It is fitting that the man described as the "fixer" in Kosovo's alleged organ ring was an Israeli of Turkish descent. Moshe Harel, a fugitive wanted by Interpol in connection with the case, is accused of matching potential donors recruited in Turkey with recipients, many if not all of whom had connections with Israel.
The Israeli market for donor livers has been well-documented, and most international trafficking rings have involved wealthy Israeli patients on so-called "transplant tours". Organ donation in Israel is low due to concerns in the Orthodox community about the body after death.
Until recently, experts said, Israeli citizens were able to claim partial subsidies from health providers when receiving transplants abroad. The loophole is said to have been recently closed after international pressure.
Only 10% of Israeli adults hold donor cards, compared with more than 30% in most western countries. Israel has launched a scheme in an attempt to increase donor rates, meaning card carriers have the right to priority treatment should they require a transplant.
The wound left after an unidentified Brazilian man had an operation to remove his kidney in Durban in 2003. Photograph: EPA/STR
Last month the recipients of organs illegally tranplanted in a private hospital in South Africa were described as Israelis. The donors – said to have included children – were Brazilians and Romanians paid $6,000 (£3,869) for a kidney. Netcare of South Africa, which also runs hospitals in Britain, admitted in court to receiving R3.8m (£342,000) from an illegal organ trafficking syndicate. Paul Lewis
On 22 November a jury of international experts announced their verdict that compelling evidence shows corporate complicity in Israeli violations of international law. The verdict followed two full days of presentations in London at the second international session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine from 20 to 21 November. The session examined the role of corporations in Israel's violations of international law. It called experts and witnesses to present cases to the international panel of jurors. Although companies were invited to defend their actions, only Veolia Environnement, PFZW pension fund and security company G4S responded to the tribunal in writing.
Jurors at the London session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. (Kristian Buus)
The jurors included former French ambassador Stephane Hessel; Irish Nobel Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire; South African professor John Dugard; South African politician Ronald Kasrils; English lawyer Michael Mansfield; Spanish emeritus judge Jose Antonio Martin Pallin; former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney; and UK barrister Lord Anthony Gifford.
According to the jurors, the corporations' violations related to their supply of weapons and the construction and maintenance of illegal Israeli settlements and the Israel's wall in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The jury called for the mobilization of civil society to end the involvement of companies in Israeli human rights violations (Public Statement of the Russell Tribunal [PDF]).
Seven corporations were named by the jury for being complicit in Israeli violations. They include:
The British-Danish firm G4S, which supplies equipment used at Israeli checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and Israeli prisons.
Elbit Systems, a leading Israeli company which collaborates closely with the Israeli military.
US-based Caterpillar, which supplies the Israeli military with modified D9 bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes.
Cement Roadstone Holdings, an Irish multinational corporation, which purchased 25 percent of the Israeli Mashav Initiative and Development Ltd. Israeli Mashav Initiative and Development Ltd., owns Nesher Israel Cement Enterprises Ltd., which is Israel's sole cement producer, supplying 75-90 percent of all the cement in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Dexia, a Franco-Belgian corporation that finances Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank via its subsidiary Dexia Israel Public Finance Ltd.
Veolia Transport, a French corporation is involved in the construction of the Jerusalem light rail which connects Israel's illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank with annexed East Jerusalem. Veolia is due to operate the light rail and also operates bus services to illegal Israeli settlements.
Carmel Agrexco, an Israeli corporation that exports agricultural produce including oranges, olives, and avocados from the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
During the Tribunal, Dutch divestment activist Saskia Muller presented the case of the Dutch pension fund Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PFZW). The fund holds investments in more than ten international companies involved in Israel's violations of international law, and one Israeli supermarket chain which provides services to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. In its six-page letter to the Russell Tribunal dated 12 November, the PFZW board wrote that it is "deeply concerned about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, and the consequential long time occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israel. It is further concerned about ongoing violations of international law in this context, and about possible complicity in such violations by companies that are active in Israel and the occupied territories."
Representatives of the US peace group Codepink presented the case against Ahava cosmetics to the Russell Tribunal jury. And while the jury was presenting its conclusions on 22 November, the entrance to the Ahava store in London was blocked by activists who chained themselves to a concrete-filled oil barrel. This was the fifth protest by activists against Ahava, which manufactures Dead Sea products in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem.
At the press conference, juror John Dugard, who recently served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, stressed that when the anti-apartheid movement pressured corporations to disinvest from apartheid South Africa, it was still debated whether apartheid constituted a crime against humanity. Corporations therefore argued that doing business with South Africa was not illegal.
Dugard added that the situation is very different with respect to Israel: "We are dealing with a criminal enterprise on the part of Israel. Under criminal and international law and in many cases under national legal systems, there is an obligation on the part of states to redress such illegality, but if states do not take action, there is also responsibility on the part of corporations and civil society to redress these wrongs."
Ronald Kasrils, former South African minister, highlighted how mobilization of popular support by the anti-apartheid movement helped to isolate South Africa and overthrow the apartheid regime. At that time, the western countries were the pillars of support for apartheid South Africa, as is the case with Israel today. Kasrils said that the mobilization was not "anti-people, it was anti-system."
Kasrils added that in South Africa the "particular groundswell internationally would even get through to the minority white people in South Africa. As we see now this [boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS)] call getting through to public opinion in Israel, among Jews in Israel and around the world." Kasrils emphasized that the importance of BDS can not be "underestimated" and underlined the important role of civil society in pressuring governments to end Israeli impunity and criminal activity.
Juror Michael Mansfield, President of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, stated that "the jury was horrified to note that the Israeli government is currently considering making protest and objection along these lines a criminal offense." In its final statement, the jury called "on states to protect the rights of all those who initiate or take such lawful BDS actions."
Meanwhile, the Palestinian BDS National committee (BNC) endorsed the outcome of the Russell Tribunal in London. In a statement the BNC commented that "the tribunal spoke with a strong, clear and moral voice" ("BNC endorses findings of London session of Russell Tribunal on Palestine ...," 30 November 2010).
The tribunal has provided not only important knowledge, but also authoritative encouragement to solidarity groups, social movements, trade unions, political parties and concerned citizens to utilize BDS to hold Israel and its supporters to account. The next Russell Tribunal on Palestine will be held in South Africa, and will consider the applicability of the crime of apartheid in Israel.
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate based in Switzerland. Nieuwhof gave a presentation at the Russell Tribunal as the lead expert on public contracts regulations and the French multinational, Veolia, and its business practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Het Russell Tribunal on Palestine in Londen oordeelde dit weekend dat Dexia samen met tal van andere grote bedrijven medeplichtig is aan de schendingen van het internationaal recht die Israël begaat door de bezetting van de Westelijke Jordaanoever.
Van 20 tot 23 november vond in Londen de tweede editie van het Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RToP) plaats. Het Tribunaal wou nagaan in hoeverre bedrijven medeplichtig zijn aan mensenrechtenschendingen van Israël, oorlogsmisdaden en schendingen van het humanitair recht.
Eén van de bedrijven die onder de loep werd genomen, was Dexia. Dexia financiert illegale Israëlische kolonies op de Westelijke Jordaanoever, Palestijns grondgebied. De bank beschikt over drie vierde van de aandelen van Dexia Israël. Deze dochteronderneming financiert lokale structuren met inbegrip van de nederzettingen. De voorbije tien jaar heeft Dexia niets ondernomen tegen de investeringen van hun dochterbedrijf. Zevenenvijftig kolonies ontvangen hulp van de Dexia Groep.
Tijdens het Tribunaal kwam duidelijk naar voren dat Dexia medeplichtig is aan schendingen van het internationaal recht door Israël. “Wat meteen opviel met betrekking tot Dexia was dat de juryleden het bedrijf een ernstige vorm van medeplichtigheid toeschreven. Financiering is immers een rechtstreeks instrument om de kolonistatie in stand te houden. Het is een vorm van medeplichtigheid die niet-toelaatbaar is,” zegt Eva Brems, federaal volksvertegenwoordiger van Groen! die in Londen deelnam aan het Tribunaal.
De jury van het Tribunaal heeft actiegroepen opgeroepen om naast boycots ook het recht als actiemiddel te gebruiken. Als een rechtbank mensenrechtenschendingen vaststelt, kunnen internationale bedrijven gedagvaard worden. Het is wel beter andere middelen uit te putten alvorens naar de rechtbank te stappen.
Brems legt een grote verantwoordelijkheid bij de regering. “De overheden in ons land zijn immers aandeelhouder van Dexia. Eigenlijk heb je via het parlement en de gemeenteraden de mogelijkheid om bedrijven op andere gedachten te brengen. Zeker in het geval van Dexia is de verantwoordelijkheid van de overheid groot.” Overheden zijn dus aansprakelijk, ook al is Dexia een private onderneming. Mario Franssen, medewerker van de ngo Intal, stelt dat de Belgische en Franse overheidsapparaten goed zijn voor 49,5% van de aandelen van de Dexia Groep.
