NOVANEWS
Dear Friends,
7 items below. I had honestly not intended to send more than 4 or 5. But some days items turn up that one can’t anticipate and that must be read.
Item 1 is one such! What nerve! The Palestinians don’t suffer enough! No, they have to also endure Israeli Occupation Forces training in Palestinian villages! Imagine!
In item 2 Rabbi Arik Asherman comments on the Begin-Prawer plan, seeing it as a means of stirring hatred between Israeli Jews and Bedouin citizens of Israel. Indeed, the bill must be stopped, but it is unlikely that this will happen. Israel is not a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is a wolf inside and outside, devouring everything Palestinian possible!
Item 3, “shame” expresses Dr. Eldad Kisch’s feelings about his experience at a checkpoint one day, and depicts the reason for that feeling of shame.
Item 4, from Le Monde Diplomatique, is critical of the EU’s attitude and doings regarding Palestinians, as we all should be.
In item 5 Amira Hass expresses her and Saeb Erekat’s discontent with the PA’s part in the so-called negotiations.
Item 6 brings good news for a change: “St Louis dumps Veolia.” May there be more such dumps—many more. This shows that people can sometimes overcome the oligarchs!
Item 7 is, as you may have guessed, Today in Palestine for Sunday, November 3, 2013. Its summaries are a must read for all who want to know what is really happening on the ground in the OPT and in Israel regarding occupation and Judaization.
All the best,
Dorothy
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1 Haaretz
Sunday, November 03, 2013
Israel’s military advocate: IDF training inside Palestinian villages is legal
After NGO files complaint against Israeli military training inside West Bank villages, IDF’s Military Advocate General says legality of training is anchored in principles of ‘belligerent occupation.’
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.556007
By Gili Cohen
There is no legal barrier to Israel Defense Forces training inside Palestinian villages in the West Bank, according to a document prepared by the IDF’s Military Advocate General.
Maj. Harel Weinberg, the MAG’s deputy prosecutor for operational affairs, wrote that the legality of training inside Palestinian villages is anchored in the principles of “belligerent occupation,” by which the military commander, who is the sovereign authority in the area, is obligated to maintain security and public order in the West Bank, and so must hold occasional training exercises in populated areas.
Still, Weinberg wrote that troops taking part in such training were required to “avoid putting the population at risk, damaging their property or causing unreasonable disturbance to their daily routine.” The document was written in response to a complaint filed by activists of the Yesh Din NGO following a series of incidents involving IDF training in villages.
In one incident last May, troops held an exercise in the middle of the village of Amatin. In another case three months ago, during Ramadan, the army held a training exercise at Tel Rumeida in Hebron while a family there was eating breakfast in their yard. According to a report by family members, about 15 soldiers broke into their yard without permission, scattered throughout both floors of the home, and practiced breaking into a home using special equipment — all while family members were inside.
The IDF Spokesman said: “After looking into the matter, the Military Advocate General found that there was no legal obstacle to holding training in inhabited areas as part of maintaining security in the area. The orders issued for the drills that take place in populated urban areas include a statute requiring coordination with the ones doing the drill. It will also be made clear that as part of the training exercises, the soldiers must avoid putting the population at risk, damaging their property or causing unreasonable disturbance to their daily routine. Anywhere that there are deviations from these rules, the Military Advocate General will order that clarification be given and will take the appropriate measures.”
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2 Haaretz
Monday, November 04, 2013
How to stir up hatred between Jews and Bedouin in Israel
The government’s bill to transfer 40,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel from their land, to be debated in a Knesset committee this week, will harm Bedouin women even more than men.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.556001
By Rabbi Arik Ascherman
The struggle on behalf of “unrecognized” Bedouin villages in Israel’s Negev Desert comes to the Knesset Interior Committee this week, as its members begin to debate the Begin/Prawer bill.
If this bill is passed, dozens of villages are likely to be demolished. Bedouin will be dispossessed of most of their remaining land. Up to 40,000 Israeli citizens will be transferred from their homes to townships that are magnets for crime and poverty because the Bedouin living in them have been torn from their agricultural sources of income and their culture. In his op-ed “Why don’t Rabbis for Human Rights care about Bedouin women?” Alon Tal attempts to delegitimize Rabbis For Human Rights’ support for this struggle by claiming that we neglect Bedouin women’s rights. But what is planned in the bill, and its consequences, will harm Bedouin women even more than men.
