Why does Netanyahu keep winning?

by Gilad Atzmon

A few days ahead of the previous Israeli election, Haaretz’s lead writer Anshel Pfeffer,  authored a spectacular analysis of Israel’s current political deadlock: Israelis are going to the polls to decide whether they are ‘Jews’ or ‘Israelis.’ 

The first to point out the political  rivalry between ‘the Jew’and ‘the Israeli’ was  Shimon Peres who, after his narrow 1996 defeat,  lamented in a Haaretz interview that “the Israelis lost the election.” When Peres asked who won, he answered, “The Jews won.” Peres, who was born in Poland, saw himself as the ‘Israeli’ candidate, Netanyahu, who was born in Israel and served as a commander in the IDF’s top unit, was in Peres’ eyes, the political choice of the ‘Jews.’  Peres’s observation was spot on.  Politically astute and well imbued in early Zionist thought, Peres identified the emerging Identitarian conflict that was destined to break up Israeli society.

Pfeffer pointed out that in the 1990s Netanyahu was influenced by his American campaign guru, Arthur Finkelstein, to accept that “Jewishness” is the primary unifier for Israelis. This clearly applies to religious Jews but it is also true of those who regard themselves as secular and/or leftist.

While early Zionism can be understood as an uncompromising attempt to divorce the Jews from Jewishness, the ghetto and tribalism to make them “people like all other people,” the Israeli Right/Religious political call is openly driven by a nostalgic adherence to the myths of the shtetl and its walls, segregation and every other aspect of Jewish tribalism, chauvinism included. As bizarre as it may sound, Netanyahu’s transformation of Israel into a Jewish ghetto surrounded by walls and defined by a ‘Jewish National Bill’  makes him, by early Zionist standards, into an ardent anti Zionist.

According to Pfeffer,  when Netanyahu returned to power in 2009 and formed a right-wing/ religious coalition,  “the Jews prevailed” and have done so ever since.

On Monday, Netanyahu won a significant political and personal victory. He earned the votes of the people despite his complicated legal situation and some would even say, because of his legal complications. In this rivalry between the ‘Israeli’ and the ‘Jew,’ the ‘Israeli’ is beaten time after time and the ‘Jew’ consistently prevails.

The ‘Jews,’ as Shimon Peres referred to them,  see in Netanyahu a clear path towards a true spiritual homecoming. Being Likudnics can be realised as a true celebration of who and what they truly are. The ‘Israelis,’ on the other hand, were hoping for Gantz and Kachol Lavan to revive the early Zionist promise to be emancipated from what they are and to finally become people like all other Goyim whether this means nationalist patriots or cosmopolitan pacifist.  

The demography of the ‘Jewish’  camp and its ‘Israeli’ rival is pretty much separated.  Netanyahu is largely supported by Mizrahi Jews and the Israeli Religious sectors (the orthodox and settlers). Gantz and Kachol Lavan have managed to ignite the imagination of the old elites: the Ashkenazi and educated Israelis. The ‘Jews,’ as Peres referred to them, love Bibi because he manipulates the Goyim. He reduced America into an Israeli colony and practically a ‘side in the conflict’ (as opposed to an impartial negotiator).  They are proud of their Bibi and his ability to puppeteer world leaders. He bonds with the Diaspora and the Lobby, he also manages to keep American taxpayers’ dollars flowing. Bibi, as far as they can tell, is the best thing that happened in modern Jewish history.  

The ‘Israelis’ vote Kachol Lavan because they don’t like Netanyahu, they can’t stand the idea that his voters and they are considered ‘one people.’ The ‘Israeli’ shares little with the religious sectors, the settlers and even less with the ‘Jews’ who live in the periphery.   The ‘Israeli’ would like Netanyahu to be locked up behind bars and subliminally hope that his voters will evaporate into thin air.  Kachol Lavan is not a centre party. Its vision of the conflict is actually to the right of the Likud party and its vision of social matters is vague to non-existent.  It is more likely that its leaders, veteran IDF Generals, evoke amongst the ‘Israelis’ nostalgic memories of 1967: an Ashkenazi ruled state, committed to the Zionist mantra of the rejection of Jewishness.

But the ‘Israeli’ was defeated again on Monday.  Nostalgia for the most heroic moment in Israeli history didn’t seem to mature into the necessary revolution and Gantz may have finished his political role. It is likely that Kachol Lavan will disintegrate into its elements in the coming weeks.  

The phantasy of becoming ‘people like all other people’ has collapsed for two obvious reasons: 1. no other people want to be like all other people.  2. The ‘Israeli’ is far more Jewish than he or she is willing to admit.  

Arthur Finkelstein figured it out in the 1990s and Netanyahu continues to follow his campaign mentor, refining his political agenda in line with Judeo-centrism. In the state that calls itself the ‘Jewish State,’ the ‘Israeli’ is gradually becoming  rare, he has been supplanted by ‘the Jew.’

---

My battle for truth and freedom involves  some expensive legal services and security expenses. I hope that you will consider committing to a monthly donation in whatever amount you can give. Regular contributions will enable me to avoid being pushed against a wall and to stay on top of the endless harassment by Zionist operators attempting to silence me.

Donate

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

New Israeli laws threaten Palestinian civil society

At a protest in Tel Aviv an Israeli activist holds a sign in Hebrew reading:
"We won't declare loyalty to discrimination and racism,"
October 2010. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills)

Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, The Electronic Intifada, 6 December 2010

A bill recently proposed in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, requires organizations to pledge loyalty to Israel as "Jewish and democratic."

The legislation continues the trend of anti-democratic laws spreading throughout the country and threatens the existence of civil society organizations working for Palestinian rights within Israel.

In a 4 November press release, Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, declared that

"This bill violates the right of freedom of association and freedom of expression of all Arab organizations in Israel, which seek through democratic means to change the political, legal and social status in Israel. It asks those organizations to express their loyalty to the Jewish state and therefore it is not just a discriminatory law but one that seeks to oppress the rights of the Arab minority."

"This bill seeks, on a day-to-day basis, to limit and damage the work of Arab organizations. It will put them under ultra-nationalist, ideological interrogation and investigation, and it will question every serious action that they will take," Adalah added.

The erroneously-titled "Bill for Protecting the Values of the State of Israel (Amendment Legislation) 2009" was proposed by Uri Ariel, a Member of the Knesset from the extreme right-wing National Union party, on 1 June 2009. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation discussed the tenets of the new bill on 7 November.

