/files

  • Le #village_sous_la_forêt, de #Heidi_GRUNEBAUM et #Mark_KAPLAN

    En #1948, #Lubya a été violemment détruit et vidé de ses habitants par les forces militaires israéliennes. 343 villages palestiniens ont subi le même sort. Aujourd’hui, de #Lubya, il ne reste plus que des vestiges, à peine visibles, recouverts d’une #forêt majestueuse nommée « Afrique du Sud ». Les vestiges ne restent pas silencieux pour autant.

    La chercheuse juive sud-africaine, #Heidi_Grunebaum se souvient qu’étant enfant elle versait de l’argent destiné officiellement à planter des arbres pour « reverdir le désert ».

    Elle interroge les acteurs et les victimes de cette tragédie, et révèle une politique d’effacement délibérée du #Fonds_national_Juif.

    « Le Fonds National Juif a planté 86 parcs et forêts de pins par-dessus les décombres des villages détruits. Beaucoup de ces forêts portent le nom des pays, ou des personnalités célèbres qui les ont financés. Ainsi il y a par exemple la Forêt Suisse, le Parc Canada, le Parc britannique, la Forêt d’Afrique du Sud et la Forêt Correta King ».

    https://www.villageunderforest.com

    Trailer :

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISmj31rJkGQ

    #israel #palestine #carte #Israël #afrique_du_sud #forêt #documentaire

    #film #documentaire #film_documentaire

    (copier-coller de ce post de 2014 : https://seenthis.net/messages/317236)

    • Documentary Space, Place, and Landscape

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

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

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


      http://mediafieldsjournal.squarespace.com/documentary-space-place-and-la/2011/7/18/documentary-space-place-and-landscape.html;jsessioni
      #cactus #paysage

    • Memory of the Cactus

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

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

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

      Voici donc quelques citations tirées du film :

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

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

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

      Témoignage d’une femme palestinienne :

      « Ils ont planté des arbres partout qui cachaient tout »

      Ilan Pappé, historien israëlien, Université d’Exter :

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

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

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

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

      Ilan Pappé :

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

      #toponymie

      Heidi Grunebaum, la réalisatrice :

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

      Le #Canada_park :

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


      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Park

      Heidi Grunebaum :

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

      Témoignage d’un Palestinien :

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

      Heidi Grunebaum :

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

      Témoignage d’un Palestinien :

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

      Témoignage d’un Palestinien :

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

      Avi Shlaim, Université de Oxford :

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

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

      Heidi Grunebaum :

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

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

    • The Carmel wildfire is burning all illusions in Israel

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

      – David Ben Gurion, Memoirs

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

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


      https://electronicintifada.net/content/carmel-wildfire-burning-all-illusions-israel/9130

      signalé par @sinehebdo que je remercie

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

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


      http://7amleh.org/2018/09/18/google-maps-endangering-palestinian-human-rights
      Pour télécharger le rapport :
      http://www.7amleh.org/ms/Mapping%20Segregation%20Cover_WEB.pdf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

      Travailler en harmonie avec la nature

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

      Une importance considérable

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

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

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

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

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

      –—

      An Israeli Forest to Erase the Ruins of Palestinian Agricultural Terraces

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    • Planter un arbre en Israël : une forêt rédemptrice et mémorielle

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

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

  • Israeli child “burned completely” by Israeli tank fire at kibbutz | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-child-burned-completely-israeli-tank-fire-kibbutz/41706

    Et ça, c’est le peu que l’on sait...

    An Israeli child completely incinerated at Kibbutz Be’eri was killed by two tank shells shot by Israeli forces at the end of an hours-long gun battle, a survivor of the same carnage told the Israeli state broadcaster Kan earlier this month.

    Yasmin Porat, taken captive with at least a dozen other Israeli civilians on 7 October, told Kan radio that a fellow captive, 12-year-old Liel Hatsroni, survived to the end of the battle and only died when Israeli forces fired two tank shells at the house where they were held hostage by Hamas fighters.

    Hatsroni’s obliteration by Israeli tank fire emerged this month after her family decided to mourn her with a public funeral, even though the government had not officially pronounced her dead.

    Although Hatsroni’s 69-year-old grandfather Aviyah and twin brother Yanai were buried two weeks after their deaths on 7 October, her 73-year-old aunt and guardian Ayala was only buried on 15 November, the day after Israel officially declared her dead.

    On that day the Hatsroni family also held funeral rites for Liel, though the state still listed her as missing because “to this day they have not found any of her remains,” Yasmin Porat told Kan on 15 November.

    You can listen to Porat speak in that interview in this video, with English subtitles:
    Three days later, the Hatsroni family was informed that archaeologists working with the Kahanist-run Israel Antiquities Authority had finally identified Liel’s remains at the house, Ynet, an Israeli news site, reported.

    Although at least 50 people died in that particular bloodbath – and at least 10 of them were Israeli civilians – Porat herself left the battle intact, when one Hamas commander, out of a force that numbered about 40 fighters, surrendered.

    Israeli forces called to the scene instructed the Hamas commander to come out with Porat, effectively turning her into a human shield.

  • The evidence Israel killed its own citizens on 7 October
    Asa Winstanley The Electronic Intifada 23 November 2023

    https://electronicintifada.net/content/evidence-israel-killed-its-own-citizens-7-october/41156

    A retired Israeli army major has admitted Israel probably killed some of the 1,200 Israelis the government claims Hamas murdered on 7 October.

    The confession, discovered by The Electronic Intifada, is one of the highest level confirmations to date that Israel killed many, if not most, of the civilians that died during the Palestinian offensive.

    On Saturday, it was revealed that an official Israel source had concluded for the first time that Israeli fire hit at least some Israelis.

    This growing body of evidence undermines the official Israeli narrative of savage Palestinian terrorists invading Israel bent on slaughtering civilians. Hamas maintains that its targets were military and that it did not intentionally kill civilians. (...)

    #7oct23 #7oct_lesfaits

    • malgré des kibboutzim qui ont de suite témoigné de tirs de chars israéliens tuant leurs congénères, malgré des images de destruction qui ne pouvaient guère imputées au Hamas, puis dans la foulée d’un bilan des victime donné par Israël, descendu d’environ 1400 à environ 1200 (la différence étant constituée de palestiniens), il en a fallut du temps pour mettre en cause le récit de l’État d’Israël. mais ce « beaucoup, si ce n’est tous » se flingue tout seul, instantanément. qui va croire que les combattants qui arrivent aux toilettes de la rave et s’empressent de leur tirer dessus sont des soldats israéliens ou même des civils « mal placés » ? exagération ridicule.

      #propagande

  • Israeli forces shot their own civilians, kibbutz survivor says | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-forces-shot-their-own-civilians-kibbutz-survivor-says/38861

    An Israeli woman who survived the Hamas assault on settlements near the Gaza boundary on 7 October says Israeli civilians were “undoubtedly” killed by their own security forces.

    It happened when Israeli forces engaged in fierce gun battles with Palestinian fighters in Kibbutz Be’eri and fired indiscriminately at both the fighters and their Israeli prisoners.

  • Revealed: How British spies pull the PA’s strings | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/content/revealed-how-british-spies-pull-pas-strings/37646

    A cache of leaked documents obtained by The Electronic Intifada reveals the extent of British intelligence penetration of Palestinian Authority forces, including “daily direction” from a UK military officer.

    The documents detail how shadowy British contractor Adam Smith International (ASI) has influenced the Palestinian Authority for almost 15 years.

    They expose several military intelligence trainers, naming names for the first time.

    Two of the British agents, including a likely MI6 officer, worked closely with Israeli spies.

    Some ASI personnel who worked with the Palestinian Authority are named in the files as also working with the contractor’s controversial “Free Syrian Police” project.

    The program used British government funds to support al-Qaida-linked groups fighting the Syrian government – inadvertently, ASI claims.

    ASI training to the Palestinian Authority is done in Ramallah, Jericho and Jordan, under the ultimate command of a US general, and in coordination with Israel.

    The Electronic Intifada used the same document cache to reveal in February that the contractor had carried out a secret British government project to spy on Palestinian refugee camps, with the aim of monitoring “criticism of Western and Israeli foreign policy.”
    No comment

    You can read extracts from the files on this page and some of the full documents at the end of this article. The cache has been publicly available from a file sharing site since October last year. The Electronic Intifada has chosen to publish only files it has reviewed and determined to be in the public interest.

