the International Solidarity Movement : Palestine

http://www.ism-france.org

  • L’avocat Mahajna rencontre Mahmoud Al-’Arda et confirme les tortures subies par les résistants évadés depuis leur capture
    Par IMEMC
    http://www.ism-france.org/temoignages/L-avocat-Mahajna-rencontre-Mahmoud-Al-Arda-et-confirme-les-tortures-subi

    15.09.2021. L’avocat Raslan Mahajna de la Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) a réussi à rencontrer le détenu Mahmoud al-’Arda, l’un des prisonniers politiques palestiniens qui a réussi à s’échapper de la prison israélienne de Gilboa’, avant d’être capturé par l’armée israélienne ; il lui a donné les détails horribles de la torture et des abus, y compris les interrogatoires continus et la privation de sommeil et de nourriture. (...)

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    Attorney Mahajna Meets Mahmoud Al-‘Arda, Listens To Horrific Details Of Torture
    Sep 15, 2021 – – IMEMC News
    https://imemc.org/article/attorney-mahajna-meets-mahmoud-al-arda-listens-to-horrific-details-of-torture

    Attorney Raslan Mahajna of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) managed to meet with detainee Mahmoud al-‘Arda, one of the Palestinian political prisoners who managed to escape from Gilboa’ Israeli prison, before he was captured by the Israeli army, who informed him of horrific details of torture and abuse, including continuous interrogation and deprivation of sleep and food.

    The lawyer stated that Mahmoud has been under continuous interrogation, torture, and abuse, including denying him the right to sleep or eat.

    Mahmoud told the lawyer that, since the day of his capture more than five days ago, he remained deprived of even seeing the sunshine, and could barely sleep for a couple of hours at the time, due to continuous interrogation, torture, and bad conditions in the cell.

    Al-‘Arda stated that he was the one responsible for the escape, including the planning which started in December 2020, and added that they did not receive any help from anyone in the prison or on the outside.

    “We all walked together until we reached an-Na’ura village, and entered a mosque to rest before we decided to leave in various directions, each group only containing two of us, he said, “We tried to enter the West Bank but could not do so due to extensive Israeli military presence. Our capture was merely accidental, nobody informed on us, and after our capture, we were interrogated for more than seven hours, each day.”

    Mahajna stated that, during his five days on the run, Mahmoud was unable to even get some water to drink, and that he, for the first time since he was first taken prisoner 22 years ago, was able to eat cactus from a field, and how much this meant to him. (...)

    #Résistants_évadés

    • Après avoir rendu visite au prisonnier capturé Mohammad Arda, son avocat dit qu’il a été sévèrement battu, privé de nourriture et d’eau
      Source : Wafa - Agence Media PalestineTraduction : CG pour l’Agence Média Palestine

      https://agencemediapalestine.fr/blog/2021/09/15/apres-avoir-rendu-visite-au-prisonnier-capture-mohammad-arda-so

      Les prisonniers capturés de nouveau, Mahmoud et Mohammad Arda.

      Après avoir rendu visite au prisonnier recapturé Mohammad Arda, son avocat dit qu’il a été sévèrement frappé et qu’on lui a refusé nourriture et eau.

      RAMALLAH, mercredi, 15 septembre 2021 (WAFA) – Maître Khaled Mahajna, un avocat de la Commission des affaires relatives aux prisonniers et ex-prisonniers, a révélé, après avoir rencontré Mohammad Arda, un des quatre prisonniers palestiniens re-capturés, que depuis sa ré-arrestation vendredi, Arda a été soumis à des mauvais traitements, a été empêché de dormir, s’est vu refuser nourriture et eau, a subi des humiliations, avec pour résultat des blessures à la tête et sur le visage.

      Mahajna a raconté les détails de sa visite à Arda à l’aube aujourd’hui après qu’un tribunal israélien a levé l’interdiction imposée par les services de sécurité israéliens aux visites des avocats aux quatre prisonniers. Les services de sécurité ont autorisé seulement la visite d’un seul avocat à un seul prisonnier à chaque fois. (...)

  • Israël : Le racket mondial de la cybercriminalité en Israël
    (article publié le 04.08.2020)
    Par Asa Winstanley
    http://www.ism-france.org/analyses/Le-racket-mondial-de-la-cybercriminalite-en-Israel-article-publie-le-040

    Au début de ce mois, un tribunal israélien a décidé que la célèbre société de logiciels espions de guerre cybernétique NSO Group conserverait sa licence d’exportation. Cette décision a été prise malgré le fait que les avocats d’Amnesty International ont présenté ce que le groupe de défense des droits de l’homme a décrit comme des « montagnes de preuves » concernant les crimes de NSO.

    NSO est responsable de Pegasus, une cyber-arme sophistiquée (et coûteuse) qu’elle gère au nom de certains des pires auteurs de violations des droits de l’homme dans le monde - dont l’Arabie saoudite.

    Pegasus envahit les téléphones des personnes ciblées, récupérant des masses de données privées, y compris des courriels, des textes, des photos, des fichiers et des mots de passe, et essentiellement tout ce à quoi vous pouvez penser qui vit sur un smartphone moderne.

    La cyber-arme est capable d’allumer à distance les microphones et les caméras des smartphones, les transformant essentiellement en dispositifs d’espionnage travaillant contre leurs propriétaires.

    Selon les experts, Pegasus a été utilisé pour cibler des journalistes, des défenseurs des droits de l’homme, des hommes politiques et des dissidents vivant sous des régimes oppressifs dans le monde entier.

    Même Jamal Khashoggi - le chroniqueur saoudien en exil brutalement tué et démembré par des agents de Mohammed Bin Salman en 2018 - a été indirectement visé par le NSO au nom du régime saoudien meurtrier.

    Avec le rejet par le tribunal israélien du procès d’Amnesty International, l’entreprise criminelle malveillante NSO a maintenant l’approbation officielle d’Israël - à la fois du gouvernement et du pouvoir judiciaire.

    L’excuse selon laquelle la NSO est une entreprise privée ne tient pas debout. (...)

    #Pegasus #NSO

  • Jérusalem : Payer le prix fort pour conserver sa maison près de la Mosquée Al-Aqsa – le calvaire d’une famille palestinienne harcelée par l’occupation israélienne
    Par Aseel Jundi - Source : Middle East Eye - Traduction : MR pour ISM

    Mohammed Bashiti et son épouse, Binar, regardent la mosquée Al-Aqsa depuis la cour de leur maison dans la vieille ville de Jérusalem (Aseel Jundi)

    http://www.ism-france.org/temoignages/Payer-le-prix-fort-pour-conserver-sa-maison-pres-de-la-Mosquee-Al-Aqsa-l

    Mohammed Bashiti conduit sa voiture dans la rue al-Wad, dans la vieille ville de Jérusalem, avec une extrême prudence. Au panneau de Bab al-Majlis, il tourne à gauche vers sa maison et gare la voiture. Lui, sa femme et sa fille se dirigent à pied vers le poste de police israélien situé à l’entrée de la porte d’Al-Aqsa, et ils entrent dans leur maison, située à un mètre à peine de la mosquée.

    Mohammed, Binar et Baylasan sont les seuls membres de la famille à bénéficier de cette liberté de mouvement, même partielle. Leurs trois autres enfants - Hisham, Hatim et Abdul-Rahman - ont passé le plus clair de leur temps dans les prisons israéliennes, les centres d’interrogation, ou en détention et en résidence surveillée.

    Pour comprendre les raisons du harcèlement israélien continu de la famille, il suffit d’entrer dans la maison, avec ses fenêtres et sa cour donnant sur Al-Aqsa.

    Depuis les années 1980, la famille Bashiti reçoit des offres alléchantes d’Israéliens qui lui proposent de quitter la maison, des acheteurs potentiels qui convoitent sa vue extraordinaire.

    Mais comme la famille a toujours refusé de vendre sa propriété, les autorités israéliennes cherchent à faire pression sur eux en leur faisant traverser une crise après l’autre, au point qu’ils disent passer toutes leurs journées à éteindre des incendies.

  • Palestinian Young Man Paralyzed after Israeli Forces Shoot Him in the Neck
    Jan 2, 2021 – – IMEMC News
    https://imemc.org/article/palestinian-young-man-paralyzed-after-israeli-forces-shoot-him-in-the-neck

    Israeli forces shot a Palestinian young man in the neck, on Friday, in the village of Al-Tuwanah, south of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, the Jerusalem Press reported.

    The victim, Harun Rasmi Abu Aram, 24, was shot in the neck with live rounds as he attempted to stop the seizure of his generator by Israeli soldiers.

    Witnesses told Palestinian WAFA News Agency that Israeli soldiers fired from point blank range, striking the young man in the neck. He was then transferred to the Yatta Public Hospital, where his condition was deemed critical.

    In a statement, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that Abu Aram has suffered complete paralysis of his arms and legs (quadriplegia), as a result of sustaining live rounds to the neck, at close range, which severed his spine.

