Stealing Success Tel Aviv Style

Antiwar.com - Philip Giraldi

A curious op-ed "The Tel Aviv Cluster" by the reliably neoconnish David Brooks appeared in the New York Times on January 12th.  Brooks enthused over the prowess of Israel’s high tech businesses, attributing their success in large part to Jewish exceptionalism and genius, which must have provided the ultimate feel good moment for Brooks, who is himself Jewish.

That Israel has a booming technology sector is undeniably true, but Brooks failed to mention other contributing factors such as the $101 billion dollars in US economic and military aid over the course of more than four decades, which does not include the additional $30 billion recently approved by President Barack Obama. 

American assistance has financed and fueled Israel’s business growth while the open access and even "preferential treatment" afforded to Israeli exporters through the Israel Free Trade Implementation Act of 1985 has provided Israelis with the enormous US market to sell their products and services.  By act of Congress, Israeli businesses can even bid on most American Federal and State government contracts just as if they were US companies.

Brooks was characteristically undisturbed by the fact that American taxpayer subsidized development of Israeli enterprises combined with the free access to the US economy and government contracts eliminates jobs and damages competing companies on this side of the Atlantic.

And there is another aspect of Israel’s growing high tech sector that he understandably chose to ignore because it is extremely sleazy.  That is the significant advantage that Israel has gained by systematically stealing American technology with both military and civilian applications.  The US developed technology is then reverse engineered and used by the Israelis to support their own exports with considerably reduced research and development costs, giving them a huge advantage against American companies.  

Sometimes, when the technology is military in nature and winds up in the hands of a US adversary, the consequences can be serious.  Israel has sold advanced weapons systems to China that are believed to incorporate technology developed by American companies, including the Python-3 air-to-air missile and the Delilah cruise missile.  There is evidence that Israel has also stolen Patriot missile avionics to incorporate into its own Arrow system and that it used US technology obtained in its Lavi fighter development program, which was funded by the US taxpayer to the tune of $1.5 billion, to help the Chinese develop their own J-10 fighter.

The reality of Israeli spying is indisputable.  Israel always features prominently in the annual FBI report called "Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage." The 2005 report states, "Israel has an active program to gather proprietary information within the United States. These collection activities are primarily directed at obtaining information on military systems and advanced computing applications that can be used in Israel’s sizable armaments industry."

It adds that Israel recruits spies, uses electronic methods, and carries out computer intrusion to gain the information. The 2005 report concluded that the thefts eroded US military advantage, enabling foreign powers to obtain expensive technologies that had taken years to develop.

A 1996 Defense Investigative Service report noted that Israel has great success stealing technology by exploiting the numerous co-production projects that it has with the Pentagon. "Placing Israeli nationals in key industries …is a technique utilized with great success."

A General Accounting Office (GAO) examination of espionage directed against American defense and security industries described how Israeli citizens residing in the US had stolen sensitive technology to manufacture artillery gun tubes, obtained classified plans for a reconnaissance system, and passed sensitive aerospace designs to unauthorized users.

An Israeli company was caught monitoring a Department of Defense telecommunications system to obtain classified information, while other Israeli entities targeted avionics, missile telemetry, aircraft communications, software systems, and advanced materials and coatings used in missile re-entry. The GAO concluded that Israel "conducts the most aggressive espionage operation against the United States of any US ally."

In June 2006, a Pentagon administrative judge overruled an appeal by an Israeli who had been denied a security clearance, stating, "The Israeli government is actively engaged in military and industrial espionage in the United States. An Israeli citizen working in the US who has access to proprietary information is likely to be a target of such espionage."

More recently, FBI counter intelligence officer John Cole has reported how many cases of Israeli espionage are dropped under orders from the Justice Department.  He provides a "conservative estimate" of 125 worthwhile investigations into Israeli espionage involving both American citizens and Israelis that were stopped due to political pressure from above.

Two recent stories that have been reported in the Israeli media but are strangely absent from the news on this side of the Atlantic demonstrate exactly what is going on and what is at stake. The first story confirms that Israeli efforts to obtain US technology are ongoing.  Stewart David Nozette, a US government scientist who was arrested on October 19, 2009 in an FBI sting operation after offering to spy for Israel has been waiting in jail to go to trial on espionage charges.

New documents in the case were presented in the Federal court in Washington last week.  The documents confirm that Nozette was a paid consultant for Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) and it is believed that he passed to them classified material in return for an estimated $225,000 in consulting fees.  Examination of his computer by the FBI revealed that he was planning a "penetration of NASA" the US space agency and that he was also trying to crack into other scientists’ computers to obtain additional classified material.

Other documents demonstrate that he was cooperating with two Israeli scientists who were administrators with IAI, Yossi Weiss and Yossi Fishman.  Nozette made several trips to Israel without reporting them, which he was required to do because of his high security clearance.  The FBI reportedly also has incriminating letters and other documents that were obtained from the computer.

The second story relates to the pending sale of twenty-five F-35 fighter planes to Israel.  The F-35 is one of the most advanced fighter planes in the world.  The $130 million planes would be purchased with US military assistance money, which means they would effectively be a gift from the US taxpayer.  But Israel is balking at the sale reportedly because it wants to install some of its own local content in the aircraft.  The Pentagon has already made some concessions but is disinclined to grant approval for all the changes because to do so would require giving the Israelis full access to the plane’s advanced avionics and computer systems.  Israel also wants to independently maintain the aircraft, which would also require access to all systems.

It would be nice to think that the Pentagon wants to keep the maintenance in American hands to preserve jobs, but the Defense Department has never cared about US workers before when the issue is Israel, and the real reason for the standoff is that Lockheed-Martin and the Pentagon both know that Israel will steal whatever it can if it gains access.  It would then use the technology to market its own products at a price below that of US defense contractors. The result would be a triple whammy for Uncle Sam:  the expensive planes are given to Israel free, the technology is then stolen, and future sales vanish as our Israeli friends market their knock down versions of weapons systems reliant on the stolen technology.

So to David Brooks I would say that there is most definitely an economic surge taking place in high tech Israel, but it is less a miracle than the fruit of a long series of thefts and manipulations fueled by American tax money and the connivance of a Congress that is always willing to do favors for the country that it appears to love beyond all others.

I’m sure most Americans would wish the Israelis well and would applaud the prosperity that derives from their own industry and inventiveness but it is also time to put the brakes on business as usual and to take the Israeli hand out of our pocket.  I’m sure Brooks’ job is pretty secure and well paid, but many Americans are out of work and suffering, so let’s take some steps to protect our economy from the information thieves from Tel Aviv and keep our money and jobs over here.   Full story

Philip M. Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer. He is currently Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest.  Full Bio

International activists accompany Gazan farmers

Palsolidarity
Farmers form the villages of Faraheen and Khuza’a , near Gaza’s second biggest city of Khan Younis, reported to the ISM that routine ’sweeps’ which Israelis carry out along the the border , disrupted the sowing of the wheat in the last few days available after the recent rainfall.

Twice a month Israelis enter the Gazan side of the electrified border fence to ensure that they are no explosive devices left by the Palestinian resistance in the 50 meter belt.

This is the time of increased tensions when farmers experience more incidents of intimidation and firing by the Israeli border patrols. For example, in separate incidents, Israeli border patrols fired at the farmers from villages of Faraheen and Khuza’a in the morning of the Saturday, 30th January. The farmers withdrew to the safe distance and returned to continue with the wheat sowing after the soldiers left the area.

Following the Saturday firing, the farmers from Khuza’a requested the ISM accompaniment on the next day, Sunday 31...

Farmers told us that apart from fearing death or injury by shooting, they also worry about being kidnapped by the soldiers crossing to the Gazan side ...

‘We must farm our and or we will give it up bit by bit and the next generation will not have skills to work the land and will abandon it. We owe it to our children to work on our land, regardless of dangers’, said the farmer we accompanied on Sunday.

He also told us that 12 years ago he had many fruit trees and that he used to get 20 boxes of fruit form each plum tree. He also grew vegetables in the greenhouses which Israelis have since destroyed. ‘I used to sleep in the tent with my family in this very field’ he said with the nostalgia and sadness.  Full story

Mustafa Barghouthi nominated for 2010 Nobel Peace Prize

Ma'an
Founder of the political party the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouthi was nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize by Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate and co-founder of Peace People in Northern Ireland.

The nomination was submitted on 15 January. In her letter Maguire cited Barghouthi's "commitment to nonviolence in his personal and public life" as an effort that "is truly in the Ghandian spirit."

Recognition for Barghouthi, she said, would "be a recognition of not only his great spirit of peace and nonviolence but also of the Palestinian nonviolent movement, which gives us all hope for the future of Palestine, Israel and the Middle East community."

