person:reuven rivlin

Nouvelle journée de #manifestations après la mort d’un Israélien d’origine éthiopienne

Des manifestations ont eu lieu mercredi à Tel-Aviv et dans le nord d’#Israël pour la troisième journée consécutive, après le décès d’un jeune Israélien d’origine éthiopienne, tué par un policier, la communauté éthiopienne dénonçant un crime raciste.

#Solomon_Teka, âgé de 19 ans, a été tué dimanche soir par un policier qui n’était pas en service au moment des faits, à Kiryat Haim, une ville proche du port de Haïfa, dans le nord d’Israël.

Des dizaines de policiers ont été déployés mercredi dans la ville de Kiryat Ata, non loin de Kiryat Haim. Des manifestants tentant de bloquer une route ont été dispersés par la police.

Malgré des appels au calme lancés par les autorités, des jeunes se sont aussi à nouveau rassemblés à Tel-Aviv. Une centaine de personnes ont défié la police en bloquant une route avant d’être dispersées.

En trois jours, 140 personnes ont été arrêtées et 111 policiers blessés par des jets de pierres, bouteilles et bombes incendiaires lors des manifestations dans le pays, selon un nouveau bilan de la police.

Les embouteillages et les images de voitures en feu ont fait la une des médias.

Le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu et le président israélien Reuven Rivlin ont appelé au calme, tout en reconnaissant que les problèmes auxquels était confrontée la communauté israélo-éthiopienne devaient être traités.

– ’Tragédie’-

« La mort de Solomon Teka est une immense tragédie », a dit le Premier ministre. « Des leçons seront tirées. Mais une chose est claire : nous ne pouvons tolérer les violences que nous avons connues hier », a-t-il déclaré mercredi lors d’une réunion du comité ministériel sur l’intégration de la communauté éthiopienne.

« Nous ne pouvons pas voir de routes bloquées, ni de cocktails Molotov, ni d’attaques contre des policiers, des citoyens et des propriétés privées », a-t-il ajouté.

Le ministre de la Sécurité publique, Gilad Erdan, et le commissaire de la police, Moti Cohen, ont rencontré des représentants de la communauté israélo-éthiopienne, selon un communiqué de la police.

La police a rapporté que le policier ayant tué le jeune homme avait tenté de s’interposer lors d’une bagarre entre jeunes. Après avoir expliqué qu’il était un agent des forces de l’ordre, des jeunes lui auraient alors lancé des pierres. L’homme aurait ouvert le feu après s’être senti menacé.

Mais d’autres jeunes présents et un passant interrogés par les médias israéliens ont assuré que le policier n’avait pas été agressé.

L’agent a été assigné à résidence et une enquête a été ouverte, a indiqué le porte-parole de la police.

En janvier, des milliers de juifs éthiopiens étaient déjà descendus dans la rue à Tel-Aviv après la mort d’un jeune de leur communauté tué par un policier.

Ils affirment vivre dans la crainte d’être la cible de la police. La communauté juive éthiopienne en Israël compte environ 140.000 personnes, dont plus de 50.000 sont nées dans le pays. Elle se plaint souvent de racisme institutionnalisé à son égard.

https://www.courrierinternational.com/sites/ci_master/files/styles/image_original_765/public/afp/8b8f65a4d5eca00f0ceb0bba7004612816b4b0a2.jpg?itok=Bm4z1o3k#.jpg

▻https://www.courrierinternational.com/depeche/nouvelle-journee-de-manifestations-apres-la-mort-dun-israelie
#discriminations #racisme #xénophobie #décès #violences_policières #police #éthiopiens

Les Ethiopiens d’Israël manifestent après le « meurtre » d’un des leurs par la police
Par Le Figaro avec AFP Publié le 02/07/2019 à 21:57
▻http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/les-ethiopiens-d-israel-manifestent-apres-le-meurtre-d-un-des-leurs-par-la-

Des Israéliens d’origine éthiopienne manifestaient mardi leur colère après la mort d’un membre de leur communauté, tué par un policier qui n’était pas en service et dans des circonstances encore troubles.

La mort dimanche soir de Solomon Teka, âgé de 18 ou 19 ans, a ravivé parmi les Ethiopiens d’Israël les accusations de racisme policier à son encontre. Depuis lundi soir, ces Israéliens manifestent à Kiryat Haim, près de Haïfa (nord), lieu où a été abattu Solomon Teka. Mardi, jour de son enterrement, la contestation a repris. La mort de Solomon Teka n’est rien d’autre qu’un « meurtre », a accusé sur les ondes de la radio israélienne Amir Teka, cousin de la victime. Les manifestants ont bloqué plusieurs routes et une quinzaine de carrefours, brûlant des pneus et attaquant parfois les véhicules qui tentaient de passer leurs barrages improvisés. Au moins 19 contestataires ont été interpellés, selon la police.

« Nous devons faire tout notre possible pour nous assurer que la police cesse de tuer des gens à cause de leur couleur de peau », a déclaré à l’AFP l’un des manifestants, Mengisto, 26 ans. « Nous avons besoin d’obtenir des garanties de la part de l’Etat ou de la police que cela ne se reproduira plus », a-t-il exigé.

““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““
Israël : des manifestations dégénèrent après la mort d’un Israélien d’origine éthiopienne (VIDEOS)
3 juil. 2019, 16:02
▻https://francais.rt.com/international/63600-israel-manifestations-degenerent-apres-mort-israelien-origine-eth

A la suite de la disparition de Solomon Tekah, probablement tué par un policier, la communauté éthiopienne d’Israël a manifesté sa colère. Différentes villes ont connu des affrontements au cours desquels manifestants et policiers ont été blessés. (...)
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=61&v=hjTyEsGgB6g

#émeutesisraéliennes

Le Hezbollah, menace pour la stabilité du Moyen-Orient, selon Pompeo 21 mars 2019 Par Agence Reuters
▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/210319/le-hezbollah-menace-pour-la-stabilite-du-moyen-orient-selon-pompeo?onglet=

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Le secrétaire d’Etat américain Mike Pompeo a estimé jeudi en Israël, avant de poursuivre sa tournée régionale par Beyrouth, que le Hezbollah chiite libanais était une menace pour la stabilité du Moyen-Orient.

Reçu par le président israélien Reuven Rivlin à Jérusalem, le chef de la diplomatie américaine a dit considérer le Hezbollah, le mouvement palestinien Hamas et la milice yéménite des Houthis - qui bénéficient tous du soutien de Téhéran - comme « des entités représentant des risques pour la stabilité du Moyen-Orient et pour Israël ».

« Ils sont résolus à rayer ce pays de la carte et nous avons l’obligation morale et politique d’empêcher que cela advienne. Vous devez savoir que les Etats-Unis s’y tiennent prêts », a dit Mike Pompeo lors de son entretien avec le président israélien.

La visite de Mike Pompeo à Jérusalem passe pour un coup de pouce à Benjamin Netanyahu, à trois semaines d’élections législatives qui s’annoncent serrées, le 9 avril. (...)

