Respect: Arab 48

Showing posts with label Arab 48. Show all posts

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Amid further mass casualties on the third consecutive Friday of the “Great Return March” protests, health workers were put under yet further considerable strain and a number of them were injured.

Today, a Palestine Red Crescent Society medic in Rafah was shot in the knee with live ammunition, and a further 10 paramedics had to evacuate their medical point near Khan Younis after inhaling tear gas.

Even before Israel’s violent response the protests, health workers in Gaza were under huge strain due to the cumulative effects of a decade of blockade, which has degraded health and other essential services as well as the economy and living conditions, in addition to previous mass casualty events. Burnout and emotional exhaustion was already a significant feature among Palestine’s medical workforce. Now, they are once again experiencing the most difficult conditions, working long hours in tense situations and assisting casualties with often horrifying and life-changing injuries.

Last Friday, the World Health Organisation reported that five ambulances were damaged in attacks, three paramedics were injured by direct fire to the lower limbs, one by a tear gas cartridge to the head and that 29 healthcare staff suffered from tear gas inhalation.

Attacks on Palestinian health workers, facilities and ambulances by Israeli forces have been a painfully regular and repeated feature of the past decade, as MAP has emphasised in its publications and advocacy.

“Regretfully, no one has been held to account for any of the multiple attacks on protected medical personnel and facilities, and this impunity makes recurrence much more likely,” added Aimee Shalan.

“The prolonged and often traumatic stressors endured by health workers in Gaza are almost inconceivable for people not trapped there. On an almost daily level, they see and suffer what many of us won’t in a lifetime,” said Aimee Shalan, CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Today, at least 969 injuries have been reported by the Ministry of Health. More than 1,200 were reported to have been shot in the last fortnight. At least 26 protesters are reported to have been killed.

A medic treating severely injured protesters in a hospital in Gaza told MAP that the types and numbers of injuries “would overwhelm any European hospital and be classified as a “major incident”, let alone a local hospital in Gaza with a shortage of disposables and man power for this kind of injury. This is happening every Friday.”

With the sheer number of casualties threatening to overwhelm available services, communities in Gaza are stepping up to support them. In Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, for example, MAP has learned of groups of students of healthcare subjects banding together to form “rescue teams” to offer treatment and support the work of professional responders.

Those inside hospitals and clinics are working long hours to keep essential services running alongside caring for thousands of new patients. The physical health of unarmed protesters is clearly under threat in Gaza, but so too is the mental wellbeing of those who are once again bravely striving to save lives and limbs.

As we celebrate the steadfastness and resolve of Gaza’s medics, we are also outraged that their safety is once again endangered as they carry out their vital humanitarian functions.

MAP repeats its call on the UK government and the international community to support the demand of UN Secretary General for there to be independent investigations into the violence at the Gaza perimeter protests.

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Saturday, March 31, 2018

Hezbollah Hails Palestinians’ Heroic March of Return

Local Editor

31-03-2018 | 09:12

Hezbollah issued the following statement:

The resistance Palestinian people has once again in Gaza presented the purest images of sacrifice, stressing with the blood of its martyrs, their raised fists and echoing cries their stable right to a liberated and dignified Palestine that embraces all its sons whether those who are inside, abroad or all over the diaspora.

Friday’s events have stressed again that the Palestinian cause is alive and that the resistant Palestinian people is always ready to pay huge sacrifices for the sake of liberating its land and nation.

The March of Return, that witnessed massive participation, caused despair to the enemies of the Palestinian people as well as all the betrayers and conspirers against their cause. It is a strong massive response to the so-called “deal of the century”, showing the Palestinians’ adherence to their historical and patriotic rights and that they would never compromise any right of them no matter what are the sacrifices.

As Hezbollah hails and respects its people in Palestine on their Land Day, it expresses deep condolences to the families of hero martyrs and pray for those wounded to get well soon. Hezbollah further calls all the free people of the world, especially the Arab and Muslim peoples, to hold their responsibilities in backing the Palestinian people and offer all possible kinds of support in their struggle to liberate their land and restore their sanctities.

