‘International week against the Apartheid Wall’ seeks to rally the ‘global 99%’

10 november 2011, Mondoweiss http://mondoweiss.net (USA)

Anna Baltzer*

US Campaign National Organizer Anna Baltzer with #Occupy protesters

On October 25th at Oakland City Hall, barricades and riot police had replaced the hundreds of committed activists who had inhabited Oscar Grant Plaza since Occupy Oakland began. Helicopters swarmed above. The atmosphere was tense and thick with teargas. Earlier that day, Scott Olsen, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, had been shot in the head with a projectile and hospitalized.

Oakland native Tristan Anderson met a similar fate in 2009 when the Israeli military shot him in the head with a U.S.-made high-velocity tear gas canister while he nonviolently protested Israel's Apartheid Wall in the West Bank village of Ni'lin. Bassem Abu Rahmah was fatally wounded the following year when the Israeli army fired a tear gas canister at his chest as he protested the wall in the West Bank village of Bil'in. His sister Jawaher died in January after inhaling U.S.-made tear gas, which the Israeli military fired aggressively during a protest against the wall, which still annexes huge swaths of Bil'in's land.

The connections between the struggles of Palestinians and the #Occupy movement are unmistakable: the spotlight on privilege and inequality, the mass imprisonment, the police repression, and the people's steadfastness. As the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) wrote in a statement of unity with the "global 99%":

Our aspirations overlap; our struggles converge. Our oppressors, whether greedy corporations or military occupations, are united in profiting from wars, pillage, environmental destruction, repression and impoverishment. We must unite in our common quest for freedoms, equal rights, social and economic justice, environmental sanity, and world peace.

The 9th Annual International Week against the Apartheid Wall is November 9 - 16, 2011. What will you do to nonviolently bring down systems of oppression both here at home and in support of Palestinians struggling to bring down the Apartheid Wall?

The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign is calling on people around the world to "Stand with the Palestinian popular resistance" and pressure our "governments, institutions and corporations to stop their support of Israeli apartheid" by organizing in four key areas. Below are ideas and resources for you to take action in your community.

Awareness-raising campaigns about the Wall and settlements
Action idea: Construct a "mock wall" on your campus, at your local city occupation, or elsewhere to educate passersby about the effects of Israel's Apartheid Wall and the connections between oppression of Palestinians and racist border practices targeting immigrants in the United States. Click here to see the new Mock Wall Campaign Toolkit created by students at the University of Arizona and Brown University.

Awareness-raising campaigns on Israel's repression of Palestinian popular resistance
Action idea: On November 15th, activists from the March 15th Palestinian Youth Movement will attempt to board segregated Jewish-only settler buses bound for Jerusalem as an act of civil disobedience. Worldwide activists are mobilizing to shine a light on Israel's repressive tactics and show solidarity for Palestinian popular resistance. Click here to sign up for information and a toolkit developed by coalition member group Jewish Voice for Peace to help local groups put together unique and exciting local actions in solidarity with the Palestinian Freedom Riders on November 15th.

Boycott and divestment campaigns against companies building the Apartheid Wall
Action idea: Hold a teach-in about boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) at your nearest city occupation, spotlighting Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer, which produces the surveillance equipment and unmanned vehicles that monitor both the Israeli Apartheid Wall and the U.S./Mexico border. Click here to download member group Grassroots International’s fact sheet about Elbit's involvement in Israel’s oppressive policies targeting Palestinians and racist practices on the U.S.-Mexico border. Get TIAA-CREF to divest from Elbit and other corporations profiting from Israeli occupation by joining the growing "We Divest" Campaign.

To help build your case for local BDS campaigns, check out our BDS FAQs here.

Consider also distributing the BNC's moving statement of solidarity with the #Occupy movement. Click here to download the two-page handout.

Support the Palestinian call for a comprehensive and mandatory military embargo on Israel
Action Idea: Join our organizing campaign to end military aid to Israel by signing up to receive an organizing packet in the mail with fliers, fact sheets, postcards, and petitions. With this packet, you’ll have everything you’ll need to educate and organize people at your local #Occupy or other community event to end $30 billion in tax-payer funded weapons to Israel and redirect that money to unmet needs here at home.

Please email your planned events and actions to Mallory at Stop the Wall mallory@stopthewall.org. You can also read the call to action and find excellent resources on the Apartheid Wall here.

The night after Scott was shot, thousands of activists reclaimed Oakland’s public spaces for “the 99%” by breaking down the fences with which the city government had encircled the plaza, as Palestinians continue to struggle to tear down Israel's Apartheid Wall to reclaim their land and destinies.

As we struggle for justice here at home, let us remember that everyday Palestinians struggling under occupation are part of "the 99%." Join the International Week against the Apartheid Wall!

*Anna Baltzer is the National Organizer of US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation where is is crossposted.

HISTORIC DECLARATION BY PALESTINIANS, ISRAELIS IN SUPPORT OF ISRAELI SOCIAL PROTEST, ANTI-COLONIAL STRUGGLE

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

Some 20 political parties and social movements from both sides of the Green Line issued an historic declaration in support of the social protests currently rocking Israel and their necessary linkage to the struggle against Israel’s occupation and colonial policies.

Together for putting an end to occupation and racism, in support of the struggle of the Palestinian people to attain their national rights and against national and social oppression.

Even in light of the encouraging developments in the Middle East, the wave of social protests and the awakening of the peoples’ struggles for freedoms and the right to live in dignity, the Palestinian people still live under the yoke of the Israeli occupation, despite their persistent and ongoing struggle for freedom. The international community, for its part, demonstrates its helplessness and does not lend a hand to support the Palestinian struggle for liberation and justice.

The protest movements and the winds of change blowing in the Arab world have aroused excitement throughout the world amongst freedom seekers, encouraging many to adopt the model of popular struggle. These protest movements have had a deep impact on various groups in Israel, amongst both Jews and Palestinians, and made an important contribution to the rise of the popular protest movement within Israel for social justice.

Moved by our aspiration to attain a just and fair peace in the region, a peace that is truly essential for the peoples of the region and can assist in promoting the struggle for justice and progress for everyone, we – Palestinian and Israeli social and political forces, representatives of women’s associations and young people from both sides of the Green Line – emphasise the need for a joint struggle, with the goal of liberating the peoples of the region from colonialism and hegemony, particularly that of Zionism, halting the occupation and Israeli military aggression and supporting the just struggle of the Palestinian people for fulfillment of its right for self-determination in accordance with the decisions of the international community.

We look forward to the liberation of all the region’s peoples from dictatorship, ruling tyranny and from all forms of national, social and economic oppression. Therefore, we the signatories on this document, emphasise:

1. We support the Palestinian September initiative in the United Nations, the body which carries responsibility for laying the foundations of peace internationally, in order to demand full membership for Palestine in the UN and recognition of a Palestinian state in the borders of 4 June 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, and to strengthen the efforts to end the occupation of the Palestinian people’s lands, with preservation of the right of the Palestinian people to oppose the occupation and the right of return of the refugees in accordance with United Nations Resolution 194. In this context, we emphasise that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) is the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, deriving its legitimacy both from the Palestinian people in the homeland and exile and from the recognition it received from the Arab League and the United Nations.

The UN initiative is a legitimate step. The United Nations must fulfill its responsibility to realize its responsibility to establish peace and justice on the international level. This is a step that strengthens the rights of the Palestinian people and in no way represents a threat to Israel, despite the great efforts of the Israeli government to present this step to the Israeli people as a declaration of war or harming the legitimacy of the existence of Israel.

2. We understand that one of the primary reasons for the social and economic distress of citizens in Israel, in addition to the capitalist economic policies, is the continuation of the occupation and excessive security budgets, which Israel’s government seeks to justify as needed for defending the security of the settlements on the one hand and the state borders on the other. We therefore believe that an end to the occupation and establishment of a fair and just peace are essential for a life of peace and welfare.

We welcome the participation and integration of the Palestinian population in Israel in the social protest. This is an important opportunity to present before various groups within Israeli society the distresses of the Palestinians and the injustices caused to them, so that these groups can take responsibility in the struggle against the marginalizing policies and ongoing discrimination against the Palestinians in Israel, for putting an ending to confiscation of lands and full equality, and an end to the occupation of the Palestinian lands that were occupied in 1967.

We warn again the familiar attempts by the occupation government to evade the crises and its internal crises and the pressure of the protest waves through the politics of fear which point to an external threat: Whether by presenting the Palestinian appeal to the UN as a “danger” or by military actions, as we have witnessed in the past few days in light of the harsh escalation in bloodletting of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

3. We recognize the right of the Palestinian people, living under occupation, to make use of all the legitimate forms of resistance in accordance with international norms for removing of the occupiers from its land and for self determination. In this context, we emphasise the importance of the joint popular struggle of Palestinians and Israelis. A popular joint struggle is one of the central guiding principles in the struggle against the occupation, the settlements, racism, colonialism, against policies of exclusion, weakening, impoverishment, and racist separation within Israel.

September 2011


Signed: Political parties, social organizations and young women and men Palestinian and Israeli activists (in alphabetical order)

Association of Palestinian Democratic Youth (Palestine)

Association of Progressive Students (Palestine)

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Palestine)

Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Israel)

Democratic Teachers’ Union (Palestine)

Democratic Union of Professionals in Palestine (Palestine)

Democratic Women’s Movement in Israel (Israel)

Israeli Communist Party (Israel)

National Campaign for Return of the Bodies of Arab and Palestinian Martyrs Captured by the Israeli Government (Palestine)

Palestinian People’s Party (Palestine)

Popular Campaign for the Boycott of Israeli Products (Palestine)

Progressive Workers’ Union (Palestine)

Tarabut-Hithabrut – Arab-Jewish Movement for Social and Political Change (Israel)

The Alternative Information Center (Palestine/Israel)

Union of Palestinian Farmers’ Unions (Palestine)

Union of One World for Justice (Palestine)

Union of Palestinian Working Women (Palestine)

Workers’ Unity Bloc (Palestine)

Clergy welcome scholars at annual theological conference

11 August 2011, Ma'an News Agency http://www.maannews.net (Palestine)

Bethlehem (Ma'an) -- The sixth international theological conference opened Monday in Bethlehem, as theologians and intellectuals gathered from more than 17 countries and various Christian denominations.

