Category: In the Media

Jerusalem Post on Kalandia Grafiti

Photo: Civil Administration
Photo: Civil Administration

It’s the ISM, not Machsom Watch…
From Jpost TalkBack :
by Judy – Israel

” Margot Dudkevitch reports that Machsom Watch defaced the Kalandia entrance. I’m no friend of Machsom Watch, but anyone monitoring the rantings of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) will have noticed that on January 19, the day of the daubing, “Katie” from ISM proudly describes how she and an “American Jewish activist friend” did the deed with a home-made stencil. She even notes how they handed out flyers describing why they were doing it. Why doesn’t the Israeli police or Interior Ministry monitor this stuff and go after these people?? ”

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Kalandia terminal crossing compared to Auschwitz
By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH Published in JPOST

Vandals defaced the newly erected entry sign to the Kalandia terminal north of Jerusalem, daubing on it the infamous Auschwitz inscription “Arbeit macht frei,” (Work Liberates).
Security forces deployed at the recently refurbished checkpoint accused members of Machsom Watch, saying that its members were responsible for defacing the sign, which is decorated with a painted flower and the inscribed (in Arabic, Hebrew and English) with the slogan “The hope of us all.”

Adi Dagan, spokeswoman for the Machsom Watch checkpoint-monitoring group, vehemently denied the charges.

However, Hava Halevy, a member of the women’s group told The Jerusalem Post that she fully agrees with comparing the checkpoint to Auschwitz, the inscription and flower are not only degrading but also humiliating, she said. “Of course I agree with the comparison, the sign there is horrendous, hopes for what, the slave and the landlord, the oppressed and the oppressor, the occupier?… It is disgusting.”

Security officials said the flower and inscription in Arabic were designed as a friendly touch in the area that caters for the hundreds of Palestinians who use the checkpoint daily. Aside from the message of hope, words inscribed on the leaves and petals of the flower include tolerance and education, the officials said.

Central Command headquarters has ordered the immediate removal of the graffiti. Sources at the command said that a soldier reported seeing a left-wing group with a cardboard stencil near the sign on Thursday and later noticed the graffiti.

Dagan denied that anyone from Machsom Watch was involved. “It was probably done by a Palestinian, none of our women would write such a thing. We are very cautious when observing checkpoints,” she said. “We do not want to give the army any excuse to kick us out,” she added.
Since the opening of the new terminal at the checkpoint, Machsom Watch members are barred from entering it and are forced to wait outside. Dagan the group has written to OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh demanding that they be permitted to monitor the situation inside.

IDF sources said a decision was made to bar the women from entering the terminal in order to prevent them from interfering with the soldiers’ work. Security officials claimed there have been numerous incidents of confrontations between members of Machsom Watch and security forces manning checkpoints and occasions when women have called the soldiers Nazis and other slurs.

One security official cited an example of a recent confrontation involving MK Binyamin Netanyahu’s sister-in-law Neta Ben Arzi, who he said called one of the soldiers manning the Kalandia checkpoint a Nazi. “The poor guy was shocked, his commander comforted him and calmed him down, and told him that such behavior was not worthy of a response,” said the official.

The head of the district coordinating office has complained to his superiors over the behavior of some Machsom Watch members towards officers deployed at the checkpoint. The document, obtained by The Jerusalem Post, describes an incident on the day last month that the new terminal was opened.

Three members of Machsom Watch approached a Civil Administration officer deployed at the sleeve used by Palestinians seeking to enter Israel and waving a piece of paper, demanded to speak to the commander in charge. The officer told the three he would be willing to assist, but only if they modified their behavior.

In response, the three screamed at the officer and said “this place is a concentration camp, you are behaving like the Nazis,” and you should “put up a sign that work liberates instead of the sign you have erected at the entrance,” they declared.

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Note from the ISM media office:
The Graffiti in Kalandia checkpoint was done by a group of Jewish activists called JAG “Jews Against Genocide” and reported on by the ISM see: ” The Occupation Will Not Be Sugar-Coated” and “A Statment From J.A.G“

15 hurt in fence protest

by Ali Waked for Ynet
Anti-fence protesters, security forces clash near Palestinian village of Bilin.

About 15 protesters have been injured on Friday in clashes between security forces and protesters against the West Bank security fence during a weekling demonstration held by Palestinians and Israeli leftists in Bilin, a Palestinian village between Ramallah and Modi’in.

Fatah candidates for the upcoming Palestinian elections joined hundreds of protesters who claimed they had managed to dismantle five meters of the wired fence.