The issues facing Bedouin women are very serious, as we frequently hear from the Bedouin women activists we partner with. But the reality is that these women still choose to fight this bill while struggling in their communities on women’s issues because they know just how deeply they will be harmed by the bill’s passage. Unemployment in townships like Rahat is four times higher than in recognized villages (there are no statistics for unrecognized villages). In addition to suffering transfer and dispossession as Bedouin, women will be the first to be unemployed. The social anomie created by urbanization only increases violence against women.
While fighting the Begin/Prawer bill would be legitimate and necessary were Rabbis for Human Rights doing nothing on behalf of Bedouin women, a quick Google search reveals that we just concluded Women Citizens For Equality, a three-year empowerment program for Jewish and Bedouin women. Tahrir Elatika, the young Bedouin woman who co-coordinated the project, has written to Prof. Tal. After describing the projects that Bedouin women have established in cooperation with RHR to promote women’s rights, she concludes: “Let the women flourish and develop in their own villages, as they do not want to move to townships like Rahat, that offer only poverty and neglect.”
Tal plays on the stereotype that the Bedouin have no legitimate land claims and are illegally taking over the Negev. In 1920, the Palestine Land Development Company of the Zionist movement recorded nearly 650,000 acres as belonging to the Bedouin. When the Bedouin were invited to submit their land claims in the ’70s they submitted claims for less than half of this (many landowners had fled or been expelled). The government said it would not recognize Bedouin claims to 124,000 acres of communal grazing land, and nearly 50,000 acres have been dealt with since then either through arbitration or in court.
Most of these cases have not gone well for the Bedouin. Unlike the Ottomans, British and pre-state Zionist movement, Israel does not honor the internal Bedouin system of land ownership. Some 150,000 to 160,000 acres of land are still unresolved. Altogether the Bedouin land claims amount to around 5.4 percent of the Negev, while the Bedouin compose 30 percent of the Negev population. When stereotypes about the Bedouin “taking over the Negev” are peeled away, an RHR-commissioned opinion poll shows that most Israeli Jews think the Bedouin land claims are fair.
Contrary to Tal’s claims, the courts have not yet determined the status of El-Araqib. He knows this. As a member of the Jewish National Fund’s directorate, Tal deserves credit for using his influence, backed by thousands of letters to the JNF organized by Rabbis for Human Rights and our partners, to partially freeze the JNF’s work turning El-Araqib into a forest without waiting for a court decision.
El-Araqib has Turkish, British and even Israeli proof of ownership, such as purchase records and tax documents, in addition to the silent testimony of a cemetery with graves dating back to 1914. The state argues that this proof of ownership is irrelevant because the land was expropriated in 1953. In December, the High Court ordered the district court to hear the case. When leaving the court before the decision, one resident said to me, “I hope the judges realize that doing justice here isn’t just good for the Bedouin, but for all Israelis.”
If the Begin/Prawer bill is passed, the courts will no longer be able to help El-Araqib. It is outside the “Pale of Settlement” outlined on the map attached to the bill delineating where it is permissible for a Bedouin community to exist. Courts will be also circumvented for those inside the pale. A special committee will be set up. At best, if the committee decides a Bedouin is entitled to his land, he might receive 50 percent of that claim or alternative land, plus some compensation. If all his neighbors don’t cooperate, the percentage goes down. If he doesn’t agree to forgo all other claims, he gets nothing. The right of judicial appeal will be severely limited.
One might get the impression from Tal’s article that the land taken from El-Araqib will somehow benefit the overcrowded Rahat township. A highway and a new Jewish community separate Rahat from El-Araqib. The Bedouin of Rahat will be no more allowed to live outside the permitted pale than the Bedouin of El-Araqib. If the issue is recreation, the residents of El-Araqib are willing to cooperate on creating a green community. I am sure there could be picnicking arrangements without taking their land. If the state really wants to alleviate Rahat’s overcrowding, that should be done on land closer to Rahat without dispossessing the residents of El-Araqib. If Begin/Prawer is passed, overcrowding in townships will actually get worse because residents of demolished villages will be moved to the townships.
