Indymedia Israel Archive: July 31 - September 18, 2002 by Indymedia Israel 5:17pm Thu Nov 21 '02 Indymedia Israel Archive: July 31 - September 18, 2002 print article Fighters' Talk by Ran HaCohen 4:35pm Wed Sep 18 '02 I went to an evening organised by the Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories. It was called "Fighters’ Talk", ...no one tried to answer ... a old lady who ... said the very essence of the Torah was "What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your neighbour". The neighbour, by the way, was absent: among the 300 people in the hall I didn’t see any Palestinians. Closure and curfew make sure the fighters’ talk is confined to Israelis alone. To read the whole article, click here. Israel and the Bush War Push by Hans Lebrecht, Kibbutz Beit-Oren 9:54pm Tue Sep 10 '02 Many a statement by Sharon and his right-radical partners in government hint at it, that they want to use any war involvement against Iraq in order to execute their design of "transfer", or in other words of ethnical cleansing from the indigenous Palestinians of the whole of Eretz-Israel, of Greater Israel from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean coast. Sharon’s historic strategic aim of finishing the not finished expulsion of the Arabs during the 1948/49 war, has been quoted before. Lately statements concerning this final "transfer" by some of Sharon’s cabinet ministers (Effi Eytam and Benny Eyalon), the "Homeland" Party chief and coalition partner Michael Kleiner, and some of Sharon’s closest Likud associates, leave no doubt about their intentions. They design to use the shadow of an Israeli involvement in a war with Iraq to realize their ethnic cleansing design, "not finished in 1949." To read the whole article, click here. Happy New Year, Israel – To All Of You, Even The Strangers In Our Midst by Angela Godfrey 9:14pm Wed Sep 4 '02 The State of Israel’s currently involved in various states of war, some more superfluous than others. There’s the so-called war on terrorism which seems to be a good excuse to hi-jack the democratic process along with the peace process, curb human rights, silence critics, alienate and torment Palestinian and Israeli Arabs alike, cynically sacrifice citizens without solving the problems behind the terrorism (It’s the Occupation, stupid!), and allow trigger-happy teenage soldiers to have a field day while retired Pentagon generals rake in money selling arms. To read the whole article, click here. Confronting Pro-Occupation Arguments-II by Ran HaCohen 10:45am Wed Sep 4 '02 A year has passed since the first part of this article, in which I confronted a set of arguments justifying the Israeli occupation, eloquently formulated by an Israeli settler, David Moriah. Shortly afterwards came September 11th, and the agenda changed radically. A year later, readers’ letters seem to indicate we are almost back to where we had been: the same old arguments chanted again and again, every chanter believing he is the original poet, while actually all songs and music come from the Israeli propaganda machine and its counterparts abroad. So it’s time to confront the rest of the pro-occupation arguments. To read the whole article, click here. Perfecting the Violence of Curfew by Sam Bahour 10:44pm Tue Sep 3 '02 Only four days has passed since the beginning of the Palestinian school year, where over one million Palestinian students returned to their classrooms after a summer of living under the direct physical, emotional and mental distress of Israeli military rule. For the last four days the world community closely watched to see whether Israel would lift the 24-hour curfew/lockdown that has become routine across the West Bank. Israel did lift the total curfew from 6am-6pm to allow the school season to start and in order to avoid international criticism. But the world's eye has barely blinked and Israel is already escalating its violent practice of curfew. To read the whole article, click here. Drunk With Power And Out Of Shame by Irit Katriel 11:53am Tue Sep 3 '02 The Israeli chief of staff spoke of the Palestinians as a "cancerous demographic threat" and the world shrugged. So who said "Never Again"? To read the whole article, click here. The Violence of Curfew by Sam Bahour Sam Bahour 4:17pm Tue Aug 27 '02 “Oh God, please tell Sharon to end the curfew by this Saturday so I can go to school.” This is how my secular, eight year old daughter, Areen, has put herself to sleep for the last two weeks. Areen, like so many others here, have turned to the divine powers to intervene in ending the five-month Israeli military curfew that is imposed on Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank. As post 9-11 global diplomacy patiently deliberates about how to proceed after the failure of the Oslo Peace Accords, Israel is systematically destroying Palestinian livelihood, and with it, any hopes for a future reconciliation between the two peoples. To read the whole article, click here. Refugees hunger strike for the seventh day by Rami Adut, Physicians for Human Rights and IMC Israel 10:15pm Sun Aug 18 '02 Today is the seventh day of a hunger strike by a group of Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees seeking asylum in Israel . Most strikers are claiming to have been persecuted for their political ideas. The UN granted the group refugee status according to the UN Convention on Refugees (1951). The Israeli Ministry of Interior is refusing to honor the convention, dispite having signed it. So the strike