Route 443 weer opengesteld voor Palestijnen Westoever

 

Op het NOS journaal en in de krant werd de opening van route 443 voor Palestijnen afgedaan als slechts symbolisch, en het leger ervan beschuldigd er wel voor te zorgen dat het voor de Palestijnen hoogst onaantrekkelijk zal zijn hem daadwerkelijk te gebruiken. In werkelijkheid zijn die checkpoints er omdat er 6 mensen zijn omgekomen bij aanslagen en ook na de afsluiting werden auto's met stenen bekogeld. Dat is ook precies de reden waarom de weg werd afgesloten voor Palestijns verkeer: de aanslagen, niet dat Joden en Arabieren uit racistische overwegingen niet op dezelfde weg zouden mogen rijden. Overigens konden Arabieren uit Israel en Oost-Jeruzalem altijd gewoon gebruik maken van de weg.

 

Zie ook: RTL 4 Nieuws misleidend over Palestijnen en snelweg 443 door de Westoever

 

RP

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

The Jerusalem Post

Road 443 opens today

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
05/28/2010 06:03

Palestinians' commute still indirect; Israelis fear a terror upsurge.

http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=176692

 

A crow could fly to Ramallah, but for Palestinians, the black and white sign to the city, which hangs off a metal pole on Route 443 by Camp Ofer, leads nowhere.

The much-anticipated opening of Route 443 to vehicles with Palestinian license plates this Friday – something that has not happened since 2002 – will do nothing to change that.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel might have won a two-year court battle to place the Palestinians on the highway that cuts through 17 kilometers of the West Bank and links Jerusalem with the Tel Aviv road, but December's judicial victory against what Palestinians have termed "the apartheid road" did not give them the one thing they most wanted: quick access to Ramallah, where they receive essential services.

Now that the deadline is up – the court gave the IDF five months to prepare the road – Palestinians worry that the security checks and circuitous traffic patterns from the creation of two entry points and four exit ones will render the road useless to them.

Israeli motorists, parliamentarians and regional leaders are also unhappy. They fear an increase in traffic jams and accidents, as well as a spike in incidents of Palestinians throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at passing cars.

Worse, they are afraid of fatal terror attacks, such as those that killed six Israeli motorists on the West Bank stretch of 443 during the first two years of the intifada – acts that caused the IDF to ban Palestinians from the road in the first place.

Military sources told The Jerusalem Post the IDF still believed it would be safer to keep Palestinians off the road, but that the court had ruled against it.

As a result, after spending more than NIS 30 million, military sources said, the road will be opened in accordance with the dictates of the court ruling. They were fairly blunt about the fact that their mandate was merely to allow local Palestinian traffic on Route 443, not to turn it into a thoroughfare to Ramallah.

Military sources said the IDF had spent NIS 160m. on alternative roads for Palestinian motorists only, on which there were no security checks or soldiers, to ensure that they could travel between the area villages and Ramallah.

Before 2002, travel time from area Palestinian villages to Ramallah was roughly 20 to 30 minutes.

Palestinians say that without the 443, it takes an hour to arrive at the large West Bank city, even though a paved road off of Route 443 by the Camp Ofer junction could get them there within 10 minutes.

Under the new traffic plan, however, the IDF will stop Palestinian cars at a new three-lane checkpoint set up on Route 443 just 1 km. away from the Ramallah exit.

Even if Palestinians could turn left at the exit, their way would be barred within minutes by the Beitunya checkpoint, which is open only to Israeli commercial trucks that deliver goods to Ramallah. Israeli motorists are stopped there are well, because from that point on, the road is under the Palestinian Authority's control.

Palestinians can't go there because the IDF believes it is a security risk to allow them passage through Beitunya. The High Court of Justice, in its December ruling, upheld the IDF's decision.

It's a stance that ACRI has bitterly attacked.

"Without the opening of the Beitunya crossing, Route 443 effectively cannot be used by the very population for which it was built," said ACRI spokeswoman Melanie Takefman.

She added that the IDF had rendered the court's ruling "almost meaningless" and negated its central principle that Palestinians had the right to use a road that was built on land Israel had expropriated from them.

 

For Palestinians who want to travel on it anyway, there are four options. Each one involves entering Route 443 from the Palestinian village of Beit Sira at the Maccabim checkpoint, just as cars en route from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem cross into the West Bank.

After spending time waiting at the newly installed two-lane checkpoint, Palestinians can drive 4 km. down 443 and then exit onto back roads that go under the highway and link on the other side with an alternative route to Ramallah for Palestinians only, known as the Fabric of Life road.

Another option is for Palestinians to continue down the 443 another 6 km., 10 km. from their Beit Sira entry point, and exit at At Tira.

Here they have two options. They can head to Ramallah through back roads that take them under 443 and then link them with the Fabric road; or, in a drive that takes nine minutes without traffic, they can cross over 443 by way of a small bridge that has a single lane on either side.

In the latter case, they would continue back the way they had just come, on a small road that would take them by the Beit Horon settlement and back out onto the 443 by way of the small road that settlers use to enter and exit their homes. Palestinians would then drive another 2 km. on Route 443, exit at Beit Ur al-Fauqa and connect with the Fabric road.

The last option is for the Palestinian motorist to drive the full 13-km. stretch of 443 that is open to them, from Beit Sira until the new Camp Ofer checkpoint. Here, after spending time going through the checkpoint, they can make a U-turn and drive back along Route 443, 7 km. in the opposite direction, and exit at Beit Ur. Driving in an S-pattern, they would then link up with the Fabric road, which would take them those 7 km. back in the direction of Ramallah.

On the return trip, Palestinians would enter 443 by Beit Ur, travel 6 km. down the road and exit to Beit Sira right before the Maccabim checkpoint. They can also make a U-turn at this point and drive back down 443, to the Kharbata or At Tira exit.

A few problems with the new traffic plan

To the casual motorist, there are two points in the plan that appear problematic for traffic safety.

The first is at the new Camp Ofer checkpoint on the side of the road close to the Givat Ze'ev settlement, where Palestinian motorists would be pushing out into high-speed traffic after making their U-turn.

The second problem spot is by the Maccabim checkpoint, where Palestinians enter the lineup of cars continuing to Tel Aviv. But just before they hit the actual checkpoint, they have to either turn left, jutting across the incoming traffic to get to the Beit Sira exit, or make a U-turn into that traffic.

There is no traffic light at this point. The white arrow pointing left, which is painted onto the pavement, is faded.

Military sources said they had plans to ensure vehicle safety at these points, but none of them were apparent Thursday, just one day before the opening.

The sources did note that an issue that still needed work was the road from the back end of Givat Ze'ev, where a new haredi neighborhood is being built. To prepare for Palestinian traffic on 443, the IDF has blocked off that road until it can work out a plan to allow the residents to exit, and at the same time bar Palestinians from entering.

The Knesset Economic Affairs Committee on Monday said it felt the plans for Palestinian traffic were incomplete. It urged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to delay the opening.

"The IDF should be honest about the fact that it is not ready to open the road on Friday," said MK Yariv Levin (Likud), who lives in the city of Modi'in. Modi'in is located off the 443, within the pre-1967 border.

But ready or not, Palestinians plan to drive on the road Friday morning.

Beit Sira Council member Faruk Ankawi told the Post, "I will be the first in line."

The delay to Ramallah has made it hard for people to get to the hospital in emergencies, hold down jobs or study in the city. Ankawi clocks an hour from his house to Ramallah, and he does not believe entry to 443 will ease his travel time.

"But you have to go onto the road to make a statement that this is our road," said Ankawi.

AP contributed to this report.

 

RTL 4 Nieuws misleidend over Palestijnen en snelweg 443 door de Westoever

 

Niet alleen Sander van Hoorn (NOS journaal), maar ook Conny Mus (RTL Nieuws) is erg gekleurd is in zijn berichtgeving, en geeft soms ronduit onjuiste informatie.

 

Deze opmerking behoeft enige nuancering:

 

De West Bank is sinds 1967 Israëlisch grondgebied, dit in afwachting van een definitieve regeling van het Israëlisch Arabische conflict (zoals ook is aangegeven in VN resolutie 242).
"Palestijns gebied" suggereert dat er al een definitieve regeling zou bestaan, sinds Oslo is er echter slechts sprake van gedeeltelijke autonomie voor de Palestijnen. Sinds de acceptatie van de Roadmap in 2002 wordt er onderhandeld over een Palestijnse staat op de West Bank en Gaza.

 

De Westoever is geen Israelisch grondgebied, want dat zou een annexatie inhouden. Het is militair bezet en bestuurd gebied, al hebben de Palestijnen in een gedeelte autonomie gekregen.

