92 Flights From Israeli Base Reveal Arms Exports to Azerbaijan - National Security & Cyber - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2023-03-06/ty-article-magazine/92-flights-from-israeli-base-reveal-arms-exports-to-azerbaijan/00000185-fd3d-d96e-adef-ff3dc38e0000
In Hawara, the Palestinian Authority Was Nowhere to Be Seen - Palestinians
Amira Hass - Mar 2, 2023 9:58 pm IST - Haaretz.com
While the well-trained Palestinian Authority security forces have not found a way to protect their compatriots against settler attacks, they are always there in order to suppress them
▻https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/2023-03-02/ty-article/.premium/in-hawara-the-palestinian-authority-was-nowhere-to-be-seen/00000186-a31c-de2a-a1ee-a31f57160000
The five hours during which hundreds of Jews rampaged unhindered through Hawara, attacking people and property and setting fires, encapsulated decades of encouragement of settler violence and the calculated disregard and leniency on the part of the Israeli military, police, state prosecutors, courts and successive governments. But those five hours also proved yet again how compliant the Palestinian Authority is with the artificial division of the West Bank into categories A, B and C, set by the Oslo Accords – a division that was supposed to be temporary and expire by 1999.
This is one more reason that the Palestinian public despises and detests the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. While its security forces, who underwent training in Arab and Western countries, have not found a way to protect their compatriots against settler attacks, they are always there in order to suppress them.
The 14 Million Initiative, which is attempting to revitalize the Palestine Liberation Organization and call for elections for an all-Palestinian national council and legislative assembly, had scheduled a live press conference from the Watan TV studio on Wednesday. Treating the word “election” as a nuclear threat, the PA’s security forces besieged the building housing the studio and broke into the offices in order to foil the press conference. This was not the first time this happened; security forces disrupted another of the initiative’s attempts in November.
Last week, Palestinian security forces set up roadblocks at the exits of several cities in the West Bank, in order to prevent teachers in government schools, who have been striking since February 5, from attending a central rally in Ramallah. The PA and the public school teachers’ union had signed agreements on a modest wage hike of 15 percent and on holding a free and democratic election for the union in May 2022. This followed an initiative led by several non-profit educational associations, parent groups and the Independent Commission for Human Rights (a quasi-governmental body).
An election was never held, as expected. In early February teachers learned that despite the agreement, January salaries did not include the raise upon which they had agreed; they even remained at 80 percent of regular salary levels, as before. This led to the strike, now in its fourth week, which 50,000 teachers have joined and has kept one million students at home. The leaders of the strike are keeping a low profile out of fear of arrest, as has happened with previous teachers’ protests.
Even though their children are at home, parents’ associations are supporting the teachers’ demands. The financial crisis is real: Israel continues to withhold hundreds of millions of shekels belonging to the PA every year, equivalent to the allowances the PA pays families of prisoners held by Israel, but the public does not believe that there is no money for decent teachers’ salaries.
The PA’s message is clear, then: it continues to abide by its agreements with Israel (including the security coordination) but not by its agreement with the teachers, one of the most important sectors that guarantee the common well-being.
Hawara (and the congested road passing through it) was classified more than 25 years ago as Area B, in which Palestinian policemen are prohibited from operating and from staying there while armed or in uniform. The heavily armed IDF and Border Police, though, are a constant presence – near garages and convenience stores, gas stations and falafel stands. Everyone knows who they are sent to protect. The settlements in the area are renowned for their violence: Yitzhar and its outposts, feverishly sprouting like mushrooms after rain; Itamar and its own expanding outposts; the Givat Ronen outpost, close to the settlement of Har Bracha.
The Palestinian villages of Burin, Madama, Einabus, Urif, Aqraba, Beita, Yanun and others have been living under the threat of terror posed by these interlopers since several decades. Trees chopped down, stolen olive harvests, arson, gunfire at farmers, Palestinians assaulted in their homes, village springs tapped – these are not acts of “revenge” taken after an attack on Jews. They constitute a calculated plan to take over more Palestinian land through violence and intimidation. Everything, both then and now, was and is done under the auspices of the monopoly wielded by the IDF over security.
Obviously, no Palestinian security agency has attempted to challenge this in order to protect the residents from their recidivist assailants. Instead of the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben-Gvir government thanking the Palestinian Authority for its obedience and loyalty, it blames it for every Israeli fatality in an area under full Israeli control, namely, the entire West Bank and Israel proper. At the same time, Israel demands that the PA discipline the desperate and inept young Palestinians who have armed themselves in the West Bank. It’s no wonder that the Palestinian public loves and admires those young armed men, even though they are not capable, trained or prepared to protect it physically against settler attacks or to foil the theft of their lands.
On the night that Jews rampaged through Hawara, many of its residents who were outside the town could not return home. Through social media, Nablus residents offered them their hospitality. This was joined by the Palestinian national security apparatus, which opened its headquarters to them. The responses were barbed, a Nablus resident told Haaretz. “What are you, a charity?” furious people asked sarcastically.
Experience teaches us that IDF soldiers and Border Policemen would have shot and even killed any Palestinian who tried to deter the attackers and defend his family, neighbors or property, with a gun, club or knife. Or he may have been arrested and convicted in a military court before being sentenced to many years in prison for possessing an illegal weapon, shooting and endangering Jewish lives.
Even if Palestinian Authority policemen could have arrived quickly in Hawara to protect their countrymen from Jewish assailants, the army would have blocked them or even killed or imprisoned them, with military judges sentencing them to long prison terms without heeding the explanations of their attorneys. Any local attempt to mount a defense using weapons would have ended in bloodshed, mainly on the Palestinian side, and with an uncontrollable escalation. It is understandable, then, why such an intervention is unlikely as of yet.
But beyond declarations, condemnations and demands that the United Nations provide international protection, for years, senior Palestinian officials have refrained from rising up or calling off an agreement, or setting clear and well-defined conditions for continuing security coordination with Israel, as a response to settler violence.
Instead of sending its security forces to foil press conferences and demonstrations that call for democratization, and instead of spying on its own people, the PA could have permanently stationed these forces – unarmed and in plainclothes, but trained in riot control – in villages frequently attacked by settlers. It could have informed Israel that it is doing this because Israel’s army and police are not fulfilling their duties as dictated by international law and even the Oslo Accords. It could have sent its most senior commanders on regular tours of these villages, to participate in plowing and olive picking, herding sheep with villagers while explaining to Israeli officers that they were unavailable for coordination meetings with the IDF, the Shin Bet and the Civil Administration, since they were busy protecting their people.
The obvious conclusion is that the Palestinian security agencies and their supreme commander Mahmoud Abbas hold sacred not just the security coordination with Israel, but also the borders of the Bantustans created by the temporary-permanent divisions into areas A, B and C. That is how the narrow personal and economic interests of the ruling group, so disconnected from its people, may be maintained.
Israeli Army Attacks Left-wing Activists on Solidarity Visit to Hawara
Hagar Shezaf and Jack Khoury - Mar 3, 2023 9:56 am IST - Haaretz
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-03/ty-article/.premium/israeli-army-bans-left-wing-solidarity-visit-to-huwara-as-settlers-enter-freely/00000186-a642-de2a-a1ee-a65787ff0000
The IDF informed the left-wing groups that they would not be allowed through to the West Bank town despite the visit being coordinated with the local governing council ■ ’It is ridiculous that the army allows settlers to enter, but we, Israeli Jews and Arabs who wish to show our solidarity, are told that there is no entry’ one organization said in a statement.
The Israeli military threw stun grenades at hundreds of left-wing activists on Friday who were taking part in a solidarity visit to Hawara in the shadow of the deadly settler rampage through the town on Sunday.
Army officers had earlier met with representatives from left-wing groups Standing Together and Looking the Occupation in the Eyes to inform them that they would not be allowed through to the West Bank town of Hawara for their planned solidarity visit, despite the visit being coordinated with the town’s governing council and local residents.
