Saturday 7 March 2009

Feltman: "We found a lot of common ground with Syria"

Source

In al jazeera/english, here

"..However, the US delegation did not meet Bashar al-Assad, Syria's preisdent, during their visit..."
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Posted by G, Z, & or B at 10:22 AM


Obama to visit Ankara as the US... would welcome Turkey's contribution to improved ties to Syria

In the AP, here

"...A Turkish government official said Clinton told Babacan that the United States was looking to see whether "a new chapter" in relations with Syria was possible. She said the United States would welcome Turkey's contribution to improved ties to Syria. The Turkish official who was present in the meeting spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

Babacan on Saturday reiterated Turkey's position on the need to engage Hamas. Similarly, Turkey urged the United States to engage Iran, the official said. Clinton did not respond but took notes, he said..."

Posted by G, Z, & or B at 10:50 AM

Mapping peace between Syria and Israel

I follow Syrian politics only tangentially while mining for news about Palestine. Still, I read this post at Syria Comment recently about Frederic C. Hof who comes out as a rather interesting figure.

Mr. Hof has just published a report about peace between Syria and Israel, a summary of which, as well as a link to the full report in pdf format, can be found here.

Haaretz: The bulldozer attack reflects the anger level among Jerusalemites


Haaretz: The bulldozer attack reflects the anger level among Jerusalemites

[ 07/03/2009 - 03:39 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli Haaretz newspaper said that the bulldozer attack carried out by a Palestinian citizen called Marei Radaydeh in occupied Jerusalem reflected that the level of tension and anger among the Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is on the rise as a result of the demolition policy pursued by Israel.

The newspaper added that mayor of occupied Jerusalem Nir Barakat decided, in light of the already tense atmosphere, to pour oil on the fire by declaring plans to demolish 88 Palestinian homes in the Bustan neighborhood adjacent to the Silwan village.

It noted that the Jerusalem municipality itself seems to realize that the demolition of Palestinian houses is an extremist step, so it offered alternative lands to the Palestinians whose homes are threatened with demolition.

The newspaper stressed that there are political reasons under the pretext of law behind the demolition orders, noting that Israel refrains from demolishing illegal construction in random settlement outposts.

IOF troops wound Palestinian teen
In another context, a 17-year old young man called Munir Al-Bestami was wounded when IOF troops shot him during his presence along with his companions in the area of northern mountain in Nablus, which is classified as an Israeli military zone.
Medical sources said that the young man was injured badly in the leg and was taken to the Refidia hospital to receive treatment.

The IOF troops had imposed Friday a tight cordon on different West Bank areas and stormed a number of towns south of Nablus including the villages of Tilfit and Qaryut.

US alternatives to sanctions and threats

Source

Rami Khouri in the Daily Star, here

"...What we have going on, I suspect, is that the two leading proponents of Western arrogance in the form of colonialism and neocolonialism - the United States and the United Kingdom - have recognized that their approach has failed, and that they are better off having normal diplomatic talks and negotiations with the three leading centers of resistance to them, namely Iran, Syria and Hizbullah. The pace of change in American policies, in particular, has been impressive since President Barack Obama took office six weeks ago, though it will take some time for the results of the current shifts to materialize....

One of the fascinating sub-plots of what is occurring is the temporary sidelining of Israel, which had long seriously influenced, if not often effectively dictated, American contacts and policies in the Middle East. It is noteworthy that the US and UK in various degrees are talking with Iran, Syria and Hizbullah, when Israel had worked overtime for some years to prevent such normal contacts. It is probably only a matter of time before the US, UK and others open talks with Hamas also....

What does this mean? For one thing, it means that the United States is becoming more humble,..... this means the US is also engaging with the rest of the world on a more normal basis, which requires negotiating relationships with other countries based on mutual interests..."

Posted by G, Z, & or B at 10:30 AM

Obama the Ottoman: His Trip to Turkey Forces the Parallel

Obama the Ottoman: His Trip to Turkey Forces the Parallel

By Will

Renewed American engagement with the Middle East has been aggressive on all fronts, hinting at what could be the beginning of a new imperial order, albeit one that resembles the dying days of old empire there. Obama's announced trip to Turkey brings to mind American foreign policy's growing resemblance to one stage of the Ottoman empire's devolution.

Where Bush sought to dominate, Obama seeks to sway, persuade, and lure, which means recognizing the guise of autonomy, treating the states there as real, and the regimes as legitimate agents of the people. Indirect control through the illusion of sovereignty is more effective and insidious then outright domination. In political science parlance, it is the exercise of smart power.

It is appropriate then that
Obama will be heading to Turkey in one month, according to Secretary of State Clinton, for his first Presidential visit to the region. She did not say whether Ankara will be the Muslim capital he promised to speak from within his first 100 days.

This visit, and his promise to speak from a Muslim capital, signifies the fact that Obama is pursuing a much slicker imperial arrangement, one in which the center, Washington, DC, uses carrots and sticks to reshape the regional order after the Bush doctrine unintentionally shifted it in ways counter to American interests.

Obama's foreign policy will swing on mobilizing a Sunni bulwark against the Iranian threat. While it appears to empower certain states, under the guise of acting in their interests, it is ultimately intended to benefit the United States, rather than the Arab people. The regimes given the illusion of autonomy, which also means actual influence given the important of perceptions, are unelected, repressive and fundamentally destructive in their respective nations.

The US is looking to break the Syria-Iran alliance by engaging Iran in tough, inflexible terms, while offering Syria much more attractive terms, such as the prospects of returning the Golan, and the prospects of economic, aid and security benefits.

At the same time, the U.S. will put Saudi Arabia and Egypt firmly in the center of Arab affairs, despite their grotesque despotism, and welcome Turkey back to the Middle East. The withdrawal from Iraq will entail leaving behind 50,000 (un)occupying troops to bolster a bankrupt regime, and remain on Iran's doorstep. It will also crucially mean a
clash decisively with Israel. Another element involves de-limiting Russian support of Iran.

By firming up Sunni power as a wedge against the Shia' crescent, Obama's efforts resemble a stage of the Ottoman empire. During the Ottoman empire's long period of stagnation, it began losing territory and standing. Certain areas gained independence and fell under the sway of rival empires. By the 18th century, the traditionally highly centralized authority started to give way to varying degrees of provincial autonomy. Local governors and leaders were given new but ultimately nominal powers, but without altering the fundamental structure of authority.

It was a survival mechanism, and of course, it failed. The autonomy was ultimately too illusory and the fundamental centralization of power meant the further ambitious reforms could not see fruition. The people were not any more empowered as local nobility only gained.

To complete the analogy, one must see Obama as the grand sultan, with each Arab state as a
vilayet/wilayeh. To truly herd the Arab states, the petty national leaders must be given the illusion of autonomy to act, to have the image of Arab heroes -- which the Arab people seem to have a craving for.

The only way to completely pull this off is by putting into effect a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine issue and handing the victory to the "moderate" Arab states. Egypt will be redeemed for Camp David, Syria will need it to shift sides, and Saudi Arabia will be treated as a victorious champion for rightfully playing close to the United States.