Source: Hezbollah Media Relations, Translated by website team

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Friday, March 30, 2018

Great Return March: ’Israelis’ Martyr, Injure Palestinians Protesting By Thousands

Local Editor

30-03-2018 | 12:48

“Israeli” occupation forces martyred at least one Palestinian protester and injured several others before and during the ongoing Great Return March by thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and along the so-called buffer zone set up by the Zionist entity.

Thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children gathered on the “buffer zone” in the Gaza Strip on Friday, March 30, which marks the Palestinian Land Day, when Palestinians annually protest to demand the right of return for those Palestinians who have been driven out of their homeland due to the “Israeli” occupation.

The protesters have set up tents for a six-week protest action to demand that the displaced Palestinians be allowed to return to the land that belongs to them.

Expecting the protests, the Zionist apartheid regime earlier deployed 100 snipers to the Gaza border and authorized them to use live ammunition and “a lot of force” against the protesters.

Footage from the scene of the ongoing protest also showed “Israeli” tanks and armored vehicles deployed and moving along the buffer zone.

The Zionist occupation forces have been firing live bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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Thousands of Gazans Take Part in “The Great March of Return”

March 30, 2018

A Palestinian kid was injured on Friday by the Zionist occupation troops while taking part in “The Great March of Return” in Gaza.

The protests which erupted in the various Palestinian cities left seven Palestinians martyred and 500 of others injured, according to the latest toll issued by the local Ministry of Public Health.

Source: Al-Manar Website

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Gazan Killed by Zionist Fire in Jabalia

March 30, 2018

A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli occupation troops in a clash on the Gaza border on Friday, the local health ministry said, as thousands marched in a major protest.

Mohammad Najjar, 25, was shot in the stomach in a clash east of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, the ministry said in a statement.

He was the second Palestinian killed by Israeli fire in Gaza on Friday.

Hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza head to border areas with the occupied territories to take part in “The Great March of Return”, a six-week protest for a right of return of Palestinian refugees to their occupied land.

Source: AFP

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Thursday, March 29, 2018

Israel Faces the Demographic Bomb

March 26, 2018 / Gilad Atzmon

Reported by Gilad Atzmon

I learned a decade ago from the Palestinian ambassador to Britain that while Israel has many bombs, the Palestinians have one bomb, namely the demographic one.

As it seems, this bomb is about to detonate. Ynet reports today the numbers of Israeli and Palestinians live in between the river and the sea are pretty much identical.

“An equal number of Jews and Muslims live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, according to fresh statistics presented Monday morning to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.”

Five million Palestinians live in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and in east Jerusalem, the data indicated—later discussed in detail by the Deputy Commander of the Israel Civil Administration (ICA)—which operates Israeli governance in the West Bank—Col. Uri Mandes.

According to 2016 figures from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), 6.44 million Jews live in Israel alongside 1.52 million Muslims.

In total, the demographic report concludes that 6.5 million Muslims live between the sea and the Jordan River.

The ICA, it should be noted, relies on figures provided by the Palestinian CBS, which is considered to be a relatively reliable source.

The Palestinian CBS said that the number of Palestinians and Arab-Israelis combined, between the river and the sea, stood at 6.1 million and that the number is expected to increase to 7.1 million until 2020.

Israelis don’t like the idea. MK Avi Dichter (Likud), who chaired the committee meeting, expressed his skepticism at the veracity of the figures.

MK Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union) responded to the revelations on her Twitter account, using the figures to attack the notion of annexing the West Bank. “If we don’t wake up from the delusions of annexation, we will lose the Jewish majority. It’s that simple,” she wrote.

Reading comprehension is not one of Livni’s fortes. Jewish majority in Palestine belongs to the past!

