Throwing blows in Beit Shemesh

• Published 02:48 08.09.11
• Latest update 02:48 08.09.11

 

Tensions rise as ultra-Orthodox extremists fight religious Zionist girls school.

By Yair Ettinger

Outside, blood is boiling, emotions are seething, and the residents of Beit Shemesh are exchanging blows. But inside Moshe Montag's office, the answers are simple and cool.

Deputy mayor and holder of the building portfolio, Montag prefers to direct attention to the bigger picture: During the last month, he has authorized the construction and sale of 2,800 housing units in Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel, which is to be entirely populated by ultra-Orthodox Jews. Within a few months, thanks to Netanyahu's National Housing Committee Law, another 27,000 units will be authorized in Ramat Beit Shemesh, all of them almost certainly for the ultra-Orthodox.

	Ultra-Orthodox extremists clashing with members of the religious Zionist community in Beit Shemesh this week.
	Photo by: Gil Cohen-Magen

"The battle going on outside is not over the character of the city," Montag said. "A city building 30,000 housing units for the ultra-Orthodox is not going to fight over a run-down old school. Certainly we won't fight over it. This is a city undergoing demographic changes, something that is neither simple nor easy."

"On our part, we're trying all the time to calm everyone down, to maintain a positive atmosphere," Montag said. "I promise you that this city will preserve a balance between the various populations. There is room for everyone in Beit Shemesh."

Montag's is one interpretation of the situation in Beit Shemesh, and certainly not everyone agrees, but first - the headlines:

The escalation began yesterday with a conflict involving the girls school Orot Lebanot. Orot Lebanot is a religious Zionist school, meaning it is Orthodox but not ultra-Orthodox.

Yesterday, Ultra-Orthodox extremists blocked the path of the Orot Lebanot schoolgirls while they were on their way home. They surrounded the girls and shouted insults at them. Some residents and parents accompanying their children responded, and a fight broke out. It took nearly 45 minutes for the police to restore order, which they did without detaining or arresting any of the troublemakers.

Meanwhile, before the fight broke out, a fourth-grader at the nearby boys school, Orot Lebanim, also was injured while he was playing in the school yard during recess. According to the school principal, an ultra-Orthodox man threw stones at the boy, causing light injuries to his leg.

Montag, a leader of the Degel Hatorah branch of ultra-Orthodoxy, the main branch in Beit Shemesh (with roots going back to Lithuania ), sharply criticized the extremists and asked police to get tougher with them. According to Montag, "For them, I too am considered secular."

One week after the beginning of the new school year, there was no compromise on the horizon, and the level of hostility was rising. Orot Lebanot's new building was filled as planned with female students only, at the order of the education minister and the interior minister, who imposed the condition on the mayor, Moshe Abutboul of the Shas Party. Abutboul, who has been abroad (for a meeting between Shas members and Palestinians in the framework of the Geneva peace initiative ), said that the girls had to be kept at a distance to prevent a "blood bath," since the neighborhoods where the extremists live are like "Arab villages" that police are afraid to enter. According to Montag's deputy, if the municipality had been allowed to handle the crisis, a compromise would have been reached - for example, having the girls school trade places with the religious Zionist boys school.

As the events unfolded, one of Abutboul's coalition partners, a Likud member, resigned. Another, the chairman of the modern Orthodox party Tov, Eli Friedman, criticized the mayor in the ultra-Orthodox paper Kikar Hashabat. Friedman blamed the mayor for not respecting agreements and called on him to "defeat the Sicarii [extremists named for Jewish zealots in Roman times] in Beit Shemesh once and for all."

The Orot school serves religious girls from the Sheinfeld, Ramat Sharet, Ramat Beit Shemesh Aleph and other neighborhoods. Residents of Ramat Beit Shemesh Beit, populated by anti-Zionist extremists who are opposed to the new school, are demanding that the girls be removed. They claim that the girls, who range from 6 to 12 years old and who wear skirts, bring promiscuity to the neighborhood. The small police force guarding the school did not make much of an impression on the 40-or-so ultra-Orthodox Sicarii, who ambushed the girls after school at the top of the street, 300 meters from the school gate, and blocked both sidewalks.

