Discrimination Vs. Coexistence

 Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them  
Amiram Barkat, Haaretz - A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face. more

 Draft Israeli Bill Would Ban Commemoration of Nakba 
Tobias Buck, Financial Times - The draft bill would make it a criminal offence – punishable by up to three years in prison – for Israeli citizens to mark the “Nakba”. The term means catastrophe, and is used by Palestinians to describe the year of Israel’s foundation, when between 700,000 and 800,000 of them fled or were expelled by advancing Israeli troops. It is commemorated every year on May 15, and involves demonstrations and marches to destroyed Palestinian villages inside Israel. more

 Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques - IDF fashion 2009  
Uri Blau, Haaretz - The office at the Adiv fabric-printing shop in south Tel Aviv handles a constant stream of customers, many of them soldiers in uniform, who come to order custom clothing featuring their unit's insignia, usually accompanied by a slogan and drawing of their choosing. Elsewhere on the premises, the sketches are turned into plates used for imprinting the ordered items, mainly T-shirts and baseball caps, but also hoodies, fleece jackets and pants. A young Arab man from Jaffa supervises the workers who imprint the words and pictures, and afterward hands over the finished product. more

 Israeli Palestinians: The Unwanted Who Stayed 
Jonathan Cook, The Link - Among the images of Israel’s 60th Independence Day celebrations to be found on the internet is a photograph of CNN reporter Ben Wedeman being kicked firmly on the behind as he tries to run from the boot of an armed policeman. All around him, as other photographs reveal, journalists are fleeing for safety, families are being charged by mounted police, and parents can be seen grabbing toddlers as clouds of tear gas engulf them. The stragglers are shown with bloodied faces after a beating with police batons. more

 The Death of Samir Dari 
Neve Gordon and Yigal Bronner in the Dissident Voice - Almost a year and a half has passed since our friend Samir Dari was gunned down by an Israeli policeman. Samir, an Israeli resident and father of two, approached a group of policemen who had just detained his brother on a street corner not far away from his house and demanded the latter’s release. There are conflicting versions about how the events unfolded, but there is no dispute about the following facts: Samir was unarmed and the policeman Shmuel Yechezkel shot him from close range in the back. more

 Israel 2007: worse than apartheid 
South African Minister for Intelligence Services Ronnie Kasrils in the Mail & Guardian - Travelling into Palestine’s West Bank and Gaza Strip, which I visited recently, is like a surreal trip back into an apartheid state of emergency. It is chilling to pass through the myriad checkpoints -- more than 500 in the West Bank. They are controlled by heavily armed soldiers, youthful but grim, tensely watching every movement, fingers on the trigger. more

 A capital question: More Palestinians are losing their right to live in Jerusalem than ever before 
The Economist - On May 15th, “Nakba [Catastrophe] Day”, Palestinians mourn the loss of most of their homeland to the newborn state of Israel. In a grim irony for them, this year's “Jerusalem Day”, the date in the lunar Jewish calendar when Israel celebrates its “reunification” of the city after capturing the West Bank in the 1967 war, falls the day after. The 245,000 Palestinians from Jerusalem itself will feel the irony extra sharply. Last year 1,363 of them, many from generations-old Jerusalem families, lost their right to live in the city—up more than six-fold on the year before, and the highest annual total ever. more

 Why Israel is after me 
Azmi Bishara in the Los Angeles Times - I am a Palestinian from Nazareth, a citizen of Israel and was, until last month, a member of the Israeli parliament. But now, in an ironic twist reminiscent of France's Dreyfus affair – in which a French Jew was accused of disloyalty to the state – the government of Israel is accusing me of aiding the enemy during Israel's failed war against Lebanon in July. more

 We didn't disappear: the Struggle for Equality Inside Israel 
Jonathan Cook in Al-Ahram Weekly - The official political leadership of Israel's more than one million Palestinian citizens issued a manifesto in Nazareth last week demanding a raft of changes to end the systematic discrimination exercised against non-Jews by the state since its creation nearly six decades ago. more

 I Want to Keep my Wife!  
Ghassan Abdallah - Israel has decreed that my wife and I can no longer live together. I am Palestinian and she is Swiss and we have been married for 28 years. She was given two weeks to leave the occupied Palestinian territory. The Israeli Ministry of Interior wrote on her Swiss passport: “LAST PERMIT.” We have been living together in Ramallah for 12 years. We came in 1994, when, after the Oslo Agreement, we were encouraged to move to the West Bank by the prospect of ‘peace’ and development. more

