Read first and then think later ...!

 Frustrated Arab's Diary

Jesus might be killed by many....
and not only the Jews !!
(or ,eventually , the Romans)

The Evangelical-Zionists
must first read what Martin Luther,himself
has said about the Jews.


The Jewish-Zionists
must first read what Theodor Herzl
wrote in his memoirs about himself
"fooling all the Jews"


The Christian-Zionists
must read their Bible ....
with the right-side-up.


The Arab-Zionists
must read history and learn
what happens to any Traitors.

The Muslim-Zionists
must read correctly their Koran
once , at least  !!!

The Buddhist-Zionists
must mind their own business !!but must apply International-Law


The Marxist- Zionists
must read Marx and also Lenin
in any language they do understand.


The Atheist-Zionists
must simply........ shut up !!
and wait until God calls upon them...
for the first time .



Conclusion :

there is nothing  correct ,nor legal, nor human ,
nothing historically right
about the Zionism.

Raja Chemayel
 

Posted by Тлакскала at 9:24 PM

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Israeli military deportation order met with Palestinian outrage

[ 11/04/2010 - 05:05 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has issued a new military order that would go into effect this week allowing it to deport thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, a Hebrew daily reported on Sunday.

Ha'aretz said that the order world target in its first stage Palestinians who were born or have their children born in Gaza Strip as well as Palestinians who lost their residence rights in the West Bank for one reason or another along with foreigners who married Palestinians.

It added that the decision was still ambiguous because it said that anyone infiltrating into the West Bank would be deported, which could apply to eastern Jerusalemite Palestinians as well as foreigners.

The Palestinian government led by Ismail Haneyya warned the IOA in a statement of attempting to deport any Palestinian, urging the citizens not to obey the IOA orders.

Taher Al-Nunu, the government's spokesman, told the PIC that the IOA was carrying out a plan to empty the Palestinian land from its inhabitants starting with Jerusalem then the West Bank in order to control it.

He urged the Arab countries to stand up to this new policy.

Sheikh Nafedh Azzam, political bureau member of the Islamic Jihad movement, said in a press release that the IOA decision was a fresh warning to the Palestinians that they should solve their problems, and a message to the Arabs that they should adopt firm positions against Israel and those backing it.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told the PIC that the decision was racist and most dangerous on the Palestinian people's rights.

He charged that the IOA was exerting all efforts possible to displace the biggest number of Palestinians in order to expand it settlements and bring more settlers in their places.

MP Dr. Mustafa Al-Barghouthi, secretary general of the Palestinian national initiative, described the decision as "racial cleansing".

He charged that the timing of the decision was provocative and deliberate as the current Israeli government believes that it was on its way to liquidate the Palestine cause.

West Bank Residents Without Israeli Permits Deemed 'Infiltrators' Under New Law

Tim King Salem-News.com

Groups fear sweeping deportations from the West Bank.

Photo by Mika Ginsburg

(JERUSALEM / SALEM) - I often write about how the U.S. government utilizes particular terminology to prosecute its perceived enemies. Words like "terrorist" invoke recent U.S. laws that literally strip an American of all constitutionally guaranteed rights. Another example is the word "gang" which is applied by police when they seek to arrest and charge motorcycle club members.

Israel is no newcomer to this game, and new amendments to the current Israel Defence Force (IDF) Order regarding 'Prevention of Infiltration' and the Order regarding 'Security Provisions' expanding the definition of the term ‘infiltrator,’ means anyone without a permit that the Israeli authorities contact, could serve between three and seven years in prison.

Those who are not imprisoned, will swiftly be deported and expelled from the West Bank - 72 hours after a deportation order has been issued.

Under the new amendment, the term 'infiltrator' will include any person currently present in the occupied West Bank, who does not hold a permit issued by Israeli authorities.

The Israeli Human Righs Group HaMoked, explains that under the new orders, it does not matter if a person was born in the West Bank. Whether Palestinian or not, they will be required to hold a permit to simply be there.

Criminalizing the West Bank

The sweeping order applies not only to Palestinians who were born in the West Bank or who moved there lawfully, but also to foreigners and even to Israeli settlers and soldiers.

HaMoked says the orders in West Bank could potentially lead to the area being emptied of all its inhabitants in a fast track three-day procedure, with little possibility of judicial review.

The group, a legal centre based in Jerusalem, is leading urgent action for suspension of the orders.

HaMoked says the orders will effectively legalize the expulsion of all Gaza-registered Palestinians living in the West Bank. It could be used to deport to the extremely dangerous and poverty stricken Gaza Strip.

Egypt and Israel maintain an impassible border wall around Gaza, with the Israeli navy at sea known for intercepting relief vessels, and massacring Palestinian families on the beach with attack boats, as we reviewed in a report last week.

Israel has restricted Gaza residents from living in the West Bank in recent years. Under the new amendment, Gaza residents will be prohibited from moving to the West Bank, an already extremely difficult process.

The greatest danger according to HaMoked, lies in the potentially limitless enforcement of the law against anyone in the West Bank at any future time. Israel is under increasing criticism from all sides since a merciless attack on Gaza during the winter of 2006/2007 that left more than 1400 dead, among them several hundred children.

The UN's Richard Goldstone issued a report calling Israel's actions war crimes. To activist groups this barely scratches the surface of the oppressive environment Israel reserves for the native inhabitants who lost 99% of their nation since the formation of Israel in 1947 and 1948.

The United States has turned a blind eye to the oppression for years and years, and Israel's current hard right government is seeing record amounts of world pressure for the crimes committed daily against the Palestinians, who have now resorted to non violent protest, which is greeted almost exclusively by violent attack, death and arrest at the hanks of IDF soldiers and police.

Special thanks to Miri Weingarten

Sources:

Alternative Jewish Percpectives on Israel - Palestine

HaMoked - the Centre for the Defense of the Individual

=================================================

Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines.

Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

National committee: Israeli jailers try hard to intimidate hunger strikers

[ 12/04/2010 - 09:30 AM ]


GAZA, (PIC)-- The higher national committee for the defense of prisoners on Sunday said that the Israeli prison administrations tried hard to intimidate Palestinian hunger strikers into stopping their protest steps but they failed, calling for continuing to hold popular activities in solidarity with the detainees.


The committee explained that the prison administrations threatened to deprive prisoners of family visits and withdraw more of their rights, and then took suppressive measures against a number of them through transferring them from one prison to another.


Riyadh Al-Ashqar, the information director of the committee, affirmed that all these means failed to dissuade the prisoners from their strike and prompted the Israeli jailers to flex their muscles and send messages to them about the possibility of using force if the strike continued.


Ashqar added that the special units of Nahshon and Matsad, notorious for their suppressive activities, stormed the prisons of Negev, Hadarim and Nafha and violently attacked the prisoners.


The official noted that the Israeli prison administrations have fears that the strike of Palestinian detainees may escalate in the coming days in conjunction with the popular rallying around the protest steps they declared to take if their demands were not fulfilled.