Dehaene versus Van Agt
Oud-premier Jean-Luc Dehaene is de voorzitter van Dexia. Dehaene kwam daardoor op het Tribunaal lijnrecht te staan tegenover zijn Nederlandse christendemocratische tegenhanger Dries van Agt. Die was tussen 1977 en 1982 premier van Nederland, maar ontpopte zich later tot een hevig voorvechter van de rechten van de Palestijnen. Hij verleende ook zijn steun aan het Tribunaal. Tijdens het Tribunaal kregen ook andere multinationals een veeg uit de pan. Zo bevoorraadt de bewakingsfirma G4S – in ons land marktleider – de Israëlische checkpoints op de Westelijke Jordaanoever.
Het Tribunaal is ook een laboratorium voor nieuwe acties tegen de bezetting van Palestina. Er werden contacten gelegd en nieuwe campagnes voorbereid. “Het was een echte broedvijver van ideeën”, zegt Brems.
Jurylid van het tribunaal, Michael Mansfield die op maandag 22 november de pers te woord stond, roept de civiele maatschappij op tot sensibilisering en mobilisering. Op die manier kan men bewustwording creëren bij het brede publiek. Ronnie Kasrils, een veteraan van de strijd tegen de Zuid-Afrikaanse apartheid, wees op het belang van een boycotcampagne.
Het tribunaal ontleent zijn naam aan Bertrand Russell, initiatiefnemer van het 'International War Crimes Tribunal' dat opgezet werd in 1966 om de schendingen van het internationaal recht te onderzoeken tijdens de Vietnamoorlog. Het Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RToP) zoekt een oplossing voor het conflict tussen Israël en Palestina.
De jury van het Tribunaal bestaat uit mensenrechtenactivisten en oud-politici. Naast Dries van Agt steunen ook onder meer de voormalige secretaris-generaal van de VN Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Noam Chomsky en de filmmakers Mike Leigh en Ken Loach het Tribunaal.
Alleen het buitenland bestaan er nieuwsmedia die de 3 miljoen dollar per uur van Obama aan de schurkenstaat Israël, om niet te bouwen in en rond de illegale nederzettingen, met uitzondering van Oost-Jeruzalem, gewoon bij de naam noemen: bribe, omkoping, steekpenning. In Nederland is dat ongekend. Hier heet het zonder uitzondering "voorstel" en "plan".
Ik heb zodoende ook een voorstel: laten we alle journalisten, die er zo over schrijven, en hun familie uit hun huizen schoppen, waarna we vervolgens met hen gaan onderhandelen over wat we eventueel terug zouden kunnen geven en op welke voorwaarden. En dat noemen we dan een "vredesproces". Ondertussen laten we ons royaal belonen door hun redacties om te voorkomen dat we niet de eigendommen van het resterende personeel stelen of platbranden. En beloven zij ons dat ze geen aangifte doen bij de politie. En de regering beloont ons vervolgens met allerlei financiële voordeeltjes en onvoorwaardelijke vriendschap en steun.
Robert Fisk: An American bribe that stinks of appeasement
In any other country, the current American bribe to Israel, and the latter's reluctance to accept it, in return for even a temporary end to the theft of somebody else's property would be regarded as preposterous. Three billion dollars' worth of fighter bombers in return for a temporary freeze in West Bank colonisation for a mere 90 days? Not including East Jerusalem – so goodbye to the last chance of the east of the holy city for a Palestinian capital – and, if Benjamin Netanyahu so wishes, a rip-roaring continuation of settlement on Arab land. In the ordinary sane world in which we think we live, there is only one word for Barack Obama's offer: appeasement. Usually, our lords and masters use that word with disdain and disgust.
Anyone who panders to injustice by one people against another people is called an appeaser. Anyone who prefers peace at any price, let alone a $3bn bribe to the guilty party – is an appeaser. Anyone who will not risk the consequences of standing up for international morality against territorial greed is an appeaser. Those of us who did not want to invade Afghanistan were condemned as appeasers. Those of us who did not want to invade Iraq were vilified as appeasers. Yet that is precisely what Obama has done in his pathetic, unbelievable effort to plead with Netanyahu for just 90 days of submission to international law. Obama is an appeaser.
The fact that the West and its political and journalistic elites – I include the ever more disreputable New York Times – take this tomfoolery at face value, as if it can seriously be regarded as another "step" in the "peace process", to put this mystical nonsense "back on track", is a measure of the degree to which we have taken leave of our senses in the Middle East.
It is a sign of just how far America (and, through our failure to condemn this insanity, Europe) has allowed its fear of Israel – and how far Obama has allowed his fear of Israeli supporters in Congress and the Senate – to go.
Three billion dollars for three months is one billion dollars a month to stop Israel's colonisation. That's half a billion dollars a fortnight. That's $500m a week. That's $71,428,571 a day, or $2,976,190 an hour, or $49,603 a minute. And as well as this pot of gold, Washington will continue to veto any resolutions critical of Israel in the UN and prevent "Palestine" from declaring itself a state. It's worth invading anyone to get that much cash to stage a military withdrawal, let alone the gracious gesture of not building more illegal colonies for only 90 days while furiously continuing illegal construction in Jerusalem at the same time.
The Hillary Clinton version of this grotesquerie would be funny if it was not tragic. According to the sharp pen of the NYT's Roger Cohen, La Clinton has convinced herself that Palestine is "achievable, inevitable and compatible with Israel's security". And what persuaded Madame Hillary of this? Why, on a trip to the pseudo-Palestine "capital" of Ramallah last year, she saw the Jewish settlements – "the brutality of it was so stark" according to one of her officials – but thought her motorcade was being guarded by the Israeli army because "they're so professional". And then, lo and behold, they turned out to be a Palestinian military guard, a "professional outfit" – and all this changed Madame's views!
Quite apart from the fact that the Israeli army is a rabble, and that indeed, the Palestinians are a rabble too, this "road to Ramallah" incident led supporters of Madame, according to Cohen, to realise that there had been a transition "from a self-pitying, self-dramatising Palestinian psyche, with all the cloying accoutrements of victimhood, to a self-affirming culture of pragmatism and institution-building". Palestinian "prime minister" Salam Fayyad, educated in the US so, naturally, a safe pair of hands, has put "growth before grumbling, roads before ranting, and security before everything".
Having been occupied by a brutal army for 43 years, those wretched, dispossessed Palestinians, along with their cousins in the West Bank who have been homeless for 62 years, have at last stopped ranting and grumbling and feeling sorry for themselves and generally play-acting in order to honour the only thing that matters. Not justice. Certainly not democracy, but to the one God which Christians, Jews and Muslims are all now supposed to worship: security.
Yes, they have joined the true brotherhood of mankind. Israel will be safe at last. That this infantile narrative now drives the woman who told us 11 years ago that Jerusalem was "the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel" proves that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has now reached its apogee, its most treacherous and final moment. And if Netanyahu has any sense – I'm talking abut the Zionist, expansionist kind – he will wait out the 90 days, then thumb his nose at the US. In the three months of "good behaviour", of course, the Palestinians will have to bite the bullet and sit down to "peace" talks which will decide the future borders of Israel and "Palestine". But since Israel controls 62 per cent of the West Bank this leaves Fayyad and his chums about 10.9 per cent of mandate Palestine to argue about.
And at the cost of $827 a second, they'd better do some quick grovelling. They will. We should all hang our heads in shame. But we won't. It's not about people. It's about presentation. It's not about justice. It's about "security". And cash. Lots of it. Goodbye Palestine.
Aan de hand van het volgende voorbij flitsende nieuwsfeit dat ook door Arie Elshout in zijn Volkskrant werd behandeld zal ik proberen te beschrijven wat er niet deugt aan de verslaggeving van deze correspondent in New York. Eerst de feiten zoals de angelsaksische pers ze presenteerden over zwendel bij joodse organisaties die voor de financiele belangen van de slachtoffers van de holocaust zouden moeten opkomen:
The inside job was allegedly masterminded by Semen Domnitser, who oversaw two compensation funds at the Manhattan office of the Conference on Material Claims Against Germany. Five other employees are charged with helping Domnitser perpetrate the massive fraud, in which more than 5,600 falsified applications were rubber-stamped in exchange for kickbacks over 16 years, authorities said.
Een andere krant voegt hieraan toe:
Authorities portrayed Semen Domnitser as central to the scheme, saying he became the director of both funds in 1999 after working as a caseworker from April 1, 1994 until his promotion. A criminal complaint said it was his responsibility to make sure verifications of information were properly performed and documented and his approval was required before applications could be sent to the German government for payment.
Weer een andere krant:
The hardship fund for concentration camp survivors is paid for by the German government, which has paid out more than £37billion since 1952.