Barghouthi was a presidential candidate in Palestine in 2005, was elected to the Palestinian parliament in 2006, appointed Minister of Information under the 2007 national unity government, and regularly participates in the campaigns of village Popular Committees' anti-wall protests...   Full story

Israeli jets strike southern Gaza

Ma'an
Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes on at least two targets in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, witnesses said and the Israeli military confirmed.

Three Palestinians were reportedly wounded and three others reported missing shortly after six separate strikes...   Full story

East Jerusalem protests revive hope in Israeli left

Ma'an
A record number of Israeli demonstrators in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood on Friday challenged the trend of continued arrests and threats to protesters...

Despite police plans to end the demonstration with force, more than 300 Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli activists gathered in Sheikh Jarrah on Friday afternoon to protest the evictions of Palestinian families from their homes.

A record number of protesters attended the rally, which most expected would end in dozens of arrests and possibly violence. During previous protests, dozens were detained including the director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Hagai El-Ad. When police and protesters clashed in December, 21 were detained.

The Israeli daily Haaretz estimated that more than 70 demonstrators have been arrested to date.

Last month, however, a Jerusalem judge deemed the activists' arrests illegal. The same court ruled that the demonstrations are within the boundaries of the law. Speaking to Haaretz, attorney Michel Sfrard, who represented the detained activists, called the court's ruling a "major victory."

On Friday, one protester joyously waved a photocopy of a Hebrew-language article announcing the judge's decision. Standing with the tight group of demonstrators, Knesset Member Hanna Swaid of the Hadash party remarked, "Police tried to stop the protests, but the Israeli court ruled this is a legal demonstration."

Observers increasingly look at the protest as a way to check the pulse of the Israeli left. Some say the weekly demonstration – made primarily of Israelis – indicates that the left is on the verge of a revival; others disagree.

Swaid commented, "The Israeli left was waiting, unfortunately, for a very long time for the resumption of peace talks. This will not happen under this government. The left has to take to the streets to exert pressure and show that there is a great part of Israeli society that doesn't support the policies of Judaization, settlers, and occupation."

The heavy police presence, he added, "only increases the willingness of people to come and show sympathy for the Palestinians."

Armed with drums and handwritten signs reading "Free Sheikh Jarrah" and "People before territory," the demonstrators stood across the street from about 50 police clad in full riot gear. The tension was palpable as the protesters and the police squared off.

A new generation?

Neria Biala, 35, decided to attended a West Bank demonstration several months ago at the urging of a friend. She said she was shocked by what she saw there. "What struck me the most was the violence – the army and the police were extremely violent," she recalled.

Biala then embarked on a journey of re-education. Now, with a new understanding of the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, she sees Sheikh Jarrah as a microcosm for the state's ills. And, in light of the recent arrests, Biala sees participating in the protest a step toward safeguarding Israeli democracy.

Biala reflected that Israelis who are uninformed and uninvolved are harming their own country. "It's suicide not to know what's going on here."

Oshra Bar, 22, described himself as a longtime activist. After high school he refused service in the Israeli army.

"It's impossible to have a democratic state when you have race laws," Bar said, pointing to "Jewish only" roads in the West Bank and restrictions on the sale of land to Palestinians.

"What is happening here [in Sheikh Jarrah] is a direct continuation of the Palestinian Nakba – the people [Arabs] are being dispossessed again," Bar said, adding that she believes in a secular, bi-national state with equal rights for all citizens. "I'm here to show that I'm against race laws."... Full story

The Wiesenthal Center Digs Itself Deeper

Forward
....Almost a year ago, I stood there with a group of rabbinical students and other young Jewish leaders to voice our dissent. We felt that the Wiesenthal Center’s insistence on building its planned Museum of Tolerance on top of a centuries-old Muslim cemetery betrayed the concept of tolerance at the heart of the museum’s purported mission.

Of course, desecrating a centuries-old cemetery was not the Wiesenthal Center’s intention when it first set its sights on the prime parcel of West Jerusalem real estate. But digging at the site resulted in the discovery of human skeletons and accidentally unearthed a disturbing chapter in Jerusalem’s history: Decades ago, the Jerusalem municipality had built a parking lot on top of a portion of the famed Mamilla cemetery, land that had now been given to the Wiesenthal Center.

The discovery of the human remains gave the center and the city a chance to make amends for a wrong committed long ago — a wrong that I doubt the center’s head, Rabbi Marvin Hier, would ever allow to happen to the Jewish people. Instead, Rabbi Hier dug his heels into that sacred plot of land so deep he could no longer see.

........Watching this shande unfold, my peers and I felt let down by the leaders of the American Jewish community. Where were the community relations organizations that have historically fought for equality and tolerance, and who would never countenance the desecration of a Jewish graveyard, anywhere in the world? They were silent.
One striking exception was Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, who wrote a powerful op-ed for... “there is something perverse and ironic about building a monument to tolerance that will be a permanent source of tension in the region and that undermines the mutual respect and trust that tolerance requires.”

Since few of Yoffie’s colleagues were willing to demonstrate similar courage, our group of rabbinical students and Jewish educators decided that if the mainstream American Jewish organizations would not take a stand for their own principles, then we would add our voices to the chorus of Israelis and Palestinians speaking out against the museum...

I was blown away by the support we received — 70 future rabbis, educators and Jewish leaders came to the demonstration from a dozen institutions. People who disagree on many issues were able to put aside their differences for this cause......   Full story

UN find challenges Israeli version of attack on civilian building in Gaza war

Guardian
A new Israeli report defending the military's conduct in the Gaza war was challenged tonight after evidence emerged apparently contradicting one of its key findings.

Israel submitted a 46-page report to the UN on Friday saying its forces abided by international law throughout the three-week war last year. It was meant to avert the threat of international prosecutions and to challenge a highly critical UN inquiry by South African judge Richard Goldstone, which accused both Israel and Hamas of "grave breaches" of the fourth Geneva convention, war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

The Israeli report looked in detail at a handful of incidents, including the attack on the al-Badr flour mill in northern Gaza, which was severely damaged.

The UN mine action team, which handles ordnance disposal in Gaza, has told the Guardian that the remains of a 500-pound Mk82 aircraft-dropped bomb were found in the ruins of the mill last January. Photographs of the front half of the bomb have been obtained by the Guardian.


This evidence directly contradicts the finding of the Israeli report, which challenged allegations that the building was deliberately targeted and specifically stated there was no evidence of an air strike. Goldstone, however, used the account of the air strike as a sign that Israel's attack on the mill was not mere collateral damage, but precisely targeted and a possible war crime.

The flour mill attack was not the most serious incident of the war: although nearly 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in just three weeks, no one died at the mill. However, because it was a civilian building producing food – the only operational mill in Gaza – the incident received particular criticism from Goldstone, who concluded that the building was hit by an air strike, the attacks were "intentional and precise", and they were "carried out for the purpose of denying sustenance to the civilian population". He added that the attacks violated the fourth Geneva convention and customary international law and may constitute a war crime.

.....Asked to explain the new evidence today, the Israeli military referred the Guardian to an Israeli foreign ministry statement that summarises last week's report and states that the military is "committed to full compliance" with the law of armed conflict and to investigating any alleged violations.

As well as the heavy death toll, the Gaza war damaged a large amount of civilian infrastructure: more than 21,000 buildings and apartments were wholly or partly destroyed, including more than 200 major factories.

The al-Badr flour mill was the largest mill in the strip, with production lines spread over five floors – each of which were hit. Gaza's largest concrete factory, at a different site a few miles away, was also destroyed, as were several large food processing plants.

Goldstone said the nature of the attack on the flour mill "suggests that the intention was to disable its productive capacity" and said there was no plausible justification for the extensive damage. "It thus appears that the only purpose was to put an end to the production of flour in the Gaza Strip," his report said. It is not clear why Goldstone did not use evidence from the UN team in his report.

Rashad Hamada, one of two brothers who owns the mill, gave evidence at a public hearing in Gaza last June and said the mill was hit by an air strike. He said the ­factory twice received phone calls from the Israeli military telling them to evacuate the building in the days before the strike, but the factory was not used by Hamas or other Palestinian fighters.

Both Hamada brothers possess hard-to-obtain businessmen's permits to enter Israel and were therefore regarded as ­credible ­witnesses by the Goldstone team.....  Full story

Israeli police chase down, detain 4 in East Jerusalem

Ma'an
Four Palestinians were chased down and detained by Israeli forces in Al-Eizariyya on Monday night, as witnesses described a high-speed chase through the streets of occupied East Jerusalem.

