In an article in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram on the economic situation in the Gaza Strip, journalist Ashraf Abu Al-Houl wrote about the burgeoning recreation industry and of the low merchandise prices.
Also as part of the interest in the economic situation in Gaza, the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida published articles describing the expensive resorts that have been established for Gaza's newly rich, and a Palestinian website reported on the new mall recently opened in the city. The following are excerpts from the articles: Stores Overflow with Goods Journalist Ashraf Abu Al-Houl wrote in Al-Ahram: "I was last in Gaza in mid-February. Returning three weeks ago, I found it almost unrecognizable... and the greatest surprise was the nature of that change. I would have expected a change for the worse, considering the blockade – but the opposite was the case; it seemed as if it had emerged from the blockade. "A sense of absolute prosperity prevails, as manifested by the grand resorts along and near Gaza's coast. Further, the sight of the merchandise and luxuries filling the Gaza shops amazed me. Merchandise is sold more cheaply than in Egypt, although most of it is from the Egyptian market, and there are added shipping costs and costs for smuggling it via the tunnels – so that it could be expected to be more expensive. "Before I judge by appearances, which can be misleading... [I would like to point out that] I toured the new resorts, most of which are quite grand, as well as the commercial markets, to verify my hypothesis. The resorts and markets have come to symbolize prosperity, and prove that the siege is formal or political, not economic. The reality [in Gaza] proves that the siege was broken even before Israel's crime against the ships of the Freedom Flotilla in late May; everything already was coming into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. If this weren't the case, businessmen would not have been able to build so many resorts in under four months." Significantly Lower Prices "[I] began my search for the truth regarding the siege in Rafah, at the Saturday market, which was loaded with large quantities of merchandise and products of various kinds – at prices mostly lower than in Egypt, particularly for food products. Nevertheless, there weren't many customers, and this for two reasons: One, supply is much greater than demand, and two, the workers were all waiting to get paid their wages. "Business owner Abu Yousuf stood at his shop surrounded by hundreds of cans of food. Their price had dropped significantly in the past two months; in some cases by as much as 50%. Clothing vendor Abu Muhammad Al-Masri noted that there was an unprecedented glut on the clothing market in the Gaza Strip. Clothing comes into Gaza from two sources: the tunnels, which provide large quantities, and the border crossings to Israel, via which even more goods arrive, most of which piled up at Ashdod port [and are now coming into the Strip]. He clarified that the merchants wanted to sell [lots of] goods to get back some of their money... and so had increased the supply in the markets, leading to lower prices. "During my tour of the Rafah and Khan Younis markets, I noticed that the merchants were drastically marking down their merchandise, so as to get rid of goods smuggled in through the tunnels, and to prevent heavy losses... after Israel has decided to allow in Israeli and imported goods, as part of Israeli government measures to ease the blockade following the Freedom Flotilla massacre. "Despite the drop in price due to the plethora of goods in the Gaza markets, the residents sense that even lower prices are on the way, due to the easing of the Israeli blockade. The consumers are carefully watching prices, [particularly for] smuggled electrical appliances and cars, and refrain from buying, expecting that merchandise will arrive via the border crossings [leading to a further drop in prices]. "A Gaza car showroom salesman said that he hoped to sell off his inventory and that he was not bringing in any new vehicles for fear of heavy losses, because Israel had decided to allow vehicles into Gaza for the first time since 2006. Anyone walking in the Gaza streets will see hundreds, if not thousands, of cars that entered Gaza from Egypt via the tunnels, and some of them are stolen. At the home and kitchen appliance dealers, there is a tempting array of all kinds of smuggled goods that sellers want to get rid of, due to the ongoing information about new products that Israel has decided to allow into to the city... " Resorts for the Nouveau Riche "The Gaza resorts paint a picture of prosperity enjoyed by only a few groups, most of which have become rich from the blockade, because they either own tunnels or else work for the many international organizations in Gaza, headed by UNRWA. "The Gaza resorts are divided into several [categories], each of which has its own price range. This is not like it used to be, when all the tables on the beach were for the use of all the residents... I noticed that most of the resorts set a certain price for the tables near the sea, and a different price for tables farther away. This is in addition to high fees to enter the resort – no less than NIS 20 – and each activity within the [grounds] has its own fee. In short, a family visit, with a sandwich for each child, can cost up to NIS 500. "Several months ago, Gaza had only one luxury resort, Zahrat Al-Madain. Today, another one opens up every day, such as Crazy Water, Aqua Park, and Al-Bustan. Most of them are owned by members, or associates, of Hamas. In addition, the Hamas municipalities [also] charge high fees, in Gaza terms, for the use of public beaches." "'Aed Yaghi, senior official of the Al-Mubadara Al-Wataniyya party, which is headed by Palestinian Legislative Council member Mustafa Al-Barghouti, said, 'These resorts make you wonder. It is logical to invest when times are good – but when Gaza is suffering under siege and there is a possibility of renewed aggression [by Israel], no one knows what profitability there is in building resorts.' "Walid Al-'Awwad, a member of the Palestinian People's Party political bureau, said, 'In the past two years, money-laundering has flourished in Gaza, as reflected by the construction of numerous resorts – all of which belong to influential individuals who participate in trafficking via the tunnels. Compared to the tunnel owners' increasing wealth, the [status] of the [established] wealthy families has waned... The spread of the grand resorts reflects the emergence of a bourgeoisie. Some of the fluidity in the Gaza market stems from the activity of clandestine elements – distributors of drugs, arms, and tunnel merchandise.' "Human rights activist and political correspondent Mustafa Ibrahim said, 'Building resorts in the north [of the Strip] is contrary to the most fundamental principles of investment, because they are in regions exposed to shelling and destruction, due to the unceasing Israeli threats. Thus, veteran investors don't dare invest in this area. The elements behind the investment [in the north], who are sometimes hasty, rely on profits from trafficking via the tunnels for funding... This huge investment in the leisure industry is taking place today in Gaza at a time when 