Author Archives: Hankhardy321

ARE ANTI-ISRAEL BOYCOTTS LEGAL? DOESN’T LOOK LIKE IT

Posted on by
This article was recently published on the YAHOO website. A comment is posted after each paragraph.

BY

05_19_Israel_Boycott_01
Israelis celebrate Israel’s 68th Independence Day with fireworks in the southern city of Ashkelon. The author argues that attempts by educational nonprofits to boycott Israel breaks the law that nonprofits’ funds from members cannot be used to push a political agenda that has nothing to do with the association’s mission.

Israelis try very hard to stifle the voice of freedom not only in the land of Palestine but also in the United States and anywhere in the world they can. We should encourage everyone, specifically college students, to speak their minds and get their opinions heard. But, as the Israelis see it and want everyone to see and believe it that when people’s opinions and the truth is not to the Israelis liking, it’s against the law.

Boycotts against Israel are making headlines again. The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is voting this month on whether to boycott Israel. If the resolution passes, AAA will be the largest and oldest academic association to do so.

The AAA is doing the right thing, and boycotting Israel is the right thing to do. The Israelis need to know that their lies and intimidation are not as effective as they used to be. People in this country are waking up and realizing the reality in the Middle East which’s driving the Israelis off the wall.

In response, many heads of U.S. universities, including MIT, the University of Chicago and all 10 University of California campuses, recently reaffirmed their opposition to academic boycotts, specifically citing ones targeting Israel.

The pressure and intimidation still works on those heads especially when added to the lack of morality on their part. Those heads should be chopped off and replaced by more reasonable and encouraging ones to the freedom of fact finding and opinions’ expression. 

The graduate student unions at University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst and New York University (NYU) just voted to boycott Israel. Both UMass chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy and NYU president Andrew Hamilton responded with unequivocal opposition and condemnation.

Bravo to UMass and NYU for not allowing the chancellor and president of those universities to influence their opinions and votes.

Fierce debate has surrounded boycotts since the American Studies Association (ASA) endorsed an Israel boycott two years ago. Are boycotts antithetical to the mission and values of academia? Do boycotts violate academic freedom?

Boycotts do not violate academic freedom. In fact they have nothing to do with academic freedom. They are a matter of opinions’ and should not be associated with academic value in any way.

Others questioned: Why the obsession with Israel?  Considering all the non-democratic, non-feminist and non-free religion, free speech and free press countries, why Israel? Israel is the only country in the Middle East to provide equal rights to women and all members of the LBGTQ community, to guarantee freedom of press and religion and to safeguard the opportunity to vote, regardless of ethnicity. In fact, Jews, Christians and Muslims all serve in Israel’s government. North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria, Sudan, Myanmar, Russia and many other recidivist human rights violators are not singled out for boycott. Among the 196 nations in the world, why is the only Jewish state being singled out? Are boycotts of Israel really thinly veiled anti-Semitism?

It is typical of the Israelis and their allies to try to divert the attention of the facts and discussion matter at hand. What does the treatment of women and members of the LBGTQ have to do with boycott of Israel? and why Israel is comparing itself to those counties? We are not discussing any of those countries or  their democracies, we are discussing Israel and it’s illegal occupation of the Land of Palestine and demolishing the homes of Palestinians which prompted the call for boycott of Israel. Incidentally, the statement above is not true. The so called democracy in Israel applies to the Israelis only, not the Palestinians. And only to the Jews, not Christians or Muslims.

Putting those concerns aside, though, there is a new question gaining much traction in legal circles: Are such boycotts even legal? Law professors Eugene Kontorovich and Steven Davidoff Solomon on the Wall Street Journal opinion page recently concluded they are not. And days ago, a group of distinguished American Studies professors and longtime ASA members, two of whom were recipients of the highest ASA award for outstanding teaching and program development, sued their Association.

