Israeli Knesset outlawing UNRWA

I'm very troubled by the two laws that the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has just passed, to prevent UNRWA, the UN refugee agency for Palestinian refugees, from operating in Israel and putting it under severe restrictions in Gaza and the West Bank.

While it does seem that some employees of UNRWA are or were members of Hamas, and some took part in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, does that mean that the entire organization is irrevocably tainted?

The professional leadership of UNRWA employed by the UN certainly does not belong to Hamas, and they are pointing out how disastrous the outlawing of the organization in Gaza will be, if it is indeed outlawed.

Who will take care of the people of Gaza if UNRWA is kicked out? Gaza is a heap of rubble now, and thousands of people have been killed. Where will food, medicine, and shelter come from, for the people of Gaza, if UNRWA is not there? There are some other relief agencies in Gaza, such as the World Central Kitchen, but UNRWA has been established in Gaza since the late 1940s and 1950s, and knows the needs of its people intimately. Unless Israel is prepared to take over all of its relief activities, I think it would be much better for Israel to work with UNRWA (as hard as that may be) than to destroy it.

My readers may not agree with me about the value of UNRWA (and I'm no expert on it), but I think that those of us who support Israel need to think seriously also about how to ensure that there is adequate food, clothing, and shelter for the people of Gaza.

This is a good Times of Israel article on the laws, including denunciations of the laws by the UN, the UK, and the United States, among other bodies.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/knesset-approves-laws-barring-unrwa-from-israel-limiting-it-in-gaza-and-west-bank/ 

Despite widespread international opposition, lawmakers voted overwhelming on Monday evening to approve two bills essentially barring the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants from operating in Israel, and severely curtailing its activities in Gaza and the West Bank.

During the opening plenum session of the Knesset’s winter legislative session, MKs voted 92 to 10 to approve a law barring UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory, and 87-9 in favor of another measure curtailing UNRWA’s activities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by banning state authorities from having any contact with the agency.

Without coordination with Israel, it will be almost impossible for UNRWA to work in Gaza or the West Bank, since Jerusalem would no longer be issuing entrance permits to those territories or allowing coordination with the IDF. Israel also currently controls access to Gaza from Egypt, with Israeli forces deployed along the border between them.

UNRWA — short for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — provides education, health care and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Responding to the “unprecedented” vote, UNRWA warned that the legislation “sets a dangerous precedent,” breaches the UN charter “and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law.”

“These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell… and are nothing less than collective punishment.” the agency said in a statement.

“It’s outrageous that a member state of the United Nations is working to dismantle a UN agency which also happens to be the largest responder in the humanitarian operation in Gaza,” Juliette Touma, spokeswoman for UNRWA, told AFP.

According to the Ynet news site, the Foreign Ministry had warned of the dangers of passing the UNRWA legislation, stating that Israel could be found in violation of the UN charter and be expelled.

Ahead of the vote, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that passing the bills would be a “catastrophe,” while European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell stated that they “would have disastrous consequences.”

Immediately prior to the vote, the US made clear to Israel that it was deeply concerned by the legislation, with State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller telling reporters that humanitarian assistance was not getting to the people in Jabalia in northern Gaza, where the Israeli military has stepped up its campaign, and that Washington would not accept that.

A State Department spokesperson told The Times of Israel that the US was “deeply troubled” by the legislation, saying that it could force the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees to discontinue all of its operations in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also previously expressed concern over the bills, stating that the “enactment of such restrictions would devastate the Gaza humanitarian response” as well as the provision of “vital” services in East Jerusalem.

British Foreign Minister David Lammy expressed London’s “profound regret” over the legislation, stating that “the allegations against UNRWA staff earlier this year were fully investigated, and offer no justification for cutting off ties with UNRWA.”

Lammy added that banning the organization would not be in Israel’s “interests.”

In a seeming response to the international criticism, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel was prepared to work with international partners, both in the 90 days before the legislation takes effect and afterward, to ensure that humanitarian aid would still reach Gazan civilians.

“UNRWA workers involved in terrorist activities against Israel must be held accountable. Since avoiding a humanitarian crisis is also essential, sustained humanitarian aid must remain available in Gaza now and in the future,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement issued in English.

“In the 90 days before this legislation takes effect – and after – we stand ready to work with our international partners to ensure Israel continues to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security,” Netanyahu’s office said.

While Israel has worked to gradually limit UNRWA’s role in the delivery of humanitarian aid, in favor of the World Food Program, UNICEF and other agencies, UNRWA is still heavily involved in the Strip’s humanitarian operation, running shelters, clinics and warehouses.

An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the security establishment and professional staff cautioned political leaders against passing the legislation in the middle of the war against Hamas in Gaza without a viable replacement in place.

While some Israeli political leaders recognized the humanitarian risk and the international backlash that would result, “the political cost of opposing the legislation became too significant to endure,” the official said, explaining that the IDF itself spent months building a campaign that ties UNRWA to Hamas.

The Knesset’s approval of the two bills in their second and third (final) readings came only days after UNRWA confirmed that a Hamas Nukbha commander killed in an Israeli strike, who led the killing and kidnapping of Israelis from a roadside bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7 last year, had been employed by the agency since July 2022.

Israel alleges that more than 10 percent of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza have ties to terrorist factions, and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror.

In February, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and gunmen hiding out in UNRWA schools.

Israeli lawmakers celebrated the legislation’s passage on Monday evening. Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, the sponsor of the bill prohibiting UNRWA from operating within Israel, tweeted: “UNRWA terrorists, your story ends here; enemies have no right to exist in the State of Israel.”

“UNRWA will not operate in the territory of the State of Israel, their perks will be canceled, their entry into Israel will be prohibited, complete severance of ties,” exulted opposition Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky, the sponsor of the second bill.

“That’s it, it’s over. UNRWA is out,” cheered Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, calling the bills’ passage an “historic and significant move for the security of the country” against terrorists operating “under the auspices of the United Nations.”

“UNRWA employed terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre and is educating young Palestinians about terrorism and hatred of Israel,” said Energy Minister Eli Cohen.

“Terrorists and supporters of terrorism have no place in the State of Israel,” argued Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf.

“I congratulate and thank the members of the Knesset from across the political spectrum for passing the laws that tonight put an end to the ongoing disgrace of cooperation with UNRWA,” said far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

“Whoever harms the security of the State of Israel, the State of Israel will harm him,” he added.

MK Benny Gantz’s centrist National Unity party also supported the legislation, and criticized Netanyahu for missing the votes against what it described as “an organization that was part of the Hamas apparatus and whose employees took part in the October 7 massacre.”

During a debate in the Knesset plenum ahead of the votes, Arab lawmakers railed against the laws, with Hadash-Ta’al MK Aida Touma-Sliman claiming Israel was carrying out “genocide” in Gaza.

“No Palestinian wants to be a refugee,” she yelled, adding that “the majority of Gazans are now refugees.”

Likud MK Tally Gotliv had to be physically restrained by Knesset ushers after approaching the podium during a speech by Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi, in which he railed against what he termed “fascist” legislation.

“The Palestinian people will be freed from the occupation,” Tibi screamed, as right-wing MKs called for him to leave the Knesset.

Israel had been extremely critical of UNRWA long before the Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, saying that its near uniqueness in the world — granting refugee status not just to the first generation of refugees but to their descendants — perpetuated the conflict and a culture of dependence among Palestinians.

At the same time, some Israeli politicians and officials saw the relief that the agency provided as a means of keeping the Gaza Strip, and parts of the West Bank, from deeper poverty and thus greater violence and terrorism.

