Op de Vakantiebeurs zijn weer diverse reisbureau's aanwezig die de comsument misleiden. Het gaat om de zogenaamde Israëlreizen, waarin ook bezoeken worden gebracht aan de bezette Westelijke Jordaanoever en de bezette Golanhoogte, en zelfs naar de nederzettingen. Maar volgens die reisbureaus liggen die locaties vrijwel allemaal "in Israël".
'Israel Wonders'
Organisatie: Israelisch Nationaal Bureau voor Toerisme (stand 08.D088)
Voorheen opererend onder de naam GoIsrael, en sinds kort heet het bureau Israel Wonders.
Het Israelisch Nationaal Bureau voor Toerisme trekt zich blijkbaar niets aan van de uitspraak van de Reclame Code Commisie. De Judea woestijn is namelijk helemaal niet "Israëlisch", maar ligt tussen Bethlehem en de Dode Zee, dus op de bezette Westelijke Jordaanoever. Het klooster ligt in het Palestijnse dorp al-Khader (St. George).
Vlakbij dit dorp ligt de joodse nederzetting Efrat, wiens militante kolonisten o.a. Palestijnse boomgaarden en waterbronnen vernielen. In 2008 hebben ze de 700 jaar oude moskee Al-Hamadiyya in al-Khader in de as gelegd. Toen de tweede intifada uitbrak werden de inwoners van al-Khader zo vaak en zo lang gedwongen thuis te blijven middels de door Israël ingestelde spertijden, dat ze hun land niet meer konden bewerken. Daar maakten joodse kolonisten, die geen spertijd opgelegd kregen, gebruik van door land te stelen en outposts neer te zetten, zoals: "The larger petition against the outpost, which has 17 permanent homes and 15 caravans, was filed by eight Palestinian farmers from the village of al-Khader, together with Peace Now." (augustus 2009)
Links de officiële landkaart van Israël, rechts de versie van het Bureau voor Toerisme - "Israel Wonders"... welke bezetting?
Tijdens de jaarlijkse festiviteiten rond de oprichting van de staat Israël, toont het IDF traditioneel haar hardware. Deze rij machinegeweren werd opgesteld voor de kolonisten van Efrat.
"Op verzoek van de Grieks Orthodoxe aartsvader besloot het Israëlische Ministerie van Toerisme in samenwerking met het Ministerie van Transport de toegangsweg opnieuw aan te leggen. De nieuwe toegangsweg is vanaf 1 december geopend voor toeristen."
Aldus het Israëlische Bureau voor Toerisme, dat natuurlijk niet vermeldt dat Israël met de aanleg van die weg weer meer land van de Palestijnen hebben ingepikt, en dat de protesten van de landeigenaren zoals gewoonlijk weer onderin de prullenbak verdwenen. Het dorp al-Khader wordt bedreigd met complete insluiting door de Israëlische Muur, waardoor het 75% van haar landbouwgrond zal kwijtraken.
Eerlijke reizen naar Israël en de Palestijnse gebieden
Wilt u eerlijk reizen, zodat uw euro's niet worden uitgegeven aan illegale nederzettingen, bezetting en het terroriseren van de lokale bevolking:
Van 11 tot 16 januari presenteren touroperators en reisbureaus hun nieuwe reizen en vakantiebrochures op de Vakantiebeurs in de Jaarbeurs in Utrecht. Dit jaar zal ook de Olijfbomencampagne aanwezig zijn om alternatieve reizen naar Israël en de Palestijnse gebieden te promoten. De stand van de Olijfbomencampagne is te vinden op de Wereldhulpmarkt in Hal 2. Er zullen Palestijnse olijfproducten verkocht worden, verschillende toeristische gidsen, er is informatie van verschillende reisorganisaties in Israël en de Palestijnse gebieden èn de nieuwe promotiefilm van de Olijfbomencampagne zal worden vertoond. Natuurlijk maken wij ook promotie voor onze eigen olijfpluk- en plantreizen!
De publieksdagen zijn van 12 t/m 16 januari, dagelijks van 10.00 tot 18.00 uur en op vrijdag tot 22.00 uur
Drie Europeanen komen in Israël om het leven door een verkeersongeluk. Dat is volgens persbureau ANP nieuws van waarde voor Nederland. Volgens cijfers van de Israëlische mensenrechtenorganisatie B'tselem, gerekend over 10 jaar, worden er gemiddeld bijna 2 Palestijnen per dag gedood door het Israëlische leger. 98,9% mensen werden op eigen land gedood. 21% waren kinderen.
Drie Italiaanse nonnen zijn vrijdag om het leven gekomen toen ze in Israël met hun auto op het betonnen gedeelte van een elektriciteitspaal reden. ... Het incident had plaats bij Beit Shean in het noorden van Israël, niet ver van de grens met Jordanië. (ANP/Nu.nl)
Beit Shean, 1900
Medio 1948 werd het Palestijnse dorp Beit Shean ingenomen door de joodse terroristen van de Hagana, waarop de bewoners moesten vluchten. Eind 1948 werd het dorp in opdracht van Ben Goerion met de grond gelijk gemaakt. Dit tot grote verontwaardiging van minister Cizling, die de Palestijnse huizen voor joden had bestemd. (Tom Segev, 1949, The First Israelis, p. 68-91) Volgens alle niet-Palestijnse bronnen heeft het Palestijnse dorp nooit bestaan en wordt alleen uitgewijd over de archeologische opgravingen die veel toeristen trekken.
Members of the Haganah (with rifles) "escorting" Palestinian Arabs being expelled from the city of Haifa on May 12, 1948. (AFP picture archive)
Waarom hebben Europeaanse verkeersdoden in Israël nieuwswaarde, en het dagelijkse doden van Palestijnen door Israëli's niet? Omdat in de commerciële massamedia het leven van een Europeaan (of Westerling) belangrijker is dan dat van een Palestijn.
Het Palestinian Centre for Human Rights publiceert o.a. wekelijks rapporten over de activiteiten en mensenrechtenschendingen van het Israëlische leger in bezet gebied. Hieronder een gedeelte van haar laaste rapport.
Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (16 – 22 December. 2010)
Thursday, 23 December 2010
The Settlers Burn a Flock of Sheep Belonging to a Palestinian in 'Aqraba Village – Nablus
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)
· 5 activist of the Palestinian resistance were killed by IOF in the Gaza Strip. · Another 4 activists were wounded by Israeli air strikes.
· IOF continued to fire at Palestinian workers, farmers and fishermen in border areas in the Gaza Strip. - Two Palestinian workers, including a child, and one shepherd were wounded.
· Israeli warplanes attacked a number of targets in the Gaza Strip. · A factory of dairy products was destroyed in the southern Gaza Strip. · A house and a grocery were destroyed and another two houses were damaged in Rafah. · A bird farm was damaged and 1,800 chickens were killed. · Two sites of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) were destroyed.
· IOF continued to use force against peaceful protests in the West Bank. - 5 Palestinian civilians were wounded. - IOF arrested 5 human rights defenders.
· IOF conducted 34 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. - IOF arrested 22 Palestinian civilians, including two children.
· Israel has continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
· Israel has continued to take measures aimed at creating a Jewish demographic majority in Jerusalem. - IOF demolished a houses and forced two Palestinian civilians to demolish their houses in Jerusalem.
· IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property. - Israeli settlers attacked two children in Jenin and burnt a cattle of sheep in Nablus. - IOF demolished a house in Bethlehem and 4 stores in Hebron. - IOF confiscated 50 donums[1] of land in Beit Eksa village near Jerusalem.
