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.
Though non-violent protests continue across the West Bank, they have been overshadowed by a spate of stabbing and vehicular attacks and violent demonstrations across the West Bank and Gaza. 17 Palestinians accused of attacks and at least 34 Palestinians overall have been shot by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza or armed Israeli civilians. Many hundreds are believed to have been injured. Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have resumed, with one killing a pregnant woman and a 2 year old girl. 8 Israelis have died and dozens others injured in attacks over the past month.
Extremely graphic images and videos of Israelis and Palestinians dying, being beaten, or being beaten while dying have become a staple on a number of social media sites. Haaretz is calling them snuff films and they are undoubtedly fueling much of the violence. One of the most notorious incidents is an alleged attempt by 13 and 15 year old Palestinian cousins to stab numerous Israelis including a 13 year old with knives. The 15 year old was shot and killed at the site, the Israeli police say the younger one was hit by a car. Netanyahu accused Abbas of incitement for saying the 13 year old had been "executed" by Israeli police. Netanyahu himself got details wrong at a press conference, wrongly claimed a 13 year old Israeli child had been killed in the attack (he was wounded). Videos of what happened immediately after have been widely disseminated sparking fury. As Orly Noy explains in +972mag:
in a video clip of the aftermath of the stabbing, 13-year-old Ahmed Manasra is seen shot, lying on the ground, and the crowd gathered around him are yelling at the security forces to kill him, a 13-year-old boy lying in a pool of his own blood.
In at least one case, the IDF has
admitted that they shot and
killed a 13 year old boy, "by mistake". Jerusalem's mayor has
urged Israeli citizens to keep firearms on their persons at all times if they have permits. Palestinians
claim IDF soldiers are planting knives on Palestinians killed by soldiers or Israeli civilians. In a
video of an incident in Hebron, a soldier can be seen dropping an object next to a Palestinian shot minutes earlier by an armed settler. Palestinians and human rights observers claim
civilian settlers at the scene threatened them. On the same day, a group of settlers
attempted to stop an ambulance carrying a Palestinian wounded by a soldier he had attacked with a knife.
Israeli's security minister has recently loosened gun permit rules allowing more civilians with military training to get permits. Palestinians do not serve in the Israeli military.
You can skip to more coverage of the violence below the fold, but first to some other things that caught my interest.
Alona Ferber reviews Suad Amiry's book "Golda Slept Here". It recounts the stories of three Palestinians who re-visit homes they fled from in 1948 and were prevented from returning to (Golda Meir lived in a former Palestinian's home). The story of the Baramki family reaches it's climax in an Israeli court as they try to reclaim their west Jerusalem home. The judge determines the Baramkis are absentee landlords though they are sitting in the court. The Israeli legal system has concocted the term "present absentees" for such cases involving Palestinian owners. In contrast, settler groups routinely win cases to evict Palestinians from homes in East Jerusalem based on claims of Jewish ownership.
Marwan Barghouti, writing from an Israeli prison, says "the last day of occupation will be the first day of peace". The Guardian has a companion piece on Barghouti. Gideon Levy asks in Haaretz whether Israelis expected Palestinians to sit idly as years of the occupation passed. Chemi Shalev says occupation denial leads Israelis to misunderstand this conflict. Nir Hasson reports on ordinary interactions in Jerusalem where the random violence seems to have frightened people. Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man says there has never been a better time for Israelis and Palestinians to begin building a shared future together, he also points out the attacks question the claim that the separation wall is about security. Sawson Khalife writes that the logic of segregation and the occupation requires Palestinian blood be deemed cheaper than Israeli blood. Lisa Goldman notes that ideology seems to prevent people from seeing what is in front of their eyes, using the case of a Palestinian protestor shot by an Israeli officer after being captured as an example. Amjad Iraqi says that Palestinian citizens will always be the enemy in a Jewish state.
Noam Sheizaf suggests the relative calm over the past few years have lulled Israelis into believing the occupation can run forever, and if there is one opinion piece you're going to read on this subject, I would urge you to read his:
Israelis love to talk about “incitement” in the occupied territories. It provides a comforting explanation for the violence that breaks out now and again. Israel’s sense of righteousness is only reinforced by the feeling that Palestinians support violence, and that the Israeli side only wants peace and quiet — a little bit of normalcy, commerce, removing a few checkpoints here and there as signs of goodwill, etc.
But the situation, of course, is entirely different. The Palestinians are always subject to the violence of the occupation, which is daily as it is arbitrary, while Israelis primarily enjoy quiet and prosperity. The “Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” most of the time, exists for one side and one side only.
[...]