In previous conversations with Tal, I had thought we put to rest the unfounded claims of El-Araqib violence. I have not been able to uncover any case of El-Araqib residents physically attacking JNF workers or torching vehicles. Tal was not able to back up his allegations either. The Bedouin we work with are committed to nonviolence. They point to us when their children say that all Jews are oppressors. While Tal questions our references to Martin Luther King, King’s greatest challenge in convincing his people to struggle nonviolently was despair and disbelief stemming from ongoing injustice. Our sages taught: “The sword comes into the world because of justice delayed and justice denied” (Pirkei Avot).
Contrary to Tal’s claims, Rabbis for Human Rights’ current focus is not the JNF. The Israeli government is responsible for the Begin/Prawer bill. If this discriminatory legislation is passed, the JNF will need to make a moral decision whether to collaborate. We remain optimistic because our opinion poll shows that we Israeli Jews have a finer sense of moral justice than that expressed in the Begin/Prawer bill.
We recently read in Parashat Lekh Lekha how Abraham, the father of the Jewish and Arab peoples and a figure closely associated with the Negev, provides an example to us all. Rather than imposing his authority on his nephew Lot, when conflict arises between their shepherds, he bends over backwards to avoid enmity, recognizing that there is enough land for everybody. “Let there be no strife between you and me … for we are kinsman.” (Genesis 13:8) Let our government cause no strife between Jews and Bedouin, for we are all Israelis, and part of one human family.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman is the president and senior rabbi of Rabbis For Human Rights. To help RHR defend the Bedouin, please contact rhr.bedouin@gmail.com.
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3 Eldad Kisch, MD
Monday, November 04, 2013
Shame.
Today I was ashamed, as a physician and as an Israeli. I joined some friends from Machsomwatch as an onlooker at the checkpoint Qalandia, north of Jerusalem on the road to Ramallah. This is the busiest crossing of the Green Line, where during rush hour thousands of persons pass. The passages are narrow, the crush is indescribable, the soldiers are inert and unmoved behind their armored glass windows. In order to experience some of this feeling, outside the rush hour crowd, we went through this route. With strong misgivings I joined, fearing my associations with cattle slaughterhouses and worse. From afar we heard the siren of an ambulance approaching and one of the experienced machsom-ladies said, come, this you must see. Mind you, I came as an interested onlooker to see how Palestinians are herded like cattle, not in any medical capacity. So this column will acquire an unplanned para-medical content.
Palestinian patients who don’t find adequate medical treatment for their ills on the West Bank can obtain permission, in difficult medical problems, to seek treatment in Eastern Jerusalem hospitals that are usually better equipped. Very complicated cases may even be allowed to enter Israel proper to seek treatment in an Israeli hospital. A Palestinian ambulance brings the patient to the checkpoint where he is transferred, back to back, to an Israeli ambulance to travel to his destination. The Palestinian ambulance may enter the control compound only when its Israeli counterpart is waiting physically at the other side of the checkpoint. Only then do transfer formalities begin, and not a moment earlier.
The first case concerned a 16 year old boy from Ramallah who had an accident where some of his dorsal vertebrae were crushed. For medical reasons he was to be treated at Mukasset hospital in Eastern Jerusalem. After a painful and bumpy ride he arrived at the checkpoint Qalandia at 13:00, where the other ambulance was waiting, as is appropriate. It appeared that some very relevant papers of the patient were not in order, and this had to be straightened out in Ramallah. So back to Ramallah in the Palestinian ambulance.
Here is the place to make a short excursion into the intricacies of the rules and regulations of the occupation. The young patient appeared to be “manua” (meaning he was proscribed, and therefore could not enter Israel. This label is easily affixed to any Palestinian who is suspected of harboring anti-Israeli sentiments, although never having been sentenced, but possibly like in his youth having thrown stones at soldiers, or just having been fingered, thus getting onto one of the black lists). It is not easy to lose this label.
