Tag: Ha’aretz

Barak authorizes construction of 300 new homes in West Bank

Ha’aretz

23 June 2009

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has authorized the building of 300 new homes in the West Bank, defying U.S. calls for a halt to settlement growth.

According to Army Radio said 60 of the 300 homes slated for the Talmon settlement in the West Bank have already been built and that Barak had approved plans to construct another 240 units there.

U.S. President Barack Obama has pressed Israel to halt settlement activity as part of a bid to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Half a million Jews live in settlement blocs and smaller outposts built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, all territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

The World Court has ruled all settlements illegal under international law. The United States and European Union regard them as obstacles to peace.

Palestinians, who want their own state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, see the settlements as a land grab meant to deny them a viable state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused to declare a settlement freeze, which could spark a backlash within his right-leaning coalition government.

Israel says the Palestinian Authority has not done enough to stop militant violence.

Gaza bonanza

Yotam Feldman & Uri Blau | Ha’aretz

15 June 2009

Every week, about 10 officers from the Israel Defense Force’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT?) unit convene in the white Templer building in the Kirya, the Defense Ministry compound in Tel Aviv, to decide which food products will appear on the tables of the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. Among those taking part in the discussion are Colonel Moshe Levi, head of the Gaza District Coordination Office (DCO), Colonel Alex Rosenzweig, head of the civil division of COGAT and Colonel Doron Segal, head of the economics division. These officers decided, for example, that persimmons, bananas and apples were vital items for basic sustenance and thus permitted into the Gaza Strip, while apricots, plums, grapes and avocados were impermissible luxuries. Over the past year, these officers were responsible for prohibiting the entry into the Gaza Strip of tinned meat, tomato paste, clothing, shoes and notebooks. All these items are sitting in the giant storerooms rented by Israeli suppliers near the Kerem Shalom crossing, awaiting a change in policy.

The policy is not fixed, but continually subject to change, explains a COGAT official. Thus, about two months ago, the COGAT officials allowed pumpkins and carrots into Gaza, reversing a ban that had been in place for many months. The entry of “delicacies” such as cherries, kiwi, green almonds, pomegranates and chocolate is expressly prohibited. As is halvah, too, most of the time. Sources involved in COGAT’s work say that those at the highest levels, including acting coordinator Amos Gilad, monitor the food brought into Gaza on a daily basis and personally approve the entry of any kind of fruit, vegetable or processed food product requested by the Palestinians. At one of the unit’s meetings, Colonel Oded Iterman, a COGAT officer, explained the policy as follows: “We don’t want Gilad Shalit’s captors to be munching Bamba [a popular Israeli snack food] right over his head.”

The “Red Lines” document explains: “In order to make basic living in Gaza possible, the deputy defense minister approved the entry into the Gaza Strip of 106 trucks with humanitarian products, 77 of which are basic food products. The entry of wheat and animal feed was also permitted via the aggregates conveyor belt outside the Karni terminal.”

After four pages filled with detailed charts of the number of grams and calories of every type of food to be permitted for consumption by Gaza residents (broken down by gender and age), comes this recommendation: “It is necessary to deal with the international community and the Palestinian Health Ministry to provide nutritional supplements (only some of the flour in Gaza is enriched) and to provide education about proper nutrition.” Printed in large letters at the end of the document is this admonition: “The stability of the humanitarian effort is critical for the prevention of the development of malnutrition.”

In fact, the number of trucks entering the Gaza Strip is very close to the absolute minimum required for basic sustenance, as determined by the IDF itself. Data compiled by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, shows that while the minimum number of trucks per day set by the IDF is 106, in May, 117 trucks passed through the Kerem Shalom terminal; in April the number was 113 and, before the start of Operation Cast Lead in December 2008, just 37.

These quantities allow a very slim margin for error or mishaps. Moreover, COGAT’s analysis is statistically accurate only on condition that there is an equal division of the minimum supplies that are allowed in. “This analysis does not take distribution in the field into consideration,” says the “Red Lines” document. A COGAT official says that he assumes that food distribution within Gaza is not equal. If some are receiving more, others are necessarily receiving less than the required minimum. So it is hard to reconcile this information with the claims of the defense minister and COGAT officers that there is no real food shortage in Gaza.

COGAT officers are in regular contact with international organizations, listen to their complaints and examine their requests to bring in various goods, in both official and unofficial meetings. For example, Amos Gilad has dinner from time to time with an official from the UNRWA delegation in Israel. The Israeli officers repeat the following phrase in their meetings with organization officials: “No prosperity, no development, no humanitarian crisis.” A senior COGAT officer explains to Haaretz that it’s not a siege policy, but rather the restriction of entry of luxury products. The decision as to which products qualify as “luxury” changes from week to week, and sometimes from day to day.

Some of these changes are the result of international pressure exerted upon Israel. For example, when he visited Gaza last February, U.S. Senator John Kerry was stunned to discover that Israel was not allowing Palestinians to bring in trucks loaded with pasta. Following American pressure, on March 20 the cabinet decided to permit the unrestricted transfer of food products into Gaza. Incredibly, the COGAT personnel do not see any contradiction between this decision and the serious restrictions that are nevertheless imposed on the entry of various food items.

“Let it be clear that the decision was not intended to lift the restrictions that were imposed in the past in relation to the entry of equipment and food into the Gaza Strip, as determined by the cabinet decision of September 19,” said COGAT in response to Gisha: Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, which has demanded that “prohibited” foods be allowed to enter Gaza.

Despite the many resources invested by the IDF in coordinating with the Palestinians, since the start of the blockade no list of permitted and prohibited items has been relayed to the Palestinian side. The DCO spokesperson says there is no such list and that the Palestinians “know what they’re allowed to bring in.” But the Palestinians are less satisfied with this situation: Riad Fatouh says that at a meeting three months ago at the Agriculture Ministry in Tel Aviv, attended by al-Sheikh and Mhana from the Palestinian side, he asked DCO chief Moshe Levi for an official document detailing which products the army currently allows to be brought into Gaza. “Even if there are just 10 types of goods, I want to see it in writing,” says Fatouh.

