country:israël

  • Washington, Tel Aviv et Londres préparent-ils des bombardements contre l’Iran ? (Sputnik)
    https://www.crashdebug.fr/international/16226-washington-tel-aviv-et-londres-preparent-ils-des-bombardements-cont

    Israël se préparerait à des activités militaires contre l’Iran. La presse israélienne évoque des projets de raids communs au-dessus de la Syrie et de l’Iran avec des chasseurs-bombardiers de 5e génération F-35 de l’aviation américaine, israélienne et britannique.

    Les avions d’Israël, des Etats-Unis et de la Grande-Bretagne s’entraînent actuellement à interagir en conditions de guerre, écrit le quotidien Nezavissimaïa gazeta. Le Pentagone a projeté 12 F-22 sur sa base d’Al Oudeid au Qatar. Jérusalem a accusé les militaires russes d’utiliser des moyens de guerre électronique empêchant la navigation aérienne dans la région. Damas se dit « totalement prêt » à utiliser le système antiaérien S-300 fourni par la Russie fin 2018. Moscou ne nie pas l’éventualité de livrer des S-400 à (...)

  • Israeli forces injure 41 Palestinians at Gaza border
    Publish Date: 2019/07/05
    http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=3xvdtBa110847816651a3xvdtB

    GAZA, Friday, July 05, 2019 (WAFA) – At least 41 Palestinians were injured by live bullets or rubber-coated rounds today as Israeli forces attacked thousands of protesters taking part in the weekly Great March of Return at Gaza-Israel border, according to medical sources.

    Soldiers manning the separation fence fired live bullets and rubber-coated steel rounds at the protesters who gathered at many encampments along the border, injuring 22 protesters by live bullets and 19 others by rubber-coated rounds.

    Some of the wounded were moved to hospital and others were treated in the field hospitals.

    Over 300 Palestinians have been killed and about 17,000 others injured by Israeli forces since the outbreak of the Great March of Return protests at Gaza border on March 30, 2018.

    The weekly protests call for lifting the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and for the return of the Palestinian refugees to their ancestral homes in pre-1948 Palestine.

    M.N

    #marcheduretour 65

  • Burying the Nakba: How Israel systematically hides evidence of 1948 expulsion of Arabs
    By Hagar Shezaf Jul 05, 2019 - Israel News - Haaretz.com
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-how-israel-systematically-hides-evidence-of-1948-expulsio

    International forces overseeing the evacuation of Iraq al-Manshiyya, near today’s Kiryat Gat, in March, 1949. Collection of Benno Rothenberg/Israel State Archives

    Four years ago, historian Tamar Novick was jolted by a document she found in the file of Yosef Vashitz, from the Arab Department of the left-wing Mapam Party, in the Yad Yaari archive at Givat Haviva. The document, which seemed to describe events that took place during the 1948 war, began:

    “Safsaf [former Palestinian village near Safed] – 52 men were caught, tied them to one another, dug a pit and shot them. 10 were still twitching. Women came, begged for mercy. Found bodies of 6 elderly men. There were 61 bodies. 3 cases of rape, one east of from Safed, girl of 14, 4 men shot and killed. From one they cut off his fingers with a knife to take the ring.”

    The writer goes on to describe additional massacres, looting and abuse perpetrated by Israeli forces in Israel’s War of Independence. “There’s no name on the document and it’s not clear who’s behind it,” Dr. Novick tells Haaretz. “It also breaks off in the middle. I found it very disturbing. I knew that finding a document like this made me responsible for clarifying what happened.”

    The Upper Galilee village of Safsaf was captured by the Israel Defense Forces in Operation Hiram toward the end of 1948. Moshav Safsufa was established on its ruins. Allegations were made over the years that the Seventh Brigade committed war crimes in the village. Those charges are supported by the document Novick found, which was not previously known to scholars. It could also constitute additional evidence that the Israeli top brass knew about what was going on in real time.

    Novick decided to consult with other historians about the document. Benny Morris, whose books are basic texts in the study of the Nakba – the “calamity,” as the Palestinians refer to the mass emigration of Arabs from the country during the 1948 war – told her that he, too, had come across similar documentation in the past. He was referring to notes made by Mapam Central Committee member Aharon Cohen on the basis of a briefing given in November 1948 by Israel Galili, the former chief of staff of the Haganah militia, which became the IDF. Cohen’s notes in this instance, which Morris published, stated: “Safsaf 52 men tied with a rope. Dropped into a pit and shot. 10 were killed. Women pleaded for mercy. [There were] 3 cases of rape. Caught and released. A girl of 14 was raped. Another 4 were killed. Rings of knives.”

    Morris’ footnote (in his seminal “The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949”) states that this document was also found in the Yad Yaari Archive. But when Novick returned to examine the document, she was surprised to discover that it was no longer there.

    Palestine refugees initially displaced to Gaza board boats to Lebanon or Egypt, in 1949. Hrant Nakashian/1949 UN Archives

    “At first I thought that maybe Morris hadn’t been accurate in his footnote, that perhaps he had made a mistake,” Novick recalls. “It took me time to consider the possibility that the document had simply disappeared.” When she asked those in charge where the document was, she was told that it had been placed behind lock and key at Yad Yaari – by order of the Ministry of Defense.

    Since the start of the last decade, Defense Ministry teams have been scouring Israel’s archives and removing historic documents. But it’s not just papers relating to Israel’s nuclear project or to the country’s foreign relations that are being transferred to vaults: Hundreds of documents have been concealed as part of a systematic effort to hide evidence of the Nakba.

    The phenomenon was first detected by the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research. According to a report drawn up by the institute, the operation is being spearheaded by Malmab, the Defense Ministry’s secretive security department (the name is a Hebrew acronym for “director of security of the defense establishment”), whose activities and budget are classified. The report asserts that Malmab removed historical documentation illegally and with no authority, and at least in some cases has sealed documents that had previously been cleared for publication by the military censor. Some of the documents that were placed in vaults had already been published.
    An investigative report by Haaretz found that Malmab has concealed testimony from IDF generals about the killing of civilians and the demolition of villages, as well as documentation of the expulsion of Bedouin during the first decade of statehood. Conversations conducted by Haaretz with directors of public and private archives alike revealed that staff of the security department had treated the archives as their property, in some cases threatening the directors themselves.

    Yehiel Horev, who headed Malmab for two decades, until 2007, acknowledged to Haaretz that he launched the project, which is still ongoing. He maintains that it makes sense to conceal the events of 1948, because uncovering them could generate unrest among the country’s Arab population. Asked what the point is of removing documents that have already been published, he explained that the objective is to undermine the credibility of studies about the history of the refugee problem. In Horev’s view, an allegation made by a researcher that’s backed up by an original document is not the same as an allegation that cannot be proved or refuted.

    The document Novick was looking for might have reinforced Morris’ work. During the investigation, Haaretz was in fact able to find the Aharon Cohen memo, which sums up a meeting of Mapam’s Political Committee on the subject of massacres and expulsions in 1948. Participants in the meeting called for cooperation with a commission of inquiry that would investigate the events. One case the committee discussed concerned “grave actions” carried out in the village of Al-Dawayima, east of Kiryat Gat. One participant mentioned the then-disbanded Lehi underground militia in this connection. Acts of looting were also reported: “Lod and Ramle, Be’er Sheva, there isn’t [an Arab] store that hasn’t been broken into. 9th Brigade says 7, 7th Brigade says 8.”
    “The party,” the document states near the end, “is against expulsion if there is no military necessity for it. There are different approaches concerning the evaluation of necessity. And further clarification is best. What happened in Galilee – those are Nazi acts! Every one of our members must report what he knows.”

    The Israeli version
    One of the most fascinating documents about the origin of the Palestinian refugee problem was written by an officer in Shai, the precursor to the Shin Bet security service. It discusses why the country was emptied of so many of its Arab inhabitants, dwelling on the circumstances of each village. Compiled in late June 1948, it was titled “The Emigration of the Arabs of Palestine.”

    Read a translation of the document here (1)

    This document was the basis for an article that Benny Morris published in 1986. After the article appeared, the document was removed from the archive and rendered inaccessible to researchers. Years later, the Malmab team reexamined the document, and ordered that it remain classified. They could not have known that a few years later researchers from Akevot would find a copy of the text and run it past the military censors – who authorized its publication unconditionally. Now, after years of concealment, the gist of the document is being revealed here.

    The 25-page document begins with an introduction that unabashedly approves of the evacuation of the Arab villages. According to the author, the month of April “excelled in an increase of emigration,” while May “was blessed with the evacuation of maximum places.” The report then addresses “the causes of the Arab emigration.” According to the Israeli narrative that was disseminated over the years, responsibility for the exodus from Israel rests with Arab politicians who encouraged the population to leave. However, according to the document, 70 percent of the Arabs left as a result of Jewish military operations.

    Palestinian children awaiting distribution of milk by UNICEF at the Nazareth Franciscan Sisters’ convent, on January 1, 1950. AW / UN Photo

    The unnamed author of the text ranks the reasons for the Arabs’ departure in order of importance. The first reason: “Direct Jewish acts of hostility against Arab places of settlement.” The second reason was the impact of those actions on neighboring villages. Third in importance came “operations by the breakaways,” namely the Irgun and Lehi undergrounds. The fourth reason for the Arab exodus was orders issued by Arab institutions and “gangs” (as the document refers to all Arab fighting groups); fifth was “Jewish ’whispering operations’ to induce the Arab inhabitants to flee”; and the sixth factor was “evacuation ultimatums.”

    The author asserts that, “without a doubt, the hostile operations were the main cause of the movement of the population.” In addition, “Loudspeakers in the Arabic language proved their effectiveness on the occasions when they were utilized properly.” As for Irgun and Lehi operations, the report observes that “many in the villages of central Galilee started to flee following the abduction of the notables of Sheikh Muwannis [a village north of Tel Aviv]. The Arab learned that it is not enough to forge an agreement with the Haganah and that there are other Jews [i.e., the breakaway militias] to beware of.”

    The author notes that ultimatums to leave were especially employed in central Galilee, less so in the Mount Gilboa region. “Naturally, the act of this ultimatum, like the effect of the ’friendly advice,’ came after a certain preparing of the ground by means of hostile actions in the area.”
    An appendix to the document describes the specific causes of the exodus from each of scores of Arab locales: Ein Zeitun – “our destruction of the village”; Qeitiya – “harassment, threat of action”; Almaniya – “our action, many killed”; Tira – “friendly Jewish advice”; Al’Amarir – “after robbery and murder carried out by the breakaways”; Sumsum – “our ultimatum”; Bir Salim – “attack on the orphanage”; and Zarnuga – “conquest and expulsion.”

    Short fuse
    In the early 2000s, the Yitzhak Rabin Center conducted a series of interviews with former public and military figures as part of a project to document their activity in the service of the state. The long arm of Malmab seized on these interviews, too. Haaretz, which obtained the original texts of several of the interviews, compared them to the versions that are now available to the public, after large swaths of them were declared classified.

    These included, for example, sections of the testimony of Brig. Gen. (res.) Aryeh Shalev about the expulsion across the border of the residents of a village he called “Sabra.” Later in the interview, the following sentences were deleted: “There was a very serious problem in the valley. There were refugees who wanted to return to the valley, to the Triangle [a concentration of Arab towns and villages in eastern Israel]. We expelled them. I met with them to persuade them not to want that. I have papers about it.”

    In another case, Malmab decided to conceal the following segment from an interview that historian Boaz Lev Tov conducted with Maj. Gen. (res.) Elad Peled:
    Lev Tov: “We’re talking about a population – women and children?”
    Peled: “All, all. Yes.”
    Lev Tov: “Don’t you distinguish between them?”
    Peled: “The problem is very simple. The war is between two populations. They come out of their home.”
    Lev Tov: “If the home exists, they have somewhere to return to?”
    Peled: “It’s not armies yet, it’s gangs. We’re also actually gangs. We come out of the house and return to the house. They come out of the house and return to the house. It’s either their house or our house.”
    Lev Tov: “Qualms belong to the more recent generation?”
    Peled: “Yes, today. When I sit in an armchair here and think about what happened, all kinds of thoughts come to mind.”
    Lev Tov: “Wasn’t that the case then?”
    Peled: “Look, let me tell you something even less nice and cruel, about the big raid in Sasa [Palestinian village in Upper Galilee]. The goal was actually to deter them, to tell them, ‘Dear friends, the Palmach [the Haganah “shock troops”] can reach every place, you are not immune.’ That was the heart of the Arab settlement. But what did we do? My platoon blew up 20 homes with everything that was there.”
    Lev Tov: “While people were sleeping there?”
    Peled: “I suppose so. What happened there, we came, we entered the village, planted a bomb next to every house, and afterward Homesh blew on a trumpet, because we didn’t have radios, and that was the signal [for our forces] to leave. We’re running in reverse, the sappers stay, they pull, it’s all primitive. They light the fuse or pull the detonator and all those houses are gone.”

    IDF soldiers guarding Palestinians in Ramle, in 1948. Collection of Benno Rothenberg/The IDF and Defense Establishment Archives

    Another passage that the Defense Ministry wanted to keep from the public came from Dr. Lev Tov’s conversation with Maj. Gen. Avraham Tamir:
    Tamir: “I was under Chera [Maj. Gen. Tzvi Tzur, later IDF chief of staff], and I had excellent working relations with him. He gave me freedom of action – don’t ask – and I happened to be in charge of staff and operations work during two developments deriving from [Prime Minister David] Ben-Gurion’s policy. One development was when reports arrived about marches of refugees from Jordan toward the abandoned villages [in Israel]. And then Ben-Gurion lays down as policy that we have to demolish [the villages] so they won’t have anywhere to return to. That is, all the Arab villages, most of which were in [the area covered by] Central Command, most of them.”
    Lev Tov: “The ones that were still standing?”
    Tamir: “The ones that weren’t yet inhabited by Israelis. There were places where we had already settled Israelis, like Zakariyya and others. But most of them were still abandoned villages.”
    Lev Tov: “That were standing?”
    Tamir: “Standing. It was necessary for there to be no place for them to return to, so I mobilized all the engineering battalions of Central Command, and within 48 hours I knocked all those villages to the ground. Period. There’s no place to return to.”
    Lev Tov: “Without hesitation, I imagine.”
    Tamir: “Without hesitation. That was the policy. I mobilized, I carried it out and I did it.”