"Enforcing a worldview"

The amendments proposed in the bill will grant the Israeli Registrar of Companies "the authority to prevent the registration of a company that aims to undermine the Jewish and democratic character of the State of Israel," according to the bill's Explanatory Remarks. The Registrar would have the authority to impose a monetary sanction and even dismantle a company that violates this provision.

In Israel, according to the bill's Explanatory Remarks, the "Jewish character of the state" takes precedence above all else. Therefore, any organization that is legally registered with the Israeli state must abide by this principle.

According to Ronit Sela, spokesperson for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), the proposed bill is very problematic because the definition of what "Jewish and democratic" means can be subject to various interpretations.

"It's not clear who the person or persons are who would be in charge of interpreting what [Jewish and democratic] means," Sela said. "There's a loophole through which people can just decide whether a certain group falls under this category, without the actual category being clearly defined. For example, an organization that wishes to act in a democratic way and promote full citizen rights to all Israeli citizens, it could still be interpreted in this proposition that such an organization will not be allowed to operate in Israel."

She explained that ACRI sent a letter to ministers in the Israeli Knesset, urging them not to support the proposed legislation, which she described as only the latest "in a long line of anti-democratic bills that have been brought forth in the current Knesset."

"I think we see an attempt by lawmakers to enforce a very specific worldview and delegitimize other worldviews. Anything that tries to narrow the work of Israeli civil society will by definition not leave a place in the public discourse for alternative world viewpoints and try to have everyone stand in line with this one worldview," Sela explained.

Targeting Palestinian citizens

According to Sami Abu Shahadeh, the Coordinator of Darna, the Popular Committee for Housing Rights in Jaffa, the new bill is not only about the community organizations and companies it is purportedly targeting -- it reflects a much wider trend of targeting the Palestinian minority in Israel.

"The state is thinking and dealing with the Palestinian minority as enemies. Now when you think of your citizens as enemies, you plan for them as enemies. This is why we are having this [development] of racist laws in the last few years and also all this racist political discourse all the time," Abu Shahadeh said.

He added that every Israeli citizen is being asked to be loyal "according to [Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor] Lieberman's agenda" and if Palestinians resist this push, they are either imprisoned or spoken about as a demographic threat to the Jewish majority.

"What's really being done is that Israeli society is becoming more and more similar to fascist Italy of the 1930s. The right wing is controlling everything in the state, including all the important ministries and including the parliament. In the Israeli political arena, there is nothing called 'the left,'" Abu Shahadeh explained.

Among the more repressive moves against Palestinian civil society in Israel was the May 2010 raid on the umbrella group Ittijah and the arrest of its executive director, Ameer Makhoul, who now faces a seven- to ten-year sentence for various "security" violations. But the persecution of Palestinian citizens of Israel isn't confined to nongovernmental organizations -- Palestinian political movements are also facing challenges.

"We continue to struggle because the struggle is essential, but of course the impact of the oppression is in general to oppress the population and make people think twice before they join the struggle," said Yoav Bar, a member of the central committee of Abnaa al-Balad. Translated to "Sons of the Land," Abnaa al-Balad is a Palestinian political movement working within Israel for the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the establishment of one secular, democratic state in all of historic Palestine.

Bar explained that while the Israeli authorities have for many years applied pressure and arrested Palestinian political activists, the difference lies in how openly anti-Palestinian today's Israeli government is.

"They don't try to disguise the racism under the pretext of security or whatever, so every time there are new laws in the Knesset that are outrageously anti-Arab and anti-democratic. I don't think it was more democratic before but now I think that basically the government is weak and they cannot be strong against other states like they used to be. They can't attack Lebanon. They can't attack Syria. So they are finding a way to be strong by attacking the Palestinian civilians under their rule," he said.

Bar added, however, that a positive consequence of the Israeli state's oppression is how unified the Palestinian community inside Israel has become.

"I think that it makes Palestinians feel more conscious of the national struggle and [Israeli] oppression. And in general, people are more conscious and more unified in rejecting the Zionist racism," he said.

Redefining organizations

Haya Noach is the director of the Negev Co-Existence Forum, a joint Jewish-Arab organization that works for the full equality and rights of citizens in the southern Negev region.

She explained that if lobbying the Knesset against the proposed bill does not succeed and the Israeli government approves it, all nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating inside Israel might have to rethink their work process in the future.

"The question is what will be done with the Arab NGOs," Noach said. "The whole configuration of NGOs might be changed. [We may have to] decompose NGOs according to the law, and work outside, not as an NGO, but as a group of activists. Then we don't have to ask permission."

Noach added that the Israeli public needs a trigger to stop being complacent and resist what's happening at the government level inside Israel. But unfortunately, she said, the incentive isn't there.

"[People] are not concerned about the occupation. They are not concerned about [other] citizens. They are not concerned about anything," she said.

"It's like a nightmare. And it's not happening right now because the Knesset is very right-wing and the Israeli public is not there. It's not a good time for Israel right now."

Originally from Montreal, Jillian Kestler-D'Amours is a reporter and documentary filmmaker based in occupied East Jerusalem. More of her work can be found at
http://jilldamours.wordpress.com.

The Israeli Knesset's Anti-Democratic Agenda

by Stephen Lendman

An earlier article discussed the Mossawa Center calling the current Knesset the most racist in history, accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/04/alarming-racism-in-israel.html

It reviewed 2008 and 2009 legislation violating Israeli Arab rights, Mossawa saying "almost every day" they're victimized by racist actions, and as a result, they face disruptive social, economic and cultural futures.

The upcoming winter Knesset session promises worse, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel's Debby Gild-Hayo (ACRI) reviewing what's expected in a report titled, "Harming Democracy in the Heart of Democracy." Ahead of the upcoming session, it addressed expected anti-democratic legislation, including:

-- free expression political protest rights;

-- equality before the law;

-- verbal and physical abuse of minority MKs;

-- efforts to delegitimize and infringe on legitimate human rights and social change organizations; and

-- attempts to weaken academic freedom.

In sum, it represents extremist efforts to weaken Israeli democracy, or what passes for its current system, by destroying civil liberties, silencing minority views, and characterizing groups holding them as state enemies. In fact, "We are witnessing a reality of increasing tyranny against social, political, and national minorities, which harms their" rights and everyone's. Perhaps more disturbing is that surveys of the past two years show public support, mainly among Israeli youths.

