APRIL 2007

NEWS FROM PALESTINE
this page will be updated

In an act which only adds to the chaos in the Gaza Strip these days, over 50 fishermen were recently arrested by Israeli Occupation Forces while fishing along the southern Gaza beach of Rafah. Palestinian sources said that most of the fishermen were released later on.

Nonetheless, the daily shelling continues from the Israeli Occupation Forces' warships constantly patrolling Gazan waters. This has made it difficult for fishermen to go as deep and often as they need into the Palestinian Mediterranean sea, veritably the only source of income to thousands of fishermen. Abu Hamam, 42 years old, reported: ”My five children are expecting me to come back with food for them, some fish to feed their stomachs. It’s useless; my boat was damaged by Israeli gunfire.” He added: “What is their goal in targeting us? We are peaceful fisherman civilians whose aim is to feed our kids. But now, due to the fishing restrictions and the targeting of fishermen, we can no longer feed them.” Abu Hamam, the Rafah-based fisherman, returned to his house without one single fish. With no food and no money, he can no longer afford the daily expenses of his family. He confided: ” I have no money, no bank account, no income; all I have is my simple house and fishing boat, the boat has been damaged and I have no funds to repair it or buy a new motor, so what should I do? Should I start begging in the streets?” he questioned. “No, no. We will not beg. Our dignity and pride still exist,” affirmed one of his friends, a fisherman luckier than Abu Hamam to not have been fishing off the beach when the shooting took place.
http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm

Below is a letter that Micki wrote to Zipi Livni when the latter was serving as Min. of Justice.  Perhaps we should all follow Micki's example

Perhaps if Israeli officials received numerous letters protesting Israel’s conduct and how it impacts on people who at one time might have had sympathy for Jews and Israel, these leaders might eventually realize that not all Jews support them.  Nor need this activism be restricted to Jews.  Let’s follow Micki’s example and flood Olmert’s and the other’s emails and faxes with letters telling them what we as individuals think.  You can find the fax and email addresses in www.knesset.gov.il  Click ‘entrance’ then ‘mks’ then ‘current knesset members’ and last ‘current government.’  The knesset members lists all the MKs, the government the ones who hold office.

Dorothy

From: Micki Longum

To: zlivni@knesset.gov.il

Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2005 10:36 AM

Subject: from a jew to a jew

Dear Minister of Justice Livni

I am a Norwegian academic, teacher and councellor - I am also a jew. I am finding it more and more difficult to defend the Israeli position in relation to the Palestinians. I shall take a question in point that I have read about and which was also reported by Amnesty International, it concerns the peaceful demonstration organised by the Bil'in villagers - the demonstration was disrupted by Israeli undercover agents disguised as locals - they threw rocks at the soldiers and when asked to stop, they revealed their identity, pulled out their arms and arrested a couple of Palestinians together with four Israelis. This has been checked and double checked, I have no reason to doubt it.

Exactly how do you want me to continue defending Israel? The magic words,"for security reasons", don't work anymore and have totally lost their credibility. I feel you are contributing to making my life as jew in Europe, extremely  insecure and in addition confirming peoples' worst prejudices about the jews. You and I, both both fear antisemitism, I'm afraid you are rekindling the fires of the old prejudices against us by demonstrating that these prejudices really are justified.

It pains me to think that Ryad Muhammad Yassin Barnat and Ibrahim Ahmad Abu Rahmeh are still under arrest for no other reason than that they were protesting peacefully against something which is illegal. They should have been released long ago together with the four Israelis arrested at the same time. Many of us Jews who had enormous sympathy for Israel in the beginning, are hardening now, both because of the blatant injustice of Israel's policies, but perhaps most of all for purely selfish reasons: Israel is making it more and more difficult to be a Jew, and say so, in Europe.

Yours Sincerely

Micki Ezri Longum

Oslo/Norway

Gaza in deep shit.

