Jewish, Palestinian activists try to build a cinema in Hebron

July 15, 2016, +972 Magazine http://972mag.com (Israel)

 

By Dahlia Scheindlin*

As soldiers and settlers look on, dozens of foreign Jews join Palestinians in the segregated city of Hebron try ‘to make the unbearable a little more bearable.’ Police detain six Israelis among the group, prevent others from even joining.

Foto: Activists with the Center for Jewish Non-Violence 

clear brush from the yard of the would-be cinema as 

Israeli soldiers and settlers look on, Hebron, July 15, 

2016. (Wisam Hashlamoun/FLASH90)

The streets in the Israel-controlled section of Hebron were sunny and silent at 9 a.m. on Friday. The Palestinian shops on the main streets were all shut, as most of them have been for over 20 years. Jews were home preparing for Shabbat.

On a sloping street rising through the Tel Rumeida neighborhood where, in April, a Palestinian stabber was wounded, then executed, there is a small commotion. A scattered group of Israeli soldiers, blue-uniformed police, and a few local Israeli settlers are hovering around a battered fence, peering inside as if

Ben Ehrenreich Throws Stones at Conventional Wisdom About Israel

July 8, 2016,  פֿאָרווערטס Forward http://www.forward.com (US)

Sheerly Avni

 

In the classic American film noir “Out of the Past,” the wayward mob mistress and the private eye hired to drag her back home are, inevitably, flirting in a casino in Mexico. “Is there a way to win,” she asks, sultry and musical, pretending that she’s talking about the gambling tables. “No,” the doomed chump answers, “but there is a way to lose more slowly.” It’s hard not to read “The Way to the Spring,” journalist Ben Ehrenreich’s deeply reported new chronicle of Palestinian life and resistance in the West Bank and Hebron, with those dark words in mind. The men and women he grows close to lose almost every battle they fight — beaten down by Israel’s infinitely superior military force and the expansion of Jewish settlers operating with apparent government approval. And despite or, he might argue, because of his Jewish heritage, Ehrenreich makes no bones about siding with the losers.

 

 Courtesy of Ben Ehrenreich

Simple Pleasures: The daughter of artist 

Eid Suleiman al-Hathalin playing ball on her birthday.

The book has already been both lauded for its impassioned writing and criticized for the author’s explicit sympathy for his subjects (sometimes within the same review). Sheerly Avni spoke with Ehrenreich by phone from his home in Los Angeles, just as he was packing for a trip to the Palestinian Festival of Literature.

Sheerly Avni: You lived in the West Bank and spent some time there on and off, for about three years. How much did the amount of time you spent there impact your understanding of events?

Ben Ehrenreich: I know a lot of Americans and Europeans who visit the West Bank either as reporters or with delegations and return home filled with optimism and hope because they’ve met all these great and inspiring people who are engaged in inspiring acts of resistance. But actually living in the West Bank gives you a very different

‘Arabs’ saved us, says settler boy whose father was slain

July 7, 2016, Mondoweiss http://mondoweiss.net (USA)             

In rare twist, Palestinian man rescues wounded Israelis

Rabbi Mark's car after he was killed 

in terror attack in occupied territories

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) 5 July — Just a few years ago, Islam al-Bayed spent seven months in an Israeli prison for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli troops. Now, the 26-year-old Palestinian man has become an unlikely symbol of tolerance after rescuing an Israeli family whose car crashed following a deadly roadside shooting by Palestinian militants in the West Bank. Last week’s shooting, along with the fatal stabbing of an Israeli girl as she slept in her bed, have ratcheted up tensions in the southern West Bank. Israel has responded by imposing a closure around the city of Hebron and beefed up its troop presence in the volatile area. But al-Bayed, a private security guard who lives in the al-Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron, says his actions last Friday transcended politics. “This was a very human moment. I didn’t think of the occupation or

STORM OVER HEBRON

11 February 2012, Gush Shalom גוש שלום (Israel)

Uri Avnery אורי אבנרי

THERE SEEMS to be no limit to the troubles caused by the town of Hebron.
This time, the reason is as innocent as can be: the organized visits of schoolchildren to the Cave of Machpelah, where our patriarchs are supposed to be buried.

By rights, Hebron should be a symbol of brotherhood and conciliation. It is the town associated with the legendary figure of Abraham, the common ancestor of both Hebrews and Arabs. Indeed, the name itself connotes friendship: the Hebrew name Hebron stems from the same root as “haver”, friend, comrade, while the town’s Arab name - al-Halil - means “friend”. Both names refer to Abraham being the friend of God.

Abraham’s firstborn, Ishmael, was the son of the concubine Hagar, who was driven out into the desert to die there, when the legitimate son, Isaac, was born to Sarah. Ishmael, the patriarch of the Arabs, and Isaac, the patriarch of the Jews, were enemies, but when their father died, they came together to bury him: “Then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years (175), and was gathered to his people. And his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave of Machpelah…” (Genesis, 25)

IN RECENT times, Hebron has acquired a very different reputation.

For centuries, a small Jewish community lived there in peace, in perfect harmony with the Muslim inhabitants. But in 1929, something awful happened. A group of Jewish fanatics staged an incident in Jerusalem, when they tried to change the delicate status quo at the Western Wall. Religious riots broke out throughout the country. In Hebron, Muslims massacred 59 Jews, men, women and children, an event that left an indelible mark on Jewish memory. (Less well known is the fact that 263 Jews were saved by their Arab neighbors.)

Shortly after the occupation of the West Bank in the Six-day War, a group of fanatical messianic Jews infiltrated Hebron by stealth and founded the first Jewish settlement. This grew into a veritable nest of extremism, including some out and out fascists. One of them was the mass-murderer Baruch Goldstein, who slaughtered 29 Muslims at prayer in the Cave of Machpelah – actually no cave at all, but a fortress-like building, perhaps built by King Herod.

Since then, there has been endless trouble between the 500 or so Jewish settlers in the city, who enjoy the protection of the army, and the 165,000 Arab inhabitants, who are completely at their mercy, devoid of any human or civil rights.

IF THE schoolchildren had been sent there to listen to both sides and learn something about the complexity of the conflict, that would be fine. But this was not the intention of the Minister of Education, Gideon Sa’ar.

Personally, Sa’ar (the name means “storm”) is a nice person. In fact, he started his career in my magazine, Haolam Hazeh. However, he is a fanatical right-winger, who believes that his job is to cleanse Israeli children of the rotten cosmopolitan liberalism that he imagines their teachers are steeped in, and to turn them into uniform, loyal patriots, ready to die for the fatherland. He is sending army officers to preach in the classrooms, demands that teachers instill “Jewish values” (i.e. nationalist religiosity) even in secular schools, and now wants to send them to Hebron and other “Jewish” places, so their “Jewish roots” grow more robust.