They shouted "shiksa" [non-Jewish girl], "pritzas" [prostitute] and "gevalt" at the terrified girls. Parents who accompanied their daughters quarrelled with the Sicarii. Within a few minutes, some of the drivers who were passing by joined in, and a fistfight broke out.

Moshe Friedman, one of the organizers of the protests against the schoolgirls, told Haaretz that he was confident the school would be removed.

"They won't be here," he said. "According to Jewish law, it doesn't matter that they are girls. The laws of modesty are an obligation from the age of 3. Their goal is to ruin the neighborhood; we won't agree to tolerate it. They are backed by the government, but from our point of view this is a long-term battle. Even if it takes years, we'll win in the end. Neither the government nor these girls will be here."

Friedman promised further protests, including a large rally by the ultra-Orthodox population and daily marches through the neighborhood that would create, in his words, "victims on both sides."

This week, the religious Zionist community began to take countermeasures. Some of the parents started accompanying their daughters to school with dogs. "They're not afraid to attack girls, but they are afraid of dogs," one mother explained. Others hung posters on the gates of schools in Rama Beit Shemesh Beit, including pictures of the Sicarii with the caption, "He likes to look at virginal religious girls."

This conflict is another chapter in the war between the various communities of Beit Shemesh, mainly in the new areas around Ramat Beit Shemesh Aleph and Beit. In recent years, the city has been plagued by wrestling matches among Orthodox religious circles, causing constant tension sometimes to the point of physical violence; Abutboul has been unable to relieve the tension, and his enemies claim he hasn't even tried.

Paradoxically, in religious Zionist circles - where children, as someone recently remarked on the group's Facebook site, actually face a more serious threat than children of Israeli settlers on Shuhada Street in central Hebron - there are signs of optimism. After a series of blows in recent years - including the removal of fitness equipment from a public park, difficulties in establishing a hesder yeshiva (for army service combined with Orthodox religious studies ), and the restriction of many housing units to the ultra-Orthodox - the desire to open a school in spite of opposition by extremists and the mayor gave a new sense of power to members of the religious Zionist population.

"I hope that this is the beginning of the end of Abutboul's coalition," said Shalom Lerner, a leader of the opposition from the Mafdal Party. "What is happening today is a watershed in terms of the public's will to act in Beit Shemesh and its understanding that it can't rely on anyone."

Another activist in the religious Zionist community remarked, "The extremists understood for the first time that no one is counting them," and an ultra-Orthodox resident said that, "All the ultra-Orthodox deep down in their hearts hope that the religious Zionists will wield a fatal blow to the Sicarii."

"The extremists are a very specific group that mainly causes damage to the ultra-Orthodox public," said Zeev Moskowitz, the spokesman for the parents association at Orot Lebanot. Moskowitz is convinced that the school will remain where it is. "The way to win here is to unite the forces of the ultra-Orthodox, the religious Zionists and the police," he said. "People always say that the extremists are strong and they don't mind suffering, but that isn't so. Their lives can be made difficult."

Montag believes that the city's hands are tied because of the developing conflict, and that it was prevented from taking quiet steps against extremist leaders. He has called on the police to deal with violence "with a firm hand," and says that the fire eventually will die down. Meanwhile, he is concentrating on building plans.

"While all over the country people are involved with tents, with talking, in Beit Shemesh, we aren't talking, we are doing," he said.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/throwing-blows-in-beit-shemesh-1.383152

Sweden receives Palestinian ambassador

Stockholm holds first official welcoming ceremony for a Palestinian representative, expresses support for efforts toward Palestinian statehood

Associated Press

Published:  09.09.11, 00:38 / Israel News

Sweden's Foreign Ministry has expressed support for Ramallah's efforts toward Palestinian statehood as the Scandinavian country held its first official welcoming ceremony for a Palestinian representative.

Palestinian Ambassador Hala Husni Fariz met Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt on Thursday as the Palestinians officially launch their campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state.

Like many European countries, Sweden this year upgraded the status of the Palestinian representation from general delegation to mission. Consequently, the top Palestinian diplomat is now titled ambassador.