....Four military patrol cars were said to have ambushed a Palestinian Fiat car near the center of Al-Eizariyya.  Full story

One injured during a Bil’in night invasion

Palsolidarity
Four Shabak (Israeli Intelligence) jeeps and one military hummer rolled through Bil’in around 3am this morning. Computer screens with GPS maps were visible in the jeeps. They started throwing sound bombs amongst houses when camera people arrived on the scene.

..... Earlier in the evening residents of Bil’in reported seeing the military throwing tear gas at young kids who were near the Israeli Apartheid Wall. Invasions like this are not uncommon in Bil’in. One person from Bil’in was injured while running to document the invasion last night... This happened less than one week since the arrest of Bilin Popular Committee member Mohammad Al Khatib.  Full story

Settlers target Palestinian car in arson attack for the second time

Palsolidarity
Settlers torched a car in the northern West Bank village of Asira Al-Qabliya in the early hours of Thursday morning, January 28. The attack was launched from the notorious Shalhevit Yam outpost of Yitzhar settlement, that lies a short distance from the village and has been waging a continuous campaign of intimidation on the village.

Residents of Asira Al-Qabliya reported a car from the outpost approaching the village at approximately 1:30am on Thursday morning. An Israeli military jeep was then sighted pulling up alongside the car, at which point soldiers were witnessed conversing with the settlers, although making no effort to force the settlers to retreat to the outpost. The jeep departed towards the settlement, leaving the settlers to linger on the edge of the village.

The family of Machmoud Darhoud awoke the next morning to find Darhoud’s work vehicle burnt down to its framework, still smouldering, in the driveway... The car appeared to have been doused in gasoline, inside and out, then set ablaze...

It is not the first time Darhoud’s property has come under attack, nor is it the first time such an assault has been launched with arson. A car belonging to the family was torched under almost identical circumstances in 2007, both cars costing the family a hefty value of 5000 shekels.

Their home itself has been targeted repeatedly by settlers also. 2 weeks prior to the most recent arson attack a gang of 20 settlers surrounded the home, hurling rocks and screaming abuse at the terrified family inside. 9 months ago saw the most vicious attack yet, when approximately 60 settlers surrounded the home, hurling dozens of rocks and destroying almost all of the glass windows in the house. When the Israeli military arrived on the scene they quickly occupied the home, firing live ammunition that punctured the water tanks on the roof.

The attack spurred the family on to construct a large concrete wall around their home. The wall has done little to deter the assailants .... Despite the impressive two-storey stature of the Darhoud home, the entire family now sleeps in one room, as the 6 traumatised children manage only to sleep in the safety of one another. Darhoud reports that he will now be parking his other vehicle at his father’s house each night, located within the relative sanctity of the village.

Other families living nearby suffer similar problems from the precarious nature of their homes’ locations. The Jamal family home to the east of Darhoud’s has been spraypainted with Jewish Stars of David so many times now that the family has simply given up trying to clean them off. ISM activists maintain a period presence in the area, particularly on Saturdays when the Jewish holiday of Shabbat gives rise to the most violent manifestations of settler harassment.

... a reoccuring theme for those unfortunate to live in the shadow of Yitzhar settlement, that has stolen thousands of dunums of farmland and dozens of water wells from Asira al-Qabliya and the surrounding villages of Buin, Madama, Einabus, Urif and Huwara. The last decade has seen a sharp increase in territorial settler violence.

Background on Yitzhar settlement:

Yitzhar settlement is notorious for its fanatically ideological residents, the violence they inflict on neighbouring Palestinian communities, and the extremist doctrines they espouse. Saturdays, the Jewish religious holiday of Shabbat, typically sees Yitzhar settlers roused to fever pitch zeal, wrecking havoc upon Palestinian village... Settlers have frequently launched attacks with rocks, knives, guns and arson on Palestinian families and property in the area...

...Yitzhar rabbis are key players in incitement of targeted violence across the West Bank. Rabbi Elitzur from the same Yitzhar yeshiva published a book this November titled “The Handbook for the Killing of Gentiles”, condoning even the murder of non-Jewish babies...

Despite West Banks settlements’ status as illegal under international law, Yitzhar was included in the Israeli governments’ recent “national priority map” as one of the settlements earmarked for financial support. Yitzhar also receives significant funding from American donations, tax-deductible under U.S. government tax breaks for ‘charitable’ institutions.   Full story

Prisoners society accuses Israel of medical negligence

Ma'an
The Palestinian Prisoners Society of Hebron accused Israeli medical doctors of negligence and failing to provide care to critical patients.

... said there were 300 detainees and ex-detainees in the govornorate who had suffered from inadequate treatment. He outlined the case of Muhammad Abdul Afu Al-Imleh, 26, who suffered renal failure while he was in prison, and Hamza At-Tarayreh, who was diagnosed with throat cancer shortly after his release.... .... and is dying ...  Full story

Over 7,000 Palestinians are currently held by Israel

B'Tselem: Gaza 'cover-up' proof army can't investigate itself

Ma'an
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has sent an urgent letter to Israel's judge advocate general... demanding he immediately order a Military Police investigation into the circumstances of the firing of phosphorus shells at the UNWRA compound in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.

On Monday, Israeli media reported that the commander of the Gaza division, Brigadeer General Eyal Eizenberg, and the commander of the Givati brigade, Colonel Ilan Malka, were disciplined for authorized the shelling.

The report Israel submitted to the UN last weekend omitted details of the incident, stating only that the two officers had been brought before disciplinary hearings for exceeding their authority in a way that endangered lives, by permitting shelling of populated areas, contrary to the army’s regulations. Later statements from the army, however, denied there was any disciplinary action.

"The cover-up of this affair demonstrates, yet again, that the army cannot investigate itself," B'Tselem said in a statement.

A comprehensive investigation of the incident conducted by Human Rights Watch indicates that on the morning of 15 January 2009, the army began firing artillery shells at an UNWRA facility in which the headquarters of the entire organization’s activities in the Middle East were located. At that time, 700 civilians who had fled from their homes had found shelter in the facility, which also housed storehouses containing food and medical supplies.

"Some of the shells contained white phosphorus and these started fires, which could very easily have spread to the facility’s diesel fuel reserve and two full fuel tankers. This danger placed the large numbers of civilians sheltering there at grave risk," B'Tselem stated.

During the shelling, UNRWA workers, among them Gaza director John Ging, placed dozens of calls with senior army officials, warning them of the immense danger to civilians and demanding that the firing cease.

"The incident was particularly severe in that senior officers were well aware of the danger in continuing the shelling," B'Tselem said, yet "the army continued to shell the facility, starting fires and causing great damage. The danger to civilians was enormous, and the fact that no lives were lost in the incident is nothing short of a miracle. Disciplinary hearings are clearly not an adequate punitive measure to such a severe incident."

B'Tselem also alleged that Israel not only covered up the details of the incident but also refrained from stating in its report why measures had been taken against those responsible for this particular event, despite that many lives were lost in dozes of similar incidents throughout the assault on Gaza. Also, the Israeli report did not explain the decision to bring the two officers before disciplinary hearings, instead of opening criminal procedures against them, the human rights group said.

Its statement concluded by urging Israel to appoint an independent team to investigate the armed forces' suspected violations of international humanitarian law in Operation Cast Lead. The team should be authorized to investigate not only officers and soldiers who took part in the operation, but also civilian officials who took part in shaping the policy of the operation, the group said.  Full story

U.S. ties Israeli billionaire with Chinese intelligence

Ha'aretz
The Admiralty complex is one of the trademarks of Hong Kong's urban landscape. ... One building there houses a group of companies nicknamed the 88 Queensway Group (the address of the building), which the U.S. administration suspects is nothing more than a cover for activity conducted by the People's Republic of China's foreign intelligence...

The suspicions were spelled out in a report recently compiled by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission... The report noted, among other things, that the group of Chinese corporations has business ties with Israeli businessman and diamond magnate Lev Leviev.

Using the group, Chinese intelligence acquires oil and energy companies and other important assets in countries in Africa, Latin American, Southeast Asia, as well as in the United States...

.......The third businessman mentioned in the American report is Lev Leviev, who was Gaydamak's partner and who according to the report continues to have a strong standing in Angola, where he has mines, diamond polishing plants and a diamond trade company.
.......According to the new American report, due to his standing in Angola Leviev came to know the Chinese companies and began to form business ties with them. These ties produced several huge deals involving the prestigious Manhattan real estate owned by Leviev and the companies owned by Africa Israel and Memorand. China Sonangol purchased the JP Morgan building on 23rd Street opposite the New York Stock Exchange for $150 million; for another $150 million it purchased 49 percent of the Met Life clock tower apartment building on Madison Avenue; and for about $400 million (including the purchase of the building's debts) acquired the old New York Times building, the jewel in the crown of Leviev's real estate empire.....

