Although Lieberman declared he would reactivate Israeli foreign policy in certain African states, past experience has shown that the Defense Ministry and arms manufacturers’ lobby have hijacked Israeli foreign policy in recent decades and subordinated it to their needs, Israeli sources said. No deals were signed on this trip. But Foreign Ministry officials estimate Africa’s business potential at some $1 billion, in addition to the $3 billion of merchandise and services Israel currently exports to the continent.
September 2009
Since early August, when two families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem were forcibly evicted from their homes, Muhammad Sabagh has had little sleep. The 61-year-old retired plumber fears that he, his five brothers and their wives and children may soon also find themselves on the street.
The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Heritage and Waqf claimed that the Israel Antiquities Authority, in cooperation with the “Elad” settler organization has already dug a 120 meter long, 1.5 meter wide tunnel from underneath Jerusalem’s Palestinian Silwan neighborhood toward the mosque.
“My commanders on the ground, my company commander, battalion commander, and brigade commander backed me up, and I did what I was taught by my superiors,” Malul added… “[T]he GOC knows what’s going on but chooses to stay in his ivory tower and keep his face clean.”
IOA Editor: Obviously, the junior officer is correct on this. By treating this case as a violation of internal IDF rules, and an exception to the usual practices, the IDF and its high-ranking officers seek to protect themselves from accusations of human rights violations, and from being charged for the acts they are personally responsible for by the International Court of Justice. As numerous findings by many international organizations have indicated, Israel routinely abuses and tortures Palestinian prisoners. As the officer pointed out, in his own defense, this is a charade.
The IDF General Command is made up of professional officers who made their way up the ranks, starting at low level field positions. The Occupation is now 42 years old, and almost nine years passed since the start of the Second Intifada, which saw a dramatic increase of IDF violence against Palestinians. Therefore, all current top IDF officers must be thoroughly familiar with the realities of the Occupation, where the slapping of a detainee – in violation of international law – is probably the least of the evils that take place daily.
Also interesting is the accused officer’s comment “The IDF is dealing with shit, and someone needs to get his hands dirty…” This follows closely a recent comment made by Deputy PM Ya’alon “when I was chief of staff, I told several closed forums that any time politicians bring forth the dove of peace, its up to the army to clean up after them,” reported earlier on the IOA website. Ya’alon, and the rest of the IDF machine are there to deal with ‘doves of peace’ as they know best: with abuse and torture.
Three days after the U.S. administration criticized the decision of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to authorize the construction of hundreds of new housing units in settlements, the Israel Lands Administration published tenders for the construction of 486 apartments in the neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev in East Jerusalem. The new construction project is designated for the outer edge of the northeastern municipal boundary of Jerusalem, and will narrow the distance between the homes on the edge of the neighborhood and the nearby Palestinian communities.
The vast majority of the Palestinians killed in Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip last winter were innocent civilians rather than combatants, according to a new report to be published by the B’Tselem organization Wednesday morning. This is the opposite of what the Israel Defense Forces has said.
The question is not why Norway divested from the defense electronics giant Elbit Systems, but why only now, and why only from that company? [There are] over 40 Israeli and international companies that are involved in solidifying Israel’s occupation, and in which Norway invests, according to data from the “Who Profits” project, run by the Coalition of Women for Peace.
Two cases brought before Israeli courts last week revealed the attitude of the establishment towards Palestinian Arab citizens of the state. One shows how Palestinian citizens are treated as victims of police brutality, and the second shows how they are regularly victimised because of their opposition to injustice.
Abed Abdi was born in Haifa in 1942. He belongs to the generation of post 1948 pioneering visual artists. He held his first exhibit in Tel Aviv in 1962, and graduated from the Dresden fine arts academy in 1972, where he studied graphics and mural painting, and obtained the second prize. After his graduation he […]
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s planned visit to Israel has been left in doubt after Jerusalem warned that he would not be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip from Israeli territory.
IOA Editor: It’s us or them. Remember, We’re-Always-Right. Even after international organizations pointed to Israel’s international law violations, Israel maintains a position of totalitarian self-righteousness, as if the truth could be concealed by preventing a Gaza visit.
Thus the absurdity: In Beitar Ilit, which will stay under Israeli control, construction will cease. But in Mitzpeh Yitzhar and the agricultural lands nearby, business will go on as usual, even though the settlers’ success there will mean a death blow to the two-state solution… The Americans will know what is happening; they don’t miss much between the satellites and CNN. What they do miss will be filled in by Peace Now and its associate organizations.
IOA Editor: “The Americans” will surely know, but will they really care enough to do something about it? Doubtful. Why now?
Of all of the crises that afflict us, the growing democratic deficit may be the most severe. Unless it is reversed, [Arundhati] Roy’s forecast may prove accurate. The conversion of democracy to a performance with the public as mere spectators-hardly a distant possibility-might have truly dire consequences.
