21 December 2011, Shalom Rav http://rabbibrant.com (USA)
by Rabbi Brant Rosen
Just Vision (the folks behind the documentary films "Encounter Point" and "Budrus") has just released "Home Front" - a new series of four video portraits that profiles Palestinians fighting Israeli settler takeover of their homes in Sheikh Jarrah as well as Israeli solidarity activists who are standing with them in their struggle.
If you 're unfamiliar with the situation in Sheikh Jarrah (and similar circumstances in other parts of E. Jerusalem and the West Bank) this film will provide you with a powerful and expertly documented introduction. Click above to see the first clip. Click here for to see all four.
Highly recommended.
A Palestinian teenager whose family is forced to give up part of their
home and live under the same roof as a family of settlers. He comes of
age in the face of unrelenting tension with his neighbors and unexpected
cooperation with Israeli allies in his backyard.
An American-born Israeli mother who to her own surprise becomes
involved in the demonstrations after her children are arrested for
protesting.
A Palestinian community organizer from Sheikh Jarrah who spearheads the involvement of local women in the movement while facing the risk of losing her own home to the settlers.
A former Israeli soldier from a religious background who only several years after his combat service in the West Bank finds himself taking on a leading role in the protests.
sexta-feira, 23 de dezembro de 2011
Israeli activist: Checkpoint at J’lem refugee camp form of “ethnic cleansing”
22 December 2011, +972 Magazine http://972mag.com (Israel)
Mya Guarnieri*
Approximately 30 Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals gathered at the edge of Shu’fat refugee camp on Sunday to protest a new Israeli checkpoint, which opened on December 12 and that an Israeli activist likened to a form of “ethnic cleansing.” Palestinian kids threw stones; Israeli police fired rubber-coated bullets at the children.
Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals protest the new permanent checkpoint at Shu'fat. (Photo: Mya Guarnieri)
A number of local Palestinian activists were reportedly arrested prior to the demonstration.
The small group of protesters stood in the roundabout closest to the new checkpoint, holding signs and giving speeches. Israeli police approached and asked the group to move 20 meters back because the protesters were “bothering” them. The demonstrators responded that the checkpoint bothered them and refused to move.
After a tense stand-off, the police left and the protest continued.
“This [checkpoint] has nothing what so ever to do with security,” Jeff Halper, a co-founder of the Israeli Commitee Against House Demolitions, said. “There are Palestinians on both sides of the border. [The checkpoint] has one purpose–to concentrate 50,000 Palestinians on one side of the [separation] wall so their residency can eventually be revoked.”
Halper added that the checkpoint represented “ethnic cleansing.”
Shu’fat refugee camp was founded by Jordan in 1966. Today, it is home to approximately 50,000 Palestinians. It is located in the eastern part of the city and falls inside of Israeli-drawn municpality lines.
Many of the residents hold Jerusalem residency. But to keep this status, they must prove that Jerusalem remains the “center” of their life. According to activists, the checkpoint–which separates one area of Jerusalem from another, impeding freedom of movement–makes this already difficult task more difficult. Scores of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem lose their residency rights every year; 2008 marked an all-time high, with the Israeli government stripping over 4000 Palestinians of their status. Between 1967 and 2010, Israel revoked the residency of over 13,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites.
Jaber Mouheisen, head of the Shu’fat’s Popular Committee, called the checkpoint illegal. “We carry Israeli ID cards…This is our right to live here and move freely.”
He added that the occupation would fall “sooner or later.”
As the protest dispersed, small children threw stones towards the checkpoint. Israeli police fired rubber-coated bullets. After the kids continued, police entered the refugee camp with their weapons drawn. Israeli protesters appealed to them to leave, saying their presence and their weapons were a provocation. The police retreated to the roundabout near the checkpoint.
When asked via email about the purpose of the new checkpoint at Shu’fat refugee camp and whether it was intended to separate Jerusalem residents from other areas of the city, Israeli officials did not respond.
This post originally appeared on the Alternative Information Center website.
*Mya Guarnieri is a Jerusalem-based journalist and writer whose work has appeared in dozens of publications spanning the US to India, including Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Al Jazeera English, The National, Counter Punch, The Boston Review, and Caravan. She has been invited to serve as a commentator on Israel/Palestine on the BBC and Al Jazeera, among others. Mya holds undergraduate degrees in Psychology and English from the University of Florida and a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Florida State University. Her short stories have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Narrative, and elsewhere. She is currently working with an agent on a book about migrant workers in Israel.
Contact myaguarnieri@gmail.com
Mya Guarnieri*
Approximately 30 Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals gathered at the edge of Shu’fat refugee camp on Sunday to protest a new Israeli checkpoint, which opened on December 12 and that an Israeli activist likened to a form of “ethnic cleansing.” Palestinian kids threw stones; Israeli police fired rubber-coated bullets at the children.
A number of local Palestinian activists were reportedly arrested prior to the demonstration.
The small group of protesters stood in the roundabout closest to the new checkpoint, holding signs and giving speeches. Israeli police approached and asked the group to move 20 meters back because the protesters were “bothering” them. The demonstrators responded that the checkpoint bothered them and refused to move.
After a tense stand-off, the police left and the protest continued.
“This [checkpoint] has nothing what so ever to do with security,” Jeff Halper, a co-founder of the Israeli Commitee Against House Demolitions, said. “There are Palestinians on both sides of the border. [The checkpoint] has one purpose–to concentrate 50,000 Palestinians on one side of the [separation] wall so their residency can eventually be revoked.”
Halper added that the checkpoint represented “ethnic cleansing.”
Shu’fat refugee camp was founded by Jordan in 1966. Today, it is home to approximately 50,000 Palestinians. It is located in the eastern part of the city and falls inside of Israeli-drawn municpality lines.
Many of the residents hold Jerusalem residency. But to keep this status, they must prove that Jerusalem remains the “center” of their life. According to activists, the checkpoint–which separates one area of Jerusalem from another, impeding freedom of movement–makes this already difficult task more difficult. Scores of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem lose their residency rights every year; 2008 marked an all-time high, with the Israeli government stripping over 4000 Palestinians of their status. Between 1967 and 2010, Israel revoked the residency of over 13,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites.
Jaber Mouheisen, head of the Shu’fat’s Popular Committee, called the checkpoint illegal. “We carry Israeli ID cards…This is our right to live here and move freely.”
He added that the occupation would fall “sooner or later.”
As the protest dispersed, small children threw stones towards the checkpoint. Israeli police fired rubber-coated bullets. After the kids continued, police entered the refugee camp with their weapons drawn. Israeli protesters appealed to them to leave, saying their presence and their weapons were a provocation. The police retreated to the roundabout near the checkpoint.
When asked via email about the purpose of the new checkpoint at Shu’fat refugee camp and whether it was intended to separate Jerusalem residents from other areas of the city, Israeli officials did not respond.
This post originally appeared on the Alternative Information Center website.
*Mya Guarnieri is a Jerusalem-based journalist and writer whose work has appeared in dozens of publications spanning the US to India, including Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Al Jazeera English, The National, Counter Punch, The Boston Review, and Caravan. She has been invited to serve as a commentator on Israel/Palestine on the BBC and Al Jazeera, among others. Mya holds undergraduate degrees in Psychology and English from the University of Florida and a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Florida State University. Her short stories have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Narrative, and elsewhere. She is currently working with an agent on a book about migrant workers in Israel.
Contact myaguarnieri@gmail.com
Tel Aviv University accused of spying on student activists
22 December 2011, The Israeli Communist Party המפלגה הקומוניסטית הישראלית (Israel)
Tel Aviv University has called on lecturers to turn in students who carried out protest activities on campus last week. Students and lecturers accused the University of resorting to "secret police" methods and oppressing legal social protest on campus.
According to "Haaretz", in a letter sent to lecturers in the history, philosophy and literature departments, the university's security department attached a YouTube clip showing students urging their friends on campus to join the social protest they were planning at the university
Student's demonstration at Tel-Aviv University (Photo: N.B.)
"I will be grateful for your handing over the students' details as soon as possible, including full name, ID number and telephone number," the TAU security head wrote to the lecturers.
"It will be helpful if beyond identifying the students, you would attach to each [one's name] the identification marks from the clip so that we can identify them in action ... since this group has already carried out and is planning illegal protest activity on campus," he wrote.
The group calls itself "The Sourasky Operation - a campus action group," after the Sourasky Library near which it had gathered. Last week, when the university's management heard the group was planning social activity in the building, it evacuated the library ahead of closing time, locked it and posted security guards at the entrance.
The several dozen students moved their social activity to the Recanati Building, where they discussed renewing the social protest with an emphasis on students' issues such as housing, tuition, cost of living and workers' rights. Prof. Eli Friedlander, head of the philosophy department, responded to the university's letter, saying: "I strongly protest the security department head's disgraceful demand in the email. There is no place for a secret police on campus." The YouTube clip sent to the lecturers shows students facing the camera and calling their friends to act for social justice.
"We are students who want to make ends meet, who want to study in dignity, to have a place to live. We want to submit papers, not only serve coffee," they said, among other things.
"In the current sociopolitical environment, it is not surprising that the university is acting like a secret police. It's a natural reflection of what is happening 'outside' and our initiative is a bid to fight these social and political injustices," says Nimrod Flashenberg, a third-year history and philosophy student who appears on the clip. "The university is oppressing sociopolitical activity on campus," he says.
The university also sent several student activists letters scolding them for their activity last week. "If any public activity takes place in the future without proper authorization, harsh disciplinary steps will be taken against the organizers and participants," the security department head wrote.
"A student found organizing or participating in illegal public activity will have difficulty receiving a permit to hold public activity on campus in the future," he added. One student said the security department told her it was following the group's activity on its closed Facebook page. This was corroborated by two of the group members who did not attend the meetings, but received warning letters all the same.
The You Tube clip (2.01 minutes, Hebrew):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vPJ81zt9THc
Tel Aviv University has called on lecturers to turn in students who carried out protest activities on campus last week. Students and lecturers accused the University of resorting to "secret police" methods and oppressing legal social protest on campus.
According to "Haaretz", in a letter sent to lecturers in the history, philosophy and literature departments, the university's security department attached a YouTube clip showing students urging their friends on campus to join the social protest they were planning at the university
"I will be grateful for your handing over the students' details as soon as possible, including full name, ID number and telephone number," the TAU security head wrote to the lecturers.
"It will be helpful if beyond identifying the students, you would attach to each [one's name] the identification marks from the clip so that we can identify them in action ... since this group has already carried out and is planning illegal protest activity on campus," he wrote.
The group calls itself "The Sourasky Operation - a campus action group," after the Sourasky Library near which it had gathered. Last week, when the university's management heard the group was planning social activity in the building, it evacuated the library ahead of closing time, locked it and posted security guards at the entrance.
The several dozen students moved their social activity to the Recanati Building, where they discussed renewing the social protest with an emphasis on students' issues such as housing, tuition, cost of living and workers' rights. Prof. Eli Friedlander, head of the philosophy department, responded to the university's letter, saying: "I strongly protest the security department head's disgraceful demand in the email. There is no place for a secret police on campus." The YouTube clip sent to the lecturers shows students facing the camera and calling their friends to act for social justice.
"We are students who want to make ends meet, who want to study in dignity, to have a place to live. We want to submit papers, not only serve coffee," they said, among other things.
"In the current sociopolitical environment, it is not surprising that the university is acting like a secret police. It's a natural reflection of what is happening 'outside' and our initiative is a bid to fight these social and political injustices," says Nimrod Flashenberg, a third-year history and philosophy student who appears on the clip. "The university is oppressing sociopolitical activity on campus," he says.
The university also sent several student activists letters scolding them for their activity last week. "If any public activity takes place in the future without proper authorization, harsh disciplinary steps will be taken against the organizers and participants," the security department head wrote.
"A student found organizing or participating in illegal public activity will have difficulty receiving a permit to hold public activity on campus in the future," he added. One student said the security department told her it was following the group's activity on its closed Facebook page. This was corroborated by two of the group members who did not attend the meetings, but received warning letters all the same.
The You Tube clip (2.01 minutes, Hebrew):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vPJ81zt9THc
MERCOSUR AND PALESTINE
Palestine Chronicle http://palestinechronicle.com (US, UK)
Post Date: 17:38 12/21/2011
The Mercosur, a leading trading bloc of four South American nations, has signed a landmark free trade agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA). On Tuesday, PA Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki and the foreign ministers of the member states of the trade group, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, signed the deal during the organization's presidential summit in Montevideo, Uruguay. The Mercosur countries along with Venezuela, which is currently in the process of joining the economic bloc, have all recognized the Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority has free trade agreements with the European Union, Turkey, and Arab League countries. The bloc's combined market encompasses more than 250 million people and accounts for more than three-quarters of the economic activity on the continent. Before this historic agreement, only one member of Mercosur, Argentina, had trade agreements with the Palestinians. (Reference for text and photo: Via Press TV)
LETTER FROM A “JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE” SUPPORTER
Jewish Voice for Peace http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org (USA)
info@jewishvoiceforpeace.org
My name is Tom Pessah. I'm an Israeli sociology student. I study in the U.S., but right now I’m back home in Israel for my research.
I’m also an activist, which is how I came to know and love Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
Here’s the truth. It’s hard for me, and for so many of my Israeli and Palestinian friends and allies, to stay hopeful. The obstacles to peace in our homeland seem huge. But I’ll tell you where we get our inspiration when we really need it: Jewish Voice for Peace.
You see, like many, I’ve come to believe the only way we can ever end all of this suffering is through a massive, united, Arab-Jewish movement for a just peace. The alternative is to let the pro-occupation, pro-war forces divide us.
From where I sit, Jewish Voice for Peace is simply crucial for this movement towards lasting peace. And their work is just amazing. That’s why I support them, and why I hope you will too by making a tax-deductible year-end donation to JVP today.
Some of the reasons that I support JVP:
• They powerfully stood (and continue to stand) against the persecution of Muslim UC Irvine students who protested against the Israeli ambassador for being complicit in the attack on Gaza.
• They were able to provide massive support for the Palestinian-led effort to desegregate buses in the West Bank. I know how important this campaign has been to my Palestinian friends.
• And they gave immense backing to the beautiful multi-ethnic coalition that formed in my school, UC Berkeley, to demand divestment from American arms manufacturers accused of war crimes in Palestine.
This is exactly the kind of work that gives me hope, and I’m certain that we are going to win. But I’m impatient: I want it to happen faster! This is where you come in. When people like you and me contribute to Jewish Voice for Peace, they actually can move faster and do more. That matters.
And if what I’ve said so far hasn’t moved you to give, I hope the excerpt below will. It’s from a letter I just sent to a Jewish-American academic, about an aspect of life in Israel not even many Israeli Jews know about. And it illustrates exactly why the JVP way of joining together with Palestinian and Arab allies is the only way.
Dear Professor,
I'm Jewish and I didn't grow up with Palestinian Arabs, even though they are 20% of the population here, because the country is so highly segregated. In Tel Aviv, I lived for twenty years without even knowing one person who had Arab friends—not schoolmates, not romantic partners, not comrades in youth movements.
Apart from the servers in cheap cafes, or strangers in Jaffa, most of the Arabs I saw were on TV. I only made some good Arab friends when I was in university, when we are finally 'allowed' to mix. I want to share what they told me about what the Jewish state is like for them. The names are fictitious, but the people are real.
I went to visit my friend Maha in Haifa a few weeks ago. We were driving and she opened the window to ask another driver some directions, in Arabic. I asked how she knew he was a Palestinian citizen of Israel, because despite growing up in Israel I can't physically distinguish most Arabs from Mizrachim (Jews of Middle Eastern descent), unless they are wearing some distinctive clothing.
She said it isn't in the physical features but in the body language: Palestinian citizens of Israel can often recognize each other through their behavior, which essentially boils down to fearfulness and discomfort.
She can see it in the face of a driver in a car on the other side of the road. Fear of politicians that constantly threaten to transfer them out of their homes, just like the government is currently displacing thousands of Bedouins in the Negev.
Or fear of protesting, or saying too much on the phone and being invited to a "friendly conversation", because the Shabak (security service) may be listening.
Maha tried to find an apartment in Tel Aviv for several months, sleeping on friends' couches. It took many weeks until they found a landlord willing to rent to an Arab—then she was fired from her job as a waitress because she talked in Arabic to the cook in the kitchen.
A couple of weeks later I visited another friend, Amal, who lives in Nazareth. She took me past the local courthouse, which for her is the place from which sharpshooters aimed at unarmed Arab protesters in 2000, when the state killed 13 of its own citizens.
She refers to Nazareth as "the ghetto", where Arabs are forced to buy flats at prohibitive prices because so much of the land around the city has been expropriated to create neighborhoods primarily meant for Jews.
Though there are open letters circulating against renting apartments to Arabs, she managed to find a house in one of those neighborhoods, with only one other Arab family in the area. Her husband is worried that they won't be able to pay the mortgage if someone burns down their house.
Professor, I'm Jewish, and I don't want to live in a state where so many people are fearful and discriminated against. I don’t want to live in a state that oppresses its Palestinian citizens in exactly the ways we were oppressed in other countries.
I don't want them to feel out of place in their own country. We Jews have legitimate concerns, Israel should stay as a haven for Jews who are persecuted, but keeping it as a Jewish state in the form it is now is just incredibly cruel.
If you don't speak up loudly and clearly and consistently about this oppression, and if you don't say a word about the refugees, who are the relatives of Maha, and Amal and would like to be able to live close to them—just as my British relatives could come to Tel Aviv and live with me—you don't enable a joint Jewish-Arab movement to develop. You don’t ally yourself with kind, generous and conscientious people like them, the best friends and fellow citizens anyone could wish for.
If you’ve read this long message, thank you. I couldn’t think of a better way to tell the story of life here and of just why Jewish Voice for Peace matters. I hope you’ll give to them. I understand that right now is the time to give—a group of donors will match every contribution dollar for dollar until December 31. They need it. We need it.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for giving.
In peace,
Tom Pessah, Jewish Voice for Peace supporter
info@jewishvoiceforpeace.org
My name is Tom Pessah. I'm an Israeli sociology student. I study in the U.S., but right now I’m back home in Israel for my research.
I’m also an activist, which is how I came to know and love Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
Here’s the truth. It’s hard for me, and for so many of my Israeli and Palestinian friends and allies, to stay hopeful. The obstacles to peace in our homeland seem huge. But I’ll tell you where we get our inspiration when we really need it: Jewish Voice for Peace.
You see, like many, I’ve come to believe the only way we can ever end all of this suffering is through a massive, united, Arab-Jewish movement for a just peace. The alternative is to let the pro-occupation, pro-war forces divide us.
From where I sit, Jewish Voice for Peace is simply crucial for this movement towards lasting peace. And their work is just amazing. That’s why I support them, and why I hope you will too by making a tax-deductible year-end donation to JVP today.
Some of the reasons that I support JVP:
• They powerfully stood (and continue to stand) against the persecution of Muslim UC Irvine students who protested against the Israeli ambassador for being complicit in the attack on Gaza.
• They were able to provide massive support for the Palestinian-led effort to desegregate buses in the West Bank. I know how important this campaign has been to my Palestinian friends.
• And they gave immense backing to the beautiful multi-ethnic coalition that formed in my school, UC Berkeley, to demand divestment from American arms manufacturers accused of war crimes in Palestine.
This is exactly the kind of work that gives me hope, and I’m certain that we are going to win. But I’m impatient: I want it to happen faster! This is where you come in. When people like you and me contribute to Jewish Voice for Peace, they actually can move faster and do more. That matters.