In a related incident, the Palestinian prisoners in Beersheba jail (Ohli Kedar) said that the prison administration at dawn Saturday stormed and ransacked their cells at the pretext of security precautions.


The Palestinian prisoner society quoted the prisoners as saying that the real reason behind this break-in was the open strike which they participated in, pointing out that the administration threatened them to bar them from buying things from the canteen inside the prison.

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Samson in London

Samson in London

 

the commemoration of an ugly slaughter,
as if killing a Palestinian is an Art.

In London, last week,
I have had the pleasure of visiting the
Albert and Victoria Museum

Right at the entrance is the information-desk
and to its right-side is the first Hall with the neo-classical styles.

The First statue represented :
" Samson killing a Palestinian"

it is not for the first time
that a Jew (or an Israeli ) kills a Palestinian
but I did not know that it is something to celebrate
or to commemorate........in a Museum.


Did not the God of Samson ask him " not to kill "  !!
and what if that Palestinian would have killed Samson ??
would there be also a statue to commemorate the death of Samson ??


How come did God allow Samson to kill
and also why did Samson not marry that pretty Delilah  ??
what was wrong with Delilah  ??
Did racism play any role in the fact that
Delilah was not a " chosen ".

Why did  Samson not try to convert Delilah ??
and then to marry her.


When each of us marries out of his race or out of his religion
or out of his own nationality.........
the all our Children shall never become racists nor nationalist
nor religiously fanatic.

So why does the old testament teach us racism ??
why everybody conconsidersat even Samson ,
who was a "Suicide-terrorist"
was equally........ a Biblical- Hero !!!!

How come their  racism is Holy..... and ours is not ??
how come their "Suicide-terrorist" was in the service of God and the Nation,
and ours is not !!!


I liked that statue but not its message.
I liked that statue but not its context .
I liked that statue but not its Hero.
Because Samson should have married that non-jewish-Delilah
and not listen to his racist Rabi.



Eng. Moustafa  Roosenbloommy own wife, does not share my race ,
nor my religion , nor my nationality !!
 

Posted by Тлакскала at 9:20 PM

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Sources: Egyptian steel wall in final stages

[ 11/04/2010 - 02:45 PM ]

CAIRO, (PIC)-- The steel wall built by Egypt under its borders with the Gaza Strip is entering its final stages and would soon close up all tunnels used for smuggling goods into the besieged Strip, sources working in the wall project said.

The sources told the PIC on Sunday that the final stage was the most dangerous one as it targets the area full of tunnels between Gaza and Egypt.

They said that the Egyptian authorities had doubled the number of tools used in digging, noting that 70% of the wall has been completed.

The sources said that the Egyptian authorities target closing more than 1,000 tunnels used in supplying Gaza with basic materials.

Palestinian human rights groups estimate that 142 people had died in the tunnels over the past couple of years.

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Nelson , London and the traffic

Frustrated Arab's Diary

Visiting London all last week,
I went to many places,  with my family.

One inevitable place would be the Westminster Abbey
and that square outside it, and the British Parliament .

There were many statues to the hero's of Britishism
and also one Statue for Nelson Mandela.

And I thought to myself:
 " How far does hypocrisy go ?"
1- they stole his Land
2- they enslaved his people and made them "inferior"
3- they diged out his diamonds and sold them
4- and when he wanted Independence they jailed him 26 years
5- and finaly for the sake of their  Amnesty they released him.

Now , he is a Hero.....
and he became their Hero , too !!


Nelson was standing there ,
watching everybody driving
on the wrong side of the street........
and watching every body adjusting their watches
to that huge clock on a tower.....

Because,
Hypocrisy is adjusted to the powerful...

Raja Chemayela tourist in London
 

Posted by Тлакскала at 9:17 PM

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Indispensable IslamOnline Must Not Fail

Palestine Chronicle





The story of IslamOnline pertains more to media freedom in Arab countries.

By Ramzy Baroud

A widely popular Islamic website has been, until very recently, an undisputed success story. IslamOnline arrived at a time that millions of Muslims needed a common platform and a unifying outlet. Here was a website that neither shunned nor alienated. Its influence was upbeat and positive, rather than destructive or divisive. While it wasn’t an apologetic outlet, it reached out to patiently and progressively present Islam and Muslim issues to the world. These were understood and communicated by hundreds of scholars and qualified journalists, who toiled day and night from their Cairo offices.

Then something happened to abruptly bring the noble mission to an end. The success story suddenly became a terrible nightmare for hundreds of IslamOnline’s principled employees. The website (IslamOnline.net) remained online, but it was barely updated. Instead, videos were circulated on youtube, showing tired-looking IslamOnline staff chanting in the lobby of their building in Cairo. They were demanding the return of their editorial freedom and rights. They were calling for justice. These bright journalists, some of the finest in the region, should have been sitting behind their computers screens writing, editing and managing ‘live dialogues’ between inquisitive readers and learned scholars. Instead they were seated on the floor with signs and banners, shouting in coarse voices.

Something had gone horribly wrong.

Hadeel al-Shalchi tried to explain in a recent Associated Press report: “The Qatari government has forced out the moderate leadership of a popular Islamic Web site and plans to reshape it into a more religiously conservative outlet, former employees of the site said.”

According to the AP report, “The site was thrown into turmoil…when the owners attempted to change its approach, prompting 350 of its workers in Cairo to go on strike. Management in Doha then cut off their access to the site and have been updating it with news articles but not the diverse content IslamOnline is known for, said the former employees.”

IslamOnline is funded by al-Balagh, a Doha-based company. Al-Balagh was headed by well-respected Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi, a most sensible and judicious religious authority. He is known, and much liked, for his progressive views on Islam. Al-Qaradawi is also very popular among Muslims around the world, not least because of his daring political views, his strong anti-war, pro-resistance stances and moral clarity on many issues. In short, al-Qaradawi is the antithesis of religious clerics who would do as they are told.
A striking IslamOnline editor described to me how the crisis developed. It sounded something similar to a coup: the Sheik was removed from al-Balagh, the site’s directors were relegated, a new management was installed (in fact imposed), and even the website passwords were changed so that employees could no longer access it. Devastated and enraged by the unwarranted moves, about 350 employees went on strike - only to find themselves subject to legal investigation by some company lawyers for exercising what is universally accepted as a fundamental right. The editor tells me that they were harshly criticized in particular for their uncompromisingly courageous coverage on Palestine and Gaza. Indeed, IslamOnline had worked tirelessly to bring greater awareness of the struggle in Palestine, to Muslim and non-Muslim readers alike. 

Following the tragic events of September 11, few websites have played the vital role that IslamOnline has. Its editors did not serve the cause of fanatics, with their dreadful interpretation of the world and themselves, and nor did they adopt the mouthpiece position in favor of Arab governments. Equally important, they did not try to falsify a ‘moderate’ position to please any government - Arab or any other. Instead, they truly reflected and genuinely expressed the views of mainstream Muslims from all walks of life, and from all over the world. It was truly an impressive feat to see such an independent editorial line emerging from one Arab capital and largely funded by another.

