and other news from Today in Palestine:
Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlers
Deportation hearing set for Jerusalem PLC members
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 9 May — Israel’s Supreme Court will meet on May 17 to discuss deporting four Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Legislative Committee members from Jerusalem … The PLC members said they feared they would lose their Jerusalem ID cards and be banned from living in the city in which they were born, and that has been their families’ home for generations … Muhammad Totah, Ahmad Atoun, Muhammad Abu Tir and Khaled Abu Arafah, a former Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs, were all elected to the PLC in 2006 as members of Hamas’ Change and Reform list. Immediately following their election Israel ordered them to resign or have their Jerusalem residency revoked. When they refused to step down, they were sentenced to prison terms, and upon their release, had their residency cards confiscated … For just under a year, the lawmakers have been sheltering in the Red Cross compound in East Jerusalem to avoid arrest.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=386239
Video: UN East Jerusalem humanitarian report
UNTV 9 May — The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs launched its first comprehensive report today on the “positions of Palestinians in East Jerusalem” saying that “Israeli measures and policies are prioritizing the settler population of East Jerusalem at the expense of the Palestinian population.”
http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/unifeed/d/17598.html
The government declares in court a new policy: legalizing new settlements
Peace Now 5 May — A new policy has been officially declared by the State in a couple of Peace Now’s petitions to the High Court and in other petitions submitted by Yesh Din and Palestinians, regarding illegal construction in the West Bank. The State declared to the court that the illegal construction that can be authorized (i.e. on land that can be declared as State Land) will be approved. Construction on private Palestinian land that cannot be declared as State Land will be dismantled in a year’s time. This new policy, if implemented, requires the Israeli Cabinet to convene and officially decide on the establishment of new settlements, for the first time since the Oslo process started in the early ’90s.
http://peacenow.org.il/eng/content/government-declares-court-new-policy-legalizing-new-settlements
IOA starts building section of separation wall around Qalandia village
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) 9 May — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) started building a section of the separation wall around the village of Qalandia to the north of occupied Jerusalem, local villagers said on Monday. They said that IOA bulldozers escorted by security forces started leveling land south of the village. The wall would divide the village into two isolated sectors and would place tens of dunums of Palestinian farmers’ land behind it blocking them from reaching their land.
The wall would surround the village with a cement structure turning it into a ghetto with only two passages out one leading to Ramallah city and the other to Bir Nabala village. The 1100 inhabitants of the village fear that the wall would isolate it from the outside world and would negatively affect it on the economic, educational, and administrative levels.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd8
Photoessay: This little strip of land / Bettejo of IWPS
9 May — The strip of land which Israel plans to fence off from the village of Izbat at-Tabib seems small when one first looks at it. It is about a mile, maybe 2 miles long and a quarter of a mile wide. However, it is a vital part of the agriculture of the village. This is especially true since more than 60 dunums of olive trees have already been bulldozed by the IOF and another 100 dunums of their land, and a well, are inaccessible to them as they lie behind the apartheid wall on the south side of the village. We have spent a number of days and nights In Izbat at Tabib; the village is so poor and yet so willing to share with us the little that they have. Part of what they are able to share comes from that little strip of land Israel is attempting to annex by building yet another wall between the village and their land. [don’t miss the extra photos accessible by clicking at the end]
http://wordsfrompalestine.org/?p=654
Settlers storm school, post racist slogans
NABLUS, (PIC) 9 May — Jewish settlers stormed a Palestinian secondary school for girls in Sawiya village, south of Nablus, and placed racist, anti-Arab posters on its entrance in Hebrew. The education office in southern Nablus said in a statement that the settlers, who were protected by Israeli army troops, also glued other posters on the school’s walls inciting against the Palestinians …
Meanwhile, groups of settlers barged into the Palestinian Wadi Al-Hilwa grazing area in the northern Jordan Valley and threatened the shepherds there and told them to leave the area. Local sources said that the settlers came from the nearby Maskiot settlement and were planning to annex the Palestinian land to their settlement, which was already established on usurped Palestinian land.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87
Video: Operation Solomon marks 20th anniversary
Ynet 9 May – Operation Solomon was a 1991 covert Israeli military operation meant to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel. The operation was prompted by concerns that rebel forces in Ethiopia were about to topple the then-highly vulnerable regime … Operation Solomon, which marks its 20th anniversary this month, saw Israeli forces open and maintain a 36-hour long air corridor, which saw 34 Israeli aircraft — IAF C-130s and El Al cargo planes — perform a non-stop shuttle, carrying 14,325 Ethiopian Jews safely to Israel.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4066429,00.html
The Nakba (see also Analysis/Opinion)
Egyptians to mark Nakba with a march to Palestine
GazaTV News 9 May — On 15 May, the annual commemoration of the creation of the state of Israel and the expulsion of Palestinians, known as Nakba, Egyptians plan to march to Palestine under the slogan “Cairo’s liberation will not be complete without the liberation of Al-Quds [Jerusalem].” Following Egypt’s January 25 Revolution, Egyptians are pushing for some of the country’s foreign relations policies to change, especially those related to Israel and Palestine … The Cairo march will start in Tahrir Square, the hub of Egypt’s revolution, on 14 May at 12pm and is expected to reach Gaza in the evening and to join the Nakba rallies in Gaza on 15 May.