And if what I’ve said so far hasn’t moved you to give, I hope the excerpt below will. It’s from a letter I just sent to a Jewish-American academic, about an aspect of life in Israel not even many Israeli Jews know about. And it illustrates exactly why the JVP way of joining together with Palestinian and Arab allies is the only way.
Dear Professor,
I'm Jewish and I didn't grow up with Palestinian Arabs, even though they are 20% of the population here, because the country is so highly segregated. In Tel Aviv, I lived for twenty years without even knowing one person who had Arab friends—not schoolmates, not romantic partners, not comrades in youth movements.
Apart from the servers in cheap cafes, or strangers in Jaffa, most of the Arabs I saw were on TV. I only made some good Arab friends when I was in university, when we are finally 'allowed' to mix. I want to share what they told me about what the Jewish state is like for them. The names are fictitious, but the people are real.
I went to visit my friend Maha in Haifa a few weeks ago. We were driving and she opened the window to ask another driver some directions, in Arabic. I asked how she knew he was a Palestinian citizen of Israel, because despite growing up in Israel I can't physically distinguish most Arabs from Mizrachim (Jews of Middle Eastern descent), unless they are wearing some distinctive clothing.
She said it isn't in the physical features but in the body language: Palestinian citizens of Israel can often recognize each other through their behavior, which essentially boils down to fearfulness and discomfort.
She can see it in the face of a driver in a car on the other side of the road. Fear of politicians that constantly threaten to transfer them out of their homes, just like the government is currently displacing thousands of Bedouins in the Negev.
Or fear of protesting, or saying too much on the phone and being invited to a "friendly conversation", because the Shabak (security service) may be listening.
Maha tried to find an apartment in Tel Aviv for several months, sleeping on friends' couches. It took many weeks until they found a landlord willing to rent to an Arab—then she was fired from her job as a waitress because she talked in Arabic to the cook in the kitchen.
A couple of weeks later I visited another friend, Amal, who lives in Nazareth. She took me past the local courthouse, which for her is the place from which sharpshooters aimed at unarmed Arab protesters in 2000, when the state killed 13 of its own citizens.
She refers to Nazareth as "the ghetto", where Arabs are forced to buy flats at prohibitive prices because so much of the land around the city has been expropriated to create neighborhoods primarily meant for Jews.
Though there are open letters circulating against renting apartments to Arabs, she managed to find a house in one of those neighborhoods, with only one other Arab family in the area. Her husband is worried that they won't be able to pay the mortgage if someone burns down their house.
Professor, I'm Jewish, and I don't want to live in a state where so many people are fearful and discriminated against. I don’t want to live in a state that oppresses its Palestinian citizens in exactly the ways we were oppressed in other countries.
I don't want them to feel out of place in their own country. We Jews have legitimate concerns, Israel should stay as a haven for Jews who are persecuted, but keeping it as a Jewish state in the form it is now is just incredibly cruel.
If you don't speak up loudly and clearly and consistently about this oppression, and if you don't say a word about the refugees, who are the relatives of Maha, and Amal and would like to be able to live close to them—just as my British relatives could come to Tel Aviv and live with me—you don't enable a joint Jewish-Arab movement to develop. You don’t ally yourself with kind, generous and conscientious people like them, the best friends and fellow citizens anyone could wish for.
If you’ve read this long message, thank you. I couldn’t think of a better way to tell the story of life here and of just why Jewish Voice for Peace matters. I hope you’ll give to them. I understand that right now is the time to give—a group of donors will match every contribution dollar for dollar until December 31. They need it. We need it.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for giving.
In peace,
Tom Pessah, Jewish Voice for Peace supporter
STÉPHANE HESSEL: 'OS BANCOS ESTÃO CONTRA A DEMOCRACIA'
21 Dezembro 2011, Carta Maior http://www.cartamaior.com.br (Brasil)
Aos 94 anos, depois de lutar na Resistência, sobreviver aos campos nazistas e escrever a Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos, Stéphane Hessel publicou um livrinho de 32 páginas, "Indignem-se", que teve eco global. Em entrevista ao Página/12 ele fala sobre sua obra e critica o ultra liberalismo predador, a servidão da classe política ao sistema financeiro, a anexação da política pela tecnocracia financeira, as indústrias que destroem o planeta e a ocupação israelense da Palestina.
Eduardo Febbro, Página/12 http://www.pagina12.com.ar (Argentina)
Data: 19/12/2011
A revolta não tem idade nem condição. Nos seus afáveis, lúcidos e combativos 94 anos, Stéphane Hessel encarna um momento único na história política humana: ter conseguido desencadear um movimento mundial de contestação democrática e cidadã com um livro de escassas 32 páginas: "Indignem-se". O livro foi lançado na França em outubro de 2010 e em março de 2011 se converteu no alicerce do movimento espanhol dos indignados.
O quase um século de vida de Stéphane Hessel se conectou primeiro com a juventude espanhola que ocupou a Puerta del Sol e depois com os demais protagonistas da indignação que se tornou planetária: Paris, Londres, Roma, México, Bruxelas, Nova York, Washington, Tel-Aviv, Nova Déli, São Paulo. Em cada canto do mundo e sob diferentes denominações, a mensagem de Hessel encontrou um eco inimaginável.
Seu livro, entretanto, não contém nenhum discurso ideológico, menos ainda algum chamado à excitação revolucionária. Indignem-se é, ao mesmo tempo, um convite a tomar consciência sobre a forma calamitosa em que estamos sendo governados, uma restauração nobre e humanista dos valores fundamentais da democracia, um balde de água fria sobre a adormecida consciência dos europeus convertidos em consumidores obedientes e uma dura defesa do papel do Estado como regulador. Não deve existir na história editorial um livro tão curto com um alcance tão extenso.
Quem olhe a mobilização mundial dos indignados pode pensar que Hessel escreveu uma espécie de panfleto revolucionário, mas nada é mais estranho a essa idéia. "Indignem-se" e os indignados se inscrevem em uma corrente totalmente contrária a que se desatou nas revoltas de Maio de 68. Aquela geração estava contra o Estado. Ao contrário, o livro de Hessel e seus adeptos reivindicam o retorno do Estado, de sua capacidade de regular. Nada reflete melhor esse objetivo que um dos slogans mais famosos que surgiram na Puerta del Sol: “Nós não somos anti-sistema, o sistema é anti-nós”.
Em sua casa de Paris, Hessel fala com uma convicção na qual a juventude e a energia explodem em cada frase. Hessel tem uma história pessoal digna de uma novela e é um homem de dois séculos. Diplomata humanista, membro da Resistência contra a ocupação nazista durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, sobrevivente de vários campos de concentração, ativo protagonista da redação da Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos, descendente da luta contra essas duas grandes calamidades do século XX que foram o fascismo e o comunismo soviético. O nascente século XXI fez dele um influente ensaísta.
Quando seu livro saiu na França, as línguas afiadas do sistema liberal desceram sobre ele um aluvião de burlas: “o vovozinho Hessel”, o “Papai Noel das boas consciências”, diziam no rádio e na televisão os marionetes para desqualificá-lo. Muitos intelectuais franceses disseram que essa obra era um catálogo de banalidades, criticaram seu aparente simplismo, sua superficialidade filosófica, o acusaram de idiota e de anti-semita. Até o primeiro-ministro francês, François Fillon, desqualificou a obra dizendo que “a indignação em si não é um modo de pensamento”. Mas o livro seguiu outro caminho. Mais de dois milhões de exemplares vendidos na França, meio milhão na Espanha, traduções em dezenas de países e difusão massiva na Internet.
O ultra liberalismo predador, a corrupção, a impunidade, a servidão da classe política ao sistema financeiro, a anexação da política pela tecnocracia financeira, as indústrias que destroem o planeta, a ocupação israelense da Palestina, em suma, os grandes devastadores do planeta e das sociedades humanas encontraram nas palavras de Hessel um inimigo inesperado, um “argumentário” de enunciados básicos, profundamente humanista e de uma eficácia imediata. Sem outra armadura além de um passado político de social-democrata reformista e um livro de 32 páginas, Hessel opôs ao pensamento liberal consumista e ao consenso um dos antídotos que eles mais temem, ou seja, a ação.
Não se trata de uma obra de reflexão política ou filosófica, mas de uma radiografia da desarticulação dos Estados, de um chamado à ação para que o Estado e a democracia voltem a ser o que foram. O livro de Hessel se articula em torno da ação, que é precisamente ao que conduz à indignação: resposta e ação contra uma situação, contra o outro. O que Hessel qualifica como mon petit livre é uma obra curiosa: não há nenhuma novidade nela, mas tudo o que diz é uma espécie de síntese do que a maior parte do planeta pensa e sente cada manhã quando se levanta: exasperação e indignação.
– Você foi, de alguma maneira, o homem do ano. Seu livro foi sucesso mundial e acabou se convertendo no foco do movimento planetário dos indignados. Houve, de fato, duas revoluções quase simultâneas no mundo, uma nos países árabes e a que você desencadeou em escala planetária.
– Nunca previ que o livro tivesse um êxito semelhante. Ao escrevê-lo, havia pensado em meus compatriotas para dizer a eles que o modo no qual estão sendo governados propõe interrogações e que era preciso indignar-se diante dos problemas mal solucionados. Mas não esperava que o livro fosse lançado em mais de quarenta países nos quatro pontos cardeais. Mas eu não me atribuo nenhuma responsabilidade no movimento mundial dos indignados. Foi uma coincidência que o meu livro tenha aparecido no mesmo momento em que a indignação se expandia pelo mundo. Eu só convidei as pessoas a refletirem sobre o que elas acham inaceitável. Acho que a circulação tão ampla do livro se deve ao fato de que vivemos um momento muito particular da história de nossas sociedades e, em particular, desta sociedade global na qual estamos imersos há dez anos. Hoje vivemos em sociedades interdependentes, interconectadas. Isto muda a perspectiva. Os problemas aos que estamos confrontados são mundiais.
–As reações que seu livro desencadeou provam que existe sempre uma pureza moral intacta na humanidade?
O que permanece intacto são os valores da democracia. Depois da Segunda Guerra Mundial resolvemos problemas fundamentais dos valores humanos. Já sabemos quais são esses valores fundamentais que devemos tratar de preservar. Mas quando isto deixa de ter vigência, quando há rupturas na forma de resolver os problemas, como ocorreu após os atentados de 11 de setembro, da guerra no Afeganistão e no Iraque e a crise econômica e financeira dos últimos quatro anos, tomamos consciência de que as coisas não podem continuar assim. Devemos nos indignar e nos comprometer para que a sociedade mundial adote um novo curso.
– Quem é responsável de todo este desastre? O liberalismo ultrajante, a tecnocracia, a cegueira das elites?
– Os governos, em particular os governos democráticos, sofreram uma pressão por parte das forças do mercado à qual não souberam resistir. Essas forças econômicas e financeiras são muito egoístas, só buscam o beneficio em todas as formas possíveis sem levar em conta o impacto que essa busca desenfreada do lucro tem nas sociedades. Não lhes importa nem a dívida dos governos, nem os ganhos medíocres das pessoas. Eu atribuo a responsabilidade de tudo isto às forças financeiras. Seu egoísmo e sua especulação exacerbada são também responsáveis pela deterioração do nosso planeta. As forças que estão por trás do petróleo, da energia não-renovável nos conduzem a uma direção muito perigosa.
O socialismo democrático teve seu momento de glória depois da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Durante muitos anos tivemos o que se chama Estados de providência. Isto derivou em uma boa fórmula para regular as relações entre os cidadãos e o Estado. Mas depois nos distanciamos desse caminho sob a influência da ideologia neoliberal. Milton Friedman e a Escola de Chicago disseram: “deixem a economia com as mãos livres, não deixem que o Estado intervenha”. Foi um caminho equivocado e hoje nos damos conta de que nos encerramos em um caminho sem saída. O que aconteceu na Grécia, Itália, Portugal e Espanha nos prova que não é dando cada vez mais força ao mercado que se chega a uma solução. Não. Essa tarefa compete aos governos, são eles que devem impor regras aos bancos e às forças financeiras para limitar a sobre exploração das riquezas que eles detêm e a acumulação de benefícios imensos enquanto os Estados se endividam. Devemos reconhecer que os bancos estão contra a democracia. Isso não é aceitável.
– É chocante comprovar a indiferença da classe política ante a revolta dos indignados. Os dirigentes de Paris, Londres, Estados Unidos, em suma, ali onde estourou este movimento, se omitiram diante das reivindicações dos indignados.
– Sim, é verdade. Por enquanto se subestimou a força desta revolta e desta indignação. Os dirigentes disseram uns aos outros: isto nós já vimos antes, em Maio de 68, etc., etc. Acho que os governos se equivocaram. Mas o fato de que os cidadãos protestem pela forma em que estão sendo governados é algo muito novo e essa novidade não se deterá. Predigo que os governos se verão cada vez mais pressionados pelos protestos contra a maneira em que os Estados são governados. Os governos se empenham em manter o sistema intacto. Entretanto, o questionamento coletivo do funcionamento do sistema nunca foi tão forte como agora. Na Europa atravessamos um momento muito denso de questionamento, tal como aconteceu antes na América Latina. Eu estou muito orgulhoso pela forma como a Argentina soube superar a gravidade da crise. Isto prova que é possível atuar e que os cidadãos são capazes de mudar o curso das coisas.
–De alguma maneira, você acendeu a chama de uma espécie de revolução democrática. Entretanto, não convocou uma revolução. Qual é então o caminho para romper o cerco no qual vivemos? Qual é a base do renascimento de um mundo mais justo?
– Devemos transmitir duas coisas às novas gerações: a confiança na possibilidade de melhorar as coisas. As novas gerações não devem perder a esperança. Em segundo lugar, devemos fazê-los tomar consciência de tudo o que está se fazendo atualmente e que está no sentido correto. Penso no Brasil, por exemplo, onde houve muitos progressos, penso na presidenta Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, que também fez as coisas progredirem muito, penso também em tudo o que se realiza no campo da economia social e solidária em tantos e tantos países. Em tudo isto há novas perspectivas para encarar a educação, os problemas da desigualdade, os problemas ligados à água. Tem gente que trabalha muito e não devemos subestimar seus esforços, inclusive se o que se consegue é pouco por causa da pressão do mundo financeiro. São etapas necessárias.
Acho que, cada vez mais, os cidadãos e as cidadãs do mundo estão entendendo que o seu papel pode ser mais decisivo na hora de fazer entender aos governos, que são responsáveis pela vigência dos grandes valores, que esses mesmos governos estão deixando de lado. Há um risco implícito: que os governos autoritários acabem empregando a violência para calar as revoltas. Mas acho que isso já não é mais possível. A forma pela qual os tunisianos e os egípcios se livraram de seus governos autoritários mostra duas coisas: uma, que é possível; dois, que com esses governos não se progride. O progresso só é possível se for aprofundada a democracia. Nos últimos 20 anos a América Latina progrediu muitíssimo graças ao aprofundamento da democracia.
Em escala mundial, mesmo com as coisas que se conseguiram, mesmo com os avanços que se obtiveram com a economia social e solidária, tudo isto é extremamente lento. A indignação se justifica nisso: os esforços realizados são insuficientes, os governos foram débeis e até os partidos políticos da esquerda sucumbiram ante a ideologia neoliberal. Por isso devemos nos indignar. Se os meios de comunicação, se os cidadãos e as organizações de defesa dos direitos humanos forem suficientemente potentes para exercer uma pressão sobre os governos as coisas podem começar a mudar amanhã.
– Pode-se mudar o mundo sem revoluções violentas?
Se olharmos para o passado, veremos que os caminhos não-violentos foram mais eficazes que os violentos. O espírito revolucionário que empolgou o começo do século XX, a revolução soviética, por exemplo, conduziram ao fracasso. Homens como o checo Vaclav Havel, Nelson Mandela ou Mijail Gorbachov demonstraram que, sem violência, podem-se obter modificações profundas. A revolução cidadã que assistimos hoje pode servir a essa causa. Reconheço que o poder mata, mas esse mesmo poder se vai quando a força não-violenta ganha. As revoluções árabes nos demonstraram a validade disto: não foi a violência quem fez cair os regimes de Túnis e do Egito. Não, nada disso. Foi a determinação não violenta das pessoas.
– Em que momento você acha que o mundo se desviou de sua rota e perdeu sua base democrática?
– O momento mais grave se situa nos atentados de 11 de setembro de 2001. A queda das torres de Manhattan desencadeou uma reação do presidente estadunidense George W. Bush extremamente prejudicial: a guerra no Afeganistão, por exemplo, foi um episodio no qual se cometeu horrores espantosos. As conseqüências para a economia mundial foram igualmente muito duras. Foram gastas somas consideráveis em armas e na guerra em vez de colocá-las à disposição do progresso econômico e social.
– Você marca com muita profundidade um dos problemas que permanecem abertos como uma ferida na consciência do mundo: o conflito israelense-palestino.
– Este conflito dura há 60 anos e ainda não se encontrou a maneira de reconciliar estes dois povos. Quando se vai à Palestina voltamos traumatizados pela forma como os israelenses maltratam seus vizinhos. A Palestina tem direito a um Estado. Mas também tem que reconhecer que, ano após ano, presenciamos como aumenta o grupo de países que estão contra o governo israelense, por sua incapacidade de encontrar uma solução. Pudemos constatar isso com a quantidade de países que apoiaram o presidente palestino Mahmud Abbas, quando pediu, diante das Nações Unidas, que a Palestina seja reconhecida como um Estado de pleno direito no seio da ONU.
– Seu livro, suas entrevistas e mesmo este diálogo demonstram que, apesar do desastre, você não perdeu a esperança na aventura humana.
Não, pelo contrário. Acho que diante das gravíssimas crises que atravessamos, de repente o ser humano acorda. Isso aconteceu muitas vezes ao longo dos séculos e desejo que volte a ocorrer agora.
– “Indignação” é hoje uma palavra-chave. Quando você escreveu o livro, foi essa palavra a que o guiou?
A palavra indignação surgiu como uma definição do que se pode esperar das pessoas quando abrem os olhos e vêem o inaceitável. Pode-se adormecer um ser humano, mas não matá-lo. Em nós há uma capacidade de generosidade, de ação positiva e construtiva que pode despertar quando assistimos a violação dos valores. A palavra “dignidade” figura dentro da palavra “indignidade”. A dignidade humana desperta quando é encurralada. O liberalismo bem que tentou anestesiar essas duas capacidades humanas - a dignidade e a indignação-, mas não conseguiu.
Tradução: Libório Júnior
Aos 94 anos, depois de lutar na Resistência, sobreviver aos campos nazistas e escrever a Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos, Stéphane Hessel publicou um livrinho de 32 páginas, "Indignem-se", que teve eco global. Em entrevista ao Página/12 ele fala sobre sua obra e critica o ultra liberalismo predador, a servidão da classe política ao sistema financeiro, a anexação da política pela tecnocracia financeira, as indústrias que destroem o planeta e a ocupação israelense da Palestina.
Eduardo Febbro, Página/12 http://www.pagina12.com.ar (Argentina)
Data: 19/12/2011
A revolta não tem idade nem condição. Nos seus afáveis, lúcidos e combativos 94 anos, Stéphane Hessel encarna um momento único na história política humana: ter conseguido desencadear um movimento mundial de contestação democrática e cidadã com um livro de escassas 32 páginas: "Indignem-se". O livro foi lançado na França em outubro de 2010 e em março de 2011 se converteu no alicerce do movimento espanhol dos indignados.
O quase um século de vida de Stéphane Hessel se conectou primeiro com a juventude espanhola que ocupou a Puerta del Sol e depois com os demais protagonistas da indignação que se tornou planetária: Paris, Londres, Roma, México, Bruxelas, Nova York, Washington, Tel-Aviv, Nova Déli, São Paulo. Em cada canto do mundo e sob diferentes denominações, a mensagem de Hessel encontrou um eco inimaginável.
