Home > Rubriques > Languages - International > English > “Justice will be measured here”

“Justice will be measured here”

Sunday 27 March 2005

Im Auftrag von The Other Israel
Gesendet: Freitag, 25. März 2005 15:27
An: edward.badeen@palch.ch
Betreff: [TOI-Billboard] ’Justice will be measured here’

TOI-Billboard, March 25, 2005

Intro

“Justice will be measured here, and not in the courts”
Refuser update - Eyal, Nimrod, Yahel, Yoni
Border Patrol Drama in Bil`in (reported by Machsomwatcher)
Settlers poison Palestinian land
A new crime: “talking to journalists”
Students wake up, by Yuval Adam
Israeli delegation to Kuala Lumpur conference
What future for the two peoples? Tony Klug
The dictatorship of practicality, Sefi Rachelevsky in Haaretz
Brit. Consulate’s wall reminds of wall the British oppose, Jerusalem Post
Even fewer at the next demonstration, Meron Benvenisti in Haaretz
The Israeli left is opting for suicide, Tanya Reinhart in Yediot Aharonot
One Step Back in the Mideast, New York Times editorial March 23

>><<

It was the week of the spectacle how to save a bad budget in order to let a bad government survive. Tulkarm was finally handed over, but not the villages around. It was the week of yet another government provocation, its decision to build 3500 settlement houses between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim. It was the week of frustration because grassroots didn’t get enthusiastic over a left-wing demonstration in support of Sharon. But it was also a week of fierce struggles and hot debates.

>>Activism this week<<

"Justice will be measured here, and not in the courts"

Rabbi Arik Ascherman (Rabbis for Human Rights) in a dramatic week:

After their conviction in the court for having hindered bulldozers destroying houses Ascherman and activist Omer Uri - who of course didn’t deny the charges - hurried to the ruins of the Da’ari family’s home. There, Rabbi Ascherman promised that the house will be rebuilt, and added that ’justice will be measured here, and not in the courts.’

Full text of the RHR press release http://rhr.israel.net/pdf/press_release_22_03_05.pdf

(And if you didn’t know that the carnaval-like Purim holidays of this week have positive moral aspects in them read Ascherman’s words for the judge: http://rhr.israel.net/pdf/planned_remarks_22_03_05.pdf

Refuser update - Eyal, Nimrod, Yahel, Yoni

Eyal Brami - the first prisoner among the signatories of the new High School Seniors’ Letter - sentenced to 28 days in prison
Nimrod Regev imprisoned for refusing to be stationed in the Occupied Territories
CO Yahel Avigur released from prison. Due to be imprisoned again soon
CO Yoni Ben-Artzi - Supreme Court appeal hearing
Recommended Action

Read the news and the recommended action at:
http://www.geocities.com/toi_billboard/COupdate.htm

Border Patrol Drama in Bil`in (reported by Machsomwatcher)

Ofra Katz - March 24

About the arrest of a 12 year old, and his release in the middle of nowhere

“The villagers searched for him everywhere, including he settlements in spite of the fear, and all around the village. Nerves at the hotline were at their rawest. Two army details went out looking for the child but obviously he wouldn`t get near them, frightened as he was.”

full account of the madness:
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=1173

Settlers poison Palestinian land

Gush Shalom & ISM joint press release, March 23

Sheep and gazelles are dying - settlers of a manifestly illegal hilltop are suspected of having spread poison in huge stretches of Palestinian land; the Israeli police appointed investigator... from among the suspected settlement

A new crime: “talking to journalists”

International Federation of Journalists accuses Israel of bullying and intimidation in its continuing campaign against Mordechai Vanunu, who may be sent back to prison - for talking to reporters.

“Israel is creating a new crime - talking to journalists,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “It is a shocking betrayal of democratic principles in what is a vindictive campaign of bullying and intimidation against a man who has served his time.”

