Empty-handed in the battlefield

It was a long and detailed ruling which Judge Oded Gershon of the Haifa District Court had composed, no less than 162 pages. Of course, no media outlet published the entire text. But a few selected sentences starred in all the new items, a representative sample:

"The Philadelphi Route was the arena of constant war, of ongoing sniper fire, rocket fire and explosive charges. None other than combat soldiers ventured there... The bulldozer crew was conducting a clearing operation under fire. The late Rachel Corrie chose to take a risk, which ultimately led to her death... The deceased had gotten herself into a dangerous situation... She did not stay away, as any sensible person would have done. The deceased's death was caused by an accident which the deceased brought on herself, despite the attempts of the IDF troops to remove her and her friends from there... Under the circumstances, the IDF unit's conduct was impeccable."

Indeed, the area known as the "The Philadelphi Route" – originally, a  code name randomly determined by an IDF computer - was a war zone. An arena of the most difficult and frustrating kind of war in which a military force find itself, being charged with maintaining control over a very narrow and very long piece of land, locked between the Gaza Strip on one side and Egypt on the other. Moreover, the force's main task there was to maintain a suffocating siege on millions of people in the Strip and deny their access to essential commodities. Which made Gazans desperate and embittered, with every incentive to confront the Israeli forces in every way available to them.

It was indeed the arena of an ongoing war, a war difficult and frustrating even for the soldiers to whose lot it fell to be sent there. Still remembered is the bitter day when we could see on TV soldiers get on their knees on the land of The Philadelphi Route, trying to find pieces of the bodies of their comrades who had been inside a blown up armored personnel carrier.


Still, Judge Gershon was certainly not accurate when he wrote that combat soldiers were the only people there, in the hell of the battlefield called The Philadelphi Route. Very many, civilians were there, too - men and women,  elderly and children – in their thousands and tens of thousands. The civilians  were there because it was their home, the only home they had - even if it was quite miserable. They had lived there before it became the scene of battle and before it came to be called Philadelphi. Many of them had come to live there because their original homes had become a battle zone in a previous war, the one which convulsed this country in 1948. And they stayed there, even when it had become the Philadelphi battle zone and the Philadelphi corridor became an arena of battle, even when some them got killed by the bullets of snipers and the explosion of explosive devices, because they literally had nowhere else to go.

And then somebody conceived a brilliant idea. The man's name was Yom Tov Samia, and he was an outstanding officer in the Israel Defense Forces who climbed fast through the ranks until he became Commanding General South. And General Samia had an idea how to win the lost war along the Route. To take up "clearing" - a word invented by the Israel Defense Forces, the kind of word which armies make up to hide horrors behind neutral words - on a truly grand scale. To create a "sterile" space, completely sterile and without life, a kilometer or two wide. A completely flattened area with no houses and no people and no animals and no plants, nothing but soldiers and weapons of war moving in safety, as they could notice from far any possible threat and take action to neutralize that  threat. In purely military terms, it must be said, there was some logic to this idea. Only, it implied the destruction of thousands of houses in which tens of thousands of people lived, half or three quarters of a  city called Rafah.

Probably General Yom Tov Samia would have liked to do it all at once, in one blow, to erase "shave off" all these thousands of houses in a single day and by the next  complete the sterilization of the area. But this might have caused a bit too much of an international stir, become an instant item of "Breaking News" on CNN and other networks, and the political echelon did not give its approval. So the Caterpillar D-9 bulldozers were set to working by the good old method of creating "facts on the ground" bit by bit, acre by acre. Each time they erased and "shaved off" another row of houses, sometimes twenty, sometimes thirty. Usually the residents of these houses managed to jump out and run at the last minute, but some were not quick enough and were buried under the ruins of what had been their homes. In the city of Rafah, photos of those victims were printed and pasted on the walls, but media outlets in the wider world were not really interested.

That was the time when volunteers started arriving on the scene, the people of the International Solidarity Movement, ISM. Yes, that organization to which Judge Gershon paid much attention in his verdict, stating that it was "abusing the discourse of Human Rights and morality" and that its acts are "violent in essence". Activists from Europe and America and all over the world came to the Gaza Strip and asked where Palestinians were most suffering from the occupation's harshness and were in greatest need of assistance and international solidarity. And they were told that Rafah was such a place. And they came to Rafah and were hosted by families on the very front line, where their hosts already knew that they were next in line for the D-9's.

And there were activists who after months in besieged Rafah went to rest and freshen up in their own quiet and safe homes at Copenhagen or Barcelona or Sydney - or Olympia in the  State of Washington in the United States - and when they returned to Rafah they found that the house where they had stayed the last time no longer existed, not a trace of it left, and the plot on which it had stood had become part of the sterile space.  Another house, which had been further back, was now the new front line.

And then they decided to do what a person who cares, who cares very very much, could to do in such a situation. To go unarmed into the battlefield and arena of war called the Philadelphi Route. To stand with empty hands against tanks and bulldozers, and to scream and cry out towards those who did not really want to hear. To face empty-handed and unarmed the might of the Israel Defense Forces. To interpose with their bodies and interfere with implementation of the brilliant strategic plan of General Yom Tov Samia.

Maybe there is something in what Judge Oded Gershon wrote. A sensible person – the kind of sensible person which Judge Gershon himself is, and his friends and acquaintances - would not have done it. Judge Oded Gershon would certainly not have seriously considered facing with his bare hands a giant bulldozer, nearly as big as a house. "The deceased had knowingly gotten herself into a dangerous situation." There is no doubt that she did. A very dangerous situation. Jewish and world history marks a young boy named David, who knowingly placed himself in a very dangerous situation, facing a fearsome giant called Goliath. It might be that he was not a very sensible person, either.

"The bulldozer driver and his commander had a very limited field of view. They could not notice the deceased" wrote Judge Gershon. One might add that also the commander of the commander had a very limited field of view, and even the commander of the commander of the commander. A very limited field of view, in which only the immediate military considerations and objectives could be seen. A very limited field of view in which human beings could not be seen, a living city could not been as it was being destroyed and razed and erazed and made into a sterile zone. A very limited field of view where it was not possible to see a young woman who followed the dicates of her conscience and came all the way from the West Coast of the United States to Rafah in the Gaza Strip, to risk her life in a desperate act of protest.

At the exit from the Haifa District Court, Cindy Corrie, Rachel's mother, spoke to the journalists. Hurt and shaken by the verdict she said "In that home which  Rachel was trying to protect there were children. All of us should have been there, to stand with her."

Two years after the day when the bulldozer crushed Rachel Corrie to death, Israel's political and military leadership decided to terminate the hopeless fighting on the Philadelphi Route and withdraw the soldiers who have endured  Hell there and made a Hell for others. Media attention had impeded  implementation of  General Samia's grand design, and only a portion of the city of Rafah has actually become an "exposed"  sterile area.  Samia himself left the army in frustration and embarked on a successful career in the business world.

