[WCUSP] [TOI-Billboard] About petty criminalization & the greater wisdom of women

Sun Apr 15 10:39:24 CDT 2007

--- The Other Israel <otherisr at actcom.co.il> wrote:

> Subject: [TOI-Billboard]  About petty
> criminalization & the greater wisdom of women
> Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:51:06 -0500
> From: The Other Israel <otherisr at actcom.co.il>
> To: roweenayvonne at yahoo.com
> 

---------------------------------

About petty criminalization & the greater wisdom of
women

Email updates April 14, 2007
TOI-Billboard in cooperation with Occupation Magazine

Two phenomena in the news of this week at first glance
seem to contradict each other: 
- The campaign against Arab Knesset Member Azmi
Bishara (including a criminal file & gag order), and
through him against Israel's Arab community; 
- A beginning of pressure on the Israeli government
not to reject the  peace proposal of Israel's Arab
environment.

For today's headlines www.kibush.co.il  (including
action alerts in the activism box on the left)
For Hebrew information www.kibush.co.il/index_h.asp 
Hereafter a choice from the past week's articles

Reality of the occupation

Night in Jenin Camp: family forced outside in the cold
while Israeli soldiers destroy belongings 
Ali Samoudi - PNN - “It is clear that the occupation
wants to punish every Palestinian family without
cause, firing at everything, destroying our senses and
terrorizing the children. They destroy every aspect of
our lives, now under the pretext of a search for he
`wanted.` But they destroy my mother`s cooking oil and
flour, they shoot our clothes. It is clear that this
is general prosecution, bleak and terrible, the acts
of occupation and the continued assault on Jenin
Refugee Camp.” 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19408

Incursion in Qalqilia leaves two women severely
injured and several houses destroyed
Ma`an - Both women were transported to Qalqilia
hospital and medical sources said that they had
sustained serious injuries. The Israeli forces bombed
the house of Shukri after forcing the residents to
evacuate. The house was demolished using explosives,
causing severe damage to neighbouring houses.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19406

Salem military court treats elected members of
government like criminals
Mustafa Sabri - IMEMC - Dr. Abdel Raziq was brought to
the court with his legs bound. The 47-year-old Member
of Parliament was kidnapped during the 2006 Israeli
attacks against members of the elected Hamas
government. Another MP, Yasser Mansour, was in a cage
in the courtroom after being transported from Majido
Prison, clearly ill. His parents looked on in horror.
14 Palestinian MPs and Ministers had their sentences
extended again, this time until 12 June, bringing
their imprisonment to nearly a year. 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19395

Hebron update: 25-31 March
Christian Peacemaker Team - ..."The soldiers then
invaded the home and ordered the men and boys to
leave, sending the father and his son down to the
street where they were detained for between 30 and 45
minutes. The soldiers proceeded to thoroughly search
the house, throwing blankets and mattresses around,
throwing clothes out of the dresser, and stepping on
the dough the mother was preparing for bread, ruining
it. They found nothing. The family also showed their
neighbor, the CPTers and the ISMers their back room,
which had a wall of windows to let the sun in, facing
Avraham Avinu settlement. Israeli settlers had
previously broken all the windows with stones. " 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19324

Wall threatens national economy: stone production and
environment in trouble
Najib Farag -- PNN -- “Israeli forces have begun
building the Wall in the area [of Beit Fajar, south of
Bethlehem] [
] digging up huge expanses of land and
causing significant damage to the trees which are
vital to keeping environmental damage to a minimum. A
thousand dunams of agricultural land are being
confiscated” 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19314

Protest on the ground

Four non violent demonstrators injured south of
Bethlehem - in anti-Wall protest of Juret al Sham`a
village
Najeb Faraj - IMEMC - International and Israeli
activists along with local villagers marched to the
construction site of the wall that is being built on
land confiscated from the village Juret Al sham`a.
Upon arrival, protesters tried to stop the bulldozers
from destroying the villagers` farmland. Soldiers
attacked the protesters using batons, rifle butts and
concussion grenades. Four protesters were lightly
wounded. Among those injured was Sami Awad, the
director of the Holy Land Trust, an organization that
deals with non violence organizing. 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19394

