This is a roundup of news related to Palestine with a particular focus on grassroots action and peaceful civil disobedience in the Occupied Territories and within the borders of Israel proper.
We use the name Filasṭīn, since that is the pronunciation preferred by Arabic speakers (irrespective of faith) for their homeland.
Before we get to the rest, I want to note that the violence has claimed the lives of two peace activists. Palestinian peace activist and doctor Hashem al-Azzeh died, reportedly after inhaling large amounts of tear gas. He was trying to make his way to the Hebron hospital after experiencing chest pains. Richard Lakin was an Israeli peace activist and educator who moved from the US in the 1980s with his family and helped teach English to Jewish and Arab children. Mr. Lakin was killed in a shooting/stabbing attack on a bus in Jerusalem.
Haaretz published an editorial that analyzes the current Israeli government's policies and concludes:
The regime described in Netanyahu’s vision has a name – it’s called apartheid. There is no other term for two populations living in the same area, one with political rights and the other under perennial military occupation. No security argument or warnings about the effects of Islam can whitewash the implications of this vision. Netanyahu’s words should shock anyone who is concerned about the justice of Israel’s cause and the country’s future. Concerned people should unite and form a national salvation front that will work to replace this government.
The editorial board of a major Israeli paper just said the current and future situation as described by the government is apartheid. Also, this week week the mayor of Rehovot
sent a letter indicating that "minority employees will not be allowed to enter". That means Arabs, in case you were wondering. So feel free to call bullshit on anyone telling you the terms apartheid or segregation are not appropriate. And if they demure, tell them Ben-Gurion is reported to have said Israel would
turn into an apartheid state if it did not return the territories. That was over 40 years ago. Perhaps it's Zeno's paradox, you are always catching up to apartheid, but you never get there.
Amnesty International issued a report on Israeli killings of Palestinians over the past month and notes:
The organization has documented in depth at least four incidents in which Palestinians were deliberately shot dead by Israeli forces when they posed no imminent threat to life, in what appear to have been extrajudicial executions.
[...]
There is mounting evidence that, as tensions have risen dramatically, in some cases Israeli forces appear to have ripped up the rulebook and resorted to extreme and unlawful measures. They seem increasingly prone to using lethal force against anyone they perceive as posing a threat, without ensuring that the threat is real.
Which is odd because I thought the rulebook was thrown out in the First Intifada, when Rabin is said to have told the army to break protestors limbs. That led to numerous beatings and mainings, the Israeli government
refused to investigate senior commanders including Rabin and instead prosecuted a few soldiers. As a reminder, Bernie Sanders
strongly condemned these actions in 1988:
"The sight of Israeli soldiers breaking the arms and legs of Arabs is reprehensible. The idea of Israel closing down towns and sealing them off is unacceptable."
[...]
Another questioner asked why there isn't more criticism of Israel in Washington. “It is an absolute disgrace. It goes without saying. Soldiers of any nation especially an occupying power are not allowed under any moral code to break the arms and legs of people. That is absolutely unacceptable period. And that sort of behavior must be condemned,” he replied, noting that antisemitic rhetoric was just as unacceptable.
Before we get to the depressing news, let me highlight two columnists who employed fictional universes this week to opine on the Middle East. In +972mag Jeremiah Haber asks why
J.K. Rowling and her opponents misunderstand BDS. And in WaPo, Sonny Bunch explain why the
destruction of Alderaan was completely justified.
More news and analysis below the orange separation barrier:
Amidst all the deaths, we forget the permanent disabilities inflicted on children.
Ahmed/Issa al-Muti was shot by Israeli forces in Bethlehem with an expanding bullet or a dumdum bullet. His leg was amputated. Israeli forces claim he was throwing stones. His lawyer says he was taking his brother to the hospital. He was arrested and detained by Israeli forces. This is standard for children over 12. Over 160 children have been injured thus far by Israeli forces. A number of Israeli children have been severely injured in attacks by Palestinians.
At least 10 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces over the past month. Among them:
- Abdel-Rahman Obeidallah, 13 was shot in Bethlehem by Israeli forces. An Israeli spokesperson says he was shot "by mistake".
