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

Israeli station airs footage of soldiers attacking handcuffed, blindfolded Palestinian

1 December 2011, Mondoweiss http://mondoweiss.net (USA)

Via Sama News

http://www.samanews.com/index.php?act=Show&id=112284&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=99ab316d85-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email

شاهد الفيديو..جنديان اسرائيليان ينكلان بفلسطيني..سنكسر رجليك ويديك ونحرمك من الحركة

القدس المحتلة / سما / نشرت القناة الثانية الاسرائيلية خلال نشرتها التلفزيونية الليلة الماضية فيديو لجنديين اسرائيليين يقومان بالتنكيل وبتعذيب فلسطينيين.
هذا وباشرت الشرطة الامنية الاسرائيلية التحقيق في الفيديوهات، وحسب ما ظهر في الفيديو الذي نشرته القناة الثانية والذي تداوله الجنود في هواتفهم الخليوية، ان الجنديين يقومان بالبداية بالاستهزاء بالشاب ليتطور الأمر الى حد الاعتداء عليه والتنكيل به.
ويظهر الفيديو ان الجندي الاسرائيلي يضرب الشاب الفلسطيني ويسأله:" لماذا تسبب المشاكل للجنود"، فأجابه الفلسطيني:"لست انا بل اصدقائي"، فقام الجندي بتوجيه صفعة ثانية للشاب، وقال له"لماذا تكذب؟"، عندها تدخل جندي اسرائيلي اخر كان معصوب العينيين وقام بضربه قائلا:"هذه الصفعة مني لصديقك فلتوصله له"، واستمرا في ضربه، وهدداه بكسر يديه ورجله ومنعه من التحرك، في الوقت الذي كان الشاب يصرخ من شدة ألمه مطالبا بالتوقف عن ضربه، وانه يشعر بالموت جراء الاهانة والتعذيب.
شاهد الفيديو..

PALESTINIAN CHILDREN IMPRISONED IN VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

1 December 2011, Alternative Information Center (AIC) המרכז לאינפורמציה אלטרנטיבית
http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)

Jana Grunewald for the Alternative Information Center

In September 2009 Israel established the Military Youth Court. Two years later, in September 2011 Israel finally met its obligations under international law and raised the age of majority in the military courts from 16 to 18. However, none of these changes brought major improvements in practice and the abuse of Palestinian children arrested and detained by Israeli authorities continues…

(Scores of Palestinian children are in Israeli prisons/photo: flickr/jpmacor)

Since the beginning of the Second Intifada in September 2000, Israel started to deploy administrative detention orders on children. According to international law, administrative detention is only permitted on a very limited scale, especially in concern of minors. In Israel, however, Palestinian children are being detained systematically ever since. Every year there is an approximately 700 Palestinian children arrested by the Israeli military and prosecuted in its courts.

Currently 164 Palestinian children are kept in Israeli detention, mostly being charged with stone throwing. Although it is forbidden by Israeli law to imprison any human being under the age of 14, 35 of the children detained are aged between 12 and 13. It is alarming that minors are arrested and incarcerated in violation of Israeli and international legislation. What is even more disturbing though is the way children are treated during their arrest, interrogation and detention.

Several NGOs that investigated the treatment of minors in Israeli imprisonment, report on physical as well as mental abuse. In many cases minors are arrested in their home during the night and marched off by soldiers without any parental company. The interrogation as well takes place in the absence of a parent and/or an attorney. In many cases, several hours or even days pass until the arrested minors are interrogated at all. While waiting for the interrogation the children concerned are often denied necessary human needs such as sleeping, eating, drinking and going to the toilet. During all stages of the arrest violence is likely to be involved, including choking, punching, slapping, kicking and hair pulling. In addition to that minors are threatened with further violence and even sexual assault.

Another major problem is the fact that there is no alternative to remand until the end of proceedings according to military law, which is mainly applied on Palestinian child detainees. In consequence many children confess to crimes they supposedly committed in order to prevent longer terms of detention. The confessions, minors are forced to sign, are often written in Hebrew, a language that many Palestinian children cannot read.

About 93% of the children convicted of stone throwing between 2005 and 2010 are sentenced to imprisonment, which shows that there is hardly any alternative punishment to incarceration. The length of detention varies greatly, ranging from a few days up to 20 months. The experiences made in detention harm the children’s development severely. Once they are released, the majority of young ex-detainees suffer from various problems, including social, financial and emotional difficulties.