Boycott of Israel is not only legal but necessary. I challenge all those so called Law Professors to show me where it’s stated in the law that it’s illegal to boycott Israel. The Israelis need to know that the days of suppressing the truth and forcing their lies on the American people are over. Those so called professors prove that not only goods can be bought, people can be as well.

The American Studies professors describe how a handful of radicals, including founding members of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, hijacked their academic association to ram through a personal and political mission having absolutely nothing to do with American Studies. This new legal question is probably the most relevant.  Let me explain. Nonprofits incorporated in D.C. are governed by the D.C. Non-Profit Corporations Act. It provides that an organization is limited to the terms of its charter. Knowing that nonprofits are often run by a handful of active members, the law was created to protect the entire membership from officers and directors who abuse their positions and coopt an organization for political purposes.

Let me ask you a question “Mr. know it all”, if those so called, according to you, announced their unconditional support to Israel, would you call them radicals, and more importantly, would you call them “Law Brakers”? and in your opinion, would they be abusing their positions for political reason? Of course not. That’s the divination of hypocrisy which Israel and its supporters demonstrate on daily bases.  

Funds from members cannot be used for purposes beyond activities authorized in the charter. Activists cannot legally trade on an academic association’s reputation to push a personal political agenda that has nothing to do with the association’s mission. At the time the boycott was initiated, ASA’s constitution clearly stated that “[the object of the association [is] the promotion of the study of American culture through the encouragement of research, teaching, publication…about American culture in all its diversity and complexity.” According to the American Studies professors, for 60 years, ASA has been an association focused on American Studies. It is not a social justice organization, nor is it a foreign policy organization. Indeed, according to the professors, boycotting a foreign nation has absolutely nothing to do with ASA’s mission and is therefore illegal.

How much does it cost for someone to endorse someone else or agree with an idea or a philosophy? When a political candidate is endorsed by someone or some group or organization, does the endorser start packing to move into the poor house? Or does he or do they have to spend any amount of money for the endorsement? Of course not. So, why are you accusing the ASA of misappropriating the organization’s funds for the purpose of pushing a personal political agenda? You know something, even if they were, it will be well worth it using those funds to promote the boycott. Whether you admit it or not, the US is very much involved in the Middle East and this falls in the category of American studies.

I agree, which is why my organization has assembled a team of lawyers to represent these esteemed American Studies professors in this significant and pivotal case.The question of whether an arguably anti-Semitic academic boycott of Israel violates academic freedom continues to be debated. But whether it violates the law seems pretty clear.

Yes it is. It clearly does not violate the law in any form or fashion.

 

Venezuelan ambassador to U.N. comes under fire for comparing Israelis to Nazis

Posted on by

Published May 12, 2016

  • Rafael Ramirez Israel.jpg
    (PHOTO BY MICHAEL CARONNA-POOL/GETTY IMAGES)

Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations Rafael Ramírez sparked a diplomatic war of words with Israel last week after making comments during a Security Council meeting comparing Israeli policy toward Palestinians to that of the Nazis in Europe during World War II.

“What is Israel planning to do with the Palestinians?” Ramírez asked during the meeting. “Do the Israelis want the Palestinians to disappear? Is Israel preparing a ‘final solution for the Palestinians similar to what was done to them?”

The comment, which occurred the day after Holocaust Remembrance Day, was quickly condemned by officials in Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom and France.

“This statement by the Venezuelan Ambassador is clear Anti-Semitism against the Jewish state,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said in a statement. “His remarks are a direct continuations to the Palestinian representative’s statement a few days ago comparing Israel to the Nazis. The Palestinians are bringing Antisemitism into the halls of the UN and are legitimizing racists and crass language in the parliament of nations.”

Ramírez’s comments also earned him the criticism of the person who previously hold his job.

“Instead of contributing to the subject, the representative of Venezuela chose to attack the Israeli state in such a miserable way that he has prompted a very serious international reaction, “Diego Arria, the former Venezuelan ambassador to the U.S said.

Ramírez has since apologized for the comment, saying that he was sorry to the “Jewish people if they were offended by the remarks,” but added that Israel had made a “disproportionate response” to his comments.

