9th Annual National Organizers' Conference, Kansas City, MO, July 23-25

http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=340

Palestinian Women under Occupation

The Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations is a Beirut, Lebanon-based organization engaged in "strategic and futuristic studies on the Arab and Muslim worlds, (emphasizing) the Palestinian issue. In early 2010, it published the second of its series, "Am I Not a Human," a report titled, "The Suffering of the Palestinian Woman under the Israeli Occupation, " discussed below.

In spite of their "exceptional suffering," Palestinian women display remarkable endurance qualities. Living under stress in poverty, their homes destroyed, lands razed or expropriated, children sick, husbands imprisoned, fathers killed, and more, they plant seeds of hope, fulfill their daily social role, and participate in political and every day resistance. Since the 1948 Nakba, they've been denied basic human rights, security, free expression and movement, a safe and healthy environment, and education. They became refugees in their own land and abroad, bearing burdens beyond the capacity most women can bear anywhere.

Under occupation, they struggle daily to endure, survive, and provide the best for their families and children - as spouses, mothers, caregivers, fighters, nurses, workers, and teachers.

Annually on March 8, International Women's Day commemorates their economic, political, cultural, scientific, and social achievements, but for Palestinian women, it's more - their struggle under Israeli occupation, their lost freedoms, and imposed hardships, testing them to the limit to cope. For Gazans bordering on Israel, one mother said she:

"sleeps with her eyes wide open, and lives with her heart broken, expecting grief to be renewed at any moment."

Another woman searches daily for a medicine her son Muhammad needs, hospitalized without it. Some mothers have only photos of lost loved ones, or others imprisoned out of reach.

In Gaza, the burden is greatest. Also, however, after Israel's 2003 law banning family unifications of Israeli citizens married to Palestinian spouses in Gaza or the West Bank. It legalized Israel's longstanding practice, forcing some women to live illegally as virtual house prisoners to avoid arrest or deportation without their husbands and children.

Other problems include poverty, unemployment, regular violence, home demolitions, and the dilemma of living day to day in uncertainty, a step away from enough essentials to survive. Too little of everything, including few medical centers, endangers their health, especially when pregnant or coping with serious illness.

Maysoon Saleh Nayef al-Hayek described her experience, saying:

"It was 25 February 2002, not long after midnight, I started having contractions. I woke up Muhammad, my husband, and we went to his parents' house to call an ambulance. We couldn't get through, so my husband took his brother's car and we set off for the hospital in Nablus. My father-in-law came with us. We arrived at Huwara checkpoint (and) were stopped by Israeli soldiers."

"Muhammad was ordered out of the car and they checked his papers. Then my father-in-law and I had to (show ours). Then the car was thoroughly searched. We told the soldiers I had to go to the hospital to give birth as soon as possible, that I was in severe pain. They first refused, then told me to uncover my belly, so they could see I was telling the truth. After all this (for about an hour), we were told to go ahead. We drove on and after a few hundred meters I heard shots. There was heavy gunfire coming from the front of the car."

"The car stopped, and I saw that my husband was hit and was lying on the steering wheel. He had been shot in the throat and upper body, and was bleeding heavily."

Her father-in-law was also hit in the upper body, and shrapnel and flying glass injured her. Contractions were coming faster. Soldiers pulled her out of the car, made her undress to be examined, then left her on the ground, bleeding and in labor.

When she finally reached the hospital, she gave birth to a baby girl in the elevator. Her husband died. Her father-in-law remained in a coma for 40 days. The incident irrevocably changed her life.

Other pregnant women face similar situations, harassed and forced to give birth at checkpoints with no adequate hygienic or medical care to help. In February 2007, the UN Commission on Human Rights addressed the matter in a report titled, "The Issue of Palestinian Pregnant Women Giving Birth at Israeli Checkpoints," noting 69 cases from 2000 - 2006, according to Information Health Center of the Palestinian Ministry of Health records.

Among them, 35 newborns and five women died for lack of care. In six other cases, Palestinian women were injured as a result of being beaten, shot, or affected by Israeli fired toxic gas.

Before the second Intifada, travel time to health facilities was 15 - 30 minutes. Since then it takes two - four hours or longer, and too often security forces prevent it entirely. As a result, many women choose to give birth at home, especially in rural areas and villages, much further away from medical centers and checkpoints needing to get through to reach them - impossible at night for those blocked by the Separation Wall. In all cases, harassment and abuse harm mothers and newborns, at times severe enough to kill.