The mayor of Bethlehem, a representative of President Mahmoud Abbas, and the minister of tourism arrived on behalf of the government, and clergymen Munib Younan and Atallah Hanna welcomed participants.

They stressed that the visit to the holy land reflected a desire to return to the roots of the Christian religion. Such pilgrimages motivate members of their faith to defend their values, they said.

A common theme of the opening statements was the organizers' call for participants to refute "false interpretations" of the Bible which justify "unethical procedures against the Palestinian people."

Christianity in its most pure interpretation rejects violence, tyranny, and violations of human dignity; consequently, the texts of the Bible cannot contain such interpretations, the clerics insisted.

The week-long conference is expected to host discussions about the role of theology and biblical research as well as what both subjects offer as messages to refute Zionism and its proponents around the world.

Delegates representing Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican interpretations are in attendance.

In 2009, Palestinian Christians from all denominations gathered in the same West Bank city to demand sanctions on Israel and to jointly reject Christian Zionism.

Clergy have termed their movement the Palestine Kairos Initiative, modeled after black South Africa's 1985 Kairos Document, a theological statement that called on churches to join the fight against apartheid.

In the same theme, over a dozen leaders of the region's Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican and Baptist traditions co-authored "A moment of truth", a point-by-point rejection of the occupation and a call for action against it.

The initiative urges the international community to begin "a system of economic sanctions and boycott to be applied against Israel," and to "engage in divestment and in an economic and commercial boycott of everything produced by the occupation."

The message insists, however, "These advocacy campaigns must be carried out with courage, openly sincerely proclaiming that their object is not revenge but rather to put an end to the existing evil, liberating both the perpetrators and the victims of injustice."

South African student bodies declare, ‘We recognise apartheid when we see it’

6 August 2011, Mondoweiss http://mondoweiss.net (USA)

An Israeli mission to South African campuses is expected to arrive on August 11. Palestinian students have written to South African colleagues asking them to challenge and boycott the Israeli delegation. Three South African student bodies-- the South African Union of Students, the South African Student Congress, and the Young Communist League of South Africa issued the following statement at a joint press conference yesterday at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. The groups included South Africa's oldest and most representative student bodies.

JOINT STUDENT STATEMENT

There is no doubt, Israel is an Apartheid state; There is only one word, boycott!

We, students and youth of a post Apartheid South Africa, who bear the scars of a racist history and who continue to fight for complete liberation, have a duty and responsibility to stand in solidarity with those facing oppression worldwide. Israeli apartheid is one such form of oppression.

Israeli media boast that a mission of 150 Israeli propagandists will be sent to universities in 5 countries to fix Israel's "serious image problems". The Israeli mission will begin on South African campuses on the 11th of August, with a delegation that includes at least two aides from the Israeli parliament. A delegation member was clear about the intention of their trip: "We have to create some doubt in their [South African students’] minds."

Don’t patronize us! We lived apartheid, we suffered apartheid, we know what apartheid is, we recognise apartheid when we see it. And when we see Israel, we see a regime that practices apartheid. Israel’s image needs no changing; its policies do! We urge Israeli students to instead join the growing and inspiring internal resistance to their regime, particularly the boycott from within movement, rather than waste time and money on these propaganda trips to deceive us Black students, South Africans have no need for these Muldergate-like trips.

A "major focus” of the Israeli trip will be the University of Johannesburg (UJ). On 1st April 2011 UJ's Senate, with the full backing of UJ's Student Representative Council, terminated its institutional relationship with Israel's Ben-Gurion University. Indeed, UJ set an academic boycott of Israel precedent that all other South African and international universities can follow.

Following UJ’s decision, and in response to a letter sent to us by Palestinian students, we urge all SRCs, student groups and other youth structures to strategize and implement a boycott of Israel and its campaigns. We declare that all SA campuses must be Apartheid-Israel free zones.

As with the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, international solidarity is key in overcoming Israeli Apartheid. In Nelson Mandela’s words: 'It behoves all South Africans, erstwhile beneficiaries of generous international support, to stand up and be counted among those contributing actively to the cause of freedom and justice….we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.'

FOR THE RECORD

A. On Education

1. The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories has had disastrous effects on access to education for Palestinians. Palestinian students face poverty, harassment and humiliation as a result of Israeli policy and actions.

2. Israel mounted direct attacks on Palestinian education, including the complete closures of two Palestinian universities in 2003 and the targeting and bombing of more than 60 primary and secondary schools during the Israeli attacks on Gaza in 2009.

3. Israel’s assault on the education of Palestinians is illegal under international law. The right to education is a fundamental human right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments.

4. The Israeli blockade of Gaza has had a detrimental impact on students. Gaza’s electricity supply is controlled by Israel and shut-down for several hours most days, making it difficult for students to study. Moreover, the blockade means insufficient quantities of educational equipment, such as paper, desks and books, reach students.

B. On Israeli Apartheid

5. Several of our senior leaders have compared Israel to Apartheid South Africa, including Comrades Kgalema Mothlantle, Blade Nzimande, Zwelinzima Vavi, Rob Davies, Jeremy Cronin, Ahmed Kathrada, Winnie Mandela, Ronnie Kasrils, Denis Goldberg, the late Kader Asmal and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

6. Both the former and current United Nations Special Rapporteurs for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have requested that Israel be investigated for the crime of apartheid.

7. In an official report commissioned by the South African government in 2009, the Human Sciences Research Council confirmed that Israel, by its policies and practices, is guilty of the crime of apartheid.

8. In November 2010, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation called upon the Israeli government “to cease their activities that are reminiscent of apartheid forced removals…”

C. On Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)

8. Palestinian civil society, including student groups, have called for a policy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel until it abides by international law.

9. This call has the endorsement of the largest and most representative coalition of civil and political society in Palestine. The call also has the support of a growing number of progressive Israeli groups.

10. In 2010, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Professor Richard Falk, said: “It is politically and morally appropriate, as well as legally correct, to accord maximum support to the BDS campaign.”

11. COSATU, South Africa’s largest trade union federation was one of the first unions to endorse the BDS call. Subsequently, numerous other international trade unions have also adopted a pro-BDS position.

12. Several international groups have began to advance the BDS call in the cultural, consumer, sports, economic and academic spheres. Earlier this year the largest student union in Europe, the ULU, passed a motion in support of BDS."

ISSUED AT WITS UNIVERSITY ON THURSDAY THE 4th OF AUGUST 2011 BY
South African Union of Students, South African Student Congress and the Young Communist League of South Africa

* SASCO is South Africa's oldest and largest student organization.

** The SA Union of Students (SAUS) comprises all South African university Student Representative Councils and is the most representative student union in the country.

*** The Young Communist League of South Africa (YCL) has local branches at all South African universities

BDS SOUTH AFRICA

WHERE ARE THE GEOPOLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES IN ISRAEL’S PROTESTS?

4 August 2011, Tikkun תיקון http://www.tikkun.org (USA)

by David Harris-Gershon*

The massive tent protests currently sweeping Israel, originally triggered by the country’s young, urban middle class over unsustainable housing costs, have morphed into a movement representing a multitude of social justice issues. In fact, during rallies now, one of the most frequent chants is “האם דורש צדק חברתי” – “The People Demand Social Justice.”

On Tuesday, protest leaders officially championed a vast array of social justice causes when they presented Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with an expansive list of demands – among them lower taxes, health care reforms and the broadening of free, public education.

However, noticeably absent from the demands were any geopolitical, human rights issues related to the conflict with the Palestinians, namely settlements and the occupation. This absence has been noted by particular segments, namely Palestinians, left-leaning Israelis and progressive American Jews (the group to which I belong).

In America, many look upon the protesters screaming for social justice and expect them to champion the geopolitical issues that were championed by the Israeli Left in Rabin’s day. I fully admit that, during the movement’s infancy, I did the same. However, to do so is to perhaps misinterpret what is occurring in Israel right now – to expect that Palestinian issues will soon be incorporated into the protests by organizers, such as they exist, is to misunderstand the movement.

The Israeli fiction writer Etgar Keret recently wrote in Tablet Magazine concerning the middle class body politic that has largely spurred these protests:

It’s funny to see how this group of people, in their cool, trendy clothes, feels so unrepresented: It contains artists, lawyers, academics, doctors – not the types you stereotypically find shouting about not having their voices heard. But in the Israel of 2011, these are precisely the people who can’t find themselves any genuine political representation. The people demonstrating here are exactly the same people who don’t feel quite comfortable with the flood of new laws, such as the recently passed boycott law, that limit basic freedoms. Many demonstrators see themselves as apolitical. Despite the fact that they came here supposedly to talk about housing issues, their concerns run much deeper. The suffocation they feel isn’t caused so much by a shortage of square meters as by their frustration about not being counted by those who hold the reins of the country and are steering it to some very unpleasant places.

These protests, which were initiated by progressive, left-leaning urbanites in Tel Aviv, have galvanized large swaths of Israel’s lower and middle classes. They have galvanized people who feel underrepresented, people who have watched politicians bend to the will of small interest groups while the divide between the rich and the poor has grown.

Israel’s middle class largely feels that the government has abandoned their social and economic interests as they carry the overwhelming tax burden in the country. And they have taken to the streets to reclaim sustainable lives for themselves, not to address divisive geopolitical issues that drew the Israeli Left into the streets in the 1990s.

These protests are supported by incredible numbers of Israelis – 88 percent according to a poll taken on Monday for Channel 10 – precisely because they have focused on domestic issues around which everyone has unified: housing costs, education costs, the availability of quality health care, the high tax burden.

However, if protest organizers were to willfully add geopolitical, human rights issues (such as the settlements and the occupation) to the movement’s official agenda too soon, some, including Israeli journalist Yossi Gurvitz, think it would mean the collapse of the movement’s popular approval in Israel. Why? Left-leaning Israelis have historically lost when it comes to discussions of security.

