#architecture

#Restituting evidence. Genocide and reparations in German colonial Namibia

Between 1904 and 1908, Germany committed genocide against the #Herero, #Mbanderu and Nama peoples in their colony of ‘#South_West_Africa’ (present-day Namibia). FA/Forensis partnered with genocide activists from descendant communities to merge archival photographs and oral testimony within advanced 3D models of sites of atrocities. Our findings are the beginnings of a body of digital evidence that can be leveraged in support of demands for land restitution and reparations. This constitutes the first phase in our research.

►https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/restituting-evidence-genocide-and-reparations-in-german-colon

ping @tchorski pour l’analyse des ruines et de l’urbex dans ce récent livre

#Bruce_Bégout #ruines #urbanisme #architecture #urbex #obsolescence #philosophie #livre #recension

Vais essayer de choper ça, merci !

Frontex report into Greek shipwreck suggests more deaths could have been prevented

A Frontex report suggesting that many of the deaths caused by the shipwreck off the Greek coast near Pylos last June could have been prevented was released by the Aegean Boat Report NGO on their X feed yesterday evening (January 31).

Investigations into what happened to the Adriana, an overcrowded fishing vessel carrying some 750 people from Libya to Italy that sank off the coast of Greece on June 13, are ongoing.

However, a report produced by the European Border Agency Frontex — marked “sensitive” and dated December 1, 2023 — was posted to X (formerly known as Twitter) late on January 31.

The report was posted by Aegean Boat Report, an organization working with migrants in the eastern Mediterranean.

In their post on X, they thank freelance Brussels-based journalist Eleonora Vasques for “making it available to the public.” Frontex told InfoMigrants in an email that they had released the report via their “Transparency Office.” They added that the “release wass part of a Public Access to Documents request, an important process that allows us to share information with the public.”

Vasques writes regularly for the European news portal Euractiv. One of her latest reports looks into what happened in the Cutro shipwreck off Italy almost a year ago. The story was also sourced back to an internal Frontex report, which concluded that more lives could have potentially been saved if the response from Frontex and the Italian coast guard had been different.

▻https://twitter.com/ABoatReport/status/1752800986664448090

Long and detailed report

The 17-page Pylos report from Frontex is redacted in parts and goes into great detail about what happened and which authorities and merchant ships were involved. It also compares timelines from various authorities, NGOs and media organizations.

In the email to InfoMigrants, Frontex continued that they “strive to make such documents available in our Public Register of Documents as promptly as possible.” The Press Spokesperson Krzysztof Borowski wrote that the “Pylos tragedy is a stark reminder of the challenges and dangers faced at sea. We at Frontex share the profound concern and sadness of the public regarding this heartbreaking event.” He finished by saying: “Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragedy, and we remain dedicated to our mission of safeguarding lives while ensuring border security.”
Committment to ’assess cases more thoroughly

Although the report finds that Frontex “followed applicable procedures”, it admitted that “going forward and based on a reviewed assessment methodology ... the team … should assess similar cases more thoroughly against the need to issue a Mayday alert.”

A Mayday alert is a radio distress signal used at sea.

The report appears to suggest that more could have been done on the day to prevent such a huge loss of life.

According to the Frontex report posted on X, “in the hours following the sighting of Adriana, Frontex made three attempts to follow up on the case, by suggesting additional Frontex Surveillance Aircraft (FSA) sorties.”

Frontex writes that “no reply was received by the Greek authorities to Frontex’ repeated offers until Adriana’s shipwreck.”

Frontex made an initial statement on June 16 expressing “shock and sadness” at the events off Pylos.
’Greek authorities failed to timely declare a search and rescue situation’

Although the investigating office at Frontex underlines that it is “not in a position to conclude what caused Adriana’s capsizing and shipwreck … it appears that the Greek authorities failed to timely declare a search and rescue and to deploy a sufficient number of appropriate assets in time to rescue the migrants.”

The report stated that Frontex “regrets the lack of information provided by the Greek authorities to its enquiry but still expects to receive updates from the national investigations in progress.”

According to Frontex’ timeline of the incident, the agency first learned about the existence of the fishing vessel carrying migrants on June 13 at around 10:12 UTC, or around 13:12 in Greek summer time. They spotted the vessel from their aerial surveillance plane Eagle 1. About four hours later, another update was sent to the fundamental rights monitor, but according to the report, nothing “out of the ordinary” was flagged regarding the vessel at this point.

The next paragraph jumped to June 14 at 06.19 UTC, when the fundamental rights monitor received “another update … notifying that Adriana sank overnight and a SAR [Search and Rescue] was in progress.”
’Serious Incident Report’ launched by Frontex on June 26

In the following days, the Office for Fundamental Rights at Frontex monitored the aftermath of the incident, states the report.

They studied “Frontex’ own sightings of Adriana” along with “statements by Greek officials, and initial information reported in the media.”

Frontex launched a “Serious Incident Report (SIR) on June 26, “to clarify the role of Frontex in the incident as well as the legality and fundamental rights compliance of the assistance to the boat in distress, and the coordination and conduct of rescue operation by national authorities.”

According to a summary of that work, the first mention of the Adriana came from the Italian control authorities in Rome at 08:01 UTC on June 13.

At that point, Rome’s search and rescue authorities contacted Greece’s authorities and Frontex about “a fishing vessel with approximately 750 migrants on board, known to be sailing within the Greek Search and Rescue Region at 06:51 UTC.” At that point, Rome had already alerted the authorities to “reports of two dead children on board.”

After receiving this report, Frontex wrote that it directed its plane Eagle 1, which was already in the air, to fly over the fishing vessel “even though the vessel lay outside the normal patrolling route.”

The report said the Eagle 1 spotted the “heavily overcrowded” vessel at 09:47 UTC and informed the Greek authorities. Ten minutes later, the plane left the area due to low fuel and returned to base.
Italian authorities report Adriana ’adrift’ long before Greek authorities do

By 13:18, Rome’s search and rescue authorities provided an update of the situation to Greek authorities and Frontex. At that point, they said the boat was “reported adrift” and had “seven people dead on board.”

At 14:54, Frontex reportedly received an email from the NGO Watch The Med – Alarm Phone alerting Frontex, JRCC Piraeus, the Greek Ombudsman’s Office, UNHCR and others to the new location of the fishing boat. In that email, Alarm Phone stated there were “several very sick individuals, including babies” among the approximately 750 people on board and that the boat was “not able to sail.”

About 30 minutes later, this email was forwarded by Frontex to the Greek National Coordination Center and JRCC Piraeus, and it was sent on to the Fundamental Rights Office.

About an hour later, Frontex contacted the Greek authorities to request an update on the situation. Frontex also offered to deploy a surveillance aircraft to check on the ship’s current position, but reports it received no reply.

Just under two and a half hours later, the Greek authorities did request that Frontex support them “in the detection of a migrant boat within the maritime area south of Crete, as part of another SAR operation.” This turned out to be a sailing boat with about 50 people on board.
’No reply was received’

Later that evening, Frontex contacted the Greek authorities twice more and said no reply was received.

