Nouvelles d’Orient

Why I don’t give lectures in Israel about the occupation -
Gideon Levy
Opinion -
Israel News | Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-why-i-don-t-give-lectures-in-israel-about-the-occupation-1.7170563

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What will the tiny handful of Israelis for whom fighting the occupation is paramount do now? What will they do, the people who will not consent to living in an apartheid state? The election results left no room for doubt: Israel lacks a critical mass of opponents to the occupation. The pro-annexation camp beat the camp that’s in favor of perpetuating the occupation. That’s the story, in a nutshell.

Some of the people who voted for Kahol Lavan or other parties would like to be rid of the albatross around their necks, but it’s not their No. 1 priority. Loathing for Benjamin Netanyahu, the corruption in government and the Eurovision Song Contest are much higher up on their agenda. And what do these people think could possibly end the occupation anyway? Nothing. It’s no biggie.

The minority that refuses to give up on opposing the occupation can throw in the towel now when it comes to trying to win over Israelis. There’s no one to talk to, and nothing to talk about. There is no partner in Israel, no buyers. Only a handful of warriors remain, the few and the brave.

One can wait for a miracle — or a disaster — or one can shift to the only arena where hope is still possible: overseas.

That’s where the fate of the regime in South Africa was decided, at the end of the day, and that’s where the fate of the regime in Israel-Palestine might possibly be decided one day. For now, it’s the only option.

The argument that this is an undemocratic action aimed at bypassing the will of the people obviously sets a new standard of chutzpah. It’s akin to the claim that the international sanctions against South Africa constituted interference in the country’s domestic affairs.

There, too, there were democratic elections, for whites only, and a majority of the whites had their say and supported apartheid. So what? Did that have anything to do with democracy? Could the international community sit by idly?

The occupation is not an internal Israeli matter, and it has nothing to do with democracy. Israeli Jews who control Palestinians using brutal military force are an international matter.

This is exactly why international institutions were established and why foreign policy exists, and this is exactly why there are judges in The Hague. For 52 years, millions of Palestinians were never asked for their opinion, and for that reason there are few issues that require the intervention of the international community more urgently. It is not only a legitimate sphere of action, it is mandatory — including for Israelis.

Contradictory messages are emanating from this arena. There are signs of loss of interest and fatigue over a conflict that refuses to be resolved. Ultranationalism, xenophobia and Islamophobia bolster support for Israeli colonialism.

But at the same time, there are reinforcements in the form of new, almost revolutionary voices, that will not accept this. In Europe and in the United States there arose a generation that did not know the Holocaust and was unwilling to accept the occupation.
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There is today no greater source of hope than the astonishing changes in the U.S. Democratic Party and the U.K. Labour Party. The rise of these parties to power could herald a new international language toward Israel. There are countries where people are only waiting for the signal to join in.

The fall of the occupation is likely to be dramatic, not gradual, and the house of cards that seems today to be at the height of its powers, with greater international support than ever before, could collapse in an instant. That’s what happened in South Africa.

The formula is a simple one: the dissolution of the existing formula, according to which it benefits Israel and the Israelis to continue the occupation. As long as it exists — and it does exist — there is no possibility of change. The moment one of the components is removed, the Israelis will begin asking themselves, for the first time in their history, whether it’s all worth it and whether they are willing to pay the price.

The answer is clear. There are few Israelis who will be willing to sacrifice their quality of life for the settlement of Ofra, which they have never been to and will never go to.

It’s necessary to take action in the international arena without any guilt feelings, because it is the only hope. It needs additional Israeli voices. I am occasionally asked, “Snob, have you ever given a lecture in Israel?” but in Israel no one cares about the occupation. Occasionally the word “treason” is mentioned, too. It’s the silent ones who are the real traitors, in Israel and, even more so, abroad.
Gideon Levy

Gideon Levy
Haaretz Correspondent

L’artiste palestinien Ali al-Jabali montre ses peintures lors de l’exposition « rêveurs parmi les gravats » dans la tour d’Italie qui a été détruite par les bombardements récents menés par Israël sur Gaza
26 avr. 2019
▻https://twitter.com/embpalestina/status/1121708355867881472

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On 56th Friday of Great March of Return and Breaking Siege, Israeli Forces Wound 110 Civilians, including 37 Children, 3 Women, 4 Paramedics, and Journalist | Palestinian Center for Human Rights
▻https://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=12416

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On Friday, 26 April 2019, in excessive use of force against peaceful protesters on the 56thFriday of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege, Israeli forces wounded 110 civilians, including 37 children, 3 women, 4 paramedics, and a journalist, in the eastern Gaza Strip. Two of those wounded sustained serious wounds. (...)

#marcheduretour

In a Jewish state, the Zionist left can offer the Arabs nothing but empty words - Opinion - Israel News | Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-how-pleasant-when-brothers-sit-together-1.7164824

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It didn’t work once again for the Zionist left. Like the song says: They promised a dove, an olive branch, they promised peace, spring and blossoms … And once again they got Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Zionist leftists tried everything. They promised peace and security, settlements and two states, Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, and nothing worked. Only one choice remained, the doomsday weapon, the wildest wild card of all: to join with the Arabs. Only thus could they return to power, wrote the pundits. Why didn’t they think of that before? How good and pleasant it is when brothers sit together, center-left with “Israeli Arabs,” as they are popularly called, in denial of them being Palestinians.

It’s good that this recognition has finally sunk in; it’s too bad that it’s hollow and hypocritical, like most ideas of the center-left. Even when the Zionist left reaches the right understanding, they aren’t ready to pay the price for it. As usual, they want to have their cake and eat it too.

