organization:shin bet

It’s Time to Admit It. Israeli Policy Is What It Is: Apartheid - A Special Place in Hell -
I used to be one of those people who took issue with the label of apartheid as applied to Israel. Not anymore.

Bradley Burston Aug 17, 2015

►http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/.premium-1.671538

What I’m about to write will not come easily for me.

I used to be one of those people who took issue with the label of apartheid as applied to Israel. I was one of those people who could be counted on to argue that, while the country’s settlement and occupation policies were anti-democratic and brutal and slow-dose suicidal, the word apartheid did not apply.

I’m not one of those people any more. Not after the last few weeks.

Not after terrorists firebombed a West Bank Palestinian home, annihilating a family, murdering an 18-month-old boy and his father, burning his mother over 90 percent of her body - only to have Israel’s government rule the family ineligible for the financial support and compensation automatically granted Israeli victims of terrorism, settlers included.
I can’t pretend anymore. Not after Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, explicitly declaring stone-throwing to be terrorism, drove the passage of a bill holding stone-throwers liable to up to 20 years in prison.
The law did not specify that it targeted only Palestinian stone-throwers. It didn’t have to.
Just one week later, pro-settlement Jews hurled rocks, furniture, and bottles of urine at Israeli soldiers and police at a West Bank settlement, and in response, Benjamin Netanyahu immediately rewarded the Jewish stone-throwers with a pledge to build hundreds of new settlement homes.

This is what has become of the rule of law. Two sets of books. One for Us, and one to throw at Them. Apartheid.
We are what we have created. We are what we do, and the injury we do in a thousand ways to millions of others. We are what we turn a blind eye to. Our Israel is what it has become: Apartheid.
There was a time when I drew a distinction between Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies and this country I have loved so long.
No more. Every single day we wake to yet another outrage.
I used to be a person who wanted to believe that there were moral and democratic limits – or, failing that, pragmatic constraints - to how low the prime minister was willing to go, how far he was willing to bend to the proud proponents of apartheid, in order to bolster his power.

Not any more. Not after Danny Danon.

Not when the prime minister’s choice to represent all of us, all of Israel at the United Nations, is a man who proposed legislation to annex the West Bank, effectively creating Bantustans for Palestinians who would live there stateless, deprived of basic human rights.
The man who will represent all of us at the United Nations, the man who will speak to the Third World on our behalf, is the same man who called African asylum seekers in Israel “a national plague.”
The man who will represent all of us at the United Nations is the same politician who proposed legislation aimed at crippling left-leaning NGOs which come to the aid of Palestinian civilians and oppose the institution of occupation, while giving the government a green light to keep financially supporting right-wing NGOs suspected of channeling funds to support violence by pro-settlement Jews.
What does apartheid mean, in Israeli terms?
Apartheid means fundamentalist clergy spearheading the deepening of segregation, inequality, supremacism, and subjugation.
Apartheid means Likud lawmaker and former Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter calling Sunday for separate, segregated roads and highways for Jews and Arabs in the West Bank.
Apartheid means hundreds of attacks by settlers targeting Palestinian property, livelihoods, and lives, without convictions, charges, or even suspects. Apartheid means uncounted Palestinians jailed without trial, shot dead without trial, shot dead in the back while fleeing and without just cause.
Apartheid means Israeli officials using the army, police, military courts, and draconian administrative detentions, not only to head off terrorism, but to curtail nearly every avenue of non-violent protest available to Palestinians.
Late last month, over the explicit protest of the head of the Israeli Medical Association and human rights groups combatting torture, Israel enacted the government’s “Law to Prevent Harm Caused by Hunger Strikes.” The law allows force-feeding of prisoners, even if the prisoner refuses, if the striker’s life is deemed in danger.
Netanyahu’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who pushed hard for passage of the bill, has called hunger strikes by Palestinian security prisoners jailed for months without charge or trial “a new type of suicide terrorist attack through which they will threaten the State of Israel”.
Only under a system as warped as apartheid, does a government need to label and treat non-violence as terrorism.
Years ago, in apartheid South Africa, Jews who loved their country and hated its policies, took courageous roles in defeating with non-violence a regime of racism and denial of human rights.
May we in Israel follow their example.

It’s time to admit it. Israeli policy is what it is: Apartheid - Bradley Burston Aug 17, 2015 2:23 PM
►http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/.premium-1.671538

What I’m about to write will not come easily for me.

I used to be one of those people who took issue with the label of apartheid as applied to Israel. I was one of those people who could be counted on to argue that, while the country’s settlement and occupation policies were anti-democratic and brutal and slow-dose suicidal, the word apartheid did not apply.

I’m not one of those people any more. Not after the last few weeks.

Not after terrorists firebombed a West Bank Palestinian home, annihilating a family, murdering an 18-month-old boy and his father, burning his mother over 90 percent of her body - only to have Israel’s government rule the family ineligible for the financial support and compensation automatically granted Israeli victims of terrorism, settlers included.

I can’t pretend anymore. Not after Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, explicitly declaring stone-throwing to be terrorism, drove the passage of a bill holding stone-throwers liable to up to 20 years in prison.

The law did not specify that it targeted only Palestinian stone-throwers. It didn’t have to.

Just one week later, pro-settlement Jews hurled rocks, furniture, and bottles of urine at Israeli soldiers and police at a West Bank settlement, and in response, Benjamin Netanyahu immediately rewarded the Jewish stone-throwers with a pledge to build hundreds of new settlement homes.

This is what has become of the rule of law. Two sets of books. One for Us, and one to throw at Them. Apartheid.

We are what we have created. We are what we do, and the injury we do in a thousand ways to millions of others. We are what we turn a blind eye to. Our Israel is what it has become: Apartheid.

There was a time when I drew a distinction between Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies and this country I have loved so long.

No more. Every single day we wake to yet another outrage.

I used to be a person who wanted to believe that there were moral and democratic limits – or, failing that, pragmatic constraints - to how low the prime minister was willing to go, how far he was willing to bend to the proud proponents of apartheid, in order to bolster his power.

Not any more. Not after Danny Danon.

Not when the prime minister’s choice to represent all of us, all of Israel at the United Nations, is a man who proposed legislation to annex the West Bank, effectively creating Bantustans for Palestinians who would live there stateless, deprived of basic human rights.

The man who will represent all of us at the United Nations, the man who will speak to the Third World on our behalf, is the same man who called African asylum seekers in Israel “a national plague.”

The man who will represent all of us at the United Nations is the same politician who proposed legislation aimed at crippling left-leaning NGOs which come to the aid of Palestinian civilians and oppose the institution of occupation, while giving the government a green light to keep financially supporting right-wing NGOs suspected of channeling funds to support violence by pro-settlement Jews.

What does apartheid mean, in Israeli terms?

Apartheid means fundamentalist clergy spearheading the deepening of segregation, inequality, supremacism, and subjugation.

Apartheid means Likud lawmaker and former Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter calling Sunday for separate, segregated roads and highways for Jews and Arabs in the West Bank.