Rula Ishtaya's birth was imminent, yet checkpoint soldiers blocked her passage. She had to crawl behind a nearby rock to self-deliver, yelling and screaming loudly without help. She survived, but her newborn daughter died, a common experience for other women, making pregnancy the third highest cause of death among child-bearing age women, instead of a joy in anticipation of a new life.

Even with successful deliveries, post-natal complications add other risks, and under Gaza's siege, all of them are far greater, exacerbated by other health problems, malnutrition, and shortages of virtually everything let in, and lack of much more excluded.

As a result, studies show women throughout the Territories are obsessed about death, feel helpless and depressed, experience anger, and have nervous breakdowns. In addition, extreme poverty forces them to ignore personal health and focus on their children and families. Somehow, they persist and endure.

Education is another issue because of checkpoints, barriers, and some schools turned into detention centers, among other issues. As a result, many families keep their daughters at home to avoid harassment and humiliation, and in other cases, they leave school before graduation to help out financially, families prioritizing their sons, expected to provide support when they marry.

For young girls, few opportunities for development, recreation and participation are available, other than school. In other cases, families have no choice but to pressure their daughters to marry early because of poverty and deprivation.

Despite all, learning and school attendance rates are growing, showing where there's a will, there's a way. True also in the labor force, a 2006 study indicating females comprised 14.5% of it. Because of extreme poverty, many must work, though never easily given the high unemployment rate. Others work unpaid in agriculture.

Palestinian women become victims when their husbands, sons or other relatives are arrested, killed or in any way harmed. They're also detained and pressured to help security forces against their loved ones, on threat of home demolitions or worse.

'Um Mansur Shreim's tragedy is typical. A single mother of three detained sons, her husband died at an Israeli checkpoint en route home from his only visit to one of them. He succumbed to a heart attack because authorities delayed his ambulance. Earlier, the family home was demolished after one son was arrested - how Israel punishes family members when one is sought or detained. If one suffers, they all do, women always harmed most if their husbands and sons are seized or killed.

"Um Nasir Abu Hamid's story is also heartbreaking, a mother of 10 sons. One was assassinated. Seven others are in detention, denied parental visits for "security reasons." Four were sentenced to life in prison, and her home was demolished twice.

Despite it all, Palestinian women persist and endure. "Um Nidal Farhat is one of many. Security forces killed three of her sons. She wasn't deterred, sheltering others Israelis wanted in her home, and being willing to sacrifice her own children for freedom and justice.

Women are also politically active, participating in demonstrations, marches, and other protests as well as providing medical and nutritional aid to the injured. Even armed resistance for family and country at times, putting their own bodies on the line at the risk of death or imprisonment.

It's a tradition, going back to the 19th century, the first one in Afula in 1893 when women demonstrated against the construction of a new Jewish settlement. In 1929, British forces killed nine women in al-Buraq Battle, the event called a turning point in the fight for economic and political status.

The first Palestinian women's conference followed in Jerusalem, and the Arab Women's Association executive committee established the Arab Women's Union in Jerusalem and Nablus.

During the 1936 - 39 revolt against Jewish immigration, transfers of land to Jewish owners, and for a new general representative government, women participated valiantly, supplying food, arms, and taking training to fight.

Again during the 1948 war, women were active, trading jewelry for a rifle, providing food, arms and other supplies, and at times fighting alongside their men. One group of women from Jaffa formed a secret women's squad called the Daisy Flower (Zahrat al-Uqhuwan), charged with urging others to fight and provide aid to the resistance. Another Women's Solidarity Association supplied medical, ambulatory and first aid services.

Post-1948, refugees, especially women facing poverty and deprivation, did whatever they could to survive and help their families. The Nakba ignited their spirit and identity to struggle for the right of return.

In 1964, the Union of Palestinian Women was founded to "improve the economic, social, and health status of women, take care of working women, and provide care for mothers and children." A year later, the General Union of Palestinian Women and several charitable socities followed after the PLO was established.

After the 1967 occupation, activist women joined the resistance, engaged in political and social work, and at times armed fighting.

In December 1976, the Israeli military governor amended the 1955 Jordanian election law, enabling all Palestinians aged 21 or over to vote in municipal elections, including women. As a result, women, more than ever, became politically active, causing hundreds to be targeted, arrested or killed.