The situation of the Palestinians is far from bright. The occupation continues, with many different forms of oppression manifesting themselves every day. Also for continuing the tight siege of the Gaza Strip, new and creative ways were found even without having Israeli troops holding The Philadelphi Route. But that particular battle scene is now quiet, there are no more soldiers or bulldozers there. The home which Rachel Corrie was trying to protect had been rebuilt shortly after the soldiers left, and also the rows of houses in front and behind it. The children are playing there, more or less quietly.

She did not die in vain.
    

Does a barking dog not bite?

- "Ah, a barking dog doesn't bite."
- "Yes, I know it and so do you, but the question is: Does the dog know?"

Never in the annals of Israel - and only rarely in history in general – was a war talked about so much before it broke out. All moves and counter-moves and counter- counter-moves analyzed at length and in public. All the military and political and economic considerations stated openly and in detail. It quite often happens that generals are trigger-happy and exert their force to drag a  reluctant political echelon into war. There are far fewer cases of the reverse, of political decision makers straining with all their might to go to war while the military remains wary and apprehensive and reluctant. But, this situation is now here.

In "Makor Rishon", one of the Israeli newspapers most identified with Binyamin Netanyahu, the commentator Ariel Kahane explained the warlike turmoil in terms of the struggle between the Prime Minister of Israel and the President of the United States:

After his first meeting with Obama, Netanyahu told his aides: 'If that is  how he is treating us as a freshly-elected President during his first term, when he still needs the Jewish vote, all the more he is going to clash with us should he be re-elected.’ (...) Since the post-election Obama is not to be trusted, the best timing for action is the time between now  and the elections on November 6. Should Israel attack during this time, Obama might be furious, but narrow political interests would require him to come to Israel's aid. A moment before the elections Obama cannot abandon America's ally to bleed under a barrage of missiles from Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Gaza. In spite of himself he would have no choice but going to help Israel defense, otherwise he would  lose the elections."http://www.news1.co.il/Archive/0024-D-75227-00.html

A similar analysis could be heard in the past week from various sources, but a commentary article in Makor Rishon can be considered as a kind of semi-official message from the office of the Prime Minister. And if Obama does not act according to the script  Netanyahu's office prepared for him? If the price of oil rises steeply and the world economy collapses and people around the world  blame Israel? Well, nothing in life is without risks ...

And so, more and more people in this country are beginning to take seriously the possibility that this dog would not only bark but also bite - and in the very next coming months. They take it seriously and start to be very, very worried. And the protest movement against this war which is on our doorstep is growing apace.

The traditional demonstration on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing,   held at the Ministry of Defense every August 6, the hard-core advocates of nuclear demilitarization of the Middle East were this year joined by many  others. Many who were roused by the drums of war.  The momentum continued in a string of demonstrations at the foot of the residential tower where the Defense Minister lives (alongside some of the richest tycoons in the Israeli economy).  Night after night was the tower surrounded by hundreds of protesters.

"No war with Iran". "No roulette of at least 300 Israeli dead". "No, to war for the sake of maintaining ministerial positions." "Armageddon? No, thank you". "The Defense Minister is leading us to disaster." "Bibi, you have already ruined our lives, do not terminate them." "No, no, we don't want / A government of bombers / No, no, we don't want/ A government of tyrants." "He's crazy, he's crazy, he's crazy."

Yesterday, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., the trusted representative of Netanyahu, declares that an attack on Iran would be worthwhile even if it does not destroy the nuclear program, since "even a delay of a year is significant". And in Tehran President Ahmadinejad presented his view of "A new Middle East, one without the Zionist Cancer". As if seeking deliberately to ignite the flames of war and provide Netanyahu with material for war propaganda. Maybe its' not "as if" - since an Israeli attack may finally put off the coals of internal opposition to the Iranian regime and force the bitterest opponents of the regime to join in "national unity".

Today I saw on the bulletin board at my Holon home an urgent call for  the residents to remove their belongings from the air raid shelter at the bottom of the building, so that it could fulfill its function in case of aerial bombardments …

Voices of protest

Public call upon pilots

(So far signed by 600 academics and public figures - and making headlines in all the media)

http://www.atzuma.co.il/tayasim

To
The Air Force pilots
Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Greetings,

We issue this appeal to you out of a deep sense of concern and anxiety at the present situation in this country. We know a little bit through the media, and much more is happening behind the scenes, of which we may know only when it is too late. We do not know your names, your family status, your views or your opinions. We do know one thing - at this moment our fate, our very future, lies very much in your hands.

In the near future, possibly within weeks, you may get the fateful order – to man the planes and take off for the task of bombing Iran. You will have, of course, the choice of obeying the order, accepting the arguments and assertions of those who give it without questions, and striving to perform the task to your best professional ability. This would amount to accepting the argument that bombing Iran's nuclear facilities is essential for the defense of the State of Israel, thereby also accepting that you will be firing the first shot in a war whose results might be catastrophic for all of us.

This, however, is not the only choice open to you. You also have the option of saying "no". Certainly, this is not a simple option. It involves profound professional and moral dilemmas, and carries the risk of losing a career which is important to you and also the possibility of being prosecuted. Nevertheless, it is your duty to consider most carefully and seriously the possibility that by saying the little word "no", you will be rendering an important and vital service to the State of Israel and all who live here. This service would be infinitely more important than blind obedience to this particular order.

 (...)No one can make the decision for you. We hope - for your sake as well as ours - that should the moment come, you will be able to make the right decision.

Professor Menachem Mautner, former Dean of the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University.
"I understand the far-reaching implications of the petition, and I do not think there is a legal problem about such an attack as such. And I do not think the pilots real the ones to address. But the possibility of a decision being taken to attack Iran is keeping me sleepless for weeks. To the best of my judgement, taking such an action without waiting for the U.S to take the main role would entail disastrous long-range results for Israel. Because I am concerned and  desperate, I have decided to join this petition. I'll do anything it takes to prevent Israel from plunging into what I see as a disaster unparalleled in its history, including even the terrible tragedy of the Yom Kippur War. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures."


Scary statues of Pharaonic birds
Roy Chicky Arad

http://www.facebook.com/chicky99

Tonight, and also tomorrow, and also the day after tomorrow, at 20:00, a demonstration under the house of the Minister of Defense. Facing the depressing lobby cluttered with scary statues of Pharaonic birds made of hard  stone, and crying out to reach him on the fourteenth floor with a very simple basic message which we learned as children: that this war is bad, like all too many of its predecessors.

A war which is so unnecessary in terms of possible achievements, so dangerous both immediately and in the longer range, so cynical, with so many possibilities for unforeseen entanglements, a war on which the army itself is  not interested in embarking, already smelling the failure and the damage to security. A war which nobody would know how to close down after the fire box opens.

