Happy Black Friday. The Hebron Fund held a fundraiser Nov. 16 at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan, and protesters confronted director Yossi Baumol.
More from the Alternative Information Center:
he Hebron Fund event was organized as a Hudson River cruise and entitled the "Hebron Aid Flotilla" in an apparent attempt to mock the international Freedom Flotilla that sailed last spring to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza. The Israeli military attacked the flotilla in international waters, killing nine passengers, including an American citizen, and injuring an additional 58 passengers. The Hebron Fund announcement for the event stated that "settlements are legal," and claimed that "the tax deductible status of the meager donations to Hebron’s Jews comes under repeated scrutiny - for no good reason except for racism and anti-Semitism." The Hebron Fund’s keynote speaker, Caroline Glick, a former adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, has written in the Jerusalem Post that President Obama is "treating Israel like an enemy."
According to all major human rights organizations, the UN, the International Court of Justice, and governments worldwide, all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. In 1979, the US State Department’s legal adviser also issued a legal opinion that has never been revised stating that the establishment of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories "is inconsistent with international law," according to The Washington Post.
This is the third consecutive year in which the Brooklyn-based Hebron Fund’s annual fundraising dinner in New York has faced protests. The Hebron Fund is one of a number of US nonprofits that fund Israeli settlements. Others include Friends of Ir David, American Friends of the Ateret Cohanim, and The Central Fund for Israel. According to the Washington Post, "A search of IRS records identified 28 U.S. charitable groups that made a total of $33.4 million in tax-exempt contributions to settlements and related organizations between 2004 and 2007." A recent New York Times report on these US settlement nonprofits quoted a senior US State Department official saying, "It’s a problem. It’s unhelpful to the efforts that we’re trying to make."
In Israel, the East Jerusalem village of Issawiya hosted a conference attended by around sixty internationals, Israelis, and Palestinians on the recent assault by the City of Jerusalem on the village.
During Thanksgiving, Israel was busy demolishing a mosque in the Jordan Valley . . ,
and a house in Derat, south Hebron.
Last Friday, a demo was held in Nabi Salih. The IDF responded by saturating the town with teargas.
In Bilin, the IDF pulled another night raid, tried to keep the raid from being filmed, & arrested a boy.
A demonstration in Beit Ommar against the settlement Karmei Tsur ended with the arrest of a Palestinian boy named Mohammad Awad, two international activists, & three Israeli activists.
In Gaza, falafel is still a popular and cheap staple.
This next video maybe the highpoint of this diary. Seven Israeli activists went with a Palestinian shepherd to pump water from a well on his land. While they are doing this, a settler from the outpost of Mitzpe Yair shows up. He is alone, but keeps trying and trying to pull out the hose from the well. The activists could have hit him in the head with a rock, could just jump him & tie him up, but don't. Finally, more settlers & the IDF show up. The soldiers pull the guy away, & show the shepherd & activists an order declaring the land a closed military zone. They have to leave. By the way, the settler outpost has had a military demolition order on it since 2002.
Another version of this is posted at http://israelpalestinevideonews.blog...