80% of the residents depend on aid from UNRWA and other organizations, and unemployment is at 45%. This creates a distorted picture, particularly when merchandise is piling up in the shops in a way that does not reflect the economic situation. Perhaps the current government created this distorted situation in order to show that it had succeeded in breaking the siege..." [1] The Al-Bustan Resort and Bisan Tourism City The PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida stated: "The Al-Bustan resort, on the coast, belongs to an Islamic association linked to Hamas. It offers a cafeteria, a restaurant, and fish ponds; it gets 1,000 visitors a day, and about 2,000 during the weekend, says manager Ahmad Qadoura. A Gaza resident whose home was destroyed in the Gaza war, Abu Kamal Al-Awajeh, expressed his resentment over the resorts' high entry fee of NIS 35... He says, 'priority should be given to rehabilitating Gaza and building housing for those whose homes were destroyed by the occupation in the war.' Nearby, the Wa'ed prisoners' association, which is close to Hamas, has built the Al-Hurriya ["Freedom"] Resort. "In May, Bisan Tourism City was established in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip. Previously a garbage dump, the 270-dunam [site], which belongs to the Hamas government, provides a leisure and vacation [destination] for Gaza residents... It cost $1.5 million, under the oversight of Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hammad. The city includes an 86-dunam park and a small zoo, and two Olympic-size swimming pools for children and adults. According to its administration, on weekends it hosts some 6,000 visitors... The administration bans hookah smoking and card games, and three religious conventions are held there every week."[2] Mall Opens in Gaza The Palestinian website Firas Press reported: "This week, Gaza's first mall opened. The inaugural ceremony was attended by Hamas ministers and officials, along with merchants and investors. Hamas Welfare Minister Ahmad Al-Kurd said, "The mall will participate in meeting the basic needs of the population, against the backdrop of the siege, with merchants bringing in [goods] via the border crossings and the tunnels."[3] ============ Endnotes: [1] Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 18, 2010 [2] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), July 22, 2010
Terwijl Abbas zijn poot stijf houdt en opnieuw allerlei voorwaarden stelt aan directe onderhandelingen met Israel, vernoemt de PA wederom een zomerkamp naar de terroriste Dalal Mughrabi, die een van de wreedste aanslagen in Israel leidde. Volgens Al Hayat Al-Jadida: "The Ministry of Social Affairs in Ramallah opened yesterday in El Bireh the fourth integration camp for people with special needs, and in Bethlehem the second Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi camp [opened]... The second Dalal Mughrabi summer camp was opened in the headquarters of Light of Generations' youth association in Bethlehem, with support from the National Committee for Summer Camps and the One Voice Palestine organization in Ramallah. It aims at training young leaders in the eastern countryside of Bethlehem District. Present [at the opening] were... the Secretary of Fatah's Bethlehem branch, Yusuf Al-Aref, ..., Chairman of the [Light of Generations' youth] association, Ibrahim Mubarak, Muhammad Khalil - camp director... 70 young girls from the Dar Salah village and neighboring villages participated." Als het Westen al kritiek heeft geuit op het feit dat de PA terroristen als rolmodellen voorstelt voor de Palestijnse jeugd en zo geweld verheerlijkt in plaats van dialoog en verzoening te promoten, dan is die kritiek nog niet erg goed doorgekomen bij de Palestijnen. Misschien dat die daarom eens wat meer kracht bijgezet moet worden, bijvoorbeeld doordat duidelijk wordt gemaakt dat de miljardensteun voor de PA van de EU en VS afhankelijk is van voortgang van de PA op dit gebied. Of misschien kan de VS dreigen dat ze zich alleen in blijven zetten voor de creatie van een Palestijnse staat als die bereid is zich aan de Routekaart te houden, die dergelijke geweldsverheerlijking eenduidig verbiedt. RP --------- Palestinian Media Watch Click here to view PMW's new website
A summer camp in Bethlehem is the latest institution in the Palestinian Authority to be named after the leader of the worst terror attack in Israel's history. According to the official PA daily newspaper, the new camp is named after Dalal Mughrabi, who led a 1978 bus hijacking in which 37 civilians, 12 of them children, were killed. The newspaper reports that the camp "aims at training young leaders" in the Bethlehem area: "The Ministry of Social Affairs in Ramallah opened yesterday in El Bireh the fourth integration camp for people with special needs, and in Bethlehem the second Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi camp [opened]... The second Dalal Mughrabi summer camp was opened in the headquarters of Light of Generations' youth association in Bethlehem, with support from the National Committee for Summer Camps and the One Voice Palestine organization in Ramallah. It aims at training young leaders in the eastern countryside of Bethlehem District. Present [at the opening] were... the Secretary of Fatah's Bethlehem branch, Yusuf Al-Aref, ..., Chairman of the [Light of Generations' youth] association, Ibrahim Mubarak, Muhammad Khalil - camp director... 70 young girls from the Dar Salah village and neighboring villages participated." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 29, 2010] As PMW has documented, the PA has turned Mughrabi into a celebrated hero and role model. Schools, summer camps, landmarks and centers for youth and education have been named after her. Click here to see the section of PMW's website about Mughrabi's elevation from terrorist to hero. The camp has received support from the National Committee for Summer Camps, which is under the supervision of the PA's Ministry of Youth and Sports, according to the ministry's website. The general coordinator of the camps committee, Mousa Abu Zaid, is also the PA's Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports. In a recent article, Zaid wrote that Palestinian summer camps teach children "through precept and example about the importance of dialogue and tolerance in life." [http://thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=3134&ed=183&edid=183] The other supporter cited in the article about the Mughrabi camp is One Voice Palestine. According to its website, the members of this international movement are "fed up with the ongoing conflict" and "ready and eager to support a serious process" leading to a peace agreement. [http://www.onevoice.ps/en/faqdes.php?id=1] In March this year, the PA and Fatah named a square near Ramallah after Mughrabi, and her attack has been celebrated by a spokesman for PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction as "the most glorified sacrifice action in the history of the Palestinian-Israeli struggle" [Al-Ayyam, July 13, 2008]. The PA celebrated the 31st anniversary of her killings with an hour-long TV special that opened with the narrator glorifying the attack. =================== Click here to see PMW's report From Terrorists to Role Models on the PA's policy of glorifying terrorists.