Even those who now give some credence to the scare propaganda of Bibibarak and their communication lackeys and are inclined to let the experts about such things (Barak!) deal with them – even they would show up at the Rabin Square a month after the war, shamefaced, and join us in crying out about this terrible folly. All the opportunist politicians will come then to make speeches…

As in the first Lebanon War, as in the Second Lebanon War, everything is so transparent. Why wait for the disaster to happen? It is clear, it is here, with us, with the foul smell of death. Is there anyone who claims that the home front is ready for a missile counter-strike? And is there someone who does not see how problematic it is to cut the budgets for the collapsing health system just  before embarking on such a war?

This adventurous war can be prevented. Public pressure against the war can make a difference, especially when the majority among the public is known to oppose the war.  A lot of people should reach the demonstation, not just the hard left, but also worried mothers who are not interested in politics but are very much interested in their children. On Facebook I see that also my Likudnik friends ask hard questions to which there are no answers.


Chances versus Risks
Assaf Peretz

http://www.facebook.com/assafon


They say "You have no way of measuring chances against risks". I answer "Perhaps I can't, but what about the Air Force commander, Major General Amir Eshel? And the General in Command North? And the IDF Chief of Staff? Can they measure it? And all of them are opposed.

Do you think there will be a Second Holocaust if we don't attack? Well, you have to persuade of this the Commander of the Air Force, who will need to look into the eyes of the pilots. Then, the Chief of Staff. And for two years already you are pumping up the inevitable threat, then damn it, prepare the home front. To go on an offensive like this breaks all records of cynicism, spitting in the face of social justice.

For who will get hurt? The weak and neglected towns of the periphery, first of all. (Dr. Ron Lobel of the Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon said this morning that the hospital lacks any protection), and those citizens who have no safe room in their apartments and at the first bombing will search in vain for the keeper of the key to the public air raid shelter.

More? The national information network has no head in the past eight months, the Civil Defense Command stopped issuing gas masks because its budget was finished. Incidentally, in the whole country there are only eight beds for burn victims. Who fucking cares?

So anyone who cares, every night at eight there will be a protest in front of the Minister of Defense's home, at the corner of Shaul Hamelech Boulevard and Ibn Gvirol Street in Tel Aviv.
Riki Cohen - Parents Against War

Nothing was shaking in the fancy building where Defense Minister Ehud Barak moved recently, on the evening when some 300 protesters, myself among them, came to hold a demonstration against the planned attack on Iran.  The lobby is designed in expensive modernist statues and seating systems. A  nouveau style of some kind, probably nouveau riche. Around the tower an artificial pool was bubbling behind an engineered garden with well-designed trees. At seven o'clock, Security sevice operatives were already buzzing  around, waiting for the plebs to arrive, later joined by riot police Border Guards. 

A lot of baby carriages were there, and children who had to be carefully preserved against getting lost in the crowd. The children who this fall might encounter for the first time the dubious protection kits offered by the government and get into air raid shelters of questionable utility. Those whose   parents cannot afford the fares to fly away to a safe place until shooting ends. In many homes this debate is going on this week, where, in case of…? Ironically, the communities of the South were mentioned as a possibility.

Would establishing a Parents Against War movement be the right step? "Sure," answered my neighbor in the line of march. "Four Mothers was the only political movement that ever managed to achieve something". He gave me hope, perhaps an exaggerated one. The myth of the Four Mothers, who got the army out of Lebanon, lives on and was not impaired despite some jeering talkback messages from warmongers.

Those parents with prams who last summer went out on the streets in their thousands to protest the cost of living and specifically the high payment for kindergartens, would they now join a movement struggling to preserve the very life of their kids (and of themselves)? Difficult to know, especially when the campaign of intimidation seems to work well on a large sector of the public, those who still  see no alternative to Netanyahu, and who seem inclined to just wait out the deluge and hope for the best. And still, it is hard to believe that they too do not have this nagging feeling, this realization that in just a few weeks, my own life and that of those dear to me would also be laid down the in the roulette of death, Barak's bargain price of 500 dead. How many of us would see the winter?

Yes, at the conclusion you are faced with a grim truth which can not be hidden.  I don’t mind being accused of being a selfish Tel Avivian. That's OK. I really feel no urge to make sacrifices for a crumbling nationalist ethos marred with ambiguity, lies and personal motives. Bibi and Barak, who lead the way to a hedonist capitalist jungle, cannot be surprised about the lack of such a spirit of sacrifice.

Let's make some noise. They don't have a monopoly over wisdom.

Not a single medal

Vardina Salomon
Letter to the editor, Yediot Ahronot August 12, 2012

Israel sent to London its best athletes and was sadly disappointed - not a single medal. This is just a sport, and no one died from it. But we must remember this story in connection with a far more sensitive issue: the bombing in Iran that is so talked about.

Our Air Force has excellent pilots, professional and highly motivated. Nevertheless, success is not guaranteed. There is a great risk of entanglements and blunders, a rain of missiles might fall on the Israeli home front. They are trying to "comfort" us that it be "only" 300 or 500 deaths. Alas for such a "consolation"!

If as a result of this war oil supplies are damaged and oil prices rise steeply worldwide, we might be accused of it, and the consequences can be very serious. The average American is not really interested in what happens outside the U.S. and does not really know who is fighting who in the Middle East, but the price of fuel is very important to him. If the price is doubled because of a war which Israel started, this could cost us dearly. It is doubtful whether in such a situation Netanyahu could once again get applause in the American Congress.

Breakfast on the steps of the ministry building

 At a late evening hour last week I got an urgent call from N., a Palestinian resident of the town of Dura, near Hebron - a longtime personal friend. His cousin, the 47 years old Abdullah Alarjub had been shot and wounded by soldiers, in strange and rather alarming circumstances. Soldiers stopped Abdullah at a checkpoint, conducted a thorough search of his car, found nothing, gave him back his keys and told him to keep going. When he was about 25 meters away, one of the soldiers raised his gun, shot and injured Abdullah in the shoulder.

Had I not known the cousin of the wounded, I would not have heard anything about it. The Israeli media had more important issues to deal with. A few days later a similar incident occurred at another checkpoint, near Jerusalem - only that this time the shooting ended in death. A Palestinian killed by soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces does get a bit of publicity in the communications media of the State of Israel - but only a bit. In most cases, nobody bothered  to publish the name of the person killed. (His name was Akram Dair, and he was 40 years old. All that was required to locate this data was a one minute search of Palestinian news websites.)

Are the soldiers who shot and killed going to be punished? Probably not. They claimed that the car had not stopped at the checkpoint. Under the criteria of the IDF, the most moral army in the world, these are sufficient grounds to shoot and kill inhabitants of those territories which, according to Justice Edmond Levy,  are not occupied at all. What the army did do, right then on the night after the fatal shooting, was to carry out extensive raids on Palestinian cities and villages and refugee camps, and detain people who might have started demonstrations and protests at their communities.

