Updated: 2 Sept 2010
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Israeli Occupation Archive - www.israeli-occupation.org
An Archive Documenting Israel’s Military Occupation of Palestinian Lands

FEATURED NEWS STORIES

Two-thirds of Israelis support settlement building: poll

Thirty nine percent ... said they favour construction resuming in all the settlements from September 26, when a partial 10-month moratorium imposed by the Israeli government under US pressure expires. Another quarter said they thought construction should only restart in the larger settlement blocks and not in smaller, isolated settlements....

2 September 2010 / Read More

‘Facebook Arabs’ speak out

And what about the sexual assault?
"I caressed his leg? He's a liar. I would never touch him. On the contrary, I took the picture from a distance so as not to be close to them, because they stink. It's a simple as that..."
So, you didn't kiss him, you didn't touch his leg?
"They are ingrates and of course they wouldn't say that I gave them food. Of course they would slander me." ...

1 September 2010 / Read More

Haneen Zoabi: IDF boarded Gaza flotilla ships with intent to kill

Israeli Arab MK Hanin Zuabi testified before a UN panel probing Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May, telling the panel that commandos who boarded the ships intended to kill, [Israeli] Army Radio reported....

31 August 2010 / Read More

Netanyahu criticizes theater figures’ West Bank boycott

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized on Sunday the theater figures' boycott of a new theater in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, saying that the government doesn’t need to fund a group promoting a boycott of Israel from within....

29 August 2010 / Read More

53 Israeli theater figures vow not to perform in settlements

Fifty-three Israeli theater professionals, including performers, playwrights and directors, have signed a petition stating they would not appear in the West Bank settlement Ariel... Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat said Saturday that the actors' protest was a serious matter, and was causing a rift in Israeli society....

29 August 2010 / Read More

EU rebukes Israel over conviction of West Bank separation barrier protester

Lady Ashton:"The EU considers Abdallah Abu Rahmah to be a human rights defender committed to non-violent protest against the route of the Israeli separation barrier ... The EU considers the route of the barrier where it is built on Palestinian land to be illegal. The high representative is deeply concerned that the possible imprisonment of Mr Abu Rahmah is intended to prevent him and other Palestinians from exercising their legitimate right to protest against the existence of the separation barriers in a non-violent manner."...

25 August 2010 / Read More

A quest to coax Israel out of the nuclear closet

Avner Cohen: "International support for Israel and its opaque bomb is being eroded by its continued occupation of Palestinian territory and the policies that support it, such as settlement construction, house demolitions, and restrictions on the movement of Palestinians." Cohen fears Israel's insistence on ambiguity will leave Israel increasingly vulnerable to the charge that it is a nuclear-armed pariah state.

IOA Editor: It already is....

25 August 2010 / Read More

Vacationing Netanyahu can’t find time to meet IAEA chief

Netanyahu's decision to cancel his meeting with Amano raised eyebrows on Monday, particularly given the premier's fixation on Iran's nuclear program. The prime minister and his aides have also been working feverishly to minimize the effects of last May's Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference, which adopted a resolution calling for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons....

24 August 2010 / Read More

Israel tells schools not to teach Nakba

Government officials warned Israeli teachers last week not to cooperate with Zochrot, a civic group that seeks to educate Israelis about how the Palestinians view the loss of their homeland and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948....

24 August 2010 / Read More

Israeli army’s female recruits denounce treatment of Palestinians

It was a single word scrawled on a wall at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that unlocked something deep inside ... two years after she had completed compulsory military service in the IDF. The word was "occupation". "I really felt like someone was speaking the unspoken... It was really shocking to me. There was graffiti saying, 'end the occupation'. And I felt like, OK, now I can talk about what I saw."...

22 August 2010 / Read More

UN receives over 100 complaints of police, IDF abuse of West Bank teenagers this year

Since September 2009, Defence for Children International has given the UN details of more than 100 cases in which the military authorities allegedly abused minors who were held in detention....

22 August 2010 / Read More

Jerusalem train company asks passengers: ‘Do you mind traveling with Arabs?’

Among those surveyed ... was Ofra Ben-Artzi, a left-wing activist and the sister-in-law of Sara Netanyahu, wife of the prime minister. "I told the pollster, 'Imagine this kind of question being asked in London or New York.' It testifies to the level of racism we've reached," she said....

20 August 2010 / Read More

Descendants appeal to UN over latest Mamilla Cemetery demolitions

Yesterday, parties defending a 12th century Muslim burial ground in Jerusalem from disinterment and desecration provided new information on the latest demolitions by Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality to the United Nations and other international officials whom they initially petitioned on the matter in February 2010. The letter was sent by US academic Rashid I. Khalidi on behalf of the Campaign to Preserve Mamilla Jerusalem Cemetery....