Bildt said "Palestinian efforts for statehood have made great progress. To best express our support ... it has been natural for us to upgrade the Palestinian representation."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4119944,00.html

Surat untuk Sekjen PBB Ban Ki-Moon dari Warga Palestina

Kamis, 08/09/2011 23:04 WIB

Warga Palestina mulai berkampanye untuk mendukung langkah Otorita Palestina di PBB. Kampanye yang bertajuk "Kampanye Nasional untuk Palestina: negara anggota ke-194" menandai upaya Otorita Palestina untuk menyerahkan permohonan resmi untuk menjadi anggota penuh PBB dalam Sidang Umum PBB tanggal 20 September mendatang.
Permohonan itu menjadi simbol bagi pengakuan resmi PBB terhadap berdirinya negara Palestina, yang selama ini hanya berstatus otorita.

Kampanye untuk mendukung langkah Palestina di PBB itu, juga diikuti oleh sejumlah aktivis internasional sebagai bentuk solidaritas mereka. Warga Palestina bersama para aktivis melakukan aksi jalan kaki ke kantor PBB di Ramallah, Tepi Barat. Sesampainya di depan kantor PBB, mereka menyerahkan surat yang ditujukan pada Sekretaris Jenderal PBB Ban Ki-moon agar mendukung langkah Palestina.

"Hari ini kami memulai kampanye kami dan kami memilih gedung PBB karena gedung itu mewakili organisasi Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa. Kami berharap PBB memenuhi tuntutan kami," kata Ahmed Assaf, kordinator kampanye.

"Kami (Palestina) sama pentingnya dengan 193 negara lainnya yang menjadi anggota PBB, dan pesan kami adalah meminta negara Palestina menjadi negara (anggota PBB) yang ke-194," tukasnya. Ia juga menegaskan akan terus melakukan kampanye sampai negara Palestina diakui sebagai anggota PBB ke-194.

Surat yang ditujukan untuk Sekjen PBB diserahkan oleh Latifa Abu Hamid, seorang perempuan Palestina berusia 60 tahun dari kamp pengungsi Amari dekat kota Ramallah. Latifa juga seorang ibu dari delapan anak--semuanya anak lelaki--yang pernah mendekam di penjara Israel. Putra kedelapan Latifa, dibunuh oleh tentara Zionis.

"Saya membawa pesan ini untuk PBB, untuk mengatakan bahwa kami berhak memiliki negara sendiri seperti bangsa lainnya di dunia, dan kami berhak untuk mengakhiri penjajahan Israel," ujar Latifa.
Dalam surat itu tertulis agar Ban Ki-moon menegakkan keadilan dan memberikan hak rakyat Palestina. "Pengakuan negara Palestina oleh PBB merupakan langkah penting untuk mengakhiri penjajahan (Israel) dan meraih kemerdekaan rakyat Palestina, serta untuk mewujudkan keadilan dan perdamaian yang komprehensif di kawasan Timur Tengah," demikian isi surat tersebut, yang diterima oleh Kepala Kantor PBB di Ramallah, Pascal Soto. Ia menyatakan akan menyerahkan surat itu pada Ban Ki-moon

Dalam kampanye tersebut, sekira 100 orang yang ikut aksi jalan kaki ke kantor perwakilan PBB, melambai-lambaikan bendera Palestina dan membawa spanduk-spanduk antara lain bertuliskan "Kami menginginkan negara ke-194 Palestina di PBB."

Mereka juga meneriakan slogan-slogan dukungan "Kami menginginkan identitas kami, kami menginginkan sebuah negara", dan menyerukan agar negara-negara Arab memberikan dukungan penuhnya dalam Sidang Umum PBB nanti.

Sementara itu, Presiden Palestina Mahmoud Abbas menggelar pertemuan dengan sejumlah perwakilan dari Komite Sentral Fatah, Komite Eksekutif PLO dan perwakilan dari berbagai faksi politik di Palestina.