According to Fatouh, Levi was visibly angered upon hearing the request, and told him never to make such a request again, to be satisfied with the transfer of information by telephone. When Fatouh asked Levi why, the DCO chief told him: “Any goods that we allow in, or prohibit – you’ll know about it by phone. That’s the way we work.” No one else in the room mentioned it again.

“If you go back two years, you see that it was utter foolishness,” says a senior officer who was serving in COGAT when the blockade was imposed. “There was a vague, unclear policy, influenced by the interests of certain groups, by this or that lobby, without any policy that derived from the needs of the population. For example, the fruit growers have a powerful lobby, and this lobby saw to it that on certain days, from 20-25 trucks full of fruit were brought into Gaza. It’s not that it arrived there and was thrown out, but if you were to ask a Gazan who lives there, it’s not exactly what he needs. What happened was that the Israeli interest took precedence over the needs of the populace.”

This move was greeted with dismay by many farmers in Israel, who were very pleased with Madar’s performance. At an April 20 meeting in the office of Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, it was decided that Madar is the one “who will set the agricultural agenda.” Vilnai decided at that same meeting that Madar would be returned to the Erez checkpoint, but a military source explained that security considerations prevent his permanent return there. The spokesperson for the coordinator of activity in the territories would not permit Madar to be interviewed.

Avshalom Herzog, a member of Moshav Almagor, is a fruit grower and the proprietor of a large packing house. He says he has connections with 80 percent of the packing houses in Israel that transport goods to Gaza, in part because of his partnership with Khaled Uthman, the largest fruit trader in Gaza. Herzog is an energetic farmer, and frequently writes to the decision-makers – Deputy Defense Minister Vilnai, Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon and COGAT officers – about bringing goods into Gaza.

“Until three or four years ago, in a normal year I transported 30-40 percent of the fruit that went into Gaza,” says Herzog. “Today it’s no more than 10-15 percent, because the market in Gaza is not a real market, but rather a market determined by the Defense Ministry. If the Defense Ministry says only 10 trucks will enter, then it doesn’t matter who works in Gaza – he’ll make money. And then there are wars between people who were never traders and there is bribery and people start to pay huge sums for the transport of fruit – irrational things, and then my share is diminished. I know that’s how it is and there’s not much I can do about it.”

Herzog and other farmers have found an attentive audience in Simhon and Vilnai, but they are still not satisfied. “Simhon helps us sometimes,” says Herzog, “but if he wanted to, he could have solved the problems a long time ago. You know what really makes me mad? There was a decision made in a meeting back in April. They came out with a protocol that required the entry of 20 trucks a day, and required that at least three trucks be filled with melons and that an officer from the agriculture staff who was exiled to Julis, in north Israel, be immediately returned to the Erez crossing, where he needed to be for the farmers’ sake. This decision makes it plain as day that the one determining the mix of fruit [to be trucked in] is the director of the fruit growers’ organization together with an officer of the agriculture staff in the Gaza DCO. But it’s ignored. Today it’s permissible to bring in peaches, bananas, apples, dates. Kumquats were permissible until yesterday. There are no plums, no pumpkin, no watermelon and no onion. It’s just impossible to believe.”

Summaries of the discussions about entry of food into Gaza show just how deeply the captains of the defense establishment seem to care about the income of Israeli farmers. Hence, in a discussion that took place in the office of Deputy Minister Vilnai, it was decided that every day, 15 trucks filled with agricultural produce would be brought in. “The problem right now is the emphasis on melons and fruit in general,” Agriculture Ministry Director General Yossi Yishai said at the meeting. At the conclusion of the discussion, Vilnai instructed that three trucks with melons be brought into Gaza each week, “So as not to cause a market failure in Israel.” Another document, from the end of April, signed by Vilnai’s public information officer, says: “Israel’s policy at the crossings is set at various times in accordance with a number of considerations … Economic considerations, including the agricultural establishment, are at the basis of the policy considerations.”

Meir Yifrah, secretary of the Vegetable Growers Organization, also tries to exert influence on the decisions of COGAT and the Defense Ministry, with occasional success. “Once a month or so, I send a text message to [Agriculture Minister Simhon] Shalom saying the situation in the market is very tough, the growers need to send produce to Gaza, see what you can do with the Defense Ministry, so they’ll bring in what’s needed. It seems odd to me that pumpkin can be defined as a luxury item. It’s sometimes used to feed animals, more than for people. If there are two or three or four growers who want to send stuff in and it’s something they’re short on there (in Gaza), I say they should be able to do that. I tried to pressure the Agriculture Ministry, and in the end we were successful. Last year I had a bad situation with onions. A lot of growers were stuck with their stock. We pressed the Agriculture Ministry and then they increased the onion quota from five to eight trucks at the end of last year.”

Are sales to Gaza significant for Israeli farmers?

“The farmers’ interest is to find other markets, so we can increase profitability for the grower, by creating demand in Israel and avoiding surpluses.”

The Agriculture Ministry claims it also takes care of Palestinian interests: “When it comes to a decision on the kind of produce to be allowed into Gaza, the ministry takes into consideration Palestinian needs, the Israeli growers’ ability to fulfill these needs as well as their own interests, and especially the Israeli consumer, to maintain reasonable prices in the local market. Minister Simhon, as a matter of policy, sees agriculture as a bridge to peace, and in every government in which he served, he has demanded the continuation of trade in farm products with the Palestinians, as well as cooperation in disease control in animals and plants – even in the worst security situations.”