Being in Time – A Post Political Manifesto

Amazon.co.uk , Amazon.com and here (gilad.co.uk)

Monday, March 26, 2018

ريم بنّا: غزالة فلسطين

ريم بنٌا… وَبُحَّ صوتُ فلسطين

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سيرة مقاوِمة ذكّرتنا أن لا فن بدون كرامة

لطالما رددت أن الصوت سلاحها، عثرت عليه في عام 1982 أثناء اجتياح بيروت وخروج المقاومة الفلسطينية منها. بنت الناصرة كانت وقتها في الـ 16 من عمرها، لكن القصة بدأت قبل ذلك بكثير. ولدت في 1966 عام الكذبة…

ام الكذبة…

طارق حمدان

حفرت أنفاق الذاكرة… وكانت مرايا الروح

علينا الاعتراف بأن العدو الإسرائيلي أشدّ وعياً منّا حول أهمية التراث والثقافة الشعبية. علينا أن نفهم سبب استماتته لضمّ ما يناسب (وطمس ما لا يخدم) مشروعه من تركة أجدادنا، من موسيقى وأزياء وحتى أطباق،…

بشير صفير

الأغاني في فمّكِ ياسمين

الرسالة الصوتية الأخيرة التي وصلتني من ريم كانت قبل شهر ونيف، تخبرني فيها بعض تفاصيل عملها الجديد المختلف الذي تسجله في النروج وحوّلت فيه «الفحوصات المخبرية» إلى نوتات موسيقية و«أغنيات» غير مسبوقة….

زاهي وهبي

حكاية عشق طويلة مع تونس

تونس | انهالت رسائل النعي والتعازي الصباحية، وبات الأمر حقيقة لا مفر منها: رحلت ريم بنا فجراً. كثيرة هي الصداقات التي أزهرت بين رفاق ريم على مختلف جنسياتهم، وامتزجت الدموع بذكريات السنوات…

سارة قريرة

تراجيديات ريم بنّا

تبدو كأنها واحدة من تلك الشخصيات الخارجة من الأساطير الإغريقة القديمة. مسار حياتها، لا بدّ من أنه قادها لأن تكون، تجسيداً لهذه التراجيديا التي امتازت بها تلك الشخصيات. تراجيديا في حدّها الأقصى، والتي…

اسكندر حبش

شهادات

تركت لنا شجاعتها باسل زايد *كنت طفلاً يستمع بشغف إلى كل ما هو موجود وكانت أغاني ريم بنا، وكبرنا وظلت ريم بنا ورحلت وستظل شخصية ريم بنا. رحيل ريم هو رحيل علاقتنا جميعاً مع ريم، فالكثير…

رثاء فايسبوكي

«لا تخافوا ..هذا الجسد كقميص رثّ.. لا يدوم حين أخلعه (..) سأهرب خلسة من بين الورد المسجّى في الصندوق وأترك الجنازة وخراريف العزاء..»، بعض من كلمات دوّنتها ريم بنّا (1966-2018)، في 5 آذار (مارس)…

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

صفقة القرن.. مشروع للمشرق العربي

مارس 14, 2018

د. وفيق إبراهيم

القراءة الموضوعية لصفقة القرن تفترِض أولاً: الانتباه إلى توقيت طرحها في التداول السياسي عند الفلسطينيين المعنيين مباشرة، وجوارهم العربي المنخرط بنيوياً، وصولاً إلى المتورّطين في الإقليم والمحاور الدولية، مع متابعة ردود فعل «الإسرائيلي» نحوها.

للإضاءة فإن صفقة القرن تعطي الفلسطينيين «حكماً ذاتياً» على 70 في المئة من الضفة الغربية ترتبط بـ «أوتوستراد» مقفل مع قطاع غزة، قبلت مصر أن تُلحق به نحو ألفي كيلومتر مربع من المجاور من أراضي صحراء سيناء.. وليس لهذا الكانتون أي حق ببناء جيش أو سيطرة على حدود أو إقامة أي علاقات إلا من خلال «إسرائيل».. وبذلك تصبح القدس بشطريها عاصمة لـ«إسرائيل» اليهودية حصراً مقابل قرية «أبو ديس» التي تتحول عاصمة للكانتون الفلسطيني.

ويتبيّن بعجالة، أن هذه الصفقة تنهي القضية الفلسطينية إلى الأبد وتؤدي إلى توطين فلسطينيي الشتات في مهاجرهم. كما تتيح طرد فلسطينيي 1948 من قلب فلسطين المحتلة إلى بلدان يتردد أنّها السودان وكندا واوستراليا والولايات المتحدة.

