Wednesday, October 28, 2009

[ePalestine] Guardian: From the horse's mouth…an occupier's judicial material up close...sad & insulting!

Dear friends,

After  reading the sad and insulting passage below, I urge you to not lose hope and go read/listen to another Israeli -- renowned journalist Amira Hass, after the International Women's Media Foundation awarded her its 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award .  An award much deserved!

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/21/israeli_journalist_amira_hass

Separating future neighbors from future Hague prisoners,
Sam

P.S.  The below story needs corrected. This fanatic attorney was/is not the the "Settlements lawyer," rather he was the State of Israel's Ministry of Defense lawyer...and sadly there are plenty more where he comes from.

---

guardian.co.uk 

West Bank land belongs to Jews, says Israeli army judge 

• Settlements lawyer reveals core beliefs 

• Peace with Palestinians 'goes against nature'

Meron Rapoport in Jerusalem 
guardian.co.uk, Monday 26 October 2009 18.42 GMT 

Major Adrian Agassi did not make the connection between the Bible, the land and the Jews when, fresh out of university, he left England for Israel in search of his roots. He was not even a practising Jew. 

But over the past quarter of a century, the Israeli army lawyer and then military judge at the forefront of arguably the most significant battle in the occupied West Bank – the confiscation of Palestinian land for the construction of Jewish settlements – has come to see himself as in service of a higher duty. 

In an unusually frank interview, which offers insights into the melding of religion, politics and law that underpins land seizures in the occupied territories, Agassi has laid out his belief that Israel has a biblical claim to territory beyond its borders and that he, even as an immigrant, has a right to live on it when those born there do not. 

"When we [Israelis] say that this is a political conflict, then we lose the battle," he told the Guardian, adding that it should be remembered that the ancient land of Israel is "given to us by the Bible, not by some United Nations". 

Agassi, one of the most important officials in the military courts wielding authority over large parts of the West Bank, says settling Jews on lands that made up ancient Israel stands above all other biblical commandments and only when it is done can they have "a promised land and a promised life". 

"You say that these lands 'passed into Jewish hands'. Others would say that they came back into Jewish hands. Others would say that they are obviously ours, inherently," he said. It was, he claims, a mistake to call it the State of Israel. "If we would have named it the State of Jews, the Arabs would have understood that this land belongs to the Jews." 

Agassi served in the legal department that oversaw the confiscation of land in the West Bank to build Jewish settlements and was then appointed to the military court that decided Palestinian appeals against the seizure of their property. The Palestinians almost never won. His court also ruled on legal disputes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians. 

Agassi denies his credo affected his legal judgments but his court was considered so biased by some critics that on one occasion the military prosecution, in an unusual step, appealed against Agassi's ruling in favour of settlers to Israel's high court. 

Agassi was born in Southgate, London, in 1964 to a family of rabbis from Baghdad. He studied law in the UK and emigrated to Israel at the age of 24 "with £500 and all of Bob Dylan's records". Four years later he found himself dragged into the first Palestinian uprising, the intifada, as a legal adviser to the military in the West Bank. 

"I was very young and suddenly found myself in front of the stones and Molotov cocktail and the hate. I studied law, I had a liberal education, but I was at war and I knew we were right," he said. "I was 26 years old, I came from a foreign land. Those actions guarded our existence in the land of Israel. It lies at the heart of the conflict. It's a legitimate means to continue the works of our forefathers Abraham, Joseph and David." 

Agassi says a peace agreement with the Palestinians "goes against nature" because as far as he can see nothing had changed in last 4,000 years in the land of Israel, and that back to biblical times Arabs and Jews were at each other's throats. 

Agassi uses the term Arabs because he claims Palestinians do not exist. 

He came to this conclusion over the past decade while serving as a special judge for administrative arrest. Based on confidential intelligence reports, without trial, Agassi sent several hundred Palestinians – deemed to be terrorists or security threats – to prison for six months or more. 

"You read the raw intelligence material and you see that most of them are moved by religious doctrine, not by a political one. They use religion in order to justify killing as many Jews as possible. Is this not a religious war?" 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/26/west-bank-jews-army-judge



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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

[ePalestine] Amnesty International: Israel rations Palestinians to trickle of water (NEW REPORT)

Amnesty International

Israel rations Palestinians to trickle of water

27 October 2009

Get Summary, see videos, and download full reports here:


Thirst as a weapon...it's expected from war criminals,
Sam



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Sunday, October 25, 2009

[ePalestine] Bill Moyers talks with Justice Richard Goldstone

Bill Moyers talks with Justice Richard Goldstone

October 23, 2009

Bill Moyers talks with Justice Richard Goldstone, who headed up the controversial UN Human Rights Council investigation into fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.




...and if international law fails, then what?,
Sam



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Saturday, October 17, 2009

[ePalestine] EI: Protesters shout down Ehud Olmert in Chicago


May every war criminal face the same reception everywhere.

Enough is Enough,
Sam (currently reading Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience)


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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

[ePalestine] Harper's Magazine: The economics of occupation (By Bernard Avishai)

Harper's Magazine
October 2009

NOTEBOOK

The economics of occupation

By Bernard Avishai

Ramallah, the hub of interlocking suburbs north of Jerusalem, is the current seat of the Palestinian Authority, or at least what’s left of it: a deceptively bustling place where just over 290,000 Palestinians live. In the early 1970s, I would come to Ramallah to service my car. Today, it is illegal for Israeli citizens to enter, though foreign leaders and NGO officials routinely drive the fifteen minutes to get there from East Jerusalem, through the gray bunkers of the Kalandia checkpoint. The secret way around the closure—pretty much an open secret for any Israeli with an American passport—is to come in through the distant Hizma crossing to the east, blending in with Jewish settlers on their way home. I’ve come this way to talk business.

