Hamas en Fatah verwerpen opgeven 'recht op terugkeer'

 

Niet alleen de nederzettingen, ook de weigering van de Palestijnen het zogenaamde recht op terugkeer van de vluchtelingen en al hun nakomelingen op te geven, is een obstakel tot vrede. Amerika zal minstens zoveel druk op de Palestijnen moeten uitoefenen wat dit betreft als op Israel wat betreft de nederzettingen, maar ik heb Obama, Clinton en Mitchell er nog nauwelijks over gehoord.

 

Overigens is dit 'recht op terugkeer' niet vastgelegd in VN resolutie 194 zoals de Palestijnen en hun sympathisanten claimen.

 

RP

---------

 

Hamas, Fatah: US wants Palestinians to abandon right of return
Published today (updated) 20/07/2009 20:59
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=213367

 

Jerusalem - Ma'an - Senior Hamas and Fatah officials stated their objections on Sunday to what they said were US suggestions that Palestinians accept a land swap with Israel and give up the right of return.

The officials said that the US is pushing for a final status agreement with Israel that does not include the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, and maintains so-called Israeli settlement blocs in the West Bank.

Senior Fatah official Hatem Abdul Qader, who deals with Jerusalem issues, said "the United States is trying to deceive the Palestinians through these proposals, which they think are creative, but [exist] only in their imaginations." He called for the US to take concrete steps to stop Israel's expansion of illegal settlements as an alternative.

The official said, "If the United States cannot take small steps in this direction, then how it can make these big leaps that will not be accepted by the Palestinians?"

"The main challenge for this administration is to stop the settlements and land confiscation, particularly canceling the Israeli decision to confiscate 139,00 dunums [of land along the Dead Sea shores and to stop the settlement plans in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhoods in East Jerusalem."

If the US takes these "basic steps," it could lead to "real peace," he said. He also said that Palestinians refugees cannot give up the right to return to their homes in what is now Israel, basing their claim on UN Resolution 194. "Going around [Resolution 194] will not lead to real peace between Palestinians and Israelis."

Meanwhile Hamas senior official Salah Bardawil said that "the issue of land swap was proposed since the Camp David negotiations . President Yasser Arafat rejected this at the time then and paid his life as a price for this rejection."

Bardawil also said "We cannot accept anything that is proposed by the Americans regarding this issue." He said "all Palestinian factions" believe that a resolution to the conflict should be based on an Israeli withdrawal from the land it occupied in 1967 (the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem), the creation of a Palestinian state, and the realization of the right of return.

He also stated Hamas' "categorical rejection" of the alleged American proposals. "It's a waste of time for the US administration headed by [Barack] Obama to begin its political maneuvers with a rejected argument."

Breaking the Silence of Breaking the rules?

Tegenover de anonieme getuigenissen van soldaten over gepleegde oorlogsmisdaden tijdens de Gaza Oorlog die Breaking the Silence verzamelde, staan ook vele getuigenissen van soldaten die tot het uiterste gingen om burgerdoden te voorkomen. Deze getuigenissen verschijnen (uiteraard) niet in onze kranten en niet op het NOS journaal.

 

RP
--------------

Breaking the rules
Jul. 19, 2009
MICHAEL DICKSON , THE JERUSALEM POST

 

It is clear from its latest report that the goal of Breaking the Silence is not to bring offending soldiers to justice or even to encourage reforms in IDF policy. If these were its goals, it would include names, ranks, facts, place names and dates; it would have released a detailed report to the authorities to encourage an investigation. Without this information, it is impossible to probe the veracity of the claims.

The organization's efforts to defame Israel in the international arena are successful. Despite the precedent of previous claims made against the IDF being disproved, and without waiting for an investigation into the allegations, supposedly reputable media organizations such as the BBC choose to report them as fact. Defamation of Israel is the order of the day.

Breaking the Silence is misleading in its name and its aim. There is no silence to break. Israel is an open and democratic society that regularly criticizes its own actions, but this one-sided and shoddy report fails to stress the context of the war - a battle against Hamas terrorists hiding behind civilians and it omits names, ranks and facts about soldiers and their stories.

THE REPORT writers are keen to thank their funders, which shamefully include the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, Christian Aid and OXFAM, two charities which have in the past launched vitriolic anti-Israel campaigns, as well as the European Union which gave them $75,000 to "contribute to an atmosphere of human rights respect and values" and "to promote prospects for peace talks and initiatives." The EU is deceiving taxpayers if it is telling them that their money paying for this shoddy report is helping to promote peace.

If members of Breaking the Silence were sincere, they would be presenting accurate facts about terrorism, the goals expressed in the charter of Hamas, the deadly rocket fire coming from Gaza, the anti-Israel incitement and the ways the Palestinians have contributed to perpetuating the conflict and to harming the lives of ordinary Palestinian civilians. If they were sincere, they would be raising awareness about the moral dilemmas the IDF faces. But this vital context is missing from their account.

In response to this report, our organization set about filming testimonials and uploading them to a Web site called Soldiers Speak Out - a platform for Israeli soldiers to share their personal combat experiences with the world. The site, created by soldiers to share their personal experiences of serving in the IDF, contains testimonials from soldiers which contrast sharply with the reports of alleged IDF misconduct made by Breaking the Silence.

Breaking the Silence is breaking the rules for any kind of serious reporting. Its report is compiled from anonymous "testimony" from up to 30 people. In contrast, the soldiers who feature on our Web site give testimony on camera without their face blurred out and speak from their own personal experience.
 
The IDF has more than 700,000 citizen soldiers and reservists - thousands of whom served in Gaza in the campaign against Hamas - who try to live up to its high ethical standards. Attempting to slander an IDF campaign on the basis of the anonymous reports is ridiculous.

It is unlikely that the international media will give the Soldiers Speak Out site the kind of publicity they are currently lavishing upon Breaking the Silence. When it comes to Israel, good news is no news, but, as in previous occasions and despite those who exist to defame the IDF, the truth will out.

===========
The writer is Israel director of StandWithUs which educates about Israel through student fellowships, speaker programs, conferences, written materials and Internet resources. Soldiers testimony can be viewed at www.soldiersspeakout.com .

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443851732&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

Hamas krijgt geld van Arabische sjeik om grond te kopen in Jeruzalem

Hamas zou geld van een Arabische sjeik hebben gekregen om grond in Oost-Jeruzalem te kopen. Tegelijkertijd zijn de Amerikanen boos op Israel vanwege een goedgekeurd bouwproject in Oost-Jeruzalem. Die grond werd in 1985 gekocht door een Amerikaanse (!) miljonair, die het oude hotel dat daar stond verhuurde aan de Israelische grenspolitie en daar nu zo'n 20 woningen wil bouwen. Strikvraag: als het een Arabische miljonair was, zou de bouw dan wel mogen??

 

Open vragen: wie mogen die woningen straks kopen of huren? Sommige Israelische bouwprojecten in Oost-Jeruzalem worden steeds meer overgenomen door Arabische huurders terwijl Joden daar wegtrekken. Wellicht bouwt de Amerikaanse miljonair mee aan de toekomstige Palestijnse staat? En als Hamas gaat bouwen in Oost-Jeruzalem, mogen Joden die woningen dan ook huren? Of alleen antizionistische Joden?

In de PA staat intussen formeel de doodstraf op het verkopen van land aan Joden; laten we voor Hamas hopen dat Israel niet een vergelijkbare wet invoert. Die vormt immers ook een democratisch gekozen regering.

 

Sommige berichten roepen meer vragen op dan ze beantwoorden in de complexe situatie van het Midden-Oosten.

 

Wouter

______________

Last update - 15:30 19/07/2009       
Shin Bet: Qatar sheikh funding Hamas activities in Jerusalem
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service, and The Associated Press
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1101207.html

 

 

Qatar-based Sheikh Yousuf Qaradawi has allocated $21 million to a charity funded by Hamas to allow the Palestinian group to buy land and set up infrastructure in Jerusalem, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin said on Sunday.

 

Qaradawi, an 82-year-old Egyptian-born Muslim scholar with strong links to the Muslim Brotherhood, is a keen supporter of suicide bombings in Israel, which he describes as "martyrdom operations".