 

RP

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

 

Inleiding

RTL 4 zond op 5 mei jl. een reportage uit van correspondent Conny Mus over de snelweg 443 tussen Modi'in en Jeruzalem.
Deze weg, die gedeeltelijk door de West Bank voert, is sinds 2002 ontoegankelijk voor Palestijnse automobilisten. De afsluiting vond plaats na een serie moorden op Israëlische automobilisten in de jaren 2000 en 2001. De reportage van Mus maakte op geen enkele wijze melding van deze- en andere aanslagen die tot op de dag van vandaag op deze weg worden gepleegd door Palestijnen. Andere, niet minder cruciale informatie over de uitvoering van de rechterlijke order was evenmin in de reportage te vinden. Tevens werd de kijker via een reeks halve- en hele onwaarheden een volledig verwrongen beeld van de situatie ter plekke gepresenteerd.
Het onderzoek van Missing Peace hieronder, toont aan dat RTL 4 en Conny Mus de Nederlandse kijkers bewust hebben misleid met deze uitzending.

Situatie op weg 443 in mei 2010

Conny Mus maakte zijn reportage vier maanden nadat het Israëlische Hooggerechtshof opdracht had gegeven om de weg voor 29 mei 2010 te openen. In de uitspraak van het Hooggerechtshof stond uitdrukkelijk vermeld dat de IDF de opening van de weg moest uitvoeren rekening houdend met de veiligheid van de Israëlische automobilisten op weg 443.
Mus, één van de meest ervaren buitenlandse journalisten in Israel , moet op de hoogte geweest zijn van de volledige uitspraak van de rechters.
Maar zelfs indien hij hierover niet geïnformeerd zou zijn geweest , moet hij tijdens de rit van Jeruzalem naar Modi'in de werkzaamheden hebben waargenomen die overal langs en op weg 443 plaatsvonden en waarover de Jerusalem Post op 2 mei jl. berichtte.
Deze werkzaamheden die door Missing Peace werden gefotografeerd op 20 mei jl. betroffen onder andere de aanleg van nieuwe afslagen met slagbomen en wachthuisjes en een grote controlepost bij de afslag naar Ramallah.
In diverse Israëlische kranten is geschreven over deze werkzaamheden en de opening van de weg voor Palestijns verkeer in de laatste week van mei.
Het fotobewijs van de voorbereidingen voor de opening van de weg vindt u hieronder in de bijlage.
Een kaart van het traject van weg 443 dat de laatste acht jaar afgesloten is geweest, laat zien waar Israel verbindingswegen tussen de Palestijnse dorpen liet aanleggen. Deze wegen maakten verkeer tussen de dorpen mogelijk.

De uitspraken in de reportage

Hieronder een greep uit de uitspraken die in de uitzending werden gedaan met daaronder het commentaar van Missing Peace.

1. "Zo moet volgens het Israëlische Hooggerechtshof een belangrijke weg open maar dat wordt door de Israëlische legerleiding tegengehouden".
2. "Snelweg 443 gaat over Palestijns grondgebied".
3. "Palestijnse automobilisten mogen hier niet komen".
4. "In plaats van 10 minuten is Ramallah nu meer dan een uur rijden".
5. "Dat kost Palestijnse mensenlevens" (doelt op de afsluiting).
6. "Het Israëlische Hooggerechtshof heeft besloten dat de weg weer open moet maar het leger trekt zich er niets van aan".
7. "Het betekent dat deze doorgaande en levensader ook voor Palestijnen nog steeds afgesloten is en dat er geen nog geen uitzicht is dat hij snel weer opengaat".
8. "Ook moeten ze (Palestijnen) met lede ogen toekijken hoe Joodse nederzettingen steeds dichter bij hun dorpjes komen, hun land verdwijnt onder hun ogen".

Ad 1,6 en 7

De uitspraken bij punt 1, 6 en 7 worden feitelijk weerlegd door het hier gepresenteerde fotobewijs (bijlage)van de voorbereiding op de opening van de weg 443 voor Palestijnse auto's op het traject van de afsluiting tussen Modi'in en de afslag naar Ramallah. The Jerusalem Post berichtte in mei herhaaldelijk over de voortgang van de werkzaamheden en over de juridische procedures die tegen de opening van de weg zijn aangespannen.

Ad 2

De uitspraak "snelweg 443 gaat over Palestijns grondgebied" bij punt 2 is misleidend. De weg is slechts voor een klein deel gebouwd op grond die van Palestijnen werd onteigend. Het Israëlische Hooggerechtshof gaf in de jaren '80 toestemming voor deze onteigening ten behoeve van de aanleg van de weg die ook Palestijnse dorpen naast de weg zou dienen.
Een groot deel van de weg ligt echter binnen de zogenaamde Groene Lijn in Israel.
De West Bank is sinds 1967 Israëlisch grondgebied, dit in afwachting van een definitieve regeling van het Israëlisch Arabische conflict (zoals ook is aangegeven in VN resolutie 242).
"Palestijns gebied" suggereert dat er al een definitieve regeling zou bestaan, sinds Oslo is er echter slechts sprake van gedeeltelijke autonomie voor de Palestijnen. Sinds de acceptatie van de Roadmap in 2002 wordt er onderhandeld over een Palestijnse staat op de West Bank en Gaza.

Ad 3

Punt 3, "Palestijnen mogen hier niet komen" wordt in de reportage gepresenteerd als een willekeurige strafmaatregel. Zoals eerder gemeld werd de weg echter afgesloten voor Palestijns verkeer na moordaanslagen op zes Israëli's in de jaren 2000-2001.

• 22 december 2000 Eli Cohen (30) doodgeschoten op 443
• 15 januari 2001 Yoella Chen (47) doodgeschoten bij benzinestation op 443 (medepassagier gewond)
• 26 juli 2001 Ronen Landau (17) dodelijk gewond terwijl zijn vader ongedeerd bleef
• 25 augustus 2001 Doron Sueri, Sharon en Yaniv Ben-Shalom vermoord in een kogelregen op hun auto, hun twee dochters van respectievelijk 8- en 20 maanden gewond.

Ook in de jaren na de afsluiting, werden aanslagen gepleegd op automobilisten op 443. De afsluiting en andere veiligheidsmaatregelen voorkwamen waarschijnlijk dat er meer doden vielen. Ook dit jaar, na het besluit om de weg te openen, gingen de aanslagen door.

• 29 december 2009 een explosief naast de weg gevonden en onschadelijk gemaakt
• 13 januari 2010 Israëli opgenomen in ziekenhuis nadat zijn auto werd bekogeld met stenen op weg 443
• 2 maart 2010 IDF soldaten beschoten die weg 443 bewaakten bij Beit Oer a- Tahta
• 13 maart 2010 Molotov cocktail gegooid naar Israëlische auto, baby van 9 maanden gewond.
• 17 mei en 20 mei 2010 Israëlische auto's bekogeld op 443 nabij Beit Sirah

Ad 4 en 5

"In plaats van 10 minuten is Ramallah nu meer dan een uur rijden" en " dat kost Palestijnse mensenlevens".
Missing Peace sprak nabij het Palestijnse dorp Beit Oer a- Tahta met twee Palestijnse taxi chauffeurs die bereid waren ons mee te nemen naar het meest veraf gelegen dorp Beit Sira (naast Modi'in).
Zij verkaarden dat Ramallah vanuit Beit Sirah 45 minuten rijden was. Een eigen onderzoek vanaf de naast Beit Sirah gelegen Maccabim controle post leerde dat tot aan Ramallah de reistijd via de weg 443 ruim 20 minuten bedroeg. De Palestijnen vertelden verder dat de afgelopen winter de reistijd tijdelijk meer dan een uur was geworden nadat een brug nabij Bitunya (naast Ramallah) beschadigd werd door modderstromen. Als oorzaak voerden zij aan dat het wegenonderhoud van de Palestijnse Autoriteit gebrekkig was geweest.
De conclusie van Mus dat de afsluiting doden aan Palestijnse kant (5) veroorzaakte, lijkt dubieus en gebaseerd op aannames. Opvallend was het getuigenis van de Palestijnse vrouw, die haar man verloor aan een hart aanval. Mus zegt dat de ambulance niet op tijd kwam. De vrouw zegt echter dat ze besloten had om zelf haar man naar het ziekenhuis in Ramallah te brengen.
De verhalen over de doden roepen nog meer vragen op.
Zo is bekend dat Palestijnen die acuut medische hulp nodig hebben in Israel worden toegelaten. Daartoe bestaan duidelijke orders voor IDF commandanten bij controleposten zoals Maccabim bij Modi'in. In 2009 werden op die manier 20.000 Palestijnen in Israel medisch behandeld.
Zelfs bij terreuraanslagen op wegen zoals 443 en 60 in de West Bank waarbij de terroristen ook gewond raakten werden zowel slachtoffers als daders in de zelfde ziekenhuizen in Jeruzalem behandeld.

