Let The Global Boycott of Israel Begin

1. IOF: 0, Goth Girl:1
January 15th, 2006
by Katie

One of the activities of ISM is to create a physical presence of
support for Palestinians resisting the occupation. The presence of
international volunteers with cameras in the West Bank has a deterring
effect on brutality and excess violence by the Israeli military who
want to avoid the bad publicity of an international incident. It is
abhorrent that the lives of international volunteers are given more
value than that of Palestinians, but this unfortunately is the reality
in Palestine. This is a symptom of the new anti-Semitism. Like Jews
were scapegoated by the 3rd Reich, Arabs and Muslims have become the
new scapegoats of the governments of the West who are incapable of
doing any introspection beyond "Why do they hate us so much?".
Bil'in is a village of about 1000 people just north east of Ramallah.
For the past year, the village has been resisting the seizure of their
land by the Israeli government who have developed a large settlement
nearby on the villager's land. A wall is being built up around the
settlement, cutting the Palestinians off from their former farm land.
In response to this illegal seizure of the land (building settlements
on occupied land is illegal under international law) the village has
built their own "settlement" on the Israeli side of the wall. This
is a one room shack built in protest.
The shack has been threatened with demolition because the Israeli
government calls it "illegal" which is, of course, quite ironic.
For the past few days we have been supporting the Palestinians of
Bil'in by being present at their "settlement," hoping to protect
it from demolition. This is just one of the creative, non-violent
methods the Palestinian resistance is using to draw attention to their
cause.
It was very heart-warming sitting around a campfire at the shack with
Palestinian, Israeli and international activists singing songs, goofing
off and having fun together. It could have been the opening line to
some sarcastic joke, but it was real, honest and genuine and that made
me very happy.
The IDF showed up a few times, we thought maybe they would try to bust
up our party but they came and left rather quickly.
People have questioned what is the point of doing this ? What is it
accomplishing ? Last night I saw for the first time what our presence
accomplishes.
Abdullah is the owner of the apartment we are staying in in Bil'in
and one of the ISM leaders in Bil'in. He woke us up last night at
around 2am saying there were Israeli soldiers in the village and that
we needed to come out and demonstrate to them that there were people
here who would hold them accountable for anything they did, that they
would not be able to go around terrorizing the village and get away
with it.
We walked down the street to the mosque where they had passed by
earlier and littered the ground a bunch of leaflets. The leaflets said:
"To the people of Bil'in
The Israeli Defense Force who are protecting the Israeli civilians from
terrorist acts are determined to prevent any act that creates obstacles
to the work on the security fence.
The construction of the security fence aims to prevent terrorists from
getting into Israel.
Do not participate in any acts that create obstacles for the building
of the security fence.
Do not let those people (demonstrators) effect your daily life. These
acts are against your interests.
The IDF will respond strongly to any act that might effect the security
fence.
-IDF leadership"
Someone called Abdullah on his phone and said they were heading our
way. A few seconds later two humvees with approximately 6 or 7 soldiers
in full riot gear pulled up. I walked straight towards them, not really
having any plan of what to do or say, just knowing that I needed to
confront them and show them that there were people here who were not
going to let them get away with bad behavior. My heart was pounding in
my chest. I was thinking "ok, this is it, this is how it ends, you
are going to get shot right here and this is how you are going to
die." But you know, I would rather take 100 of their bullets right
now, than die of old age later because I was afraid to stand up for
what I believed in, and so I kept on walking. And of course I didn't
get shot, of course I had nothing to be afraid of because I am not
Palestinian. We stood in front of them and Marcy told them in Hebrew
they they should go home and that they were not welcome here. They told
her to go home. It was tense for a few minutes as six unarmed women and
two unarmed men stood in front of the seven or eight fully armed
soldier waving their guns around. Then they left. Our first victory !


