One hundred and fifty Israelis joined about a thousand Palestinian demonstrators to commemorate 43 years of occupation in New Beit Nuba Friday. Coordinated by the popular committees in the West Bank and the Coalition against the Occupation the demonstration focused on the right of return of the those internally displaced Palestinians from the villages of Yalu, Amuas and Beit Nuba, which were demolished to the ground by Israel in 1967, and on the demand to open the Apartheid Road 443 for Palestinians.
Following the noon prayer the demonstration marched towards the fence which separates New Beit Nuba from the lands of the demolished villages, on top of which now lay the illegal settlement of Mavo Horon and the Canada Park. Amongst the demonstrators was also MK Hanin Zoabi, who has just returned from the Free Gaza Flotilla. Once demonstrators reached the first fence, that protects the Separation Fence itself, they started decorating it with Palestinian flags, and chanted slogans against the fence and for the founding of true peace.

Several minutes later some demonstrators managed to break the gate in the fence and approach the Apartheid Fence itself, decorating it too with flags. At this point the twenty or so soldiers present attacked the demonstration with repeated rounds of tear gas. The greater part of the demonstration retreated, and few stayed an hour longer for a game of catch with stones and gas.

In the morning the Israeli Army detained several cars for half an hour at the entrance from 443 to Hirebta, when we were on the way to new Beit Nuba. The soldiers took IDs and took face photos, one by one, with an Apple IPhone. They probably also took pictures of the number of the vehicles. The soldiers warned us that we were allegedly doing something illegal by crossing the barrier, and warned us that we should not enter. There was also a sign there that says: “Israeli? You got here by mistake? Go back!” or something like that if I’m not mistaken, it is some sign to warn every Israeli to go back.

On the way back from the demo in the afternoon, those who did not continue to Jerusalem and returned to Tel Aviv saw that the barrier we came from was blocked, So we returned to Tel Aviv through the Ni’lin checkpoint. The soldiers detained us at Ni’lin after a car drove fast threw the checkpoint and refused to stop, apparently a settler who did not understand why the soldiers suddenly stop vehicles there. My car was followed and stopped by the soldiers. I told the soldier that we are stopping, not like that one. The soldier immediately asked: “Are you on our side or their side?” Apartheid law clearly.

I tried to explain to the soldier that we came from the settlement of Nili and visited friends there, but the soldier asked about the shirt I was wearing, a Flotilla solidarity shirt. The soldiers decided to detain my car and another vehicle at the checkpoint. The soldier who asked earlier “Are you on our side or their side?” insisted to question us about our political views, our opinions, and he asked in particular if we are for or against the rally. I told the soldier about visiting friends in the settlement of Nili and that we never heard of any demonstration. I tried to explain that all other day I pass through checkpoints and had never been stopped. He asked again about the shirt, so I told him it was from Tel-Aviv.

The soldier insisted that he suspected we were all in the demonstration areas and tried to get a confession out of us: “I just want to you tell me where you were? If you protested, say it, that’s all.” The soldier hinted that if we face it, he would free us. My car had another activist with a shirt: “Want peace? Stop supporting the Army Now!” the activist said to the soldier that he had no authority to detain us. One of the soldiers insisted that they have all the authority to hold us up and that they have much and many more power. The soldier said he had all the power here to do what he wants.

Things began to look grim, and it seemed like the soldiers were looking for an excuse to raise the level of violence with the activist detainees. The soldiers consulted among themselves and it seemed like they haven’t decided what to do with us. They did not say how long they will detain us, and I think they were looking for an excuse to take us aside and beat us up or something. When we saw the soldiers were not going to let us go, I told the officer that I work for the ministry of education in the Israeli court and also for an Attorneys office – and I demanded him to call police to handle us. The soldier did not answer, so I asked several times what about calling the police? The soldier ignored me and talked on the phone, so I asked him again: “Are you speaking with the police on the phone right now?” He said no, so I told him we are the ones who are going to call the police! Shortly after that the soldiers decided to release our car and another vehicle that they inhibited.

