Clipmarks | jklugman's 'palestine' clips

'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

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

Water Policy in Israel and Palestine - There's Enough Water for Both

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:02:36 GMT

clipped by: Johanna_G
clipper's remarks:

The increasing difficulties with water availability, concludes the hydrogeologist, result from Israel using the majority of water resources for agricultural purposes, although this sector today represents a very small portion of the Israeli economy.
Despite this, the Israeli state remains unswervingly committed to the Zionist foundation myth, which regards the promotion of agriculture as a central tenet in the Jewish settlement of Palestine.

Messerschmid, in turn, sees the priorities of Israeli water policies as fundamentally flawed, leading to a wasteful use of the precious resource. Large areas of land, for instance, are still intensively watered even during conditions of very high temperatures, although most of the water immediately evaporates.
The Palestinians, by contrast, do not even have the amount of water at their disposal that was promised in the Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty.

Deutsche Fassung

Clip Source: www.qantara.de

Water, a resource essential for life, is becoming increasingly scarce in many areas of the world. In terms of the Middle East conflict, it is well known that the diversion of a river or even the additional pumping out of water can quickly turn into grounds for war.

The distribution of existing water reserves between Israel and its Arab neighbors is not only a result of the Middle East wars, but also due to various points of view on how water can be obtained in the region. The German hydro-geologist Clemens Messerschmid, who has lived and worked in Ramallah for a number of years, regards these viewpoints as out-dated and biased.

It's not true that there's a shortage

Messerschmid's critique, which has recently caused quite a stir in Israel, is directed primarily against the Israelis. They remain in control of most of the water resources in a region that the German hydro-geologist regards – contrary to prevailing opinions – as not being all that arid.

Clip Source: www.qantara.de

Tags: palestine, israel, water policy

Bradley Burston, Haaretz.com: I want the Palestinians to win

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:57:20 GMT

clipped by: Johanna_G
clipper's remarks:

"I and the majority of the Palestinian people are ready for a historic agreement based on international decisions that will allow a Palestinian and Israeli state to coexist, side by side, in peace and stability."

Jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti

Source: Ha'aretz, 08 April 2008

Bradley Burston is Senior Editor of Haaretz.com, the Israeli newspaper's online English language edition.
__________________________________

See also Kore7's clip Bradley Burston: Ten Ways to Make Sure That Peace Stays Dead.

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

I'm a fairly patriotic sort, as these things go. A California native, I truly love the nation, and especially the state, of my birth. I love this, my adopted homeland, no less. I deeply want Israel to be a success. And that is why I wanted the Palestinians to win.

Not win as in "throw the Jews in the sea." Not win as in "set the ground ablaze under the Jews' feet."

Win as in "gain what the Jews have gained - independence, statehood, responsibility over their own fate, and a sense of proportion over what is attainable in a world and a region of limited resources and manifold hopes."

It is in the direct interest of hardliners to do everything in their power to convince their side that this is a zero-sum game, that only one side can emerge triumphant.

In fact, though, there are two additional options, the first, of course, being that both sides can lose. The second, the one of which we've largely lost sight, is that with an element of compassion, both sides can win.

Tags: israel, palestine

Obama's church and Hamas

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:09:06 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: mypetjawa.mu.nu

Sen. Barack Obama's Chicago church reprinted a manifesto by Hamas that defended terrorism as legitimate resistance, refused to recognize the right of Israel to exist and compared the terror group's official charter – which calls for the murder of Jews – to America's Declaration of Independence.

The Hamas piece was published on the "Pastor's Page" of the Trinity United Church of Christ newsletter reserved for Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., whose anti-American, anti-Israel remarks landed Obama in hot water

In his July 22, 2007, church bulletin, Wright reprinted an article by Mousa Abu Marzook, identified in the newsletter as a "deputy of the political bureau of Hamas."

Marzook's original piece was titled, "Hamas' stand" but was re-titled "A Fresh View of the Palestinian Struggle" by Obama's church newsletter.[emphasis mine] The newsletter also referred to Hamas as the "Islamic Resistance Movement," and added in its introduction that Marzook was addressing Hamas' goals for "all of Palestine."

Clip Source: www.bizzyblog.com

Tags: obama, wright, race, racism, religion, politics, hamas, terrorism, israel

Young Israelis Resist Challenges to Settlements

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:31:35 GMT

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

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

SHVUT AMI OUTPOST, West Bank — For two months, Jewish youths have been renovating an old stone house on this muddy hilltop in the northern West Bank. The house is not theirs, however. It belongs to a Palestinian family. And their seizure of it, along with the land around it, for a new settlement outpost is a violation of Israeli law. The police have evicted the group five times, but they keep coming back.

Israel has pledged that it will permit no new settlements in the territory it has occupied since the 1967 war, no more expropriation of Palestinian land and dismantle unauthorized outposts — like this one — erected since March 2001, but it has never applied the muscle needed to do so.

So the settlers continue building a patchwork of communities to try to preclude the drawing of a border between Israel and a future Palestinian state. At the vanguard are the hilltop youth, teenagers like Yedidya, who work to complicate the demographic map ever more.

Tags: israel, palestine, occupation, settlements

Israel delays treatment for Gaza toddlers

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:40:26 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Testimony of a Palestinian father whose sons have cystic fibrosis. They have to go to a hospital in Jersusalem once every month to get them treatment, but Israel is giving them a hard time by refusing to give the parents a permit to go to Jerusalem.

By the way, earlier this father had another son die due to CF because the Israeli government would not let him travel to the West Bank to get a CT scan.