Apartheid means hundreds of attacks by settlers targeting Palestinian property, livelihoods, and lives, without convictions, charges, or even suspects. Apartheid means uncounted Palestinians jailed without trial, shot dead without trial, shot dead in the back while fleeing and without just cause.

Apartheid means Israeli officials using the army, police, military courts, and draconian administrative detentions, not only to head off terrorism, but to curtail nearly every avenue of non-violent protest available to Palestinians.

Late last month, over the explicit protest of the head of the Israeli Medical Association and human rights groups combatting torture, Israel enacted the government’s “Law to Prevent Harm Caused by Hunger Strikes.” The law allows force-feeding of prisoners, even if the prisoner refuses, if the striker’s life is deemed in danger.

Netanyahu’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who pushed hard for passage of the bill, has called hunger strikes by Palestinian security prisoners jailed for months without charge or trial “a new type of suicide terrorist attack through which they will threaten the State of Israel”.

Only under a system as warped as apartheid, does a government need to label and treat non-violence as terrorism.

Years ago, in apartheid South Africa, Jews who loved their country and hated its policies, took courageous roles in defeating with non-violence a regime of racism and denial of human rights.

May we in Israel follow their example.

Hunger Striker a Headache for Both Israel and the Palestinians Mohammed Allaan’s death would spur unrest and a clampdown, while dulling the tool of detention without trial.
Haaretz
Amira Hass Aug 16, 2015
read more: ►http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.671292
►http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.671292

The hunger strike by Mohammed Allaan, like that of Khader Adnan before him, has become a big headache for Israel and its Shin Bet security service, but also for the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Palestinian society in general.
No party wants the conflagration and escalation that could erupt if this one-person hunger strike were to end in Allaan’s death. Islamic Jihad will have to make good on its vow to respond. If it does so, by firing rockets from the Gaza Strip, the Hamas government will not be able to prevent it: That would be considered unpatriotic.
And if Israel insists on responding, in keeping with the result, its military superiority would presumably cause more casualties and property damage. There’s no telling what kind of new round of bloodletting that no one wants would happen, though it’s clear the Palestinians would pay the highest price. If Islamic Jihad tries to respond in the West Bank as well, there’s no way to predict what Israel would do, and whether Palestinians will once again face sweeping military incursions and arrests, injuries and killing. That is the last thing they want.
Allaan’s ‘wildcat’ hunger strike is a headache for the Shin Bet and the Israel Defense Forces, for which administrative detention is a very convenient tool. Without having to present proof, without an indictment (which in the military courts is in any case very flexible), without having to explain anything to anyone (except military judges, who are easily persuaded), they neutralize various political and social activists and distance them from their society. The personal courage of the hunger strikers shines powerful spotlights on the method of lengthy detention without trial, and, as was the case with Adnan, also requires the Shin Bet to retreat.
Four years ago the mass hunger strike sparked by Adnan Khader made it necessary for the Shin Bet and the Israel Prison Service to make concessions to Palestinian administrative detainees, that have since been reversed. The natural solidarity that Palestinians feel toward political hunger strikers has the potential to foment rebellion, the opposite of what the Shin Bet and the army want.
Precisely because of this potential, Allaan’s personal initiative, and Adnan’s before him, has embarrassed the Palestinian Authority. Its representatives have had to issue warnings and condemnations of the prolonged detention, but the Islamic Jihad is an ideological foe. Islamic Jihad members irritate the PA when they criticize it publicly, and like Hamas activists, they are a target for investigations and arrests by PA security agencies. People regard the one-man strikes as strengthening this small organization’s criticism of the PA. The two voices in which the PA speaks — condemning administrative detention and concern for the detainee on the one hand, and opposition to the way of Islamic Jihad on the other, are authentic even if they ostensibly contradict each other.

Palestinian and Israeli-Arab protestors hold posters of Mohammed Allaan. August 9, 2015.AFP
The other Palestinian factions with members detained and in prison are also embarrassed. It is hard to meet the very high standard of personal sacrifice on principle and for liberty that has been set by these two strictly religious detainees.
Noticeably, this time hundreds of other detainees and prisoners did not join the lengthy hunger strike in support of the demand to either release the detainees or try them.
As much as these strikes reveal the strong character of the individual striker, they attest to the lack of solidarity of the population of political prisoners and of Palestinians in general. The lack of solidarity within the prison reflects that lack outside of it.

Apartheid sur Seine : les mensonges délirants de la Mairie de Paris

Plus que gênée aux entournures par l’ampleur de la mobilisation contre le scandale #apartheidsurseine, la Mairie de Paris a inventé un conte de fées pour tenter de justifier l’indéfendable.

En substance, à en croire Bruno Julliard, premier adjoint de la Maire de Paris chargé de défendre l’initiative, Tel Aviv et Israël n’auraient rien à voir l’un avec l’autre !

« Nous refusons les amalgames entre la politique de colonisation brutale du gouvernement israélien et la ville de Tel Aviv qui est une ville progressiste, symbole de paix et de tolérance »

a ainsi déclaré à l’AFP Bruno Julliard.

« Nous, nous ne voulons pas punir une population et des villes qui œuvrent pour la paix »

a-t-il ajouté, avant de proposer de :

« faire la distinction entre un Etat, sa politique, son gouvernement et de l’autre côté des villes progressistes et leurs maires en opposition avec cette politique »

De tels propos sont évidemment absurdes, cela va sans dire, mais cela ira encore mieux en rappelant à Julliard et autres hypocrites quelques vérités simples, et pas les fables qu’ils tentent maladroitement de vendre à l’opinion.

Non, en dépit d’une propagande visant à la montrer comme une ville « cool et sympa », « gay friendly » où il fait bon bronzer sur la plage toute l’année, Tel Aviv est bien entendu partie intégrante de l’Etat d’Israël, et de la politique criminelle de ce dernier.

On rappellera d’abord à M. Julliard que Tel Aviv est tout simplement, aux yeux de tous les pays, dont la France, qui entretiennent des relations diplomatiques avec Israël, la capitale de cet Etat. C’est là que les uns et les autres, Etats-Unis compris, ont établi leurs ambassades respectives.

Et même Israël, qui a érigé unilatéralement et illégalement Jérusalem en « capitale indivisible et éternelle » après la conquête de la partie palestinienne de cette ville en 1967, conserve à Tel Aviv les sièges de ses institutions les plus meurtrières, et les personnels qui vont avec : le ministère de la « Défense », l’Etat-major de l’armée, le sinistre Mossad et les tortionnaires du Shabak (police secrète, anciennement appelée Shin Bet).

http://europalestine.com/local/cache-vignettes/L500xH334/tel_aviv_voeux_municipaux-56e4e.jpg

Ensuite, contrairement à ce qu’essaie de faire croire l’adjoint d’Anne Hidalgo, ni le maire de Tel Aviv, ni son conseil municipal ne sont « en opposition » avec la politique de leur gouvernement.