........"The lack of transparency and public accountability surrounding the 88 Queensway Group is a major concern for the United States," the report notes. "The 88 Queensway Group's purchase of high-profile real estate assets in the United States underscores the importance of identifying the extent of the group's connections to the Chinese intelligence community."  Full story

Harassing Arab MKs [Members of Israeli Parliament]

Ha'aretz
The decision to remove Said Naffaa's parliamentary immunity, like the decision to prosecute the Balad MK to begin with, is unwarranted, harmful and smacks of political persecution based on nationality.

MK Naffaa went to Syria in 2007 at the head of a delegation of Druze clergy who wanted to make a pilgrimage to their holy sites...

... prosecuting him seems like an attempt to make him a scapegoat, in order to warn off others: Let the Druze be warned that they must not radicalize their positions, and let all Arab MKs be warned that the state is watching their actions closely and seeks to prevent them from visiting Arab countries. After all, no one suspects Naffaa of conveying security-related information to the enemy or aiding and abetting terrorist activities.

The Druze clergymen's trip to Syria, where many of their community live, is essentially no different than any other pilgrimage...

Instead of calling on Arab lawmakers to act as a bridge between Israel and the Arab world, Israel puts them on trial under a law that should never have been passed in the first place. The law barring MKs from visiting Arab countries is not merely a harmful one that impedes their efforts to engage in public activity on behalf of their voters. It is also discriminatory, because it is aimed only at them.

Whether the purpose of a visit is to make contacts in Arab countries to help advance the cause of peace, to see relatives, or to make a pilgrimage, the state should give Arab MKs freedom of action and of movement, on condition, of course, that they do not commit security-related offenses. Full story

Israeli forces detain group east of Bethlehem

Ma'an
Israeli forces reportedly detained a group of Palestinians on Monday who were in the Jeb Al-Theeb village east of Bethlehem to plant almond trees on lands near the Tekoa and Noqedim settlements.

... an Israeli military force of about 20 soldiers, along with 25 settlers and police dogs, arrived to the land and made the volunteers sit in small groups away from one another.

Awad Abu Swayy, the spokesman for the Popular Committee in Bethlehem, said that the volunteers were still being detained more than two hours after Israeli forces arrived. He added that soldiers allowed journalists to leave, however...  Full story

Peace Now condemns attacks on New Israel Fund

Ma'an
Israel's Peace Now movement and Americans for Peace Now on Monday condemned attacks on the New Israel Fund, which has come under fire for funding human rights organizations whose reports appeared in South African jurist Richard Goldstone's UN report on Gaza.

In recent days, a right-wing Israeli organization, Im Tirzu, launched a campaign to discredit the fund, its chair, Naomi Chazan, and some of its grantee organizations, including attacks against Chazan in newspaper ads that show the former Knesset Member with a horn on her forehead.

The controversy apparently began after the Hebrew-language daily Maariv ran an article over the weekend accusing the US-based progressive fund of supporting human rights groups whose findings appeared in the final report of Goldstone's fact-finding mission.

Peace Now and Americans for Peace Now said in a joint statement that they "are deeply disturbed by the content of this campaign and shocked by its style,...

The groups added: "The NIF grantees that are quoted in the UN report on Operation Cast Lead were performing their duty as Israeli human rights organizations by monitoring and reporting on controversial policies of their government and their military....

.......Meanwhile, the pro-Israel group J Street said it was "gravely concerned about escalating threats to the character of Israel's democracy," according to a statement, which condemned the "new attacks on organizations defending its democratic values and on individuals exercising their basic democratic rights."

"Im Tirtzu’s political leanings are clear," J Street added. "This is a pro-settler group, with $100,000 of funding from Christians United For Israel, a conservative Christian Zionist organization run by Pastor John Hagee, who once stated that God sent Hitler to drive Jews to Israe...

"Pro-Israel Americans should stand up for Israeli democracy, not work to actively undermine it...   Full story

Israel closes key checkpoint for second time in 24 hours

Ma'an
Israeli armed forces closed the Bethlehem-area container road checkpoint for the second time in 24 hours on Monday.

.......Hundreds of cars were stuck at the checkpoint simply because soldiers were in a bad mood, Ibrahim alleged, urging human rights groups to deter Israeli forces from arbitrarily shutting down the post, which is used by students, employees, and patients to travel across the West Bank.

The checkpoint is erected on the only route through which Palestinians can move from the southern West Bank to the north and center, as holders of Palestinian ID cards have been banned by Israeli authorities from entering Jerusalem since the early 1990s....

Abu Dis, part of occupied East Jerusalem, is the furthest Palestinians can travel into the city. Israel's separation wall and numerous military checkpoints cut off Palestinians from the West Bank (and those living in Abu Dis and its environs) from accessing Sheikh Jarrah, the Old City, and several other Jerusalem neighborhoods.

The container post hampers the movement of Palestinians and is not considered one of Israel's security checkpoints, as it reserved solely for Palestinians traveling between West Bank villages and cities....  Full story

Israel police not charged over activist shooting

BBC
Charges will not be brought against the police officers who shot an American pro-Palestinian activist in the face, Israel's justice ministry has said.

Tristan Anderson suffered severe brain damage when he was shot at a rally in the West Bank town of Naalin last year.

The officers did not have any "criminal intent" when they shot Mr Anderson, a ministry spokesman said.

Mr Anderson, 38, was in a coma for months and can only communicate with basic sounds, friends say...

Mr Anderson, from Oakland California, was among 400 people demonstrating against the building of the West Bank barrier.

The village is one of several places where stone-throwing [and non-stone-throwing] Palestinian youths [and others] clash regularly with police [Israeli military occupation forces].

Mr Anderson was shot by a riot policeman from between 60-70 m (213ft), it was reported.

The Anderson family's lawyer said Mr Anderson had not been throwing rocks at police [Israeli occupation forces]...

"The demonstration was actually for all practical purposes over," said Michael Sfard, who insisted the family would appeal the decision. 

A number of European or American activists have been killed or injured in demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza.

Tom Hurndall, 22, was shot by an Israeli sniper in 2003 while at a demonstration in Gaza, he died in Britain nine months later.

Rachel Corrie, 23, was also killed in Gaza a month earlier when a bulldozer crushed her.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory ruling that the barrier was illegal and should be removed.

Israel's official position is that the barrier is a security fence, defending its citizens from attacks by Palestinians.

The Palestinians, on the other hand, view it as as a land grab as the route of the wall cuts deep into the West Bank in places.

Only 15% of the barrier follows the Green Line, the internationally recognised boundary between the West bank and Israel.

The barrier, is a mixture of fences, barbed wire, ditches and concrete slabs up to 8m (26ft) high.

Press briefing: Case closed on shooting of American citizen Tristan Anderson
Palsolidarity
Case closed on Tristan Anderson’s case with suspicion of negligence of investigation process – indications that police did not visit the scene of the alleged offense and most probably interviewed the wrong group of border policemen.

On Monday, February 1 at 1:00, the family of Tristan Anderson will hold a press conference at the AIC [Alternative Information Center] in Jerusalem to expose new information about the case. Anderson’s lawyer, Attorney Michael Sfard will give a comprehensive update about the case, the decision to close it made by the District Attorney’s office and negligence of the police investigation, and discuss the next legal steps.

This week’s disturbing news – that the DA decided to close the case on Tristan and the injury he sustains after being shot in the head at close range with a high-velocity tear gas canister during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Nil’in last March – will have significant impact on Tristan’s future and his family’s...  Full story

Anderson parents at April, 2009 press conference (not covered by American media):

Israeli forces detain two Palestinians near Nablus

Ma'an
Israeli forces detained two Palestinians early Monday morning from the northern West Bank village of Awarta, south of Nablus, after raiding the family's homes...

The village was stormed shortly after midnight and homes were entered near the mosque of the village center, before Abd As-Salam Awad, 39, and Muhammad Awad, 22, were detained, locals said.

The two were taken to an undisclosed location.  Full story

Daily Situation Report: Jan. 30, 2010

PMG

Israeli actions

• Physical Assaults — 6 Civilians beaten in Jericho & Bethlehem
• Arrests (per person) — 4 children allegedly had explosive devices
• Detentions — 13 At checkpoints & in residential locales
• Raids — 36 Incl. 8 in Hebron & 3 in Bethlehem
• Checkpoints — 9 Access impeded at 5 checkpoints
• Flying Checkpoints — 23 Incl. 2 in Jerusalem & 2 in Ramallah
• Attacks — 7 Incl. 4 in confrontations & 2 in raids
• Attack on Property — 1 Deny access to civilians & Int. activists
• Wall Construction — — — Suspended for the weekend
• Closure (per District) — 7 Jer., Beth. (2 villages) & Hebron (4 areas) 
• Closure of Main Roads — 39 Incl. 14 in Hebron & 3 in Bethlehem
• Closure of Crossing Points —  7 All crossings are completely shut down
• Settler Violence — 1 Attempting to enter Iraq Burin village  Full report

Rabbinic Text or Call to Terror?

