Moe Diab on peace talks ‘That’s either insanity or it’s intentional failure’
If covering oft-ignored salient points counts as a home run, human rights activist Moe Diab knocked one out of the ballpark in his interview with host Jaisal Noor on today's episode of the RealNews.
From Matt Lee's grilling of State Dept spokesperson Jen Psaki on Martin Indyk's history of failure to the new adjustment to the original 2002 Arab Peace Initiative as well as Noura Erakat's suggestion of internationalizing the process to everything in between, Diab doesn't let up.
The RealNews Network:
NOOR: So, Moe, we want to get your response to this latest news of Israel approving 1,200 new settlement units. And they're particularly sensitive, because most of the units are located in isolated settlements that Israel is unlikely to retain if and when a Palestinian state is created. Can you talk about the impact this new announcement by Israel will have on these latest round of talks that Secretary Kerry is so optimistic about?
DIAB: Well, I think it comes as no surprise. They don't comply with international law. The goals of this peace process don't include ending the problems that are causing the conflict, just ending the claims and ending the conflict. So the fact that this was announced is really no surprise. They continued the building of the settlements in the last peace process. And at this point, they even openly announced that they are going to be building settlements in the proposed Palestinian state for this peace process, which is based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. So it comes as no surprise. And this process is bound to fail for that reason. So I don't think anybody at all is surprised for this.
NOOR: And I think the Western media, the mainstream media often, you know, misses that key fact that it's actually been during the years of the so-called peace process that Israel has had some of the largest settlement expansions in Palestinian territory.
DIAB: Yes, absolutely. I mean, the facts on the ground are largely ignored and they're distorted and they're presented in Western media to portray the situation as a complete opposite of what it is. It's not portrayed as an occupation of Palestinian territory. It's not portrayed as a military against an occupied people. It's really portrayed as two sovereign nations involved in a conflict.
NOOR: Yet Secretary John Kerry insists that this round of peace talks will be different. Can you talk about his goals and what the actual outline of what's being proposed looks like?
DIAB: Well, I think that's a really good question a lot of people have been asking. And I think the best way to answer this for everyone is to look at the actual main source for this. About two weeks ago, on July 29, at the State Department's official press briefing, spokesperson Jen Psaki was unable to answer Associated Press journalist Matt Lee's simple and fundamental question asking what's different this time, what's changed. Considering Martin Indyk's long record of failure--and the whole team's record of failure, for that matter--and if the official spokesperson is unable to answer the most fundamental question, it's clear that no changes have been made to increase the chances of reaching a sustainable resolution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The appointment of Martin Indyk, who is the former ambassador to Israel, as the U.S. envoy for these talks is another clear indication that no changes in the framework have been made from the last 22 years of failed U.S. diplomacy. And now we're trying the same thing again and again for 22 years, and we're not seeing a different result. That's either insanity or it's intentional failure.
In this case, as we have seen in the past whenever these peace talks resurface, the timing of the process is usually followed by an eruption of crises in the Middle East. And in this case, the inability of the U.S. to respond strategically to these challenges is enough motive to use the peace talks as a way to distract from the the U.S. failures in the Middle East and as a way to reassure Israel's backers and as reassertion of the U.S. as an existing power.
And if you want to mention the goals of this process, now, the goals were simply stated as ending the conflict, ending the claims. But it was also said that it was based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, and everybody thinks that this is going to be a great start. And theoretically it would be a great start. However, what Kerry failed to mention was the slight U.S. and Israeli adjustment to the original 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which has deprived it of any potential it may have had. Originally in the plan, the Arab states were offered normalization with Israel only after full withdrawal from the 1967 territories and after recognizing the Palestinian right of return based on UN Resolution 194. So what we're seeing is his goals are ignoring the facts on the ground and don't address the problems which are causing the conflict. How can you simply end the conflict without changing anything?
NOOR: So, Moe, what are the facts on the ground in occupied Palestine right now?
DIAB: I think the facts on the ground are plain to see. Israel continues to annex Palestinian territory. Israel persists in demolishing Palestinian homes and populating Palestine with Israeli civilians. They routinely detain Palestinians without charges under the policy of administrative detention, and they maintain the policy of collectively punishing 1.57 million Palestinians through its imposition of the blockade on the Gaza Strip. And Israel prosecutes its occupation with impunity, refusing to accept the world's calls to respect international law. Neither Israel nor its proxies can justify the facts on the ground in occupied Palestine, so they distract, distort, and defame to allow the violations to go on.
NOOR: And can you talk a little bit more about Martin Indyk? You know, he is appointed as the U.S. envoy to these talks, yet it would be hard to call him an impartial figure. You know, he was the deputy--he was the former deputy research director of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby in Washington.
DIAB: Absolutely. And he was also the former ambassador to Israel. So choosing him to be the U.S. envoy for these peace talks for obvious reasons leads to the assumption that there is no good-faith intention in this peace talk. The mediator should coordinate with both sides a balanced and unbiased perspective. And what we're seeing and what we have seen in the past is the simple U.S. siding with Israeli power and the deprivation of Palestinian representation and rights.
So if--something that also is very important is to recognize the fact that Israel, who is supported by the United States, has one of the most stable economies in the world, the fourth most powerful military in the world, and the U.S. is trying to mediate talks with the Palestinians, who are stateless and disempowered, who are living under constant occupation, who are living in apartheid conditions, who don't have a military and don't even have control of their own airspace. So for these reasons, until the negotiations are not based on support for Israeli power but based on international law, human rights, and equality for all, the peace process will unquestionably continue to fail.
NOOR: And so we spent the first seven minutes attacking these talks essentially, or at least to drawing out the criticisms of them. Do you have a proposal that you think would be a just solution to this, the Palestinian-Israel conflict?
DIAB: I think a good point to reference this would be from last March on MSNBC's news program Up with Chris Hayes. He had guest speaker Rashid Khalidi on the show, and he made the really clear point that negotiations were designed to prevent Palestinian statehood and sovereignty. And the U.S. is--like I mentioned before, the U.S. is not playing the necessary balanced role as the mediator, and with heavily biased and corrupt mediators the logical thing to do, the first step thing to do would be to remove the obstacles, in this case the U.S. being the mediator and arbitrator for these talks, 'cause they are preventing a good-faith peace process. And to involve new players is obviously very crucial in order to see an actual change in this process.
Also, human rights lawyer and Georgetown University associate adjunct professor Noura Erakat has suggested internationalization of the issue several times as a place to start. And she uses this term to reference letting go of America's role as the arbitrator and aid donor and employing the United Nations General Assembly in the process. So while Israel and its proxies may wish to ignore the world's efforts to induce compliance with international law, it's contrary to the aims and purposes of the United Nations to distract attention or to distort the facts on the ground. So internationalization also refers to utilizing the resources that are made available by the United Nations, such as utilizing the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice. Obviously, this alone is not going to completely solve the peace process and the conflict, but it definitely is more promising than following the last 22 years of failed U.S.-brokered attempts to resolve this issue.
NOOR: Moe Diab, thank you so much for joining us. Moe is a Palestinian-American human rights activist, blogs at MoeDiab.com.
DIAB: Thank you for having me.
NOOR: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
Norman Finkelstein debating Martin Indyk ('Special Envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations 2013') on Democracy Now! in 2009. Kind of incredible that this clearly pro-Israel weasel has been placed in a position of mediation, and supposed impartiality, in these latest so-called 'peace-talks'.
I don't feel that I'm missing any point, we simply disagree...I don't think the ultimate decision makers want to get back to the table at all. I think they're stalling and stealing, same as they have been for decades.
You say in one post that the EU settlement regulations are putting pressure on Netanyahu and may be influencing his decisions....but in this post they don't care about the international constituency? Which is it?