Le maire, Ron Huldaï, fait partie, comme c’est le cas partout en Israël, de cette caste d’anciens militaires reconvertis dans la politique après leur retrait du service actif. Pendant ses 26 ans de carrière, Ron Huldaï, pilote d’avion, avait collaboré sans états d’âme aux bombardements de populations arabes sans défense, palestiniennes et libanaises notamment.

Son conseil municipal , dirigé par une coalition de la quasi-totalité des formations politiques, comprend des élus de l’extrême-droite la plus ouvertement raciste , et il n’est donc pas le moins du monde « en opposition » avec les horreurs de la colonisation.

D’ailleurs, à l’occasion de l’assaut contre Gaza l’été dernier, la municipalité de Tel Aviv a tenu à souligner fièrement, panneaux publicitaires à l’appui, que la ville était celle qui fournissait le plus fort pourcentage de conscrits à l’armée (92 % des filles endossent le kaki, et 91% des garçons). Tel Aviv se flatte pareillement d’être la ville du pays où habite le plus fort pourcentage de militaires de carrière ! Il est donc parfaitement possible qu’une partie des « gentils organisateurs » qui veulent vendre, tout sourire, leur camelote jeudi à Paris Plages, aient eux-mêmes participé au massacre de la population de Gaza l’année dernière.

▻http://europalestine.com/spip.php?article10875

Extrémisme juif : Israël relâche les individus arrêtés dimanche - AFP 10 août 2015
►http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2015/08/10/extremisme-juif-israel-relache-les-individus-arretes-dimanche_1361425

Les services de sécurité israéliens ont relâché tous les individus arrêtés dimanche dans l’enquête sur la mort d’un bébé palestinien et de son père dans un incendie attribué à des extrémistes juifs, a indiqué une porte-parole de la sécurité intérieure.

« Tous ceux qui ont été arrêtés hier (dimanche) pour interrogatoire ont été relâchés », a dit cette porte-parole du Shin Beth sans préciser le nombre d’individus concernés.

La presse israélienne avait fait état d’une dizaine d’arrestations effectuées dimanche par le Shin Beth et la police dans les colonies sauvages (c’est-à-dire illégales selon la loi israélienne) d’Adei Ad et de Baladim, dans le nord de la Cisjordanie, territoire palestinien occupé par Israël.

Les deux colonies sont proches de Douma, le village palestinien où un incendie criminel le 31 juillet a causé la mort d’un nourrisson palestinien de 18 mois et, huit jours plus tard, celle de son père qui a succombé à ses blessures. La mère et le frère étaient pour leur part toujours hospitalisés.

Violences antipalestiniennes : arrestation d’un chef de file juif extrémiste israélien
AFP / 03 août 2015
▻http://www.romandie.com/news/Violences-antipalestiniennes-arrestation-dun-chef-de-file-juif-extremiste-israelien/617833.rom

Jérusalem - Les services de sécurité israéliens ont annoncé avoir arrêté lundi un chef de file juif extrémiste, Meïr Ettinger, premier individu arrêté après l’incendie criminel qui a coûté vendredi la vie à un bébé palestinien en Cisjordanie occupée.

Meïr Ettinger a été arrêté à Safed (dans le nord d’Israël) en raison de ses activités au sein d’une organisation juive extrémiste, a indiqué à l’AFP un porte-parole du Shin Beth, le service de sécurité intérieure.

Agé d’une vingtaine d’années, Meïr Ettinger a été arrêté pour des crimes nationalistes, a affirmé une porte-parole de la police à l’AFP, sans préciser s’il était soupçonné d’être directement impliqué dans l’incendie de vendredi ou s’il était inquiété pour sa participation à d’autres violences racistes.

Il doit être présenté devant un tribunal mardi pour la prolongation de sa garde à vue, a indiqué la police.

Selon les médias israéliens, il serait notamment soupçonné d’être le cerveau d’un groupuscule responsable de l’incendie le 18 juin de l’église de la Multiplication de pains sur les bords du lac de Tibériade, un des hauts lieux du christianisme.

Meïr Etttinger est le petit-fils de Meïr Kahane, un rabbin fondateur du mouvement raciste anti-arabe Kach, assassiné en 1990 à New-York.

Il avait été interdit de séjour au début de l’année pour une période d’un an en Cisjordanie et à Jérusalem en raison de ses activités, a précisé un porte-parole du Shin Beth.

Deux Israéliens détenus à Gaza, dont l’un par le Hamas, affirme Israël
AFP / 09 juillet 2015
▻http://www.romandie.com/news/Deux-Israeliens-detenus-a-Gaza-dont-lun-par-le-Hamas-affirme-Israel/610729.rom

Jérusalem - Deux Israéliens sont retenus à Gaza dont l’un aux mains du Hamas qui contrôle l’enclave palestinienne, a affirmé jeudi le ministère israélien de la Défense, alors que le mouvement islamiste a déjà procédé à plusieurs échanges d’otages contre des prisonniers avec l’Etat hébreu.

Le Hamas, de son côté, s’est refusé à tout commentaire officiel sur cette affaire. Un haut cadre du mouvement a toutefois indiqué à l’AFP sous le couvert de l’anonymat qu’aucune négociation n’avait été officiellement ouverte avec les Israéliens au sujet de ces enlèvements, qu’il n’a pas confirmés ou infirmés. Mais, a-t-il prévenu, rien n’est gratuit : avant même toute discussion, le Hamas exigera la libération de tous les prisonniers relâchés en échange du soldat Gilad Shalit et de nouveau emprisonnés depuis.

Fin 2011, Israël avait accepté de libérer un millier de détenus palestiniens pour que le Hamas libère ce soldat franco-israélien. Depuis, des dizaines de ces prisonniers élargis ont été arrêtés de nouveau par les autorités israéliennes et certains ont de nouveau écopé de peines de prison à perpétuité.

Le ministère israélien, qui affirme dans son communiqué se baser sur des renseignements crédibles, rapporte que l’Israélo-éthiopien Avraham Mengistu, est retenu contre son gré par le Hamas à Gaza. Il ajoute que l’homme serait entré dans la bande de Gaza le 7 septembre 2014, peu après la fin de la dernière offensive extrêmement meurtrière d’Israël sur la bande de Gaza.

Le ministère évoque en outre un Arabe israélien aussi retenu à Gaza sans plus d’informations, la censure militaire s’appliquant toujours à cette affaire alors qu’elle vient d’être levée dans le cas de M. Mengistu, affirment les médias israéliens.

A rajouter au dossier du boycott universitaire : l’armée israélienne embauche des étudiants...

IDF to hire civilian students in part-time jobs
Yossi Yehoshua, Ynet, le 12 juin 2015
▻http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4667848,00.html

#Palestine #BDS #Boycott_universitaire

Pendant ce temps-là, à Jénine....

