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. It's published on Sunday morning.
We use the name Filastin, since that is the pronunciation preferred by Arabic speakers (irrespective of faith) for their homeland.
How Israel may be damaging the alliance between blacks and Jews
(
at WaPo)
“Do u know what Obama Coffee is? Black and weak.”
— A June 21 tweet by Judy Mozes, wife of Israeli interior minister and vice prime minister Silvan Shalom.
Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, a well-known Israeli radio and television personality, deleted the tweet and later apologized after drawing criticism for what she called a “stupid joke.”
U.S.-born Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, has done his own anti-Obama number. Citing President Obama’s upbringing, Oren suggested in a series of recent articles in Foreign Policy that the president’s “abandonment” by his mother’s “two Muslim husbands” created in him a desire for “acceptance by their co-religionists” that has now influenced his foreign policy. Conspiracy theorists and birthers could hardly have said it better — Obama’s Christianity notwithstanding.
Herzog: Netanyahu using 'Tisha B'Av syndrome' to scare Israelis
(
at Haaretz)
Opposition leader and Zionist Union chairman Isaac Herzog accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of using fear tactics to influence public opinion in a Facebook post published on Saturday.
Referring to the Jewish fast day commemorating the destruction of both Temples marked on Saturday evening, Herzog said that no previous Israeli leader has turned the "Tisha B'Av syndrome," a permanent threat of annihilation, into his main political tool like Netanyahu has.
Netanyahu has been "dripping deep anxiety into the hearts of the people, consistently for years, with the same rhetoric, causing an imbalance in our national feelings. This has to stop, this has to change," Herzog wrote in the post.
'For the first time in history, Jews can take part in war from home'
(
at +972mag)
Avi Benayahu, who served as IDF Spokesperson during both Operation Cast Lead and the Mavi Marmara incident, explains his worldview and tactics in a lecture obtained by +972 Magazine, including how he sent army officers pretending to be civilians onto foreign television news.
Quotes from Benayahu's lecture below:
"Hasbara is a very complicated issue. Compared to the Second Lebanon War, the media in Israel was very disciplined during Protective Edge. During the Second Lebanon War the media in Israel developed a reporting model that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world [...] the war began, and every media outlet wanted to be the first to present the investigative committee [into its failures], already asking difficult questions.
In Cast Lead we tried to restore order, we took cellphones from the all the soldiers and we didn't let journalists go in or go out, all sorts of things like that. We wanted to redeem ourselves. I'll say this as clearly as possible, okay? During Cast Lead, one of the my -- and the army's main missions -- was to redeem ourselves from the bad feeling [that followed] from the Second Lebanon War."
"In the past, one or two or three Hamas battalion commanders would travel to a meeting with a Hamas division commander -- they would put a woman on the left-side window and a young girl on the right-side window as they traveled, in order to guarantee their safety. You don't open fire, right? Today, we fire. The woman and the kid -- gone. That was the surprise of Cast Lead."
As an example, an attempt to assassinate Mohammed Deif
killed his wife and child when the bomb landed on their home. This was one of
dozens of targeted strikes on homes which killed hundreds of children, women and civilians. I doubt the same IDF spokesperson would find it acceptable if Hamas bombed the home of an IDF general killing his family. Would it be acceptable if a couple of colonels were visiting him at home?
"I took his uniform from him, a field uniform, and I told him ‘put this in the back of your car.’ I told him you’re going to do your reserve service in the Spokesperson’s Unit, but in civilian clothes on foreign television stations…
Some of the lesser-known IDF Spokesperson reservists appeared on American and European [television networks] without uniform. Without ranks of colonel or general — it’s not okay, it’s a little fraudulent because it is a general or a colonel — but in war one can do such things."
Benayahu also explains why it seemed like every person defending Operation Protective Edge seemed to be reading from the same talking points.
