Palestine: Israel ratchets up repression, settlement building

March 19, 2011
Issue 
A demonstration in Ramallah, West Bank, for Palestinian unity, March 16.

About 2000 mainly young Palestinians rallied in Gaza City on March 14. Waving Palestinian flags, they called on Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah to end their divisions, for democratic elections for the Palestinian Authority (PA), and for the end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and siege on Gaza.

Thousands more marching across Gaza the next day and 8000 people protested in Ramallah in the West Bank for the same demands.

After Hamas won PA elections in 2006, Fatah organised a coup with Israeli and Western assistance. Fatah won control of the West Bank, but Hamas held on in Gaza.

The call for national unity came after Israel stepped up its building of illegal settlements throughout the occupied West Bank — and its repression of Palestinians.

The new repressive drive has been justified as a response to the killing of an Israeli family, which included two children and an infant, living in one of the illegal settlements.

It is not known who killed the family, but this hasn’t stopped the Israeli government using the incident to further brutalise the Palestinian population.

The Palestine Chronicle said on March 16 that Israli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “announced that his government would in retaliation build 500 new houses in three other Israeli-occupied settlements in the West Bank”.

Awarta, the closest Palestinian village to the settlement where the settler family killings took place, was immediately placed under curfew for five days by the Israeli occupiers.

A March 16 ElectronicIntifada.net article said: “Food supplies are running low, ambulances have been detained for hours at checkpoints and hundreds of young men have been held, interrogated and beaten up, some requiring hospitalisation, in the Palestinian village of Awarta in the northern West Bank.”

The article quoted a local who said: “About 300 of the village’s young men were blindfolded, handcuffed, arrested and taken for interrogation at the local school where they were beaten.”

Ma’an News Agency said on March 16: “Israeli officials immediately branded the murder of the Fogel family in the Itamar settlement a terrorist attack, sparking waves of settler violence and accusations from Palestinians that Israeli soldiers were doing little to stop the tide.”

Palestinian Liberation Organisation secretary Yasser Abed Rabbo told reporters that the PLO “rejected the attempts to take advantage” of the killings, and called for “Israeli public opinion not to be dragged by attempts of its government to slander the Palestinians”.

The “unity” marches that begin on March 14 have widely been seen as the Palestinian response to the uprisings that have swept the Arab world since the beginning of the year, with the Egyptian revolution having the biggest impact.

AFP said on March 6 that Hamas political bureau chairperson Khaled Mashaal told Sudanese television: “Today we are witnessing Cairo returning to its natural state, after it disappeared from that state for a long time … The people in Egypt and Tunisia have given us back our lives.”

Mashaal called for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah but said such unity had to be based on a “refusal to negotiate with Israel”.

In response to the mass political pressure, Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas announced he planned to visit Gaza to meet with Hamas.

Fatah’s credibility among Palestinians was further damaged this year with the release of the Palestinian Papers that showed the complicity of its leaders in Israeli crimes. It was also damaged by the public support the Fatah-led PA gave to Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Abbas said new elections would be held within six months and claimed he would not be seeking re-election.

So far, Hamas has rejected new parliamentary elections, stating that reconciliation must occur before elections are held.

On March 17, Bloomberg quoted Mahdi Abdul Hadi, director of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, who said: “This is what the people want. Tunis and Egypt are contagious and Palestine is no exception.

“We used to be the pioneers for uprising and revolt and now we are the followers.”

Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh responded to the street protests by saying: “We can discuss all issues and obstacles with dialogue and meet the demands of the people.”





One of the participants in the protests for national unity, Rawan Abu-Shahla, wrote in a March 14 ElectronicIntifada.net article: “The division among Palestinians must end. It has weakened our cause and instead of remaining the internationally-renowned symbol of a righteous and lawful struggle that it has always been, it has deteriorated into an illusion of authority and positions, allowing our occupier and real oppressor, Israel, to violate us.

“Israel continues to kidnap and imprison more innocent Palestinians without fair trials, to invade our territories, wreck our homes, uproot our trees, steal our heritage, bomb our cities and besiege the Gaza Strip for five consecutive years.

