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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Anyone wanting to be cheered up this week should go out and buy a copy of the National Geographic Travellers’  Magazine.

The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is advertising holidays in Palestine.

This profane offence, like Oliver Twist asking for more, has of course drawn the full fury of the Zionist Beadle and complaints are pouring into the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

How dare they give the impression that Palestine is a country? And worse, that Jerusalem is part of Palestine?

More than a sin, it is a crime. (‘’ That boy will be hung’’ said the gentleman in the white waistcoat’ ) To describe Palestine as lying between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river without mentioning Israel ‘’echoes’’ racism, storms London blogger Richard Millet.

Meanwhile, with the begging bowl still empty, since persuading tourists into a land which for all its heartbreaking beauty (the grey olive, the hills of Jenin, the white-stoned Martyrs’ Cemetery……) is still dominated by Walls, Caterpillar bulldozers and unfriendly soldiers with guns, Oliver Twist goes further: Palestine (which doesn’t really exist) is a land rich in history with a tradition of hospitality.

History?  Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, Nablus…..  the litany of ancient cities claimed by the Palestinian tour is giving the Beadle indigestion.

And hospitality……………. indeed. The hospitality of those who have nothing or very little but will give all to the guest: the welcome, the extraordinary kindness……..Even the Zionist Beadle has not dared to assail the ASA on this one.

So where you might ask do people go if they want to have holidays in the Holy Land?  An advertisement on page 11 in the Catholic weekly The Tablet for 8 January tells you: try logging on to  www.WalkWhereJesusWalked.com. You sign up to the Israeli Tourist Board and go to the holy land of Israel,  that’s all the places like Bethlehem, the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the City of David. (This last, presumably, doubles as spiritual and educational experience, given the current ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem.)

But aren’t these sites part of the Palestinian West Bank?  Why is there no single mention of Palestine?

A few brave souls mostly from the Amos Trust and Jews for Justice for Palestinians have been asking this question for years. But The Tablet and the Anglican Church Times, where the advert also appears, are fearful of the mighty Beadle’s anger and collude in leaving Palestine unnamed.

Palestine? Tourism? Economy?  Impiety! Ingratitude!

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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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• The settlements are illegal under international law. The Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 49) specifically prohibits  the occupying power from transferring its citizens to occupied territory.

• The illegal status of settlements has been confirmed by the UN Security Council and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

• Settlements are Jewish colonies built on land seized during the 6-Day War in 1967. The largest, such as Betar Illit and Ma’ale Adumim, have over 33,000 residents.  Due to the extensive network of settler roads which Palestinians are forbidden to use and restrictions on Palestinians accessing their own land, Israeli settlements effectively fence off more than 40 per cent of the West Bank.

• Many of the settlers are far-right religious Zionists who believe they are “redeeming the land”. Their aggression towards Palestinians includes setting fire to cars, destroying crops and uprooting olive trees. These actions are often intended to harrass Palestinians into leaving their homes and farms.

• Such attacks against Palestinians and their property are frequently assisted and protected by the Israeli military and can be carried out with complete legal immunity.

• Palestinians, subject to military law, are denied the legal rights given to settlers, who are subject to Israeli criminal law. This apartheid system of law is itself illegal.

• In the Old City of Hebron settler violence is notorious.  Settlers, guarded by the Israeli army and civilian police, routinely attack the Palestinian inhabitants of Old Hebron and vandalize their property. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has characterized some of these attacks as ‘pogroms’.

• Approximately half of all Palestinian injuries from settler violence each year since 2006 have been made up of children, women and the elderly over 70 years of age. (Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs  – OCHA)

• Settlements divide the West Bank into cantons, so that the Palestinians are increasingly forced to live in isolated enclaves. These ‘facts on the ground’ are designed to destroy any chance of a viable and contiguous Palestinian state.

• Demolition of Palestinian family homes accompanies illegal settlement building in occupied East Jerusalem. At least 230 Palestinian structures have been demolished in East Jerusalem and Area C [where Israel has full administrative control] since the beginning of this year, displacing 1100 Palestinians, including 400 children. (OCHA)

• This Judaization of East Jerusalem is for the stated purpose of expanding the Jewish character of the city and guaranteeing its indivisibility.

• There are currently 479,600 settlers living illegally in the West Bank and East Jerusalem (Peace Now – June 2009)

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Originally published for Liberal Democrat Conference 2010

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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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