blogging for change in U.S. policy

There is an excellent new video available at the Palestine Center, an interview/discussion recorded last Thursday in Washington DC called The New Media and the Palestine Question. There are two sessions (morning and afternoon) with two guests each.

Though all of it is worth watching, I realize you likely will not want to devote 3 hours of your time to it. The must see portion runs from 32 minutes in on the second session to the end of the session and features author/blogger Stephen Walt, co-author of The Israel Lobby and blogger MJ Rosenberg. Both of these men know their subject and are passionate about it. I promise you won't be bored and will be enlightened on the political process that is so difficult and frustrating to re-direct.

The second session can be found by scrolling down to the second Flash player screen

destruction of facts on the ground

I have watched many videos from Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank. It is apparent that Israelis do not consider the Palestinians as equals. This is backed up by the story of a friend, an Irish-American who, while visiting Jerusalem, noticed a female member of the IDF give a gratuitous shove to an elderly Palestinian woman who had passed in front of the soldier.

Shocked at this casual abuse, my friend turned to her fellow tourists and said "did you see that?" They had, but showed little interest. My friend was outraged and followed the soldier to ask her why she had shoved the old woman aside. The soldier answered, "she's just an Arab". Slaveholders in the American Old South would understand.

Israel has been in existence for over 60 years, plenty of time for the indoctrination of several generations. In Israeli schools a national mythology is taught, a story thoroughly refuted by Shlomo Sand as related in a previous post. But mythology, if placed in the head and reinforced, is taken as fact - the very reason that education is so important to nationalism. The principle fact imparted to young Israelis by the national mythology is that they are the only legitimate possessors of the land and the Palestinians are implants to be removed.

This explains much Israeli behavior that, to those of us outside the area, appears antithetical to Judaism. The thing to remember is that Zionism is not Judaism and Israel is a Zionist project. This is why many Jews are at least as appalled by what is being done to the Palestinians by Israelis as I am.

With this deeply implanted contempt of the Palestinians as a theme, consider the outrageous act of cultural destruction that is the demolition of the Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem. Could anything be more insulting to a people than to destroy a shrine to their dead? Could anything more powerfully indicate the worthlessness of one people to another than bringing in earth-movers to uproot and dump human remains as so much trash?

But that's not all. To be erected on the same site is the "Simon Wiesenthal Center for Human Dignity and Museum of Tolerance". The word for the situation is Orwellian. From Wikipedia - boldface mine

"Orwellian" describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society. It connotes an attitude and a policy of control by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past, including the "unperson" — a person whose past existence is expunged from the public record and memory, practiced by modern repressive governments.

Can't believe it? Read the report on the destruction and don't miss the video included. There is a simple fact sheet and, should you feel inclined to object, a petition against the destruction of the cemetery that you can sign here.

For how little this means to the Jerusalem Post, see this article about the project in that newspaper. The destruction of the cemetery merits a single sentence in passing. It's the kind of ho-hum treatment (at best) Palestinians have learned to expect. A reader of the article could easily miss the cemetery mention entirely.

law that means nothing

The law is a farce in the occupied territories, whether it is military law or Israeli civil law that is supposed to apply to the Israelis who live in the settlements.

• laws that exist can be interpreted so broadly as to exercise no restraint on the IDF
• rulings of the Israeli High Court can be disregarded repeatedly by the military, as one would expect of a militarized state such as Israel where power lies with force rather than legislation.
  
• laws can be passed specifically to discriminate against Palestinians, in fact the founding law of the State of Israel does so by declaring Israel a Jewish state.
• settlers can disregard law entirely when harassing or stealing land or destroying property of the Palestinians. In fact, IDF soldiers will often stand by or even assist settlers against Palestinians.
  

There's a good example of the meaninglessness of law provided by what has happened at the Derekh Ha’avot outpost, near the Elazar settlement, in the Etzion Bloc. The Etzion bloc is the southernmost of the four settlement blocks shown on the following map, all of them illegally established in occupied territory.


The Israeli High Court of Justice ruled nine years ago that the Derekh Ha’avot outpost was illegal and ordered it stopped and demolished. Neither action happened. Instead, settlers continued to build.

The Israeli group Peace Now petitioned the court, demanding the law be enforced. In 2008 this petition was denied. The reason? The High Court deferred to the military, though Israeli citizens are involved. This, of course, is a green light to all manner of behavior by the settlers in the occupied territories since the Israeli military has shown itself unwilling to restrain them.

Law restraining the Palestinians, however, such as the one forbidding them to build new structures or additions on their own land, is rigorously enforced.

I ask all Americans - would we accept a ruling by the Supreme Court that is not enforced? As you know, the Supreme Court ruled on judicial matters at Guantanamo, outside of the United States, and there was no question that the ruling would be obeyed by the U.S. Army.

In Israel, though, American money continues to flow in regardless of the flagrant disregard of the law. What would Jewish U.S. Supreme Court Justices Felix Frankfurter and Louis Brandeis have said, what would current Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg say?

Frustrated Palestinians who are driven to extremes, to violence, by this outrageous lawlessness are dubbed terrorists - but who is it that truly is stopping at nothing, at no law?

Summarizing the situation at the Derekh Ha’avot outpost, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem in it's report says...