The children sent there see the “Jewish” Cave of Machpelah (which was for 13 centuries a mosque), the settlers, the streets that have become empty of Arabs, and listen to the indoctrination of patriotic guides. No contact with Arabs, no other side, no others at all.

When a rebellious school invited members of the peace-oriented ex-soldiers’ group “Breaking the Silence” to accompany them and show them the other side, police intervened and prevented them from visiting the town. Now some 200 teachers and principals have signed an official protest against the Education Minister's project and demanded its cancellation.

Sa’ar is upset. With flaming eyes behind his glasses, he fervently denounced the teachers. How could such traitors be allowed to educate our precious children?
ALL THIS reminded me of my late wife, Rachel. I may have told the story before. If so, I must ask for indulgence. I just can’t help recounting it again.

Rachel was for many years a teacher of the first and second grade. She believed that after that, nothing further could be done to mould the character of a human being.

Like me, Rachel loved the Bible – not as a religious text or a book of history (which it most decidedly is not) but as a superb literary work, unequalled in its beauty.

The Bible tells how the mythological Abraham bought the Cave of Machpelah to bury his wife, Sarah. It is a wonderful story, and, as was her wont, Rachel had the children play it in class. This not only brought the story to life, but also allowed her to push forward timid boys and girls who lacked self-confidence. When they were chosen for an important role in one of these improvised plays, they would gain self-respect and suddenly bloom. Some had their whole life changed (as they confided to me decades later).

The Bible (Genesis 23) has it that Abraham asked the people of Hebron for a plot to bury his wife, when she died at the ripe old age of 127. All the Hebronites offered their fields for free. But Abraham wanted to buy the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar, “for as much money as it is worth”.

Ephron, however, refused to accept any money and insisted on giving the honored guest the field as a gift. After much exchange of pleasantries, Ephron finally came to the point: “My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that betwixt you and me?”

The scene was duly enacted, with one 7-year old boy with a long beard playing Abraham and another playing Ephron, with the rest of the class as the people of Hebron, who were the witnesses to the transaction, as Abraham had requested.

Rachel explained to the children that this was an ancient way of conducting business, not coming straight to the crass matter of money, but first exchanging polite words and protestations, and then gradually working towards a compromise. She added that this civilized procedure is still followed in the Arab world, and especially among the Bedouins, even in Israel. For the children, who had probably never heard a good word about Arabs before, this was a revelation.

Afterwards, Rachel asked the teacher of the parallel class how she had told the same story. “What do you mean,” the woman replied, “I told them the truth, that Arabs always lie and cheat. If Ephron wanted 400 shekels, why didn’t he say so straight away, instead of pretending to be ready to give it as a gift?”

IF TEACHERS like Rachel could take their children to Hebron and show them around, letting them visit the Arab spice market and the workshops which for centuries have been producing the unique blue Hebron glass, it would be wonderful. If children could speak with Arabs and Jews, including even the fanatics of both sides, it could be highly educational. Visiting the tombs of the patriarchs (which, most serious archaeologists believe, are actually the graves of Muslim Sheiks) which are sacred to both Muslims and Jews, could convey a message. Jewish Israelis are quite unaware that Abraham also figures as a prophet in the Koran.

Before conquering Jerusalem and declaring it his capital, the mythological King David (also revered as a prophet in Islam) had his capital in Hebron. Indeed, the town, which is located 930 meters above sea level, enjoys wonderful air and agreeable temperatures in both summer and winter.

This whole episode brings me back to an old hobbyhorse of mine: the need for all Israeli schoolchildren, Jews and Arabs, to learn the history of the country.

This seems self-evident, but is not. Far from it. Arab children in Israel learn Arab history, starting with the birth of Islam in far-away Mecca. Jewish children learn Jewish history, which played no significant role in this country for almost 2000 years. Big chunks of the country’s history are unknown to one side or to both. Jewish pupils know nothing about the Mamluks and next to nothing about the Crusaders (except that they butchered the Jews in Germany on their way here), Arab pupils know very little about the Canaanites and the Maccabees.

Learning the history of the country in its entirety, including its Jewish and Muslim phases, would create a unified common view which would bring the two peoples much closer to each other, and make peace and reconciliation easier. But this prospect is as distant today as it was 40 years ago, when I raised it for the first time in the Knesset, earning the nickname “the Mamluk” from the then Education Minister, Zalman Aran of the Labor Party.

In a different atmosphere, Hebron would be seen as it should be: a fascinating town, sacred to both peoples, the second most holy city of Judaism (after Jerusalem) and one of the four sacred cities of Islam (with Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem). With mutual tolerance and without the fanatics of both sides, what a wonderful place that could be for children to visit!

ISRAELI SETTLER VIOLENCE REPORT MAY-JUNE 2011

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

Ahmad Jaradat, Nikki Hodgson, Alternative Information Center (AIC)

During the months of May and June, settler attacks against Palestinian civilians continued, with most of the attacks targeting agriculture land in the northern West Bank.

The attacks, including damage to agriculture property, burning of olive trees and destruction of wheat crops, appear to be systematically targeting land near settlements, and many Palestinian farmers fear that the settlers are organizing attacks in order to confiscate land for the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Numerous attacks also occurred in Hebron, resulting in at least three Palestinians needing medical attention, including a six-year-old boy.

Hebron and South of West Bank Region
On the afternoon of May 3, at least ten settlers from the different outposts in downtown Hebron attacked a number of Palestinian homes located on Martyrs Street (Al-Shuhada Street) in the Old City. Some of the settlers were armed. An eyewitness, Neif Da’na, reports that the settlers threw stones at homes and also residents who happened to be walking or working nearby. They targeted the home of Al-Sharabati and some shops were also attacked. Resident Mofeed Sharabati said, “This is not the first time the settlers from the outposts in the city attacked our houses. Such attacks often happen and we informed the Israeli military officers in the city, but there has been no change.”

On May 7 at noon, settlers from the outpost of Ramot Yashai in downtown Hebron tried to arrest two children on Martyrs Street (Al-Shuhada Street). According to many eyewitnesses, around 20 settlers--most of them youth-- stopped Marwan Mufeed Sharabati (6 years old) and Waad Zaidan Sharabati (7 years old) and tried to take them away. When the families intervened, a number of Palestinians gathered and came to rescue the children, a physical fight occurred between the settlers and the residents. During the fight, six-year-old Marwan was beaten by the settlers and subsequently taken to Alya Hospital in the city. The soldiers who later arrived asked both the settlers and the residents to go away, but they refused to record the case when the Sharabati family asked them to document the event.