A Jewish-Arab partnership as well as a Jewish state. It’s doomed to failure. Dear Zionist leftists, don’t count on the Arab vote. You’re not worthy of it.

First of all – now you come to us? After all the years of military administration and after the riots of October 2000, the discrimination, exclusion and dispossession (just go to Taibeh or Hura), suddenly you remember that we exist? Oh well, better late than never. But what exactly does the center-left have to offer the Arabs in the state of the Jews? Empty words. What equality, without which there can be no genuine partnership, can exist in a Jewish-democratic state? What brotherhood can prevail in a country whose Law of Return fundamentally discriminates against Arabs? What is there waiting for them in a country whose discourse is all Jewish and only Jewish? Where nearly all of the land is designated for Jews and many public workplaces are closed to them? And that’s before we’ve even said a word about the nation-state law.

There is only one way that Jews and Arabs can really go together: in a democratic, egalitarian state of all its citizens. Is this what anyone on the Zionist left who proposed joining together meant? If so, he cannot be a Zionist. This built-in contradiction must be exposed: Zionism and egalitarianism cannot go hand in hand.

From the depths of its failures, the center-left suddenly discovered the potential of the Arab vote. It tried the religious and sought out the Mizrahim and ultimately was stuck with the Arabs, the last bastion of non-rightist votes. But the Zionist left has nothing to offer them aside from a few budgetary crumbs. It has no intention of paying the real price that has to be paid for going together, which would spur Israel’s Arabs to vote Kahol Lavan, Labor or Meretz.

They will only do so en masse in a country that shakes off its Zionist scaffolding, which may have been necessary once, but is no longer so. They will do so in a state in which an Arab prime minister or defense minister or health minister is a matter of routine, as it should be in any multinational democracy. They will do so when the Arabic language will be the language of the country just as Hebrew is, and when they stop being called a “minority.” What minority? An equal number of Jews and Palestinians now live under Israeli control between the Jordan River and the sea. This moment of numerical equality, which many not last very long, ought to have been celebrated with a declaration of intent to establish an egalitarian democracy. Instead, nearly 5 million Palestinians live under occupation and another nearly 2 million live under the nation-state law.

This is not what the advocates of joining together mean. They just want keffiyehs at party conventions and votes at the ballot box. The right has been winning for 40 years, and the left still doesn’t get that it has nothing more to offer. For 40 years now, it has lost its way.

The solution is admittedly revolutionary and not an easy one to accept, but it is the only one: Detach the Zionist label from the leftist label and switch to what every liberal left in the world is dedicated to. Offer the obvious: Democracy for all.

Calling a coup a coup? Egypt’s African Union bid to make inroads in Sudan | MadaMasr
▻https://madamasr.com/en/2019/04/22/feature/politics/calling-a-coup-a-coup-egypts-african-union-bid-to-make-inroads-in-sudan

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While the head of the transitional military council that has ruled Sudan since ousting former President Omar al-Bashir announced a “readiness” to hand over power to a civilian government last night, negotiations to usher in the transition to civilian rule in Sudan are at a “deadlock,” sources in the opposition tell Mada Masr.

Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who sits atop the transitional council, took to television late on Sunday night to announce the military’s willingness to hand over the “reins of government” as early as tomorrow, provided that political forces reached a consensus among themselves and put forth a government they could agree upon.

Burhan’s speech was roundly rejected by leading member of the opposition Freedom and Change Coalition Wagdi Salih, who spoke at a rally in front of the military headquarters shortly after the lieutenant general’s address, announcing that the opposition would suspend talks with the military council.

“We were supposed to have a meeting with the military council yesterday to inform them of the choices for the civilian sovereign council, but the council, which is a continuation of the ruling regime, revealed its dark side. The council told us they want to discuss our proposal among another 100 proposals from political parties,” Salih told protesters.

Sunday’s televised exchange played out against the backdrop of a flurry of meetings held on Saturday, when the African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki met with the military and opposition in Khartoum.

Israel already an apartheid state says outgoing French ambassador, discussing Trump’s peace plan - Israel News - Haaretz.com

Gérard Araud recalls that ’once Trump told Macron [the French president], ‘I have given everything to the Israelis; the Israelis will have to give me something’’

▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-is-already-an-apartheid-state-says-outgoing-french-ambassador-1.7151

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Outgoing French Ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud, gave a bombastic interview to the Atlantic, published Friday, as he ends his five year tenure in Washington, D.C. Araud told Yara Bayoumy that Israel is already an apartheid state and that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan is 99% doomed to fail.

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Araud, who Bayoumy notes is known for “his willingness to say (and tweet) things that other ambassadors might not even think,” also offered his opinion on Trump’s foreign policy team. He said that John Bolton is a “real professional,” even though “he hates international organizations” and that Jared Kushner is “extremely smart, but he has no guts.”

Araud recalled that “once Trump told Macron [the French president], ‘I have given everything to the Israelis; the Israelis will have to give me something.’ He is totally transactional. He is more popular than [Benjamin] Netanyahu in Israel, so the Israelis trust him.” Araud cited that exchange with Macron as evidence that Trump will ask for something tough from the Israelis in his peace proposal.

Read the full interview in the Atlantic

He concluded, however, that “disproportion of power is such between the two sides that the strongest may conclude that they have no interest to make concessions.” He continued by discussing Israel’s dilemna in the West Bank, noting that Israel is hesitating to make “the painful decision about the Palestinians” - to leave them “totally stateless or make them citizens of Israel.”

He concludes, “They [Israel] won’t make them citizens of Israel. So they will have to make it official, which is we know the situation, which is an apartheid. There will be officially an apartheid state. They are in fact already.”

