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.
Next head of 'Civil Administration' said Palestinians are sub-human
(
article at +972mag)
“[Palestinians] are beasts, they are not human.” — MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, Aug 1, 2013. (Hebrew)
“A Jew always has a much higher soul than a gentile, even if he is a homosexual.” — MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, Dec 27, 2013. (Hebrew/English)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finalized the formation of a new government this week when he signed a coalition agreement with far-right settler party Jewish Home. As part of the agreement, Rabbi Ben-Dahan will be Israel’s next deputy defense minister, responsible for the army’s “Civil Administration.”
The Civil Administration is responsible for all aspects the occupation that don’t involve boots-on-the-ground security operations — it administers planning, building, and infrastructure for both Jews and Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank. It also administers the Palestinian population database and is responsible for granting and revoking entry and travel permits for Palestinians, controlling every aspect of their movement.
[...]
Israelis are right to be worried about MK Ayelet Shaked becoming the next justice minister, and Naftali Bennett the education minister. But try being a Palestinian in the West Bank, where the man in charge of administering your day-to-day life doesn’t even see you as a human being.
B'Tselem appeals to State Attorney’s Office against closing investigative files in case of Milad ‘Ayash, 17, killed by gunfire from East Jerusalem settlement.
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post at B'Tselem)
On 13 May 2011, during protests in connection with Nakba Day there were clashes in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem between demonstrators who threw stones and Molotov cocktails and Israeli security forces who employed crowd control measures and live gunfire. Milad ‘Ayash, 17, was hit by a live bullet. ‘Ayash, a 12th grader at Kuliyat Sakhnin, ‘Atarot, died of his wounds the next day. B'Tselem’s investigation showed that the fatal shot was fired from the Beit Yehonatan settlement, a one-building settlement located in Silwan, yet we were unable to ascertain the precise circumstances of the shooting. The incident was investigated both by the Department for the Investigation of Police (DIP), for possible involvement of police officers in the shooting, and by the Israel Police for possible involvement of Beit Yehonatan security guards and residents. Both investigations were closed on the grounds of “perpetrator unknown.”
[...]
on behalf of B'Tselem, Attorney Gaby Lasky filed the grounds for the demand to reopen the investigations. In the appeal, Attorney Lasky noted grave investigative failings on the part of both investigative authorities. These included such matters as failure to seize key evidence; refraining from questioning witnesses and suspects; and ignoring substantive contradictions that emerged during the course of the questioning of the witnesses.
The real reason Netanyahu has the High Court in his crosshairs
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article at +972mag)
Another example is the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, enacted in 2003, which bans Palestinian citizens of Israel from bringing spouses and children born in the Occupied Territories to live with them in Israel. In a 2012 ruling rejecting a petition against it, then-Chief Justice Asher Grunis admitted that the law was indeed discriminatory, but wrote that “Human rights should not be a prescription for national suicide.” The ruling essentially legitimized the racist belief that Palestinians are not entitled to family unification because their non-Jewish identity, regardless of Israeli citizenship, is enough to consider them a security threat – if not a “demographic” threat.
[...]
In view of these and other examples (especially from the Occupied Territories), it is almost bizarre to see Netanyahu attacking the High Court when it has in fact been a key enabler of most of his governments’ policies. This takes us to the real source of their dispute, which is less about human rights as it is about the power to determine Israel’s “core” questions. The right-wing, which today dominates Israel’s political sphere, wants to change the historical status quo by explicitly prioritizing the state’s Jewish character in law and officially recognizing the occupation as a permanent feature of the state. The High Court, though willing to facilitate these goals in different ways, is still worried that the politicians’ overt approach will jeopardize Israel’s image as a democracy in the eyes of both its citizens and the international community. Because of this gridlock over methods, Netanyahu has decided to bring the judiciary under his government’s control, revealing the depth of the political leadership’s intolerance for dissent even against those who assist it.
