A majority of Israelis seem to get by just fine with the occupation, while B’Tselem is met with suspicion and accused of treason. Despite this, over the years in which targeted assassinations, smart bombs, closures, checkpoints, detentions without due process, lack of running water, poverty and a separation fence five minutes from Kfar Sava have all become routine, B’Tselem has continued to undermine the passion for denial, and to defend the rights of Palestinians and thus also the image of Israeli society.
Israel-Palestine
If not for B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, the State of Israel would look different today. The occupation might have been even crueler, or just as cruel, but we certainly would look different. In its 20 years of existence, this important human-rights organization may not have succeeded in changing reality, but at least it has made it possible for us to know what that reality was.
The young trainee was spotted by a female passer-by as he planted a fake bomb under a vehicle in the capital.
IOA Editor: Israeli agents have a long history of bomb-planting throughout the Arab World, from Egypt in the 1950s to Syria and Lebanon in recent years.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz appears to have been unaware of some important facts when he said at a recent conference on discrimination that Arab society in Israel is partially responsible for the low levels of employment for Arab women.
Currently around 130 Palestinian citizens of Israel are incarcerated as security prisoners. Hamas… is concentrating on the 22 who have been in jail for more than 15 years, much longer than the average for offenders sentenced to life… None are Hamas members. Some are serving life sentences, although they were not convicted of murder or manslaughter. In most cases, a minimum term before eligibility for parole has not been set, in others it has been set at 40 or 45 years.
IOA Editor: Another example of Israeli takeover of land and property owned by Palestinian individuals or institutions by “legal” or illegal means – based on the winner’s ability to write the law. This convoluted case – based on special Israeli laws written to legalize, and thus legitimize, the takeover of “abandoned properties” left by Palestinians after the Nakba – shows how Israel’s war against Palestine continues, 61 years after 1948.
A current case, different circumstances, different legal basis, but the very same theme: HERE.
“To the best of my knowledge, there’s probably no other country in the world… which is subject to such an intrusive regime of aerial surveillance,” UN special envoy for Lebanon Michael Williams said this month.
US embassy: “To stir up controversy at the same time that we are trying to get people back to the [negotiating] table, is not productive… It is only natural that Senator Mitchell would be paying attention to that – and the US government as well.”
IOA Editor: The spirit of Kahane is alive and well (as they used to say, “Kahane Chai” – “כהנא חי”)… Thriving from the hills of the West Bank all the way into Israel’s Knesset. This would serve only as the latest excuse for the US failure to get “people back to the table,” with the primary reason being the woefully one-sided, twisted US foreign policy – one that accepts Occupation of one nation by another as a normal state of affairs.
Right-wing Arutz 7 (Israel National News) Poll: “What’s the best solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict?” 53% said “Transfer of Palestinians to another Arab country,” 31% said “two-states for two peoples,” and 14% said “Jordanian citizenship.”
The results of the study show the textbooks are full of spelling and grammatical errors, and that a direct link can be demonstrated between the poor quality of the books and the poor level of Arabic among first and second graders.
About half of the public is concerned that government policies will force them into poverty while only a quarter of the population expresses a sense of security about their economic situation
[U]nlike the Hamas government, our government does not pay the salaries of rabbis who advocate the killing of babies. Is that so? Not really. For example, government ministries regularly transfer support and funding to a yeshiva whose rabbi determined that it is permissible to kill gentile babies “because their presence assists murder, and there is reason to harm children if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us … it is permissible to harm the children of a leader in order to stop him from acting evilly…”
[Jaffa,] a part of [Tel Aviv] where half of the population is Arab, and which has some 400 streets, only five are named after Arabs.
[[M]ost Israeli respondents were not comfortable with the prospect of one of their own children marrying an Ethiopian. Fifty-seven percent said it would be entirely unacceptable for their daughters to marry an Ethiopian, and 39 percent said so regarding their sons.
“[W]e must strengthen the community and character of every town that sees Zionist values and the heritage of Israel as the heart of its existence and way of life and seeks to bring in people who view these values as dear to their hearts. We don’t see this as racism, just as we don’t see Zionism as a racist movement.
Palestinian officials have said they are preparing to ask the United Nations to endorse an independent state without Israel’s consent because they are losing hope they can achieve their aspirations through peace talks. The announcement drew a harsh rebuke from Israeli officials.
Prof. Shlomo Sand: “I don’t define myself as an anti-Zionist… but I’m not a Zionist… I don’t put into question the existence of Israel… I compare when I am speaking before Arab students the birth of the Israeli state to an act of rape. But even the son that was born of the act of rape… you have to recognize him… the existence of Israel I don’t put in question today.”
“The PLO central committee will discuss the options to avoid a constitutional vacuum” at its meeting due to take place on December 15, Mohammed Dahlan told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Quoting from the Book of Jeremiah: “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord with a slack hand, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.”
On Gaza attack : “We all remember the beginning of the war, with a major attack of 80 planes bombing various places, and then artillery, mortar and tank fire and so forth, as in war… Everyone fought with all their heart and soul, and that includes bravery of course, but also fighting with all the resources one has – to fight as if to truly determine the mission.”
The PLO, ever since the armed Palestinian organizations got the upper hand within it after 1967, very quickly came to understand that anti-Semitic discourse is bad in itself and altogether contrary to the interests of the struggle of the Palestinian people. Hence the insistence on the distinction to be made between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, which was the issue in a political battle within the Palestinian movement.
[T]he majority of the public – 57% – supports the view of MK Shaul Mofaz of Kadima, who published a plan earlier this week, in which he called for dialogue with Hamas under certain conditions. Inside Kadima the idea has tremendous support by some 72 percent of the party’s voters.
[B]efore Abu Mazen quits… He must declare, unilaterally, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Palestine now… Netanyahu finds this possibility very scary, and he expects the Americans to nip it in the bud. But his nightmare is our only chance for an end to the occupation in our time.
Dr Mustafa Barghouthi, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, described the plan as essentially “national duty” in its aims to realize Palestinian freedoms, the right of return and the right to Jerusalem. “All of these ideas are acceptable to Palestinians,” he said, and said he thought the plan should see popular support.
The judge accepted the defense attorney’s claim that the youth must be “protected against justice” and said that sentencing the Nazareth citizen to prison would be contradictory to the principles of justice of the country.
According to the Israeli Judge Advocate General’s Office, since Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza, the Military Police Investigation Unit (MPIU) has opened 23 investigations into incidents that took place during the operation.
Abbas’s acceptance of the Egyptian-mediated reconciliation deal with Hamas is only because that deal presents new ways for him to destroy his opponents, writes Azmi Bishara
The 4,500 Palestinian workers who travel through the Eyal checkpoint, near West Bank city of Qalqilya, on their way to work in Israel, are finding it hard to enjoy the long-awaited winter. The checkpoint provides cover for those waiting to cross it, but its little shed can shelter about 100 people at the most, leaving the rest exposed to rain and cold winds.
A Tel Aviv-Jaffa City Council member resigned Sunday in protest of what he called “efforts to erase any memory of Arab names and identity from the city.” The municipality also failed to mark the new street name in Arabic, despite most residents of the neighborhood being Arabs. “It’s not enough that they ignore our requests, but how can they ignore the fact that a third of Jaffa’s population are Arabs?” Masharawi said Friday. “I’m afraid this is intentional, and motivated by a desire to Judaize Jaffa, to draw more Jews to the city.”
The kill ratio was 100-to-1 in our favor. The destruction ratio was much, much greater than that. To this day, thousands of Gazans are living in tents because we won’t let them import cement to rebuild the homes we destroyed. We turned the Gaza Strip into a disaster area, a humanitarian case, and we’re keeping it that way with our blockade. Meanwhile, here on the Israeli side of the border, it’s hard to remember when life was so safe and secure. So let’s decide: Who was the victim of Operation Cast Lead, them or us?
Wikipedia’s important review of Israel’s military free-range killing doctrine: a proposed and approved strategy under which “Israel finally realizes that Arabs should be accountable for their leaders’ acts”.
“Israel is transparent,” Ya’alon said. “The IDF has recently conducted five serious probes, the criminal investigation division opened an investigation into credit card theft. There is a team that will respond to the report without having to stop the army in order to do so.”
IOA Editor: Israel’s most transparent liar. Will not stop “the army,” but will he be stopped by by global activists?
“Ma’aleh Adumim was built on lands of the Jahleen; these people were pushed to the edges of the community,” [attorney] Lecker said. “This is not a hostile population and the city should be interested in ensuring that this community is not hungry.”
Amnesty:
-450,000 West Bank and E. Jerusalem settlers consume as much as or more water than the 2.3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.
-Palestinian per capita consumption of 70 litres per day compares with the WHO recommended level of 100 litres and Israeli consumption of 300.
-180,000 to 200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities, especially in the Israeli controlled “Area C” (60% of the West Bank), have no running water.
-The Israeli military “often” prevents them from accessing rainwater by destroying water-harvesting cisterns or even confiscating water tankers.
During the discussion, Tibi added that the proposed law reminded him of the “thought police” in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.