is taking place in front of the UNHCP in West Jerusalem in the hopes that foreign pressure on Israel will change the decision. Israel's consistent disregard towards this convention is ironic considering it was implemented to alleviate the suffering of displaced Jews following WWII. The group of strikers includes babies, women in the late term of pregnancy, as well as elders who's health is poor. Some are in need of medical care but refuse it. Unlike Israeli citizens they do not fall under universal coverage and have no means to cover medical expenses. Read a personal account on the strikers situation. Update Aug. 19, 2002 - The hunger strike reached its ninth day and it has become obvious that the Israeli government is going to drag the matter on for months to come. The strikers have decided, therefore, to make pleas to world public opinion for support towards amnesty. Amir,an IMC-Isreal activist, visited the hunger strikers for a second time and found them tired, weak and feeling cheated . Malicious cynicism of the Army Attorney General by Jacob Katriel 8:57am Fri Aug 16 '02 The Army Attorney General continues a practice of malicious cynicism, this time by misrepresenting the true brutal manner in which the Israeli Army treats consciencious objectors. To read the whole article, click here. Ta'ayush demonstration violently attacked at Bethlehem Roadblock by Bryan Atinsky of Indymedia Israel 7:28pm Sat Aug 10 '02 The Israeli Border Police and Army violently attacked a group of approximately 400 Arab and Jewish demonstrators who were attempting to enter Bethlehem from Jerusalem for a cooperative Palestinian and Israeli demonstration against the occupation outside of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem. The demonstration was organized by the joint Arab/Jewish organization Ta'ayush. The demonstrators were attacked by water cannons, horse-mounted police, and foot soldiers who beat and kicked demonstrators as they tried to pass. Several demonstrators were severely hurt in the attack, one who needed to be taken away in an ambulance. To read the article, click here. To read "From Jerusalem to Bethlehem" by Gila Svirsky, click here. To see "Ta'ayush Demo Photos" by the Coalition of Women for Peace, click here. To read "Ta'ayush demonstration forcibly turned away at Bethlehem roadblock " by Ha'aretz, click here. To see more pictures of the demonstration, click here. To see even more pictures of the demonstration, click here. To see Indymedia Israel activist being kicked by Israeli soldier, click here. Gush Shalom under attack for warning Israeli officers about war crimes by Gush Shalom 1:56am Thu Aug 8 '02 Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein said Sunday he would investigate Gush Shalom at the prime minister's request after it sent letters to 15 senior IDF officers warning that their actions in the West Bank constituted war crimes, and threatening to complain to Israeli courts or the International Criminal Court in The Hague. To read "Sharon tells A-G to weigh proceedings against Gush Shalom", click here. To read "Ha'aretz editorial joins the choir against Gush Shalom", click here. To read "Urgent appeal for Israeli peace group Gush Shalom", click here.   Israel's War For Terrorism by Ran HaCohen 10:17am Tue Aug 6 '02 It has been established beyond any reasonable doubt that Sharon does not want to stop terrorism, but rather to perpetuate it. The very moment political negotiations seemed to be serious, the very moment Palestinians intended to stop terrorism, Israel dropped a bomb. Whether Sharon should be sent to the Hague or rather to Guantanamo is one question; a more important one is: why has he done it? To read the whole article, click here.   Blood Brothers by Fr. Elias Chacour 11:54pm Thu Aug 1 '02 This is from David Hazard’s telling of Father Elias Chacour’s story in “Blood Brothers” published by Chosen Books in 1984. It is a true-life account of what really happened at the birth of modern Israel. And, in the 1984 words of the publishers “in a world taut with tension and terror, this book offers hope-filled insight into living at peace.” Fr. Elias Chacour has three times been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. (The author's permission was given to publish this excerpt on Indymedia Israel) To read the whole article, click here. Between Separation and Internal Colonialism byOren Yiftachel, Ben Gurion University 12:01pm Wed Jul 31 '02 A fierce public debate took place on the proposed ‘Druckman law’, moved by MK Haim Druckman of the National Religious Party in an attempt to override a previous High Court ruling on the Kaadan vs Katzir case, which banned the allocation of State land for Jewish use only. The debate thankfully led to the withdrawal of the proposed racist law a week after the government’s initial approval of the same bill. But make no mistake: no one expects that land will be distributed equally or fairly in Israel at any time in the foreseeable future. Most of the politicians were convinced that the law "was not needed at present" and the failure to pass it will not jeopardize the continued existence of exclusively Jewish localities. And indeed, barely a week passed, and the government decided on 21 July, 2002, to approve 14 new Jewish settlements, mainly in the Galilee and Negev, supposedly to “protect state land from continuing Arab invasion”. To read the whole article, click here. For more analysis and viewpoints, go to the IMC-Israel Frontpage archive add your comments Source file