- Bashar al-Jabari, 15 and Husam al-Jabari, 18 were shot in Hebron on October 20 after approaching a military outpost. The IDF claims one of them stabbed a soldier, both were immediately killed.
- Bayan Ayman Esseileh a 16 year old girl was shot in Hebron by a border police officer who claims she was stabbed by Bayan. Palestinians reported seeing settlers dancing around Bayan's corpse.
- Tareq Ziad Natsheh, 16 was killed by soldiers at a checkpoint in Hebron. The IDF claims he attacked a soldier.
- Muataz Ahmad Oweisat, 16 was killed in East Jerusalem by soldiers who claim he tried to stab them.
- Muataz's brother Mustafa Adel al-Khatib, 17 was killed earlier this month by soldiers who claim he tried to attack them. Palestinian bystanders dispute this.
- Rahaf Hassan, 3 was killed along with her mother when their house collapsed after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
- Ahmad Abdullah Sharaka, 14 was killed during clashes near a checkpoint in the West Bank.
- Izhaq Qasem Badran, 16 was shot by Israeli police in Jerusalem after he stabbed two Israeli civilians. Eye-witnesses report the police would not permit medical personnel to treat him.
- Danieh al-Husseini, 17 was shot allegedly after a stabbing attack in Hebron.
Israel initially refused to return their bodies to the families, which also means no independent autopsies can be performed.
Israeli officials also reported on an investigation into the shooting of a Palestinian woman holding a knife at a bus station. She was initially branded a "terrorist", it now appears she was trying to get herself killed by security officers. She had previously attempted suicide which led to her losing custody of her child. The NY Times covers the same story in a profile of the Jerusalem police's Arab spokeswoman Luba Samri.
Israeli soldiers also shot dead a Jewish veteran of the IDF, they claim he shouted "I'm ISIS" and lunged for one of their weapons, at which point they shot him dead. Israeli officials initially labelled the man a "terrorist" but back-tracked once they realized he was Jewish. In other bizarre news, a settler placed pork on the body of a Palestinian shot after an alleged stabbing attack, apparently in an attempt to "defile" it, various right-wing groups applauded the "defilement" as a deterrent. A civil suit filed in New York seeks an injunction against Facebook claiming "many of these murderers were motivated to commit their heinous crimes by incitement to murder they read on Facebook".
Meanwhile, the US reportedly reduced aid to the PA by $80 million as a "message", while the administration is reportedly planning to increase military aid to Israel by $1 billion, to a total of $4.1bn per year. The House Foreign Affairs committee issued a rebuke to the Palestinian Authority for "incitement". The measure was backed by AIPAC and passed in the same month when Israeli ministers were quoted as.
Turns out two of the suspects in the beating and subsequent death of an Eritrean man accidentally shot at the scene of a stabbing attack work for the Israeli prison service. Many of the attacks have occured in East Jerusalem and are driven by fears that Israel intends to build a temple on the al-Aqsa compound. Meanwhile, B'Tselem released a number of videos of settlers throwing stones at Palestinians.
Though the Israeli government has repeatedly denied such rumors, hardline groups distributed leaflets last year during a "Jerusalem Day" celebration, demanding the destruction of the mosques and building of a temple so they could return to animal sacrifices. Israel's Deputy Deputy FM Tzipi Hotovely was quoted by Haaretz on October 26 as saying "My dream is to see Israeli flag flying over Temple Mount." She said earlier this month that Israel would never hand over even parts of the West Bank to the Palestinians. Netanyahu in a "friendly" conversation, "not intended as a rebuke", asked Hotovely to lie low and cancel her briefing for the foreign press.
Haaretz also reported that Israeli police removed cameras installed by Muslim officials at the Temple Mount. That action comes days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that cameras would be installed to help defuse tension at the site.
In a widely viewed video, a masked settler was seen trying to stab the president of Rabbis for Human Rights, Rabbi Arik Ascherman. Ascherman is a prominent peace activist in Israel and was in the West Bank to help protect Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest. He confronted the masked man who after he had set fire to olive trees. The nearest settlement has a radical yeshiva run by the former chief rabbi of the IDF, who was accused of distributing official IDF literature during Cast Lead that told soldiers they were fighting a "religious war". B'Tselem released video of settlers throwing stones at Palestinians, accompanied by IDF forces. It seems Netanyahu's shoot to kill policy applies only for Arab stone throwers. Similar incidents of masked settlers throwing stones, In another widely viewed video, a young man stocking shelves at a store is suddenly accosted by IDF soldiers and beaten. They appear to have suspected him of participating in a confrontation, but the video disproves the allegations. The man was imprisoned for five days on the false charges.