But perhaps Justice Levy was right, after all? After all, South Tel Aviv is not considered to be Occupied Territory, and yet the authorities in our country find no difficulty in implementing a policy of escalating oppression towards the African refugees and asylum seekers and migrant workers who live there (who still live there, until construction of the detention camps in the Negev desert is completed).

So, this week members of the State of Israel's parliament gathered to talk about how to distinguish between people according to their looks. Just so. On July 23, at 8:30 am, the Knesset Interior Committee convened and gave its approval to a bill presented by KM Miri Regev and KM Ophir Akunis, which would impose a fine of up to half a million Shekels to anyone providing lodging or transportation to an infiltrator. But then the amazing question was asked, how would a bus driver determine the identity of a black skinned person wishing to board the bus? Maybe it's an infiltrator – which would mean that, should this bill pass all stages of legislation in the Knesset and be duly inscribed in our law books, the driver would be strictly forbidden to take him. But perhaps it's an Ethiopian, who is a kosher Jew and a full-fledged citizen of the State of Israel? Or, who knows, maybe it is the President of the United States, on a short visit with us, wanting to go incognito on a Tel Aviv bus? So, how to distinguish? Who could help the miserable driver?

The thug who on the same day entered an Internet cafe in the Shapira Neighborhood of south Tel Aviv did not grapple with problems of identification. He came in, knife in hand, stabbed and injured the owner and two of his clients, all three of them Eritreans, threw a computer at the owner, escaped and disappeared. The police still did not get on his trail, and the media coverage given the incident was modest.

There were meor events which the media did not report at all, though you could hear of them from the activists who spoke at the protest rally last Saturday night, initiated by Holocaust survivors and Israeli teenagers. There, we could hear of a 12-year old black girl who got a fist in her face from a motorcyclist passing her in the street, and of the poor black cat who was hanged on the door of an apartment where the human beings had a skin color similar to his. A long list of major and minor assaults which increasingly make into hell the lives of Africans among us.

And what does all this have to do with what did get the headlines this week – the economic decrees resolved upon by the Government of Israel, whose  centerpiece is the increase of VAT, laying a heavy burden on those who have the least? Some people tend to carefully sort out and place separate  issues in separate drawers, or perhaps separate universes. Here are the Palestinians and their oppression, and there the Africans and the repression peculiar to them, and here the ordinary citizens of Israel and their usual suffering under the burden of economic decrees. In my humble opinion one would do well to recall that the government is the same government and the policy makers are the same policy makers. As has become my habit in recent weeks, I can end with quoting from the call for a weekend demonstration, scheduled for this night in Tel Aviv.:

Privatization of school health services. The lie of free education from age three. The raising of beer prices. The raising of cigarette prices. The Border Infiltrators Law. Deportations to South Sudan. Incitement against refugees. Police surveillance. Moshe Silman. 50 millions to the Ariel "University". The attack on radio broadcaster Keren Neubach. Increased penalties for aiding refugees. The crushing of what is left of the middle class. Untaxed corporate profits. Increase in VAT.  Forgiving the tycoons' debts. Non-implemented report of the Commission on Cartels. Drying up the social services. No public housing. Saturday at 20:00 on the Habima Square.

The rope tightens around all our necks. Every day the media inform us about the new decrees, including measures for complete elimination of public housing. The government is cutting through people's dignity, through their  very lives.

We are citizens. This is our country, these are our public assets. We will not give up our lives! We will march through the street, sit down at the entrance to the government compounds and stay the night. We will force the government to wake up. Each with her body and her voice, each with his body and his voice!

This is an emergency! Say no to the austerity decrees which would choke the economy and push us into a heavy recession! No increase in VAT and purchase taxes, no cuts in welfare and health, no further undermining of  public housing!

As it is, we are already paying too much for rent and mortgage!
As it is,  food prices are sky-high!
Do you need money? Go to the tycoons who have robbed us all these years.
36 billions in untaxed profits – take it from there! Not at our expense!
We will take it any longer!

We take responsibility for our lives. We are sovereign. We will return the country to the citizens! We meet in at 20.00 on the corner of Rothschild and Habima and march to the Government Compound on Kaplan Street. Bring signs with your own message, and pots and pans, and also sleeping bags, mats, blankets, pajamas, musical instruments, and everything you need to spend the night. Breakfast at 7.00 am on the steps of the ministry building...

A not so special week

"You have put a mirror in front of our society. A terrible mirror, reflecting how poverty looks in the State of Israel in 2012. Poor people are being shamed and humiliated, must go through an indescribable toil mask of bureaucracy in order to eventually receive a pittance. With not enough to either live or die, they  must  beg in order to survive."  Thus spoke Rabbi Idit Lev of the Rabbis for Human Rights at the grave of Moshe Silman. Ten months she and her friends had tried in vain to get him a modest roof over his head. Silman was buried in the Holon cemetary accompanied by a huge amount of young friends.
http://rhr.org.il/heb/index.php/2012/07/8649/

Following Silman, another man set himself on fire - Akiva Mefa'ai, a disabled IDF veteran in a wheelchair, who tried to protest the way the State of Israel rewards soldiers who went to the battlefield on its behalf. At this moment he is still hovering between life and death. But he has received much less media attention than did Moshe Silman. Soon such events will begin to bore the media, and at most get a few lines on the bottom of page five. And if Keren Neubach would try to devote more attention to it on her radio program, care will be taken to "counter-balance" her  with a broadcaster from the other side of the spectrum, those who just want to get rid of “parasites”.

This week a plane left Ben Gurion Airport for the sixth time, carrying citizens of South Sudan who are expelled from Israel back to their homeland which is still plagued by poverty and war. This, too, no longer captures the headlines. Interior Minister Eli Yishai, "Mr. Refugee Expulsion", no longer bothers to go to the airport to be personally present. Only Israelis who personally knew some of the deportees came to bid them goodbye at the bus taking them to the airport, and pupils in some schools feel the painful loss of classmates.

And just on the day that the deportation plane set out for the capital of South Sudan, Israeli government officials met with representatives of that new country, and in a warm and friendly atmosphere signed several cooperation agreements. French anti-Semites used to say “Nous aimons les Juifs - en Israël”  ("We love the Jews –  in Israel"). Incidentally, just this week the Jewish Agency Chair Natan Sharansky expressed his disappointment that the killings at the Jewish school in Toulouse a few months ago did not lead to a significant increase in the number of French Jews moving over to our country.

And this week the State of Israel officially informed the Supreme Court of  Defense Minister Ehud Barak's decision to destroy eight villages in the South Hebron Hills, 1500 houses in all, and expel the Palestinian inhabitants to make place for soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces to train. But the army is generous and will graciously let the deportees come to work the land on weekends. And not very far from there Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar announced a great expansion of the project bringing high school students from all over the country to stay as guests in the settler enclaves at the heart of Hebron. With their own  eyes the pupils could see the great achievements of the settlers, who had made the lives of their Palestinian neighbors into hell and successfully made the center of Hebron into a ghost town where only the most stubborn and determined Palestinians are left. "It's not a political issue, the pupils must get to know the history and heritage of the Jewish People," stated the minister.

