Israel – Page 14

Israeli minister threatens to close Al-Aqsa, forces raid mosque compound

October 14, 2014 by Nasheman

Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich’s words the first such threat to be made by a high-profile Israeli official since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

– by OnIslam & News Agencies

Jerusalem: Escalating tension in the world’s third holiest site for Muslims, deputy Knesset speaker along with dozens of Jewish settlers have broken into Al-Aqsa mosque compound, as Israeli Public Security Minister threatened to close the holy site to Muslim worshippers.

“The Israeli police allowed [Moshe] Feiglin to storm the mosque’s courtyards under their protection,” Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, head of the Jordan-run Organization for Muslim Endowments and Al-Aqsa Affairs, told Anadolu Agency on Monday, October 13.

The attack occurred as Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich threatened on Monday to close the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to Muslim worshippers in the first such threat since 1967.

The serious desecrations of holy site by the Knesset member and settlers followed Monday’s morning clashes between Muslim worshippers and the Israeli police.

Firing teargases and stun grenades against Muslims, the Israeli police tried to forcibly evict Palestinians from the area, leaving at least 10 worshippers with temporary asphyxiation.

“The Israeli police are still besieging an unspecified number of worshippers inside al-Qibali Mosque [inside the compound] amid firing of stun grenades and teargas at the worshippers within,” al-Khatib added as sounds of teargas firing resounded in the background.

While all gates were closed to prevent Palestinian employees and Muslim religious students from entering Al-Aqsa, about 60 Jewish settlers forced their way into the holy site, according to the Palestinian NGO Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowments and Heritage.

“The occupation forces are besieging al-Qibali Mosque and firing a shower of teargas canisters and stun grenades at the worshippers who took refuge in the mosque following the dawn prayers when the Israeli forces stormed the site,” the foundation said in a statement.

“The military intrusion in such an early hour is a dangerous escalation,” the NGO added.

Al-Aqsa is the Muslims’ first Qiblah [direction Muslims take during prayers] and it is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka`bah in Makkah and Prophet Muhammad’s Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

Its significance has been reinforced by the incident of Al Isra’a and Al Mi’raj — the night journey from Makkah to Al-Quds and the ascent to the Heavens by Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be Upon Him).

Jordan has been supervising Al-Aqsa Mosque and other endowments in Al-Quds since 1948.

A 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel recognizes Jordan’s special supervisory role over holy sites in Al-Quds.

Condemnations

Monday’s clashes in the holy site were condemned by UN chief Ban Ki-moon who was “deeply concerned by repeated provocations at the holy sites in Jerusalem”.

Urging both side to revive the stalled peace talks, Ban said: “The situation can only be resolved as part of a broader political horizon that ends a nearly half century of [Israeli] occupation and leads towards a two-state solution with the state of Palestine coexisting with Israel in peace and security.

“Time is not on the side of peace. We need to act immediately to prevent a deepening of an already unsustainable status quo.”

Last week’s aggressions on Al-Aqsa mosques by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers have sparked anger among World Muslims who condemned the attacks, calling to prosecute the assailants.

The clashes left dozens of Palestinians injured, while several suffered a teargas inhalation.

According to eyewitnesses, dozens of Jewish settlers could make their way through the holy site to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, also known as “Harvest Feast”.

Ban made his remarks during his visit to the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday, October 13, which comes a day after the international donor conference of Gaza that made a pledge of $5.4 billion to rebuild Gaza after last summer’s war.

As the UN chief described reconstructing Gaza an “important” step, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah urged the international community to “pressure” Israel not to hamper the construction process.

“The Gaza reconstruction program will be useless if the crossings are not open,” the Palestinian premier said.

“The Palestinian government will be in charge of the process.”

Israel has launched relentless airstrikes against Gaza on July 8 where more than 2,100 have been killed and thousands injured.

Out of 2,131 Palestinians who died in the latest fighting, 501 were children, said the United Nations. About 70% of the children killed were under 12, according to the UN children’s agency, UNICEF.

The large scale of mass destruction in Gaza has left about 5,510 homes completely destroyed and about 31,000 partially damaged, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes that were caught up in the Israeli air strikes.

Israel's plan to build 600 new homes in E. Jerusalem earns UN’s anger

October 14, 2014 by Nasheman

– by RT

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed his frustration at Israel’s settlement program, which plans 600 new homes in East Jerusalem. The new units are set to expand four existing settlements in the Palestinian city.

“I once again strongly condemn the continued settlement activity by Israel,” the UN chief told journalists after a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah.

The Israeli government also plans to seize one square kilometer of farmland near Bethlehem, “intended for the construction of settlement units, parks, a synagogue and agricultural roads,” according to a report by the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

It is possible to appeal the seizure within a period of two months, in line with Israel’s tax law. The new construction plans come shortly after last month’s announcement of the most significant construction plan in the past several decades – the idea of building more than 2,500 homes in the area with a majority Arab population.

Like Ban, the EU has joined the international chorus of condemnation, strongly suggesting that such plans threaten to upset a very fragile peace with the Palestinians.

The UN chief also urged the two sides to return to the negotiating table.

“I urge Palestinians to show courage and continue engaging in the… peace process… [and] Israelis to do the same,” Ban warned, adding, “Time is not on the side of peace. We need to act immediately to prevent a deepening of an already unsustainable status quo.”

President Mahmoud Abbas has also recently warned the UN General Assembly that continuing the occupation would ensure that the Palestinian population would eventually turn into fragmented ghettos. He will be seeking a UN resolution and a “firm timetable” to stop the Israeli occupation.

But the move also comes as the government admitted to a covert building freeze in the disputed area. Israeli media is alleging that Ban got the entire matter wrong and sees his comments as misdirected. They believe the UN head might have been referring to building tenders in a wholly Jewish neighborhood in the capital, leaving intact the building freeze.

