organization:israel’s foreign ministry

  • i24NEWS - Flottille/Gaza : la Norvège exhorte Israël à s’expliquer
    Mis à jour le 01/08/2018 11:34:08
    https://www.i24news.tv/fr/actu/international/moyen-orient/180717-180801-bateau-intercepte-a-gaza-la-norvege-demande-des-explications-a

    (...) Le ministère norvégien a indiqué dans un communiqué que ses diplomates en Israël avaient fourni une assistance consulaire à cinq Norvégiens qui faisaient partie des 22 passagers et membres d’équipage à bord du navire « Awda » ("Retour", en arabe) qui battait pavillon norvégien, arraisonné par la marine israélienne.

    « Nous avons demandé aux autorités israéliennes de clarifier les circonstances concernant l’interception du navire et de fournir les bases juridiques de l’intervention », a déclaré le porte-parole du ministère norvégien.

    « Il s’agit du premier navire norvégien envoyé à destination de Gaza pour aider les Palestiniens. C’est un bateau pacifique, en aucun cas il ne menace la sécurité d’Israël », a estimé le chef de ’Ship to Gaza Norway’ qui a organisé l’expédition, Torstein Dahle. (...)

    #Flottille #Gaza

    • Norway Demands Explanation for Israeli Seizure of Gaza-bound Boat
      August 2, 2018
      http://imemc.org/article/norway-demands-explanation-for-israeli-seizure-of-gaza-bound-boat

      Reuters reported, according to Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency, that Norway has asked the Israeli government to explain the legal grounds for detaining a Norwegian-flagged fishing boat seized, while activists tried to sail with aid to the Gaza Strip, Norway’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

      The ministry said its diplomats in Israel had been providing consular assistance to five Norwegians who were among the 22 passengers and crew detained onboard the vessel Kaarstein, on Sunday. Two Israelis on board were quickly released.

      ”We have asked the Israeli authorities to clarify the circumstances around the seizure of the vessel and the legal basis for the intervention,” the spokesman for the Norwegian foreign affairs ministry in Oslo said. A spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

      Torstein Dahle, head of the group Ship to Gaza Norway which organized the shipment, said it was the first Norwegian aid vessel to attempt to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

      The captain had been struck on the head by Israeli soldiers who ordered him to sail for Israel, but no one was seriously hurt, Dahle said.

      “This is a peaceful boat; it’s impossible that it can threaten Israel’s security,” he said.

    • La Norvège demande des réponses sur la saisie d’un bateau à destination de Gaza
      Les activistes de la flottille disent que les soldats les ont frappés ; Tsahal répond qu’il « a fait preuve d’un usage raisonnable de la force pour maîtrise les passagers résistants »
      Par Times of Israel Staff 1 août 2018, 14:24

      https://fr.timesofisrael.com/la-norvege-demande-des-reponses-sur-la-saisie-dun-bateau-a-destina

      (...) Tsahal a justifié l’usage de la force pendant la prise du navire, déclarant dans un communiqué cité par Hadashot TV qu’ »une enquête sur l’incident a montré que lors de la prise du bateau un usage raisonnable de la force avait été employé afin de maîtriser les passagers résistants ».

      Audun Lysbakken, le chef du parti Socialiste d’opposition de Norvège, a appelé le ministère des Affaires étrangères du pays à protester contre le « piratage » du navire par Israël, déclarant que les marins avaient le droit de protester contre le blocus et demandant la libération des activistes.

      Le ministère des Affaires étrangères d’Israël a déclaré qu’il allait répondre aux plaintes de la Norvège plus tard dans la semaine.

      Le « Retour » était le premier des deux navires dans la « Flottille de Liberté » à essayer de forcer le blocus maritime qu’Israël impose à Gaza.

      A bord de ce bateau, on pouvait notamment retrouver le Professeur Ismaïl Nazari, président de la campagne de boycott contre Israël en Malaisie, le Suédois Charlie Andreason, qui a été détenu en Israël pour son rôle sur le Marianne, un chalutier battant pavillon suédois qui conduisait une flottille de bateaux en juin 2015, l’activiste juif espagnol Zohar Shamir Chamberlain et Heather Milton-Lightening, une activiste de la cause des indigènes canadiens.