This week, for a change, not so much was heard about the danger posed to Israel by Iran's nuclear program. It was replaced at the top headlines by another serious threat – the chemical weapons in Syria which, with the developing civil war there, might fall into the wrong, the irresponsible hands. As usual we could witness senior ministers competing with each other in making verbal offensives and dire warnings of military operations to seize or destroy chemical weapons in the stormy Syria. And again as usual in this country, it was the military echelon, i.e. Army Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, who poured some cold water on the militant ministers and expressed strong reservations about any idea of sending the troops under his command across the Syrian border.

And all this was forgotten the next day, the Syrian chemical threat making place for Israel's own government intending to raise the VAT to cover the budget deficits. Raising the VAT of course - not, God forbid, the tax on the giant companies. And the tens of billions which they owe to the state treasury are not even collected. But who is counting?

The veteran satirist and columnist Kobi Niv wrote this week: "In this country, even the black and bleak prophecies turn out to have been too rosy. However much I try to be pessimistic, so as to be a bit realistic about what is going on here, I always discover I had still been too optimistic, and reality is so much  worse than I expected. For example, last year (to be precise, on August 2 last year) I predicted that 'the wave of social protest will be drowned in a reduction of VAT by one and a half percent. And look what happens now? The final outcome of the protest is a raising of the VAT by one percent. In short - be realistic, when you make the blackest prediction you can think of, always add at least two and a half percent to reach the real result.”

Yes, as the PM said, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The citizens of Israel must cover the deficit and take care of the fifty millions of shekels needed to fund the new university at the settlement of Ariel and the three hundred million for establishing a network of prisons and detention centers and holding camps over the Negev, where tens of thousands of refugees and infiltrators and illegal immigrants from Africa will be held. The law providing for them to be held three years without trial has already been duly approved by the Knesset, but what use is such a law when there is not nearly enough place in the prisons? In short, there is no such thing as a free lunch and through the VAT all Israeli citizens - and especially the poorest – will get to take part in this important national enterprise.

As on almost every weekend in recent months, there will be a protest on the streets of Tel Aviv. Tomorrow night, Holocaust survivors will join with academics, slum dwellers youths and other concerned citizens, in a march to protest the treatment of refugees and remind of relevant chapters in Jewish history. The march supported by the Assaf Association and by the Migrant Workers support Group.

How much of an effect, really, can people of good will have? They can do all that is in their power. They have to do all that is in their power.

P.S. See description of the protest
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4261493,00.html

Tragedy, and farce, and tragedy again

One evening last year, at the homeless tent encampment on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv. At that time the encampment was already in its waning stages, many had already left it and there stayed mostly those who really had nowhere else to go. We met a not so young man who walked slowly through the boulevard, pulling a bicycle. My wife remembered him from previous demonstrations. For half an hour he told us about the troubled and harsh life which had led him to live in a tent on the boulevard, a fragile and temporary shelter under the hanging threat of the municipal inspectors. He was determined to continue the struggle, as part of the social protest movement, whose appearance was for him a virtual gift from Heaven. I well remember his  determination.

In the past week we try again and again to dredge up every detail which we can recall. Was the man we met Moshe Silman, then unknown, who under appalling circumstances had by now become known to everybody in Israel as well as  to quite a few people abroad? I guess it was indeed Silman, who then still did not wear a beard. But in fact it does not really matter. It might have been him, or it might have been someone else entirely, someone of a similar age and with similar life circumstances and a similar determination to fight - only that it did not quite get to the point of pouring  a flammable liquid on himself and dying a horrible death in a desperate effort to arouse the conscience of the Israeli society.

The activists of the "Haifa Front", who knew Moshe Silman well, wrote of him: "We mourn the premature passing of Moshe Silman – an activist of the front and a dear friend. We had come to know Moshe during the past year.  During this period, Moshe made countless appeals, turned to anyone which he could think of, ceaselessly attempted to get assistance with housing, assistance to function again as an ordinary  citizen in society. To no avail.

Moshe was active in the social struggle in Haifa, struggled militantly for an entire year in the call for social justice, for a state which is responsible to its citizens - both for himself and for many others. Moshe was a proud have-not. He refused to accept the common equation of 'poverty = degradation'. Moshe set himself on fire last Saturday night, in front of thousands of protesters during a demonstration in Tel - Aviv. Blessed be his memory."

Professor Amir Hetsroni had a rather different take on Moshe Silman (whom he of course  never met): "People like him add very little to the Israeli economy. For me, the self-immolation does not make much of an impression. It may even be that we got rid of a parasite, cheaply".

Professor Amir Hetsroni is working in an academic institution located in the settlement of Ariel at the northern West Bank. Of course, immediately after the publication of his words and the ensuing public uproar,  the management was quick to distance itself and emphasize that it was no more than the personal opinion of a single professor. And apparently, such indeed is the case. The fact is that Professor Hetsroni is personally known as a staunch – one might even say, fanatic – upholder of the most strict free market economics. He is an avowed opponent of providing government funds to any and all parasites. On the other hand, the institute where he works and gets a good salary is not averse at all to getting some additional tens of millions more from the state treasury. In order to get this money. It was very very important for them to receive official recognition as a full-fledged university, not just a mere college.

And that is how this week went through the abrupt transition from tragedy to farce. To wit, the farce known as "The Judea and Samaria Higher Education Council". The point is that a Council of Higher Education already exists in Israel, which was established by law. This council debated the issue at length and concluded that there was no need to establish a university in Ariel, out of purely academic considerations (and quite a few respected academics opposed it also and especially because Ariel is a settlement built illegally in Occupied Territory which is not part of Israel) . But, a solution was found, namely to establish a parallel Council of Higher Education under the military governor's warrant.

The one and only role of the Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria, for which it was established and its members  appointed, was to give a university status to the college in Ariel. And lo and behold, this Council convened this week and, yes, reached the decision to grant university status, precisely as requested. And Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, the renowned philosopher, immediately opened his usually tightly clenched fist, and fifty millions were duly transferred to the new university.

Meanwhile, we moved to yet another farce - the dismantling of the big government coalition formed by Binyamin Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz with a majority of 94 Knesset members holding out seventy days exactly. And the government broke up over the firm demand  of recruiting the ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who absolutely do not want to be soldiers and the army does not need them and Netanyahu never seriously intended to recruit them. And there was left to Shaul Mofaz nothing but to vacate the Deputy Premier chair which had been empty of real content and authority and move to the chair of head of the opposition to which he won’t be able to give real meaning, either.

There were columnists who mourned the loss of what they call "the historic opportunity to create in Israel a government of the sane center.” I myself am rather encouraged by what  I read on the pages of "Makor Rishon" written by Amnon Lord, an associate protege of Benjamin Netanyahu: "The purpose of government opponents is to create ceaseless turmoil, and in this they mark a  success. The king-size government coalition disintegrated surprisingly quickly. The impression is that everything is very vulnerable, everything is shaky, and despite his three and a half years in power, Netanyahu has not managed so far to sit firmly in the saddle ".