وبالعودة إلى مناقشة توقيت هذا العرض.. يتبيّن فوراً أنه قيد الإعداد منذ مدة طويلة، فلماذا تأخّر إطلاقه حتى الآن؟ وما الذي استجدّ؟

إنّها بدون أدنى شك المستجدّات في الإقليم.. ويبدو أن السياسة الأميركية كانت تترقب انهيار سورية والعراق وتفتتهما كيانات مذهبية وعرقية. الأمر الذي يؤدي تلقائياً إلى مزيد من الانهيار في موازنات القوى العربية ـ الإسرائيلية الأمر الذي يسمح بإعلان الحلف الخليجي ـ العربي ـ الإسرائيلي.. على قاعدة تمرير صفقة القرن وكأنها انتصار للدبلوماسية السعودية ـ الأميركية.

لكن الآمال لم تتطابق مع التخطيط. فانتصر العراق على الإرهاب والفِتن العرقية والمذهبية، ونجح السوريون مع حلفائهم الروس والإيرانيين في تحرير ثلثي سورية، واضعين حداً لداعش والنصرة ومثيلاتهما بشكل كبير.

باللغة السياسية، فإن لا تفسير لانكماش الإرهاب إلا بتقلص دور داعميه ورعاته. وهم باعتراف رئيس وزراء قطر السابق حمد بن خليفة آل ثاني في تصريح صحافي علني له، جزم فيه بأن الأميركيين هم الذين كلفوا قطر والسعودية وتركيا بدعم المعارضة المسلّحة في سورية والعراق، ومقرّاً بأن هذه المعارضة تحوّلت إرهاباً استمروا بدعمه لأن لا بديل له.. كاشفاً عن أن السعودية وقطر دفعتا على هذا المشروع نحو 160 مليار دولار مقابل تولي تركيا أمور التدريب والرعاية ونقل المؤن الغذائية والسلاح.

ما يمكن استنتاجه هنا وبموضوعية عالية المستوى، أن طرح مشروع صفقة القرن على المعنيين به تزامن مع الانهيار شبه الكامل للإرهاب في سورية والعراق. وهما بلدان مجاوران لفلسطين ومعنيان بها بنيوياً: على مستويي الانتماء القومي والأيديولوجيا الفكرية منذ النكبة الكبرى في 1948.

فبدا وكأن «صفقة القرن» هي «النقطة بـ« من المشروع الأميركي الذي وجد نفسه مضطراً للكشف المسبق عن تفاصيلها وقبل الأوان المتفق عليه. أما الأطراف المتورطة فتبدأ ببعض الجهات الفلسطينية التي تصنّعت «المفاجأة» والتبرّم اللفظي إنما من دون أي ردود فعل عملية، والأردن والسعودية ومصر والإمارات… و«إسرائيل» بالطبع هذا من دون نسيان قائد الاوركسترا: السياسة الأميركية.

لقد وجد الأميركيون أنفسهم خاسرين لمشروع مرحلة ما بعد انهيار الاتحاد السوفياتي 1990 . كانوا يريدون إعادة تشكيل العالم الإسلامي والحلقة الأضعف في العالم، حيث توجد موارد أولية وطاقة واستهلاك وأنظمة سياسية ضعيفة تعمل في خدمة «الغربي» وبحمايته، ومعادية في آن معاً لأي تطور حقيقي لشعوبها. لكن الحملات الأميركية العسكرية والاستثمارية من افغانستان إلى اليمن والعراق وسورية لم تؤدِ إلى النتائج المشتهاه أميركياً، على الرغم من انها أدت إلى تدمير واضطراب وحروب متواصلة.

