choreographer, and her dance company. The magazine conditioned the publication of the article on an explicit declaration by Freeland against the occupation, which she refused to make.

The boycott began in the United States and Europe during the first intifada, and intensified in 2002 after Operation Defensive Shield, during which the IDF occupied West Bank cities.

The boycott movement began in response to a request by Palestinian organizations, such as The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, an umbrella organization for dozens of Palestinian NGOs.

An attempt is made almost annually in the U.K. to formally instate an academic boycott on Israel, through official decisions by lecturers’ unions.

The proposal slated to be discussed later this month by NATFHE differs from previous ones. According to the proposal, the current boycott will deal not only with the occupation, but also with discrimination against different populations in Israel, mainly in the field of education.

The proposal encourages academics to “consider the appropriateness of a boycott of those that do not publicly dissociate themselves” from discriminatory and unequal policies.

According to the IAB, “Such boycotts have no place in the academic community. Scholarship and research, and their expression in the open and free exchange of ideas, are among the foundations of civilization, and without them there can be no true advancement of human knowledge.”

Guardian: “Israel should face sanctions”

by Ronnie Kasrils and Victoria Brittain. The Guardian, Friday May 19, 2006.

The Palestine crisis is now more dramatic even than apartheid, but it is the victims who are punished.

Western leaders are frustrating democratic elections in Palestine by withholding aid, and using collective punishment, an economic siege and starvation as political weapons in their efforts to get the Hamas government to accept their terms of business with Israel.

Never in the long struggle for freedom in apartheid South Africa was there a situation as dramatic as in Palestine today: even though children were killed for resisting a second-class education; the liberation movement’s leaders were locked up for decades on Robben Island; new leaders were assassinated; church leaders were poisoned; house demolitions and forced removals were frequent; and western governments told South Africans who their leaders should be, andwhat their policies should be.

The African National Congress confronted the military, economic and social power of white rule with a small guerrilla army, the mass support of the people and a moral authority that won it a following among millions around the world. Many now forget that the abhorrent apartheid system was treated as normal in the powerhouses of the world: entrenched interests meant the western media produced a sanitised version of its suffering and injustice.

Today western moral authority in the Middle East is gone, as much because of years of double standards in Palestine as because of the current disastrous war on Iraq. There is no excuse for not knowing the truth about what is now happening to the Palestinians. And the most recent diplomatic moves by the Quartet – the US, the EU, the UN and Russia – to alleviate suffering, while keeping up the ban on dealing with the Palestinians’ elected leaders, are totally inadequate.

Some plain speaking on the current crisis, and on what will happen without serious political intervention, shows why. The root problem is the intensifying Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. Despite the international court of justice ruling it illegal, Israel’s 390-mile wall snakes on through the West Bank, taking another 10% of the land and providing for the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements. Nearly 50,000 Palestinians are to be left in limbo on the Israeli side of the wall; 65,000 will face a daily commute through 11 transit points. Towns such as Qalqilya and Jayyous, formerly prosperous, with fertile hinterlands and good water supplies, are virtually encircled, with their farms and greenhouses on the Israeli side.

Meanwhile, Israel is withholding $50m a month in customs duties and tax owed to the Palestinians, and energy supplies have been cut off. Palestinian civil servants, teachers, doctors and security forces have not been paid for over two months. The potential for civil war between factions of armed, increasingly desperate men is so obvious that Palestinians are not alone in thinking that the US actually wants such self-destruction.

The Palestinians are having sanctions imposed on them for their political choice. But it is Israel, creating new facts on the ground to prevent the emergence of a viable Palestinian state, that should be facing UN sanctions. The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, should use his last months in office to call for sanctions to bring about the implementation of the ICJ ruling on the Israeli wall, the closure of West Bank settlements and the release of Palestinian political prisoners. And those who care for freedom, peace and justice must build a global Palestine solidarity movement to match the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s.

• Ronnie Kasrils was head of intelligence in the African National Congress’s armed wing and is now South Africa’s intelligence minister; he is writing in a personal capacity.
• Victoria Brittain is co-author with Moazzam Begg of Enemy Combatant
victoriacbrittain@hotmail.co.uk