    The Palestinian was arguing with the soldiers who were trying to confiscate his electricity generator, providing him and his family with the needed power to their home.

    https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1345075442991165440/pu/vid/640x1136/EvojyZoFQCXVrVYZ.mp4?tag=10

    • Un jeune homme paralysé après que les forces israéliennes lui ont tiré dans le cou, totalement dépendant d’un respirateur artificiel
      Par IMEMC- 06.01.2021
      http://www.ism-france.org/temoignages/Un-jeune-homme-paralyse-apres-que-les-forces-israeliennes-lui-ont-tire-d

      Les médecins de l’unité de soins intensifs et de chirurgie ont effectué une intervention chirurgicale pour stabiliser l’état de Haroun Abu Aram, 24 ans, le jeune homme grièvement blessé par un soldat de l’occupation qui lui a tiré une balle dans le cou à bout portant. Les scanners ont révélé que la balle israélienne a brisé les vertèbres C5, C6 et C7 de sa colonne vertébrale. Il ne peut plus sentir ni bouger aucun de ses membres et est complètement paralysé du cou jusqu’en bas, en plus d’être totalement dépendant d’un respirateur artificiel.
      Le patient ne peut pas respirer par lui-même et reçoit des médicaments par voie intraveineuse.
      Son père a déclaré que l’armée a essayé de forcer la famille à quitter ses terres à Al-Tuwanah, au sud d’Hébron et a ajouté que la dernière attaque est une grave escalade des violations continuelles.

      « Ils ont fait pression sur nous pour que nous quittions nos terres ; Haroun n’a rien fait de mal ; il était chez lui quand les soldats sont venus et ont essayé de confisquer le générateur d’électricité dont la famille dépend », a ajouté le père, « Ce n’est pas un incident séparé ou unique ; c’est une occupation continue et une escalade des violations contre des civils innocents ».
      Le père a ajouté que son fils, récemment fiancé, prévoyait de se marier dans quelques jours.

      Il faut mentionner que l’armée israélienne a démoli sa maison il y a deux mois, sous prétexte qu’elle avait été construite sans permis du « Bureau de l’administration civile », géré par l’occupation militaire israélienne illégale.

      https://imemc.org/article/palestinian-young-man-paralyzed-after-israeli-forces-shoot-him-in-the-neck

    • Settlers control the drones. The Israeli army then pulls the trigger
      Amira Hass | Jan. 4, 2021 - Haaretz.com
      https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-settlers-control-the-drones-the-israeli-army-then-pulls-the-trigge

      The Israel Defense Forces and the Civil Administration are acting in the West Bank under the orders of the settlers. We’ve known that for a long time, but the generator incident on Friday indicates how quickly our forces respond to the directive of their commanders. It’s important to note that the settlers would not have become the army commanders without their subordinates – the government and the security apparatus – wanting them to command.

      A few hours before an IDF soldier shot Harun Abu Aram, 24, who is now lying paralyzed, unconscious and ventilated in a Hebron hospital, a photography drone flew over the village of al-Rakeez, southeast of Yatta. We know that settlers had launched it around 9 A.M. on Friday, January 1 (Abu Aram’s birthday, as it happens). We know that its operators immediately reported something to the Civil Administration.

      What did they report? That those cheeky Palestinian criminals were insisting on living on their land? That they had put up a toilet stall or set down an old swing for the kids, or extended a water pipe? That they had topped some structure with a tin roof that hadn’t been there two weeks ago? These are extremely serious violations under the laws of the only Jewish state in the world, so long as those committing them are Palestinians.

      Around four hours after the spy drone hovered over the heads of the residents, Husam Muadi arrived in the village. Muadi is an infrastructure officer in the Hebron District Coordinating Office, which is part of the Civil Administration, which answers to the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories. He was accompanied by five soldiers whose names are not known.

      Remember, it was Friday afternoon. Shabbat is starting to be felt in the military bases. Were the five soldiers upset because they weren’t going home for the weekend? Were they happy because they love action and know the drone operator, who had already invited them for a Shabbat meal at his villa? And what about the infrastructure officer? Why was it so urgent for him to raid the home of Ashraf and Firyal Amour and order the soldiers to confiscate the generator, which allows Firyal to use their washer to wash the clothing that her children collect from a garbage dump, which they then sell for pennies at the Yatta market? It’s hard not to conclude that top officers in the Civil Administration are afraid that if they don’t immediately obey the orders of General Drone, the settlers will disparage them in the government, the Knesset and the media.

      We do not know if the drone operator is a resident of a settlement or an outpost, or whether he has an official position in the far-right Regavim organization. In its crusade to expel Palestinians from Area C, that outfit began operating surveillance drones against them years before the Settlement Affairs Ministry decided to help settlers buy them.

      It can be assumed that a similarly industrious drone was monitoring the simple concrete home that the family of Harun Abu Aram had built after the cave where their ancestors had lived was no longer habitable. But the family only managed to enjoy it for two weeks. On November 25, the demolition crew arrived. Yair Ron of the Villages Group described the destruction. “From the top of the hill we could see how the tractor was cruelly and deliberately destroying the home, the outhouse, the water tank, the solar panels and even the sheep shed. Everything … There was a whole army of soldiers and border policemen who were armed and protected from head to toe, their faces covered with space helmets and dozens of Civil Administration employees, and Jeeps and light trucks and four yellow bulldozers.

      “The destruction came without advance warning … the chief destroyer didn’t even [give] the family enough time to pack their belongings. Some they were able to save and some were left in the house and were crushed in the ruins, which the bulldozer shovel rammed repeatedly, crushing and pulverizing with the sickening sound of dead checking.”

      And General Drone was certainly sitting at home, rubbing his hands with glee.

  • « Un seul héros le peuple » de Mathieu Rigouste
    https://radioparleur.net/2020/12/08/un-seul-heros-le-peuple-par-mathieu-rigouste

    Le chercheur indépendant en sciences sociales Mathieu Rigouste est à la tête d’un nouveau projet : Un seul héros le peuple. Un site, un livre et un documentaire diffusés en ligne du 10 au 15 décembre 2020. A travers des témoignages, il raconte le soulèvement du peuple algérien en décembre 1960. Radio Parleur l’a rencontré. Durée : 26 min. Source : Radio Parleur

    https://audio.ausha.co/B102eTdjY66E.mp3

  • Rapport de Al-Shabaka disponible ici en anglais et en pdf :

    Reclaiming The PLO, Re-Engaging Youth
    Nijmeh Ali, Marwa Fatafta, Dana El Kurd, Fadi Quran et Belal Shobaki, Al-Shabaka, le 13 août 2020
    https://al-shabaka.org/focuses/reclaiming-the-plo-re-engaging-youth

    La plupart des textes de ce rapport ont été traduits en français :

    La reconstruction de l’OLP : le Jihad islamique et le Hamas peuvent-ils y contribuer ?
    Belal Shobaki, Al-Shabaka, le 13 août 2020
    https://www.chroniquepalestine.com/reconstruction-olp-jihad-islamique-et-le-hamas-peuvent-ils-y-con

    La question de la représentation palestinienne : Élections vs Recherche d’un consensus
    Nijmeh Ali, Al-Shabaka, le 13 août 2020
    http://www.ism-france.org/analyses/La-question-de-la-representation-palestinienne-lections-vs-Recherche-d-u

    Le leadership palestinien par la résistance ou la perpétuation sans leader ? Le rôle de la jeunesse
    Fadi Quran, Al-Shabaka, le 13 août 2020
    http://www.ism-france.org/analyses/Le-leadership-palestinien-par-la-resistance-ou-la-perpetuation-sans-lead

    Un modèle de guidance émanant de la diaspora palestinienne aux Etats-Unis
    Dana El Kurd, Al-Shabaka, le 13 août 2020
    https://charleroi-pourlapalestine.be/index.php/2020/10/03/un-modele-de-guidance-emanant-de-la-diaspora-palestinienne

    Rendre des comptes : L’OLP, d’hier à demain
    Marwa Fatafta, Al-Shabaka, le 13 août 2020
    https://charleroi-pourlapalestine.be/index.php/2020/10/03/rendre-des-comptes-l-olp-d-hier-a-demain

    Transcender la crise du mouvement national palestinien
    Al-Shabaka, le 13 août 2020
    https://www.chroniquepalestine.com/transcender-crise-mouvement-national-palestinien

    Il n’a jamais été aussi urgent d’envisager de rétablir l’OLP en tant que direction représentative du peuple palestinien dans toutes ses réalités géographiques, sociales et politiques. Ce rapport met en évidence les questions les plus urgentes auxquelles il faut s’attaquer pour y parvenir, notamment la réconciliation entre les factions politiques, les mécanismes de représentation et de responsabilité, et les modèles de direction. De telles mesures peuvent nous permettre de reconquérir l’OLP et d’atteindre l’objectif de libération.

    #Palestine #OLP #Al-Shabaka #Jeunesse #Jihad_islamique #Hamas #Élections #Résistance

  • Even Ben-Gurion thought ‘most Jews are thieves’
    Gideon Levy | Oct. 4, 2020 | 2:48 AM | Haaretz.com
    https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-in-the-words-of-israel-s-founder-most-jews-are-thieves-1.9206301

    The quote in the headline wasn’t uttered by an antisemitic leader, a Jew hater or a neo-Nazi. The words are those of the founder of the State of Israel, two months after it was founded. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion was furious, or at least pretended to be, at a meeting of his political party Mapai, in light of the wave of looting of Arab property by the new Israelis throughout the nascent state.

