Palestinians teens visit Israel on ‘Birthright Replugged’

Ha’aretz

20 August 2009

Fourteen-year-old Jum’a Ismail lives 50 km from the Mediterranean but had never seen the sea. The Palestinian youth had never set eyes on an Israeli civilian or an airport.

Juma’a’s horizons expanded this summer, when he left Jalazoun refugee camp in the West Bank with “Birthright Replugged” on a trip taking Palestinian children to Israel to visit the villages of their ancestors.

“It’s an attempt to get out, while they still can,” said the program’s creator, Dunya Alwan.

Once Palestinian children turn 15, they must carry Israeli-issued West Bank identity cards and are no longer able to travel through Israeli checkpoints without special permits.

“Birthright Replugged” is partially funded by the Carter Center’s Peace Program, founded by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. It takes groups of 20 Palestinian children into Israel twice yearly.

Alwan, an Iraqi-American from a Jewish-Muslim family, calls her work a counterweight to “Birthright”, the program offering Jewish youth from around the world an all-expenses-paid, two-week trip to Israel to foster ties to the Jewish state.

Movement from the West Bank to Israel was easier before the second Palestinian Intifada that began in 2000. Suicide bombings on Israeli buses and cafes triggered a security clampdown that is only now loosening, under international pressure.

Palestinians must still carry ID cards to move around the West Bank. That puts the Mediterranean coast and Israel’s Ben-Gurion international airport out of range. Alwan says her little trips may be the first and last opportunity for the youngsters. On their return to the West Bank, they cannot stop talking about the sea, the airport, how Israeli Jews and Arabs coexist, and how they have no roadblocks to worry about.

“They don’t ever seem to think about if there is going to be a checkpoint ahead or not,” says 14-year-old Haneen al-Nakhla. “We’re always worrying and calculating those kinds of things.”

They are puzzled to see Israelis who are neither soldiers carrying weapons, or settlers, who also tend to be armed.

Some 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank. Israel is home to 7 million people, of whom around 20 percent are Israeli Arabs.

“We had no idea how many Jewish people there would be. There are more than Arabs,” said Haneen. “The Arabs and Jews talk to each other, like it’s normal. I thought it was really strange. We don’t ever talk to Jewish people at home.”

Alwan’s tour does not alter sentiments; the students all support a Palestinian “right of return” to homes and land lost during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 – a demand Israel says would destroy the Jewish character of the state.

For Alwan, simply showing the teenagers their former homeland turns an idealized dream into realities they can discuss.

Lydda, or Lod in Hebrew, was where their grandparents once lived. It’s now part of the sprawling airport outside Tel Aviv.

“These kids see the challenges and complexities. They see that what they have rights to now has an airport on it,” Alwan said.

Sobering it may be, but the airport is a big hit. Most of the teenagers have never flown or even been close to a plane, and they take countless photographs.

“I had to take pictures to show my family. They’ve never seen an airliner either,” said Jum’a, who at home hardly notices the watchtowers, razor-wire fences and high concrete walls of the barrier Israel has erected in the West Bank.

The normality of Israel’s heartland shocked them. “I really felt how much I live under occupation,” says Haneen.

She has decided she “would really like to become an airline stewardess”, and Jum’a says: “I definitely want to be a pilot.”

Back home, the Jalazoun kids seem conflicted. They start a sentence arguing for peace and freedom for Palestinians and Israelis, then end up saying there’s no hope of it.

But a talk with participants of past trips, who are a bit older now, suggests that ideals of coexistence tend to develop.

Ahmawd Ghazawy, 19, from Jenin refugee camp, was on the first Birthright Replugged trip in 2007.

“Before 1948 there were Jews and Arabs and they lived in peace,” he says. “It could happen again.”

Israeli forces begin construction of new cement wall on Ni’lin’s land

For Immediate Release:

Friday, 21 August 2009 at 12:30pm: A demonstration will be held against the new cement construction of the Wall in the West Bank village of Ni’lin.