"The most influential front is [being fought] on social media. During Cast Lead I built a tool [...] it was called 'global distribution.' [...] We mapped hundreds of organizations [...] Israelis, Jewish and Christian [groups] that love Israel, church organizations, we did all this leg work.
[...]
For instance, let’s take one example, Chabad. [They have] thousands of emissaries — do you know what those are? The Chabad emissaries that you all know from from East Asia, but also in France, Manhattan, New York, Los Angeles…
With a single click, [the Chabad spokesperson can] transfer [the message] to thousands of locations. Now, there is discipline there. The guy in New York gets it and sends it to thousands of people on his mailing list, and the same thing in Kathmandu and China. I send it to Hillel, and Hillel sends it to every Hillel house in universities all over the world […] viral distribution. That defeats anything. We built this system, it works, the way we distribute our newsletter videos, pictures…
[…]
In every war, all the Jewish communities around the world identify with the IDF. They raise money and send us packages. They hold rallies in support of the army. [Now], for the first time in history, they can actually take part in the war from their homes. With the tip of their fingers, they can make an enormous contribution to Israel's hasbara."
Presumed Guilty: Remand in Custody by Military Courts in the West Bank
(
at B'Tselem)
Every year, thousands of Palestinians are brought before military courts on various charges, including entering Israel without a permit, stone-throwing, membership in an “illegal association”, violence, firearms-related offenses and traffic violations. The military court has jurisdiction over residents of the entire West Bank, including areas over which partial control was transferred to the Palestinian Authority, and even if the offense was committed outside the West Bank. In theory, these courts have the authority to try settlers. In practice, settlers are tried only in civilian courts inside Israel.
One of the outcomes of this policy is that the vast majority of military court cases end in plea bargains. Defendants know that if they go to trial while in custody – even if going to trial would mean eventual acquittal – they may spend more time behind bars than the prison sentence they would receive in a plea bargain. As a consequence the prosecution is seldom required to go through a full trial, in which it must present evidence to prove a person guilty. It follows that in many cases the decision to arrest an individual effectively means a conviction. The case is decided at the time the remand is approved rather than on the basis of evidence against the defendant. When remand – a pre-trial decision regarding a person not yet convicted – is approved on a regular basis, the judicial process as such becomes a hollow formality.
The military judges and prosecutors are always Israeli. They are soldiers in uniform enforcing martial law on the civilian Palestinian population living under military rule. The people who take part in administering the occupation are on one side, while the regime’s subjects are on the other. Military courts are not an impartial, neutral arbitrator. They are firmly entrenched on one side of this unequal balance.
State seeks to demolish about half of the village of Susiya before HCJ hearing
(
at B'Tselem)
In a letter sent this morning to the Civil Administration, representatives of the village of Susiya demanded that the authorities freeze all the demolitions planned over the coming days in the village. The letter was sent after it emerged that the scale of destruction the state seeks to sow in Susiya is much greater than was previously thought, and includes almost half the structures in the village. If the structures are demolished, the residents will have no way to survive in the area in conditions of extreme heat and cold. Accordingly, the action effectively constitutes the expulsion of the residents from their land.
Of the buildings slated for demolition by the Civil Administration, 21 were constructed with funding from European governments. The heads of all the missions of the EU member states in Palestine toured Susiya last month and urged the Israeli government to refrain from demolishing the village.
The letter quotes the opinion of Prof. Eyal Benvenisti that the planned demolition over the coming summer will constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law, which prohibits the expulsion of protected persons: “The significance of the execution of the demolition orders that are the subject of this opinion is effective ‘transfer’ of protected residents by creating physical conditions that require the protected persons to leave the place in which they are present against their will. Following the planned demolition of the buildings, there will be no way to survive within the area of the village without shelter and other facilities ensuring the residents’ ability to survive and make a livelihood. In addition to the indirect transfer, the demolition of the buildings in the village as described above constitutes the demolition of buildings vital for the survival of the residents of the village; this, too, is prohibited.”
