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A Soldier's Word, observations on stone throwing . . . |
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Written by Amira Hass
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Wednesday, 11 August 2010 |
A Soldier's Word
Children in the West Bank throw stones at army vehicles and Israeli cars, mainly those belonging to settlers. That is the undeniable truth. Throwing stones is the classic way of telling the occupier, who is armed from head to toe, that he has forced himself on the occupied. Sometimes it's part of a sweeping resistance movement, sometimes it's a ceremonial remnant of such a movement, not devoid of braggadocio and adolescent boredom, while also a reminder to adults not to adapt.
The armed occupier bellows that this is violence, an offense just a step away from firearms. The violence of the occupier is the norm that no one questions, so much so that it becomes invisible. Only the response to that norm is presented and perceived as criminal, and the occupying nation wallows pleasurably in its eternal victimhood to justify its violent actions.
The army, especially the military justice system, has abundant means to deter young people from taking part in those ceremonies to ward off adjustment. Nighttime raids, pointed guns, arrests often accompanied by beatings, kicks, curses and painful and extended handcuffing. The ordinary behavior of Israeli children in uniform, completely normative. From the frightening conditions of such arrests, Palestinian children are taken straight to interrogation. This, too, involves intimidation, threats and sometimes a blow, sometimes temptation: Admit that you threw stones and we'll let you go. Because detention until the end of legal proceedings might be longer than the sentence itself, sometimes it's preferable to admit to something you did not do.
Eight 16-year-old students at the El-Arub agricultural school refused to be part of the statistic of confessions under pressure in the so-called military justice system. Three soldiers who arrested them in October 2008 testified to the police that their detainees had thrown stones on Route 60, and the soldiers caught them on the road after chasing them. The indictments were tailored to the soldiers' account of events.
But the truth was that the teens were pulled out of their classrooms by soldiers who drove into the school compound. The police did not bother to question the principal and his teachers, the prosecution did not append corroborating evidence to the "stone-throwing incident" (such as documentation of the incident by the police or an army war room ). And still, the military judge extended the remand of the eight teens until the end of the proceedings. A soldier's word against the word of a Palestinian boy.
The appeals judge was somewhat discomfitted by the vague testimony the soldiers gave the police and ordered the boys released on very high bail. The military prosecution tried, as usual, to get the defense attorney (from the Ad-Damir human rights group ), to sign a plea bargain (you confess, we'll ask for a suspended sentence and a fine ), to save everyone's time, especially the court's. The boys were adamant in their refusal. The three soldiers, therefore, had to testify in court after they were warned to tell the truth, and they were very unconvincing.
On July 12, after almost two years of "wasting the court's time," the prosecution asked that the indictments be dropped. According to the IDF Spokesman's Office, "there was no determination by a court of law that the soldiers lied in their testimony," which is true, and that "in agreeing to drop the indictment there is no implication regarding the credibility of the soldiers' testimony." Sure.
Indeed, the soldiers acted the way many had acted before them. What they did is not devoid of the adolescent braggadocio that their society accepts affectionately and leniently. In particular, they are obeying unwritten orders to deter potential activists against the occupation. Blows, twisting the truth and intimidation are all part of the system they did not invent.
Source: Haaretz, 11 August. 2010 |
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miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=22440&CategoryId=5
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How to pressure an American president? (Read Haaretz) |
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Written by Philip Weiss
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Wednesday, 11 August 2010 |
1. On July 8, Haaretz's Ari Shavit explained how Netanyahu got the upper hand of Obama: After
18 wasted months during which Obama was the president who exerted
pressure, he has become the president who embraces. Obama is embracing
the State of Israel and the prime minister of Israel. What happened? Three
things have happened. On one level, Netanyahu waged a struggle. And
the statesman who is depicted as susceptible to pressure did not
succumb to the American pressure of this past spring. He fought back. The
price for what Netanyahu did was felt by Obama in Chicago. The Israeli
leader applied hidden pressure to the American leader, which made it
perfectly clear to him: No more.