The matter had been solved by the appropriate authorities (meaning the secret service) in Ramallah before his departure, according to a relative who was waiting for the patient next to the ambulance on the Israeli side. But apparently not well enough. So the patient was shipped back to Ramallah to straighten out things. The patient returned to Qalandia where he arrived at 17:00. Now new bureaucratic problems arose, causing another delay of one hour at the checkpoint. Luckily, these wrinkles could be straightened out at Qalandia, and finally the patient was transferred in a painful maneuver into the Israeli ambulance and start on his way to Mukasset. The driver of the ambulance told us that this case had progressed rather speedily, and that it could be far worse.
While we were waiting for the resolution of the first case, another Israeli ambulance entered the compound. This driver told us that a very sick man, 26 years old, with infusions, a blood transfusion and on artificial respiration was on his way from Nablus in order to be transferred to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem. That he was warned that the patient might not live under the circumstances. This really was a matter of the utmost urgency. We clearly saw the Palestinian ambulance entering the other side of the compound, with wailing siren, and thus we could time the procedures exactly. Also here a delay of half an hour occurred. Checking a normal car takes a few minutes at most. Ordinary soldiers are in charge here, and they decide supreme. Who is sick or just simulating. And most important, all bureaucratic requirements must be fulfilled to the last dotted i.
In the past attempts have been made to streamline these life-saving transfers, so we were told, but security precedes human life and a smooth execution of the new rules has not been implemented.
I stood by gnashing my teeth, and wanted to speed up matters, but I was warned under no circumstances to cross the line to talk to the soldiers in charge, because the soldiers are stressed and their fingers are light on the trigger.
When the ambulance finally arrived at the meeting point, it was clear to all that this was a very sick person. With a lot of tugging and pulling the patient with all his tubes and apparatus was transferred to the Israeli ambulance, and he could continue his journey. All this under close supervision of two soldiers with their weapons at the ready, who shouted at us not to photograph.
This is the inhuman face of the occupation. This situation must be addressed as soon as possible, and we should enlist all the help we can get.
Eldad Kisch MD; November 3, 2013.
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4 Le Monde diplomatique November 6, 2013
Europe remains Israel’s biggest trading partner
EU’s wary support for Palestine
The EU has only just denied financial backing to Israeli entities that profit from West Bank or East Jerusalem activities. Otherwise, it pays up for the Palestinian Authority, but turns a blind eye to Israeli expansion. President François Hollande’s November visit to Israel and Ramallah is not going to change that.
http://mondediplo.com/2013/11/06palestine
by Laurence Bernard
Twenty years after the Oslo Accords, the European Union has just taken the first step toward making credible its official support for an “independent, democratic, contiguous and viable” Palestinian state. A directive published in July makes all Israeli entities (businesses, universities, research laboratories or associations) operating outside Israel’s 1967 borders and pursuing activities in the West Bank or East Jerusalem ineligible for grants, prizes and financial instruments funded by the EU from 1 January 2014.
This should end EU support for companies such as Ahava, which exploits the mineral-rich mud of the Dead Sea, to which Palestinian industry is denied access; and for the Israeli Antiquities Authority, through which Israel has a virtual monopoly on the regulation, conservation and presentation of archaeological sites in Palestine.
The EU has never been able, or willing, to apply the many declarations and resolutions that have accumulated since 2009, which exhort the Israeli authorities to “end all settlement activities, including natural growth, in East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, and dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001” (1). To date, despite recorded violations of UN resolutions and the Geneva conventions, and the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on the Separation Barrier (2), the EU has applied no sanctions against Israel.
Dwindling day by day
Yet urgent action is needed, for the politics of the fait accompli continue to erode Palestinian territory, jeopardising the two-state solution. The West Bank has already been reduced to an archipelago of little urban islands by the Separation Barrier, the line of which effectively annexes nearly 10% of Palestine’s territory, and by the fact that 60% of all Palestinian territory — “Area C” (3) — remains under complete Israeli control. This already has 350,000 Israeli settlers living in 35 settlements, compared with 180,000 Palestinian residents. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is concerned at the growth of violence by settlers, the denial of construction permit applications to Palestinians by the Israeli civil administration in charge of the territories, and the systematic demolition of buildings erected “without a permit”.