Summary:
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (16 – 22 December 2010):
Shooting:
During the reporting period, IOF killed 5 activists of the Palestinian resistance and wound 4 others in the Gaza Strip. They also wounded 8 Palestinian civilians, including a child in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
On 18 December 2010, an IOF drone fired a missile at a number of activists of the Palestinian resistance in the central Gaza Strip who were attempting to fire home-made rockets into Israel. As a result, 5 activists were killed.
On 20 December 2010, two activists of the Palestinian resistance were wounded when Israeli warplanes bombarded a site of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) in Khan Yunis. On 21 December 2010, another two activists were wounded when Israeli warplanes bombarded another site in Rafah.
During the reporting period, IOF fired at Palestinian workers who were collecting scraps of construction materials. As a result, two workers, including a child, were wounded by Israeli gunfire.
On 19 December 2010, a Palestinian shepherd was wounded by Israeli gunfire in the northern Gaza Strip.
During the reporting period, Israeli warplanes attacked a number of targets in the Gaza Strip. As a result, a factory of dairy products, a house, a grocery and two paramilitary sites were destroyed and two houses and a bird farm were damaged. Additionally, 1,800 chickens were killed.
During the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall. As a result, 5 Palestinian civilians were wounded, and dozens of Palestinian civilians and international human rights defenders suffered from tear gas inhalation or sustained bruises. IOF also arrested 3 Israeli human rights defenders and two international ones.
Incursions:
During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 34 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 22 Palestinian civilians, including two children.
Restrictions on Movement:
Israel had continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem
"Goyim [niet-joden] zijn alleen geboren om ons te dienen. Los daarvan, hebben zij geen plaats in deze wereld; alleen om het volk van Israël te dienen." --Rabbijn Ovadia Yosef, de geestelijk leider van de Shas partij (11 zetels), 11 oktober 2010 2010
Israël gaat een groot deportatiekamp bouwen in de Negev-woestijn voor duizenden Afrikaanse illegalen die het wil uitzetten. Maar niet voor de duizenden Thaise, Chinese en Filippijnse illegalen, die al jarenlang worden uitgebuit door Israëlische boeren. Waarom zou dat zijn? Vanwege de huidskleur? Misschien willen de Afrikanen geen methamfetamine gebruiken om harder en langer te kunnen werken?
De NRC is de enige Nederlandse krant die erover bericht - maar het woord "kamp", en dat het gaat om Afrikanen, wordt in tegenstelling tot de buitenlandse mainstream pers verzwegen. NRC meldt dat "duizenden illegale migranten ... zullen worden gehuisvest in de zuidelijke Negev-woestijn." Gehuisvest?
» Exploited Thais in no man's land As Israeli rockets whizzed overhead bombarding Gaza, migrant labourers were ordered to work on while their employer took his dogs to safety.
A group of children of foreign workers that could be deported from Israel by a decision of the Israeli governament. People took the streets of Tel Aviv to protest against this possibility. August 14 2010
JERUSALEM — Israel moved Sunday to deport the offspring of hundreds of migrant workers, mostly small children who were born in Israel, speak Hebrew and have never seen their parents’ native countries.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the new policy was intended to stem a flood of illegal aliens, whose children receive state-funded education and health care benefits, and to defend Israel’s Jewish identity.
"Ik ben vierkant pro-Israël ('extreem-rechtse kolonistenleiders' - zoals de krant hen noemt - zijn voor mij mensen bij wie ik graag over de vloer kom)." (NRC 24.11.10) (update: NRC heeft het verwijderd, hier nog wel te lezen)
And when it’s all over,
my dear, dear reader,
on which benches will we have to sit,
those of us who shouted “Death to the Arabs!”
and those who claimed they “didn’t know”?
A rabbinical guidebook for killing non-Jews has sparked an uproar in Israel and exposed the power a bunch of genocidal theocrats wield over the government.
When I went into the Jewish religious book emporium, Pomeranz, in central Jerusalem to inquire about the availability of a book called Torat Ha'Melech, or the King's Torah, a commotion immediately ensued. "Are you sure you want it?" the owner, M. Pomeranz, asked me half-jokingly. "The Shabak [Israel's internal security service] is going to want a word with you if you do." As customers stopped browsing and began to stare in my direction, Pomeranz pointed to a security camera affixed to a wall. "See that?" he told me. "It goes straight to the Shabak!"
JNF-KKL establishes large bulldozer camp near Al-Arakib for massive "God-TV Forest"
Funded by JNF Donations from Evangelical Christians for the Second Coming of Christ
We call on all who care about Israel to join the 10,000 who have already signed petitions of protest to JNF Leaders and to Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israel Government
November 23, 2010 - A large Israeli police force, accompanied by bulldozers from the Israel Land Administration, demolished the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib yesterday, destroying the temporary homes constructed by the village residents since the previous demolition. With the help of volunteers, the residents have already begun the reconstruction of the village, and have vowed to keep rebuilding until the Israeli government recognizes their rights to their land.
Photo courtesy of the Negev Coexistence Forum
We, a coalition of Israeli and American Jewish organizations, condemn the Israeli government's continued demolition of Bedouin villages in the Negev and the expulsion of their residents. We condemn the Jewish National Fund for its complicity in displacing Bedouin citizens of Israel from their homes and land to make way for forests and new Jewish-only communities in their place. The Bedouin have no comparable opportunities to create new agricultural or livable communities. They are being forced to leave their homes, lands and way of life for overcrowded urban centers plagued by crime, unemployment and despair.
We call on the Israeli government, with the support of the JNF in Israel (KKL) and JNF-US, to negotiate a just and mutually agreeable solution to the plight of the 190,000 Negev Bedouin, Israel's poorest and most disadvantaged minority - half of whom live in "unrecognized villages"; without electricity, running water, sewage disposal, schools or health clinics, and with the constant fear of demolition and expulsion.
JNF's New Bulldozer Camp Near Al-Arakib for Planting the "God-TV Forest"; from Evangelical Christian donations: JNF-KKL last week established a large new bulldozer camp just one kilometer from the village of Al-Arakib, and is planting one million trees in Israel including many near the village of Al-Arakib as part of the "God-TV Forest."; JNF has accepted substantial donations from an evangelical Christian ministry called God-TV, who claim to have received "instructions from God...to prepare the land for the return of my Son...[to] plant a million trees.";
The JNF, instead of promoting civic equality for all Israelis - the basis for trust and peaceful coexistence - is now supporting (and being supported by) an evangelical ministry that wishes to utilize Israel and the planting of trees to bring about the "Second Coming of Christ.";
Photos of the God-TV forest signage and the new bulldozer camp are available at http://bit.ly/9CL8b6
We believe in an Israel where Jews live in partnership and equality with their Bedouin and other Arab and Palestinian neighbors. The Israel of the JNF, the Israel Land Administration and the Israeli Government is one where Bedouin Arabs are displaced and discriminated against so that forests funded by Jews and Evangelical Christians and exclusively Jewish communities can be built, preventing Bedouin Israelis from ever returning to their land, forcing them to live in poverty and neglect.
A Call for Open Discourse with the JNF: JNF has continued to side-step the concerns we have raised and has responded only with misdirection and misinformation. We again issue this call to JNF for open and honest public discourse on these issues.
We call on the Jewish National Fund to rededicate itself to the ideal enshrined in Israel's Declaration of Independence of equal development for all of Israel's citizens, regardless of religion, nationality or gender, by:
1) Publicly stating to the Israeli government that it will stop funding or participating in the forestation or development of any area that is the site of an existing or demolished Bedouin village.
2) Stopping all activities on lands for which Bedouin have made legal claims of ownership until their cases have been fully adjudicated in Israeli courts or a mutually agreeable just settlement is reached.
3) Submitting JNF's development plans for the Negev to independent scrutiny by environmental, human rights and social justice organizations to work toward truly sustainable development of the Negev for ALL its inhabitants, Jews and Arabs alike.