Duidelijk is dat via een 'inside job' Duitsland voor 43 miljoen euro is opgelicht door joodse medewerkers, onder aanvoering van de voormalige joods Russische 'directeur van beide fondsen'. In wezen niks aan de hand, corruptie komt overal voor. Maar wat maakt Arie Elshout van de feiten? Onder de foutieve kop:
'Joodse organisaties gedupeerd...
beweert hij het volgende:
Oplichting is van alle tijden, maar het oplichten van een organisatie die geld uitkeert aan slachtoffers van de Holocaust wordt gezien als heiligschennis, het laagste van het laagste.
Dat is allemaal best mogelijk, maar dit zijn niet de feiten. Joodse organisaties zijn niet gedupeerd, maar Duitsland, de geldgever. Sterker nog: medewerkers van die joodse organisaties zijn betrokken geweest bij de grootschalige fraude. Hoe komt het nu dat Arie Elshout deze zaak verdraait?
Welnu, om zijn handelwijze goed te kunnen analyseren moet u allereerst weten hoe over het algemeen zo'n artikeltje van een correspondent in de krant terecht komt. Arie wordt 's ochtends vroeg uit zijn bed gebeld met de mededeling van de redactie in Amsterdam dat internationale persbureaus over zwendel berichten, en niet zomaar zwendel, maar zwendel door joden. Joden is een sleutelwoord dat onmiddellijk de hoogste staat van paraatheid oproept bij een bepaald slag Nederlandse journalisten. Joden, holocaust, Israel, etc, sleutelwoorden van ultiem belang. Arie is meteen klaar wakker, zet onmiddellijk zijn computer aan en ziet in no time dat het nieuws inmiddels door alle grote kranten wordt gebracht. En dus moet de Volkskrant ook wel. Voordat hij in een paar minuten tijd de berichtgeving in de Amerikaanse kranten heeft overgeschreven staat hij even stil bij de wijze waarop dit nieuws gepresenteerd moet worden. Vergeet niet, het is voor de Volkskrant, de krant die de Westank 'Israel' noemt. Dus opletten: we hebben hier te maken met joden, en joden zijn volgens de Volkskrant een speciaal soort mensen dat altijd slachtoffer is geweest, waakzaamheid is derhalve geboden. Het gevolg is dat Arie de werkelijkheid wel moet vertekenen, het feit dat de fraude binnen joodse organisaties gebeurde en niemand anders dan de Duitse belastingbetaler werd gedupeerd, kan niet door hem verteld worden, want het geven van de feiten zou niets anders kunnen zijn dan een overduidelijk voorbeeld van rabiaat antisemitisme. Dus begint onze correspondent zijn voorstelling van zaken met deze bewering;
Oplichting is van alle tijden, maar het oplichten van een organisatie die geld uitkeert aan slachtoffers van de Holocaust wordt gezien als heiligschennis, het laagste van het laagste.
Nu zijn er mensen onder u die zich zullen afvragen: waarom raadpleegt Arie niet de betrokken bronnen? Het antwoord is even simpel als verbijsterend: Arie heeft geen bronnen, heeft geen contacten. Arie heeft alleen maar de krant en de televisie net zoals alle andere mensen die geen journalist zijn. Vergist u niet, Arie is geen verslaggever, Arie is opiniemaker die het werk van anderen overschrijft en dat vervolgens onder zijn eigen naam publiceert. Dat doet de overgrote meerderheid van de Nederlandse correspondenten in den vreemde. Vroeger wist bijna niemand dit, nu kan iedereen dit constateren zodra men het internationale nieuws via internet volgt. Arie doet geen eigen onderzoek, want bij gebrek aan contacten zou hij niet weten waar hij moest beginnen. Geisoleerd in zijn kamer met een weinig inspirerend uitzicht komt hij niet verder dan op te schrijven wat de pers hem meedeelt. Hij checkt zelfs niet internet, want dan zou hij vanuit zijn standpunt geredeneerd onwelgevallige informatie hebben moeten geven, informatie van Norman Finkelstein bijvoorbeeld of van Ilan Ziv:
TAMOUZ MEDIA, POINT DU JOUR AND ALMA FILMS PRESENT IN THE NAME OF THE VICTIMS
On September 10, 1952, the state of Israel and a new Jewish organization, created to represent “world Jewry in its material claims against Germany,” signed a post-war reparation and compensation agreement with West Germany. Neither the world’s Jewish communities, still devastated after the Holocaust, nor those in the state of Israel, which was still struggling to survive after only four years of independence, noticed the dangerous legal precedent created on that day. Twenty-three leaders of major Jewish organizations took it upon themselves to represent, in perpetuity, the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, as well as the hundreds of thousands of survivors and their decedents, in their material claims against Germany. It is this precedent that came to haunt the Jewish world almost forty years later when in 1990 “The Claims Conference” and the World Jewish Congress, using this post-war legal precedent, started a public campaign “in the name of the victims”, to restore looted Jewish properties to their rightful owners. These two organizations, by their own words, have succeeded in amassing close to twenty billion dollars. In the Name of the Victims tells the disturbing story of how some of this astronomical sum was raised. These organizations’ legal acrobatics have left thousands of survivors bitter and resentful towards the very organizations that were supposed to act in their name. But even more shocking is where some of these billions went, and how, despite these astronomical sums, thousands of holocaust survivors in Israel and in the United States are ending their lives in utter poverty and humiliation.
"In the Name of the Victims," directed by Ilan Ziv, is an infuriating and shaming must-see film that should be broadcast at the beginning of newscasts, and also justifies a commission of inquiry." -Tom Segev
Als journalist die het werk van Tom Segev nauwlettend volg en deze Joods-Israelische historicus uitgebreid heeft geinterviewd weet ik dat zijn oordeel ook daadwerkelijk iets betekent en dat dit een buitengewoon interessante documentaire moet zijn. Arie verzwijgt de documentaire, terwijl het toch belangrijke informatie verschaft voor de Volkskrant-lezers. Maar omdat Nederlandse correspondenten doorgaans luie journalisten zijn en bovendien het correspondentschap in de VS of Rusland vaak een mooie opstap betekent voor een glansrijke carriere, vertonen de carrieristen weinig inzicht en daadkracht. Beter lui dan uitgerangeerd omdat je iets controversieels hebt geschreven. Een illustratie van de kwaliteit van de berichtgeving van veel Nederlandse correspondenten gaf Arie Elshout zelf toen hij twee jaar geleden schreef:
'Schrijver David Grossman zei dit jaar in een gesprek met Volkskrant-correspondent Alex Burghoorn dat ''wij Joden een verhaal [zijn] dat groter is dan het leven zelf''. Dat is hun tragiek, maar ook die van de Palestijnen, die ook hun verhaal hebben. Het maakt het moeilijk een uitweg te vinden uit de banaliteit van geweld en vernedering.'
'amper een dag in Israël [zijn] of een VN-man laat ons in zijn verduisterde kantoor iets zien waardoor we volledig uit het veld geslagen worden.'
Opmerkelijk aan de uitspraken van de adjunct-hoofdredacteur is dat na al die jaren berichtgeving van de Volkskrant-correspondenten in Israel, hij niet in staat is geweest zich een beeld van de werkelijkheid te vormen, een beeld van de werkelijkheid dat hij en zijn metgezel 'amper een dag in Israel' wel kregen van 'een VN-man.' En niet zomaar een beeld, maar een beeld 'waardoor we volledig uit het veld geslagen worden.'
Een beter bewijs dat bijvoorbeeld de Volkskrant-correspondenten in Israel al decennialang een verkeerde voorstelling van zaken geven, is nauwelijks denkbaar. Dit feit benadrukt Elshout nog eens aan de hand van het citaat van Grossman, door erop te wijzen dat onder andere de Palestijnen van deze gekte het slachtoffer zijn, een feit dat de correspondenten verzuimden duidelijk te maken, anders zou Elshout het niet nog eens hebben opgeschreven.
En nu de adjunct-hoofdredacteur in New York zit doet hij precies hetzelfde, hij geeft geen informatie maar een gekuiste en verkeerde versie van de werkelijkheid.
DEN HAAG - Kraanverhuurder Riwal is nog altijd actief in Israël hoewel het Nederlandse bedrijf zegt de activiteiten in Israël te hebben gestaakt.
Riwal werkt onder de naam ROM Israel gewoon verder. De aandelen van de Israëlische vestiging zijn verkocht aan Adi Livnat, de broer van Riwal Groep-eigenaar Doron Livnat, beweren bronnen binnen het bedrijf in dagblad Trouw. Justitie deed vorige maand huiszoeking bij het bedrijf in Dordrecht, omdat Riwal zich volgens de Palestijnse mensenrechtenorganisatie Al Haq schuldig maakt aan oorlogsmisdrijven. De kraanverhuurder zou betrokken zijn bij de bouw van een omstreden afscheidingsmuur om [red: door] de Palestijnse gebieden. De muur is door het Internationale Gerechtshof in Den Haag als illegaal bestempeld. Een afbeelding van de website van ROM Israel. Op die kraanwagens staat duidelijk geen 'ROM', maar wat staat er dan wel? Vergelijk de logo's.