http://gazatvnews.com/2011/05/egyptians-to-mark-nakba-with-a-march-to-palestine/
Video: As Nakba Day approaches, Israeli troops conquer a simulated Arab village / Max Blumenthal
8 May — 63 years ago today, before the Arab armies had entered Palestine, and before Israel had declared its independence, Zionist militias were engaged in the conquest and ethnic cleansing of dozens of villages, from Abu al-Fadl near present-day Ramle to Akbara, which was 2 kilometers south of Safed. This week, as Palestinians plan to observe the formal anniversary of their dispossession on May 15, or ‘Nabka Day’, the Jerusalem Post’s Benjamin Speier reported that Israeli soldiers from the 202 paratrooper battalion “put their skills into action by conquering a simulation Arab village.” “Each platoon needs to likhbush [conquer] an area in the village, and we get to likhbush an area called Yassin, south Yassin,” said company commander Matan Pelen. After the exercise was completed, Pelen commented, “This area is now ours, it’s under our control.” Whether or not the Israeli army is training to literally seize a village and expel its residents, the reliance by modern day Israelis on a colonial vocabulary exposes the state’s essential mission.
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/05/as-nakba-day-approaches-israeli-troops-conquer-a-simulated-arab-village.html
Galilee Arabs to hold ‘Nakba march’
JPost 9 May — Over a thousand Arab Israelis are expected to hold a protest march in the Galilee on Tuesday to mourn 63 years since the Palestinian exodus that accompanied the founding of the state, the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee said on Sunday. Tuesday is Israel’s Independence Day. Muhammad Zidane, the head of the committee, told The Jerusalem Post the march would pass from the former site of the village of al-Ruways to the one-time site of the village Amoun before holding a vigil at the entrance to the present day village of Kabul, 14 kilometers southeast of Acre. According to Zidane, both villages were destroyed during the War of Independence after their residents fled. “The message of this day is that we don’t forget what happened and we are asking that those who left their villages must be allowed to return,” Zidane said. He said there are around 300,000 Arabs in Israel who were displaced during the war and lost any land rights to their former homes.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=219825&R=R2
Israeli forces
Israeli police force storms Aqsa plaza, threatens its guards
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) 9 May — An Israeli police force stormed the Aqsa mosque’s plaza before midnight Sunday and threatened its guards if they don’t open the gate into Khatneye library. One of the guards told the Quds information center in a telephone contact that the policemen claimed they wanted to search the library but the guards refused. He said that a policeman threatened to arrest him if he did not comply with the search order and phoned a police station to further terrorize him. He said the policemen then asked to see IDs of the guards, who also refused saying they were on duty as employees in the Islamic Awkaf that is under Jordanian jurisdiction and no one had the right to ask for their IDs or search the library.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87
Rahat objects to IDF Independence Day exhibit
Ynet 9 May – Source says Bedouin city’s mayor, who represents Islamic Movement, ‘would rather have Nakba Day’ — The head of Rahat’s business licensing department tried to prevent the IDF from establishing an exhibition of its tanks and weaponry at the entrance to the Bedouin town on Monday, apparently on orders from the mayor, who is a representative of the Islamic Movement.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4066563,00.html
Restriction of movement
Islamic leader banned from Haifa Uni event
Ynet 9 May — Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, will not participate in a Haifa University event because his presence poses “a likely danger to the public,” the Haifa District Court ruled Monday. The court denied an appeal submitted by the Arab student group A‘akra to overturn the university’s decision to forbid Salah’s attendance. Members of A‘akra, which is associated with the Islamic Movement, invited Salah and other public figures to participate in an event that is set to take place this coming Wednesday under the title “Racism and Discriminating Laws.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4066621,00.html
Siege / Blockade
Gaza locked down as Israel marks Independence Day
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 9 May — The sole operating crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip was shut down Monday as Israel observed a national holiday … Palestinian liaison official Raed Fattouh said Israeli forces told him the crossing would remain closed on Tuesday, and open for limited imports on Wednesday. Gaza imports have been low over the past two months, with closures imposed for holidays as well as a week-long shut-down for “security reasons” ahead of a period of intense cross-border fire between factions and Israeli forces. Aid agencies have estimated that imports were as low as 25 percent of pre-siege levels.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=386032
Israel’s blockade of Gaza is cracking / Noura Erakat