FULL ARTICLE may be downloaded for educational purposes at:
http://www.aim-palestine.com/harpers economics of occupation (bernard avishai) oct09.pdf
or may be found online if you are a subscriber of Harper's at: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/10/0082662

Bernard Avishai is the author of The Hebrew Republic (Harcourt). He is currently working on a reassessment of Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint.


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Sunday, October 04, 2009

[ePalestine] Brazilian Parliament Calls for the Freeze of the Israel - Mercosur Free Trade Agreement

Brazilian Parliament Calls for the Freeze of the Israel - Mercosur Free Trade Agreement

Palestine Monitor
12 September 2009

This decision is an enormous blow for Israel’s economy and foreign relations. 

The Brazilian Parliamentary Commission on Foreign Relations and National Defense has recommended that the parliament should not ratify the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Mercosur and the State of Israel until “Israel accepts the creation of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders”. This decision is an explicit act of pressure on Israel to comply with international law, and a rejection of years of incessant Israeli lobbying, pressuring for a vote to ratify the agreement. 

This decision is an enormous blow for Israel’s economy and foreign relations. It poses a massive stumbling block for the enactment of the agreement, which since its signing in 2007, has been stalled due to a lack of ratification by Mercosur member countries. The Mercosur is one of the world’s most quickly expanding markets and the fifth largest economy in the world. Israeli exports to the Mercosur amounted nearly 600 million dollars in 2006. 

Israel has invested heavily in pushing for the agreement, focusing particularly on Brazil, the Mercosur’s largest economy and most powerful political player. Brazil alone, even without an FTA, is Israel’s third largest export destination. In 2005, Ehud Olmert, the trade minister at the time, visited Brazil to get President Lula’s support for the agreement. A little over a month ago, Israeli minister of foreign affairs, Avigdor Liberman traveled to Brazil to urge the ratification of the agreement. 

Since the beginning of the negotiations of the FTA, Mercosur civil society summits have rejected the trade deal. On behalf of the Palestinian National BDS Committee (BNC), the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign has worked together with Brazilian intellectuals, social movements, parties and politicians to block the ratification of the FTA. The Front for the Defense of the Palestinian people and the Parliamentary Front against the ratification of the FTA were formed to back the Palestinian call against the FTA. In January a letter by the BNC was handed over to President Lula. 

As a result, the Commission agreed to listen to a public hearing before the voting process yesterday. 

Oscar Daniel Jadue, vice-president of the Palestinian Federation of Chile, intervened and called for the rejection of the bill. He argued that the ratification of the agreement is a violation of international law, to the benefit of a country that does not respect the human rights of Palestinians. 

"I invite reflection on what would reward the government of Israel and opens of the Latin American market to a country that annihilates the Palestinian people", said Jadue. 

Arlene Clemesha, professor of Arab History at the University of São Paulo (USP) and part of the United Nations Coordinating Network on Palestine, argued against the tokenism of ratifying the agreement with the exclusion of settlement products, warning that it is impossible to separate the two as Israel has a history of marketing settlement products as Israeli ones. Instead, she said, the path to peace requires international forces to compel Israel to end the military occupation of Palestinian territory. 

The members of the parliamentary commission agreed with Clemesha and Jadue and recommended the freezing of the agreement as a means of political pressure. 

"It will be a small contribution, but be specific. The agreement can only be valid if approved by the Mercosur countries. As Uruguay has already approved, we will work with Argentina and Paraguay. The Lula government has been courageous and it has to say publicly that the agreement is frozen until the resumption of peace negotiations", said Mr Nilson Mourão (PT- AC). 

Jamal Juma’, coordinator of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign comments: 

“After years of campaigning, we are extremely happy with this decision. It is a major victory that has been made possible only by large and determined civil society support in Brazil. 

This decision has shown that Latin America’s democratic governments are allies for justice and are ready to take up a principled stand on Palestine, even when under Israeli pressure. Lieberman’s delegation tried to lure Brazil with the illusion they could become ‘mediators’ in the region if they would proof ‘impartial’ and backed Israeli interests with the FTA. However, Brazilian politicians did not fall into the trap. 

We now ask the PLO and the Palestinian National Authority to ensure that the ‘No’ to the FTA will be a priority for their regional foreign policies.” 

The struggle against the FTA is not over yet; the project will still be analyzed by the commissions on Economic Development and Trade and Industry, and the parliament. It will then head to the senate. However, yesterday’s decision is unlikely to be reversed and has turned the ratification process of the FTA by Brazil and other Mercosur into an effective instrument of pressure on Israel.

*Current members of the BNC are: Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO), Occupied Palestine and Golan Heights Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI), Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall), Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine, Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), General Union of Palestinian Workers, Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition, Federation of Unions of Palestinian Universities’ Professors and Employees, General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW), Charitable Organizations Union, Independent Federation of Unions – Palestine (IFU), Palestinian Farmers Union (PFU), National Committee for the Commemoration of the Nakba, Civil Coalition for Defending the Palestinians’ Rights in Jerusalem, Coalition for Jerusalem, Union of Palestinian Charitable Organizations, Palestinian Economic Monitor, Union of Youth Activity Centers - Palestinian Refugee Camps (UYAC) 



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