According to Arutz Sheva daily, the decision was in fact the approval of building tenders at some future date in the Jewish neighborhood of Israel’s capital, and leaves intact the building freeze gripping the area.

This summer’s 50-day military conflict between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Administration has caused immense damage and loss of life. Dubbed operation Protective Edge, it killed more than 2,200 people – the vast majority of them Palestinians, including hundreds of women and children.

Ban’s visit to Ramallah comes on the heels of combined efforts by the US, EU, Turkey, Qatar, Germany and Kuwait to rebuild the Gaza Strip. So far they’ve raised $5.4 billion, smashing through the $4 billion target set by the Palestinian Authority.

Israel jailed influential Palestinian writer "to remove him from society"

October 13, 2014 by Nasheman

Artwork by Mohammad Saba’aneh for The Electronic Intifada

– by Patrick O. Strickland, The Electronic Intifada

Prominent Palestinian professor and writer Ahmad Qatamesh spent a total of eight and a half years in Israeli prison without being charged or brought to trial.

During two separate stints in Israeli lockup, Qatamesh was held in administrative detention, a draconian practice in which Israel imprisons Palestinians for infinitely renewable six-month terms without charge or trial, using “secret evidence” against them.

“Administrative detention is one of the most difficult of Israel’s tactics because prisoners have nothing but uncertainty,” Qatamesh told The Electronic Intifada. “They never know when or if they will go home, and neither do their families.”

Sitting in the living room of his home in al-Bireh, a central West Bank city near Ramallah, the veteran prisoner explained the Israeli occupation’s use of administrative detention as a method of targeting influential Palestinians — resistance and civil society figures alike.

As one of those who has been targeted multiple times, Qatamesh rejects Israel’s claim that administrative detention is used solely as a security measure.

Indeed, it was used to collectively punish Palestinians in the West Bank after three Israeli teens, later found slain, went missing there in June.

Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and present-day Israel were arrested during the popular demonstrations that followed the nationalist-motivated 2 July kidnapping and brutal murder of Muhammad Abu Khudair, a sixteen-year-old Palestinian from Jerusalem.

As of 7 August, that arrest campaign had resulted in the number of prisoners held in administrative detention soaring to an estimated 450, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

Though arrests have continued since then, these are the latest available statistics.

There have been numerous hunger strikes in Israeli jails undertaken by Palestinian detainees in recent years in a bid to demand their freedom. Dozens of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails across the occupied West Bank and Israel agreed in June to end a mass hunger strike against administrative detention.

“Secret evidence”

Qatamesh, who has spent a total of thirteen years in Israeli prison, was first arrested and locked up for four and a half years in the 1970s for charges related to activism with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular Marxist political party deemed illegal by Israel.

“These years were easier than later on,” he recalled. “We still had the hope to liberate the homeland.”

When he was rearrested in 1992, he was accused of “illegal activities” as an organizer and leader in the PFLP, a charge he denies until today. Rather than bring charges against him, Israel instead put him in administrative detention and barred him and his lawyer from seeing the secret evidence against him.

Israeli intelligence were apparently unable to prove his involvement in any illegal activities despite three months of interrogation, during which Qatamesh says he was tortured. Though a military judge decided that he ought to be released shortly after the interrogation period ended, it would be six and a half years before that order was carried out.

During his more than six years of detention in the 1990s, Qatamesh says that “Israeli interrogators and secret intelligence used very specific types of torture — not punching, but psychological pressure, [such as] isolation and sleep deprivation,” among other techniques.

Artwork by Mohammad Saba’aneh done while the cartoonist was imprisoned by Israel last year.

In those years, Qatamesh would regularly participate in collective hunger strikes with other administrative detainees and prisoners. “It wasn’t like today,” he said. “There wasn’t the same attention [in the media] at that time.”

“But times had also changed,” he remembered. “Many of us were older and others had been in and out prison. We were starting to get tired. There was still hope as the intifada took place outside, but we wanted to get out of prison and be a part of it.”

Leading up to his 1998 release, Qatamesh says Israel was facing mounting pressure and calls for his release as he received regular visits from European Union politicians, as well as Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations and left-wing groups.

After six years and seven months of imprisonment without charge or trial, Qatamesh returned to his home in al-Bireh.

Following that release, Qatamesh says he abstained from all political activity, including involvement with the PFLP. For several years, he taught at Birzeit University, where he lectured on philosophy, history and politics.

“Bigger than I am”

Upon his release, Qatamesh wrote about his experience being tortured in his first book, I Shall Not Wear Your Tarboosh. He wrote two more books, one titled A History of the Secret Revolution, and another about the one-state solution in Palestine.

After he was rearrested yet again in 2011, he says that Israeli interrogators repeatedly asked him about the ideas expressed in his writing. “They accused me of being PFLP, then Hamas, and finally they told me I was a threat to their state,” he recalled.

“I hadn’t been a part of any political group for years. It was harder than when I was younger. I just wanted to go home and be with my family,” he said, referring to his wife, Suha, and his daughter, who was 21 years old when he was arrested the last time. Israeli soldiers pointed guns at her and forced her to call her father to demand his surrender.

Qatamesh says Israeli authorities “made me into something bigger than I am. That’s why they used administrative detention.”

For two and a half years, Israeli military courts continually rubber-stamped the intelligence establishment’s requests to extend Qatamesh’s administrative detention order. His health declined during this time and he suffered from regular fainting and chronic debilitating headaches.

In April 2013, the international human rights group Amnesty International called for Israel to unconditionally release Qatamesh.

“Ahmad Qatamesh is a prisoner of conscience who is being detained solely for expressing nonviolent political beliefs,” stated Amnesty International’s Ann Harrison, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Program.