The Knesset's 2010-11 Winter Session

Begun on October 10, the Knesset will address some previous session's unapproved legislation and expected new ones to be introduced. They include:

(1) The Nakba Bill

As first written, anyone commemorating Nakba Day faced prison. It was then softened to deny observing persons or groups public funds, yet still threatens freely expressed minority views. The bill passed the preliminary reading, and may be addressed by the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee ahead of its first reading.

(2) The Anti-Incitement Bill

Amending existing law, it calls for arresting anyone denying the existence of Israel as a Jewish, democratic state. In other words, it criminalizes minority or opposition political views. It passed its preliminary reading and may be addressed by the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee ahead of its first reading.

(3) The Nationalization, Pledge of Allegiance Bill

It requires all Israeli citizens to pledge loyalty to Israel as a Jewish, democratic, Zionist state, and perform military or some form of national service. The government didn't endorse the bill. In May 2010, a ministerial committee rejected it, and in July the cabinet did as well so far. However, efforts to reintroduce it are expected.

(4) The Admission Committees of Communal Settlements Bill

Its provisions let admission committees reject communal settlement memberships for anyone "fail(ing) to meet (its) fundamental views," its social fabric, and other aspects of how they're run. Its real purpose is discriminatory - to exclude unwanted members based on their ethnicity, religion or political views. ACRI petitioned Israel's High Court opposing the bill. It passed its first reading and will be address by the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee ahead of its second and third ones.

(5) The Funds from Foreign Political Entities Bill

In original form, individuals or groups receiving foreign funding must register with the party registrar and immediately report each contribution amount and its source. They must also publicly state they are funded by foreign nations and includes strict penalties. The bill tries "to delegitimize and impair on the activities of organizations that receive" outside funding, even though Israeli law already requires such reporting be made.

However, the new legislation expands on existing law to force "certain civil organization to mark their activities as subversive and illegitimate." It also focuses human rights groups (not others in favor) as a way to delegitimize and incriminate them unfairly. ACRI wrote the foreign minister warning against this type intervention. The Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee endorsed the amended bill. It will be presented for a first reading and addressed by the Committee ahead of its second and third ones.

(6) The Infiltration Bill

Among other provisions, it stipulates that infiltrators based on their country of origin and persons assisting them are subject to from five to seven years imprisonment. "This bill follows" the same delegitimizing trend against "human rights and aid organizations and individuals who help refugees and labor immigrants." The bill failed earlier, but key points will be reintroduced in the new measure, currently being drafted by the Justice Ministry.

(7) A Bill Against Boycott

It states that persons who initiate, promote, or publish material that might serve as grounds for an imposed boycott against Israel may be criminally charged. They're also ordered to compensate parties economically harmed, including fixed 30,000 shekels reparations, freeing plaintiffs from the need to prove damages.

Further, if the accused is a foreign citizen, he or she will be prohibited from entering or doing business with Israel, and if a foreign nation is involved, whatever debt it's owed may not be paid. The funds instead will be used to compensate aggrieved parties, and the country may be banned from further business dealings in Israel. In addition, the provisions "apply one year retroactively."

Again, the bill's purpose is discriminatory. It targets certain internal political groups, and it aims to "neutralize the (ruling coalition's) political opposition." It mainly rejects legitimate settlement product boycotts (including BDS ones)." It thus impedes "legitimate, legal, and nonviolent protest(s)," as well as Israeli free expression and assembly rights, what real democracies never prohibit.

The bill passed its preliminary reading. The Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee will next address it ahead of its first reading. Importantly, a ministerial committee rejected provisions pertaining to foreign citizens and states, fearing adverse outside reactions. It remains whether that consideration will hold.

(8) Bill on Revoking the Citizenship of Persons Convicted of Terrorism or Espionage

Israel's Penal Code already deals with these issues, so why something new? This bill "infringes on the basic rights of Israel's citizens" because when citizenship is revoked, other rights also are unfairly lost. The Interior Committee addressed the bill ahead of its first reading.

Two additional bills may also be submitted:

-- An Associations Bill, banning suits filed abroad against Israeli politicians or military officers. Groups formed to file overseas suits are prohibited, and those established will be shut down; and

-- a bill banning veils in public under penalty of imprisonment.

The attitude of coalition MKs is discriminatory, racist, and intolerant of minority members' views. After the Gaza Flotilla slaughter, it became painfully evident, including verbal and physical abuse against Balad Party's Hanin Zuabi for her participation.

Hostile MKs wanted her expelled, others prosecuted, and some set up a Facebook group calling for her execution, no matter that her action was humanitarian and lawful. The Palestinians' Higher Monitoring Committee chose her to represent 1.5 million trapped Gazans. So targeting her vilifies and endangers all Palestinians, Israeli Arabs and supportive Jews. An August 18 Zuheir Andreus Haaretz article said "We are all Zuabi," meaning everyone for democratic freedoms is threatened.

ACRI filed a petition with Israel's High Court against revoking her parliamentary rights. However, the prevailing Knesset attitude isn't changing, for sure not in the current session in light of so-called peace talks, ongoing settlement construction, and hard-liners pushing a reactionary agenda overall.

Additional Winter Session Issues Affecting Human Rights

(1) Planning and Housing Reform

A new law will have "far-reaching implications" for all Israelis by impairing public participation in activities regarding the protection of popular interests.

(2) The State Budget and Arrangements Act

Israel's biannual 2011-12 budget will be addressed, containing "numerous resolutions and amendments that impair on human rights (on) a wide range of issues." They include:

-- courts accessibility;

-- rights of the unemployed and persons seeking state allowances;

-- labor rights;

-- public housing residents' rights; and

-- other related issues.

(3) Bills dealing with immigration and civil status.

(4) An ACRI initiated amendment seeks to ban discrimination in public services "that will not allow further selection at club entrances."

(5) A National Health Act amendment, "adding a standing mechanism for updating the medications basket."

(6) An ACRI initiated measure seeks to replace the Wisconsin Plan, aimed at eliminating welfare by privatizing social services.

