CLiFF HANLEY

 

 

Lebanon: Displaced, Again

 

                                   

 

23rd July

Over 24,000 people, mainly Palestine refugees and a small number of Lebanese remain displaced from Nahr el-Bared camp in northern Lebanon following three months of fighting there in 2007 between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army. To date, small numbers of refugees have been able to return to their homes in areas adjacent to the camp also affected by the fighting. A full return is expected to take two years or longer because of the complete destruction of homes and infrastructure. Among the most pressing concerns is to ensure adequate temporary accommodation for refugee families, as well as addressing their loss of livelihoods. Many refugees and host families continue to rely on humanitarian agencies to provide them with shelter and food assistance. Displaced communities have raised concerns about their security and free movement, particularly as security measures have tightened as sporadic attacks and clashes continued to be reported in northern Lebanon in June 2008. On 23 June 2008, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and the Government of Lebanon launched a comprehensive three-year plan to rebuild the camp and surrounding areas.

 

A majority of people displaced by hostilities between Hizbullah and Israel in 2006 were able to return directly after the conflict. Although there is no official figure on the number of people who remain displaced, a conservative estimate is that 40,000 to 70,000 people remain unable to return, mainly because of the destruction of their homes. The pace of reconstruction has slowed because of months of political crisis in Lebanon. Although it has been two years since the conflict, sustainable return in the south continues to be hindered by cluster bombs and lost livelihoods. There are also still unresolved cases relating mainly to property from the Lebanese civil war of 1975 -1990 and Israeli invasions and occupation of part of southern Lebanon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Israeli ministers call for redrawing Jerusalem boundaries, home demolitions, and deporting activists

28th July    

 

                                         

  

Israeli Minister of Transportation

Shaul Mofaz [Ma'anImages archive]

 

Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz warned during the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting held on Sunday that Jerusalem is becoming "a terror hub," and called for the government to adopt policies of demolishing homes, closing areas, and exiling Palestinian activists and their families in response to these "new threats."

 

Responding to Mofaz, Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon said: "Those who think that the problem of Jerusalem and terror is limited, and that destroying houses will help resolve this problem, are burying their heads in the sand. The main question is whether the government wants Jabal Mukaber and Sur Baher as part of the state of Israel state or not. Those who want the fence to be east of Sur Baher actually determine that Jerusalem will live with the terrorist threat posed by the 175,000 Palestinians [in East Jerusalem] with no affinity to Israel."

 

Ramon added, "Israel's interest lies in separating from the Palestinian villages and neighbourhoods which have never been part of Jerusalem, and which threaten its identity as the capital of Israel and a Jewish Zionist city."

 

Yuval Diskin, head of the Israeli General Security Services or "Shabak," said that there is a lack of authority in Palestinian neighbourhoods located near the separation wall in the Jerusalem area. He explained that these areas do not fall under Israeli army or police authority, and that Hamas has started to take control in places like Abu Dis and Al-'Azariyya.

 

He remarked that sending Israeli security forces into Shuafat, in East Jerusalem, requires greater numbers and stronger forces than an operation in Jenin.

 

Diskin also claimed that Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem are witnessing an active trade in street weapons. He made no mention of the use of weapons by so-called ‘Israeli settlers’.

 

Several Palestinians were injured on Monday as they tried to prevent demolition of a house in Beit Hanina in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian sources in Jerusalem said Israeli Army forces besieged the house of Majed Abe-isha in Biet Hanina.

Protesters trying to prevent a demolition were later attacked and injured, including Hatim Abdul-Qader, the advisor to Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas for Jerusalem Affairs.

The protestors spent the night and performed the Dawn Prayer (Fajer) around the house to stop the Israeli bulldozers, before being dispersed with extreme brutality, including the use of trained dogs.

Israeli troops brought in huge trucks and collected all that was to be found inside the house and sealed the area, declaring it a military zone, and they also demolished parts of the building.