Noam Sheizaf, in a post on 972 Magazine entitled “The strange American obsession with the return of the Israeli left,” writes scathingly, and quite bluntly:

It’s time to face facts: Rabin’s second government was an historical accident, no more. This was the only time in 35 years that the left won a Knesset majority…Liberalism, in the American sense, never took real hold in Israel.The current social protest is a unique event with tremendous potential, but if it’s a return to the Jewish democracy dreamland that Americans hope for, [they] are up for a major disappointment. There won’t be a “return” – all we can and should hope for is something completely new.

On Wednesday, Israeli journalist Dimi Reider was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. Goodman asked, just as many American journalists have asked recently, how these protests fit into the larger issues of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the settlements.

His answer was twofold. First, he said, there is no connection. Second, this lack of a connection may be strategic on the part of the organizers, who understand that geopolitical issues, such as the settlements and the occupation, would only serve as wedges capable of breaking apart the fragile but unmistakable momentum the protests have gained.

As we watch these protests unfold, it’s important to understand what they are. But it’s also legitimate to hope – as I do – that this movement will grow so strong, and that its gains will be so profound, that organizers will no longer fear to broach the larger human rights issues that remain in the background, regardless of how contentious such issues may be.

*David Harris-Gershon’s work has appeared in the Jerusalem Post, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Colorado Review and elsewhere. His memoir, Shrapnel, is currently making the rounds. He received his MFA from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and has worked extensively as an educator, teaching creative writing at the university level and Israeli History / Jewish Studies at the high school level.

MK Zoabi: “Racism is Part of the Ruling Consensus in Israel”

31 July 2011, Alternative Information Center המרכז לאינפורמציה אלטרנטיבית
http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)

Nikki Hodgson and Mikaela Levin for the Alternative Information Center (AIC)

“When it comes to the rights of Palestinians in Israel, there is no difference between opposition and coalition.” The AIC interviews MK Hanin Zoabi, who is concerned that racism has become part of Israeli national consensus, and everything outside of this must now be criminalized.

Since she was sanctioned for her participation in the first Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi (National Democratic Assembly) spends most days inside her office in the Knesset. Her desk is overflowing with papers, the small coffee table on the side is occupied with used tea mugs and some treats; in one corner, facing her desk, a television is broadcasting live the debate on the Knesset floor.

As of Monday 18 July, MK Zoabi is unable to participate in Knesset general debates or even speak in parliamentary committees until the end of this year’s parliamentary sessions, at the end of July. “I can just vote”, explains the Palestinian politician, with a half smile of open resignation. Throughout the entire interview with the Alternative Information Center (AIC), Zoabi will not take her eyes off the screen for more than a minute; she doesn’t want to miss the chance to exercise her last remaining right as a democratic elected MK: expressing her minority vote.

- Do you think you can still promote change from within the Knesset?

Promote change...mmmm, yeah! (She laughs). Definitely. The event of the Flotilla proved how crucial our presence in the Knesset is. It is ironic. The fact that they restrict our movements and incite against us indicates that we are really challenging their policies. Because if you don't challenge their policies, if you don't make a difference, if our existence as the National Democratic Assembly was insignificant to them, they could simply marginalise us, let us do whatever we want. The fact that they are so racist against us, the fact that they are doing everything in order to incite against, is proof that we are bothering them; we are not making their life easy.

Zoabi refuses to yield to pessimism. It’s been more than a year since she gained global fame with her participation in the Freedom Flotilla on board the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship on which nine activists died and dozens were injured after it was attacked by an elite Israeli naval force. Since then Zoabi has become accustomed to the insults and aggressive comebacks of her fellow MKs, both from the right and the centre. As she said, “when it comes to the rights of Palestinians in Israel, there is no difference between opposition and coalition”. “When I could still participate in Knesset committees, every time I used to speak, someone would say ‘yeah, you are in the Flotilla so go to the Flotilla and go to Gaza’. I talked about kindergartens and about children and they would say ‘you can go to Gaza’. I spoke of the confiscation of lands and they would say ‘it is better to go to Gaza’, she recalled, laughing carelessly.

A month after the first Flotilla was attacked and their passengers detained and deported, MK Zoabi received the first sanction from her colleagues. She was stripped of three of her parliamentary privileges: her diplomatic passport, funds for any legal counseling and the right to visit countries with which Israel doesn’t have diplomatic relations. “It's just hatred,” Zoabi explained. In this Knesset irrational racism exists. Maybe in the previous Knesset there was a more rational racism, a more sophisticated racism; but now it's very basic, very direct”.

This “irrational racism” is part of the new ruling consensus in Israel, Zoabi continues. “A lot of people now think that Jewish values are more important than democratic values. This obsession with judaising everything...the children in schools have no idea what democracy means, or equality. When you obsessively teach them Zionist values, they will grow up with the conclusion that there are no Palestinians citizens here. It's a psychological ethnic cleansing. They teach them to recognize the Palestinian as an enemy, but not to recognize him in daily life, as a citizen, as a partner in this home land,” warns Zoabi, losing her relaxed manner for a moment.

For Zoabi, the sole Palestinian woman in the Knesset, the main difference between the current government and the previous ones is not racism (“Israel has been a Jewish state since 1948, that is not something new”), but the criminalisation of everything outside of this consensus. The recently approved anti-boycott law if proof of that. “The settlements are part of Israel and that is not negotiable. This way of thinking is delegitimising politics as such, because now everything is part of a consensus and whatever is outside this consensus is criminalised. This is the dramatic effect of this government”, Zoabi asserts, before turning her eyes for a last time to the TV. The last speech is about to finish; she can finally take her seat on the floor of the Knesset and vote against the creation of an investigative committee on the funding sources of Israeli human rights organizations.

¿BOICOT AL FASCISMO?

Políticas que han frustrado a los palestinos durante años son aplicadas a israelíes de clase media

27 Julio 2011, Rebelión http://www.rebelion.org (México)

Mark LeVine*

Al-Jazeera. Traducido del inglés para Rebelión por Germán Leyens

Durante la semana pasada indignados jóvenes residentes de Tel Aviv han estado realizando una sentada, o, para ser más exactos, una ‘tiendada’, a lo largo del elegante Rothschild Boulevard para protestar porque los precios en el mercado de la vivienda han subido tanto que han dejado de ser asequibles en la capital cultural y económica de Israel. Las manifestaciones han llamado la atención de los medios internacionales e israelíes, y The Guardian incluso comparó a los manifestantes con los revolucionarios por la democracia en Egipto y otros países árabes.

Las protestas podrán ser algo nuevo, pero el proceso contra el que los habitantes de las tiendas protestan existe en Tel Aviv, como en otras ciudades del mundo, desde hace por lo menos dos décadas. Hasta hace poco, las principales víctimas de los altos precios de las viviendas no eran jóvenes judíos israelíes de clase media que ya no se pueden permitir vivir cerca de la acción cultural y económica en Tel Aviv, sino residentes palestinos pobres en Jaffa, expulsados por la elitización y que no tuvieron ningún otro sitio al que ir.

Después de la guerra de 1948, cuando Jaffa, como la mayoría de las otras ciudades y aldeas palestinas fueron vaciadas de la vasta mayoría de su población, la otrora orgullosa ciudad se convirtió en un pobre y decrépito vecindario de Tel Aviv y pasó por un proceso de judeización, y solo quedaron 5.000 de por lo menos 70.000 palestinos. Esa población aumentó varias veces en las décadas siguientes, pero cuando Jaffa se convirtió repentinamente en un vecindario de moda para la emergente clase yuppie judía de Israel desde fines de los años ochenta, los precios comenzaron a aumentar.

Mediante una serie de mecanismos legales y económicos la creciente población palestina fue expulsada de los restantes vecindarios de Jaffa como Ajami y Jebaliya, que eran bastante interesantes por su ubicación al borde del mar. Los residentes se quejaron de una clara política de judeización mediante la planificación y otros mecanismos, pero fueron rechazados cuando llevaron su caso a la municipalidad de Tel Aviv.

“¿Qué podemos hacer? – el mercado es el mercado”, declaró más de un funcionario. En otras palabras, no era una política del Estado, sino más bien fuerzas naturales del mercado las que estaban expulsando a palestinos de clase trabajadora, y a sus vecinos judíos, de esos vecindarios.

Por cierto, ese argumento carecía de sentido. El Estado israelí ha estado profundamente involucrado en la neoliberalización de la economía del país, de la cual Tel Aviv era el epicentro natural. Como parte de este proceso tendía a utilizar las así llamadas “fuerzas del mercado” como parte de sus instrumentos para posibilitar una mayor penetración judía en las ciudades y vecindarios palestinos que eran considerados como prioridades para la judeización. El que judíos también hayan sido víctimas no era relevante, ya que eran reemplazados por aún más judíos, y los que eran excluidos siempre tenían “algún otro sitio” donde ir.

Jóvenes judíos podían “colonizar” ciudades vecinas como Bat Yam – el equivalente a mudarse de Manhattan a partes menos deseables pero que pronto serían elitizadas de Brooklyn o Queens en los años ochenta. Los palestinos, sin embargo, no tenían literalmente ningún sitio al cual ir excepto unas pocas ciudades palestinas que también sufrían de escasez de viviendas.

La resistencia fue generalmente fútil; más de una familia palestina colocó tiendas para vivir en los mal mantenidos parques de Jaffa después de ser expulsados de sus casas, como protesta contra su expulsión y porque no se podían permitir vivir en otra parte. Las tiendas se convirtieron en parte del paisaje después de un tiempo, pero terminaron por desaparecer.

Mientras tanto, la elitización mantuvo su ritmo, sea mediante falsas monstruosidades de la era otomana como el área de Andromeda Hill o el aún más perverso Centro Peres por la Paz, construido –significativamente– sobre terrenos expropiados a refugiados de Jaffa, incluso en el cementerio del vecindario, cuyas lápidas restantes se tambalean sobre el cerro a lo largo del límite sur del Centro.