IDF internal report: Palestinian land at Sussia is privately owned
(
at Haaretz)
Sussia, the Palestinian village in which structures are slated for demolition, sits on private Palestinian land owned by local people, according to a document of the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration obtained by Haaretz.
Despite the findings by Civil Administration officer Moshe Meiri, Sussia residents still need building permits in order to prevent the planned demolition. Meiri’s report, however, appears to counter the reasoning that building permits cannot be issued to the local people because of a lack of ownership papers.
According to Meiri, a Civil Administration officer responsible for land administration in the West Bank, the Ottoman deed is indeed valid. The same type of deed has also been mentioned by the State Prosecutor’s Office, which has ruled on the borders of various settlements.
Israeli police detain and interrogate 8-year-old Palestinian boy
(
at Ma'an News)
The Israeli forces detained and interrogated an eight-year-old Palestinian boy late Wednesday for allegedly throwing rocks in an occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood, a local center said. The Wadi Hilweh Information Center said that Israeli border guards detained Abdullah Imad Idkeik while he was with a group of children meters away from his house in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood of Silwan.
Idkeik was interrogated alone for an hour-and-a-half after his mother was prevented from accompanying him in the police’s vehicle to the interrogation center. “Children gathered in the neighborhood as Israeli forces held a youth that was walking his dog. During this Israeli border guards detained Abdullah," Idkeik’s mother said.
Idkeik's brief interrogation is common for Palestinian minors living under Israeli occupation, with around 700 Palestinian children prosecuted every year through Israeli military courts, according to prisoners' rights group Addameer. In 2014, rights group Defense for Children International- Palestine reported that 93 percent of children detained by Israeli forces were denied access to legal counsel, while others endured prolonged periods of solitary confinement for interrogation purposes, a practice that also amounts to torture under international law.
As of March 31, there were 182 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons, including 26 below the age of 16. The most common charge against children is throwing stones, a crime that is now punishable under Israeli law for up to 20 years.
51% of Israels want settlements re-established in Gaza
(
at Times of Israel)
According to the survey by the Begin-Sadat Center of Strategic Studies, a think tank, 63 percent of respondents say they were against the evacuation at the time, while 51% say Israeli civilians should move back into the coastal enclave.
Nearly half of respondents (47%) also oppose evacuating West Bank Jewish settlements, while 53% support such a move under certain circumstances, such as a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Prof. Efraim Inbar, the head of the think tank, said the results indicate that many Israelis regret supporting the 2005 plan — which saw the dismantling of 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, evacuation of over 8,000 Israelis, and an end of Israeli control over the coastal enclave — and some respondents lied on the survey about their past support.
Israel advances 1,065 settlement housing units
(
at Ma'an News)
Israel's Civil Administration advanced plans for the development of 1,065 housing units in eight different settlements throughout occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a settlement watchdog announced Thursday. The civil administration -- Israel's governing body for the occupied West Bank -- approved 15 plans for various planning stages in the settlements at hand, Peace Now said.
Approved plans included legalizing 228 already existing housing units that have been completed in settlements, as well as 541 new housing units yet to be constructed. An infrastructure plan connecting 296 housing units was also given the go ahead. One of the plans passed by the administration will begin construction of 24 housing units, in two new buildings, at the Bet El settlement near the West Bank town of Ramallah. Commonly known as the "Dreinoff buildings," the two new buildings will join others built on private Palestinian lands that are supposed to be demolished by the end of this month after a ruling by the Supreme Court, Peace Now said.
More stories below the orange separation barrier...
Palestinian 10-year-old loses eye after Border Police unlawfully fire sponge round at him, East Jerusalem
(
at B'Tselem)
In the early afternoon of Thursday, 21 May 2015, an Israeli Border Police officer fired a black sponge round at 10-year-old Yihya al-‘Amudi in Shu’fat Refugee Camp in East Jerusalem, hitting the boy in the eye. As a result, the Palestinian boy lost his left eye and suffered a broken jaw.