“Israel continues to violate UN resolutions without anyone holding it accountable. And with the lack of a proper Palestinian leadership, there will be no stopping Israel from doing what it wants.”

Israel does not appear happy at the threat of Palestinian unity. The Palestine Telegraph said on March 16: “Israeli soldiers attacked protesters with sound bombs, tears gases, and rubber bullets to disperse them.”

On March 15, Uruguay became the latest South American country to recognise Palestine as an independent state.

In recent months, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru recognised Palestine as an independent state.

Cuba had already recognised the Palestinian state in 1988, while Venezuela did so in 2009.

Comments

WHERE IS THE ARTICLE ABOUT THE 5 MURDERED ISRAELIS The massacre of five members of the Fogel family on Saturday morning sent shock waves through Jewish communities around the world. Three small children aged eleven; four and just three months old were savagely murdered in their beds. The parents, Udi and Ruth were also murdered. Why was the Fogel family so brutally murdered? Because the Fogel family was Jewish and living in Samaria; an area which has been inhabited by Jews for three thousand years. According to many of the powerful news editors, politicians and academics of the world, a Jew living in Samaria is a committing a crime. This has been designated ‘Palestinian Land’ which, in the upside down world of Middle East politics, means that a Jew who refuses to be ethnically cleansed from the area is labeled a criminal. Details of the grisly massacre have been revealed. The murderers stabbed the mother after she saw her husband and baby with their throats slit. The other two children clenched their little fists as they were brutally stabbed to death in their beds. They clenched their fists, what else could they do against these men armed with knives? The murderers missed one of the bedrooms so the two year old and the six year old were spared death; instead, they found their parents and siblings, lying bloodied and dead. The twelve year old daughter who had been out with friends came home to find her two year old brother screaming over his parents bodies. Immediately after news of this horrific attack, there was a street party in Gaza, complete with sweets and celebratory dancing. Celebrating the murder of Jewish children is not a new phenomenon in Arab society. The child murderer Samir Kuntar was given a hero’s welcome in Lebanon after his release from an Israeli jail. Kuntar had kidnapped a Jewish girl and her father from their home and shot the father in front of the four year old girl before smashing her head against a rock. This man received a ticker tape parade when he returned to Lebanon. Israel had released Kuntar and other terrorists in exchange for the dead bodies of two kidnapped Israeli soldiers. For decades the Palestinian leadership has fed a constant diet of hate to the Arab population. They lie about Israel and its actions, celebrate the Holocaust and indoctrinate their children to believe that the Jews are sub human. They create blood libels against the Jewish people and reward terrorists who kill Jews by giving money to their families and naming schools, parks and organisations after them. Indeed, the murderer of the Fogel family can expect a school or park to be named after him too. That is Palestinian Authority policy. Hillary Clinton, upon becoming the US Secretary of State made it a priority to demand that the Palestinian Authority cease vilifying Jews. She insisted that they remove all references to Jews as Apes and Pigs from their school books and television programmes. Her demands went unheeded. A report from Palestinian Media Watch states, "The PA's policy of naming schools, summer camps, sporting events, streets and ceremonies after terrorists fundamentally undermines the chance for peace." Well, isn’t that the understatement of the decade? Undermines the chances for peace? Incites terror is the correct analysis. As Binyamin Netanyahu correctly stated in an under reported media release, "A society that allows wild incitement like this, leads to the murder of children," The wild, irrational and violent hatred of Jews is terrifying. Also terrifying is the silence emanating from the western media on this and other manifestations of Arab anti-Semitism. There is only one narrative to which many western liberals will adhere: Israeli aggressors