Arab-Israel peace talks ‘dead’ because of Netanyahu, says Carter
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article in Financial Times)
Israeli settlers take over Palestinian house in East Jerusalem
(
article in Haaretz)
A group of Israeli settlers took over a contentious building in the heart of the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem early on Wednesday.
Residents of Silwan said that some 20 Jewish youths moved in around 1 A.M. while the Palestinian family residing there wasn't home.
The house, knowns as Abu Nab, is adjacent to another building, known as Beit Dvash, which is owned by settlers. Nearby is Beit Yonatan, another contentious apartment building inhabited by settlers.
Israeli President Calls for Calm After Anti-Discrimination Protests in Tel Aviv
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story at NY Times)
President Reuven Rivlin of Israel said on Monday that mounting protests by Ethiopian-Israelis had “revealed an open and raw wound at the heart of Israeli society,” but he condemned the violence that erupted the night before at a demonstration in Tel Aviv.
“We must look directly at this open wound — we have erred, we did not look, and we did not listen enough,” said Mr. Rivlin, who has emerged as a leading advocate for Israel’s Arab and other minorities during his first year in his largely ceremonial post.
“We must not allow a handful of violent troublemakers to drown out the legitimate voices of protest,” he added. “We are not strangers to one another. We are brothers, and we must not deteriorate into a place we will all regret.”
Supreme Court allows state to replace Bedouin village with Jewish one
(
article in Haaretz)
Israel's Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a petition by residents of the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran against their removal and the demolition of the community – in order to construct a new town for Jewish residents in its place. The court ruled the land belongs to the state and the Bedouins have no legal rights to it.
“The state is the owner of the lands in dispute, which were registered in its name in the framework of the arrangement process; the residents have acquired no rights to the land but have settled them [without any authorization], which the state cancelled legally. In such a situation, there is no justification for intervention in the rulings of the previous courts,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein in the majority opinion.
The petitioners claimed they did not squat on the land, but were transferred to the area in the Yattir Forest in 1956 by direct order of the military administration of the time. But now, their lands lie within the master plan of the Be’er Sheva metropolitan area. The government has never denied that the residents were moved to Umm al-Hiran by state authorities. Umm al-Hiran is now home to about 700 people, say residents, but like other Bedouin villages that lack official recognition as local municipal communities, it lacks infrastructure and electricity.
Police officers won't be charged in November death of Israeli Arab
(
article in Haaretz)
No charges will be filed against the Israeli police officers who in November shot and killed a man in an Arab village in the Galilee, allegedly after he tried to stab them with the knife he was holding.
When the incident became public, the policemen said Hamdan had tried to stab them. They said they fired a warning shot into the air and shot at Hamdan when he failed to stop, in believing that their lives were in danger.
But a widely viewed video from security cameras in the vicinity suggests that the officers did not observe protocols regarding the use of fire. In the video, the young man later identified as Hamdan is seen approaching the patrol car and stabbing at it with what appears to be a knife. A police officer then emerges from the car. Hamdan is seen running away from the vehicle and the officer appears to shoot at him.
According to the report on Walla, during questioning the police officers said the reason they feared for their lives was that the area was problematic, which is why they dragged Hamdan to the patrol car and didn’t call for medical help. They said they feared that other village residents would come to attack them.
No charges for officers involved in Kafr Kanna killing
(
article in +972mag)
Netanyahu and the Israel Police offer diametrically different responses to two cases of police violence, one against an Ethiopian Israeli and another against an Arab citizen of Israel. When it comes to police brutality, it seems that even racism stinks of discrimination.
[...]
Following Hamdan’s killing, mass protests broke out in Kafr Kanna. Hours later, Netanyahu said the protesters would “be punished with utmost severity.” The prime minister even said his government would “evaluate revoking the citizenship” of some protesters.
