"At first glance, Tawfiq Salsaa's wooden nativity scene seems like the perfect gift from Bethlehem, Christ's birthplace. But a closer look shows a wall separating baby Jesus and Virgin Marry from the three wise men."
Showing posts with label The Wall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Wall. Show all posts
Friday, December 14, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
The West Banksy
"A local resident takes a picture of a Banksy art work showing a soldier being frisked by a young girl - Photograph: picturesonwalls.com/PA."
First of 6 pictures.
Monday, July 30, 2007
The walls must be brought down
Even Israelis know the apartheid wall must come down - so, why don't Americans? Perfect little democracies like Israel shouldn't need walls and separation fences, right??
By Danny Rubinstein - July 30, 2007
Fifteen years ago, Bassam Abu Ara from the village of Akaba near Jenin in the West Bank married a woman from East Jerusalem. He resided there with his new wife until two years ago, when he was forced to move to Ramallah. As a resident of the West Bank, he is not allowed to reside in the capital.
His wife and children stayed on in Jerusalem so the state would not revoke their official status as Jerusalemites, affording them social and medical rights in Israel. Once a week, they travel to Ramallah to see their husband/father, who works there as the sports editor of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, a daily newspaper.
As a journalist, Abu Ara travels all over the world. He covers sports events in Europe and the Middle East - but he is not able to visit his family in Jerusalem. His is not an unusual story; it's actually run-of-the-mill. The Israeli media no longer pay any attention to such phenomena. The Palestinian media have also stopped reported on them.
East Jerusalem is estimated to have roughly 20,000 such cases - of Palestinian families where parents are forced to live apart from one another on opposites sides of the fences and walls that separate the West Bank from Israel.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent proposal to set up a Palestinian state in the West Bank and in Gaza, according to an agreement of principles - as reported by Haaretz last week - pertains mainly to the geographical issues involved. It encompasses territorial concessions and exchanges, borders and settlement blocs.
Additionally, in their meeting, Olmert and Quartet envoy Tony Blair discussed, for the umpteenth time, easing restrictions at crossing points and checkpoints. The possibility, which may sound fictional right now, that one day all the people of this land will enjoy total freedom of movement is not mentioned anywhere. Nowhere is this notion cited as a goal we must aspire to achieve.
This aspiration should not be regarded as odd. Indeed, freedom of movement existed during the 24 years between 1967 and 1991 - almost an entire generation. Not a single roadblock could be found from Rafah in the south to Jenin in the north. Moshe Dayan, defense minister during the Six-Day War, regarded this freedom as a sacred principle.
Israel is a relatively small country, densely populated by Arabs and Jews, who live close to one another. We must always plan and strive to achieve the very clear goal of ridding ourselves of fences and roadblocks - even if we find ourselves in need of setting them up at this point in time.
Devising an agreement of principles which will include freedom of movement is a diplomatic and social need, but first of all an economic need par excellence. Prof. Ephraim Kleiman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who is arguably the world's greatest expert on the Palestinian economy, has for years maintained that it has been dependent on the Israeli economy - and will stay that way in the foreseeable future. The reason? Israel is the largest, closest and potentially most attractive market for Palestinian agricultural and industrial products, as well as for Palestinian labor. The neighboring Arab economies compete against the Palestinian economy, and so cannot constitute an alternative to Israel.
The Israeli economy provides work for tens of thousands of Thai, Chinese and Romanian laborers. There are other workers from other corners of the world, which make up a population that possibly even exceeds tens of thousands. This foreign workforce is withholding our neighbors' livelihood.
How should Palestinians - who comprise the majority of the workforce in the territories - feel when they, unemployed, see the workers of the world earning their living in Israel? Sure, their Israeli neighbors extol coexistence and speak highly of striving to reach an agreement, but in effect they starve the Palestinians.
Separation is a security necessity that no one is trying to downplay. However, when we speak of an agreement of principles, we must keep in mind that the current separation is destroying, virtually wiping out, the Palestinian economy.