Israeli forces have begun placing 8 meter high cement blocks, in place of a fence that was built before.

Since May 2008, residents of Ni’lin have been organizing and participating in unarmed demonstrations against construction of the Apartheid Wall. Despite being deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, the Occupation continues to build the Wall, further annexing Palestinian land.

Ni’lin will lose approximately 2,500 dunums of agricultural land when construction of the Wall is completed. Israel annexed 40,000 of Ni’lin’s 58,000 dunums in 1948. After the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the illegal settlements and infrastructure of Kiryat Sefer, Mattityahu and Maccabim were built on village lands and Ni’lin lost another 8,000 dunums. Of the remaining 10,000 dunums, the Occupation will confiscate 2,500 for the Wall and 200 for a tunnel to be built under the segregated settler-only road 446. Ni’lin will be left with 7,300 dunums.

The current entrance to the village will be closed and replaced by a tunnel to be built under Road 446. This tunnel will allow for the closure of the road to Palestinian vehicles, turning road 446 into a segregated settler-only road . Ni’lin will be effectively split into 2 parts (upper Ni’lin and lower Ni’lin), as road 446 runs between the village. The tunnel is designed to give Israeli occupation forces control of movement over Ni’lin residents, as it can be blocked with a single military vehicle.

Israeli forces commonly use tear-gas canisters, rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition against demonstrators.

To date, Israeli occupation forces have murdered 5 Palestinian residents and critically injured 1 international solidarity activist during unarmed demonstrations in Ni’lin. In total, 19 people have been killed during demonstrations against the Wall.

  • 5 June 2009: Yousef Akil Srour (36) was shot in the chest with 0.22 caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.
  • 13 March 2009: Tristan Anderson (37), an American citizen, was shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas projectile. He is currently at Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv with uncertain prospects for his recovery.
  • 28 December 2008: Mohammed Khawaje (20) was shot in the head with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition. He died in a Ramallah hospital 3 days later on 31 December 2008.
  • 28 December 2008: Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22) was shot in the back with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.
  • 30 July 2008: Yousef Amira (17) was shot in the head with two rubber coated steel bullets. He died in a Ramallah hospital 5 days later on 4 August 2008.
  • 29 July 2008: Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.

In total, 38 people have been shot by Israeli forces with live ammunition in Ni’lin: 9 were shot with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and 29 were shot with 0.22 caliber live ammunition.

Additionally, Israeli arrest and intimidation campaigns on West Bank villages that demonstrate against the Wall, have led to the arrests of over 76 Palestinians in Ni’lin alone as of June 2009.

U.S. blasts Israeli restrictions on American travelers in West Bank

Barak Ravid, Amira Hass & Natasha Mozgovaya ¦ Ha’aretz

20 August 2009

The United States has harshly criticized new Israeli restrictions placed on foreign nationals entering the West Bank via the Allenby Bridge, calling the new regulations ‘unacceptable’. A report on the restrictions appeared in Haaretz last week.

Earlier this week, a senior official at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv met with the head of the Foreign Ministry’s consular division, Yigal Tzarfati, for clarifications on the new procedure, by which passports are stamped at the bridge with a directive limiting the bearer to areas of the Palestinian Authority only.

The U.S. message was that such a procedure is harmful to U.S. citizens who come to the Palestinian Authority.

At the meeting in Jerusalem, U.S. diplomats asked Tzarfati what the reason was for the restrictions, and a statement issued yesterday by the State Department said that “the United States expects that all American citizens be treated equally, regardless of their national origin or other citizenship.”

The statement added, “we have let the government of Israel know that these restrictions unfairly impact Palestinian and Arab-American travelers, and are not acceptable.”

In addition to its critical public statement, on August 14 the U.S. State
Department renewed its travel advisory to Israel and the Palestinian
Authority, drawing the attention of American travelers to Israel and the West Bank to the new procedure at the Allenby Bridge.