    Crates in vaults
    The vault of the Yad Yaari Research and Documentation Center is one floor below ground level. In the vault, which is actually a small, well-secured room, are stacks of crates containing classified documents. The archive houses the materials of the Hashomer Hatzair movement, the Kibbutz Ha’artzi kibbutz movement, Mapam, Meretz and other bodies, such as Peace Now.
    The archive’s director is Dudu Amitai, who is also chairman of the Association of Israel Archivists. According to Amitai, Malmab personnel visited the archive regularly between 2009 and 2011. Staff of the archive relate that security department teams – two Defense Ministry retirees with no archival training – would show up two or three times a week. They searched for documents according to such keywords as “nuclear,” “security” and “censorship,” and also devoted considerable time to the War of Independence and the fate of the pre-1948 Arab villages.
    “In the end, they submitted a summary to us, saying that they had located a few dozen sensitive documents,” Amitai says. “We don’t usually take apart files, so dozens of files, in their entirety, found their way into our vault and were removed from the public catalog.” A file might contain more than 100 documents.
    One of the files that was sealed deals with the military government that controlled the lives of Israel’s Arab citizens from 1948 until 1966. For years, the documents were stored in the same vault, inaccessible to scholars. Recently, in the wake of a request by Prof. Gadi Algazi, a historian from Tel Aviv University, Amitai examined the file himself and ruled that there was no reason not to unseal it, Malmab’s opinion notwithstanding.

    According to Algazi, there could be several reasons for Malmab’s decision to keep the file classified. One of them has to do with a secret annex it contains to a report by a committee that examined the operation of the military government. The report deals almost entirely with land-ownership battles between the state and Arab citizens, and barely touches on security matters.

    Another possibility is a 1958 report by the ministerial committee that oversaw the military government. In one of the report’s secret appendixes, Col. Mishael Shaham, a senior officer in the military government, explains that one reason for not dismantling the martial law apparatus is the need to restrict Arab citizens’ access to the labor market and to prevent the reestablishment of destroyed villages.
    A third possible explanation for hiding the file concerns previously unpublished historical testimony about the expulsion of Bedouin. On the eve of Israel’s establishment, nearly 100,000 Bedouin lived in the Negev. Three years later, their number was down to 13,000. In the years during and after the independence war, a number of expulsion operations were carried out in the country’s south. In one case, United Nations observers reported that Israel had expelled 400 Bedouin from the Azazma tribe and cited testimonies of tents being burned. The letter that appears in the classified file describes a similar expulsion carried out as late as 1956, as related by geologist Avraham Parnes:

    The evacuation of Iraq al-Manshiyya, near today’s Kiryat Gat, in March, 1949. Collection of Benno Rothenberg/The IDF and Defense Establishment Archives

    “A month ago we toured Ramon [crater]. The Bedouin in the Mohila area came to us with their flocks and their families and asked us to break bread with them. I replied that we had a great deal of work to do and didn’t have time. In our visit this week, we headed toward Mohila again. Instead of the Bedouin and their flocks, there was deathly silence. Scores of camel carcasses were scattered in the area. We learned that three days earlier the IDF had ‘screwed’ the Bedouin, and their flocks were destroyed – the camels by shooting, the sheep with grenades. One of the Bedouin, who started to complain, was killed, the rest fled.”

    The testimony continued, “Two weeks earlier, they’d been ordered to stay where they were for the time being, afterward they were ordered to leave, and to speed things up 500 head were slaughtered.... The expulsion was executed ‘efficiently.’” The letter goes on to quote what one of the soldiers said to Parnes, according to his testimony: “They won’t go unless we’ve screwed their flocks. A young girl of about 16 approached us. She had a beaded necklace of brass snakes. We tore the necklace and each of us took a bead for a souvenir.”

    The letter was originally sent to MK Yaakov Uri, from Mapai (forerunner of Labor), who passed it on to Development Minister Mordechai Bentov (Mapam). “His letter shocked me,” Uri wrote Bentov. The latter circulated the letter among all the cabinet ministers, writing, “It is my opinion that the government cannot simply ignore the facts related in the letter.” Bentov added that, in light of the appalling contents of the letter, he asked security experts to check its credibility. They had confirmed that the contents “do in fact generally conform to the truth.”

    Nuclear excuse
    It was during the tenure of historian Tuvia Friling as Israel’s chief archivist, from 2001 to 2004, that Malmab carried out its first archival incursions. What began as an operation to prevent the leakage of nuclear secrets, he says, became, in time, a large-scale censorship project.
    “I resigned after three years, and that was one of the reasons,” Prof. Friling says. “The classification placed on the document about the Arabs’ emigration in 1948 is precisely an example of what I was apprehensive about. The storage and archival system is not an arm of the state’s public relations. If there’s something you don’t like – well, that’s life. A healthy society also learns from its mistakes.”

    Why did Friling allow the Defense Ministry to have access the archives? The reason, he says, was the intention to give the public access to archival material via the internet. In discussions about the implications of digitizing the material, concern was expressed that references in the documents to a “certain topic” would be made public by mistake. The topic, of course, is Israel’s nuclear project. Friling insists that the only authorization Malmab received was to search for documents on that subject.

    But Malmab’s activity is only one example of a broader problem, Friling notes: “In 1998, the confidentiality of the [oldest documents in the] Shin Bet and Mossad archives expired. For years those two institutions disdained the chief archivist. When I took over, they requested that the confidentiality of all the material be extended [from 50] to 70 years, which is ridiculous – most of the material can be opened.”

    In 2010, the confidentiality period was extended to 70 years; last February it was extended again, to 90 years, despite the opposition of the Supreme Council of Archives. “The state may impose confidentiality on some of its documentation,” Friling says. “The question is whether the issue of security doesn’t act as a kind of cover. In many cases, it’s already become a joke.”
    In the view of Yad Yaari’s Dudu Amitai, the confidentiality imposed by the Defense Ministry must be challenged. In his period at the helm, he says, one of the documents placed in the vault was an order issued by an IDF general, during a truce in the War of Independence, for his troops to refrain from rape and looting. Amitai now intends to go over the documents that were deposited in the vault, especially 1948 documents, and open whatever is possible. “We’ll do it cautiously and responsibly, but recognizing that the State of Israel has to learn how to cope with the less pleasant aspects of its history.”
    In contrast to Yad Yaari, where ministry personnel no longer visit, they are continuing to peruse documents at Yad Tabenkin, the research and documentation center of the United Kibbutz Movement. The director, Aharon Azati, reached an agreement with the Malmab teams under which documents will be transferred to the vault only if he is convinced that this is justified. But in Yad Tabenkin, too, Malmab has broadened its searches beyond the realm of nuclear project to encompass interviews conducted by archival staff with former members of the Palmach, and has even perused material about the history of the settlements in the occupied territories.

    Malmab has, for example, shown interest in the Hebrew-language book “A Decade of Discretion: Settlement Policy in the Territories 1967-1977,” published by Yad Tabenkin in 1992, and written by Yehiel Admoni, director of the Jewish Agency’s Settlement Department during the decade he writes about. The book mentions a plan to settle Palestinian refugees in the Jordan Valley and to the uprooting of 1,540 Bedouin families from the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip in 1972, including an operation that included the sealing of wells by the IDF. Ironically, in the case of the Bedouin, Admoni quotes former Justice Minister Yaakov Shimshon Shapira as saying, “It is not necessary to stretch the security rationale too far. The whole Bedouin episode is not a glorious chapter of the State of Israel.”

    Palestinian refugees leaving their village, unknown location, 1948. UNRWA

    According to Azati, “We are moving increasingly to a tightening of the ranks. Although this is an era of openness and transparency, there are apparently forces that are pulling in the opposite direction.”
    Unauthorized secrecy
    About a year ago, the legal adviser to the State Archives, attorney Naomi Aldouby, wrote an opinion titled “Files Closed Without Authorization in Public Archives.” According to her, the accessibility policy of public archives is the exclusive purview of the director of each institution.
    Despite Aldouby’s opinion, however, in the vast majority of cases, archivists who encountered unreasonable decisions by Malmab did not raise objections – that is, until 2014, when Defense Ministry personnel arrived at the archive of the Harry S. Truman Research Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. To the visitors’ surprise, their request to examine the archive – which contains collections of former minister and diplomat Abba Eban and Maj. Gen. (res.) Shlomo Gazit – was turned down by its then director, Menahem Blondheim.

    According to Blondheim, “I told them that the documents in question were decades old, and that I could not imagine that there was any security problem that would warrant restricting their access to researchers. In response, they said, ‘And let’s say there is testimony here that wells were poisoned in the War of Independence?’ I replied, ‘Fine, those people should be brought to trial.’”
    Blondheim’s refusal led to a meeting with a more senior ministry official, only this time the attitude he encountered was different and explicit threats were made. Finally the two sides reached an accommodation.
    Benny Morris is not surprised at Malmab’s activity. “I knew about it,” he says “Not officially, no one informed me, but I encountered it when I discovered that documents I had seen in the past are now sealed. There were documents from the IDF Archive that I used for an article about Deir Yassin, and which are now sealed. When I came to the archive, I was no longer allowed to see the original, so I pointed out in a footnote [in the article] that the State Archive had denied access to documents that I had published 15 years earlier.”
    The Malmab case is only one example of the battle being waged for access to archives in Israel. According to the executive director of the Akevot Institute, Lior Yavne, “The IDF Archive, which is the largest archive in Israel, is sealed almost hermetically. About 1 percent of the material is open. The Shin Bet archive, which contains materials of immense importance [to scholars], is totally closed apart from a handful of documents.”

    A report written by Yaacov Lozowick, the previous chief archivist at the State Archives, upon his retirement, refers to the defense establishment’s grip on the country’s archival materials. In it, he writes, “A democracy must not conceal information because it is liable to embarrass the state. In practice, the security establishment in Israel, and to a certain extent that of foreign relations as well, are interfering with the [public] discussion.”

    Advocates of concealment put forward several arguments, Lozowick notes: “The uncovering of the facts could provide our enemies with a battering ram against us and weaken the determination of our friends; it’s liable to stir up the Arab population; it could enfeeble the state’s arguments in courts of law; and what is revealed could be interpreted as Israeli war crimes.” However, he says, “All these arguments must be rejected. This is an attempt to hide part of the historical truth in order to construct a more convenient version.”

    What Malmab says
    Yehiel Horev was the keeper of the security establishment’s secrets for more than two decades. He headed the Defense Ministry’s security department from 1986 until 2007 and naturally kept out of the limelight. To his credit, he now agreed to talk forthrightly to Haaretz about the archives project.
    “I don’t remember when it began,” Horev says, “but I do know that I started it. If I’m not mistaken, it started when people wanted to publish documents from the archives. We had to set up teams to examine all outgoing material.”
    From conversations with archive directors, it’s clear that a good deal of the documents on which confidentiality was imposed relate to the War of Independence. Is concealing the events of 1948 part of the purpose of Malmab?

    Palestinian refugees in the Ramle area, 1948. Boris Carmi / The IDF and Defense Establishment Archives

    “What does ‘part of the purpose’ mean? The subject is examined based on an approach of whether it could harm Israel’s foreign relations and the defense establishment. Those are the criteria. I think it’s still relevant. There has not been peace since 1948. I may be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge the Arab-Israeli conflict has not been resolved. So yes, it could be that problematic subjects remain.”

    Asked in what way such documents might be problematic, Horev speaks of the possibility of agitation among the country’s Arab citizens. From his point of view, every document must be perused and every case decided on its merits.

    If the events of 1948 weren’t known, we could argue about whether this approach is the right one. That is not the case. Many testimonies and studies have appeared about the history of the refugee problem. What’s the point of hiding things?
    “The question is whether it can do harm or not. It’s a very sensitive matter. Not everything has been published about the refugee issue, and there are all kinds of narratives. Some say there was no flight at all, only expulsion. Others say there was flight. It’s not black-and-white. There’s a difference between flight and those who say they were forcibly expelled. It’s a different picture. I can’t say now if it merits total confidentiality, but it’s a subject that definitely has to be discussed before a decision is made about what to publish.”

    For years, the Defense Ministry has imposed confidentiality on a detailed document that describes the reasons for the departure of those who became refugees. Benny Morris has already written about the document, so what’s the logic of keeping it hidden?
    “I don’t remember the document you’re referring to, but if he quoted from it and the document itself is not there [i.e., where Morris says it is], then his facts aren’t strong. If he says, ‘Yes, I have the document,’ I can’t argue with that. But if he says that it’s written there, that could be right and it could be wrong. If the document were already outside and were sealed in the archive, I would say that that’s folly. But if someone quoted from it – there’s a difference of day and night in terms of the validity of the evidence he cited.”

    In this case, we’re talking about the most quoted scholar when it comes to the Palestinian refugees.
    “The fact that you say ‘scholar’ makes no impression on me. I know people in academia who spout nonsense about subjects that I know from A to Z. When the state imposes confidentiality, the published work is weakened, because he doesn’t have the document.”

    But isn’t concealing documents based on footnotes in books an attempt to lock the barn door after the horses have bolted?
    “I gave you an example that this needn’t be the case. If someone writes that the horse is black, if the horse isn’t outside the barn, you can’t prove that it’s really black.”

    There are legal opinions stating that Malmab’s activity in the archives is illegal and unauthorized.
    “If I know that an archive contains classified material, I am empowered to tell the police to go there and confiscate the material. I can also utilize the courts. I don’t need the archivist’s authorization. If there is classified material, I have the authority to act. Look, there’s policy. Documents aren’t sealed for no reason. And despite it all, I won’t say to you that everything that’s sealed is 100 percent justified [in being sealed].”

    The Defense Ministry refused to respond to specific questions regarding the findings of this investigative report and made do with the following response: “The director of security of the defense establishment operates by virtue of his responsibility to protect the state’s secrets and its security assets. The Malmab does not provide details about its mode of activity or its missions.”