Forward - Daniel Estrin
The marble-patterned, hardcover book embossed with gold Hebrew letters looks like any other religious commentary you’d find in an Orthodox Judaica bookstore — but reads like a rabbinic instruction manual outlining acceptable scenarios for killing non-Jewish babies, children and adults.

“The prohibition ‘Thou Shalt Not Murder’” applies only “to a Jew who kills a Jew,” write Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and attacks on them “curb their evil inclination,” while babies and children of Israel’s enemies may be killed since “it is clear that they will grow to harm us.”

“The King’s Torah (Torat Hamelech), Part One: Laws of Life and Death between Israel and the Nations,” a 230-page compendium of Halacha, or Jewish religious law, published by the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva in Yitzhar, garnered a front-page exposé in the Israeli tabloid Ma’ariv, which called it the stuff of “Jewish terror.”

Now, the yeshiva is in the news again, with a January 18 raid on Yitzhar by more than 100 Israeli security officials who forcibly entered Od Yosef Chai and arrested 10 Jewish settlers. The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, suspects five of those arrested were involved in the torching and vandalizing of a Palestinian mosque last month in the neighboring Palestinian village of Yasuf. The arson provoked an international outcry and condemnation by Israeli religious figures, including Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, who visited the village to personally voice his regret.

Yet, both Metzger and his Sephardic counterpart, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, have declined to comment on the book, which debuted in November, while other prominent rabbis have endorsed it — among them, the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Jewry’s preeminent leader. Also, despite the precedent set by previous Israeli attorneys general in the last decade and a half to file criminal charges against settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting violence against non-Jews, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has so far remained mum about “The King’s Torah.”

“Sometimes the public arena deals with the phenomenon and things become settled by themselves,” Justice Ministry spokesman Moshe Cohen told the Forward.

A coalition of religious Zionist groups, the “Twelfth of Heshvan,”—– named after the Hebrew date of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, has asked Israel’s Supreme Court to order Mazuz to confiscate the books and arrest its authors.

“You open the book, and you feel that you read a halachic book. And it’s a trap,” said Gadi Gvaryahu, a religious Jewish educator who heads the coalition. It was, in fact, “a guidebook [on] how to kill,” he charged.

Family members who answered phone calls placed to the homes of both authors said they did not wish to comment.

In 2008, author Shapira was suspected of involvement in a crude rocket attack directed at a Palestinian village. Israeli police investigated but made no arrests.

Co-author Elitzur wrote an article in a religious bulletin a month after the book’s release saying that “the Jews will win with violence against the Arabs.”

In 2003, the head of the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, was charged by then-Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein with incitement to racism for authoring a book calling Arabs a “cancer.”

In 2006-2007, the Israeli Ministry of Education gave about a quarter of a million dollars to the yeshiva, and in 2007-2008 the yeshiva received about $28,000 from the American nonprofit Central Fund of Israel.

“The King’s Torah” reflects a fringe viewpoint held by a minority of rabbis in the West Bank, said Avinoam Rosenak, a Hebrew University professor specializing in settler theology. Asher Cohen, a Bar Ilan University political science professor, thought its influence would be “zero” because it appeals only to extreme ideologues.

But the book’s wide dissemination and the enthusiastic endorsements of prominent rabbis have spotlighted what might have otherwise remained an isolated commentary.

At the entrance to Moriah, a large Jewish bookstore steps from the Western Wall, copies of “The King’s Torah” were displayed with children’s books and other halachic commentaries. The store manager, who identified himself only as Motti, said the tome has sold “excellently.”

Other stores carrying the book include Robinson Books, a well-known, mostly secular bookshop in a hip Tel Aviv shopping district; Pomeranz Bookseller, a major Jewish book emporium near the Ben Yehuda mall in downtown Jerusalem; and Felhendler, a Judaica store on the main artery of secular Rehovot, home of the Weizmann Institute.

The yeshiva declined to comment on publication statistics. But Itzik, a Tel Aviv-area book distributor hired by the yeshiva who declined to give his last name because of the book’s nature, said the yeshiva had sold 1,000 copies to individuals and bookstores countrywide. He said an additional 1,000 copies were now being printed.

Mendy Feldheim, owner of Feldheim Publishers, Israel’s largest Judaica publishing house, said he considered this a “nice” sales figure for a tome of rabbinic Halacha in Israel. He said his own company, which distributes to 200 bookstores nationwide, is not distributing “The King’s Torah” because the book’s publishers did not approach the company.

Prominent religious figures wrote letters of endorsement that preface the book. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, blessed the authors and wrote that many “disciples of Torah are unfamiliar with these laws.” The elder Yosef has not commented on his son’s statement.

Dov Lior, chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and a respected figure among many mainstream religious Zionists, noted that the book is “very relevant especially in this time.”

Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, one of the country’s most respected rabbinic commentators, initially endorsed the book, but rescinded his approval a month after its release, saying that the book includes statements that “have no place in human intelligence.”

A handful of settler rabbis echoed Goldberg’s censure, including Shlomo Aviner, chief rabbi of Beit El and head of Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim, who said he had “no patience” to read the book, and spoke out against it to his students.

Previously, Israel has arrested settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting the killing of non-Jews. In addition to Ginsburgh, the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva head, in 1994, the government jailed Rabbi Ido Elba of Hebron for writing a 26-page article proclaiming it a “mitzva to kill every non-Jew from the nation that is fighting the Jew, even women and children.”

“The atmosphere has changed,” said Yair Sheleg, senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, who specializes in issues of religion and state. Previous governments took a tougher stance against such publications, he said, but “paradoxically, because the tension between the general settler population and the Israeli judicial system…is high now, the attorney general is careful not to heighten the tension.”

It is not uncommon for some settler rabbis, in the unique conditions of West Bank settlement life, to issue religious decrees, or psakim, that diverge from normative Jewish practice. In 2008, Avi Gisser, considered a moderate rabbi from the settlement of Ofra, ruled that Jews may violate Sabbath laws and hire non-Jews to build hilltop settlements. And In 2002, Yediot Aharanot reported that former Israeli Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu sanctioned Jewish harvesting of Palestinian-owned olive trees.

Contact Daniel Estrin at feedback@forward.com
Full story

Witnesses: Israeli forces block farmers from land

Ma'an
Israeli forces prohibited local farmers from the village of Safa, near Hebron, from accessing their land on Saturday.

Dozens of villagers, accompanied by international and Israeli solidarity groups, were en route to assist plowing the land of the Sleibi and Thalji families, when they were stopped by Israeli soldiers and told that the area was now a closed military zone, witnesses reported.

...Israeli forces attacked a number of the internationals present, and threw sound munition and tear-gas canisters to disperse them from the area. Muhammad Khalid Ibrahim Abu Dayeh, 19, was detained and led to an unknown destination...

Farmers were handed an official 48 hour warning on Thursday, threatening that they would not be able to access their land unless they launched an appeal with an Israeli court within the deadline, Awad said. He added that Israeli courts are closed during the Israeli weekend on Friday and Saturday, which thwarted the farmers attempts to appeal to the courts.

The land in question is approximately 110 dunums....   Full story

In the West Bank's stony hills, Palestine is slowly dying

Palestinian women huddle amid their belongings after Israeli forces demolished their homes in the West Bank village of Khirbet Tana, near Nablus earlier this month

Independent - Robert Fisk


...look at the statistics and leaf through the pile of demolition orders lying on the table in front of Abed Kasab, head of the village council in Jiftlik, and it all looks like ethnic cleansing via bureaucracy. Perverse might be the word for the paperwork involved. Obscene appear to be the results.

Palestinian houses that cannot be permitted to stand, roofs that must be taken down, wells closed, sewage systems demolished; in one village, I even saw a primitive electricity system in which Palestinians must sink their electrical poles cemented into concrete blocks standing on the surface of the dirt road. To place the poles in the earth would ensure their destruction – no Palestinian can dig a hole more than 40cm below the ground.

..... Palestinian requests to build houses are either delayed for years or refused; houses built without permission are ruthlessly torn down; corrugated iron roofs have to be camouflaged with plastic sheets in the hope the "Civil Administration" won't deem them an extra floor – in which case "Ro'i's" lads will be round to rip the lot off the top of the house.

In Area C, there are up to 150,000 Palestinians and 300,000 Jewish colonists living – illegally under international law – in 120 official settlements and 100 "unapproved" settlements or, in the language we must use these days, "illegal outposts"; illegal under Israeli as well as international law, that is – as opposed to the 120 internationally illegal colonies which are legal under Israeli law. Jewish settlers, needless to say, don't have problems with planning permission.

