The 13th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week began last week in South Africa. Israeli Apartheid Week will take place all around the world between March – April 2017.
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an international series of events that seeks to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people and to build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Inspired by the popular resistance across historic Palestine and struggles worldwide, IAW 2016 included a wide range of events, from lectures, film screenings, cultural performances, BDS actions, to postering in metro stations, setting up apartheid walls on campuses, and many more. These actions took place in more than 225 cities across the world.
The coming year (2017) will mark 100 years of Palestinian resistance against settler colonialism, since the inception of the Balfour Declaration. IAW will be an opportunity to reflect on this resistance and further advance BDS campaigns for the continued growth and impact of the movement. Despite all the legislative attacks on BDS internationally, IAW and the BDS movement continue to build linkages and solidarity with other struggles to achieve freedom, justice, and equality.
If you would like to organize and be part of Israeli Apartheid Week on your campus or in your city, check out what events are already planned at apartheidweek.org, find us on Facebook and Twitter, register online apartheidweek.org/organise/ and get in touch with IAW coordinators in your region.
A 13ª Semana do Apartheid Israelense acontecerá através do mundo de meados de março a abril de 2017. A Semana do Apartheid Israelense (SAI) é constituída de uma série de eventos internacionais que buscam aumentar a concientização do projeto israelense de limpeza étnica da Palestina, aumentando o apoio ao crescente movimento internacional de Boicote, Desinvestimento e Sanções (BDS).
Inspirada na resistência popular palestina e no trabalho dos defensores de uma Palestina livre e sobrerana através do mundo, a SAI 2016 incluiu ampla gama de eventos - de conferências, projeções cinematográficas, eventos culturais, ações BDS, a cartazes em estações de metrô, réplicas do muro do apartheid em universidades, e diversas coisas mais. Estas ações tiveram grande repercução midiática e despertaram mais de 225 cidades em cinco continentes para a desumanidade e ilegalidade da ocupação israelense.Este ano de 2017 marca os 100 anos de resistência palestina contra o colonialismo, iniciado na Declaração de Balfour em 1917. SAI será uma oportunidade de refletir sobre esta resistência e seguir avançando nas campanhas de boicote para um crescimento contínuo do movimento. A pesar de todos os ataques legislativos contra o BDS em alguns países que ostentam a bandeira da democracia e cometem atos anti-democráticos, como a França e os Estados Unidos, a SAI e o movimento BDS continuam construindo vínculos e solidaridade com outras luts por liberdade, justiça e igualdade.
Se você quiser e puder organizar algum ato de solidariedade aos palestinos e contra a ocupação israelense durante a Semana do Apartheid Israelense em sua cidade ou em sua universidade, dê uma olhada nos eventos que estão sendo planejados na apartheidweek.org/es, no Facebook e Twitter; registre sua ação na apartheidweek.org/organise e contacte a coordenação nacional e/ou estadual da SAI no Brasil.
Podem projetar filmes como Cristãos na Palestina: The stones cry out - the story of Palestinian Christians. Atenção! Ao procurar o filme, preste atenção no título inteiro. Cuidado para não ser enganado pela hasbara israelense que foi feita em seguida com o mesmo título.
Trailer do filme que conta a história dos cristãos palestinos.
Addameer's film that tackles the issue of administrative detention as a policy used by the Israeli government to hold Palestinians indefinitely on secret information without charge or trial. The film specifically focuses on the psychological effects of administrative detention on detainees and their families.
Life on hold: Administrative detention
Palestinians daring to love
Love
Under Apartheid: 4 couples talk about daily restrictions they face due
to Israeli policy."I never dreamed I would leave my country, but I also
never dreamed I would be separated from the person I love."Why is moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem such a big deal?
As I said at the beginning, Israeli Apartheid Week is beginning with many activities all over the World in every single Continent.
At the same time, a question arises: The Jewish settlers won the battle against international law and moral? While US and European pundits hemmed and hawed about the two-states solution, its opponents quietly took over Israeli government and much more.
Two weeks ago, Israel’s parliament passed a law allowing the state to seize private Palestinian land on which Jewish colonies/settlements have been constructed and transfer it to the settlements’ exclusive use.
The infamous regulation could retroactively legalize several thousand homes of Jewish settlers and suspend any demolition proceedings previously initiated against them.
Israel’s legal establishment has announced its opposition to the new law, saying it violates Israeli and international law and could lead to international repercussions. Israel’s president also came out against the law, arguing that it would “make Israel look like an apartheid state.”
As if it were not.
The law already has come under heavy criticism from several of Israel’s allies and has been challenged in Israel's High Court, where it could eventually be overturned. Yet despite these far-reaching political implications, the law was backed by Israel’s entire ruling coalition, with only one dissenting member.