Clip Source: electronicintifada.net

In December, the Israelis refused once again to give my wife a permit and there was nobody to accompany Muhammad, so he didn't get the treatment. In January 2006, my wife managed to get a permit and she went with Muhammad to Hadassah for treatment that lasted three days. Getting a permit each time involved lots of hardship.

On 13 September 2007, I received a permit to take the children to Hadassah. I took them there for treatment that lasted 21 days. The doctors at Hadassah told us to bring the children back again in October. but now the Israelis are refusing to grant me an entry permit. The children need to receive regular treatment once a month and every delay is harmful. My wife and I are constantly on edge, waiting for the permit to come. Our children's lives depend on it.

Tags: palestine, gaza, israel, human-rights, occupation

A Double Standard on Academic Freedom

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:40:57 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: electronicintifada.net

Two hundred thousand Palestinian children began school in the Gaza Strip this month without a full complement of textbooks. Why? Because Israel, which maintains a stranglehold over this small strip of land along the Mediterranean even after withdrawing its settlers from there in 2005, considers paper, ink and binding materials not to be "fundamental humanitarian needs."

As a result, Gaza students began the year facing a 30 percent shortage of texts.

No full-page advertisements in major American newspapers have publicized Israel's violations of Palestinian children's right to an education. No editors, syndicated columnists or presidents of major universities in this country have denounced this callous measure. Our politicians have demanded no remedial action. Instead, they continue, verbally and materially, to support Israel in its near-total blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians, kids and all.

Tags: palestine, israel, gaza, education, children

How 700 settlers wrecked a town of 150,000 Palestinians

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 01:24:36 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks:

International observers here say the settlers regularly toss debris and dirty water into the Arab market below, now largely shuttered in a city where unemployment stands at 60 percent. Asked whether Arabs and Jews can share Hebron, Maraga, his hair and beard a gray fuzz, looked up at the chain-link canopy.

...

Hemmed in and harassed, the Palestinians are fleeing today. Nearly half the homes in and around the Israeli-controlled Old City of Hebron have been vacated, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem recently reported. The group also said that more than three-quarters of the Palestinian shops and restaurants in the casbah and adjacent commercial districts have been shuttered, many by military order.

Via Marx Sawicky.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

HEBRON, West Bank -- The barrier Israel is constructing in the largely rural West Bank is effectively separating Arab from Jew along much of its 456-mile length. But the broader project of disentangling the two peoples in the absence of a peace agreement is failing in urban areas such as Hebron, where the most radical elements of Islamic and Jewish nationalism are gaining strength.

Within Hebron, the separation is enforced not only by Israeli barriers but also by military checkpoints and curfews intended to protect the roughly 700 Jewish settlers living within the city's most historic and religiously important areas. Securing the small Jewish minority has a potent impact on the lives of the city's 150,000 Arabs,

Tags: israel, palestine, settlements, hebron

Gaza economy "grinding to a halt"

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 20:32:32 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: electronicintifada.net

JERUSALEM, 12 July 2007 (IRIN) - While humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip are meeting most of the basic needs of the Palestinians, industries are unable to export their goods. This has lead to mass layoffs and unemployment in the already impoverished enclave.

Businessmen in Gaza speak of over 30,000 layoffs as a result of the lockdown on the Gaza Strip initiated after fighting between the Islamist group Hamas and Fatah last month, which ended when the former seized control over the strip.

About 80 percent of private sector businesses have closed, and the remaining establishments are operating at around 60 percent capacity, Paltrade, a local business group, reported. Also, Israel has cancelled the Gaza customs code, making importing goods more difficult.

"The economy in Gaza is grinding to a halt," said an aid worker.

Tags: gaza, palestine, occupation

Video of Israeli military bulldozing Palestinian fruit grove for settlement

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:41:56 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: This video shows the IDF bulldozing a Palestinian village's fruit grove in order to build a sewer system for a settlement. Very disturbing.

Go to the source to see the video (which has English subtitles)
Via JewSchool

Clip Source: mishtara.org

כך מדינת ישראל משמרת את האיבה - הכפר ארטאס, פלסטין - This is how Israel keeps the hate alive - Ertas village, Palestine

Tags: israel, idf, settlements, palestine, occupation, land-confiscation

Israeli Settlements Exceed Boundaries

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 00:23:46 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks:
The Peace Now report available here

Via Matthew Yglesias

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

JERUSALEM, July 7 — Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank use only 12 percent of the land allocated to them, but one-third of the territory they do use lies outside their official jurisdictions, according to a new report released today byPeace Now, a dovish advocacy group.

According to the report, based on official data released by the Israeli government following a court order, 90 percent of the settlements sprawl beyond their official boundaries despite the large amount of unused land already allocated to them.

More than 10 percent of the land included within the official jurisdiction of the settlements is owned privately by Palestinians, as is 70 percent of the land the settlements control outside their official boundaries, said the report, whose findings were published today in the Haaretz newspaper.

Tags: israel, settlements, palestine

Former Sephardi chief rabbi says indiscriminate killing OK

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:04:21 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Hopefully this individual does not reflect the beliefs of many Israelis.

Clip Source: www.jpost.com

All civilians living in Gaza are collectively guilty for Kassam attacks on Sderot, former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has written in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings.

The letter, published in Olam Katan [Small World], a weekly pamphlet to be distributed in synagogues nationwide this Friday, cited the biblical story of the Shechem massacre (Genesis 34) and Maimonides' commentary (Laws of Kings 9, 14) on the story as proof texts for his legal decision.

According to Jewish war ethics, wrote Eliyahu, an entire city holds collective responsibility for the immoral behavior of individuals. In Gaza, the entire populace is responsible because they do nothing to stop the firing of Kassam rockets.

Tags: israel, war-crimes, judaism, palestine