Hundreds of Jaffa residents gather on the main street in the heart of Ajami to protest settler intimidation in Jaffa. (Photo: The Daily Nuisance)
Tensions are rising between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel after clashes in Occupied East Jerusalem and Jaffa this past weekend.
Ultranationalist religious Jews attempted to provoke and intimidate local Palestinian residents while marching through the Occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Sunday as hundreds of Israeli police stood guard. Hundreds of residents clashed with police in response, some throwing rocks and lighting tire fires. Twenty Palestinians and solidarity activists were injured as police shot rubber bullets and beat protesters. Two police were also injured when they were hit by rocks.
The seventy right wing Israelis were protesting a court order to evacuate Beit Yonatan, an illegal structure housing eight settler families in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan. In July 2008 the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the seven-story building to be sealed off for demolition, and another evacuation order was issued in July 2009, but neither has been enforced.
The previous day, in Jaffa’s last remaining Palestinian neighborhood – Ajami, hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel and their supporters rallied in opposition to settler youth from Kiryat Arba who invaded the property of a Palestinian family on April 18, when Israelis commemorated the night of the fallen soldier. Waving flags and banners in front of the house on Jaffa’s main road, Yeffet, they chanted in Arabic and Hebrew.
The mother of the household Zynab Rahayel says she was sitting in her dining room when three buses full of settlers stopped outside, got out and started to jump around while shouting that this piece of land was theirs and raising the Israeli flag. One boy who entered their garden and peered through their front door told Rahayel twice, “This is my house, not yours.” When she exited her home they shouted at her that Palestinians have been in Jaffa for only a short time and “This is our land and you will get out of here!” One settler pushed Rahayel’s son after he said something offensive. Soon other Ajami Palestinians came and began arguing with the boys.
Jaffa, which now conjoins Tel Aviv, was a busy Arab port city before over 90 percent of the Palestinian population was forced out by the advancing Israeli army in the 1948 war. “Sixty-two years ago we were afraid to lose our dignity and our land. But today we’ve already lost our land… and the only thing we have is our spirit and our houses,” says Yousef Asfor, housing coordinator for Amnesty International. “They can’t take our spirit, but they are trying to take our houses.”
“No to Apartheid” read a sign held by one boy standing on the sidewalk in the heart of Ajami Saturday. Meanwhile, Jaffa residents shouted: “Jews and Arabs don’t want settlers here!” and “Jaffa is for Jaffans!” and “With our souls and with our blood we’ll defend Jaffa!”
Sami Abu Schade, organizer of Saturday’s solidarity demo, says they are condemning the police for their inaction after the settler provocation in Ajami. He says the cops didn’t do anything “because of racist policies towards the Palestinian community inside Israel.” He explains, “If a few hundred people had just attacked a Jewish woman at her home in Tel Aviv and said, ‘We don’t want a Jewish presence here,’ police would have dealt with it differently.”
Abu Schade says the protest was also to send a message to the municipality that a policy that supports settlements in Ajami is inherently violent. The settlement he is referring to is the apartment buildings being constructed in Ajami by Bemuna, a company that mostly builds Jewish housing in West Bank settlements. Bemuna says the apartments are for Jews only and that they won’t sell to Arabs.
Tensions have been rising between the Palestinian community and Orthodox Jewish nationalists in Jaffa over the last few months. Local activists have been protesting weekly outside the Yeshiva in Ajami, while Jaffa’s housing coalition has been fighting the development of the Bemuna apartment complex. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has also brought a high profile legal suit against the Israel Lands Administration for awarding Bemuna the contract, who they say is clearly discriminating against Arabs in Ajami.
Abu Schade feels that once the apartments have been constructed and more religious rightwing hardliners move in, the settler movement will be strengthened in Jaffa, leading to more violence. “We have been warning Israeli police and the Tel Aviv municipality that the settler project is endangering the coexistence between the Jewish and Arab population in Jaffa. Unfortunately, they’re ignoring our calls to stop immediately this project,” explains Abu Schhade.
“Without international pressure, unfortunately things are going to be more dangerous for all residents of Israel,” says Abu Schade.
Transpose this story to the US, change “Arab” and “Jew” to black and white, and anyone can see the racism.
>> Ultranationalist religious Jews attempted to provoke and intimidate local Palestinian residents … as hundreds of Israeli police stood guard.
Fuckers, all of them: The provokers and intimidators, and the guards who protect these assholes while shooting at Palestinians who fight back against the provocation and intimidation. You’ve got to be one heartless piece of shit to think this makes any kind of sense. >:-(
“while shouting that this piece of land was theirs and raising the Israeli flag. One boy who entered their garden and peered through their front door told Rahayel twice, “This is my house, not yours.” When she exited her home they shouted … “This is our land and you will get out of here!””
