Very disturbing news (from Dorothy)

Dear All,

Below are 3 articles from todays’ Haaretz:

The first is Avraham Tals’ call to legislate a law that will ensure Israel a Jewish majority, the second about violence against Palestinians (which isn’t anything new, but this piece is worth reading to remind ourselves), and the third urges to impose sanctions.

A word about Avraham Tal’s call to deny Israeli citizens who are Palestinian to live in Israel with spouses from the OPTs.

He argues that Israel must deny Israeli Palestinians the right to live in Israel with Palestinian spouses from the territories, because an effective barrier should be erected to protect the state from being flooded by foreigners, especially Palestinians, who could threaten the state’s character as a national home for the Jewish people.

To this end he recommends that the Knesset legislate a law stating that the existence of the national home for the Jewish people in the land of Israel and the preservation of the Jewish majority in it are a basic principle.

Apart from the gross inaccuracy of Palestinians being foreigners, it is worth reminding Tal that very similar arguments were used against Jews in 1935 in the infamous Nuremberg Laws. Tal wants Israel to remain Jewish, the Nazis wanted Germany to remain pure Aryan. In both cases demography is at the core, denying citizenship on the basis of race/ethnicity.

Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor?
September 15, 1935
http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob14.html
Firm in the knowledge that the purity of German blood is the basis for the survival of the German people and inspired by the unshakeable determination to safeguard the future of the German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously resolved upon the following law, which is promulgated herewith:
Section 1
Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or some related blood are forbidden.
Such marriages contracted despite the law are invalid, even if they take place abroad in order to avoid the law.
Section 2
Sexual relations outside marriage between Jews and citizens of German or related blood are forbidden.
. . .
And then two months later, the First Supplementary Decree of November 14, 1935 denied Jews citizenship.

ARTICLE 4.
(1) A Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich.? He cannot exercise the right to vote; he cannot hold public office.
? (2) Jewish officials will be retired as of December 31, 1935.What ensued from these laws we all know. This should remind us that when demography is the guiding criterion of a state, there are no limits to what a country might do to maintain its ethnographic/religious/racial majority.

Dorothy
============================

Haaretz Friday, May 26, 2006

Last update-?09:51 26/05/2006
The High Court shouldn’t decide
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/719978.html

Hebrew: http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?contrassID=2&subContrassID=3&sbSubContrassID=0&itemNo=720023
By Avraham Tal

If the Knesset extends the amendment to the Law of Citizenship, which prevents the unification of families of Palestinians from the territories with Arab-Israeli citizens, the law will be struck down by the High Court. This “threat” was implied in a letter from Supreme Court President Aharon Barak to a Yale University colleague (Haaretz, May 18). It was written after the High Court decided by a six to five majority (Barak was among the five) to reject appeals to cancel the amendment.

An analysis of the justices’ reasoning indicates that this “threat” may have some basis: The minority that believed the amendment infringed on the legal right to married life, in general or beyond what is considered reasonable, could easily become a majority, in the same composition and definitely in another composition. At least one of the justices joined the majority only because the amendment was due to expire shortly.

At issue was the question of whether security considerations justify the barring of family unification, which is most often sought as a result of marital migration. For years, the defense establishment has tried to prove that terrorists have infiltrated Israel and perpetrated attacks (or would have, had they not been apprehended in time) under the guise of marriages between Arab-Israeli citizens and residents of the territories. But the number of such incidents that have been exposed was not that large (dozens) and the argument was always made that the solution really lies in individual prevention - uncovering actual terrorists and thwarting their plans. The supposed security need was repeatedly attacked, and the justices’ arguments in the High Court decision indicate that relying on this argument alone will not be sufficient to prevent marital migration from the territories to Israel.

But halting marital migration from the territories is necessary not only for security reasons. True, when the demographic argument is made in this context, some tend to hear in it a “racist” undercurrent, but it would be a big mistake to ignore it. This should be stated openly: An effective barrier should be erected to protect the state from being flooded by foreigners, especially Palestinians, who could threaten the state’s character as a national home for the Jewish people. Arab citizens of the state are already seeking to transform the country into “a state of all its citizens”; the next stage is a bi-national state (which some Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, already support), that will undergo a rapid Palestinization as a result of demographic factors: immigration and different reproductive rates.

The Palestinians needn’t be accused of a plot to eliminate the State of Israel by means of demography (though hopes that are pinned on the “right of return” and the “womb of the Arab woman” are heard from time to time) because there are other factors. First and foremost is the economic motive: The differences in the standard of living and quality of life between the territories and Israel are vast, and will remain unchanged or even grow in the future. The stream of illegal immigrants from North and East Africa into southern Europe illustrates what such differences can foment in terms of population movement.

