How about an Israeli destruction freeze?

Obama should demand an immediate halt to all Israeli destruction of Palestinian property in the West Bank.   Yousef Munayyer Last Modified: 08 Dec 2011 14:10     Many Palestinians have been left homeless after occupying Israeli forces demolished their homes [EPA] Washington, DC - Much was made of what many in the media described as a "confrontation" between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama over the building of illegal Israeli settlements (or colonies) in Occupied Palestinian Territory. From the very beginning of the Obama administration, the pursuit of a freeze on Israeli settlement activity was a stated goal - one that was never really accomplished and never adequately pursued. The idea of a settlement freeze, which was wrongly attributed to the now-resigned special envoy George Mitchell, was actually stipulated in the Bush administration's Road Map and accepted by the parties in 2003. A freeze on all settlement activity was a first-phase Israeli obligation - not to mention an obligation under international law. It should go without saying that the Israelis failed to fulfill this obligation, and instead the Israeli government, then led by Ariel Sharon, presided over the single largest and most aggressive period of settlement activity in the West Bank since the Menachem Begin government in 1977-83. Still, Israeli settlement construction is not the only belligerent behaviour conducted by the occupation regime in Palestinian Territory. To paraphrase the now-former US Congressman Brian Baird, if the law is "thou shall not build on territory which does not belong to you", an equally important corollary of this law is "thou shall not destroy what belongs to others in territory which does not belong to you". Of course, apart from the regular construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, there is also the regular destruction of Palestinian buildings and infrastructure in the same territory. Both the construction of illegal settlements and the destruction of the homes and property of the native Palestinians stem from the same origin: Israel's unbridled assertion of power over the native Palestinians in the context of total impunity. Much destruction occurs in Area C of the West Bank. This territory comprises roughly 60 per cent of the West Bank, and Israel maintains full control over security, planning and zoning. The United Nations Organisation for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Territories (UNOCHA) noted in a recent report: "In the first six months of 2011, OCHA recorded the Israeli authorities' demolition of 342 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C, including 125 residential structures, displacing a total of 656 Palestinians, including 351 children. This is almost five times as many structures demolished and people displaced as during the equivalent period in 2010." Take, for example, the time when 30 Israeli vehicles and 100 soldiers entered the village of Ein al-Duyuk and demolished the homes of four different Palestinian families deep in the West Bank. Or the dawn raid of Jaba'a near Hebron which led to the demolition of another family's home. Or the demolition of five homes in Khan al-Ahmar, near Jerusalem, which left 71 people, including 60 children, homeless. Or when a mosque, two homes and a barn housing children's pet rabbits were demolished in the village of Um Fagareh. Or the demolition of wells near Idhna, which debilitated Palestinian farmers. Or Khirbet Susa's rural primary school, which currently educates 36 Palestinian children and has recently received demolition orders after it was last demolished a year ago. Or the solar panel complex, built by a Spanish NGO for €300,000 ($401,310) in 2009 to provide much-needed sustainable electricity to the isolated Palestinian village of Imneizel, which also has demolition orders pending. Or, perhaps most disturbing of all, is that all of the above-mentioned Area C demolitions and demolition orders were executed or handed down only in the past 90 days. Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes and buildings, like the construction of illegal settlements, is part of a matrix of control aimed at limiting Palestinians to an existence on only a fraction of a fraction of their land. No objective observer can take the argument that the destruction of Palestinian village schools, water wells, solar panels and homes provides anyone with security. Likewise, Palestinian villagers left homeless at the hands of an Israeli bulldozer will rightly find claims that Israeli politicians want peace to be farcical. Yet this destruction persists today at accelerated levels, with little objection from an Obama administration that races to show its support for Israel as we enter an election year. Nevertheless, the Obama administration should demand an immediate halt to all Israeli settlement construction because it is illegal, and an immediate halt to all Israeli destruction in the West Bank because it is simply inhumane. Yousef Munayyer is the Executive Director of the Palestine Centre in Washington, DC.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/20111278455696419.html

'Israelis seek to silence Press TV'

Thu Dec 8, 2011 1:2PM GMT

The Israel lobby has unremittingly attempted to criminalize and ultimately silence Press TV in Britain and around the world, a former British MP tells Press TV.

"I know that, because my programs and donors have been the victims of that," said George Galloway, who also hosts London-based programs for Press TV.

He added that the Israelis are "the driving force" both in this instance and "the main engine in the overall attack against Iran."

I think we should stand and fight, Galloway noted, saying "the viewers want us to stand and fight."

However, he went on to say, "if in the last analysis we are taken off the Sky platform... They will not close us down. They will not silence Press TV."

Ofcom has recently announced that Press TV is required to pay a 100,000-pound fine and "broadcast a statement of Ofcom's findings on its service" over what it has claimed to be the breaching of its broadcasting codes.

Previously though, Ofcom had stated that it would not direct Press TV to broadcast a summary of its findings, after earlier threats of shutting down the channel and an even earlier position that any financial penalties would be suspended.

VG/JG/JR/HJL

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/214510.html

THE TOUR YOU WON’T BE TAKING WHEN VISITING ISRAEL ~~ VIDEO ESSAY

 Watch them all … then try to answer the questions at the end …

*

The settler’s Tour of Hate …

 

 

 

 

Israel doesn’t even want you to take this ‘virtual tour’ or  see videos such as those presented above …

 

Watch this shocking footage of an extremist settler attacking the news crew of channel 2 Israel.

 

 

 

 This ‘mentality of hatred’ lives on in America …

 

 

 Until they eventually move to Israel …

 

 

 To join forces with these …

 

 

Now ask yourself how your government supports these mongers of hate … and will you continue to be silent about that support?

http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/the-tour-you-wont-be-taking-when-visiting-israel-video-essay/

Sexual assault trial for prominent Zionist rabbi, Moti Elon, opens in Jerusalem

• Published 01:11 08.12.11 Latest update 01:11 08.12.11

Popular teacher accused of molesting teenage boys.

By Oz Rosenberg


Prominent Rabbi Mordechai Elon went on trial in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court yesterday on charges of forcible sexual assault against two students who had sought his emotional support.

Elon's lawyer, Jacob Rubin, told the trial's opening session yesterday that Elon would admit to some of the facts in the indictment, but only those that in and of themselves do not constitute an acknowledgment of having committed a crime. Rubin said his client would deny carrying out any kind of indecent sexual acts on his students.

	Rabbi Mordechai Elon outside Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, December 7, 2011.
	Photo by: Olivier Fitoussi

Elon, who until recently was considered one of the spiritual leaders of religious Zionism, is the former head of Yeshivat HaKotel in Jerusalem.

The first incident in the indictment relates to a 17-year-old male student who came to Elon's office at Yeshivat HaKotel in 2003, after the death of someone close to him. On the pretext of comforting the student, who has only been publicly identified as B., Elon hugged and stroked him and kissed him on the neck, while encouraging him to discuss the pain he was feeling, the indictment said.

After B. left the office, Elon sought him out and invited the student to his home, the indictment said. B. accepted the invitation, and that night, he was subjected to similar acts for about a quarter of an hour.
Several weeks later, another similar incident occurred when B. came to Elon for a private conversation, the indictment continued.

Two years later, Elon committed indecent acts against another 17-year-old male, identified as A., the indictment said. A. was not one of Elon's students, but had sought the rabbi out at a time of personal distress at the suggestion of a friend. A. allegedly had a more sexually explicit encounter with Elon about two months later.

Elon was accompanied in court yesterday by his wife, seven of his children, and other relatives.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/sexual-assault-trial-for-prominent-zionist-rabbi-moti-elon-opens-in-jerusalem-1.400261

Israeli and U.S. Jews do not understand one another

• Published 22:18 08.12.11 Latest update 22:18 08.12.11

The Immigrant Absorption Ministry’s ad campaign to return expat Israelis is evidence.

By Rabbi Joel Seltzer
 

The video starts with gentle strokes of the piano. A boy is coloring on a page, trying to get the attention of his dozing father. After several failed attempts to gain his father’s attention, the boy ceases calling him “Daddy” and resorts instead to a secret name, “Abba”. The man’s eyes open immediately. “They will always be Israeli,” says the advertisement, “Their children will not be – help them to come home.”