 

Abbas aide Rafiq Husseini dismissed the report. "We wish there was Arab money to buy threatened houses," he told The Associated Press, "but that's not the case." Qaradawi could not be reached for comment.

Diskin made the comments during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. He also told the ministers that the Palestinian Authority and its security forces have been working actively to thwart the sale of Palestinian land to Jews, particularly in East Jerusalem.

He added that Hamas was placing political and diplomatic moves higher on its agenda. Diskin said public statements by senior Hamas officials show the militant group's efforts to portray itself as interested in an end to the conflict with Israel.

 

The officials say they seek a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 borders in exchange for a long-term hudna, or ceasefire, Diskin said.

 

"This is not because of an abandonment of fundamental ideological values," he noted. "Hamas' move toward to the political theater is designed to challenge the sole leadership of Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas]."

 

The security service chief also told ministers that there had been a steady trickle into Gaza of foreigners linked to global jihad.

 

Diskin did not elaborate or cite evidence.

 

Gaza's Hamas interior minister Fathi Hamad dismissed Diskin's charge as baseless propaganda. The militant group Hamas controls the Gaza Strip.

 

He added that there is no Al-Qaida or any other organization in Gaza.

 

The Shin Bet chief's briefing came after it emerged that the United States has demanded Israel halt a construction project in East Jerusalem, which would see a hotel converted into housing units.

 

The Jerusalem municipality said it signed a deal for the project under completely legal terms, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Sunday that Jerusalem would not be included in any discussion on settlement construction.

 

But the PA responded harshly to Netanyahu's declaration, saying peace was impossible without Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital.

 

 

Kroonprins Bahrein: Arabieren moeten met Israeli's gaan praten

We must stop the small-minded waiting game in which each side refuses to budge until the other side makes the first move.

Gematigde taal voor de kroonprins van Bahrein.

Laat deze kroonprins eens naar Jeruzalem afreizen, en zijn land een begin maken door enige betrekkingen met Israel aan te gaan.

 

Wouter

_________________

Arabs Need to Talk to the Israelis
By Shaikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa
The Washington Post

Thursday, July 16, 2009 8:36 PM
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/16/AR2009071602737.html


We need fresh thinking if the Arab Peace Initiative is to have the impact it deserves on the crisis that needlessly impoverishes Palestinians and endangers Israel's security.

This crisis is not a zero-sum game. For one side to win, the other does not have to lose.

The peace dividend for the entire Middle East is potentially immense. So why have we not gotten anywhere?

Our biggest mistake has been to assume that you can simply switch peace on like a light bulb. The reality is that peace is a process, contingent on a good idea but also requiring a great deal of campaigning -- patiently and repeatedly targeting all relevant parties. This is where we as Arabs have not done enough to communicate directly with the people of Israel.

An Israeli might be forgiven for thinking that every Muslim voice is raised in hatred, because that is usually the only one he hears. Just as an Arab might be forgiven for thinking every Israeli wants the destruction of every Palestinian.

Essentially, we have not done a good enough job demonstrating to Israelis how our initiative can form part of a peace between equals in a troubled land holy to three great faiths. Others have been less reticent, recognizing that our success would threaten their vested interest in keeping Palestinians and Israelis at each other's throats. They want victims to stay victims so they can be manipulated as proxies in a wider game for power. The rest of us -- the overwhelming majority -- have the opposite interest.

It is in our interest to speak up now for two reasons. First, we will all be safer once we drain the pool of antipathy in which hatemongers from both sides swim.

Second, peace will bring prosperity. Already, the six oil and gas nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council have grown into a powerful trillion-dollar market. Removing the ongoing threat of death and destruction would open the road to an era of enterprise, partnership and development on an even greater scale for the region at large.

That is the glittering prize for resolving the dilemma of justice for Palestine without injustice to Israel. Effectively, this is the meta-issue that defines and distorts the self-image of Arabs and diverts too much of our energies away from the political and economic development the region needs.

The wasted years of deadlock have conditioned Israelis to take on a fortress mentality that automatically casts all Palestinians as the enemy -- and not as the ordinary, decent human beings they are.

Speaking out matters, but it is not enough. Our governments and all stakeholders also must be ready to carry out practical measures to help ease the day-to-day hardship of Palestinian lives.

The two communities in the Holy Land are not fated to be enemies. What can unite them tomorrow is potentially bigger than what divides them today.

Both sides need help from their friends, in the form of constructive engagement, to reach a just settlement.

What we don't need is the continued reflexive rejection of any initiative that seeks to melt the ice. Consider the response so far to the Arab peace plan, pioneered by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. This initiative is a genuine effort to normalize relations between the entire Arab region and Israel, in return for Israel's withdrawal from occupied territory and a fair resolution of the plight of the Palestinians, far too many of whom live in refugee camps in deplorable conditions.

We must stop the small-minded waiting game in which each side refuses to budge until the other side makes the first move. We've got to be bigger than that. All sides need to take simultaneous, good-faith action if peace is to have a chance. A real, lasting peace requires comprehensive engagement and reconciliation at the human level. This will happen only if we address and settle the core issues dividing the Arab and the Israeli peoples, the first being the question of Palestine and occupied Arab lands. The fact that this has not yet happened helps to explain why the Jordanian and Egyptian peace accords with Israel are cold. They have not been comprehensive.

We should move toward real peace now by consulting and educating our people and by reaching out to the Israeli public to highlight the benefits of a genuine peace.

To be effective, we must acknowledge that, like people everywhere, the average Israeli's primary window on the world is his or her local and national media. Our job, therefore, is to tell our story more directly to the Israeli people by getting the message out to their media, a message reflecting the hopes of the Arab mainstream that confirms peace as a strategic option and advocates the Arab Peace Initiative as a means to this end. Some conciliatory voices in reply from Israel would help speed the process.

Some Arabs, simplistically equating communication with normalization, may think we are moving too fast toward normalization. But we all know that dialogue must be enhanced for genuine progress. We all, together, need to take the first crucial step to lay the groundwork to effectively achieve peace. So we must all invest more in communication.

Once we achieve peace, trade will follow. We can then create a "virtuous circle," because trade will create its own momentum. By putting real money into people's hands and giving them real power over their lives, trade will help ensure the durability of peace. The day-to-day experience would move minds and gradually build a relationship of trust and mutual interest, without which long-term peacemaking is impossible.

When stability pays, conflict becomes too costly. We must do more, now, to achieve peace.

 

The writer is crown prince of Bahrain.

Voor Zwitserland bestaan geen terreur organisaties

 

Gaddafi zou gematigd zijn geworden op zijn oude dag, maar een cursus diplomatie heeft hij nog niet gevolgd. Hij noemt Zwitserland een 'global maffia' en stelt voor het land op te delen. Een uitstekende kandidaat om de dialoog mee aan te gaan.

 

Wouter
___________________

The Jerusalem Post
Jul 17, 2009 2:46 | Updated Jul 17, 2009 10:31
For Switzerland, there are no terror organizations
By HERB KEINON
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443834783&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

Switzerland continues to dismay Israel, as its Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey told Swiss RSR Radio on Wednesday that while she recognizes there are terrorists, Switzerland does not have a list of terrorist organizations because it believes that while a person can be called a terrorist, an organization cannot.

During the interview, Calmy-Rey admitted that officials from her ministry met in June with a Hamas delegation - led by former Hamas foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahar - when he was at an international conference in Geneva.

The Swiss officials had joined a meeting the Hamas delegation held with former US diplomat Thomas Pickering, a former ambassador to the UN and undersecretary of state. Pickering is today the co-chairman of the non-profit International Crisis Group.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said "the Swiss government, by ignoring the murderous and extremist character of Hamas, is again making the wrong choice, sending the wrong signal, and missing an opportunity to side with the moderates in the Middle East."

Palmor said "again" because in April, Israel recalled its ambassador to Bern for consultations after Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Pointing to the year-long spat the Swiss are having with Libya over the arrest - and later release - in Switzerland of Muammar Gaddafi's son and daughter-in-law, Palmor said Gaddafi last week called for breaking up Switzerland, which he described as a "global mafia."

"How would the Swiss feel if we invited Gaddafi here now to discuss the matter?" Palmor said.

The Swiss Embassy in Tel Aviv said the Swiss Foreign Ministry had no comment on the issue.