We are hundreds of Israelis now on our way for a solidarity visit to #Huwara, in the Occupied West Bank, where Palestinian homes were set on fire by settlers, backed by the government.
Around 500 activists headed to Hawara despite the news. The IDF stopped the bus on the way to the northern West Bank town, declaring the area a “closed military zone,” a temporary order which legally allows the military to deny entry to civilians. According to the order, only private buses could be stopped, leading the crowd to cotninue towards Hawara by foot. (...)
U.S. Condemns Smotrich’s ’Repugnant, Disgusting’ Call for Israel to Wipe Out Palestinian Village
Mar 1, 2023 - Ben SamuelsWashington - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-01/ty-article/.premium/u-s-condemns-smotrichs-repugnant-disgusting-call-to-wipe-off-palestinian-village/00000186-9eb2-d930-a7ae-dffe27000000
WASHINGTON - The United States on Wednesday sharply condemned Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s call for the destruction of a West Bank Palestinian village on Wednesday, days after it was attacked by a mob of settlers who torched dozens of homes and reportedly killed one resident.
“The village of Hawara needs to be wiped out. I think that the State of Israel needs to do that – not, God forbid, private individuals,” Smotrich said when asked why he had “liked” a tweet by the deputy head of the Samaria Regional Council, Davidi Ben Zion, who called for Hawara to be “wiped out today.”
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said “I want to be very clear about this. These comments were irresponsible. They were repugnant. They were disgusting. And just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amounts to incitement to violence.”
“We call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials to publicly and clearly reject and disavow these comments, we condemn, as we have consistently terrorism and extremism, and all of its forms and we continue to urge that there’ll be equal measures of accountability for extremist actions, regardless of the background of the perpetrators, or the victims,” Price added. (...)
Les États-Unis condamnent l’appel « répugnant et dégoûtant » de Smotrich à l’anéantissement de Huwara
Le porte-parole du département d’État américain demande à Benyamin Netanyahou de désavouer « l’incitation à la violence » à l’encontre des Palestiniens formulée par son ministre
Par MEE – WASHINGTON D.C., États-Unis - Jeudi 2 mars 2023
▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/actu-et-enquetes/etats-unis-israel-palestine-condamnent-smotrich-aneantissement-huwara
Les États-Unis ont condamné mercredi les propos tenus par le ministre israélien des Finances qui a appelé à anéantir le village palestinien de Huwara, les qualifiant de « répugnants », « irresponsables » et « dégoûtants ».
Le porte-parole du département d’État américain, Ned Price, a appelé le Premier ministre israélien Benyamin Netanyahou et d’autres hauts responsables à désavouer « publiquement et clairement » les propos de Bezalel Smotrich.
« Je veux être très clair à ce sujet. Ces commentaires étaient irresponsables. Ils étaient répugnants. Ils étaient dégoûtants », a déclaré Price devant la presse mercredi.
« Et tout comme nous condamnons l’incitation palestinienne à la violence, nous condamnons ces propos provocateurs qui constituent également une incitation à la violence. » (...)
Israeli Representative Removed From African Union Summit - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-02-18/ty-article/.premium/israeli-representative-removed-from-african-union-summit/00000186-6423-dba0-a5c6-767fef620000
According to diplomatic officials, the deputy director of the African Division at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Sharon Bar-Li, had the proper authorization to participate in the summit as an observer.
Infirmé par le porte-parole de l’UA
Israël expulsé de l’Union africaine moins de deux ans après son adhésion
▻https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/diplomatie-israel-expulse-de-l-union-africaine-moins-de-deux-
L’Union africaine (UA) a annoncé dimanche 19 février que le statut d’observateur d’Israël au sein de l’organisation était suspendu, assurant par ailleurs n’avoir “pas invité de représentants israéliens” au sommet de ce week-end, après l’expulsion la veille d’une diplomate, en plein milieu de la conférence.
UAE Cancels UN Vote on Israel’s Settlements
Yaniv Kubovich Jonathan Lis and Reuters
Feb 19, 2023 8:05 pm - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-02-19/ty-article/uae-cancels-un-vote-on-israels-settlements/00000186-6ad5-df0a-abdf-7bdf59220000
The United Arab Emirates told the UN Security Council that it will not call a vote on Monday on a draft resolution demanding Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory,” according to a note seen by Reuters.
“Given the positive talks between the parties, we are now working on a draft PRST [presidential statement] which would garner consensus,” the note, send on Sunday, said. “Accordingly, there will not be a vote on the draft resolution on Monday. Much of the language of the PRST will be drawn from the draft resolution.”
The text of the resolution “reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.”
The Emirates’ announcement is a significant achievement for the Biden administration, which has exerted heavy pressure on the Palestinian Authority and Israel in recent days with the aim of reaching an understanding that would lower the flames and set forth calm on a number of fronts, for fear of escalation ahead of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
The contacts included a promise by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to turn to the United Nations, and in return Israel would freeze the plans it had announced.
Sources familiar with the details say that as part of the agreement, the Israeli military would not enter West Bank cities under Palestinian control except in cases of a so-called ticking time bomb ahead of a terror attack.
Abbas believes that the ongoing raids by the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank, which have led to the arrest of junior activists and minors, have been conducted to satisfy the new right-wing government as well as the Israeli public.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government authorized nine Jewish settler outposts in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and announced mass construction of new homes in established settlements, prompting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to say he was “deeply troubled.”
Blinken spoke with Netanyahu early on Sunday, and told him that the U.S. is against any unilateral measures that could lead to an escalation in the region.
Senior American officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, conveyed to political and security officials in Israel that the U.S. would have difficulty exercising its veto power at the UN on a number of issues. They specifically mentioned issues connected to the Palestinians, at a time when Israel is promoting unilateral measures in the West Bank.
Top Israeli officials briefed on the content of the talks say the Americans made it clear that the Israeli government’s intention to build thousands of housing units in the settlements and to legalize a number of outposts would make it difficult for the Americans to veto any resolution due to international pressure.
In December 2016 the Security Council demanded Israel stop building in the settlements. It adopted that resolution after U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration abstained from voting on it, a reversal of its practice to protect Israel from UN action.
Les États-Unis mécontents d’une résolution de l’ONU en préparation
(Nations unies) Les États-Unis et Israël ont exprimé leur mécontentement jeudi face à un projet de résolution du Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU qui réclame l’arrêt « immédiat des activités de colonisation » d’Israël dans les territoires palestiniens.
Mis à jour le 16 février | Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS, Agence France-Presse
▻https://www.lapresse.ca/international/moyen-orient/2023-02-16/condamnation-des-colonies-israeliennes/les-etats-unis-mecontents-d-une-resolution-de-l-onu-en-preparation.php
Le projet de texte vu par l’AFP, que les Émirats arabes unis ont fait circuler avant une réunion lundi du Conseil sur le conflit israélo-palestinien, « réaffirme que l’établissement par Israël de colonies dans les territoires palestiniens occupés depuis 1967, y compris Jérusalem-Est, n’a pas de validité légale et représente une violation du droit international ».
Il « condamne toutes les tentatives d’annexion, y compris les décisions et mesures d’Israël concernant les colonies » et « appelle à leur retrait immédiat ». Et réclame qu’Israël cesse « immédiatement et complètement ses activités de colonisation dans les territoires occupés, y compris Jérusalem-Est ».
Dimanche, le cabinet de sécurité israélien avait annoncé qu’il allait légaliser neuf colonies en Cisjordanie occupée, après une série d’attaques à Jérusalem-Est, dont une qui a fait trois morts vendredi.
Une décision dénoncée par Paris, Londres, Berlin, Rome, mais aussi par Washington.
Les États-Unis sont « profondément consternés » par la décision d’Israël de légaliser ces neuf colonies et de construire de nouveaux logements dans les colonies existantes, a déclaré jeudi la porte-parole de Joe Biden, Karine Jean-Pierre.
