Understanding the conflict/

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CONTENTS

N.B. Since 2008 most newsletters contain suggestions for reading. Some of this will be integrated in time into the various sections below but much will not. These newletters, begining January 2008, can be consulted here.

1. History

a) General histories of the region and the conflict
b) Historical maps
c) The creation of the Palestinian refugee problem
d) Historical critiques of Zionism/Israeli government policy
e) Media representations of the conflict

2. The occupation

a) Human rights relating to the occupation
b) The settlements
c) Education
d) Health
e) Restrictions on movement
f) Denial of residential rights
g) Land issues
h) The Separation Wall
i) Water rights
j) The economics of the occupation
k) Personal testimony
l) Maps

3. The development of the conflict

a) From 1948 to 1967
b) The peace negotiations – Oslo to the second intifada
c) The Road Map
d) The Geneva Accord
e) The Gaza Disengagement
f) Ariel Sharon - evaluations
g) Peretz v Peres - the Israeli Labour party
h) The rise of Hamas and the boycott of the Palestinian Authority
i) The Saudi Peace plan's relaunch in 2007
j) The Gaza crisis, 2007-08
k) The Gaza crisis, 2008-09

4. Responses

a) Boycott, divestment, sanctions
b) The campaign against settlement goods
c) Violence against civilians: suicide bombings and bombers
d) The debate about Two States
e) A non-violent resistance strategy?
f) Israeli Dissent - an overview

5. Israeli society and politics

a) General analyses and commentaries
b) Notions of ethnic cleansing and Transfer
c) Israeli society: ethnicity and apartheid
d) The Palestinian citizens of Israel
e) Role of the Israeli Supreme Court
    

6. International politics

a) The 'Israel lobby': US aid to and support for Israel
b) The European Union and Israel-Palestine
c) Britain and Israel-Palestine
d) Israel and Lebanon

7. Jewish identity

a) Antisemitism
b) On being Jewish
c) The Jewish Community in Britain

8. Miscellaneous

a) Spielberg's Munich
b) Articles and links of general interest not otherwise listed
c)Robin Miller's Research Guide to the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict - last updated in July 2002 this contains 3719 links, a large number of which are still working!

New on this site

N.B. Since 2008 most newsletters contain suggestions for reading. Events have overwhelmed us and most of the material has not yet been integrated into the categories above. The newletters from January 2008 onwards can be consulted here.

The 2007 Breaking the Silence Annual Report can be downloaded here.

Physicians for Human Rights Gaza: Access of Patients to Medical Care published April 2008

The slow throttling of Gaza continues

* Amos Oz, in an interview on Kol Israel radio on the occasion of receiving the Dan David Prize, 12 * Cancer patients find their lives used as a bargaining counter by Israel
* The Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza has a website
* Johann Hari captures the insane logic well in his article Stop this strategy of strangulation Independent, 8th November 2007
* The Oxford Research Group has published a measured report by Justin Alexander entitled Conflict, Economic Closure and Human Security in Gaza" October 2007
* Donald Macintyre Israel's Economic Blockade Stops Gaza's Strawberry-farmers Selling Their Crop Independent 16th November 2007
* My sons won't go to Gaza YnetNews, 15th November 2007 - a cry of anger from Yael Mishali
* Facts regarding Israel's Fuel and Electricity Cuts to the Gaza Strip - from Gisha

Annapolis
 
The Israel Policy Forum's Policy Paper: A Guide to a Successful November Conference
Uri Avnery's The Mother of all Pretexts (13th October)
Americans for Peace Now summarised Israeli press reactions to the Annapolis summit, starting with Olmert's statement that "If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished," and including senior security personnel questioning the sidelining of Hamas.
Gershom Gorenberg analysed the contradictions of Olmert the semi-believer
The Economist listed the obstacles to real progress under the heading Big turnout - small result
Stephen Zunes analysed the failure of Annapolis
Human rights campaigners took the opportunity of the conference to highlight the need for freedom for the Arab public throughout the region, and not just under Israeli occupation
Akiva Eldar explained why rightist minister Avigdor Lieberman need lose no sleep over Annapolis
Haim Ramon indicated that Israel's West Bank security barrier will be the future Israel-Palestine border
No sooner was the conference over than Israel was denying it was bound by any end-2008 deadline
 
Orchestrated Panic Yitzak Laor reviews Tom Segev's new book '1967: Israel, the War and the Year That Transformed the Middle East ' in the London Review of Books, 1st November 2007
 
Uri Avnery The Last Refuge - as America looked set to blunder into a war with Iran, Avnery writes:
"There is only one way to come out of this in one piece - not to get into it in the first place. But, after all the dismal failures he has suffered in Iraq, in Afghanistan and now in Pakistan - what can persuade Bush to resist the temptation? And how to persuade Ehud Olmert, who longs for a way out of the quagmire he is stuck in?"

Uri Avnery 12 Years Later - a perceptive reflection on the life of Yitzhak Rabin

Dalia Karpel's long Ha'aretz article My god, what did we do? (9th November) contains extensive revelations of what soliders end up doing, whatever the intentions at the outset. It deals mostly with a new film made by Tamar Yarom, scheduled for screening on Israeli TV on 15th November, focusing on the testimonies of six female soldiers about their service in the territories during the first and second intifadas. Very, very disturbing.