Trump’s Middle East peace plan will not involve giving land from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula to the Palestinians, an American envoy said on Friday.
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Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s Middle East envoy, apparently sought to deny reports on social media that the long-awaited plan to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would involve extending Gaza into the northern Sinai along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.

“Hearing reports our plan includes the concept that we will give a portion of Sinai (which is Egypt’s) to Gaza. False!”, Greenblatt, one of the architects of the proposal, tweeted on Friday.

The American plan is expected to be unveiled once Israel’s newly re-elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forms a government coalition and after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in June.

Trump’s senior advisor Jared Kushner said on Wednesday the plan would require compromise by all parties, a source familiar with his remarks said.

It is unclear whether the plan will propose outright the creation of a Palestinian state, the Palestinians’ core demand.

Reuters contributed to this report

« On voit comment est le monde grâce aux #réseaux_sociaux. On voit ce qui se passe en #Algérie. On voit comment vivent les femmes du monde entier, et on n’est pas différentes. »

Source : Jean-Philippe Rémy, « Au #Soudan, les #femmes à la pointe de la révolte », Le Monde, 10 avril 2019.
▻https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2019/04/10/au-soudan-les-femmes-a-la-pointe-de-la-revolte-on-ne-veut-pas-juste-changer-

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#médias_sociaux #monde #mouvement_de_contestation

U.S. denies entry to BDS founder Omar Barghouti
Noa Landau | Apr 11, 2019 7:22 PM | Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/bds-founder-omar-barghouti-denied-entry-to-the-united-states-1.7110679

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The U.S. government denied entry to co-founder of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement Omar Barghouti on Thursday.

Airline staff at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport informed Barghouti that he could not fly to the United States, despite holding valid travel documents. He was told that U.S. immigration officials ordered the American consul in Tel Aviv to deny him permission to board the flight.

Barghouti was told that it is an “immigration matter,” according to a statement by the Arab American Institute, a Washington-based advocacy group. They added that Barghouti often faces travel restrictions from Israel, but not from the United States.

Barghouti was set to attend his daughter’s wedding, who lives in the United States. He was also set to speak at Harvard, New York University and a Philidelphia bookstore owned by Marc Lemont Hill, whose contract at CNN was terminated last year over his support for Palestinian rights. (...)

#expulsions #renvois

With Bashir ousted, protesters reject Sudanese military’s fractured power grab | MadaMasr

▻https://madamasr.com/en/2019/04/11/feature/politics/with-bashir-ousted-protesters-reject-sudanese-militarys-fractured-power-gr

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A transitional military government has assumed control over Sudan after President Omar al-Bashir was ousted from power by the Sudanese Armed Forces early on Thursday and placed under house arrest, according to a statement delivered on Sudanese national television by Defense Minister Awad Ibn Auf.

In the televised address that ended Bashir’s nearly 30-year rule, Ibn Auf announced a one-month daily curfew, a three-month state of emergency and a two-year-long transitional period of military rule until “free and fair elections” could be held to elect a democratic Sudanese government. This decision sits alongside a long list of measures that the military would put into effect immediately, including the dissolution of Sudan’s Constitution, president’s office, Cabinet, Parliament and a number of other state bodies. The defense minister also called on armed resistance forces to join the government’s transition efforts and asked citizens to maintain peace.

However, the defense minister did not announce who would sit atop the transitional military government, stating that a second communiqué would be issued to announce the members. The lack of clarity throws into stark relief what an Egyptian government source who has been in touch with officials in Khartoum says is “disagreement among top generals” over who will lead Sudan going forward.

The suggestion of conflict among the military and political figures negotiating Bashir’s successor is echoed by a junior officer within the Sudanese military, who tells Mada Masr that there had been “multiple coup attempts” occurring in parallel in the hours before Ibn Auf’s announcement.

This “disagreement” played out amid hours of waiting for an official announcement to come, after a Sudanese military source told Mada Masr early on Thursday morning that Bashir was being removed from power and Sudanese national television suspended broadcasting and informed viewers that the military would make an “important statement” shortly.

Israel/Palestine : Les prisonniers palestiniens entament une grève #de la faim
▻https://nantes.indymedia.org/articles/45242

Aujourd’hui, 120 prisonniers palestiniens ont entamé une grève de la faim collective dans les #prisons israéliennes pour demander la fin de la répression en cours dans les prisons. Il est prévu que la grève s’intensifie le 17 avril, en Palestine et à l’échelle internationale à l’occasion de la Journée des prisonniers palestiniens. Les prisonniers sont représentés par un groupe de dirigeants représentant toutes les forces politiques dont Ahmad Sa’adat, dirigeant national palestinien et secrétaire général emprisonné du FPLP. La grève a été lancée suite au renoncement par le Service pénitentiaire d’Israël aux accords convenus dans le but d’atténuer le niveau de répression imposé aux (...)

#Resistances #/ #centres #rétention #libérations #nationales #anti-repression #israel/palestine #Resistances,/,prisons,centres,de,rétention,libérations,nationales,anti-repression

Source: Discussions to find successor to Bashir play out as Sudanese president expected to step down ‘soon’ | MadaMasr

▻https://madamirror10.appspot.com/madamasr.com/en/2019/04/08/feature/politics/source-discussions-to-find-successor-to-bashir-play-out-as-sud

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Omar al-Bashir will step down as president of Sudan “soon,” after more than three months of popular demonstrations that came to a head in recent days when protesters in the thousands staged a sit-in outside the national Armed Forces headquarters in Khartoum, according to a Sudanese military source.

