Former Jewish Agency chairman and member of Knesset Avraham Burg, in Ha’aretz, advocates a one-state solution. It’s just silly to think that Israelis and Palestinians, who struggle as it is to live next to each other, will somehow manage to live together in a one-man-one-vote one-state solution scenario.
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/26/avraham-burg-gives-up-on-the-two-state-solution/
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/
Hamas looks like it wants to join the Palestine Liberation Organization, something the current Israeli government isn’t crazy about, but will inevitably lead to a more productive peace process.
Related reading:Tags: Bibi Netanyahu, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Khaled Mashal, Mahmoud Abbas, Mark Regev, Palestinians, Peace Process, PLO, Salam Fayyad, West Bank Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/24/a-step-forward-as-hamas-moves-to-join-plo/
Tom Friedman’s column in today’s New York Times, writing about Newt Gingrich’s comments last week about the Palestinians being an “invented people”. He wonders how his comments can possibly be “pro-Israel”, and how he and Bibi are completely unaware of all that’s going on in Israel, and the confusion it gives Americans.
Related reading:Tags: 2012 US Presidential Election, American Jewry, Apartheid, Bibi Netanyahu, Israel, Newt Gingrich, Occupation, Republican Party, Tom Friedman, USA, West Bank Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/15/how-does-newt-gingrich-think-hes-being-pro-israel/
Seth Morrison, former board member of the JNF in Washington D.C., has quit the organisation over its role in the attempted evictions of the Sumarin family in Silwan. He wrote an op-ed in this week’s Jewish Daily Forward saying he feels “a sense of betrayal I have at learning that JNF is a force in preventing long-term peace.” This is a complex issue involving an important organisation in the JNF, and Morrison has taken a very strong, principled stand. Good on him.
Related reading:Tags: Diaspora Jewry, Israel, Jerusalem, JNF, Occupation, Palestinians, Peace Process, Settlers, Silwan, West Bank, Zionism Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/14/jnf-board-member-quits-over-sumarin-family-evictions-in-silwan/
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/
Be sure to check out this very interesting photo gallery from Time Magazine: “Young Palestinians in the Age of the Wall”.
Related reading: Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/12/07/photo-gallery-young-palestinians-in-the-age-of-the-wall/
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/
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