You might not think that a thirty second video could start a firestorm in the Jewish world, but that is exactly what occurred this past week, with the result being the Immigrant Absorption Ministry deciding to pull the ad campaign (though the videos are still available online).

	The Immigrant Absorption Ministry’s ad campaign, 2011.

Why did these ads, three of them in total, stir up such intense emotions among the Jews living in the Diaspora, particularly among Americans? And why did they encourage others to make equally offensive ‘spoof’ videos playing on the stereotype of the pushy Israeli living abroad? The answer is: for the large part, both Israeli and American Jews do not understand one another.

For our part, American Jews are apt to underestimate two key elements of Israeli identity: one external, and one internal.

Firstly, Americans in general - and American Jews among them - are simply not used to operating in terms of existentiality. That is, America has been good to the Jewish people. It has provided a life that offers financial security, freedom to practice our religion, a general (and even increasing) level of tolerance, and that great gift of emancipation: upward mobility. With things this good, it is hard for American Jews to spend serious time pondering questions of existential crisis. Sure the intermarriage rate is high, but people are still choosing to live their lives as Jews no matter who they are married to, right? Sure Jewish history has proven that a country’s attitude and acceptance of its Jewish residents can change suddenly, but that would never happen in America, right? The truth is, we here in America are simply not used to thinking in terms of the stark dichotomy between continued existence and utter oblivion.

But, unfortunately, Israel is accustomed to the reality of existential crises, and with that experience comes the understandable desire to welcome Jewish immigrants from all corners of the earth, to encourage those living in the Diaspora to consider “Aliyah”, and even to devise a campaign calling on those who have left Israel, to return home again.

Secondly, we Americans grossly underestimate the depth of meaning that comes from living as a Jew in the Jewish state. Many of us do not know the comfort that comes with living in a state where the majority culture is Jewish culture and it seeps through all the seams of life. We cannot understand what it would be like to live in a country where Hanukkah is a holiday, and December 25th is just another Sunday. We do not know the joy of the two-liter Coca-Cola bottle that wishes you a ‘Shanah Tovah’ - a Happy New Year - in September, and not in January. It’s no wonder that the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption would seek to remind Israelis (and American Jews for that matter!) of what they have to lose by choosing a life in the Diaspora.


But this partnership is a two-way street. And though Americans often do not understand Israeli mentality, Israelis, too, underestimate the depth of Jewish life that can be found in the Diaspora, both religiously and culturally.

When speaking about the Jewish religion, one needs not question why American Jews, particularly non-Orthodox Jews, enjoy their life in the Diaspora. Here we have a thriving religious environment; one that touts the values of inter-denominational partnership and community relations. How many Board of Rabbis meetings are there in Israel where Rabbis from four different denominations - Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist - gather to respectfully discuss concerns of the greater Jewish community? How many women who have grown up in the vibrancy of Jewish America would feel uncomfortable praying at the Kotel, the holiest site in all of Jewish history, due to its unfamiliar Jewish aesthetic? And while we cannot whitewash the serious threats which the Jewish community in the Diaspora faces in the uncertain future – with intermarriage and assimilation just two of our concerns - we hope that Jews living in Israel recognize that serious, thoughtful, traditional, and yes, liberal Judaism, are being practiced here with great passion and enthusiasm.

This week, I attended a concert by the Jewish a cappella group from Yale University, Magevet. They sang for an hour and a half. Their wondrous voices soared together to bring the gift of Jewish music to a packed house here in Providence, Rhode Island. They sang in Hebrew, in Ladino, and in Luganda, the language of the Ugandan Abuyadaya Jews. They closed with a soul-stirring rendition of Naomi Shemer’s classic Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold). And then, they asked us to rise as they sang “Hatikvah”. As the tears gathered in my eyes, I thought to myself, that despite the struggles facing the Jewish people – both in Israel and the Diaspora - nevertheless, Am Yisrael Chai, The Jewish People are indeed alive and well. The only question is, can we work together to ensure that it stays that way?

Rabbi Joel Seltzer is a rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Providence, Rhode Island.
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/israeli-and-u-s-jews-do-not-understand-one-another-1.400419