Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine

Israel and Palestine

• Last week, an Israeli settler family was brutally killed in the illegal West Bank settlement of Itamar. In response, Netanyahu vowed to build hundreds more illegal homes for settlers, a twisted logic of ‘punishment’ criticised by a Haaretz editorial. Melanie Phillips, meanwhile, saw fit to generalise about Arabs as ‘savages’ and bizarrely concluded that illegal settlements are built ‘on land to which [Israel] is legally and morally entitled’. Her comments are now being investigated by the Press Complaints Commission.
• Potential Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin is visiting Israel and Occupied East Jerusalem, and will meet with PM Netanyahu and Likud MK Danny Danon on Monday. Palin is renowned for her foreign policy expertise regarding US relationships with North Korea and Russia, and has previously said that: “I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.”
• A cargo ship bound for Egypt allegedly carrying arms for militant groups in the Gaza Strip has been seized by Israeli commandos.
• Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas says he is ready to travel to Gaza to try and end the division between his Fatah party and the Islamist movement Hamas.
• A Knesset committee has been scheduled to debate on whether the ‘pro-Israel, pro-peace’ US lobbying group J Street is sufficiently ‘committed’ to Israel to be called a pro-Israel organization.

Perspectives on the Conflict

• The Council for Arab British Understanding has produced a report, ‘Under Occupation: A Report on the West Bank’, based on the findings of its APPG (all party parliamentary group) delegation to the region. Its main findings are:
  - The mass arrest and ill treatment of children has to end
  - The construction of settlements and the barrier outside of the green line must stop immediately
  - Israel’s policies towards Jerusalem should be reversed
  - Vulnerable communities in Area C require greater international protection
  - The European Union should take a more active and assertive role
  - A proper framework for negotiations needs to be developed
  - Palestinian municipal, presidential and legislative elections should be held
  - Human rights and political opposition have to be respected across the OPT
  You can read the report in full here.
• ASA adjudication on ‘Travel Palestine’ advert: two of the three charges were not upheld. The third was only upheld as ‘misleading’ because the Israeli state refuses to uphold international law on the status of Jerusalem, and thus Jerusalem cannot be ‘universally’ recognised as of Palestinian heritage, as the advert had implied. Colonisation is indeed a powerful narrative, then, but the result was perhaps not the whitewash the pro-Israeli lobby were hoping for. Full details on the ruling and its reasoning are here.
• Confused about David Cameron’s varying statements on Israel? As an Economist article says, ‘there could almost be two David Camerons’. The explanation, it argues, ‘might lie in the complex triangular choreography of Anglo-American-Israeli diplomacy’. The article doesn’t completely ‘solve’ the puzzle it sets itself, but is worth reading in full here.

• According to Middle East Monitor/ICM’s recent poll, Europeans believe Jerusalem should be a neutral, international city, as opposed to being a national capital for either the Israelis or the Palestinians. MEMO’s website has more details of the poll, carried out across six European countries, here.

And finally…

An LDFP member is working for EAAPI in the West Bank; you can see her excellent photoblog here.

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Israel and Palestine

• According to a report from 21 international organisations, Gaza’s 1.5 million people are still suffering from a shortage of construction materials, a ban on exports and severe restrictions on movement six months after Israel agreed to ease its blockade on the territory.
• Amnesty International describes the UJ parliamentary legislation as ‘dangerous and unnecessary’. Director Kate Allen said: “the UK will have undermined the fight for international justice and handed war criminals a free ticket to escape the law.”
• Brazil’s outgoing President, Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva, officially acknowledged Palestinian sovereignty over territory occupied by Israel since 1967. More than 100 states have recognised Palestinian statehood; Brazil is the last of the ‘BRIC’ powers to do so.
• Fires in Carmel: Israeli and other firefighters have succeeded in overcoming the worst fire disaster the country has known. The fires killed 41 people and caused NIS 250 million in damage. Read more here.
• Israel has instructed its embassies in 10 European countries, including the UK, each to recruit 1,000 members of the public to act as advocates for its policies in a new public relations offensive.
• Wikileaks: The Jerusalem Fund have compiled at ‘Top 10 Wikileaks Palestine Nuggets’.
• Yvette Cooper calls for Israeli Settler labelling on food imports.

