"Settlers attack Palestinians after outpost evacuations"

From Ma'an

Nablus – Ma’an – Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian olive groves in the northern West Bank villages of Tell and Madma south of Nablus protesting evacuation of an illegal settlement outpost on Monday.

According to Ghassan Dughlus, a Palestinian Authority official in charge of settlement activity in the northern West Bank, Israeli forces evacuated an illegal outpost near the village of Sinjil on Monday morning. Angered about the evacuation, settlers set fire to Palestinian fields near Yizhar settlement south of Nablus.

Dughlus was also quoted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz saying that 10 settlers riding horses and carrying torches set fire to between 1,500 and 2,000 olive trees.

Firefighters were sent to the fields in an attempt to put out the flames. A Palestinian photojournalist also said he was assaulted by settlers when he attempted to cover the incident.

Settlers also threw stones at Palestinian cars and blocked the road near the Huwwara checkpoint on the outskirts of Nablus. Two Palestinian motorists were lightly injured and five cars damaged, according to Dughlus. Israeli soldiers clashed with the settlers, ultimately arresting two, and escorting the others away from the scene. Palestinian cars were also attacked in the city of Hebron.

The settlers’ attacks on Palestinians were a continuation of what they call a “price tag” campaign, in which they respond violently whenever outposts are removed by the Israeli government.

News links: 1, 2, 3, 4

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.

Kfar Qassem resists demolitions

The Arab town of Kfar Qassem witnessed riots yesterday night, as locals confronted the demolition of a greenhouse owned by an Arab, Majid Issa. As the Israeli Border Police and their bulldozers invaded the town, a call was issued from the louderspeakers of local mosques for the inhabitants to rally in solidarity with the affected family. Five Israeli policemen were injured in the confrontations. At least 12 persons have been arrested after the riots. The community is now active in mobilizing solidarity with the detainees.

Kfar Qassem is located on the Israeli side of the Apartheid Wall, Tulkarem is located just on the other side. Building permits are rarely given to Arab citizens of Israel, resulting in that a vast majority of newly-built structures lack permits. It is a consistent policy of discrimination against an entire community. A month earlier, Mr. Issa's sister's house had been demolished.

In 1956 Kfar Qassem was the site of a massacre by the Israeli military, see Haaretz and Wikipedia.


Israeli Border Police guarding the demolition


The site of the demolished building

Photo credits: Kfar Qassem website
Newslinks: Kfar Qassem website, JPost, Maan, Haaretz
Blogs: Loke, Esbati, Pastey

On the Durban II boycott

One of many European rightwing politicians to call for boycott of the Durban II conference in Geneva is Danish far-right leader Pia Kjærsgaard. In a statement, she meant that

"The purpose of the conference is to fight racism - a phenomenon that, honestly speaking, is rather marginal in Europe and the Western world today"

('Konferencens egentlige formål er bekæmpelse af racisme – et fænomen, som hånden på hjertet formentlig er temmelig marginalt i Europa og den vestlige verden i dag').

Kjærsgaard's statement clarifies an important point, namely that there is a convergence between the defense of Israel and rejection of any serious discussion on the actual problems of discrimination and marginalization of minorities in Europe. In a way, Ahmadinejad's speech is just a pretext to avoid facing the actual issues at hand.

Enhedslisten (a leftwing party) politician Asmaa Abdol-Hamid sharply criticizes Kjærsgaard's positions on Durban II. In a comment to Politiken, she says that

"Pia Kjærsgaard rejects the notion that there is racism in Europe. Obviously there is racism, and of course it should be fought. The statements of DF [Danish People's Party, Kjærsgaard's party] are living proofs of that."

Newslinks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Uri Avnery: "It can happen here: Fascism in Israel"

Uri Avnery has an article in Maan on the Avigdor Lieberman phenomenon in Israeli politics. An excerpt;

Fifty ago I wrote a book called "The Swastika," in which I described how the Nazis took over Germany. I was helped by my childhood memories. I was nine years old when the Nazis came to power. I witnessed the agonies of German democracy and the first steps of the new regime before my parents, in their infinite wisdom, decided to escape and settle in Palestine.

I wrote the book on the eve of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, after realizing that the young generation in Israel knew a lot about the Holocaust but next to nothing about the people who brought it about. What occupied me more than anything else was the question: how could such a monstrous party succeed in coming to power democratically in one of the most civilized countries in the world?

The last chapter of my book was called "It Can Happen Here". That was a paraphrase of the title of a book by the American writer Sinclair Lewis, "It Can’t Happen Here," in which he described precisely how it could happen in the United States.