هناك عامل لا يجوز إغفاله.. ويتعلّق بمقاومات الشعوب والدول لهذا الاجتياح الأميركي طيلة العشرين سنة الماضية.. بدأتها إيران التي ملأت الفراغ ـ المصري ـ العربي.. وواصلت التصدّي بشجاعة على الرغم من كل ما تعرّضت له من استهدافات وحصار وصعوبات، لكنّها وفرت الظروف الموضوعية لعودة روسيا إلى مسرح الأحداث في الشرق الأوسط. ونجح البلدان في دعم سورية والعراق وحزب الله بتدخل عسكري مباشر ودعم مفتوح ملحقين هزيمة شنيعة بالإرهاب ومشغّليه.

بالقراءة السياسية، يتبيّن أن الصعود الروسي ـ الإيراني ـ السوري الناتج من موازين القوى العسكرية، المستجدّة له ترجمته السياسية المتعلّقة بتراجع الدور الأميركي وحلفائه السعوديين والقطريين والأتراك.

أما ترجمة هذا التراجع على المستوى الدولي، فلا معنى له، إلا عودة موسكو إلى تسلّق مركز انتاج القرار الدولي الذي لم يعد أميركياً صرفاً ضمن هذه المعطيات. يجب فهم الدور المُعطى لـ«صفقة القرن». وما يُراد منها من تأمين بديل سريع للتراجع الأميركي ـ السعودي في سورية.. فإذا كان الهدف من الاستثمار في الإرهاب تفتيت المنطقة إلى كانتونات صغيرة وضعيفة، فإن المطلوب من صفقة القرن، إنتاج محور سعودي، إماراتي ـ مصري ـ أردني ـ إسرائيلي و.. فلسطيني برعاية أميركية، يُسِّددُ «رصاصة الغدر» إلى القضية الفلسطينية، مؤمّناً عودة الأميركيين إلى احتكار الشرق الأوسط والمشرق العربي وبالتالي العالم الإسلامي، واضعاً حدوداً حول الحركة الروسية الجديدة في جزء من سورية فقط.. فيمسك هذا المحور بالمنطقة اقتصادياً ودينياً وعسكرياً، معلناً نفسه الناظم الأساسي لأي تطور في المنطقة لحساب السياسة الأميركية. فهو المستفيد الأساسي من هذا المشروع، لأنه ينهي بذلك أسباب الصراع العربي ـ الإسرائيلي، ويعاود إنتاج قوة إقليمية كبيرة السعودية و«إسرائيل» ومصر بوسعها ان تكون الوكيلة العسكرية والاقتصادية والسياسية للولايات المتحدة التي تتجه إلى الموافقة على أسلوب الوكلاء الإقليميين، لكي تتفرّغ لمجابهة الفريق الروسي ـ الصيني، مع إصرار على تقليص أحجام حلفائها في أوروبا واليابان اقتصادياً والتفرّغ لتفجير إيران من الداخل.

هذه بعض أهداف «صفقة القرن»، التي يتبيّن بوضوح أنها تجمع بين الأهداف الفلسطينية والعربية والإسلامية لمصلحة المزيد من الهيمنة الأميركية على القرار العالمي واحتكار كامل للأميركيين على الأدوار العسكرية واحتكار القوة والاقتصاد وبالتالي الجيوبولتيك.

إنما ما مصلحة الفلسطينيين فيها؟

إنهم أكبر المتضررين، لأنهم يخسرون وطنهم وقضيتهم نهائياً ويتشتتَّون أفراداً من دون هوية في أصقاع الأرض. لذلك تتجه السلطة الفلسطينية إلى مزيد من التصدّع بين تيار يلتزم الصمت والخطابات الفارغة، توهماً منه أن بإمكانه ان يحكم كانتون «الإدارة الذاتية»، مقابل تيارات فلسطينية كبيرة ترفض «الصفقة» وتتحضّر للعودة الكبيرة إلى المقاومة المسلحة بإسناد سوري ـ عراقي ـ إيراني. إلى جانب تيار ثالث في «حماس» و«الجهاد» وتنظيمات أخرى يعتبر أن صراع الفلسطينيين مع الكيان الإسرائيلي مستمر منذ 1948 ولن يتوقف.