Thus, while the Israeli right does in fact appear divided, the majority of its constituents, approximately 40 percent of the general Jewish-Israeli public, could be classified as ideologues, prioritizing control over the West Bank over security and material considerations. Which shows that Israel’s ideological right is not a radical fringe but a substantial segment of the public. Nevertheless, it remains a minority. Why, then, is it able to exercise such powerful influence on the Israeli leadership?
Because ideological voters are not concentrated at the far right, as many commentators assume, but rather vote for parties across the center and right-wing political spectrum. Consequently, Israel’s political leadership is constrained not by its coalition partners at the far right but by voters that form its core base.
The great majority of Israelis support the genocide in Palestine by any illegal and amoral means - vile occupation, expropriation, subjugation, individual and massive assassinations, and so many surreptitious means of extermination that the Israelis have created.
The disparity of forces, of means, and of short and long time Israli goal of ethnic cleansing that Israel is meating could not be clearer. Nevertheless, US and many European politicians like to preach from on high about justice for Palestinians and Israelis alike… as if the pathway of pain for occupied and occupier is one-in-the same… as if these two dramatically different ends of the scales of justice can, indeed should, be balanced.
When it comes to Palestine, for decades, Western governments have hidden
behind a cheap frilly veneer of neutrality all the while the United States subsidized, to
the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, a vicious, often deadly,
criminal occupation that has used impediment and stalling tactics to
re-sculpt a landscape that has been home to Palestinians for the
millennium.
How often do we hear from US and European politicians that Palestine is a complex
issue?
It is not.
It is the simplest issue of all international issues, as there are clear international regulations on the matter.
In point of fact, Palestine is very complicated only when confusion provides opportune cover for delay. Of course, ethnic cleansing knows no better cover than delay.
It is not.
It is the simplest issue of all international issues, as there are clear international regulations on the matter.In point of fact, Palestine is very complicated only when confusion provides opportune cover for delay. Of course, ethnic cleansing knows no better cover than delay.
The debate about the
whens, wheres and whys can go on and on as not
much more than the allure of excuse. There are, however, certain
fundamental truths about Palestine that cannot be denied even by those
largely European immigrants to the State of Israel and invasors to the
non-state of Palestine who have become expert at rewriting history
to suit a land grab of epic and on-going proportion.
While figures vary from source to source, in 1914, Palestine had a
population of between 600-738,000 Palestinians (Muslim & Christian
Arabs as well as other religions) and 59-94,000 Jews. In 1922, the
census showed some 660-725,000 Palestinians and 84-89,000 Jews.
In 1931, it is recorded that 4,075 Jews immigrated to Palestine along with 1245 Christians and 213 Muslims.
In 1935 it was 61,854 Jews who immigrated with 903 Arabs and 1390 Christians and others.
In 1937 it was 10,500 Jews, 743 Arabs and 1196 Christians and others who came to Palestine.
By the end of 1944, the Jewish population had increased to 528,702 of which 117,226 were natural and 327,686 were immigrants. The Arab population had increased to 1,061,277 of which 453,405 were natural and 18,695 were immigrants. Christians and others increased to 149,645 of which 51,616 were natural and 18,948 were immigrant.
In 1931, it is recorded that 4,075 Jews immigrated to Palestine along with 1245 Christians and 213 Muslims.
In 1935 it was 61,854 Jews who immigrated with 903 Arabs and 1390 Christians and others.
In 1937 it was 10,500 Jews, 743 Arabs and 1196 Christians and others who came to Palestine.
By the end of 1944, the Jewish population had increased to 528,702 of which 117,226 were natural and 327,686 were immigrants. The Arab population had increased to 1,061,277 of which 453,405 were natural and 18,695 were immigrants. Christians and others increased to 149,645 of which 51,616 were natural and 18,948 were immigrant.
Four years later, in 1948, when land designated as Israel was ripped
from the heartland of Palestine by UN political fiat, the two sides were
ill-matched. The Jewish community in Palestine was much smaller:
approximately 608-630,000 to the Arab, Christian and others 1.3-1.7
million… roughly 30 or so percent of the overall population. In spite of
all Israel’s efforts, the Jewish population remains in the minority (as
it has since at least the 5th century).
As to the land, in 1922 Jews owned roughly 3% of the land in Palestine which
increased to some 7% of its total over the next decade. When the State
of Israel was established, Jewish ownership of land stood at 8.6%, with
3.3% owned by those who were to become known as Israeli-Arabs while
another 16.9% of land was abandoned by Palestinian owners who fled in
advance of the war that was to come.