Three Myths about Gaza

I'm getting infuriated by what I'm reading about Gaza by so many people who are pro-Israel: 1) that Israeli no longer occupies Gaza and has no responsibility for what happens there; 2) that Gazans chose Hamas to rule them in 2006 and that they should lie in the bed they made; and 3) that Gazans are solely to blame for the miserable state of their economy. None of these claims are true. 

Trudy Rubin, a columnist for the Philadelphia Enquirer, explains why they are not true.

She begins:

Two million Gazans, imprisoned in a tiny strip of land with a collapsed economy, see no political and economic future. They are trapped between a reckless Hamas, a feckless Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, and an Israeli government that ignores them except for military action. Add to that a blinkered White House that pours fuel on dry tinder. 

Rather than face facts – and address Gaza’s economic ills – Jerusalem and Washington promote convenient myths that absolve themselves from responsibility. If both governments continue down that blind path, the violence in Gaza will explode again with huge costs to Israel as well.

Her response to Myth #1, that Israel no longer occupies Gaza:

In reality, Israel has retained control of Gaza’s border, air space, and sea coast, except for one outlet into a remote area of Egypt. Thus Israel entirely controls Gazan imports and exports, its coastal fishing, along with its supply of electricity. It also controls all movement in and out of Gaza. Since Hamas took control, Israel has mostly bottled up Gaza’s population while border closures strangle its industry and agriculture.

Her response to Myth #2, that Gazans chose Hamas to rule them and therefore should shut up about their problems:

As for the 2006 elections, which the Bush administration urged on a reluctant Palestinian leadership, polls showed that the main reasons a plurality of Palestinians voted for Hamas were not its ideology. Rather, they were frustrated that the then-ruling Fatah party was corrupt and hadn’t delivered a promised two-state diplomatic solution. 

Moreover, in 2007, the Bush administration encouraged Fatah to retake control of Gaza by force, but Fatah lost the battle to Hamas. Thus Washington shares the blame for Hamas’ total control of the strip.

Her response to Myth #3, that Gazans are entirely responsible for their own economic misery:

But the most pernicious Myth, number Three, posits that Palestinians are sole authors of their economic misery. The prime example given is the case of greenhouses turned over by Israeli settlers when they quit Gaza in 2005 (they demolished half of the greenhouses and stripped the rest before leaving). The remaining greenhouses were refurbished with $14 million by Jewish American donors, but were supposedly destroyed by Palestinians immediately upon the settlers’ exit.

Yes, there was looting, but the Palestinian Authority quickly refurbished the greenhouses, which were soon brimming with crops of sweet peppers, tomatoes, and herbs worth $20 million. The Palestinians’ then-finance minister Salam Fayyad even gave Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a gift of peppers on her birthday in mid-November 2005, and the greenhouses exported 8 tons of them in mid-December.

What actually destroyed the greenhouse initiative were Israel’s restrictions on Gazan exports at the Karni border crossing. You can read about this in the memoir of Australian Jewish businessman James Wolfensohn, a former World Bank head and special envoy for Gaza disengagement, who contributed $500,000 to the greenhouse project.

“In early December [2005],” he wrote, “the much-awaited first harvest began … but their success relied on the Karni crossing … which was closed more often than not.

“Everything was rotting. … If you went to the border and saw tomatoes and fruit just being dumped on the side of the road, you would have to say that if you were a Palestinian farmer you’d be pretty upset.” 

Fast-forward to now. For more than a dozen years, border crossings have opened only sporadically. Industry and agriculture in Gaza has collapsed. Unemployment of 15- to 29-year-olds is 60 percent. Electricity is sporadic (Gazans can’t pay), water polluted, medicines scarce. 

To make matters worse, the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, which still pays many salaries in Gaza, cut back the money when an effort at reconciliation with Hamas failed.

Why was Yaser Murtaja killed?

Why was Yaser Murtaja killed, and why were six other Palestinian journalists wounded on Friday, April 6, 2018? Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man writes on +972 on the IDF frequently targeting Palestinian journalists:

The circumstances are that the Israeli military, which insists it doesn’t target journalists, has a highly discouraging record of failing to hold its soldiers and pilots and generals accountable for targeting and killing journalists in Gaza. That includes the 2012 assassination of two journalists who were traveling in a car clearly marked “TV,” numerous airstrikes on media and broadcast offices, and more. 

The circumstances are that, week in and week out, Israeli security forces consistently fail to differentiate between Palestinian journalists and the protests and events they are covering, using violence against both without distinction. In countless cases, documented and undocumented, journalists have been clearly targeted by troops — and the army often brazenly defends that violence.

This is the beginning of Omer-Man's article:

A State-Sponsored Mass shooting 

On a day when military snipers shot hundreds of unarmed demonstrators, the army declares that ‘the circumstances in which journalists were wounded are unknown.’ The circumstances couldn’t be clearer.  

Palestinian protesters take cover behind a dirt mound as Israeli soldiers open fire from across the border in the distance, east of Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, April 6, 2018. Israeli snipers have killed over 30 people and shot over 1,000 others since The Great Return March began a week earlier. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills.org)  

Israeli army sharpshooters and snipers have shot over 1,000 unarmed Palestinian protesters inside the Gaza Strip in the past week, killing more than 30 people. This past Friday, at least six Palestinian journalists were reportedly among those shot at the Great Return March. One of them, Yasser Murtaja, a photographer for “Ain Media” who was reportedly wearing a helmet and vest clearly marked “PRESS” when he was shot, later died of his wounds.

Go to +972 to read the entire story.

A eulogy for Yaser Murtaja

Yasser Murtaja, with a cat sitting on his camera.

A eulogy by Anas N. Almassri, posted on his Facebook page.

While at work today, I was translating the news of deaths and casualties from the border areas. The name of a dear friend, Yaser Murtaja, a husband, a father, and a young photojournalist, was on the list. Yaser was an ambitious entrepreneur; he co-built one of Gaza's most thriving media companies, عين ميديا Ain Media. Through his eyes, the lens of his camera, and the quality work of his company, Yaser documented stories of pain but also of hope, of misery but also of joy and success. Yaser was there on popular celebrations and university graduation ceremonies, yet never just as a photojournalist; he was everybody's wish for a humorous friend--time with Yaser was a genuine bliss. The largest number of his selfies are with happy graduating men and women, with talented children, with singing girls, with loving friends, and satisfied clients. He was furthermore a good friend of nature and the environment; through his camera, I myself restored my appreciation of the beauty of nature in Gaza even when it has grown to be too polluted, now far uglier with the tragic death of him, a modest, kind and very helpful friend. 

Yaser did not deserve the live fire that sent his young and pure soul to eternal sleep, his laughter to forced cessation, and his talent to a melancholy end. I do not agree with the idea of continuing these demonstrations, or even holding them this way in the first place; it is stupid and truly life-demeaning, but I also do not agree with the way Israeli forces are using their mighty power to fatally wound Palestinians. The Palestinians, the Israelis, the free and responsible citizens of the globe should all equally be alarmed by the death and injury of more people like Yaser, who now left his young family in lasting grief and insurmountable trauma of missing him. What is happening is, yes, dehumanizing to the Palestinians, but it is even more so to the Israeli snipers who shoot to kill. I quote my friend Mohammed Alhammami in wondering about "what the soldier was thinking. What kind of upbringing he had, what kind of series of life events that led him to this very moment [the shooting of a civilian protected under legal and moral terms], where he thought it was completely fine to shoot and kill another human being. How dehumanizing is this?" 

May this bloodshed stop. May peace take over. and may Yaser's soul rest in warmth, comfort and joy in a better place. Amen!