4) Funding projects for Israel's Bedouin citizens and communities at levels that are proportional to the size of this population in the Negev—nearly 30%—recognizing the contribution of the Bedouin to the flourishing of the Negev.
5) Joining with human rights organizations in Israel to allow the Bedouin to live on their traditional lands, as they have for many generations.
These facts, among others, establish JNF's complicity:
A. JNF-Israel (known as JNF-KKL), the body entrusted exclusively with forestation throughout Israel's territory, plays a major role in deciding where forests are planted. B. JNF-KKL continues to push through a massive forestation plan intended to double the area of the Destiny Hills forest project from 14,000 to 28,000 dunams. Several Bedouin communities in this area are slated to disappear along with 11,000 dunams of agricultural land. C. JNF-USA, together with JNF-Israel, the Or Movement, Ayalim and the Government of Israel, are funding and implementing a plan for developing the Negev to bring 250,000 Jews there, creating Jewish-only communities and forests in place of Bedouin villages. D. In 2009, the Or settlement movement was the third largest recipient of funds from JNF-US.
Until it takes a stand against the demolitions and expulsion of Bedouin citizens, and aligns its forestation and development practices with human rights and the universal values enshrined in Israel's Declaration of Independence, JNF cannot begin to remove the moral stain of complicity in such acts.
Endorsed by: ■ Al-Arakib Village Committee ■ Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality ■ Rabbis for Human Rights ■ Shatil - Leading Social Change, An Initiative of the New Israel Fund ■ Physicians for Human Rights - Israel ■ Hit'habrut-Tarabut - Arab-Jewish Movement for Social and Political Change ■ Al-Arakib People's Committee ■ Sikkuy - The Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality in Israel ■ Association for Civil Rights in Israel ■ Recognition Forum
From the US: ■ Jewish Alliance for Change ■ Rabbis for Human Rights-North America ■ Meretz USA ■ Jewish Voice for Peace ■ The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring ■ Tikkun Community ■ Network of Spiritual Progressives
Despite the deceptive and mythical "Israeli democracy is being corrupted" mantra -- as if democracy could have ever coexisted in Israel with incessant ethnic cleansing, apartheid laws, military occupation and denial of Palestinian refugees their right of return -- that is parroted in several quotes in this article from Zionist "left" writers who ought to and in fact do know better, the article as a whole is quite informative and critical.
I think this growing outcry about Israel "becoming fascist," other than being slightly exaggerated and a bit too alarmist, reflects the horrific anxiety of "liberal" Zionists in Israel and elsewhere about Israeli apartheid and fascist tendencies that have always targeted the indigenous Palestinians of the land since 1948 finally coming home to roost and targeting Jewish Israeli dissenters and non-conformant organizations as well.
The facade of democracy is what is truly collapsing, not democracy, as the latter has never existed -- nor could have -- in any true form in a settler-colonial state like Israel. Apartheid South Africa was a "democracy" for whites, after all, and the entire US was a "democracy" when Southern states were still holding on to apartheid laws against African-Americans and other non-whites. But when the facade of democracy and enlightenment collapses, the entire Israeli regime of apartheid, settler-colonialism and occupation becomes at serious risk of collapsing as well, as it will be even less tolerated by the world and more likely to trigger even more resistance to it, internally.
While some writers quoted below are comparing what they perceive as Israel's demise to Germany's, perhaps justifiably, there is another ghost hovering over their heads but will take them some more time to publicly recognize and admit. More Jewish Israelis are finally smelling South Africa in the air, and this is making them tremble. Despite the misleading appearances of initial tribal banding together "against the world," or what a US commentator called in a different context, "circling the wagons," increasingly, Jewish Israelis are debating why "everyone" is against Israel, or so it seems to them. Whether the impact of their debates and growing protests will out pace the inevitable -- and quite evident -- intensification of Israel's isolation and pariah status remains to be seen.
Disturbing signs are ominous. On November 8, Israel demolished and ransacked a Negev Bedouin Arab mosque in Rahat, removing it for Jewish development. Professor Yousef Salamah called it "a criminal act," done on the pretext that it was unlicensed.
"These are not new acts but were preceded by many incidents and attacks, when the Israeli authorities demolished dozens of mosques inside Israel, turning some into museums, barns, restaurants, synagogues and parking lots."
Five Bedouins, Israeli citizens, were arrested for protesting. Others were attacked. On November 8, Haaretz writers Jack Khoury and Yanir Yagnar headlined, "Defiant Bedouin(s) rebuild Rahat mosque razed by state," saying: Along with a one-day general strike, residents laid a foundation to rebuild. Yusuf Abu Jama, local leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement said:
"If they continue to destroy it, we will rebuild the mosque over and over again."
Southern District commander Yohanan Danino said:
"The mosque was born in crime and as a symbol of the radicalization and escalation of the members of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement within Rahat...."
Look for another demolition and more confrontation, denying Israeli Arabs equal rights with Jews, but even theirs are eroding. Israel is now unsafe for anyone challenging state authority, no matter how repressive its policies. On November 8, Haaretz writer Noah Kosharek headlined, "Supreme Court okays Jewish-only buildings in Jaffa," saying:
The Court approved three apartment buildings solely for Jews in the mixed Ajami neighborhood, "even as it implied that such a project could constitute discrimination." Most modern states reject segregation out of hand. Israel practices it as policy.
On November 9, at 3:00AM, Israeli soldiers stormed Bil'in village, targeting two homes, looking for Ashraf al-Khatib, a wounded demonstrator, shot in the leg weeks earlier, protesting for village rights. In recent years, Bil'in has been repeatedly raided, its residents arrested for peacefully resisting occupation and Israel's Separation Wall, systematically destroying the village. On November 11, Haaretz writers Nir Hasson and Shlomo Papirblatt headlined, "Gang suspected of attacks on Arabs in Jerusalem," saying:
"Young (Jewish) men have reportedly been roaming in and around Independence Park seeking Arabs to attack, trying to identify them by their accent." Two already were assaulted. Also a Chilean tourist mistaken for an Arab. In July, another Arab was stabbed.
Other incidents occur regularly, too numerous to list, both in Israel and the Territories. Besides wars, repeated incursions, lawless land seizures, killings, arrests and torture, they include middle-of-the-night home raids, assaults against nonviolent protestors, farmers, fishermen, women and children. Their crime: being Muslims in a Jewish state or on land Israel occupies, systematically stealing it dunum by dunum as well as depriving non-Jewish citizens of their rights. Where this ends worries many, including Uri Avnery, founder of Gush Shalom, "The Peace Bloc." In his October 25 article titled, "Weimar in Jerusalem: Israel on the Footsteps of Nazi Germany," he said as a young boy he witnessed firsthand:
"the collapse of German democracy and the ascent of the Nazis to power. The pictures are engraved in my memory - the election campaigns following each other, the uniforms in the street, the debates around the table, the teacher who greeted us for the first time with "Heil Hitler."
For Averny and many others, the
"all-important question in Israel with growing concern (is whether) the Israeli republic is collapsing. For the first time, this question is being asked in all seriousness."
Netanyahu's Welfare Minister, Yirzhak Herzog, worries that
"fascism is touching the margins of our society." He's wrong, says Averny. It's "not only touching the margins, it is touching the government in which he is serving, and the Knesset, of which he is a member."
