Gaza convoy activists claim Israeli soldiers using debit cards stolen in raid
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- Written by Haroon Siddique Haroon Siddique
- Published: 18 June 2010 18 June 2010
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Confiscated goods and ships from Free Gaza Movement flotilla in Ashdod port One of the ships impounded by Israel when it raided the flotilla of aid vessels off Gaza. Photograph: Jim Hollander/EPA
Israeli troops have been accused of stealing from activists arrested in the assault on the Gaza flotilla after confiscated debit cards belonging to activists were subsequently used.
In their raid of 31 May, the Israeli army stormed the boats on the flotilla and, as well as money and goods destined for the Palestinian relief effort in Gaza, the bulk of which have yet to be returned, took away most of the personal possessions of the activists when taking them into custody.
Individual soldiers appear to have used confiscated debit cards to buy items such as iPod accessories, while mobile phones seized from activists have also been used for calls.
Ebrahim Musaji, 23, of Gloucester, has a bank statement showing his debit card was used in an Israeli vending machine for a purchase costing him 82p on 9 June.
It was then used on a Dutch website, www.thisipod.com, twice on 10 June: once for amounts equivalent to £42.42 and then for £37.83. And a Californian activist, Kathy Sheetz, has alleged that she has been charged more than $1,000 in transactions from vending machines in Israel since 6 June.
Musaji and Sheetz were on board two separate boats – one the Mavi Marmara, on which nine Turkish activists were killed, the other on the Challenger 1. Both activists only entered Israel when arrested, and were in custody for their entire time on Israeli soil.
"They've obviously taken my card and used it," Musaji told the Guardian.
"When they take things like people's videos and debit cards and use them, and their mobile phones, it becomes a bit of a joke.
"We were held hostage, we were attacked, and now there's been theft. If the police confiscate your goods in the UK, they're not going to use your goods and think they can get away with it."
Musaji cancelled his card on 7 June, the day after he returned to Britain, where he is a support worker for adults with learning difficulties. His bank has agreed to treat the transactions as fraudulent and he will not be charged for them. His mobile phone was also used for two short calls in Israel after it had been confiscated.
Another American activist, David Schermerhorn, 80, from Washington state, claims his iPhone was used, while Manolo Luppichini, an Italian journalist, said his card was debited with the equivalent of €54 after it was confiscated.
Activists say Israel still has possession of at least £1m of goods and cash, comprising aid and personal possessions, including laptops and cameras.
Some passports, three of them belonging to British citizens, have still not been returned. On Thursday, delegations in 12 countries, including the UK, held meetings with their respective governments to exert pressure on Israeli to return the seized property.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy in London advised Musaji to register a formal complaint.
"We regard any misconduct as described in Mr Musaji's allegations to be utterly unacceptable and intolerable, and suggest waiting until this subject matter is clarified," she said. "As had happened previously, an Israeli soldier was found guilty of illegal use of a credit card for which he was indicted and sentenced to seven months' imprisonment."
And what are they protesting in Israel? Ultra-Orthodox Jews in mass protest of school desegregation
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- Written by BBC News BBC News
- Published: 17 June 2010 17 June 2010
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Police said 120,000 Ashkenazi Jews rallied in Jerusalem and near Tel Aviv.
They turned out to support parents who refused to let their girls share classrooms with Jewish pupils of Sephardic or Middle Eastern descent.
The protests were triggered by a court ruling sentencing some 80 Ashkenazi parents to jail.
The parents face two weeks in jail for contempt of court and were due to start their sentence on Thursday.
'Court is fascist'
The Ashkenazi parents, who are of European descent, want segregated classrooms because they say Sephardi families are not religious enough.
ents until Wednesday to send their children back to school, but they refused.
Israel Gaza blockade must be completely lifted
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- Written by Amnesty International Amnesty International
- Published: 17 June 2010 17 June 2010
- Hits: 3480 3480
17 June 2010
AI Index: PRE01/202/2010
Amnesty International today urged Israel to completely lift without delay its blockade on Gaza, which imposes a collective punishment on 1.4 million Palestinians in clear violation of international law.
On Thursday, the Israel cabinet announced that the blockade would be eased, allowing more of what it terms “civilian goods” into the impoverished territory where 4 out of 5 people are dependent on international aid.
“This announcement makes it clear that Israel is not intending to end its collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population, but only ease it. This is not enough,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“Any step that will help reduce the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza is to be welcomed, but Israel must now comply with its obligations as the occupying power under international law and immediately lift the blockade.”
