emergency call from Rabbis for human rights - Army and Settlers Trying to Prevent Plowing
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- Written by Arik Ascherman, Rabbis for Human Rights Arik Ascherman, Rabbis for Human Rights
- Published: 25 April 2009 25 April 2009
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עברית אחרי אנגלית
A Word from the Director
Draft Notice
I wrote one “A Word from the Director,” but moved it to “The week that was” because of the urgent need just to say that “We need you.” We need 10 volunteers in Ein Abus on Sunday and 10 more in Sinjil. I hope that there will be additional locations, and that the work will continue throughout the week.
Despite desperate efforts on our part this last week to prod the army establishment to protect Palestinians who are plowing, or at least not cause problems (See letters in Hebrew at the end of “Parashat Hashavua” and “The Week that Was.”) it doesn’t seem to be important to anybody that the land is drying up and that in a few days the plowing season will have been lost for many farmers. I even heard a report that in the S. Hebron Hills one farmer was told, “The rules have changed.” I guess there are those who see our High Court victory as ancient history and believe that the current judges won’t have the backbone to enforce their own decision.
In light of the situation we are offering accompaniment to any farmer who is willing to take the risks to work without army protection and to go to the places where he doesn’t need protection but where the army has been creating facts on the ground. After years in which we also preferred to coordinate with security forces where possible and where Palestinians agreed, the time has come to say, “Fulfill your obligations. If you change the rules of the game we will have to go back to the way we operated back in 2002. In 2002 there was more danger from settlers. In 2002 we had hundreds of volunteers lending a hand.
This coming week I am asking for the kind of volunteer support we had in 2002. Do it for the sake of the farmers who see their lands and their livelihoods disappearing before their eyes. Do it to preserve the gains we have made in recent years. And don’t worry about the free time you will have after this relatively short and intensive recruitment. In light of the Government’s announcement regarding the new State budget we will need you to fight the budget and the damage it will do to the poorest and weakest Israelis.
Arik
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Israel's righteous fury and its victims in Gaza
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- Written by Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada
- Published: 24 April 2009 24 April 2009
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It is based first and foremost on sheer lies transmitted with a newspeak reminiscent of darker days in 1930s Europe. Every half an hour a news bulletin on the radio and television describes the victims of Gaza as terrorists and Israel's massive killings of them as an act of self-defense. Israel presents itself to its own people as the righteous victim that defends itself against a great evil. The academic world is recruited to explain how demonic and monstrous is the Palestinian struggle, if it is led by Hamas. These are the same scholars who demonized the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in an earlier era and delegitimized his Fatah movement during the second Palestinian intifada.
But the lies and distorted representations are not the worst part of it. It is the direct attack on the last vestiges of humanity and dignity of the Palestinian people that is most enraging. The Palestinians in Israel have shown their solidarity with the people of Gaza and are now branded as a fifth column in the Jewish state; their right to remain in their homeland cast as doubtful given their lack of support for the Israeli aggression. Those among them who agree -- wrongly, in my opinion -- to appear in the local media are interrogated, and not interviewed, as if they were inmates in the Shin Bet's prison. Their appearance is prefaced and followed by humiliating racist remarks and they are met with accusations of being a fifth column, an irrational and fanatical people. And yet this is not the basest practice. There are a few Palestinian children from the occupied territories treated for cancer in Israeli hospitals. God knows what price their families have paid for them to be admitted there. The Israel Radio daily goes to the hospital to demand the poor parents tell the Israeli audience how right Israel is in its attack and how evil is Hamas in its defense.
There are no boundaries to the hypocrisy that a righteous fury produces. The discourse of the generals and the politicians is moving erratically between self-compliments of the humanity the army displays in its "surgical" operations on the one hand, and the need to destroy Gaza for once and for all, in a humane way of course, on the other.
Jerusalem's mayor defends demolition of houses in Arab area
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- Written by Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
- Published: 23 April 2009 23 April 2009
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Israel's mayor of Jerusalem defended the demolition of houses in the Arab east of the city today and insisted Jerusalem could not be a future capital of a Palestinian state.
Nir Barkat, a secular businessman elected as mayor five months ago, rejected international criticism of demolitions and planning policy in east Jerusalem as "misinformation" and "Palestinian spin".