18 August 2010 / Read More

Harvard insists Israeli shares sale not driven by boycott

Harvard University has insisted that the sale of shares in Israeli companies is not driven by pro-Palestinian boycott and divestment campaign.

ALSO
Globes (Updated): Harvard denies divestment from Israel
Foreign Policy: Harvard not divesting from Israel

IOA Editor: Harvard's sale of all its Israeli holdings will remain a bit of a mystery, at least for a while. The manner in which it was done - an entire country-portfolio, sold at once - during the second quarter of 2010 which, coincidentally or not, was also when the Berkeley BDS struggle culminated, suggests it may be more than just a matter of investment management.

If the Harvard Corporation wanted to avoid becoming embroiled in a BDS struggle connected to the Israeli Occupation - say, the next time Israel commits war crimes on sea or land - its best strategy would be to make a 'business decision' to pull out of Israel, quietly and without fanfare: not to make a principled, morally-based and publicly explained University policy decision, one that would be controversial and may cause some of Harvard's donors to put their money elsewhere. And this is exactly what it did. Only time will tell....

17 August 2010 / Read More

‘Facebook photos of soldiers posing with bound Palestinians are the norm’

Breaking the Silence: Facebook photos depicting Israel Defense Forces soldiers pictured alongside handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainees represent the norm, not the exception, in IDF conduct ... refuting an official army statement claiming the opposite....

17 August 2010 / Read More

Harvard University fund sells all Israel holdings

In another blow to Israeli shares, the Harvard Management Company notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday that it had sold all its holdings in Israeli companies during the second quarter of 2010. No reason for the sale was mentioned. The Harvard Management Company manages Harvard University's endowment.

IOA Editor:The Harvard Management Company -- a subsidiary of Harvard University charged with managing the university's endowment, pension assets, working capital, and non-cash gifts -- is best known for managing the university's $26 billion endowment, the largest endowment in US higher education. Historically, the HMC has been the leading university investment management company, receiving a great deal of attention from all other university funds.

This is probably the first reported university endowment divestment from all Israeli holdings. Coming from Harvard, it sets a very important precedent: it is likely to be reviewed, scrutinized, and possibly followed, by other universities. Because Harvard, or HMC, has yet to make a public statement on the decision, one can only assume that it took place as a preventive measure, to avoid becoming the "next Berkeley." ...

16 August 2010 / Read More

FEATURED COMMENTARIES

Nicolas Pelham: Hamas Back Out of Its Box

Nicolas Pelham: Hamas Back Out of Its Box

[A] strategy predicated on the belief that a few more humanitarian truckloads will make the problem of Gaza go away is as deeply flawed as the notion that Ramallah’s surfeit of new high-street cafés will be a sufficient sedative for the aspirants to a Palestinian state. Gaza is a political, not a humanitarian, problem....

2 Sep 2010 / Read More

Esther Zandberg: Architects out of Ariel

Esther Zandberg: Architects out of Ariel

The time has come for those planning the red-roofed facts on the ground to refuse to design any more buildings in the settlements....

2 Sep 2010 / Read More

Gideon Levy: A response to Pfc. [Aluf] Benn

Gideon Levy: A response to Pfc. [Aluf] Benn

The occupation did not turn us into lawless criminals, you write with a pure heart. Really? You handcuffed thousands of people for no reason, without trial, in humiliating conditions, causing them pain that made them scream, according to your testimony. Is this not a loss of humanity?

MORE by Gideon Levy
Puppet theater
"Arabs, get out"
Missing the forest...

2 Sep 2010 / Read More

Jonathan Cook: Bedouin land fight

Jonathan Cook: Bedouin land fight

Israeli historian Tom Segev: "Who does this country belong to?”
Should Mr al-Uqbi win his case, tens of thousands of Bedouin ... could be entitled to repossess their agricultural lands... Theoretically, it might also open the door to claims by millions of Palestinian refugees scattered across the Middle East.

MORE by Jonathan Cook
Israelis risk jail to smuggle Palestinians
Israel should not keep its history behind lock and key
Racist Universities?
The US arms ‘bonanza’ in Middle East
Negev village torn down for second time
Do drone attacks make life and death worth less?
Remote-Controlled Killing...