“We want to clarify that our country has no position against the Jewish people, no position against the Israeli people,” he said. That statement “was politically used there is an entire lobby [effort] aimed at turning our words into something we don’t feel.”

This Ramirez fellow, doesn’t he know that when it comes to Israel he is not suppose to tell the truth or speak his mind? The Israelis don’t like it when someone has the guts to tell it like it is if it’s not in their favor, therefore if you think it, don’t say it. However, if your criticism is directed toward the Palestinians, feel free to announce it to the world.

Thousands of Arabs march for Palestinian return in Israel

Posted on by

Rahat (Israel) (AFP) – Thousands of Arab Israeli protesters marched in favor of a right of return of millions of Palestinians on Thursday, the same day Israel celebrated its independence.

The Israelis of Palestinian origin were seen carrying Palestinian flags and others holding up signs demanding the right to return for refugees at the rally in the Negev desert. Organizers said it was the first time such a demonstration has been held in the Negev.

Israeli Jews, in contrast, celebrated in public parties in two very different sets of reactions to the 68th anniversary of Israel’s founding. Israelis hail independence day as what they call the reformation of the Jewish state.

For Palestinians, however, the events of 1948 are seen as a “nakba” — catastrophe in Arabic — as more than 760,000 Palestinians, estimated today to number about 5.5 million with their descendants, fled or were driven from their homes.

The Nakba will be formerly marked on May 15. Marchers carried the slogan “On the anniversary of your independence, remember our nakba.”

For the Palestinians, the right to return to homes they fled or were forced out of is a prerequisite for any peace agreement with Israel, but it is a demand the Jewish state has rejected out of hand.

The Israelis Just Can’t Stand it!!

Posted on by

Bernie’s Israel-Bashing: How Symptomatic Is It?

BY P. DAVID HORNIK APRIL 12, 2016

It’s a strange spectacle from the vantage here in Israel: of the five remaining U.S. presidential candidates, one, lately, has been bashing Israel—and it’s the only one of the five who’s Jewish.

Bernie Sanders’s “recollection” that “over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza” during the summer 2014 war was, as many have noted, five times beyondHamas’s claims. Sanders then changed it to “the number was I think 2100”—which is actually the figure that the UN, not known as a pro-Israel body, came up with, and even the UN said about one-third of that total were terrorists.

That’s a lie. According to the UN report, the vast majority of the people killed were civilians of which 495 were women and 253 children. Assuming that the writer’s figures are correct, that means 1400 civilian people were killed for no reason, not to mention the numerous buildings that were destroyed which housed thousands of people.

For the record, Israel’s Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center carried out a name-by-name analysis of the 75% of the Gaza fatalities who could be identified, and found that, of those, 55% were combatants. (Here former U.S. Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey says that Israel went to “extraordinary lengths” to limit civilian casualties in Gaza.)

Another lie. Israel did not go to “extraordinary lengths” to limit civilian casualties, they actually targeted civilians by destroying their homes and apartment buildings.

Sanders’s astonishing ignorance—he’s been a U.S. senator since 2007—was further revealed when, asked what he thought of Michael Oren’s criticism of his inflated Gaza figures, he answered, “Who is Mr. Oren?” Oren is, of course, the former high-profile Israeli ambassador to the U.S. (2009-2013) and author of the bestselling book Ally on the Obama administration’s hostility toward Israel.

It’s obvious that Bernie Sanders was not ignorant. The only ignorant person is the writer of this article.

But Sanders’s ignorance is not just a personal foible. When it comes to Israeli issues, Sanders is an ideologue. He parrots the standard ideological line of people who do not know what they’re talking about and don’t feel they need to know what they’re talking about, since the ideology comes prepackaged. Trying to add nuance, Sanders said Israel “has a 100%…right to live in freedom,” then added: “we will not succeed to ever bring peace into that region unless we also treat the Palestinians with dignity and respect.”