Following the UN pronouncement, some 750,000 Palestinians were driven
from their farms and villages with estimates running as high as 20,000
civilians killed, twice as many injured and hundreds of rapes carried
out by marauding terrorists from the Irgun, Stern Gang and Haganah. Hundreds of villages and towns were eradicated.
In the war that followed, another 400 to 600 Palestinian villages
were sacked while urban Palestine was almost entirely extinguished. Out
of about 400 Jewish settlements built post 1948, 350 were fabricated on
Palestinian refugee property. Between 1948 and 1950 some 369 Palestinian
villages were erased and replaced by 161 new Jewish settlements. During
that same period, Israel seized two-thirds of all cultivated land which
had been owned by Palestinians who were forced to flee.Reliable estimates indicate that ultimately 80% of the Arab inhabitants, in what became Israel, left or were expelled from their homes, swept out by a colonial design that has run unabated since 1948… one in which the US has been very much a willing partner, indeed, enabler of the ethnic cleansing that has ensued.
Abby Martin: How Palestine Became Colonized
Oslo I was signed in Washington D.C., followed by Oslo II in 1995. Among other things, this agreement, also known as the Taba Agreement, called for prompt Israeli withdrawals from various Palestinian areas and expanded Palestinian self-rule.
Following Oslo I, in rapid order, came: The Gaza-Jerico Agreement also known as the Cairo Agreement (1994);The Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities Between Israel and the PLO ( August 1994); The Protocol on Further Transfers of Powers and Responsibilities (August 1995); The Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron (January 1997); The Wye River Memorandum (October 1998); The Sharm el-Sheik Memorandum (September 1999); The Camp David Meetings in (July, 2000); The Agreement on Movement and Access (November 2005); and, most recently, during 2013-2014, the unsuccessful attempt by now former Secretary of State Kerry to restart the so-called peace process.
Although these dozen or so hollow agreements, protocols and meetings made for powerful photo ops and fine dining, in practice they provided little more than cover… cover for Israel to steal more and more Palestinian land and moral cover for the US to speak of justice while, in reality, stoking the flames of racial and religious hatred through billions of dollars for Israeli settlements and weapons.
Fifteen years later, at the time of the 1993 Oslo Accords, there were some 262,500 settlers in the West Bank.
Seven years later, at the Camp David Summit of 2000, there were a total of 362,945 settlers in the West bank with 169,969 in East Jerusalem.
By 2013, some 20 years after the Oslo Accords, the number of settlers grew to 520,000, across the West Bank, including 200,000 in East Jerusalem.
Today, there are approximately 250 settlements and “outposts” in the
West Bank… home to some 800,000 illegal settlers… constituting
approximately 13% of Israel’s population.Among them are 13 settlements and 12 solely Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem where 200,000 Israelis live. The population of East Jerusalem is now down to 37% Palestinian. Area C of the West Bank is now 99% settler occupied.
Empowered by the election of Donald Trump and his nomination of David M. Friedman, long aligned with its settler far right, as Ambassador to Israel, it has approved more than 3,000 new units in the occupied West Bank, and signaled a green light to take what little else remains.
As then President, Jimmy Carter noted “There has to be a homeland provided for the Palestinian refugees who have suffered for many, many years.” Ronald Reagan, spoke of “autonomy talks to pave the way for permitting the Palestinian people to exercise their legitimate rights.”
George H.W. Bush criticized the presence of illegal settlements in the West Bank noting “Outposts, yeah, they ought to go.”
President Clinton opined about the need for the creation of a new Palestinian State based on the idea of self-determination for the Palestinian people.
George W. Bush called for a halt to Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian lands needed for a state.
Several years ago Barrack Obama decried…“more aggressive settlement construction over the last couple years than we’ve seen in a very long time.”
Though these sentiments have been echoed by each occupant of the White House over the last 40 years, in reality they’ve reflected little more than a conspicuous political subterfuge to garner votes while providing Israel unlimited funds to support its endless aggression.
The cold hard reality is US politicians care far more about the domestic political mileage and influence of American Zionists than they do abstract notions of international law or justice for Palestinians.
One simply can’t have it both ways… calling out for justice while subsidizing Israeli hatred and violence with an open checkbook and empty rhetoric. It’s just not possible to be a neutral and detached arbiter at the same time courting votes.
68 years of its history, and counting, has shown that it has and will continue to do whatever it wishes to Palestinians unless and until the United Nations holds it accountable by ripping up the blank check or until the pain and suffering of its colonial enterprise becomes just too much for Israelis to bear.
Palestinians' suffering is already unbearable.
Who really cares?
We all should. We all must. For the sake of humanity and justice.
Inside Story (07/02/17): Will Israel annex Palestinian territories?
Hanan Ashrawi
BRASIL
BRASIL
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