The time for rockets, bombs, targetted assassinations, blockades, "safe rooms" and Iron Domes is over

By Julia Chatin, Ha'aretz, December 31, 2013  

It’s eerily quiet here now that the rocket attacks have stopped. My family is trying to return to normality and forget what happened. We were lucky; the rockets did not hit close enough to cause physical damage but we’re all still traumatized.

I remember it was hard to concentrate in the weeks that followed the conflict. I’m an academic but I just couldn’t sit down and focus on work at all. I found it difficult to celebrate Chanukah, which is meant to symbolize liberation and coming out of the darkness. I asked myself how we could celebrate freedom when our neighbors in Gaza are trapped in poverty.

On the surface things have gone back to normal but the recent attacks really broke something inside people. There’s a lot of psychological damage, and a sense of helplessness. People are just waiting for the war to begin again.

When I first met people from Sderot in 2008, people who had been living with the rocket attacks, day after day, for years, I wondered why they stayed in that crazy, dangerous city. When I heard their children talk about their parents putting them at risk, since they refused to move away from that dangerous city, I wondered how long the children would resent their parents for putting them at that risk, every day. Would the children ever forgive their parents for choosing to live in an area that took away much of their childhood? I secretly thought that I would never put my family in such danger, that I would never expose them to daily rocket fire.

That was before Urim, a kibbutz in the Negev and my home, became one of the many communities that received the not-sought-after status of being in rocket range.

When I first met those ‘crazy, irresponsible’ parents in Sderot, I ‘forgot’ that I was teaching at the Sapir College, located across from that dangerous city, that also suffered rocket attacks on a regular basis. I ‘forgot’ that I had to drive those dangerous roads to get to the college, in order to teach students, many of whom were traumatized from years of living with rocket fire. I ‘forgot’ that I often parked my car very quickly when I got to the college, so that I could rush indoors, and be near a safe room. I ‘forgot’ these minor details since Urim, at that time, was a safe haven.

All of that changed in late 2008, before the onset of Operation Cast Lead/The Gaza War, when Urim also became one of those communities within rocket range. All of that changed when the home front division of the Israeli army came to examine people’s homes, and told us that our corridor, separated by plaster walls, was our ‘safe’ area. It was then that I finally understood that ‘their’ crazy and dangerous reality had now become my crazy and dangerous reality and that I had become one of those ‘irresponsible’ parents and grandparents who insisted on living in a war zone.

Rockets fired from Gaza

For over a year we have been able to tell time according to what the media call the "latest round of violence". Every three months, like clockwork, we have had a weekend of massive rocket attacks (from them) and they (the Gazans) have a weekend of massive air force bombing from us. Days of 60, 70, 150 rockets became the norm, four times a year for us on the Israeli side. The Palestinians in Gaza have it much worse. After those weekends, things would go back to ‘normal’ for us – days of ‘only’ one or two rockets that hit ‘open fields, no damage’ and they, the Gazans, would ‘only’ have drones and helicopters and planes hovering above, sometimes shooting, sometimes ‘just’ on reconnaissance – making their lives constantly unbearable. 80% of Gazans now rely on humanitarian aid, and entire populations on both sides have forgotten what it is to relax, how not to look up at the sky, not listen for booms, not run for shelter.

Netanyahu, Barak, and other Israeli ‘leaders’ tell us that help is on the way. They promise those of us who do not have ‘safe rooms’ tons of reinforced concrete so that we can feel secure during the endless rain of rockets. They tell us to remain calm since they are obtaining more Iron Domes to keep us safe from the endless rain of rockets. They tell us that they will keep us safe by assassinating Gazan terrorists, by perhaps sending in our ground forces, by showing them who’s the boss.

Israel develops new weapons for the "next war"

Our ‘leaders’ have created a region that is even more crazy and dangerous than before. I do not want their reinforced concrete or Iron Domes or helicopters and war planes flying overhead day after day after day. It’s time to lift the blockade, and help agencies like Oxfam, which has supported Israeli civil society and human rights organizations for over 20 years including dialogue and peace building initiatives, rebuild people’s lives. I want peace and security. That’s why last week I held a discussion at my kibbutz with fellow Israelis, including Eyal Megged, to talk about peace, and to bring a message of hope for the New Year so that we no longer have to live in fear.

I want to drive to Sapir without wondering if I really will pull my car quickly over to the side, jump out and lay down on the ground, with my hands protecting my head, if the siren goes off while on the road. I want our ‘leaders’ to finally admit that after years of siege on Gaza, reconnaissance and targeted assassinations have made our area one of the most insecure on the planet.

The time for military options is over. I hope that this New Year the Israeli government will find the ways to negotiate with the Hamas government in Gaza, and to arrive at a long-term ceasefire. I want my corridor back. I demand my life back.

