Ethnic Cleansing in Jeruslam - Bosnia and the Warthgau Repeated

In Jerusalem, a process of ‘Judaisation’ [the Jewish equivalent of Aryanisation] has been going on for years. There are now approximately 200,000 settlers in East Jerusalem as Arabs are evicted on one or other bogus pretext. The ‘Jewish’ State and its need for a demographic majority dictate that Israel behaves as Serbia did in Bosnia, the British in Ireland and of course Nazi Germany in the annexed parts of Poland (the Warthgau), among other examples.

This is the reality of the ‘peace process’.

Tony Greenstein

Eighty eight Homes in Silwan Slated for Demolition as Hilary Clinton Declares Netanyahu's Restraint 'Unprecedented'

Yesterday and while politicians fret over terms like "slow-down" or "restraint" on illegal settlement activities, the Israeli authorities demolished more homes and evicted some 30 people in Jerusalem. One room that is part of a demolished building housed a handicapped women whom neighbors and friends had helped get modifications done to facilitate her life. Tonight we heard a rather depressing report from an organizer in AlBustan Neighborhood in Silwan (Occupied Jerusalem) where 88 homes (housing 1500 people, 60% of them children) are slated for demolition to create a "King David park". In a normal city, parks are created to serve the residents of the area not to ethnically cleanse them. While just nearby there are spaces for parks to build but Israel's plan for Jerusalem call for cleansing it of its Arab inhabitants so that there is nothing left to negotiate about and it becomes a Jewish city (capital of Israel forever).

"In a normal city, parks are created to serve the
residents of the area not to ethnically cleanse them"

The political plan for judaicizing this area is actually laid out in the "Jerusalem 2020" plan. After building two rings of settlements around Jerusalem (and now to be connected with light railways that make a network of "facts on the ground"), the plans for this closest ring of settlements, parks, synagogues, and museums is yet the most destructive to the local inhabitants. That Israel is violating International law (Geneva Conventions and UN Security Council resolutions) seems to be only met with muffled protests from the International community. We are told of a seven year old boy whose mother notices bulging backpack going to school and back, when opened, the bag contained his toys. When asked about it it turns out that the child had overheard his parents talking about the demolition order on their home and he wanted to make sure that if he comes back from school and finds his home demolished, his most valuable toys would be saved.

My heart breaks for these families. But I feel sad for the Zionist "believers" who are generating so much pain in a new generation of children suffering under this brutal colonizing state. How is reconciliation to be achieved when 7 million people were made refugees or displaced people so far (and more on the way). Doesn't International law support resistance to colonization? And is this resistance just the responsibility of the victims or also of all decent, thinking human beings regardless of their religion.

In other news, a Jewish American terrorist settler, Jack (aka Yaakov) Teitel who had been on a killing and destruction rampage against Palestinians for over 12 years (he had killed Isa Mahrama in 1997 and was released without any prison term) was arrested now by Israeli police because he is alleged to have planned to target leftist and gay Jews! Palestinian life and property continues to be cheap in this unholy Land.

Action for US citizens: Oppose the AIPAC initiated congressional resolution against the Goldstone report. Demand accountability and support for International law

http://www.capwiz.com/adc/issues/alert/?alertid=14280606

Lest we forget: Pictures from the Israeli war crimes in Gaza (Palestinian Center for Human Rights)

Israel's anti-Semitic friends

I reprint, without comment, an article I've just written for Electronic Intifada on how Europe's fascist parties, almost without exception, are now the best supporters of Israel!

Tony Greenstein


The Electronic Intifada, 3 November 2009

There can be few supporters of the Palestinians, still less anti-Zionists, who haven't, at some time or another, been accused of "anti-Semitism." Accusations that anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism have become little more than a ritual exercise in defamation. The danger in making such accusations is, to quote the former Director of the Institute of Jewish Policy Research, Antony Lerman, that it "drains the word antisemitism of any useful meaning." Moreover, its purpose is to discourage criticism of Israel and support of the Palestinians or risk being labeled as anti-Semitic. As I wrote two years ago, "If you cry wolf long and loud enough, when anti-Semitism does raise its head no one will bat an eyelid."

The European political establishment, like its American counterpart, has taken to the idea that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are indistinguishable. According to the European Union's Working Definition, anti-Semitism includes: denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor), drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, and holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel. It is ironic that the EU's definition of anti-Semitism is itself anti-Semitic!

But the idea that "Jewish people" wherever they live, form a nation separate from the people they live amongst, because that is the meaning of self-determination, is itself an anti-Semitic concept. What is really being stated is that Jews form a race, not a nation.