Palestine and Apartheid Archbishop Tutu, recently banned from giving a lecture at St Thomas' University (the ban was lifted after massive protest) gave the keynote address at the Friends of Sabeel Conference in Boston on 27th October. It is called "" and draws extensively on the Torah which Tutu clearly loves and has studied deeply
 
Interview with Dr. Mustafa Barghouti member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and leader of the Independent Palestine bloc
 
Israel Imperial News (IIN)
The Israel Imperial News website has been newly spruced up and extended. It is a delight, much of it an extended tribute to IIN's founder, satirist and cartoonist, Shimon Tzabar, who died in London in March this year.
In September 1967, Tzabar published a short text in Haaretz signed by 11 other left-wing figures against the occupation. "Foreign rule leads to resistance. Resistance leads to oppression. Oppression leads to terror and counter terror...keeping the territories will turn us into a nation of murderers and murder victims."
Among other gems the website contains complete reproductions of Israel Imperial News from March and October 1968 and of Shimon's great 'Much Better than the Official MICHELIN Guide to Israeli Prisons, Jails, Concentration Camps and Torture Chambers. Michelin, in a moment of insanity, sued Shimon for infringement of its trademark rights! See the BBC report, "Michelin drops 'jails guide' case", at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3752926.stm
Ha'aretz carried a brief report on his death at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/840080.html and there is a tribute by Moshe Machover 'The 1967 War and the Political Legacy of Shimon Tzabar' at http://www.israelimperialnews.org/iin02.htm
 
Ha'aretz carried a hard hitting editorial entitled "Where is the occupation?" in October 2007.
'The occupied territories and the Palestinians living there are slowly becoming virtual realities, distant from the eye and the heart. Palestinian workers have disappeared from our streets. Israelis no longer enter Palestinian towns for shopping. There is a new generation on each side that does not know the other... The more Israelis see less of the occupation, the easier it becomes to ignore...'

Brutal IDF behaviour
 
A psychologist's research report recently published in Israel has caused major disquiet. Nofer Ishai-Karin, a clinical psychologist at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, interviewed 21 Israeli soldiers and heard confessions of frequent brutal assaults against Palestinians, aggravated by poor training and discipline. All this was about events in the 1990s, before the massive brutalisation of the second intifada.
 
Haaretz carried an article on the topic entitled 'Hamedovevet' [the one who makes people talk] in the Hebrew Weekend Supplement, on 21 September 2007. Dalia Karpel's shortened translation of the article was circulated by Jewish Voice for Peace on 13th October 2007.
Conal Urquhart has now reported it in the Observer on 21 October
  
A New Israeli Study Confirms our Worst Fears: On the academic research of Psychologist Nofer Ishai-Karen and Psychology Prof. Joel Elitzur Ha'aretz, 21 September 2007
It was also reported by Conal Urquhart in The Observer, 21 October 2007 Israel shaken by troops' tales of brutality against Palestinians

Situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 by the (UN) Special Rapporteur, John Dugard, submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 5/1, dated 17th August 2007

JNF-Israel (known as the KKL or Keren Kayemet LeIsrael)

The JNF-Israel (known as the KKL or Keren Kayemet LeIsrael) has been in the news a lot recently. In July 2007 the Knesset approved by 64-16 a preliminary reading of a bill that allows the Israel Lands Authority [ILA] to prohibit Israeli Arabs from leasing some of the land that it manages.

It is a racist bill. It has aroused outrage among sections of Israeli and Jewish opinion worldwide.

* See Yoav Stern and Shahar Ilan, Bill allocating JNF land to Jews only passes preliminary reading (Ha'aretz 20th July 2007, for the basic facts

* The Ha'aretz editorial under the extraordinary heading A racist, Jewish state begins:
"Every day the Knesset has the option of passing laws that will advance Israel as a democratic Jewish state or turn it into a racist Jewish state. There is a very thin line between the two. This week, the line was crossed. If the Knesset legal counselor did not consider the bill entitled "the Jewish National Fund Law" as sufficiently racist to keep it off the agenda, it is hard to imagine what legislation she will consider racist."

* Refusenik Jonathan Ben-Artzi's makes a short but acid offer of help to the Knesset with drafting the bill.

* In the US, the Forward newspaper carried the article Reform Slams Knesset Plan for JNF Land
"America’s largest Jewish denomination is issuing calls for the Israeli Knesset to reverse course on a controversial piece of legislation declaring that Jewish National Fund lands can be leased only to Jews."

* And, on the subject of the role of the JNF generally , see Zafrir Rinat , where working with the Ministry of Tourism, an image of Enchanting scenery, without Palestinians is projected which conjures away both the Wall and the green line, Ha'aretz 9th July 2007

Settlements/Palestinian Refugees

* Peace Now claimed in December that only 3% of demolition orders against unauthorised settler buildings had been carried out. "According to Peace Now, the Israeli military handed it 3,449 files on illegal buildings in settlements over the past decade but only 107 have been dismantled."

* Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar's massive Lords of the Land: The War for Israel's Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007 was recently published by Nation Books at £17.99.

'No one has been brought to account, publicly or otherwise, for his involvement in the settlement enterprise. Apart from Israeli society growing less democratic, less humane, less rational, and at the same time, poorer and more ridden with hatred and controversy ... the majority of Israelis continue to lead their lives without interruption, while the settlements gradually take over the country and ruin the lives of the Palestinians.'

No substantial comment yet on what is likely to be a definitive work, but there is a short review of it the New York Times by Adam LeBor: "'Lords of the Land' is the first complete history of the settlement project. It provides a detailed narrative of injustice, and is profoundly depressing for anyone still hoping for a fair resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or even hoping that Jews and Arabs will be seen as equal in the eyes of Israeli law."