Ad 8

"Ook moeten ze (Palestijnen) met lede ogen toekijken hoe Joodse nederzettingen steeds dichter bij hun dorpjes komen, hun land verdwijnt onder hun ogen ". Deze bewering werd vergezeld met beelden van het nabijgelegen Modi'in.

De stad Modi'in ligt echter vrijwel geheel binnen de Groene Lijn, dit blijkt ook duidelijk uit de Google map van Modi'in en weg 443. Slechts een gedeelte van Modi'in Illit -een buitenwijk van Modi'in- ligt buiten de zogenaamde Groene Lijn (wapenstilstandslijn 1948)
Deze wijk, Matityahu Oost, was onderwerp van een dispuut tussen NGO's die Palestijnen in het naburige dorp Billin vertegenwoordigden en de staat Israel.
Het Hooggerechtshof oordeelde in één geval dat de bewoners van de wijk daar legaal konden blijven wonen en in het tweede geval werd de verplaatsing van het veiligheidshek bevolen.
Het commentaar van Mus aangaande de steeds dichterbij komende nederzettingen en het verdwijnen van "hun land", is op zijn zachtst gezegd suggestief.
Ten eerste is er sinds 2002 een stopvan kracht op het uitbreiden van de gemeentegrenzen van nederzettingen, en ten tweede is er sinds september 2009 een bouwstop op nieuwe projecten in nederzettingen uitgevaardigd, dus ook in de wijk Modi'in Illit.

Conclusies

Conny Mus, nota bene voorzitter is van de Foreign Press Association in Israel, maakt met deze reportage over weg 443 duidelijk dat hij geen echte journalistiek bedrijft.
Hij onthield de kijker cruciale informatie, loog over de Israëlische voorbereidingen om weg 443 open te stellen voor Palestijns verkeer conform het rechtsbesluit en verdraaide andere feiten.
Hierdoor ontstond bij de kijkers van RTL 4 een beeld van een repressieve staat (Israel) waar recht en orde met de voeten getreden worden.
Het was niet de eerste keer dat Mus recentelijk blijk gaf de titel journalist niet waardig te zijn.
Daarbij gaat het niet om de vraag of hij goed geïnformeerd is- zoals dat onlangs ter discussie werd gesteld door Tom Gross- maar over het bewust achter houden van cruciale informatie.
Onlangs hield Mus op zijn blog bij RTL een tirade tegen Israel over de pogingen van dat land om via een publieke campagne iets van de schade te herstellen, die wordt aangericht door reportages zoals die van Mus over snelweg 443.
In die blog gaf hij Israel de schuld van het ontstaan van de twee oorlogen die het land vocht de laatste vier jaar tegen Hizbollah en Hamas.
Van een ervaren journalist mag verwacht worden dat hij de feiten weergeeft zoals ze zijn.
Hizbollah viel op 12 juli 2006 Israël aan met raketten en doodde 12 Israëlische soldaten in een hinderlaag op Israëlisch grondgebied. Hamas viel Israel- na 8 jaar raketbeschietingen- op 24 december 2008 aan met een record van39 raketten en 26 mortiergranaten en meldde op haar website dat dit het begin was van een grote militaire operatie tegen Israel onder de naam "Olievlek". Beide aanvallen vielen onder de definitie van "daad van agressie" tegen een soevereine staat zoals die in het oorlogsrecht omschreven wordt.

Door dit soort berichtgeving verliest RTL 4 haar status als betrouwbare bron van informatie over het Midden Oosten en Israel. Maatregelen om die status te herstellen lijken dan ook dringend noodzakelijk.

BIJLAGE

Fotobewijs van de voorbereiding op opening van weg 443 voor Palestijnse automobilisten

Aanleg controle post op weg 443 bij afslag naar Ramallah




Aanleg afslag en controlepost bij Beit Ur al-Fauqa


Aanleg afslag en controle post bij Beit Sira naast de grote controlepost bij Modi'in Maccabim die ook in de RTL reportage te zien is.

 

http://missingpeace.eu/_download/MP-00004-NL-20100525_bronnen-van-informatie-over-het-arabisch-israelische-conflict(2)-rtl4-en-conny-mus.html

Palestijnse boycot nederzettingen begrijpelijk maar ongelukkig getimed

 

Een genuanceerde visie, alleen het volgende lijkt me wat naief:

 

Settlers who wish to remain residents of a future Palestinian state will have to abide by its citizenship and residency laws, and I doubt many will wish to do so, anymore than Israeli Jews opt to live in Egypt or Jordan, two countries at peace with us.

 

De Palestijnen willen een Jodenvrij Palestina, al heeft ik meen Fayyad wel eens gezegd dat de kolonisten wat hem betreft onder deze voorwaarden mogen blijven. Het lijkt me schier onmogelijk hun veiligheid te garanderen: ze worden door veel Palestijnen gehaat en de lynchpartij tijdens de tweede intifada van twee soldaten die per ongeluk in Ramallah terecht kwamen doordat ze een verkeerde afslag hadden genomen, staat velen nog vers in het geheugen.

 

Israelische Joden kunnen in Jordanië en Egypte helaas ook niet veilig leven. Kontakt tussen bijvoorbeeld parlementariërs uit deze landen en Israeli's, of van een kunstenaar met een Israeli leidt er vaak tot grote rellen waarbij de betreffende politicus of kunstenaar zich uitgebreid moet verexcuseren en er soms nog sancties volgen. In Jordanië is het verboden om Hebreeuwse boeken of andere lectuur in je bezit te hebben. Er zijn talloze andere discriminatoire regels en de haat tegen Joodse Israeli's is in beide landen groot. Dus nee, daar wil inderdaad geen Israelische Jood leven. Zouden de Arabische landen hun minderheden fatsoenlijk behandelen en er vooral ook een einde komen aan de virulente jodenhaat, dan zouden Joden, Israelisch of niet, wellicht graag in deze landen leven, evenals in een Palestijnse staat.

 

RP

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AN ISRAELI VIEW
An understandable but ill-planned gesture

by Yossi Alpher

I don't like boycotts. Israel suffered from a comprehensive Arab boycott prior to 1967, when settlements and territories were not an issue. Israel is today targeted for academic and economic boycotts by elements in the West whose hostility toward it in many cases goes far beyond the West Bank, Jerusalem and the settlements.

On the other hand, I understand where the Palestinian Authority's economic boycott of the settlements is coming from. Palestinians can't build a state from the bottom up--and I wholeheartedly support such an enterprise--while simultaneously strengthening economically the very settlements and East Jerusalem Jewish neighborhoods that undermine their chances of success at state-building. Because the boycott of goods manufactured in settlements is likely to be largely symbolic in its economic impact on Israel, and because many Palestinians will continue to work in the settlements and in Israeli industrial zones in the West Bank for want of genuine Palestinian jobs, the boycott should be perceived largely as a state-building exercise directed at Palestinians. As such, its basic concept and origins are legitimate.

But for the boycott to be truly seen as legitimate by most Israelis and by many supporters of Israel, the thinking that informs it must be considerably refined. For example, the boycott is escalating just as Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are resuming, albeit indirectly. It's one thing for Palestinians to express lack of confidence in the talks' prospects for success. But it's quite another to take a step whose timing, if nothing else, triggers yet more lack of trust on the part of Israelis who otherwise favor the talks. Why didn't the boycott start full-speed a year ago? Why now?

Then too, the boycott covers products from the Golan Heights. Why is Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad expanding his state-building exercise to territories the Palestinians do not claim? The Golan belongs to a different conflict whose resolution requires very different rules and conditions.

The boycott would also be better understood by Israelis if it were not perceived as part of a broader Palestinian political war against Israel that is much harder to explain. Why does the PLO support the Goldstone report condemning Israel's behavior in the Gaza Strip in January 2009 when at the time it supported the Israeli military campaign against Hamas? Why object (abortively) to Israeli membership in the OECD when the settlements constitute a negligible portion of Israel's economy and the Palestinian campaign is understood by Israelis to seek to remove us from the very global standards and legitimacy the Palestinians profess to uphold?