On May 10, settlers the from Beitar Ilit settlement in the western Bethlehem District damaged and uprooted 80 new olive trees belonging to the farmer Naji Shosha from the village of Hosan. The targeted land is located near the settlement and was burned by settlers several years ago. The settlers also damaged the fences around his property. Shosha said, “From time to time the settlers attack my land. They don’t want me to plant or rehabilitate it because they want to confiscate it. Since last year I have presented three complaints and appeals to the Israeli Civil Administration in the Bethlehem District against the settlers’ aggressions. The officers there promised me they would stop them, but it seems no real procedures have been taken to prevent the settlers from their attacks.”

During the afternoon of May 15, a group of settlers from the Kiryat Arba settlement, East of Hebron, attacked the Is’afan family home with stones and Molotov cocktails. Their home is situated near the settlement and the family was forced to crowd into one room of the house to avoid injury from the attack. Jamal Is’afan reported that some of the furniture was burned because of a fire set by the Molotov cocktails. The Is’afan family informed the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), which came and documented the case. Some of the previous attacks have even happened in the presence of TIPH. The Is’afan family added that their house has been attacked many times and it has become “the objective of the settlers to force us to leave this area because it is very close to the settlement buildings and they wish to confiscate it and include it as part of the settlement.”

On May 21, 21 year-old Hebron resident, Azmi Ek-Shouyokhi, was injured when a settler chased him and drove into his car while they were driving. Ek-Shouyokhi reported that “the settler pursued me while I was driving my car on the bypass road, south of Hebron. When I discovered that he wanted to attack me, I tried to drive quickly and escape to a side road. However, the settler followed me and tried to force my car off the road. Some other settlers with him got out from the car and attacked me with their fists and stones. Palestinians nearby informed the ambulance officers in Hebron, who came and took me to Al-Ahli Hospital.”

On June 9, settlers from Kiryat Arba burned around 20 dunams of olive trees on Jalis Hill, near the settlement. The Hebron Municipality Fire-Brigades came and extinguished the fire. The targeted trees belong to the Irmaila, Ja’bari and Al-Jamal families.

On June 14, settlers from outposts in downtown Hebron stoned Palestinian homes on Martyrs Street ( Al-Shohada Street). Resident Abed-Elrahman Salaima reported to the AIC that more than 40 settlers, some of them armed, stoned his house and two other homes belonging to Idrees Zahida and Ali El-Nazer. He added that the soldiers who were near the checkpoint didn’t stop the settlers, despite being informed of and also witnessing the attacks.

On June 18, eight settlers from outposts in downtown Hebron attacked 21-year-old Inas Hisham Abo Halawa. Inas reports that “in the afternoon while I was walking to my home in Tel-Romaida, near Al-Shuhada Street, eight young settlers stopped me and for no reason, began beating my back and face with their hands and stones. I was injured and taken to the hospital and spent two days there for treatment.”

Nablus and Northern West Bank
On May 3, a group of settlers from the Itzhar settlement in the southern Nablus District entered the village of Hawwara at midnight and attacked the Secondary School for Boys. They burned the room that is used for prayer in the school. The Israeli army arrived and recorded the case. The day previously, settlers entered the village of Karyout, east of Nablus, and began demonstrating and shouting slogans against Arabs in the streets of the village. The Israeli army, which forced the villagers to stay home for three hours until the demonstration ended, protected the demonstrators.

On May 3, a settler from the ‘Ale settlement south of Nablus attacked farmers working their land near the settlement. Farmer Radi Farhan Ahmed Issa, 45, was beaten by the settler, a man by the name of Koren who is known to the farmer because he frequently attacks local residents. Issa says that “we got permission from the Israeli Civil Administration to enter our land because it is located close to the settlement and we need permission to enter. When we entered the land in the morning and started working, Koren came. He was armed and took a knife to the wheels of our tractor. Then he pointed his gun at us and asked us to leave or he will shoot. We went to the soldiers nearby and showed them the permissions and told them what happened, but they didn’t care. Now we will follow the case on the legal level.”

On May 9, around fifteen settlers from the settlements in the northern West Bank entered the Secondary School for Girls in Al-Sawiya village to the south of Nablus District at night. The settlers painted and wrote racist slogans against Arabs on the school walls. Ahmed Sawalha, Director of Education Office in southern Nablus, reported that “this school has been targeted many times in the last years and in general there is an increase in settlers attacks against schools in the Nabuls District by settlers. The attacks usually occur at night and are detrimental to the education process.”

On May 14, settlers from Itzhar stoned a car belonging to Wael Abbas while he was driving on the main road near the settlement. The front windshield shattered and Wael’s face was injured from the shattered glass. His wife, who was also with him, was injured when a stone hit her in the head. Both were taken to the hospital in Nablus.

During the afternoon of May 22, around 20 settlers from the settlement of Tapuah in the Salfeet District attacked several women from the Yasouf village, east of Salfeet. The event happened while the women were driving back to their homes. When they reached the Za’tara road, they saw around 15 settlers, some of them armed, and an army vehicle. The settlers then proceeded to throw stones at the women’s car. Ahlam Adnan Harb, one of the women who was in the car, said that “the settler threw stones at our car and broke one of the windows. The soldiers who were at the site didn’t stop them. The driver of the car drove away as quickly as possible to avoid the stones.”

On May 30, dozens of settlers from the settlements in the north of the Ramallah District tried to enter the Senjel village at night. The settlers stoned several homes located near the perimeters of the village. The residents gathered to stop them and a physical fight broke out between both sides. Israeli soldiers arrived and fired tear-gas at the residents. The event continued for two hours, during which several individuals were affected by tear-gas and the windows of homes were shattered.

On May 30, settlers from Itzhar burned agricultural land belonging to families from the Madama village. The targeted site is called Al-Sha’ra and around 27 olive trees were burned. The Chairman of the Local Council in the village, Ihab Al-Qat, reported that “when we heard about the event we called the fire brigades in the Palestinian Civic Defense, and they were able to extinguish the fire. It is important to mention that this is not the first time settlers from this settlement have burned or uprooted trees in this place. Any time they attack, we know they are trying to prevent the farmers from reaching their fields and trees and thus make it easier for settlers to annex or confiscate the land for the settlement.”