From Haaretz:
Netanyahu, who was addressing a Knesset plenary session marking the anniversary of the murder of former minister Rehavam Ze'evi, on Tuesday said that he will not hesitate to use all the means at Israel's disposal to restore calm. "Israel will come to terms with the murderers and with anyone who assists them," he said. "Not only will they not enjoy rights, we'll exact the full price from them. Anyone who tries to harm us, his arm will be cut off. I'm sure the actions we will take will make the other side come to the realization that terrorism doesn't pay. It's instigators will pay the full price."
A
large mob of 200 Israeli settlers attacked the villages of Wad al-Haseen and Wad al-Nasara. In +972mag Yoav Galai writes about the
neglect, discrimination and persecution that is tearing Jerusalem apart.
Israel placed three East Jerusalemite children under administrative detention for 3 months. It is the first time minor Israeli citizens or residents have ever been placed in administrative detention without trial. This is routine for children in the West Bank. Abed Abu Ghazaleh
the father of Thaer Abu Gazaleh, who is accused of stabbing five Israelis was also placed in administrative detention after two courts ordered him released. Abed had demanded that his sons' body be returned for a funeral. Israel has never placed a Jewish parent in administrative detention, or refused to turn over a Jewish corpse. Funerals of Israeli and Palestinian victims can attacked hundreds and thousands of mourners.
Amira Haas writes about successive protests in Ramallah and their unorganized nature which has left the PLO, Fatah, PA and Hamas as bystanders.
New Zealand is circulating a Security Council resolution draft that would require Palestinians to drop their suit at the ICC, Israel to stop settlement construction and the "two state peace process" be restarted. Abbas, in a speech in the Netherlands, says he is not going to cancel Oslo, as long as Israel lives up to its obligations. This is, on the face, a reversal of the postion he staked out in his speech at the UN, or at least a different reading. He followed it up with a statement that the PA was not calling for a boycott of Israeli products, only those made in the settlements. This is in keeping with the Fatah/PA position, it does not support the BDS Movement. In a speech earlier this week, Abbas called for UN protection for Palestinians. That demand was roundly condemned by Israeli government spokesmen
Israel's Atomic Energy Commission supports the Iran nuclear deal. The commission advises the IDF and the Israeli government on nuclear issues and said it is convinced the agreement will be effective. In an ironic twist, Netanyahu chairs the commission.
Opinions from the river to the sea
There is a lot of commentary about Netanyahu's Mufti-Hitler speech. There is really only one you should read, it's by the always perceptive Noam Sheizaf: The Real Problem with Netanyahu's Mufti Speech.
By calling the Palestinians Nazis, the Israeli prime minister was saying they can never be negotiated with — that Israel must fight them to the bloody end.
The NYT editorial board said Netanyahu had
made a "blunder" (oh that clumsy Bibi!), while taking up space in the same editorial to say Abbas' comments "fan the violence" because he mixed up a dead 15 year old with his living 13 year old cousin (gotta present both sides). Chemi Shalev
writing in Haaretz reminds us that a small subset of Israeli politicians (including Netanyahu's father) have tried to pin the blame for the holocaust on the Mufti for over 70 years. Shalev notes that the efforts were far more widespread in 1946 and that Netanyahu is relatively isolated in his claims today. Mahmoud Abbas
blamed Netanyahu for turning the conflict into a religious one with his Hitler-Mufti remarks, changing the demographic balance in Jerusalem and modifying the status quo at al-Aqsa. David Grossman writing in the Guardian says Benjamin Netanyahu has a
ability to mentally obscure facts. Dahlia Scheindlin suspects of the Israeli population
will give credence to Netanyahu's Mufti-Hitler comments.