In Parliament: Government Written Answers, Lords

• On Israel as de facto occupying power of Gaza: “Although there is no permanent physical Israeli presence in Gaza, given the significant control that Israel has over Gaza’s borders, airspace and territorial waters, the UK judges that Israel retains obligations under the fourth Geneva Convention as an occupying power.”
• On the proposed settlement re-freeze: “A renewal of the earlier freeze, which excluded east Jerusalem, could be a helpful step forward enabling the continuation of direct talks, which are necessary to secure peace.”
• On Palestinian Authority textbooks: “We take seriously any reports of text-books being used to promote anti-Semitism. We also recognise this is a controversial area. However, recent independent studies have shown that the Palestinian Authority has made real improvements to its text-books over the last decade and found no evidence of anti-Semitism. But at least one study has shown that both Israeli and Palestinian text-books could do better and teach something positive about the other side. We support that message.”
• On Israeli checkpoints: “We agree that Israel’s system of check points and the processes for moving through them are confusing and frustrating. This applies both to check points between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and to check points within the West Bank, which seriously impede freedom of movement for Palestinians. We are also concerned at the way check points are used to change facts on the ground.”
• On East Jerusalem and Gaza: “My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary made it clear during his recent visit to the region that we want to see an end to all settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This includes East Jerusalem. My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary also discussed the situation in Gaza with Prime Minister Netanyahu, underlining that we welcome the steps that Israel has taken thus far to improve access but believe that further measures are needed.”

Government Written Answers, Commons

• On Israel’s illegal ‘security fence’: “There are no reliable statistics on the effectiveness of Israel’s security barrier, which was commissioned following the 2nd intifada of 2000. Although we believe Israel has every right to defend itself, we believe that barriers are not the best way to achieve this in the 21st century. Where it is constructed outside of Green Line Israel, the Israeli separation barrier is illegal both according to international and Israeli law. It is worth noting that the barrier on some 40% of the intended route remains unbuilt. We judge that Prime Minister Fayyad’s reform of the Palestinian security sector has played the most significant part in reducing the violence committed by Palestinian groups against targets in Israel. The best way of ensuring Israel’s security is to come to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace agreement with its neighbours.”
• On UK Aid for Palestinians: “UK bilateral aid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) reported in Statistics on International Development 2010 totalled £57.6 million in 2009-10, £41.3 million in 2008-09 and £45 million in 2007-08.
• On smuggling arms into Gaza: “… weapons continue to be smuggled into Gaza, which is a cause of great concern. We continue to work with the international community to support all efforts to implement the steps set out in UNSCR 1860… including the prevention and interdiction of illicitly trafficked arms into Gaza and the alleviation of the humanitarian and economic situation.”

Parliamentary Debates

• Human Rights Debate in the Lords:
  Conservative Baroness Morris of Bolton (Chairman of CMEC) spoke of her recent visit to Gaza, and more specifically – about the lack of spare parts in hospitals, the issue of food distribution, and the future of Gaza’s children. Lord Wright of Richmond (Crossbench) discussed ‘the appalling abuse of the human rights of Palestinians in Gaza, in the occupied West Bank and in east Jerusalem.’
• PMQ in the Commons:
  Grahame Morris MP (Labour; probably no relation) reported seeing ‘13-year-old Palestinian children in leg irons and manacles in Israeli military prisons’ as ‘one of numerous breaches of the UN charter and of article 49 of the fourth Geneva convention’ on a recent visit to Israel and the West Bank.
• PM David Cameron responded: ‘Every country should obey the Geneva convention and the other conventions that it has signed, and Israel should be no exception to that… It is very important that we put pressure on both sides at all times to ensure that we make progress. The lack of progress only plays into the hands of the extremists, and we can see that all the moderates in the Middle East who are trying to make progress are being undermined by our failure to do better.’

