Dr. Mads Gilbert
Milito pela causa Palestina por razões político-ideológicas lógicas - por ser o conflito mais facilmente solucionável que existe e apesar disso, não ser, e por isso, causar tantos danos humanos e materiais; por razões pessoais - porque escrevi um livro sobre Jesus, percorri sua terra pisando em seu rastro e desde então não mais conseguir negligenciar a defesa da justiça e dos fracos e sim tentar concretizar meu catolicismo arraigado em atos desinteressados; e por razões egoístas - é o único lugar do planeta em que se encontra seres humanos humanos, verdadeiros, tanto os nativos palestinos - cativantes (como os brasileiros) em sua hospitalidade e sem ódio no peito apesar da cruel ocupação interminável, quanto os estrangeiros - idealistas, ativistas da justiça, generosos, solidários; e essas pessoas me fazem bem, alimentam meus melhores sentimentos e me fazem crescer e ser a cada dia a pessoa que eu gostaria.
Nunca encontrei nenhum ativista teórico ou concreto em favor da causa palestina que não seja bom no íntimo, na íntegra. Das sumidades - Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky, Uri Avnery, Ken Loach, que já ultrapassaram a minha fase da paixão ativa e dos quais tento inspirar-me em sua postura combativa, mas comedida. Ainda não consigo. Um dia! Ou talvez não. Talvez jamais consiga, como Mairead Maguire e Robert Fisk. Talvez não seja questão de idade, experiência, e sim de temperamento. Sei lá. Estou na linha de colegas jornalistas que sabem, indignam-se e denunciam, como o Bob citado acima. E pessoas de outras profissões e de todas as confissões - catolícos, protestantes, judeus, muçulmanos - que veem o óbvio e que exercem suas capacidades de reflexão e compaixão com sabedoria. Como Vittorio Arrigoni, o jornalista-ativista italiano morto em Gaza em 2011 (Blog 17/04/11, a quem dediquei artigo inteiro certamente aquém do que merecia.
Hoje é a vez de Mads Gilbert, cujo vídeo abre esta página. Que graças a Deus está bem vivo, que Deus o guarde do mesmo jeito, inteiro.
Presto-lhe homenagem não por estar morto. É melhor celebrar os vivos quando a oportunidade aparece e o momento exige. Ele acabou de sofrer uma grande injustiça e os palestinos de Gaza acabaram de perder um grande cirurgião, que muito necessitam.
Usando seu poder discricionário ilimitado pelos EUA de ocupante impiedoso e sanguinário, o governo israelense baniu da Faixa de Gaza o médico norueguês de sensibilidade e capacidade profissional raras. Por que? Por não tapar o sol com a peneira; por exercer sua profissão de maneira cidadã e responsável denunciando os crimes e os criminosos reais em vez de limitar-se a lamentar os cadáveres, os aleijados, os amputados e as dezenas de milhares de crianças palestinas traumatizadas.
Mads Gilbert tem 67 anos, é professor da University Hospital of North Norway e faz 30 anos que divide seu tempo entre seu país natal, a Noruega, e zonas de conflito. É altruísta, mesmo, para quem a medicina é uma missão e não uma profissão - missão que ele cumpre ao pé da letra. Ganhou prêmios internacionais de filantropia por seu trabalho na Faixa de Gaza em 2008/09 durante a Operação militar israelense Cast lead que deixou mais de 1.400 mortos, dentre estes mais de 800 civis - 350 crianças. Cito o prêmio de passagem, pois para ele não teve importância, mas para quem conhece seu trabalho, foi um merecido reconhecimento.
Durante os 51 dias da Operação Protective Edge, a última operação militar israelense nos meses de julho e agosto na Faixa de Gaza que deixou cerca de 111 mil feridos mais ou menos graves, Mads voltou a Gaza para ajudar o pessoal local do Al-Shifa Medical Center. Depois voltou para casa por algumas semanas.
Ao retornar à Faixa em outubro para prosseguir o tratamento dos feridos graves hospitalizados no al Shifa, Mads foi barrado no Erez Crossing - o "posto de fronteira" principal de entrada na maior prisão do mundo.
"Israeli soldiers at the Erez border station told me taht i'm not allowed to go into Gaza. When I asked the reason they informed that it was a security issue", disse Mads. "Telling the world about the burdens of the Palestinians is considered a security risk".
Na semana passada Mads foi informado que "the ban [from entering the Gaza Stri] is infinite without any time limit".
BBC Hard Talk com Mads Gilbert (18/08/2014)
Binyamin Netanyahu, mais um vez, deu um tiro no pé por mera arrogância e por se achar intocável.
O assunto virou notícia justamente porque durante a operação Protective Edge Mads Gilbert, por ser uma sumidade e não ter medo de ninguém e de nada, foi entrevistado por todos os jornalistas que se encontravam no terreno, inclusive Al Jazeera, e todos o admiram e respeitam sua competência. Portanto, seu banimento não passou e não vai passar desapercebido como Tel Aviv gostaria.
"From the Norwegian perspective, we have raised Gilbert's explusion from Gaza and asked Israel to change their decision. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is still difficult and there is a need for all health workers", disse o Ministro das Relações estangeiras norueguês Bard Glad Pedersen.
Mads virou persona non grata nos territórios ocupados porque não tem papas na língua. Durante a operação Protective Edge, enviou carta aberta à mídia global (que publiquei durante o bombardeio) na qual descrevia em detalhes os horrores que a IDF estava cometendo na Faixa. E em suas numerosas entrevistas à grande mídia televisiva, confirmou as informações que a "vast majority of victims are women, children, and male civilians", acrescentando que só tinha atendido dois resistentes. "These numbers are contradictory to everything Israel says", disse então, e chegou a interpelar Barack Obama sem rodeios: "Mr. Obama, do you have a heart? I invite you to spend one night - just one night - with us in al-Shifa. I'm convincedo, 100 percent, it would change history. Nobody with a heart could ever wald away from a night in Shifa withou being determined to end the slaughter of the Palestinian people".
A ONG britânica Medical Aid for Palestinians que trabalha nos territórios ocupados há mais de 20 anos e fornece apoio ao hospital Shifa, declarou que o banimento de Mads Gilbert é "deeply concerning. Following the recent conflict, thousands of Plaestinians in Gaza require specialised surgical treatment and it is imperative that the right to health is unimpeded."
"There is no way we're going to accept that medical and humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza shall be denied just because the israeli government has decided so. I will not give up travelling to Gaza as long as they have medical needs."
Vale lembrar que segundo dados das Nações Unidas, além dos milhares de feridos citados acima, a IDF assassinou 2.131 palestinos dos quais 1.473 foram formalmente identificados como civis, incluindo 501 crianças. No lado israelense, morreram 77 pessoas, 70 delas, soldados.
BBC aired an interview with Mads Gilbert after Operation Cast Lead, in Gaza, 2008/09, conducted in the hospital. The questions asked, and the answers garnered, were eerily similar to those he would give just five years later during Operation Protective Edge. So, why the life banishement now?