2. Tonight, Haaretz gets a look at Jeffrey Goldberg's forthcoming piece on Israel attacking Iran with or without a green light from the U.S.: Ben
Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, stressed that "This
president has shown again and again that when he believes it is
necessary to use force to protect American national security interests,
he has done so" - but the Israeli government might need stronger
assurances. Israel is trying to convey the message not only through the official channels - Israeli
military intelligence chief Major General Amos Yadlin visited Chicago
recently to meet with the billionaire Lester Crown, one of Obama’s
[early, crucial, munificent] supporters, and asked to him to convey
Israel's concerns to the American President, Goldberg reports.
The connection here was made by Ali Abunimah. P.S. In January 2008, at an important moment in the Obama run for the Democratic nomination, Lester Crown sent an email to a large number of Jewish voters emphasizing Obama's "stalwart" dedication to Israel and wrote: "I
have been honored to know Barack Obama for years, and I am proud to
say that he is unyielding in defending Israel's security," Crown
wrote."His conviction holds fast whether the threat comes from Gaza or
Tehran.
"He has been a leader in calling for toughening
sanctions against Iran as part of a comprehensive diplomatic effort to
prevent the development and deployment of Iranian nuclear weapons.
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mondoweiss.net/2010/08/how-to-pressure-an-american-president-read-haaretz.html
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RAMADAN KAREEM, FROM THE NETANYAHU AND OBAMA ADMINISTRATIONS |
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Written by Jeff Halper
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Wednesday, 11 August 2010 |
Yesterday, the day before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, at
2:30 in the morning, workers sent by the Israeli authorities, protected
by dozens of police, destroyed the tombstones in the last portion of
the Mamilla cemetery, an historic Muslim burial ground with graves
going back to the 7th Century, hitherto left untouched. The government
of Israel has always been fully cognizant of the sanctity and historic
significance of the site. Already in 1948, when control of the cemetery
reverted to Israel, the Israeli Religious Affairs Ministry recognized
Mamilla “to be one of the most prominent Muslim cemeteries, where
seventy thousand Muslim warriors of [Saladin’s] armies are interred
along with many Muslim scholars. Israel will always know to protect and
respect this site.” For all that, and despite (proper) Israeli
outrage when Jewish cemeteries are desecrated anywhere in the world,
the dismantlement of the Mamilla cemetery has been systematic. In the
1960s “Independence Park” was built over a portion of it; subsequently
an urban road was built through it, major electrical cables were laid
over graves and a parking lot constructed over yet another piece. Now
some 1,500 Muslim graves have been cleared in several nighttime
operations to make way for…..a $100 million Museum of Tolerance and
Human Dignity, a project of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
(Ironically, Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Wiesenthal Center’s Director,
appeared on Fox News to express his opposition to the construction of a
mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan, because the site of the 9/11
attack “is a cemetery.”)
The month-long period between Netanyahu’s July 6th visit to Washington
and the start of Ramadan has provided Israel with a window to “clear
the table” after a frustrating hiatus on home demolitions imposed by
the “old,” mildly critical Obama Administration – although there is no
guarantee that Israel will not demolish during Ramadan, especially if
it wants to exploit the period until the November elections, knowing
that until then Obama will not overtly oppose anything it does in the
Occupied Territories. In fact, the process of demolishing Palestinian
homes never ceased. On June 6th, for example, a year after the
demolition of more than 65 structures and the forced displacement of
more than 120 people, including 66 children, nine families of Khirbet
Ar Ras Ahmar in the Jordan Valley, totaling 70 people, received a new
round of “evacuation orders.” A week later the Israeli High Court
ordered the Civil Administration to “step up enforcement against
illegal Palestinian structures” in Area C, the 60% of the West Bank
under full Israeli control.