B’Tselem’s field research found that at the time of the incident, a group of Palestinian children was throwing stones at a Border Police force that had taken up position in a construction site in Shu’fat Refugee Camp, some 150 meters from the checkpoint stationed at the entrance to the R.C. Although the camp lies within the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem Municipality, it is completely cut off from the city by the Separation Barrier – an eight-meter high wall in that area. Yihya al-‘Amudi’s father told B’Tselem that his son had been on his way to pick up his little sister from kindergarten.
Nevertheless, in recent years the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) has documented 17 instances in which police officers fired sponge rounds unlawfully, in blatant breach of regulations, injuring Palestinians in East Jerusalem. On 31 August 2014, an Israeli police officer fired a black sponge round at Muhammad Sunuqrut, 15, in East Jerusalem. The Palestinian teenager was injured and died of his wounds on 4 September 2014. Last week, ACRI reported that yet another Palestinian in East Jerusalem lost his eye after being hit by a sponge round fired by a police officer, while sheltering from clashes taking places in Shu’fat R.C.
Israeli forces wound 8 at funeral of 53-year-old killed Thursday
(
at Ma'an News)
Israeli forces injured eight Palestinians in the occupied West Bank town of Beit Ummar Thursday as clashes erupted after the funeral of Falah Abu Maria, who was shot dead in his home at dawn during an Israeli arrest raid, witnesses said.
Spokesman for a popular committee in the Hebron-area town, Mohammad Ayyad Awad, said that Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at funeral attendees. The mourners received light to medium injuries, and three were transferred to hospitals in Hebron for treatment, he said. One of the ambulances on site was hit by rubber-coated steel bullets fired by Israeli forces as it left the scene, shattering the rear window, Awad added. Israeli forces had reportedly closed the entrances leading into Beit Ummar during the funeral procession, which was attended by hundreds of town residents. Participants chanted slogans condemning the killing of Abu Maria by Israeli forces and demanding a response to the "crimes of the occupation against the Palestinian people."
Abu Maria is the 17th Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces this year, three of whom have been killed since the beginning of this month.
When it comes to Palestinians, Israel's defense minister doubles as a pedantic linguist
(
Opinion in Haaretz -- Amira Hass)
This "correction" says nothing, of course, about the hundreds of Palestinians in several communities whom, since the end of April, the IDF has forced to evacuate for several hours or even days at a time. Last year they and others were also forced to evacuate several times due to training exercises. They lead a traditional way of life making a living shepherding and dryland farming, which requires only limited access to the market in the nearby towns, where they have relatives and where they avail themselves of services such as schooling and medical care. They live in a region their ancestors knew for centuries. Their meager tent encampments could have developed into permanent villages well-suited to its residents long ago had it not been for the plethora of Israeli prohibitions on construction and development.
The absurd correction on the part of Blumenblat/Yaalon reflects the essence of their worldview. Saying that these Palestinians are not "residents" means that these two officials don't recognize the non-Hebrew human history of the area from the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the 2nd century C.E. until the IDF captured the West Bank in 1967. Refusing to consider Palestinians as residents makes them illegal wherever they are, so long as we don't deem them otherwise; it implies that a Palestinian is properly deemed a resident only in the pale of settlement that we have allocated to him.
In other words, firing ranges are a means to expel Palestinians. And in practice, as noted in a report by the Israeli human rights organization B'tselem in May about the removal of Jordan Valley communities due to military exercises, increasing the frequency of training in the valley has been official army policy for the past three years.
Tel Aviv bank index drops following think tank report on settlements
(
at +972mag)
The European Council on Foreign Relations publishes a paper recommending the EU take measures against financial institutions that do businesses in the West Bank. Israeli bank stocks dip shortly after Israeli media quoted a Reuters article on the report.