This will make Arab publics warmer to the regimes, who will then be more able to ascribe to the new order. It will be as the corrupt walis of the Ottoman agitated for greater empowerment, but only to share the benefit of Ottoman rule.

While Bush sought to strengthen the empire's control, he could not see Palestine as the key. Obama does. And the fact that he is going to do so with more intelligence, sophistication, and efficacy is scary.

Independent: "Must Jews always see themselves as victims?"

Independent: "Must Jews always see themselves as victims?"

Yesterday, March 07, 2009, 5:46:32 PM robert righthand ratcatcher2Go to full article

Must Jews always see themselves as victims?
Fierce debate has been raging in 'The Independent' about Israel's conduct in Gaza. Here, one leading Jewish thinker argues that until Jews shake off their persecution complex, there can never be peace in the Middle East By Antony Lerman Saturday, 7 March 2009

In the wake of Israel's attack on Gaza, eager voices are telling us that
anti-Semitism has returned – yet again. Eight years of Hamas rockets and the world unfairly cries foul when Israel retaliates, they say.
Biased media are delegitimising the Jewish state. The Left attacks Israel as uniquely evil, making it the persecuted Jew among the nations. Even theatres keep wheeling out those anti-Semitic stereotypes,
Shylock,
Fagin and the "
chosen people", just to torment us. If this bleak picture were an accurate portrayal of what Jews are experiencing today, who could deny that suffering is the determining feature of the Jewish condition?
In most Jewish circles, if you pause to question this narrative and suggest that it might be exaggerated, that it unrealistically implies a level of dreadfulness and victimhood unique to Jews, you'll attract hostility and disbelief in equal measure, and precious little public sympathy. But in the work of Professor Salo Baron, probably the greatest Jewish historian of the 20th century, we find powerful justification for just such a questioning.


Professor Baron spoke out angrily against what he called the "lachrymose conception of Jewish history", which placed suffering at the centre of Jewish life. "Suffering is part of the destiny" of the Jews," Professor Baron said in an interview in 1975, "but so is repeated joy as well as ultimate redemption." Another distinguished historian, Professor Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, said Baron always fought against the view of Jewish history as "all darkness and no light. He laboured mightily to restore balance".
...Have we Jews succumbed psychologically to a sense of eternal Jewish victimhood, a wholly negative Jewish exceptionalism, or is paranoia justified?

Some pioneering research, published as Israel's bombing of Gaza began, throws some light on this. It reveals just how much the feeling that no matter what we do, we are perpetually at the mercy of others applies to Jewish Israelis. A team led by Professor Daniel Bar Tal of Tel Aviv University, one of the world's leading political psychologists, questioned Israeli Jews about their memory of the conflict with the Arabs, from its inception to the present, and found that their "consciousness is characterised by a sense of victimisation, a siege mentality, blind patriotism, belligerence, self-righteousness, dehumanisation of the Palestinians and insensitivity to their suffering". The researchers found a close connection between that collective memory and the memory of "past persecutions of Jews" and the Holocaust, the feeling that "the whole world is against us". If such a study were to be conducted among Jews in Britain, I suspect the results would be very similar.

For Jews to see themselves in this way is understandable, but it's a distortion and deeply damaging. As Professor Bar Tal says, this view relies primarily on prolonged indoctrination that is based on ignorance and even nurtures it. The Jewish public does not want to be confused with the facts. If we are defined by past persecutions, by our victimhood, will we ever think clearly about the problem of Israel-Palestine and the problem of anti-Semitism?

To justify its attack on Gaza, Israel threw the mantle of victimhood over the residents of southern Israel who have lived under the constant threat of rocket attack from the territory since 2001. Israeli government and military spokespeople seemed to get a remarkably sympathetic hearing in the media when they made this argument. But history did not begin in 2001. As the Israeli journalist Amira Hass notes, the origin of Israel's siege dates back to 1991, before suicide bombings began. The relentless emphasis on Israeli suffering, to the exclusion of all other contextual facts, and the constant mantra that no other country would tolerate such a threat posed to its citizens over such a long period provided the basis for arguing that the military option was the only alternative. The victim is cornered and there's only one way out.

But the popular Israeli phrase
ein breira, "there is no alternative", won't stand one second's scrutiny. There was a wealth of informed senior military and security opinion, especially following the disaster of the 2006 Lebanon war, which argued that there is no military solution to the problem of Islamist groups such as Hamas and Hizbollah. Even before Lebanon, in 2004, former IDF spokesman Nahman Shai, a senior figure in the Israeli establishment, said: "Despite all the anger, frustration, and disgust we feel, we ought to talk to Hizbollah. We must exploit every possibility to reach a compromise with them and gain precious time. Does it really embody all the evil in the region? What are we waiting for? We can always go back to fighting terrorism."
Early in January this year, Israel's former Mossad chief and former national security adviser, Efraim Halevy, said: "If Israel's goal were to remove the threat of rockets from the residents of southern Israel, opening the border crossings would have ensured such quiet for a generation." Daniel Levy, former adviser in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, shows clearly where the wrong choices were made: withdrawing from Gaza without co-ordinating the "what next" with the Palestinians; hermetically sealing off Hamas and besieging Gaza after the 2006 elections instead of testing Hamas's capacity to govern responsibly; instead of building on the ceasefire, Israel was the first to break it on 4 November. In short, there were other alternatives.

The current flurry of diplomatic activity only confirms this. ...

It's not a political judgement to feel compassion for Israelis terrorised by Hamas rockets, and it's just the same for Palestinians living in a virtual prison in Gaza. But the objective predicaments of the two populations are not the same. To convince yourself that a turkey shoot is an act of great heroism, you need the "self-righteousness" and "blind patriotism" Professor Bar Tal found in his study. You see yourself as David against the Islamist Goliath. The world sees a powerful elephant and an aggressive, rogue mouse that draws blood. The elephant hands the mouse the power of veto over the entire Middle East peace process by demanding that the mouse recognise the elephant's existence before any meaningful negotiations with Palestinians can take place. All this does is send a message of weakness: "We genuinely believe that our existence is threatened by this mouse."

Professor Baron argued that you cannot understand the history of the Jews outside of the histories of the societies in which Jews lived. Yet this narrative of victimhood is sustainable only on the basis of a negative Jewish exceptionalism which severs the Jewish experience from the historical mainstream.

The hope and optimism which accompanied the collapse of communism and the Jewish revival in Europe in 1989 have certainly been eclipsed by a defensive, fearful, ethnocentric mindset, which makes a just resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict ever harder to achieve and casts a pall over Jewish life everywhere. So why are we reading our own times through the prism of a lachrymose view of Jewish history?