Seu livro, entretanto, não contém nenhum discurso ideológico, menos ainda algum chamado à excitação revolucionária. Indignem-se é, ao mesmo tempo, um convite a tomar consciência sobre a forma calamitosa em que estamos sendo governados, uma restauração nobre e humanista dos valores fundamentais da democracia, um balde de água fria sobre a adormecida consciência dos europeus convertidos em consumidores obedientes e uma dura defesa do papel do Estado como regulador. Não deve existir na história editorial um livro tão curto com um alcance tão extenso.
Quem olhe a mobilização mundial dos indignados pode pensar que Hessel escreveu uma espécie de panfleto revolucionário, mas nada é mais estranho a essa idéia. "Indignem-se" e os indignados se inscrevem em uma corrente totalmente contrária a que se desatou nas revoltas de Maio de 68. Aquela geração estava contra o Estado. Ao contrário, o livro de Hessel e seus adeptos reivindicam o retorno do Estado, de sua capacidade de regular. Nada reflete melhor esse objetivo que um dos slogans mais famosos que surgiram na Puerta del Sol: “Nós não somos anti-sistema, o sistema é anti-nós”.
Em sua casa de Paris, Hessel fala com uma convicção na qual a juventude e a energia explodem em cada frase. Hessel tem uma história pessoal digna de uma novela e é um homem de dois séculos. Diplomata humanista, membro da Resistência contra a ocupação nazista durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, sobrevivente de vários campos de concentração, ativo protagonista da redação da Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos, descendente da luta contra essas duas grandes calamidades do século XX que foram o fascismo e o comunismo soviético. O nascente século XXI fez dele um influente ensaísta.
Quando seu livro saiu na França, as línguas afiadas do sistema liberal desceram sobre ele um aluvião de burlas: “o vovozinho Hessel”, o “Papai Noel das boas consciências”, diziam no rádio e na televisão os marionetes para desqualificá-lo. Muitos intelectuais franceses disseram que essa obra era um catálogo de banalidades, criticaram seu aparente simplismo, sua superficialidade filosófica, o acusaram de idiota e de anti-semita. Até o primeiro-ministro francês, François Fillon, desqualificou a obra dizendo que “a indignação em si não é um modo de pensamento”. Mas o livro seguiu outro caminho. Mais de dois milhões de exemplares vendidos na França, meio milhão na Espanha, traduções em dezenas de países e difusão massiva na Internet.
O ultra liberalismo predador, a corrupção, a impunidade, a servidão da classe política ao sistema financeiro, a anexação da política pela tecnocracia financeira, as indústrias que destroem o planeta, a ocupação israelense da Palestina, em suma, os grandes devastadores do planeta e das sociedades humanas encontraram nas palavras de Hessel um inimigo inesperado, um “argumentário” de enunciados básicos, profundamente humanista e de uma eficácia imediata. Sem outra armadura além de um passado político de social-democrata reformista e um livro de 32 páginas, Hessel opôs ao pensamento liberal consumista e ao consenso um dos antídotos que eles mais temem, ou seja, a ação.
Não se trata de uma obra de reflexão política ou filosófica, mas de uma radiografia da desarticulação dos Estados, de um chamado à ação para que o Estado e a democracia voltem a ser o que foram. O livro de Hessel se articula em torno da ação, que é precisamente ao que conduz à indignação: resposta e ação contra uma situação, contra o outro. O que Hessel qualifica como mon petit livre é uma obra curiosa: não há nenhuma novidade nela, mas tudo o que diz é uma espécie de síntese do que a maior parte do planeta pensa e sente cada manhã quando se levanta: exasperação e indignação.
– Você foi, de alguma maneira, o homem do ano. Seu livro foi sucesso mundial e acabou se convertendo no foco do movimento planetário dos indignados. Houve, de fato, duas revoluções quase simultâneas no mundo, uma nos países árabes e a que você desencadeou em escala planetária.
– Nunca previ que o livro tivesse um êxito semelhante. Ao escrevê-lo, havia pensado em meus compatriotas para dizer a eles que o modo no qual estão sendo governados propõe interrogações e que era preciso indignar-se diante dos problemas mal solucionados. Mas não esperava que o livro fosse lançado em mais de quarenta países nos quatro pontos cardeais. Mas eu não me atribuo nenhuma responsabilidade no movimento mundial dos indignados. Foi uma coincidência que o meu livro tenha aparecido no mesmo momento em que a indignação se expandia pelo mundo. Eu só convidei as pessoas a refletirem sobre o que elas acham inaceitável. Acho que a circulação tão ampla do livro se deve ao fato de que vivemos um momento muito particular da história de nossas sociedades e, em particular, desta sociedade global na qual estamos imersos há dez anos. Hoje vivemos em sociedades interdependentes, interconectadas. Isto muda a perspectiva. Os problemas aos que estamos confrontados são mundiais.
–As reações que seu livro desencadeou provam que existe sempre uma pureza moral intacta na humanidade?
O que permanece intacto são os valores da democracia. Depois da Segunda Guerra Mundial resolvemos problemas fundamentais dos valores humanos. Já sabemos quais são esses valores fundamentais que devemos tratar de preservar. Mas quando isto deixa de ter vigência, quando há rupturas na forma de resolver os problemas, como ocorreu após os atentados de 11 de setembro, da guerra no Afeganistão e no Iraque e a crise econômica e financeira dos últimos quatro anos, tomamos consciência de que as coisas não podem continuar assim. Devemos nos indignar e nos comprometer para que a sociedade mundial adote um novo curso.
– Quem é responsável de todo este desastre? O liberalismo ultrajante, a tecnocracia, a cegueira das elites?
– Os governos, em particular os governos democráticos, sofreram uma pressão por parte das forças do mercado à qual não souberam resistir. Essas forças econômicas e financeiras são muito egoístas, só buscam o beneficio em todas as formas possíveis sem levar em conta o impacto que essa busca desenfreada do lucro tem nas sociedades. Não lhes importa nem a dívida dos governos, nem os ganhos medíocres das pessoas. Eu atribuo a responsabilidade de tudo isto às forças financeiras. Seu egoísmo e sua especulação exacerbada são também responsáveis pela deterioração do nosso planeta. As forças que estão por trás do petróleo, da energia não-renovável nos conduzem a uma direção muito perigosa.
O socialismo democrático teve seu momento de glória depois da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Durante muitos anos tivemos o que se chama Estados de providência. Isto derivou em uma boa fórmula para regular as relações entre os cidadãos e o Estado. Mas depois nos distanciamos desse caminho sob a influência da ideologia neoliberal. Milton Friedman e a Escola de Chicago disseram: “deixem a economia com as mãos livres, não deixem que o Estado intervenha”. Foi um caminho equivocado e hoje nos damos conta de que nos encerramos em um caminho sem saída. O que aconteceu na Grécia, Itália, Portugal e Espanha nos prova que não é dando cada vez mais força ao mercado que se chega a uma solução. Não. Essa tarefa compete aos governos, são eles que devem impor regras aos bancos e às forças financeiras para limitar a sobre exploração das riquezas que eles detêm e a acumulação de benefícios imensos enquanto os Estados se endividam. Devemos reconhecer que os bancos estão contra a democracia. Isso não é aceitável.
– É chocante comprovar a indiferença da classe política ante a revolta dos indignados. Os dirigentes de Paris, Londres, Estados Unidos, em suma, ali onde estourou este movimento, se omitiram diante das reivindicações dos indignados.
– Sim, é verdade. Por enquanto se subestimou a força desta revolta e desta indignação. Os dirigentes disseram uns aos outros: isto nós já vimos antes, em Maio de 68, etc., etc. Acho que os governos se equivocaram. Mas o fato de que os cidadãos protestem pela forma em que estão sendo governados é algo muito novo e essa novidade não se deterá. Predigo que os governos se verão cada vez mais pressionados pelos protestos contra a maneira em que os Estados são governados. Os governos se empenham em manter o sistema intacto. Entretanto, o questionamento coletivo do funcionamento do sistema nunca foi tão forte como agora. Na Europa atravessamos um momento muito denso de questionamento, tal como aconteceu antes na América Latina. Eu estou muito orgulhoso pela forma como a Argentina soube superar a gravidade da crise. Isto prova que é possível atuar e que os cidadãos são capazes de mudar o curso das coisas.
–De alguma maneira, você acendeu a chama de uma espécie de revolução democrática. Entretanto, não convocou uma revolução. Qual é então o caminho para romper o cerco no qual vivemos? Qual é a base do renascimento de um mundo mais justo?
– Devemos transmitir duas coisas às novas gerações: a confiança na possibilidade de melhorar as coisas. As novas gerações não devem perder a esperança. Em segundo lugar, devemos fazê-los tomar consciência de tudo o que está se fazendo atualmente e que está no sentido correto. Penso no Brasil, por exemplo, onde houve muitos progressos, penso na presidenta Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, que também fez as coisas progredirem muito, penso também em tudo o que se realiza no campo da economia social e solidária em tantos e tantos países. Em tudo isto há novas perspectivas para encarar a educação, os problemas da desigualdade, os problemas ligados à água. Tem gente que trabalha muito e não devemos subestimar seus esforços, inclusive se o que se consegue é pouco por causa da pressão do mundo financeiro. São etapas necessárias.
Acho que, cada vez mais, os cidadãos e as cidadãs do mundo estão entendendo que o seu papel pode ser mais decisivo na hora de fazer entender aos governos, que são responsáveis pela vigência dos grandes valores, que esses mesmos governos estão deixando de lado. Há um risco implícito: que os governos autoritários acabem empregando a violência para calar as revoltas. Mas acho que isso já não é mais possível. A forma pela qual os tunisianos e os egípcios se livraram de seus governos autoritários mostra duas coisas: uma, que é possível; dois, que com esses governos não se progride. O progresso só é possível se for aprofundada a democracia. Nos últimos 20 anos a América Latina progrediu muitíssimo graças ao aprofundamento da democracia.
Em escala mundial, mesmo com as coisas que se conseguiram, mesmo com os avanços que se obtiveram com a economia social e solidária, tudo isto é extremamente lento. A indignação se justifica nisso: os esforços realizados são insuficientes, os governos foram débeis e até os partidos políticos da esquerda sucumbiram ante a ideologia neoliberal. Por isso devemos nos indignar. Se os meios de comunicação, se os cidadãos e as organizações de defesa dos direitos humanos forem suficientemente potentes para exercer uma pressão sobre os governos as coisas podem começar a mudar amanhã.
– Pode-se mudar o mundo sem revoluções violentas?
Se olharmos para o passado, veremos que os caminhos não-violentos foram mais eficazes que os violentos. O espírito revolucionário que empolgou o começo do século XX, a revolução soviética, por exemplo, conduziram ao fracasso. Homens como o checo Vaclav Havel, Nelson Mandela ou Mijail Gorbachov demonstraram que, sem violência, podem-se obter modificações profundas. A revolução cidadã que assistimos hoje pode servir a essa causa. Reconheço que o poder mata, mas esse mesmo poder se vai quando a força não-violenta ganha. As revoluções árabes nos demonstraram a validade disto: não foi a violência quem fez cair os regimes de Túnis e do Egito. Não, nada disso. Foi a determinação não violenta das pessoas.
– Em que momento você acha que o mundo se desviou de sua rota e perdeu sua base democrática?
– O momento mais grave se situa nos atentados de 11 de setembro de 2001. A queda das torres de Manhattan desencadeou uma reação do presidente estadunidense George W. Bush extremamente prejudicial: a guerra no Afeganistão, por exemplo, foi um episodio no qual se cometeu horrores espantosos. As conseqüências para a economia mundial foram igualmente muito duras. Foram gastas somas consideráveis em armas e na guerra em vez de colocá-las à disposição do progresso econômico e social.
– Você marca com muita profundidade um dos problemas que permanecem abertos como uma ferida na consciência do mundo: o conflito israelense-palestino.
– Este conflito dura há 60 anos e ainda não se encontrou a maneira de reconciliar estes dois povos. Quando se vai à Palestina voltamos traumatizados pela forma como os israelenses maltratam seus vizinhos. A Palestina tem direito a um Estado. Mas também tem que reconhecer que, ano após ano, presenciamos como aumenta o grupo de países que estão contra o governo israelense, por sua incapacidade de encontrar uma solução. Pudemos constatar isso com a quantidade de países que apoiaram o presidente palestino Mahmud Abbas, quando pediu, diante das Nações Unidas, que a Palestina seja reconhecida como um Estado de pleno direito no seio da ONU.
– Seu livro, suas entrevistas e mesmo este diálogo demonstram que, apesar do desastre, você não perdeu a esperança na aventura humana.
Não, pelo contrário. Acho que diante das gravíssimas crises que atravessamos, de repente o ser humano acorda. Isso aconteceu muitas vezes ao longo dos séculos e desejo que volte a ocorrer agora.
– “Indignação” é hoje uma palavra-chave. Quando você escreveu o livro, foi essa palavra a que o guiou?
A palavra indignação surgiu como uma definição do que se pode esperar das pessoas quando abrem os olhos e vêem o inaceitável. Pode-se adormecer um ser humano, mas não matá-lo. Em nós há uma capacidade de generosidade, de ação positiva e construtiva que pode despertar quando assistimos a violação dos valores. A palavra “dignidade” figura dentro da palavra “indignidade”. A dignidade humana desperta quando é encurralada. O liberalismo bem que tentou anestesiar essas duas capacidades humanas - a dignidade e a indignação-, mas não conseguiu.
Tradução: Libório Júnior
quarta-feira, 21 de dezembro de 2011
LIGHT A CANDLE FOR COEXISTENCE
21 December 2011, Rabbis for Human Rights רבנים למען זכויות האדם (Israel)
Parasha / E-Letter
Weekly commentary by Rabbis for Human Rights: Parshat “Miketz”
Rabbis for Human Rights condemns the wave of fascism that has been sweeping over Israel in the last week, including: the torching of mosques, the burning of a Jewish-Arab center in Be’er Sheva, blocking roads in the West Bank, and the publication of racist books similar to “Torat HaMelekh.” Rabbis for Human Rights will light a candle of hope in Israel and in the Occupied Territories, a candle of shared existence, and insist that the security forces prevent continued violence and potential religious war. May your festival of light bring blessings and hope, and Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom | Parashat “Miketz”: “More than once during the last 35 years, ever since I started composing Torah homilies, thereby allowing the Torah to speak through my life, the Joseph story (Genesis 37-50) has jumped up and bit me. This week, it brought together resonances of one event that gripped the Israeli public recently, another that passed right by it, a Hebrew phrase that inspired a poem my mother wrote a few decades ago, and the echo of an insight from my father’s Commentary on Leviticus”
“Tag Meir” (Light a Candle for Coexistence) Events
• Lighting the second Hannukah candle: Wednesday, 12.21.11, at 4:00 PM in A-Sirah a-Qabliya, next to settlement of Yitzhar (transport will leave from Gan HaPaamon at 3:00 PM. To sign up, contact Barak Weiss or Moriel Rothman at 054-315-7781)
• Lighting the third Hannukah candle: Thursday, 12.22.11, at 4:00 PM by the mosque in the village of Burqa (trasnport will leave from Gan HaPaamon at 3:00 PM. To sign up, contact Barak Weiss or Moriel Rothman at 054-315-7781).
• Lighting the fourth and fifth Hannukah candle: There will not be an event on Friday or on Saturday.
• Lighting the sixth Hannukah candle: Sunday, 12.25.11, Khirbet Zakariya, near Gush Etzion (hours and details will be published soon).
• Lighting the seventh Hannukah candle: Monday, 12.26.11, near the mosque in the town of Tuba Zangariya, in the North, at 5:00 PM (arrive on your own, and the Conservative Movement is organizing transport from Kibbutz Hanaton).
• Lighting the eighth Hannukah candle: Tuesday, 12.27.11. Yaffa, on Yafat St. | Gan HaShnayim (five minutes from the Hummus restaurant that was damaged by a Tag Mechir (price tag) attack). Details to follow.
Almost everyone is condemning the torching of mosques, and certainly will condemn the attack on the mosque in the village of Burqa last week. But the real test is not only to condemn, but also do demand that the security forces be prepared in advance to prevent the violence that will be enacted against Palestinians following the evictions of illegal outposts. Rabbi Nava Hefetz creates a theological and political link between the roots of the ideas in the book “Torat HaMelekh” and the attacks carried out on the military base of Hativat Ephraim. Last Thursday Palestinian cars were blocked from travelling in the area of Nablus. We believe that the blockage of roads in the West Bank could lead to dangerous inflammation of dormant tensions, and certainly is a violation of basic human rights.
Rabbi Nava Hefetz took a delegation of Rabbis for Human Rights down south to protest the violation of human rights that took place there with the burning of the Jewish-Arab center, and to express solidarity with the activist and community leader Amal Ansa. Here is a slide show, with music and interviews, from the event that took place after the burning:
This week, one of our field activists was quoted in Ynet and in the Wall Street Journal about settler attacks on Palestinian cars in the Occupied Territories. In addition, he was also quote on Israeli News Channel Two about the burning of the mosque in Burqa after the eviction of outposts, and he emphasized the need to enact strong, active enforcement against the active members of the extreme right wing. ‘Bright tag’ candles at ‘price tag’ scenes By Melanie Lidman (Jpost).
Call for Volunteers:
• Rabbinical Visit to Silwan: To participate in a rabbinical visit to Silwan, please get in touch with Rav Arik Ascherman at ravarik@rhr.israel.net, and 050-5607034 or with Moriel Rothman at moriel18@gmail.com or 054-3157781 or with Rivka, at info@rhr.israel.net or 02-6482757.
• Demonstration Against the Disenfranchisement of the Bedouins in the Negev: 12.25 a weekly demonstration will take place at Tzomet Lehavim against the systematic discrimination against Bedouins in the Negev.
• Rebuilding the Arab-Jewish Center that was Burned in Be’er Sheva- last week, anonymous attacks burned the Ajik Volunteer Tent, an Arab-Jewish center for equality, empowerment and cooperation, in Be’er Sheva, twice. We invite you to donate to help rebuild the center.
Happy Hannukah and Shabbat Shalom.
Parasha / E-Letter
Weekly commentary by Rabbis for Human Rights: Parshat “Miketz”
Rabbis for Human Rights condemns the wave of fascism that has been sweeping over Israel in the last week, including: the torching of mosques, the burning of a Jewish-Arab center in Be’er Sheva, blocking roads in the West Bank, and the publication of racist books similar to “Torat HaMelekh.” Rabbis for Human Rights will light a candle of hope in Israel and in the Occupied Territories, a candle of shared existence, and insist that the security forces prevent continued violence and potential religious war. May your festival of light bring blessings and hope, and Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom | Parashat “Miketz”: “More than once during the last 35 years, ever since I started composing Torah homilies, thereby allowing the Torah to speak through my life, the Joseph story (Genesis 37-50) has jumped up and bit me. This week, it brought together resonances of one event that gripped the Israeli public recently, another that passed right by it, a Hebrew phrase that inspired a poem my mother wrote a few decades ago, and the echo of an insight from my father’s Commentary on Leviticus”
• Lighting the second Hannukah candle: Wednesday, 12.21.11, at 4:00 PM in A-Sirah a-Qabliya, next to settlement of Yitzhar (transport will leave from Gan HaPaamon at 3:00 PM. To sign up, contact Barak Weiss or Moriel Rothman at 054-315-7781)
• Lighting the third Hannukah candle: Thursday, 12.22.11, at 4:00 PM by the mosque in the village of Burqa (trasnport will leave from Gan HaPaamon at 3:00 PM. To sign up, contact Barak Weiss or Moriel Rothman at 054-315-7781).