AJE 9 May — Sealing coastal territory undermines past diplomacy – and siege is likely to be broken by post-revolution Egypt … Egypt has announced that it will open its border crossing with Gaza on a permanent basis, thereby reversing Egypt’s collusion with Israel’s blockade regime … Egypt’s decision is a resumption of the status quo ante — According to the Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA), brokered by the US and the European Union to facilitate the transfer of authority for crossings from the Government of Israel to the Palestinian Authority following Israel’s unilateral disengagement from Gaza, Egypt is authorised to control the Rafah crossing on its side of the border, in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority. Following internecine fighting in 2007, in which Hamas forces were routed from the West Bank but took control of the Gaza Strip, the border crossing agreement, along with Egyptian and EU participation was suspended — but not terminated.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/201159153020317825.html
Haniyya: Gaza reconstruction to start under under Qatari and Egyptian support
IMEMC 8 May — …Haniyya said that there is an official commitment, especially from Qatar, to rebuild what Israeli destroyed during the war on Gaza. The Hamas leader added that the Islamic Bank in Jedda wired $137 million that would be used in paving the roads, rehabilitating and constructing the sewage system, and for building schools. He also said that international institutions, including the UNDP [UN Development Programme], do not accept to supervise any constructions if the materials used were smuggled through the tunnels, “But, after they found out that the people started the reconstruction process, it informed the government that it is willing to use these materials,” the Arabs48 news website reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61197
Detention / Court actions
Family said detained near Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 9 May — Israeli forces detained a Beit Sahour couple and the husband’s elderly mother during a raid on their home overnight Sunday, witnesses said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said there were no detentions in the Bethlehem area overnight. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society in Bethlehem said Assi Qassis, his wife Rose and his mother Martine were seen being taken by Israeli forces from their home east of the city, in the town of Beit Sahour. Witnesses told the society that no reason had been given for the detentions.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=386103
Ministry asks Red Cross to pressure Israel into allowing visits to prisoners
GAZA, (PIC) 9 May — The Gaza ministry of prisoners called on the Red Cross to exert more efforts to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails and to reactivate the program of visits by relatives from Gaza that had stopped for the past four years … It noted that the Red Cross had genuinely shouldered its responsibility in various areas of the world but when it comes to Israel it could not extend such assistance and does not pressure Israel to abide by international doctrines.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MD
Jenin woman enters 10th year in Israeli jail
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 9 May — Palestinian detainee Qahira Al-Sadi entered her 10th year in an Israeli jail on Sunday, the Ministry of Detainees’ in Gaza said. Al-Sadi, 35, was sentenced to life imprisonment accused of affiliation to Islamic Jihad and aiding a suicide bomber, the ministry said. Al-Sadi, from Jenin, has four children, but only two of them are allowed to visit her in Hasharon prison. Israeli authorities banned her two children aged over 16 and her three brothers from visiting her. The ministry said she has lost several teeth but the prison authorities have refused to allow her dental treatment.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=386224
Hamas: We have no information on report of new Shalit deal
Haaretz 9 May — The Islamist Hamas movement dampened expectations Monday of a prisoner exchange with Israel, which would see hundreds of Palestinian prisoners freed in exchange for Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, held in the Gaza Strip for nearly five years. “We have no information on this topic,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zhuri told the German Press Agency dpa. On Sunday, Al Jazeera had reported that Hamas has agreed in principle to a new proposal aimed at securing Shalit’s release. The report said the plan was formulated by Egypt.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-we-have-no-information-on-report-of-new-shalit-deal-1.360749
Report: Israel compensates Nablus business
TEL AVIV (Ma‘an) 9 May– An Israeli court in Haifa agreed to the suit of a Nablus man seeking compensation for damages to his restaurant during an Israeli operation on Jabal Jerzim in 2003, Israel’s daily newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday. Said Mesbah, the owner of the restaurant and a Nablus resident, filed the suit in 2006, accusing Israeli forces of causing undue destruction to the building. He said his restaurant was used as a storehouse and barracks for almost a year, throughout which Mesbah was denied access. Israeli justice Yesrael Geron awarded the plaintiff 430,000 shekels ($124,619) in compensation and 50,000 shekels ($14,490) in court costs, the report said. Homes and shops are regularly taken over by Israeli forces during military operations. Families generally have little recourse to the law, with officials citing military necessity for damages.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=385978
Activism / Solidarity / BDS
Video: Is BDS strong at American universities? / Joseph Dana
+972mag 8 May — Yesterday I blogged a quote about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement uttered by Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak in a long interview with Haaretz. In a rare move, Barak acknowledged the power of the BDS movement.The following piece, published in The Forward about the power of BDS on American university campuses, is a nice continuation to the ‘how strong is BDS’ debate. Note that the piece solely concerns the United States.