Het stond eergisteren groot in diverse kranten, zonder enige context: Israel gooit even een Bedoeienendorp plat, honderden mensen dakloos, waaronder 200 kinderen. Die wrede Israeli's weer, ze doen maar met de Arabieren wat ze willen. De Jerusalem Post gaf wel de andere kant weer: In the statement, the ILA [Israel Lands Authority] said that residents first "invaded" the area in 1998, were soon evicted, and returned a year later. The ILA said residents had been asked to rent the land for agricultural purposes for NIS 2 per dunam (0.1 hectare), but "they refused to pay and continued to infiltrate the land year after year." After an eviction notice was issued in 2003, the residents filed a petition that made its way to the High Court of Justice. While the petition was being heard, the residents "continued to infiltrate and squat on state-owned land, and in fact expanded their infiltration through constructing illegal and unproved buildings, crudely trampling on the law," the ILA said. In 2007, the Beersheba Magistrates's Court dismissed residents' request for a delay in implementation of the eviction orders and ruled that residents were "infiltrators repeatedly seizing state land after being evicted." There are tens of thousands of illegal structures in Beduin communities in the country, and several thousand more are built each year; far more than the number the state manages to demolish. Many of these settlements lack basic services, with residents living "off the grid" and not paying municipal taxes. Of dat de verwoesting van het dorp rechtvaardigt is een andere vraag, en de relatie tussen de Bedoeienen en de staat is sowieso een lastig onderwerp. De Bedoeienen willen eigenlijk een nomadenbestaan leiden, met kleine gemeenschappen (dit dorp was dan ook geen dorp zoals wij dat kennen). Israel wil vastleggen waar mensen mogen wonen (en komen) en waar niet. Een deel van de Negev woestijn wordt bijvoorbeeld voor militaire oefeningen gebruikt. Ook is er veel infiltratie via de Egyptische grens, van zowel migranten als terroristen. Hieronder meer uitleg van de kant van Israel. Nogmaals: ik zeg niet dat dat de hele waarheid is, maar het is het verhaal dat in de Nederlandse media, zoals Telegraaf en Spitsnieuws (opgelet: geen 'linkse' media dit keer) ontbrak. RP -------------- Jul 292010 The demolition of an unrecognized Bedouin settlement in the Negev attracts some foreign media looking to fit the story into their own one-sided agenda. It had all the elements that the foreign press in Israel could have hoped for – a mass eviction accompanied by the destruction of homes, a large Israeli police presence, the potential for confrontation and, even better, the fact that those being evicted belong to the Arab minority within Israel. So it was that CNN, BBC, AFP and the LA Times saw fit to cover the demolition of an unauthorized Bedouin settlement in the Negev region. Indeed, irrespective of the rights or wrongs of the issue, such scenes are never pleasant and involve some level of human suffering. The foreign media, however, based on the quotes of non-governmental organizations, managed to portray a complex story in very black and white terms. Writing in The Guardian's Comment is Free, notorious anti-Zionist academic Neve Gordon, not even bothering to address the wider context of the demolition, even went as far as to state that he suddenly understood how far the state is ready to go to accomplish its objective of Judaising the Negev region; what I witnessed was, after all, an act of ethnic cleansing. While the rest of the media did not sink to Gordon's level of vitriol, most of them certainly did nothing to dispel a one-sided narrative that portrays Israel as the usurper of Arab land. The status of the Bedouin in Israel is far more complex, as is this particular case of the demolished unrecognized village. As the Jerusalem Post explains: In the statement, the ILA [Israel Lands Authority] said that residents first "invaded" the area in 1998, were soon evicted, and returned a year later. The ILA said residents had been asked to rent the land for agricultural purposes for NIS 2 per dunam (0.1 hectare), but "they refused to pay and continued to infiltrate the land year after year." After an eviction notice was issued in 2003, the residents filed a petition that made its way to the High Court of Justice. While the petition was being heard, the residents "continued to infiltrate and squat on state-owned land, and in fact expanded their infiltration through constructing illegal and unproved buildings, crudely trampling on the law," the ILA said. In 2007, the Beersheba Magistrates's Court dismissed residents' request for a delay in implementation of the eviction orders and ruled that residents were "infiltrators repeatedly seizing state land after being evicted." There are tens of thousands of illegal structures in Beduin communities in the country, and several thousand more are built each year; far more than the number the state manages to demolish. Many of these settlements lack basic services, with residents living "off the grid" and not paying municipal taxes. As the Israeli press did, including the JPost and YNet, it is incumbent upon the media to include the necessary context and explanation. One is perfectly within one's rights to agree or disagree with Israeli government policies but it is wholly misleading to report on this story without including legal context. As the ILA explains (PDF format): In recent years, some of the Bedouin residing in the dispersed areas have started claiming ownership of land areas totaling some 600,000 dunams (60,000 hectares or 230 square miles) in the Negev – over 12 times the area of Tel Aviv! The Israel Land Administration (ILA) is doing everything in its power to resolve the problems of the landless Bedouin in the Negev. Although this matter is exceedingly complex given the large number of claimants (15,000) who represent the clans of the original claimants, investigation of all land ownership claims has been recently expedited… Instead of prosecution, Israel proposes to settle the conflict by offering extremely generous settlements in return for the withdrawal of the Bedouin's ownership claims. By 2006, the ILA's efforts to reach compromise agreements with Bedouin land claimants had resulted in agreements regarding 150,000 dunams out of the 800,000 dunams under dispute. In addition: -
Israel is currently building 13 new villages or towns for the Negev Bedouin. -
The government of Israel has allocated more than NIS 1 billion for the benefit of this population. -
The State of Israel is offering far-reaching benefits to Bedouin who leave the dispersion and move into permanent villages. See here (PDF) for more on current Israeli and ILA policy towards the Negev Bedouin. Israeli society and the often forced process of urbanization is fraught with difficulties not to mention legal issues surrounding state owned land in the Negev. Sadly, in today's anti-Israel climate, it is but a small step from one-sided reports to the type of demonizing invective employed by Neve Gordon that promotes the lie of an Israel set on "ethnically cleansing" its Arab minority. Even worse that Comment is Free is more than happy to give Gordon and others a soap box to peddle such extremist and false views. See here for more on the Bedouin in Israel.
Ik zou haast zeggen: kan die hele nederzetting niet worden afgebroken, na zoveel gewelddadige incidenten tegen zowel Palestijnen als Israelische soldaten? Als een Bedoeinendorp in de Negev dat illegaal is gebouwd en steeds meer grond confisceerde, uiteindelijk kan worden ontmanteld, waarom dan geen nederzetting die Israel slechts tot last is? Het is echter een goed begin dat men de yeshiva, illegaal gebouwd, nu af wil breken.
RP By Haaretz Service / Published 08:00 28.07.10
Military sources say army prosecutors have turned down an appeal against plans to raze the yeshiva.
The military is preparing to demolish a Jewish seminary building at the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar after residents lost an appeal against its destruction, Army Radio reported Wednesday. Military sources said that army prosecutors had turned down an appeal against plans to raze the yeshiva, which the government has ruled illegal, in response to attacks by Yitzhar settlers on neighboring Palestinians and the extremist language used by the yeshiva's rabbi, Itzik Shapira. The Civil Administration, the Israeli body that governs Jewish-controlled territory in the West Bank, in May 2010 issued an order to renew proceedings to demolish the hilltop settlement's Od Yosef Hai yeshiva. The order was one in a series of army reponses after settlers clashed with security forces on Israeli Independence Day in April. Three Israel Defense Forces soldiers were wounded by stones thrown near the settlement. A slew of violent incidents in recent months has marked Yitzhar out as the center of the extremist trend in the settler movement. Earlier in July police arrested a Yitzhar man suspected of fatally shooting a Palestinian teenager who had thrown stones at his car. In April, residents marched through a neighboring Palestinian village and attacked a home in response to the arrest of 11 Yitzhar settlers, while in January the Shin Bet security service questioned several residents, including Shapira, over a December arson attack on a Palestinian mosque.