ClipMarks




Hatred has turned him into a Jew - Deconstructing Nick Cohen

Link

By Gilad Atzmon • Mar 7th, 2009 at 17:21 • Category: Analysis, Biography, Counter-terrorism, No thanks!, Gilad Atzmon, Gilad's Choice, Israel, Newswire, Our Authors, Palestine, Religion, War, Zionism

WRITTEN BY GILAD ATZMON

In an article published by the Jewish Chronicle, Observer columnist Nick Cohen argued that ‘Hatred turned him into a Jew’. Initially, I was rather amused by the revealing confession. Cohen must have a lot of hatred in him. He was one of the very few supporters of the illegal war against Iraq within the British media. He really believed that liberating the Iraqis was the way forward. Incidentally he also possesses an incredible record of Islamophobic ranting. Hence, I at first tended to interpret Cohen’s declaration as an acknowledgment that it was the loathing towards others which he finds in himself that made him into a Jew.


I was obviously wrong, Cohen was quick to clarify that it is actually other people’s hatred, specifically that of the ‘British Left’ that ‘indulges antisemitism’, which made him ‘feel Kosher’.

As we noticed many times before, it is always someone or something else that transforms the ‘innocent’, ‘atheist’, ‘cosmopolitan’, ‘secularist’, ‘egalitarian’ person into a ‘Jew’. I have previously heard Jewish leftists arguing that it was Hitler who made them into Jews, now we have Nick Cohen of the Observer who claims that it is actually the ‘Left’ that makes him ‘feel Kosher’. If it wasn’t very funny, it would be very sad, may even be tragic.

One again I find myself admitting that the more I elaborate on issues concerning contemporary Jewish Identity, the more I realise that it is actually the so-called ‘secular’, ‘enlightened’, ‘emancipated’, ‘assimilated’, ‘cosmopolitan’ Jew who provides us with a real meaningful insight into the subject of Zionism, Israeli genocidal policies, Jewish lobbying and Jewish institutional support of the Zionist crime.

Cohen’s JC article is an exemplary case study of the Zionisation of world Jewry and the transition of Jewish identity into a hawkish carrier of brutal, expansionist, murderous ideologies.


Let’s Take It From the Kosher Horse’s Mouth

“My name is Nick Cohen, and I think I’m turning into a Jew,” Cohen tells his British Jewish readers. “Despite being called ‘Cohen’, I’ve never been Jewish before. It’s not simply that I am an atheist. My Jewish friends tell me that it is hard to find an educated London Jew who is not an atheist, but that I have no connection with Jewish culture.”

For years I had been following Cohen defusing his Jewishness repeatedly. This time Cohen seems to surrender, he lets go, he’s let himself be a Jew. Yet, for some reason he insists upon untangling the notion of Jewishness, elaborating on religious perspective as if Jewishness has something to do with being observant. This tendency is rather bizarre. Cohen must be familiar enough with the subject to know that one does not have to be an observant Jew in order to consider oneself as a Jew. Unlike Islam and Christianity, Jewishness is not a belief system at all. While Muslims believe in Allah and Christians believe that Jesus is God, the Jew can believe in almost everything without ceasing to be a Jew. A Jew could believe in Marx, Bolshevism, Holocaust, secularism, democracy and even Lizards. Consequently, what makes a Jew into a Jew is the belief in ‘the Jew’, in Jewish suffering and in Jewish uniqueness

While talking to a strictly Jewish audience, Cohen tends to celebrate his ‘exceptional Jewish circumstances’ with his readers. “The Jewish side of my family is my father’s (which is not a help, I gather).” A friend pointed out me a while ago that somehow only with her Jewish friends she always happens to know where Papa’le and Mama’le are from, she always knows how the Grandparents managed to survive the big war. Cohen is apparently no different. As we launch into Cohen identity expedition we are getting familiar with Papa’le and Mama’le racial background. Cohen is also a dedicated protagonist of the kosher victim historical narrative. “My great grandparents fled from the Tsarist Empire at the time of the pogroms.” Not only did they flee, they even became communists. Indeed a common Jewish political choice at the turn of the 20th Century.

One may wonder at this stage what lead Cohen the ‘pro-war secularist atheist’, to admit that he had become a ‘Kosher’ subject after so many years of relentless denial. “My sole interest in Jewish concerns came from being a left-wing opponent of the far Right and the blood-soaked antisemitic superstitions which turned Europe into a graveyard.”

Certainly, Cohen starts to come up with the goods. We now learn that when Cohen was a ‘leftist’, so to say, it was because the left was serving the Jewish tribal interests fighting ‘far right antisemitic superstitions’.

But these days seem to have passed. According to Cohen, the Left fails to do its job, it does not work for the Jews anymore. “Today the old certainties have gone because there are two far-right movements: the white neo-Nazi parties that the Left still opposes; and the clerical fascists of radical Islam which, extraordinarily, the modern left succours and indulges.”

Seemingly, according to Cohen, the Leftists have shunned the Jews and support the clerical fascists of radical Islam. “I am not only talking about Ken Livingstone, George Galloway and their gruesome accomplices in the intelligentsia. Wider liberal society is almost as complicit.”

At this point Cohen’s list of Judeophobes is growing by the second. It is actually not only the Leftists and liberals, it’s apparently the entire world that’s leaving the Jews to face for their doomed fate. “From the broadcasters, through the liberal press, the Civil Service, the Metropolitan Police, the bench of bishops and the judiciary, antisemitism is no longer an unthinkable mental deformation.”
Cohen’s take on the subject is rather illuminating. Yet I wonder - if Cohen believes in what he says, the most rational and reasonable thing to do would be to run as far as possible away from Judaism, Jewishness and the Jews. But as it seems, Cohen is doing the opposite, he runs straight into the cage, he rushes to the shtetl as if he tries to seek shelter in a synagogue. This is indeed a very Jewish thing to do. Yet, this very behaviour deserves some intellectual attention because this exact pattern can be seen as essential to the understanding of Jewish suicidal collectivism detected in Israel and its supportive lobbies and agents.

Noticeably, when writing to Jews, Cohen allows himself to employ the most racist ideas and expressions. “As long as the conspiracy theories of the counter-enlightenment come from ideologues with dark rather than white skins, nominally liberal men and women will not speak out.” Someone should remind the Observer columnist that ideologies do not have ‘skin’ and ideologues cannot choose the colour of their skin either. Hence, referring to ideologues with dark skin is far beyond bigotry. It is racism per se. And yet, Cohen will get away with it because he is ‘Kosher’ as he himself admitted. In contemporary Britain a Dutch right-wing racist MP is deported for making a film, yet a racist can be a prominent columnist for the Observer. This is actually a good thing. It is probably the last remnant of Britain’s legendary liberalism. In the UK bigotry and racism is becoming a Jews-only territory. You might want to ask yourself why we stop a Dutch MP yet we let Melanie Philips and Nick Cohen celebrate their symptoms on paper. One possible answer is that we expect a Dutch Christian to be a Humanist, yet we allow the racially orientated tribal campaigner to be a racist bigot. We expect them to advocate wars, we expect them to refer to people’s skin and colour.