During his third stint in prison, however, it took the military judges longer to recognize the lack of evidence against the aging writer.

It wasn’t until August 2013 that an Israeli military court ruled that it would only extend Qatamesh’s administrative detention order for one more six-month interval unless Israeli intelligence or the military could bring provide evidence demonstrating his involvement in resistance activities banned by Israel.

After seven consecutive administrative detention orders, he was released on 28 December 2013 and returned home to his family.

“Clearest case”

Gavan Kelly, an advocacy officer for Addameer, a Ramallah-based group that monitors Israel’s arrests of Palestinians and advocates for prisoners’ rights, said that “Qatamesh is the clearest case of Israel using administrative detention to remove influential people from Palestinian society.”

International law permits the use of administrative detention in exceptional cases, but Israeli policy flies in the face of international law, according to Kelly, who said the number of Palestinians locked up without trial has “hovered between 200 and 300 over the last couple years.”

According to the Israeli legislation titled Emergency Powers Law Detention (also known as the 1979 Emergency Law), the defense minister can order the detention of a citizen for indefinitely renewable six-month periods. Though it is only supposed to be applicable during a state of emergency, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has considered the country in a state of emergency since its establishment in 1948.

In practice, the law targets Palestinian citizens of Israel and has rarely been used against their Jewish compatriots.

Artwork by Mohammad Saba’aneh done while the cartoonist was imprisoned by Israel last year.

For Palestinians in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and in the Gaza Strip, military order 1651.56 authorizes military commanders to detain individuals if there are “reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention,” according to Addameer’s website.

Because the military order does not limit the number of times an administrative detention order can be renewed and the terms are vague, the fate of imprisoned Palestinians is often left to military commanders.

During his last two and a half years in prison, Qatamesh says the only explanation he was ever given by interrogators or intelligence officers was that he “is a threat to their state.”

Abusive detention practices

“The last couple years have seen historically low numbers [of administrative detainees],” Addameer’s Kelly said.

According to Addameer data, the number of administrative detainees peaked at more than 1,050 Palestinians in March 2003, during the second intifada.

That came after a mass arrest campaign in which Israeli occupation forces rounded up more than 15,000 Palestinians, mostly males 15 to 45 years old, between March 2002 and and October 2002.

But even after the intifada tapered off a few years later, the use of administrative detention remained widespread. Israel held a monthly average of 830 administrative detainees in 2007.

Other Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights groups agree with Addameer’s assessment that Israel’s use of administrative exceeds “exceptional cases.”

In February 2013, Human Rights Watch called on Israel to “end abusive detention practices” while four Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike were gaining international attention.

“Israel’s international legal obligations require it to inform those arrested of the reasons for the arrest at the time, to promptly inform them of any charges against them, and to bring them before a judge, and in criminal cases, to provide a fair and public trial in which the defendant may challenge any witnesses against them,” the international rights group observed.

“Administrative detainees are stuck in prison while the world changes outside,” Qatamesh said. “The prisoners are always thinking about their cities, villages, refugee camps.”

The ancient mosques of Gaza in ruins: How Israel's war endangered Palestine's cultural heritage

October 11, 2014 by Nasheman

The damage done to these sites has undermined the territory’s social infrastructure. For the residents of Gaza, many of the targeted mosques provided social, educational and health facilities. Photo: Mohammad Asad

– by Ahmad Nafi, Middle East Monitor

In the aftermath of Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s 51 day military assault, the Palestinians in Gaza are faced with the huge task of reconstruction. Most of the shattered civilian infrastructure can be replaced, but Palestine’s cultural heritage in Gaza, built over a thousand years and more, has been damaged irrevocably. Many of Gaza’s most ancient sites have been left in ruins by Israel’s attack on the territory. Houses of worship, tombs, charity offices and cemeteries have all been damaged by the shelling, but Gaza’s historic mosques have been the worst affected. Many of these sites date back to the time of the first Islamic caliphs, the Ottoman Empire and the Mamluk Sultanate.

Protective Edge damaged 203 mosques, of which 73 were destroyed completely. Two churches were also damaged, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs. The targeting of mosques by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in the latest offensive was three times more than in the 2008-2009 attack, the ministry’s report said.

The destruction of Gaza’s ancient mosques has brought the total losses incurred by the religious affairs ministry to an estimated $50 million, said Dr Hassan Al-Saifi, its undersecretary in the Gaza Strip.

“There are a number of ancient mosques that hold memories of the Islamic and Arab history in Gaza,” said Al-Saifi, “and of course, the people are incredibly saddened over the loss of this heritage.” The losses are likely to deny future generations their history as well as the material and economic benefits that might be acquired from these sites.

The most significant of those mosques which were destroyed was the 7th century Al-Omari Mosque in Jabaliya, Gaza’s oldest and largest. Named after the second caliph Umar bin Al-Khattab, it dates back to 649 AD, making it 1,365 years old. It accommodated 2,000 worshippers for the congregational prayers. The portico and minaret were built 500 years ago during the Mamluk period; it was destroyed by Israel on 2 August 2014 and its hallmark minaret and courtyard stands in ruins.

The Great Omari Mosque tells the story of Gaza’s civilisation and cultural history as it is believed to stand on the site of a former Philistine temple and a later 5th Century Byzantine church. It has acted as an important landmark ever since it was built.

Close by, Gaza’s second oldest mosque was also reduced to ruins. Al-Sham’ah Mosque was destroyed on 23 July in Hayy Al-Najjarin in Al-Zaytun Quarter in Gaza’s Old City. It was built 700 years ago, in 1315, by the Mamluk Governor.