But it seemed too good to be true - thus the terrible, chaotic and devastating changes that brought this vital to a standstill. The very means of presenting an eloquent Muslim voice to the world has been threatened.
The story of IslamOnline is being presented as that between rival Arabs: governments, groups and individuals. Reductionist terminologies– such as conservatives vs. moderates - are once again permeating the often predictable Middle East discourse. Many questions still remain unanswered.

In fact, the story of IslamOnline pertains more to media freedom and editorial independence in Arab countries than much of the above. The struggle is between the self-serving politicking few, and hundreds of media professionals - brilliant and inspiring young women and men who made up the staff at IslamOnline. For them, IslamOnline was not just another job. It was a mission, a calling even, and millions of readers around the world appreciated their work, every word of it.

One can only hope that IslamOnline will find its way back, with its current employees and current editorial line intact. The success story must not be allowed to end. Individual ambitions cannot stand in the way of this rare generational mission that is now simply indispensable.

- Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story" (Pluto Press, London), now available on Amazon.com.



River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

The Ghosts of Deir Yassin

By SONJA KARKAR
April 11, 2010 

"Waiting for Justice" by Dora McPhee, oil on canvas (detail), 2008

by Sonja Karkar  -  9 April 2010

ISRAEL HAS LONG played on its “heroic” beginnings to stir up support for its less than heroic exploits today. The problem is that those heroic beginnings have always been a fiction. Israel’s bloody birth and subsequent actions were crimes against humanity which continue to this day. The veneer of Israel’s manufactured “legitimacy” cannot hide the rot eating away at the core of its existence—its original sin of violent dispossession and its current colonialist and apartheid policies. And, without acknowledgement of, and reparations for, the atrocities committed against the Palestinians, the ghosts of Deir Yassin and elsewhere in Palestine will continue to loom large in any peace talks.
It was April 9, 1948, that a Jewish terrorist gang entered the quiet rural village of Deir Yassin on the outskirts of Jerusalem with the express purpose of destroying it. There were 750 people living in the village at the time, mostly stonecutters. Their houses had been built from limestone, with arched doors and windows, and these homes had stood that way for centuries. The villagers knew that massacres had been carried out earlier in the year in other villages and had, therefore, entered into a non-aggression pact with the Jewish Hagana, another terrorist group. But this pact was worthless: Deir Yassin had already been marked for extinction, and to avoid being held accountable the Hagana called on two terrorist groups, the Irgun and Stern Gang, to execute the plan.
In March of that year Zionist leaders had devised a military strategy they called Plan Dalet or Plan D, the express purpose of which was to clear all Palestinians from the cities, towns and villages and allow for a Jewish state to come into being. Their first operation, known as Nachshon, was designed to empty the rural villages along the route between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv by occupying, expelling and/or killing their inhabitants—and Deir Yassin lay within their plan. Although not the largest of the massacres committed in that year, Deir Yassin became a turning point because the publicity given to it was designed to spread an atmosphere of terror throughout the land, hastening the ethnic cleansing that followed. Before that plan, some 30 villages had already been destroyed, but once it was finalized Operation Nachshon served as a blueprint for future Zionist campaigns, which ended up destroying 531 villages and 11 urban neighborhoods. And in that year alone, the Zionist groups (which collectively became known as the Israeli Defense Force) committed 33 documented massacres, with some historians putting the figure as high as one hundred. Those Palestinians not killed either fled or were forcibly expelled.
And who would not flee, given the chance, on seeing or hearing of the atrocities being committed? Women were raped, men tortured, children made to watch and no age or gender was spared from being killed, their mutilated bodies then stuffed down wells or left heaped in mounds of mangled flesh and blood. At least a hundred villagers of Deir Yassin suffered that fate, although the original number was much higher—254 deaths—the number supposedly inflated by the Zionists themselves to terrorize Palestinians everywhere. Regardless of how many died, killings of unarmed men, women and children were commonplace, so it was no wonder that Palestinians fled once they heard that bands of Zionist terrorists were in the vicinity of their towns and villages. Food was left still warm and uneaten on tables, clothes left hanging in cupboards, and toys, photos and papers were all left behind in the rush to escape. But the 750,000 Palestinian refugees, who barely locked the doors to their homes behind them, all thought that they were coming back.
Today, in the most tasteless, despicable irony, the Israeli museum commemorating the European Jewish Holocaust, Yad Vashem, sits on top of a hill overlooking the graveyard of Deir Yassin, while the limestone buildings of the former Palestinian village are used for an Israeli mental institution. Is it any wonder that the ghosts of Deir Yassin still haunt the collective memory of Palestinians and all those who know that Deir Yassin was the catalyst in the plan to create a Jewish-only state of Israel? In the meantime, the millions of dispossessed in the camps of Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon are waiting to return and/or receive compensation for their immeasurable losses, since nobody has the authority to trade away their human rights in order to submit to a racist state born out of Palestinian dispossession and misery. To agree to anything less without their consensus would betray the 60-year Palestinian struggle for recognition and self-determination in defiance of apartheid Israel.
VIDEO about DEIR YASSIN
Early in the morning of April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun (headed by Menachem Begin) and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. The village lay outside of the area to be assigned by the United Nations to the Jewish State; it had a peaceful reputation. But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Deir Yassin was slated for occupation under Plan Dalet and the mainstream Jewish defense force, the Haganah, authorized the irregular terrorist forces of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to perform the takeover. In all over 100 men, women, and children were systematically murdered. Fifty-three orphaned children were literally dumped along the wall of the Old City, where they were found by Miss Hind Husseini and brought behind the American Colony Hotel to her home, which was to become the Dar El-Tifl El-Arabi orphanage.”

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Sad North Winds

There is things the enemy should know in order to think thousand times before attacking us, and there is things he should not know in order to think million times
Nasrallah

رياح الشمال الحزينة

سوريّتان من قرية عين التينة في الجولان تلوّحان لأقاربهما في قرية مجدل شمس (أرشيف ــ رويترز)

التوتر الكامن على الجبهة الشماليّة لإسرائيل لا يفرض الذعر. لكن الاستعداد لمواجهة آتية يفرض العمل على الجميع. في لقاء ظل بعيداً من الأضواء، قال الأمين العام لحزب الله السيد حسن نصر الله عن معركة المناورات مع إسرائيل: «هناك أشياء لدينا من المفيد أن يعرف عنها العدو كي يفكر ألف مرة قبل العدوان على لبنان. ولدينا أشياء أخرى يجب ألّا يعرف عنها العدو، كي يفكر مليون مرة قبل العدوان»

إبراهيم الأمين

لم يتوقف الجميع في إسرائيل عن إبداء الخشية من الشمال. ولثلاثة عقود خلت، كان المقصود بالأمر جنوب لبنان. تعوّد الإسرائيليون والعرب والعالم الهدوء على الجبهة السورية. لم يعد أحد يشعر بأن الخط الفاصل بين القوات السورية والإسرائيلية على جبهة الجولان مصدر توتر لأحد.

قبل وقت غير طويل، صار من الضروري التثبت من مقاصد إشارات قادة إسرائيل إلى هوية من يقصدونه في الحديث عن الشمال. لم تعد سوريا خارج القصد والحديث والبحث. وأكثر من أي وقت، يجري الحديث اليوم عن اندلاع مواجهة في الشمال، أي مواجهة بين سوريا وإسرائيل، يكون حزب الله طرفاً فيها.

مرّ شهر شباط على خير. ومرّ آذار أيضاً على خير. ولأن الموضوع دقيق أكثر مما هو ظاهر، أو محل تداول، فإن نيسان لا يزال في بدايته، وهو مسلسل من الترقب قد يستمر حتى نهاية الصيف. إما أن يحصل الانفجار الكبير، وإما أن تمضي المنطقة نحو هدوء يسبق العاصفة الكبرى، تلك التي يُحتمل أن يكون عنصر الابتداء في حرب شاملة مع إسرائيل بيد العرب أنفسهم.

في إسرائيل نقاش أكثر واقعية إزاء العلاقة مع سوريا. والأصوات الداعية إلى تنظيم اتفاق مع دمشق لا تقف عند آراء كتّاب أو خبراء ينصحون بحل يفيد إسرائيل. بل إن المؤسسة الأمنية والعسكرية تفترض في مثل هذا الحل علاجاً لمشكلة متعددة الأطراف. هم يفترضون أن باقة إنجازات ستحصل عليها إسرائيل إذا ذهبت باتجاه سلام مع سوريا. لكن الموانع تعيد الجميع إلى النقطة الصفر، أيّ سلام مع سوريا له كلفة تتجاوز مسألة الأراضي، وليس فيه ضمانات بالحصول على مقابل مناسب، بما في ذلك إعلان نهاية الحرب. وثمة تقديرات اليوم لدى القيادة الإسرائيلية بأن هامش المناورة يضيق. وسوريا لم تعد كما كانت عليه قبل عشرين سنة، ولا كما كانت عليه قبل عشر سنوات، ولا كما كانت قبل خمس سنوات. وكل يوم يمر، تبدو سوريا أكثر استفادة من تراجع المشروع الأميركي ومن تعمّق المأزق الإسرائيلي. وتجد أن فاتورتها قابلة للارتفاع وأن ما يستحق عليها يمكن حسم الكثير من بنوده. ومع ذلك، فإن في إسرائيل من يدعو الولايات المتحدة إلى عدم إضاعة الجهد في مفاوضات لن تنتج حلاً مع الفلسطينين، وإن تركز على المسار السوري.

هواء ساخن في شباط

قليلون يعرفون عن كثب حقيقة ما حصل في شباط الماضي. وهو ما جاء حصيلة مراكمات تعود إلى أشهر سبقت، عندما استفاق قادة في المنطقة على استنفار هو الأول من نوعه من جانب الدبلوماسية الغربية الصديقة لإسرائيل. استقبلت سوريا عدداً من المبعوثين، بينهم مسؤولون أميركيون، وآخرون من أوروبا، وتلقى دبلوماسيون سوريون في عدد من الأماكن رسائل عاجلة موجّهة إلى القيادة السورية العليا. وكل النقاش يتركز على بند واحد: إن مواصلة عملية تزويد حزب الله وحماس بالأسلحة باتت عامل حرب قد تشنها إسرائيل. وكان التشخيص يرفق برسالة تحذير على شكل نصيحة: جنّبوا سوريا والمنطقة الكأس المرّة، وأقفلوا بوابات عبور الأسلحة إلى لبنان وفلسطين.

أعدّت إسرائيل لغارة مفاجئة على هدف متحرّك للمقاومة داخل الأراضي السوريّة

قبل هذا البريد الساخن، كانت إسرائيل تعمد إلى توجيه الرسائل المباشرة إزاء ما سمّته «خطر تلقي حزب الله أسلحة كاسرة للتوازن». وكان المحللون يشرحون الأمر بأن لدى إسرائيل معلومات عن وصول منظومات عسكرية متطورة إلى سوريا تتضمن أسلحة متقدّمة مضادة للطائرات، وأن مجرد التفكير بالحد من حرية سلاح الجو في إسرائيل يدفع إلى القيام بما يحول دون ذلك. واستمر الكلام على هذا النحو لوقت طويل، ولا أحد يجيب عمّا إذا كان هذا السلاح قد وصل فعلاً إلى لبنان أو لا. اتصالات وضغوط على روسيا وضغوط غير مباشرة على إيران وسوريا، والحصيلة: لا جواب ولا تأكيد على عدم إنجاز الأمر. وبقي كلام إسرائيل يوحي أن مصادرها الاستخبارية تفيدها بأن السلاح لم يصل.

فجأة خرج إلى العلن كلام على تلقّي حزب الله منظومة صواريخ أرض ـــــ أرض متطورة للغاية، وأن كمية غير محددة من صواريخ فاتح ـــــ 110 قد دخلت لبنان ونُشرت من جانب حزب الله. ومن يومها صار صعباً تمييز الفوارق وتوحيد النقاش بشأن نوعية السلاح الكاسر للتوازن. وفي الوقت نفسه، كانت الأجوبة السورية محبطة للإسرائيليين. في الكلام الدبلوماسي رفض للتعليق من زاوية القول إن معلومات إسرائيل غير دقيقة، أو من زاوية أن سوريا ليست شرطة حدود عند أحد. وفي الإجراء العملي كانت الماكينة السورية تعمل بالوتيرة نفسها أو بالمزيد في بعض الحالات.

وفي كل مرة تتلقى فيها سوريا رسالة تهديد، كان جوابها الفعلي يصل إلى إسرائيل بصورة ميدانية: المزيد من تدفق السلاح إلى لبنان وفلسطين، والمزيد من التنسيق مع إيران ومع قوى المقاومة.

في الثالث من شباط، وصل وزير الخارجية الإسباني، ميغيل أنخيل موراتينوس، إلى دمشق. كان يحمل أيضاً الرسالة نفسها. وكان الرد هذه المرة علنياً على لسان وزير الخارجية السورية وليد المعلم، الذي قال بلغة فاجأت الجميع: «على إسرائيل عدم اختبار عزم سوريا، فإسرائيل تعلم أن الحرب ستنتقل إلى المدن الإسرائيلية، وعليها الالتزام بمتطلبات السلام العادل والشامل».

مشروع الضربة الخاطفة
كانت إسرائيل تعيش لحظة التوتر الأكثر سخونة. خرج من بين قادتها من يدعو إلى معالجة الأمر بالطريقة التقليدية. أي توجيه ضربة عسكرية تمثّل رادعاً عملياً لسوريا لمنعها من إرسال المزيد من الأسلحة، وتكون عقاباً على ما مرّ سابقاً. وكانت نقاشات قادة إسرائيل على مختلف المستويات تركز على أمور عدة:

ـــــ كيف ستكون ردة فعل سوريا؟ وثمة اعتقاد واسع لدى قادة إسرائيل بأن سوريا غير جاهزة للقيام بعمل عسكري مضاد، وهي ربما رفعت الصوت، لكنها وفقاً لما حصل سابقاً، لن تبادر إلى خطوات عملانية على الأرض. وقد توكل إلى قوى حليفة لها في لبنان وفلسطين القيام بالرد.
ـــــ إن وضع حزب الله في لبنان لا يتيح له الرد بالنيابة عن سوريا، وهو ليس في وضع يتيح له أداء دور المقاول بالباطن. وإذا اختير الهدف بدقّة، فسيكون من الصعب على سوريا إقناع حزب الله بالرد، وسيكون من المتعذر على حزب الله المبادرة.
ـــــ إن الوضع في غزة ليس مريحاً إلى درجة تمكّن حماس أو الفصائل الأخرى من القيام بعمل نوعي أو جرّ إسرائيل إلى مواجهة غير محسوبة. وبالتالي فإن المخاطر من أي عمل عسكري إسرائيلي ستنحصر في الإطار الدبلوماسي، وستصدر بيانات استنكار.
ـــــ إن الإبداع يوفّر إمكان القيام بعملية من النوع الذي يتيح لسوريا نفسها عدم إعلانها، وأن تمتنع إسرائيل أيضاً عن الإشارة إلى العملية وأن يكون الهدف هو إيصال الرسالة لا إعلان إرسالها.
وإذا كان النقاش يقود إلى ما يسهل على صاحب القرار المصادقة، فإن على الجانب الأمني والعسكري عرض هدف يناسب الشروط السياسية كلها. لذلك، فإن النقاش انحصر عملياً في الآتي:
ـــــ توجيه ضربة إلى هدف عسكري، ثابت أو متحرك وتجنب أي ضرر بأي مؤسسة أو بنية مدنية وعدم إيقاع خسائر بشرية بين المدنيين.
ـــــ اختيار الهدف الذي يوصل الرسالة المزدوجة إلى سوريا وإلى حزب الله، بحيث يُضرب هدف يخص حزب الله. لكن من الضروري ضربه داخل الأراضي السورية، بما يتيح القول لحزب الله إننا سنمنع بالقوة وصول الأسلحة إليكم، ونقول لسوريا إننا لا نستهدفكم، لكننا نحذركم من ترك أراضيكم مسرحاً لنقل هذا النوع من الأسلحة.
ـــــ على هذا الأساس، بُحثت كيفية تحديد الاستخبارات العسكرية هدفاً يفضَّل أن يكون متحركاً، وعلى شكل قافلة تنقل أسلحة مفترضة إلى حزب الله، ويجري اصطيادها عند نقطة لا تبعد كثيراً عن الحدود اللبنانية ـــــ السورية، شرط أن تكون داخل الأراضي السورية.  

16 شباط: الردع الوقائي

قبل ظهوره أمام الحضور في مجمع سيد الشهداء في حارة حريك، كان الأمين العام لحزب الله السيد حسن نصر الله ينهي مراجعة سلسلة من التقارير، مثّلت مادة خطابه اللافت في حينه. مراسلات تشرح طبيعة الاتصالات الأجنبية بسوريا. تقويم سوري للوضع عموماً. تقارير خاصة من قيادة المقاومة عن الوضع الميداني، وتقديرات إضافية لما تفكر فيه إسرائيل، مع جملة من المقترحات بشأن ما هو الأكثر إفادة في إعلانه في هذا الخطاب.

كان نصر الله يعرف أنه أمام مهمة توازي مهمة دعوة قوات المقاومة إلى الاستعداد لمواجهة ما. أمامه جمهور يسأل عمّا يحصل من حوله، وبين يديه كمّية من المعطيات المعروفة وغير المعروفة والقابلة للاستثمار. وعينه على إسرائيل من تحت ومن فوق. وكان عليه أن يشرح بطرق مختلفة بين الوضوح وبعض الغموض. ومن دون العودة إلى كل ما قاله، أوصل نصر الله الرسائل الآتية:

ـــــ أعلن أن وسائل الردع الإسرائيلية القائمة على اغتيال القيادات العسكرية والميدانية المعنية ببناء الجهوزية في لبنان وسوريا وفلسطين (سمى الشهيدين عماد مغنية ومحمود المبحوح، ولم يشر بالاسم إلى العميد في الجيش السوري محمد سليمان، الذين اغتالتهم إسرائيل في دمشق واللاذقية ودبي)، أعلن أن هذه الوسائل لم توقف المهمة.
ـــــ أعلن أن المقاومة تحتفظ بحقها في الرد على اغتيال الشهيد مغنية، وهي تجنبت ردوداً لا تتناسب وحجم الجريمة، وستنفذ قرارها متى ترى ذلك مناسباً. وبالتالي، حرص نصر الله على فصل عملية الرد على اغتيال مغنية عن أي بعد آخر يتصل باشتعال الجبهة مع إسرائيل.
ـــــ أعلن مباشرة وصراحة، أنه إذا شنّت إسرائيل اعتداءً على لبنان (ابتداءً أو رداً على عمل للمقاومة ثأراً للشهيد مغنية) فإن المقاومة سترد بقسوة.
ـــــ كشف عن امتلاك المقاومة أسلحة في منتهى التطور. وإن لم يشرح تفصيليّاً، فإنه قال إن المقاومة قادرة على توجيه ضربات تدميرية في كل إسرائيل. ما يعني عملياً القول لإسرائيل إن لديه أسلحة من نوع خاص. 

سارعت إسرائيل إلى القول إنها قررت إلغاء أجزاء من المناورة كرسالة تهدئة إلى سوريا

بالإضافة إلى هذه الرسائل المباشرة، فإن السيد نصر الله اهتم بالرد أو بتوضيح مسائل لعلها تساعد في ردع إسرائيل. فهو قال إن الأسلحة التي يخشى الإسرائيليون وصولها إلى المقاومة سيجري العمل على الحصول عليها، مع إشارة لافتة: «إذا كنا لم نحصل عليها أصلاً». وإذا كانت إسرائيل ترى أنّ الأنظمة الدفاعية الجويّة هي الكاسرة للتوازن، فقد تحدث عن الصواريخ التي تتحول من تلقاء نفسها إلى طائرات تقوم بمهمات انتحارية (من دون الحاجة إلى من يقودها). وإن فكر الإسرائيليون قليلاً، وهم فعلوا ذلك على الأرجح، فسيكتشفون أن منظومة صواريخ أرض ـــــ أرض التي أشار إليها زعيم حزب الله، هي من النوع المحطم للتوازن. لأن الدفاعات الجوية على أهميتها وضرورتها ضمن منظومة أسلحة المقاومة، تهدف إلى عرقلة إسرائيل في أثناء محاولتها إيذاء لبنان. أما الصواريخ النوعية ذات الإصابات الدقيقة والقوة التدميرية الهائلة، فتحقق إيذاءً لإسرائيل أشد إيلاماً من عرقلة عمل سلاح جوها... فكيف إذا توافر السلاحان عند المقاومة؟