At 23:20 UTC, Frontex redirected the plane that had been helping with the fishing boat off Crete to the last known position of the fishing vessel.

The timeline moves to June 14. At 02:46 UTC, Frontex informs the Greek authorities that its plane was headed towards the last position of the fishing vessel. It says it received no reply from the Hellenic authorities.

Over an hour passed before the plane, this time the Heron 2, reached the “operational area” where it spotted “nine maritime assets (eight merchant vessels and one Hellenic Coast Guard patrol vessel) and two helicopters involved in a large-scale SAR operation.” At that point, states Frontex in the report “no signs of the fishing vessel were spotted.”

At 05:31, Frontex told the Greek authorities that its plane Heron 1 was about to leave the operation, but offered Eagle 1, which was already airborne, to help with the SAR operation. The Greek authorities replied over two hours later that “no further aerial surveillance support was needed for the time being.”
No mention of dead bodies on board in Greek timeline

The Frontex report then includes a similar timeline from the Greek authorities. In the Greek version, there is no initial mention of dead bodies on board. They say they established contact with those on board and “no request for assistance was addressed to the Greek authorities.”

Although the Italians reported that the vessel was already adrift around 13:18 UTC, according to the Frontex report, in the Greek version, the vessel is “still sailing with a steady course and speed” at 15:00 UTC.

Around that same time, a Maltese flagged commercial vessel approaches the fishing boat to supply them with food and water, as requested by the Greek authorities. According to the Greek report, the people on board were repeatedly asked if they were facing “any kind of danger” or were “in need of additional support.” Their answer, according to Greece, was “they just wanted to continue sailing towards Italy.”

30 minutes later, again according to JRCC Piraeus, via satellite phone contact, those on board said they wanted to keep sailing.

At 18:00, the boat was approached again. According to the report, the migrants “accepted water” from the Greek-flagged commercial vessel that approached them, but “threw the rest of the supplies into the sea.” This approach and refusal of assistance carried on into the evening.
Adriana ’still holding a steady course and speed’

At 19:40 UTC, according to the Greek report, a Greek coast guard vessel approached the fishing vessel and “remained at a close distance in order to observe it.” It was still holding a “steady course and speed, without any indications of sailing problems.”

It was only at 22:40 UTC, according to the Greek report, that the fishing vessel “stopped moving and informed the Greek authorities that they had an engine failure.”

A Greek coast guard vessel then immediately approached the vessel to assess the situation. Less than an hour later — at 23:04 UTC, but 02:04 local time on June 14 — the Greek report notes that the fishing vessel “took an inclination to the right side, then a sudden inclination to the left side and again a great inclination to the right side, and eventually capsized.”

They said "people on the external deck fell in the sea and the vessel sunk within 10-15 minutes.” At that point, the Hellenic coast guard “initiated a SAR operation.”

The Frontex report then notes “alleged discrepancies” between the various timelines and survivor statements given to the media.

They say that many of the survivors reported that the Greek coast guard “tied ropes onto the fishing vessel in an effort to tow it,” which allegedly caused it to destabilize and capsize.

In the past, the Greek coast guard have tied and towed vessels successfully towards safety.

However, while the Greek coast guard acknowledged that one rope was attached around three hours before the boat sank to ascertain passengers’ conditions, there was “no attempt to tow it.”

The rope, say the Greeks, was removed by the migrants on board just a few minutes later and the coast guard vessel moved a distance away to continue observation.
Was Adriana stationary prior to capsizing or not?

The BBC and several other media outlets also reported at the time that prior to capsizing and sinking, the fishing vessel had not moved for several hours.

This is consistent with the Frontex timeline, which mentions the Italian authorities’ warnings that the boat was adrift the day before it eventually capsized.

Later in the report, Frontex notes that many of the “alternative and complementary timelines” put together by international NGOs and journalists are “credible” as they quote “more than one source for each statement.”

The Frontex report looks into the question of whether or not the Adriana was drifting for several hours before sinking.

It concludes that the Faithful Warrior, one of the merchant tankers sent to assist, was tracked between 17:00 and 20:00 and was “likely stationary or moving at extremely slow speed (less than 1 knot),” indicating that the Adriana was probably not sailing normally until shortly before it capsized as the Greek report claimed.

The report also consulted “maritime experts to gain insight into issues pertaining to stability when a trawler of Adriana’s type is overloaded with human cargo.” Although their consultations were not precise due to a lack technical data, the experts indicated that the amount of people on board could have destabilized the boat or affected its stability.
Testimony from survivors

A Frontex team took testimonies from survivors after the shipwreck. They said they were told there were between 125 and 150 Syrians on board, including five women and six children.

Around 400-425 Pakistanis were on board, the report said, most of whom were placed on the lower decks. The access ladders had been removed, making it impossible for them to exit.

There were also between 150 and 170 Egyptians and about 10 Palestinians on board. The alleged smugglers were all said to be Egyptians and enforced discipline with pocket knives.

Numerous fights broke out on board, particularly after food ran out a few days into sailing. At some point, the captain allegedly suffered a heart attack and the boat was “drifting without engine for extended periods of time.” On day four, June 12, six people were reported to have died, and others had resorted to drinking urine or sea water.

On day five, June 13, some migrants said they received supplies from two vessels and “at night … were approached by a small boat that they were asked to follow.”

They said they could not do this because of their engine malfunction. Several of the migrants also allege that attempts were made to tow the vessel — presumably by the Hellenic coast guard, they said.

Survivors also said that at one point, a boat tied a rope to the front of the Adriana and started “making turns”. This, they said, “caused the migrants to run to one side, their vessel started rocking, and eventually capsized within 15 minutes.”

Only people on the upper decks were able to jump into the water.
Greek authorities leave ’detailed questions answered’

In July, Frontex said it approached the Greek authorities with a “detailed set of questions” but most of its questions were left unanswered.

In conclusion, the Frontex Fundamental Rights Office concluded that although Frontex “upheld” all its “applicable procedures,” in the light of the information that had already been transmitted and similar situations in which Mayday alerts had been issued, the assessment could have been different and the process for issuing Mayday alerts in the future “needs to be reviewed.”

The report admits that “at the time of the initial sighting [of the Adriana] by Eagle 1, there was reasonable certainty that persons aboard … were threatened by grave and imminent danger and required immediate assistance.”

They also say the “resources mobilized by the [Greek] authorities during the day … were not sufficient for the objective of rescuing the migrants.”

Frontex adds that the Greek authorities appear to have “delayed the declaration of SAR operation until the moment of the shipwreck when it was no longer possible to rescue all the people on board.”

▻https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/54928/frontex-report-into-greek-shipwreck-suggests-more-deaths-could-have-be

Documentary Space, Place, and Landscape

In documentaries of the occupied West Bank, erasure is imaged in the wall that sunders families and communities, in the spaces filled with blackened tree stumps of former olive groves, now missing to ensure “security,” and in the cactus that still grows, demarcating cultivated land whose owners have been expelled.

