Tag: Ha’aretz

Anti-Israel activists urge Leonard Cohen to nix T.A. show

Cnaan Liphshiz | Ha’aretz

11 May 2009

Anti-Israel activists are stepping up efforts to dissuade Leonard Cohen from performing in Israel in September.

The activists urge supporters to “apply pressure during his tour by local groups along his path,” in their most recent appeal, which was circulated on Monday in various pro-Palestinian mailing lists.

They added that letters “and various actions” might prove “instrumental in helping him take the decision to cancel his last concert.” This, they explain, is because “it is obvious the situation in Palestine and Israel is quite clear to Leonard Cohen, to judge by his song entitled Questions for Shomrim.

The poem begins with the words “And will my people build a new Dachau and call it love, security, Jewish culture.” It also reads: “You were our singing heroes in ’48, do you dare ask yourselves what you are now” and: “now my son must die for he’s an Arab.”

The anti-Israel activists called on supporters to write to Cohen’s manager and leave messages on his official online forum. They published a list of destinations on Cohen’s tour, ending with Israel “if we are not successful.”

In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Leonard Cohen flew to Israel to perform before reserves and regular soldiers fighting in the Sinai desert.

Two main letters of protest against the concert have been circulated so far. The most recent one was co-signed by a hundred Israelis and Palestinians, who wrote that Israel’s “ruthless, criminal bashing of the Palestinians has met with little international criticism.”

Addressing Cohen and urging him to cancel, the Israelis said: “We cannot envision you cooperating with continued Israeli defiance of justice and morality; we cannot envision you playing a part in the Israeli charade of self-righteousness.” They included the poem Questions for Shomrim in their appeal.

The first letter of protest was published last month by Pro-Palestinian professors from the U.K. from the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine, who warned Cohen that he would be performing “for a public that by a very large majority had no qualms about its military forces’ onslaught” in Gaza.

The scholars – Haim Bresheeth, Mike Cushman, Hilary Rose and Jonathan Rosenhead, added: “You will perform in a state whose propaganda services will extract every ounce of mileage from your presence. They will use it to whitewash their war crimes.”

The authors of the letter explained that Cohen needs to cancel the show in Ramat Gan lest it be attended by Arab-killing Israeli soldiers who are “drinking beer” and “playing backgammon with their mates and going to discotheques.”

Israel bans Palestinians from hosting pope next to West Bank fence

Ha’aretz

7 May 2009

A Palestinian official says the Palestinian Authority has scrapped plans to host Pope Benedict XVI next week on a stage near the West Bank separation fence.

Palestinian say they had hoped that receiving the pope next to a towering cement wall and military watchtower inside the Aida refugee camp would highlight their suffering under Israeli occupation.

But Palestinian lawmaker Essa Qaraqie said Thursday that the location had been changed to a United Nations school after Israeli military officials forbade them to erect the stage near the barrier. The pope’s convoy will, however, still pass close to the barrier.

The pontiff’s visit to the region will include trips to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. In Israel, he will hold mass in Nazareth and Jerusalem, as well as visiting the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. He will also hold mass in Bethlehem, believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

Jordanian Islamist leaders condemn pope`s Mideast visit as `provocative`

Jordanian Islamist leaders on Thursday condemned Pope Benedict’s visit to the Middle East, saying it was provocative because he has not apologized for offending comments implying Islam was violent and irrational.

They said the pope, who arrives in Jordan on Friday on the first leg of his Middle East tour, still owed them an apology for making the comments in in a 2006 speech in Regensburg, Germany.

Jordan’s Roman Catholic Church urged Islamists on Wednesday to welcome the pope despite their earlier criticism of his visit. A senior Jordanian official acknowledged some discontent but said the government would warmly welcome Benedict.

“The present Vatican pope is the one who issued severe insults to Islam and did not offer any apology to the Muslims,” Zaki Bani Rusheid, head of the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest mainstream Islamist party, told Reuters.

“It’s the same pope who apologized to the Jews about the Holocaust and now comes to the region but says nothing about the Palestinian nakba (catastrophe),” he said.

Another Islamist figure, Jamil Abu Baker, added that “Ignoring Muslim sentiments will only block the healing of wounds his statements caused.”

Settlement expansion seeing biggest boost since 2003

Amos Harel | Ha’aretz

7 May 2009

West Bank construction has been accelerating for several months, putting Israel on a collision course with a U.S. administration taking a hard line on settlement expansion.

A new outpost, new roads, and other building projects have raced ahead in and around the settlements, often without legal permits, producing the biggest construction drive since 2003, according to Dror Etkes of the Israeli advocacy group Yesh Din. That group monitors construction in the West Bank.

The construction, which has sped up even more since Benjamin Netanyahu’s government took office this spring, is to be a main issues in U.S. President Barack Obama’s meeting with Netanyahu at mid-month.

Vice President Joe Biden called on Israel on Tuesday to stop building in the settlements and to dismantle existing illegal outposts. However, left-wing groups monitoring events in the territories say the construction has accelerated in recent months, not halted.

Examples include the following:

Construction in outposts: Between Talmon and Nahliel, west of Ramallah, a stone house and another structure have been built without a permit, next to a vineyard set up by settlers a year and a half ago. The Israel Defense Forces’ civil administration has recently issued an order to stop the project.

Illegal construction has been carried out on Palestinian land at the outposts Mitzpeh Ahiya and Adei-Ad, north of Ramallah. A mobile home has been set in an outpost near Susia south of Hebron. An outpost that was vacated near Hebron has been reinstated.

Construction east of the separation fence: New houses have been built in the Eli settlement, Rechelim, Ma’aleh Michmash and Kochav Hashahar (north and east of Ramallah). In addition, a neighborhood has been built in Na’ale, and there are at least 10 houses in Halamish and new houses in Talmon (all west of Ramallah).

Construction west of the planned fence route: Land has been prepared for building in the Kedar settlement, and 30 houses have been built in Ma’aleh Shomron. There is also a new neighborhood in both the Elkana and Zofim settlements.

Road construction and farmland: This has gone on near the Bracha settlement south of Nablus, near Tapuach, in the Eli and Shiloh area and in the Amona and Elazar settlements.

The accelerated construction stems mainly from the reduced supervision of events in the territories in the last stages of the Olmert government, while Netanyahu’s right-wing government, part of which supports the construction, hasn’t begun to address the issue.

The settlers also took advantage of the public and media attention’s focus on Gaza during the IDF offensive in January to continue the settlements and outposts’ expansion in the territories.

Israel is officially committed to the promise made by former prime minister Ariel Sharon to the Bush administration to evacuate all illegal outposts built after March 2001. But evacuations have been carried out languidly and with long intervals.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently reached an agreement with the settlers to evacuate the largest outpost, Migron, and transfer it to the nearby settlement Adam. But the agreement has yet to be implemented.

The Mitchell Report of May 2001 and the Bush administration’s road map of 2003 called on Israel to halt all construction in the settlements. This implies stopping construction for natural growth as well. Israel, however, has never stopped this kind of construction.

Sharon’s government reached a tacit agreement with the Bush administration to reduce construction east of the separation fence. Israel kept this promise until recently, when building resumed there as well, mostly without legal permits.

The extensive and often illegal construction west of the fence and in the large settlements has been going on continuously. The authorities have not tried to stop it even in cases of illegal construction, says Etkes.

The defense minister’s bureau said Barak supports evacuating outposts not because of promises to the Americans but to maintain the rule of law. Every new outpost is evacuated immediately, Barak’s aides said. The minister is not under the impression that the construction of illegal outposts and settlements has accelerated, they said.

UN demand for IDF compensation in Gaza could reach $11m

Barak Ravid, Amos Harel & AP | Ha’aretz

6 May 2009

A United Nations demand for financial compensation for Israeli strikes on UN facilities in Gaza could come to $11 million, a government official in Jerusalem said Tuesday in response to a UN report that criticized Israel for the attacks. The incidents occurred during Operation Cast Lead in January.

The official said Israel would begin negotiations with the UN on this and other matters in the coming weeks.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Israel Tuesday of lying about attacks on the facilities, including one said to have killed more than 40 people outside a school compound, and formally demanded compensation. He said a UN investigation found conclusively that Israel was responsible for attacks on several schools, a health clinic and the organization’s Gaza headquarters. Some of the weapons used in these attacks contained white phosphorous, he added.

The report, which was presented to the Security Council Tuesday, accuses Israel of intentionally firing on the UN institutions and using excessive force.

Israel denies that it intentionally struck the compounds. It also says it was forced to act against militants using these buildings and other civilian facilities for cover. Witnesses said at the time that militants fired from the area near the school that was hit.

“The spirit of the report and its language are tendentious and entirely unbalanced and ignore the facts as they were presented to the commission,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The commission prefers the positions of Hamas, a murderous terror organization, and by doing so misleads the world public.”

The Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported that Israel had waged an intensive campaign to keep the report from coming out.

Ban commended Israel for its cooperation and said there would be no further reports on the matter. He also noted in a letter attached to the report, at the Foreign Ministry’s request, that the five-member panel that conducted the investigation cannot make legal findings or consider questions of legal liability, and pointed out that Israeli citizens in the south faced and continue to face indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas and other groups.

However, the report itself did not discuss rocket fire or attacks on Israeli civilians. Israeli officials said it also failed to address the intelligence information Israel gave the committee, which they said showed that Hamas was using UN facilities as a base for terror operations.

Israel Defense Forces officials, who called the report biased, said it was too early to tell what its long-term impact would be.

Report: Olmert, Livni may face war crimes charges in Norway

Ha’aretz

22 April 2009

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert and opposition leader Tzipi Livni may face war crimes charges in Norway over their role in Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza, AFP reported Tuesday.

The news agency said six Norwegian lawyers announced plans Tuesday to accuse the pair, as well as Defense Minister Ehud Barak and seven senior Israel Defense Forces officers, of the crimes.

The lawyers, who planned to file their complaint with Norway’s chief prosecutor on Wednesday, were quoted as saying they would also call for the arrest and extradition of the Israeli leaders.

Under the Norwegian penal code, courts may hear cases involving war crimes and other major violations of human rights.

The lawyers released a statement quoted by AFP accusing Israel of “massive terrorist attacks” in the Gaza Strip from December 27 last year to January 25, killing civilians, illegally using weapons against civilian targets and deliberately attacking hospitals and medical staff.

“There can be no doubt that these subjects knew about, ordered or approved the actions in Gaza and that they had considered the consequences of these actions,” the lawyers’ statement said.

It also said the lawyers were representing a number of people living in Norway.

“It involves three people of Palestinian origin living in Norway and 20 families who lost loved ones or property during the attack,” one of the lawyers, Kjell Brygfjeld, told AFP.

Israel’s stated goal in the three-week offensive was the halting of the cross-border rocket attacks from Gaza.

Gaza officials have said over 1,300 Palestinians died during the campaign, a majority of whom were civilians. But the Israel Defense Forces has disputed these claims, stating that the vast majority of the dead were Hamas militants.