My highly qualified and conditional acknowledgement of the Palestinians' right to boycott the settlement economy does not reflect any specific hostility toward the settlers, who for the most part settled on the land at the behest of a succession of Israeli governments. Nor does it indicate any lack of identification with their attachment to the heart and soul of the ancient Jewish homeland. But the settlements were a grand strategic error on Israel's part. Another people live on the land, with the right to self-determination and sovereignty. Settlers who wish to remain residents of a future Palestinian state will have to abide by its citizenship and residency laws, and I doubt many will wish to do so, anymore than Israeli Jews opt to live in Egypt or Jordan, two countries at peace with us.

Fayyad's boycott is, as noted, largely symbolic in impact. Like the far less symbolic settlement freeze, it signals that Palestinians and the rest of the world are finally ceasing to acquiesce in Israel's settlements folly. Any Israeli or supporter of Israel who hopes to begin resolving this conflict should support the general idea of Fayyad's state-building enterprise. But because at the end of the day he needs our support, too, Fayyad should pay close attention to criticism of his policy where it appears exaggerated, unfocused or downright counterproductive.

- Published 24/5/2010 © bitterlemons.org / http://www.bitterlemons.org/issue/isr1.php

Yossi Alpher is coeditor of the bitterlemons family of internet publications. He is former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.

 

Spanning loopt op tussen IDF en kolonisten Yitzhar

De beschuldigingen van radikale kolonisten aan het adres van Israel lijken soms verdomd veel op die van Palestijnen:

 

Studenia added that three residents had also been removed from the area by administrative order without an opportunity to respond to Shin Bet security service allegations.

 

Persoonlijk begrijp ik niet goed waarom Israel een extremistische nederzetting als Yitzar, die al jaren voor problemen zorgt, niet kan ontruimen. Niet alle bewoners doen er neem ik aan aan mee, maar vanuit Yitzar zijn ook omliggende Palestijnse dorpen meermaals aangevallen, en men bestrijdt nu hetzelfde leger dat hen daar tegen de Palestijnen beschermt. Ook bouwt men zonder vegunning nieuwe huizen en lapt het Israelische recht aan zijn laars. Bovendien zorgen juist dit soort extreme mensen voor een hoop extra negatieve publiciteit voor Israel. En waarom zou Israel zijn soldaten met gevaar voor eigen gezondheid inzetten voor een nederzetting die zich niks van haar regels aantrekt en die alleen maar problemen maakt? Misschien kan de nederzetting een ultimatum worden gesteld voor wanneer men zelf de illegale gebouwen ontruimt en alle wapens inlevert, en bovendien een document tekent waarin men belooft zich voortaan aan de wet te houden?

 

RP

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

 

Latest update 08:05 27.05.10

IDF fears battle as extremist settler violence escalates
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-fears-battle-as-extremist-settler-violence-escalates-1.292441

By Chaim Levinson

 

 

Number of violent confrontations between the army and settlers in and around Yitzhar has jumped, with extremist throwing stones and bottles at troops.

 

There has been an uptick in violent confrontations between the army and Israeli settlers  recently in and around the northern West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, an army source recently told Haaretz.

 

The official at the Israel Defense Forces' Central Command said this week there had been recent incidents involving stones and bottles being thrown at military vehicles in the area. This follows rioting on Independence Day last month when IDF forces tried to enforce an order declaring a site adjacent to Yitzhar a closed military zone.

 

In that disturbance, settlers threw bottles, rocks and light bulbs that injured a soldier and a border policeman. The settlers complained at the time that IDF troops were harassing them and said their actions were taken in self-defense.

 

Following that confrontation, GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi issued orders stepping up IDF enforcement efforts in the area.

 

A special border police command post was established there and the IDF's Civil Administration was instructed to increase efforts to combat illegal construction around Yitzhar.

 

The army also pursued enforcement of demolition orders against a structure housing the "Od Yosef Hai" yeshiva located in the settlement.

 

'Baseless' traffic tickets

 

The settlers have complained that they are being issued baseless traffic tickets and that frequent arrests are being carried out without cause.

 

Ehud Studenia, the deputy chairman of the Samaria regional council, to which Yitzhar belongs, told the Arutz Sheva news Web site that despite the arrests, not a single charge has been filed against the settlement's residents.

 

Studenia added that three residents had also been removed from the area by administrative order without an opportunity to respond to Shin Bet security service allegations.

 

An IDF Central Command source said the violence has continued since Independence Day.

 

A bottle of paint was thrown at an IDF vehicle in the area last week, spikes were strewn on roads in the settlement in an attempt to damage border police vehicles and stones were thrown at a passing army vehicle.

 

Ook islamitische extremisten verbonden aan Free Gaza vloot

 

Onder de organisatoren van de Gaza vloot zitten zeer radikale elementen:

 

Bolant Yilderim, the chairman of the IHH, a Turkish based pro-Palestinian organization that is spearheading the Gaza flotilla, delivered a radical speech at the ceremony to the applause of Turkish politicians and radical Islamic activists. "Israel behaves like Hitler did towards the Jews. Hitler built concentration camps in Germany, and today the Zionist entity is building concentration camps in Palestine," said Chairman Yilderim.

 

Sheikh Raed Salah, een van de leiders van de islamitische beweging in Israel, is bekend om zijn extreme uitspraken tegen het land waar hij meer vrijheden kent dan zijn Arabische broeders in de Arabische staten:

 

Salah has previously admitted in an Israeli Court to conferring with foreign agents and assisting unauthorized organizations, after it had become known that he was in contact with Hamas. He often voiced anti-Semitic hate messages that are based on the most ancient blood libels: "We are not the ones who eat a meal based on bread and cheese in children's blood," he said in one of his speeches, and at another event he stated that the Jews are "butchers of pregnant women and babies… Thieves, you are the bacteria of all times… The Creator meant for you to be monkeys and losers… Victory is with the Muslims, from the Nile to the Euphrates."

 

De organisatoren hebben blijkbaar geen enkel probleem met dit soort antisemitische ideeën. Ook hebben zij een aanbod afgewezen van de familie van Shalit om te bemiddelen als zij er bij Hamas op aan willen dringen dat Shalit pakketjes uit Israel mag ontvangen.  

RP
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Top level Islamic extremists linked to Gaza flotilla
IDF Spokesperson Arnon Ben-Dror

27 May 2010 , 10:12
http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/News/today/10/05/2701.htm

The launching ceremony for the part in the flotilla to the Gaza Strip was attended by several Islamist extremists in Istanbul.


While the flotilla organizers present themselves as human rights advocates whose sole goal is to assist the people of Gaza, a new report reveals the groups cooperation with radical human rights violators. According to a report by the Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center, senior Islamic extremists attended the launching ceremony in Istanbul of a boat participating in the flotilla. Among the participants were Mahmad Tzoalha and Sahar Albirawi, both top Hamas terrorists who today operate in Great Britain, and Hamam Said, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan.

Bolant Yilderim, the chairman of the IHH, a Turkish based pro-Palestinian organization that is spearheading the Gaza flotilla, delivered a radical speech at the ceremony to the applause of Turkish politicians and radical Islamic activists. "Israel behaves like Hitler did towards the Jews. Hitler built concentration camps in Germany, and today the Zionist entity is building concentration camps in Palestine," said Chairman Yilderim.

The rally was also attended by Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, who praised the attitude of the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and asked leaders of the entire Arab world to follow his example.

Salah has previously admitted in an Israeli Court to conferring with foreign agents and assisting unauthorized organizations, after it had become known that he was in contact with Hamas. He often voiced anti-Semitic hate messages that are based on the most ancient blood libels: "We are not the ones who eat a meal based on bread and cheese in children's blood," he said in one of his speeches, and at another event he stated that the Jews are "butchers of pregnant women and babies… Thieves, you are the bacteria of all times… The Creator meant for you to be monkeys and losers… Victory is with the Muslims, from the Nile to the Euphrates."

"If the goal of the flotilla was humanitarian, they would have let Israel transfer the aid through, and would not have attempted to infiltrate the Gaza Strip in an illegal way," explains Col. (res.) Reuven Ehrlich, a former member of the Israeli Intelligence Corps who currently heads the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. "Their only goal is to generate a provocation aimed at embarrassing Israel and the IDF, and to aid Hamas and the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip."

Sarah Weiss Maudi (IMFA) over de legale aspecten van de Gaza hulp en blokkade

 

De "Free Gaza" activisten vloot had vandaag (vrijdag) al in de Gazastrook willen aankomen, maar zou vertraging hebben door enkele technische mankementen, en wellicht doordat Cyprus toegang tot haar wateren heeft geweigerd. Ze hopen nu om zaterdag te landen, maar het lijkt er niet op dat Israel dat zal toelaten. De activisten wapperen met (vermeend) internationaal recht en willen de Israelische blokkade van de strook breken. Het lijkt meer een politieke en publicitaire aktie dan een humanitaire missie. De meegebrachte goederen zouden zeker welkom zijn in Gaza, maar ik heb nog niet gelezen dat in de Gazastrook ook maar één kind van de honger is omgekomen. Menige streek in Afrika zou de hulpgoederen harder kunnen gebruiken.