  • Ben & Jerry’s settles lawsuit, freezes out Israel | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/ben-jerrys-settles-lawsuit-freezes-out-israel

    The legal dispute between Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company Unilever has ended in a bit of a fudge.

    But as a result, the ice cream maker can say that it is standing by its July 2021 decision to end all business in Israel so as not to be complicit in Israel’s illegal colonization of occupied Palestinian land.

  • Palestinians have had enough of Europe’s Holocaust hypocrisy
    Ali Abunimah | 17 August 2022 | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/palestinians-have-had-enough-europes-holocaust-hypocrisy

    (...)
    Joining the attacks on Abbas, EU vice president Margaritis Schinas asserted that “the Holocaust is an indelible stain on European history; it erased Jewish life and heritage in many parts of our continent.”

    He’s absolutely right about that. So if territory is the appropriate compensation for genocide, why has no European country, especially Germany, offered its own land for a “Jewish state?”

    Palestinians are sick of paying the price for European hypocrisy and genocidal crimes.

  • A database for the displaced | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/content/database-displaced/34441

    Jouda launched the Kushan Baladi initiative (literally: land title initiative) to create an official register of Palestinian land ownership inside the 1948 boundaries of historic Palestine, now Israel.

    “We launched this initiative as a response to Israeli claims that Palestine was a land without indigenous people,” Jouda told The Electronic Intifada.

    Israel wants everyone to believe, he said, that once “elderly people die the youngsters forget. It wants everyone to believe that Sheikh Jarrah [in occupied East Jerusalem] is a real estate conflict.”

    His initiative is meant to counter such suggestions by involving both young people and Palestinians in the diaspora.

    His team of 60 have so far unearthed documents from the times when Palestine was under British administration and – before that – part of the Ottoman Empire.

    Some of the documents date as far back as 1903.

    The team started by seeking out and visiting elderly people in the Gaza Strip like al-Kurd.

    “We documented the land areas in a database which now contains more than 300 deeds,” Jouda said.

    Jouda’s team – until then self-funded – then reached out to political parties, human rights groups and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

  • Dutch court upholds war crimes immunity for Israel’s Benny Gantz
    Adri Nieuwhof | 7 December 2021 | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/dutch-court-upholds-war-crimes-immunity-israels-benny-gantz

    Ismail Ziada, fourth from left, with supporters outside court in The Hague on 7 December. He called it “cowardly” for Dutch judges to grant immunity to Israeli commanders who ordered a 2014 bombing that killed his family in Gaza. Adri Nieuwhof

    Dutch judges ruled on Tuesday that two top Israeli military commanders cannot be sued for killing a Palestinian family in the Gaza Strip.

    The appeals court in The Hague decided that the commanders enjoy “functional immunity” because they were acting on behalf of the Israeli state.

    The decision is a slap in the face for Ismail Ziada and all Palestinians who once again find their path to justice obstructed.

    Speaking to supporters outside the courthouse, Ziada called the decision “shameful” and “cowardly.”

    “Today is not easy for me because in Gaza we are subjected to military slaughter and in The Hague we are subjected to a legal slaughter,” Ziada added.

    “It is just because of Israel. Nothing else. It is not about justice,” Ziada said of the ruling.

    The Palestinian-Dutch citizen has been suing Benny Gantz, Israeli army chief at the time, and Amir Eshel, then air force chief, for the decision to bomb his family’s home during Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza.

    Gantz is currently Israel’s defense minister and deputy prime minister.

    Ziada is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages from the Israeli commanders.

    The Israeli attack completely destroyed the three-floor building in al-Bureij refugee camp.

    It killed Ziada’s 70-year-old mother Muftia, his brothers Jamil, Yousif and Omar, sister-in-law Bayan, and 12-year-old nephew Shaban, as well as a seventh person visiting the family. (...)