Pertemuan membahas secara detil persiapan dalam Sidang Umum PBB pada 20 September mendatang. (aisyah/mn)
 
http://knrp.or.id/berita/aktual/surat-untuk-sekjen-pbb-ban-ki-moon-dari-warga-palestina.htm

Meet the Right-Wing Hatemongers Who Inspired the Norway Killer

  TEA PARTY AND THE RIGHT  

AlterNet / By Max Blumenthal

Why were America's Islamophobes able to avoid accountability for so long?

August 2, 2011  |  

Few political terrorists in recent history took as much care to articulate their ideological influences and political views as Anders Behring Breivik did. The right-wing Norwegian Islamophobe who murdered 76 children and adults in Oslo and at a government-run youth camp spent months, if not years, preparing his 1,500 page manifesto.

Besides its length, one of the most remarkable aspects of the manifesto is the extent to which its European author quoted from the writings of figures from the American conservative movement. Though he referred heavily to his fellow Norwegian, the blogger Fjordman, it was Robert Spencer, the American Islamophobic pseudo-academic, who received the most references from Breivik -- 55 in all. Then there was Daniel Pipes, the Muslim-bashing American neoconservative who earned 18 citations from the terrorist. Other American anti-Muslim characters appear prominently in the manifesto, including the extremist blogger Pam Geller, who operates an Islamophobic organization in partnership with Spencer.

Breivik may have developed his destructive sensibility in the stark political environment of a European continent riveted by mass immigration from the Muslim world, but his conceptualization of the changes he was witnessing reflect the influence of a cadre of far-right bloggers and activists from across the Atlantic Ocean. He not only mimicked their terminology and emulated their language, he substantially adopted their political worldview. The profound impact of the American right's Islamophobic subculture on Breivik's thinking raises a question that has not been adequately explored: Where is the American version of Breivik and why has he not struck yet? Or has he?

Many of the American writers who influenced Breivik spent years churning out calls for the mass murder of Muslims, Palestinians and their left-wing Western supporters. But the sort of terrorism these US-based rightists incited for was not the style the Norwegian killer would eventually adopt. Instead of Breivik's renegade free-booting, they preferred the "shock and awe" brand of state terror perfected by Western armies against the brown hordes threatening to impose Sharia law on the people in Peoria. This kind of violence provides a righteous satisfaction so powerful it can be experienced from thousands of miles away.

And so most American Islamophobes simply sit back from the comfort of their homes and cheer as American and Israeli troops -- and their remote-controlled aerial drones -- leave a trail of charred bodies from Waziristan to Gaza City. Only a select group of able-bodied Islamophobes are willing to suit up in a uniform and rush to the front lines of the clash of civilizations. There, they have discovered that they can mow down Muslim non-combatants without much fear of legal consequences, and that when they return, they will be celebrated as the elite Crusader-warriors of the new Islamophobic right -- a few particularly violent figures have been rewarded with seats in Congress. Given the variety of culturally acceptable, officially approved outlets for venting violent anti-Muslim resentment, there is little reason for any American to follow in Breivik's path of infamy.

Before exploring the online subculture that both shaped and mirrored Breivik's depravity, it is necessary to define state terror, especially the kind refined by its most prolific practitioners. At the dawn of the "war on terror," the United States and Israel began cultivating a military doctrine called "asymmetrical warfare." Pioneered by an Israeli philosophy and "practical ethics" professor named Asa Kasher and the former head of Israeli military intelligence, Lt. Gen. Amos Yadlin, and successfully marketed to the Pentagon, the asymmetrical warfare doctrine did away with traditional counterinsurgency tactics which depended on winning the "hearts and minds" of indigenous populations. Under the new rules, the application of disproportionate force against non-combatants who were supposedly intermingled with the "terrorists" was not only  justified but considered necessary. According to Kasher and Yadlin, eliminating the principle of distinction between enemy combatants and civilians was the most efficient means of deterring attacks from non-state actors like Hamas and Hezbollah while guarding the lives of Israeli soldiers.

Asymmetrical warfare has been witnessed in theaters of war across the Muslim world, leaving tens of thousands of civilians dead in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip. The strategy was formalized in the Dahiya district of southern Beirut in 2006, when the Israeli military flattened hundreds of civilian structures and homes to supposedly punish Hezbollah for its capturing of two Israeli soldiers.