1 Sep 2010 / Read More

Diana Buttu: direct talks bound to fail

Diana Buttu: direct talks bound to fail

[I]t is not at all surprising that Mahmoud Abbas, speaking on behalf of Mahmoud Abbas, comes forward and declares that the PLO has accepted such talks when they haven't. And declares that the Palestinian people are welcoming such talks when they are not. And has the audacity to speak on behalf of Palestine and the Palestinians when he is neither elected nor legitimate any longer....

1 Sep 2010 / Read More

Neve Gordon: Struggling Over the Right to Struggle – An Assault on Israeli Academic Freedom and Liberal Values

Neve Gordon: Struggling Over the Right to Struggle – An Assault on Israeli Academic Freedom and Liberal Values

Israeli academe, which was once considered a bastion of free speech, has become the testing ground for the success of the assault on liberal values. And although it is still extremely difficult to hurt those who have managed to enter the academic gates, those who have not yet passed the threshold are clearly being monitored....

1 Sep 2010 / Read More

Assaf Kfoury: Will Israel Attack Lebanon? Will the US Allow It?

Assaf Kfoury: Will Israel Attack Lebanon? Will the US Allow It?

The thorniest problem for American and Israeli policy-makers when it comes to Lebanon is the same: how to deal with Hezbollah. While American policy is by necessity equivocal, as it tries to maintain whatever influence it has on Lebanon's affairs, Israeli policy is explicitly bellicose. But both are equally committed to weakening and ultimately eliminating Hezbollah's stubborn resistance to US-Israeli efforts at regional domination....

30 Aug 2010 / Read More

Lamis Adoni: ‘Bullied’ but not surrendering

Lamis Adoni: ‘Bullied’ but not surrendering

PLO official: "We are not afraid of the outcome of the talks. There is nothing Abu Mazan (Abbas) would or could accept. But going to the talks has undermined our battle to isolate Israel."...

30 Aug 2010 / Read More

David Gardner: A poisoned process holds little hope

David Gardner: A poisoned process holds little hope

Arab minister: "We have all been colluding in a gigantic confidence trick, and here we go again"...

[T]he heart of the question remains the continuing Israeli occupation. It is essential to remember that the biggest single increase of Jewish settlers on Arab land – a 50 per cent rise – took place in 1992-96 ... at the high-water mark of the Oslo peace accords....

27 Aug 2010 / Read More

Ran Greenstein: Israel/Palestine and the apartheid analogy – critics, apologists and strategic lessons

Ran Greenstein: Israel/Palestine and the apartheid analogy – critics, apologists and strategic lessons

"There is no doubt that the occupation is the biggest festering sore in Israeli-Palestinian relations. Futile negotiations over the last two decades have led to its intensification rather than mitigation. The only way forward is an ongoing campaign to put an end to it, without having anything to do with the diplomatic process or with the one-state, two-states, debate."

Is Israel an apartheid state? The notion of apartheid may be applicable in different ways to different components of the system. While Israel clearly is different from South African historical apartheid, in crucial respects it has affinities with apartheid in its generic sense.

Part II of a two-part essay. Read Part I HERE...

27 Aug 2010 / Read More

Chris Hedges: Formalizing Israel’s Land Grab

Chris Hedges: Formalizing Israel’s Land Grab

UN special rapporteur, Richard Falk: “[The Occupation] is presently a de facto annexation. The creation of a single state would give the arrangement a more legalistic cover. It would seek to resolve the issue of occupied territory without the bother of international negotiations... The effect is to fragment the Palestinian people in such defining ways as to make it almost impossible to envision the emergence of a viable Palestinian sovereign state... The longer it continues, the more difficult it is to overcome, and the more serious are the abridgements of fundamental Palestinian rights.”

MORE by Chris Hedges
The Tears of Gaza Must Be Our Tears
Why the Feds Fear Thinkers Like Howard Zinn
Betrayal: the Lies and Losses of War...

18 Aug 2010 / Read More

Norman Finkelstein: It Wasn’t a War

Norman Finkelstein: It Wasn’t a War

We have to be careful not to reduce everything to BDS; it’s one of several strands, but probably the least significant, in my opinion. It may acquire more significance, but I think the major fronts right now are the international law and the nonviolent civil resistance.

MORE by Norman Finkelstein
‘God Helps Those Who Help Themselves’
GRITtv interview: Results, Not Rhetoric...

7 Aug 2010 / Read More

Exclusive IOA Interview with Noam Chomsky: Israel’s War against Palestine – Now What?

Exclusive IOA Interview with Noam Chomsky: Israel’s War against Palestine – Now What?

It is not our right or responsibility to lecture the Palestinian leadership on what they should do. That is up to the Palestinians to decide. But it is very definitely our responsibility to focus attention on what we should be doing. Of prime importance is to educate and organize the American public and to develop popular forces that can overcome the dominant propaganda images that sustain the US policies that have been undermining Palestinian rights.

IOA Editor: And much more from Noam Chomsky on the US and Israeli dynamics of the Occupation, and on approaches available to the anti-Occupation movement, including detailed comments on BDS.

MORE by Noam Chomsky
The Iranian Threat
City Magazine (Tel Aviv) Interview
Obama's Imperialist Policies
The Real Threat Aboard the Freedom Flotilla...

30 Jul 2010 / Read More

IOA Editor's Last Word


As regular readers already know, the IOA does not advocate a specific solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (e.g., one-State vs. two-State) or endorse a particular Palestinian group or viewpoint. Rather, from its inception, the IOA's focal point has been a steadfast opposition to the Israeli Occupation and support for an equitable solution for all Palestinians - a basic right of an oppressed people to self-determination.

Thank you for your support,
The IOA Team
Israeli Occupation Archive - www.israeli-occupation.org
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Noam Chomsky - Israeli Occupation Archive - www.israeli-occupation.org

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The IOA Advisory Board:
  • Bashir Abu-Manneh
  • Mustafa Barghouthi
  • Anat Biletzki
  • Noam Chomsky
  • Irene Gendzier
  • Assaf Kfoury
  • Rashid Khalidi
  • Stephen R. Shalom
  • Salim Tamari
  • Howard Zinn*
MORE on the Board
IOA in the Press
THIS TIME WE WENT TOO FAR -
Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion, by
Norman G. Finkelstein

MIDNIGHT ON THE MAVI MARMARA, edited by Moustafa Bayoumi

Veritas Handbook: CLICK FOR FREE DOWNLOAD

Ta'ayush - Arab-Jewish Partnership


Gaza Freedom March


Gaza: Lift the Blockade!

Free Gaza Movement

the Nakba at 61

al-QUDS 2009

Just Foreign Policy Iraqi Death Estimator

Data / Polls

Boycott / Protest / Resistance

Bil’in’s Abdallah Abu Rahmah Cleared of Stone-Throwing; Convicted of Incitement

Bil’in’s Abdallah Abu Rahmah Cleared of Stone-Throwing; Convicted of Incitement

Non-violent protest organizer Abdallah Abu Rhamah from Bil'in was convicted of incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations today, after an eight months long military trial, during which he was kept behind bars. He was acquitted of a stone-throwing charge and a vindictive arms-possession charge....

24 Aug 2010 / Read More

Tel Aviv University and Sheikh Muwanis: Israel and Palestine

Tel Aviv University and Sheikh Muwanis: Israel and Palestine

Tel Aviv University was partially built on the lands of the Palestinian village of Sheikh Muwanis... Zochrot, an organization that encourages the Israeli state and its institutions to recognize the moral debt for the injustices caused to the Palestinian people during the establishment of the state of Israel, has started a campaign requesting that Tel Aviv University acknowledge the history of Sheikh Muwanis.

PLEASE HELP this effort by sending a letter to Tel Aviv University President Itamar Rabinowich....

18 Aug 2010 / Read More

IMEU: FAQ on Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)

IMEU: FAQ on Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)

A primer on BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions), its history, participants, and recent successes.

IOA Editor: An Appeal from April 2001, which predates by several years actions covered in the summary presented here by IMEU, can be found on the Matzpun website. A co-author of the Matzpun Appeal reports that, to the best of his knowledge, it was the first call for boycott of Israeli products and tourism, covering both Israel and the occupied territories. At the time, the initiative was very isolated, not receiving support from organizations that now support BDS....

14 Aug 2010 / Read More

Veritas Handbook: a new guide puts Palestine history, debates in activists’ hands

Veritas Handbook: a new guide puts Palestine history, debates in activists’ hands

For 62 years, the Palestinian people have been misunderstood and oppressed, and in a small way, we hope to change that. It is in the spirit of justice that we found the inspiration to compile The Veritas Handbook.
FREE DOWNLOAD OF THE VERITAS HANDBOOK...

12 Aug 2010 / Read More

Palestinian women smuggled into Tel Aviv for day of fun

Palestinian women smuggled into Tel Aviv for day of fun

A group of Israeli women smuggled 12 Palestinian woman and four children, among them a year-old baby, into Tel Aviv for a day of fun about two weeks ago. The women, among them writers Ilana Hammerman and Klil Zisapel, picked up the women from their villages, following two earlier meetings with them.

RELATED: Israeli and Palestinian Women Find New Way to Challenge The Occupation...

