Formalization of apartheid discourse: Banning voices of dissent in Israel

This is a few days late, but still highly relevant, namely that the Israeli cabinet has voted in favour of a draft law to ban al-Nakbah commemorations. Read the Maki statement (source) below:

Israeli cabinet wants to ban Naqba commemoration

The Israeli cabinet has voted yesterday (Sunday, May 24, 2009) in favour of a racist proposal to ban Naqba commemorations. Many Arab-Palestinians commemorate the proclamation of the state of Israel as Naqba, the Arabic word for disaster.

In the proposal, anyone participating in the commemoration of 15 May 1948 could face a three-year prison sentence. The proposal has been made by the racist coalition party Yisrael Beitenu. It still has to go through the Knesset.

The Communist Party of Israel and Hadash (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) have sharply criticised the proposal and call it an act of an apartheid regime. Hadash chairman, MK Mohammed Barakeh said the fact the cabinet "ratified the delusions and lack of historical and factual knowledge of a single MK shows the stinking sewers to which government discourse has sunk, as is very much to be expected." Barakeh said Arabs would continue to commemorate the Nakba, adding that the commemoration was not meant "to threaten the existence of Israel, but to correct a historic wrong to the Palestinian people." The proposed bill "is no less severe than the laws enacted by the Third Reich," added MK Afo Agbaria (Hadash). "The State of Israel has declared jihad on the Arab population. Israel is gradually becoming an apartheid state. I won't be surprised if in the future the Netanyahu-Lieberman government imposes additional restrictions on Arab citizens, including forbidding the use of the Arabic language."

The Civil Rights Association also attacked the draft law.
"For the past year we have witnessed a worrying deterioration in Israel of the right to expression and other democratic rights," association chairman and well know author Sammy Michael said in a statement. "Commemoration of the Naqba does not threaten Israel at all. It is a legitimate expression of the feelings of individuals and an entire people," he said.

Tel-Aviv, May 25, 2009

Appeal for Arab railway workers

This blog had earlier noted the racist practices of Israel Railways, which has fired 40+ Arab employees. Now an appeal in solidarity with the discharged workers has been issue, it can be found here.

Yad Vashem employee fired for mentioning Deir Yassin massacre

The Israeli Yad Vashem (Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority) has fired one of its employees, after a teacher of a group of yeshiva students had complained to Yad Vashem that the employee had mentioned the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre during a tour of the institution.

Read this article in Haaretz. Notably, the title of the article is a bit misleading. The ex-employee in question did not compare the Holocaust and Nakba, he compared the link between Zionist project and the Holocaust on one hand, and the link between Nakba and the Palestinian national project on the other.

An excerpt from Haaretz;

[The fired employee] Shapira said Yad Vashem chooses to examine only some of the events that took place in the War of Indpendence. "It is being hypocritical. I only tried to expose the visitors to the facts, not to political conclusions. If Yad Vashem chooses to ignore the facts, for example the massacre at Dir Yassin, or the Nakba ["The Catastrophe," the Palestinians' term for what happened to them after 1948], it means that it's afraid of something and that its historic approach is flawed," Shapira said.

Videos of Tel Aviv rally & Ibrahim Abu Rahma's funeral

Video from the April 18 rally in Tel Aviv, condemning the murder of unarmed Palestinian protestor Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahma in Bil'in, West Bank. MK Dov Khenin's speech in latter half of the video.


Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahma's funeral, Bil'in, April 18


Another Israeli protest against murder of Palestinians


Blogs: International Solidarity Movement

Anzoátegui in solidarity with Gaza

Video of solidarity & cultural activity for Gaza by social movements in Anzoátegui, Venezuela.

Settler terror, 38 Palestinians wounded in attack on Safa village

Copy-pasted from Ma'an;

Hebron – Ma'an – Thirty-eight Palestinians were injured when armed Israeli settlers, backed by soldiers, rampaged through the West Bank village of Safa, north of Hebron on Wednesday morning.