    Lee Rotbart assisted in providing visual research for this article.

    (1) https://www.haaretz.co.il/st/inter/Heng/1948.pdf

  • Israël a rétabli ses liens avec Oman, annonce le chef du Mossad
    OLJ/AFP - 01/07/2019
    https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1177129/israel-a-retabli-ses-liens-avec-oman-annonce-le-chef-du-mossad.html
    https://s.olj.me/storage/attachments/1178/NIR01_ISRAEL-MOSSAD-_0701_11-1561974775_776235.jpg/r/800 Yossi Cohen, chef des services secrets israéliens, le Mossad. Photo d’archives. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

    Le climat actuel crée « une opportunité sans précédent, peut-être même la première de l’histoire du Moyen-Orient, pour atteindre une entente régionale qui pourrait mener à un accord de paix global », souligne Yossi Cohen.

    Israël a rétabli des « relations officielles » avec le sultanat d’Oman, médiateur discret dans plusieurs crises régionales, a annoncé lundi le chef des services secrets israéliens, le Mossad.

    « Tout récemment, le rétablissement de relations officielles avec Oman a été annoncé ainsi que la mise en place d’un bureau de représentation du ministère (israélien) des Affaires étrangères dans ce pays », a déclaré Yossi Cohen, lors d’une conférence à Herzliya, près de Tel-Aviv.

    Dans les années 1990, Israël et Oman avaient ouvert chacun un bureau de représentation commerciale avant que le sultanat ne décide de les fermer en 2000, dans le sillage de la deuxième Intifada palestinienne.

    Le rétablissement des liens entre les deux pays est « la partie visible d’un effort bien plus large, qui reste secret », selon M. Cohen.

    Cette annonce intervient quelques jours après une conférence à Bahreïn sur le volet économique d’un plan américain censé ouvrir la voie à un règlement du conflit israélo-palestinien. L’Autorité palestinienne a boycotté cette rencontre, accusant Washington de partialité pro-Israël. Israël n’a pas dépêché de représentant officiel, mais fait sans précédent, des chercheurs et des journalistes israéliens, invités par la Maison Blanche, y côtoyaient, dans les grandes salles, des officiels des pays du Golfe. Des représentants du sultanat d’Oman étaient également présents.

    Jeudi, le chef de la diplomatie bahreïnie a déclaré que l’Etat hébreu faisait partie de « l’héritage de cette région historiquement » et que « le peuple juif a une place parmi nous », des déclarations inédites. (...)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    – ’Tragédie’-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    • Ethiopian-Israelis Protest for 3rd Day After Fatal Police Shooting

      Ethiopian-Israelis and their supporters took to the streets across the country on Wednesday for a third day of protests in an outpouring of rage after an off-duty police officer fatally shot a black youth, and the Israeli police turned out in force to try to keep the main roads open.

      The mostly young demonstrators have blocked major roads and junctions, paralyzing traffic during the evening rush hour, with disturbances extending into the night, protesting what community activists describe as deeply ingrained racism and discrimination in Israeli society.

      Scores have been injured — among them many police officers, according to the emergency services — and dozens of protesters have been detained, most of them briefly. Israeli leaders called for calm; fewer protesters turned out on Wednesday.

      “We must stop, I repeat, stop and think together how we go on from here,” President Reuven Rivlin said on Wednesday. “None of us have blood that is thicker than anyone else’s, and the lives of our brothers and sisters will never be forfeit.”
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      On Tuesday night, rioters threw stones and firebombs at the police and overturned and set fire to cars in chaotic scenes rarely witnessed in the center of Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities.

      After initially holding back, the police fired stun grenades, tear gas and hard sponge bullets and sent in officers on horseback, prompting demonstrators to accuse them of the kind of police brutality that they had turned out to protest in the first place.

      The man who was killed, Solomon Tekah, 18, arrived from Ethiopia with his family seven years ago. On Sunday night, he was with friends in the northern port city of Haifa, outside a youth center he attended. An altercation broke out, and a police officer, who was out with his wife and children, intervened.

      The officer said that the youths had thrown stones that struck him and that he believed that he was in a life-threatening situation. He drew his gun and said he fired toward the ground, according to Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman.

      Mr. Tekah’s friends said that they were just trying to get away after the officer began harassing them. Whether the bullet ricocheted or was fired directly at Mr. Tekah, it hit him in the chest, killing him.

      “He was one of the favorites,” said Avshalom Zohar-Sal, 22, a youth leader at the center, Beit Yatziv, which offers educational enrichment and tries to keep underprivileged youth out of trouble. Mr. Zohar-Sal, who was not there at the time of the shooting, said that another youth leader had tried to resuscitate Mr. Tekah.

      The police officer who shot Mr. Tekah is under investigation by the Justice Ministry. His rapid release to house arrest has further inflamed passions around what Mr. Tekah’s supporters call his murder.

      In a televised statement on Tuesday as violence raged, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that all Israel embraced the family of the dead youth and the Ethiopian community in general. But he added: “We are a nation of law; we will not tolerate the blocking of roads. I ask you, let us solve the problems together while upholding the law.”

      Many other Israelis said that while they were sympathetic to the Ethiopian-Israelis’ cause — especially after the death of Mr. Tekah — the protesters had “lost them” because of the ensuing violence and vandalism.

      Reflecting a gulf of disaffection, Ethiopian-Israeli activists said that they believed that the rest of Israeli society had never really supported them.

      “When were they with us? When?” asked Eyal Gato, 33, an Ethiopian-born activist who came to Israel in 1991 in the airlift known as Operation Solomon, which brought 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel within 36 hours.

      The airlift was a cause of national celebration at the time, and many of the immigrants bent down to kiss the tarmac. But integration has since proved difficult for many, with rates of truancy, suicide, divorce and domestic violence higher than in the rest of Israeli society.

      Mr. Gato, a postgraduate student of sociology who works for an immigrant organization called Olim Beyahad, noted that the largely poor Ethiopian-Israeli community of about 150,000, which is less than 2 percent of the population, had little electoral or economic clout.

      He compared their situation to African-Americans in Chicago or Ferguson, Mo., but said that the Israeli iteration of “Black Lives Matter” had no organized movement behind it, and that the current protests had been spontaneous.

      Recalling his own experiences — such as being pulled over by the police a couple of years ago when he was driving a Toyota from work in a well-to-do part of Rehovot, in central Israel, and being asked what he was doing there in that car — Mr. Gato said he had to carry his identity card with him at all times “to prove I’m not a criminal.”

      The last Ethiopian protests broke out in 2015, after a soldier of Ethiopian descent was beaten by two Israeli police officers as he headed home in uniform in a seemingly unprovoked assault that was caught on video. At the time, Mr. Gato said, 40 percent of the inmates of Israel’s main youth detention center had an Ethiopian background. Since 1997, he said, a dozen young Ethiopian-Israelis have died in encounters with the police.

      A government committee set up after that episode to stamp out racism against Ethiopian-Israelis acknowledged the existence of institutional racism in areas such as employment, military enlistment and the police, and recommended that officers wear body cameras.

      “Ethiopians are seen as having brought their values of modesty and humility with them,” Mr. Gato said. “They expect us to continue to be nice and to demonstrate quietly.”

      But the second generation of the Ethiopian immigration has proved less passive than their parents, who were grateful for being brought to Israel.

      The grievances go back at least to the mid-1990s. Then, Ethiopian immigrants exploded in rage when reports emerged that Israel was secretly dumping the blood they donated for fear that it was contaminated with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

      “The community is frustrated and in pain,” said one protester, Rachel Malada, 23, from Rehovot, who was born in Gondar Province in Ethiopia and who was brought to Israel at the age of 2 months.

      “This takes us out to the streets, because we must act up,” she said. “Our parents cannot do this, but we must.”

      https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/03/world/middleeast/ethiopia-israel-police-shooting.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

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

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

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

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

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

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

    #émeutesisraéliennes

    • Family of Ethiopian Israeli Shot Dead by Police Urges Halt to Protests

      Major Tel Aviv junction blocked in third day of unrest ■ Dozens of demonstrators arrested
      Yaniv Kubovich, Almog Ben Zikri, Josh Breiner , Bar Peleg, Noa Shpigel and Aaron Rabinowitz Jul 03, 2019 7:45 PM
      https://www.haaretz.com/police-brace-for-third-day-of-protests-over-shooting-of-ethiopian-israeli-t

      The family of an Ethiopian Israeli teen whose shooting death by an off-duty police officer sparked a wave of prortests across the country called Wednesday for demonstrations to be put on hold, as they enter their third day.

      A friend of the 18-year-old Solomon Teka’s family said his father asked for protests to halt until the seven days of Jewish mourning, known as shiva, are over.

      Although police warned earlier on Wednesday they would not allow roads blockages, demonstrators were attempting to disrupt traffic in a number of locations across Israel.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVtTSNHLoz0

      Seven people who were trying to block a road south of Tel Aviv, were forcibly removed by police and detained. One protester has been arrested in the northern city of Kiryat Ata, where about 100 people have gathered and begun marching toward the Zevulun police station. Five more people were detained for attempting to block access to a police station in Yavne.

      Speaking at a meeting of ministers tasked with advancing the integration of the Ethiopian Israeli community Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Netanyahu called on lawmakers to “exert their influence” and stop the violence immediately. “The death of Solomon Teka is a big tragedy, but we cannot tolerate this violence,” he said.

      Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said that police forces were bracing for heightened tensions after Tuesday night’s protest against police brutality and racism toward Jews of Ethiopian descent turned violent, with 136 arrests and 111 injured policemen. The arrests were for allegedly attacking policemen, vandalism, and gross disturbance of public order.

      One protester’s remand was extended until Friday, for allegedly setting a car on fire in Tel Aviv. Another protester’s remand has been extended until 8:00 P.M. Wednesday for attempting to run over a police officer. A 24-year-old was arrested in Ashdod after he was caught on video lighting a border policeman’s uniform on fire. Police identified him and arrested him Wednesday.

      Erdan also noted that police had information that some protesters were planning to arm themselves and try to shoot policemen during the upcoming protests.

      The police announced that it will not allow protesters to block main roads on Wednesday, after roads were blocked throughout Israel on Tuesday evening, causing mass traffic jams. Magen David Adom stated that in the protests the night before, beyond the 111 officers who were hurt, 26 protesters were also injured, nine passers-by, and one firefighter. MDA also said that seven of its ambulances and four emergency first-aid motorbikes were damaged by rock-throwers.

      Police employed means of riot control Tuesday, including tear gas and stun grenades, as protesters closed down main city arteries, burning tires and vandalizing cars. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio that while he understands the frustration and suffering of tens of thousands, the police did what they had to do. Erdan also vowed that the violence would not recur, and that if necessary, police would defend themselves.

      People were incited through social media, he said, boosting the violence to levels previously unknown, such as the throwing of a firebomb at a police station. He reiterated intense regret and sorrow over Teka’s death but added that the incident is not representative of change in the Israeli police in recent years.

      Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the “Ethiopian community is dear to us,” however the state is not prepared to tolerate blocking of roads or violence “including firebombs thrown toward our forces, the burning of cars or any other civilian property. We are a law-abiding nation. We demand that everyone respect the law.”

      Netanyahu convened a committee of ministers Wednesday night to advance the integration of the Ethiopian community and discuss “excessive policing and the patterns of behavior toward of those of Ethiopian descent.” Netanyahu added, “we’ve already seen improvement in this area and it seems that we need to make many more improvements.”

      In the northern city of Kiryat Ata, over a thousand marched on the Zevulun police station and smoke grenades were thrown into the station. Around 200 demonstrators in Afula blocked traffic on one of the northern city’s main streets. Meanwhile, major roads in several cities, including Tel Aviv and Haifa, were blocked by demonstrators burning tires.

      President Reuven Rivlin called for restraint and dialogue: “The rage must not be expressed in violence,” he tweeted. “The handful who chose violence are not the face of the protest and must not become the face of the protest, which we very much understand.” Rivlin called for a meeting together with representatives of all the parties involved in public safety: “Only through open conversation, difficult as it is, can change be achieved.”

      On Monday the police said that Teka may have been hit by a bullet ricocheting off the ground.

    • Rage Against the Police: 13 Photos From Ethiopian Israelis’ Protest

      Escalating demonstrations over the death of 18-year-old Ethiopian Israeli teen Solomon Teka are entering the third day
      By Haaretz Jul 03, 2019
      https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/MAGAZINE-in-photos-thousands-of-ethiopian-israelis-protest-police-brutality

      Israelis of Ethiopian origin are demonstrating throughout Israel following the death Sunday of 18-year old Solomon Teka, who was shot by police.

      Some of the protests quickly became violent when demonstrators blocked main roads and set on fire a car of a passerby who tried to drive through the blockade.

      A protester is throwing a scooter at a burning car during the Ethiopian Israeli protest in Tel Aviv. Credit : Tomer Appelbaum


      Protesters show photos of 18-year old Solomon Teka of Ethiopian descent, who died after he was shot by police, in Tel Aviv. Credit : Tomer Appelbaum

      A protester stands opposite to a policeman during the protest of Ethiopian Israelis, in Tel Aviv. Credit \ CORINNA KERN/ REUTERS

    • Nouvelle journée de manifestations après la mort d’un Israélien d’origine éthiopienne
      3 juillet 2019
      https://www.lavenir.net/cnt/dmf20190703_01354547/nouvelle-journee-de-manifestations-apres-la-mort-d-un-israelien-d-origine-e

      (Belga) Des manifestations ont eu lieu mercredi à Tel-Aviv et dans le nord d’Israël pour la troisième journée consécutive, après le décès d’un jeune Israélien d’origine éthiopienne, tué par un policier, la communauté éthiopienne dénonçant un crime raciste.
      Solomon Teka, âgé de 19 ans, a été tué dimanche soir par un policier qui n’était pas en service au moment des faits, à Kiryat Haim, une ville proche du port de Haïfa, dans le nord d’Israël. Des dizaines de policiers ont été déployés mercredi dans la ville de Kiryat Ata, non loin de Kiryat Haim. Des manifestants tentant de bloquer une route ont été dispersés par la police. Malgré des appels au calme lancés par les autorités, des jeunes se sont aussi à nouveau rassemblés à Tel-Aviv. Une centaine de personnes ont défié la police en bloquant une route avant d’être dispersées. En trois jours, 140 personnes ont été arrêtées et 111 policiers blessés par des jets de pierres, bouteilles et bombes incendiaires lors des manifestations dans le pays, selon un nouveau bilan de la police. Les embouteillages et les images de voitures en feu ont fait la une des médias. Le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu et le président israélien Reuven Rivlin ont appelé au calme, tout en reconnaissant que les problèmes auxquels était confrontée la communauté israélo-éthiopienne devaient être traités. « La mort de Solomon Teka est une immense tragédie », a dit le Premier ministre. « Des leçons seront tirées. Mais une chose est claire : nous ne pouvons tolérer les violences que nous avons connues hier », a-t-il déclaré mercredi lors d’une réunion du comité ministériel sur l’intégration de la communauté éthiopienne. « Nous ne pouvons pas voir de routes bloquées, ni de cocktails Molotov, ni d’attaques contre des policiers, des citoyens et des propriétés privées », a-t-il ajouté. (...)