These demolitions include projects financed by the EU, which sometimes pays for the rebuilding of infrastructure destroyed by the Israeli army, such as Gaza’s port and airport, and administrative and security facilities for the Palestinian Authority (PA), notably in Nablus and Jenin, where the EU has spent €30m ($41m) rebuilding two facilities belonging to the Palestinian Authority, which should be completed next year, and rural infrastructure. Even humanitarian relief equipment (tents, shelters, latrines) is regularly destroyed by the Israeli army or by settlers without the EU claiming damages. Only the European Community Humanitarian Office has requested financial compensation — this year — and the request was denied on the grounds that the structures had not been built in collaboration with the Israeli authorities.
There have been many incidents, some involving European diplomats, mostly unpublicised by governments not wanting to cause trouble. The EU has continued to provide funding to strengthen PA institutions (the donors hope for economic growth in the absence of a political solution) without a murmur. Over the years, the PA has been kept alive on this financial drip — the EU pays the salaries of most of its officials, which cost €150m ($203m) a year.
Water resources have always been a major issue: their allocation is still unfavourable to the Palestinians. The Joint Water Council is supposed to promote joint decision-making by both parties, but is used by the Israelis to block most Palestinian projects. The Palestinians only have 20% of the West Bank’s water resources, the Israelis 80%; on average the Palestinians use only 25% as much water per person per day. The international community, including the EU, doesn’t seem to mind financing water treatment projects where the investment and operating costs are more expensive because of restrictions imposed by the Israelis.
The Israeli authorities have expropriated more than a third of East Jerusalem, which they have declared to be part of Israel’s “national territory”. There are 250,000 settlers living in Palestinian areas of the Old City and the historic basin, and in the huge modern developments that ring the city. Culture, history and heritage are tightly controlled by the Israeli authorities, which withhold licenses for tourist guides, appropriate artefacts and control archaeological excavations. According to the latest joint report by the heads of EU diplomatic missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah, there seems to be “a concerted effort to utilise archaeology to enhance a claimed historic Jewish continuity in Jerusalem, thereby creating a historic justification for the establishment of Jerusalem as the eternal and undivided capital of Israel” (4).
Despite the unequivocal conclusions of this report, sent to the governments of all EU states, the EU has found it difficult to impose anything on the Israeli authorities, such as reopening official institutions in East Jerusalem, especially Orient House — headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Jerusalem until 2000 — and the Palestine Chamber of Commerce.
Blockade of Gaza
In 2010 Israel closed all border crossings into the Gaza Strip, except those at Erez (restricted access) and Kerem Shalom, the only crossing through which certain goods can be imported. With a few exceptions, no exports are permitted. Gaza is already one of the most densely populated territories in the world, with nearly two million people crowded into 400 sq km (4,500 people/sq km), but the Israeli authorities have also imposed a buffer zone along the barrier, between 100 and 500 metres in depth, which denies residents access to 17% of the territory (and 33% of the farmable land). Similar restrictions apply along the coast: the outer limit of the fishing zone, set at 20 nautical miles under the Oslo accord, is now reduced to between 3 and 6 miles. Having failed to get the blockade lifted, the EU’s response has been to provide €15m ($20.3m) to upgrade the border crossing infrastructure at Kerem Shalom.
The plight of Palestinian refugees has also worsened. The UN has registered nearly five million expelled from their villages in 1948 and 1967. A third still live in “temporary” camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria; 3.5 million rely on the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for basic health and education. This costs the EU nearly €300m ($406m) a year in funding to the UNRWA, and the situation has been made worse by the recent influx of Syrian refugees and instability in the region.
What the EU could do
The situation in the Middle East demonstrates the EU’s inability to impose conditions as a basis for a lasting peace in the region. Yet it could easily do so (5). It could accept the important step that its recent directive represents, instead of trying to limit its effectiveness, and refuse to bow to pressure from Israel — which has banned EU representatives from visiting Gaza — and the US. Europe is Israel’s biggest trading partner — trade with the EU is worth nearly €30bn ($41bn) a year — and accounts for a quarter of its exports. The EU could threaten reprisals under the EU-Israel Association Agreement, signed in 2000, freeze specific accords that are already in force or being negotiated (Israel is still the main beneficiary of the EU’s Mediterranean programmes), and suspend negotiations on strengthening the Association Agreement.