During the night of May 30, over 1000 settlers from many settlements in the West Bank entered Joseph’s Tomb to the east of the city of Nablus. Under the protection of the Israeli army, the settlers were led by a number of Jewish religious leaders. The Tomb is in Area A and according to the Oslo Accords, the settlers do not have the right to be in the area. However settlers, in cooperation with the Israeli army, regularly visit the area to pray. During these times, the settlers also attack nearby Palestinians homes, frequently targeting homes in the Balata refugee camp and Iskar village. They usually stone homes and shout racist slogans. The soldiers then declare the area a military zone and impose a curfew on the nearby villages and camps until the settlers leave.

On June 9, settlers from Halmish near Ramallah damaged three dunams of wheat by spraying chemical substances on land belonging to the farmer Fadil Abdilhameed Tamimi from the village of Diar Nitham. According to the Land Defense Committee Director in the village, Safi Tamimi, this land was attacked last year in a similar manner.

In the evening of June 16, ten settlers from Itamar in the southern Nablus District burned 15 dunams of planted of olive trees belonging to farmers from the Rojeeb village. The land is located in Barakat El-Marah and belongs to Hafez Sulaiman Idwaikat and Ahmed Hafez Idwaikat. Local sources said that when the villagers found out what was happening, they immediately went to the area and saw some 10 settlers fleeing the scene.

In midday on June 17, settlers from settlements in the northern Ramallah District burned around 35 dunams of wheat belonging to farmers from the Al-Mughair village. The owners informed the Israeli Civil Administration about the event, and Israeli soldiers and army officers later arrived to record the event. They promised to open an investigation but the owner commented that “we do not believe them because, in our experience, they promise a lot when these things happen and then no legal actions are taken against the settlers.”

On June 30, around 30 settlers--most of them armed--from Itzhar burned 40 dunams of olive trees belonging to farmers from the villages of Karyout and Boreen. Local resources said that the settlers arrived at noon and burned the land located near the settlement. A Palestinian Fire Brigade came from Nablus and extinguished the fire. During this time the settlers threw stones, trying to prevent the brigades from reaching the area.

PROTESTOS EM ISRAEL INFLUENCIADOS PELO MUNDO ÁRABE

12 Agosto 2011, Carta Maior http://www.cartamaior.com.br (Brasil)

Líderes sociais palestinos acreditam que Israel está “inadvertidamente” se tornando parte do Oriente Médio, embora haja pouco interesse palestino nos protestos que eclodiram ao longo de Israel nas últimas semanas. Como cidadã israelense, nascida em Maria e Diretora Geral do Fórum Palestino de Estudos Israelenses, a socióloga Honaida Ghanim acredita que os acontecimentos recentes na Tunísia e no Egito tiveram um grande impacto no movimento de protesto israelense. O artigo é de Amira Hass.

Amira Hass

Haaretz, Data: 09/08/2011

Líderes sociais palestinos acreditam que os protestos sociais que eclodiram ao longo de Israel são fortemente influenciados pela primavera árabe, e que os militantes israelenses devem entender que eles também estão sofrendo com a ocupação e o dinheiro gasto em assentamentos na Cisjordânia.

Os israelenses estão imitando o mundo árabe, e os palestinos da Cisjordânia acreditam que isso é uma coisa boa. De acordo com a agência de notícias Ma’na, 14,032 (quase 75%) dos 18, 722 leitores que responderam a sua pesquisa online acreditam que o que está acontecendo nas ruas de Israel é influenciado e está imitando a “primavera árabe”.

“Israel está inadvertidamente se tornando parte do Oriente Médio”, disse a socióloga Honaida Ghanim, que pesquisa a sociedade israelense, acrescentando que “este é o poder do ativismo das bases sociais, quando os ideólogos do país não são consultados”.

Ghanim não se surpreendeu quando os protestos começaram. Como cidadã israelense, nascida em Maria e Diretora Geral do MADAR, o Fórum Palestino de Estudos Israelenses, a socióloga está bem familiarizada com a polarização israelense. No entanto, está certa de que os acontecimentos recentes na Tunísia e no Egito tiveram um grande impacto no movimento de protesto israelense.

Sufian Abu Zaida é membro do Fatah e ex-prisioneiro, que atualmente dá aulas sobre a sociedade israelense na Universidade Birzeit e na Universidade Aberta Al-Quds. Ele nasceu em Jabaliya, um campo de refugiados na Faixa de Gaza, de uma família de refugiados da cidade de Burayr (atualmente Bror Hayil).

O professor palestino lembra de rememorar os seus alunos no ano que vem desta “que pode ser a primeira coisa que os israelenses aprenderam com os árabes. Eles sempre se apresentaram como o único raio de luz positiva na escuridão do Oriente Médio. De repente há algo a ser aprendido com esses retardados”.

Ghanim cita fatores sociológicos adicionais como parte do ímpeto por mudança em Israel, dizendo que “por um lado, há o neoliberalismo e a globalização, que resultaram num inaceitável vão entre a riqueza do estado e dos indivíduos e a aspereza da vida da maioria das pessoas. Por outro, há essas ferramentas similares – redes sociais online, com o Facebook liderando a lista, que têm um alcance muito maior na mídia”.

Mesmo assim, não há muito interesse dos palestinos nos protestos que tomaram as ruas de Israel por três semanas. “Somos um povo em luta permanente com o governo, três semanas de protesto não são o suficiente para prender a nossa atenção”, disse Nariman al-Tamimi, de Nabi Salih, e Afat Ghatasha, uma militante feminista e membro do Partido do Povo Palestino.

No entanto, ambas estão impressionadas – assim como outros palestinos – com o fato de que o movimento israelense defende a melhoria do já alto padrão de vida em Israel, em comparação aos dos palestinos. O que os israelenses estão exigindo “é luxo”, de acordo com Ghatasha.

“Eu sei algo a respeito da crise de moradia”, disse Tamimi, que foi erroneamente posta numa prisão por oito dias, há um ano e meio atrás, por ter atacado um policial com um objeto cortante. Ela veio a ser condenada por “obstruir o trabalho do policial na realização de seus deveres”, durante uma manifestação contra a apropriação de terras e de um poço de água na cidade.

Seu marido Bassam foi preso há quatro meses e enfrenta a acusação de organizar manifestações de protesto em sua cidade. “Para nós, palestinos, não é uma crise de moradia que estamos enfrentando, mas um banimento de moradia, embora a responsabilidade do governo israelense por ambas as situações seja um denominador comum”, disse ela.

A Administração Civil lançou uma ordem de demolição para a sua casa, construída na Área C. A casa original, construída em 1963, não era grande o suficiente para a família inteira e eles tiveram de ampliar a sua casa sem uma permissão: uma permissão que Israel não deu.

