21 Agosto 2011, Centro de Información Alternativa (AIC) המרכז לאינפורמציה אלטרנטיבית
Mikaela Levin
"Esto es un castigo colectivo por los ataque en Eilat", sentenció un joven palestino apenas minutos después que cien jeeps militares israelíes se retiraran de la zona palestina conocida como H1, en el centro de Hebrón. Las redadas de anoche fueron de las más importantes de los últimos años. El número de detenidos es aún incierto; citando a un funcionario de Hamas la agencia de noticias de Ma´an habló de 120 detenidos, mientras que testigos denunciaron entre 55 y 75. Según esta última fuente, los soldados israelíes irrumpieron durante la madrugada con una lista de nombres de presuntas personas cercanas o miembros de Hamas. Más o menos al mismo tiempo, otro grupo de soldados israelíes entraba en el campo de refugiados de Duheisha en Belén. El AIC pudo confirmar una detención allí, la de un periodista de 26 años de la emisora afiliada a Hamas, Al-Aqsa.
Según la información que pudieron recoger activistas internacionales anoche en Hebrón, los cien jeep israelíes entraron a la ciudad alrededor de la medianoche y fueron casa por casa hasta las 2.30 o las 3 de la madrugada. Durante este período de tiempo, cerraron las entradas a la ciudad palestina; la policía de la Autoridad Palestina brilló por su ausencia durante las redadas.
Los soldados irrumpieron casa por casa, hasta que tacharon todos los nombres de su lista o, al menos, todas las direcciones. "En una casa, como no encontraron a la persona que buscaban, se llevaron a su padre de 60 años", informó más tarde un activista internacional.
Durante el día, la ciudad volvió al ritmo lento y tranquilo de Ramadán. Había más soldados israelíes de lo usual en los check points adentro y en los alrededores de la región H1 de Hebrón, pero los refuerzos estaban allí desde la semana pasada. A lo largo de los últimos días, los activistas internacionales que ayudan a observar y denunciar los constantes abusos militares contra la población palestina tuvieron que entregar en repetidas ocasiones sus pasaportes a los soldados en los check point. Los militares los fotografiaron antes de devolvérselos.
El endurecimiento del aparato militar no se veía ayer sólo en Hebrón, sino a lo largo de toda Cisjordania. El Ejército israelí instaló check points flotantes en las rutas que comunican las principales ciudades palestinas. Después del mediodía, podía llevar casi más de cuatro horas para ir desde Ramala hasta Hebrón, un viaje que normalmente tarda un poco más de una hora. A los dos check points fijos que controlan las entradas de las dos ciudades, las autoridades israelíes agregaron ayer otros dos check points flotantes.
Hacia el norte, el Ejército levantó otros dos check points flotantes: uno cerca de Qabir Hilweh, al este de Belén, y uno al lado de Eizariyya en Jerusalén Este. Según publicó la agencia de noticias Ma´an, los autos palestinos esperaron hasta tres horas para poder pasar.
Esta área también fue uno de los objetivos de las redadas de anoche. El epicentro fue el campo de refugiados de Duheisha. Hasta ahora sólo hay una detención confirmada, la de Usayd, un periodista e hijo de un clérigo local, Sheikh Abdul-Majid Ata Amarna. Su hermano le contó a un grupo de activistas internacionales que los soldados allanaron su casa justo antes de la oración matutina sin dar ninguna explicación. Cuando su primo les pidió a los militares que no se llevaran al joven camarógrafo, le dispararon en una pierna y se lo llevaron también. Supuestamente lo llevaron a un hospital, pero su familia no sabía a cuál. Según publicó más tarde la agencia Ma´an, el joven de 27 años fue internado en el hospital de Hadassah en Jerusalén.
Vecinos del campo de refugiados recordaron que antes de irrumpir en la casa del clérigo los soldados saltaron a los techos de las casas lindantes para "asegurar" la zona. Siempre según estas fuentes, las fuerzas de seguridad israelíes también dirigieron una emboscada anoche en el pueblo de Artas, a sólo cuatro kilómetros al suroeste de Belén. Sin embargo, esta operación militar aún no ha podido ser confirmada.