The EU could also stop importing goods manufactured or assembled in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In 2012 a group of 22 NGOs estimated the value of the EU’s imports of such products at €230m ($311m), around 15 times more than the value of its imports of Palestinian products (6). Since they do not depend on direct EU finance, exports of products made in the settlements are not covered by the recent directive. Products labelled “Made in Israel” — but actually made in the settlements — are also exempt from tax; 13 member states are working on a labelling initiative to make the truth clearer to EU consumers. Some, including Ireland, would prefer to see the EU ban such products.
Finally, the EU could take action on the arms trade with Israel, which continues to grow in spite of the EU code of conduct that prohibits sales of military equipment that “might be used for internal repression or international aggression, or contribute to regional instability”. Israel’s equipment imports, investment in research (partially subsidised by the EU) and recent military operations in Gaza — which has become a testing ground for weapons technology — have allowed it to boost its own arms exports worldwide. In 2012 they reached a record €5.3bn ($7.2bn), and Israel overtook France as the fourth biggest exporter of arms.
5 Haaretz Monday, November 4, 2013
The Palestinian negotiator who cried wolf
Saeb Erekat isn’t to blame for his serial resignation threats; he wasn’t the one who decided to negotiate under such humiliating circumstances.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.556039
By Amira Hass
Heartless Palestinians have been expressing scorn for the latest resignation of the Palestinian negotiating team in the renewed talks with the Israelis, especially for its head, Dr. Saeb Erekat. In contrast with his colleague on the team Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh, Erekat is seen as a serial “I threaten to resign” person, just as he is seen as the perpetual negotiator in the Palestinian-Israeli talks that give the impression that they will go on forever.
The letter of resignation, circles in Ramallah are saying, was submitted early last week. Two interconnected issues sparked Erekat’s latest resignation: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration that thousands of additional housing units would be built in West Bank settlements as a response to the second stage in the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons, and the dissemination of the claim that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian negotiating team knew about, and thus tacitly agreed to, the additional construction activity.
That is absolute nonsense. Does anyone think that Netanyahu would not have made that declaration if he had not been given the green light from the PA?
It is easy to spread such an absurd rumor, because the experience of the past 20 years shows that the Palestinian leadership has been unable to prevent Israel from seizing control of land in the West Bank. Many people in Hamas are already exploiting this baseless argument for propaganda purposes − as if Hamas’ tactic of armed struggle has been able to thwart Israeli construction activity in the West Bank.
Compared with other senior Palestinian leaders, Erekat has been the target of immense scorn from the Palestinian public because of the great media interest in the talks with Israel. It is unfair that he should be subjected to such a disproportionate measure of ridicule.
There are perpetual Palestinian negotiators who, for years, have been conducting talks on civilian and ongoing security matters with senior Israeli officials from the Shin Bet security service, the Israel Defense Forces and the office of COGAT, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. There is no evidence that all these meetings have advanced the Palestinian people to independence or that they fill Palestinians with pride over their representatives’ performance in these talks. The spotlights are not aimed at these negotiations and they are exempt from scorn, anger or any demand of accountability.
The letters of resignation submitted by Erekat and Shtayyeh are a clear message to other senior officials in the Palestinian leadership: “You people have abandoned us and left us to face the public’s scorn on our own. In the final analysis, there was a collective agreement to accept Abbas’ decision to return to the negotiating table under such humiliating and hopeless circumstances.”
Even what is being termed a “threat to undertake measures” is a standard Pavlovian reaction on the part of the Palestinians. The term “threat” is a common Israeli exaggeration used to describe the official Palestinian tendency toward hollow declarations that are a cover-up for inertia and a lack of strategy. Nearly every foreign diplomat with whom one talks on condition of anonymity is puzzled by the lack of strategy displayed by the Palestinian leadership under Abbas. Decisions are made without much prior thought, and every political move is an isolated act without any follow-up or contingency plans in the desk drawer. Thus, the public scorn is very important because it just might make some people in the Palestinian leadership actually listen to the content of the criticism, even if only to keep their reputation unsullied.