Students wake up, by Yuval Adam

What triggered the outburst of the past two weeks of “Intifada” by Israeli students was the sharp slashing of the budget for higher education. Started at the campus of Tel-Aviv University, it spread to the students all over the country. The Haifa demonstration escalated into a clash with the police, with dozens of students arrested. On TV, students were shown chanting “Yesh Kibush, Yesh Avtala - Eyn Sikkuy La’haskala” ("with occupation and unemployment, education has no chance") showing that the students conceive their struggle as part of a bigger one. With the Israeli left so long in a state of paralysis this development is remarkable.*

The following account by student activist Yuval Adam appeared at http://www.shadowgov.org - it details from within how the increase in awareness happened among Tel-Aviv students during the past year.

Read the translation at:
http://www.geocities.com/toi_billboard/Yuval_Adam.htm

*The press articles (below) about the crisis in the left are marked with -*-

Israeli delegation to Kuala Lumpur conference

March 27 - April 2, an Israeli delegation will be in Malaysia at the occasion of the Peace in Palestine conference at Kuala Lumpur.

Gershon Baskin - IPCRI
Adi Dagan - Coalition of Women for Peace
Yitzchak Frankenthal - Arik Peace Institute
Adam Keller - Gush Shalom
Beate Zilversmidt - The Other Israel

Conference background and program at: http://www.worldcivilsociety.com/programme.asp

What future for the two peoples? Tony Klug

“If the Palestinians fail to gain their place in the sun, the Israelis will never be left in peace to enjoy theirs. Conversely, the Palestinians will never win their freedom if the Israelis are convinced it will be at their expense. Each holds the key to the other’s destiny. They will succeed or fail together.”
(Tony Klug addressing a public meeting of the Jewish Forum for Justice & Human Rights, 21 March, London)

full text
http://www.geocities.com/toi_billboard/klug.htm

>>From the English-language Israeli press<<

- The dictatorship of practicality, Sefi Rachelevsky in Haaretz

After the "dizzying success" of the deliberate blindness that
accompanied the waning period of Oslo, which allowed turning a blind eye
from the continuing construction and development of the settlements and
what was being done to the Palestinians, an entire culture is now being
enlisted to ignore everything just to avoid getting in Sharon’s way.

Ha’aretz, Thu., March 24, 2005
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/556126.html

Brit. Consulate’s wall reminds of wall the British oppose, Jerusalem Post

Khaled Abu Toameh - Mar. 23, 2005

The British Consulate’s Arab neighbors in east Jerusalem are outraged at a security
barrier being erected at the insistence of the British government to protect its
diplomats, saying it reminds them of Israel’s security fence in the West Bank, which
Britain opposes.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111548531364

- Even fewer at the next demonstration, Meron Benvenisti in Haaretz

The Labor Party will not be able to raise any appeals because the plan
was originally approved in principle by Yitzhak Rabin’s government,
though never implemented, and, in general, “Ma’aleh Adumim is in the
consensus.” Nobody will pay any attention to the protests from the
Palestinians. What do they want? Didn’t they get Gaza and the Palestinian
cities? And maybe, just maybe, “if the terror is eradicated,” they’ll get
half the West Bank, patched together with bridges and tunnels “that
create contiguity, but that’s not a matter for right away,” as Sharon has
said.

Thu., March 24, 2005
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/556128.html

- The Israeli left is opting for suicide, Tanya Reinhart in Yediot Aharonot

Translation by Mark Marshall for The Occupation Magazine

To judge by the political discourse, being a leftist today means supporting Sharon. Even when his government decides yet again to postpone the evacuation of the illegal outposts to an unknown future date, the pundits explain that the mere fact that he even raised the matter for discussion in the government is indicative of the seriousness of his intentions. Sharon will evacuate Gaza first, they say, and afterwards the outposts, and in the end maybe even the West Bank.

full text of the translation:
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=1176

One Step Back in the Mideast, New York Times editorial March 23

Maybe Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel doesn’t quite get it yet, but this new era of hope in the Middle East means he needs to restrain his instincts for settlement building.