When the video of Pakedeh’s beating was published, Ethiopian-Israelis also took to the streets and police also violently suppressed their demonstrations. That’s where the two stories diverge.
While the Ethiopian protests were still raging Sunday evening, Netanyahu sent out a different type of message, a calming message: “All claims will be looked into but there is no place for violence and such disturbances.”
Coalition committed to making anti-leftist-NGO bill law
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story in Haaretz)
The so-called NGO Bill will be brought before the Knesset during the tenure of the new government, according to a clause in the coalition agreement between Habayit Hayehudi and Likud.
The wording of the bill submitted by Habayit Hayehudi stipulates that an NGO seeking a tax exemption for a contribution from a foreign state will require the approval of the defense and foreign ministers and the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
The NGOs likely to be affected by the bill are primarily human rights organizations identified with the left.
[...]
The bill was proposed by MK Ayelet Shaked, who is tapped to be justice minister in the new government. The original wording stipulated that an NGO seeking tax exemption would need the approval of the justice minister and the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.
MK Ayelet Shaked will be the Justice Minister in the new government, she's
fond of saying things like this:
On Monday she quoted this on her Facebook page: “Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.”
A week earlier, just before 17-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair was snatched and burned alive, Shaked wrote: “This is not a war against terror, and not a war against extremists, and not even a war against the Palestinian Authority. The reality is that this is a war between two people. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people. Why? Ask them, they started it.”
Open the gate, bring down the wall!
(
International Solidarity Movement)
The villagers of Al-Zaim held their third demonstration today in front of the gate in the apartheid wall that separates them from East Jerusalem. Peaceful demonstrators were met by a large number of occupation forces and agreement was eventually reached to open the gate.
6000 people live in Al-Zaim, but the difference between them and most other Palestinians living inside the West Bank, is that they hold a blue rather than a green ID. This defines them as citizens of East Jerusalem. However, the apartheid wall cuts them of from their city, placing them otherside of the Green Line. An iron gate has been erected as the main way for these Jerusalemites to access their occupied city, where most of them work. “Al-Zaim is like a jail inside a jail”, comments an ISM activist present at the demonstration.
Israeli veterans say permissive rules of engagement fueled Gaza carnage
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story at Washington Post)
The war last summer between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead and vast areas reduced to rubble. On Monday a group of Israeli veterans released sobering testimony from fellow soldiers that suggests permissive rules of engagement coupled with indiscriminate artillery fire contributed to the mass destruction and high numbers of civilian casualties in the coastal enclave.
The organization of active and reserve duty soldiers, called Breaking the Silence, gathered testimonies from more than 60 enlisted men and officers who served in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.
The soldiers describe reducing Gaza neighborhoods to sand, firing artillery at random houses to avenge fallen comrades, shooting at innocent civilians because they were bored and watching armed drones attack a pair of women talking on cellular phones because they were assumed to be Hamas scouts.
How I became involved with Breaking the Silence
(
story in +972mag)
After last summer’s Operation Protective Edge ended, we started accumulating testimonies from soldiers who had taken part in it. Our researchers interviewed more than 60 soldiers, about a quarter of whom were officers, and about a third conscripts.
We approached them in different ways: Some were traumatized by the army’s brutal assault on Gaza, and chose to come to us. Others had participated in some of our activities – one of our tours of the Hebron areas, lectures or public events – and returned to give evidence. Alongside those, we contacted past testifiers, many of whom had been called up as reservists.
After the interview, we subject the testimony to a strict verification process. Even before we address his or her claims, we double-check the testifier’s reliability. The publicized case of MK Oren Hazan (Likud), who gave a false testimony in an attempt to libel our organization, is a good example of how a testifier is discredited. Very soon, our researchers realized that, contrary to his claims, Hazan hadn’t served in Operation Protective Edge and was not even a former paratrooper.
Israel’s military criticised for indiscriminate firing in Gaza war
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story in Financial Times)
Israel’s military fired indiscriminately as a matter of policy during last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli non-governmental group has claimed, underlining a "drastic change" in its combat norms that led to the deaths of many innocent civilians.