14 injured in Bilin protest, among them three
journalists
Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC - In the weekly non-violent
protests against the illegal separation wall in the
village of Bil`in near the West Bank city of Ramallah,
14 protesters were injured including three
journalists. 2) 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19393

Beit Ommar, Palestine: Our Roads WILL Remain Open!
Infoshop News - "There are 4 major roadblocks
throughout Beit Ommar preventing vehicular traffic
from several neighborhoods to the main highway. They
are part of a larger `matrix of control` designed by
the Israeli Army to maintain complete control over the
movements of Palestinians. The people of Beit Ommar
and PSP are committed to maintaining freedom of
movement to and from their village and others. The
Israeli Army will NOT be allowed to make the people of
Beit Ommar prisoners in their own village." 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19355

Occupation criticism in the media  

IDF suspends officer over troops` use of Palestinians
as human shields
Ali Waked - Ynet - Peace activist films IDF soldiers
ordering two Palestinian youths to stand in front of
their vehicle to prevent locals from stoning it;
military advocate general orders investigation into
incident, commanding officer suspended. // AP -
Ha`aretz - Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa
Barghouti denounced the suspension as window-dressing
("treating it as an isolated incident").
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19398

An ominous house of contention 
Talia Sasson - Ha`aretz - As far as is known, no one
is claiming that the Defense Minister and the head of
the Civil Administration approved the purchase of the
[Hebron] house. Since the required permit was not
presented to the army, the Israel Defense Forces had
an obligation to prevent the entry of the settlers
before it took place. Certainly the Defense Minister
and the Prime Minister should have announced the
intention of evicting the settlers at once, as soon as
they became aware of the situation, and issued orders
for their eviction and held a hearing without delay,
without waiting for about 20 days before a political
decision.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19404

Back to the wall - about working conditions in
settlements 
Simone Korkus - Ma`an News - "In my place the boss can
find ten others immediately", M. explains. And
therefore he leaves his home by five in the morning,
does not ask for the minimum salary, works when he is
ill or during the holiday of Id Al Adha and he has
never heard of vacation.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19399

Oxfam calls for end to Palestinian blockade
Ian Black - Guardian - Palestinians in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip are suffering "devastating"
humanitarian consequences as incomes plummet, debts
mount and essential services face meltdown, Oxfam says
in a report that calls for an immediate end to the
international financial blockade of the Hamas-led
government. Oxfam reports that 46% of Palestinians now
do not have enough food to meet their needs; that the
number of people in deep poverty (defined as those
living on less than 50 cents a day) nearly doubled in
2006 to over one million; and that incomes of PA
workers had fallen to 40% of their normal levels. A
November 2006 poll of government workers showed an
increase in poverty from 35% to 71%.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19390

Prisoners or criminals?
Amira Hass - Haaretz - "The common denominator of
these axioms is the distinction between blood and
blood and person and person. The Jew is always worth
more, much much more, when he is a victim, when he is
a soldier, when he is a POW. This distinction plays a
significant role in Palestinian support for the tactic
of abduction. If political logic, diplomatic
negotiations and a basic premise of equality have not
led to the release of Palestinian prisoners, the
abduction of Israelis will do this."   
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19356

Azmi Bishara as an example
Uzi Benziman - Ha'aretz - Bishara`s case highlights
the crossroads that relations between Jews and Arabs
inside the Green Line have hit.   The turning point
was in the formulation of position papers by leading
organizations of the Arab community (`Ten Points,`
`The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in
Israel,` a proposed constitution and the `Haifa
Declaration,` which has yet to be officially
published). The documents are being woven like an
orderly ideological and political doctrine challenging
the current character of the State of Israel - the way
it views itself, the structure of its government, and
its Zionist identity. In practice, these documents lay
the ideological foundation for the uprising of the
Arab Israelis against their state.  This is a mutiny
that, for the time being, is being carried out through
entirely legitimate means - submitting petitions to
court, developing position papers, initiating
research, rallying public opinion. But it paves the
way for radicals to act by illegitimate methods. 
(This article is important because it represents
explicitly the limitations of Israeli mainstream
liberalism as soon as basic Zionist principles are
questioned - such as  replacing the definition of
Israel  as "a Jewish state" by "a state of all its
citizens". The following article, by Avnery, can be
read as an answer to this one. [ed])
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19350