The mistreatment of Palestinian children in Israel’s courts and prisons is constantly ignored. Even the mere awareness of minors enduring imprisonment is missing, which made a current event very obvious: When in October this year Gilat Shalit was freed in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, no one talked about the minors detained; neither did Israel’s authorities nor the international community, nor did Hamas.

“HOLD ME BACK!"

5 november 2011/Gush Shalom גוש שלום http://zope.gush-shalom.org (Israel)

Uri Avnery אורי אבנרי

EVERYBODY KNOWS the scene from school: a small boy quarrels with a bigger boy. “Hold me back!” he shouts to his comrades, “Before I break his bones!”

Our government seems to be behaving in this way. Every day, via all channels, it shouts that it is going, any minute now, to break the bones of Iran.
Iran is about to produce a nuclear bomb. We cannot allow this. So we shall bomb them to smithereens.

Binyamin Netanyahu says so in every one of his countless speeches, including his opening speech at the winter session of the Knesset. Ditto Ehud Barak. Every self-respecting commentator (has anyone ever seen a non-self-respecting one?) writes about it. The media amplify the sound and the fury.

“Haaretz” splashed its front page with pictures of the seven most important ministers (the “security septet”) showing three in favor of the attack, four against.

A GERMAN proverb says: “Revolutions that are announced in advance do not take place.” Same goes for wars.

Nuclear affairs are subject to very strict military censorship. Very very strict indeed.

Yet the censor seems to be smiling benignly. Let the boys, including the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense (the censor's ultimate boss) play their games.

The respected former long-serving chief of the Mossad, Meir Dagan, has publicly warned against the attack, describing it as “the most stupid idea” he has ever heard”. He explained that he considers it his duty to warn against it, in view of the plans of Netanyahu and Barak.

On Wednesday, there was a veritable deluge of leaks. Israel tested a missile that can deliver a nuclear bomb more then 5000 km away, beyond you-know-where. And our Air Force has just completed exercises in Sardinia, at a distance larger than you-know-where. And on Thursday, the Home Front Command held training exercises all over Greater Tel Aviv, with sirens screaming away. All this seems to indicate that the whole hullabaloo is a ploy. Perhaps to frighten and deter the Iranians. Perhaps to push the Americans into more extreme actions. Perhaps coordinated with the Americans in advance. (British sources, too, leaked that the Royal Navy is training to support an American attack on Iran.)

It is an old Israeli tactic to act as if we are going crazy (“The boss has gone mad” is a routine cry in our markets, to suggest that the fruit vendor is selling at a loss.) We shall not listen to the US any more. We shall just bomb and bomb and bomb.

Well, let’s be serious for a moment.

ISRAEL WILL not attack Iran. Period.

Some may think that I am going out on a limb. Shouldn’t I add at least “probably” or “almost certainly”?

No, I won’t. I shall repeat categorically: Israel Will NOT Attack Iran.

Since the 1956 Suez adventure, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered an ultimatum that stopped the action, Israel has never undertaken any significant military operation without obtaining American consent in advance.

The US is Israel’s only dependable supporter in the world (besides, perhaps, Fiji, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau.) To destroy this relationship means cutting our lifeline. To do that, you have to be more than just a little crazy. You have to be raving mad.

Furthermore, Israel cannot fight a war without unlimited American support, because our planes and our bombs come from the US. During a war, we need supplies, spare parts, many sorts of equipment. During the Yom Kippur war, Henry Kissinger had an “air train” supplying us around the clock. And that war would probably look like a picnic compared to a war with Iran.

LET’S LOOK at the map. That, by the way, is always recommended before starting any war.

The first feature that strikes the eye is the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which every third barrel of the worlds seaborne oil supplies flow. Almost the entire output of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Iraq and Iran has to run the gauntlet through this narrow sea lane.

“Narrow” is an understatement. The entire width of this waterway is some 35 km (or 20 miles). That’s about the distance from Gaza to Beer Sheva, which was crossed last week by the primitive rockets of the Islamic Jihad.

When the first Israeli plane enters Iranian airspace, the strait will be closed. The Iranian navy has plenty of missile boats, but they will not be needed. Land-based missiles are enough.

The world is already teetering on the verge of an abyss. Little Greece is threatening to fall and take major chunks of the world economy with her. The elimination of almost a fifth of the industrial nations’ supply of oil would lead to a catastrophe hard even to imagine.

To open the strait by force would require a major military operation (including “putting boots on the ground”) that would overshadow all the US misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. Can the US afford that? Can NATO? Israel itself is not in the same league.