Displaced Palestinians gather around tents set up for them, a day after their village was flooded, near Umm Naser, in the northern Gaza Strip,Wednesday, March 28, 2007. A huge sewage reservoir in the northern Gaza Strip collapsed Tuesday, killing five people in a frothing cascade of waste and mud that swamped a village and highlighted the desperate need to upgrade Gaza's overburdened infrastructure (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
• KHALIL HAMRA (AP

Hundreds of families have fled from their houses in the village of Umm Al Nasser, in northern Gaza, after a tsunami struck, leaving many dead and many missing. Adding to the misery, houses are submerged, drowning in waste water from a ruptured water treatment reservoir. The burst flooded the village with the noxious sewage, rendering the area foul-smelling and exposing residents to potentially serious health risks. In an interview with the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Khaled Radi, today, he stated: ”The Ministry of Health has announced a state of emergency in Gaza hospitals.” He placed responsibility on the Israeli Occupation Forces which had bombed the sewage water treatment plant some months ago. He mentioned also: ”we have previously warned about the possibility of the current situation, but we could do nothing to prevent the dangerous consequences of the tsunami and damaged reservoir, especially as we are under severe sanctions and military control at the time being.”

According to the same sources, among the people found dead were a 70 year old woman, another two unidentified women, and two children, one of whom was one year old, the other two years old.Beside those dead, many are missing, with no indication of whether they are alive or not. Survivors clung to wooden doors floating on the putrid waters while rescuers paddled through the village in makeshift boats in search of victims. The area, Umm Al Nasser, is also known as a Bedouin village where many families live under very meagre and difficult conditions, a northern Gaza Strip area where the poorest live.

"We woke up at 9:30 this morning with sewage gushing into our house. It was uncontrollable; the foul water we see and smell everyday was breaking into our houses, our bedrooms, where we could not resist it,” said a 56 year old woman in the area who is among the known survivors.

The mayor of the village, Ziad Abu Thabet, said that 70 % of the Umm Al Nasser village's mostly ramshackle homes had been buried in raw sewage. Other Palestinian officials blame the damage on shoddy infrastructure. Abu Thabet called on all municipalities to gather and to face the crisis together in order to save the lives of Umm Al Nasser villagers. Fire Department rescue teams were the first into the water, and were able to rescue many people.

Ministry of Health spokesman Radi also mentioned that he is very concerned that the crisis will bring new diseases to the population which Palestinian hospitals will not be able to handle in the long run. Meanwhile, he pointed out: ”It’s time for serious steps to lift the embargo imposed on Palestinians.”

The Minister of Interior went immediately to the location to observe the situation. While he was there, a group of militants started shooting at his delegation. Some injuries were reported in the incident. A Palestinian journalist said in an interview, "the stinking sewage odor alone is enough to make people, particularly children, sick and susceptible to diseases." Now the many homeless families are in the streets, with their houses completely destroyed in the new Gaza Tsunami in northern Gaza. This new Tsunami adds to the already serious health and humanitarian crises in Gaza, posing an additional environmental threat in the north of the Gaza Strip.

http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm

Tragedy at the Checkpoint

from Anna
Almost two weeks ago, Dawud, a high school English teacher from Kufr ‘Ain, called me nearly in tears to report the checkpoint hold-up that had cost him his six-month-old son. Shortly after midnight on March 8th, my friend’s baby began having trouble breathing. His parents quickly got a taxi to take him to the nearest hospital in Ramallah, where they hoped to secure an oxygen tent, which had helped him recover from difficult respiratory episodes in the past. As the family was rushing from their Palestinian town in the West Bank to their Palestinian hospital in the West Bank, they were stopped at Atara checkpoint, where an Israeli soldier asked for the father’s, mother’s, and driver’s IDs. Dawud explained to the soldier that his son needed urgent medical care, but the soldier insisted on checking the three IDs first, a process that usually takes a few minutes. Dawud’s was the only car at the checkpoint in the middle of the night, yet the soldier held the three IDs for more than twenty minutes, even as Dawud and his wife began to cry, begging to be allowed through. After fifteen minutes, Dawud’s baby’s mouth began to overflow with liquid and my friend wailed at the soldier to allow them through, that his baby was dying. Instead, the soldier demanded to search the car, even after the IDs had been cleared. At 1:05am, six-month-old Khalid Dawud Fakaah died at Atara Checkpoint. As the soldier checked the car, he shined his flashlight on the dead child’s face and, realizing what had happened, finally returned the three ID cards and allowed the grieving family to pass.

www.palsolidarity.org

“Israeli” Settlements on Palestinian Land

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

60+ new Jewish-only settlements have been built by the Israeli government on confiscated Palestinian land between March 2001 and July 11, 2003.