 Row erupts over Israeli textbooks 
BBC - Israel's education minister has said school textbooks should show Israel's pre-1967 borders, prompting a storm of criticism from right-wingers. more

 Rabbis forbid using books with map of pre-1967 lines 
Akiva Eldar in Haaretz - An organization of right-wing rabbis on Tuesday issued a Halakhic decree forbidding students from using schoolbooks featuring maps of Israel which include the Green Line, Israel Radio reported. more

 Silent Ethnic Cleansing 
John Dugard in IRIN News - A thousand West Bank Palestinians holding foreign passports have been expelled from their homes and thousands more face a similar fate after Israel tightened its visa regime, according to Palestinian campaigners. more

 Commentary: Israelis adopt what South Africa dropped 
John Dugard in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Former President Jimmy Carter's new book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," is igniting controversy for its allegation that Israel practices a form of apartheid. As a South African and former anti-apartheid advocate who visits the Palestinian territories regularly to assess the human rights situation for the U.N. Human Rights Council, the comparison to South African apartheid is of special interest to me. more

 Ethnic cleansing returns to Israel's agenda 
Johann Hari in The Independent of London - When Jorg Haider's far-right Freedom Party joined the governing coalition in Austria in 2000, the world offered a collective retch and moved to isolate the country. In the past fortnight, a startlingly similar far-right politician named Avigdor Lieberman has joined the governing coalition in Israel – in the lofty position of Deputy Prime Minister – but the world's gagging reflex has yet to respond. more

 High Court decision institutionalizes racial discrimination 
Amnesty International - The decision by the Israeli High Court of Justice on 14 May to uphold a law which explicitly denies family rights on the basis of ethnicity or national origins is a step further in the institutionalization of racial discrimination in Israel. more

 Demographic Trends in Palestine 
Nizar Sakhnini - Maintaining Jewish majority is a basic criterion of the Zionist project. Palestine, however, was not an empty desert. Accordingly, creation of a Jewish State with a Jewish majority required two processes: importing Jews from all corners of the world to Palestine and dispossession and ethnic cleansing for the indigenous population. more

 UN expert: Jewish settlers 'terrorize' Palestinians 
The Associated Press in Haaretz - Jewish settlers are able to "terrorize" Palestinians with impunity, intimidating children on their way to school and destroying farmers' trees and crops, a United Nations expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict said in a report. more

 Commentary: The Truth You Don’t Hear 
Mustafa Barghouti in Al-Ahram Weekly - What is the current situation on the ground in Palestine? The Israeli narrative that continues to dominate the international media presents an image that is absolutely at odds with reality. The Gaza redeployment was spun as the beginning of a peace process; a great retreat by General Ariel Sharon, who was portrayed as a man of peace. Yet the fact remains that Palestine is 27,000 square kilometres, of which the West Bank constitutes only 5,860 square kilometres, and the Gaza Strip, just 360 sq km. This is equal to only 1.3 per cent of the total land of historic Palestine. So even if Sharon really had withdrawn from Gaza, this would amount to just 5.8 per cent of the occupied territories. more

 I saw youths with murder in their eyes, I saw a paramedic abandon someone wounded 
Nir Hasson in Haaretz - Someone alerted a paramedic; He wavered for twenty seconds on whether or not to treat Hilal, and during that time one of the attackers yelled to him: “If you treat him, we’ll kill you.” He turned with an embarrassed look and left. The injured man lay, blood covering his face, losing consciousness. more

 Inside scarred minds 
Daniel Day-Lewis in The Sunday Times of London Magazine - On his first visit to the Gaza Strip, Daniel Day-Lewis meets the Palestinian families living in the heart of the danger zone – and the psychologists who are counselling them more

 Racism by Any Other Name 
Yitzhak Laor in Haaretz - It was announced this week that the government plans to stiffen the rules for granting citizenship to non-Jews, through amendments to the law that make it difficult to grant legal status to Palestinians and other foreigners married to Israeli citizens. more

 A Short History of Apartheid 
Dr. Azmi Bishara in AMIN - Rhetoric about demography so dominates Israel’s political discourse that one might be tempted to assume that Israel has abandoned its preferred designation as the Jewish democratic state in favour of the Jewish demographic state. more