And so, on July 13th, upon Netanyahu’s return (Palestinian homes are
not demolished without an OK from the Prime Minister’s Office), three
homes were demolished in the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of
Issawiya, followed by three more homes in Beit Hanina. The Jerusalem
Municipality also announced the planned demolition of 19 more homes in
Issawiya this month. In the West Bank, the Israeli “Civil”
Administration demolished 55 structures belonging to 22 Palestinian
families in the Hmayer area of Al Farisiye in the northern Jordan
Valley, including 22 residential tents and 30 other structures used to
shelter animals and store agricultural equipment. According to the UN’s
Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “This week [July 14-20, the
week of Netanyahu’s return from Washington] there was a significant
increase in the number of demolitions in Area C, with at least 86
structures demolished in the Jordan Valley and the southern West Bank,
including Bethlehem and Hebron districts. In 2010, at least 230
Palestinian structures have been demolished in Area C, forcibly
displacing 1100 people, including 400 children. Approximately 600
others have been otherwise affected.” Two-thirds of the
demolitions for 2010 have occurred since Netanyahu’s meeting with
Obama. More than 3,000 demolition orders are outstanding in the West
Bank, and up to 15,000 in Palestinian East Jerusalem.
The demolition of homes is, of course, only a small, if painful, part
of the destruction Israel wreaks daily on the Palestinian population.
Over the past few weeks a violent campaign has been waged against
Palestinian farmers in one of the most fertile agricultural areas of
the West Bank, the Baka Valley, steadily being encroached upon by large
suburbs of the settlement of Kiryat Arba, in Hebron. Israel already
takes 85% of the West Bank’s water for its own use, either for
settlements (settlers use five times more water per capita as do
Palestinians, and Ma’aleh Adumim is currently building a water park in
addition to its four municipal swimming pools and the huge fountains
constantly flowing in the city center) or to be pumped into Israel
proper – all in flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention,
which prohibits an Occupying Power from using the resources of an
occupied territory.
Accusing the farmers of “stealing water” – their own water – the Israel
water company Mekorot, supported by the Civil Administration and the
IDF, has in recent weeks destroyed dozens of wells, some of them
ancient, and reservoirs used to collect rain water, which is also
“illegal.” Hundreds of hectares of agricultural land have dried up as
irrigation pipes have been pulled out and confiscated by the Civil
Administration. Fields of tomatoes, beans, eggplants and cucumbers are
dying just before they can be harvested, and the grape industry in this
rich valley is threatened with destruction. “I’m watching my life dry
up before my eyes,” Ata Jaber, a Palestinian farmer who has had his
home demolished twice, most of whose land lies buried under the Givat
Harsina neighborhood of Kiryat Arba and whose plastic drip irrigation
pipes are destroyed annually by the Civil Administration just before he
can harvest. “I had hoped to sell my crop for at least $2000 before
Ramadan, but all is gone.”
(You can see a BBC report on the destruction of Palestinian reservoirs
on YouTube <Earth Report - 2003 - Conflict over water in
Israel/Palestine> and a heart-rending scene filmed just a week ago
when Ata’s cousin was arrested in front of his small child for
resisting the destruction of his water system <Hebron Palestinian
Child's Torment Caught On TV>.)
Settlements continue to be built, of course. The much-trumpeted
“settlement freeze” amounted to no less than a temporary lull in
construction. (Indeed, Netanyahu never used the word “freeze”; in
Hebrew he refers only to a “pause.”) According to the August report of
Peace Now’s Settlement Watch, at least 600 housing units have started
to be built during the freeze, in over 60 different settlements –
meaning that the rate of construction is about half of that during the
same period in an average year when there is no freeze. Given that the
approval process has never been halted – the Israeli government
announced the planned building of 1600 housing units in the settlements
when Vice President Biden was visiting, if you recall – making up for
lost time when the “freeze” ends in late September will be an easy
task. According to Ha’aretz, some 2,700 housing units are waiting to be
constructed.
The fact that the so-called settlement freeze did not really end
settlement construction is obvious. The American government seems ready
to accept lip-service only from Israel, as against overt and brutal
threats towards the Palestinians if they do not acquiesce to the
charade. Palestinian negotiators revealed last week the Obama
Administration threatened to cut all ties with the Palestinian
Authority, political and financial, if they continued to insist on a
genuine freeze on settlements or even clear parameters on what the
sides will negotiate. (Netanyahu refuses to accept even the elementary
principle of the 1967 borders being the basis of talks.)