For more on his life, see this article from Al Jazeera - Yaser Murtaja's Dreams of Travelling.html.

Real People are Dying in Gaza

I feel sick about what is happening in Gaza. I've read all the justifications for why Israeli forces have to use live fire, about how Hamas is using a civilian protest to try to get terrorists to the border to enter Israel and attack Israelis (which may be true, at least in part), about how all the Palestinians demonstrating at the border are terrorists. What do Palestinians themselves say? Do we automatically think that everything the IDF spokesperson's office says is true?

And, they aren't all terrorists. One non-terrorist was shot and injured today, and then died of his wounds - a Palestinian journalist, a photographer named Yasser Mourthaja. He was wearing a vest that had PRESS printed on it. (Source: Noga Tarnopolsky on Twitter).

Yasser Mourthaja

From Alex Kane, about Yasser Mourthaja:

Confirmed: Israeli army shot and killed Palestinian video journalist Yasir Murtaja. He was wearing a press jacket when he was sniped down. 

In a Facebook post written on March 24, two weeks before Israeli forces killed him, Yasser Murtaja writes of his wish to take photos from the air, not the ground, and says: "My name is Yasser Murtaja. I'm 30. I live in Gaza City and all my life I've never traveled."

Ali from Gaza wrote: "Journalist Yaser Murtaja. After hours of injury, he announced the news of his death. He was shot by Israeli snipers today. No right to the press about the Israeli occupation. Where are human rights?" (This is how Ali identifies himself: "The identity #Palestinian Social worker and psychiatrist #Photographer My life for the children of Gaza Travel to achieve my ambitions. instgram/ali from gaza").

From Elior Levy, about an hour ago. Levy is the Palestinian affairs correspondent and analyst for the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot.

"During the night two Palestinians died from their injuries as a result of the confrontations on the Gaza border yesterday. One of them was a journalist - Yasser Mourthaja, documentary photographer. He was shot in the stomach in the southern (Gaza) strip when he was photographing demonstrators. He wore a vest on which was written PRESS. The number of Palestinians killed yesterday stands at 9."

Mourthaja was not the only Palestinian journalist who was injured by Israeli forces on Friday. The Palestinian journalists' union said that six others were injured. "The union said the six were shot despite wearing clothes clearly identifying themselves as journalists, adding it held Israel 'fully accountable for this crime.'”

According to Omar Ghraieb, posting on Twitter on Friday morning:

Omar Ghraieb Another photojournalist, Ibrahim Al Za'noon, got injured by #Israel while covering #GreatMarchofReturn today. #Gaza

Some more tweets from Omar Ghraieb. Let's listen to what he and other Gazans say. They aren't all members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad or the Salafist factions. Imagine what it must be like to live in Gaza, with the economy collapsing, the environment increasingly polluted, very little clean water - even the IDF admits this is happening.

Another Gaza flotilla

This morning I received an email from my favorite correspondents, US Boat to Gaza, informing the world that boats are now sailing to Gaza. From the press release:

At this moment, two boats are in international waters in the Mediterranean heading to Gaza.  One boat, the Saoirse from Ireland, includes parliamentarians among its passengers.  The other, the Tahrir, carries representatives from Canada, the U.S., Australia, and Palestine.  The U.S. Representative on the Tahrir, Kit Kittredge, was a passenger on the U.S. Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope mission in Athens in July.  A journalist from Democracy Now is on the Tahrir also. Civil society organizations in Gaza await their arrival, and look forward to the delivery of letters collected from thousands of U.S. supporters in the To Gaza With Love campaign.  

It appears to me that this time around, they kept the sailing completely quiet before the boats reached international waters, in order to prevent what happened this summer from happening again, when the boats were basically stuck in Greek ports, under heavy pressure from Israel and the US. (I hope Israeli intelligence knew they were sailing!) Also, the boats sailed from Turkey, which supports the attempt to break the Israeli embargo on Gaza. (See article from Haaretz, which confirms that they kept the plan quiet so they wouldn't be stopped; apparently the Turkish authorities insisted that they send fewer people on the boats than they had originally planned).

Reuters reports:

The Israeli navy will prevent two yachts carrying pro-Palestinian activists which left Turkey on Wednesday from breaching an Israeli blockade and reaching the Gaza Strip, an Israeli military official said. Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovich, speaking to reporters by telephone, would not say how the boats might be stopped, saying only "we will have to assess and see if we are facing violent passengers."

Israel was aware two yachts had set sail carrying Irish, Canadian and U.S. activists, Leibovich said. Describing their journey as a "provocation," she said they were still far from the Israeli and Gazan coast. Israel would offer to unload any aid supplies on board and deliver them to Gaza, Leibovich said. Israel blockades the Gaza coast to prevent the smuggling of weapons to Palestinian gunmen in the territory, she added.

There is, apparently, an unidentified boat following the Canadian one, about which @PalWaves says, "The #Tahrir captain is 99% sure it's Turkish Coast Guard following them, still trailing." I hope not - the worst thing would be a confrontation between the IDF and any part of the Turkish military.

UPDATE: apparently it was *not* the Turkish Coast Guard, and the Israeli Navy intercepted them yesterday (Nov. 4) and led them to Ashdod port. 

Open Letter to Alice Walker

My friend Bonna Devora Haberman, who lives in Jerusalem, has written a beautiful response to Alice Walker's presentation of her reasons for taking part in the US Boat to Gaza. I post it here with her permission.

Dear Alice Walker,

Though your riggings are tied, your heart has set sail. Your desire to deliver audacious hope to our region and your caring about children inspire many. As a person who lives in Jerusalem and dedicates many of my waking hours to Israeli-Palestinian collaboration, may I float some ideas that might advance commitments we share?

I co-direct an Israeli-Palestinian activist community theater project in Jerusalem together with my Palestinian partner, Kader Herini. YTheater—housed at the International Jerusalem YMCA. We work in those languages you cannot decipher—in Arabic and Hebrew, and in English. Our theater arises from shared exploration. We strive for an artistic language to express and respect our differences and to develop our joint potential for betterment. We train leaders in our process to inspire more collaboration. Our audiences, Muslims, Jews, and Christians, laugh and cry together; they participate in the enactment of joyous tolerance and creativity, where women and men, gay and straight, yearn and strive together.

I also parent Jewish children who risk at least three of their prime years to protect us. History proves that defend ourselves we must—today there are so many armed to harm us. My children have done National Service—caring for needy school children from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union, and served in elite units of the Israel Defense Forces. My sons persevered through grueling training, navigating hundreds of miles by maps they memorized, plodding on without sleep in the black of night with more than 100 pounds of equipment on their backs. When our son Bezalel completed his training as a medic in his combat unit, the commanding officer emphasized to his class their obligations. Their oath to treat the injured with justice—saving friend and enemy equally—brought tears to our eyes.

The IDF ethics of engagement often expose our children to extra danger in order to avoid harming non-combatants, searching door-to-door for terrorists rather than bombing from above. In Gaza, Israel electronically relayed tens of thousands of phone messages and dropped harmless “knock on the roof” sound bombs to advise civilians to evacuate their homes where Hamas stashed weapons and hid military operators. The US army learns from our methods in their war against terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. Though their opponents pose no imminent threat to your life or your family and friends, your soldiers inevitably wound and kill women, men, and children far from your home.

After Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Palestinians were free to choose their leaders. Hoping for less corruption and dysfunction, and better social services, many Palestinians voted for the only alternative to Fatah, Hamas. The Hamas covenant seeks not only the destruction of Israel. Citing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Hamas seeks to murder Jews.

