Coteret

Sara Benninga

In his succinct post on the March 6 2010 rally in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerry Haber at the Magnes Zionist wrote

in my opinion, the highlight of the night was a speech delivered by young Israeli activist, Sarah Benninga, who spoke about the New Left and the New Right.

I agree. It was rousing, articulating the thinking and spirit that has enabled a small group of activists to succeed singlehandedly in launching a protest movement. Sara, a 28 year-old student living in Jerusalem is one of those activists. For months, we have become used to seeing her, megaphone in hand, leading the protesters in slogans and songs, both at Sheikh Jarrah and, except for the weekend when she was arrested, outside the police holding cells during the Saturday night hearings.

Here’s the full text of the speech (slightly different translation on the group’s website)

Banner calling for March 6 2010 rally in Sheikh Jarrah

Sheikh Jarrah, March 6, 2010

There is a new Left in town!

There is a new Left and it is a Left that is not satisfied with peace talks. It is a Left that fights!

There is a new Left that knows there are things you must fight against even when they are identified with the State and even when they enjoy the protection of the law!

There is a new Left that knows that this fight will not be won on paper but on the ground, in the hills, in the vineyards and in the olive groves.

There is a new Left that is not afraid of the settlers, even when they descend on it from the hilltops, blindfolded and armed.

This Left does not surrender to the police’s political repression, and does not care what they write about it in Maariv. There is a new Left in town!

This Left does not want to be loved, does not fantasize about town squares and does not bask in the memory of the 400,000. This Left is a partnership between Palestinians, who understand the occupation will not be defeated by missiles and bombs, and Israelis, who understand that the Palestinian struggle is their struggle.

The new Left joins hands with Palestinians in a cloud of tear gas at Bil’in and gets beaten up together with them by settlers at the South Hebron Mountain.

This Left stands by refugees and labor migrants in Tel Aviv and fights against the Wisconsin Plan.

The new Left is us — all of us!

Everyone who came here tonight. Everyone who dared cross the imaginary line between West and East Jerusalem, despite the threats and intimidation.

We are all the new Left that is emerging in Israel and Palestine.

We are not fighting for a peace agreement. We are fighting for justice. But we believe that injustice is the main obstacle to peace.

There will be no peace until the Ghawi and Hanoun and al-Kurd families return to their homes. Because peace does not grow on a soil of discrimination, oppression and theft.

There is a new Left in town and that Left stands with the people of Sheikh Jarrah tonight and will continue standing with them until justice defeats fanaticism.

But there is also a new Right in town.

A Right awash with fanaticism and racism that seduces the masses with nationalist rhetoric.

The new Right does not care about the welfare and well-being of human beings. The new Right only cares about ethnic, tribal, Liebermanistic loyalty.

For the new Right charity begins at home only for Jews. And what makes a person a Jew is the fact that they are not an Arab.

The new Right has nothing to offer except for endless war.

Read more…

Banner calling for March 6 2010 rally in Sheikh Jarrah

Let justice ring in Sheikh Jarrah

Recent events in Sheikh Jarrah are part of a wider process — the Hebronization of East Jerusalem. The only way to stop this destructive process is to protest on the streets.

[Hebrew version here.]

This Saturday night (March 6 2010) will witness one of the most important demonstrations in years, in the struggle for human rights and justice here. A struggle against injustice and dispossession, against the Hebronization of East Jerusalem, and against the anti-democratic processes undermining Israeli society. In this struggle, Sheikh Jarrah has already become a symbol. But as in any struggle for justice and equality, that has never been the goal. The goal is justice and equality, human rights and a future that embraces all human beings without distinction. Saturday night’s rally organizers hope to attract thousands and to finally make justice ring in Sheikh Jarrah. If successful, it may gradually become possible — to move beyond symbolism to the true purpose of the already months’ long Sheikh Jarrah struggle: justice.

The asymmetric legal situation in Israel, through the Absentee Property Law, makes it possible for Jews to return to property that was owned by Jews before 1948 — while Palestinian property return is completely impossible. This is both unjust and unwise. In Sheikh Jarrah, this has resulted in Palestinian refugees, originally housed in the neighborhood by the Jordanian government after 1948, becoming refugees a second time. Of course, unlike the settlers forcing the Palestinians out of their homes, the Palestinians cannot return to the homes they owned before 1948 — not in Jaffa, nor in West Jerusalem or anywhere else.

So far, four families have lost their homes: Al-Rawi, Hanoon, and the two Al-Kurd families. Many more families face a similar fate if the plans of the Simeon the Just Company materialize, to destroy their homes and instead build 200 housing units for Jewish settlers.

By itself, what is described above is already more than sufficient to require us to demonstrate against. But the injustice does not stop with that: what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah is part of a larger process — the Hebronization of East Jerusalem. In the raging struggle over Jerusalem’s future, facts are already being determined on the ground, and the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are forced to pay the price upfront, their human rights violated in a great variety of ways. Inadequate to non-existent infrastructure, shortage in classrooms, social, health and mail services, revocation of residency status, lack of planning programs that would have allowed for legal construction and the constant fear of house demolitions – all these are added to the destructive processes sadly familiar to us from another city: Hebron.

As if watching the replay of a movie whose ending we have already seen, here in front of our eyes the Hebron processes are taking place once again, this time in Jerusalem: the entry of settlers to the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood, the provocations and violence, the one-sided actions of the security forces – always serving the interests of the Jewish settlers over the rights of the Palestinian residents. And then, what follows: restrictions of movement, segregation, life becoming a nightmare, and all this in the name of “security considerations”. Shuhada Street in Hebron is already closed for Palestinians for years — a street that was part of the bustling heart of one of the largest Palestinian cities, and has become a ghost road in the service of extremist settlers, the human rights of local Palestinians thrown to the roadside.

A similar process to what has already happened in Hebron is now happening in Jerusalem. Sheikh Jarrah now has police checkpoints at the entrance to the neighborhood. During certain hours on Friday the entrance to the neighborhood is generally blocked, but is open to Jewish worshipers. In contrast, Jews wishing to enter Sheikh Jarrah to express solidarity with the Palestinian families are prevented from entering the neighborhood. Violence against Palestinians ends with arrests — of Palestinians. The mechanism of dispossession and the construction of security excuses are already at work. And all this is happening right here, in Jerusalem.

In tandem, the Jerusalem Police tried to break the Israeli activists who wanted to express solidarity with the Palestinian families and protest against the injustice done to them. Only after nearly a hundred false arrests and a series of hearings at the Jerusalem Magistrate Court, did the police finally allow for the protest vigils to take place. For many weeks, each Friday, rain or cold, arrests or no arrests, hundreds of Israelis gather to protest in Sheikh Jarrah. Now, the Police is trying to keep Saturday’s planned demonstration as far as possible from the neighborhood, perhaps fearing the thought that the Palestinians will be able to hear the voices of those who consider them human beings, not objects for removal. High Court justices will hear an urgent petition on this matter Thursday morning; hopefully they will not forget the Court’s ruling in a similar context almost twenty years ago: “The location’s effectiveness is the lifeblood of a people’s assembly.”

Whether the police will succeed in distancing the demonstration or the Court will intervene in defense of freedom of speech is yet to be seen. Either way, what is at stake is the process that has not begun in Sheikh Jarrah nor will be stopped there, unless we begin to change course. It is the process of dispossession and the constant injustices against the Palestinian residents – while canonizing acts of violence. Israelis demonstrating in Sheikh Jarrah are no longer regularly arrested, but that is not the heart of the matter. The question that should concern all of us — and mobilize all of us — to demonstrate in Sheikh Jarrah this Saturday night is this: How to stop injustice and how in its stead promise a shared future, common to all people, based on foundations of human rights and equality. It is this voice that will ring this Saturday night from Sheikh Jarrah — a strong voice that we must ring for Israelis and Palestinians, a resonant voice that we must ring for the world to hear, a personal voice that we must ring for ourselves. And this can only happen in one way: for each and every one of us to come this Saturday night at 7pm to Sheikh Jarrah. Together, let us bring justice to ring in Sheikh Jarrah.

Perhaps this helps explain why the Jerusalem police ignores the judiciary and the rule of law in its campaign to suppress dissent in Sheikh Jarrah.

From a comprehensive investigative report in today’s (January 22 2010) Yediot (full text at bottom):

A Yedioth Ahronoth investigation reveals some very surprising facts concerning the funding of the new headquarters. According to our findings, only a small portion of the funding originates from the state. The bulk of the money comes from private organizations with a clear right wing orientation: the Bukhara Community Trust, and the Shalem Foundation — a subsidiary formed by the Jerusalem-based Elad NGO.

_______

This police station is brought to you by: A right-wing NGO

Uri Misgav, Yediot Friday Political Supplement, January 22 2008

On the hilltop stands a building, like a colonial palace in the Third World. Around it lie the barren pastures of the surrounding villages, a flock of sheep chewing the grass, and two Palestinian shepherds suspiciously eyeing the construction. A gazelle with sharp antlers, which finds itself on the road, gives a startled look and takes off. Welcome to the brand new Samaria and Judea District Police headquarters.