“Just as important as allowing goods into Gaza is allowing exports to leave Gaza, yet there is no mention of this in today’s announcement. Banning the vast majority of exports, raw materials and the movement of people has destroyed the economy of Gaza, and pushed its population into unemployment, poverty and dependency on aid agencies for survival. These problems will not be solved while the blockade continues.”
According to media reports, Israel is to move from allowing only listed products into Gaza, to using a list of products that will be specifically prohibited.
It is not yet clear which products will remain prohibited and there is also no mention of allowing the free movement of people, also a human right under international law.
The current Israeli restrictions prevent the movement of Palestinians through the crossing points from Gaza into Israel in all but a handful of cases, generally in exceptional humanitarian cases.
This closure makes it extremely difficult for Palestinians in Gaza to exit even to receive necessary medical treatment and virtually impossible to leave for reasons such as visiting close family members or taking up university places and jobs.
The Israeli authorities have previously put forward a range of justifications for the blockade - saying that it is a response to attacks from Palestinian armed groups, a reaction to the continued holding of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and a means to pressure the Hamas de facto administration.
Amnesty International has strongly condemned the firing of indiscriminate weapons by Palestinian armed groups into southern Israel as a violation of international law, but measures limiting civilian goods, the movement of people and virtually banning export, target the civilian population as a whole not the armed groups in particular.
“Any restrictions imposed on the movement of people and goods into or out of Gaza must be proportionate and non-discriminatory”, said Malcolm Smart.
“Israel may need to carry out monitoring of entry points to Gaza for security purposes, but that monitoring must be targeted at those suspected of posing a security threat – not to the whole population”
Background
The Gaza Strip, along with East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, was occupied by Israel in 1967. Israel has imposed increasingly severe restrictions on Palestinian movement into and out of Gaza since the early 1990s, including on their movement to other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This contradicts the principle, accepted by international community, that the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip comprise one territorial unit and violates the occupying power’s duty to ensure the welfare of the occupied population, as stipulated under Articles 27 and 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Despite the withdrawal of Israeli settlers living illegally in Gaza in 2005 (the process referred to by Israel as “disengagement”) the Israeli authorities have retained control of Gaza’s airspace, its land border with Israel and its territorial waters – as shown by its recent military action against the humanitarian flotilla bound for Gaza in which nine international activists were killed.
After Hamas took control in Gaza in June 2007, the existing Israeli policy of closure was tightened to a blockade restricting the entry of food, fuel, and other basic goods. Movement of medical cases in and out of the area became restricted and delayed. Gazan families are not allowed to visit relatives in Israeli jails. This situation was made worse by the general closure of the Rafah crossing (Gaza’s single crossing point with Egypt) to daily use by the Egyptian authorities. After 2007 Rafah was opened only intermittently to allow some occasional movement.
Following Israel’s military action on 31 May 2010 against the aid flotilla in international waters outside Gaza, the Egyptian authorities announced they were opening the Rafah crossing point ‘indefinitely’. However, Egypt has yet to permit fully free passage of Palestinians into its territory, allowing entry only to Palestinians with specially obtained permits.
As the occupying power, Israel bears the foremost responsibility for ensuring the welfare of the inhabitants of Gaza.
/END/
http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/israel-gaza-blockade-must-be-completely-lifted-2010-06-17
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U.S. Support for Israel Mirrors 80s Support for El Salvador Junta
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- Written by Stephen Zunes Stephen Zunes
- Published: 17 June 2010 17 June 2010
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Stephen Zunes is Professor of Politics and Chair of Mid-Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco
It's like the 1980s all over again.
During that decade, the Reagan administration -- with the support of Congress -- sent billions of dollars worth of unconditional military and other support to the right-wing junta in El Salvador, just as the Obama administration is today with the right-wing government in Israel.
When Salvadoran forces massacred 700 civilians in El Mozote, congressional leaders defended the killings, saying that the U.S-backed operation was "fighting terrorists." Similarly, when Israel massacred over 700 civilians in the Gaza Strip early last year, congressional leaders defended the killings for the same reason.
When Amnesty International and other groups investigated the El Mozote killings and found that it was indeed a massacre targeted at civilians by the Salvadoran army, members of Congress denounced these reputable human rights organizations as "biased." There was a similar reaction when Amnesty and other groups documented similar Israeli war crimes, with Congressional leaders accusing them of "bias."