On Monday, Israel publicly confirmed plans to expand the already large settlement a few miles east of Jerusalem called Maale Adumim. In a community already housing 30,000 residents - not to mention a Blockbuster Video, Ace Hardware and other shops - Israel plans to build an additional 3,500 new housing units.

The Palestinians have rightly criticized this as a major obstacle to ever resolving one of the most emotional and intractable issues between the two: the final borders of Israel and eventually Palestine, and the dividing up of Jerusalem.

We all know that any final peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians will have to include an adjustment of borders; returning to the 1967 lines is fine in theory, but there are too many Israeli Jews living outside those boundaries to expect all of them to move. But that is precisely why adding to those numbers right now is so cynical. And claims by the Israelis that they never intend to give certain settlements back anyway just don’t cut it.

Mr. Sharon is unfairly trying to stack the deck before peace talks even begin by expanding the Jewish presence around the traditionally Arab eastern parts of Jerusalem. Such a move could further seal off those Israeli Arabs in east Jerusalem from Palestinian areas in the West Bank.

Mr. Sharon deserves credit for the upcoming withdrawal of Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip. The disengagement promises to be emotionally gut-wrenching, pitting young Israeli soldiers against Zionist settlers who believe that God gave them the land from which they’re about to be evacuated. But building new settlements is the wrong way to ease that political pressure.

Israel can’t simply exchange Gaza for more settlements in the West Bank. There is no realistic substitute for a negotiated resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and such a pact will never happen without Israeli withdrawal of most of its settlements. That’s withdrawal, not expansion.

The Maale Adumim expansion is also a slap in the face of the new Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Abbas, at his own political peril, has gone further in three months toward making peace with Israel than Yasir Arafat ever did.

But the Palestinian people must have confidence that their new leader can eventually get them a fair deal; that their growing willingness to lay down their arms will one day win for them an independent Palestine with enough land in the West Bank and Gaza to make a viable country. How is Mr. Abbas supposed to make that case when Mr. Sharon is building more settlements?

President Bush has done an admirable job since the death of Mr. Arafat in applying the right amount of carrots to encourage the Palestinians to start acting as if they’re interested in a real peace deal. Yesterday Adam Ereli, the State Department’s deputy spokesman, said: “U.S. policy on this issue is very clear. There needs to be an end to settlement activity.”

Mr. Bush may need to make sure he personally delivers that message, with some tough love if need be, to Mr. Sharon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/23/opinion/23wed1.html

Photo of Teddy Katz representing the Gush Shalom views in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
http://www.geocities.com/toi_billboard/TeddyKatz_Halifax.jpg

The “Billboard for Israeli peace activist speakers abroad” can help you get an invitation to/find an Israeli peace activist speaker for visiting even at unlikely destinations

Send your ad and find the right contacts
http://www.geocities.com/keller_adam/TheOtherIsrael_speakers.html

TOI-Billboard current issue: http://www.geocities.com/toi_billboard/index.htm

TOI-Billboard archive: http://archives.zinester.com/93796

TOI-Billboard is the ’ezine’ of the independent THE OTHER ISRAEL bi-monthly peace
newsletter, existing since 1983, and published by its editors Adam Keller & Beate
Zilversmidt.

Selected articles The Other Israel latest printed issue on site:
http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/

One time free sample via: otherisr@actcom.co.il, US addresses via: aicipp@igc.org

Visit also the archive of issues since 1994 - and scanned earlier ones of the first ten
years (still under construction) http://israelipalestinianpeace.org

If you got this forwarded and want to subscribe mailto:otherisr@actcom.co.il,
also for being removed from the list - or use (un)subscribe links at the bottom

THE OTHER ISRAEL pob 2542, Holon 58125, Israel
ph/fx: +972-3-5565804 - otherisr@actcom.co.il

“Justice will be measured here”

Rubriques

Also in this section