Just as destructive of any real peace process, however, is the fact
that the focus on settlement freeze deflects attention from attempts by
Israel to create “irreversible facts on the ground” which will defeat
the very process of negotiation. Even if Israel did respect a
settlement freeze, there is no demand, no expectation, absolutely
nothing to prevent it from continuing to build the Wall (the enclosing
of the Shuafat refugee camp inside Jerusalem and the town of Anata is
being completed in these very days, and the village of Wallajeh, some
of which spills into Jerusalem, is losing its lands, ancient olive
trees and homes even as we speak). Nothing is preventing Israel from
continuing to impoverish and imprison the Palestinian population
through its twenty-year economic “closure,” including the siege on
Gaza, having reduced the Palestinian economy to ashes. Nothing stands
in the way of completing a system of parallel (though not equal in size
and quality) apartheid highways, big ones, going through Palestinian
lands, for Israelis; narrow ones for Palestinians. Nothing keeps Israel
from expelling Palestinian from their homes so that Jewish settlers can
move in – on July 29th nine families living in the Muslim Quarter of
the Old City, returning home at night from a wedding, found themselves
locked out of their homes by settlers and prevented from entering by
the police. (Palestinians, of course, have no legal recourse to
reclaiming their properties, whole villages, towns and urban
neighborhoods, farms, factories and commercial buildings, confiscated
from them in 1948 and after.)
Nothing prevents Israel from terrorizing the Palestinian population,
whether by its own army or the surrogate militia founded by the US and
run by the Palestinian Authority to pacify its own population, whether
by settlers who shoot and beat Palestinians and burn their crops with
no fear of arrest, or by undercover agents, aided by thousands of
Palestinian forced to become collaborators, many simply so that their
children could receive medical care or so they could have a roof over
their heads; whether by expulsion or the myriad administrative
constraints of an invisible yet Kafkaesque system of total control and
intimidation. Nothing opposes Israel’s boycott of the Palestinian
people, isolated from the world by Israeli-controlled borders, or
policies that effectively boycott Palestinian schools and universities
by preventing their proper functioning. And nothing, absolutely
nothing, stops Israel from demolishing Palestinian homes – 24,000 in
the Occupied Territories since 1967, and counting.
Perhaps this way of welcoming Ramadan comes at no surprise in terms of
the Occupied Territories. It took on an entirely different cast when,
on July 26th, more than 1,300 Israeli Border Police, the shock-troops
of the police’s Yassam “special operations” unit and regular police,
accompanied by helicopters, descended upon the Bedouin village of
al-Arakib, just north of Beer-Sheva, a community within Israel
inhabited by Israeli citizens. Forty-five homes were demolished, 300
people forcibly displaced. One of the most grotesque and dismaying
parts of this operation was the use of Israeli Jewish high school
students, volunteers with the civil guard, to remove the belongings of
their fellow citizens from their homes before the demolition. Besides
reports of vandalism and contempt for their victims the students were
photographed lounging in the residents’ furniture in plain sight of its
owners. Finally, when the bulldozers began demolishing the homes, the
volunteers cheered and celebrated. Over the next week, as Israeli
activists helped the residents pick up the pieces and rebuild their
homes, the Jewish National Fund, the Israeli Land Authority, the
Ministry of the Interior and the “Green Patrol” of the Ministry of
Agriculture (established by Ariel Sharon to prevent Bedouin “take-over”
of the Negev) sent in police and bulldozers and had the village
demolished twice more.
Although al-Arakib is one of 44 “unrecognized” Bedouin villages in the
Negev – of which only eleven have even rudimentary education and
medical services, no electricity, extremely limited access to water and
none have paved roads (see http://rcuv.wordpress.com) – it is
nevertheless populated by Israeli citizens, some of whom serve in the
Israeli army. While demolitions of Arab homes within Israel is not a
new phenomenon – last year the Israeli government demolished three
times more houses of Israeli (Arab) citizens inside Israel as it did in
the Occupied Territories (the destruction of up to 8,000 homes in the
Gaza invasion aside) – it signifies that the term “occupation” cannot
be restricted to the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza (and the Golan
Heights) alone. The situation of Arab citizens of Israel is almost as
insecure as that of the Palestinians of the Occupied Territories, and
their exclusion from Israeli society almost as complete. While around
1,000 cities, towns and agricultural villages have been established in
Israel since 1948 exclusively for Jews, not a single new Arab
settlement has been established, with the exception of seven housing
projects for Bedouins in the Negev where none of the residents are
allowed to farm or own animals. Indeed, regulations and zoning prohibit
Palestinian citizens of Israel from living on 96% of the country’s
land, which is reserved for Jews only.
The message of the bulldozers is clear: Israel has created one
bi-national entity between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River in
which one population (the Jews) has separated itself from the other
(the Arabs) and instituted a regime of permanent domination. That is
precisely the definition of apartheid. And the message is delivered
clearly in the weeks and days leading up to Ramadan. It is papered over
with fine words. Netanyahu issued a statement saying: “We mark this
important month amid attempts to achieve direct peace talks with the
Palestinians and to advance peace treaties with our Arab neighbors. I
know you are partners in this goal and I ask for your support both in
prayers and in any other joint effort to really create a peaceful and
harmonious coexistence.” Obama and Clinton also sent their
greetings to the Muslim world, Obama observing that Ramadan “remind
us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam's role in
advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human
beings." Both the White House and the State Department will hold
Iftar meals. But the bulldozers and other expressions of apartheid and
warehousing tell a much different story.
(Jeff Halper is the Director of the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions (ICAHD). He can be reached at
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The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions is based in Jerusalem
and has chapters in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Please visit our websites:
www.icahd.org
www.icahduk.org
www.icahdusa.org |
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www.icahd.org
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Israel razes Negev village again |
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Written by Ayse Alibeyoglu
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Tuesday, 10 August 2010 |
Israel razes Negev village again
By Ayse Alibeyoglu
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/20108108292506226.html
Al-Arakib is one of 45 Bedouin villages not recognised by Israeli authorities [Joseph Dana]
Israeli authorities have reportedly used "unnecessary force" to demolish the homes of Bedouins in a village in the southern Negev desert, according to a witness.
Joseph Dana,a writer and filmmaker living in Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera the village of al-Arakib was bulldozed in the early hours of Tuesday morning - for the third time in three weeks.
"We were jolted from our sleep at about 05:00am (0200 GMT) by roughly 100 to 200 border police officers in full combat and crowd dispersal equipment.
"The police quickly rounded up the 30 or so activists away from the temporary village structure which was rebuilt in the past few days. Unnecessary force was used to control the activists and several minor injuries were reported," Dana told Al Jazeera.
Al-Arakib, which had about 40 homes and 300 residents, is one of 45 Bedouin villages not recognised by Israeli authorities.
It was demolished in late Julyby the Israel Land Administration, briefly rebuilt with temporary shelters, then destroyed againlast week.
An Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, Talab el-Sana, had barricaded himself inside al-Arakib at one point last week before it was demolished, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
'Homes bulldozed'
"While the police were dealing with the activists, bulldozers destroyed all of the village structures. Most building material was then removed from the scene in order to ensure the highest degree of difficulty in rebuilding the village," he added.
Residents continue to rebuild demolished homes despite Israeli action [Joseph Dana]
"The destruction of the village lasted approximately one hour and during its course, one Israeli activist was arrested after being brutally thrown to the ground."
According to Dana, two Palestinians and one Israeli activist were also arrested in the area around al-Arakib "on Monday night".
"One simply cannot imagine the scene when 200 armed combat police officers descend on a village in the desert at 05:00am (0200 GMT), while a construction crew systemically demolishes every structure leaving the residents literally in the open desert air with nothing.
"There was little to no thought or remorse on the faces of the police officers while the village residents and their supporters were left visibly shaken.
"As soon as the police and construction crews left the village, residents began to rebuild all the structures that were demolished with the assistance of Israeli and international supporters." |
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english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/20108108292506226.html
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PDX ACTION! Please Sign onto "Don't Buy Into Apartheid" letter to New Seasons |
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Written by Wael Elasady
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Tuesday, 10 August 2010 |
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Please take a moment out of your day to support our local campaign to
pressure New Seasons Market to stop carrying Israeli products by
clicking on the link below and signing on to the letter.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/dontbuyapartheid/
As Desmond Tutu said:
The
End of South African Apartheid stands as one of the crowning
achievements of the last century, but we would not have succeeded
without the help of international pressure. There is no greater
testament to the basic dignity of ordinary people everywhere than the
divestment movement of the 1980s. A similar movement has taken shape
recently, this time aimed at ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian
territories. We should hope average citizens again rise to the occasion.