From the ashes of the Israeli carpet bombing campaign emerged the "Dahiya Doctrine," a term coined by an Israeli general responsible for directing the war on Lebanon in 2006. "IDF Northern Command Chief Gadi Eisenkot uttered clear words that essentially mean the following," wrote Israeli journalist Yaron London, who had just interviewed the general. "In the next clash with Hezbollah we won’t bother to hunt for tens of thousands of rocket launchers and we won’t spill our soldiers’ blood in attempts to overtake fortified Hizbullah positions. Rather, we shall destroy Lebanon and won’t be deterred by the protests of the 'world.'" In a single paragraph, London neatly encapsulated the logic of state terror.

While Israel has sought to insulate itself from the legal ramifications of its attacks on civilian life by deploying elaborate propaganda and intellectual sophistry (witness the country's frantic campaign to discredit the Goldstone Report), and the United States has casually dismissed allegations of war crimes as any swaggering superpower would (after a US airstrike killed scores of Afghan civilians, former US CENTCOM Director David Petraeus baselessly claimed that Afghan parents had deliberately burned their children alive to increase the death toll), the online Islamophobes who inspired Breivik tacitly accept the reality of Israeli and American state terror. And they like it. Indeed, American Islamophobes derive frightening levels of ecstasy from the violence inflicted by the armed forces against Muslim civilians. The Facebook page of Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer's hate group, Stop the Islamicization of America (SOIA), is Exhibit A of the phenomenon.

During a visit to SOIA's Facebook page, which is personally administered by Geller and Spencer, it is possible to read rambling calls for killing "the diaper heads" and for Israel to "rule the whole Middle East." A cursory glance at the website will also reveal visual propaganda reveling in the prospect of a genocide against Muslims. One image posted on the site depicts American and British troops dropping a nuclear bomb in the midst of thousands of Muslim pilgrims in Mecca. "Who ya gonna call? Shitbusters," it reads.

A second image portraying a nuclear mushroom cloud declares: "DEALING WITH MUSLIMS -- RULES OF ENGAGEMENT; Rule #1: Kill the Enemy. Rule #2: There is no rule #2." Another posted on SOIA's Facebook page shows the bullet-riddled, bloodsoaked bodies of Muslim civilians splayed out by a roadside. "ARMY MATH," the caption reads. "4 Tangos + (3 round burst x 4 M 4's) = 288 virgins." However pathological these images might seem to outsiders, in the subculture of Geller and Spencer's online fascisphere, they are understood as legitimate expressions of nationalistic, "pro-Western" pride. Indeed, none seem to celebrate violence against Muslims by anyone except uniformed representatives of Western armies.

The anti-Muslim fervor of Geller, Spencer and their allies reached a fever pitch during the controversy they manufactured in 2010 over the construction of the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" in downtown New York City. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, in North Carolina, a right-wing Republican ex-Marine named Ilario Pantano made opposing the mosque the centerpiece of his campaign for Congress, proclaiming that New York was "forsaking Israel" by allowing the mosque's construction. During the height of the his campaign, a report relying on documented evidence and confirmed testimonies revealed that while serving in Iraq in 2004, Pantano had executed two unarmed civilians near Fallujah, firing 60 bullets into their bodies with his M16A4 automatic rifle -- he even stopped to reload -- then decorated their corpses a placard inscribed with the Marine motto: "No better friend, No worse enemy." The incident did not hinder Pantano's campaign, however. His Democratic opponent never mentioned it, Pam Geller hailed Pantano as "a war hero," and Pantano earned a cult following among devotees of the Tea Party.

Though Pantano was defeated, another US military veteran closely allied with the Islamophobic right won a surprise victory: Republican Representative Allen West. While serving in Iraq, West was discharged from the military and fined $5000 after he brutally beat an Iraqi policeman, then fired his pistol behind the immobilized man's head. As in Pantano's case, reports of the disturbing incident only helped propel West to victory. In fact, West boasted about the beating in his campaign speeches, citing it as evidence of how hard he would fight for his constituents if elected.