حجارة نارية... باردة

بين موقف وليد المعلم وخطاب نصر الله تدحرجت الكرة الملتهبة في إسرائيل نفسها. كانت المفاجأة كبيرة بشأن موقف المعلم، واكتشف الإسرائيليون أن هناك تطوراً نوعياً في الموقف السوري. وأن إمكان رد سوريا على أي عمل عسكري داخل أراضيها بات مرجّحاً بقوة. ثم جاء خطاب نصر الله ليقفل الأبواب على أي رسائل ردعية، ولينسف استراتيجية التهويل على لبنان وحكومته ويقيم توازناً عسكرياً مع «عقيدة الضاحية». ولم يمضِ وقت طويل حتى جاءت المفاجأة الأكبر، بانعقاد قمة هي الأولى من نوعها في دمشق، جمعت الرئيس السوري بشار الأسد والرئيس الإيراني أحمدي نجاد والسيد حسن نصر الله. وهي قمة أعلنت التفاهم على مبدأ واحد: أيّ اعتداء إسرائيلي على لبنان أو على سوريا سيواجه بحرب شاملة تدعمها إيران.

كانت الدبلوماسية الإسرائيلية تهتم بإطلاق مواقف، والبعث برسائل تقول فيها إنها غير معنية بأي تصعيد في الشمال. فيما كان جيشها أمام مهمة تنفيذ مناورة مقررة هي «حجارة نارية 12» في منطقة الجولان. سارعت إسرائيل إلى القول إنها قررت إلغاء أجزاء من المناورة، وخصوصاً فقرة استدعاء جنود الاحتياط، مشيرين إلى أن في ذلك رسالة تهدئة إلى أهل الشمال.

معلومة مفيدة في هذا السياق، هي أن إسرائيل التي تعودت الكذب، لم تكن مضطرة إلى أن تفعل عكس ما تراه مناسباً. وللعلم فقط، هي لم تعدّل في برنامج المناورة، واستُدعي الاحتياط ونفذوا ما هو مطلوب منهم. وما كان مطلوباً من القيادة العسكرية نُفذ بحذافيره من دون أن يكون التقويم واضحاً للنتائج، باعتبار أن المجموعة القيادية المشرفة على المناورة اضطرت إلى العيش في مناخين متناقضين خلال أيام قليلة. ففيما كانوا في أجواء مواجهة محتملة، صاروا مضطرين إلى إنهاء عملهم من دون ضجيج. وبدل تحويل الأحجار النارية إلى شهب ساخنة فوق دمشق وبيروت، جاء الحزن مع رياح الشمال الباردة ليكسر الصورة. 

---

خطر الاشتعال: من أين سيأتي الشر؟

رونين بيرغمان ــ يديعوت أحرونوت
«الهرب إلى الأمام»، هكذا وصف المستشار السابق لياسر عرفات وواضع البحث الأكثر شمولية عن تاريخ (م. ت. ف.) يزيد الصايغ، التكتيك الذي طوّره الرئيس الفلسطيني إلى درجة الفن في أثناء حياته السياسية الطويلة. أي التملص من أزمة خطيرة من خلال خلق أزمة أخرى. هل هذا ما حاولت حماس عمله في الأسبوعين الماضيين في ظل استخدام غطاء الفصائل الفلسطينية الأخرى؟
حماس تمر بفترة صعبة. فقد تكبدت هزيمة عسكرية في حملة «الرصاص المصبوب» لن تنجح في انتزاع إنجاز في صفقة جلعاد شاليط. وهي في مواجهة عسيرة مع مصر في ضوء الخطة المصرية لبناء جدار فوق الأرض وتحتها، يوقف التهريب من سيناء. وتلقت ضربة معنوية وتكتيكية غير بسيطة في تصفية محمود المبحوح. وحسب مصادر استخبارية، تفكر حماس باقتحام الحصار السياسي عبر عمل عسكري، على أمل أن يغير هذا ميزان القوى في المنطقة.
لكن هذا فقط واحد من السيناريوات المحتملة للحرب. على الأغلب، الشر سيأتي تحديداً من الشمال. فمنذ أشهر وإسرائيل وسوريا في حال توتر شديد. حقيقة، لها تعابير علنية قليلة لا ينبغي أن تشير إلى قوتها. دليل على هشاشة الوضع نجده بين 22 و 25 شباط، حين أجرى الجيش الإسرائيلي مناورة القيادات «حجارة نارية 12». في نهاية المناورة كان يفترض بجنود كثيرين من الاحتياط أن يُستدعَوا للامتثال في قواعدهم، إلا أنه بسبب التوتر السري تقرر عدم تجنيد الاحتياط كي لا يشتبه الطرف الآخر، سوريا أساساً، بأن الحديث هو عن نية لشن حرب حقيقية، فيشن هو هجوماً وقائياً.
قبل وقت غير بعيد، كان السيناريو الأكثر احتمالاً للحرب هو قصف إسرائيلي للمواقع النووية الإيرانية، ردّ عليه أعضاء «الجبهة الراديكالية». غير أنه في المدى القصير، هذا السيناريو أقل معقولية، في ضوء التقدير بأن رئيس الوزراء بنيامين نتنياهو سيستجيب للطلب الأميركي ويعطي زمناً وإمكاناً لـ«العقوبات الشالّة» لتحقيق هدفها. من جهة أخرى، إمكانات أخرى تخلق خطراً ملموساً وشديداً بالحرب.
أحد الإمكانات هو أن ينجح حزب الله في أن يخرج إلى حيّز التنفيذ ثأراً ناجعاً على تصفية عماد مغنية. محاولته تفجير السفارة الإسرائيلية في باكو في أذربيجان، المسّ بسياح إسرائيليين في سيناء، أو اختطاف رجال أعمال إسرائيليين في أفريقيا فشلت حتى الآن، لكنها لم تمس بدافعيته للثأر. ثأر شديد في شكل قتلى يهود أو إسرائيليين كثيرين، أو اغتيال لمسؤول إسرائيلي كبير، من شأنه أن يؤدي إلى رد فعل إسرائيلي شديد للغاية تجاه المنظمة ولبنان.
إمكان آخر أكثر حظوة من الأول، يتعلق بالعلاقات بين سوريا وحزب الله. سوريا وإيران تساعدان اليوم منظمات الإرهاب الراديكالية من دون خجل تقريباً. سلاح يجري تطويره في إيران ويجتاز هناك تجارب بحضور ممثلي المنظمات. الإنتاج يجري في سوريا، ومن هناك ينقل السلاح بوسائل مختلفة إلى لبنان وإلى قطاع غزة. فضلاً عن ذلك، هناك تخوف خطير من أن تزود سوريا حزب الله «بسلاح خارق للتوازن»، يمثّل تهديداً حقيقياً لإسرائيل.
على خلفية التخوف من وصول السلاح إلى حزب الله، استدعي في الأول من آذار السفير السوري في واشنطن، عماد مصطفى، إلى حديث استثنائي في وزارة الخارجية، قيل له فيه إن الولايات المتحدة تطلب من دمشق وقف تسليح حزب الله، وإن هذه الخطوات من شأنها أن تؤدي إلى اشتعال حرب في المنطقة. التخوف الأميركي هو من إغراء حزب الله باستخدام هذا السلاح ضد إسرائيل ضمن أمور أخرى في عملية ثأر على ما يرونه كعمليات الموساد ضدهم، أو أن تخشى إسرائيل من مثل هذا السلاح الذي هو «خارق للتوازن» في نظرها، فتنطلق إلى عملية وقائية.