    The concept of a state born in sin had never been so concrete: “Like locusts, the residents of Tiberias swarmed into the houses…”; “total and complete robbery…not a thread was left in [any house]”; and “soldiers wrapped in Persian rugs in the streets,” are a few of the descriptions of what happened in front of everyone, and was never told as it really was.

    Now the historian Adam Raz wrote about it: “Looting of Arab Property in the War of Independence,” and Haaretz’s Ofer Aderet reported on it in a shocking article in Haaretz on Friday. It should weigh on what is left of the conscience of any proper Zionist, and flood us with feelings of deep shame and guilt even after 72 years.

    The authorities turned a blind eye and thus encouraged the looting, despite all the denunciations, the pretense and a few ridiculous trials. The looting served a national purpose: to quickly complete the ethnic cleansing of most of the country of its Arabs, and to see to it that 700,000 refugees would never even imagine returning to their homes.

    Even before Israel managed to destroy most of the houses, and wipe from the face of the earth more than 400 villages, came this mass looting to empty them out, so that the refugees would have no reason to return.

    The looters therefore were motivated not only by ugly greed to possess stolen property right after the war was over, property belonging in some cases to people who were their neighbors just the day before, and not only by the desire to get rich quick by looting household items and ornaments, some of them very costly. The looters also served, consciously or unconsciously, the ethnic purification project that Israel has tried in vain to deny all through the years. The looters were a cog in the large machine of the expulsion of the Arabs.

    This looting, in which almost everyone took part, was the small looting, the one that proved if only for a moment that “most of the Jews are thieves,” as the founding father said. But that was mini-looting compared to the institutionalized looting of property, houses, villages and cities – the looting of the land.

    And so, the intentions of the heads of the Jewish community who allowed the looting are more infuriating than the individual descriptions of it. It is amazing that it was never talked about, another one of the apparatuses of denial and repression by Israel society.

    Thirst for revenge and drunkenness with victory after the difficult war might perhaps explain, even partially, the participation of so many. War is an ugly thing, and so is the day after. But when the looting reflects not only momentary human weakness but is intended to serve a clear strategic goal – purifying the country of its inhabitants – words fail.

    Anyone who believes that a solution will ever be found to the conflict without proper atonement and compensation for these acts, is living in an illusion. Now think about the feelings of the descendants, the Arabs of Israel and the Palestinian refugees, who are living with us and alongside us. They see the pictures and read these things – what crosses their minds?

    Perhaps a few of them once came across a Persian rug that belonged to their parents, or a glass display case that was their grandmother’s, a memory from their childhood, resting in the home of a Jew whose house they cleaned. Perhaps they see their grandmother’s coffeepot or their grandfather’s ancient sword on display in some Jewish home they were renovating.

    They will never be able to see the villages of their ancestors: Israel demolished most of them, to leave not a shred. But one small stolen souvenir from the home that was lost might cause a tear to fall. Just ask the Jews enraged over any stolen Jewish property.

    #Pillage

    • Jewish soldiers and civilians looted Arab neighbors’ property en masse in ’48. The authorities turned a blind eye
      Ofer Aderet | Oct. 3, 2020 | 7:47 AM | Haaretz.com
      https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.highlight.MAGAZINE-jews-looted-arab-property-en-masse-in-48-the-au

      Refrigerators and caviar, champagne and carpets – a first-ever comprehensive study by historian Adam Raz reveals the extent to which Jews looted Arab property during the War of Independence, and explains why Ben-Gurion stated: ‘Most of the Jews are thieves’

      “We turned a mahogany closet into a chicken coop and we swept up the garbage with a silver tray. There was chinaware with gold embellishments, and we would spread a sheet on the table and place chinaware and gold on it, and when the food was finished, everything was taken together to the basement. In another place, we found a storeroom with 10,000 boxes of caviar, that’s what they counted. After that, the guys couldn’t touch caviar again their whole life. There was a feeling on one hand of shame at the behavior, and on the other hand a feeling of lawlessness. We spent 12 days there, when Jerusalem was groaning under horrible shortages, and we were putting on weight. We ate chicken and delicacies you wouldn’t believe. In [the headquarters at] Notre Dame, some people shaved with champagne.”

      – Dov Doron, in testimony about looting in Jerusalem

      *

      On July 24, 1948, two months after establishment of the State of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, head of the provisional government, voiced some extreme criticism about its people: “It turns out that most of the Jews are thieves… I say this deliberately and simply, because unfortunately it is true.” His comments appear in black and white in the minutes of a meeting of the Central Committee of Mapai, the forerunner of Labor, stored in the Labor Party Archives.

      “People from the Jezreel Valley stole! The pioneers of the pioneers, parents of Palmach [pre-state commando force] children! And everyone took part in it, baruch Hashem, the people of [Moshav] Nahalal!... This is a general blow. It’s appalling, because it shows a basic flaw. Theft and robbery – and where does this come to us from? Why have the people of the land – builders, creators, pioneers – come to deeds like this? What happened?”

      The protocol was unearthed by historian Adam Raz in the course of his research for his new book which, as its title suggests, addresses a highly charged, sensitive and volatile issue: “Looting of Arab Property in the War of Independence” (Carmel Publishing House, in association with the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research; in Hebrew). The task he undertook was daunting: to collect, for the first time in a single volume, all existing information about the pillaging of Arab property by Jews during the 1947-49 Israeli War of Independence – from Tiberias in the north to Be’er Sheva in the south; from Jaffa to Jerusalem via the villages, mosques and churches scattered between them. Raz pored over 30 archives around the country, perused newspapers of that era and examined all extant literature on the subject. The result is shattering.

      “Many parts of the Israeli public – civilians and soldiers alike – were involved in looting the property of the Arab population,” Raz tells Haaretz. “The pillaging spread like wildfire among that public.” It involved the contents of tens of thousands of homes, stores and factories, of mechanical equipment, farm produce, cattle and more, he continues. Also included were pianos, books, clothing, jewelry, furniture, electrical appliances, engines and cars. Raz has left to others investigation of the fate of the land and buildings left behind by the 700,000 Arabs who fled or were expelled in the war. He focuses on movables only, items that could be stuffed into bags or loaded onto vehicles.

      Ben-Gurion is not the only senior figure Raz quotes. Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Ben-Gurion’s fellow law student decades earlier, and later Israel’s second president, also mentioned the phenomenon. According to his account, those who engaged in looting were “‘decent’ Jews who view the act of robbery as natural and permissible.” In a letter, dated June 2, 1948, to Ben-Gurion quoted by Raz, Ben-Zvi wrote that what was happening in Jerusalem was doing “dreadful” damage to the honor of the Jewish people and the fighting forces.

      “I cannot remain silent about the robbery, both [that which is] organized by groups and [that which is] unorganized, by individuals,” he wrote. “Robbery has become a general phenomenon… Everyone will agree that our thieves fell upon the abandoned neighborhoods like locusts on a field or an orchard.”

      Raz’s thorough archival work turned up countless quotes, which make for painful reading, from senior and junior figures in the Israeli public and establishment, from leaders to low-ranking troops.

      In an archival file of the Custodian of Absentees’ Property (i.e., property owned by Palestinians who left their homes or the country after passage of the Nov. 29, 1947, UN partition resolution, which was seized by the Israeli government), Raz located a 1949 report by Dov Shafrir, the official custodian, which states: “The panicky mass flight of the Arab residents, leaving behind immense property in hundreds and thousands [of] apartments, stores, warehouses and workshops, the abandonment of crops in the fields and fruit in gardens, orchards and vineyards, all this amid the tumult of the war… confronted the fighting Yishuv [pre-1948 Jewish community in Palestine] with a grave material temptation… passions of revenge, moral justification and material allurement tripped up a great many… Events on the ground rolled down a slope unchecked.”

      The testimony of Haim Kremer, who served in the Palmach’s Negev Brigade and was sent to Tiberias to prevent looting, was found in the Yad Tabenkin Archive, in Ramat Gan. “Like locusts, the residents of Tiberias swarmed into the houses… We had to resort to blows and clubs, to beat them back and force them to leave things on the ground,” Kremer stated.

      The diary of Yosef Nachmani, a Tiberias resident who had been a founder of the Hashomer Jewish defense organization, was deposited in its archive and contains the following entry about events in his city in 1948: “The Jewish mob rampaged and started to loot the shops… By the dozens and dozens, in groups, the Jews proceeded to rob the Arabs’ homes and shops.”

      Many soldiers, too, “didn’t hang back and joined in the festivities,” wrote Nahum Av, the Haganah commander of the Old City of Tiberias, in his memoirs. Jewish soldiers who had just done battle against Arabs were posted at the entrance to the Old City, he wrote, in order to prevent Jewish residents from breaking into the homes of Arabs. They were armed “when confronting Jews who tried to force their way into the city with the aim of robbing and looting.” Throughout the day, “crowds thronged around the barriers and tried to burst in. The soldiers were compelled to resist with force.”

      In this connection, Kremer noted that “there was competition between different units of the Haganah… who came in cars and boats and loaded all kinds of objects… refrigerators, beds and so on.” He added: “Naturally, the Jewish crowd in Tiberias burst in to do likewise. It left a very harsh impression on me, the ugliness of it. It stains our flag… Our struggle is harmed at its moral level… disgraceful… such a moral decline.”