Dit is misschien wel de beste manier om anti-Israel boycots te pareren: een buycott. Wanneer de geboycotte producten alleen maar meer verkocht worden, gaat de lol er wel af voor de boycotters, al zullen ze dat niet direct toegeven. En aangezien winkeliers en bedrijven zich doorgaans vooral door de verkoopcijfers laten leiden, is dit een zeer goed antigif. Dus wanneer je van een boycot hoort, mail of Twitter dan je vrienden met de oproep bij de betreffende winkel zoveel mogelijk Israelische producten te kopen! Over de boycot campagne tegen Israel zie ook op YouTube de video: RP ------------
Pro-Israel shoppers defy Ahava products boycott call By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
25/07/2010 Best sales weekend Maryland store has ever seen. WASHINGTON – A call to boycott Israeli-made Ahava products in a Maryland beauty supply store backfired last week when pro- Israel activists countered by purchasing the shop's entire Ahava inventory.
When the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington found out that the pro-Palestinian group Sabeel DC had organized a protest and boycott call at Ulta in Silver Spring last Saturday, the organization sent out an action alert urging supporters to visit the store and buy Ahava.
"They cleaned the shelves out. It was the best Ahava sales weekend the store has ever seen. They had to order an expedited shipment" afterward, said Arielle Farber, director of Israel and International Affairs for the Community Relations Council. "The greater Washington community is not going to stand for this campaign to delegitimize Israel."
Rona Kramer, a Maryland state senator, was among those answering the Community Relations Council call. When she heard of the boycott, she though "it's a good opportunity for the community to show its support for Israel."
Though in the midst of a re-election campaign, Kramer pushed back her schedule to hit the store on Saturday morning. When she got there at 10:15 a.m. the store had already sold out of many Ahava lines, but she managed to tally up a $200 bill.
It was the first time she had ever bought Ahava products, a brand that uses Dead Sea minerals in hand creams, body lotions and other beauty products. "I've been using them since I bought them and they're wonderful," she said.
Faith McDonnell, another area pro-Israel activist, was moved to show up on Saturday morning because she figured many members of the Jewish community wouldn't be able to come due to observance of Shabbat.
"There were a lot of Christians who were standing with the Jewish people and Israel on this," McDonnell said.
In its literature announcing the event, the Sabeel DC Metro chapter that organized the action said it was held on Saturday morning to take advantage of the large crowds attending a farmers' market held by the store.
Paul Verduin, who cocoordinated the Saturday event and was one of 12 participants, said he wasn't disappointed by the outcome, which saw Ahava sales boosted.
"We operate under the concept of witness. We're trying to testify to the fact that Ahava is one of the products being sold in the US claiming to be an Israeli product when it is made in the West Bank," he said, saying that Sabeel is a nonviolent organization that seeks a "just peace" between Israelis and Palestinians.
In his letter announcing the boycott, Verduin described Ahava products as "made by West Bank settlers from natural resources stolen from the Palestinian people."
In a statement on the subject, Ahava countered that "the mud and materials used in Ahava cosmetics products are not excavated in an occupied area. The minerals are mined in the Israeli part of the Dead Sea, which is undisputed internationally."
Further, it states that Mitzpe Shalem, a West Bank kibbutz where Ahava products are produced, "is not an illegal settlement."
Ahava North America CEO Michael Etedgi told The Jerusalem Post that despite boycott actions in California, New York and Texas as well as in Washington, DC, business has not suffered, nor has he heard from any company that plans to stop selling Ahava as a result.
"None of our retail partners are thinking about it, and we have a complete and open dialogue with them about the situation," he said. "I'm happy and they're happy. They're trying to put the political issue aside."
But he added, "I'm not saying it's not disruptive or annoying... No one wants to have people demonstrating outside their front door."
Carrie Lannon, Ulta's director of public relations, said in a statement that "Ulta selects the products that its stores carry based strictly on products' sales and customer interest. Ulta does not take a position on or get involved with politically charged issues in relation to the merchandise that it offers in its stores."
Still, Verduin said that his Sabeel chapter intended to carry on with its efforts.
"We will continue this until the occupation stops," he said.
The Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center is a Christian liberation theology organization based in Jerusalem. It was founded by a Palestinian Anglican priest, Rev. Naim Ateek, the former canon of St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem, and is an official partner of the Presbyterian Church USA.
Waterpijp schijnt ook voor mannen verboden te zijn. Eerder al werd vrouwen verboden om zonder partner of mannelijk familielid naar het strand te gaan, en alcohol is al lang verboden. De Gazastrook wordt steeds meer een gevangenis, niet vanwege de zogenaamde Israelische blokkade maar omdat Hamas mensen, en vooral vrouwen, het ene na het andere plezier ontzegt. Films, uitgaan, dansen en ander plezier wordt binnenkort waarschijnlijk ofwel alleen voor propaganda gebruikt, of verboden, alleen voor vrouwen dan wel voor iedereen. RP ---------
Gaza - Ma'an - Gaza police announced Wednesday restrictions on women's lingerie and dress stores across the Strip.
Among the prohibitions include displaying lingerie or pajamas in store windows, having fitting rooms or cubicles inside shops, and using tinted glass for store windows. Security cameras inside women's stores will also be banned.
Gaza police spokesman Brigadier Ayman Al-Batniji said the new restrictions will "protect morals and allow people to feel comfortable as they walk down the street."
The announcement follows a wave of new regulations aimed at women.
On 18 July, the Gaza Interior Ministry issued a ban on women smoking water pipes (arghileh) in public places, with Batneiji telling Ma'an that the practice "contradicts" Palestinian traditions and values.
Other bans include a prohibition on women from riding motorcycles and attending wedding parties extending over midnight.
On Saturday, Gaza government police seized inventory from several shops and vendors, which a police report said displayed "immoral words." The clothing, manufactured in Gaza City, was mostly cotton shirts with the words "Porn Man Clothing" written on them in bold letters.
Onfaire, eenzijdige kritiek op Israel en stilzwijgen over de misdaden van Hamas is zeker niet voorbehouden aan links, zo blijkt maar weer. Camerons liefde voor Turkije komt waarschijnlijk vooral voort uit economische motieven, net als de Britse houding tegenover bijvoorbeeld Libië. De kritiekloze houding tegenover Hamas, dat natuurlijk in de eerste plaats verantwoordelijk is voor de problemen in de Gazastrook, is een groot obstakel voor vrede. Zolang Hamas aan de macht is in de Gazastrook lijkt een oplossing van het conflict onmogelijk. RP ----------------- Britse premier haalt in Turkije hard uit naar Israël
dinsdag 27 juli 2010 19:07 Door Jeroen Langelaar - Elsevier
De Britse premier David Cameron heeft tijdens zijn bezoek aan Ankara, de hoofdstad van Turkije, opvallend hard uitgehaald naar Israël. Zo vergeleek hij de situatie op de Gazastrook met die van een 'gevangenenkamp'.
De toespraak van Cameron was doorspekt met lovende woorden over Turkije en de Brits-Turkse relaties.