This non important little incident shows again that the fascist soldiers and police officers arrest people by the shirts they wear, according to their opinions, according to which side they are on, while trying to intimidate and deter anyone who has a different opinion. The deterrence in Israel is not for preventing the expression of opinions, but also by trying to prevent people from having a different belief. The violence today is terrible and I’m sure it will increase much more.

They are now living on the streets, homeless. Just a week ago they were living inside their home and now there are Jewish settlers inside, exhibiting not the least bit of remorse for the homeless family just outside. The Hanoun family’s furniture was seized by Israeli forces and they are now responsible for paying the storage and mover fees. Meanwhile, the Jewish settlers are living with round-the-clock security, not allowing anyone near. At one house, the police actually had the nerve to tell us not to film too close, as we should respect the privacy of the new residents.

This is just one of several plans by various real estate groups such as Nahalat Shimon International and American businessmen such as Irving Moskowitz, to populate the areas surrounding the Old City with Jewish strongholds that sever Palestinian territorial contiguity in East Jerusalem. This prejudices any final resolution in which East Jerusalem would be the Palestinian capital. It is also in clear breach of Israel’s commitment under the Road Map. But these operations are backed by the Israel Lands Administration, the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israeli government, who are all working together to undermine any possibility for a two-state solution and are blatantly infringing on the basic human rights of the residents of what they deem to be the “united Jerusalem.”

“As far as most Israelis are concerned, Mr. Obama has made a mistake in focusing on a settlement freeze. For starters, mainstream Israelis rarely have anything to do with the settlements; many have no idea where they are, even when they’re a half-hour’s drive from Tel Aviv.”

By stating that Israelis are ignorant of the settlements as reason for their rejection of Obama, Benn is showing the deep Israeli misunderstanding of how detrimental the occupation is. Even within the so-called left there is a palpable lack of awareness to the depths of the occupation. The lack of confrontation with the reality of the occupation is the main problem that Benn has accidental touched upon. Israel has created a status quo with the occupation that seems unshakable.

For more analysis on the topic, please see Dana Goldstein’s excellent piece at the American Prospect.

Co-written with Antony Loewenstein

Today roughly one hundred people gathered to protest the eviction of the Palestinian Hanoun family from their home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. They are the latest target of the increasing push to populate the area with Jewish settlers, hindering any possibility for a future Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.

According to their website, the Hanoun’s are one of 27 families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood that are facing home eviction as part of a plan to establish a new Jewish settlement in the area. The Hanoun family was displaced from their home in Haifa after the Naqba of 1948 and currently consists of 18 people, including six children. They have lived in Sheikh Jarrah since 1956, when the Jordanian Government and UNRWA gave them houses as part of a project to help Palestinians forced to flee their properties.

International press and every major Israeli news outlet including the Jerusalem Post were on hand to hear the press conference held inside the Hanoun family home. This is not surprising given news today of the US state department informing the current Israeli envoy that Israel must halt all settlement construction in East Jerusalem. Prime Minister Netanyahu responded that Jerusalem will always be the united capital of Israel.

Later on, Hagit Ofran of Peace Now gave protestors and the media a brief history of another sign of Israel’s takeover in Sheikh Jarrah, the Shepherd Hotel. The hotel was bought by millionaire and close friend of Ehud Olmert, Irving Moskowitz, in the 1980s, with a plan to create a massive apartment complex for Jewish settlers. The city of Jerusalem has until recently denied permission to build such a complex.

Last month, permission was granted by newly instated mayor Nir Barkat to continue construction at the Shepherd Hotel, placing yet another portion of disputed land in Jewish hands and sending a message to Palestinians and the world that Israel is not a genuine partner in any bilateral, peace process.