De sua casa, que poderá ser destruída a qualquer dia, os membros da família podem ver o assentamento de Halamish se erguer. “Há poucos dias, minha filha viu os manifestantes israelenses comigo, enquanto eu navegava na web”, disse Tamimi, “quando nos reunimos no escritório do Comitê Popular de Resistência al-Bireh”.

“Ela me perguntou: eles também são dispersados com bombas de gás, eles são atingidos? Eu lhe disse que não, não eram. Ela não podia entender a diferença; nós também estamos lutando por justiça social, não estamos?”, disse Tamimi.

O principal elemento faltante na onda israelense de protestos, de acordo com Tamimi é a desconexão entre a luta social e a ocupação israelense.

Abu Zaida é o único que parece otimista quanto aos protestos, dizendo que “as pessoas vão começar a julgar o seu governo nos seus gastos com os assentamentos e os assentados. Está para acontecer isso. Justiça Social significa uma distribuição igualitária dos recursos do país. Todo mundo sabe que não é isso o que está ocorrendo por razões políticas e ideológicas”.

Ghanim, no entanto, acredita que os movimentos de protesto israelenses fracassarão porque os bons modos políticos impedirão as pessoas de verem a ligação natural com a ocupação, com o governo continuando a fazer dos assentamentos a mais alta prioridade, desprovendo o povo palestino de sua liberdade.

“O movimento é liderado pela classe média e por muitos intelectuais, uma classe social que gera muito conhecimento no sentido sociológico, mas no sentido espiritual, disse Ghanim, acrescentando “eles eventualmente vão estabelecer uma conexão com a ocupação. No entanto, historicamente processos estratégicos levam muito tempo, enquanto a liderança tem pouco tempo em mente, sem tratar da raiz do problema. E assim o movimento vai colapsar. Netanyahu trará a Cisjordânia a Tel Aviv, quer dizer, ele vai fazer um upgrade no apartheid, e isso é tudo”.

Tamimi e Ghatash acreditam que esta é uma oportunidade para os israelenses entenderem que também são vítimas da ocupação. “Todas as granadas e bombas a gás jogadas sobre nós nas nossas manifestações custam dinheiro que não pode ser gasto para melhorar as condições dos israelenses”, disse Tamimi. Mesmo assim, afirmou, ela ouviu que um dos líderes dos protestos falou contra os anarquistas, porque eles protestaram contra os soldados.

“Eles são ativistas que lutam conosco nos últimos anos”, disse ela. “Como você pode exigir justiça social para apenas um grupo?”.

Ghatasha, que nasceu no campo de refugiados de al-Fawwar, numa família da cidade palestina despovoada Bayt Jibrin, também se viu inclinada a não enxergar diferença alguma que tenha sacudido o país.

Em maio passado ela se encontrou com ativistas da esquerda israelense que vieram para uma conferência de partidos da esquerda palestina, em Hebron. Na conferência ela falou sobre os dois processos impedirem as atividades feministas palestinas e a participação das mulheres na luta contra a ocupação.

Por um lado, disse, a ação das ongs (a canalização das atividades das ongs fundadas em diversos países) reduz a influência dos grupos de mulheres. Por outro, a militarização da segunda intifada afastou a maior parte da população, inclusive mulheres, da esfera da luta política.

“O que é isso que faz com que alguns israelenses tenham e outros, não?”, pensou ela, na festa em seu gabinete em Hebron. “Eu queria entender a racionalidade do povo israelense”, acrescentou. “Por um lado há esse egoísmo de um povo vivendo sobre a miséria de outro, sem lamento. Por outro, é óbvio que eles estariam melhor se vivessem num país normal, sem desperdiçar seu dinheiro na sustentação da ocupação, disse Ghatasha.

A despeito de seus receios, todos os quatro concordam que o protesto permitirá aos palestinos – a maior parte dos quais só conhece os israelenses dos assentamentos e os soldados – a verem que “a sociedade israelense não é unidimensional, que é complexa, que não deve ser tomada monoliticamente, que tem suas lutas e suas próprias classes oprimidas”, disse Ghanim.

“O protesto está dilacerando a imagem de Israel como um país perfeito, em que todos são satisfeitos, têm suas vilas e circulam diariamente em seus carros”, acrescentou Abu Zaida.

Tradução: Katarina Peixoto

J14 MAY CHALLENGE SOMETHING EVEN DEEPER THAN THE OCCUPATION

7 August 2011, + 972 http://972mag.com (Israel)

Dimi Reider*

The social justice demonstrations have been accused of ignoring the key issue of the occupation. But their tremendous groundswell of solidarity and cooperation is slowly gnawing at something even more significant than that – the principle of separation, of which the occupation is just one exercise.

Placard citing the Tahrir slogan of "Go!" and reading "Egypt is Here" at the J14 rally. Photo: Oren Ziv, Activestills.org

One of the most impressive aspects of the J14 movement is how quickly it is snowballing, drawing more and more groups and communities into a torrent of discontent. Pouring out into the streets is everything that Israelis, of all national identities, creeds and most classes complained about for years: The climbing rents, the rising prices on fuel, the parenting costs, the free-fall in the quality of public education, the overworked, unsustainable healthcare system, the complete and utter detachment of most politicians, on most levels, from most of the nation.

All this has been obfuscated for decades by the conflict, by a perpetual state of emergency; one of the benefits from leaving the occupation outside the protests, for now, was to neutralise the entire discourse of militarist fear-mongering. Contrary to what Dahlia and Joseph wrote last week, the government so far utterly failed to convince the people military needs must come before social justice; Iran has largely vanished from the news pages, and attempts to scare Israelis with references to a possible escalation with Lebanon or the Palestinian are relegated to third, fourth and fifth places in the headlines, with the texts often written in a sarcastic tone rarely employed in Israeli media on “serious” military matters.

Over the past week, though, the Palestinians themselves have begun gaining presence in the protests; not as an external threat or exclusively as monolithic victims of a monolithic Israel, but as a part and parcel of the protest movement, with their demands to rectify injustices unique to the Palestinians organically integrating with demands made by the protests on behalf of all Israelis.

First, a tent titled “1948″ was pitched on Rothschild boulevard, housing Palestinian and Jewish activists determined to discuss Palestinian collective rights and Palestinian grievances as a legitimate part of the protests. They activists tell me the arguments are exhaustive, wild and sometimes downright strange; but unlike the ultra-right activists who tried pitching a tent calling for a Jewish Tel Aviv and hoisting homophobic signs, the 1948 tenters were not pushed out, and are fast becoming part of the fabric of this “apolitical” protest.