2. Three Consecutive Days of Attacks In Tel Rumeida; Baruch Marzel
Beats Palestinian Woman
January 15th, 2006-01-15

After three consecutive days of numerous acts of settler violence in
Tel Rumeida, Hebron, the IDF and Police are doing very little to stop
or arrest settlers who violently oppose the removal of settlers from
the illegally occupied Palestinian wholesale market in Hebron's Old
City. Some soldiers do nothing while the settlers attack Palestinians
or the Human Rights Workers (HRWs) who live in Tel Rumeida to support
them, whereas other soldiers do intervene at different levels. This
disparity shows that the IDF has not issued clear orders to protect the
Palestinian or international population of Tel Rumeida. During an
attack a police car drove by, and HRWs asked for help, the police said
"we will not defend you. It is not our job. You choose to be on the
street, so this is your own responsibility." HRWs explained that
Palestinian families were constantly threatened, insulted, hit and had
their homes and shops attacked and that this is why they must remain on
the street to intervene in settler attacks.
On the 14th of January, settlers, some in black masks, hit a
Palestinian man walking home on the back of the head with a rock thrown
from the roof of their building as Human Rights Workers (HRWs)
accompanied him. Shortly thereafter a mob of approximately 40 settlers,
averaging 15 years of age, attacked a small group of Human Rights
Workers (HRWs) kicking, punching and hitting them with sticks. Soldiers
did not effectively stop them. Then settlers began to try to kick the
door to a Palestinian home. The owner opened the door and the settlers
began kicking him and trying to enter his home. One HRW got past the
settlers and blocked the door to prevent the settlers from entering the
home. Settlers then kicked him violently. Soldiers then removed the HRW
instead of removing the settlers. Settlers, not wanting their violence
captured on video tape attempted repeatedly to steal and break the HRWs
video cameras. Settlers kicked an HRW in the face, cutting his chin,
because he would not let go of his camera. HRWs called police for
assistance three separate times during this attack but police did not
arrive till 45 minutes after they were originally called. Police cars
have been hit by settlers throwing purple paint bombs, and others have
been throwing light bulbs filled with paint.
On the 12th of January, a Palestinian resident of Tel Rumeida ,
reported that a group of young settlers attacked a relative. Led by
Baruch Marzel, a notorious settler, they were punching and kicking her
until she fled to the nearby checkpoint. During this attack, he called
out to soldiers near the Beit Hadassah soldier's post who did not
respond. No HRWs were present for the beginning of the attack, but one
HRW did witness the woman running, screaming towards the checkpoint in
fear.
PRESS ARE INVITED TO JOIN HUMAN RIGHTS WORKERS IN TEL RUMEIDA TO
WITNESS THE SETTLER VIOLENCE FIRST HAND. VIDEO AND STILLS OF SOME
INCIDENTS ARE AVAILABLE.
Contact:
Luna, Tel Rumeida Project - 054 557 3154 http://www.telrumeidaproject.org
David, International Solidarity Movement - 054 651 7234
http://www.palsolidarity.org