#IsraelUsa #Hezbollah

Has the Jewish state forgotten to fight the anti-Semitic far right? - Israel News - Haaretz.com

When Israel’s government and major Jewish groups cosy up to the global far right, it is a fundamental betrayal of Jewish history, Zionism and the Jewish values we believe in
Hannah Rose and Benjamin Guttmann Feb 28, 2019

▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-has-the-jewish-state-forgotten-to-fight-the-anti-semitic-far-right

https://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.6979208.1551365012!/image/3478181838.jpg_gen/derivatives/headline_1200x630/3478181838.jpg

We, Jewish student leaders in the UK and Austria, were raised in and by the Jewish community, which embedded in us a fierce set of values. We were taught that every individual is deserving of equal respect and rights, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality or gender.

These are not values we take lightly; these are the very foundations of our Jewish identity. The injunction to “treat the stranger justly” appears 36 times in the Torah, more often than any other commandment. Those qualities of justice and solidarity distinguished Abraham, who cared for the strangers who visited his tent, from the people of Sodom, who attacked them, and faced divine punishment.

The Shoah survivor, author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel famously declared: “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the centre of the universe.”

It is therefore not only with shock, but with great disappointment, that we see the current government of our Jewish state, and some of our Jewish institutions, giving succour to those who discriminate against other vulnerable communities.

In Europe, it is a fearful reality that the far-right is gaining power and popularity and that the survival of liberal democracy is no longer self-evident. Jewish experience teaches us that political intolerance usually ends with blame falling on Jews.

Yet Israel, the place to which we, as Zionists, are deeply connected, has a government which not only tolerates these views, but invites their most prominent representatives to summits, not least the Visegrad Group, whose aspiration is a Europe of “illiberal democracies.”

As a sign of the moral jeopardy this opens up, the formal summit was scuppered (despite bilateral meetings going ahead) not because of a principled move by courageous Israeli leaders, but because the Polish government took WWII historical revisionism more seriously than its relationship with Israel.
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Israel’s prime minister lauded the election of Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro who, among many other comments exposing his weak allegiance to democratic values, and endorsement of torture and racism repeatedly told a congresswoman: “I wouldn’t rape you because you don’t deserve it.”

On Holocaust Memorial Day, the World Jewish Congress, one of the major Jewish organisations posted a video of Jair Bolsonaro claiming to support Holocaust remembrance. It is a struggle to believe that the same person who said he would be “incapable of loving a gay son” and they’d prefer his child to die in a car crash rathe than come out as gay, would respectfully and sincerely commemorate the WWII persecution of LGBT+ people in their thousands.
Netanyahu and Bolsonaro in Brazil.
Netanyahu and Bolsonaro in Brazil.Leo Correa/אי־פי

Meaningful Holocaust remembrance looks at the lessons we can learn, and how we can take action to stamp out analogous hateful ideologies. If we take these responsibilities seriously, we can never embrace someone fundamentally opposed to the values behind Holocaust remembrance out of timidity and short-term political gain.

The recent co-option of the racist Arab-baiting Kahanist political tradition into the Knesset is nothing less than an endorsement of the subjugation of the rights of others to the rights of Jewish people. Having struggled for thousands of years against those seeking to remove our rights, getting into bed with the far right in our own state is nothing short of an insult to our history and our Zionism as well as hypocrisy of the highest level.

We understand states seek to protect their interests through realpolitik and pragmatism. But support for, or tolerance of the far-right, is alarmingly short-sighted. Not only is it strategically ill-advised for Israel to align itself with the global far right, it endangers local Jewish communities.

Morally speaking, this is inexcusable. Sacrificing the rights of other vulnerable groups because the far-right are supposedly “good for Israel” is an outrageous contravention of everything Judaism teaches.
Anti-Semitic tags reading “Dirty Jew, get out” and a swastika graffitied on a door on Rue d’Alesia in Paris’ 14th arrondissement. February 21, 2019.
Anti-Semitic tags reading “Dirty Jew, get out” and a swastika graffitied on a door on Rue d’Alesia in Paris’ 14th arrondissement. February 21, 2019.AFP

Israel thus becomes partner to the legitimization of the far right’s whitewashing of their hateful ideology, not least their anti-Semitism, through a façade of skin-deep support for Israel.

Human rights are Jewish rights and Jewish rights are human rights. We must be robust and we must be outspoken; any homophobe, any misogynist or any Islamophobe is no friend of the Jewish community.

If there is any chance of eliminating discrimination against Jews and non-Jews alike, we must first look at ourselves. As Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin eloquently articulated: “You cannot say ‘we admire Israel and want relations with your country, but we are neo-fascists. Neo-fascism is incompatible with the principles and values on which the State of Israel was founded.”

This is a cross-party political issue; no matter one’s views on border control or economic systems, as a people who have faced antisemitism for thousands of years, we must all be able to acknowledge that no individual should be discriminated against simply because of who they are.

As Jews, we should know better than that.

Benjamin (Bini) Guttmann is President of the Austrian Union of Jewish Students (JöH. Twitter: @bin_gut and @joehwien

Hannah Rose is President of the UK Union of Jewish Students. Twitter: @hannah1_rose and @UJS_PRES

Israël soumet à Macron les cartes des tunnels du Hezbollah à la frontière - L’Orient-Le Jour
▻https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1154336/israel-soumet-a-macron-les-cartes-des-tunnels-du-hezbollah-a-la-front

https://s.olj.me/storage/attachments/1155/137345_189916_large.jpg

Israël est passé à la vitesse supérieure dans son épreuve de force avec le Liban au sujet des armes du Hezbollah, en lançant une offensive diplomatique occidentale contre ce qu’il considère être une menace à sa sécurité. Le quotidien israélien Haaretz rapportait ainsi hier que Tel-Aviv « a envoyé au Liban des messages très fermes, prévenant des conséquences des efforts constants du Hezbollah pour acquérir des missiles téléguidés de haute précision ». Le journal a ajouté que ces messages seront transmis par la France à Beyrouth où le président français, Emmanuel Macron, est normalement attendu entre le 11 et le 14 février, dans le cadre d’une tournée qui devrait également le mener en Irak.

Le dossier du Hezbollah, la menace qu’il fait peser sur Israël et l’affaire des tunnels transfrontaliers au Liban-Sud ont été longuement évoqués mercredi par le président israélien, Reuven Rivlin, avec Emmanuel Macron, lors de leur entretien à l’Élysée. Le Haaretz précise à ce propos que Reuven Rivlin « dont les actions sont coordonnées avec le Premier ministre, Benjamin Netanyahu », était accompagné – « fait inhabituel », selon le journal – du commandant des forces aériennes israéliennes, le major-général Amikam Norkin, qui a « présenté au président français des cartes et des photos aériennes détaillant les changements intervenus dans le déploiement du Hezbollah ».

Toujours selon le quotidien israélien, Reuven Rivlin a aussi fait savoir à son hôte que son pays considérait « les usines de missiles de haute précision du Hezbollah au Liban (dont la présence avait été dévoilée par Benjamin Netanyahu au cours de l’Assemblée générale de l’ONU, en septembre dernier) comme la plus grande menace pour sa sécurité et agirait pour les anéantir s’il le jugeait approprié ».