In the meantime, an event which did not get any report in the Israeli media took place in the “non-occupied”  dark backyard of the democratic State of Israel. The military authorities decided to release Palestinian Parliament Speaker Aziz Dweik,  held in administrative detention for six months - without trial. Why was he arrested six months ago? The reasons are secret and well-kept by the security services of the State of Israel. And why was he released now? Ditto.

But exactly at the same day troops came to the house of another Palestinian MP, Ahmed Abdel Aziz Mubarak, resident of Al Bireh, and they took him off to begin a six-month detention - without trial. Why was he arrested? The security services know, and only they. And how long will he be held? Ditto. It seems that somebody thinks that at least a quarter of the members of the Palestinian parliament must be held in the prisons of the State of Israel, a quota to be filled.

And still, in every debate you hear the Israeli rightists bring up the clinching argument : "There is no occupation. After all, we don’t rule the Palestinians, they run their own lives in the areas which were given to their control and elect their own parliament." True, Israel Defense Forces can go anywhere in these areas and arrest each of these members of parliament (currently, more than twenty of them are detained). But this is not occupation, God forbid. What is it? Even Justice Edmond Levy himself could not say what it is. Maybe it's a potato?

And suddenly, without warning, after the farcical days, tragedy hits again in our lives, and five Israelis who went on a dream vacation to the Black Sea shore in Bulgaria came home in coffins. And we have all gotten the reminder that Israel is in conflict and war, and it could be any of us, at any moment. And about those who were spared tells the Yediot Aharonot correspondent who went  there: "Dozens of Israelis who had thought that here they could escape from the stress and problems of Israel went on the bus back to the airport with a mixture of fear and relief: "We will never come back here again."

On TV our Defense Minister Ehud Barak stated that "we live in a tough neighborhood" (this time he did not compare the State of Israel to a villa in the jungle "). The army tends to blame especially Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Prime Minister again found good reason to point a finger at Iran. But it seems that conditions did not yet ripen to send the Air Force planes to bomb Tehran, nor even Beirut. The big war will have to wait a bit.

And is it an option to try to make peace in order to safeguard Israeli citizens for the long term? True, the late coalition agreement between Netanyahu and  Mofaz noted down the "re-starting of the diplomatic process" as one of the main aims of the government which they created. But did anyone there took it seriously, even for one moment?

Then, at the last day of the week Moshe Silman died after six days in the hospital, losing the last struggle in a life full of struggle. And so, immediately after the writing of this article is completed we will go to Tel Aviv, to take part in the commemoration march. "We will march in memory of Moshe Silman and for a life of dignity," said the message on social networks in Israel. "We will march to 5, Kaplan Street where Moshe Silman finally lost hope and was overcome by his predicament and cried out on behalf of all of us - for social justice! Then we will march to the National Insurance plaza and we will light candles in memory of Moshe and of other victims who  remain unknown."

Perhaps when the day comes to write the chronicles and annals of this crazy and miserable country, historians will say that Moshe Silman's sacrifice was not in vain.

A media report of the commemoration events
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=278366

Non-occupation and water tanks

Greek Mythology recounts the story of Tantalos, who was cursed by the gods to stand forever in a pool of water but never slake his thirst, as the water would always recede before he could take a drink. In the territory under the rule of the state of Israel, myth has become reality, at the whim of military officers acting as vengeful demi-gods to the Palestinians placed under their charge.

When the people of Ein al-Hilweh, a small Palestinian community in the Jordan Valley, put their ears to the ground, they faintly hear the gurgling of water going through pipes underneath – pipes to which they have no access.  The water comes from a spring nearby, a spring which had sustained the life of this community for generations and indeed gave it its name - "Ein al-Hilweh" means  "The Sweet Spring" in Arabic.

The name still remains – but the spring itself, like almost all water sources in the Jordan Valley, has been taken over by "Mekorot", the Israeli governmental water company. The sweet spring has been enclosed and surrounded by fences, and industrious pumps installed to channel every single drop into the system of pipes.

Couldn't one of these pipes have been linked to the community of Ein al-Hilweh, so near? Not if the officials of the Civil Administration of the Military Government maintained by the armed forces of the State of Israel have anything to say about it. As far as these people are concerned,  Ein al-Hilweh is one of several troublesome Arab villagers which exist where they should not have been – namely, in the Jordan Valley, which all Israeli governments since 1967 proclaimed to be a strategic area that must remain permanently under Israeli rule. No effort is spared in letting them know, in no uncertain terms, that they are an unwanted hindrance and that it would be very obliging of them to just go away.

Deprived of their spring, the people of Ein al-Hilweh had to resort to bringing water in tanks drawn by tractors from no less than twenty-five kilometers A cumbersome and expensive way of providing water to themselves and their livestock. A cubic meter of water obtained this way costs ten times more than what people pay who have the privilege of being connected to the flowing pipe.

Not for the people of Ein al-Hilweh, living in the hottest part of this country, the luxury of a shower to freshen a sweating body. Still, they persisted, tenaciously clinging to their small plot of land.

A week ago, the army came up with a new ploy. Soldiers descended on Ein al-Hilweh as on various other communities in the same situation, confiscating and taking away the water tanks and the precious water in them. The reason given? A material suspicion by the officers in charge that these tanks had been used in the commission of a felony. To wit – "the theft of water". 

Most media channels neither knew nor cared about this particular news item, but the veteran Gideon Levy did expose it on the pages of Ha'aretz.

The former judge and the spirit of the king

As it happened, Gideon Levy's revelation of the water tanks confiscation coincided with the prominent publicity given to a quite different Levy – Justice Edmond Levy, late of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem and at earlier part of his career a Deputy Mayor of Ramla for the Likud Party. Edmond Levy had been commissioned by Prime Minister Netanyahu to look into ways and means of providing a less shaky legal foundation to the settlement enterprise.

Netanyahu had wanted to end, or at least minimize, the embarrassing phenomenon of the Supreme Court ruling that this or that settlement is illegal also under Israeli law, which is far more lenient in these matters than International law. The Prime Minister might not have counted upon the former judge also publishing a very resounding ideological document with which the government of Israel might find it a bit difficult to link itself.

Not only did the honorable judge state that there is simply no occupation and the West Bank (sorry, "Judea and Samaria") is not at all an Occupied Territory. Levy and his team went further, in a neat feat of legal sophistry and acrobatics, to assert that the Balfour Declaration of 1917 is still valid, ninety five years later. Therefore, the solemn pledge made by the government of His Majesty King George the Fifth – to "view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" – has survived intact the dissolution of the British Empire and the countless other changes through which the world in general and the region in particular have passed. King George's Promise seems to have effectively replaced the Divine Promise, which used to be frequently quoted on such occasions. Pure, pristine and unchangeable, it provides Israel with an unlimited, blanket authority to build settlements anywhere it chooses, so as to promote the area's incorporation in the Jewish National Home.