 

Israel meent in haar volle recht te staan om de strook, inclusief toegang vanaf zee, te blokkeren. Hamas voert daar immers een openlijk vijandig regime, en dat Israel weigert te erkennen en dag in dag uit de oorlog verklaart.

 

Wouter
_______________

MFA legal expert Sarah Weiss Maudi on the legal aspects of Gaza aid
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs

26 May 2010

 

A maritime blockade has been imposed by Israel off the coast of Gaza because Israel is currently in a state of armed conflict with the Hamas regime that controls Gaza.

Transcript:

Interviewer: Today we are with Sarah Weiss Maudi. She is the Israel Foreign Ministry's expert on maritime and humanitarian law. Sarah, we would like to ask you a few questions about Gaza. First of all, why is it that Israel can prevent ships from reaching Gaza?

Ms. Weiss Maudi: The reason why ships can't come into Gaza currently is because a maritime blockade is currently in effect off the coast of Gaza. Such a blockade has been imposed by Israel because Israel is currently in a state of armed conflict with the Hamas regime that controls Gaza. Hamas has repeatedly bombed civilian targets in Israel proper with weapons that have been smuggled into Gaza by various routes, including the sea. Under international maritime law, when a maritime blockade is in effect, no vessels can enter the blockaded area. That includes both civilian vessels and enemy vessels. Any vessel that violates or attempts to violate the maritime blockade may be captured or even attacked. Maritime blockades are a legitimate and recognized measure under international law, and may be implemented as part of an armed conflict at sea.

Interviewer: So this is a recognized maritime practice?

Ms. Weiss Maudi: Exactly. Various naval manuals, including the naval manuals of the US and UK recognize the maritime blockade as an effective naval measure that can be implemented in times of armed conflict. And those manuals give various criteria for making a blockade valid, including the requirement to give due notice of the blockade. Israel, in accordance with the requirements of international law, has publicized the existence of the blockade currently in effect and has published the exact coordinates of the blockade via the accepted international professional maritime channels.

Interviewer: Okay. So this blockade should not surprise anyone.

Ms. Weiss Maudi: Exactly.

Interviewer: Now, let's talk about the transfer of supplies over land. Why can Israel decide what goes in and what can't?

Ms. Weiss Maudi: In order to answer that question, we need to think about the events of the past few years.

In 2005, Israel completed its disengagement plan and completely withdrew from the Gaza Strip, so that no Israeli military or civilian presence remained in the Gaza Strip. The disengagement plan ended Israel's effective control of the Gaza Strip after almost 40 years of effective control.

Interviewer: Does this mean that Israel no longer occupies Gaza?

Ms. Weiss Maudi: Exactly. The effective control of Gaza has ended. What currently exists is a state of armed conflict. What happened after disengagement was that Israel had hoped that the disengagement would be used as a springboard for more positive relations with our neighbors in Gaza. But actually, the opposite occurred and instead of positive relations happening, the terrorist organization of Hamas seized power in Gaza and stepped up the rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli communities and towns in Israel proper adjacent to the Gaza Strip.

Therefore, in light of the Hamas-sponsored attacks on Israeli civilian targets, Israel undertook a number of measures against the Hamas regime. One of these measures is the imposition of economic sanctions against the Hamas regime in Gaza.

Interviewer: Is this a common practice?

Ms. Weiss Maudi: It is a very common practice. Under international law, every state gets to decide what goes in and out of its borders.  Also under international law, every state gets to decide whether it wants to forge economic relationships with any entity or state. Similarly, a country has a sovereign right to decide whether to impose economic sanctions on any enemy state or entity.

I want to emphasize that this is not an act of collective punishment - the imposition of economic sanctions. Rather, this is a measure to put pressure on a regime that is attacking Israel's citizens.  Under international law Israel has a basic right to defend and protect its citizens.

Such economic penalties have been imposed throughout modern history. There are many examples of bilateral sanctions: the US against Syria, against Libya, and these policies are imposed as a consequence of certain policies undertaken by a certain regime. In the international arena these are considered a legitimate and effective tool to exert pressure on terrorist or other regimes, such as that of the Hamas terrorist regime.

Interviewer: So how do we make sure that our actions are against the regime, but not against the citizens?

Ms. Weiss Maudi: Well, Israel has a humanitarian obligation to make sure that certain vital humanitarian interests are met and that supplies go in. But I want to emphasize that Israel is under no obligation to supply non-vital goods or goods that could give Hamas a military or economic advantage. That is why Israel limits, for example, the supply of concrete into the Gaza Strip. Concrete could be used to mould rockets. It could be used to build reinforced bunkers which are clearly for military purposes against Israel.

I want to emphasize that Israel supplies Gaza with large quantities of humanitarian supplies. These include baby formula, meat, dairy products, etc. And in the last year and a half it has supplied Gaza with over a million tons of goods.

The Israel Supreme Court constantly reviews these supplies to make sure that Israel is in line with its requirements under both Israeli domestic law and international law to supply vital civilian goods that are needed. And indeed, it has confirmed that Israel has been meeting its obligations under international and domestic law.

Interviewer : Thank you Sarah for helping us understand these issues.

Ms. Weiss Maudi: You're welcome.

"Free Gaza" activisten weigeren voor Gilad Shalit op te komen

 

Het gaat de Gaza activisten blijkbaar niet om het internationale recht, maar om het bashen van Israel. Waarom anders heeft men een aanbod van de familie van de ontvoerde soldaat Gilad Shalit om te bemiddelen geweigerd? De familie was bereid hun poging in Gaza aan te meren te steunen indien de activisten er bij Hamas op aan zouden dringen dat Shalit brieven en voedselpaketten mag ontvangen.

 

"We are disappointed that the organizers of the flotilla have refused to also provide basic humanitarian assistance to our son, who has been held in Gaza four years in contradiction of international law," said the Schalit family.

 

Was het de activisten om de mensen in Gaza gegaan, en om de menselijke waardigheid überhaupt, dan hadden ze dit aanbod enthousiast aangenomen, wetende dat de familie van Shalit in Israel invloed heeft en de kans reëel was dat Israel deze deal zou accepteren.

 

RP

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

 

 

The Jerusalem Post

Gaza flotilla refuses to help Schalit

By YAAKOV KATZ AND JPOST.COM STAFF
05/27/2010 14:02

http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=176655

Activists refuse quid pro quo: Visits to soldier for docking rights.

 

 

The Schalit family on Thursday asked for assistance from international left-wing activists due to arrive in the Gaza Strip later in the day.

If the left-wing activists pressure Hamas to allow international organizations to bring letters and food packages to Gilad Schalit, the kidnapped soldier's family has agreed to support the international expedition's attempt to dock, Army Radio reported Thursday.

Lawyer Nick Kaufman presented the offer to the organization "Free Gaza," one of the organizers of the flotilla headed for Gaza, which promptly refused the offer.

"We are disappointed that the organizers of the flotilla have refused to also provide basic humanitarian assistance to our son, who has been held in Gaza four years in contradiction of international law," said the Schalit family.

The IDF announced Wednesday evening that it was planning to stop the international convoy of nine ships currently on its way to Gaza carrying hundreds of activists and thousands of tons of supplies.

"If they decide to continue sailing and do not listen to the instructions, then they will be stopped, brought to Israel and dealt with by the Interior Ministry, which will return them to the countries they came from," an IDF statement said.

According to the statement, the IDF will unload the supplies and transfer the shipment to the Gaza Strip, after inspecting it for weaponry.

The Navy has held a number of drills in recent weeks to prepare for the arrival of the small fleet, which is expected to try breaking the Israel-imposed sea blockade on Gaza and dock at its newly expanded port.

The scenarios drilled included the commandeering of the ships, which could, military sources said Wednesday, include violent clashes – depending on the response by the passengers on the vessels.

"We will do everything to ensure that the operation runs smoothly, but are prepared for every possible scenario," one defense official explained.

Meanwhile Wednesday, the IDF continued its media blitz against the flotilla and released data showing that all of the supplies the ships are carrying were already being transferred by Israel to Gaza via land crossings on a regular basis.