BUT ISRAEL would be very much involved in the action, if only on the receiving end.
In a rare show of unity, all of Israel’s service chiefs, including the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet, are publicly opposing the whole idea. We can only guess why.

I don’t know whether the operation is possible at all. Iran is a very large country, about the size of Alaska, the nuclear installations are widely dispersed and largely underground. Even with the special deep penetration bombs provided by the US, the operation may stall the Iranian efforts – such as they are - only for a few months. The price may be too high for such meager results.

Moreover, it is quite certain that with the beginning of a war, missiles will rain down on Israel – not only from Iran, but also from Hizbollah, and perhaps also from Hamas. We have no adequate defense for our towns. The amount of death and destruction would be prohibitive.

Suddenly, the media are full of stories about our three submarines, soon to grow to five, or even six, if the Germans are understanding and generous. It is openly said that these give us the capabilities of a nuclear “second strike”, if Iran uses its (still non-existent) nuclear warheads against us. But the Iranians may also use chemical and other weapons of mass destruction.

Then there is the political price. There are a lot of tensions in the Islamic world. Iran is far from popular in many parts of it. But an Israeli assault on a major Muslim country would instantly unite Sunnis and Shiites, from Egypt and Turkey to Pakistan and beyond. Israel could become a villa in a burning jungle.

BUT THE talk about the war serves many purposes, including domestic, political ones.

Last Saturday, the social protest movement sprang to life again. After a pause of two months, a mass of people assembled in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square. This was quite remarkable, because on that very day rockets were falling on the towns near the Gaza Strip. Until now, in such a situation demonstrations have always been canceled. Security problems trump everything else. Not this time.

Also, many people believed that the euphoria of the Gilad Shalit festival had wiped the protest from the public mind. It didn’t.

By the way, something remarkable has happened: the media, after siding with the protest movement for months, have had a change of heart. Suddenly all of them, including Haaretz, are sticking knives in its back. As if by order, all newspapers wrote the next day that “more than 20,000” took part. Well I was there, and I do have some idea of these things. There were at least 100,000 people there, most of them young. I could hardly move.

The protest has not spent itself, as the media assert. Far from it. But what better means for taking people’s minds off social justice than talk of the “existential danger”?

Moreover, the reforms demanded by the protesters would need money. In view of the worldwide financial crisis, the government strenuously objects to increasing the state budget, for fear of damaging our credit rating.

So where could the money come from? There are only three plausible sources: the settlements (who would dare?), the Orthodox (ditto!) and the huge military budget.
But on the eve of the most crucial war in our history, who would touch the armed forces? We need every shekel to buy more planes, more bombs, more submarines. Schools and hospitals must, alas, wait.

So God bless Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Where would we be without him?

THE EXCEPTION TO THE LAW OF THE RIGHT TO VISIT A FAMILY MEMBER IN PRISON

Families Cry Out for Palestinian Prisoners

25 July 2011, Jews for Justice for Palestinians http://jfjfp.com (Britain)

By Eva Bartlett, Gaza City

“We could enter the Guinness book of records for the longest running weekly sit- ins in the world,” Nasser Farrah, from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Association, jokes dryly. Since 1995, Palestinian women from Beit Hanoun to Rafah have met every Monday outside the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office in Gaza City, holding photos and posters of their imprisoned loved ones, calling on the ICRC to ensure the human rights of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel’s 24 prisons and detention centres.

Since 2007, the sit-ins have taken on greater significance: Gaza families want Israel to re-grant them the right – under international humanitarian law – to visit their imprisoned family members. This right was taken from Gaza’s families in 2007, after the Israeli tank gunner Gilad Shalit was taken by Palestinian resistance from alongside the Gaza border where he was on active duty.

The sit-ins have grown, with over 200 women and men showing up weekly. On July 11, ICRC and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) helped facilitate a demonstration from the ICRC office to the unknown soldier park, Jundi, to protest the ban on Palestinians from Gaza visiting their imprisoned loved ones.

“We can’t send letters, we can’t see him, we can’t talk to him,” says Umm Ahmed of her 32-year-old son. Ahmed Abu Ghazi was imprisoned four years ago and sentenced to 16 years in Israeli prison.

“Because we have no connection with him, every Monday we go to the Red Cross. But nothing changes. Last week we slept outside the Red Cross, waiting for them to help us talk to our sons and daughters,” Umm Ahmed says.

“While our sons are in prison, their parents might die without seeing them again.”
For Palestinian prisoner Bilal Adyani, from Deir al-Balah, such was the case. On July 11, Adayni’s father died, after waiting for years to see his son again. The ICRC reports that over 30 relatives of Palestinian prisoners have died since the prison visits were cut.