« Les États-Unis s’opposent fermement à ces mesures unilatérales, qui exacerbent les tensions et nuisent à la confiance entre les parties », a-t-elle estimé.
Mais dans le même temps, le département d’État a été clair sur le fait que les États-Unis, qui ont un droit de veto au Conseil, ne soutiennent pas cette résolution.
« Notre position est que l’introduction de la résolution est peu utile au regard du soutien nécessaire aux négociations sur la solution des deux États, tout comme nous pensons que les informations venant d’Israël [sur les neuf colonies] étaient peu utiles », a déclaré son porte-parole Vedant Patel.
« Colonies illégales »
Il n’a toutefois pas indiqué si les États-Unis étaient prêts à utiliser leur veto. « Je ne vais pas spéculer ou faire des hypothèses sur le processus », a-t-il noté.
Le Conseil de sécurité doit se réunir lundi pour discuter du conflit israélo-palestinien, mais il n’est pas certain à ce stade que le texte soit présenté au vote à cette occasion, selon des diplomates.
Le ministère israélien des Affaires étrangères a de son côté fustigé le projet de résolution.
« C’est une nouvelle tentative cynique des Palestiniens de se tourner vers les instances internationales, au lieu de s’occuper de la vague de terreur et des incitations de la part de l’Autorité palestinienne », a-t-il indiqué dans une déclaration à l’AFP.
Les Israéliens avaient dénoncé le vote en décembre par l’Assemblée générale de l’ONU d’une résolution demandant l’avis de la Cour internationale de justice sur l’occupation israélienne de territoires palestiniens, prenant des mesures de représailles contre l’Autorité palestinienne.
Dans une lettre envoyée mercredi au Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU, l’ambassadeur israélien à l’ONU Gilad Erdan appelait « la communauté internationale à condamner les dernières attaques terroristes contre des civils israéliens dans les termes les plus forts et sans équivoque », accusant l’Autorité palestinienne d’« applaudir » et de « soutenir » ces « crimes odieux ».
En décembre 2016, pour la première fois depuis 1979, le Conseil de sécurité avait demandé à Israël de cesser la colonisation dans les territoires palestiniens, dans une résolution permise par la décision des États-Unis de ne pas utiliser leur droit de veto.
Les États-Unis s’étaient abstenus lors de ce vote à quelques semaines de la passation de pouvoir entre Barack Obama et Donald Trump, alors qu’ils avaient toujours soutenu Israël jusqu’alors sur ce dossier sensible.
Le secrétaire général de l’ONU Antonio Guterres est lui « profondément préoccupé » par l’annonce israélienne de dimanche, avait indiqué son porte-parole Stéphane Dujarric lundi, répétant que « toutes les colonies sont illégales au regard du droit international et un obstacle important à la paix ».
Oui mais quels territoires palestiniens ? Ceux de 1967 ? Ça serait dur, mais juste.
What Killed the Mummified Swiss Woman ? Maybe Something We’ve Never Seen Before - Archaeology - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2023-02-07/ty-article/what-killed-the-mummified-swiss-woman-maybe-something-weve-never-seen-before/00000186-2c41-df2e-a59f-ee5b7b280000
(extrait) J’ai sélectionné une partie sur l’infection mycobactérienne du cerveau. Je conseille toutefois la lecture complète car l’essentiel du texte est au sujet du traitement de la syphillis (et des conséquences du mercure sur le corps humain) au cours des siècles.
Anna Catharina Bischoff died at the age of 68 in 1787, and was buried beneath the floor of Basel’s Barfüsser Church, right in front of where the choir stands. But what really killed her? Was this distinguished member of Swiss high society, judging by her final resting place, really done in by syphilis, as scientists have suggested?
This cause of death has been assumed based on damage to her bones and the high concentration of mercury discovered in multiple organs; bone lesions and mercury treatments are diagnostic hallmarks of syphilitic infection in archaeology. Yet it seems that this isn’t what killed her, Mohamed Sarhan of the Eurac Research Institute for Mummy Studies and colleagues reported in BMC Biology on Wednesday.
The team reports that reanalysis of her remains, now stored at the Basel Natural History Museum, found no evidence of syphilis bacteria while screening for pathogens. What they did find, though, was infection in her brain by a bacterium previously unknown to science, which had no business being there. It belongs to the greater family of non-tubercular mycobacteria, and how she was infected is a mystery, the team explains.
(...)
She was identified, among other means, by a vast genealogic analysis effort that produced a 15-generation female family tree. This also revealed that she is Boris Johnson’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.
(...)
In short, the team concludes that they cannot categorically conclude what killed Anna Catharina Bischoff or Byschoff, but it doesn’t seem to have been syphilis, which may be a relief to her descendants worldwide.
More importantly, their results indicate that nontuberculous mycobacterium normally happy in soil and water may be an understudied cause of diseases that, even now, doctors often fail to recognize. Their paper also provides proof-of-concept for the discovery of completely unknown ancient pathogens using de novo metagenomic assembly. And lastly, it indicates that even when finding an ancient body with all the hallmarks of a deadly venereal disease, one shouldn’t leap to bawdy conclusions.
A Zionist Protest Forgetting Their Palestinian Neighbors
Gideon Levy | Jan 22, 2023 | Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-01-22/ty-article-opinion/.premium/a-zionist-protest-forgetting-their-palestinian-neighbors/00000185-d614-da66-a1bf-ff9e27520000
Once again I did not go to Habima Square, or to Kaplan Street, to join the demonstrations. My legs did not carry me there and my heart kept me from taking part in a protest that is largely justified, but which is not my protest.
A demonstration covered in a sea of blue-and-white flags, as if to prove itself and to protect its participants, while the flags of the other people that live in this land are prohibited or gathered into a narrow ghetto on a mound of dirt at the edge of the square, as in the previous demonstration, cannot be my demonstration. An all-Jewish, one-nation demonstration in a clearly binational state cannot be a demonstration for anyone who seeks equality or justice, which are among the key words of this protest but remain hollow within it.
Hollow is the talk of “freedom, equality and quality government” by the organizers of one demonstration in Tel Aviv; no less hollow is the talk of “fighting for democracy” by those of the other. There is not and will never be “freedom, equality and quality government” in an apartheid state, nor is there “fighting for democracy” when a blind eye is turned to apartheid.
Some of the Jews of this country are now outraged in the face of a concrete threat to their rights and liberty. It is good that they have been shaken into civil action, but their rights and liberty, even after they are curtailed, will remain those of the privileged, of the inherent Jewish supremacy. Those who assent to it, in speech or in silence, take the name of democracy in vain. Silence about it is silence about apartheid. Participation in these demonstrations of hypocrisy and double standards is unacceptable.
The sea of Israeli flags at these demonstrations is meant as apology in the face of the right’s questioning of the camp’s loyalty and patriotism. We are Zionists, therefore we are loyal, the demonstrators say. The Palestinians and the Israeli Arabs can wait until we finish things among us. It’s forbidden to mix issues, as if it were possible not to mix them. Once again, the center and the left fall dead before the accusations of the right, mumbling and apologizing; the purity of the flag tarnished them far more than the accusations did.
Once again, this camp is shown to exclude Palestinians and their flag no less than the right does. How can one participate in such a demonstration? There is not and cannot be a demonstration on democracy and equality, on freedom and even on quality government, in an apartheid format in an apartheid state, while ignoring apartheid’s existence.
The flag was chosen as a symbol because it is a Zionist protest, but it cannot be a Zionist demonstration for democracy and also a just demonstration. An ideology that engraves on its flag the supremacy of one people over another cannot preach justice before it changes the basis of its ideology. The Star of David is sinking, as the cover illustration of Friday’s Hebrew Haaretz Magazine demonstrated so wrenchingly, but its sinking is inevitable as long as Israel’s flag is the flag of one of the two nations with a claim to it.