The cards are still in Israel’s hands, and they hold great power. Israel can initiate new peace talks with a few simple gestures. It can even decide with whom: Fatah or a Palestinian unity government. It can rally an international coalition to support it — from the Arab states to Turkey, Russia, the United States and the European Union. Ours is one of the few issues in the world on which all of those states would happily cooperate. It could unilaterally end its military regime in the West Bank. In a nutshell, Israel has a full set of tools at its disposal that, in the medium- to long-term, could fundamentally alter relations between Jews and Arabs in this land. But doing so carries a price: putting an end to settlement building, releasing prisoners, and all of the rest of the steps that not only the political leadership, but also the majority of the Jewish public, rejects out of hand at the moment.
The interior ministry plans to revoke the citizenship of two Israeli Arabs who are accused in two attacks. One of them is dead. No word yet on whether this remedy will also be applied to Jewish perpetrators.
The violence appears to be driven by social media and have no specific organization behind it. Most of the protestors and attackers appear to be young teenagers. Contributing to the view that it is random in nature is the form of the weapons, which have included knives, screwdrivers and cars. Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas has called for a "strengthening of the intifada", saying Gaza stands behind the 'Battle of Jerusalem'. Abbas and the PA appear to be attempting to "restore calm", though it's unclear whether this will have any effect since widespread dissatisfaction with the Palestinian leadership's inability to deliver any meaningful respite from the occupation is driving some of the violence.
Over the summer, a number of incidents have sparked Palestinian protests, including the firebombing of Dawabsheh home in Duma which led to the death of a toddler and his parents (Israel's defense minister said Israel will not arrest the suspected perpetrators of that killing), the two week old killing of 18 year old Hadeel al-Hashlamoun at a checkpoint, where video appears to dispute IDF claims she presented a threat and that they delivered prompt medical assistance after the shooting. Settlers in Hebron have been accused of leading several attacks on Palestinians after an Israeli couple was killed in their car, in front of their children, allegedy by a Hamas cell. In at least one case rights organization say the IDF accompanied the settlers on such a reprisal attack.
What appears to be most incendiary though are widespread rumors that Israel intends to stake claim to the al-Aqsa/Temple Mount complex, which is currently administer by a Islamic waqf. Right wing Israeli groups and minister for agriculture, Uri Ariel have visited the site and called for Jews to be permitted to pray on the temple mount (rather than the western wall). This is reminiscent of Ariel Sharon's visit to the complex which sparked the second intifada in 2000. Some Israeli leaders have called for building a third temple, notably the chief rabbi of Safed two weeks ago. The Netanyahu government and the rabbi with authority over the western wall insist there is no change to the "status-quo", but this does not appear to have had much impact on Palestinians, most of whom believe Israel intends to destroy the al-Aqsa mosque and replace it with a Jewish temple. Current policy, in place since '67, allows non-Muslims to visit the al-Aqsa complex, but not to worship there. At the UN, Israel's ambassador rejected a Palestinian call for a UN resolution on the complex.
A Jewish man stabbed a Mizrahi Jewish supermakret worker mistaking him for a Palestinian, the victim has denounced all ethnic/religious violence, saying perhaps the only sensible thing one can say:
“We are all human beings, we are all equal,” the supermarket worker told Israeli TV. “It does not matter if an Arab stabbed me or a Jew stabbed me, a religious, orthodox or secular person. I have no words to describe this hate crime.”
An Israeli man intervened to save the life of a Palestinian man who was being
beaten by a mob in Netanya. Meanwhile, a mob of right-wing Israelis also
attacked an Israeli TV crew and its Palestinian reporter in Afula.
Video from multiple attacks appears to
dispute Israeli police claims that Palestinians shot and killed by them posed a continuing threat. Major
Israeli human rights organizations issued a statement saying Israeli politicians' instructions to police and soldiers to shoot rather than arrest Palestinians endorses their killing.
Israel's chief Asheknazi rabbi, David Lau was in New York:
The rabbi, the guest of honor at a lunch with Muslim and Jewish leaders at a kosher restaurant on the East Side of Manhattan, reached into the left breast pocket of his jacket and held up his cellphone. “It’s a very good machine,” Rabbi Lau said, “but please, I want you to help me to explain to people that not all the announcements they receive are true.”
Meanwhile, a mob of Palestinian youths
set fire to the Joseph's Tomb complex in Nablus. The
PA denounced the attack and Abbas said the authority will repair the site.
Netanyahu took time away from the crisis to meet with the visiting president of India, taking the opportunity to ask that Mr. Modi's right-wing government drop India's pro-Palestinian policy.
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:
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