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.
This series has been on hiatus for a few weeks because I was working on two other mammoth I/P diaries:
- Palestine/Israel: From the UN "vote" on partition to "Apartheid" today.
- Answering "pro-Israel" talking points on Palestinian resistance and Israel's Army (IDF) effectively
So I'll be playing some catchup here.
How Netanyahu’s Uncle Left Israel and Saved His Children From Becoming Jailers.
(
Opinion in Haaretz - Gideon Levy)
Amos Milo (Mileikowsky) was Benjamin Netanyahu’s uncle, the brother of Benzion. Netanyahu also spent part of his life in America, before deciding to return. Today he has cousins scattered across America, and they too have done well, even though some of them, God forgive them, married goyim. His deeds as prime minister lead us to ask who did the right thing: those who emigrated or those who stayed behind.
Netanyahu’s cousins and their children lead calm, secure lives as he turns all Israel into the former Gaza settlements — fenced in on all sides, an army battalion for every family, stones thrown in the capital and a dark stain on Israel's image. Under Netanyahu. We live in a constant atmosphere of “Holocaust, the Sequel,” every mini-threat is an existential danger, any criticism is delegitimization, every stone a nuclear bomb.
The best hope for change on the West Bank? Keep those cameras rolling
(
Opinion in The Guardian - Ori Nir)
You have probably watched the viral video of the Palestinian women snatching a Palestinian child from the hands of an Israeli soldier, as he was trying to arrest the boy for rock-throwing.
If you missed it, no worries: as long as Israel’s occupation of the West Bank continues, you will have many more opportunities to watch similarly disturbing images. Because as long as the occupation continues, and combat soldiers are sent to police an occupied hostile civilian population, this ugliness is unavoidable.
The proliferation of lenses, of cameras constantly rolling, is the big difference between now and then. So keep those cameras rolling. Keep sharing on Facebook and Twitter to remind us all – Israelis, their friends overseas, and the world at large – how devastatingly destructive the occupation is for Palestinians and Israelis alike. By doing so, you are taking part in what may be the best hope for change.
UN Expresses 'Grave Concern' Over Jerusalem Violence
(
at Haaretz)
The United Nations Security Council is expressing "grave concern" after violence this week at Jerusalem's holiest site and is calling for restraint and calm. The council statement was issued late Thursday after three days of clashes at the hilltop compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
[...]
Earlier on Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Abdul Aziz spoke by phone with U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday and sharply condemned the “dangerous Israeli escalation at Al-Aqsa Mosque.” The Saudi press agency reported that Salman told Obama that “the attack on worshipers at the mosque [earlier this week] is an offense against the Islamic holy places.”
Israel PM vows 'war' on stone-throwers after clashes end
(
at Ma'an News)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed "war" on Palestinian stone-throwers on Wednesday while pushing for tougher penalties and changes in rules for when to open fire, including the use of snipers in East Jerusalem. Netanyahu spoke of his plans to crack down on Palestinian protesters who throw stones and firebombs as he visited the site of a car accident that killed an Israeli at the weekend.
[...]
In the meeting, Netanyahu asked Israel's Attorney General to allow Israel's police force to employ open-fire regulations used in the West Bank, including sniper fire and the use of 0.22 inch Ruger rifles fitted with sniper scopes, Israeli news site Haaretz reported.
Israeli veterans recall horrors of country’s victory in six-day war
(
at The Guardian)
Israeli soldiers had already searched the Palestinian families trudging away from their homes, cleared them of their weapons, and sent them on their way. Then a second group of soldiers pulled up in a car, separated out the men, took them to one side and shot them.
When horrified observers asked their commander, “How could this be?”, he shrugged off the massacre. “When you chop wood, chips fly,” he told his men.
The casual murder of 15 civilian men, yards away from their mothers, wives and daughters, is just one of the alleged war crimes detailed by Israeli veterans of the six-day war of 1967 in Censored Voices, a challenging exploration of a conflict at the heart of Israel’s identity.
The Seventh Day’: Censored Voices From the 1967 War
(
at Haaretz)
What lends this documentary its unsettling effect for Israeli viewers, particularly ones from a certain generation, is that it acts as a reality-changing time capsule, one that no one has disturbed for 48 years since the original audio recordings were made. This selection of testimonies has a power that can shatter truths at the very heart of the State of Israel.
