De controverse over de herkomst van het Joodse volk

 

Een recent artikel in de Trouw zorgde weer eens voor verhitte discussie over het Joodse volk en over Israel als expressie daarvan. Een microbioloog (naar verluid zelf van Joodse afkomst) waagde zich aan een boek dat betoogt dat de meeste Ashkenazische Joden niet of in zeer geringe mate genetisch van de oude Israëlieten afstammen. En dat met grote stelligheid: 'De herkomst van de Asjkenazische joden: de controverse opgelost'!  Behalve zijn eigen vakgebied maakt hij ook gebruik van 'historisch-demografisch, genetisch, archeologisch en linguïstisch onderzoek'. De vraag doemt op of hij zich hier niet aan vertilt. Wikipedia rept nog steeds over DNA-onderzoek, ook recentelijk, dat juist de klassieke versie van een gemeenschappelijke afstamming van het meerendeel der Joden zou ondersteunen, dus die stelligheid lijkt mij sowieso misplaatst. En hoe gevoelig de materie ligt en hoeveel ophef hij veroorzaakt, dat had Jits van Straten natuurlijk kunnen weten.

 

Het Trouw artikel is niet van hemzelf maar van Eildert Mulder. Een van de eerste zinnen die me verbaasden in het artikel was: "De vraag naar de herkomst van de joden kan heftige reacties oproepen, omdat hij de nationale mythe van de staat Israël raakt: die van verdrijving, diaspora en terugkeer."  Waarom gelijk Israel erbij halen? Hij raakt in de eerste plaats het zelfbeeld van zelfbewuste Joden overal ter wereld, die zich als afstammelingen van een zeer oud volk met een bijzondere geschiedenis zien. Ik las eens een oud citaat van een Joods-Britse parlementariër die een collega toeriep (de context weet ik niet meer, het zal wel ter zake doent zijn geweest), dat 'terwijl diens voorouders in berenvellen rondliepen, de zijne priesters waren in de Tempel van Jeruzalem' - het zal een Cohen zijn geweest.

 

Dat kun je met Van Stratens theorie dus niet meer roepen. Dat de Joden een 'ras' zouden zijn, heeft niemand ooit beweerd (nou ja, sommigen, maar die verguizen we met recht en reden). Hoe essentieel gemeenschappelijke genen zijn om een volk te kunnen zijn, is een andere vraag. Antisemieten en antizionisten bestrijden tegenwoordig graag dat Joden een volk vormen, omdat ze in dat geval geen aanspraak zouden kunnen maken op een recht op zelfbeschikking als volk. Jammer voor hun is sowieso dat een volk in de eerste plaats zichzelf als volk definieert. Enkele kenmerken die je mag verwachten (ik zal niet zeggen eisen) van een volk is een gedeelde geschiedenis, taal en cultuur, en een gevoel van lotsverbondenheid. Je zult mij dan ook niet horen beweren dat de Palestijnen geen volk zijn. Ze hebben redelijk wat gemeenschappelijke kenmerken (ook verschillen, waar weinig aandacht voor is) en als zij zich de laatste 40 of 100 jaar als volk willen definiëren, dan is dat hun goed recht wat mij betreft. Zo ook de Joden, ook al zouden de meesten van bekeerlingen afstammen van 500 of 1.000 jaar terug.

 

Van dat laatste ben ik verre van overtuigd. Vermenging met 'niet-Joden' vond al plaats in de tijd van Mozes: zijn vrouw zou een Ethiopische zijn geweest. Die werden echter opgenomen en geassimileerd in het volk, zoals in Nederland ook door de eeuwen heen Spanjaarden, Italianen, Fransen, Britten, Zwitsers, Scandinaviërs enz. werden opgenomen. Generaties later hebben afstammelingen dan een klein percentage 'vreemde genen', die soms nog in de familienaam of het uiterlijk terug te zien zijn.

 

Vooral 'anti-Joden' klagen wel over de exclusiviteit van het Jodendom, de hoge drempel om toe te treden vanwege alle regeltjes en spijswetten waaraan religieuze Joden zich moeten houden. Mij lijkt het dan ook onwaarschijnlijk dat grote groepen zich in vroeger eeuwen massaal tot het Jodendom zouden hebben bekeerd, en toen het christendom Europa veroverde zal dat helemaal afgelopen zijn geweest.

 

Op mijn website heb ik wat oude foto's van Joden uit mijn woonplaats, en mij viel altijd wel op dat ze er doorgaans toch duidelijk anders uitzagen dan de gemiddelde Sittardenaar. Ook op tv mag ik tegenwoordig wel eens graag raden of acteurs in my favoriete comedy's van Joodse origine zijn, met name als ze een Joodse rol spelen, bijv. Renée Zellweger (in dit geval een drama speelfilm). En last but not least: de website Meeting the Enemy, van Israëliërs en Palestijnen in Nederland, laat je raden of de afgebeelde personen Joden of Palestijnen zijn. Probeer het zelf uit...

 

Yochanan Visser haalt hieronder tevens argumenten aan uit de oude Joodse literatuur zelf, en Ratna heeft een reaktie op haar IMO Blog geplaatst:

 DNA: Trouw had ophef over het volk Israel kunnen voorzien

 

 

Wouter

_______________

 

 

De Joodse wortels van het volk van Israel

 

 

Het laatste wapen in de psychologische oorlog tegen Israel is het ontkennen van de Joodse geschiedenis. Tot voor kort was het de hobby van PA leiders en de president van Iran. Nu hebben anderen zich in de strijd gemengd, onder hen zelfs Joden die nooit iets leerden over hun eigen geschiedenis en marxisme en andere ideologieën aanhangen. Uiteraard is dat weer koren op de molen van degenen die uit zijn op het einde van de Joodse staat Israel.

Zonder het volk van Israel is er immers ook geen behoefte aan de staat Israel.

In Nederland publiceerde Trouw deze week een artikel van Eildert Mulder waarin een dergelijke poging werd gedaan het bestaan van "het Joodse volk" in een nieuw daglicht te plaatsen.

http://www.trouw.nl/religie-filosofie/nieuws/religie/article2976841.ece/DNA_wijzigt_joodse_geschiedenis_.html

Gelukkig bestaan er honderden Joodse historisch religieuze boeken die het onmogelijk maken om de Joodse geschiedenis te wijzigen. Trouw wilde echter vasthouden aan haar nieuwe "geloof" en weigerde het onderstaande weerwoord op te nemen in de krant. Over Joden kan klaarblijkelijk alles geschreven worden in Nederland.

 

             De Kuzari

 

Volgens de revionisten zouden de Joden in Israel voornamelijk nakomelingen zijn van de Khazaren, een volk dat ooit op de Kaukasus woonde en overging tot het Jodendom. Waar de "originele" Joden dan gebleven zijn wordt niet duidelijk uit hun theorieën.

Het Joodse standaardwerk de Kuzari is echter geheel gewijd aan de Khazaren en hun overgang naar het Jodendom, daaruit wordt direct duidelijk dat juist de Khazaren opgingen in een bestaand Joods volk in Europa.  