What is so perplexing and enraging is that by continually implanting Jewish neighborhoods in the midst of Palestinian communities, Israel is sabotaging its own determination to be a permanent, Jewish-majority, internationally accepted, democratic state with defined borders.

cross posted at Mondoweiss

Mairav Zonszein, Antony Loewenstein and Joseph Dana write:

The occupation can seem predictably mundane from a distance. To most Israelis the settlement project is seen as a problem, but a problem happening “over there” and utterly removed from their lives. Rampaging settlers are viewed occasionally on television. Violent Palestinians are seen to resist for no apparent reason. The international community and Barack Obama are protesting the illegal outposts and ongoing colonial project in the West Bank with polls suggesting that many Israelis are opposed to this apparently unfair pressure.

They should spend a day in the West Bank.

For the last three months, Ta’ayush activists have been accompanying Palestinian farmers from Safa to their lands just below the settlement of Bat Ayin. Since a child from the settlement was murdered in April, settlers have been consistently attacking Palestinians when they attempt to work in their fields, as well as burning the fields themselves – all under the nose of the IDF, which has done nothing to prevent the crimes or punish them.

The scenes from Safa in this period have been grim. If it is not the settlers aggressively driving out the local farmers, it is the army, which acts in complete disregard of Israeli Supreme Court rulings. After weeks of confrontations and brutal arrests, the army seemed to realize that we would not go away, and they would have to change their tactics.

Two weeks ago the army issued a 45-day closed military zone order on the agricultural land of Safa for all Israelis and internationals, asserting that our services would not be needed any longer, as they would ensure the Palestinians could work their land with the army’s protection. In these two weeks, Ta’ayush decided to respect the order and see if the army would indeed deliver on what it promised. However, during this time, the settlers infiltrated the agricultural land of Safa and cut down fruit trees and burned crop fields. Thus, despite the area being a closed military zone for all Israelis, somehow the settlers managed to get past the IDF and commit crimes.

This morning we went back to Safa. As Palestinian Ta’ayush activist Issa Slevi told us later, “The soldiers are settlers but in uniform. They both symbolize the occupation.”

After a local family gave us a sugary glass of tea under a blackberry tree, a large group of Ta’ayush activists and internationals from the International Solidarity Movement and Palestine Solidarity Project walked through the village of Safa towards the fields. The town itself is dusty, with some homes half-finished while other structures have circular staircases on the outside. “I Love Hamas” was sprayed in English on a wall. Children pointed and waved while the women stood together and smiled. Some men led the procession of around 50 people, including the Palestinians. Accredited journalists, from Reuters and Lebanese media, followed. One even held a gas mask, expecting tear-gas.

It was Saturday and the settlers on the nearby hill were virtually invisible. Their houses and caravans sat illegally nearby. A number of IDF soldiers soon appeared on a horizon and approached from the other end of the dirt track. A confrontation was inevitable. The aim was to accompany the Palestinian farmers to their land in the gorge to protect against settler attacks. In the past, activists were physically assaulted and beaten with batons by the IDF so we expected the worst. We didn’t predict two hours of heated debate and political discussion.

The soldiers announced that the Palestinians were allowed to pass on their own and tend their fields. The farmers were highly skeptical because settlers would likely attack them. Some activists pushed the IDF to join the Palestinians but they were denied access. Minor scuffles ensued. Supreme Court orders were produced to explain a 2006 ruling that refused the military being able to impose a “closed military zone” to prevent Palestinians working their fields. The IDF regularly breaks the law of its own country, let alone international law. Activists see it every week.

Unlike previous encounters, the IDF commander seemed like a reasonable man, urging restraint from his men and trying to avoid contact. It was a fruitless task, as the soldiers seemed incapable or unwilling to understand the Palestinian hesitance to farm on their own. One old Palestinian farmer, the owner of the area, arrived. He rode down the path on a donkey, alighted, and walked with a stick. He was highly agitated and screamed at the soldiers. He lifted his shirt after a while to show bruise marks caused by settlers.