And recently, a new factor has been added: With the rise of Hamas to power in the territories, Islam-inspired prohibitions have been instated in some West Bank and Gaza localities, regarding various aspects of daily life, such as women’s dress, entertainment, the consumption of alcoholic beverages and more. This is only the beginning - the imposition of a full Islamic regime may follow. Many young people in the territories, who have grown accustomed to a free lifestyle that is influenced by Israel and by the West in general, will have difficulty adjusting, and may view immigration to Israel - with the aim of being absorbed in a modern Arab society - as a refuge from a regime set on imposing the Shari’a (Islamic law).

There is an argument that says the number of potential and actual “marital immigrants” is small, measuring only in the thousands. According to some unverified statistics, since 1993, at most 21,300 requests for family unification have been submitted. But the decisions must be made not on the basis of the light trickle of applicants for family unification today, but on the premise that in the future this trickle is likely to become a raging current - of tens or hundreds of thousands. When that happens, will the argument still be made that there are no grounds for “demographic panic”?

In order to avert the danger, the issue must be inoculated against High Court interference. The best way would be the legislation of a Basic Law that states that the existence of the national home for the Jewish people in the land of Israel and the preservation of the Jewish majority in it are a basic principle, according to which every future legal or administrative process will be examined. In addition, there ought to be an immigration law that imposes restrictions on immigration, in keeping with the spirit of the Rubinstein Committee’s recommendations. This committee derived its recommendations to a large extent from the recommendations that Western European countries imposed on immigration altogether, and on immigration from Islamic countries in particular. These include a prohibition against immigration from enemy states and regions of conflict, the obligation to swear allegiance to the state, requirements pertaining to age and basic economic conditions, and perhaps also an annual immigration quota.

This is something that ought to be, and can be, carried out in the eight months that Barak has “allotted” the government to deal with the issue.

Haaretz Friday, May 26, 2006

Last update-?01:10 07/05/2006
Why are you firing on us? We’re only workers!http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/712950.html

Hebrew:
By Ada Ushpiz

April 1st was a fateful day for Sabir al-Shatiya, 74 and Nasser Sabatin, 43. One hails from the village of Salem near the settlement of Eilon Moreh, the other from the village of Husan in the Bethlehem region. Both arrived unconscious at the end of the day to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, and were hospitalized for about a month alongside one another in the intensive care unit. This week they were transferred to the internal medicine ward.

Sabatin, who was shot in the leg by soldiers, is fighting for his life in isolation, after contracting an infection; his breathing is heavy, he looks lost, haunted, as though he is holding onto life with all his remaining strength. That same day he was moved to the ICU. Al-Shatiya, who arrived at the hospital with three broken vertebrae in his neck, four crushed ribs, a hole in his lungs and a broken hand and foot, is slowly recuperating. The respiration tubes in his throat make it difficult for him to speak, his look is glazed, he is drooling. For the first time since regaining consciousness he answers the questions of his son, Ala, as to who beat him. “Settlers,” he says, in something between a whisper and a gurgle, demonstrating with hand motions how he was beaten. How many? “Four,” he shows on his fingers, his exhausted expression becoming filled with fury. With what? “Stones, rifle butts, a stick,” he replies by nodding his head to the possibilities his son enumerates. Immediately afterwards his face falls. He urges his son to bring him soup.

Two Palestinians who almost paid with their lives while trying to work for their living. Al-Shatiya, the father of 11, went out as usual to work on his land. When his sons are not looking for work in Israel, they also work on the family lands, located about a kilometer from the Scali Farm outpost, which is planted on top of a hill and overlooks all the Palestinian fields at its foot. His wife had begged him that morning not to go out to the fields alone. “Who will do anything to an old man of 74?” he had replied.

A few weeks earlier, the hilltop hooligans had already harassed the farmers of Salem. Israeli volunteers who arrived there to help them not only drew their fire even more, but also brought Al-Shatiya’s story to the headlines. Nobody wrote about Sabatin, the father of five. Firing on “infiltrators” looking for work within the Green Line or in the settlements is apparently a matter of routine in the new situation created by the fence.

The soldier was ’alright’

“The soldier was not negligent, he was really alright in his behavior towards Nasser,” said Khaled Fanun, 22, who went that Shabbat with Nasser Sabatin and others to sneak out to work in the settlement of Elad on the other side of the fence. They were nine young men. Sabatin was the only older person among them. Maher Hassan Shakarna, 30, had heard about work in Elad from a friend from Yatta; the friend knew a Palestinian manpower contractor who worked in the settlement. After a week of work, he promised to bring him more workers, and organized the group of men from his village, Nahalin. Only Sabatin was from the neighboring village of Husan.