No diplomatic process stands a chance of getting off the ground while the Palestinian economy goes from bad to worse. Such processes are hopeless as the standard of living in the territories recedes and slips downhill. Especially when the Israeli economy is meanwhile flourishing and blooming.
The roadblocks and fences have long been transformed into a vision and ideology for most Israelis, who stand united on this issue. This vision is based on despair and disappointment. If we are to strive toward achieving an agreement with the Palestinians, we must think about how to achieve the opposite: How to bring down the walls of separation.
Fifteen years ago, Bassam Abu Ara from the village of Akaba near Jenin in the West Bank married a woman from East Jerusalem. He resided there with his new wife until two years ago, when he was forced to move to Ramallah. As a resident of the West Bank, he is not allowed to reside in the capital.
His wife and children stayed on in Jerusalem so the state would not revoke their official status as Jerusalemites, affording them social and medical rights in Israel. Once a week, they travel to Ramallah to see their husband/father, who works there as the sports editor of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, a daily newspaper.
As a journalist, Abu Ara travels all over the world. He covers sports events in Europe and the Middle East - but he is not able to visit his family in Jerusalem. His is not an unusual story; it's actually run-of-the-mill. The Israeli media no longer pay any attention to such phenomena. The Palestinian media have also stopped reported on them.
East Jerusalem is estimated to have roughly 20,000 such cases - of Palestinian families where parents are forced to live apart from one another on opposites sides of the fences and walls that separate the West Bank from Israel.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent proposal to set up a Palestinian state in the West Bank and in Gaza, according to an agreement of principles - as reported by Haaretz last week - pertains mainly to the geographical issues involved. It encompasses territorial concessions and exchanges, borders and settlement blocs.
Additionally, in their meeting, Olmert and Quartet envoy Tony Blair discussed, for the umpteenth time, easing restrictions at crossing points and checkpoints. The possibility, which may sound fictional right now, that one day all the people of this land will enjoy total freedom of movement is not mentioned anywhere. Nowhere is this notion cited as a goal we must aspire to achieve.
This aspiration should not be regarded as odd. Indeed, freedom of movement existed during the 24 years between 1967 and 1991 - almost an entire generation. Not a single roadblock could be found from Rafah in the south to Jenin in the north. Moshe Dayan, defense minister during the Six-Day War, regarded this freedom as a sacred principle.
Israel is a relatively small country, densely populated by Arabs and Jews, who live close to one another. We must always plan and strive to achieve the very clear goal of ridding ourselves of fences and roadblocks - even if we find ourselves in need of setting them up at this point in time.
Devising an agreement of principles which will include freedom of movement is a diplomatic and social need, but first of all an economic need par excellence. Prof. Ephraim Kleiman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who is arguably the world's greatest expert on the Palestinian economy, has for years maintained that it has been dependent on the Israeli economy - and will stay that way in the foreseeable future. The reason? Israel is the largest, closest and potentially most attractive market for Palestinian agricultural and industrial products, as well as for Palestinian labor. The neighboring Arab economies compete against the Palestinian economy, and so cannot constitute an alternative to Israel.
The Israeli economy provides work for tens of thousands of Thai, Chinese and Romanian laborers. There are other workers from other corners of the world, which make up a population that possibly even exceeds tens of thousands. This foreign workforce is withholding our neighbors' livelihood.
How should Palestinians - who comprise the majority of the workforce in the territories - feel when they, unemployed, see the workers of the world earning their living in Israel? Sure, their Israeli neighbors extol coexistence and speak highly of striving to reach an agreement, but in effect they starve the Palestinians.
Separation is a security necessity that no one is trying to downplay. However, when we speak of an agreement of principles, we must keep in mind that the current separation is destroying, virtually wiping out, the Palestinian economy.
No diplomatic process stands a chance of getting off the ground while the Palestinian economy goes from bad to worse. Such processes are hopeless as the standard of living in the territories recedes and slips downhill. Especially when the Israeli economy is meanwhile flourishing and blooming.