Though Breivik's hatred for Muslims clearly spurred him to violence, he wound up murdering scores of the non-Muslims. He believed they were enabling an Islamic takeover of Europe, or what he called the creation of "Eurabia," and that the "traitors" deserved the ultimate punishment. In homing in on liberal elements in Norway, Breivik borrowed from the language of right-wing figures from the United States, labeling his targets as "Cultural Marxists." Initially introduced by the anti-Semitic right-wing organizer William Lind of the Washington-based Free Congress Foundation, Breivik understood the term as a characterization of liberal advocates of open immigration and sympathizers with the Palestinian cause. "Let us fight together with Israel, with our Zionist brothers against all anti-Zionists, against all cultural Marxists/multiculturalists," Breivik wrote in his manifesto. The killer also sought to differentiate between good Jews (supporters of Israel) and bad Jews (advocates for Palestinian rights), claiming that "Jews that support multi-culturalism today are as much of a threat to Israel and Zionism as they are to us."

Breivik's characterizations of the left and of left-wing Jews echoed those familiar to right-wing bloggers and conservative activists in the US, particularly on the issue of Israel-Palestine. The only difference seems to have been that Breivik was willing to personally kill sympathizers with Palestinian rights, while American Islamophobes have prefered to sit back and cheer for the Israeli military to do the job instead. The tendency of the American right was on shocking display this June when the Free Gaza Flotilla attempted to break the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip (during the previous flotilla in 2010, nine activists were killed by what a United Nations report described as execution style shootings by Israeli commandoes). As the debate about the flotilla escalated on Twitter, Joshua Trevino, a US army veteran and who worked as a speechwriter in the administration of George W. Bush, chimed in. "Dear IDF," Trevino tweeted. "If you end up shooting any Americans on the new Gaza flotilla -- well, most Americans are cool with that. Including me." While Trevino hectored flotilla participants, Kurt Schlicter, a former American army officer and right-wing blogger for Andrew Breitbart's Big Peace site, joined the calls for bloodshed. "Sink the flotilla," Schlicter wrote on Twitter. "Enough screwing around with these psychos."

Neither Schlicter or Trevino saw any reason to apologize for inciting the murder of fellow Americans, nor did Trevino appear to face any consequences at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, where he serves as Vice President. Instead, Trevino earned a rousing defense from prominent conservative personalities like Erick Erickson, a paid CNN contributor who lauded "the correctness of Josh’s opinion" that Israel should kill American leftists. Indeed, no one from inside the American right's online media hothouse condemned Trevino, Schlicter or Erickson, or even brooked a slight disagreement. Meanwhile, the incitement against Palestine solidarity activists has continued, with pro-Israel operatives Roz Rothstein and Roberta Seid writing this July in the Jerusalem Post that "Flotilla Folk are not like other people."

When the smoke cleared from Breivik's terrorist rampage across Norway, American Islamophobes went into  intellectual contortions, condemning his acts while carefully avoiding any criticism of his views. While making sure to call Breivik "evil," the ultra-nationalist commentator and former Republican presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan insisted that "Breivik may be right" about the supposed clash of civilizations between the Muslim East and the Christian West. Pipes, for his part, accused Breivik of a "purposeful" campaign to discredit him by citing him so frequently in his manifesto, while a panicked Geller claimed that Breivik "is a murderer, a mass murderer. Period. He’s not anything else."

The comically revealing reactions by American Islamophobes to Brevik's killing spree demonstrate the politically catastrophic situation they have gotten themselves into. All of a sudden, their movement was under intense scrutiny from a previously derelict mainstream media. And they were likely to be monitored to an unprecedented degree by federal law enforcement. These same figures who influenced Breivik had been printing open calls for terrorist violence against Muslims and leftists for years -- while a few, like Pantano, went a step further. Before Breivik killed 76 innocent people, they had generally gotten away with it.

Why were America's Islamophobes able to avoid accountability for so long? The answer is not that their yearnings for righteous political violence had not been fulfilled until Breivik emerged. The truth is far more uncomfortable than that. America's Islamophobic right was only able to make so much political headway because a broad sector of the American public had tolerated and even supported the kind of terror that they openly celebrated.

http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/151881/meet_the_right-wing_hatemongers_who_inspired_the_norway_killer/?page=entire

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