Arab leaders under attack in Israel

by Jonathan Cook

The Palestine Telegraph

West Bank, February 4, 2010 (Pal Telegraph; by Jonathan Cook) -- Leaders of the Arab minority in Israel warned this week that they were facing an unprecedented campaign of persecution, backed by the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, designed to stop their political activities.

The warning came after Said Nafaa, a Druze member of the Israeli parliament was stripped of his immunity last week, clearing the way for him to be tried for a visit to Syria three years ago.

In recent weeks, legal sanctions have been invoked against two other Arab political leaders, following clashes with the Israeli security forces at demonstrations against the occupation, and pressure is growing for two more MPs to be investigated.

Arab politicians are particularly concerned about a bill introduced last month requiring all parliamentary candidates to swear loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state. If passed, the seats of the 10 Arab MPs belonging to non-Zionist parties in the 120-member parliament, or Knesset, would be under threat.

Jamal Zahalka, one of those MPs, said: "Every week either the Knesset or the government trys to impose new restrictions on our activities and freedom of speech. There is a growing trend towards anti-democratic legislation."

Nafaa, the latest target for legal action, was stripped of his parliamentary immunity from prosecution last week by a Knesset committee dominated by the right wing.

Keeping his immunity was his only hope of avoiding a trial after he was indicted by the attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, in December over a visit he organised in 2007 to Syria, considered an enemy country.

The MP had arranged for a group of 280 Druze clerics to make a pilgrimage to Syria's holy sites via Jordan after they had been repeatedly refused a permit by the interior ministry. Nafaa has argued that the clerics were being denied their religious freedom.

Afu Aghbaria, an Arab MP, called the case political persecution and asked the committee: "Do you think he organised an espionage trip with 280 people?"

Nafaa is also charged with contact with a foreign agent. According to the testimony of one of his assistants, who was interrogated by the Israeli secret police, the MP discussed the feud between Fatah and Hamas with Talal Naji, a Syrian leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and tried to meet Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas in Damascus.

Nafaa, who denies meeting Naji, maintains that his visit was entirely political in nature and that the Knesset's actions are designed to prevent him from fulfilling the role he was elected for by the Arab minority, one in five of Israel's population.

Ahmed Tibi, the only Arab MP on the panel hearing the immunity case, said Arab politicians, instead of being prosecuted, should be encouraged to build bridges to the Arab world on behalf of Israel.

Orna Kohn, a lawyer with Adalah, a legal centre representing Nafaa, said that, whereas the immunity of Jewish legislators was removed in cases of corruption and serious criminal offences, the revocation of immunity for political activities was "very rare" and appeared to apply only to Arab MPs.

The last case was against Azmi Bishara, who was tried in 2001 on two counts -- for a visit to Syria and for alleged incitement during a speech -- both of which were rejected by the courts.

Arab MPs have avoided trips to much of the Arab world since the so-called Bishara Law of 2008 granted the government power to bar anyone who makes an unauthorised visit to an enemy state from standing as a candidate.

In recent weeks other Arab politicians have found themselves in trouble.

Last month Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement, was sentenced to nine months' jail after being found guilty of spitting at a policeman during clashes close to the al Aqsa mosque compound in 2007. Salah, who denied the charge, said he was the victim of concerted efforts to prevent Muslims from protecting the holy site in Jerusalem's Old City.

Another Arab leader, Mohammed Barakeh, head of the Communist party in the Knesset, is due to stand trial on four counts of assault against security officials during demonstrations over a four-year period.

Kohn, who also represents Barakeh, said the MP had attended hundreds of demonstrations at which he mediated between protesters and security forces.

"Often soldiers turn violent against the demonstrators and in some cases Mr. Barakeh was assaulted. In such circumstances it is easier for soldiers to accuse him of being violent than risk being accused themselves."

She said the decision to indict Barakeh was an attempt to "criminalise" his political role and reflected an "escalation" in using the law against Arab politicians.

The spate of indictments prompted Mohammed Zeidan, head of the Higher Follow-Up Committee, the main political body for the Arab minority, to complain last month of "ongoing attacks" on the Arab leadership.

At Nafaa's immunity hearing, Anastasia Michaeli, a committee member and member of the foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman's far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, said she would introduce a bill to revoke the citizenship of anyone visiting an enemy state and deport them to that country.

Colleagues in her party have already initiated legislation that would require MPs to swear allegiance to Israel as a "Jewish, Zionist and democratic state." Currently the pledge refers only to loyalty to "the state of Israel."

Zahalka, leader of the National Democratic Assembly party, said: "Imagine the outcry if a Jewish representative in the U.S. or Britain was expected to swear loyalty to his country as a Christian state."

Zahalka was himself accused of incitement after commenting on Israeli TV in December that Ehud Barak, the defence minister, listened to classical music while children were killed in Gaza. On air, Dan Margalit, the host, called Zahalka "impertinent" and ordered him to leave the studio.

Danny Danon, of Netanyahu's Likud party, subsequently initiated a bill to bar from the Knesset any MP found to have incited against the state.

There have also been demands for another MP, Taleb al Sanaa, of the United Arab List party, to be investigated after he used his cellphone to allow Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader in Gaza, to address a group of demonstrators on the first anniversary of Israel's assault on Gaza.

Yitzhak Aharonivitch, the public security minister, was among those calling for al Sanaa's indictment.

Jonathan Cook is a British journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His reports on Israel-Palestine have been published in numerous journals and Web sites including the Guardian, the Observer, the Times, Al Jazeera, New Statesman, International Herald Tribune, Al-Ahram Weekly (Cairo), The National (Abu Dhabi), Electronic Intifada and Counterpunch.

A version of this article originally appeared in The National (www.thenational.ae), published in Abu Dhabi.

Aafia Siddiqui found guilty by American kangaroo court

The Independent

An American-trained Pakistani scientist has been found guilty of attempting to murder US agents while she was detained for questioning in Afghanistan.

After the jury in a federal court in Manhattan gave its verdict yesterday, Aafia Siddiqui, 37, raised her arm and shouted: "This is a verdict coming from Israel, not America."

She had been arrested by Afghan police in July 2008 on suspicion of carrying chemicals and notes referring to "mass-casualty attacks" in New York.

During the two-week trial, FBI agents and US soldiers testified that when they went to interrogate Siddiqui at an Afghan police station, she snatched up an unattended assault rifle and shot at them while yelling, "Death to Americans". She was wounded by return fire but recovered and was brought to the United States to face charges of attempted murder, assault and gun charges.

Rights groups say she spent five years in secret US jails. She faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Democracy Now! Headlines for February 03, 2010

Democracy Now!

1M Earthquake Survivors Lack Food Aid

In Haiti, medical teams have launched a new campaign to vaccinate Haitian children, citing the potential for disease outbreaks for those crowded in makeshift camps around the capital. According to the Washington Post, US officials now report food aid has reached at least one million people—half the estimated number of people in need. The Toussaint Louverture Boulevard camp has taken in an estimated 12,000 people, but international food trucks haven’t stopped there once. At least 70,000 homeless families have received temporary shelter materials, but another 170,000 families haven’t received them. Daily protests against a lack of aid and recovery effort continued Tuesday when scores of Haitians gathered outside the police station in Port-au-Prince. One protester called on the Haitian government to deliver more assistance.

Protester: “We lost our jobs in 2004, 2007. We look for jobs, but there’s nothing. The people in the streets have nothing, no water for drinking, no house. There are some children orphaned, but no help also. Today I come here to ask the Préval government to pay us.”

Missionaries Appear Before Haitian Judge

In other news from Haiti, a group of detained US missionaries appeared before a Haitian judge Tuesday, following their arrest for trying to leave the country with a busload of children. Child welfare groups have expressed outrage over the group’s attempt, saying some of the children had parents who survived the January 12 earthquake. The missionaries say they were only trying to rescue abandoned and traumatized children. Haitian officials have suggested the missionaries could face trial in the United States if Haiti’s devastated court system is unable to handle their case.

17 Killed in US Drone Strike in Pakistan

The attack came hours after an estimated seventeen people were killed in a US drone attack inside Pakistan. The attack struck a village in the North Waziristan tribal region. Many others were reportedly wounded.

Ex-UK Minister: Cabinet Misled on Iraq Invasion

In Britain, a former British minister said cabinet members under former Prime Minister Tony Blair were misled into backing the invasion of Iraq in 2003. On Tuesday, former cabinet member Clare Short testified Blair’s attorney general had hidden his doubts about the war’s legality. She also criticized Blair’s stated reasons for launching the invasion.

Clare Short: “I thought, this is the Attorney General coming just in the teeth of war to the cabinet, it must be right. And I think he was misleading us. Tony Blair’s account of the need to act urgently, somehow, because of September the 11th, I think doesn’t stack up to any scrutiny whatsoever. We’ve made Iraq more dangerous, as well as causing enormous suffering.”

Short initially backed the invasion but resigned soon after it was launched.

Italian Peace Activists Protest US Military Base

In Italy, peace activists continue protests against the expansion of the US military base in Vicenza. New video footage shows protesters entering the construction area at the Dal Molin site and hanging rainbow flags from cranes and other equipment. The action comes near the two-year anniversary of a march attended by tens of thousands of people to oppose US plans to double the Vicenza base.

Justice Dept. Probes Imam Killing

The Justice Department has launched a probe into the FBI’s killing of a Detroit-area Muslim imam last year. The imam, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, headed a Sunni Muslim group called the Ummah. He was shot dead during an FBI raid shortly after being indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit federal crimes. An autopsy report released this week shows Abdullah died from twenty-one gunshot wounds and was found with his wrists handcuffed. At least one of the gunshot wounds entered through Abdullah’s back.

Oscar Nominees Include Docs on China Earthquake, Burma and Pentagon Papers

And nominations have been announced for the eighty-second annual Academy Awards. The antiwar comedy In the Loop received a nomination for best adapted screenplay. In the documentary category, three films featured on Democracy Now! in the past year received nods. Our former neighbors at the DCTV firehouse, Jon Alpert and Matt O’Neill were nominated in the best documentary short subject category for their film China’s Unnatural Disaster, which follows grieving parents after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Films up for best documentary include Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country, which chronicles media activism in Burma and the extraordinary risks citizen journalists take to get information out of the country. And also nominated for best documentary is The Most Dangerous Man in America, which tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, whose leaking of the Pentagon Papers helped end the the Vietnam War.

Daniel Ellsberg: “It was the evening of October 1st, 1969, when I first smuggled several hundred pages of top-secret documents out of my safe at the RAND Corporation. The study contained forty-seven volumes, 7,000 pages. My plan was to Xerox the study and reveal the secret history of the Vietnam War to the American people.”

MRG 'deeply disappointed' by Europe's top human rights court ruling on Kurdish names

Minority Rights Group International

Yesterday's endorsement, by Europe's highest human rights court, of the Turkish government's restriction on the use of Kurdish names, is a major setback for minority rights protection in Turkey, says Minority Rights Group International (MRG).

"MRG is deeply disappointed with the Court's ruling, which fails to recognise the important role that a name plays in personal, cultural and ethnic identity," says Lucy Claridge, MRG's Head of Law.

Eight Turkish citizens of Kurdish descent appealed in 2004 and 2005 to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) after Turkish courts had refused to allow them to use the letters "Q", "W" or "X" in their legal names given on their national identity cards. The letters are not officially part of the Turkish alphabet.

MRG has provided legal support and advice to Celalettin Yöyler, one of the applicants, throughout this case.

"In failing to protect Mr Yöyler's rights, the ECtHR has denied minorities throughout Europe the opportunity to rectify the disparity between personal identity and the identity given by the state," added Lucy Claridge.

The court said, in the case, Turkey did not violate Article 8 and Article 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights on private and family life and discrimination.

"In preventing Kurdish citizens from linking their names, which are a central component of personal identity, with the linguistic and cultural traditions of the Kurdish community, Turkey's restriction pervades all aspects of their lives," says Claridge.

Celalettin Yöyler had requested that his Kurdish name, Xweşbin Yekta, be registered. In Kurdish, Xweşbin means optimist and Yekta, unique. When the name is converted into the Turkish alphabet, it would be written as Heşbin, which has no meaning in Kurdish.

Mr. Yöyler is a Kurdish scholar and author, involved with the Istanbul Kurdish Institute.

Bill Quigley: “Disgraceful” Suspension of Medical Evacuations Captures US Indifference to Magnitude of Haitian Suffering

Democracy Now!

AMY GOODMAN: As we move on now to Haiti, it’s been three weeks since the massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated much of the country. The official death toll stands at 170,000; it’s expected to rise. Many more have been left injured and homeless. A full twenty-one days after the quake, survivors are still desperate to receive aid, with food, water and medical relief not reaching the areas it’s needed most.

In the Haitian town of Gressier, residents blocked roads and seized trucks Friday to protest the lack of aid. Residents said trucks with humanitarian assistance have driven through the town on the road to Léogâne, but have not stopped to distribute any aid in Gressier. Well, when we drove to Gressier two weeks ago, a young man approached us to say, well, just that.

STEVENSON CALIXTE: [translated] Up until now, people are suffering. [inaudible] People are wounded. They have broken bones. And they haven’t done anything. There are no doctors. There’s nothing, nothing here. We, here in Gressier, we don’t have anything. And they haven’t told us anything, either. And for the wounded, we can’t even figure out. And 98 percent of the houses have been destroyed.

AMY GOODMAN: Where are the people buried?

STEVENSON CALIXTE: [translated] They made a hole up here. Some places, they made mass graves.

AMY GOODMAN: Are people still caught in the rubble?

STEVENSON CALIXTE: [translated] Yes, yes, up until now. We don’t know if they’re living or dead. There’s nothing. We have no means to know if they’re living or dead. The only thing I know, everywhere you go, when you smell the odor, you know that there are people dead there.

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, the US military on Monday resumed medical evacuation flights of critically injured Haitian earthquake victims after suspending the flights for five days. This is Air Force Colonel Len Profenna.

COL. LEN PROFENNA: We’re here to help the Haitians, and we want to move the patients as long as they’re given to us. If I’m given the mission to move the patients, I move the patients. As far as how the decision was made to stop and start, I was not involved in that decision.

AMY GOODMAN: The US military had ended the evacuation flights on Wednesday because Florida officials complained their hospitals were overwhelmed and they needed a plan for reimbursement for the care they were providing. The federal government announced Monday it would reimburse American hospitals who treat earthquake victims. Medical officials said the suspension of flights had been catastrophic for patients.

In the meantime, Haitians continue to bury their dead. On Monday, dozens of residents in the northern Haitian town of Titanyen gathered to bury relatives in a mass grave. One resident, Cartel Casseus, blasted the international community’s response to the disaster and called for the return of the ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

CARTEL CASSEUS: [translated] The Americans and the French have been in Haiti for a long time, and they never do anything. Only Aristide will do something for us. Each time Aristide wants to make a change, they make him fly away. I want to die for him. We are the people of Aristide, and we believe he’s going to come back. We don’t live, because we don’t have possibilities. We can’t go to school. We can’t go to work. We live on the street.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined here in the Democracy Now! studio in New York by Bill Quigley, the legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights. He has just returned from Haiti.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Bill. What did you find?

BILL QUIGLEY: Well, tragically, there was very little international assistance available in any of the neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince where we were. We saw tremendous examples of Haitians helping Haitians and sharing what they had, trying to take care of each other, but tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people living what I think the media has called “tent cities,” what really are sheet camps, that people don’t even have tents. They have sheets strung on ropes, with people under them.

And I really think that any person in the United States, any person in the international community that was dropped into any neighborhood in Port-au-Prince and walked two blocks would be shocked at the absence of international assistance there, because I think there was such an outpouring of individual charitable response, and—but that is just not getting to the people of Haiti.

As you know, I lived through Katrina, and I have been an advocate in there, but we’re talking, at this point, of a death toll that is a hundred times as serious as what happened in Katrina, and people without resources, without food, without water, without shelter. There has been another sixty aftershocks in the last couple of weeks. The engineers and people are advising people that they cannot move back into their houses. There is very little shelter. And there is some assistance in terms of healthcare; there’s a fair amount of international response in terms of that. But a comprehensive assistance for the people of Haiti is just not there.

AMY GOODMAN: The Associated Press reports that the Haitian government is receiving less than a penny for each dollar the United States spends on aid efforts in Haiti. Thirty-three cents of every dollar goes to the US military?

BILL QUIGLEY: Yes. Everybody who’s concerned should take a look at that brief report, because a third of it goes to military response, another third of it is going through and that, that—who knows how much of that money is actually getting into the hands of Haitians? And only one cent.

And one of the people that was very concerned that I spoke with there, I was telling him about the challenges that we had in Katrina, with out-of-state contractors and people from outside the community coming in and doing the jobs and then leaving, and he said, “Well, Bill, at least that money stayed in your own country.” He said, “You know, in the case of Haiti, it’s the outsiders who are coming in, the outsiders who are getting the assistance and getting the jobs, and then they’re going back with the money and the time back to their own country, and Haiti is being left with nothing.”

AMY GOODMAN: How does Haiti compare to the Haiti you knew before? You’ve been there many, many times.

BILL QUIGLEY: Haiti has always struggled. And, you know, the most impoverished country in our hemisphere. But it is much, much worse off. It is much harder to be a Haitian today than it’s ever been. And I think, unfortunately, from what I could see on the ground, the need of people is continuing to rise. People are getting sicker. They’re getting thinner. They have less and less food. But while the need is rising, the international response is leveling out and, if not, sort of declining. So I really fear that without a significant change in the response of the sisters and brothers of Haiti around the world, that what’s in front of Haiti for the next couple of weeks and couple of months is much worse than what it is today.

AMY GOODMAN: What is the best way to get aid to Haiti, do you think?

BILL QUIGLEY: I think that, historically, Haitians have helped Haitians and that the greatest source of—single source of money in Haiti’s economy has been money from other Haitians that have sent money in. That has been backed up because of a lack of money, lack of communications, that sort of stuff. So I think assisting Haitians in the United States to get money directly to family members in Haiti is very important.

The people on the ground kept telling me, “Put pressure on USAID to work with the Haitian community organizations, the churches.” The government is in collapse. There’s no doubt about that. And people are very upset with their government there. And you hear people saying Haitians want the United States to take over. I don’t think anybody want—I didn’t meet anybody who wants the United States to take over. They do want more assistance, and they do want assistance working in partnership with local organizations, who are begging for food and water. And they said they’ll be in charge of distributing that. And they’re ready to do it.

AMY GOODMAN: And you still—and you have this aid that we saw at the airport in Port-au-Prince, the massive mound of aid that is piled high. When we were there, aside from everything else, there were thousands of bottles of Aquafina water. A truck pulled up. We thought, oh, maybe there’s hope. And men started loading the truck, and we went up to them and asked them where are they bringing this water, and they said, “To the US embassy.”

BILL QUIGLEY: Well, there is a sense that some of the aid has been brought into the country, but it is being held in secret storage places, because whoever has it hasn’t figured out how to distribute it yet in a fair way. But in the meantime, literally, there are babies dying of malnutrition. There are elders who are dying from the shock and untreated wounds that they have had. And this is not something that we can’t do something. We can do it. But there seems to be a lack of a will. There’s lack of communication, lack of coordination.

AMY GOODMAN: The issue of letting Haitians into the United States, this holding off of critically injured Haitians to Florida hospitals?

BILL QUIGLEY: That is just disgraceful. It is just—it’s unbelievable that the state of Florida, the United States, the medical communities around the country, couldn’t figure a way to take these most critically ill, but still savable, people in. And I think it was a huge mistake on our part. But I think it is a good example of exactly what’s going on, magnified by a thousand, of what’s going on in Haiti itself.

AMY GOODMAN: The latest news of Haitian authorities arresting ten Baptist missionaries from the United States after they were caught, well, the Haitian authorities said, attempting to smuggle thirty-three Haitian children out of Haiti. These missionaries are saying, no, they just didn’t do the proper paperwork.

BILL QUIGLEY: As people know, half of Haitians are under the age of fifteen. It’s a very young country. There are little children all over the place. There are orphans all over the place. And the truth is that people are very, very desperate. So if somebody says, “Look, let me bring your child to a school. Let me bring your child to get some food and some shots, bring them to a doctor,” there are parents who would trust folks like that. So the idea that parents are being misled, that children are being spirited out of the country, that folks, for whatever purpose, are taking advantage of the situation is absolutely accurate.

At the same time, I think—I think the closer you look to what these people were doing, the closer it becomes that these folks had no clue of what they really were trying to do. There were very mixed messages. They had on their website that they were going to do wholesale adoptions. They told other people they were going to open an orphanage. They—

AMY GOODMAN: And then it turned out that some of the kids were not orphans.

BILL QUIGLEY: Yes. Several—many of the kids were not orphans. And as they said, you know, this was God’s call to them. This was God’s plan to them. And I thought the Minister of Justice in Haiti said, “Well, I’m going leave to God, you know, what belongs to God, but this is an issue of justice and law in Haiti, and we are not going to stand for it.”

AMY GOODMAN: Bill Quigley, finally, your center, the Center for Constitutional Rights, represents Maher Arar. He’s asking the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling blocking him from suing the US government.

BILL QUIGLEY: Yes. This is another example of the courts failing to uphold their duty as a check or a balance to the actions of Congress or the administration. And the courts have said, look, maybe it’s true that this guy was kidnapped, maybe it’s true that he was rendered and he was tortured and held in a little underground burial spot for a year, and it’s true that he was innocent, but this is not something for the courts to get into, because this looks into sensitive issues of foreign policy, sensitive issues of secrecy. Well, that is just—it’s a green light for the government to do whatever they want, under whatever circumstances.

And this is a guy who was snatched by the United States government at JFK Airport in New York and sent to Syria. So, I mean, it’s not something that happened in another place. We took him off of a plane in JFK, that he was going to Canada, and gave him to the Syrians, sent him to Syria to be tortured for a year, because people thought he was a terrorist, which he wasn’t. And unless the Supreme Court rises and reasserts its role, the role of the courts to hold the government accountable, then this is immunity for John Ashcroft and Bush officials, and it is impunity of the kind that we criticize countries for around the world.

AMY GOODMAN: Bill Quigley, I want to thank you for being with us, legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, just recently back from Haiti.

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Israeli attacks on Palestinians this week

The Palestine Telegraph

West Bank, February 01, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) -This week, Israeli forces injured 12 Palestinians throughout the West Bank, compared to the 2009 weekly average of 17. This week's injuries bring the total number of Palestinians injured in Israeli‐Palestinian violence since the beginning of 2010 to 53.

Eight of this week's injuries were sustained in non-violent demonstrations throughout the West Bank: Ni'lin, where the apartheid wall is being built (two), Tuwani, where Israeli forces and settlers entered the village (one); and the Ramallah area, where locals and internationals were protesting the expansion of Hallamish settlement (five, see below). Three international activists and one Israeli soldier were also wounded in the latter. In a separate incident, Israeli forces physically assaulted and injured four Palestinians who were trying to enter East Jerusalem without the Israeli‐required permit.

Meanwhile, in two separate incidents that occurred at the checkpoints of Az Zayem and Jaba' (Jerusalem), Israeli forces arrested two Palestinians after allegedly attempting to cross with a weapon.

On one occasion, Palestinians threw a pipe bomb towards Israeli forces at Qalandiya checkpoint, the main entrance for Palestinians through the barrier into East Jerusalem from the north, known for its long lines and heavy security checks. While no injuries were reported, Israeli forces partially closed the checkpoint for almost eight hours (from 8:30 p.m. until 5 a.m.).

During the week, Israeli forces conducted 102 search operations inside Palestinian villages, the majority of which took place in the northern West Bank (68), slightly below the weekly average during 2009 (103). Media reports indicated that Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces arrested six men who work as aides to Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Speaker Aziz Dwaik.

Israeli settler-related incidents

During the week, there were 10 settler‐related incidents, resulting in injury to five Palestinians; three settlers were also injured in the clashes, after they attacked a Palestinian community. A further six incidents affecting Israeli settlers occurred during the week, resulting in no injuries.

In the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, where Israeli settlers have evicted 53 Palestinian residents and moved into their homes, Israeli settlers physically assaulted five Palestinians, injuring two of them. Clashes subsequently took place between the settlers and Palestinians. Israeli forces arrested two of the Palestinians; both were later released. In the same area, more than 400 Israeli, Palestinian and international activists held a demonstration against the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes. During the demonstration, Israeli forces blocked all entrances leading to the scene of the demonstration and arrested 20 activists; all were later released. These protests are now taking place on a weekly basis.

Price-tag strategy

One of the incidents reported this week stemmed from the "price tag" strategy, in which settlers attack Palestinians after attempts to dismantle a settlement outpost. Settlers entered the village of Beitillu (Ramallah) and clashed with the residents after the Israeli authorities dismantled a structure serving as a synagogue in the Givat Menachem outpost. Two Palestinians and three settlers were injured by stones, and one house and two vehicles sustained damage. Israeli army and police evacuated the settlers from the area and conducted an investigation. In a report issued in November, OCHA identified Beitillu as one of the Palestinian communities vulnerable to settler violence in the context of the "price tag" strategy.

In a separate incident, settlers from Bracha settlement (Nablus) entered the nearby village of Iraq Burin and clashed with the residents, after which Israeli forces arrived and fired tear gas and rubber‐coated metal bullets to disperse the settlers and the Palestinians; one Palestinian was treated for tear gas inhalation. During the week, settlers from Hallamish settlement also cut down 20 olive trees belonging to a Palestinian farmer from Deir Nidham village (Ramallah). In recent weeks, there have been regular demonstrations protesting the expansion of Hallamish settlement on Deir Nidham lands that have resulted in clashes between Palestinians, Israeli settlers and the Israeli army.

Also during the week, there were four incidents of stone‐throwing by Israeli settlers at Palestinians driving vehicles on roads near settlements in the Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron areas, resulting in no injuries or damage to vehicles. In addition, there were five incidents affecting Israeli settlers, in which Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails towards Israeli vehicles driving near Palestinian villages in the Ramallah and Hebron areas. No injuries were reported, but the vehicles sustained some damage. In an additional incident, Palestinians threw stones at a vehicle carrying an Israeli minister who was visiting settlers in East Jerusalem; no injuries were reported.

Following last week's arrests of a number of Israeli settlers on suspicion of setting fire to and vandalizing a mosque in the village of Yasuf (Salfit) in December 2009, the Israeli police arrested a rabbi suspected of involvement in the incident. However, he, along with a number of those arrested, was subsequently released. The lack of adequate law enforcement against violent Israeli settlers remains an issue of concern; during the reporting period, the Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din, demanded indictments of four settlers who were filmed by the police attacking Bedouins in the West Bank in the summer of 2008. However, the cases for all four settlers were subsequently closed without charge.

Palestinian cemetery vandalized in 'Awarta (Nablus)

During the week, a Palestinian graveyard was vandalized in 'Awarta (Nablus) and offensive graffiti was sprayed in Hebrew, English and Russian inside the village. The incidents happened while a group of settlers, under the protection of the Israeli army, were visiting a nearby site. Palestinians accuse the settlers and Israeli soldiers of being responsible for the damage; the Israeli army has started to investigate the incident.

New demolition orders issued

The Israeli Civil Administration (ICA) distributed demolition and stop-work orders against 17 Palestinian‐owned structures in Area C of the West Bank, due to the lack of required building permits. Three are in Beitillu (Ramallah), seven in Al Ka'abna (Jericho), two in Qizoon in Hebron City, three in Kerzliyeh (Aqraba‐Nablus) and two in Burin (Nablus). The orders include five residences in Kerzliyeh and Qizoon, placing 39 persons at risk of displacement; five structures under construction, two of which are planned for a mosque; a clinic; a two‐story building in Burin village; three residences in Beitillu; and seven structures in Al Ka'abneh, including five caravans belonging to the community's school, a mosque and a restroom. In 2009 and 2010, 226 Palestinian‐owned structures have been demolished in Area C to date, due to a lack of building permits, resulting in the displacement of 431 people and affecting an additional 554 people.

Also in Area C, the ICA delivered an eviction order targeting five tents and two animal shelters belonging to three families in Fasayil Al Fauqa area (Jericho), due to its location in a closed military zone for military training ("firing zone"). The order indicates that the family should evacuate their residence within 72 hours, placing 18 persons, including 11 children, at risk of displacement. Over 80 percent of the Area C demolitions in 2009 occurred in areas declared "firing zones". Since 1967, Israel has designated some 18 percent of the West Bank as a "firing zone". Many residents, however, report that they have never seen the Israeli military training in their vicinity.

Gaza Strip

No Palestinian direct conflict casualties for the second week in a row

For the second week in a row, there were no Palestinian casualties recorded in the Gaza Strip in the context of the Palestinian‐Israeli conflict. This period follows a significant escalation in violence during the first two weeks of 2010, which resulted in nine Palestinians killed and five others injured. This week only one land‐leveling operation by Israeli forces along the Gazan side of the border was reported, compared to a weekly average of three during the previous four weeks. Palestinian armed factions have continued to fire rudimentary rockets and mortars towards southern Israel, including military bases, resulting in no injuries or damage to property; a number of rockets reportedly landed inside the Gaza Strip or exploded prematurely.

Gaza floods update: 800 people affected

During the week, humanitarian organizations carried out damage assessments of homes, livelihoods and agricultural lands caused by the heavy rain and flooding that occurred on 18 January in the Wadi Gaza/Al Mughraqa area of central Gaza. The total number of people affected by the floods is estimated at approximately 140 households or 800 persons, who have since received basic emergency assistance including food and non‐food items from various agencies, including the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the Ministry of Social Affairs in Gaza, UNRWA, UNICEF and several NGOs and local associations. An estimated 500 sheep and some goats, as well as hundreds of chickens, including those on two poultry farms, have perished, and many bee hives have been destroyed, as a result of the floods. Following health concerns, the carcasses of many these animals have now been cleared from the area and disposed of by the municipality; further clean up and repair to the area continues. A number of families are still living with host families, while waiting for their houses to dry out and subsequently be cleaned.

Gaza power plant partially shut down due to fuel shortage; up to 12-hour blackouts

On Jan. 23, Gaza's powerpPlant (GPP) had to shut down one of its two operating turbines and reduce its output from 65 to 30 megawatts (MW), due to a shortage of industrial fuel. The supply of industrial fuel, which is imported only from Israel, has been reduced since the beginning of 2010 from an average of 2.2 to 1.5 million liters a week, following a cut in the funds allocated by the Palestinian Authority, due to alleged financial constraints. Since the European Union's commitment to fund fuel for the GPP expired in November 2009, the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has assumed responsibility for funding.

This week's reduction in the electricity output by the GPP has triggered long rolling scheduled blackouts, which reached 10‐12 hours, 4‐5 days per week in Gaza City, northern Gaza and middle area and 6‐8 hours, 3‐4 days per week in Khan Younis and Rafah, as indicated by the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company (GEDCO). There are also some 40,000 people, who remain without electricity at all times due to damage incurred to electricity networks during the "Cast Lead" offensive. The GPP authority indicated that fuel reserves are available for a few additional days and, if no more fuel is delivered in the next days, the GPP will completely shut down.

According to GEDCO, the overall supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip stands now at approximately 167 MW (120 MW purchased from Israel, 30 MW produced by the GPP and 17 MW delivered by Egypt), some 60 percent of the estimated electricity demand (280 MW). Electricity cuts are directly affecting refrigerated food, water pumping and air conditioning supply in individual households, as well as the provision of essential services, including water supply, sewage removal and treatment and medical treatment. As a result, public institutions are forced to rely extensively on backup generators and other alternative devices, which are extremely vulnerable due to the inconsistent supply of spare parts. WHO warned that the continued power cuts and blackouts not only put the life of hundreds of patients at risk but also may damage hospital equipment.

Exports of flowers and strawberries continue

Despite the ongoing prohibition of exports from Gaza, Israel agreed to allow four truckloads of cut flowers and two truckloads of strawberries to be exported via Kerem Shalom this week. Since 10
December 2009, 39 truckloads exited Gaza, including 15 truckloads of cut flowers (1,674,840 stems) and 24 truckloads of strawberries These shipments took place after the intervention of the Dutch government and are limited to the two types of goods. The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC) indicated that 300 tonnes of strawberries and 30 million cut flowers are slated for export during this season (ending on 15 February for strawberries and 20 May 2010 for cut flowers).

after the intervention of the Dutch government and are limited to the two types of goods. The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC) indicated that 300 tons of strawberries and 30 million cut flowers are slated for export during this season (ending on Feb. 15 for strawberries and May 20 for cut flowers).

There was a 34 percent increase in the amount of cooking gas that entered this week compared to last week (764.5 tonnes vs. 571 tonnes).* The Gas Stations Owners Association (GSOA), however, indicated that at least 2,000 tonnes of cooking gas needs to be transferred into Gaza, in addition to an uninterrupted transfer of at least 250 tonnes each day to overcome the ongoing shortfall. Since November 2009, the shortfall has led to a gas rationing scheme throughout the Gaza Strip, in which quantities of gas available at the Palestinian General Petroleum Corporation (PPC) are being distributed to bakeries and hospitals first, as a priority.

* The actual amount of cooking gas that entered last week was 571 tons during Jan. 10-16, while the amount reported in the previous weekly report was 914 tons, which includes quantities that entered via Kerem Shalom and Nahal Oz crossings, when both opened on Jan. 19.

Robert Fisk: Israel feels under siege. Like a victim. An underdog

by Robert Fisk

The Independent

Anyone who is anyone in Israel will come to Herzliya this week for a conference about the state of the Jewish nation. Our correspondent joined them and found a climate of unprecedented insecurity – and paranoia

So the propaganda war is on. Forget Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the 15,000 Lebanese and Palestinian dead. Forget the Sabra and Shatila massacre that same year by Israel's militia allies as their troops watched. Erase the Qana massacre of 1996 – 106 Lebanese killed by Israeli shellfire, more than half of them children – and delete the 1,500 in the 2006 Lebanon war. And forget, of course, the more than 1,300 Palestinians slaughtered by Israel in Gaza last year (and the 13 Israelis killed by Hamas at that time) after Hamas rockets fell on Sderot. Israel – if you believe the security elite of Israel's right wing here in Herzliya – is now under an even more dangerous, near-unprecedented attack.

Britain – this came yesterday from Israel's ambassador in London, no less – is "a battlefield" in which Israel's enemies wish to "de-legitimise" the 62-year-old Jewish state.

Even Israel's erstwhile friend, that fine Jewish judge Richard Goldstone, is now, in the words of one of Israel's staunchest American-Jewish supporters, Al Dershowitz, an "absolute traitor to the Jewish people" and "an evil, evil man". (Headlines for this, of course, in Israel yesterday.)

Israel under siege. That was the dreary, familiar, hopelessly misunderstood theme at the 10th annual Herzliya conference of diplomats, Israeli civil servants, military gold braid and government yesterday.

Israel the underdog. Israel the victim. Israel whose state-of-the-art, more-moral-than-any-other army was now in danger of seeing its generals arraigned on war crimes charges if they set foot in Europe.

Heaven forbid that Israeli officers should ever be accused of atrocities! The Jerusalem Post yesterday carried a photograph of Kadima leader Tzipi Livni looking at a Krakow poster abusing her as "wanted for war crimes in Gaza". Forget that she did nothing as Foreign Minister when the Israelis rained phosphorus on Gaza. This whole judicial attack on Israel was an abuse, a deliberate use of international law to de-legitimise the state of Israel – like all the other condemnation of Israel. Would that it was. This current identity crisis is indeed a tragedy for Israel – though not in the way that its right-wing government now suggests.

I remember all too well how, after the disastrous Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, a huge London conference sought to find out how Israeli "propaganda" failed. Never mind the slaughter of the Lebanese and the growing Israeli military casualties. How come Israel's message didn't get across? How come the anti-Semitic press was allowed to get away with such calumny? It was an identikit forum to this week's Herzliya confab.

Today we must forget Operation Cast Lead against Gaza and its savage casualties. We must condemn the Goldstone Report for its unspeakable lies – that the army of good may have committed war crimes against the terrorists of evil – and realise that Israel only wanted peace.

In reality, Israel has made a series of terrible diplomatic mistakes. I'm not talking about the humiliation heaped on the Turkish ambassador by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon – he, too, was at Herzliya. I'm not referring to the preposterous complaints by Ron Prossor, the Israeli ambassador to Britain, that in times of crisis there was "a cacophany of voices from Israel", rather than a single voice.

No, Israel's gravest mistake in recent years was to refuse to contribute to Goldstone's report on the 2008-09 slaughter in Gaza. A "foolish boycott", the daily Haaretz called it. A disaster, according to Israel's liberal left, who rightly spotted that it placed Israel on the level of Hamas.

I have sat through hours of the Herzliya conference – it ends with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cheerleading for the masses tomorrow night – and the Goldstone Report and the fear of "de-legitimisation" has run like a thread through almost every debate.

I sat next to an Israeli PhD student yesterday who shook his head in despair. "I and my friends are filled with terrible disappointment when we hear these statements from our government. What can we say? What can we do?" It was an enlightening comment. Is this not what millions of British people said when Tony Blair took them to war on a sheaf of lies in 2003?

One of the most distressing moments at Herzliya came when Lorna Fitzsimons, former Labour MP and now head of Bicom, a British-based pro-Israeli think-tank, pointed out that "public opinion does not influence foreign policy in Britain. Foreign policy is an elite issue." Deal with the elite, and the proles will follow – that was the implication. "Our enemies are going out to international courts where we are not supreme," she said.

And that, in a sense, said it all. International legitimacy is what Israel demands. And as a state it is legitimate. It was voted into existence by the United Nations. And, as the Israeli historian Avi Shlaim has said, its creation may not have been just – but it was legitimate. Yet when an international juridical team invited Israel to participate in its inquiries, Mr Netanyahu smugly refused.

In this sense, the Gaza war proved what is so deeply troubling about the current Israeli body politic. It wants the world to recognise its democracy – however flawed this may be – but it will not join the world when asked to account for its behaviour in Gaza.It claims to be a light among the nations but will not let anyone look too closely at that light, to examine its fuel and to look precisely at what it illuminates.

Goldstone, Goldstone, Goldstone. The eminent lawyer who so bravely sought justice for the murdered and raped victims of the Serbs in the Bosnian war – and whose bravery inspired the world, including Israel, at that time – has been on the lips of every Israeli government apologist at Herzliya.

Tzipi Livni spoke of him. So did Yossi Gal, the Israeli foreign affairs ministry director-general. He spoke of the "attempt to use the Goldstone Report to push Israel to the margins of legitimacy". So did Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations. He noted that the US administration had been "overwhelmingly responsive" – ie dismissive – of the Goldstone Report. Even the mouse-like US ambassador to Israel, James Cunningham, suggested that the Goldstone Report might be used as an attempt to de-legitimise Israel.

What is this nonsense? After the 1982 massacre of Sabra and Shatila Palestinians, Israel appointed a government commission of inquiry. The Kahan Commission's report was not perfect – but what other Middle Eastern nation would examine its sins so courageously? It stated that the then Defence Minister Ariel Sharon's responsibility – he had sent in the Lebanese militias – was "personal". This report did not expunge Israel's guilt but it proved that it was a worthy state, one that was prepared to confront this slaughter with honesty rather than abuse.

Alas, no Kahan Commissions for Israel today. No judgment for Gaza. Just a slap on the wrist for a couple of officers who used phosphorus and a criminal charge against a soldier for stealing credit cards.

As it happens, I met Goldstone after he was appointed head of the war crimes tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia in The Hague. A palpably decent, honest man, he said that the world had grown tired of allowing governments to commit war crimes with impunity. He was talking, of course, about Milosevic. He wrote a book on the same lines, warmly praised by Israel. But now he is the earthquake beneath Israel's legitimacy.

I dropped by the eminently sensible Israeli army reserve colonel Shaul Arieli at his NGO's office in Tel Aviv yesterday afternoon and discussed the attempts to arrest Israeli military officers for war crimes if they visited Britain and other European countries.

"All this is much more disturbing to us today than it was a few years ago," he said. "We are afraid of this trend after Operation Cast Lead. It affects the image of Israel all over the world, not just for military officers. If they were charged, it would show that the state of Israel couldn't protect its soldiers. I am sure that the Goldstone Report affects these things."

All of which suggests that the real earthquake beneath Israel, the real danger to its image and standing and legitimacy, is a nation called Israel.