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

VISITING THE GALILEE AND NORTH PALESTINE

My Cat Bird Seat

- 07. Apr, 2010 in Mazin's Dispatches -

Spring time in Galilee

It was strangely uplifting to spend two nights and three days in the Galilee, North Palestine. We visited good friends, made new friends, saw 3000 year old olive trees, walked in the ruins depopulated villages, and shopped and ate in Palestinian towns which survived 62 years of colonial apartheid. We crossed from Bethlehem to occupied East Jerusalem with a wave of an Israeli soldier’s hand (who did not bother to check papers of an Israeli car. A few minutes later we crossed the Green line (borders before 1967) that is neither marked or guarded. The imaginary green line had long disappeared since Israeli colonies go deep into the occupied West Bank. But in the areas of West Jerusalem, we could still see many signs of the three dozen Palestinian villages depopulated since 1948. Then taking “route 6? north. This highway was built on newly confiscated Palestinian village lands.

Palestinian homes bulldozed

Over 530 Palestinian towns and villages were depopulated. The remaining 130 villages and towns had most of their land taken and now the remaining Palestinians who comprise 20% of the Israeli population live on about 2% of the land while the Jewish population controls the rest (which is mostly Palestinian property). When we take the whole of Palestine (West Bank and Gaza included), we see that Palestinians who remained (some 50% of the population is restricted to less than 10% of historic Palestine. Thus access to land is nearly 9 folds more to the Jewish population (most of it not native) even without the return of refugees.
We visited devastated Palestinian villages like Iqrit (a catholic christian community of which only the church remains), Al-Zeeb (a fishing Muslim community where the mosque and the few remaining buildings are converted for recreation of Israelis), and Al_Bassa (that used to be a thriving mixed town of Christians and Muslims and was filled with Jewish immigrants initially from Bulgaria and is now called Shlomi).

But we also visited still heavily populated (and growing) Palestinian towns like Arrabe, Sakhnin, and Acre. One is tempted to feel sad at the inability of the Zionist Jews to see that they could have lived with the natives instead of at their expense. I was saddened to see how Jewish settlements throughout the Galillee are built on Palestinian lands instead of on the very many open spaces. I was saddened to see how these Jewish communities live behind guarded perimeters (gated communities). Palestinian towns, impoverished but still open to visitors.

Throughout the trip we met a few of the 1.5 million Palestinians who remain steadfast and work to reject the schemes of Judaicizing the Galilee (and the Negev, hopefully my next trip). These are inspiring people in everything they do. I am humbled by their dedication. I kept thinking of Tawfiq Ziyad’s poem Unadikum (I call upon you) which was rendered into patriotic songs of love of land and people. It says in part,

I call upon you
I press on your hands
I kiss the land
under your shoes
I gift you the light of my eyes
the beats of my heart
and I sacrifice myself for you
as I share with you our tragedies…

The trip is chronicle in this short video in which I included singing Ziyad’s song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg1mCditmUU
I returned like I went “unofficially” through the apartheid barriers
For more information see
Abnaa Al-Balad Movement http://www.abnaa-elbalad.org/
article just published in Haaretz by Ahmed Tibi on http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1160446.html
reality of Palestinians inside the state of Israel
For Al-Bassa http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/al-Bassa , and video on Al-Bassa by Uri Zakhem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4or6gB0xDQ
For Iqrit http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Iqrit/
For Al-Zeeb http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/al-Zeeb and video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE2BLnshMqk


Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee, Duke and Yale Universities. He served on the board/steering/executive committees of a number of groups including Peace Action Education Fund, the US Campaign to End the Occupation, the Palestinian American Congress, Association for One Democratic State in Israel/Palestine, and BoycottIsraeliGoods.org. He is now president of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People. He advised many other groups including Sommerville Divestment Project, Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project, Palestine Freedom Project, Sabeel North America, and National Council of Churches of Christ USA. He is an active member of a number of human rights groups (Amnesty, Peace action, Human Rights Watch, ACLU etc.). He published several books of which the most acclaimed “Sharing the Land of Canaan: human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle” which was also translated to spanish.





River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian

IDF order will enable mass deportation from West Bank

Via Israeli-occupation.org

Amira Hass: A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years. When the order comes into effect, tens of thousands of Palestinians will automatically become criminal offenders liable to be severely punished.

IOA Editor: “Infiltration,” an Orwellian term invented by the Occupier, is designed to treat certain Palestinians as having no rights to be present at a given area without special permission that is unlikely to be granted by the IDF. Reminiscent of the Present Absentees (internally displaced Palestinians – IDPs), a post-1948 Israeli classification, this, too, is an attempt to segregate and dispose of elements of the Palestinian people that the Occupation authorities wish to remove — based on political, geographic, or any other criteria, however arbitrary. This newly-formalized authority serves as yet another tool at the hands of the IDF in the long-term process of ethnic cleansing — the removal of the Palestinian people from their land — that Israel has been carrying out since 1948.