Palestinian blood has been spilled like water in recent days. Not a day goes by without innocents being killed: a gym teacher who tried to save an injured person in his yard; two fathers, in two different places, who tried to protect their sons, and a 14-year-old son of refugees – all in one week. How can a protest ignore this, as if it weren’t happening, as if the blood were water and the water were blessed rain, as if it has nothing to do with the face of the regime?
Can you imagine if Jews were attacked every day or two? Would the protest have ignored them? The occupation is farther than ever from ending; it has become an annoying fly that needs to be silenced. Anyone who mentions it is a troublemaker who must be kept away; even the left doesn’t want to hear about it anymore.
“Stop the coup d’etat,” call the announcements, with pathos that seems to have been taken from the French Revolution. But there is no revolution in an apartheid state, if it continues to be an apartheid state. Even if all the demands of the protesters are realized, the Supreme Court carried aloft, the attorney general exalted and the executive branch returned to its rightful stature, Israel will remain an apartheid state. So what is the point of this protest? To enable us to revel once more in being “the only democracy in the Middle East.”
Myanmar Acquired Spyware From Israeli Cyber-intelligence Firm Cognyte, New Docs Reveal - National Security & Cyber
Oded Yaron – Jan 15, 2023 - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2023-01-15/ty-article/.premium/myanmar-acquired-spyware-from-israels-cognyte-new-docs-reveal/00000185-b415-d2c1-afe7-fc37abf40000
Israeli company Cognyte, which is traded on the Nasdaq, won a tender by a Myanmar state-owned company to provide an advanced cyber-intelligence system to be installed at the heart of the country’s telecommunications network – in order to monitor and eavesdrop on users, documents obtained by the NGO Justice For Myanmar reveal.
Although the U.S. and the EU have imposed an arms embargo on Myanmar, Israel initially refused to stop selling weapons to the military junta that now openly controls the country. Exports and contacts with the regime continued even as Myanmar pursued genocidal policies towards its Rohingya minority in the years 2016-2017. Only following extensive media coverage and public pressure did Israel halt exports at the start of 2018.
The documents reveal plans by Myanmar’s regime to install “lawful interception” tools on the networks of all the country’s telecommunications providers. Such systems are used in many countries to provide police and enforcement agencies with tools to track citizens. They monitor network activity, doing everything from locating mobile devices to eavesdropping on conversation, hacking into devices, and extracting text and encrypted messages.
The documents show that Cognyte won a tender in December 2020 to supply a system to Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications, a state-owned company controlled by the country’s Communications Ministry. The contract was awarded about a month before the junta seized power in a coup.
Israeli forces kill Palestinian, 45, near Ramallah
▻https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/132797
RAMALLAH, Sunday, January 15, 2023 (WAFA) – A Palestinian was Sunday killed after he was shot by Israeli forces near the village of Silwad, east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to the Ministry of Health.
Ahmad Kahla, 45, was shot by Israeli soldiers at the western entrance of the town. He was taken to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where he succumbs to his serious wounds.
According to witnesses, Israeli forces shot the man after they verbally clashes with him and forced him out of his vehicle before shooting him at point-blank.
With the killing of Kahla, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces has risen to 13 since the beginning of 2023, including three children.
K.T.
Israeli Soldiers Kill A Palestinian Near Ramallah
Jan 15, 2023
▻https://imemc.org/article/israeli-soldiers-kill-a-palestinian-near-ramallah-13
On Sunday, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian man at the western entrance of Silwad town, east of Ramallah, in the central West Bank.
Eyewitnesses said the soldiers installed a sudden military roadblock at the entrance of the town before stopping and searching cars.
They added that the soldiers forced a driver, Ahmad Hasan Abdul-Jalil Kahala, 45, out of his car and started assaulting him after a verbal argument ensued.
The eyewitnesses stated that one of the soldiers assaulting the Palestinian shot him from point-blank range.
Palestinian medics rushed to the scene, but the soldiers stopped them, obstructed their efforts to provide him with life-saving first aid, and eventually allowed them to take him away.
The medics rushed Ahmad to Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, but he succumbed to his serious wounds.
“Ahmad had no vital signs when we reached him,” Aahed Smerat, one of the medics at the scene, said, “His son called for help, but when we arrived there, the soldiers stopped us and told us the man was under arrest, and later allowed us to take him away.”
The slain man’s sister, Ehman Kahala, said her brother and his son, Qussai, 18, were heading to work at a construction site when the soldiers stopped them at a military roadblock.
“They were assaulting my brother before an argument, and a brief scuffle broke out, and then they [the soldiers] just executed him….” She added.
His sister added that the slain man is a married father of five; two boys and three girls, and one of his daughters will graduate from high school this year. (...)
Palestinian Shot Dead Near Ramallah After Attempted Weapons Theft, IDF Says
Jan 15, 2023 | Hagar Shezaf et Jack Khoury | Haaretz
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-15/ty-article/.premium/israeli-military-palestinian-shot-dead-near-ramallah-after-attempted-stabbing/00000185-b44e-de56-a5b5-f4fee33f0000
(...) Israel military source says soldiers opened fire on the man after he attempted to snatch one of their weapons
The IDF’s initial report stated that Ahmed Kahla arrived at a military post near the town of Silwad by car and began throwing stones. After which he approached the soldiers at the post with a drawn knife.
The army later changed its version of events now claiming that the soldiers called for him to stop and used tear gas when he refused their order. After refusing to exit his vehicle, the army said that a confrontation ensued, and that he tried to steal a weapon from a soldier and was then shot.
Ziad, Ahmed’s brother, strongly rejected the IDF’s claim that Ahmed intended to harm the soldiers arguing that he was shot for no reason. According to Ziad, Ahmed worked as an electrical contractor and left the town of Ramon towards the village of Jobar where he stopped to help a car stuck near the side of the road.
“For some reason, an argument with soldiers began there,” Ziad said. “One of them threw a stun grenade at him, or something else that exploded next to him, and then an argument began between him and the soldiers that also included pushing, and the soldiers shot him to death,” Ziad added.
Ziad also said that Ahmed was a father of four, and went to work on Sunday with his 17-year-old son. Despite the army’s claim of an attempt to harm the soldiers, Ziad said Ahmed’s son was released from detention the same day. “Whoever goes to carry out an attack, doesn’t do it with their son,” Ziad said. “If we are not believed, it is a fact his son was released soon after. It is easy to accuse a Palestinian of being a terrorist and then shoot him in cold blood.” (...)
Israeli Troops Killed a Palestinian. The IDF Claimed He Tried to Grab a Gun, but Showed No Proof
Gideon Levy and Alex Levac - Jan 21, 2023 - Haaretz
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/twilight-zone/2023-01-21/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/idf-troops-killed-a-palestinian-army-claimed-he-tried-to-grab-a-gun-but-showed-no-proof/00000185-d122-d3a8-a3cf-d732ba6a0000
Driving to work with his son, Ahmed Kahla was stopped at an army checkpoint, where he was shot dead. The army claimed he tried to grab a soldier’s weapon. His son insists that he was slain for no reason.
The following report appeared this past Monday in Yedioth Ahronoth: “IDF fighters yesterday morning shot to death a Palestinian armed with a knife who tried to snatch a weapon from one of the members of the force… The terrorist, who was shot to death… , [was a] resident of the village of Rammun.”
Yet another terrorist attack scuttled by the intrepid “fighters of the checkpoints.”
The IDF, which first reported that the man threw stones at the soldiers and approached them with a knife, hurried to revise its own groundless account, dropping allegations of stone throwing and possession of a knife at the scene, and presented a new version: about an attempt to grab a weapon. For that, no evidence is needed, not a knife and not a stone, and it certainly justifies shooting to kill.