The roadblocks and fences have long been transformed into a vision and ideology for most Israelis, who stand united on this issue. This vision is based on despair and disappointment. If we are to strive toward achieving an agreement with the Palestinians, we must think about how to achieve the opposite: How to bring down the walls of separation.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
'We all need a psychiatrist, but we cannot afford one, so we do activism'
"We all need a psychiatrist, but we cannot afford one, so we do activism."-Ashraf Abu Moch, Israeli Palestinian, ICAHD Volunteer.
by Eileen Fleming
ICAHD, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions is a non-violent do something group opposed to the occupation of Palestine which resists the Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories. This summer ICAHD has committed to rebuild 300 of the -so far 18,000 homes the Israeli government has destroyed which has resulted in creating 18,000 homeless families who legally own their land.
According to international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention forbids home demolitions in occupied territories and demands that the occupiers maintain the status quo and not pilfer the resources of the indigenous population.
Indigenous Palestinians are denied building permits in the Orwellian democracy of Israel while USA fundamentalist Christian churches financially support and pray for the illegal settlements/colonies which have been erected on legally owned Palestinian land.
In contrast to the misdeeds of empire, twenty five internationals, dozens of Israelis and scores of Palestinians have created a community upon the rocky barren land of the Hamdan family of nine with intent to hand the keys of the house over to Hassan Yussef Hamdan and his family fourteen days from now.
The land has legally been owned by the Hamdan clan with the deeds filled-out in Hassan Yussef's great-grandfather's name, during the Ottoman Empire. The oldest son, Mohammed's grandmother, Um Mohammad addressed the media in Arabic which was translated in English by Nadia another ICAHD volunteer, while the foundation of the house was being laid, "We own twenty-five pieces of land, twenty-five meters is one piece. After building our home here, we received papers demanding we demolish our own home. We got a lawyer in Tel Aviv, and after paying $10, 000.00 she did nothing. The soldiers came under our window and we hired another lawyer and had to pay 70,000 shekels within two hours to hold off the soldiers. The soldiers came back two more times, after more negotiations the soldiers came back a third time and destroyed our home."
ICAHD spokesmen, Meir Margalit admitted, "We are here because we are embarrassed and ashamed of our government. A decent person cannot handle what this government puts innocent people through. We are doing this for both sides; for the innocent families and to keep the moral values of Judaism alive."
American Israeli, Aviva Joseph wrapped it up when she informed the crowd, "We are here building on the 9th day of Av, the day the Jewish Temple was destroyed…I was born in Chile into an Orthodox Zionist home. Both my parents are Holocaust survivors. When I was ten I use to go to Bethlehem, but after the first intifada, things began closing down; physical walls and psychological walls. I lived in Gilo, some call it a settlement, some a neighborhood and I lived in a small box with my own myth. Now I live in California and things you see from there you can't see here and other things you must come here to see what cannot be seen anywhere else. I love Israel but until I began listening to the voices of the marginalized did I see I was living my own myth. The work is not just in the head, but in the heart; opening both sides to a new paradigm with compassion. It must be like hydrogen and oxygen the sides coming together; who could have thought that would make water?"
Jeff Halper, American Israeli, founder and coordinator of ICAHD and a twenty-first century prophet was unable to be at the site due to a family emergency, but on March 17, 2006, the 7th day of my third journey to Israel Palestine, Jeff greeted my group of nearly one hundred Internationals attending a Sabeel/Arabic for THE WAY, reality tour through the West Bank, in the East Jerusalem YMCA conference room with, "I don't want to depress you too much but the issue of the occupation is a global issue that transcends boundaries and Israel Palestine impacts all global realities...We have a country created by the UN and supported by the USA that has a brutal occupation while International Law defines occupation as a temporary situation.
"When you incorporate occupied territories, highways, settlements and use resources it is all illegal according to the Fourth Geneva Convention which states the status quo must be retained so that negotiations can happen. Unilateral actions are illegal. The occupying power is responsible for those under its control.