This materiality of the landscape becomes figural, such that Shehadeh writes, “[w]hen you are exiled from your land … you begin, like a pornographer, to think about it in symbols. You articulate your love for your land in its absence, and in the process transform it into something else.’’[x] The symbolization reifies and, in this process, something is lost, namely, a potential for thinking differently. But in these Palestinian films we encounter a documenting of the now of everyday living that unfixes such reification. This is a storytelling of vignettes, moments, digressions, stories within stories, and postponed endings. These are stories of interaction, of something happening, in a documenting of a being and doing now, while awaiting a future yet to be known, and at the same time asserting a past history to be remembered through these images and sounds. Through this there arises the accenting of these films, to draw on Hamid Naficy’s term, namely a specific tone of a past—the Nakba or catastrophe—as a continuing present, insofar as the conflict does not allow Palestinians to imagine themselves in a determinate future of place and landscape they can call their own, namely a state.[xi]

In Hanna Musleh’s I’m a Little Angel (2000), we follow the children of families, both Muslim and Christian, in the area of Bethlehem affected by the 2000 Israeli armed forces attacks and occupation.[xii] One small boy, Nicola, suffered the loss of an arm when he was hit by a shell when walking to church with his mother. His kite, seen flying high in the sky, brings delighted shrieks from Nicola as he plays on the family terrace from which the town and its surrounding hills are visible in the distance. But the contrast between the freedom of the kite in this unlimited vista and his reduced capacity is palpable as he struggles to control it with his remaining hand. The containment of both Nicola and his community is figured in opposition to a possible freedom. What is also required of us is to think not of freedom from the constraints of disability, but of freedom with disability, in a future to be made after. The constraints introduced upon the landscape by the occupation, however, make the future of such living indeterminate and uncertain. Here is the “cinema of the lived,”[xiii] of multiple times of past and present, of possible and imagined future time, and the actualized present, each of which is encountered in the movement in a singular space of Nicola and his kite.

http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/707453/13224826/1310788433400/Cowie_11_Cactus.jpg?token=X%2BwmalVDCYGWhutGiHAiD8ooX1A%3D#.jpg

Memory of the Cactus

A 42 minute documentary film that combines the cactus and the memories it stands for. The film addresses the story of the destruction of the Palestinian villages of Latroun in the Occupied West Bank and the forcible transfer of their civilian population in 1967. Over 40 years later, the Israeli occupation continues, and villagers remain displaced. The film follows two separate but parallel journeys. Aisha Um Najeh takes us down the painful road that Palestinians have been forcefully pushed down, separating them in time and place from the land they nurtured; while Israelis walk freely through that land, enjoying its fruits. The stems of the cactus, however, take a few of them to discover the reality of the crime committed.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ_LjknRHVA

Lubya’s historiography

https://image.slidesharecdn.com/kopiaflubya-2-141215080719-conversion-gate01/95/lubyas-historiography-4-638.jpg?cb=1418631177#.jpg https://image.slidesharecdn.com/kopiaflubya-2-141215080719-conversion-gate01/95/lubyas-historiography-5-638.jpg?cb=1418631177#.jpg https://image.slidesharecdn.com/kopiaflubya-2-141215080719-conversion-gate01/95/lubyas-historiography-6-638.jpg?cb=1418631177#.jpg

https://image.slidesharecdn.com/kopiaflubya-2-141215080719-conversion-gate01/95/lubyas-historiography-9-638.jpg?cb=1418631177#.jpg https://image.slidesharecdn.com/kopiaflubya-2-141215080719-conversion-gate01/95/lubyas-historiography-13-638.jpg?cb=1418631177#.jpg https://image.slidesharecdn.com/kopiaflubya-2-141215080719-conversion-gate01/95/lubyas-historiography-16-638.jpg?cb=1418631177#.jpg

Aujourd’hui, j’ai re-regardé le film « Le village sous la forêt », car je vais le projeter à mes étudiant·es dans le cadre du cours de #géographie_culturelle la semaine prochaine.

Voici donc quelques citations tirées du film :

Sur une des boîtes de récolte d’argent pour planter des arbres en Palestine, c’est noté « make wilderness bloom » :

https://i.imgur.com/nRJQejT.png

Voici les panneaux de quelques parcs et forêts créés grâce aux fonds de la #diaspora_juive :

https://i.imgur.com/rPVqqUb.png https://i.imgur.com/gp6DRSV.png https://i.imgur.com/FID0SSv.png

Projet : « We will make it green, like a modern European country » (ce qui est en étroit lien avec un certaine idée de #développement, liée au #progrès).

Témoignage d’une femme palestinienne :

« Ils ont planté des arbres partout qui cachaient tout »

Ilan Pappé, historien israëlien, Université d’Exter :

« ça leur a pris entre 6 et 9 mois poru s’emparer de 80% de la Palestine, expulser la plupart des personnes qui y vivaient et reconstruire sur les villes et villages de ces personnes un nouvel Etat, une nouvelle #identité »

▻https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/iais/staff/pappe

Témoignage d’un palestinien qui continue à retourner régulièrement à Lubya :

« Si je n’aimais pas cet endroit, est-ce que je continuerais à revenir ici tout le temps sur mon tracteur ? Ils l’ont transformé en forêt afin d’affirmer qu’il n’y a pas eu de village ici. Mais on peut voir les #cactus qui prouvent que des arabes vivaient ici »

Ilan Pappé :

« Ces villages éaient arabes, tout comme le paysage alentour. C’était un message qui ne passait pas auprès du mouvement sioniste. Des personnes du mouvement ont écrit à ce propos, ils ont dit qu’ils n’aimaient vraiment pas, comme Ben Gurion l’a dit, que le pays ait toujours l’air arabe. (...) Même si les Arabes n’y vivent plus, ça a toujours l’air arabe. En ce qui concerne les zones rurales, il a été clair : les villages devaient être dévastés pour qu’il n’y ait pas de #souvenirs possibles. Ils ont commencé à les dévaster dès le mois d’août 1948. Ils ont rasé les maisons, la terre. Plus rien ne restait. Il y avait deux moyens pour eux d’en nier l’existence : le premier était de planter des forêts de pins européens sur les villages. Dans la plupart des cas, lorsque les villages étaient étendus et les terres assez vastes, on voit que les deux stratégies ont été mises en oeuvre : il y a un nouveau quartier juif et, juste à côté, une forêt. En effet, la deuxième méthode était de créer un quartier juif qui possédait presque le même nom que l’ancien village arabe, mais dans sa version en hébreu. L’objectif était double : il s’agissait d’abord de montrer que le lieu était originellement juif et revenait ainsi à son propriétaire. Ensuite, l’idée était de faire passer un message sinistre aux Palestiniens sur ce qui avait eu lieu ici. Le principal acteur de cette politique a été le FNJ. »

#toponymie

Heidi Grunebaum, la réalisatrice :