COGAT’s “Red Lines” document, which defines the minimum necessary for the sustenance of Gaza residents, also finds that 300 calves a week are needed to feed Gazans – That’s at least 200 fewer than the number brought in when the crossing was open for trade. Nevertheless, in the six months since Cast Lead, Israel has not permitted the entry of any live calves into Gaza, allowing only frozen meat and fish. In the period prior to the war, when Gaza residents were able to obtain permits to import calves, this was limited to calves from Israel, not from other countries as in the past.

In recent months, Israeli cattle breeders have been exerting pressure on the Agriculture Minister to get him to allow calves into Gaza. Most impacted by the restrictions on bringing meat into Gaza is Eyal Erlich, a former journalist who 15 years ago made a drastic career switch to become an importer of beef. Each year, until the blockade of Gaza was announced, Erlich sold 50,000 calves that he imported from Australia to Palestinians in Gaza (Gazans apparently prefer beef to lamb).

Erlich, 50, heavyset and white-haired, complains about the severe dent in his income and that of his Gazan partner, Hosni Afana. He believes that Agriculture Minister Simhon, who was involved in shaping the policy regarding import of beef to Gaza, exploited the situation to compel the Gazan market to buy Israeli, and thereby assist local breeders.

One way the Palestinians make up for the shortage of beef is by bringing in a large number of sheep via the Rafah tunnels. Unlike other animals, lambs will walk on their own to the other end of the tunnel, so they are easier to smuggle. Veterinary services in Israel estimate that since the start of the blockade, the Palestinians have smuggled in about 40,000 lambs through the tunnels, without any veterinary oversight. The Agriculture Ministry is concerned that these animals could spread epidemics that would eventually reach Israel.

Two days before the High Court’s hearing on Erlich’s petition, there was a meeting with attorney Hila Gorny of the State Prosecutor’s Office. At this meeting, Uri Madar, of the agriculture department of the DCO, voiced his concern that the prohibition on importing beef to Gaza was adversely affecting the residents’ nutrition. Colonel Alex Rosenzweig, head of the civilian division of COGAT, argued the opposite, saying there was no shortage of meat in Gaza and the ban on importation of cattle was not endangering the Palestinians’ nutrition.

Madar declined to sign the state’s response to the petition, asserting that there was “a black flag waving over it,” and his view was not presented at the High Court hearing. Furthermore, at the hearing, the IDF did not present the COGAT document which states that at least 300 calves are to be imported into Gaza per week.

A Justice Ministry spokesperson, responding on behalf of the High Court Petition department, confirms this, adding, “Not only that, the state’s position was never that the weekly quota of 300 calves, which applied for a certain period of time, was defined as a minimal humanitarian need. The position of the COGAT officials charged with assessing the humanitarian situation in Gaza was presented to the court, stipulating that the entire ‘food basket’ that is brought into Gaza, which includes frozen meat products, meets the humanitarian needs there. This position was supported by data presented to the State Prosecutor. These officials also stated that they were informed that this was the case by Palestinian officials with whom they are in contact. Beyond this, the State Prosecutor does not intend to relate to the content of the internal discussions held in anticipation of the filing of responses to the petition.”

The spokesperson continues, “Although Erlich is seeking to paint his motives for filing the petition as stemming from concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, he is essentially seeking to promote his business, which is being harmed by government policy on Gaza. The Supreme Court also reached this conclusion.”

Erlich’s experience in the ongoing fight to get cattle allowed into Gaza prompted him to establish Adam Solutions, a company devoted to assisting Palestinians in coping with the restrictions imposed on Gaza by the Israeli government. Erlich and his partner Basel Darawshe, son of former MK Abdulwahab Darawshe, hire out their services to wage a public and legal battle for “traders who need to bring in products” or “people who want to go out to get to hospitals.”

How would you have helped?

“It’s a legitimate and legal activity. What I would have done is go to a journalist, for example, and show how we’re wrecking Israel’s public relations.”

Why did they turn to you?

“I’m a private businessperson. People come to me because they know I’ve solved more than a few problems because I was determined and clever.”

Adiri also spoke about the matter with Bikel, a familiar figure in the flower, fruit and vegetable, and spice export field, who in the early 1990s also headed the Agricultural Strategy Committee, which dealt with agricultural relations with Palestinian farmers, among other things. Bikel remembers the problem with the bulbs: “The authorities wouldn’t allow them to be imported. Hillel asked me if there was anything I could do. I told him that I thought I could do something, but it meant having to appeal to defense officials, to persuade the government and the agriculture minister, the defense minister and the prime minister. It’s a tiring process. It’s work. I told him that remuneration would only be due in the event of success, even though it meant a lot of work either way.”

If it was really a security decision, how could it be subject to change?

“Decisions can be changed,” Bikel insists.

In the end, Adiri did not avail himself of Erlich’s or Bikel’s services. “I asked the Dutch and they said absolutely not,” says Adiri. “But the inquiry showed them that it was possible and motivated them to keep trying. They went to Ehud Barak and he eventually approved it.”

Three months ago, an acquaintance walked into the shop run by H., an electronics merchant from Gaza City, and started talking about the situation in Gaza and the difficulty of bringing in goods. Then the acquaintance “casually mentioned” a friend of his who could help in obtaining merchandise. “After he started dropping hints, he told me that for NIS 60,000-70,000 he might be able to bring in my merchandise,” says H. He says he didn’t go for the offer because of the high price. Other merchants say they’ve received offers to get their goods into Gaza for the exorbitant price of anywhere from NIS 40,000-100,000 per truck (the regular cost is about NIS 3,000). At least one admits that because of the ongoing blockade he did accept one such offer from an Israeli shipper.

One Israeli shipper explains how merchandise can be smuggled into Gaza. He says shippers often use permits obtained from aid organizations to bring in products Israel does not allow merchants to receive, such as clothing and shoes.

“We have no information whatsoever about this,” says a spokesperson for the UN World Food Program. “This question does not apply to us since we use only our own trucks and drivers,” says the International Red Cross. “All of our aid for Gaza is coordinated with the Israeli authorities,” says a UNRWA spokesperson. “We have not encountered the kind of irregularities described. And if we did, we would report them.”