It is also reviewed briefly in the Economist on 11th October with the strap line How religious ideologues bent the Israeli state to their purpose

* Akiva Eldar Border Control /The last legal loophol Ha'aretz 24 July2007 profiles Dror Etkes, who has run Peace Now's Settlement Watch for five years. Etkes is leaving and it will be a great loss. His work, almost single-handed, has been about the only ongoing activity conducted by Peace Now in recent years.

The system wants to present an image of the rule of law and order," says Etkes, 39, who is about to leave Peace Now after five years of running around the West Bank. "On one hand, they issue demolition orders, but on the other hand, they don't implement them. It's easier to tell these fictional stories while the inspectors are out in the field, as if they were doing something. In the meantime, the system, which is corrupt from within, is making deals with settlers and adding another pillar to the reality of apartheid. The norm is one of illegality.

* Tom Segev, The June 1967 War and the Palestinian Refugee Problem Today, Journal of Palestine Studies no 143, summer 2007.

This article is excerpted from a chapter of a new book on the 1967 war: '1967: Israel, the War, and the Year that Transformed the Middle East' (Metropolitan Books), recently published in the United States. It 'focuses on the debates within Israel, especially within the government, regarding the fate of the Palestinian refugees (particularly in Gaza) who came under Israeli control in the wake of the war. The article explores Israeli government and military involvement, including that of the prime minister's office, in soliciting and crafting a number of plans to bring about the out-migration of Palestinians from Gaza. '

* Meron Rapoport, History Erased, Ha'aretz 7th July 2007
 An article discussing the destruction of over three-quarters of the Palestinian village mosques in Israel in the 1950s. Based largely on a book by Israeli archeologist, Raz Kletter - apparently published in Britain in 2005 - "Just Past? The Making of Israeli Archaeology," Equinox Publishing, 2005 From Rapoport: The ideological foundation of the devastation is set forth in the August 1957 Foreign Ministry letter sent at the behest of Golda Meir. After the author of the document, A. Dotan, requested the Ministry of Labor to "clear the ruins," he specified "four types" of "ruins" and the grounds for their destruction:

"First, it is necessary to get rid of the ruins in the heart of Jewish communities, in important centers or on central transportation arteries; rapid treatment must be given to the ruins of villages whose residents are in the country, such as Birwe, north of Shfaram, and the ruins of Zippori; in areas where there is no development, such as along the rail line from Jerusalem to Bar Giora, one receives a depressing impression of a once-living civilized land; attention must also be directed to ruins in distinctly tourist areas, such as the ruins of the Circassian village in Caesarea, which is intact but empty ... Accordingly, the Ministry of Labor should assume the mission of clearing the ruins ... It should be taken into account that the participation of nongovernmental elements requires caution, as politically it is desirable for the operation to be executed without anyone grasping its political meaning."

The Avraham Burg saga
 
Article/Interview by Ari Shavit with Avraham Burg, former Knesset speaker and former head of the Jewish Agency, on the occasion of the publication of his new book "Defeating Hitler" (currently only available in Hebrew).

The opening paragraph of the article reads: 'Avraham Burg, former Knesset speaker and former head of the Jewish Agency says "to define the State of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end. A Jewish state is explosive. It's dynamite." In an interview in Haaretz Weekend Magazine, he said that he is in favor of abrogating the Law of Return and calls on everyone who can to obtain a foreign passport.'

Avraham Burg's New Zionism A follow-up interview with Burg by J.J.Goldberg, New York Jewish Daily Forward 13th June 2007.

Burg's views appear to have been significantly distorted in the Ha'aretz article. His position is altogether more sophisticated - and more interesting. He has in effect returned to a cultural and spiritual Zionism in place of political Zionism, to a desire to enrich the lives of Jews wherever they live: "What I want to do is to expand the borders of Israel beyond land and location to include universalism and spiritual search," Burg told me. "We were raised on the Zionism of Ben-Gurion, that there is only one place for Jews and that’s Israel. I say no, there have always been multiple centers of Jewish life.

David Remnick's “Letter from Jerusalem”: The Apostate: A Zionist politician loses faith in the future New Yorker, July 30, 2007

Short of being Prime Minister, Burg could not be higher in the Zionist establishment. His father was a Cabinet minister for nearly four decades, serving under Prime Ministers from David Ben-Gurion to Shimon Peres. In addition to a decade-long career in the Knesset, including four years as Speaker, Burg had also been leader of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel. And yet he did not obey the commands of pedigree. "Defeating Hitler" and an earlier book, "God Is Back," are, in combination, a despairing look at the Israeli condition. Burg warns that an increasingly large and ardent sector of Israeli society disdains political democracy. He describes the country in its current state as Holocaust-obsessed, militaristic, xenophobic, and, like Germany in the nineteen-thirties, vulnerable to an extremist minority.

Misc

Neve Gordon Anarchists under fire Guardian Comment is Free 30th July 2007
About Anarchists Against the Wall. "One of the most remarkable qualities of these young Israelis is their subversive use of their own privilege, employing it not for self-interested social, economic or political gain - as most people do - but rather in order to stand up to power."  
 
Naomi Klein How war was turned into a brand Guardian June 16, 2007
Political chaos means Israel is booming like it's 1999 - and the boom is in defence exports field-tested on Palestinians
 
Uri Avnery v Khaled Diab, Could a 'one-state' solution end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Guardian Comment is Free, July 6, 2007. A productive exchange of views in which a large amount of agreement emerges.