Please
support this international movement by signing on to our letter urging
New Seasons to stop carrying Israeli products until Apartheid ends!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/dontbuyapartheid/
Wael Elasady
Co-founder of SUPER
Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights - SUPER
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www.ipetitions.com/petition/dontbuyapartheid/
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Written by Mairead Maguire and Gerry Grehan
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Friday, 06 August 2010 |
Release Mordechai Vanunu
The
following letter has been sent by Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace
Laureate, and Gerry Grehan, Chair of the Peace People, Northern
Ireland, to President Barak Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron,
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, other world leaders and
prominent personalities, to ask for their help in obtaining the lifting
of all restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu and for him to be granted
freedom to leave Israel. Please express your support for this letter by signing http://humanrights.change.org/petitions/view/release_mordechai_vanunu |
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humanrights.change.org/petitions/view/release_mordechai_vanunu
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Read more...
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Gaza aid flotilla to set sail from Lebanon with all-women crew |
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Written by Ruth Sherlock in Beirut
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Friday, 06 August 2010 |
Gaza aid flotilla to set sail from Lebanon with all-women crew
Arabic singer joins crew of nuns, doctors, lawyers and journalists for humanitarian mission despite Israeli warning
* Ruth Sherlock in Beirut
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 August 2010 19.20 BST
* http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/06/gaza-aid-flotilla-lebanon-women
Gaza aid flotilla Israel's deadly assault on a Gaza aid flotilla in
June led to anger in the Muslim world and beyond. Photograph: Dita
Alangkara/AP
A ship bearing aid for Gaza is preparing to leave Tripoli in Lebanon
this weekend in the latest attempt to defy the Israeli blockade – with
only women on board.
The Saint Mariam, or Virgin Mary, has a multi-faith international
passenger list, including the Lebanese singer May Hariri and a group of
nuns from the US. "They are nuns, doctors, lawyers, journalists,
Christians and Muslims," said Mona, one of the participants who, along
with the other women, has adopted the ship's name, Mariam.
The Mariam and its sister ship, Naji Alali, had hoped to set off
several weeks ago but faced several delays after Israel launched a
diplomatic mission to pressure Lebanon to stop the mission.
The co-ordinator of the voyage, Samar al-Haj, told the Guardian this
week the Lebanese government had given permission for the boats to
leave for Cyprus, the first leg of the journey, this weekend.
Israel says it is concerned a flotilla from Lebanon, with whom it has
ongoing hostility, will smuggle weapons to Gaza. Israel's ambassador to
the UN, Gabriela Shalev, has warned that Israel reserves the right to
use "necessary measures" in line with international law to stop the
ship.
But al-Haj says the mission is purely humanitarian. "Our goal is to
arrive in Gaza," she said. "It is the responsibility of the government
to deal with the politics. We are not political."
She said that once news of the flotilla was out organisers were
inundated with requests to join the voyage, with more than 400 from the
US alone. At least 10 Americans will be on board.
The boat has been stocked with medical instruments and medicines to take to the Palestinians.
In preparation for the voyage the participants gathered at a hotel in
Beirut to discuss their plans. The logistics are many: minimal
grooming, strict food rationing, and limited water supply.
"There will be no showers, no skirts and no makeup," al-Haj told the group.
The participants are aware of the dangers, having followed the fate of
another flotilla carrying aid for Gaza that was attacked by Israel in
May.
Israeli forces landed on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish vessel, killing
nine activists on board. Al-Haj reminded the women to be prepared for a
confrontation.
"Have blood tests in case we come under attack from Israel and you need
a blood transfusion," she said. She added that organisers were going
out of their way not to provoke Israel.
"We will not even bring cooking knives," she said.
Serena Shim, who is heavily pregnant, decided to join the voyage
because of her belief that the blockade is unjust. "These people need
aid,'' she said.