When I said that you were missing the point I was only referring to the significance of labeling the prisoners "terrorists" as opposed to murderers. I can see that I wasn't clear on that point. My apologies.
W/r/t the international community, I can see that I was also unclear. I didn't mean to imply that the Israelis don't care about the international community at all. I think they do, in certain situations. The EU is Israel's single largest trading partner, so regulations effecting trade are going to get the Israeli's attention. That's very different than these prisoners, however. My read is that the international community cares deeply about the settlements, but they don't really care all that much about whether the Israelis release prisoners who have actually murdered people. The Israeli public, on the other hand, cares about this a great deal. So while I do think that Netanyahu is factoring the EU regulations into his overall calculus, I don't think that he's doing so on the prisoner release issue specifically.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
I wish more senior Israeli government officiaIs would say what they really think in public. It's a shame they choose instead to hide their racism, and sense of divine-ordained superiority, behind a facade of cleverly-worded, deceitful bullshit.
Israeli official warned over offensive Facebook postings
Daniel Seaman, in charge of promoting Israel's image online, ordered to stop posting 'unacceptable' comments
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
The guardian.com, Friday 16 August 2013
A senior government official responsible for promoting positive images of Israel on social media networks has been ordered to stop posting offensive statements on his Facebook page.
The gagging order followed a series of trenchant comments made by Daniel Seaman, who recently took up the post of head of Israeli public diplomacy on the internet, over the past few months.
They included a response to a demand by the Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, for an end to new settlement expansion that read: "Is there a diplomatic way of saying 'Go F*** yourself'?"
At the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast between sunrise and sunset, Seaman posted: "Does the commencement of the fast of the Ramadan means that Muslims will stop eating each other during the daytime?"
In response to a Church of Scotland report that argued that Jews do not have a divine right to the land, he wrote: "Why do they think we give a flying F*** what you have to say?"
...Seaman was known for his abrasive approach to the foreign media when he was director of the government press office. Among his initiatives in his new role is a programme to pay university students to post pro-Israel comments on Facebook, Twitter and other internet sites and forums.
...Seaman was known for his abrasive approach to the foreign media when he was director of the government press office. Among his initiatives in his new role is a programme to pay university students to post pro-Israel comments on Facebook, Twitter and other internet sites and forums.
i did not think this was new. this has been going on at least since 2009 when i became passionate about this issue.
it is pretty shitty that any government might have to resort to paying broke ass college kids to post things that advance their agenda.
i don't know who is worse in that case. the pimp or the whore. :?
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
Funerals held for three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli troops
Palestinian negotiators cancel peace talks after three men killed and 15 wounded during dawn raid on Qalandiya camp
Harriet Sherwood in Qalandiya
theguardian.com, Monday 26 August 2013
Three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli security forces in a West Bank refugee camp were buried in a tempestuous funeral on Monday as Palestinian negotiators cancelled talks in a sign of the fragility of the embryonic peace process.
The men were killed during an early morning raid to arrest a suspect in Qalandiya camp. At least 15 others were wounded, six of whom were in a critical condition in hospital in Ramallah.
...A spokesman for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said the deaths were "a clear message of the true Israeli intentions toward the peace process". Nabil Abu Rudeineh added: "There are going to be negative repercussions to these acts."
The Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad al-Malki, said there was "no doubt that what happened this morning will have an effect" on negotiations.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian negotiations steering committee, said in a statement: "Israel's use of excessive and indiscriminate violence and live ammunition in densely populated civilian areas represents a blatant violation of international and humanitarian law."
She called on the international community "to take serious measures to bring an immediate end to the killing of innocent civilians and to terminate Israel's impunity".
The Israeli military said the guards were acting in self-defence.
"During a night-time incursion of security forces … they were met with violent and disorderly conduct by hundreds of Palestinians who attacked them," it said in a statement. "When they felt immediate danger to their lives, they opened fire at the attackers."
But witnesses claimed that at least two of the three victims were bystanders.
Robin al-Abed, 32, was shot in the chest as he tried to get from his home to his workplace, and Jihad Asslan, 20, was pronounced brain dead after being shot on the roof of his house where he had gone to watch the clashes, said a neighbour of the men, Abu Omar Hammad. The third dead man was Younis Jahjouh, 22, who was also shot in the chest.
Hammad, 46, who sells sweets in the camp, said he had been woken by his children at 6am to find "soldiers smothering the neighbourhood". He said he saw al-Rabed shot as he tried to get to his job with the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa.
"He was not throwing stones. The soldiers opened the back door of their jeep and shot him in the chest. The bullet came out of his back and he was puking blood. I called an ambulance, but it was prevented from entering the camp," he said.
"I've seen many incursions in this camp, but this was different. They came to kill."
Fadi Mateer, 27, was hit in the arm while trying to hide next to the camp's mosque. He said: "At first I thought it was a family dispute – a lot of the time you hear the sound of guns in the camp. But then there was shooting everywhere. While I was hiding, I saw a guy leaving his house to go to work and, boom, they shot him. Normally at this time, children are going to school and people are going to work, but everyone was trying to hide."
At the Ramallah hospital where Mateer went for treatment, "there was blood covering the floor", he said. He had doubts whether the peace process could continue: "The Israelis are cheating us. If they wanted peace, they wouldn't have raided the camp."
Mahmoud al-Aloul, governor of the city of Nablus and a member of the central committee of Fatah, the ruling faction in the West Bank, who was among the mourners, said: "We are in pain and grief. The Israelis don't want a peace process so they create a diversion. We need to reconsider our strategy. If we fail to protect our people we will lose their respect."
Hatim Khatib, whose brother Youssef was the target of the raid, said troops dressed in plain clothes arrived at their home at 4.30am.
"After half-an-hour we started hearing shooting from the soldiers inside our house, and then people started throwing stones at them," he told Associated Press. Youssef was arrested after he returned from morning prayers. He said he did not know why his brother was arrested but said he had previously been jailed for throwing stones and was released three years ago.
Funerals held for three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli troops
Palestinian negotiators cancel peace talks after three men killed and 15 wounded during dawn raid on Qalandiya camp
Harriet Sherwood in Qalandiya
theguardian.com, Monday 26 August 2013
Three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli security forces in a West Bank refugee camp were buried in a tempestuous funeral on Monday as Palestinian negotiators cancelled talks in a sign of the fragility of the embryonic peace process.
The men were killed during an early morning raid to arrest a suspect in Qalandiya camp. At least 15 others were wounded, six of whom were in a critical condition in hospital in Ramallah.
...A spokesman for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said the deaths were "a clear message of the true Israeli intentions toward the peace process". Nabil Abu Rudeineh added: "There are going to be negative repercussions to these acts."
The Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad al-Malki, said there was "no doubt that what happened this morning will have an effect" on negotiations.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian negotiations steering committee, said in a statement: "Israel's use of excessive and indiscriminate violence and live ammunition in densely populated civilian areas represents a blatant violation of international and humanitarian law."
She called on the international community "to take serious measures to bring an immediate end to the killing of innocent civilians and to terminate Israel's impunity".
The Israeli military said the guards were acting in self-defence.
"During a night-time incursion of security forces … they were met with violent and disorderly conduct by hundreds of Palestinians who attacked them," it said in a statement. "When they felt immediate danger to their lives, they opened fire at the attackers."
But witnesses claimed that at least two of the three victims were bystanders.
Robin al-Abed, 32, was shot in the chest as he tried to get from his home to his workplace, and Jihad Asslan, 20, was pronounced brain dead after being shot on the roof of his house where he had gone to watch the clashes, said a neighbour of the men, Abu Omar Hammad. The third dead man was Younis Jahjouh, 22, who was also shot in the chest.
Hammad, 46, who sells sweets in the camp, said he had been woken by his children at 6am to find "soldiers smothering the neighbourhood". He said he saw al-Rabed shot as he tried to get to his job with the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa.