http://972mag.com/is-bds-strong-at-american-universities/
Video: Alice Walker- Freedom Ride
Fifty years ago, on May 4, 1961, the first bus of the Freedom Rides left Washington D.C. headed to New Orleans, with people committed to challenging segregation. The Freedom Rides were one of the sparks that contributed to a movement to dismantle a degrading system that violated human rights. In an interview with organizers from The U.S. Boat to Gaza, Alice Walker, one of our nation’s foremost contemporary writers and the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize, likened the planned Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza to the Freedom Rides by saying “this is the Freedom Ride of this era.” In the U.S. the racist system of segregation was challenged; in South Africa the racist system of apartheid was challenged; in Palestine the racist system of occupation and apartheid, enforced by the Israeli government and supported by the U.S government, is being challenged and will come to an end … Take a moment to view this short video of Alice Walker, and check ustogaza.org to learn more about what you can do today to help ensure the success of this mission.
http://palestinevideo.blogspot.com/2011/05/alice-walker-freedom-ride.html
Gaza flotilla scheduled for late June
AP 9 May — An aid flotilla will depart for the Gaza Strip in the third week of June, just over a year after a similar flotilla was raided by Israeli forces, leaving nine people dead on a Turkish boat, activists said Monday. A coalition of pro-Palestinian groups, most of them based in Europe, announced the date in a statement after a meeting in Paris. The unfolding plans for the new flotilla set up a possible confrontation with Israel, which has vowed to stop any attempt to breach its sea blockade of Gaza.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4066681,00.html
Budrus: A West Bank village’s emblematic struggle for its land / Harriet Sherwood
Guardian 9 May — Today sees the DVD release of Budrus, a documentary film about a Palestinian village’s struggle against the route of Israel’s separation barrier. Budrus has deservedly won many awards and if you didn’t get a chance to see it at the cinema, now’s your chance to catch up … for me, there is a compelling sub-story about the role of women — and two in particular: Morrar’s 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, who conquers her fears to lead the village’s women into struggle; and Yasmine Levy, a squad commander in the Israeli border police, who grapples with her discomfort at having to deal with women protesters.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/view-from-jerusalem-with-harriet-sherwood/2011/may/09/palestinian-territories-israel
Unity
Palestinians to meet again in Cairo next week
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 9 May — Representatives of Palestinian factions will meet in Cairo next week, where committees of delegates will be appointed to see through the implementation of a unity deal signed in the Egyptian capital last week. Head of the coalition of independent figures Abdul-Aziz Shiqaqi said in a statement Monday that the first committee to be appointed would be charged with the construction of a new Palestinian Authority cabinet, including prime minister and cabinet posts.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=386044
Abu Kuwaik: Specialized committees to dismantle security apparatuses
RAMALLAH, (PIC) 9 May — Sheikh Hussein Abu Kuwaik, a Hamas leader, said that specialized committees would be formed to study means of dismantling the existing security apparatuses then restructuring them. He told an Aqsa TV program on Saturday night that the security issue was the most complicated issue in the reconciliation process. He said that presence of true intentions on the part of Fatah would lead to resolving all issues including the Zionist pressures, which, he said, the Palestinians should face with united ranks.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd
Shtayyeh: Fatah recommends postponing new elections
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 9 May — Fatah will recommend postponing local elections scheduled for July 9, Central Committee member Mohammad Shtayyeh said Monday. The reconciliation of Fatah and Hamas in Cairo last week created a new situation where all decisions must be made by national consensus, the Fatah official said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=386274