Eventually Palestinians decided to pass, both men and women, while a number of activists sat down in front of the soldiers. Others milled around. Video cameras and cameras were in abundance, possible explaining the less aggressive approach of the soldiers. This didn’t stop them from arresting 10 people, who were all detained briefly and released soon after. The activists – who did not resist arrest – knew that if brought before a judge, the army would have been found to have acted illegally. This explains why so often the army releases them before it can happen.

The location of the encounter was actually beautiful. A gorge sat at the bottom of a valley, with green fields and olive groves dotting the landscape.

As we waited and sat under a tree to find some shade, an IDF soldier approached us “to talk about the issues.” He was an American Jew around 30 who had made “aliya” to Israel in 1997. He was not a religious fanatic but argued rationally, despite the confused nature of his argument. He initially acknowledged the Palestinians were under occupation then later said the land was “disputed” and had been given by Jordan. He said the IDF was a “humanitarian model” to the world.

We asked if he’d read the recent Breaking the Silence report on alleged atrocities in Gaza . He said he had not but criticized the soldiers for staying anonymous. When challenged about the use of white phosphorous in civilian areas, he replied that it was not illegal to do so. In fact, it is illegal to use the destructive weapon for anything other than flares and certainly not in civilian areas. Countless human rights groups have accused Israel of using the weapon during its war against Gaza in December and January.

The soldier said he saw himself as protecting the settlers, Palestinians and activists, though we reminded him that the IDF usually only protects the settlers and covers their crimes. We agreed that the potential for confrontation between all parties was high. But why remove the peaceful non-violent leftists? The settlers were the most violent party in Safa. Why doesn’t his unit bar them from entering the gorge and allow us to farm with the Palestinians? He dismissed this question outright. Although he didn’t reside in a settlement, he mumbled something defensive when challenged why the Israelis hadn’t prevented the burning of the fields in the last days and weeks.

He seemed a little conflicted about his role in the territories, despite his arrogant air. He defended the killing of civilians – “you know what Colin Powell said during the invasion of Panama? In war, there’s always collateral damage” – but he was open to alternative views. We joked that it would take a while doing drugs in India to get over his conscience after the things he’d seen and done in the West Bank.

It was a strange discussion, though largely friendly and slightly accusatory. A case-study of the soldier would probably reveal a deep-seated need to defend his actions. He constantly talked about “protecting Israeli democracy” though his main job is protecting the settlement project. Palestinians despise their presence, even if violent resistance is relatively uncommon these days.
We disagreed amongst ourselves to the importance of engagement with IDF soldiers. Joseph wasn’t convinced of the necessity, believing the actions of the man spoke far louder than words. Ultimately, he defended the occupation. Antony was more circumspect and wondered if such encounters could contribute to a slow, changing attitude within the soldiers. Joseph argued that things were desperate when even the seemingly decent Israelis were finding ways to defend the situation.

After we left Safa, we briefly visited Issa Slevi’s home in Beit Umar, a long-time believer in non-violent action, in a room with a high ceiling. As we drank hibiscus juice and then piping, hot tea, he told us about the reality of constant IDF harassment of towns and fields. “The media presents the Palestinians as murderers and terrorists and the Israelis as victims”, he said. “The whole world identifies with the Israelis.”

Slevi spoke of a time when his hope for a resolution in the early 1990s had inspired him to distribute flowers to soldiers. But today he was despondent about Fatah – “an Oslo puppet regime” – and damned the “peace process” of the 1990s. It has produced nothing more than settlements and settler violence. He compared the situation in Palestine to the Jim Crow period in the US, “when there were signs that were for ‘dogs only.’ Today, the situation is the same for the Palestinians but there are no signs.”
Despite all the abuse and violence, Slevi was fundamentally opposed to violence. He never spoke to settlers. He wanted a country where both peoples could interact and mingle freely, regardless of religion and political affiliation.

The day was relatively normal in an utterly foreign reality.