"He was not throwing stones. The soldiers opened the back door of their jeep and shot him in the chest. The bullet came out of his back and he was puking blood. I called an ambulance, but it was prevented from entering the camp," he said.
"I've seen many incursions in this camp, but this was different. They came to kill."
Fadi Mateer, 27, was hit in the arm while trying to hide next to the camp's mosque. He said: "At first I thought it was a family dispute – a lot of the time you hear the sound of guns in the camp. But then there was shooting everywhere. While I was hiding, I saw a guy leaving his house to go to work and, boom, they shot him. Normally at this time, children are going to school and people are going to work, but everyone was trying to hide."
At the Ramallah hospital where Mateer went for treatment, "there was blood covering the floor", he said. He had doubts whether the peace process could continue: "The Israelis are cheating us. If they wanted peace, they wouldn't have raided the camp."
Mahmoud al-Aloul, governor of the city of Nablus and a member of the central committee of Fatah, the ruling faction in the West Bank, who was among the mourners, said: "We are in pain and grief. The Israelis don't want a peace process so they create a diversion. We need to reconsider our strategy. If we fail to protect our people we will lose their respect."
Hatim Khatib, whose brother Youssef was the target of the raid, said troops dressed in plain clothes arrived at their home at 4.30am.
"After half-an-hour we started hearing shooting from the soldiers inside our house, and then people started throwing stones at them," he told Associated Press. Youssef was arrested after he returned from morning prayers. He said he did not know why his brother was arrested but said he had previously been jailed for throwing stones and was released three years ago.
Fucken IDF PIGS must of been bored! What a fucken joke this government of Israel is. How can ANYONE defend this shit. I dnt want to hear anyone on this forum EVER CLAIM ISRAEL WANTS PEACE! Complete bullshit. Stop fucking lying to yourselves and man up. Your fucken government is pure evil. Enjoy inheriting the earth because you fucken Israeli government will burn in hell......if there's such a thing. When are the people of Israel gonna get some balls and stand up to there devil leaders??? Enough is enough!
Ya sober response, it's your fucken government that's drunk as hell. Keep following them, oh and how's that pearl jam play in Israel going for you guys??? :roll:
And wtf did you want me to say??? Great job Israel!!!! Grow some fucken balls and speak the fucken truth. But you choose to defend EVERY FUCKEN ACT by Israel. At least when some fucken fucktard Muslim goes and does some stupid shit, I have no problem ripping him for it. You guys on the other hand, Israel can't do ANYTHING wrong, we all know. :roll:
No, you should feel free to criticize. I often do so myself. I just don't think that statements such as those below reflect any sort of effort at having a sober and rational discussion:
Fucken IDF PIGS must of been bored! ... I dnt want to hear anyone on this forum EVER CLAIM ISRAEL WANTS PEACE! Complete bullshit....Your fucken government is pure evil. Enjoy inheriting the earth because you fucken Israeli government will burn in hell....When are the people of Israel gonna get some balls and stand up to there devil leaders??? Enough is enough!
So everyone in the IDF are "pigs"? Cause that's just about all the 18-21 year-olds in the country. And no one in Israel wants peace? I wonder how many Israelis you've spoken with; my guess would be not many. And if you're only talking about the government then...what? The whole Israeli government shares exactly the same position? Just like the whole American government does? Pure evil? Burning in hell? Devil leaders? You don't think this is a tad hyperbolic? I just don't get how comments like this are in the least bit constructive.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
So everyone in the IDF are "pigs"? Cause that's just about all the 18-21 year-olds in the country. And no one in Israel wants peace? I wonder how many Israelis you've spoken with; my guess would be not many. And if you're only talking about the government then...what? The whole Israeli government shares exactly the same position? Just like the whole American government does? Pure evil? Burning in hell? Devil leaders? You don't think this is a tad hyperbolic? I just don't get how comments like this are in the least bit constructive.
i would say they aren't constructive but you focusing on them seems to be simply a deflection or purposeful diversion ... this conflict has is the cause of mass suffering, grave violation of human rights and one of the worst cases of oppression in the world today ...
similar to the israeli gov't focusing on the various rocket attacks - you focusing on his comments borne from frustration serves the same purpose ... which is that ultimately, israel is and always has been the only faction that can bring peace and end this suffering ...
the issue really is how long are we going to let this masquerade go on and how many people will die and suffer at this farce ...
I don't see how it's a deflection. The first thing I said was that everyone should criticize as much as they want because criticism is very often deserved. My point is not that people shouldn't criticize or voice frustration, but that they should do so in a constructive way. To me, on a forum such as this one, that means having an informed conversation/debate/argument that remains respectful of the fact that people of good conscience can disagree about certain issues. That kind of exchange allows people to learn something new. Hyperbolic invective doesn't do anything other than undermine constructive dialogue.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
I don't see how it's a deflection. The first thing I said was that everyone should criticize as much as they want because criticism is very often deserved. My point is not that people shouldn't criticize or voice frustration, but that they should do so in a constructive way. To me, on a forum such as this one, that means having an informed conversation/debate/argument that remains respectful of the fact that people of good conscience can disagree about certain issues. That kind of exchange allows people to learn something new. Hyperbolic invective doesn't do anything other than undermine constructive dialogue.
but we've been having the same circular conversations for years now ... when more people die unjustly - is it not expected that frustration would boil over!? ... if you want the conversation to be constructive ... ignore that stuff ... i agree it wasn't constructive but i definitely feel his anger and i don't think it was uncalled for ...
the solution is and always has been directly in front of us ... the israeli people need to remove the right wing extremists from power and negotiate in good faith a peace settlement and a two-state solution ... it will take generations but if other interests do not get involved (i.e. the US) ... it will come to pass ... the vast majority of israelis and palestinians want peace and are tired of all this ... the only thing stopping this is the zionists and ultra-right wing faction of the populace and gov't ...
Netanyahu’s sweet deal: 104 prisoners for thousands of settlements
Israel is reaping the benefits of a sweet deal it struck at the start of the peace process: release a token amount of Palestinian prisoners, and continue gobbling up the West Bank.
On the same evening that 26 Palestinian prisoners were released over the objections of Israeli Jewish citizens, the Israeli Interior Ministry announced that plans to construct 1,500 homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement in East Jerusalem were moving forward. While this project has long been in the pipeline–announcement of settlements there caused a diplomatic crisis with the U.S. in 2010–the new announcement means that “within several months, it will be possible to start issuing building permits and marketing land to contractors,” Haaretz’s Barak Ravid reports.
Ramat Shlomo isn’t the only illegal settlement that is benefiting from the prisoner release. The next day, Israel announced that more plans to build settlements are moving though the pipeline. 2,500 units in total–including in settlements outside the “blocs”–will be built in the future.
Ravid also reports that plans to build a national park in East Jerusalem that would block construction in nearby Palestinian neighborhoods is moving ahead, as is a move to build a tourist center in the Palestinian village of Silwan. The tourist center will sit opposite of the City of David, another tourist spot that Jews around the world travel to, in Silwan, a flashpoint area of East Jerusalem where settler groups are actively trying to expand their presence.
The Israeli government did the exact same thing in August, when the first batch of what will be 104 Palestinian prisoners freed were released. Israel announced that 2,000 homes in East Jerusalem were to be constructed on the the same day that prisoners were freed.
Right-wing members of the Israeli coalition government have howled over releasing the prisoners, who had been in jail since before the Oslo Accords and have served time for violent attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers. Israel had already agreed to release these prisoners in 1999.
Despite its cries of anger, the right knew the prisoner release would happen when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started negotiating with the Palestinian Authority (PA). The roots of the prisoner release for settlements deal date back to July 2013. Netanyahu needed to give the Palestinian Authority something to entice them back to the table, so he gave them the least bad option for Israel: releasing prisoners. The other options–a settlement freeze or declaring the 1967 lines as a basis for negotiations–were off the table, since it would lead to a collapse of his ultra-right coalition. It’s a perfect microcosm for the true priorities of Israel: holding onto the West Bank and expanding settlements.
The prisoner release allows the negotiations to continue rolling on. PA President Abbas can point to an achievement every single time another batch of prisoners are released. Reuters reported that he told a crowd of Palestinians celebrating the release of the 26 prisoners last night that there was no connection between the prisoner release and settlement expansion. “The settlements are void, void, void,” Abbas said. Reuters also reported that the Palestinian Cabinet released a statement saying they “would reject any attempt by Israel to ‘trade’ prisoners for continued settlement-building.”
Except that Abbas has effectively agreed to that trade by staying in the peace talks while settlements march on.
Meanwhile, Israel’s priority of expanding settlements is strengthened. The next time prisoners are released, expect more settlements to be announced.
Britons protest over Israel plan to remove 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins
More than 50 public figures including Antony Gormley and Brian Eno put names to letter opposing expulsion from historic land
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013
More than 50 public figures in Britain, including high-profile artists, musicians and writers, have put their names to a letter opposing an Israeli plan to forcibly remove up to 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins from their historic desert land – an act condemned by critics as ethnic cleansing.
The letter, published in the Guardian, is part of a day of protest on Saturday in Israel, Palestine and two dozen other countries over an Israeli parliamentary bill that is expected to get final approval by the end of this year.
The eviction and destruction of about 35 "unrecognised" villages in the Negev desert will, the letter says, "mean the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes and land, and systematic discrimination and separation".
The signatories – who include the artist Antony Gormley, the actor Julie Christie, the film director Mike Leigh and the musician Brian Eno – are demanding that the British government holds Israel to account over its human rights record and obligations under international law.
According to Israel, the aims of the Prawer Plan – named after the head of a government commission, Ehud Prawer – are economic development of the Negev desert and the regulation of Palestinian Bedouins living in villages not recognised by the state.
The population of these villages will be removed to designated towns, while plans for new Jewish settlements in the area are enacted.
But Adalah, a human rights and legal centre for Arabs in Israel, says: "The real purpose of the legislation [is] the complete and final severance of the Bedouin's historical ties to their land."
The "unrecognised" villages in the Negev, whose populations range from a few hundred to 2,000, lack basic services such as running water, electricity, landline telephones, roads, high schools and health clinics. Some consist of a few shacks and animal pens made from corrugated iron; others include concrete houses and mosques built without necessary but unobtainable permission.
The Bedouin comprise about 30% of the Negev's population but their villages take up only 2.5% of the land. Before the state of Israel was created in 1948 they roamed widely across the desert; now, two-thirds of the region has been designated as military training grounds and firing ranges.
Under the Prawer Plan, between 40,000 and 70,000 of the remaining Bedouin – who became Israeli citizens in the 1950s – will be moved into seven over-crowded, impoverished, crime-ridden state-planned towns. The Israeli government says it is an opportunity for Bedouins to live in modern homes, take regular jobs and send their children to mainstream schools. They will be offered compensation to move, it adds.
Miranda Pennell, a film-maker and one of the letter's signatories, said: "Citizenship counts for nothing in Israel if you happen to be an Arab. Tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin are being forcibly displaced from their homes and lands. At the same time, there are Israeli government advertisements on the web that promise you funding as a British immigrant to come and live in 'vibrant communities' in the Negev – if you are Jewish. This is ethnic cleansing."
The actor David Calder said: "The Israeli state not only practices apartheid against the Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories, but it seems they have no hesitation in practicing apartheid on their own citizens – in this instance, the Bedouins. When is the west going to find these actions intolerable?"
UNFUCKREAL. Whole world sits around and does NOTHING. Shame on all you fucken shitty Arab leaders. Shame on ALL of us for letting this kind of shit happen in 2013.
UNFUCKREAL. Whole world sits around and does NOTHING. Shame on all you fucken shitty Arab leaders. Shame on ALL of us for letting this kind of shit happen in 2013.
Arab leaders are not great, but this conflict is not their responsibilty, it is the responsibilty of israel and those who bolstered them into a the regional bully and tyrant. Israel is creating this situation and all support to them must stop until the ethnic cleansing stops.
UNFUCKREAL. Whole world sits around and does NOTHING. Shame on all you fucken shitty Arab leaders. Shame on ALL of us for letting this kind of shit happen in 2013.
Arab leaders are not great, but this conflict is not their responsibilty, it is the responsibilty of israel and those who bolstered them into a the regional bully and tyrant. Israel is creating this situation and all support to them must stop until the ethnic cleansing stops.
Not their responsibility? Of course Israel is the primary mover here, but Arab leaders have conspired with them and contributed to the suffering of the Palestinians for decades. What about Egypt maintaining the inhumane siege on Gaza in conjunction with the Israelis? Or the Israelis' alliance with the Saudis against Shia movements and countries like Hezbollah and Iran? Or the way Palestinians are treated in Lebanon? "Not great" is being kind in describing Arab leaders.
UNFUCKREAL. Whole world sits around and does NOTHING. Shame on all you fucken shitty Arab leaders. Shame on ALL of us for letting this kind of shit happen in 2013.
Arab leaders are not great, but this conflict is not their responsibilty, it is the responsibilty of israel and those who bolstered them into a the regional bully and tyrant. Israel is creating this situation and all support to them must stop until the ethnic cleansing stops.
Not their responsibility? Of course Israel is the primary mover here, but Arab leaders have conspired with them and contributed to the suffering of the Palestinians for decades. What about Egypt maintaining the inhumane siege on Gaza in conjunction with the Israelis? Or the Israelis' alliance with the Saudis against Shia movements and countries like Hezbollah and Iran? Or the way Palestinians are treated in Lebanon? "Not great" is being kind in describing Arab leaders.
And one of the major recipients in US aid is Egypt to do exactly that, to maintain the siege in support of israel. Israel and its supporters are responsible for the ethnic cleansing, when support for them stops, the suffering will end. The refugee problem in Lebanon is the responsibility of the israelis, they have created the situation, not the Lebanese. Lebanon does not treat them great and yes, that they should take blame for, but the refugee problem is not theirs when the Palestinians have land of their own they are being for forced out of, the right of return is the right of every refugee and israel must abide by that, that will end the status of the refugees in Lebanon.
Lets not forget jordan either. They belong on that list. Fucken asshole kings wife IS Palestinian! You'd think she'd somehow help but I guess when you've become super rich and powerful, you kind of forget where you come from. I'm sure all those Arab leaders TOGETHER can do SOMETHING. :fp:
Edit-wasn't king Hussein on the CIA payroll for all those years? Believe it was something like 10-30 million a year they were giving him to stand down. Coward.
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,689
As a taxpayer of the US I would dearly love it if I was able to have a direct say in where my dollars are spent, it would surely go somewhere other than the support of what is clearly a racist/bigoted government.
Their victim card has been worn out for a long time. Never again they say, I agree, but they are doing the exact same thing, only slower.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
This is about the settlements and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The daily actions of the israelis that are displacing and destroying a people.
This is an excellent article by Saree Makdisi, recently in the LA times, this is the truth of Palestinian life.
He follows his uncle, Edward Said's argument, that the greater picture, the policy for erasure of the Palestinians as planned by israel, is slow and methodical therefore less noticeable.
Israel's Policy of Erasure
Saree Makdisi
November 18 2013
The revelation last week that Israel wanted to plan for 20,000 new settlement housing units received the usual outraged responses from around the world. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mindful of a backlash in the midst of the Iran nuclear negotiations, walked the revelation back, but not very far.
Just a few days earlier, Secretary of State John F. Kerry, in Israel trying to keep peace talks afloat, reiterated the U.S. view in an interview: "We do not believe the settlements are legitimate. We think they're illegitimate."