According to the military source, who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, the announcement that Bashir will step down is contingent on the military, National Congress Party, security sectors and Arab backers coming to an agreement on a successor. The source adds that this successor may be an interim president who will serve for several months until a president is elected.

According to the source, this announcement is expected to come within the week.

Hassan Ismail, the Sudanese minister of information, denied a report published by news outlets that Bashir was close to handing over power to the military.

Protesters remain stationed outside the military headquarters in Khartoum — which also houses the National Intelligence and Security Service headquarters, Bashir’s official residence and the Defense Ministry — and the situation remains “very tense,” eyewitnesses tell Mada Masr. At dawn on Monday, security forces tried to disperse the sit-in by firing tear gas and live bullets into the air, but the military returned fire, pushing security forces back and allowing protesters to resume their demonstration.

While the military source says that inner circles of the Sudanese state and international actors are narrowing in on a candidate, the opposition Freedom and Change Coalition announced Monday in a press conference the formation of a committee to engage in dialogue with the military about a transition plan, making it unclear who exactly will fill the vacuum in a post-Bashir landscape.

Cent des cent vingt députés élus mardi en Israël seront les partisans de l’apartheid. Une tribune de Gideon Levy

Israel is voting apartheid - Opinion - Israel News | Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-israel-is-voting-apartheid-1.7089338

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There will be one certain result from Tuesday’s election: Around 100 members of the next Knesset will be supporters of apartheid. This has no precedent in any democracy. A hundred out of 120 legislators, an absolute of absolute majorities, one that supports maintaining the current situation, which is apartheid.

With such a majority, it will be possible in the next Knesset to officially declare Israel an apartheid state. With such support for apartheid and considering the durability of the occupation, no propaganda will be able to refute the simple truth: Nearly all Israelis want the apartheid to continue. In the height of chutzpah, they call this democracy, even though more than 4 million people who live alongside them and under their control have no right to vote in the election.

Of course, no one is talking about this, but in no other regime around the world is there one community next to another where the residents of one, referred to as a West Bank settlement, have the right to vote, while the residents of the other, a Palestinian village, don’t. This is apartheid in all its splendor, whose existence nearly all the country’s Jewish citizens want to continue.

>> Even for the wild West Bank, this is a shocking story

A hundred Knesset members will be elected from slates referred to as either right-wing, left-wing or centrist, but what they have in common surpasses any difference: None intend to end the occupation. The right wing proudly says so, while the center-left resorts to futile illusions to obscure the picture, listing proposals for a “regional conference” or “secure separation.” The difference between the two groupings is negligible. In unison, the right and left are singing “say yes to apartheid.”

As a result, this election is so unimportant, so far from crucial. So let’s cut the hysteria and the pathos over the outcome. Neither civil war nor even a rift is in the offing. The people are more united than ever, casting their vote for apartheid. Whatever Tuesday’s results may be, the country of the occupier will remain the country of the occupier. Nothing defines it better than all the other marginal issues, including the Zehut party’s campaign to legalize marijuana.

So there’s no reason to hold our breath over Tuesday’s results. The election is lost in advance. For the country’s Jews, it will shape the tone, the level of democracy, the rule of law, the corruption in which they live, but it won’t do a thing to change Israel’s basic essence as a colonialist country.
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The far right wants the annexation of the West Bank, a step that would make permanent in law a situation that has long been permanent in practice. Such a step would present a tempting advantage. It would finally rip off Israel’s mask of democracy and might finally generate opposition both in the country and abroad.

But no person of conscience can vote for the fascist right wing, which includes people who advocate the expulsion of the Palestinians or the construction of a Third Temple on the Temple Mount, the destruction of the mosques there, or who even dream about extermination. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allegedly more moderate Likud party wishes only to maintain the current situation, meaning undeclared apartheid.

The center-left seeks to engage in deception, with not a word about an end to the occupation from either Kahol Lavan or Labor, or even about lifting the blockade on the Gaza Strip. Benny Gantz’s party has ambitious plans for a regional conference, making history, and “deepening the process of separation from the Palestinians along with uncompromisingly maintaining … the Israeli army’s freedom of action everywhere.”

It has been a long time since such a document whitewashing the occupation has been written in all its disgrace. And the Labor Party isn’t lagging behind. The most daring step it’s proposing is a referendum on the refugee camps around Jerusalem in which only Israel’s would vote, of course.

And that comes on top of well-worn declarations about settlement blocs, Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and a halt to settlement construction outside the blocs, meaning continuing settlement construction with full force. “Paths toward separation,” this party, the self-righteous founder of the settlement enterprise, calls it. Paths toward deception.

Peace? Withdrawal? Dismantling settlements? Don’t make the Zionist left laugh. Not much is left, two and a half tickets, the fringe: Meretz and Hadash-Ta’al, which support a two-state solution — that faltering train that has already left the station — and Balad-United Arab List, which is closest to advocating a one-state solution, the only solution left.

Vote apartheid.

British Special Forces fighting on same side as Yemen child soldiers triggers UN investigation | Daily Mail Online
▻https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6869027/British-Special-Forces-fighting-Yemen-child-soldiers-triggers-investiga

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An exclusive report in The Mail on Sunday that British Special Forces have been wounded while fighting on the same side as child soldiers in Yemen has triggered a United Nations investigation.

Our devastating expose last week told how Special Boat Service commandos had been wounded during top-secret operations in the conflict that has left millions facing starvation.

The report sparked furious questions in the Commons over Britain’s complicity in its support for Saudi Arabia, which is allied to the Yemeni government fighting rebels backed by Iran in the four-year civil war.