Similar to the tough sanctions imposed on the South African apartheid regime, The Quartet—the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia—imposed sanctions on Hamas-controlled Gaza. Egypt and Israel imposed a blockade. The goal is to pressure Hamas to meet three conditions:

• recognize Israel,
• accept agreements made by the previous Fatah-led Administration, and
• denounce violence.

Refusing all of these, Hamas waged civil war, ousted Fatah, broke apart the Palestinian Legislative Council in June 2007, and rained rockets down on southern Israel. 3,278 rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza into Israel in 2008 aborted normal life—kindergarten, school, and work, and caused trauma, death, and destruction daily. My daughter's medical school held class underground. While she was doing her rotations, the pediatric intensive care unit was treating children from Gaza. In all Israeli hospitals, Arabs and Jews routinely receive the same medical care together. Meanwhile, the university dorm of one of our sons in Beer Sheva took a direct hit—students were, thankfully, in class.

Israel launched operation Cast Lead in January 2009. Shortly after my son, Bezalel was mobilized during Sabbath, I wrote the following journal entry,

We spent an hour before he left reading poetry together, Coleridge and Blake, Wordsworth—romantics who defied social institutions with their embodied eros, and Mary Wollstonecraft's introduction to Vindication of the Rights of Women. He napped until it was time to go. We packed food—vegetarian rations for a gentle soldier. I shiver with our embrace at the threshold of our home, at the threshold of Shabbat and desecration, at the seam of peace and war.

We have not yet heard from him. It is impossible to imagine this, the most difficult thing that I have ever faced.

There are no words to describe the anguish and vulnerability, the fusion of Zionist conviction with empathy. The sheer fear for the life that we birth, nurture, raise, and cherish is beyond any comprehension. There is no safety for innocence.

Not for Israelis.

Not for Palestinians.

My son Bezalel is an artist. He spins wood and metal into sacred vessels, paints on canvas, welds, builds tools and furniture.

May he and all dear ones speedily return to their true passions, bodies and souls intact. Our life force could be so much better spent.

I write of love in the midst of blood.

May we enable peace.

Thank God, Bezalel completed his compulsory army service. He has undertaken a course of study that will prepare him to design new limbs and organs that communicate with the nerves and mind.

The Goldstone Report on the 2009 Gaza operation documents blood-curdling accounts of how Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank persecute their political rivals. At the same time as retracting the central and unsubstantiated claim of his Report that condemned Israel for intentionally targeting civilians during the operation, Judge Richard Goldstone maintains that, “the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying — its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets.”(1) The Goldstone Report comments about Hamas strategy,

In July 2009, Hamas declared that it was entering a period of “cultural resistance”, stating that it was suspending its use of rockets and shifting its focus to winning support at home and abroad through cultural initiatives and public relations. (2)

In spite of this statement, the rocket bombardment of Sederot, the town where Bezalel goes to college, and the south of Israel has not ended; he is on the medic volunteer roster. On April 7, 2011, Hamas fired a laser-guided Kornet anti-tank missile at an Israeli school bus near Kibbutz Nahal Oz.

Willingly or not, Alice, you are participating in the Hamas cultural initiative and public relations campaign, a fusion of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

I share your desire to improve conditions for people in Gaza—they and we all suffer from Hamas policies. In June, 2010, Israel loosened restrictions to relieve the hardship by allowing all strictly civilian goods to enter; in May 2011, Egypt opened the Rafah crossing to women and to men under 18 and above 40 without a visa.

This brief sojourn in Greece is not a set-back, but preparation to make hope and love a daily routine, a way of life. As you re-group, please make plans to deliver love letters that arouse desire for a civil society in Gaza that denounces violence, recognizes Israel, and makes peace. Please long to deliver a love letter to Gilad Shalit who Hamas has held captive for more than 5 years, and please plan to unearth the love in Gaza to release this child to his parents, Noam and Aviva who ache for him. Please plan to deliver love letters to Palestinians in Gaza to support their choice of new leaders who will invest in cultivating and contributing to humanity.

With humility and hope, I offer these tenets of Israeli society as an agenda to share with the people of Gaza. Most Israelis accept Palestinian statehood—flourishing side-by-side with us in peace, with dignity and security. Israelis will surely open all ports to support the people of Gaza pursuing this building work:

• sustainable economic development
• universal education for civic responsibility and respect for all peoples
• women's liberation from systemic oppression and full participation in public life and leadership
• a comprehensive, high quality universal health care system
• academic institutions that promote open, critical thinking and innovation
• technology, scientific and medical research and development
• vibrant and uncensored media, culture, and arts

I close with a few lines of hope that I wrote after our soldiers came home from Gaza—a love letter to Palestinians in Gaza and everywhere, to Israelis, and to all who care.

Let us conceive
a new covenant with life
incise in our broken hearts
to open to one another
to give and to receive
to fix
to build and
to love

With blessings,
Bonna Devora Haberman

Jerusalem, Israel
______________________________________________________

(1) “Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes,” Washington Post, April 2, 2011, retrieved May 3, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html.

(2) “Goldstone Report,” of the “United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict,” headed by Richard Goldstone, p. 523, 1680.

US Boat to Gaza and Gilad Atzmon

This morning I received another one of the delightful missives from the US Boat to Gaza, reminding me of upcoming events in advance of the sailing of the flotilla in "the third week in June from a number of European ports," and asking me for "help." Well, here's the help I plan to give them.

They are asking their supporters to send them letters to carry to the people of Gaza. I don't quite understand this, since Gaza has a postal service too, as well as internet access. Why put them on a boat?

US Boat to Gaza, Fellowship of Reconciliation, US Campaign to End the Occupation, and CodePink are organizing a conference in Washington May 21-24 called "Move Over AIPAC!" Apparently AIPAC are to blame for everything bad that's happened in Gaza, especially since they are responsible for US support for Israel. If you go to the website you'll find the usual gang of anti-Israel organizations sponsoring it. One of the individual supporters is Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, someone I used to respect. The keynote speakers are Charles Freeman, John Mearsheimer, and Stephen Walt.

And, they're advertising two fundraising events, the first of which will occur tonight in Oakland: "On May 10, world renowned jazz saxophonist Gilad Atzmon will give a concert and talk to benefit the Bay Area passengers who will be on board The Audacity of Hope."

To me, the prominent notice of Atzmon's concert is a red flag - the organizers of the US boat to Gaza do not care if they are receiving the public support of a notorious anti-semite. They may claim not to be anti-semites, and merely to be anti-Zionist, but working with Atzmon gives the lie to that claim.

UPDATE: A commenter to Adam Holland reports that there will be a vigil today opposite the church, put on by San Francisco Voice for Israel.

ACTION ALERT:
May 10 4- 5pm
Vigil against Anti-Semitism in Oakland: Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave, Oakland

Tomorrow, Tuesday night, May 10 the Lake Merritt United Methodist Church in Oakland is hosting a talk by Gilad Atzmon as a fundraiser for the US boat to Gaza. Atzmon is an ex-Israeli who now resides in the UK; he has renounced not only being Israeli, but his membership in the Jewish people and now writes and promotes classically anti-Semitic remarks.....

San Francisco Voice for Israel will hold a vigil outside the church from 4-5

Suggested signs:

"Hate speech: not welcome here"
"Hate speech is unjust"

Please invite your non-Jewish friends to this event. This is about hate speech in the Bay Area, and decent people of all religions and (almost) all political orientations should be justifiably concerned about this type of extremism being welcomed into our community.