    • Raid aérien à Gaza en 2014 : la justice néerlandaise s’estime incompétente en appel
      Par Le Figaro avec AFP Publié le 7 décembre 2021
      https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/raid-aerien-a-gaza-en-2014-la-justice-neerlandaise-s-estime-incompetente-en

      Une cour d’appel néerlandaise s’est estimée mardi 7 décembre incompétente pour entendre une affaire portée par un Palestinien qui tient pour responsable le ministre israélien de la Défense Benny Gantz de la mort de six proches dans un raid israélien sur Gaza en 2014.
      « Les tribunaux néerlandais ne sont pas compétents pour juger la requête » parce qu’elle implique du personnel militaire mettant à exécution la politique de l’État israélien, a estimé la cour d’appel de La Haye, confirmant la décision prise en janvier 2020 par un tribunal en première instance.
      Ismail Ziada, qui avait fait appel du jugement, affirme avoir perdu six membres de sa famille - sa mère, trois frères, une belle-sœur et un jeune neveu - dans un raid aérien de l’armée israélienne sur le camp de réfugiés d’Al-Bureij dans la bande de Gaza le 20 juillet 2014 dans le cadre de l’opération « Bordure protectrice ». Il avait demandé en septembre 2019 au tribunal de La Haye l’ouverture d’une affaire en vue d’un procès pour crimes de guerre contre Benny Gantz et un ancien chef de l’aviation israélienne, le général Amir Eshel. Il avait argué qu’il lui était impossible d’obtenir justice en Israël.
      Tout en soulignant « ne pas être aveugle à la souffrance du plaignant », la cour d’appel a estimé que les tribunaux néerlandais étaient incompétents sur des actions menées par « du personnel militaire de haut rang (qui) a exécuté la politique officielle de l’État d’Israël ». (...)

  • Palestine in Pictures : October 2021 | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestine-pictures-october-2021/34231

    Israeli occupation forces shot and killed a Palestinian boy in the occupied West Bank during October.

    Amjad Osama Abu Sultan, 14, was killed after allegedly lighting a Molotov cocktail by Israeli soldiers waiting in ambush near Route 60, a highway used by Israeli settlers.

    Israel is withholding the teen’s body, hampering an investigation into his death and preventing his family from holding a burial.

    Israeli forces have killed 14 children under the age of 18 so far this year, according to Defense for Children International-Palestine.

    The child rights group is the legal representative for slain Palestinian children at the International Criminal Court, which is investigating alleged war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza. (...)

  • Israel to exile Palestinian-French human rights lawyer | The Electronic Intifada

    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-exile-palestinian-french-human-rights-lawyer

    In 2018, Israel passed a law enabling the revocation of the residency of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem should they be found in “breach of allegiance” to Israel.

    “The very concept is ludicrous,” Hammouri wrote for The Electronic Intifada last year. “How can a brutally subjugated and colonized population be expected to pledge loyalty to its occupier?”

    Israel’s interior minister Ayelet Shaked’s decision was based on Hammouri’s previous arrests by occupatio

  • “Don’t fail justice,” victim of Israeli war crimes tells Dutch court
    Adri Nieuwhof Rights and Accountability 24 September 2021
    | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/dont-fail-justice-victim-israeli-war-crimes-tells-dutch-court

    Benny Gantz, then army chief, left, and Amir Eshel, then air force commander, second from left, with other Israeli officials in 2013. The pair are being sued in the Netherlands for a 2014 bombing attack on Gaza that killed several family members of Ismail Ziada. Baz Ratner Reuters

    Two senior Israeli military officials should answer for their actions before a court of justice, Dutch judges in The Hague heard on Thursday.

    Human rights lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld told the appeals tribunal that a lower court had erroneously disregarded that there was no alternative way to seek justice for her client Ismail Ziada.

    A Palestinian-Dutch citizen, Ziada has been suing Benny Gantz, Israeli army chief at the time, and Amir Eshel, then air force chief, for the decision to bomb his family’s home during Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza.

    Gantz is currently Israel’s defense minister and deputy prime minister. Ziada’s civil lawsuit seeks hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages from the Israeli commanders.

    The Israeli attack reduced the three-floor building in al-Bureij refugee camp to rubble.

    It killed Ziada’s 70-year-old mother Muftia, his brothers Jamil, Yousif and Omar, sister-in-law Bayan, and 12-year-old nephew Shaban, as well as a seventh person visiting the family.