« J’ai grandi au moment où le FNJ cultivait l’idée de créer une patrie juive grâce à la plantation d’arbres. Dans les 100 dernières années, 260 millions d’arbres ont été plantés. Je me rends compte à présent que la petite carte du grand Israël sur les boîtes bleues n’était pas juste un symbole. Etait ainsi affirmé que toutes ces terres étaient juives. Les #cartes ont été redessinées. Les noms arabes des lieux ont sombré dans l’oubli à cause du #Comité_de_Dénomination créé par le FNJ. 86 forêts du FNJ ont détruit des villages. Des villages comme Lubya ont cessé d’exister. Lubya est devenu Lavie. Une nouvelle histoire a été écrite, celle que j’ai apprise. »

https://i.imgur.com/hKqgvQJ.png

Le #Canada_park :

Canada Park (Hebrew: פארק קנדה‎, Arabic: كندا حديقة‎, also Ayalon Park,) is an Israeli national park stretching over 7,000 dunams (700 hectares), and extending from No man’s land into the West Bank.
The park is North of Highway 1 (Tel Aviv-Jerusalem), between the Latrun Interchange and Sha’ar HaGai, and contains a Hasmonean fort, Crusader fort, other archaeological remains and the ruins of 3 Palestinian villages razed by Israel in 1967 after their inhabitants were expelled. In addition it has picnic areas, springs and panoramic hilltop views, and is a popular Israeli tourist destination, drawing some 300,000 visitors annually.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/CanadaParkCropped.jpg/400px-CanadaParkCropped.jpg

Heidi Grunebaum :

« Chaque pièce de monnaie est devenue un arbre dans une forêt, chaque arbre, dont les racines étaient plantées dans la terre était pour nous, la diaspora. Les pièces changées en arbres devenaient des faits ancrés dans le sol. Le nouveau paysage arrangé par le FNJ à travers la plantation de forêts et les accords politiques est celui des #parcs_de_loisirs, des routes, des barrages et des infrastructures »

Témoignage d’un Palestinien :

« Celui qui ne possède de #pays_natal ne possède rien »

Heidi Grunebaum :

« Si personne ne demeure, la mémoire est oblitérée. Cependant, de génération en génération, le souvenir qu’ont les Palestiniens d’un endroit qui un jour fut le leur, persiste. »

Témoignage d’un Palestinien :

"Dès qu’on mange quelque chose chez nous, on dit qu’on mangeait ce plat à Lubya. Quelles que soient nos activités, on dit que nous avions les mêmes à Lubya. Lubya est constamment mentionnées, et avec un peu d’amertume.

Témoignage d’un Palestinien :

Lubya est ma fille précieuse que j’abriterai toujours dans les profondeurs de mon âme. Par les histoires racontées par mon père, mon grand-père, mes oncles et ma grande-mère, j’ai le sentiment de connaître très bien Lubya.

Avi Shlaim, Université de Oxford :

« Le mur dans la partie Ouest ne relève pas d’une mesure de sécurité, comme il a été dit. C’est un outil de #ségrégation des deux communautés et un moyen de s’approprier de larges portions de terres palestiniennes. C’est un moyen de poursuivre la politique d’#expansion_territoriale et d’avoir le plus grand Etat juif possible avec le moins de population d’arabes à l’intérieur. »

▻https://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/people/avi-shlaim

Heidi Grunebaum :

« Les petites pièces de la diaspora n’ont pas seulement planté des arbres juifs et déraciné des arbres palestiniens, elles ont aussi créé une forêt d’un autre type. Une vaste forêt bureaucratique où la force de la loi est une arme. La règlementation règne, les procédures, permis, actions commandées par les lois, tout régulé le moindre espace de la vie quotidienne des Palestiniens qui sont petit à petit étouffés, repoussés aux marges de leurs terres. Entassés dans des ghettos, sans autorisation de construire, les Palestiniens n’ont plus qu’à regarder leurs maisons démolies »

#Lubya #paysage #ruines #architecture_forensique #Afrique_du_Sud #profanation #cactus #South_african_forest #Galilée #Jewish_national_fund (#fonds_national_juif) #arbres #Palestine #Organisation_des_femmes_sionistes #Keren_Kayemeth #apartheid #résistance #occupation #Armée_de_libération_arabe #Hagana #nakba #exil #réfugiés_palestiniens #expulsion #identité #present_absentees #IDPs #déplacés_internes #Caesarea #oubli #déni #historicisation #diaspora #murs #barrières_frontalières #dépossession #privatisation_des_terres #terres #mémoire #commémoration #poésie #Canada_park

The Carmel wildfire is burning all illusions in Israel

“When I look out my window today and see a tree standing there, that tree gives me a greater sense of beauty and personal delight than all the vast forests I have seen in Switzerland or Scandinavia. Because every tree here was planted by us.”

– David Ben Gurion, Memoirs

“Why are there so many Arabs here? Why didn’t you chase them away?”

– David Ben Gurion during a visit to Nazareth, July 1948

https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2010-12/101206-forest-fire.jpg?itok=siE1P_1j×tamp=1448949295#.jpg

signalé par @sinehebdo que je remercie

#uprooted

https://i.imgur.com/lDcp6DN.jpg

#Canada_park in the Valley of #Ayalon:

https://i.imgur.com/3I4RyWU.png

source:
►http://www.ijan.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FINAL-JNFeBookVol4.pdf (p.108)

https://i.imgur.com/HIoWqOY.png

https://i.imgur.com/TINC4Lk.png

Vu dans ce rapport, signalé par @palestine___________ , que je remercie (►https://seenthis.net/messages/723321) :

A method of enforcing the eradication of unrecognized Palestinian villages is to ensure their misrepresentation on maps. As part of this policy, these villages do not appear at all on Israeli maps, with the exception of army and hiking maps. Likewise, they do not appear on first sight on Google Maps or at all on Israeli maps, with the exception of army and hiking maps. They are labelled on NGO maps designed to increase their visibility. On Google Maps, the Bedouin villages are marked – in contrast to cities and other villages – under their Bedouin tribe and clan names (Bimkom) rather than with their village names and are only visible when zooming in very closely, but otherwise appear to be non-existent. This means that when looking at Google Maps, these villages appear to be not there, only when zooming on to a very high degree, do they appear with their tribe or clan names. At first (and second and third) sight, therefore, these villages are simply not there. Despite their small size, Israeli villages are displayed even when zoomed-out, while unrecognized Palestinian Bedouin villages, regardless of their size are only visible when zooming in very closely.

https://i.imgur.com/EkEE2Py.png

Signalé par @sinehebdo :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/317236#message725066

Canada Park / Parc Canada :

Israël-Palestine, des arbres qui cachent la colonisation
Adèle Ribuot et Nadav Joffe, Orient XXI, le 19 septembre 2018

►https://seenthis.net/messages/725068

Declassified: Israel Made Sure Arabs Couldn’t Return to Their Villages

Trove of archival documents reveals how Israel prevented Arabs from returning to villages they had left in 1948 – chiefly, by razing structures and planting dense forests.

