IN OCCUPIED WEST BANK, JEWS AND ARABS SEE DIFFERENT SIDES OF JUSTICE

5 September 2011, Haaretz

The Israeli justice system in the occupied territories treats similar crimes committed by Jews and Arabs differently - impunity toward settlers, harsh repercussions for Arabs.

By Amira Hass

1. There is a law in Israel. It is the Dromi Law, named for the farmer Shai Dromi who in January 2007 shot to death Khaled el-Atrash, a Bedouin who broke into his farm in the Negev at night.

In June 2008, a law was passed that “a person will not bear criminal responsibility for an act that was required immediately in order to curb someone who breaks in, or tries to break in, in order to commit a crime.” The district court acquitted Dromi of manslaughter, however he was convicted of having an illegal weapon.

2. There is a judge in Israel. He is Colonel-Lieutenant Netanel Benishu, who is deputy president of the military appeals court in the occupied West Bank. He heard the case of three members of the Bedouin Ka’abneh family, who were arrested on July 19th of this year after Israelis attacked their tent encampment on the lands of the village of Mukhmas east of Ramallah.

No, we did not get this wrong. First the Israelis broke into the encampment and then some of its residents began throwing stones at them. And a clarification – the Bedouins did not use a gun. They also did not kill anyone.

The indictment states that one of the stones they threw hit a policeman in the chest and that an Israeli by the name of Harel Zand from the unauthorized outpost of Mitzpeh Danny was hurt in the leg.

The three Bedouin who were arrested are between the ages of 16 and 20. The military judge, Major Yehuda Lieblein, decided to leave the two older youths in detention and to release the youngest one on NIS 7,500 bail.

The military prosecution appealed the release of the minor. The defense attorney, Naji Amer, appealed the continued detention of the others. Benishu ruled that all three would remain in custody until the end of the proceedings.

3. There is a policeman in Israel’s police force at the Benjamin Station in the occupied West Bank. He is Sgt. Maj. Avi Ben Ami and he was present at the site when the Israelis broke into the encampment. He was in civvies. He said he happened to be on the spot because he had received a report that some of the residents of the settlement were planning to go to the encampment. He arrived and saw that they were arguing with the Ka'abneh family members. He says he immediately identified himself as a policeman.

However, the members of the encampment said they only realized he was not a civilian toward the end of the incident when he put a flashing blue light on his car.

His overt or covert presence did not prevent other settlers from arriving there and, according to his testimony, from shouting and starting to kick cans of milk. Then he also noticed the stone-throwers. He apparently did not see what happened then, according to the tent dwellers account to Haaretz. The Israelis began stoning them (one little girl was injured), threw a baby (wrapped in its blankets) out of a cradle and began overturning sacks of flour and rice

4. Benishu: "If we were dealing with throwing stones at civilians alone", he wrote in his ruling "it is doubtful in my eyes to what extent it would be necessary to instruct that the appellants be in the unique circumstances of the present case. No one would disagree that stone throwing is generally a crime that deserves detention because of the danger involved.”

“And indeed, from the point of view of the danger involved in releasing an accused, there is no resemblance between planned and intentional stone-throwing, and stone throwing that stems from tempers heating up during a fight to which the victim contributed quite a bit…However, the appellant deliberately harmed a policeman who was present at the scene and identified himself”

[Therefore] significant danger to the public is involved (in an act of that kind) … The stone throwing continued even after the settlers left the site … Now is the time to reject the defense attorney’s claims about the supposed discrimination that was created between the matter of the appellants and the matter of the settlers… It must be noted that an investigation has been opened against the settlers and some of them have been interrogated under caution as is required. In view of that, it is possible that action will be taken against them… Second, there is no evidence of stone throwing on the part of the settlers, and while every harmful act against property must be condemned, this cannot be compared with an act of bodily harm.”

5. A beheaded doll now lies on the land where the tent encampment of Ka'abneh once was. On July 25, its inhabitants dismantled it and left. Out of fear. That is what the inhabitants of three other nearby Bedouin encampments did as well. Had the law and order authorities defended us from attacks, they said, we would not have left.