"This flotilla is a provocation that is not needed considering the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is stable and good," said Col. Moshe Levi, commander of the IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration. Levi said that 100 trucks, loaded with supplies, enter Gaza on a daily basis, and that in the past two months over 1,200 tons of medical supplies were transferred to the Strip.

 

Israelische "Armada" op weg naar de Free Gaza vloot

Het wordt nog gezellig voor de kust in Israel, met een tegenvloot van pro-Israel activisten. Demonstreren op zee wordt wellicht een nieuwe trend. Ze hebben natuurlijk gelijk dat de Gaza demonstranten Hamas in de kaart spelen en dat Gaza vooral van Hamas bevrijd moet worden. Zonder het dictatoriale Hamas bewind, dat al jaren strijd voert tegen Israel en zegt het te willen vernietigen, was er ook geen blokkade geweest. - Voorzover die er nu wel is, want Israel laat honderden vrachtwagens met goederen per week toe.

Bij een echte blokkade gebeurt dat bij mijn weten niet, en wordt getracht de bevolking door uithongering tot overgave te dwingen. Dit gebeurde bijvoorbeeld in Jeruzalem in 1948, toen de Arabieren de stad voor ca. een half jaar belegerden en alle Joodse konvooien die erheen gingen aanvielen.

 

RP

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May, 27th 2010
 
CONTACT:   
Roz Rothstein, StandWithUs co-founder and CEO
cell: 310.245.4109
 
Michael Dickson, Director StandWithUs Israel
From the US: 011+972- 02-636-0200 (office), 011- +972-52-409-9957 (cell)
Within Israel/Elsewhere: +972 (0) 2 636 0200 (office), +972 (0) 52 409 9957 (cell)
 
  
STANDWITHUS MOUNTS COUNTER-DEMONSTRATION AT SEA – Leaving from Ashdod Port at 1pm, Israel time.

"FREE GAZA" P.R.  FLOTILLA TO FACE "FREE GAZA FROM HAMAS" FLOTILLA  WEEKEND OF MAY 28TH

  [May 27]   Self-styled European human rights activists will be in for a big surprise this weekend when their eight boats try to illegally land on the coast of Gaza to break what they call Israel's "illegal Israeli blockade" of the Gaza Strip.  "We will be there with our own flotilla of boats and signs that expose the real human rights problem—Gaza must be freed from the chains of the Hamas dictatorship and its Iranian sponsors.  This will be a duel at sea of facts versus propaganda," said flotilla organizer Roman Baron, an Israeli Fellow in the international Israel education organization, StandWithUs.
 
Coalitions of anti-Israel activists have organized several other similar boat trips to Gaza, but this will be the first time they face a full-fledged counter-demonstration.
 
The "Free Gaza" movement claims its concern is humanitarian suffering in Gaza, but in fact the boats are a media stunt to get international attention and support for Hamas in Gaza, according to StandWithUs.  "If the activists were really interested in delivering their donated goods, they could easily do it through legal channels. The Israeli government offered to deliver them through approved crossings and procedures, but the activists' purpose is to smear Israel and support Hanyieh's Hamas regime, not help Gazans," explains Baron.
 
"Our mission is education, and the anti-Israel flotilla has created an excellent educational opportunity. Our signs will expose how Hamas oppresses Palestinians, and has been the major enemy of peace. The activists are either misguided or hypocritical in calling themselves pro-peace or pro-human rights when they support this Iranian-sponsored group that terrorizes its own population and Israelis.  If these groups were pro-Palestinian and pro-coexistence, they would join us to fight the Hamas-caused disaster," said Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs.
 
Hamas' cruelty and repression informed the signs, according to StandWithUs. Hamas staged a violent coup in June 2007, torturing and murdering hundreds of its political rivals in Fatah, and established a virtual police state that continues persecuting and murdering rivals, summarily executes alleged "collaborators," intimidates journalists, and enforces strict Islamist "virtue" codes on women, internet use, dancing and music. Hamas steals humanitarian aid and bombs crossings where goods are transported because it refuses to cooperate with "the enemy."  Hamas refuses to end its war against the Jewish State.  Its founding charter calls for the murder of Jews, the "obliteration" of Israel and its replacement with a Taliban-like theocracy.  Hamas has launched over 8,000 rockets at Israeli civilians, uses human shields, and mounts its attacks from Gaza's schools, mosques, hospitals, and other civilian centers.
 
Hamas is open about its close ties with Iran whose President Ahmadinejad regularly makes genocidal threats against Israel. "Iran is our mother…She gives us information, military supplies and financial support," said one Hamas Commander on March 9, 2008[i]
 
"These so-called human rights activists who plan to meet Haniyeh are directly supporting Iranian president Ahmadinejad and his genocidal threats against Israel.  They are either uninformed or they are enemies of peace and human rights," said Michael Dickson, Director of the StandWithUs Israel office.
 
"If the activists had done their homework instead of believing Hamas propaganda, they would also have found out that their assistance isn't needed.  There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza," added Dickson.  The Financial Times just reported that there is such a "glut" of goods in Gaza that prices for food, luxury items, and clothing is plummeting. Other media report that an Olympic sized swimming pool has just been built on the Strip, and that fancy restaurants and luxury goods are doing brisk business.  This activity was in addition to the over 94,500 tons of goods and medical supplies that Israel transferred to Gaza just between Jan. and March of 2010. "This just further underlines that the 'humanitarian mission' is not what it claims it is."
 
"Ending Israel's restrictions on Gaza could be easy.  Hamas just has to end its war, accept Israel's existence as the Jewish State, and agree to past PLO-Israel peace agreements. Our flotilla will educate the public and hopefully pave the way for a better future for Israelis and Palestinians," said Baron.

============

[i] "Palestinian Hamas Groups Admits that Its Fighters are Trained in Iran," Times [UK], March 9, 2008 at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3512018.ece
 
 
StandWithUs is a nine-year old, international, non-profit Israel education organization that ensures that Israel's side of the story is told in communities, campuses, libraries, the media and schools through brochures, speakers, conferences, missions to and from Israel, and thousands of pages of Internet resources that are distributed globally.

Wat de media niet tonen: de andere kant van Gaza

Eén foto zegt meer dan 1.000 woorden, gaat het gezegde. Zeker is er armoede en tekort in de Gazastrook, en zeker is die grootschaliger en ernstiger dan in veel andere plaatsen, maar het beeld is niet zo zwart-wit als aktievoerders en media ons doorgaans voorschotelen. Elders is er ook armoede (in Israel bijvoorbeeld), en in Gaza is er ook luxe, zoals de foto hierboven van de Cactus Roots Club laat zien.

Eerder al lieten we foto's zien van goed gevulde markten en volle winkels in Gaza. Sinds kort is er zelfs een groot zwembad geopend in Gaza.

 

Een 'concentratiekamp', 'openluchtgevangenis', 'humanitaire crisis'? Nou, nee.

 

Meer foto's en een video van het luxe restaurant staan op Joods Actueel. 

 

Wouter

______________

Fancy restaurants and Olympic-size pools: What the media won't report about Gaza

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/05/25/fancy-restaurants-and-olympic-size-pools-what-the-media-won%E2%80%99t-report-about-gaza/

By Special to the National Post  May 25, 2010 – 9:44 am

By Tom Gross

In recent days, the international media, particularly in Europe and the Mideast, has been full of stories about "activist boats sailing to Gaza carrying desperately-needed humanitarian aid and building materials."

The BBC World Service even led its world news broadcasts with this story at one point over the weekend. (The BBC yesterday boasted that its global news audience has now risen to 220 million persons a week, making it by far the biggest news broadcaster in the world.)

Indeed the BBC and other prominent Western media regularly lead their viewers and readers astray with accounts of a non-existent "mass humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza.

What they won't tell you about are the fancy new restaurants and swimming pools of Gaza, or about the wind surfing competitions on Gaza beaches, or the Strip's crowded shops and markets. Many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza live a middle class (and in some cases an upper class) lifestyle that western journalists refuse to report on because it doesn't fit with the simplistic story they were sent to write.

Here, courtesy of the Palestinian Ma'an news agency, is a report on Gaza's new Olympic-sized swimming pool. (Most Israeli towns don't have Olympic-size swimming pools. One wonders how an area that claims to be starved of water and building materials and depends on humanitarian aid builds an Olympic size swimming pool and creates a luxury lifestyle for some while others are forced to live in abject poverty as political pawn refugees?)

If you pop into the Roots Club in Gaza, according to the Lonely Planet guidebook, you can "dine on steak au poivre and chicken cordon bleu".

The restaurant's website in Arabic gives a window into middle class dining and the lifestyle of Hamas officials in Gaza. And here it is in English, for all the journalists, UN types and NGO staff who regularly frequent this and other nice Gaza restaurants (but don't tell their readers about them).

