SELECTIONS FROM THE PRESS

This section includes articles and news items, mainly from Israeli but also from international press sources, that provide insightful or illuminating perspectives on events, developments, or trends in and the occupied territories not readily available in the mainstream U.S. media.

ILAN PAPPÉ, “IN UPPER NAZARETH,” LONDON Peres, to “Judaize” the Galilee using emer- REVIEW OF BOOKS, 10 SEPTEMBER 2009 gency regulations that allowed the army to (EXCERPTS). confiscate land from the Palestinians. Up- per Nazareth opened in 1957, and senior Officially, no Palestinians live in the army officers were billeted there. “Jewish” city of Upper Nazareth. The city’s The area covered by Upper Nazareth elegant website appears only in Hebrew has quadrupled since its creation. Each and in Russian. When I was there recently, I expansion was on land expropriated from called a spokesperson to ask about numbers Arabs. Its 50,000 inhabitants live in a dy- but he wouldn’t give me a straight answer. “I namic urban space that keeps expanding am standing in front of a house with ‘There and developing. The 70,000 Palestinians is no power but in God’ written in Quranic of old Nazareth live in a city half the size over the door,” I said. “And I know that is not allowed to expand by a single there are two Palestinians on your city square meter; indeed, one of its western council.” “We still do not have enough infor- hilltops was recently requisitioned for mation about the numbers,” was the reply. Upper Nazareth. In fact, according to the Arab Associa- The villages around Nazareth were tion for Human Rights, 20 percent of the first targeted by Yitzhak Rabin’s 1976 plan city’s population is Palestinian. Most of of Judaization, Yehud Ha-Galil. In greater them moved from the crowded city of old Nazareth, the main tactic was to disrupt Nazareth at the bottom of the hill and from the natural geographical continuity be- the villages surrounding it. Some of them tween Palestinian villages by driving Jew- had to pay as much as £500,000 [approx. ish wedges between them. The Jews came, $760,000] for a house, three times the mar- but the Palestinians did not leave, so a ket value. The people selling up are Rus- second wave of Judaization began in 2001, sian immigrants gravitating toward . under Peres and Ariel Sharon. This wasn’t There are no Palestinian schools or kin- very successful either; Jews preferred to dergartens, so the roads between Nazareth live in Tel Aviv. and Upper Nazareth are overcrowded in The present attempt is motivated by the rush hour. But the non-existent 20 percent failure of the previous policies to make the are represented on the council and, Israel Galilee in general, and Nazareth in particu- being Israel, the two Palestinian councilors lar, Jewish. People and economies move in are in a weird coalition with the ultra- mysterious ways: well-off Palestinians be- right-wing party of Avigdor Lieberman. gan buying houses in the citadel that was The mayor needed their support in order built to evict them. Benjamin Netanyahu to defeat the Labor party. They demanded, regards this as a grave threat to Israel’s and received, a promise that an Arab school national security. Local politicians are even would be built in Upper Nazareth. The blunter. “If we lose the Jewish majority in mayor is nonetheless committed to the the Galilee this is the end of the Jewish “Judaization”—i.e., the de-Arabization—of state,” Motti Dotan, a member of the Labor his city, and Lieberman declared in August party, said recently. “I would like to imag- that stopping the immigration of Arabs into ine a Galilee without Arabs: no thefts, no Nazareth, as he calls it, is a national priority. crimes . . . we will have normal life.” . . . The city was built in the 1950s. David Now ecologists, industrialists, and Ben-Gurion was outraged by the presence academics have been drafted in. The Jew- of so many Arabs in the Galilee when he ish National Fund is behind the initiative, toured the region in 1953, a few days be- along with the Society for the Protection of fore he retired for a year and half from his Nature in Israel. The aim of diminishing the premiership. He appointed the director Palestinian presence in the Galilee is also general of the Ministry of Defense, Shimon fully endorsed by the prestigious union of

Journal of Studies Vol. XXXIX, No. 2 (Winter 2010), pp. 135–145, ISSN: 0377-919X; electronic ISSN: 1533-8614. © 2010 by the Institute for Palestine Studies. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp. DOI: jps.2010.XXXIX.2.135. 136 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES

Israeli wine producers, which has adopted In mid-August, a handful of privately run a plan prepared by leading academics from Orthodox schools refused to enroll several the Israel Institute of Technology. Published dozen Ethiopian immigrant children as- in 2003, the plan calls for the Jewish “take- signed to them, despite government threats over” of the Galilee. “It is either them or us,” to cut funding and revoke their licenses. it begins. “The land problems in the Galilee The showdown ended when the schools proved that any territory not taken by Zi- yielded, hours before school opened, but onist elements is going to be coveted by not before parents threatened to shut non-Zionists.” down the entire city school system if state- The gist of what they propose is to seize run schools were forced to absorb the ex- strategically important land by force and tra Ethiopians. Compromise has not ended hold onto it until Jews settle on it. The direc- bitterness and suspicion on both sides. tor general of AMPA, an electrical manufac- . . . [I]n the western foothills of Jerusa- turer, recently said that his company now not lem, parents and educators in the town of only makes refrigerators but is also actively Beit Shemesh were at loggerheads over supporting the “Judaization of the Galilee” a different group of newcomers, namely by building new communities in the area for Orthodox Jews. Faced with a steady influx AMPA’s veterans. “We are not ashamed to say of Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, families flee- that our plans have a Zionist element.” ing overcrowding in , the mayor The Palestinian village of ‘Ayn Mahil, decided in August to assign four classrooms east of Nazareth and adjacent to Upper for Haredi use in the city’s most prestigious Nazareth, is now accessible only by one secular school, the School for Languages road, and it goes through a Jewish religious and Cultures. Parents responded by pick- neighborhood in Upper Nazareth: on the eting city hall [and] demanding that the Day of Atonement, the people of ‘Ayn Mahil mayor resign. . . . The mayor replied that cannot leave or enter their village. They if the school refused to house the Haredi will soon be encircled by a new town classes, this would be its last year. called Shacharit. . . . Ten thousand ultra- Opening-day tensions ran high in Israeli Orthodox Jews will be settled there and Arab schools, too. Community leaders were the hope is that they will rectify the “unfa- up in arms over a decision by the educa- vorable” demographic balance, as well as tion minister, Gideon Sa’ar of Likud, to ban cut ‘Ayn Mahil off from the greater Naza- the use in Arab schools of the word “Na- reth area. The village’s ancient olive groves kba,” Arabic for “catastrophe,” to describe have been uprooted in preparation for the the creation of Israel and the mass disloca- building work. A new road network will en- tion of Arabs that followed. Arab Israeli edu- sure that other villages are separated from cators said their curriculum included both each other and from Nazareth. . . . the Arab and Jewish “narratives” of Israel’s birth, but that removing the Arab version would deny their community its identity. J. J. GOLDBERG, “THE ZIONIST MELTING POT Sa’ar, for his part, declared to the cabinet BOILS OVER,” THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD, on 30 August that “the creation of the state 2 SEPTEMBER 2009 (EXCERPTS). of Israel cannot be referred to as a tragedy.” The 1 September opening of Israel’s He vowed that Israel’s Arab school system new school year was fairly uneventful as “will revise its studies.” Israeli school years go. . . . Compared to the Tensions began last spring when Sa’ar storms of recent years, the back-to-school introduced a new Israeli heritage program flare-ups this fall seemed at first glance to for use in all public schools, both Jewish be little more than—well, child’s play. and Arab, teaching about Israel’s anthem, its On closer examination, though, this flag, and the Jewish religious calendar. Arab year’s disruptions are worrying. They could educators said they would consider civil be the harbingers of something far more disobedience if their curriculum is forcibly serious than traditional salary and tuition “Judaized,” in the words of one Arab com- disputes—namely, a mounting reluctance munity official. This dispute, unlike the oth- among various groups of Israelis to live and ers, had not been resolved by opening day. learn alongside one another. Whatever the immediate issues, though, That, at least, was how most Israelis the underlying cause of conflict is the same: interpreted a late-summer drama in Petah demographic change. A study of Israel’s Tikva, Tel Aviv’s largest satellite suburb. school population, released on 30 August by SELECTIONS FROM THE PRESS 137 the respected Taub Center for Social Policy on empty sands. Its vibrant cosmopolitan Studies, showed that of the country’s 1.6 flavor, its commercial center, its Mediter- million schoolchildren, fully 48 percent at- ranean beaches, its liberal society and tend schools that do not embrace or teach culture, are seen as signifying a truly com- the state’s founding Zionist ethos, includ- mendable Zionist enterprise. According to ing 28 percent in Arab schools and 20 per- the blurb on the centenary celebrations, cent in Haredi schools. The combined total “several dozen families gathered on the was 39 percent back in the year 2000. . . . sand dunes on the beach outside Yafo to By contrast, the state’s mainstream secu- allocate plots of land for a new neighbor- lar schools account for only 39 percent of hood they called Ahuzat Bayit, later known students, down from 46 percent in 2000. as Tel Aviv.” Enrollment in state religious schools, which After the horrors of the Gaza onslaught follow a modern Orthodox curriculum, and unending blockade, and the evidence of has remained steady at roughly 15 percent. war crimes committed by the Israel Defense In absolute numbers, the secular student Forces (IDF) early this year, . . . no effort has population has dropped 3 percent over the been spared by the Israeli embassy and its past decade, while Haredi students have in- propaganda machines to deflect the atten- creased by 51 percent. . . . In Beit Shemesh tion of the world to Israel’s marvelous tech- and elsewhere, secular, mainstream Israelis nical and medical discoveries, and to use Tel are awaking to find they’re no longer the Aviv to present its upbeat image. Hence Tel mainstream. . . . Aviv festivities were organized in New York, The dispute in Petah Tikva reflects a Vienna, Copenhagen, and Paris. . . . different problem, at least superficially. In- In London this week, the Israeli em- tegration of Ethiopian immigrants, always a bassy team[ed]up with EasyJet to promote challenge due to cultural and racial differ- its new flights to Tel Aviv with a series of ences, has become far more complicated in events around London to provide “a sweet recent years. The current wave of Ethiopian taste of Israel’s 24-hour city” as a “celebra- newcomers. . . . comes with little or no grasp tion of Israeli culture, which includes the of Jewish culture and tradition. . . . Most valuable contribution from many minori- know little or no Hebrew, and many are illit- ties in Israel, such as Christians, Muslims, erate. . . . Enrolling the newest immigrants is and Druze.” unfair to immigrants and schools alike, ad- While there is much on the surface that ministrators say. . . . Whatever the challenges, makes Tel Aviv enticing, this picture must Education Ministry officials charge that the not be allowed to mask the dark underly- recalcitrant schools have balked repeatedly ing history of ethnic cleansing and land in the past on various pretexts. The real rea- expropriation on which Tel Aviv was built, son, the officials say, is simple racism. and that still continues today, even in . Disputes in Arab schools are different in . . . In fact, the whole myth of Tel Aviv being nature, mainly because neither side even built on empty sand dunes has been taken pretends to seek a melding of values and apart by various Israeli scholars, but none identities. The question those schools pose of this will feature in the promotional to the society is how to imagine coexis- events. tence without integration. As Yonathan Mendel says in his article For all their differences, though, the “Fantasising Israel” in the London Review September brush fires are all reflections of of Books: a single, stark crisis: The Jewish state is in- exorably turning into something its found- [Tel Aviv] didn’t just emerge from the sand in 1909, ers never intended, something that may not as the Zionist myth tells us. Al-Sumayil, Salame, even be sustainable, and nobody has a clue Sheikh Munis, Abu Kabir, Al-Manshiyeh: these are the names of some of the villages that made room what to do about it. for it and the names are still used today. . . . The Israeli organization has ABE HAYEEM, “THE DARK SIDE OF TEL AVIV,” published maps of Tel Aviv showing where GUARDIAN, 13 OCTOBER 2009 (EXCERPTS). Arab localities existed, particularly in Jaffa The centenary of Tel Aviv, a city said and its suburbs to the south, and in smaller to date from 1909, has provided a useful villages east and north of the city, but opportunity to present the face of Israel which have been erased from maps of the as a hip country built by Jewish pioneers region and its posted signs. 138 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES

Initially, Tel Aviv in its infancy was an the company’s stock plummeted by more adjunct of Jaffa, which Mendel says than one-third. . . . Watching Leviev’s precipitous downfall was probably the most prosperous and cosmopoli- from the sidelines were pro-Palestinian tan of all Palestinian cities, with a port, an industry activists. And they were cheering. Though (Jaffa oranges), an international school system and certainly not the cause of his financial col- a lively cultural life. In 1949, after Jaffa had been lapse, for the past two years, these activists almost completely emptied of its Palestinian inhab- have singled out Leviev as one of their itants . . . the Israeli government decided to unite the two cities in one metropolis, to be called “Tel high-profile villains for his large contribu- Aviv-Jaffa.” In doing this, Ben-Gurion not only cre- tions to West Bank settlements. And they ated a new Tel Aviv that was “part of” biblical Jaffa, have been effective gadflies. Several of he erased the Palestinian city. the company’s major shareholders have divested their holdings from Africa–Israel The city was subject to intensive shell- after receiving complaints from clients. ing in 1948, when more than 60,000 of And at least two charities have declared its residents were forced to leave—mostly publicly [that] they will not accept Leviev’s fleeing to Gaza. Seventy-five percent of contributions. the city was bulldozed, leaving only 4,000 The pro-Palestinian activists are affili- Palestinians in the now run-down ‘Ajami ated with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanc- and Jabaliya neighborhoods, which in fact tions (BDS) movement, an international today are the subject of intended clearance coalition with the goal of isolating and dis- by the Amidar corporation, [which has] im- comfiting Israel just as South Africa’s apart- posed fines on the residents for “illegally” heid regime was targeted in the 1980s. improving their houses. . . . Initiated by Palestinian groups in 2005 What will be built in their place is luxu- but strengthened by a network that takes rious real estate at fantastic prices beyond in dozens of leftist organizations in Eu- the reach of the existing inhabitants. Jaffa rope and the United States, the global BDS today has been turned into a picturesque movement claims a number of recent suc- artists’ colony, in the houses expropriated cesses. Especially in the wake of the Gaza from their Palestinian owners. . . . incursion of last winter, groups associated This supposed “mixed city” of Tel Aviv/ with the boycott have now felt spurred to Yafo (even the name Jaffa is not used) expand their efforts into even the sensitive has only 4.2 percent Palestinian residents, realm of academic and cultural boycotts of compared with the 20 percent of Israel’s Israel. As Omar Barghouti, one of the Pales- wider population—hardly an indication of tinian leaders of the BDS movement, told the city’s vaunted “diversity.” In fact, as the the Forward, “Our South Africa moment author and architect Sharon Rotbard has has finally arrived.” pointed out, Jaffa existed before 1909 as Some major Jewish groups acknowledge mainly Arab, but in fact a mixed city, with BDS as a possible threat. “There are clearly many Palestinian Jews in suburbs estab- a number of episodes building up here that lished in 1887 and 1905. The new Tel Aviv would allow advocates of a boycott to say was established by white European Jews, that slowly, slowly we are achieving what and thus, as Gabriel Ash says, the centen- we want, which is the South Africanization nial “is legitimizing colonialism through of Israel,” said American Jewish Committee the commemoration of the arrival of white [AJC] spokesman Ben Cohen. . . . Europeans to the orient.” . . . The BDS movement is highly decen- tralized, with each group in the coalition allowed to choose its own targets as it sees fit. It has no articulated political vi- GAL BECKERMAN, “PALESTINIAN-LED sion, such as a one- or two-state solution to MOVEMENT TO BOYCOTT ISRAEL IS GAINING the conflict. The principles that guide the SUPPORT,” THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD, movement—as set out in a call for boycott, 16 SEPTEMBER 2009 (EXCERPTS). divestment, and sanctions issued in June Uzbekistan-born diamond mogul Lev 2005 by a wide group of Palestinian civil Leviev announced late in August that his society organizations—demand instead company, Africa–Israel, was drowning in that Israel adhere to international and hu- debt of more than $5.5 billion that it could man rights law. The amorphous structure not repay. Over the next two days, shares in and broad goals appear to be responsible SELECTIONS FROM THE PRESS 139 for much of the group’s appeal. But some BDS-affiliated groups. The activists counted who watch this movement closely contend it as one more victory. . . . that, in the end, even a “targeted” boycott is The exclusive focus on rights rather ultimately aimed at all of Israel. than on a political prescription for the con- The actual monetary impact of the flict brings together both those who want movement is often unclear. But for activists to target Israel’s existence as a whole and seeking as much to affect Israel’s image those—mostly American activists—who in the public’s mind, money is not always stick to the more narrow issue of the occu- the bottom line. The campaign against Le- pation and settlement activity. viev is a good example. It was initiated by As far as Barghouti [one of the leaders Adalah–NY, one of the handful of American of the movement] is concerned, BDS is a groups in the BDS movement’s network. It “comprehensive boycott of Israel, includ- was Adalah’s activists who chose to focus ing all its products, academic and cultural on Leviev’s construction projects in the institutions, etc.” But he understands “the West Bank and on contributions he has tactical needs of our partners to carry out made to the Land Redemption Fund, which a selective boycott of settlement products, gives money for settlement development. say, or military suppliers of the Israeli oc- Adalah–NY protesters first picketed the cupation army as the easiest way to rally opening two years ago of Leviev’s diamond support around a black-and-white viola- retail store, yelling at actress Susan Saran- tion of international law and basic human don as she entered the Madison Avenue rights.” shop. Since then, the group has taken every Cohen, the AJC spokesman, views this opportunity to point out his connections tactic as a transparent deception. “If you to the West Bank settlements. probe these groups a little deeper, you’ll Lately, the fruits of this focus on Leviev find that really this is entirely ideologically have been piling up. On 11 September, motivated. They are just a bunch of radical TIAA–CREF, the giant pension fund, an- groups that want to see the state of Israel nounced that it had divested from Africa– eliminated,” he said. “. . . I think that many Israel last March after 59 of the company’s people who might be troubled by Israel’s investors accused it of being “a company presence in the West Bank are going to run which violates human rights and interna- a mile when they see what the real agenda tional law.” UNICEF and OXFAM denied of these groups are.” Leviev’s public claims to have given them The activist group Code Pink: Women generous contributions and added that for Peace recently turned its attention to they would not accept contributions from this type of targeted boycott, focusing on him because of his financial support for the cosmetics company Ahava. Based in West Bank settlements. Also, in the past few the kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem, a settlement weeks, a couple of Africa–Israel’s largest in the West Bank, Ahava was a convenient investors have sold their stock in Leviev’s target for the group. After picketing stores company after receiving pressure from that sold Ahava products . . . the Code Pink their clients. . . . activists looked on with satisfaction as the Leviev’s trouble is just one of many company’s spokeswoman, “Sex and the recent signs of the movement’s higher pro- City” star Kristin Davis, was dropped as an file. There was the protest joined by several ambassador for OXFAM. The group gave celebrities in mid-September at the Toronto its reasons in a statement, saying that it International Film Festival of the festival’s “remains opposed to settlement trade, in official cultural partnership with the city which Ahava is engaged.” of Tel Aviv in celebration of the latter’s Nancy Kricorian, Code Pink’s New York 100th anniversary. A few days earlier, Neve City coordinator and the organizer of its Gordon, a professor at Ben-Gurion Univer- Ahava campaign, dubbed Stolen Beauty, sity, wrote a controversial opinion piece in said that this push against the cosmetics the Los Angeles Times, endor sing the BDS company was effective precisely because it movement as the “only way to counter the was tightly focused on a settlement opera- apartheid trend in Israel.” This past June, tion. And yet, it also fell squarely within the the French company Veolia Environnement guidelines of the BDS movement’s princi- SA abandoned its multibillion-dollar project ples and objectives and was even cited by to build a light rail train system in Jerusa- Barghouti as a successful model because it lem after pressure mounted in France from sullied Ahava’s name publicly. . . . 140 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES

AMIRA HASS, “WHY STOP WITH ELBIT?” And still, it seems that the Foreign Min- HA’ARETZ, 9 SEPTEMBER 2009 (EXCERPTS). istry and Barak know full well why they were so quick to issue a rebuke, and are The question is not why Norway di- once again trying to sow fear, forcing Nor- vested from the defense electronics giant way to lower the bar it has set for itself and Elbit Systems, but why only now, and why other countries, and blocking in advance only from that company? . . . the logical path the recommendations From the outset, instead of rebuking have paved. This is the first time a nation the Norwegian ambassador, the Foreign has adopted—actively and not just with Ministry and Defense Minister Ehud Barak words—the opinion of the International should have actually praised the citizens Court of Justice [ICJ] in the Hague about of Norway. Through their government pen- the separation barrier, 87 percent of which sion fund, which invests oil revenues in is built on occupied land, in contravention 8,000 companies around the world for the of international law. sake of Norway’s future generations, those If building the barrier is in itself ille- citizens continue to be active partners in gal, it follows that so are the settlements, Israeli construction in the West Bank. roads, and factories serving the occupa- Africa–Israel . . . , Israeli banks that give tion. The Norwegian foreign minister also mortgages to settlers, a Mexican company noted that the ICJ had ruled that it is the that has plants in the settlements and is a obligation of countries signatory to the partner in mining in occupied territory, Is- Fourth Geneva Convention to prevent that raeli firms whose plants are in the occupied charter’s violation. . . . West Bank—these are just some of the over 40 Israeli and international companies that are involved in solidifying Israel’s occupa- AMIRA HASS, “WHY IS ISRAEL LIMITING tion, and in which Norway invests, accord- MOVEMENT OF [A] PALESTINIAN-CANADIAN ing to data from the “Who Profits” project, BUSINESSMAN?” HA’ARETZ, 19 AUGUST 2009 run by the Coalition of Women for Peace. (EXCERPTS). The Norwegian Finance Ministry’s Council on Ethics, which recommended Muhammad Sabawi, 65, could have that the pension fund pull its investment played a leading role in all the stories from Elbit, also explained why it would about the economic revival in the West divest from that company but not, say, from Bank’s cities. His goal of “strengthening the the U.S. company Caterpillar. Elbit, it said, economy of Palestine by utilizing its own developed equipment used specifically in capabilities” sounds like Prime Minister the construction of the separation barrier, Benjamin Netanyahu’s vision of “economic while the equipment sold by Caterpillar peace.” In recent months, however, the to the Israel Defense Forces has legitimate Palestinian-Canadian businessman has been uses as well, and the company should not considering reducing his business activity be held responsible for it being employed here, after Israel started limiting his free- in another, possibly illegal, way (namely, dom of movement and that of his son and the wholesale destruction of Palestinian business partner, Khalid. . . . homes). For 15 years, Sabawi entered and left The council extended this conclusion the country with no problems, as a senior to other companies involved in building partner in an insurance company and as the separation barrier that also benefited chairman of a construction company. But from Norwegian investment. In this way, it in April, he was denied entry at Ben-Gurion corresponds indirectly with left-wing Nor- International Airport. “Next time enter by wegian activists, and with Palestinian and way of the Allenby Bridge,” said the Interior Israeli anti-occupation activists, providing Ministry official, after the coordinator for a basis for their suspicions that the fund’s economic affairs at the Israeli Civil Ad- ethics guidelines have been violated. Those ministration in the West Bank convinced guidelines forbid investment in companies authorities not to put the Canadian citizen that “contribute to serious or systematic on a plane back to Istanbul. human-rights violations” and are in blatant He wasted seven hours at the airport, contradiction to the will or pretense of left the country, and returned on 2 June via moving Israel and the Palestinians toward a the Allenby Bridge, without looking at what just agreement. was written in his passport. It was only SELECTIONS FROM THE PRESS 141 a few days later, on his way to a meeting Khalid Sabawi sought to bring Canadian with Israeli business people, that he real- engineers to his “green” company in the ized his visa was valid “only for Palestinian West Bank, and they turned to the Israeli Authority territory.” When he arrived at the embassy in Canada to request work visas. Hizma checkpoint northeast of Jerusalem, They reported being told that that was driving a car with Israeli license plates, the within the purview of the Palestinian Au- soldier there leafed through his passport thority [PA]. The PA, of course, said it was and told a surprised Sabawi that he had to within Israel’s authority. Israel, however, turn back. grants almost no work visas to foreigners Sabawi purchased $500,000 in products working in the West Bank and the Gaza and services from an Israeli software com- Strip, generally preferring to renew their pany. His company cars are Israeli. Many tourist visas instead. of his company’s suppliers—machinery, Khalid Sabawi and his manager were raw materials, etc.—are Israeli, both the forced to return to Amman at night. His importers and the manufacturers. Many father called everywhere, until he reached Israelis have shown an interest in the sub- the Civil Administration in the West Bank. sidiary headed by his son, which develops He was promised the travelers could re- advanced green technology for heating and turn via the Allenby Bridge. They tried a cooling homes through use of the ground week later, but were turned away. . . . After temperature, but the Sabawis, both Cana- a month and a half of efforts and the Civil dian citizens, are barred from meeting with Administration’s intervention, the younger them. . . . Sabawi managed to return. Sabawi had to transfer his insurance In April, he got a one-week visa. On company’s Gaza headquarters to Ramal- other occasions, he received a visa for a lah because after the 2005 disengagement month. On 29 June, he returned via the Al- Israel made it almost impossible for foreign lenby crossing from a Sharm al-Shaykh con- nationals to enter Gaza. That year, he and vention on renewable energy. He was again other Palestinian and Arab business people turned away—after waiting at the crossing established UCI, a Ramallah-based con- for eight hours. After more telephone calls, struction and investment company, with promises, and other efforts, he returned $40 million in capital. . . . the next day, but his passport was stamped They are currently completing con- with a visa limiting his visit to a month struction of a residential subdivision in and only to Palestinian Authority territory. northern Ramallah, three kilometers from Last week on another visit, he received the Birzeit University. The neighborhood has 62 same visa, forcing him to cancel a meet- semi-detached homes, a sports center, pool, ing with an Israeli investor interested in a a playground, and a commercial center. . . . partnership. This is all on the condition that they can stay in the country. Khalid, 25, is an ANSHEL PFEFFER, “THE IDF HAS BECOME engineer specializing in energy. He joined ISRAEL’S DIPLOMATIC CHANNEL TO THE his father in Ramallah two and a half years WEST,” HA’ARETZ, 30 OCTOBER 2009 ago and heads their subsidiary MENA Geo- (EXCERPTS). thermal. He expresses a mix of enthusiasm, pride, frustration, and concern. MENA is Regular visitors to Tel Aviv’s northern the only company of its kind in the Middle beaches were surprised this week to find East and North Africa, including Israel. His beach strictly off-limits, guarded green technology specialization requires by makeshift barbed-wire fences and joint Khalid to travel frequently, so the tourist patrols by Israel Defense Forces [IDF] sol- visas he received every time he arrived diers and burly American men—and a few over the past few years didn’t bother him. women—in desert camouflage. In January, however, everything got The biennial Juniper Cobra exercise, more complicated. That month, he re- aimed at improving coordination between turned from an international conference American and Israeli missile defense sys- in Abu Dhabi on future sources of energy. tems, has become almost routine for the He and a manager at the company, another two armies since its inception in 2001, but Palestinian Canadian, came to the Shaykh this time there were a number of marked Husayn crossing between Jordan and Israel. differences. Not only was this the largest They were denied entrance to Israel. . . . joint Israeli-American military exercise in 142 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES history, it was also the largest exercise of by Israel’s no. 1 soldier to Holocaust-related its kind by U.S. forces. . . . sites. . . . But the truly pressing matters on The exercise has major strategic signifi- Ashkenazi’s agenda were far from histori- cance not only for Israel, but also for the cal. In just three weeks, he has met with world as a whole. While Israel is develop- the chiefs of staff of the five largest armies ing a multilayered missile defense system, in NATO—the United States, Britain, Can- whose long-range Arrow missile compo- ada, France, and now Germany. nent is operational while the others are on “The army chiefs are a very useful dip- schedule in terms of development, the U.S. lomatic channel,” one IDF General Staff X-band radar system deployed in the Negev officer says. The content of Ashkenazi’s has tripled Israel’s ability to detect missiles meetings with Germany’s chief of staff, fired from the east (in other words, from Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhan, was of course Iran’s direction). not made public. But at a time when the The X-band system—the first and only major Western countries are engaged in permanent deployment of U.S. troops in a frustrating dialogue with Iran over the Israel—together with the additional sys- future of its nuclear program, there is little tems demonstrated during Juniper Cobra, doubt over what could have been of joint which the U.S. would provide Israel on interest to the two generals. Israel, in par- short notice in an emergency situation, ticular, has a clear interest in conveying its greatly enhances the defensive shield over viewpoint to the senior military advisors of the country. On the diplomatic level, the these nations’ leaders. promise of emergency deployment could But the military relationship between serve to reassure Israel that it need not act Israel and Germany goes much deeper hastily. . . . than just dealing with the current Iranian problem. German shipyards are building Give and Take two Dolphin class submarines for the Israeli There was, however, a slightly less posi- Navy, which according to foreign reports tive undertone . . . implying that just as are capable of launching ballistic missiles this defense can be extended to America’s with nuclear warheads. The German gov- allies, it can also be withdrawn. The entire ernment is funding one-third of the costs setup, including the X-band radar system, of the new submarines. The three Dolphins which in a few weeks will celebrate its previously delivered to Israel were funded one-year anniversary on Israeli soil, can be fully by Germany. . . . disassembled within a few hours, moved The military know-how goes both ways. overland and then loaded onto C-17 trans- This week a new deal for the purchase port aircraft and redeployed anywhere in of Israel Aerospace Industries Heron un- the world. manned aerial vehicles by the Luftwaffe But no one, at least in the U.S. military, was announced. The deal is believed to is currently talking about reducing Wash- be worth $90 million at present, with ad- ington’s security commitment to Israel. ditional orders in the pipeline. The Heron Although relations between the countries’ system, consisting of drones and command leaders are at a low, their armed forces and control cabins, will be shipped imme- have never been closer. IDF Chief of Staff diately to Afghanistan. . . . Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi never tires of tell- Officially, Israel has no involvement in ing guests that he speaks with the U.S. the fighting in Afghanistan. The last thing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. the Western armies struggling to gain the Michael Mullen, at least once a week on confidence of the local Muslim population the secure line between their offices. need right now is to be linked to the “Zion- As Israel appears to be increasingly iso- ist entity.” But the new German unmanned lated diplomatically, the relationship be- aerial vehicles will join similar Israeli-de- tween Western and Israeli military leaders signed drones—used by Canada, Spain, and is beginning to resemble a convenient back the United States—in the sky, while on the channel for the exchange of information ground will be combat vehicles covered in on Syria as well as on Iran, Hizballah, and armor plating designed on Kibbutz Sasa, in Islamist threats. During Ashkenazi’s three- the Upper Galilee. day stay in Germany this week, the official But cooperation with Israel goes further press releases emphasized mainly the visits than just the supply of hardware. Many SELECTIONS FROM THE PRESS 143 of the forces facing threats from suicide how bulldozers tore up greenhouses, gar- bombers and improvised explosive devices dens, and orchards under the pretext of (IEDs) operate according to doctrines security; and how Palestinian rage mounted adapted from those developed by the IDF until it reached an unprecedented boiling when facing Hizballah and armed Palestin- point. He stated that the policy of collec- ian organizations. tive punishment and the imposition of Furthermore, in recent months, the economic hardships—which did nothing similarity of the threat facing the IDF to serve the nonmilitary echelon’s efforts and its Western counterparts has grown. to forge a cease-fire—were the courses of Analyses by the forensic laboratory of the action dictated by the military echelon, IDF Ground Forces’ technological logistics which at that point in time totally ignored directorate show a distinct technological the directives and aims of the political advance in the IEDs used against the IDF leadership. near the border with the Gaza Strip. . . . Ya’alon would later label that policy as [F]rom information supplied by the British one that would be “seared into the minds” and U.S. armies, it seems that the devices of the Palestinians. He claimed that the in Gaza are almost identical to those used only way to deal with them was to teach by the Taliban in Afghanistan, including the them that violence does not pay. In order recent incorporation of tungsten. to drill this into their heads, he was not The new materials and expertise almost averse to starving children, liquidating certainly came from bomb experts smug- moderate political leaders, erecting check- gled into Gaza through tunnels under the points, imposing closures, and humiliating Egyptian border. Since the end of Operation the populace. Cast Lead more than 10 months ago, Hamas Now it is clear that lurking behind the has virtually ceased carrying out operations strategy advanced by Ya’alon and his fel- against the IDF. All of the attempted attacks low “cleaners”—one that threw the Oslo have been traced to Islamic Jihad groups accords into the dustbin of history—was a that flout Hamas’s authority. Like the Taliban, pure, right-wing ideology. “From my stand- these groups are now being funded and point,” Ya’alon declared during his recent trained by al-Qa‘ida. . . . appearance before the lunatic fringe forum of the Likud, “Jews should live in all of the Land of Israel forever.” . . . AKIVA ELDAR, “DON’T BLAME BOGIE ALONE,” When these kinds of officers reach HA’ARETZ, 24 AUGUST 2009 (EXCERPTS). the highest positions in the army, it is no Rather than demand an apology, the wonder that the Palestinian peace camp Israeli peace camp needs to send Moshe is fighting for its life against Hamas. When “Bogie” Ya’alon a large bouquet of flowers. peace activists are viewed by a former The videotaped appearance of the vice chief of staff as “viruses,” nobody will stand premier before a group of Feiglinites [a far in the way of the hilltop thugs in the ter- right-leaning segment of Likud] last week ritories controlled by the IDF. (At least [16 August] is worth its weight in gold. His one-third of the outposts were built during statements are straight-from-the-source, the period in which Ya’alon served as GOC first-hand proof of the decisive role the se- [General Officer Commanding] of Central nior military echelon has played in thwart- Command, the military element that is con- ing the peace process. sidered the “sovereign” of the territories.) When he was chief of the General Staff, And yet, Bogie and his ilk are not the ones Ya’alon bragged of how he would often say who bear the primary guilt. Indeed, as the in closed forums that “every time the politi- Jewish saying goes, one should not blame cians bring us the dove of peace, we as an an individual who is operating within a army need to clean up after it.” . . . Ya’alon broken system. thus confirms the chilling description of- During the 16 years that have elapsed fered by Prof. Shlomo Ben-Ami of how since the signing of the Oslo accords, the Israel Defense Forces’ [IDF] top brass Israel has yet to produce one political helped stoke the fires in the territories. . . . leader that is ready to risk confrontation Ben-Ami wrote of how goods that were with the most extremist of settlers, includ- specifically earmarked for the Palestinian ing those inhabiting the illegal outposts. population were held up at checkpoints; Even Yitzhak Rabin could not summon the 144 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES courage to evacuate the settlers of Hebron to protecting soldiers, anything goes for following the massacre at the Tomb of the the IDF. This flimsy fig leaf of a man bears Patriarchs. as much moral responsibility as the politi- Not only is the political echelon fearful cal leaders who made the decisions and of presenting a map which demarcates the the soldiers who carried out their orders. state’s permanent borders, but it also has He’s the philosopher who removed the abdicated its responsibility for determin- reins, the intellectual who whitewashed ing the final route of the separation fence everything. It is thanks to him and those to the High Court of Justice, thus leaving of his ilk that Israelis can feel so self-righ- a number of gaps throughout the barrier. teous. When the world said in near unison, To this day, senior army officers do not “War crimes,” Kasher said, “We are the most know whether the prime minister is re- moral army in the world, no one is better ally committed to freezing construction in than us.” . . . settlements, or whether the politicians are He wasn’t always like this. He now says once again winking one eye at the Ameri- in every possible forum, “If it comes down cans while winking the other at the Yesha to a choice between a neighbor and an IDF Council. soldier, the preference is the soldier,” and A chief of staff, like any other citizen, “The lives of our soldiers is of more inter- has political opinions. The late Rafael est to me than the dignity and well-being Eitan compared Arabs to drugged-up of the Palestinians.” He has also said that cockroaches, and Ehud Barak agreed to there is no justification for endangering the relinquish parts of Jerusalem. The problem lives of soldiers in order to prevent the kill- starts when IDF officers enter a vacuum ing of civilians living “next to a terrorist.” that the political echelon has left behind in But he once thought and wrote differently. the territories for the last 42 years. In this As a radical activist at the height of the first abandoned area a dangerous trend arises, Lebanon war, Kasher, who is also one of whereby the political echelon allows the the founders of the soldiers’ refusal move- military leadership to dictate policy. Or, in ment Yesh Gvul, courageously appeared at Ya’alon’s words, the army cleans up after a news conference with Nathan Zach, Dan the politicians. . . . Miron, and Yeshayahu Leibowitz. Kasher . . . wrote in a letter to : “Against the backdrop of news reports on thousands of GIDEON LEVY, “IT’S ALL KOSHER FOR noncombatant Lebanese and Palestinians KASHER,” HA’ARETZ, 5 OCTOBER 2009 who were harmed during Israel’s military (EXCERPTS). operations, and given the complete jus- Whoever said that intellectuals are tification of these instances given by the keeping silent? Who claimed that academia prime minister, it is every decent man’s is ensconced in an ivory tower? And who duty to express unreserved opposition to dared to think that Israel lacks a moral the prime minister’s treatment of innocent voice? One day, when historians take the civilians who are caught in the middle of a time to examine Israel’s brutal offensive in war he initiated.” Gaza, otherwise known as “Cast Lead,” they What has changed since then? Kasher will settle a score with political leaders and has changed. Every decent man continues officers who were responsible for commit- to believe that unnecessary killing of civil- ting war crimes. They will delve deep and ians is a criminal act. The war in Gaza was denounce the enablers of this nation, the no less cruel than the war in Lebanon. Uni- whitewashers and apologists, those who versal ethics remain today what they were let the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] win at then. Only Kasher’s ethics have radically any cost, even if it was the heaviest moral changed. . . . cost possible. In recent days, the United Nations’ The main target on their list will be Mr. Goldstone report has been denounced as Ethics, Prof. Asa Kasher, the Israel Prize- “anti-Semitic propaganda,” and white phos- winning philosopher and author of the phorus bombs have become “legitimate IDF’s Code of Conduct. Kasher glossed weapons.” Why? Kasher heard from an IDF over every transgression during this war. colonel that when a phosphorus bomb fell He’s the one responsible for that toxic “IDF near him, nothing happened to him. And spirit”—which holds that when it comes what about the 200 children who were SELECTIONS FROM THE PRESS 145 killed? They were of “legal adult age—15 The IDF spokesman’s office could not to 18 years—and they took an active part have phrased it any better. The Foreign in the war.” What about the killing of Dr. Ministry’s spin doctors could not have de- Izzeddin Abu al-Aish’s daughters? He is ceived any better. This is how Kasher has responsible for their deaths. The bombing whitewashed the assassinations and resul- of hospitals? This, too, is permitted. Kasher tant killing of innocent civilians. . . . knows that terrorists were hiding in their This is the man who symbolizes our mo- basements. rality and this is how we behave. . . .