The High Court’s decision, which adopts the state’s position with respect to the Derekh Ha’avot outpost, legitimizes the looting of land and ongoing contravention of the building laws, in this outpost and in all the other settlements, and exempts the law-enforcement authorities from enforcing the law on criminal settlers and lawbreakers. Given the illegality of the settlements in the first place, B'Tselem demands that the government of Israel dismantle the outpost along with the rest of the settlements and immediately enforce the law on the settlers.

Justice for all? Good luck on that!

P.S. This just in - the prohibition on using .22 bullets on protesters is ignored by the IDF

no appeal to the law for Palestinians attacked by settlers

One thing that surely should get Americans upset is the Israeli way of disregarding the law when it concerns Palestinians. By international law it is the obligation of an occupier to look out for the welfare of the people in the occupied territory.

In the latest issue of Haaretz, there is a perfect example of this in action. Palestinians are told by Israel that if they are attacked by settlers, they should go to a settlement to file a complaint with the police there.

But wait. Palestinians are not allowed into settlements. So they are to go to the entrance to the settlement, call the police and wait for a patrol car to come get them and take them to the police station to file a complaint.

Palestinian Munir Kadus waiting for the police

You can imagine how well this works. Please read the article for the sorry facts documented by two reporters from the paper, and remember that settlers, if they complain, have the Israeli army to back them up at a moment's notice - and all of this blatant injustice on Palestinian land taken by the settlers.

Exclusion zone takes land and lives

Recently, a Palestinian farmer and his grandson were killed by a tank-fired shell while walking on their land near the border with Israel at the north end of the Gaza trip. Let's take a look at the background situation.

Here is a map of the Gaza Strip showing the perimeter zones: "no-go" in red, where anyone entering will be shot and "high-risk" in orange, where anyone entering might be shot. See the second map for a close-up of where the incident of the farmer/grandson occurred.


The grandfather/grandson were in the "high risk" area (blue arrow) between the Erez crossing to Israel and the Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun (bet ha-NOON)


Though the two were killed by tank fire, remote-controlled machine gun towers are the typical means of enforcing exclusion. Here is a picture of one of the machine gun towers. The guns are fired by women in the IDF using joy-sticks located in a control room. This means that any attacks on the towers will not endanger the operators. The tower shown is near Khan Yunis, not Erez, but the operation is the same.


Though the no-go zone extends on 300 meters from the border, the high-risk zone extends without clear definition but about 1300 meters from the border, or 3/4 of a mile, all of it Palestinian land. The United Nations report, from which I am drawing my pictures, says this is 17% of the entire land area of the Gaza Strip, so it isn't surprising that farm land is part of it - hence the presence of the farmer/grandson on their land. The Israeli army makes it a practice to clear this land of crops so that it can maintain a clear line of sight. Palestinian farmers have taken to growing very low-height crops in hope of continuing to farm.

Now let's get a feel for the area. Here is a video of demonstrators appearing at the same site as the killings to protest them. You will hear the machine gun tower begin firing in warning and you will see the actual terrain and the tower for yourself.

military-industrial complex working fine

From a story in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz today...(boldface is mine)

A ministerial panel headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak made a final decision Thursday to purchase 20 new F-35 fighter jets, despite opposition from a number of senior defense officials over the high cost of the deal.

Barak gave his go-ahead last month to purchase the jets in a deal valued at around $2.75 billion. The first planes are expected to arrive in 2015.

The Israel Air Force, however, will have to make do with considerably fewer planes than the 75 originally sought. The entire deal will be funded by American military...

...Negotiations dragged on for more than two years amid several disagreements; many revolved around the IAF's demands that Israeli-made systems be installed for specialties such as electronic warfare and communications. Israel also wanted to expand the plane's capacity to allow it to carry Israeli-made missiles.

The Americans declined, however, insisting that the deal was a "closed package" and none of the components could be altered.
In any case, the F-35 will give the IAF outstanding radar-dodging capabilities that allow preemptive strikes against enemy states with advanced air defense technologies.

So it's more weapons paid for by the United States and built by the United States going to Israel. The only real argument was over which country's weapons manufacturers would get to jump on the money train.

Note the pre-emptive capability. This is the heart of the "Bush Doctrine" that got us into the mess of Iraq and, since Israel does as it pleases with U.S. weaponry, may get us into another mess.

Interestingly, at the moment, U.S. Secretary of State Clinton is pleading with Netanyahu to stop the settlements, even if only temporarily. From another story in the same issue of Haaretz today...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Israel on Thursday to extend its freeze of construction in West Bank settlements, telling Channel 10 in an interview that such a move would be "extremely useful" in advancing peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Clinton, who was visiting the region this week for a second round of direct talks between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamain Netanyahu, suggested extending the partial freeze for even a limited amount of time...

So the try for peace is a poor relation to the arming of Israel. Both are regular features in the Middle East. The difference is that the arming goes on successfully year in and year out, while the "peace process" fails to even stop the settlements, let alone make any headway toward justice for the Palestinians. Israeli pilots fly, Palestinians die.

Are you a hip-hop fan? Here's a hip-hop video that makes a statement about terror.

An Israeli speaks out

I'd like you to read an opinion piece from the Christian Science Monitor, written by an Israeli who spent 18 months in prison rather than serve in the Israeli Defense Forces. He wraps up the situation very nicely, bringing out the reasons America should stop reinforcing bad behavior.

If this man can spend a year and a half in prison, can't we do a little something to help?