And here is a promotional video of the club restaurant . In case anyone doubts the authenticity of this video, I just called the club in Gaza City and had a nice chat with the manager who proudly confirmed business is booming and many Palestinians and international guests are dining there.

In a piece for The Wall Street Journal last year, I documented the "after effects" of a previous "emergency Gaza boat flotilla," when the arrivals were seen afterwards purchasing souvenirs in well-stocked shops. (You can also scroll down here for more pictures of Gaza's "impoverished" shops.)

But the mainstream liberal international media won't report on any of this. Playing the manipulative game of the BBC is easy: if we had their vast taxpayer funded resources, we too could produce reports about parts of London, Manchester and Glasgow and make it look as though there is a humanitarian catastrophe throughout the UK. We could produce the same effect by selectively filming seedy parts of Paris and Rome and New York and Los Angeles too.

Of course there is poverty in Gaza. There is poverty in parts of Israel too. (When was the last time a foreign journalist based in Israel left the pampered lounge bars and restaurants of the King David and American Colony hotels in Jerusalem and went to check out the slum-like areas of southern Tel Aviv? Or the hard-hit Negev towns of Netivot or Rahat?)

But the way that many prominent Western news media are deliberately misleading global audiences and systematically creating the false impression that people are somehow starving in Gaza, and that it is all Israel's fault, can only serve to increase hatred for the Jewish state – which one suspects was the goal of many of the editors and reporters involved in the first place.

National Post

Tom Gross is a former Middle East correspondent for the London Sunday Telegraph and the New York Daily News.

Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/05/25/fancy-restaurants-and-olympic-size-pools-what-the-media-won%E2%80%99t-report-about-gaza/#ixzz0p4qCWuhR

 

Verhaal The Guardian over kernwapenaanbod Israel aan Zuid-Afrika "ronduit absurd"

 

Ook deskundigen als Yossi Melman (Haaretz correspondent) en Avner Cohen (deskundig op het gebied van Israels nucleaire wapenprogramma) zeggen dat het verhaal in de Guardian niet op feiten is gebaseerd, en dat niet uit het gepresenteerde materiaal kan worden opgemaakt dat Israel Zuid-Afrika kernkoppen zou hebben aangeboden. Cohen zegt erover:

 

The headline, sub-headline, and lede of Chris McGreal's story are erroneous and misleading.
Nothing in the documents suggests there was an actual offer by Israel to sell nuclear weapons to the regime in Pretoria. To the contrary, the conversation amounted to a probe by the South Africans, which ultimately went nowhere.

 

Ook Suransky, de originele bron van het Guardian artikel, zegt dat niet duidelijk is of het inderdaad om kernkoppen ging. Het Guardian verhaal is gebaseerd op een hoop aannames en interpretaties van een journalist die om zijn antizionistische ideeën bekend staat, en er vooral op uit is om Israel als een Apartheidsstaat neer te zetten. Het voldoet daarom niet aan elementaire journalistieke normen.

 

RP

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Guardian nukes story 'simply ludicrous'

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=176667

By JPOST.COM STAFF
05/27/2010 15:15

Ex-South African president denies report Israel tried to sell nukes.

 

 

Recent reports that Israel offered to sell nuclear weapons to South Africa are "simply ludicrous," to a FW de Klerk, the last president of apartheid-era South Africa.

The news Web site IOL quoted the Nobel Peace Prize laureate as saying that he had "never been informed of any such developments" as those reported in the Guardian's report earlier this week.

The Guardian's report, which claims to contain "the first documentary evidence" of Israel's possession of nuclear weapons, alleges that in 1975, South African Defense Minister PW Botha met secretly with President Shimon Peres, who was then Israel's defense minister, and asked for nuclear warheads, which Peres allegedly offered "in three sizes."

The paper wrote that in the same meeting the two also signed a secret, broad-ranging military agreement.

De Klerk flatly denied the story, saying, "I have no reason to question the information that was consistently conveyed to me by the relevant authorities that South Africa developed nuclear weapons on its own."

The former South African president's comments were in line with a sharp denial which Peres issued on Monday, saying that the claims had "no basis in reality."

Herb Keinon contributed to this report

 

 

Paniek om mogelijke terreuraanslag in bus Tel Aviv

Het is niet duidelijk uit onderstaand verhaal of de man werkelijk explosieven bij zich had en zich wou opblazen, of slechts uit was op het zaaien van paniek, maar gezien de vele aanslagen in Tel Aviv tijdens de tweede intifada is het logisch dat hij hiervan wordt verdacht en iedereen zo snel mogelijk de bus uit wou.

 

RP

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Latest update 13:08 26.05.10

Police hunt two suspected of attempted Tel Aviv bus attack
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/police-hunt-two-suspected-of-attempted-tel-aviv-bus-attack-1.292360

By Yaniv Kubovich

 

 

Passengers on number 5 bus report man sitting in back, wearing heavy coat, yelling 'itbach al yahud' (slaughter the Jews).

 

Large police forces, aided by police helicopters, dogs and sappers, embarked on an extensive manhunt on Wednesday after a man and a woman suspected of attempting to carry out a terror attack on Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Street.

 

The police were summoned when passengers on a number 5 bus reported that a man, who was sitting in the back seat of the bus wearing a heavy coat, suddenly yelled out "itbach al yahud" in Arabic (slaughter the Jews).

 

The frightened passengers fled from the bus, which stopped on Dizengoff Street. Some of the passengers reported that a woman at the front of the bus tried to prevent them from exiting the bus.

 

The police forces were operating out of the junction of Dizengoff and Ben Gurion streets.

 

"A heavyset man, around 50 years old, was sitting at the back of the bus," eyewitness Ortal Neuman told Haaretz. Neuman, who got on the bus several stops earlier, said that the suspect was already on the bus when she got on. She added that there were not many people on the bus.

 

"When we got to Ben Gurion Street, we heard him [the suspect] yell out 'Allahu Akbar' several times. After that he yelled out in Arabic 'I'm going to kill Jews'" Neuman said. She explained that she did not see whether he was carrying any packages, but that he was wearing long sleeves and looked "fat."

 

"People started yelling 'terrorist, terrorist'" she added. "At first the driver didn't stop, but then people started yelling at him to open the door. Only after several minutes did he stop and let us all off."

 

Waarom Elvis Costello het mis heeft met de boycot van Israel

 

Voor de rest een goed artikel, maar het volgende klopt niet:

 

Granted, Israel, as a project of the West, needs to be held to Western standards and too often it falls short.

 

Israel is vooral een project van de Joden, en die komen niet alleen uit het Westen. Het is een mythe dat het Westen Israel heeft gecreëerd en aan de Joden gegeven. Zij hebben het zelf met hun blote handen opgebouwd, ontgind en verdedigd, en met veel moeite VN goedkeuring gekregen. Deze goedkeuring was belangrijk, maar maakt van Israel geen 'project van het Westen' en rechtvaardigt niet waarom Israel zoveel strenger wordt beoordeeld dan haar vijanden.

 

Zie ook: Elvis Costello: What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?

 

RP

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

 

Why Elvis Costello is wrong to boycott Israel

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/why-elvis-costello-is-wrong-to-boycott-israel-20100525-wads.html

MARK SAWYER

May 25, 201

 

Elvis Costello has withdrawn from concerts in Israel over the plight of the Palestinians.

Well there goes my plan to buy Elvis Costello's 174th or so album.

His announcement that he's boycotting the Israel concert stage, citing the country's treatment of the Palestinians, means I'm boycotting Elvis. After 30 years (holding my nose for about 15), I'm no longer helping to finance Costello's career. My tiny gesture in depriving myself of Secret, Profane and Sugarcane is not fair, but I don't believe Costello is being fair.

No, I'm not Jewish, I'm not Israeli, I'm not an apocalyptic Christian; I'm not allied with any religion or political movement. It seems incumbent to mention these things when Israel is the subject. I'm a boring Australian-born journalist. I'm part of no lobby and I support the right of the Palestinian people to their own state.

But I can't help wonder why the left, where most artists adhere, should be so keen to paint (or sing) Israel as the bogey of the world stage, to the extent that Israel is now the target of cultural sanctions not seen since the boycott of South Africa in the 1980s.

The movement includes British filmmaker and activist Ken Loach, who withdrew his film Looking for Eric from last year's Melbourne Film Festival in protest against Israeli government sponsorship of the event.

In most cases, political activism is no friend of artistic endeavour. At least it generates as many misses as bullseyes. Take protest songs.