#yemen #enfants #civilisés

Israeli navy sprays Palestinian fishermen with ’skunk water’
April 2, 2019 11:59 A.M. (Updated: April 2, 2019 3:44 P.M.)
▻http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=783077

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GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Israeli naval boats sprayed ‘skunk water’ at Palestinian fishermen working off the coast of the central besieged Gaza Strip, on Tuesday noon.

Head of the Palestinian Fishermen Union in Gaza, Zakariya Bakr, reported that Israeli naval boats sprayed Palestinian fishermen with “skunk water” at 12 nautical miles off coast of the central Gaza Strip.

This is the first Israeli assault against Palestinian fishermen since the the expansion of the permitted fishing zone off Gaza’s coast a day earlier.

The permitted fishing zone was extended from 12 nautical miles to 15 nautical miles.

Known as “skunk,” the Israeli military has been using the chemical since at least 2008 as a form of non-lethal crowd control. Palestinians, however, simply call the liquid “shit,” after the smell that can stay for weeks on clothes, body, walls and furniture.

Netanyahu is LGBT-friendly at AIPAC. At home, he’s homophobe-friendly - Israel Election 2019 - Haaretz.com

Jewish American leaders accepted the prime minister’s apology after his racist statement in 2015, so don’t expect anything different if he belatedly apologizes for legitimizing anti-LGBT rhetoric this time around
Amir Tibon Washington
Apr 02, 2019

▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-lgbt-friendly-at-aipac-netanyahu-is-homophobe-friendly-at-home-1.7

WASHINGTON — Israel’s LGBT community has frequently criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his habit of speaking positively about the community when he addresses overseas audiences, but then ignoring their demands in Israel and aligning himself with the religious parties who oppose gay rights. But he seems to have broken his own record for hypocrisy in the lead-up to Election Day.

>> Israel election 2019: full coverage

Last week, in a speech delivered via video to the annual AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, Netanyahu said — in English, of course — that equality for sexual minorities is one of the values Israel shares with the United States of America. He said that both countries are places where no citizen is discriminated against based on their sexual orientation.
Netanyahu at AIPAC praises Israel and U.S. for not discriminating against LGBT community

Israel is clearly the most “gay-friendly” country in the Middle East, with Tel Aviv a proud LGBT stronghold. And yes, great progress has been made over the past three decades in the fight to end discrimination based on sexual orientation — but that is mostly thanks to the Israeli legal system Netanyahu and his political allies are looking to weaken if they win on April 9.

>> Read more: Gantz-Netanyahu faceoff is suddenly infested by fake social media accounts ■ Phone hacking? Fake Twitter accounts? You ain’t seen nothing yet | Analysis ■ Netanyahu proves once again he can turn filth into gold

If you think Netanyahu genuinely cares about this issue, you may need to check your assumptions. On Monday, less than a week after once more using the LGBT community as an applause line at AIPAC, the prime minister gave legitimacy to the ugliest form of homophobia on prime time Israeli television.

He did it in order to push back against an investigative story about suspicious social media accounts that praised him and spread false, libelous “information” about his political rivals. The article was published in the New York Times and, separately, in the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

Driven to suicide in Tunisia’s UNHCR refugee shelter

Lack of adequate care and #frustration over absence of resettlement plans prompt attempted suicides, refugees say.

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/3/20/24cb13bc01964399b31204c721e72f34_18.jpg

Last Monday night, 16-year-old Nato* slit his wrists and was rushed to the local hospital in Medenine.

He had decided to end his life in a refugee facility run by the UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, in Medenine. After running for two years, escaping Eritrea and near-certain conscription into the country’s army, making it through Sudan, Egypt and Libya, he had reached Tunisia and despair.

A few days later, Nato was transferred to a psychiatric hospital in #Sfax, 210km north of Medenine, where he was kept on lockdown and was frustrated that he was not able to communicate with anyone in the facility.

Nato’s isn’t the only story of despair among refugees in Tunisia. A female refugee was taken to hospital after drinking bleach, while a 16-year-old unaccompanied young girl tried to escape over the borders to Libya, but was stopped at Ben Gardane.

“I’m not surprised by what has happened to Nato,” a 16-year-old at the UNHCR facility told Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity.

“They just keep us here without providing any support and after we ... witnessed killings of our friends. We feel completely abandoned. We don’t feel secure and protected,” he said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2019/3/19/104ec20b36c247da981fb80a293df0d3_18.jpg

The 30 to 35 unaccompanied minors living in UNHCR’s reception facility in Medenine share a room, spending their days remembering past images of violence and abuse.

“I cannot get out of my mind the picture of my friend dying after they pointed a gun at his temple. He was sitting next to me. Sometimes at night, I cannot sleep,” the 16-year-old said.
’They’re trying to hide us here’

The UNHCR facility in Medenine struggles to offer essential services to a growing number of arrivals.

According to the information given to Al Jazeera, the asylum seekers and refugees have not received medical screenings or access to psychosocial support, nor were they informed clearly of their rights in Tunisia.

“We feel they are trying to hide us here,” said Amin*. “How can we say we are safe if UNHCR is not protecting our basic rights? If we are here left without options, we will try to cross the sea.”

Amin, 19, has no vision of what his life will be. He would like to continue his education or learn a new language but, since his arrival, he has only promises and hopes, no plans.

The young people here find themselves having to take care of themselves and navigate the questions of what their future will be like, at times without even being able to reach out to their families back home for comfort.

“My parents are in Eritrea and since more than a year, I was able to speak with them only for three minutes,” said Senait*, a 15-year-old boy from Eritrea.