Settlement expansion, we are constantly told, is the stumbling block to the fragile negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. The settlements are eating up the territory that is supposed to provide the basis for the creation of an independent Palestinian state. If only there were a settlement freeze, some say, one last chance for peace might be salvaged.
All of that may be true enough as far as it goes. But in fact, Israeli settlement expansion is meaningless when it's considered in isolation. And that is how it is usually considered, given how much media attention the word "settlement" garners every time it comes up.
There are, however, other, individually quieter, smaller, less visible — but collectively far more significant — events taking place on a daily basis.
Indeed, the settlement program is only one component of a broad complex of Israeli policies that has come to define the rhythm and tempo of life for Palestinians, not only in the occupied territories but inside Israel itself. These policies express Israel's longstanding wish to erase the Palestinian presence on land it considers its own.
Consider, for example, this stunning statistic from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA: On average, every week so far this year, Israel has demolished about 13 Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied territories (up from a weekly average of about 12 last year). The structures include water cisterns, barns and family homes that Israel claims violate the draconian rules it imposes on Palestinian life.
Sometimes these demolitions effectively obliterate entire communities at once.
On Aug. 19, according to OCHA, Israel destroyed all the structures in the East Jerusalem Palestinian community of Tel al-Adassa. The same week, Israel re-demolished the Palestinian village of Araqib, in southern Israel, as it has done more than 50 times since 2010. On Sept. 11, Israel bulldozed almost all the structures in the West Bank herding community of Az Zayyim, rendering dozens of people homeless. Days later, Israel demolished all the homes of the village of Mak-hul in the Jordan Valley, and declared its ruins a closed military area, preventing the villagers' return.
And so it goes — a litany of catastrophes occurring on a small scale, in communities you have never heard of, all the year round.
These acts of eradication are a matter of routine practice, so routine that they rarely attract international media attention. Neither does the regular vandalizing, bulldozing or burning of Palestinian-owned olive trees , either by Jewish settlers — who generally act with legal impunity — or by the Israeli army.
According to the U.N., settlers cut down 100 trees Nov. 9; they damaged 400 trees from Oct. 29 – Nov. 4, and 30 the week before that. And, again, so it goes—week in, week out. More than 38,000 trees have been destroyed in the last four years , a devastating loss for Palestinian farmers.
Individually, these acts of violence affect only a dozen people or a single tiny community. But they add up. If I may borrow a phrase from Charles Dickens, it is like being stung to death by single bees. Slowly, methodically, deliberately, Israel is attempting to grind an entire people into the dust.
The expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories is part of Israel's project to gradually suffocate the Palestinians. But it's only one indicator, and a misleading one at that. Because even if no new settlements are built, Palestinian homes will still be bulldozed and Palestinian olive orchards will still be uprooted; Palestinian water wells will run dry and Palestinian fields will brown and crack for lack of irrigation (Israel denies Palestinians access to water from the Jordan River and makes it almost impossible for them to dig new wells, even as it uses, according to a World Bank estimate, more than 80% of the West Bank's groundwater).
Palestinians will still be held up at Israeli army checkpoints and harassed or arrested by Israeli soldiers; they will still be prevented from tending their crops or getting to their schools and clinics, or even to the ruins of their bulldozed homes.
Finding a path to a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians, such that both peoples truly live side by side rather than one living at the expense of the other, requires not simply dealing with the settlements but with the whole complex of displacement, suffocation and erasure. And the first step is noticing its very existence.
Saree Makdisi, a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA, is the author of "Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation."
As a taxpayer of the US I would dearly love it if I was able to have a direct say in where my dollars are spent, it would surely go somewhere other than the support of what is clearly a racist/bigoted government.
Their victim card has been worn out for a long time. Never again they say, I agree, but they are doing the exact same thing, only slower.
Wow, I think we posted at the same time, and I just read your post, I totally agree.
As a taxpayer of the US I would dearly love it if I was able to have a direct say in where my dollars are spent, it would surely go somewhere other than the support of what is clearly a racist/bigoted government.
Their victim card has been worn out for a long time. Never again they say, I agree, but they are doing the exact same thing, only slower.
It's to bad more Americans dnt feel or say statements like mickey's. Guess they're too busy with the kardashians and American idol.
I keep waiting for that guy who staunchly defends Israel to come on here and speak to these offerings, but so far... nothing. I guess I'm not surprised because what can he say that could possibly serve as a reasonable defence?
It's frightening that such damning obscenities blatantly occur with such indifference.
Again, the concerted assault on the Palestinian people is at the hands of a people that, quite frankly, we should expect so much more from given their history of persecution.
Comments
Moe Diab on peace talks ‘That’s either insanity or it’s intentional failure’
If covering oft-ignored salient points counts as a home run, human rights activist Moe Diab knocked one out of the ballpark in his interview with host Jaisal Noor on today's episode of the RealNews.
From Matt Lee's grilling of State Dept spokesperson Jen Psaki on Martin Indyk's history of failure to the new adjustment to the original 2002 Arab Peace Initiative as well as Noura Erakat's suggestion of internationalizing the process to everything in between, Diab doesn't let up.
The RealNews Network:
NOOR: So, Moe, we want to get your response to this latest news of Israel approving 1,200 new settlement units. And they're particularly sensitive, because most of the units are located in isolated settlements that Israel is unlikely to retain if and when a Palestinian state is created. Can you talk about the impact this new announcement by Israel will have on these latest round of talks that Secretary Kerry is so optimistic about?
DIAB: Well, I think it comes as no surprise. They don't comply with international law. The goals of this peace process don't include ending the problems that are causing the conflict, just ending the claims and ending the conflict. So the fact that this was announced is really no surprise. They continued the building of the settlements in the last peace process. And at this point, they even openly announced that they are going to be building settlements in the proposed Palestinian state for this peace process, which is based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. So it comes as no surprise. And this process is bound to fail for that reason. So I don't think anybody at all is surprised for this.
NOOR: And I think the Western media, the mainstream media often, you know, misses that key fact that it's actually been during the years of the so-called peace process that Israel has had some of the largest settlement expansions in Palestinian territory.
DIAB: Yes, absolutely. I mean, the facts on the ground are largely ignored and they're distorted and they're presented in Western media to portray the situation as a complete opposite of what it is. It's not portrayed as an occupation of Palestinian territory. It's not portrayed as a military against an occupied people. It's really portrayed as two sovereign nations involved in a conflict.
NOOR: Yet Secretary John Kerry insists that this round of peace talks will be different. Can you talk about his goals and what the actual outline of what's being proposed looks like?
DIAB: Well, I think that's a really good question a lot of people have been asking. And I think the best way to answer this for everyone is to look at the actual main source for this. About two weeks ago, on July 29, at the State Department's official press briefing, spokesperson Jen Psaki was unable to answer Associated Press journalist Matt Lee's simple and fundamental question asking what's different this time, what's changed. Considering Martin Indyk's long record of failure--and the whole team's record of failure, for that matter--and if the official spokesperson is unable to answer the most fundamental question, it's clear that no changes have been made to increase the chances of reaching a sustainable resolution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The appointment of Martin Indyk, who is the former ambassador to Israel, as the U.S. envoy for these talks is another clear indication that no changes in the framework have been made from the last 22 years of failed U.S. diplomacy. And now we're trying the same thing again and again for 22 years, and we're not seeing a different result. That's either insanity or it's intentional failure.
In this case, as we have seen in the past whenever these peace talks resurface, the timing of the process is usually followed by an eruption of crises in the Middle East. And in this case, the inability of the U.S. to respond strategically to these challenges is enough motive to use the peace talks as a way to distract from the the U.S. failures in the Middle East and as a way to reassure Israel's backers and as reassertion of the U.S. as an existing power.