StandWithUs/ San Francisco Voice for Israel
www.SFVoiceForIsrael.org
www.StandWithUs.com

for further information or questions: e-mail us at sfvoiceforisrael@yahoo.com

Join the SF Voice For Israel group on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22259707003

Gilad Atzmon benefit for US Boat to Gaza

As reported initially by David Adler a couple of weeks ago, anti-Jewish agitator Gilad Atzmon, who recently put on a panel discussion in London on "Zionism, Jewishness, and Israel," is currently traveling around the US making mischief. Adam Holland reports today that he will be doing a benefit for US Boat to Gaza in Oakland, California. US Boat to Gaza is sending a boat to Gaza, which they have named the "Audacity of Hope," in another attempt to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. From their statement of purpose:

We are planning to launch a U.S. boat to Gaza, joining a flotilla of ships from Europe, Canada, India, South Africa and parts of the Middle East due to set sail in September/ October of this year. [Now scheduled for Spring 2011.] In order to succeed in this essential but costly human rights project, we need significant financial support.

Signatories of this statement follow below. I think that they should be held responsible for working with Atzmon, who is a notorious antisemite who has been rejected even by other British anti-Zionists like Tony Greenstein and Sue Blackwell.

Nic Abramson, Middle East Crisis Response
Elliott Adams, Past President, Veterans For Peace
Ujju Aggarwal
Laurie Arbeiter, Activist Response Team
Anna Baltzer, Human Rights Activist and Author
Russell Banks, Writer
Kahlil Bendib, Political Cartoonist
Medea Benjamin, Co-founder CODEPINK
Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies
Elaine Brower
Naomi Brussel, Activist Response Team
Allan Buchman, Founder and Artistic Director, The Culture Project
Leslie Cagan, Co-Founder United for Peace and Justice
Henry Chalfant, Film Maker
Kathleen Chalfant, New York
Cindy Corrie
Craig Corrie
Ellen Davidson, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA
Angela Y. Davis, University of California, Santa Cruz
Noor Elashi, Writer
Basem Emara, Gaza Freedom March
Kathy Engel, Poet
Hedy Epstein, Palestine Solidarity Committee, St. Louis, Missouri
Mike Ferner, National President, Veterans For Peace
Lisa Fithian, Alliance for Community Trainers
Felice Gelman, Gaza Freedom March
Jenny Heinz, Activist Response Team/Granny Peace Brigade
Jane Hirschmann, Jews Say No!
Jennifer Hobbs, New York City Attorney/Gaza Freedom March

Nubar Hovsepian, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies, Chapman University

Mary Hughes – Thompson, Free Gaza Movement
Abdeen Jabara, Past President, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Civil Rights Attorney
Tarak Kauff, Veterans for Peace
Kathy Kelly, Co-Coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Eleanore Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
Mona Khalidi
Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University
Naomi Klein, Writer
Ramzi Kysia, Free Gaza Movement
Iara Lee, Cultures of Resistance/Freedom Flotilla Survivor
Richard A. Levy, Labor Lawyer
Karen Malpede, Playwright
Helaine Meisler, Hudson Valley BDS
Gail Miller, Women of a Certain Age
Fatima Mohammadi, Attorney at Law/Freedom Flotilla Survivor
Donna Nevel, Jews Say No!
Michael Ratner, President, Center for Constitutional Rights
Mariam Said, New York
Najla Said, Actor/Writer
Hannah Schwarzschild, American Jews for a Just Peace
Bert Shaw
Moira Shaw
Kathy Sheetz, Free Gaza – USA/Freedom Flotilla Survivor
Ann Shirazi, Granny Peace Brigade/Women of a Certain Age
Starhawk, Alliance of Community Trainers
Eleanor Stein, Albany Law School
Michael Steven Smith, New York City Attorney/Author
Vivian Stromberg, MADRE, Executive Director
Yifat Susskind, MADRE Policy/Communications Director
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Syracuse University
Alice Walker, Author
Naomi Wallace
Darlene Wallach,  Free Gaza Movement, Justice for Palestinians
Donna Wallach,  Free Gaza Movement, Justice for Palestinians
Sarah Wellington, Activist Response Team
Diane Wilson, Writer/Activist
Ret. Col. Ann Wright, Freedom Flotilla Survivor
Rebecca Vilkomerson, Jewish Voice for Peace
Dorothy M. Zellner, Veteran Civil Rights Activist
David Zirin, Sports Correspondent, The Nation Magazine

Adam's report:

Anti-Jewish activist Gilad Atzmon will be speaking in Oakland, CA on Tuesday evening on behalf of the organization US Boat to Gaza - West. (Read here.) The event will raise funds for American participants in a planned convoy of boats to Gaza. It will take place at the Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, recent hosts of an ersatz seder with an anti-Israel theme. (Read here.) A leftist local paper with a reputation for disproportionate and biased coverage of Israel, the Berkeley Daily Planet, is promoting the event. (The paper essentially features local news and anti-Israel editorials.)  A front page notice in the paper describes Atzmon as "worldwide-renowned [sic] jazz saxophonist par excellence (who) holds a PhD in philosophy and is a prolific writer and speaker on Israel-Palestine". 

The poster advertising Atzmon's event. Note that it's being held at a Methodist church. I would have thought they would have learned to reject anti-semitism since the Second World War, but apparently not.

Israelis seize boat loaded with arms intended for Gaza

One wonders what Alice Walker and the other naifs of US Boat to Gaza think about this attempt to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza: Israel: Seized ship carried sophisticated weapons that could change balance of power in Gaza. Somehow they don't mention these things in their heartrending emails to me about the sufferings of the people of Gaza and the evil nature of the Israeli regime. Their latest missive to me was entitled "To Gaza with love" and consisted of an invitation to Americans to write letters to the people of Gaza that they would take with them on the boat. Wouldn't it be easier simply to mail them?

IHH Leader Urges Men to Throw Israelis Overboard 30 May 2010

On the front page of the Haaretz website, a new video from the Israeli foreign ministry about the preparations made on the Mavi Marmara for the Israeli commandos: YouTube - Evidence: IHH Leader Urges Men to Throw Israelis Overboard 30 May 2010.



So much for peaceful humanitarians.

The Foreign Ministry released a new video on Friday in which the leader of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, Bulent Yildirim, is seen on board the Gaza flotilla's ship the Mavi Marmara, telling dozens of activists to throw Israeli commandos overboard if they attempt to board the ship.

"If they board our ship, we will throw them into the sea, Allah willing!" says Yildirim, the head of the Turkish pro-Palestinian group that sent an aid flotilla to Gaza last month.
The video was shot on board the Mavi Marmara on May 30 by one of the passengers before the Israel Defense Forces raided the ship and killed nine Turkish activists during clashes.

"If we show fear, they will win once again….we don't want to be recorded in Allah's book as cowards," says Yildirim in the video, as dozens of passengers are seen chanting ""millions of martyrs marching to Gaza!"

"They (Israel) are so weak that for 4-5 days they have been engaging in propaganda (against us)…they have been humiliated in front of the whole world… now they are saying that they will launch a fleet (against us)… that they will send the commandos here (to the ship)."

"And we say: 'If you send the commandos, we will throw you down from here and you will be humiliated in front of the whole world," Yildirim tells the passengers.

On Wednesday, Israel added the IHH to its terror watch list following the events of the Gaza-bound flotilla.

IHH told members of the European Parliament it has assembled six ships for its next flotilla and asked others to join its effort to break through Israel's blockade of Gaza.

How the flotilla bound for Gaza Strip sailed into death at sea

This article from the Times of London (June 1: How the flotilla bound for Gaza Strip sailed into death at sea) seems to be a good account of what actually happened once the Israeli commandos rushed the Mavi Marmara. The New York Times has published a similar article, and the footage taken by the IDF and the flotilla members corroborates what both articles say.