There is growing international concern about Israeli house demolitions and settlement growth in East Jerusalem, an area captured by Israel in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised by most of the international community. Critics of Israeli policy point out that planning permits are rarely given to Palestinians in East Jerusalem and that space allowed in the east for building is heavily restricted.
Last month the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, described demolitions as "unhelpful" and an internal EU diplomatic report, obtained last month by the Guardian, described them as "illegal under international law" and said they "fuel bitterness and extremism".
But Barkat told reporters: "There is no politics. It's just maintaining law and order in the city." Since January, he said, there had been 35 demolitions, of which 20 were in the east. Asked about the international concern, he said: "The world is basing their evidence on the wrong facts ... The world has to learn and I am sure people will change their minds."
But others on the council disagree. Meir Margalit, an elected councillor from the leftwing Meretz party, said while the demolitions in the east were of Palestinian apartments and houses, in the west of the city they were nearly all small structures added on to buildings, including shopfronts.
Margalit said fewer than 7% of planning applications submitted by Palestinians in East Jerusalem had been successful so far this year, against 14% from the west, while 41% of Palestinian East Jerusalem planning applications had been rejected, against 20% from the west. He said this followed a pattern established over many years, before Barkat's election.
"The discrimination here is more than ideological," Margalit said. "It is part of a cultural structure that is the norm in the municipality." He also produced research showing the municipality spent less than 12% of its budget in the east, where roads are often potholed and services are poor.
Barkat said he wanted to improve the life of all the city's residents, Jewish and Arab, but that he was committed to maintaining a Jewish majority. Jews make up around two-thirds of the city's population.
He said he could not accept East Jerusalem becoming the capital of a future Palestinian state. "Jerusalem, both ideologically and practically, has to be managed as a united city, as the Israeli capital, and must not be divided," he said.
Barkat said he wanted the Israeli government to build a Jewish settlement in an area of the occupied West Bank east of Jerusalem known as E1, a project the US has opposed. He said E1 was part of the "holy land of Israel" and could serve to allow the city's Jewish population to expand outwards. "I see no reason in the world why the Israelis must freeze expansion and the Palestinians can build illegally," he said. Under the US "road map", which remains the basis of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel is committed to freezing all settlement building. Settlements in occupied land are widely regarded as illegal under international law.
Palestinian filmmakers beat the odds to hit silver screen
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- Written by Marco Woldt for CNN Marco Woldt for CNN
- Published: 22 April 2009 22 April 2009
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* Story Highlights
* More films were made in the Palestinian territories in 2008 then ever before
* Filmmakers must overcome problems like travel restrictions and poor distribution
* Director Annemarie Jacir's film "Salt of This Sea" showed at Cannes in 2008
* Jacir: "I think there's a wave coming -- a lot of new filmmakers"
By Marco Woldt
For CNN
LONDON, England (CNN) -- When the 10th London Palestine Film Festival opens this week, Londoners will have greater access to films made in the Palestinian territories than many people living in the region.
Today, there is only one movie theater operating in the West Bank. Gaza has none.
The "Al Kasaba" theater in Ramallah is the only formal film venue for a population of nearly 2.5 million in the West Bank. Due to travel restrictions it is virtually inaccessible to the one and one half million Palestinians residing in Gaza.
It is estimated that about 80 percent of Palestinian children have never been to a movie theater, according to a report in The Christian Science Monitor.
With this lack of distribution, and hardly any formal funding available, producing a film within the Palestinian territories is a tremendous challenge.
Against the odds, the region's filmmakers completed three feature films and an estimated eight shorts in 2008 -- more than ever before. Local directors are determined to tell their stories and have adapted to cope with the region's difficult circumstances.
Lack of cinematic infrastructure
One of the greatest obstacles filmmakers face is a lack of equipment and crews. According to industry experts, directors in the Palestinian territories have little hope of competing with international news media over the limited resources.
"Crews who can work for international news organizations at very high salaries don't want to work for independent film makers," says director and coordinator of the Shashat's Women's Film Festival, Alia Arasoughly. Are you interested in seeing more films made by Palestinian directors? Tell us below in the SoundOff box below
"They don't want to rent their equipment out for a 10-hour shooting day, when they can rent it out for just two hours and triple the price to an international crew."