Mientras tanto, a fines del año pasado, la Corte Suprema israelí aprobó la construcción de una urbanización para viviendas de un grupo religioso sionista en el corazón de Ajami, en terrenos de refugiados que les fueron cedidos en arriendo por la municipalidad y la Administración de Tierras Israelíes, a pesar de enérgicas protestas de los residentes locales palestinos y de grupos israelíes por los derechos humanos.

Y mientras se desarrolla este proceso, las partes árabes restantes de Ajami, sufren por la droga, la violencia y la negligencia del gobierno (como lo ilustra la cinta Ajami de 2010), mientras activistas que presionan con demasiada fuerza contra la situación pueden contar con ser objeto de diversos grados de la “educación Shabak” que palestinos a ambos lados de la Línea Verde siempre han sufrido cuando cuestionan las premisas básicas del régimen israelí.

¿De mercados a boicots?

Mientras este proceso se limitaba a Jaffa, la mayoría de los israelíes, incluidos los residentes de Tel Aviv no se preocupaban mucho del tema. Después de todo, lo que sucedía en Jaffa era lo que había pasado en todo el país durante décadas; era el modus operandi para el cual se creó el Estado de Israel.

¿Qué es diferente ahora? Actualmente, los que son obligados a irse son israelíes de clase media y no tienen dónde ir; por lo menos no a algún sitio de su gusto. Ricos expatriados judíos y judíos de la Diáspora, que han comprado gran parte de las viviendas de Ajami, se encuentran ahora entre los más importantes compradores de apartamentos en Tel Aviv, mientras se dice a los jóvenes judíos askenazíes que viven actualmente en tiendas que deben mudarse a la “periferia” y colonizar partes muchos menos interesantes del país que las ciudades satélite de Tel Aviv.

Activistas gay se quejan de que solo se sienten en casa en Tel Aviv, mientras pretendientes a ser creadores culturales sienten poco deseo de mudarse a ciudades en desarrollo pobladas por judíos Mizrahi de clase trabajadora o recientes inmigrantes de la antigua Unión Soviética o Etiopia.

Podréis pensar que es una historia fascinante. ¿Pero qué tiene que ver con un artículo sobre “boicot al fascismo”, como dice el título? Resulta que tiene mucho que ver. El sufrimiento de jóvenes israelíes a manos del mercado de la vivienda de Tel Aviv ilustra un fenómeno más amplio que afecta actualmente el tejido de la sociedad israelí en su conjunto: Procesos y políticas que durante años o incluso décadas han sido desplegados sobre, o han afectado a, la comunidad palestina a ambos lados de la Línea Verde, también afectan negativamente ahora a israelíes judíos de la corriente dominante. Pero casi nadie entiende la génesis del problema, y por lo tanto la cólera es dirigida en la dirección equivocada o se disipa porque, después de todo, el mercado es el mercado: ¿qué le vamos a hacer?

Otro ejemplo de este proceso es el debate que rodea la aprobación en la semana pasada por la Knéset [parlamento israelí] de la así llamada ley “Antiboicot” que ahora ilegalizó que israelíes apoyen o participen en el boicot de Israel o incluso de los asentamientos o productos hechos en los asentamientos, y que permite que los objetivos de boicots demanden a los partidarios de estos por daños sin tener que demostrar el verdadero daño sufrido.

La nueva ley ha causado una tormenta de protestas dentro y fuera de Israel, y críticos izquierdistas afirman que llevará a extranjeros a peguntarse si “hay realmente democracia aquí” y, aún más dañino, a argumentar que su aprobación presagia la llegada del fascismo a Israel, sea “silencioso” o “intenso y palpable”.

Se argumenta que una ley semejante restringe la libertad de expresión, refleja una clara tiranía de la mayoría dentro de la política israelí, borra la distinción entre Israel y los Territorios Ocupados, lesionará los esfuerzos de varios grupos por la paz por ayudar a resucitar el moribundo proceso de paz, y forma parte de un proceso más amplio para despojar a la Corte Suprema israelí de su independencia. De un modo más amplio, en las palabras del usualmente conservador columnista de Maariv, Ben Caspit, representa una derecha que “se vuelve frenética” y que amenaza la supuesta estructura democrática de Israel.

Pero igual que el problema de la vivienda en Tel Aviv, esas afirmaciones solo son válidas si se considera a la sociedad israelí judía. Para los ciudadanos palestinos de Israel, y mucho más aún para los palestinos en los Territorios Ocupados, Israel siempre ha sido – usando la palabra como si estuviera jugando– fascista.

¿El problema es fascismo o nacionalismo?

La fórmula básica para el fascismo, el de un Estado corporativista altamente militarizado, que maneja las relaciones entre los trabajadores y el capital en nombre de un “pueblo” míticamente definido que excluye a todos los que considera como no pertenecientes al colectivo, lo que define bien el tipo de etnonacionalismo que ha dominado durante mucho tiempo la ideología sionista.

Además, el tipo de exclusivismo que está en el corazón de todas las identidades nacionalistas es aumentado con esteroides ideológicos en los discursos autoritarios nacionalistas que subyacen al fascismo, cómo han demostrado trágicamente las experiencias italiana y alemana. Los etnonacionalismos, y particularmente los que emergen en escenarios de asentamientos coloniales como en Israel, Sudáfrica, EE.UU., Australia y Argelia Francesa, también se basan en formas extremas de exclusivismos y expansionismo territorial que tienen que negar los derechos básicos e incluso la humanidad a poblaciones indígenas a fin de lograr su objetivo de asegurar su control y / o soberanía sobre la “patria”.

El geógrafo israelí Juval Portugali define nacionalismo como el “orden social generativo” del sionismo, que consolida la relación entre el pueblo judío/israelí y el territorio que reivindica. Este orden generativo ha sido históricamente exclusivista con mucha más frecuencia de lo que ha sido abierto a identidades plurales, por lo cual la (re)emergencia de nacionalismos ha causado con tanta frecuencia la guerra – especialmente cuando se les ha sumado un proyecto de asentamiento colonial.

En Israel este proceso es evidenciado en el poderoso papel del Estado y del ejército israelíes en todos los aspectos de la vida del país, desde el período dominado por socialistas laboristas antes de 1948 hasta el presente neoliberal. Ha conformado una realidad política en la cual los palestinos, sean ciudadanos del Estado israelí o habitantes de Cisjordania y Gaza ocupados, siempre han tenido menos derechos, por ley y costumbre, que los judíos.

Por lo tanto no es sorprendente, para recordar las quejas de los que critican la nueva ley antiboicot, que los palestinos a ambos lados de la Línea Verde hayan sido privados desde hace tiempo de los derechos civiles y políticos de la igualdad de ciudadanía. Su libertad de expresión ha sido limitada durante mucho tiempo en diversos grados, siempre han sufrido la tiranía de la mayoría judía, nunca ha habido una distinción entre los Territorios Ocupados e Israel (de ahí la masiva expansión de la empresa de los asentamientos incluso durante Oslo), y la Corte Suprema nunca se ha apartado del consenso político dominante en Israel en apoyo a la ocupación – sea en Jaffa o Jerusalén Este.

En resumen, la izquierda se ha “vuelto frenética” en los territorios igual que la derecha. Por cierto, toda la noción de que exista una diferencia básica entre la izquierda y la derecha sionista ha sido históricamente poco más que la estrategia retórica del “buen policía y el mal policía” para confundir a los extranjeros sobre su acuerdo básico con los temas cruciales que rodean el control sobre el territorio de la Palestina del Mandato.

Por cierto, los palestinos lo han comprendido hace tiempo, incluso si estadounidenses y europeos han preferido mantener su ignorancia más o menos intencionalmente. Laboristas, Likud o Kadima; la ocupación continúa. (Al escribir estas líneas Ha’aretz informa que la Administración Civil y el ejército israelí están involucrados en otro importante robo de tierras en el corazón de Cisjordania, tratando de que grandes áreas, incluidas las que contienen puestos avanzados “ilegales”, sean declaradas tierras estatales para que Israel se pueda apoderar permanentemente de ellas antes de cualquier acuerdo de paz.)

El futuro de los boicots

Contra este nivel a largo plazo de dominación y discriminación institucionalizadas, los palestinos han probado muchos medios de resistencia, ninguno de los cuales ha tenido mucho éxito hasta ahora. En un artículo reciente discutí algunos de los medios de resistencia de base cultural, no violentos, que podrían lograr un cierto éxito contra el poder del Estado israelí.

Como señala Yousef Munayyer en su reciente artículo de opinión, la nueva ley antiboicot ha tenido el efecto saludable de estimular más interés por el boicot y un movimiento de BDS más amplio. También, con razón, que ya que la ocupación no puede existir sin el apoyo masivo del Estado israelí, toda la premisa de la mayoría de los movimientos contra los que se dirige la ley –grupos izquierdistas israelíes que tratan de boicotear productos de los asentamientos o instituciones culturales / educacionales– es extremadamente deficiente, ya que solo al enfrentar todo el aparato del Estado israelí un movimiento de boicot puede esperar lograr detener la fuerza implacable de la ocupación.

El desafío que enfrenta un movimiento semejante, sin embargo, es que ideologías que comparte el ADN del fascismo están genéticamente predispuestas a creer que el mundo está en su contra y que su existencia está en constante peligro desde el interior y el exterior. En el caso israelí, mientras más exitoso llegue a ser un movimiento de boicot, más se sentirá justificado el Estado israelí para defenderse, con el apoyo de una gran parte del público, utilizando cualesquiera medios a su disposición –desde el tiroteo contra manifestantes desarmados al lanzamiento de masivas campañas de propaganda.

Además, sus dirigentes y sus seguidores de menor cuantía están cada vez más dispuestos a satanizar e incluso a actuar contra miembros del colectivo que cuestiona la ideología y las políticas oficiales. Es, desde luego, algo que no se aplica solo a Israel actual, ni a los regímenes autoritarios del mundo árabe, como deja en claro el artículo de opinión de William Cook del 21 de julio, que describe similitudes entre las subversiones de la libertad de expresión del gobierno israelí y del estadounidense.