Julia Chaitin is a Senior Lecturer at Sapir Collegein Sderot, and one of the founders of Other Voice, http://www.othervoice.org/welcome-eng.htm an Israeli community based organization that calls for a civil solution in the Sderot-Gaza region.

Haneen Zoabi Protests Her Own Election Ban

"It is my responsibility as a Palestinian; it is my responsibility as a human being to struggle against the siege, to struggle against the occupation of my people, to struggle against the oppression of my people, and to struggle against the racism against the Palestinian citizens inside Israel. So for me it's the values, the humanistic, universalistic values of freedom, of equality, of justice. I think we should ask Israel, and I ask the Israeli policies, what is the basis for the oppression of the Palestinian people?"

Haneen Zoabi, Palestinian-Israeli Member of the Knesset

Text by Al Jazeera  Dec. 28, 2012 A Palestinian-Israeli politician is appealing a court ruling barring her from running in Israel's general elections next month. Last week, Knesset member Haneen Zoabi was disqualified for "undermining" Israel because she was on board the Mavi Marmara ship in May 2010 as part of an international flotilla challenging Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip. The Turkish ship was boarded by Israeli special forces as it approached waters off Gaza. In the violence that followed, nine activists were shot dead by the commandos. Israel's Supreme Court now has four days to decide whether to revoke Zoabi's election ban. Speaking to Al Jazeera on Thursday, Zoabi said the ban was the culmination of a long process of persecution. "Threats, I would say [I received] hundreds of threats, by letters, by email, by phonecall ... They have disqualified me, stripped me from some Parliamentarian rights, such as my diplomatic passport," Zoabi said. "The Israeli Knesset is trying not just to disqualify me, but also to disqualify the Arab citizens in Israel. Because I represent those who vote for me, and the right wing in the Knesset - which is the majority within the Knesset - is trying to delegitimise the Arab voice within the Knesset," she said. "It is my responsibility as a Palestinian; it is my responsibility as a human being to struggle against the siege, to struggle against the occupation of my people, to struggle against the oppression of my people, and to struggle against the racism against the Palestinian citizens inside Israel. "So for me it's the values, the humanistic, universalistic values of freedom, of equality, of justice. I think we should ask Israel, and I ask the Israeli policies, what is the basis for the oppression of the Palestinian people?" 'Controversial' move Earlier this month, Israel's Central Elections Committee voted 19 to 9 with one abstention to block Zoabi's candidacy for the January 22 general election. The electoral committee disqualified Zoabi on two grounds: "Negating Israel's existence as a Jewish state" and "support for an enemy state or terrorist organisation engaged in armed conflict against Israel," spokesman Giora Pordes said. Centrist and left-leaning Israeli politicians argued against disqualifying Zoabi. Al Jazeera's Jane Ferguson, reporting from Jerusalem, said although the Supreme Court hearing did not yet reach any concrete decision about the case, it must decide whether or not Zoabi will be disqualified or whether or not she can run in the 2013 elections by December 30. "So we are expecting an announcement on that within the coming days," our correspondent said. "[Zoabi] was famously involved in the freedom flotilla in May 2010. In Israel, among politicians across the Knesset, from left to right, it was widely condemned and seen as a very controversial move that anybody involved in Israeli politics would have been on that ship. "Her party is saying that they are being discriminated against and that if she is disqualified, they themselves will actually boycott the vote," Ferguson said, adding however that most people in Jerusalem did not believe she would be disqualified. Ferguson said the case "opens up a wider debate about Palestinian-Israelis, not only in Israel, but those involved in politics here". 527

Merry Christmas?

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/12/lurking-christmas-celebrations.html

Terror lurking in a Christmas tree? Israel tries to ban non-Jewish celebrations

by Jonathan Cook on December 24, 2012

Santa Claus in Bilin, 2011.
(Photo: Popular Committee Against the Wall and settlement of Bil’in via europalestine.com)

Israel’s large Palestinian minority is often spoken of in terms of the threat it poses to the Jewish majority. Palestinian citizens’ reproductive rate constitutes a “demographic timebomb”, while their main political program – Israel’s reform into “a state of all its citizens” – is proof for most Israeli Jews that their compatriots are really a “fifth column”.

But who would imagine that Israeli Jews could be so intimidated by the innocuous Christmas tree?

This issue first came to public attention two years ago when it was revealed that Shimon Gapso, the mayor of Upper Nazareth, had banned Christmas trees from all public buildings in his northern Israeli city.

“Upper Nazareth is a Jewish town and all its symbols are Jewish,” Gapso said. “As long as I hold office, no non-Jewish symbol will be presented in the city.”

The decision reflected in part his concern that Upper Nazareth, built in the 1950s as the centrepiece of the Israeli government’s “Judaisation of the Galilee” programme, was failing dismally in its mission.