Een vijftiental klanten van bank-verzekeraar Dexia heeft vandaag bij een protestactie aan het kantoor aan het Brusselse Rogierplein hun rekening opgezegd uit protest tegen de financiering van de bouw van nederzettingen op Palestijns gebied door Dexia Israël. Volgens Mario Franssen van het platform 'Israël koloniseert - Dexia financiert' ondernemen momenteel zo'n 60 mensen de nodige stappen om hun rekening stop te zetten. Het platform, dat opgezet werd in 2008 en 78 verenigingen groepeert, beschuldigt Dexia ervan de kolonisering van Palestijns gebied te steunen via Dexia Israël.
De voorbije twee jaar stuurde de vereniging al zo'n 10.000 protestkaarten naar Dexia. Volgens Franssen hebben verschillende gemeenten reeds een motie gestemd waarbij ze de actie steunen.
In een reactie wijst Dexia erop dat de Israëlische dochter zonder onderscheid alle gemeenten financiert, inclusief de Arabische, die goed zijn voor ongeveer 10 procent van de uitstaande kredieten. "Tegelijkertijd bouwde Dexia sinds 2001 de financiering van Israëlische nederzettingen sterk af." Bovendien kende Dexia sinds juni 2008 geen enkel nieuw krediet toe aan de nederzettingen, luidt het.
Dexia verwierf in 2001 Otszar Hashilton Hamekomi. Die financiële instelling gespecialiseerd in de financiering van lokale besturen, werd omgedoopt in Dexia Israël Bank. (belga/adv)
Dexia verklaarde in mei dit jaar sinds juni 2008 geen enkele nieuwe hypotheek te hebben verstrekt aan de nederzettingen.
Dit jaar is Israël toegelaten (waarom?) tot de Organisatie voor Economische Samenwerking en Ontwikkeling (OESO, in het Engels OECD). Deze week is er een bijeenkomst over toerisme in Jeruzalem. Nadat o.a. Turkije, Spanje en Groot-Brittannië hebben afgezegd roept de Arabische Liga op tot een boycot van de bijeenkomst. Minder dan de helft van de 33 leden komen opdagen. In de Nederlandse pers wordt de bijeenkomst doodgezwegen.
Eerder deze week moest de Israëlische minister van Toerisme Stas Misezhnikov (lid van Lieberman's ultrarechtse Yisrael Beitenu partij) onder druk van de OESO zijn opmerkingen inslikken over dat de bijeenkomst in wezen een bewijs was van de erkenning van Jeruzalem als "ondeelbare hoofdstad" van Israël.
Israel shedding allies as government goes ‘from bad to worse’
The list of Israel’s friends is quickly becoming a lot shorter than that of its former friends. To the second category can be added a number of OECD member countries and officials, a leading British film director and the King of Morocco –who have all in the past few days cited increasing unease with Israel’s policies toward Palestinians.
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has always been, like his father King Hassan XII, a quiet friend of Israel and the Jewish people. Just last month he reportedly donated millions of dollars to refurbish Jewish cemeteries in Morocco.
The King and his father felt a particular kinship with Israeli President Shimon Peres. So as Morocco prepared to host next week a session of the World Economic Forum, at which Mr. Peres was to be a participant, it was natural to invite the Israeli to the palace for a visit.
That, according to members of Mr. Peres’s staff, was the way things stood until the government of Benjamin Netanyahu ended the freeze on Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank at the end of last month. Then last week, the government announced tenders for more than 200 housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
On Saturday night, Mr. Peres received the word: He was not welcome at the Moroccan palace at this time.
“It is reasonable to think that the President is furious, and rightly so,” wrote Shalom Yerushalmi in Monday’s Maariv newspaper. “Last Monday, Peres criticized Netanyahu, saying ‘Now is the time for leadership that will take historic decisions,’” Mr. Yershalmi recalled, adding that, “until a short while ago, Peres believed in Netanyahu – not any more.”
From L-R, Estonia's Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, Chile's Finance Minister Felipe Larrain, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Slovenia's Prime Minister Borut Pahor and Secretary General of Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Angel Gurria join hands during the OECD Forum and Ministerial Council to Focus on Innovation, Growth in Paris May 27, 2010.
Word of that international setback had barely emerged Monday when news came that celebrated British director Mike Leigh had cancelled plans for his week-long visit to Israel next month owing to Israeli government policies. The director of Secrets and Lies and Vera Drake had agreed to deliver a master workshop to Israeli film students and to meet with film people in several centres.
In a letter to his Israeli host, Renen Schorr, director of the Sam Spiegel Film and TV School, Mr. Leigh wrote that he had almost cancelled his plans after the flotilla incident in May, when Israeli commandos boarded a ship bound for Gaza and several people were killed.
“Since then, your government has gone from bad to worse,” he told Mr. Schorr. He cited “the resumption of the illegal building on the West Bank,” and the matter of an oath of loyalty to the “Jewish state” the government proposes to administer to all non-Jews who seek to become Israeli citizens (primarily directed at people who marry Arab Israelis).
“This is the last straw,” Mr. Schorr said.
Meanwhile, OECD officials are arriving in Jerusalem for a conference on tourism that almost was cancelled as well.
Less than half of the OECD’s 33 member countries are sending delegates, and some of those missing are believed to have been uncomfortable with staging a conference here at this politically charged time.
They and several OECD officials became particularly alarmed when Israel’s Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov, a member of Avigdor Lieberman’s right-wing Yisrael Beitenu party, announced that holding the conference in Jerusalem was “a seal of approval on the fact that we have a state whose recognized capital is Jerusalem.”
The declaration was said to have upset OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria, who only a few months ago had presided over the acceptance of Israel’s membership in the club of developed nations. None of those states has accepted Israel’s claim to all of Jerusalem, much of which was occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War.
“By hosting the OECD conference in Jerusalem, Israel seeks de facto recognition of its illegal annexation of East Jerusalem,” said Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator in peace talks with Israel. He added Monday that it “creates the perception that the OECD is complicit with Israel’s provocative and unlawful actions in this occupied city.”
It is reported that in exchange for allowing the conference to go ahead in Jerusalem, the Israeli government pledged it would maintain a low political profile at all events related to the OECD meeting. Planned excursions for delegates to sites such as the Dome of the Rock and Western Wall were cancelled, since they are located in the occupied sector of the city.
Since 1860, when the American Jewish tycoon Judah Touro donated $60,000 -- a fortune for that time -- towards the construction of the first Jewish settlement outside the old walls of Jerusalem, public and private American funds have aided the creation and territorial expansion of Israel. Israel today is the foremost recipient of US aid. According to a USAID green paper, between 1946 and 2008 Israel has received more aid than Russia, India, Egypt and Iraq. In fact, the US has poured more money into Israel than it did into the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. However, a recent New York Times article adds a new dimension to the story. On 5 July, the Times reported that, over the last decade more than 40 American groups have collected more than $200 million in tax-deductible gifts for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, indicating that the US Treasury is effectively aiding and abetting illegal settlement expansion and the Judaisation of Jerusalem.
While the New York Times honed in on the irony of how a US government organ was facilitating the funnelling of private funds into activities and goals that ran counter to official US policy, and as significant as this is, the article failed to mention that the amount of private tax-exempt "donations" pales in comparison to the public funds that Washington has steadily poured into the Zionist project. For example, the US federal budget for 2011 has earmarked $3 billion in aid for Israel, or 42 per cent of the total amount of aid to be allocated to the so-called Near East for that year. It is also interesting to observe that the policies of USAID, an instrument that the State Department uses to pursue the US's objectives overseas, also conflict with Washington's official stances. USAID programmes for the Palestinians effectively exclude East Jerusalem. Its green papers and other official reports and statements make frequent mention of "the West Bank and Gaza" as headings for its activities, but rare are references to East Jerusalem. It is as though, for USAID, East Jerusalem is not an indivisible part of the occupied territories, in spite of Washington's official acknowledgement that it is and in spite of the inclusion of East Jerusalem among the final status issues in the US- brokered negotiating process between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel, the occupying power. One cannot help but suspect USAID -- and by extension the State Department -- of perpetrating a certain calculated deception through its deliberate and systematic omission of East Jerusalem in its programmes and documents.
PA officials in Ramallah expressed outrage at the tax breaks for private US donations to fund Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied territories. One suspects that the sentiment was primarily geared for local consumption, because they were quick to stress that the Palestinians were not ungrateful to the US and urged USAID to keep up its efforts. "The US is the chief supplier of bilateral economic and development aid to the Palestinians, supplying more than $2.9 billion since 1994," wrote the Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency (PIPA) on its website in May. "The US helps facilitate the movement of Palestinian people and goods, while improving the security of Israel," it added, as though it and other PA agencies were somehow detached from USAID "efforts" and the policies it is helping to implement. USAID has slated $550.4 million for the PA in its budget next year. The continuation of this aid is contingent on the continuation of the Palestinian Fatah-Hamas rift and the blockade. Nothing is allocated for East Jerusalem and the bulk of the funds are to be spent on "fighting drugs, law enforcement and security programmes".