According to medics at Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron 11 Palestinians were shot with live bullets, five with rubber-coated metal bullets and another 15 were treated for the effects of teargas.

One Palestinian, 18-year-old Tha'er Aadi, is in critical condition after being shot in the neck. After undergoing surgery at Al-Ahli, he was transferred to the public hospital in the city of Ramallah.

One eyewitness said that some 25 settlers from the nearby settlement Bat Ayin approached Palestinian houses and began shooting randomly. He said that Israeli military patrols were present, and watched the settlers shooting without stopping them.

Soldiers fired gunshots and tear gas canisters in order to prevent local youths from confronting the settlers, one witness said.

Neighboring villages called on for help

Calls were heard through mosque loudspeakers in the neighboring Palestinian towns of Beit Ummar and Surif asking residents to head to Safa and help protect its people from the rampaging settlers. Hundreds of youths responded to the call.

When the youth arrived Israeli troops intervened and restrained the settlers, making sure they returned their settlement unharmed. Local sources said that the settlers stole cattle as they left Safa.

Medics at Al-Ahli Hospital named some of the injured:
31-year-old Ammar Abu Dayya who was shot in the thigh,
26-year-old Suheil Abu Dayya, shot in the foot,
26-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil, also shot in the thigh,
35-year-old Walid Khlayyil, shot in the foot, and
24-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil

The mayors of nearby Hebron and Beit Ummar arrived in Safa to check on residents. According to mayor of Beit Ummar Nasri Sabarna, all of those injured in the day's events were harmed by the soldiers supporting the settlers, and not by the settlers themselves.

Revenge attack

On Thursday in Bat Ayin a man, reportedly Palestinian, killed a teenage settler and wounded another 7-year-old boy in the settlement with an axe.

The settlement is also the origin of a militia called the Bat Ayin Underground. The father of the 7-year-old victim of last week's attack is Ofer Gamliel, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence for attempting to bomb a Palestinian girls' school in Jerusalem in 2002. Two other men from the settlement were also jailed for the attempted attack.

On Wednesday night, the Israeli news agency Ynet reported that Gamliel was to be released for 48 hours this week in order to visit his son.

The Israeli military has refused to comment on the incident.

Daily Apartheid under Israeli occupation

Official military orders have been issued banning Palestinians from walking the streets of the Israeli settlement Har Adar, West Bank. Around 600 Palestinian labourers, who work at construction sites inside the settlements, have been barred from moving by foot between the constructions sites. They are not allowed on the streets, they are not allowed to visit the local supermarket, etc.. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has lambasted the order as "... a racist instruction based on a general fear of Arabs, which is reminiscent of dark days in the history of mankind". Full article at Ynet.

Ronnie Kasrils on Israeli Apartheid

Ronnie Kasrils writes on the parallels between South Africa and Israel, and how the advocates of Apartheid in South Africa saw Israel as its ally. Link to the text at Pragoti.

"IDF is the most moral army in the world"

If you believe the above statement is true, you really ought to read this article.

Blogs: Anna W, Esbati, Ung Vänster, Jinge, Moments of Gaza, Clipmarks, Tikun Olam
News links: Dagbladet, Telegraaf , DN

Thousands take to the streets in Rafah, calling on Palestinian politicians to put partisan interests aside for the sake of unity

Today a mass rally was organized by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, demanding that Palestinian factions put aside partisan squabbles in order to achieve national unity and the lifting of the siege on Gaza. Currently the Cairo talks are on hold, and DFLP leader Abed- Al-Hameed Abu Jayyab lambasted the lack of progress in the talks during his address to the crowds.

Source: Maan News Agency

Haaretz publishes soldiers' testimonies from Gaza

Today both Haaretz and the Israeli news portal Ynet carries the news story on the emerging testimonies of Israeli soldiers in combat during the Gaza massacre. Haaretz has promised further testimonies will be published in days to come.

Read today's articles here and here.

