Rosh
Hashana. The Jewish New Year. A national holiday throughout Israel. People
greet each other with “Shana Tova”, Happy New Year, and the media is busy
summing up the passing year in politics and economy and sports. Still, few Israelis
outside the religiously observant minority could tell without looking it up
what year it was which ended and which is the new one. Heh Tav Shin Ayin Dalet,
which according to the numerical value of Hebrew character translates into 5774
– 5774 years after the creation of the world. An average Tel Avivian, when
asked what year is it, would most likely answer: 2013 – the Civil Year which
still has three months to run, and whose end on December 31, the Sylvester
Night, would be marked by quite a lot of young Israelis even though it is not a
national holiday and though the Chief Rabbinate greatly frowns at those marking
it.
Count
the coming week as we would – as the
first week of 5774 or the second one in the last quarter of 2013 – it would see
some momentous events. Within a few days we might witness the launching of an
American military strike at the Assad regime in Syria. And it could turn to be
as advertised, a simple and quick affair lasting no more than a few days. Or it
could turn out to have unpredictable effects and results and implications and
complications, some of which might be quite nasty, and some might touch
directly upon us in Israel. (It was Helmuth von Moltke, well-known 19th
German general with a considerable experience of making battle plans and
implementing them, who formulated the maxim that "No plan of operations
extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy").
Alternatively,
the coming week might mark no military confrontation in the Middle East, but
rather a major public humiliation administered to the President of the United
States by his country’s Congress. And next week’s vote might go further than the
issue of what the rest of Barack Obama’s second term would look like, and
extend into an effective abdication of
the United States from the Global Imperial role which was assumed in 1945. Which
would also carry very many weighty implications for Israel, as for the whole
Middle East and the entire world.
All
of which does not mean that everybody in this country is waiting with bated
breath for the vote due on Capitol Hill. Our own affairs go on full steam
ahead, while the world looks elsewhere. For example, a sizeable number of
Israel’s Religious Nationalists found the New Year’s eve an auspicious time to
stage a major provocation at one of the
most sensitive spots in the whole world: The compound in the Old City of
Jerusalem which Judaism venerates as Temple Mount, the site of the Temple
destroyed by the Romans two thousand years ago, while for a billion Muslims it
is Haram A Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary from where the Prophet ascended up to
Heaven.
To
mark the New Year, some three thousand of the “Temple Mount Seekers” marched
round and round this sensitive compound, blowing the shofar ram’s horns as
loudly as they could. The notorious Rabbi Shamuel Eliyahu, undaunted by his
failure to become Chief Rabbi, proclaimed “On Rosh HaShana we crown God, and the Mount
will become God’s Palace”. And in order for it to become God’s Palace, the venerable 1300-year old Al-Aqsa Mosque,
Islam third holiest site, would “in one way or another disappear”.
Sheikh
Ra’ed Salah of Umm El Fahm has long been warning the Muslim faithful that “Al-Aqsa
is in danger!”. The shofar-blowing march and Rabbi Eliyahu’s speech added
credibility and urgency to the Sheikh’s warning, and many of his followers were
aroused to a march of their own. Israeli police promptly arrested Sheikh Salah
on charges of “making inflammatory speeches”, but many of his followers did
make it to the Mount, and there followed several days of violent clashes, stone
throwing and large-scale arrests. Not an auspicious time for the holding of yet
another round of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations (but when has there been
such a time?). Though unlike on several previous occasions, police took care
not to use live ammunition and create new Palestinian martyrs.
There
were more jarring notes accompanying this week’s round of talks. Last week’s
round was accompanied by the announcement of new construction of houses in
Israeli settlements on the West Bank. This week there was its mirror image –
the demolition of Palestinian homes.
Specifically,
the home of the Rashayda Family in the Jordan Valley.
Unlike
the events in Jerusalem, this was not about an especially holy site. It was of
importance mainly to the family of twelve who built the house and lived in it,
who would have liked to get a building permit from the Israeli authorities but
found this to be impossible, and who perforce had built without a permit. Not a
holy site, but dear to family members who tried to defend it as best as they
could. Also and especially the family’s women. Five of these women were wounded
in confrontation with the soldiers and taken to hospital. With them out of the
way, the Israeli Defense Forces bulldozer made short work of the family home.
Palestinian
Chief Negotiator Dr. Saeb Erakat must have felt uncomfortable going on the same
day into the negotiating room with the representatives of the Netanyahu
Government. At least, he issued a strong condemnation stating that “This new act of aggression, today's brutal
escalation of Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians, is further proof
that members of the Israeli government wish to undermine the negotiations
process.”
The
veil placed on the negotiations as per Kerry’s guidelines a month ago was this
week drawn aside by well-placed leaks from the Palestinian side. As could have
been predicted, there was not so much to reveal. So far, it seems that in fact
negotiations had not really started, the two sides engaging mainly in a debate
about setting the agenda.
Palestinian
negotiators wanted to hear a clear Israeli position about the future border
between Israel and Palestine, and specifically whether or not Netnayahu is
ready to accept the principle of the 1967.
Had Tzipi Livni been speaking for herself, she might have taken up this
challenge. Speaking as Netanyahu’s emissary without any real power base of her
own, she proposed instead to talk first of “Security Arrangements” – read,
continued presence of Israeli troops in considerable parts of the West Bank.
Chief among these, and not by chance, is the Jordan Valley where the Rashayda Family
home was destroyed, and where there is a long-standing policy to regard the presence
of Palestinians as a nuisance to be gotten rid of.
Alternately,
there was an Israeli offer to discuss borders – but only “temporary ones”.
Netanyhau would be ready to accept a
“Palestinian State in Temporary Borders”, comprising about 60% of the West
Bank.
Pending
a future discussion of the permanent borders, which would take place, either
before or after the coming of the Messiah, Israel would be left in possession
of about 40% of the West Bank: settlements, military bases, strategic highways
and – once again – the whole of the Jordan Valley. Needless to say, the
Palestinians found this generous offer completely unacceptable.
None
of this is surprising or unexpected. In fact, it is what commentators predicted
virtually unanimously in advance, on the basis of extensive previous
experience. From the start, it was
assumed that the negotiations could only bear any fruit if there was a
high-profile American involvement . In practice Secretary of State Kerry,
having invested considerable personal
attention and energy in re-launching the negotiations, had since then let them
drift rudderless.
Reportedly,
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has asked for an urgent meeting
with Kerry, to take up the situation of the negotiations, and it seems that
they are to meet in London, Most likely, Abbas would bring a copy of the letter which Kerry
sent him two months ago, committing the US to support negotiations based on the
1967 borders, and ask how seriously should such American obligations be taken. But
that would be on the very eve of the crucial vote on Syria, with Kerry more
than any other member of the Obama Administration committed to punishing Assad
for the use of chemical weapons in Damascus.
So, it would be quite surprising at this moment to see a full-fledged,
high-level US involvement on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Where
the involvement of the American government is uncertain at best, one can look
for some flickering lights elsewhere. For example, to the Supreme Court in
Jerusalem, of whose composition and orientation the right wing (so far) failed
to seize control, and whose rulings on at least some occasions serve to block
the most blatant abuses.
A
case in point was this week’s proceeding regarding the Palestinians of the
South Hebron Hills, which suffer untold daily harassment from army and settlers
– due to this area, like the Jordan Valley, being slated for eventual
annexation to Israel and Arabs being considered, also there, a nuisance . About
a thousand people in this area, have been living for fourteen years under the
constant threat of wholesale deportation.
Twelve tiny Palestinian communities, poor and marginal in the
Palestinian society itself and with some of them actually living in caves, are
threatened with destruction, In the eyes of the state, they are “squatters
without rights” and the area, known as “Fire Zone 918”, was proclaimed a vital
training area for the army’s ground troops.
Israeli
and international peace activists, human rights groups and prominent artists, writers
and academics have been conducting an intensive campaign in the media and an
ongoing presence on the ground. Towards the crucial Supreme Court session, the
signatures of
Nobel
Peace Laureates and other international VIP’s were obtained. And for their
part, the state representatives made some cynical statements such as that “if
the Arabs are allowed to stay, soldiers will have to travel longer to and from
training”.
The
Supreme Court judges were plainly
unhappy with the entire hot potato falling into their lap, and suggested that
the state enter into a mediation process with the villagers and their lawyers.
While not completely removing the Damocles’ Sword from above their heads, at
least it was moved further away.
A small
ray of light also came this week from the Netherlands, concerning such a
prosaic subject as sewage treatment.
Raw
sewage in and around Jerusalem is flowing into the Kidron, a creek which had
been a nice and scenic place (it is even mentioned in the Bible), Some of this
sewage comes from Palestinian communities and others from Israeli settlements –
both being inhabited by human beings having indoor plumbing in their houses.
Therefore, a respectable Dutch company named Royal Haskoning was asked by the
government of Israel to prepare for the
construction of a wastewater treatment plant.
As
envisioned by the government planners, a system of sewage treatment would be
constructed dealing with the settlements and the Palestinian communities as a
single system. Implicitly, the plan took for granted that the settlements are
there to stay, that overall Israeli control is there to stay, and that strategic
planning decisions (in this as in other fields) would be taken by Israeli
officials, who would then condescend to inform the Palestinians of what they decided.
Like
other European companies concerned with settlement-related projects on the West
Bank, Royal Haskoning was pressured by its government to terminate such involvement.
For their part, the company’s Israeli
government interlocutors asked the company’s directors to “forget about
politics and get on with the sewage treatment project”.
To
no avail. Yesterday, Royal Haskoning officially “advised the client of termination
of the Kidron contract”, since “Royal Haskoning carries out its work with the
highest regard for integrity and in compliance with international laws and
regulations. In the course of the project, and after due consultation with
various stakeholders, the company came to understand that future involvement in
the project could be in violation of international law.”
It’s harder and harder to get rid of occupation sewage.