However, the reference to "facilitating movement" is even more suspect, and requires further elucidation in light of the part this aid plays in consolidating the occupation, entrenching Jewish settlements in the occupied territories and promoting the Judaisation of East Jerusalem. Successive US administrations and the countless shuttle visits by their envoys and emissaries have failed to lift the military barriers Israel imposes in the West Bank and around Jerusalem, to open a "safe corridor" between the West Bank and Gaza, or to open the crossings into Gaza even for the passage of humanitarian assistance. But they have been superbly successful in building "alternate" roads. These are the ring roads planned by the occupation authorities in order to link Jewish settlements that now control 42 per cent of the area of the West Bank, which does not include the area of occupied territory that Israel annexed to the Jerusalem municipality, according to the BTselem human rights centre. The ring roads also serve to carve the rest of the West Bank into cantons densely populated by Palestinians.
The Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ) reports that USAID funded 23 per cent of the ring road network built by occupation authorities in 2004. Most of this roadwork is located in areas B and C which comprise more than 80 per cent of the area of the West Bank and which fall under the control of the Israeli occupation, which supervises all road works. The donor countries that are supervising and financing the "peace process" had approved the construction 500 kilometres of such roads, at the cost of $200 million, $114 million of which was footed by USAID. Another 120 kilometres is scheduled for completion by the end of this year. Most of this segment will skirt around the Jewish settlements in Greater Jerusalem, creating a wall of paved highway to reinforce the barrier wall severing the West Bank from Jerusalem and to reinforce the tipping of the demographic scale in Greater Jerusalem in favour of Jewish settlers and against its indigenous Palestinians.
The rest of the roadwork, which snakes through the valleys and up the hills and down the ravines of the West Bank, is hailed as an "accomplishment" by the Salam Fayyad government in Ramallah. Indeed, Fayyad goes further to boast of these roads as Palestinian projects that "penetrate" areas B and C and, therefore, "defy" the security partitions of the West Bank as defined by the Oslo Accords. In fact, neither can USAID claim these roads as one of its "achievements" in facilitating the movement of Palestinians under the occupation, nor can the PA claim them as a subtle victory. As Suhail Khaliliey, head of ARIJ's Urbanisation Monitoring Department, explains, "What happens is that USAID presents this package of infrastructure projects to the PA and essentially says 'Take it or leave it.' So the PA is basically forced to accept Israeli-planned roads it doesn't want."
Ingrid Jaradat Gassner, director of the Badil Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, puts it more poignantly: "It's sad that the PA is helping to build its own cantons while the settlers control the main roads."
Last month, Fayyad issued a statement denying that the PA contributed to the construction of a network of roads proposed by the occupying power. Ghasan Al-Khatib, a spokesman for the Fayyad government, added that the PA was doing all in its power to prevent the rise of "an apartheid system" in the West Bank. Unfortunately, realities on the ground belie such denials and assertions.
Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Bir Zeit, West Bank of the Israeli – occupied Palestinian territories. This article was translated from Arabic then published by Al-Ahram Weekly on July 22, 2010.
Na vier jaar grijpt de overheid eindelijk in. Dat lijkt me wel lang genoeg voor Riwal om het e.e.a. in de papierversnipperaar te laten verdwijnen.
Justitie heeft vanmorgen een inval gedaan bij kraanverhuurbedrijf Riwal in Dordrecht. Zo'n 40 rechercheurs in burger kwamen om acht uur op meerdere plaatsen het hoofdkantoor aan de Maxwellstraat binnen. Het personeel werd naar de bedrijfskantine gestuurd en alle kantoren werden uitgekamd.
Een woordvoerder van het Landelijk Parket heeft de inval bevestigd. Het onderzoek van justitie heeft te maken met een onderzoek naar de betrokkenheid van Riwal bij de bouw van illegale scheidingsmuren op de door Israel bezette Westelijke Jordaanoever. Justitie heeft twee aangiften binnengekregen over het Dordtse bedrijf.
Televisiebeelden van Riwal aan het werk
Eerder in opspraak In 2006 en 2007 kwam het Dordtse bedrijf om dezelfde reden ook al opspraak, nadat in een TV-programma te zien dat kranen van Riwal meebouwden aan zo'n muur. Israël zegt die muren te bouwen om zich te beschermen tegen invallen van Palestijnse terroristen. Het Internationaal Gerechtshof sprak in 2004 echter uit, dat die bouwsels illegaal zijn.
In het midden Doron Livnat, bestuurslid van de zionistische lobbygroep CIDI, voor de wagens van zijn bedrijf, dat de segregatiemuur in Israël helpt bouwen. Volgens Ronny Naftaniël van het CIDI betreft dit een "privézaak" van het bestuurslid.
Morele oproep Na veel ophef in de Tweede Kamer en in de media liet Riwal op 19 juni 2007 weten, dat het wel kranen had uitgeleend aan een vestiging in Israël, maar dat niet bekend was waar die voor gebruikt werden. De toenmalig ministers Bot en Verhagen deden toen een 'morele oproep' aan Riwal om daar mee te stoppen.
Sponsor Riwal is één van 's werelds grootste verhuurders van hoogwerkers. Het bedrijf was van de familie Schalekamp, maar vader Dick en zijn zoon Jaap verkochten hun aandelen aan een Israëlier. Die runt het bedrijf samen met Dick Schalekamp jr. Riwal is sponsor van veel clubs, waaronder FC Dordrecht. (bron: RTV Rijnmond)
Jonathan Cook considers the forces ranged against a just peace for the Palestinians, arguing that these forces include not just the squatters that inhabit the ever-expanding colonies in the West bank, but also many Israeli Jews living within Israel's recognized borders and retired senior army officers who profit from the burgeoning “homeland security” and “defence” industries. With the resumption of settlement construction in the West Bank on 27 September, Israel’s powerful settler movement hopes that it has scuttled peace talks with the Palestinians.
It would be misleading, however, to assume that the only major obstacle to the success of the negotiations is the right-wing political ideology the settler movement represents. Equally important are deeply entrenched economic interests shared across Israeli society.
These interests took root more than six decades ago with Israel’s establishment and have flourished at an ever-accelerating pace since Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the 1967 war.
Even many Israeli Jews living within the recognized borders of Israel privately acknowledge that they are the beneficiaries of the seizure of another people’s lands, homes, businesses and bank accounts in 1948. Most Israelis profit directly from the continuing dispossession of millions of Palestinian refugees.
Israeli officials assume that the international community will bear the burden of restitution for the refugees. The problem for Israel’s Jewish population is that the refugees now living in exile were not the only ones dispossessed.
The fifth of Israel’s citizens who are Palestinian but survived the expulsions of 1948 found themselves either transformed into internally displaced people or the victims of a later land-nationalization programme that stripped them of their ancestral property.
Even if Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, signed away the rights of the refugees, he would have no power to do the same for Israel’s Palestinian citizens, the so-called Israeli Arabs. Peace, as many Israelis understand, would open a Pandora’s box of historic land claims from Palestinian citizens at the expense of Israel’s Jewish citizens.
But the threat to the economic privileges of Israeli Jews would not end with a reckoning over the injustices caused by the state’s creation. The occupation of the Palestinian territories after 1967 spawned many other powerful economic interests opposed to peace.
The most visible constituency are the settlers, who have benefited hugely from government subsidies and tax breaks designed to encourage Israelis to relocate to the West Bank. Peace Now estimates that such benefits alone are worth more than 550 million US dollars a year.
Far from being a fringe element, the half a million settlers constitute nearly a tenth of Israel’s Jewish population and include such prominent figures as foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Hundreds of businesses serving the settlers are booming in the 60 per cent of the West Bank, the so-called Area C, that falls under Israel’s full control. The real estate and construction industries, in particular, benefit from cut-price land – and increased profits – made available by theft from Palestinian owners.
Other businesses, meanwhile, have moved into Israel’s West Bank industrial zones, benefiting from cheap Palestinian labour and from discounted land, tax perks and lax enforcement of environmental protections.
Much of the tourism industry also depends on Israel’s hold over the holy sites located in occupied East Jerusalem.
This web of interests depends on what Akiva Eldar, of the Ha’aretz newspaper, terms “land-laundering” overseen by government ministries, state institutions and Zionist organizations. These murky transactions create ample opportunities for corruption that have become a staple for Israel’s rich and powerful, including, it seems, its prime ministers.
But the benefits of occupation are not restricted to the civilian population. The most potent pressure group in Israel – the military – has much to lose from a peace agreement, too.
The ranks of Israel’s career soldiers, and associated security services such as the Shin Bet secret police, have ballooned during the occupation.
The demands of controlling another people around the clock justify huge budgets, the latest weaponry (much of it paid for by the United States) and the creation of a powerful class of military bureaucrat.
