Tag: Settlers - Page 129 - International Solidarity Movement

South Africa: Israeli policy reminiscent of apartheid

26 November 2009

The South African government urged Israel on Tuesday to end practices toward Palestinians that it said were reminiscent of its own history of apartheid.

“We call upon the Israeli government to cease their activities that are reminiscent of apartheid forced removals and resume negotiations immediately,” the government said in a statement.

The unusually strong statement criticized the demolition of Palestinian houses and the expansion of Jewish-only settlement on land taken from Palestinians.

“We condemn the fact that Israeli settlement expansion in East Jerusalem is coupled with Israel’s campaign to evict and displace the original Palestinian residents from the City,” the statement read.

The statement also took note of US and European condemnations of Israel’s latest plan to expand by 900 units the settlement of Gilo on Palestinian land south of Jerusalem.

“South Africa maintains that these attempts by Israel to create facts on the ground imperil attempts to achieve a negotiated solution to the conflict, namely that of two states, Israel and Palestine existing side by side in peace within internationally recognised borders,” the statement also said.

While individual South Africans have made the apartheid comparison, it is rare for the government to do so.

In August South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu drew parallels between Israel and apartheid South Africa during an interview with Ma’an.

“It’s the same thing that happened in South Africa for a very long time,” he said, referring to Israel’s refusal to negotiate with Hamas. “The apartheid government said they wouldn’t negotiate with Nelson Mandela, and so on – and they had to.”

In July academics released a report finding Israel in breach of international legal prohibitions on apartheid and colonialism.

The report was written by British, Irish, South African and Palestinian legal experts under the auspices of the South African Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). The report finds Israel is committing crimes against humanity, which should trigger legal sanctions.

‘Settlement freeze’ won’t bring about peace

Akiva Eldar | Haaretz

26 November 2009

Newspaper headlines across the world this morning will trumpet the courageous and unprecedented initiative of Israel’s prime minister. Who could have imagined that the right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu and the settler Avigdor Lieberman would lend a hand to freezing settlement construction? How the settlers’ fuses will blow. Now Daniel Ben Simon can end his love affair with the Labor rebels and go back to being faithful to Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Indeed, from Israel’s point of view, the government took a major step yesterday. Prime Minister Netanyahu says the move is designed to return the Palestinians to the peace talks. If this is really his intention, the prime minister has managed (temporarily) to pass the hot potato to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. No peace process will come out of it.

It is hard to decide what would cause greater harm to whatever is left of Abbas’ status in the Palestinian public – American pressure to settle with the deal Netanyahu offered him yesterday, or the prisoner-exchange deal that the prime minister is offering his great enemies in Hamas. It is unlikely that Netanyahu really believed Abbas would thank Israel’s government for deciding to temporarily freeze the settlements in the West Bank, praise it for building synagogues and new schools, agree to the completion of 2,500 partially-built housing units and the construction of 492 new apartments.

It is unlikely Netanyahu thought that on the eve of Id al-Adha the Muslim leader would adopt the Jewish people’s position that East Jerusalem is part of the State of Israel. Is Netanyahu really expecting Abbas to recognize Israel’s sovereignty on Gilo, not to mention Sheikh Jarrah and the Temple Mount?

The really important question, which interests Netanyahu more than anything, is how U.S. President Barack Obama will view his proposal. This is not the first time an Israeli government has committed to freezing settlements. Tomorrow it will be two years since prime minister Ehud Olmert announced in Annapolis his commitment to open negotiations on the basis of the road map.

In that detailed document, the Sharon cabinet undertook in May 2003 to suspend all activity in the settlements, including construction for natural growth.

The list of 14 reservations attached to the cabinet decision said that the settlements in the West Bank would not even be discussed “except for freezing the settlements and removing the outposts.”

Freezing West Bank settlements, even temporarily, has become a necessary condition for saving the two-state solution and the Palestinian faction supporting it. Necessary, but by no means sufficient. In the absence of basic trust between the parties, even if Netanyahu continues to shove building permits into the drawer, as he has been doing since he returned to the prime minister’s desk, it won’t suffice.

Today’s newspaper reports about the settlements are more important than what is actually happening in them. In this situation, the ball – a ball of fire – has returned to the White House’s course.

Israeli police escalate harassment of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah

21 November 2009

Police officer who threatened to murder Saleh Diab

In the past few days, Israeli police have twice harassed Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem.

First, in the evening of Thursday 19 November 2009, an Israeli police officer threatened to murder Saleh Diab, who’s family is at risk of being evicted from their home in Sheikh Jarrah. The situation arose when Palestinians in the neighbourhood gathered around a concussion suffering victim of a fight between two Palestinians, and an ambulance and three police vehicles arrived at the scene. The police talked to Palestinians in the crowd and after a while grabbed Saleh (who was not involved in the fight) by the arm and took him away from the crowd to behind their vehicle as if they intended to arrest him. An international activist following Saleh to observe his treatment was instructed by the police to back well away. The police then talked to Saleh before releasing him. According to Saleh, one of the police officers said that he would kill Saleh.