Even when the Salvadoran junta murdered international humanitarian aid workers, right-wing government's supporters in Washington insisted that the victims were actually allied with terrorists and that they somehow provoked their own deaths. We're now hearing the same rationalization regarding the attack on the humanitarian aid flotilla in the eastern Mediterranean.
The difference is that, back in the 1980s, members of Congress and the administration who were responsible for such policies were targeted with frequent protests, including sit-ins at congressional offices and other kinds of nonviolent direct action. Unlike supporters of El Salvador's former right-wing government, however, today's congressional supporters of Israel's right-wing government seem to be getting a free ride.
Senators Barbara Boxer, Ron Wyden, Russ Feingold, Barbara Mikulski, and Carl Levin -- who led the attack against Justice Goldstone and others who documented Israeli war crimes -- are still supported by many so-called "progressives" who apparently believe that, despite these senators' attacks on basic human rights, they should still get their vote, campaign contributions, and other support. For example, here in California, Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans and singer/songwriter Bonnie Raitt, who were active in opposition to U.S. policy in Central America during the 1980s, are major contributors to Boxer's re-election campaign. The willingness to challenge such right-wing congressional militarists has substantially diminished.
The problem is less a matter of the power of AIPAC and the "pro-Israel lobby" as it is the failure of those on the left to demand a change in Obama administration policy. Progressives must recognize that the lives of Arab civilians are as important as the lives of Central American civilians; that it is just as inexcusable for the United States to support a government that kills passengers and crew on a humanitarian flotilla in international waters as it is to kill nuns, agronomists and other civilians working in the Salvadoran countryside; and that, when it comes to international humanitarian law, the differences between the policies of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama are not as great as we would like to think.
Israel to ease Gaza blockade, but major restrictions remain in small print
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- Written by Ian Black, Middle East editor, guardian.co.uk Ian Black, Middle East editor, guardian.co.uk
- Published: 17 June 2010 17 June 2010
- Hits: 3250 3250
Israel to ease Gaza blockade, but major restrictions remain in small print
Lifting of restrictions on some civilian goods not enough to constitute breakthrough many had hoped for after Freedom Flotilla raid
Palestinians rebuild a tunnel that links the Gaza Strip to Egypt Palestinians try to circumvent Israel's blockade by building smuggling tunnels to Egypt. Photograph: Olivier Laban-Mattei/AFP/Getty Images
Expectations that Israel would lift its blockade of Gaza were raised amid international outrage over the bloody interception of the "Freedom Flotilla" that set out to deliver aid to the Palestinian coastal territory. The reality so far looks rather different.
Today's announcement by the Israeli national security council does not give enough detail to gauge whether significant change is coming. Liberalisation of the system under which civilian goods enter Gaza sounds good: the lifting of restrictions on all food items, toys, stationery, kitchen utensils, mattresses and towels is an improvement for 1.5 million people still living in siege conditions that are relieved only by humanitarian aid and smuggling goods through tunnels from Egypt.
Potentially more significant is the pledge to "expand the inflow of materials for civilian projects that are under international supervision". But if, as the small print suggests, this means only the UN, the scope will inevitably be limited.
Both these ideas have been promoted by Tony Blair, representative of the Quartet – the UN, US, EU and Russia – as has the idea that EU monitors again be stationed at crossing points between Israel and Gaza.
The fact that that was not mentioned suggests Israel remains reluctant to entrust issues connected to its security to others. Nor was anything said about a role for the Palestinian Authority. The announcement made no mention either of a timeline or monitoring by the international community, nor of permitting the trade and exports that are crucial for rebuilding a shattered economy.
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that controls Gaza, predictably rejected the announced changes as insufficient. "What is needed is a complete lifting of the blockade," said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. "Goods and people must be free to enter and leave. Gaza especially needs construction material, which must be allowed to come in without restrictions." Gisha, an Israeli group, called the move "cosmetic". Oxfam described it as a "baby step". The EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, urged Israel to ensure that "many, many more goods can get in to Gaza" but diplomats say privately that they fear weeks or even months of detailed negotiations lie ahead.
The political issue here is that the US, Britain and the EU all now insist they want to end an "unacceptable and unsustainable" blockade but still share Israel's goal of seeking to weaken Hamas, which has more or less maintained a de facto ceasefire since last year's war, but still holds the captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
Refinements of import controls could help stave off charges of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and weaken international condemnation of Israel's policy as "collective punishment". But that will not be enough to constitute the breakthrough many had hoped to see.
Israel's naval blockade remains in force and so do plans, in Europe, Lebanon and elsewhere, for sending more aid ships to challenge it, some as early as next week.