Yesterday, members of Ta’ayush set out to have a picnic at an illegal outpost built on Palestinian land next to the settlement of Susya in the southern West Bank. Susya is divided into three places; Palestinian Susya, Jewish settlement Susya and archeological site Susya. Often, the first construction of an illegal outpost is a synagogue which the IDF is less willing to destroy. About one year ago settlers from Susya built a synagogue on the privately owned land of a local Palestinian. The area is known as Flag Hill (Givat HaDegal). Within weeks, the settlers had laid a foundation for one house and sure enough today a house now stands on Flag Hill. The IDF actively protects the house despite there being no full time inhabitants.

We encountered problems before we even arrived at the outpost. A minibus of Ta’ayush activists was stopped at the main checkpoint separating Jerusalem and the southern West Bank. Soldiers asked for our ID cards and without a stated reason held us at the checkpoint for over an hour. Presumably, they were requesting an order from a high commander that would bar us entry to the West Bank, efficiently denying us freedom of movement because we were engaged in left wing actions. This order never came. The commander at the checkpoint wrote down our names and ID numbers while informing us that we were not allowed to enter the south West Bank and if we were found to be in a “military area” we would be detained for 48 hours. This, of course, was a lie as he had no authority to issue such a statement and it was not put in writing. He was trying to frighten us which he failed to achieve. We entered through another checkpoint and eventually made our way to the picnic.

Ta’ayush has been monitoring the expansion of Flag Hill and yesterday decided to have a peaceful picnic in protest of the Army’s active participation in maintaining this outpost. We were a group of Jewish Israelis invited by the Palestinian land owner to have a picnic on his land. We thought, by all accounts, we had every right to be there. As we walked up the hill to the outpost, five or six IDF soldiers came to greet us. Without an order from a commander, they could do nothing so we continued and set up our picnic complete with hummus, watermelon and homemade pita from the land owner. A commander arrived within minutes and pronounced the area a closed military zone ordering us to leave within five minutes or face arrest. We continued to enjoy the picnic as the Army began arresting people, going after Ezra Nawi first.

The IDF arrested three people and removed the rest of us, over 20 people, from the hilltop. We returned to the land owner’s home and waited for word from those arrested. They were driven to a checkpoint about 15 minutes away from Susya and simply dropped off. One of those arrested told me that he was saying to the soldiers, “you are showing me that you broke the law and not me. If I did something wrong arrest me! Take me to a judge. But you are unwilling because I did nothing wrong and you did”

Cross posted at Mondoweiss

Yesterday morning, Nefesh B’Nefesh had the first in a series of summer 2009 celebrations greeting its charter flights packed with new immigrants from North America. Nefesh B’Nefesh is a non-profit organization that encourages and facilitates Jewish immigration to Israel from North America and the United Kingdom. They expect to bring over 3,000 immigrants to Israel over the course of the summer, in addition to the 20,000 they have brought since 2002. Attending the ceremony were the Israeli Minister of Transportation, Israeli Minister of Immigrant Absorption, the Chairman of the Jewish Agency, the CEO of EL Al Israel Airlines and the two American Jewish founders of Nefesh B’Nefesh.

Nefesh B’Nefesh, along with the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government, is intentionally encouraging new immigrants to move to illegal settlements. Of the 232 immigrants who arrived in Israel yesterday, seven families were going to settle in Ma’aleh Adumim, along with a handful of people moving to Efrat inside the Gush Etzion settlement block. Both of these areas are considered to be illegal Israeli settlements according to international law. President Obama has recently called on Israel to cease all settlement growth and activity. The Israeli government has, in turn, argued that it must be able to continue what it calls “natural growth,” or building within existing settlements for the children of residents. But even using their own logic, “natural growth” certainly can’t include new immigrants from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Nefesh B’Nefesh will succeed in bringing family after family to the settlements in effect having an American based nonprofit organization directly contributing to Israeli settlement growth (click here to see upcoming Nefesh B’Nefesh events in the US). Furthermore, important staff members of the Nefesh B’Nefesh organization are settlers by their own admission.