For some three months, border control officials at the Allenby Bridge have been stamping visitors’ passports with a visa and the additional words “Palestinian Authority only.” Those who have received the stamp are mainly citizens of countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel, from Europe and the United States, and are mainly those who have family in the West Bank, work or study there.

At the same time, Interior Ministry officials at the borders advise these
people not to come to Israel through Ben-Gurion International Airport or the Sheikh Hussein Bridge crossing with Jordan near Beit She’an, rather only through the Allenby Bridge, frequently after they had been refused entry through the other entry points.

Meanwhile, other foreign nationals arriving at Ben-Gurion airport have
reportedly been asked to sign a pledge that they will not enter Palestinian Authority territory without the approval of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.

Senior Foreign Ministry officials said that the Interior Ministry is behind the new procedures, and the Foreign Ministry does not support it and does not understand its logic. “It is unclear what good it is and how it can be enforced,” a Foreign Ministry official said. “All it does is damage Israel’s image in its foreign relations,” the official added.

Haaretz has learned that a number of European embassies are planning to
approach the Foreign Ministry to protest and seek clarifications.

The Oslo Accords state that citizens of countries with diplomatic ties with Israel can enter the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with their Israeli visa and a valid passport.

According to Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad, the procedure is based on a decision by the interior minister and the defense minister from 2006 that “any foreign national who wants to enter the Palestinian Authority must have a permit issued by the army, and entry is permitted only into PA territory.”

Haddad refused Haaretz’s request for a copy of the text of this decision.

Instructions the coordinator of government activities sent to diplomats at the time, which were based on the decision, do not prevent entry to Israel, but determine that foreign nationals must request the approval of “the military commander” to enter the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority is not mentioned as one of the categories in these instructions. In the past three years, no procedure has been enacted to receive the “military commander’s approval.”

BlackRock divests from the West Bank

Erik Hagen | Norwatch

20 August 2009

The British bank BlackRock has divested from Lev Leviev settlement projects on West Bank. The divestment follows pressure by three Norwegian banks marketing BlackRock funds. BlackRock was second biggest shareholder in the controversial Israeli firm.

When the British Embassy in Tel Aviv was looking for new premises and was offered the opportunity of occupying a building owned by the investment company Africa-Israel Investments, the ambassador refrained. The reason was that the company was also responsible for settlements on the occupied West Bank. Africa-Israel Investments’ main owner is Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev.

Now the UK bank BlackRock has followed in the footsteps of the ambassador.

The bank was for a while the second largest shareholder in the Israeli investment company. Africa-Israel Investments is, among other things, in on the construction of the settlement Ma’aleh Adumim (above). The construction of settlements on occupied Palestinian territory is in conflict with international law.

It was Norwatch who this past spring revealed BlackRock’s investments in the controversial company and how private investors in Norway could invest in the project by means of the fund BlackRock Emerging Europe.

This was possible through Norwegian insurance company Storebrand, Norwegian-Swedish bank Skandiabanken, and the Norwegian-Danish Danica Pensjon.

But after all 3 banks have taken action, the British bank has now announced its divestment from the Israeli company. This must have happened sometime between June and August, possibly as late as this week.

“We have received confirmation from BlackRock that Africa-Israel Investments no longer is part of their portfolio,” Johnny Anderson, Information Manager of Skandiabanken, confirmed to Norwatch. The confirmation of the divestment was sent to Skandiabanken the day before yesterday, on 18 August.

“The way I interpret the e-mail I have received, Africa-Israel is no longer to be found in any of BlackRock’s funds,” Anderson said.

The e-mail from BlackRock to Skandiabanken was sent after the Swedish-Norwegian bank had approached BlackRock with regard to the controversial Israel involvement. That is the first time that Skandiabanken had contacted BlackRock about the case. Also the bank Danica Pensjon end of last week contacted BlackRock about the matter, confirmed Geir Wik, Sales and Marketing Director of Danica Pensjon to Norwatch yesterday.

Met BlackRock

It was, however, Storebrand who was the first bank to really take action.

In April and May – a few weeks after Norwatch’s first coverage on the matter – they met with BlackRock with regard to the investment.

“We brought up our concerns with regard to Africa-Israel Investments. So far their response has been satisfactory,” Christine Tørklep Meisingset, Head Storebrand SRI investments at Storebrand Investments, wrote to Norwatch last week.

The fact that Storebrand was satisfied with the meetings they had with BlackRock already before the summer may indicate that the British bank promised either sale or active ownership.

“Each quarter we carry out checks on the external funds that Storebrand offers its customers, including this BlackRock fund. In case a fund is in breach with our ethical guidelines, we do what we can to make the manager change course. We ask them to a) contact the company in question to perform active ownership, or b) divest from the company in question. If our demands are not complied with, we may stop offering the fund in question,” Tørklep Meisingset wrote.

As late as at the end of last week, Tørklep Meisingset explained that they do not know whether BlackRock had brought up the problems with Africa-Israel Investments.

Silent Bank

BlackRock is not very communicative about its investments.

Norwatch has several times tried to obtain an answer from BlackRock about the extent of its investment in Africa-Israel Investments and asked whether the bank has been in communication with the controversial settlement constructor. The last e-mail we received was from BlackRock press contact Karen Hazelwood on Thursday of last week.

“We do not comment on individual stocks or securities. I am therefore unable to help you further with your enquiry,” Hazlewood stated.

This ambiguous answer leaves it unclear whether BlackRock at that point had still invested in Africa-Israel.

It is not known whether BlackRock dropped the investment of financial or ethical reasons.

According to information that the web site Electronic Intifada has obtained, BlackRock was the second largest shareholder in Africa-Israel Investments in the middle of June.

This position they got after buying Barclays Global Fund Advisors –which at the time was the second biggest shareholder in Africa-Israel Investments. Before this, BlackRock was already the seventh biggest shareholder alone.

The Pension Fund Next?
The Norwegian Government Pension Fund has also invested in Africa-Israel Investment, and its related firm Africa-Israel Properties. The investment is for a total of 6.6 million Norwegian kroners (760,000 euros). According to the sums from Electronic Intifada, the Norwegian government is thus the fifth largest shareholder in the company.

Many Israeli and Palestinian organisations and villages have in the course of the summer written to Norway’s Minister of Finance, Kristin Halvorsen, and requested that the Norwegian government sell its investment in the two related firms.

The government’s decision has not yet been made.

Six Arab families from East Jerusalem appeal eviction

Akiva Eldar | Ha’aretz

19 August 2009

The eviction of six Arab families from their apartments in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood this month stemmed from serious mistakes by the authorities, including the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, the former residents wrote in an appeal to the Jerusalem District Court.

The families contend that the staff of the Bailiff’s Office, who had orders to evict Maher Hanun and Abdelfatah Gawi, improperly evicted six other families as well.

The eviction proceedings were filed on behalf of a Sephardi Jewish community organization that the court found had rights to the property dating from the Mandate period. Following the evictions, Jews moved into part of the property.

The Magistrate’s Court ruling stated that Majad and Halil Hanun were evicted because they were living there by virtue of being the sons of Maher Hanun. In their appeal, however, they state that they are Maher Hanun’s brothers, and that they were living there in their own right and not through their brother.

Family members of Abdelfatah Gawi argue that they also have independent rights to the property, were never parties to the eviction proceedings, and never received orders to vacate the premises.

The lawyer for the evicted tenants said the Magistrate’s Court judge did not thoroughly consider the evidence, and that the court ruling even contained basic typographical errors, including mistakes in the parties’ names.

Tuesday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released a report stating that 53 people, including 20 children, were evicted from the Sheikh Jarrah site, and that another 475 may be evicted from the neighborhood, allegedly to build housing for Jews.