Contra un adversario tan poderoso, los palestinos y sus partidarios en el movimiento de BDS tendrán que elaborar un conjunto extremadamente creativo y persuasivo de argumentos, y las estrategias para difundirlos en todo el globo, a fin de tener una probabilidad de superar las abrumadoras ventajas que poseen el gobierno israelí y sus partidarios. En mi próximo artículo, consideraré algunos de los principios, estrategias y tácticas clave del movimiento en la actualidad y exploraré cómo sus fuerzas y sus debilidades auguran el futuro próximo de la lucha contra la Ocupación.

*Mark Le Vine es profesor de historia en la UC Irvine e investigador en el Centro de Estudios del Oriente Medio en la Lud University en Suecia, y autor, hace poco de Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the soul of Islam (Random House 2008) e Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 (Zed Books, 2009).

Fuente: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/201172594733901222.html

LA LOI ANTI-BOYCOTT CONSTITUE UNE VIOLATION DES DROITS HUMAINS ET PORTE ATTEINTE A LA DEMOCRATIE EN ISRAËL

26 juillet 2011, Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS) http://www.france-palestine.org (France)

EMHRN

La loi anti-boycott interdit aux organisations et aux citoyens israéliens de participer au « boycott de l’Etat d’Israël », et même, dans certains cas, d’accepter de participer à un boycott.

L’UE doit sans équivoque condamner cette loi

APRODEV, le Réseau Euro-Méditerranéen des Droits de l’Homme(REMDH), Front Line, l’Observatoire pour la Protection des Défenseurs de Droits de l’Homme – programme conjoint de l’Organisation mondiale contre la Torture (OMCT) et de la Fédération internationale pour les Droits de l’Homme (FIDH) – et le Quaker Council for European Affairs tiennent à exprimer leur inquiétude concernant la « Loi pour la prévention des dommages envers l’Etat d’Israël provoqués par un boycott – 2011 » (loi anti-boycott). Cette loi, adoptée le 11 juillet 2011 par la Knesset, par 47 voix contre 38, constitue une nouvelle attaque contre la liberté d’expression et d’association en Israël.

La loi anti-boycott interdit aux organisations et aux citoyens israéliens de participer au « boycott de l’Etat d’Israël », et même, dans certains cas, d’accepter de participer à un boycott. La définition du « boycott de l’Etat d’Israël » ne concerne pas seulement l’Etat d’Israël et ses institutions, mais aussi toute zone qui dépend de son contrôle, ce qui inclut donc les colonies israéliennes des territoires palestiniens occupés (TPO), établies en contravention du droit international.

La loi définit l’appel au boycott de l’Etat d’Israël comme un « dommage civil », qui peut par conséquent entraîner des dommages et intérêts. Toute personne qui en appelle publiquement au boycott risque d’être poursuivie par la cible concernée et condamnée à une amende, même si aucun dommage effectif n’a été causé à la partie menacée d’un boycott.

Cette loi autorise aussi le gouvernement à révoquer les exemptions d’impôts et autres droits et bénéfices dont profitent les personnes ou les groupes israéliens, de même que les institutions académiques, culturelles et scientifiques qui reçoivent une aide de l’Etat, s’ils se prononcent en faveur d’un boycott. Dans un grand nombre de cas, cela signifie pour les institutions concernées qu’elles ne seront plus éligibles pour des aides publiques extérieures, y compris de l’Union européenne, dont une grande partie est largement dépendante.

En outre, les entreprises et les industries israéliennes (y compris les succursales israéliennes des sociétés étrangères) risquent d’être pénalisées par cette loi si elles refusent de traiter avec des entreprises situées dans les colonies (par exemple, si elles signent une clause de ce genre dans un contrat conclu avec des associés palestiniens). Indépendamment des mérites effectifs de la tactique du boycott, les tentatives faites pour l’empêcher limitent considérablement la liberté d’expression, dans la mesure où elles visent les expressions publiques non violentes d’opposition aux politiques israéliennes. Elles affectent aussi la liberté d’association, dans la mesure où elles exposent les organisations qui s’engageraient dans une campagne publique contre les colonies et autres violations des droits de l’Homme à des sanctions juridiques et financières et à de coûteuses demandes de compensation de la part des organisations des colonies.

Cette nouvelle loi constitue une tentative inacceptable de réduire au silence les organisations de société civile en Israël, et de limiter gravement leurs activités. Elle s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une campagne qui cherche à priver de leur légitimité les activités des organisations de la société civile israélienne, en particulier celles qui défendent les droits humains fondamentaux des Palestiniens dans les TPO et qui dénoncent l’occupation et ses conséquences. La loi viole les traités internationaux relatifs aux droits de l’Homme ratifiés par l’Etat d’Israël, notamment le Pacte international sur les droits civils et politiques, et s’inscrit donc en faux par rapport aux principes fondamentaux de la démocratie.

Nous exprimons notre solidarité et notre ferme soutien aux 53 organisations de société civile en Israël qui ont conjointement signé une lettre adressée au président de la Knesset, M. Reuven Rivlin, en février 2011, pour protester contre cette proposition de loi [1]. C’est la deuxième loi adoptée par la Knesset, en moins de six mois, qui vise à restreindre les activités de la société civile indépendante d’Israël.

Nous saluons avec satisfaction l’inquiétude manifestée dans un premier temps par Madame Ashton, Haut représentant de l’Union européenne. Toutefois, conformément aux directives de l’UE sur les défenseurs des Droits de l’Homme, nous demandons instamment à l’UE et à ses Etats membres :

-- De condamner cette loi publiquement et sans équivoque, et d’inviter Israël à la révoquer et à s’abstenir de toute nouvelle législation ou pratique qui tendrait à restreindre les libertés d’association et d’expression en Israël.
-- D’utiliser tous les moyens à leur disposition pour défendre et protéger la liberté d’association et d’expression des organisations et des défenseurs des droits de l’Homme en Israël.
-- De réitérer avec force, lors de la prochaine réunion du Groupe de travail UE-Israël sur les droits de l’Homme, qui doit se tenir le 13 septembre 2011, leurs inquiétudes quant aux restrictions imposées aux organisations et aux défenseurs des droits de l’Homme.
-- De continuer à soutenir financièrement les organisations de société civile en Israël qui défendent ces droits et libertés fondamentaux.

[1] voir Coalition of Women for Peace http://www.coalitionofwomen.org/?p=...

publié par Euromedrights
http://www.euromedrights.org/fr/der...

ISRAEL'S GOVERNMENT IS A GRAVE THREAT TO DEMOCRACY

The power of the threat of the popular majority against the government are harbingers of the danger that the coming elections will be called off.

25 july 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)

By Sefi Rachlevsky

Anyone who was present at the demonstration of the tens of thousands of people roaring "Bibi go home" on Saturday should understand the intensity of the threat against the present government. Anyone who heard Yehuda Alush shouting "We're tired of this" at the fat belly of the government knows that it is in fact the vulnerable belly of right-wing rule. The protest is speaking "Likudese." It was this language that helped spur the victory of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - with "The Likud has cut itself off from the people." Using those materials the tent protest is once again asserting: "The government has abandoned the people."

Anyone who saw the joy with which the Knesset celebrated the Boycott Law should understand what kind of governmental determination and aggressiveness we are facing. Without blinking an eye, it crushed one of the very foundation stones of democracy. The prolonged price in global terms - exemplified in last week's editorial in The New York Times, which expressed doubt as to the democratic nature of Israel - was known. But the gang of democracy-crushers have no god. Nor do they have any intention of removing their talons from the government.

Anyone who listened to Dafni Leef, the organizer of the test protest, describing the National Housing Committees Law - due to be enacted now - as a wicked and cynical law, should understand what kind of a government we are confronting. This legislation is reminiscent of a situation where an abusive husband tries to claim that the real problem is the police who disturb him. With utter cynicism, the removal of restrictions to loot land from the citizens is being presented as an act designed to help them. As in the case of the land itself, the Netanyahu gang is planning to speculate with democracy as well. Like the ghost neighborhoods in Jerusalem, in which the world's wealthy are the owners of empty apartments instead of Israelis occupying them - the country is liable to be stolen from those living in it.

The power of the threat of the popular majority that is taking shape against the government - in addition to the anti-democratic determination to maintain control of it - - are harbingers of the danger that the coming elections will be called off. The first part of the plan, which is the process of being implemented, is enacting the law to enable voting abroad. In a country that many have chosen to leave and in which Jews receive citizenship on the spot, this means a de facto cancellation of the elections.

The law has three right-wing "teeth" to bolster it: First, most former Israelis who chose to move to a place without hamsins, missiles and an alienated government support the right and its adventures from a safe distance. Second, under cover of the Law of Return, tens of thousands of religious Jews who visit Israel can receive citizenship for the purpose of long-distance voting, so as to help choose the government in a country where they don't live. Lastly, the Interior Ministry has the power to create hundreds of thousands of "Pollards": Just as the incarcerated Jonathan Pollard received long-distance citizenship by means of a temporary order, it will be possible to add to the voter registration lists hundreds of thousands of Haredim from Brooklyn, who haven't even bothered to visit here.

This is not some summer hallucination. It is for the purpose of this "looting law" that Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz's special governance committee was established, and is awaiting an anti-democratic legislative blitz when it becomes necessary.

That is "only" the beginning. The same number of people voted in the 1999 and the 2009 elections. Since Defense Minister Ehud Barak's targeted assassination of hope, there has been a sharp decline in the voting percentages of the non-right in Israel. One million people with the right to vote have joined the electorate since 1999, but they didn't actually cast ballots.

Based on past voting percentages, that means 800,000 voters - the vast majority of whom are supporters of the non-right. When they arise against the government to demand their country back, they will constitute a clear majority. And now they are rising up. The young people of the tent protest won't be satisfied with a protest and this time will come to the polls. Furthermore, Israeli Arabs are also capable of translating their anger over racism into a winning protest vote.

A chilling governmental idea is now facing the awakening majority. If the Supreme Court is deterred from acting, what may succeed is a plot to invalidate a party such as Balad. The objective of such a cynical move would be to spur Israel's Arab citizens to protest and not come to the polls. Thus the "ideal" situation would be created: By means of Jews and former Israelis who don't live here, the country would be stolen away from a clear majority of its citizens, who are tired of the right-wing government and want a welfare state that can live in peace.