While teenage conscripts do the dangerous jobs, the army’s senior ranks retire in their early forties on full pensions, with lengthy second careers ahead in business or politics. Many also go on to profit from the burgeoning “homeland security” industries in which Israel excels. Small specialist companies led by former generals offer a home to retired soldiers drawing on years of experience running the occupation.
Those who spent their service in the West Bank and Gaza Strip quickly learn how to apply and refine new technologies for surveillance, crowd control and urban warfare that find ready markets overseas. In 2006 Israel’s defence exports reached 3.4bn dollars, making the country the fourth largest arms dealer in the world.
These groups fear that a peace agreement and Palestinian statehood would turn Israel overnight into an insignificant Middle Eastern state, one that would soon be starved of its enormous US subsidies. In addition, Israel would be forced to right a historic wrong and redirect the region’s plundered resources, including its land and water, back to Palestinians, depriving Jews of their established entitlements.
A cost-benefit calculus suggests to most Israeli Jews – including the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu – that a real solution to their conflict with the Palestinians might come at too heavy a price to their own pockets. Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.
Twee activisten hebben een aanklacht ingediend bij de Reclame Code Commissie tegen het Israëlisch Nationaal Bureau voor Toerisme GoIsrael wegens misleidende reclame. De Commissie heeft hen in het gelijk gesteld. GoIsrael’s reclame is “misleidend en daardoor oneerlijk”. Merkwaardigerwijs beschouwde de Commissie de reclame-uitingen niet als kwetsend voor in Nederland wonende Palestijnen en Syriers of in strijd met de waarheid. Door de uitspraak van de Commissie mag GoIsrael nu geen reizen meer naar bezet Palestijns gebied promoten alsof het reizen naar Israël zouden zijn.
GoIsrael maakt intensief reclame met kaarten waarop in 1967 bezet Palestijns en Syrisch gebied wordt afgebeeld als deel van Israël. De tekst ondersteunt dat beeld waarin (toeristische bezienswaardigheden in) onder andere Oost-Jeruzalem en Bethlehem deel uitmaken van Israël. Dit is in ernstige mate onjuist, want het gaat hier om gebieden die Israel in 1967 heeft veroverd. Deze gebieden hebben internationaal de status van bezet Palestijns c.q. Syrisch gebied. Het Internationaal Gerechtshof te Den Haag maakte dit in zijn uitspraak over ‘de Muur’ op 9 juli 2004 nog eens extra duidelijk. Als het Israëlisch Verkeersbureau GoIsrael deze gebieden presenteert als deel van Israel misleidt het daarmee potentiële toeristen De nederzettingenbouw in de Palestijnse bezette gebieden wordt internationaal veroordeeld. Het is een groot obstakel geworden in de vredesonderhandelingen.
Voorbeelden van gesignaleerde misleiding zijn de Syrische Banyas watervallen, en Palestijnse plaatsen als Beit Sahur, Bethlehem, Jericho en Nablus. In sommige folders worden historische Palestijnse plaatsen en regio’s met Bijbelse namen aangeduid, zoals Shechem in plaats van Nablus. Hierdoor wordt de Palestijnse identiteit van deze plaatsen nog verder verdoezeld. Ook wordt er geen onderscheid gemaakt tussen West en Oost Jeruzalem, en wordt een plek als de Tempelberg vanzelfsprekend als Israëlisch aangeduid, terwijl het volkenrechtelijk bij de Palestijnse Bezette gebieden behoort. De folder “Bijbelse plaatsen voor Christelijke bezoekers” vermeldt dat “In 1967 Jeruzalem werd herenigd en zijn plaats hervond als eeuwige hoofdstad van het Joodse volk, met vrijheid voor alle godsdiensten”.
Links de officiële landkaart van Israël, rechts de versie van het Bureau voor Toerisme
Advocaat van den Biesen: “En zo presenteert verweerder (GoIsrael) zich als een gastheer die zijn gasten in het huis van zijn buren op visite nodigt en het daarbij doet voorkomen alsof het huis van zijn buren van hem is en verzwijgt dat de buurman het met deze gang van zaken in het geheel niet eens is en daarmee rechtens ook volledig in zijn gelijk staat en dat zijn buurman bovendien zeer aanzienlijke schade en hinder van deze illegale situatie ondervindt”.
Er is Israel veel aan gelegen om toeristen te trekken. Israel reserveert $2,4 miljoen voor toerisme in de bezette gebieden. Daags na de opheffing van de bouwstop van illegale nederzettingen plaatste GoIsrael paginagrote vakantieadvertenties in o.a. de Metro. In oktober wordt de jaarlijkse OESO Toerisme-conferentie in Jeruzalem georganiseerd. Met de aanklacht tegen GoIsrael hopen de activisten in de toekomst misleidende Israëlreclame te kunnen tegengaan.
Vervolg van (1). Uit emailcorrespondentie gepubliceerd op het weblog van Stan van Houcke blijkt dat niemand bij Amnesty Nederland van elkaar weet wat hij doet. De landenspecialiste Israël/Bezette Gebieden/Palestijnse Autoriteit Ruth de Wijs weet in eerste instantie helemaal niets over de actie en kan er niets over op de website terugvinden. Vervolgens zijn Midden-Oosten coördinator Koen van Lieshout en hoofd van Externe Zaken Lars van Troost "bezig met een onderzoek naar de achtergrond van deze actie". Alsof de hotelactie zich op een verloren dag ongezien en ongeautoriseerd in de website van Amnesty genesteld zou hebben.
"Van elke reservering via deze site ontvangt Amnesty International van BOOKINGS de helft van de commissie." (Amnesty Nederland)
In a pre-emptive attack on Egypt on 5 June 1967 that drew Syria and Jordan into a regional war, Israel made massive territorial gains capturing the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula up to the Suez Canal. ... The Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt as part of the 1979 peace deal with Israel. (BBC)
Ik heb nog eens gekeken, zonder een team van drie specialisten/deskundigen onder mijn hoede, maar het gaat om tien hotels, acht in de volgens Amnesty omstreden* Golanhoogten in "Israel" en twee op de Westelijke Jordaanoever in "Israel":
Bezette Syrische Golanhoogten
Afik Country Lodging Kibbutz Hotel ** Kibbutz Afik, 12938 Kibbutz Afik (Golan Heights) High in the mountains, at the entrance of the Golan Heights, the Afik Country Lodging Hotel is an excellent base for travellers wanting to explore the exciting regions of Galilee and the Golan Heights. hotel link » locatie op de kaart »
Afik Country Legacy Village Majdel Shams, 12438 Golan Hights (No) Legacy Village offers large suites with LCD TVs, free hot beverages, and free Wi-Fi. It is set in Majdel Shams, in the Golan Heights area, near Golan Archaeological Museum. hotel link » locatie op de kaart »
Ramot Resort Hotel **** Ramot, 12984 Moshav Ramot (Sea of Galilee) At the foot of the Golan with a wonderful view of the Sea of Galilee, the Ramot Resort Hotel offers well-equipped rooms and cabins surrounded by green lawns. hotel link » locatie op de kaart »
Golan Rooms At Sagi Family Country Lodging*** Moshav Ramot, 12948 Moshav Ramot (Sea Of Galilee) At the foot of the Golan Heights with a wonderful view of the Sea of Galilee, the Golan Rooms At Sagi Family offers comfortable apartments with private terraces and fully equipped kitchens. hotel link » locatie op de kaart »
Merom Golan Country Lodging Kibbutz Merom Golan, 12436 Kibbutz Merom Golan (Golan Heigts) Merom Golan offers quiet mountain accommodation in the northern Golan Heights. The complex has large gardens, an indoor pool, a farm and stables, sports fields, a pub and a supermarket. hotel link » locatie op de kaart »
Bar Manor Shaal, 12420 Shaal (Golan) Set in Moshav Shaal in the Golan Hights, the Bar Manor is a magnificent boutique resort offering luxurious suites. There is a spa on site, and an enchanting art gallery. Parking is free. hotel link » locatie op de kaart »
Chalet Nimrod Castle Nimrod, 12406 Nimrod (Golan Heights) Chalet Nimrod Castle features Alpine-styled cabins entirely built of natural materials and surrounded by nature. Some apartments are located in the large main cabin. Others are independent cabins set inside the village or just outside the village area, in the family's cherry orchard. hotel link » locatie op de kaart »
Rimonim Hermon Holiday Village**** Moshav Neve Ativ, North Golan, 12493 Neve Ativ Surrounded by the breathtaking scenery of the Golan Heights, the Rimonim Hermon Holiday Village is a small holiday resort built in the style of a Swiss alpine village. hotel link » locatie op de kaart »
Bezette Westelijke Jordaanoever
Kalia Kibbutz Hotel*** Kibbutz Kalia, 90666 Kibbutz Kalia (Dead Sea) The Kalia Kibbutz hotel has a peaceful location in the desert, in short distance from the beaches of the Dead Sea. Surrounded by green plants and gardens, the hotel offers a unique holiday destination for the whole family. hotel link » locatie op de kaart »
Almog Kibbutz Hotel*** Kibbutz Almog, 90665 Kibbutz Almog (Dead Sea) Just 5 minutes drive from the Dead Sea and 25 minutes drive from Jerusalem, this hotel offers comfortable accommodation in the tranquil setting of a kibbutz. The rooms offer views over the surrounding desert and mountains. hotel link » locatie op de kaart »
*) Golanhoogten "omstreden gebied"?
