Looking around for coverage at places like the New York Times or the Washington Post, or even this morning’s Haaretz newspaper and pretty much you find lack of it or any follow-up of the new Israeli/IDF law announced yesterday that will permit the further ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the West Bank.
With this new law, Israel has turned its military occupation into a legal enterprise, even an art. Palestinians now need a permit to live in what’s left of their own country, lest they be considered “infiltrators.” Considering that half the population in the Palestinian territories are refugees ethnic cleansed in 1948 from their villages and towns in what is now Israel, the order essentially intends to make a considerable number of Palestinians, refugees once again.
The Latuff cartoon above depicts the ramifications of this new law for what it is. Yet, the world seems oblivious to it and there is yet to be any reaction from the White House. Talk about house bulldozing in East Jerusalem being “unhelpful (Clinton),” this new law enacts what right wing Israelis like Avigdor Lieberman have always proposed: the “transfer” of Palestinians out of Israel and “Judea and Samaria,”
Is anyone listening?
Yesterday’s Jerusalem Post stated,
The IDF Spokesperson said in response to the report: “The laws in Judea and Samaria have in the past permitted the expulsion of Palestinians who are illegally residing in the West Bank.”
“The objective of changing the order to prevent infiltrations that will go into effect on April 13 and was signed a half-a-year-ago and was publicized is to allow for a legal process on the deportation procedure of Palestinians illegally in the West Bank by a committee which is headed by a judge and to enable additional oversight of this procedure,” the IDF added.
Just how can you “infiltrate” your own country? The implications of course is that the West Bank is not Palestinian territory, but belongs to Israel, a part called Judea and Samaria. There does not seem to be any quibbling any more about the distinction as to what is Palestinian territory and what is Israeli territory. Furthermore, it makes a distinction between the West Bank and Gaza which are seen as separate entities, a strategy Israel has been employing for several years since it withdrew its settlements from Gaza.
In response, Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad responded:
“[This new order] threatens the emptying of large areas of land from its Palestinian inhabitants… [and] aims at deepening the hold of the occupation in the West Bank and facilitating more Israel land-grab
“The order targets thousands of Palestinians from Gaza who work and live in the West Bank and could lead to their forced deportation to the Gaza Strip.” (snip)
“The new order violates international humanitarian law as well as UN Security Council decisions condemning forced deportations,” Fayyad said.
It was reported that ten Israeli human rights organization appealed to Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, to freeze the orders, originally issued October 13, 2009. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa also condemned the new order, saying that it undermines the peace process. “It is hard to establish real peace,” Moussa said, “in the region due to the Israeli measure. We reject such measures and we call on the international community to bear responsibility.”
According to the provisions of the order, “a person is presumed to be an “infiltrator” if he is present in the area without a document or permit which attests 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 new order is said to provide Israeli field commanders huge deferential power in regard to deportation. And to add to the insult, those found in violation of the new order will be required to pay for the cost of their own “detention, custody and expulsion.” Talk about adding insult to injury.
But imagine the situation here: an illegal military occupier appealing to the law in order to transfer out indigenous citizens from their own lands. Is Netanyahu just poking Obama in the eye again? When will he wake up?
Al Jezeera English, little known in the USA, reported:
Speaking of Al Jazeera English, here’s some irony for you. You can’t watch it in the United States because none of the satellite companies will carry it, but I can watch it to my heart’s content in Damascus, Aleppo, Beirut, Cairo, Baghdad or anywhere else I go in the Arabic-speaking world.
.
The same reason I never subscribed to cable or air reception, but invested in a satellite disc and tuner. I hate censorship of any kind, too bad the Land of Liberty and the Free is bought by conservative corporations for distribution of radio, tv and Internet. Stalin, Goebbels and Ulbright must be proud of their heritage by world’s lone superpower in the 21th century. I do also enjoy sattellite reception from all parts of the world: dozens from the Middle East incl. al-Jazeera, Russia RT.com, China, SE Asia and most European countries.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."We have been talking about censorship and bias concerning the IP conflict in the mainstream American media for years, and Al Jazeera is certainly kept out.