6. Israel has a Torah. Bassam, aged 12, helps support his family by herding his relatives’ sheep in a tent encampment near the village of Jaba. He learned that the Jews’ Torah restricts their movement on the Sabbath and therefore, he thought that Saturday would be a good day to take the sheep a little further out, to the rich pasture at the Mukhmas junction. The Migron outpost overlooks the junction.

7. Thank God for security firms. On August 20, Bassam and a friend went out with the sheep at seven in the morning. It was Ramadan, and hot, and they dozed while the sheep pastured.

At around 12.30, Bassam awoke to the sound of desperate bleating from the flock. He left the cave where he had been resting and saw a group of young Israeli boys (and a few girls) attacking the sheep with stones and iron bars.

Two of the Israelis, he said, attacked him too and beat him on the head with the rods. He was also hit in the back by a stone that someone threw at him. His friend woke up and the two of them fled for their lives in the direction of Shaar Binyamin, a settlers’ services compound.

The police station is there but that is not what they were looking for. They hid and waited for a security guard whom they believe guards a wedding hall.

When he arrived, he called the police, an ambulance and a family member of the boys. He also administered first aid to Bassam whose head was bleeding. In the Ramallah hospital, doctors attended to three deep and long gashes on Bassam’s skull.

8. "Hava Nagilla” - let’s be merry. Bassam’s friend accompanied the soldiers and the policemen who went to look for the young attackers. He saw a group of young people sitting on the ground in a small stone building, clapping their hands and singing. Some of them (including some young women) left when they saw the police and army approaching. Most remained behind and continued singing. The boy saw the police arresting them.

9. At a line-up in the yard of the Beit El army base, Bassam identified three of the youths as those who had assaulted him. As far as we know at this moment, if there are suspects in the attack, they are free.

Palestinians' low salaries also linked to Israeli social struggle

A Palestinian financial crisis? Problems with donor countries? Economist Raja Khalidi offers some different explanations for the PA's fiscal problems.

1 August 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)

By Amira Hass

"A financial crisis in the Palestinian Authority" - that is a convenient description of the situation where, on the eve of Ramadan, the Ramallah government is (again ) unable to pay the full salaries of its 150,000 public sector employees. This is a short, but very inaccurate description, however. The crisis, says economist Raja Khalidi, is in the status quo that Israel has enjoyed since the Oslo Accords: Israel is in control of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - and Palestinian society and the donor countries finance the cost of this domination.

The low salaries in the Palestinian enclaves (on average, less than NIS 2,000 per month ) and the PA's large-scale withholding of wages is not some Icelandic story: These - just like the cost of housing in Israel, our tycoons and the state's wealth vs. citizens' miserable salaries - are all linked to the comprehensive economical regime that has been designed by Israeli governments between the river and the sea. It is further evidence of the Israeli crisis, even if for pragmatic reasons it is not talked about in the tent camps.

Khalidi is a development economist who has been working with the United Nations for over 25 years, and has written widely on Palestinian economic conditions in the occupied territories and Israel. "The delays in Arab pledges should not be overstated," says Khalidi (who answered questions via email ). The immediate reasons for them may change, but, he says, "the roots of the chronic PA fiscal burden have more to do with the PA being forced in effect to shoulder the financial burden of occupation, both in terms of the costs of security and provision of public services, and appearing to the world as a 'state' government - with all the usual expectations that it will balance its finances and keep its public sector trimmed. There is not really a PA budget crisis: There is a crisis in the economic sustainability of the entire 'governance' project that has been in place since Oslo."

Isn't a public sector payroll of 150,000 (with more than 20,000 whose wages are paid by the Hamas government ) a bit inflated?