The report, published by the European Council on Foreign Relations, included a series of recommendations intended to create a distinction between formal EU-Israeli ties and those that create complicity in its settlement activities in the West Bank. It put a special emphasis on the banking system. (Read the full report below.)
According to the reports' authors, Hugh Lovatt and Mattia Toaldo, "differentiating between Israel and its settlement activities within the EU's bilateral relations is one of most powerful tools at the EU's disposal for challenging the incentive structure that underpins Israeli support for the status quo."
The three major Israeli banks -- Hapoalim, Leumi and Discount == lost 2.6-2.7 percent each. They also had led the day in trade volume.
Israeli forces continue abuses on Gaza fishermen, open fire at dawn
(
at Int'l Solidarity Movement)
At 3:00 AM on the 21st of July 2015, Israeli forces once again opened fire on fishermen in Gaza’s Beit Lahia area. 20 year old Ahmed Ismail al-Sharafi was shot in the stomach while 2 other fishermen were arrested and one of the boats was taken to Ashdod port.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reports that in May alone, there were a total of 51 incidents of shootings, incursions into the coastal enclave, and arrests. This included 41 shootings, which left nine injured, including one minor.
Despite Israeli promises at the end of the ceasefire to ease restrictions on Palestinian access to both the sea and the border region near the “security buffer zone,” these attacks continue on a very often basis.
Israel rules to expel family of Jerusalem attacker
(
at Ma'an News)
The Jerusalem residency of Ghassan’s wife, Nadiya, was revoked by Israeli authorities in May and she was ordered to move back to the West Bank where her family resides. The Hamoked Center for the Defense of the Individual had then presented an appeal to the Minister of Interior and the Supreme Court to allow Nadiya to stay in Jerusalem with her three children on the grounds that the three had no relation to the attack.
The court refused the appeal and instead ruled that the children would be sent to the West Bank as well, ruling that the mother gained custody after the death of her husband. Ghassan’s brother Muawiya said that the appeal had stressed the importance of keeping the family's children, Walid, 6, Salma, 4, and Muhammad, 3, with their mother in Jerusalem. Forcing the children and their mother to leave Jerusalem means separating the children from their home, family and the village they grew up in, he said.
Tearful Moment With Merkel Turns Migrant Girl Into a Potent Symbol
(
at NY Times)
She was born in a refugee camp in Baalbek, Lebanon, in 2000. Her birth was two months premature, and she has a shortened Achilles tendon and cerebral palsy that has partly paralyzed her left side and made walking difficult.
Her father, Atef Sahwil, struggled to pay her medical bills on what he made as a welder. In the summer of 2006, as the war between Israel and Hezbollah upended their lives in Baalbek, the Sahwils fled to Syria for a few months, living in another refugee camp. After the family returned to Lebanon, Reem broke her right leg in a car accident.
It was the first of many medical procedures she would undergo in Germany, prompting her family to stay and apply for asylum. "Papa just couldn't deal with it anymore," Reem said of the family's difficult life in Lebanon.
"Politics is sometimes hard," the chancellor said, a remark that some commentators have said showed a lack of empathy. Others have applauded Ms. Merkel's candor -- including Reem herself.
"She was honest, and I find that good," Reem said.
Israeli forces 'ambush' demonstrators, injuring 2 with live fire
(
at Ma'an News)
Two Palestinians were shot and injured by Israeli forces Friday during a weekly demonstration in the occupied West Bank town of Nabi Saleh, witnesses said. Israeli forces had reportedly set an "ambush" near the path where demonstrators planned to walk, opening live fire as the marchers headed towards land confiscated by the neighboring Halamish settlement.
During the incident, forces shot a 17-year-old with two live bullets. Witnesses say a bullet passed through one thigh, entering and settling in the teen's other thigh, while a second bullet hit him in the back. A 27-year-old was also shot in the leg.
Residents of Nabi Saleh -- similar to villages and towns across the occupied West Bank -- have staged weekly demonstrations for years in protest of private land confiscated by Israeli authorities. Large portions of the Jewish-only Halamish settlement is built on land belonging to Nabi Saleh residents.