Fatah: Party has right to restore institutions in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 9 May — Buildings and institutions in Gaza formerly used as Fatah institutions should be rebuilt and restored for use by the party, Fatah lawmaker in Gaza Faysal Abu Shahla told Ma‘an on Monday. The legislator and member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council said several buildings in Gaza had been taken over by Hamas in 2007 when security services loyal to the rival parties engaged in bloody street battles. The strife ended in the takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas, and the establishment of Fatah-dominated rule in the West Bank. Following the signing of a unity deal, which saw Fatah flags fly in Gaza for the first time since 2007, Abu Shahla said his movement would start to restore its presence in the coastal enclave. Fatah personnel who were forced to leave Gaza will also soon return, the official added
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=386160
Political / Diplomatic / International
France ups Palestinian aid as Israel holds tax funds
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) 9 May — France on Monday announced it would donate 10 million euros ($14.3 million) to the Palestinian Authority after Israel froze tax revenue transfers following a Palestinian unity agreement. The aid infusion came as Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad told reporters his government was unable to pay employees because of Israel’s decision to halt revenue transfers after Fatah and Hamas inked a unity deal.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5htwngmQuz6svtlnUvC2EN_C2or6g?docId=CNG.c1abdfdf972345482d6ae381b79e6ce8.381
Fatah calls Israeli incitement against the reconciliation deal ‘political terrorism’
MEMO 9 May — A spokesman for Fatah has described as “political terrorism” the incitement by Israel against the Palestinian reconciliation agreement and national unity. In a press statement, Fayez Abu Eita said: “The incitement campaign, statements by rogue Israeli officials, calls for the reoccupation of the West Bank and demands to cut-off aid to the Palestinian people emphasise that the extremists in Israel do not like to see the Palestinians united. They seek to destroy the peace process and the legitimate struggle for a Palestinian state.”
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2322-fatah-calls-israeli-incitement-against-the-reconciliation-deal-qpolitical-terrorismq
Mesha‘al told to choose between committing to Quartet’s conditions and ‘bin Laden’s fate’
MEMO 9 May — In a startling statement, the chairman of the Israeli Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee has threatened to assassinate the head of the political bureau of Hamas. Shaul Mofaz, MK, said that Khalid Meshaal should declare his organisation’s commitment to the conditions set by the International Quartet, including the recognition of Israel, “or become a target for assassination in the way that Bin Laden was dealt with”. [Israel already poisoned Mesha‘al once, in 1997, only to be forced to give him the antidote in order to get their captured Mossad killers released]
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2321-meshaal-told-to-choose-between-committing-to-quartets-conditions-and-bin-ladens-fate
Peres: Abbas still ‘partner’ for peace
JERUSALEM (AFP) 9 May — President Mahmoud Abbas is still a partner for peace with Israel, the country’s President Shimon Peres said in an interview published on Monday. The president’s stance is at odds with that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has told Abbas to choose between peace with Israel or peace with Hamas, following the decision of the Palestinian leadership to reconcile the secularist Fatah with the Islamist Hamas.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=386240
Egypt to grant citizenship to kids of Palestinian dads
JPost 8 May — Egypt’s decision to grant citizenship to the children of Palestinians married to Egyptian women is being hailed as a victory for women’s rights in Cairo — and equally welcomed in Israel but for political reasons … The move came following protests in Cairo by scores of Egyptian mothers of Palestinians demanding that they not be singled out. An amendment to the Egyptian Nationality Law in 2004 allowed Egyptian mothers married to foreigners to pass on their citizenship. But legislators wrote the amendment to exclude Palestinians, ostensibly out of deference to a decision by the Arab League in 1957 urging Arab states not to grant citizenship to Palestinians in order to protect their national identity … Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have never granted Palestinians citizenship. Only Jordan among the Arab countries has given Palestinians full citizenship and they now are believed to make up the bulk of the Jordanian population … Taisir Khaled, head of the Palestinian Authority’s expatriate department … estimated that some 100,000 Palestinians live in Egypt, a nation of 80 million. He said that their children had been suffering discrimination for years, especially when it comes to their residence papers and education expenses.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=219754&R=R1