"Tony Blair said 70% of all the conflicts in the world can be traced back to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. What gives us hope is that as this conflict worsens maybe Europe will figure out that American policies are against their interests and intervene...This conflict impacts the global community and especially everyone in the USA.
"If we do fix this conflict it would be a tremendous step forward in global reconciliation...This whole issue is based on Human Rights and it is a global issue requiring global intervention. …Israel is not a democracy, it is an ethnocracy: full rights to Jews, but not Palestinians."
After our group said goodbye to Jeff and hi to Angela, another dedicated ICAHD volunteer, and went for a reality tour of east Jerusalem. We witnessed the remains of many demolished homes and saw the tents where the home owners now lived. Angela informed us, "There are forty-two illegal settlements in the Muslim, Christian and Armenian quarters of Jerusalem. The only green area for children to play will soon have a high rise for the settlers which will be 7 meters taller than the walls of the Old City...Out of site of most Israelis is the Hebronization of east Jerusalem. The Wall has been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice but America continues to allow it to grow. The wall is way over the Green Line proving it is not about security but about grabbing Palestinian land. Israel's policy of Quiet Transfer: getting rid of the Palestinians is a huge humanitarian crisis.
"There is an advertisement that runs in the USA that reads: "Have a Holiday Home in Jerusalem." The ad does not mention this home is 100% ILLEGAL! It is clear how the wall zig zags that it is not about security but about grabbing the maximum land with minimal Palestinian occupation."
When I returned to Israel Palestine in October 2006, over sixty internationals gathered in Jerusalem for another ICAHD tour. Jeff informed us, "It has been said that the Israelis do not love this land, they just want to possess it. There have been three stages to make this occupation permanent. The first was to establish the facts on the ground; the settlements. There are ½ million Israeli's and four million Palestinians here. They have been forced into Bantustan; truncated mini states; prison states. It is apartheid and Bush and Hillary are both willing collaborators.
"In 1977, Sharon came in with a mandate, money and resources to make the Israeli presence in the West Bank irreversible. The second stage began in April 2004 when America approved the Apartheid/Convergence/Realignment Plan and eight settlement blocs. This is just like South Africa! The Bush Sharon letter exchange guaranteed that the USA considers the settlements non-negotiable. The Convergence Plan and The Wall create the borders and that is what defines Bantustans. Congress ratified the Bush plan and only Senator Byrd of West Virginia voted no and nine House Representatives.
"Israel has set up a matrix of control; a thick web of settlements guaranteed to make the occupation permanent by establishing facts on the ground. Israel denies there is an occupation, so everything is reduced to terrorism. It is our job to insist upon the human rights issue, for occupied people have International Law on their side."
I asked Jeff if the settlements were in actuality colonies; meaning foreigners had invaded and set up residence in another's territory. He agreed and added that, "When Jerusalem was controlled by Jordan, the East side was 6 sq. km. Since 1967, Israel has added 64 km. The West side was 38 sq. km until '67 and is now 108 sq. km's. Israel plans to develop 17 settlements. Israeli policy is to maintain a 72% Jewish and 28% Arab population. Palestinians cannot get building permits to build upon their legally owned land. The Arab land has been re-zoned as green space, and the green space will be re-zoned for the settlements. Every single Palestinian home in Jerusalem has a demolition order. The entire West Bank has been zoned as agricultural land by Israel, and that will also be re-zoned again for more settlements."
Orwellian doublespeak has also been employed in the USA to turn the illegal colonies: for all the settlements are considered illegal according to International Law, into "neighborhoods".
A new highway has already begun to link all the settlements in a ring around the Old City of Jerusalem. The Eastern Ring Road will have bridges for Israelis but is just another wall against the Palestinians. As we rode past acres of olive trees that had been chopped off by the Israeli army, on our way to the house made for peace, Jeff stated, "I don't just have a political problem with this Judiaization of the Old City, it is ecologically and environmentally offensive."
