Summer of Demolitions
- Details
- Category: Riflessioni
- Published on Saturday, 15 October 2011 22:21
- Written by Itay Epshtain
September 7th, 2011 |
First published in Palestine News, Autumn 2011.
Hours after his modest home was demolished by Israeli bulldozers, Khaled Abdallah Ali Ghazal stands astride the wreckage in the scorching desert heat and vows to hold on. "We have nowhere else to go, we will rebuild," he says. For hundreds like him in the Jordan Valley, this is the reality of what the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions calls “the summer of demolitions.”
The Jordan Valley has always captured the imagination of travellers and pilgrims who alluded to its biblical representation as lush, fertile land. And indeed, the area enjoys abundant water as a third of the West Bank underground aquifer lies beneath it. However, the unholy reality of the Jordan Valley is one of segregation and land-and-water resource apartheid.
While illegal Jewish settlements dot the landscape with thriving date plantations and vineyards, Palestinian communities are struggling for shelter, drinking water and rudimentary healthcare and education. In Israel’s policy of colonization, the summer of 2011 has set an all-time high in the expansion of settlements at the expense of Palestinian communities.
The ever meaningless victories of liberal Israel
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- Category: Riflessioni
- Published on Saturday, 15 October 2011 10:54
- Written by Gabriel - Yitzhak Laor
October 6, 2011
Israeli liberals are in a celebratory mood for a day. The Supreme Court ordered the Minister of Interior to register an important secular israeli writer as "without religion" instead of "Jew." Itzhak Laor deflates this delusional celebration, pointing out that the state registers religious affiliation as a code, and showing how, underneath the code, the (colonial) definition of an Israeli Jew is "anyone who isn't Palestinian."
A big celebration. Even Yoram Kaniuk, not only his grandson, and not only masses of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, will from now on be defined negatively: "without religion" (after a court last week sided with the Israeli writer, granting him the right to register his status that way). That is how the whole is being redefined: We are all Jews by religion, except for Kaniuk, his grandson and the immigrants from the FSU, who acquired Jewish identity from the Jewish Agency envoys and lost it at the Chief Rabbinate, which is the department for identifying Jews.
Un appello per salvare la Scuola Beduina di Khan al Amar – Palestina Occupata
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- Category: Riflessioni
- Published on Thursday, 13 October 2011 09:33
- Written by Accademici e ricercatori della Campagna per il Diritto allo Studio e la Libertà Accademica in Palestina
12 ottobre 2011
Al Ministro della Difesa Israeliano, Ehud Barak
Al Ministro degli Affari Esteri Italiano, Franco Frattini
e per conoscenza
all'Ambasciatore Italiano a Tel Aviv, Luigi Mattiolo
al Console Italiano a Gerusalemme, Luciano Pezzotti
al Coordinatore OCHA nei Territori Palestinesi, Maxwell Gaylard
Egregi Signori,
Siamo informati che il Governo Israeliano, sotto pressione dei coloni che si sono insediati abusivamente (violando risoluzioni delle Nazioni Unite) nei Territori Palestinesi Occupati, potrebbe distruggere la scuola di Khan al Amar nella periferia di Gerusalemme, costruita ed attivata dalla ONG italiana Vento di Terra ed unico istituto disponibile per i bambini delle Comunità Beduine della zona. Consideriamo che la soppressione della scuola sia un grave delitto contro il fondamentale diritto umano dei Beduini all’istruzione. Denunciamo come la distruzione della scuola rappresenti simbolicamente e fisicamente il tentativo di rendere impossibile lo sviluppo delle comunità palestinesi. Siamo altresì indignati dai piani israeliani per l'espulsione dei Palestinesi dalle Aree "C" che Israele intende annettere, mentre la giurisdizione su tali aree andrebbe trasferita all'Autorità Palestinese in base agli accordi bilaterali e al diritto internazionale. Secondo l'ultimo rapporto dell’OCHA, nei primi sei mesi del 2011 l’esercito dello israeliano ha raso al suolo 342 abitazioni di proprietà palestinese, obbligando 656 persone, di cui più della metà bambini, ad abbandonare le proprie case. Il dato è cinque volte più alto di quello raggiunto nei primi sei mesi del 2010.
Read more: Un appello per salvare la Scuola Beduina di Khan al Amar – Palestina Occupata
10 Oct. '11: Civil Administration plans to expel tens of thousands of Bedouins from Area C - Video (2)
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- Category: Riflessioni
- Published on Thursday, 13 October 2011 06:14
- Written by B'Tselem
The Civil Administration (CA) is planning to expel the Bedouin communities living in Area C in the West Bank, transferring some 27,000 persons from their homes. In the first phase, planned as early as January 2012, some 20 communities, comprising 2,300 persons, will be forcibly transferred to a site near the Abu Dis refuse dump, east of Jerusalem. These communities currently live in the area of the Ma'ale Adummim settlement and nearby settlements; half of them live in 1E, the area designated by Israel for future expansion of Ma’ale Adummim. In the second phase, the CA plans to expel communities from the Jordan Valley. One option being considered is building a new permanent town for these communities next to a-Nabi Musa, west of Jericho. According to the CA's schedule, the plan will be implemented in three to six years.
A Bedouin community near the Adummim settlement bloc. Photo: activestills.org
The CA announced its plan to "relocate" the Bedouin communities to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The main reason given was the claim that the Bedouins do not have rights to the land on which they currently live and that all their construction has been done without permits. The CA did not consult with representatives of the communities before adopting the plan, and ignored the anticipated harm to these communities’ way of life. Most of the communities informed the UN agencies that they would object to the plan.
About 80 percent of the Bedouins living in what Israel terms the "Adummim bloc", who are expected to be expelled in coming months, are 1948 refugees who once lived in the Negev, in southern Israel. Two-thirds are under age 18. All of them have lived for decades in unrecognized villages. Demolition orders have already been issued against most of the structures in the communities – tin structures and tents and a school in the Khan al-Ahmar community. In two communities – Wadi Abu Hindi (350 residents) and al-Muntar (300 residents) – demolition orders have been issued against all the structures in the community.
A Panel on BDS, in a synagogue
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- Category: Riflessioni
- Published on Wednesday, 12 October 2011 09:59
- Written by Racheli Gai and Ofer Neiman
Jewish Peace News, 4 October 2011
Dear readers,
The Mondoweiss piece was planned to be sent out a while ago. Because of technical difficulties it has not happened until now.
Which might be for the best, since as of yesterday a youtube video of the event described in the piece by Philip Weiss (and commented on by Ofer and myself) became available. A link for it is enclosed below.
Racheli
The relationship between American Jews and Israel is complex. On the one hand, numerous members of the former group tend to regard support of Israel as a major constituent of their Jewish identity (perhaps even the glue that holds them together), and Israelis as their Protégés. On the other hand, Israelis are also perceived as those proud sabras who have shaken off the chains of diaspora. Therefore, when Israelis address a Jewish community abroad (a tribal gathering of sorts), and testify about Israel's violations of human rights , it can be expected that the audience will be attentive towards their message.