The winter sun blazes through the door of Mr Kasab's office and cigarette smoke drifts through the room..... "Buildings, new roads, reservoirs, we have been waiting three years to get permits. We cannot get a permit for a new health clinic. We are short of water for both human and agricultural use. Getting permission to rehabilitate the water system costs 70,000 Israeli shekels [about £14,000] – it costs more than the rehabilitation system itself."

.......Even the western NGOs working in Area C find their work for Palestinians blocked by the Israelis. This is not just a "hitch" in the "peace process" – whatever that is – but an international scandal.

Oxfam, for example, asked the Israelis for a permit to build a 300m2 capacity below-ground reservoir along with 700m of underground 4in pipes for the thousands of Palestinians living around Jiftlik. It was refused. They then gave notice that they intended to construct an above-ground installation of two glass-fibre tanks, an above-ground pipe and booster pump. They were told they would need a permit even though the pipes were above ground – and they were refused a permit...

I came across an even more outrageous example of this apartheid-by-permit in the village of Zbeidat, where the European Union's humanitarian aid division installed 18 waste water systems to prevent the hamlet's vile-smelling sewage running through the gardens and across the main road into the fields.

The £80,000 system – a series of 40ft shafts regularly flushed out by sewage trucks – was duly installed because the location lay inside Area B, where no planning permission was required.

Yet now the aid workers have been told by the Israelis that work "must stop" on six of the 18 shafts – a prelude to their demolition, although already they are already built beside the road – because part of the village stands in Area C. Needless to say, no one – neither Palestinians nor Israelis – knows the exact borderline between B and C. Thus around £20,000 of European money has been thrown away by the Israeli "Civil Administration".

But in one way, this storm of permission and non-permission papers is intended to obscure the terrible reality of Area C. Many Israeli activists as well as western NGOs suspect Israel intends to force the Palestinians here to leave their lands and homes and villages and depart into the wretchedness of Areas B and A. B is jointly controlled by Israeli military and civil authorities and Palestinian police, and A by the witless Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas.

Thus would the Palestinians be left to argue over a mere 40 per cent of the occupied West Bank – in itself a tiny fraction of the 22 per cent of Mandated Palestine over which the equally useless Yasser Arafat once hoped to rule. Add to this the designation of 18 per cent of Area C as "closed military areas" by the Israelis and add another 3 per cent preposterously designated as a "nature reserve" – it would be interesting to know what kind of animals roam there – and the result is simple: even without demolition orders, Palestinians cannot build in 70 per cent of Area C.

Along one road, I discovered a series of large concrete blocks erected by the Israeli army in front of Palestinian shacks. "Danger – Firing Area" was printed on each in Hebrew, Arabic and English. "Entrance Forbidden." What are the Palestinians living here supposed to do? Area C, it should be added, is the richest of the occupied Palestinian lands, with cheese production and animal farms. Many of the 5,000 souls in Jiftlik have been refugees already, their families fled lands to the west of Jerusalem – in present-day Israel – in 1947 and 1948. Their tragedy has not yet ended, of course. What price Palestine?   Full story

Testimonies of Israeli Female Soldiers Regarding Violations Against Palestinian Civilians

IMEMC

...Somehow, a female combatant has to prove herself more, on the ground too. Again, a female combatant who can lash out is a serious fighter. Capable. A ball-breaker. There was one with me when I got there, she’d been there long before, she was – wow, everyone talked about what grit she had, because she could humiliate Arabs without batting an eyelash. That was the thing to do.

Breaking The Silence Israeli group reported that several Israeli female soldiers testified... regarding “extra efforts” that female soldiers should conduct in order to be recognized and accepted by the fellow male soldiers.

One of the soldiers said that she had to humiliate the Palestinians on roadblocks, to shout at them and even to beat them to achieve this recognition.

Another soldier said that she saw a fellow female soldier humiliating Palestinian residents “in a way that cannot be described by words”, and added that “you have to see it to realize how she behaves, how she humiliates the Palestinians without caring about anything”.


“Everybody is doing that”, the soldier added, “Soldiers and senior officers, nobody objects”.

Another female soldier said that they [female soldiers] had to beat Palestinian youths and men, and that they had to mistreat the residents regardless of their sex or age.

She said that when Border Policemen capture Palestinian workers staying in Israel without permits, they start chanting “for their victory” and then they start beating and kicking the Palestinian workers.

Sometimes, the soldiers ask the Palestinians to chant in praise of their unit, and that it became a requirement to humiliate the Palestinians and mistreat them.

At least 50 female soldiers testified on what the army is doing on roadblocks in the occupied West Bank, and at the Eretz Terminal between Gaza and Israel.

One of the soldiers said that the soldiers arrested a Palestinian youth who hurled stones at them in the center of Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank.

One of the soldiers was so scared from the small stone hurled by the youth, fell into a ditch and broke his leg. The soldier was moved to an Israeli hospital while his comrades caught the Palestinian youth and deliberately broke his arm.


They forced him to lay his arm on a chair, and then they hit it with a sharp object, she added.

In another incident, a female soldier said that she heard a gunshot and rushed, along with other soldiers, to the scene to find a Palestinian youth bleeding after being shot in his abdomen.

The soldiers who were at the scene claimed that he tried to run away after he was asked to present his identity card. But the fact was that the identity card was already handed to the soldiers, as one of them was holding it.

She added that the soldiers involved in the incident were never questioned by their commanding officers.

Several female soldiers testified that both male and female soldiers beat Palestinian women on roadblocks, force them to slap themselves on the face, and sometimes the soldiers even punch and kick the women.…….   Full story

Female soldiers break their silence

YNET

"... "I don't know who or how, but I know that two of our soldiers put him [Palestinian child] in a jeep, and that two weeks later the kid was walking around with casts on both arms and legs…they talked about it in the unit quite a lot – about how they sat him down and put his hand on the chair and simply broke it right there on the chair."

...:"We caught a five-year-old…can't remember what he did…we were taking him back to the territories or something, and the officers just picked him up, slapped him around and put him in the jeep. The kid was crying and the officer next to me said 'don't cry' and started laughing at him. Finally the kid cracked a smile – and suddenly the officer gave him a punch in the stomach. Why? 'Don't laugh in my face' he said." 

...it's boring, so we'd create some action. We'd get on the radio, and say they threw stones at us, then someone would be arrested, they'd start investigating him… There was a policewoman, she was bored, so okay, she said they threw stones at her. They asked her who threw them. 'I don't know, two in grey shirts, I didn't manage to see them.' They catch two guys with grey shirts… beat them. Is it them? 'No, I don't think so.' Okay, a whole incident, people get beaten up. Nothing happened that day." 

...The soldier said she tried to protest, but was silenced by the commanding officers...

...Some of the testimonies document incidents of vandalism of Palestinian property, and even theft.... They take things all the time at checkpoints in the territories.  

... Some of the female soldiers were shocked with the level of violence the settlers' children used against the Palestinians...

...told of how she once spit on a Palestinian in the street: "I don't think he even did anything. But again, it was cool and it was the only thing I could do to… you know, I couldn't take brag that I caught a terrorists… But I could spit on them and degrade them and laugh at them." 

...She also said that, despite the clear orders to fire in the air or at the demonstrators' feet, it was common procedure to fire at the abdomen.

A female Border Guard officer in Jenin spoke of an incident in which a nine-year-old Palestinian, who tried to climb the fence, failed, and fled – was shot to death: "They fired… when he was already in the territories and posed no danger. The hit was in the abdomen area, they claimed he was on a bicycle and so they were unable to hit him in the legs." 
 
But the soldier was most bewildered by what happened next between the four soldiers present: "They immediately got their stories straight… An investigation was carried out, at first they said it was an unjustified killing… In the end they claimed that he was checking out escape routes for terrorists or something… and they closed the case."

A female intelligence soldier who served near Etzion recounted an incident in which snipers killed a boy suspected of throwing a Molotov cocktail. The soldiers coordinated their stories, and the female soldier was shocked, mainly by the happy atmosphere that surrounding the incident: "It was written in the situation evaluation after the incident that from now on there will be quiet… This is the best kind of deterrence." ...   Full story   

Full document of testimonies 

Dutch activist: Powerful Jewish lobby is playing on the Holocaust

Ha'aretz
"Holland's powerful Jewish lobby is playing on the country's sense of guilt over the Holocaust," a prominent Dutch activist said last week...

Gretta Duisenberg, the widow of the first president of the European Central Bank and a friend of the Queen of the Netherlands, said in an interview for Islam Online that "the Jewish lobby in Holland, like in the United States, is very strong and powerful, and it is still playing on our guilt feelings although it is 63 years since the Holocaust."...
 