“The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” - Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949

Source: This number is from an article, "Israeli Settlements ‘Still Expanding’ Unchecked" originally printed in Arab News, written by Jonathan Cook (a British journalist for the London Guardian). There have been no cases of Palestinians confiscating Israeli land and building settlements.

“Land Grab: Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank”

Published in May 2002.

B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, endeavors to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel.

Historical Background

Since 1967, each Israeli government has invested significant resources in establishing and expanding settlements in the Occupied Territories. As a result of this policy, approximately 380,000 Israeli citizens now live on the settlements on the West Bank, including those established in East Jerusalem.

The [peace] process between Israel and the Palestinians did not impede settlement activities, which continued under the Labor government of Yitzhak Rabin (1992-1996) and all subsequent governments. These governments built thousands of new housing units, claiming that this was necessary to meet the "natural growth” of the existing population. As a result, between 1993 and 2000 the number of settlers on the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) increased by almost 100 percent.

International Law

International humanitarian law prohibits [an] occupying power [from transferring] citizens from its own territory to the occupied territory (Fourth Geneva Convention, article 49). The Hague Regulations prohibit the occupying power [from undertaking] permanent changes in the occupied area, unless these are due to military needs in the narrow sense of the term, or unless they are undertaken for the benefit of the local population.

The establishment of the settlements leads to the violation of the rights of the Palestinians as enshrined in international human rights law. Among other violations, the settlements infringe on the rights to self-determination, equality, property, an adequate standard of living, and freedom of movement.

Taking Control of the Land

Israel has used a complex legal and bureaucratic mechanism to take control of more than fifty percent of the land in the West Bank. This land has been used mainly to establish settlements and create reserves of land for the future expansion of the settlements.

Israel uses the seized lands to benefit the settlements, while prohibiting the Palestinian public from using them in any way. This use is forbidden and illegal in itself. As the occupier in the Occupied Territories, Israel is not permitted to ignore the needs of an entire population and to use land intended for public needs solely to benefit the settlers.

The Policy of Annexation and Local Government

The Israeli administration has applied most aspects of Israeli law to the settlers and the settlements, thus effectively annexing them to the State of Israel…This annexation has resulted in a regime of legalized separation and discrimination. This regime is based on the existence of two separate legal systems in the same territory, with the rights of individuals being determined by their nationality.

The areas of jurisdiction of the Jewish local authorities, most of which extend far beyond the built-up area, are defined as "closed military zones” in the military orders. Palestinians are forbidden to enter these areas without authorization from the Israeli military commander. Israeli citizens, Jews from throughout the world and tourists are all permitted to enter these areas without the need for special permits.

Encouragement of Migration to Settlements

The Israeli governments have implemented a consistent and systematic policy intended to encourage Jewish citizens to migrate to the West Bank…settlers and other Israeli citizens working or investing in the settlements are entitled to significant financial benefits.

The Planning System

The planning system on the West Bank, implemented by the Civil Administration, is one of the most powerful mechanisms of the Israeli occupation. As with the other bureaucratic systems, the planning system operates on two distinct tracks: one for Jews and the other for Palestinians.

This system is responsible for transforming the map of the West Bank because it is the planning system that approves the outline plans for the settlements and issues building permits for the establishment and expansion of settlements and for the construction of by-pass roads. Israel changed the composition of the planning institutions on the West Bank and transferred numerous planning powers to the Jewish local authorities, while expropriating these powers from Palestinian planning institutions.

