Clipmarks | jklugman's 'israel' clips

Israel's Front-Line Thugs

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:10:52 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks:

The security forces are, of course, by no means scared to act when it suits them. Palestinian demonstrations are routinely put down with excessive force: rocks flung by pre-teens are countered with rubber bullets, tear gas, and – often – live and indiscriminate fire. But when it comes to clamping down on violence emanating from the settler community, a different set of rules apply, and the authorities' reeking hypocrisy is exposed as endemic to the way in which they view the different strands of Israeli society.

Via Philip Weiss

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Of late, there has been a steady stream of brutal assaults carried out by settlers against their Palestinian neighbours in the West Bank, right under the noses of the lackadaisical army. The phenomenon is, sadly, nothing new; what has brought the story back into the spotlight are the efforts of human rights groups, such as B'Tselem to film the violence and document the shocking reality on the ground – which is why, it seems, the authorities are so keen to clamp down on their activity in the region.

However, the settlers don't confine their vindictive and vicious attacks to Palestinians; they are not averse to attacking their Jewish peers either.

Then another Breaking the Silence group came under attack from settler vigilantes, who doused the participants with boiling water after confronting them in the streets of Hebron and heckling them with cries of "traitor", and other such hostile invective.

Tags: israel, settlements, west bank, palestine, hypocrisy

Shin Bet extorting ill Palestinians to become informants?

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:00:36 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Via Amal A at Improvisations: Arab Woman Progressive Voice

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

The Shin Bet security service has been trying to coerce ill Palestinians to become informants in exchange for medical treatment, according to an 80-page report released recently by the Israel branch of Physicians for Human Rights.

The Shin Bet denied the charge but said it does conduct security checks on Palestinians leaving Gaza to ensure they do not pose a security threat.

This is not the first time such allegations have been raised, and Israel has always denied them.

A Shin Bet official directed reporters' queries to a letter by Shoshi Golan of the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, which speaks on the agency's behalf. Golan said the agency did not make entry into Israel for humanitarian reasons contingent on an applicant's willingness to submit any information, except for reliable information on his medical condition.

Tags: israel, human rights, human-rights, shin bet, palestine, gaza, suffering; checkpoints, occupation

Israeli food company: We won't sell produce grown by Arabs

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:34:46 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Via Amal A. at Improvisations: Arab Woman Progressive Voice

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

Israeli produce marketing company Otzar Ha'aretz (treasure of the earth) announced on Monday that it will not market produce grown by Arab farmers, and will from now on only sell only Jewish-grown products.

Tags: israel, racism, discrimination, otzar ha'aretz

Ex-General, favored mass killings, for Israeli P.M.

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:57:22 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Once told Israeli troops to kill 70 Palestinians a day, 10 from each brigade.

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Ex-Israeli General Who Called for Mass Killing Palestinians Launches PM Bid

In Israel and the Occupied Territories, a leading cabinet member and former Israeli army commander who once called for the mass killing of Palestinians has launched his candidacy for prime minister. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz enters the race to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert just days after reports emerged he once instructed Israeli troops to kill seventy Palestinians a day during the Second Intifada. In May 2001, Mofaz reportedly gave a briefing to senior West Bank army commanders and said he wanted ten slain Palestinians a day in each of the seven territorial brigade areas. On Tuesday, Mofaz emphasized he is running on a platform of “security.”

Tags: israel, palestinians

Israeli city: Jewish women should not date Arabs

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:05:54 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Via Philip Weiss

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

A new program launched in Kiryat Gat schools has the expressed purpose of preventing Jewish girls from becoming romantically involved with Israeli Bedouin.

The program enjoys the support of the municipality and the police, and is headed by Kiryat Gat's welfare representative, who goes to schools to warn girls of the "exploitative Arabs."

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he program uses a video entitled "Sleeping with the Enemy," which features a local police officer and a woman from the Anti-Assimilation Department, a wing of the religious organization Yad L'ahim, which works to prevent Jewish girls from dating Muslim men.

Tags: israel, racism, israeli-arabs, sex, kiryat gat

Bush Admin may snuff General's report on Israel misconduct

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:08:22 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Top US official there issues report critical of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Will Bush "listen to the General on the ground" or quietly gag the best report they've got?

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

US Considers Quashing Report Critical of Israel

In other news, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports the Bush administration is debating whether to silence a forthcoming high-level report critical of Israel’s conduct in the Occupied Territories. The report is written by the top US official there, retired general James Jones. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Jones has written a “scathing” report criticizing both the Israeli government and the White House. Israeli officials who met with Jones said they expect the report to be “very harsh, and make Israel look very bad.” Jones is said to be particularly critical of Israel’s claim to have security interests to justify its large settlement blocs on Palestinian land. Top administration officials are said to be so upset by the report they are debating blocking its release.