And if you want to mention the goals of this process, now, the goals were simply stated as ending the conflict, ending the claims. But it was also said that it was based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, and everybody thinks that this is going to be a great start. And theoretically it would be a great start. However, what Kerry failed to mention was the slight U.S. and Israeli adjustment to the original 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which has deprived it of any potential it may have had. Originally in the plan, the Arab states were offered normalization with Israel only after full withdrawal from the 1967 territories and after recognizing the Palestinian right of return based on UN Resolution 194. So what we're seeing is his goals are ignoring the facts on the ground and don't address the problems which are causing the conflict. How can you simply end the conflict without changing anything?
NOOR: So, Moe, what are the facts on the ground in occupied Palestine right now?
DIAB: I think the facts on the ground are plain to see. Israel continues to annex Palestinian territory. Israel persists in demolishing Palestinian homes and populating Palestine with Israeli civilians. They routinely detain Palestinians without charges under the policy of administrative detention, and they maintain the policy of collectively punishing 1.57 million Palestinians through its imposition of the blockade on the Gaza Strip. And Israel prosecutes its occupation with impunity, refusing to accept the world's calls to respect international law. Neither Israel nor its proxies can justify the facts on the ground in occupied Palestine, so they distract, distort, and defame to allow the violations to go on.
NOOR: And can you talk a little bit more about Martin Indyk? You know, he is appointed as the U.S. envoy to these talks, yet it would be hard to call him an impartial figure. You know, he was the deputy--he was the former deputy research director of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby in Washington.
DIAB: Absolutely. And he was also the former ambassador to Israel. So choosing him to be the U.S. envoy for these peace talks for obvious reasons leads to the assumption that there is no good-faith intention in this peace talk. The mediator should coordinate with both sides a balanced and unbiased perspective. And what we're seeing and what we have seen in the past is the simple U.S. siding with Israeli power and the deprivation of Palestinian representation and rights.
So if--something that also is very important is to recognize the fact that Israel, who is supported by the United States, has one of the most stable economies in the world, the fourth most powerful military in the world, and the U.S. is trying to mediate talks with the Palestinians, who are stateless and disempowered, who are living under constant occupation, who are living in apartheid conditions, who don't have a military and don't even have control of their own airspace. So for these reasons, until the negotiations are not based on support for Israeli power but based on international law, human rights, and equality for all, the peace process will unquestionably continue to fail.
NOOR: And so we spent the first seven minutes attacking these talks essentially, or at least to drawing out the criticisms of them. Do you have a proposal that you think would be a just solution to this, the Palestinian-Israel conflict?
DIAB: I think a good point to reference this would be from last March on MSNBC's news program Up with Chris Hayes. He had guest speaker Rashid Khalidi on the show, and he made the really clear point that negotiations were designed to prevent Palestinian statehood and sovereignty. And the U.S. is--like I mentioned before, the U.S. is not playing the necessary balanced role as the mediator, and with heavily biased and corrupt mediators the logical thing to do, the first step thing to do would be to remove the obstacles, in this case the U.S. being the mediator and arbitrator for these talks, 'cause they are preventing a good-faith peace process. And to involve new players is obviously very crucial in order to see an actual change in this process.
Also, human rights lawyer and Georgetown University associate adjunct professor Noura Erakat has suggested internationalization of the issue several times as a place to start. And she uses this term to reference letting go of America's role as the arbitrator and aid donor and employing the United Nations General Assembly in the process. So while Israel and its proxies may wish to ignore the world's efforts to induce compliance with international law, it's contrary to the aims and purposes of the United Nations to distract attention or to distort the facts on the ground. So internationalization also refers to utilizing the resources that are made available by the United Nations, such as utilizing the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice. Obviously, this alone is not going to completely solve the peace process and the conflict, but it definitely is more promising than following the last 22 years of failed U.S.-brokered attempts to resolve this issue.
NOOR: Moe Diab, thank you so much for joining us. Moe is a Palestinian-American human rights activist, blogs at MoeDiab.com.
DIAB: Thank you for having me.
NOOR: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
Great job Moe
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/08/moe-diab- ... ilure.html
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH_bcbJ2K_M
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFD5e5ZLSqg
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLGlEOuhQ5A
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjHlSeUmJdQ
When I said that you were missing the point I was only referring to the significance of labeling the prisoners "terrorists" as opposed to murderers. I can see that I wasn't clear on that point. My apologies.
W/r/t the international community, I can see that I was also unclear. I didn't mean to imply that the Israelis don't care about the international community at all. I think they do, in certain situations. The EU is Israel's single largest trading partner, so regulations effecting trade are going to get the Israeli's attention. That's very different than these prisoners, however. My read is that the international community cares deeply about the settlements, but they don't really care all that much about whether the Israelis release prisoners who have actually murdered people. The Israeli public, on the other hand, cares about this a great deal. So while I do think that Netanyahu is factoring the EU regulations into his overall calculus, I don't think that he's doing so on the prisoner release issue specifically.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/a ... k-postings
Israeli official warned over offensive Facebook postings
Daniel Seaman, in charge of promoting Israel's image online, ordered to stop posting 'unacceptable' comments
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
The guardian.com, Friday 16 August 2013
A senior government official responsible for promoting positive images of Israel on social media networks has been ordered to stop posting offensive statements on his Facebook page.
The gagging order followed a series of trenchant comments made by Daniel Seaman, who recently took up the post of head of Israeli public diplomacy on the internet, over the past few months.
They included a response to a demand by the Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, for an end to new settlement expansion that read: "Is there a diplomatic way of saying 'Go F*** yourself'?"
At the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast between sunrise and sunset, Seaman posted: "Does the commencement of the fast of the Ramadan means that Muslims will stop eating each other during the daytime?"
In response to a Church of Scotland report that argued that Jews do not have a divine right to the land, he wrote: "Why do they think we give a flying F*** what you have to say?"
...Seaman was known for his abrasive approach to the foreign media when he was director of the government press office. Among his initiatives in his new role is a programme to pay university students to post pro-Israel comments on Facebook, Twitter and other internet sites and forums.
it is pretty shitty that any government might have to resort to paying broke ass college kids to post things that advance their agenda.
i don't know who is worse in that case. the pimp or the whore. :?
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/a ... l-funerals
Funerals held for three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli troops
Palestinian negotiators cancel peace talks after three men killed and 15 wounded during dawn raid on Qalandiya camp
Harriet Sherwood in Qalandiya
theguardian.com, Monday 26 August 2013
Three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli security forces in a West Bank refugee camp were buried in a tempestuous funeral on Monday as Palestinian negotiators cancelled talks in a sign of the fragility of the embryonic peace process.
The men were killed during an early morning raid to arrest a suspect in Qalandiya camp. At least 15 others were wounded, six of whom were in a critical condition in hospital in Ramallah.
...A spokesman for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said the deaths were "a clear message of the true Israeli intentions toward the peace process". Nabil Abu Rudeineh added: "There are going to be negative repercussions to these acts."
The Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad al-Malki, said there was "no doubt that what happened this morning will have an effect" on negotiations.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian negotiations steering committee, said in a statement: "Israel's use of excessive and indiscriminate violence and live ammunition in densely populated civilian areas represents a blatant violation of international and humanitarian law."
She called on the international community "to take serious measures to bring an immediate end to the killing of innocent civilians and to terminate Israel's impunity".
The Israeli military said the guards were acting in self-defence.
"During a night-time incursion of security forces … they were met with violent and disorderly conduct by hundreds of Palestinians who attacked them," it said in a statement. "When they felt immediate danger to their lives, they opened fire at the attackers."
But witnesses claimed that at least two of the three victims were bystanders.
Robin al-Abed, 32, was shot in the chest as he tried to get from his home to his workplace, and Jihad Asslan, 20, was pronounced brain dead after being shot on the roof of his house where he had gone to watch the clashes, said a neighbour of the men, Abu Omar Hammad. The third dead man was Younis Jahjouh, 22, who was also shot in the chest.