In addition to Israel’s stalling of evacuating outposts it has itself slated for dismantlement, the Obama administration faces another crucial obstacle in its efforts to implement a freeze on Israeli settlement growth: American citizens moving there.

I just got an email from a friend who is involved in the Jewish blog world in the United States. The friend received a letter from the Israeli Ministry of Justice regarding their thoughts on Ezra. The letter is a telling example of Israeli hasbara (propaganda) and should be distributed widely along with the video evidence on youtube discrediting the government’s viewpoint. The international campaign to support Ezra is making waves. Please go to Support Ezra and see how you can help.

Click Here for the Letter

Read his verdict here in English

Mairav and I want to unpack this letter point by point:

Mr. Nawi arrives every week to southern mount Hebron area and recently also to
Etzion area and joins Palestinian residents there. Together with these Palestinian
residents he knowingly enters areas in close vicinity of Israeli settlements that are
closed military areas.

Israeli citizens are, by law, free to travel in Area C of the West Bank. We are also allowed to meet with Palestinians in those areas. It is ridiculous to state that Ezra “knowingly enters areas in close vicinity of Israeli settlements” since the reality of the settlement project is that they are purposely built in the midst of Palestinian villages –visiting and assisting Palestinians thus necessarily means being in close vicinity of settlements. Furthermore areas Ezra and Ta’ayush travel to are not closed military zones until we arrive, and there is plentiful video evidence demonstrating that the areas are declared closed military zones strictly in order to remove us from the area. To make matters worse, often times this order is not applied to the settler (essentially trespassing on Palestinian land!), thereby creating a situation in which the IDF is operating outside the boundaries of law.

During these weekly occurrences, Mr. Nawi provokes the local residents.
Subsequently, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and the Israeli Police arrive, and are
confronted by Mr. Nawi who has often uses insults and sometimes even force
against members of the security forces.

The provocation comes from the settlers who would prefer to attack and pillage without the documenting eyes of Israeli citizens. But there is something more to this statement. Ezra is a citizen that is persistent in maintaining relationships with Palestinians and working with them against the occupation in nonviolent ways. The IDF and government consider this to be a provocation since it challenges their role as occupiers. The fact that Israelis would attempt this is considered a crime in the eyes of the government and this document is a testament to this alarming trend. Lastly, omitted here are the vociferous insults on Ezra by the Israeli military, army and by settlers as well as constant police harassment. I have heard commanders of the Israel Police in Hebron refer to Ezra as a transvestite pedophile to which Ezra replied “you are stupid.” Calling someone stupid is apparently a major insult that could land one in jail in Israel. As for the accusation of force, I can say that in all our time going out with Ezra to the West Bank, he has never used force against anyone, despite being verbally and sometimes physically abused. If you read the testimony of the IDF officer accusing Ezra of force you can easily see that the officer is lying and that his story does not make any sense.

Mr. Nawi was detained, arrested and investigated several times for his behavior and
on March 19, 2009 was convicted of participating in a riot and assaulting two
Police officers (Cr.C. (Jerusalem) 3246/07 The State of Israel v. Ezra Nawi). His
case is scheduled for sentencing on July 1, 2009.
Note that Mr. Nawi is represented throughout these court proceeding by legal
counsel.

Please read the verdict, available here in English, and see for yourself how the line that the government takes does not add up and amounts to aggression against a citizen who refuses to accept the party line of the country. Finally, it is nice that Israeli officials are insecure enough in the quality of the justice system here that they feel the need to remind us that Ezra was granted the basic right to legal counsel. What it does not say is that Ezra, a Jewish, Israeli-born citizen, is provided an Arabic translator in the courtroom (his family is of Iraqi descent and he speaks fluent Arabic) despite the fact that he speaks fluent Hebrew. Another form of the underlying yet blatant racism that is rampant in the Israeli system.