    • Minister of Foreign Affairs fails to address the issues
      https://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2018/07/31/minister-of-foreign-affairs-fails-to-address-the-issues

      Kia Ora Gaza has finally received a reply from Rt Hon Winston Peters, minister of Foreign Affairs, to our letters calling for our government to demand that Israel end the illegal blockade of Gaza, and allow safe and unhindered passage for the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, with New Zealand human rights advocate and union leader, Mike Treen on board. After the flotilla boat was unlawfully hijacked by Israeli forces in international waters on Sunday night, we asked Mr Peters to also demand the immediate release of the boat and its passengers and cargo of medical aid.
      Unfortunately Mr Peter’s reply failed to address any of the issues we raised. Here is his letter received today, followed by our response reiterating our requests:

  • Palestinians irked at perceived lack of Israeli thanks for firefighting efforts - Arab-Israeli Conflict - Jerusalem Post
    http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Palestinians-irked-over-Israels-improper-thanks-for-firefighting-efforts-4738

    However, the PA expressed its indignation over what it perceived as Israel expressing gratitude to the various countries that offered firefighting assistance, except for the Palestinians.

    On Sunday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry published a social-media post in which it thanked all the foreign counties that came to Israel’s aid during the past week’s outbreak of fires.

    The Palestinians mentioned that while they were mentioned in small print at the bottom of the infographic, the image portrayed countries such as the US, Greece, France, Turkey and more than a dozen others with colorful illustrations of planes and their respective flag.

    “The message was disgraceful and does not properly represent the participation of the Palestinian firefighters,” the PA ministry said.

  • Israel’s new hasbara video channels SNL, but offends like South Park
    Allison Kaplan Sommer Oct 07, 2016 1:23 PM
    http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.746358

    The video’s liberties with history are shockingly revisionist, insulting and even racist, portraying non-Jews as primitive barbarians perpetrating serial home invasions on their hapless Jewish victims.

    A new video posted by Israel’s Foreign Ministry was clearly designed as a humorously sympathetic version of the deep historic ties of the Jewish people to the land of Israel - aimed at a generation that likes their politics delivered in Saturday Night Live-style satiric send-ups.

    But the video’s liberties with history are shockingly revisionist, insulting and even racist, portraying non-Jews over 3,000 years of history as primitive barbarians perpetrating serial home invasions on their hapless Jewish victims. All aspects of the Diaspora are utterly ignored. Palestinian Arabs only enter the scene at the last moment of the video, portrayed as latecomers to the country, appearing out of nowhere only after the Jewish state was declared in 1948.

    The video begins with a knock on the door with a sign “Jacob and Rachel - State of Israel” - the apartment of a young Israeli Jewish couple with a baby.

    They open the door to what Jacob describes in a voiceover as “Two hipsters with well-groomed beards” who “probably wanna sell me an encyclopedia. I told them ‘hello, have you ever heard of Wikipedia?’”

    But the “hipsters” are no salesmen. They are the Assyrians. Wielding long knives, they angrily drive the couple out of their living room into their bedroom. He continues, “So it’s now 750 BC. In about 2750 years, we’ll have some quiet here.”

    A series of invaders follows, each one more chaotic and warlike, trashing the house: the Babylonians, the Hellenists, the Romans, “early Arabic era” Arabs, Crusaders, Mamelukes.The couple is forced to wander from their bedroom to the kids’ room to the bathroom and then into a tent. Finally, when the Ottoman Empire shows up, things settle down and they are served Turkish delight in their tent. Jacob asks, “And then it was quiet. Is it finally over? Has everyone left my house? My Land of Israel?”

    But no. A British soldier knocks on their door. They serve him some tea in the living room among the wreckage of the previous tenants until he declares, “In the name of the League of Nations, we give you back your house.” They dance celebrate. “Finally, a state of our own in the Land of Israel!”

    But then - a final knock at the door. It’s a Palestinian couple - a man in a kaffiyeh and a woman in hijab. They stare and shake their heads as the video ends.

    The video has received 150,000 views and was shared more than 3,000 times. The high-end, two-minute video was produced by ZED Films, a production house that has created clips for the Foreign Ministry, along with other government entities.