Israel should focus on army's morality, not pensions
(
Opinion at Haaretz -- Zeev Sternhell)
The units of the Central Command were not designated for combat but for sustaining the colonialist regime – by having young people in compulsory military service serve as a cheap labor force for the Shin Bet, and engage in policing assignments and in controlling the Palestinian population. Their commander, the general in charge of Central Command, is dedicated to providing services to the settlements, from dubbing a marginal college in Ariel a “university” to razing an Arab village. Basically, the Central Command is charged with applying the apartheid regime in the territories.
This is where his commanders come into the picture: According to various reports, a tank battalion commander gave an order to fire on a Gazan medical clinic where many people were known to be hiding, and which did not pose a danger to our forces: The barrage was a gesture to an officer who was killed in battle. Such an order, if verified, should be considered a possible war crime that requires a criminal investigation and trial. The argument that unconscionable acts are committed in wartime and that’s just the regrettable nature of war is absurd, and not just in this case: This is precisely why rules of war and laws prohibiting war crimes exist. The battalion commander’s tank crews can draw two lessons from the fact that he was not tried, lessons that will stay with them for a lifetime: Human life, when the humans are not Jewish, is worthless; and the term “war crime” is relative and doesn’t really apply to Israelis.
The difference between then and now is the purpose for which the country sends its sons to war. Since there are no greater goals for war beyond day-to-day security, and there is also no chance for peace, the army has correctly concluded that it must not absorb losses. But combat that aims for zero losses requires modes of behavior that give rise to actions that verge on war crimes, such as what happened on “Black Friday” in Rafah, when the “Hannibal procedure” was activated. These are wounds that will not soon heal.
Study: Diaspora Jews are growing increasingly critical of Israel
(
at Jerusalem Post)
Diaspora Jewry is increasingly critical of Israel and young Diaspora Jews are growing more alienated from the Jewish state, a new study found.
The study, released this week by the Jewish People Policy Institute, an influential think tank based in Jerusalem, comes a year after Israel’s war in Gaza. Titled “Jewish Values and Israel’s Use of Force in Armed Conflict: Perspectives from World Jewry,” the report looks at how non-Israeli Jews view Israeli military actions and how Diaspora Jews should respond.
Diaspora Jews tend to support and understand the military actions, the study found, but also “doubt that Israel truly wishes to reach a peace settlement with the Palestinians.” The study added that “few believe it is making the necessary effort to achieve one,” particularly among younger Jews.
PHOTOS: Palestinians reach the sea to mark end of Ramadan
(
at +972mag)
Thousands of Palestinian from the West Bank crossed the Green Line to celebrate the end of Ramadan on Israel's beaches this past weekend. Israeli authorities issued thousands of entry permits, allowing Palestinians to visit Israel during the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday. Many traveled as far as Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Acre in the north.
Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to a permit regime that not only severely restricts their ability to enter Israel, but also within the West Bank itself.
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 weekly update on the non-violent resistance movement and the challenges confronting it.
Diplomatic negotiations and actions by armed resistance groups are covered quite widely by the mainstream press and in other diaries on DKos so they are rarely included.
We use the name Filastin, 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. Filastin 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 in the series:
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
XII) June 14, 2015: Soldiers remove Palestinians from pool in Area A so Settlers can bathe undisturbed
XI) June 7, 2015: French Telecom Executive's Remarks on Israel Incite Furor.
X) May 31, 2015: Online database "exposes" pro-Palestinian college students to "damage their careers".
IX) May 24, 2015: Soldier pays the price for criticizing the Israel army
VIII) May 17, 2015: Despite literal "smoking gun", settlers cleared of charges for shooting
VII) May 10, 2015: "Palestinians are beasts, they are not human" - new head of West Bank civil administration
VI) May 3, 2015: 6 year old child arrested in Jerusalem; The Death of Compassion