Almost daily, Knesset members introduce new repressive bills, including the Law of Citizenship's Loyalty Oath amendment, requiring non-Jews to pledge it to "the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state." Otherwise, their citizenship and residency rights may be revoked. Perhaps also their freedom. Dozens of other repressive laws have been tabled. Many more are coming, measures real democracies won't tolerate. Avery said MKs have been "act(ing) like sharks in a feeding frenzy," competing "to see who can devise the most racist bill." It's not a uniquely Israeli phenomenon. It's surfacing across Europe and in America, its recent election sending a legion of extremist bigots to Congress, joining many others already there from both parties. Avery "always worried that (Israeli) democracy was hanging by a thin thread, that we must be on our guard every hour, every minute." As in America, it's now "facing an unprecedented test." Failing it leaves the door open to fascism. Again, like in America, the choice is "peace or eternal war" and accompanying repression. Peace requires equal rights for non-Jewish citizens and Palestinians, notions Israel won't countenance. As a result, Avery worries that "For the second time in my life, I may have to witness the collapse of a republic." Only an aroused public can stop it. In a November 9 Haaretz op-ed, Haifa University Professor Daniel Gutwein headlined, "Israel needs a Leftist revolution to stop the fascism," saying:
"A social revolution on the left is the necessary condition to stop (what's) seep(ing) into the halls of government..."
The Loyalty Oath, repressive occupation, and denial of non-Jewish citizens equal rights are most evident, but also much more. Eroding social benefits and growing privatizations for example. Combined they show "the transformation of fascism from scattered, isolated 'weeds' to an official policy." Neoliberal privatizations turn "social services from citizens' rights into merchandise which is gained via the merchandising of citizenship itself," beside matters of equity and affordability. Gutwein calls fascism "occupation by other means, and as such it imports the logic of occupation rule into Israel itself....At the same time, in light of deepened social gaps caused by privitization(s), fascism becomes an internal Israeli mechanism of compensation, through which the privatizing regime strengthens its hold on society." Change requires a "social-democratic revolution on the left" in time to stop it, one nowhere so far in sight. Haaretz writer Gideon Levy worries about issues reflecting growing repression and fascism, including in his November 7 article titled, "Dear American Jews, if you love Israel - criticize it," saying:
Criticize its "policy of force and occupation....someone has to wean it from these addictions. Like any other junkie, it is incapable of helping itself. Thus the job falls to you" and Israeli citizens. Israel's "arrogant behavior (makes) it despised....The town is burning....Israeli democracy is being torn apart; soon, it will no longer be possible to talk about 'the only democracy in the Middle East,' " no matter how nonsensical it is now. Act, "Criticize it as it deserves." It's the first step to change.
In a September interview, Levy commented on the political climate in Israel and prospects for peace, saying that recent events showed that
"nothing was left of the Israeli Left, except for some small, devoted, courageous groups which are still active. Unfortunately, they are not very influential."
Why so? Because people believe "there is no 'Palestinian partner' " when, in fact, the opposite is true. It made him doubt the existence of Israeli leftists. His main concern is extremist governance under Netanyahu and a supportive Knesset.
"(I)t's going to destroy Israel from within. I think that Israeli democracy is now facing its biggest challenge ever: a systematic campaign against any kind of alternative voices." So far, parts of the media operate freely, "because most of (it) collaborate(s) with the occupation project, and those of us - the very few - who go against the stream, until now we were untouched, but this I don't take for granted."
Repressive laws have targeted human rights NGOs and dissident academics. Conditions are "deteriorating day after day. It might touch me personally very soon but so far" not yet. Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's largest circulation daily, fired writer B. Michael (Michael Berizon), known for attacking Israeli politicians and the occupation satirically. An epilogue in his last column said he'd "been fired. Good-bye." Without explaining further, his political views left him vulnerable. For example, his denunciation of Cast Lead, saying:
"There it is again, the cyclical 'deja vu war.' The same ceremonial bloodshed that again is being poured into the hot lava that has been leading the entire region to misery for dozens of years now."
With that type writing, it's surprising Yediot Achronot kept him on for 15 years, calling Gaza "a giant prison," saying years of Israeli aggression reflects "one great butcher shop," and much more just as harsh. Few mainstream journalists anywhere approach that honesty or courage. Levy does it for Haaretz, calling it Israel's most influential paper because it impacts politicians, business leaders, and other parts of the media, though less now than earlier. It's also read globally, "but (don't) exaggerate" its importance. Calling Israel a racist state, Levy said his views hardened over time.
"(T)he more Israel becomes nationalistic, the more the government becomes violent and aggressive," the more radicalized he's become. In his recent book, "The Punishment of Gaza," he called Cast Lead a "wild onslaught upon the most helpless population in the world."
As for the current round of peace talks, he unequivocally negative, seeing no hope in them whatever, calling them
"another scene in this ongoing masquerade, another photo opportunity." Their failure, in fact, may "lead to another bloodshed." Commenting on how he persists, he responded saying "do I have a choice? I can't change my mind. I will not stop raising my voice as long as (I) have a platform" to do it.
Israel's lurch toward Gomorrah jeopardizes everyone challenging state policy, especially vocal journalists, academics, and human rights activists, the very people authorities want silenced.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
Toen Malkit Shoshan als architectuurstudent in Israël haar eerste opdracht kreeg, ontdekte ze iets over het braakliggende stuk land waar ze een gebouw voor moest ontwerpen: het was ooit een Palestijnse begraafplaats geweest. "Omdat ik, maar ook de samenleving waarin ik ben opgegroeid, zo weinig wist over de geschiedenis van ons land, begon ik onderzoek te doen. Ik wilde meer weten over mijn land, de geschiedenis van Israël en de relatie met Palestina."
Haar nieuwsgierigheid resulteert nu, tien jaar later, in het boek 'Atlas of the conflict', waarin ze honderd jaar Palestijns-Israëlische ontwikkelingen in zo'n 300 kaarten samenvat.
Malkit Shoshan, Map Fest 2010, 'Mapping for Change'
Uit het boek blijkt dat zelfs het maken van een atlas in deze regio politieke dimensies heeft. Zo zijn enkele grenzen van Israël nooit officieel vastgelegd; er wordt min of meer vastgehouden aan gebieden die het Israëlische leger in handen had aan het eind van de oorlog van 1948. Ook officiële inwoneraantallen zijn Orwelliaans. Het land heeft de Westoever van de Jordaan bezet, maar de Arabische bewoners daar tellen niet mee in de tellingen, omdat er dan meer Arabieren dan Joden in Israël zouden wonen.
"Kaarten zijn niet objectief. Ze worden getekend door wie de macht in handen heeft en beelden vaak een gewenste realiteit uit. Machtelozen kunnen makkelijk verdwijnen."
Spookdorpen
Shoshan was verrast meer dan 140 Palestijnse dorpen te vinden die simpelweg niet op de kaart staan. "Ik wist niet dat ze bestonden, omdat ze nergens te boek staan. Maar er wonen meer dan 100.000 mensen." Het gaat dan vooral om mensen die vanwege het geweld de Negev-woestijn in zijn gevlucht. Op satellietfoto's zijn de dorpen te zien, zonder wegen, telefoonverbindingen of waterleidingen.
Het onderzoek heeft Shoshan de ogen geopend. Ze groeide op in Haifa, in een zionistisch gezin ("net zoals de meeste Israëlische gezinnen") en ging naar een zionistische school. "Alles wat ik voorgeschoteld kreeg, bevestigde dat Israël er altijd al geweest was. Er was wel een breuk geweest, van 2000 jaar geleden tot de moderne tijd, maar eigenlijk liep er een rechte lijn van de bijbelse tijden naar vandaag. In die realiteit groeide ik op."
De ervaring met de Palestijnse begraafplaats deed haar inzien dat er ook een andere realiteit was. "Israël gaat uit van een tabula rasa. Alsof er geen verleden is en het land zichzelf heeft uitgevonden terwijl het opgebouwd werd. Ik realiseerde me dat dat niet waar kan zijn. Die leegte bestond niet, er is altijd iets geweest."