I add it also is spiritually impoverished. The raping and pillaging of what is claimed holy ground refutes and denies the biblical meaning of dominion. The ancients understood dominion meant to nurture, love and protect and the destruction of Palestinian homes, the stealing and destroying of their legal property, is an abomination.
We concluded that day at the Beit Arabiya Peace House, which is at the crossroads of Areas A, B and C and which has been demolished and rebuilt four times and the owner has just received his fifth demolition order.
Beit Arabiya is the name of the home of the Arabiya family with seven children that has been demolished four times by the Israeli government and rebuilt four times by the efforts of ICAHD and the JCHR/Jurist Center for Human Rights, a Palestinian NGO focused on legal advocacy for Palestinians in the Jerusalem area.
The home has become a meeting place for Israelis, Palestinian and International peace activists and is the cornerstone and intersecting point of Areas A, B, and C.
The smallest of the three is Area A, which is under Palestinian authority. Areas B and C are under Israeli control. Since 1967 over 18,000 Palestinian families in the occupied territories have been left homeless due to home demolitions. According to Jeff Halper, the reasons for these home demolitions are purely political: to confine the 3 ½ million residents of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza into small, crowded, impoverished and disconnected enclaves.
The Beit Arabyia home/Peace Center's closest neighbor is a soon to be dismantled Bedouin camp. The Israeli government's policy of "Quiet Transfer" will mean extinction for the nomadic Bedouins for they have been denied the inalienable right to move about to graze their dwindling herds. On a hill in front of the Arabyia home/Peace Center is the newly erected Sheen Bet [similar to USA FBI] prison and interrogation center. A new portion of the Ring Road which will connect the illegal settlements/colonies runs between the two and The Apartheid Wall is in full frontal brutal view.
Upon the wall of the home is a mural donated by the North American Workers Against the USA occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The mural depicts Rachel Corrie, the American who was run over by a Caterpillar bulldozer in Gaza when she stood up to defend the home of a Physician with five children, and a pregnant Palestinian woman of ten who was also killed in Gaza. The angelic images of the two women float above a depiction of a USA made Caterpillar bulldozer tipped to one side and flanked by tanks and weapons of destruction. On both sides of the weapons of destruction are many people. A railroad track reminds the viewer that prior to 1948, Jews and Palestinians once worked together in peaceful solidarity to build a railroad.
The Arabyia home/Peace Center is the cornerstone of the village of Anata and the Shufat refugee camp, in the very area where the prophet Jeremiah in the 6th century B.C. critiqued the violent conflicts in the Mid East, which were already old news: "I hear violence and destruction in the city, sickness and wounds are all I see." [Jeremiah 6:7]
The Arabyia home/Peace Center is a visible persistent witness of hope and solidarity that stands because of the cooperation and unity of locals, Israelis and Internationals with one mind, one heart and with The Great Spirit on their side.
Mohammad Alatar, film producer of "The Iron Wall" addressed our group after we broke bread and ate a typical Palestinian feast prepared by the Arabiya family: "I am a Muslim Palestinian American and when my son asked me who my hero was I took three days to think about it. I told him my hero is Jesus, because he took a stand and he died for it. What really needs to be done is for the churches to be like Jesus; to challenge the Israeli occupation and address the apartheid practices as moral issues. Even if every church divested and boycotted Israel it would not harm Israel. After the USA and Russia, Israel is the third largest arms exporter in the world. It is a moral issue that the churches must address."
LEARN MORE: http://www.icahd.org/
Odrob - Iron Wall
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Israeli Doublespeak: Language as an Instrument of Crime
The WallBy RANNIE AMIRI - July 15, 2007
It is indeed a great irony that George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948, the same year Israel was created. For this nation, above all others, has proven itself most adept in the use and promulgation of doublespeak.