▻https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-israel-lifted-military-rule-over-arabs-in-1966-only-after-ensuring
#paywall

signalé par @kassem :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/317236#message784258

Israel lifted its military rule over the state’s Arab community in 1966 only after ascertaining that its members could not return to the villages they had fled or been expelled from, according to newly declassified archival documents.

The documents both reveal the considerations behind the creation of the military government 18 years earlier, and the reasons for dismantling it and revoking the severe restrictions it imposed on Arab citizens in the north, the Negev and the so-called Triangle of Locales in central Israel.

These records were made public as a result of a campaign launched against the state archives by the Akevot Institute, which researches the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

After the War of Independence in 1948, the state imposed military rule over Arabs living around the country, which applied to an estimated 85 percent of that community at the time, say researchers at the NGO. The Arabs in question were subject to the authority of a military commander who could limit their freedom of movement, declare areas to be closed zones, or demand that the inhabitants leave and enter certain locales only with his written permission.

The newly revealed documents describe the ways Israel prevented Arabs from returning to villages they had left in 1948, even after the restrictions on them had been lifted. The main method: dense planting of trees within and surrounding these towns.

At a meeting held in November 1965 at the office of Shmuel Toledano, the prime minister’s adviser on Arab affairs, there was a discussion about villages that had been left behind and that Israel did not want to be repopulated, according to one document. To ensure that, the state had the Jewish National Fund plant trees around and in them.

Among other things, the document states that “the lands belonging to the above-mentioned villages were given to the custodian for absentee properties” and that “most were leased for work (cultivation of field crops and olive groves) by Jewish households.” Some of the properties, it adds, were subleased.

In the meeting in Toledano’s office, it was explained that these lands had been declared closed military zones, and that once the structures on them had been razed, and the land had been parceled out, forested and subject to proper supervision – their definition as closed military zones could be lifted.

On April 3, 1966, another discussion was held on the same subject, this time at the office of the defense minister, Levi Eshkol, who was also the serving prime minister; the minutes of this meeting were classified as top secret. Its participants included: Toledano; Isser Harel, in his capacity as special adviser to the prime minister; the military advocate general – Meir Shamgar, who would later become president of the Supreme Court; and representatives of the Shin Bet security service and Israel Police.

The newly publicized record of that meeting shows that the Shin Bet was already prepared at that point to lift the military rule over the Arabs and that the police and army could do so within a short time.

Regarding northern Israel, it was agreed that “all the areas declared at the time to be closed [military] zones... other than Sha’ab [east of Acre] would be opened after the usual conditions were fulfilled – razing of the buildings in the abandoned villages, forestation, establishment of nature reserves, fencing and guarding.” The dates of the reopening these areas would be determined by Israel Defense Forces Maj. Gen. Shamir, the minutes said. Regarding Sha’ab, Harel and Toledano were to discuss that subject with Shamir.

However, as to Arab locales in central Israel and the Negev, it was agreed that the closed military zones would remain in effect for the time being, with a few exceptions.

Even after military rule was lifted, some top IDF officers, including Chief of Staff Tzvi Tzur and Shamgar, opposed the move. In March 1963, Shamgar, then military advocate general, wrote a pamphlet about the legal basis of the military administration; only 30 copies were printed. (He signed it using his previous, un-Hebraized name, Sternberg.) Its purpose was to explain why Israel was imposing its military might over hundreds of thousands of citizens.

Among other things, Shamgar wrote in the pamphlet that Regulation 125, allowing certain areas to be closed off, is intended “to prevent the entry and settlement of minorities in border areas,” and that “border areas populated by minorities serve as a natural, convenient point of departure for hostile elements beyond the border.” The fact that citizens must have permits in order to travel about helps to thwart infiltration into the rest of Israel, he wrote.

Regulation 124, he noted, states that “it is essential to enable nighttime ambushes in populated areas when necessary, against infiltrators.” Blockage of roads to traffic is explained as being crucial for the purposes of “training, tests or maneuvers.” Moreover, censorship is a “crucial means for counter-intelligence.”

Despite Shamgar’s opinion, later that year, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol canceled the requirement for personal travel permits as a general obligation. Two weeks after that decision, in November 1963, Chief of Staff Tzur wrote a top-secret letter about implementation of the new policy to the officers heading the various IDF commands and other top brass, including the head of Military Intelligence. Tzur ordered them to carry it out in nearly all Arab villages, with a few exceptions – among them Barta’a and Muqeible, in northern Israel.

In December 1965, Haim Israeli, an adviser to Defense Minister Eshkol, reported to Eshkol’s other aides, Isser Harel and Aviad Yaffeh, and to the head of the Shin Bet, that then-Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin opposed legislation that would cancel military rule over the Arab villages. Rabin explained his position in a discussion with Eshkol, at which an effort to “soften” the bill was discussed. Rabin was advised that Harel would be making his own recommendations on this matter.

At a meeting held on February 27, 1966, Harel issued orders to the IDF, the Shin Bet and the police concerning the prime minister’s decision to cancel military rule. The minutes of the discussion were top secret, and began with: “The mechanism of the military regime will be canceled. The IDF will ensure the necessary conditions for establishment of military rule during times of national emergency and war.” However, it was decided that the regulations governing Israel’s defense in general would remain in force, and at the behest of the prime minister and with his input, the justice minister would look into amending the relevant statutes in Israeli law, or replacing them.

The historical documents cited here have only made public after a two-year campaign by the Akevot institute against the national archives, which preferred that they remain confidential, Akevot director Lior Yavne told Haaretz. The documents contain no information of a sensitive nature vis-a-vis Israel’s security, Yavne added, and even though they are now in the public domain, the archives has yet to upload them to its website to enable widespread access.

“Hundreds of thousands of files which are crucial to understanding the recent history of the state and society in Israel remain closed in the government archive,” he said. “Akevot continues to fight to expand public access to archival documents – documents that are property of the public.”

v. aussi #Ground_Truth
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/788119

signalé par @sinehebdo :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/317236#message798085

« Manigancer une majorité juive à Jérusalem » : les Palestiniens chassés par les politiques « vertes » d’Israël
Jan-Peter Westad, Middle East Eye, le 20 août 2019
►https://seenthis.net/messages/798033
#Wadi_Yasul

Israel is turning an ancient Palestinian village into a national park for settlers

The unbelievable story of a village outside Jerusalem: from its destruction in 1948 to the ticket issued last week by a parks ranger to a descendent of its refugees, who had the gall to harvest the fruits of his labor on his own land.