La tensión y la violencia están escalando en Cisjordania desde los ataques del jueves pasado en Eilat, pero estos no son conceptos nuevos para los palestinos. Durante las últimas semanas, las fuerzas militares israelíes irrumpieron en campos de refugiados durante la madrugada y mataron, hirieron y detuvieron a jóvenes palestinos. Durante el día, se ocuparon de reprimir cruentamente las protestas anti-ocupación y de detener a incontables activistas palestinos, israelíes e internacionales. El mismo modus operando; la misma justificación.
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segunda-feira, 22 de agosto de 2011
quarta-feira, 3 de agosto de 2011
MK Zoabi: “Racism is Part of the Ruling Consensus in Israel”
31 July 2011, Alternative Information Center המרכז לאינפורמציה אלטרנטיבית
http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)
Nikki Hodgson and Mikaela Levin for the Alternative Information Center (AIC)
“When it comes to the rights of Palestinians in Israel, there is no difference between opposition and coalition.” The AIC interviews MK Hanin Zoabi, who is concerned that racism has become part of Israeli national consensus, and everything outside of this must now be criminalized.
Since she was sanctioned for her participation in the first Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi (National Democratic Assembly) spends most days inside her office in the Knesset. Her desk is overflowing with papers, the small coffee table on the side is occupied with used tea mugs and some treats; in one corner, facing her desk, a television is broadcasting live the debate on the Knesset floor.
As of Monday 18 July, MK Zoabi is unable to participate in Knesset general debates or even speak in parliamentary committees until the end of this year’s parliamentary sessions, at the end of July. “I can just vote”, explains the Palestinian politician, with a half smile of open resignation. Throughout the entire interview with the Alternative Information Center (AIC), Zoabi will not take her eyes off the screen for more than a minute; she doesn’t want to miss the chance to exercise her last remaining right as a democratic elected MK: expressing her minority vote.
- Do you think you can still promote change from within the Knesset?
Promote change...mmmm, yeah! (She laughs). Definitely. The event of the Flotilla proved how crucial our presence in the Knesset is. It is ironic. The fact that they restrict our movements and incite against us indicates that we are really challenging their policies. Because if you don't challenge their policies, if you don't make a difference, if our existence as the National Democratic Assembly was insignificant to them, they could simply marginalise us, let us do whatever we want. The fact that they are so racist against us, the fact that they are doing everything in order to incite against, is proof that we are bothering them; we are not making their life easy.
Zoabi refuses to yield to pessimism. It’s been more than a year since she gained global fame with her participation in the Freedom Flotilla on board the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship on which nine activists died and dozens were injured after it was attacked by an elite Israeli naval force. Since then Zoabi has become accustomed to the insults and aggressive comebacks of her fellow MKs, both from the right and the centre. As she said, “when it comes to the rights of Palestinians in Israel, there is no difference between opposition and coalition”. “When I could still participate in Knesset committees, every time I used to speak, someone would say ‘yeah, you are in the Flotilla so go to the Flotilla and go to Gaza’. I talked about kindergartens and about children and they would say ‘you can go to Gaza’. I spoke of the confiscation of lands and they would say ‘it is better to go to Gaza’, she recalled, laughing carelessly.
A month after the first Flotilla was attacked and their passengers detained and deported, MK Zoabi received the first sanction from her colleagues. She was stripped of three of her parliamentary privileges: her diplomatic passport, funds for any legal counseling and the right to visit countries with which Israel doesn’t have diplomatic relations. “It's just hatred,” Zoabi explained. In this Knesset irrational racism exists. Maybe in the previous Knesset there was a more rational racism, a more sophisticated racism; but now it's very basic, very direct”.
This “irrational racism” is part of the new ruling consensus in Israel, Zoabi continues. “A lot of people now think that Jewish values are more important than democratic values. This obsession with judaising everything...the children in schools have no idea what democracy means, or equality. When you obsessively teach them Zionist values, they will grow up with the conclusion that there are no Palestinians citizens here. It's a psychological ethnic cleansing. They teach them to recognize the Palestinian as an enemy, but not to recognize him in daily life, as a citizen, as a partner in this home land,” warns Zoabi, losing her relaxed manner for a moment.