National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau on Monday lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan for a partial construction freeze in the West Bank, deeming the Palestinians “occupiers” and declaring any bounds on settlements a “violation of human rights.”
We found a growing sense of concern and despair among those who observe, as we did, that settlement expansion is continuing apace, rapidly encroaching into Palestinian villages, hilltops, grazing lands, farming areas and olive groves. There are more than 200 of these settlements in the West Bank.
Jane Fonda, Danny Glover and Eve Ensler have joined the growing list of artists who are boycotting the Toronto film festival over a program honoring Tel Aviv’s 100th anniversary, gossip blogger Perez Hilton reported on Friday. The three have added their names to a letter aimed at festival officials claiming that Tel Aviv was built on violence, ignoring the “suffering of thousands of former residents and descendants,” Hilton reported.
Some 200 Palestinians infiltrated and attacked a settlement outpost in the northern West Bank on Friday morning, according to eyewitnesses. The witnesses said that Palestinians from a neighboring village entered a hilltop community near the Nofe Yarden outpost in the Shiloh bloc, armed with hoes and axes.
IOA Editor: Levinson is the Haaretz settlement reporter. Clearly, his writing is Israel-centric. In this report, he neglects to mention that the Palestinians “infiltrated” an illegal compound of outsiders who invaded their land, and whose presence in the Occupied Territories is illegal and in violation of international law.
The “Shock Vehicle” is outfitted with new systems to deal with disorder. In addition, it can remove obstacles weighing half a ton. As of next month, it will be put to use in all IDF West Bank units.
IOA Editor: The latest toy in the IDF killing arsenal is touted as increasing security to both Occupation soldiers and demonstrators. The IDF PR team didn’t mention the recent deaths and grave injuries of anti-Occupation demonstrators targeted by soldiers using gas canister launchers. The “Shock Vehicle” will undoubtedly help soldiers improve their aim when launching gas canisters.
Israel is known throughout the world as a center for innovation and technology, particularly in Aerospace and Defense. Israel is a global leader in the development and manufacture of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as well as a broad range of systems and technologies used in these unique aircraft.
IOA Editor: Israel’s leading export, by far, is weapons and advanced military systems which it markets and sells all over the world, from the US to the worst third world dictatorships.
It is unfortunate that the good people of Ohio – the City of Dayton and Montgomery County – are collaborating with such profoundly immoral business ventures. We hope the BDS campaign will soon become aware of this new development.
A day after mounting a scare-tactic campaign to prevent the assimilation of Diaspora Jews, the Prime Minister’s Office and Jewish Agency received some 200 calls, most of them reporting names of Jews living abroad. However, many callers also blasted the campaign – which describes assimilation as a “strategic national threat.”
IOA Editor: What’s next? An IDF rescue mission to forcibly airlift strayed Jews to Jewish re-education camps in the Negev?
Q: Some Israelis criticize you for writing the same kinds of stories about abuses over and over again.
A: That’s right. They don’t ask why the abuses continue to happen, they ask why I continue to write about them.
The Norwegian government has decided to pull all of its investments from Israeli arms firm Elbit as a result of it involvement in the construction of the West Bank separation fence, the Norwegian Finance Minister announced on Thursday… Norway’s pension fund is invested in 41 different Israeli companies… A research project by the Coalition of Women for Peace called “Who profits from the occupation?” found that almost two thirds of those firms are involved in West Bank construction and development.
Ben Gurion University students’ democracy lesson following the Neve Gordon Los Angeles Times article and reactions: “we are taught history, but we are forbidden to learn from it. In gender studies, we are taught to identify violent discourse, but we are expected to go on speaking the routine and familiar militaristic language. We are taught to be social workers, but not to identify with exploited cleaning workers. Learning is allowed, but not drawing practical conclusions – especially not in a newspaper, in English, with a large circulation.”
An organization that works to strengthen ties between Israel and Diaspora Jews Wednesday launched a scare-tactic campaign that urges Israelis to combat assimilation in North America by working to prevent the “loss” of their own Jewish acquaintances there.
From the most senior military judge down to the lowest private at a checkpoint, hundreds of thousands of perfectly normal Israelis who are not violent at home are partners in the mission of administering, demarcating, restricting and taming the other society while cumulatively damaging its rights, welfare and well-being. This is the norm that is not taken into account here in the statistics on violence and the violent.
Last year, NIS 577 was spent on each primary school student in the predominantly-Arab eastern section of the city, compared with NIS 2,372 for a student in the mainly-Jewish western part. In preschools, spending per student in West Jerusalem was 2.7 times that of East Jerusalem, and in special education 2.5 times.
The Israel Defense Forces has canceled a number of planned arrest operations in the West Bank fearing soldiers will be seen by American diplomats touring the territories.