Politieke archeologie
Door kaarten te maken, kon ze die wereld reconstrueren. "Door het op nationaal niveau te bekijken, overstijgen de veranderingen het incidentele. Je ziet het beleid."
Als voorbeeld noemt ze een kaart waarop verwoeste Palestijnse dorpen worden afgezet tegen archeologische opgravingen in het land. "Dat vond ik verbijsterend. Er zijn duizenden archeologische opgravingen voor het Joodse verleden, maar niet één die zich richt op de Palestijnse geschiedenis van dit land. Er worden gewoon lagen overgeslagen."
"Zo wordt alles voor politiek gebruikt. De opgravingen zijn haast bedoeld als dossiervorming, om aan te tonen 'wij waren hier het eerst, dus dit land behoort aan ons toe'."
Dat sommigen ook haar werk als politiek zullen beschouwen, is onvermijdelijk, maar dat was niet de bedoeling, stelt Shoshan. "Ik wilde alleen maar weten, alleen maar laten zien. Ik werd opgevoed met ideeën die niet op waarheid zijn gebaseerd. Ik wilde een alternatief bieden voor diegenen die willen weten hoe echt zit. Zo simpel is het."
Later this year, 21-year-old Ephraim Khantsis will pack a couple of suitcases, say good-bye to his mother, leave his home in Brooklyn, and move to Israel. On arrival in Jerusalem he will enroll in a yeshiva, or religious school, that is popular with Americans. After a few months he will make his way north, to a place this young American feels is his true home: the Jewish settlement of Kfar Tapuach.
Perched on a hill just off Route 60, the main north-south road in the occupied West Bank, Kfar Tapuach is known as a particularly hard-line community. Home to about 600 people, the settlement has a history of welcoming American immigrants whose beliefs and acts raise alarms among Israeli intelligence agencies, leading them to monitor it as a haven for suspected terrorists.
Khantsis, who is in the process of applying for Israeli citizenship, will fit right in. Like the assassinated Brooklyn-born rabbi Meir Kahane, the man some in Kfar Tapuach consider their spiritual leader, Khantsis believes that all Arabs and Palestinians should be forcibly removed from territory controlled by Israel, including the West Bank.
“It’s the most humane way to solve the situation,” Khantsis—who has just graduated from Stony Brook University, on Long Island, with a degree in computer science—says, sipping a soda in an Israeli-run kosher pizzeria in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, this past June. He acknowledges that he is advocating ethnic cleansing.
While such a view is unlikely to become mainstream in Israel, there’s a pledge Khantsis makes, one that it’s also possible to hear from Americans already living in settlements, that might be more troubling to Israeli authorities: If the Israeli military comes to remove him from his new home—and many in Israel believe such an event is likely—he will not leave peacefully.
“I would fight against it with all my strength, and I would leave nothing back to try to stop it,” says the slim young man wearing a black yarmulke. He speaks so softly that at times it’s hard to hear him. “If they use violence, then we’re justified doing the same.”
Would that include using a gun?
“Yes,” he says.
Is he absolutely sure that he would use a weapon against Israeli soldiers?
“That’s right. I strongly hope it would never come to that,” he says. But “if they’re already shooting us, I’d have no option. I don’t think the right thing to do is turn the other cheek. It’s not a Jewish thing to do.”
After Israel won the Six-Day War in 1967 and took control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank—Palestinian areas that had been held by Egypt and Jordan, respectively—religious and right-wing Jews quickly began pushing for the establishment of communities on what they considered land promised them by God. At first the Israeli government refused to let them build on occupied territory, but as the years went by, homes and businesses started popping up.
In May of this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear that the Obama administration would have little tolerance for the growth of existing settlements. After Obama’s position was made public, extremist settlers rapidly erected new buildings and repaired outposts. In one location they built a wooden structure they named an “Obama hut.” Around the same time, an Israeli newspaper reported that the senior Israeli army officer in the West Bank had received threatening letters, apparently from radicals trying to dissuade the military from evicting settlers from their homes.
An unknown number of North Americans have settled in the West Bank and Jerusalem since Israel occupied the territories in 1967 and retain dual citizenship. Middle East historian Juan Cole wrote that an estimated one third of West Bank settlers are "Americans." (Bron: Bingo! U.S. donors fund illegal Jewish settlements)
There are now more than a quarter of a million Jewish settlers living among almost 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank—and many of the radicals resisting Obama’s wishes are American. The approximately 100,000 U.S. immigrants in the West Bank and Israel have been influential from the beginning of the movement, and many of them have been among the most extreme of the pioneers: Kahane founded a political party that was deemed racist and banned from the Knesset before he was assassinated in Manhattan in 1990; Brooklyn-born Baruch Goldstein shot dead 29 Palestinians in Hebron in 1994; and a group of settlers in Hebron, whose spokesman is New Jersey–born David Wilder, was involved in a violent confrontation with the Israeli military last year.
While Kahane’s original followers and other American extremists continue to face arrest and monitoring by Israeli security services, it is the young people—many of them, like Ephraim Khantsis, American—in the settler movement who are now the Israeli government’s primary concern. This new generation of hard-liners differs from the previous one in a crucial way—its members are profoundly alienated from the secular Israeli state.
This increasing radicalization is a response to the forced removal of Jews from West Bank settlements that the Israeli government considers obstacles to peace. In August 2005, the government of Ariel Sharon, once the great champion of the settlement movement, evacuated thousands of people from the Gaza Strip. The settlers generally did not use violence against the soldiers and police officers who came to evict them, tearfully pleading with—and even hugging—them instead. But that strategy failed. Some extremist settlers said they would never leave so easily again. True to their word, they put up a fight when the army tried to evacuate a settlement at Amona, in the West Bank, in February 2006—more than 300 people were injured.
Nowadays the talk is that the next evacuation will lead to even more violence. “I can tell you one thing,” says Yedidya Slonim, a 16-year-old Australian immigrant who lives in a sizable cave on a hill in the West Bank that functions as an illegal outpost called Shvut Ami. “What happened over there when the people hugged the policemen—that ain’t going to happen.”
“A lot of kids have got no authority, just them and God out there on the hills,” says Yekutiel Ben Yaakov, 50, formerly of Queens, New York, who now lives in Kfar Tapuach and has provided guard dogs for some of the young extremists who set up illegal hilltop camps.
How far the youth of the West Bank are prepared to go to stay on what much of the world considers occupied land is a question that is increasingly haunting a country surrounded by enemies. In November 2008, Yuval Diskin, the head of Israel’s internal intelligence service, told the Israeli cabinet that future evacuations would involve “a very high willingness among this public to use violence—not just stones but live weapons—in order to prevent or halt a diplomatic process.”
Making peace with Israel’s traditional enemies may have to wait until the country has dealt with the enemy within.
West Bank settlers clashing with Palestinians who were evicted from their Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, February 15, 2010. (TIME, Muammar Awad/AP)
Aaron Gottlieb is 15 years old, speaks in a rapid-fire American accent, and has yet to have his first shave. He does not look like much of a threat, but he is part of a group that has many in Israel deeply worried: the Hilltop Youth.
Gottlieb grew up in New Rochelle, New York, and immigrated to Israel with his family when he was 9. Whenever he can get away from his yeshiva in the town of Petah Tikva, he spends the night, along with Yedidya Slonim and other teenage boys, at Shvut Ami. Their mission is simple: to establish Jewish homes on as many strategic hilltops as possible throughout the West Bank. According to Peace Now, an Israeli pacifist organization, there are about 100 such outposts. The mainstream settler movement has largely disowned this radical wing and its frequently violent acts.
“I very much believe I’m a threat to my own government,” Gottlieb says. “There will be no giving up.”