Because the world is turning and world public opinion is beginning to see light.
No mesmo tópico de arbitrariedade e impunidade, Israel, além de punir os gazauís e os estrangeiros que ousam denunciar seus crimes, está negando aos investigadores da ONU acesso às informações sobre a Operação Protective Edge.
Na quarta-feira passada o porta-voz israelense Emmanuel Hahshon informou que seu país decidiu não cooperar com a investigação que o United Nations Human Rights Council está fazendo dos atos dos beligenrantes de ambos os lado durante os meses de julho e agosto na Faixa de Gaza.
"Since the Schabas commission is not an inquiry but a commission that gives its conclusions in advance, Israel will not cooperate with the UN Commission on Human Rights over the last conflict with Hamas," disse o comunidado israelense.
Quando não usa seu arsenal bélico, Israel usa seu arsenal de fabulações e artimanhas semânticas para burlar as leis internacionais.
O painel de investigação é dirigido pelo advogado canadense William Schabas, que a gangue de Netanyahu odeia porque nunca conseguiu suborná-lo com mentiras, ameaças, promessas ou dinheiro.
É o problema com eles, os sionistas impenitentes, caluniam e deturpam tudo e todos que não lhes prestem obediência. Inclusive os judeus esclarecidos que criticam e combatem seus crimes. Pois quem pensa, sabe que a questão não é religiosa e sim uma racista expansão territorial vergonhosa.
Hahshon acrescentou que a decisão [ilegal] de não cooperar deve-se à "obsessive hostility to Israel" do Conselho de Genebra. Este, no dia 30 de outubro, dirigido pelo especialista britânico Sir Nigel Rodley, afirmou que os ataques israelenses causaram "a disproportionate number of casualties among civilians, including children.” A verdade dói em alguns pelo que comporta e em outros ela cega pelo que revela.
Vale lembrar que além das perdas que citei acima, segundo as Nações Unidas, só em suas escolas, 138 meninos foram mortos, 814 foram feridos, se 560 ficaram órfãos. O que em si já é um crime de guerra, pois território da ONU é internacional e intocável.
E a Operação Protective Edge que terminou no dia 26 de agosto com um acordo de cessar-fogo, que Israel ignora, é a terceira operação militar dos últimas cinco anos. E por isso a Anistia Internacional revelou o que os jornalista constataram empiricamente: ""The report reveals a pattern of frequent Israeli attacks using large aerial bombs to level civilian homes, sometimes killing entire families." O que é também um crime contra a humanidade.
Sem contar as bombas e as minas que a IDF jogou à vontade e que ainda estão para explodir, representando uma constante armadilha para as famílias. A Faixa de Gaza está forrada de bombas e bombinhas que continuam matando, apesar do trabalho incessante dos desminadores, que são, infelizmente, em número insuficiente.
Estas bombas são um perigo constante, pois após as operações militares israelenses de 2009 e 2012, estas munições traiçoeiras mataram mais 111 civis após o cessar-fogo, 64 deles eram crianças. Feriram dezenas. E este tipo de munição é jogado com este propósito, de continuar matando.
Mads Gilbert na Al Jazeera (12/2014)
Entrevista completa: http://youtu.be/ZzIf7Bk8CHM
"Since signing the truce, the Israeli army has violated (the agreement) many times, arresting fishermen and destroying a giant fishing boat, in addition to firing at fishermen on a daily basis," disse o presidente do sindicato dos 4.000 pescadores gazauís. Segundo um relatório da Cruz Vermelha, 90 por cento deles caiu para estado de pobreza desde o bloqueio. Não têm como alimentar suas famílias e nem os demais habitantes da Faixa. O que em si é uma estratégia militar, além de econômica. Peixe tem proteína. Foi por isso também que a IDF bombardeou as lavouras e os rebanhos de Gaza, para esfomear.
Os oito anos de bloqueio aleijaram a Faixa de Gaza em todos os aspectos.
Quanto à devida abertura dos "postos de fronteira" para entrada de mantimentos e material para reconstrução, Israel respeita de maneira arbitrária. Não é diária e sim quando dá na telha de quem (de estômago cheio e sem sede) dá as ordens de algum escritório em Tel Aviv bem iluminado, com ar condicionado, com paredes e móveis no lugar em que foram colocados.
Nesta quinta-feira este burrocrata reservista da IDF resolveu abrir o Kerem Shalom crossing, no sudeste da Faixa, para deixar entrar alguns mantimentos e medicamentos. Segundo Raed Fattouh, o funcionário palestino responsável desta área, "the Israeli authorities will allow 350 truckloads of goods for the trade, agricultural, transportation and aid sectors". Mas a conta não é exata como parece. Dizem isso, mas no final deixam passar o total, a metade ou um terço dependendo de uma arbitrária contra-ordem.
Ao assinar um acordo de cooperação com o Primeiro Ministro palestino Rami Handallah de financiamento de desenvolvimento sob os auspícios da ONU, a funcionária do consulado da Suécia Ann-Sofie Nilsson desabafou: "The situation in Gaza is alarming after the devastating war this summer, especially with winter approaching. There is a need for rapid support to the Government of National Consensus in its efforts to kick-start the reconstruction. We are pleased to contribute to alleviate somewhat the difficult situation." Pois é, mas se depender de Israel respeitar o tratado assinado, os gazauís continuarão desabrigados, sedentos e comendo, nos bons dias, uma latinha de sardinha.
A Suécia está tendo uma atitude exemplar na Palestina. Reconheceu o Estado e está com vários projetos de ajuda. E os palestinos precisam de muita, sobretudo em Gaza, onde, segundo a ONU, 80.000 residências foram parcial ou totalmente destruídas e mais de 106 mil dos 1.8 milhões de habitantes estão desabrigados e perderam tudo o que possuiam.
Há anos que Gaza sobrevive graças aos túneis que permitem o contrabando de tudo. E como o ditador egípcio neutralizou centenas deles, a situação está grave mesmo. Só não está pior por causa da organização administrativa do Hamas, sem a qual, estariam todos ao Deus dará.
Jewish for Peace: Israel and Palestine explained
Falando no Hamas, eis a descrição que um palestino faz do partido.
"It really doesn’t matter what political party you belong to in Palestine because every single one has first to deal with Israeli occupation, settlements, theft and expropriation before it can begin to campaign about public policy on jobs, healthcare and the economy. Despite this stark reality, the question I have faced most frequently since returning to Gaza in 2006 is this: does the Hamas charter, which contains passages deemed offensive to Jewish people, truly represent the movement’s vision and political goals? Diplomats, journalists, academics, parliamentarians and politicians from numerous nations have empathised with Palestinians; yet they all seem to struggle with this document.