Hammad, 46, who sells sweets in the camp, said he had been woken by his children at 6am to find "soldiers smothering the neighbourhood". He said he saw al-Rabed shot as he tried to get to his job with the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa.
"He was not throwing stones. The soldiers opened the back door of their jeep and shot him in the chest. The bullet came out of his back and he was puking blood. I called an ambulance, but it was prevented from entering the camp," he said.
"I've seen many incursions in this camp, but this was different. They came to kill."
Fadi Mateer, 27, was hit in the arm while trying to hide next to the camp's mosque. He said: "At first I thought it was a family dispute – a lot of the time you hear the sound of guns in the camp. But then there was shooting everywhere. While I was hiding, I saw a guy leaving his house to go to work and, boom, they shot him. Normally at this time, children are going to school and people are going to work, but everyone was trying to hide."
At the Ramallah hospital where Mateer went for treatment, "there was blood covering the floor", he said. He had doubts whether the peace process could continue: "The Israelis are cheating us. If they wanted peace, they wouldn't have raided the camp."
Mahmoud al-Aloul, governor of the city of Nablus and a member of the central committee of Fatah, the ruling faction in the West Bank, who was among the mourners, said: "We are in pain and grief. The Israelis don't want a peace process so they create a diversion. We need to reconsider our strategy. If we fail to protect our people we will lose their respect."
Hatim Khatib, whose brother Youssef was the target of the raid, said troops dressed in plain clothes arrived at their home at 4.30am.
"After half-an-hour we started hearing shooting from the soldiers inside our house, and then people started throwing stones at them," he told Associated Press. Youssef was arrested after he returned from morning prayers. He said he did not know why his brother was arrested but said he had previously been jailed for throwing stones and was released three years ago.
Fucken IDF PIGS must of been bored! What a fucken joke this government of Israel is. How can ANYONE defend this shit. I dnt want to hear anyone on this forum EVER CLAIM ISRAEL WANTS PEACE! Complete bullshit. Stop fucking lying to yourselves and man up. Your fucken government is pure evil. Enjoy inheriting the earth because you fucken Israeli government will burn in hell......if there's such a thing. When are the people of Israel gonna get some balls and stand up to there devil leaders??? Enough is enough!
I thought it but you said it
thanks Yosi
Shalom
And wtf did you want me to say??? Great job Israel!!!! Grow some fucken balls and speak the fucken truth. But you choose to defend EVERY FUCKEN ACT by Israel. At least when some fucken fucktard Muslim goes and does some stupid shit, I have no problem ripping him for it. You guys on the other hand, Israel can't do ANYTHING wrong, we all know. :roll:
So everyone in the IDF are "pigs"? Cause that's just about all the 18-21 year-olds in the country. And no one in Israel wants peace? I wonder how many Israelis you've spoken with; my guess would be not many. And if you're only talking about the government then...what? The whole Israeli government shares exactly the same position? Just like the whole American government does? Pure evil? Burning in hell? Devil leaders? You don't think this is a tad hyperbolic? I just don't get how comments like this are in the least bit constructive.
i would say they aren't constructive but you focusing on them seems to be simply a deflection or purposeful diversion ... this conflict has is the cause of mass suffering, grave violation of human rights and one of the worst cases of oppression in the world today ...
similar to the israeli gov't focusing on the various rocket attacks - you focusing on his comments borne from frustration serves the same purpose ... which is that ultimately, israel is and always has been the only faction that can bring peace and end this suffering ...
the issue really is how long are we going to let this masquerade go on and how many people will die and suffer at this farce ...
but we've been having the same circular conversations for years now ... when more people die unjustly - is it not expected that frustration would boil over!? ... if you want the conversation to be constructive ... ignore that stuff ... i agree it wasn't constructive but i definitely feel his anger and i don't think it was uncalled for ...
the solution is and always has been directly in front of us ... the israeli people need to remove the right wing extremists from power and negotiate in good faith a peace settlement and a two-state solution ... it will take generations but if other interests do not get involved (i.e. the US) ... it will come to pass ... the vast majority of israelis and palestinians want peace and are tired of all this ... the only thing stopping this is the zionists and ultra-right wing faction of the populace and gov't ...
Israel is reaping the benefits of a sweet deal it struck at the start of the peace process: release a token amount of Palestinian prisoners, and continue gobbling up the West Bank.
On the same evening that 26 Palestinian prisoners were released over the objections of Israeli Jewish citizens, the Israeli Interior Ministry announced that plans to construct 1,500 homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement in East Jerusalem were moving forward. While this project has long been in the pipeline–announcement of settlements there caused a diplomatic crisis with the U.S. in 2010–the new announcement means that “within several months, it will be possible to start issuing building permits and marketing land to contractors,” Haaretz’s Barak Ravid reports.
Ramat Shlomo isn’t the only illegal settlement that is benefiting from the prisoner release. The next day, Israel announced that more plans to build settlements are moving though the pipeline. 2,500 units in total–including in settlements outside the “blocs”–will be built in the future.
Ravid also reports that plans to build a national park in East Jerusalem that would block construction in nearby Palestinian neighborhoods is moving ahead, as is a move to build a tourist center in the Palestinian village of Silwan. The tourist center will sit opposite of the City of David, another tourist spot that Jews around the world travel to, in Silwan, a flashpoint area of East Jerusalem where settler groups are actively trying to expand their presence.
The Israeli government did the exact same thing in August, when the first batch of what will be 104 Palestinian prisoners freed were released. Israel announced that 2,000 homes in East Jerusalem were to be constructed on the the same day that prisoners were freed.
Right-wing members of the Israeli coalition government have howled over releasing the prisoners, who had been in jail since before the Oslo Accords and have served time for violent attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers. Israel had already agreed to release these prisoners in 1999.
Despite its cries of anger, the right knew the prisoner release would happen when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started negotiating with the Palestinian Authority (PA). The roots of the prisoner release for settlements deal date back to July 2013. Netanyahu needed to give the Palestinian Authority something to entice them back to the table, so he gave them the least bad option for Israel: releasing prisoners. The other options–a settlement freeze or declaring the 1967 lines as a basis for negotiations–were off the table, since it would lead to a collapse of his ultra-right coalition. It’s a perfect microcosm for the true priorities of Israel: holding onto the West Bank and expanding settlements.
The prisoner release allows the negotiations to continue rolling on. PA President Abbas can point to an achievement every single time another batch of prisoners are released. Reuters reported that he told a crowd of Palestinians celebrating the release of the 26 prisoners last night that there was no connection between the prisoner release and settlement expansion. “The settlements are void, void, void,” Abbas said. Reuters also reported that the Palestinian Cabinet released a statement saying they “would reject any attempt by Israel to ‘trade’ prisoners for continued settlement-building.”
Except that Abbas has effectively agreed to that trade by staying in the peace talks while settlements march on.
Meanwhile, Israel’s priority of expanding settlements is strengthened. The next time prisoners are released, expect more settlements to be announced.
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/10/prisoners ... ments.html
Just business as usual.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/n ... an-bedouin
Britons protest over Israel plan to remove 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins
More than 50 public figures including Antony Gormley and Brian Eno put names to letter opposing expulsion from historic land
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013
More than 50 public figures in Britain, including high-profile artists, musicians and writers, have put their names to a letter opposing an Israeli plan to forcibly remove up to 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins from their historic desert land – an act condemned by critics as ethnic cleansing.
The letter, published in the Guardian, is part of a day of protest on Saturday in Israel, Palestine and two dozen other countries over an Israeli parliamentary bill that is expected to get final approval by the end of this year.
The eviction and destruction of about 35 "unrecognised" villages in the Negev desert will, the letter says, "mean the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes and land, and systematic discrimination and separation".