De Kuzari werd echter in de elfde (!) eeuw geschreven door rabbijn Judah Halevi en bevat een lange discussie tussen hem en de koning van de Khazaren over het Jodendom, de betekenis van het land Israel en het Joodse volk.

Een paar citaten uit dit boek maken direct duidelijk dat er sprake is van een ononderbroken relatie tussen de Joodse gemeenschappen onderling en de relatie tot het land Israel.

 " Hij (Yehuda Ha Levi ) had lang uitgezien naar een nieuw of beter gezegd oud thuis, naar het Heilige land.........uiteindelijk besloot hij af te reizen naar Palestina.......Toen zijn vrouw stierf zei hij vaarwel tegen zijn famile en vrienden en zijn status. Er was slechts één beeld in zijn hart: Jeruzalem!"

Rabbi Judah gaf daarmee blijk van zijn kennis van de Joodse wet die het gebod om je in Israel te vestigen boven alle andere geboden plaatst.

 

Verderop in het boek gaat de discussie tussen de rabbijn en de koning over chronologie en geschiedenis in relatie tot de creatie van de wereld. In zijn betoog zegt de rabbijn het volgende:" Er is geen verschil tussen de Chazaarse Joden en de Joden van Ethiopië (!)".

Hier uit blijkt kristalhelder dat Juda Halevi wist dat er in Ethiopië Joden woonden.

Voor wie een beetje ingevoerd is in de Joodse wereld is het geen verassing dat een rabbijn uit Spanje wist van het bestaan van Joden in Ethiopië.

Joodse gemeenschappen hielden en houden altijd contact met elkaar, die gemeenschappen werden en worden aangeduid als "Clal Yisrael" (geheel Israel).

 

Iggeret Teiman

 

Een ander standaard werk uit de Joodse literatuur is Iggeret Teiman van de legendarische rabbijn Maimonides (Rambam). Het werk bestaat uit brieven die hij schreef in de 13e eeuw vanuit zijn ballingoord in Egypte om de Joodse gemeenschap in Jemen moed in te spreken vanwege de vervolgingen door Moslims. En zo zijn er tientallen boeken die bewijzen dat de Joden een volk bleven in de diaspora.

De Talmoed beschrijft bijvoorbeeld de vervolging en deportatie van de Joden door de Romeinen naar Rome vanwaar zij zich verspreidden over Europa.

De Joden in Europa leefden sindsdien bijna altijd in afzondering en waren bijna altijd religieus, dit betekent dat ze zich aan de Joodse wet hielden.

Die wet (Tora) is al 3300 jaar ongewijzigd, een letter fout geschreven of ontbrekend maakt een Thora rol "pasoel"(ongeschikt en verboden te gebruiken). De Thora schreef de joden voor om niet op te gaan in andere volkeren.

Boeken zoals de Kuzari, Iggeret Teiman en de Talmoed maakten geen deel uit van de bronnen van Shlomo Sand (marxist en activist voor de binationale staat) en Jits van Straten. Alleen op die wijze kan men tot de conclusies komen die zij trokken.

 

Chromosomen onderzoek

 

Maar er is meer, chromosomen onderzoek bijvoorbeeld. Wat te denken van het wetenschappelijk onderzoek onder de Cohaniem (de Joodse priesters klasse) die al in de Tora afgezonderd werden van de rest van het volk Israel.

Een Cohen heeft zich aan aanvullende wetten te houden waaronder beperkingen op wie hij kan trouwen. Het wekt dan ook geen verbazing dat bij Cohaniem een bepaald chromosoom werd aangetroffen die het wetenschappelijk bewijs leverde voor de directe afstamming op de eerste hogepriester Aharon. Het chromosoom werd echter in alle Joodse groepen uit de voormalige diaspora onder Cohaniem aangetroffen. Van Tunesië en India tot aan Polen.

Hoe verklaart van Straten dat? Hij zwijgt erover.

 

Joden uit India

 

Van Straaten vindt het niet aannemelijk dat Indiase Joden inderdaad Joden zijn. "Ze zien er zo Indiaas uit."........"hoe kunnen mensen die tweeduizend jaar geleden een volk vormden er zo verschillend uitzien", stelt hij.  Welk een gebrek aan kennis legt hij daarmee aan de dag.

De meeste joden uit India worden "Bnei Menashe" genoemd.( De zonen van Menashe,)

             Menashe was de zoon van Josef en de Tora meldt dat Jozef getrouwd was met een Egyptische vrouw. Heeft van Straaten ooit afbeeldingen bekeken van de

             oude Egyptenaren ? Het Aziatische uiterlijk zou hem zijn opgevallen.

Hoorde de stam van Menashe bij de Joden die uit Israel werden verdreven door de Romeinen? Niet dus, zij werden door de Assyriërs lang daarvoor verdreven en vluchtten naar "het oosten".

Over de Bnei Menashe is meer te vertellen. In India worden zij aangeduid met het Kuki's. Deze stam was in de negentiende eeuw het slachtoffer van gedwongen bekering tot het Christendom in. Veel van deze "bekeerlingen" hielden echter vast aan Joodse gewoontes. Zoals besnijdenis en de reinheidswetten in het huwelijk. Door de massabekeringen was echter assimilatie onontkoombaar, tot op de dag van vandaag zijn de meeste Kuki's Christen en trouwen met andere Indiase groepen. Een kleine minderheid leeft nu echter weer als Joden.

 

Rashi's commentaar

 

Het Joodse volk is een volk en geen ras. Al in de Bijbel worden gevallen beschreven van vreemdelingen die werden opgenomen in het Joodse volk. Onder hen de vrouwen van Josef en Mozes en later Ruth. Deze conversies bestaan tot op de dag van vandaag en verklaren bijvoorbeeld waarom er Joden zijn met rood haar, blond haar, zwarte en blanke huid etc. Het enige wat aan een ger (vreemdeling) wordt gevraagd is acceptatie van het volk- en de G'D van Israel. (In die volgorde).

DNA onderzoek onder Joden, Cohaniem uitgezonderd, heeft daarom geen zin en bewijst niets over de geschiedenis van het Joodse volk als geheel.

De herschrijving van de Joodse geschiedenis, zoals die van van Straaten en Mulder in Trouw, is niet meer dan de zoveelste poging om een einde te maken aan Israel.

Die pogingen werden al voorzien door Rashi (Rabbi Shimon Yitzchaki) in de 14e eeuw, die in een commentaar op het eerste vers van de Bijbel voorspelde dat er ooit een tijd zou komen dat er tegen de Joden gezegd zou worden: "het land Israel behoort jullie niet toe".

 

Yochanan Visser

www.israelfacts.eu

 

 

Scholen in Israel gaan voor het eerst les geven over Eichmann proces

 

Terwijl veel mensen denken dat Israeli's geobsedeerd zijn door de Holocaust, blijkt dat het Eichmann proces in Israel niet voorkomt in de schoolboeken. Dit proces is heel belangrijk geweest voor Israels identiteit en omgang met de Holocaust:

 

According to Michael Yaron, who is charged with the history program at the Education Ministry, "if prior to the trial the dominant view was that Jews went like sheep to the slaughter, then following it the concept of courage received broader significance. It was a process that commenced with the Eichmann trial and has become stronger since, both due to the impact of the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War."