 Arab Israeli beats Jewish boys in quiz on Zionism 
Donald Macintyre and Said Ghazali in The Independent of London - In a fortnight when two Arab footballers have kept Israel in World Cup contention, an Arab schoolboy has beaten hundreds of Jewish children to win a quiz focused on the history of Zionism. more

 Israel Plans to Dump Tons of Garbage in West Bank 
David Ratner in Haaretz - For the first time since 1967, Israel has decided to transfer garbage beyond the Green Line and dump it in the West Bank. The project was launched despite international treaties prohibiting an occupying state from making use of occupied territory unless it benefits the local population. more

 The Boy Who Kissed the Soldier: Balata Camp 
Starhawk - “What source can you believe in order to create peace there?” a friend writes when I come back from Palestine. I have no answer, only this story:
June 1, 2002: I am in Balata refugee camp in occupied Palestine, where the Israeli Defense Forces have rounded up four thousand men, leaving the camp to women and children. The men have offered no resistance, no battle. more

 Injustice and Stupidity in Jerusalem 
Haaretz - In July 2004, Israel’s cabinet adopted a decision that was neither made public nor even published in the official government gazette, Reshumot: to apply the Absentee Property Law to East Jerusalem, and thereby to confiscate thousands of dunams of land from owners who live in the West Bank. The reason for the decision was security-related: Since in practice, West Bank residents are barred from entering East Jerusalem because of the intifada, the cabinet decided to enact an official measure that would prevent any use of these lands by their owners in the future as well, and would explicitly state that henceforth their property belongs to the State of Israel. more

 Israeli government decision aims to strip Palestinians of their properties in East Jerusalem 
Meron Rappaport in Haaretz - The Sharon government implemented the Absentee Property Law in East Jerusalem last July, contrary to Israeli government policy, since Israeli law was extended to East Jerusalem after the Six Day War. The law means that thousands of Palestinians who live in the West Bank will lose ownership of their property in East Jerusalem. more

 Border Policeman gets 14 months jail for abusing Palestinians 
Yuval Yoaz in Haaretz - Border Policeman Nir Levy was convicted by Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Thursday in the aggravated assault and abuse of a helpless Palestinian civilian. more

 ‘Racist’ Bill Raises Storm in Israel’s Knesset 
Gideon Alon in Haaretz - A furor erupted October 11, 2004 in the Israeli parliament when the presidium agreed to allow a National Union MK to introduce a draft law perceived as being racist. more

 ‘Speak Hebrew or shut up’ 
Etgar Keret in the UK Guardian - Israel’s official code of ethics says troops can only use force if threatened. But at a checkpoint near Nablus, Israeli author Etgar Keret witnessed another code of behaviour in operation... more

 Hardline threat to al-Aqsa Mosque 
Khalid Amayreh in Al Jazeera - Israel’s Public Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi has said hardline Jewish groups may be planning to carry out attacks on the two most sacred Islamic shrines in occupied East Jerusalem. more

 If it were the reverse 
Gideon Levy in Israel’s Haaretz Daily - What would happen if a Palestinian terrorist were to detonate a bomb at the entrance to an apartment building in Israel and cause the death of an elderly man in a wheelchair, who would later be found buried under the rubble of the building? more

 Separation Spells Racism 
Azmi Bishara in Al Ahram Weekly - Polls confirm time and again the racism rooted deep within Israeli society. The struggle for Palestinian rights, therefore, has always been universal. more

 The Nightmare Comes True 
Uri Avnery in CounterPunch - I thought it was terrible. I was wrong. It is far, far worse!—These words sum up my feelings at that moment. I was standing on a hill overlooking the infamous Kalandia checkpoint. more

 Israel’s Common Use of Torture Must Be Exposed 
Mustafa Barghouthi in The Daily Star - The pictures of American soldiers torturing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq have shocked the world. To the Palestinian people however, these photographs of hooded or naked figures come as no surprise. For the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have served time in Israeli prisons, the pictures only bring back memories of their own torture. more

 Genocide By Public Policy 
Sam Bahour and Michael Dahan in AMIN - Many words are taboo when used to describe Israel’s actions against Palestinians. One word in specific, genocide, sparks emotions that echo across Israel, Europe and America. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines genocide as “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” What is happening in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip today is dangerously encroaching on genocide, close enough so that the pictures of Palestinians in Rafah loading their meager belongings on carts and evacuating their homes are too reminiscent of another time, another place and another people. more