How is it possible to do that?

“Let’s say a merchant receives a turn to bring in sugar. He relays the name of the driver and the truck number to the Israeli side. The shipper who received the turn contacts another merchant, who didn’t receive a turn and is ready to pay a lot of money to bring in his merchandise, which is stuck in Israel. The shipper arranges with the Palestinian shipper and transfers the sugar to the merchant who paid him. He makes up some story to tell the merchant who was supposed to receive the merchandise – that the truck got stuck or that it wasn’t allowed through for some reason.”

Since the blockade was placed on Gaza, the Karni terminal, through which more than 600 trucks used to pass daily has been closed. Now most goods are transferred through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and the only thing in operation at the Karni terminal is a conveyor belt that brings wheat, seeds and animal feed to the Palestinian side. The person who has profited most from this change is Nissim Jan, a former Shin Bet agent who served, among other things, as “head of the crossings department.” In the seven years since he left the Shin Bet security service, he has managed to build himself a little empire that includes a company for logistical services, shipping services and real estate deals; he is currently constructing a building in the Barnea area of Ashkelon, together with contractor Didi Yamin.

Jan lives in a villa on the Ashkelon coast, drives a fancy Audi and wears neatly pressed button-down shirts. “Anyone who’s anyone in the PA, and in Israel too apparently, knows me,” he tells Haaretz. Palestinian and Israeli sources say that Jan is particularly close to Nasser Saraj, who oversees the operation of the crossings between Israel and Gaza.

Israel and Palestinian sources say that Jan gets a significant cut of this sum, ostensibly as payment for supplying food to the drivers and fuel for the trucks, a cost that cannot exceed more than a few thousand shekels a month. Man’am Shehaiber agreed to describe to Haaretz the way in which merchandise is transported from either side of the terminal. He said he employs 50 people at the crossing, but declined to reply to questions about his income from providing this service or the nature of his business connections with Jan. In addition, says an Israeli familiar with his business, Jan receives payment from the Palestinians for various jobs he does on the western (Gazan) side of the crossing.

Jan’s profits seem dazzling to the Palestinians and the other Israelis involved in operating the crossings. One Israeli familiar with their operation says: “The services Jan supplies on both sides of the crossing have made him one of the most significant figures at Kerem Shalom.” Some of the Palestinian traders mistakenly thought that he was the actual director of the crossing. Jan himself attests to his deep involvement there: “Nothing that happens at the crossings escapes my notice,” he told Haaretz in a phone conversation. Sources in the Defense Ministry said that lately they’ve been checking into various complaints about his activity at the crossings.

Jan says that he handled, on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, the passage back into Gaza of Palestinians who found themselves stuck in Egypt after Hamas took control in Gaza and the Rafah crossing was closed. “They came to me because you go to people you can rely on,” he says. “I think I’m someone who has a different approach than anyone else at the crossings.”

We’ve been told you get a share of the NIS 500 that the Shehaiber family collects on each truck that goes through the crossing.

“That’s a total lie.”

But you know the Shehaiber brothers?

“Of course I do. They work with me every day.”

And it’s not a business partnership?

“It has nothing at all to do with what you’re talking about. It’s purely business, all legal, and has nothing to do with any 500 shekels.”

What is your connection with Nazmi Mhana (the Palestinian director of the crossings)?

“Nazmi is a personal friend of mine. For some reason, it’s hard for people to accept a proper, legitimate relationship between two adults.”

We’ve been told that you also do jobs for the Palestinians.

“All the time, all the time. Including now.”

How does one get these kinds of jobs?

“Be a person like me – serious, quiet, honest – and apply for any tender in proper legal fashion, and then work. Anyone who wants to can apply.”

Doesn’t the Israeli crossings administration have a problem with the fact that you also work in the Palestinian Authority?

“I don’t speak with the crossings administration about anything. What I do with the Palestinian population, with the Palestinian Authority, with the Europeans – has nothing to do with that.”

A lot of people we’ve talked with seemed genuinely nervous to even speak about you. Why are people afraid of you?

“Because I have integrity. Maybe because I don’t deal in dirt.”

Maybe because you were in the Shin Bet?

“What does the Shin Bet have to do with anything? It’s been 10 years since I was in the Shin Bet.”

Jan’s business wasn’t hurt by his entanglement in the affair of the transfer of gas canisters to the Palestinian Authority area. Less than a year ago, in late August, inspectors from the enforcement unit of the Infrastructure Ministry raided warehouses belonging to Jan in the southern industrial zone in Ashkelon. There the inspectors found about 100 tons of cooking gas and reported at the time that this was the largest amount of stolen gas ever discovered in Israel in recent years. The Israel Police’s economic crimes unit began an investigation into the matter.

But you paid a fine.

“We paid, but not at the crossings. My shippers, who operate legally, stored the gas canisters in a place where they shouldn’t have been stored, and so we paid the fine and I said that it was my merchandise, so I would bear the expenses and the consequences.”

Isn’t paying the fine akin to an admission that you committed an offense?

“Paying the fine is just a way of saying ‘Leave me alone.’ People just find it hard to accept that I’m not the person they think I am. When I was given the fine, I told [the person from the Infrastructure Ministry] right to his face: I’m paying, even though I think I’m more moral than anyone.”

Palestinian protester killed during Na’alin rally

Avi Issacharoff, Anshel Pfeffer & Reuters | Ha’aretz

5 June 2009

Palestinian officials reported on Friday that a Palestinians demonstrator had been killed during the weekly anti-separation fence rally near the West Bank town of Na’alin.

Palestinian medical officials said 36-year-old Yusuf Srour had been killed by Israeli forces.

Medics said Srour was hit in the chest by a live bullet and another protester was wounded when soldiers fired at protesters.

Srour died minutes later, Mohammed Shahwan, a doctor on the ambulance called to the scene, told Reuters.