Also:

• Palestine Legal Aid Fund is having a Fundraiser for Palestine on the evening of Thursday 9^th December, at Old Finsbury Town Hall in London – take a look.
• Test your knowledge on Gaza! Try CAABU’s Gaza quiz.
• Follow us on facebook and twitter!

All feedback to info@ldfp.eu. Links do not necessarily imply endorsement. Have a great week!

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Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems

• Lib Dems and others have spoken out against Nick Clegg’s wavering stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• Read Clegg’s speech in full here or watch the video here.
• Read our LDFP Comment Piece: “Mr Clegg, the Lib Dems, and the small case of international law…”
• Read MEMO’s open letter to the Deputy PM here.
• Elsewhere in the news this week: Lib Dems Jenny Tonge and Lord Phillips have resisted Clegg’s line.

In Parliament

• David Amess asks after the 505 Israeli road blocks in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank (down from 626 last year).
• Lord Hylton enquires after the demolitions of 315 Palestinian-owned structures in East Jerusalem and Area C this year. Lord Howell comments that “We do not recognise Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem. House demolitions or the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in east Jerusalem are deeply unhelpful.”
• Alistair Burt explains what the Secretary of State has been doing to achieve a two-state solution.
• Nick de Bois asks Ken Clarke some pertinent questions about Universal Jurisdiction.
• And Jenny Tonge makes a lengthy contribution to the Strategic Defence and Security Review. The Jerusalem Post scores a journalism fail in its headline misquotation of her remarks, as noted here.
• Don’t forget this Wednesday is the Annual Lobby of Parliament for Palestine. Read more about it on the PSC website.

Peace Talks

• The US has offered a large bribe (namely military hardware) for a three month freeze in the building of illegal colonies in the West Bank. Some settlers, deeply troubled with this dangerous proposal, are to pitch a protest tent outside the Israeli PM’s office.
• A senior Israeli official has warned that Hamas and Israeli terrorists will attempt to sabotage the ‘peace process’.

Gaza

• Gisha (Israeli human rights organisation) has obtained documents revealing that the Israeli state approved ‘a policy of deliberate reduction’ for basic goods in the Gaza Strip.
• Israel’s Ambassador to the UN filed an official complaint on Saturday regarding rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Air Force has already struck back.

West Bank

• Israel has approved a $23m plan to develop the Western Wall plaza, which just so happens to be in the Occupied West Bank.
• Interesting piece in CSM: ‘Five Largest Israeli settlements: who lives there, and why’.

And elsewhere…

• Two Israeli soldiers convicted of using a Palestinian child as a human shield during an offensive in Gaza in 2009 have received suspended sentences and been demoted.
• MEMO has an interview with Ahdaf Soueif, an Egyptian novelist who initiated the first Palestinian festival of literature in 2008.
• The AIPAC espionage case in Washington takes a curious series of twists.

Events

• Comedian Mark Thomas has a new tour: ‘Extreme Rambling: Walking the Wall’, about his walk of the entire length of the Israeli Separation Barrier. See his website for more details.
• On Wednesday 1st December Professor Richard Falk (United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestinian Human Rights) will be giving a public lecture on the subject of “The Israeli assault on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. See MEMO’s website for more details.

Finally:

• Follow us on facebook and twitter, and spread the word.
• Check out the new podcast on our website.
• Send us your thoughts and reports.

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Britain and Israel

• Foreign Secretary William Hague visited Israel and the Occupied West Bank last week.
• See summaries from the BBC (incl. video) and the Guardian.
• Read comment pieces by Stephen Pollard, “William Hague is an enemy of Iran, and that’s good enough for Israel”, and David Pratt, “It is criminal how Britain grovels to Israeli bullying”.