Resolutie nr. 497 van de VN Veiligheidsraad eist de onmiddelijke terugrekking van Israël uit de Golanhoogten. Daar is niets "omstreden" aan, temeer omdat deze resolutie unaniem werd aangenomen.
Israel’s Gross Violations of International Law in the Occupied Syrian Golan
The report was produced by Al Marsad, the Arab Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Golan and co-authored by Declan Gannon, legal researcher Al- Marsad, and Dr. Ray Murphy, senior lecture Irish Center for Human Rights. (download PDF) (text on web)
Door grootschalige toeristische promotie probeert Israël haar bezetting van de Golanhoogten te normaliseren en de etnische zuivering te verdoezelen. Amnesty Nederland draagt daar aan bij.
Kijkt u eens naar deze foto. Links de premier van schurkenstaatA die er 'flexibele' grenzen op nahoudt, rechts de ongrondwettelijke president van de niet-bestaande staat B, en in het midden minister van Buitenlandse Zaken van C, het machtigste land ter wereld, die de regering van A 3 miljard dollar per jaar aan militaire hulp schenkt om de bezetting van B in stand te houden. Maar deze feiten zult u niet lezen in onze zelfbenoemde "kwaliteitspers", die tot aan de dag van vandaag meehelpt om de Israëlische bezetting te legitimeren en te normaliseren.
Vormen de VS een geloofwaardige onderhandelaar in de zogeheten vredesonderhandelingen? De laatste keer dat de VS serieus kritisch op Israël was (en zich iets van de VN aantrok), was in 1956, toen Eisenhower te kennen gaf dat Israël uit Suez moest vertrekken. Sindsdien gaat de VS mee met het Israëlische beleid. En wanneer dat niet zo dreigt te zijn, zal de Israël lobby de Amerikaanse president eraan herinneren wie hem heeft gefancierd. Toen Obama protesteerde tegen de uitbreiding van de nederzettingen, meldde Netanyahuin zijn kabinet: "This guy just doesn't get it, does he?"
De "tweestatenoplossing" die Israël voorstaat behelst 11% van de West Bank. In de rest van het gebied mogen de Palestijnen nog niet eens een rioolpijp onder hun huis aanleggen. De bedoeling van Israël is om het zogenaamde "vredesproces" tot in het oneindige te rekken, en waar het kan te benadrukken dat het "serieuze concessies" doet.
"The resumption of peace talks without any Israeli commitment to freeze settlements is another significant victory for the Israel lobby and the Israeli government. It allows Israel to pose as a willing peacemaker while carrying on with business as usual." (New York Times 28 augustus 2010)
Het argument "zelfverdediging" kan meteen verworpen worden als totale nonsens omdat het bouwen en uitbreiden van nederzettingen helemaal niets met verdediging te maken heeft. In tegendeel, de nederzettingen zorgen juist voor een grotere onveiligheid voor de Israëli's.
Iran heeft één onbemande bommenwerper!!!Groot nieuws in de Nederlandse media. De NOS, meestal kort van stof, wijdt er een uitgebreid artikel aan. We lezen er zelfs enkele technische specificaties. Ahmadinejad wordt erin geciteerd: "Iran wil niet aanvallen, we zullen nooit besluiten ergens aan te vallen." Maar ik denk dat die uitspraak snel vergeten, of helemaal niet onthouden wordt door de enige en (illegale) kernwapenmacht in het Midden-Oosten: Israël, en de zogeheten "vrienden van Israël". Want stel je voor, straks is Iran geen Vijand meer van de Israëli's, en dan hebben ze alleen nog maar de bezette en binnenlandse Palestijnen om hun 'ongenoegens' op af te reageren. Dat is natuurlijk geen heldendaad. Een ramp voor 'de Joodse staat', met name voor de wapenindustrie, en de Amerikaanse 3 miljard dollar "militaire hulp" natuurlijk, bedoeld om de bezetting en de regelmatig terugkerende bloedbaden in stand te houden.
Maar ik dwaal af. Het merkwaardige doet zich voor dat wanneer Israël een nieuwe onbemande bommenwerper (aka drone of UAV) aankoopt of presenteert, dat we daarover helemaal niets in onze zelfbenoemde "kwaliteitspers" lezen. Geen woord. Dus presenteer ik voor u exclusief het volgende:
The Guardian video: Cut to pieces: the Palestinian family drinking tea in their courtyard Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles – the dreaded drones – caused at least 48 deaths in Gaza during the 23-day offensive
Heeft onze "kwaliteitspers" wel eens bericht over de Eitan aka Heron TP, een onbemande bommenwerper, die ook Iran kan aanvallen? Geen woord, want dat zal geen nieuwswaarde hebben gehad. Het Israël-sprookje moet natuurlijk blijven dat het het (Heilige!) land van shalom is, de "enige democratie in het Midden-Oosten", en daar hoort geen aandacht voor oorlogstuig bij.
In the war on Gaza, drones accounted for the deaths of at least 87 civilians.
Drones are remote-controlled airborne robots. They come in all shapes and sizes. These unmanned high-tech weapons are remarkably versatile. From thousands of feet in the air some reportedly have heat-detecting and surveillance instrumentation that can distinguish between an automatic weapon that has been recently fired and one that hasn’t.
Unlike the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine, most US Americans are oblivious to drones. But we’d better wake up. Drones are poised to become tools of domestic surveillance.
The Houston police are now secretly experimenting with drones. Col. Kevin Bradley, local Hancock Airbase drone commander, looks forward to having drones used for domestic police work (18 Dec.’09 Syracuse Post-Standard). ACLU please take note.
In Upstate New York we’re beginning to learn about the Reaper drone in our midst – “piloted” via satellite out of Hancock on the outskirts of Syracuse. Syracuse’s Reaper now flies surveillance and assassination missions over Afghanistan. The Pentagon proudly describes the Reaper as a “hunter/ killer.” But the US isn’t alone in developing and deploying drone technology. I became aware of Israel’s use of drones during its December 2008/January 2009 invasion of Gaza. Israel deploys two types of hunter/killer: the “Hermes,” produced by Elbit Systems Ltd, and the “Heron,” produced by the government-owned Israeli Aerospace Industries.
Recently – by Googling “Israeli drones” -- I learned that Israel pioneered the drone and that Israel purveys that cutting edge weaponry throughout the world. As far back as 1982 Israel used drones against Syria. In the early nineties Israeli drones were used in the Kosovo campaign. Israeli drones invade the skies over Lebanon and patrol occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza. Israeli drones reportedly can reach Iran.
Even Israel acknowledges that, during the Gaza invasion, it killed well over 1000 Palestinians. Such was the butchery that over 100 Palestinians were killed for every Israeli killed. Among the wide range of weapon systems deployed in and over Gaza, drones accounted for the deaths of at least 87 civilians, many of them children.
The cold-bloodedness of it all struck me as I read the 39-page, June 2009 Human Rights Watch report: “Precisely Wrong: Gaza Civilians Killed by Israeli Drone-Launched Missiles." Frequently those killings had no combat or defensive role whatsoever. Like aerial warfare generally, those killings were out-and-out state terrorism.
Israel’s drone technology is so “good,” and now so well demonstrated in Gaza, that other nations are lining up to put in orders. These exports generate enormous revenue for Israel’s weapons industry, an enterprise boosted by $3 billion a year in US military aid to Israel.
Israel’s known drone customers include: Turkey ($185 million for 10 Heron drones); Brazil ($350 million drone deal for border and police work); India (occupying Kashmir and long hostile to Pakistan); Georgia (used Hermes drones against Russia in 2008). Russia, very impressed with Georgia’s drone performance, has acquired three different types of Israeli drones ($53 million) for reverse engineering to kick-start its own drone industry.
To better service Pentagon contracts, Israel even has drone factories in the US -- in Starkville, Mississippi and Columbus, Ohio. The US uses Israeli “Skylark” drones in Iraq. Brits, Germans, and Canadians use Herons over Afghanistan. They assassinate those perceived, correctly or not, as enemies. Given the flimsiness of the legal cases against most Guantanamo prisoners, we know that an informant or bounty hunter’s word that someone is a “terrorist” or “enemy combatant” is dubious.
In an ominous indicator of how easily lethal misjudgments can be made by those whose god-like job it is to select drone targets, the aforementioned Col. Bradley sees domestic anti-drone protesters as a “threat” to his pilots (18 Dec. ’09 Syracuse Post-Standard). Such attitudes help explain how the drone’s “precision” strikes can kill so many civilians. These deaths, whether in occupied Gaza or elsewhere, defy international humanitarian law.