Carlo Strenger writes about the moral cost of the occupation:
Already after the 1953 Qibya massacre, in which troops led by Ariel Sharon killed at least 69 Palestinians villagers in a reprisal raid, [Yeshayahu] Leibowitz started to warn that the country was headed down a dangerous moral slope.
Immediately after the Six-Day War he warned of the apalling consequences of occupying millions of Palestinians; of constructing a system of informers who would work against their own people; of the impact serving in the territories would have on young soldiers, and the impact that ruling the territories would have on Israeli society as a whole.
In the Washington Post, Steven Levitsky and Glen Weyl explain why they have decided to
join the BDS Movement despite being lifelong Zionists. Meanwhile, an
Arab Christian MK, Basel Ghattas visited the Temple Mount and made a statement, defying Netanyahu's order that no lawmakers visit the site.
The NY Times reports on how the Palestinian Authority (PA) has scaled back security co-operation with Israeli forces. For years, the PA has provided information to and made arrests for Israeli forces, this co-ordination is extremely controversial within the West Bank, though it has been credited with limiting Hamas' lure in the West Bank. The Times also covered the recent round of martial protest songs and violent videos being produced by Palestinian artists (without a single word covering or remarking on similar videos/music produced by Israelis).
During a Knesset ceremony to honor Rabin, opposition leader Herzog told Netanyahu "You Stood Silently When People Called Rabin Traitor". Hamas spokesperson urged Abbas to cancel all agreements with Israel. Anshel Pfeffer takes a critical lens to the widely-held belief that Rabin would have delivered on a two-state solution:
In the months leading to the assassination, Rabin was trailing Netanyahu in most polls, in some by as much as 13 points.
[...]
But even if Rabin had lived and won in 1996, there is no proof whatsoever that he was prepared to go all the way. He had never contemplated dividing Jerusalem or relinquishing control of strategic locations in the West Bank such as the Jordan Valley. As Joint Arab List MK Ahmed Tibi, a former advisor to Arafat, once said, the Israeli prime minister who is capable of delivering the minimum that the Palestinians are willing to accept has not yet been born.
[...]
Clinging to the notion that if only Rabin had survived, we would be living in a better place now, is just an excuse not to acknowledge how hard this is to solve and avoid re-examining tired formulas.
To demonstrate how likely a peace agreement is, we can look at the latest set of polls.
That same survey, for reasons hard to comprehend other than sensationalism, tested Jewish Israeli support for a "voluntary transfer" plan for "the Arabs of Judea and Samaria" advocated by the late far-right minister Rehavam Ze’evi, who was assassinated in 2001. Another strong majority of Jews, 58 percent, supported the idea.
Ze'evi's "voluntary transfer" plan involved "making life difficult" for Palestinians so they would leave the West Bank and Gaza for elsewhere. He also advocated being opportunistic during wartime and making forced transfers. He suggested Palestinians could be moved to the east bank of the Jordan to serve as a buffer against invasion. In short, ethnic clansing. A majority also want to remove East Jerusalem's special status and turn it into another Area C. So long "united Jerusalem".
A rally attended by 50-100,000 people marked the 20th anniversary of Rabin's death. Bill Clinton addressed the and said Israelis must decide whether they choose the path of peace. Earlier this week, the brother of Rabin's assassin was arrested after saying Rabin's killing was ordained by god and suggesting Israeli President Rueven Rivlin might be next.
Haviv Gur has a long, analytical post in the Times of Israel contending the current violence is a reflection of extreme discontent and resignation within the Palestinian nationalist movement. He believes most Palestinians know the violence serves no meaningful purpose, though only a few have said it publicly. It is well worth a read:
In a remarkable column last week largely but not entirely ignored by Israelis, [Mohammed] Daraghmeh spoke directly to the young Palestinian attackers – and to their missing-in-action leaders.
“After the Second Intifada ended, we stood as one and said: We were wrong here, mistaken there,” he wrote on the Palestinian news site al-Hadath. Yet this belated self-criticism was ultimately cowardly, he implied, since Palestinian intellectuals and leaders did not have the courage to speak out while the intifada raged.