 Social, Economic and Political Status of Arab Citizens of Israel 
Mossawa, The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel - This report will highlight the social, economic, and political status of the Arab citizens of Israel. It will sketch an outline of the numerous challenges facing Arabs on a daily basis, including the issues of citizenship, religious and cultural rights, housing and planning issues, socioeconomic status, women’s status, discrimination in governmental funding, political participation, and human rights. more

 A Jew Among 25,000 Muslims 
Jonathan Cook in the UK Guardian - Even as a young girl in Wimbledon Susan Nathan knew she would one day move to Israel. But why did she choose to settle in the Arab town of Tamra? more

 Standing at the Gates of Jerusalem
Starhawk (ISM) - I’m back in the West Bank, in Neta Golan’s small apartment in Ramallah. I’m here to assist her with the birth of her second child, which could come any moment now, and to do trainings for the International Solidarity Movement, which supports the nonviolent resistance in Palestine. As well, I hope to take part in the campaign against the wall currently being built by the Israeli Government, which confiscates much of the prime Palestinian agricultural land, destroys villages, and unilaterally extends the de facto border of Israel. more

 Pursuing the Millennium: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel 
David Hirst in The Nation - In the minds of many Westerners, Muslim fundamentalism has replaced communism as perhaps the greatest single “threat” to the existing world order. From this perspective the Palestinian intifada becomes just another episode in a “clash of civilizations.” For them, there is an intrinsic link between Palestinian “terrorism” and, say, the al-Qaeda bombing of an American warship off Yemen. Almost totally absent from such arguments is any inclination to examine Jewish fundamentalism, or so much as to ask whether it, too, might be a factor in the conflict over Palestine, one of the reasons why it seems so insoluble. more

 Love and Marriage in Israel: Palestinian and Non-Orthodox Israelis Need Not Apply
Suraya Dadoo in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs - In February of last year, Gili and Sagi, a young Israeli couple, were “married” at sea—a marriage not legally recognized by the State of Israel. Although both are Jewish, the couple objected to the only marriage option open to them in Israel: an Orthodox Jewish ceremony. Instead, they chose a marriage contract they drew up together with a lawyer, thus rendering their union illegal. On the other side of the divide, Aneesa, an Arab Israeli who holds a Jerusalem ID, married a Jordanian three years ago. “Because he also carries a Gaza identity card, he is not allowed in Jerusalem,” said Aneesa. “Forget getting his own Jerusalem ID—he is not even allowed to visit here.” She cannot remember the last time she saw her husband. more

 No Exit
Israeli journalist Uri Blau in Harper’s Magazine - Uri Blau: What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “territories”?
Roi [nineteen, paratrooper, serving in Hebron for the past six months]: The first thing that comes to my mind is children throwing Molotov cocktails. Basically, you should shoot them in the legs and you don’t.
Tzvi [twenty, serving in the Gaza Strip]: My first memory is of security patrol. You see unbelievable things there: people sitting under the bulldozers, begging us not to demolish their houses. There’s a guy who lives in a tent where his house stood once, and now this tent is on ground that has been annexed by the settlement. But there are stories much worse than this. Real pogroms. Angry settlers coming out with sticks and pitchforks and burning down houses. Just like that. more

 “You Belong in the Past”
Gabriel Ash in Yellow Times - An American columnist compares and contrasts life in Mas’ha, a Palestinian village, and in Elkana, an Israeli settlement, recently constructed on confiscated Palestinian land, and investigates the effect of the separation barrier Israel is building through the entire West Bank on these two communities. more

 Palestinians run ‘popular schools’ to get around Israeli curfew 
Mohammed Daraghmeh - The children of the Al Qasr neighborhood dodge Israeli military patrols on the way to class in a cramped dorm room. They sit on chairs brought from home or crouch on mattresses. Their teachers have no textbooks, only a blackboard. The “popular school” in Al Qasr is one of several that have sprung up in mosques, empty factories and apartments in Nablus, the West Bank’s largest city, since Israel first imposed a round-the-clock curfew June 21 to prevent Palestinian militants from attacking Israeli civilians. more