The signatories – who include the artist Antony Gormley, the actor Julie Christie, the film director Mike Leigh and the musician Brian Eno – are demanding that the British government holds Israel to account over its human rights record and obligations under international law.
According to Israel, the aims of the Prawer Plan – named after the head of a government commission, Ehud Prawer – are economic development of the Negev desert and the regulation of Palestinian Bedouins living in villages not recognised by the state.
The population of these villages will be removed to designated towns, while plans for new Jewish settlements in the area are enacted.
But Adalah, a human rights and legal centre for Arabs in Israel, says: "The real purpose of the legislation [is] the complete and final severance of the Bedouin's historical ties to their land."
The "unrecognised" villages in the Negev, whose populations range from a few hundred to 2,000, lack basic services such as running water, electricity, landline telephones, roads, high schools and health clinics. Some consist of a few shacks and animal pens made from corrugated iron; others include concrete houses and mosques built without necessary but unobtainable permission.
The Bedouin comprise about 30% of the Negev's population but their villages take up only 2.5% of the land. Before the state of Israel was created in 1948 they roamed widely across the desert; now, two-thirds of the region has been designated as military training grounds and firing ranges.
Under the Prawer Plan, between 40,000 and 70,000 of the remaining Bedouin – who became Israeli citizens in the 1950s – will be moved into seven over-crowded, impoverished, crime-ridden state-planned towns. The Israeli government says it is an opportunity for Bedouins to live in modern homes, take regular jobs and send their children to mainstream schools. They will be offered compensation to move, it adds.
Miranda Pennell, a film-maker and one of the letter's signatories, said: "Citizenship counts for nothing in Israel if you happen to be an Arab. Tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin are being forcibly displaced from their homes and lands. At the same time, there are Israeli government advertisements on the web that promise you funding as a British immigrant to come and live in 'vibrant communities' in the Negev – if you are Jewish. This is ethnic cleansing."
The actor David Calder said: "The Israeli state not only practices apartheid against the Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories, but it seems they have no hesitation in practicing apartheid on their own citizens – in this instance, the Bedouins. When is the west going to find these actions intolerable?"
Arab leaders are not great, but this conflict is not their responsibilty, it is the responsibilty of israel and those who bolstered them into a the regional bully and tyrant. Israel is creating this situation and all support to them must stop until the ethnic cleansing stops.
And one of the major recipients in US aid is Egypt to do exactly that, to maintain the siege in support of israel. Israel and its supporters are responsible for the ethnic cleansing, when support for them stops, the suffering will end. The refugee problem in Lebanon is the responsibility of the israelis, they have created the situation, not the Lebanese. Lebanon does not treat them great and yes, that they should take blame for, but the refugee problem is not theirs when the Palestinians have land of their own they are being for forced out of, the right of return is the right of every refugee and israel must abide by that, that will end the status of the refugees in Lebanon.
Edit-wasn't king Hussein on the CIA payroll for all those years? Believe it was something like 10-30 million a year they were giving him to stand down. Coward.
Their victim card has been worn out for a long time. Never again they say, I agree, but they are doing the exact same thing, only slower.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
This is an excellent article by Saree Makdisi, recently in the LA times, this is the truth of Palestinian life.
He follows his uncle, Edward Said's argument, that the greater picture, the policy for erasure of the Palestinians as planned by israel, is slow and methodical therefore less noticeable.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commenta ... z2mE9hP2C7
Israel's Policy of Erasure
Saree Makdisi
November 18 2013
The revelation last week that Israel wanted to plan for 20,000 new settlement housing units received the usual outraged responses from around the world. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mindful of a backlash in the midst of the Iran nuclear negotiations, walked the revelation back, but not very far.
Just a few days earlier, Secretary of State John F. Kerry, in Israel trying to keep peace talks afloat, reiterated the U.S. view in an interview: "We do not believe the settlements are legitimate. We think they're illegitimate."
Settlement expansion, we are constantly told, is the stumbling block to the fragile negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. The settlements are eating up the territory that is supposed to provide the basis for the creation of an independent Palestinian state. If only there were a settlement freeze, some say, one last chance for peace might be salvaged.
All of that may be true enough as far as it goes. But in fact, Israeli settlement expansion is meaningless when it's considered in isolation. And that is how it is usually considered, given how much media attention the word "settlement" garners every time it comes up.
There are, however, other, individually quieter, smaller, less visible — but collectively far more significant — events taking place on a daily basis.
Indeed, the settlement program is only one component of a broad complex of Israeli policies that has come to define the rhythm and tempo of life for Palestinians, not only in the occupied territories but inside Israel itself. These policies express Israel's longstanding wish to erase the Palestinian presence on land it considers its own.
Consider, for example, this stunning statistic from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA: On average, every week so far this year, Israel has demolished about 13 Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied territories (up from a weekly average of about 12 last year). The structures include water cisterns, barns and family homes that Israel claims violate the draconian rules it imposes on Palestinian life.
Sometimes these demolitions effectively obliterate entire communities at once.
On Aug. 19, according to OCHA, Israel destroyed all the structures in the East Jerusalem Palestinian community of Tel al-Adassa. The same week, Israel re-demolished the Palestinian village of Araqib, in southern Israel, as it has done more than 50 times since 2010. On Sept. 11, Israel bulldozed almost all the structures in the West Bank herding community of Az Zayyim, rendering dozens of people homeless. Days later, Israel demolished all the homes of the village of Mak-hul in the Jordan Valley, and declared its ruins a closed military area, preventing the villagers' return.
And so it goes — a litany of catastrophes occurring on a small scale, in communities you have never heard of, all the year round.
These acts of eradication are a matter of routine practice, so routine that they rarely attract international media attention. Neither does the regular vandalizing, bulldozing or burning of Palestinian-owned olive trees , either by Jewish settlers — who generally act with legal impunity — or by the Israeli army.
According to the U.N., settlers cut down 100 trees Nov. 9; they damaged 400 trees from Oct. 29 – Nov. 4, and 30 the week before that. And, again, so it goes—week in, week out. More than 38,000 trees have been destroyed in the last four years , a devastating loss for Palestinian farmers.
Individually, these acts of violence affect only a dozen people or a single tiny community. But they add up. If I may borrow a phrase from Charles Dickens, it is like being stung to death by single bees. Slowly, methodically, deliberately, Israel is attempting to grind an entire people into the dust.
The expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories is part of Israel's project to gradually suffocate the Palestinians. But it's only one indicator, and a misleading one at that. Because even if no new settlements are built, Palestinian homes will still be bulldozed and Palestinian olive orchards will still be uprooted; Palestinian water wells will run dry and Palestinian fields will brown and crack for lack of irrigation (Israel denies Palestinians access to water from the Jordan River and makes it almost impossible for them to dig new wells, even as it uses, according to a World Bank estimate, more than 80% of the West Bank's groundwater).
Palestinians will still be held up at Israeli army checkpoints and harassed or arrested by Israeli soldiers; they will still be prevented from tending their crops or getting to their schools and clinics, or even to the ruins of their bulldozed homes.
Finding a path to a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians, such that both peoples truly live side by side rather than one living at the expense of the other, requires not simply dealing with the settlements but with the whole complex of displacement, suffocation and erasure. And the first step is noticing its very existence.
Saree Makdisi, a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA, is the author of "Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation."
Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times
Wow, I think we posted at the same time, and I just read your post, I totally agree.
It's to bad more Americans dnt feel or say statements like mickey's. Guess they're too busy with the kardashians and American idol.
Well stated Mickey, I applaud you my friend
It's frightening that such damning obscenities blatantly occur with such indifference.
Again, the concerted assault on the Palestinian people is at the hands of a people that, quite frankly, we should expect so much more from given their history of persecution.
Shameful. Truly shameful.