    But in January 2020, the district court in The Hague shut the door in Ziada’s face by granting “functional immunity” to Gantz and Eshel on the grounds that when they committed their alleged crimes they were acting in an official capacity.

    That decision flew in the face of decades of jurisprudence following the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals that those who commit the gravest offenses, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, cannot hide behind the excuse that they were acting in an official capacity or just following orders.
    No other path to justice

    Thursday’s hearing was part of Ziada’s appeal of that lower court ruling. The hearing was held in an almost empty room. Only 13 people, including this writer, were allowed to attend.

    Many others were disappointed that they couldn’t express their solidarity with Ziada by their presence.

    People come to show solidarity with Ismail #Ziada.#EndImpunity #NoImmunity pic.twitter.com/3cBruPiId7
    — adri nieuwhof (@steketeh) September 23, 2021

    Zegveld, who is renowned in the Netherlands for representing victims of human rights abuses, also told the judges that “Israel maintains an apartheid regime against Palestinians.”

    Therefore Ziada’s only viable option is to seek justice in the Dutch courts.

    Zegveld made a strong case that it was unjustifiable to grant immunity to the two Israeli military commanders.

    She noted that in 2010, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that “in cases where the application of state immunity from jurisdiction restricts the exercise of the right of access to a court, the court must ascertain whether the circumstances of the case justify such restriction.”

    Zegveld argued that Israel has completely deprived Palestinians in Gaza of access to justice by declaring the coastal enclave to be an “enemy entity” and its residents “enemy subjects.”

    Israeli law prohibits “enemy” citizens from bringing claims for damages against the state in Israeli courts.

    In response, defense lawyers for Gantz and Eshel repeated their arguments that because their clients had acted on behalf of the state, their acts were protected by functional immunity.

    After Zegveld’s thoroughly formulated plea, the lawyers for Gantz and Eshel did not make a strong impression.

    At the end of the hearing, the judges offered Ziada the opportunity to speak.

    “I never thought that my vision to seek justice would be denied by providing functional immunity to the war criminals,” he told the court. (...)

  • Blowing apart a monstrous Israeli lie | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/blowing-apart-monstrous-israeli-lie

    It’s a monstrous lie, but Israeli propagandists keep repeating it: Palestinians deliberately sacrifice their own children just to make Israel look bad.

    I had the opportunity to debunk this vicious, dehumanizing libel to the face of one such propagandist when I appeared on CGTN’s The Heat on Thursday.

    #palestine #gaza #colonisation #colonialisme

  • Video: Germany must stop making Palestinians pay for its Nazi crimes | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-germany-must-stop-making-palestinians-pay-its-nazi-crimes

    Palestinians pay for its Nazi crimes

    Ali Abunimah From the Editors 12 May 2021

    On Tuesday I appeared on Deutsche Welle to talk about Israel’s ongoing aggression, and Palestinian resistance, in occupied Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

    Since Deutsche Welle is a German state broadcaster, I considered it particularly important to address German complicity in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.

    “I think it is time for the people of Germany and German elites to stop making Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip pay for the crimes of the German people against European Jews,” I told the TV channel.

    “Palestinians are sick of paying the price for guilty German consciences.”

    Germany has a long history of arming and funding Israel.

    In recent years, German political elites have stepped up their smear campaigns and repression against supporters of Palestinian rights, slandering them as anti-Jewish bigots.

    Israel and its lobby have successfully weaponized German guilt over the Holocaust to such an extent that Germany even opposes the International Criminal Court investigation into war crimes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

  • Washington Post reporter moves from covering Israel to working for it | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/washington-post-reporter-moves-covering-israel-working-it

    Avant, correspondante pour le WPJ à Jérusalem. Après, conseillère de l’ambassadeur israélien aux Nations Unies. Le même travail en fait.

    One such recent move should have journalists grappling with their ethics: Washington Post Jerusalem correspondent to chief communications officer and adviser to Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and incoming ambassador to the United States, Gilad Erdan.