Shvut Ami sits close to Route 60, near the hard-line settlement of Qedumim, one of the first to be established in the West Bank. Israeli police have tried numerous times to remove the teenagers—arresting some of them and destroying their temporary structures—but the kids keep coming back. In four months over the winter, they used picks and shovels to dig the cave into the hillside. To get rid of it, police will need to use dynamite. The boys live there among dusty blankets and pillows, a gas heater keeping them warm at night while they study the Torah.
Many saw the strong resistance put up by the Hilltop Youth and others at Amona as a harbinger of battles to come. “When bricks are thrown at the heads of soldiers and police officers, a line has clearly been crossed,” said then acting prime minister Ehud Olmert.
Like most other settlers, Gottlieb doesn’t call the people in the nearby town “Palestinians.” That would imply that there was a country called Palestine. Sometimes they’re “Arabs,” but mostly he calls them “terrorists.” Gottlieb says he’s not afraid. “God’s with me,” he says. “This land has been ours forever.”
Gottlieb’s belief in his right to live in the West Bank despite international condemnation and the laws of his own government is total. There is very little of America left in him. He goes back sometimes to visit his grandmother, who lives on Park Avenue in New York City, but he dislikes what he sees as the sinfulness of the United States.
“How much are you prepared to sacrifice?” I ask.
“For the land of Israel?” He taps his chest where his heart is.
“Your life?”
“Mm-hm,” he says.
The Palestinian town of Jenin lies about 15 miles north on Route 60 from the cave at Shvut Ami. It was at the refugee camp here, in April 2002, that militant leader Zakaria Zubeidi helped direct a brutal nine-day fight against the Israeli army, during which 23 Israeli soldiers and up to 56 Palestinians, including some civilians, died. Zubeidi survived, escaped capture, and spent the next five years on the lam, avoiding Israeli attempts to assassinate him—he was shot 11 times. In 2007, he and 178 members of the Palestinian political party Fatah, including members of his militia, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, were granted amnesty by the Israeli government as part of a deal intended to strengthen Fatah. Zubeidi committed himself to working for peace.
But given the recent rise in settler violence, Zubeidi, 33, has begun to lose faith in the possibility of avoiding more bloodshed.
“The next war is with the settlers,” he says, sitting in a room at Jenin’s Freedom Theatre complex this past January. He works at the theater, which was founded in memory of an Israeli woman in order to provide a creative outlet for young Palestinians. “I feel it will be very soon. I would not give it more than a year.”
Zubeidi’s body bears the marks of his experiences during the second Intifada. His face and eyes are scarred from a bomb that blew up as he was handling it. It gives him the look of a crudely tattooed Maori warrior.
I ask him if he and Jenin’s other militants are making specific preparations for war with the settlers.
“Of course we are preparing,” he says. “It will be dependent on individuals—to bomb themselves [as suicide bombers]. And some small guns. If the guns are not available and explosives are not available, we have experience using stones.”
During the six years of the first Intifada, Palestinian protesters, many of them young boys, would line up against Israeli soldiers and tanks, raining stones on the well-armed troops.
“I don’t fight in the shadows,” Zubeidi says. “I am in the right. They are taking my freedom. They are oppressing me. They are taking our land. We, the Palestinian people, are fighting for our freedom.”
Since I met Zubeidi, that fight has quietly but brutally intensified, and there have been several violent attacks on settlers in the West Bank. On April 2, a Palestinian was accused of using an ax to kill a 13-year-old boy in the settlement of Bat Ayin. A 7-year-old boy, whose father has been in prison for seven years for planning to bomb a Palestinian girls’ school, was also injured.
Security sources told the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that they feared Jewish extremists would seek revenge for the attacks. In a vicious cycle of violence that appears to be quickening, radicals on one side are breeding radicals on the other.
Yehuda Goldberg was 16 years old when Israeli intelligence agents came for him. “They surrounded the house and knocked on the door—because they don’t want you to jump out of the window,” says Goldberg, 20, who has a pensive stare and wears the large yarmulke of the youth movement. “It was four or five in the morning. They came also four or five into the house.”
The Israeli officers, from the Shin Bet—Israel’s FBI—searched Goldberg’s bedroom at his family’s house in Kfar Tapuach. They found ammunition, explosives, and knives. He was given a suspended sentence and community service. Goldberg’s father, Lenny—who emigrated from New York City in 1985—is proud of his son. “He was going hand-to-hand combat with soldiers,” he says. “Our generation used to give cups of coffee to soldiers. The police found weapons in his room.”
Goldberg doesn’t want to reveal what he intended to do with the ammunition and weapons. “It’s not weird to have such things in our area,” he says. “Legally, it’s not allowed. But every kid can get ammunition.”
Soon after that arrest, the Shin Bet came to get Goldberg again, accusing him of involvement with a 19-year-old friend who, while awol from the Israeli army, had killed four Israeli Arabs and wounded nearly two dozen with his army-issue M-16 rifle.
The Shin Bet “had information that he was my friend,” Goldberg explains, sitting on a plastic garden chair outside his home while his mother prepares Shabbat dinner. “They arrested me and two other kids. They held me in a chamber for four days, with the light always on. I don’t have bathroom. They close my eyes with black glasses, put me in a chair with my hands behind my back.”
Eventually the Shin Bet released Goldberg and he received a letter saying the case was closed.
Lenny and his wife and their eight children seem to be a welcoming, loving family. Lenny rents out inflatable castles and swimming pools in the summer months. It’s quite a change from his life in New York, where he worked at J. Walter Thompson, a major advertising agency. His children don’t bear much resemblance to the American kid Lenny once was. “They have more chutzpah. They’re more brazen,” he says.
When I meet the Goldberg family in January, Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza is reaching its end, and Lenny—who is not legally permitted to carry a weapon after a mid-nineties crackdown on Kahane supporters—is frustrated with the military’s strategy, which involves sending soldiers into Gaza. Like many other hard-line settlers, Lenny is not hesitant to express views that most Israelis would consider abhorrent.
“I want them to bomb all of Gaza, even if they kill all the civilians,” Lenny says. “You have to firebomb all of Gaza and not let one Jew get hurt.”
“We can erase them in no time,” Yehuda says of the Palestinians. “But the government won’t let us do it.”
“How does it feel to meet a Jewish terrorist?” asks Yekutiel Ben Yaakov, the guard-dog trainer, laughing, when we meet at a café in the large settlement of Ariel.
“We’re heading toward a situation where in all likelihood there will be bloodshed between Jews,” he says. “I say this with a heavy heart.”
Would this mean settlers shooting at Israeli soldiers?
“I think we’ll see more innovative forms of Jewish resistance,” says Ben Yaakov, who is friends with Ephraim Khantsis and encouraged the young Brooklyn student to move to Kfar Tapuach. “We may see guys that themselves were colonels in the Israeli army or engineers helping the kids create rockets to shoot into Arab villages.”
The point of attacking Palestinians at a time when Israeli soldiers are coming to expel Jews from settlements would be, Ben Yaakov says, to distract and divert the Israeli army and to “change the balance”—to alter the dynamic of the conflict. That would also reduce the chances, he says, of Jews’ killing Jews.
In recent months, this strategy has been adopted by radical settlers around the West Bank. They call it the “Price Tag” campaign: The price for the Israeli government will be high. So far, settlers have blocked roads, attacked Palestinians with guns—during my visit a settler shot dead a Palestinian who was allegedly throwing stones at his car—and other weapons, daubed graffiti on at least one mosque, and battled soldiers by hand and with stones.
Pride of the nation: the Israeli bulldozer.
What Ben Yaakov sees happening is a step up from that kind of resistance.
It would include planting bombs in Palestinian villages. The Dome of the Rock, one of Islam’s holiest sites, might also be a target for Jewish terrorists, as it was in the early 1980s for a group named the Jewish Underground.