Palmor said that while Israel would not this time recall its envoy in Bern, Ilan Elgar, for consultations, the ambassador would make Israel's dissatisfaction known to the Swiss government.

Switzerland is not a member of the EU. The EU, like the US, does consider Hamas a terrorist organization and has refused any contact with it until Hamas recognizes Israel, forswears terrorism and accepts previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

Although there are some voices inside the EU - primarily from Sweden and Belgium - that would like to ease these conditions so a dialogue could be maintained with Hamas, Palmor said there was no real concern in Jerusalem at this time that the EU would change its position on the matter.

The US has also not changed its position on Hamas, with The Washington Post on Wednesday quoting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying that before Hamas can participate in peace talks, "we have made it clear, both publicly and privately, through all kinds of pronouncements, that we would expect Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence and agree to abide by prior agreements."

Egyptische politie vindt halve ton explosieven bij Gaza grens

 

Egypte staat sinds de Gaza Oorlog onder extra (met name Amerikaanse) druk om tegen de wapensmokkel en de tunnels op te treden.

 

Waar ik onlangs niets van begreep was Obama's kritiek op de blokkade van Gaza: Egypte staat niet onder invloed van Israel maar van Amerika. Als Obama tegen Moebarak zegt dat Egypte goederen via Rafah naar Gaza moet doorlaten, zal Egypte dat doen lijkt me, tenzij ze dat echt zelf niet willen. Ik zie niet wat Israel daartegen zou kunnen ondernemen?

 

Wouter
__________________

Egypt police seize half-ton of explosives near Gaza border
By DPA

Last update - 00:30 01/01/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1101004.html

 

Egyptian police seized half a ton of explosives in a cemetery in the town of Rafah, an Egyptian security official said on Saturday.

Police discovered eight large plastic bags full of TNT in the Maqronatien cemetery in the divided town of Rafah, which is bisected by Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, a source in Egypt's Interior Ministry said, requesting anonymity.

Tanks shells and ammunition left over from the 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel were also found in the cache, he said.

Egyptian security officers also discovered 10 mortar rounds and a horde of ammunition of different calibers buried in a trash bag in a warehouse in Rafah, the source said, adding that police were investigating, but had not yet made arrests in connection with the find.

Egypt has been under consistent international pressure, particularly from the United States and Israel, to curtail weapons smuggling across its border with the Gaza Strip.

Last week, four Palestinians were injured when a smuggling tunnel they were building under the border collapsed, suffocating them, Palestinian medics said.

Palestinian security officials said the tunnelers had apparently been working to replace smuggling tunnels Egyptian police had recently destroyed.

UNIFIL op de hoogte van Hezbollah aktiviteiten in Zuid-Libanon maar machteloos

Dit is niet de eerste keer dat UNIFIL op de hoogte was van een schending van VN resolutie 1701 (aangenomen na de Libanon Oorlog en waarin het staakt-het-vuren en de voorwaarden worden geregeld, waaronder het mandaat voor UNIFIL), maar niks deed. Het lijkt duidelijk dat UNIFIL niet de mogelijkheden heeft om haar toch al beperkte mandaat naar behoren uit te voeren.

 

RP

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

 

Last update - 08:14 19/07/2009       
'UN learned of Hezbollah armed cache months ago'
By Barak Ravid, Zvi Bar'el, Amos Harel and Jack Khoury
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1101167.html

 

 

UNIFIL learned a few months ago about the cache of Katyusha rockets that exploded in the southern Lebanese village of Hirbet Salim last Tuesday, a government source in Jerusalem said. The source said UNIFIL had precise information about the cache and a number of other installations where Hezbollah is storing rockets, but that UNIFIL had done nothing.

 

A discussion is scheduled in the UN Security Council for late August on renewing UNIFIL's mandate in southern Lebanon; Israel hopes last week's explosion will show the need to strengthen UNIFIL. Israel believes that UNIFIL could sharpen its rules of engagement and act more forcefully with the Lebanese army in southern Lebanese villages.

 

Government officials dealing with the Lebanon issue say UNIFIL soldiers encounter armed Hezbollah fighters or are detained by them, but the incidents do not appear in the reports submitted to the Security Council.
 
On Saturday it was reported that that area residents prevented UNIFIL soldiers from searching an abandoned building near the building that blew up last week, in which it is believed Hezbollah stored weapons, against UN Security Council resolution 1701. A Lebanese security official said dozens of civilians surrounded UNIFIL vehicles and blocked the road leading to the building. The UNIFIL forces retreated with the assistance of the Lebanese army.

 

Earlier, Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech marking a year since the exchange of Lebanese prisoners for the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev; the Hezbollah leader said Israel still held one Lebanese prisoner and a number of bodies, and that there is still uncertainty surrounding the disappearence of four Iranian diplomats.

 

Nasrallah said he would continue working to bring back all Lebanese prisoners and remains from Israel, implying that the Lebanese government is not up to the task.

 

Meanwhile, Hezbollah "allowed" 12 Lebanese civilians to infiltrate a few dozen meters into Israeli territory on Mount Dov on Saturday near Shaba Farms, raising a Lebanese flag. They returned to Lebanon shortly thereafter. The Israel Defense Forces said it did not respond because the civilians were unarmed and not dangerous.

 

The border between Israel and Lebanon in the area is not fenced. IDF lookouts said the group, which included children, also had a Hezbollah flag, but did not raise it.

 

Israeli forces were placed on alert and the IDF informed UNIFIL command of the matter, asking them to intervene. By the time the UNIFIL force went to the site, the group was on its way back to Lebanese territory.

 

Security officials say the civilian incursion was intended to draw attention away from the explosion, which embarrassed Hezbollah, as it revealed the presence of weapons in southern Lebanon.

 

A senior defense official told Haaretz that he believed Hezbollah does not want to escalate the situation in the north, but that the group was seeking to attack Israeli targets abroad.

 

The infiltration of civilians onto Mount Dov is also apparently connected to Saudi and American pressure on Syria to demarcate its border with Lebanon to bring about an Israeli withdrawal from Shaba Farms. Such an Israeli withdrawal would neutralize Hezbollah's justification to continue to remain an armed group to liberate occupied Lebanese territory. Nasrallah is not part of these diplomatic efforts and views them as an Israel-American-Saudi "plot."

 

Hezbollah says the government and foreign interests are not the "owners" of the Shaba Farms "project," and if anyone is to make political hay from an Israeli withdrawal, it must be Hezbollah.

 

Israel mag niet als geboorteland voor Amerikanen geboren in Jeruzalem

Dit is een van die absurde dingen die ik aanvankelijk nauwelijks kon geloven. Een Jood die in Jeruzalem (ook West-Jeruzalem) geboren is, kan niet Israel als geboorteland in zijn paspoort krijgen. Zoals de vader van een kind van wie het hoger beroep in deze zaak zojuist is afgewezen stelt: 

 

"We like to believe the US is our strongest ally, yet something so fundamental like this, even that little bit, our strongest ally refuses to recognize, it just sends a message," he said.

 

Dit sluit aan bij ander beleid waarin Jeruzalem niet als hoofdstad van Israel wordt erkend. Officieel streeft de VN nog steeds naar internationalisatie van de stad, zoals in het VN plan uit 1947 voorgesteld. Hoewel men zich bij de realiteit van Israelisch West-Jeruzalem heeft neergelegd, is de annexatie van de oostelijk helft inclusief de oude stad door geen enkel land erkend.

RP

----------------- 

 

The Jerusalem Post
Jul 19, 2009 3:57 | Updated Jul 19, 2009 4:11
'J'lem boy's passport can't say Israel'
By E.B. SOLOMONT, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443843213&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


NEW YORK - Parents of a Jerusalem-born American boy who want "Israel" listed as their son's country of birth on his passport have been dealt another blow with the dismissal of their case by a US court of appeals.

The US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, on July 10 upheld a lower court's decision that the courts lack jurisdiction in the matter because foreign policy - including the recognition of foreign governments - belongs exclusively in the domain of the executive branch. According to the State Department, US passports for those born in Jerusalem do not list a country because doing so would interfere with and pre-judge Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

The case had been filed by an American couple living in Israel, Ari and Naomi Zivotofsky, on behalf of their son, Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky, born in 2002.