The question is understandable given how frequently much of the foreign media refers to it. The reality, however, is that one would be hard pressed to find any member of Hamas who is fully versed in the content of the charter – a treatise that was actually never universally endorsed by the movement. Earnest students of Palestine should consider the context. This was a text written in the early days of the first intifada. Our youth rebelling against the Israeli occupiers needed a rallying cry – a written expression of their resolve. The charter was designed to be that inspirational document and it was never intended to be the governing instrument, the guiding principle or the political vision of the movement.
Hamas is a Palestinian liberation movement that uses traditional Islamic teaching as its point of reference. Israeli media and many of the western channels that mimic it have far too easily succumbed to the Israeli establishment’s propaganda that the group is akin to al-Qaida and/or a front for Iran and/or a combination thereof. Were pundits to truly scrutinise Hamas’s actions since its inception, they would find not a single official statement or position that is based on denigrating another faith, certainly neither Judaism nor Christianity. Nor can anyone produce a shred of evidence that Hamas formally encourages prejudice against anyone’s ethnicity. And the group has been far more conscious of avoiding civilian casualties than the Israelis. We in Gaza are witnesses to the deaths of scores of our children, while Israeli television has largely been able to parade only the coffins of soldiers.
Hamas is simply a movement resisting occupation and besiegement. The cause of our conflict with the Israelis is their desire to make of us a servile minority or an emigrant memory and they have done nothing that would grant us the dignity of self-determination. Even now, it is the Israelis who issue a Palestinian his or her identity card under the terms of Oslo. Hamas draws inspiration from faith; yet religion has little to do with our struggle. Our faith determines our values, not our platform. What every Palestinian – Muslim or Christian and of every political hue – struggles for is dignity and freedom, for the right to be recognised in our own land, a struggle for our political and economic rights, a struggle for sovereignty and the right to govern ourselves.
Palestinians are no different from any other people around the globe. But we certainly are less capable than the Israelis of manipulating the media. First they rallied the world against communism, then they labeled the nationalists terrorists; and now Islamists are the true villains. Yet look beneath the rhetoric with a just eye and you will discover that we are not fanatics who want to impose beliefs that others don’t share. All we seek is to be given our rightful place among the family of nations.
Scrutinise the manifesto upon which we were elected to govern in 2006 if you really wish to understand the political vision of Hamas, not a charter drawn up decades ago and long forgotten. Sadly we were deprived of the opportunity to implement in full many of the reforms set out in that policy document. Nonetheless our record of government in Gaza, despite the almost impossible circumstances created by the eight-year-old siege, demonstrates our willingness to work for the overall good of society and not just our own supporters. Hamas believes in the democratic process and that is why in 2006 we relinquished the right to govern alone in favour of a broader coalition that would reflect the aspirations of all Palestinians. Unfortunately our proposal was rejected, a fact that seems to have been conveniently overlooked in the desire to demonise our movement as power-seeking fanatics. Again more recently in our wish to move forward and to promote Palestinian reconciliation, we voluntarily handed over power in Gaza to a technocratic government.
When Hamas decided to engage fully in the political process we did not abandon our legal and moral right to resist occupation and the daily Israeli aggression. This we hold in common with many other liberation movements around the world. The price we have paid for this is exclusion by many western countries that at the same time chose to overlook the brutal and illegal actions of our Israeli occupiers. The right of the occupier to purportedly defend itself trumped our right to exist in peace.
We have been condemned for firing home-made rockets in protest at a siege that is aimed at depriving over a million and a half people of the basic necessities of daily life: electricity, clean water, medical drugs and equipment. We are also blocked from importing everyday building, industrial and farming materials necessary to provide jobs and develop a viable economy. Our students and our sick are denied the right to travel for their education and healthcare. The list is endless and yet we are the ones who are condemned. When we enter into ceasefires and our forces impose months of calm despite no change in the status quo, we see no tangible results – the relentless, dehumanising weight of the siege continues unabated. Why, then, is the world surprised when we resist? What people on this planet would sit quietly and allow themselves to bleed out a slow death without fighting for survival?
Judge Hamas on the measures it takes for its people. Do not rely on the words of a document – the charter – written under entirely different circumstances. Declare it dead, some have said; and yet, to do so would be to succumb to yet another Israeli demand. We do what is right, not what we are told by an occupier. We will continue to resist so long as the injustices inflicted upon the Palestinian people go unaddressed. But we will also continue to look for ways to move forward and to address the core issues of our conflict with the Israelis.
We embraced the ballot box as a way to advance the Palestinian cause in 2006; but despite the democratic mandate we received from our people we were ejected from the political process by a set of preconditions (imposed by the Quartet) that no serious political party would sign up to without prior negotiations. We relinquished our control in Gaza in favour of Palestinian unity in 2014 for the sake of our people. A united Palestinian front is an essential step towards finding a just and durable solution to this conflict; and yet, perhaps, it is this unity that worries the occupier. A divided people, after all, are far easier to subjugate. Hopefully the international community will not be duped again by Israeli hawks and will give the dove a chance to carry the olive branch forward." Ahmed Youssef, in The Guardian, 14/11/2014
The question is understandable given how frequently much of the foreign media refers to it. The reality, however, is that one would be hard pressed to find any member of Hamas who is fully versed in the content of the charter – a treatise that was actually never universally endorsed by the movement. Earnest students of Palestine should consider the context. This was a text written in the early days of the first intifada. Our youth rebelling against the Israeli occupiers needed a rallying cry – a written expression of their resolve. The charter was designed to be that inspirational document and it was never intended to be the governing instrument, the guiding principle or the political vision of the movement.
Hamas is a Palestinian liberation movement that uses traditional Islamic teaching as its point of reference. Israeli media and many of the western channels that mimic it have far too easily succumbed to the Israeli establishment’s propaganda that the group is akin to al-Qaida and/or a front for Iran and/or a combination thereof. Were pundits to truly scrutinise Hamas’s actions since its inception, they would find not a single official statement or position that is based on denigrating another faith, certainly neither Judaism nor Christianity. Nor can anyone produce a shred of evidence that Hamas formally encourages prejudice against anyone’s ethnicity. And the group has been far more conscious of avoiding civilian casualties than the Israelis. We in Gaza are witnesses to the deaths of scores of our children, while Israeli television has largely been able to parade only the coffins of soldiers.
Hamas is simply a movement resisting occupation and besiegement. The cause of our conflict with the Israelis is their desire to make of us a servile minority or an emigrant memory and they have done nothing that would grant us the dignity of self-determination. Even now, it is the Israelis who issue a Palestinian his or her identity card under the terms of Oslo. Hamas draws inspiration from faith; yet religion has little to do with our struggle. Our faith determines our values, not our platform. What every Palestinian – Muslim or Christian and of every political hue – struggles for is dignity and freedom, for the right to be recognised in our own land, a struggle for our political and economic rights, a struggle for sovereignty and the right to govern ourselves.
Palestinians are no different from any other people around the globe. But we certainly are less capable than the Israelis of manipulating the media. First they rallied the world against communism, then they labeled the nationalists terrorists; and now Islamists are the true villains. Yet look beneath the rhetoric with a just eye and you will discover that we are not fanatics who want to impose beliefs that others don’t share. All we seek is to be given our rightful place among the family of nations.