      People were seen “wandering between the looted shops and taking whatever remained after the shameful theft,” Nahum Av added in his account. “I patrolled the streets and saw a city which until not long beforehand had been more or less normal. Whereas now it was a ghost town, plundered, its shops broken into and its homes empty of occupants… The most shameful spectacle was of people rummaging among the heaps that remained after the great robbery. One sees the same humiliating sights everywhere. I thought: How could it be? This should never have been allowed to happen.”

      Netiva Ben-Yehuda, an iconic Palmach fighter who took part in the battle for Tiberias, was uncompromising in her description of the events. “Such pictures were known to us. It was the way things had always been done to us, in the Holocaust, throughout the world war, and all the pogroms. Oy, how well we knew those pictures. And here – here, we were doing these awful things to others,” she wrote. “We loaded everything onto the van – with a terrible trembling of the hands. And that wasn’t because of the weight. Even now my hands are shaking, just from writing about it.”

      Tiberias, conquered by the Jewish forces in April 1948, was the first mixed, Jewish-Arab city to be taken in the War of Independence. It was “an archetype in miniature of everything that would take place in the months ahead in the country’s Arab and mixed cities,” Raz says. In the course of his research, he discovered that no official data exist about the looting, its physical and monetary scope. But clearly, such acts took place extensively in every such town.

      Indeed, Raz found accounts similar to those about Tiberias in documentation of the battle for Haifa, which took place a few days later, on April 21 and 22. “As they fought and conquered with one hand, the fighters found time to loot, among other items, sewing machines, record players and clothing, with the other hand,” according to Zeev Yitzhaki, who fought in the city’s Halisa neighborhood.

      “People grabbed whatever they could… Those with initiative opened the abandoned shops and loaded the merchandise onto every vehicle. Anarchy reigned,” added Zadok Eshel, from the Carmeli Brigade. “Along with the joy at the city’s liberation and the relief after months of blood-soaked incidents, it was shocking to see the eagerness of civilians to take advantage of the vacuum and raid the homes of people whom a cruel fate had turned into refugees.”

      Yosef Nachmani, who visited Haifa after it was taken by the Jewish forces, wrote, “Old people and women, irrespective of age and religious status, are all busy looting. And no one is stopping them. Shame and disgrace overwhelm me; there’s a desire to spit on the city and leave it. This will take its revenge on us and in the education of the youth and the children. People have lost all sense of shame, acts like these undermine the society’s moral foundations.”

      So widespread was the looting and theft that the general prosecutor who accompanied the fighting forces in Haifa, Moshe Ben-Peretz, stated in June 1948: “There is nothing [left] to take from [the] Arabs. Simply a pogrom… And the commanders all have excuses; ‘I just got here two weeks ago,’ etc. There is no one to detain.”

      *

      “There were so many houses in ruins, and smashed furniture lying amid the heaps of rubble. The doors of the houses on both side of the street were broken into. Many objects from the houses lay scattered on the sidewalks… On the threshold of the house was a cradle leaning on its side, and a naked doll, somewhat crushed, was lying next to it, its face pointing down. Where is the baby? Which exile did he go into? Which exile?”

      – Moshe Carmel, commander of the Carmeli Brigade, about the looting in Haifa

      Members of the Yishuv’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry had warned about possible looting. “In the future we will stand before history, which will address the subject,” they wrote to the pre-state leadership body the Emergency Committee. The army’s Judicial Service Staff, part of the military justice apparatus, noted, in a document entitled “Epidemic of Looting and Robbery”: “This affliction has spread to all the units and all the officer ranks… The robberies and the pillage have assumed appalling dimensions, and our soldiers are occupied with this work to an extent that endangers their preparedness for battle and their devotion to their tasks.”

      Members of the Communist Party also spoke out on the subject. In a memorandum to the People’s Administration (the provisional government cabinet) and Haganah headquarters, the party referred to “a campaign of looting, robbery and theft of Arab property in frightening dimensions.” Indeed, “The great majority of the homes of the Arab residents have been emptied of all valuables, the merchandise and commodities have been stolen from the shops, and the machines have been removed from the workshops and factories.”

      After the conquest of Haifa, Ben-Gurion wrote in his diary about “total and complete robbery” in the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood, perpetrated by the Irgun, the pre-state militia led by Menachem Begin, and Haganah forces. “There were cases in which Haganah people, including commanders, were found with stolen items,” he wrote. A few days later, in a meeting of the Jewish Agency executive, Golda Meir noted that “in the first day or two [following the city’s conquest], the situation in the area of conquests was grim. In the sector taken by the Irgun, especially, not a thread was left in [any] house.”

      Reports about the looting also appeared in the press. At the end of 1948, Aryeh Nesher, Haaretz’s Haifa correspondent, wrote, “It turns out that the Jewish people has also learned this profession [theft], and very thoroughly, as is customary with Jews. ‘Hebrew labor’ now exists in this vocation, too. Indeed, the scourge of thefts has struck Haifa. All circles of the Yishuv took part in it, irrespective of ethnic community and country of origin. New immigrants and former denizens of Acre Prison, longtime residents from both East and West without discrimination… And where are the police?” A reporter for Maariv, who took part in a tour of Jerusalem in July 1948, wrote, “Bring judges and police officers to Jewish Jerusalem, for we have become as all the nations.”

      *

      “All along the way there is no house, no store, no workshop from which everything was not taken… Things of value and of no value – everything, literally! You are left with a shocked impression by this picture of ruins and heaps of rubble, among which men are wandering, poking through the rags in order to get something for nothing. Why not take? Why have pity?”

      – Ruth Lubitz, testimony about looting in Jaffa

      Raz, 37, is on the staff of the Akevot Institute (which focuses on human-rights issues related to the conflict), and edits the journal Telem for the Berl Katznelson Foundation. (He is also a frequent contributor of historical pieces to Haaretz.) Though he does not possess a doctoral degree, his résumé includes a number of studies that could easily have served as the basis for a Ph.D. thesis – about the Kafr Qasem massacre, the Israeli nuclear project and Theodor Herzl. The looting of Arab property by Jews has been written about before, but Raz is apparently the first to have devoted an entire monograph to the subject.

      “Unlike other researchers who have written about the war, I view the looting as an event of far greater order than what has been said about it previously,” the historian notes. “In the book, I show how disturbed most of the decision makers were about the looting and the dangers it posed to Jewish society, and the degree to which it was a contentious issue among them.”

      He also maintains that there has been a “conspiracy of silence” about the phenomenon. As a result, even now, in 2020, colleagues who read the book prior to its publication were “surprised by its scale,” he says.

      He describes the plundering of Arab property by Jews as a “singular” phenomenon, because the looters were civilians (Jews) who stole from their civilian neighbors (Arabs). “These were not abstract ‘enemies’ from across the seas, but yesterday’s neighbors,” he says.

      On what grounds do you claim that this was a singular event? History shows that in World War II, the Polish public also looted the property of their Jewish neighbors, who had lived alongside them peacefully for centuries. Maybe this is a response that’s not unique to our case? Maybe it’s human nature?

      Raz: “Looting in wartime is an ancient historical phenomenon that is documented in texts thousands of years old. My book does not deal with the phenomenon in general, but with the Israeli-Arab-Palestinian case. It was important for me to emphasize that the looting of Arab property was different from ‘regular’ wartime looting. These weren’t American soldiers, for example, who plundered the Vietnamese, or Germans thousands of kilometers form home. These were civilians who looted their neighbors across the street. I don’t mean that they necessarily knew Ahmed or Noor whose property they stole, but that the neighbors were part of a shared social civil fabric.

      “The Jews from Haifa and the area who looted the property of close to 70,000 Arabs in Haifa, for example, knew the Arabs whose homes they pillaged. That was certainly the case also in the mixed cities and the villages that existed next to kibbutzim and moshavim. The book is rife with examples attesting to the fact that the looters knew that what they were doing was immoral. Furthermore, the public knew that the majority of the Palestinian community had not taken an active part in the fighting. In most cases, in fact, the looting took place after the fighting, in the days and weeks following the Palestinians’ flight and expulsion.”

      Still, it’s not the only case of its kind.

      “As a historian, I am not an advocate of comparative history, and I didn’t find that much could be gleaned about the Israeli case from pillaging that took place in history.”

      *

      From Haifa, Raz’s book moves to Jerusalem, where the looting went on for months, he says. He quotes the diary of Moshe Salomon, a company commander who fought in the city: “We were all swept up by it, privates and officers alike. Everyone was seized by a craving for possessions. They rummaged through every house, and some found food, others found expensive objects. The mania attacked me, too, and I was barely able to stop myself. In this regard there is no limit to what people will do… It’s here that the moral and human slope starts, so one can understand the meaning of the doctrine that says that moral values and humanity become blurred in war.”

      Yair Goren, a Jerusalem resident, related that “the hunt for booty was intense… Men, women and children scurried hither and thither like drugged mice. Many quarreled over one item or another in one of the heaps, or over a number of items, and it reached the point of bloodshed.”

      The operations officer of the Harel Brigade, Eliahu Sela, described how “pianos and armchairs in gold and crimson were loaded onto our trucks. It was awful. It was awful. Fighters saw a radio and said, ‘Hey, I need a radio.’ Then they saw a dinner set. They threw out the radio and took the dinner set… Soldiers pounced on bedding. They loaded and loaded [things] in their coats.”

      David Werner Senator, one of the leaders of Brit Shalom, which advocated Arab-Jewish coexistence in one state, and a senior administrator at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, described what he saw: “These days, when you pass through the streets of Rehavia [an upscale Jerusalem neighborhood], you see everywhere old people, young folk and children returning from Katamon or other neighborhoods with bags filled with stolen objects. The booty is diverse: refrigerators and beds, clocks and books, undergarments and clothing… What a disgrace the Jewish robbers have brought on us, and what moral ruin they have brought on us! Clearly, a terrible licentiousness is spreading among both younger and older people.”

      An operations officer in the Etzioni Brigade, Eliahu Arbel, described soldiers “wrapped in Persian rugs” that they had stolen. One night, he came across a suspicious armored vehicle. “We discovered that it was filled with refrigerators, record players, carpets and what have you.” The driver said to him, “Give me your address, I’ll bring whatever you want to your house.” Arbel continues: “I didn’t know what to do. Arrest him? Kill him? I told him, ‘Get the hell out of here!’ And he drove off.” Subsequently, he recalled, “A neighbor told my wife that an electric refrigerator could be had cheaply in a certain store. I went to the store and encountered the man from the armored vehicle there. He said, ‘For you, 100 liras!’ ‘Aren’t you ashamed?!’ I said to him. He replied, ‘If you’re an idiot, I have to be ashamed?’”

      *

      “I brought a few fine things from Safed. For Sara and me I found exquisitely embroidered Arab dresses, and they might be able to alter them for us here. Spoons and kerchiefs, bracelets and beads, a Damascene table and a set of gorgeous coffee demitasses made of silver, and above all, yesterday Sara brought a huge Persian carpet, totally new and beautiful, beauty like I never saw before. A living room like that can compete with that of all the rich folk of Tel Aviv.”

      – A Palmach fighter, about the looting of Safed

      There are only marginal references in Raz’s book to the reverse phenomenon: cases in which Arabs looted Jewish property.

      In a footnote you write, “Arabs, too, looted and pillaged during the war.” One might also wonder why you didn’t describe the plundering of Jewish property in Arab countries after the Jews fled or were expelled from them. Wouldn’t it have been proper to refer to that?

      “The book is a historical document, not an indictment. Let me tell you a story. I was invited to deliver a lecture at Ariel University [in the West Bank] in the wake of the publication of my book about the Kafr Qassem massacre. At the end, someone in the audience, who was apparently overwrought by what I had said, asked me, ‘Why didn’t you write about the massacre that the Arabs perpetrated against the Jews in Hebron in 1929?’ Well, the title of this book is ‘Looting of Arab Property by Jews in the War of Independence.’ It’s not ‘Looting and robbery in the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict from the First Aliyah to the Trump Plan.’

      “I think that the looting of Arab property during the war is a singular and distinctive case – at least singular enough to write a book about it. I think that this plundering of property exerted, and continues to exert, considerable influence on the relations between the two people who share this land. The book shows, on the basis of much documentation, that an integral part of the Jewish public took part in the looting and theft of the property of more than 600,000 people. It doesn’t resemble the pogroms and the robbery carried out by the Arabs during the Palestine riots. The plundering of Jewish property in the Arab states – a fascinating subject in itself – is also unrelated to my book, whose first section is intended to describe the looting as a widespread phenomenon over the span of many months, and whose second section explains how such acts are interwoven with a political approach.”

      You write that “there is no comparison between the scale of looting” by the Arabs and that of the Jews, and that in any case most of the Arab plunderers “were from neighboring countries and not local residents.” What is the basis of that assertion?

      “It’s a simple matter. The Arab residents fled or were expelled – and fast. They didn’t have the time or ability to start dealing with closets, refrigerators, pianos and with the property in the thousands of homes and shops that were left behind. They fled in a hurry and the great majority of them thought they would be back in a short time. The country was emptied of its Arab population within a span of days, and civilians and soldiers moved quickly to plunder their possessions.

      “The Arab fighting forces, the great majority of whom were not local residents, also engaged in looting. But the scale is completely different. And, of course, the conquests of the Arab fighters were, happily, quite few. Kibbutz Nitzanim, which was taken by Egyptian forces, was looted and subjected to massive destruction. I do note in certain places (in the case of Jaffa or the Etzion Bloc, say) that the Arab forces engaged in looting. Even the British did some pillaging in the tumult of the hasty evacuation. But not on the same scale. You have to understand that the Jewish forces captured Tiberias, Haifa, West Jerusalem, Jaffa, Acre, Safed, Ramle, Lod and other locales. On the other side, the Arab fighters captured, for example, Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, Nitzanim and the Etzion Bloc.

      “Haifa, for example, had a population of 70,000 Jews and a similar number of Arabs before the war. After the Israeli conquest of Arab Haifa, around 3,500 Arabs were left in the city. The property of the 66,500 Arabs who fled from the city was looted by the Jews, not by the beaten and frightened Arab minority.”

      What befell the looters? Archival documents show that between dozens and hundreds of cases were opened against suspected looters, both civilians and soldiers. However, Raz points out, “As a rule, the punishments were always light, if not ridiculous,” ranging from a fine to six months in jail. Raz’s opinion was apparently shared by some of the cabinet ministers, as is attested to by correspondence from 1948.

      Justice Minister Pinhas Rosen wrote, “Everything that has been done in this area is a disgrace to the State of Israel, and there is no appropriate response by the government.” His colleague, Agriculture Minister Aharon Zisling, complained that “the greatest robbery in the few cases of trials… received the lightest punishment.” Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan wondered “whether this is the way to do battle against robbery and thefts.”

      *

      “The people who came with the trucks went from house to house and removed the valuable items: beds, mattresses, closets, kitchen utensils, glassware, sofas, curtains and other objects. When I returned home, I wanted very much to ask my mother why they were doing this – after all, that property belongs to someone… But I didn’t dare ask. The sight of the empty city and the taking of all the possessions of its inhabitants, and the questions all this aroused in me, haunted me for years.”

      – Fawzi al-Asmar, about the looting in Lod

      Following a comprehensive discussion about the plundering that went on in the country, Raz turns to its political implications. “This is not purely an account of looting, it is a political story,” he writes. The pillaging, he maintains, “was tolerated” by leaders in the political and the military arenas, and first and foremost by Ben-Gurion – despite his condemnations in official forums. Moreover, according to Raz, the looting “played a political role in shaping the character of Israeli society. It was allowed to proceed apace with no interference. That fact calls for a political explanation.”

      And what is that explanation, as you see it?

      “The plundering was a means to realize the policy of emptying the country of its Arab residents. First, in the simple sense, the looting turned the looters into criminals. Second, it turned the looters who perpetrated individual acts willy-nilly into accomplices to the political situation – passive partners in a political-policy approach that strove to void the land of its Arab residents, with a vested interest in not allowing them to return.”

      That may be so in certain cases, but do you really think that the ordinary person on the street who saw a beautiful table and stole it, considered the matter carefully and said to himself, “I am stealing this table so that its owners will not be able to return, for political reasons”?

      “The person who looted his neighbor’s property was not aware of the process in which he was an accomplice to a political line that aimed to prevent the Arabs’ return. But the moment you enter your neighbor’s building and remove the property of the Arab family that had been living there until the day before, you have less motivation for them to return in another month or another year. The passive partnership between a specific political approach and the individual looter also had a long-term influence. It reinforced the political idea that espoused segregation between the peoples in the years after the war.”

      Without justifying the thieves, what do you think should have been done with this property? Transfer it to the Red Cross? Distribute it to the Jews in an “orderly” way?

      “The question is not what I, the historian, would want to happen to the Arab property. To offer recommendations 70 years after the events is inane. The book shows that there were decision makers who were critical of what was happening in real time, both at the level of the events on the ground and at the political level. They thought that the fact that Ben-Gurion had permitted the looting was intended to create a particular political and social reality, and was a tool in Ben-Gurion’s hands to achieve his purposes. The reason [for such an approach] lies in the fact that there is a substantive difference between the looting by masses of Jewish citizens of the property of Palestinians who left their homes, shops and farms, and the collection of the property by an authorized institution. Socially and politically, it’s significantly different.

      “And that was exactly the point of Ben-Gurion’s critics: that the looting was creating a corrupt society and served the line of segregation drawn between Arabs and Jews. Ministers and decision makers, such as the minister of minority affairs, Bechor Shalom-Sheetrit, and Zisling and Kaplan, were critical of the plundering by individuals. In their view, one authority, effective and with concrete power, should have been created to aggregate all the property and see to its distribution and handling. Ben-Gurion objected to this idea and torpedoed it.”

      What did you take away personally from the comprehensive research you conducted, beyond the historical documentation? As a person, as a Jew, as a Zionist?

      “The looting of Arab property and the conspiracy of silence around it constitute to this day actions with which the Jewish public, and the Zionist public, of which I am a part, must come to terms. Martin Buber said in this context (in a letter written at the time), ‘Inner redemption cannot be acquired unless we stand and look into the face of the lethal character of the truth.’”