Far from “swallowing up” the historic Palestinian city of Nazareth next door, as officials had intended, Upper Nazareth became over time a magnet for wealthier Nazarenes who could no longer find a place to build a home in their own city. That was because almost all Nazareth’s available green space had been confiscated for the benefit of Upper Nazareth.

Instead Nazarenes, many of them Palestinian Christians, have been buying homes in Upper Nazareth from Jews – often immigrants from the former Soviet Union – desperate to leave the Arab-dominated Galilee and head to the country’s centre, to be nearer Tel Aviv.

The exodus of Jews and influx of Palestinians have led the government to secretly designate Upper Nazareth as a “mixed city”, much to the embarrassment of Gapso. The mayor is a stalwart ally of far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman and regularly expresses virulently anti-Arab views, including recently calling Nazarenes “Israel-hating residents whose place is in Gaza” and their city “a nest of terror in the heart of the Galilee”.

Although neither Gapso nor the government has published census figures to clarify the city’s current demographic balance, most estimates suggest that at least a fifth of Upper Nazareth’s residents are Palestinian. The city’s council chamber also now includes Palestinian representatives.

But Gapso is not alone in his trenchant opposition to making even the most cursory nod towards multiculturalism. The city's chief rabbi, Isaiah Herzl, has refused to countenance a single Christmas tree in Upper Nazareth, arguing that it would be “offensive to Jewish eyes”.

That view, it seems, reflects the official position of the country’s rabbinate. In so far as they are able, the rabbis have sought to ban Christmas celebrations in public buildings, including in the hundreds of hotels across the country.

A recent report in the Haaretz newspaper, on an Israeli Jew who grows Christmas trees commercially, noted in passing: “hotels – under threat of losing kashrut certificates – are prohibited by the rabbinate from decking their halls in boughs of holly or, heaven forbid, putting up even the smallest of small sparkly Christmas tree in the corner of the lobby.”

In other words, the rabbinate has been quietly terrorising Israeli hotel owners into ignoring Christmas by threatening to use its powers to put them out of business. Denying a hotel its kashrut (kosher) certificate would lose it most of its Israeli and foreign Jewish clientele.

Few mayors or rabbis find themselves in the uncomfortable position of needing to go public with their views on the dangers of Christmas decorations. In Israel, segregation between Jews and Palestinians is almost complete. Even most of the handful of mixed cities are really Jewish cities with slum-like ghettoes of Palestinians living on the periphery.

Apart from Upper Nazareth, the only other “mixed” place where Palestinian Christians are to be found in significant numbers is Haifa, Israel’s third largest city. Haifa is often referred to as Israel’s most multicultural and tolerant city, a title for which it faces very little competition.

But the image hides a dirtier reality. A recent letter from Haifa’s rabbinate came to light in which the city’s hotels and events halls were reminded that they must not host New Year’s parties at the end of this month (the Jewish New Year happens at a different time of year). The hotels and halls were warned that they would be denied their kashrut licences if they did so.

“It is seriously forbidden to hold any event at the end of the calendar year that is connected with or displays anything from the non-Jewish festivals,” the letter states.

After the letter was publicised on Facebook, Haifa’s mayor, Yona Yahav, moved into damage limitation mode, overruling the city’s rabbinical council on Sunday and insisting that parties would be allowed to go ahead. Whether Yahav has the power to enforce his decision on the notoriously independent-minded rabbinical authorities is still uncertain.

But what is clear is that there is plenty of religious intolerance verging on hatred being quietly exercised against non-Jews, mostly behind the scenes so as not to disturb Israel’s “Jewish and democratic” image or outrage the millions of Christian tourists and pilgrims who visit Israel each year.

No Room At the Inn

If trying to get to Bethlehem 2000 years ago was as hard as it is today . . .

South African Jews Speak For BDS

 

"The temptation is, to speak in muffled tones about an issue such as the right of people in Palestine . . yet we would be less than human if we did so." - Nelson Mandela

As Jews, with our own painful history of oppression
we are compelled to speak out against human rights violations being committed by the State of Israel – in our name – against the Palestinian people.

We note that the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) together with the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), recently met with the South African Presidency and other politicians. We also note, with great concern, the SAJBD and SAZF’s assertion that they represent and speak on behalf of all Jewish South Africans, particularly when it comes to Palestine-Israel.

Let us be clear, the SAJBD and SAZF’s position of supporting Israel at all costs does not represent us. We also appeal to the SAJBD and SAZF to respect one of the hallmarks of Judaism: respectful debate amongst those who hold divergent viewpoints. The SAJBD and SAZF’s position on Israel, and attempts to stifle opposing voices that speak out against Israel, is morally untenable.