    #médias #israël

  • YouTube, Zoom and Facebook censor Leila Khaled for Israel
    Nora Barrows-Friedman Lobby Watch 23 September 2020 | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/youtube-zoom-and-facebook-censor-leila-khaled-israel

    Major Silicon Valley companies censored an event at San Francisco State University on Wednesday.

    This means that during the pandemic, private companies closely aligned with the government have immense power over what can be said, even in an academic setting.

    Zoom, the web-based videoconferencing platform, announced Tuesday evening that it was prohibiting SFSU from using its software to host a planned webinar on Wednesday with Leila Khaled, the Palestinian resistance icon who is now in her seventies and lives in Jordan.

    Zoom has threatened to cancel this webinar and silence Palestinian narratives. We expect SFSU/CSU to uphold our freedom of speech and academic freedom by providing an alternative venue to this open classroom. We will see you tomorrow at 12:30 pm (PST) at the Zoom webinar.
    — AMED Studies (@AmedStudies) September 23, 2020

    This is what happens when we subcontract our universities to Zoom: they decide which events are acceptable and which aren’t. It’s outrageous. https://t.co/Bcg4WwfKQ7
    — سريّ المقدسي (@sareemakdisi) September 23, 2020

    The event was also restricted by Facebook, which has a lengthy history of censoring Palestinians on behalf of Israel.

    On Wednesday, the event went ahead via YouTube, but shortly after it began, the company cut off the video stream, replacing it with a notice that said “This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s Terms of Service.”

    #censure

    • Leila Khaled speaks: Palestinian women and Palestinian resistance will not be suppressed!
      23 September 2020
      https://samidoun.net/2020/09/leila-khaled-speaks-palestinian-women-and-palestinian-resistance-will-not-

      (...) Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joined numerous social justice and Palestine support organizations in endorsing and co-sponsoring the event, organized by AMED Studies at SFSU and supported by the students of GUPS. The silencing campaign by Zionist, racist and right-wing forces is part and parcel of an attempt to block any and all communication by a distinguished, widely esteemed symbol of Palestinian resistance. Despite the attacks by some of the biggest global corporations, the full event was recorded by the organizers and will be made available to all. Palestinian women and Palestinian resistance will not be suppressed!

      We will be sharing actions and alerts in the coming days to hold accountable all of those responsible for these attacks.

      In the context of this event, we are sharing some existing videos of Leila Khaled as we look forward to seeing the full panel, to hear her voice of resistance and liberation and emphasize that the Palestinian struggle cannot and will not be silenced, despite apartheid, imperialism, reaction and corporate complicity. (...)

  • Israel cuts fuel, Gaza goes dark | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-cuts-fuel-gaza-goes-dark

    The Gaza Strip’s only power plant shut down on Tuesday after Israel stopped the transfer of fuel to the territory.

    The halting of fuel transfers is among a series of collective punishment measures Israel has imposed on Gaza.

    Israel has claimed the measures are a response to incendiary balloons released from Gaza. The launching of such balloons by some Palestinians is, in reality, a symbolic effort to draw attention to the deteriorating situation in Gaza, long subject to an Israeli siege.

    Although incendiary balloons caused several fires in Israel, “no injuries or damage have been reported,” according to The Jerusalem Post.

    #necropolitics #Gaza #Israel #électricité #énergie

    • Pour rappel : les punitions collections et l’intimidation des populations civiles relèvent du crime de guerre :

      Traités, États parties et Commentaires - Convention de Genève (IV) sur les personnes civiles, 1949 - 33 - Responsabilité individuelle. Peines collectives. Pillage. Représailles
      https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/dih-traites/WebART/380-600038

      ARTICLE 33 [ Link ] . - Aucune personne protégée ne peut être punie pour une infraction qu’elle n’a pas commise personnellement. Les peines collectives, de même que toute mesure d’intimidation ou de terrorisme, sont interdites.

      Le pillage est interdit.

      Les mesures de représailles à l’égard des personnes protégées et de leurs biens sont interdites.

    • Israeli Military Bombs Three Sites in the Gaza Strip
      Aug 21, 2020 – IMEMC News
      https://imemc.org/article/israeli-military-bombs-three-sites-in-the-gaza-strip

      The Israeli occupation army, at dawn Thursday, shelled three sites in the besieged Gaza Strip, with no reported casualties, the Palestinian Information Center reported.