Defined by Webster's Dictionary as "evasive, ambiguous, high-flown language intended to deceive or confuse," Israeli governments have always relied on it to justify the expansionist nature of their state, excuse the confiscation of land and minimize the extent to which its inhabitants have been mistreated or abused.
A few examples:
The Security Fence
The monstrosity which Israel is constructing along the entire length of the West Bank is no more for security than it is a fence. The barrier, started in 2003 and now more than half complete, is scheduled to run over 450 miles and reach a height of 25 feet four times longer than and twice as high as the former Berlin Wall. Composed of concrete and electrified wire, surrounded by trenches and mounted with strategically positioned sniper towers, calling it a "fence" is more than farcical.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled construction of the barrier illegal (a verdict, of course, ignored). Within the last week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued a report indicating that it will "restrict access to workplaces, health, education, and to places of worship." In addition, it fully recognized that Arab-majority East Jerusalem will be severed from the West Bank by its route. In another area, 50,000 Palestinians would be completely isolated and restricted to the zone between it and Israel resulting in their inability "to access critical services such as schools, clinics and shops in either Israel or the West Bank without special permits."
More telling is where the barrier is being built. According to the UN report, 80% of it on West Bank land.
The "security fence" is thus an offensive structure rather than the defensive one it purports to be. It is just one illustration of how Israel attempts to obfuscate a reality in this case, a very expensive land grab - through use of language.
Moderate Physical Pressure and Work Accidents
Israel was at one time the only country to officially sanction the use of torture, euphemistically referred to as "moderate physical pressure." Lea Tsemel, a defense lawyer and founder of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) remarked, "Israel is the only Western country that openly uses torture. This is not some brute in the secret services beating up a prisoner. It's done in the open. There is quiet legitimation by a high-ranking commission and government ministers" (New York Times, May 8, 1997).
The Sunday Times had already arrived at the same conclusion in June 1977: "Torture of Arab prisoners is so widespread and systematic that it cannot be dismissed as 'rogue cops' exceeding orders. It appears to be sanctioned as deliberate policy."
Whenever a detainee died under torture, it was dismissed as an unfortunate "work accident." It took a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court in 1999 to ban the practice. Unfortunately they have now reversed themselves. A judgment issued this past June allows Shin Bet to use methods regarded by PCATI as torture when in a "ticking bomb" situation. With likely wide interpretation of this circumstance, it appears a green light has just been issued to reinstate the practice.
The Absent Present
This bizarre term was used describe those Palestinians who were not driven out of Palestine in 1948, but remained within what was to later become Israel. If they temporarily left their homes or were away from their land during the war, they were prevented from reclaiming it. Confiscation of the property of the "absent present" was then permitted (Haaretz, January 14, 1955).
The Abandoned Areas
"We take the land first and the law comes after."
- Yehoshafat Palmon, Arab Affairs advisor to the mayor of Jerusalem (Guardian, April 26, 1972).
Whether to assuage the conscience of emigrating Jews or not, the Zionists who founded Israel passed a series of discriminatory laws with harmless and protective sounding titles explicitly for the purpose of expropriating inhabited Palestinian land. In some instances, these laws were made retroactive.
They carried such names as the Emergency Defense Regulations, the Abandoned Areas Ordinance, the Emergency Articles for the Exploitation of Uncultivated Lands, and as described above, the Absentee Property Law.
These laws all attempted to reinforce the myth peddled by Zionists depicting Palestine as "a land without a people." Nonetheless, they were aptly described by the Jewish writer Moshe Keren as "wholesale robbery with a legal coating."
Definition of Israeli doublespeak: the use of language to hide crimes of the state.
It would surely make Big Brother proud.
Rannie Amiri is an independent commentator on issues dealing with the Arab and Islamic worlds. He may be reached at: rbamiri@yahoo.com.
Reference
1. Zayid, Ismail. Zionism: The Myth and the Reality. American Trust Publications, Indianapolis, 1980.
It is indeed a great irony that George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948, the same year Israel was created. For this nation, above all others, has proven itself most adept in the use and promulgation of doublespeak.