Protesters defied an IDF ban on entering the fence stretches near Bilin, scuffling with security forces who used tear gas to disperse the crowd who attempted to force its way to an outpost set up by leftists near Bilin.

Demonstrators complained of excessive force applied by security forces, saying certain individuals were beaten up. Despite stringent security measures a number of protesters permeated the line of riot police and reached the outpost, where they held signs condemning Israel’s confiscation of Beilain land to build the fence and expand a nearby Jewish settlement.

The High Court of Justice is set to rule early next month on a petition against government orders to expropriate Bilin land, but many protesters fear the IDF will defy the court.

Mohammad Khatib, a member of a Bilin council leading the campaign against the fence, said: “If there is justice in Israel, the court should rule that the expansion of the settlement is illegal and it should rule that the fence should be rerouted near the settlement. We have no faith in the justice system of the occupation and I do not believe a decision will be made in our favor.”

The IDF said protesters instigated the riots as they hurled stones at security forces.

Efrat Weiss contributed to this report

Flap over young Jews’ visits to Holy Land

By Matt Bradley
Originally published in The Christian Science Monitor

After free trips to Israel, some activists stay on in the Middle East – to work for the Palestinian cause.

About 10,000 young Jews from 29 countries will enjoy a generous gift this winter: a vacation to Israel – with the Israeli government and Jewish philanthropies picking up the tab for transportation, food, and lodging.

Those who fund the trips say the opportunity to experience Israel is the birthright of every Jew. But to donors’ chagrin, handfuls of young activists have used the trips in recent years to volunteer for pro-Palestinian organizations in the West Bank – some of which directly oppose the Israeli government and Zionist ideology.

The small movement has some in the Jewish community wondering whether the Taglit-birthright Israel program is being hijacked. But as the Holocaust shifts from memory to history, it also points to efforts of young diasporal Jews to define their own ideologies, symbols, and institutions within a religious tradition that has long been at the forefront of social change.

“They have the right to explore” all sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but not using the money given “to explore certain values,” says Allyson Taylor, with the American Jewish Congress’s Western Region. “You have the right to buy a movie ticket, but do you sneak into another theater to see a different movie?”

While some American Jews say the issue is much ado about nothing, others see a premeditated attempt to defraud the Israeli government and Zionist advocacy groups. Some young Jewish leftists, meanwhile, say volunteering in the occupied territories is in keeping with the goals of Taglit-birthright Israel: It is an essential part of their Israel experience.

“For me, being a Jewish person means supporting social justice. For me, being Jewish doesn’t mean supporting Israel,” says Jessica, who traveled to Israel with Shorashim, a Birthright travel organizer, during the summer of 2004. “The lessons of the Holocaust and the lessons of Jewish history mean we need to stand up for people’s rights. Otherwise, who’s going to stand up for us?” Jessica asked that her last name not be used so as not to jeopardize her work on behalf of Palestinians.

Since Taglit-birthright Israel’s inception in 1999, it has provided 10-day trips for some 88,000 young people – any Jew aged 18 to 26 who has never been to Israel with a guided group. The goal, say organizers, is to strengthen the commitment of a new generation of Jews to the world’s only Jewish state. As for the number who volunteer for pro-Palestinian activist organizations while abroad, some say only half a dozen while others cite growing ranks of activists trained to exploit the program’s generosity.

Taglit-birthright Israel declined to comment for this article.

Among pro-Palestinian organizations aided by non-Israeli Jewish activists – including an unknown number of former Taglit-birthright volunteers – is the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). The organization, according to its website, is “committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles.” The Israeli government, though, accuses it of supporting terrorism. Since the group’s founding in 2001, several activists have been killed or injured while participating in ISM protests and nonviolent resistance efforts.

“If you go to an organization like ISM, which clearly advocates suicide bombers and things like that, I would say it’s not a very honest way of using this program,” says Meir Shlomo, Israel’s consul general to New England.

ISM advocates an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, says cofounder Huwaida Arraf. But members deny that ISM endorses violence or supports political terror. Beyond that, says Ms. Arraf, ISM does not specifically encourage its Jewish volunteers, which she estimates make up about 25 percent of the group’s staff, to travel for free via Taglit-birthright.

“Birthright Israel does nothing to expose these students to the occupation that the Palestinians are living through,” says Arraf. “To … take the initiative to see more than what the Birthright organizers want them to see – we guarantee their lives will be changed.”