Tags: israel, palestine

Haaretz editor: Israel facing existential crisis

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:07:22 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: The outgoing editor of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz spoke at the London Jewish Book Week.

On the 2005 Chris McGreal series that appeared in the Guardian, comparing Israel to South Africa:

Landau was "outraged" by the articles at the time, but went on: "I don't feel like that any more. I don't feel that my outrage did sufficient justice to that piece of journalism because I feel that we in Israel have got ourselves into a situation in which we will indeed be facing a South African dilemma.

"We will have a country in which we will become the minority and the majority will be denied their political and civil rights. When I re-read the Chris McGreal reports I no longer feel necessarily that that was totally tendentious. It might have been a prophetic piece of journalism. But the point is that the outrage which I gave voice to was an inadequate reaction. The reaction should have been: 'has he got a point?'"

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

"It is high time that the Anglo-Jewish community and intelligentsia stopped devoting an inordinate amount of its pro-Israel energies to a minute parsing of what the BBC or the Guardian wrote about Sderot [the Israeli town regularly hit by rocket fire from the Gaza Strip] today or yesterday," he told the London Jewish Book Week audience.

"The problem of Sderot and Gaza is not how many times the BBC refers to it. The problem is that Israel is mortally, existentially threatened. It has no long-term future if it can't resolve its conflict with the Palestinians," Landau added.

"I submit to you that these words I am using merely scratch the depths of our disaster, our tragedy," Landau said. "We have a huge, vast army. Every flick of its tail leads to wholesale death across the border, including children and babies and old people because we are so strong and they are so weak. And yet they are threatening our sovereign state."

Tags: israel, guardian, occupation, palestine, alan rusbridger, david landau, haaretz, chris mcgreal, south africa

'Worse than apartheid'

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:01:15 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: Nablus is closed off by six checkpoints. Until 2005, one of them was open. "The checkpoints are supposedly for security purposes, but anyone who wants to perpetrate an attack can pay NIS 10 for a taxi and travel by bypass roads, or walk through the hills.

The real purpose is to make life hard for the inhabitants. The civilian population suffers," says Said Abu Hijla, a lecturer at Al-Najah University in the city.

In the bus I get acquainted with my two neighbours: Andrew Feinstein, a son of Holocaust survivors who is married to a Muslim woman from Bangladesh and served six years as an MP for the ANC; and Nathan Gefen, who has a male Muslim partner and was a member of the right-wing Betar movement in his youth. Gefen is active on the Committee against AIDS in his AIDS-ravaged country.

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

'Worse than apartheid'

Clip Source: israelsbirthday.files.wordpress.com

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

This week, 21 human rights activists from South Africa visited Israel. Among them were members of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress; at least one of them took part in the armed struggle and at least two were jailed

There were two South African Supreme Court judges, a former deputy minister, members of Parliament, attorneys, writers and journalists

Blacks and whites, about half of them Jews who today are in conflict with attitudes of the conservative Jewish community in their country

Clip Source: sabbah.biz

Clip Source: www.uruknet.it

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

there is no comparison: for them the Israeli occupation regime is worse than anything they knew under apartheid

in the occupied areas, where hardly any official guests go - places that are also shunned by most Israelis

Nablus, the most imprisoned city in the West Bank

Nablus is closed off by six checkpoints

Jerusalem to Nablus via Highway 60, observing the imprisoned villages that have no access to the main road, and seeing the "roads for the natives," which pass under the main road

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

Clip Source: last-straw.net

Clip Source: mazinx.files.wordpress.com

Tags: israel, apartheid

UoMI Press Stops Distributing for controversial press

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:03:34 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: insidehighered.com

In September, the University of Michigan Press faced intense criticism from pro-Israel groups — and questions from some regents — over its distribution of a book called Overcoming Zionism, which argues that the creation of Israel was a mistake

Michigan wasn’t the publisher, but it distributed the book under a deal with Pluto Press, a leftist British publisher with extensive lists on the Middle East and international affairs.

Some critics of the book demanded that Michigan stop distributing the book, which it briefly did, and cut ties to Pluto immediately. The university declined to do so, and resumed distributing the book, citing both contractual obligations to Pluto and concerns that halting distribution because of content would raise issues of academic freedom. By the end of this year, however, Michigan will no longer be distributing the book or have any ties to Pluto Press.

Tags: michigan, academics, academic-freedom, zionism

'They've Stolen our Water, now our SEA'

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:46:13 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: "The illegality of the actions and orders of the army cries out to the heavens. This is a clear case of misusing security considerations as camouflage for achieving other goals which are unrelated to security matters and unacceptable."
The Association of Civil Rights (Acri) petition said.

