RacecardIsrael and Palestine
Is anti-Zionism the same as anti-Semiticism? Can gentiles legitimately criticize Israel? Are Israelis or Zionists "playing the racecard" to quell legitimate opposition?
20070914
If this is NOT Apartheid, just what is it? ... Only men above 45 with special permits were allowed to enter Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque
Friday, September 14, 2007 | SORRY GUYS.... ONLY JEWS CAN PRAY TODAY
As is the usual practice during Jewish Festivals in Israel, there is a closure of the entire West Bank, meaning that Palestinians cannot enter Israel proper without a special permit, which is very difficult to obtain.
The fact that today was the first Friday of the Holy month of Ramadan meant nothing to the 'guardians of Islam's Holy Shrines'..... prayers were restricted to Jews only who were celebrating their New Year. No one else matters in this grand 'Democracy of the Middle East'... despite the 'love in fests' between Olmert and Abbas.
An Associated Press report (via HaAretz) follows...
If this is NOT Apartheid, just what is it?
IDF blocks West Bank Palestinians trying to reach Al-Aqsa Mosque
By The Associated Press
Hundreds of Palestinians thronged two major West Bank checkpoints, trying to reach Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque on the first Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, despite tight Israeli restrictions.
Israel Defense Forces troops turned back many of the West Bank faithful. Only men above the age of 45 and women above the age of 35, who had also obtained special permits, were allowed to enter Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque - the third holiest shrine of Islam - said police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby.
This year, the start of Ramadan, a month of fasting and religious observance, coincided with the Jewish New Year. As customary, Israel imposed a blanket closure on the West Bank during the Jewish holiday, barring virtually all Palestinians from entering Israel.
Hundreds of Israeli police were deployed in streets and alleys in and around Jerusalem's walled Old City, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is located. ...
Friday, September 14, 2007 | SORRY GUYS.... ONLY JEWS CAN PRAY TODAY
As is the usual practice during Jewish Festivals in Israel, there is a closure of the entire West Bank, meaning that Palestinians cannot enter Israel proper without a special permit, which is very difficult to obtain.
The fact that today was the first Friday of the Holy month of Ramadan meant nothing to the 'guardians of Islam's Holy Shrines'..... prayers were restricted to Jews only who were celebrating their New Year. No one else matters in this grand 'Democracy of the Middle East'... despite the 'love in fests' between Olmert and Abbas.
An Associated Press report (via HaAretz) follows...
If this is NOT Apartheid, just what is it?
IDF blocks West Bank Palestinians trying to reach Al-Aqsa Mosque
By The Associated Press
Hundreds of Palestinians thronged two major West Bank checkpoints, trying to reach Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque on the first Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, despite tight Israeli restrictions.
Israel Defense Forces troops turned back many of the West Bank faithful. Only men above the age of 45 and women above the age of 35, who had also obtained special permits, were allowed to enter Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque - the third holiest shrine of Islam - said police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby.
This year, the start of Ramadan, a month of fasting and religious observance, coincided with the Jewish New Year. As customary, Israel imposed a blanket closure on the West Bank during the Jewish holiday, barring virtually all Palestinians from entering Israel.
Hundreds of Israeli police were deployed in streets and alleys in and around Jerusalem's walled Old City, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is located. ...
Israel professes to be a democracy: non-Jews who are discriminated against as second-class citizens and denied comparable rights ..
"Unrecognized" Palestinians | By Stephen Lendman
09/13/07 "ICH" --- -- Israel's population today is about 7,150,000. About 5.4 million are Jews (76%) plus another 400,000 Jewish settlers in over 200 expanding settlements on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank that includes Palestinian East Jerusalem. They're the chosen ones afforded full rights and privileges under the laws of the Jewish state for Jews alone.
...
Arab Israeli citizens live mainly in all-Arab towns and villages in three heartlands - the Galilee in the north; what's called the "Little Triangle" in the center that runs along the Israeli side of the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank; and the Negev desert region in the country's south. These communities aren't geographically consolidated and are surrounded by established Jewish communities, hostile to Arab neighbors, and with Israel's full military might backing them. A minority of Palestinians also live uneasily in mixed Jewish-Arab cities like Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Jerusalem in the West Bank and others.