The fact that the man, a construction worker from a tranquil and affluent village in the West Bank, whom IDF soldiers killed with two shots to the neck, was on his way to work, as every morning, with his eldest son; and that, according to eyewitnesses, he was in the front of the line of cars at a checkpoint when the troops deployed there brought the traffic to a complete standstill, at a time of the morning when everyone is in a hurry to get to work – none of that prevented the immediate effort to justify a needless and ostensibly criminal killing, a few meters from the man’s son.
A photograph of the body on the road, clothes full of blood that also trickled down the slope, a plastic tube stuffed into the mouth and neck, which was bandaged in a desperate and hopeless attempt to staunch the bleeding, is shocking. Equally shocking is the testimony of the family, not least that of the teenage son who accompanied his father on the drive to his death, and insists that he did nothing wrong. Indeed, his account sounds far more credible than that of the army and its mouthpiece.
We visited Rammun on Monday, the day after Ahmed Kahla was killed, and then buried in the village’s soil. Rammun is a relatively small, well-to-do community in the Ramallah Governate – a neighbor of the even more affluent Christian village of Taibeh – with a population of 3,500 and dozens of empty mansions. Some 10,000 Rammun natives live in the United States, about 4,000 in California, 3,000 in Michigan and the rest scattered across the country.
The settlement of Rimonim is on the other side of the road. We are told that during the past few days, Nahi, one of the settlers whom villagers know well, has been preventing their herds of sheep from grazing on their land there. He claims the land belongs to him and chases them off. The patriarch of the extended Kahla family, Abu Hani, who died at a ripe old age three years ago, served as Rimonim’s maintenance man for some 20 years. He was also the last resident of Rammun to work in the settlement.
The women of Rammun have streamed into the home of the bereaved family; the car the deceased had driven is now parked out in front. For their part, the village’s men have gathered in a diwan, near the local mosque. Everyone is in mourning in this special room, when we arrive. Those paying their condolences are offered the usual dates and bitter coffee. Affixed to the walls of the diwan are lists of names of villagers who have been killed since the start of the occupation and the date on which they fell. Until this past week, they numbered eight residents, the first of them in 1967 and the last in 2014. Kahla’s name has yet to be added; for now his photo is hanging on the wall.
Kahla, who was 45, was married to Zahaya, 43. They have four children: two sons – Qusay, 18, and Hassan, 7 – and two daughters, Doha, 17, and Jena, 13. Kahla’s younger brother, Zeid, a taxi driver on the Ramallah-Silwad line, looks stunned. Almost in a whisper he and others present relate what the family knows about the incident from eyewitnesses and mainly from Qusay, who was the one with his father when he was killed, and who has holed himself up at home in a state of shock, refusing to talk to anyone.
Ahmed and Qusay left home around 7:30 A.M. on Sunday, January 15, on the way to where they were working in the village of Deir Sudan, not far from the new Palestinian city of Rawabi. Qusay graduated high school last year and is thinking about getting a degree in computer studies. Until the start of the next academic year, he had been helping his father at work. Ahmed drove his Hyundai SUV, his son sat by his side.
Under the bridge between Silwad and Yabrud, north of Rammun, they spotted a surprise IDF checkpoint. It was shortly after 8 A.M. Qusay later told the family that his father was forced to stop and a long line of vehicles began to form behind them: The soldiers had blocked all traffic on the road, in both directions. It seemed to be a show of control, morning abuse of the sort soldiers sometimes perpetrate. There are incidents where Palestinian drivers see the troops playing around with their cellphones while people waiting in endless lines of cars seethe with anger. On that morning, too, drivers were angered and some of them started to honk and honk, the only expression of protest that’s tolerated around here. No one dared get out of their car. Qusay recalled that they couldn’t see the end of the line in either direction.
Suddenly a soldier threw a stun grenade at their car. Qusay said his father started to shout at the soldiers. In response, three of them approached the car, two on Qusay’s side, the other on the driver’s side. One of them pepper-sprayed Qusay, temporarily blinding him. The soldiers pulled him roughly out of the SUV, his eyes shut and burning, dragged him a few meters and threw him on the roadside.
His distraught father got out of the vehicle, shouting all the while. The soldiers made Qusay, who still could not see anything, lie on his stomach; they ordered him to cross his hands behind his back but did not cuff him. Suddenly he heard shots. Moments later he heard the wail of a siren – an ambulance – and shouting, apparently from other drivers in the line.
According to what eyewitnesses told the family, Ahmed leaped out the car, fearful for his son’s safety after seeing him pepper-sprayed and hauled off. At this point, a soldier approached the father and shot him twice in the neck. He collapsed to the ground, bleeding profusely. The soldiers quickly got into their jeep and sped off, kill-and-run. A Palestinian ambulance that had been summoned by drivers arrived and tended to Ahmed. Resuscitation attempts were useless; he had probably died instantly.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit this week stated in response to a query from Haaretz: “An IDF force spotted a suspicious vehicle near the village of Silwad in the territory of the Binyamin brigade. The suspects refused to stop for a security check as required, the force responded with demonstration dispersal means, and a violent confrontation erupted at the site. During the confrontation the suspect tried to grab the weapon of one of the fighters. The force responded with fire aimed at the suspect and a hit was discerned. The incident is being investigated.”
Ahmed was taken to the government hospital in Ramallah, where he was pronounced dead. Qusay was driven in a private car to the clinic in nearby Silwad, where efforts were made to calm him down. He didn’t yet know what had happened to his father, but insisted on going to the hospital in Ramallah to see him, and was taken there.
Zeid, Ahmed’s brother, who was in Ramallah at the time, saw a message in his taxi driver’s WhatsApp group not long after the shooting to the effect that soldiers had shot someone under the bridge near Silwad. Immediately afterward, the horrific image of Ahmed appeared in the social media. Zeid rushed to the hospital, as did Ahmed’s wife and their children, even little Hassan.
Qusay, then, took refuge in his home. “What do you expect?” his relatives in the diwan asked. For his part, Zeid noted that Ahmed’s dream was to see his children go to university, and he worked from morning til night to make that possible. “I don’t want them to come home like me in the evening, with dirty clothes from work,” Ahmed often said.
Three of the deceased’s brothers and a nephew flew in from the United States early this week to take part in the mourning rituals. The conversation in the diwan was joined by Ahmed’s older brother, Hani, who lives in Rammun. He’s 65 and deaf. Wearing a keffiyeh and a cloak, he expressed his feelings by means of agitated sign language. His brother translated: “Why did they kill him? Are they crazy? He wanted to talk to them, not to attack them. Why did they kill him?”
Hani relates that whenever he sees soldiers he raises his hands in the air, to be on the safe side.
Victory to Come When Russian Empire ’Ceases to Exist’ : Ukraine Parliament Quotes Nazi Collaborator - Europe - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2023-01-02/ty-article/.premium/victory-to-come-when-russia-ceases-to-exist-ukraine-parliament-quotes-nazi-collaborator/00000185-71dc-de47-afdf-f3fdb3410000
Quoting Ukrainian ultra-nationalist and antisemite Stepan Bandera, the Ukrainian parliament on Monday declared that “the complete and supreme victory of Ukrainian nationalism will be when the Russian Empire ceases to exist.”
“Currently, the struggle with the Russian Empire continues,” the Verkhovna Rada posted on its official Twitter account, stating that Ukrainian Army Chief of Staff Valerii Zaluzhnyi was “well aware” of “these instructions of Stepan Bandera.”
While Bandera spent most of World War II in a German concentration camp, his followers in the far-right Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its paramilitary wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing, killing tens of thousands of Poles and Jews.
Intrusion d’Itamar Ben-Gvir sur l’esplanade des Mosquées : une « provocation sans précédent »
Par MEE et agences | Mardi 3 janvier 2023 - 10:24 | Middle East Eye édition française
▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/actu-et-enquetes/israel-palestine-ben-gvir-esplanade-mosquees-aqsa-jerusalem-provocati
Figure de l’extrême droite israélienne et nouveau ministre de la Sécurité nationale, Itamar Ben-Gvir s’est rendu tôt mardi sur l’esplanade des Mosquées, lieu saint au cœur des tensions à Jérusalem-Est, en dépit des menaces proférées par le Hamas palestinien.