    As a piece of “hasbara” - the Israeli word for “explain” commonly used when referring to making Israel’s case on the stage of public diplomacy - the clip is rather puzzling and quite unusual.

    The traditional arguments used to defend the Jewish state, while recognizing the ancient religious and historic ties to the land of Israel, also tend to strongly emphasize Israel as a critically necessary national refuge for Jews who have suffered oppression in the Diaspora.

    One doesn’t need to be particularly left-wing to have serious issues with aspects of the video’s portrayal of history. Throughout the narrative, the Jewish characters are utterly passive, at no point resisting or standing up to the invaders in any way. There are no arguments, let alone armed revolts. There is no Masada in the bathroom and no Dir Yassin in the kitchen.

    The Jewish story in the video also makes no mention whatsoever of anti-Semitism in the wider world, choosing to leave the Diaspora out of the story entirely. At no point over the contracted “3,000 years” does any member of the family venture out of the “Land of Israel” apartment.

    As one of the numerous critical commenters wrote on the Foreign Ministry’s Facebook post of the video, “You forgot the part when the husband turns approximately one third Christian and one third Muslim between 0-500 AD, while the wife emigrates to Spain, Russia and Germany and eventually also to Northern Africa, while sleeping around with the locals, and generally having a pretty OK time.”

    While the film is undeniably well-made, it is hard to believe whether anyone who doesn’t already believe that “Rachel and Jacob” have an inalienable right to their entire apartment and need not share it with the Palestinians who come knocking at the end will find it convincing.

    Whether many will find it offensive? That is certainly believable.

    https://www.facebook.com/IsraelMFA/videos/10154038006641317

  • Escalating Violence in Israel, West Bank is the Result of Failed Peace Process

    by Mitchell Plitnick and Matt Duss

    In what has almost become an annual ritual, an upsurge in violence has again put Jerusalem on edge. Originally centered on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount area in Jerusalem’s Old City, the clashes have now spread beyond, into the West Bank.

    Soldiers at temple mount

    Israeli journalist Amos Harel wrote yesterday that Israeli-Palestinian security coordination, which both Israeli and American officials have repeatedly credited with reducing violence in the past years, could now be breaking down. “It’s possible… that the current model is nearing its end,”wrote Harel. “One of the reasons is the Palestinian sense of despair with respect to the diplomatic process, which has been expressed in Abbas’ recent speeches.”

    Speaking at a symposium at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton — who as United States Security Coordinator oversaw the training of Palestinian security forces — warned that, in the absence of meaningful progress toward ending the occupation and creating a Palestinian state, Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation was in danger. “There is perhaps a two-year shelf life on being told that you’re creating a state, when you’re not,” he said. This was in 2009. Since then, the Palestinians have received little in return except for a more entrenched occupation, and the relentless growth of settlements.

    In the absence of a genuine political process that can conceivably deliver any change, both sides are engaging in provocative behaviors designed to appeal to their respective political bases. Whether it is Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declaring that the Palestinians are no longer bound by signed agreements; the head of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Tzipi Hotovely, bluntly statingthat Israel will not leave the West Bank no matter what the Palestinians do; or the inflammatory rhetoric on both sides about Jerusalem’s holy sites, there is a real danger of the violence escalating even further out of control. The international community must demand an end not only to violence, but also to the occupation that drives it, and back that demand up with action.

    While both Israeli and Palestinian leaders continue to engage in unhelpful rhetoric, it’s important to recognize that the occupation itself is the most effective form of incitement there is. This reality is often overlooked in the day-to-day news coverage of the conflict, in which violence often tends to be reported as a problem only when it impacts Israelis.

    The spread of violence, with the loss of civilian lives on both sides, is unavoidable as long as Palestinians live under a system in which they are denied basic rights, and no political process to give them a hope for a better future. The Israeli and Palestinian leadership, as well as the United States and its international partners, have all failed to provide that hope. All of these parties share responsibility to stem the tide of violence, and all of them have to work together to resolve this conflict, end the occupation and bring peace and security to Israelis and Palestinians.