Par ailleurs, cet article signé du quotidien libanais (de temps à autre maladroitement) francophone est un festival d’écriture journalistique tendancieuse. Par exemple, le passage du futur (seront présentés) au présent (soumet) dans le titre, entre autres biais assez énormes...

Israel’s president to CNN: Fighting anti-Semitism alongside neo-fascists is ’absolutely impossible’

Reuven Rivlin’s remarks come after PM Netanyahu praised Austria, Hungary for combating the issue

Noa Landau SendSend me email alerts
Nov 29, 2018

▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-rivlin-fighting-anti-semitism-alongside-neo-fascists-is-absolutely

President Reuven Rivlin responded on Thursday to a poll published by CNN earlier in the week that revealed the depth of anti-Semitism in Europe.
Rivlin told CNN that anti-Semitism is “an evil that can be found anywhere – left and right, nationalist and religious” and argued that combatting the phenomenon by forming coalitions with neo-fascist movements is impossible.
>> The man challenging the narrative that Netanyahu is Israel’s one and only savior | Analysis ■ Germany’s Nazi-friendly, anti-Semitic far right has a new mission: Recruiting Jews | Opinion

Rivlin’s comments come after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the right-wing leaders of Austria and Hungary for fighting anti-Semitism, a problem which Netanyahu said is fueled today by the “extreme left and radical Islamic pockets.”
"I saw [Prime Minister] Viktor Orban in Hungary," Netanyahu told CNN on Tuesday in response to the poll. “He’s opened up a center against anti-Semitism. I saw [Chancellor] Sebastian Kurz in Austria, he just held a conference against anti-Semitism, and that’s encouraging.” 
In the interview Thursday, Rivlin told CNN that neo-fascism is “absolutely incompatible” with Israel’s principles and values. “You cannot say ‘we admire Israel and want relations with your country, but we are neo-fascists,’" Rivlin said.
“I meet leaders from all around the world – presidents and prime ministers – and they tell me that sometimes they need to work with movements like these to build coalitions and that although they are neo-fascists they are great admirers of Israel. I tell them that this is absolutely impossible,” Rivlin said.
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According to the president, rejecting neo-fascists movements is a way of fighting anti-Semitism. “The fact that the President of Israel says to neo-fascist movements ‘you are persona non grata in the State of Israel’ is a statement that fights anti-Semitism in a concrete way. It is a statement that makes clear that memory is important and that we will not compromise on for the political expediency of the state of Israel,” Rivlin said.
CNN’s poll, conducted in seven European countries, found that a quarter of Europeans believe Jews have too much influence in business and finance. Additionally, more than one-third of respondents said they have no substantial knowledge of the Holocaust. One-third of respondents also said that Jews use the Holocaust to advance their own positions or goals
According to Rivlin, the problem can be fought by “strengthening memory” and sticking “to the historical facts, not politicians’ talking points.” Rivlin added that Israel must collaborate with other nations “to fight against xenophobia and discrimination, of which anti-Semitism is a variant.”

The Philippine’s #Duterte, who compared himself to #Hitler, will inaugurate Holocaust memorial in #Israel - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-phillipines-duterte-to-inaugurate-holocaust-memorial-in-israel-1.6

https://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.6431001.1535563618!/image/2539014335.jpg_gen/derivatives/headline_1200x630/2539014335.jpg

Duterte is slated to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin and will visit Yad Vashem.

#antisémites_sionistophiles #sionistes_antisémitophiles

Demonstrate with the Arabs - Haaretz Editorial -
The place of Livni and the other opposition leaders is in Rabin Square, alongside the Arab community. Their struggle is the struggle of all Israelis, Jews and Arabs alike

Haaretz Editorial
Aug 10, 2018 1:32 AM

▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/demonstrate-with-the-arabs-1.6364336

The demonstration called for Saturday night in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square by the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, which represents Israel’s Arab community, is the most important of all the protests that have taken place against the nation-state law. It’s also one of the most important demonstrations in Israel in the past several years.
No minority in Israel suffers as much discrimination as the Arab minority, which is also Israel’s largest minority. It is frequently the target of normalized, institutionalized racism. 
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The nation-state law, which has sparked civic protests throughout Israeli society, was engineered precisely in order to strip the Arabs of their rights and subordinate them to rule by the Jews, the lords of the land, even at the price of sacrificing civic equality. This worldview has characterized despicable racist regimes throughout history, and its implementation in Israel is a black stain not only on the history of the state, but also on that of the Jewish people.
The nation-state law is an especially ugly milestone in the right’s delegitimization campaign against the Arabs. It’s meant to mark them as enemies, as a fifth column; to cause strife between them and Jews; and to remove them from civil society. Given this, it’s regrettable that the leaders of the opposition, who warmly embraced the Druze community’s justified protest against the law, have decided not to attend this demonstration.
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>> In Show of Renewed Activism, Arab Israelis to Protest Nation-state Law on Saturday
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who came to the Druze demonstration last Saturday night, announced that she won’t attend the upcoming one because some Knesset members from the predominantly Arab Joint List “don’t share my view that Israel is the nation-state of the Jews.” In the same breath, she declared her belief in “equal rights for all.” She thereby proved that even the left has adopted the right’s propaganda. If, as she says, Livni believes in equality for all and opposes the nation-state law — the issues of the demonstration — why is it even relevant what Joint List MKs think Israel’s character should be?
Livni must meet the challenge that was posed to Israeli society by President Reuven Rivlin in his “four tribes” speech, in which he argued that Israel’s future depends on abandoning a worldview based on majority and minority in favor of one that is based on a partnership with the ultra-Orthodox and the Arabs, who don’t define themselves as Zionist. The place of Livni and the other opposition leaders Saturday night is in Rabin Square, alongside the Arab community. Their struggle is the struggle of all Israelis, Jews and Arabs alike.

French President Macron cancels Israel visit
Itamar Eichner|Published: 08.08.18 , 10:54
▻https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5324813,00.html

After initially planning to arrive in the spring and then postponing to the fall, Macron cancels planned November visit; Paris doesn’t provide reason for cancellation, but it is likely tied to crisis the French president faces at home after his bodyguard was filmed assaulting protesters.

(...) But some Israeli officials argued there was a different reason, claiming the French premier decided not to come to Israel because of the deadly protests on the Gaza border, and the way the trip might be perceived by the French public. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s bad health also played a factor.

President Reuven Rivlin also cancelled his trip to France this year, but it is expected to be rescheduled for next year.

The only one not to cancel his visit was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who traveled to Paris in June to meet with Macron.

INTERVIEW – Shlomo Sand : « Israël a voulu bâtir un mur institutionnel »
Middle East Eye | Hassina Mechaï | 31 juillet 2018 |Dernière mise à jour : 01 août 2018
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/reportages/interview-shlomo-sand-isra-l-voulu-b-tir-un-mur-institutionnel-102399

http://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Wall.jpg

« État juif ». Dès les origines du sionisme, l’expression était ambiguë. En intitulant son livre Der Judenstaat, le fondateur du sionisme, Theodor Herzl, entendait-il « l’État des Juifs » ou « l’État juif » ? Un État qui pourrait devenir l’État de chaque juif du monde ou un État qui plongerait ses racines dans le judaïsme ?