Hij beloofde zich 'gepassioneerd' in te zetten voor toetreding van Turkije tot de EU. Toetreding is volgens de Conservatief 'vitaal voor onze economie, vitaal voor onze veiligheid en vitaal voor onze diplomatie'.
Gaza
Cameron maakte ook van de gelegenheid gebruik om hard uit te halen naar Israël. De Britse regeringsleider noemde het optreden van de Israëlische marine tegen een boot met Gaza-activisten eind mei – waarbij negen doden vielen – 'onacceptabel' en eiste nogmaals een uitputtend onderzoek naar het incident.
Ook vergeleek hij de situatie op de Gazastrook met die van een 'gevangenenkamp'. 'Laat me duidelijk zijn dat de situatie in Gaza moet veranderen,' aldus Cameron. 'Humanitaire goederen en mensen moeten in beide richtingen de grens over kunnen. Gaza kan niet en mag niet een gevangenenkamp blijven.' Hamas noemde hij niet.
Vriendschap
Wel riep Cameron zowel Turkije als Israël op, om de vriendschap tussen de twee staten, waar de afgelopen tijd de klad in is gekomen, niet te laten verwateren.
Ron Prosor, de Israëlische ambassadeur in Groot-Brittannië, vindt de uitspraken van Cameron ongepast. 'De mensen in Gaza zijn gevangenen van de terroristische organisatie Hamas,' aldus Prosor. 'De situatie aldaar is een direct gevolg van Hamas' regels en prioriteiten.'
Een groot deel van gedoneerde medicijnen en medische apparatuur aan de Gazastrook blijkt niet bruikbaar. Een deel hiervan is afkomstig van de Free Gaza Flotilla. Deze spullen zijn geen hulp maar een last, want ze moeten wel worden verwerkt. Gebruiken sommige 'vredesactivisten' Gaza als illegale dumpplaats? Reporter: "These are disintegrating machines, and medicines that have passed their expiry date by months and even years. They arrive here without any supervision, under the slogan of breaking the siege on Gaza, the population of which is grateful for any initiative to support it. But here, we face a different story with regard to donations."
Mounir Al-Boursh: "These burial shrouds were donated to us. This shroud is 125 cm long. It is deplorable that our Arab brothers are sending burial shrouds for the children of Gaza."
Reporter: "While they await the medicines that they really need, the workers are busy loading these medicines, on their way to the garbage dumps rather than to hospitals. In Gaza, the decomposition of these medicines creates a huge problem, in the absence of incinerators or designated places. Even if the sick are saved from this medicine, the environment will definitely not be spared their perils and catastrophic effects, above and below the ground."
RP -----------
MEMRI Special Dispatch|3120| July 26, 2010
Palestinians/Inter-Arab Relations
Gaza Health Ministry Officials Complain that Medical Donations Supplied by Aid Convoys Are Past Their Expiry Date or Otherwise Useless
Following are excerpts from an Al-Jazeera TV report on the medical supplies delivered by aid convoys to Gaza. The report aired on July 20, 2010.
To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/2557.htm.
To view the MEMRI Guide to the Middle East's page about the Flotilla, visit http://www.memri.org/flotilla/.
Reporter: "This is the warehouse of the Ministry of Health in Gaza. To visitors it seems as if everything is fine, but officials here think otherwise. These are medicines donated by various countries and institutions. Much of it has become a burden rather than a blessing."
Gaza Health Ministry official Mounir Al-Boursh: "This is Tamiflu, for swine flu, or H1N1. This is two million dollars worth of aid, but the epidemic is over, and unfortunately, some countries get rid of their stocks..."
Reporter: "Munir Al-Boursh, the head of the donations department in the Health Ministry in Gaza, says that only 30% of the medical aid donated after the war benefited the hospitals and health services."
Mounir Al-Boursh: "A certain country sent ten truckloads of medicine, accompanied by an official delegation, but all these medicines were past their expiration date."
Reporter: "We asked about these dialysis units, standing in a corner of the warehouse, which had arrived in one of the aid convoys.
"Why are they not taken to the hospitals?"
Gaza Health Ministry official Bassam Barhoum: "These devices were past their expected life span when we got them. In other words, all operational hours were used up in their country of origin."
Reporter: "These are disintegrating machines, and medicines that have passed their expiry date by months and even years. They arrive here without any supervision, under the slogan of breaking the siege on Gaza, the population of which is grateful for any initiative to support it. But here, we face a different story with regard to donations."
Mounir Al-Boursh: "These burial shrouds were donated to us. This shroud is 125 cm long. It is deplorable that our Arab brothers are sending burial shrouds for the children of Gaza."
Reporter: "While they await the medicines that they really need, the workers are busy loading these medicines, on their way to the garbage dumps rather than to hospitals. In Gaza, the decomposition of these medicines creates a huge problem, in the absence of incinerators or designated places. Even if the sick are saved from this medicine, the environment will definitely not be spared their perils and catastrophic effects, above and below the ground."