« IOF storms different towns of Jenin » (17 mai) ; « IOF storms Jenin towns, attacks citizens in Yabud (18 mai)

▻http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/images/2015/5/17/153296003.jpg?&maxwidth=800&maxheight=800&quality=90

JENIN (PIC) 17 May — The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at dawn Sunday raided homes in the towns of Jaba, Sanur, Meithalun and al-Jadida, south of Jenin city. Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that dozens of Israeli soldiers stormed Sanur town at four o’clock in the morning and handed 39-year-old Iyad Aisa a summons for interrogation from the Shin Bet. During the campaign in the town, the invading troops ransacked the house of Fawzi Habaiba, 40, interrogated him and occupied the rooftops of some homes before leaving the area. The IOF also patrolled several neighborhoods and erected barriers for long hours in the nearby towns of Jaba‘, Meithalun and al-Jadida, with no reported arrests.

▻http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=71697

#Palestine #Israël #Cisjordanie #Jénine #occupation #dip

Bande de Gaza : Le Hamas fait front aux tentatives israéliennes de recruter des espions par Rasha Abou Jalal
–29 avril 2015 – Al Monitor - Traduction : Info-Palestine.eu - Niha
▻http://www.info-palestine.net/spip.php?article15358

D’après le Colonel Mohamed Abu Harbeed, spécialiste dans la sécurité de l’information au Ministère de l’Intérieur de Gaza « En 2014, entre 70 et 80% des citoyens traversant le passage d’Erez, contrôlé par les Israéliens, ont été soumis à des tentatives de recrutement par Israël. » Ces citoyens, a-t-il précisé à al-Monitor, appartiennent à différentes catégories de la société et sont des marchands, des patients, des Gazaouis qui effectuent des voyages de loisir et de tourisme ou alors des étudiants inscrits dans des universités à l’étranger.

Et d’ajouter : « Selon les plaintes déposées par ces citoyens, les officiers Israéliens du Shin Bet leur ont demandé de fournir des informations sur le siège des services de la sécurité à Gaza, d’espionner les moindres mouvements d’une catégorie donnée de personnes et d’aider l’armée Israélienne dans sa collecte d’informations sur des citoyens ordinaires en délivrant des rapports sur leurs vies personnelles. En d’autres termes, ces officiers veulent que les citoyens de Gaza soient leurs yeux et oreilles dans la bande. »

Dans cette optique, Al-Monitor a rencontré le père d’un petit garçon de huit ans. Se confiant sous le pseudonyme de Mohamed Wassim, l’homme de 45 ans a personnellement été approché par un officier israélien lors de sa présence au niveau du passage d’Erez. Ce jour-là, il devait conduire son fils dans un hôpital Israélien pour ses séances de chimiothérapie. Il raconte : « Il y a presque six mois, je devais emmener mon fils dans un hôpital Israélien pour son programme de chimiothérapie. Toutefois, l’officier Israélien m’a fait une offre qui consistait à me payer le traitement de mon fils en échange d’informations essentielles pour Israël. J’ai refusé de devenir leur espion et j’ai rejeté l’offre, ce qui m’a valu un refus d’obtention du permis d’entrée en Israël, et je suis donc retourné à Gaza. »

Shin Bet: Hamas training Palestinian students in Malaysia - Diplomacy and Defense - Israel News | Haaretz
►http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.653863

Hamas is training West Bank Palestinian students in Malaysia to conduct operations as part of the organization’s military wing, the Shin Bet security service says. The students are meant to operate undercover upon their return to the West Bank.

While Israel last year claimed that Hamas was training its operatives in paragliding techniques in Malaysia, a claim that Malaysia denied, this is the first time the Shin Bet has presented detailed allegations about Hamas activities in that country.

The claims appear in an indictment filed March 18 in the Judea Military Court against a Hebron resident, Waseem Qawasmeh, 24, charged with belonging to and being active in a banned organization, making contact with the enemy and receiving money from an enemy. Qawasmeh was arrested February 13 at the Allenby Bridge upon returning from Malaysia via Jordan.

According to the Shin Bet, Hamas men in Malaysia actively recruit for military training Palestinians who are studying there. Recruiters also put the students through ideological preparation that includes joining the Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinian charities that operate there.

After their training, the operatives are sent to set up military networks in the West Bank, act as messengers between the territories and foreign countries, and carry out secret transfers of funds to meet Hamas’ needs.

Last summer, during Operation Protective Edge, Israel published details from the interrogation of a member of Hamas’ tunnel forces in the Gaza Strip. In the announcement it claimed the man had trained in Malaysia to paraglide into Israeli territory in order to carry out murders and kidnappings.

Malaysian ministry issues denial

The Malaysian foreign minister issued a denial at the time, but Israel insisted the training had occurred. Malaysia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and has often expressed support for Hamas; Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak visited Gaza in January 2013.

According to the Shin Bet, Qawasmeh began his relationship with Hamas through its student association at Islamic University in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. For two years he worked for a Hamas charity association and in December 2013 he was recruited by Mustafa Najam, a senior Hamas activist in that country, to join the Muslim Brotherhood. Qawasmeh took part in a swearing-in ceremony attend by Ma’an Hatib and Radwan al-Atrash, senior Hamas officials residing in Malaysia.

The Shin Bet describes Hatib as “responsible in Malaysia for the Hamas foreign desk.” Atrash is “a senior figure in the Shura council,” in which Hamas clergymen in Malaysia are active.

The indictment against Qawasmeh states that he underwent a security check and was then trained for clandestine operations by Hamas men in Malaysia. He was also sent for a week to Turkey to train with Hamas there.

Among the things he was taught was how to respond to the questioning he would undergo at the Allenby Bridge and how to act when jailed and during the Shin Bet interrogation. Given his arrest and confessions, it doesn’t seem as if the instruction was particularly effective.

#expulsions_frontières (d’israel)

avec une petite recherche rapide et en français sur internet (en anglais avec « denied entry » on en trouve plein d’autres comme :
▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/04/27/these-accounts-from-arab-americans-show-why-an-israeli-visa-waiver-p )

Mohamed Omer, 2008
▻http://www.info-palestine.net/article.php3?id_article=6860

Edvige, 2008
▻http://www.protection-palestine.org/spip.php?article6431

Anne-Claire Delmas, 2008
▻http://www.protection-palestine.org/spip.php?article6682

Richard Falk, rapporteur de l’ONU, 2008
▻http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/26D5CA4D5AB9024285257521006D8D6F

Isabelle Martin, 2009
▻http://www.protection-palestine.org/spip.php?article7732

124 militants, 2011
▻http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/israel-124-militants-pro-palestiniens-arretes-en-attente-d-etre-expulses_10

Juan Marmot, 2012
▻http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/2012/07/27/interroge-retenu-puis-expulse-mon-tres-court-voyage-en-israel-23417

Gary Spedding, 2014
▻http://www.air-journal.fr/2014-01-14-refoule-disrael-pour-ses-tweets-activistes-595945.html

Maria Angela Holguin, ministre colombienne 2014
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.626469