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Thus read the ticket issued last Wednesday, during the Sukkot holiday, by ranger Dayan Somekh of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority – Investigations Division, 3 Am Ve’olamo Street, Jerusalem, to farmer Nidal Abed Rabo, a resident of the Jerusalem-area village of Walaja, who had gone to harvest olives on his private land: “In accordance with Section 228 of the criminal code, to: Nidal Abed Rabo. Description of the facts constituting the offense: ‘picking, chopping and destroying an olive tree.’ Suspect’s response: ‘I just came to pick olives. I pick them and put them in a bucket.’ Fine prescribed by law: 730 shekels [$207].” And an accompanying document that reads: “I hereby confirm that I apprehended from Nidal Abed Rabo the following things: 1. A black bucket; 2. A burlap sack. Name of the apprehending officer: Dayan Somekh.”

Ostensibly, an amusing parody about the occupation. An inspector fines a person for harvesting the fruits of his own labor on his own private land and then fills out a report about confiscating a bucket, because order must be preserved, after all. But no one actually found this report amusing – not the inspector who apparently wrote it in utter seriousness, nor the farmer who must now pay the fine.

Indeed, the story of Walaja, where this absurdity took place, contains everything – except humor: the flight from and evacuation of the village in 1948; refugee-hood and the establishment of a new village adjacent to the original one; the bisection of the village between annexed Jerusalem and the occupied territories in 1967; the authorities’ refusal to issue blue Israeli IDs to residents, even though their homes are in Jerusalem; the demolition of many structures built without a permit in a locale that has no master construction plan; the appropriation of much of its land to build the Gilo neighborhood and the Har Gilo settlement; the construction of the separation barrier that turned the village into an enclave enclosed on all sides; the decision to turn villagers’ remaining lands into a national park for the benefit of Gilo’s residents and others in the area; and all the way to the ridiculous fine issued by Inspector Somekh.

This week, a number of villagers again snuck onto their lands to try to pick their olives, in what looks like it could be their final harvest. As it was a holiday, they hoped the Border Police and the parks authority inspectors would leave them alone. By next year, they probably won’t be able to reach their groves at all, as the checkpoint will have been moved even closer to their property.

Then there was also this incident, on Monday, the Jewish holiday of Simhat Torah. Three adults, a teenager and a horse arrived at the neglected groves on the mountainside below their village of Walaja. They had to take a long and circuitous route; they say the horse walked 25 kilometers to reach the olive trees that are right under their noses, beneath their homes. A dense barbed-wire fence and the separation barrier stand between these people and their lands. When the national park is built here and the checkpoint is moved further south – so that only Jews will be able to dip undisturbed in Ein Hanya, as Nir Hasson reported (“Jerusalem reopens natural spring, but not to Palestinians,” Oct. 15) – it will mean the end of Walaja’s olive orchards, which are planted on terraced land.

The remaining 1,200 dunams (300 acres) belonging to the village, after most of its property was lost over the years, will also be disconnected from their owners, who probably won’t be able to access them again. An ancient Palestinian village, which numbered 100 registered households in 1596, in a spectacular part of the country, will continue its slow death, until it finally expires for good.

Steep slopes and a deep green valley lie between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, filled with oak and pine trees, along with largely abandoned olive groves. “New” Walaja overlooks this expanse from the south, the Gilo neighborhood from the northeast, and the Cremisan Monastery from the east. To the west is where the original village was situated, between the moshavim of Aminadav and Ora, both constructed after the villagers fled – frightened off by the massacre in nearby Deir Yassin and in fear of bombardment.

Aviv Tatarsky, a longtime political activist on behalf of Walaja and a researcher for the Ir Amim nonprofit organization, says the designated national park is supposed to ensure territorial contiguity between the Etzion Bloc and Jerusalem. “Since we are in the territory of Jerusalem, and building another settler neighborhood could cause a stir, they are building a national park, which will serve the same purpose,” he says. “The national park will Judaize the area once and for all. Gilo is five minutes away. If you live there, you will have a park right next door and feel like it’s yours.”

As Tatarsky describes the blows suffered by the village over the years, brothers Walid and Mohammed al-‘Araj stand on a ladder below in the valley, in the shade of the olive trees, engrossed in the harvest.

Walid, 52, and Mohammed, 58, both live in Walaja. Walid may be there legally, but his brother is there illegally, on land bequeathed to them by their uncle – thanks to yet another absurdity courtesy of the occupation. In 1995, Walid married a woman from Shoafat in East Jerusalem, and thus was able to obtain a blue Israeli ID card, so perhaps he is entitled to be on his land. His brother, who lives next door, however, is an illegal resident on his land: He has an orange ID, as a resident of the territories.

A sewage line that comes out of Beit Jala and is under the responsibility of Jerusalem’s Gihon water company overflows every winter and floods the men’s olive grove with industrial waste that has seriously damaged their crop. And that’s in addition, of course, to the fact that most of the family is unable to go work the land. The whole area looks quite derelict, overgrown with weeds and brambles that could easily catch fire. In previous years, the farmers would receive an entry permit allowing them to harvest the olives for a period of just a few days; this year, even that permit has not yet been forthcoming.

The olives are black and small; it’s been a bad year for them and for their owners.

“We come here like thieves to our own land,” says Mohammed, the older brother, explaining that three days beforehand, a Border Police jeep had showed up and chased them away. “I told him: It’s my land. They said okay and left. Then a few minutes later, another Border Police jeep came and the officer said: Today there’s a general closure because of the holiday. I told him: Okay, just let me take my equipment. I’m on my land. He said: Don’t take anything. I left. And today I came back.”

You’re not afraid? “No, I’m not afraid. I’m on my land. It’s registered in my name. I can’t be afraid on my land.”

Walid says that a month ago the Border Police arrived and told him he wasn’t allowed to drive on the road that leads to the grove, because it’s a “security road.” He was forced to turn around and go home, despite the fact that he has a blue ID and it is not a security road. Right next to it, there is a residential building where a Palestinian family still lives.

Some of Walaja’s residents gave up on their olive orchards long ago and no longer attempt to reach their lands. When the checkpoint is moved southward, in order to block access by Palestinians to the Ein Hanya spring, the situation will be even worse: The checkpoint will be closer to the orchards, meaning that the Palestinians won’t be permitted to visit them.

“This place will be a park for people to visit,” says Walid, up on his ladder. “That’s it; that will be the end of our land. But we won’t give up our land, no matter what.” Earlier this month, one local farmer was detained for several hours and 10 olive trees were uprooted, on the grounds that he was prohibited from being here.

Meanwhile, Walid and Mohammed are collecting their meager crop in a plastic bucket printed with a Hebrew ad for a paint company. The olives from this area, near Beit Jala, are highly prized; during a good year the oil made from them can fetch a price of 100 shekels per liter.

A few hundred meters to the east are a father, a son and a horse. Khaled al-‘Araj, 51, and his son, Abed, 19, a business student. They too are taking advantage of the Jewish holiday to sneak onto their land. They have another horse, an original Arabian named Fatma, but this horse is nameless. It stands in the shade of the olive tree, resting from the long trek here. If a Border Police force shows up, it could confiscate the horse, as has happened to them before.

Father and son are both Walaja residents, but do not have blue IDs. The father works in Jerusalem with a permit, but it does not allow him to access his land.