• Lighting the fourth and fifth Hannukah candle: There will not be an event on Friday or on Saturday.
• Lighting the sixth Hannukah candle: Sunday, 12.25.11, Khirbet Zakariya, near Gush Etzion (hours and details will be published soon).
• Lighting the seventh Hannukah candle: Monday, 12.26.11, near the mosque in the town of Tuba Zangariya, in the North, at 5:00 PM (arrive on your own, and the Conservative Movement is organizing transport from Kibbutz Hanaton).
• Lighting the eighth Hannukah candle: Tuesday, 12.27.11. Yaffa, on Yafat St. | Gan HaShnayim (five minutes from the Hummus restaurant that was damaged by a Tag Mechir (price tag) attack). Details to follow.
Almost everyone is condemning the torching of mosques, and certainly will condemn the attack on the mosque in the village of Burqa last week. But the real test is not only to condemn, but also do demand that the security forces be prepared in advance to prevent the violence that will be enacted against Palestinians following the evictions of illegal outposts. Rabbi Nava Hefetz creates a theological and political link between the roots of the ideas in the book “Torat HaMelekh” and the attacks carried out on the military base of Hativat Ephraim. Last Thursday Palestinian cars were blocked from travelling in the area of Nablus. We believe that the blockage of roads in the West Bank could lead to dangerous inflammation of dormant tensions, and certainly is a violation of basic human rights.
Rabbi Nava Hefetz took a delegation of Rabbis for Human Rights down south to protest the violation of human rights that took place there with the burning of the Jewish-Arab center, and to express solidarity with the activist and community leader Amal Ansa. Here is a slide show, with music and interviews, from the event that took place after the burning:
This week, one of our field activists was quoted in Ynet and in the Wall Street Journal about settler attacks on Palestinian cars in the Occupied Territories. In addition, he was also quote on Israeli News Channel Two about the burning of the mosque in Burqa after the eviction of outposts, and he emphasized the need to enact strong, active enforcement against the active members of the extreme right wing. ‘Bright tag’ candles at ‘price tag’ scenes By Melanie Lidman (Jpost).
Call for Volunteers:
• Rabbinical Visit to Silwan: To participate in a rabbinical visit to Silwan, please get in touch with Rav Arik Ascherman at ravarik@rhr.israel.net, and 050-5607034 or with Moriel Rothman at moriel18@gmail.com or 054-3157781 or with Rivka, at info@rhr.israel.net or 02-6482757.
• Demonstration Against the Disenfranchisement of the Bedouins in the Negev: 12.25 a weekly demonstration will take place at Tzomet Lehavim against the systematic discrimination against Bedouins in the Negev.
• Rebuilding the Arab-Jewish Center that was Burned in Be’er Sheva- last week, anonymous attacks burned the Ajik Volunteer Tent, an Arab-Jewish center for equality, empowerment and cooperation, in Be’er Sheva, twice. We invite you to donate to help rebuild the center.
Happy Hannukah and Shabbat Shalom.
Mercosur firma Tratado de Libre Comercio con Palestina
20 Diciembre 2011, TeleSUR http://www.telesurtv.net (Venezuela)
Los países miembros del Mercado Común del Sur (Mercosur) firmaron este martes un Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) con el Estado palestino durante la XLII Cumbre de presidentes del ente que se inició en horas de la mañana en la capital de Uruguay.
El enviado especial de teleSUR a Uruguay, Claudio Federovsky, confirmó la información sobre el documento que fue suscrito por los cancilleres de Uruguay, Luis Almagro; de Paraguay, Jorge Lara Castro; de Argentina, Héctor Timerman; de Brasil, Antonio Patriota y el ministro de Exteriores palestino, Riyad Al Maliki.
Federovsky indicó que pese al fallecimiento del licenciado Ivan Heyn, subsecretario de Comercio Exterior y Relaciones Internacionales del Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas Públicas de Argentina, la agenda ''no se ha modificado mas allá de extenderse en el tiempo (...) siguen reunidos (...) tratando los temas de agenda''.
El comunicador informó que entre los asuntos que han discutido los mandatarios están el acuerdo de que en los puertos de las naciones del Mercosur ''no se reciban barcos con bandera de Malvinas'' como gesto de solidaridad hacia Argentina que reclama la soberanía de este archipiélago que se encuentra en sus aguas.
Igualmente, los presidentes debaten asuntos relacionados con ''la comercialización (...) temas que tienen que ver con las asimetrías (...) definir si Venezuela será aceptado como miembro pleno'' del ente, así como la entrada de Ecuador, entre otros, sostuvo el reportero de teleSUR.
La XLII cumbre de jefes de Estado del Mercado Común del Sur (Mercosur) en Uruguay continúa este martes pese al fallecimiento de Heyn.
A esta reunión asisten, Cistina Fernández, de Argentina, que recibirá de los anfitriones la titularidad pro témpore cada seis meses, y Dilma Rousseff, de Brasil.
También se encuentran presentes los mandatarios Fernando Lugo, de Paraguay, quien tiene fijado un encuentro con su par uruguayo, José Mujica; así como también Rafael Correa, de Ecuador, y Hugo Chávez de Venezuela, como invitados especiales.
Fundado hace dos décadas por Argentina, Brasil, Uruguay y Paraguay, los parlamentos de las tres primeras naciones ya sancionaron la incorporación venezolana, no así los parlamentarios paraguayos.
Los países miembros del Mercado Común del Sur (Mercosur) firmaron este martes un Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) con el Estado palestino durante la XLII Cumbre de presidentes del ente que se inició en horas de la mañana en la capital de Uruguay.
El enviado especial de teleSUR a Uruguay, Claudio Federovsky, confirmó la información sobre el documento que fue suscrito por los cancilleres de Uruguay, Luis Almagro; de Paraguay, Jorge Lara Castro; de Argentina, Héctor Timerman; de Brasil, Antonio Patriota y el ministro de Exteriores palestino, Riyad Al Maliki.
Federovsky indicó que pese al fallecimiento del licenciado Ivan Heyn, subsecretario de Comercio Exterior y Relaciones Internacionales del Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas Públicas de Argentina, la agenda ''no se ha modificado mas allá de extenderse en el tiempo (...) siguen reunidos (...) tratando los temas de agenda''.
El comunicador informó que entre los asuntos que han discutido los mandatarios están el acuerdo de que en los puertos de las naciones del Mercosur ''no se reciban barcos con bandera de Malvinas'' como gesto de solidaridad hacia Argentina que reclama la soberanía de este archipiélago que se encuentra en sus aguas.
Igualmente, los presidentes debaten asuntos relacionados con ''la comercialización (...) temas que tienen que ver con las asimetrías (...) definir si Venezuela será aceptado como miembro pleno'' del ente, así como la entrada de Ecuador, entre otros, sostuvo el reportero de teleSUR.
La XLII cumbre de jefes de Estado del Mercado Común del Sur (Mercosur) en Uruguay continúa este martes pese al fallecimiento de Heyn.
A esta reunión asisten, Cistina Fernández, de Argentina, que recibirá de los anfitriones la titularidad pro témpore cada seis meses, y Dilma Rousseff, de Brasil.
También se encuentran presentes los mandatarios Fernando Lugo, de Paraguay, quien tiene fijado un encuentro con su par uruguayo, José Mujica; así como también Rafael Correa, de Ecuador, y Hugo Chávez de Venezuela, como invitados especiales.
Fundado hace dos décadas por Argentina, Brasil, Uruguay y Paraguay, los parlamentos de las tres primeras naciones ya sancionaron la incorporación venezolana, no así los parlamentarios paraguayos.
Freedom for 55 children – But 106 children remain detained
19 December 2011, Defence for Children International - Palestine Section http://www.dci-palestine.org (Palestine)
newsletter@dci-palestine.org
On Sunday, 18 December 2011, 55 Palestinian child detainees were released by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) as part of an agreed prisoner exchange. The children were aged between 14 and 17 years. According to the latest figures, 106 Palestinian children still remain in Israeli detention.
Photo credit: Sylvie Le Clezio
DCI welcomes the release of the 55 children, but continues to hold concerns regarding the treatment of minors in the Israeli military detention system. These concerns include:
• The continued arrest of children at night;
• The use of painful hand ties and blindfolds for extended periods of time;
• The failure to immediately inform parents why their children are being arrested or where they are being taken;
• The failure to inform children of their right to silence prior to interrogation;
• The failure to permit children to meet with a lawyer prior to interrogation;
• The failure to permit a parent to be present during interrogation;
• Continued reports of ill-treatment and/or torture during arrest, transfer and interrogation; and
• The detention of children in prisons located inside Israel in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
DCI continues to recommend that no child should be prosecuted in military courts that lack comprehensive fair trial and juvenile justice standards. As a minimum safeguard, DCI further recommends that all children should be accompanied by a lawyer and parent during questioning, and all interrogations of children must be audio-visually recorded as a means of independent oversight.
Related links:
Detention Bulletin - Issue 23 - November 2011
The Australian: Stone cold justice
Submission: The situation facing Palestinian children detained in the Israeli military detention system (July 2011)
Urgent Appeal - (UA - 4/11) - Children of Azzun
Urgent Appeal - (UA - 6/11) - Children of Beit Ummar
Link:
Haaretz
newsletter@dci-palestine.org
On Sunday, 18 December 2011, 55 Palestinian child detainees were released by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) as part of an agreed prisoner exchange. The children were aged between 14 and 17 years. According to the latest figures, 106 Palestinian children still remain in Israeli detention.
DCI welcomes the release of the 55 children, but continues to hold concerns regarding the treatment of minors in the Israeli military detention system. These concerns include:
• The continued arrest of children at night;
• The use of painful hand ties and blindfolds for extended periods of time;
• The failure to immediately inform parents why their children are being arrested or where they are being taken;
• The failure to inform children of their right to silence prior to interrogation;
• The failure to permit children to meet with a lawyer prior to interrogation;
• The failure to permit a parent to be present during interrogation;
• Continued reports of ill-treatment and/or torture during arrest, transfer and interrogation; and
• The detention of children in prisons located inside Israel in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
DCI continues to recommend that no child should be prosecuted in military courts that lack comprehensive fair trial and juvenile justice standards. As a minimum safeguard, DCI further recommends that all children should be accompanied by a lawyer and parent during questioning, and all interrogations of children must be audio-visually recorded as a means of independent oversight.
Related links:
Detention Bulletin - Issue 23 - November 2011
The Australian: Stone cold justice
Submission: The situation facing Palestinian children detained in the Israeli military detention system (July 2011)
Urgent Appeal - (UA - 4/11) - Children of Azzun
Urgent Appeal - (UA - 6/11) - Children of Beit Ummar
Link:
Haaretz
Israel, wake up and smell the coffee
18 December 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)
Years of rioting against Palestinians, uprooting of trees, vandalism, arson, destruction, dispossession, theft, rocks and axes didn't cause a ripple, but one rock to the head of a deputy brigade commander made all the difference.
By Gideon Levy
If I could, I'd send a modest bouquet of flowers as a gesture of thanks for the work of the rioters - the ones who infiltrated the Ephraim Brigade base in the West Bank last week. They achieved, at least for a moment, what others had failed to do: stir Israeli public opinion and maybe even the army and government against the West Bank settlers.
Good morning, Israel. You've woken up? Years of rioting against Palestinians, uprooting of trees, vandalism, arson, destruction, dispossession, theft, rocks and axes didn't cause a ripple here. But one rock to the head of a deputy brigade commander, Lt. Col. Tzur Harpaz, made all the difference.
An all-out riot. Jewish terrorism. There are militias in the West Bank, settler-terrorists in a no-man's-land. And all this due to a rock that drew a few drops of sacred Jewish blood.
Here they are again: arrogance and nationalist ideology. How is it possible that terrorism has arisen from the Chosen People? How could a few drops of blood from one person shock more than streams of other people's blood? How did the rock that scratched Harpaz's forehead reverberate immeasurably more than the teargas canister that ripped through the forehead of Palestinian Mustafa Tamimi, killed four days earlier by soldiers from the army Harpaz serves in?
No, the right wing's hilltop youth haven't endangered the State of Israel. They haven't even distorted its image, as it's now popular to proclaim. What do you want from them? They've been made accustomed to think that anything goes. Enough with the self-righteous clucking of tongues. Enough with the "condemnations" and expressions of bogus and belated shock. There is nothing new under the sun when it comes to the settlers. It's not a "new level" of activity, and it doesn't involve the crossing of "red lines." The only line that has been crossed, perhaps, is the line of apathy.
We've been reporting for years about the settlers' misdeeds, week after week. We've recounted how they have threatened Palestinians, hit their children on their way to school, thrown garbage at their mothers, turned dogs on elderly Palestinians, abducted shepherds, stolen livestock, embittered their lives day and night, hill and vale, invading and taking over. And it never touched a soul.
Now all of a sudden there is shock. Good morning, Israel. Why? What happened? You can't chastise those young people after years of not only apathy toward their parents' misdeeds but also the warm embrace of most of society and sweeping support from the IDF and every Israeli government. You can't speak about them as brother-pioneers, give them huge budget allocations, promise they'll be allowed to remain where they are forever, view them as a legitimate, not to say principled, segment of society, and then suddenly turn your back on them, condemning and attacking them. And all due to a rock.
You can't change the rules that way, one fine day. And the rules were set long ago: It's their land, the land of the settlers; they're the masters of it and can do anything there. Only a distorted double standard would permit a change in the rules due to a minor injury to the Israel Defense Forces. Only in the name of a distorted double standard could you be shocked about the recent acts, which were by no means the most serious or cruel.
Of course Israel has the right (and duty ) to change the rules, but such a change must be revolutionary and be carried out across the settlement enterprise, halting it entirely and changing the illegal, unethical and intolerable reality that exists in our backyard. The government isn't interested in such a change. The IDF isn't either, and it's doubtful most Israelis want such a change. But anything less than that is hollow lip service, nothing more than a small wave on the hull of this decades-long enterprise.
Until that happens, let's leave them alone. There's no point evacuating a chicken coop at the Mitzpeh Yitzhar outpost while the settlement of Efrat is lapping at the edge of Bethlehem. There's no point waging war against the "illegal" outposts while the "legal" settlement of Ofra has been built on stolen land. And there's no point issuing restraining orders to keep out a clutch of rioters while it never occurs to Israel to issue similar orders against all their brethren.
The violent demonstrators at the Ephraim Brigade base are the opposite of anarchists, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called them. They just want to preserve the existing order, just as most Israelis, led by the prime minister, do. Flowers for the rioters? On second thought, they haven't done a thing.
Years of rioting against Palestinians, uprooting of trees, vandalism, arson, destruction, dispossession, theft, rocks and axes didn't cause a ripple, but one rock to the head of a deputy brigade commander made all the difference.
By Gideon Levy
If I could, I'd send a modest bouquet of flowers as a gesture of thanks for the work of the rioters - the ones who infiltrated the Ephraim Brigade base in the West Bank last week. They achieved, at least for a moment, what others had failed to do: stir Israeli public opinion and maybe even the army and government against the West Bank settlers.
Good morning, Israel. You've woken up? Years of rioting against Palestinians, uprooting of trees, vandalism, arson, destruction, dispossession, theft, rocks and axes didn't cause a ripple here. But one rock to the head of a deputy brigade commander, Lt. Col. Tzur Harpaz, made all the difference.
An all-out riot. Jewish terrorism. There are militias in the West Bank, settler-terrorists in a no-man's-land. And all this due to a rock that drew a few drops of sacred Jewish blood.
Here they are again: arrogance and nationalist ideology. How is it possible that terrorism has arisen from the Chosen People? How could a few drops of blood from one person shock more than streams of other people's blood? How did the rock that scratched Harpaz's forehead reverberate immeasurably more than the teargas canister that ripped through the forehead of Palestinian Mustafa Tamimi, killed four days earlier by soldiers from the army Harpaz serves in?
No, the right wing's hilltop youth haven't endangered the State of Israel. They haven't even distorted its image, as it's now popular to proclaim. What do you want from them? They've been made accustomed to think that anything goes. Enough with the self-righteous clucking of tongues. Enough with the "condemnations" and expressions of bogus and belated shock. There is nothing new under the sun when it comes to the settlers. It's not a "new level" of activity, and it doesn't involve the crossing of "red lines." The only line that has been crossed, perhaps, is the line of apathy.
We've been reporting for years about the settlers' misdeeds, week after week. We've recounted how they have threatened Palestinians, hit their children on their way to school, thrown garbage at their mothers, turned dogs on elderly Palestinians, abducted shepherds, stolen livestock, embittered their lives day and night, hill and vale, invading and taking over. And it never touched a soul.
Now all of a sudden there is shock. Good morning, Israel. Why? What happened? You can't chastise those young people after years of not only apathy toward their parents' misdeeds but also the warm embrace of most of society and sweeping support from the IDF and every Israeli government. You can't speak about them as brother-pioneers, give them huge budget allocations, promise they'll be allowed to remain where they are forever, view them as a legitimate, not to say principled, segment of society, and then suddenly turn your back on them, condemning and attacking them. And all due to a rock.
You can't change the rules that way, one fine day. And the rules were set long ago: It's their land, the land of the settlers; they're the masters of it and can do anything there. Only a distorted double standard would permit a change in the rules due to a minor injury to the Israel Defense Forces. Only in the name of a distorted double standard could you be shocked about the recent acts, which were by no means the most serious or cruel.
Of course Israel has the right (and duty ) to change the rules, but such a change must be revolutionary and be carried out across the settlement enterprise, halting it entirely and changing the illegal, unethical and intolerable reality that exists in our backyard. The government isn't interested in such a change. The IDF isn't either, and it's doubtful most Israelis want such a change. But anything less than that is hollow lip service, nothing more than a small wave on the hull of this decades-long enterprise.
Until that happens, let's leave them alone. There's no point evacuating a chicken coop at the Mitzpeh Yitzhar outpost while the settlement of Efrat is lapping at the edge of Bethlehem. There's no point waging war against the "illegal" outposts while the "legal" settlement of Ofra has been built on stolen land. And there's no point issuing restraining orders to keep out a clutch of rioters while it never occurs to Israel to issue similar orders against all their brethren.
The violent demonstrators at the Ephraim Brigade base are the opposite of anarchists, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called them. They just want to preserve the existing order, just as most Israelis, led by the prime minister, do. Flowers for the rioters? On second thought, they haven't done a thing.
“WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE…”
17 December 2011, Gush Shalom גוש שלום (Israel)
Uri Avnery
MY GOD, what a bizarre lot these Republican aspirants for the US presidency are!
What a sorry bunch of ignoramuses and downright crazies. Or, at best, what a bunch of cheats and cynics! (With the possible exception of the good doctor Ron Paul).
Is this the best a great and proud nation can produce? How frightening the thought that one of them may actually become the most powerful person in the world, with a finger on the biggest nuclear button!
BUT LET’S concentrate on the present front-runner. (Republicans seem to change front-runners like a fastidious beau changes socks.)
It’s Newt Gingrich. Remember him? The Speaker of the House who had an extra-marital affair with an intern while at the same time leading the campaign to impeach President Bill Clinton for having an affair with an intern.
But that’s not the point. The point is that this intellectual giant – named after Isaac Newton, perhaps the greatest scientist ever – has discovered a great historical truth.
The original Newton discovered the Law of Gravity. Newton Leroy Gingrich has discovered something no less earth-shaking: there is an “invented” people around, referring to the Palestinians.
To which a humble Israeli like me might answer, in the best Hebrew slang: “Good morning, Eliyahu!” Thus we honor people who have made a great discovery which, unfortunately, has been discovered by others long before.