During the first Intifada, women participated with men. More than 500 arrests didn't deter them nor do they now. After the PA was established in 1994, women worked in public ministries and institutions, mostly in support roles as teachers, secretaries or other non-official capacities, yet some became political candidates and five (out of 88) became cabinet members. In 2006, it became 17 of 132 - representing Hamas, Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Third Way, and Independent Palestine candidate lists.

During the second Intifada, women participated actively, including through heroic demonstrations - 163 paid with their lives. A notable instance was on March 11, 2006 when Beit Hanun women rallied for the release of 70 Palestinian resistance fighters besieged by security forces in Nasr mosque.

Without weapons, they faced down Israeli soldiers and tanks, taking overhead gun fire and some direct, killing two and injuring 18 others, several severely. Among them was Jamilah al-Shanti who said:

"The truth was greater and stronger than what you saw on satellite TV screens....we were adamant on ending that Israeli besiegement of the mosque even if it cost us our lives."

Beit Hanun women volunteered to get others injured to hospitals in spite of Israeli forces banning medical staff from helping. Others confronted Israeli forces directly and were killed or injured - similar to other incidents throughout the Territories, but never easily, for women or men against ruthless forces not shy about gunning them down in cold blood.

A Final Comment

Like heroic Palestinian men and children, women have struggled for liberation for over six decades - socially, politically, and at times militantly for justice, in spite of enormous pressures and responsibilities as wives, mothers, caregivers, and, as needed, freedom fighters.

They've endured poverty, deprivation, and enormous suffering, struggling to endure while facing down Israeli aggression. They sacrificed for their families, lost their children, husbands, and homes, yet they persist as Um Leila explained, saying:

"....in spite of all the obstacles, in spite of the opposition from the men, the Palestinian women will participate in the liberation struggle. Every day, people are killed amongst us, every day produces a martyr. If people don't understand (our) situation....they won't understand the pain that makes mothers wish, more than anything else, for their sons to become commandos."

That spirit won't die until a courageous people are free again in their own homes, on their own land in liberated Palestine.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/6479-palestinian-women-under-occupation

Israel celebrates its 62 Independence Day while Palestinians are still under Occupation

The Israeli people began to celebrate their sixty two Independence Day stating that East Jerusalem is a part of the united capital of Israel and that Israel must Israel celebrates its 62 Independence Day while Palestinians are still under Occupation 173 320x240 pal refugees only depend on itself in facing the dangers which it faces. The two statements were made by Prime Minister Netanyahu in an interview he made with the BBC and the yearly speech which is made for the memory of the Israelis who fall in the wars Israel goes through.

While the Israelis are celebrating their independence, the Palestinians are still suffering from occupation. More than 9750 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons and 4.62 million Palestinians are refugees. 2,407,681 Palestinians in the West Bank and 209,000 in East Jerusalem are living under occupation and Israeli army control on checkpoints. The Palestinians do not enjoy any kind of independence and are not allowed to take full control of their security and right of travelling. The Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem do not hold any kind of nationality and are considered permanent residents by Israel. The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are issued identification cards only after an Israeli approval and examination. The Palestinian security forces cannot do its work without an Israeli approval. In other words Israel still controls everything in the occupied territories until today.

Although Israel celebrates what they consider their independence day and the success of establishing a state for the Jewish people, the Palestinians continue to pay the price until today. Many lost their lands and others do not have a place to live in. Almost half of the Palestinian people live under poverty while the Palestinian refugees are suffering in bad circumstances around the world.

The International community and Israel must remember that in this day the Palestinians turned to be a people who is living under occupation, suffer from apartheid, and is left without a state which can defend its rights. In this day the Palestinians were obliged to leave their houses and lands in order to bring another people to take their place. In this day the Palestinians began a journey of injustice that continues until today.
http://www.middleastpost.com/1783/israel-celebrates-62-independence-day-palestinians-occupation/

Beit Sahour: a microcosm of Israeli colonization

Forced by Israeli construction in East Jerusalem, the US president delivers a "rare rebuke" of an ally. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins "construction of a new housing project in East Jerusalem" despite the risk of drawing "fierce, and possibly violent, Palestinian protest, along with international denunciations," as reported by The New York Times. While this may sound like a news summary from the last month, these are in fact news reports from 1997, as Israel began work on Har Homa colony.