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2019/3/19/7bf6510d39c143b3814484d5b305098a_18.jpg

Aaron*, a 16-year-old boy who has been on the road for three years and three months, has not been able to call his relatives at all since his arrival in Tunisia.

“Last time I have contacted them was in 2016 while I was in Sudan. I miss them so much,” he said.

Last week, many of them participated in a peaceful demonstration, demanding medical care, support from the UNHCR and resettlement to third countries.

Refugee lives in suspension

Nato, as well as a number of refugee minors Al Jazeera spoke to, arrived in Tunisia over the Libyan border with the help of smugglers. The same is true for hundreds of refugees escaping Libya.

Tunisia registered more than 1,000 refugees and 350 asylum seekers, mainly from Syria, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia.

But the country has neither the capacity nor the means to host refugees, and because it doesn’t have a coherent asylum system, the refugees find themselves living a largely suspended life.

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2019/3/19/47fed4812e224468a55c6b40291119f6_18.jpg

Officially, refugees are not allowed to work and, therefore, there is no formal system of protection for those that do work.

Awate*, a 24-year-old man from Eritrea, had been working for nine days in a hotel in the seaside city of Zarzis when he was arrested and brought to a police station where he was interrogated for 30 minutes.

“They told me ’why are you going to work without passport?’,” he said, adding that he has not worked since.

The UNHCR in Tunisia is pushing alternatives, which include enhancing refugees’ self-reliance and livelihood opportunities.

A month ago, a group of 32 people moved out of the reception centre with an offer of a monthly payment of 350 Tunisian dinars ($116) and help to find private accommodation. Among them, nine decided to go to the capital, Tunis. The plan is confirmed for three months, with no clarity on what happens next.

Aklilu*, a 36-year-old former child soldier from Eritrea who took up the offer, is now renting a small apartment on the main road to Djerba for 250 Tunisian dinars ($83).

“Why should I be forced to settle in a country that’s not ready to host refugees?” he said. “They are thinking of Tunisia as the final destination but there are no conditions for it. The UNHCR is not making any effort to integrate us. We don’t get any language courses or technical training.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2019/3/19/e03a6d82e51a41d383978bf90a4f0c93_18.jpg

Que de souvenirs, le temps passe, Jacques Chirac en 1996 à Jérusalem Est :
►https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvXO6sbiN_U

20 ans plus tard, Roch Havet et Guillaume Farley interprètent la funky What do you want ?
►https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTHTj5glhCI

(edit : en fait le morceau fut « composé » par Roch Havet en 2010)

#Musique #Musique_et_politique #Palestine #Jacques_Chirac #Roch_Havet #Guillaume_Farley

Les États-Unis isolés à l’ONU pour défendre la souveraineté d’Israël sur le Golan
28 mars 2019 | Radio-Canada
▻https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1161005/etats-unis-isoles-onu-defendre-souverainete-israel-golan

https://images.radio-canada.ca/q_auto,w_635/v1/ici-info/16x9/trump-netanyahou-golan.jpg

Les États-Unis ont défendu mercredi au Conseil de sécurité la décision de Donald Trump de reconnaître la souveraineté d’Israël sur le Golan, une position unanimement condamnée par leurs 14 partenaires de l’ONU lors d’une réunion convoquée en urgence à la demande de la Syrie.

« Mépris du droit international » et « violation des résolutions de l’ONU », cette « reconnaissance est nulle et non avenue », a asséné Vladimir Safronkov, diplomate de la mission russe à l’ONU.

De la Belgique à l’Allemagne en passant par le Koweït, la Chine, l’Indonésie, le Pérou, l’Afrique du Sud ou la République dominicaine, tous ont dénoncé une décision unilatérale qui rompt avec le consensus international jusqu’ici observé.

Sans se montrer dupes pour certains. (...)

Tout en soulignant le droit d’Israël à assurer sa sécurité, les États-Unis se sont en revanche joints à leurs partenaires du Conseil de sécurité pour affirmer la nécessité de maintenir sur le Golan la Force des Nations unies chargée d´observer le dégagement (FNUOD). Alors que la décision de Donald Trump aurait pu avoir comme conséquence logique une demande de fin de mission. (...)

#ONU

Des ONG « taguent » l’Assemblée nationale pour alerter sur le conflit au Yémen
Publié le jeudi 28 mars 2019 à 6h59 par Thibaut Cavaillès
▻https://www.franceinter.fr/info/des-ong-taguent-l-assemblee-nationale-pour-alerter-sur-le-conflit-au-yem

https://cdn.radiofrance.fr/s3/cruiser-production/2019/03/32c368eb-de09-41c3-b2cf-df248829214a/600x337_whatsapp_image_2019-03-28_at_02.20.52_1.jpg

Un message projeté en pleine nuit sur la façade de l’Assemblée Nationale à Paris afin de dénoncer les ventes d’armes françaises à l’Arabie Saoudite. C’est l’action de quatre ONG qui voulaient ainsi interpeller les parlementaires français, quatre ans après le début de la guerre au Yémen.

Israel’s leftist media pushing for war with Gaza -

This is journalism that betrays its mission, fully and voluntarily co-opted over the most important issue of all
Gideon Levy
Mar 27, 2019

▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-israel-s-leftist-media-pushing-for-war-with-gaza-1.7063744

https://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.7063766.1553720413!/image/2950201196.jpg_gen/derivatives/headline_1200x630/2950201196.jpg

If there’s another war with Gaza, God forbid, it will be largely due to the incitement of the leftist media. If war is avoided, it will be largely thanks to the restraint of that media’s bête noire, the rightist Benjamin Netanyahu. Left and right, baying for blood in near-unison, clamoring for action. This periodic psychosis, journalism that pushes for war while still being considered leftist, has become the norm. This is our warrior journalism, fighting for war.