Wow the settler trash is really acting up. What was it a long night of dancing with snakes and drinking poison that got this settler youth all pumped up? But, I really shouldn’t insult the practices of Pentecostal Churches, it’s not like their aim is to steal the houses of another people in the name of the STATE and RELIGION.
link to dissidentvoice.org
I like this: “As Hannah Arendt noted, “The Zionist Organization had developed a genius for not answering, or answering ambiguously, all questions of political consequence…”
In the aftermath of the events of 2000 inside Israel, in cities like Nazareth and Umm El-Fahem, in which 13 Palestinians from Israel were shot and killed by Israeli police, the Or Commission investigated the circumstances. In its summary conclusion, the Or Commission found no fault in the police’s conduct. No officer has yet to be brought to justice, this despite there being numerous eye witnesses that stated the police was shooting unarmed civilians. Nonetheless, the Or Commission concluded that the Israeli government must do more in reaching out to the Palestinian population in Israel. It specifically addressed the discrimination and the favoritism that plagues government agencies and their treatment of Arabs and recommended the government, the executive branch in particular, make significant efforts to change said reality.
Needless to say, the Or Commission’s recommendation’s fell on deaf ears as police brutality, false arrests and harsh interrogations still go on.
“… as police brutality, false arrests and harsh interrogations still go on.”
No need to mince words Avi – it’s torture. Report by PCATI:
“10 years, Hundreds of Complaints, No Investigations”
link to stoptorture.org.il
In addition, while the Israeli army fails – even refuses – to protect Palestinians in the occupied territories from colonial settler attacks, inside Israel, national and local police forces have instituted a de facto hands off approach to law enforcement in the Arab sector.
As a result, drug deals, auto thefts, vandalism, stolen property, gang violence and gun violence have become all too common in the non-Jewish Palestinian sector in Israel.
Some towns have established their own equivalent of neighborhood watch, but in the absence of resources and legal authority, these community-based groups have had little success in curbing said crimes.
It seems that the IDF actually tore down some settler houses today. Will they protect the Palestinians nearby from the “price tag” pogrom?
(rhetorical question)
[Let me beat eee to the punch:]
‘well you guys did that in the Bronx, with the ghetto projects, and all that crack, so we can do it to…’
Clearly, a one state solution will lead to civil war.
If the authorities, both the police and military, in a bi-national state did their job fairly and professionally, the likelihood of a civil war would be minimal.
Now, according to you, the Israelis certainly cannot do the job fairly and professionally. And it would be ridiculous to say that Hamas or Fatah could do the job. Therefore a one state solution will lead to civil war.
Your missing the point.
Israel cannot do the job fairly because the foundations of the Israeli state are built on racism, a type of racism in which the state prefers one ethnic group over another.
Hence the Israeli state in its current form, as a racist apartheid state, can never ever provide its non-favored population with the same rights, privileges, and services as its “favored” population.
A one state solution in which all citizens of the state are equal before the law as citizens would do a great deal to mitigate the legalized racism in Israel today.
According to me? Are you going to shoot the messenger, again?
And it would be ridiculous to say that Hamas or Fatah could do the job.
Ridiculous? Why?
Hamas has a done a fairly good job at maintaining public order and safety given the circumstances under which they have been forced to carry out their duties, including, but not limited to Israeli slaughter of more than 200 graduating police academy cadets.
Because, for example, Hamas just recently stopped a rap concert.
link to earthtimes.org
But the real problem is that under Hamas there is no independent justice system based on modern laws.
You’re mixing up two different issues. The police merely enforce laws, whichever laws any legislature happens to pass. So, as far as law enforcement, they did their job.
modern law: strafing from on high is self-defense
James,
“Israel cannot do the job fairly because the foundations of the Israeli state are built on racism, a type of racism in which the state prefers one ethnic group over another.”
Don’t be ridiculous. If Israelis are racist, that is not going to be solved by forcing on them through BDS a one state solution. According to your great plan, they will become even more resentful and “racist”.
In fact, you have a clear case in the US that proves my point. Despite all of Grant’s efforts and the structural changes in the US South, Jim Crow and lynching continued on for almost 100 years. Structural changes do not build trust or change hearts and minds.
Avi,
You are very funny.
“The police merely enforce laws, whichever laws any legislature happens to pass.”
In Hamastan the laws that the police and armed faction decide on are passed.
Plus, I am sure there is no law on the books against rap concerts, even in the Islamic Republic of Gaza.
(Propaganda emphasized)
I have yet to hear about that. Can you provide a reliable source that supports your claims above?
Just read the press release I linked:
“But PCHR official Hamdi Shaqoura told the German Press Agency dpa Monday that, under existing law, the group was allowed to hold an indoor concert without first seeking official permission to do so.”
Implying, that the Hamastan police took the law into their own hands.