Cohen says about himself. “My experience of left-wing anti-Semitism has changed the way I think and made me, if you like, more Jewish.” While a Rabbi may be inclined to take advantage of this revelation and rush to Cohen’s dwelling, equipped with the necessary gear to kosherly modify the tip of his manhood, I may admit that I just happen to be slightly confused. What is it that Cohen refers to when claiming to be ‘more Jewish’? Is Jewishness a matter of degree or quantity? As far as I understand it, Jewishness, as opposed to Judaism (religion) and the Jews (the people), is a matter of ideology. In fact no one can really be more Jewish than Cohen. He possesses all the elementary ideological ingredients, he differentiates the value of people’s ideas based on the colour of their skin. He promotes war as a valid resolution to international problems. Yes, he may not be religious at this stage of his article. But surely most of those who follow the Jewish ideology have nothing to do with Judaism either.

Cohen is convinced that he may be able to fool some people with a minor lefty cliché statement against Israeli settlements. “Although I want to see every Israeli settlement on the West Bank dismantled, it was clear to me that when Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israel it had declared war and had to accept the consequences.” Cohen doesn’t realise that after Gaza, we do not differentiate between the West Bank and Tel Aviv. Israel is basically a big occupied territory that is stretched over historic Palestine. The Jews-only state will have to go. It simply doesn’t have the right to exist. If it ever had a justification, it lost it a long time ago. With 94% of Israeli Jews supporting the massacre in Gaza, with Cohen advocating in favour of the Iraq war and justifying the slaughter of civilians in Gaza we are left with no other option but to expect some growing resentment towards Israel, the Jewish state and Jewish interests in general.

Interestingly enough, Cohen is already preparing his Jewish readers for the coming inevitable pogrom. “If a synagogue is attacked,” says Cohen, “I guarantee that within minutes the airwaves will be filled with insinuating voices insisting that the ‘root cause’ of the crime was a rational anger at the behaviour of Israel or the Jewish diaspora.” Cohen is probably right. Without justifying any violent act whatsoever, the reasoning behind resentment towards Israel and Jews is rational. In fact, Cohen is himself a ‘root cause’ for such hatred. Cohen, who supported the illegal war in Iraq, a war that lead to the death of 1.3 million innocent civilians and millions of refugees, should have long stood up a time ago and said: I was wrong, I was a fool, I regret it all. Cohen failed to do so.

Instead, he runs back to the Ghetto and succumbs to the most radical form of Jewish tribal ideology. In favour of Cohen it must be said that at least the man is genuine and authentic. Tony Blair and George Bush do not have a community that would embrace them that warmly. Except of course the Jewish State.

* Cohen concludes his JC article stating his Judeo-centric hostile mantra. “I believe that I can see some being pushed into taking the same journey I have taken and finding their views towards Judaism and Israel softening as they realise that antisemitism helps drive the fascistic ideologies of the 21st century just as it drove the Nazism of the 20th.”

In his final paragraph, for the alleged secularist atheist and egalitarian who’s reverted to Judaism, it is not about being an ethnic Jew anymore, it is not about being a cultural Jew anymore, it is not even about being a secular tribal Jew. It is now all about ‘Judaism’. Cohen expects people out there to find their “views towards Judaism”. Seemingly, Cohen who starts his JC journey by taking issues with identity, sums it up preaching religion. Quite a substantial leap I would say. The Observer columnist who claimed to be an atheist secularist ends up taking the role of a radical messianic Rabbi admitting a homogenous bond between Jews, Judaism and Israel.

Such a declaration is actually symptomatic to the most radical Zionist within the far right Messianic school. It is no wonder Cohen is writing for the JC. Yet one may wonder how come such a Judeo-centric fundamentalist cleric still holds a regular column in the Observer. It must be that British freedom of speech again that is apparently reserved for self-loving Jews, and to them alone.

* Tel Aviv based Dan David Foundation just awarded Blair with one million dollars, an award for his “leadership on the world stage”. Indeed, not many world leaders were as committed to killing so many innocent civilians in the name of democracy. Not many world leaders agreed to recruit their armies for fighting Israeli wars.

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Gilad Atzmon is a jazz musician, composer, producer and writer.
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With thanks to Mazin Qumsiyeh

With thanks to Mazin Qumsiyeh

(please act and forward)

Every day brings new sophisticated ways of ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinians while expanding the colonial settlements that increasing surround the few remaining Bantustans where those of us who remain here try to cling to a semblance of life (and not just the areas occupied since 1967 but also in places like Jaffa, the Negev, and the Galilee). I would like to impose on you to read a few of these case studies that are compiled by the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ) for the West Bank. You will be disturbed to see extremely well documented examples of the violence of land confiscation and ethnic cleansing. If you review just a few of those hundreds of stories, you will likely ask yourself why there is so little violent resistance! While awaiting International Criminal Courts to finally take-up these cases, we need to think what we can do together. How much can we get beyond our normal functioning and expand our activism and/or make it more effective (while guarding against compassion fatigue). The best answer for most people is to engage in boycotts, divestments, and sanctions based on the Palestinian Civil Society Call to Action and we urge you to join the call (see below).

ARIJ’s Case Studies (in Ethnic Cleansing and apartheid master plans)

http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/index.php?Y=2009

ACTION:

1) Sign as individual or ask your favorite organization to sign onto the Palestinian Civil Society Call for Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions

http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52
2) Add the BDS endorsement page on your home page for the month of March
3) Participate and encourage others to participate in the March 30 Global Day of Action: http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/314

Articles of relevance

Israelis Are Beginning to See the Power of BDS

http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1605/381/

Boycott Israel

http://www.qumsiyeh.org/boycottisrael/

Boycotts and Divestment (background and links)

http://www.qumsiyeh.org/boycottsanddivestment


Palestinians in Christian housing fear return of Israeli bulldozers, by Judith Sudilovsky, Ecumenical News International, March 2, 2009

http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09157.htm


Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

A Bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home

http://qumsiyeh.org

Jews leave pots of urine, feces on the walls

Link

March 6, 2009

gaza-graffiti1

Vandalism of Palestinian homes by Israeli soldiers is nothing new. Every time there’s an invasion into Palestinian territory, stories and photos emerge of the destruction and filth left behind. The recent Gaza invasion was no exception. Amira Hass has written about the horrible conditions Palestinians found in their homes when they were allowed back and, in one case, the ordeal a group of elderly people had to endure.

Hass writes about one incident in which Israeli soldiers confined five people, ranging from age 55 to a woman who is probably 85 or 90, to a room in a house. They were not allowed to use the restroom and were forced to urinate in plastic containers. The soldiers also appropriately spray painted “jail” on the wall where they confined these people. They also sketched a map of the area-X marked the spot of the home they were in-and they even wrote what brigade they belonged to.

When the troops pulled out and the Gazans who took refuge wherever they could were eventually allowed to return to their homes, many found feces piled on the floor and smeared on their walls. Soldiers had also urinated on clothes and in the washing machines; for good measure, I guess. Residents found their furniture all ripped up, their computers destroyed, their dishes broken and their clothes torn up.