À cette question qui traverse toutes les institutions israéliennes, la loi fondamentale adoptée ce 19 juillet semble enfin répondre. Celle-ci entre dans la catégorie des lois fondamentales qui constituent le socle constitutionnel en Israël. Désormais, l’État d’Israël est non seulement l’État des juifs, mais également un État juif.

En dix points, cette loi dessine un régime politique où le caractère juif de l’État l’emporte désormais sur la démocratie. La loi énonce, entre autres, qu’Israël est la patrie historique du peuple juif, que la capitale d’Israël est le grand Jérusalem réunifié, que la langue officielle est l’hébreu et qu’Israël encouragera la colonisation juive.

Or, vivent en Israël environ 1,6 million de citoyens non juifs, arabes de nationalité et israéliens de citoyenneté, Israël distinguant en effet nationalité et citoyenneté. Si la déclaration d’indépendance israélienne de 1948 pose que l’État « assurera une complète égalité de droits sociaux et politiques à tous ses citoyens, sans distinction de croyance, de race ou de sexe », c’est bien une vision ethniciste que vient entériner cette loi fondamentale.

Le président Reuven Rivlin s’est d’ailleurs publiquement inquiété de cette nouvelle loi, tout comme les députés palestiniens arabes, qui y voient la juridicisation d’une citoyenneté de seconde classe et une rupture d’égalité de jure et de facto. L’historien israélien Shlomo Sand, auteur notamment de Comment le peuple juif fut inventé, explique qu’il s’agit en réalité d’une continuité du sionisme.

Middle East Eye : Pourquoi cette loi fondamentale a-t-elle été adoptée maintenant ?

Shlomo Sand : Je dirais, plutôt que « maintenant », pourquoi à notre époque ? Ce n’est pas la date de 2018 qui compte, ni même les années antérieures. Il faut plutôt remonter aux cinquante dernières années.
Nous savons désormais qu’il n’y aura pas d’État palestinien dans les frontières de 1967. L’idée prévaut en Israël qu’il ne faut pas entrer dans un processus de compromis avec les Palestiniens. Cette idée est renforcée par le soutien inconditionnel de Donald Trump au gouvernement de Netanyahou.

Face à ce qui est perçu comme la vraie menace, la menace démographique que constituent les 5 millions de Palestiniens qui vivent dans les territoires occupés et à Gaza, Israël a souhaité consolider constitutionnellement les bases juives de l’État.

D’un côté, Israël ne veut pas libérer et « se » libérer des territoires occupés. Il ne le veut pas et n’y est pas obligé. Mais il refuse d’accorder aux Palestiniens sous occupation la citoyenneté israélienne, car cela changerait complètement les rapports démographiques, donc politiques, en Israël.

Cette loi a été adoptée pour institutionnaliser la différence de fait qui existe entre Palestiniens et Israéliens, entre Arabes et juifs, surtout à cause de cette menace démographique.

La base de cette loi traduit, au fond, une fragilité de l’État d’Israël. D’abord parce que cet État n’est pas certain d’être juif. Selon moi, il n’y a pas de culture juive laïque, même s’il existe une culture israélienne. Pour se défendre de cette symbiose avec le monde environnant, Israël a voulu bâtir un mur institutionnel qui est censé défendre l’identité juive. (...)

A law that tells the truth about Israel
The nation-state law makes it plain. Israel is for Jews only, on the books. It’s easier this way for everyone
Gideon Levy Jul 12, 2018 5:01 AM - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-a-law-that-tells-the-truth-about-israel-1.6267705

https://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.6266649.1531303869!/image/3031225505.jpg_gen/derivatives/headline_1200x630/3031225505.jpg

The Knesset is about to legislate one of its most important laws ever, and the one most in keeping with reality. The nation-state law will put an end to Israel’s vague nationalism and present Zionism as it is. The law will also put an end to the farce about Israel being “Jewish and democratic,” a combination that never existed and could never exist because of the inherent contradiction between the two values that cannot be reconciled, except by deception.

If the state is Jewish, it cannot be democratic, because of the lack of equality; if it’s democratic, it cannot be Jewish, because a democracy does not bestow privilege based on ethnicity. So now the Knesset has decided: Israel is Jewish. Israel is declaring that it is the nation-state of the Jewish people, not a state of its citizens, not a state of the two peoples that live within it, and has therefore ceased to be an egalitarian democracy, not just in practice but also in theory. That’s why this law is so important. It is a truthful law.

The uproar over the bill was intended mainly as an effort to continue the policy of national ambiguity. The president and the attorney general, the ostensible guardians of decency, protested and received compliments from the liberal camp. The president shouted that the law would be “a weapon in the hands of Israel’s enemies,” and the attorney general warned about the “international ramifications.”

The prospect of Israel’s veil being removed before the world prompted them to act. Reuven Rivlin, it must be said, cried out with great vigor and courage against the clause allowing community-acceptance committees to screen residents and its implications for the regime, but most liberals were simply horrified to read the reality when it was worded as a law.

Mordechai Kremnitzer, in Tuesday’s Haaretz, also cried out in vain when he said the bill would “foment a revolution, no less. It will spell the end of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state ...” He added that the bill would make Israel “a leader among nationalist countries like Poland and Hungary,” as if it isn’t already and hasn’t been for a long time. In Poland and Hungary there is no tyranny over another people lacking rights, which has become a permanent reality and an inseparable part of how this state and its regime operate, with no end in sight.

All those years of hypocrisy were pleasant. It was nice to say that apartheid was only in South Africa, because there everything was rooted in racial laws, and we had no such laws. To say that Hebron is not apartheid, the Jordan Valley is not apartheid, and that the occupation really isn’t part of the regime. To say that we were the only democracy in the region, even with the occupation.

It was nice to claim that since Israeli Arabs can vote, we are an egalitarian democracy. To point out that there’s an Arab party, even if it’s excluded from any influence. To point out that Arabs can be admitted to the Jews’ hospitals; that they can study in the Jews’ universities and live anywhere they choose. (You bet.)

How enlightened we are; our Supreme Court ruled in the Kaadan case that an Arab family could buy a home in Katzir, after years of litigation and endless evasion. How tolerant we are that the Arabs are permitted to speak Arabic, an official language. The latter was certainly a fiction; Arabic never was remotely treated as an official language, the way Swedish is in Finland, where the minority is far smaller than the Arab minority here.

It was comfortable to ignore that the lands owned by the Jewish National Fund, which include most of the state’s lands, were for Jews only – with the progressive Supreme Court backing that stance – and claim we’re a democracy. It was much more pleasant to think of ourselves as egalitarian.

Now there will be a law that tells the truth. Israel is for Jews only, on the books. The nation-state of the Jewish people, not of its residents. Its Arabs are second-class citizens and its Palestinian subjects are hollow, nonexistent. Their fate is determined in Jerusalem, but they aren’t part of the state. It’s easier this way for everyone.

There remains a small problem with the rest of the world, and with Israel’s image, which this law will tarnish somewhat. It’s no big deal. Israel’s new friends will be proud of this law. For them it will be a light unto the nations. And people of conscience all over the world already know the truth and have long been struggling against it. A weapon for the BDS movement? Certainly. Israel has earned it, and will now legislate it.