A Final Comment

ACRI is concerned that "Anti-democratic tendencies in the Knesset are gaining momentum," the Winter Session expected to advance them, though some initial proposals were modified and made softer. The previous session was notable for "laying the foundations for anti-democratic legislation," but many proposed measures await consideration and final action. As a result, the Winter Session will be defining and trying if repressive laws are enacted, hardening tyranny over democratic freedoms. The threat is real and all Israelis are at risk, not just opposition minorities.

As things now stand, "Israeli democracy (has) already sustained a serious blow, Arab Israelis and human rights activists mostly harmed as enemies of the state," their status subject to the whims of a hostile majority. ACRI and other activist groups will keep working to save what's fast eroding, "doing everything (possible to promote) equality, social justice, and human rights," without which free societies die.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

posted by Steve Lendman @ 2:45 AM  

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

20,000 Gazans in West Bank threatened with deportation

[ 28/06/2010 - 09:05 AM ]

NAZARETH, (PIC)-- More than 20,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip are living in a state of anxiety fearing the Israeli occupation authority might deport them any time to the Gaza Strip.

A press report published on Sunday by the English-language Israeli daily Jerusalem Post said that those citizens' life turned to hell after the Israeli army announced that it would deport anyone residing "illegally" in the West Bank.

Sari Bashi, the executive director of the Israeli human rights group Gisha, said that tens of thousands of people are living in constant danger, which prevents them from accessing health care, education, and jobs out of fear of crossing through military roadblocks.

The paper quoted army officials as saying that Gazans could return to the Strip along with their wives from the West Bank, meaning deserting their homes in which they lived for decades.

In the same context, the IOA deported a Palestinian man from Beersheba to Gaza via the Erez (Beit Hanun) crossing, Wa'ed society for prisoners said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested Palestinian businessman Ali Al-Dadu, 55, on Sunday after detaining both his son and daughter a few days earlier.

Dadu was summoned to the IOF intelligence west of Tulkarem where he was detained, his family said in a statement, adding that Dadu was suffering colon cancer and the IOF soldiers refused to allow his lawyer to take medicine to him.

The IOF troops on Monday detained two Palestinian young men at Hawara roadblock south of Nablus.


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Palestinians Working to Stop Israeli Bid to Divide West Bank and Gaza Residents

Via Miftah

Date posted: May 17, 2010

By Amira Hass

A mistaken report needs to be corrected. Two weeks ago I wrote about a young man who claimed he was expelled from the West Bank to Gaza.

He was born in Gaza but had lived in the West Bank since he was 7, he said. The military spokesman's office informed me that it was not familiar with the case, but I've heard that line before - for example, in reference to Palestinians who were used as "human shields" during Operation Cast Lead. The fact that the army says it doesn't know about an incident doesn't mean such an incident hasn't taken place.

But this time, it turns out that there was no evasive maneuver here, and there was a real reason this case was unfamiliar to the Israel Defense Forces: The young man has lived with his family in Israel for many years. And it was from Be'er Sheva, not the West Bank town of Dahariya, that he was expelled. For him, the lie he told reporters, myself included, is perhaps a fraction of a lie. After all, the distance between Dahariya and Be'er Sheva is small, the borders are artificial, the lifestyle is similar, relatives live on both sides of the Green Line. But as far as I am concerned, his tale is a full-fledged lie that piggybacked on the great media interest, the first of its kind, in the situation of Gaza natives who live in the West Bank.

Over the last few months, all sorts of rumors were disseminated, but were easy to spot right away as being totally unfounded: the rumors that 20 Palestinians were expelled as a single group to Gaza, that a Shin Bet questionnaire was distributed in four homes of native Gazans, that dozens of deported Palestinians were gathered in a protest tent in Gaza. These false rumors came on the heels of a Haaretz report about an amended military order, No. 1650, that is aimed at preventing infiltration into the West Bank.

In suspiciously vague language, order No. 1650 (amendment No. 2 ) expands the definition of "infiltrator" such that it applies to anyone who is in the West Bank without a permit from the military commander, and anyone who fits that definition is subject to expulsion. Rumors sparked by the fact that this order went into effect on April 13 caused panic and uncertainty, primarily among Palestinians whose identity cards bear an address in the Gaza Strip.

Long before the order was made public, many knew that the Israeli authorities - the army, Civil Administration and the police - consider West Bank residents with a Gaza address on their ID cards to be living in the West Bank illegally. Many sought over the years to change the address that appears on their official records, and discovered that Israel was preventing them from doing so. One case even required the intervention of a very senior French minister who knew the Palestinian woman who has been married for years to a West Bank native; she lives and works in the West Bank, but continued to be registered as living in Gaza. The minister approached a certain party and the address was changed. Those who do not have such high-level connections have long stopped moving around the West Bank and leaving the Area A enclaves where they live.

True, the IDF and the other official spokesmen sought to explain that the order was not intended to kick out Gazans who do not have a permit to stay in the West Bank, which the IDF did not even require them to get until 2007. They distributed a reassuring letter to diplomats as well. Though the diplomats haven't come out in favor of the Fayyad government's demand that the order be rescinded, "in Israel they know we are on the watch," one of them told Haaretz.

Like the diplomat, Palestinian officials in the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization have not been convinced by the reassurances Israel has issued. "The order is another substantial blow to the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, as agreed to in the Oslo Accords," said Saeb Erekat on Thursday at a public meeting in Ramallah. He told his audience that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has asked the Americans directly about the order, saying: "Are you interested in my having authority in the Palestinian territories or not? I want an answer."

The public meeting with Erekat was a first-of-its-kind event. Three Palestinian groups joined together to arrange it: Al Haq, a veteran human rights organization; Right to Enter, a voluntary association of Palestinians with foreign citizenship who live in the West Bank; and Harakeh ("Movement" ), an organization started about three months ago by Gaza natives who live in the West Bank. The right to have freedom of movement and to choose where they want to live, the fight against the restrictions on movement that Israel imposes on all Palestinians, the tie that should not be broken between Palestinian society in Gaza and that in the West Bank: This is the underlying basis of the organization. The surprising thing is that no one formed a group like this 15 years ago, and that there aren't thousands of Palestinians waiting to join.

The issuing of order No. 1650 was an opportunity for Harakeh to come out of the closet, so to speak. Around 10 days ago, its representatives attended a closed meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad during which social activists discussed ways of combating the order. But the meeting with Erekat was open to the public (and was later broadcast ), and he was asked several direct questions. For instance: The office of civilian affairs, which mediates between Palestinian residents and Israel's Civil Administration, and which is subordinate to Abbas' office, recently started handing out Israeli-issued permits that allow Gazans to temporarily stay in the West Bank; isn't that a kind of recognition of the separation that Israel has created between the two societies?