As a consequence of this, filmmakers are looking to local residents for production assistance.
Annemarie Jacir's first feature film,"Salt of This Sea," which premiered last year at Cannes Film Festival, tells the story of an American woman who travels to Israel to visit the land where her grandfather lived before Palestinians were ejected in 1948.
The film was shot with a crew consisting largely of novices assembled by the director, including a former ambulance driver, a jeweler and a radio DJ.
"There were always discussions with my producers, who preferred bringing more experienced professional people from Europe in, and I insisted that I'd rather have locals even if they're less experienced," Jacir told CNN.
"We're trying to build something in [the Palestinian territories], and when things got tough, because they believed in what we were doing, they stayed."
During the shoot Jacir's team also received unexpected support from members of the local community, who brought them food and drinks in between takes.
"We even had the entire Palestinian police force blocking traffic; going out of their way to help us," remembers Jacir.
Restricted Mobility
A further complication faced by Jacir and her colleagues is the limitation on movement and access in the Palestinian territories.
Since Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Israeli authorities have imposed varying degrees of restriction on the movement of people in and out of the territories, according to human rights group, Amnesty International.
In 2007, the year in which Jacir shot the majority of her film, Amnesty reported 84 manned checkpoints and 465 unmanned blockades within the West Bank alone.
As a result of these security measures, which the Israelis say are necessary to secure their country from Palestinian attacks, the production of "Salt of This Sea," a movie with over 80 shooting locations was logistically very complex.
In order to shoot the road movie lawfully, Jacir and her crew had to apply for permission to leave Ramallah.
"Every single crew member was rejected. So, just purely getting through the checkpoints and the logistics of keeping a film crew together was an obstacle."
Obtaining shooting permission was equally problematic. Permits for various locations including Jaffa were refused repeatedly -- a hindrance which did not deter Jacir.
"In some cases we just filmed anyway. We put the actors in a real situation and we just did it guerrilla-style. That's how most Palestinian filmmakers are managing to do their work," she told CNN.
A bright future?
While drawbacks such as a lack of funding, a lack of resources, and restrictions of movement would dissuade directors in many other countries, members of the growing film community in the Palestinian territories are forging bonds over the difficulties.
While Arasoughly and Jacir agree that it would be going too far to speak of a "national cinema" at this stage, they look to the future with great optimism.
The novice crew members Jacir recruited to work on "Salt of This Sea" have continued to find work in filmmaking -- a fact Jacir believes indicates an industry is gradually starting to emerge.
"I think there's a wave coming -- a lot of new filmmakers, a lot of people making documentaries and more experimental films, working together," Jacir told CNN.
Arasoughly, whose Shashat festival will enter its fifth year this fall, is equally hopeful.
"The fact that we, under the harshest of conditions in the Arab world, have been able to hold an annual women's film festival, and that hundreds of students come to our screenings means that people want their worlds to be expanded," she said.
"They want wider horizons, and I think for me, this is what makes it possible to go on in the context that we live in."
Links referenced within this article
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http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/22/palestinian.territories.cinema.challenges/index.html#soundoff
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Another muted scream
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- Written by Sayed Mohamed Dhansay, The Electronic Intifada Sayed Mohamed Dhansay, The Electronic Intifada
- Published: 22 April 2009 22 April 2009
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Suddenly a tear gas canister whizzes past the camera making an audible "clunk" as it hits something to the right. He tries to let out a scream, but all he manages is a stifled yelp. One can almost hear his breath being cut short as the projectile punctures his chest. Another muted scream of pain. He falls to the ground then jumps up quickly, running a few steps before collapsing again.
His body rolls a few times as he hits the ground, his limbs flapping loosely underneath him. Two fellow demonstrators run to him, looking almost surprised and unsure of what has just happened. They turn him over, lifting his shirt and calling his name. But he is unresponsive. His eyes are open but his body lies motionless. His bright yellow shirt now quickly growing a wet red stain over his heart.