The Education Ministry stressed emphasis will be given in the new lessons to describing those who perished, survived and rebelled during the Holocaust, as heroes. "The idea is to entirely remove from the lexicon the concept of sheep to the slaughter, which stemmed from paternalism or misunderstanding of what took place in the Holocaust," said Dr. Orna Katz, a history teacher and a member of the team for implementing the new program.

 

Dat zou bij ons ook wel wat meer mogen gebeuren. Ook zou er meer aandacht mogen zijn voor de oorzaken van de Holocaust en het antisemitisme dat al voor de nazi's aan de macht kwamen aanwezig was en door hen tot zulke grote 'hoogten' werd opgestuwd.

 

RP

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

 

Last update - 07:11 04/02/2010       
Israeli schools to teach about Eichmann trial for first time
By Or Kashti
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1147469.html
 

 

High school students will learn for the first time about the Eichmann trial and its impact on the shaping of the collective memory of the Holocaust in Israel.

 

The new chapter in the history program will be introduced in the coming school year, and questions on the subject may be used in the matriculation exams. To date, the subject was not officially taught in history classes in schools.

 

"The trial of [Nazi war criminal Adolf] Eichmann is a watershed in the transformation of the Holocaust into a central element of Israeli identity," said Prof. Hanna Yablonka of Ben-Gurion University, who chairs the committee advising the Education Ministry on the Shoah.
 
She says that the 50-year anniversary of the capture of Eichmann in Argentina, and his trial in 1961 are "an opportunity to bring forth for the students some of the founding events that altered the face of Israeli society."

 

Learning about the Eichmann trial will be carried out within the framework of the new history program and will include six lessons. It will be the first time that schools will officially deal with the trial, and the broader aspects of society's attitude toward Holocaust survivors and the changes that this underwent over the years.

 

According to Michael Yaron, who is charged with the history program at the Education Ministry, "if prior to the trial the dominant view was that Jews went like sheep to the slaughter, then following it the concept of courage received broader significance. It was a process that commenced with the Eichmann trial and has become stronger since, both due to the impact of the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War."

 

The Education Ministry stressed emphasis will be given in the new lessons to describing those who perished, survived and rebelled during the Holocaust, as heroes. "The idea is to entirely remove from the lexicon the concept of sheep to the slaughter, which stemmed from paternalism or misunderstanding of what took place in the Holocaust," said Dr. Orna Katz, a history teacher and a member of the team for implementing the new program.

 

One of the ways this will be done, according to sources in the ministry, is by not asking "judgmental questions, such as why did the Jews not fight?"

 

As far as Yaron is concerned, the purpose of the new lessons is "for the pupils to understand that the memory of the Holocaust is a dynamic process, which is very much affected by processes in Israeli society. These are subjects that to date were not taught in schools."

 

Yablonka, who published several books on the subject of attitudes toward Holocaust survivors during the first years of statehood said, "the absorption of survivors [as immigrants] was a complicated story. It cannot be said that they were ridiculed or rejected."

 

"The Eichmann trial gave the survivors an important social role: They were the sole link to the Jewish past that was murdered in the Holocaust," she said. "The trial was also the first time in which the survivors were perceived as part of the Holocaust story, and subsequently there was gradually an end to the talk of the '6 million' and a change to dealing with survivors" as actual people.

 

It is too early to tell if the new lessons will include a critical approach to the Eichmann trial and the use that was made of it by the leadership of the country, as was argued by Hannah Arendt at the time.

 

"Beyond the great importance of placing Eichmann on trial, the trial had political aspects as well, like comparing the Nazis and the Arabs," said Katz. "Precisely because of the enormous impact of the trial, such questions are particularly important, and it is not clear whether the new chapter will address them. If the end result is that we return to adopting the standard cliches, then we gained nothing."

De Israelische aanval op de meelfabriek van Gaza - een Monty Python moment in de Guardian?

 

Dvar Dea neemt een van de vele beschuldigingen van de commissie Goldstone onder de loep, en komt tot de conclusie dat het absurd is te beweren dat een zware bom de meelfabriek in Gaza trof. Hieruit blijkt ook weer duidelijk de tunnelvisie waaraan de Goldstone commissie leed. Andere verklaringen dan dat Israel bewust de meelfabriek bombardeerde om zo de burgerbevolking honger te laten lijden worden niet in beschouwing genomen.

 

RP

----------

 

Guardian vs. the IDF response to the Goldstone report the Guardian's Monty Python moment

http://dvardea.blogspot.com/2010/02/guardian-vs-idf-response-to-goldstone.html

 

Imagine a stop motion animation where a big heavy hammer hits a wooden surface, but instead of a loud bang and a crash a faint chirp like sound is heard and the stricken wood has a small crack on its surface, nothing more. This type of absurdity is usually associated with the cartoons from the famous 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' and not with respectable media services, such as the Guardian.

However, according to this distinguished British newspaper an 500 kg airplane dropped Israeli bomb produced the following damage to the El Bader flour mill, Gaza's only flour producing factory, seen in the pictures below taken from the IDF reply to the Goldstone report and a BBC report from June 2009.

Does that look like the kind of damage caused by a 500 kg bomb?

According to the Guardian, a UN demining team found the front half of a Mk82 airplane dropped bomb in the second floor of the Al Bader flour mill on January 25, 15 days after the place was supposedly bombed by the Israeli air force and destroyed the Gaza Strip only flour producing mill, as claimed by the Goldstone report and its defenders, who built a charge of war crimes against Israel saying we prevented food from the population of the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip, even though food keeps coming in daily from Israel.

According to the site of the Federation of American Scientists, the Mk82 is a 500 kg airplane dropped bomb, it is an unguided bomb, a dumb weapon, intended to create maximum blast and destruction, a fact that is not evident from the pictures above. The blast is so powerful that its casing is designed to slow down its fall so the bomber will have enough time to escape the blast. Now let's back up and look at those pictures again - if a jet fighter like the F-16A-D needs time to get the hell out of that thing how come the structure is intact, the roof is still there, and the machines look damaged but nothing like what we would expect from a 500 kg explosion? And judging from the quoted UN demining team in the Guardian who found the fragment in the second floor of the mill, the second floor is still there. In other words:

And another thing: How did the supposed incriminating fragment get there? Where is its the point of entry? This is not a simple question, because according to ORDTECH MILITARY INDUSTRIES, a Greek defense company established in the mid-1980s, this 500kg bomb isn?t meant to penetrate, but to take out "fragment sensitive targets" in the outdoors such as, troops, oil facilities and radar. A building on the other hand is a good protection against fragments, therefore a bad target for this type of a bomb.