The participants at the meeting asked the PA to take some action and not just issue denunciations. For example, they asked, why shouldn't the PA change the addresses of thousands of people, instead of having its officials turn them away while explaining obediently that "the Israelis don't agree to it"? In this way, the PA will exercise its authority in accordance with Oslo.

This would be a form of integrated civil disobedience, if you like: the leadership and the public together reject the occupiers' dictates. It's just like Bil'in, in a different guise.

Erekat talked at length about the occupation. It is only natural for something 43 years old to lead to the development of racism among Israelis. It is an illness that endangered and endangers all of mankind, he said, and people always find pretexts for it. The head of the Palestinian negotiating team reiterated that "our choice is a two-state solution" and that "there is no Palestinian state without the Gaza Strip." He joked that even Abbas can be seen as an infiltrator. The meeting concluded with an agreement that Erekat would send Abbas a letter containing the three groups' recommendations on how to proceed. It was also agreed that a joint coordinating committee would be set up (including representatives of the president's office, the government, the PLO and civil society organizations ) to work against order No. 1650.

Source: Haaretz, 17 May. 2010


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Nakba and the Two State Solution: Unrealistic 'Realism'

And yet, all these things aside, the Nakba continues unabated.





By Dina Jadallah

On the surface and viewed from the perspective of dominating powers, their designated minions, and entrenched cohorts, it may appear that the Nakba is diminishing. Several facts corroborate that view:  the passage of time, the very dispossession and dislocation of millions, the tendency of official Palestinian “leadership” to accept whatever scraps they are given, the seemingly insurmountable military superiority of Israel and its main backer, the United States, to name a few. Discursively also, talk of the Nakba has been curtailed, especially among official Palestinian Authority officials and Arab governments. It has been increasingly replaced by details and technicalities that avoid dealing with the crux of the Palestinian predicament. 

Details and technicalities are evident in “negotiations” and “discussions” over the Two State Solution, settlements (stop, don’t stop, temporary freezes, natural growth,…), Jerusalem, municipal control of various services, collection and distribution of taxes, policing and security forces, road blocks, fences, airspace, percentages, companies, and so many other minutia. They serve to obscure the original and much larger issue at stake, namely, liberating Palestine. 

By focusing exclusively on the Two State Solution and its accompanying and derivative details, it becomes possible (for some) to lose sight of the origin of the ongoing Palestinian predicament:  namely, the Nakba.
The details are a method of exercising power over Palestinians. (1) They are evident, not only in the obvious control mechanisms that I just listed, but are also apparent in the very “negotiations” that took and take place between Israel / US and the Palestinians. From Madrid, to Oslo, to Taba, to Camp David, to the Road Map, to the current indirect Proximity Talks – one side has maps and details and conditions and rules, while the other side pleads, accepts, capitulates, and frequently, adopts the very language used by his oppressor.

An illustration of the above is Mahmoud ‘Abbas’ frequent references to “peace and security,” “growth,” and “stopping the settlements,” forgetting that the real issues are right of return, liberating the land, and an end to racist and usurping ideologies and governments. Another example is ‘Abbas’ recent reference to the land of historical Palestine as the land of the tanakh. In other words, he acceded to Netanyahu’s racist demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as “Jewish homeland” by buying into the Zionist myth that Jews were the original inhabitants of the land.

Yet another instance of Palestinian leadership adopting the language and reasoning of their oppressor was evident in the speech delivered by ‘Abbas at the opening of the third round of Fateh’s Revolutionary (not) Council.  ‘Abbas insisted on the Two-State Solution.  He even warned that “the idea of the so-called One State Solution has started leaking (tatasarrab) among people, because hope on the [real] ground is diminishing bit by bit…  The question to the Israeli side is: do you want two states on the 1967 borders?  We are ready.  But if you don’t want, then you are responsible for what happens after that.” (Al-Jazeera (Arabic), 4/24/2010, “Abbas clings to the Two State Solution and Hamas Rejects.”)  He continued his advice to Israel by saying that “the choice of peace needs brave Israeli leadership.”

Few were surprised by his obvious concern for the Israel’s well-being, least of all Israel and the United States.  It is equally probable that there are countless Palestinians, Arabs, and believers in a just solution who are not surprised that he seems to have forgotten that liberating Palestine also needs brave leadership.

Instead, ‘Abbas addressed his rivals in Gaza, calling on them to accept the Egyptian proposal for Palestinian reconciliation and praising Hamas’ efforts at stopping the launching or rockets directed at Israel.  He also urged Palestinians to abide by “peaceful popular resistance,” assuming that it is possible for anything peaceful to co-exist with a stage of siege, daily attacks, continued usurpation, racism, and so forth. 
In truth, this is a new term with an old meaning: a submission that is rationalized by “realism.”

Facts exist but cannot speak. There is a whole system and class of people, “experts,” “leaders,” institutions and organizations that mediate what they will mean.  They will assign words to the meanings/facts. And somewhere else, in the dominated part of the world, a different people who are oppressed and/or excluded from this system of control, stand perplexed and outraged that a diametrically opposite word was assigned and repeated, hijacking their facts, their meanings, their reality. 

The facts are a product of social, historical, oppositional, economic, and political circumstance.  Those who live them know the right word for the real meaning. But others assigned as “leaders” over them, dutifully transpose and impose the altered terminology. The new word becomes the new normal, the “realistic,” the quick deal that we can consume immediately, forever destroying the original source.
This is precisely what the Two State Solution and its details entail.

And yet, all these things aside, the Nakba continues unabated, growing in significance and in numbers. Most conspicuous is the demographic growth in the number of Palestinians who are descendants of the Nakba, whether they are refugees, settled, or unsettled. To those we must add more numerical growth due to the continued displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in present-day Israel as a direct result of Israeli military orders, exclusionary laws, banishment, forced exile, dispossession, house demolitions, and so forth.

Conceptually also, the Nakba strengthens. This is evident in emergent groups, discourses of counterhegemony, resistance movements, and the growing International Boycott Divestment and Solidarity (IBDS) movement. There is a palpable change in the international perception of Israel that emerged during and after its assault on Gaza. (2) This has forced Israel to launch a diplomatic propaganda campaign, “Brand Israel,” to repair the damage to its image. 