An Israeli military spokesman said troops had opened fire when protesters threw stones at them in the village, but denied that the troops had used live ammunition. However, an IDF spokesman said, an investigation has been launched into the incident.

Na’alin is the scene of weekly protests against the continuing construction of an Israeli barrier that has cut through the village.

Israel says the barrier it has built along its boundary with the West Bank is needed to keep bombers from infiltrating its towns.

Palestinians denounce the network of fencing and concrete walls which cut deeply into the West Bank in spots such as Na’alin, as a land grab that denies them territory they want for a future state.

Meanwhile, five demonstrators were injured in confrontations with security forces in the anti-separation fence rally in Bil’in.

Two months ago, Ibrahim abu-Rakhma was killed during a separation fence rally in Bil’in after suffering a tear-gas grenade hit to his chest, which witnesses said was launched some 30 meters away by security forces.

The Israel Defense Force issued a response following the incident, stating that approximately 100 protesters had attempted to tear down part of the separation fence while hurling rocks at security forces. IDF troops responded to the mayhem by employing demonstration dispersal devices.

Another incident occurred four months ago, in which American citizen Tristan Anderson, in his thirties, sustained critical wounds during an anti-separation fence protest in Na’alin.

Peace activists with the International Solidarity Movement of the Oakland, Calif. area, said Anderson was struck in the head with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops.

Israeli plans for East Jerusalem hotel raise U.S. ire

Akiva Eldar | Ha’aretz

2 June 2009

Washington is furious over the Interior Ministry’s anticipated approval of a plan to build a new hotel in East Jerusalem, just 100 meters from the Old City’s walls. The plan, which would see the demolition of a wholesale market and kindergarten, is slated to be approved today.

In conversations with Israeli officials, senior American officials have made it clear that they want Israel to freeze all plans for expanding the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem, and especially in the Holy Basin – the area adjacent to the Old City.

The regional planning and building committee for Jerusalem will discuss the plan today. It was submitted by the Jerusalem municipality, which owns the land on which the hotel is slated to be built, and the state-owned Jerusalem Economic Corporation, which will actually construct it.

The site in question is in the wholesale market, just east of the Rockefeller Museum.

The Interior Ministry’s district planning office told Haaretz that it will recommend the plan’s approval.

The plan calls for a 200-room hotel that will be nine stories tall on its eastern face (where the ground is lower). It will also include a commercial building, which will be five stories tall on its eastern face, plus another three stories underground.

The plan will require the existing wholesale market to be demolished, along with a Palestinian kindergarten.

The hotel plan is only one of several proposals for expanding the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem. Another, which would involve evicting hundreds of Palestinians from King’s Valley, on the outskirts of Silwan, was approved yesterday by the Jerusalem municipality’s planning committee despite the opposition of the city’s legal advisor, Yossi Havilio.

Campaign to release Samieh Jabbarin

Palestinian Prisoners

31 May 2009

Dear friends,
The solidarity struggle with Palestinian theatre-artist and activist Samieh Jabbarin, who is still under house-arrest in Um Al Fahm, has gained significant resonance in the past two weeks thanks to the publication of journalist Aviva Lori’s extensive coverage of the affair in “Haaretz” weekend supplement in Hebrew (22.5.09) and English (28.5.09). Links to both versions follow:
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1087171.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1088706.html

Unfortunately, nothing has moved in court. On June 7th the court in Hadera is to review Samieh’s appeal for lifting the limiting conditions of his house-arrest – four (!) months of being denied his personal liberty after being arrested at a political demonstration. Due to the said limiting conditions, Samieh could not even attend the Tel Aviv University scholarship and award-granting ceremony of the Faculty of Fine Arts held a few days ago, where he was mentioned with outstanding honors by the dean and received a scholarship (see appendix).

Please consider: further damaging Samieh, the police – along with the State Attorney’s Office – has accused him of so-called violent action. It is no coincidence that these very days a steep exacerbation is anticipated for the future freedom of expression and political association in the State of Israel. Rapid legislation in the Knesset (parliament) of a whole battery of anti-democratic laws has been of major concern. Among others: a proposed law curbs ‘any aspiration to change the character of the State or to publish anything that might cause disrespect of the regime” (!); the “Nakba law” prohibits the commemoration of Palestinian suffering caused by the foundation of the State of Israel; the “loyalty law” will require every Israeli citizen – Arabs included – to sign a declaration of loyalty to the state as a “Jewish and Zionist state”; a law to create a fingerprint database of all Israeli citizens; a law forbidding demonstrations in front of residences of public officials, etc.

These are laws that, once legislated, will enable the state to act harshly against all of us in the future, Arabs and Jews alike. No more figments of imagination will be needed about ‘violent action’ in order to arrest, prosecute and punish innocent citizens.

We thank you for your support of Samieh Jabbarin, for joining the struggle against political detention in Israel, and for sharing the struggle against the new evil winds now blowing in this country.

Our online petition is ongoing. We would appreciate your signatures if you have not yet signed it, and thank you for distributing it among your friends, for this is our most efficient way to keep you in the picture and update you about further actions for Samieh in the near future.

Here is the link to our petition:
http://www.atzuma.co.il/petition/friendsofsamieh/1/1000/
Thanking you in advance,
The Committee for Solidarity with Samieh Jabbarin
May 2009

________________________________

Aviva Lori | Ha’aretz

28 May 2009

Two weeks ago, Samih Jabarin’s elderly father, Mahmoud, fell down the steep flight of stairs at the entrance to his house, and lay helpless in the front yard. Jabarin was inside the house when he heard his mother, Rasima, shouting for help. He came running and stood at the top of the staircase. If he went downstairs to help his father, he thought, the electronic ankle bracelet attached to his right foot would go off, bringing the police to his door. He hesitated for a moment, but quickly came to his senses and went downstairs.

That time he was lucky. His father was lying within Jabarin’s permitted range of movement, and the only siren heard in his Umm al-Fahm neighborhood was that of the ambulance. A week later, panic struck once again. In the adjacent yard, which belongs to his brother Khalil Jawabre, a tree was chopped, collapsing and bringing down a telephone line. They were worried the electronic signals being sent from Jabarin’s device to police headquarters would be interrupted, or wouldn’t reach them at all, God forbid, and someone would come to the conclusion that he was trying to escape.

“We started to call them in hysteria,” says Jabarin. “We told them to calm down, that everything was all right, that it was only a tree.”

Jabarin, 40, a native of Umm al-Fahm and normally a resident of Jaffa, works in the theater and is a political activist. A kind of local Che Guevara, he admires the Argentinian-born Cuban revolutionary. He goes to demonstrations dressed as if for the theater, usually with one of the shirts from his Che Guevara collection; his crowning glory is a beret with a star from his visit to Cuba. During the most recent demonstration in Umm al-Fahm, in the heat of the moment, the hat disappeared. Jabarin mourned his loss, but when he found himself at the detention center in Kishon Prison he understood that it was a minor problem compared to those lying ahead.

It all began on February 10, election day. Members of the extreme right, headed by Baruch Marzel, announced their intention to report to one of the polling stations in Umm al-Fahm, in order to “monitor” the elections. In Umm al-Fahm, residents said this was a provocation for its own sake. “It’s absurd,” says Jabarin,” only a crazy man could think there would be votes here for the National Union.” The atmosphere became heated, and in the weeks prior to the elections there was talk of organizing a huge protest. The mayor, Sheikh Khaled Hamdan, Knesset members and Arab dignitaries joined city residents intending to demonstrate on the morning of the elections.

Jabarin put on a coat and his hat and went out early in the morning to meet friends and prepare. “We stood at the entrance to the city drinking espresso,” he says, smilingly painting a pastoral picture. “And then a police officer approached me, someone I had never seen before. Only later did I discover that he was the commander of the northern region of the Border Police, Chief Superintendent Uri Mor Yosef.” The two were to meet three times that day. “The first time, at 6:30 A.M., he got very close to me, broke into my aura, and said: ‘I have my eye on you.’ I said: ‘Great, I have my eye on you too.’ The second time he came up to me again, in the same place, and said: ‘This time you’re in big trouble.'”

Why you, of all people?

“I’m a political activist, a member of the Sons of the Village [a radical leftist movement of Israeli Palestinians that calls for an active boycott of Israeli elections]; maybe that’s why.”

At about 8 A.M., the police announced that Marzel wasn’t coming after all and people began to disperse. Jabarin invited all his friends, male and female, who had come especially from Tel Aviv and Jaffa, to have breakfast at his parents’ home. But two hours later, a rumor began to circulate that instead of Marzel, MK Aryeh Eldad, a member of the National Union party, had arrived under cover of night and with police protection, and had reported to the polling booth at the Al Razi school. Organizing spontaneously, residents began to stream in the direction of the school.

“Maybe 13 seconds passed from the moment I arrived, and I was immediately surrounded by seven Border Policemen, who stayed around me all the time and at a certain moment began to beat me with clubs. I don’t know why,” says Jabarin. “I was behaving perfectly. Usually I’m very loud at demonstrations, but at this one I had no megaphone, and we only sang together once. The policemen provoked a female friend of mine and I saw that she was angry, so I took her aside and told her: ‘Stand behind me.’ I tried to calm things down – so they called me a provocateur?”

In stills taken by a photo agency, Jabarin can be seen standing with his perpetual hat, creating a natural megaphone with his hands and shouting something. At a certain point, things heated up. “Suddenly I found myself lying on the ground, and on all sides they were beating me with cudgels, mainly on my legs. There were Border Police and the Yasam [the Israeli Police Special Patrol Unit] on my upper body and clubs on my lower body. I was in shock.”

Then the third encounter between Jabarin and Mor Yosef took place. “He made his way through the bloc of Border Police,” says Jabarin, “leaned over me, pointed and said: ‘He’s under arrest from this moment.’ It’s strange, they usually say ‘detained.’ I felt as though I had been framed.” The next thing he recalls is being inside the police van.

Along with Jabarin, another 28 people were arrested; all except for him were released on the same day. He was transferred from the police station in Umm al-Fahm to Iron and then to Afula, where he was interrogated and sent to the detention center in Kishon Prison. He was detained there for almost three weeks.

Jabarin was indicted for participation in an illegal assembly and for attacking a policeman in order to obstruct his work. The police demanded he be held until the end of the court proceedings. Jabarin’s attorneys, Salim Wakeem and Hussein Abu Hussein, demanded his release. The issue was discussed in the Hadera Magistrate’s Court before Judge Penina Argaman, who decided to place Jabarin under house arrest, with an electronic monitoring device attached around his ankle.

Nir Yona, spokesman for the Border Police in the northern region, refused to comment beyond saying the following: “Since the matter was discussed in court, we cannot answer the questions. The fact that an indictment was submitted speaks for itself.”

On one wall of the living room of the house in Umm al-Fahm hang framed graduation certificates and diplomas of all of Jabarin’s 11 brothers and sisters: a hematologist at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, a lawyer, two pharmacists, a journalist in Hamburg, a nurse, a teacher, and so on. He himself finished high school at the age of 17, and after the last matriculation exam left for Tel Aviv. “The high school was at the entrance to the city, I brought my knapsack to the English exam and left from there. I didn’t return home again.”