A number of commentators have pointed out a sense of déjà-vu about Netanyahu's current premiership. But while today's gaze is fixed on colonies like Ramat Shlomo -- home to the 1,600 new housing units announced during US Vice President Joe Biden's visit -- or right-wing settler expansion in Sheikh Jarrah, little has been said about what has since happened to Har Homa, the colony which caused a stir during Netanyahu's previous time in office.

Har Homa's impact on the Palestinian community has been devastating, with the town of Beit Sahour now dominated by the ever-expanding settlement. While many are aware of Beit Sahour's famous nonviolent resistance during the first Palestinian intifada (1987-1993), less well-known is how Israeli rule continues to choke the town. Har Homa has been instrumental in that respect, and it plays a role in the latest settler-driven attempts to take over more land at Ush al-Ghrab, the site of a vacated Israeli military base. Located on the edge of Beit Sahour, the Israeli military has returned to the site while right-wing settlers campaign for the area to become the new settlement of Shdema.

A strategic colony

After 1967, Israel moved quickly to unilaterally and illegally expand the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, expropriating land from West Bank villages in order to do so. As reported in the Israeli daily Haaretz on 13 February, Beit Sahour lost 1,200 of its 7,000 dunams (a dunam is the equivalent of 1,000 square meters), or 17 percent of its total land. Moreover, a May 2009 report by the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) entitled "Shrinking Space: Urban contraction and rural fragmentation in the Bethlehem governorate," found that the Bethlehem governorate, which includes Beit Sahour, lost around 10 square kilometers to Israel's land confiscation.

In his book, City of Stone: The Hidden History of Jerusalem, Meron Benvenisti, the ex-deputy mayor of Jerusalem, stated that for Israel the "determining consideration" in the "delineation of the borders" of occupied East Jerusalem was "'a maximum of vacant space with a minimum of Arabs." He argues that this logically led planners to Palestinian land "on the outskirts of the city and surrounding it" (154-55). Further land loss would follow -- meaning that the amount of non-built-up land available for Beit Sahour for development and growth has been reduced to around 600 dunams.

Israel's creation of the Har Homa colony in the 1990s and its ongoing expansion has been instrumental not just in the direct expropriation of land from Beit Sahour residents, but also in restricting the community's ability to naturally expand. According to Separate and Unequal: The inside story of Israeli rule in East Jerusalem by Amir S. Cheshin, Bill Hutman and Avi Melamed, the allocation of land for the establishment of Har Homa -- a third of which was owned by Palestinians from Beit Sahour and nearby Um Taba -- was "never connected with the planning of the neighborhood." Instead, the goal was to "expropriate as much undeveloped land as possible in the area, to prevent Palestinians from building." In particular, Israel was "concerned that Palestinian construction would eventually link up Palestinian villages in southern Jerusalem with the nearby West Bank towns of Beit Sahour and Bethlehem" (p. 58).

Separate and Unequal also reveals that in April 1992, a senior official close to then-mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kollek wrote to then housing minister Ariel Sharon, explaining how the land confiscated for Har Homa would "'straighten the line' of the Jerusalem municipal border." The letter explained that the "immediate battle" was over connecting the Jewish settlements of Gilo, East Talpiot and Givat Hamatos. Otherwise, it warned that Beit Sahour and the nearby Palestinian town of Sur Baher would be connected (p. 59).

Indeed, Har Homa has continued to expand over the years, with further residential units being added. Currently, a new expansion of hundreds of homes referred to as "Har Homa C" is awaiting implementation, having been submitted for public review in 2008.
The same strategy to connect Israeli settlements and deny Palestinian villages the ability to expand is now being applied in Ush al-Ghrab. Establishing a settlement at Ush al-Ghrab will serve to consolidate Israel's Judaization of the area between Jerusalem and the Bethlehem-Beit Jala-Beit Sahour urban triangle and prevent the possibility of Palestinian territorial contiguity.

Nor is the strategy a secret. Haaretz reported on 4 February that Herzl Yechezel, the leader of the Har Homa "local committee," spoke at a settlers' ceremony about the importance of contiguity of Shdema, and Har Homa in order to prevent "the spread of Arab construction." Yechezel has previously described Har Homa "as a thorn" sitting between Palestinian villages and towns.