All this adds up to the following absurdity. The IDF has a detailed account of its activities at the time of the alleged bombing. It describes a complex ground battle that took place in the area of the Al Bader mill, involving troops, tanks and Apache helicopter gunships on the Israeli side, and booby trapped houses on the Hamas side, some of them adjoining the flourmill.

From the IDF response to Goldstone, p. 41 - 44:

163. With respect to the allegation of deliberate targeting of the el-Bader flour mill, the IDF conducted a command investigation, which gathered evidence from numerous sources, including relevant commanders and officers and ground and aerial forces. In addition, the investigator received information from the Israeli CLA, which was in direct contact with the owner of el-Bader flour mill, Mr. Rashad Hamada. The command investigation included several findings, which are delineated below.

164. From the outset of the Gaza Operation, the immediate area in which the flour mill was located was used by enemy armed forces as a defensive zone, due to its proximity to Hamas?s stronghold in the Shati refugee camp. Hamas had fortified this area with tunnels and booby-trapped houses, and deployed its forces to attack IDF troops operating there. For example, 200 meters south of the flour mill an IDF squad was ambushed by five Hamas operatives in a booby-trapped house; 500 meters east of the flour mill another squad engaged enemy forces in a house that was also used for weapons storage; and adjacent to the flour mill, two booby-trapped houses exploded.

165. The IDF ground operation in this area began on 9 January 2009, during night time. Before the ground operation, the IDF issued early warnings to the residents of the area, included recorded telephone calls, urging them to evacuate. Such telephone calls were made to the flour mill as well.

166. While preparing for the operation, the commanders identified the flour mill as a ?strategic high point? in the area, due to its height and clear line of sight. Nevertheless, in the planning stage, it was decided not to pre-emptively attack the flour mill, in order to prevent damage to civilian infrastructure as much as possible.

167. In the course of the operation, IDF troops came under intense fire from different Hamas positions in the vicinity of the flour mill. The IDF forces fired back towards the sources of fire and threatening locations. As the IDF returned fire, the upper floor of the flour mill was hit by tank shells. A phone call warning was not made to the flour mill immediately before the strike, as the mill was not a pre-planned target.

168. Several hours after the incident, and following a report about fire in the flour mill, the IDF coordinated the arrival of several fire engines to fight the fire.

169. The Military Advocate General reviewed the findings and the records of the command investigation and other materials. In addition, the Military Advocate General reviewed the information included in the Human Rights Council Fact-Finding Report, as well as the transcript of the public testimony of Mr. Hamada to the Fact-Finding Mission.

170. Taking into account all available information, the Military Advocate General determined that the flour mill was struck by tank shells during combat. The Military Advocate General did not find any evidence to support the assertion that the mill was attacked from the air using precise munitions, as alleged in the Human Rights Council Fact-Finding Report. The Military Advocate General determined that the allegation was not supported in the Report itself, nor in the testimony to the Fact-Finding Mission by Rashad Hamada, who had left the area prior to the incident in response to the IDF?s early warnings. Photographs of the mill following the incident do not show structural damage consistent with an air attack.

171. The Military Advocate General found that, in the specific circumstances of combat, and given its location, the flour mill was a legitimate military target in accordance with the Law of Armed Conflict. The purpose of the attack was to neutralize immediate threats to IDF forces.

172. The Military Advocate General did not accept the allegation in the Human Rights Council Fact-Finding Report that the purpose of the strike was to deprive the civilian population of Gaza of food. In this regard, he noted the fact that shortly after the incident, the IDF allowed Palestinian fire trucks to reach the area and extinguish the flames, as well as the extensive amount of food and flour that entered Gaza through Israel during the Gaza Operation.

173. Although the Military Advocate General could not conclusively determine that the flour mill was in fact used by Hamas?s military operatives, there was some evidence of such use. The Military Advocate General noted that Mr. Hamada testified before the Fact-Finding Mission that after the operation he found empty bullets on the roof of the flour mill. This could not have been the result of IDF fire, since ? as was evident from the findings of the command investigation ? the IDF forces which occupied the mill?s compound three days after the incident did not occupy the roof of the mill, where they would have been exposed to enemy fire.

174. Accordingly, the Military Advocate General found no reason to order a criminal investigation regarding the case.

English spelling mistakes are at the source

The Guardian wishes to discredit all that by a single item, full of holes:

1) A bomb fragment, from a bomb that produces an explosion far more powerful then the one evident in the pictures above.

 2) An unknown point of entry. The UN demining team says they have two, as yet unavailable pictures, which may or may not show a point of entry.

3) An unknown point in time for this particular fragment to reach the mill, since it was found 15 days after the alleged bombing. Enough time for it to get there because of a separate set of circumstances, and to cool off if it was due to an explosion.

4) Other scenarios were not examined and discredited. It is important to note that there are other scenarios possible, more consistent with the evidence. It could have exploded elsewhere and the blast threw the fragment into the mill, it could have broken apart in mid air, or may be the actual content of the bomb was many times below 500 kg.

I, on my part, know that my sense of humor and creative absurdities are many times below those of Terry Gilliam, but apparently that is not the case when it comes to the Guardian?s accusations against Israel, at least the creative absurdities part of it. The problem is they weren?t trying to make a joke. And although first reaction is a giggle or two, it is really, really, not funny at all.

Hat tip: IsraelMatzav

Related link: When ludicrousness stops being funny, the Guardian Gaza report.

 

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Original content is Copyright by the author 2009. Posted at Dvar Dea, http://dvardea.blogspot.com/2010/02/guardian-vs-idf-response-to-goldstone.html

 

Egyptische redacteur krijgt waarschuwing wegens ontvangen Israelische ambassadeur

 

Dit zijn de dus vriendschappelijke relaties met Egypte, in ruil voor teruggave van de Sinai en ontmanteling van de nederzettingen aldaar. Dat is een van de redenen dat Israeli's niet enthousiaster zijn over vrede met Syrië. Niet alleen ligt de Golan strategisch en dichter bij Israelische steden, maar waarom risico's nemen en dingen opofferen als je er zo weinig voor terug krijgt? Egypte werkt Israel daarnaast ook diplomatiek op alle manieren tegen, de media en imams verspreiden kwaadaardige leugens over Joden en hun vermeende almacht en slechtheid en wakkeren hiermee het conflict tussen Israel en de Arabische wereld aan.

 

Egypte heeft voor de 'vrede' met Israel niet alleen de Sinai teruggekregen, maar ook een zak geld van ruim twee miljard per jaar van de VS. Ook krijgt het van de VS modern wapentuig, zogenaamd nodig in de strijd tegen de islamisten. Egypte is nu een vriend van het Westen in het Midden-Oosten, en de dictator Mubarak wordt door het Westen gesteund. Soms vraag ik me wel eens af of er nou zoveel mee is gewonnen, en of de vrede tussen Israel en Egypte niet gebruikt had kunnen worden voor echte toenadering. Carter heeft wellicht te zeer op Israelische concessies gefocused, Begin was te zeer bezig met het behouden van de Westoever en om die buiten de deal te houden, en voor Sadat was het al een enorme concessie als eerste Arabische staat vrede te sluiten met Israel en te accepteren dat de Palestijnen er buiten bleven. Maar er was wellicht vooral te weinig controle op juist de 'softere' afspraken, zoals culturele uitwisselingen, economische samenwerking etc. Praktijken als onderstaande behoren inmiddels sinds jaar en dag tot de normale gang van zaken, maar druisen in tegen het vredesverdrag tussen Israel en Egypte, in ieder geval tegen de 'geest' ervan (maar ik denk ook tegen de letter), en daar zouden de VS Egypte misschien eens aan kunnen herinneren.

