Oregon Coast Series: Breaking Through the Wall
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- Written by Lincoln County DFA Lincoln County DFA
- Published: 05 May 2009 05 May 2009
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A Series on the Current
Crisis in the Middle East
Breaking Through the Wall is a series of presentations designed to help improve
our understanding of key issues in the Middle East. Our goal is to support a more
effective and peaceful US policy in the region.
Topics include Islam,
Palestine, Afghanistan, and various cultural issues. We hope to offer other
events in the future and we sincerely invite you to participate.
On Israeli Settlement Freeze, Public Has Obama's Back
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- Written by Robert Naiman, National Coordinator of Just Foreign Policy Robert Naiman, National Coordinator of Just Foreign Policy
- Published: 04 May 2009 04 May 2009
- Hits: 4112 4112
WorldPublicOpinion.org has just released a poll showing that three-quarters of Americans oppose Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. This number is up 23 points from 2002.
Even among respondents who say they sympathize with Israel more than the Palestinians, 64% say Israel should not build settlements in the West Bank.
Opposition to settlements is found among majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Those who followed the issue closely oppose settlement expansion by the same margin as those who don't.
Read more: On Israeli Settlement Freeze, Public Has Obama's Back
Israel continues to persecute its Palestinian citizens
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- Written by Hala J. Gores Hala J. Gores
- Published: 04 May 2009 04 May 2009
- Hits: 4114 4114
Israeli writer Zvi Raanan said in a recent In My Opinion piece ("Misguided views on Israel," April 12) that he opposes discussion of Israel's "perceived past sins."
No, Mr. Raanan, the expulsion in 1948 of more than 750,000 Palestinian men, women and children, including some of my relatives -- and the killing and maiming of thousands more -- because they were not Jewish, is not a "perceived sin." It is a historical fact documented by many, including Israeli historians. It is the core injustice of the region and one that occurred within the lifetimes of many people still living today. Moreover, Israel's continuation of this ruthless policy of ethnic exclusion is at the center of today's conflict.
Raanan states that "Arabs who still live in Israel [the small remnant who were not forced out in 1947-49] are rightful citizens of Israel."
First of all, please stop denying us our name -- we are Palestinians. Secondly, we are systematically discriminated against by Israel. More than 20 Israeli laws favor Jews over Palestinian citizens of Israel. I grew up in a Christian family in Nazareth. My family had lived there for generations; I grew up with elders telling me stories of ancestors who heard in person the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
When I was 10, my family left Israel for Oregon (sponsored by relatives who lived in St. Helens) because of the oppression we faced as Christian Palestinians in the Jewish state. At the airport, I was taken away from my mom, who had no power to intercede, and placed in a small room, and there, terrified and humiliated, was strip-searched by an Israeli official. Such strip searches were common for Christian and Muslim "rightful citizens" of Israel; they still occur today.
In Israel, there are more than 50 villages inhabited by Palestinians that have been there for centuries. Israel has decreed these "unrecognized villages" and notified the families that their homes will be demolished because they were "built illegally." Thousands of homes of Palestinians who are Israeli citizens have been destroyed. Although these villagers are citizens of Israel, they receive no state services such as electricity, running water, sewer, access roads, health or educational facilities.
Similarly, thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel have been decreed "present absentees," Israel's Orwellian phrase for Palestinians whose land and homes Israel has confiscated for Jewish-only habitation.
Raanan proposes a solution to Mideast violence that he claims is "mutually beneficial" but that tilts heavily toward Israel -- at the expense of both Palestinians and Americans.
Raanan claims that a previous op-ed column by Alison Weir, director of the nonprofit group If Americans Knew, is misinformed, but fails to point out any inaccuracies in her piece ("The truth about Israel," April 5).
He also terms it "vicious," apparently because she suggests that American taxpayers stop funding Israeli brutality that, most recently, killed 1,417 Gazans in three weeks. During this period, Palestinian resistance groups killed nine Israelis, six of them soldiers -- and this occurred only after Israel had repeatedly broken the cease-fire.
While the news media focus on the one Israeli kidnapped by Palestinians (a captured soldier), they fail to report that Israel has kidnapped thousands of Palestinian men, women and children, and that 11,000 are being held in abusive Israeli prisons; the Times of London first exposed Israel's regular use of torture 30 years ago.