Carlo Strenger Why Israel does not engage with the Saudi initiative Ha'aretz June 8, 2007

A very interesting discussion of the fears Israelis have of putting a "just solution of the refugee problem." on the agenda. The deepest reason for this, says Prof of Psychology at Tel Aviv University Carlo Strenger, is that "Israeli public discourse and national consciousness have never come to terms with the idea, accepted by historians of all venues today, that Israel actively drove 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in 1947/8 and hence has at least partial responsibility for the Palestinian Nakba. This has not happened to this very day because this idea is seen as undermining the foundation of the Zionist enterprise and the legitimacy of Israel's existence. It is as if we were locked into an insoluble dilemma: Either we deny responsibility for the Nakba, or we need to accept that we have no right to be here. "... In the best of all possible worlds, an Israeli statesman (a rare commodity in an age of mere politicians) would arise and tell the Palestinians: "Israel came into existence in tragic circumstances that inflicted great suffering and injustice on your people. We accept responsibility for our part in this tragedy, even though we cannot fully rectify it. Let us sit together and see how we can end the vicious cycle of violence and suffering and live side by side.

Mitchell Plitnick and Chris Toensing, "The Israel Lobby" in Perspective Middle East Report Online

The Mearsheimer-Walt debate revisited in a sympathetic and wide-ranging critical re-evaluation Plitnik & Toensing argue early on that:"The essential flaw in the Mearsheimer-Walt argument... lies in the professors' conclusion - soothing in this day and age - that US Middle East policy would become "more temperate" were the influence of the Israel lobby to be curtailed. This conclusion is undercut by the remarkable continuities in US Middle East policy since the Truman administration, including in times when the pro-Israel lobby was weak."
 And they conclude:
"The influence of the Israel lobby should neither be underestimated nor overstated... The lobby derives its strength, in some measure, from being largely unopposed in Washington. Israel will remain a strong US ally, for many reasons, for the foreseeable future. But that need not mean that the US cannot pressure Israel into the compromises required for a just peace with the Palestinians. This can happen if a counterweight to the Israel lobby is built. But such a counterweight is only effective if it understands what its opponent can and cannot accomplish. In this task, the Mearsheimer-Walt paper is a good foundation upon which rational discussion can build."
 

Reuven Kaminer Guide to the Perplexed for Friends in the International Peace Movement
Interesting ideas of a veteran activist on how to tackle ideologically the current Hamas-Fatah conflict

Gadi Algazi 1967

A comprehensive overview of the settment project:
"In hindsight, it is easy to recognize that the Israeli occupation is essentially a colonial project enacted under the auspices of a military occupation. The occupation provides ideal conditions for the process of dispossession and settlement..."

The Gazan aftermath

Alastair Crooke Our Second Biggest Mistake in the Middle East

'...despite what much of the media says, this is not a 'civil war', and Hamas is not made up of 'gangs beyond the control of their leaders'. Hamas's action was conducted with the aim of removing the influence of just one of Fatah's security forces in Gaza, the militia controlled by Muhammad Dahlan, Abbas's national security adviser. Hamas has insisted that this has not been a conflict with Fatah in general, and it was notable that neither the Palestinian security forces - effectively the Palestinian 'army' - nor the police in Gaza were targets of the recent violence.

Tony Karom, The 8 Fallacies of Bush’s Abbastan Plan

In this article on his Rootless Cosmopolitan website for June 20th, 2007, Karom identifies eight fallacies:
Fallacy #1: Mahmoud Abbas is legitimate; Hamas is not
Fallacy #2: Hamas Launched a Coup Against the Legitimate Government in Gaza
Fallacy #3: Fatah Offers a Viable Alternative to Hamas
Fallacy #4: Abbas Can Impose His Will on the Palestinians
Fallacy #5: The West Bank is in Fatah’s Hands
Fallacy #6: Israel’s Shlemiel Regime is Capable of ‘Bolstering Abbas’
Fallacy # 7: If Starved, the Palestinians Will Blame Hamas for Their Fate
Fallacy #8: Hamas is an Extreme Jihadist Group With Whom Negotiation is Impossible

Mitchell Plitnick, Gaza: Can Disaster Be Avoided? (Plitnick is Jewish Voice for Peace director of Education and Policy) (Part of a Jewish Voice for Peace Special Gaza Newsletter)
Eyad el-Sarraj: In This Gaza, No One Wins (Toronto Globe and Mail)
Robert Malley and Aaron David Miller: "West Bank First": It Won't Work" (International Crisis Group)
Peter Beaumont Those Who Denied Poll Results Are The Real Coup Plotters The Observer
Uri Avneri: Crocodile Tears (Gush Shalom)
Anthony Cordesman: Strategic Implications of the Palestinian Crisis (CSIS)
Jonathan Freedland The scene of Fatahland flowering as Hamastan wilts is sheer fantasy
Guardian comment, 20th June
Jimmy Carter's reaction Carter blasts US policy on Palestinians
Omar Barghouti, 'The Light at the End of the Gaza-Ramallah Tunnel
The Electronic Intifada, 20 June 2007
Document details ‘U.S.’ plan to sink Hamas Mark Perry and Paul Woodward, Asia Times, May 16, 2007 (On April 30, the Jordanian weekly newspaper Al-Majd published a story about a 16-page secret document, an “Action Plan for the Palestinian Presidency” that called for undermining and replacing the Palestinian national-unity government...)