    To this end, it is particularly important for the United States, as Israel’s key ally and patron, to begin articulating consequences for Israel’s continued occupation and settlement construction, which violate both international law and specific commitments Israel has made to the U.S. In the absence of such consequences, we should only expect more of the same: a deepening occupation, more settlements, and periodic upsurges in violence year after year after year.

    Mitchell Plitnick is Program Director at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Previously, he was Director of the US Office of B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (2008-2010) and Director of Education and Policy for Jewish Voice for Peace (2002-2008).

    Matthew Duss is the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Previously he was a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, where his work focused on the Middle East and U.S. national security, and director of the Center’s Middle East Progress program.

    #israël #palestine #Moyen-orient #proche-orient

  • Brésil:des militants israéliens ont demandé le rejet de l’ambassadeur à Brasilia | i24news - 21 Septembre 2015
    http://www.i24news.tv/fr/actu/israel/diplomatie-defense/86511-150921-bresil-des-militants-israeliens-ont-demande-le-rejet-de-l-ambas

    Un groupe de militants de gauche, dont trois anciens ambassadeurs israéliens, ont demandé au gouvernement brésilien de ne pas approuver la nomination de Dani Dayan au poste d’ambassadeur au Brésil, rapporte lundi le site israélien Haaretz.

    La demande a semble-t-il été entendue puisque samedi, la présidente brésilienne Dilma Rousseff s’opposait publiquement à la nomination au poste d’ambassadeur d’Israël dans son pays de Dayan qui a présidé de 2007 à 2013 le Conseil de Yesha, une organisation liée au Conseil des implantations en Cisjordanie.

    Lors d’une réunion il y a deux semaines avec les ambassadeurs du Brésil en Israël et dans l’Autorité palestinienne, les militants ont affirmé qu’accepter la nomination de Dayan reviendrait à légitimer « l’entreprise de colonisation ».

    Cette campagne est menée par des membres du comité diplomatique du Forum des ONG pour la paix, une organisation qui coordonne les activités entre les ONG israéliennes et palestiniennes qui soutiennent une solution à deux Etats, présidé par Mossi Raz, ancien député du Meretz (gauche).

    Les trois diplomates qui ont fait campagne contre Dayan (l’ex-directeur général du ministrère des Affaires étrangères Alon Liel, l’ancien ambassadeur en Afrique du Sud Ilan Baruch, et l’ancien ambassadeur en France Eli Bar-Navi) ont rencontré les ambassadeurs du Brésil peu après l’approbation par le Cabinet israélien de la nomination de Dayan.

    • Ya’alon Asks Brazil Defense Minister to Accept Dani Dayan as Israel’s Ambassador

      Israeli defense minister calls Brazilian counterpart following information that Brazil’s president intends to reject appointment; Israeli source: Brasilia said appointment process should continue.
      Barak Ravid Sep 24
      http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.677218

      Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, in a phone conversation with his Brazilian counterpart on Monday night, formally requested Brasilia’s approval of former Yesha Council of Settlements head Dani Dayan as Israel’s ambassador to Brazil.

      Ya’alon called Jaques Wagner after Israel’s Foreign Ministry learned that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff intended to reject the appointment, based on Brazil’s opposition to construction in West Bank settlements.

      “Dani Dayan, a worthy person respected by all political elements in Israel, is the personal choice of the prime minister, reflecting the importance he attributes to a country such as Brazil,” Ya’alon told Wagner, according to a senior Israeli official who was speaking on condition of anonymity. The message from Wagner was that Dayan’s appointment process should continue, the official said.

      The phone call was coordinated with Israel’s Foreign Ministry, as part of the attempt to win Brasilia’s approval of Dayan’s appointment. The Foreign Ministry had spoken with aides of President Reuven Rivlin about the possibility of a conversation with his Brazilian counterpart, but in light of the outcome of the Ya’alon-Wagner phone call it was decided that this would not be necessary.

      Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, opposition leader and Zionist Union chairman Isaac Herzog and Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid all spoke with Brazil’s ambassador to Israel, expressing their support for Dayan’s appointment. Their move came in the wake of report in Haaretz on Sunday, according to which former Israeli ambassadors had appealed directly to the Brazilian government, requesting that it not approve Dayan’s appointment since he has served as the head of the Yesha Council and opposes a two-state solution. They claimed that by approving the appointment, Brazil would legitimize the violation of international law.