    • Les Israéliens éthiopiens s’interrogent : « Nos vies ont-elles moins de prix ? »
      Selon les manifestants, c’est un racisme systématique qui s’exprime derrière les violences policières répétées contre les jeunes noirs en Israël - et qui ont pu entraîner la mort
      Par Simona Weinglass 3 juillet 2019, 14:41
      https://fr.timesofisrael.com/les-israeliens-ethiopiens-sinterrogent-nos-vies-ont-elles-moins-de

      Pour ces jeunes Israéliens d’origine éthiopienne qui manifestent, mardi, pour dénoncer le meurtre d’un membre de leur communauté par un policier, ce n’est pas seulement l’expression d’une colère contre ce qu’ils considèrent comme un racisme systématique profondément ancré du côté des forces de l’ordre.

      C’est aussi un cri exprimant une frustration entraînée par des promesses de changement, maintes fois répétées et qui n’ont rien changé.

      Dans tout le pays, ce sont des milliers de manifestants issus de la communauté et leurs soutiens qui ont bloqué les routes pour faire part de leur fureur après la mort de Solomon Tekah, qui a été abattu cette semaine par un agent de police qui n’était pas en service à ce moment-là.
      (...)
      Une jeune femme d’une vingtaine d’années, vêtue d’une robe d’été et originaire de Ness Ziona, dans le centre d’Israël, confie : « Je suis complètement bouleversée. D’abord, on se dit : OK, c’est arrivé une fois mais ça n’arrivera plus. La fois suivante, on se dit : d’accord, peut-être qu’ils vont enfin régler ça ».

      « Mais quand ça devient systématique, alors là vous vous demandez si effectivement votre vie a moins de prix qu’une autre ? », lance-t-elle.

      « Ce jeune », ajoute-t-elle en évoquant Tekah, « ses parents lui ont donné tout ce qu’ils avaient. Ils l’ont élevé pendant toutes ces années. Et un jour, quelqu’un a décidé qu’il était autorisé à l’abattre ».

      Tekah est mort au cours d’une altercation survenue dimanche à Haïfa, dans le quartier Kiryat Haim.

      Un témoin de la fusillade aurait indiqué au département des enquêtes internes de la police, qui dépend du ministère de la Défense, que contrairement à ce qu’a pu affirmer le policier incriminé, ce dernier ne semblait pas être en danger quand il a ouvert le feu.

      L’agent a été brièvement placé en détention avant d’être assigné à domicile, attisant la colère au sein de la communauté.(...)

    • Solomon Tekah : Sa famille recevra 1,8 million de shekels
      14 janvier 2022 - The Times of Israël
      https://fr.timesofisrael.com/solomon-tekah-sa-famille-recevra-18-million-de-shekels

      La famille d’un adolescent israélien d’origine éthiopienne tué lors d’une fusillade mortelle avec la police en 2019 devrait recevoir 1,8 million de shekels dans le cadre du règlement d’un procès civil contre la police israélienne, selon e site d’information Ynet.

      La famille de Solomon Tekah, 19 ans, avait porté plainte et réclamé 2,5 millions shekels de dommages et intérêts contre la police après qu’un officier a causé sa mort lors d’une fusillade.

      L’événement avait entraîné de nombreuses protestations contre la brutalité policière, dont certaines ont tourné à la violence.

  • La dangereuse idée d’une propriété juive de Jérusalem
    Chris den Hond > 1er juillet 2019
    https://orientxxi.info/magazine/la-dangereuse-idee-d-une-propriete-juive-de-jerusalem,3189
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWAu3ChZf84


    ““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““"

    Des pro-palestiniens manifestent contre l’inauguration de la place de Jérusalem à Paris (IMAGES) — RT en français
    https://francais.rt.com/france/63492-pro-palestiniens-manifestent-contre-inauguration-place-de-jerusal

    Des dizaines de militants pro-palestiniens ont manifesté contre l’inauguration par Anne Hidalgo de la place de Jérusalem à Paris, en présence du maire Moshe Leon. Ils voient en cet événement un appui à la politique de colonisation d’Israël.

    Un rassemblement pro-palestinien s’est tenu ce 30 juin à Paris afin de protester contre l’inauguration de la place de Jérusalem. Cette place, premier espace public de la capitale française à porter ce nom depuis 1883, a été inaugurée à l’intersection de la rue de Courcelles et du boulevard de Reims, en présence de la maire de Paris Anne Hidalgo et du maire du XVIIe arrondissement, Geoffroy Boulard. Le maire de Jérusalem, Moshe Leon, était lui aussi présent.

    Tandis que la cérémonie se déroulait bien encadrée par un important dispositif policier, des protestataires se sont rassemblés quelques centaines de mètres plus loin, accusant la mairie de Paris d’apporter un soutien à la politique de colonisation menée par le gouvernement israélien dans les territoires palestiniens.

    #PlaceJerusalem

  • Feu sur la liberté d’expression en Europe
    dimanche 30 juin 2019 par Coordination nationale de l’UJFP
    http://www.ujfp.org/spip.php?article7264

    Il aura fallu que Yossi Bartal, guide au musée juif de Berlin, démissionne pour qu’apparaissent toutes les manœuvres de l’État d’Israël, toutes ses compromissions aussi.

    La démission de Yossi Bartal(1) se produit huit jours après celle du Directeur du musée, Peter Schäfer (2).

    Peter Schäfer avait protesté avec 240 intellectuels juifs (dont Avraham Burg et Eva Illouz) pour s’opposer à une motion du Parlement allemand qui considérait le mouvement BDS comme antisémite. Il a été directement attaqué par l’ambassadeur d’Israël, Jeremy Issacharoff et Josef Schuster, directeur de l’équivalent du Crif allemand qui n’ont pas hésité à utiliser des « fake news » pour le salir.

    L’année dernière déjà le budget d’une exposition consacrée à Jérusalem, montrant aussi son versant palestinien a été divisé par 2 à la suite d’une intervention de Benjamin Netanyahou (qui réclamait l’annulation totale du budget). De son côté, Josef Schuster avait critiqué le fait que la majorité des employés du musée n’étaient pas juifs. Et les détracteurs de la liberté d’esprit du musée sont soutenus par l’ALD, le parti d’extrême droite…

    Un panier de crabe insoupçonné que nous révèle son (ex) guide. (...)

    ““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““"
    (1) Opinion Why I Resigned From Berlin’s Jewish Museum
    Yossi Bartal - Jun 22, 2019 9:39 AM
    https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/why-i-resigned-from-berlin-s-jewish-museum-1.7398301

    Last Monday, after guiding hundreds of different tour groups from Germany and around the world to various exhibitions, I submitted my resignation as a guide at the Jewish Museum of Berlin in protest against the crass political intervention by the German government and the State of Israel in the work of the museum.

    The shameful firing of Peter Schäfer, among the most important scholars of Judaism in the world, in the wake of an aggressive campaign of “fake news” conducted by the Israeli Ambassador to Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, and Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, made it clear that the German government is not interested any more in guarding the artistic and academic autonomy of the museum. And I am not interested in working for an institution that relinquishes its independence to serve the political interests of this or that state.

    From the beginning, working as a Jewish guide at a Jewish museum where most of the staff and visitors are not Jews presented personal, political and pedagogical challenges. Thus questions of representation of the other and of speaking in their name have accompanied the work of the museum since its opening in 2003.

    Is it appropriate for a German state museum to be called a Jewish museum at all, or must it be under the complete control of the official Jewish community (that itself only represents part of German Jewry)? Is a Jewish museum, in the absence of a similar institution addressing the Muslim community or other minority groups, responsible for providing space for the perspectives of children of migrants in Germany, many of whom live in neighborhoods nearby, and for conducting Jewish-Muslim dialogue?

    Should the museum function as a forum in which various opinions in the Jewish world can be heard, those touching on Israel as well? The answer of the head of the Jewish community, the Israeli ambassador and right-wing journalists, who for years have been running a toxic and untruthful campaign against museum staff, is an absolute no.

    Thus a significant portion of the criticism of the museum suggests, or even declares openly, that the very fact that many of the staff members of the museum are not Jews negates their right to social activism that is not in keeping with the political preferences of the Jewish community’s representatives. This discourse reached the point of absurdity when Schuster, the leader of a community in which many members are not considered Jewish according to halakha, negated the museum’s right to call itself Jewish.

    But we should not be confused by the legitimate criticism over the lack of Jewish representation in leading positions in Germany, because this criticism is raised only when non-Jews dare, even in the most sensitive way, to criticize policies of the Israeli government, or to come out against anti-Muslim racism. Proof of this may be seen in the Jewish community’s support for the 10 officials who have been nominated to fight anti-Semitism in the country: All 10 are non-Jews, and all 10 support the position that strong criticism of the occupation and of Israel’s religiously discriminatory character should be seen as an expression of anti-Semitism.

    Not surprisingly, the extreme right-wing “Alternative for Germany” is the party that, by way of parliamentary questions, has been leading the campaign against the museum for the last year, as reported sympathetically by the house newspaper of Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite the Israeli Embassy’s contention that it is not in contact with members of the party, its opposition to museum activities is based on a fervent rejection of democratic discourse, and its absolute conflation of the interests of the Israeli government with those of world Jewry. Already in the past year, as part of an exhibition on Jerusalem and its significance to three religions, the museum was forced to cancel a lecture on the status of LGBTQ Palestinians in East Jerusalem because the Israeli ambassador suspected that the speaker, God help us, supports BDS.

    Accusations of anti-Semitism, which carry enormous weight in Germany, lead more and more to censorship and self-censorship. Cultural institutions in Germany, which are supposed to provide a stage for critical positions, are threatened financially and politically if they even dare to host artists and musicians who at any time expressed support for non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation. This policy of fear-mongering that Miri Regev leads in Israel is imported by supporters of Israel to Germany. Only in Germany, because of its great sensitivity to anti-Semitism and deep identification with Israel in the wake of the Shoah, are there politicians not only on the right but on the left as well who vehemently endorse the silencing of criticism of Israel.

    The extreme right’s ascendance to power in places across the globe is based in great part on the constriction of democratic space and the intimidation and sanctioning of anyone who dares to oppose suppressive nationalist policies. The efforts of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and the Foreign Ministry, in cooperation with Jewish and right-wing organizations around the world, to defame and slander anyone who refuses to join their campaign of incitement against human rights activists, has now led to the firing of an esteemed scholar, strictly because he chose to defend the rights of Israeli academics to oppose the designation of the BDS movement as an anti-Semitic movement.

    Against this paranoid impulse toward purges, which to a great extent recalls the years of McCarthyism in the United States, one must take a clear public stance. If the firing of Peter Schäfer has a moral, it is that no matter how much approbation a person has received for his opposition to anti-Semitism and support for Israel, opposition to Netanyahu’s anti-democratic policies is enough to turn him into an enemy of the people and the nation.

    If the German and Israeli governments are interested in the Jewish Museum representing only their narrow political interests and denying its staff members freedom of expression, I am not interested in having a part in it. So despite my deep respect for the museum’s staff, I proffered my resignation. I and many other Jews of my generation do not want or need a kashrut certificate from the State of Israel or the heads of the institutional Jewish community, nor, certainly, from the German government. Judaism, as a pluralistic and democratic world culture, will continue to exist after the racist, ultra-nationalist politics that has taken over many communal institutions passes from the world.

    The writer has lived in Berlin for 13 years and works as a tour guide.

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    (2) https://seenthis.net/messages/788398

  • L’atelier du Bahreïn et l’usine de Ramallah | مجد كيّال | السفير العربي
    Majd Kayyal (Chercheur et romancier Palestinien de Haïfa ) - Traduit de l’Arabe par Fourate Chahal Rekaby
    Texte publié dans Assafir al Arabi, le 20-06-2019

    http://assafirarabi.com/fr/26175/2019/06/26/latelier-du-bahrein-et-lusine-de-ramallah

    (...) En réalité, les passerelles entre les hommes d’affaires palestiniens et israéliens n’ont besoin d’aucun voyage ni d’aucun « atelier » au Bahreïn, puisque nous avons, en Cisjordanie, une usine entière (hautement productive) à fabriquer la « paix économique » sous occupation, avec la bénédiction de – et des profits pour – l’Autorité palestinienne.

    Nous connaissons bien la « paix économique », nous la voyons dans tous les recoins de la Palestine : appauvrir les gens, les affamer et les étouffer puis présenter Israël comme la seule et unique échappatoire pour une vie acceptable dans laquelle les conditions minimales de survie et de dignité seraient assurées. Plus simplement : il s’agit d’associer le pain quotidien à une soumission totale à Israël et, en même temps, de faire profiter l’économie israélienne d’une main d’œuvre bon marché et exploitable à souhait et du pouvoir d’achat palestinien.