Moreover, if drawing comparisons between Israeli policies and the Nazis is anti-Semitic, then the late Marek Edelman, the Commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, must have been an anti-Semite. In 2002, Edelman stated publicly that Palestinian resistance fighters in the second intifada were the inheritors of the Jewish Fighting Organization of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Similarly, since holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the Israeli state is indeed anti-Semitic, what then is one to make of the actions of the Board of Deputies of British Jews? On 9 January 2009 the Board of Deputies held a rally under the title "Community to Show Support for Israel at Trafalgar Square Rally."

Zionism held that Jews were strangers in other peoples' lands and that anti-Semitism was the natural, if not justifiable, reaction to an alien presence among them. It was but a short step from this to an acceptance that anti-Semitic characteristics and caricatures of Jews were essentially correct. Indeed, the conflation of anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism is yet another irony, as historically, it was non-Jewish support of Zionism that was seen by Jews as anti-Semitic. What anti-Semites and leading Zionists said about Jews were almost indistinguishable. As A.B. Yehoshua, one of Israel's foremost novelists, stated in a lecture to the Union of Jewish Students: "Even today, in a perverse way, a real anti-Semite must be a Zionist." And from Pinhas Felix Rosenbluth, a leading German Zionist, to Arthur Ruppin, head of the Jewish Agency, Zionists have not hesitated to employ anti-Semitic rhetoric to further their cause.

This is not so strange, because what one is talking about are in reality two entirely different forms of political philosophy with the same name -- anti-Semitism. Contrary to received opinion, there is nothing in common between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Certainly the Zionist movement has deliberately confused the two, but the former is a form of anti-racism whereas the latter is a form of racism. There can be no blurring at the edges or overlap. One is either an anti-Semite or an anti-Zionist. One cannot be both.

Therefore, it is not surprising that today, with the growth of far right and neo-fascist parties in Europe, that almost without exception they are pro-Israel. Thus, the very people who criticize anti-Zionists and Palestinian supporters as anti-Semitic are rushing to hold the hands of Zionism's far-right supporters.

For example Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom Ron Prossor was more than happy to share a platform at the Conservative Friends of Israel with Michal Kaminski of the Polish Justice and Freedom Party. Kaminski is notorious in Poland for openly opposing the call for an official apology for the 1941 massacre of hundreds of Jews in the Polish village of Jedwabne.

Last month, Israel's Ambassador to the European Union, Ran Curiel, paid the first visit by an ambassador to the Kaminski-chaired European Conservatives & Reform (ECR) Group in the European Parliament. As quoted in a 13 October news post on ECR's website, Curiel told the assembled audience that "'After years of "megaphone diplomacy" between Israel and Europe, an open dialogue is the best thing we can do now.'" Furthermore, "He highly appreciated the support of the ECR Group for the two-state solution to the 'peace process' which would fully ensure the security of the State of Israel and respect the border of national states."

Curiel's visit followed an earlier visit by Kaminski to Israel with the European Friends of Israel organization. It was Kaminski's first visit to a non-EU country as Chairman of the ECR. According to a 25 September post on the Conservative Friends of Israel's website, at a dinner held by the organization Kaminski explained that Israel was deliberately chosen as his first trip so that he could "'deliver the message that there is a group in the European Parliament that will be a true friend of Israel.'"

Similarly in the UK, Kaminski's Zionist allies rushed to his defense last month. As the Jewish Chronicle reported on 15 October, several members of the Jewish Leadership Council were outraged when Board of Deputies President Vivian Wineman wrote a letter to David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, questioning the Tory alliance with Kaminski and his far-right Justice and Freedom Party in the European Parliament. Andrew Gilbert, one of a number of deputies who believe the letter to Cameron ill-judged, stated that "'Nobody in the Jewish or political community did enough research either to say that Michal Kaminski or Roberts Zile have suspect views, which means we should shun them, or to clear them.'"

Nor is the Conservative party alone in embracing Israel's fascist allies. The British National Party is a growing party, with more than 50 local councilors and two members of the European Parliament. On 22 October 2009, its leader, Nick Griffin, appeared on the BBC's premier program Question Time, to a wave of protests. How did he explain away his anti-Semitism and support for holocaust denial? By explaining that though he might not be too fond of Jews, he was a strong supporter of Israel, stating that "there are Nazis in Britain and they loathe me because I have brought the BNP from being frankly an anti-Semitic and racist organization into being the only political party which in the clashes between Israel and Gaza stood full-square behind Israel's right to deal with Hamas terrorists."

As the Guardian reported in April 2008, Board of Deputies spokesperson Ruth Smeed let readers know that "The BNP website is now one of the most Zionist on the web -- it goes further than any of the mainstream parties in its support of Israel...."