      Lapid wrote on his Twitter account that he doesn’t agree with Dayan’s political positions but thinks he will be an excellent ambassador. Lapid wrote that he told the Brazilian ambassador it was unacceptable for Israeli citizens living abroad to try to influence decisions by an elected government in Israel.

      Edelstein instructed his political adviser Oded Ben-Hur to contact the Brazilian ambassador as well. Ben-Hur stressed that Dayan’s appointment is “well-considered, and that foolish yet serious attempts of former Israeli diplomats to foil the appointment should be rejected.” Edelstein commented that as a resident of a West Bank settlement he could recall an occasion on which he was ostracized by senior Brazilian officials, and this should also apply to Dayan.

    • Le Brésil refuse de commenter les rumeurs de malaise avec Israël
      24 septembre 2015 |Agence France-Presse |
      http://www.ledevoir.com/international/actualites-internationales/450859/malaise-entre-le-bresil-et-israel

      Rio de Janeiro — Les autorités brésiliennes se refusaient mercredi à commenter les rumeurs de malaise avec Israël, après la décision de l’État hébreu de nommer comme prochain ambassadeur à Brasília Danny Dayan, un ancien dirigeant des colons juifs de Cisjordanie. Le quotidien israélien Yediot Aharonot a affirmé il y a quelques jours que la présidente Dilma Rousseff avait envoyé une lettre au gouvernement israélien en le menaçant d’opposer son veto à la désignation de M. Dayan. Le gouvernement de Benjamin Nétanyahou a annoncé publiquement début septembre qu’il avait l’intention de nommer cet entrepreneur d’origine argentine, qui vit dans une colonie en Cisjordanie, et qui a dirigé le Conseil de Yesha, principale organisation de colons dans les territoires palestiniens occupés. Plus de 35 mouvements sociaux et politiques brésiliens — comme le mouvement des paysans sans terre (MST), le Comité de Palestine démocratique ou le parti d’extrême gauche PSOL — ont envoyé fin août à Mme Rousseff une pétition contre la nomination de M. Dayan. Le Brésil a reconnu l’État palestinien en 2010.

  • Israeli FM spokesman: Abuse of Palestinian kids ’intolerable’ -
    Haaretz By Dan Goldberg | Feb. 11, 2014
    http://www.haaretz.com/.premium-1.573480

    SYDNEY - A spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry has conceded that human rights abuses of Palestinian children in the West Bank are “intolerable” and that having soldiers arrest young kids in the middle of the night is problematic. The admissions by Yigal Palmor were contained in an investigative documentary produced by a team of Australian journalists and aired last night by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

    Titled “Stone Cold Justice,” the investigation alleged that some Palestinian children were being physically abused, forced into false confessions and targeted in order to gather intelligence on Palestinian activists.

    The broadcast prompted local Jewish and Zionist leaders to accuse the Australian journalists of paying “insufficient attention” to the security difficulties faced by Israel and rehashing similar allegations published in 2011.

    During the documentary, Palmor describes as “intolerable” the human rights abuses contained in last October’s UNICEF report, which concluded that Palestinian children have been “threatened with death, physical violence, solitary confinement and sexual assault, against themselves or a family member.”

    The maltreatment of Palestinian children appears to be “widespread, systematic and institutionalized,” the report found.

    Palmor said: “The natural reaction is that this is intolerable – these are intolerable cases, and that I would like my authorities to do their utmost to make sure that this will not be repeated and that this will change. And I believe that this is precisely what we are doing.”

    Palmor also admitted that the nighttime arrests of Palestinian children by soldiers was problematic. “The question of the arrests is a question that needs to be addressed because once you send soldiers and not policemen to arrest people the whole attitude will be different,” he said. “So we need to train soldiers to behave as policemen and that is something that’s not so easy.”

    But he defended allegations that Israel’s policy in the West Bank was to create fear. “A policy to create fear? There is no such thing,” he said. “The only policy is to maintain law and order, that’s all. If there’s no violence, there’s no law enforcement.”