Before the Gaza Freedom Flotilla steamed out of Cyprus laden with thousands of tons of aid for the blockaded Gaza Strip, some of the passengers on a Turkish-flagged cruise ship spoke to news crews filming their departure.

“We are now waiting for one of two good things — either to reach Gaza or achieve martyrdom,” said one woman in a headscarf. After a night of bloodshed on the high seas on Monday, at least nine of her fellow passengers, most of them believed to be Turks, had achieved the latter.

The shockwaves from the Israeli commando raid on the Mavi Marmara passenger ferry were still reverberating around the world last night, as Israel scrambled to defend its battered reputation. Already damaged after the Gaza war and a fumbled Mossad assassination of a Hamas militant in Dubai, it faced even tougher scrutiny as it began to examine what happened, and why.

Israel had denounced the Gaza flotilla as a publicity stunt to “humiliate” the Jewish state by publicly breaching its three-year siege of the Gaza Strip, where the Islamist movement Hamas holds sway. Determined to halt the six ships full of international activists — including several MEPs, an Irish Nobel peace laureate, a survivor of the Holocaust and volunteers from America, Iran and Indonesia — three Israeli missile boats slipped out of the northern port of Haifa at about 9pm to intercept the fleet in international waters.

Hours later, Greta Berlin, one of the Gaza fleet’s organisers, received a final message from the ships as the Israeli Navy hove into view: “All is calm, the Israeli warships are on our bow, let’s sleep.”

Over a loudspeaker, an Israeli naval officer warned the ships in English that they were in breach of the Israeli blockade of Gaza — deemed a “hostile entity” by the Knesset following the Hamas takeover. He ordered them to surrender their aid to the Israeli Navy, which would take it to the port of Ashdod and transfer it on lorries across the Israeli-controlled crossing with Gaza.

The captains of the ships said that they intended to deliver their 10,000 tons of aid directly to Gaza. Shortly afterwards, a Twitter message appeared from the Challenger 1, with 16 activists on board, including two Britons: “Intervention is imminent”.

At about 4am, Israeli Navy Seals from the elite Flotilla 13 unit were sent in three helicopters and in Zodiac assault craft to board the vessels. They had trained hard for the mission, but were expecting minor resistance. The plan was to land on the top deck of the Turkish ferry, rush the bridge and take control.

The Gaza fleet’s co-ordinators had said their colleagues on the five other ships had been schooled in non-violent resistance, including linking arms round the ships’ wheelhouses, locking engine rooms and filming the Israeli forces. “The passengers were waving white flags, not clubs,” the Free Gaza group said in a statement later.

However, some of the hundreds of passengers on the Mavi Marmara had other ideas. As the Israeli Navy Seals rappelled, one by one, on to the upper deck of the ship, it was no longer clear exactly who was ambushing whom.

“They beat us with metal sticks and knives,” said one of the Israeli commandos, who hit the deck only to find a mob of furious demonstrators, rather than political protesters, armed with iron bars, baseball bats, knives, petrol bombs and stun grenades. An Israeli military night-vision video released after the chaotic storming showed the first soldier being overwhelmed as he landed, then pitched on to a lower deck by the crowd.

Still the Israeli soldiers kept coming, in a single vertical line, to be set upon. Video footage from the activists showed stunned soldiers being pummelled, one of them reeling for cover from the blows in a hatchway.

Meanwhile, other commandos were trying to scale the ship’s sides, but were having their hands beaten by activists determined to repel the boarders. According to the army, it was a “lynching,” with the passengers trying to break the soldiers’ arms and legs and beating them about the head.

Overwhelmed, some of the elite forces started losing their sidearms to the crowd. Others had their helmets and body armour pulled off them as they were hurled from deck to deck. Some of the Israeli soldiers had to dive into the sea to save themselves.

“They jumped me, hit me with clubs and bottles and stole my rifle,” one commando said. “I pulled out my pistol and had no choice but to shoot.”

An Israeli journalist on the missile boats said that the soldiers had been carrying anti-riot paintball guns to disperse the crowd, as well as pistols. These appeared to have little effect and the order was eventually given to resort to live rounds.

“There was live fire at some point against us,” a commando said. That was when the gunfire erupted at terrifyingly close quarters. When it was over, two hours into the operation, at least nine passengers were dead, dozens more were wounded and Israel stood in the glare of international condemnation as rioters tried to storm its consulate in Istanbul and its ambassadors across Europe were summoned to explain themselves.

Israel said that seven of its soldiers had been wounded, two of them seriously, in the pre-dawn mêlée. Critics said that they had used the wrong forces, pitching crack commandos who are used to storming weapons-smuggling ships into what was, essentially, a sea-borne riot.

Accused by European leaders of using disproportionate force — a charge reminiscent of the Gaza conflict and the subsequent UN inquiry — Israel rushed to defend its actions, saying that IHH, the Turkish Islamic charity that chartered the ferry, had links to Hamas and even al-Qaeda.

“There was extreme violence from the moment that our forces reached the ship. It was premeditated and included weapons, iron bars, knives and at a certain stage firearms, perhaps in some cases weapons that were snatched from soldiers,” said Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, the Israeli Chief of Staff. But there was no explanation for the intelligence failure that led him to send his men armed primarily with paintball guns to face such a belligerent mob.

Last night the subdued flotilla was being towed into the sealed-off port of Ashdod, to await processing by the police. Those who agreed to deportation were to be escorted to the borders, while those who did not – including the Challenger 1’s two British passengers – were being taken to jail.

In hospital beds across Israel, wounded passengers spent the night under heavy guard by military police officers, still far from Gaza.

Note the highlighted words - it's clear that not all the passengers on the boat intended to resist non-violently.

To see the videos from the IDF - YouTube channel of the IDF Spokesman's Office.

Gaza "Freedom" Marchers and Alice Walker

More on the Freedom Marchers themselves (clever title, that - reminding us of the people who went to the southern U.S. to work for equal rights for African Americans - which did not, of course, entail working with terrorist groups!), from the Egyptian authorities, who seem to regard them as a major nuisance.

The Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, expressed frustration at the activists who came to Cairo despite the warning that the border was closed. “Those who tried to conspire against us, and they are more than a thousand, we will leave them in the street,” he said.

One of the Code Pinkers, Alice Walker, seems to have a very peculiar idea of how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began. She writes in her blog [URL updated 4/26/11], in an article called "Overcoming Speechlessness":

And so I have been, once again, struggling to speak about an atrocity: This time in Gaza, this time against the Palestinian people. Like most people on the planet I have been aware of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict almost my whole life. I was four years old in 1948 when, after being subjected to unspeakable cruelty by the Germans, after a “holocaust” so many future disasters would resemble, thousands of European Jews were resettled in Palestine. They settled in a land that belonged to people already living there, which did not seem to bother the British who, as in India, had occupied Palestine and then, on leaving it, helped put in place a partitioning of the land they thought would work fine for the people, strangers, Palestinians and European Jews, now forced to live together.

Why does she put the word Holocaust in quotes? Wasn't it one? And is the only important thing about the Holocaust that it led to Holocaust survivors settling in Palestine? Like many other anti-Israel activists, she has the mistaken notion that the Jews who went to Palestine were only from Europe. What of the hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab and Muslim who emigrated to Israel? Her statement about the role of the British is also entirely incorrect. The British were not in favor of the UN partition plan - they abstained during the vote on November 29, 1947. They did nothing to implement it once the UN approved it.