It works like this: First, for years they systematically and deliberately ignore the motives and justifications for Palestinian violence. They conceal the oppression and the occupation. It’s all terror, they’re all terrorists. Then they inflate the scope of the damage. Finally, they demand unimaginable vengeance. A primitive rocket that destroys a home in a farm community takes on the dimensions of an apocalypse. A few people were injured: near-genocide.

>> A war now will strengthen Hamas | Opinion ■ Choose calm, not punishment | Editorial

The headline, “A miracle: Tony the dog took some shrapnel and saved Grandma Susan,” is a parody of journalism. There were a flood of stories about Grandpa, Grandma, the children and the shrapnel. It’s emotional and familiar and it incites, and to hell with proportionality and professionalism.
Haaretz Weekly Episode 20Haaretz

Tens of thousands of Gazans who never had a swing in their yard as in Mishmeret are still homeless from the last war, but no one hears about them. In Mishmeret they are promising that the house will be rebuilt by Independence Day, but in Gaza there’s no Independence Day and no one to rebuild. Not a word is written about life under siege, dying cancer patients, hunger, unemployment and the fear of airstrikes in a land without bomb shelters. The press conceals this, derelict in its duties. Soldiers hit a blind man in his bed and kill a man in his car, for nothing; there are almost daily killings in the West Bank, and not a word. Only the destruction of the home in Mishmeret. The inescapable conclusion is that Israel mustn’t hold back.

A diplomatic reporter, a former military reporter, coldly asks the prime minister next to his plane in Washington, “How is it that there are no reports yet of fatalities in Gaza?” Indeed, how come you haven’t killed anyone yet, Benjamin Netanyahu? We’re all waiting. Army Radio puts on a Gaza man who describes a little of the suffering there, together with a man from Sderot, and social media erupts in screams: How dare they compare a Gazan to a Sderot resident, an animal to a human being? Army Radio, turning cowardly and insensitive, will no longer interview Gazans. Only in Sderot is there suffering, only one side of the fence are there human beings. Only in Mishmeret are there children. The headlines call out, “Enough,” “Exact a price.” Time is of the essence, there must be killing. It’s not enough to destroy a hundred homes. It should be a thousand, and with blood.

The experts in the broadcast studios: Hit them. Deterrence. The usual ridiculous clichés: “We can’t let this go.” Why not, in fact? “We can’t show restraint.” Why not? “We cannot remain silent.” Perhaps that’s preferable? And no one would even dream of lifting the blockade: That’s insane.
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Bombing a helpless land: That’s logical. Generals argue over who was the hero who assassinated Ahmed Jabari, and no one calls it what it was: murder. All this is in the leftist media, many of whose journalists will vote for Benny Gantz or for Meretz, but that’s a trivial detail. What’s important is that they’re responsible for Israelis receiving tendentious, brainwashed information, a dialogue between the right and the extreme right. This is journalism that betrays its mission, fully and voluntarily co-opted over the most important issue of all.

The picture that it paints is that Palestinians were born to kill. They are beasts, we are human beings. They impose war on the most peace-loving country, a war that it so does not want. But the war that is never enough is now our dream. If Netanyahu doesn’t get that, then we, the leftist journalists, will explain it to him. It could end in the Gazan city of Rafah and in blood. If not this time, then the next. Thank you, Yedioth Ahronoth; see you around, Israel Hayom; good-bye to the television channels and the radio stations, we’ll meet at six, after the next war.

Des accusations d’antisémitisme ciblent les enseignants progressistes de l’Université de New York
Rachel Ida Buff, Jadaliyya, le 20 mars 2019
▻http://www.agencemediapalestine.fr/blog/2019/03/23/des-accusations-dantisemitisme-ciblent-les-enseignants-progress

D’autres enseignants de CUNY sont venus soutenir leurs collègues de Kingsborough visés par ces accusations ; « Nous nous opposons aux tentatives visant à réduire au silence les membres de notre corps enseignant qui exercent leur droit à s’organiser, à faire des recherches, et à écrire sur les questions incontournables de notre époque », écrivent-ils dans une lettre ouverte.

#Palestine #USA #Université #BDS #Boycott_universitaire

A mettre avec l’évolution de la situation aux États-Unis vis à vis de la Palestine :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/752002

The Golan Heights first

Trump gave Syria and its allies a renewed pretext for possible military action
Haaretz Editorial
Mar 24, 2019

▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/the-golan-heights-first-1.7046251

https://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.7044647.1553202958!/image/1209353108.jpg_gen/derivatives/headline_1200x630/1209353108.jpg

U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement that “it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights” received an enthusiastic welcome in Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who got a shot in the arm from Trump at a low point in his election campaign, welcomed this “Purim miracle.” His rival Benny Gantz, whose party’s leading lights helped push for American recognition of the Golan’s annexation, said in a statement that Trump was cementing his place in history as a true friend of Israel.

That Netanyahu and Gantz were both delighted is no surprise; the annexation of the Golan and the settlements established there enjoy widespread support in Israel. Since the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Syria has refrained from any attempt to recover the Golan by force, preferring to maintain the quiet and conduct peace talks that achieved nothing. The Druze residents of the northern Golan have also accepted Israeli rule without rebelling.

The settlements on the Golan were established by the Labor Party, rather than the messianic Gush Emunim movement that settled the West Bank, and the Israelis who live there are termed “residents” rather than “settlers.” The beautiful vistas, the empty spaces and the snow on Mount Hermon are especially beloved by Israeli tourists.