Second, around midnight of Saturday 21 November 2009, an Israeli police vehicle and two police officers arrived at the Gawi family tent, where the Gawi family have been living since they were forcefully evicted from their now occupied house on 2 August 2009. Eight Palestinians (family members and neighbours) and an international activist were sitting around the fire by the tent. The police said the settlers in the Gawi house accused the Palestinians of throwing stones at the house; a false accusation according to the Palestinians and activist.

The police collected the ID cards of the Palestinians and checked them in their computer system. The police then told the Palestinians that they were all to be arrested. The situation, with only two police officers to arrest a larger group of Palestinians and on false accusation, prompted the Palestinians to question the police action. After further discussion, the police returned the ID cards and left without arresting anyone, 15 minutes after they arrived.

Palestinians moving back to Bir el-Eid, a village from which they were expelled in 1999

22 November 2009

After spending a week in the modern city of Jerusalem, camping out on the street with a Palestinian family that the Israeli government had evicted from their home so that Israeli settlers could move into their house, I now have been down in the South Hebron Hills for two weeks near At-Tuwani where I spent the past five winters. I know most of the people in the area.

I am now living in Bir el-Eid, an ancient village which the Israeli military forced the Palestinian residents to abandon in 1999. Through the work of Israeli peace groups, especially Rabbis for Human Rights, Israeli courts have ordered that the Palestinian residents may return to the village. Around November 1, families began to return.

The problem is, the nearby Israeli settlers are furious about the Palestinians returning to the village. The settlers are insisting that no Palestinians use the Palestinian road to the village, so access in and out is difficult. The settlers claim the Palestinian road is for Jews only. The Israeli military is taking orders from the settlers and making life difficult for the villagers. Lawyers for the Palestinians are fighting this in the Israeli courts.

One exciting part of this struggle is Israeli peace activists coming to the village every day to bring needed supplies, plus legal and moral support. There also is now a continual international presence in the village to protect the villagers from both settlers and the military. It looks like this could be a long struggle. I plan to live in the village for the rest of my time here.

The village is comprised of eleven caves which have been dwellings for centuries, most of which the Israeli military demolished in 1999. Now there is much work to do after ten years of neglect and destruction. The people here are shepherds. I have been going out in the mountains with them.

Although the differences between the primitive lifestyle (no electricity, running water, houses, etc, except for cell phones) of the people in the village and life in Jerusalem are great, the issues are the same. In both places, the Israeli government wants to remove Palestinians and Palestinians are resisting nonviolently. Bier Ed in English means “Wellspring.” There is a wellspring of hope here in the middle of so much fear and hate. It is a fantastic privilege to be part of this struggle.

Settler incursions of Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah

18 November 2009

On Wednesday 18 November 2009 at 10:30am, one of the settlers who are occupying the Ghawi family house in Sheikh Jarrah, climbed over a wall in order to enter the neighbouring Palestinian property. Amal Qassem, who lives in the house, was shocked to discover the settler in her backyard and another settler handing tools and a ladder over the wall to him. They stated that they were going to repair water leaks in the wall and refused to leave.

Amal Qassem reported the trespassing to the police who arrived 30 minutes later. Only after that the settlers finally left.

Settler trespassing the Palestinian property

The second settler involved in the attempt to enter the Qassem property

Later that day, at 2pm, another two settlers living in the occupied Gawi family house, attempted to enter a Palestinian property across the street. Claiming they had the right to enter, they opened the gate leading to the house owned by the Kurd family and walked through, making their way to the half of the property which has been occupied by settler security forces since the forceful takeover on 3 November 2009. The family, who gathered outside of their house succeeded in their attempt to stop the settlers, who eventually left.

The settler’s claims to have the right to enter the house, however, contradict a verbal agreement reached with the Israeli police on 3 November 2009, the day of the house take-over, which instructed the settlers to stay away from the house and allowed their security forces to stand on the street outside the gate. Despite this agreement, settler security forces have continued to occupy the house. The al-Kurd family have asked the security forces several times to show police or court orders that give them the right to be on their property, but the security forces have failed to produce such a document. On the day after the settlers’ provocative action, an Israeli court issued a written statement that the court will reach a decision about the occupied house on 29 November.

Kurd family posting the latest court order on the door of their occupied house

The al-Kurds have become the fourth Sheikh Jarrah family whose house (or part of it) has been occupied by settlers in the last year. So far, 60 people have been left homeless. In total, 28 families living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes.

In a strategic plan, settlers have been utilizing discriminatory laws to expand their presence in Occupied East Jerusalem. Palestinians, who face difficulties in acquiring building permits from the municipality, are often left with no legal recourse for extending their homes to accompany their growing families. The Israeli authorities exercise their abilities to demolish and evict Palestinian residents, while ignoring building violations from the Israeli population in East Jerusalem.