    La paix économique signifie que plus de 100 mille ouvriers palestiniens obtiennent des permis de travail « à l’intérieur d’Israël » - permis dont la condition principale est l’absence de tout « casier sécuritaire ». Israël détient arbitrairement cette carte de chantage et l’utilise lorsque bon lui semble, soit pour intimider les gens et les éloigner de toute implication politique, soit, pire encore, pour les faire tomber dans le piège de la collaboration.
    (...)
    Ce qui est appelé « paix économique » est une stratégie d’assujettissement menée par l’armée israélienne. Cette stratégie repose sur la coordination directe et permanente entre l’occupation, des dirigeants locaux et des « dignitaires » de familles, et ce en parallèle de la coordination au niveau politique et sécuritaire avec l’Autorité palestinienne, et au-delà de celle -ci. (...)

    http://www.agencemediapalestine.fr/blog/2019/06/30/latelier-du-bahrein-et-lusine-de-ramallah
    #Palestine

  • Syrie : des bombardements aériens, israéliens selon Damas, font quatre morts - moyen orient
    Par RFI Publié le 01-07-2019
    Avec notre correspondant à Beyrouth, Paul Khalifeh
    http://www.rfi.fr/moyen-orient/20190701-syrie-bombardements-aeriens-israeliens-selon-damas-font-quatre-morts

    Des missiles tirés par des avions dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi ont fait au moins quatre morts civils, dont un nouveau-né, et 21 blessés, selon l’agence officielle syrienne Sana.

    Des chasseurs-bombardiers probablement israéliens ont tiré plus d’une vingtaine de missiles à partir de l’espace aérien libanais vers des cibles à l’intérieur de la Syrie. Le vrombissement des avions était perceptible dans plusieurs régions du Mont-Liban et une série d’explosions ont été entendues dans les zones frontalières entre les deux pays.

    Des sources militaires syriennes citées par l’agence officielle Sana ont indiqué que la défense anti-aérienne a abattu plusieurs missiles israéliens qui se dirigeaient vers des cibles dans les régions de Damas et dans la province centrale de Homs. Mais d’autres projectiles ont atteint leurs cibles et ont fait des victimes et des dégâts, notamment dans la localité de Sahnaya, au sud-ouest de Damas. Des explosions ont été entendues dans le ciel de la ville où des habitants ont pu voir le départ d’au moins une dizaine de missiles tirés par la défense anti-aérienne vers des cibles qui approchaient de la capitale.

    #IsraelSyrie

    • Damas accuse Israël de « terorrisme d’Etat » après des frappes meurtrières
      Par Le Figaro avec AFP Mis à jour le 02/07/2019
      http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/damas-accuse-israel-de-terorrisme-d-etat-apres-des-frappes-meurtrieres-2019

      (...) « Les autorités israéliennes pratiquent de plus en plus le terrorisme d’Etat », a déclaré le ministère des Affaires étrangères syrien dans un communiqué rapporté par Sana. « La dernière agression odieuse s’inscrit dans le cadre des tentatives constantes d’Israël de prolonger la crise en Syrie », a-t-il ajouté.

      Après l’attaque, le ministère des Affaires étrangères syriennes a porté plainte auprès du Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU, selon Sana. Les actes « hostiles » d’Israël n’auraient pas été possibles sans le soutien de ses alliés à Washington, a ajouté l’agence. Selon l’OSDH, les frappes de dimanche ont touché des positions iraniennes près de Damas et visé un centre de recherche et un aéroport militaire à l’ouest de la ville de Homs où des combattants du Hezbollah chiite libanais et des Iraniens sont déployés. (...)

  • Barak Ravid sur Twitter : “WATCH: U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman takes a 10 pounds hammer and breaks open a tunnel which runs under the Palestinian village of #Silwan to the old city of #Jerusalem. This happens at a settlers organisation event with Sara Netanyahu and Sheldon Adelson at his side” / Twitter
    https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/1145362268022067200

    https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1145362068507430912/pu/vid/640x360/A_akO0XpJxkZ-Rl-.mp4?tag=10

    Des officiels américains à un évènement lié aux colons israéliens à Jérusalem-Est - L’Orient-Le Jour
    https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1176973/des-officiels-americains-a-un-evenement-lie-aux-colons-israeliens-a-j

    Deux responsables américains ont assisté dimanche à l’inauguration à Jérusalem-Est d’un site archéologique organisée par une association ultranationaliste israélienne, une présence qui rompt une nouvelle fois avec la pratique diplomatique s’agissant de la colonisation et du secteur palestinien de la ville occupé par Israël.

    Jason Greenblatt, conseiller du président américain Donald Trump, et David Friedman, ambassadeur en Israël, ont assisté en compagnie de responsables israéliens à une cérémonie dévoilant le résultat de travaux archéologiques à Silwan, quartier palestinien de Jérusalem-Est. Silwan, situé en contrebas des murailles de la Vieille ville, est le théâtre de tensions permanentes entre les résidents palestiniens et des colons juifs de plus en plus nombreux.

    Les travaux archéologiques, portant sur une route souterraine utilisée il y a environ 2.000 ans pour le pèlerinage vers le Second Temple juif, ont été entrepris par l’association Elad, dont le but avoué est de renforcer la présence juive à Jérusalem-Est.

    [...]

    Les Palestiniens accusent Israël et la fondation Elad de chercher à les chasser de Jérusalem.

    [...]

    L’ONG israélienne Emek Shaveh, qui lutte contre l’usage de l’archéologie au service de la colonisation, a également critiqué la présence d’officiels américains à la cérémonie. Elle dénonce un « acte politique qui se rapproche le plus d’une reconnaissance américaine de la souveraineté israélienne » sur toute la Vieille ville de Jérusalem.

    Israël considère Jérusalem comme sa capitale « unifiée et indivisible ». Mais la communauté internationale ne reconnaît pas l’annexion en 1967 de la partie orientale occupée de la ville, dont les Palestiniens veulent faire la capitale de l’Etat auquel ils aspirent.

    Le président Donald Trump a rompu en décembre 2017 avec des décennies de consensus diplomatique en reconnaissant Jérusalem comme la capitale d’Israël, poussant les Palestiniens à couper tout contact formel avec Washington.

    L’ambassadeur américain en Israël David Friedman est un fervent soutien des colonies israéliennes dans les Territoires palestiniens, considérées comme illégales par la communauté internationale.

    #sionisme #etats-unis

    • Editorial Settlers From the White House
      Haaretz Editorial
      Jun 30, 2019 11:20 PM
      https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/settlers-from-the-white-house-1.7424748

      The event held Sunday in a tunnel under the main street of the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem, just outside the Old City walls, would have been impossible only a few years ago. Two of the U.S. administration’s most senior diplomats, Special Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt and U.S. Ambassador David Friedman, were there alongside Israeli ministers at the inauguration of the Path of the Pilgrims – a tunnel excavated by the right-wing Elad organization with generous help from the state.

      The tunnel, which according to Elad exposed a street from the Second Temple period that brought pilgrims from the Shiloah pool to the Temple Mount, is a central project in the organization’s efforts to Judaize Silwan and its environs by way of archaeology and tourism. When the tunnel opens to the public, presumably in a few months, it will become a major tourist attraction.

      The participation of American diplomats at an event sponsored by a right-wing group in East Jerusalem constitutes de facto recognition of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem’s historic basin. If anyone had any doubts about that, Friedman made clear in an interview with the Jerusalem Post that, “The City of David is an essential component of the national heritage of the State of Israel.” Giving it up, even in the context of a peace agreement, he said, “would be akin to America returning the Statue of Liberty.”

      This recognition doesn’t just put the American administration on the extreme right of the Israeli political map – thus undercutting the claim that American can be an unbiased broker between Israel and the Palestinians – but it also ignores the complicated reality in Silwan, East Jerusalem and the entire region. The tunnel, which was excavated using controversial methods from a scientific standpoint, harnesses archaeology to politics while ignoring the nuances of Jerusalem’s ancient past.

      But the main problem is that excavating under the street blatantly ignores what’s happening at street level. In Silwan alone there are 20,000 Palestinians without citizenship or civil rights, who justifiably feel that this archaeological project is aimed at forcing them out of their neighborhood. Surrounding Silwan are another 300,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, also without rights.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfbMcYhJY6Q


      Anyone having even a passing familiarity with the Palestinian people knows that there’s no chance of arriving at any kind of agreement that will end the occupation so long as Israel continues to control East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Thus, by mere words and an event dripping with sweetness and smiles, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has sentenced Israelis to a life of constant conflict, or to an apartheid state in which there are two types of residents, those with rights and those without them.

  • En revenant de la manifestation contre l’inauguration de la place de Jérusalem en présence du Maire de Jérusalem, Moshe Leon, qui en chasse violemment les Palestiniens ... , je croise des Israéliens qui provoquent en brandissant leur drapeau.

    https://twitter.com/Mariableuee/status/1145374741878005766?s=20

    https://twitter.com/Mariableuee/status/1145374853597413376?s=20

    La police a déclaré aux manifestants, qu’elle leurs faisait une protection jusqu’au Métro Villiers, pour les protéger de ces Israéliens agressif (le Bétar d’après certains manifestants).

    Quand j’ai voulu partir dans l’autre sens, un policier a cherché à me dissuader :
    « S’ils ont repéré que vous étiez parmi les manifestants (hostiles à un Jérusalem ethniquement épuré), ils peuvent vous agresser et on ne pourra pas vous protéger. »

    Ce policier m’a ainsi benoitement avoué qu’Israël tient le 17ème arrondissement de Paris et pas notre police.

    #Police #Israel #Paris #Hidalgo #Consistoire #Joel-Mergui #Judaisme #Jerusalem #Betar #Moshe-Leon

  • The steal of the century: stolen land, stolen water, stolen images – Middle East Monitor
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190627-the-steal-of-the-century-stolen-land-stolen-water-stolen

    Jared Kushner and Benjamin Netanyahu must have considered it the longest of long shots but what if the Palestinians by some wild stretch of the imagination had called their bluff on the “deal of the century”; what if they had suddenly decided to turn up in Bahrain for the “Peace to Prosperity” workshop this week?

    To guard against any such thing happening, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, wrote a deliberately offensive and insulting opinion piece on 24 June that the #New_York_Times was happy to publish. “What’s wrong with Palestinian surrender?” mused Ambassador Danon. “Surrender is the recognition that in a contest, staying the course will prove costlier than submission.” Having backed the Palestinians into a corner from which they could only say no, Kushner then had Danon stick the knife in.

    The message, in all its arrogance, was clear: if you don’t take what is on offer, it is going to get a hell of a lot worse. However, we know we have made it impossible for you to take what is on offer, so guess what? The two state solution is well and truly dead; the path to a greater Israel is secured; welcome to the new reality of Palestinian Bantustans in the West Bank and Gaza. And, oh yes, we promise to throw cash at you, $50 billion; that’s a lot of dosh, if you do what is commanded of you. If you don’t, well that money is off the table.

    While many commentators have rightly attacked the New York Times for publishing an openly racist and hate-mongering piece, they may have missed the larger significance of what is happening at speed in the killing of the two-state solution. The day before the Danon article, US National Security Advisor John Bolton accompanied the Israeli Prime Minister to land overlooking the Jordan Valley, the most fertile region of the West Bank. Nearly 90 per cent of the valley has been allocated to Israeli settlements and agriculture, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 242 and international law.

    #vol #voleurs #sans_vergogne #Palestine #impunité #etats-unis #sionisme

  • On 64th Friday of Great March of Return and Breaking Siege, Israeli Forces Wound 128 Palestinian Civilians, including 38 Children, 3 Women, 7 Paramedics, and Journalist
    June 28, 2019 | Palestinian Center for Human Rights
    https://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=12581

    On Friday, 28 June 2019, in excessive use of force against peaceful protesters on the 64th Friday of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege, Israeli forces wounded 128 Palestinian civilians, including 38 children, 3 women, 7 paramedics, and a journalist. Four of those wounded sustained serious wounds.

    According to observations by PCHR’s fieldworkers, the Israeli forces who stationed in prone positions and in military jeeps along the fence with Israel continued to use excessive force against the protesters by firing bullets and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, dozens of the protesters were hit with bullets and teargas canisters without posing any imminent threat or danger to the life of soldiers.

    #marcheduretour 64

  • Ce que les combattants juifs de 1948 disent sur la Nakba | Middle East Eye édition française
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/opinion-fr/ce-que-les-combattants-juifs-de-1948-disent-sur-la-nakba

    Date de publication : Vendredi 1 juin 2018 - 14:57 | Dernière mise à jour : il y a 1 mois 2 semaines
    Si, officiellement, Israéliens et Palestiniens s’écharpent au sujet des événements de 1948 qui ont conduit 805 000 Arabes à l’exil forcé, en pratique, des combattants juifs ont très tôt témoigné des crimes dont ils ont pu être complices, voire auteurs.

    Pour les Israéliens, 1948 incarne l’heure de gloire du projet sioniste, le moment où les juifs reviennent dans les pages de l’Histoire comme des acteurs de leur destin et, surtout, parviennent à réaliser l’utopie émise 50 ans plus tôt par Theodor Herzl : l’édification, en Palestine, d’un État refuge pour le « peuple juif ».

    Pour les Palestiniens, 1948 symbolise l’avènement du processus colonial qui les a dépossédés de leur terre et de leur droit à la souveraineté, leur « Nakba » (catastrophe).
    Les premières voix dissonantes

    Par différents biais, certains Israéliens ont, dès le lendemain de 1948, témoigné des événements passés. Durant le conflit, certains cadres du mouvement sioniste interpellent la direction au sujet du traitement de la population arabe de Palestine, qu’ils jugent indigne des valeurs que les combattants juifs prétendent défendre. D’autres prennent des notes pour espérer témoigner dès que le feu aura cessé.

    Durant le conflit, certains cadres du mouvement sioniste interpellent la direction au sujet du traitement de la population arabe de Palestine, qu’ils jugent indigne des valeurs que les combattants juifs prétendent défendre

    Yosef Nahmani, officier supérieur de la Haganah, la force armée de l’Agence juive qui deviendra l’armée d’Israël, écrit ainsi dans son journal, en date du 6 novembre 1948 : « À Safsaf, après […] que les habitants eurent hissé le drapeau blanc, [les soldats] ont rassemblé les hommes et les femmes séparément, ligoté les mains de cinquante ou soixante villageois, et les ont abattus et tous enterrés dans une même fosse. Ils ont également violé plusieurs femmes du village. […] Où ont-ils appris un comportement aussi cruel, pareil à celui des nazis ? […] Un officier m’a raconté que les plus acharnés étaient ceux qui venaient des camps. »

    En réalité, dès que la guerre prend fin, le récit du vainqueur s’impose et la société civile israélienne fait face à de nombreux autres défis, bien plus urgents que le sort des réfugiés palestiniens. Ceux qui souhaitent témoigner le font par la fiction et la littérature.