Reached by telephone during a recent trip to Ethiopia, Ari Zivotofsky told The Jerusalem Post that though his son's American passport is valid, the outcome of the case is laden with symbolism. "This is about the US recognizing the sovereignty of Israel over any [part] of Jerusalem," he said. "We like to believe the US is our strongest ally, yet something so fundamental like this, even that little bit, our strongest ally refuses to recognize, it just sends a message," he said.

The Zivotofskys have two older children who were born in the US. An attorney for the family, Nathan Lewin, said they were mulling an appeal to the US Supreme Court. "I'm appalled by the decision," he said. "The court is clearly wrong that it's a political question... It's clearly a matter of law."

The lawsuit argues that a 2002 law authorizes the State Department to designate Israel as the place of birth in the passports of Jerusalem-born Americans.

Lewin said changing Zivotofsky's passport is not a foreign policy decision. "It's not saying the US formally recognizes Jerusalem as being in Israel. On a passport, that's simply a means of identification."

Indeed, he noted, Arab citizens born in Tel Aviv or Haifa may choose to omit Israel from their passports. "The Arabs can strike Israel off the passport, but the Jews cannot put it on the passport," he said.

The case was thrown out twice before, in 2004 and in 2007, by Judge Gladys Kessler. In 2006, the DC Court of Appeals overturned Kessler's 2004 ruling and sent the case back for a fact-finding mission to determine the possible consequences of including "Israel" on the passport. But in 2007, Kessler said the State Department's refusal to list Israel on the passport was a "nonjusticiable political question."

In her decision, Kessler argued that the US courts should not get involved in the dispute. "Such conflicts are best resolved through political means," she wrote.

The Zionist Organization of America criticized last week's decision. The group's national president, Morton A. Klein, pointed to the US Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which recognizes sovereign nations' right to designate their own capitals.

"American citizens like Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky, who are born in Israel's designated capital, should have the right to have that fact reflected on their official documents," he said in a statement.

In recent years, Canada faced a similar issue when a Jerusalem-born teenager living in Toronto asked to have "Jerusalem, Israel" listed on his passport. Eliyahu Veffer's petition was denied, and he subsequently filed a legal challenge to the Canadian passport agency's policy. "My religion teaches me that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel," Veffer said in an affidavit.

However, a federal court judge in 2006 dismissed his application to review the passport agency's policy, ruling that "passports do not deal with, nor are they a reflection of, a person's roots, heritage or belief."

In February 2008, Canada's Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal.

"Canada has a general passport policy of allowing the name of the country inscribed in the passport to be that which the applicant has provided in the application. Jerusalem is an exception to this general policy," David Matas, who as senior legal counsel for B'nai B'rith Canada filed an appeal on behalf of Veffer, said at the time. "This exception has an adverse discriminatory impact."

In the US, there is no legal precedent for the Zivotofsky case, Lewin said. The closest parallel involves Taiwan. In 1994, Congress passed a law allowing the State Department to designate "Taiwan" as the birth country in a passport when requested to do so by applicants born there, rather than China.

 

 

Internationale Journalistenfederatie welkom in Jordanië na uitsluiting Israël

 

De Arabische leden van de internationale federatie van journalisten zijn duidelijk in hun nopjes met het besluit de Israelische afdeling te royeren. Het volgende suggereert zelfs dat vanuit Jordanië hiertoe druk is uitgeoefend op de internationale federatie. Jordanië geldt als het meest gematigde en pro-westerse Arabische land, en het meest vriendschappelijk met Israel. Dit soort aannames blijken wel vaker niet te kloppen:

The Jordan Press Association (JPA) agreed to a request by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) to hold its conference in the Kingdom in October, after the latter agreed to exclude Israel's participation, a JPA council member said on Thursday.
"We are against any form of normalisation with Israel, which still occupies Arab lands and violates Arab and Palestinian rights," JPA Vice President Hikmat Momani told The Jordan Times, adding that the JPA also agreed to the organisation of several training workshops for journalists from across the region by the IFJ, provided that Israel does not take part.

 

RP

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SUBJECT: On July 7  International Federation of Journalists(IFJ) expelled Natonal Federation of Israeli Jounalists for non payment of dues, thus legitinatizing Israel's exclusion for participation in the IJF's October conference in Jordan.

JORDAN TIMES - 17 July '09 - Excerpts:

"Jordan to host IFJ conference; Israel not invited"

By Hani Hazaimeh
http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=18481

 

 

AMMAN - The Jordan Press Association (JPA) agreed to a request by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) to hold its conference in the Kingdom in October, after the latter agreed to exclude Israel's participation, a JPA council member said on Thursday.

 

"We are against any form of normalisation with Israel, which still occupies Arab lands and violates Arab and Palestinian rights," JPA Vice President Hikmat Momani told The Jordan Times, adding that the JPA also agreed to the organisation of several training workshops for journalists from across the region by the IFJ, provided that Israel does not take part.

 

The date of the conference has yet to be set, Momani said, adding that it will bring together Arab and foreign press associations to discuss issues related to media work.

 

Momani added that Israel's membership in the IFJ had been suspended for 12 years before the federation cancelled its membership last week.

 

The IFJ Executive Committee unanimously agreed at its July 7 meeting in Oslo, Norway, to expel the National Federation of Israeli Journalists (NFIJ) from the IFJ, according to a statement posted on IFJ website.

 

The statement added: "The IFJ wrote to the NFIJ confirming the decision and offering them the opportunity to appeal the decision which can be heard at the congress of the IFJ in Spain in May 2010."

 

However, the IFJ stressed that the decision to expel the NFIJ was based on financial considerations.

 

"There was no political element in the decision. The NFIJ has not paid any fees to the IFJ for more than five years," the statement added.

Wapensmokkelroute uit Iran via Jemen, Soedan en Egypte naar Gazastrook

 

16,000 people working in the tunnels - Rafah municipality charges a NIS 10,000 shekel ($2,500 dollar/1,800 euro) fee to open one

 

Deze wapensmokkel houdt de problemen in Gaza in stand, en verhindert open grenzen. Toch hoor je al die mensen die zo verontwaardigd zijn over de blokkade van Gaza nooit over de wapensmokkel en de steun van Iran aan Hamas.

RP
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Intelligence agencies track path of arms from Iran to Hamas
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

Last update - 00:43 01/01/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100860.html

 

Iran's smuggling network to Gaza has shrunk following Operation Cast Lead, and international awareness of the issue has increased, according to Western and Israeli intelligence sources.

According to Western intelligence reports, Iran has been maintaining a robust arms smuggling system into the Gaza Strip as part of the support it extends to Hamas. This support is set up in a modus operandi similar to the one Iran has employed for two decades in helping Hezbollah in Lebanon through Syria.

The route through which arms are moved from Iran to Gaza seems to have become more complicated. Currently, it appears weapons shipments are dispatched through Bandar-Abbas, a southern Iranian port. From there the shipments are transported to Yemen, through the Persian Gulf.

The weapons go from Yemen to a Sudanese port, from where they are transported by professional smugglers to Egypt and onto the Sinai peninsula. From Yemen to Sudan, the arms are transported inside the hulls of medium-sized civilian boats.

According to the London-based Sunday Times and other media, the Israel Air Force used unmanned drones to attack secret Iranian convoys in Sudan last March; the convoys were said to be smuggling weapons to Palestinian militant organizations in the Gaza Strip.

But usually shipments from Sudan make it over to Bedouin smugglers, who transfer the shipments into the Sinai and get the goods over to the Egyptian part of Rafah. From there it is smuggled in tunnels to the Palestinian part of town, which is the terminus.

The weapons are mostly Chinese-made, but some are manufactured in Iran. This includes medium- and short-range rockets, anti-tank missiles, explosives and firearms.

A recent study by the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution showed that more than half the 16,000 people working in the tunnels are under 18, as were 30 of the 115 people killed in the tunnels since Israel imposed the blockade two years ago.

The Hamas government says the tunnels are legal until the blockade is lifted, and the Rafah municipality charges a NIS 10,000 shekel ($2,500 dollar/1,800 euro) fee to open one.

On the way back from Sudan to Yemen, the smuggling boats are often used to smuggle African foreign workers into Asia or for contraband products. United States Navy vessels found several of these boats. One, searched during routine security patrolling in the Red Sea, contained a large shipment of jams.