The fact that the hundreds of thousands of refugees in Gaza were direct products of the Nakba of Israeli establishment over their ancestral homes is significant. The fact that Israel was unable to accomplish any of its political goals in Gaza, despite the wanton destruction, also has important repercussions.

Thus, the Nakba, directly or indirectly, continues to be a catalyst for a continuing re-evaluation of Israel’s position as a dominating power.

Militarily, the last several wars that Israel has launched against Lebanon and Gaza have made obvious its weaknesses.

Furthermore, it is amply demonstrable in the world today that military superiority is no solution to determined and organized resistance and insurgency.

Thus, there is hope in recognizing the persistence of the Nakba. It stands as an event in human history that exists beyond the reach of dominating systems – even though the latter may have caused it. This makes change possible and limits the power of a hegemonic or dominating system. The Nakba is a historical reality that refuses to go away, providing the fuel for emergent movements and resistance.

Nevertheless, dominant powers continue their efforts to marginalize the Nakba as a central unresolved crisis.

Just in time for the commemoration of the Nakba, U.S. mediator George Mitchell is meeting with Israeli and Palestinian officials (after Palestinian officials sought and got approval from Arab officials), in order to start the process that will lead to so-called indirect proximity talks that were announced by U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.  The Washington Post reported that Mitchell is trying to break the stalemate “in recent months,” (3) perhaps forgetting that, from the perspective of most Palestinians, there has not been progress, in fact there has been retrogression, on the “solution” to the conflict since Madrid and Oslo happened almost two decades ago.

According to the article, “For the Palestinians, the two paramount issues are territorial borders -- precisely how much of the West Bank Israel will surrender and the future of Jerusalem.”

Yet again there is confirmation that externally designated Palestinian “leaders” are making a complete mockery of the Nakba, not even referencing that the crux of the problem is the dispossession of millions of people and the usurpation and colonization of Palestinian land. 

When one listens to the words of a Mahmoud ‘Abbas or a Salim Fayyad, it becomes obvious that it makes no difference who among the “leaders” of the Palestinian Authority (PA) talks.  The content is the same, for they are simply delivery mechanisms and not the creators of the message.  (The same applies to most other Arab leaders.)  Having reached the inevitable terminus of the Peace Process and the Road Map and their interminable negotiations, they are now clutching the straw of the Indirect Proximity Talks. 

‘Abbas, desperate to sustain a role for himself, was busy throwing the hot potato to equally ineffectual Arab leaders. 

The latter, if they do anything at all, they pass on the hot potato to the United Nations or some future conference of the Arab League.  In other words, they try to freeze the hot potato to death.

Such “leaders” do not acknowledge that there is no justification for the assumption that a Two State solution is a teleological goal.  It has failings that must be examined in light of new forms of reasoning, new events, and new practices. (4) For while, the “vision” of the Two State is “legitimate” in “the international consensus,” legitimacy is in the eye of the beholder.  “Whose consensus?” is a legitimate question. What about the point of view of the people who most affected by this consensus?

One need only to look at borders, roads, contiguity, sovereignty dimensions, economic sufficiency, and so forth to realize that the Two State Solution is hardly “realistic.” While the Palestinian Authority is entrenched in political quietism, self-censorship, and obeisance, they nonetheless must confront the effects of that path. This particular “pragmatic” approach, being a product of its dominating system, cannot envision and does not admit that it cannot have power over everything. 

The weakness of this “realistic” approach is that it cannot anticipate or deal with change.  It cannot account for peoples’ abilities to imagine an alternative future society. It cannot admit that some can perceive and analyze the nature of power and oppression in their present societies, thereby making it possible to counteract the details and to resist internalization of dominating ideologies. (5)

Dominating systems do not and cannot combat resistance or insurgency or rebellion effectively every time. 
The PA and the dominating system of which it is a functionary must ultimately face the truth that concepts and facets of what is considered “authoritative” and “traditional” is frequently ambiguous and contestable.  Authority is valuable only insofar as it offers choices for society. Choices that must be viable for its future welfare. Otherwise, other “traditions” and “authorities” will emerge.  This is precisely the fate that is facing the Two State solution.

Putting aside any moral and ethical arguments against the Two State solution, all the facts on the ground are obliterating a potential second state. Even within this putative proto-state, Israel is obliterating this possibility. A recent example was reported by Amira Hass on 4/22/2010 in Ha’aretz. Israel began implementing a new military order, No.1650, regarding the Prevention of Infiltration (Amendment No. 2).  It defines “a Palestinian with a Gaza Strip address as a punishable infiltrator if he is found in the West Bank.”  This is the latest in a series of steps to sever Gaza from Palestinian society.  It is also part and parcel of Zionist laws enacted at Israel’s founding, such as the Law of Return and the Law of Present Absentees, and so forth, whose aims are to control space and to fragment and dispossess Palestinian society.

The economy of the proto-state under the Palestinian Authority’s Two-State path is also illustrative of the non-realism and non-viability of the purported goal.  It may serve as an indicator of what is entailed in the future if this “vision” of a Two State is pursued any longer. 

The latest economic figures released by the Arab League Economic Report on the Palestinian Occupied Territories in 2009 clearly show the deterioration.  Here are a few examples.  Between 1999-2008, Palestinian real inflation-adjusted GNP fell off a cliff by 35% to $1,108.  A significant factor in that is the multitude of Israeli restrictions, land confiscations (the West Bank lost 15% of its agricultural capacity due to the apartheid wall), destruction of trees and farmland, and so forth that have led to a sharp decline in olive oil production.  Real per capita income fell by almost 21% to $1,284.  The services sector grew to a record 76.8% of GDP with all that this entails in terms of declining productive capacity of the overall economy. This is also reflected in the fact that the trade deficit grew by 14% to $3.032 billion. Unemployment is now officially recorded at 16% in the West Bank and 49% in Gaza. 

Also contributing to the dependency (and ensuring political obedience), external revenue, including remittances and global financial aid grew sharply to reach $2bn, much of it spent internally on PA commitments to civil servants and security personnel. 