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Waarom wordt iemand een zelfmoordterrorist? Is het wanhoop, armoede of jarenlange indoctrinatie en religieus fanatisme? Volgens Barry Rubin het laatste, en dat wordt ondersteund door het feit dat zelfmoordterroristen niet armer zijn dan de gemiddelde Palestijn. Ook de plegers van 9-11 waren niet door wanhoop en armoede tot hun daad gekomen, net als Mohammed Buyeri en andere plegers van aanslagen. Uit onderstaande voorbeelden blijkt ook dat Israelisch wangedrag niet de oorzaak is van geweld tegen Israel, al zal dit soms zeker meespelen. Israelische concessies of juist goed gedrag blijken in dit geval geen enkele invloed te hebben op het gedrag van de terrorist. RP -------------- The Terrorist Whose Daughter Was Cured Posted: 24 Jul 2010 10:13 AM PDT By Barry Rubin
This is a remarkable story in human terms but there is an extremely important point for understanding the Middle East embedded in it as well. On June 14, Palestinian terrorists opened fire on a police car travelling on a road, en route from Beersheba to Jerusalem. One policeman, Yeheshua Sofer was killed. Two others were wounded. Sofer was due to be married in three months. It took a month but members of the cell were finally captured. They spoke quite freely about this attack and others they had planned for killing Israelis. During the interrogation, one of the leaders remarked that only two weeks earlier his six-year-old daughter had been given a free operation in Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem to remove a tumor from her eye. The operation had been paid for by an Israeli organization. Reading this, I recall a number of similar past instances. In one famous case, the Palestinian who later attacked Israel had been saved from injuries inflicted by another Palestinian in a quarrel. There have also been examples of terrorists playing on the sympathy of Israelis claiming they needed medical attention--especially in one bloody attack on the Gaza-Israel border--not to mention the use of women and children to smuggle weapons or even to carry out suicide attacks. The Western reader--if he doesn't go in for some elaborate theory in which somehow Israel is still to blame--might see this and other such cases as examples of human ingratitude, the kind of thing often found in private life. There is also a psychiatric explanation: the person involved is in some way deranged, causing him to behave in an "illogical" manner. Yet beyond irony and insanity, both falling short of the needed explanation, this kind of situation is important because it challenges the common Western theme of kindness and concession as inevitably leading to moderation and peace. There is another misleading flip side of this view, too: the concept that what seems like inexplicable violence or "fanaticism" is a direct response to ill treatment. Thus, for those locked into the kindness breeds kindness model (which often does work in personal life), terrorists must be shown to be suffering from poverty or personal suffering (even though statistics show this to be untrue) or understandable outrage at bad treatment (ignoring the possibility of their engaging in alternative behavior, like making a compromise peace or building a democratic society). Yet the main missing explanation explaining such behavior is ideology and world view. If you think that the divine being has ordered you to wipe out Israel and the Jews (or Christians and the West also), if you have no self-critical facility whatsoever, if you believe (and are told by the West) that you are always a victim, if you put a priority on revenge rather than improving your situation, and if you view your opponent as sub-human (racism is more frequently deployed by elements in some parts of the "Third World" against the West than vice-versa nowadays, whatever was true in the past), then your conscience will be untroubled by having your daughter healed as a gift and trying to kill the maximum number of Israelis thereafter. Where have things been different? Obviously, one can insist on one's dignity and right to have a country of one's own without developing such behavior. We have seen this in dozens of cases over previous decades. You don't have to invoke such names s Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr or Mahatma Gandhi in this case. Quite average nationalist leaders far from sainthood have pulled it off repeatedly. Indeed, such an approach is not only more moral but more effective. After all, if you are willing to compromise with your opponent, the latter is more willing and able to give you more of what you want. If the Palestinian movement had adopted such an approach--which is still lacking to this day--there would have been a Palestinian Arab state in 1948 (UN partition), or in 1979 (Anwar al-Sadat peace initiative) or in 2000 (Camp David/Clinton plan), or at many other times in history. Of course, there are cases--fewer but genuine--of individual Palestinians saving the lives of Israelis who would otherwise have been murdered. But here's the catch: those people have to hide their identities from other Palestinians while to kill deliberately Israeli children, even in 2010, makes one a hero.
Moreover, it is also misleading to conclude that people want to wipe out Israel because it is doing something so horrible--that there is a proportionality at work here--as to justify such treatment. Again, the problem lies in the ideology and worldview of the radicals, as well as their expectation of total victory, that drives the process. Israelis as a whole discovered this between 1992 and 2000. Sympathy, an attempt to provide a balanced narrative, aid, payments, concessions, compromises, offers all failed. Indeed, not only did they fail but in many respects these actions made things worse--at least more dangerous--for those who tried that method.
One of the times I came closer to being killed so far was when an Arab driver returning from taking supplies to the Gaza Strip or bringing workers into Israel so they could make living smuggled in a suicide terrorist. Six months after the day I saw the dead killed by that attack in the street around the corner from my home, a high-ranking U.S. diplomat told me--with pomposity and a slur on Israel that would have marked him as a vicious antisemite if he weren't a Jewish careerist--that no terrorist had ever come into Israel that way.
Incidentally, and this is an absolutely true story, the day before the March 1996 bombing, I had passed by a woman in full Islamist dress (by no means normally dressed for an Israeli Arab Muslim woman who might merely wear modest clothing and a hijab) outside the Dizengoff Center mall looking at the door (and possibly checking out the security) about 20 yards from where the suicide bomber blew himself up some hours later. I thought to myself: what a great democratic and open country this is that in the midst of a terrorist bombing campaign she could walk through Tel Aviv without anyone bothering her in the least. I wondered later if this was coincidental or part of the terrorist operation. If you want to compare the reality of Israel from the way it is portrayed in biased media and academic writings, ponder that story.
These stories are in no way to say that you don't treat children with eye tumors, or not let people make a living or send in supplies, or look askance at people merely because they belong to a specific national or religious group.
But you also let wishful thinking take over your mind or allow hopes of gratitude to bolster your expectations in an irrational manner.
And you never ever strengthen individuals or organizations who want to kill you and wipe you out on the basis of believing that generosity will make them moderate.
This basic calculus, of course, does not apply just to Israel's situation but to a West facing attacks by revolutionary Islamists--including the September 11 terrorists and those in Britain's tube or Spain's railroad attacks--as well. The idea that compromises, concessions, flattery, and gifts are going to buy popularity or immunity will simply not work.
Note to Western leaders, academics, and journalists reading this: Remember to condemn the people who commit deliberate terrorist murders and refuse to make real peace, not the ones who operate for free on the "enemy" side's children and take risky concessions to try to achieve peace.
=================== Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center is at http://www.gloria-center.org and of his blog, Rubin Reports, at http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com .
We lezen veel over de problemen tussen Joden en Arabieren in Israel, maar sommige Arabieren zijn hardstikke goed geintegreerd en zijn trots op hun land en dienen met opgeheven hoofd in het Israelische leger. RP ---------- As part of a new feature here at Israel Politik, we are proud to launch "Faces of the IDF," where every week we will showcase a different Israeli soldier and their unique story. As a "citizen army," Israel's defense forces are a reflection of the country's multi-ethnic population - and more than that, comprises a complete cross-section of Israeli society. Male and female, rich and poor, gay and straight, black and white and everything in between. In short, everyone who makes Israeli society what it is today serves together as they live together in everyday life. While this is nothing out of the ordinary for Israelis, the following story really is making waves. And that is the story of Corporal Eleanor Joseph, the first female Arab paratrooper. Corporal Joseph, an Israeli-Arab born in Haifa, always saw herself in the IDF. Recalling an incident in which Katyusha rockets were launched by Hezbollah, which caused casualties in her Arab neighborhood, Eleanor realized "if someone tells me that the service in the IDF is just killing Arabs, I remind them that Arabs are killing Arabs." And so, Eleanor signed up to become a member of Israel's elite Karakal Unit – a dedicated combat unit comprised of men and women serving together – in order to protect Israel's 7 million Jewish, Christian, and Muslim citizens The road to completing paratrooper training is long and difficult; it requires great endurance, stamina, and integrity. Many who start do not finish. But Corporal Joseph was determined to succeed because "ultimately, [Israel] will always be my home too," she says and adds that despite the conflict and difficulties, hope still exists: "I still believe there will be peace, and belief creates reality." To read more of her inspiring journey, click here (in Hebrew)
Al Jazeera, niet de Jerusalem Post of Arutz 7, meldde het volgende: "The Al-Jazeera TV's Gaza Strip correspondent, revealed that the Gazans responsible for the ministry of health of the de facto Hamas administration were resentful because 70% of the medicines which arrived in the Gaza Strip from the aid convoys from various countries, especially Arab countries, could not be used. They were either unfit for use or their expiry dates had passed by months and sometimes years. They said that one of the convoys had brought dialysis machines which could not be used. The report was also quoted by a daily paper affiliated with the de facto Hamas administration"
(Al-Jazeera TV, July 20, 2010). Ik ben de afgelopen weken veel weggeweest en heb dus de media niet zo goed gevolgd, maar heb zo mijn twijfels of dergelijke informatie is doorgedrongen. Ook onderstaande uitspraken van een van de organisatoren van de Libanese vloot, zullen de NRC en Volkskrant waarschijnlijk niet hebben gehaald: "Qashlaq revealed his position in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV on June 19, 2010. He said that "the day will come when the ships [which arrive at the Gaza Strip] will take the remainder of the European garbage which came to my country [i.e., Israel] back to their homelands, Gilad Shalit will return to Paris and they [the leaders of Israel will return to Poland. Let the murderers go home. After they return we will pursue them everywhere all over the world and try them in court for the slaughters they have carried out from Dir Yassin to this day."