I argued in the book that Nazism was not a specifically German disease, that in certain circumstances any country in the world could be infected by this virus – including our own state. In order to avoid this danger, one had to understand the underlying causes for the development of the disease.

To the assertion that I am "obsessed" by this matter, that I see this danger lurking in every corner, I answer: not true. For years I have avoided dealing with this subject. But it is true that I carry in my head a little red light that comes on when I sense the danger.

This light is now blinking.

Read the entire article here.

Israeli Apartheid "justice": Kill an Arab = 6 months community service

From Ynet (my emphasis):

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Haim Castro, a former Border Guard officer, who was convicted of shooting dead an Israeli Arab in Kfar Qassem six years ago, without there being any immediate threat to his life.

Castro was sentenced to six months community service by a district court. He then appealed to the Supreme Court arguing he did not shoot the man in question, but his appeal was rejected.

Do you really need any further argument that Israel is an Apartheid state? The same state holds thousands of Palestinian in detention, many of them having done no crime at all. Israel uses 'Administrative Detention' to arbitrarily imprison Palestinians without criminal charges. Interestingly, the military can detain a Palestinian in 'Administrative Detention' for six months (and is renewable indefinitely by a military judge under certain conditions), six month being the same period as Haim Castro's penalty for having killed an Arab citizen of Israel.

Blog: Angry Arab
Newslinks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Settlers abduct Palestinian shepherd

From Maan;

Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli settlers abducted a Palestinian shepherd south of the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday evening, Palestinian and Israeli sources reported.

The shepherd was identified as 24-year-old, Mohammad Abdallah Suleiman, a resident of the village of Sumu. The settlers seized Suleiman after he allegedly infiltrated the nearby Israeli settlement of Otni’el.

Officials at the Palestinian Coordination Office, Suleiman was handed over to the Israeli army, and is still under arrest.

Ethnic cleansing @ Israel Railways

Regarding the 40+ Arab former employees of Israel Railways, their former employer has no changed their line of argumentation. The Arabs had been fired from their jobs in the beginning of April 2009, and at the same time Israel Railways introduced a new policy of only hiring IOF veterans (thus excluding the Arab ex-employees from applying for their old jobs).

Today, Israel Railways stated to the Tel Aviv Labor Court that 'mistakes' committed by the employees had been the cause of their dismissal and that decision to sack them had been made in order to "improve the level of supervision". Tawfiq Toubi, a lawyer representing 20 of the former employees has stated that their dismissal was a case of discrimination. On April 10, the Labor Court had suspended the dismissal of Arabs for a period of 10 days.

Source: Haaretz

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.

Video: Andrew Feinstein speaks about Apartheid, Israel and the South African experience

Andrew Feinstein, a South African Jewish politician, former African National Congress MP, speaks about Israel, Palestine, South Africa and the possibilities of historical comparisons.

Settler terror

"At 4:00 pm, Israeli soldiers and the Ma'on settlement security guard took three Palestinian boys, ages 10, 11, and 14, and transported them Ma'on settlement. Soldiers delivered the children to six masked settlers who beat the children, kicking and punching them. At 4:45, the children arrived back in their village, after the settlers allowed them to leave to walk home through the hills alone."
"Earlier the same day settlers shot at a teenage Palestinian shepherd as he grazed his sheep near Juwayya. This is the second time settlers have shot at Juwayya residents over the last ten days. On 25 March, twenty Israeli settlers left the settlement of Ma'on and shot at Palestinian shepherd grazing their sheep on land belonging to the village of Juwayya. During the incident, four Israeli soldiers and the security guard of the Ma'on settlement were present and did not interfere with the settlers. The shepherds refused to leave their land, despite the danger."

From Christian Peacemaker Teams, via ISM and Annalisa.

Blogs: Esbati, Anna Wester, Angry Arab

State-sponsored ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem

Copy-pasted from Maan;

Jerusalem – Ma’an – Dozens of Israeli settlers backed by police took over a Palestinian house in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Ma'an’s correspondent observed settlers raiding the house of Naser Jaber, in the As-Sa'diyeh neighborhood of the Old City. A scuffle took place between the owner and the settlers before police intervened, allowing the settlers to take control of the house and sending the owner away.

Israeli police then imposed a neighborhood lock down, prohibiting residents from entering or leaving their homes. Several youth were seized during ensuing clashes in the tense half hour between the arrival of the settlers and the total-closure of the area.

Jaber went immediately to the court to put forward his case, saying he was going to demand the removal of the settlers from his residence, which is home to eight. Jaber noted that the small area of the Old City is home to seven other families and said there had been a repeated settler presence in the area over the past months.