FROM ITS very beginning, the Zionist movement has denied the existence of the Palestinian people. It’s an article of faith.
The reason is obvious: if there exists a Palestinian people, then the country the Zionists were about to take over was not empty. Zionism would entail an injustice of historic proportions. Being very idealistic persons, the original Zionists found a way out of this moral dilemma: they simply denied its existence. The winning slogan was “A land without a people for a people without a land.”
So who were these curious human beings they met when they came to the country? Oh, ah, well, they were just people who happened to be there, but not “a” people.
Passers-by, so to speak. Later, the story goes, after we had made the desert bloom and turned an arid and neglected land into a paradise, Arabs from all over the region flocked to the country, and now they have the temerity – indeed the chutzpah – to claim that they constitute a Palestinian nation!
For many years after the founding of the State of Israel, this was the official line. Golda Meir famously exclaimed: “There is no such thing as a Palestinian people!”
(To which I replied in the Knesset: “Mrs. Prime Minister, perhaps you are right. Perhaps there really is no Palestinian people. But if millions of people mistakenly believe that they are a people, and behave like a people, then they are a people.”)
A huge propaganda machine – both in Israel and abroad – was employed to “prove” that there was no Palestinian people. A lady called Joan Peters wrote a book (“From Time Immemorial”) proving that the riffraff calling themselves “Palestinians” had nothing to do with Palestine. They are nothing but interlopers and impostors. The book was immensely successful – until some experts took it apart and proved that the whole edifice of conclusive proofs was utter rubbish.
I myself have spent many hundreds of hours trying to convince Israeli and foreign audiences that there is a Palestinian people and that we have to make peace with them. Until one day the State of Israel recognized the PLO as the sole representative of the “Palestinian people”, and the argument was laid to rest.
Until Newt came along and, like a later-day Jesus, raised it from the dead.
OBVIOUSLY, HE is much too busy to read books. True, he was once a teacher of history, but for many years now he has been very busy speakering the Congress, making a fortune as an “adviser” of big corporations and now trying to become president.
Otherwise, he would probably have come across a brilliant historical book by Benedict Anderson, “Imagined Communities”, which asserts that all modern nations are invented.
Nationalism is a relatively recent historical phenomenon. When a community decides to become a nation, it has to reinvent itself. That means inventing a national past, reshuffling historical facts (and non-facts) in order to create a coherent picture of a nation existing since antiquity. Hermann the Cherusker, member of a Germanic tribe who betrayed his Roman employers, became a “national” hero. Religious refugees who landed in America and destroyed the native population became a “nation”. Members of an ethnic-religious Diaspora formed themselves into a “Jewish nation”. Many others did more or less the same.
Indeed, Newt would profit from reading a book by a Tel Aviv University professor, Shlomo Sand, a kosher Jew, whose Hebrew title speaks for itself: “When and How the Jewish People was Invented?”
Who are these Palestinians? About a hundred years ago, two young students in Istanbul, David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the future Prime Minister and President (respectively) of Israel, wrote a treatise about the Palestinians. The population of this country, they said, has never changed. Only small elites were sometimes deported. The towns and villages never moved, as their names prove. Canaanites became Israelites, then Jews and Samaritans, then Christian Byzantines. With the Arab conquest, they slowly adopted the religion of Islam and the Arabic Culture. These are today’s Palestinians. I tend to agree with them.
PARROTING THE straight Zionist propaganda line – by now discarded by most Zionists – Gingrich argues that there can be no Palestinian people because there never was a Palestinian state. The people in this country were just “Arabs” under Ottoman rule.
So what? I used to hear from French colonial masters that there is no Algerian people, because there never was an Algerian state, there was never even a united country called Algeria. Any takers for this theory now?
The name “Palestine” was mentioned by a Greek historian some 2500 years ago. A “Duke of Palestine” is mentioned in the Talmud. When the Arabs conquered the country, they called it “Filastin”, as they still do. The Arab national movement came into being all over the Arab world, including Palestine – at the same time as the Zionist movement – and strove for independence from the Ottoman Sultan.
For centuries, Palestine was considered a part of Greater Syria (the region known in Arabic as 'Sham'). There was no formal distinction between Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and Jordanians. But when, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the European powers divided the Arab world between them, a state called Palestine became a fact under the British Mandate, and the Arab Palestinian people established themselves as a separate nation with a national flag of their own. Many peoples in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America did the same, even without asking Gingrich for confirmation.
It would certainly be ironic if the members of the “invented” Palestinian nation were expected to ask for recognition from the members of the “invented” Jewish/Israeli nation, at the demand of a member of the “invented” American nation, a person who, by the way, is of mixed German, English, Scottish and Irish stock.
Years ago, there was short-lived controversy about Palestinian textbooks. It was argued that they were anti-Semitic and incited to murder. That was laid to rest when it became clear that all Palestinian schoolbooks were cleared by the Israeli occupation authorities, and most were inherited from the previous Jordanian regime. But Gingrich does not shrink from resurrecting this corpse, too.
All Palestinians – men, women and children – are terrorists, he asserts, and Palestinian pupils learn at school how to kill us poor and helpless Israelis. Ah, what would we do without such stout defenders as Newt? What a pity that this week a photo of him, shaking the hand of Yasser Arafat, was published.
And please don’t show him the textbooks used in some of our schools, especially the religious ones!
IS IT really a waste of time to write about such nonsense?
It may seem so, but one cannot ignore the fact that the dispenser of these inanities may be tomorrow’s President of the United States of America. Given the economic situation, that is not as unlikely as it sounds.
As for now, Gingrich is doing immense damage to the national interests of the US. At this historic juncture, the masses at all the Tahrir Squares across the Arab world are wondering about America’s attitude. Newt’s answer contributes to a new and more profound anti-Americanism.
Alas, he is not the only extreme rightist seeking to embrace Israel. Israel has lately become the Mecca of all the world’s racists. This week we were honored by the visit of the husband of Marine Le Pen, leader of the French National Front. A pilgrimage to the Jewish State is now a must for any aspiring fascist.
One of our ancient sages coined the phrase: “Not for nothing does the starling go to the raven. It’s because they are of the same kind”.
Thanks. But sorry. They are not of my kind.
To quote another proverb: With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Uri Avnery
MY GOD, what a bizarre lot these Republican aspirants for the US presidency are!
What a sorry bunch of ignoramuses and downright crazies. Or, at best, what a bunch of cheats and cynics! (With the possible exception of the good doctor Ron Paul).
Is this the best a great and proud nation can produce? How frightening the thought that one of them may actually become the most powerful person in the world, with a finger on the biggest nuclear button!
BUT LET’S concentrate on the present front-runner. (Republicans seem to change front-runners like a fastidious beau changes socks.)
It’s Newt Gingrich. Remember him? The Speaker of the House who had an extra-marital affair with an intern while at the same time leading the campaign to impeach President Bill Clinton for having an affair with an intern.
But that’s not the point. The point is that this intellectual giant – named after Isaac Newton, perhaps the greatest scientist ever – has discovered a great historical truth.
The original Newton discovered the Law of Gravity. Newton Leroy Gingrich has discovered something no less earth-shaking: there is an “invented” people around, referring to the Palestinians.
To which a humble Israeli like me might answer, in the best Hebrew slang: “Good morning, Eliyahu!” Thus we honor people who have made a great discovery which, unfortunately, has been discovered by others long before.
FROM ITS very beginning, the Zionist movement has denied the existence of the Palestinian people. It’s an article of faith.
The reason is obvious: if there exists a Palestinian people, then the country the Zionists were about to take over was not empty. Zionism would entail an injustice of historic proportions. Being very idealistic persons, the original Zionists found a way out of this moral dilemma: they simply denied its existence. The winning slogan was “A land without a people for a people without a land.”
So who were these curious human beings they met when they came to the country? Oh, ah, well, they were just people who happened to be there, but not “a” people.
Passers-by, so to speak. Later, the story goes, after we had made the desert bloom and turned an arid and neglected land into a paradise, Arabs from all over the region flocked to the country, and now they have the temerity – indeed the chutzpah – to claim that they constitute a Palestinian nation!
For many years after the founding of the State of Israel, this was the official line. Golda Meir famously exclaimed: “There is no such thing as a Palestinian people!”
(To which I replied in the Knesset: “Mrs. Prime Minister, perhaps you are right. Perhaps there really is no Palestinian people. But if millions of people mistakenly believe that they are a people, and behave like a people, then they are a people.”)
A huge propaganda machine – both in Israel and abroad – was employed to “prove” that there was no Palestinian people. A lady called Joan Peters wrote a book (“From Time Immemorial”) proving that the riffraff calling themselves “Palestinians” had nothing to do with Palestine. They are nothing but interlopers and impostors. The book was immensely successful – until some experts took it apart and proved that the whole edifice of conclusive proofs was utter rubbish.
I myself have spent many hundreds of hours trying to convince Israeli and foreign audiences that there is a Palestinian people and that we have to make peace with them. Until one day the State of Israel recognized the PLO as the sole representative of the “Palestinian people”, and the argument was laid to rest.
Until Newt came along and, like a later-day Jesus, raised it from the dead.
OBVIOUSLY, HE is much too busy to read books. True, he was once a teacher of history, but for many years now he has been very busy speakering the Congress, making a fortune as an “adviser” of big corporations and now trying to become president.
Otherwise, he would probably have come across a brilliant historical book by Benedict Anderson, “Imagined Communities”, which asserts that all modern nations are invented.
Nationalism is a relatively recent historical phenomenon. When a community decides to become a nation, it has to reinvent itself. That means inventing a national past, reshuffling historical facts (and non-facts) in order to create a coherent picture of a nation existing since antiquity. Hermann the Cherusker, member of a Germanic tribe who betrayed his Roman employers, became a “national” hero. Religious refugees who landed in America and destroyed the native population became a “nation”. Members of an ethnic-religious Diaspora formed themselves into a “Jewish nation”. Many others did more or less the same.
Indeed, Newt would profit from reading a book by a Tel Aviv University professor, Shlomo Sand, a kosher Jew, whose Hebrew title speaks for itself: “When and How the Jewish People was Invented?”
Who are these Palestinians? About a hundred years ago, two young students in Istanbul, David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the future Prime Minister and President (respectively) of Israel, wrote a treatise about the Palestinians. The population of this country, they said, has never changed. Only small elites were sometimes deported. The towns and villages never moved, as their names prove. Canaanites became Israelites, then Jews and Samaritans, then Christian Byzantines. With the Arab conquest, they slowly adopted the religion of Islam and the Arabic Culture. These are today’s Palestinians. I tend to agree with them.
PARROTING THE straight Zionist propaganda line – by now discarded by most Zionists – Gingrich argues that there can be no Palestinian people because there never was a Palestinian state. The people in this country were just “Arabs” under Ottoman rule.
So what? I used to hear from French colonial masters that there is no Algerian people, because there never was an Algerian state, there was never even a united country called Algeria. Any takers for this theory now?
The name “Palestine” was mentioned by a Greek historian some 2500 years ago. A “Duke of Palestine” is mentioned in the Talmud. When the Arabs conquered the country, they called it “Filastin”, as they still do. The Arab national movement came into being all over the Arab world, including Palestine – at the same time as the Zionist movement – and strove for independence from the Ottoman Sultan.
For centuries, Palestine was considered a part of Greater Syria (the region known in Arabic as 'Sham'). There was no formal distinction between Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and Jordanians. But when, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the European powers divided the Arab world between them, a state called Palestine became a fact under the British Mandate, and the Arab Palestinian people established themselves as a separate nation with a national flag of their own. Many peoples in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America did the same, even without asking Gingrich for confirmation.
It would certainly be ironic if the members of the “invented” Palestinian nation were expected to ask for recognition from the members of the “invented” Jewish/Israeli nation, at the demand of a member of the “invented” American nation, a person who, by the way, is of mixed German, English, Scottish and Irish stock.
Years ago, there was short-lived controversy about Palestinian textbooks. It was argued that they were anti-Semitic and incited to murder. That was laid to rest when it became clear that all Palestinian schoolbooks were cleared by the Israeli occupation authorities, and most were inherited from the previous Jordanian regime. But Gingrich does not shrink from resurrecting this corpse, too.
All Palestinians – men, women and children – are terrorists, he asserts, and Palestinian pupils learn at school how to kill us poor and helpless Israelis. Ah, what would we do without such stout defenders as Newt? What a pity that this week a photo of him, shaking the hand of Yasser Arafat, was published.
And please don’t show him the textbooks used in some of our schools, especially the religious ones!
IS IT really a waste of time to write about such nonsense?
It may seem so, but one cannot ignore the fact that the dispenser of these inanities may be tomorrow’s President of the United States of America. Given the economic situation, that is not as unlikely as it sounds.
As for now, Gingrich is doing immense damage to the national interests of the US. At this historic juncture, the masses at all the Tahrir Squares across the Arab world are wondering about America’s attitude. Newt’s answer contributes to a new and more profound anti-Americanism.
Alas, he is not the only extreme rightist seeking to embrace Israel. Israel has lately become the Mecca of all the world’s racists. This week we were honored by the visit of the husband of Marine Le Pen, leader of the French National Front. A pilgrimage to the Jewish State is now a must for any aspiring fascist.
One of our ancient sages coined the phrase: “Not for nothing does the starling go to the raven. It’s because they are of the same kind”.
Thanks. But sorry. They are not of my kind.
To quote another proverb: With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Book: “FREEDOM JOURNEYS”
The Shalom Center http://www.theshalomcenter.org (USA)
office@theshalomcenter.org
Written by Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow and Rabbi Phyllis O. Berman, Freedom Journeys: The Tale of Exodus and Wilderness across Millennia calls us to rethink the story of Pharaoh, the Exodus, Sinai, and the Wilderness to learn from it ways we can address our modern-day enslavements like the new "Plagues" of climate crisis, the treatment of Hispanics and Muslims as pariahs—and how we can use the wisdom in these stories to free ourselves and shape new planetary communities. Published by Jewish Lights, www.jewishlights.com
Freedom Journeys is a deep meditation on the timeless—and timely—relevance of the Exodus narrative. In the grand tradition of mystical exegesis, Waskow and Berman reflect upon Exodus not only as an event that happened “then” and “there”, but a paradigm of movement that is happening here and in the now, for all of us, Jew and Muslim, Black and White, male and female. —Omid Safi, professor of Islamic studies, University of North Carolina.
office@theshalomcenter.org
Written by Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow and Rabbi Phyllis O. Berman, Freedom Journeys: The Tale of Exodus and Wilderness across Millennia calls us to rethink the story of Pharaoh, the Exodus, Sinai, and the Wilderness to learn from it ways we can address our modern-day enslavements like the new "Plagues" of climate crisis, the treatment of Hispanics and Muslims as pariahs—and how we can use the wisdom in these stories to free ourselves and shape new planetary communities. Published by Jewish Lights, www.jewishlights.com
Freedom Journeys is a deep meditation on the timeless—and timely—relevance of the Exodus narrative. In the grand tradition of mystical exegesis, Waskow and Berman reflect upon Exodus not only as an event that happened “then” and “there”, but a paradigm of movement that is happening here and in the now, for all of us, Jew and Muslim, Black and White, male and female. —Omid Safi, professor of Islamic studies, University of North Carolina.
Israel is still far from achieving social justice
The recommendations of the Trajtenberg Committee approved by the cabinet are truly historic, but we must not ignore other measures that were not approved.
20 December 2011, EDITORIAL Haaretz הארץ (Israel)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed determination on Sunday when he voted in the cabinet meeting for most of the recommendations on increasing competitiveness in the economy suggested by the Trajtenberg Committee.
The recommendations approved by the cabinet are truly historic. They include establishing metropolitan authorities to manage cities' public transportation, increasing competition in public transportation, taking the gas stations away from big energy companies and giving broader powers to the Antitrust Authority to break up companies that wield too much economic power. These structural recommendations are of unparalleled importance and will increase competition in Israel.
(Cabinet session on the Trajtenberg committee, Dec. 18, 2011. Photo by: Alex Kolomisky)
But we must not ignore other Trajtenberg recommendations that were not approved. The section on economic competition also discusses increasing imports: limiting the powers of the Standards Institute, which currently blocks such imports, and restricting the authority of the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry to levy tariffs.
These two recommendations were not discussed at all. If we add the compromise that has delayed the reduction in import duties, then the most important step for competition - exposing the economy to imports - has not made progress.
The important structural steps the cabinet approved will extensively change the economy only in the distant future. In contrast, opening the economy to imports would increase competition and bring down prices immediately. It's disappointing that the measure that could have responded quickly to the cost-of-living protesters did not come to pass.
The disappointment could increase in light of the Trajtenberg report's main section, which has yet to come up for discussion in the cabinet: early childhood education. That's the report's crowning glory, a response to the social protesters' demand to ease the burden on the middle class and improve the state's services to its citizens. This issue is in doubt unless the prime minister decides to cut the defense budget.
Cutting defense spending is indeed a big decision, but due to the urgent social and civilian needs, the prime minister must show true grit and make that decision.
Read this article in Hebrew
20 December 2011, EDITORIAL Haaretz הארץ (Israel)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed determination on Sunday when he voted in the cabinet meeting for most of the recommendations on increasing competitiveness in the economy suggested by the Trajtenberg Committee.
The recommendations approved by the cabinet are truly historic. They include establishing metropolitan authorities to manage cities' public transportation, increasing competition in public transportation, taking the gas stations away from big energy companies and giving broader powers to the Antitrust Authority to break up companies that wield too much economic power. These structural recommendations are of unparalleled importance and will increase competition in Israel.
(Cabinet session on the Trajtenberg committee, Dec. 18, 2011. Photo by: Alex Kolomisky)
But we must not ignore other Trajtenberg recommendations that were not approved. The section on economic competition also discusses increasing imports: limiting the powers of the Standards Institute, which currently blocks such imports, and restricting the authority of the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry to levy tariffs.
These two recommendations were not discussed at all. If we add the compromise that has delayed the reduction in import duties, then the most important step for competition - exposing the economy to imports - has not made progress.
The important structural steps the cabinet approved will extensively change the economy only in the distant future. In contrast, opening the economy to imports would increase competition and bring down prices immediately. It's disappointing that the measure that could have responded quickly to the cost-of-living protesters did not come to pass.
The disappointment could increase in light of the Trajtenberg report's main section, which has yet to come up for discussion in the cabinet: early childhood education. That's the report's crowning glory, a response to the social protesters' demand to ease the burden on the middle class and improve the state's services to its citizens. This issue is in doubt unless the prime minister decides to cut the defense budget.
Cutting defense spending is indeed a big decision, but due to the urgent social and civilian needs, the prime minister must show true grit and make that decision.
Read this article in Hebrew
Dirigente cutista presencia assassinato à queima-roupa de jovem palestino por soldado de Israel
16 Dezembro Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) 2011 http://www.cut.org.br (Brasil)
Polícia israelense detém presidente do Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos de Porto Alegre por mais de três horas, apreende laptop e vasculha e-mails
Escrito por: Leonardo Severo
(Foto: Palestinos protestam contra assassinato de Mustafá)
Policiais israelenses mantiveram incomunicável, sob pressão, chantagens e ameaças, “numa verdadeira tortura”, durante mais de três horas no aeroporto Internacional de Telavive, o presidente do Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Metalúrgicos de Porto Alegre, Lírio Segalla, que viajou em missão oficial de representação da CUT ao Congresso Sindical da Federação de Sindicatos Palestinos (PGFTU).
