settlements – praag.org

Overwhelming majority vote for Palestinian flag at UN HQ

UN General Assembly has passed a Palestinian resolution to allow its flag fly in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York, angering Israel and giving hope to Palestinians seeking to gain full UN membership.

The resolution stated that flags of non-member observer states like Palestine “shall be raised at [UN] Headquarters [in New York] and United Nations Offices following the flags of the member states.”

The vote was passed with 119 votes out of 193 in favor. Among the European countries that voted ‘yes’ were France, Russia, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Belgium, Malta and Poland.

The majority of EU member states were among the 45 countries that chose to abstain. A total of eight countries voted against the idea, including the US and Israel.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah told reporters that he strongly believes this marks another step towards recognition of Palestinian statehood.

“It’s a step to the recognition of Palestine as a full member state of the United Nations,” Hamdallah said in Paris.

Currently, the UN has only one other non-member observer state – the Vatican. The Holy See did not demonstrate any excitement when the idea was first brought up last month, however, and rejected the Palestinians’ original proposal to introduce the resolution as a joint effort, asking the Vatican to co-sponsor the document.

The Vatican still remained unsure on Wednesday whether it will be flying its flag next to Palestine’s.

Source: RT

Israel appoints ‘irresponsible’ UN envoy

The appointment by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of one of his most hawkish and outspoken rivals as Israel’s new ambassador to the United Nations has prompted widespread consternation. As one analyst noted, Danny Danon’s appointment is a “cruel joke” on the international community. The new envoy “lacks even the slightest level of finesse and subtlety required of a senior diplomat”, the analyst said.

Last year, Mr Netanyahu sacked Mr Danon as deputy defence minister, describing him as too “irresponsible” even by the standards of Israel’s usually anarchic politics. Mr Danon had denounced the prime minister for “leftist feebleness” in his handling of Israel’s attack on Gaza last summer.

Mr Danon is a UN official’s worst nightmare. He is a vocal opponent of a two-state solution and has repeatedly called for the annexation of the West Bank.

The appointment comes as the Palestinians are expected to step up efforts at the UN to entrench recognition of their statehood, and as Israel tries to fend off war crimes investigations at the International Criminal Court.

The accepted explanation is that Mr Netanyahu’s move is driven by domestic, not diplomatic calculations. The two faced off for Likud party leadership in November. Mr Danon lost but Mr Netanyahu doubtless fears, as his party and the Israeli public shift to the right, that his rival’s time is coming.

The posting removes Mr Danon as head of the Likud’s powerful central committee, dispatches him to a distant land, and should provide him with opportunities aplenty to self-harm.

Mr Danon’s appointment also reveals something more significant about Israel’s deteriorating relations even with its international supporters.

In the decade following 1948, Abba Eban, Israel’s foremost diplomat, sought to carve out international recognition and respectability for his country at the UN, even as it launched wars in 1956 at Suez and again against Egypt in 1967.

Reality caught up with Israel when the UN adopted a resolution in 1975 equating Israel’s official ideology, Zionism, with racism. The resolution was only revoked 16 years later after Washington arm-twisted the General Assembly with promises that Israel would engage in a peace process with the Palestinians, culminating a short time later in the Oslo Accords.

But as Oslo slowly unravelled, Israel was forced on to the back foot again. Today, the consensus in Israel is not only that the UN is a bastion of anti-Israel prejudice but that it is an incubator of global anti-semitism.

This year, after stepping down as Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Oren argued that the plague of anti-semitism had infected even America’s leading Jewish journalists. Their critical coverage of Israel was proof of self-hatred, he claimed. The need for such desperate diplomacy has grown as Israel’s moral image has tarnished. But the hectoring has produced diminishing returns.

Mr Danon’s posting is part of a pattern of appointments by Mr Netanyahu that reflect a growing refusal to engage in diplomacy. It started with the decision in 2009 to let the thuggish Avigdor Lieberman lead the foreign ministry and diplomatic corps.

Most notably, Mr Netanyahu picked Ron Dermer to replace Mr Oren in 2013. Mr Dermer is credited with engineering Mr Netanyahu’s provocative address this year to the US Congress – an undisguised effort to undermine president Barack Obama’s talks with Iran.

Mr Danon’s appointment indicates the extent to which the Israeli right has abandoned any hope of persuading the international community of the rightness of its cause – or even of working within the rules of statecraft. Mr Danon can be expected to barrack, abuse and alienate fellow ambassadors at the UN.

An Israel that has no place for negotiations or compromise wants only to tell the world that it is wrong and that Israelis don’t care what others think. Mr Danon is the right man for that job.

Source: The National

Israel approves plan to build 1 000 settler homes in E. Jerusalem

The Israeli government has approved plans to build over 1,000 new settler homes in East Jerusalem. It will expand two existing Israeli settlements on part of the territories seized in 1967.