Blogs: Kildén & Åsman

West Bank settlers attack Palestinians near Tulkarem

Today, Israeli settlers violently attacked buses transporting family members of Palestinian detainees trying to enter the Hadarim prison near Tulkarem. The attackers shouted slogans such as "death to Arabs and Palestinians". None of the prisoners' family members were, according to news reports, physically hurt, but the entire delegation was barred from visiting their detaineed family members.

Source: Maan News Agency

"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

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)

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"

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

British Medical Journal on hasbara and orquestrated hate-campaigns

We all know it. Anyone who has even published a journalistic article, a book, made a public statement or even done the most mundane act of starting a blog, and has combined this act with even the most discrete criticism of Israel will probably experience the opening of floods of hate-mails and accusations. They wary from attempts to remove guilt from the Israeli government by blaming others (Hamas, Iran, the Bogeyman or anyone else) to outright racist diatribes against Palestinians and Muslims in general. I have tons of unpublished racist, pro-Israeli comments sent to this blog. We know that these comments and letters are part of coordinated campaigns, in which the Israeli state itself takes part. This mechanism is known as 'hasbara'.

Fiona Godlee and Tony Delamothe, editor and deputy editor of BMJ, writes that

"And it’s not only the small fry who are cowed. John Kampfner, chief executive of Index of Censorship, detected signs of caution in the BBC’s recent coverage of the Gaza conflict following earlier criticisms of pro-Palestinian bias10 (and this before the corporation refused to broadcast the Disasters Emergency Committee’s fundraising appeal for Gaza11).

Avoiding topics where medicine and politics collide is not an option for the BMJ. It’s not possible to remove medicine from politics or politics from medicine.12 Nor is this what our readers want. In an online poll on bmj.com less than a quarter of respondents wanted less space devoted to political issues in the BMJ.13

Oxfam was describing conditions in Gaza as a "humanitarian crisis" a year ago.14 Since then Israel’s invasion of the Gaza strip has left 1300 Palestinians dead, 5500 injured, and much of Gaza in ruins. The journal cannot avert its gaze from the health and human rights consequences of this catastrophe, no matter how "political" the issue."

"The best way to blunt the effectiveness of this type of bullying, counsels O’Donnell, is to expose it to public scrutiny. We have taken his advice and will try to follow Freedland’s too—to grow a thicker skin. We’ll give future orchestrated email campaigns as much credence as film producer Sam Goldwyn gave verbal contracts. He famously dismissed these as "not worth the paper they’re written on.""

Read the full article at the BMJ website. BMJ also carries articles by Karl Sabbagh on 'Perils of criticising Israel' (with samples of hate-mail sent to BMJ and a historical background on how the Israel lobby ganged up against the magazine World Medicine in 1981, after having reported on the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre) and by Micheal O'Donnell on 'Standing up for free speech'.

Blogs: Vindskupan, Jinge, Motbilder, Tikun Olam, Beyond the Fringe, Jews sans frontiers, Wadström, BRV
Articles in Jerusalem Post on Hasbara: 1, 2
Articles on 'Norwegian anti-semitism' accusations: 1, 2, 3, 4

Bedouin houses destroyed by Israeli authorities in Negev

Maan News Agency reports that four houses belonging to Bedouin families in the Negev have been destroyed by Israeli authorities. The authorities have cited lack of building permits as the reason behind the demolition.

As part of the Apartheid policies of the Israeli state, obtaining building permits is virtually impossible for Arab inhabitants of Israel. Thus most houses built by Arabs are subject to demolition at any point, enabling the authorities to blackmail entire communities. In this cases, the Bedouins of the southern town of Bir Hadaj claim that the demolition was ordered as negotiations on grazing rights for the Bedouins' sheep herds have broken down.

News links on Israel: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Maccabre tourism

For 2,795 U.S. Dollars, the 'Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center' offers a one-week tour programme in Israel titled 'Ultimate Mission to Israel'. The organizers offer, amongst other events, "Briefings by Mossad officials and commanders of the Shin Bet", "Inside tour of the IAF unit who carries out targeted killings", "Live exhibition of penetration raids in Arab territory", "Observe a trial of Hamas terrorists in an IDF military court", "Meeting Israel's Arab agents who infiltrate the terrorist groups and provide real-time intelligence", etc..

The organizers promise a 'once-in-a-lifetime experience'. However, it's not as unique as it sounds. All major occupying forces in modern times, such as Nazi Germany, have assembled such organized visits to occupied lands in desparate attempts to bolster morale amongst their apologists overseas.