The foreign diplomats’ puzzlement regarding the lack of strategy is justified, but it must be supplemented by a puzzled interjection: If the countries that these diplomats represent were faithful to their declarations supporting a Palestinian state within the June 4, 1967 borders and opposing the settlements, they would have undertaken a long time ago a few necessary and simple diplomatic measures to make it clear to Israel that what it regards as normative and natural − namely, the domination of another people − is a punishable act. Only then could the consistent Palestinian position in favor of a peace solution with Israel be seen as strategic.
But let’s get back to the “threat.” On Thursday, after an emergency meeting at Abbas’ office, the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization announced that the Palestinian leadership would in the coming days undertake certain measures to deal with the “settlement offensive,” and, in addition, to protect Palestinian national interests and prevent the peace process from hitting a dead end.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Ramallah reported that it was “studying [the possibility] of turning to international courts and to the relevant international institutions” (with regard to the above-mentioned housing units in the West Bank). The ministry also, of course, condemned the Israeli decision to engage in such construction activity.
This arrangement has been created over the past two decades for dividing up the work: One side builds and the other side condemns the building activity. How many times has the Palestinian public heard its leaders issue condemnations, promise to undertake measures, and promise to study the issue and turn to international courts? The same number as that of the housing units built in West Bank settlements since 1994.
If there really were letters of resignation, Abbas would have refused to accept them. However, it can be assumed that the separate meeting of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with Abbas and the Palestinian negotiating team is intended to put out the current fire. According to one report, the meeting will take place in Bethlehem.
Here is my modest suggestion for the meeting’s agenda: The meeting should be held on the lands of the village of Khirbet Nahleh, south of Bethlehem. The West Bank settlement of Efrat is busy advancing its plan to establish an agricultural farm there (on an area registered as being owned by a subsidiary of the Jewish National Fund, Himanuta). The route leading to the planned farm would go through land privately owned by Palestinians, although they are opposed to the idea and this would violate their private property rights.
According to publications issued by the settlement of Efrat, its land reserve for construction purposes is located there. The total area is 1,700 dunams (some 420 acres); the 13 Palestinians who own this land have hired a lawyer to fight the Civil Administration’s declaration that this is “state land.” The purpose of the declaration is clear: To gradually link Efrat to the settlement of Tekoa to the east, and thus complete the transformation of the Bethlehem area into a Palestinian “Bantustan,” totally cut off from its surroundings.
Perhaps this is the right time to ask the American secretary of state to use his influence, so that the Palestinian owners of these lands can find employment at the industrial park of the Gush Etzion bloc.
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6 Mondoweiss
St. Louis dumps Veolia
Annie Robbins
November 3, 2013
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/11/louis-dumps-veolia.html/comment-page-1
Dump Veolia activists protest at City Hall, St. Louis Missouri (Photo Suhad Khatib)
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This story has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. A bunch of average ordinary Americans who formed a coalition of social-justice and environmental activism, including civil rights leaders, workers and students, in a large midwestern city, just scored a massive victory over the takeover of their water department and the privatization of their resources by an international corporate behemoth deeply embedded in human rights violations.
Huge BDS win, and massive victory for the people of St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee (STL-PSC):
In a dramatic conclusion to nearly one year of effort and vigilance by the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) and coalition partners, the St. Louis mayor’s office announced on October 29, 2013 that Veolia Water North America was withdrawing itselffrom consideration for a contract to consult with the St. Louis Water Division. Veolia is a major, global target of the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement because of its complicityin Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights. Veolia profits from Israel’s occupation of the West Bank by providing services, such as trash collection, water services and, until recently, bus lines, to illegal Israeli settlements built on Palestinian land.
When the contract came to light, the PSC helped form a local coalition to “Dump Veolia.” The Coalition included a wide spectrumof the St. Louis community, as well as national organizations. The broad based opposition caused Veolia to withdraw from our city, reportedlydeciding St. Louis “is not worth it. It is not worth the damage to [Veolia’s] business.”
The St. Louis Dump Veolia campaign shows the effectiveness of local BDS campaigns. The efforts against the Veolia contract brought Palestine to the St. Louis mayoral campaign last spring as the two leading candidates — the incumbent, Mayor Francis Slay, and his challenger and the head of the Board of Alderman (St. Louis’ equivalent to a city council), Lewis Reed — staked out opposite sides in the Veolia debate. Mayor Slay, a proponent of the Veolia contract, was forced to admit in a press releasein February that Palestinians find Veolia’s involvement with Israel’s occupation objectionable.