The troops finally brought down the building that sheltered five families, claming that it was "unlicensed", said local sources.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities make issue of construction licenses very complicated in Jerusalem, forcing the residents of the holy city to move elsewhere.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared on Sunday, during the Israeli cabinet meeting, that a demolition campaign is now launched to clear the city of Palestinian “activists“.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gaza boatman Jeff Halper arrested

 

Israeli pro-Palestinian activist Jeff Halper was arrested in Sderot on Tuesday for illegally entering Hamas-ruled Gaza, police said.

Halper, who also heads the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, crossed into Israel via the Erez border crossing, police said.

 

He was questioned at Sderot's police station, and will be charged for violating the IDF's Southern Command Front order which forbids Israeli citizens from entering Palestinian areas without permission, a Lachish police spokesman said. "Halper will be taken to court tomorrow."  

 

But Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, a spokeswoman for Free Gaza Movement, said Halper had entered Gaza with permission from Israel's foreign and interior ministries. "I received a text message on my mobile phone saying that those two ministries had given the boats permission to land in Gaza. I remember thinking, that's great because now they [the activists] are in Gaza legally," she said.

Asked if she believed the "permission" included Israeli citizens, Godrey-Goldstein said, "it applied to the people on the boats."

- Late news: Halper was released on Wednesday 27th

 

Gaza blockade in place

despite ships

                     
As the boats docked in Gaza City's tiny port, children swarmed around the vessels and leaped into the water in joy, while thousands of cheering people looked on from the shore. Palestinian flags on one of the boats snapped in the wind, activists waved to the crowd, and the slogan "End Occupation" was written in large letters on its side.

 

"We were all dizzy, nauseous. We were all tired. But in the last hour it was like we were recharged," said Ayash Daraj, a journalist with Al-Jazeera who sailed with the activists.

 

Israeli defence officials said a consultation was held late last week between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak during which it was decided to allow the boats into Gaza and not to use the navy to prevent their arrival.

 

"It was clear from the beginning that this whole operation was a provocation aimed at making Israel look bad," a senior defence official said on Saturday. "We decided to let them through in order not to play into their hands." The official stressed that despite the opening of the Gaza port for international boats on Saturday, Israel did not plan to lift its sea blockade of Gaza and would not allow additional ships into the Strip out of fear that they will try to transport weaponry and explosives to Hamas."

 

The official added [a claim] that Gaza was not experiencing a “humanitarian” crisis and was receiving sufficient food and supplies from Israel via the land crossings.

 

Foreign Ministry spokesman Aryeh Mekel said that the decision to let the boats in, which was made at the highest governmental levels, was made for two reasons.

 

"The first was to prevent a media provocation on the high seas," Mekel said, "and the second is because we knew who was on the boat, and that the equipment they were bringing in was humanitarian equipment for deaf people."

 

Mekel said the decision was made on a one-time basis, and should not be seen as a precedent.

 

Now that the group is in Gaza, the expectation in Jerusalem is that they will at some point ask Israel to let them into the country so they can fly back home, since it is unlikely they will want to sail back the way they came. No decision, however, has yet been made on whether they will be allowed into Israel.

 

Jerusalem had initially hinted it would prevent the vessels from reaching Gaza, and on Saturday the group accused Israel of jamming its communications equipment.

 

But later on Saturday, Israel said it would permit the boats to dock in Gaza after determining the activists did not pose a security threat.

 

The activists brought with them a symbolic delivery of hearing aids and balloons for children. Organizers said they would stay in Gaza for 24 hours, though it remained unclear how they planned to leave.

 

Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh welcomed the activists:

"We call for more activities to break the unfair siege imposed on our people."  

 

"They are very brave, they are very strong, I am proud of them," said Samira Ayash, a 65-year-old retired school teacher who came to watch.

 

By YAAKOV KATZ AND HERB KEINON  Jerusalem Post  www.jpost.com

 

For further information and to receive boat updates: www.freegaza.org

 

 

 

46 Patients, including 10 children, have died since the truce was declared

August 27 - Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

 

The Palestinian Ministry of Health at the Hamas-led government in Gaza reported on Tuesday that 78 days after the truce deal came into effect in the Gaza Strip, 46 patients including 10 children, died due to the ongoing Israeli siege on the coastal region.

 

                                    

 

The ministry said that a total of 241 patients died due to the siege which emptied all hospitals from the basic medical supplies and equipment while the patients were barred from leaving the Gaza Strip for medical treatment elsewhere.

 

It added that Israel is ongoing with its violations, and continues to close all border terminals which are inflicting further suffering among the residents, especially the patients.

 

The ministry also said that the Israel continues to violate the terms of the truce deal as it was supposed to fully open the border terminals in Gaza.

 

“Since the truce was declared on June 19, 46 patients, including 10 children and 14 women, have died”, the ministry said it its statement, “the health situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, the siege emptied Gaza hospital and medical centers from the basic medical supplies and equipment”.

 

The ministry appealed Egypt, as the official mediator of the truce deal, the Arab League, the International Red Cross and different human right groups, to practice pressure on Israel to open all crossings and allow the patients to travel for medical treatment abroad.

 

It said that urgent medications and equipment are needed as more than 1500 patients are currently facing death due to the seriousness of their health conditions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farmers in the village of Jayus, in the northern West Bank, were not overjoyed over the defence establishment's reported decision to move the separation barrier, giving the villagers there  ‘easier’

access to their lands.

 

 

We are the guests of eternity; in memory of Mahmoud Darwish

 

                        

 

Mahmoud Darwish underwent a successful open heart surgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Huston, Texas, in the United States. He died on Saturday night, 9th August, through complications arising from the surgery.  

 

‘When somebody dies, it is a tradition in the Arab world to remember his good traits and keep mentioning them. One Arab poet once described death as, "like a critic with jewels in his hands; from which one only selects the best."

 

As Palestinians around the world begin to digest the death of our National Poet, we will remember how special he was. We will remember how he was able to put voice to the triumphs and the sufferings of his people.

 

One of Darwish's early colleagues wrote about the already great poet in 1974. In his novel Emil Habiby described the child Darwish, with his mother the day they were forced to leave the village of Birwah, now in Israel.

 

In a military jeep, the novel's protagonist watches as the Israeli official orders the child Darwish and his mother out of Israel. The two turn to walk away and then, the protagonist says, "at this point I observed the first example of that amazing phenomenon that was to occur again and again," and describes what he witnesses as the child and his mother walk away:

 

"For the further the woman and the child went from where we were, the governor and I in the jeep, the taller she grew. By the time they had merged with their own shadows in the sinking sun, they had become bigger than the plain of Acre itself. The governor stood still there awaiting their final disappearance, while I remained huddled in the jeep. Finally he asked in amazement, 'Will they never disappear?'"

 

In death no less than in life, the poet Darwish will not disappear. His legacy, like his shadow, will remain with Palestinians as part of our past and through to our future.

 

Darwish has been called the modern Abu At-Tayyib Al-Mutanabbi, a famous tenth century Iraqi poet who is commonly regarded as the Arabic language's best poet, whose work was so great that no one in Iraq could speak of anything other than his work. Darwish, like Al-Mutanabbi, it is said, kept his people busy with verse, kept them discussing words and meanings and ideas.

 

Darwish, the figure of our poetry, our stronghold and last shelter has left us. He once said, "They switched off the lights while I was in a prison cell, and the ground was lit by the sun of feelings."

 

Let the sun of his words light the darkness of his long shadow, and sustain us as we mourn his loss.’ - Ma'an news agency   

 

Arrangements were made to transport Darwish's body to Jordan on the Palestinian Presidential plane, where a symbolic ceremony will be held. The body will then be taken to Ramallah where the official funeral will take place on Tuesday 19th. Palestinians intended for Darwish to be buried either in his home village in the western Galilee, that had since been demolished by the Zionists,with  Moshav Ahihud erected in its place in 1950, or in the neighbouring village Jadaida, where Darwish's family still lives. Darwish will be buried next to Ramallah's Palace of Culture, and a shrine will be erected in his honour, according to Ramallah Mayor Jeanette Michael. "Mahmoud doesn't just belong to a family or a town, but to all the Palestinians, and he should be buried in a place where all Palestinians can come and visit him," said his brother, Ahmed Darwish. Arab press reports on Sunday said that Darwish asked in his will to be buried in Palestine.

 

 

 

I Come From There

 

I come from there and I have memories  

Born as mortals are, I have a mother  

And a house with many windows,  

I have brothers, friends,  

And a prison cell with a cold window.

Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls,

I have my own view,

And an extra blade of grass.

Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words,  

And the bounty of birds,

And the immortal olive tree.

I walked this land before the swords

Turned its living body into a laden table.

 

 

 

Under Siege

 

Here on the slopes of hills, facing the dusk and the cannon of time  

Close to the gardens of broken shadows,  

We do what prisoners do,  

And what the jobless do:

We cultivate hope. ::: A country preparing for dawn.  

We grow less intelligent  

For we closely watch the hour of victory:  

No night in our night lit up by the shelling  

Our enemies are watchful and light the light for us  

In the darkness of cellars ::: Here there is no 'I'.  

Here Adam remembers the dust of his clay. . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

US tax breaks help Jewish settlers in West Bank

 

 

Adam Entous    Reuters North American News Service

August 25

 

The United States says Jewish ‘settlements’ in the occupied West Bank threaten any peace between Israel and the Palestinians -- yet it also encourages Americans to help support ‘settlers’ by offering tax breaks on donations.

 

As Condoleezza Rice flew in on Monday for another round of peace talks, Israeli and American supporters of settlements defended the tax incentives, which benefit West Bank enclaves deemed illegal by the World Court and which the U.S. secretary of state has said are an obstacle to Palestinian statehood.

 

Pro-settler groups say they are entitled to the tax breaks because their work is "humanitarian", not political, and reject any comparison to Palestinian charities, some of which face U.S. sanctions over suspected links to Islamist groups like Hamas.

 

The full extent of tax-exempt U.S. funding for settlements is unclear because so many groups are involved and their spending practices are not always transparent.

 

But a review by Reuters of U.S. tax records found 13 tax-exempt organisations openly linked to settlements that have raised more than $35 million in the last five years alone.

 

Asked about the tax exemption, Rice spokesman Sean McCormack said such tax and legal issues were not the purview of the State Department. But he added: "Regarding U.S. policy on settlements, it's clear, it's the right policy to try to help bring about a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians."

 

The Internal Revenue Service would say only that groups can qualify if funds go to "charitable, religious and educational purposes".

 

Records show money from the tax-exempt groups went to what they described as community development, immigrant absorption, health, education and welfare projects in the enclaves, whose presence Palestinians say cripples their society and economy.

 

In one example, when settlers took over a new building in the flashpoint city of Hebron last year, a tax-exempt New York organisation sprang into action to solicit funds for renovations to accommodate more families.

 

The Hebron Fund, which raises an average of $1.5 million a year to support Jewish settlers in the city, and other groups said they were as entitled to tax exemptions as other charities.

 

"Are you saying you can get a charitable deduction for helping starving people in New York City but you can't get a charitable deduction for helping starving people in Judea and Samaria," said Sondra Oster Baras, president of Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, using an Israeli term for the West Bank. "That's an argument that doesn't make sense."

 

"INCONSISTENT"

Palestinian and some Israeli critics counter that there is an underlying political objective -- to expand Jewish enclaves on occupied land -- and that the tax exemptions are at odds with stated U.S. foreign policy and international law. Rice has pressed Israel to cut its own financial incentives for settlers.

 

"It is inconsistent," said Noam Shelef of Americans for Peace Now, which supports an Israeli group opposed to settlement in the West Bank, where some 2.5 million Palestinians live.

 

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the tax breaks "contradict American policy", adding: "Either they stop the settlements or they stop talking about a two-state solution."

 

Experts say the millions raised by tax-exempt groups in the United States contribute to settlement expansion by financing public services and by subsidising immigrants who relocate to Jewish enclaves which already house some half a million people.

 

But that is dwarfed by Israeli spending on settlements, which some groups estimate at over $550 million a year.

 

Ian Lustick, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, played down the chances the tax breaks will be rolled back. "It's a political hot potato," Lustick said, citing the clout of U.S. pro-Israel groups to block any change.

 

Americans for Peace Now and other anti-settler groups also benefit from U.S. tax breaks -- exemptions pro-settler spokesmen said should be questioned because those groups are "political".