But Kaminski and Roberts Zile, of the Waffen-SS supporting Latvian Freedom and Fatherland Party, are not the exceptions. Dutch far-right anti-Islam politician and Member of Parliament Geert Wilders is another figure who combines virulent racism with Zionism. As reported in the Israeli daily Haaretz on 18 June, Wilders claimed that "Israel is only the first line of defense for the West. Now it's Israel but we are next. That's why beyond solidarity, it is in Europe's interest to stand by Israel."

Wilders is facing criminal charges for inciting hate by comparing the Quran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. After winning five seats in June parliamentary elections, Wilders's Party of Freedom is now the second largest political party in the country. Wilders has also found common cause with the right-wing openly racist political party of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Of Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, Wilders explained that "'Our parties may not be identical, but there are certainly more similarities than dissimilarities, and I am proud of that,'" (Haaretz, 18 June 2009). He added that "'Lieberman's an intelligent, strong and clever politician and I understand why his party grew in popularity.'"

Indeed, the only far-right party that I could find whose anti-Semitism is disguised as anti-Zionism is Jobbik, the Movement for a Better Hungary, a descendant of the pro-Nazi Nyilas. During World War II, Nyilas was responsible for the deaths of some 50,000 mainly Budapest Jews. Leaders of the party were executed by the Hungarian state after liberation. This is the party that the BNP, which "opposes anti-Semitism," is joined with in the European Parliament.

Therefore, when Israel's Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz claims that Judge Richard Goldstone is an "anti-Semite" and that it is possible for a Jew to be an anti-Semite, he is right: the history of Zionism is indeed full of such examples!

Palestinian Authority Torturers - British Police Sent to Retrain their Students

The following article hardly needs commenting on. The only question to ask is whether anyone can seriously suggest that the Palestinian Authority is anything other than the creature of Israel, an oppressor of Palestinians and the accomplices of Occupation? As we see, having created its mini-Frankenstein, the British State is now trying to save it from opprobrium.

Tony Greenstein


British police and intelligence officers sent to tackle UK-funded torturers on West Bank

By David Rose
25th October 2009

The Government is sending British police and intelligence officers to the West Bank to try to stop a wave of brutal torture by Palestinian security forces funded by UK taxpayers.

Their mission is to set up and train a new 'internal affairs' department with sweeping powers to investigate abuse and bring torturers to justice.

The department is being paid for by Britain, with an initial planning budget of £100,000 ­ a sum set to soar as it becomes established.

Haitham Arar, head of the Palestinian Authority interior ministry's human rights department, said:

'This is a shame on the Palestinian Authority. We are determined with the help of our British colleagues to instill respect for human rights as part of the security forces' daily behaviour and to teach them how to treat prisoners properly.'

She said planning for the new department was well advanced and it should be operational in four month's time.

Besides investigation, British detectives will train the Palestinian police and 'Preventive Security' forces in how to question suspects without torturing them.

The next step would be for officers from MI5 and MI6 to train the PA's Mukhabarat intelligence agency.

'Obviously police cannot train intelligence officers,' Ms Arar said. 'For that you need other intelligence officers. We need all the help we can get.'

Support for the new department follows the disclosure by The Mail on Sunday in January that Britain spends £20million a year funding the forces responsible for the abuse.

Most of their victims are accused of involvement with Hamas, the radical Islamist party that seized power through violence in the Gaza Strip in 2007. The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is controlled by the rival Fatah party.

'A lot of people were talking in a bad way about the PA and saying they wanted the West Bank to be like Gaza,' Ms Arar said.

'There were people who had weapons and others who were money-laundering tosupport terrorism.'

'We had to bring these people to order. But there were violations because not all the security officers were aware of human rights standards. We need oversight over the security forces' actions.'

On the ground in the West Bank last week, however, it was clear that realising Ms Arar's aspirations is some way from fulfilment.

In the region's largest city, Nablus, Nasser al-Shaer, a former Manchester academic who was deputy prime minister in the short-lived Hamas Palestinian Authority government elected in 2006, said many of those released from detention in recent months were telling the same story ­ of torture, including beatings, being suspended from the ceiling and electric shocks.

Some of those who previously spoke to The Mail on Sunday had been arrested and tortured again, Dr al-Shaer added. 'I wish I could introduce you to them. But the fear has become too pervasive.'

One young man told in a whisper how he had been assaulted with a high-voltage device with electrodes 'like fingers'. Refusing to allow me to take notes, he said: 'I was inside for 12 months and released without charge, but if it gets out I have talked to a journalist, they will come for me again.'

However, Dr al-Shaer said that since the beginning of this month, he had heard no fresh reports of torture.

A spokeswoman at the British Consulate in Jerusalem, where aid to the PA is channelled, said UK police had already started the first courses for senior Palestinian officers, including aggressive questioning techniques that are nonetheless fully in accordance with international human rights standards.

To assist the internal affairs investigators, officers were being given a clear message ­ that they must be prepared to blow the whistle on colleagues if they witnessed abuse.

Ms Arar said that in the past week, 32 officers accused of abuse had been brought before Palestinian courts, and 15 recommended for prosecution. Two had been charged with torture.

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told me: 'The situation is going to change. This is not only morally right, but a political imperative.'

Teitel's Only Mistake Was to Target a Leftist Jew

The article below in Haaretz puts its finger on another example of the murderous nature of Zionist racism. Terrorists of the Jewish variety are quite acceptable, after all there would be no Israeli State if there had been no Zionist terrorism.

Not only the present Israeli government led by Netanhayu traces its political ancestry to the Irgun and Stern Gang terrorists of the Mandate period, but the Opposition too, in the form of its leader Tsipi Livni, is also directly related to Irgun!

Labour Zionism, needless to say, has all but disappeared. Its sole remaining members are Shimon Peres, the hawkish protégé of David Ben-Gurion and of course Labour leader Ehud Barak. Recent opinion polls give Israeli Labour just 7 seats, down from its 12 in this Knesset and of course far below the 40+ seats it once got.

Teitel’s only mistake was to plant a bomb outside the house of left-Zionist Zeev Sterhnhell.

Interestingly, it appears that Teitel actually confessed in June 1997 to killing 2 Palestinians and was released! In 'From Dentist's Son to Jewish Terrorist' he admits he came to Israel to murder Palestinians. Despite this he was released and in 2003 was formally notified that the Police had dropped their investigation.

Teitel has said that in June 1997 he killed an Arab taxi driver and a Palestinian shepherd. Two months later, the Shin Bet security service arrested him; he said during his investigation that he came to Israel precisely to carry out attacks against Palestinians, in revenge for suicide bombings.

There was also another State in different times which, as a matter of course, never prosecuted those who attacked members of another group. In that case they were Jews and the name of the State of course is Nazi Germany and not only, of course Nazi Germany, but Czarist Russia among other places. Israel no doubt feels proud of such a legacy. Tony Greenstein

Would Israel arrest a Jewish terrorist with only Arab victims?

Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz – 2 Nov 2009

It’s reasonable to assume that if Yaakov (Jack) Teitel had focused only on attacking Palestinians, he would have encountered few problems with law-enforcement authorities. His big mistake, it seems, was targeting non-Arabs as well.

Experience – and statistics – show that Israeli law enforcement is remarkably lax when it comes to tackling violence against Palestinians. Twelve years ago, Teitel confessed to killing two Arabs and then took a break from such activity. Sure, he was detained for questioning after the murder of shepherd Issa Mahamra, but he was released due to insufficient evidence. As with many other cases of murder and violence committed against Palestinians, the story of the shepherd from Yatta and the taxi driver from East Jerusalem disappeared into oblivion – until Teitel returned and attempted to harm Jews, bringing the wrath of public opinion, the Shin Bet security service and the Israel Police down on his head.

The (justifiably) prevailing feeling among Palestinians in the West Bank is that their blood is of no consequence. It’s hard to find a Palestinian today who will make an effort to approach the Israeli police about a settler assault, unless Israeli human-rights groups help him. The way Palestinians in the territories see it, Israeli law is enforced only if Jews are harmed, while incidents in which Palestinians are murdered, beaten or otherwise wounded are treated cursorily at best – and more often, are ignored entirely.

For instance, at least six shooting attacks against Palestinians in 2001-2002 have remained unsolved. The most shocking incident took place in July 2001, when three members of the Tamaizi family were shot to death by a man in a skullcap, according to relatives. The gunman asked the driver of the vehicle to stop, as it drove from one end of the village of Idna to the other, after a family wedding. When it stopped, he opened fire. But it’s doubtful that Israelis remember that 3-month-old Dai Marwan Tamaizi, born after his parents underwent 14 years of fertility treatments, was killed that day – as were Mohammed Salameh Tamaizi, 27, an only child, and Mohammed Hilmi al-Tamaizi, 24, who was engaged to be married.

One relative recalled last night that to this day, the Israeli authorities have not bothered to update the family on the outcome of their investigation.

Investigations by Palestinian-rights advocacy group Yesh Din has found that 90 percent of police investigations of cases in which Israelis are suspected of committing offenses against Palestinians in the West Bank are left unsolved and are closed. In a 2006 case, four settlers were suspected of beating an elderly Palestinian man with a rifle, leaving him unconscious for three weeks – but police didn’t check the alibis of two of the suspects, and a third wasn’t even questioned.

There are many more such incidents that indicate that the impression of Palestinians in the West Bank is rooted in reality. Maybe it’s Arab terrorists simply interest the law-enforcement authorities more than Jewish terrorists. See also:
Israel in Shock Over Arrest of Jewish Extremist - U.S. Settler Accused of Murder and Hate Crimes

The Peace Process and its Quisling Partners

It is with a sense of frustration that one watches the latest instalment of the ‘peace process’ being played out. Preconditions for the negotiations, such as the freezing of settlements, have been abandoned. Another precondition from Israel's Foreign Minister Lieberman, is the abandonment of the Goldstone Report, which the Palestinian Authority did their best to scuttle.

Indeed if Zionism wished to create the ideal ‘partner’ of its dream it could not do better than the Abbas Junta in Ramallah. But the reality is that Abbas was the handpicked partner of Israel. Following Sharon’s declaration that there is ‘no partner for peace’ Yassir Arafat was almost certainly poisoned and Abbas foisted on the Palestinians, with Marwan Barghouti conveniently locked away in an Israeli prison.

Painful though it is, facts have to be faced. Abbas, Dahlan and the rest of the corrupt cronies that constitute the PA, are the Palestinian face of Israel’s occupation. There is no peace process because there can be no peace process when Israel negotiates effectively with itself. That is the truth that Palestinian Solidarity activists have to imbibe. It is a lesson that the Palestinians, of both the West Bank and Gaza are having to learn.

The ‘economic peace’ of Abbas and his Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, is nothing more than the mirror image of Netanyahu’s belief that political sovereignty is irrelevant.

Serious criticisms do have to be made of Hamas, not least on account of the sectarianisation of the conflict within Palestine. In addition to the total lack of a social programme. This has resulted in the almost complete lack of a resistance on the West Bank. Because one thing is certain. Just as the Jewish fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto understood that the first obstacle they had to eliminate was the Judenrat, Jewish Council, so the same is true for the Palestinians today.

And for all his undoubted talents and charisma, Marwan Barghouti comes from the same Fatah stable and indeed, when he formed a breakaway party, al-Mustaqbal ("The Future"), from Fatah, who was on its list? Abbas's security henchmen Mohammed Dahlan! The real tragedy in all of this is the decline of the Palestinian left, in particular the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine.

Below is an interesting article by Akiva Eldar in Haaretz of 3rd November 2009. Even Zionists are left in amazement at just how willing and eager, is the Abbas Junta to make further concessions when prodded.

Below are links to articles on the blog in relation to Abbas and the PA, including one by Ali Abunimah that Britain's Palestine Solidarity Campaign has chosen to ignore.

Tony Greenstein

http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2009/10/abbas-oslo-and-haavarah-transfer.html
http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2009/10/petition-to-quisling-its-time-to-go.html
http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2009/10/goldstone-report-withdrawal-abbas.html
http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2009/10/pa-is-palestinian-judenrat.html
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10807.shtml

It's not peace, Madam Secretary

By Akiva Eldar

All of a sudden, after 10 months and who knows how many meetings, freezing construction in the settlements is no longer a precondition for negotiations. True, until now the Palestinians were willing to negotiate the end of the occupation while their partner made it worse. That is how we have gone from 109,000 settlers - not including East Jerusalem - when the Oslo Accords were signed 16 years ago to more than 300,000 today. Until when, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, will they have to remain suckers? True, all U.S. presidents since then, including Hillary Clinton's husband, treated the settlements just like the weather: an interesting topic for conversation, but impossible to change. But Barack Obama has promised a change, not more of the same.

Peace initiatives have always come without preconditions, and certainly without the precondition of a complete end to violence between the two warring parties. That is supposed to be the result of the diplomatic process, particularly in the case of negotiations between the occupier and occupied. But Netanyahu established an iron rule during his first term as prime minister: "If they give, they'll get - if they don't give, they won't get." In other words, no negotiations as long as there is violence. Netanyahu was proud of his differences with Yitzhak Rabin: He would not conduct the peace process as if there was no terror, and he would fight terror as if there was no peace process.

And how are we to explain Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's renewed demand to make the renewal of talks contingent on the Palestinians' withdrawal of their initiative on the Goldstone report? Isn't that a precondition? And how are we to define the Quartet's conditions for recognition of the Hamas government: an end to violence, recognition of Israel and honoring previous agreements? Are these also not preconditions?

The road map, which received the official stamp of the UN Security Council six years ago, established two preconditions: the end of violence on one side and the freezing of construction in the settlements on the other - including that required for natural growth. The decision also states that Israel must evacuate all illegal outposts put up since the beginning of Ariel Sharon's term as prime minister. That section is included in the first stage of the road map, which is two stages and a number of months before negotiations on a permanent agreement can be renewed.

U.S. generals, and even Israeli ones, have confirmed that the Palestinians have fulfilled the precondition set for them. It's hard to find anyone who will say this about the Israelis. If, God forbid, buses were to start blowing up in Jerusalem again, Netanyahu would not be seen near any Palestinian leader. He wrote in his book that it is forbidden under any circumstances to negotiate with terrorists. But to build during negotiations on land that the entire world claims is not yours - that's something else. The main thing is that Netanyahu promised in his Bar-Ilan speech that he supports two states for two peoples. Even Hillary Clinton said this was wonderful.

Since March 2002, an Arab peace initiative that makes normalization contingent on the end of the occupation has been waiting for Israel. Obama has pleaded with friendly Arab leaders to grant Israel an advance on future concessions to prepare the goundwork for the peace process. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and a few Gulf leaders agreed to launch initial steps of reconciliation. But even they, like Obama, had a precondition: freezing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They did not ask for anything more than what Clinton announced a few months ago: a complete cessation without natural growth, without illegal outposts and without excuses.

The Palestinian public learned on Saturday that even the darkest hope of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his comrades has gone the way of all his predecessors. Why should Hamas stick its head into a government that isn't even capable of getting the Americans to pressure Israel to freeze the settlements for a few months? All they have to do is wait until election day in the territories when Netanyahu will hand over hundreds of prisoners in return for captured soldier Gilad Shalit. The important thing is that there will be no preconditions.

If Hamas lacked a reason to reject the initiative for reconciliation with Fatah and wait patiently for another round of the "peace process" to go the way of its predecessors, and have the West Bank return to its bosom, then Mrs. Clinton supplied just such a reason, in a big way.

This is what an Israeli-Apartheid stamp looks like

And so we see the beginings of the Palestinian Bantustans (or more accurately Reservations) being created - with the support of Abbas and his collaborators.

Tony Greenstein

“Palestinian Authority Only”: New Israeli Stamp Limits Travel For Tourists

Toufic Haddad

This is an image of a page from a French passport, whose owner recently went through the Allenby Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the Israeli occupied West Bank. It shows an Israeli-issued stamp that provides the passport owner with a three-month tourism visa. What makes this stamp unique however is that the Israeli border agents who issued it appear to have come up with a new criteria regarding the freedom of movement of its holder.
The presence of “Palestinian Authority only” on the stamp is what makes it unique.

Previous Israeli-issued tourism visas do not restrict the freedom of movement of tourists who are allowed passage into the country, and who originate from countries which Israel has diplomatic relations and reciprocal arrangements regarding travel. That meaning, as long as someone was allowed into the country, they were able to travel freely whether they chose to visit the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, or the Palestinian city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
“Palestinian Authority only” greatly restricts this freedom of movement, and thus undoes the former arrangement. It essentially precludes travel to areas of pre-1967 Israel, as well as to Israeli controlled areas in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Israel exercises full control over 59 percent of the West Bank - areas known as “Area C.”
It further exercises security control over an additional 24 percent of the West Bank (Area B) with the Palestinian Authority [PA] in control of civil affairs there.

The only area which the PA nominally controls in full, and which a holder of this stamp is thus presumably eligible to travel to, is Area A. The latter comprises the remaining 17 percent of the West Bank.

Area A however is not composed of one territorial unit, but is divided into thirteen non-contiguous areas. Furthermore, the Israeli army routinely invades Area so as to arrest Palestinians, making a mockery of Palestinian control there.

The fragmentation of PA jurisdiction in the West Bank has invited comparisons to the Bantustans of Apartheid South Africa. Bantustans were false states set up by the white apartheid regime as a means to enforce the segregationist nature of apartheid, controlling the primarily black population, while disenfranchising them particularly with regards to expropriating their land and resources.

In a recent speech, John Dugard, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, made the comparison directly. Dugard, who is South African and a professor of international law noted:

“Are there Bantustans in the West Bank? And I think the answer to this question is yes. We do see territorial fragmentation of the kind that the South African government promoted in terms of its Bantustan policy. We see, first of all, a very clear separation being made between the West Bank and Gaza. But within the West Bank itself, we see a separation to essentially three or more territories and some additional enclaves with a center, north and south. And it’s quite clear that the Israeli government would like to see the Palestinian Authority as a kind of Bantustan puppet regime.”

Israel’s travel restrictions to PA areas are somewhat contradictory. Visitors can seemingly travel to Area A but must do so by crossing Israeli controlled areas (Area C). This means that visitors have the right to hop between different Area A ‘islands’, but can’t be caught in between.

Moreover, the very restriction on travel is equivalent to a country issuing a visa to a specific area of its country, but not to the whole country. A parallel might be the U.S. issuing a visa only to majority-black Harlem in Manhattan, or the Mashantucket Pequot reservation in Connecticut.

This happens to violate the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement (also known as “Oslo II” or “Taba”) which states that “Tourists to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from countries having diplomatic relations with Israel, who have passed through an international crossing, will not be required to pass any additional entry control before entry into Israel.” (Annex 1, Article IX “Movement Into, Within and Outside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” 2 (e))

As far as I am aware, this stamp has begun to be issued within the last month, and no Palestinian or international body, official or grassroots, has identified or spoken publicly of the phenomenon, whose scope is also not known.

The stamp has also been issued to at least one American citizen, as the below image taken from a U.S. passport attests.

In this case, the visitor was only issued a one-week visa to PA areas, affirming that Israel also has the power to determine not only the areas visitors go to, but also the time period they spend there.

Though it is not clear why Israel decided to issue this new kind of visa, certain things can be discerned by assessing Israel’s overall policies towards Palestinians, as well as towards those who seek to visit the areas in which they live.

Israel wishes to strictly regulate travel of visitors who come to the country, especially those curious to see the West Bank. Though it is likely to justify its regulation to PA areas only, under security pretexts, this doesn’t really stand up because in order to get to a PA area, you would need to travel through an Israeli controlled area. Even if this visa ensures that Israeli security cannot be breached in pre-1967 Israel, there is nothing preventing the breaching of security in Israeli controlled areas of the West Bank, including areas of Israeli settlements, and settlement by-pass roads, which Jewish settlers and the Israeli occupation army use.

A more likely justification can be found elsewhere. Israel is issuing a visa for a jurisdictional area (the “Palestinian Authority areas”), that the nominal jurisdictional power (the Palestinian Authority) does not control or issue itself. It would seem logical that the Palestinian Authority issues visas for its areas itself. But the PA does not have that power, and Israel is taking the initiative to do so on its behalf, but without PA consent.

The repercussions of this are multifold. “Palestinian Authority areas” become ‘hardened’ as a territorial and jurisdictional unit, when previously these areas were only intended to be temporary areas of jurisdiction, that would eventually form the basis of a future Palestinian state, to be negotiated between Israel and the PLO. Hence, without the need to negotiate the latter, and to gain agreement from the PA for the actual borders of its state-to-be, (and all that entails with regards to sovereignty), Israel is de facto transforming and elevating a pre-existent jurisdictional arrangement, into a de facto border between itself and the areas the Palestinian Authority “controls.” In sum, Israel appears to be issuing a visa for a Bantustan-like state, that is yet to be declared officially, but which de facto is being created by such bureaucratic measures.

Israeli Repression of Palestinian Workers – Histadrut Does Nothing

A reminder of the role of Histadrut, the Zionists' settler 'trade union'.

The TUC and the Scottish TUC, as well as UNISON, have all passed policy to 'review' their relationship with Histadrut. To some this means re-establishing a relationship rather than cutting it. The fault for this lies with the leadership of Palestine Solidarity Campaign and its trade union officer, Bernard Regan of Socialist Action/Communist League, who fought bitterly at the last AGM not to break links with Histadrut.

Below is an example of the repression that Palestinian workers face and which Histadrut, which has always forsworn solidarity with Arab workers, turns a blind eye to if not actively encourages, given its close links with the Israeli State.

Tony Greenstein

Fathi Hamaeyl, B`Tselem May 2009

Testimony: Police detain Palestinian laborers in a meat truck, denying them air and water for over two hours

I do all kinds of construction work. Because there is no work in the West Bank, I have to work in Israel.

My cousin is in an Israeli jail, so I can’t get a permit to enter Israel, and I have no choice but to enter in other ways. It has been really hard since they began building the separation fence, and we always have to look for new ways.

Yesterday [Saturday, 9 May], I left my house around 2:00 A.M. and headed to my jobsite in Israel. I walked to a-Nebi Musa, where, at 7:30 P.M., other laborers and I got onto a refrigerator truck used to transport meat. This time the meat was a different kind – living human meat.

There were 63 of us in the truck’s refrigerator compartment, which was about 12.5X7 square meters. We ranged in age from 15 to 55. The front of the truck had two windows that opened to provide ventilation. Each of them was 20x30 square centimeters. We sat next to each other, and in the center workers sat back to back. We didn`t realize how serious the situation was until we got caught, in the area between Ein Gedi and Beer Sheva.

We passed the Ein Gedi crossing without a problem. Then I saw a police jeep with its lights blinking. It drove behind us for about ten minutes. Then the police signaled the driver to stop. It was about 8:15 P.M. I heard one of the policeman ask the driver, “What do you have?” He replied, “Vegetables.” The policeman then said, “This truck is for transporting meat.” “Yes,” the driver said. The policeman then asked, “Why does it have windows?” The driver replied, “I’m transporting vegetables.” The policeman told him to open it, and then he saw us squeezed inside.

The policemen looked at us and immediately closed the door. Then the truck drove for a few minutes and stopped. I looked out the window and saw that we had stopped on the side of the road.

Time passed, minute after minute, and nothing happened. We remained inside the refrigerator compartment. While we were moving, air entered the truck, but when we stopped, the situation got very bad, and it was hard to breathe. We were very worried. The temperature kept rising, and every time somebody tried to go to the window, the policemen shouted at him. The policemen took our identity cards through the window.

We were all sweating a lot. We took turns next to the window so we could breathe some air. When we did, the policemen threw stones at us. Thank God none of us was injured. One time, when a policeman yelled at one of us, the man said to him, “Throw a stone. Fire a bullet. It makes no difference. I want some air.”

After about fifteen minutes passed, I asked the policemen to let me go to the bathroom. What I really wanted was to get out, because it was horrible inside the refrigerator. I felt as if I was suffocating and couldn’t breathe. The policemen didn`t let anybody go out, and they didn`t bring us water, even though we asked repeatedly.

Time passed, and we were sure they intended to keep us inside until we died. Generally, when they catch workers like us, a large police force arrives and takes us to one of the crossings and lets us return to the West Bank. This time, no additional policemen came. We threatened to break down the door, but the policemen threatened to open fire. Each time one of us said we were suffocating, they responded, “You can all go and die! We don’t want you alive.” They said this a few times.

We were sure we were going to die, and it would be better for them to shoot us than to die slowly. Many of us were no longer able to stand. One of us, a forty-year-old with diabetes, fainted. When we told the policemen that we had a diabetes patient among us, they said, “Let him die!” We had some water, which we poured on his face, and one of the men removed the man’s clothing from his upper body, and waved them above him until he regained consciousness.

Our clothes were wet from sweat. I called human rights organizations and reported what was happening. After a while they began to call me from time to time to stay updated. One of us had to urinate, and he relieved himself in an empty bottle. By that time, we had no water left. It was a nightmare. We felt as if we were in a mass grave and that we would suffocate to death. The darkness inside made things worse.

Around 11:30 P.M., a few army and police jeeps arrived. We thought the incident was about to end. Until that point, we thought that the police had not reported about us to anyone and that they wanted to keep us in the refrigerator until all of us were dead.

We expected the door would open, but it didn’t. The truck drove to the Ein Gedi Crossing, where they opened it. We could finally breathe. We got out without thinking, walking all over each other on the way out. The only thing we could think of was to get out and breathe.

There was a large number of jeeps and soldiers, like at a war front, or as if they had captured terrorists. All we wanted to do is work and live in dignity with our families. Reality has forced us to take these life-threatening risks so that we can survive.

I spoke with one of the soldiers, who was an officer judging from the insignias on his shoulder. I speak Hebrew well, and I told him that we needed an ambulance because a few men didn`t feel well. He replied, “There isn’t any!” They gave them water until we recovered a bit. We sat on the ground.

The soldier I had spoken with called five of us and talked with each of us separately, away from the others.

They kept us at the checkpoint for an hour, and then they told us to get back into the truck. It drove to Jericho’s DCO checkpoint. We got out, and the soldiers told us to sit on the ground.
About ten minutes later, they gave us back our identity cards and let us walk toward the Palestinian National Security checkpoint, in Jericho. National Security personnel waited for us with food and water, and there was an ambulance to treat those who needed treatment. National Security hosted some of us until the morning at its headquarters.

I returned home without food or money, and didn`t know what to tell my children. My children always wait for me to come home with money so I can buy them things they need and want.
I’ve been caught in Israel a few times. I was beaten and detained for many hours, but this time was the hardest. I thought I was going to die for sure. I didn`t think I’d live through it. It was a real grave: dark, stifling, hot, and scary. A real case of horrible suffering.

I struggle to support my family, so that my children won’t have to rely on help from others. To support them, I withstand cold, hunger, and humiliation. Often, I work in Israel for a few days, even a week. I have slept under trees. On cold winter days, I have found old mattresses thrown alongside garbage cans and covered them with nylon so they wouldn’t get wet. Once, I found my mattress burned. Another worker invited me to sleep at the site where he was working, but when I got there, it was full of workers, and there wasn’t any where to lie down.

One of the young men gave me a place alongside him, but it was very crowded, and I didn`t manage to get to sleep because it was so cold and the building didn`t have a roof yet. I left and ran through the streets at 3:00 A.M. I passed a police station a few times, hoping the police would arrest me, so I could warm up inside. But they didn’t.

I called a laborer I know and told him about my situation, that I was about to collapse. He gave me directions to an abandoned house were he was sleeping. It took me a long time to get there, and when I did, he gave me his bed to sleep in until morning.

Fathi Muhammad Ayed Hamaeyl, 33, is a construction worker and a resident of Yatma, in Nablus District. His testimony was given to Salma a-Deba`i at the witness`s house on 10 May 2009.