She also seems to consider Israel unredeemable, despite all of her talk about reconciliation:

There are differing opinions about this, of course, but my belief is that when a country primarily instills fear in the minds and hearts of the people of the world, it is no longer useful in joining the dialogue we need for saving the planet.

She also thinks that the people of Gaza have been subjected to genocide:

This is a chilling use of power, supported by the United States of America, no small foe, if one stands up to it. No wonder that most people prefer to look the other way during this genocide, hoping their disagreement with Israeli policies will not be noted.

She argues for a one-state solution without any concern at all for the lives of Israeli Jews:

What is to be done? Our revered Tolstoy asked this question, speaking also of War and Peace. I believe there must be a one state solution. Palestinians and Jews, who have lived together in peace in the past, must work together to make this a reality once again. This land (so soaked in Jewish and Palestinian blood, and with America’s taxpayer dollars wasted on violence the majority of us would never, if we knew, support) must become, like South Africa, the secure and peaceful home of everyone who lives there. This will require that Palestinians, like Jews, have the right of return to their homes and their lands. Which will mean what Israelis most fear: Jews will be outnumbered and, instead of a Jewish state, there will be a Jewish, Muslim, Christian country, which is how Palestine functioned before the Europeans arrived. What is so awful about that?

Does she know anything about Ottoman rule of Palestine? It was rule by a Muslim empire which favored Muslims over Christians or Jews. In saying this I'm not arguing that it was an evil empire - but that its rulers had their own interests and beliefs, among them that Islam was superior to other religions and that the "peoples of the book" should be tolerated but treated as second-class citizens. The Ottoman Empire began to treat its religious minorities better throughout the 19th century, with the reform movement known as the Tanzimat, but it certainly was not a model of religious equality. And this is even without considering the Armenian Genocide, which was wrought by the Ottoman government in its dying days during WWI. Walker's idea of Palestine before British rule seems to be governed by a gauzy nostalgia for an imagined past. Perhaps she should consult a variety of histories of Palestine, not simply those written by Ali Abunimah and others who argue for the one-state solution.

It also seems that she is taking a kind of unholy glee in the thought that Jews will once again be a minority in Palestine, as if this is really the correct state of affairs. Jews should know their place, which is not to be able to wield power by controlling their own independent state.

And to think I once admired Alice Walker!

Naomi Klein in Israel

I turned on Reshet Bet of Kol Israel a few minutes ago, to listen to the morning news show (it's the Israeli Radio news station) and who should they be interviewing but Naomi Klein, who has been visiting Israel and the occupied territories (including Gaza). The interviewer asked her why she visited Israel despite her support of the economic and academic boycott of Israel, and she answered that while she didn't want to support the institutions of the Israeli state, she wanted to engage in dialogue with Israelis. I couldn't quite understand what the interviewer said, but it sounded like she was offered some money for her interview, which she was going to donate to a charity because she didn't want to profit from an Israeli government institution (Israel Radio is part of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, and is run by the state). She's now talking about her thesis on "disaster capitalism" - that terrible disasters like the tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2006 are then exploited by corporations who use the opportunity of destruction to bring in their own businesses and displace local people.

I find it very surprising, for several reasons, that she's being interviewed by Israel Radio. First of all, in the United States, she would be interviewed by left-wing radio networks or shows like Amy Goodman's Democracy Now. Her chances of being interviewed by CNN, for example, are vanishingly small, as far as I know, because of her left-wing economic views. I guess the fact that Israel Radio is interested in interviewing her is a sign that Israel is still much more open than the U.S. to left-wing views, even with Netanyahu as Prime Minister and Avigdor Lieberman as Foreign Minister. (After all, Hadash, the Israeli communist party, has a few seats in the Knesset).

I was also surprised that Israeli Radio would want to interview someone who is so negative about Israel and who advocates the boycott of Israel! And I'm also equally surprised that Naomi Klein would even come to Israel and agree to be interviewed on the state radio station! (To be fair to her, it sounded like much of her time here was spent in Gaza and the West Bank - she said that one of her goals in coming here was to work against the sense of "normalization" that disturbs her in Israel by talking about what is going on in Gaza).

She talked about one thing that I found very interesting - the Israeli advertising campaign in other countries to "re-brand" Israel as a normal country that's worth visiting (rather than a dangerous country of suicide bombings and wars). I remember hearing about this a couple of years ago when the campaign was just starting. Apparently this campaign was first piloted in Toronto, where she lives. I myself was disturbed by the idea that an advertising campaign was the way to change people's minds about Israel, since of course it doesn't deal with any of the actual problems in Israel. But, on the other hand, what advertising campaign does? It just seems a very superficial way to present the official Israeli government position.

On her website she calls for the boycott of Israel in these terms: "It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa."

Her reply to the criticism that Israel isn't South Africa is interesting: "2. Israel is not South Africa. Of course it isn't. The relevance of the South African model is that it proves that BDS tactics can be effective when weaker measures (protests, petitions, back-room lobbying) have failed. And there are indeed deeply distressing echoes of South African apartheid in the occupied territories: the color-coded IDs and travel permits, the bulldozed homes and forced displacement, the settler-only roads."

Her website also explains how she managed to get her latest book published in Israel - by a small left-wing Israeli press called Andalus. She won't be receiving any profits from the book; all will go to Andalus - "In other words, I am boycotting the Israeli economy but not Israelis." She explains more about this in an interview with Ha'aretz published yesterday - Oppose the state, not the people.

One of the things she's done while she's here is go to the weekly protests at Bil'in - see this report on Mondoweiss - Naomi Klein in Bil'in. The weekly protests are against the separation wall.

The contortions that she must go through to prove that even though she's visiting Israel and having her books published here she's still boycotting the Israeli economy are quite amazing. It seems to me that she could extract herself from the charge of hypocrisy if her support for the BDS campaign were a little less knee-jerk and more nuanced - if she said that she intends to support certain parts of the Israeli economy - like left-wing presses - and not other parts, like big Israeli corporations or state institutions.

Israel Declares Cease Fire

Israel Declares Cease Fire - this is certainly welcome, but what does it mean? If there's no agreement between Hamas and Israel for a truce, then how can Israel's declaring that it will stop attacking result in anything except a temporary respite? Hamas doesn't have any reason to stop firing rockets if they haven't made an agreement with Israel to stop doing so. Or does this mean that Israel will remain in parts of Gaza? I'm confused.

Haaretz editorial on the ceasefire - "A cease-fire, albeit a unilateral one, is a necessary condition, though it is certainly insufficient for a stable, long-term arrangement in Gaza. It would behoove the government not to flinch from its decision to end Operation Cast Lead immediately and act to change relations with the Palestinians. After the hard blows Israel has inflicted, the time has come to aid the Palestinian population in both the West Bank and Gaza, and to work toward an agreement with the moderate leadership."

A Jew's Prayer for the Children of Gaza

From Bradley Burston of Ha'aretz -

Lord who is the creator of all children, hear our prayer this accursed day. God whom we call Blessed, turn your face to these, the children of Gaza, that they may know your blessings, and your shelter, that they may know light and warmth, where there is now only blackness and smoke, and a cold which cuts and clenches the skin.

Almighty who makes exceptions, which we call miracles, make an exception of the children of Gaza. Shield them from us and from their own. Spare them. Heal them. Let them stand in safety. Deliver them from hunger and horror and fury and grief. Deliver them from us, and from their own.

Restore to them their stolen childhoods, their birthright, which is a taste of heaven.

Remind us, O Lord, of the child Ishmael, who is the father of all the children of Gaza. How the child Ishmael was without water and left for dead in the wilderness of Beer-Sheba, so robbed of all hope, that his own mother could not bear to watch his life drain away.