Against the determination of those entrenching themselves in the government, Israeli citizens must join Leef and her friends in counter-determination - one that will stop the de facto cancellation of democratic elections. That will help rescue Israel at the polls.

LAS ORGANIZACIONES PRO DERECHOS EN ISRAEL RECURREN CONTRA LA LEY DEL BDS

25 julio 2011, Rebelión http://www.rebelion.org (México)

Nikki Hodgson

Traducido por Cris del Tó para el Centro de Información Alternativa (AIC), Jerusalén.

Después del debate en el pleno del lunes (11 de julio), que duró casi seis horas, el Knéset (Parlamento) de Israel aprobó el "Proyecto de ley para prevenir daños al Estado de Israel por medio del boicot". En esta ley, el "boicot" se define como estar en contra del "Estado de Israel - evitando de forma deliberada lazos económicos, culturales o académicos con una persona u otro factor debido únicamente a su relación con el Estado de Israel, cualquiera de sus instituciones o cualquier ámbito bajo su control, de tal manera que pudiera causar daños económicos, culturales o académicos".

A pesar de las advertencias del asesor jurídico del Knéset, Eyal Yinon, sobre que la ley constituye una violación grave de la libertad de expresión y que probablemente fuera desestimada por el Tribunal Supremo, el Knéset aprobó el proyecto de ley con 47 votos a favor y 38 en contra.

Organizaciones activistas israelíes y palestinas ya están desafiando la ley, cumpliendo así las predicciones hechas durante la comparecencia de Raz Nizri, adjunto del Fiscal General Weinstein, que predijo que si se aprobaba, las organizaciones probablemente interpondrían una demanda. Tras la aprobación de la ley, las organizaciones de derechos humanos en Israel están preparando un recurso de apelación contra la "ley del Boicot" ante el Tribunal Supremo israelí.

Adalah-Centro Legal para los Derechos de la Minoría Árabe en Israel, el Comité Público contra la Tortura en Israel, Médicos por los Derechos Humanos y la Coalición de Mujeres por la Paz exigen que se detenga el proceso de aprobación de la ley. En una carta enviada al portavoz del Knéset Reuven Rivilin, al Ministro de Justicia Yaakov Neeman y al Ministro de Finanzas Yuval Steinitz, las organizaciones sostienen que se trata de "una ley completamente anticonstitucional que limita la libertad de expresión política y que es contraria al derecho internacional".
Los grupos también acusan a la ley de forzar a los ciudadanos a "cooperar con la ocupación".

Paz Ahora advierte que estas limitaciones a la libertad de expresión en Israel convertirán al Knéset en una "policía del pensamiento" y envió 120 banderas negras a cada uno de los miembros del Knéset para resaltar las consecuencias de la ley. Inmediatamente después de la votación, Paz Ahora creó un grupo en Facebook llamado "Procésame, yo le hago boicot a las colonias" como medida directa para desafiar la ley. El grupo ya había atraído a más de 2.000 seguidores el martes por la mañana.

El miembro del Knéset Zeev Elkin (Likud), que propuso la ley, dijo que ésta no pretende acallar a las personas, sino "proteger a los ciudadanos de Israel". Organizaciones activistas se oponen a esta defensa señalando que Israel no está prohibiendo todos los boicots, sino solo aquellos que están en contra de la ocupación. La ley concede ventaja a los colonos en Cisjordania mientras que delimita el trabajo y la posición tanto de ONGs como de ciudadanos particulares contra la ocupación. El grupo que recurre la ley sostiene que ésta "viola el principio de igualdad mediante el intento de defender una posición política a la vez que limita otras posiciones".

El abogado Hassan Jubrin, Director General de Adalah, manifestó que "el Knéset israelí no solo intenta silenciar la protesta contra la ocupación-también intenta imponer sobre las víctimas y sobre aquellos que se oponen a la ocupación, que cooperen y la apoyen de manera activa......[La ley] no cumple con ningún criterio del derecho internacional..."

En una declaración hecha pública por la Asociación por los Derechos Civiles en Israel (ACRI) se arremete contra la ley y la califica como "anticonstitucional y antidemocrática" y declara sus intenciones de "presentar una demanda contra ella ante el Tribunal Supremo israelí pidiendo que la ley sea derogada". La ACRI también publicó un análisis comparando la Ley del Boicot israelí y las leyes de boicot de Estados Unidos, que están siendo utilizadas para reforzar los argumentos usados por aquellos que apoyan la ley israelí. El análisis de la ACRI señala que las leyes de boicot estadounidenses fueron implantadas para disuadir a las compañías de ir en contra de la política exterior de Estados Unidos y que no obstaculizan el derecho de libertad de expresión. Asimismo, Estados Unidos nunca ha procesado a nadie por participar en un boicot.

Más grupos activistas progresistas y ciudadanos individuales en Israel, tanto palestinos como judío-israelíes, están expresando tanto su apoyo continuado al llamamiento palestino al BDS, a pesar de la recién aprobada ley, como su rechazo al discurso público de la izquierda sionista sobre este asunto. "La mayoría de grupos sionistas como Paz Ahora y ACRI se centran casi exclusivamente en las implicaciones que tiene la ley en el boicot a los productos provenientes de las colonias, lo que encaja con su rechazo público al llamamiento Palestino al BDS," afirma Connie Hackbarth del Centro de Información Alternativa. "Su preocupación por la democracia de Israel es interesada dado que Israel no es una democracia y su preocupación por la libertad de expresión de los israelíes forma parte de un discurso interno en el que los israelíes y sus derechos son el centro de atención." El grupo "¡Boicot! Apoyando el llamamiento palestino desde dentro" planea publicar una declaración acerca de la nueva ley.

IJV RESPONSE TO KAIROS PALESTINE DOCUMENT*

A Moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of palestinian suffering

22 July 2011, Independent Jewish Voices-Canada (IJV) http://ijvcanada.org (Canada)

Introduction

Independent Jewish Voices-Canada (IJV) is a national organization of Jews committed to a resolution of the conflict in Israel/Palestine based on the application of international law and respect for the human rights of all people.

Independent Jewish Voices wholeheartedly endorses the analysis and recommendations of A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering, a seminal document drafted by senior church leaders in Israel/Palestine, and circulated by the ecumenical group, Kairos Palestine.

In addition, IJV strongly supports the document’s call for the world’s churches to join the international, non-violent, ethically-based campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), an initiative whose goal is to pressure Israel to comply with international law and respect Palestinians’ human rights. We believe that this campaign has the potential to pressure Israel to adopt more ethical and just practices.1

In the following, we outline specific responses to A moment of truth. In the subsequent section, we include a brief critique of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) response to A moment of truth (2010).2

The IJV Response to A moment of truth

IJV strongly endorses the analysis and recommendations contained in the Kairos Palestine document. We see it as a profoundly compassionate call to the peoples of the world – including the people of Israel – to help Israel turn away from the crimes and injustices rooted in its ongoing occupation. The document calls on Israel to become “a state for all its citizens, with a vision constructed on respect for religion but also equality, justice, liberty and respect for pluralism and not on domination by a religion or a numerical majority”. Kairos Palestine, 2009:16

We see many parallels between the position of the Kairos Palestine writers and the point of view of IJV. Throughout its long history, Judaism, like Christianity, has included both those who promote justice and compassion, and those who protect the powerful at the expense of justice and the less strong. Marc Ellis, the Jewish theologian, describes those who promote justice and peace as Jews of conscience, in contrast to those who pursue power at all costs, whom he labels “Constantinian Jews” (2009:xii)

Although IJV is a human rights organization, and not religiously-based, we are committed to acting as Jews of conscience. Like Kairos Palestine, our members are united by a commitment to pursue social justice, the universal of human rights, and the rigorous application of international law.

IJV members who are religiously inclined can point to core Jewish religious values in the Torah which reflect this perspective. For example, the injunction “do not ill-treat a stranger [i.e., the non-Jew] or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Israel” (Exodus 22:21) appears 36 times in the Torah. In 2002, British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks declared “I regard this as one of the core projects of a state that is true to Judaic principles” (quoted in Freedland, 2002). Rabbi Simean ben Gamaliel, one of Judaism’s most respected sages, quoted Zacharia 8:16: “Execute truth, justice and peace, within your gates,” and emphasized that “these three are interlinked when justice is done, truth is achieved, and peace is established” (Pirke Avot, 1:18). In addition, there is a long tradition of secular Jewish movements which have promoted universal justice and equality (Klug, 2008). However, as Mike Marquesee’s excellent historical study noted, “both Zionists and anti-Zionists, liberals and fundamentalists can find succour in the prophetic texts” (2008:231). Many Israeli rabbis (and politicians) cite scripture to justify Israel’s claims to all the land mentioned in the Bible and use it to attempt to sanctify the violent expulsion of the Palestinians from their land (Shahak, 2002). For example, Rabbi Zvi Yehud Kook said “This land is ours, there are no Arab lands here…within its entire biblical borders it belongs to Israeli rule…this is the decision of divine politics which no earthly politics can overcome” (quoted in Arieli, 2011).

It is our view that all people have an ethical obligation to reject such expedient arguments. Instead we must dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of peace rooted in social justice and compassion. A moment of truth reflects these values and we therefore enthusiastically support it. IJV agrees with the Kairos document that the international campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions constitutes an ethical and non-violent response to the crimes it enumerates. The campaign is rooted, not in a desire to damage Israel, but, rather, to help liberate Israel from the dangerously destructive (and self-destructive) path that it has pursued for many years. Our belief in the moral and practical force of BDS motivated our organization’s 2009 decision to adopt a resolution supporting BDS. Support for BDS campaigns is now one of IJV’s highest priorities.