    • Israël - 7 octobre 2020
      La génération fondatrice d’Israël était une génération de pillards
      Par Odeh Bisharat - Haaretz
      http://www.ism-france.org/analyses/La-generation-fondatrice-d-Israel-etait-une-generation-de-pillards-artic

      05.10.2020 - Selon l’historien Adam Raz, dans son livre « Le pillage des biens arabes dans la guerre d’indépendance » (Maison d’édition Carmel, en association avec l’Institut Akevot pour la recherche sur le conflit israélo-palestinien ; en hébreu), le Premier ministre David Ben-Gourion a déclaré en juillet 1948 : « Il s’est avéré que la plupart des Juifs sont des voleurs. » C’est ce qui m’a rendu le plus furieux dans l’article d’Ofer Aderet, qui a fait la critique du livre.

      Après tout, si cet homme était responsable de l’expulsion d’environ 800.000 Arabes, comment s’attendait-il à ce que ses subordonnés se comportent ? Sauver le mobilier des expulsés dans des cartons, le blé dans des greniers, les chèvres dans des enclos et l’or dans des coffres-forts - jusqu’au retour des expulsés ? (...)

  • Le leadership palestinien par la résistance ou la perpétuation sans leader ? Le rôle de la jeunesse
    Fadi Quran - 19 septembre 2020 - Source : Al Shabaka - Traduction : MR pour ISM
    http://www.ism-france.org/analyses/Le-leadership-palestinien-par-la-resistance-ou-la-perpetuation-sans-lead

    (...) La politique palestinienne n’a jamais été homogène. Cependant, avec l’accord d’"autonomie" d’Oslo, les hostilités entre factions sont devenues plus conflictuelles, car il y avait maintenant quelque chose de plus tangible à combattre, à savoir les structures fictives de l’État qui offraient un accès au pouvoir, à un poste et à la richesse. En conséquence, les institutions politiques, en particulier l’OLP, l’AP et le Hamas, sont devenues des lieux centraux du pouvoir. Ceux-ci ont permis à une minorité d’élites politiques locales et à leurs parrains internationaux de redéfinir les intérêts nationaux et la dynamique du pouvoir local.

    Les efforts visant à influencer les dirigeants palestiniens et à déterminer qui détient le leadership et le pouvoir en Palestine ont pris de nombreuses formes au cours des huit dernières décennies, des assassinats politiques au soutien financier structuré. De plus, ces initiatives se sont étendues aux élites de la société et, bien que ce phénomène ne soit pas nouveau, il est particulièrement néfaste étant donné l’ampleur de la faiblesse et de la fragmentation dans lesquelles se trouvent actuellement les Palestiniens.

    En ce moment précaire de l’histoire de la lutte palestinienne, le bon leadership est un facteur crucial pour définir si Israël et ses alliés parviennent à anéantir une fois pour toutes la quête nationale palestinienne de l’autodétermination, ou si la lutte se remet en marche pour parvenir à la liberté et aux droits.

    Ce chapitre commence par décrire l’état actuel de la crise du leadership et propose ensuite un modèle de leadership. Il examine ensuite les nombreuses tentatives des élites locales et internationales pour saper ce modèle et promouvoir l’ingénierie sociale auprès de la prochaine génération de dirigeants palestiniens. Il se concentre sur les perspectives de cette nouvelle génération de dirigeants et sur les obstacles mis sur la voie du leadership des jeunes, de la cooptation à des méthodes plus impitoyables. Il conclut en suggérant une voie alternative au leadership. (...)

  • Israel is in shock over Beirut, in a sickening show of hypocrisy
    Gideon Levy | Aug. 7, 2020 | 1:45 PM - Haaretz.com
    https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-israel-beirut-lebanon-blast-support-1.9050449

    Official Israel presented itself as shocked at the disaster that struck its neighbor, Lebanon, yesterday. Almost everyone put on a sorrowful face. Except for Richard Silverstein, who writes a blog, Tikkun Olam, no one accused Israel of causing the disaster. Except for Moshe Feiglin and a few other racists, no one expressed satanic joy over it. Fortunately, former Israeli army spokesman Avi Benayahu ran Feiglin out of the race: “With such statements, you don’t belong to the Jewish people,” declared Benayahu, the man of Jewish morality, and the stain was removed.

    Benayahu is right: The Jewish state never caused such disasters, and when our enemies fell it never rejoiced. The Israel Defense Forces, whose voice Benayahu was, never such caused destruction and devastation, certainly not in Lebanon, certainly not in Beirut. What does the IDF have to do with the destruction of infrastructure? An explosion in the Beirut port? Why would the most moral army in the world have anything to do with bombing population centers? And so the country’s leaders hastened to offer help to the stricken land of the cedars, such a typical Jewish and Israeli gesture, human, lofty and moving to the point of tears.

    True, the Israel Air Force thumbs its nose at Lebanon’s sovereignty and flies through its skies as if they were its own. True, Israel has devastated Lebanon twice in war, but who’s counting. Israel’s president issued a statement of condolences to the Lebanese people, the prime minister and the ministers of foreign affairs and defense said they had “given instructions to offer humanitarian and medical assistance to Lebanon.”

    As if all this beneficence was not enough, the mayor of Tel Aviv ordered the municipality building illuminated with the colors of the Lebanese flag. Words fail. All past hatred has been set aside, Israel is now a friend in need to its suffering neighbor. Maybe it was Tu B’Av, the holiday of love, marked yesterday. But still, a vague memory threatens to spoil the how-beautiful-we-are party, which we love so much around here.

    Was it not that same defense minister that only last week threatened that same Lebanon with destruction of infrastructure? Didn’t the prime minister also threaten Lebanon? And how does destruction of infrastructure look in Lebanon? Just like what was seen in Lebanon on Tuesday. The sound of thunder shook the city, black smoke billowed over it, destruction and devastation, civilian blood spilled, 4,000 injured at hospital doors, as described in horror by the ambassador of a European country in Beirut, who had previously served in Israel. She was injured Tuesday in the blast and was in shock.

    Half of Israel and the entire IDF General Staff know how to recite the acclaimed Dahiya Doctrine. Every second politician has threatened to carry it out. That is our language with Lebanon and Gaza. It’s the doctrine espoused by the Israeli Carl von Clausewitz, former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, the current hope of the Israeli left, when he was chief of the Northern Command.

    And what is this sophisticated doctrine? It’s the use of disproportionate, unbridled force against infrastructure, the sowing of destruction and shedding of as much blood as possible. “Flattening” – to teach the enemy a lesson “once and for all.” The IDF has tried this more than once in the past, in Lebanon and in Gaza, and it was a dizzying success story. It looks just like what was seen in Beirut on Tuesday.

    Not a week had passed since Israel threatened to destroy infrastructure in Lebanon if Hezbollah dared avenge the killing of one of its fighters in a limited military action on the border, and Israel the destroyer becomes Israel the merciful. Would you accept humanitarian aid from such a country? Is there a more sickening show of hypocrisy?

    When Israel demolished Dahiya and other neighborhoods in Beirut, the Tel Aviv Municipality building was not illuminated with the colors of the Lebanese flag. When Israel killed thousands of innocent women and children, old and young, in Gaza during the criminal Operation Cast Lead and Operation Protective Edge, the municipality was not lit up in the colors of the Palestinian flag. But on Wednesday we were all so humane, so Lebanese for a moment. Until the next Dahiya.

    #Beyrouth

    • Israël blanchit sa barbarie en offrant son aide au Liban
      Par Motasem A. Dalloul - 07.08.2020 - Source : Middle East Monitor -Traduction : MR pour ISM
      http://www.ism-france.org/analyses/Israel-blanchit-sa-barbarie-en-offrant-son-aide-au-Liban-article-21209

      (...) Bien sûr, le Liban a jusqu’à présent ignoré Israël et les offres d’aide israéliennes malgré ce tweet posté par le porte-parole des forces d’occupation israéliennes : « C’est le moment de transcender tout conflit. »

      En fait, le Liban, aux prises à des épreuves nationales avant même que l’explosion ne se produise, a besoin de toute aide offerte - mais pas d’Israël - qui, au début de cette semaine, a promis de détruire ses infrastructures. Lors de réunions avec le chef d’état-major israélien Aviv Kochavi et d’autres membres de l’état-major général, qui se sont tenues jeudi dernier, Gantz a donné l’ordre aux forces de défense israéliennes de bombarder les infrastructures libanaises dans tout conflit potentiel avec le Liban. Cette instruction a été donnée après des jours de tension sur le front nord.

      Le Liban ne veut pas de l’aide de l’État qui a inventé la doctrine Dahiya, qui est une stratégie militaire basée sur la destruction des infrastructures civiles sous prétexte d’empêcher les combattants de l’utiliser. Pour atteindre ce but, les forces israéliennes sont autorisées à employer une puissance disproportionnée. Cette stratégie porte le nom du quartier de Dahiya à Beyrouth, qui a été complètement détruit par Israël en 2006. (...)

  • Pourquoi les alliés d’Israël sont-ils subitement préoccupés par sa dernière annexion ?
    Par Joseph Massad 13 juillet 2020 – Source : Middle East Eye – Traduction : MR pour ISM
    http://www.ism-france.org/analyses/Pourquoi-les-allies-d-Israel-sont-ils-subitement-preoccupes-par-sa-derni

    (...) Au total, plutôt que de prendre 55 % de la Palestine, les sionistes en ont pris plus de 78 %. Cela a posé un problème lorsqu’Israël a présenté une demande d’adhésion à l’ONU au premier anniversaire de la résolution 181, alors qu’il occupait encore des territoires palestiniens et de l’ONU.