A few days after the 1948 tent was pitched, the council of the protests – democratically elected delegates from 40 protest camps across the country – published their list of demands, including, startlingly, two of the key social justice issues unique to the Palestinians within Israel: Sweeping recognition of unrecognised Bedouin villages in the Negev; and expanding the municipal borders of Palestinian towns and villages to allow for natural development. The demands chimed in perfectly with the initial drive of the protest – lack of affordable housing.

The demands chimed in perfectly with the initial drive of the protest – lack of affordable housing. Neither issue has ever been included in the list of demands of a national, non-sectarian movement capable of bringing 300,000 people out into the streets.

And, finally, on Wednesday, residents of the Jewish poverty-stricken neighbourhood of Hatikva, many of them dyed-in-the-wool Likud activists, signed a covenant of cooperation with the Palestinian and Jewish Jaffa protesters, many of them activists with Jewish-Palestinian Hadash and nationalist-Palestinian Balad. They agreed they had more in common with each other than with the middle class national leadership of the protest, and that while not wishing to break apart from the J14 movement, they thought their unique demands would be better heard if they act together. At the rally, they marched together, arguing bitterly at times but sticking to each other, eventually even chanting mixed Hebrew and Arabic renditions of slogans from Tahrir.

Yesteday’s mega-rally was also where Palestinian partnership in the protests came to a head, when writer Odeh Bisharat spoke to nearly 300,000 people – overwhelmingly, centrist Israelis Jews – of the grievances of Palestinians in Israel and was met with raucous applause. I’ll return to that moment a little further below, but before that, perhaps I should explain why I think the participation of Palestinian citizens of Israel in the protests has more bearing on the conflict than any concentrated attempt to rally the crowds against the occupation.

On the most practical level, if the protesters had begun by blaming all of Israel’s social and political woes on the occupation, none of the breathtaking events of the past three weeks would have happened. They would have been written off as Israel-hating lefties and cast aside, just like every attempt to get mainstream Israelis to care for Palestinians before caring for themselves was cast aside for at least the past decade.

Altruist causes can rarely raise people to a sustained and genuine popular struggle against their own governments, and attempts to rally Israelis to the Palestinian cause for selfish reasons – i.e. for our own soldiers’ sake or because of the demographic time bomb – smacked of hypocrisy and ethnic nationalism; hypocrisy is a poor magnet for popular support, while ethnic nationalism is the natural instrument of the Right, not of the Left, which wields it awkwardly and usually to its own detriment.

It should be admitted, 11 years after the second Intifada, 18 years after the beginning of the peace process, that the Israeli left has utterly and abjectly failed to seriously enthuse Israelis in the project of ending the occupation. There was never a choice between a social struggle focused on the occupation and a social struggle temporarily putting the conflict aside, because the first attempt would have flopped . There was nothing to be gained by trying the same thing again for the Nth time. There have been many important victories in battles, but on the whole, the two-state left (as opposed to the two-state right) has lost the war.

The Occupation is just part of a bigger problem
But these were the tactical considerations valid only for the beginning of the protests. Social injustice does not exist in a vacuum, most certainly not in a conflict zone – and the problem in Israel-Palestine is much wider and deeper than the occupation. The occupation may be the most acute and violent injustice going on, and, like Aziz and I wrote in our New York Times op-ed last week, it’s certainly the greatest single obstacle to social justice on either side of the Green Line. But it’s still only one expression of an organising principle that has governed all of Israel-Palestine for at least the past sixty years: Separation.

Israel-Palestine today is, for all intents and purposes, a single political entity, with a single de-facto sovereign – the government in Jerusalem, but the populations this government controls, are divided into several levels of privilege. The broad outlines of the hierarchy are well-known – at the bottom are Palestinians of ‘67, who can’t even vote for the regime that governs most areas of their lives and are subject to military and bureaucratic violence on a day to day basis; Palestinians of ‘48, who can vote but are strongly and consistently discriminated and lack collective rights (which is a Jewish privilege); and finally the Israeli Jews.

But separation runs deeper than that: It employs and amplifies cultural and economic privilege to fracture each broad group into sub-groups, separating Druze from Bedouins from Palestinians, Ramallah residents from residents of Hebron, city residents from villagers, established residents from refugees; and within Jewish society, Mizrachis from Ashkenazis, settlers from green-line residents of Israel, ultra-Orthodox from secular, Russians from native-born Israelis, Ethiopians from everyone else, and so on.

The separation system is so chaotic even its privileges are far from self evident: ultra-Orthodox and settlers are seen as the communities most benefiting from the status quo, but it is important to remember the actual socio-economic standing of both is rather weak, and many in both are not only beneficiaries, but also hostages – the ultra-Orthodox to sectorial parties, the settlers to the occupation. And the occupation itself is just an instrument of separation: Its long term purpose is to acquire maximum land with a minimum of Palestinian on it, but for the past 40 years it mainly ensured half the population under the control of a certain government would have no recourse or representation with that government on any level.

And while the issue of the occupation remains to be engaged with directly in the #j14 movement, the very dynamic of the protests is already gnawing at the foundation on which the occupation rests – the separation axiom. Haggai Matar is a veteran anti-occupation activist, with a prison term for conscientious objection to serve in the IDF and countless West Bank protests under his belt. There are few people in Israel more committed to ending the occupation than him. And yet this is how he writes of yesterday’s rally:

Odeh Bisharat, the first Arab to address the mass rallies, greeted the enormous audience before him and reminded them that the struggle for social justice has always been the struggle of the Arab community, which has suffered from inequality, discrimination, state-level racism and house demolitions in Ramle, Lod, Jaffa and Al-Araqib. Not only was this met with ovation from a huge crowd of well over a hundred thousand people, but the masses actually chanted: “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies.” And later, in a short clip of interviews from protest camps across the country, Jews and Arabs spoke, and a number of them, including even one religious Jew, repeatedly said that “it’s time for this state to be a state for all its citizens.” A state for all its citizens. As a broad, popular demand. Who would have believed it.

It would be seriously far-fetched to assume the protesters are deliberately trying to pull down the entire meshwork of rifts and boundaries. But one of the many unexpected consequences of this movement – indeed, the movement itself is an avalanche of completely unexpected consequences – is that these boundaries are beginning to blur and to seem less relevant than what brings people together. We have failed to end the occupation by confronting it head on, but the boundary-breaking, de-segregating movement could, conceivably, undermine it.