Israeli intelligence sources report that after Operation Cast Lead, the Egyptian security forces are more willing to cooperate with their Israeli counterparts. Coordination is done through phone calls between relatively high-level officials.

Israel has reportedly carried at least out three air strikes since January against what was believed to be Iranian arms shipments passing through Sudan on their way to Gaza, according to the American news network ABC.

Sudanese officials confirmed that in January, in the wake of Israel's assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza, unidentified aircraft attacked a convoy of 17 trucks heading north through eastern Sudan.

Christelijk-conservatieve Republikeinen hebben Joodse steun verloren

Voor de meeste Joden in de VS is Israel niet het beslissende onderwerp wat betreft hun stemgedrag en partijlidmaatschap. Niet alleen stemde ca. 80% van de Amerikaanse Joden de afgelopen verkiezingen op Obama, de republikeinen hebben nog maar één Joods congreslid tegenover 30 bij de democraten.

 

By 2008, only 3 per cent of Jewish voters felt Israel was the issue they'd most like to hear candidates discuss, according to an American Jewish Committee survey. In another poll, Israel tied for seventh place with illegal immigration on a list of issues important to Jewish voters.

 

Jewish votes are not attracted by defending torture and waterboarding, opposing gay marriage, banning abortion, cutting taxes for the wealthiest, trying to privatize Social Security and cutting Medicare, blocking universal health insurance and being identified, in the words of Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME), as "the party of big business, big oil and the rich."

 

Ook andere minderheden in de VS zijn niet warm te krijgen voor de conservatief-christelijke politiek van de Republikeinen, die vooral de welgestelden en het platteland vertegenwoordigt.

 

RP
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http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443820178&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Washington Watch: The Republicans' Jewish problem

Jul. 15, 2009
Douglas Bloomfield , THE JERUSALEM POST

 

The Republican Party has a Jewish problem. And a Hispanic problem. And an Asian problem. And a black problem. And a female problem.

This week's hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court illustrated the party's growing minority dilemma. It lost the Hispanic and female vote in last year's election, and GOP senators aren't about to reverse that by harping on the nominee's 2001 statement about the value of a "wise Latina" on the bench. That could be a particular problem for someone like Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who is running for reelection next year in a state with a large Hispanic population.

That's the same McCain who was supposed to create a "sea change" in Jewish voting patterns last year by drawing a record number of Jewish voters into the Republican column.

As the nation becomes more ethnically and racially diverse, the GOP is becoming more monochromatic - white, rural, Christian, conservative, male and angry. That's not the minority group it needs to take back the Congress or the White House.

Even some of its own members are calling the party powerless, leaderless and rudderless. The most recognizable voices of the party are Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove and Sarah Palin. Even Joe the Plumber quit the GOP.

Of course, the role of the opposition party is to oppose, but it also has to propose. It can't keep saying "No" without offering credible alternatives.

George W. Bush came to office promising to downsize the government and upsize the party, and wound up doing just the opposite. Today, only one in five Americans identifies as a Republican.

WHEN THE last Jewish Republican in the US Senate - Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania - crossed the aisle to join the Democrats, Limbaugh, et. al, cheered, "Good riddance." There is only one Jewish Republican in the 111th Congress, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the minority whip. There are 30 Jewish Democrats in the House and 13 in the Senate, record numbers.

For 20 years or so we've been hearing predictions by Jewish Republicans of a mass migration of Jewish voters from the Democratic party, but the GOP has never recovered from the damage done by George H.W. Bush's questioning the loyalty of American Jews and trying to block loan guarantees to Israel in 1991.

The Jewish vote, which had been between 30 and 39 percent in 1980s, dropped to 11 percent in 1988; 20 years later it was up, but not to previous levels, at 22 percent.

The 1994 Gingrich revolution that gave the GOP control of both chambers for the first time in 40 years, with support for Israel high on the party's agenda, was expected to reverse the decline in Jewish support. But it failed.

The foundation of the new Republican majority was the staunchly conservative Evangelical movement, and its positions on issues like church-state separation, abortion, gay rights, civil liberties and other domestic topics important to the Jewish community overshadowed its enthusiasm for Israel. After years of resistance, Republicans began voting for foreign aid, the pro-Israel community's number one legislative agenda, in large numbers.

It was at about that time that Israel peaked as the most important issue for Jewish voters. If Jews ever were single-issue voters, that was clearly changing in the 1990s. The reason wasn't a lack of interest but a feeling that both parties were good in their support for Israel, which allowed Jewish voters to focus more on other issues. That was bad news for Republicans, who were banking on outspoken support for Israel would overshadow Jewish concerns on their domestic agenda.

By 2008, only 3 per cent of Jewish voters felt Israel was the issue they'd most like to hear candidates discuss, according to an American Jewish Committee survey. In another poll, Israel tied for seventh place with illegal immigration on a list of issues important to Jewish voters.

Jewish votes are not attracted by defending torture and waterboarding, opposing gay marriage, banning abortion, cutting taxes for the wealthiest, trying to privatize Social Security and cutting Medicare, blocking universal health insurance and being identified, in the words of Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME), as "the party of big business, big oil and the rich."

WHAT CAN the GOP do about its Jewish problem? I asked a number of activists of various persuasions, and the most frequent answer I got was hope that the anger on the right toward Barack Obama's Mideast policies will spread across the Jewish community and finally give them a bigger chunk of the Jewish vote in 2012. Hoping the opposition fails is not a formula for success.

The Republicans are doing much better when it comes to Jewish money; indeed, some party pragmatists say Jewish campaign dollars, not votes, are what GOP leaders are really after. Jews are disproportionately large contributors to both parties, especially among a number of very large Republican givers, a party operative said. There are fewer Jewish GOP donors, but the size of their donations is larger, he said.

I believe it is in the interest of the Jewish community - in both foreign and domestic policy - to be well represented in both parties, but so long as the Evangelicals and social conservatives set the Republican agenda, Jews will keep voting overwhelmingly Democratic.

Commissie Buitenlandse Zaken VS: Abbas moet vredesbesprekingen met Netanjahoe beginnen

Het is de eerste keer dat ik zo'n duidelijke oproep aan (en kritiek op) president Abbas lees van Amerikaanse zijde. Helaas komt die van de voorzitter van de Commissie Buitenlandse Zaken van het Huis van Afgevaardigden, en niet van president Obama of Hillary Clinton, die wel steeds Israel zo fel hebben bekritiseerd over de bouw in de nederzettingen.

 

RP

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For Immediate Release
July 15, 2009
Contact: Lynne Weil, (202) 225-5021
www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca28_berman/NetanyahuPeaceTalkProposal.shtml
Berman Calls on Abbas to Accept Netanyahu Proposal for Unconditional Peace Talks

 

Washington, D.C. - Howard L. Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today issued this statement regarding proposed unconditional peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian authorities:

"I am deeply disappointed that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has consistently rejected Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's call for unconditional talks on the Palestinian issue.

"As everyone familiar with Israeli politics knows, Netanyahu has taken a politically courageous and substantively important step in endorsing the idea of 'two states for two peoples,' and he has also taken significant steps to ease travel and access in the West Bank by dismantling numerous checkpoints and roadblocks. Nevertheless, Abbas is demanding that Netanyahu establish a settlement freeze as a condition for a meeting. This is a condition Abbas never required of Netanyahu's predecessor Ehud Olmert. Moreover, in the context of bilateral talks, Abbas could raise his settlement concerns directly with Netanyahu - concerns which, Abbas knows, are being discussed intensively between U.S. and Israeli officials.

"For the sake of re-establishing an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue and helping to create an environment of peace, I call on President Abbas immediately to accept Prime Minister Netanyahu's proposal for unconditional talks on peace."

De stilte doorbreken over Breaking The Silence

Zo gaan die dingen achter de schermen.

Een en ander versterkt de twijfel die ik toch al had over de intentie van Breaking the Silence. Wil men misstanden aan de kaak stellen met het doel dat het leger zaken verbetert of wil men Israel aan de schandpaal nagelen?

 

Het is jammer dat het artikel in de Jerusalem Post maar op enkele gemelde incidenten een reactie van het leger geeft. Is dat uit ruimtegebrek of omdat het leger op die andere zaken niet een-twee-drie een reactie had?