Umm Bilal, an elderly woman in a simple white headscarf, walks among the demonstrators, holding a plastic-framed photo of her son when he was 16. The teen wears a black dress shirt, has combed and gelled hair, and smiles easily to the camera.

“Twenty years, ten months, he’s been in prison. I haven’t been allowed to visit him in eight years,” says Umm Bilal.

“The prison canteen should sell phone cards, clothes, or food, but Israel is making it difficult now. He wanted to study but in prison but he hasn’t been allowed.”

In December 2009, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled with the Israeli government to deny families from Gaza visitation rights to prisoners in Israeli prisons. Among the stated reasons for the Court’s decision were that “family visits are not a basic humanitarian need for Gaza residents” and that there was no need for family visits since prisoners could obtain basic supplies through the prison canteen.

In June, 2011, Israeli Prison Service is reported to have taken away various rights of prisoners, including that allowing prisoners to enroll in universities, and blocked cell phone use.

“The world is calling for Shalit to be released. But he is just one man, a soldier,” says Umm Bilal. “Many Palestinian prisoners were taken from their homes. Shalit was in his tank when he was taken. Those tanks shoot on Gaza, kill our people, destroy our land. Take Shalit, but release our prisoners.”

According to Nasser Farrah, “there are over 7,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, including nearly 40 women and over 300 children. Seven hundred prisoners are from the Gaza Strip.”

Other estimates range from 7,500 to 11,000 Palestinian prisoners. “The ‘over 7000’ does not include the thousands of Palestinians who are regularly taken by the Israelis in the occupied West Bank, and even from Gaza, as well as those held in administrative detention for varying periods,” Farrah notes.

Under administrative detention, Palestinians, including minors, are denied trial and imprisoned for renewable periods, with many imprisoned between six months to six years.

According to B’Tselem, as of February 2011, Israel is holding 214 Palestinians under administrative detention.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prevents forcible transfers of people from occupied territory. But Israel has been doing just that since 1967, and has imprisoned over 700,000 Palestinian men, women and children according to the UN.

Aside from denial of family visits, higher education, and canteen supplies, roughly 1,500 Palestinian prisoners are believed to be seriously ill, and are denied adequate healthcare.

Majed Komeh’s mother has many years of Monday demonstrations ahead of her. Her son, 34 years old, was given a 19-year sentence, of which he has served six years.

“For the last four years I haven’t heard from him,” Umm Majed says. “He has developed stomach and back problems in prison, but he’s not getting the medicine he needs.”

Nasser Farrah says this is a serious problem. “Many have cancer and critical illnesses. Many need around-the-clock hospital care, not simply headache pills.”

A 2010-2011 report from the Palestinian Prisoners Society said that 20 prisoners have been diagnosed with cancer, 88 with diabetes and 25 have had kidney failures. “Over 200 prisoners have died from lack of proper medical care in prisons,” the report says.

One of the ways ill Palestinians end up in prison is by abduction when passing through the Erez crossing for medical treatment outside of Gaza.

“The Israelis give them permits to exit Gaza for treatment in Israel or the West bank, but after they cross through the border Israel imprisons many of them,” says Farrah.

“We are a people under occupation. We have no other options to secure our prisoners’ rights but to demonstrate in front of the ICRC. It’s their job to ensure prisoners are receiving their rights under international humanitarian law.”

ISRAELIS CANNOT MAKE THE GAZA REALITY DISAPPEAR

I admit I overestimated the strength of Greece’s democracy. Or let me put it this way: I didn’t see how thin the varnish of what we call Israeli democracy really is.

17 July 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)

By Henning Mankell*

I will try to summarize this year's Gaza flotilla. Everyone knows that the goal this time was to return with more unarmed ships and a more representative selection of people and organizations. Last but not least, we would return with more MPs. We succeeded in organizing this.

But suddenly this peaceful protest against the illegal Israeli blockade turned into a Greek tragedy, as if a modern-day Euripides had conceived it. Obviously we had predicted that the Israeli army might use a tactic that prevented the flotilla from leaving foreign ports. We assumed that Israel, as always, would claim that it could do whatever it wanted. And it can, as long as it is protected and financed by the United States.

But the U.S. is not the power it used to be; one day that protection will cease - shall we say in five years? In this context it might be wise to mention that, as I write this, NASA's huge funding will be reduced to a minimum. And the reason for the dismantling of this prestigious project is the deteriorating U.S. economy. What other reason is there?