Another historic site was razed to the ground on the following day. The Mahkamah Mosque was a fine example of Mamluk architecture located off the main Baghdad Street in the Shuja’iyya neighbourhood. It featured a Mamluk minaret and florally-decorated arch at its entrance and was built in 1455 on the orders of Sayf Al-Din Birdibak Al-Ashrafi, a member of the sultan’s staff. Shuja’iyya neighbourhood experienced some of the most intense shelling of the war in July that resulted in thousands of residents being forced to flee their homes.

The large Omar Ibn Abd al-Aziz Mosque in the Strip’s northern city of Beit Hanoun is a modern building but is a central mosque that serves a large segment of the town. It was destroyed by shelling on 25 August. Other destroyed mosques of cultural significance include the centuries-old Al-Montar Mosque and tomb, hit on 11 July.

Gaza’s only 3 churches also fell victim to the conflict. The Orthodox Church of St Porphyrius is the oldest church in Gaza, dating to the 1150s, in Al-Zaytun Quarter of the Old City. The church’s cemetery was damaged when the area was shelled in July in another attack on Gaza’s rich religious heritage. Gaza Baptist Church received major damage from the shelling of a police station nearby and Gaza’s Latin Church had damage to peripheral buildings owned by the parish.

These sites have historical importance and provided irreplaceable material evidence of Palestinian culture and history. Al-Saifi believes that by destroying mosques, “the occupation was erasing the historical proof and evidence of our presence in Palestine.”

The devastation of hundreds of years of Gaza’s Islamic history would be expected to have done harm to Gaza’s identity, but Al-Saifi insists that Israel could not erase the Palestinian memory and the peoples’ right to exist. “I believe that the Israelis will not succeed in this because to us, mosques are not merely stones, but hold great and holy value to all of the Muslim generations.”

The damage to these irreplaceable landmarks has led Israel to claim that it targeted mosques and civilian buildings used for military purposes, such as the stockpiling of weapons and as meeting points for the fighters of the Qassam Brigades. The IDF alleged that Hamas “cruelly abused mosques by using them for terror activities” in a statement to the Associated Press.

Hamas has denied the accusation and many in Gaza feel that the allegation is an attack on their way of life. “Every citizen in Gaza is proud of these fighters,” Dr Al-Saifi said, “and mosques are completely open places; they do not contain any shelters or secret rooms, they are open houses of worship.” He went on to say that Israel knowingly targets civilian sites. “There is no doubt that the Israeli intelligence agencies have their eyes and ears in Gaza, and they are certain that these are fabrications.”

The damage done to these sites has undermined the territory’s social infrastructure. For the residents of Gaza, many of the targeted mosques provided social, educational and health facilities.

The Palestinians are of the opinion that Israel does not distinguish between military and civilian targets in their aggression against Gaza. Their suspicions appear to be validated by UN OCHA figures released in a recent report. They suggest that at least 80 per cent of those killed were civilians. These figures indicate that Israel has found little difficulty in treating civilian infrastructure as legitimate military targets considering that it has targeted churches and other buildings not accused of being used by Qassam fighters.

Many have noted Israel’s disproportionate use of force in areas that it associates with enemy fighters. It is an army that is used to inflicting widespread devastation on the civilian population, which is supposed to serve as a deterrent.

For Al-Saifi, this strategy is abhorrent: “Honestly, the targeting of mosques on such an unprecedented large-scale reflects the barbaric and brutal nature of the Israeli occupation, and the army’s frustration and sense of failure, as it reached an impasse. It resorted to targeting civilians and places of worship, which have been guaranteed protection and immunity under all international conventions.”

The pursuit of collective punishment is an international war crime and it appears that these violations by Israel have been observed clearly by international institutions. The retiring UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, condemned the operations in Gaza. In a statement to Britain’s Guardian newspaper she said, “There seems to be a strong possibility that international law has been violated.”

In a similar incident, despite being given the coordinates of UNRWA schools they were bombed under the pretext of the presence of missiles. “Even though the Arab and foreign UNRWA spokesperson stressed and confirmed that the occupation’s claims were fabricated,” complained Al-Saifi. The UN has condemned the bombing of these schools and notified the IDF of their locations repeatedly. It was alleged by Israel that mosques and UNRWA schools all facilitated the activities of the Palestinian resistance groups.

Because of this, Al-Saifi has questioned Israel over its accusations of “terror” activities in historic mosques; he believes that the world has seen through Israel’s empty justifications of war crimes. “All of the international community organisations and international observers know that these are lies.”

Indeed, the targeting of religious and cultural sites as civilian sites constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law; it is covered by Article 4 of the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property. Under this convention, all feasible precautions must be taken to avoid damage of cultural property in cases of war. It is also designated a criminal act under Article 8 of the ICC Statute which stipulates that “intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion…[and] historic monuments… constitutes a war crime.”

In recent months, the destruction of historic monuments and houses of worship has usually been associated with radical groups like Islamic State (ISIS) rather than state actors like Israel. In July, ISIS destroyed the mosque of Prophet Younis (Jonah) in Mosul and several Shiite Mosques in Iraq. ISIS’s presence has warranted considerable responses from the international community. Yet Israel’s attack on Gaza’s heritage of the same nature has created little response.

The international community and Israel itself will be reluctant to label the assault on Gaza an act of terror. Domestically, it is believed that Israel’s agenda of eliminating the people of the Gaza Strip in the name of “security” stands above criticism from anyone and everyone. “Israel wanted to give itself an excuse” to commit acts of brutality, claims Al-Saifi.

In Palestine, there has been considerable pressure to get the international community to hold Israel to account for its actions. “The Palestinian Authority,” insists Al-Saifi, “must go to the ICC in The Hague… in order for us to witness the occupation being prosecuted, just as the criminals in Yugoslavia and Bosnia were prosecuted.”