They left their village at 3 P.M. in a Palestinian truck headed for Dir Balut, which is near the fence, and hid in the shop of one of their acquaintances until nightfall. Only then did they set out on foot, on a winding path that crosses the village fields. Next to tangled olive trees along the road, piles of garbage were scattered, the remnants of building materials thrown on the village outskirts by the settlers or by Israeli garbage disposal companies. The veteran Maher Sahkara, who is familiar with every opening in the fence, led the group. A Palestinian laborer who had returned from Israel warned them that there were patrols near the fence that day. When they approached the fence they hid in the fields of sorghum and tried to keep track of the soldiers. They saw nobody. The darker it became, the less they saw.

They reached the fence. Maher knew of an opening with a radius of 50 cm. He went through first, and the others followed him one by one. Nasser Sabatin was the seventh. On the other side of the fence there was a trench, and behind it another “curly” fence. Maher Hamid Shakarna tripped in the trench into a hole that had been dug to drain the winter rains, and emitted a cry of pain. At that moment, Maher Hassan Shakarna, the leader, managed to skip over the “curly” fence and enter Israel. Firing was heard for a few minutes, and Maher Hassan fled. Two workers who did not manage to cross the first fence went back to Dir Balut. The rest were trapped in the trench.

Fadl Abdul Hamid, 28, dark-skinned, mustached, was the second to cross the fence and enter the trench. When he heard the volleys of gunfire, he crowded together with the others in the cesspool in the trench. “There was a lot of firing, apparently they wanted to hit as many as possible,” he said. He saw Khaled Fanun running in the trench like a rat, looking for refuge, and Nasser lift his hand and shout “Stop, we’re workers,” and suddenly fall. “I thought that was the end, halas,” he said.

Silence reigned, he said. Only Sabatin’s weeping was heard: “Mother, Father.” Two soldiers equipped with rifles with lamps approached the wounded man. Khaled who in the end lay down on the bottom of the trench, approached the bleeding Sabatin. “I began to shout to the soldiers: ’Why are you firing at us? We’re only workers,’ and the soldier said to me: ’Quiet, don’t talk.’” One of the soldiers shot into the trench and the second remained on the hill to cover him.

“He didn’t talk to us,” said Khaled in a quiet tone, describing the incident with obsessive detail. "He asked the other soldier for scissors, and cut Nasser’s pants and brought a rope and tied him by the foot on top, in order to stop the blood, and then he brought a small stick and threaded it through the knot, and turned it, but the blood didn’t stop. Nasser was fidgeting all the time and even banged his head on the floor because of the pain. I put my hand under his head and tried to calm him down. The soldier told me to tell the wounded Nasser to take a deep breath, and he kept asking the soldier on the hill if he had already called for help.

“When we saw how he was taking care of Nasser we relaxed a little, we took courage. After an hour, a military ambulance arrived. The soldiers got out and looked, but they didn’t do anything. Only after two hours did the white civilian ambulance arrive. Nasser was bleeding the entire time. At that moment a heavy downpour began, and Nasser was lying half naked on the floor. They gave him oxygen and I helped the soldiers lift him onto the stretcher.” Khaled asked to accompany Nasser. The soldiers refused. They told him they were taking him for treatment in Israel.

Meanwhile, Maher Hassan, whose leg was injured from the fall, was loaded onto a military ambulance, and his friends were told to join him. At the checkpoint at Kafr Qassam the workers were let off, and the ambulance continued with the wounded man and one of his friends to a hospital in Ramallah. At the checkpoint, about 60 illegal residents and infiltrators who had been caught during the night were sitting in the rain, and they were all loaded onto a military bus.

Another white night

The bus drove them to the police station on roads that were unfamiliar to them. In the end, they were asked to decide amongst themselves where they preferred to be let off, so they could return to their homes. They agreed on the Tapuah junction. At the Tapuah junction they crowded under the roof of an old bus station. Outside it was pouring. Some of the workers covered themselves with blankets they had brought with them for sleeping at their place of work. Some called for taxis. The men of Nahalin, which is relatively far, continued to Naalin in the Ramallah area. “I was trembling from the cold, it was actually then that I saw death, I preferred being injured to freezing from the cold,” said Khaled.

In Naalin they found refuge in a mosque. At daybreak the workers returned home by public transportation. Thus ended another routine white night for illegal residents who got caught.