      Local sources said the Israeli artillery bombed what the army describes as an observation post east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Similar posts were also bombed to the east of Juhor ad-Dik and al-Bureij refugee camp in the central coastal enclave.

      The Israeli occupation closed border crossings, banned fishing long the coast, and blocked fuel shipments, causing the power plant to shut down. Israel’s use of collective punishment against the 2 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, after a number of youths launched incendiary balloons sparking fires in Israeli areas.

      The occupying power has heavily fired missiles and shelled many sites of the Gaza Strip, in the most recent escalation by the Israeli military, has been ongoing since August 3, 2020, and has continued in short intervals of 1-3 days between rounds of bombing.

      #GAZA

      Israel Continues Heavy Bombardment of the Gaza Strip
      Aug 21, 2020 - Ali Salam
      https://imemc.org/article/israel-continues-heavy-bombardment-of-the-gaza-strip

      Israeli combat helicopters, late Thursday night struck a site west of Khan Younis city in the southern enclave with at least six missiles, the Palestinian WAFA News Agency reported.

      Israeli warplanes, early Friday morning, bombed several sites across the besieged Gaza Strip, according to WAFA correspondent.

      He said that Israeli military jets fired three missiles at a site west of Gaza city, in the central Strip, causing heavy destruction to the site as well as to nearby homes.

      Meanwhile, Israeli tanks fired artillery shells against farmlands to the east of Gaza city.

      The Israeli Air Force also fired two missiles and struck a site near Beit Lahia town in the north, causing major damage to the site and to adjacent houses.

      One Palestinian farmer was moderately injured during the assault on farmlands, located east of Khan Younis, the Palestinian Information Center reported.

      The condition of the wounded man was not known at the time of this report.

      Local sources said that Israel’s pre-dawn bombardment focused on the area surrounding Khan Younis, while other airstrikes hit the central Strip, near Gaza City, as well as Beit Lahia in the north.

      Sources added that Palestinian resistance groups responded to the attack by firing rockets towards Israeli settlements, 3 of which were intercepted by Israel’s missile defense system, known as the Iron Dome.

      For nearly two weeks now, Israel has been bombarding and shelling the coastal enclave, as well as tightening the already strict siege. The Israeli military is using excessive force on a population with no army, no navy, and no air-force.

  • On Israel, Kamala Harris breaks with liberal 2020 pack | McClatchy Washington Bureau
    https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article229180844.html

    Soutenir sans la moindre question Israël, c’est donc, à en croire cet article, adopter une approche « modérée », ou encore « centriste », vis-à-vis de la question palestinienne ! Pour le reste, c’est sans surprise... #usa #israël

    California Sen. Kamala Harris is resisting pressure from the left flank of her Democratic party to take a more critical stance on the Israeli government and its policies towards Palestinians, holding firmly to her moderate approach to U.S.-Israel relations in her 2020 run for president.

    In the Senate and on the campaign trail, Harris is opposing the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement targeting Israel, foreign aid cuts to the state, condemnatory votes on Israel at the United Nations and public criticism of its leadership — all tactics increasingly popular with the Democratic base and adopted by several of her Democratic presidential rivals.

    Unlike those rivals, Harris is standing by her association with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, as the advocacy organization becomes a lightning rod within the Democratic Party.

    “Her support for Israel is central to who she is,” Harris’ campaign communications director, Lily Adams, told McClatchy. “She is firm in her belief that Israel has a right to exist and defend itself, including against rocket attacks from Gaza.”

    Harris’ embrace of Israel — one of her first foreign travel destinations as senator — and her diplomatic response to some of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s most controversial policies are consistent with Democrats’ traditional support for the Jewish state.

    Her centrist positions on Israel could help her hit back against inevitable attacks from the Trump campaign, which has signaled that it plans to play up Democratic divisions on the issue in the general election.