More specifically, we endorse the view of A moment of truth that:

1. Israel’s occupation of Palestine and its many oppressive elements – the separation wall, the blockade of Gaza, the ever-expanding system of Israeli colony-settlements, the proliferation of military checkpoints on Palestinian lands, the enforced separation of family members, the restriction of the exercise of religious liberty, the denial of refugees’ right of return, the arbitrary arrest and torture of prisoners, the expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem and the related pressure on them to emigrate, the disregard for international law and United Nations resolutions, the application of collective punishment, and other egregious actions – constitute serious ethical, moral and legal violations. Along with economic and other consequences, these violations directly injure and kill Palestinians. Simultaneously, these actions blight the lives of Israelis as well as those who are not directly involved,inuring them to systematic and ongoing violations of ethics and integrity.

2. While all human-rights violations must be condemned, we believe that it is necessary to situate the Palestinian violence that exists – as well as some of the major internal political conflicts within Palestinian society – in the context of overwhelming oppression rooted in decades of Israel’s occupation. We believe it is relevant in this context to acknowledge that Israel has for decades been free to act with impunity. This is due, in large part, to the enormous political and financial support it has enjoyed from the international community. As A moment of truth argues, ending the occupation and the associated injustices through the application of non-violent, ethical tools like BDS will eliminate the most significant causes of Palestinian violence.

3. Israel cannot ethically justify its systematic abuse of the Palestinian people by characterizing legitimate Palestinian resistance as “terrorism” or by pointing to the human-rights failings of other Middle Eastern countries. The requirement to act ethically and morally is an imperative which cannot be abandoned by reference to the real or imagined failings of others. Members of civil society – all of us! – have an ethical obligation to speak out and to take action against injustice and to promote justice, peace and dignity. Resistance against oppression is an ethical obligation not only for the oppressed, but also for those who have made oppression possible by supporting, condoning, or simply ignoring it.

4.Israel cannot claim Biblical justification for the sins associated with its occupation. For a detailed analysis of theologically-based Jewish opposition to Zionism, readers are referred to A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism, written by IJV member and University of Montreal professor, Yakov Rabkin (2006). Nur Masalha’s The Bible and Zionism (2007) exposes the historically inaccurate Biblical basis for Israel’s claims to Jewish ownership of the land.

5. The Bible does not provide Jewish Israelis with a legal claim to the land. Jews from Europe, the United States, Canada, Russia, and elsewhere, who have chosen to settle in Israel cannot invoke a legitimate aboriginal claim to this land. As the Canadian philosopher Michael Newman argues, “Each individual person certainly has a right to live somewhere, but an ethnic group has no right to live somewhere together.… [N]o one seems to think that all Italians, all over the world, have a right to live in one huge nation, excluding all others. If they all want to go back to Italy, fine, but certainly they [don’t have the right to] to expel others to make room in their ‘homeland,’ or expand that homeland to fulfill the project of reversing their Diaspora” (2005:12).

The IJV response to the Canadian Jewish Congress reaction to A moment of truth

In stark contrast to the thoughtful, compassionate and balanced tone of the Kairos Palestine document, the Canadian Jewish Congress’s response is hostile, defensive and logically inconsistent. The CJC response repeatedly responds to concerns raised in the Kairos Palestine document by setting up straw men and knocking them down. Rather than a meaningful and methodical engagement with the arguments made in A moment of truth, a reflective document which takes as its starting point the consequences of Israel’s long occupation, the CJC response deploys the time-worn language of hasbara – the Hebrew word used by the Israel government and its supporters to describe efforts to explain the government’s actions and to promote and defend Israel in the face of criticism. The term is a euphemism for pro-Israel propaganda. IJV regrets that there is little intellectual depth to the CJC critique, and notes that while there is an apparent attempt to link the CJC’s comments to the observations in the Kairos document, any such link is illusory.

It is clear to us that the CJC responders refused to hear the words so eloquently put forward by the authors of the Kairos document. On the basis of what is presented in the CJC’s response, we are forced to conclude that the serious dialogue initiated by those who drafted the Kairos document has fallen on
deaf ears. The consequence of this refusal to hear is that the CJC piece amounts to little more than a tired rehashing of traditional rationalizations of Israeli intransigence. It does not constitute a worthy response to the heartfelt cry for justice embodied in A moment of truth.

In addition to its other failings, what comes across from the CJC authors is an apparently deep-seated desire to “even the score” with the writers of the Kairos document. This is not surprising. Those who attempt to defend or rationalize injustice often respond angrily when others recognize that what they are doing is unjust. In situations such as this, it is advantageous to turn the tables – to deny misdeeds and to minimize or rationalize those that cannot be denied; to blame the victim for whatever has transpired; to feign victimhood oneself; to invoke guilt to silence outside observers; and finally, if all else fails, to threaten those who continue to insist that the injustice must be addressed. It is our observation that the CJC document and, indeed, hasbara in general, is characterized by the use of such techniques.

Ultimately, all hasbara-based strategy is designed to avoid engaging with the issues raised and to disclaim responsibility. Thus, if the victim of injustice is provoked to act against his oppression, the victimizer can respond by arguing that it is he who is the innocent victim.

This is not the place for a detailed refutation of the time-worn “explanations” contained in the CJC document; many other writers, some of whom we reference here, have prepared full and nuanced analyses on the subject.

Conclusion
With Kairos Palestine, IJV affirms that it is a moral and ethical imperative to acknowledge the reality of Israel’s oppression of Palestinian people and to take action to end that oppression. This is essential, as much for the moral integrity and long-term security of Jewish Israelis, as it is for the well-being of the Palestinians. IJV therefore wholeheartedly endorses the A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering. We join with the framers of the Kairos Palestine document in calling for the implementation of BDS and other actions to encourage Israel to abandon its unconscionable practices and policies.

1IJV recognizes that the “Boycott Law,” passed in the Israel Knesset on 11 July 2011 complicates matters. We note, however, that challenges to the law were filed in Israel’s High Court of Justice on 12 July 2011 by Israel human rights and pro-peace organizations.

2 On 1 July 2011, the Canadian Jewish Congress ceased independent activities. Its functions have been taken over by the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy.

References and Readings

Amit, Zalman and Daphna Levit. (2011). Israeli Rejectionism: A hidden agenda in the Middle East Peace Process. New York: Pluto Press.

Arieli, Shaul. “We must Stop Israel from becoming a theocracy,” Ha’Aretz, 6 July 2011.

Canadian Jewish Congress. (2010). “ CJC Response to KAIROS Palestine’s policy paper, ‘A Moment of Truth’ ”

Ellis, Marc. (2009). Judaism does not equal Israel. New York: The New Press.

Engler, Yves. (2010). Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid. Halifax: Fernwood.

Freedland, Jonathan. “‘Israel Set on Tragic Path,’ says Chief Rabbi,” The Guardian, 27 August 2002.

Hassan, Zaha and Steven Goldberg. (n.d.). “Israel’s Wall: An Analysis of its Legal Validity under U.S. and International Law.” Website of U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

Kairos Palestine. (2009). “A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering.”

Klug, Francesca (2008). “Lessons from History.” In Anne Karpf, Brian Klug, Jacqueline Rose and Barbara Rosenbaum (eds.), A time to speak out: Independent Jewish Voices on Israel, Zionism and Jewish Identity. London: Verso.

Marquesee, Mike. (2008). “The Jews and the Left.” In Anne Karpf, Brian Klug, Jacqueline Rose and Barbara Rosenbaum (eds.), A Time to Speak Out: Independent Jewish Voices on Israel, Zionism and Jewish Identity. London: Verso.

Masalha, Nur. (2007). The Bible and Zionism: Invented traditions, archaeology and post-colonialism in Israel-Palestine. London: Zed Books.

Newman, Michael. (2005). “The Case Against Israel.” Petrolia, California: Counterpunch.

Pesikta Kahana. (Various dates). 140 b;cf, Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 1:18.

Rabkin, Yakov M. (2006). A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism (translated by Fred A. Reed).Halifax: Fernwood.

Shahak, Israel. (2002)

1IJV recognizes that the “Boycott Law,” passed in the Israel Knesset on 11 July 2011 complicates matters. We note, however, that challenges to the law were filed in Israel’s High Court of Justice on 12 July 2011 by Israel human rights and pro-peace organizations.

2 On 1 July 2011, the Canadian Jewish Congress ceased independent activities. Its functions have been taken over by the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy.

). Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years. London: Pluto Press.

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

*Kairos Palestine Document “A Moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of palestinian suffering” http://www.kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/English.pdf (Shalom 1492)

THE CHARGE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES or - Baksheesh for the Doorkeeper

23 July 2011, Gush Shalom גוש שלום http://zope.gush-shalom.org (Israel)

Uri Avnery אורי אבנרי

A Riddle: Which fleet did not reach its destination but fulfilled its mission?
Well, it’s this year’s Gaza solidarity flotilla.

It could be said, of course, that last year’s “little fleet” – that’s what the word means in Spanish, much as “guerrilla” means “little war” – is also a reasonable candidate . It never reached Gaza, but the commander of the Israeli navy could well repeat the words of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, whose victory over the Romans was so costly that he is said to have exclaimed: “Another such victory, and I am lost!”
Flotilla 1 did not reach Gaza. But the naval commando attack on it, which cost the lives of nine Turkish activists, aroused such an outcry that our government saw itself compelled to loosen its land blockade of the Gaza Strip significantly.

The repercussions of this action have not yet died down. The very important relations between the Israeli and Turkish militaries are still ruptured, with Turkey demanding an apology and indemnities. The victims’ families are pursuing criminal and civil proceedings in several countries. An ongoing headache.

Flotilla 2 reached its end this week, when a huge naval action led to the capture of 1 (one!) little French yacht and the detention of its sailors, journalists and activists –all 16 (sixteen) of them. Even our tame broadcasters could not help themselves from sneering: “Why didn’t they send an aircraft carrier?”

The 14 boats that were prevented from sailing, and the one that did sail, not only kept our entire navy on alert for weeks, but also helped to keep the Gaza blockade in the news. And that, after all, was the whole point of the exercise.
WHAT HAPPENED to the 14 boats which did not sail?

Incredible as it sounds, the Greek navy and Coast Guard forcibly prevented them from leaving Greek ports. There existed no lawful grounds for this, nor was there any pretense of legality.