Speech by Nurit Peled-Elhanan at the demonstration in Tel Aviv to commemorate 40 years of the occupation (Nurit Peled-Elhanan, of the Bereaved Families Forum and laureate of the Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament for Human Rights and Freedom of Thought)

For forty years now, racism and megalomania have dictated our lives. Forty years during which more than four million people do not know the meaning of freedom of movement. Forty years in which Palestinian children are born and raised as prisoners in their homes that the Occupation converted into a prison, deprived at the outset of all the rights that human beings are entitled to because they are human. Forty years during which Israeli children are educated in racism of the type that has been unknown in the civilized world for decades. Forty years during which they have learned to hate the neighbours just because they are neighbours, to fear them without knowing them, to see a quarter of the citizens of the State as a demographic danger and an enemy within, and to relate to the residents of the ghettos created by the policy of occupation as a problem that must be solved."

Human Rights updates

Gisha Commercial Paralysis: Deleting Gaza's Economy from the Map A new Report on the situation in Gaza. According to Sari Bashi, Director of Gisha:
"Israel is attempting to achieve political objectives by exerting pressure on 1.4 million women, men and children, whose suffering is supposed to bring about the change it wants - toppling Hamas control in Gaza. In reality, a policy of collective punishment is being imposed upon 1.4 million people, in violation of international humanitarian law and contradictory to Israel's interest. Destroying Gaza's economy only exacerbates dependence on extreme elements".

Israel and Palestine: A Question of Viability Christian Aid 
A hard-hitting report published in June 2007 argues that long-term lasting solution has to guarantee viability to both Palestinians and Israelis. It sets out the essential elements of viability: an end to occupation, self-determination and sovereignty, effective governance, protection of human rights, security for all, freedom of movement, ensuring legitimate control of natural resources and creating conditions for economic growth and prosperity. A viable solution has to be guided by international law, be impartial, be based on an end to impunity. It calls on the international community to act immediately.

Amnesty International Israel Report, Enduring occupation Palestinians under siege in the West Bank
This new report, out to coincide with 40 years of occupation, is a comprehensive overview of the oppression which has resulted form the occupation. It covers the fence/wall: unlawful land grab, checkpoints, settlements, state-sponsored 'outposts', demolition of Palestinian homes, impunity for settlers, human rights defenders under attack, the destruction of the Palestinian economy and growing poverty; and violations of international law before making a series of clear recommendations to Israel, Palestinian armed groups, the PA and the international community.

Richard Horton Palestinians: The Crisis in Medical Care New York Review of Books, 15 March 2007
Reply by Yair Amikam, Deputy Director-General, Information and International Relations, at the Israeli Ministry of Health which is a thinly disguised apologia for the occupation and all it consequences, and response by Horton:

The government of Israel does not recognize the mandate of the UN's special rapporteur. However, I would be happy to take Mr. Amikam to the hospital in Beit Hanoun on the Gaza Strip, which struggles, because of Israel's strict border controls, with severely limited access to medicines, hospital supplies, and medical equipment; to the clinics in Gaza City and Rafah, whose funding and functions are ebbing away due to neglect by the Quartet, fueled by Israel's fierce but effective lobbying; to the villages, such as Seer, Deir Ghazala, Arabuna, and Jalama in the northern reaches of the West Bank, where dozens of Israeli military checkpoints, far from protecting civilian lives, put in effect policies that prevent Palestinian patients from reaching essential medical services in large urban centers; to families which do not have ready access to the kind of basic health facilities - including, for example, specialist physicians - that any Israeli citizen would take for granted; and to the children of the West Bank and Gaza, many of whom are chronically undernourished, anemic, and vulnerable to entirely preventable disease. This is the "objective situation" in the Palestinian territory today, a situation that Israel bears a great responsibility for creating and sustaining.
 

OCHA (the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)'s updated map of the Fragmentation of the West Bank 7th May 2007.
It shows very graphically the areas of the West Bank where Palestinians are not allowed to travel, internal checkpoints etc - see also the brief Financial Times article based on this report and its excellent map.

PCATI Ticking Bombs" Testimonies of Torture Victims in Israel
A New Report by The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel published on 30th May.

This report, issued by PCATI, describes the routine of torture in Israel from the point of view of its victims. Nine detailed case studies narrating the victims' experiences from the moment of arrest, through interrogation and trial and through the routine refusal of the Ministry of Justice to investigate their complaints will provide us with a glimpse into the world of torture in Israel.
 
The detailed testimonies of these torture victims reveals the extent to which the practice of torture is widespread and not limited to General Security Service (GSS) interrogators. Practitioners and facilitators of torture include soldiers and their commanders, prison wardens and police officers, physicians and medical staff in hospitals, military attorneys and judges, the heads of the Ministry of Justice - the Attorney General, the State Attorney and the attorney responsible for the GSS Official in Charge of investigation Interrogees' complaints in the (the MAVTAN) and members of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, all of whom, in practice or through lack of action, through knowledge or through their silence, are accomplices to the torture described in the report. The report, in addition, reveals the bureaucratic, almost banal, environment in which torture is carried out in Israel

Full report
 

Jonathan Freedland The six-day war is not over. Today, it brings the spectre of al-Qaida in Gaza Guardian 23rd May

What should Israel do? Right now, its leaders' sole objective is protecting civilians from rocket attacks: when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Sderot on Monday he was booed. So his ministers speak of escalation, more targeted killings, perhaps even hitting the Hamas premier, Ismail Haniyeh. It's the same old mistake. Surely Israel's friends can begin to point in another direction: to seize on the hints from Hamas of possible compromise, to capitalise on the fact that Hamas too has an interest in defeating al-Qaida - and to begin a dialogue with the enemy. The aim would be to end the war that never ended - because the alternative is always so much worse

Brian Whitaker Arabic under fire Guardian Comment is Free, 15th May 2007

"A child on Hamas TV talked of annihilating the Jews ... or did she?" This article raises questions about the translation of Arabic on which so much of the world's press relies - that suppled by Memri, the "research institute" which specialises in translating portions of the Arabic media into English. Here it had issued a video clip from a children's programme on Hamas TV in which it claims that a Palestinian girl talked of becoming a suicide bomber and annihilating the Jews. She did not. As Whitaker says: "The curious thing about all this is that Memri's translations are usually accurate (though it is highly selective in what it chooses to translate and often removes things from their original context). When errors do occur, it's difficult to attribute them to incompetence or accidental lapses."