إنّ هذه التيارات الفلسطينية تعرف أن «إسرائيل» لن تعطي شيئاً للفلسطينيين إلا بالقوة المسلحة، والتاريخ خير شاهد، ففي 1948، كان العرض 60 في المئة من فلسطين للفلسطينيين. أما بعد هزيمة الـ67، فعرض وزير حرب العدو موشيه دايان على الراحل عبد الناصر بوساطة روسية، إعادة كامل الضفة وغزة، وسقط العرض.

وعرض الإسرائيليون على الراحل حافظ الأسد بوساطة أميركية، إعادة الجولان المحتل من دون إطلالته على بحيرة طبريا و90 في المئة من الضفة الغربية غزة، وسقط العرض سورياً. ومنذ اندلاع الأزمات العربية، زادت «إسرائيل» من عدد مستوطناتها بالضفة إلى 30 في المئة، وأصبحت تعرض كانتوناً صغيراً ضمن السيادة الإسرائيلية مع تهويد كامل للقدس والسيطرة على كامل موارد المياه.. فماذا يبقى للفلسطينيين.

لذلك فإن صفقة القرن ليست إلا مشروعاً لإنهاء القضية الفلسطينية نهائياً على قاعدة بناء محور عربي ـ إسلامي ـ إسرائيلي، لمجابهة الصعود الروسي والدور الإيراني والخطر الصيني الداهم. بقي على الفلسطينيين أن يلتزموا بالحفاظ على قضيتهم وعدم مراعاة الأطراف المتورّطة، لأن فلسطين لا تعود إلا ببندقية، كما كان يقول شاعرها الكبير محمود درويش.

Saturday, February 24, 2018

ISRAEL’S ASYLUM SEEKERS

February 24, 2018 / Gilad Atzmon

By Eve Mykytyn

Take $3,500 and a one-way ticket to an ‘unnamed’ African country (Rwanda or Uganda) by April 1, or face indefinite imprisonment. This is what Israel told the 40,000 African migrants who have been stuck in limbo in Israel for years. According to the Israeli government, roughly 20,000 Africans have already been expelled.

On February 21, following the imprisonment of seven Eritreans who refused to leave Israel, 750 African asylum seekers detained at the Holot detention center began a hunger strike reportedly refusing both food and water.

It seems that Israel has come face to face with one consequence of trying to be a ‘nation like all others’: having to cope with the difficulties of refugees who want the protection of your state without necessarily subscribing to your values.

Israel calls itself the Jewish state (as opposed to a state of its citizens), and actively seeks Jewish immigrants. This has given religious identity a huge role in Israel, although Israel is largely secular. Israel has not yet become a ‘nation like all others’ in its treatment of non Jews. Its 20% Palestinian minority are second-class citizens.*

The African asylum seekers and its Palestinian citizens are not the only non Jewish residents of Israel has who have the potential of conflicting with Israel’s policy of being the Jewish state. Like many wealthy countries, Israel has chosen to import labor for the lower rungs of the pay scale. After the 1967 war, Palestinians crossed into Israel to work in construction and agriculture. Then following the first intifada in 1987, Israel banned most Palestinians from entering and decided instead to import labor from developing countries. By 2002, there were 226,000 migrant workers living in Israel. Such workers; Thais on farms, Chinese in construction, African street labor and Filipino caregivers are sometimes described as ‘transparents,’ communities invisible to most Israelis. These laborers were never intended to and largely have not been given permanent refuge in Israel.

To keep the migrant population from ‘taking root,’ as Israel’s Interior Ministry puts it, the ministry has devised a byzantine system of barriers. Work permits for foreign caregivers are valid for only five years and three months, and are meant to ensure their presence is transitory. They face additional restrictions on the locations in which they can work, their ability to marry, to ‘visit’ Israel with family members and in job mobility.

Nonetheless, Israel’s right wing parties see migrant workers as a direct threat to the country’s Jewish makeup. In 2008, the government moved to deport 1,200 children of undocumented foreign workers. After a public outcry the Israeli government granted amnesty to 800 children of migrant workers who met certain strict criteria. Other than this trivial number of new permanent residents, Israel has been successful in importing cheap labor without adding to its non Jewish citizenry.