The Plight of Palestinian Nonpersons in "Unrecognized Villages"
The term is Orwellian in its worst sense. How can something real not officially exist? Around 150,000 or more (accurate numbers are hard to come by) Palestinian Arabs today live in over 100 so-called "unrecognized villages," mainly in the Galilee and the Negev desert. They're unrecognized because their inhabitants are considered internal refugees who were forced to flee their original homes during Israel's
1948 "War of Independence" and were prevented from returning when it ended. ...
...
All Israeli public land is administered by the Israel Land Authority (ILA) that has a legal obligation to treat all its citizens fairly. Instead and with impunity, it serves Jewish interests only using various methods to do it. It restricts and prohibits Palestinian land development by:
-- putting large Arab areas under its control through the creation of regional councils;
-- zoning restrictions mentioned above;
-- transferring public land adjacent to Arab communities to Jewish National Fund (JNF) ownership that mandates it's only for Jews;
-- connecting the cost of leasing land to military service that discriminates against Palestinians not required to serve and almost none do;
-- declaring national priority town areas for Jews only;
-- delaying, restricting and prohibiting local development in Arab communities;
-- ignoring Arab needs in regional and national plans;
-- allowing Palestinians little or no representation on national planning committees;
-- enforcing a policy of forced evictions and demolitions of buildings without appropriate permits. In "unrecognized villages," no permits are allowed Palestinians on their own land. Entire villages thus face prosecution in the courts and loss of their homes, land and possessions through a state-sponsored policy to remove them judicially.
...
It gets worse. No new Palestinian communities are allowed, and existing "unrecognized villages" are denied essential municipal services like clean drinking water, electricity, roads, transport, sanitation, education, healthcare, postal and telephone service, refuse removal and more because under the Planning and Construction Law they're illegal. The toll on their people is devastating:
-- clean water is unavailable almost everywhere unless people have access to well water,
-- the few available health services are inadequate,
-- many homes have no bathrooms, and no permits are allowed to build them,
-- only villages with private generators have electricity enough for lighting only,
-- no village is connected to the main road network,
-- some villages are fenced in prohibiting their residents from access to their traditional lands,
-- in the North, only one school remains open and children must travel 10 - 15 kilometers to attend another; as a result, achievement levels are low and dropout rates high.
...
Israel is a signatory to the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Its Preamble states "the obligation of (signatory) States under the Charter of the United Nations to promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and freedom." It then covers what states must observe in 53 Articles that stipulate the following:
...
-- "All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law."
-- In states with "ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities (those persons) shall not be denied the (same) right(s)....as the other members."
...
In Israel, for all intents and purposes, the ICCPR is a nonstarter. It applies to Jews alone, not to Arabs and other non-Jews. Israeli laws allow it by subjecting non-Jews, and specifically Arabs, to three types of discrimination:
-- legal direct discrimination guaranteeing Jews alone the right to immigrate and become citizens; it also gives various Jewish organizations in the country quasi-government status serving Jews only.
-- indirect discrimination through "neutral" laws and criteria applying principally to Palestinians; government preferences and benefits are predicated on prior military service most Palestinians don't perform; the categorization of the country into preferential zones for Jews provides them privileges and benefits denied Palestinians.
-- institutional discrimination through a legal framework facilitating a pattern of privileges afforded Jews only; they're allocated through budgets and resources showing preferential treatment for Jews and discrimination against Palestinians; Israeli courts enforce the bias by refusing to hear cases where Palestinians claim their rights have been denied;
-- even when courts hear cases and rule favorably, Palestinians get only crumbs; an example was in the early September Supreme Court decision that Israel reroute part of its illegal apartheid wall and return a small portion of stolen land to the people of Bil'in; a far greater issue was ignored by allowing the illegal Modiin Illit settlement on Bil'in land to remain intact; for anti-occupation Gush Shalom, the court decision message to settlers is do as you please, build fast and expect court approval retrospectively.