The road ascends the hill, revealing the impressive infrastructure: straight terraces, gravel and limestone beds smoothed into the rock, traffic circles, safety railings, electricity poles and lights. Large signs on behalf of the nearby city of Maale Adumim direct the drivers to “Mevasseret Adumim,” a new neighborhood, which today remains on paper only. The establishment of the neighborhood was approved by the Sharon government in 2004, but was quickly brought to a halt due to American pressure. If established, it will contain 3,900 housing units. To date no approval has been given to begin construction. A new and broad bridge which is to link Maale Adumim with the new neighborhood has already been built. Today there is still no traffic allowed on it.

The construction of the police headquarters began in 2005 and was completed in 2008. It was intended for an area known as E-1, which constitutes a bone of contention between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Americans. The construction of the police headquarters by the government was seen as a blatant violation of the political status quo, and sparked a wave of criticism. A petition filed by Palestinian residents and human rights organizations concerning the confiscation of land required for the construction, was dismissed. But this, it now seems, is only the tip of the iceberg.

A Yedioth Ahronoth investigation reveals some very surprising facts concerning the funding of the new headquarters. According to our findings, only a small portion of the funding originates from the state. The bulk of the money comes from private organizations with a clear right wing orientation: the Bukhara Community Trust, and the Shalem Foundation — a subsidiary formed by the Jerusalem-based Elad NGO. Read more…

Friday, December 11 2009

Tel-Aviv: Thousands march for human rights and democracy.

Shiekh Jarrah, Jerusalem: Police disperse protest against eviction of Palestinian family by settler group. Ynet, which headlines the protest “violent,” then explains that by “violence”  it means refusal to disperse. Twenty-one Israeli citizens arrested. Palestinian family has lived in home since well before 1967.

Yasuf, Northern West Bank: Settlers torch mosque, burn books and leave graffiti: PRICE TAG and WE WILL BURN YOU ALL. Palestinian villagers stone IDF, which then shoots at Palestinians. Two Palestinians  and one soldier injured.

Window Frames of Transforming Light

A dispute over David’s Tomb or the Room of the Last Supper, just outside the Old City of Jerusalem is at the heart of the crisis. Kikar Hashabat, an ultra-orthodox news portal attributes “the great victory” to the two current Chief Rabbis, “who one year ago published an announcement that it was prohibited to transfer Jewish property to Christians.”

The Mount Zion Foundation, which maintains the site, has more information on the “property” at stake. Its website offers a “rare opportunity” to acquire “an extraordinary array of spiritual artifacts from King David’s Royal Tomb Complex.” These range from “a metal clad door” to “to the window frames of transforming light.” Prices are not mentioned, but Rabbi G. Goldstein’s e-mail is availible for “the discerning collector.” The website also offers online shoppers a choice of purchases from the adjacent Chamber of the Holocaust. A range of “naming dedications” is available for every budget starting with an “Honorary Member” for $180, through the “Biblical garden” for $1,000,000, all the way to $8,000,000 for the entire chamber’s “People’s Memorial.”

The holy sites crisis

Yossi Bar, Maariv, December 11 2009

Israeli and Vatican delegations, which yesterday discussed the financial and legal status of Israel’s Christian holy sites, reached a dead end.  According to Vatican sources, relations between the two countries are on the verge of crisis, and these same sources are also threatening to sever diplomatic ties with Israel. Read more…

On the same morning that Maariv’s Ben Caspit relays Israeli diplomatic officials’ cries of ‘gewald’ after the US and UK ditched them on Jerusalem, Attorney Dov Weissglas tells them that it’s time to get real. Weissglas, Sharon’s confidant and liaison to the US administration, is hardly a bleeding heart leftist. One of his major claims to international fame was an Haaretz interview, in which he explained that disengagement was intended to put the Palestinians in “formaldehyde.” Largely quiet during the Olmert government, since Netanyahu’s ascent he has been working hard to position himself as a hard-nosed realist.

A step of sobriety

Op-ed, Dov Weissglas, Yediot, December 7 2009

What is missing in the decision on the construction freeze?  It lacks real ability to affect what is happening.  It will not lead to a real stop of construction in Judea and Samaria, except for a brief time span, and will not bring about a change in the diplomatic environment.  The Palestinians do not view it as a reason to renew negotiations, and the international community, so it would appear, was not overly impressed by the Israeli initiative.  The Quartet refused to congratulate it, the US and the other major countries of the world do not intend to declare that in the wake of this initiative the Palestinians are called upon to return to the negotiating table.

The initial, almost automatic suspicion, that the plan encountered around the world, was successfully confirmed by some of the ministers belonging to the forum of seven: They supported it in the discussions, and after it was passed, explained that it was actually meaningless and that within ten months of “delay,” construction would be renewed with full vigor.  In this context, there is great sense in the contention of the settlers that the freeze is unnecessarily oppressive: They are being harmed, but [the freeze] is bringing no benefit.