And so the occupied people of Palestine sacrifice yet another one of their young men. Another one. Again. Just like that. In an instant. Caught live on camera for the world to see. Twenty-nine-year-old Basem Ibrahim Abu Rahme was later pronounced dead at Ramallah hospital on Friday 17 April 2009 after being shot in the chest with a high-velocity tear gas canister by an Israeli soldier. A faceless, nameless soldier who will likely never have to explain or account for taking the life of another human being.
Basem posed no threat to the security of Israel as he stood atop that hill. He was not armed, nor was he throwing stones. Ironically, he was calling out to the Israeli forces to hold their fire because children and internationals were present, when he was shot. He was involved in a nonviolent demonstration when his own life was so violently taken. Basem is the 18th Palestinian to be killed in nonviolent anti-wall protests in the West Bank since 2004.
For four years now the residents of Bilin have nonviolently protested the annexation of their land by Israel's wall. This barrier has effectively annexed roughly 60 percent of Bilin's farming land to the Israeli side. As this village is almost exclusively sustained by agriculture, it's no exaggeration to say that at least 60 percent of its economy has disappeared, with dire consequences for the community's socio-economic welfare.
In 2005 the International Court of Justice ruled that the barrier in its entirety is illegal under international law, recommending that Israel halt its construction and demolish the parts that had already been completed.
In addition, the Israeli high court has ruled on three separate occasions that the route of the barrier in Bilin is illegal under Israeli law. The Israeli army has been ordered more than once to reroute the barrier in order that it not usurp such large tracts of Bilin's land. To date, not a single meter has been removed in Bilin, or anywhere else in the West Bank for that matter.
The Israeli army's claim that the wall is a security measure is simply preposterous. One doesn't have to look far across the barrier in Bilin to see what the land is being stolen for -- the extension of yet another illegal settlement. In this case, the beneficiary of Bilin's land is the Matityahu East neighborhood of the Modi'in Ilit settlement.
Bilin has become somewhat of an inspiration and example in the West Bank for its now famous weekly protests. The small village has also gained international recognition for its steadfastness and commitment to nonviolent protest, as documented in the award-winning film, Bil'in My Love.
The villagers, along with international and even Israeli demonstrators, have faithfully upheld their weekly protests every single Friday, without exception, for the last four years. While these demonstrations are strictly nonviolent and consist mainly of chanting, waving the Palestinian flag and attempting to access the confiscated land, the response from Israeli forces is always harsh.
Every week demonstrators are showered with copious amounts of rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas. Last year, Israeli soldiers killed four youths in separate incidents in the West Bank village of Nilin, who were also participating in nonviolent protests against the barrier in their village.
Lately, however, Israeli troops have employed a new and deadly tactic in an effort to quell protest. This involves the use of a new, high-velocity tear gas canister that is being shot directly at protestors. These canisters are relatively quiet when fired, emitting only a faint smoke trail, which makes them difficult to detect. In addition, their 400-meter range makes them lethal when fired directly at people.
This is the same type of tear gas canister that nearly killed 37-year-old American activist Tristan Anderson in Nilin on 13 March when he was shot directly in the face from 60 meters away. He remains in a coma in a Tel Aviv hospital.
Designed to be fired upwards in an arc-like projection, Israeli soldiers have realized the deadly potential of these canisters and are using them as bullets. It is likely yet another attempt by the Israeli army to attempt disguise their intentions by not shooting ordinary ammunition.
While Tristan Anderson remains in a serious coma, he was lucky to escape with his life. Basem, however, was not as fortunate. And because he is Palestinian, the mainstream international media will not be interested in his case. He is simply not important enough.
His story will be relegated to the bottom corner of a back page of a newspaper somewhere, probably in biased language that blames him for his own death -- if even that. As the haunting sound of his last painful screams play over in my head, I wonder just how much more the collective Palestinian spirit can take before another mass uprising.
For now, the resilience of Bilin lives on. The next day, hundreds turned out for Basem's funeral. His body, draped in the Palestinian flag, Basem was held aloft by mourners as they chanted, "The martyr is beloved by God," eventually bringing him to the final resting place where so many have been taken before.
And while Palestine waits patiently for the international community to stand by its side, the fearless people of Bilin will be out again this Friday. Ready to sacrifice their blood and their souls for something very simple -- just to have returned what has, and always will rightfully be theirs.
Sayed Mohamed Dhansay is a South African who volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank in 2006-07.