“On Sunday,” says Khaled, “I picked olives here with my son. A Border Police officer arrived and asked: What are you doing here? He took pictures of our IDs. He asked: Whose land is this? I said: Mine. Where are the papers? At home. I have papers from my grandfather’s time; everything is in order. But he said: No, go to DCO [the Israeli District Coordination Office] and get a permit. At first I didn’t know what he meant. I have a son and a horse and they’ll make problems for me. So I left.”

He continues: “We used to plow the land. Now look at the state it’s in. We have apricot and almond trees here, too. But I’m an illegal person on my own land. That is our situation. Today is the last day of your holiday, that’s why I came here. Maybe there won’t be any Border Police.”

“Kumi Ori, ki ba orekh,” says a makeshift monument in memory of Ori Ansbacher, a young woman murdered here in February by a man from Hebron. Qasem Abed Rabo, a brother of Nidal, who received the fine from the park ranger for harvesting his olives, asks activist Tatarsky if he can find out whether the house he owns is considered to be located in Jerusalem or in the territories. He still doesn’t know.

“Welcome to Nahal Refaim National Park,” says a sign next to the current Walaja checkpoint. Its successor is already being built but work on it was stopped for unknown reasons. If and when it is completed, Ein Hanya will become a spring for Jews only and the groves on the mountainside below the village of Walaja will be cut off from their owners for good. Making this year’s harvest Walaja’s last.

►https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-is-turning-an-ancient-palestinian-village-into-a-national-p
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/807722

Sans mémoire des lieux ni lieux de mémoire. La Palestine invisible sous les forêts israéliennes

Depuis la création de l’État d’Israël en 1948, près de 240 millions d’arbres ont été plantés sur l’ensemble du territoire israélien. Dans l’objectif de « faire fleurir le désert », les acteurs de l’afforestation en Israël se situent au cœur de nombreux enjeux du territoire, non seulement environnementaux mais également identitaires et culturels. La forêt en Israël représente en effet un espace de concurrence mémorielle, incarnant à la fois l’enracinement de l’identité israélienne mais également le rappel de l’exil et de l’impossible retour du peuple palestinien. Tandis que 86 villages palestiniens détruits en 1948 sont aujourd’hui recouverts par une forêt, les circuits touristiques et historiques officiels proposés dans les forêts israéliennes ne font jamais mention de cette présence palestinienne passée. Comment l’afforestation en Israël a-t-elle contribué à l’effacement du paysage et de la mémoire palestiniens ? Quelles initiatives existent en Israël et en Palestine pour lutter contre cet effacement spatial et mémoriel ?

▻https://journals.openedition.org/bagf/6779

Septembre 2021, un feu de forêt ravage Jérusalem et dévoile les terrassements agricoles que les Palestinien·nes avaient construit...
Voici une image :

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« La nature a parlé » : un feu de forêt attise les rêves de retour des Palestiniens

Un gigantesque incendie près de Jérusalem a détruit les #pins_européens plantés par les sionistes, exposant ainsi les anciennes terrasses palestiniennes qu’ils avaient tenté de dissimuler.

Au cours de la deuxième semaine d’août, quelque 20 000 dounams (m²) de terre ont été engloutis par les flammes dans les #montagnes de Jérusalem.

C’est une véritable catastrophe naturelle. Cependant, personne n’aurait pu s’attendre à la vision qui est apparue après l’extinction de ces incendies. Ou plutôt, personne n’avait imaginé que les incendies dévoileraient ce qui allait suivre.

Une fois les flammes éteintes, le #paysage était terrible pour l’œil humain en général, et pour l’œil palestinien en particulier. Car les incendies ont révélé les #vestiges d’anciens villages et terrasses agricoles palestiniens ; des terrasses construites par leurs ancêtres, décédés il y a longtemps, pour cultiver la terre et planter des oliviers et des vignes sur les #pentes des montagnes.

À travers ces montagnes, qui constituent l’environnement naturel à l’ouest de Jérusalem, passait la route Jaffa-Jérusalem, qui reliait le port historique à la ville sainte. Cette route ondulant à travers les montagnes était utilisée par les pèlerins d’Europe et d’Afrique du Nord pour visiter les lieux saints chrétiens. Ils n’avaient d’autre choix que d’emprunter la route Jaffa-Jérusalem, à travers les vallées et les ravins, jusqu’au sommet des montagnes. Au fil des siècles, elle sera foulée par des centaines de milliers de pèlerins, de soldats, d’envahisseurs et de touristes.

Les terrasses agricoles – ou #plates-formes – que les agriculteurs palestiniens ont construites ont un avantage : leur durabilité. Selon les estimations des archéologues, elles auraient jusqu’à 600 ans. Je crois pour ma part qu’elles sont encore plus vieilles que cela.

Travailler en harmonie avec la nature

Le travail acharné du fermier palestinien est clairement visible à la surface de la terre. De nombreuses études ont prouvé que les agriculteurs palestiniens avaient toujours investi dans la terre quelle que soit sa forme ; y compris les terres montagneuses, très difficiles à cultiver.

Des photographies prises avant la Nakba (« catastrophe ») de 1948, lorsque les Palestiniens ont été expulsés par les milices juives, et même pendant la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle montrent que les oliviers et les vignes étaient les deux types de plantation les plus courants dans ces régions.

Ces végétaux maintiennent l’humidité du sol et assurent la subsistance des populations locales. Les #oliviers, en particulier, aident à prévenir l’érosion des sols. Les oliviers et les #vignes peuvent également créer une barrière naturelle contre le feu car ils constituent une végétation feuillue qui retient l’humidité et est peu gourmande en eau. Dans le sud de la France, certaines routes forestières sont bordées de vignes pour faire office de #coupe-feu.

Les agriculteurs palestiniens qui les ont plantés savaient travailler en harmonie avec la nature, la traiter avec sensibilité et respect. Cette relation s’était formée au cours des siècles.

Or qu’a fait l’occupation sioniste ? Après la Nakba et l’expulsion forcée d’une grande partie de la population – notamment le nettoyage ethnique de chaque village et ville se trouvant sur l’itinéraire de la route Jaffa-Jérusalem –, les sionistes ont commencé à planter des #pins_européens particulièrement inflammables sur de vastes portions de ces montagnes pour couvrir et effacer ce que les mains des agriculteurs palestiniens avaient créé.

Dans la région montagneuse de Jérusalem, en particulier, tout ce qui est palestinien – riche de 10 000 ans d’histoire – a été effacé au profit de tout ce qui évoque le #sionisme et la #judéité du lieu. Conformément à la mentalité coloniale européenne, le « milieu » européen a été transféré en Palestine, afin que les colons puissent se souvenir de ce qu’ils avaient laissé derrière eux.

Le processus de dissimulation visait à nier l’existence des villages palestiniens. Et le processus d’effacement de leurs particularités visait à éliminer leur existence de l’histoire.