• Universal Jurisdiction remains the issue in British-Israeli relations.
• William Hague: Changes to the legislation “will be in place next year”.
• Labour leader Ed Miliband this week: “I don’t think the current situation is a good one to be in. Clearly not.”

• EDM 108:
• Wednesday’s editorial in the Jerusalem Post: “William Hague is thoroughly welcome here. His Israeli counterparts have the right to expect precisely the same hospitality in the UK.”
• Well, not if war crimes are an issue.
• Has your MP signed EDM108?
• This Early Day Motion “…believes that universal jurisdiction for human rights abuses is essential as part of the cause of bringing to justice those who commit crimes against humanity and will oppose any legislation to restrict this power of UK courts.”
• If your MP has not, use PSC’s excellent e-tool and tell them to do so.

In Parliament

• Baroness Jenny Tonge tabled a question asking the Government “What representations they have made to the government of Israel concerning the four Palestinian Members of Parliament being deported from East Jerusalem?”
• The ensuing debate, which includes important contributions from Lib Dems Lord Dykes, Lord Phillips and Lord Wallace makes for instructive reading.
• Lib Dem MP David Ward asked after the same issue in the Commons. Ward visited Gaza in October as part of a parliamentary delegation led by CAABU.

• In the Lords, members debated Lord Hylton’s question that asked the Government “whether they will work for a comprehensive agreement covering all refugees arising from the Middle East since 1948.”
• The following debate touched on the issues of ‘The Right of Return’, Jews in Muslim-majority countries, the illegal West Bank settlements, and the Palestinian populations in Jordan and Lebanon.
• Baroness Verma spoke on Palestinian access to water and sanitation in the West Bank: “[It] is severely constrained by Israeli movement and access restrictions, particularly in Area C, covering 62 per cent of the West Bank, and around Israeli settlement blocks. Israel has eased some restrictions on movement and access in the West Bank, but we call on them to go further.”

• In the Commons, Alastair Burt reiterated that official UK policy on the Peace Talks is to “do all that we can to support progress towards a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.
• Interestingly, Burt also noted that: “This conflict matters to British national security and we will take every opportunity to help promote peace.”
• Minister of State for International Development, Alan Duncan, said in a written response about the humanitarian situation in Gaza: Approximately 75% of Gazans are dependent on food aid and cannot obtain materials needed to rebuild their homes. The water and sewage system is dilapidated, with 90% of mains water unfit for drinking. Many people continue to suffer from post-traumatic stress and other psychological disorders.

And elsewhere…

• Lib Dem Presidential hopeful Tim Farron tells LDFP that, if elected, “I will ensure that within the coalition the Liberal Democrats seek to influence policy to move towards seeking a peaceful two state solution and speaking out against abuses”. See our presidential election page here. We are yet to hear from Tim’s rival Susan Kramer regarding her views on Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• Check the incisive piece on Avigdor Lieberman on Joshua Landis’ brilliant ‘Syria Comment’ blog, “Here are five reasons why I believe Netanyahu chose Lieberman as Israel’s Foreign Minister, and for now, prefers to keep him there”.
• Watch the video interview with Haneen Zoabi (Arab-Israeli MK) on EI. Zoabi argues that: “there is now “no chance” for a two-state solution in Palestine.”
• Ever wondered about the economics of the Occupation? Read the report, “Financing the Israeli Occupation“ by the Coalition of Women for Peace available from Al-Zaytouna, or the EI review of Shir Hever’s “The Political Economy of Israel’s Occupation”.
• And finally, Israel’s Labour Party threatens to walk out of the coalition government unless negotiations with the Palestinians get under way.

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In Parliament

• Following a question from Caroline Lucas, Alastair Burt writes that “Israeli accession to the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OECD) does not demonstrate an acceptance of illegal settlements or stand in the way of Palestinian statehood.”
• Lucas also queries UK military aid to Israel. Not too long ago, Nick Clegg argued that ‘We must stop arming Israel’. You might like to remind him through his contact page.
• In the Lords, Liberal Democrat Baroness Jenny Tonge also asks important questions in the Lords over Israeli detention of Palestinian children and subsequent beatings and torture, as well as the IDF’s use of Palestinian children as human shields (cf. the Goldstone Report) and shooting at those collecting building gravel in Gaza, as noted in last week’s Eye on Palestine.
• And Liberal Democrat Lord Dykes pushes the Government regarding the early release of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons without due process.

No Change to Universal Jurisdiction

• Read our briefing about the legal power that allows suspected perpetrators of crimes such as war crimes, torture and genocide to be prosecuted in the national courts of countries other than those where the alleged crimes were committed.
• Under ‘intense pressure’ from the US and Israel, the Conservatives are seeking to dilute this important power.
• Use PSC’s fantastic e-tool to email your MP, calling upon them to make public their opposition to any change in the law on universal jurisdiction.

Israel’s loyalty oath

• Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi writes: ‘Loyalty oath relegates Israel’s Palestinian citizens to inferior status’
• British film-maker Mike Leigh has cancelled a trip to Israel in protest against the controversial plan.
• Interesting analysis piece from Jonathan Cook: ‘the self-declared Jewish state qualifies not as a liberal democracy but as a much rarer political entity: an ethnocracy.’

West Bank Settlements

• According to MEMO, Israeli bulldozers have razed more land for housing units north of Shalit. UN envoy Robert Serry describes the flurry of post-moratorium developments as ‘alarming’.
• Read this excellent UN factsheet, ‘The Case of Sheikh Jarrah: October 2010‘ from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in occupied Palestinian territory. Sheikh Jarrah is an East Jerusalem neighbourhood where ‘settler organizations have stated their intent to build at least 540 settlement units… placing an estimated 475 Palestinians at risk of forced eviction, dispossession and displacement’.
• According to EI, Israeli police are now recruiting from the illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Gaza

• In evidence that frequently contradicted his own earlier affidavits the Israeli soldier in bulldozer who crushed Rachel Corrie claims in court that he ‘did not see her’.
• According to AFP, Hamas security forces raided and shut down the headquarters of the Palestinian Journalists Union in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
• The family of Gilad Shalit, the soldier seized by Gaza militants in 2006, sharply criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not securing his release despite the disclosure that a German mediator had renewed contact with both sides.

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• Feel strongly about this? Email your local MP, Nick Clegg, or William Hague.
• What did we miss? Email: info@ldfp.eu. Links do not necessarily imply endorsement.

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Water is the Palestinians’ most precious resource.  Control of the water supply, land confiscation and house demolitions, as well as the violence of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and of the settlers, make it clear that Israeli policy is to coerce the Palestinians to vacate the land and to delegitimise their existence. Palestinians cannot trust the Israeli authorities or judiciary to grant them redress.

• Israel has taken sole control of the Mountain Aquifer, the West Bank’s principal water supply and is taking around 80 per cent of it to supply  the illegal settlements and Israel itself.

• The IDF prohibits Palestinians from harvesting rainwater by destroying their cisterns.

• Palestinians are forbidden from drilling new wells or rehabilitating old wells without permits from the Israeli authorities. Such permits are difficult and often impossible to obtain. Even pipelines connecting wells to Palestinian towns and villages require Israeli permits.

• The IDF controls access to the roads which water tankers must use to deliver water to those Palestinian villages not connected to the water network. Many roads are closed or restricted to Palestinian traffic, causing delays or forcing the tankers to make long detours, which significantly increase the price of water.

• Palestinian families have to buy their water from the Israeli water company Mekorot which makes Palestinians pay a price 4 times higher than that charged to Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

“There is no reason for Palestinians to claim that just because they sit on lands, they have the rights to that water.”