Israel professes to be a democracy. It is not by any reasonable standard. It defines itself as a Jewish state which contradicts its claimed democratic credentials. It treats Jews preferentially and entitles them to special consideration denied non-Jews who are discriminated against as second-class citizens and denied comparable rights.
...
The Current Plight of Palestinian Israeli Citizens in the Negev
About half the 160,000 Bedouin Arabs today face forced displacement in the Negev. Why? Because they live in dozens "unrecognized villages" making their homes illegal under Israeli law. ...
All Bedouin Arabs in "unrecognized villages" face what those living in Tawil Abu Jarwal endured in January. The entire village was destroyed when the Israeli military (IDF), a large police contingent and special task forces, a helicopter and bulldozers came in January 9. They demolished all 21 of its homes that consisted of shacks, brick rooms and tents. It followed a month earlier assault when 17 other homes were destroyed and their residents forcibly displaced. The people became homeless, and 63 of them in January were children.
...
It was a call to action and cry for help for "freedom, justice and (a) durable peace" and an end to six decades of repression. It called for a "global Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it ends its apartheid-like regime of discrimination, occupation and colonization, and respects the right of return of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons."
It called for "Consumer boycotts of Israeli products; boycott of Israeli academic, athletic and cultural events and institutions complicit in human rights abuses; divestment from Israeli companies (and) international companies involved in perpetuating injustice, and pressuring governments to impose sanctions on Israel...."
Silence is not an option, and people of conscience can help. Noted author and documentary filmmaker, John Pilger, believes "something is changing," and he saw it in a recent full page New York Times ad having a "distinct odour of panic." It called for boycotting Israel, and Pilger senses the "swell....is growing inexorably, as if an important marker has been passed (and it's) reminiscent of the boycotts that led to sanctions against apartheid South Africa.....once distant voices," notes Pilger, have "gone global," it caught Israel off guard and may signal change. But not easily or fast and may not happen at all unless global pressure becomes mass public outrage that this injustice no longer will be tolerated by people of conscience anywhere. ...
"Unrecognized" Palestinians | By Stephen Lendman
09/13/07 "ICH" --- -- Israel's population today is about 7,150,000. About 5.4 million are Jews (76%) plus another 400,000 Jewish settlers in over 200 expanding settlements on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank that includes Palestinian East Jerusalem. They're the chosen ones afforded full rights and privileges under the laws of the Jewish state for Jews alone.
...
Arab Israeli citizens live mainly in all-Arab towns and villages in three heartlands - the Galilee in the north; what's called the "Little Triangle" in the center that runs along the Israeli side of the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank; and the Negev desert region in the country's south. These communities aren't geographically consolidated and are surrounded by established Jewish communities, hostile to Arab neighbors, and with Israel's full military might backing them. A minority of Palestinians also live uneasily in mixed Jewish-Arab cities like Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Jerusalem in the West Bank and others.
The Plight of Palestinian Nonpersons in "Unrecognized Villages"
The term is Orwellian in its worst sense. How can something real not officially exist? Around 150,000 or more (accurate numbers are hard to come by) Palestinian Arabs today live in over 100 so-called "unrecognized villages," mainly in the Galilee and the Negev desert. They're unrecognized because their inhabitants are considered internal refugees who were forced to flee their original homes during Israel's
1948 "War of Independence" and were prevented from returning when it ended. ...
...
All Israeli public land is administered by the Israel Land Authority (ILA) that has a legal obligation to treat all its citizens fairly. Instead and with impunity, it serves Jewish interests only using various methods to do it. It restricts and prohibits Palestinian land development by:
-- putting large Arab areas under its control through the creation of regional councils;
-- zoning restrictions mentioned above;
-- transferring public land adjacent to Arab communities to Jewish National Fund (JNF) ownership that mandates it's only for Jews;
-- connecting the cost of leasing land to military service that discriminates against Palestinians not required to serve and almost none do;
-- declaring national priority town areas for Jews only;
-- delaying, restricting and prohibiting local development in Arab communities;
-- ignoring Arab needs in regional and national plans;
-- allowing Palestinians little or no representation on national planning committees;
-- enforcing a policy of forced evictions and demolitions of buildings without appropriate permits. In "unrecognized villages," no permits are allowed Palestinians on their own land. Entire villages thus face prosecution in the courts and loss of their homes, land and possessions through a state-sponsored policy to remove them judicially.
