Break the Silence!

THE Independent newspaper had a report last month from Donald Macintyre on how the Israeli army is maltreating civilians in the Hebron area.

How IDF behaves in Hebron
Saturday, Apr 19
Independent.co.uk
Our reign of terror, by the Israeli army

It quoted a young man who recently completed his military service, talking about incidents in which Palestinian vehicles are stopped for no good reason, the windows smashed and the occupants beaten up for talking back – for saying, for example, they are on the way to hospital; the theft of tobacco from a Palestinian shopkeeper who is then beaten "to a pulp" when he complains; the throwing of stun grenades through the windows of mosques as people prayed. And worse.

The young man's decision to speak was "part of a concerted effort to expose the moral price paid by young Israeli conscripts in what is probably the most problematic posting there is in the occupied territories. ...Hebron is the only Palestinian city whose centre is directly controlled by the military, 24/7, to protect the notably hardline Jewish settlers there".

The young man was introduced by an older ex-soldier, Yehuda Shaul, who served in Hebron at the height of the Intifada, and is a founder of Shovrim Shtika, or Breaking the Silence, which has published the testimonies of 39 Israelis who served in the army in Hebron between 2005 and 2007. "They cover a range of experiences, from anger and powerlessness in the face of often violent abuse of Arabs by hardline Jewish settlers, through petty harassment by soldiers, to soldiers beating up Palestinian residents without provocation, looting homes and shops, and opening fire on unarmed demonstrators".

Then there was the treatment of a ten-year old boy to make him lead the way to a 15-year old stone thrower:
"The kid was really scared, realising we were on to him. We had a commander with us who was a bit of a fanatic. We gave the boy over to this commander, and he really beat the shit out of him ... He showed him all kinds of holes in the ground along the way, asking him: 'Is it here you want to die? Or here?' The kid goes, 'No, no!'

"Anyway, the kid was stood up, and couldn't stay standing on his own two feet. He was already crying ... And the commander continues, 'Don't pretend' and kicks him some more. And then [name withheld], who always had a hard time with such things, went in, caught the squad commander and said, 'Don't touch him any more, that's it.' The commander goes, 'You've become a leftie, what?' And he answers, 'No, I just don't want to see such things.'

"And the parents saw it. The commander ordered [the mother], 'Don't get any closer.' He cocked his weapon, already had a bullet inside. She was frightened. He put his weapon literally inside the kid's mouth. 'Anyone gets close, I kill him. Don't bug me. I kill. I have no mercy.' So the father ... got hold of the mother and said, 'Calm down, let them be, so they'll leave him alone.'"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/our-reign-of-terror-by-the-israeli-army-811769.html

Breaking the Silence is receiving support from Israelis concerned not only for the human rights of Palestinians but for the effect on their own society when young men return from military service protecting the right-wing settlers(who are armed themselves), having been taught that inhumanity and brutality against innocent civilians and children is "normal".

It is not just a problem in Hebron, occupied Palestine and Israel. When the Breaking the Silence veterans took their photographic exhibition and message to the United States there was an organised campaign to silence them, and Zionist groups mobilised other ex-soldiers to threaten legal action against them for supposedly slandering the Israeli military.

Response to the Independent report here was somewhat muted. More liberal apologists for Israeli policies will probably fall back on the last ditch that at least the existence of groups like Breaking the Silence shows how moral and democratic Israeli society is. But there is nothing liberal and democratic about the occupation, which has now lasted for two thirds of the Israeli state's existence. Nor are the right-wing settlers any respecters of fellow-Israelis' rights, let alone those of the Palestinians. Here is an item from the mainstream liberal daily Ha'aretz. Note the reference to the Breaking the Silence group as "Leftist", and police calling them "extreme left-wingers". These things are relative.

Leftist group: Police barring us from monitoring Hebron settlers
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent
May 2, 2008

The group "Shovrim Shtika" (breaking the silence) said that the police have recently begun barring the organization from touring Hebron to monitor the actions of settlers. The main reason for this, according to the group, is the fact that the police has surrendered to the policies of the settlers in Hebron and Kiryat Arba.

The police, for their part, describe the "Shovrim Shtika" tours as a "platform for extreme left-wingers to enter the Jewish territory and create an imbalance in the area." The police maintain that they have not done anything that deviates from the law.

An altercation erupted Thursday between activists and settlers from Hebron and Kiryat Arba. Yehuda Shaul of "Shovrim Shtika", who has been organizing tours of Hebron for three years, said that he arrived in Kiryat Arba and turned with his group to show them an outpost outside the settlement and was then stopped at the entrance by a group of settlers who surrounded the vehicle he was in.

The right wing activists tell a different story: Noam Arnon said he and his friends were among the few people at the scene who did not surround the vehicle. He said that the car Shaul was in had driven backwards in efforts to run over another activist.

A police officer who arrived at the scene forbade the group from touring Hebron, even though the tour was already coordinated with the Israel Defense Forces and the police, and despite the fact that the settlers can travel freely anywhere in the area.

According to Shaul, this was the third such incident this week. He explained that this kind of restriction was a part of a growing trend. Attorney Michael Sfard said that the police behavior in these incidents has become "the executing arm of the Jewish settlement in Hebron, and if this behavior doesn't change, legal action will be taken."

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* Palestinian ex-fighter and prisoner Bassam Aramin, whose daughter Abir was killed outside her school by Israeli Border Police, is due in Britain this week and will be joined by ex-Israeli helicopter pilot Yonatan Shapira. The two are co-founders of Combattants for Peace.

* Israel at 60 -What a State!, a show featuring Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steel and Shazia Mirza, is on tomorrow evening, May 8, 8pm at old Hampstead Town Hall. It is organised by the Jewish Socialists' Group, proceeds will go to B'Tselem human rights group, Friends of Freedom and Justice in Bil'in, and the National Coalition of Anti-deportation Campaigns here in Britain. For more info. and to enquire if there are tickets left, see http://www.jewishsocialist.org.uk/

* There's a march in London on Saturday, May 10, against the Occupation, for Palestinian freedom, the right of return, and a just peace for both peoples. Called by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, assemble 1pm at the Temple on the Embankment, march to Trafalgar Square rally.

Supporting Palestine On the Streets of London, and in the Colleges

THOUSANDS marched and rallied in London on Saturday to demand an end to forty years of Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, and freedom and justice for the Palestinian people. There were similar demonstrations around the world, including one in Tel Aviv.

Among the speakers in Trafalgar Square were Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti and the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem Riah Abu El Assal, as well as Palestinian ambassador Manuel Hassassian. There was an eloquent and reasoned video message from Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and another, simple but moving , from well-known Jewish actress Miriam Margolyes, who said the occupation and killing were wrong and had to stop.

Other speakers included veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent, and Nobel peace prizewinner Mairead Corrigan Maguire, herself injured by a rubber bullet while participating in a peaceful demonstration at Bil'in in the occupied territories. Nathaniel Silverman of the Combattants for Peace urged Israelis to refuse to serve in the occupation and Palestinians to continue resistance by peaceful means. While Nathaniel was speaking in London his Palestinian colleague Basam Aramin, whose daughter was killed by Israeli forces, spoke at the Tel Aviv rally.

Several Jewish groups, ranging from secular Jewish Socialists to ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta, took part in the demonstration in London. The Jerusalem Post only managed to count 2,000 people at the London rally (the most conservative estimate I saw from a participant in the march was 5,000, which possibly underestimates the numbers packed into Trafalgar Square, where the crowd stretched back to the National Gallery). It referred to Ismail Haniyeh as the "Hamas prime minister", whereas of course he is the elected Palestinian prime minister and now heads a national unity government.

Its reporter did not notice the Jews and Israelis speaking or taking part in the rally, being too busy giving space to organisers of the small Zionist counter-demo at Aldwych (about 50 people, half of them troubled souls gathered beneath their "Christian Friends of Israel" banner).

It must be said that British media coverage of the march was even less, but those of us who live here have grown used to that. Meanwhile both the Israeli and British press have been excitedly covering the recent decision of the University and Colleges Union to discuss applying a boycott to Israeli academic institutions. When I say "covering" I mean applying a heavy coat of lies and ignorance so that supporters of Israeli state oppression (whether or not they admit that's what it is) can work themselves up into a frenzy, threaten counter-actions, and try to frighten everyone into submission.

Search through the coverage and you'd be hard put to find out what UCU delegates actually said. Not that the union leadership has been much help, since UCU president Sally Hunt did not support the motions. So I was grateful this weekend to Israeli-born rights lawyer Daniel Machover for sending out this information.

Danny writes:

What I have seen of the current coverage in the UK media on 'the academic boycott of Israel' is really very badly informed.

The operative parts of Resolution 30 below call for (inter alia) local debates and national guidance on appropriate forms of action.

The official UCU website has not yet published the resolutions in full - I had to find them on the BRICUP site: www.bricup.org.uk

Who could really argue against requiring local UCU branches and each institution to debate these issues and think deeply about their contacts with Israeli academic institutions with reference to the occupation of territories seized in 1967?

The threat of legal action raised this weekend by Prof Alan Dershowitz must really be aimed at trying to head off future decisions by individual UCU branches and institutions on taking 'appropriate forms of action'

http://www.bricup.org.uk/downloads/UCU%20boycott%20resolutions.doc

UCU boycott resolutions:
Full text and results

On May 30th the UK University and College Union meeting at its first Annual Congress in Bournemouth passed the following resolutions. The final texts are the result of the approval of 'friendly' amendments to the original proposals, which have the effect of strengthening them.

Resolution 30 Boycott of Israeli academic institutions
Congress notes that Israel's 40-year occupation has seriously damaged the fabric of Palestinian society through annexation, illegal settlement, collective punishment and restriction of movement.

Congress deplores the denial of educational rights for Palestinians by invasions, closures, checkpoints, curfews, and shootings and arrests of teachers, lecturers and students.

Congress condemns the complicity of Israeli academia in the occupation, which has provoked a call from Palestinian trade unions for a comprehensive and consistent international boycott of all Israeli academic institutions.

Congress believes that in these circumstances passivity or neutrality is unacceptable and criticism of Israel cannot be construed as anti-semitic.

Congress instructs the NEC to circulate the full text of the Palestinian boycott call to all branches/LAs for information and discussion; encourage members to consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions; organise a UK-wide campus tour for Palestinian academic/educational trade unionists; issue guidance to members on appropriate forms of action; actively encourage and support branches to create direct educational links with Palestinian educational institutions and to help set up nationally sponsored programmes for teacher exchanges, sabbatical placements and research.

A count was taken of the voting on this motion which was as follows:
FOR 155 [61%]
AGAINST 99 [39%]
ABSTAIN 17


Resolution 31 European Union and Israel
Congress notes:
1. That since the Palestinian elections in January 2006 the Israeli government has suspended revenue payments to the Palestinian authority (PA), and the EU and US have suspended aid, leaving public-sector salaries unpaid and earning the condemnation of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions;
2. That Israel is seeking to upgrade its relations with the EU to the same level as Norway and Switzerland, permitting free passage of goods, people and capital, while denying these freedoms to Palestinians.

Congress resolves to campaign for:
1. The restoration of all international aid to the PA and all revenues rightfully belonging to it;
2. No upgrade of Israel's status until it ends the occupation of Palestinian land and fully complies with EU Human Rights law;
3. A moratorium on research and cultural collaborations with Israel via EU and European Science Foundation funding until Israel abides by UN resolutions

Congress instructs the NEC to encourage Branches/Associations to
1. raise these campaigns in their Institutions and
2. investigate the possibilities of twinning their Institution with a Palestinian University or College

This motion was declared passed on a show of hands -with a majority visibly still higher than that for Resolution 30.

This may lead you to wonder how David Hirsh of "Engage" could jump from this to say it means Israelis are to be excluded from campuses? But then you are making the mistake of reading what is in the texts, whereas Hirsh who teaches Sociology at Goldsmith's College in London, appears to dispense with such outmoded methods of study and analysis.

But how dare the union delegates suggest that academics might want to be informed of the Palestinian boycott call, consider the moral implications of Israeli institutional links, and discuss appropriate action? Not to mention questioning European research connections, and proposing positive assistance to Palestinian educational institutions (something we have emphasised in the past), even calling for the unblocking of funds so that Palestinian public sector colleagues can receive their salaries. Whatever next?!

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz has been huffing and puffing about legal action. This is the same gentleman whose work for "academic freedom" has consisted of asking students to monitor and report "anti-Israel" sentiments among their teachers so these can be witch-hunted, and who can claim success for his campaign to have the Catholic De Paul University take away tenure from Jewish (but anti-Zionist) Professor Norman Finkelstein.

Dershowitz is reportedly thinking to use American legislation that outlaws discrimination against anyone on account of nationality. I'm wondering how come such law does not forbid Hilton Hotels International from refusing bookings from Cubans attending conferences, but who am I to question America's right to boycott whoever it dislikes, including of course Palestine?

I can't challenge a Harvard law professor's interpretation of US law. But I can question this particular professor's deliberate misinterpretation of a British union's democratically-decided resolution.

The B'nai Brith Anti-Defamation League and needless to say the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre are throwing their weight into the anti-boycott (and in tone incidentally anti-British as well as anti-union) campaign. I can just about listen to arguments from the State of Israel but I get a bit intolerant whenever the State of California (Governor Arnold Schwartzeneggar)sticks its nose in.

Maybe they think they can push us around and intimidate British trade unionists the way they tried some years ago with Mexico? I guess with this government's Washington tochas-licking record that's not too surprising. But I see the good old Beeb will show its idea of "balance" tonight by giving UCU member Tom Hickey a recorded minute to speak in defence of the union's boycott resolutions, and Higher Education Minister four minutes live to say why the government is against it. That's Radio 4, and likely to be on air about 7.30pm BST.

The murder of a schoolgirl

WHEN former Israeli combat helicopter pilot Yonatan Shapira spoke in London last Tuesday, at the launch of the Enough! coalition, he mentioned his friend and fellow member of Combattants for Peace, Bassam Aramin.

Bassam Aramin spent nine years in an Israeli prison. He belonged to Yasser Arafat's Al Fatah in the Hebron area, and attempted to throw a grenade at an Israeli army jeep in occupied Hebron. From armed resistance, he has turned to working with Israeli military Refuseniks like Yonatan Shapira, striving for a just peace.

It is not easy. And it brings no let up in the violence and oppression which he and his family, like other Palestinians, have to endure. As Yonatan Shapira told us, Bassam Aramin's ten-year old daughter Abir was killed by Israeli Border Police in their home village of Anata.

It was a Wednesday morning, January 16, and Abir was outside her school when the jeeps came into town, firing gas canisters and rubber bullets. As the children turned to run Abir was hit in the back of the head. The school contacted Bassam to tell him his daughter had been injured. Abir died a couple of days later in Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital. Her skull had been fractured and blood had penetrated her brain.

Neither the army nor the police bothered to investigate what had happened. The army's official account was that the girl was hit by a stone that one of her classmates was throwing "at our forces." Those who saw the wounded child in hospital know different. Among them is Nurit Peled-Elhanan, an Israeli mother and peace campaigner whose own daughter, Smedar, was killed by a suicide bomber in 1997, and whose son is a member of Combattants for Peace.

"I saw her just afterwards at Hadassah Hospital, where she slept quietly in a huge hospital bed. Abir's face was white. Her huge eyes were closed. By then, she was already brain dead, and the doctors decided to allow the rest of her to die. I saw clearly that her head had been shot from behind, and I will testify under oath to that fact".
http://www.counterpunch.org/peled01292007.html

A young student who witnessed her shooting told journalists that the Israeli border police, who are part of the IDF, drove up to the girls as they came out of their school examinations. "The girls were afraid and started running away. The border police followed them in the direction in which they were retreating. Abir was afraid and stool against one of the shops at the side of the road. I was standing near her. The border policeman shot through a special hole in the window of his jeep that was standing very close to us. Abir fell to the ground I saw that she was bleeding from the head."

Amir Aramin's family requested an autopsy. Bassam Aramin says he will not rest until his daughter's killer convinces him that young Abir threatened his life or the life of the other soldiers in his jeep. Bassam has also pledged that he will not let this terrible killing deter him from seeking a just peace with honour for his people in Palestine and Israelis alike.

A brief search on Amir Aramin's name brings various Zionist blogs on her death, claiming that it didn't really happen, that if it did it was the fault of the Palestinians for exposing their children to danger by placing them in a demonstration, or that the Palestinians must have done it themselves, the child could not possibly have been shot when soldiers opened fire on an anti-wall demonstration because there are no photographs from that day of any such demonstration. Doesn't that contradict the first version? It seems the liars cannot even be bothered to get their stories right, because they don't regard the death of a Palestinian child as that important.

To say these Zionists are racialists seems an understatement. Glancing through their light and cynical comments takes a strong stomach, reminding me of what I have seen of Nazi literature cheerfully discussing how many Jews they killed.

Nurit Peled-Elhanan, whom they would doubtlessly dismiss as a "self-hater", has been to sit with Abir's grieving mother Salwa, telling her "we are all victims of the occupation".

There is an online message of condolence to the Aramin family. It is not much. But it is the least we can do.
http://www.petitiononline.com/Abir2007/petition.html