11 Aug 2010 / Read More

Midnight on the Mavi Marmara (new book)

Midnight on the Mavi Marmara (new book)

Henning Mankell, aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla: "We have been attacked while in international waters. That means the Israelis have behaved like pirates … The moment they start to steer this ship towards Israel, we have also been kidnapped. The whole action is illegal."...

9 Aug 2010 / Read More

Palestinians rally against Gaza buffer zone

Palestinians rally against Gaza buffer zone

The Popular Resistance Campaign marched toward Israel's no-go zone Monday in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, in protest over land confiscation and prohibited access to farm land....

9 Aug 2010 / Read More

Emily Henochowicz’s Democracy Now! Interview (video)

Emily Henochowicz’s Democracy Now! Interview   (video)

Emily Henochowicz, the very talented art student who lost her eye after being shot by Israeli tear gas canister in a West Bank protest, discusses her life, art, and why she plans to return.

ALSO -- Mondoweiss: ‘Democracy Now’ and ‘Village Voice’ grant Henochowicz sympathy the ‘Times’ begrudged her...

5 Aug 2010 / Read More

Lynn Gottlieb: Why I support the Olympia Co-op boycott

Lynn Gottlieb: Why I support the Olympia Co-op boycott

Boycott is the primary tool of those engaged in nonviolent resistance to systematic injustice. Boycott targets unjust policies. It is not about 'the right to exist'; Everyone has the right to 'exist'... Israel inside the green line is the agency of occupation and [it] conducts, plans, prepares and executes aspects of the occupation from inside the green line....

4 Aug 2010 / Read More

Blair’s undisclosed business dealings conflict with Quartet role

Blair’s undisclosed business dealings conflict with Quartet role

Tony Blair's term as envoy of the Quartet (US, UK, Russia, UN) has been marked by many photo opportunities but few, if any, accomplishments. Indeed, research shows that Blair's relationship with one of the world's richest men poses a clear and significant conflict of interest with his duties as Quartet envoy....

3 Aug 2010 / Read More

Groups urge Clinton to intervene in case of jailed rights defender

Groups urge Clinton to intervene in case of jailed rights defender

Amnesty International: "Ameer Makhoul is a key human rights defender, well-known for his civil society activism on behalf of the Palestinian citizens of Israel" and "his arrest and continued detention smacks of pure harassment, designed to hinder his human rights work."...

2 Aug 2010 / Read More

Dry and Thirsty Land

A dry and thirsty land

A dry and thirsty land

IOA Editor: Very important coverage of Israeli policies intended to make life impossible for Palestinians in the West Bank - a key part of the greater offensive on the future of...

Aug 18, 2009 / More

Area-E1

New West Bank roads jeopardizing chances for peace accord

New West Bank roads jeopardizing chances for peace accord

[T]he area known as E1, linking the settlement to East Jerusalem... is the only area that [candidate] Netanyahu explicitly committed to developing... His political rival... Ehud Barak also publicly expressed support for building...

May 14, 2009 / More

Settlement Database

Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement

Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement

Just four years ago, the defense establishment decided to carry out a seemingly elementary task: establish a comprehensive database on the settlements......

Jan 30, 2009 / More

Gaza Q & A

Stephen R. Shalom: Question and Answer on Gaza

Stephen R. Shalom: Question and Answer on Gaza

On December 27, 2008, Israel launched its brutal assault on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead. Here are many of the most frequently-asked questions and answers, and information sources....

Jan 16, 2009 / More

IDF Hate Culture

Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques – IDF fashion 2009

Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques – IDF fashion 2009

Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children's graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques - these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days...

Mar 21, 2009 / More

Peace Doesn't Pay

Amira Hass: Israel knows that peace just doesn’t pay

Amira Hass: Israel knows that peace just doesn’t pay

Successive Israeli governments since 1993 certainly must have known what they were doing, being in no hurry to make peace with the Palestinians. As representatives of Israeli society, these governments understood that peace...

May 11, 2009 / More

Ryuichi Hirokawa

Photographer Ryuichi Hirokawa’s best shot

Photographer Ryuichi Hirokawa’s best shot

I took this in 2002, at Al-Ram checkpoint on the West Bank. All the checkpoints had been closed by Israeli troops and these women were demonstrating to have them opened, so that food...

Apr 30, 2009 / More

Latroun Villages

Imwas: occupied and destroyed by Israel in 1967

Imwas: occupied and destroyed by Israel in 1967

The village of Imwas (عِمواس) was one of three villages in the Latroun area (Palestine's District of al-Ramla) that were occupied by the IDF in June 1967, during Israel's military conquest of the...

Jul 16, 2009 / More

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