The last statement of this article, after “then added” is the best and most honest statement that anyone could make. No American President or any member of the congress has the courage to say it but Bernie Sanders did. The Israelis expect to bully their way through the “so called” peace negotiations which the Palestinians long rejected. 

Sanders was not bashing Israel, he was just telling the truth, and the Israelis just can’t stand someone telling the truth when it comes to the Palestinians and Israel!! Why else would a Jew make such unflattering statements about Israel, and bashing Mr. Sanders is not going to change the facts that the Israelis are trying very hard to hide and criticizing Sanders for mentioning them. By the way, only a Jew can get away with such a speech; if someone else said that, he will be branded Ani-Semitic and Israel hater. 

Here’s the rule that the Israelis want everyone to abide by: If the truth is favorable to Israel, which’s rarely the case, announce it to the world; but if the truth condemns Israel, either lie about it or keep it to yourself. That’s why Mr. Sanders does not rank high on their favorite people’s list, because he neither wants to hide the truth nor lie about it.

When has negotiating with Israel ever helped the Palestinians?

Posted on by
Readers React
Netanyahu has a face that’s begging to be slapped and powerfully punched

To the editor: Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, writes that “the modern history of Israeli-Arab peace-making has taught us that only direct negotiations between the two sides can actually achieve results.” (“Israel’s U.N. ambassador: Direct diplomacy is the only way to peace,” Opinion, April 25)

Exactly the opposite is true. Past peace “processes” have resulted in Israel confiscating even more Palestinian land. Nothing positive has ever happened for Palestinians.

Yes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “extended himself … in his pursuit of direct negotiations with the Palestinian Authority,” but he has also said that he would never allow a Palestinian state. So what is the point of negotiations except to pretend that something positive is being done?

Palestinians would be insane to subject themselves to yet another peace “process.” Their only hope appears to be with the United Nations and the success of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) initiative.

And why does Danon refer to “Israeli-Arab” negotiations instead of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations? Palestinians are, for the most part, an Arab people, but they are a separate people who have inhabited Palestine for many centuries and have hopes and aspirations of their own apart from other Arab countries…

To the editor: Danon blames Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for the failure to hold more peace talks. But he curiously neglects to mention the rapid growth in Jewish-only, illegal settlements under Netanyahu.

When Israel carves out more and more land from the West Bank for Jewish-only developments, how can anyone believe its government is serious about allowing for a Palestinian state?

No wonder Abbas and supporters of Palestinian rights have turned to the BDS movement to pressure Israel to abide by international law.

Mandy Erickson, San Mateo, Calif. 

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter@latimesopinion and Facebook

Defining political issue of our time

Posted on by

NYU grad student union overwhelmingly votes to boycott Israel over violations of Palestinian human rights

NYU Graduate Student Organizing Committee is first private university labor union to support BDS, as movement grows

TOPICS: BDS, BOYCOTT DIVESTMENT SANCTIONS, ISRAEL, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, PALESTINE, ,

"Defining political issue of our time": NYU grad student union overwhelmingly votes to boycott Israel over violations of Palestinian human rights(Credit: NYU GSOC)

Graduate students at New York University have overwhelmingly voted to boycott Israel in protest of its violation of Palestinian human rights.

Exactly two-thirds of voting members of the graduate student union the Graduate Student Organizing Committee, or GSOC-UAW 2110, supported a referendum on Friday that calls for New York University and United Auto Workers International to withdraw their investments from Israeli state institutions and international corporations complicit in violations of Palestinian human and civil rights.

At least 645 union members participated in the vote. An additional 57 percent of voting members pledged to uphold the academic boycott of Israel, refraining from participating in research and academic programs sponsored by institutions funded by the Israeli government.

The union says this “was an unusually large membership turnout, a testament to union democracy.” It explained in a statement that the vote took place after a period of “vigorous debate and engagement with the union among wide layers of graduate workers.”

“After months of mass mobilization and a four-day election, GSOC members have taken a clear stand for justice in Palestine,” explained Shafeka Hashash, a member of the union’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, caucus.

“This historic endorsement of BDS by GSOC at NYU occurs in the wake of growing momentum for the movement across university campuses and labor unions nationwide,” she added.

BDS is an international grassroots movement that uses peaceful economic means to pressure Israel into complying with international law and respecting Palestinian human rights. The campaign was called for by Palestinian civil society and by major trade unions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Graduate Student Organizing Committee is a labor union representing more than 2,000 teaching assistants, adjunct instructors, research assistants and other graduate workers at New York University, or NYU. It is the first recognized graduate worker union at a private university in the U.S.

The union says its referendum vote it sets “an important precedent for both solidarity with Palestine and for union democracy.”

“In addition to bringing material gains for their members, NYU graduate students are reclaiming the union as a political platform for social justice causes,” explained Maya Wind, an Israeli activist and Ph.D. student at NYU who is a member of the union.

“Through the recent mass mobilization for justice in Palestine we have taken a stand on one of the defining political issues of our time,” she added. “The referendum success is indicative of the traction the movement is gaining across university campuses, and increasingly among graduate students.”

The referendum also calls on NYU to close its sister program in Israel’s Tel Aviv University, which the union says violates its own non-discrimination policy.

A recent U.S. State Department report acknowledged the “institutional and societal discrimination against Arab citizens of Israel,” as well as the unlawful killings, excessive force and torture people endure at the hands of the Israeli military in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.

Students of NYU and other universities around the country, we solute you for being humanitarians and calling for BDS of Israel. The Israelis have long lied to us and forced us to believe that the Palestinians are terrorists when in fact they are the ones who are spreading terror in the Palestine, robbing people of their land and resources and killing innocent men, women and children.

BERNIE SANDERS ACCUSED OF ‘BLOOD LIBEL’ OVER WRONG GAZA CASUALTY FIGURES

Posted on by

BY

Sanders Israel Gaza
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks at a rally at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 6, 2016. Sanders incorrectly estimated that the Israeli military killed 10,000 Palestinian civilians in the Gaza conflict in 2014.JESSICA KOURKOUNIS/GETTY IMAGES
WORLDISRAELUS

A former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. on Thursday accused U.S. Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders of the ancient “blood libel” smear used against Jews after he incorrectly stated that Israel had killed 10,000 Palestinian civilians in the 2014 Gaza conflict.

Michael Oren, now an Israeli lawmaker, criticized the socialist candidate and accused him of endangering Israel’s security with his comments in a recent interview with the New York Daily News in which the Vermont senator overestimated the Palestinian civilian death toll in Gaza by more than 8,000.

“First of all, he should get his facts right. Secondly, he owes Israel an apology,” Oren told The Times of Israel. “He accused us of a blood libel. He accused us of bombing hospitals. He accused us of killing 10,000 Palestinian civilians. Don’t you think that merits an apology?”

Sanders was talking about his belief that the Israeli military had used indiscriminate force during the seven-week conflict on the civilian population of Gaza. The U.N. and human rights groups accused both Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes in the conflict.

The Israeli military, in an operation named Operation Protective Edge, killed over 2,100 Palestinians—at least 1,585 civilians, of which 530 were children— according to U.N. and Palestinian accounts, and Palestinian militant groups killed 72 Israelis—all but five soldiers, according to Israeli accounts.

In a transcript of the interview with the New York daily, Sanders said that he cannot remember the figures off the top of his head then proceeds to use the incorrect number. “ I don’t remember the figures, but my recollection is over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza. Does that sound right?”

He added: “I don’t have it in my number… but I think it’s over 10,000. My understanding is that a whole lot of apartment houses were leveled. Hospitals, I think, were bombed. So yeah, I do believe and I don’t think I’m alone in believing that Israel’s force was more indiscriminate than it should have been.”

The Israeli military entered into the coastal enclave controlled by Palestinian militant group Hamas to prevent Palestinian rocket fire into Israeli territory and an extensive tunnel network used for smuggling and cross-border attacks against Israeli targets.

Oren said that Sanders’ claim that Israel had bombed hospitals was untrue. The Israeli military did however conduct air strikes on the Al-Wafa hospital in Gaza during the conflict, saying that it had been used as a base for Hamas militants to conduct attacks on Israeli forces.

Bernie Sanders is one of many Jews around the world who have conscious and good common sense. He does not praise Israel for the heinous crimes they commit on daily bases. He does not try to justify their barbaric actions against the Palestinians but condemns them, and that’s what the Israelis hate more than anything. They want people to kiss their ass and praise them for whatever they do like Ted Cruz and many other scum bags like him, and when they see a Jew speaking his mind and tells as it is, they go crazy. Bernie Sanders is not one they like or support because he has  conscious and integrity. That’s why he is gaining momentum and winning against the Israeli’s puppet Hillary Clinton.

Israel tears down seven Palestinian homes in 24 hours

Posted on by

Homes belonging to Palestinians accused of targeting Israelis have been razed in Occupied West Bank, leading to clashes.

Since the beginning of this year, Israel has demolished on average 29 Palestinian-owned buildings a week, according to the UN [Filepic: EPA]
Since the beginning of this year, Israel has demolished on average 29 Palestinian-owned buildings a week, according to the UN [Filepic: EPA]

Ramallah, Occupied West Bank – Seven Palestinian homes have been demolished in the past 24 hours across the Occupied West Bank – a move dubbed by Palestinian leaders as “collective punishment”.

The list of demolished structures includes three houses in Qabatiya town south of Jenin belonging to families of a trio gunned down in February after they killed an Israeli soldier.

Overnight on Monday, Israeli forces destroyed the family homes of Ahmad Zakarneh, Mohammad Kmeel and Ahmad Abu el-Rub, who fatally shot an Israeli border policewoman near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate.

Four other homes were also razed in the Occupied East Jerusalem and villages of Surif and Duma in West Bank.
Palestinians cry foul over house demolitions

Clashes erupted in Qabatiya following the demolitions, with five Palestinians taken to hospital in Jenin after they were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets.

The family of a fourth man – incarcerated by Israel following accusations of aiding the three young men – was also handed a demolition order.

Qabatiya, home to 20,000 Palestinians, has been completely sealed off by the Israeli army twice in recent months, and many of its inhabitants have had their work permits revoked.

Since the beginning of 2016, Israel has demolished, on average, 29 Palestinian-owned buildings a week, according to the UN [EPA]

At least 10 Palestinians from the town have also been killed by Israeli forces since October last year.

In a wave of attacks since October last year – carried mostly by young, disgruntled Palestinian youths – at least 33 Israelis and foreign nationals have died.

Nearly 200 Palestinians, including civilians, assailants and others whom Israeli officials claim were armed with knives, have been killed.

Since September last year, 57 houses belonging to Palestinians have been levelled, according to the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s negotiations affairs department.

READ MORE: How impunity defines Israel and victimises Palestinians

Israel halted the punitive practice it regularly uses against Palestinians in 2005 after an internal commission found that it did not deter attacks. But the policy was revived last year despite the recommendations, and slammed by rights groups as a form of collective punishment.

“This is an arbitrary policy that affects everyone indiscriminately,” said Ahmad Kmeel, Mohammad’s father. “How is [it] the fault of the father, mother and the children? No one knew what he was going to do.”

Israel’s Supreme Court paved the way for the demolitions after it turned down appeals made on behalf of the families. Rajeh Zakarneh, Ahmad’s father, said the family dismantled and moved furniture after losing the petition.

“I built this house with my own two hands,” Zakarneh told Al Jazeera. “But my son is worth more than a thousand homes.”

Israeli settlement in the E1 corridor would connect Jerusalem to a large settlement bloc in West Bank [File: Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]

Earlier on Sunday, the court had cancelled home-demolition orders for three of four Palestinians convicted of being involved in a stone-throwing attack in September that led to the death of an Israeli motorist. Najeh Abu el-Rub, Ahmad’s father, had hoped the court would also overturn the decision to raze his family home.

“We turned to the courts but that did nothing for us. They insisted on destroying the houses,” Abu el-Rub said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Sa’eb Erekat said the house demolitions were tantamount to acts of “collective punishment” that were being reported to the International Criminal Court.

“Granting impunity for continued Israeli crimes will not achieve a resumption of negotiations. Rather, it is killing any realistic political horizon to end the Israeli occupation of the State of Palestine,” Erekat said.

Israel ramps up demolitions of Palestinian structures

Posted on by

UN figures show the destruction of homes in the occupied territories has tripled since January.

Israel says home demolitions are an effective tool to deter attacks, but critics say it's collective punishment [Nasser Shiyoukhi/AP]
Israel says home demolitions are an effective tool to deter attacks, but critics say it’s collective punishment [Nasser Shiyoukhi/AP]

The Israeli military has tripled its demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied territories over the past three months, a United Nations’ report says.

Figures collated by the UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) – which operates in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem – show from an average of 50 demolitions a month in 2012-2015, the number rose to 165 since January, with 235 demolitions in February alone.

On Thursday, Israeli authorities demolished Palestinian buildings in al-Khan al-Ahmar village near the West Bank city of Jericho, and in Khirbet Tana village near Nablus.
 Inside Story – Punishing the Palestinians

One of the owners of the demolished structures in al-Khan al-Ahmar, Hussein Kaabneh, said the demolition team came in the morning without warning.

“I was surprised by the police and army … so I was very mad. I asked them, ‘Why do you want to demolish it?’ I did not get a warning or anything. And he told me, ‘you are [your structure is] not legal’,” Kaabneh told Reuters news agency.

The Israeli military, which has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war, says it carries out the demolitions because the structures are illegal: either built without a permit, in a closed military area or firing zone, or violate other planning and zoning restrictions.

The UN and rights groups point out that permits are almost impossible for Palestinians to acquire, that firing zones are often declared but seldom used, and many planning restrictions date from the British Mandate in the 1930s.

The UN report on demolitions has alarmed diplomats and human rights groups over what they regard as a sustained violation of international law.

“It is a very marked and worrying increase,” said Catherine Cook, an OCHA official based in Jerusalem who closely monitors the demolitions, describing the situation as the worst since the UN body started collecting figures in 2009.

“The hardest hit are Bedouin and Palestinian farming communities who are at risk of forcible transfer, which is a clear violation of international law,” she said.

READ MORE: Israel demolishes Palestinian-owned homes in West Bank

The demolished structures include houses, Bedouin tents, livestock pens, outhouses and schools. In an increasing number of cases, it also includes humanitarian buildings erected by the European Union to help those affected by earlier demolitions.

Appearing before a sub-committee in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday, Major-General Yoav Mordechai – coordinator of the Israeli government’s activities in the West Bank – defended the demolition policy and told politicians he was doing all he could to carry out 11,000 outstanding destruction orders.
 Israel begins demolishing homes over attacks

The politicians summoned Mordechai to the hearing because of concerns he is not doing enough to dismantle Palestinian structures, and focusing instead on removing unauthorised Israeli construction in the West Bank.

“I want to state unequivocally that enforcement is more severe towards the Palestinians,” Mordechai told them.

“Moreover, much of the enforcement with regard to the Palestinians takes place on private Palestinian land.”

According to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, Mordechai’s admission appears to confirm that Israel’s policy discriminates against Palestinians.

“There is undoubtedly a wave of demolitions and displacements that is severely threatening the ability of thousands of Palestinians to live in these areas,” said Sarit Michaeli, the spokeswoman for B’Tselem.

“To demolish the homes of Palestinians who are protected under the Geneva Conventions and to build [Israeli] settlements is a clear violation of international humanitarian law,” she said.