‘Our children grab kitchen knives in a wave of emotion…. We must stand before them and say to them: You are destroying your lives and ours — Palestine needs you alive,’ Daraghmeh wrote
Today, too, “the politicians are fearful for their popularity. But the intellectuals charged with safeguarding the spirit of the nation – they must not be afraid. They must shout in the loudest voice: Where are we going?”
According to Daraghmeh, the only power the Palestinians can wield against the overwhelming force of the Israeli occupier lies in the fact that “Palestine is an international issue. [The issue] won’t be decided in a flurry of knives or acts of martyrdom [suicide attacks], or in protests or demonstrations. It will end only when the world understands it has a duty to intervene and to draw borders and lines, as it did in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in Kosovo… One might ask: How long? And I say: The day will come. … One might ask: Did the peaceful struggle bring about the end of the occupation? And I say: Did the military and armed struggle do so? …. Only the world can bring the solution. But it won’t do so if we are silent, or if we commit suicide. It will [come to our rescue] if we stay on the humane path of our national struggle…. Our children grab kitchen knives in a wave of emotion…. We must stand before them and say to them: You are destroying your lives and ours — Palestine needs you alive.”
B. Michael writes in Haaretz about Netanyahu's
flare-up at a MK who said settlers should not be treated as "innocent civilians".
But that doesn’t change the facts: Whatever Bibi says, the settlers are far from being innocent. They’re the strongest, cruelest, most important, most determined and most dangerous occupying power controlling the occupied territories.
[...]
And since the entire occupation is criminal, its implementers and guardians can’t pride themselves on their “innocence.” It’s forbidden to murder them, but it’s certainly allowed to hope that the time will come when they’ll be punished.
An orthodox MK
compared Women on the Wall to Muslim Murabitat during a Knesset meeting. Women on the Wall agitate for women to be allowed to worship at the Western Wall. Muslim Murabitat is a group of women who follow and heckle Jewish visitors on the al-Aqsa/Temple Mount complex (they've been banned recently). Zvi Bar'el writes in striking terms about
proposals to revoke the residency of tens of thousands of East Jerusalem residents.
Lastly, Haaretz is running an article on the ancient origins of the word "Palestine".
This is a roundup of news related to Palestine with a particular focus on grassroots action and peaceful civil disobedience in the Occupied Territories and within the borders of Israel proper. The goal is to provide a bi-weekly update on the non-violent resistance movement.
Diplomatic negotiations and actions by armed resistance groups are covered quite widely by the mainstream press and in other diaries on DKos so they will rarely be included.
We use the name Filasṭīn, since this is the pronunciation used by Arabic speakers (irrespective of faith) for their homeland. The more familiar Palestine is the Hellenic or Roman variant. Filasṭīn refers to the geographic entity roughly encompassing Israel and Palestine. It is a likely cognate of "Philistine", the name used in the Hebrew bible to describe a rival of the Jewish kingdom of that era.
Prior Diaries:
XXVI) Oct, 18, 2015: The Intifada won't be televised, it's on Whatsapp
XXV) Oct 4, 2015: Violent clashes across West Bank after terror attacks in Jerusalem/WB kill four Israelis
XXIV) Sep 27, 2015: 17,641 nights into the occupation, 51% of West Bank opposes two-state solution
XXIII) September 20, 2015: The best hope for change on the West Bank? Keep those cameras rolling
XXII) August 23, 2015: Palestinian Christians and Priests clash with Israeli police over separation wall
XXI) August 16, 2015: Jimmy Carter: "Zero chance of the two-state solution"
XX) August 9, 2015: Father of toddler dies of injuries sustained in arson attack
XIX) August 2, 2015: Palestinian infant dies in arson attack, nine prior attacks went unprosecuted by Israel.
XVIII) July 26, 2015: Filastin: "Do you know what Obama coffee is?"
XVII) July 19, 2015: Israeli military judge says a Palestinian can defend his home, too
XVI) July 12, 2015: Citizen Odeh: The Arab leader who feels the Jews' pain
XV) July 5, 2015: Israel losing Democrats, "can't claim bipartisan US support," top pollster warns
XIV) June 28, 2015: Israel's Deputy Interior Minister: I'll seek to revoke Arab MKs' citizenship
XIII) June 21, 2015: Prisoner's hunger strike enters 48th day; Vandals torch Church of Loaves and Fish