 

RP

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Breaking the silence on Breaking The Silence

http://forecasthighs.com/2009/07/15/breaking-breaking-the-silence/

July 15, 2009 by forecasthighs

Breaking The Silence, a small group of former Israeli soldiers on Wednesday embarked on an international campaign to show the world what it says are testimonies from soldiers pointing to immoral Israeli actions committed during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year.

I'm not going to get into the report itself, which may be totally true, somewhat true, entirely false, who knows. It is undoubtedly an important report that is reverberating globally. Instead, a brief look behind the scenes into the way Breaking The Silence operated on this report.

It promised the exclusive to Haaretz, because it knows the report would have gotten prominence there. What it didn't count on was Haaretz learning its lesson from its huge mistake last time it was given a report into alleged Israel Defense Forces human rights violations in Gaza. Last time Haaretz didn't do its journalistic job and published unsubstantiated hearsay. This time Haaretz military reporter Amos Harel had the presence of mind to send the Breaking The Silence report to the IDF for response.

My military reporter, Yaakov Katz, was in the right place at the right time, and got hold of most of the report himself. Breaking The Silence tried to get Yaakov off the story because it didn't fit into their strategy to have The Jerusalem Post take a critical look at their report. They promised Yaakov they would give him other stories in the future if he dropped this one for now. Katz refused, rightly so, and we published.

Several days before all this, Breaking The Silence gave out their report to a wide array of foreign media, and not to the IDF to probe into itself, with the caveat that they observe the embargo until after Haaretz published the report first. All of which shows their original intent was to get as much uncritical worldwide publicity for their report. Legitimate, sure. Fair? Not so sure.

 

VS wil bindend tijdschema voor Israelisch-Palestijnse onderhandelingen

Het is begrijpelijk dat de VS ervoor wil zorgen dat er voortgang zit in de onderhandelingen, maar ze lopen wel nogal op de zaken vooruit. Momenteel zijn er nog geen onderhandelingen want Abbas weigert met Israel te praten zolang dat niet geheel stopt met bouwen in de nederzettingen, en wellicht nog andere eisen, en ook de Arabische staten hebben afwijzend op Amerikaanse voorstellen voor goodwill gestures gereageerd. Volgens diplomaten heeft dat laatst Amerika's positie wat betreft de nederzettingen iets milder gemaakt:

 

The shift in the American position is also the product of the refusal on the part of the moderate Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, to make significant normalization gestures toward Israel. In all probability, when the Americans understood that in any event they would not obtain substantial gestures from the Arabs, they decided to reach a compromise with Israel.

 

Het vreemde is, dat Amerika al maanden de nederzettingenkwestie hoog opspeelt, met als resultaat dat Israel al een heel eind is opgeschoven, maar ook dat Israel publiekelijk veel schade heeft geleden en de regering zo mogelijk nog meer dan al het geval was als anti-vrede wordt gezien, terwijl de VS wat betreft de Arabische concessies veel omzichtiger te werk is gegaan. Het lijkt erop dat men wat dat betreft vooral vrijblijvend heeft geopperd of het misschien een idee is om alvast een symbolisch gebaar te maken naar Israel toe, zodat Israel er vertrouwen in heeft dat de Arabieren ook bereid zijn tot concessies. Het resultaat is een duidelijk 'nee', waarna de VS niet zegt 'we will press this issue', zoals Hillary Clinton zei wat betreft de nederzettingen, maar 'jammer dan, dan proberen we wat anders'. Ondertussen ziet de hele wereld alleen de nederzettingen als obstakel, en de haatpropaganda tegen Joden en Israel in de Arabische media, de Arabische boycot tegen Israel, de steun voor het 'Palestijnse verzet' en de weigering van de Palestijnen om Israel als nationaal thuis van het Joodse volk te erkennen, worden vrijwel genegeerd.

 

RP

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Report: US to set binding timetable for Israel-PA talks

Last update - 09:19 16/07/2009       
Obama to set binding timetable for Israel-PA talks
By Barak Ravid

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100581.html

 

 

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to announce a diplomatic plan soon for renewal of the Middle East peace process.

 

A central feature of the plan, which will be presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, will be a binding timetable for negotiations on the core issues involved in a final resolution of the conflict.

 

It may also be precluded by an easing of pressure for a building freeze in the settlements on the part of the Unites States.

A senior Western diplomat closely involved in current contacts involving the U.S., Israel, the PA and moderate Arab states noted that the American administration is currently developing the diplomatic plan but is only interested in pursuing it after the settlement issue and the matter of pro-Israel gestures from the Arab states are resolved.

 

The American plan will essentially restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians which have been deadlocked for over six months. The plan will not deal with all of the specific details of the negotiations and will not provide parameters for the resolution of core issues. Rather it will provide a framework for negotiations, how they will be conducted, follow-up mechanisms and especially the timetable for negotiations.

 

The senior diplomat said Obama is interested in bringing talks to a conclusion "on time" as a way of obligating the parties to make progress.

 

The diplomat also noted that the U.S. is now interested in reaching a compromise with Israel on the settlement issue as a prelude to presentation of the American plan, as the Americans have understood that Israel cannot agree to an absolute freeze in construction in the settlements.

 

The change in the American view on the issue was the result of the fact that about 2,500 homes in the settlements are in various advanced stages of construction which cannot be halted.

 

U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell is therefore attempting to find a formula by which Israel will go as far as it can to stop settlement building.

 

The shift in the American position is also the product of the refusal on the part of the moderate Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, to make significant normalization gestures toward Israel. In all probability, when the Americans understood that in any event they would not obtain substantial gestures from the Arabs, they decided to reach a compromise with Israel.

 

The compromise will also include an agreement on a joint database between Israel and the U.S. which will permit close tracking of settlement construction and verification that it is being kept to a minimum.

 

The plan, according to the senior diplomat, would also include other Israeli confidence-building measures toward the Palestinians. The diplomatic source cautioned that the Arab world's total lack of trust in Netanyahu remained a major problem.

 

 

Nederland en Europese Unie subsidiëren 'Breaking the Silence'

 

Het is natuurlijk op zichzelf legitiem, maar wel opvallend dat wel heel veel organisaties die met name kritisch zijn naar Israel door de EU worden gefinancierd. Wij zijn er ook niet blij mee wanneer we vernemen dat islamitische of migrantenorganisaties in Nederland door Turkije, Marokko of Saoedi-Arabi� worden gefinancierd. Organisaties kunnen hier subsidie krijgen als ze aan de voorwaarden voldoen, en ze kunnen Nederlandse donors zoeken. Financiering vanuit het buitenland van organisaties die hier actief zijn wordt toch een beetje als een inmenging in onze zaken gezien. Vergelijk wat dit betreft ook de aantijgingen uit antizionistische kringen dat het CIDI door Israel zou worden gefinancierd. Dat is onjuist, maar als het waar zou zijn zou de verontwaardiging erover grote hoogten bereiken, en daar kan ik me, net als bij financiering van organisaties door Marokko of andere moslimlanden, ook wel iets bij voorstellen. Toch moet Israel al jaren aanzien dat tientallen NGO's die in naam voor vrede zijn maar in de praktijk eenzijdig tegen Israel ageren, royaal door de EU en verschillende lidstaten worden gesubsidieerd. En dan blijft men maar roepen dat Nederland, dat ook diverse van deze organisaties financiert, zo kritiekloos pro-Israel is....

 

RP

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The Jerusalem Post / July 17, 2009
Europeans funding 'Breaking the Silence'
Jul. 17, 2009
by YAAKOV KATZ and HERB KEINON
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443834129&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

A day after releasing a damning report on Operation Cast Lead, and amid accusations that it is operating without transparency, the group Breaking the Silence on Thursday presented The Jerusalem Post with its donor list for the year 2008, which included several European governments.

On Wednesday, Breaking the Silence released a report including testimonies from 26 unnamed soldiers who participated in the campaign and which claimed that the IDF used Gazans as human shields, improperly fired incendiary white phosphorous shells over civilian areas and used overwhelming firepower that caused needless deaths and destruction.

On Thursday, military sources and NGO Monitor - a Jerusalem-based research organization - raised suspicions regarding Breaking the Silence's setup as a nonprofit limited company and not an amuta, or nonprofit organization. The difference is that an amuta is required by law to publicly declare the identity of its donors. A limited company is not always required to do so.