Abbas meets J Street delegation in Ramallah
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 9 May — President Mahmoud Abbas met with Washington-based Israel advocacy group J Street in his Ramallah office Monday, the organization said. Abbas told the delegation he was willing to start negotiations with Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would freeze illegal settlement building for two or three months, J Street said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=386114
Other news
Israel’s textbooks in Arabic are full of mistakes
Haaretz 9 May — Anyone who examines textbooks approved by the Education Ministry finds the ministry’s authorization alongside a list of experts who were responsible for the process of proofreading and copy-editing. Even if they do not necessarily agree with their content, most people sense that they are at least written correctly, whether that be in Arabic or Hebrew. However, an examination of many textbooks used in Arab schools reveals concerning information about mistakes in language, syntax and grammar. According to a report by the Arab Cultural Association, based on a comprehensive study of the language and contents in third grade through ninth grade textbooks, it emerges that there are at least 16,255 mistakes … Dr. George Mansour, who examined the history textbooks, found that the books ignore the presence of the Arab-Palestinian people in Israel and the stress is on the Promised Land of the Jewish people: “There is a process of de-Palestinization, instilling of the Zionist narrative and minimizing of Arab culture,” reported Dr. Mansour.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-s-textbooks-in-arabic-are-full-of-mistakes-study-finds-1.360617
ID cards to commemorate Shoah dead
Ynet 9 May — New serial numbers to begin at 6,000,000 – number of Jews who perished in Holocaust – and include six Stars of David, representing six million victims [interesting comment by Ynet reader ‘Josh’: “So Wrong! I thought Jews were numbered without consent in camps. It was a cursed time. Do I really want a badge of pride in my pocket that I have a holacuast stamp on my ID? I bless the G-d of our nation that such numbering never happens to me and now an oppressive ID wants me to have an hollocaust ID number to prove I am a Jew/Israeli? There is an irony to choose death attitudes and a desire to number our own people. What side are we on?! Pure racist arrogance and trampling on the graves of the lost. What about the goyim that died? What about those who stood against Hitler and said this is wrong and died? COUNT ALL THE DEATHS if you are going to number me with such. I don’t want to be a racist and ignore the other unrighteous deaths if I am going to look down at such a number on my face picture and a chip with my fingrprints on it!”]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4065400,00.html
‘On its 63rd birthday, Israel is a shining beacon in the Middle East’
“Brothers and sisters, our heart is filled with pride today for what we have managed to build here with sweat and hard work,” [Knesset Speaker Reuven] Rivlin said, adding “we must not belittle what we have achieved. Israel of 2011 is a Jewish democratic state, a shining beacon in the heart of the oppressing and cruel Middle East.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/on-its-63rd-birthday-israel-is-a-shining-beacon-in-the-middle-east-1.360780
Livni honors Jewish ‘freedom fighters’
Ynet 9 May — Opposition chairwoman attends state memorial ceremony for members of Jewish resistance movements, says ‘those fighting against us are terrorists and those we are mourning, celebrating their bravery were freedom fighters’ … The opposition leader remembered her father, the late Eitan Livni, who was a senior Irgun member (Zionist paramilitary group that operated during the British mandate of Palestine), and was released during the Akko prison break.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4066627,00.html
Video: All Israelis to be sent to bomb shelters as part of civil defense drill / Noam Sheizaf
+972mag 9 May — Israeli papers ran instructions for the event of missile attack; army’s TV commercials that contained alarm sounds caused panic and were taken of the air … The ads were part of a recent campaign, launched by the army’s Civil Command.