 

SETTLEMENTS

Hebron Fund Director Yossi Baumol acknowledged that promoting settlements ran counter to U.S. foreign policy but insisted: "The U.S. government has no right to use political considerations when judging humanitarian and non-profit needs.

 

Geoffrey Aronson, director of research at the Foundation for Middle East Peace in Washington, said the "humanitarian" nature of such settler programmes was "in the eye of the beholder".

 

The underlying goal of pro-settler groups, Aronson said, was "controlling Hebron and bringing more Jews to Hebron", where some 650 settlers live in enclaves guarded by Israeli troops.

 

Baumol said his fund raised money for renovating a building in Hebron known to Israelis as Beit HaShalom, or House of Peace, after it was controversially acquired by settlers in March 2007.

 

"Dozens of new families can now come live in Hebron -- only if we renovate this building quickly!" the fund said on its Web site. The building lies close to the highly sensitive Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site revered by both Muslims and Jews.

 

Palestinians in Hebron trade accusations of harassment with settlers. U.S. policy was "empty words", according to Bassam al-Jabri, who lives near the new settler building. He added:

 

"Why are the Americans talking about getting rid of settlements when they are building a new one right next door?"

 

(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr and Arshad Mohammed in Jerusalem, and Haitham Tamimi in Hebron; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Sami Aboudi)

 

 

 

 

  

 

IPA breaks records in violating captives' human rights

27th August

 

                                    

 

    GAZA -- The prisoners' centre for studies has accused the Israeli prison authority (IPA) of maltreating Palestinian captives in Israeli jails, asserting that it had broken the records in violating the simplest human rights of the Palestinian prisoners.

 

The centre quoted former Palestinian captive Abu Ali Yatta as confirming that the IPA had turned life of the Palestinian captives into intolerable hell, and keeps on punishing and imposing more restrictions on them on daily basis.

 

Yatta was released from jail a couple of days ago after he spent more than 20 years in Israeli jails.

 

Another Palestinian captive in the Israeli Ramon prison where he spent nearly 20 years of his life has confirmed to the centre, through telephone contact, that life inside the Israeli prisons became intolerable, and that he anticipates a very strong reaction from the Palestinian captives with the aim to preserve their dignity and their legal rights.

 

Head of the centre Ra'fat Hamdona confirmed that the IPA became more aggressive on the captives and their visiting relatives in clear violation to international conventions and human rights laws.

 

He enumerated a number of IPA violations against the captives, including arbitrary transfer, confiscating personal belongings of the captives, storming rooms of the prisoners and using dogs in searching their private properties, lack of medicine and proper medical treatment, denying them their religious rights like prayer, depriving them of their food allowances, imposing high fines against them for trivial mistakes, and putting more restrictions on their families during visits among other human rights violations.

 

In this regard, Hamdona urged all international societies and institutions concerned with the Palestinian captives to consolidate and to double their efforts in support of the detainees, and to pressure the Israeli occupation government to release all Palestinian captives who were held without charges, and to modify living conditions of the rest of the prisoners while inside jails.  

He also called on Palestinian factions to overcome their political disputes and to unite for the prisoners' cause, inviting legal institutions to file lawsuits against the Israeli occupation authority in the international court of justice.

 

In the same context, Palestinian female prisoners were reportedly facing the same harsh conditions in Israeli jails as confirmed by the lawyer of the Prisoner's Club who visited a number of the female detainees in the Israeli Damon prison.

The PC lawyer quoted captive Dua'a Al-Jayyosi of the West Bank city of Tulkarem as describing life inside Israeli jails as "very harsh", stressing that they couldn’t talk to their visiting relatives due to some hindrances on the part of the IPA.

 

Another Palestinian prisoner Amal Juma of Nablus city revealed she was complaining about severe stomach ache, but the IPA personnel refused to attend to her despite this, according to the lawyer, badly affecting her health condition. A number of female captives in Israeli jails were reportedly suffering with chronic diseases but the IPA refused to assist them.

 

According to Palestinian records, more than 129 Palestinian prisoners were perished in Israeli jails either due deliberate medical neglect or under torture in Israeli interrogation centres.