3. An Invitation for Barak Obama
January 15th, 2006
by Katie

The morning of Thursday, January 12, myself, and other Palestinian and
international activists were invited to the branch of Jerusalem
University in Ramallah for a conference that Barak Obama, the US
senator from Illinois, was holding with students. The others were
skeptical about him, but I assured them that he is a very progressive
politician and he would be supportive of the Palestinian cause.
Barak Obama began the conference by saying how surprised he was that it
was cold and raining in Ramallah, that it went against his preconceived
notions about the climate in the Middle East. He spoke about his
background and how he was the underdog in his race for the Senate. He
explained to us that even though the US has made many foreign policy
mistakes, that he believed in our system of checks and balances. He
then offered to start a dialog with the audience.
One student asked how Arab governments can create a paradigm shift and
improve relations with the US. When he answered the question, I tried
not to give in to frustrated laughter because, I shit you not, this is
what he said (I am paraphrasing and my comments are in parenthesis):
The Arab governments need to embrace democracy, not theocracy. When you
allow the will of God to influence the laws of your country, you will
not win the support of the US. (what about Israel claiming they have
the God given right to rule this land ?) The Arab governments need to
renounce violence against civilians. (What about 100,000 dead Iraqis,
were all of those people terrorists, Baathists, foreign fighters or
were some of them civilians ?) The US is opposed to theocracy and
terrorism and if the Arab governments want to create a paradigm shift,
they need to address these concerns of ours.
So then I asked him, "You say the US is opposed to theocracy and
terrorism, how can you explain to the Palestinian people how the US can
be opposed to these things but still supports a state that has racist,
oppressive, unjust and apartheid policies. And do you see how this
paints an inconsistent picture to the people of the Middle East?"
He began his answer by saying he would not accept the assumptions I
made and therefor was not going to address that part of my question. He
said he could understand the Palestinian view that the policies of the
US were one sided but he said the relationship with Israel was not
going to change. My high hopes for Barak Obama's foreign policy ideas
were shot down !
Obama said this was his first trip to the Middle East, that he had just
come from Qatar and Jordan. I imagine he stayed in some pretty fancy
hotels. I'm not sure that if you are a powerful American politician
on your first ever trip to the middle east that you can really get a
good idea of what things are like here.
So Barak Obama, I would like to send you an invitation. I invite you to
consider that maybe your preconceived notions about the weather in the
Middle East are not the only notions that were incorrect. Barak Obama,
I would like to invite you to stand in line at Qalandia checkpoint, I
would like you to witness the humiliation Palestinians face there,
I'd like to invite you to take part in a peaceful demonstration like
Mohammad Mansour was doing when his friend was shot and killed, or
Roni, who was shot in the neck and who is now paralysed from the waist
down. I'd like to invite you to acknowledge that there are families
on the Palestinian side of the wall who cannot travel 5 minutes away to
the next village to see their familes on the Israeli side of the wall.
I would invite you to meet Ahmad, a five year old boy I met on the way
back from Jenin whose father was killed by Israeli soldiers. I would
like you to consider that if a Palestinian wants to leave the country
by plane , he or she cannot leave via Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv,
he or she must travel by land to Jordan and leave via the airport in
Amman. This is the Middle East's only democracy, Mr. Obama ! I would
invite you to consider how the unconditional support for Israel with US
tax dollars affects 4 million Palestinian people who just want to live
their lives and be free from oppression.


4. Let The Global Boycott of Israel Begin
January 15th, 2006

With the occupation of Palestine in its 39th year, the continuing
construction of the Apartheid Wall and Israel refusing any
accountability for its crimes against the Palestinian people, it falls
on the global community to pressure the State of Israel to comply with
International law.
Lend your support for the county of Sor-Trondelag's Boycott Israel
motion, and read the following oped by Norman Finkelstein, which
appears on his website and in the January 14 issue of the Norwegian
newspaper Aftenposten, "Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is
Justified."

Dear friends
The Norwegian region of Sor-Trondelag has passed a motion to boycott
Israeli goods as a way of pressuring Israel to end the occupation and
the oppression of the Palestinian people. You can read the motion in
English on stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1061.shtml. The
representatives of Sor-Trondelag have experienced massive Zionist
pressure after the passing of the motion and some fear that they will
vote against the boycott in a new voting. For example has the Simon
Wiesenthal Centre and other Zionist organizations called the elected
representatives of Sor-Trondelag "nazis" and "racists".
We hope you will send a letter of support for the motion to:
Mayor Tore Sandvik
Sør-Trøndelag county municipality
tore.sandvik [at] stfk.no (please send a BLIND COPY to fup [at] palestina.no)
Pleases add a copy for:
Arne Braut (faction leader of the Center Party)
arne.braut [at] stfk.no
Ola Huke (faction leader of Socialist Left Party)
ola.huke [at] stfk.no
Sor-Trondelag Labor Party
sor-trondelag [at] dna.no
Yngve Brox (faction leader of the Conservative Party)
yngve.brox [at] stfk.no
Left Party
fredrik [at] liberal.no
Heidi Klokkervold (Red Electoral Alliance)
heidi.klokkervold [at] stfk.no
in solidarity
Lars Klottrup Berge
Youth For the Freedom of Palestine
Norway


5. Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified
January 14, 2006 (originally published in the Norwegian newspaper
Aftenposten)
(http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=130)
by Norman G. Finkelstein

The recent proposal that Norway boycott Israeli goods has provoked
passionate debate. In my view, a rational examination of this issue
would pose two questions: 1) Do Israeli human rights violations warrant
an economic boycott? and 2) Can such a boycott make a meaningful
contribution toward ending these violations? I would argue that both
these questions should be answered in the affirmative.
Although the subject of many reports by human rights organizations,
Israel's real human rights record in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory is generally not well known abroad. This is primarily due to
the formidable public relations industry of Israel's defenders as
well as the effectiveness of their tactics of intimidation, such as
labeling critics of Israeli policy anti-Semitic.
Yet, it is an incontestable fact that Israel has committed a broad
range of human rights violations, many rising to the level of war
crimes and crimes against humanity. These include:
Illegal Killings. Whereas Palestinian suicide attacks targeting Israeli
civilians have garnered much media attention, Israel's quantitatively
worse record of killing non-combatants is less well known. According to
the most recent figures of the Israeli Information Center for Human
Rights in the Occupied Territories (B'Tselem), 3,386 Palestinians
have been killed since September 2000, of whom 1,008 were identified as
combatants, as opposed to 992 Israelis killed, of whom 309 were
combatants. This means that three times more Palestinians than Israelis
have been killed and up to three times more Palestinian civilians than
Israeli civilians. Israel's defenders maintain that there's a
difference between targeting civilians and inadvertently killing them.
B'Tselem disputes this: "[W]hen so many civilians have been killed
and wounded, the lack of intent makes no difference. Israel remains
responsible." Furthermore, Amnesty International reports that
"many" Palestinians have not been accidentally killed but
"deliberately targeted," while the award-winning New York Times
journalist Chris Hedges reports that Israeli soldiers "entice
children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport."
Torture. "From 1967," Amnesty reports, "the Israeli security
services have routinely tortured Palestinian political suspects in the
Occupied Territories." B'Tselem found that eighty-five percent of
Palestinians interrogated by Israeli security services were subjected
to "methods constituting torture," while already a decade ago Human
Rights Watch estimated that "the number of Palestinians tortured or
severely ill-treated" was "in the tens of thousands - a number that
becomes especially significant when it is remembered that the universe
of adult and adolescent male Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is
under three-quarters of one million." In 1987 Israel became "the
only country in the world to have effectively legalized torture"
(Amnesty). Although the Israeli Supreme Court seemed to ban torture in
a 1999 decision, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
reported in 2003 that Israeli security forces continued to apply
torture in a "methodical and routine" fashion. A 2001 B'Tselem
study documented that Israeli security forces often applied "severe
torture" to "Palestinian minors."
House demolitions. "Israel has implemented a policy of mass
demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories,"
B'Tselem reports, and since September 2000 "has destroyed some
4,170 Palestinian homes." Until just recently Israel routinely
resorted to house demolitions as a form of collective punishment.
According to Middle East Watch, apart from Israel, the only other
country in the world that used such a draconian punishment was Iraq
under Saddam Hussein. In addition, Israel has demolished thousands of
"illegal" homes that Palestinians built because of Israel's
refusal to provide building permits. The motive behind destroying these
homes, according to Amnesty, has been to maximize the area available
for Jewish settlers: "Palestinians are targeted for no other reason
than they are Palestinians." Finally, Israel has destroyed hundred of
homes on security pretexts, yet a Human Rights Watch report on Gaza
found that "the pattern of destruction...strongly suggests that
Israeli forces demolished homes wholesale, regardless of whether they
posed a specific threat." Amnesty likewise found that "Israel's
extensive destruction of homes and properties throughout the West Bank
and Gaza...is not justified by military necessity," and that "Some
of these acts of destruction amount to grave breaches of the Fourth
Geneva Convention and are war crimes."
Apart from the sheer magnitude of its human rights violations, the
uniqueness of Israeli policies merits notice. "Israel has created in
the Occupied Territories a regime of separation based on
discrimination, applying two separate systems of law in the same area
and basing the rights of individuals on their nationality,"
B'Tselem has concluded. "This regime is the only one of its kind in
the world, and is reminiscent of distasteful regimes from the past,
such as the apartheid regime in South Africa." If singling out South
Africa for an international economic boycott was defensible, it would
seem equally defensible to single out Israel's occupation, which
uniquely resembles the apartheid regime.
Although an economic boycott can be justified on moral grounds, the
question remains whether diplomacy might be more effectively employed
instead. The documentary record in this regard, however, is not
encouraging. The basic terms for resolving the Israel-Palestine
conflict are embodied in U.N. resolution 242 and subsequent U.N.