    L’écrivain et homme politique israélien Yizhar Smilansky publie ainsi dès 1949 Khirbet Khizeh, où il évoque l’expulsion d’un village arabe éponyme. Pour l’auteur, nul besoin d’avoir de remords sur cette part de l’histoire, ce « sale boulot » était nécessaire pour bâtir le projet sioniste. Son témoignage reflète une sorte d’expiation des péchés : reconnaître ses torts et les dévoiler pour se libérer d’un poids.

    Devenu un best-seller, le roman est adapté en téléfilm en 1977 mais sa diffusion suscite de vifs débats car il remet en cause la version israélienne d’un peuple palestinien parti volontairement de ses terres pour ne pas vivre aux côtés des juifs.
    Photo extraite du film tiré du roman Khirbet Khizeh montrant une brigade de combattants juifs pendant la Nakba (Wikipedia)

    D’autres ouvrages sont publiés, mais peu font autant preuve de réalisme que la trilogie de Netiva Ben-Yehuda, publiée en 1984, dont le titre traduit de l’hébreu est « Le chemin des liens : roman sur trois mois en 1948 ». Commandante du Palmah, l’unité d’élite de la Haganah, elle évoque les exactions et les humiliations commises sur la population arabe et livre des éléments sur le massacre d’Ein Zeintoun, qui eut lieu autour du 1er mai 1948.
    La focalisation sur Deir Yassin

    Le 4 avril 1972, le colonel Meir Pilavski, membre du Palmah, se confie dans les colonnes de Yediot Aharonot, l’un des trois plus grands quotidiens israéliens, sur le massacre de Deir Yassin, qui eut lieu le 9 avril et où près de 120 civils perdirent la vie. Il affirme que ses hommes étaient à proximité des événements mais qu’il leur fut conseillé de se retirer lorsqu’ils comprirent que les miliciens de l’Irgoun et du Stern, des groupes d’ultras qui avaient fait scission de la Haganah, étaient à la manœuvre.

    Les débats vont se focaliser autour des événements de Deir Yassin, au point d’oublier les près de 70 autres tueries de civils arabes. L’enjeu est important pour la gauche sioniste : placer la responsabilité des massacres sur des groupes d’ultras

    Dès lors, les débats vont se focaliser autour des événements de Deir Yassin, au point d’oublier les près de 70 autres tueries de civils arabes. L’enjeu est important pour la gauche sioniste : placer la responsabilité des massacres sur des groupes d’ultras.

    En 1987, lorsque paraissent les premiers ouvrages des « nouveaux historiens » israéliens tels qu’Ilan Pappé, une partie considérable des bataillons juifs de 1948 sont mis en cause. Pour celles et ceux qui s’étaient tus durant les dernières décennies, il est temps de parler publiquement.

    Une partie de la société israélienne semble également prête à entendre. Dans un contexte de première Intifada palestinienne et de négociations pré-Oslo, les milieux pacifistes entendent interroger leur société sur leur rapport à l’Autre et à l’histoire nationale.

    Ces espaces d’échanges se referment brutalement avec le déclenchement de la seconde Intifada, plus militarisée et qui s’inscrit dans un contexte d’échec des pourparlers de camp David et de rupture des négociations israélo-palestiniennes. L’affaire Teddy Katz incarne ce changement de contexte.
    L’« affaire » Teddy Katz

    Kibboutznik de 60 ans, Teddy Katz décide en 1985 de reprendre ses études et s’inscrit dans un parcours de recherche historique sous la direction d’Ilan Pappé, à l’université d’Haïfa. Il souhaite éclairer les événements qui se sont déroulés dans cinq villages palestiniens, dépeuplés en 1948. Il compile 135 entretiens de combattants juifs, dont 65 qui se concentrent sur la tragédie qui aurait eu lieu dans le village de Tantoura, vidé de ses 1 200 habitants le 23 mai 1948 par un bataillon du Palmah.

    Après deux ans de recherche, Katz affirme dans ses travaux qu’entre 85 et 110 hommes ont été froidement abattus sur la plage de Tantoura, après avoir creusé leurs propres tombes. La tuerie se poursuit ensuite dans le village, maison par maison. Une chasse à l’homme se joue également dans les rues. Le massacre cesse avec l’intervention d’habitants juifs du village voisin de Zikhron Yaakov. Au final, plus de 230 personnes sont assassinées.

    En janvier 2000, un journaliste de Maariv décide de retourner voir certains des témoins que mentionne Katz. Le principal témoin, Bentzion Fridan, commandant du bataillon du Palmah qui a opéré à Tantoura, nie tout en bloc et, avec d’autres gradés, porte plainte contre Katz. Celui-ci doit faire face à une dizaine d’avocats décidés à défendre l’honneur des « héros » de la nation.

    […] la version palestinienne de 1948 n’intéresse plus les pacifistes israéliens, trop occupés pour la plupart à rentrer dans le rang pour ne pas subir la condamnation d’une société refermée sur elle-même

    Sous la pression médiatique – qui parle de lui comme d’un « collabo » qui relaie la version de l’ennemi – et judiciaire, il accepte de signer un document reconnaissant avoir falsifié les témoignages. Bien qu’il décide quelques heures plus tard de se rétracter et qu’une commission universitaire ait plaidé en sa faveur, la procédure judiciaire se termine.

    Entre l’effondrement d’Oslo, le retour au pouvoir du Likoud, l’échec des négociations de Camp David et de Taba, la seconde Intifada et les attentats kamikazes, la version palestinienne de 1948 n’intéresse plus les pacifistes israéliens, trop occupés pour la plupart à rentrer dans le rang pour ne pas subir la condamnation d’une société refermée sur elle-même.
    Témoigner pour la postérité

    En 2005, le réalisateur Eyal Sivan et l’ONG israélienne Zochrot développent le projet Towards a Common Archive visant à collecter les témoignages de combattants juifs de 1948. Près d’une trentaine acceptent de témoigner, sans tabou ou presque, sur ce qu’ils ont fait et vu durant cette période riche en événements et où les récits s’affrontent.

    Pourquoi des combattants acceptent-ils de témoigner quelques années plus tard ? Pour Pappé, directeur scientifique du projet, il y a trois raisons. Premièrement, la plupart arrivent à la fin de leur vie et ne craignent donc plus de parler.

    Deuxièmement, ces ex-combattants considèrent qu’ils se sont battus pour un idéal qu’ils voient se détériorer avec la montée en Israël des milieux religieux, de l’extrême droite et du choc néolibéral imposé par Netanyahou durant ses mandats successifs. Troisièmement, ils sont persuadés que tôt ou tard, les jeunes générations apprendront l’origine des réfugiés palestiniens et ils pensent que la transmission de cette histoire gênante fait partie de leur responsabilité.

    Les témoignages de ces combattants ne sont pas homogènes. Certains se livrent explicitement quand d’autres ne souhaitent pas aborder certains sujets. Néanmoins, si tous se rejoignent sur la nécessité, en 1948, d’expulser les populations arabes pour bâtir l’État d’Israël, leurs avis s’opposent parfois sur l’utilité des tirs sur les civils.

    Tous affirment avoir reçu des ordres précis concernant la destruction des maisons arabes pour empêcher toute volonté de retour des populations exilées.

    Le « nettoyage » des villages se faisaient méthodiquement : à l’approche du lieu, les soldats tiraient ou envoyaient des grenades pour effrayer la population. Dans la majeure partie des cas, ces actes suffisaient à faire fuir les habitants. Parfois, il fallait faire sauter une ou deux maisons à l’entrée du village pour contraindre les quelques récalcitrants à fuir.

    Concernant les massacres, pour certains, ces actes faisaient partie des opérations de « nettoyage » puisque la direction du mouvement sioniste les avait autorisés, dans certains cas, à franchir cette ligne. La « ligne », justement, était franchie systématiquement lorsque la population refusait de partir, voire se retranchait pour résister et combattre.

    Plus de 60 ans après ces événements, les combattants n’expriment pas ou peu de regrets. Il fallait, selon eux, libérer l’espace du territoire promis par l’ONU pour y fonder l’État juif et faire disparaître les Arabes du paysage

    À Lod, plus d’une centaine d’habitants se réfugièrent ainsi dans la mosquée, croyant les rumeurs selon lesquelles les combattants juifs n’attaquaient pas les lieux de culte. Un tir de lance-roquettes eut raison de leur refuge, qui s’écroula sur eux. Les corps furent ensuite brûlés.

    Pour d’autres, les dirigeants Yigal Allon, chef du Palmah, et David Ben Gourion, chef de l’Agence juive, se seraient opposés aux tirs sur les civils, donnant l’ordre de les laisser partir puis de détruire les maisons.

    Les combattants témoignent également d’une attitude contrastée des Palestiniens. Dans la majeure partie des cas, ils semblaient « effrayés » et complètement perdus par les événements, accélérant le flot de réfugiés. Certains Arabes suppliaient les soldats de ne pas leur faire « comme à Deir Yassin », selon ces témoignages.

    D’autres semblaient convaincus de pouvoir revenir chez eux à la fin des combats, si bien qu’un témoin affirme que des habitants du village de Bayt Naqquba laissèrent à leurs voisins juifs du kibboutz de Kiryat-Avanim, avec qui les relations étaient bonnes, la clé de leurs maisons pour qu’ils puissent veiller à ce que rien n’y soit pillé.

    Ces bonnes relations judéo-arabes reviennent régulièrement, et rares sont les témoins qui parlent de mauvaise entente avant le début de la guerre. Lors d’une expulsion autour de Beersheba, des paysans palestiniens vinrent demander de l’aide aux habitants du kibboutz voisin, qui n’hésitèrent pas à intervenir et à dénoncer les actes des soldats sionistes.

    Plus de 60 ans après ces événements, les combattants n’expriment pas ou peu de regrets. Il fallait, selon eux, libérer l’espace du territoire promis par l’ONU pour y fonder l’État juif et faire disparaître les Arabes du paysage.

    Les opinions exprimées dans cet article n’engagent que leur auteur et ne reflètent pas nécessairement la politique éditoriale de Middle East Eye.

    #Palestine #histoire

    • «  »" En réalité, dès que la guerre prend fin, le récit du vainqueur s’impose et la société civile israélienne fait face à de nombreux autres défis, bien plus urgents que le sort des réfugiés palestiniens. Ceux qui souhaitent témoigner le font par la fiction et la littérature.""" = tant que les réfugiés restent vivants : une fois morts ils sont oubliés !

      «  »" les pacifistes israéliens, trop occupés pour la plupart à rentrer dans le rang pour ne pas subir la condamnation d’une société refermée sur elle-même «  »" = une autre manière de rester dans la victimisation !

      Il paraît que l’humanité va atteindre les 10 milliards d’humains vivants et qu’il n’y a pas de place pour tous : les nettoyages ethniques pour l’éthique peuvent commencer ; non ? à moins que ça ne court-circuite des commerces ...

  • Rasmea Odeh Breaking the Silence in Berlin: #RasmeaSpricht #RasmeaSpeaks
    https://samidoun.net/2019/03/rasmea-odeh-breaking-the-silence-in-berlin-rasmeaspricht-rasmeaspeaks

    29 March 2019 - On Wednesday evening, 27 March, Rasmea Odeh‘s voice and words were heard in Berlin, Germany, despite a harsh, repressive campaign that included yet another ban on her speaking in person issued by Berlin’s Senator for the Interior. The successful event at be’kech in Berlin’s Wedding district brought crowds to the space despite a large police presence; the space was so crowded that many people stayed outside to watch the event through glass windows.

    The evening marked a significant achievement for Rasmea Odeh and all those defending the right to organize and advocate for Palestine in Berlin. Despite all attempts to prevent it from taking place, Rasmea’s voice was heard in Berlin and celebrated by people of conscience.
    Photo: Public-solidarity

    Once again, as was the case on 15 March, when Rasmea was to join Palestinian poet and former prisoner Dareen Tatour for an evening of solidarity and celebration of Palestinian women’s struggle, the venue itself was subject to harassment and threats. Another media smear campaign was launched against Rasmea along with attempts to demand that she once again be prohibited from speaking.

    On Wednesday afternoon, only hours before the event, Berlin Interior Senator Andreas Geisel, an SPD politician who had earlier declared that speaking “against the state of Israel” crossed a “red line” that justified the violation of freedom of speech, once again banned Odeh from delivering a public speech at the event. However, organizers presented a video from Odeh, ensuring that her message and her story would be able to be heard by supporters in person and everyone around the world who supports her and the struggle for justice in Palestine.
    Photo: Salim Salim, Arabi21

    Once again, several vans of police filled the area (although a smaller presence than that surrounding the 15 March event). They searched the crowd for Rasmea, but left partway through the event after it was clear that she was not attending in person. A claimed counter-demonstration by pro-apartheid Zionist organizations was not immediately visible, but there may have been several participants at the corner of the street.

    The moderator of the evening opened the event with a stirring call against the silencing of oppressed and marginalized people, especially Palestinian women. She noted the growing support received by the event and the campaign to defend Odeh by a number of organizations, including the Internationale Liga für Menschenrechte, which sent a statement to the organization. The event was supported by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Berlin Muslim Feminists, Bündnis gegen Rassismus, HIRAK (Palestinian Youth Mobilization, Berlin), The Coalition Berlin, Bloque Latinoamericano Berlin, Brot und Rosen international socialist women’s organiation, Revolutionäre Internationalistische Organisation – Klasse Gegen Klasse, Berlin Against Pinkwashing, Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost (Jewish Voice for a Just Peace), RefrACTa Kollektiv Brasilien-Berlin, BDS Berlin and the Kali feminist collective.