But we weren't prepared that Greece would so easily sell its national soul to Israel, disguised as threats and harassment. I criticize myself for not foreseeing this. Greece's economic crisis weakens the nation. But it came as a surprise that Greece, when faced with Israel's threats (supported by the United States ), would roll over so completely. Moreover, I fully admit that I overestimated the strength of Greece's democracy. Or let me put it this way: I didn't see how thin the varnish of what we call Israeli democracy really is. Israel's actions remind me more of a military dictatorship's methods.

I'll come back to why Greece has been brought to its knees, and why a relatively small solidarity movement like our flotilla manages to create turmoil in international politics and frightens Israel into challenging its neighbors and the EU.

First, this needs to be said: Because Greece prevented our ships from leaving its ports and our ships were sabotaged by unidentified hostile divers, no flotilla will sail for Gaza right now. But some ships might act on their own. Since this would break our common cause, I deeply disagree with it. Most likely, however, the Greek coast guard will stop the ships, because the Israelis don't want bad publicity like last year, when Israeli commandos fired at will from helicopters. Hence, it's better to make Greece responsible. Israel and those opposing our cause will regard this as a failure for our side, and Prime Minister George Papandreou will get a pat on the back from his Israeli friends (but the protests in Greece will increase).

But this is not a failure. We will return with broader support and a bigger flotilla, and I promise that the Israeli regime won't have a quiet moment until this illegal blockade is broken. Our action has had more impact this year - unlike last year when the media didn't pay attention until the commandos started killing people.

Even though our ships didn't move an inch, this is yet another failure for Israel. The regime's desperate fear increases the opposition against human rights violations in Gaza. According to basic international law, it's illegal to collectively punish people as is done in Gaza.

In the same way I always claim that Gilad Shalit should have been released long ago and that Hamas' rocket attacks against Israel must stop, I claim that we must look at this situation from this perspective: What comes first, oppression or rebellion? Not even Israel's intellectuals can wave their magic wand and make reality disappear - the reality that the Palestinians are treated as second-class citizens in their own country. The Gaza blockade is not mainly about concrete, diapers or medicine. It's about the human dignity that Israel deprives its own citizens of. Thus, it provokes desperate actions.

But for me the biggest mystery is that the Israeli regime doesn't realize that it's digging holes for itself, and that the situation in the end will be unbearable. Why are they blindfolding themselves?

Why is Israel moving the blockade - or ironically one could call it "outsourcing" the blockade - to Europe this year? What's the difference from last year? Naturally, it's about the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. The Israelis find this development most worrying. But they also understand that they can profit from the concerns in governing circles in Europe and the United States. Last year, significantly more international institutions openly supported our flotilla. But now when the MENA region is unstable, it's very convenient to forget about the Palestinians again and ensure that Israel can maintain some sort of order in the region.

Who cares about some ill-treated Palestinians when the stability of the oil-producing countries is an issue?

Once MENA's situation becomes clearer, the support for our cause will increase. And my guess is that it will be bigger than ever.

That's how cynical our world is. But I don't think Israel should make too much of a triumph of this. In Europe - and in Greece not least - the indignation over Israel's brutal meddling in Greece's internal affairs is growing.

Through its actions the blindfolded Israeli regime is becoming a global outcast. Why don't they consider what's best for them? With what arguments do they defend the Gaza blockade if the next election ends in Hamas' defeat? How do they justify the building of new and bigger illegal settlements and the violations they constitute?

Therefore, it should be regarded as something positive when Yedioth Ahronoth's Roni Shaked says "it would be better to get rid of the blockade than to chase protesters." That is, if my sources are right about that quote.

Undoubtedly, it would have been a good first step on the road that needs to be taken; that Israelis and Palestinians together, on equal terms, create a common future.

How it should look is not for me to say. Nor did I ever intend to.

*The writer, a best-selling Swedish author, is part of the Gaza flotilla movement.

Rabbi Says "Uppity" Women Should Be Harassed

15 July 2011, About.com Guide (USA)

Until recently certain buses in Israel have been gender segregated, with men sitting in the front and women being relegated to the back of the bus. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that such "mehadrin" buses were illegal, but some members of the ultra-Orthodox community disagree. A few weeks ago a yeshiva student boarded a formerly segregated bus and noticed a woman sitting in front. When she refused to move he decided to scream insults at her for the duration of her trip. Later he wondered, was it OK that he had harassed this woman? Should he apologize?