Rashida Manjoo, rapporteur de l’ONU, 2015
▻http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Because-she-asked-to-visit-Palestine-Israel-bars-entry-of-UN-official-to-West

Mohamed Kadri et Soraya Misleh, 2015
►http://cspconlutas.org.br/2015/04/amanha-vai-ser-outro-dia-por-soraya-misleh

Philomène Constant et Bastien Anthoine, 2015
►http://blogs.mediapart.fr/blog/virginie-rodde/240415/nuit-dhorreur-ben-gourion-pour-deux-etudiants-musiciens

Jalys Chibout, 2015
►http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/politique/retenu-48h-en-israel-puis-expulse-un-jeune-militant-du-pcf-cherche-a-compre

Blade Nzimande, ministre sud-africain, 2015
►http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765061

#Palestine #Expulsion #Aéroport #Racisme #Douane #Frontière
#recension

Israeli courts give free hand to Shin Bet
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/04/kidnapped-asraf-israeli-military-courts-torture.html

Journalist Nahum Barnea, of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, reported in his April 10 column that during the searches in Hebron, the IDF detained a Palestinian who subsequently confessed to the kidnapping in his interrogation by the Shin Bet. The faked disappearance and forced confession again give rise to doubts about the use of so-called necessity interrogations by the Shin Bet, where the security agency is authorized to employ “special measures” in the interrogation of detainees.

It is unclear whether the Palestinian who claimed responsibility for the “kidnapping” of Asraf had indeed been subjected to “necessity interrogation.” However, lawyers specializing in civil rights cases, who represent Palestinians accused of security offenses in military courts, have told Al-Monitor that following the abduction and murder of the three Israeli youths last June, the Shin Bet was granted a sweeping license to conduct interrogations using various pressure methods, which often lead to false confessions obtained under duress.

“It is quite clear that there have been many such confessions,” attorney Gaby Lasky told Al-Monitor. Lasky, who represents the Meretz Party on the Tel Aviv City Council, is a human rights lawyer who has represented Palestinians in military courts for many years now. According to Lasky, “Ever since the ‘torture ruling’ given by the Supreme Court [June 1999], where the Supreme Court limited the use of physical means [in security-related interrogations], the court has allowed some torture in cases when the interrogation was defined as ‘a necessity interrogation.’ The number of ‘necessity interrogations’ has significantly increased since the abduction of the three boys, and there are lots of people who have been interrogated under such conditions and [consequently] admitted to all sorts of things.”

Séance du dimanche : « The Gatekeepers » ("Les Gardiens"), 2012
▻https://quartierslibres.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/seance-du-dimanche-the-gatekeepers-les-gardiens-2012

« Quand on sort du Shin Beth, on devient un peu gauchiste » The Gatekeepers (les gardiens) est documentaire du réalisateur franco-israélien, Dror Moreh sorti en 2012 et diffusé sur une chaîne franco-allemande bien connue en 2013. Il est structuré autour d’entretiens menés avec six anciens directeurs du Shin Beth (les services secrets israéliens) : Ami Ayalon, Avi Dichter, Yuval Diskin, Carmi Gillon, Yaakov Peri et Avraham Shalom. À eux six, ils couvrent quarante ans de contre-espionnage et de politique extra-officielle pour assurer la sécurité intérieure de l’État d’Israël. Source : Quartiers libres

Latest leak exposes Israeli Military Intelligence’s Achilles’ heel - Diplomacy and Defense - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.651339

The affair of the soldier to be indicted on Sunday in military court over alleged intelligence leaks to right-wing friends reflects the difficulty the Israel Defense Forces Military Intelligence has, as opposed to smaller agencies like the Shin Bet security service or the Mossad, in protecting classified information.

MI is more vulnerable to leaks because of its broader contact with the outside world. Civilians, new draftees, reserve soldiers – every year more and more people are added to the circle of those exposed to its secrets.

It seems that the case of the soldier, Ya’akov Sela, shows weaknesses in the system that might be quite common. Relatively rapid initial security vetting, which is not always sufficient to uncover potential security risks; too loose supervision of those already in the intelligence system and who are considered “one of us”; and a lack of strict compartmentalization in day to day work.

Sela was inducted into the army’s program for ultra-Orthodox soldiers, in which great efforts are made to satisfy the needs of the draftees. He was relatively old, 25, married and a father, had medical problems, and was stationed at a base a few minutes away from his home in the settlement of Bat Ayin. (The fact that a settler from an ultra-Orthodox, nationalistic background was drafted into a program designed for ultra-Orthodox full-time yeshiva students shows the broad interpretation the IDF gives to the term “ultra-Orthodox,” and the possibility that the number of “authentic” ultra-Orthodox serving in the army may be lower than the army claims.)

Ideal location for leaker

The Bat Ayin soldier’s convenient assignment to brigade headquarters placed him in an ideal location to collect intelligence information relevant to his friends, who belong to the extreme wing of settlers.

Sela was in charge of collecting intelligence about the Palestinians, but the Shin Bet and police say he spent a significant amount of time looking into investigations involving so-called “price tag” attacks – violent attacks by settlers against Palestinian, Christian, left-wing Jewish and occasionally army targets – and preparations for the dismantling of illegal settlement construction.

Because of weaknesses in compartmentalization, it seems Sela was able to obtain a good deal of information without his commanders noticing it in time. Only when police in the Judea and Samaria district became suspicious was the leak discovered and the soldier arrested.

There have been a few cases in the past of operations and intelligence sergeants in West Bank brigades who were suspected of leaking information, mainly about the evacuation of outposts. About four years ago, when the commander of the IDF forces in the West Bank, Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, dared hint that greater care was needed in the sharing of sensitive information of this type, a campaign was launched against him in the settlements that ended only toward the end of his term as general in charge of Central Command.

The number of settler-soldiers involved in such leaks is apparently very small, but the system is not built to find them ahead of time or monitor them during their service – just as the system had difficulty discovering the leak of documents by the soldier Anat Kam from the office of Yair Naveh, the general in charge of Central Command at the time.

Clearly the arrest of one suspect should not disqualify soldiers who live in settlements from serving in sensitive posts. But the Sela affair should certainly alert the army that convenient postings close to home should not be the only consideration in intelligence assignments. Moreover, the affair should also lead to improved monitoring so that curiosity, or worse, ideological tendencies, do not expose soldiers to information to which they are not meant to have access.

Israel charges Palestinian with fighting with ISIS in Syria - National - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.649600

A Jerusalem district court has indicted a Palestinian from East Jerusalem on charges of traveling to Syria to join and fight with the Islamic State militant group.

The Shin Bet security service said Khalil Khalil, born in 1990, had joined a gym at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to physically prepare for the mission.

The agency said he told his family he was going on a religious pilgrimage to Mecca, but instead, he and a friend flew to Istanbul in January and then traveled to a safe house in southern Turkey. From there, smugglers brought them to Syria.

Khalil returned after a few weeks and was later arrested by the Shin Bet.