Its findings will raise further questions about the conduct of the war by the IDF, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as "the most moral army in the world".
Probe Gaza rules of engagement, Israel - or face the ICC
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article in Haaretz)
It isn’t just intentionally attacking civilians that’s forbidden. Even attacks on military targets are forbidden if it’s clear they will also harm civilians or civilian objects indiscriminately. It goes without saying that an order to shoot at people indiscriminately is manifestly illegal under Israeli law as well.
Moreover, even a strike on a strictly military target that ends up hitting civilians as well is liable to be illegal if proper precautions weren’t taken, or if the expected harm to civilians is disproportionate.
Only a serious, independent investigation examining how the rules of engagement were set and the orders these soldiers describe is likely to be considered a genuine investigation. And if that doesn’t happen, the orders described in the report are liable to be the subject of careful scrutiny by Fatou Bensouda, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Redefining civilians and legitimate targets: Israeli soldiers testify on Gaza war
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story at +972mag)
Reading through the 136 pages of testimonies from soldiers and officers from nearly every involved division and brigade, two common denominators quickly become apparent. First is the massive, intentional and unnecessary destruction of homes and buildings throughout the Strip, but particularly in places that ground troops set foot.
Ahead of its ground assaults, the IDF dropped flyers from the air, shelled incessantly and even made phone calls to warn Palestinian civilians of the impending assault. The principle was that after such a warning, anyone who remained in that area was surely a terrorist.
The problems with that type of combat doctrine are too many to list, but here are two anyway. Firstly, there may very well be legitimate reasons why an innocent civilian would choose to stay in their home despite a warning, and many more reasons why an innocent civilian might not be able to leave, or have anywhere to go. Secondly, international humanitarian law does not allow for the reclassification of civilians as combatants simply because they did not heed a warning.
Neither of the phenomena revealed through the testimonies — massive destruction and minimal IDF casualties — are new. Tracing back through Israel’s contemporary military history from the First Lebanon War, Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank, the pullout from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, the Second Lebanon War and most recently, operations Cast Lead and Pillar of Defense, the slow but steady evolution in military doctrine is visible: minimum Israeli military casualties with a corresponding increasing level of acceptable deaths among non-Israeli civilians. Massive bombardments and intentional destruction was seen, incrementally increasing, in Beirut in 2006, Gaza in 2008-9, and ultimately reaching its zenith in Gaza this past summer.
Chronicle of a tragedy foretold in Gaza
(
article in +972mag)
If there’s one takeaway from the newly published Breaking the Silence report, it’s that the IDF is most certainly not the most moral army in the world.
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One of the most deep-seated conventions among Israelis is that their army is “the most moral in the world.” One of the cornerstones of this ethos is the assumption that the IDF does everything in its power to prevent harm to innocent civilians.
That assumption did not come out of nowhere. The Israeli public is force-fed this mantra by the IDF’s official and unofficial spokespersons. Loyal and obedient, they repeat, no questions asked.
The booklet of testimonies published on Monday by Breaking the Silence, a compilation of first-hand accounts of around 70 soldiers who took part in the operation, tells a markedly different story.
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:
May 2, 2015: Filastin: 6 year old child arrested in Jerusalem; The Death of Compassion
April 26, 2015: Filastin: No Arabs Allowed; Christian cemetery vandalized; Annual March of Return
April 19, 2015: Filastin: Shooting kids in the back, segregating female soldiers, state-sanctioned theft
April 12, 2015: Filastin week: Yarmouk refugees, NYU divestment letter, Terrorizing Children
April 5, 2015: Filastin Week: Segregated Streets in Hebron, Palestinians observe Land Day
March 29, 2015: Filasṭin Week by Week: A March for the Bedouin, A License to Kill & To Teach the Nakba