"These are anti-Semitic remarks, based on the libel of the Protocols of Zion, that the Jews dominate the world," said Ronny Naftaniel, head of Holland's largest pro-Israel group and watchdog on anti-Semitism, the Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI.)

......Duisenberg once said she wants to collect six million signatures for a pro-Palestinian petition. In a 2005 television discussion, she said: "I hope the Jews realize they can't take over the south of Amsterdam the same way they took over the West Bank."...  Full story

10 Women, 15 Children, Wounded After Soldiers Fired Gas Bombs Into A Palestinian Home

IMEMC
Palestinian medical sources reported on Friday at night that 10 women and 15 children were hospitalized suffering severe effects of tear gas inhalation after Israeli soldiers fired gas bombs into the lower floor a house in Nabi Saleh village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

Local residents rushed to the house and managed to rescue the wounded women and children after pulling them through the windows of the gassed home.

The incident took place following clashes between dozens of residents of Nabi Saleh and Dir Nitham villages, and invading Israeli soldiers.

Israeli troops fired dozens of gas bombs and used water cannons to shoot dirty, foul smelling water at the residents.

...Israeli soldiers released on Friday several residents who were kidnapped by the army during clashes that took place last week in Nabi Saleh and Dir Nitham villages.

The released residents, including two sisters identified as Nariman and Manal Tamimi, were forced to pay high fines.

Several residents were kept under interrogation until further notice.

Soldiers violently attacked and beat Manal and Nariman after kidnapping them during the nonviolent weekly protest against settlements and illegal settler violations. Manal is a mother of four children, and so is Nariman.   Full story

Israeli forces seize protester in Nil'in

Ma'an

A demonstrator was arrested by soldiers who shot live ammunition during his apprehension in the West Bank village of Nil'in on Friday...

Israeli forces indicated that they were responding to rock-throwing by protesters, but since the army closed all the village's entrances with checkpoints and forbade the media from entering, Ma'an was not able to independently confirm these allegations.

Dozens of Palestinian and international protestors, including parliamentarian and former Information Minister Mustafa Al-Barghouti, who chairs the Palestinian National Initiative, reportedly suffered tear-gas inhalation as Israeli forces fired canisters at the crowd, which numbered around 100.

...weekly demonstration against Israel's separation barrier, which cuts through the Ramallah-area village to protect a nearby settlement. Demonstrations marking Palestinian Prisoners Day were also held in the nearby villages of Bil'in and Ma'sara.

Video footage of last week's violence in Nil'in:

 

Israeli officer invading Palestinian village: "Everyone who throws stones we will shoot in the leg. Everyone who throws stones will lose his leg."

An urgent fact-finding mission to Ni'lin was held on Tuesday after the Israeli military began what activists have termed an escalation of repression against human rights defenders in the village. The visit was aimed at raising awareness about "the gravity of the attack on the village and the people's fundamental rights of freedom of expression, assembly and association" and, in turn, to extend protection to Ni'lin. 

.....detention of 11 people in less than one week... during night raids by the Israeli military in the village inhabitants are subjected to harassment, intimidation and destruction of property. In at least one case, the army arrested the father of a targeted human rights defender to press him to hand himself over.

......Palestinian political leaders and 11 European diplomats responded to the invitation to learn more about the ongoing arrests and the situation in Nil'in, which has lost over the last 60 years 48,000 of its original 58,000 dunums of land. The wall on the western side, and a military base on the southern side, will strip Ni'lin of a further 2,500 dunums of land by the time it is completed.

In an interview with Ma'an on Tuesday, Barghouthi said Palestinians will begin asking the European Union to take a stand on what he termed Israeli violence against unarmed demonstrators.

"They tell us – don't use violence, not even in self-defense against terrible Israeli violence," he said. "We will tell them: the EU cannot continue to be impartial. The EU has great leverage over Israel, if they want to use it. The least they can do is stop military cooperation."

According to Khalida Jarrah, a parliament member ....... told the 11 EU diplomats that "this message must reach the international community. We haven't seen a strong reaction from the international community. The popular resistance movement is a political movement, which requires a political solution, and political support."

Jarrah concluded by saying the Palestinians' "demands are very simple: to live in freedom."  Full story

PA submits official reply to UN over Goldstone allegations

Ma'an
The Palestinian Authority submitted an initial report explaining how the body will carry out investigations into alleged Palestinian war crimes, representative of Palestine to the UN Riyad Mansour said Friday....

.......De facto government officials in Gaza also said they were preparing a report that officials promised would "meet international standards and expectations."   Full story

Settlers take over Palestinian home in Old City, change locks

Ma'an
Israeli settlers began an illegal squat in a Palestinian home in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday morning, following a court order expelling the elderly Palestinian occupant and granting settlers partial access to the building.

Fatima Dahoody, 80, in whose name the home is registered, was staying at the house of her son in Beit Hanina when settlers entered her Old City residence and changed the locks. They are now refusing to leave, witnesses said.

A Magistrates court in Jerusalem ruled Dahoody out of the home on 25 January, and granted Israeli settlers access to part of the building in shifts, 8am-8pm for men and 8pm-8am for women.

The same court decision ordered the imprisonment of the elderly owner of the home if she tries to enter the building and a 20,000 shekel (5,350 US dollar) fine. She was also ordered to pay 9,000 shekels (2,400 US dollars) in legal fees for the settlers' attorney.

The woman's son said the family had owned the home since 1990, and that court action by the settler group began after they tried unsuccessfully to take over the home in November 2008. At that time police evicted the would-be squatters.

Dahoody noted several homes in the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque had also been targeted by settlers seeking to expel Palestinian families from their homes...  Full story

Did Israeli tanks carve a Star of David into Gaza soil?

Ma'an
Sometime between 3-10 January 2009, Israeli army vehicles carved a Star of David measuring 60 meters into the soil of the southern Gaza Strip, according to a UN report released over the summer.

The issue was raised by South African jurist Richard Goldstone during an appearance on Wednesday at Yale University.

A publication issued by the UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT), published by the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), includes an apparent satellite image of the symbol.

According to the UN report, "not only do the ground signatures include tank tracks across cultivated fields and paved roads, but also a Star of David measuring 60m in diameter carved into the soil likely by IDF vehicles. It is important to note that this pattern was created during the first week of the IDF ground incursion into Gaza, sometime between 3-10 January 2009."

An Israeli military spokesman had no immediate comment.

The report was issued on request from Goldstone's UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. Analysis of satellite imagery was requested in order to obtain factual information on the time at which certain buildings were damaged and quantitative assessments of the damage caused to certain types of facilities.

"For virtually all areas assessed in the imagery ... there was a significant percentage of observed damage possibly caused by IDF [Israel Defense Forces] ground activity," the report concludes.  Full story and photo

Palestinians in Israel rally against evictions, home demolitions

Ma'an
Hundreds of Palestinian living in Israel rallied in Lod's city center following Friday prayers to protest the Israeli policy of home demolition and eviction of Palestinians.

... included [Christian and Muslim] clerics, leaders of Palestinian Israeli political parties, members of Knesset and Palestinians from Ramla, Jaffa and Lod.

The orators asserted that Palestinians in Israel were neither guest nor "passerby," but an indigenous people, and expressed their refusal of Israel's policy of house demolitions and displacement....

On Friday morning Israeli settlers began an illegal squat in a Palestinian home in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, following a court order expelling the elderly Palestinian occupant and granting settlers partial access to the building.  Full story

Armed groups in Gaza claim responsibility for shelling Israeli port

Ma'an
Various paramilitary groups in Gaza claimed responsibility for firing eight shells at the port of Ashkelon, Israel, a joint statement issued by the groups said.

The attack was undertaken in retaliation for "the assassination of the Al-Aqsa Brigades leaders in Nablus by Israeli forces," the statement said, which was issued by members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, Islamic Jihad's armed group The Al-Quds Brigades, and the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, the An-Nasser Salah Ad-Ding Brigades...   Full story

20 villagers hurt near West Bank protest

Ma'an
Over 20 villagers, including 14 children, were hurt in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on Friday during a demonstration against Israel's wall and the illegal settlement of Hallamish, which cuts into the village.

The villagers, who did not take part in the demonstration, were hurt after the house they were taking refuge in was attacked by Israeli soldiers in a volley of tear-gas projectiles and rubber-coated bullets. One boy was hit in the stomach by a tear-gas projectile. He, along with four others, required medical care, and were evacuated to a hospital...