Judge Edmond Levy had most probably never heard of Ein al-Hilweh in the Jordan Valley or of the situation of its inhabitants. Like most inhabitants of this hot country do on a hot summer day, he had most likely taken a refreshing shower on the morning when he had affixed his signature to the report - without giving any special thought to this simple act. And like many others who cited the Balfour Declaration to bolster Zionist and Israeli Nationalist claims, he studiously ignored the rider which King George's Government carefully appended to the promise of the National Home: "(…) It being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine"…

 

The last cows in the land of no-occupation

And so, there we were, – a group of activists gathered at the accustomed rendezvous point outside the Arlozorov Railway Station in Tel Aviv, and another group coming from Jerusalem and some others from different parts of the country. Two minibuses, some private cars, plus a symbolic solidarity donation of one full water tank and several dozen bottles of mineral water. All brought together by the strenuous efforts of Ya'akov Manor of Kfar Sava, the indefatigable catalyst of joint action by peace groups.

It is, in fact, not so difficult to get to the Jordan Valley, though it would only rarely occur to the average Tel Avivian to do it. In the 1990's Ariel Sharon had invested huge resources in creating a series of "lateral roads" cutting through the West Bank, with the express aim of making the Jordan Valley more accessible. For much of its length, use of this well made highway is reserved to Israelis only, and Palestinian villages on the sides are not linked to it. Our little convoy does not stand out among the settler traffic, and at checkpoints the soldiers wave us through with hardly a glance.

The driver puts on the radio, in the midst of yet another impassioned debate on whether the Haredim (Ultra-Orthodox) could and should be taken into the army. One of the speakers on the air, a senior retired army officer, says: "Some Haredim have already been drafted, in special units of their own, and the results have been excellent. The Netzach Yehuda Battalion ("Eternal Judea") has been deployed to the Jordan Valley and did an excellent job…". "What is this? Cut off this shit!" exclaims the woman behind the driver. He turns to a station broadcasting classical music.

The Jordan Valley. 41 degrees Celsius, but less humid than in the costal plain. We make a short stop at a small shopping center. Neat buildings, a neat row of shops, a wire cage full of empty plastic bottles with the sign "It is crazy not to recycle". Several activists stand debating at the entrance of a shop selling soft drinks. "These shops are probably operated by settlers, if we buy here we help them steal the Palestinians' water" says one. The shop keeper intervenes angrily: "We steal water? If you talk like that, I don't want to sell to you!". "Who the hell wants to buy from you, anyway!". An exchange of mutual invective is cut off and we return to the cars.

A very short drive away, and we are in the Third World – to be precise, a particularly neglected and miserable part of it. A collection of hovels and rundown lean-tos, some animals, a clothes line bearing some shirts and trousers. This is Abu al Ajaj, one of six components of a Palestinian town known as the Jiftlik. The name is derived from the Turkish "Chiftlik" which means "estate". In Ottoman times, the people here were tenant farmers who had to pay much of their harvest to powerful land owners, but still did not have to face many of the privations of their present-day descendants. As we soon find out, the shopping center where we had just been is off-limits to the Palestinians living so near yet so far.

Fathi Hudirat of Jordan Valley Solidarity has arrived to act as our host and guide. "See the electricity wire going above the huts? It is just above their heads, but they are not allowed to connect to it" he says. "Even in Apartheid South Africa there was nothing like that. There was a very deep separation between Blacks and Whites, but even there everybody got water from the same pipe and electricity from the same wire".

The affable and neatly dressed Hudirat belongs to a bit more fortunate part of the Jordan Valley Palestinians; "The Jordan Valley is more than thirty percent of the West Bank, and only in a few small parts of it are Palestinians at all tolerated. There is the Jericho enclave, and a few other small enclaves – my hometown, Bardala, among them. We are squeezed and terribly hemmed in, but  at least we can build solid houses. People here just can't do that. They are  exposed to ceaseless harassment, their lives are hell". In fact, in the past there were far more Palestinians living in the Jiftlik. In 1967 thousands were expelled eastwards, across the Jordan River, and hundreds of houses were razed to the ground. "Only the mosque remained, inside a military camp. We call it 'The Captive Mosque', no Muslim has set foot in it since 1967".At present, the Jiftlik is a precarious home to about 4000 people.

The Jordan Valley Solidarity is a grassroots activist organization, dedicated to non-violent resistance to the occupation as manifested in their region. Its members tour the villages and encampments, support the villagers in better  organizing, monitor human rights violations and strive to make them known to the outside world, and organize both legal help and activist rebuilding  of destroyed structures. They work with the Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers, and together with them renovated a derelict, century-old house and made of it an action center. Activists are always staying there, sometimes five, sometimes twenty – internationals. Palestinians from the Valley itself and elsewhere, sometimes an Israeli.

They would highly appreciate more intensive Israeli presence and involvement, such as Ta'ayush had been doing for years in the South Hebron Hills, where Palestinian communities face similar problems. "Donations of water or food are highly appreciated as an act of solidarity, but much more precious to us is anything you can do to let the world know of what is going on here. It is a shame, a terrible shame. I saw you brought a sign with the words 'A small drop against the shame'. That is very true. A shame, not only to those who are doing this. A shame to everybody. We are all human beings".

Hudirat recounts some of the cases which his group is dealing with. There is a rather prosperous farmer, one of the few lucky enough to have land and water enough for a palm tree grove. But now the army asserts that it is government land. If losing his case in the courts, he stands to lose everything. The farmer's house, "not pretentious, but neat and cosy" was already destroyed. And there is the case of the Korzoliya Spring. "It is a small spring, up there on the mountain side. Four brothers live there with their families. They got an eviction order from the Civil Administration. The lawyer Taufic Jabarin, an Arab Israeli from Umm el Fahm, went to court on their behalf – and won. The next day they got a new eviction order. This time it was from the Israeli Environment Ministry, in order to 'protect a natural resource'. The lawyer is now fighting this, too."

While we were listening, an army jeep stopped by and an officer stood unobtrusively to the side. He did not intervene, but our presence was duly noted. A few minutes later we set off northwards- and halfway to Ein al-Hilweh, where villagers were awaiting us, we were stopped at an army checkpoint.

Just us. All other vehicles were let through. "We have orders. These two minibuses are to be held pending further notice" said one of the young soldiers, pocketing the drivers' identity cards. A twenty minutes' impasse, under the blazing July noon sun. Activists considered taking out the protest signs and holding a demonstration then and there, though there would have been few to see it other than the uncaring soldiers. "Wait, I have the phone number of the Officer in Command of the whole Valley. There were some cases in the past when he was not too unreasonable". And so it indeed proves. Eventually, the soldiers get radioed orders to give back the I.D.s, and we can proceed.