Shalom, Shin Bet
Uri Avnery - Gush Shalom - Evidently, in the view of
the chief of the Security Service, a central figure in
the Israeli leadership, the task of the Shin Bet (now
commonly known in Israel as Shabak) is not only to
protect the state from spies and terrorists, but also
from any challenge to its ideological designation,
like the KGB in the former Soviet Union and the Stasi
in communist East Germany. (The excellent
Oscar-winning movie "The Life of the Others", now
screening in Israel, shows how this worked in
practice.) 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19294

The negotiations discourse

Talks about talks
Reuters, DPA and Haaretz Service - Among Israeli
politicians due to visit Jordan next week is Knesset
Speaker Dalia Itzik. Jordan`s King Abdullah II plans
to discuss "means of reviving the peace process on the
basis of the Arab Peace Initiative"
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19403

Finding Mandela
Byron Bland - Ynet - Israelis need to find a
Palestinian Mandela, and Palestinians need to find an
Israeli Mandela. However, the Mandela they need to
find is not the leader who will make the concessions
they seek but the one to whom they can make the
concessions they say they cannot offer. 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19405

Have we become afraid of peace?
David Kimche - Jerusalem Post - I asked one of the
former Arab Prime Ministers present at the recent
Madrid peace conference how he thought we could accept
194. "You don`t have to," he replied. "The key word in
the refugee article is `agreed.` You can say you are
willing to negotiate on the basis of the initiative
and state your reservations about 194. We would
understand it and accept it. No Arab leader believes
you are willing to accept the return of the refugees."
[This is how Kimche, a former director-general of the
Foreign Ministry, calls upon Olmert to accept the
Riyadh offer - ed.]
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19402

What the Arabs propose, and what they do not
Henry Siegman - IHT - "There are no grounds for
Israel`s rejection of the Arab initiative." 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19338

Israeli women more favorable than men for release of
Palestinian prisoners 
Ma`ariv/Teleseker - 53% of Israeli women but only 36%
of Israeli men support the release of Palestinian
prisoners convicted of the murder of Israelis in
return for the release of captured soldier Gil`ad
Shalit. Altogether, there are 45% of Israelis in favor
of such a deal and 36% against.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19389  

The stale myth of battlefield bravado
Meron Benvenisti - Haaretz - "Only the naive expected
a positive government response to the Arab initiative
offering normalized relations in return for a
withdrawal and a resolution to the refugee problem.
The knee-jerk skepticism to peace offers has
characterized the response of nearly all Israeli
governments since 1949, and not only during the years
after 1967 and the occupation of the territories. " 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19368

More articles are easy accessible through the
"categories" of the archive of www.kibush.co.il:

<Documents and Facts>
http://www.kibush.co.il/datapage.asp?lang=1%20&section=1

<Commentary on current events>
http://www.kibush.co.il/datapage.asp?lang=1%20&section=8

<Opposing Occupation>
http://www.kibush.co.il/datapage.asp?lang=1%20&section=5

<Life under occupation>
http://www.kibush.co.il/datapage.asp?lang=1%20&section=3

and there is more, all at the top of www.kibush.co.il

--
TOI-Billboard is the 'ezine' of the independent THE
OTHER ISRAEL bi-monthly peace newsletter, existing
since 1983, and published by its editors Adam Keller &
Beate Zilversmidt. 

N.B. The Other Israel March-April issue - selected
articles now online

http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/

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Visit also the archive under construction of issues
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 http://israelipalestinianpeace.org 

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