An apartheid regime

The loss of land and establishment of settlements has been "complemented" by Israel's wall in the occupied West Bank, checkpoints and bypass road 356. This matrix of control has further defined the boundaries of this Palestinian enclave. According OCHA's "Shrinking Space" report, the path of Israel's wall has placed olive groves belonging to Palestinians from Beit Sahour on the "wrong side." It stated that these groves are "now only accessible through two gates" that are opened "for limited periods during the annual olive harvest." According to an 11 April 2009 Reuters report, Israel's wall has also meant that residents in a Beit Sahour housing project -- having narrowly avoided outright demolitions -- will be completely encircled, thus "forcing residents to enter and leave via a gate controlled by Israelis."

Like the wall, bypass road 356 is designed to contain the growth of Beit Sahour. The road connects Har Homa and occupied East Jerusalem with the Israeli settlement of Teqoa in the southeast. Opened in 2007, the road stretches for 19 kilometers in the Bethlehem governorate and onwards to Israeli settlements in the southern West Bank near Hebron. As Nate Wright described in a 7 October article for the Middle East Report, bypass road 356 is "effectively demarcating the city limits" of Beit Sahour while strengthening the eastern Gush Etzion settlements. Therefore, it is imposing limitations on "prospects for growth and the larger socio-economic future of the Bethlehem area."

Beit Sahour is emblematic of the situation across the occupied Palestinian territories. According to a May 2008 report by OCHA entitled ''Lack of Permit: Demolitions and Resultant Displacement in Area C," two-thirds of the Bethlehem governorate remains designated as "Area C" under the Oslo accords signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Under total Israeli control, Palestinian construction and development is almost completely impossible in "Area C." Moreover, "Area C" accounts for over 60 percent of the occupied West Bank's territory.

While settlement expansion -- or creation -- announcements make the news for a few weeks, before being forgotten, the impact of Israeli colonization continues devastate Palestinian communities. Diplomatic gestures mean nothing for towns like Beit Sahour, struggling to breathe under an apartheid regime that forces Palestinians into increasingly small, unsustainable pockets of land, policies intended to make normal life -- and a continued Palestinian presence -- untenable.

http://electronicintifada.net/

Anti-democratic Zionist Jews in Canada, the U.S. and U.K.

Dr. Mohamed Bakr

This week witnessed three different scenes in three different democracies. These scenes may look from the outset to be not related but all three point to the same problem in Western "Democracies". So, what are these scenes?Scene1, Canada:

Last week, the sixth Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) took place. In this week, in many Universities over the world, events are held to inform people of the suffering of the Palestinian people under the Israeli occupation.

The IAW this year is more important than in any other year because it is held after the Goldstone committee report was released. This committee, which was headed by a Zionist Jewish judge, found ample evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel during its attack on Gaza, also known as operation Cast Lead.

This year’s IAW was faced though with a tough organized campaign from different levels of government and media.

The Ontario Legislature issued a statement condemning the IAW.

The government of Mr. Harper, who has been consistent in its loyalty to Israel, has issued also a statement condemning the event.

Mr. Ignatieff, who in 2003 condemned the Israeli illegal settlements and equated them to the apartheid regime in South Africa, also flipped and condemned the IAW!

The IAW was turned into an auction in which each politician is trying to show that he is more loyal to Israel and to its Jewish Zionist lobby in Canada than the others.

Not a single one of them dared to attend the events of the IAW and see that there was no hate directed against anyone. No one of them dared to mention the Goldstone report.

No one of them dared to mention the so many reports by Israeli and international rights groups condemning gruesome Israeli crimes. No one of them even dared to remember the freedom of the Canadian people who elected them to criticize any rogue foreign state!

Scene 2, England:

The government of the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown moved this week to change the law so that Israeli war criminals are not prosecuted during their visits to the UK.

Several months ago, the ex. Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni was about to be arrested in London based on a judge order for her role in the war crimes in Gaza.

It is widely believed that the British government helped smuggle Livni out of the country even though they were fully aware of the judge order!

Since then the Israeli government demanded that the British law be changed so that human rights groups cannot annoy the Israeli war criminals when they travel abroad.

A group of over 70 British intellectuals, many of whom are Jews, published a letter over a month ago condemning any attempt to change the British law based on orders from a foreign state accused of war crimes.