– Mr. Katz-Oz, Israel’s negotiator on water issues

• When supplies of water are low in the summer months, the Israeli water company Mekorot closes the valves which supply Palestinian towns and villages so as not to affect Israeli supplies. This often means that Israeli settlers have their swimming pools topped up and lawns watered, while Palestinians living next to them, on whose land the illegal settlements are built, do not have enough water for drinking, washing and cooking.

• The average Israeli settler now uses around 400 litres of water a day, twenty times more than many of their Palestinian neighbours have to survive on.

• The Military Orders issued by the IDF soon after it first occupied the area, which gave control of Palestinian water resources to Israel, remain in force today.  (Military Orders 92 and 168 of June and November 1967, and Military Order 291 of December 1968)

• In Madama village 50km north of Jerusalem, settlers from the Yizhar colony have repeatedly vandalized the villagers’ only source of water. They have poured concrete into it, vandalized the connecting pipes and even dropped disposable diapers and other hazardous waste into the springs. The settlers routinely attack villagers trying to repair the water source.

• 90 per cent of tap water in Gaza is unfit for human consumption because it is contaminated by sea water and sewage.

• Under international law it is illegal for Israel either to expropriate the water of the Occupied Palestinian Territories for use by its own citizens or to expropriate it for use by illegal Israeli settlers.

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Originally published for Liberal Democrat Conference 2010

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Parliament

• The Universal Jurisdiction debate is coming: PSC has put together an e-tool where you can email your MP in less than two minutes on this issue. Fire away an email and then send the link to your friends.
• The House of Lords oversaw a debate about the Israeli government’s continued refusal to remove illegal settlers from the West Bank. It reads fairly sensibly until Baroness Miller of Hendon refers to the settlements as a ‘haven’ and Lord Pannick prefers to divert attention from the main issue.
• In The House of Commons, the Minister for International Development was asked  ‘what steps he is taking to ensure that people in Gaza receive the humanitarian aid allocated by his Department’. LibDem Julian Huppert raises an important issue about how the Gaza blockade is preventing UNRWA from building urgently needed schools.
• Julian Huppert also visited Gaza last week as part of a parliamentary delegation, which he discusses on his blog here. He praises how the UN is ‘slowly putting the area back together’ but also comments ‘it’s tragic to see the widespread senseless damage’.

Palestine

• The Independent reports that Israeli soldiers shot at children collecting gravel by the Gaza border.
• Peter Hitchens has a rather curious piece in the Daily Mail, arguing that ‘the true state of the Gaza Strip, and of the West Bank of the Jordan, is so full of paradoxes and surprises that most news coverage of the Middle East finds it easier to concentrate on the obvious, and leave out the awkward bits’.
• The Alternative Information Center reports on the ‘BDS Victory’, as Veolia has signed an agreement to sell its shares in the Jerusalem Light Rail project (Israeli government project that ignores the illegality of the Occupation) to the Israeli transportation cooperative Egged.

Talks

• The Palestinian leadership rejected a dodgy ‘offer’ from Netanyahu, pledging to extend the freeze of the illegal settlement building in the West Bank in exchange for Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
• MEMO interviews an Arab Knesset Member, Mr Talab El Sana, about Israel’s proposed ‘loyalty oath’ here. “We view this as a dangerous development which seeks to legitimize state discrimination against the 1.5 million Palestinians in Israel,” he says.
• In the Independent, Adrian Hamilton argues that ‘Israel has no future as a purely Jewish state’, an article that has got Melanie Phillips quite excited.
• Anshel Pfeffer writes in the Jewish Chronicle that ‘rage over ‘racist’ law is misplaced, as ‘the pledge merely underlines an already existing situation’. The real problem, claims Pfeffer, is the law’s ‘PR effect’, as acknowledged by several UK rabbis.
• In the New York Times, Ethan Bronner has a useful analysis piece on the internal dynamics of Israeli politics vis-à-vis Netanyahu’s ‘offer’.
• Jonathan Cook argues that by rejecting Obama’s reckless and extravagant incentives to Israel in return for a temporary freeze on settlement-building, Netanyahu hopes to persuade the White House “to reaffirm a promise made in a 2004 letter from … George W. Bush that Israel will not be required to withdraw to the pre-1967 borders in a peace deal”.