The Jewish community is neither homogeneous nor monolithic. There is a growing number of Jews, in South Africa and around the world, who are organising to form alternative spaces and who unconditionally oppose Israeli policies and practices that shamefully privilege Jews over the indigenous Palestinian people. In this vein, we support the non-violent campaign of applying Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it abides by international law and respects basic human rights.

We are encouraged that our South African government is joining those countries that are taking a clear stance against Israel’s violations of international law and its acts of violence against the Palestinian people -- see this City Press newspaper article. We also welcome and support our Department of Trade and Industry’s initiative to prevent the false labelling of Israeli settlement products. See this Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper article. We hope that the ANC and the SA Government goes further and completely bans Israeli settlement products. Israeli settlements are in clear violation of international law and seriously undermine any chance of negotiations and a just peace.

Such positions as those recently taken by our government against Israeli violence and violations of international law, in fact, serve to affirm a proud Jewish tradition of respect for justice and human rights; regardless of race, religion or creed. Such positions connect us to our fellow humanity.
We humbly – and sadly – acknowledge that our voices may not be the dominant ones in our community, but neither were Dietrich Bonnhoefer’s in Nazi Germany nor Beyers Naude’s, Antjie Krog’s, Braam Fischer’s and Joe Slovo’s in Apartheid South Africa.

Our individual consciences, our Jewish tradition and our painful history compel us to declare to the SAJBD, SAZF and to the Israeli government that we will continue to speak out and take a stand for justice and human rights. Taking such a stand is in the very interests of being Jewish. For when we proclaim “Never Again”, we should mean “Never Again”, unconditionally, and to any human being – including the Palestinians.

Issued by Alan Horwitz for StopTheJNF, a campaign initiated by a group of Jewish South Africans committed to justice and rights for the Palestinian people and Jewish Israelis. Find the original statement and more information here.

First They Came For The Palestinians


"The work of the artist is to express what is repressed or even to speak the
unspoken grief of society. And the cartoonist’s task is not so much to be
balanced as to give balance, particularly in situations of disproportionate
power relationships such as we see in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It
is a healthy tradition dating back to the court jester and beyond: to be the
dissenting protesting voice that speaks when others cannot or will not."
Michael Leunig




Gaza: Dead Zoo

This field in Gaza Valley (Wadi Gaza) was once teeming with beautiful bird life. Now, it is a dumping ground for dead animals. How could it be, that in the name of democracy, peace, and security, the environment has been ruined and the people are traumatized by the scene of destruction that greets them?



Photo by Geert van Kesteren

Israel's "Punishment"


"Netanyahu has already signaled where he is heading: toward extremism, diplomatic isolation, denunciation and ostracism by the world."

Ha'aretz Editorial, Dec. 2, 2012

The government decided this weekend to build another 3,000 housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and also to move ahead with planning and building procedures for the E1 area, located between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim. That is how the government responded to the UN General Assembly's decision to recognize Palestine as a nonmember observer state; that is how the government decided to punish the Palestinians and the world.
    
The latter said its piece loud and clear: Yes to a two-state solution. But Israel's government responded with a step that, first and foremost, punishes Israel. The only positive aspect of this decision is the fact that Israel has recognized that the settlements are indeed a punishment.
    
This is a particularly grave and dangerous decision. Instead of internalizing the fact that a sweeping majority of nations are sick of the Israeli occupation and want a Palestinian state, Israel is entrenching itself even further in its own rejectionism, and deepening its isolation and the disconnect between itself and the international reality. Instead of drawing the necessary conclusions from its resounding failure, the government is dragging Israel into additional diplomatic disasters. And instead of embarking on sincere, genuine negotiations with the new observer state, Israel is turning its back on it, and on the world.

"The high end" -- a settlement above Bethlehem with a superb view of the Mediterranian

The government's decision is the last nail in the coffin of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Bar-Ilan University speech in 2009. It is proof positive that this speech, in which he ostensibly accepted the principle of two states, was merely a deception. What is particularly astounding, however, is the violation of Israel's commitment to the United States not to build in E1, given that construction there would preclude the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank. After America was left as virtually the last supporter of Israel's position at the United Nations, Israel is repaying it with a resounding slap in the face.

Israel's decision is also a slap in the face to another loyal friend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who explained Germany's abstention in the vote as stemming from Israel's refusal to stop construction in the territories. So, even before the next election, in which the joint "Likud-Beiteinu" ticket is presenting an especially right-wing, extremist slate, Netanyahu has already signaled where he is heading: toward extremism, diplomatic isolation, denunciation and ostracism by the world.

The world - even including the United States this time - can't allow Israel's arrogant response to pass quietly. This very government decision might serve as a spur to those who want to transfer the settlements issue to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, as punishment for the "punishment" imposed by Israel. And the next time Israel needs the world's help, on the Iranian issue or on any other, the world will remember this decision

Settlements are built by Palestinians on land that was once theirs.