Despite the public resistance, the changes are implemented with complete disregard to the country’s sovereignty or reputation.

Almost a year ago, Spain also changed its law based on Israeli requests so that Israeli war criminals are not prosecuted when visiting this country!

Scene 3, US:

The US Congress issued a resolution this week recognizing what is referred to as the Armenian Genocide during the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

For many years, the Congress refused to issue such a resolution because the pro-Israel lobby was against it.

At the time, Turkey was a close ally of Israel outside the Arab world.

However, since the operation Cast Lead, the Turkish criticism of the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian population was increasing. This resulted in several verbal exchanges between the officials in both countries.

Turkey also canceled joint military training with the IDF. Many Turkish TV programs now show scenes of brutality against the Palestinian population.

Since this started to happen, many predicted that the US congress will issue this resolution based on directions from the pro-Israel lobby.

Of course, this resolution will cause serious damage for the relationship between the US and one of its main allies. It is definitely harmful to US interests in the Middle East.

This, however, did not seem to stop the congress from acting in this way. Turkey and Armenia are starting steps towards a historical reconciliation between them and such a resolution will only complicate matters.

The problem with these three stories is the same.

Representatives who are supposed to defend freedom of speech, national sovereignty, and national interests, seem to work against all three!

They are more interested in showing unconditional submission to the Zionist Jewish lobby that is linked to a foreign state. So, how come a democratic system ends up failing its people so miserably?

The reality is that there is no true democracy in all three countries.

The people who invented the idea of democracy believed that representatives elected by the people will work for the people’s interests.

What they missed is that in order to reach the people you need media. Also, in order to have election campaigns you need money.

This meant that lobbies that have strong media influence and have access to strong financial resources are able to manipulate and even threaten politicians.

These lobbies effectively make politicians work for their interests rather than the interests of the people who elected them.

So, what is the way out of this trap that literally voids the concept of democracy in the West?

Any hope for having a truly democratic system that defends the global human values of human rights and freedom depends on stopping mighty lobbies from corrupting the political game.

All politicians should have access to free unbiased media and to the same financial resources regardless of any political positions that may take.

This separation between capital and politics is our only hope in having a true democracy in the West.

Only then, Canadian politicians will not be afraid to do the right thing and side with the oppressed Palestinian people in their struggle against oppression and apartheid. Will we ever see this day?
http://windowintopalestine.blogspot.com/2010/03/anti-democratic-zionist-jews-in-canada.html

Yishai moves to legalize Jewish ownership of East Jerusalem building

Interior Minister Eli Yishai on Monday moved toward legalizing Jewish ownership of an East Jerusalem building, authorizing the district planning commission to take on the matter without first notifying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he was not involved in the matter.

Yishai’s move was exposed by Israel’s Channel 1 hours after the Jerusalem Municipality canceled the distribution of evacuation orders for Beit Yonatan, a residential building erected by nationalist Jews in the heart of an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.



Yishai confirmed the that he had ordered the move and had received assurance that a majority of the council would vote in favor of the move.

The interior minister also said that the residents of Beit Yonatan agreed to move their occupancy two floors down, making it legal. Yishai added that the council was expected to approve a similar move on other contentious buildings in the area.

Less than a week ago, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat bowed to pressure from legal officials and said he would uphold the court order to evacuate and seal Beit Yonatan.

In a letter to State Prosecutor Moshe Lador, Barkat pledged to enforce the court order to evacuate the structure, though he added that he was doing so under protest. Barkat also wrote that the municipality would tear down some 200 Palestinian homes slated for demolition in East Jerusalem. He warned, however, that enforcing the court order fully is liable to trigger a violent response from the Palestinian community.

The Jewish-owned building, named for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, lies in Silwan, an Arab part of East Jerusalem. A court ruling declared the home was built without the proper permits.

In his letter to Lador, Barkat said the court orders sabotaged a municipal plan to resolve the matter of illegal construction in East Jerusalem. The plan would have allowed the buildings and their residents to remain in place, he said.

Barkat also criticized the Jerusalem municipality’s legal consultant, Yossi Havilio, who was the most vocal official in favor of enforcing the court orders.

Last week, Lador sent a letter to Barkat reprimanding him for his refusal to shutter Beit Yonatan.

“Acceptance of the situation in which court orders are not carried out expresses a biting failure,” Lador said, adding that “Israel is a law abiding country, and in lawful countries court orders must be carried out.
http://3071km.wordpress.com/

"Together we can end this occupation"

The Israeli military recently dropped hundreds of leaflets warning Palestinian residents from the village of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip not to travel within 300 meters of the border -- the distance of Israel's so-called "buffer zone." In response, local activists marched to and nonviolently demonstrated inside the "buffer zone" against the illegal action. The Electronic Intifada contributor Jody McIntyre recently spoke with demonstration organizer Saber Zanin.

Jody McIntyre: Can you tell us about yourself?

Saber Zanin: My name is Saber Zanin. I am 31 years old, living in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip. I am a Palestinian who loves life, peace, justice and equal rights for all.

I come from a poor family, around 20 of us in all, from Beit Hanoun. In November 2006, our house, the house I lived in my whole life, was completely destroyed by Israeli air strikes, and then by a tank which came to finish the job. We don't know why they chose to target our home, but this is an example of the collective punishment we face living in Gaza.

I had the idea to create a group of volunteers, to work together in the local community, to resist Israel's occupation through nonviolent methods, and to encourage others to do the same. In September 2007, the "Local Initiative" was formed. Rather than relying on governmental institutions or foreign agencies, we work in a personal capacity, and rely on ourselves for everything we need. Altogether the group now consists of around 60 young men and women, from 17-35 years of age, and although we have no political affiliation, we all agree on socialist principles of helping those most in need, and on each individual's freedom to express their own views.

The group works with all sections of society: women, children, people with disabilities and teenagers. In particular, we give priority to the farmers and residents working and living in the so-called "buffer zone." As a group, we visit the residents and offer them aid brought by charities to Gaza (although this is small in amount, and limited in effect) for nothing in return, and we accompany the farmers who continue to work on their land, despite regularly being shot at by the Israeli military for doing so. We also work with the young kids in their area, taking them presents, playing games with them and making parties for them, as well as practicalities such as not going out onto the street in certain areas.

The people living in the "buffer zone" are the foundation of the Local Initiative. If there are any farmers who want help working on their land, we will go to help them. We have also organized protests against Israel's wall in the occupied West Bank and the "buffer zone."

We are always looking for ways to encourage others to join us in our popular resistance against the occupation, and as part of this we try to teach the local community about the human rights they possess: the right to freedom of expression, the right to live freely, the right to an education, to work, to health care, and to a home. We want people to know about their rights so that when they are taken away from them, they will fight for them.

JM: As someone who used to participate in armed resistance against the occupation, what made you adopt nonviolent resistance?

SZ: Any occupied people have the right to resist, and Palestinians are occupied by the Israelis. It is our fundamental right to resist against this occupation. I used to participate in armed resistance, but armed resistance isn't everything. I am convinced that popular resistance, and protesting against the occupation through nonviolent methods, can actually achieve more than armed resistance, by gaining the sympathy and support for our struggle from people around the world. When we go to protest against Israel's wall in the occupied West Bank, as they do in the villages of Bilin and Nilin, and now here in Beit Hanoun in Gaza as well, we have international activists marching with us, and the whole world is watching. Our demonstrations are nonviolent, so the Israeli army has no excuse to shoot at us and to kill us. I believe that this is one of the noblest ways of protesting against the occupation.

Last week, the Israeli military dropped hundreds of leaflets near the "buffer zone," instructing residents not to go within 300 meters of the border. We reject this illegal de facto land grab, and in response organized a march to the "buffer zone" on Monday [11 January]. The march was under the slogan: "With popular resistance, we challenge the decisions of the Israeli occupiers." We protested against the occupation through nonviolent means.

We will now be marching to the "buffer zone" every Monday. We will not be intimidated by the Israeli army's threat, and we will never give up until the occupation is over.

JM: How can people living abroad support your struggle?

SZ: As we move into the new year, the Local Initiative is in urgent need of funds, in order to continue supporting the families living in the "buffer zone," and to purchase materials in order to document the ongoing crimes of the Israeli occupation forces.

We truly hope that activists from around the world will support us. They could also write in the media against Israel's crimes, organize demonstrations outside the Israeli embassy -- some governments have even expelled the Israeli ambassador! In the UK an arrest warrant was issued for Tzipi Livni for the war crimes she committed against the people of Gaza, and this should serve as an inspiration for others to follow. Together, we can end this occupation.