Sara Roy How Can Children of the Holocaust Do Such Things?: A Jewish Plea Counterpunch, 7/8 April 2007

" Many of the people, both Jewish and others, who write about Palestinians and Arabs fail to accept the fundamental humanity of the people they are writing about, a failing born of ignorance, fear and racism... Why is it so difficult, even impossible to incorporate Palestinians and other Arab peoples into the Jewish understanding of history?"

Uri Avnery Shalom, Shin Bet 7 April 2007
"RECENTLY, THE CHIEF of the Shin Bet declared that the "Israeli Arabs", a fifth of Israel's population, constitute a danger to the state..."

Al-Haq's quarterly field reports on human rights

Al-Haq's Monitoring and Documentation Department has been producing quarterly reports since the beginning of 2005, covering human rights abuses committed by the Israeli Occupying Power and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Each field report highlights a particularly important and disturbing trend observed by the Monitoring and Documentation Department during the reporting period.

(Al-Haq is an independent Palestinian non-governmental human rights organisation based in Ramallah, West Bank. Established in 1979 to protect and promote human rights and the rule of law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the organisation has special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. )

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, John Dugard

From the summary: " The international community has identified three regimes as inimical to human rights - colonialism, apartheid and foreign occupation. Israel is clearly in military occupation of the OPT. At the same time elements of the occupation constitute forms of colonialism and of apartheid, which are contrary to international law. What are the legal consequences of a regime of prolonged occupation with features of colonialism and apartheid for the occupied people, the occupying Power and third States? It is suggested that this question might appropriately be put to the International Court of Justice for a further advisory opinion.

The Occupied Palestinian Territory is the only instance of a developing country that is denied the right of self-determination and oppressed by a Western-affiliated State. The apparent failure of Western States to take steps to bring such a situation to an end places the future of the international protection of human rights in jeopardy as developing nations begin to question the commitment of Western States to human rights."

The Saudi Peace Plan

The Middle East peace initiative floated by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah in 2002 was revived at the Arab League Summit in Algiers in late March 2007. The plan offers Israel recognition and permanent peace with all Arab countries in return for Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Six Day War. It also calls for setting up a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and a just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.

Jewish Voice for Peace in the States devoted some space to analysing this important development:
* Opportunity Knocks: The Arab League Renews Its Peace Plan Offer
* Jewish Voice for Peace Welcomes the Saudi Peace Initiative, Calls On US And Israel to Accept the Plan As A Basis For Talks
* American Jewish group supports Arab peace initiative

MJ Rosenberg in his weekly opinion column for the Israel Policy Forum (6 April 2007) strongly urged Israel to respond positively to this offer.

The Israeli Regional Peace Movement is a new group that has come together in Israel to promote the Arab League offer among Israelis.

In Initiative versus principle, Al Ahram 29th March- 4th April 2007, Balad party Knesset member Azmi Bishara takes a critical look at the plan and the politics around it: 'If Israel rejects the best Arab position, perhaps the Arabs should revert to maximal demands and ask Israel to propose a plan.'

In Ha'aretz, 10th April 2007, Gideon Levy concludes from Israel's reaction to the plan that "Israel Doesn't Want Peace."

 
Misc
On 20th March Richard Kuper took park in a Q&A exchange in a Forum hosted by Mpacuk. The questions and answers are available here.

The 'Israel lobby'
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) IS the Israel lobby par excellence. It has its 2007 annual policy conference in March.

1. Inside America's powerful Israel lobby

Gregory Levey, Israel's United Nations speechwriter and senior foreign communications coordinator for Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, has produced a very useful report on the conference which is introduced by a stand first reading: 'AIPAC's three-day summit included fiery evangelical oratory, adoration for Dick Cheney -- and new plans for going after Iran.'

2. Can American Jews unplug the lobby?

Gary Kamiya

3. On Israel, America and AIPAC

George Soros

New York Review of Books, 54/6, 17t April 2007

'Anybody who dares to dissent may be subjected to a campaign of personal vilification. I speak from personal experience.' He goes on: 'I believe that a much-needed self-examination of American policy in the Middle East has started in this country; but it can't make much headway as long as AIPAC retains powerful influence in both the Democratic and Republican parties.'

A Commentary on the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism
Rosemary Bechler, 17 March 2007 (incl summary)

A substantial dissection of the the All-Parliamentary Inquiry and its underlying assumptions, with some reflections on wider issues of pluralism and democracy in a multicultural society. Published as a discussion document for FFIPP-UK which is organising a seminar on the topic at Birkbec College on 14th May 2007. Contact Daniel or Brenna for details.