Scrutinise the manifesto upon which we were elected to govern in 2006 if you really wish to understand the political vision of Hamas, not a charter drawn up decades ago and long forgotten. Sadly we were deprived of the opportunity to implement in full many of the reforms set out in that policy document. Nonetheless our record of government in Gaza, despite the almost impossible circumstances created by the eight-year-old siege, demonstrates our willingness to work for the overall good of society and not just our own supporters. Hamas believes in the democratic process and that is why in 2006 we relinquished the right to govern alone in favour of a broader coalition that would reflect the aspirations of all Palestinians. Unfortunately our proposal was rejected, a fact that seems to have been conveniently overlooked in the desire to demonise our movement as power-seeking fanatics. Again more recently in our wish to move forward and to promote Palestinian reconciliation, we voluntarily handed over power in Gaza to a technocratic government.
When Hamas decided to engage fully in the political process we did not abandon our legal and moral right to resist occupation and the daily Israeli aggression. This we hold in common with many other liberation movements around the world. The price we have paid for this is exclusion by many western countries that at the same time chose to overlook the brutal and illegal actions of our Israeli occupiers. The right of the occupier to purportedly defend itself trumped our right to exist in peace.
We have been condemned for firing home-made rockets in protest at a siege that is aimed at depriving over a million and a half people of the basic necessities of daily life: electricity, clean water, medical drugs and equipment. We are also blocked from importing everyday building, industrial and farming materials necessary to provide jobs and develop a viable economy. Our students and our sick are denied the right to travel for their education and healthcare. The list is endless and yet we are the ones who are condemned. When we enter into ceasefires and our forces impose months of calm despite no change in the status quo, we see no tangible results – the relentless, dehumanising weight of the siege continues unabated. Why, then, is the world surprised when we resist? What people on this planet would sit quietly and allow themselves to bleed out a slow death without fighting for survival?
Judge Hamas on the measures it takes for its people. Do not rely on the words of a document – the charter – written under entirely different circumstances. Declare it dead, some have said; and yet, to do so would be to succumb to yet another Israeli demand. We do what is right, not what we are told by an occupier. We will continue to resist so long as the injustices inflicted upon the Palestinian people go unaddressed. But we will also continue to look for ways to move forward and to address the core issues of our conflict with the Israelis.
We embraced the ballot box as a way to advance the Palestinian cause in 2006; but despite the democratic mandate we received from our people we were ejected from the political process by a set of preconditions (imposed by the Quartet) that no serious political party would sign up to without prior negotiations. We relinquished our control in Gaza in favour of Palestinian unity in 2014 for the sake of our people. A united Palestinian front is an essential step towards finding a just and durable solution to this conflict; and yet, perhaps, it is this unity that worries the occupier. A divided people, after all, are far easier to subjugate. Hopefully the international community will not be duped again by Israeli hawks and will give the dove a chance to carry the olive branch forward." Ahmed Youssef, in The Guardian, 14/11/2014
Nader al-Masri, palestinian olympic runner
running in the rubbles of Gaza
"Last week, I visited the Palestinian territories. I wanted to hear firsthand from the people of Gaza and understand the scope and magnitude of the recent conflict.
I am now back from Gaza with a prevailing feeling of disbelief and sadness. Throughout my career at the World Bank, and at the United Nations or even before, I have come across many war zones but none compare to what I have just seen in Gaza: no scene of destruction, desolation and despair I have witnessed is equal to the tragic stage of Gaza.
Today, I feel obliged to add my voice for the voiceless and to plead that none of us forget the Palestinian people. It is our collective and historic responsibility to step up support and mobilise a response commensurate to the needs of the Palestinian people.
As development professionals, we deplore the level of violence and destruction and urge all sides to make determined efforts to find a permanent end to these recurrent hostilities, whether incursions, missile attacks or bombings. This will require access to imports and freedom of movement in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as mutual assurance of security in both Palestinian territories and Israel. Our response needs to address both the urgency of now - the humanitarian imperative - and to pave the way for a sustainable development of the Palestinian economy - the development imperative.
Humanitarian tragedy
The conflict and humanitarian tragedy in Gaza has made an already struggling Palestinian economy worse and put further stress on the fiscal situation of the Palestinian Authority. Recession hit the Palestinian territories in the first quarter of 2014, with levels of consumption and donor assistance declining significantly. Donors' assistance in the first half of 2014 has fallen by more than $200m compared to 2013.
The economic decline has resulted in growing unemployment: one in six in the West Bank, and nearly every second person in Gaza. Poverty has reached 26 percent and is twice as high in Gaza than in the West Bank.
Growth increases when restrictions ease. As documented in last year's World Bank report: Area C and the Future of the Palestinian Economy, political uncertainty and restrictions on movement and access are the main reasons why the Palestinian economy is unable to take off.
The Bank estimates that $3bn is lost annually due to restrictions imposed on 60 percent of the West Bank (the so-called Area C).
Even before the conflict, these constraints were more binding in Gaza, where the economy suffered from recurring violence as well as blockades on exports and imports and where two-thirds of the population was receiving food assistance.
Because growth increases when restrictions ease, and inversely, growth slows when restrictions are greater, the ongoing negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians on the new mechanism allowing construction materials to go into Gaza is a step in the right direction. But it is only an inch in a journey of miles.
I am convinced that the World Bank Group can play a transformational role in the Palestinian territories, as it should in most fragile and conflict affected settings. As a development institution, it is both a mandate and a responsibility.
Since the Oslo Accords, the World Bank Group has provided nearly $1bn and has leveraged four times more. Our Board of Directors recently approved additional support, and we will be front-loading a $62m emergency package consisting of budget support and investment projects in such key sectors as water, electricity and municipal services. These are areas where the needs are immense and where the Bank Group has a competitive edge.
Budget support
But more is needed. As discussed with Finance Minister Shukri Bisharra, budget support is essential to ensure institutional strengthening and provision of services. More is needed to anchor reforms and services and sustain a viable economy. The two pillars of the Bank Group strategy are effectively designed to contribute to respond to this challenge: Strengthen the institutions of a future state to ensure service delivery to citizens; and support private sector-led growth that increases employment opportunities.
For the Palestinians struggling daily, equally critical is the access to water, electricity and municipal services. I saw the destroyed water reservoir in Al Monttar area (Shujayea) which would have serviced 250,000 people. I walked into the shell-struck electricity storage facility that now resembled a lunar landscape. While visiting al-Shifa hospital, I discussed with doctors the dire need for medical equipment and supplies, staff and fuel, all severely strained by shortages and outages.
Numbers fail to capture the human realities of the daunting scenes I witnessed at the hospital. As winter sets in, the partial or total destruction of 60,000 housing units has led to 100,000 people without shelter.