Israel’s occupation is more complex than a Genocide

October 9, 2014 by Nasheman

– by Jonathan Cook

Israeli officials were caught in a revealing lie late last month as the country celebrated the Jewish New Year. Shortly after declaring the most popular boy’s name in Israel to be “Yosef”, the interior ministry was forced to concede that the top slot was actually filled by “Mohammed”.

That small deceit coincided with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s speech at the United Nations. He outraged Israelis by referring to Israel’s slaughter of more than 2,100 Palestinians – most of them civilians – in Gaza over the summer as “genocide”.

Both incidents served as a reminder of the tremendous power of a single word.

Most Israelis are barely able to contemplate the possibility that their Jewish state could be producing more Mohammeds than Moshes. At the same time, and paradoxically, Israel can point to the sheer number of “Mohammeds” to demonstrate that at worst it is eradicating the visibility of a Muslim name, certainly not its bearers.

As distressing as it is, hundreds of dead in Gaza is far from the industrial-scale murder of the Nazi Holocaust.

But the idea that Israel is committing genocide may not be quite as hyperbolic as is assumed. Last month a “jury” featuring international law experts at a people’s court, known as the Russell Tribunal, into Israel’s recent attack on Gaza concluded that Israel was guilty of “incitement to genocide”. The panel argued that Israel’s long-term collective punishment of Palestinians was designed to “inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the incremental destruction of the Palestinians as a group”.

The tribunal’s language intentionally echoed that of Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew and lawyer who after fleeing Nazi Europe succeeded in introducing the term “genocide” into international law.

Lemkin and the UN convention’s drafters understood that genocide did not require death camps; it could also be achieved gradually through intentional and systematic abuse and neglect. Their definition raises troubling questions about Israel’s treatment of Gaza, aside from military attacks. Does, for example, forcing the enclave’s two million inhabitants to depend on acquifers polluted with seawater constitute genocide?

The real problem with Mr Abbas’s use of the term – given that it conflicts with popular notions of genocide – is that it made him an easy target for critics. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused the Palestinian leader of “incitement”. The Israeli left, meanwhile, decried his wild and unhelpful exaggeration.

But the critics themselves have contributed more heat than light.

Not only do experts like Richard Falk and John Dugard view Israel’s actions in genocide-like terms, but notable Israeli scholars have done so too. The late Baruch Kimmerling invented a word, “politicide”, to convey more safely the idea of an Israeli genocide against Palestinians.

Israel has nonetheless successfully ring-fenced itself from the critical lexicon applied to comparable situations around the globe.

In conflicts where a mass expulsion of an ethnic or national group occurs, it is rightly identified as ethnic cleansing. In Israel’s case, however, respectable historians still equivocate over the events of 1948, even though more than 80 per cent of Palestinians were forced out by Israel as it established a Jewish state on their homeland.

Similarly with “apartheid”. For decades anyone who used the word about Israel was dismissed as an extremist or anti-Semite. Only in the last few years – and chiefly because of former US president Jimmy Carter – has the word gained a tentative foothold.

Even then, its main use is as a warning rather than a description of Israel’s behaviour: diehard adherents of two states aver that Israel is in danger of becoming an apartheid state at some indefinable moment if it does not separate from the Palestinians.

Instead, we are told to suffice with the label “occupation”. But that implies a temporary state of affairs, a transition before normality is restored – precisely the opposite of what is happening in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, where the occupation is entrenching, morphing and metastasising.

Those guarding the critical lexicon strip us of a terminology to convey the appalling reality faced by Palestinians, not just as individuals but as a national group. In truth, Israel’s strategy incorporates variants of ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide.

Observers, including the European Union, concede that Israel continues with incremental ethnic cleansing – though they prefer the more obscure “forcible transfer” – of Palestinians from so-called Area C, nearly two-thirds of the West Bank.

Israel has mastered, too, a sophisticated apartheid – partly veiled by its avoidance of the more visual aspects of segregation associated with South Africa – that grabs resources, just like its famous cousin, for one ethnic-national group, Jews, at the expense of another, Palestinians.

But unlike South African apartheid, whose fixed legal and institutional systems of separation gradually became torpid and unwieldy, Israel’s remains dynamic and responsive. Few observers know, for example, that almost all residential land in Israel is off-limits to Palestinian citizens, enforced through vetting committees recently given sanction by the Israeli courts.

And what to make of a plan just disclosed by the Israeli media indicating that Mr Netanyahu and his allies have been secretly plotting to force many Palestinians into Sinai, with the US arm-twisting the Egyptians into agreement? If true, the bombing campaigns of the past six years may be better understood as softening-up operations before a mass expulsion from Gaza.

Such a policy would certainly satisfy Lemkin’s definition of genocide.

One day doubtless, a historian will coin a word to describe Israel’s unique strategy of incrementally destroying the Palestinian people. Sadly, by then it may be too late to help the Palestinians.

Jonathan Cook is a Nazareth- based journalist and winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. http://www.jonathan-cook.net/

The Voice of Women In Gaza

October 8, 2014 by Nasheman

A radio broadcaster sits in the sound booth at NISAA FM radio station, which focuses on women's issues, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, July 9, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman)

A radio broadcaster sits in the sound booth at NISAA FM radio station. (photo by REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman)

A Gaza based women’s radio station was destroyed in the last days of the Israeli war, when the 14 story building housing the studio was brought down as an act of terrorizing the population.

Gaza’s Nisaa FM was located in Basha towers inside an office building in the north of Gaza. The tower was a target for Israeli assault on August 26th, and the whole building, including Nisaa Gaza radio office, collapsed.

The office contained all the equipment, radio studio, computer training lab, the archive and furniture within. They took it upon themselves to not stop running the radio, and started working from a volunteer’s home.