Last summer, this reaction to the Taglit-birthright program became more institutionalized. Birthright Unplugged, a group that gives guided tours of the West Bank, offers “an educational project that primarily seeks to expose young Jewish people to the realities of Palestinian life under occupation,” its website states. By design, the six-day Unplugged tours coincide with Taglit-birthright Israel’s programs. Geographically, chronologically, and ideologically, Birthright Unplugged picks up where Taglit-birthright leaves off.

Last year Taglit-birthright Israel filed a “cease and desist” complaint for trademark infringement against Birthright Unplugged and charged it with “unfair competition.” A lawsuit is pending.

For the many Taglit-birthright participants who don’t volunteer in the West Bank, their peers’ actions can elicit feelings of betrayal.

Catherine Heffernan, a Birthright participant who attended Shorashim with Jessica in 2004, felt outraged. “Whatever respect I ever had for you and your beliefs is gone,” she fired off in an e-mail last summer after learning how Jessica had spent her remaining time in Israel.

But even Ms. Heffernan, who considers herself a “peaceful Zionist,” says Judaism is what has informed Jessica’s misguided struggle for social justice. “Jessica … [has] a desire to see justice done in the region, and that is something [she has] learned through [her] Judaism,” says Heffernan. “It seems that it is very politically savvy to be anti-Israel, and Israel has a lot of problems. I don’t think that should mean joining an organization that hurts Israel.”

State mulls criminal probe into illegal settlement construction

State mulls criminal probe into illegal settlement construction
By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz
Sat, January 07, 2006 Tevet 7, 5766

In a rare move against settlement expansion, the State Prosecution on Friday told the High Court of Justice it will look into the possibility of opening a criminal investigation pertaining to the illegal construction in the the Matityahu East neighborhood in the West Bank settlement of Upper Modi’in.

Attorney Aner Helman of the State Prosecution told the court it should issue a temporary injunction to forbid the plan to double the housing units in the neighborhood from 1,500 to 3,000.

Justice Ayala Procaccia on Friday ordered to halt construction immediately of the hundreds of illegal housing units in the neighborhood.

In a temporary injunction issued at the request of Peace Now, Justice Procaccia also ordered a cessation of efforts to populate or sell additional units at the construction site.

The injunction was issued against the defense minister, the Israel Defense Forces commander in the West Bank, IDF GOC central commander, head of the Civil Administration, the local council of Upper Modi’in and the building contractors Green Park, Green Mount and Ein Ami.

Helman added that the court should demand that Upper Modi’in’s local planning and construction committee ensure the construction be halted, and stop allowing construction without permits from the West Bank command’s central planning bureau.

He said that if proper actions are not taken by local officials, inspectors from the central command would be forced to act.

Helman also confirmed Haaretz’ findings that a local licensing authority granted construction permits to dozens of apartments – 22 buildings of five floors or more – that are either completed close to completion.

The illegal construction is taking place on property belonging to the Palestinian village of Bil’in. The property was acquired by the settlement from land dealers through dubious powers of attorney, then rezoned as state land and leased or sold to settlers’ construction companies.

The separation fence cuts Bil’in off from the land, thereby facilitating the settlers’ access to it.

Palestinians, Israelis join together in Battle of Bilin

Weekly protest against barrier is rare example of co-operation,
The Globe and Mail
By MARK MACKINNON
Friday, January 6, 2006

BILIN, WEST BANK — Nimrod Eshel is shouting out his disgust at the barrier his country is building through the West Bank when the tear gas starts to fly.
The 24-year-old student from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem pants mildly as he dashes through an olive grove to find a safer vantage point. The peaceful protest of a few minutes before is beginning to disintegrate; Palestinian youths, their faces covered with bandanas to protect them from the effects of the gas, hurl stones back at the helmeted Israeli troops, who respond with rubber bullets and more tear gas.

“I think it’s really important for Israelis to see this. It’s really sad what’s going on,” Mr. Eshel said, waving his hand in an arc that included both the ongoing barrier construction and the Israeli dispersal of the protest.

The Battle of Bilin, as the weekly anti-wall protest here in this tiny West Bank community is known, begins every Friday after midday prayers. Several dozen unarmed residents of the town, supplemented by foreign and Israeli peace activists, meet each week outside the local mosque and march together toward the bulldozers and front-end loaders that are preparing the ground for the next growth spurt in the 685-kilometre-long separation barrier.

Each Friday, they’re met by Israeli riot police and an angry dance of protest begins. The activists push forward as far as they can, singing and chanting anti-wall slogans. When they cross an invisible line, the police disperse them with tear gas and batons.