There could, perhaps, be no more provocative action for extremist settlers to take than an attack on the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque, which sit in the old city of Jerusalem, on top of the holiest site in Judaism, the Temple Mount.
Back in the Brooklyn pizzeria, when talk turns to the Temple Mount, Khantsis’ conviction is resolute. “I think it’s one of the greatest insults to put their place on our holy site,” he says. “I think the mosques should be removed. At best they should be peacefully removed and built elsewhere.”
The other option, he says, is that they should be “violently disassembled.”
That is a nightmare scenario for the Israeli government—an act of destruction that would make all-out war almost inevitable.
And it’s a nightmare that has roots that stretch all the way from the hilltops of the West Bank to the quiet streets of the United States.
Aanhangers van de Amerikaanse rabbijn Meir Kahane, oprichter van de Jewish Defense League (JDL), en van de in 1994 door Israël wegens racisme verboden Kach partij, hebben gisteren gemeld dat ze een eventuele Palestijnse staat van de kaart willen vegen.
Het 'Kahanisme' wordt over het algemeen, ook in Israël zelf, gezien als de Israëlische variant op het fascisme. De hypocrisie is groot omdat zijn aanhangers gewoon onder andere partijnamen in het Israëlische parlement, en nu ook in de regering, zitten. Onze hypocrisie is het ook, omdat wij democratische Westerlingen Israël desondanks blijven betitelen als "de enige democratie in het Midden-Oosten".
De Jewish Defense League was in 1985 volgens de FBI "the second most active terrorist group" in de VS, verantwoordelijk voor 37 aanslagen tussen 1977 en 1984 (Orange County Register, Nov. 19, 1985).
Jewish Defense League youth group at a midtown Manhattan demonstration on January 19, 1975.
De JDL gebruikt de holocaust als inspiratiebron.
De terroristische beweging steunt Geert Wilders.
Zoals gewoonlijk worden berichten over joods racisme door de Nederlandse pers verzwegen, omdat het niet past in het propagandaplaatje van het democratische en vredelievende Israël.
Momenteel neemt de spanning toe in de stad Umm el-Fahm, gelegen in Israël, maar vrijwel uitsluitend bevolkt door Arabische Israëli's. Israël heeft de stad volgezet met honderden politieagenten nadat het Israëlische hooggerechtshof een mars van de fascisten door de stad heeft goedgekeurd. Zoals gewoonlijk reageert de Israëlische politie met geweld op Palestijnse demonstranten en stenengooiers. In werkelijkheid staan ze daar om de fascisten en hun 'democratische recht' om te demonstreren te beschermen. Nadat de fascisten zich terug hadden getrokken in hun bussen, bestormde de Israëlische politie vanmorgen de Palestijnse demonstranten.
De joodse fascisten hebben gisteren te kennen gegeven een eventuele Palestijnse staat van de kaart te vegen. Ik citeer uit de rechtse Israëlische krant Yediot Ahronot:
During memorial service on 20th anniversary of Kach leader's death, Rabbi Yisrael Ariel says, 'If Ishmael state is established - we will destroy it. Suspected 'Jewish terrorist' Haim Pearlman also participates. His wife declares: 'Kahane' is not a dirty word
Hundreds of Land of Israel Movement activists and supporters of the radical movement Kach held a memorial service on Tuesday to mark 20 years since Rabbi Meir Kahane's assassination.
Kach activist Haim Pearlman, currently under house arrest after his suspected killing of four Arabs in the 1990s, was also among the participants. The wife of the 'Jewish terrorist,' Keren Pearlman, told Ynet: "Today everybody knows that 'Kahane' is not a dirty word."
The assembly was held at the Ramada Renaissance Hotel in Jerusalem, where shirts, books and other items were sold to the crowd. Speeches of the late Kahane were screened as well, while protestors went wild, clapping every time he said "Arabs out."
The founder of the Temple Institute, Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, said during the assembly: "Leaders who have ruined our country always tell us that no one can teach them how to love Israel. But this love they are referring to makes them establish an Ishmael state in Israel. If, G-d forbid, an Ishmael state will be built, we will destroy it." The crowd kept cheering him on enthusiastically.
Foto's uit Umm el-Fahm van een protest tegen eenzelde mars in maart 2009, waarover de rechter toen nog besloot dat die alleen in de buitenwijken gehouden mocht worden. Toen werden er meer dan 2500 politieagenten ingezet (onderschriften: BBC News):
Israeli-Arab protesters have clashed with police as Jewish-Israeli right-wingers held a march in the majority-Arab town of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel.
Police declared an Israeli-Arab counter-demonstration illegal and ordered the protesters to disperse.
Police used stun grenades and tear gas to break up the crowds of hundreds of Israeli-Arab protesters.
Israeli-Arabs hit back by throwing stones at police, as the demonstration descended into violence.
The trouble began during the march of about 100 far-right Israeli-Jewish activists through Umm al-Fahm.
About 2,500 police were deployed to protect the Jewish marchers, whom after several postponements the High Court allowed to march on the outskirts of Umm al-Fahm, but not in the centre.
One of the leaders of the march was Baruch Marzel, who led the anti-Arab Kach party that was banned in Israel in 1994.
Israeli-Arabs make up about a fifth of Israel's population and hold full Israeli citizenship, but face widely-documented discrimination.
Portret van de situatie in Umm el-Fahm, de joodse fascisten en ook de 'loyalty oath' (The Guardian, februari 2009):
Uri Avnery warns that fascism will overwhelm Israel unless progressive forces “awake from the coma, understand what is happening and where it is leading to, protest and struggle by all available means ... in order to arrest the fascist wave that is threatening to engulf us”.
In Berlin, an exhibition entitled “Hitler and the Germans” has just opened. It examines the factors that caused the German people to bring Adolf Hitler to power and follow him to the very end...
Since childhood, precisely this question has been troubling me. How did it happen that a civilized nation, which saw itself as the “people of poets and thinkers”, followed this man, much as the children of Hamelin followed the pied piper to their doom.
This troubles me not only as a historical phenomenon, but as a warning for the future. If this happened to the Germans, can it happen to any people? Can it happen here, in Israel?
As a nine-year old boy I was an eyewitness to the collapse of German democracy and the ascent of the Nazis to power. The pictures are engraved in my memory – the election campaigns following each other, the uniforms in the street, the debates around the table, the teacher who greeted us for the first time with “Heil Hitler”. I resurrected these memories in a book I wrote (in Hebrew) during the Eichmann trial, and which ended with a chapter entitled “Can it happen here?” I am returning to them these days, as I write my memoirs.
"This week, a new bill was tabled. It would prohibit non-citizens from acting as tourist guides in East Jerusalem... The bill is intended to deprive Arab Jerusalemites of the right to serve as tourist guides at their holy places in their city, since they are apt to deviate from the official propaganda line."
Fascism – no longer a taboo
I don’t know if the Berlin exhibition tries to answer these questions. Perhaps not. Even now, 77 years later, there is no final answer to the question: why did the German republic collapse?
This is an all-important question, because now people in Israel are asking, with growing concern: is the Israeli republic collapsing?
For the first time, this question is being asked in all seriousness. Throughout the years, we were careful not to mention the word fascism in public discourse. It raises memories which are too monstrous. Now this taboo has been broken.
Yitzhak Herzog, the minister of welfare in the Netanyahu government, a member of the Labour party, the grandson of a chief rabbi and the son of a president, said a few days ago that “fascism is touching the margins of our society”. He was wrong: fascism is not only touching the margins, it is touching the government in which he is serving, and the Knesset, of which he is a member.