[...]
Three months after the war ended, the collection of conversations was published. “The Seventh Day” was a 286-page book, comprised mainly of reflections and soul-searching by agonized young men encountering violence and death; testimonies of harsh confrontations with enemy soldiers and civilians; and comments that would be considered heresy nowadays. These included questioning whether the conquest of [East] Jerusalem was really necessary, and whether, in exchange for peace, it [East Jerusalem] should be returned to Jordan. There were no testimonies describing war crimes.
[...]
Loushy asks Oz how he views the modern Israeli reality in relation to “The Seventh Day.” “I see more apathy in today’s society, more lack of sensitivity. What happens in the territories sometimes crosses a red line, constituting a war crime, but it’s [viewed as happening] there and not here. There is some mechanism of repression and disengagement at play. Many people don’t read news items relating to the occupation when they come across them. Thus, the media doesn’t adequately cover what happens there. Every day, every hour, Palestinians suffer humiliation, harassment at checkpoints, in their villages – the settlers’ sewage flows downhill into Arab villages.”
European Parliament Expresses Support for Labeling Settlement Goods
(
at Haaretz)
The European Parliament expressed its support Thursday for putting special labels on consumer goods produced in West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights settlements, as well as for “differentiating” between the EU's attitude toward Israel and to the settlements. Five hundred and twenty-five EU parliamentarians voted for the motion, which dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, 70 voted against and 31 abstained.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said that the EU motion was "discriminatory with a sharp smell of boycott," and added that "under the guise of a technical step, this is an attempt to force a diplomatic solution instead of encouraging the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table. Europe is acting with hypocritical sanctimoniousness toward Israel when it does not consider proposing similar solutions to northern Cyprus or Western Sahara."
Jewish official warns Iceland of 'negative repercussions' over Reykjavik boycott of Israel
(
at Jerusalem Post)
Ronald Lauder - the billionaire philanthropist, heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune and the president of the World Jewish Congress - angrily denounced the government of Iceland on Friday for failing to mount opposition to the Reykjavik city council's decision to boycott Israeli products.
Lauder, who is known to be a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urged the government of Iceland to make “a dramatic public gesture that will demonstrate to the people of Iceland and the world that these boycotts are wrong and counterproductive.”
The Icelandic capital's city council passed a resolution Tuesday stating the municipality will boycott all products made in Israel, a move blasted in Israel as a “volcano of hate.”
Activists strip against Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem
(
at Ma'an News)
Several foreign activists stripped bare near the Israeli separation wall in the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank in refusal of ongoing Israeli policies against Palestinians under military occupation.
Photos of the activists went viral Wednesday among Palestinians on social media who refused such support, while social media activists pointed out that the group of Spanish activists work as clowns. The organization through which the activists traveled, Pallasos en Rebeldia, said that the activity was in support of Palestinian freedom and against the separation wall.
Power Cuts Prompt Palestinians to Take to Gaza Streets in Largest Protests in Years
(
at NY Times)
Several hundred Palestinians demonstrated in central Gaza on Monday evening over increasing power cuts, the latest in a series of protests that appear to have erupted over the issue.
The demonstrations, which began Saturday in Rafah, a southern city in the Gaza Strip, are the largest in years. Still, it is uncertain if the protesters can sustain their momentum, and it is unclear if they will pose a challenge to Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
Cuts in electricity are just one of many hardships that Palestinians have endured in recent years, including unrelenting poverty and unemployment amid virtual imprisonment in the coastal strip because of restrictions by neighboring Egypt and Israel.
Southern Israel City Darkens Sports Fields to Keep Bedouin and Asylum Seekers Out
(
at Haaretz)
City officials have ended a pilot program that had kept the lights on in Arad’s soccer fields and other sports facilities every evening. One of the reasons for ending the program was a desire to keep Bedouin from nearby villages and asylum seekers from Sudan from using the fields.
Mayor Nissan Ben Hamo, asked why the lights were turned off despite his promises to the city’s youth to keep them on, replied in a video clip: “We tried a pilot at several fields. To my great regret, it wasn’t our young people who came to the fields, and therefore, we decided we’d turn on the lights only upon request.”
[...]
The nearby Bedouin villages have no proper sports fields and no lighting for them.