Il convient de noter que les habitants des villages qui ont façonné la vie humaine dans les montagnes de Jérusalem, et qui ont été expulsés par l’armée israélienne, vivent désormais dans des camps et communautés proches de Jérusalem, comme les camps de réfugiés de Qalandiya et Shuafat.

On trouve de telles forêts de pins ailleurs encore, dissimulant des villages et fermes palestiniens détruits par Israël en 1948. Des institutions internationales israéliennes et sionistes ont également planté des pins européens sur les terres des villages de #Maaloul, près de Nazareth, #Sohmata, près de la frontière palestino-libanaise, #Faridiya, #Kafr_Anan et #al-Samoui sur la route Akka-Safad, entre autres. Ils sont maintenant cachés et ne peuvent être vus à l’œil nu.

Une importance considérable

Même les #noms des villages n’ont pas été épargnés. Par exemple, le village de Suba est devenu « #Tsuba », tandis que #Beit_Mahsir est devenu « #Beit_Meir », #Kasla est devenu « #Ksalon », #Saris est devenu « #Shoresh », etc.

Si les Palestiniens n’ont pas encore pu résoudre leur conflit avec l’occupant, la nature, elle, s’est désormais exprimée de la manière qu’elle jugeait opportune. Les incendies ont révélé un aspect flagrant des composantes bien planifiées et exécutées du projet sioniste.

Pour les Palestiniens, la découverte de ces terrasses confirme leur version des faits : il y avait de la vie sur cette terre, le Palestinien était le plus actif dans cette vie, et l’Israélien l’a expulsé pour prendre sa place.

Ne serait-ce que pour cette raison, ces terrasses revêtent une importance considérable. Elles affirment que la cause palestinienne n’est pas morte, que la terre attend le retour de ses enfants ; des personnes qui sauront la traiter correctement.

►https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/opinion-fr/israel-jerusalem-incendies-villages-palestiniens-nakba-sionistes-reto

–—

An Israeli Forest to Erase the Ruins of Palestinian Agricultural Terraces

“Our forest is growing over, well, over a ruined village,” A.B. Yehoshua wrote in his novella “Facing the Forests.” The massive wildfire in the Jerusalem Hills last week exposed the underpinning of the view through the trees. The agricultural terraces were revealed in their full glory, and also revealed a historic record that Israel has always sought to obscure and erase – traces of Palestinian life on this land.

On my trips to the West Bank and the occupied territories, when I passed by the expansive areas of Palestinian farmland, I was always awed by the sight of the long chain of terraces, mustabat or mudrajat in Arabic. I thrilled at their grandeur and the precision of the work that attests to the connection between the Palestinian fellah and his land. I would wonder – Why doesn’t the same “phenomenon” exist in the hills of the Galilee?

When I grew up, I learned a little in school about Israeli history. I didn’t learn that Israel erased Palestinian agriculture in the Galilee and that the Jewish National Fund buried it once and for all, but I did learn that “The Jews brought trees with them” and planted them in the Land of Israel. How sterile and green. Greta Thunberg would be proud of you.

The Zionist movement knew that in the war for this land it was not enough to conquer the land and expel its inhabitants, you also had to build up a story and an ethos and a narrative, something that will fit with the myth of “a people without a land for a land without a people.” Therefore, after the conquest of the land and the expulsion, all trace of the people who once lived here had to be destroyed. This included trees that grew without human intervention and those that were planted by fellahin, who know this land as they do their children and as they do the terraces they built in the hills.

This is how white foreigners who never in their lives were fellahin or worked the land for a living came up with the national forestation project on the ruins of Arab villages, which David Ben-Gurion decided to flatten, such as Ma’alul and Suhmata. The forestation project including the importation of cypress and pine trees that were alien to this land and belong to colder climes, so that the new inhabitants would feel more at home and less as if they were in somebody else’s home.

The planting of combustible cypresses and pines, which are not suited to the weather in this land, is not just an act of national erasure of the Palestinian natives, but also an act of arrogance and patronage, characteristics typical of colonialist movements throughout the world. All because they did not understand the nature, in both senses of the word, of the countries they conquered.

Forgive me, but a biblical-historical connection is not sufficient. Throughout the history of colonialism, the new settlers – whether they ultimately left or stayed – were unable to impose their imported identity on the new place and to completely erase the place’s native identity. It’s a little like the forests surrounding Jerusalem: When the fire comes and burns them, one small truth is revealed, after so much effort went into concealing it.

►https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-an-israeli-forest-to-erase-the-ruins-of-palestinian-agricultural-t

et ici :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/928766

Planter un arbre en Israël : une forêt rédemptrice et mémorielle

Tout au long du projet sioniste, le végétal a joué un rôle de médiateur entre la terre rêvée et la terre foulée, entre le texte biblique et la réalité. Le réinvestissement national s’est opéré à travers des plantes connues depuis la diaspora, réorganisées en scènes signifiantes pour la mémoire et l’histoire juive. Ce lien de filiation entre texte sacré et paysage débouche sur une pratique de plantation considérée comme un acte mystique de régénération du monde.

▻https://journals.openedition.org/diasporas/258

A mettre en lien avec cet autre film et cette autre forêt, au #Portugal :
#José_Vieira : « La #mémoire des résistances face à l’accaparement des terres a été peu transmise »
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/1029862

Commission d’enquête indépendante sur la mort de Roger Nzoy Wilhelm

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Roger Nzoy Wilhelm a été abattu le 30 août 2021 par un policier de la police régionale à la gare de Morges. Une commission indépendante s’est constituée le 31 mai 2023 pour faire la lumière sur les circonstances de sa mort.

En Suisse, des agressions policières sont régulièrement commises contre des personnes de couleur, des migrants et des personnes socialement défavorisées. Certaines de ces agressions ont une issue fatale, comme dans le cas de Roger Nzoy Wilhelm. La commission estime qu’il est urgent de faire toute la lumière sur ces décès et de mettre en place un contrôle de l’action de la police par la société civile. C’est pourquoi nous avons décidé de commencer à travailler sur les points suivants :

- l’élucidation complète des circonstances qui ont conduit à la mort de Roger Nzoy Wilhelm à la gare de Morges le 30 août 2021.
– l’examen complet de la procédure juridique et policière, des dossiers d’enquête et de l’administration des preuves par la justice. Il s’agit d’examiner si l’enquête a satisfait aux exigences de la procédure pénale en matière d’enquête sur les décès ou dans quelle mesure l’enquête a été déficiente : Comment la scène de crime a-t-elle été sécurisée ? Les témoins ont-ils été correctement interrogés ou ont-ils subi des pressions ? Comment s’est déroulé l’examen médico-légal ?
- Il s’agit d’examiner si les enquêtes menées dans le cas de Roger Nzoy répondent aux exigences des droits de l’homme en matière d’enquête efficace et indépendante en cas de décès exceptionnel et quels sont les obstacles structurels à l’élucidation des violences policières.
- la mise en perspective des circonstances qui ont conduit à la mort de Roger Nzoy Wilhelm dans le contexte historique et social en Suisse.

▻https://www.nzoycommission.org/fr