Após ser levado a uma sala em separado no aeroporto Bem Gurion, Lírio foi submetido a um extenso interrogatório e teve seus objetos pessoais vistoriados. Sob ameaça, os policiais vasculharam o conteúdo do seu celular e do laptop, incluindo e-mails e redes sociais, anotando tudo, numa clara violação de privacidade. “Queriam saber os meus contatos, nomes, telefones, e-mails, endereços, o que eu achava de Israel e da Palestina, o que eu tinha ido fazer lá. Um insulto já ao descer do avião, na imigração”, denunciou Lírio, que é negro.
(Foto: Mustafá Mamimo, de 27 anos, a mais nova vítima do terrorismo de Estado de Israel)
Chegado na última quarta-feira de Ramalah, na Cisjordânia, onde permaneceu por cerca de uma semana, Lírio denuncia "a grave crise humanitária a que vem sendo submetido o povo palestino pela ocupação israelense, que toma suas terras, destrói suas casas, ergue assentamentos ilegais, usurpa, humilha". “É uma situação muito mais absurda e criminosa do que pensamos, é uma política de terrorismo de Estado que atinge indistintamente a todos os palestinos”, frisou.
Em relação às crianças e jovens que tomam a frente das manifestações contra a agressão israelense, denunciou o dirigente cutista, “a situação é ainda pior, pois as tropas atiram para matar, na altura dos olhos e à curta distância”. “Eu mesmo presenciei o assassinato à queima-roupa de um jovem palestino pelo exército de Israel. Dispararam um tipo de bomba de gás que é proibida internacionalmente. O invólucro é de aço e, como são lançados de muito perto, destroem a cabeça das pessoas. Foi isso o que aconteceu com o jovem Mustafa, de apenas 27 anos, assassinado na minha frente às 10 horas da manhã do dia 10 de dezembro em Nabi Saleh”.
(Foto: Bomba de gás utilizada por Israel vira bomba de fragmentação. Arma foi banida internacionalmente)
Impedido de circular pela Cisjordânia e barrado de entrar na Faixa de Gaza, Lírio denuncia a multiplicação dos “pontos de controle” israelenses por todo o território palestino, num cerco total: “há mais de 750 quilômetros de muros do apartheid, com seis metros de altura, arames farpados e todo tipo de sensores e alarmes”. “A ocupação ilegal vai encurralando os palestinos, tomando as suas terras e construindo assentamentos. Nestes locais os israelenses são doutrinados para hostilizar os árabes. Em Hebron, cidade milenar palestina, eu vi locais onde os israelenses jogam lixo e ácido nos árabes, que tentam se proteger como podem. Nesta mesma cidade milenar eu vi os israelenses caminhando tranquilos pelas avenidas, protegidos pelas suas tropas, e os palestinos obrigados a andar por estreitos corredores. Quando os israelenses estão mais próximos, eles cospem, chamam de porco, insultam de tudo o que é jeito”, relatou o sindicalista.
Conforme Lírio, “esta realidade não aparece nos meios de comunicação do Brasil. Não dá para ter noção, as pessoas estão sitiadas, desempregadas, humilhadas. Tudo o que vi me deixou com um nojo muito grande dos israelenses. É algo de embrulhar o estômago. Não quis comprar nada de Israel, não quero ter nada que me lembre aquele país”, acrescentou.
CUT defende punição exemplar aos criminosos
O secretário de Relações Internacionais da CUT, João Antonio Felício, enviou carta nesta sexta-feira ao Embaixador de Israel no Brasil, Rafael Eldad, e ao ministro de Relações Exteriores do Brasil, Antonio Patriota, defendendo a investigação do assassinato de Mustafa Tamimi e cobrando a apuração do crime e a punição exemplar dos responsáveis no âmbito da lei internacional, em especial a IV convenção de Genebra.
Em relação à afronta a Lírio, a CUT exige uma retratação formal das autoridades israelenses, bem como solicita às autoridades brasileiras que acompanhem o caso, a fim de que tão vergonhosos fatos não mais se repitam.
Polícia israelense detém presidente do Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos de Porto Alegre por mais de três horas, apreende laptop e vasculha e-mails
Escrito por: Leonardo Severo
(Foto: Palestinos protestam contra assassinato de Mustafá)
Policiais israelenses mantiveram incomunicável, sob pressão, chantagens e ameaças, “numa verdadeira tortura”, durante mais de três horas no aeroporto Internacional de Telavive, o presidente do Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Metalúrgicos de Porto Alegre, Lírio Segalla, que viajou em missão oficial de representação da CUT ao Congresso Sindical da Federação de Sindicatos Palestinos (PGFTU).
Após ser levado a uma sala em separado no aeroporto Bem Gurion, Lírio foi submetido a um extenso interrogatório e teve seus objetos pessoais vistoriados. Sob ameaça, os policiais vasculharam o conteúdo do seu celular e do laptop, incluindo e-mails e redes sociais, anotando tudo, numa clara violação de privacidade. “Queriam saber os meus contatos, nomes, telefones, e-mails, endereços, o que eu achava de Israel e da Palestina, o que eu tinha ido fazer lá. Um insulto já ao descer do avião, na imigração”, denunciou Lírio, que é negro.
(Foto: Mustafá Mamimo, de 27 anos, a mais nova vítima do terrorismo de Estado de Israel)
Chegado na última quarta-feira de Ramalah, na Cisjordânia, onde permaneceu por cerca de uma semana, Lírio denuncia "a grave crise humanitária a que vem sendo submetido o povo palestino pela ocupação israelense, que toma suas terras, destrói suas casas, ergue assentamentos ilegais, usurpa, humilha". “É uma situação muito mais absurda e criminosa do que pensamos, é uma política de terrorismo de Estado que atinge indistintamente a todos os palestinos”, frisou.
Em relação às crianças e jovens que tomam a frente das manifestações contra a agressão israelense, denunciou o dirigente cutista, “a situação é ainda pior, pois as tropas atiram para matar, na altura dos olhos e à curta distância”. “Eu mesmo presenciei o assassinato à queima-roupa de um jovem palestino pelo exército de Israel. Dispararam um tipo de bomba de gás que é proibida internacionalmente. O invólucro é de aço e, como são lançados de muito perto, destroem a cabeça das pessoas. Foi isso o que aconteceu com o jovem Mustafa, de apenas 27 anos, assassinado na minha frente às 10 horas da manhã do dia 10 de dezembro em Nabi Saleh”.
(Foto: Bomba de gás utilizada por Israel vira bomba de fragmentação. Arma foi banida internacionalmente)
Impedido de circular pela Cisjordânia e barrado de entrar na Faixa de Gaza, Lírio denuncia a multiplicação dos “pontos de controle” israelenses por todo o território palestino, num cerco total: “há mais de 750 quilômetros de muros do apartheid, com seis metros de altura, arames farpados e todo tipo de sensores e alarmes”. “A ocupação ilegal vai encurralando os palestinos, tomando as suas terras e construindo assentamentos. Nestes locais os israelenses são doutrinados para hostilizar os árabes. Em Hebron, cidade milenar palestina, eu vi locais onde os israelenses jogam lixo e ácido nos árabes, que tentam se proteger como podem. Nesta mesma cidade milenar eu vi os israelenses caminhando tranquilos pelas avenidas, protegidos pelas suas tropas, e os palestinos obrigados a andar por estreitos corredores. Quando os israelenses estão mais próximos, eles cospem, chamam de porco, insultam de tudo o que é jeito”, relatou o sindicalista.
Conforme Lírio, “esta realidade não aparece nos meios de comunicação do Brasil. Não dá para ter noção, as pessoas estão sitiadas, desempregadas, humilhadas. Tudo o que vi me deixou com um nojo muito grande dos israelenses. É algo de embrulhar o estômago. Não quis comprar nada de Israel, não quero ter nada que me lembre aquele país”, acrescentou.
CUT defende punição exemplar aos criminosos
O secretário de Relações Internacionais da CUT, João Antonio Felício, enviou carta nesta sexta-feira ao Embaixador de Israel no Brasil, Rafael Eldad, e ao ministro de Relações Exteriores do Brasil, Antonio Patriota, defendendo a investigação do assassinato de Mustafa Tamimi e cobrando a apuração do crime e a punição exemplar dos responsáveis no âmbito da lei internacional, em especial a IV convenção de Genebra.
Em relação à afronta a Lírio, a CUT exige uma retratação formal das autoridades israelenses, bem como solicita às autoridades brasileiras que acompanhem o caso, a fim de que tão vergonhosos fatos não mais se repitam.
Grave matters: Israel violates Muslim religious lands
20 December 2011, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)
Mya Guarnieri
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced the recent rash of desecration and vandalism of mosques and Muslim cemeteries. But the destruction of Muslim religious properties in Israel is, in fact, institutionalized and has a long and sometimes shocking history
(A shattered headstone at the Sheikh Murad cemetery in South Tel Aviv/Photo: Mya Guarnieri)
Jewish settlers torched a mosque near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on December 15.
Earlier that week, Jewish rightists set fire to a mosque in Jerusalem. They scrawled graffiti on the walls reading “Mohammed is a pig,” and “A good Arab is a dead Arab.” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat condemned the desecration of the religious site. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did the same in October when a mosque was burned in the north of the country.
“The images are shocking and do not belong in the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
When Muslim and Christian cemeteries were vandalized that same month, Netanyahu spoke out again—remarking that Israel would not “tolerate vandalism, especially not the kind that would offend religious sensibilities.”
But such statements belie the Israeli government’s long-standing attitude towards Muslim religious properties or waqf. Meaning literally endowment, waqf and income from waqf serves a charitable purpose for one’s family or community. Under Ottoman rule, waqf properties were exempt from taxes.
Following the 1947-1948 nakba, which saw some 700,000 Palestinians driven from their homes, Israel used its newly created Absentees’ Property Law to seize, among other things, waqf.
In Jaffa, alone, “There was a huge amount of waqf,” says Sami Abu Shehadeh, head of Jaffa’s Popular Committee against Home Demolitions and a PhD candidate in history. “I’m talking about hundreds of shops; I’m talking about tens of thousands of dunams of land; I’m talking about all the mosques…and there were all the cemeteries, too.”
Jaffa was renamed Yafo in 1948 and was annexed by the Tel Aviv municipality between 1948 and 1949. Most of the mosques were closed and several later became Jewish-owned art galleries.
In 2007, attorney Hisham Shabaita, three other Palestinian residents of Jaffa, and a local human rights organization, filed a lawsuit against the state of Israel, the Custodian of Absentee Property, and the Jewish Israeli trustees responsible for administering Tel Aviv-Yafo’s waqf holdings. The plaintiffs didn’t ask for the land back. Nor did they request compensation. They simply wanted to know what had happened to the properties, what their estimated earnings were, and where the money was going or had gone.
The court’s response? The information cannot be released because it apparently would embarrass the state, harming its reputation in the international community. The plaintiffs have filed an appeal and the case is expected to reach the Israeli Supreme Court.
But it’s not hard to guess what happened to the waqf properties, in part because the state admitted that all of the land had been sold. There are other clues: in the 1950s alone, the state demolished 1200 mosques. Later, the Hilton hotel, which stands in an area now known as north Tel Aviv, was built on a Muslim cemetery. Bodies were unearthed and relocated, stacked upon each other in a tiny corner of what was once a large graveyard.
Another Muslim cemetery became a parking lot for Tel Aviv University.
There are also the forgotten corners, properties the state appropriated and then neglected. The Sheikh Murad cemetery, which dates back to at least the 1800s, stands between the South Tel Aviv neighborhoods of Shapira and Kiryat Shalom. Its headstones were smashed by vandals years ago. Bits of marble have been pried off the graves, presumably for use or sale.
Locals have dumped garbage on the grounds and, the last time I checked in on the cemetery—not long after Muslim and Christian graves were vandalized in Yafo—two men were shooting heroin under the shade of a pomegranate tree. Fruit rotted on the ground.
Abu Shehadeh says that the local Islamic committee is building a fence around the cemetery in hopes of protecting it from further misuse. He adds that only Palestinian collaborators with Israel, who are often relocated to South Tel Aviv, have been buried in the graveyard since 1948.
The Jewish neighborhoods Kiryat Shalom and Kfar Shalem both stand on the land of the Palestinian village Salame, which was established before the 1596 Ottoman census. According to Abu Shehadeh, a number of Muslim cemeteries were destroyed to make way to house the country’s new occupants.
And then there’s Jerusalem.
With the approval of the Jerusalem municipality, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is building a “Museum of Tolerance” on a Muslim graveyard. Excavations are taking place at the site, which has served as a been a parking lot for several decades now, and skeletons are being exhumed so that the Los Angeles-headquartered, “global Jewish human rights” organization can teach tourists a thing or two about co-existence.
Sergio Yahni of the Alternative Information Center, an Israeli-Palestinian non-governmental organization, explained that much of Jewish West Jerusalem is built on waqf.
“One of the most striking demolitions [on land designated as waqf,” he continues, “was made [in the Old City] during the 1967 war. [Israeli forces] didn’t take care [to see] if people were out of the houses...[in some cases] they brought the buildings down on people.”
Several Palestinians who disappeared from the Old City during the war were believed to be killed during the demolitions.
This occurred in the area adjacent to the Al Aqsa Mosque. Some eighty percent of the Old City’s Jewish Quarter is built on waqf.
Jewish Israeli leaders and journalists have expressed alarm at the recent rash of vandalism and arson that has damaged Muslim religious sites and racheted up tensions between Jews and Arabs. But, in light of the fact that the government itself has perpetrated such violence against Muslim properties for over 60 years, the surprise is misplaced, at best. At worst, it is a disingenuous attempt to relieve the state of its responsibility by pointing the finger at “extremists.”
A shorter version of this article was originally published in Al Akhbar.
http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)
Mya Guarnieri
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced the recent rash of desecration and vandalism of mosques and Muslim cemeteries. But the destruction of Muslim religious properties in Israel is, in fact, institutionalized and has a long and sometimes shocking history
Jewish settlers torched a mosque near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on December 15.
Earlier that week, Jewish rightists set fire to a mosque in Jerusalem. They scrawled graffiti on the walls reading “Mohammed is a pig,” and “A good Arab is a dead Arab.” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat condemned the desecration of the religious site. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did the same in October when a mosque was burned in the north of the country.
“The images are shocking and do not belong in the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
When Muslim and Christian cemeteries were vandalized that same month, Netanyahu spoke out again—remarking that Israel would not “tolerate vandalism, especially not the kind that would offend religious sensibilities.”
But such statements belie the Israeli government’s long-standing attitude towards Muslim religious properties or waqf. Meaning literally endowment, waqf and income from waqf serves a charitable purpose for one’s family or community. Under Ottoman rule, waqf properties were exempt from taxes.
Following the 1947-1948 nakba, which saw some 700,000 Palestinians driven from their homes, Israel used its newly created Absentees’ Property Law to seize, among other things, waqf.
In Jaffa, alone, “There was a huge amount of waqf,” says Sami Abu Shehadeh, head of Jaffa’s Popular Committee against Home Demolitions and a PhD candidate in history. “I’m talking about hundreds of shops; I’m talking about tens of thousands of dunams of land; I’m talking about all the mosques…and there were all the cemeteries, too.”
Jaffa was renamed Yafo in 1948 and was annexed by the Tel Aviv municipality between 1948 and 1949. Most of the mosques were closed and several later became Jewish-owned art galleries.
In 2007, attorney Hisham Shabaita, three other Palestinian residents of Jaffa, and a local human rights organization, filed a lawsuit against the state of Israel, the Custodian of Absentee Property, and the Jewish Israeli trustees responsible for administering Tel Aviv-Yafo’s waqf holdings. The plaintiffs didn’t ask for the land back. Nor did they request compensation. They simply wanted to know what had happened to the properties, what their estimated earnings were, and where the money was going or had gone.
The court’s response? The information cannot be released because it apparently would embarrass the state, harming its reputation in the international community. The plaintiffs have filed an appeal and the case is expected to reach the Israeli Supreme Court.
But it’s not hard to guess what happened to the waqf properties, in part because the state admitted that all of the land had been sold. There are other clues: in the 1950s alone, the state demolished 1200 mosques. Later, the Hilton hotel, which stands in an area now known as north Tel Aviv, was built on a Muslim cemetery. Bodies were unearthed and relocated, stacked upon each other in a tiny corner of what was once a large graveyard.
Another Muslim cemetery became a parking lot for Tel Aviv University.
There are also the forgotten corners, properties the state appropriated and then neglected. The Sheikh Murad cemetery, which dates back to at least the 1800s, stands between the South Tel Aviv neighborhoods of Shapira and Kiryat Shalom. Its headstones were smashed by vandals years ago. Bits of marble have been pried off the graves, presumably for use or sale.
Locals have dumped garbage on the grounds and, the last time I checked in on the cemetery—not long after Muslim and Christian graves were vandalized in Yafo—two men were shooting heroin under the shade of a pomegranate tree. Fruit rotted on the ground.
Abu Shehadeh says that the local Islamic committee is building a fence around the cemetery in hopes of protecting it from further misuse. He adds that only Palestinian collaborators with Israel, who are often relocated to South Tel Aviv, have been buried in the graveyard since 1948.
The Jewish neighborhoods Kiryat Shalom and Kfar Shalem both stand on the land of the Palestinian village Salame, which was established before the 1596 Ottoman census. According to Abu Shehadeh, a number of Muslim cemeteries were destroyed to make way to house the country’s new occupants.
And then there’s Jerusalem.
With the approval of the Jerusalem municipality, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is building a “Museum of Tolerance” on a Muslim graveyard. Excavations are taking place at the site, which has served as a been a parking lot for several decades now, and skeletons are being exhumed so that the Los Angeles-headquartered, “global Jewish human rights” organization can teach tourists a thing or two about co-existence.
Sergio Yahni of the Alternative Information Center, an Israeli-Palestinian non-governmental organization, explained that much of Jewish West Jerusalem is built on waqf.
“One of the most striking demolitions [on land designated as waqf,” he continues, “was made [in the Old City] during the 1967 war. [Israeli forces] didn’t take care [to see] if people were out of the houses...[in some cases] they brought the buildings down on people.”
Several Palestinians who disappeared from the Old City during the war were believed to be killed during the demolitions.
This occurred in the area adjacent to the Al Aqsa Mosque. Some eighty percent of the Old City’s Jewish Quarter is built on waqf.
Jewish Israeli leaders and journalists have expressed alarm at the recent rash of vandalism and arson that has damaged Muslim religious sites and racheted up tensions between Jews and Arabs. But, in light of the fact that the government itself has perpetrated such violence against Muslim properties for over 60 years, the surprise is misplaced, at best. At worst, it is a disingenuous attempt to relieve the state of its responsibility by pointing the finger at “extremists.”
A shorter version of this article was originally published in Al Akhbar.
terça-feira, 13 de dezembro de 2011
Abbas raises Palestinian flag at UNESCO
By DPA, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)
The Palestinian flag was raised at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris Tuesday, in a ceremony attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
The Palestinian leader was also to hold talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends flag-raising ceremony for Palestinian flag at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, December 13, 3011. Photo by: Reuters
The flag-raising ceremony at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization takes place at noon local time. Abbas was scheduled to give a press conference afterwards.
UNESCO members voting by an overwhelming majority to admit Palestine as the agency's 195th member state on October 31.
The previous month Abbas had applied for full UN membership. That application is still pending at the UN Security Council.
The UNESCO vote triggered a funding crisis at the organization.
The United States, which opposed Palestinian membership, suspended its UNESCO funding, saying its laws barred it from funding a UN agency that made a Palestinian state a full member. Israel also suspended its contributions.
The Palestinian flag was raised at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris Tuesday, in a ceremony attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
The Palestinian leader was also to hold talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The flag-raising ceremony at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization takes place at noon local time. Abbas was scheduled to give a press conference afterwards.