A UN Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People, held in Vienna by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on 3/24/2010, corroborated and added to the statistics provided by the Arab League report. (6)  Mahmoud El-Jafari, Dean and Professor of Economics at Al-Quds University noted that there are twin budget and trade deficits. The ratio of imports to exports stands at 60%.  He added that absolute poverty rates stood at 57.3 %, according to 2007 figures (i.e. pre-Gaza assault – whose damage is estimated at 25% of GDP).  In Gaza, 76.9 % are under the national poverty line. 

The comments made by Mahmoud Elkhafif, Coordinator of Assistance to the Palestinian People Unit at the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), revealed that post-Oslo, there has been an “integration” of the Palestinian and Israeli economies.  These have been hugely advantageous to Israel at the expense of the Palestinians. Israel takes advantage of Palestinian land, water and labor as it simultaneously isolates Palestinians from their historical economic partners in the Arab countries.  Moreover, the Paris Protocol framework for economic relations has produced a semi-customs union in which the PA could not have its own currency, monetary, or trade policy. Israel determines value added tax, collects it and, depending on how cooperative the PA is perceived, pays it to the PA. But even in good times, he said, the payment was just 60% of the figure owed. 

Elkhafif concluded with the disturbing indicator of the extent of exploitation: that in the 1980s, Israeli income had been 7.5 times that of Palestinians and was now about 17 times higher. 

Any reasonable assessment of this situation would see the proof in the pudding, so to speak. Why ‘Abbas and his cohorts cling to the Two State solution can only be attributed to factors that do not and will not benefit Palestinian society or national aspirations.

The other side of the coin is Israel.

The last several wars that Israel has launched against Lebanon and the Palestinians have revealed a serious decline in its capacity to accomplish its military and political goals.  Despite the wanton destruction wreaked by its vastly more superior military, the image/myth of its invincibility has been irrevocably shattered. 

This topic has been dealt with extensively elsewhere, so I will not dwell on it here.  Instead, I would like to offer a few examples to consider in re-assessing Israel as well as the “realistic” position of why Arabs and Palestinians must capitulate to its demands.

It is well-known that Israel needs the assistance of the United States, to shield it from approbation in international venues such as the UN, and to help it financially, militarily, economically, in research and development, and so forth.  Israel is also failing in the key category of providing guaranteed results to empire.  Prominent among those failures is its inability to impose peace on its terms, nor to wage war from which it is confident to emerge as victor. This is not to dismiss its indisputable military superiority, but it does indicate that it is no longer enough or even capable of achieving its political goals. 

It is therefore time to re-assess the “realistic” approach. For many years now, the dominant view of Israel in much of the Arab world has reflected an internalization of the myth of Israeli superiority, not morally or ethically, but militarily and economically. Conveniently, it was parroted and propagated by successive different Arab governments in order to rationalize and justify the shirking of their historic responsibility to help Palestinians in achieving self-determination and independence based on the liberation of all usurped land.  

But ultimately, the historically insurmountable reality that is the Nakba stands. It is distressing that the Palestinians as a people, need to remind their so-called leaders as well as most other Arab leaders, of their lived reality which has struggled for decades to ensure that their fundamental and inalienable rights are not forgotten or whittled away by the pseudo pragmatic reality of a Two State solution. Once again, for those who may have forgotten, these are:  the right to their land and a national home, the right of return, the right to determine their own destiny, and the right to compensation for dispossession and the horrors and crimes of occupation.

- Dina Jadallah is an Arab-American writer and artist. She studied political science at Georgetown and the University of Chicago. She is the author of numerous articles dealing with political developments in the Arab world.  Her work was published at Palestine Chronicle, Counterpunch, Ramallah Online, and Global Research, among others. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact her at: d.jadallah@gmail.com.

Notes:
(1) These details may remind some readers of Michel Foucault’s theory of power. His theory of (pouvoir et savior) analyzes how systems of control work by confinement from the inside. Their functioning depends first on the continuity of the institutions that confine and second, on the proliferation of justifying technical ideologies for the institutions. These technical ideologies may be discourses, such as is evident in talk and conduct related to the roadmap, the peace process, security, development through privatization, and so forth. But that power needs detail in order to work. For example, in the case of the confinement of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, these would consist of the proliferation of road blocks, military orders, fences, curfews, long lists of what will be allowed to pass through the siege on Gaza, and so forth. Foucault has no role for classes, economics, insurgency and rebellion in societies, however. And this is the reason for the circularity and the trap – there is no escape within his conception of this type of power.
(2)  This is apparent in various international polls. See for instance this large European Union poll.
(3) See The Washington Post.
(4) Several have written about this topic. Notable among them is Ali Abunimah’s One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (2006). 
(5) My statements are based on Chomsky’s insightful critique of Foucault. It offers a way out of the trap of a dominating system. He argued that a sociopolitical battle can be waged with two objectives: 1) persons and groups can imagine an alternative future society that is based on a more just conception of human nature; and 2) that persons and groups have the ability to perceive and analyze the nature of power and oppression in their present societies. Both of these together may lead to resistance and counterhegemony, thus providing a way to escape the trap.
(6)  See unispal.un.org.

Flashback:

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

"So when I hear Hamas declaring that it would stop an Israeli invasion of Gaza, I just shake my Head."


A Comment by SUN TZU, I mean TON TFUUUU (Tony Sayegh)


Well, the "Resistance" with all the bravado, bluster and huffing and puffing by Hamas lasted.......one day! I guess Habila got the message from Israel and he didn't want to be killed or captured. This is what happens when a resistance movement becomes a political movement; just ask Fatah. Celebrate the new truce NOW!

Guess What?
"HE BLOG FOR PALESTINE"

But she started the whole thing??


He is Anti Iran, the first Islamic FORT though Baathists used to call him "Mulla Tony", and "HE BLOG FOR PALESTINE"

He is Anti Syria, the Last Arabic Fort and "HE BLOG FOR PALESTINE"

The same "Knight" who turned his ass to Gaza in 1967, and never returned, mocked Hamas Knights for confrontinting "Tanks, Helicopter Gunships and Missiles"

 ......Excuse Me, But This is Mass Suicide, Not Resistance Damn It! God Gave You a Brain; Use It!!" he said.

When asked: What Hamas can do, he farted: "You ask, what can Hamas do? At a minimum hide, in the face of a superior force."

So, "when he heard Hamas declaring that it would stop an Israeli invasion of Gaza, he just shaked his Head."