Like Noam wrote earlier today, it’s still too soon to tell where the movement will eventually go, and “it can even bring Israel further to the right; it certainly won’t be the first time in history in which social unrest led to the rise of rightwing demagogue – but right now, it is creating a space for a new conversation. Limited as this space may be, it’s so much more than we had just a month ago.” The slow erosion of separation lines means there are also possibilities opening up for new conversation about the Jewish-Palestinian divide – including the occupation.

*Dmitry (Dimi) Reider is a journalist and photographer working from Israel and the Palestinian territories. His work had appeared in the New York Times,The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, and Index on Censorship, etc.

CHILDREN TORMENTED IN THE NAME OF THE LAW

21 - 27 July 2011 Issue No. 1057, Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg

Israeli occupation authorities are imprisoning Palestinian children at will, often on bogus or trumped-up charges, writes Khaled Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem

With the most aggressively racist government ever in power, the Israeli occupation authorities have been prosecuting and imprisoning Palestinian children at will, mostly on bogus charges such as throwing stones at Israeli military vehicles and endangering the security and safety of the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank.

According to the Israeli human rights group B'tselem, nearly 100 per cent of Palestinian children charged with stone-throwing are convicted due to overwhelming pressure to plea bargain. Only one Palestinian minor out of 853 charged with stone-throwing between 2005-2010 was acquitted.

On 18 July, B'tselem issued a detailed report explaining some of the reasons behind the unusually draconian approach taken towards Palestinian children, many of whom have not reached 13 years of age.

"The nearly 100 per cent conviction rate stems from, among other things, the willingness of the detainees to plead guilty as part of a plea bargain agreement. The pressure to plead guilty is great because minors charged with throwing stones are held in custody until the end of legal proceedings and a regular trial could keep the detained for longer than the sentence they receive after pleading guilty, which is usually no more than a few months," the report said.
Nidal Harb, a lawyer from the Hebron region, said that the detained Palestinian children are incarcerated in "sub-human conditions". As a result, Harb said, "it is quite natural that these kids would confess to anything to rid themselves of the miserable and unbearable detention conditions."

Of the arrested, 18 were aged 12-13 and 255 were 14-15. Sixty per cent of the 12-13 year group received prison terms ranging from a few days to up to two months. Fifteen per cent of all the children served terms of more than six months and one per cent served longer than a year.

The report did not detail the cases of dozens of other children and minors who were shot dead or seriously injured during the designated period.

An Israeli military judge quoted in the report admitted that "it is a very problematic situation. Nearly all minors are convicted of stone-throwing because they have no choice but to sign a plea bargain agreement, for which the punishment is usually between one and two months in jail, and if they insist on evidence they'll stay longer."

"Of course, it is terrible that they arrest them in the middle of the night and question them without their lawyers," the Israeli judge said.

Jewish settler children convicted of stone-throwing or even graver charges usually receive little more than a slap on the wrist, and the kid-glove treatment given to them stands in sharp contrast to the harsh and vindictive treatment meted out to the Palestinians.

In cases where a settler is convicted, usually on misdemeanor charges such as disturbing the peace, even if he causes grave bodily harm he often benefits from extenuating circumstances that are never available for non-Jews.

More to the point, it has become increasingly clear in recent years that many of the military courts in the West Bank are staffed by Jewish settler or pro-settler judges, who, in the words of one Palestinian lawyer, consider an accused Palestinian guilty even if proven innocent while considering a Jewish defendant innocent even if proven guilty.

This inherently racist justice system serves Palestinian child defendants with harsh incarceration terms as the only or primary means of punishment. The incarcerated children receive very few or no family visits, and they face restrictions on their ability to complete their studies.

B'tselem illustrated the discriminatory nature of Israeli military law in the West Bank, especially when compared with Israel's own laws. For example, in the West Bank the age of adulthood, as defined under military law, is 16, whereas it is 18 in Israel proper.
This week, a high-ranking army commander warned of the "growing Jewish terror and intimidation" by Jewish settlers against the Palestinian population.

The commander, Avi Mizrahi, was quoted as demanding the dismantling of the Yitzhar colony in the northern West Bank, which he said was a hotbed of terror against the Palestinians.

Over recent days and weeks, settlers from the settlement have torched Palestinian fields and olive groves, but none of the perpetrators have been arrested.
In another development, the Israeli Interior Ministry recently extended military orders banning the reunification of Palestinians living inside Israel proper, including in occupied East Jerusalem, with their families in the West Bank.

The draconian measure has caused immense difficulties for relatives and spouses, as many marriages have had to be broken up because husband and wife have not been able to live together.

Israel claims the motive behind this inhuman policy is the need to fight "terror". However, scrutiny of the issue reveals that the real reason has to do with Israel's obsession with keeping the non-Jewish population as subservient and subordinate as possible.

ZOHAR, UNA JOVEN JUDÍA A BORDO DEL GERNIKA

29 junio 2011, Comité de Solidaridad con la Causa Árabe http://causaarabeblog.blogspot.com

Zohar, camina con dificultad; sin embargo llega donde todos los demás; para ella no hay obstáculos: no lo son distancias, las pendientes ni el fuerte calor del Mediterráneo; porque precisamente en un lugar del Mediterráneo de cuyo nombre no debo acordarme, los brigadistas del Guernika esperamos el momento oportuno para zarpar rumbo a Gaza.

Zohar es una judía con doble nacionalidad alemana e israelí que dejo de vivir en Israel porque la atmósfera humana y política le resultaba irrespirable. De familia instalada en Palestina antes de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, nació en un kibutz cerca de Nazaret, pasó por la universidad y pronto se incorporó al trabajo como administrativa en Tel Aviv. Sohar habla varios idiomas, incluido el español con un leve acento francés y desde luego el haber perdido una pierna no le ha impedido trabajar.

Le pregunto por cómo y cuándo empieza a tomar conciencia de la situación y a movilizarse en pro de los derechos del pueblo palestino. Con la leve sonrisa de sus ojos profundamente azules comienza a relatarme las situaciones vividas; en determinados momentos de la conversación acelera el ritmo de las palabras según relata con indignación las barbaridades que le ha tocado presenciar. Muy pronto, ya con cuatro o cinco años vivió una experiencia que la marcó, fue con motivo de la destrucción de la casa que una familia palestina había construido en un terreno de su propiedad; el hecho de gozar de la propiedad no impidió que fuera demolida y los dejaron sin techo. Zohar y su familia no entendían la actitud del gobierno y menos aún la de sus vecinos del kibutz que eran los primeros en exigir su demolición porque ponía en peligro su seguridad. A partir de entonces empezaron a tener problemas con sus vecinos judíos por haber ayudado a aquella familia con tiendas de campaña, mantas y alimentos, un recelo que se incrementaba cuando en la fiesta del uno de mayo en lugar de la bandera sionista colocaban la bandera roja.