 

RP

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

Egypt Editor Challenges Union over Israel 'Warning'
03/02/2010

http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=5&id=19745

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's journalists union issued a warning to a magazine editor on Tuesday after she received the Israeli ambassador in her house, prompting her to cry foul over freedom of the press.

Hala Mustafa, editor-in-chief of Al-Demoqratiya magazine, stirred up a controversy in September after receiving Israeli envoy Shalom Cohen.

A five-member panel, citing union rules barring support for normalisation of ties with Israel, issued a warning against Mustafa, rather than taking more serious action.

"We limited ourselves to issuing a warning because the commission's job is not to punish or seek vengeance against a colleague but to guarantee decisions are taken in a democratic manner," said panel member Gamal Fahmi.

Any act of normalisation with Israel by union members can lead to a reprimand or even expulsion.

The committee "took into account" that Mustafa had "given assurances she was not familiar with the details of this ruling on normalisation. She thought it only applied to travelling to Israel."

He added that Mustafa had agreed to respect the 1981 ruling, something she would neither confirm nor deny.

However, she said she "totally" rejected the warning, telling AFP she might even turn to the courts for redress of what she said was a "moral injury."

"It goes against freedom of expression ... which the union should protect," she added.

In 1979, Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but there continues to be a generally hostile popular attitude towards anything implying normal relations between the two neighbours.

Separately on Tuesday, the panel suspended for three months the deputy editor-in-chief of the government-owned weekly October for having had dinner with an Israeli diplomat, Fahmi said.

 

Dreigende taal tussen Israël en Syrië

 

Waar komen de plotselinge dreigementen tussen Israel en Syrië vandaan? Het begon met Barak, die voor Israelische oren had gezegd dat als er niet zou worden onderhandeld, er een oorlog zou kunnen komen, waarna men vervolgens zou onderhandelen over precies dezelfde zaken als die nu op tafel liggen. Met andere woorden, laten we nu gaan onderhandelen en ons die oorlog besparen. In zijn woorden:

 

"just like the familiar reality in the Middle East, we will immediately sit down [with Syria] after such a war and negotiate on the exact same issues we have been discussing with them for the past 15 years."

 

Barak staat bekend als iemand die met Syrië wil praten en bereid is tot concessies. Hoe kon Syrië deze boodschap dan als een dreigement voor oorlog opvatten? Heeft Syrië Baraks opmerking oprecht verkeerd begrepen of heeft men die bewust aangegrepen om dreigende taal naar Israel uit te slaan en daar een rechtvaardiging voor aan te kunnen voeren? Het doel daarvan zou kunnen zijn om ofwel de aandacht van bondgenoot Iran af te wenden, ofwel Israel te laten buigen om de crisis te bezweren, ofwel om uitspraken aan Israelische leiders te ontlokken die het land in moeilijkheden brengen. Het lijkt er vooralsnog op dat dat alledrie is gelukt. Lieberman is uit de bocht gevlogen, waarna Netanjahoe sussende woorden heeft gesproken. Dat ook Assad met zijn dreigementen Israelische steden met raketten te bestoken en zich te mengen in een eventueel conflict tussen Israel en Hezbollah, een grens overschreed is vergeten. Alleen Liebermans woorden worden nog overal geciteerd en de regering als incapabel afgeschilderd.

 

RP

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

 

Lieberman warns Assad: War will end your regime

By Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies, By Amos Harel, Mazal Mualem and Avi Issacharoff
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1147788.html

 

Israel sought to soothe Syria with assurances yesterday that it does not seek war but rather unconditional peace talks. These comments followed the angry reaction from Damascus to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's unprecedented threats against President Bahar Assad's family and regime.

Defense officials said there was no basis for any new tension despite the friction this week between Jerusalem and Damascus. They said the Israel Defense Forces had not changed its alert state on Israel's border with Syria and Lebanon.

Several hours earlier Lieberman warned Assad that Syria would lose any conflict with Israel, and the current regime would disintegrate.

"Assad should know that if he attacks, he will not only lose the war. Neither he nor his family will remain in power," Lieberman said at a business conference at Bar-Ilan University.

The foreign minister's remarks came after Assad told Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos on Wednesday that Israel was pushing the Middle East toward a new war.

"Our message should be that if Assad's father lost a war but remained in power, the son should know that an attack would cost him his regime," Lieberman continued. "This is the message that must be conveyed to the Syrian leader by Israel."

Lieberman said Assad's comments had "crossed a line" by directly threatening Israel and implying that any future conflict between Israel and Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah would draw Syria into the mix.

"Anyone who thinks territorial concessions will disconnect Syria from the axis of evil is mistaken," Lieberman said. "Syria must be made to understand that it has to relinquish its demand for the Golan Heights."

In a bid to calm things down, a top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that Israel wants to start talks culminating in a permanent peace agreement with Syria. He added, however, that Jerusalem would continue to react against any threats to its safety.

After a meeting between Netanyahu and Lieberman, Nir Hefetz, head of the National Information Directorate in the Prime Minister's Bureau, said the two men were stressing their commitment to peace with Syria.

Lieberman and Netanyahu sought to clarify that the "government's policy is clear, that Israel desires peace and to engage in unconditional talks with Syria," Hefetz said.

Shortly after the PM's message, Defense Minister Ehud Barak also relayed a soothing message to Syria from Labor Party headquarters.

Barak's statements this week on Syria were meant for Israeli ears, to emphasize the importance of peace talks, a defense official said. In no way did Barak insinuate that Israel intended to attack Syria, he said.

Barak said the stalled peace process with Syria could bode ill for the future of the Middle East.

Speaking to the IDF top brass, Barak added that "just like the familiar reality in the Middle East, we will immediately sit down [with Syria] after such a war and negotiate on the exact same issues we have been discussing with them for the past 15 years."

The defense official said Israel was operating on several levels to make sure that misunderstandings between the two countries did not deteriorate into diplomatic tension.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's Bureau said Netanyahu had told cabinet secretary Zvi Hauser to ask every minister to refrain from discussing Syria in the media.

Barak called on Assad to join him at the negotiating table. "We have all been at this table, we all know what's on it. Instead of exchanging verbal blows through the media, let's sit down via our envoys and talk," Barak said at a meeting of Labor's executive committee.

Barak said he and other top defense officials believe that an agreement with Syria is a key Israeli strategic interest.

Lieberman's comments drew harsh criticism from several Knesset members, some of whom urged Netanyahu to rein in or dismiss him.