Some excerpts;

From the Ynet article:

The NCO [Non-Commissioned Officer] also related a story about an old woman who was crossing a main route who was shot by the soldiers. "I don't know whether she was suspicious, not suspicious, I don't know her story... I do know that my officer sent people to the roof in order to take her out... It was cold-blooded murder."

Another NCO told of an incident in which a family was killed. "We had taken over the house... and the family was released and told to go right. A mother and two children got confused and went left... The sniper on the roof wasn't told that this was okay and that he shouldn't shoot... you can say he just did what he was told... he was told not to let anyone approach the left flank and he shot at them."

"I don't know whether he first shot at their feet or not (per IDF engagement instructions), but he killed them," the NCO said.

From Haaretz:

"The squad leader said he argued with his commander over the permissive rules of engagement that allowed the clearing out of houses by shooting without warning the residents beforehand. After the orders were changed, the squad leader's soldiers complained that "we should kill everyone there [in the center of Gaza]. Everyone there is a terrorist."

The squad leader said: "You do not get the impression from the officers that there is any logic to it, but they won't say anything. To write 'death to the Arabs' on the walls, to take family pictures and spit on them, just because you can. I think this is the main thing: To understand how much the IDF has fallen in the realm of ethics, really. It's what I'll remember the most.""

Article: Israeli groups demand independent enquiry into war crimes allegations

Blogs: Röda Malmö, Henric A, PGS, Tommy, Annalisa, QoL, Rolling

Also, another reminder of how the Israeli state functions; house of family of caterpillar-driver erased. When IOF soldiers kill civilians in Gaza, are there any calls to make their families homeless?

Umm al-Fahm braces for far-right procession on Tuesday

The residents of the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm is on alert ahead of a planned march by far-right nationalists scheduled on Tuesday next week. The march has been delayed by courts and police for months, but today the Israeli police has given a go-ahead to far-right leaders Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel (both parliamentary advisors to the National Union party).

Umm al-Fahm residents, seeing the planned march as a conscious provocation against the Arab community, have pledged to resist the attempts to enter the streets of the city and form a human blockade. The National Democratic Alliance (Balad) chairman Jamal Zahalka has stated that "...we are preparing to prevent Kahane's successor from entering the town. They're coming to send a fascist and racist message. It's only natural that Umm al-Fahm residents will protest and protect themselves and their town."

¡No pasarán!

Sources: Ynet12

(Photo credit)

PFLP: Israeli prison authorities torture the Popular Front general secretary, Ahmad Sa'adat

In a statement issued by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the organization states that "Israeli prison service keeps transferring [PFLP general secretary Ahmad] Sa'adat from one jail to another, under dire conditions in light of his bad health condition. He has been suffering pains in his back and stomach in Israel's custody as a result of bad conditions in detention."

Source: Maan News Agency, PFLP website

Ian Paisley launches 'Northern Ireland Friends of Israel'

Unsurprisingly, when colonialism and occupation are challenged in Palestine, the sentinels of colonial oppression and occupation rise in solidarity with the Israeli occupation policies.

In Northern Ireland, there have been massive solidarity work for Gaza in the past months and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has supported the call for boycotts against Israel. In response, the hardline Unionist politician and veteran hate-monger Ian Paisely has founded the 'Northern Ireland Friends of Israel'.

Interestingly, Sir Ronald Storrs, the first British military governor of Jerusalem, had claimed that the Zionist "enterprise was one that blessed him that gave as well as him that took, by forming for England 'a little loyal Jewish Ulster' in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism." The Zionists would be the Orangemen of Palestine, a settler population safe-guarding imperialist influence in a region set for de-colonisation.

Source: JPost

On racism and apartheid in Israel

Clearly there is no full legal equality between all citizens of the State of Israel. And when Israeli progressives and Arab citizens of Israel raise demands equality for all citizens, the Zionist rightwing comes out in protest. See video below;


Quote of the commentary of one of the demonstrators interviewed,

"Israel is a Jewish state, not a dual national state, not a state of all its citizens"

On the prospects of Israeli overseas voting

Haaretz online version carries an editorial "Don't let Israelis vote abroad". The editorial is written in reaction to a proposal raised by the incoming governing partners Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu.