Nisaa FM wants to rebuild its offices, so the channel can return its full potential, be productive and regain its hub for women in the Gaza strip.

We are producing Nisaa FM’s appeal to its well wishers and supporters to come forward to its assistance.

The Voice of Women In Gaza

A group of us, women from across Gaza, have come together in 2013 to form the first online community radio for women in the Gaza Strip. Not only we were proudly taking part in democratizing communications in our country, but we created a platform to share first hand our challenges, our findings and our voice on all fronts. It is a challenge for Arab women to be outspoken, let alone creating a community radio managed by women in Gaza. We helped pass this opportunity forward to the women of our community through a training center dedicated to training women on the use of multi-media. This will give them the chance to participate in the forms of communication, accessing information and the production of high quality material.

We help women of Gaza fully understand their rights; provide them the knowledge and the tools to apply their freedoms on ground depending on themselves, fighting their own injustices, involving their community and reflecting positively on the generations to come.

Our goals are:

Recognizing women’s role in communication and media, elevating the media scene for women journalists in Gaza
Bringing awareness to public on women’s issues and opinion, especially those living in marginalized areas in Gaza.
Women documenting stories of the oppressed within the Gaza community
Recruiting men and women to fight for gender equality in Gaza

Appeal

Since our office building has been destroyed, we will need to locate to a different location. At the new location, we will need to rebuild a modest radio studio, purchase equipment and furniture for the radio, training labs, and general office furniture. This includes studio equipment, recording equipment, 10 computers, a generator, and office furniture. We have estimated the amount needed to operate at our original capacity at $18,000.

What you get

For any funding we receive, we are ready to send you special handcrafts made by women of Gaza, which reflects on our culture and heritage.

Other ways you can help

Spread the word about our campaign through your social media networks and any other way you feel that could help us reach our maximum potential!!

To contribute: http://igg.me/p/939422/x

You can reach Nisaa FM at:

qaryamedia@gmail.com

www.nisaagaza.com

https://www.facebook.com/nisaagaza1

'US won’t decide our policies' – Sweden on Palestinian state recognition

October 7, 2014 by Nasheman

– by RT

Washington will not be the one to decide Sweden’s policies, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström said after the US criticized Stockholm’s plans to officially recognize Palestine as a sovereign state.

“It’s not the US that decides our politics,” Wallström said, adding that the new Swedish authorities expected to “get criticism” after their announcement on Palestinian statehood.

However, the minister stressed that Stockholm “will continue the constructive dialogue with the US to explain our motives and reasons for this,” Aftonbladet newspaper reported.

In his first speech before the country’s parliament on Friday, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven promised that Sweden will “recognize the states of Palestine.”

Margot Wallström, the Swedish foreign minister (Reuters/Srdjan Zivulovic)

He added that the conflict with Israel “can only be solved with a two-state solution, negotiated in accordance with international law.”

If the initiative is approved by parliament, Sweden will become the first EU member to recognize Palestine as an independent state.

But Sweden’s plans were not welcomed by the US, Israel’s top ally, which warned the Scandinavians against rushing into things.

“We believe international recognition of a Palestinian state is premature,” US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said. “We certainly support Palestinian statehood, but it can only come through a negotiated outcome, a resolution of final status issues and mutual recognitions by both parties.”

She added that Israel and Palestine must be the ones “to agree on the terms on how they live in the future two states, living side-by-side.”

The Social Democrats gained power in Sweden during the general election in September, following eight years of conservative rule.

Prime Minister Lofven also promised to adjust Sweden’s foreign policy, which would include the country giving up on its aspirations to join NATO.

The Palestinian Authority is aiming to establish an independent state in the territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem serving as the capital.

Israel captured both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the Six Day War in 1967.

East Jerusalem was later annexed as part of Israel’s indivisible capital, though this move has never been recognized internationally. Israel is also actively building settlements in the West Bank which are considered illegal by the UN.

Israel launched a 50-day military operation in the densely populated Gaza area this summer, which saw over 2,100 Palestinians – mainly civilians – killed and some 18,000 homes destroyed.

Prisoner from Jerusalem deprived of seeing newborn son

October 7, 2014 by Nasheman

An image circulated on Facebook shows Nasser Abed Rabbo holding his first-born son, Amir. Once again behind bars, he has yet to meet his son Ali, born in August.

– by Budour Youssef Hassan, The Electronic Intifada

Little Amir was sleeping in his mother’s lap. His first birthday had recently been celebrated and he had started walking. His mother was expecting to give birth to another son within a few weeks. Strong winds blew outside but otherwise it had been a quiet night. But not for long.

In the early hours of that morning on 18 June, Amir’s father, Nasser Abed Rabbo, was kidnapped by Israeli soldiers. Masked and heavily armed, the soldiers broke into his family’s home after they had stormed the Sur Baher area of occupied East Jerusalem.

Abed Rabbo had previously spent 24 years behind Israeli bars; he was sentenced by a civilian court to life in prison after being charged with leading an armed resistance cell. His sentence was later commuted to 38 years and he was eventually released as part of a prisoner exchange deal struck between Israel and Hamas in October 2011.

“At 2:55am we saw dozens of masked soldiers approaching our home. They started knocking at the door with their feet and rifles. Nasser knew they had come here for him so he asked me to hide his phone for fear it would be confiscated,” Abed Rabbo’s wife, Fatima, told The Electronic Intifada.

“They dragged Nasser, who was in his pajamas. Nasser resisted and pushed them away from me. I quickly brought him some clothes and shoes to wear,” she added.

“One soldier told me in Arabic, don’t worry, we are just taking him for interrogation and he will return soon. They then handcuffed and blindfolded him. Nasser’s mother, who lives next to us, started screaming. She is 85 and has become all too familiar with such scenes.”