The following excerpt makes me a bit skeptical about the neutrality and credibility of the entire article:
.
Either way, we’re going off on a tangent, deep into off-topic territory. I’d like to keep the discussion on topic, as much as possible.
In which case, ignore the troll.
No tangent at all.
The following two beliefs you hold are not compatible:
1) Israelis are racist and do not respect the rule of law
2) The single state solution will work
You are just inconsistent.
Yes. You’ve made a compelling argument about my inconsistency.
Shichna’ta Oti….I’m sold.
Hasta luego.
Be careful, and remember the eggplant analogy. We’ve just been sidetracked into discussing the legal status of rap music in Gaza.
To get back on track: the one country vision presumes a major spiritual, intellectual, and psychological transformation in all players – or their children as the current ones die off. Hamas, Zionism, and the Palestinian Authority will wither.
Clearly, a one state solution will lead to civil war.
Freeing the slaves also led to war in the United States.
You also forget to mention that it is Israeli racism that will lead to war.
I hope your not implying that the only reason full equality should not be granted to all people, regardless of religious affiliation, is because Israeli racist attitudes wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Because that’s basically what your argument boils down to.
James,
It was secession that led to war. The slaves were emancipated during the war. Lincoln would not go to war over slavery. In fact he said the following in his inaugural speech:
“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so”
So your understanding is very limited. Racism, real or imagined, was never an excuse to go to war.
Yea and the Southern states seceded because they felt that Lincoln was impeding on their rights, particularly their rights to hold slaves.
Lincolns statement was made in a vain attempt to avert that perception amongst southern slave owners.
In any case this is not the discussion at hand, the discussion here is that you believe that full equality should not be granted to all people living in historic Palestine simply because “Israeli racism” would never allow it.
I’m sorry but that is a weak argument.
True, eee, even when Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation it was technically illegal under the then interpretation of the US Constitution. At that time, the southern states were part of the US federal republic. The Palestinians have yet to be part of a state where
they have such rights, although the intent to be sure they did have such was written even in the Balfour Declaration, never honored as to that aspect. Anyway, now, it’s all about the state of Israel contracting
out covenants in the land deeds that would be illegal as racially biased in the USA today. If you are a USA jew, and you want an “affordable home,” go to land controlled by the IDF. No need to worry that subprime mortgages are no longer popular in the USA:
link to arabyaffa.org
No, my argument is that a two state solution is the only option because a one state solution will lead to civil war.
And my argument is that the US never went to war over racism or accepted war as better than racism, which you think to imply Israel should.
and two “state” will lead to pre-emptive war unless the Palestinians are given access to modern weapons as well as reaping the benefit of modern “laws” which, though plausible, ain’t gwine happen, ain’t that right, Polyphemus?
The advocates of the one-country solution (with equal rights universally applied – ie neither a Zionist nor an Islamist state) are not warlike people or inclined to support anyone’s war.
Maybe the IDF will have another “nice victory” and kill all the rest of the Arabs. You should be happy.
I see God’s own Orangemen are having another one of their provocative parades through the Catholic Bogside. I just threw up in my mouth a little.
I see God’s own Orangemen are having another one of their provocative parades through the Catholic Bogside. These individuals seem to have much too much time on their hands, not to mention blood. Do they not have jobs? I just threw up in my mouth a little.
It seems to me that a large part of the ultra-orthodox community in Israel lacks any sort of built-in decency or restraint. Until 1948, Jews lived in most places under a sort of “rule of practicality” — be nice, even subservient, to local people because you are powerless and must survive among them. After 1948, in Israel (and in the USA — consider “the lobby”, consider the Hillel at Berkeley and elsewhere, consider the treatment of N Finkelstein and the reasons for it), this “rule of practicality” fell away to be replaced by a sort of rapacity. No self-control, no decency. Power, always power.
When I was growing up, I asked my mother how we (our family) could be moral when we didn’t believe in God and therefore didn’t fear divine punishment. She said it was easy, being well behaved has nothing to do with constraints imposed from outside if you have decent principles inside you.
I think that (these) ultra-orthodox never, ever, had any inner decency but only an imposed limitation from outside (and not from fear of God, not at all, but from fear of non-Jews, who were feared and hated) and when this limitation was lifted, a sort of out-of-control criminal society erupted. Sociopathic. And the sociopathology even bleeds over to crimes against Jews, such as Rabin.
The USA must impose limits, but I fear it will not do so.
The big oil-spill is making the US re-consider allowing coastal oil-drilling. Always takes a tragedy, however inevitable the tragedy seems. Well, we’ve got lots of tragedies, every day, in Palestine, but the USA cannot see that far.
It’ll be a long, hot summer.
That’s an interesting analogy and I find it rather plausible a theory, too.