It is time for American taxpayers to refuse to allow our tax money to be used in Israel's failed, tragic and self-destructive policies that fund criminal actions. Only when Israel no longer has a blank check from Americans will Israeli leaders finally negotiate in good faith to find a fair and lasting peace for all the peoples of our holy land.
Hala J. Gores, an American citizen, is a Palestinian Christian. She is an attorney and lives in Portland. Reach her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Spanish court to probe 2002 Gaza bombing by Israel
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- Written by Al Goodman, Madrid Bureau Chief, CNN Al Goodman, Madrid Bureau Chief, CNN
- Published: 04 May 2009 04 May 2009
- Hits: 3855 3855
The move comes despite Spanish prosecution efforts to stop the case. Prosecutors submitted documents to the court, arguing that Israeli authorities already have investigated the incident.
But Judge Fernando Andreu, the investigating magistrate who is handling the case at Spain's National Court, disagreed.
Andreu wrote that despite the Israeli investigations, "Israel judicial authorities have not begun any criminal proceeding to determine if the events could lead to some type of penal responsibility," the court order said.
"Evidence of that is that the plaintiffs, victims of this 'preventative attack,' felt obliged to come before Spanish justice to begin a judicial investigation," the court order said.
The case was brought to the Spanish court by Palestinian relatives of some of the deceased. It names former Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and six other Israeli top military commanders and security officials at the time.
Ben-Eliezer last January, after the Spanish court initially accepted the case, lambasted the court, claiming the Spanish law is siding with terrorist organizations.
"This is a ridiculous decision and, even more than ridiculous, it is outrageous," Ben-Eliezer said in late January. "Terror organizations are using the courts in the free world, the methods of democratic countries, to file suit against a country that is operating against terror."
The National Court earlier said it had jurisdiction to investigate the case, arguing that if a potential human-rights crime is not being investigated by the country in question, Spain can proceed, under international law.
But prosecutors then had a chance submit arguments about the case. The judge's order on Monday to proceed despite prosecution opposition is not the first time a human rights case at the Spanish court has gone ahead in such circumstances.
The Israeli case involves the July 22, 2002 bombing in Gaza of the home of a suspected Hamas commander, Salah Shehadeh. The blast killed him and members of a Palestinian family named Mattar. They lived next door. Some of their relatives brought the suit to the Spanish court last August.
Gaza patients questionings 'rise'
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- Written by BBC News BBC News
- Published: 04 May 2009 04 May 2009
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The number of Palestinians forced to provide information before being let out of Gaza for medical treatment is rising, an Israeli group has reported.
In the first three months of 2009 more than 400 patients were interrogated, Physicians for Human Rights says.
They say Israeli security services are involved in a systematic attempt to recruit Palestinians as collaborators.
Israeli officials say they are carrying out security checks to ensure those entering Israel do not commit attacks.
Spokesman Mark Regev told the AFP news agency that 13,000 Palestinians are treated in Israel each year.
However, Physicians for Human Rights says Israel also interrogated children, detained patients for undisclosed periods of time, and intimidated them during interrogations.
Those who did not co-operate were refused permission to leave Gaza for treatment, the group says.
Complicates process
Between January 2008 and March 2009 at least 438 patients were summoned for interrogations at Erez Crossing, the main crossing point for people between Israel and Gaza, the group says.
The data collected by the group has been presented to the Geneva-based UN Committee Against Torture.
"The data points to an increase in the ratio of the number of interrogations to the total number of applications submitted to the authorities at Erez Crossing," the organisation says.
The process of referring Palestinians in Gaza for medical treatment in Israel, or further afield, is a complicated one.
It was administered by the Palestinian Authority even after Fatah, the faction led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, was ousted from Gaza in June 2007.
Earlier this year the World Health Organisation warned that the feud between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority was putting at risk the lives of critically-ill Gazans.
This followed the takeover by Hamas officials of the office that ran the referrals process in Gaza.
Because Israel refuses to deal with Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, this effectively closed down the referrals process.
Hamas officials have long maintained that the process is inefficient and corrupt.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8032508.stm
Published: 2009/05/04 13:27:45 GMT
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