Nasser Abed Rabbo has still not returned home.

Attorney general’s order

Abed Rabbo was one of seven Jerusalemites released under the 2011 agreement who were re-arrested that same night.

The other six are Ismail Hijazi, Adnan Maragha, Alaa Bazian, Jamal Abu Saleh, Rajab al-Tahan and Ibrahim Mishaal.

At the time of his arrest, Maragha’s wife was due to give birth to their first child within two months; meanwhile, Bazian had previously spent thirty years in Israeli jails, losing his sight completely in 1979.

Yehuda Weinstein, Israel’s attorney general, issued a request to re-incarcerate all seven Jerusalemites on 24 June, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The Israeli authorities used the disappearance of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank that month as a pretext to round up hundreds of Palestinians. Prisoners who had been released after the 2011 deal were particularly targeted.

Across Jerusalem and the wider West Bank, 51 Palestinians who had been released under that deal were re-arrested on 18 June.

In total, 131 of the 824 prisoners released to the West Bank (including Jerusalem) as part of the deal have been re-arrested, Haaretz reported on 23 June. Israel has accused these Palestinians of violating the terms of their release and most are awaiting trial in military courts; sixty-one of them face completion of their original sentences, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

Palestinians released to Jerusalem following the 2011 deal have been prohibited from traveling elsewhere in the occupied West Bank or abroad. They have been ordered to report monthly to the police station based in the Russian Compound area of Jerusalem.

Secret evidence

On 15 July, a committee appointed by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, to examine alleged violations of the prisoner exchange deal decided that six of the seven Jerusalemites re-arrested in June should complete their previous life sentences. Only Ibrahim Mishaal was released, according to the Samidoun Prisoners Solidarity Support Network.

Based in Haifa, the committee is headed by a former judge and includes representatives of the Israel Prison Service.

“The committee charged them with returning to ‘terrorist activity,’ membership in terrorist organizations and other violations of the terms of the deal,” said Ramzi Kteilat, the prisoners’ attorney.

“The decision was taken based on secret evidence presented by the public prosecution and intelligence services that neither the lawyers nor the prisoners were allowed access to,” he added.

“How can you possibly repudiate their claims if we don’t even know the exact charges against them or the evidence used against them? This decision is in flagrant violation of the prisoners’ right to due process.”

The six are scheduled to appear for a hearing in Nazareth’s District Court on 2 October. Fatima, Nasser Abed Rabbo’s wife, is awaiting that hearing with trepidation.

“We don’t know what to expect and this is perhaps the worst part about it. Their arrest is purely political and our greatest concern is that the decision of the committee will be upheld,” she said.

“Ibrahim Mishaal’s release gave us a glimmer of hope but it was soon extinguished. I expect Nasser’s release at any moment but I also fear the worse. This unpredictability hurts.”

Despite her anguish, Fatima grinned while recalling a conversation she had with Nasser a few weeks before she gave birth to their new son.

“He called me while in prison, with a mobile phone that was smuggled to the prisoners and later confiscated by the prison guards, and asked, how’s Ali doing? I asked him, who’s Ali? He said he would like to call the baby Ali.”

Ali was born on 3 August, a few hours after Fatima returned from a visit to Nasser in Gilboa prison.

“I started feeling pain when I was visiting him,” she said. He told me, I’m sure you’ll give birth today. I laughed and said that I’m not due until 10 August, but he was right.

“I went into labor when I was on my way back from the prison. My brother was with me, but I desperately wanted Nasser to be with us. He couldn’t be there with me; he couldn’t hold his second child. All we could do is send him pictures of the newborn baby through friends who are visiting the prison.”

Taste of freedom

Nasser was twenty years old when he was arrested in February 1988. Since his release, he had been trying to build a new life.

He had married Fatima, his neighbor, soon afterwards. They had “the best possible honeymoon,” she said.

“We went to Haifa, the occupied Golan, Jaffa … Nasser especially loved Jaffa. One of his cellmates who spent 29 years in Israeli occupation jails is from Jaffa and we regularly visited him after his release.

“He [Nasser] loved spending hours at the beach. Now that he has finally tasted freedom after 24 years of imprisonment, he’s suddenly back to being behind bars, not knowing if and when he’ll be out again.”

Fatima does not expect justice from Israel’s courts. But she is determined not to lose hope. She is finding solace in the mutual support from the mothers and wives of the other prisoners.

“We share so much in common,” she said. “Our partners have all spent more than twenty years in jail, they were released together and re-arrested together. We draw strength from each other.”

Budour Youssef Hassan is a Palestinian anarchist and law graduate based in occupied Jerusalem. She can be followed on Twitter: @Budour48.

Sweden to become first EU country to officially recognize State of Palestine

October 4, 2014 by Nasheman

Sweden’s newly-formed center-left government is set to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state, said Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. If Stockholm proceeds with the move it will be the first EU-member to officially endorse Palestinian statehood.

“The conflict between Israel can only be solved with a two-state solution, negotiated in accordance with international law,” Lofven said in the parliament as he made his first speech as PM on Friday.

The Social democrat leader added that the “two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful co-existence.”

“Sweden will therefore recognize the state of Palestine,” he concluded.

If Stockholm officially proceeds with the motion, it will be the first member of the European Union to recognize Palestinian statehood. Some European countries have already recognized the state of Palestine, however they did so before entering the 28-member bloc.

Ireland and Cyprus have upgraded Palestinian representation in Dublin to full embassy status in recent years joining other European countries such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. (Reuters/laudio Bresciani)

In November 2012, the UN General Assembly voted 138 to nine, with 41 abstentions, to change Palestine’s ‘entity’ status to ‘non-member observer state’. Palestinian statehood is mainly opposed by Israel and its key ally the US.