The student sought guidance from Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv of Mea Shearim, who answered in the form of a halachic ruling known as a psak. In this psak Rav Elyashiv said that the man did not have to apologize, citing an incident in the Gemara where Shmuel saw a woman dressed immodestly and responded by tearing the clothes from her body. Rav Elyashiv believes this story teaches us that women who violate halacha should be publicly humiliated.

As Sharon Shenhav notes in a recent JPost article, by Haredi standards there is a long list of women who violate halacha, from female IDF officers to women simply wearing shorts during the hot summer months. "How are yeshiva boys going to find time to study Torah if they have to deal with all the uppity women? Perhaps Rav Elyashiv can issue a psak in response to this question in the near future."

----------------


Insult, embarrass, harass ‘uppity’ women

13 July 2011, Jerusalem Post (Israel)

By Sharon Shenhav*

A recent ruling by an influential haredi rabbi takes Israel back 3,000 years.
How should ‘uppity’ women be treated in Israel today? A few weeks ago, on May 18, an answer to this question was given in the form of a psak (halachic ruling) by the revered haredi leader and gedol hador (most esteemed of his generation) Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv of Mea Shearim. The psak was published in the haredi paper Kikar Hashabat, and gives clear instructions as to how Jewish men should deal with women who refuse to conform to the requirements of Jewish Law as interpreted by Rav Elyashiv.

The question arose when a yeshiva student boarded a public bus which had been gender-segregated until January, when the Supreme Court declared that such “mehadrin” buses were illegal. Since January, all public buses on formerly mehadrin routes must post notices that everyone has the right to sit wherever they choose, and that anyone who interferes with that right is subject to criminal prosecution. The court noted that women could sit in any seat on these buses, including the front section.

However, our yeshiva student doesn’t recognize the law of the land as applying to him and his colleagues.

When he boarded the bus he discovered a woman sitting in the front. He informed her that this was a mehadrin bus, and that she must move to the rear section reserved for women. The woman refused to move, so the yeshiva student screamed at her, insulting her in front of all the other passengers, and continued to harass her verbally throughout the journey.

After the incident, the student apparently had some doubts about his behavior, and requested a halachic ruling from Rav Elyashiv.

The student thought that perhaps he should ask forgiveness from the victim of his attack.

No such luck! Rav Elyashiv responded by stating that he had heard the details of the incident, and there was no need for an apology.

Since the woman should have moved to the rear of the bus, the section designated for women, her refusal to do so was a violation of the arrangement on mehadrin buses.

OBVIOUSLY RAV ELYASHIV does not consider himself bound by Supreme Court decisions either. In the response published in the Kikar Hashabat newspaper, available online, Rav Elyashiv gave the source for his psak by quoting from the Gemara. He quoted the case of Shmuel, who saw a woman dressed immodestly in the shuk. Shmuel tore off the woman’s clothes. From this story, according to Rav Elyashiv, we learn that a Jewish man can publicly humiliate a woman who violates halacha.

So now you know how to treat uppity women according to halacha. The publication of Rav Elyashiv’s psak is a clear message to Jewish men worldwide. While the case in question involved a woman sitting in the front of a bus, I have no doubt that Rav Elyashiv’s psak can be applied more broadly to women who do not conform to other haredi standards.

How about women sitting as civil court judges, especially the President of our Supreme Court? Then there are those women who serve as Members of Knesset and Cabinet ministers. Obviously, women who are CEO’s of banks and corporations, as well as officers in the IDF are uppity. What about female academicians and scientists? Why, there’s no end to uppity women today in Israel! They’re everywhere, practicing medicine and law, appearing on television as entertainers and news broadcasters, writing articles in newspapers. The list is endless.

As to the example of Shmuel in the Gemara, one can only imagine the results of this message! During the hot Israeli summer, the streets and public places are full of women whose mode of dress does not conform to haredi standards of modesty.

How are yeshiva boys going to find time to study Torah if they have to deal with all the uppity women? Perhaps Rav Elyashiv can issue a psak in response to this question in the near future.

*The writer is a Jerusalem-based lawyer and Director of the International Jewish Women’s Rights Project of the International Council of Jewish Women.

The blockade on Gaza began long before Hamas came to power

The gradual closure of Gaza began in 1991, when Israel canceled the general exit permit that allowed most Palestinians to move freely through Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Since then the closure, which may soon be challenged by the second Freedom Flotilla, has become almost hermetic.