Be that Lord, the God of our kinsman Ishmael, who heard his cry and sent His angel to comfort his mother Hagar.

Be that Lord, who was with Ishmael that day, and all the days after. Be that God, the All-Merciful, who opened Hagar's eyes that day, and showed her the well of water, that she could give the boy Ishmael to drink, and save his life.

Allah, whose name we call Elohim, who gives life, who knows the value and the fragility of every life, send these children your angels. Save them, the children of this place, Gaza the most beautiful, and Gaza the damned.

In this day, when the trepidation and rage and mourning that is called war, seizes our hearts and patches them in scars, we call to you, the Lord whose name is Peace:

Bless these children, and keep them from harm.

Turn Your face toward them, O Lord. Show them, as if for the first time, light and kindness, and overwhelming graciousness.

Look up at them, O Lord. Let them see your face.

And, as if for the first time, grant them peace.

Genocide in Gaza?

Terry Glavin, in his essay "The Debasement of Language: 'Israeli Genocide,'" succinctly discusses the use of language equating Jews with Nazis and accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. This is relevant to a conversation I just overheard today.

I went to a local cafe this morning for a nice cup of coffee and to read a heavy tome on Angelomorphic Christology (for an article I should be writing on "Divine Beings"), and was sitting and sipping the coffee when I heard a couple of people at another table discussing the Gaza War. One of them started going on about Israeli genocide in Gaza - how Israel had already killed over 500 Palestinians and that this was genocide. Only my desire not to make a scene in public prevented me from going over to them and asking them what did they really think genocide was? And to add the comment that if the Israelis really wanted to commit genocide in Gaza, they were doing a really poor job at it. And that if the Israelis needed any models for how to go about it, they should consult the Syrians, who killed between ten and twenty thousand people in Hama, or perhaps Saddam Hussein and "Chemical Ali" for their Anfal campaign against the Kurds.

None of this should be construed, however, for support of Israeli bombing and killing of civilians - I am still deeply ambivalent about the Israeli assault on Gaza, at this time leaning towards being against; this is why I keep posting about demonstrations against the attacks in Gaza, in the hope that maybe I'll find one I might actually want to attend, were I to be present in the relevant location at the right time.

Unfortunately, while there has been a local demonstration against the Gaza War, I didn't see that I could support it, even though I agreed in part with the organizers' statement. It calls for, among other things, a complete halt to American military aid to Israel, which I do not support. It also very much dismisses the impact of the constant rocket attacks on Sderot and other Israeli towns near Gaza. While I think that one could argue that the Israeli response to those attacks is wrong and counterproductive, it is also incorrect to dismiss the suffering that the residents of Sderot have endured, even if the magnitude is much less than that endured by the people of Gaza.

I would ask the organizers of the demonstration to consider how they would feel if Ithaca had received rocket fire from nearby towns for several years - I think that they would not be inclined to dismiss the ill effects upon us even if only a few people were killed. The statement that "The airstrikes, which stoke the Palestinians' anger and desire for revenge, in no way contribute the security of Israelis," could equally well be turned upon Hamas - rockets upon Israelis also stoke their anger and desire for revenge, and do not contribute to the security of Gazans. There is no acknowledgement of any responsibility of Hamas for this horrible situation. I would prefer to see signs denouncing Hamas along with those denouncing Israel.

Update, a little later - I'm listening to the evening news show on Israel channel 1, Mabat, which is going back and forth between the anchors in the studio and reporters in Sderot and Ashkelon. As they were talking to the reporter in Ashkelon, the air raid sirens came on - warning of incoming rockets from Gaza, and they're now talking about the rockets that just landed. Mabat is a live news show, so this just happened - it's very scary to listen to, I can just imagine being there.

Israeli demonstrations against the Gaza War

Update. Peace Now is also calling for an immediate halt to the bombing and finding a political solution.

Gush Shalom is organizing a rally for tomorrow. A statement of demands:

The killing in Gaza continues. Hundreds have been killed, thousands injured, air-strikes have caused utter devastation and entire families are left homeless.

Civilians in the south of Israel are being held captive by a government which lies to them and abuses them. Destruction and death in Gaza will not ensure their future, but rather lead to more violence and killings.

Join us in protest this coming Saturday, 3.1.2009, in Tel Aviv. Together we will call out:

Stop the Killing! No to the Siege! Yes to life for both peoples!

In these dark days, let us stick to our message:

Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies!

Our demand: A full truce and the lifting of the siege on Gaza NOW!

Please note: For the past week mass arrests have been carried out amongst Palestinian citizens of Israel who are exercising their democratic right to protest. On Saturday, at 13:00, before the Tel Aviv demonstration, a mass protest rally will be held in Sakhnin by the High Committee of Arab Israelis against the killing in Gaza. Please make an effort to join – your presence is of the essence!

Demonstrations this week in Israel against the Gaza War





21 activists protesting Gaza op detained. "Left-wing activists arrested after attempting to block entrance to Sde Dov military airfield in bid to prevent pilots from 'taking off to bombard Gaza civilians.'" This demonstration was held today. The group was from "Anarchists Against the Wall." The sign they're carrying reads "The blood of children is on your hands." [See their website for a detailed report on a variety of Israeli left-wing demonstrations against the Gaza war - War on Gaza met with dissent].

Protesters call on PM to talk with Hamas.

Left-wing activists from across Israel demonstrated Thursday evening in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in protest of the IDF's continued military operation in Gaza, and called for an immediate ceasefire.



Some 200 people assembled outside the official residence of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, and urged him to order the military to halt the fighting. "Our main message is – 'Children in Gaza and Sderot want to live'," said Ofer Neiman, one of the rally's organizers.

[The Hebrew signs at this rally read "Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies" and "The IDF and Hamas are fighting on our account"].

Neiman explained that he and his friends sought to draw attention to the suffering of civilians on both sides. "We call not only for a ceasefire with Hamas, but for a comprehensive truce with our neighbors in order to resolve the core issues and find a way out of the cycle of bloodshed.

"The notion that Israel is completely right and the Palestinians are completely wrong is false and gives legitimacy to anti-humanitarian acts in the Gaza Strip," he stated.

According to Neiman, among the rally's participants were several Sderot residents who are members of the "Different Voice" organization, which calls for dialogue with the Palestinians in Gaza.

Meanwhile in Tel Aviv locals went out on their bikes to protest the operation in Gaza and the rocket fire on Israel. Hagai Matar told Ynet: "Some 40 bike riders gathered at the Rabin Square. This is a routine activity to protest the occupation, but we took this opportunity to call for an end to the fighting."



Matar said that "disproportionate" police forces attempted to forcefully disperse the protest.

"We left the place and reassembled somewhere else, rode through Rothschild Boulevards and Allenby Street and spoke to the passersby," he said. "We wanted to help people become aware of the complexity of the situation and of the fact that there are alternatives to the fighting, that dialogue is possible."

Matar noted that the group did not only sympathize with one side of the conflict. "We believe that the solution is dialogue. This is the only way to stop the suffering. The fact that we have been able to spread the message is very important to us, and it is important to keep that up," he concluded.

Police allow anti-war protesters to raise Palestinian flags "Following pressure exerted by High Court, police decide to reverse decision not to okay march against Gaza op if participants wave PA flags. The police announced Friday during a High Court hearing that it would allow left-wing protesters to raise Palestinian flags during a rally calling to end the military operation in Gaza."



Violent riots in Jerusalem; officer hurt. "Hundreds of Arabs clashed with police forces Friday throughout Jerusalem after religious services concluded in the Temple Mount and the capital's mosques."