Pas assez de soutien pour transférer l’ambassade de Roumanie à Jérusalem
FranceSoir | Publié le : Jeudi 26 Avril 2018
▻http://www.francesoir.fr/actualites-monde/pas-assez-de-soutien-pour-transferer-lambassade-de-roumanie-jerusalem-pre

http://www.francesoir.fr/sites/francesoir/files/images/e751617b099adbe92a1ed5c793f4a41383f7b864_field_image_principale_1.jpg

La Première ministre roumaine Viorica Dancila a affirmé jeudi qu’elle souhaitait le transfert de l’ambassade de son pays à Jérusalem, mais qu’elle ne disposait pas d’assez de soutien en Roumanie pour une telle initiative.

« Nous menons des consultations sur ce sujet avec toutes les institutions en Roumanie », a affirmé Mme Dancila lors d’une rencontre à Jérusalem avec le président israélien Reuven Rivlin.

« C’est notre souhait (le transfert), mais malheureusement nous ne disposons pas du soutien de la part de toutes les parties comme nous le voudrions », a-t-elle déploré.

#Roumanie

Israel is the terrorist

Young Palestinians are not carrying out acts of terror- they are leading a desperate struggle against an army that is a thousand times stronger than they

Ilana Hammerman Apr 05, 2018

▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-israel-is-the-terrorist-1.5976966

About a week ago, on the highway between Hermesh and Mevo Dotan, two soldiers were killed and two were injured by a car that was driven by a resident of Barta’a. There are not many Israelis who know where these settlements are located and in what kind of reality they exist. But the vast majority probably have no doubt who was the terrorist here, and who, the innocent victim, and they hope for the fulfillment of the vow made by President Reuven Rivlin, who declared after the incident: “We will not rest until we bring all the collaborators to justice; we will not allow terrorism to become a reality.”
The problem is that terror has long since become the reality, and the entity that has allowed and is allowing this to happen is the State of Israel. Look at the map and find Barta’a, and maybe you’d even be interested in going there and seeing and hearing how its residents live and what their surroundings are like. I happened to do so a few days before the car-ramming incident, and it was completely clear to me – and not for the first time – that this reality is a product of the ongoing policy of terror pursued by generations of Israeli governments, and that it is this policy that gives rise to the acts of resistance against it.
What’s amazing is only that there aren’t more such acts, because it’s really and truly an intolerable situation. Barta’a al-Sharqiya is located east of Wadi Ara, between the Green Line and the separation barrier. In that location the fence makes a major detour into the West Bank in order to include in Israeli territory four settlements with names as fresh and pleasant as the fruit of the field and its fragrances: Shaked (Almond), Reihan (Basil), Hinanit (Daisy) and Tal Menashe (Dew of Menashe).
Within this enclave there are also four Arab villages, the largest of which is Barta’a al-Sharqiya. This entire enclave, with its fences, checkpoints and military forces, exists and thrives only for the benefit of the settlers who settled in it and next to it. The people who have been living for ages in the Arab villages in this part of the country suddenly found themselves penned in and subject to a diabolical maze of orders and regulations: They are not allowed to enter Israel to the west, while to the east, in the West Bank– their natural living space – two checkpoints were set up for them, via which they must leave and enter during opening hours and with the permission and good graces of the soldiers and private security guards posted there.
A few are also allowed to bring food and merchandise in their cars via the checkpoints, with restrictions. Palestinians who live outside the enclave – who are members of the same nation as those living within it, and often their relatives – are not permitted to enter unless they have “special permits.”
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Farmers from outside the enclave found themselves cut off from their land, and they too must request special permits and must enter and leave through special gates and at predetermined opening hours, in order to cultivate their fields. The settlements of Hermesh and Mevo Dotan are also situated in the area of the West Bank, but outside the enclave. The point is that every such settlement that is built In the West Bank – in which not a single dunam belongs to the State of Israel – disrupts the lives of the Palestinian villages in the area in ways that a free citizen would find difficult even to imagine.

That’s the reality there, and it’s one of state-sponsored terror, the State of Israel. Because what is land confiscation on a huge scale, what are restrictions on freedom of movement, and with it freedom of employment and commerce, home demolitions, the imposition of curfews and closures, the building of innumerable fences and walls and the deployment of military forces armed to the teeth, in the heart of a Palestinian civilian population, in order to protect an Israeli civilian population that settled among it by force – what are all these if not terror, in other words, a war against unarmed citizens?
And so, in this situation a young Palestinian girl stands in the back yard of her home in Nabi Saleh and slaps an Israeli soldier who was sent to her village only in order to guard the settlement of Halamish, which also thuggishly stuck itself deep inside the area of the West Bank; and in this situation two young women arrive at the checkpoint in the heart of Hebron, each one separately, with a knife in their hand or their bag, and the armed soldiers – who are there in order to protect a violent Jewish settlement, which expelled tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and incessantly abuses those who survived – shoot them dead.
And in this situation demonstrators emerge in the heart of the cities of Jericho, Bethlehem or the outskirts of the village of Beit Ummar, carrying stones and tires for burning and incendiary devices, to confront soldiers armed with machine guns and stun and gas grenades, who invade their communities and their homes day and night and injure and kill those who resist them and flee from them; and in this situation a young man comes from Barta’a and runs over and kills and injures soldiers – who are posted there only to protect the settlements that were generously built north and south of his village, and because of which the crowded village is doomed to economic and human strangulation.
What are the acts of these young people? Terror? No, this is a desperate struggle by groups and individuals, who from the day they were born have nothing to hope for, against an army that is a thousand times stronger than they. And what is this army defending: The security of its country? No, it is defending the choice of Israeli governments to use terror to impose the “state of the Jewish people” on the entire region between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.
I would like to make these things clear out of a belief in the power of words to shape consciousness. And sometimes political involvement as well.

Israel sets up secret firm with top ex-generals, envoys for online ’mass awareness’ campaign ’to fight delegitimization’

Among the shareholders are former UN ambassador Dore Gold and ex-generals Amos Yadlin and Yaakov Amidror. The new initiative will not be subject to the Freedom of Information Law

Noa Landau Jan 09, 2018 3:26 PM
read more: ▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.833817

The Strategic Affairs Ministry has set up a public-benefit corporation to engage in what it calls “mass awareness activities” as part of “the struggle against the delegitimization campaign” against Israel internationally.
Haaretz has obtained a list of the shareholders and directors of the company, Kella Shlomo, who include former Israeli ambassadors to the United Nations.
The government recently allocated 128 million shekels ($37 million) to the initiative, in addition to the 128 million shekels it will raise from private donors around the world.
The new initiative will not be subject to the Freedom of Information Law, in accordance with the secrecy policy of the ministry, which refuses to release detailed information about its activities.
The shareholders and directors include former ministry director general Yossi Kuperwasser; former UN ambassador Dore Gold, who is also a former adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and former UN ambassador Ron Prosor.