    Le Conseil de sécurité a examiné la demande et a adopté la résolution 69 en mars 1949, recommandant à l’Assemblée générale d’admettre Israël en tant qu’État « épris de paix ». Le vote a été favorable à 9 contre 1, l’Égypte s’y opposant. Le Royaume-Uni s’est abstenu, comme il l’avait fait pour la résolution 181 en 1947.

    Refus d’indemniser les réfugiés

    L’Assemblée générale était réticente à admettre Israël tant qu’il ne répondait pas aux questions des États membres sur ses violations de deux résolutions de l’ONU. Il s’agissait du refus d’Israël de déclarer des frontières officielles, de son occupation de la moitié du territoire alloué à l’État palestinien, de son occupation de Jérusalem-Ouest et de son refus de permettre aux réfugiés palestiniens de retourner dans leurs foyers à l’intérieur du territoire sur lequel Israël s’est établi, ainsi que de son refus d’indemniser ces réfugiés pour les biens perdus, comme le stipule la résolution 194, adoptée le 11 décembre 1948.

    La résolution 194 a également établi la Commission de conciliation des Nations unies pour la Palestine, qui négociait à cette époque avec Israël sur la délimitation de ses frontières.

    L’ambassadeur d’Israël, Abba Eban, né en Afrique du Sud, a répondu à ces questions le 5 mai 1949. Il a assuré à l’Assemblée générale que la question des frontières pouvait être résolue par « un processus d’ajustement pacifique des dispositions territoriales prévues » dans la résolution 181, et que « l’ajustement devrait être effectué non par des modifications arbitraires imposées de l’extérieur, mais par des accords librement négociés par les gouvernements concernés ».

    En outre, Eban a insisté sur le fait que le « problème des réfugiés » ne pouvait pas être réglé avant que la question des frontières ne soit réglée par des négociations séparées avec chaque État arabe, et qu’Israël ne pourrait pas négocier efficacement sans devenir d’abord membre de l’ONU. (...)

  • Le FBI a enquêté sur des Américains soutenant les droits des Palestiniens
    Ali Abunimah, 6 avril 2020 | The Electronic Intifada | Traduction : Jean-Marie Flémal
    https://charleroi-pourlapalestine.be/index.php/2020/04/09/le-fbi-a-enquete-sur-des-americains-soutenant-les-droits-d

    Le FBI a mené des enquêtes « antiterroristes » autour de citoyens américains parce qu’ils soutenaient les droits des Palestiniens, révèlent des documents entrés en possession de The Intercept.

    Initiées en 2004, ces enquêtes se sont concentrées sur des activistes engagés au sein du International Solidarity Movement (ISM) à Saint-Louis (Missouri) et à Los Angeles.

    Certaines indications révèlent que, un peu partout dans le pays, des bureaux du FBI ont été impliqués dans la surveillance de citoyens américains uniquement sur base des opinions politiques de ces derniers.

    Il ressort également que, selon toute apparence, ces enquêtes ont été coordonnées ou effectuées pour le compte d’Israël.

    #USAIsrael

  • Jordanie : Baqura et Al Ghamr reviennent à la Jordanie et les acclamations affluent de tout le Royaume
    Par Rana Husseini , Maram Kayed - Rana Husseini , Maram Kayed
    http://www.ism-france.org/temoignages/Baqura-et-Al-Ghamr-reviennent-a-la-Jordanie-et-les-acclamations-affluent

    Les Forces armées jordaniennes hissent le drapeau national à Baqura, rétablissant pleinement la souveraineté de la Jordanie sur la région. (Al Rai photo)

    AMMAN, 10.11.2019 – Les militants politiques, les jeunes et les citoyens ont exprimé leur joie et leur fierté devant la décision du Royaume de mettre fin aux annexes de Baqura et d’Al Ghamr dans le traité de paix israélo-jordanien.

    Baqura et Al Ghamr reviennent à la Jordanie et les acclamations affluent de tout le Royaume

    Les Forces armées jordaniennes hissent le drapeau national à Baqura, rétablissant pleinement la souveraineté de la Jordanie sur la région. (Al Rai photo)
    Dans son discours du Trône, lors de l’ouverture des sessions ordinaires du Parlement, le Roi a déclaré : « Aujourd’hui, je proclame la fin de la validité des annexes de l’accord de paix concernant Baqoura et Ghoumar, et le rétablissement de notre souveraineté totale sur ces territoires. » (...)


    #IsraelJordanie #Baqura #Al_Ghamr

  • Cisjordanie occupée : 15 ans après l’avis consultatif de la Cour mondiale sur le mur de séparation israélien : un sinistre rappel que le peuple palestinien ne peut espérer obtenir justice ou faire valoir ses droits par des moyens pacifiques
    Richard Falk - Source : richardfalk.wordpress.com/ - Traduction : MR pour ISM
    http://www.ism-france.org/analyses/15-ans-apres-l-avis-consultatif-de-la-Cour-mondiale-sur-le-mur-de-separa

    Le 9 juillet 2004, la Cour internationale de justice (CIJ) de La Haye a rendu un avis consultatif par 14 voix contre 1, le juge américain étant le seul dissident, comme s’il pouvait y avoir le moindre doute sur cette identité même si elle n’était pas divulguée. La décision rendue en réponse à une question posée par une résolution de l’Assemblée générale déclarait que le mur de séparation était illégal, et que le respect du droit international nécessiterait son démantèlement et le dédommagement des communautés et des individus palestiniens. Comme pour l’identité du juge dissident, le non-respect par Israël de la décision était aussi prévisible que l’heure du lever du soleil demain. (...)

  • Israël aurait largement compté sur la #NSA pendant la #guerre du #Liban de 2006 | The Times of Israël
    https://fr.timesofisrael.com/israel-aurait-largement-compte-sur-la-nsa-pendant-la-guerre-du-lib

    Israël a largement compté sur les renseignements américains lors de la guerre du Liban de 2006, et a demandé, à de nombreuses reprises, de l’aide pour localiser des terroristes du #Hezbollah en vue d’assassinats ciblés, selon les derniers documents classifiés ayant fuité par l’intermédiaire du lanceur d’alerte américain Edward Snowden.

    Les deux documents divulgués mercredi ont révélé que même si l’Agence de sécurité nationale (NSA) n’avait pas l’autorisation légale de partager des informations en vue d’assassinats ciblés, la pression israélienne a conduit à la création d’un nouveau cadre de travail pour faciliter le partage de renseignements entre les deux pays.

    L’un des documents rendu public cette semaine, par The Intercept, était un article de 2006 paru dans la newsletter interne de la NSA, SIDToday, écrit par un officiel anonyme de la NSA à Tel Aviv qui officiait comme agent de liaison avec des officiels israéliens pendant le conflit de 2006.

    [...]

    Le rapport explique que la guerre de 2006 a poussé l’ISNU [l’unité israélienne SIGINT de renseignements militaires] dans ses « limites techniques et de moyens », et des officiels israéliens se sont tournés vers leurs homologues américains à la NSA pour obtenir un grand soutien et de nombreuses informations sur des cibles du Hezbollah.

    #états-unis #agression #guerre_des_33_jours

  • Israël : Les prisonniers palestiniens dans les prisons israéliennes sont prêts à se mettre en grève à moins que leurs revendications ne soient satisfaites - Quds News Network
    http://www.ism-france.org/communiques/Les-prisonniers-palestiniens-dans-les-prisons-israeliennes-sont-prets-a-

    Les prisonniers politiques palestiniens dans les prisons israéliennes se sont dits prêts à entamer une grève de la faim si les services pénitentiaires israéliens (IPS) n’acceptent pas leurs exigences humanitaires, a déclaré aujourd’hui Qadri Abu Bakr, président de la Commission des détenus et ex-détenus palestiniens.

    Les prisonniers palestiniens dans les prisons israéliennes sont prêts à se mettre en grève à moins que leurs revendications ne soient satisfaites

    Abou Bakr a déclaré à l’agence de presse officielle Wafa que si Israël ne répondait pas aujourd’hui aux revendications formulées par les prisonniers, un groupe d’entre eux se lancera dès le 7 avril dans une grève de la faim qui sera suivie le 17 de ce mois, Journée du prisonnier palestinien, avec un autre groupe, puis le 1er mai par quiconque voudra se joindre à la grève de la faim.

    Il a ajouté que la principale exigence des prisonniers est de supprimer les dispositifs de brouillage récemment installés par l’IPS dans la prison du Naqab en raison de leur impact sur la santé des prisonniers (cancer potentiel, ndt) et du brouillage de leurs téléviseurs et radios, qui les empêchent de regarder la télévision ou d’entendre des programmes de radio.

    Les prisonniers exigent également que l’IPS installe dans les cours des téléphones publics qui leur permettraient d’entrer en contact avec leurs familles et d’annuler les mesures punitives imposées par l’IPS aux prisonniers des prisons du Naqab et de Rimon à la suite de mutineries dans ces prisons.

    Certaines de ces mesures comprennent des perquisitions de cellules par les forces spéciales de répression, des assauts contre des prisonniers, la destruction et la saisie de tous leurs biens, l’isolement et l’imposition de lourdes amendes.