Whilst the underlining motifs behind the proposal are sinister electoral calculations (the rightwing is hoping to score more votes if out-of-country-voting is established) and racism (hoping to diminish the Arab influence in Knesset), the Haaretz rebuttal also raises some questions. If the Zionist concept that Israel is the national home of all Jews around the world is to be upheld, wouldn't overseas voting be a logical consequence?

Different countries have different legislations of overseas voting, some have no such mechanism (Denmark) whilst others have rather elaborate overseas voting mechanisms (Italy, Ecuador). Generally speaking, states which put emphasis on diaspora relations tend to have more generous rules to allow non-resident citizens to vote. In the Italian electoral system, there are even four extraterritorial parliamentary constituencies; North America, South America, Europe and Africa-Asia-Australia. There are parties uniquely based in the Italian diaspora in South America, and Italian parliamentary elections are preceded by intense election campaigning amongst the Italian communities in countries like Argentina. Considering the Zionist discourse on the link between the Jewish diaspora and the State of Israel, the fact that Israel is one of the states that doesn't allow overseas voting is a bit odd. From a Zionist perspective, that is.

It's not really my task to decide on internal Israeli matters, and I suppose the proposal will pass through various stages of wrangling before becoming a reality. As per the diminish Arab influence, the problem shouldn't be overrated. In the racist order of Israeli politics, the Arab parties are a pariah in Knesset and are never included in governing coalitions anyway. I'm not a full-fledged expert on Israeli domestic politics, but are there any cases were proposals raised by Arab parties have been passed as legislature? As per the prospect of Avigdor Lieberman doing his campaign work in Minsk or Moscow rather than the streets of Tel Aviv, that would just contribute to illustrate the non-link of Lieberman and his party colleagues to the lands of the Middle East.

But the debate on overseas voting in Israel should also be noticed on the Palestinian side, especially as there are reforms in the PLO. The PLO is the para-statal organization representing the entire Palestinian people. But its institutions are dominant and its leadership is appointed by agreements of political factions, not general elections. The creation of the Palestinian National Authority after Oslo has led to the side-lining of the PLO and creating cleavages between the Palestinians living under occupation and those in exile. In order to have a leadership fully representative of the entire Palestinian people, there the Palestinian National Council ought to formed through elections, be it in Jerusalem, Nablus, Gaza and the refugee camps across the Arab world. That would create a PLO that could negotiate with the enemy on more equal terms.

Boycott Israel action at Carrefour

Action in favour of boycott of Israel at French Carrefour store on March 7, 2009. Video found at MCP blog.

Likud-Lieberman deal signed - one concrete step towards an Israeli rightwing govt

Yesterday, after weeks of wrangling negotiations, the first concrete step towards the formation of a new Israeli cabinet was taken. A deal on forming a coalition government was signed between the rightwing Likud of Benyamin Netanyahu and the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu of Avidgor Lieberman.

According to the deal, Yisrael Beiteinu will get the Foreign Affairs, Tourism, National Infrastructure, Absorption (i.e. integration of Jews migrating to Israel) and Public Security portfolios. The political maverick Avigdor Lieberman himself will become the next Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel. Notably, some political circles are a bit worried of the potential PR catastrophy of having the Zhirnovskyesque brute Lieberman as the face of Israel towards the international community. The fact that Lieberman was able to win that particular cabinet post, and that a party collegue of his will be in charge of 'Public Security', is a clear indication of the position of strength of Lieberman in the coalition talks. Lieberman's ascent to power denotes a marked shift of paradigms in Israeli politics, a testament of the increasingly intolerant and xenophobic mainstream Israeli polity.