Interesting insight considering the accounts of Catholic and Othodox Clergy being spit upon in Jerusalem by Haredi Yeshiva students.
I’m sorry for the double post. Odd phenomena occur when I post via my phone “0.0″
“Abu Schade feels that once the apartments have been constructed and more religious rightwing hardliners move in, the settler movement will be strengthened in Jaffa, leading to more violence. ‘We have been warning Israeli police and the Tel Aviv municipality that the settler project is endangering the coexistence between the Jewish and Arab population in Jaffa.’”
Well now, that’s the whole idea isn’t it? Israel is using the paramilitary “settlers” to harass defenseless Arabs as part of the new, aggressive attempts at ethnic cleansing to deal with Israel’s “demographic problem.” The use of “settlers” is an attempt to present this as two peoples in conflict rather than as official Israeli policy.
“Clearly, a one state solution will lead to civil war. ”
There have so far been TWO “one state solutions”. First was the Mandate. Like Yugoslavia, it held together as long as there was a strongman (and not too many roughnecks). But as the Jewish revolt (1939-1948) replaced the Palestinian revolt (1936-39), the British found the water too hot and left. And then, as planned, war broke out.
Second, we have today’s non-democratic, multi-ethnic (for the moment anyhow), apartheid-style single state in I/P. There has never been a civil war in SS#2. There has only been state-violence, state-terrorism, state-lawlessness. the intifadas were cries for help and examples, sometimes successful, at self-help. But never civil wars. Why? The Palestinians have never been armed (to any significant extent) via-a-vis the Israelis.
No, what we have today is not civil war but shooting fish in a barrel. All one sided. If the parties FREELY (and not by Obaman imposition!) chose a single democratic state, they might avoid civil war, but only “might” since Israel has always been a rich source of terrorists, right back to 1939. But there is little danger (or possibility) that Israel would agree to a single state. It remains to be seen whether the settlements were bargaining chips intended ultimately to be sacrificed or whether Israel now feels as “entitled” to the settlements as it does to 1948-1967 Israel.
Oh, there have been civil wars. You forgot how Hamas took over Gaza and the flying lessons they gave Arafat’s chef. As an Israeli, I don’t look forward to being thrown off a building. If the Palestinians kill each other so readily (so far about 1400 killed in this civil war) I am sure that us Jews will be fair game also.
eee,
Now you’re starting to post outright spin and propaganda. Really.
If you go splat, it will be a “nice victory” for someone.
Maybe, but not for me. I’d rather the Palestinians have their own state and experiment there with unassisted human flight.
What I am posting is just the truth:
link to en.wikipedia.org
“What I am posting is just the truth:”
You must have been born testerday. Those of us on planet earth learned long ago that this was a US and Isreli sponsored coup that failed.
link to vanityfair.com
Shingo – I posted the same link for eee 2 days on the article with the footage of the Maltese protestor being shot. I even suggested eee take it a page a day, with rests between paragraphs – but to no avail.
eee is a desperate troll grasping for straws, nothing more.
“eee is a desperate troll grasping for straws, nothing more.”
Of course he is. Like Witty, he has a permanent blind spot to information that doesn’t conform to Likud propaganda.
yeah, and easier game too, once they get their act together. Time to grab your uzi and head up Masada, bub.
Jeez, you got to be pretty goddam empty inside if your anchoring spiritual experience is vicarious tribal brutality. O yeah baby, we is gonna be a light unto the nations.
You skipped a step. Why “empty”? Besides I only propose clipping the gangsterim and dismantling the Jewish Theme Park on top of them. Brutality is optional if they kick up a fuss. What would you propose? A vote?
Ahem.
link to vanityfair.com
off-topic post on the Israel Lobby’s efforts to get us into war with Iran:
Iran a Threat? I Mean, Really?, by Ray McGovern, April 27, 2010
Poor guy, he’s an inveterate contradictor, smarter than everybody else. But here he is, filling up on anti-Zionism. And the next time he’s with a bunch of rabid Zionists, his compulsive desire to contradict everyone will assert itself, and he’ll start spouting all the anti-Zionist stuff he’s read on Mondoweiss.
Be a lot better off if he just admits (at least to himself) he’s sick of Zionism, and wants to learn the truth so he will be able to make better choices. But no, he has to make it a thoroughly unpleasant process. What a jerk.
Ah, but even jerks need a night out, a little entertainment. 3e, I’ve got some extra tickets for the Gil Scott-Heron Tel Aviv Concert which I’ll let go, cheap! How can you lose?
He obviously envies the posts. Why else would he come back for more? When you argument is a loser to begin with, you want to be on the other side of the debate team. Who doesn’t want to sell the right product…
Say 3e, what your IDF status, BTW? Been in? In the reserves? I thought IDF service was pretty much mandatory. Is the food good? Where have you served?