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What did we miss? Email us: info@ldfp.eu. Links do not necessarily imply endorsement.

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At the Conferences

• If you’ve been living under a rock this week, Ed “I’m my own man” Miliband has been made Labour leader.
• According to Haaretz, Ed departs from “the pro-Israel proclamations of previous British prime ministers“, while Middle East Monitor welcomes the election of a man who has declared in his  ”Israel must accept and recognise in its actions the Palestinian right to statehood” and whose words were particularly welcomed by Labour Friends of Palestine.
• The Jewish Chronicle, among others, have drawn attention to his Mum’s work with the advocacy group Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP).
• Video of our second fringe event, “Accountability for War Crimes“, is now online. The speakers were Carla Ferstman of REDRESS, who talked about Universal Jurisdiction, and Sarah Colborne of PSC, who gave a moving account of her time onboard the Mavi Marmara. Take a look.

Gaza

• JfJfP sent an aid boat to Gaza, which was seized offshore by the Israeli navy. Read the peace activists’ testimony here and a BBC report here.
• Read Raymond Deane’s review of Eyes in Gaza on EI. Eyes in Gaza is “a detailed and harrowing account by the Norwegian doctors Mads Gilbert and Erik Fosse of their experiences in al-Shifa Hospital during Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza in December 2008-January 2009″.
• The U.N. Human Rights Council voted on Wednesday to endorse the report of a U.N. fact-finding mission that accused Israeli commandos of summarily executing six passengers on a Turkish aid flotilla in May.

West Bank

• Oxford Research Group‘s Gabrielle Rifkind has an excellent piece  on the Guardian website, Solving the West Bank Settler Problem, discussing Israeli settlers who “range from secular quality-of-life settlers – particularly those east of the barrier who now seek to return to Israel – to national religious settlers who have become increasingly embattled, outspoken and active.”
• MEMO reports that Israel “used toxic substances against civilians in Silwan“. Read further analysis here.

Talks

• Building has started again in Israeli settlements – including plans for a new shopping mall – leading The Economist to argue that the ‘peace talks’ have stumbled at the first hurdle.
• What will (can?) Obama do? We’ll see. In the meantime, John Esposito and Sheila Lalwani urge the President to ‘seize the opportunity‘ in an interesting piece in the Huffington Post.
• French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for peace talks in Paris.
• The Arab League will now meet on October 6th to discuss the significance of Israel’s failure to renew the settlement freeze.

And elsewhere

• CNI Executive Director Philip Giraldi has written two new articles on the pro-Israel lobby in the States. Check them out here (‘Wake Up, America!’) and here (‘A Bipartisan Look at the Israel Lobby’).

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What did we miss? Email us at: info@ldfp.eu. Links do not necessarily imply endorsement.

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An 82 year old holocaust survivor, Reuven Moskowitz, is among eight Jewish passengers sailing to Gaza, in the latest attempt to break the continuing siege.

Jewish groups world-wide have worked together to launch the 10 – meter catamaran, ‘Irene’ which left the port of Famagusta in Cyprus at 13.32 yesterday. The small boat’s cargo is necessarily symbolic: it includes toys, text-books and musical instruments for children, nets and outboard motors for the Gaza fishing community, prosthetic limbs for Gazan amputees, antibiotics, sterile needles and dressings.

The boat is said to be now less than 24 hours from her destination.

Passengers and crew are determined on passive, non-violent resistance: ‘We will not give the Israeli navy any excuse for physical violence or assault,’ said Richard Kuper, a member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians, (JfJfP) one of the groups behind the boat’s organisation.

Many on board are veteran peace activists. Rami Elhanan lost his daughter to a suicide bombing in 1977 and set up the ‘Bereaved Families’ Circle,’ for Israelis and Palestinians who had lost family members in the conflict. Yonatan Shapira from Israel, an ex-IDF pilot is an activist for Combatants for Peace.