It said about 40 Palestinians and Arab-Israeli citizens have gone to fight with militant groups in Syria.

Autre conséquence positive des dernières élections israéliennes : Israël libère les fonds qui reviennent à l’Autorité palestinienne
Des proches de Netanyahu affirment qu’il lui était plus facile de libérer ces fonds après les élections.

Israel releases withheld tax revenues to Palestinian Authority - Diplomacy and Defense - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.649238

Israel will allow the transfer of hundreds of millions of shekels in tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, the prime minister’s bureau announced on Friday.

The revenues, which Israel collects on behalf of the authority, have been withheld for the past four months following the authority’s referral of Israel to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for possible war crimes.

The bureau said in its statement that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted the recommendation of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, the Israel Defense Forces, and the Shin Bet security service that the revenues be transferred.

Israel will transfer tax revenues that have accumulated since February, less payments for services provided by Israeli entities, including the Israel Electricity Corporation, the water authority and hospitals.

“The decision was made, among other things, for humanitarian reasons and out of an overall assessment of Israel’s interests at this time,” according to the statement.

In recent months, Israel has been under intense pressure from the United States and the European Union to transfer the funds, due to the precarious economic situation in the Palestinian territories and out of concern that economic collapse could lead to anarchy in the West Bank.

That same concern motivated Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, his predecessor Lt. Gen. (ret.) Benny Gantz, Shin Bet head Yossi Cohen, the coordinator of government activities in the territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai and other senior security officials to pressure for the transfer of the funds.

Netanyahu hesitated to do so during the election campaign, primarily out of concern that it would harm him politically among right-wing voters and enable attacks on him by his political rivals, such as Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett.

The prime minister’s associates indicated to several international visitors in recent weeks that releasing the funds would be easier for Netanyahu to do after the elections.

Révélations en Israël sur l’implication du Mossad dans l’affaire Ben Barka
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2015/03/23/revelations-en-israel-sur-l-implication-du-mossad-dans-l-affaire-ben-barka_4

Le 20 mars, deux journalistes du quotidien Yediot Aharonot, Ronen Bergman et Shlomo Nakdimon, ont publié une enquête fleuve dévoilant les coulisses de l’implication logistique du Mossad, en soutien des assassins marocains de l’opposant. Une enquête qui a été soumise, comme l’exige la loi en Israël, à la relecture de la censure militaire. Les journalistes ont mis au jour les détails de l’incroyable conflit politique survenu en Israël, entre le chef du Mossad, le premier ministre et celui qui fut chargé d’enquêter sur cette affaire d’État, Isser Harel. Mort en 2003, Harel fut une figure mythique des services israéliens, d’abord fondateur du Shin Bet (renseignement intérieur) après l’établissement de l’Etat en 1948, puis directeur...

The Shin Bet must stop torturing Palestinian detainees -
Israel’s internal security agency must comply fully with 1999 High Court ruling outlawing use of physical force in interrogations.
Haaretz Editorial | Mar. 8, 2015 Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.645789

The High Court of Justice issued a historic ruling in 1999, according to which the Shin Bet security service was not authorized to use physical means in its interrogations. The court thus repudiated the conclusions of the 1987 Landau Commission of Inquiry on the matter, which permitted the Shin Bet to use “moderate physical pressure” during interrogation.

Sixteen years later, an investigation by Haaretz shows that torture is still used in interrogations in Israel, under the euphemistic term “the necessity defense,” and that recently its use has increased. According to data collected by Haaretz from the country’s military courts and matched against the figures of the Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCAT), in 2014, Palestinians filed 59 complaints of torture, compared to 16 and 30, respectively, in 2013 and 2012.

In its famous ruling, the High Court rejected the argument that the “necessity defense” set forth in Israel’s Penal Law authorizes the use of physical means against interrogation subjects. The necessity defense, the verdict emphasizes, is an argument that can be claimed by an investigator on an individual basis and only after the fact, in the event of a “ticking time bomb” scenario.

In practice, however, the interpretation of the necessity defense has broadened, together with the use of torture. In 2009, after reports of torture increased, the High Court rejected a contempt of court motion filed by PCAT. The High Court noted in its decision that the state claimed that special interrogation methods were employed in a few, very rare, cases.

According to the Haaretz investigation, the cases in which torture is used are not rare and few, and often it is used unnecessarily, in accordance with existing protocol. The prohibition against torture in international law is absolute. The reason for this is the violation to human dignity and the human body that it entails, but also the many cases in which people have confessed to crimes they did not commit. The case of Izzat Nafsu, an Israel Defense Forces officer from the Circassian ethnic minority who confessed under torture to espionage offenses, in 1980, and was later exonerated, is one such example. Another is the case of Mohammed Hatib, who confessed under interrogation to belonging to the terror cell that carried out the abduction and subsequent murder of three Israeli teens last June – despite the fact that, according to his charge sheet, the Shin Bet and Military Advocate General in the end did not accept his confession and it is thought to have been obtained through torture.

The attorney general must instruct the Shin Bet to stop torturing suspects and to comply fully with the 1999 High Court ruling. A democratic state cannot permit torture as a legitimate method of interrogation.

Israel Secretly Arrests Golani Druze, Accusing Him of Exposing Rebel-IDF Collaboration
▻http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2015/02/28/israel-secretly-arrests-golani-druze-accusing-him-of-exposing-al

Though Israeli security services haven’t offered any reason for his arrest, it’s likely they’re angered because a week ago he followed Syrian rebels to a meeting inside Israeli-occupied territory. The rebels met with IDF forces who’ve previously been shown to receive logistical and intelligence support from Israel in previous reports here and in Israel and foreign media. Al Maket filmed a video while the meeting was underway, in which he described what he saw and offered it to Syrian TV. It was aired to the entire nation and likely monitored by Israeli security.

The Shin Bet doesn’t want any further leaks about such collaboration because it allows the Syrian regime to paint the rebels as Israeli stooges.

#film LE VILLAGE SOUS LA FORÊT
De Heidi GRUNEBAUM et Mark J KAPLAN

http://foaiy1wqzsc3yo4mb2hd0h052k.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Heidi.jpg

http://www.spoutnik.info/uploads/thumbsLarge/1417160150_Palestinefilmercestexisterfinal.jpg

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

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

http://foaiy1wqzsc3yo4mb2hd0h052k.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/jnfbluebox2.jpg

►http://www.villageunderforest.com

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

#israel #palestine #carte @cdb_77 @reka
#Israël #afrique_du_sud #forêt #documentaire

–-

Petit commentaire de Cristina pour pour @reka :
Il y a un passage du film que tu vas adorer... quand un vieil monsieur superpose une carte qu’il a dessiné à la main du vieux village Lubya (son village) sur la nouvelle carte du village...
Si j’ai bien compris la narratrice est chercheuse... peut-etre qu’on peut lui demander la carte de ce vieil homme et la publier sur visionscarto... qu’en penses-tu ? Je peux essayer de trouver l’adresse email de la chercheuse...