On October 12, the international community came together in Cairo to voice strong support for the Palestinians and for the reconstruction of Gaza, and pledged resources. This is encouraging but we need to ensure that these are new resources and are effectively committed and disbursed in order to mitigate the tragic impact of the Gaza conflict and to unleash the economic potential of the Palestinian territories.
In cooperation with the Palestinian Authority (PA), and in coordination with the EU, UN and other international partners, the World Bank Group intends to play its full role and assist the Palestinians in mobilising the resources with a view to short and long term needs.
Unfulfilled promises are a sword of Damocles. An economy cannot live under siege, nor can the tragic cycle of destruction-reconstruction be sustained. It is not too early to strengthen the institutions that will eventually contribute to greater peace and security. It is not too late to ensure a viable economy that will foster a just and sustainable development for all Palestinians.
Because Palestinians have often given the region its tempo and have always served as a cause or as an excuse, because Palestinians are on the cutting edge of Arab minds and of the world's collective imagination, and because Palestinians will remain at the heart of the Middle East, a breakthrough on the path of stability and prosperity would have far-reaching consequences and a positive impact on the rest of the region. Would it not be the best way to fight sectarianism, violence and extremism? I'm just back from Gaza and this is still my hope."
Inger Andersen is responsible for World Bank strategy and operations throughout the Middle East and North Africa region. She assumed her position shortly after the start of the Arab Spring and led the realignment of Bank engagement with the region to meet emerging needs and priorities.
Violência na Cisjordânia
Andam me perguntando muito pelo G20 e a situação na Ucrânia. Entretanto, estou tão enojada dos dois pesos e duas medidas dos Estados Unidos imporem sanções surreais à Rússia e aos amigos de Vladimir Putin ao mesmo tempo que continuam a fazer negócios com sionistas milionários e Israel, o maior criminoso do mundo, considerando as leis internacionais, que vou deixar esta farsa de lado temporariamente para voltar ao Oriente Médio, onde os colonos sionistas e seus cúmplices estão tentando transformar a ocupação territorial e a limpeza étnica que Israel vem fazendo na Palestina em guerra de religião.
Começando com uma nota otimista de desobediência pacífica de jovens que escalaram o muro na Cisjordânia e se sentiram livres por frações de segundos.
Porém, más notícias é que não faltam...
Na semana passada os colonos sionistas queimaram mais uma mesquita na Cisjordânia. É a segunda que queimam só no mês de novembro. Como o ISIS, querem transformar sua ocupação selvagem em uma guerra religiosa indecente. As igrejas das paróquias palestinas também são alvos dos colonos judeus estrangeiros, mas com menos frequência, embora crescente. O arcebispo cristão de Jerusalém Samuel Barhoum disse que "the Christian community feels increasingly threatened. We see that Israel is going further and further to the right. It does not matter whether you are Muslim or Christian, in these people's eyes we are the enemy".
Pois é, eles, os soldados e os colonos sionistas, ainda não ousaram tocar no patrimônio religioso tombado e visitado pelos turistas cristãos estrangeiros na Cisjordânia e na Galileia, mas no ritmo em que estão, vão acabar depredando uma das igrejas que constituem patrimônio ligado ao Novo Testamento. Aí a jurupoca vai piar, e talvez até os evangélicos bitolados que os apoiam (por causa de uma leitura destorcida do Antigo Testamento sem saber do que falam) comecem a ver claro. Por enquanto, só quem vê é quem olha sem nenhum pré-conceito religioso e enxerga o que está na cara.
E no lado de lá da Linha Verde, a discriminação contra os palestinos-cidadãos israelenses aumentou várias potências. Primeiro com o voto no Knesset para estabelecer que só judeus podem ser eleitos ao parlamento, o que siginifica que os palestinos-israelenses cristãos e muçulmados - 1.7 milhões, cerca de 20 por cento da população de Israel, ficam sem nenhuma representação política. Isto, junto com a operação militar israelense na Faixa de Gaza e a tentativa de desapropriar os palestinos até da mesquita Al-Aqsa, levou a nova geração às ruas para manifestar seu descontentamento.
Com razão, pois são tratados como cidadãos de segunda classe e são submetidos a mais de 50 leis discriminatórias.
Em uma dessas passeatas, Kheir al-Din al-Hamdan foi baleado covardemente por um soldado, como acontece na Cisjordânia quase diariamente sem consequência para quem puxa o gatilho elegal e covardemente.
No entanto, desta vez foi dentro de Israel e alguém filmou o soldado atirando nas costas do rapaz galileu de 22 anos. Que por sinal é de kafr Kana, a cidade da festa em que Jesus transformou água em vinho.
Não se fala muito no assunto, mas dede o início da Segunda Intifada em 2000, 48 palestinos-israelenses foram assassinados, 35 por soldados ou policiais. Só três dos assassinos fardados foram processados - receberam penas de prisão light de apenas 6 a 14 meses. O patrimônio religioso dos palestinos - igrejas e mesquitas - também estão em perigo. Mas o mais importante é gente e não pedra.
Desde julho, mais de mil jovens palestino-israelenses foram presos por protestarem, inclusive meninos. O método é o já connhecido nos territórios ocupados, dos sequestros noturnos com invasões e depredações das casas de família.
A morte de Kheir foi descrita e vista no vídeo como uma a execução sumária. Repito, como tantas na Cisjordânia e em Gaza.
E qual foi a reação de Binyamin Netanyahu? Dizer para os jovens: "Move to the Palestinian Authority or Gaza". E assim serem bombardeados com facilidade, em Gaza; e na Cisjordânia, viverem aonde, nos guetos murados que ele está fabricando? E os 550 mil invasores judeus que se instalaram ilegalmente na Cisjordânia?
Eu realmente não consigo entender que ainda exista gente com inteligência pelo menos média e com um mínimo de sensibilidade que ainda tenha alguma consideração pelo governo israelense. Ignorância tem limite. Ganância idem.
Começando com uma nota otimista de desobediência pacífica de jovens que escalaram o muro na Cisjordânia e se sentiram livres por frações de segundos.
Muro da Vergonha: Berlim Wall / Palestine Wall
Porém, más notícias é que não faltam...
Na semana passada os colonos sionistas queimaram mais uma mesquita na Cisjordânia. É a segunda que queimam só no mês de novembro. Como o ISIS, querem transformar sua ocupação selvagem em uma guerra religiosa indecente. As igrejas das paróquias palestinas também são alvos dos colonos judeus estrangeiros, mas com menos frequência, embora crescente. O arcebispo cristão de Jerusalém Samuel Barhoum disse que "the Christian community feels increasingly threatened. We see that Israel is going further and further to the right. It does not matter whether you are Muslim or Christian, in these people's eyes we are the enemy".