UNESCO members voting by an overwhelming majority to admit Palestine as the agency's 195th member state on October 31.
The previous month Abbas had applied for full UN membership. That application is still pending at the UN Security Council.
The UNESCO vote triggered a funding crisis at the organization.
The United States, which opposed Palestinian membership, suspended its UNESCO funding, saying its laws barred it from funding a UN agency that made a Palestinian state a full member. Israel also suspended its contributions.
Le Parlement européen adopte une proposition visant à lancer une campagne pour la libération des prisonniers
13 Décembre 2011, Association France Palestine Solidarité http://www.france-palestine.org (France)
Alhadathnews
La Commission des droits de l’homme du Parlement européen et le Comité des relations avec le Conseil législatif palestinien ont annoncé hier l’adoption d’une proposition visant à déclarer une campagne internationale au début de l’année prochaine pour la libération des prisonniers et des détenus qui croupissent dans les geôles israéliennes
Cela est arrivé dans le sillage de la réunion qui s’est tenue au Parlement européen en présence de Issa Qaraqe, ministre palestinien des prisonniers, accompagné d’une délégation composée d’ institutions de protection des droits humains, de la société civile palestinienne, de l’ambassadeur de la Palestine au Parlement européen et de Leila Shahid, avec des membres du Parlement et du Conseil du Sénat belge ainsi que organisations de la société civile Belge.
Dans son discours le ministre Qaraqe a demandé au parlement européen d’adopter des décisions claires pour la libération des prisonniers palestiniens similaires aux décisions prises pour la libération du soldat israélien Gilad Shalit.
Il a ajouté que la détention du soldat Shalit, avancée comme excuse au cours des cinq dernières années, est terminée et qu’ il y avait une responsabilité internationale à travailler de façon équilibrée pour la libération des prisonniers palestiniens, en particulier les prisonniers et détenus détenus avant la signature des accords d’Oslo, les malades , les handicapés, les femmes, les enfants et les membres du parlement palestinien élus comme Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Saadat, Hassan Youssef, et d’autres.
Après avoir écouté le discours du ministre des prisonniers et l’intervention de Fadwa Barghouti, de Nasser Al Rayes d’Al-Haq, de Quzmar Khalid du mouvement mondial pour la défense des enfants, de Francis Saher de la Fondation Addameer ainsi que les délibérations et les commentaires des membres du Parlement européen, la présidence du Parlement européen a annoncé l’adoption d’une campagne pour la libération des prisonniers et l’envoi des missions d’enquête dans les prisons de l’occupation afin de déterminer les conditions inhumaines subies par les prisonniers en violation de tous les principes et valeurs du droit international humanitaire.
Issa Qaraqea a appelé le parlement européen à soutenir et à appuyer les efforts du Président Mahmoud Abbas et du gouvernement palestinien pour libérer les prisonniers comme base pour une paix juste dans la région et de tester la crédibilité d’Israël dans la coexistence égale avec les Palestiniens.
Il a aussi demandé de faire pression pour le respect et la mise en œuvre de l’accord signé il y a quelques années entre le Président Abbas et Ehoud Olmert qui concerne la libération d’un plus grand nombre de prisonniers, après la libération du deuxième groupe de prisonniers suivant l’accord Shalit.
Il a demandé aussi l’intervention du Parlement européen pour mettre fin aux poursuites des ex-détenus et aux restrictions imposées sur leurs déplacements et leur travail ainsi que la levée de toutes les mesures arbitraires prises contre les détenus palestiniens dans les prisons israéliennes comme le confinement et l’isolement, le droit de visite à la population de la bande de Gaza, le droit aux études universitaires des prisonniers et le rétablissement des autres droits humains qui leur ont été confisqués.
Publié par alhadathnews.com
Alhadathnews
La Commission des droits de l’homme du Parlement européen et le Comité des relations avec le Conseil législatif palestinien ont annoncé hier l’adoption d’une proposition visant à déclarer une campagne internationale au début de l’année prochaine pour la libération des prisonniers et des détenus qui croupissent dans les geôles israéliennes
Cela est arrivé dans le sillage de la réunion qui s’est tenue au Parlement européen en présence de Issa Qaraqe, ministre palestinien des prisonniers, accompagné d’une délégation composée d’ institutions de protection des droits humains, de la société civile palestinienne, de l’ambassadeur de la Palestine au Parlement européen et de Leila Shahid, avec des membres du Parlement et du Conseil du Sénat belge ainsi que organisations de la société civile Belge.
Dans son discours le ministre Qaraqe a demandé au parlement européen d’adopter des décisions claires pour la libération des prisonniers palestiniens similaires aux décisions prises pour la libération du soldat israélien Gilad Shalit.
Il a ajouté que la détention du soldat Shalit, avancée comme excuse au cours des cinq dernières années, est terminée et qu’ il y avait une responsabilité internationale à travailler de façon équilibrée pour la libération des prisonniers palestiniens, en particulier les prisonniers et détenus détenus avant la signature des accords d’Oslo, les malades , les handicapés, les femmes, les enfants et les membres du parlement palestinien élus comme Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Saadat, Hassan Youssef, et d’autres.
Après avoir écouté le discours du ministre des prisonniers et l’intervention de Fadwa Barghouti, de Nasser Al Rayes d’Al-Haq, de Quzmar Khalid du mouvement mondial pour la défense des enfants, de Francis Saher de la Fondation Addameer ainsi que les délibérations et les commentaires des membres du Parlement européen, la présidence du Parlement européen a annoncé l’adoption d’une campagne pour la libération des prisonniers et l’envoi des missions d’enquête dans les prisons de l’occupation afin de déterminer les conditions inhumaines subies par les prisonniers en violation de tous les principes et valeurs du droit international humanitaire.
Issa Qaraqea a appelé le parlement européen à soutenir et à appuyer les efforts du Président Mahmoud Abbas et du gouvernement palestinien pour libérer les prisonniers comme base pour une paix juste dans la région et de tester la crédibilité d’Israël dans la coexistence égale avec les Palestiniens.
Il a aussi demandé de faire pression pour le respect et la mise en œuvre de l’accord signé il y a quelques années entre le Président Abbas et Ehoud Olmert qui concerne la libération d’un plus grand nombre de prisonniers, après la libération du deuxième groupe de prisonniers suivant l’accord Shalit.
Il a demandé aussi l’intervention du Parlement européen pour mettre fin aux poursuites des ex-détenus et aux restrictions imposées sur leurs déplacements et leur travail ainsi que la levée de toutes les mesures arbitraires prises contre les détenus palestiniens dans les prisons israéliennes comme le confinement et l’isolement, le droit de visite à la population de la bande de Gaza, le droit aux études universitaires des prisonniers et le rétablissement des autres droits humains qui leur ont été confisqués.
Publié par alhadathnews.com
ISRAEL AHORA VA POR EL AGUA Y LA ELECTRICIDAD
13 Diciembre 2011, IPS
Eva Bartlett
"El agua es vida, no es un juguete que se puede sacar porque sí", protestó Maher Najjar, subdirector general de la Empresa de Agua de las Municipalidades Costeras de Gaza, respecto de la amenaza de Israel de cortar la electricidad y otros servicios básicos en este territorio palestino.
"Repercutirá en todo, el agua potable y la que se usa para lavar, el saneamiento, los hospitales, las escuelas y los niños y niñas", indicó Ahmed al-Amrain, jefe de información de la Autoridad de Recursos Nacionales y de Energía de Palestina.
La Compañía Eléctrica de Israel es responsable de 60 por ciento del consumo de la franja de Gaza, que paga la población gazatí a través de impuestos recaudados por autoridades israelíes.
Además, Gaza compra cinco por ciento de su consumo a Egipto y trata de cubrir el restante 35 por ciento con plantas solares, pese a que durante el bombardeo israelí de 2006 fueron destruidos seis de sus transformadores.
El 26 de noviembre el vicecanciller de Israel, Danny Ayalon, amenazó con cortar la energía eléctrica, el agua y las conexiones a la infraestructura de Gaza, que sirve a los 1,6 millones de habitantes de este territorio palestino.
"Este es el verdadero significado de castigo colectivo", indicó Jaber Wishah, subdirector del Centro Palestino de Derechos Humanos. "Niños, niñas, mujeres, ancianos, pacientes, estudiantes, todos son amenazados", añadió.
Tras las elecciones parlamentarias de 2006, en las que Hamás (acrónimo árabe de Movimiento de Resistencia Islámica) obtuvo la mayoría, Israel sometió a Gaza a un asedio cada vez más estricto, privando a los palestinos de bienes esenciales y básicos, como animales de cría, medicamentos, maquinaria, repuestos y gasóleo para las centrales de generación eléctrica.
"Desde hace años, Israel corta sin cesar la electricidad y destruye infraestructura, pero esta es la primera vez que amenaza directamente con suspender todo", remarcó Wishah. "Es absurdo chantajear a la población por cuestiones políticas", añadió.
Además es ilegal.
Wishah y la organización israelí de derechos humanos Gisha, señalaron que Israel mantiene una ocupación militar y controla la franja de Gaza, pese al retiro en 2005 de colonos judíos y bases del ejército.
La legislación internacional estipula que el estado judío es responsable del bienestar de los gazatíes y debe garantizar la electricidad, el agua y el buen funcionamiento de la infraestructura, señaló Gisha.
Desde 2007, Israel limita el ingreso a Gaza de combustible y gasóleo industrial, lo que genera cortes de electricidad en todo el territorio de entre ocho y 12 horas y perturba los servicios de agua, saneamiento, salud y educación.
"Técnicos palestinos, y la compañía de electricidad israelí, pidieron al gobierno que reparara la línea principal que se dañó. Pero se negó", indicó Ahmed al-Amrain.
La falta de electricidad "obligará a las familias a comprar gasóleo para hacer funcionar pequeños generadores domésticos, propensos a causar accidentes graves y quemaduras", apuntó.
Más de 100 palestinos murieron en 2009 y el primer trimestre de 2010, según un informe de la organización humanitaria Oxfam, debido a incendios provocados por generadores domésticos y a la inhalación de monóxido de carbono.
Son aparatos que permiten el funcionamiento de maquinas vitales durante los cortes de energía, pero no sirven para otros servicios como el lavado de ropa.
"No hay suficiente electricidad", indicó Amrain. "Hay solo para emergencias y por periodos cortos, no de forma continua. No son una solución alternativa", remarcó.
"Será una catástrofe si Israel corta la electricidad. La mitad de la población no tendrá agua", indicó Maher Najjar, de la Empresa de Agua de las Municipalidades Costeras de Gaza.
Actualmente 95 por ciento del agua subterránea no es potable, de acuerdo a estándares de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), que señala que los nitratos, que se cree son cancerígenos, ascienden a 330 miligramos por litro, muy por encima de los 50 miligramos aceptados.
"Desde 2000 tenemos planes para reparar y ampliar proyectos de agua en Gaza, pero hasta ahora solo siete de los 100 fueron terminados", indicó Najjar.
Solo 10 por ciento de los 1,6 millones de gazatíes tienen agua todos los días, 40 por ciento, cada dos días y una proporción similar cada tres días, en tanto 10 por ciento tiene una vez cada cuatro días, detalló.
"Israel perforó unos 1.000 pozos alrededor de la franja de Gaza para propio uso. Corta el flujo de agua antes de que llegue aquí", observó. Najjar.
Mekorot, la compañía israelí de agua, suministra solo cinco por ciento del recurso, pero lo que más preocupa a la población es el corte de electricidad y de otros servicios. "El cloro es vital para purificar el agua. Sin él, no podemos extraer ni una sola gota", explicó.
Ya se vierten al mar 80 millones de litros de aguas servidas al día, parcialmente tratadas o sin ningún tratamiento, debido a la falta de instalaciones adecuadas para hacerlo o de electricidad suficiente.
La OMS registró en 2008 niveles peligrosos de bacterias fecales en un tercio de la costa de Gaza. Dos años después, la Agencia de las Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados de Palestina señaló que diarrea aguda hemorrágica y hepatitis viral son las principales causas de la morbilidad en este territorio.
"Necesitamos tener electricidad de forma continua para bombear las aguas servidas a las plantas de tratamiento", indicó Najjar. "Los generadores son alternativas para los cortes de electricidad, pero sin un suministro continuo, los desperdicios inundarán las calles", alertó.
Una pileta de aguas residuales de Beit Lahiya se desbordó en agosto de 2007 y murieron ahogados cinco residentes de una aldea vecina.
Hamás sostiene que aceptará un estado palestino dentro de las fronteras de 1967, que Israel todavía debe definir, pero sigue desdibujando al ampliar los asentamientos ilegales en los territorios palestinos que ocupa.
"Creo que la amenaza de los israelíes es seria", indicó Wishah. "Porque no les importa la opinión ni las leyes ni convenciones internacionales, como las de Ginebra, que firmaron y que prohíben el castigo colectivo. Se sienten por encima de la ley y están por fuera de toda persecución legal", añadió.
http://www.ipsnoticias.net/nota.asp?idnews=99774
Eva Bartlett
"El agua es vida, no es un juguete que se puede sacar porque sí", protestó Maher Najjar, subdirector general de la Empresa de Agua de las Municipalidades Costeras de Gaza, respecto de la amenaza de Israel de cortar la electricidad y otros servicios básicos en este territorio palestino.
"Repercutirá en todo, el agua potable y la que se usa para lavar, el saneamiento, los hospitales, las escuelas y los niños y niñas", indicó Ahmed al-Amrain, jefe de información de la Autoridad de Recursos Nacionales y de Energía de Palestina.
La Compañía Eléctrica de Israel es responsable de 60 por ciento del consumo de la franja de Gaza, que paga la población gazatí a través de impuestos recaudados por autoridades israelíes.
Además, Gaza compra cinco por ciento de su consumo a Egipto y trata de cubrir el restante 35 por ciento con plantas solares, pese a que durante el bombardeo israelí de 2006 fueron destruidos seis de sus transformadores.
El 26 de noviembre el vicecanciller de Israel, Danny Ayalon, amenazó con cortar la energía eléctrica, el agua y las conexiones a la infraestructura de Gaza, que sirve a los 1,6 millones de habitantes de este territorio palestino.
"Este es el verdadero significado de castigo colectivo", indicó Jaber Wishah, subdirector del Centro Palestino de Derechos Humanos. "Niños, niñas, mujeres, ancianos, pacientes, estudiantes, todos son amenazados", añadió.
Tras las elecciones parlamentarias de 2006, en las que Hamás (acrónimo árabe de Movimiento de Resistencia Islámica) obtuvo la mayoría, Israel sometió a Gaza a un asedio cada vez más estricto, privando a los palestinos de bienes esenciales y básicos, como animales de cría, medicamentos, maquinaria, repuestos y gasóleo para las centrales de generación eléctrica.
"Desde hace años, Israel corta sin cesar la electricidad y destruye infraestructura, pero esta es la primera vez que amenaza directamente con suspender todo", remarcó Wishah. "Es absurdo chantajear a la población por cuestiones políticas", añadió.
Además es ilegal.
Wishah y la organización israelí de derechos humanos Gisha, señalaron que Israel mantiene una ocupación militar y controla la franja de Gaza, pese al retiro en 2005 de colonos judíos y bases del ejército.
La legislación internacional estipula que el estado judío es responsable del bienestar de los gazatíes y debe garantizar la electricidad, el agua y el buen funcionamiento de la infraestructura, señaló Gisha.
Desde 2007, Israel limita el ingreso a Gaza de combustible y gasóleo industrial, lo que genera cortes de electricidad en todo el territorio de entre ocho y 12 horas y perturba los servicios de agua, saneamiento, salud y educación.
"Técnicos palestinos, y la compañía de electricidad israelí, pidieron al gobierno que reparara la línea principal que se dañó. Pero se negó", indicó Ahmed al-Amrain.
La falta de electricidad "obligará a las familias a comprar gasóleo para hacer funcionar pequeños generadores domésticos, propensos a causar accidentes graves y quemaduras", apuntó.
Más de 100 palestinos murieron en 2009 y el primer trimestre de 2010, según un informe de la organización humanitaria Oxfam, debido a incendios provocados por generadores domésticos y a la inhalación de monóxido de carbono.
Son aparatos que permiten el funcionamiento de maquinas vitales durante los cortes de energía, pero no sirven para otros servicios como el lavado de ropa.
"No hay suficiente electricidad", indicó Amrain. "Hay solo para emergencias y por periodos cortos, no de forma continua. No son una solución alternativa", remarcó.
"Será una catástrofe si Israel corta la electricidad. La mitad de la población no tendrá agua", indicó Maher Najjar, de la Empresa de Agua de las Municipalidades Costeras de Gaza.
Actualmente 95 por ciento del agua subterránea no es potable, de acuerdo a estándares de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), que señala que los nitratos, que se cree son cancerígenos, ascienden a 330 miligramos por litro, muy por encima de los 50 miligramos aceptados.
"Desde 2000 tenemos planes para reparar y ampliar proyectos de agua en Gaza, pero hasta ahora solo siete de los 100 fueron terminados", indicó Najjar.
Solo 10 por ciento de los 1,6 millones de gazatíes tienen agua todos los días, 40 por ciento, cada dos días y una proporción similar cada tres días, en tanto 10 por ciento tiene una vez cada cuatro días, detalló.
"Israel perforó unos 1.000 pozos alrededor de la franja de Gaza para propio uso. Corta el flujo de agua antes de que llegue aquí", observó. Najjar.
Mekorot, la compañía israelí de agua, suministra solo cinco por ciento del recurso, pero lo que más preocupa a la población es el corte de electricidad y de otros servicios. "El cloro es vital para purificar el agua. Sin él, no podemos extraer ni una sola gota", explicó.
Ya se vierten al mar 80 millones de litros de aguas servidas al día, parcialmente tratadas o sin ningún tratamiento, debido a la falta de instalaciones adecuadas para hacerlo o de electricidad suficiente.
La OMS registró en 2008 niveles peligrosos de bacterias fecales en un tercio de la costa de Gaza. Dos años después, la Agencia de las Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados de Palestina señaló que diarrea aguda hemorrágica y hepatitis viral son las principales causas de la morbilidad en este territorio.
"Necesitamos tener electricidad de forma continua para bombear las aguas servidas a las plantas de tratamiento", indicó Najjar. "Los generadores son alternativas para los cortes de electricidad, pero sin un suministro continuo, los desperdicios inundarán las calles", alertó.
Una pileta de aguas residuales de Beit Lahiya se desbordó en agosto de 2007 y murieron ahogados cinco residentes de una aldea vecina.
Hamás sostiene que aceptará un estado palestino dentro de las fronteras de 1967, que Israel todavía debe definir, pero sigue desdibujando al ampliar los asentamientos ilegales en los territorios palestinos que ocupa.
"Creo que la amenaza de los israelíes es seria", indicó Wishah. "Porque no les importa la opinión ni las leyes ni convenciones internacionales, como las de Ginebra, que firmaron y que prohíben el castigo colectivo. Se sienten por encima de la ley y están por fuera de toda persecución legal", añadió.
http://www.ipsnoticias.net/nota.asp?idnews=99774
sexta-feira, 9 de dezembro de 2011
LIBERTAD PARA ISRA SALHAB
The Beirut Herald بيروت هيرالد http://www.thebeirutherald.com.ar (Argentina)
thebeirutherald@yahoo.fr
9 Diciembre 2011, Al-Ajad 12 Muharram 1433,Año:XVI-Año:1 Nº:108
THE SACRED HANDIWORK OF POETRY PALS
9 December 2011, Shalom Rav http://rabbibrant.com (USA)
By Rabbi Brant Rosen
This past week I had the pleasure of visiting the Muslim Community Center school (MCC) in Morton Grove, IL to witness an inspiring session of Poetry Pals in action.