He began to work as a waiter in the Turquoise Restaurant in Jaffa and later became a chef in a popular cafe on Gordon Street in Tel Aviv. He spent formative years in Germany, studying and working. “I wanted to travel for two years to clear my head, in Tibet,” he says. “I passed through Stuttgart to say goodbye to one of my best friends, who was studying engineering there, and he convinced me to stay and study. I began to study German, but I didn’t have enough money and returned to Israel. In 1998 I returned to Stuttgart to study cinema, and within four and a half years I had a master’s degree, a thesis and a film.” The subject of the thesis: “The role of young people in Germany in founding the movement against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Jabarin stayed in Stuttgart for eight years, and in addition to his studies, worked in the theater. “My roots are in theater,” he says. “I started acting at the age of 13 in Umm al-Fahm. My cinema teacher [in Stuttgart], Stuart Marlow, offered to form an ensemble with me. We called ourselves ACTS [Anglophone Collaborative Theater of Stuttgart], he wrote the plays and I directed. People began to recognize my name, and because we did mainly political things they turned to me, and in that way I progressed and achieved publicity. One place where I worked was the Maxim Gorky Theater in Berlin. I directed, acted and wrote, too. I have a combination of love for the theater and a passion for politics. I melt at anything related to art. That’s what keeps me alive.”

Jabarin joined radical leftist groups, was one of the founders of an international organization against globalization and was very involved in protest against the Israeli occupation. In 2006 he was supposed to move to England to pursue a master’s degree in theater. “My teacher connected me with the University of Exeter in England, and arranged a scholarship for me. But then the dean contacted me and apologized; she said she had invited a student from Sarajevo, and promised me the spot for the coming year. Since I was already in a packing mood, I decided to return to Israel and do a master’s here.”

Were he not under house arrest now, Jabarin would have submitted his thesis to Prof. Nurit Yaari: “An analogy between the Israeli narrative in the Palestinian theater and the Palestinian narrative in the Israeli theater.”

Upon his return, he found an apartment in Jaffa, began studying at the university and joined the social milieu of theater people. At the same time, he got involved in fighting social and political injustice. For example, he organized demonstrations against home demolitions. “There are 497 families who have received injunctions to leave their homes. During the 1948 war their houses were taken from them, they were placed in Amidar buildings, and now Amidar wants them to buy [the apartments]. Most of these people have no money at all. We are trying to protect these families, because we think it won’t stop there. We went to ask for a permit to demonstrate in Jaffa on Land Day [which marks the loss of Arab lands in the Galilee]. What most angered the police were the Palestinian flags. A policeman in the police station on Salameh Street spoke to me with typical Mapai [Labor Party] Orientalism and said: ‘We want to help, we want you to demonstrate, but tell the guys there – without Palestinian flags. Someone could get angry, throw a stone, and you’ll lose out.’ I wouldn’t agree under any circumstances, so he said: ‘One flag at the beginning and one at the end.’ I said: ‘No, it’s our flag and anyone who wants to raise a flag can do so.’ In the end they gave in.”

During Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last winter, Jabarin was arrested three times. “Once they took me out of the house, took me with a motorcycle escort to the police station on Salameh. They tried to scare me. They left the door of the room where I was being interrogated open and brought young Arabs to the adjacent room, and I heard shouts in Arabic from there, as though they were being beaten; it was unbelievable. It really made me laugh. They put me under house arrest in Jaffa for three days for incitement to terror. One of the interrogators told me at the time: ‘Samih, a little Zionism.’ Afterward I had to go in twice more for interrogation, and the last time I was warned: ‘Now you’re going home, but I promise you next time you’ll pay a heavy price.”

Avi Tzabari, spokesman for the Tel Aviv police responded: “The above-mentioned was interrogated several times in the Yiftah District on suspicion of committing criminal offenses. As one of the conditions for bail, he was warned not to commit those crimes again.”

According to the penal code, an assembly is not a demonstration and does not require a permit, on condition that participants do not deliver political speeches and do not march. The line between prohibited and legally permitted assembly is very fine: “prohibited” means at least three people who meet for a common cause, even what is deemed as an acceptable one, in a manner that gives people in the area a reasonable basis for suspicion that they will disturb the peace or arouse other people to do so.

“The provision on disturbing the peace is problematic,” says attorney Abir Bacher of Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. “It allows the police to use their judgment to decide whether the people who are assembling are planning to disturb the peace. Especially problematic is the ‘reasonable basis for suspicion.’ It means that even before they’ve done anything, they can be detained because of the ‘reasonable basis.’ During the war in Gaza it was enough for people to stand quietly on the sidewalk with signs; as far as the police were concerned, that was a sufficient excuse for dispersing the demonstration.”

Attorney Dan Yakir, legal adviser of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, says that violence at demonstrations, even when they are defined as quiet protest vigils that do not require a permit, are a common event. “There is total lack of understanding on the part of the police as to which demonstrations require a permit and which do not,” he says, “as well as ignorance of the legal situation. We turned 25 years ago to attorney general Yitzhak Zamir, and in 1983 he issued very clear guidelines in which he spells out what is permitted and what is prohibited. [He] emphasizes the definition of a quiet protest vigil, when people stand with signs – and it makes no difference how many they are – which does not require a permit. But most of the police are not aware of that, and in most cases they order dispersal. And then it all depends on the dynamics on the ground – often there is friction that easily deteriorates into violence.”

About a month from now, a new ACRI report will be published, detailing the harassment against demonstrators during protests against the operation in Gaza and all the cases in which people were illegally detained. Among those arrested were Jews, but the number of Arab Israelis was especially large – about 600 people. “In recent years we have seen a serious deterioration in freedom of expression, especially in the area of demonstrations against government policy, and the Arabs are more vulnerable to the steps taken against them, but it’s not exclusively against them. By any criterion, 600 detainees is a huge number and arouses great surprise and a suspicion of misuse of the instrument of detention,” says Yakir.

He goes on to explain that attacking a police officer is a serious accusation, but does not always reflect what actually happened. “There are many cases in which policemen are afraid that they will be accused of violence, and then they are proactive and inform the suspect that he is suspected of attacking a policemen. It’s one person’s word against the other, and it’s hard to prove who started it.” Jabarin believes that is exactly what happened in his case: “But I didn’t touch him – on the contrary. The policemen attacked me for no reason, and all I did was tell that same policeman who beat me with a club that I would sue him for it.”