The Kadima party said that "Netanyahu's government is playing with fire. Netanyahu must rise above his political problems and show responsibility to the future of the state he's in charge of."

According to Kadima's Shaul Mofaz, "Ranting and raving is not a work plan. A responsible leadership checks and weighs its words." Fellow Kadima MK Roni Bar-On called Lieberman's threats "reckless irresponsibility, almost bordering on meltdown."

As Labor MK Eitan Cabel put it, "Netanyahu must stop war instigator Lieberman."

Assad said in an interview published in The New Yorker this week that if Israel agrees to return the Golan there will be peace.

"If they say you can have the entire Golan back, we will have a peace treaty. But they cannot expect me to give them the peace they expect .... You start with the land; you do not start with peace," he told Seymour Hersh in Damascus.

Assad told Hersh that Israel lacks true leadership as it had under Yitzhak Rabin. "They do not have any of the old generation who used to know what politics means, like Rabin and the others," Assad told Hersh. "That is why I said they are like children fighting each other, messing with the country; they do not know what to do."

Assad said that "I have half a million Palestinians and they have been living here for three generations now. So, if you do not find a solution for them, then what peace are you talking about?"

Hersh reported that a senior Syrian official told him Damascus had renewed intelligence-sharing efforts with the United States and Britain after a special request by U.S. President Barack Obama.

U.S. special envoy George Mitchell relayed Obama's request, even though Syria is on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terror.

The White House declined to comment on Hersh's report, which also said that Assad agreed to the request but warned Mitchell that cooperation with the CIA and Britain's MI6 would stop "if nothing happens from the other side."

Hamas heeft wel/geen spijt van raketaanvallen op burgers

 

Hamas stelde eerder dat het niet tot doel had om Israelische burgers te doden tijdens de Gaza oorlog. Haar raketten, gericht op militaire doelen, zouden per ongeluk burgers treffen omdat ze nou eenmaal niet zo nauwkeurig zijn. De opmerking in haar rapport aan de VN dat het Hamas speet als er Israelische burgers geschaad waren, werd echter haastig weer ingetrokken: het laatste wat Hamas wil is wel zich verontschuldigen voor Israelische burgerslachtoffers.

 

Mohammed-Faraj al-Ghoul, justice minister in the Hamas government and the chairman of the committee which drafted the report, said on Saturday "some words or phrases were taken out of context. The report held the [Israeli] occupation fully responsible and it did not include apologies."

 

More than 500 Israelis were killed in suicide bombings during a Palestinian uprising from 2000. Many of those bombers were sent by Hamas, pursuing what it calls "martyrdom operations."

Asked whether the expression of regret to the United Nations marked a change in that strategy, a Hamas official in Gaza told Reuters: "There is no change in the movement's policy, and that includes our position on the martyrdom operations."

 

Na de bloedige jaren van zelfmoordaanslagen in bussen en discotheken, heeft Israel maatregelen genomen waarvoor het nog geregeld internationaal wordt bekritiseerd en veroordeeld (zoals de 'muur'), maar die wel zeer succesvol bleken om zelfmoordaanslagen te voorkomen (er worden nog steeds geregeld aanslagen verijdeld).

Sindsdien hebben Hamas en co hun toevlucht gezocht in het afvuren van raketten en mortiergranaten op burgerdoelen zoals Sderot en andere 'nederzettingen' rond de Gaza strook. Ook heeft men Ashkelon meermaals getroffen en tijdens de Gaza oorlog kwamen de raketten tot in Ashdod en Beersheva. Rond de Gazastrook liggen ook militaire bases en er loopt een weg langs de grens die door het leger wordt gepatrouilleerd. Als Hamas burgerdoden zou willen vermijden waren er dus genoeg militaire doelen voorhanden geweest, militaire doelen die bovendien, en dat is het grote verschil tussen Israel en Hamas, doorgaans buiten civiel gebied liggen en dus kunnen worden getroffen zonder burgers in gevaar te brengen. Zelfs met de onnauwkeurige raketten van Hamas.

 

Hamas hoopt garen te spinnen bij de internationale kritiek die Israel ten deel viel tijdens en na de Gaza oorlog, maar het is moeilijk je als onschuldig slachtoffer te presenteren en tegelijkertijd te staan voor je antisemitische principes. De VN is immers volgens het handvest van Hamas door de zionisten in het leven geroepen om de wereldmacht over te nemen.

Van een standvastige en principiële organisatie als Hamas zou je verwachten dat men zou verklaren ten overstaan van de internationale gemeenschap waarom het de heilige plicht van iedere moslim is om zoveel mogelijk zionistisch bloed te vergieten en zo bij te dragen aan de heilige strijd voor de bevrijding van Palestina. Je hebt principes of je hebt ze niet...

 

RP & WB

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

 

Last update - 18:03 06/02/2010

Hamas backtracks: We didn't apologize for rocket fire against Israel civilians

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1147854.html
By News agencies

 

 

The Hamas government in Gaza distanced itself on Saturday from an earlier statement in which it expressed regret for harming Israeli civilians in rocket attacks.

Hamas, in an unusual move, expressed regret for the deaths of Israeli civilians in Palestinian rocket attacks during fighting in Gaza a year ago.

That apology was part of the Hamas government's response to a United Nations report that alleged both Hamas and Israel committed war crimes during Israel's Gaza offensive last winter. The UN report, authored by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, accused Hamas of firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians.

On Saturday, the Gaza government said the report it submitted does not include any apologies in this regard.

In the report by a committee set up by Hamas to examine the UN war crimes allegations, the authors said "we regret any harm that may have befallen any Israeli civilian."

"We hope the Israeli civilians understand that their government's continued attacks on us were the key issue and the cause," added the report, of which Reuters obtained a copy.

Mohammed-Faraj al-Ghoul, justice minister in the Hamas government and the chairman of the committee which drafted the report, said on Saturday "some words or phrases were taken out of context. The report held the [Israeli] occupation fully responsible and it did not include apologies."

Israel, where Hamas suicide bombers have killed hundreds of civilians over two decades, had already dismissed any apology for the three non-combatants hit by rockets from Gaza in the war as insincere.

In response to the report, delivered to the UN this week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Friday that "for years Hamas has boasted about deliberately targeting civilians, either through suicide bombings, by gunfire or by rockets. Who are they trying to fool now?"

Hamas' apology was also denounced by a spokesman for the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Ahmed Assaf said he was "stunned" at the remark in the UN report this week and said Hamas should apologize rather to fellow Palestinians for deaths and injury caused when Hamas routed Fatah forces to seize control in Gaza in 2007.

Assaf urged Hamas "to apologize first to the Palestinian people for its bloody coup which has ... caused the worst damage to the Palestinian cause."

Dozens were killed in the days of civil war in Gaza. The division of the Palestinian territories between the two rival parties has hamstrung efforts to negotiate the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Assaf also said that Hamas' statement, issued to deflect UN accusations that its forces committed war crimes by firing rockets from Gaza at nearby Israeli towns, had been an admission that such rocket-fire had not helped ordinary Palestinians.