---

By Amira Hass, Haaretz – 11 April 2010www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1162075.html
A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years.
When the order comes into effect, tens of thousands of Palestinians will automatically become criminal offenders liable to be severely punished.
Given the security authorities’ actions over the past decade, the first Palestinians likely to be targeted under the new rules will be those whose ID cards bear home addresses in the Gaza Strip – people born in Gaza and their West Bank-born children – or those born in the West Bank or abroad who for various reasons lost their residency status. Also likely to be targeted are foreign-born spouses of Palestinians.
Until now, Israeli civil courts have occasionally prevented the expulsion of these three groups from the West Bank. The new order, however, puts them under the sole jurisdiction of Israeli military courts.
The new order defines anyone who enters the West Bank illegally as an infiltrator, as well as “a person who is present in the area and does not lawfully hold a permit.” The order takes the original 1969 definition of infiltrator to the extreme, as the term originally applied only to those illegally staying in Israel after having passed through countries then classified as enemy states – Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.
The order’s language is both general and ambiguous, stipulating that the term infiltrator will also be applied to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, citizens of countries with which Israel has friendly ties (such as the United States) and Israeli citizens, whether Arab or Jewish. All this depends on the judgment of Israel Defense Forces commanders in the field.
The new guidelines are expected to clamp down on protests in the West Bank.
The Hamoked Center for the Defense of the Individual was the first Israeli human rights to issue warnings against the order, signed six months ago by then-commander of IDF forces in Judea and Samaria Area Gadi Shamni.
Two weeks ago, Hamoked director Dalia Kerstein sent GOC Central Command Avi Mizrahi a request to delay the order, given “the dramatic change it causes in relation to the human rights of a tremendous number of people.”
According to the provisions, “a person is presumed to be an infiltrator if he is present in the area without a document or permit which attest to his lawful presence in the area without reasonable justification.” Such documentation, it says, must be “issued by the commander of IDF forces in the Judea and Samaria area or someone acting on his behalf.”
The instructions, however, are unclear over whether the permits referred to are those currently in force, or also refer to new permits that military commanders might issue in the future. The provision are also unclear about the status of bearers of West Bank residency cards, and disregards the existence of the Palestinian Authority and the agreements Israel signed with it and the PLO.
The order stipulates that if a commander discovers that an infiltrator has recently entered a given area, he “may order his deportation before 72 hours elapse from the time he is served the written deportation order, provided the infiltrator is deported to the country or area from whence he infiltrated.”
The order also allows for criminal proceedings against suspected infiltrators that could produce sentences of up to seven years. Individuals able to prove that they entered the West Bank legally but without permission to remain there will also be tried, on charges carrying a maximum sentence of three years. (According to current Israeli law, illegal residents typically receive one-year sentences.)
The new provision also allow the IDF commander in the area to require that the infiltrator pay for the cost of his own detention, custody and expulsion, up to a total of NIS 7,500.
Currently, Palestinians need special permits to enter areas near the separation fence, even if their homes are there, and Palestinians have long been barred from the Jordan Valley without special authorization. Until 2009, East Jerusalemites needed permission to enter Area A, territory under full PA control.
The fear that Palestinians with Gaza addresses will be the first to be targeted by this order is based on measures that Israel has taken in recent years to curtail their right to live, work, study or even visit the West Bank. These measures violated the Oslo Accords.
According to a decision by the West Bank commander that was not backed by military legislation, since 2007, Palestinians with Gaza addresses must request a permit to stay in the West Bank. Since 2000, they have been defined as illegal sojourners if they have Gaza addresses, as if they were citizens of a foreign state. Many of them have been deported to Gaza, including those born in the West Bank.
One group expected to be particularly harmed by the new rules are Palestinians who moved to the West Bank under family reunification provisions, which Israel stopped granting for several years.
In 2007, amid a number of Hamoked petitions and as a goodwill gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, tens of thousands of people received Palestinian residency cards. The PA distributed the cards, but Israel had exclusive control over who could receive them. Thousands of Palestinians, however, remained classified as “illegal sojourners,” including many who are not citizens of any other country.
The new order is the latest step by the Israeli government in recent years to require permits that limit the freedom of movement and residency previously conferred by Palestinian ID cards. The new regulations are particularly sweeping, allowing for criminal measures and the mass expulsion of people from their homes.
The IDF Spokesman’s Office said in response, “The amendments to the order on preventing infiltration, signed by GOC Central Command, were issued as part of a series of manifests, orders and appointments in Judea and Samaria, in Hebrew and Arabic as required, and will be posted in the offices of the Civil Administration and military courts’ defense attorneys in Judea and Samaria. The IDF is ready to implement the order, which is not intended to apply to Israelis, but to illegal sojourners in Judea and Samaria.”



River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian

THERE’S MORE TO APARTHEID THAN JUST THE WALL….

DesertPeace….

April 11, 2010 at 09:13
 

Image by Herblock

We constantly hear pleas from the zionists to keep Jerusalem united and undivided. It is nothing but a joke! Jerusalem is NOT united and IS divided….. has been for decades.

Aside from the wall which physically separates Jew from Arab, we see…

Separate (but not equal) school boards for Jewish and Palestinian children, separate neighbourhoods and shopping districts, and also separate bus lines. Can you imagine riding on a separate ‘this or that’ public bus line in any major American city?

On some of the ‘Jewish’ bus lines we see a different form of apartheid which relegates women to the back of the bus….. reminiscent of the Old South.

Only here, in the ‘Only Democracy in The Middle East’, can you, the tourist see apartheid in action…. make sure to bring a camera as these days will not be around forever

Transported back in time

Is the continuation of the Arab-run bus system a symbol of a divided city or simply a situation that suits Jerusalem’s residents?

ARAB-RUN buses in Jerusalem can be traced back to 1948, just after the War of Independence. Prior to that year, the Central Bus Station was on Jaffa Road – although not where it currently stands – and was used by both Jews and Arabs. However, with the city split in two, a new central bus station was built by the Jordanians on Sultan Suleiman Street, in east Jerusalem.

In 1967, Israel pushed the Jordanians out of east Jerusalem, thus unifying the city. But the separation of public transportation remained. One Jerusalem central bus station serviced west Jerusalem, and the other central bus station continued to function as it had under the Jordanians – with 12 separate lines servicing east Jerusalem residents and the outlying Arab villages.

Read more HERE

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Hebrew media: Barak, Fayyad responsible for Gaza power crisis

[ 10/04/2010 - 04:07 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Ehud Barak, the Israeli war minister, has instructed Salam Fayyad, the premier of the illegitimate Ramallah government, to tighten the noose on the Gaza Strip through gradually reducing the payment for industrial fuel for Gaza's sole power station, the Hebrew radio said on Saturday.

It quoted a senior official in Barak's office as saying that the request focused on halting the payment of the fuel supplied by Israel and financed by the European Union.

The broadcast said that the step was meant to increase the citizens' suffering n the Strip and to put in the shade the strike waged by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails.

For his part, Taher Al-Nunu, the spokesman of the Palestinian legitimate government in Gaza, told a joint press conference with Kenan Obeid, the deputy director of the energy authority, on Saturday that Fatah was responsible for the power outage in Gaza.

He said that Fatah-dominated government in Ramallah was stealing the money sums donated by the EU to finance the fuel shipments and gave them as increments to its employees.

He also pointed out that the measure was meant to overshadow the prisoners' strike, which point to coordination of stands between the PA in Ramallah and the Israeli occupation authority (IOA).

Obeid said that the constant reduction of fuel to Gaza was a "collective punishment" and went in harmony with the IOA policy of besieging Gaza.

Obeid said in an earlier press statement today that the budget of the Gaza electricity company was monitored by the EU.

He said that with the closure of the Gaza electricity generation station and the malfunctioning of power lines from Israel the total power shortage in Gaza could reach 70%.

He called on the Arab League and the organization of Islamic conference to intervene and protect Gaza from the consequences of the current power crisis.

Khudari: 1,000 containers of goods at Israel’s ports are exposed to damage

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian