2005-12-31
[Editor Fiatlux: Because of the complexity of the situation, it is impossible to convey in one or two occasional articles what is going on in Palestine. Therefore, we will consider the following release from The Other Israel (TOI), one article. It includes many links for you to explore according to your own interests. Pro-Israel articles are generally available from an American press that, in our judgment, has not adequately covered in any detail what is going on “on the ground” among the Palestinian people .]
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We shall not silently accept thuggery and vandalism
The Other Israel's weekly email updates
While we hope for a better year, it was once more a week where our region was too much in the news:
- missiles here, bombardments there;
- the “no go zone” created new Palestinian refugees in front of our eyes, in what amounts to a partial reoccupation of the Gaza Strip - from the air;
- hostages taken – and released;
- a conscript officer (Ori Binamo*) killed near the West Bank town Tulkarm in confrontation with a suicide bomber on his way to Israel… *Tonight, Yizkor (In Memoriam), a group of bereaved families demanding withdrawal to the Green line, will mourn Binamo in three vigils to be held in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa; contact: Shimri Tzameret shimriz@gmail.com
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It was - and is - also the week of the Bil’in ‘Palestinian outpost’, with already twice a trailer removed by the same army which is so extremely lax in touching the settler outposts.
Meanwhile Palestinians and Israeli Anarchists built on that spot a stone construction as you can see on the photo:
http://www.geocities.com/toi_billboard/Biliin__outpost.jpg
N.B.: this is to the west of the Wall route, in the 60% of the lands to be taken from the Bil’in farmers. Today Ta’ayush is there for a solidarity visit. Tomorrow a Gush-Shalom group will celebrate on that same location the last day of Hanukka - the Modi’in settlement for whose sake the Bil’in lands are taken is the historical site where the Hashmoneans revolted against Hellenistic occupation, and during which took place ‘the Hanukka miracle’....
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There are several more joint Israeli-Palestinian protests taking place during this very weekend: yesterday, against the murderous (and unpunished) behavior of Border Guards in Jerusalem; today, a roadblock protest near Nablus; and there is the ongoing persistent struggle of Israeli individuals and groups protecting Palestinian agriculture against settler harassment, and lending a hand in the actual work. Apart from the constant updates of the very devoted Rabbis for Human Rights we received the following piece of information from a group of kibbutzniks:
‘We shall not silently accept thuggery and vandalism’
http://www.geocities.com/toi_billboard/Salem_campaign.htm __________________________________
Our choice of articles:
State Land Grab 2005
A Peace Now press Release of Dec. 28
Yesterday two tenders were published for construction in the settlements -
* Betar Ilit 150 units
* Efrat 78 units
Since the beginning of the year tenders for 1,131 housing units in the West Bank settlements have been published. 803 of those were published since the declaration of new elections in the last month alone!
Peace Now: With the cloud of elections looming ahead, PM Ariel Sharon has taken on using the tenders as a political land grab in the occupied territories. This position is against the commitments made in the Road Map and the Israeli interest as a whole."
More Details Dror Etkes: 054 4899351
Background:http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/
en/peace.asp?pi=61
Settlers, hands off the olive trees David Forman, Jerusalem Post, Dec. 26 I recently joined a group from Rabbis for Human Rights on a mission to the South Hebron Hills. (…) We wanted to protect these Palestinians from marauding settlers who, we had reason to expect, might prevent them from working their lands - or worse, replicate what the ruffians from northern Samaria had been doing.
Most of the Palestinian fields in the South Hebron Hills area have already been expropriated by the government for settler use under the guise of creating "security zones" on what now have become state owned lands.
There seems to be a coordinated plan by the government, IDF, civil administration and Jewish settlers to make the South Hebron area "Arab Free." This effort includes the destruction of houses, tents and caves. It apparently involves sealing wells, uprooting orchards, poisoning grazing fields and preventing Arab residents from farming their land and tending their livestock.
Read more: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=
1134309653390&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle
%2FShowFull Democracy of lords and masters Ze'ev Sternhell, Ha'aretz, Dec. 29
"Abusive practices," the repeated chopping down of olive trees, the theft of lands near the settlement of Modi'in Illit and the regular pogrom that is the daily lot of Hebron's Arabs (and these are examples only from the news of recent days) can surprise only those who never wanted to know. Among them, unfortunately, are many of those who work in the mass media.
full texthttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/663596.html ______________________________
There's a system for turning Palestinian property into Israel's state land
Ehud Barak likes to compare the State of Israel to a villa in a jungle. It would be interesting to know whether he means that the areas of the settlements in the territories are a legal veranda of the villa or part of the jungle.
Right under the noses, in the best case, of prime ministers, chiefs of staff and GOCs {Generals in Command] of the Central Command, who are responsible for "Judea and Samaria" (the West Bank), among them Barak himself, the State of Israel has imposed the law of the jungle on those territories. The Civil Administration, with the blessing of the State Prosecutor's Office, has been a key partner in a system of real estate deals, of which the description "dubious" would be complimentary.
full texthttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/662729.html ______________________________
Some 107 years ago, in the heyday of British imperialism, when China was down and out, the captains of the Empire wanted to take possession of Hong Kong, a Chinese island of great strategic value. For some reason, they did not want to annex it outright, preferring a gimmick. China was compelled to "rent" it out for 99 years, and it became a British crown colony.
Now the [Labour Party] program proposes a similar gimmick: the Palestinian Authority will rent the "settlement blocs" to Israel for 99 years, and Israel will pay the rent in money or territory (also rented for 99 years?) And what will Israel do in the rented areas? Cover it with settlements to the last centimeter. So what will it return in 99 years?
It is hard to imagine a Palestinian who can distinguish between this idea and the annexation proposed by Sharon. Or a Palestinian who cares much what will happen in 99 years time.
Full text http://www.geocities.com/toi_billboard/
avnery_dec31.rtf
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A Waiting Game
[A must for those who don't believe us when we say that power has its limitations, as this military commentator's tongue in cheek remarks reflect the mood in the army high command.]
The Palestinians and the Lebanese are not like the Egyptians and the Jordanians. Our reporter has learned that the Palestinians and the Lebanese are not upholding the agreement that was not reached with them, concerning Israel's unilateral withdrawal from their territories. According to a security source, Israel has two tested methods to impose a cease-fire in Lebanon and in the Gaza Strip: the stick and the carrot. "If they refuse to eat the stick," the source warned, "we will beat them with the carrot." The source expressed his fury at the use of simple means of combat against Israel. "If they had a nuclear reactor," he sighed, "we would have already destroyed it." (...) The IDF is deeply frustrated because its sophisticated solutions are effective only against sophisticated threats, and are no use against crude missiles such as the Palestinians use.
Full article
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/
ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=oren&itemNo=664397
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Today's choice by Occupation Magazine
http://www.kibush.co.il/_________________________
Link for further online sourceshttp://www.geocities.com/toi_billboard/
recommen.htmConstantly updated
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NB: The following link is useful for anybody who wants to send protest letters about the occupation - regularly updated: http://www.geocities.com/toi_billboard/gov_addrs.txt