One might suggest that much of US mainstream media is itself “occupied” by the nation’s highly militarized power structure. Otherwise, why aren’t the nation’s newspapers editorializing against the killer drones that rile up hatred against the US? And that subject US military and intelligence facilities to deadly reprisal?
Why doesn’t our media admit that much of the “terrorism” it constantly invokes is blowback from the kind of US policies that deploy hunter/killer drones? Why doesn’t our media point out that those in the chain of command responsible for these extra-judicial executions are war criminals?
Why doesn’t it call those nations deploying armed drones against civilians what they are: rogue states? And why doesn’t it describe their cowardly airborne killings as what they are: terrorism?
Corporations and militarists in the US and Israel promoting killer drones claim that as an unmanned weapon the drone saves lives -- i.e. no pilots are shot down in action. This is specious: for every pilot saved, many other humans are killed or maimed.
Drone boosters further argue that, with its extraordinary surveillance capability, the drone’s laser-guided missiles are more precise killers than those of (say) a manned F-16 fighter jet. However, “[D]rones, much like sniper rifles, are only as good at sparing civilians as the care taken by the people who operate them. The accuracy and concentrated blast radius of the missile can reduce civilian casualties, but in Gaza, Israel’s targeting choices led to the loss of many civilian lives.“ [HRW, p.3]
The Heron hunter/killer even has camera-bearing missiles that relay images in real time. This allows a pilot on the ground far away, suddenly realizing that noncombatants are about to be slain, to divert the missile at the last moment. But such capability makes the killing of children and other non-combatants – whether in Gaza, Iraq, Pakistan or Afghanistan -- all the more detestable. No more blaming such “collateral damage” on the “fog of war.” Because the surveillance capability of these killer drones is so remarkable, when obvious noncombatants are targeted, the pilots know exactly what they are doing. This means the chain of command also knows exactly what is being done.
Because the drone cameras provide live footage of the strike, and since such footage is archived, the circumstances under which the killings occur are well documented. Such evidence needs to be presented to domestic or international war crimes tribunals. Problem is, just as Israel refused to cooperate with the UN’s Goldstone investigation, it refuses to release the footage. If the Human Rights Watch Gaza investigation were somehow flawed, such footage would refute its damning conclusions.
The US should insist that Israel release the footage. More: US military aid to nations like Israel that flaunt international law should cease.
[The Pentagon trains foreign military in “anti-insurgency” tactics at schools such as the US Army’s School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia. In a further “anti-insurgency” initiative, at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona the US Army trains soldiers to operate drones. Of particular concern to us in Syracuse, Hancock Airbase is becoming the national headquarters for training Reaper drone maintenance crews from all service branches. Likewise, since at least 2005 Israel has been training many of the world’s drone operators and maintainers. Some of these operators have gone on to deploy in Iraq and Afghanistan.]
- Ed Kinane, based in Syracuse, New York, works to end state terrorism. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact him at: edkinane@verizon.net. (A similar version was first published in the February 2010 Peace Newsletter.)
Tony Blair's term as envoy of the Quartet (US, UK, Russia, UN) has been marked by many photo opportunities but few, if any, accomplishments. Indeed, research shows that Blair's relationship with one of the world's richest men poses a clear and significant conflict of interest with his duties as Quartet envoy.
Tony Blair inspecteert de Israëlische belegering van Gaza bij de Kerem Shalom grensovergang, 22 juni 2010
Blair is close friends with Bernard Arnault, the chairman of the luxury goods conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy Group (LVMH), and has refused to publicly disclose whether or not he accepted a paid post as adviser to Arnault, as reported in the media. LVMH has been implicated in benefiting from Israel's occupation through its subsidiary, the cosmetics retail chain Sephora.
At the end of May, the French-based Coordination des Appels pour une Paix Juste au Proche Orient (CAPJPO) (Coordinated Appeals for a Just Peace in the Middle East) launched legal action against Sephora because of its retailing of products made with stolen Palestinian natural resources in illegal Israeli settlements.
CAPJPO claims that Sephora has maintained an illegal contract with the Israeli cosmetics company Ahava whose products are made in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli settlements Mitzpe Shalem and Kaliya co-founded Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories and own 44 percent of the company. In addition, Ahava manufactures its cosmetics in a factory in the Mitzpe Shalem settlement and operates an information center for tourists there.
The mud used in Ahava products is expropriated without Palestinian permission from a site near Kaliya, along the shores of the Dead Sea within the occupied West Bank. However, Ahava labels its skin care products as originating from "The Dead Sea, Israel."
Bathrobe brigades in Amsterdam informing people about the dirty secrets of Ahava beauty products in front of a store that sells the product, 2 december 2009
In July 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) reaffirmed the illegality of Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Relying on the ICJ ruling, CAPJPO argues in its complaint that Sephora is supporting Israel's violations of international law by retailing Ahava products.
Blair's friendship with Arnault, LVMH's chairman, dates to his time as UK Prime Minister. Arnault is one of the richest men in France, with an estimated net worth of more than $27.5 billion. Blair's three eldest children studied in France while he was prime minister, and often stayed at Arnault's mansion in Paris. Indeed, the Daily Mail reported in February 2007 that Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament Norman Lamb warned Blair "It is very dangerous to take hospitality from very wealthy individuals who may be seeking to wield influence" ("Cheri's pride graduate girl"). Blair's friendship with Arnault continued after he stepped down as premier and accepted the position as Quartet envoy.
In January, the Daily Telegraph revealed that Blair was to be appointed as Arnault's personal advisor. Although the announcement was repeated by Agence France Press, neither Blair nor LVMH have officially confirmed or denied the appointment. When asked for clarification in a written request from The Electronic Intifada, the office of Tony Blair remained silent. The lack of transparency on Blair's position stands in stark contrast to his portfolio as Quartet envoy which tasks him with teaching Palestinians how to build up transparent government institutions.
Blair also serves as a consultant to companies and countries on the principles of good governance. In a 28 June address to the Institute for Government on the importance of governance in the modern world, Blair reflected on ten lessons he had learned during his time as prime minister. His first lesson was that "Governance is not a debate as sometimes people think of it, as a debate about transparency or accountability. It is a debate about effectiveness and efficiency" (Institute for Government).
Blair's lack of transparency on his dealings with LVMH appears to be typical of how he operates, with an almost indistinguishable line between his public duties as Quartet envoy and his private profit.
Richard Murphy, an accountant from Tax Research UK, explained to the UK's Guardian how Blair can keep his wealth a secret. By setting up a complicated structure of 12 different entities Blair has been able to take advantage of obscure loopholes in UK regulations to side-step rules that normally require the publication of accounts.
The complicated legal structures that enable Blair to to keep his finances secret are "simply an administrative vehicle established in order to allow Mr. Blair's office sensibly to administer his different projects," Blair's spokesman told the Guardian ("Mystery of Tony Blair's money solved," 17 December 2009).
Transparency has also been a difficult goal for LVMH to achieve. In 2004, the company tried to avoid the bad publicity that its Louis Vuitton division collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of France. While writing about the history of Louis Vuitton in honor of its 150th anniversary, author Stephanie Bonvinci requested the company's war-time documents. She was told that the company documents for the period 1930-1945 were destroyed in a fire.
Undeterred, Bonvinci researched historical archives and talked to surviving family members. She eventually exposed the links of Louis Vuitton with the Vichy regime, led by Marshal Phillipe Petain, that ruled France during the Second World War and openly collaborated with the Nazi occupation. LVMH did not contest the contents of Bonvinci's book.
Given LVMH's lack of openness about its wartime history, it is ironic that Blair would have no qualms about working for the company. As Prime Minister Blair's government instituted the first annual Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK in 2000, something he justified by stating: "I am determined to ensure that the horrendous crimes against humanity committed during the Holocaust are never forgotten" ("Plan for Holocaust Memorial Day," Press Association, 18 October 1999).
Tony Blair's political and business roles pose a serious conflict of interest. As the Quartet's envoy to the Middle East he is no doubt familiar with the 2004 ICJ ruling and the plethora of UN security resolutions pertaining to the occupied Palestinian territories. He also knows that Ahava's factory and tourist center are built in violation of international law. And yet he refuses to disclose whether or not he has a paid role as advisor to the chairman of a company in business with Israel's occupation.
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate based in Switzerland.
Most international trafficking rings have involved wealthy Israeli patients on 'transplant tours'
Alleen het buitenland bestaan er nieuwsmedia die de 3 miljoen dollar per uur van Obama aan de schurkenstaat Israël, om niet te bouwen in en rond de illegale nederzettingen, met uitzondering van Oost-Jeruzalem, gewoon bij de naam noemen: bribe, omkoping, steekpenning. In Nederland is dat ongekend. Hier heet het zonder uitzondering "voorstel" en "plan".
Stan van Houcke: 
Dit jaar is Israël toegelaten (
Jewish Settlement Expansion in the Occupied Territories
Persbericht 29-09-2010
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Iran heeft één onbemande bommenwerper!!! 