resolutions, which call for a full Israeli withdrawal from the West
Bank and Gaza and the establishment of a Palestinian state in these
areas in exchange for recognition of Israel's right to live in peace
and security with its neighbors. Each year the overwhelming majority of
member States of the United Nations vote in favor of this two-state
settlement, and each year Israel and the United States (and a few South
Pacific islands) oppose it. Similarly, in March 2002 all twenty-two
member States of the Arab League proposed this two-state settlement as
well as "normal relations with Israel." Israel ignored the
proposal.
Not only has Israel stubbornly rejected this two-state settlement, but
the policies it is currently pursuing will abort any possibility of a
viable Palestinian state. While world attention has been riveted by
Israel's redeployment from Gaza, Sara Roy of Harvard University
observes that the "Gaza Disengagement Plan is, at heart, an
instrument for Israel's continued annexation of West Bank land and
the physical integration of that land into Israel." In particular
Israel has been constructing a wall deep inside the West Bank that will
annex the most productive land and water resources as well as East
Jerusalem, the center of Palestinian life. It will also effectively
sever the West Bank in two. Although Israel initially claimed that it
was building the wall to fight terrorism, the consensus among human
rights organizations is that it is really a land grab to annex illegal
Jewish settlements into Israel. Recently Israel's Justice Minister
frankly acknowledged that the wall will serve as "the future border
of the state of Israel."
The current policies of the Israeli government will lead either to
endless bloodshed or the dismemberment of Palestine. "It remains
virtually impossible to conceive of a Palestinian state without its
capital in Jerusalem," the respected Crisis Group recently concluded,
and accordingly Israeli policies in the West Bank "are at war with
any viable two-state solution and will not bolster Israel's security;
in fact, they will undermine it, weakening Palestinian
pragmatists...and sowing the seeds of growing radicalization."
Recalling the U.N. Charter principle that it is inadmissible to acquire
territory by war, the International Court of Justice declared in a
landmark 2004 opinion that Israel's settlements in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory and the wall being built to annex them to Israel
were illegal under international law. It called on Israel to cease
construction of the wall, dismantle those parts already completed and
compensate Palestinians for damages. Crucially, it also stressed the
legal responsibilities of the international community:
all States are under an obligation not to recognize the illegal
situation resulting from the construction of the wall in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem. They are
also under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining
the situation created by such construction. It is also for all States,
while respecting the United Nations Charter and international law, to
see to it that any impediment, resulting from the construction of the
wall, to the exercise by the Palestinian people of its right to
self-determination is brought to an end.
A subsequent U.N. General Assembly resolution supporting the World
Court opinion passed overwhelmingly. However, the Israeli government
ignored the Court's opinion, continuing construction at a rapid pace,
while Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the wall was legal.
Due to the obstructionist tactics of the United States, the United
Nations has not been able to effectively confront Israel's illegal
practices. Indeed, although it is true that the U.N. keeps Israel to a
double standard, it's exactly the reverse of the one Israel's
defenders allege: Israel is held not to a higher but lower standard
than other member States. A study by Marc Weller of Cambridge
University comparing Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory with
comparable situations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, East Timor,
occupied Kuwait and Iraq, and Rwanda found that Israel has enjoyed
"virtual immunity" from enforcement measures such as an arms
embargo and economic sanctions typically adopted by the U.N. against
member States condemned for identical violations of international law.
Due in part to an aggressive campaign accusing Europe of a "new
anti-Semitism," the European Union has also failed in its legal
obligation to enforce international law in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory. Although the claim of a "new anti-Semitism" has no basis
in fact (all the evidence points to a lessening of anti-Semitism in
Europe), the EU has reacted by appeasing Israel. It has even suppressed
publication of one of its own reports, because the authors - like the
Crisis Group and many others - concluded that due to Israeli policies
the "prospects for a two-state solution with east Jerusalem as the
capital of Palestine are receding."
The moral burden to avert the impending catastrophe must now be borne
by individual states that are prepared to respect their obligations
under international law and by individual men and women of conscience.
In a courageous initiative American-based Human Rights Watch recently
called on the U.S. government to reduce significantly its financial aid
to Israel until Israel terminates its illegal policies in the West
Bank. An economic boycott would seem to be an equally judicious
undertaking. A nonviolent tactic the purpose of which is to achieve a
just and lasting settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict cannot
legitimately be called anti-Semitic. Indeed, the real enemies of Jews
are those who cheapen the memory of Jewish suffering by equating
principled opposition to Israel's illegal and immoral policies with
anti-Semitism.