Citizenship and political integration: can we draw lessons from the rise and demise of apartheid?
Ran Greenstein
Mishpat Umimshal (Law and Government), Faculty of Law, Haifa University, Volume 10, No. 1 (November 2006) in Hebrew. English version posted here.

A nuanced reading of the specificities of South African history that made the transition possible:
'It is important to realize, in summary, that the South African post-apartheid state, which grants equal rights to all citizens, was made possible by specific historical circumstances: diversity of groups brought together in a long process that involved multiplicity of local circumstances and interactions. This was accompanied by the formation of intimate but unequal relations between racial groups, through the employment of black labourers in the white-dominated economy, and domestic workers and child minders in most white households. These conditions do not exist in Israel/Palestine and cannot be replicated. The legacy of communal autonomy, quest for independence, institutional separation, and hostility, is too strong to allow for joint citizenship in the short to medium term. The difference in legal approaches discussed above stems from the different histories of the two societies.'

The Democratic Constitution
Adalah, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, 1st March 2007

'On the tenth anniversary of its founding, Adalah is issuing “The Democratic Constitution,” as a constitutional proposal for the state of Israel, based on the concept of a democratic, bilingual, multicultural state. This proposed constitution draws on universal principles and international conventions on human rights, the experiences of nations and the constitutions of various democratic states.
'In recent years, Israeli groups have put forward several constitutions for the state of Israel. However, these proposals are distinguished by their lack of conformity to democratic principles, in particular the right to complete equality of all residents and citizens, and by their treatment of Arab citizens as if they were strangers in this land, where history, memory and collective rights exist only for Jewish people. It is no coincidence therefore that these proposals have been preoccupied with the question of, “Who is a Jew?” and have neglected the primary constitutional question of, “Who is a citizen?”'

Rather older, but not yet allocated to categories in the contents list

Avraham Oz writes a letter about teaching theatre studies in Sderot under Qassam fire...
"The students, like the rest of the population of the country, are divided: about half believe that in spite of the failure of aggressive response by the Israeli military forces to the Qassam shelling, such response should continue, intensify and inflict harsher punishment on the Gaza population, which does nothing to stop those shelling from their side. The other half believes a true and sincere dialogue should start between both parties, which can lead to a ceasefire and, in the long run, peaceful coexistence. We try to rehearse the second option as part of our performance classes. As we know from former experience, this is not easy, following a day of casualties and a night of red alerts. And yet some exciting moves do happen in class."

Blog from Israel
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein who works with ICAHD in Jeusalem has started her own blog

Feminist Review launches a new initiative on 'Collective Interventions'
with The Iron Wall by Laleh Khalili.
(The need to respond to the immediacy of events in the world has prompted
Feminist Review to create an online space where members of the Collective
present their engaged interventions. These pieces will also be printed in
the pages of the journal. Readers are invited to facilitate further
conversations with these interventions within the experimental zone of
'Open Space'.)

 

High Court orders IDF to protect Palestinian farmers from settlers
Acri-RHR press release on the subject

Presbyterian Assembly review of its position on divestment, June 2006
Jewish Voice for Peace comment, Newsletter, 23rd June 2006

Windows for Peace (UK) Newsletter no.6 June 2006

open Democracy's Israel & Palestine – old roads, new maps An extended debate.

Uri Avnery, Who's Guilty? The victim of course a report on an army attack on a peaceful demonstration against the Wall at A-Ram

 

Responses to the suicide bombing of 17th April 2006
Comment on the day of the suicide bombing by Adam Keller of Gush Shalom
The Cycle of Violence by Laura Abraham of the Peace Cycle
Salvage the PA: Only way to stop deterioration is international effort to save PA Brigadier General (Res.) Dr. Yossi Ben-Ari

The Erosion of Free Speech by Robert Fisk, the Independent, 11th March 2006

See also, Mushtaq Khan, 'Security First' and its Implications for a Viable Palestinian State, in Michael Keating, Anne Le More and Robert Lowe eds. Aid, Diplomacy and Facts on the Ground: The Case of Palestine London: Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs) 2005

Presentations by Judith Butler and Jacqueline Rose at the FFIPP-UK Fear of the Other conference last September are now available:
(a) Judith Butler & Jacqueline Rose, Holocaustal Premises: Political Implications of the Traumatic Frame
A webcast of the main presentations is available under events on the Royal Holloway College website - scroll down to 22nd September 2005.
(b) Judith Butler Israel/Palestine and the Paradoxes of Academic Freedom
This paper was revised for publication in Radical Philosophy, 135, Jan-Feb 2006 and is available on the web.

Red Pepper, January 2006 issue, contains a section on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including articles by Graham Usher, Jonathan Cook, Mike Marqusee, Omar Karmi and others.

Those currently available on line:
Richard Kuper, Singling out Israel
Brian Klug, Antisemitism and the left
Mike Marqusee, Review: Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History by Norman G. Finkelstein (Verso)
Graham Usher, Elections without a State

Some of the papers delivered at the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace conference Fear of the Other and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in September 2005 are now available on the FFIPP-UK website. There is also a video of the Judith Butler/Jacqueline Rose "Holocaustal Premises" discussion.