Clip Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Palestinians barred from Dead Sea beaches to 'appease Israeli settlers'

Palestinians are being regularly and illegally barred from reaching Dead Sea beaches in the occupied West Bank, according to a Supreme Court petition filed by Israel's leading civil rights organisation.

The Association of Civil Rights (Acri) in Israel is challenging what it says is the frequently imposed ban by the military on Palestinians seeking to swim or relax at beaches in the northern Dead Sea. The salt-saturated sea is the only open water accessible to Palestinians from the otherwise landlocked West Bank.

Clip Source: jamaicabeach.spaces.live.com

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

The petition says that the Israeli military is using the Beit Ha'arava checkpoint on Route 90 – the only open access route in the occupied West Bank for travel to the Dead Sea – to turn back Palestinians, mainly but not exclusively on weekends and Jewish holidays.

1 Exclusive: New batch of terror files left on train

6 Bush 'may convert to Catholicism'

7 What now for Europe? The EU's Irish problem

Tags: israel, water, acri, human.rights, palestine, westbank

'Jewish settler attack' on film

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:57:37 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Via JewSchool

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Footage from a video camera handed out by an Israeli human rights group appears to show Jewish settlers beating up Palestinians in the West Bank.

An elderly shepherd, his wife and a nephew said they were attacked by four masked men for allowing their animals to graze near the settlement of Susia.

The rights group, B'Tselem, said the cameras were provided to enable Palestinians to get proof of attacks.

A spokesman for the Israeli police said that an investigation was under way.

So far, no-one has been arrested.

Tags: israel, palestine, settlements, violence, occupation

BREAKING: Israeli Jews wear keffiyahs!

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:39:06 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Will Michelle Malkin launch a boycott of Israel now?

Clip Source: jewschool.com

But since Mobes made me more aware of the keffiyah trend, I really did a double-take a couple times while in Israel two weeks ago: keffiyahs are for sale everywhere. And not by Arabs in the Christian and Muslim quarters of the Old City, or East Jerusalem, or Nazareth — but by Jews in Jewy places.

I first saw them in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, not too far from the Jaffe Gate. In particular, I stopped to photo and joke about the rainbow-colored keffiyah on sale with the red and black ones. “What is this?” we joked, “the gay-friendly Palestinian resistance?” After a couple jokes about the audacity of a “log cabin” Hamasnik, I moved on.

Tags: michelle malkin, israel, hypocrisy, stupid, racism, xenophobia

Israel Withholds Tax Revenue From Palestinian Authority

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:04:54 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: This sounds very much like Israel is collectively punishing Palestinians just because a Palestinian official criticized Israel.

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

Israel is expected to transfer some tax funds to the Palestinian Authority Tuesday, after holding up the money for a week. The transfer was stopped after Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called on the European Union and OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) not to upgrade their relations with Israel.

Israel will deduct some NIS 70 million from the PA's money to cover debts and transfer some NIS 180 million of the NIS 250 million in taxes that it collects for the PA.

Holding up the money has caused several days' delay in paying wages to some 150,000 Palestinians employed by the PA.

Tags: israel, palestine, collective-punishment, free-expression, occupation, palestinian-authority, pa

The Hypocrisy of Denying Palestinians the Right of Return

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:23:19 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: www.thecrimson.com

How else could we justify the massive and ongoing theft of the Palestinians’ native land since the mid-20th century—subsidized annually with upwards of three billion dollars from the U.S. government—while we correctly enforce the right of Jewish refugees to recover European properties from which they were displaced in the mid-20th century? If we do not recognize the equality of Palestinian and Jewish rights, how can we avow the equality of the rights belonging to Tibetans and Han Chinese, Sahrawis and Moroccans, Africans and Americo-Liberians, women and men, blacks and whites, gays and straights?

Tags: hypocrisy, israel, palestine, land-confiscation, confiscation

Another Obama victim, the Palestinians

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:07:03 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners
clipper's remarks: An earlier case of Obama CYA? Seems he didn't think it was prudent to be anti-Israel in a nation wide election.

Clip Source: gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

Ali Abunimah is the co-founder of the online Pro-Palestinian publication The Electronic Intifada and the author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.

Here is part of the transcript from the interview with Democracy Now from January:

I remember, Amy—I knew Barack Obama for many years as my state senator—when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time.

I remember personally introducing him onstage in 1999, when we had a major community fundraiser for the community center in Deheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. And that’s just one example of how Barack Obama used to be very comfortable speaking up for and being associated with Palestinian rights and opposing the Israeli occupation. And just yesterday, he apparently sent a letter to Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador at the UN, to urge the US not to allow any resolution to pass criticizing Israel

[Video]

There is more of this video interview at Democracy Now!

Tags: obama, palestinians, jews, israel, politics