Khalidi: "The public sector payroll, at an estimated $1.7 billion, is almost 25 percent of the gross domestic product - double or triple the proportion in other countries in the region. But GDP is depressed structurally as a result of prolonged occupation and hence the public sector share of a small total GDP appears large. The public sector share of GDP even seems inflated. This is a deliberate policy, which was in fact introduced by [Prime Minister] Salam Fayyad himself in 2001 in the wake of the second intifada, when he was the International Monetary Fund representative in Yasser Arafat's PA. He designed the first 'budget support' program funded by donors (first Arab, later European ) for a very good Keynesian reason: In times of economic recession, government expenditure is needed to stimulate aggregate demand.

"So the continuation of the fiscal stimulus in place for 10 years is symptomatic not of a bloated PA public sector, but rather of a specific fiscal instrument that's still in place to combat the structural economic constraints created by occupation. It was a valid instrument 10 years ago and remains the only (limited, but still valid ) fiscal policy instrument the PA has at its disposal. Without it Israel and the world would be faced with a major economic crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory."

Does the current crisis mean the end of the effort to reduce to zero donor budget support?

"The idea that reliance on donor support must be reduced as a matter of principle - despite the conditions of occupation, with no Palestinian sovereignty or national rights on the horizon - is a bit of a diversion and is in fact unfair to an economy that has been deprived of its capacity to produce, trade, grow and develop for over 40 years. Before donor aid can be effectively and usefully removed, the economy needs to be equipped with the productive means, the infrastructure and the freedom to build and grow, which have been denied in various ways in Gaza and the West Bank. And as long as Israel sits on Palestinian trade routes and captures up to half of the potential import taxes that should be destined for the PA and its strained public revenues - then there is no alternative to sustained donor aid. The PA should neither be ashamed to be dependent on aid, nor should it aim to reduce it; rather it can consider more effective ways of using the aid."

Why does the West appear more committed to contribute than the Arab countries?
"Even two generations after 1948, no Western donor, especially European and American, can be oblivious to their historic responsibility, and to the immediate security and political interests that the continuation of this conflict implies. Hence anything needed to keep a lid on things is to be expected, and indeed comes without asking the cost. As for Arab donors, they do not feel at all the historic responsibility for this situation: Their support for Palestine is more a matter of showing solidarity with their Palestinian brethren - a solidarity that grows and wanes with the Palestinians' domestic situation, with the pliability of the regimes in question when pressured by the West to play their role in this or that peace process, etc. So it is naturally neither predictable, nor seen as a matter of national security or political interest as it is for Western donors. Thus, for the West aid is an obligation they cannot escape; for Arabs it is a duty they must fulfill."

And now the West has a historic responsibility vis-a-vis the Oslo promises that were not upheld?

"It should not be forgotten that essentially the same occupation (with perhaps slightly less excellent services, no five-star hotels and no secure PA jobs ), was maintained in 1993 with 22,000 employees, plus the Israeli army, plus around 120,000 Palestinians employed in Israel and contributing about the same share of the gross national product as PA expenditures do now. Today Israel doesn't have to provide Palestinians with jobs, public services or security while it continues to expand whenever it sees fit, thanks to a usually generous donor-funded PA budget. The very same budget which is now supposedly in 'crisis' because it cannot any longer maintain an arrangement which has allowed occupation to spread and deepen, and also costs less for Israel. It's basically a clever accounting trick, in light of the fact that the only party who should have a budget crisis is Israel, which otherwise gets a pretty good deal."

RAMADAN & AV: CONNECTIONS & COLLISIONS

1 August 2011, The Shalom Center http://www.theshalomcenter.org (USA)

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Last night, with the coming of the New Moon’s sliver of light, Jews entered the month of Av; Muslims, the month of Ramadan. I want to take this moment to examine ways in which Jewish-Muslim relations have become entangled in the broader crisis of Europe and America that has led to attacks on Muslims and to the atrocious murders in Oslo last week.

Today, I want to share some sense of the spirit-lifting meanings and possibilities of this moment. Tomorrow, I want to examine the broader question of the wave of anti-Muslim feeling and action we are experiencing in America and Europe -- and what to do about it.