« Le gouvernement israélien dont je suis un membre ne cèdera pas à une organisation vile et meurtrière », a déclaré M. Ben-Gvir après sa visite. « Si le Hamas pense que me menacer va me dissuader, qu’ils comprennent que les temps ont changé », a-t-il ajouté dans un tweet. (...)
U.S. Joins Int’l Chorus of Criticism of Ben-Gvir’s ’Unacceptable’ Temple Mount Visit
Jonathan Lis et Jack Khoury | 3 janv. 2023 - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-03/ty-article/.premium/chorus-of-intl-condemnations-stream-in-following-ben-gvirs-heated-temple-mount-visit/00000185-76e0-de47-afdf-f6f1ad790000
A string of international condemnations quickly followed far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound on Tuesday morning, which marked his first visit to the contested Jerusalem holy site since he assumed office last week.
Ben-Gvir’s visit came after statements he made on wanting to change the longstanding religious status quo on the Temple Mount to allow Jews to pray there. On the eve of the election, he stated that he would demand that Netanyahu introduce “equal rights for Jews” on the mountain.
He made his request to ascent the mount on Monday leading to threats from Hamas that this would lead to an explosion. According to the Israeli police, the visit was conducted in coordination with the Israeli political echelons.
The spokesperson of the U.S. embassy to Israel said that “Ambassador Nides has been very clear in conversations with the Israeli government on the issue of preserving the status quo in Jerusalem’s holy sites. Actions that prevent that are unacceptable.”
The French Embassy in Israel also issued a statement warning against “any action aimed at questioning the status quo of the holy sites.”
The Arab world too was up in arms about the visit.
Jordan, which is the custodian of the holy site, condemned the visit in the “severest” terms, saying that Ben-Gvir’s “storming” of the compound not only violates the status quo at the site, but also requires “international intervention.”
The United Arab Emirates issued a statement condemning the visit which called the visit an “attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.” Netanyahu recently stated that he was invited by the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, to visit the country.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, described Ben-Gvir’s visit as a “break-in” under the auspices of Israeli forces.
Saudi Arabia also condemned the ’provocative actions’ of a senior Israeli official who ’attacked’ the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex," its foreign ministry said in a statement.
The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation which represents 57 Muslim countries “strongly condemned the incursion by the extremist Israeli minister Ben-Gvir into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound with the protection of the Israeli Defense Forces against Muslims.”
Spokesperson to Mahmoud Abbas, Nabill Abu Rudeineh, called the visit “a provocative step against the Palestinian people.” He called on the American administration to take responsibility and force Israel to stop the escalation and aggression at the Al-Aqsa Mosque before it is too late.
According to Rudeineh, "the Al-Aqsa invasions turned from being settler break-ins to Israeli government invasions.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem said the “crime of the fascist Zionist Ben-Gvir in breaking into Al-Aqsa Mosque is a continuation of the Zionist occupation’s aggression against our sanctity and our Arab identity.”
“The Palestinian people will continue to defend the sanctity of Al-Aqsa and to fight to cleanse it from the impurities of the occupation, and this battle will not stop until the final victory of our nation in expelling the occupier from all our lands,” he added.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesperson Tariq Selmi also told Al Jazeera that “the resistance is fully prepared and vigilant. It is conducting a continuous assessment of everything that is going on, with its hand is on the trigger of action. The bullets of our fighters in Jenin and Nablus will inevitably reach Jerusalem."
Netanyahu rewrites history, again
By Natasha Roth-Rowland | December 24, 2022
▻https://www.972mag.com/edition/netanyahu-christmas-historical-revisionism
Incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to advance his mission of retconning Jewish history, one century at a time. His latest efforts were, as usual, designed to paint Palestinians, and Arabs more generally, as responsible for the worst episodes of anti-Jewish oppression over the millennia, in an attempt to reframe Israeli abuses as acts of liberation.
In two recent interviews, one in Hebrew, one in English, Netanyahu proposes his own spin on a decolonial analysis of Israel-Palestine: rather than Palestinians being the victims of Israeli domination over the last 75 years, it has actually been the Jews who were historically the victims of Arab colonization. Speaking to the right-wing Israeli publishing house Sella Meir (which published Netanyahu’s new memoir), Netanyahu stresses that Jewish indigeneity in the land of Israel is akin to that of “the Indians… the Africans before the Belgians came… the Indonesians before the Dutch came.” This, by default, negates in perpetuity any Palestinian claims to the land, which Netanyahu insists belongs to Jews and Jews alone. “We were the natives,” he says, after having to ask his interviewer the Hebrew word for “natives.”
Netanyahu goes even further in his English-language interview with Jordan Peterson, the conservative Canadian psychologist, author, and self-appointed defender of Western masculinity. Not only, Netanyahu claims, did the Arabs conquer the Jews in their own homeland, but they actually outdid the Romans and the Byzantines, who had previously ruled the Holy Land. Sure, he concedes, the preceding empires “did a lot of bad things to us,” but they “didn’t really exile us, contrary to what people think.” Instead, Netanyahu continued, it was due to the Arab conquerors that “the Jews lost their homeland.”
Indeed, “the Arabs were the colonials, the Jews were the natives,” Bibi asserts, before deploying classic colonial tropes about the “barren” and “empty” land the Jews dreamed of coming home to, and where they “built farms, factories, and places of employment” upon their return. (Well-prepped as ever, Netanyahu also gives a shout-out to Christian Zionists for helping this dream become reality; no mention, however, is made of what European Crusaders did to Jews in the Holy Land and beyond.)
So far, so bullshit. Aside from the absurdity of presenting a fictionalized history of events 1,300 years ago in order to leverage grievances and justify present-day abuses, Netanyahu is effectively downplaying the ruination the Romans visited on Judea’s Jewish population. The destruction of the Second Temple, and the widespread death, displacement, and enslavement caused by the Roman siege and razing of Jerusalem, fundamentally and irrevocably altered Jewish identity and worship. The Roman destruction is considered one of the most formative and traumatic episodes in Jewish history that continues to be mourned today, and a watershed moment in the expansion of the diaspora.
Netanyahu also omits the inconvenient fact that it was in the wake of the Arab-Muslim conquest that Jews were, after centuries of exclusion under the Romans, finally permitted to live in Jerusalem once more. Meanwhile, even the most limited engagement with Palestinian history (imagine!) is sufficient to understand that there was farming and industry aplenty in Palestine, a land that was very much not empty before Zionism.
But possibly the most dangerous comment Netanyahu makes in the Peterson interview is about how, in the context of the alleged Arab expulsion, the Jews “were flung to the far corners of the earth, suffered the most unimaginable suffering, because we had no homeland.” In other words, Netanyahu is implying that Arabs bear overall responsibility for the devastations that primarily white Christians have visited on Jews in the diaspora over the centuries. If it weren’t for the Arabs, such logic goes, the Jews would have stayed in the Middle East — meaning that the Nazis, the Cossacks, the English, French, and Spanish royalty in the Middle Ages, and others would never have had the opportunity to become antisemites and act on their violent bigotry. (...)
Netanyahu Told Jordan Peterson Arabs Expelled Jews From the Land of Israel – Historians Say He Is Distorting Facts
Ofer Aderet | Dec 23, 2022
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-12-23/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-claimed-arabs-expelled-jews-from-the-land-of-israel-historians-say-he-is-wrong/00000185-3f01-d723-a3d5-7f29f5f90000
In 2015 Netanyahu corrected himself after falsely claiming Hitler decided to exterminate the Jews only after he met with the former mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini during World War II
Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month in an interview with Jordan Peterson in Canada that the Arabs dispossessed and kicked out the Jews from the Land of Israel after they conquered the area in the seventh century C.E.