29 June2011, +972blog http://972mag.com (Israel)

By Mya Guarnieri*

Athens, Greece – The second Freedom Flotilla is slated to set sail by the end of the month in an attempt to challenge the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. The act will call attention to the closure that the United Nations and human rights organizations have decried as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the collective punishment of civilians.

According to the Israeli government — and most of the mainstream media — the blockade began in 2007, following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. The aim of this “economic warfare” was to weaken Hamas, a group that the Israeli government had once supported. Israel also sought to stop rocket fire and to free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who has been held in Gaza since 2006.

Four years on, none of these goals have been achieved.

Israel has achieved a minor victory on one front, however. Even critics use 2007 as the start-date of the blockade, unintentionally legitimizing Israel’s cause-and-effect explanation that pegs the closure to political events.

But the blockade did not begin in 2007, following the Hamas takeover of the Strip. Nor did it start in 2006, with Israel’s economic sanctions against Gaza. The hermetic closure of Gaza is the culmination of a process that began twenty years ago.

Punitive closures begin
Sari Bashi is the founder and director of Gisha, an Israeli NGO that advocates for Palestinian freedom of movement. She says that the gradual closure of Gaza began in 1991, when Israel canceled the general exit permit that allowed most Palestinians to move freely through Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Non-Jewish residents of Gaza and the West Bank were required to obtain individual permits.

This was during the First Intifada. While the mere mention of the word invokes the image of suicide bombers in the Western imagination, it’s important to bear in mind that the First Intifada was, by and large, a non-violent uprising comprised of civil disobedience, strikes, and boycotts of Israeli goods.

A wave of violence came, however, in 1993. It was then, Bashi explains, that Israel began closing some crossings temporarily, turning away even those who held exit permits. Because a tremendous majority of Palestinians are not and were not suicide bombers, the restrictions on movement constituted collective punishment for the actions of a few — foreshadowing the nature of the blockade to come.

Over the years, there were other suggestions that a hermetic, punitive closure was on the horizon. The beginning of the Second Intifada, in September of 2000, saw Palestinian students “banned from traveling from Gaza to the West Bank,” Bashi says. In general, travel between the Occupied Palestinian Territories came under increasing restrictions, as well.

Exports took a hit in 2003, with the sporadic closures of the Karni crossing. While the 2005 disengagement supposedly signaled the end of the occupation of Gaza, in reality, it brought ever tightening restrictions on the movement of both people and goods. And, in 2006, the few Gazans who were still working in Israel were banned from entering, cutting them off from their jobs at a time when the Strip’s economy was under even more pressure.

Gaza today: the economy has been driven into the ground. The unemployment rate is almost 50 percent and four out of every five Palestinians in Gaza are dependent on humanitarian aid. Hospitals are running out of supplies. The chronically ill cannot always get exit permits, which can lead to access-related deaths. Students are sometimes prevented from reaching their universities. Families have been shattered. Some psychologists say that the intense pressure created by the blockade – which was compounded during Operation Cast Lead – accounts for spikes in domestic violence, divorce and drug abuse.

It doesn’t end at Gaza’s borders
But the consequences of the blockade do not stop at Gaza’s borders. When movement restrictions began in 1991, some Palestinian day laborers were prevented from reaching their jobs inside Israel. And this is about the time that Israel, already hooked on low-cost labor, began issuing work visas to migrants from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Fast forward to Israel, 2009 — the same state that is imposing a severe, hermetic closure of Gaza announces that it intends to deport 1,200 Israeli-born children of migrant workers, along with their parents. NGOs decry the expulsion as inhumane and a gross violation of human rights.

The standard Israeli line is that these people must be deported because they’re “illegal.” (Never mind that the Israeli Supreme Court has recently struck down the policy that made the mothers lose their legal status, calling it a violation of Israel’s own labor laws). Politicians who are more honest about the issue admit that the expulsion is about minimizing the “demographic threat” to Israel.

The message of both the blockade and deportation is the same — both serve to illustrate that Jewish-Israeli privilege comes at the expense of the human rights of anyone who is deemed an “other.”

The refugee crisis
Of course, if you were to ask a Gazan when the restrictions on freedom of movement began, some might go back even earlier. They might point to a 1984 order that forbade farmers from planting commercial quantities of fruit trees without permission of the Israeli military government. In a definitive piece on the economic de-development of the Gaza Strip, published in 1987, Dr. Sara Roy pointed out that it took some Palestinian farmers five years or more to obtain these permits.

While the people of Gaza were still able to move in and out of the Strip at the time, their ability to live freely on their own lands was already severely restricted — as was their economy. According to Dr. Roy, the occupation had rendered the Strip hopelessly dependent on Israel and vulnerable to its economic fluctuations and political whims. It had also created a captive market, a convenient dumping ground for Israeli goods.