Sweden’s conservative government abstained from vote in the 2012 General Assembly, for which it was criticized by the opposition parties.

In September, Sweden held government elections which resulted in a shift to the left after eight years of conservative rule.

On Friday, Lofven announced his new cabinet, with Green Party spokesperson Asa Romson as his Deputy and Social Democrat Margot Wallström as Foreign Minister.

The new PM promised to change Sweden’s foreign policy adding that Sweden won’t seek membership of NATO, but won’t abstain from action if another country is attacked.

The Palestinian authority is aiming to establish an independent state in the territories of the Gaza strip the West Bank, with the capital in East Jerusalem. However the boundaries of the latter two are not clearly identified.

Israel captured both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a result of the Six-Day War in the Middle East in 1967. Captured East Jerusalem was later annexed as part of Israel’s indivisible capital, though this move has never been recognized internationally.

Israel has been building settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Golan Heights, which the international community has acknowledged to be illegal and hampering the peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Israeli settlement issue was among the reasons that led to the derailment of the peace talks between the conflicting sides in April. In September, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would seek a UN Security Council resolution to demand a “firm timetable” to stop Israeli occupation.

Source

Revealed: Europe’s "discreet" cooperation with Israel’s nuclear industry

October 2, 2014 by Nasheman

José Manuel Barroso (left), the European Commission president, has a “discreet” chat with Benjamin Netanyahu. (European External Action Service)

– by David Cronin, Electronic Intifada

The European Union has been cooperating furtively with Israel’s nuclear industry for at least six years.

An internal document that I recently obtained states that an accord on “joint and cooperative initiatives relevant for the peaceful use of nuclear energy” was signed between the EU and Israel in 2008. “This is a discreet agreement that has not been given publicity,” the paper adds.

The document (published below) was drawn up ahead of an October 2013 visit to Israel by Antonio Tajani, then Italy’s member of the European Commission.

It is not hard to understand why the Union wishes to keep this cooperation “discreet.” The agreement was reached with Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission — the body that runs the Dimona reactor, where Israel’s nuclear weapons were developed.

Israel introduced nuclear weapons to the Middle East and has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It has refused to permit international inspection of all its nuclear activities.

In 2006, Ehud Olmert, then Israel’s prime minister, acknowledged that Israel possessed nuclear weapons. The US Defense Intelligence Agency estimated in 1999 that Israel had between 60 and 80 nuclear warheads.

Hypocrisy

These facts put Israel in a very different category to Iran, supposedly a major threat to world peace.

Unlike Israel, Iran has no nuclear weapons. The National Intelligence Council — a group advising the US president — expressed “high confidence” in 2007 that Iran had halted its weapons development program a few years earlier.

Despite that explicit statement, both the EU and the US have slapped punitive sanctions on Iran (after some sanctions had been relaxed, America imposed new restrictions on business with Iran last week). The official narrative behind these sanctions is that everything must be done to stop Iran acquiring the bomb.

Yet the European Union is happy to cooperate with Israel, a nation that actually has the bomb. Is it any wonder that Brussels officials don’t want attention drawn to this hypocrisy?

Military links

I asked the EU’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) — which is tasked with implementing the “discreet” agreement — why it is cooperating with Israel, a known threat to world peace. A JRC spokesperson tried to present the “scientific collaboration” involved here as benign.

The research with Israel concerns the “medical application of radionuclides, radiation protection, as well as nuclear security related to the detection and identification of nuclear and radioactive materials,” according to the spokesperson. “It does not cover any activities related to reprocessing and enrichment.”

I asked the spokesperson if any guarantees have been provided that Israel will not use the fruits of its research with the Union for military purposes. Not surprisingly, I didn’t receive a reply to that question.

When I asked how much had been spent on nuclear cooperation with Israel, the JRC would only say that the research in question is “not jointly funded as each institution covers its related activities.”

As well as overseeing the development of nuclear weapons, Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission has strong links to the conventional arms industry.

Apart from Dimona, the commission also runs the Soreq research center. Soreq’s own website says that it develops equipment with “homeland security” applications — a euphemism for surveillance technology and weaponry. When journalists have been given guided tours of that center, its scientists have bragged of inventing lasers to assist snipers.

The JRC — the European Commission’s in-house science service — has been cooperating more directly with Israel’s weapons industry, too.

In December 2010, it teamed up with Elbit, the Israeli arms company, for what it called a “small boat detection campaign” in Haifa. The purpose of this exercise was to see how drones can be used for maritime surveillance, principally to stop asylum-seekers from entering Europe.

Elbit is one of the leading suppliers of warplanes to the Israeli military. This means that it is providing some of the key tools that Israel used to inflict death and destruction on Gaza this summer (and in previous attacks). By hosting the “boat detection” exercise, the EU indicated its eagerness to deploy Israel’s tools of mass murder against refugees.

Greenwashing

Although the EU has tried to keep the nuclear research “discreet,” it has openly celebrated more palatable forms of engagement with Israel.

José Manuel Barroso, the outgoing European Commission chief, posed for photos with Benjamin Netanyahu, when the two men approved an energy and water cooperation agreement in 2012. The JRC tried to sell that accord as ecologically sound by stressing that it concerned renewable energy and resource conservation.

Environmental campaigners have a name for tactics designed to rebrand a villain as a tree-hugger: “greenwashing.”

Cooperation on “clean” energy provides scant comfort to Gaza’s people, whose only power plant was bombed by Israel this summer. Nor should it be forgotten that Israel attacked a center for autistic children that had solar panels on its roof. So much for Israel’s commitment to renewable energy.

Israel is a nuclear-armed rogue state. I’m sure that many decent people would be horrified to learn that the EU is liaising with the very agencies that developed Israel’s nuclear weapons — even if this cooperation is “discreet.”