Not a day – quite literally – passes without a group of Knesset members tabling a new racist bill. The country is still divided by the amendment to the law of citizenship, which will compel applicants to swear allegiance to “Israel as a Jewish and democratic state”. Now the ministers are discussing whether this will be demanded only of non-Jews (which doesn’t sound nice) or of Jews, too – as if this would change the racist content one bit.
This week, a new bill was tabled. It would prohibit non-citizens from acting as tourist guides in East Jerusalem. Non-citizens in this case means Arabs. Because, when East Jerusalem was annexed by force to Israel after the 1967 war, its Arab inhabitants were not granted citizenship. They were accorded only the status of “permanent residents”, as if they were recent newcomers and not scions of families that have lived in the city for centuries.
The bill is intended to deprive Arab Jerusalemites of the right to serve as tourist guides at their holy places in their city, since they are apt to deviate from the official propaganda line. Shocking? Incredible? Not in the eyes of the proponents, who include members of the Kadima Party. A Knesset member of the Meretz party also signed, but retracted, claiming that he was confused.
This proposal comes after dozens of bills of this kind have been tabled recently, and before dozens of others which are already on their way. The Knesset members act like sharks in a feeding frenzy. There is a wild competition between them to see who can devise the most racist bill.
It pays. After each such bill, the initiators are invited to TV studios to “explain” their purpose. Their pictures appear in the papers. For obscure MKs, whose names we have never heard of, that poses an irresistible temptation. The media are collaborating.
"The Knesset members act like sharks in a feeding frenzy. There is a wild competition between them to see who can devise the most racist bill."
Israel’s place in the international club of fascists
This is not a uniquely Israeli phenomenon. All over Europe and America, overt fascists are raising their heads. The purveyors of hate, who until now have been spreading their poison at the margins of the political system, are now arriving at the centre.
In almost every country there are demagogues who build their careers on incitement against the weak and helpless, who advocate the expulsion of “foreigners” and the persecution of minorities. In the past they were easy to dismiss, as was Hitler at the beginning of his career. Now they must be taken seriously.
Only a few years ago, the world was shocked when Jörg Haider’s party was allowed Into the Austrian government coalition. Haider praised Hitler’s achievements. The Israeli government furiously recalled its ambassador to Vienna. Now the new Dutch government is dependent on the support of a declared racist, and fascist parties achieve impressive election gains in many countries. The “Tea Party” movement, which is blooming in the US, has some clearly fascist aspects. One of its candidates likes to go around wearing the uniform of the murderous Nazi Waffen-SS.
So we are in good company. We are no worse than the others. If they can do it, why not us?
But there is a big difference: Israel is not in the same situation as Holland or Sweden...
The German republic carried the name of Weimar, the town where the constituent assembly adopted its constitution after World War I. The Weimar of Bach and Goethe was one of the cradles of German culture.
It was a shiningly democratic constitution. Under its wings, Germany saw an unprecedented intellectual and artistic bloom. So why did the republic collapse?
Generally, two causes are identified: humiliation and unemployment. When the republic was still in its infancy, it was forced to sign the Versailles peace treaty with the victors of World War I, a treaty that was but a humiliating act of surrender. When the republic fell behind with the payment of the huge indemnities levied on it, the French army invaded the industrial heartland of Germany in 1923, precipitating a galloping inflation – a trauma Germany has not recovered from to this day.
When the world economic crisis broke out in 1929, the German economy broke down. Millions of despairing unemployed sank into abject poverty and cried out for salvation. Hitler promised to wipe out both the humiliation of defeat and the unemployment, and fulfilled both promises: he gave work to the unemployed in the new arms industry and in public works, like the new autobahns, in preparation for war.
And there was a third reason for the collapse of the republic: the growing apathy of the democratic public. The political system of the republic just became loathsome. While the people were sinking into misery, the politicians went on playing their games. The public was longing for a strong leader, to impose order. The Nazis did not overthrow the republic. The republic imploded, the Nazis only filled the void.
In Israel there is no economic crisis. On the contrary, the economy is flourishing. Israel did not sign any humiliating agreement, like the Treaty of Versailles. On the contrary, it won all its wars. True, our fascists speak about the “Oslo criminals”, much as Hitler ranted against the “November criminals”, but the Oslo agreement was the opposite of the Versailles treaty, which was signed in November 1919.
If so, what does the profound crisis of Israeli society stem from? What causes millions of citizens to regard with complete apathy the doings of their leaders, contenting themselves with shaking their heads in front of the TV set? What causes them to ignore what’s happening in the occupied territories, half an hour’s drive from their home? Why do so many declare that they do not listen to the news or read newspapers anymore? What is the origin of the depression and despair, which leave open the road to fascism?
"... the genetic code of the Zionist movement is pushing towards the annexation of the whole of the historical country up to the Jordan River, and – directly or indirectly – the transfer of the Arab population."
The state has arrived at a crossroads: peace or eternal war. Peace means the foundation of a Palestinian state and the evacuation of the settlements. But the genetic code of the Zionist movement is pushing towards the annexation of the whole of the historical country up to the Jordan River, and – directly or indirectly – the transfer of the Arab population. The majority of the people is evading a decision by claiming that “we have no partner for peace” anyhow. We are condemned to eternal war.
Democracy is suffering from a growing paralysis, because the different sectors of the people live in different worlds. The secular, the national-religious and the Orthodox receive totally different educations. Common ground between them is shrinking. Other rifts are gaping between the old Ashkenazi community, the Oriental Jews, the immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, and the Arab citizens, whose separation from the rest is increasing all the time.
For the second time in my life, I may have to witness the collapse of a republic. But that is not predestined. Israel is not the goose-stepping Germany of those days, 2010 is not 1933. The Israeli society can yet sober up in time and mobilize the democratic forces within itself.
But for that to happen, it must awake from the coma, understand what is happening and where it is leading to, protest and struggle by all available means (as long as that is still possible), in order to arrest the fascist wave that is threatening to engulf us.
Op de Vakantiebeurs zijn weer diverse reisbureau's aanwezig die de comsument misleiden. Het gaat om de zogenaamde Israëlreizen, waarin ook bezoeken worden gebracht aan de bezette Westelijke Jordaanoever en de bezette Golanhoogte, en zelfs naar de nederzettingen. Maar volgens die reisbureaus liggen die locaties vrijwel allemaal "in Israël".
Wilt u eerlijk reizen, zodat uw euro's niet worden uitgegeven aan illegale nederzettingen, bezetting en het terroriseren van de lokale bevolking:
Drie Europeanen komen in Israël om het leven door een verkeersongeluk. Dat is volgens persbureau ANP nieuws van waarde voor Nederland. Volgens cijfers van de Israëlische mensenrechtenorganisatie 
"Goyim [niet-joden] zijn alleen geboren om ons te dienen. Los daarvan, hebben zij geen plaats in deze wereld; alleen om het volk van Israël te dienen." --Rabbijn Ovadia Yosef, de geestelijk leider van de Shas partij (11 zetels), 11 oktober 2010 2010
"Ik ben vierkant pro-Israël ('extreem-rechtse kolonistenleiders' - zoals de krant hen noemt - zijn voor mij mensen bij wie ik graag over de vloer kom)." (
A rabbinical guidebook for killing non-Jews has sparked an uproar in Israel and exposed the power a bunch of genocidal theocrats wield over the government.
Via 
“It’s the most humane way to solve the situation,” Khantsis—who has just graduated from Stony Brook University, on Long Island, with a degree in computer science—says, sipping a soda in an Israeli-run kosher pizzeria in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, this past June. He acknowledges that he is advocating ethnic cleansing.
Aanhangers van de Amerikaanse rabbijn Meir Kahane, oprichter van de Jewish Defense League (JDL), en van de in 1994 door Israël wegens racisme verboden Kach partij, hebben gisteren gemeld dat ze een eventuele Palestijnse staat van de kaart willen vegen.