At least one senior Hamas official, who declined to be named, said the movement remained ready to conduct "martyrdom operations" - suicide bombings of Israeli buses, cafes and the like, which have not, however, been seen for several years.

The Hamas report, after listing Palestinian grievances such as the Israeli embargo on Gaza, reaffirmed comments by officials of the 22-year-old Islamist movement that its improvised rockets were fired purely defensively and were aimed at Israeli military targets. They simply lacked the necessary accuracy, Hamas said.

"It should be noted that the Palestinian resistance...is not an organized army that possesses developed technological weapons," the report said. "It may target a military site or a tank position and their fire goes astray...and hit a civilian location, despite their efforts to avoid hurting civilians."

Israel and independent rights groups say Hamas has broken the laws of war by indiscriminately firing thousands of rockets and mortars around Israeli towns, notably Sderot, close to the Gaza border, in the years since the group won a parliamentary election in 2006 and seized full control in Gaza in 2007.

Some 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed in a three-week Israeli offensive launched on Dec. 27, 2008. Israel and the Palestinians were urged by UN investigator Richard Goldstone in September to conduct credible inquiries into possible war crimes committed by their forces.

Both sides presented documents to the UN in recent days which they say showed they had conducted suitable investigations. In a message on Thursday to the General Assembly, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon withheld judgment on whether either party had met Goldstone's recommendations.

UN member states "will consult on the further course of action," General Assembly spokesman Jean Victor Nkolo said.

Rights group Amnesty International called Ban's message "deeply disappointing."

"Amnesty International believes that the information [Ban] had received was sufficient to show clearly that the steps taken by both sides have been completely inadequate," it said in a statement.

Israel, which has furiously rejected Goldstone's report as unbalanced, says Hamas deliberately puts Palestinian civilians in harm's way in order to shield its fighters and to exploit international pressure on Israel over civilian deaths.

Diaa al-Madhoun, a Palestinian judge who took part in drafting the report to the United Nations, told Reuters that the expression of regret conformed to what he said was Hamas' "commitment to international humanitarian law."

"It is part of our religion not to target civilians, women, children and the elderly, who do not take part in the aggression against us," he said, echoing language in the Hamas report.

More than 500 Israelis were killed in suicide bombings during a Palestinian uprising from 2000. Many of those bombers were sent by Hamas, pursuing what it calls "martyrdom operations."

Asked whether the expression of regret to the United Nations marked a change in that strategy, a Hamas official in Gaza told Reuters: "There is no change in the movement's policy, and that includes our position on the martyrdom operations."

 

 

Studie naar armoede in Israel

Mij verbazen deze cijfers minder dan de professoren die het onderzoek uitvoerden, maar schrijnend is het zeker. Wat ik niet helemaal begrijp is waarom Israel met Engeland werd vergeleken, en niet met een land met een vergelijkbaar nationaal inkomen en ook een wat 'rommeligere' (politieke) cultuur - Griekenland bijvoorbeeld, of Italië. Israel is geen West Europa en zal dat ook niet snel worden. Dat is natuurlijk geen excuus voor schrijnende armoede. Armoede is, zoals de onderzoekers terecht stellen, niet alleen sociaal gezien onaanvaardbaar maar kost een land uiteindelijk meer dan de bestrijding ervan zou kosten.

 

RP

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The Jerusalem Post / 05/02/2010 07:30
The dire plight of Israel's most poor
BY RUTH EGLASH
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=167886


No food, chronic health problems, no electricity - grim findings in new study.

Israel's poor live in a much deeper state of poverty and are far more socially isolated than their counterparts in the United Kingdom, a study carried out by academics at Bar-Ilan University and the University of Bristol has found.

According to the research, which is to be officially published next week at a joint conference of the European Network for Social Policy Analysis (ESPAnet) and the Forum for Research on Social Policy in Israel, people living in poverty here are six times more likely to go without food than Britain's poor and are four times more likely to have their phones or electricity disconnected.

Dr. Menachem Monnickendam, senior lecturer at Bar-Ilan's Weisfeld School of Social Work, and Prof. David Gordon, director of the Townsend Center for International Poverty Research at Bristol University, worked together with funding from the British Academy to compare official statistics from both countries. The two told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that they were shocked by the findings of their research.

"The results surprised both of us," Gordon said in a telephone interview from Britain. "When you look at headline figures, Israel has only a slightly higher poverty rate than the UK, so neither of us expected to find such stark differences, but the depths of Israel's poverty is much, much worse than in Britain."

Monnickendam, who is chairing Monday's conference at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, said he was very alarmed by the findings.

"When all the data came out, I felt very, very uneasy. I was sure that the depths of poverty in Israel would not be as bad as in England. I was sure that Israel, a good welfare state, would come out looking much better than the capitalistic British state. But the results were very different to what I expected," he said.

Using data from the Central Bureau of Statistics annual Social Survey and from the similar British research network, MORI, the two academics compared the lives of poor living in London and Tel Aviv.

To make the comparison more exact, explained Monnickendam, several elements highlighting the cultural, social and economic differences between the countries were removed.

Among other findings, the two researchers noted that Israel's poor were much more likely to suffer from chronic health problems than those in the UK, with 52 percent of the poor here reporting chronic illnesses compared to only 32.7% in Britain.

Additionally, 16% of Israelis said their health conditions were a serious obstacle to everyday tasks such as grocery shopping, while only 1.3% in the UK reported the same. In Israel, 43% said they did not fill medical prescriptions from their doctors, compared to only 6.4% in the UK.

The study also found that 16% of Israel's poor had admitted to going without food at least once in the past five years, while only 4% in the UK said the same, and 16% of the poor in Israel said their phone or electricity had been switched off, compared to only 6% in Britain.

"We also found that the poor in Israel have many social problems and sometimes are completely isolated socially, with many of them suffering from social problems and no one to help in the home," explained Gordon, observing that "the social safety net in Israel does not seem to be working effectively for a large number of poor people."

"Israel will have to make a choice in future, whether it is going down a free capitalist route like the US and [other places] where there are large disparities between rich and poor, or whether it will become more like places such as Germany [with social welfare assistance]," he said.

Gordon, who arrives in Israel on Saturday evening, said he would argue in his presentation at the conference next week that the cost of poverty for a country was much higher than that of actually solving the problem.

"There has been a lot of research in the UK, and much of it is applicable to Israel, about how it is extremely costly for a state to have a high rate of poverty," concluded Gordon. "In Britain, poverty costs the state some €30 billion, a price much greater than ending poverty – and, of course, there are also the tremendous social costs of poverty such as social isolation, bad education outcomes and bad health. The bottom line is that poverty costs a country much more."

Monday's conference on poverty in Israel is the first such event to be organized jointly under the auspices of the Forum for Research on Social Policy in Israel and ESPAnet, a European organization that only recently accepted Israel as an official member.