Clashes in the village began after soldiers blocked some 200 demonstrators – Palestinians, Israelis and internationals – from reaching a spring on privately owned Palestinian land, which was recently taken over by Hallamish settlers. "Despite being entirely peaceful, demonstrators were assaulted with tear-gas and rubber-coated bullets," peace advocates claimed in a statement.

Video footage from last week's violence in Nabi Saleh:



Approximately six weeks ago, a group of Halamish settlers took over the spring located in privately owned Palestinian land between the village and the settlement. Since then, and despite the fact that ownership of the land is undisputed, the army began preventing Palestinians from accessing the area, according to the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee.

While demonstrations in recent weeks were triggered by the barring of access to the spring, protesters say their overall motivation is to stop the constant advance of the settlement onto Palestinian land. Since 1977, half of the Nabi Saleh's farmland was lost to the settlement.  Full story

Haniyeh accuses US, Israel, Arabs of conspiracy

Ma'an
...talked about the internal and external conspiracies against the tenth government and the legislative council, elected in 2006, during the last four years.

"We were exposed to a three-dimensional war, economically by imposing the siege on the people of Gaza, militarily by attacking the people and committing crimes which are mostly represented in the war on Gaza, and politically as the occupation started to detain lawmakers and the representatives of the Palestinian people in order to undermine the Palestinian legitimacy and democracy," Haniyeh said.

..."we were exposed to a three-dimensional conspiracy which first was by trying to spread chaos, the second by objections and not committing to jobs, and the third was defamed and media incitement, dissemination of falsehoods and rumors, and creating facts that are not true.”  Full story

Hamas: Israel assassinated commander in Dubai

Ma'an
Israel killed a top Hamas official in Dubai last week, an official told Reuters on Friday.

The official, identified as Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, was thought to be behind the assassinations of two Israeli soldiers, Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon, in the 1980s. He was a member of Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.

"I cannot reveal the circumstances. We are working with the authorities in the United Arab Emirates," said Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of Hamas' politburo, speaking in Damascus.

Al-Rishq said he was killed on 20 January in Dubai, the day after he arrived from Syria, where he lived.

Al-Mabhouh had served as a liaison between Iran and Hamas, according to various reports, helping to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip. He had been jailed several times by Israel, whose forces reportedly destroyed his Gaza home at some point.

"We in Hamas hold the Zionist enemy responsible for the criminal assassination of our brother, and we pledge to God and to the blood of the martyrs and to our people to continue his path of jihad and martyrdom," read a statement on a Hamas' news site.   Full story

Israeli media: Mossad responsible for Al-Mabhouh assassination

Ma'an

A four-person squad of Israeli Shin Bet and Mossad operatives arrived in Dubai on European passports to assassinate Muhammad Al-Mabhouh... Israeli media reported on Saturday.

According to the Israeli news-site Inyan Merkazi, the assassination squad interrogated Al-Mabhouh in his hotel room before killing him.

The squad returned with "precious information" attained following Al-Mabhouh's interrogation, which was focused on arms deals between Hamas and Iran, as well as how arms are smuggled into the West Bank, the news-site reported....

After the funeral in Al-Yarmuk Refugee Camp south of Damascus, Mash’al said "we will avenge this man. If you [Israel] were happy to assassinate a great man who bravely assassinated your soldiers, then this happiness is going to pass.

"Don’t be so happy. We will avenge Al-Mabhouh. Do not think that we will abandon the choice of resistance. Not settlement, occupation, killing, nor the wall will weaken our resistance."...

... the information office of the government in the United Arab Emirates said that Dubai police were able to identify the suspects who killed the Hamas leader, saying they all hold European passports.

....the suspects left behind evidence that will lead to their eventual capture and arrest...  Full story

Medics: Gaza fisherman seriously hurt by naval fire

Ma'an
A Palestinian fisherman was injured overnight by Israeli warships, when they opened fire on a cluster of small fishing boats of the Rafah coast before sunrise on Friday, medics said.

Medical sources at Abu Yousef Najar Hospital identified the injured man as 39-year-old Wael Al-Bardawil, who arrived in critical condition after sustaining gunshot wounds to the back.

Al-Bardawil was transferred to the European Hospital in Khan Younis once he was stabilized, medics said. He is being kept in the intensive care unit...

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report on the Protection of Civilians for 2009 said Israeli policing of the Gaza fishing waters and the resulting reduction of areas accessible by Palestinian fishermen "has been the main factor behind the sharp decline in the fishing catch from 3,117 tonnes in 2008 to 1,850 tonnes in 2009, according to the Fishing Syndicate in Gaza."  Full story

Holocaust remembrance is a boon for Israeli propaganda

Ha'aretz - Gideon Levy
Israel's bigwigs attacked at dawn on a wide front. The president in Germany, the prime minister with a giant entourage in Poland, the foreign minister in Hungary, his deputy in Slovakia, the culture minister in France, the information minister at the United Nations, and even the Likud party's Druze Knesset member, Ayoob Kara, in Italy. They were all out there to make florid speeches about the Holocaust.

Wednesday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and an Israeli public relations drive like this hasn't been seen for ages. The timing of the unusual effort - never have so many ministers deployed across the globe - is not coincidental: When the world is talking Goldstone, we talk Holocaust, as if out to blur the impression. When the world talks occupation, we'll talk Iran as if we wanted them to forget.

..........How beautiful it would have been if on this international day of remembrance Israel had taken the time to examine itself, look inward and ask, for example, how it is that anti-Semitism has reared its head in the world precisely in the past year, the year after we dropped white-phosphorous bombs on Gaza. How beautiful it would have been if on this International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Netanyahu had declared a new policy for integrating refugees instead of expulsion, or lifted the Gaza blockade.

A thousand speeches against anti-Semitism will not extinguish the flames ignited by Operation Cast Lead, flames that threaten not only Israel but the entire Jewish world. As long as Gaza is under blockade and Israel sinks into its institutionalized xenophobia, Holocaust speeches will remain hollow. As long as evil is rampant here at home, neither the world nor we will be able to accept our preaching to others, even if they deserve it.  Full story

Sending a Flotilla in the Spring to Break the Siege of Gaza

FreeGaza
...Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Relief Foundation (IHH), announce a joint venture, sending 10 boats in the spring of 2010 to the besieged Gaza strip. Organizations from Greece, Ireland and Sweden have also promised to send boats to join the flotilla with the Free Gaza movement and Turkey.

.....Two cargo ships will be part of the flotilla, one donated by the Malaysia-based Perdana Foundation and one from IHH. Both will be laden with building supplies, generators and educational materials that Israel prohibits from entering Gaza since their brutal attack on the civilian population a year ago.

The many passenger boats accompanying the cargo ships will carry members of Parliament from countries around the world as well as high-profile journalists and human rights workers.   Full story

Israeli forces injure 5 north of Jerusalem during home invasion

Ma'an
Israeli forces injured five members of the Awad family, including a pregnant woman, when an undercover force raided their home in the Shufat Refugee Camp on Thursday night, the family said.

Jamal Awad, director of the UNRWA office in the camp, said the forces entered his home on the pretext of pursuing a child fleeing the scene of crime that allegedly took place in the Pisgat Ze'ev settlement in Jerusalem.

The family refused entry to the force, which they said used tear gas and batons to force their way into the home. Jamal said that he, his son Muhammad, his pregnant daughter-in-law, and relatives Ashraf and Muammar were all injured in the assault...  Full story

Soldiers 'attack' journalists near Nablus

Ma'an
A group of Palestinian photojournalists documenting tree-planting near Nablus on Thursday afternoon said they were accosted by Israeli forces, who declared the area a closed military zone.

The tree-planting, on the edges of Burin village, was set to see 250 olive saplings dug into the soil under a new "Green Palestine" project in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Agriculture.

Journalists, including Ma'an photographer Rami Swidan, said soldiers descended on the group, insisting that because they were in a closed military zone, no photographs could be taken in the area.

Swidan said soldiers approached the group and ordered them to stop filming, but that they refused. He said a soldier hit him on his chest and tried to take the camera by force...., soldiers fired tear-gas canisters and a stun grenade at the group in an apparent attempt to disperse them.

Swidan said he was beaten, along with the other photographers, and that several pieces of equipment were confiscated. At least a dozen tear-gas canisters were launched, he said, causing several of the tree-planters to lose consciousness.

Nablus Deputy Governor Anan Al-Atira, present at the tree planting, called the violence "brutal and baseless."

....MADA "strongly condemns the Israeli occupation army attack on Ma'an News Agency photographer Rami Swidan, Palmedia cameraman Ashraf Abu Shawish, Reuter's photographer Abdel-Rahim Alqusini, and Reuter's cameraman Hassan Titi," it said in a statement.

Latest in a string of allegations

The reported incident would be the fourth such in the last week, with three journalists detained on Sunday during the course of their work.....   Full story