Reuven Rivlin with Amos Yadlin. Mark Neiman

FILE PHOTO: Protestors march behind a banner of the BDS organization in Marseille, southern France, on June 13, 2015George Robert / AP
They also include businessman Micah Avni, whose father, Richard Lakin, was killed in a 2015 terror attack in Jerusalem; Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin, who heads the Institute for National Security Studies; and Col. (res.) Miri Eisin, who served as the prime minister’s adviser on the foreign press during the Second Lebanon War.
skip - Israel Publishes BDS Blacklist

Also on the list are a former National Security Council chief, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, and Sagi Balasha, a former CEO of the Israeli-American Council, which has casino magnate Sheldon Adelson as a major supporter.

Most refused to discuss the initiative and referred questions to the office of Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan.
The most recent data from the Companies Authority shows that the last report the company submitted to the authority came this past October. On December 28, the cabinet approved an allocation of 128 million shekels to the company over three years. The decision to provide the funding was made by the special procedure under which a government resolution is distributed to the ministers and goes into effect automatically if no one objects or demands a discussion.
According to the government resolution, the funding was granted “to implement part of the ministry’s activities related to the struggle against the phenomena of delegitimization and boycotts against the State of Israel.” It says the agency will work to raise its portion of the financing for the initiative (around half) from “philanthropic sources” or “pro-Israel organizations.” A steering committee will be appointed for the initiative to comprise government representatives and representatives of the other funding partners.

Ron Prosor at the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon oath ceremony forr his appointment as the Secretary-General of the United Nations for second termShachar Ezran
Itamar Baz of the media watchdog website The Seventh Eye has been covering the Strategic Affairs Ministry, most of whose activities are concealed from the public. He reported Monday that while ministry officials have for months been advancing legislation that would exclude the company from being subject to the Freedom of Information Law, the law in any case does not apply to this new agency so its activities will be easy to hide.
He also revealed that Liat Glazer, the ministry’s legal adviser, wrote in a legal opinion that the activities conducted through the company would be “those that require ‘non-governmental’ discussions with various target audiences.”
According to a ministry document, Kella Shlomo people would work via social networks because “the enemy directs most of its awareness and motivating efforts to this area.” Similarly, the document, published by The Seventh Eye, says the organization was expected to carry out “mass awareness activities” and work to “exploit the wisdom of crowds,” an activity defined as “making new ideas accessible to decision-makers and donors in the Jewish world, and developing new tools to combat the delegitimization of Israel.”
A report in the daily Yedioth Ahronoth the day after the cabinet approved the funding described the initiative positively, saying it would “raise the level of efforts in the struggle against BDS” — the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Yedioth said the new company would “provide a speedy and coordinated response to efforts to stain Israel’s image around the world,” for example, in the event of a military operation, terror attacks or UN votes against government policies.
This would be done by launching online campaigns, lobbying, engaging organizations abroad and bringing delegations to Israel.
The Strategic Affairs Ministry declined to clarify whether the company would act in accordance with the principles of the Freedom of Information Law.
“This is a joint initiative that meets all the requirements of the law for this type of engagement and is similar to other government initiatives like Taglit [Birthright] and Masa,” the ministry said.
“In the agreement with [the company] there are distinct control procedures, as defined by the Finance Ministry and the Justice Ministry during the joint work with them on setting up the project. It will be subject to auditing by the state comptroller,” it added.
“In addition, as the ministry leading the initiative, one that attributes great importance to it as part of the campaign against the delegitimization of Israel, the ministry has allocated additional control tools and functions to what is required. Both the ministry’s legal adviser and its controller will sit on the steering committee managing the project.”
skip - WTF is BDS?

Le président israélien refuse de gracier un soldat ayant achevé un Palestinien
19 nov 2017 | Mise à jour 19.11.2017
▻http://information.tv5monde.com/en-continu/le-president-israelien-refuse-de-gracier-un-soldat-ayant-achev

Le président israélien Reuven Rivlin a rejeté dimanche la demande de grâce d’un soldat franco-israélien reconnu coupable et condamné pour avoir achevé un assaillant palestinien blessé.

Membre d’une unité paramédicale, le soldat franco-israélien Elor Azaria a été filmé le 24 mars 2016 alors qu’il tirait une balle dans la tête du Palestinien Abdel Fattah al-Sharif qui venait d’attaquer des soldats au couteau à Hébron en Cisjordanie, territoire palestinien occupé depuis 50 ans par Israël.

Atteint par balles, il gisait au sol, apparemment hors d’état de nuire quand Elor Azaria l’a achevé. La vidéo s’était propagée sur les réseaux sociaux.
(...)
Amnesty international avait dénoncé une peine « qui ne reflète pas la gravité » des faits commis par cet ancien soldat tandis qu’un comité de l’ONU la qualifiait « d’inacceptable » pour "ce qui « paraît être une exécution extra-judiciaire ».

« Un allégement supplémentaire de votre peine nuirait aux forces armées et à l’Etat d’Israël », a souligné le président israélien.

As violence intensifies, Israel continues to arm Myanmar’s military junta
Responding to a petition filed by human rights activists, Defense Ministry says matter is ’clearly diplomatic’
By John Brown Sep. 3, 2017 | 5:58 PM
▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.810390

http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.810394.1504451156!/image/933588068.jpg_gen/derivatives/headline_1200x630/933588068.jpg

The violence directed at Myanmar’s Rohingya minority by the country’s regime has intensified. United Nations data show that about 60,000 members of the minority group have recently fled Myanmar’s Rahine state, driven out by the increasing violence and the burning of their villages, information that has been confirmed by satellite images. But none of this has led to a change in the policy of the Israeli Defense Ministry, which is refusing to halt weapons sales to the regime in Myanmar, the southeast Asian country formerly known as Burma.

On Thursday, the bodies of 26 refugees, including 12 children, were removed from the Naf River, which runs along the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Of the refugees who managed to reach Bangladesh, many had been shot. There were also reports of rapes, shootings and fatal beatings directed at the Rohingya minority, which is denied human rights in Myanmar. The country’s army has been in the middle of a military campaign since October that intensified following the recent killing of 12 Myanmar soldiers by Muslim rebels.

Since Burma received its independence from Britain in 1948, civil war has been waged continuously in various parts of the country. In November 2015, democratic elections were held in the country that were won by Nobel Prize-winning human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi. But her government doesn’t exert real control over the country’s security forces, since private militias are beholden to the junta that controlled Myanmar prior to the election.

Militia members continue to commit crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of human rights around the country, particularly against minority groups that are not even accorded citizenship. Since Myanmar’s military launched operations in Rahine last October, a number of sources have described scenes of slaughter of civilians, unexplained disappearances, and the rape of women and girls, as well as entire villages going up in flames. The military has continued to commit war crimes and violations of international law up to the present.

Advanced Israeli weapons

Despite what is known at this point from the report of the United Nations envoy to the country and a report by Harvard University researchers that said the commission of crimes of this kind is continuing, the Israeli government persists in supplying weapons to the regime there.

One of the heads of the junta, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, visited Israel in September 2015 on a “shopping trip” of Israeli military manufacturers. His delegation met with President Reuven Rivlin as well as military officials including the army’s chief of staff. It visited military bases and defense contractors Elbit Systems and Elta Systems.