A longer-distance exchange of heated opinions, Palestinian rocks and Israeli rubber bullets then carries on for much of the rest of the afternoon.
Six people were injured, one seriously, in the clash in which Mr. Eshel recently took part. Three were arrested, including two Israelis.

The fight is a desperate one for this West Bank town’s 1,700 residents. When the barrier is completed, it will cleave away some 233 hectares — approximately half this town’s land — and append it to the Israeli side of the barrier, where the settlement of Modiin Ilit is rapidly expanding. It is one of 117 Jewish communities built — illegally, according to the United Nations — on West Bank land.

“According to the Israelis, this is their border. But we will continue to resist it,” said Rateb Abu Rahmeh, a 40-year-old teacher from Bilin. He waved his arm to indicate the mounds of freshly dug earth that are the precedent to a complex system of fortified fencing, motion sensors and security roads designed to keep Palestinians from approaching. “They took 60 per cent of our land. . . . We can’ t have a state with these borders.”

The weekly protest is intriguing in a couple of ways. First, the demonstrators, though few in number, have managed to draw international attention to their cause and slow construction to a snail’s pace. Second, the residents are joined each Friday by Israeli peace activists who are as ready and willing to get tear-gassed for the cause of Bilin as anyone who lives here.

They are only the most vocal of a large minority in Israeli society that is opposed to the barrier, or at least to its construction on the Palestinian side of the 1967 Green Line, Israel’s internationally recognized border with the West Bank. The barrier’s route, which the current Israeli government is believed to see as a prelude to a final border between Israel and a future Palestinian state, puts 8 per cent of the West Bank as well as much of East Jerusalem on the Israeli side, effectively annexing it to Israel.

Mr. Eshel said that like many Israelis, he is in favour of some kind of barrier, which Israelis attribute to halting the wave of Palestinian suicide bombers that have struck in recent years. “I can understand why they put the wall up,” he said. “The biggest question is where you put it.”
It’s a sentiment the Bilin residents share. If the barrier had been built on the Green Line, they say, there would be no riots.

Bilin’s case, requesting that the route be moved closer to the Green Line, is now before Israeli courts and a decision is expected in February. Construction is frozen on about 10 per cent of the barrier’s planned route because of some three dozen domestic court challenges, and the village council is hopeful that a landmark September ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court will help their cause.

In that decision, the court ordered the army to tear down a section of the barrier encircling the Jewish settlement of Alfei Menashe and five Palestinian villages. The court said the barrier can extend into the West Bank, but cannot impose undue hardships on Palestinians.
Though minor, the court successes and the international exposure gained by the weekly demonstrations have recently encouraged the activists to be more brazen in their challenge to the Israeli government.

Last week, a number of Israelis joined Bilin residents in setting up a Palestinian “settlement” next to Modiin Ilit, where the Israeli media has reported that 750 housing units were recently built on West Bank land without permits. Unlike the residents of the Jewish settlement, the Palestinians who moved in next to them were bearing a deed to the land and permission to build from the Bilin village council.

The Israeli army quickly removed the tiny outpost, but not before it made international headlines and drew more attention to Bilin’s cause. Mr. Abu Rahmeh said the village’s Israeli allies had been behind the idea, and even supplied the materials for the outpost’s construction. “They’re very good people. They help us more than anyone,” he said. “Without the Israelis and the other foreigners, we wouldn’t be able to do any of this.”

Friday afternoon, once the demonstration is over, Nir Shalev, an activist with B’Tselem, a well-established Israeli peace group, arrived in Bilin toting maps of the region to help the village council prepare for its day in court. He’s greeted warmly by his Palestinian allies, who clearly value his expertise on how the Israeli justice system works.

It’s a rare example of Israeli-Palestinian co-operation. After five years of bloodshed, hatred and distrust are far more commonly on display between the two sides, and Mr. Shalev acknowledges that most Israelis are quite happy the barrier is being built. Still, he and the other Israelis who have joined the Battle of Bilin are determined to fight on.

“In the long term, this wall will just initiate a third intifada (uprising). You can’t expect people who have their land grabbed to just sit peacefully and accept it. So there will be more terror attacks in Israel and more retaliation by the Israeli army. The whole cycle will continue.”

This is the final instalment of a five-part series by The Globe and Mail’s Middle East correspondent examining Israel’s security barrier, its impact on the lives of Israelis and Palestinians and its implications for the peace process.