READ MORE: Israel tears down seven Palestinian homes in 24 hours

Last month, the European Union hit out at Israeli authorities after a school funded by the French government was demolished.

In the West Bank, an estimated 18 percent of the area has been declared by Israeli authorities as “firing zones”, and 38 Palestinian communities are located within these areas.

Because the Israeli civil administration prohibits building in these areas, wide-scale demolitions frequently take place.

Throughout occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, some 90,000 Palestinians are facing potential displacement, according to OCHA.

How in the world can anyone with a particle of Conscience justify the demolishing of the Palestinians’ home? What kind of animals do this? If that’s not the worst crime against humanity, I don’t know what is!! What is our government do about this? we give the Israelis more munitions to do more!! and we call ourselves HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES. what a joke!!
 ‘Collective punishment’ targets Palestinians

Students want Ohio State, other universities to boycott Israel

Posted on by

 

REQUEST TO BUY THIS PHOTOBROOKE LAVALLEY | DISPATCHReema Jallaq photographs a Palestinian flag she is holding in front of the Wexner Center for the Arts on the Ohio State University campus during a March 22 protest.

The Israel-Palestine conflict, never absent from most U.S. college campuses, is fueling especially passionate debate in central Ohio this spring.

Much of the argument centers on the nationwide “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” movement, which aims to punish Israel economically as a way to pressure it to change its treatment of Palestinians. In recent years, the movement has attracted powerful pushback from pro-Israel organizations.

As student governments at Capital and Ohio State universities considered resolutions on opposite sides of the issue last week, all three central Ohio Congress members and two state representatives entered the debate at Ohio State. Republican Reps. Steve Stivers and Pat Tiberi joined with Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty in a letter urging the Undergraduate Student Government to reject a measure calling for university divestment from three companies deemed to be involved in Israeli punishment and isolation of Palestinians in the West Bank.

State Reps. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, and Tim Brown, R-Bowling Green, also sent letters opposing the resolution, which named Caterpillar Inc., Hewlett-Packard and G4S.

In the Statehouse, Rep. Kirk Schuring, R-Canton, is one of 14 sponsors of House Bill 476, which would deny state contracts to any company that supports a boycott of Israel. Schuring, who was part of a Statehouse delegation that traveled to Israel, said he considers it “a bright and shining star that we should look to” because it serves as “a prospering, flourishing oasis in the Middle East.”

On Tuesday, a dozen or so members of Jewish Voice for Peace, a group of Jews who support Palestinian rights and criticize Israeli government policies, gathered on the Ohio State campus to protest the anti-”Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” movement, including Schuring’s bill, which they say would suppress a constitutional right to protest through boycott. “It is something you have to do at times,” said Farrell Brody, an organizer of the protest. “It’s a nonviolent means of pushing for justice.”

The pro-Israel side prevailed in both of the college votes; the OSU student government voted 25-9, with 15 abstentions, to reject the divestment measure. At Capital, the Student Senate on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and pledging support for Capital’s Jewish community.

Neither the college measures nor the house bill mentions the BDS movement, but it has figured large in the debate.

Tomer Elias, an Israeli-born OSU student who campaigned against the divestment measure, considers BDS inherently anti-Semitic because it aims to harm Israel. Both he and Capital student Austin Reid, who pushed for the resolution condemning anti-Semitism, believe BDS protests create a hostile atmosphere for Jews on campus.

Sarah Almusbahi is a leader of #OSUDivest, the group that backed the unsuccessful divestment measure. She supports the aims of the BDS movement, but says opponents ignored that the resolution was more narrowly focused. “All we ask is that we not support three companies involved in well-documented human-rights abuses,” she said.

#OSUDivest isn’t going away, she said, noting that the failed resolution won endorsements from 23 student groups. “This movement challenges the status quo, and whenever you do that there’s going to be heavy opposition,” she said. “We’ve just gotten started.”

mcedward@dispatch.com

@MaryMoganEdward