The head of the Defense Ministry’s International Defense Cooperation Directorate — better known by its Hebrew acronym, SIBAT — is Michel Ben-Baruch, who went to Myanmar in the summer of 2015. In the course of the visit, which attracted little media coverage, the heads of the junta disclosed that they purchased Super Dvora patrol boats from Israel, and there was talk of additional purchases.

In August 2016, images were posted on the website of TAR Ideal Concepts, an Israeli company that specializes in providing military training and equipment, showing training with Israeli-made Corner Shot rifles, along with the statement that Myanmar had begun operational use of the weapons. The website said the company was headed by former Israel Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki. Currently the site makes no specific reference to Myanmar, referring only more generally to Asia.

Who will supervise the supervisors?

Israel’s High Court of Justice is scheduled to hear, in late September, a petition from human rights activists against the continued arms sales to Myanmar.

In a preliminary response issued in March, the Defense Ministry argued that the court has no standing in the matter, which it called “clearly diplomatic.”

On June 5, in answer to a parliamentary question by Knesset member Tamar Zandberg on weapons sales to Myanmar, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Israel “subordinates [itself] to the entire enlightened world, that is the Western states, and first of all the United States, the largest arms exporter. We subordinate ourselves to them and maintain the same policy.”

He said the Knesset plenum may not be the appropriate forum for a detailed discussion of the matter and reiterated that Israel complies with “all the accepted guidelines in the enlightened world.”

Lieberman statement was incorrect. The United States and the European Union have imposed an arms embargo on Myanmar. It’s unclear whether the cause was ignorance, and Lieberman is not fully informed about Israel’s arms exports (even though he must approve them), or an attempt at whitewashing.

In terms of history, as well, Lieberman’s claim is incorrect. Israel supported war crimes in Argentina, for example, even when the country was under a U.S. embargo, and it armed the Serbian forces committing massacres in Bosnia despite a United Nations embargo.

#Israël_Birmanie

En visite en Israël, Kagame salue une coopération « fleurissante »
AFP | 11 Juil 2017

▻http://www.afriqueexpansion.com/fil-de-presse-manchettes/5605-en-visite-en-israel-kagame-salue-une-cooperation-fleurissante

http://www.afriqueexpansion.com/media/k2/items/cache/f9e310fcaf952f1bf42d7beb7f326e61_S.jpg

Le président rwandais Paul Kagame a déclaré lundi chercher à développer le commerce et la coopération avec Israël, lors d’une visite à Jérusalem, nouveau signe d’un réchauffement des relations entre l’Etat hébreu et l’Afrique.

En juillet 2016, le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu s’était rendu dans quatre pays africains, dont le Rwanda, et a assisté en juin dernier à un sommet des dirigeants ouest-africains au Liberia.

« Israël continue à accroître ses engagements en Afrique. C’est une tendance très positive », a ajouté le président rwandais qui a rencontré M. Netanyahu et le président israélien Reuven Rivlin.

M. Kagame a affirmé que la coopération entre Israël et les nations africaines avait « fleuri dans de nombreux domaines », dont la technologie, l’agriculture, l’énergie et la sécurité. « Nous avons hâte de renforcer notre coopération avec Israël ».

#Israfrique

Netanyahu to German Foreign Minister: Cancel meeting with Israeli leftists or we won’t meet
▻http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.785477
Germans say meetings with B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence still scheduled after prime minister issues ultimatum to Sigmar Gabriel, who is visiting Israel.
Barak Ravid Apr 24, 2017 11:54 PM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding that German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who arrived on Monday for a visit to Israel, cancel his planned meeting on Tuesday with representatives of B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence.

Senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office said that Netanyahu issued an ultimatum to Gabriel, saying that if the latter does not cancel his meetings with the left-wing groups, the prime minister won’t meet with him. The ultimatum was first reported by Israel Channel 2 News.

As of Monday night, the meeting with the two groups’ representatives had not been canceled, and German diplomats said it would take place. Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Gabriel, but the meeting was not listed on his schedule for Tuesday given to the media. The meeting between Gabriel and the leftist groups is planned for Tuesday evening.

The German foreign minister is expected to meet with President Reuven Rivlin and opposition chairman Isaac Herzog. Herzog issued a statement Monday condemning Netanyahu for the ultimatum and accused him of harming Israel’s foreign relations.

“Netanyahu is fleeing from the field,” Herzog said. “Netanyahu’s ultimatum to the German foreign minister is a serious blow to Israel’s foreign relations with the biggest economy in Europe and a true friend of Israel. Instead of running away from the campaign, I call on Netanyahu to meet with the German foreign minister and present his positions and Israel’s positions, without fear of any organizations.”

Two months ago, the Belgian ambassador to Israel was summoned to a clarification meeting at the Foreign Ministry after Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel met with representatives of Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem during his visit to Israel. The previous day Netanyahu had met with Michel and asked that the Belgian government stop funding left-wing organizations in Israel.

The week before that, during his meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May in London, Netanyahu asked that Britain stop funding Israeli left-wing groups, first and foremost Breaking the Silence

An Arab-free Knesset - Haaretz Editorial
It is outrageous to demand that the elected representatives of Israel’s non-Jewish minority swear loyalty to the ’Jewish state.’

Haaretz Editorial Mar 12, 2017
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/1.776614

This morning, a few days after Likud MK Miki Zohar proposed annexing the West Bank without giving Palestinians the right to vote, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation is scheduled to discuss a bill that could harm the right of Arabs who are citizens of Israel to vote and to run for office. The proposed amendment to the Basic Law on the Knesset would add to the oath of office sworn by Knesset members — “to be loyal to the State of Israel” — the phrase “as a Jewish and democratic state, in accordance with the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, to preserve and to respect it symbols.”
It is not by chance that the preamble to the draft law contains no mention of the purpose of the change. After all, it is obvious that no declaration of loyalty has the power to increase loyalty to the state. At best, the bill will cause hatred, anger and rebellion of Israel’s Arab minority. At worst it will reduce this community’s participation in the electoral process, thus dealing a mortal blow to Israeli democracy. From this it follows that the aim of the draft law is not to solve a problem, but rather to spark outrage and to impinge on the right of Arabs to vote and to run for office.
For a large portion of Arab Knesset members, the oath’s revised version requires them to be untrue to themselves: For years, the term “Jewish state” means exclusion and discrimination. Even if it’s possible for a national home for Jews to exist here in the framework of a Jewish and democratic state in which all citizens enjoy complete equality, that is not the situation in practice. That being the case, it is outrageous to demand that the elected representatives of Israel’s non-Jewish minority swear loyalty to the “Jewish state.”
In addition, since the interpretation of the concept “Jewish and democratic” is so controversial, there may also be Jews who are not willing to swear loyalty to it. If “Jewish state” might also include religious content, then what about atheists who call for absolute separation between religion and state? Other communities, such as ultra-Orthodox Jews, might not identify with the concept “Jewish and democratic.”
President Reuven Rivlin, in his “four tribes” address to the Herzliya Conference in June 2015, said that we must accept that non-Zionists are a part of Israel, that the definition of a national home for the Jewish people in a Jewish and democratic state is a definition of Zionism, and that we cannot force all citizens to be Zionist against their will. In a democratic state, everyone has full freedom of conscience and no one is forced to swear loyalty as a condition for participating in the game of democracy and exercising the right to be elected. The frequent attempts to pass such laws only send a message of insecurity, as if Israel’s Jewish and democratic identity were in doubt.
It is unwise to create a problem where none exists. The oath sworn by Knesset members today, of “loyalty to the State of Israel,” is sufficient. The government must reject the legislative proposal and stop passing laws whose sole purpose is to sow hatred and cause provocation.