While facilitating Jewish settlement, the planning system works vigorously to restrict the development of Palestinian communities. The main tool used to this end is to reject requests for building permits filed by Palestinians. In most cases, the requests are rejected on the grounds that the regional outline plans – approved in the 1940s during the British Mandate – prohibit construction in the relevant area of land. These plans do not reflect the development needs of the Palestinian population, and the planning system deliberately refrains from preparing revised plans. Houses built by Palestinians without building permits are demolished by the Civil Administration, even in cases when the construction took place on private land.

Conclusions

Israel has created in the Occupied Territories a regime of separation based on discrimination, applying two separate systems of law in the same area and basing the rights of individuals on their nationality. This regime is the only one of its kind in the world, and is reminiscent of distasteful regimes from the past, such as the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

Under this regime, Israel has stolen hundreds of thousands of dunam of land from the Palestinians. Israel has used this land to establish dozens of settlements in the West Bank and to populate them with hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens. Israel prohibits the Palestinians as a group from entering and using these lands, and uses the settlements to justify numerous violations of the Palestinians’ human rights, such as the right to housing, to earn a livelihood, and the right to freedom of movement. The drastic change that Israel has made in the map of the West Bank prevents any real possibility for the establishment of an independent, viable Palestinian state as part of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

The settlers, on the contrary, benefit from all the rights available to Israeli citizens living within the Green Line [Israel proper], and in some cases are even granted additional rights. The great effort that Israel has invested in the settlement enterprise – in financial, legal and bureaucratic terms – has turned the settlements into civilian enclaves in an area under military rule, with the settlers being given priority status. To perpetuate this situation, which is a priori illegal, Israel has continuously breached the rights of the Palestinians.

Particularly evident is Israel’s manipulative use of legal tools in order to give the settlement enterprise an impression of legality. In so doing, Israel trampled on numerous restrictions and prohibitions established in the international conventions to which it is party, and which were intended to limit infringement of human rights and to protect populations under occupation.

 Statistics

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s major sources of instability. Americans are directly connected to this conflict, and increasingly imperiled by its devastation.

It is the goal of If Americans Knew to provide full and accurate information on this critical issue, and on our power – and duty – to bring a resolution.

Below are charts of nine little-known statistics.
Please click on any statistic for the source and more information.
Statistics Last Updated: March 13, 2007

Israeli and Palestinian Children Killed Since September 29, 2000
122 Israeli childrenhave been killed by Palestinians and 869 Palestinian childrenhave been killed by Israelis since September 29, 2000. (View Source)

Israelis and Palestinians Killed Since September 29, 2000
	1,021 Israelis and at least 4,070 Palestinianshave been killed since September 29, 2000. (View Source)

Israelis and Palestinians Injured Since September 29, 2000
7,633 Israelis and 31,296 Palestinianshave been injured since September 29, 2000. (View Source)

Daily U.S. Assistance to Israeland the Palestinians
	The U.S. gives $15,139,178 per day to the Israeli government and military and $232,290 per dayto Palestinian NGO’s. (View Source)

UN Resolutions Targeting Israeland the Palestinians
Israel has been targeted by at least 65 UN resolutionsand the Palestinians have been targeted by none. (View Source)

Political Prisoners and Detainees
	1 Israeli is being held prisoner by Palestinians, while 9,599 Palestiniansare currently imprisoned by Israel. (View Source)

Demolitions of Israeli and Palestinian Homes
0 Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians and 4,170 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israelsince September 29, 2000. (View Source)

Israeli and Palestinian Unemployment Rates
	The Israeli unemployment rate is 9%, while the Palestinian unemployment is estimated at 40%. (View Source)

New Settlements Built (March 2001 - July 2003)
60+ new Jewish-only settlementshave been built on confiscated Palestinian land between March 2001 and July 11, 2003. There have been 0 cases of Palestinians confiscating Israeli land and building settlements. (View Source)

--
Milburn
http://gwbopc.com/milburn2



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