Israel has taken in a number of Jews from relatively poor backgrounds, particularly Ethiopian Jews. While these immigrants may present more problems of integration then European or North American Jews, as Jews they fit Israel’s goal of remaining a primarily Jewish state.

In the 1990s over a million citizens of the former Soviet Union claimed Jewish ancestry and migrated to Israel . They and their progeny now constitute around 15% of Israel’s population of 7.7 million. Many of these immigrants are not Jewish. Anyone from the former Soviet Union who had a Jewish father or grandparent, or who was married to someone meeting those criteria, was granted Israeli citizenship under the country’s liberalized law of return.

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics around 30% of immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s were not Jews or not considered Jewish under Orthodox law (which treats Judaism as either inherited from the mother or obtained through conversion). In 2005 over 59% of former Soviet immigrants were not Jewish. Less than 5% of these nonJewish immigrants have converted.

The Russian immigrants initially encountered a scarcity of jobs and housing. They have now achieved near parity with other Israelis and have successfully gained political power. The former Soviets are an important part of Israel’s governing coalition and are relentlessly rightwing, reliably opposing concessions to the Palestinians, supporting settlement expansion and seeking to curb the rights of Israel’s Palestinian population.

Were the non Jewish ex Soviets accepted because they were right wing, because as Europeans they helped Israel to form a stronger bulwark against Palestinians or was it purely racism that allowed Israel to welcome these white skinned immigrants? Those decrying the rise of racism in Europe aroused by recent African immigration might consider adding Israel to their list of reprobates.

The African immigrants do not seem to serve a purpose for the Israelis, either as a political entity or in Israel’s goal of remaining a Jewish dominated state. Most of the Africans crossed into Israel through the Sinai desert between 2006 and 2012, fleeing harsh political conditions in Eritrea or genocide and war in Sudan. Their stay in Israel has not been easy. Many migrants spent years in the Saharonim prison in the Negev desert and were subsequently transferred to Holot. Some have been briefly released from these facilities to travel to Tel Aviv, only to be sent back again when the Ministry of Interior refused to renew their visas.

Human-rights organizations claim that most or all such migrants have a well-founded fear of persecution in their home countries and are entitled to asylum. Applicants for asylum face a years-long delay due to ‘backlog’ and in any case of the more than 13,000 people who had applied for asylum as of last summer, only 10 have been granted refugee status. Israel recognizes far fewer people in “refugee-like situations” as refugees when compared to almost all Western countries.

The Israeli government has argued that these migrants are not fleeing persecution but are ‘economic’ refugees looking for work in Israel. “In the last few days, a false campaign [has attempted] to harm the government’s efforts to remove infiltrators from Israel,” wrote Ayelet Shaked, the Israeli minister of justice. “The state of Israel is too small and has its own problems. It cannot be used as the employment office of the African continent.”

Despite protests from Israel’s left, opinion polls suggest that 70 percent of Israel’s Jewish population support Israel’s deportation policy. Possibly such broad support is the result of conditioning, native Israelis may simply see non-Jews within the state as a threat to their safety or to maintaining a Jewish majority. “It’s really hard for them to distinguish between the refugees and the Palestinians they were taught to be against,” said Rabbi Idit Lev, the social-justice director for Rabbis for Human Rights.

But Israel has not entirely behaved as if the migrants have no right to asylum. Although the government argues that the Eritrean and Sudanese migrants are not truly refugees, it has not sent them back to their country of origin as would be proper with economic immigrants. Doing so to refugees would violate international conventions around refugee rights.

The migrants do not want to be deported back to their own countries or to Rwanda. Although Israel pays the migrants to leave, those who have arrived in Rwanda report that their documents and money were confiscated on arrival and they ended up on the streets.

UNHCR said in a recent report that only nine asylum seekers deported to Rwanda have actually stayed there. What has not been adequately documented is where the refugees have gone from there. The African migrants claim that returning to their country of origin will mean certain death.

Economic immigration presents tough issues to many countries. If Israel is unable to deport the remaining 40,000 African immigrants, it may find itself a little more a country like all others.