An official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the possible political and diplomatic impact. He said on Monday that “The government has decided to advance the planning of more than 1,000 units in Jerusalem – roughly 400 in Har Homa and about 600 in Ramat Shlomo,” as cited by Reuters.

He also said that plans would be “advanced for infrastructure projects in the West Bank that will include roads for the Palestinians.”

However, Palestinians regard the holy city of Jerusalem as a future capital of their state and strongly oppose any Israeli expansion. According to Reuters, in a statement the Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said that “We strongly condemn the latest Israeli announcement to expand its illegal settlements in and around occupied East Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Palestine.”

“This announcement amounts to evidence of an intent to further commit crimes defined by, and punishable under international law,” he added.

The new plan isn’t welcomed by some Israeli politicians. Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid of the centrist Yesh Atid party told Reuters the settlement building “should not be promoted now because there is a crisis with the US and the world.”

“There is never a good time to do such things, now more than ever as Jerusalem is burning,” Lior Amichai of the settlement watchdog Peace Now told AFP. He added that it was unclear at what stage the Israeli plans were, or how close they were to construction.

The international community hasn’t shown any support for Israeli settlement building. Relations with Israel’s traditional ally the US have also become strained over public criticism of US foreign policy by Israeli officials.

Palestine warns about increasing tension

The latest Israeli moves come after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent an “urgent letter” to US President Barack Obama concerning the “dangerous Israeli escalation” in East Jerusalem on Sunday night, reported the Jerusalem Post.

According to a statement released by the president’s office in Ramallah, Abbas warned that a “wider explosion that cannot be controlled,” could be triggered by Israel’s recent measures, including the suggestion to allow Jews to pray at the Temple Mount compound.

The Palestinian President also blamed the Israeli government for the “dangerous escalation”; the recent clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian rioters in East Jerusalem this weekend. Hundreds of Palestinians marched in several neighborhoods of the city, throwing stones and firecrackers at Israeli police, and 18 arrests were made, according to Haaretz.

Last week’s clashes marked a new wave of tension that has been running high since June. That’s when three Israeli teenagers were abducted and killed by Palestinian militants in the West Bank, and Israeli extremists responded with the abduction and killing of a Palestinian teenager in East Jerusalem. The riots contributed to the 50-day Gaza war that claimed the lives of over 2,000 people, most of them Palestinians.

It is a sidestep by Netanyahu’s office, as the ultranationalist Jewish Home party and its leader Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, has been pressing the Prime Minister to call for 2,000 new building tenders.

Israel no ‘oasis of human rights and equality’

Onlangse betoging in Johannesburg teen 'Apartheid-Israel' — Recent protest in Johannesburg against ‘Apartheid-Israel’ with photo of Mandela and Arafat

by Salomé Oosthuizen, Helderkruin, Johannesburg

The letter below was sent to Business Day newspaper in response to a letter to the same newspaper written by a Ms. Shapiro of Glenhazel, Johannesburg about Israel. In her letter she says, inter alia, that Israel is “a miracle that is a rebirth” and that the country is where “black and white walk hand in hand on the streets”. She also says the country is “an oasis of human rights and human equality amidst a sea of oppression and brutality”. Her letter gives the impression that Arabs and Jews are treated equally in Israel and that Arabs are laughing and singing and are “picnicking on the grass outside her apartment”. But let me first quote her letter in full:

FAADELAH Patel queries the definition of a Jewish state (Hamas has changed, Letters, May 12).

I have spent the past two weeks in Israel so will try to explain to her just what a Jewish state is. It is the state where Jews walk their streets proudly, celebrating the miracle that is the rebirth of their country.

It is the state where every Jew stands at attention for two minutes while the sirens drone on Yom Hashoah (the day commemorating the wilful slaughter of 6-million Jewish men, women and children during the Holocaust).

It is the state where every citizen stands at attention for two minutes while sirens drone on Yom Hazikaron (the day commemorating the loss of Israeli life, Arab and Jew, both on the battlefield and as a result of terrorism). It is the state where businesses close on the Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, and it’s the state where religious Jews do not need to search for kosher restaurants.

But it is also much else, and herein lies the true miracle of what Israel is.

It is the state where my family and I encountered a group of Arabs celebrating a birthday, laughing, singing and dancing on a boat ride on Lake Kinneret. We were the only Jews on this trip. It is the state where, when alighting from the boat, and going into a kosher restaurant in the harbour, we were followed by many of the self-same Arabs who had shared the boat ride with us.

It is the state where the lady in the queue in front of me in the clothing shop was an Arab dressed in a burqa, buying clothes for her grandchildren, as was I. It is the state where Arabs picnic on the grass outside my apartment.

It is the state where the pharmacist on my corner is an Arab woman, and black and white walk hand in hand on the streets.