The soldiers were very polite. They were only “carrying out the procedure for arresting a suspect, against infiltrators, and when the latter did not respond to their calls to stop, the force fired in the air in order to warn them,” said the Israel Defense Forces spokesman. “When they didn’t stop, the force fired a few shots towards the lower body of one of the infiltrators, and a hit was identified.” According to the IDF spokesman, a doctor arrived there after about half an hour, and about an hour and a half later, the wounded man was brought to a hospital. This contradicts the testimony of all the workers who were present at the incident.

Nasser Sabatin arrived at Beilinson Hospital unconscious, suffering from a dangerous loss of blood, after “remaining in the field for too long,” according to the hospital medical report. On the 14th day of his hospitalization, they amputated his leg. He is still not out of danger. It took four days for his family to discover where he had been taken. In the hospital admittance letter, the following details appear: family name, anonymous; first name, anonymous. Initial report: Firing at a Palestinian. The news of his injury reached his family by chance. Maher Hassan Shakarna, who had a hand injury, told his story to the passengers of the taxi that brought him back from Ramallah to Nahalin. A relative of Nasser Sabatin guessed immediately that it was Sabatin. Rumor had it that he had been sent to a hospital in Petah Tikva, and Riyad Sabatin, his nephew, tried his luck at Beilinson Hospital, but received a negative response. Only with the help of Machsom Watch (a voluntary group of Israeli women conducting daily observations at military checkpoints to monitor human rights abuses) did they discover that the anonymous Palestinian patient was Nasser Sabatin.

Sabir al-Shatiya, who is bruised from the beatings of the settlers, was found by his son, Tauri, a high school student, under an olive tree on his land. When he failed to come home, his wife, his daughter and his young son rushed to search for him. Tauri and his neighbor found him as a result of observing vultures who were already circling around his bleeding body. He carried his unconscious father, who had murmured “they slaughtered me.” They carried him on the back of a donkey to the main road. His son, Ala, was at the Beit Furik junction at the time, trying to enter Israel. When he received the news by phone, he convinced the soldier at the checkpoint to send a white Israeli ambulance to drive his father to the Israeli hospital. The soldier responded very willingly, he said. Like Sabatin’s friends, Al-Shatiya’s family was relieved when their father was transferred for treatment in Israel.

In the afternoon, the members of the Sabatin and Al-Shatiya families were still nursing their very ill relatives, visiting one another in the adjacent hospital rooms. While they were still heaping praise on the devoted treatment of the hospital, Riyad Sabatin got a phone call from Nasser’s wife. “The soldier at the checkpoint won’t accept my permit, he is sending me to the civil administration in Beit El, what should I do?” she wailed. Riyad, flushed, angry and smiling at once, suggested that she return home.
==============
Haaretz Update Friday, May 26, 2006

Last update-?10:23 26/05/2006
Israeli group urges sanctions on B.A. program for Shin Bet
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/720003.html

Hebrew: http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtmlitemNo=720200&contrassID=2&subContrassID=21&sbSubContrassID=0
By Tamara Traubmann, Haaretz Correspondent

An Israeli group is planning to brief the British teachers’ association on a new Hebrew University program, approved last week, to grant undergraduate degrees to Shin Bet security services personnel. The Israeli initiative favors imposing sanctions on Israeli organizations that cooperate with the occupation in the territories.

The British National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) is to discuss a proposal Monday for an academic boycott of Israel.

The program, which will award a B.A. in Middle Eastern studies, was modified after it was first reported in Haaretz, and was lengthened from 16 to 24 months. Sixty percent is to be conducted on campus. The humanities faculty council last week approved the program by a large majority, but must still be vetted by the Council for Higher Education.

The members of the Israeli initiative to approach NATFHE, both Jews and Arabs, say they understand they will not garner great support in Israel but that they want to give moral support and information to organizations abroad regarding sanctions against supporters of the occupation in the territories.

Professor Moshe Zimmerman, a historian who was not present at the meeting, called his experience with such programs “very bitter.” He said that in another special program for the Israel Defense Forces command college, students missed one of his classes because they were serving at roadblocks. Zimmerman said at the time he would “prefer that if someone misses my class, it is because he is sitting in jail because he did not want to sit at a roadblock.”

The commander of the military college demanded that Zimmerman not continue to teach the course. When his demand was not met, the army pulled out of the course and the university offered another instead. “This shows that these are not purely academic programs,” Zimmerman said, but that the security institution can force the hand of the university, and by cooperating with the military, the university loses its academic freedom.

The Federation of Unions of Palestinian University Professors and Employees and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) have called on NATFHE to consider boycotting organizations and individuals in Israel who refuse to denounce the occupation.

In an open letter to NATFHE, the Palestinian professors association and PACBI said the initiative “comes at a time when the international community ... is incapable of delivering justice to the Palestinian people,” adding, “no Israeli academic body or institution has ever taken a public stand against the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.”