Pois é, eles, os soldados e os colonos sionistas, ainda não ousaram tocar no patrimônio religioso tombado e visitado pelos turistas cristãos estrangeiros na Cisjordânia e na Galileia, mas no ritmo em que estão, vão acabar depredando uma das igrejas que constituem patrimônio ligado ao Novo Testamento. Aí a jurupoca vai piar, e talvez até os evangélicos bitolados que os apoiam (por causa de uma leitura destorcida do Antigo Testamento sem saber do que falam) comecem a ver claro. Por enquanto, só quem vê é quem olha sem nenhum pré-conceito religioso e enxerga o que está na cara.
Comunidades separadas pelo Muro da Vergonha na Cisjordânia
Como disse acima, dezenas de jovens ativistas escalaram o muro da vergonha perto do checkpoint Qalandiya que separa Ramallah de Jerusalém e lá em cima hastearam sua bandeira nacional. Foi parte de uma série de ações pacíficas de protesto de solidariedade com seus compatriotas e contra a repressão quotidiana dos nativos de Jerusalém ocupada. Faz parte de uma campanha chamada #On2Jerusalem organizada por comitês palestinos de resistência popular.
Não conseguiram chegar do outro lado, é claro, porém, chamaram atenção e provaram o que queriam: "It doesn't matter how hight the barriers will be, they will fall. Like the Berlin wall fell, the Palestinian wall will fall", disse um deles emocionado com o feito.
Há duas semanas contei as tensões galopantes em Jerusalém após autoridades israelenses cogitarem a divisão da Esplanada da mesquita al-Aqsa na parte muçulmana da cidade antiga já dividida legalmente em quatro partes entre as três religiões monoteístas.
Na mesma campanha, dezenas de ativistas se reuniram perto do vilarejo de Hizma portando a bandeira palestina e gritando palavras-de ordem de apoio aos jerusalemitas.
Um deles relatou o feito da seguinte maneira: "They attempted to detain us for carrying Palestinian flags. What we did today was to emphasize that we do not have a choice but popular resistance and clashing with Israel is a part of our fight to stop Israeli crimes against Palestinians."
Na semana passada outros incidentes ocorreram em comemoração da queda do muro de Berlin: "as Palestinian activists affiliated with local popular resistance committees in the villages northwest of Jerusalem broke open a hole in the apartheid wall to commemorate the 25th anniversay of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The illegal Israeli apartheid wall is in many places more than double as high and nearly six times as long as the German barrier, as it cuts across the West Bank to divide Palestinians from other Palestinians ostensibly in order to ensure Israeli 'security'", conta um ativista estrangeiro.
Israel começou a construção do muro da vergonha, também chamado 'apartheid wall" em 2002. Em 2004 a Corte Penal Internacional declarou o 'empreendimento' ilegal sem tomar nenhuma medida concreta de coerção ou de intervenção para que Israel parasse de infringir a lei internacional. Desde então o muro avança ano a ano, mês a mês, dia a dia e se for completado, 85 por cento da cerca de cimento armado estará dentro da Cisjordânia, portanto, em território legalmente palestino.
Como a Jordânia está ajudando os EUA a conter o Isis, John Kerry foi à região passar a mão na cabeça de Netanyahu e acalmar os ânimos com palavras vãs.
Está passando da hora do mundo repetir a famosa frase que John Fitzgerald Kennedy disse em junho de 1963 ao visitar a Alemanha e ver o muro da vergonha - Ich bin ein berliner - em sua versão contemporânea: We are all Jerusalemites! Somos todos jerusalemitas! E defendamos a cidade e os nativos da invasão bárbara.
Há duas semanas contei as tensões galopantes em Jerusalém após autoridades israelenses cogitarem a divisão da Esplanada da mesquita al-Aqsa na parte muçulmana da cidade antiga já dividida legalmente em quatro partes entre as três religiões monoteístas.
Na mesma campanha, dezenas de ativistas se reuniram perto do vilarejo de Hizma portando a bandeira palestina e gritando palavras-de ordem de apoio aos jerusalemitas.
Um deles relatou o feito da seguinte maneira: "They attempted to detain us for carrying Palestinian flags. What we did today was to emphasize that we do not have a choice but popular resistance and clashing with Israel is a part of our fight to stop Israeli crimes against Palestinians."
Na semana passada outros incidentes ocorreram em comemoração da queda do muro de Berlin: "as Palestinian activists affiliated with local popular resistance committees in the villages northwest of Jerusalem broke open a hole in the apartheid wall to commemorate the 25th anniversay of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The illegal Israeli apartheid wall is in many places more than double as high and nearly six times as long as the German barrier, as it cuts across the West Bank to divide Palestinians from other Palestinians ostensibly in order to ensure Israeli 'security'", conta um ativista estrangeiro.
Israel começou a construção do muro da vergonha, também chamado 'apartheid wall" em 2002. Em 2004 a Corte Penal Internacional declarou o 'empreendimento' ilegal sem tomar nenhuma medida concreta de coerção ou de intervenção para que Israel parasse de infringir a lei internacional. Desde então o muro avança ano a ano, mês a mês, dia a dia e se for completado, 85 por cento da cerca de cimento armado estará dentro da Cisjordânia, portanto, em território legalmente palestino.
Como a Jordânia está ajudando os EUA a conter o Isis, John Kerry foi à região passar a mão na cabeça de Netanyahu e acalmar os ânimos com palavras vãs.
Está passando da hora do mundo repetir a famosa frase que John Fitzgerald Kennedy disse em junho de 1963 ao visitar a Alemanha e ver o muro da vergonha - Ich bin ein berliner - em sua versão contemporânea: We are all Jerusalemites! Somos todos jerusalemitas! E defendamos a cidade e os nativos da invasão bárbara.
Israeli settlers violence caught on tape
Com razão, pois são tratados como cidadãos de segunda classe e são submetidos a mais de 50 leis discriminatórias.
Em uma dessas passeatas, Kheir al-Din al-Hamdan foi baleado covardemente por um soldado, como acontece na Cisjordânia quase diariamente sem consequência para quem puxa o gatilho elegal e covardemente.
No entanto, desta vez foi dentro de Israel e alguém filmou o soldado atirando nas costas do rapaz galileu de 22 anos. Que por sinal é de kafr Kana, a cidade da festa em que Jesus transformou água em vinho.
Não se fala muito no assunto, mas dede o início da Segunda Intifada em 2000, 48 palestinos-israelenses foram assassinados, 35 por soldados ou policiais. Só três dos assassinos fardados foram processados - receberam penas de prisão light de apenas 6 a 14 meses. O patrimônio religioso dos palestinos - igrejas e mesquitas - também estão em perigo. Mas o mais importante é gente e não pedra.
Desde julho, mais de mil jovens palestino-israelenses foram presos por protestarem, inclusive meninos. O método é o já connhecido nos territórios ocupados, dos sequestros noturnos com invasões e depredações das casas de família.
A morte de Kheir foi descrita e vista no vídeo como uma a execução sumária. Repito, como tantas na Cisjordânia e em Gaza.
