Peter Beinart, in the NYTimes, advocates the boycott of the settlements, but declares it a “painful, unnatural act.” The “alternative is worse,” he says. Peter’s spot on: embrace democratic Israel, boycott non-democratic Israel. It’s the only way to ensure its long-term survival.
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2012/03/20/beinart-to-save-israel-its-time-to-end-the-settlement-enterprise/
Israel is sending settlers, among others, to Diaspora university campuses to educate Jewish and non-Jewish students about Israel’s “diverse society that values equality and human rights,” according to the Jerusalem Post. Israel has plenty of positive attributes it can use to show non-Jews on campuses around the world that it isn’t the bigoted, racist, apartheid regime the cultist BDS’ers portray it as. Showing the settlers and the settlements enterprise as a part of the “diverse society that values equality and human rights” is simply laughable.
Related reading:Tags: Diaspora Jewry, Israel, Israel Apartheid Week, Migron, Occupation, Palestinians, Settlements, Settlers, University campuses, West Bank, Zionism Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2012/02/22/israels-hasbara-ministry-sends-settlers-to-the-diaspora-to-combat-apartheid-week/
The Jerusalem Post reports: Around 70 West Bank settlements were on the list of communities eligible for housing and development grants that the cabinet approved on Sunday. Most of them – 57 – are settlements located outside the boundary of the security barrier’s planned route. Israel has promised the international community that it would not provide special incentives for settlement development and construction. [...] According to the Prime Minister’s Office, [...]
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2012/01/31/israel-continues-to-offer-financial-incentives-to-move-to-settlements/
Today, being Christmas, the Western press loves to publish articles detailing the difficulties Jesus, Mary and the Wise Men all would have had if they had lived under Israeli occupation. You can file this issue under “if you don’t like the coverage, change the policy.”
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/26/the-annual-if-jesus-were-born-in-bethlehem-today-christmas-articles/
The jostle for the Republican nomination to challenge Barack Obama, when it comes to Israel, is quickly becoming a race to the bottom.
Related reading:Tags: 2012 US Presidential Election, Israel, Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Occupation, Op-ed, Palestinians, Republican Party, Rick Perry, Settlements, USA, Zionism Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/16/politicians-pandering-does-no-good-for-israel/
A group of 50 settlers broke into an IDF base in the West Bank and destroyed property. These super-extreme hilltop youth are everything that’s wrong with the settlement enterprise, and exemplify the huge problem Israel faces.
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/14/idf-base-in-west-bank-attacked-by-settlers/
Ha’aretz’s editorial today has slammed the IDF’s process of military investigations, with a report by Yesh Din showing that 96.5 per cent of complaints are closed without an indictment. They ask, “When it comes to shooting a Palestinian, pulling the trigger does not come with a real fear of having to answer to the law … Will the death of Mustafa Tamimi be added to the statistics that show that in Israel, the life of a Palestinian is cheap?”
Tags: Ha'aretz, Halamish, IDF, Israel, Mustafa Tamimi, Nabi Saleh, Non-violent movement, Occupation, Settlements, Settlers, West Bank Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/13/on-protestors-death-haaretz-says-in-israel-the-life-of-a-palestinian-is-cheap/
Palestinian protestor Mustafa Tamimi has died of the injuries sustained by him during a protest at Nabi Saleh in the West Bank. He was hit, reportedly at close range, by a tear gas canister, as part of the weekly protests in against the seizure of the village’s spring by local settlers. The IDF, it seems, instead of helping the Palestinians in Nabi Saleh get their spring and olive groves back, as the Supreme Court has ordered to happen, is using excessive force to quash legitimate demonstration against the slow disappearance of their land. This seems a perfect example of the erosion of morals and democracy in Israelis and in Israeli society as a result of the ongoing occupation.
Related reading:Tags: B'tselem, Halamish, IDF, Israel, Mustafa Tamimi, Nabi Saleh, Non-violent movement, Occupation, Settlements, Settlers, West Bank Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/12/palestinian-protestor-killed-by-idf-in-nabi-saleh/
Despite living on the same land for sixty years, Israel is forcibly moving a Bedouin tribe to make way for an expanded settlement. Why can’t Israel respect that these people have been living there for sixty years and deserve to be treated with justice and compassion? Indeed, it’s also interesting to reflect on how Diaspora Jewish teenagers interact with Israeli Bedouins while on Birthright-style tours to Israel — they are the charming people of the desert, the nomads that Israel loves and respects as contributors to the wider Israeli culture, integral parts of society, etc. And yet, here they are being shafted so that Ma’ale Adumim can be expanded and the hopes of future Palestinian statehood further diminished. What a shame.
Related reading:Tags: Arab-Israelis, Bedouin, Diaspora Jewry, Israel, Jerusalem, Ma'ale Adumim, Minority rights, Occupation, Palestinian Territories, Settlements, Taglit, West Bank, Young Jews Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/07/israel-to-forcibly-relocate-20-bedouin-communities-to-expand-a-settlement/
Gershom Gorenberg in tomorrow’s New York Times: “The reason for Israel to reach a two-state solution and withdraw from the West Bank is not only to reach peace with the Palestinians living in what is now occupied territory. It is to ensure that Israel itself remains a democracy — one with a Jewish majority and a guarantee of equality for its Arab minority. Israel does not need to bring the war from Samaria home. It needs to leave that war in the past.” It is impossible that the immorality of the occupation and the lack of democratic values currently in place in the West Bank can remain completely separated from what is happening on the other side of the Green line, in ‘democratic’ Israel. It will, and indeed already is, seeping into Israel ‘proper’. Not great news for the future of a Jewish and democratic Israel.
Related reading:Tags: Arab-Israelis, Democracy, Gershom Gorenberg, Human Rights, Kadima, Knesset, New Israel Fund, NGOs, Occupation, Palestinian Territories, Settlements, West Bank, Yisrael Beiteinu, Zionism Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/11/26/not-letting-the-occupation-infiltrate-israeli-democracy/
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