>> Read more: Trump’s Golan tweet brings U.S. to Syria through the back door | Analysis ■ Trump’s declaration: What does it mean and what happens now | Explained ■ How Secret Netanyahu-Assad backchannel gave way to Israeli demand for recognition of Golan sovereignty

Nevertheless, despite the quiet and the internal consensus that sees the Golan as an inseparable part of Israel, this is occupied territory that Israel retains in violation of both international law and the principle at the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 — that the acquisition of territory by war is unacceptable. Israel accepted this principle, and six prime ministers, including Netanyahu, have held talks with the Syrians on returning the Golan in exchange for peace.

The most recent talks were cut short by the outbreak of Syria’s civil war eight years ago, and the implosion on the other side of the border spurred appetites here for perpetuating the occupation with U.S. backing. During President Barack Obama’s tenure, that idea seemed hopeless. But Trump, no great fan of international laws and agreements, acceded happily to the Israeli request.

Trump’s announcement and the applause that greeted it in Jerusalem send the troubling message that Israel is no longer interested in a peace agreement. It’s true that Syria, having fallen apart, is now weak and will settle for diplomatic censure, and in any case the chance of resuming negotiations in the north is near zero. But Trump gave Syria and its allies a renewed pretext for possible military action.
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In the near term, the U.S. green light to annexing the Golan will deepen the Israeli delusion that U.S. approval is sufficient to revise the world map and contribute to erasing the 1967 lines as the relevant reference points for solving the Israeli-Arab conflict. The U.S. recognition will inevitably increase pressure from the right to annex Area C of the West Bank (which is under full Israeli control), intensifying the occupation and the bloody conflict with the Palestinians.

[Tribune] Appel contre une islamophobie grandissante

▻https://lemuslimpost.com/tribune-appel-contre-islamophobie-grandissante.html

https://lemuslimpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/000_1EX5WX-1000x600.jpg

Ce vendredi 22 mars, à 13h40 — une semaine après l’attentat de Christchurch en Nouvelle-Zélande qui a eu lieu à 13h40 heure locale —, les sites Al-Kanz, Islam&Info, LeMuslimPost, Mizane Info et Des Dômes et des Minarets s’associent et co-signent une tribune dans laquelle plus de 250 personnalités — intellectuels, institutions musulmanes, médias musulmans, militants associatifs, élus, artistes et sportifs — appellent à mettre fin à la surenchère islamophobe dans les discours politiques et médiatiques. Ils demandent « des paroles et des actes forts de la part du président de la République. »

Watch the film Labour MPs didn’t want you to see
▻https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/watch-film-labour-mps-didnt-want-you-see

▻https://vimeo.com/324402664

It puts the entire, years-long, manufactured “Labour anti-Semitism crisis” campaign into its correct global context.

As the film’s narrator argues in its conclusion, the fact that far-right European governments and parties today are growing ever closer to Israel shows a “convergence of fascist and neo-Nazi groups with hardline Zionists.”

As a worrying UK example of this, the film cites anti-Muslim fascist leader Tommy Robinson’s recent trip to Israel and funding by anti-Palestinian groups.

“This natural alliance may now be part of a more coordinated common cause” of the far-right and Zionism around the world, the film’s narrator argues.

Je dois avouer que je suis un peu surpris par l’indécence crasse des éditorialistes venant défendre la légitimité de la théorie du grand remplacement au lendemain du massacre de Christchurch. Non pas le fait qu’il y ait des islamophobes en roue libre dans nos médias (ça, dirais-je, on a l’habitude), mais le fait qu’au lendemain d’un massacre aussi horrible, ils viennent se lâcher aussi ouvertement dans leurs émissions et sur leurs flux Twitter, sans même faire semblant d’attendre ne serait-ce qu’une petite période symbolique de respect pour les victimes. Le fait qu’il ne semble y avoir aucune vague d’indignation vertueuse de l’intérieur du système après un tel niveau de dégueulasserie fait partie, également, de l’aspect insupportable de ces interventions (on se souvient, à l’inverse, des interminables commentaires indignés quand tout le monde n’était pas au garde-à-vous après le massacre de Charlie Hebdo) – l’idée qu’on vienne défendre ouvertement la théorie du « Grand remplacement » au lendemain même d’un massacre que l’assassin justifie lui-même par la théorie du « Grand remplacement », ça n’a pas l’air de provoquer une large indignation médiatique.

Pour le coup, je suis sidéré par cette attitude aussi ouvertement et immédiatement dégueulasse et irrespectueuse.

Je vais te dire : j’y vois un marqueur de suprématisme blanc, cette façon de cracher à la gueule des « autres » en affichant sciemment son mépris raciste. Une signe des temps typiquement MAGA. Je veux dire que l’affichage du mépris raciste n’est pas un élément secondaire de leur comportement raciste, mais c’est l’élément central de leur communication. Il ne s’agit pas simplement de dire une saloperie raciste (ce qui se fait déjà très bien depuis longtemps dans notre culture), il s’agit désormais de le faire ostensiblement, avec la « fierté blanche » d’un facho bas du front.

Dans le racisme ambiant usuel, on passe à la télé 7 jour sur 7 pour balancer les phrases codées du genre : « non mais on a bien le droit de critiquer l’islam ». Dans le suprématisme blanc en voie de banalisation, on passe spécifiquement à la télévision au lendemain du massacre d’une cinquantaine de fidèles dans une mosquée pour commenter l’évènement sous l’angle « ça ne doit pas nous interdire de critiquer l’islam et le grand remplacisme ».