Like many European counterparts, Lieberman seeks to redefine citizenship, arguing that citizenship should be revoked from 'illoyal' subjects. The idea that all citizens have to undertake patriotic pledges is also increasingly popular amongst West European politicians (in countries such as Sweden, with demands of mandatory language tests as a precondition for citizenship) who wish to benefit from xenophobic vote-banks.

Some commentators, hasbara bloggers and random political analysts, are quick to state that Lieberman doesn't represent the traditional Israeli far right and that labels such as 'ultranationalist' or 'fascist' are misleading. Lieberman is hated by sectors of West Bank settlers and disliked by some extreme rightist parties (see National Union smear-campaign video below) for his secularist positions. He supports many causes traditionally identified with liberals or leftists in Israeli politics. One such issue is the establishment of secular civil marriage unions, and demand partly met by Likud in the pre-coalition talks.


Lieberman and his party are part of an international phenomenon, an ongoing transformation and renewal of far-right politics. He is part of the same trend as Pim Fortyn in the Netherlands, the Norwegian Progress Party and the Austrian Jörg Haider. A shedding of skin of the far right could be one way to describe the process. Lieberman succesfully combines the core agenda of the far right (xenophobia) with a wide package of symbolic positionings against the traditional concept of rightwing extremism (allowing pork sales, supporting transports on the Sabbath, willingness to accept a two-state solution, willingness to concede lands to the Palestinians and withdrawing settlements, calling for Arabs to be drafted to the IOF). Thus many voters who would never think of touching a the far-right ballot can be mobilized, an the xenophobic agenda becomes part of the mainstream.

Before the elections, the pseudo-leftist Meretz had stated that they would urge international protests against a Lieberman government, similar to those directed against Austria after Jörg Haider's ascent to power in 2000. Arab Knesset member Ahmed Tibi has called for an 'international boycott' of Lieberman, stating that "No minister should meet him, especially no Arab minister".

But the Likud-Lieberman deal does not conclude the ordeal of securing an Israeli rightwing cabinet. The parties still stretch out a discrete olive branch to Livni's Kadima in order to form a broader unity cabinet (something Livni has rejected). Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu has 42 mandates together in the Knesset. They need another 19 to form a majority coalition. Talks are on with various ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties who are likely to join the cabinet. But there are various bones of contention between Lieberman and these parties. The criticism of the National Union (which has 4 seats) was noted above. Ultra-Orthodox forces like UTJ and Shas had campaigned with anti-Lieberman slogans, UTJ had called Lieberman a 'racist' whilst the Shas spiritual leader had stated that a vote for Lieberman was a satanic sin. Now they are likely to sit in the same cabinet. UTJ has rejected offers to get the Health or Social Affairs portfolios, stating that they demand to get the Construction portfolio (a portfolio also claimed by the National Union).

In short, the precarious game of coalition-building is far from over. But whoever wins in the end, the Palestinian people will suffer. Both Netanyahu and Lieberman promised the people of Gaza further bloodshed in the election campaign, and at this point there is no reason to doubt their intentions.

News links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Blogging: Mikael W, Jinge, DK, Huffington Post, Actualidad 2.0, Xavier, Kildén & Åsman, Yonne, Melin, Dr. Nasir Khan, Svensson, annarkia, Tidens tecken, Ernst Klein
See also: Patriarchy strikes back, moralist spying on female IOF draftees

Iran asks Interpol to arrest 15 Israeli war criminals

Iran has sent a request to Interpol to arrest 15 Israeli war criminals, responsible for mass killings of people of Gaza. In December 2008, Iran had set up a court to try Israeli war criminals in absentia.

Source: Paltoday

Worchester-Gaza

The Worchester city council is looking at the possibility of twinning with Gaza City. Worcester, a city in England, is already twinned with Le Vesinet in France, Kleve/Niederrhein in Germany, and Worcester, Massachussetts, USA. Video below.



In Swedish Göteborg, the Left Party requested that Göteborg be declared a sister city of Gaza City. Similar demands were raised in other parts of Sweden, blog/news links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8