For Zoabi, the sole Palestinian woman in the Knesset, the main difference between the current government and the previous ones is not racism (“Israel has been a Jewish state since 1948, that is not something new”), but the criminalisation of everything outside of this consensus. The recently approved anti-boycott law if proof of that. “The settlements are part of Israel and that is not negotiable. This way of thinking is delegitimising politics as such, because now everything is part of a consensus and whatever is outside this consensus is criminalised. This is the dramatic effect of this government”, Zoabi asserts, before turning her eyes for a last time to the TV. The last speech is about to finish; she can finally take her seat on the floor of the Knesset and vote against the creation of an investigative committee on the funding sources of Israeli human rights organizations.
http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)
Nikki Hodgson and Mikaela Levin for the Alternative Information Center (AIC)
“When it comes to the rights of Palestinians in Israel, there is no difference between opposition and coalition.” The AIC interviews MK Hanin Zoabi, who is concerned that racism has become part of Israeli national consensus, and everything outside of this must now be criminalized.
Since she was sanctioned for her participation in the first Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi (National Democratic Assembly) spends most days inside her office in the Knesset. Her desk is overflowing with papers, the small coffee table on the side is occupied with used tea mugs and some treats; in one corner, facing her desk, a television is broadcasting live the debate on the Knesset floor.
As of Monday 18 July, MK Zoabi is unable to participate in Knesset general debates or even speak in parliamentary committees until the end of this year’s parliamentary sessions, at the end of July. “I can just vote”, explains the Palestinian politician, with a half smile of open resignation. Throughout the entire interview with the Alternative Information Center (AIC), Zoabi will not take her eyes off the screen for more than a minute; she doesn’t want to miss the chance to exercise her last remaining right as a democratic elected MK: expressing her minority vote.
- Do you think you can still promote change from within the Knesset?
Promote change...mmmm, yeah! (She laughs). Definitely. The event of the Flotilla proved how crucial our presence in the Knesset is. It is ironic. The fact that they restrict our movements and incite against us indicates that we are really challenging their policies. Because if you don't challenge their policies, if you don't make a difference, if our existence as the National Democratic Assembly was insignificant to them, they could simply marginalise us, let us do whatever we want. The fact that they are so racist against us, the fact that they are doing everything in order to incite against, is proof that we are bothering them; we are not making their life easy.
Zoabi refuses to yield to pessimism. It’s been more than a year since she gained global fame with her participation in the Freedom Flotilla on board the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship on which nine activists died and dozens were injured after it was attacked by an elite Israeli naval force. Since then Zoabi has become accustomed to the insults and aggressive comebacks of her fellow MKs, both from the right and the centre. As she said, “when it comes to the rights of Palestinians in Israel, there is no difference between opposition and coalition”. “When I could still participate in Knesset committees, every time I used to speak, someone would say ‘yeah, you are in the Flotilla so go to the Flotilla and go to Gaza’. I talked about kindergartens and about children and they would say ‘you can go to Gaza’. I spoke of the confiscation of lands and they would say ‘it is better to go to Gaza’, she recalled, laughing carelessly.
A month after the first Flotilla was attacked and their passengers detained and deported, MK Zoabi received the first sanction from her colleagues. She was stripped of three of her parliamentary privileges: her diplomatic passport, funds for any legal counseling and the right to visit countries with which Israel doesn’t have diplomatic relations. “It's just hatred,” Zoabi explained. In this Knesset irrational racism exists. Maybe in the previous Knesset there was a more rational racism, a more sophisticated racism; but now it's very basic, very direct”.
This “irrational racism” is part of the new ruling consensus in Israel, Zoabi continues. “A lot of people now think that Jewish values are more important than democratic values. This obsession with judaising everything...the children in schools have no idea what democracy means, or equality. When you obsessively teach them Zionist values, they will grow up with the conclusion that there are no Palestinians citizens here. It's a psychological ethnic cleansing. They teach them to recognize the Palestinian as an enemy, but not to recognize him in daily life, as a citizen, as a partner in this home land,” warns Zoabi, losing her relaxed manner for a moment.
For Zoabi, the sole Palestinian woman in the Knesset, the main difference between the current government and the previous ones is not racism (“Israel has been a Jewish state since 1948, that is not something new”), but the criminalisation of everything outside of this consensus. The recently approved anti-boycott law if proof of that. “The settlements are part of Israel and that is not negotiable. This way of thinking is delegitimising politics as such, because now everything is part of a consensus and whatever is outside this consensus is criminalised. This is the dramatic effect of this government”, Zoabi asserts, before turning her eyes for a last time to the TV. The last speech is about to finish; she can finally take her seat on the floor of the Knesset and vote against the creation of an investigative committee on the funding sources of Israeli human rights organizations.
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