Jabarin’s attorney, Salim Wakeem, claims that even if a crime was committed, the punishment is clearly disproportionate. “There are enough examples of that. Full house arrest, in the event of attacking a policeman, is imposed when there was real violence, injury. And here he claims that he was pushed in the chest, that Samih pulled him, but he was not wounded and needed no medical treatment. This is someone with a clean record.”

The indictment is signed by nine witnesses for the plaintiff, all of them police officers. All of Jabarin’s friends who were with him that morning at the demonstration contradict the claims, and some have even testified to that effect to the police. “The police were very violent,” says Ben Ronen, 26, a filmmaker from Jaffa. “At that moment the police set on me and others and [Jabarin] asked them not to attack people, and then they set on him and threw him to the ground. I went to testify about that at the police station; I said he didn’t attack anyone. They interrogated me and asked me if he had incited, where he came from, with what activities he is connected, all kinds of things unrelated to the issue. Samih is an emotional person, an actor, but I’ve never seen him behaving violently; the claims against him are baseless.”

Igal Ezraty, manager and director of the Arab-Hebrew Theater in Jaffa, worked with Jabarin recently on two plays. In “The Odd Couple,” Jabarin was assistant director and manager of the play, and in “The Apartment” he was a playwright, and, if not for the house arrest, he would have been assistant director. “He’s extremely talented,” says Ezraty. “Michael Ronen, the director, said he wouldn’t continue to direct ‘The Apartment’ without Jabarin. In the end they worked via e-mail.” The play will be performed next week.

“He’s a fighting idealist,” continues Ezraty, “but in the positive sense. I’ve never seen him violent. It’s clear that they framed him; the fact is that the police have no photograph that proves he raised a hand. I was at the proceedings in the courtroom and we know that they film from every angle, and they presented the evidence and didn’t show a single picture. Is it any wonder? Four policemen get up and say that he cursed and hit, so the judge believes the police – not the Arab guy who took part in all the demonstrations in Jaffa and has annoyed many policemen. I’m a veteran in the matter of interrogations, and I know that they accuse Arabs where they don’t accuse Jews. I gave Samih a personal letter [saying] that I’m willing to keep an eye on him, that he’ll be under my supervision from morning till night, and that they should let him continue working, but that didn’t make an impression on the judge.”

Some time after Jabarin’s arrest, his friends formed an action committee. At present the committee has a manifesto on the Internet (over 2,500 signatures have been collected), and at the end of last month they held an event at the Tzavta theater in Tel Aviv to demonstrate support for him, in which artists, academics, human rights activists and actors participated. Participants included Gila Almagor, Doron Tavori, Itzik Weingarten, Oded Kotler, Rami Heuberger, Sandra Sadeh, Hanan Wakim, Aharon Shabtai, Moshe Zuckerman and Adi Ophir.

“What did [Jabarin] do?” asks Prof. Avi Oz of Haifa University, one of the organizers of the event at Tzavta. “He protested against people from a party that teaches on its Web site how to bring about transfer. Is he a danger to the public? No. But the Israel Police went into a state of preparedness because Samih will beat them up. The intention is to frighten people away from going to demonstrations. Do they think I broke the law? Let them put me on trial, but don’t use the weapon of arrest against legal political demonstrations. It’s reminiscent of unsavory regimes.”

I heard that Tzavta was not packed.

“It was hard to enlist people from the academic world. It’s a big disappointment that they don’t dare, they’re thinking about their pension and about promotions and they don’t come. Many people think like me, but with the indoctrination from above, they don’t dare say a word. I was surprised at how easy it was to enlist theater people; apparently they’re more sensitive and have less to lose. Everyone feels that something is crawling beneath the surface, but they don’t do anything about it.”

Prof. Shimon Levy, one of Jabarin’s teachers at Tel Aviv University, compares him to Brecht. “He’s a man of the theater, a courageous, reliable, intelligent and decent guy. He carries many people along with him. He knows that if he lifts a hand, his freedom will be denied immediately. He knows that the best defense is passive defense, and that really makes the police angry. Brecht said: ‘One morning when they beat up the communists, I didn’t go; when they beat up the Jews, I didn’t go; now they’re beating me up, and nobody comes.’ That’s the most dangerous thing.”

In his speech at Tzavta and afterward in an op-ed in the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, the actor Rami Heuberger declared: “I also deserve an electronic anklet. We’re both in the same profession – directors. We both opposed the unrestrained activity of the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, but I didn’t voice my opinion, I became part of the consensus. I am a celebrity, whatever that means, and I can use that fact for important causes. Now [after the Tzavta event], something strange has happened. Usually when I write something in the newspaper or say something on television, there’s a follow-up, they talk about it, write about it. This is the first time there was silence. There was no reaction to my words. That says something about the general gloomy atmosphere, a warning light for the media and all of society. Liebermanism is coming to Tel Aviv, too. People think that Tel Aviv is a bubble, but the bubble is moving to the right. What they did to Samih they wouldn’t dare do to an Israeli citizen who is not an Arab.”

Last week, Jabarin’s lawyers asked the court to review the conditions of his arrest. Judge Argaman agreed, after consulting with the State Prosecutor’s Office and subject to the opinion of the parole board, to consider the request; the hearing has been set for June 7. Meanwhile, his prolonged stay at his parents’ home is not easy, says Jabarin. The atmosphere is tense. His ailing father is being cared for in an adjacent room, and the living room has temporarily been given over to visitors trying to provide encouragement.

“People think I have a lot of free time,” he says, “but it’s very tiring. There are a lot of phone calls from Israel and abroad, people want to talk, to express solidarity, and I read my many e-mails, try to answer all of them. Then friends come, from Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Umm al-Fahm, and I don’t have a moment to myself with all the uproar.”