Defined by Webster's Dictionary as "evasive, ambiguous, high-flown language intended to deceive or confuse," Israeli governments have always relied on it to justify the expansionist nature of their state, excuse the confiscation of land and minimize the extent to which its inhabitants have been mistreated or abused.
A few examples:
The Security Fence
The monstrosity which Israel is constructing along the entire length of the West Bank is no more for security than it is a fence. The barrier, started in 2003 and now more than half complete, is scheduled to run over 450 miles and reach a height of 25 feet four times longer than and twice as high as the former Berlin Wall. Composed of concrete and electrified wire, surrounded by trenches and mounted with strategically positioned sniper towers, calling it a "fence" is more than farcical.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled construction of the barrier illegal (a verdict, of course, ignored). Within the last week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued a report indicating that it will "restrict access to workplaces, health, education, and to places of worship." In addition, it fully recognized that Arab-majority East Jerusalem will be severed from the West Bank by its route. In another area, 50,000 Palestinians would be completely isolated and restricted to the zone between it and Israel resulting in their inability "to access critical services such as schools, clinics and shops in either Israel or the West Bank without special permits."
More telling is where the barrier is being built. According to the UN report, 80% of it on West Bank land.
The "security fence" is thus an offensive structure rather than the defensive one it purports to be. It is just one illustration of how Israel attempts to obfuscate a reality in this case, a very expensive land grab - through use of language.
Moderate Physical Pressure and Work Accidents
Israel was at one time the only country to officially sanction the use of torture, euphemistically referred to as "moderate physical pressure." Lea Tsemel, a defense lawyer and founder of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) remarked, "Israel is the only Western country that openly uses torture. This is not some brute in the secret services beating up a prisoner. It's done in the open. There is quiet legitimation by a high-ranking commission and government ministers" (New York Times, May 8, 1997).
The Sunday Times had already arrived at the same conclusion in June 1977: "Torture of Arab prisoners is so widespread and systematic that it cannot be dismissed as 'rogue cops' exceeding orders. It appears to be sanctioned as deliberate policy."
Whenever a detainee died under torture, it was dismissed as an unfortunate "work accident." It took a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court in 1999 to ban the practice. Unfortunately they have now reversed themselves. A judgment issued this past June allows Shin Bet to use methods regarded by PCATI as torture when in a "ticking bomb" situation. With likely wide interpretation of this circumstance, it appears a green light has just been issued to reinstate the practice.
The Absent Present
This bizarre term was used describe those Palestinians who were not driven out of Palestine in 1948, but remained within what was to later become Israel. If they temporarily left their homes or were away from their land during the war, they were prevented from reclaiming it. Confiscation of the property of the "absent present" was then permitted (Haaretz, January 14, 1955).
The Abandoned Areas
"We take the land first and the law comes after."
- Yehoshafat Palmon, Arab Affairs advisor to the mayor of Jerusalem (Guardian, April 26, 1972).
Whether to assuage the conscience of emigrating Jews or not, the Zionists who founded Israel passed a series of discriminatory laws with harmless and protective sounding titles explicitly for the purpose of expropriating inhabited Palestinian land. In some instances, these laws were made retroactive.
They carried such names as the Emergency Defense Regulations, the Abandoned Areas Ordinance, the Emergency Articles for the Exploitation of Uncultivated Lands, and as described above, the Absentee Property Law.
These laws all attempted to reinforce the myth peddled by Zionists depicting Palestine as "a land without a people." Nonetheless, they were aptly described by the Jewish writer Moshe Keren as "wholesale robbery with a legal coating."
Definition of Israeli doublespeak: the use of language to hide crimes of the state.
It would surely make Big Brother proud.
Rannie Amiri is an independent commentator on issues dealing with the Arab and Islamic worlds. He may be reached at: rbamiri@yahoo.com.
Reference
1. Zayid, Ismail. Zionism: The Myth and the Reality. American Trust Publications, Indianapolis, 1980.
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