The vandalism wasn’t just limited to people’s homes. The soldiers also broke into grocery stores and helped themselves to whatever they wanted. Although, they were some soldiers who were kind enough to pass out candy to the children. They used some of those children as human shields when they were giving it out. How ironic.

I wonder what goes through the minds of the these soldiers as they destroy Palestinian property. Not all Israeli soldiers are guilty of these acts but certainly there are many who are. Why do they do it? Do they feel they’re doing their patriotic duty by taking a crap in some room of a Palestinian house they’re using as cover? That couldn’t possibly be the case. Were they raised by barbarians? Some might answer yes to that question but I think the answer is no. I guess the only possible answer for why they do it is that they just simply take pleasure in destroying, regardless of how savage and ruthless, anything and everything belonging to Palestinians.

Hass writes that there were books of Psalms left behind and markings on cupboards differentiating meat and diary products. The soldiers stayed kosher. So what I don’t understand is how could these soldiers be men of faith, and yet still do these horrible things? I mean, these are people’s homes we’re talking about. These are where families live their modest lives. These are human beings! How these soldiers justify doing these inhumane acts is beyond me. The simple truth is there is no justification.

The IDF says they warned their soldiers not to harm personal property unless it was needed for operational purposes. I really don’t think peeing in a washing machine was necessary for an operation. And regarding the graffiti left on the walls, the IDF says that goes against the soldiers’ “values and norms.” Really? So what does it happen time and again? Unfortunately, nothing will change. When the next invasion comes around (and who really doubts that it won’t?) the same vandalism will occur and the IDF won’t do a damn thing about it.

I wonder if Hillary Clinton finds these acts “unhelpful” as well.



Pots of urine, feces on the walls - how IDF troops vandalized Gaza homes
GAZA - We had already visited this house, belonging to the Abu Eida family. It is the only one of the family's nine large houses that remained standing at the eastern edge of the city of Jabalya following Operation Cast Lead. The demolition of the family's houses and its four cement factories spells the loss of 40 years of hard work.

One Hebrew word scrawled on a wall tells the story of the 10 days when young Israeli soldiers became the ostensible prison wardens of five people. The youngest is Suheila Masalha, 55; the eldest is her mother Fatma, who is perhaps 85 or 90 or older. The only man is her brother Mohammed, 65, who is paralyzed and dependent on the women of his family. And there were two more women from the Abu Eida family - Rasmiya, 70, who owns the house, and her sister-in-law Na'ama, 56, who is blind.

"Jail" ("mikhla'a" in Hebrew), wrote the soldiers on the wall of the room where they kept the man and the four women. They did not allow them to use the toilet, but forced them to use all kinds of plastic containers kept in the room, for nine of the days.


From other graffiti you can conclude that it was the soldiers of the Golani Brigade - who were drafted in August 2007, and in January and March of 2008 - who sketched orientation maps on the walls of nearly every room. For example, "Position: entry. Direction: southeast," and a few squares that indicated the houses in the area. "Us," or "We are here," or just an X marked on square No. 5 - Rasmiya Abu Eida's house that became an Israel Defense Forces base.

The soldiers kept kosher, judging by the words "meat" and "dairy" scrawled in red on the kitchen cabinets. Maybe someone was kidding around, or maybe someone thought this was going to be their base for several more months, because they also wrote "Kosher for Passover" on one of the cupboards. Also in red.

White flags

The Masalha family lived in a kind of tin shack and raised their sheep near the Abu Eida family (the shack and the sheep were destroyed). On the evening of Saturday, January 3, when the Israeli ground incursion began, they fled the shelling and sought refuge with the neighbors in concrete houses that seemed safer. But the shells and shooting from close range only increased and the children were scared; they cried and screamed and members of the extended family decided to head west, on foot, with white flags.
The adults carried the children - without suitcases and clothing, and even without ID cards. There was no one to carry Fatma Masalha and her son Mohammed, who remained behind. Na'ama and her sister-in-law Rasmiya decided to stay with the guests who had sought shelter. That was on Sunday, January 4, at around 3 P.M.

A spacious, well-kept, generously furnished home awaited the soldiers on the following morning, when they arrived. There are other houses like this in Gaza, especially on the agricultural lands in the outskirts, which over the years have become bourgeois areas. These are exactly the places where the signs of shelling and the fires caused by the phosphorous bombs made clear to the civilians that they should leave if they held their lives dear.

On January 18, when the forces pulled out, similar sights awaited people whose homes had become military bases in their absence. There were bullet-pocked walls, ripped-up sofas and armchairs, smashed televisions and computers, shards of glass and porcelain dishes and broken wooden thresholds. Clothing was ripped up. And there were mountains of very Israeli garbage - empty tin cans, cardboard boxes, empty bags of potato chips and chocolate, and full bags of sugar and raspberry-flavored drinking powder. Everything was kosher for Passover under the supervision of the Chief Rabbinate. And there were Hebrew newspapers, including the January 9 issue of the army magazine Bamahane.

In one house they left behind lots of unopened canned goods. The local people assumed that commanding army officers had stationed themselves there, as well as in other houses where there was no racist graffiti and family belongings hadn't been vandalized. Remnants of ammunition and IDF equipment were also found in and around many houses, as well as books of Psalms, the "Wisdom of the Sages" and "Hafetz Chaim," which is about rabbinical laws concerning slander and gossip.

Like ants

In the midst of all of this were plastic bottles of urine and many closed bags - in some houses, olive-colored ones - of excrement. People assumed that the commanders stayed there. There are houses where excrement was smeared on the walls, or where dry piles of it were found in corners. In many cases, the smells indicated that soldiers had urinated on piles of clothing or inside a washing machine. In all the houses the toilets were overflowing and clogged, and there was filth all around. When the Abu Eidas returned to house No. 5 in Jabalya, they discovered pots of urine and excrement in the refrigerator.
"Like ants, so many of them," says Na'ama, an Arabic teacher, of the soldiers who came into their home on January 5. She recalls that the soldiers had to be told that Mohammed could not put his hands up, and that they ordered the residents to strip. (Na'ama refused and one soldier made do with prodding and probing; they told Suheila to strip because they thought she was wearing an explosives belt.) The soldiers were amazed that the house was so large - "For just five people" - and kept saying that "this is Hamas money." They also asked, "Where are the tunnels, where is Hamas, if everyone left why didn't you leave?"

The soldiers ordered the five people to go into one room and stay there. They let them take some food: bread, olives, oil, water. They confiscated the mobile phones when they saw Na'ama holding one: "You want to call your brother to come with Hamas, to shoot at us," said one of the soldiers. "Liar," they said a lot, as well as "shut up, you donkey," in broken Arabic. They imitated her mockingly when she said "Ya Rab" ("Oh God"). The five prisoners could not pray, as they were not allowed to clean themselves up before prayer and were forbidden to stand up. They were given two blankets, which were not enough, especially because the windows were smashed and the door was always open. A soldier always sat next to the door aiming his rifle at them. All five still have colds.