A number of historians Haaretz spoke with denied these claims and said Netanyahu’s claims are ’amusing’, and they misrepresent and distort history.
In an interview on Peterson’s podcast conducted two weeks ago, Netanyahu spoke about his version of the history of the Jews in the Land of Israel.
“For the first two millennia of their 3,500-year history, the Jewish people have lived in the Land of Israel, fought off conquerors, sometimes were conquered but stayed on their land,” said Netanyahu. “The loss of our land actually occurred when the Arab conquest took place in the seventh century.”
The Arabs did something that no other conqueror had done – “they actually started taking land from Jewish farmers. They brought in military colonists that took over the land and gradually over the next two centuries the Jews became a minority in our land. So it is under the Arab conquerors the Jews lost their homeland,” said Netanyahu. “The Arabs were the colonialists and the Jews were the dispossessed natives,” he added.
Throughout the interview, Netanyahu repeated the narrative that the Arabs expelled the Jews from their historic homeland, and used a number of different words to describe it, including: expelled, dispossessed, kicked out, and threw out.
Historian Dr. Milka Levy-Rubin of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, who specializes in the early Islamic period in Israel, said Netanyahu’s statements are “a mistaken and distorted picture” of history. Prof. Yehoshua Frenkel of the department of Middle Eastern history at the university of Haifa said: “His words are amusing, like a time capsule from before World War I that was forgotten on the shelf.”
Netanyahu made a number of mistakes during the interview: First, he ignored that the Jews had been exiled and suffered from foreign invasions a number of times throughout history before the Islamic conquest. “As for earlier periods, of course during the First Temple period the 10 tribes were exiled from the land, and let us not forget the Babylonian exile, too,” said Levy-Rubin.
“As for the Second Temple period and the Bar Kokhba revolt – the Romans ‘only’ destroyed the temple, burnt down Jerusalem and emptied the entire land of Judea of its Jewish residents. Moreover – they imposed a sweeping ban on Jews entering Jerusalem, a ban that was left standing until the end of the Byzantine period,” added Levy-Rubin.
She also completely rejected Netanyahu’s claims about the Islamic conquest of the land of Israel: “I am not familiar with any sources showing the exiling of Jews or others from the land during the Arab conquest or of any testimonies of such an expulsion. There is no archaeological evidence that points to destruction or devastation, [in fact] the opposite.”
Frenkel reinforced what Levy-Rubin said and explained that the victory of the Arab tribes over the Byzantines and the growth of Islam did not cause devastation. Not a single archaeological site has signs of destruction and burning, but in fact many testimonies from Eilat to the Golan Heights show continuity, he said.
“At the time, the Muslim interest was to continue and conquer and levy taxes from the local residents. At the first stage of the conquest the Muslim conquerors already preferred generous capitulation and surrender offers over fighting,” added Levy-Rubin.
Not only did the Arabs not expel the Jewish residents, but Frenkel says “the Muslims are the ones who allowed the Jews to return and live in Jerusalem, and the Jews were even [allowed to participate] in the building of the Dome of the Rock, and it seems that in the could also participate in the ritual and service there in the early stages, and they had great influence on the Muslims during the period of the conquest and for decades afterward,” said Frenkel.
Because of the agreements with the occupiers, the residents could remain in place and continue to run their lives as they had until then, “including their religious rituals – without any limitations”, said Levy-Rubin. At the same time, these agreements allowed those who wanted to leave to do so along with their property. Only in later periods, from the eighth century and on, were various regulations enforced gradually, which restricted the lives of the non-Muslim population in the public sphere.
Netanyahu also said the Arabs kept the land barren and empty, a “wasteland,” and built just a single new city – Ramle. Levy-Rubin said this claim is distorted too.
The Umayyad Caliphate (from 661 to 750 C.E.) invested a lot in the land of Israel. “First and foremost in Jerusalem – we all know the mosques on the Temple Mount, but also in a lot more places they invested in development, including in Tiberias, the Hebron Hills region, the Negev, and of the course the coastal strip where the Muslims encouraged settlement.”
Netanyahu quoted famous travelers to the Holy Land during the podcast, none less than Mark Twain, who described the land as “a vast wasteland” and “barren” before the Jews returned.
“The fact that the land [of Israel] in general was settled sparsely does not prove anything. There was a continuity of Muslim settlement since the conquest,” said Levy-Rubin. In the interview, Netanyahu attacked the Palestinians for distorting and misrepresenting history, and said it’s quite amazing that none of the facts he put forward in his books “has ever been challenged… I make an effort to be very rigorous about the facts,” he said.
Frenkel added that Netanyahu lectures without getting into or spending too much time on complex facts, but reality is much more complex and not one-dimensional.
In 2015, Netanyahu also distorted other periods of Jewish history, when he said Hitler decided to exterminate the Jews only after he met with the former mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini during World War II. After drawing criticism, Netanyahu corrected himself.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu said former U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt said “over my dead body” when he was asked why he would not bomb Auschwitz during the Holocaust. In this case too, historians said he was distorting reality and proposing an alternative reality.
A Brief History of Cannibalism: Not Just a Matter of Taste - Archaeology - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2022-12-14/ty-article/a-brief-history-of-cannibalism-not-just-a-matter-of-taste/00000185-10a9-dfac-ad97-ddab6a170000
Cannibalism in human history is rarely just about eating. It even became a justification used by Western imperialists to explain the enslavement of millions
Terry Madenholm
Dec 14, 2022
cc @mad_meg
Pizza Hut Israel’s New Pizza #Knafeh Is an Insult to the Arabic Pastry - Food - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/food/2022-12-06/ty-article-magazine/.premium/want-pizza-with-an-arabic-twist-try-pizza-hut-israels-new-pizza-knafeh/00000184-e6f5-d991-ad84-eeff9e0e0000
Knafeh has been abused in every way imaginable. Pizza Hut Israel found a new one
Palestinians Are Fighting for Their Lives; Israel Is Fighting for the Occupation - Opinion - Opinion - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2015-10-07/ty-article/.premium/the-purpose-of-the-escalation/0000017f-e53a-d9aa-afff-fd7a560e0000
2015
Young Palestinians do not go out to murder Jews because they are Jews, but because we are their occupiers, their torturers, their jailers, the thieves of their land and water, their exilers, the demolishers of their homes, the blockers of their horizon. Young Palestinians, vengeful and desperate, are willing to lose their lives and cause their families great pain because the enemy they face proves every day that its malice has no limits.
Even the language is malicious. Jews are murdered, Palestinians are killed and die. Is that so? The problem doesn’t begin with our not being permitted to write that a soldier or police officer murdered Palestinians, at close range, when his life was not in danger, or by remote control or from a plane or a drone. But it is part of the problem. Our comprehension is captive to a retroactively censored language that distorts reality. In our language, Jews are murdered because they are Jews and Palestinians find their death and their distress, because presumably that’s what they’re looking for.
Our worldview is shaped by the consistent betrayal by Israeli media outlets of their duty to report events, or their lack of the technical and the emotional ability to contain all of the details of the world war that we are conducting in order to preserve our superiority in the land between the river and the sea.
Not even this newspaper has the economic resources to employ 10 reporters and fill 20 pages with reports on all the attacks in times of escalation and all the attacks of the occupation in times of calm, from shooting through building a road that destroys a village to legalizing a settlement outpost and a million more assaults. Every day. The random examples we do manage to report are but a drop in the ocean, and they have no impact on the comprehension of the situation for a large majority of Israelis.
The goal of this unilateral war is to force the Palestinians to give up all their national demands in their homeland. Netanyahu wants escalation because experience so far has proved that the periods of calm after the bleeding return us not to the starting line, but rather to a new low in the Palestinian political system, and adds privileges to the Jews in Greater Israel.