What does the freeze plan have?  The government’s forced decision—regardless of its practical value—is evidence of the fact that it is starting to accept the steadily worsening diplomatic reality, which is making the continued Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria (including East Jerusalem) impossible.  The dispute surrounding the settlements and their expansion has long since ceased to be a matter between Israel and the Palestinians, it has become the cause of a confrontation between Israel and the world.

Read more…

RELATED POST — Weissglas in Yediot: Get real, the choice is between settlements (incl. E Jerusalem) and pariah status

Like a fourteen year old told to go to his room for the first time in his life.

Jerusalem officials expressed disappointment over the fact that the United States did not involve itself with the Europeans in any real sense, and that the frantic telephone campaign that the prime minister himself conducted over the past several days was fruitless.

[...]

As far as the Israeli Foreign Ministry is concerned, Great Britain’s conduct was also disappointing. “London’s positions are disappointing,” a high-ranking diplomatic official said. “It is cooperating with Israel on the Iranian subject, but when it comes to the Palestinians, it takes a hostile line.”

Full text below. Read more…

On November 18 I wrote about the State Department report criticizing religious freedom in Israel and the Atlantic’s Jeffery Goldberg’s amazement at the fact Israelis and Jewish-Americans had all but ignored it. I attached an op-ed by Naomi Chazan that ran in that day’s Yediot, which, for the first time in the mainstream Israeli media, addressed the report, slamming Israeli intolerance for Jewish religious pluralism.

On November 26, Common Ground News Service ran an article by Prof. Menachem Klein, a political scientist at Bar Ilan University, which approaches the issue from the perspective of Jewish-Muslim relations in the Israeli-Palestinian context.

Interestingly, Klein hints at the one state reality currently in place between the Mediterranean and the Jordan

No less important is the question of the return to the land. The Palestinian right of return is denied by Israel offhand. Yet, Israel upholds the principle of Jewish return to the Land of Israel. This is perceived in Israel as an exclusive right. The idea of Jewish return is what motivates the settlements in Hebron and galvanises Jewish groups to change the status quo on the Temple Mount.

The wheels of history cannot be reversed, and religion can no longer be separated from the conflict over territorial sovereignty and return.

Full article after the jump.

Read more…

Wrote and vanished

Shalom Yerushalmi, Maariv, November 27 2009

Sari Nusseibeh, president of al-Quds University, is now publishing an unprecedented and revolutionary chapter as part of a monumental research on the Temple Mount, which is to be published soon in collaboration with international research institutes, among them the Ben Zvi Institute. In the chapter, Nusseibeh essentially assails the leaders of the Islamic movements throughout the generations who have consistently denied Jewish affinity to the Temple Mount. He recognizes the Jewish narrative as well as the existence of the Jewish temple there.

Nusseibeh also attacks Jews who attempt to refute the Muslim ethos, and calls for a stop to the bloody riots over the Temple Mount, which he says are the result of man’s shallow urges, and contrary to God’s command. The book is titled Where Heaven and Earth Meet. Nusseibeh’s chapter is called “Al-Haram Al-Sharif,” the Muslim name for the Temple Mount. He writes that God bestowed holiness on the land of Canaan and destined it for the Children of Israel. He further wrote that Jerusalem’s legendary temple might have been the dwelling place of the divine spirit where the high priests served God.

In another place he notes that Muslims are not aware that Jews and Christians identify the foundation stone as the place where Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac and that Jews do not know that Muslims identify Mecca as the location of this. He writes that there is a false ethos of mutual rejection of the other side’s holiness and antiquities.

Since the book’s publication Nusseibeh has refused to take interviews. He has also cut himself off from his colleagues to the book and is unwilling to promote the book’s distribution. In the book’s launching ceremony a week ago at Ecole Biblique, a Dominican institute in East Jerusalem, Nusseibeh refused to speak, though he was noted in the invitation as a key speaker. He even refused to come up to the stage. The journalist Eli Margalit, who attempted to interview him for Zman Yerushalaim received the response: “I’m sorry, I can’t.’

There are several versions that attempt to explain Nusseibeh’s silence. Sources who collaborated with him in the publication have said that Nusseibeh has received threats from extremists. However, Nusseibeh’s research assistant, Hoda Rajani said that he had not been threatened. Nusseibeh is of the most impressive and outstanding Palestinian intellectuals, and was involved in several peace initiatives, among others the People’s Voice together with Ami Ayalon. He was also one of the people to generate the first Intifada.