"You'll come out when we leave," was the answer given to Na'ama after she asked them to contact the Red Cross. Apparently, one soldier spoke fluent Arabic, another could speak some and others knew a phrase or two.

Was there anyone among the soldiers who was a little bit nice? "To my regret, no," Na'ama says. In a number of other houses or neighborhoods people who preferred not to flee encountered some soldiers who were somewhat courteous. In none of the other houses were people forbidden to use the toilet, but the men's hands were bound for two or three days. There are houses where the captives had no food for two or three days or no water for hours. "We don't have food either," said the soldiers in Izbet Abed Rabbo.
Soldiers broke down doors of grocery stores and helped themselves to candy and snacks. There were some who handed out candy to children; sometimes soldiers asked a child whom they forced to accompany them, as a human shield, to hand it out.

On the morning of January 14, the Red Cross came to pick up the five inhabitants of the "jail" in house No. 5. A short while beforehand, the soldiers had brought a portable gas burner in so Rasmiya could make hot tea, which they had not let her do before. "Maybe because the officer came," Na'ama says.

The IDF Spokesman's Office said in response that soldiers in Gaza were instructed in advance not to harm personal property unless there was a need to do so for operational purposes. "Not only did the soldiers not prevent the Palestinians from eating," the office said, "but they shared their army rations with them. The IDF has not received any reports about breaking into grocery stores. Concerning the claims about graffiti, the IDF sees this as a very serious matter, which contradicts the values and norms in which the soldiers are educated."

Homeless in Gaza

Audio slideshow:


Raed al-Atamna's family's six houses were destroyed in the recent Gaza conflict, as well as the cars he uses to earn his living as a taxi driver.

With nearly 3,000 families homeless, rented accommodation is scarce in Gaza - Mr Atamna's pregnant wife and seven children are now staying with relatives, while he sleeps in a corrugated metal shack next to his ruined house.

The Israeli military says it destroyed buildings because of "substantial operational needs", for example because of booby traps or militants in them, but Amnesty International says "wanton destruction" occurred, in violation of international law.




Slideshow by Heather Sharp, Hamada Abuqammar and Paul Kerley. Publication date 6 March 2009.

Related story: Gaza homes destruction 'wanton'

Halabiya: Jerusalem faces the most serious stage in its history



Halabiya: Jerusalem faces the most serious stage in its history

[ 07/03/2009 - 04:50 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Ahmed Abu Halabiya, the rapporteur of the Quds parliamentary committee, warned that the city of occupied Jerusalem is going through the most serious stage in its history, adding that the Israeli occupation authority is waging a relentless war on the Palestinian people everywhere.

Dr. Abu Halabiya's remarks came during a cultural meeting entitled "The risks that threaten Jerusalem and the holy places" held by the Hamas public relations office in the Daraj area in Gaza city.

The lawmaker stressed that at least 60 thousand dunums of Palestinian lands had been seized and 30 settlements had been established since 1967.

He noted that the IOA handed demolition orders for 134 Jerusalemite families living in 88 homes in the Bustan neighborhood in the Silwan town, south of the Aqsa Mosque, and issued other orders for the demolition of 55 apartments in the Ras Khamis area in the Shafat refugee camp, in central Jerusalem.

Abu Halabiya said that the goal of this Israeli policy is to tighten the screws on the Palestinians in Jerusalem in order to force them to emigrate from their city and change the demographic map dramatically in favor of the Jews.

The lawmaker pointed to what had been revealed by the Aqsa foundation for endowment and heritage about the Israeli intents to dig two new long tunnels under the Aqsa Mosque as a prelude to demolishing it.

Palestinian sources reported Saturday that the IOA handed during the past 24 hours demolition orders for 21 Palestinian families in Jerusalem.

The sources said that the IOA handed two Palestinian families living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, north of Jerusalem's old city, orders to evacuate their homes in order to give them for the society of oriental Jews which is active in seizing Jerusalemite real estate.


Israel hands out demolition orders for 36 Palestinian more families in J'lem

[ 07/03/2009 - 02:17 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli controlled municipality of occupied Jerusalem handed Thursday demolition orders for 36 Palestinian families living in the Abbasiya neighborhood near the Old City.

The sources said that the orders gave the families, who live in two buildings in this neighborhood, 10 days to evacuate their homes.

According to the sources, the number of Palestinian homes threatened with demolition in different Jerusalem neighborhoods rose to 124 so far.

Last week, Israel issued demolition orders for 88 homes in Al-Bustan neighborhood, located south of the Aqsa Mosque, in occupied Jerusalem.

New reports received Saturday said that the Palestinians in the Sahel area near Jerusalem's Old City set up a protest camp on the ruins of the last house that was demolished two weeks ago in the area. The camp was set up to protest against Israeli decisions to demolish 13 apartment buildings and the confiscation of 16 dunums of lands owned by Palestinians in the same area

The Israeli ocucpation authority gave the Palestinian owners of homes and lands 40 days to comply with the demolition orders.

As a result of these demolition orders, which contravene international law, thousands of Palestinians will become homeless. There are also fears that more demolition orders will be issued soon at the pretext of unlicensed construction.

PCHR: IOF troops persist in WB incursions
Meanwhile, the Palestinian center for human rights said in its weekly report that the Israeli occupation forces carried out at least 31 incursions in most of West Bank cities, towns and refugee camps during which it kidnapped 31 Palestinian citizens including four children and transformed three Palestinian houses into military posts.
In the West Bank, on February 26, a Palestinian child was killed and two of his friends were injured by the explosion of a suspicious object left by IOF in the Yarza area to the east of Tayaseer village, east of Tubas, where the IOF troops routinely conduct military drills using live ammunition, the report added

On March fourth, a Palestinian child was seriously injured by a gunshot to the head when IOF soldiers moved into Beit Ummar village, north of Al-Khalil, and fired at a number of children who demonstrated against them.

In the Gaza Strip, the report pointed out that Israel continues to impose its deadly siege on the Palestinian people there and still blocks the entry of fuel supplies, food, medicines and other vital needs which paralyzed all walks of life in the Strip.

On February 27, medical sources at al-Zaytoun Hospital in Egypt confirmed that Nihad Mohammed Abu Kmail, 29, from al-Mughraqa village, south of Gaza City, died of injuries he had sustained on 13 January 2009. According to the report, the victim had been traveling in a truck on the coastal road leading to Gaza City when IOF troops positioned to the south of the city fired at the truck. As a result, Abu Kmail was wounded by a gunshot to the head.

On March fourth, the IOF troops extrajudicially executed a military activist of the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, and injured a second activist as well as two civilian bystanders in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

The IOF troops have continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank, including occupied east Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinian civilians from the West Bank and Gaza continue to be denied access to occupied Jerusalem.

The IOA continues its measures aimed at creating a demographic Jewish majority in east Jerusalem, the report underlined.

Syria's "bottom line" for peace with Israel is the return of all the land seized from it by Israel in June 1967

Source

Report by Fred Hof at the USIP, here


'...Syria's "bottom line" for peace with Israel is the return of all the land seized from it by Israel in June 1967. This includes the Golan Heights plateau and small tracts in the Jordan River Valley--acreage that adjoins bodies of water vitally important to Israel's economy and of marginal use to Syria.