The Gatekeepers | ARTE
▻http://www.arte.tv/guide/fr/042575-000/the-gatekeepers?autoplay=1

Chacun à leur tour, ils racontent, intensément, quelque trente ans de lutte antiterroriste en Israël et de gestion désastreuse de la question palestinienne. Un flot d’aveux précis, circonstanciés, d’une remarquable liberté et d’une sidérante acuité. Six anciens chefs du #Shin_Beth, l’équivalent israélien du FBI, expliquent comment, depuis la Guerre des six jours en 1967, dont la victoire vaut à l’État hébreu d’occuper Gaza et la Cisjordanie et de faire face à un million de Palestiniens, les responsables politiques n’ont jamais vraiment cherché à construire la paix. Une succession d’erreurs qu’inaugurent les mots d’arabe approximatif avec lequel de jeunes réservistes s’adressent aux populations des nouveaux territoires occupés, leur annonçant qu’ils viennent les « castrer », au lieu de les « recenser ».

Peuple oublié

Bavures, tortures, méthodes iniques de renseignements et de recrutement d’indicateurs amplifiant la haine de l’occupé… Ils disent surtout l’absence glaçante de vision stratégique ; la résistance et l’hostilité des Palestiniens oubliés explosant avec la première Intifada ; le laxisme face à l’extrémisme juif qui anéantira, avec l’assassinat de Yitzhak Rabin, la seule réelle lueur de paix. « On a gagné toutes les batailles, mais on a perdu la guerre », lâche Ami Ayalon, à la tête du service de 1996 à 2000, quand Avraham Shalom, le plus ancien d’entre eux, compare l’armée d’occupation à celle de l’Allemagne pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. « Quand vous quittez le Shin Beth, vous devenez gauchiste… », conclut avec ironie Yaakov Péri (1988-1994).

#Israël

Israel says it foiled massive Hamas plot to topple Fatah | i24news - See beyond
▻http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/40695-140818-israel-says-it-foiled-massive-hamas-plot-to-topple-fatah

Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet on Monday announced it uncovered a wide-ranging plot by Hamas to topple the Fatah government in the West Bank through a series of terror acts against Israeli and Palestinian targets.

Rai al-youm (▻http://www.raialyoum.com/?p=138596) ironise sur ce « complot » bien tardivement révélé par Israël, en rappelant que l’annonce d’un rapprochement Hamas-Fatah, avec la constitution d’un gouvernement d’unité nationale, ont dû faire partie des objectifs prioritaires lors du déclenchement de la dernière guerre de Gaza.

The Shin Bet’s failure in Gaza - Opinion Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.608500
The security service’s basic purpose has become blurred over the years; it has become a kind of Military Intelligence for the occupation.
By Amir Oren

The thundering military machine’s silent partner in this operation is the Shin Bet security service. The Shin Bet has proved capable of discovering trees, but yes, it has problems seeing the forest. The organization worked impressively to locate and rearrest prisoners released in the Gilad Shalit deal, but it was much less impressive predicting the events that led to their arrest, and how things would continue going forward.

Interview with Former Israeli Security Chief Yuval Diskin - SPIEGEL ONLINE
▻http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-former-israeli-security-chief-yuval-diskin-a-982094.html

Ex-Israeli Security Chief Diskin: ’All the Conditions Are There for an Explosion’

Interview Conducted by Julia Amalia Heyer

REUTERS
In an interview with SPIEGEL, Yuval Diskin, former director of Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet, speaks of the current clash between Israel and the Palestinians, what must be done to achieve peace and the lack of leadership in the Middle East.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Diskin, following 10 days of airstrikes, the Israeli army launched a ground invasion in the Gaza Strip last week. Why now? And what is the goal of the operation?

Diskin: Israel didn’t have any other choice than to increase the pressure, which explains the deployment of ground troops. All attempts at negotiation have failed thus far. The army is now trying to destroy the tunnels between Israel and the Gaza Strip with a kind of mini-invasion, also so that the government can show that it is doing something. Its voters have been increasingly vehement in demanding an invasion. The army hopes the invasion will finally force Hamas into a cease-fire. It is in equal parts action for the sake of action and aggressive posturing. They are saying: We aren’t operating in residential areas; we are just destroying the tunnel entrances. But that won’t, of course, change much in the disastrous situation. Rockets are stored in residential areas and shot from there as well.
SPIEGEL: You are saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pressured to act by the right?

Diskin: The good news for Israel is the fact that Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Army Chief of Staff Benny Gantz are not very adventurous. None of them really wanted to go in. None of them is really enthusiastic about reoccupying the Gaza Strip. Israel didn’t plan this operation at all. Israel was dragged into this crisis. We can only hope that it doesn’t go beyond this limited invasion and we won’t be forced to expand into the populated areas.

SPIEGEL: So what happens next?

Diskin: Israel is now an instrument in the hands of Hamas, not the opposite. Hamas doesn’t care if its population suffers under the attacks or not, because the population is suffering anyway. Hamas doesn’t really care about their own casualties either. They want to achieve something that will change the situation in Gaza. This is a really complicated situation for Israel. It would take one to two years to take over the Gaza Strip and get rid of the tunnels, the weapons depots and the ammunition stashes step-by-step. It would take time, but from the military point of view, it is possible. But then we would have 2 million people, most of them refugees, under our control and would be faced with criticism from the international community.

SPIEGEL: How strong is Hamas? How long can it continue to fire rockets?

Diskin: Unfortunately, we have failed in the past to deliver a debilitating blow against Hamas. During Operation Cast Led, in the winter of 2008-2009, we were close. In the last days of the operation, Hamas was very close to collapsing; many of them were shaving their faces. Now, the situation has changed to the benefit of the Islamists. They deepened the tunnels; they are more complex and tens of kilometers long. They succeeded in hiding the rockets and the people who launch the rockets. They can launch rockets almost any time that they want, as you can see.

SPIEGEL: Is Israel not essentially driving Palestinians into the arms of Hamas?

Diskin: It looks that way, yes. The people in the Gaza Strip have nothing to lose right now, just like Hamas. And this is the problem. As long as Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was in power in Egypt, things were going great for Hamas. But then the Egyptian army took over and within just a few days, the new regime destroyed the tunnel economy between Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, which was crucial for Hamas. Since then, Hamas has been under immense pressure; it can’t even pay the salaries of its public officials.

SPIEGEL: All mediation attempts have failed. Who can stop this war?

Diskin: We saw with the most recent attempt at a cease-fire that Egypt, which is the natural mediator in the Gaza Strip, is not the same Egypt as before. On the contrary, the Egyptians are using their importance as a negotiator to humiliate Hamas. You can’t tell Hamas right now: “Look, first you need to full-stop everything and then we will talk in another 48 hours.”

SPIEGEL: What about Israel talking directly with Hamas?

Diskin: That won’t be possible. Really, only the Egyptians can credibly mediate. But they have to put a more generous offer on the table: the opening of the border crossing from Rafah into Egypt, for example. Israel must also make concessions and allow more freedom of movement.