...
It gets worse. No new Palestinian communities are allowed, and existing "unrecognized villages" are denied essential municipal services like clean drinking water, electricity, roads, transport, sanitation, education, healthcare, postal and telephone service, refuse removal and more because under the Planning and Construction Law they're illegal. The toll on their people is devastating:
-- clean water is unavailable almost everywhere unless people have access to well water,
-- the few available health services are inadequate,
-- many homes have no bathrooms, and no permits are allowed to build them,
-- only villages with private generators have electricity enough for lighting only,
-- no village is connected to the main road network,
-- some villages are fenced in prohibiting their residents from access to their traditional lands,
-- in the North, only one school remains open and children must travel 10 - 15 kilometers to attend another; as a result, achievement levels are low and dropout rates high.
...
Israel is a signatory to the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Its Preamble states "the obligation of (signatory) States under the Charter of the United Nations to promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and freedom." It then covers what states must observe in 53 Articles that stipulate the following:
...
-- "All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law."
-- In states with "ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities (those persons) shall not be denied the (same) right(s)....as the other members."
...
In Israel, for all intents and purposes, the ICCPR is a nonstarter. It applies to Jews alone, not to Arabs and other non-Jews. Israeli laws allow it by subjecting non-Jews, and specifically Arabs, to three types of discrimination:
-- legal direct discrimination guaranteeing Jews alone the right to immigrate and become citizens; it also gives various Jewish organizations in the country quasi-government status serving Jews only.
-- indirect discrimination through "neutral" laws and criteria applying principally to Palestinians; government preferences and benefits are predicated on prior military service most Palestinians don't perform; the categorization of the country into preferential zones for Jews provides them privileges and benefits denied Palestinians.
-- institutional discrimination through a legal framework facilitating a pattern of privileges afforded Jews only; they're allocated through budgets and resources showing preferential treatment for Jews and discrimination against Palestinians; Israeli courts enforce the bias by refusing to hear cases where Palestinians claim their rights have been denied;
-- even when courts hear cases and rule favorably, Palestinians get only crumbs; an example was in the early September Supreme Court decision that Israel reroute part of its illegal apartheid wall and return a small portion of stolen land to the people of Bil'in; a far greater issue was ignored by allowing the illegal Modiin Illit settlement on Bil'in land to remain intact; for anti-occupation Gush Shalom, the court decision message to settlers is do as you please, build fast and expect court approval retrospectively.
Israel professes to be a democracy. It is not by any reasonable standard. It defines itself as a Jewish state which contradicts its claimed democratic credentials. It treats Jews preferentially and entitles them to special consideration denied non-Jews who are discriminated against as second-class citizens and denied comparable rights.
...
The Current Plight of Palestinian Israeli Citizens in the Negev
About half the 160,000 Bedouin Arabs today face forced displacement in the Negev. Why? Because they live in dozens "unrecognized villages" making their homes illegal under Israeli law. ...
All Bedouin Arabs in "unrecognized villages" face what those living in Tawil Abu Jarwal endured in January. The entire village was destroyed when the Israeli military (IDF), a large police contingent and special task forces, a helicopter and bulldozers came in January 9. They demolished all 21 of its homes that consisted of shacks, brick rooms and tents. It followed a month earlier assault when 17 other homes were destroyed and their residents forcibly displaced. The people became homeless, and 63 of them in January were children.
...
It was a call to action and cry for help for "freedom, justice and (a) durable peace" and an end to six decades of repression. It called for a "global Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it ends its apartheid-like regime of discrimination, occupation and colonization, and respects the right of return of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons."