Israel's "bottom line" for peace with Syria is the strategic reorientation of Damascus away from Iran, Hezbollah, and certain Palestinian organizations, mostnotably Hamas.

Rejecting the argument that peace with Israel obliges it to break relations with others, Damascus has indicated that an American presence at the peace talks would produce direct Syrian-Israeli interactions and that a drastically improved Syria-U.S. bilateral relationship must be a by-product of Syrian-Israeli peace..."

Posted by G, Z, & or B at 3:31 PM

Comment

Asuming Shylock is really interested in peace Syria, his bottom line to return Golan Heights is strategic reorientation of Damascus away from Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. In other words: dropping the most powerfull Syrian Card.

A stupid, like the
PP Annal-ysist, may imagine that the Syrian Fox would meet the Zionist bottom line.

So far, Assad has played his cards right and that he is the king of this jungle and you will deal with him on his terms:

"We are a player in the region. If you want to talk about peace, you can't advance without Syria." "you must deal with Syria on her terms".

Rising Beyond Bullets


Rising Beyond Bullets

By Natalie Abou Shakra – Gaza City

There is a limit to the sea, and there is a limit to the land. To a Palestinian's life in Gaza, there is a limit that is not determined by natural death or an unfortunate accident. The harvest seasons forcibly altered, and the fishing boats from their routes blocked. Tanks and bulldozers have plucked the roots of citrus fruits and olive trees kilometers away from the northern and eastern borders of the strip, pushing the borderlines further in, and forcing the inhabitants around these areas out of their homes and into other areas within. The population is already strangled with an Apartheid wall and a suffocating siege and the rope around its neck continues to tighten with the encroachment of the occupation forces from the boundaries inwards by weapons no one is supposed to defy.

Local economy, currency, basic resources, medication, technology, academic development and material, are entirely dependent on the Occupier and the allowance of equipment and supplies in through the crossings in a process of importation only, as exporting to the outer world has been prohibited ever since the blockade was enforced on the population in Gaza. A few days before Valentine’s, and at the demand of the farmers and the Dutch government, 25,000 Carnation flowers were allowed to be exported to Europe, which is one of the few exceptions. But, exceptions… are merely exceptions; no rule from the oppressive codes imposed by the occupation has been altered in favor of the Palestinians in the Strip.

Acres of land across the borders are lost simply because the farmers are targeted by the Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) bullets if approached. It is not only about the monetary value from produce that the land composes to the farmer, it more than that: the farmer’s or the peasant’s life is the land. It embodies symbol and existence. The farmer’s existence, in all its aspects, is the land on which s/he finds a reason to live for. Alienated from him/herself and those around him/her, the farmer, the peasant, this individual finds no way for the expression of self. Adding on to the six million Palestinians in exile, are the ones who are exiled on their own land, in their own homes, with their own people.

When we, non-local activists, accompany the farmers to their lands for a day of harvest and work in the fields, the farmers feel safe. However, they are aware of the falsity of this sense of security. The IOF soldiers in their jeeps and hummers gather around the area moments later and begin to strike their bullets towards all individuals present on the other side. Despite this awareness, the farmers insist to be on their lands, in their fields to harvest, reap, and plough. During one of the accompaniments that took place around a week ago, a farmer’s leg was injured in the shooting episode. But, this did not prevent us or the farmers from attending action, again. These strikes target unarmed civilians that are not violating rules or trespassing. But, to the occupier, in their jeeps, in their hummers, with their snipers, with their guns, they have a license to kill in the name of a supposed threat to a security.

In the logic of the oppressor’s sense of security, yes, the will of the oppressed, the will of a people to exist despite the oppression, unarmed, peacefully, is a threat to the occupier’s security of maintaining their oppression, their repression and colonialism, and thus existence as a colonizing and occupying force. Any form that resistance takes is an ultimate threat to their destructive subjugation of the colonized. So, the farmers and activists’ insistence to be present on the land is a successful act of resistance, non-violent civil resistance, in the face of the occupier. And the occupier in targeting unarmed, harmless civilians, engage in a failing, weak act to defy a will. After all, a bullet cannot kill the will, determination, insistence, persistence and resistance of a people; neither can F16, F35, F15, and Apache rockets along with White Phosphorous, tanks, gunboats and snipers.

What the last genocidal war against the Palestinians brought was a louder and wider condemnation from the international community, the intensification and radicalization of the boycotting movement, the increased awareness of the morality and justice of the Palestinian cause, and a stronger choice for civil resistance against the Israeli Apartheid state in its policies, acts and government.

Out of the huts of history’s shame, I rise, Up from a past that’s rooted in pain, I rise, I rise, I rise (M. Angelou)

- Natalie Abu Shakra is from Lebanon and is affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement. She defied Israeli orders for Lebanese citizens not to go to Gaza and was able to get in with the Free Gaza movement.
Posted by JNOUBIYEH at 9:36 PM

Exposing Israel (MUST SEE!)

Exposing Israel (MUST SEE!)

This is the true face of Israel, built on terrorisim, land theft, and ethnic cleansing.
Administrador

Posted by Farhud

Feltman to Leb.: Openness to Syria Part of New US Policy


Feltman to Leb.: Openness to Syria Part of New US Policy
Readers Number : 123

06/03/2009 US Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, and top Middle East officer at the US National Security Council Daniel Shapiro arrived on Thursday to Beirut ahead of a visit to neighboring Syria on Saturday following the pledge by President Barack Obama's administration to engage US foes.

"My visit here today underscores an important reality - the United States' support for a sovereign and independent Lebanon remains unwavering," Jeffrey Feltman told reporters after meeting with President Michel Sleiman as well as the country's premier and foreign minister.

The former US ambassador to Lebanon said Washington's overtures to Syria was in line with the policy of new US President Barack Obama to engage states in the region, including foes. "The president has said he wants to sustain in principle engagement with all states in the region and that includes Syria," said Feltman, who is acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.

However, he stressed that Washington had a "long list" of concerns that he and fellow envoy Daniel Shapiro planned to discuss with Syrian officials when they meet on Saturday. "Our trip to Syria ... is an opportunity for us to start addressing these concerns and using engagement as a tool to promote our objectives in the region," Feltman said.

"We'll talk to the Syrians about many many issues but about Lebanon, the message is clear: The US and the international community ... all agree Lebanon is for the Lebanese," he added. "That's the basic message."

Feltman and Shapiro, the National Security Council's senior director for the Middle East and North Africa, arrived on Thursday. They first met the head of Future movement MP Saad Hariri, the son and political heir of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, who was killed in a massive Beirut car bombing in 2005.

Feltman said it was appropriate to meet first with Hariri as an international tribunal to try the killers of his father is in its first week of operation in The Hague. "The United States welcomes this important step towards ending impunity for political assassinations in Lebanon and as a concrete sign that Lebanon's sovereignty is non-negotiable," he said.