"From our work, going through the files of dozens of Israeli nonprofits, we feel that groups like this that are not listed [as an amuta] raises a lot of red flags," said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the head of NGO Monitor.

In response to the claims, Breaking the Silence presented the Post with its donor list for 2008. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv gave the organization NIS 226,589; the Dutch Embassy donated �19,999; and the European Union gave Breaking the Silence �43,514.

The NGO also received funding from the New Israel Fund amounting to NIS 229,949.

In 2007, Breaking the Silence received a total of NIS 500,000, and in 2008 it managed to raise NIS 1.5 million.

"We have nothing to hide," said Yehuda Shaul, one of the heads of Breaking the Silence. "We are open to complete transparency and are prepared to share this information with the public."

The 110-page report, which included videotaped testimonies in which soldiers' faces were blurred out, did not represent a cross-section of the army. Rather, they were troops who had approached the group or were reached through acquaintances of NGO members. Two were junior officers and the rest were enlisted personnel.

Many questioned the overwhelming use of force. One soldier said the army used weapons such as mortars and white phosphorous "to show off its strength."

Another soldier said white phosphorus artillery shells were used to ignite a house suspected of housing munitions. "The house went up in flames," he said.

In response to the IDF Spokesman's assertion that Breaking the Silence did not submit the report prior to its publication, Shaul said he sent the report to the IDF via e-mail 24 hours before it was published.

A senior IDF officer responded that even if the report was sent 24 hours before publication that would not have been enough time to properly investigate the findings.

"It appears to us that the organization's real motive was to slander the IDF and not to initiate a thorough investigation," the officer said. "If it had wanted to allow for a real investigation it would have given us the identities of the soldiers, the location where the alleged crimes took place and other identifying parameters."

Shaul rejected this assertion as well and said the report included unit names as well as most of the locations.

One senior security official noted the Breaking the Silence report came fast on the heels of highly critical reports issued earlier this month by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross, giving the impression that the groups were coordinating the timing of their reports to "magnify their impact."

The Breaking the Silence report was for the most part based on hearsay and rumor, and not facts, the senior security official said.

Meanwhile, reports that Human Rights Watch used its work against Israel, and its withstanding "pro-Israel pressure groups" as a selling point to solicit funds in Saudi Arabia, are creating waves in the blogosphere, with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic monthly asking HRW's executive director Ken Roth in an e-mail exchange if this was indeed what the group did in Riyadh in May.

"Did your staff person attempt to raise funds in Saudi Arabia by advertising your organization's opposition to the pro-Israel lobby?" Goldberg asked Roth, in the exchange that he posted on his blog Wednesday.

"That's certainly part of the story," Roth responded. "We report on Israel.

"Its supporters fight back with lies and deception. It wasn't a pitch against the Israel lobby per se. Our standard shpiel is to describe our work in the region. Telling the Israel story - part of that pitch - is in part telling about the lies and obfuscation that are inevitably thrown our way."

According to an article that appeared in May in the Saudi English-language newspaper The Arab News, a delegation of senior members of HRW were in Saudi Arabia and were commended at a dinner attended by prominent members of Saudi society, human rights activists and dignitaries, for work on Gaza and the Middle East as a whole.

According to the newspaper, HRW presented a documentary and spoke on the report it had compiled "on Israel violating human rights and international law" during the Gaza operation.

"Human Rights Watch provided the international community with evidence of Israel using white phosphorus and launching systematic destructive attacks on civilian targets. Pro-Israel pressure groups in the US, the European Union and the United Nations have strongly resisted the report and tried to discredit it," Sarah Leah Whitson, director of HRW's Middle East and North Africa Division, was quoted in the Saudi paper as saying.

Roth admitted to Goldberg that the dinner included people connected to the government, including "a guy from the national human rights commission," which is a government body, and "someone from the Shura Council."

The Shura Council is Saudi Arabia's state-appointed religious leadership, a council which, as Goldberg pointed out, oversees, on behalf of the monarchy, the imposition in the kingdom of the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islamic law.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said in response that "Human Rights Watch has admitted conducting a fund-raiser in Saudi Arabia with the Saudi elite, with representatives of different branches of the Saudi government in the room. They also admitted that they have used their criticism of Israel as a fund-raising tool in dealing with Arab audiences.

"Surely this fundamentally undermines the objectivity and the credibility that all too many in the past have attached to their reports."

Regev's comments come two days after the Prime Minister's Office said Jerusalem would begin waging a more aggressive battle against NGOs it deems biased against Israel.

 

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This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443834129&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Betere veiligheid en economie zijn tekenen van hoop op Westoever

 

Het gaat beter op de Westelijke Jordaanoever. Voor het eerst sinds een lange tijd groeit de Palestijnse economie weer, en het IMF heeft voor volgend jaar een groei van maar liefst 7% voorspeld. Dat ligt met name aan de toegenomen veiligheid, bewegingsvrijheid en betere handhaving van de wet door de Palestijnse politie. Dat (nog) niet iedereen tevreden is, is niet meer dan logisch, en er is nog veel dat beide partijen, Israel en de Palestijnen, kunnen doen om de situatie verder te verbeteren.

 

RP

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New York Times / July 16, 2009
Signs of Hope Emerge in the West Bank
By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: July 16, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/world/middleeast/17westbank.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

 

NABLUS, West Bank — The first movie theater to operate in this Palestinian city in two decades opened its doors in late June. Palestinian policemen standing beneath new traffic lights are checking cars for seat belt violations. One-month-old parking meters are filling with the coins of shoppers. Music stores are blasting love songs into the street, and no nationalist or Islamist scold is forcing them to stop.

"You don't appreciate the value of law and order until you lose it," Rashid al-Sakhel, the owner of a carpet store, said as he stood in his doorway surveying the small wonder of bustling streets on a sunny morning. "For the past eight years, a 10-year-old boy could order a strike and we would all close. Now nobody can threaten us."

For the first time since the second Palestinian uprising broke out in late 2000, leading to terrorist bombings and fierce Israeli countermeasures, a sense of personal security and economic potential is spreading across the West Bank as the Palestinian Authority's security forces enter their second year of consolidating order.

The International Monetary Fund is about to issue its first upbeat report in years for the West Bank, forecasting a 7 percent growth rate for 2009. Car sales in 2008 were double those of 2007. Construction on the first new Palestinian town in decades, for 40,000, will begin early next year north of Ramallah. In Jenin, a seven-story store called Herbawi Home Furnishings has opened, containing the latest espresso machines. Two weeks ago, the Israeli military shut its obtrusive nine-year-old checkpoint at the entrance to this city, part of a series of reductions in security measures.

Whether all this can last and lead to the consolidation of political power for the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah, as the Obama administration hopes, remains unclear. But a recent opinion poll in the West Bank and Gaza by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, a Palestinian news agency, found that Fatah was seen as far more trustworthy than Hamas — 35 percent versus 19 percent — a significant shift from the organization's poll in January, when Hamas appeared to be at least as trustworthy.

"Two years ago I couldn't have even gone to Nablus," said Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who serves as international envoy to the Palestinians, after a smooth visit this week. "Security is greatly improved, and the economy is doing much better. Now we need to move to the next stage: politics."

The aim of American and European policy is to stitch Palestinian politics back together by strengthening the Palestinian Authority under the presidency of Mahmoud Abbas, which favors a two-state solution with Israel, while weakening the Islamists of Hamas, who rule in Gaza. Fatah says it will hold its first general congress in 20 years in early August to build on its successes, but it remains unclear if the meeting will take place.

The Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it shares the goal of helping Mr. Abbas, which is why it is seeking to improve West Bank economic conditions as a platform for moving to a political discussion. The Palestinians worry that the political discussion will never arrive and say the Israelis are doing far too little to ease the occupation. Still, they point with pride to the many changes in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, the Israeli-led economic siege of Gaza continues, letting in only humanitarian goods. That sets the desired contrast between the territories into sharp relief but causes enormous suffering and anger.

Asked to explain why the West Bank's fortunes were shifting, a top Israeli general began his narrative with a chart showing 410 Israelis killed by Palestinians in 2002, and 4 in 2008.

"We destroyed the terrorist groups through three things — intelligence, the barrier and freedom of action by our men," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with military rules. "We sent our troops into every marketplace and every house, staying tightly focused on getting the bad guys."