E qual foi a reação de Binyamin Netanyahu? Dizer para os jovens: "Move to the Palestinian Authority or Gaza". E assim serem bombardeados com facilidade, em Gaza; e na Cisjordânia, viverem aonde, nos guetos murados que ele está fabricando? E os 550 mil invasores judeus que se instalaram ilegalmente na Cisjordânia?
Eu realmente não consigo entender que ainda exista gente com inteligência pelo menos média e com um mínimo de sensibilidade que ainda tenha alguma consideração pelo governo israelense. Ignorância tem limite. Ganância idem.
Norman Finkelstein compara Egito com Israel (11-2014)
Dear Readers,
Over the past summer, Gaza suffered unprecedented devastation. “The wounds of this war,” Harvard political economist Sara Roy laments, “could prove too severe to heal.” In the meantime, Israel continues its illegal and inhuman blockade of Gaza, while it also aggressively pursues illegal settlement construction in occupied East Jerusalem.
But the picture is not unrelievedly bleak.
The British House of Commons overwhelmingly expressed support for a Palestinian state. The Swedish government just formally recognized it. An increasingly deranged Israeli government has even managed to alienate its faithful benefactor in Washington. And, most important, Palestinians continue to resist the dismemberment and destruction of their country.
The Chinese character for crisis also denotes opportunity.
Indeed, we have a unique opportunity to shape the political debate on Palestine’s future. The public now perceives that Israel has not just thwarted but also actively sabotaged a just and lasting peace. It is ready to give Israel’s critics a fair hearing.
In my new book, Method and Madness: The hidden story of Israel’s assaults on Gaza, I provide the critical background to Israel’s cynical bloodstained policy. I document Israel’s recurrent resort to brutal force, not in retaliation against Hamas violence but, on the contrary, to preempt Hamas’s “peace offensive.” I show that the dual purpose of Israel’s periodic assaults on Gaza has been, on the one hand, to provoke Hamas violence, in order to justify its continued occupation and, on the other, to use Gaza as a punching bag in order to restore Israel’s “deterrence capacity”—that is, the Arab-Muslim world’s fear of it.
However, my book does not just reconstruct and analyze the hidden facts. It also proposes a concrete political strategy. I argue that only mass nonviolent Palestinian resistance synchronized with the Palestinian people’s biggest asset—the solidarity movement abroad—can achieve a resolution of the conflict based on international law.
What if, I suggest in the conclusion, the quantum of time, energy, creativity and ingenuity channeled into building the tunnels (a wondrous feat of civil engineering), were instead invested in Gaza’s most precious resource: the people? What if they organized a mass nonviolent demonstration demanding an end to the blockade of Gaza? What if 1.8 million Gazans marched on the Israeli crossings under the banner, STOP STRANGLING US! END THE ILLEGAL BLOCKADE OF GAZA! What if Gaza’s one million children stood at the head of the march? Yes, children. Wasn’t it the “children’s miracle” in Selma, Alabama, during the Civil Rights Movement that broke the back of segregation, when Black children, positioned in the front lines, fended off police attack dogs and high-velocity fire hoses? What if Palestinians found the inner wherewithal to stay nonviolent even as Israel fired murderously on the crowd? What if the vast reservoir of Palestine’s international supporters simultaneously converged, in the hundreds of thousands, on UN headquarters in New York and Geneva, enveloping and blockading the buildings?The best that can be said for armed resistance is that it has been tried many times to break the siege but failed. The worst that can be said for mass nonviolent resistance is that it hasn’t yet been tried. Shouldn’t it at least be given a chance?
If we master the facts and interpret them correctly, and if we match the courage and conviction of the people of Palestine, I remain convinced that justice can yet triumph. Method and Madness is intended as a small contribution to that noble end.
Yours sincerely,
Inside Story: The negev, Development or discrimination?
"Afr Kanna, a village near Nazareth, is probably the place where Jesus – according to the New Testament - turned water into wine. Now it is the Arab village where the Israeli police is turning stones into blood.
On the fateful day, the police was confronting a group of young Arabs protesting against the Israeli efforts to change the status quo on the Temple Mount (known to Muslims as "the Noble Sanctuary"). Such demonstrations were taking place that day in many Arab towns and villages all over Israel, and especially in occupied East Jerusalem.
According to the first police statement, the 22-year old Arab, Kheir a-Din Hamdan, attacked the police with a knife. In self defense, they had no choice but to shoot and kill him.
As so often with police reports, this was a pack of lies.
Unfortunately (for the police), the incident was recorded by security cameras. The pictures clearly showed Hamdan approaching a police car and beating on its windows with something, possibly a knife. When he saw that this had no effect, Hamdan turned around and started to walk away.
At that moment, the policemen got out of the car and immediately started to shoot at the back of Hamdan, who was hit and fell to the ground. The officers surrounded him and, after some hesitation, obviously a consultation between them, started to drag the wounded youngster on the ground towards the patrol car, as if he were a sack of potatoes. They dumped him on the floor of the car and drove away (to a hospital, it appears), with their feet on or near the dying man.
The pictures show clearly, for everyone to see, that the policemen violated the standing police orders for opening fire: they were in no immediate mortal danger, they did not shout a warning, they did not shoot first in the air, they did not aim at the lower part of his body. They did not call an ambulance. The youngster bled to death. It was a cold-blooded execution.
There was an outcry. Arab citizens rioted in many places. Under pressure, the Police Investigation board (which belongs to the Ministry of Justice) started an investigation. The first investigation already uncovered several facts which put an even more severe face on the incident.
It appeared that before the cameras caught the scene, the police had arrested Hamdan's cousin and put him into the car. Obviously, Kheir a-Din wanted to release the cousin and therefore beat on the car. The cousin saw him being shot and dumped on the floor of the car in which he was sitting.
The first reaction of the police command was to justify the behavior of the policemen, whose names and faces were withheld. They were spirited away to some other police unit.
I describe the incident at length, not because it is unique but on the contrary – because it is so typical. What was special about it was only the unnoticed presence of the camera.
Several cabinet ministers lauded the exemplary behavior of the police in this incident. This can be dismissed as the publicity-hunting of extreme right-wing demagogues, who believe that their voters approve of all and any shooting of Arabs. They should know.
However, one statement cannot be ignored: the one made by the Minister of Home Security.
A few days before the incident, Minister Yitzhak Aharonowitz, a protégé of Avigdor Lieberman and himself a former police officer, declared publicly that he did not want any terrorist to survive after an attack.
That is a manifestly illegal statement. Indeed, it is a call for crimes. Under the law, policemen are not allowed to shoot "terrorists" or anybody else after they are taken prisoner, especially when they are wounded and do not present any "mortal danger"...
In actual fact, the Minister for Home Security (formerly known as Minister of Police) has practically no function... But for ordinary policemen, a statement by the minister sounds like an order. Quite probably, the irresponsible utterance of the minister was a direct incitement to the crime of Kafr Kanna. Especially since neither the Inspector General nor the Prime Minister denounced it.