It would be no exaggeration to say that the Greek navy was acting under orders from the Israeli Chief of Staff. A proud sea-faring nation with a nautical history of thousands of years (“nautical” even happens to be a Greek word) degraded itself to perform illegal actions to please Israel.

It also ignored acts of sabotage carried out by naval commandos – guess whose - against the boats in Greek harbors.

At the same time, the Turkish government, the defiant sponsor of the Mavi Marmara, the ship on which the Turkish activists were killed last year, prevented the same ship from sailing this year.

Also at the same time, groups of pro-Palestinian activists who tried to reach the West Bank by air were stopped on their way. Since there is no direct access to the West Bank by land, sea or air except through Israeli territory or Israeli checkpoints, they had to travel via Ben-Gurion International Airport, Israel’s gateway to the world. Most did not make it: under instructions from our government, all international airlines blocked these passengers at check-in, using “blacklists” provided by our government.

It seems that the long arm of our diligent security service reaches everywhere, and that its orders are obeyed by countries large and small.

A HUNDRED years ago, the secret police of the Russian Czar, the dreaded “Okhrana”, forged a document called “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.

(In those times, the secret police everywhere was still called Secret Police, before being dignified as “Security Services”.)

The document reported a secret meeting of rabbis in the old Jewish cemetery of Prague, to decide upon strategy to secure Jewish rule over the world. It was a crude falsification, which lifted entire passages verbatim from a novel written decades earlier.

In its pages, the real situation of the Jews was grotesquely distorted – they actually had no power at all. In fact, when Adolf Hitler – who used the Protocols for his propaganda – set in motion the Final Solution, almost nobody in the whole world lifted a finger to help the Jews. Even US Jews were afraid to raise their voices.

But if the authors of the falsification were to return to the scene of their crime today, they would rub their eyes in disbelief: this figment of their sick imagination looks like coming true. The Jewish State – as Zionists like to call us – can order around Greek naval authorities, get Turkey to climb down, instruct half a dozen European states to stop passengers at their airports.

How do we do it? There is a simple answer, consisting of three letters: USA.
ISRAEL HAS become a kind of Kafkaesque doorkeeper to the world’s sole remaining superpower.

Through its immense influence on the American political system, and especially on the Congress, Israel can levy a political tax on anyone who needs something from the US. Greece is bankrupt and desperately needs American and European help. Turkey is a partner of the US in NATO. No European country wants to quarrel with the US. Ergo: they all need to give us a little political baksheesh.

To cement this relationship, Glenn Beck, the obnoxious protégé of Rupert Murdoch, visited us and was enthusiastically received in the Knesset, where he told us “not to be afraid”, because he (and, by implication, Fox and all of America) was supporting us to the hilt.

IT IS because of this that a few lines, which appeared this week in the New York Times, caused near panic in Jerusalem.

The NYT is, perhaps, the most “pro-Israel” paper in the whole world, including Israel itself. Anti-Semites call it the Jew York Times. Many of its editorial writers are ardent Zionists. A news story critical of Israeli policies has almost no chance of appearing there. No mention of the Israeli peace movement. No mention of the dozens of demonstrations in Israel against Lebanon War II and the Cast Lead operation. Self-censorship is supreme.

But this week, the NYT published a blistering editorial criticizing Israel. The reason: the “Boycott Law”, passed by the right-wing Knesset majority, which forbids Israelis to call for a boycott of the settlements. The editorial practically repeats what I said in last week’s article: that the law is blatantly anti-democratic and violates basic human rights. The more so, since it comes on top of a whole series of anti-democratic laws that were enacted in the last few months. Israel is in danger of losing its title as the “Only Democracy in the Middle East”.

Suddenly, all the red lights in Jerusalem started to blink furiously. Help! We are going to lose our only political asset in the world, the pillar of our strength, the basis of our national security, the rock of our existence.

THE RESULT was immediate. On Wednesday, the right-wing clique that now controls the Knesset, under the leadership of Avigdor Lieberman, brought to final vote a resolution that would appoint two Committees of Inquiry into the financial resources of human-rights NGOs. Not all NGOs, only “leftist” ones. This was another item on the long list of McCarthyist measures, many of which have already been adopted and many more of which are waiting for their turn.

The day before, Binyamin Netanyahu appeared specially in the Knesset to assure his followers that he fully approved, and indeed had sponsored, the Boycott Law. But after the NYT editorial, when the Commission of Inquiry resolution came up, Netanyahu and almost all his cabinet ministers voted against it. The religious factions disappeared from the Knesset. The resolution was voted down by a 2 to 1 majority.

But one ominous fact emerged: Apart from Netanyahu and his captive ministers, all the Likud members present voted for the resolution. This included all the young leaders of the party – the coming generation of Likud bosses.

If the Likud remains in power – this group of ultra-rightists,[] will be the government of Israel within ten years. And to hell with the New York Times.
FORTUNATELY, THERE are signs that a new phenomenon is in the making.

It started innocently with a successful consumer strike on cottage cheese, in order to compel a cartel of fat cats to reduce prices. This has been followed by a mass action by young couples, mostly university students, against the impossibly high prices of apartments.

A group of protesters put up tents in the center of Tel Aviv and have now been living there for over a week. Soon after, such encampments sprang up all over the country, from Kiryat Shmona on the Lebanese border to Beer Sheva in the Negev.

It is much too early to tell whether this is a short-term protest or the beginning of an Israeli Tahrir Square phenomenon. But it clearly shows that the takeover of Israel by a neo-fascist grouping is not a foregone conclusion. The fight is on.
Perhaps - just perhaps! - even the New York Times could be starting to report on the reality of our country.

ISRAELI SOCIETY MOUNTS RESISTENCE TO LEGISLATIVE ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY

20 JulY 2011, + 972 http://972mag.com (Israel)

Dahlia Scheindlin*

When we look back on this period in Israeli history, I don’t want to wonder: “why didn’t Israelis fight for their democracy? Why did they stand by and let themselves be taken over by sham leaders representing repressions that belonged to the dark days of the last century? What was the birth of our state worth if it failed to guarantee us a democracy? I learned the Israeli national anthem as a child, and when I was very young, I used to choke up at the part that says “l’hiyot am hofshi b’artzenu” (to be a free people in our country).

I’m not alone. I wish there were more people flooding the streets in protest, following the passage of the boycott law last week, but I am encouraged by important voices of protest that continue to appear daily ever since last week. Here’s just a sampling:

1. One of Israel’s most talented authors, Etgar Keret, wrote a powerfully worded column in the largest mass-circulating daily Yedioth Ahronot, in the weekend edition. Keret shows how obvious and easy it is to do what 47 MKs and about half of the Israeli public were unable to do – separate feelings about the act of boycotts from the principle of democracy.

I never liked boycotts…when a friend called me about a year ago asking me to sign a petition calling for a boycott against Ariel, it was easy for me to say no…[but] When elected officials enact violent legislation which violates the individual’s basic rights, it is nothing less than a civic duty to break it. Had my country enacted a law prohibiting men from kissing in public, I would look on the street for the first man who does not reek of cigarettes or garlic and give him a passionate kiss. When our country chooses to prosecute and persecute people because they are trying to influence in democratic ways the future of the country where they live, then I must use this forum to call for a boycott of the settlements. ” [Thanks to Adam Keller for part of the translation - note, various other writers and intellectuals have written similar calls.]

2. The Israel Democracy Institute, which used to take moderate, upset-no-one positions in the past and preferred to hold a seminar on a controversial issues rather than make a statement, came out with a desperate call in an ad in Ha’aretz. In four years of working there, from 2006-2010, I don’t remember anything so emotional and unequivocal as this coming from the IDI. The large headline read: “Ben Gurion and Jabotinsky are turning over in their graves”

The founding fathers and the people of all movements and all streams – from Jabotinsky to Berl Katznelson, from Ben Gurion to Begin – entrusted us with a cherished endowment, one that commands us to protect it fearlessly: Israeli democracy. Those who signed the Declaration of Independence gave it its authority through their declaration that the state of Israel rests on the foundations of liberty, justice and peace…will provide equality of social and political rights for all citizens without distinction between religion, race, gender…To this day, we have not completed the promulgation of a Constitution that defines human and civil rights in Israel in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. Worse, short-sighted legislation is eating away at the glorious Israeli democracy…Would the current Knesset members who vote for these laws sign the Declaration of Independence today? Don’t they see that their vote does not square with the values of the Declaration?…An unprecedented stack of bills have piled up on the floor of the Knesset, and from them blow the winds of anti-democracy…they subvert the foundation of Israeli democracy and endanger its existence.

3. A petition has been published in Haaretz, under the title “Boycott Law – No more!” The first 120 signatories appear in the paper and most of them are academics, lawyers, architects, engineers, social workers, social activists, writers, designers, psychologists and organizational consultants, environmentalists and Israel Prize winning physicists and private investigators. Within the text, it says “36 professors of law determined that “the law is unconstitutional, it is a mortal blow to freedom of political expression and the right to protest in Israel, sufficient to damage human dignity [a human right protected under Israel's Basic Law of Human Dignity and Freedom, one of several such laws that stand in for a constitution - drs]

4. A demonstration is being organized on Saturday night – in proper 2011 fashion, invitations are being disseminated on a Facebook page with the title: “Democracy takes to the streets: The government against the people – the people against the government.” At this moment, 1,359 say they’ll be attending – and it’s only Wednesday.

I want, I believe, I hope and I pray that thousands of people, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands – 7.75 million – will unite in support of our freedoms – all of them, for all of us.

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

*Dahlia Scheindlin is a leading international public opinion analyst and strategic consultant based in Tel Aviv, specializing in progressive causes, political campaigns in many countries, including new/transitional democracies and peace/ conflict research. In Israel, she works for a wide range of local and international organizations dealing with Israeli-Palestinian conflict issues, peacemaking, democracy, religious identity and internal social issues in Israeli society. Dahlia is currently writing her doctoral dissertation in comparative politics at Tel Aviv University. The focus of her research is unrecognized (de facto) states. In the fall of 2010 she will begin teaching at Ben Gurion University. Dahlia writes a monthly column for the Jerusalem Report magazine and is a regular media commentator and guest lecturer.