But you can still see such material in the left wing blogosphere in places like Booman, and the big players: Huffington, Daily Kos, and Salon, each of which has over a million daily visitors.
To a lot of people in the world, I suspect this change is being met with a shrug because they see it as more of the same. Nothing Israel does in the West Bank is legal in their eyes, so what Israel law says is meaningless.
Israel’s non-zealous supporters, OTOH, are probably uncomfortable with the change, but are saying nothing in hopes that Israel doesn’t do anything with the law. Problems like the new law tend not to go away on their own, unfortunately.
The silence about the legal change is disturbing. It is perhaps another incident of timing, given that Obama is hosting an international conference on nuclear proliferation. That is to say, the Israelis let this one out of the bag at a time when the White House was preoccupied.
And Netanyahu took the opportunity as well to slap Obama’s face once again. This kind of shit, like the building announcements, don’t get approval without the big man’s concordance. Or perhaps the big man set it all up. When you have AIPAC on your side, what’s to worry about?
You know, all this talk about Netanyahu slapping Obama and insulting Joe Biden is very annoying. I know you do not see it that way, but it appears that to a lot of Americans it is this, and not Israel’s utter contempt for law and morality and ethics, or the violation of Palestinian rights, and the destruction of their lives and hopes that gets them exercised. OMG, that horrible Netanyahu insulted the President or the Vice President of the U.S.! It is this, and not trampling on the law and the lives and rights of Palestinians that matters. It is really infuriatingly narcissistic, isn’t it?
No I guess I don’t see it that way. I see it as signaling something new, confrontation and its publicity. In fact, that was AIPAC’s primary gripe, that the disagreements were made public.
Now we have to wait to see if Obama is serious about concluding a peace in the Middle East in two years.
You know, I don’t think most people even realize that virtually everything Israel does wrt the Occupied Territories is illegal. I think they are so indoctrinated that they think most of it is necessary or quite all right to do, and the Palestinians are just naturally violent, hateful people – I mean, they ARE all Moslems (sic) aren’t they? Most people don’t even know there are Christian Palestinians, and those who do know have no idea that they are persecuted right along with their Muslim brethren, that they have always fought and suffered alongside each other, and that some of the most notorious “terrorists” have been Christians (George Habash comes quickly to mind).
In short, most people, and especially most Americans, have been well and thoroughly indoctrinated by Zionist propaganda.
No question about that. What irks me somewhat is that Israel has used the US State Department right along to propagate its hasbara, lies and deception, including bringing Palestinians into the mix of wanted terrorists. State terrorism is completely ignored.
I know why I am silent about everything that goes on in Israel/Palestine: I work in politics, and if I ever expressed how I think and feel, it would cost me my career. It’s not that I have any radical views, but I would be critical of Israel’s conduct, and I feel that as a gentile, I am not permitted to be so without running the risk of having an anti-semitic label pinned to my chest forever. It doesn’t matter that I would be critical of Palestinian conduct too. Gentiles don’t criticize Israel, period.
This is pretty much akin to European non-reactions. Everyone knows that Europe is anti-semitic now – studies come out all of the time “proving” that – so anything any European says which is critical of Israeli conduct is just more Jew-hating from the usual suspects. Why bother?
Congressional condemnation of the Goldstone Report was pretty much the last straw as far as I am concerned. A Zionist Jew can’t say anything even vaguely critical of Israel, so how could I?
The canard that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic still gets mileage from right wing Zionists, but it has diminished considerably. Israel’s behavior has gone so far beyond the pale that it is not possible for a human rights activist or their sympathizers to remain quiet. To some extent, accusations of anti-Semitism come with the territory, especially on blogs such as Daily Kos.
One factor that helps overcome personal damage is the anonimity of blogs.
Israeli garbage: