The below translation is by Sol Salbe of the Middle East News Service, Melbourne, Australia.
Who will not be there at the Olympics?
Yoav Borowitz
20 July 2012 02.00
In exactly a week the world’s eyes will be on the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, one of those spectacular and dramatic events produced every four years. The State of Israel will be well representedl at the ceremony and the games themselves, with a delegation of 38 athletes – the country’s largest ever representation. The delegation is a shining example of gender equality: 20 men and 18 women. The number of sports in which Israeli athletes will participate (12), and their range, is quite impressive.
However, very large community will not be part of this celebration, a community that in effect has not been part of the Olympic celebration for eight consecutive Olympics. Zero Arab athletes represent Israel in London. Zero, even though the Arabs in Israel number 1.67 million people, approximately 20.5 per cent of the population. In all of its years of existence Israel has been represented by 338 athletes in 19 different Olympics. But only two Arab-Israelis have been privileged to participate in Olympic delegations – soccer star Rifat Turk (Montreal, 1976) and weightlifter Edward Maron (Rome, 1960).
This topic has never come up on the public agenda in Israel. Sports ministers have never said a word about it, nor have the heads of national Olympic Committee, or even the media or elected officials ever uttered a word about it. Amazingly, no one can even recall Arab Israelis raising the issue, as if they expect to be excluded from official delegations that represent the state.
Sport is indeed the closest thing to meritocracy only one’s ability counts. Had there been a good enough Arab athlete meeting the Israeli and international criteria, she or he would certainly be representing Israel in London. But it is clear that the absence of such an such athlete is not indicative of the lack of talent or the zeal to train hard within the Arab community as far as sport is concerned. The root of the problem is that there are no facilities, coaches or infrastructure for almost any sport in any Arab village or town. The only area in which little money, and a lot of goodwill, is invested is soccer. So today 15 per cent of Premier League footballers are Israeli Arabs.
But in no other sport, and there are dozens of wonderful and important sports, most of which are represented in the Olympics, is there a prominent Arab athlete. The Ministry of Sports admits that only about 11 million out of about 128 million shekels in the sports budget is invested in the Arab sector. As if to prove the point, they add that under the incumbent Minister, Limor Livnat, the figure has actually improved considerably. Until two years ago the amount invested in the Arab sector was only 6 million shekels a year.
It seems as if this discrimination does not disturb the country’s sports officials, or the Israeli public in general. And perhaps rightly so: there is nothing like so great international event to accurately reflect the reality of life and the state’s real priorities.
Pictured against the backdrop of the illegal apartheid wall, Jazz singer/guitarist Carmen Souza (center), bassist Theo Pas’cal (right), pianist Filipe Melo (not pictured) and percussionist Mauricio Zottarelli (left) are all being asked to take a stand for justice.Dear Carmen Souza, Theo Pas’cal, Filipe Melo and Mauricio Zottarelli,
We are a group of over 900 members, representing many nations around the globe, who believe that musicians and other artists can play a role in ending apartheid by heeding the call of Palestinian civil society and joining in the boycott of Israel. We also believe that by playing in Israel, artists are condoning the suffering of millions of Palestinians through conducting business as usual with that state.
All we are asking you to do is to first do no harm – to stay home, and refrain from playing. It is up to you, and would be highly appreciated, if you would like to support and join the boycott movement by making a statement in support of universal human rights. Although some artists try to remain apolitical, surely you could not make the conscious choice to endorse the crimes of Israel’s government by playing in Israel despite the boycott, thus becoming a propaganda trophy on its shelf.
Carmen Souza, Theo Pas’cal, Filipe Melo and Mauricio Zottarelli, you are on the schedule to play on August 1 and 2 at the Kaminsky in Eilat for the 26th Red Sea Jazz Festival. Many people are unaware of the gravity of the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people under occupation, the suffering of Palestinians in refugee camps and the severely curtailed rights of Palestinians within Israel. We hope you’ll do some research before you board your plane for Tel Aviv and that you will decide that human rights are not selective, they are universal, and you will want to choose to be artists of conscience.
Two days prior to her gig headlining the Holon Women’s Festival, Grammy-winning jazz artist Cassandra Wilson cancelled. Regarding Palestine, Wilson tweeted back to human rights volunteers:
Wilson’s tweets indicate that mainstream media have played a role in censoring human rights violations by Israel. Media also is to blame for shaping a false positive view of the apartheid state. Wilson was informed about Alice Walker’s youtube video taken in Gaza, ‘Alice Walker – The Palestinian Spirit,’
Wilson cancelled her performance in Holon, Israel. The woman’s festival she was expected to headline, claimed to empower women, yet it was selective empowerment, ignoring Palestinian women.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) which represents almost all of Palestinian civil society, reminds us that:
Human rights are universal, they are not selective. Principled boycott by leading artists such as yourself worked against South African apartheid. As governments have failed or been unable to implement international law to end Israel’s crimes, boycotts can work today to help bring justice, rights and freedom to Palestinian people. Carmen Souza, Theo Pas’cal, Filipe Melo and Mauricio Zottarelli, please boycott the 26th Red Sea Jazz Festival in Eilat.
150 messengers, trained and 500 missions and 22,000 explain, three million hits the site, 300 thousand leaflets, millions of followers Btoitr, and tens of millions of radio listeners do not – Jews in the world – this is a small part from Israel propaganda, as revealed today (Monday) Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora.
The problem: All projects and many others, budgeted at 40 Million shekels only, ten and a half million dollars.
Committee chairman MK Danny Danon (Likud) said it was a scandal the state’s public budget in the world is under attack so sum – miserable. This is a comprehensive and impressive action. The firm does a lot, initiate grand projects – achievements, lack of success, but still does not get proper government backing. The budget must be increased significantly, to encourage the activities of Israel’s friends in the world – that they do not – very few.
Minister of Information and Diaspora Yuli Edelstein told the meeting that the principle of information activity is beyond activism, and more on the defensive sufficiency, advocacy by citizens, and stop apologizing. Edelstein said the firm gave more than three hundred thousand leaflets – information about Israel at Ben Gurion Airport, in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Hebrew, hydrogen Ldibiitim training to more than 22 thousand people, and 500 delegations underwent training in public relations, and that 3 million people entered to date to “explain Israel.”
The Minister presented the project “Faces of Israel”, issued more than 150 representatives of Israeli society to the world in order to tell about life in the country, from the corner of academic studies, tourism, science, culture, living together and so on. “We are fighting the ignorance that many of the world at do not know that Ethiopian Jews or Bedouins – Israel, “said Edelstein.
Program “broadcast in Israel for ever” stayed in television and radio announcers and executives from the world, with 5-7 million listeners and over, broadcasting from Israel for a week. Like – yes Edelstein revealed that Hollywood film actors organize a delegation to come to Israel to learn how to look after children with special needs, as well as office assistance support for Israel annual march in New York. The minister also revealed that the ministry is working to connect Israelis – Jewish emigrants abroad and recognize Israel and sign a huge demand for this initiative.
Edelstein said he had recently held a conference in forty countries interested to learn from Israel about the connection with their distribution, and activity center office in favor of Israel against the world’s Christian leaders. Edelstein noted the fruitful cooperation with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization, “otherwise they could not carry out these projects.”
Jewish Agency Secretary Josh Schwartz also noted the cooperation emissaries, especially on campuses, and Danny Wosner, representative of Jewish Federations of North America said that the firm serves the world’s Jewish communities address. Show Melaku, IBA works, represented Israel in Ireland Several months ago, said that “We have received excellent training. The Irish do not know anything about Israel, and contrary to the image do not hate her. ”
MK Shlomo Molla (Kadima) added also – is that “I was in college in California, considered to be particularly anti-Semitic, and Cshstodntim meet with the Israelis face – to – face, not through the media, the reactions are particularly good. Amount of only $ 40 million is a miserable, in front of government offices not to use their budgets until the end “.
Plot firm CEO Ronen said at the meeting that “The office was established three years ago from nothing, today is an empire of 40 projects that only 5 percent is presented here. Are in demand all over the world but we are forced to turn them away because of lack of sufficient budget. Should at least double the budget and increase the standards. ”
The Israeli army waited for the peak of summer heat to confiscate Palestinian water tanks.
No amount of money can destroy the truth about Israel’s crimes, Danny. Instead of attempting to whitewash these unsustainable iniquities, money would be better spent ending Israel’s racist persecution and land theft, removing injustice to Palestinians and conforming with the requirements of international law.
Danon further distinguishes himself with vehement racism at a recent conference by calling for the expulsion of ‘infiltrators’ to Israel –
“Enough talk,” Danon said. “It is time for action. Deport all of the infiltrators from the state of Israel.”
Danon offered his preferred solution to the ongoing issue: Israel must “build cities for infiltrators, finish construction of the border fence (along Israel’s southern border with Egypt) and expel all the infiltrators from Israel,” he said. “Illegal infiltrators must have two modes: Deported or awaiting deportation.”
…
“Citizens of Israel have turned into refugees in their own homes, and the (African) refugees have become the permanent residents (of Israel),” Danon said.
Why Dr. Wissam Joubran from Nazareth refused to normalise Israeli oppression: ‘Participation was conditioned on an Israeli singer appearing alongside me, yet such an appearance, when in Gaza there are still bodies coming out from under the ruins and the blood of hundreds of children and women is still shouting, would not be for the goal of presenting my music and art, but to attempt and present a sparkling picture of the relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel. My response was that I am not prepared to be the laundry detergent of the state of Israel in such a ceremony.’
Professional apartheid : Doctors who receive their medical degrees from Al-Quds University, a prominent Palestinian institution of higher learning, can’t practise in Jerusalem because Israel won’t let them take the necessary licensing exam.
What Is Settler Colonialism: ‘As Israel continues to claim the Palestinian kitchen as its own, so does the United States with Native America: consuming corn, wild rice, quinoa, cranberry, cornbread and Turkey with the confidence of a national cuisine. In the United States, settler colonialism has been so complete, and so successful, that the world has forgotten that South Africa, Australia and Israel are all reproductions, all approximations of the ongoing victory back home.’
TARIQ ALI says we are witnessing in Syria a new form of re-colonisation by the West, like we have already seen in Iraq and in Libya.
Many of the people who first rose against the Assad regime in Syria have been sidelined, leaving the Syrian people with limited choices, neither of which they want: either a Western imposed regime, “composed of sundry Syrians who work for the western intelligence agencies”, or the Assad regime.
The only way forward, in the interests of all Syrians, says Ali, is negotiation and discussion. But it is now obvious that the West is not going to let that happen because they are backing the opposition groups who are against any negotiation.
Three pieces today detailing crimes committed by the apartheid Israeli entity bring a sickening lurch to an already nauseated stomach and reaffirm the need for boycott, divestment and sanctions against it.
The first – where Israel is complaining like a torturer unsatisfied with the volume of the victim’s screams, is recorded by Ma’an News agency:
Israel’s military department governing civil affairs in the occupied West Bank regards a UN agency’s assistance to displaced Palestinians as illegal operations, a spokesman said Sunday.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported earlier that the department, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are seeking to “reassess” the role of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the West Bank.
The UN office “are assisting Palestinian communities who have demolitions because they are built in an illegal way. OCHA gives them tents and by that is doing illegal work, without seeking Israeli permission,” COGAT spokesman Guy Inbar told Ma’an.
Humanitarian officials say providing a temporary tent to a displaced family falls under international definitions of emergency humanitarian assistance, rather than a building project that requires a permit.
Israeli authorities insist there is a legal process for Palestinians living in Area C, the 62 percent of the West Bank under full Israel civil and security control since the 1993 Oslo Accords, to build in their communities.
“In the last year (COGAT) approved many international projects, even UN OCHA projects, but not in an illegal way, like what they are doing in the south Hebron hills,” Inbar said, while warning: “International work does not get immunity.”
But the United Nations and humanitarian agencies say in reality it is almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain a building permit, and highlight that Israeli settlers in the same area are able to expand communities that are illegal under international law.
The south Hebron hills is one area of the West Bank facing repeated demolition orders. Israeli forces last month warned that they intend to demolish all 50 buildings in one village in the region, Susiya, after a settler group filed a legal petition calling for its removal.
A diplomatic source told Ma’an: “It is outrageous that (the Israeli) administration which condones illegal settlement construction is here using an argument against construction that helps some of the most disadvantaged communities, who have the right to protection under international law.”
Already in 2012, Israeli authorities have demolished 330 Palestinian buildings in the West Bank, displacing 536 people, half of whom are children, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories Richard Falk said in late June.
Meanwhile international law experts say that under the Fourth Geneva Convention Israel must provide for the needs of the occupied Palestinian population, and are prohibited from demolishing any structure that has a civilian purpose.
Haaretz reported that COGAT asked the Foreign Ministry to lodge a formal complaint with the UN, and on July 10 Israel’s UN ambassador wrote to the UN humanitarian affairs chief asking for staff lists, past and future activities and a review of the agency’s role.
Israeli authorities are considering limiting visas for foreign OCHA employees and stopping work and travel permits for Palestinian staff members, the newspaper said.
Inbar said COGAT is perturbed that OCHA is over reaching its mandate through its work in Area C, while OCHA says it does not undertake building projects but is mandated to coordinate international agencies’ response to humanitarian emergencies.
The second gut-churning criminal abuse involves Israel’s continuing mistreatment of Palestinian children incarcerated in its dungeons. Unfortunate child prisoners are forced to stand in the sun for three hours and be strip-searched while their rooms are searched:
The administration of the Israeli Hasharon jail has forced Palestinian minors to stand in the sun heat for three hours at the pretext of searching their rooms.
Amjad Siraj, who is representing those minors, told a lawyer for the Palestinian prisoner’s society that the incident took place three days ago and that the rooms were turned upside-down in the savage search by the Israeli Nahshon unit members.
Siraj said that the conditions in the Israeli jails, as far as minors were concerned, did not change, adding that the prison administration only responded to a number of simple requests.
He said that the Nahshon unit members rummaged through the minors’ ward and forced minors to strip search.
Since 2008, DCI-Palestine has documented 53 cases in which children have been held in solitary confinement in facilities located inside Israel, mainly Al Jalame and Petah Tikva interrogation centres, and Hasharon prison. The children report being held in isolation at these facilities for an average of 10 days.
Ahmed Abu Amrain, the Director of Information Center of the Energy Authority, said during a press conference yesterday that the Authority and Gaza Electricity Distribution Company are working on scheduling the electricity consumption in order to manage the crisis noting that the electricity will be running for 8 hours then cut off for 8 hours, successively throughout the 24 hours.
He attributed the main reasons behind the deficit to the reduction in the amounts of fuel provided for Gaza and which is resulting from the Israeli arbitrary measures and Egyptian inaction in allowing the fuel donated by Qatar into the Gaza Strip.
Moreover, the circumstances in which she gave her statement suggest Ashton acted in order to ensure that Israel’s human rights abuses would not be discussed by the Foreign Affairs committee of the European Parliament.
These vile, ongoing crimes remind us all, in the absence of action by governments, to support the international boycott of Israel called by Palestinian civil society until Palestinian people receive their full human rights which Israel denies them, including the end of Israel’s Occupation, apartheid and colonialism, equal rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel and the recognition of right of return of Palestinian refugees.
In New York, TIAA-CREF shareholders will be attending the annual meeting to question new trustees about their stance on profiting from companies whose products are used by the Israeli military in grave and systematic human rights violations. “We are here to remind TIAA-CREF that their investments destroy Palestinian schools, make Palestinian families homeless, and deny Palestinians freedom of movement,” said Allison Brown of Adalah-NY, a We Divest Campaign coalition partner. “These are not investments ‘for the greater good.’
The empire is back to using the Egyptians as intermediaries, washing its hands of Obama’s failure to stop the settlements – not that he cared enough to put sufficient pressure onto Israel, in fact rewarded them with increased joint miltech projects.
Contrary to what Baskin claims, Palestinian nationalists are talking (and working) with Israelis, if and when the Israelis fulfill the conditions set by the Palestinian national leadership. It is not and should not be a matter of negotiation between the Palestinian national movement and the tiny minority of Israelis supporting their rights. Israeli anti-occupation activists are not the UN, working between the two camps: either Israelis are with the Palestinian national struggle, or they are a kind of cover-up for the Israeli colonial occupation.
The Barrier consists of concrete walls, fences, ditches, razor wire, groomed sand paths, an electronic monitoring
system, patrol roads, and a buffer zone.
The Barrier’s total length (constructed and projected) is approximately 708 km, more than twice the length of
the 1949 Armistice (‘Green’) Line, which separates Israel from the occupied West Bank.
Approximately 62.1% of the Barrier is complete, a further 8% is under construction and 29.9% is planned but
not yet constructed.
When completed, some 85%, of the route will run inside the West Bank, rather than along the Green Line,
isolating some 9.4% of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem
71 of the 150 Israeli settlements in the West Bank and over 85% of the total settler population are located on
the ‘Israeli’ side of the Barrier’s route.
Palestinians with West Bank ID cards who are granted special permits can only enter East Jerusalem through
four of the 14 Barrier checkpoints around the city.
Around 7,500 Palestinians who reside in areas between the Green Line and the Barrier (Seam Zone), excluding
East Jerusalem, require special permits to continue living in their own homes; another 23,000 will be isolated if
the Barrier is completed as planned.