* (GA) This doesn’t include the millions of Palestinians who live in Israeli controlled territories, lack any political status and are subject to constant lethal abuse…

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Video: Pence Smirks as Palestinian MKs are Removed During His Knesset Speach

Posted on January 22, 2018

by Richard Edmondson

While you watch the video above pay particular attention as the camera zooms back into Mike Pence’s face following the altercation. The crucial segment you want to scrutinize starts at about 50 seconds in. Notice what appears to be the faint trace of a smile on the vice president’s face. I don’t think I’m exaggerating by describing it as a “smirk.”

What you’re looking at is a portion of Pence’s speech before the Israeli Knesset on Monday, January 22. As the US vice president begins his remarks, Palestinian members of the Knesset attempt to protest, but are forcibly removed from the chamber. According to a report at Al Jazeera, they were shouting “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine” and attempting to hold up pictures of Al Aqsa Mosque.

“We oppose the policies of Mr Trump. He is not only the enemy of Palestinians, he is the enemy of peace,” said Jamal Zahalka, one of the protesting MKs.

Just like the Jewish Knesset members clapping their hands, Pence seems to have been very happy to see the Palestinians thrown out.

Some of Pence’s remarks before the Knesset are quoted in a Jerusalem Post report here. They make for a study in Orwellian doublethink.

“We stand with Israel, because we believe in right over wrong, in good over evil, and in liberty over tyranny,” he said.

The vice president is in essence saying that Palestinians are evil, while Israel is the embodiment of all that is good in the world. There are not many other ways you can interpret this. After all, we’re talking about a conflict between two people that has been going on for most of the past century. The side that has launched missiles into hospitals and schools is the “good” side. The side that has resisted the theft of its land is “evil.” Or at least this is the way Pence sees it. The side that locks people up indefinitely in administrative detention and operates the world’s largest open-air prison represents “liberty,” while the side that has protested encirclement by an apartheid wall is viewed by the vice president as “tyrannical.”

No wonder people have little respect for America when we have leaders who utter such nonsense.

During his speech, Pence of course also talked about moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, saying he anticipated the move will be completed sometime in 2019.

The speech naturally was lauded by Israeli leaders.

“Pence will head back to America on Tuesday having gotten at least one thing he came for: affirmation that the Israeli government is delighted with the Trump administration,” reports The Atlantic.

Of course, one way of evaluating a nation’s propensity for good or evil is by examining how it treats children.

Pence doesn’t strike me as particularly bright or informed, but I’m reasonably certain that he must have heard something, somewhere, regarding Israel’s treatment of Palestinian child prisoners, for the issue has gotten a huge amount of attention, and has even been criticized by the UN among others.

Last year, a member of the British Parliament got a sobering, eye-opening epiphany on this issue during a trip to the West Bank. Sarah Champion is a member of the British Labour Party who spent a day observing proceedings in an Israeli military court as Palestinian child detainees were brought in one-by-one before a judge. Her account of the experience was published by the Huffington Post, and reading it today adds something of a new light to the words of our smirking vice president. Here in part is what she writes:

In the cramped confines, I almost didn’t notice the two little boys, little in age and in stature. At first sight I thought they were disabled as they both appeared to have a similar facial palsy and were sitting in an awkward manner. A side door was thrown open and a man in jeans and a sweatshirt entered, which seemed odd as everyone else I had seen was in uniform. As he strode in, to shake hands with the judge and slap the clerks on the back, the two little boys instinctively flinched away from him. As they cowered, they turned in my direction and I got a proper look at their faces; they didn’t have a palsy, they had been beaten.

“That man is the interrogator” whispered my chaperone as the judge fixed his gaze on us, got up and then left the room.

A charming, uniformed woman walked over to us.

“The judge has decided that we will try this case tomorrow” she said.

As the children were led out, I just sat there, staring ahead, simply trying to process what I had seen.

What on earth is going on in this country, and how is the world just letting it happen?

The answer to that should be abundantly clear to anyone that can ascertain the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, and liberty and tyranny…but of course a sizeable number of humans lack that capability. And as is the case in other areas, Jews seem to be disproportionately represented in this category as well.