Poco a poco empezó a corroborar que la sociedad israelí estaba enferma. Así que ya desde la adolescencia comienza a participar como activista contra la construcción de los asentamientos en Hebrón, contra la intervención Israelí en Líbano y a protestar cuando el gobierno de Menagen Begin expulsa a palestinos trasladándolos en camiones hasta la frontera del Líbano.

Trabaja también en un centro de discapacitados; son años en los que toma contacto con la AIC, una organización que trabaja por una paz justa en Palestina y mantiene encuentros entre israelíes y palestinos: son los años de verse con los palestinos en Beit Yala y Beit Sahur, protestar contra los acuerdos de paz y manifestándose por los asesinatos de palestinos durante la Segunda Intifada. Durante estos años se implica también con una ONG que trabaja con los beduinos de Judea. Finalmente los asesinatos de Yenin le colman la paciencia y con su pareja abandona el estado de Israel.

-Allí no quiero ir. Me niego a vivir allí-me dice- solo acudo a ver a mi familia y a votar. Es un estado que me desagrada profundamente; no soporto el apartheid, la discriminación que sufren los palestinos y menos aún el trato vejatorio al que los someten cada día, el robo de sus casas, la ocupación de sus tierras y sus aguas, la destrucción de sus olivos. Pero lo que peor soporto es la indiferencia social ante tantos abusos e injusticias. Eso es fascismo y la sociedad israelí me recuerda a la indiferencia de la población alemana y de los estados europeos durante el holocausto nazi. Por otra parte se incrementa cada vez más las diferencias entre ricos y pobres: gente que vive en la opulencia y otros como los fadacha que ocupan los puestos más miserables en la escala social, hasta el punto de que el ambiente social resulta irrespirable.

Ahora Zohar desde hace siete años vive con su compañero en Alhaja, un pueblo de la Sierra de Aracena, de la explotación de un bar y potenciando experiencias de agricultura ecológica. En España participa en el programa BDS (boikot desinversiones y sanciones) y se integra en el proyecto ”Gaza Libre” no logrando llegar a Gaza desde Egipto, por los impedimentos que les puso el dictador Mubarak. Desde el primer momento se puso en contacto con “Rumbo a Gaza” integrándose en la brigada española.

Zohar ve muchos problemas a la situación actual. Como mal menor se inclina por un estado palestino en lo que son los territorios ocupados aunque hay dificultades como la gran cantidad de asentamientos y vías de comunicación que desarticulan Palestina. Aunque lo ve difícil se inclina por la solución de dos estados, que sería la forma en que los palestinos recuperaran la dignidad. Aunque pensándolo mejor la solución sería un territorio laico donde todos pudieran convivir, pero a corto y medio plazo lo ve inviable porque hay demasiado odio.

Sostiene que la sociedad israelí esta deshumanizada y envilecida. Por ese camino el estado de Israel marcha hacia el suicidio, porque no podrá acabar con los palestinos.

Cuando acabamos la entrevista me dice:

-No vamos a callar, porque eso supondría perder nuestra humanidad.

Finalmente le hago una pregunta ¿Tienes miedo? Su respuesta es contundente y me responde mirándome a los ojos:

-No; aunque por declaraciones del gobierno, si me detienen, pueden condenarme a siete años de cárcel, pero en tal caso podría tener suerte y estar con mi hermano que está en prisión por insumiso. Y concluye con estas palabras:

-Sería un honor para mí ser una prisionera política en mi país.

Hasta luego, Zohar- le digo mostrándole mi total admiración.

Miguel Ángel San Miguel Valduérteles

27 de Junio de 2011. En un lugar del Mediterráneo

Sharp increase in West Bank home demolition [1]

22 June 2011, B'Tselem בצלם‎ htto://www.btselem.org (Israel)

Civil Administration demolished more Palestinian homes this year than in all of last year. Last week alone, 33 residential structures were demolished in the Jordan Valley and southern Hebron hills

In the past week, Civil Administration inspectors, accompanied by soldiers and Border Police officers, demolished 33 residential structures in the Palestinian communities Fasayil, al-Hadidiyeh, and Yarza, all in the Jordan Valley, and in Khirbet Bir al-‘Id, in the southern Hebron hills. These were home to 238 persons, 129 of them minors. According to B'Tselem’s figures, since the beginning of 2011, the Civil Administration has demolished 103 residential structures in Area C, most of them tents, huts, and tin shacks, in which 706 persons lived (including 341 minors). [These figures include only residential structures that were demolished and not those used for livestock, storage, and baking].

This is a sharp increase in home demolitions in Area C. In 2010, by comparison, the Civil Administration demolished 86 residential structures. In 2009, the figure was 28. See full figures [2].

Israel continues to control all aspects of Palestinian life in Area C, including planning and building. Yet few Civil Administration outline plans have been made for Palestinian communities, and they do not enable any construction or development beyond what already exists, making it impossible for Palestinians to build legally in these areas.

Some of the demolished structures were in places the army had declared “firing zones.” Almost half of the land in the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area has been declared as “firing zones,” even areas located along main traffic arteries or next to land cultivated by settlers; some of the land declared as such a zone is actually cultivated by settlers. The declaration means Israel has prohibited Palestinians from living in these areas, although Palestinian communities existed in them prior to the occupation.

The discrimination in enforcing the planning and building laws is evident in Khirbet Bir al-‘Id, next to which the Mizpe Ya’ir outpost was built in 1998. The outpost is considered illegal under Israeli government interpretation, too. As opposed to the Civil Administration's policy of demolishing Palestinian structures built without a permit, the state did nothing to prevent establishment of the settler outpost and approved its connection to water and electricity. The Ministry of Housing has funded infrastructure for the outpost, including an access road.

B'Tselem calls on the Civil Administration to cease its policy of demolishing Palestinian residential structures in Area C. The Administration must prepare outline plans for Palestinian communities there that will reflect the needs of the population and enable these communities to develop.

Statistics [2]
Background on Planning and Building [3]
________________________________________

Source URL: http://btselem.org/press-release/sharp-increase-west-bank-home-demolition

Links:
[1] http://btselem.org/press-release/sharp-increase-west-bank-home-demolition
[2] http://btselem.org/planning_and_building/statistics
[3] http://btselem.org/topic/planning_and_building

(Shalom 1492: B'Tselem (Hebrew: בצלם‎, "in the image of", as in Genesis 1:27) is an Israeli non-governmental organization (NGO)whose name is Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.)