They are united in their condemnation of Israeli government policies towards Gaza and the West Bank, describing them as: ‘harsh, inhuman and counterproductive.’

‘We stand in the proud Jewish tradition of justice, of championing the rights of the downtrodden, of implacable opposition to prejudice and racism in all their forms,’ reads the statement issued by the activist group.

Gaza has been under siege for four years: leading to acute mental and physical health problems for the 1.5 million population. A ban on importing building materials has meant that houses and infrastructure destroyed by the Israeli bombardment eighteen months ago have still not been rebuilt. The Irene is intended as both protest and call for the blockade to be lifted and people and goods to be allowed free passage to and from the Gaza Strip.

‘We are breaking a barrier,’ said Diana Neslen of JfJfP. ‘We are the voice of peace, bearing the olive branch.’

More at: http://jewishboattogaza.org

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We are all conciliators now. Archbishop and Pope at Westminster: Nick Clegg and Friends of Israel, at the recent Liberal Democrat Conference in Liverpool.

But kisses have not moved Rome and Canterbury closer on the thorny problems that divide them. Nor did the bonhomie and backslaps at Monday’s fringe meeting, alter the fundamental differences between the two Lib Dem lobby groups, Friends of Israel and Friends of Palestine.

Clegg, it was rumoured, had invited himself to join the speakers’ line up at the Friends of Israel fringe, entitled ‘Is Peace Possible?’ Was this the same Nick Clegg who spoke movingly to Shami Chakrabati, Director of Liberty, at last year’s conference, on his party’s absolute espousal of human rights?

He did get in the HR words, in a brief five minute slot before being escorted to his next engagement, offering his admiration for the main speaker, MK Professor Naomi Chazan of the left-wing Meretz party. Her speech was indeed testimony that she for one believes the Palestinians to be human and would like to see them treated as such.

But, for all the professor’s evident courage and humanity, she is a consummate politician. Embarrassing words, like ‘Gaza’ had no mention. ‘Siege’ cropped up at question time, but the Deputy Ambassador of Israel, Alon Roth-Snir, was able to assure us that everything necessary was getting into Gaza. Indeed he could send us emails to prove it.

‘Accountability’ was notably missing from the discussion. Friends of Israel, much like the Vatican, would appear to believe that certain states deserve immunity from international human rights law.

Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli assault on Gaza, in December 2008 – January 2009, was abhorrent: of a savagery to shame any civilised nation and indeed to brutalise any Israeli soldier who took part in it. The wholly illegal occupation, dispossession, and destruction of a people and their land, continues. And civilians are deliberately killed in increasingly nasty ways. (white phosphorus burns to the bone, dense inert metal explosive (DIME) attacks a target a given distance above ground level: adults usually have their limbs severed just above the knee, children are cut in half.) Impunity for these crimes negates any hope of a just or lasting peace.

Yes, we have to talk to those who disagree with us. But this does not mean giving legitimacy to their views. The Clegg presence at a fringe is a very big prize. Notably he did not attend the Friends of Palestine meeting. (Title: Accountability for War Crimes) Kisses and handshakes send a message: if we want to embrace the opposition we must at least talk with clarity. Liberal Democrat views should be grounded in international law. The siege of Gaza, as collective punishment, is against the Geneva Convention. If Tzipi Livni, Israel’s Foreign Minister who must bear much of the responsibility for Operation Cast Lead, arrives in this country she should be arrested as a suspected war criminal under the law of Universal Jurisdiction. We do not describe the firing of some 3,500 phosphorus shells into a densely populated urban area as ‘self-defence’.

And we believe in deeds not words. Professor Chazan and the Deputy Ambassador assured us that a boycott against Israel would not work. Well, let us try. Only a boycott will send the crucial message: enough, of these outrageous crimes. And let’s keep the kissing till later.

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Any further thoughts? Email info@ldfp.eu

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