Ben benieuwd wat Anne de Jong en al haar supporters daarvan vinden. RP ----------- Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
July 25, 2010
Yasser Qashlaq, the Lebanese flotilla organizer, claims the ships will soon set sail for the Gaza Strip. Syria and Hezbollah are involved. Considering Qashlaq's anti-Semitic stance and links to terrorism, he apparently wants a violent confrontation (possibly contrary to the wishes of many of the passengers).
www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/ipc_e110.htm1. Yasser Qashlaq, chairman of the Free Palestine Movement and organizer of the Lebanese flotilla to the Gaza Strip, said the ships would leave within a few days. Qashlaq asked Lebanese politicians not to make difficulties, but rather to cooperate so the flotilla might succeed (DayPress news website, July 20, 2010). His previous declarations about its sailing were not realized, but nevertheless it is possible that this time the ships will set sail, despite a large number of international objections.
2. The current situation of the flotilla is as follows:
A. The ship called Maryam reached Tripoli and is currently participating in the routine processes required by law before a ship set sail. Rima Farah, ship spokesperson, said that contacts had been made with a number of countries to acquire authorization for the ship to be received at their harbors, because it cannot sail directly from Lebanon to the port of Gaza. Samar al-Hajj, coordinator for the organizing committee, is the director of the ship's logistic activities. Note: The ship will carry only women passengers (Al-Diyar website, July 21, 2010).
B. The ship called Nagi al-Ali (formerly Julia) is ready to set sail, and according to the organizers all that remains to be done is to load the cargo. Most of the passengers will apparently be correspondents.
C. The organizers may have another ship, but they are not divulging any information about it.
3. Yasser Qashlaq said he did not rule out the possibility that Israel would try to halt the flotilla because "there is no limit to the crimes of the entity of the occupation." He also said that there would be peace activists aboard the ships and that the cargos would include humanitarian equipment, and that any attempt to stop them would be "a terrorist action" (DayPress news website, July 20, 2010).
4. In our assessment, the ships were purchased and the flotilla organized with the involvement and support of Syria and Hezbollah, although both do not want to expose their roles and use organizations like the Free Palestine Movement as fronts for their activities.
5. Qashlaq revealed his position in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV on June 19, 2010. He said that "the day will come when the ships [which arrive at the Gaza Strip] will take the remainder of the European garbage which came to my country [i.e., Israel] back to their homelands, Gilad Shalit will return to Paris and they [the leaders of Israel will return to Poland. Let the murderers go home. After they return we will pursue them everywhere all over the world and try them in court for the slaughters they have carried out from Dir Yassin to this day."
6. Considering the stated positions of Qashlaq and some of those involved in the flotilla, and especially their close ties with Syria and Hezbollah, he apparently wants a violent confrontation between the passengers and the Israeli Air Force and Navy with a lot of media coverage. His intention is to defame Israel, even if his agenda is not necessarily that of the other passengers aboard the ships.
7. More proof that this flotilla, like that of the Mavi Marmara, is meant mainly to create a media circus and incite anti-Israeli propaganda, and not to bring humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip was made public by an Al-Jazeera TV investigative report.
8. The Al-Jazeera TV's Gaza Strip correspondent, revealed that the Gazans responsible for the ministry of health of the de facto Hamas administration were resentful because 70% of the medicines which arrived in the Gaza Strip from the aid convoys from various countries, especially Arab countries, could not be used. They were either unfit for use or their expiry dates had passed by months and sometimes years. They said that one of the convoys had brought dialysis machines which could not be used. The report was also quoted by a daily paper affiliated with the de facto Hamas administration (Al-Jazeera TV, July 20, 2010).
Volgens mij is nog nooit het juridische systeem van een ander land zo onder een vergrootglas gelegd, zeker niet van een democratische rechtsstaat. Israel is acutely concerned about the Goldstone follow-up committee, whose mandate includes examining the efficiency, independence and professionalism of Israel's court system and its adherence to internationally accepted standards. It fears the unprecedented UN investigation into the effectiveness of both the Israeli civilian and military hierarchies, by a committee whose motives and preconceptions it acutely mistrusts, could undermine the credibility of the Israeli judiciary internationally and leave Israel vulnerable to censure in international legal forums. Die vrees lijkt me geheel gegrond, gezien de uitspraken van een van de leden en de benoeming van dit panel door de VN. Volgens Gerald Steinberg van NGO Monitor zijn alle drie de leden verbonden met de International Commission of Jurists die bekend staat om zijn vooringenomenheid tegen Israel. Het zou alom door het westen veroordeeld moeten worden als politiek vooringenomen, en het mandaat zou betwist moeten worden. Zitten wij te wachten op een commissie die met een agenda ons rechtssysteem komt onderzoeken, terwijl landen als Iran, Cuba, Saudi-Arabië en Pakistan, allen leden van de VN mensenrechtenraad, vrijuit gaan? RP -------------
Goldstone committee head denies bias
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
07/25/2010 02:05
www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=182483German jurist Christian Tomuschat says he won't step down.
BERLIN - The chairman of the UN committee responsible for following up on the findings of the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead acknowledged on Saturday that he had helped prepare an advisory opinion analyzing legal aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian issue in the 1990s, but said he could not recall whether he had done this work on behalf of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
In any case, said German jurist Christian Tomuschat, the legal work had been objective, should not be regarded as "a blemish" and did not constitute a reason for him to step down from the Goldstone follow- up panel.
The Jerusalem Post had asked Tomuschat to comment on information it received over the weekend to the effect that he and four other international jurists prepared a brief for Arafat in 1996 concerning the international law aspects of the peace process, which suggested that Arafat should bring his case to the UN General Assembly, which could then refer it to the International Court of Justice.
