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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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“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.
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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 .
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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