    The event also included a speech by a Palestinian student on behalf of HIRAK, emphasizing that this week also marks the one-year anniversary of the Great March of Return in Gaza. Just this week, Israel has been shelling Gaza, causing further destruction after taking hundreds of lives in the past year as Palestinians participated in collective, popular protests for their right to return and break the siege. She urged people to get involved in struggles here in Berlin, including Palestinian community organizing, the solidarity movement and the BDS campaign.

    The organizers next showed a video from 2013 in which Rasmea speaks about her life as a Palestinian woman. The video was made when she received the 2013 Outstanding Community Leader award from the Chicago Cultural Alliance:

    The screening was followed by a 20-minute video presentation – the main speech of the night – in which Rasmea discussed her situation in Berlin as well as presenting more broadly on Palestinian women, Palestinian prisoners and the continuing struggle for liberation. Full video coming shortly!

    As Rasmea spoke, including discussing her personal experience of torture, people in the packed room were silent, watching and listening closely to the Arabic speech and the subtitles in German and English. The conclusion of her speech was met with loud and prolonged applause and cheers as the event’s moderator noted that “this is what they did not want you to hear.”

    The event continued with a cultural evening featuring anti-colonial poetry by Wind Ma, a silent theater sketch by Maher Draidi of Almadina Theater, a musical performance of songs and guitar by Nicolás Miquea and a closing dabkeh performance by the Yafa Dabkeh Troupe. The event concluded with a stirring moment as people chanted together, “Viva, viva Palestina! Free, free Palestine!”

    Rasmea Odeh, born in 1947, is a lifelong struggler for Palestine and a well-known feminist organizer and activist. After surviving torture and sexual assault under interrogation by occupation forces and serving 10 years in Israeli prison, she came to the United States, where she organized over 800 women in Chicago in the Arab Women’s Committee, a project of the Arab American Action Network. In 2013, she was targeted by the FBI and U.S. immigration authorities and accused of lying about her time in Israeli prison, despite the fact that it was publicly known; she even testified before a Special Committee of the United Nations about her experience under torture and imprisonment. After a years-long court battle that won widespread grassroots support, she was deported to Jordan in 2017. She was one of the initial signatories of the call for the International Women’s Strike.
    Photo: Public-solidarity

    After she was invited to speak in Berlin on 15 March, the U.S. ambassador (with ties to the German far right) Richard Grenell, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan, charged with fighting Palestine solidarity and the BDS movement internationally, and the Israeli ambassador in Germany launched calls to censor her. Media propaganda falsely labeled her an “anti-Semite,” when she is in reality a longtime anti-racist struggler who developed strong connections with other oppressed communities, particularly the Black liberation movement. In the U.S., Angela Davis and Jewish Voice for Peace were among her supporters. In this context, Berlin politicians yielded to the demands of Trump and Netanyahu, and when Rasmea arrived at the event location, she was given a sheaf of papers. Her Schengen visa was ordered cancelled and she was directed to leave the country; she was banned from speaking at the event.

    Most of the allegations in the documents simply restated attacks by pro-apartheid media publications, including labeling the BDS campaign “anti-Semitic”. The German authorities also claimed that allowing Rasmea to speak and retain her visa would “damage the relationship between Germany and Israel.” Thus, Rasmea Odeh’s voice, experience and analysis was ordered suppressed and silenced through the joint complicity of the German, U.S. and Israeli governments.

    Rasmea is committed to fighting back in court. Her lawyer, Nadija Samour, said that “cancelling a visa based on what has happened so far in the past is a completely new concept from a legal point of view.” However, she and her supporters are aware that this is not simply a legal question but a clear political battle that requires support from the broadest number of people in Germany and internationally.

    Supporters of Rasmea in the United States, including the US Palestinian Community Network, Committee to Stop FBI Repression, Rasmea Defense Committee and many other groups have worked to support the growing campaign in Germany, and more organizations have been adding their voices to express support for Rasmea. By cancelling her Schengen visa, German officials are not only attempting to silence Rasmea’s speech in Berlin but to prevent her from traveling elsewhere in Europe to speak about her experiences and her views – thus denying people across the continent the opportunity to hear from a leading transnational feminist and Palestinian organizer.

    Rasmea was ordered silenced based on a desire to stop her from sharing her words and her experience, telling her story and presenting her analysis. The U.S. government is apparently committed to chasing Rasmea around the world in order to persecute her wherever she goes; meanwhile, the Israeli state continues its intensive attack on people’s right to support Palestine everywhere in the world, which has included the promotion of anti-BDS laws and falsely labeling Palestinian human rights defenders and solidarity groups as “terrorists.” The German state and Berlin authorities also chose to join this campaign, issuing two separate bans in less than two weeks against Rasmea Odeh to prevent her from delivering a live speech about her experiences, her involvement in women’s organizing and her view of Palestine.

    In many ways, Rasmea’s case does not stand alone; in Germany, it comes alongside the Humboldt 3 case and the prosecution of activists for speaking up against war crimes, attempts to block Palestine events from taking place in any location and far-right campaigns particularly targeting migrant communities. It also comes alongside the pursuit of anti-BDS laws in the US, the use of “anti-terror” frameworks to criminalize Palestinian community work and the use of visa denial to suppress political and cultural expression, such as in Australia’s recent denial of a visa to Palestinian American poet Remi Kanazi.

    In a particularly disturbing media article containing propaganda against Kanazi, pro-apartheid groups demand that Kanazi is barred for, among other things, supporting Rasmea and other Palestinian political prisoners. They also use the recent far-right, white-supremacist massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, as a justification for banning him, despite the fact that this was an attack targeting Muslims, linked to racist, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab propaganda, based on white supremacy, and which took the lives of a number of Palestinians specifically. It is clear that there is a global attack, backed by Erdan and the Israeli government, aimed at all Palestinians and supporters of Palestine – and especially aiming to isolate Palestinian prisoners from the international movements that continue to defend their rights.

    The campaign to defend Rasmea Odeh is not ending with this event – instead, it marks a strong beginning of a resurgent movement against the silencing of Palestinian women and for justice in Palestine. It also made it clear that Palestinian women, on the frontlines of struggle from inside Israeli prisons, to the Great Return March in Gaza to organizing for justice in Berlin, will not be silenced. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges people and organizations around the world to get involved and join this campaign by following the Facebook page, Rasmea spricht (Rasmea will speak) and sending statements of solidarity to samidoun@samidoun.net.

    #Palestine #femmes #résistance #zionisme #Allemagne

  • Jüdische Stimme demand the right of free speech for Rasmea Odeh in Berlin | Jüdische Stimme
    https://www.juedische-stimme.de/2019/03/26/juedische-stimme-demands-the-right-of-free-speech-for-rasmea-odeh-i

    26. März 2019 - We demand that the Berlin authorities refrain in future from joining the political persecution of Palestinian human rights defenders, and of individuals and organizations who speak out for human rights for Palestinians.

    Jüdische Stimme rejects the political persecution of Rasmea Odeh, a well-known Palestinian women’s rights and civic liberties activist. On March 15, 2019, Berlin authorities announced that had canceled Rasmea’s Schengen visa and prohibited her from speaking at a public Event and from engaging in any political activity in Berlin. Rasmea was due to speak about the role of Palestinian women political prisoners in the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

    We are incensed at the complicity of the Berlin authorities in the political persecution of Rasmea and believe this should alarm each and every person concerned with civil rights and freedom in Berlin and beyond. This act is to be understood in the context of anti-democratic trends and of closing civic and democratic space in Germany and internationally. The Berlin Senate for Interior Affairs based its decision on the “threat” presented by Rasmea to Germany and/or the people Living in Germany. This is absurd. Rasmeah has dedicated over four decades to public work and human rights activism for women and immigrant communities.

    The Israeli military court, which convicted Odeh in 1970, is not a legitimate court. United Nations human rights experts have determined that the Israeli military court – which has a conviction rate of 99% – does not deliver justice. The Israeli human rights information center B’Tselem explains that “while the courts offer an illusion of proper judicial conduct, they mask one of the most injurious apparatuses of the occupation.”

    We live in dangerous times, when public opinion is easily manipulated. Berlin authorities refer to Rasmea as a “convicted terrorist” solely based on a conviction by an illegitimate court, where prosecutors and judges are all Israeli soldiers in uniform, and defendants are Palestinian civilians under occupation. Rasmea’s “confession” was obtained under torture.

    We reject these manipulative and false accusations of anti-Semitism. There is no evidence of even a single anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish statement or act committed by Rasmea. There is however plenty of evidence that accusations of anti-Semitism are repeatedly used manipulatively to silence critics of Israel and defenders of Palestinian human rights.

    We demand that the Berlin authorities reverse their decision and allow Rasmea Odeh to
    speak in Berlin. Rasmea has the right to speak and Berliners have the right to listen.

    We demand that the Berlin authorities refrain in future from joining the political persecution of Palestinian human rights defenders, and of individuals and organizations who speak out for human rights for Palestinians.

    We stand in solidarity with Palestinian women political prisoners and those who have been held in Israeli prisons, and we wholeheartedly support their right to tell their story, to be heard, and to seek truth and justice.

    #Palestine #femmes #résistance #zionisme #Allemagne

  • Does Being ’Zionist Feminist’ Mean Betraying Women for Israel? - Tikun Olam תיקון עולם
    https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2017/03/16/zionist-feminist-mean-betraying-women-israel


    Rasmea Odeh participates in Detroit Black Lives Matter rally

    March 16, 2017 by Richard Silverstein Leave a Comment

    Yesterday, I wrote a critique of Emily Shire’s diatribe against the Women’s Strike Day USA protest. She especially singled out platform statements supporting Palestinian rights. Shire, a professed Zionist feminist, dismissed the criticisms of Israeli Occupation contained in the event platform as irrelevant to the issue of women’s rights. Then she launched into an attack on one of the conveners of the Strike Day, Rasmea Odeh. Shire alleges that Odeh is a convicted terrorist and former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S. designated terror group.

    A comment Deir Yassin published yesterday here got me to thinking further about this issue. I researched Rasmea’s case and the torture she endured. My view is this is precisely the sort of case and individual any women’s movement should embrace. Here is a summary of the facts of the case. In 1969, a cell of the PFLP planted bombs at a Jerusalem Super-Sol. They exploded, killing two Hebrew University students.
    shin bet torture

    Afterward, security forces arrested Odeh and jailed her without charges or access to counsel. She was tortured, by her account, for 45 days. Here is how she described her treatment in testimony to a UN commission on torture in Geneva:

    …”They beat me with sticks, plastic sticks, and with a metal bar. They beat me on the head and I fainted as a result of these beatings. They woke me up several times by throwing cold water in my face and then started all over again.”

    In addition to this physical torture, Odeh also faced sexual torture. Her father, a U.S. citizen, was also arrested and beaten, “and once they brought in my father and tried to force him under blows to take off his clothes and have sexual relations with me.” Later, interrogators “tore my clothes off me while my hands were still tied behind my back. They threw me to the ground completely naked and the room was full of a dozen or so interrogators and soldiers who looked at me and laughed sarcastically as if they were looking at a comedy or a film. Obviously they started touching my body.” In her father’s presence, interrogators threatened to “violate me” and “tried to introduce a stick to break my maidenhead [hymen].” Shackled naked from the ceiling, interrogators “tied my legs, which were spread-eagled, and they started to beat me with their hands and also with cudgels.”

    Every method described in her account is known from previous descriptions of the treatment of Arab terror suspects. We know, for example, that Doron Zahavi, an IDF AMAN officer, raped Mustafa Dirani in Prison 504. The beatings and positions she describes are also previously described in testimony by the Public Committee to Prevent Torture in Israel. Therefore, it’s not just conceivable that Rasmea endured the treatment she claims, it’s almost a certainty. Especially given that two Israelis were killed in the bombing.

    In summary, the Shin Bet tried to force her father to rape her. The interrogators themselves raped her and further degraded her sexually. And her father was tortured as a means of compelling her to confess. If this isn’t a perfect portrait of a cause that all feminists should embrace, I don’t know what is. So when Shire claims that Palestine is the farthest thing from what Women’s Strike Day’s mission should be, she’s engaging in willful blindness to the plight of another woman. A woman who happens to be Palestinian.

    Rasmea was tried and convicted in an Israeli military court, which features military judges and prosecutors using rules that favor the prosecution and shackle the hands of the defense. It can rule any evidence secret and so prevent the defense from seeing it, let alone rebutting it. Such a conviction could never withstand scrutiny under U.S. criminal procedures or even Israeli civilian courts.

    Further, Shire justifies her denunciation of Odeh by noting that Israel denies torturing Rasmea. So you have an Israeli security apparatus which is well-known for lying when evidence against it is damning. And you have Rasmea’s testimony, supported by scores of accounts by other security prisoners as to their treatment under similar circumstances. It reminds me of the story of the husband who returns home to find his wife in bed with another man. The man jumps out of bed and says: “Hey, this isn’t what this looks like. Nothing happened. I swear it. Who are you going to believe? Me, or your lyin’ eyes?” Emily Shire prefers to believe the agency that lies to her with a straight face. In doing so, she shows that she is a Zionist first and foremost; and a feminist second, if at all.

    As for the citizenship application infractions which the Justice Department is exploiting in order to expel her from the U.S.: she had been tortured once by Israel. Her decision to hide her previous conviction was surely founded on a fear that she might be deported once again back to Israel or Jordan (where Israel had sent her after her release from prison). The Jordanian security apparatus collaborates closely with Israeli intelligence. The former is quite handy with torture itself. Further, the U.S. judge in her first trial prohibited her attorney from raising torture as part of her defense. Her second trial will explicitly permit such testimony. Though I’m not privy to the defense strategy, I hope it will demand that a Shabak officer who participated in her interrogation testify at trial. And if his testimony diverges from the truth, I hope there is means to document this and hold him accountable. It would be one of the first times such an agent would be held accountable legally either inside or outside Israel.

    In the attacks against Rasmea, it’s certainly reasonable to bring up her participation in an act of terrorism: as long as you also examine the entire case against her. She admitted participation in the attack. But she denied placing the bomb in the supermarket. Despite her denial, this was the crime for which she was convicted. Further, Rasmea was released after serving ten years as part of a prisoner exchange. If Israel saw fit to release her, what is the point of using her alleged past crime against her today?