Jody McIntyre is a journalist from the United Kingdom.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11041.shtml

The PA stands accused

Funeral of 3 Fatah activists in Nablus on 26 December 2009


By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

It is widely assumed that the Palestinian Authority (PA) security apparatus played a certain role in the hideous murder by the criminal Israeli occupation army of three Fatah operatives in Nablus a few days ago.

The extrajudicial execution of the three young men, including the barbaric practice of shooting each victim several more bullets to verify his death, took place in full view of their children and families.

The despicable murder has shown that the Israeli army remains as faithful as ever to its cruel traditions.

The Zionist regime claimed that the three victims were responsible for the killing of a Jewish settler a few days earlier. However, it is nearly certain that this claim has no iota of truth.

In fact, the occupation army has produced absolutely no evidence proving its claim, which is a routine behavior resorted to every time innocent Palestinians are murdered in cold blood.

After all, we Palestinians are too accustomed to seeing the Israeli Wehrmacht murder our people and then concoct lies to justify the murder.

As to the PA, and while it is still hard to produce irrefutable evidence indicting its security apparatus for complicity in the murderous Zionist foray in Nablus, it is also hard to exonerate the American-funded apparatus of collusion with Israel .

Indeed, the very doctrine now espoused by the PA security forces, especially since the American Gen. Keith Dayton became the one calling the shots in the West Bank, is that Hamas, not the Israeli occupation, is the enemy and that “any one attacking Israel and the settlers is acting against the national interests of the Palestinian people.

In other words, for those trained, or more correctly brain-washed by Dayton, the resistance against the Nazi-like Israeli occupation is actually an act of treason that goes against Palestinian interests.

Moreover, the huge shame, otherwise known as “security coordination” is alone sufficient to declare the PA regime guilty.

Many questions are awaiting answers as to how the Israeli army was able to locate the homes of these people. The people of Nablus, many of whom took part in the funeral procession of the three martyrs, are asking whether the PA collaborated with the Israelis in locating the martyrs’ homes. Such questions acquire legitimacy especially after Israeli security chiefs praised PA cooperation with the Israeli army in “getting the job done.” So, did the PA security apparatus inform on the martyrs or conveyed their identities to the occupation’s authorities?

If this happened, then the PA must be exposed to our people. After all, the PA security apparatus can’t practice treason under the rubric of maintaining law and order. It can’t practice treachery in the name of patriotism. It can’t murder Fatah’s men, even indirectly, in the name of Fatah, and it must not continue to murder Hamas’s supporters on Israel’s behalf, using Fatah as a card to justify its subservience and collaboration with Israel.

The murder by “our partner and ally,” (this is how one of the highest PA security commanders in the West Bank referred to the Israeli army less than two years ago) of the three Fatah activists in full view of their wives and children should be a turning point in the relations between Fatah and the PA.

Fatah nationalists, who are truly committed to the Palestinian cause, must now stop and think before giving the American-backed junta in Ramallah the benefit of the doubt. Fatah must not allow itself to be manipulated by the slaves of Keith Dayton for the sake of transforming occupied Palestine into a collaborationist entity, a kind of CIA-controlled fiefdom, or combined American-Israeli oasis or banana republic.

More to the point, every Palestinian man and child is asking why the PA is maintaining all these tens of thousands of trained soldiers if it is not for protecting the Palestinian people from the murderous whims of the Judeo-Nazi occupation.

Does it befit our national honor and dignity that our soldiers, the soldiers of Palestine, are instructed to disappear into their coops whenever Israeli troops appear from nowhere in order to murder our citizens, including Fatah’s own men?

I realize that the PA forces are not equipped to confront the Israeli occupation army. However, having said that, it is absolutely dishonorable for these pitiful young Palestinians to do nothing while the enemy invades our towns and murders our people. For God’s sake, if you can’t do anything, at least let those who can, do the job. Don’t shoot them, don’t hound them, don’t obey Dayton who represents Israel’s guardian-ally, the ultimate tormentor of the Palestinian cause.

Hence, leaving this dishonorable job, even at the risk of being forced to sell Falafel in the streets of the West Bank , becomes an honorable choice.

After all, one doesn’t dignify himself and his family, let alone his people, by facilitating the murder of his own brothers and countrymen at the hands of the Judeo-Nazi occupiers of our country and tormentors of our people.

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