It called for "Consumer boycotts of Israeli products; boycott of Israeli academic, athletic and cultural events and institutions complicit in human rights abuses; divestment from Israeli companies (and) international companies involved in perpetuating injustice, and pressuring governments to impose sanctions on Israel...."
Silence is not an option, and people of conscience can help. Noted author and documentary filmmaker, John Pilger, believes "something is changing," and he saw it in a recent full page New York Times ad having a "distinct odour of panic." It called for boycotting Israel, and Pilger senses the "swell....is growing inexorably, as if an important marker has been passed (and it's) reminiscent of the boycotts that led to sanctions against apartheid South Africa.....once distant voices," notes Pilger, have "gone global," it caught Israel off guard and may signal change. But not easily or fast and may not happen at all unless global pressure becomes mass public outrage that this injustice no longer will be tolerated by people of conscience anywhere. ...
20070910
ADL said neo-Nazi behaviour was a problem arising from the difficulties faced by immigrants, adding "...angry at Israelis for holding them in contempt
ISRAEL'S 'LAW OF RETURN' IS HAVING SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES
Since 1950, Israel has had a Law of Return on its books, granting citizenship to any Jew that desires to have it. This has sparked a yearly debate in the Knesset as to Who Is A Jew... a debate which apparently has not stopped people such as described in the following from immigrating to Israel.
One really has to wonder which party the parents of these teenagers support.... notice also which group was the first to issue a statement on the situation....
Police arrest eight neo-Nazi teenagers from Petah Tikva
By Roni Singer-Haruti, HaAretz Correspondent
A gag order was lifted Saturday night on the arrest one month ago of eight Petah Tikva teens suspected of running a neo-Nazi cell.
The suspects, aged 17 to 19, confessed to assaulting dozens of people, mainly foreign workers around Tel Aviv's central bus station and Carmel market, causing many of them serious injury.
...
Almog said that all of the suspects are immigrants from the former Soviet Union. They all came to Israel through the Law of Return, but "their connection to Judaism is distant, through grandparents or distant family connections," she said.
The Anti-Defamation League responded to the arrests by urging that the group not be used as a stereotype for Russian immigrants in Israel, and saying that such cases were marginal.
In a statement, the group said neo-Nazi behaviour was a problem arising from the difficulties faced by immigrants, adding "The youth are angry at Israelis for holding them in contempt and lash out with hatred."
The ADL clarified that while the detainees were from the former Soviet Union and religiously identified as Christians, they had immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return which grants "even grandchildren of Jews sanctuary in the Jewish state."
ISRAEL'S 'LAW OF RETURN' IS HAVING SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES
Since 1950, Israel has had a Law of Return on its books, granting citizenship to any Jew that desires to have it. This has sparked a yearly debate in the Knesset as to Who Is A Jew... a debate which apparently has not stopped people such as described in the following from immigrating to Israel.
One really has to wonder which party the parents of these teenagers support.... notice also which group was the first to issue a statement on the situation....
Police arrest eight neo-Nazi teenagers from Petah Tikva
By Roni Singer-Haruti, HaAretz Correspondent
A gag order was lifted Saturday night on the arrest one month ago of eight Petah Tikva teens suspected of running a neo-Nazi cell.
The suspects, aged 17 to 19, confessed to assaulting dozens of people, mainly foreign workers around Tel Aviv's central bus station and Carmel market, causing many of them serious injury.
...
Almog said that all of the suspects are immigrants from the former Soviet Union. They all came to Israel through the Law of Return, but "their connection to Judaism is distant, through grandparents or distant family connections," she said.
The Anti-Defamation League responded to the arrests by urging that the group not be used as a stereotype for Russian immigrants in Israel, and saying that such cases were marginal.
In a statement, the group said neo-Nazi behaviour was a problem arising from the difficulties faced by immigrants, adding "The youth are angry at Israelis for holding them in contempt and lash out with hatred."
The ADL clarified that while the detainees were from the former Soviet Union and religiously identified as Christians, they had immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return which grants "even grandchildren of Jews sanctuary in the Jewish state."