    As for her membership in a terror organization, she has long since left the militant movement. Her civic activism is solely non-violent these days. Further, virtually every leader of Israel for the first few decades of its existence either participated directly in, or ordered acts of terror against either British or Palestinian targets. Why do we grant to Israel what we deny to Palestinians?

    It may be no accident that two days before Shire’s broadside against the U.S. feminist movement (and Rasmea) in the NY Times, the Chicago Tribune published another hit-piece against her. The latter was credited to a retired Chicago professor. Her bio neglected to mention that she is also a Breitbart contributor who is the local coördinator for StandWithUs. This sin of omission attests either to editorial slacking or a deliberate attempt to conceal relevant biographical details which would permit readers to judge the content of the op-ed in proper context.

    The Tribune op-ed denounces Jewish Voice for Peace’s invitation to Rasmea to address its annual conference in Chicago later this month. As I wrote in last night’s post, what truly irks the Israel Lobby is the growing sense of solidarity among feminist, Jewish, Palestinian, Black and LGBT human rights organizations. Its response is to divide by sowing fear, doubt and lies in the media. The two op-eds in the Times and Tribute are stellar examples of the genre and indicate a coordinated campaign against what they deride as intersectionality.

    #Palestine #femmes #résistance #zionisme

  • Israeli Soldiers Kill One Palestinian, Injure Many, In Jerusalem
    June 28, 2019 2:25 AM – IMEMC News
    https://imemc.org/article/israeli-soldiers-kill-one-palestinian-injure-many-in-jerusalem

    Israeli soldiers and the police invaded, on Thursday evening, the al-‘Isawiya town, north of occupied East Jerusalem, killed a young Palestinian man, and injured many other residents, in addition to imposing a strict siege on the town.

    Media sources said the soldiers invaded Obeid neighborhood in the town, and attacked many Palestinians while inspecting their ID cards, in addition to searching homes and shops.

    They added that the soldiers fired many live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets, gas bombs and concussion grenades at Palestinian youngsters protesting the invasion.

    Local nonviolent activist, Yousef Obeid, said the soldiers killed a former political prisoner, identified as Mohammad Samir Obeid , 21, after shooting him with several bullets, including a live round in the heart.

    He added that the soldiers also injured four other Palestinians, causing mild-to-moderate wounds.

    After killing the young man, the soldiers took his body away, and assaulted several Palestinians with clubs and batons.
    (...)
    It is worth mentioning that the invasion, and the killing of the young man, took place after the army attacked the nonviolent procession held by the locals against the daily invasions and violent searches of homes and property, carried out by the Israeli military and the police.

    #Palestine_assassinée

    • In Serious Ongoing Escalation, Israeli Soldiers Kill one Palestinian, Injure 95 And Abduct Three, Since Thursday
      June 30, 2019 12:20 PM
      https://imemc.org/article/in-serious-ongoing-escalation-israeli-soldiers-kill-one-palestinian-injure-95

      Israeli soldiers have killed one Palestinian, injured more than 95 and abducted at least 30, in ongoing invasions and serious escalation since this past Thursday, in the al-Isawiya town, in the center of occupied East Jerusalem.

      Besides the ongoing invasions, and the excessive use of force against the Palestinian protesters, the army and the police have also imposed a series of sanctions and collective punishment measures against the residents, in addition to invading and ransacking dozens of homes, hospitals and clinics.

      Although the invasions are more violent in al-‘Isawiya, they also targeted many other parts of occupied Jerusalem, including the Old City, and surrounding areas, and once again, the army invaded various sections of al-Makassed Hospital.

      During the invasions into the hospital, the army assaulted many physicians, nurses and even patients, while the soldiers were also deployed it in various sections, and around it, looking for wounding Palestinians to abduct them.

      On Thursday, June 27th, the soldiers killed a former political prisoner, identified as Mohammad Samir Obeid, 21, when they shot him with a live round in the heart, from a close range, after the soldiers assaulted and resorted to the excessive use of force against the Palestinians in al-‘Isawiya town.

      After killing the young man, the soldiers took his corpse away, and are still refusing to send it back to his family for burial. They later abducted his father Samir, and his sister, Sondos. The slain Palestinian spent a total of four years in Israeli prisons, and was released a year ago, after being held for twenty months.
      (...)
      This escalation came while Israel has already been imposing sanctions and collective punishment against the Palestinians, their homes and lands, and started shortly after Israel decided to demolish homes and remove the Palestinians from their lands, to build what it called a “National Garden.”

      It also came after Israel issued demolition orders targeting 16 Palestinian apartment buildings of more than 100 apartments in Sur Baher town, and similar orders targeting homes and structures in and around occupied Jerusalem.

  • How Israeli spies are flooding Facebook and Twitter | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israeli-spies-are-flooding-facebook-and-twitter/27596

    Act.IL is run by a former Israeli spy who has argued that his outfit is involved in “a new kind of war.”

    While Act.IL publicly denies being supported by the Israeli government, the group’s chief executive has admitted in Hebrew to working closely with Israeli ministries, and in English that his staff are mostly former Israeli spies.

    His name is Yarden Ben Yosef. Last year, he explained his group’s methods in an article for a journal aimed at Israeli diplomats. He lamented that – in #Gaza that May – “the Palestinian narrative prevailed in world media over the Israeli one.”

    Israeli snipers had massacred more than 60 unarmed Palestinian protesters on a single day during the Great March of Return protests, injuring thousands more.

    Ben Yosef advocated for “inserting ourselves” into online discussions, because readers nowadays see the comments section under articles published by websites as part of the story.

    Using sophisticated “monitoring software,” he wrote, Act.IL closely watched news and social media the week before the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem – one of the triggers for the Palestinian protests.

    Ben Yosef explained that “controlling the online media discussion became our top priority.”

    He claimed victory in these efforts, successfully “bumping the pro-Israeli comments to the top of the list in 85 percent of the cases.”

    #hasbara #propagande #Palestine

  • Oman veut ouvrir une ambassade en Cisjordanie - moyen orient
    Publié le 26-06-2019 - RFI
    http://www.rfi.fr/moyen-orient/20190626-oman-veut-ouvrir-ambassade-cisjordanie

    Le sultanat d’Oman va ouvrir une ambassade dans les Territoires palestiniens. L’annonce a été faite ce mercredi 27 juin alors que le pays est de plus en plus présent dans le dossier israélo-palestinien.

    Le ministère omanais des Affaires étrangères a indiqué dans un communiqué qu’une mission se rendrait à Ramallah en Cisjordanie, siège de l’Autorité palestinienne, pour préparer l’ouverture de cette mission diplomatique.Avec cette représentation, Oman va devenir le cinquième pays arabe, mais le premier du Golfe, à ouvrir une ambassade dans ce territoire palestinien occupé par Israël depuis plus de 50 ans.

    Ce geste de « soutien au peuple palestinien », comme le présente le ministère omanais des Affaires étrangères, est aussi l’occasion pour le sultanat de renforcer sa présence dans les Territoires palestiniens et possiblement de se poser en tant que médiateur avec les Israéliens, relève notre correspondant à Jérusalem, Guilhem Delteil.

    Car Mascate est de plus en plus présent dans le dossier israélo-palestinien. En octobre dernier, le sultan , Qabus ibn Saïd a notamment reçu à tour de rôle le président de l’Autorité palestinienne, Mahmoud Abbas, et le Premier ministre israélien, Benyamin Netanyahu. Oman n’entretient pourtant pas de relation diplomatique avec Israël. (...)

  • Over 1 Million Settlers Living in 503 West Bank & East Jerusalem Settlements
    June 25, 2019 9:09 PM – IMEMC News
    https://imemc.org/article/over-1-million-settlers-living-in-503-west-bank-east-jerusalem-settlements

    Latest statistics show that the number of Israeli settlements, established on Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, has reached 503, of which 474 are located in the West Bank and 29 others in Jerusalem, says Hanna Issa, Secretary-General of the PA Islamic-Christian Council for Jerusalem and the Holy Places.

    Issa added, in a press statement on Monday, that the number of settlers residing in these settlements exceeds one million, indicating that “Peace Movement,” in Israel, says that settlement expansion on Palestinian lands in the West Bank is higher than population growth itself, in Israel. (...)

    #colonisation_de_peuplement

  • Report: Russia behind disruptions in Ben Gurion GPS systems - Israel National News
    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265174

    The Airports Authority announced yesterday that for three weeks pilots trying to land at Ben-Gurion Airport have been encountering mysterious disruptions in the aircraft’s navigation system.

    Galei Tzahal revealed that senior officials involved in the affair estimate that the reason for these disruptions is a hostile attack by Russia. It was also revealed that as part of the attempts to resolve the issue, a senior Israeli defense official is currently in Europe, where he met with American officials to discuss, among other things, the issue of the disruptions.

    The Airports Authority stated in connection with the disruptions: “As a result of the disturbances, some of the entry procedures for landing have been modified, via the safest and most professional medium at airports around the world (the ILS system) and in Israel, in particular. Ben Gurion Airport supervisors constantly carry out full escort of the aircraft taking off and landing, and at no stage was there a safety incident related to GPS interference in connection with the accuracy of navigation and flight routes.”

    It also noted that “From the first day that the disturbance appeared, officials in Israel have been working to solve the problem and find the source of the problem.”

    The IDF said: “This is an incident in the civilian arena, which the IDF is assisting with technological means, in order to allow freedom of action in the airspace of the State of Israel. At this point in time, this incident does not affect the IDF’s activity. The IDF is constantly working to preserve freedom of action and optimal operations across the spectrum.”

    #israël #russie #pirates_de_l'air

  • Le coup de gueule de Dominique de Villepin contre le plan pour les Proche Orient
    https://rmc.bfmtv.com/mediaplayer/video/le-coup-de-gueule-de-dominique-de-villepin-contre-le-plan-pour-les-proche

    Plan pour le Proche Orient par l’administration Trump : « 50 milliards pour fermer sa gueule et accepter d’être dépouillé de ses droits ? C’est ignoble ! » selon Dominique de Villepin

    • Point de presse du 26 juin 2019
      Salle de presse - France-Diplomatie-Ministère des Affaires étrangères
      https://basedoc.diplomatie.gouv.fr/vues/Kiosque/FranceDiplomatie/kiosque.php?fichier=ppfr2019-06-26.html

      2. Conférence de Manama

      Q - La France est-elle représentée à la réunion de Manama ? Comment évaluez-vous cette initiative américaine ?

      R - La France est représentée à cette conférence par le chef de son service économique à Manama.

      Notre position sur le règlement du conflit israélo-palestinien a été rappelée à de nombreuses reprises et n’a pas varié : nous sommes attachés à un cadre, celui du droit international, en particulier les résolutions du Conseil de sécurité ; à une méthode : la négociation ; à un objectif : deux Etats - Israël et la Palestine - vivant dans la paix et la sécurité au sein de frontières reconnues, avec Jérusalem pour capitale de ces deux Etats.

      Nous sommes prêts à accompagner tout plan économique en faveur des Territoires palestiniens dès lors qu’il intervient de manière complémentaire à des efforts politiques conduits sur la base de ces paramètres internationalement agréés./.

    • La cheffe du FMI estime possible de relancer l’économie palestinienne
      Par AFP — 26 juin 2019
      https://www.liberation.fr/depeches/2019/06/26/la-cheffe-du-fmi-estime-possible-de-relancer-l-economie-palestinienne_173

      La directrice générale du Fonds monétaire international (FMI) Christine Lagarde a estimé possible de relancer l’économie palestinienne, en s’adressant mercredi à la conférence de Bahreïn sur le volet économique d’un plan de paix américain au Proche-Orient.

      Le FMI n’a cessé de mettre en garde contre la détérioration de l’économie palestinienne avec le blocage de recettes fiscales en raison d’une dispute entre l’Autorité palestinienne et Israël et le blocus israélien imposé depuis plus d’une décennie à la bande de Gaza.

      Devant les participants à la conférence, Mme Lagarde a déclaré que l’économie palestinienne risquait de se contracter de 15% et salué le plan présenté par le conseiller de la Maison-Blanche, Jared Kushner, qui se concentre sur la création, pour l’instant encore théorique, d’emplois.

      « Donc, s’il y a un plan économique et s’il y a urgence, il faut s’assurer que l’élan soit maintenu », a-t-elle déclaré lors de la deuxième journée de l’atelier « De la paix à la prospérité ». (...)

  • À #Gaza, Israël fait des expérimentations sur des humains en situation de stress et de privations | Middle East Eye édition française
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/opinion-fr/gaza-israel-fait-des-experimentations-sur-des-humains-en-situation-de

    (Juillet 2017)

    Israël porte la plus grande partie de la responsabilité de cette situation, à cause du siège qu’il impose, mais n’est certainement pas le seul coupable.

    L’Autorité palestinienne et l’Égypte sont parties prenantes à part entière dans ce #crime. J’ai bien dit « crime ». Nous sommes en 2017 et priver des millions d’êtres humains de l’accès à l’électricité revient à les priver d’oxygène et d’eau. Israël porte une criante responsabilité parce que Gaza est toujours partiellement sous occupation israélienne. Israël a certes rappelé ses militaires et ses colons de la bande de Gaza, mais il conserve la seule responsabilité de beaucoup d’autres aspects de la vie à Gaza. Cela rend Israël responsable de la fourniture d’électricité aux habitants de Gaza. L’Autorité palestinienne porte aussi une lourde responsabilité pour la situation actuelle, car elle abuse aussi de son propre peuple. De même l’Égypte, qui aime se donner l’image flatteuse de « sœur des Palestiniens », alors même que son propre rôle dans le siège de Gaza est intolérable.

    Gaza se meurt, lentement. Ses souffrances n’intéressent personne ailleurs. Personne à Washington, Bruxelles, Jérusalem ou au Caire, ni même à Ramallah. Aussi incroyable que cela puisse paraître, visiblement personne ne se soucie du sort de deux millions de personnes, abandonnées aux ténèbres la nuit et à la chaleur oppressante des journées d’été, avec nulle part où se tourner et pas le moindre espoir. Aucun.