    #palestine #israël #prisons

  • MAVI MARMARA : La CPI refuse l’impunité d’Israël - Gilles Devers
    http://www.ism-france.org/analyses/MAVI-MARMARA-La-CPI-refuse-l-impunite-d-Israel--article-20763
    Par Gilles Devers

    25.11.2018 - • Par une décision rendue le 15 novembre 2018 dans l’affaire de la flottille de Gaza, les juges de la Cour Pénale Internationale infligent une défaite sévère à Madame BENSOUDA, Procureure près de la Cour, lui demandant, dans le respect du droit applicable devant la CPI, de reconsidérer sa décision de ne pas ouvrir une enquête contre les crimes commis par l’armée israélienne.
    • Cette décision inclut de nombreux enseignements et appelle plusieurs réflexions. (...)

    #CPI

  • Israël poursuit son rôle de grand démolisseur le maisons, de vie et d’espoir.

    https://www.facebook.com/JewishVoiceforPeace/videos/295944677856347/UzpfSTY3NjIwNjE4MToxMDE1NjY4Mjc0NDk0NjE4Mg

    La saleté de boulot du gouvernement israélien destructeur se poursuit à Al-Walaja, village traversé par la ligne verte au sud de Jérusalem.

    Ça fait au moins dix ans que les Israéliens martyrisent ce village, en le transformant en ghetto, en transformant la vie de ses habitants en véritable cauchemar. L’objectif, c’est l’éviction de la population et l’accaparement complet du territoire de la commune.

    En d’autres termes les israéliens veulent simplement voler le village pour y construire les extensions ds grandes colonies (illégales aux termes du droit international) voisines.

    J’y ai passé rien qu’une journée en décembre 2006 lors d’un reportage et la situation était déjà effrayante.

    J’éprouve toujours la même honte, et pour avoir assisté plusieurs fois à ces démolitions de foyers, de maisons dans lesquelles vivent des enfants, notre impuissance me donne toujours envie de pleurer. Il faudra bien qu’un jour les responsables de ces crimes en payent le prix devant la justice des hommes.

    A SIlwan, même punition
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10212622910156877&set=a.1015858565914&type=3&theater

    Israeli forces begin demolition campaign in al-Walaja
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=780916

    Al Walaja : The story of a shrinking village
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpb9xFjUNlM

    Démolitions de maisons à Al-Walaja
    http://www.ism-france.org/temoignages/Demolitions-de-maisons-a-Al-Walaja-article-20690

    #israel #palestine #démolition #colonisation #destructions #al-walaja

  • [#Vidéo] Le retour de Sarah Katz à Marseille salué en gare St-Charles - Journal La Marseillaise
    Écrit par La Marseillaise jeudi 2 août 2018 21:12
    http://www.lamarseillaise.fr/marseille/societe/71594-video-le-retour-de-sarah-katz-a-marseille-salue-en-gare-st-char
    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6r8ndt

    Après quatre jours d’incarcération à la prison Givon à Ramleh, Sarah Katz, militante de l’Union juive française pour la paix (UJFP), est rentrée ce jeudi en France. Des soutiens sont venus l’accueillir en gare Saint-Charles à Marseille.

    Premier bateau de la flottille de la liberté, partie de Scandinavie le 15 mai dernier, le Al-Awda (« le retour ») sur lequel se trouvait Sarah Katz, militante de l’Union juive française pour la paix (UJFP), avait été intercepté dimanche par la Mmarine israélienne.

    “““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““
    France - 2 août 2018
    Retour de Sarah, après l’attaque de la Flottille de la Liberté pour Gaza
    http://www.ism-france.org/temoignages/Retour-de-Sarah-apres-l-attaque-de-la-Flottille-de-la-Liberte-pour-Gaza-
    Après avoir vécu l’arraisonnement du bateau Al-Awda de la Flottille pour Gaza et l’attaque violente des passagers par la marine israélienne, puis 4 jours d’incarcération à la prison Givon, à Ramleh, Sarah Katz est rentrée en France ce matin. Premier témoignage.

    Merci à Front Social 75 de nous avoir permis de retrouver notre amie sans être sur place.

    #Flottille #gaza

    • « Israël a soustrait deux millions de personnes à l’humanité » déclare Sarah Katz
      vendredi 3 août 2018
      Article paru dans le journal La Marseillaise du 3 août 2018 page 20
      http://www.ujfp.org/spip.php?article6575

      Sarah Katz, militante de l’Union juive française pour la paix (UJFP) a retrouvé le sol français après avoir passé quatre nuits dans les prisons israélienness. Elle a été ensuite expulsée du territoire ou elle était venue porter assistance à la population palestinienne via une flottille internationale.

    • Sarah Katz : « j’ai entrevu les méthodes d’un Etat fasciste »
      Dimanche, 5 Août, 2018 - Eugénie Barbezat
      https://www.humanite.fr/sarah-katz-jai-entrevu-les-methodes-dun-etat-fasciste-658887

      De retour en France après 3 jours dans les geôles israéliennes, la passagère française de l’un des bateaux de la flottille pour la liberté, arraisonné illégalement en eau internationales à une quarantaine de miles de Gaza, témoigne de la violence des soldats qui ont intercepté le bateau et de l’arbitraire total qui règne dans la prison de l’office d’immigration où elle a été incarcérée et interrogée avant d’être « déportée » (selon le terme de l’administration israélienne) en France.

      Sarah Katz nous a raconté raconte par le menu l’arraisonnement musclé de l’al Awda ainsi que ses conditions de détention ans la prison de Givon, après que la marine militaire israélienne ait pris illégalement les commandes du navire, en eaux internationales, pour amener ce bateau humanitaire pourrir avec d’autres embarcations, « capturées » dans le port d’Ashdod près de Tel Aviv. Malgré cette expérience douloureuse, et cette nouvelle tentative avortée de briser le blocus que asphyxie gaza depuis plus d’une décennie, Sarah Katz reste déterminée à « ne pas oublier » les palestinien et à repartir s’il le faut. Elle va entamer une action en justice contre la capture illégale du bateau, un acte de piraterie, selon la loi, et son enlèvement.

  • Israel renews detention of Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar
    June 16, 2018 3:01 P.M.
    https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=780244

    RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — The Israeli authorities renewed the administrative detention of leading member of the PFLP Khalida Jarrar for three months for the third consecutive time.

    The Israeli military court of Ofer approved the renewal order that would keep Jarrar in detention for three more months.

    The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said that the renewal of Jarrar’s detention would not stop her from continuing her initial role in resisting the occupation.

    The PFLP said in a statement that “this is an attempt to absent influential leaders from events and developments in Palestine.

    The renewal of her detention comes two weeks before Jarrar’s release date. (...)

    #Khalida_Jarrar

    • 17 juin 2018
      La détention administrative de Khalida Jarrar a été prolongée – Poursuivons la campagne pour sa libération !
      Par Samidoun
      http://www.ism-france.org/campagnes/La-detention-administrative-de-Khalida-Jarrar-a-ete-prolongee-Poursuivon

      16.06.2018 - Selon les médias palestiniens, l’ordonnance de détention administrative de la dirigeante, parlementaire, féministe et militante de gauche palestinienne, Khalida Jarrar, a été renouvelée dans la soirée du jeudi 14 juin, soit deux semaines avant la date prévue pour sa libération après un an d’emprisonnement sans accusation ni procès. Elle avait été kidnappée par les forces d’occupation israéliennes qui avaient fait irruption dans sa maison familiale à El-Bireh le 2 juillet 2017, à peine une semaine après sa libération d’un précédent emprisonnement politique.

      La détention administrative de Khalida Jarrar a été prolongée – Poursuivons la campagne pour sa libération !

  • Gaza : Crimes israéliens commis à Gaza - 560 Palestiniens victimes des tirs israéliens s’adressent à la Cour Pénale internationale - Gilles Devers, Khaled Al-Shouli | Gaza - 17 mai 2018
    http://www.ism-france.org/analyses/Crimes-israeliens-commis-a-Gaza-560-Palestiniens-victimes-des-tirs-israe

    Ce 17 mai 2018, un groupe de 560 Palestiniens habitants à Gaza, victimes des tirs israéliens lors des manifestations, agissant en leur nom personnel ou au nom d’un proche parent tué, ont adressé à Madame Bensouda, Procureur de la Cour pénale internationale, une plainte dénonçant ces crimes de guerre, et lui demandant de saisir les juges de la Cour pour obtenir l’autorisation d’ouvrir une enquête.

    1/ Un travail collectif et organisé, depuis la Palestine

    Cette plainte a été annoncée depuis Gaza, au plus près des victimes.

    Elle résulte d’un travail construit et organisé, entre la Commission Palestinienne Indépendante pour la Poursuite des Crimes Sionistes contre les Palestiniens (TAWTHEQ) - une structure publique créée par le Conseil législatif palestinien le 29 octobre 2010 -, une quarantaine d’avocats palestiniens exerçant à Gaza, en coopération avec l’avocat français Gilles DEVERS et l’avocat jordanien Khaled Al-SHOULI. La plainte est également signée par 30 avocats, marquant leur implication et leur solidarité.

    Cette plainte s’inscrit dans la continuation d’un effort engagé il y a bientôt 10 ans, la première plainte à la Cour pénale internationale ayant été posée en janvier 2009, dans le contexte de l’agression militaire israélienne « Plomb Durci ».