He also hailed the June 7 legislative election in Lebanon. "This will be an important milestone in Lebanese history," he said. "The United States will support the Lebanese authorities' efforts to ensure that they are free, fair, transparent and unmarred by political violence."

Feltman and Shapiro are due to head to Syria on Saturday before returning to Beirut that same evening. They are expected to leave Lebanon on Monday.

Mauritania Expels Israeli Diplomats, Shuts Embassy


Mauritania Expels Israeli Diplomats, Shuts Embassy
Readers Number : 256

06/03/2009 Mauritania's military junta expelled Israeli diplomats and shut the embassy on Friday after freezing ties with the Zionist entity over its invasion of Gaza.

Mauritania was one of only three Arab countries that had full diplomatic relations with Israel and the closure of the embassy in Nouakchott leaves just Egypt and Jordan.

Mauritania's communications minister said the move was a result of a decision taken at a meeting of Arab leaders in Doha in mid-January following Israel's invasion of Gaza. "We informed them of the decision to suspend relations at the time of the summit in Doha, and it is now being executed," El Kory Ould Abdel Mola said. "The embassy is closed," he declared.

Another Mauritanian official said Israeli diplomats had been given 48 hours to leave the northwest African country. Staff were seen leaving the building.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official who declined to be identified said he could not confirm the expulsion and suggested the timing of the decision could be linked to a planned visit to Nouakchott by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. "Maybe they are just showing they're tough," the official said.

Gaddafi heads the African Union and is trying to mediate in the political crisis Mauritania has endured since the first democratically elected president was overthrown last August and General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz took over.

An official close to Mauritanian military ruler General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said the decision to expel the Israeli diplomats followed the decision in January to freeze relations with the state. "This is the logical consequence of the freezing of relations between Israel and Mauritania ... there is nothing new," said the official, who declined to be identified.

"This was expected. After General Aziz took the decision at the Doha summit, an envoy from the Mauritanian Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the ambassador of Israel to leave the country," the official said.

Abdel Aziz announced the decision to freeze relations at a summit of Arab nations in Doha, Qatar, in January. Qatar said at the time that it would freeze its own relations with Israel, which are at a lower level than full diplomatic ties. Most other Arab countries also froze Israel's trade missions in their capitals after Israel's offensive in Gaza.

Nouakchott, in common with other cities across the Arab world, saw protests against the Gaza attacks earlier this year.

Mauritania gives Israeli embassy staff 48 hours to leave the country

Israeli teenage refuseniks speak to Palestinians in Bethlehem

Link



Shministim video

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Five young Israelis who refused military service defied the separation between Israelis and Palestinians on Saturday evening to share their tales of prison, isolation, and struggle with an audience outside the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

They were four women and one man. All but one have already been to prison for their objection to serving in the occupying army. They slipped into Bethlehem in order to bring the message of the refusal movement to the Palestinians who face the guns wielded by their teenage peers every day.

“These soldiers don’t have to be bad people. They’re very ordinary people, but they’re doing these things. They are responsible,” said Sahar Vardi, 18, from Jerusalem.


Israeli refuseniks speaking in Bethlehem, 7 February, 2009
Photo by Anna Paq, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)

Nearly a hundred Palestinians and third-country nationals crowded into a small theater to listen to the Israeli youths at the Alternative Information Center (AIC), a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization in the town of Beit Sahour.

On Tuesday Israelis are expected to elect the most right-wing government in recent memory, but these five, represent a countervailing force, however small, to an Israeli society that appears more than ever to be in the grip of right wing nationalism. In Tuesday's election, the top slot is expected to go to the right-wing Likud party, and the third largest share of the votes to Avigdor Lieberman’s “Israel Our Home” party, one of whose slogans is “No loyalty, no citizenship.”

“Refusing is a break from the Jewish-Israeli consensus,” said 22-year-old Alex Cohn, “It’s the beginning of a journey, not an end.” Cohn spent a total of five months in a military prison in 2005 for his refusal.



Israeli refuseniks speaking in Bethlehem, 7 February 2009
Photo by Anna Paq, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)


The refuseniks’ message of moral objection was welcomed by at least some of the Palestinians who attended the panel. One student from Bethlehem said, “Every day I go to school at the Al-Quds university, which is in a town next to Jerusalem. I have to pass through a checkpoint twice a day. So, statistically speaking, if I’m standing in front of five Israelis, they’re probably going to be pointing guns at me. Instead I’m standing here applauding you.”

The five each explained their decision to refuse in terms of their life experiences. For some it was visiting the occupied territories and witnessing the brutality of the Israeli army first hand. Tamar Katz, 19, visited the Israeli-occupied city of Hebron with the group Breaking the Silence, and found the formerly bustling Old Market a “ghost town.”

Katz has spent three separate terms in prison ranging from two to three weeks each. When she refused to wear an American donated military uniform during one of her terms, she was remanded to solitary confinement.

,
Israeli teenage refuseniks, Maya Yechieli-Wind and Raz Bar David-Vernon are jailed for refusing to serve in the Israeli mlitary, Hashomer Prison, 14 January, 2009
Photograph by Oren Ziv, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)

Eighteen-year-old Sahar Vardi said she has been active in Palestinian issues since the age of twelve, but it was not until she began attending demonstrations in the West Bank that she “realized who was responsible for [the occupation],” specifically, individual soldiers who are the ones who carry out the daily violence of the occupation. Before facing tear gas and Israeli bullets at a demonstration in the town of Bil’in, Sahar said she blamed the Israeli government, in abstract terms, for the occupation.

18-year-old Neta Mishly also went to the weekly demonstrations in Bil’in and recalled “what it felt like when the soldiers were shooting at me … I was just a 16-year-old girl.”

“I saw who the military is fighting against; it’s not another army, it’s normal people trying to live their lives,” said Mishly, who will likely go to prison in April.

“These soldiers are the same people we were supposed to be, the same as our friends and fathers,” said Mishly.



Protst in support of teenage refuseniks
Photograph by Oren Ziv, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)

The young Israelis also talked about what 19-year-old Mia Tamarin called “the stamp of the refuser,” the social isolation they face in a society where everyone is a soldier. Tamarin, a committed pacifist who spent two years in an educational program where she met women from all over the Middle East, said that her decision to refuse also led her to leave home.

Alex Cohn also said he faced tension with his family. “When my brother heard he called me very angrily, saying ‘you’re going to rot in prison,’” he said, then recalling that his brother changed tones, “’You’re going to sit in prison and read books while I’m risking my life.’”

Israel’s rightward lurch going into Tuesday’s elections, Cohn said, “is like falling down a cliff. It’s a nightmare. We can only hope that people wake up from this nightmare.”

“But,” he added, “Maybe it will lift the mask of Israeli democracy, and there will be more pressure on Israel from the outside."


Demonstration in support of Israeli high school refuseniks outside Tzrifin Prison in Israel, 4 October, 2008
Photo by Oren Ziv, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)


Posted by Kim at 3:58 AM