#apartheid #racism

Israel’s security experts redraw West Bank map for Trump era | The Times of Israel

▻http://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-security-experts-redraw-west-bank-map-for-trump-era

C’est le “Times of Israël”, je sais, mais je référence pour ls archives.

http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2014/02/F140129HP01-e1391661897488.jpg

Institute for National Security Studies urges growth only in settlement blocs, calls for developing parts of Area C for Palestinians

By Andrew Tobin January 4, 2017, 7:53 am

The security barrier that separates East Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp, on the right, from the Jewish neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

JTA — Israel’s leading security think tank has published a plan to redraw the map of the West Bank in a bid to consolidate major settlements and prevent the spread of others.

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The plan, presented Monday to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin as part of the Institute for National Security Studies’ yearly strategic survey, calls for the government to allow construction in West Bank settlement blocs and Jerusalem. At the same time, it recommends a halt to construction in the 90 percent of the territory outside the major settlements.

In laying out the plan, researchers Assaf Orion and Udi Dekel argue that negotiations with the Palestinians are unlikely to lead to a final-status agreement. With relations deadlocked, they warn, Israel is drifting toward a single binational state with the Palestinians, which threatens its democratic and possibly Jewish identity.

#israël #palestine #colonisation #cartographie #géostratégie #matrice #matrice_de_contrôle

إرجاء التصويت على مشروع قانون الأذان في الكنيست الإسرائيلي حتى يوم الإثنين المقبل ورئيس البرلمان العربي يدعو إلى وقف المشروع | رأي اليوم
▻http://www.raialyoum.com/?p=573103

Le vote de la loi qui permettrait l’interdiction de l’appel à la prière en Israël est repoussé jusqu’à lundi.

#palestine

Le mouvement BDS condamne les tentatives de normalisation comme « une trahison nationale »
dimanche 19 juin 2016 - Zena Tahhan
▻http://www.info-palestine.eu/spip.php?article16083

Les hauts bureaucrates de l’Organisation de libération palestinienne (OLP) et les membres palestiniens de la Knesset israélienne ont été sévèrement critiqués par les groupes prônant le boycott d’Israël, pour leur participation à la conférence annuelle de Herzliya, une réunion clé de sécurité israélienne et de politique nationale.

La conférence de deux jours, qui a eu lieu entre le 14 et 16 juin, a été suivie par de nombreux responsables israéliens de haut niveau dont le président Reuven Rivlin, le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu, les responsables de l’armée et des universitaires.

Ayman Odeh, tête de la liste commune arabe à la Knesset israélienne, Ahmed Majdalani et Ghassan al-Shakaa, membres du comité exécutif de l’OLP, et Elias al-Zananiri, vice-président du Comité de l’OLP pour l’interaction avec la société israélienne, étaient tous présents à la conférence.

« Comment peuvent-ils participer à une conférence, où l’objectif principal est de maintenir et approfondir la sécurité de l’État occupant ? » demanda Mahmoud Nawajaa, le Coordonnateur général du Comité national palestinien pour la campagne BDS.

Des militants de plusieurs groupes BDS locaux et internationaux ont critiqué la participation des responsables palestiniens, la présentant comme une forme de « normalisation » avec Israël.(...)

Netanyahu, Putin met amid reports of aerial incidents over Syria - Israel News, Ynetnews
▻http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4795045,00.html

Netanyahu, Putin met amid reports of aerial incidents over Syria

Russian fighter jets have reportedly fired at Israeli aircraft at least twice, while in recent days a Russian jet was scrambled to intercept an IAF plane; Israel’s Air Force commander to meet with Russian defense minister, army generals about incidents.

Fuité hier, confrmé ce matin, ça a dû être très chaud...

#israël #russie #syrie

In Israel, BDS is winning | +972 Magazine
By Mairav Zonszein |Published March 28, 2016
▻http://972mag.com/in-israel-bds-is-winning/118198
▻http://static1.972mag.com/wp-content/uploads//2016/03/tzipi.jpeg

It was a tell-tale sign that the global movement to boycott Israel has become significant enough to warrant such an event, whose speakers included President Reuven Rivlin, senior Knesset ministers, members of the opposition, World Jewish Congress head Ron Lauder and comedian Roseanne Barr. (There were, of course, no speakers at the conference who represent or support BDS).

The cognitive dissonance became clear the moment the conference began. Yedioth Ahronoth Editor-in-Chief Ron Yaron told the crowd that the power of BDS cannot be underestimated, and that we do not want to find ourselves in the position Apartheid South Africa was in within 5 t0 10 years. Yaron immediately caveated that there is no connection between Israel and South Africa. Public Security and Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, who oversees government efforts at combating BDS, opened by saying that people should not “overemphasize” BDS.

Do not keep score in Russia’s polyamorous ties with Israel, Iran – Indian Punchline -
By M K Bhadrakumar – March 17, 2016
▻http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2016/03/17/do-not-keep-score-in-russias-polyamorous-ties-with-israel-iran

According to well-informed Israeli analysts, the current visit by President Reuven Rivlin to Moscow was literally decided by the Russian side who slotted it for March 16, which actually necessitated the cancellation of a previously scheduled visit by the president to Australia. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu simply prioritized that Russia ties are by far more important for his country at the present juncture of regional and international politics than anything Canberra could do for Tel Aviv.
Nothing would bring out better the superlative quality of Israel’s ties with Russia at present. Netanyahu has done brilliantly well in gaining mastery (although no Kremlinologist) over the art of pulling strings in Moscow and getting decisions taken by the Russian leadership that accommodate Israel’s vital interests and core concerns. A “highly placed Israeli military source” reportedly drove home the point recently that unlike what Turkey did, Israel will never shoot down a Russian jet if it strays away from Syria into Israeli skies – not even if it flies directly over Tel Aviv (here).
Something of the current flavour of the Israel-Russia ties is definitely surging at the meeting that Rivlin had with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Wednesday, as evident from the Kremlin readout. Putin spoke of a “longstanding relationship… built on the basis of friendship and understanding”, and deep-rooted affinities in “culture and mentality” that impart a “special dimension” to the relationship. (Kremlin website)
Rivilin didn’t mince words – “We also need to work together to fight fundamentalist terror”. The irony couldn’t have been lost on Putin who would know that Rivilin was alluding to Russia’s key allies in Syria – Iran and Hezbollah. Indeed, how far this curious tango, built on the rock of crusade against ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ becomes sustainable in the long run remains to be seen. Israel is fast approaching the ‘T” junction – to be exact, in another 9 months from now when President Barack Obama leaves office and becomes history. What thereafter?

#Hezbollah #Russie #Iran #Syrie #Israël