versus Arabs as peaceful victims. The mantras of ‘Israeli occupation’ and ‘Israeli aggression’ are prime examples of a lie which, when repeated often enough, becomes the truth. Perhaps this is why the wild celebrations of murder went unreported. How could a media which perpetuates the lie that the people of Gaza are starving then report the handing out of sweets? How could a media which perpetuates the lie that the Palestinians are peaceful victims then report the jubilation with which they greeted the news of this tragedy. The insistence of a one sided narrative has created a situation where those who incite violence and hatred are encouraged to continue their incitement. Far from being condemned for encouraging and celebrating child murder, the Palestinian leadership pursue their current policies with the help of news outlets like the Guardian and the BBC who, in this case, found a way to blame the ‘settlers’ (read Jewish families) for their fate. Other outlets, like the ABC refused to report these grisly murders at all. The silence is deafening. Media and politicians from Western countries who continue to refer to the ‘settlements’ in Judea and Samaria as the ‘major obstacle’ to peace are ignoring the truth about the real reasons for the Israeli-Arab conflict. This does not help either side in the conflict. Western analysts who ignore the hatred emanating from the Arab leadership in the Middle East are aiding terror. Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly stated that the new Palestinian State will not have one Israeli (Jew) in it and that he refuses to accept any international forces which include even one Jew. There has been a continuous Jewish presence in the area for three thousand years. What Mahmoud Abbas proposes is ethnic cleansing. His compatriots in Gaza promote genocide. The Hamas charter clearly states the following: 'The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.' (Article 7) The refusal to acknowledge the truth about the extreme hatred of Jews permeating Arab society gives a green light to terror and child murder. As Edmund Burke famously proclaimed, ‘Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
IN EVERY DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY WHEN GANGS ATTACK CITIZENS THE POLICE ARRESTS THE GANGSTERS. WHEN THIS HAPPENS IN ISRAEL MANY MEDIA CALL IT REPRESSION. JUST ONE EXAMPLE WHEN YOUTH THROW STONES AT CARS OR TO PRAYING CROWD OR STABS TOURISTS AND BABIES ,WHEN ISRAEL REACTS IS THIS "REPRESSION ?". SETTLEMENTS. MEDIA WHICH CALL SETTLEMENTS "ILLEGAL" PROBABLY IGNORE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. THEY "FORGET" THAT ISRAEL WAS ATTACKED ILLEGALLY BY ARAB COUNTRIES IN '1948 AND IN 1967 .THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF LAND IS THE LOGICAL CONSEQUENCE OF THOSE ATTACKS. AS LONG THAT THERE IS NO PEACE TREATY BETWEEN THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY AND ISRAEL , THIS COUNTRY HAS THE RIGHT AND THE DUTY TO DEFEND THE SECURITY OF ITS CITIZEN. WHY SHOULD THE SETTLEMENTS BE ILLEGAL AND THE ATTACKS AGAINST ISRAEL BE LEGAL? THIS POINT OF VUE CAN ONLY ENCOURAGE MORE VIOLENCE FROM THE PALESTINIAN AND THE ARAB SIDE. THE MEDIA WHICH ACCUSE ISRAEL TO BUILD ILLEGALLY FORGET THAT BEFORE 1967 AND EVEN AFTER THERE WERE NO SETTLEMENTS BUT THIS DID NOT PREVENT ISRAEL FROM BEING ATTACKED SINCE ITS FIRST DAY OF EXISTENCE. THOSE WHICH CALL THE BUILDING IN "EAST" JERUSALEM IGNORE OR DO AS IF THEY WOULD IGNORE THAT THE JEWS WHO WERE THE MAJORITY OF THE OLD CITY WERE CHASED FROM THEIR HOMES BY THE JORDAN ARAB LEGION IN 1948 WHICH DESTROYED ALL THE SYNAGOGUES , USED THE JEWISH TOMBSTONES AS TOILETS AND DIDN'T ALLOW THE JEWS TO PRAY AT THEIR HOLIEST SITES ,THE TEMPLE MOUNT AND THE WESTERN WAL. FROM 1948 TO 1967 AND EVEN AFTER ,ARABS COMING FROM EVERYWHERE DID OCCUPY THE HOUSES THE JEWS WERE FORCED TO LEAVE AND BUILT MANY OTHERS IN TOTAL ILLEGALITY WITHOUT ANY REACTION OR CONDEMNATION BY THE UN OR BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY.

You need Green Left, and we need you!

Green Left is funded by contributions from readers and supporters. Help us reach our funding target.

Make a One-off Donation or choose from one of our Monthly Donation options.

Become a supporter to get the digital edition for $5 per month or the print edition for $10 per month. One-time payment options are available.

You can also call 1800 634 206 to make a donation or to become a supporter. Thank you.