The issue of the proposed Veolia water contract was the top requested question at the second mayoral debate. St. Louis Public Radioand the St. Louis Beaconcovered the issue as part of their debate coverage. Palestine activists bird-doggedMayor Slay during a fundraising event demanding answers on why he supported human rights violations in Palestine through his advocacy for Veolia. Anti-Veolia flyerssponsored by candidate Reed and his supporters in the St. Louis Carpenters’ Union were mailed to every household in St. Louis during the campaign. Global Water Intelligencecredited BDS in St. Louis with thwarting Veolia’s ambitions for securing public sector work in the United States.
While Mayor Slay handily won the mayoral election, the Dump Veolia campaign put his office and Veolia on the defensive and forced both to expend considerable political clout and resources. In June, a public hearing on the Veolia contract was called by the Board of Alderman Public Utilities Committee. Over two sessions, the hearing lasted six hours. At the second session, well over 150 concerned citizens attended to voice their opposition to the proposed contract. The only testimonies in support of the contract were from either Veolia representatives or others who would directly benefit as a subcontractor from the proposed deal. The only pro-Israel opposition to our efforts came in the form of a statementfrom the St. Louis Jewish Community Relations Council that did not support Veolia — a seemingly untenable position — but asked the City to not factor BDS demands into their decision-making process.
At the hearing, several PSC members made statements focusing on Veolia’s operation of bus lines on segregated roads in the West Bank, drawing comparisons to St. Louis’ racist practices and to the Board of Aldermen’s strong stance against Apartheid South Africa in the 1980s. Veolia representatives were flustered by the testimonyabout the segregated buses and attempted to deny the allegations. However, PSC testimony had been heard, and it was members of the Board of Aldermenwho refuted the Veolia spokesperson’s inadequate defense. In September, Veolia Transdev sold off all bus linesoperating in Palestine/Israel, showing the power of BDS.
For more than three years, Veolia attempted to secure a contract with St. Louis, defying the will of the local community through aggressive lobbying, bullying, political interference, back-door deals, and outright contempt for democratic involvement. When public opposition denied Veolia the necessary votes to pass the contract through normal channels, the mayor attempted to circumvent the democratic checks and balancesby claiming the contract did not need approval through traditional means and threatened to sue the city comptroller if she did not sign it.
However, public outrage overwhelmed the St. Louis Board of Aldermen who introduced a resolutionto remove funds allocated for Veolia in the city’s budget — the straw that finally broke the camel’s back, prompting Veolia to withdraw. The proposed Board Bill 216 may be the first city resolution in North America targeting Veolia in response to a BDS campaign.
As the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee celebrates this victory over occupation profiteer Veolia, we wish to thank the many coalition partners and St. Louis citizens who supported the Dump Veolia campaign. While we came to this issue because of Palestine, we soon learned of the many troubling aspects of Veolia’s business practices including privatization of public resources, labor abuses, corruption, environmental degradation and interference in democratic processes. This is a huge win for BDS in North America and a triumph for the people of St. Louis.
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St. Louisans passionate about the environment and rights line corridor to protest Veolia, St. Louis Missouri City Hall January 16.2013
Check out Dump Veolia’s timeline of campaign eventsand In the News, Dump Veolia’s list of media coverage. Notice how one astute local investigative journalist played a role. From their website:
On December 3, 2012, nobody but a small group of St. Louis insiders knew anything about the proposed St. Louis water consultancy contract with Veolia Water North America. On December 4, the story broke in the Riverfront Timesfollowing a leak from a water department worker. Thanks to the journalistic diligence of reporter Jessica Lussenhop and massive mobilization efforts by St. Louisans passionate about the environment and rights, the contract and campaign to stop it went on to capture headlines and garner significant media attention locally as well as some coverage nationally and internationally.
A true success story.
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St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee, St. Louis Missouri City Hall January 16.2013
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7 Today in Palestine
Sunday, November 3, 2013
http://blog.theheadlines.org/theHead/