6. Scottish ISM-activist Forcefully Deported From Israel After 7 Weeks
in Prison
January 15th, 2006

At 3:00 in the morning to Friday, ISM-activist Andrew Macdonald was
forcefully deported from Israel, 7 weeks after being abducted from
Palestine by the Israeli Border Police. Still refusing to comply with
the State of Israel's policy of deporting Human Rights Workers from
Palestine, he was carried on to the plane and accompanied by two Police
Officers on the plane from Tel Aviv to London.
Before his arrest, Andrew worked in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, where ISM and
the Tel Rumeida Project provides an international presence to support
the daily Palestinian non-violent struggle against attacks from
Hebron's violent settlers. Before and after his arrest, the IDF and
the Police in the area have repeatedly been trying to get as many Human
Rights Workers (HRW's) as possible out of Tel Rumeida, by arresting
them on false accusations, trying to "negotiate" with Israel's
Ministry of Interior in order to get them deported, confiscating their
cameras and deleting video evidence of settler and military criminal
acts, issuing false Closed Military Zone Orders, and on two occasions
trying to enter their apartment without a warrant.
There is evident fear from the Israeli authorities that people around
the world will find out about their inability and unwillingness to
protect the Palestinian population of Tel Rumeida. Palestinians in Tel
Rumeida face daily acts of violence such as stone throwing, physical
abuse, spitting and insulting from the violent settlers. Out of 120
documented settler attacks in the last few months, no measures
whatsoever has been taken by the Kiryat Arba Police force, not a single
arrest has been made, even when video evidence of the attacks has been
handed over to the police by HRW's in the area. Settlers are granted
virtual unaccountability for their violent acts in this neighbourhood.
Andrew has been imprisoned for 7 weeks, one week of which in isolation,
after refusing initial deportation. He has been held in the detention
centres of Ramla and Tzohar. Throughout his imprisonment he has
received various threats from his prison commander. Threats have varied
from transferring him to a mental institution, drugging him, and to
"play games with him". He has also been subject to light torture;
whilst in isolation he was deprived of his sleep when guards refused to
turn off the lights at night. Furthermore, prison guards have
repeatedly interfered with his visiting hours, sometimes cutting them
short ahead of time, sometimes themselves sitting and wanting to take
part in the conversations between Andrew and his visitors.
For more information and to get in touch with Andrew:
ISM Media Office +972 2 297 1824 http://www.palsolidarity.org
Tel Rumeida Project +972 54 557 3154 http://www.telrumeidaproject.org