Eric Hobsbwm, Benefits of Diaspora, London Review of Books, 20th October 2005
Jeff Halper,"What are You Doing? What Have You Become?"
Israel as an Extension of American Empire, Counterpunch, 7th November 2005

Harold Pinter awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature

For appreciations see, among many others:
Michael Billington, A gulf in appreciation
Michael Kustow, Tribal rage
David Hare, They got it right

To be reassigned

3. Ending the Death Dance

by Richard Falk

The Nation April 29, 2002

The aftermath of September 11 and the Middle-East

c. 2,800 words


4. First the Carrot, Then the Stick: Behind the Carnage in Palestine

by Norman G. Finkelstein

Counterpunch, April 17, 2002

c. 1,800 words


5. Jews for Justice

by Rabbi Michael Lerner

The Nation, May 20, 2002

c. 1,600 words

7. The view from two analysts - one Israeli, one Palestinian

Yossi Alpher & Ghassan Khatib

First published 8/4/02 by Bitterlemons, on the net at www.openDemocracy.net


8. Israel's Pass Laws Will Wreck Peace Hopes

by Marwan Bishara

The International Herald Tribune, Commentary, May 22, 2002


10. Thoughts About America

Edward Said

Al-Ahram Weekly Online, 28 Feb. - 6 March 2002


11. An Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition: The do-it-ourselves solution

By Yasser Abed Rabbo & Yossi Beilin (Palestinian minister of information and culture and the former Israeli minister of justice)

'For the founders of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition, there is a possible way out of the present murderous impasse in the region: a return to the agreement drawn up at Taba in January 2001. Two of those who drew it up, one Israeli and one Palestinian, propose an alternative way forward.'

13. Palestinian elections now

Edward Said

Al Ahram, 13 - 19 June 2002


'Palestinians have seldom faced a worse, or a more seminal, moment, writes Edward Said. How, then, might it be grasped?'

c.2,700 words


14. Demons of The Nakbah

Ilan Pappe

Al Ahram May 17, 2002

'The Nakbah -- the expulsion of the Palestinians from Palestine -- now seems to many in the centre of the political map as an inevitable and justifiable consequence of the Zionist project in Palestine. If there is any lament, it is that the expulsion was not completed.'

c. 2,000 words


15. The fence at the heart of Palestine

Ilan Pappe

Al Ahram,

'Israel wants to do more than keep the suicide bombers out... It wants to erase the Palestinian nation once and for all.'


16. The Ethics of Revenge

A speech made by Yitzhak Frankenthal, Chairperson of the Families Forum, at a rally in Jerusalem on Saturday, 27 July 2002

The Bereaved Families' Forum was founded by Israeli businessman Yitzhak Frankenthal, whose son was killed by Palestinians while serving in the Israeli army. Members are Palestinians and Israelis who have lost loved ones in the conflict.


17. Beyond belief

Azmi Bishara, Member of the Knesset

Al Ahram, 25-31 July, 2002

A biting criticism of the failures of the PLO leadership and of its consequences

'At a time when Palestinian politics are in an unprecedented state of decay, what is needed is the reconstruction of a Palestinian resistance movement resolutely set against Israeli colonialism and apartheid...'

'The most fundamental aspect of the moral crisis in Palestinian politics is that the arena of national liberation struggle and resistance has been left open to those who, with the closure of all avenues of hope, have lost any sense of the meaning of life and seek instead a meaning in death.'

18. Inside the maelstrom

An Editorial Overview from the August 2002 issue of The Other Israel

'It is the darkest time we can recall. A time of waking up into - rather than from - a nightmare...

'For all that, Sharon is neither invincible nor infallible, and his project of reconquest - now several months old - has already run into considerable difficulties and built-in contradictions.'

c. 13,000 words

19. The distorted vision of the American Jewish Committee

Rabbi John D Rayner, Tikkun, 2002

c.2,800 words

Rayner 'challenges what he calls "the demagoguery" that has become all too prevalent in the statements of those who portray themselves as "pro-israel" but who are defending policies of the Ariel Sharon government which are in fact weakening Israel.'


21. Israel's Occupation Turns 35: Avi Shlaim on History and the Current Impasse

Merip summer 2002

Avi Shlaim teaches international relations at St. Antony's College, Oxford.

'What's been called "the lachrymose version of Jewish history" is an Ashkenazi version of Jewish and Israeli history which is not supported by the experience of the Jews in Arab countries until 1948.'

c. 2,500 word

22.
23.
Plus:

links to the political writings of Uri Avnery and Tanya Reinhart

Thinkpieces

These consist of articles from the Israeli press, formatted so that they can be printed off on A4 paper and backed if necessary, then cut in half to make A5 leaflets suitable for distribution at meetings, synagogues and other events. Let us know if you find them useful.

Thinkpiece 1: Gideon Levy If it were the reverse [18 July 2004]
Thinkpiece 2: Amira Hass And Still the Occupation [23 Sept 2004]
Thinkpiece 3: Dov Weisglass interview [6 Oct 2004]
Thinkpiece 4: Amira Hass What would Israel do without Unwra? [6 Oct 2004]
Thinkpiece 5: Gideon Levy Killing children is no longer a big deal [17 Oct 2004]
Thinkpiece 6: B. Michael I killed thirty chidren [Oct 2004]
Thinkpiece 7: Yitzhak Laor Al-mahsum, mahsom, checkpoint [12 Dec 2004]
Thinkpiece 8: B'tselem Israeli military grants impunity when soldiers kill Palestinian civilians [2 Feb 2005]
Thinkpiece 9: Gideon Levy How long does it take to demolish a house? [20 Feb 2005]
Thinkpiece 10: Nurit Peled-Elhanan We have betrayed our children [28 Nov 2002]
Thinkpiece 11: Danny Rubinstein With such news, who needs incitement [7th March 2005]
Thinkpiece 12 Gideon Levy Twilight Zone / ‘I’ve lost my heart’ [27th January 2007]

 

 

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