For Jews, the month of Av is one of foreboding, sorrow, and slow recovery – all built around memories of the Destruction of two Holy Temples in Jerusalem, one by the Babylonian Army in 586 BCE; the other by the Roman Army in 70 CE. The ninth day of Av – in Hebrew, Tisha B’Av -- has been set aside to mourn these disasters.

Jewish tradition blamed these disasters partly on Imperial arrogance, but partly on internal Jewish failings and corruptions.

And the tradition sought to transcend these traumas: In the Biblical era, on the seventh day after the commemoration of Destruction there was a rejoicing with erotic overtones: On the Full Moon of Av, young women danced in the fields and chose their husbands. In the Rabbinic era, seven Sabbaths of Consolation after the day of disaster were set aside to read Prophetic passages of hope, leading in seven steps to the renewal of Rosh Hashanah.

But efforts at transcending the trauma never fully worked. These two destructions helped set the tone of Jewish history as a series of traumas and victimizations – a tone that, after many later repetitions and especially the Holocaust, still deeply colors Jewish responses to history, even though a “Jewish state” now holds considerable political and military power.

For observant Muslims, Ramadan is a month of spiritual self-examination and redirection. Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset each day in order to turn their attention from physical satisfactions to spiritual growth; read the entire Quran during the month; increase their sharing with the poor; and late in the month celebrate the first revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. They end the month with Eid ul-Fitr, the Feast of the Break-Fast.

What can we learn from each other, living this “moonth” alongside each other?

The effort to transcend trauma is not for Jewish hearts and minds alone. Islam as a whole has during the last several centuries been conquered, colonized, subjugated by various Western powers, from Morocco to Indonesia. Palestinians in particular have tried to elevate this experience into a kind of Tisha B’Av of their own, observing the Naqba – the “Disaster” that came upon their community as Israel was established.

For them and for many other Muslims, the Disaster still means military weakness, less-creative arts and sciences, stagnant economies. Can the Disaster itself be turned into fertile soil for a new Islam --as Rabbinic Judaism flowered from the ashes of the Second Temple and as the Rabbis taught that Tisha B’Av was the birthing day of the Messiah?

And in the other direction, what can Jews learn from Ramadan? In Jewish tradition, the forty days from the beginning of the month of Elul to Yom Kippur were intended to be days of religious study and spiritual self-examination. But for most Jews, the currents of Modernity and its pressure for swiftness have swept away this practice, and even the Ten Days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur are rarely taken as a time for self-assessment, repair of wrongs, reconciliation, and forgiveness.

Perhaps the daily practice of fasting is what helps to hold the great majority of the world’s Muslims to observance of Ramadan. Perhaps Jews should be rethinking what daily practice for a full month would have such an impact on our lives. (There is a tradition of blowing the shofar every morning of the forty days that lead to Yom Kippur, but the Jews who do this are rare today. And perhaps the ritual is too “ritualistic,” too little a dent upon our earthy daily lives, to raise our consciousness as fasting does.)

Perhaps there is even a hint of what Jews could do, in the cultural history of Morocco. There the Jewish and Muslim communities feed each other – literally – at the end of Ramadan and the end of Passover. Muslims bring Jews the first post-Passover bread -- for a celebration that became known as “Maimouna,” “Prosperity-time.” And Jews bring Muslims the first food for the great Break-Fast at the end of Ramadan.

Here and there in America during the last few years, Mosques and synagogues have been connecting during Ramadan. Precisely in the face of the tensions between the two communities that have arisen in the last decade, what if they agreed that every evening – or even just every Sunday evening -- during Ramadan, Jews would eat with Muslims, in synagogues or mosques (and as individuals got to know each other, in private homes)?

What if synagogues agreed that during every Shabbat during Ramadan, they would read and study a passage from the Quran?

Or what if the lesson were transposed into Jewish time – so that despite the rush of business and the craving for mid-summer vacation, Jews ceremoniously set aside 18 minutes every morning in Av or from the First of Elul to Yom Kippur to dedicate some money to healing the world – pursuing peace, seeking justice, protecting the Earth?

May your Av, your Ramadan, help lift you into a fuller awareness of the loving care we owe each other!