But he added that the 2006 legislative electoral victory by Hamas, followed by its violent takeover of Gaza in 2007, led Mr. Abbas to fight Hamas. Palestinian troops have been training in Jordan under American sponsorship.

There are now several thousand men trained in that way, and their skills, along with those of the European-trained police force here, have made a huge difference.

An important element in making the Palestinian force effective, American and Israeli officials say, was taking young Palestinian men out of the ancestral grips of their villages and tribal clans and training them abroad, turning them into soldiers loyal to units and commanders.

The Israeli general said that in the past year and a half, Israeli and Palestinian forces had shot at each other only twice, and in each case there was a meeting to restore trust.

Speaking of the seriousness of the Palestinians, he added, "Twice in recent months we have been amazed." The first time was during Israel's military invasion of Gaza when Palestinian police officers kept the West Bank calm during protests. The second was in June when the security forces clashed twice with Hamas men in the city of Qalqilya, fighting to the death.

The Israelis have pulled their forces to the outskirts of four cities, greatly reduced the number of permanent checkpoints and promised to help industry develop. They say the Palestinians now need courts, prisons and trained judges.

Mr. Blair agreed but said there was much more Israel should do, like ending the growth of settlements and taking away dirt mounds and other barriers. In addition, he said, Israel should allow greater Palestinian development in the 60 percent of the West Bank it fully controls.

Palestinian business leaders are incensed at the Israeli limitations. Paltel, which operates the only Palestinian cellphone company, says Israel will not permit it to place its towers on the land it controls. That forces Palestinian customers to pay roaming charges for many calls, and allows Israeli cellphone companies to offer lower rates.

For more than a year, Israel has promised to free a second frequency so that a competitor to Paltel can provide cellphone service, but it has not yet done so. This leaves the Palestinians skeptical.

"I fail to see any indications that Israel wants to help the Palestinian economy," Abdel-Malik al-Jaber, vice chairman of Paltel, said.

Still, his company has invested millions in the past year in call centers and customer service because of the increased security and disposable income.

As Nader Elawy, manager of Cinema City, the new movie theater here, put it: "We now have law and order. You can really feel the change."

IDF officier ontkent gebruik Palestijnen als menselijk schild in Gaza

Volgens een hoge officier uit het leger zijn de claims van Breaking the Silence overdreven en uit hun context gehaald, waardoor ze extremer lijken dan ze zijn. Hij geeft het voorbeeld waar een Palestijn zelf vroeg een huis eerst binnen te mogen gaan, om zo de schade te beperken. Hij wijst erop dat in onderzoek binnen zijn eigen brigade niks van dergelijke misstanden is gevonden. Het is natuurlijk lastig van buitenaf uit te maken wie gelijk heeft, maar het spreekt niet in het voordeel van Breaking the Silence dat zoveel getuigenissen anoniem zijn en bovendien uit derde hand komen: de soldaten hebben het niet zelf meegemaakt, maar zelf weer van een ander gehoord. Ook is het vreemd dat men de resultaten niet aan het leger heeft voorgelegd en om een reactie heeft gevraagd. Wanneer duidelijk is om welke soldaten, eenheden, plaatsen en data het gaat, kan de zaak worden onderzocht, en kunnen mensenrechtengroeperingen bijvoorbeeld aandringen op bestraffing van de betreffende soldaten of officieren.

 

RP

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Last update - 11:33 16/07/2009       
IDF officer: Troops did not use Gazans as human shields
By Amos Harel and Haaretz Service
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100669.html

 

 

A top-ranking Israel Defense Forces officer has hit back at claims by a combat soldier that IDF troops unlawfully used Palestinians as human shields to search for militants inside Gaza homes during Israel's recent offensive in the coastal strip.

 

The officer told Haaretz that soldiers' claims of having employed such practice were exaggerated and unfounded, and that a probe of the Golani Brigade's conduct during the war found that no such incidences occurred.
 

A staff sergeant from the Golani Brigade recently testified that a number of units, including his own, sent Palestinians into their neighbors' homes during fighting in eastern Gaza City to determine if there were any militants hiding inside.

 

The soldier was referring to the so-called "neighbor procedure" ? outlawed by the High Court of Justice in 2005 - when it raided homes in search of Palestinian militants.

 

The soldier said that while he had not actually witnessed the use of human shields, one of his commanding officers had informed him that procedure had been carried out.

 

"The practice was not to call it 'the neighbor procedure.' Instead it was called 'Johnny,'" the soldier said, using IDF slang for Palestinian civilians.

 

The soldier said that at every home where militants were thought to be hiding, troops besieged the building with the goal of removing the suspects alive. The soldier said he witnessed several such operations firsthand.

 

He testified that his commander had told him of a number of incidents where Palestinians were also used directly as human shields. One on such occasion, he said, attack helicopters were brought in as back-up for the arrest of three armed militants.

 

The soldier said he had heard of other instances in which Palestinian civilians were used as human shields. He cited a case in which a Palestinian was placed in front of an IDF force with a gun pointed at him from behind, but said he had not seen this for himself.

 

The soldier's testimony appeared in a collection of accounts being published earlier this week by Breaking the Silence, an organization that collects IDF soldiers' testimony on human rights abuses by the military. The Golani soldier gave similar testimony in a meeting with a Haaretz reporter.

 

In rejecting the claims, the officer told Haaretz that the soldier's account of troops pointing guns at a Palestinian acting as a human shield were exaggerated, and that a probe conducted in the brigade found no indication that such an episode took place.

 

The officer also said that while a Palestinian may have hammered through a wall of his home to assist soldiers, he did so on his own initiative and not as a result of orders from the troops.

 

'"The owner of the house in which the three gunmen had barricaded saw that the soldiers were trying to break in from a side wall. He claimed that they were causing too much damage to the house and asked to do it himself. That's why the soldiers gave him the hammer," said the officer.

 

While the officer confirmed that Palestinians were indeed used to sweep houses in search of militants, he claimed that the soldier had described the incidents out of context, and that the local residents had offered to enter homes first.

 

"The prevention of civilian casualties and the implementation of selective house searches, while avoiding massive use of gunfire, were especially upheld in the sector in which the unit operated," he said.

 

"People within the unit risked their own lives to avoid harming the innocent," he added. ?The simplest solution as far as the unit was concerned was to order two tank shells be fired into every suspicious house. But in reality, we used a completely different method."

 

"Two Palestinians, one of them the clan leader, appealed to the commanders and offered to enter first so as to prevent damage to the houses," said the officer. "On several occasions, we would find whole families huddled in a tiny room upon entering the home, and we thought that it was a good solution. It's far from a human shield. We didn't hide behind anyone. The whole idea was to prevent innocent people from being harmed by taking the risks upon ourselves."

 

When asked if he was aware of the High Court ruling forbidding all forms of the "neighbor procedure," the officer said that the commanders believed they were acting within the limits of the law. He said the sole purpose of their actions was the prevention of civilian casualties and "unnecessary collateral damage."

 

IDF: We expect every soldier to report violations

 

The IDF Spokesman's Office said in a statement that upon initial consideration, a few of the allegations appeared similar to claims reported by Haaretz
several months ago.

 

"Now, too," the spokesman said, "a considerable portion of the testimony is based on rumors and secondhand accounts. Most of the incidents relate to anonymous testimony lacking in identifying details, and accordingly it is not possible to check the allegations on an individual basis in a way that would enable an investigation, confirmation or refutation."

 

The spokesman said the Breaking the Silence report suggested that the organization may not be interested in a comprehensive examination of the allegations, "and to our regret this is not the first time the organization has taken this course of action. The IDF is obligated to examine every well-founded complaint it receives."

 

The spokesman also noted that allegations by Breaking the Silence that touch on specific incidents will be investigated.

 

"The IDF expects every soldier and commander who has witnessed a violation of orders or procedures, and especially with respect to violations causing injury to noncombatants, to bring the details to the attention of the relevant parties," the spokesman said.

 

"The IDF regrets the fact that a human rights organization would again present to the country and the world a report containing anonymous, generalized testimony without checking the details or their reliability, and without giving the IDF, as a matter of minimal fairness, the opportunity to check the matters and respond to them before publication."

 

 

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