Lebanon’s Silence over Sabra and Shatila is Shameful
(Opinion
at Human Rights Watch - Nadim Houry)
It was 33 years ago, in September 1982, that large numbers of Palestinians – estimates vary from 700 to a few thousand – were slaughtered in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by members of the Phalange militia amid Israeli collusion and assistance.
[...]
While Israel never held its officials accountable, Lebanon has done even less to shed light on the role of the Lebanese perpetrators. The Kahan commission – in the absence of a Lebanese investigation – found that the Phalange unit that entered the camp was an intelligence unit headed by Elie Hobeika. Yaron told the Kahan commission that Hobeika himself did not go into the camps but was on the roof of the forward command post during the night. One of the Israeli soldiers who was on the roof told the commission that he heard a Phalangist officer inside the camps tell Hobeika over the radio that there were 50 women and children, and ask what should he do. Hobeika’s reported reply over the radio was: “This is the last time you’re going to ask me a question like that. You know exactly what to do.”
Nevertheless, after the war, Hobeika was elected to Parliament for two terms and served as a government minister multiple times. His crimes – particularly his role in Sabra and Shatila – were never investigated in Lebanon or elsewhere. He was assassinated in 2002. A day before his murder, Hobeika had told two visiting Belgian senators that he was willing to go to Brussels to testify in the Belgian court case against Sharon. The identity of the killers of Hobeika – a man with many enemies – was never established.
Israeli Town Cancels Gaza Film in Wake of Right-wing Pressure
(
at Haaretz)
The management of a community center in the southern Israeli town of Yeruham canceled Wednesday’s scheduled screening of "Shivering in Gaza,"’ becoming the third town to succumb to right-wing pressure not to show the documentary film.
Sderot and Be’er Sheva canceled screenings in their towns in July. Hani Briga, the director of the Yeruham-based Center for Volunteerism and Civil Society and a member of the community center’s board, initiated the screening, which was to take place at the town's community center. When the film’s planned showing was announced, right-wing activist Shami Glick launched a Facebook campaign calling for protest text messages to be sent to Michael Biton, the head of the local council. Biton initially announced he had no intention of intervening in a private initiative.
On Sunday, however, the community center board met and voted to cancel the screening. Briga invited board members to watch the film before deciding, but they refused.
The women in Hebron cooperative
(
at Int'l Solidarity Movement)
Silverware clinks on plates, numerous excited voices float above the large trays of food laid out and loud bursts of laughter punctuate most bites of food. We are in the colorful and warm ‘Women in Hebron’ embroidery cooperative space in the village of Idna in the Hebron district. And we are surrounded by the women who keep the business running and the spirit of community and empowerment nearly bursting the center at its very seams.
From the worn hands of an elderly woman rushing her crease-patterned hands through the weaving of a carpet stretching the length of the cooperative itself to the bright eyes of 14 year old Yafa Slemiah whose mother founded Women in Hebron, at this cooperative, there is space for everyone.
“We welcome everyone here. People from all over the world have come to work with us. We open our home to them; there we have an entire floor dedicated for volunteers, three rooms and three bathrooms, they have free food and can travel with us. …And we teach them embroidery.”
Israeli Arab Schools to Go on Strike on Monday
(
at Haaretz)
The Israeli Arab school system will go on strike on Monday in solidarity with Christian schools, which have been on strike over budgets since the school year started on Tuesday.
Christian schools in Israel will remain closed today as educators step up their campaign to persuade the Education Ministry to reverse budget cuts they say are strangling these schools. A demonstration is planned outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem today and Catholic church leaders have threatened to close churches and holy sites to foreign pilgrims and local worshipers. In addition, the Council of Arab Mayors and the union of parents’ associations for Arab schools have called for the wider Arab public in Israel to attend today’s demonstration and to close all Arab schools in the country on Monday, in solidarity with the Christian schools.
[...]
“The cuts on the one hand, and the circular restricting collections on the other are dealing a death blow to the Christian schools,” said one principal. The school administrators note that ultra-Orthodox schools in the Maayan Hahinukh Hatorani and Atzma’i networks get full funding although they are not subject to Education Ministry inspection and many do not teach the core curriculum.