Privileges are the chief factor that distorts our understanding of our reality, blinding us. Because of them, we fail to comprehend that even with weak, “present-absent” leadership, the Palestinian people — scattered in its Indian reservations — will not give up and will continue to find the strength necessary to resist our malicious mastership.
Yuval Noah Harari : Israelis Support ‘Three-classes Solution’ to Palestinian Conflict - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-11-24/ty-article/.premium/yuval-noah-harari-israelis-support-three-classes-solution-to-palestinian-conflict/00000184-a924-de44-a9f4-bd6d7f8f0000
Speaking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Harari – a history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the author of several international bestsellers, including “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” and “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” – asserted that “a lot of the Israeli public has gradually switched from a belief in the two-state solution to at least an implicit belief in the three-classes solution, that you have just one country between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean with three classes of people living there.”
Une évidence niée #sans_vergogne
Addressing the United Nations this September, Prime Minister Yair Lapid said that “a large majority of Israelis support the vision of this two-state solution” so long that “a future Palestinian state will be a peaceful one.”
However, a recent Israeli Democracy Institute poll showed that only 31 percent of Israeli Jews agreed with the sentiment that the next government should try to advance such an endgame to the conflict.
‘Place the Material in the Wells’: Docs Point to Israeli Army’s 1948 Biological Warfare - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-10-14/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/documents-confirm-israelis-poisoned-arab-wells-in-1948/00000183-d2b2-d8cc-afc7-fefed64d0000
For decades, rumors and testimonies swirled about Jewish troops sent to poison wells in Arab villages. Now, researchers have located official documentation of the ‘Cast Thy Bread’ operation
Israel Saw Brutal Myanmar Regimes as a Business Opportunity, Documents Reveal - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-10-06/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/israel-saw-brutal-myanmar-regimes-as-a-business-opportunity-documents-reveal/00000183-adbd-d5eb-a3af-fdbfb0c30000
Newly declassified documents show how Israel armed, trained and for decades built up successive military regimes in Myanmar. A murderous civil war? Torture? Massacre? For Israel, it’s fertile ground for cooperation.
What Historical Mossad Files Reveal About ’Israel’s Most Planned War’ - Israel News - Haaretz.com
►https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-09-08/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israels-most-planned-war-historical-mossad-file-details-lebanon-policy/00000183-1dce-d11f-a1e3-5fde579b0000
How the IDF called the shots, meals at the Gemayels, and the remiss sale of weapons: The spy agency document revealing Israel’s work in Lebanon between the 1950s and the run-up to the First Lebanon War
“It was Israel’s most planned war,” states an official Mossad document. “The preparations had already begun in mid-1981, and they gained momentum towards the end of that year. In January of 1982, Ariel Sharon met the Christian leadership – and said to Pierre Gemayel: ‘We are embarking on a full-scale war and that as a result of it, there ought to be change in Lebanon-Israel relations.’’
This account appears in a document submitted to the High Court of Justice by the Prime Minister’s Office – which is responsible for the activity of the Mossad spy agency – and released for publication this week. The state submitted “passages that have been approved for exposure,” unsigned and undated, in response to a court petition aiming to shed light on the connection between the Mossad and the Christian militias in Lebanon, which led to the massacre at the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Beirut in September of 1982. The petition was filed by attorney Eitay Mack.
In the document, the Israeli military is described as the body that effectively dictated policy on Lebanon, and not the elected government. “We have the Lebanese to do what we want them to do,” the document states. “That is the asset we have, now tell us what to do with it. Because the state isn’t all that organized in its decision-making, the ones who told us what to do with the asset wasn’t [Prime Minister Menachem] Begin, and the government, but rather the military.”
The document describes Israel’s military involvement in Lebanon’s affairs from the 1950s to the preparations for the First Lebanon War at the beginning of the 1980s. The connection was first created in 1958, at the request of the Lebanese president at the time, Camille Chamoun, who feared falling from power, in coordination with the Shah’s regime in Iran, which was sending arms to Lebanon by plane.
In 1975, upon the outbreak of the civil war in Lebanon, Chamoun, a Maronite Christian and by then no longer president, again appealed to Israel for aid. Even then, according to the document, Israel did not consider the repercussions of selling the arms, some of which had originated in the Soviet Union and had been captured in the Yom Kippur War, and of the military training the Lebanese subsequently received. “There were no far-reaching diplomatic talks with the Christians, there was no profound discussion,” according to the document. The formula being used, it states, was the correct one: “We will help the Christians help themselves.” However, admits the author of the document, “we did not always see the interests involved correctly.”
The connection that began with Chamoun broadened to other Maronite figures, among them the leader of the Al-Tanzim (literally “The Organization”) militia, Georges Adwan, and the head of the Guardians of the Cedars militia Étienne Saqr. On one occasion, according to the document, “[a]t the beginning of 1976 on a very rainy, stormy night, a boat that had apparently come down from Lebanon was in distress and was captured by the IDF. On the deck were three Lebanese. This group was coming to Israel with the intention of meeting with the Israeli leadership to ask for aid.”
The document tells two versions of the beginnings of the direct contact between the Israeli military and the Lebanese Christians. In one version, direct contact had already been established in 1975, while in the other version it began in 1976 with a visit by a delegation from the intelligence and operational branches of the Mossad to study “in an unmediated way what is happening in the war between those sects.” Among the representatives named is Benjamin Ben Eliezer, at the time a liaison officer to southern Lebanon and subsequently the head of Military Intelligence and eventually a Labor Party Knesset member and cabinet minister.
“We visited command posts of the Phalangists and the Chamounists, we had an additional meeting with Bashir Gemayel at his parents’ home in the village,” the document states. “As we were enjoying a meal, Amine Gemayel showed up in uniform from the front. He was very reserved with us, and barely agreed to shake our hands.” Subsequently, the Mossad took the lead in the responsibility for the meetings, but the document makes it clear that “everyone spoke with everyone.”
The method of transferring the arms is described in the document as “shipments that were loaded onto rafts of a sort that carried quantities of arms. We would arrive on a given night with two shipments, and in the third stage we refined it even more. We were suppliers, we sailed back and forth.” The arsenal that was transferred included 6,000 M16 rifles and 1,000 bullets for each rifle; 40 120 mm mortars with 300 shells for each of them, and 100 81 mm mortars with 200 shells for each.
In response to the petition, which was filed in 2020, the Mossad initially claimed it had difficulty locating the historical documents concerning its activity in Lebanon. Subsequently the documents were shown to Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, and she determined that some of the documents could harm Israel’s security if they were published, but asked the Mossad to re-examine whether it might be possible to uncover some of the material. The petition was dismissed last April, and this week the Mossad published the document.
According to Eitay Mack, the petitioner: “It’s a fascinating decision by the Mossad to reveal this document, even though it isn’t clear why.” The document suggests, he says, that “the massacre at Sabra and Chatila was one event in a chain of massacres, executions, abductions, disappearances, amputations and abuse of corpses carried out by the Christian militias. The clandestine affair must come to light and enable discussion and drawing of public conclusions that might prevent continued support by the Mossad and the State of Israel for security forces and militias around the world that commit atrocities. However, the Mossad still believes it has the right to continue to conceal information concerning this from the public.”
C’était l’époque où la « #communauté_internationale » approuvait l’envoi d’armes par l’Iran à des milices libanaises d’extrême-droite criminelles et sanguinaires
Le document décrit l’implication militaire d’Israël dans les affaires du Liban depuis les années 1950 jusqu’aux préparatifs de la Première Guerre du Liban au début des années 1980. La connexion a été créée en 1958, à la demande du président libanais de l’époque, Camille Chamoun, qui craignait de perdre le pouvoir, en coordination avec le régime du Shah en Iran, qui envoyait des armes au Liban par avion.
Declassified Mossad document reveals military collaboration with Lebanese Christian militias
▻https://thecradle.co/Article/news/15473