The same "Knight" (I mean RAT) who mocked Hamas Knights for not hiding in Gaza,  Mocked Hamas for having "Their Head in the Sand When it Comes to Defending Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque"

Hamas should use it's "Tanks, Helicopter Gunships and "Mickey Mouse" Missiles" to Defend Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque. As if seculars, not Islamists who are defending the Aqsa. 

Imagine the the Danish Cartons subcontractor is worried about Al-Aqsa!!

The same Rat criticised Hamas for "lack of secrecy"... and, and... ,

Several months ago he dropped his bombshell claming that Shalit release is imiment, and you know that Shalit is still with Hamas Knights in the burrel callled Gaza, even after the release of Hamas MP's and Women prisoners,

The Same Rat who spread the Zio-Propaganda about the assasination of Imad Mugniyah, is disappointed with "Assad's call for rejional alliance" He claimed it shall deliver a joint Syrian-Iraqi-Turkish-Israeli-U.S.-Iranian military exercises pretty soon?
Celebrate the "New Middle East" now; or else! he farted.

Assad's call delivered. "Using the words of one Turkish newspaper, Erdogan’s brave outburst was an “Ottoman slap in the face of Israel”."

"Zionism played a pivotal role in effecting the downfall of the Ottoman state after Sultan Abdul Hamid II adamantly refused repeated Jewish solicitations for a national Jewish home in Palestine."

For him, the Two Competing Ideologies (arab nationalism and islam} have failed and failed badly. So he hates to see both Arab nationalism (Syria), and Islamists (Turkey, Iran, Hamas, Hezbulah) emerging, and pushing Greater Mollistine behind the Wall

River to Sea Uprooted PalestinianHe is Anti Hamas, the last Palestinian Fort, and "HE BLOG FOR PALESTINE"

New Israeli order allows for mass expulsion from West Bank

Mel Frykberg, The Electronic Intifada, 7 May 2010

After finishing his prison sentence, Ahmed Sabah was deported to the Gaza Strip, away from his family in the West Bank. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Several Palestinians have set up a protest tent in no-man's land in the northern Gaza Strip, near the Erez border crossing into Israel, as they protest their deportation from the Israeli occupied West Bank into Gaza where Hamas authorities have refused them entry.

Tens of thousands of other Palestinians face a possibly similar predicament in the near future. This follows a sweeping new Israeli military order which allows for the expulsion of Palestinians or foreigners whom Israel considers to be in the West Bank illegally as "infiltrators."

Fadi Azameh, 19, from Hebron in the southern West Bank, was arrested at his place of employment by the Israeli military last week, held briefly at a military base before he was expelled to Gaza.

Azameh was born in Gaza but his family left the coastal territory and settled in the West Bank 12 years ago. He had not been back since.

Ahmed Sabah, a 40-year-old prisoner from the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem was also deported to Gaza after serving a lengthy prison sentence in an Israeli jail.

His wife and son, whom he had not seen since the boy was a baby, were informed that Sabah would not be attending a joyful reunion they had planned after he had already been released in Gaza.

The two Palestinians are refusing to leave the tent and have pleaded for international intervention in their case.

The Hamas authorities for their part have stated that they would not allow them into Gaza as this will encourage Israel to proceed with its policy.

The "infiltrator" order could affect thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank who were born in Gaza -- or those who had their ID documents issued in Gaza -- but moved years ago to live in the West Bank where they now have families and where their employment and educational facilities are based.

Palestinian identification papers in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are formally issued by the Palestinian Authority (PA), but Israel controls the population registry and must approve most changes, including relocation from Gaza to the West Bank.

Thousands of other Palestinians from Jordan and abroad who have reunited with family members in the Israeli controlled territory could also be effected.

Many of those originating in Jordan married West Bank spouses and moved to the Palestinian territory where they subsequently started families.

Other Palestinians with foreign passports who have opened up businesses, creating work opportunities in an area where unemployment remains high, also risk deportation.

Foreign nationals not of Palestinian descent and without Israeli visas could also be targeted.

Israel has been trying to crack down on pro-Palestinian foreign activists and those working with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Several were deported earlier in the year when heavily armed Israeli troops raided their apartments at night.

Foreign NGO workers based in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have complained of difficulties in getting their work permits and residence visas renewed by the Israeli authorities.

Israel's new military order applies even to "Area C" of the West Bank which under the 1993 Oslo Accords falls under the full civil and military control of the PA.

Critics have argued that Israel is trying to solidify the geographical and political divide between the PA controlled West Bank and the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip. Others say this could be a precedent for ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.

Israeli extremists and right-wingers have long supported the expulsion of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to Jordan which they argue is the "real Palestinian State."

A number of Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations have written to the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, demanding the postponement of the order's implementation pending "a serious and comprehensive discussion on the matter."

The Israeli rights group HaMoked states that the new order is intended to serve as a "High Court bypass" mechanism, facilitating deportation in similar cases in the future.

"The army must bring candidates for deportation before the committee within eight days, while they can be deported without judicial review within 72 hours. At the same time, the candidates for deportation are not allowed to appeal to the committee, or to any court, during these eight days," says the organization.

The Fourth Geneva Convention imposes an absolute prohibition on the forced removal of civilians from their homes, the violation of which is deemed an especially grave breach of the Convention.

Meanwhile, in a continuing development Gazans challenging Israel's "no-go security zones" along Gaza's borders with Israel continue to be wounded and killed as they try to access their agricultural land, much of it situated in the fertile areas along the border.

Last week Ahmed Deeb, 21, from Gaza bled to death after Israeli soldiers shot him in the leg, rupturing his femoral artery, with a "dum dum" bullet which fragments inside the targeted area upon impact.

The week before, Maltese national Bianca Zammit, 28, was also shot in the leg as she filmed one of the growingly frequent non-violent protests against Israel's self-declared buffer zones.

In another incident of Gazans dying to live, four tunnel workers were killed, and several hospitalized in a serious condition, in southern Gaza after Egyptian security forces threw explosives into several smuggling tunnels linking Gaza with the Sinai Peninsula.

Due to Israel's crippling economic blockade of the coastal territory -- in conjunction with the Egyptians -- the tunnels represent a vital supply line for desperately needed daily goods for the impoverished territory.

Working in the tunnels also provides Gaza's poor with a means of income in an area where unemployment is rife.

All rights reserved, IPS -- Inter Press Service (2010). Total or partial publication, retransmission or sale forbidden.