Headlines:
- 10-year old boy arrested and blindfolded in Hebron
- Israeli forces storm Aqsa Mosque in third day of clashes
- Italian activist arrested and beaten up in occupied Palestine
- 'Anti-Israel' Corbyn wins UK Labour leadership in landslide
- Clash Erupts During Raid by Israelis in West Bank
- Palestinians Pay Homage to a 3rd Firebomb Victim
- Palestinian Is Rearrested and Resumes Hunger Strike
- Israel Has Identified Duma Arson Suspects but Won’t File Charges Yet, Says Defense Minister
More stories below the orange separation wall:
Israel's Supreme Court sentences Knesset member to one year in prison for traveling to Syria
(
at Adalah)
On 31 August 2015, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed by Adalah on behalf of former Knesset Member Said Naffaa against the Nazareth District Court's decision in April 2014 to convict MK Naffaa of travelling to an "enemy state" (Syria), assisting in organizing a travel to an enemy state, and contact with a foreign agent. The District Court decided to sentence MK Naffaa to imprisonment for one year. The Supreme Court decided that MK Naffaa's sentence would begin on 6 October 2015. Adalah Attorneys Hassan Jabareen and Aram Mahameed, and private lawyer Salim Wakim, represented MK Naffaa before the Supreme Court.
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.
Nuclear Whistle-blower Vanunu Arrested Over Channel 2 Interview
(
at Haaretz)
Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu has again been arrested, with police saying his recent Channel 2 interview violates the terms of his release from prison.
Vanunu exposed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British media in 1986. He was jailed for 18 years and released in 2004 under strict conditions.
In Israel, many see him as having betrayed the country, but for anti-nuclear activists he is often seen as a hero. Israel does not confirm or deny that it has nuclear weapons.
On the Underground Railroad From Gaza to a Ramallah Grocery
(
Opinion in Haaretz - Amira Haas)
From their names I immediately knew from which pre-1948 villages they’d originated, but I will disclose neither the villages’ names nor their full names and our common friends and acquaintances, in order not to give the three regimes that meddle in their lives an opportunity to harass them. So why don’t you contact the Palestinian Authority’s Civilian Affairs Ministry, which might be able to get you a permit? I asked one of them. “They’re just the [Israeli Civil Administration’s] mailmen,” he said.
He stared, considered his next words, and added, “There are two classes here; they are one class, and the people are another class. You’ve heard of the French Revolution? They’re the class that doesn’t care about us.”
Israel Bans 2 Muslim Groups That Protest at Jerusalem Holy Site
(at NY Times)
Israel on Wednesday officially outlawed an organization of Muslim women who chase and shout at Jewish visitors to a contested holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City, along with a less-vocal affiliated group of men.
Israel’s defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, signed a regulation that accused the two groups of incitement and classified them as illegal, a move that allows for the prosecution of anyone who participates in their activities or finances them, according to a statement from the minister’s office.
The groups, called Mourabitoun for the men and Mourabitat for the women, which roughly translate to “garrison soldiers,” formed in recent years to assert Palestinian sovereignty over the sprawling compound that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary, or Al Aqsa, which is the name of one of two main Islamic shrines there. The 37-acre compound is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest place in Islam, and has been the site of clashes between Muslims and Jewish visitors as well as the Israeli authorities.
PLO invites leaders to UN flag-raising ceremony
(
at Ma'an News)
Hundreds of world leaders are invited to a ceremony this month to raise the Palestinian flag at the United Nations despite opposition from Israel and the United States, the PLO's envoy said Tuesday.
President Mahmoud Abbas will attend the Sept. 30 ceremony that follows a vote in the UN General Assembly to allow the flag of Palestine to fly at UN headquarters in New York. "It will be a glorious day, a proud day for us," Riyad Mansour told reporters in announcing the date for the flag-raising ceremony.
Israel's Chief Rabbinate Blasts 'Spiritually Dangerous' Christian Event in Jerusalem
(
at Haaretz)
Israel's Chief Rabbinate warned of the spiritual danger of an upcoming conference organized by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, claiming the event seeks to convert Jews to Christianity.
"We have learned that missionary elements [working on behalf] of the Christian embassy in Jerusalem are organizing a large conference during the Sukkot holiday. Some of this organization's goals are to convert Jews [to Christianity]," a statement signed by Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef read. "Those same elements see as their mission converting the entire world to Christianity, especially the Jewish people."
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
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