PP is a non-profit that brings children together from diverse and interfaith communities for partnership, expression and friendship through poetry, spoken word, music and art. At this particular workshop, fourth graders from MCC, Solomon Schecter Jewish Day School and Sacred Heart Catholic School gathered together in the MCC gym. After a brief learning session and tour from the principal, they came back together to get to know one another by engaging in a variety of creative poetry writing exercises.
So simple and yet so very powerful. With news about religious intolerance blaring at us from every corner, I wish I could start every day this way: watching children wearing hijabs, kippot and Catholic school uniforms talking, playing, laughing and writing poetry together. I am so grateful to PP founder (and JRC member) Donna Yates for inviting me to witness their sacred handiwork.
Local efforts such as Poetry Pals are eminently worthy of our support. Click here to do so.
By Rabbi Brant Rosen
This past week I had the pleasure of visiting the Muslim Community Center school (MCC) in Morton Grove, IL to witness an inspiring session of Poetry Pals in action.
PP is a non-profit that brings children together from diverse and interfaith communities for partnership, expression and friendship through poetry, spoken word, music and art. At this particular workshop, fourth graders from MCC, Solomon Schecter Jewish Day School and Sacred Heart Catholic School gathered together in the MCC gym. After a brief learning session and tour from the principal, they came back together to get to know one another by engaging in a variety of creative poetry writing exercises.
So simple and yet so very powerful. With news about religious intolerance blaring at us from every corner, I wish I could start every day this way: watching children wearing hijabs, kippot and Catholic school uniforms talking, playing, laughing and writing poetry together. I am so grateful to PP founder (and JRC member) Donna Yates for inviting me to witness their sacred handiwork.
Local efforts such as Poetry Pals are eminently worthy of our support. Click here to do so.
ISRAELI VETERAN ACTIVIST WARNS AGAINST 'NEO-FASCIST' LEGISLATION
9 december 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)
Uri Avnery, whose Haolam Hazeh magazine was the target of past anti-libel legislation, says the current 'anti-democratic' wave of bills will affect all levels of society, and the media aren't doing much to help the situation
By Ofra Edelman
When Israel's so-called Libel Law was passed in 1965, Uri Avnery, editor of the weekly Haolam Hazeh, declared war from the pages of his decidedly left-leaning magazine.
"It's either go to the Knesset or go to jail," he wrote. As in any other war, he added, "this editorial staff has operated as a journalistic commando squad for 15 years, with commando techniques, in the spirit of commandos. Now, we are being compelled to act as political commandos. We will make our way into the electoral system as commandos. We will operate as commandos in the Knesset."
Avnery, who was born in Germany in 1923, decided to run for a Knesset seat in the hope he could win diplomatic immunity for both himself and his magazine against libel suits.
"The Libel Law ... has been passed because Haolam Hazeh threatens the regime's existence," he wrote. "If they are saying that there is no room in one country for both this regime and Haolam Hazeh, and thus we have to liquidate Haolam Hazeh, then we have to reply: Correct, there is no room in one country for this regime and for Haolam Hazeh, so we have to liquidate this regime. And we are going to liquidate it."
Sitting in the living room of his home in Tel Aviv this week, Avnery shared his recollections of that time.
"The law was adopted on the final day of the Fifth Knesset, in the summer of 1965, and the press, the media in general, woke up to the matter only at the last minute," he says. "They did not take it seriously. Nobody thought that such a thing could even pass."
Avnery recalls that he "had decided beforehand that if this law passed, I would form a party to run for Knesset. We listened to the news and when it became clear that the Knesset had adopted the defamation law, I said, that's it, I'm going to the Knesset. We launched a war against the law."
The 1965 statute, which has been changed to some extent over the years by legislative amendments, toughened the demands placed on media outlets that are sued for defamation: It required them to prove conclusively that their publication of certain information served the public interest. It expanded the definitions of libel, mentioning the specific position-holders in the media who would be held responsible for acts of defamation. This section of the law specifically named the "head of the editorial staff," a position that Avnery says existed at the time only at Haolam Hazeh.
The clause made Avnery think the law was directed at his publication, and that it was the latest in a series of attempts to silence him. These included an ad boycott of Haolam Hazeh by the state and the Histadrut labor federation; complaints against the weekly, which sometimes published nude photographs of women, based on obscenity laws; and physical assaults on staff members.
In elections to the Sixth Knesset, Avnery mustered about 14,000 votes, enough to pass the threshold and gain a seat for himself.
'Competition of insanity'
"Lethal," is how Avnery describes the current amendment to the bill drafted by MKs Meir Sheetrit (Kadima) and Yariv Levin (Likud), which would broaden the scope of compensation set in the 1965 law from NIS 50,000 to NIS 300,000 without need to prove damage.
Avnery says the threat of monetary damages can be much more damning to journalism than the threat of jail.
"Everyone has an editor and the editor has a publisher and the publisher has an owner," he says. "What this means is that no one will publish a story that has even the slightest doubt. Please don't think I am against defamation laws. Absolutely, the press can be reckless, just like every other body. Democratic defamation laws are not improper - on the contrary," he adds. "Yet on the other hand, the more esteemed and exalted you are, the weaker the defamation laws should be. Anyone who wants to change that legislation always claims he is doing it for the little guy. But his true intentions are always aimed at the big guys. No one cares what happens to the little guy."
Avnery says the new law is part what he calls a "neo-fascist anti-democratic" wave of legislation meant to stifle dissent.
In your opinion, what is this wave of legislation stemming from?
"Today, before the Likud primary, it is intended to draw attention. After all, what is the object of a Knesset member? I say this from experience: From the moment a Knesset member is elected, he has one objective in life - to be reelected - and he dedicates four years to that end. That is why he needs to get into the media, and that is why, short of killing his own mother, he is willing to do anything and everything.
"A person comes, tries to have a totally insane legislative bill passed, while his sole objective is to get a headline the next day, with a big photo of him. Haaretz comes out the next day, giving him a quarter-page with a dazzling picture - and, hey, you are encouraging him to do it. Another MK sees that and thinks: Why, I'll propose something even more monstrous ... So there is this sort of competition of insanity, of gluttony."
But if a newspaper didn't report on such a legislative bill, you would scream bloody murder, that it failed to fill its function.
"However, it is also possible to run the story in a different, not so grandiose, manner. Not with a flattering photo. The obligation to report exists, but not to award a prize to someone. This is how a suicidal media operates.
"Subconsciously, the normal reader is influenced not only by what is written, but also by the intensiveness of the emotion invested in the article. Is this thing good, or is it not very nice, or is it something terrible and tragic that serves those who would destroy Israel? What I am missing here is a moral emotionalism, condemning these new laws."
What, in your opinion, should journalists do? Does everyone have to run for Knesset to receive immunity?
"It helps. That's what I did."
That's a pretty big step to take.
"I exploited it infrequently, but when I did exploit it, I did so in full. I am in favor of personal sanctions against anyone who proposes these laws: not running a photo [of them] or anything flattering in a paper, and not allowing media interviews. This is something that should be thought of more often. It wouldn't harm freedom of reporting, but it would make it possible to punish people.
"Nevertheless, the first thing that should have been done is to call a strike. That is clear, so that the public would begin to understand ... The public only knows there is some sort of argument going on over some sort of law, it doesn't understand and neither is it all that interested. Most certainly, it doesn't think that it affects the public. And if the press itself is not taking measures to make it clear to the reader or the viewer that this is important or serious, why should someone else think so? The first thing that should have been done is to call a strike, as happened then.
"We have to organize a very broad front, to rescue democracy, and the front should start with the idea that the public at large doesn't even understand why this affects it. The public thinks: So it'll be this judge and not that judge, what's the difference? The media? So they will be a little more careful, that would be very good, right? The nongovernmental organizations? Who even needs them? Taking money from abroad? A scandal. Social protest? Okay, it happened, now we've moved on. People don't understand that it pertains to their lives, to their wages. Today's generation in Israel never lived under a nondemocratic regime.
"Can anyone even imagine what it means to live under a regime in which if you do not sign a declaration in favor of a certain party and you are the chief physician in a brain-surgery department - the next day you are washing windows? Can anyone even imagine such a thing that journalists are being killed in the street, as is happening in Russia? ... People don't get it, they don't make the connection.
"First, you have to explain to the public that it affects them. It's not a matter of 'the higher-ups' quarreling among themselves. ... It is that tomorrow the police arrest you for a crime you did not commit, and there won't be a newspaper that will publish the story, because the papers will be banned from publicizing the arrests of individuals, and people will begin to disappear from the street and might disappear completely, as happened in Argentina ... on the pretext that it protects the citizens. This affects every person in the country. It is not something abstract, not some theoretical disagreement between the parliamentarians and the judges."
In a column that you wrote, you draw a link between present-day legislation and the collapse of the Weimar republic.
"I was nine when the Nazis came to power, and as a child in a very political household I was very much aware of what happened. Especially when the child sees what is going on, in a very visual way: the uniforms, the parades, the music. So I know how the republic fell. I was aware of it, stage by stage, one small step followed by another small step, and then the whole thing collapsed. Collapsed because the public did not understand why it was important. The public did not summon up from within the emotional strength to oppose.
"When I see the first sign, that first red light goes on for me. I wake up a little earlier than the others. Others are waking up, too, but it takes time. At the beginning they said to us: How can you make a comparison to Nazi Germany? How could you even compare the two? So it doesn't have to be Nazi Germany, which truly was unique in human history ... It doesn't have to be Hitler - what about Mussolini? And if not Mussolini, how about Franco? Or Pinochet in Chile? Or the colonels in Greece? And if not any of these, how about Ceausescu, or Putin now? There are so many levels - from the very worst to the less worst, but each of them creates hell."
And where are we in the hierarchal ranking you described?
"We are past the first step. We are far from the last step, but in my opinion it is the first step that determines where it will head. The barricades have fallen. Things that are not to be believed are being believed. Things that it would have been impossible to imagine are imaginable, and that is one small step, but a very decisive step. Our nerve endings are beginning to be dulled. But civil rights aren't 'left.' They don't have to do with 'left'. Civil rights affect every individual.
"How do you impart to the common citizen that the struggle is his struggle? That the freedom of expression is his? That the High Court of Justice is his? That the democracy is his? This is where you need a public campaign the likes of which there's never been. Ultimately, we are speaking of Israel's future, the future of our lives. An undemocratic state won't last, it's as simple as that."
Avnery paraphrases the famous poem by German pacifist Martin Niemoller, "First they came..." about public silence in the face of encroaching fascism, as describing what is happening in Israel today.
"This is one of the most profound statements," he explains. "And you could translate it into today's reality: First they came to destroy the court, then they came to destroy the media, then they came to destroy the NGOs, I was silent - in the end, when I will want to protest, I will not be able to, because there will not be anyone before whom I can do so ... and that will be dangerous. People don't understand."
Uri Avnery, whose Haolam Hazeh magazine was the target of past anti-libel legislation, says the current 'anti-democratic' wave of bills will affect all levels of society, and the media aren't doing much to help the situation
By Ofra Edelman
When Israel's so-called Libel Law was passed in 1965, Uri Avnery, editor of the weekly Haolam Hazeh, declared war from the pages of his decidedly left-leaning magazine.
"It's either go to the Knesset or go to jail," he wrote. As in any other war, he added, "this editorial staff has operated as a journalistic commando squad for 15 years, with commando techniques, in the spirit of commandos. Now, we are being compelled to act as political commandos. We will make our way into the electoral system as commandos. We will operate as commandos in the Knesset."
Avnery, who was born in Germany in 1923, decided to run for a Knesset seat in the hope he could win diplomatic immunity for both himself and his magazine against libel suits.
"The Libel Law ... has been passed because Haolam Hazeh threatens the regime's existence," he wrote. "If they are saying that there is no room in one country for both this regime and Haolam Hazeh, and thus we have to liquidate Haolam Hazeh, then we have to reply: Correct, there is no room in one country for this regime and for Haolam Hazeh, so we have to liquidate this regime. And we are going to liquidate it."
Sitting in the living room of his home in Tel Aviv this week, Avnery shared his recollections of that time.
"The law was adopted on the final day of the Fifth Knesset, in the summer of 1965, and the press, the media in general, woke up to the matter only at the last minute," he says. "They did not take it seriously. Nobody thought that such a thing could even pass."
Avnery recalls that he "had decided beforehand that if this law passed, I would form a party to run for Knesset. We listened to the news and when it became clear that the Knesset had adopted the defamation law, I said, that's it, I'm going to the Knesset. We launched a war against the law."
The 1965 statute, which has been changed to some extent over the years by legislative amendments, toughened the demands placed on media outlets that are sued for defamation: It required them to prove conclusively that their publication of certain information served the public interest. It expanded the definitions of libel, mentioning the specific position-holders in the media who would be held responsible for acts of defamation. This section of the law specifically named the "head of the editorial staff," a position that Avnery says existed at the time only at Haolam Hazeh.
The clause made Avnery think the law was directed at his publication, and that it was the latest in a series of attempts to silence him. These included an ad boycott of Haolam Hazeh by the state and the Histadrut labor federation; complaints against the weekly, which sometimes published nude photographs of women, based on obscenity laws; and physical assaults on staff members.
In elections to the Sixth Knesset, Avnery mustered about 14,000 votes, enough to pass the threshold and gain a seat for himself.
'Competition of insanity'
"Lethal," is how Avnery describes the current amendment to the bill drafted by MKs Meir Sheetrit (Kadima) and Yariv Levin (Likud), which would broaden the scope of compensation set in the 1965 law from NIS 50,000 to NIS 300,000 without need to prove damage.
Avnery says the threat of monetary damages can be much more damning to journalism than the threat of jail.
"Everyone has an editor and the editor has a publisher and the publisher has an owner," he says. "What this means is that no one will publish a story that has even the slightest doubt. Please don't think I am against defamation laws. Absolutely, the press can be reckless, just like every other body. Democratic defamation laws are not improper - on the contrary," he adds. "Yet on the other hand, the more esteemed and exalted you are, the weaker the defamation laws should be. Anyone who wants to change that legislation always claims he is doing it for the little guy. But his true intentions are always aimed at the big guys. No one cares what happens to the little guy."
Avnery says the new law is part what he calls a "neo-fascist anti-democratic" wave of legislation meant to stifle dissent.
In your opinion, what is this wave of legislation stemming from?
"Today, before the Likud primary, it is intended to draw attention. After all, what is the object of a Knesset member? I say this from experience: From the moment a Knesset member is elected, he has one objective in life - to be reelected - and he dedicates four years to that end. That is why he needs to get into the media, and that is why, short of killing his own mother, he is willing to do anything and everything.
"A person comes, tries to have a totally insane legislative bill passed, while his sole objective is to get a headline the next day, with a big photo of him. Haaretz comes out the next day, giving him a quarter-page with a dazzling picture - and, hey, you are encouraging him to do it. Another MK sees that and thinks: Why, I'll propose something even more monstrous ... So there is this sort of competition of insanity, of gluttony."
But if a newspaper didn't report on such a legislative bill, you would scream bloody murder, that it failed to fill its function.
"However, it is also possible to run the story in a different, not so grandiose, manner. Not with a flattering photo. The obligation to report exists, but not to award a prize to someone. This is how a suicidal media operates.
"Subconsciously, the normal reader is influenced not only by what is written, but also by the intensiveness of the emotion invested in the article. Is this thing good, or is it not very nice, or is it something terrible and tragic that serves those who would destroy Israel? What I am missing here is a moral emotionalism, condemning these new laws."
What, in your opinion, should journalists do? Does everyone have to run for Knesset to receive immunity?
"It helps. That's what I did."
That's a pretty big step to take.
"I exploited it infrequently, but when I did exploit it, I did so in full. I am in favor of personal sanctions against anyone who proposes these laws: not running a photo [of them] or anything flattering in a paper, and not allowing media interviews. This is something that should be thought of more often. It wouldn't harm freedom of reporting, but it would make it possible to punish people.
"Nevertheless, the first thing that should have been done is to call a strike. That is clear, so that the public would begin to understand ... The public only knows there is some sort of argument going on over some sort of law, it doesn't understand and neither is it all that interested. Most certainly, it doesn't think that it affects the public. And if the press itself is not taking measures to make it clear to the reader or the viewer that this is important or serious, why should someone else think so? The first thing that should have been done is to call a strike, as happened then.
"We have to organize a very broad front, to rescue democracy, and the front should start with the idea that the public at large doesn't even understand why this affects it. The public thinks: So it'll be this judge and not that judge, what's the difference? The media? So they will be a little more careful, that would be very good, right? The nongovernmental organizations? Who even needs them? Taking money from abroad? A scandal. Social protest? Okay, it happened, now we've moved on. People don't understand that it pertains to their lives, to their wages. Today's generation in Israel never lived under a nondemocratic regime.
"Can anyone even imagine what it means to live under a regime in which if you do not sign a declaration in favor of a certain party and you are the chief physician in a brain-surgery department - the next day you are washing windows? Can anyone even imagine such a thing that journalists are being killed in the street, as is happening in Russia? ... People don't get it, they don't make the connection.
"First, you have to explain to the public that it affects them. It's not a matter of 'the higher-ups' quarreling among themselves. ... It is that tomorrow the police arrest you for a crime you did not commit, and there won't be a newspaper that will publish the story, because the papers will be banned from publicizing the arrests of individuals, and people will begin to disappear from the street and might disappear completely, as happened in Argentina ... on the pretext that it protects the citizens. This affects every person in the country. It is not something abstract, not some theoretical disagreement between the parliamentarians and the judges."
In a column that you wrote, you draw a link between present-day legislation and the collapse of the Weimar republic.
"I was nine when the Nazis came to power, and as a child in a very political household I was very much aware of what happened. Especially when the child sees what is going on, in a very visual way: the uniforms, the parades, the music. So I know how the republic fell. I was aware of it, stage by stage, one small step followed by another small step, and then the whole thing collapsed. Collapsed because the public did not understand why it was important. The public did not summon up from within the emotional strength to oppose.
"When I see the first sign, that first red light goes on for me. I wake up a little earlier than the others. Others are waking up, too, but it takes time. At the beginning they said to us: How can you make a comparison to Nazi Germany? How could you even compare the two? So it doesn't have to be Nazi Germany, which truly was unique in human history ... It doesn't have to be Hitler - what about Mussolini? And if not Mussolini, how about Franco? Or Pinochet in Chile? Or the colonels in Greece? And if not any of these, how about Ceausescu, or Putin now? There are so many levels - from the very worst to the less worst, but each of them creates hell."
And where are we in the hierarchal ranking you described?
"We are past the first step. We are far from the last step, but in my opinion it is the first step that determines where it will head. The barricades have fallen. Things that are not to be believed are being believed. Things that it would have been impossible to imagine are imaginable, and that is one small step, but a very decisive step. Our nerve endings are beginning to be dulled. But civil rights aren't 'left.' They don't have to do with 'left'. Civil rights affect every individual.
"How do you impart to the common citizen that the struggle is his struggle? That the freedom of expression is his? That the High Court of Justice is his? That the democracy is his? This is where you need a public campaign the likes of which there's never been. Ultimately, we are speaking of Israel's future, the future of our lives. An undemocratic state won't last, it's as simple as that."
Avnery paraphrases the famous poem by German pacifist Martin Niemoller, "First they came..." about public silence in the face of encroaching fascism, as describing what is happening in Israel today.
"This is one of the most profound statements," he explains. "And you could translate it into today's reality: First they came to destroy the court, then they came to destroy the media, then they came to destroy the NGOs, I was silent - in the end, when I will want to protest, I will not be able to, because there will not be anyone before whom I can do so ... and that will be dangerous. People don't understand."
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