There are about 150 Palestinian communities which have part of their land isolated by the Barrier and must
obtain ‘visitors’ permits or perform ‘prior coordination’ to access this area.
Access to agricultural land through the Barrier is channelled through 80 gates. The majority of these gates only
open during the six weeks olive harvest season and usually only for a limited period during the day.
During the 2011 olive harvest, about 42% of applications submitted for permits to access areas behind the
Barrier were rejected citing ‘security reasons’ or lack of ‘connection to the land.’
Despite the presence of the Barrier, Israeli sources estimate that some 15,000 Palestinians without the required
permits smuggle themselves from the West Bank to look for employment in Israel every day in 2011 (Israeli
Government Special Committee).
The UN Register of Damage (UNRoD) has to date collected over 26,000 claims for material damage caused by
the construction of the Barrier in the northern West Bank.
Many black South Africans have traveled to the occupied West Bank and have been appalled by Israeli roads built for Jewish settlers that West Bank Palestinians are denied access to, and by Jewish-only colonies built on Palestinian land in violation of international law.
Black South Africans and others around the world have seen the 2010 Human Rights Watch report which “describes the two-tier system of laws, rules, and services that Israel operates for the two populations in areas in the West Bank under its exclusive control, which provide preferential services, development, and benefits for Jewish settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians.” This, in my book, is apartheid.
Yousef Abu Maria, coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Ummar, stated that the army violently attacked and clubbed the protests leading to several injuries.
Abu Maria added that the army also closed the area and declared it a military zone in an attempt to prevent the peace activists from holding their protest and to prevent them from reaching the lands that became isolated behind the Annexation Wall, in addition to the lands Israel intends to steal for settlement construction and expansion.
Similar to other villages and towns in the West Bank, Beit Ummar holds weekly protests against the wall and settlements; Israeli and international peace activists join these protests, Israeli soldiers continuously resort to the use of excessive force to stop these protests.
Israel’s land heist must be reversed, the apartheid wall torn down and the rights of Palestinians to their lands preserved.
The Committee is particularly appalled at the hermetic character of the separation of two groups, who live on
the same territory but do not enjoy either equal use of roads and infrastructure or equal
access to basic services and water resources. Such separation is concretized by the
implementation of a complex combination of movement restrictions consisting of the Wall,
roadblocks, the obligation to use separate roads and a permit regime that only impacts the
Palestinian population (Article 3 of the Convention).
The Committee draws the State party’s attention to its General Recommendation 19
(1995) concerning the prevention, prohibition and eradication of all policies and
practices of racial segregation and apartheid, and urges the State party to take
immediate measures to prohibit and eradicate any such policies or practices which
severely and disproportionately affect the Palestinian population in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory and which violate the provisions of article 3 of the Convention.
Israel’s cruel imprisonment of Akram Rikhawi continues despite 94 days on hunger strike. Reclaiming the PLO: an urgent call to unite all Palestinians Reasons for optimism and answers to BDS critics. ‘This book is about much more than answering the critics of BDS, however. Hind Awwad, a coordinator with the BDS National Committee, makes a powerful argument for why BDS not only unites Palestinians but also unites the Palestinian struggle with other popular struggles, including those in the US that seek reforms in education, healthcare, and social justice. “The BDS movement,” she writes, “has provided a way for us to break our collective chains.”’ American Carolyn Cicciu after a visit to Palestine: “Why should we be sending money to a country that is enslaving a people?” she said. “We make it too easy for Israel to follow a military solution when they don’t get their way.” Nutanyahoo bars access to sites of inquiry to an all female UNHRC panel set up to probe illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Zionist now supports BDS ‘Last night in Tel Aviv, during the social justice #J14 demonstration, a 57 year old man set himself on fire and is currently in the hospital. According to his letter, he was about to become homeless after going bankrupt and not receiving state assistance. In Israel, a person over the age of 55 is not eligible for housing assistance; a person who owned an apartment in the past 5 years – regardless of his current economic situation – is not eligible for rent assistance. These are the results of the continuous decline in eligibility for any form of social aid – this is part of the tragedy of the ongoing draining of social services, described by ACRI in this recently published report.’ (See ‘Crushing the opposition by delegitimizing labor unions and workers’ struggles’ – this is what fascist governments do.) Juan Cole examines five key areas where Israel’s image is cracking like an old dry creek bed. Perhaps add another – institutionalised racism and bigotry which ridiculous mountains of hasbara highlight, rather than obscure. Lecture in Melbourne, Victoria with Dr. Virginia Tilley