And it is the state where Jew, Muslim and Christian worship freely and without fear the G-d of their choice.

And so Ms Patel, while Israel is and will remain the state of the Jewish people, it will always, because of, not in spite of, its Jewish character, be an oasis of human rights and human equality amidst a sea of oppression and brutality.

Monessa Shapiro
Glenhazel

Following is the letter I wrote to Business Day in response to this fairy tale. My letter was not printed by Business Day. My letter was based on verifiable facts, Ms. Shapiro’s letter was based on her rose-tinted impressions after a two week visit. What can we make of this omission? Why would the truth be hidden by Business Day while a glossy, fanciful story is printed as the truth about Israel?

We leave the reasons for this to the imagination of our friends and contacts. Please send this to your friends to show how the so-called press freedom of South Africa really operates. After all, my letter was based on facts from international newspapers, including the Israeli press. Why would Business Day want to hide the truth?

Dear Sir,

I refer to your correspondent’s letter “Defining a Jewish State” (BD 15 May) where a rose-tinted narrative attempts to explain to us how pleasant life is in Israel, and how well everyone – Jew and Arab, black and white – get along with each other. The letter is so far removed from reality that it is incumbent on anyone who knows history to rebut this fanciful tale.

“Black and white walk hand in hand on the streets” says your correspondent. Perhaps she saw an instance of this, but it certainly does not represent the true picture of race relations in Israel. On May 29 2012, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was adding African “infiltrators” to his list of threats to the Jewish homeland. He said he would build the world’s biggest detention centre and deport all those within, starting with the south Sudanese. (The Economist, June 2, 2012)

Demonstrators attacked African migrants in Tel Aviv in protest against refugees and asylum-seekers, indicating an increasingly volatile mood in Israel against blacks. (The Guardian 24.5.12) Miri Regev a member of the Israeli Parliament told an angry Israeli crowd that “the Sudanese are a cancer in our body”. A car containing Africans was attacked and shops serving the refugee community were looted. “African infiltrators are threatening the identity of the Jewish state”, said the prime minister. (The Guardian 20.5.12) “Israel belongs to the white man” declared Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai. (Haaretz newspaper 3.6.12). Israel introduced a law to detain illegal immigrants for up to 3 years, according to Haaretz.

Despite the happy hand-holding, Israel remains a racially-sensitive country. In an announcement from the Prime Minister’s office at the end of July 2013, Israel said it plans to introduce DNA testing to ensure that no non-Jews from Russia enter the country. (The Times of Israel, 29.7.13). In addition, in order to get married in Israel, applicants have to prove their Jewishness and this is done by DNA testing, Rabbi Naftali Schreiber told Haaretz (11 July 2013). This is the extent of the checks undertaken by the Jewish state to make sure that no Gentiles are allowed to marry Jews in their country.

Your correspondent says Israel is a miracle rebirth, but clearly prefers to ignore the ethnic cleansing that occurred when Israel drove thousands of Palestinians from their homes in 1948 and afterwards, and that millions of these refugees still languish in camps throughout the Arab world. This is a fact of history. If Israelis believe it’s their “divine right” to occupy Israel, then do other nations not have divine rights or even civil rights? Israel snubs its nose at the world. Despite repeated international condemnation, including a UN General Assembly resolution and a ruling by the International Court of Justice, the population of Israel’s illegal settlements (on Palestinian territory) has grown by an average of 5% annually since 2001. That compares to an average growth of just 1,8% for the population of Israeli proper. Israel refuses to dismantle these settlements.

Israel has broken or ignored more UN resolutions than any other country in UN history. It is in violation of at least 102 of these resolutions, mainly to do with invasions of neighboring countries and the dispossession of the Palestinians.

Your correspondent says she saw many “happy Arabs, laughing and having picnics on the grass outside her apartment”. This could be because Israel’s largest theme park segregates Arabs and Jews. A posting on the Arab Israeli Balad party Facebook page reveals that Arab Israelis and Jews do not share the park on the same day. Schools are the same. Haaretz newspaper refers to this phenomenon in an article entitled “Schools for Jews and Arabs : separate but definitely not equal” as “plain segregation” in the school system. (Haaretz 25.6.12). In Jerusalem there is a separate “ditch” between Jewish and Arab neighborhoods (Haaretz 13.9.13). State-built housing complexes are routinely reserved for Jews only. (Financial Times 1.5.12)

It is ironic that those whites in the forefront of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa were overwhelmingly Jewish. Joe Slovo is credited with writing the Freedom Charter. What’s good for the goose is obviously not good for the gander. Israel is certainly not an “oasis of human rights and human equality” as your correspondent states. A cursory glance at the website of any Israeli newspaper will put paid to that mirage.

Salomé Oosthuizen, Helderkruin