http://972mag.com/israeli-papers-to-run-instructions-in-the-event-of-missile-attack/
Israel to invest 1 billion in Iron Dome missile defense system
Haaretz 9 May — Defense Ministry director general Maj. Gen. (res.) Udi Shani says that Israel plans to invest nearly $1 billion in the coming years for the development and production of Iron Dome rocket interception batteries. Shani reveals that five countries have already expressed an interest in the system, especially following its successful operational interception of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip last month.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-to-invest-1-billion-in-iron-dome-missile-defense-system-1.360610
Police: Details of honor killing ‘shocking’
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 9 May — Police identified the remains of a 20-year-old woman found in a well near Hebron on Friday, over a year after her disappearance. Her uncle and three other relatives were detained and questioned. Police told Ma‘an on Sunday that the death was an honor killing, to which her uncle confessed, and revealed the grim details about the woman’s murder. Local prosecutor Ashraf Mash‘al identified the woman as Ayah Ibrahim Barad‘iyya from the southern West Bank town of Surif … The would-be fiancé, who spoke with Ma‘an on condition on anonymity because he had recently married, was devastated by the news. “This is not an uncle, neither is he a human being even. He is brutal. How did he imagine that bluff about an [improper] relationship between me and her? What baseless imaginations led him to that conclusion? How can a sensitive, mature and educated girl meet such an end?…”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=385727
Analysis / Opinion
Visualizing the changing Nakba narrative / Yousef Munayyer
9 May — …you don’t have to spend time in the Haganah Archives pouring over village files to realize that argument doesn’t make any sense, but I spent a good amount of time doing that anyway. Village files were an extensive series of documents collected by the Zionists a decade prior to 1948 detailing everything about every village in Palestine. The level of detail is consistent with a first-world military intelligence operation. They knew everything from the names of the villagers, how much land they owned, their salaries, the status of relations they had with each other, other villages and Jews, the names of their leaders, the number and types of weapons they had, if any, the principle sources of livelihood for the village, their political affiliations and the names and addresses of those in the village that were active in the Arab revolt from 1936-39. I doubt the Zionists were keeping this information to send annual holiday greeting cards to Palestinian villagers. In reality, this military intelligence informed depopulation operations that started well before May 15th, 1948 … The graph below depicts use of the word Nakba over time on the internet … this is an indication of the increased prevalence of the word Nakba used in English. This means a steady and consistent increase in the number of conscience choices made by English speakers to include the the most significant word of the Palestinian narrative in their English language writing on the matter. By simply Googling the word during annual search periods, the trend is revealed.
http://blog.thejerusalemfund.org/2011/05/visualizing-changing-nakba-narrative.html
Doomed to fight / Aluf Benn
Haaretz 9 May — Though delivered 55 years ago, Moshe Dayan’s eulogy for Roi Rotberg continues to articulate Israel’s situation in its dispute with the Arabs … The legendary chief of staff, the person who exemplified the IDF’s spirit of aggressive activism, expressed sensitivity toward the emotions of the enemy who dwelled across the border: “Let us not cast the blame on the murderers today. Why should we deplore their burning hatred for us? For eight years they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we have been transforming the lands and the villages, where they and their fathers dwelt, into our estate,” declared Dayan. Today, Dayan would be accused of post-Zionism, of sympathizing with terror, of violating the “Nakba Law.” But in those days, memories of the 1948 War of Independence were still fresh, and evidence of deserted Arab houses and ruined Arab villages was manifest.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/doomed-to-fight-1.360698
Film: Elia Suleiman’s sublime ‘The Time that remains’ / Jimmy Johnson
9 May — The Time That Remains: Chronicle of a Present Absentee is a beautiful, poetic and intimate look at the experience of Palestinians in Israel through the passionate and surrealist lens of writer-director-co-star Elia Suleiman. Suleiman’s best work to date, the autobiographical film explores both the conquering of Palestine by the Zionist army and the development of Palestinians and Israelis into what former Jerusalem Deputy Mayor and author Meron Benvenisti called “intimate enemies.”
http://electronicintifada.net/content/elia-suleimans-sublime-time-remains/9924
When the ‘People of the Book’ turn to banning ideas / Louis Frankenthaler
+972mag 8 May …If it is not enough to struggle over democratic regression in Israel, because of the Occupation, because of racism and the creeping de-democratic proto-fascist tendencies in the Israeli Parliament we have to wage this struggle overseas. In Israel there is a highly trained, obedient and voracious cadre of self anointed Guardians of Zion. They monitor the human rights NGOs, watch, listen and report on ‘anti-Israel’ academics and have quite literally infiltrated the policy-making mechanisms of Israel. These forces have been omnipresent in the US as well for some time and in comparing them it would be hard pressed to answer the riddle of what came first – the Campus Watch egg or the NGO Monitor chicken. But both have snaked their way (no offense to snakes intended) beyond their normal territory.
http://972mag.com/when-the-%E2%80%9Cpeople-of-the-book%E2%80%9D-turn-to-banning-ideas-thoughts-and-dissent/