With the odd exception (Biko by Peter Gabriel was profound and timely in 1980), protest songs have reduced artists such as John Lennon, U2 and Bruce Springsteen to their least listenable. Even Bob Marley was better at love songs (notwithstanding his tirades against 'Babylon').

I grew up in the 1970s when Israel (a creation of socialists as much as anyone else) was still seen as part of the family of enlightened nations. Young people wanted to live on a kibbutz. The worlds of comedy, cinema and music were full of liberal Jews who backed Israel even if they didn't want to live there. A peace deal with Egypt was cause for optimism.

Obviously things have changed. Israel is now a full-blown security state and it has built a separation wall that encroaches onto Palestinian land holdings.

Orthodox Jews impose themselves on the secular sphere and Americans from the craziest outreaches of Christianity swarm over the place and claim Israel for the religious right.

And the bad news never seems to stop: the bulldozer death of US activist Rachel Corrie in Gaza in 2003, Israel's Operation Cast Lead offensive in Gaza in 2008-09, Mossad's theft of foreign passports, including Australian, to cover their hit of a Hamas operative (Australia retaliated over the passport thefts by expelling a diplomat), and Israeli's secret nuclear dealings with apartheid-era South Africa were exposed.

None of this makes Israel very appealing when viewed from afar.

Its politicians – a succession of elderly white men with either American or thick eastern European accents, have presented a stern, unyielding face to the world. Yet at the risk of sounding like an Israeli government parrot, I also see the only real democracy in its region, a country that hosts people committed to its destruction, and a state with a free media that exposes government malfeasance (viz the scandals surrounding prime ministers such as Yitzhak Rabin in the 1970s and Ehud Olmert now). But Israel remains pretty well the only place where the left unabashedly wants Western values to be upheld.

Granted, Israel, as a project of the West, needs to be held to Western standards and too often it falls short. But judged by the circumstances of its birth and the wars it has had to fight for its survival, and the virulent anti-Israel propaganda that sweeps the Arab world, it's difficult to see it being anything but a security state with a lethal intelligence service and a hardbitten streak in its people. Not pretty or fashionable, but that's a fate that befalls nations at different times. Cuddly Sweden was a major European belligerent in the 17th century. And, of course there is the national memory of the Holocaust.

The left's intense focus on Israel's behaviour with stunts such as the flotilla off the Gaza Strip is manna for the media. But I have long suspected that the Israel-Palestinian "peace process" is a comforting fantasy for those of us in the media who indulge it. Israel wants security ahead of peace; the Arab world, and alas a lot of us in the non-Arab world, want no Israel.

And no singer, and no song, will change that.

Mark Sawyer is a Sydney Morning Herald journalist.

Elvis Costello: What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?

 

De klap van Elvis Costello's afzegging kwam extra hard aan bij zijn Israelische fans omdat de concertkaartjes al gekocht waren; je zou haast opzet vermoeden.

 

Een fan ben ik niet, maar sommige vroege platen van Costello vond ik wel prachtig. Naar eigen zeggen kwam hij tot zijn besluit om toch niet in Israel op te treden na een gesprek met enkele Israelische journalisten. - Van je landgenoten moet je het maar hebben...

Hij liet doorschemeren eigenlijk weinig van het conflict af te weten en vooral op zijn instinct af te zijn gegaan.

 

Enkele boycot-fanaten, schijnbaar Britse professoren, haakten op het nieuws in door ook - wederom - een oproep aan Elton John te doen om zich bij de boycot van de Joodse staat aan te sluiten. Die oproep was zo wansmakelijk, dat ik er hier enkel met schroom uit citeer:

 

"Does it mean you think the dirty business of Israeli colonialism and ethnic cleansing has nothing to do with you? That you can play for the officers and conscripts and secret service people who will make up much of your audience in Tel Aviv without giving them the stamp of your approval? You will offer them a few hours' respite from administering beatings and torture and land-theft and house-demolition and sieges and destroying wells and denying sick people access to hospital - and the simple fact of your presence will tell them that all this cruel business, which they conduct daily, is okay with you."

 

Ik zou haast wensen dat zij ook Elvis Costello zo'n oproep hadden gestuurd: de haat en leugens druipen er zo vanaf, dat Elvis volgens mij - zijn instinct volgend - juist wel naar Israel zou zijn gegaan...

 

Wouter

_____________

 

 

Monday, May 24, 2010

Elvis Costello: What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?

http://www.bluetruth.net/2010/05/elvis-costello-whats-so-funny-about.html

 

 

I've been a fan of Elvis Costello since 1979. I first saw him in 1981, and I had the privilege of being about 15 feet from the stage at this show .

So it was with sadness that I read about Elvis' decision to cancel a scheduled show in Israel. Other artists, most notably Paul McCartney, Leonard Cohen and Madonna have refused to bow to the anti-Israel boycott movement. Perhaps those artists recognized that those who created the so-called BDS movement didn't do so to help bring about peace between a Jewish state of Israel and an Arab state of Palestine, but rather to call for a replacement of the Jewish state of Israel by a 23rd Arab state.

Now Elvis has the chance to actually see the country and the facts on the ground for himself, rather than relying on the fatally biased coverage of Israel by the BBC and the Guardian. StandWithUs has announced its offer to host Elvis on a tour of Israel when his wife, the jazz musician Diana Krall, plays there in August. Elvis had claimed that his decision was not a political statement, but a matter of "instinct and conscience." Perhaps after making his own observations, he will be able to make a more informed decision.

Many years ago, Elvis sang Nick Lowe's lyrics "What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?" Go to Israel, Elvis. Talk to Israelis who just want peace with their neighbors. Find out why they love their country. And gain some understanding for yourself.

Posted by DrMike on Blue Truth

 

 

Israel voorbereid op nieuwe "Free Gaza" vloot

"If they decide to continue sailing and do not listen to the instructions then they will be stopped, brought to Israel and treated by the Interior Ministry which will return them to the countries they came from," an IDF statement said.

According to the statement, the IDF will unload the supplies and transfer the shipment to the Gaza Strip after it underwent an inspection to ensure that it did not include weaponry.

 

Dat lijkt me niet meer dan redelijk, maar zal door de activisten en door Israel critici natuurlijk weer als zware onderdrukking en geweld tegen weerloze burgers worden uitgelegd. Dat men de activisten de mogelijkheid ontzegt met Hamas leiders samen op de foto te kunnen en Gaza paspoorten van hen in ontvangst te mogen nemen, is natuurlijk een grove schending van het internationaal recht. Nu moet men de Hamas op afstand een hart onder de riem steken, en kan men ze niet persoonlijk feliciteren met hun overwinning op Israel vorig jaar winter en op Fatah tijdens de coup van drie jaar geleden.

 

RP

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

 

The Jerusalem Post

Navy prepares for arrival of flotilla

By YAAKOV KATZ
05/26/2010 23:01

Drills include commandeering of ships, which could induce violence.

http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=176587

 

 

Fearing that provocateurs will be on board the flotilla of international aid ships heading to the Gaza Strip, the Israel Navy has been training with crowd-dispersion techniques which it may need to use to commandeer the vessels.

The Navy has held a number of drills in recent weeks to prepare for the arrival of the flotilla which is expected to try and break the Israel-imposed sea blockade on Gaza and dock in the newly-expanded port there.

The drills included the commandeering of the ships which could, military sources said Wednesday, include violent clashes depending on the response by the passengers on the vessels.

"We will do everything to ensure that the operation runs smoothly but are prepared for every possible scenario," one defense official explained.

On Wednesday evening, the IDF announced that it was planning to stop the flotilla of nine ships that are carrying hundreds of activists and thousands of tons of supplies. The IDF said that it planned to intercept the ships as they approached the Gaza Strip and urge them to turn around.

IDF: Shipment will be transferred to Gaza following inspection
"If they decide to continue sailing and do not listen to the instructions then they will be stopped, brought to Israel and treated by the Interior Ministry which will return them to the countries they came from," an IDF statement said.

According to the statement, the IDF will unload the supplies and transfer the shipment to the Gaza Strip after it underwent an inspection to ensure that it did not include weaponry.

Meanwhile Wednesday, the IDF continued its media blitz against the flotilla, organized by the Free Gaza organization, and released data claiming that all of the supplies the ships were carrying were already transferred by Israel to Gaza via land crossings on a regular basis.

"This flotilla is a provocation that is not needed considering the humanitarian situation in Gaza which is stable and good," said Col. Moshe Levi, commander of the IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration. Levi said that 100 trucks, loaded with supplies, enter Gaza on a daily basis and that in the past two months over 1,200 tons of medical supplies were transferred to the ship.