    • How Biden VP Kamala Harris could tip U.S.
      Allison Kaplan Sommer, Amir Tibon | Aug. 12, 2020 | 12:13 PM - Haaretz.com
      https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-biden-harris-vp-israel-foreign-policy-1.9060875

      UPDATE: Biden announces Kamala Harris as running mate for 2020 election

      Many of the eulogies for Senator Kamala Harris’ promising but unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination blamed her campaign’s failure on the fact that she was seen as too progressive for the centrists who favored Biden – but not progressive enough for those who rallied around Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

      Harris certainly walked the tightrope on the issue of Israel: She is strongly in the moderate Biden column but has had to adjust her optics, if not the content of her stands to avoid alienating more progressive supporters.

      This process can be measured in her relationship with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Not long after her election as California senator, but well before her presidential bid, Harris was the star performer at the powerful pro-Israel lobby’s 2017 Policy Conference, in a much-quoted appearance: “Having grown up in the Bay Area, I fondly remember those Jewish National Fund boxes that we would use to collect donations to plant trees for Israel,” she said at that conference, followed by a rapturous travelogue of a recent tour of Israel and the West Bank, which she visited with her Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff, whom she married in an interfaith ceremony in 2014.

      She also co-sponsored a Senate resolution in January 2017 criticizing President Barack Obama – in his last week in office – for abstaining in a vote on a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s settlement policies.

      The following year, as she began to eye the 2020 presidential nomination, Harris did not appear publicly, but quietly attended an off-the-record session at AIPAC that was later revealed in social media posts by attendees. Then, in 2019, after the Democratic hopefuls came under pressure to boycott the confab, she stayed away – but made a point of releasing photos with AIPAC leaders in her Capitol Hill office, facing subsequent criticism from the left wing of the party.

      Like Biden, Harris strongly supports a two-state solution, and she has pleased AIPAC and other “pro-Israel” circles by speaking out in favor of Israel’s “right to defend itself” from Hamas attacks from the Gaza Strip, and saying that she didn’t think the United States should pressure Israel on peace with the Palestinians because a resolution “cannot be imposed by outside parties.” Those circles are surely less excited by her statements during the primary race endorsing the idea of the United States rejoining the Iran nuclear agreement under a new administration, but “look toward expanding it.”

      Following Biden’s announcement of his running mate, Halie Soifer, Harris’s former national security adviser and current executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said the senator “strongly aligns with the values of American Jews, including her support of the U.S.-Israel relationship, her commitment to ensuring access to affordable healthcare and education, her intolerance for hatred and bigotry, and her unwavering efforts to protect our country’s most vulnerable communities.”

      #Kamala_Harris #USA

    • Biden-Harris ticket a blow to Palestinian hopes
      Michael F. Brown Power Suits 12 August 2020 | The Electronic Intifada
      https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/biden-harris-ticket-blow-palestinian-hopes

      US Senator Kamala Harris of California is Joe Biden’s choice to be the Democratic vice presidential candidate.

      Palestine solidarity activists feared this moment. So, too, did a wide range of progressives.

      The worst possible candidate for the top of the ticket will now be joined by perhaps the most anti-Palestinian of the vice presidential candidates.

      In a year of protest against racist police violence, it is also noteworthy that Harris upheld convictions secured through official misconduct and was often not the “progressive prosecutor” she claims to be.

      Harris twice received financial support from Donald Trump when running for state attorney general. (...)

  • Jewish National Fund works hand in glove with Israeli military | The Electronic Intifada

    https://electronicintifada.net/content/jewish-national-fund-works-hand-glove-israeli-military/30716

    A propos d’Al-Araqib, le village bédouin qui a été détruit plus de 150 fois par les autorités israéliennes, et qui st systématiquement reconstruit. Mais c’est fatigant.

    The Jewish National Fund promotes itself as the “oldest green organization in the world.” By running social and environmental projects, the JNF has diverted attention away from how it has played a central role in the Zionist colonization of Palestine and, by extension, the dispossession of Palestinians.

    Almost 120 years after its inception, the JNF remains firmly committed to Zionism, the ideology underpinning Israel’s apartheid system.

    And a trawl through JNF documentation reveals that it enables Israeli violence on a massive scale.

    Unnoticed by the Western media, the organization – headquartered in Jerusalem – is hoping to implement an ambitious blueprint known as “Israel 2040.” It aims to settle 1.5 million Israelis in the Negev and Galilee regions over the coming two decades.