The fact that Tomuschat had worked directly for one of the relevant parties should have been disclosed to Israel when his appointment to the Goldstone follow-up committee was made, but this was not done, according to the information received by the Post.
The panel was appointed last month by the UN human rights commissioner, Navi Pillay, and is about to start its work, with a view to publishing a report in October.
Tomuschat's appointment had already attracted criticism from pro-Israel legal watchdogs because of his characterization of Israel's policy of targeted killings as akin to "state terrorism."
Furthermore, the Post learned over the weekend, Tomuschat has already made plain his conviction that states are incapable of effectively conducting investigations into alleged excesses by their military forces. His established stance on this issue is relevant because the mandate of the panel includes examining whether the Israeli judicial system is capable of properly investigating the alleged IDF excesses documented in the Goldstone Report.
Tomuschat set out this assessment in a study titled "The Individual Threatened by the Fight Against Terrorism?" In that study, published in 2002, he wrote: "In such instances, there is little hope that the judicial system of the state concerned will conduct effective investigations and punish the responsible agents. Nowhere have excesses committed by security forces been adequately punished."
In the same study, he also wrote that "If a state strikes blindly against presumed terrorists and their environment, accepting that together with the suspects other civilians lose their lives, it uses the same tactics as the terrorists themselves. In this perspective, many actions carried out by the Israeli military in the occupied Palestinian territories would also have to be scrutinized very carefully.
"Normally," he went on, "states see themselves as guardians of human rights. However, by ordering the systematic commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity they themselves deserve the same blame as those targeted by them."
Tomuschat said on Saturday that he had done nothing that should require him to resign from the committee, that he was "not biased" against Israel, and that he had been in Israel many times and had participated in legal forums there.
Israel is acutely concerned about the Goldstone follow-up committee, whose mandate includes examining the efficiency, independence and professionalism of Israel's court system and its adherence to internationally accepted standards.
It fears the unprecedented UN investigation into the effectiveness of both the Israeli civilian and military hierarchies, by a committee whose motives and preconceptions it acutely mistrusts, could undermine the credibility of the Israeli judiciary internationally and leave Israel vulnerable to censure in international legal forums.
Critics of the panel, and its membership, have asserted that it is incapable of performing its work fairly because all three of its members are affiliated with the International Commission of Jurists, which "has had a long history of anti-Israel bias going back to Jenin [after the IDF's Operation Defensive Shield in 2002]," according to Gerald Steinberg of the NGO Monitor human rights watchdog. "Involving ICJ officials in an UN-related commission is another illustration of the link between the UN [Human Rights] Council and ideological NGOs," he said earlier this month.
The other two committee members are Malaysian Param Cumaraswamy and American Mary Davis.
Tomuschat, in a 2007 interview in which he discussed Israel's killing of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004, said, "Targeted killings are as ruthless as the attacks of terrorists."
Asked if Israel's targeted killings constituted "state terrorism," Tomuschat said, "It is very much in that direction."
De burgerslachtoffers die tijdens de Gaza oorlog vielen waren niet uitzonderlijk hoog, en het resultaat van een oorlog tegen een vijand die zich tussen de burgerbevolking verschuilt en grotendeels onzichtbaar is. Nu blijkt (wederom) dat de Westerse troepen in Afghanistan het wat dat betreft niet beter hebben gedaan, en ook bij hun operaties veelvuldig burgerslachtoffers vielen. Ook zij vechten tegen een grotendeels onzichtbare vijand die zich schuilhoudt tussen burgers, al is het gebied velen malen groter en dunbevolkter. Moet er ook een Goldstone rapport komen over de landen die troepen in Afghanistan hadden en hebben, en moeten de politici van die landen worden aangeklaagd voor het Internationaal Strafhof, zoals velen wat betreft Israel bepleiten? Het is natuurlijk terecht dat landen worden aangesproken op burgerslachtoffers, en zij moeten er alles aan doen die te vermijden. Maar het is natuurlijk bizar wanneer regeringen van landen waar een en ander al relatief goed geregeld is, waar een onafhankelijke rechtsspraak heerst en soldaten worden gestraft voor wangedrag, waar onafhankelijke journalisten vrijelijk over deze zaken kunnen schrijven en mensenrechtenorganisaties opereren, internationaal worden vervolgd terwijl schurkenstaten en niet-statelijke gewelddadige en extremistische organisaties vrijuit gaan. RP ------------- Leaks on mass civilian casualties in Afghanistan could form basis for Goldstone style prosecutions against US, Britain and other coalition countries Robin Stepherd This weekend's release of thousands of secret official files about coalition operations in Afghanistan paints a harrowing picture of the fog of war, most troubling of all of the accidental killings by our soldiers of hundreds of innocent civilians – revellers at wedding parties, kids in school buses, ordinary people going about their daily business who tragically found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Given that the Taliban systematically hides behind the civilian population this sort of thing is, of course, inevitable. Nonetheless, it is understandable that the revelations by Wikileaks have caused embarrassment to the governments of all the coalition countries. But for those coalition countries in Europe – Britain first among them – who are currently cheerleading the passage of the Goldstone Report on Gaza through the United Nations this is more than an embarrassment. In the light of Goldstone, it represents an outright threat to the security of their soldiers on the ground as well as to their national interests in international tribunals.
In my experience, the MidEast crowd at the British Foreign Office and its equivalents elsewhere in Europe tend to be a little on the slow side. So, let me spell this out so there is no ambiguity. International laws, norms and procedures to a great extent operate on the basis of precedent. So when Britain and other European countries allowed the Arab dictatorships to push a report through the United Nations specifically designed to criminalise the Israeli military's attempts to deal with terrorists hiding behind a civilian population in Gaza, they simultaneously set a precedent for all countries, including their own. Now that it has been revealed — via official documents — that British soldiers, for example, have been involved in exactly the same kind of operations against exactly the same kind of terror groups using exactly the same tactics and resulting in exactly the same kind of outcomes in terms of the loss of civilian lives, British soldiers and ministers could face exactly the same kind of censure and penalties as Israel. This could range from the purely verbal assaults of the kind mounted by European governments during Operation Cast Lead right up to prosecutions in international tribunals or through universal jurisdiction laws in countries around the world that have adopted them. Of course, I am using Goldstone as both a concrete precedent in its own right, but also as a proxy for the whole panoply of terror-appeasement policies and norms that outfits such as the British Foreign Office have allowed to develop, or have actively supported, in the international community over decades. The Foreign Office and its equivalents are thus proved not merely to have been engaged in the vilest of discriminatory hypocrisy over Israel, Goldstone and all that it represents, they are shown to have been deliberately and wilfully allowing a depraved anti-Israeli agenda to take precedence over their own national interests. I didn't realise that undermining one's own military or one's own national interests was what our diplomats were being paid to do. Perhaps they would care to comment?
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