SPIEGEL: Are those the reasons why Hamas provoked the current escalation?

Diskin: Hamas didn’t want this war at first either. But as things often are in the Middle East, things happened differently. It began with the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. From what I read and from what I know about how Hamas operates, I think that the Hamas political bureau was taken by surprise. It seems as though it was not coordinated or directed by them.

SPIEGEL: Netanyahu, though, claimed that it was and used it as a justification for the harsh measures against Hamas in the West Bank, measures that also targeted the joint Hamas-Fatah government.

Diskin: Following the kidnapping of the teenagers, Hamas immediately understood that they had a problem. As the army operation in the West Bank expanded, radicals in the Gaza Strip started launching rockets into Israel and the air force flew raids into Gaza. Hamas didn’t try to stop the rockets as they had in the past. Then there was the kidnapping and murder of the Palestinian boy in Jerusalem and this gave them more legitimacy to attack Israel themselves.

SPIEGEL: How should the government have reacted instead?

Diskin: It was a mistake by Netanyahu to attack the unity government between Hamas and Fatah under the leadership of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel should have been more sophisticated in the way it reacted. We should have supported the Palestinians because we want to make peace with everybody, not with just two-thirds or half of the Palestinians. An agreement with the unity government would have been more sophisticated than saying Abbas is a terrorist. But this unity government must accept all the conditions of the Middle East Quartet. They have to recognize Israel, renounce terrorism and recognize all earlier agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.

SPIEGEL: The possibility of a third Intifada has been mentioned repeatedly in recent days, triggered by the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip.

Diskin: Nobody can predict an Intifada because they aren’t something that is planned. But I would warn against believing that the Palestinians are peaceful due to exhaustion from the occupation. They will never accept the status quo of the Israeli occupation. When people lose hope for an improvement of their situation, they radicalize. That is the nature of human beings. The Gaza Strip is the best example of that. All the conditions are there for an explosion. So many times in my life I was at these junctions that I can feel it almost in my fingertips.

SPIEGEL: Three of your sons are currently serving in the Israeli army. Are you worried about them?

Diskin: And a fourth is in the reserves! I am a very worried father, but that is part of it. I defended my country and they will have to do so too. But because real security can only be achieved through peace, Israel, despite its military strength, has to do everything it can in order to reach peace with its neighbors.

SPIEGEL: Not long ago, the most recent negotiations failed — once again.

Diskin: Yes, and it’s no wonder. We have a problem today that we didn’t have back in 1993 when the first Oslo Agreement was negotiated. At that time we had real leaders, and we don’t right now. Yitzhak Rabin was one of them. He knew that he would pay a price, but he still decided to move forward with negotiations with the Palestinians. We also had a leader on the Palestinian side in Yasser Arafat. It will be very hard to make peace with Abbas, but not because he doesn’t want it.

SPIEGEL: Why?

Diskin: Abbas, who I know well, is not a real leader, and neither is Netanyahu. Abbas is a good person in many respects; he is against terror and is brave enough to say so. Still, two non-leaders cannot make peace. Plus, the two don’t like each other; there is no trust between them.

SPIEGEL: US Secretary of State John Kerry sought to mediate between the two.

Diskin: Yes, but from the beginning, the so-called Kerry initiative was a joke. The only way to solve this conflict is a regional solution with the participation of Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan and Egypt. Support from countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and maybe Turkey would also be necessary. That is the only way to consider all the demands and solve all problems. And we need more time, at least five years — and more to implement it step-by-step.

SPIEGEL: Why isn’t Netanyahu working toward such a compromise, preferring instead to focus on the dangers presented by an Iranian nuclear bomb?

Diskin: I have always claimed that Iran is not Israel’s real problem. It is this conflict with the Palestinians, which has lasted way too long and which has just intensified yet again. The conflict is, in combination with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the biggest security risk for the state of Israel. But Netanyahu has made the invocation of an existential threat from Iran into his mantra, it is almost messianic. And of course he has derived political profit from it. It is much easier to create consensus about the Iranian existential threat than about an agreement with the Palestinians. Because there, Netanyahu has a problem with his electorate.

SPIEGEL: You have warned that the settlements in the West Bank may soon become irreversible and that it will make the two-state solution impossible.

Diskin: We are currently very near this point of no return. The number of settlers is increasing and already a solution to this problem is almost impossible, from a purely logistical standpoint, even if the political will were there. And this government is building more than any government has built in the past.

SPIEGEL: Is a solution to the conflict even possible anymore?

Diskin: We have to go step-by-step; we need many small successes. We need commitment on the Palestinian side and the acceptance of the Middle East Quartet conditions. And Israel must freeze at once any settlement activity outside the big blocks of settlements. Otherwise, the only possibility is a single, shared state. And that is a very bad alternative.

SPIEGEL: Mohammed Abu Chidair, the teenager murdered by Israeli right-wing extremists, was recognized as being a victim of terror. Why hasn’t Israel’s security service Shin Bet been as forceful in addressing Israeli terror as it has with Arab terror?

Diskin: We invested lots of capabilities and means in order to take care of this issue, but we didn’t have much success. We don’t have the same tools for fighting Jewish extremism or even terrorists as we have when we are, for example, facing Palestinian extremists. For Palestinians in the occupied territories, military rule is applied whereas civilian law applies to settlers. The biggest problem, though, is bringing these people to trial and putting them in jail. Israeli courts are very strict with Shin Bet when the defendants are Jewish. Something really dramatic has to happen before officials are going to take on Jewish terror.

SPIEGEL: A lawmaker from the pro-settler party Jewish Home wrote that Israel’s enemy is “every single Palestinian.”

Diskin: The hate and this incitement were apparent even before this terrible murder. But then, the fact that it really happened, is unbelievable. It may sound like a paradox, but even in killing there are differences. You can shoot someone and hide his body under rocks, like the murderer of the three Jewish teenagers did. Or you can pour oil into the lungs and light him on fire, alive, as happened to Mohammed Abu Chidair.... I cannot even think of what these guys did. People like Naftali Bennett have created this atmosphere together with other extremist politicians and rabbis. They are acting irresponsibly; they are thinking only about their electorate and not in terms of the long-term effects on Israeli society — on the state as a whole.

SPIEGEL: Do you believe there is a danger of Israel becoming isolated?

Diskin: I am sorry to say it, but yes. I will never support sanctions on my country, but I think the government may bring this problem onto the country. We are losing legitimacy and the room to operate is no longer great, not even when danger looms.
SPIEGEL: Do you sometimes feel isolated with your view on the situation?

Diskin: There are plenty of people within Shin Bet, Mossad and the army who think like I do. But in another five years, we will be very lonely people. Because the number of religious Zionists in positions of political power and in the military is continually growing.

About Yuval Diskin

AP
Yuval Diskin was the director of Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet between 2005 and 2011. In recent years, he has become an outspoken critic of the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.