But, as Dr. Roy points, Gaza’s economic woes didn’t begin with the occupation. They started with the sudden, unexpected influx of Palestinian refugees in 1948. The Gaza Strip was largely agricultural at the time, she explains, and wealth was consolidated into the hands of a few. Simply said, there wasn’t enough for everyone.

While organizers of the flotilla emphasize that they are attempting to challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza, unpacking the blockade itself points to urgent questions that must be resolved: the status of Palestinian refugees; the disastrous and unrelenting effects of over 40 years of occupation; and Israel’s utter lack of respect for the human rights of non-Jews. And that’s the discussion the Israeli government doesn’t want any of us to have.

*Mya Guarnieri is a Tel Aviv-based writer and journalist. She is covering the flotilla for Maan News Agency. Her articles have appeared in Al Jazeera English, The Guardian, Tablet, and many other international outlets. Her short stories have been published in The Kenyon Review Online and Narrative Magazine. She is currently working on a book about migrant workers in Israel.

Follow Mya on Twitter: @myaguarnieri

SUPPORT THE PALESTINIAN UNITY GOVERNMENT

4 May 2011, The Washington Post

By Jimmy Carter*

This is a decisive moment. Under the auspices of the Egyptian government, Palestine’s two major political movements — Fatah and Hamas — are signing a reconciliation agreement on Wednesday that will permit both to contest elections for the presidency and legislature within a year. If the United States and the international community support this effort, they can help Palestinian democracy and establish the basis for a unified Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza that can make a secure peace with Israel. If they remain aloof or undermine the agreement, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory may deteriorate with a new round of violence against Israel. Support for the interim government is critical, and the United States needs to take the lead.

This accord should be viewed as a Palestinian contribution to the “Arab awakening,” as well as a deep wish to heal internal divisions. Both sides understand that their goal of an independent Palestinian state cannot be achieved if they remain divided. The agreement also signals the growing importance of an emerging Egyptian democracy. Acting as an honest broker, the interim Egyptian government coaxed both sides to agreement by merging the October 2009 Cairo Accord that Fatah signed with additions that respond to Hamas’s reservations.

The accord commits both sides to consensus appointments of an election commission and electoral court. I have observed three elections in the Palestinian territory, and these institutions have already administered elections that all international observers found to be free, fair, honest and free of violence.

The two parties also pledge to appoint a unity government of technocrats — i.e., neither Fatah nor Hamas. Security will be overseen by a committee set up by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), and Egypt will assist.

Why should the United States and the international community support the agreement? First, it respects Palestinian rights and democracy. In 2006, Hamas won the legislative election, but the “Quartet” — the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — rejected it and withheld aid, and the unity government collapsed. Competition between the two factions turned vicious, and each side has arrested the other’s activists. Instead of exacerbating differences between the two parties, the international community should help them resolve disagreements through electoral and legislative processes.

Second, with international support, the accord could lead to a durable cease-fire. Israel and the United States are concerned that Hamas could use a unity government to launch attacks against Israel. I have visited the Israeli border town of Sderot and share their concern. I urged Hamas’s leaders to stop launching rockets, and they attempted to negotiate a lasting mutual cease-fire. The United States and other Quartet members should assist Hamas and Israel’s search for a cease-fire.

Third, the accord could be a vehicle to press for a final peace agreement for two states. Abu Mazen will be able to negotiate on behalf of all Palestinians. And with Quartet support, a unity government can negotiate with Israel an exchange of prisoners for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and a settlement freeze. In my talks with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, he said Hamas would accept a two-state agreement that is approved in a Palestinian referendum. Such an agreement could provide mutual recognition — Israel would recognize an independent Palestinian state and Palestine would recognize Israel. In other words, an agreement will include Hamas’s recognition of Israel.

Suspicions of Hamas stem from its charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction. I find the charter repugnant. Yet it is worth remembering that Israel negotiated the Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization while its charter had similar provisions. It took five more years before the PLO Charter was altered.

Many Israelis say that as long as the Palestinians are divided, there is no partner for peace. But at the same time, they refuse to accept a unity government. In Cairo this week, the Palestinians are choosing unity. It is a fragile unity, but the Quartet should work with them to make it secure and peaceful enough to jump-start final-status negotiations with Israel.

*The writer was the 39th president of the United States. He founded the not-for-profit Carter Center, which seeks to advance peace and health worldwide.