Asked how they would react to an Israeli military assault, one
activist, Tania al Kayyalisaid: "We are not planning to fight or attack
– but we will not leave the St Mariam."
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www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/06/gaza-aid-flotilla-lebanon-women
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Amnesty: Israel rations Palestinians to trickle of water |
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Written by Amnesty International
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Friday, 06 August 2010 |
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Israel rations Palestinians to trickle of water
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/israel-rations-palestinians-trickle-water-20091027
Troubled Waters: Palestinians denied fair access to water
(See original for photos and links)
© Amnesty International
27 October 2009
Amnesty International has accused Israel of denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies.
These unreasonably restrict the availability of water in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and prevent the Palestinians developing an effective water infrastructure there.
“Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies. In Gaza the Israeli blockade has made an already dire situation worse,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s researcher on Israel and the OPT.
In a new extensive report, Amnesty International revealed the extent to which Israel’s discriminatory water policies and practices are denying Palestinians their right to access to water.
Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the OPT, while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 per cent.
The Mountain Aquifer is the only source for water for Palestinians in the West Bank, but only one of several for Israel, which also takes for itself all the water available from the Jordan River.
While Palestinian daily water consumption barely reaches 70 litres a day per person, Israeli daily consumption is more than 300 litres per day, four times as much.
In some rural communities Palestinians survive on barely 20 litres per day, the minimum amount recommended for domestic use in emergency situations.
Some 180,000-200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water and the Israeli army often prevents them from even collecting rainwater.
In contrast, Israeli settlers, who live in the West Bank in violation of international law, have intensive-irrigation farms, lush gardens and swimming pools.
Numbering about 450,000, the settlers use as much or more water than the Palestinian population of some 2.3 million.
In the Gaza Strip, 90 to 95 per cent of the water from its only water resource, the Coastal Aquifer, is contaminated and unfit for human consumption. Yet, Israel does not allow the transfer of water from the Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank to Gaza.
Stringent restrictions imposed in recent years by Israel on the entry into Gaza of material and equipment necessary for the development and repair of infrastructure have caused further deterioration of the water and sanitation situation in Gaza, which has reached crisis point.
To cope with water shortages and lack of network supplies many Palestinians have to purchase water, of often dubious quality, from mobile water tankers at a much higher price.
Others resort to water-saving measures which are detrimental to their and their families’ health and which hinder socio-economic development.
“Over more than 40 years of occupation, restrictions imposed by Israel on the Palestinians’ access to water have prevented the development of water infrastructure and facilities in the OPT, consequently denying hundreds of thousand of Palestinians the right to live a normal life, to have adequate food, housing, or health, and to economic development,” said Donatella Rovera.
Israel has appropriated large areas of the water-rich Palestinian land it occupies and barred Palestinians from accessing them.
It has also imposed a complex system of permits which the Palestinians must obtain from the Israeli army and other authorities in order to carry out water-related projects in the OPT. Applications for such permits are often rejected or subject to long delays.
Restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of people and goods in the OPT further compound the difficulties Palestinians face when trying to carry out water and sanitation projects, or even just to distribute small quantities of water.
Water tankers are forced to take long detours to avoid Israeli military checkpoints and roads which are out of bounds to Palestinians, resulting in steep increases in the price of water.
In rural areas, Palestinian villagers are continuously struggling to find enough water for their basic needs, as the Israeli army often destroys their rainwater harvesting cisterns and confiscates their water tankers.
In comparison, irrigation sprinklers water the fields in the midday sun in nearby Israeli settlements, where much water is wasted as it evaporates before even reaching the ground.
In some Palestinian villages, because their access to water has been so severely restricted, farmers are unable to cultivate the land, or even to grow small amounts of food for their personal consumption or for animal fodder, and have thus been forced to reduce the size of their herds.
“Water is a basic need and a right, but for many Palestinians obtaining even poor-quality subsistence-level quantities of water has become a luxury that they can barely afford,” said Donatella Rovera.
“Israel must end its discriminatory policies, immediately lift all the restrictions it imposes on Palestinians’ access to water, and take responsibility for addressing the problems it created by allowing Palestinians a fair share of the shared water resources.”
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www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/israel-rations-palestinians-trickle-water-20091027
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