All this reminds one of the fateful 1984 utterance of then Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who also declared that no terrorist should stay alive after an attack. The direct result was the "Bus Line 300" affair, in which four Arab boys, without any weapons, hijacked an Israeli bus. They were stopped, two were shot during the recapture, and two were taken alive. One of them was murdered by the chief of the Shin Bet himself, Avraham Shalom, who crushed his skull with a rock. When the pictures were published (first by me), Shalom and his colleagues were pardoned. Shamir denied any responsibility.
Back to today's events. Is this the long-awaited Third Intifada? Yes? No?
Army and police officers, politicians and especially media commentators are busy trying to answer this question. (Intifada means literally "shaking off".)
This is not just a mere semantic game. The definition carries with it operational consequences.
As a matter of fact, the entire country is now aflame. East Jerusalem is already a war zone, with daily demonstrations, riots and bloodshed. In Israel proper, since the Kafr Kanna killing Arab citizens are also mounting daily strikes and demonstrations. In the West Bank, there were some demonstrations and a fatal stabbing, after which an Arab was shot and killed.
Mahmoud Abbas is doing everything in his power to prevent a general uprising, which might quite well endanger his regime. But pressure from below is mounting. Abbas refused to meet Netanyahu in Amman.
Popular wisdom in Israel has already found a name for the situation: "Intifada of Individuals". For the Israeli security chiefs, that is a nightmare. They are ready for an organized Intifada. They know how to quash it by force, and, if necessary, by more force. But what to do with an Intifada which is entirely made by isolated individuals, with no orders from any organization, with no grouping that can be infiltrated by the collaborators of the Shin Bet net of informers?
An individual Arab listens to the news, is incensed by the latest outrage against the Holy Shrines and drives his car into the nearest group of Israeli soldiers or civilians. Or takes a knife from the kitchen of the Israeli restaurant where he washes the dishes and stabs people in the street. No prior information. No network to be infiltrated. Quite frustrating.
The center of the storm is the Temple Mount. The al-Aqsa ("far away") Mosque, the third holiest place of Islam, is under siege. At one point, Israeli soldiers entered the mosque (with their boots on) in pursuit of stone-throwing demonstrators.
Where are we going?
For decades now, a group of Israeli zealots has been busy planning for a new Jewish Temple to be built in place of the al-Aqsa and the magnificent Dome of the Rock. They are stitching garments for priests and making the necessary preparations for animal sacrifices.
Until recently, they were considered simply a curiosity. Not anymore.
Several cabinet ministers and Knesset members have entered the holy enclosure to pray, contrary to the status quo. Throughout the Islamic world, this has aroused alarm. Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and in Israel proper are furious.
Netanyahu promised King Abdallah II to restore quiet. But he is doing the opposite.
Jesus turned water into wine. Netanyahu is turning water into gasoline and pouring it on the flames."
Uri Avnery, 15/11/2014
Apartheid Adventures
IX
After months of unrest, municipal officials in Jerusalem have begun a widespread crackdown on the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, enforcing the finest points of the law in what rights groups have dubbed an act of "collective punishment".
Small businesses have been shuttered for unpaid bills, or for lacking the proper licenses. Livestock have been confiscated. One resident of the Old City, Sa’eed Shaloudi, was even ordered to remove his home’s water heater because it was installed without permission.
Akram Jadallah, a resident of Beit Hanina in northeast Jerusalem, was two payments behind on his arnona, a bimonthly municipal tax levied on property owners here. Late payments are not uncommon in Israel; cities have the right to seize the property of delinquent landowners, but punishments are typically light - a small monthly fine for all but the worst offenders.
In East Jerusalem, though, residents say back taxes and insurance payments have been used as a pretext to seize dozens of cars. "They towed my car, and I couldn’t get it back until I paid the taxes and the towing fine," Jadallah said. "I don’t think they do this in Talpiot," a Jewish neighbourhood in the west.
Mayor Nir Barkat denied that the crackdown was targeted at Palestinians, insisting that the law is applied equally. "The mayor has a clear policy of enforcing the law in all parts of Jerusalem," Brachie Sprung, a spokeswoman for Barkat, told Al Jazeera. "People who live in West Jerusalem pay for things they do illegally, and the same applies in the east."
Indeed, the citations are not spurious: Some residents interviewed for this article acknowledged they were breaking the law. The problem, they say, is that these laws were not previously enforced.
On November 11, for example, police issued dozens of parking tickets in Shuafat. Many of the offenders were parked on the curb, a virtual necessity in a neighbourhood with narrow streets and a shortage of municipal parking lots. "It’s the first time they’ve ever done this," said Mahmoud Abu Khdair, who received a 500 shekel ($130) fine.
Last week in Silwan, meanwhile, dozens of police officers set up checkpoints and stopped Palestinian drivers to issue tickets for various offences, many of them minor. A foreign motorist was allowed to enter the neighbourhood unimpeded.
East Jerusalem has been convulsed by months of unrest, dating back to the July murder of a Palestinian teenager, an act of revenge for the killing of three Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. The murder set off a week of riots in Shuafat, his neighbourhood. Protests have continued almost every night since, with local youth throwing stones at police and firebombs at passing vehicles.
Nearly half of the city’s light rail cars are out of service due to damage. Four people were killed in hit-and-run attacks over the past month, and a Palestinian man attempted to assassinate a right-wing Jewish activist.
More than 1,300 residents of East Jerusalem have been arrested since the summer, 40 percent of them children, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, an advocacy group. Neighbourhoods have been blanketed constantly with tear gas and foul-smelling "skunk water", the scent of which lingers on the streets for days.
Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deployed 1,000 additional police officers to the city, but the reinforcements have not stopped the unrest. The increased enforcement in East Jerusalem began around the same time.
The Israeli rights group B’Tselem called the steps "draconian" and "selective enforcement" aimed at punishing the entire population of certain neighbourhoods.
"It seems that the municipality is basically using collective punishment against some of the most disenfranchised members of Jerusalem’s population," said Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for B’Tselem.
Residents of East Jerusalem say they have been subject to decades of municipal neglect since Israel occupied the territory in 1967. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), another local NGO, issues an annual report on East Jerusalem, and indicators in this year’s report were typically grim. "The Israeli government has not allocated the necessary resources to develop East Jerusalem. As a result, there is a severe shortage of public services and infrastructure," the group said.
Seventy-five percent of residents live below the poverty line; schools have a shortage of 2,000 classrooms; one-third of students do not complete 12 years of schooling.
Basic services, from health clinics to post offices, are scarce. Building permits are expensive and difficult to obtain, giving the east an exponentially higher population density than the predominantly Jewish western parts of town. While most of the illegal construction documented by the municipality actually takes place in west Jerusalem, most demolitions occur in the east.
"The municipality is interested in us, at last," Abu Khdair joked. "Maybe now they’ll come to fix the roads."
Source, Al Jazeera 17/11/2014
PS. E quem quiser se informar sobre a gelada que Vladimir Putin sofreu no G20 por fonte diferente,
eis o Inside Story da Al Jazeera sobre o assunto.
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