Palestijnen en Israeli's komen met plan voor gemengde wijk in Jeruzalem

Dit is een mooi plan, maar het is triest dat een gemengde wijk de uitzonderking is en niet de regel. Overigens zijn er al de facto gemengde wijken, vooral omdat Arabieren naar sommige Joodse wijken in Oost-Jeruzalem trekken. Terwijl Joden die in Arabische wijken gaan wonen altijd veel (negatieve) aandacht trekken, lezen we nooit over de Arabieren die Pisqat Ze'ev willen 'overnemen'.

 

RP

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

Palestinians, Israelis propose plan for mixed Jerusalem neighborhood

Nir Hasson / Haaretz
February 5, 2010 - 12:00am
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1147781.html

For the first time since Jerusalem's unification after the Six-Day War, a plan has been proposed to create a fully integrated Jewish-Arab neighborhood in the city. The residential area is planned at Tantur, between Bethlehem and the south Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. It would feature 800 housing units and a hotel district.

The project is being promoted by a group of Palestinian and Israeli public figures who hired architect Eli Reches to plan the neighborhood. The plans have been presented to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.

According to Jerusalem City Councilman Meir Margalit, Barkat didn't rule the project out, but thinks it should be pursued at a different location.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair, representing the Quartet of Mideast peace mediators, has reportedly expressed support for the initiative.

The concept was initially proposed by Hasson, a Hebrew University geography professor, during a tour of the site nearly a year ago with a group that included Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Naomi Tsur and the municipality's engineer, Shlomo Eshkol.

Hasson pursued the project after the city's former mayor, Uri Lupolianski, tapped him to explore options for building affordable housing in Jerusalem. Hasson also hopes to see a similar mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood go up in the north of the city.

Among the Jews in the group promoting the Tantur project are the former director general of the Jerusalem Development Authority, Ezri Levi, the former director general of the Jerusalem municipality, Aharon Sarid, and a senior staff member from the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Israel Kimchi.

Arab participants include journalist Rami Nasrallah, who served as an adviser to the late Palestinian leader Faisal Husseini, and Haifa University geography professor Rassem Khamaisi. A number of other Palestinian participants asked not to be identified at this stage.

Master plan changed

Some of the land for the project is owned by the Al-Tantur monastery, which has given its preliminary approval. The rest is owned by Christian residents of Bethlehem. The area was initially planned as an Arab neighborhood, but after the Interior Ministry demanded changes to the city master plan, the site was designated for green space.

Some left-wing observers say the demanded change was an attempt to scuttle Arab construction in the area. According to Hasson, "the neighborhood can be a nice link between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. You need to think about the future in which [residents of the] two cities talk to each other."

Members of the group promoting the project acknowledge that many difficulties lie ahead before the neighborhood takes shape. Levi rates the chances of success at 50 or 60 percent, but called the concept "correct."

Others, however, see the proposal for a mixed neighborhood as a plan to bypass objections to an Arab neighborhood, saying that in practice the group will build an Arab residential area.

Margalit said that "what is necessary is to find models for living together ... We are sowing seeds here that can go far."

 

Hooggerechtshof Israel bekritiseert toelaten gescheiden bussen door minister

Eerder deze week schreef ik dat het laatste woord hier nog niet over is gezegd, omdat de beslissing van de minister in feite ingaat tegen de Israelische wet. De idee dat er bordjes komen in de bussen dat een en ander vrijwillig is werd niet erg gerloofwaardig geacht:

 

"Perhaps you should put up signs against use of violence instead," quipped Justice Yoram Danziger.

(...)

"Although the minister stated that the commission's normative position – not to regulate lines that allow gender segregation is acceptable – in actuality he reached the opposite conclusions than those reached by the committee and failed to explain how his new position is consistent with Israeli law," read the plaintiffs' statement to the court.

 

Men sprak ook de vrees uit dat dit de weg kan openen naar segregatie op meer terreinen, en het einde dan zoek is. Als het aan de ultra-orthodoxen ligt, heeft de vrouw nou eenmaal een ondergeschikte rol in de samenleving.

 

RP

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

 

The Jerusalem Post
Court slams Katz for his approach to sex-segregated buses
BY RON FRIEDMAN
05/02/2010 04:58

Judges criticize transportation minister's decision to allow continued operation of buses.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=167869


The High Court of Justice on Thursday criticized Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz's decision to allow gender-segregated buses to continue operating, saying his suggestion to hang signs asking non-religious passengers to respect the haredi community's sensitivities while explaining that the separation isn't mandatory, was unsatisfactory.

"Perhaps you should put up signs against use of violence instead," quipped Justice Yoram Danziger.

The High Court has been deliberating the case on the legality of "mehadrin" buses for three years. In May 2008, the court asked the transportation minister to establish a committee to investigate the functioning of the segregated lines.

The request was in response to a petition by the Israel Religious Action Center and others who claimed that the lines are illegal because they discriminate against women, restrict freedom of movement and limit freedom from religious coercion.

The lines, which were launched over the past decade to increase haredi use of public transportation, were meant to be regulated on a voluntary basis, with both the front and back doors of the buses to be open for boarding, though people could choose where they wanted to sit.

In practice, the committee discovered, the rules regarding separation were strictly enforced by members of the haredi community, and women who sat in the front of the bus were often intimidated and bullied into moving to the back or getting off the bus altogether.

The committee ruled that the practice is unjust and that there was no plausible way to legalize it, but that as long as the separation was practiced on a voluntary basis there was nothing the state could do.

In his decision, Katz adopted the committees' conclusions, but the plaintiffs were unsatisfied. They asked that the court order the minister to respond to all their claims in full.

"Although the minister stated that the commission's normative position – not to regulate lines that allow gender segregation is acceptable – in actuality he reached the opposite conclusions than those reached by the committee and failed to explain how his new position is consistent with Israeli law," read the plaintiffs' statement to the court.

The court has yet to decide whether to issue the order, and will hold further hearings on the petition.

"The suggestion that a voluntary arrangement can be enforced is very funny," said Anat Hoffman, director of the Israel Religious Action Center.

"I think the countdown started today about segregation as a religious expression in the Jewish state," she continued. "It's a slippery slope. If signage makes it kosher, then next we are going to find segregated post offices, HMOs and sidewalks, all of which we already know examples of.

"Either the court will decide that this has no room in the public sphere and we will not go down the slippery slope, or the court says signage makes it all right and we're going to float with these signs down the slippery slope and become a very extreme variety of Judaism," said Hoffman. "God help us if that is the case."

Jerusalem City Councillor Rachel Azaria told reporters Thursday that Katz had "betrayed the secular, religious and most of the haredi society.

"Katz's decision is purely political," she said. "It is unconscionable that because of Shas's parliamentary clout, every woman will have to sit on the back of the bus when riding these lines."

Katz's decision was welcomed by the Rabbinical Committee on Transportation, whose spokesperson said that the minister had shown proper sensitivity to the needs of the haredi community. The spokesman also said that the legal battle is unnecessary because there was never an issue of coercion.

There are currently 56 mehadrin lines operating in and between 28 cities.