Ein al-Hilweh. A cluster of villagers, led by the 91-year old patriarch Ealian Daragmeh. Young boys, some rather shy, others quite bold to the visitors. Tents and huts, which seem a bit better maintained than those at Abu al Ajaj. Chickens running around. A donkey. A covered cowshed, providing huddled cows some shadow. And – water tankers It turns out that the army asked for a huge sum as "ransom" for the confiscated gear, but Palestinian Authority PM Salam Fayyad took care to provide new ones, here and in other locations.

Activists spread out among the tents, holding aloft the signs in Hebrew and English:

"Stop the induced thirst" / "Stop the denial of water" / "A drop against the shame" / "Every person has the right to water" / "Judge Levy, Occupation is here" / "Jews get water – from Arabs it is taken away. Apartheid is here!"

Near the cowshed, a reporter of the German ARD Radio interviews some of the participants. "People in Europe should know what is going on here. This is not some officer's caprice, this is policy" says an activist. "A few months Netanyahu visited and made a speech, not far from here. He said that the Jordan Valley must remain Israeli forever. I don’t mean that Netanyahu personally ordered the confiscation of the water and the other harassments of the Palestinians. He did not need to. Officers on the ground feel they are translating broad policy guidelines into specific measures." 

We go into a big tent to hear Fathi Daragmeh, who speaks Arabic and is translated into English by Hudirat. At first he is hesitant, clearly unused to public speaking, then gains confidence.

"All of you are most welcome here, most welcome. We, Palestinians and Israelis, are both born of this land. We must find the way to live together, to solve the problems. There is no other way!

We have lived here for many generations. We have lived by the spring, our spring. We enjoyed the spring. Now, it was taken away from us. It was given to the settlers of Maskiot". (The Israeli settlement of Maskiot was originally established in 1982, but failed and was abandoned by its would-be settlers; it was re-established in 2006, to house settlers removed from the Gaza Strip).

"We do not hate the settlers of Maskiot. We tried to create good neighborly relations with them, but it was not very successful. Once, one of our horses escaped and got into the settlement. Their security officer put a rope around the horse's neck and dragged him behind a car until he died. Just cruelty without reason to an animal.

A few months later, one of their horses escaped and got to us. We gave the horse food and water and put him in our stable, then I called this security officer. I offered him coffee and told him: 'You killed our horse, we took care of your horse, you can now take him back'. He just said 'We are strong, you are weak', took the horse and did not drink the coffee.

We are nearly the only ones who still raise cows in the Jordan Valley. The Palestinian Cow, Bakar al Falstini. Once there were many who did it, all along the Valley. But it is very difficult. Cows need a lot of water, and that is very difficult to provide. They need pasture and most of the meadows are now either in the hands of the army or the settlers, we can't go there. Some weeks ago several of my brother's cows crossed the road. The army confiscated them and we had to pay a lot of money to get them back. Cows like to roll in the mud in the summer, to protect from flies, but there is no mud anymore. We are not allowed to come to the banks of the Jordan River; that is a military zone.

You can't imagine how much work it is to maintain cows under the conditions in which we live. We are five brothers with our old father and our families, we work very hard day after day so that we could keep our fifty cows. The cows are all we have."  See photos

To shirk or not to shirk – is that the question?

This week the Palestinian news agency Ma'an published a short news item. Settlers from the "Havat Gilead" outpost near Nablus came at night and destroyed 41 olive trees belonging to Nayif Raihan, inhabitant of the neighboring Palestinian village of Tel.

The inhabitants of Havat Gilead ("Gilead's Farm") outpost where people have an extensive history of such acts. It is one of the settlement outposts which are considered illegal, also according to Israeli law, and whose dismantling Ariel Sharon promised to President George W. Bush back in 2003. In practice, early this year the Havat Gilead settlers reached a compromise agreement with the government of Israel, whereby they agreed to move their houses to a distance of one hundred and fifty (150) meters and in return the government provided them with a legal status under Israeli law; placed more land under their control; and - as it turns out - gave them a tacit permit to uproot olive trees.

Of none of this could even the smallest mention be found in the Israeli media. Settlers destroying Palestinian olive trees are pretty much of a routine, not really news. Under the well-known media principle, it is more "dog bites man" then "man bites dog." And virtually the same with regard to the military authorities' decision to completely destroy the village of Susya in the South Hebron Hills and raze all of its fifty-two houses. Very few Israeli media editors regarded this as news worthy of publication. Nor did the news pay much attention to villagers together with Israeli peace activists holding a protest, even though it greatly disturbed the Israeli Defense Forces who took care to deploy a considerable number of troops and prepare a particularly violent reception to the demonstrators. The demolition of Palestinians homes is an everyday occurrence, as is the dispersal of demonstrations by the military. All this, too, is "dog bites man."

When a Border Policeman kicked a nine year old Palestinian boy in Hebron, this did receive some media attention - at least for one day. Government speakers explained that this was a rare and unusual case. (Is what was rare and unusual, the kicking of a child, or the presence of a camera to capture the event and make it known?)

And just this week it occurred to someone in the military leadership to make   very blunt threats against Lebanon. "The next time Israel's response will be more severe. [The events mentioned in] the Goldstone Report will pale compared to what is going to happen here. We'll have to make stronger and more violent attacks to prevent damage to our home front. (...) The IDF is preparing thoroughly for another war. Next time there will be an exchange of heavy fire on both sides. We'll have to go in very forcefully, including widespread destruction inside the Lebanese villages – not as a punishment but because that is where the enemy is. The State of Lebanon will sustain far greater damage than in the Second Lebanon War. We will give the Lebanese Army a chance to not to be our enemy, but if the other side opens fire we will respond sharply and painfully: Kill thirteen out of unit of fifteen soldiers so that the remaining two could tell their commanders what happened ".

The words of Brigadier General Hertzi Halevy, Commander of the Galilee Division, did get published. They even got a rather prominent place in the middle of the news pages. But still they did not make much of a stir. Hardly any  commentator bothered to get deeply into the matter or why are such threats being made exactly this week, for no obvious apparent reason, or whether a brigadier general would say such things to the media on his own authority or if he had been guided by higher echelons. And if the latter –  who were these higher echelons and what are their intentions?

All of that was very marginal this week. There was only one hot topic to take up the headlines and rock the boat of the Netanyahu Government – should the Ultra-Orthodox be drafted to the army?. This weekend, there are in the Israeli society and political system two opposing camps, bracing for a titanic clash.

On the one hand are those who stridently demand that the Yeshiva seminaries be penetrated, their students forcibly hauled away, directly to the IDF recruitment centers, and severe sanctions and penalties on any recalcitrants. And some also used the opportunity to come up with the idea of demanding of Israel's Arab citizens to perform "National Service" (in the service of which nation?) and of course impose heavy penalties on them, too, if they refuse. A fine of one hundred thousand shekels was what the renowned Plesner Parliamentary Commission proposed, to which the famed commentator Dan Margalit suggests adding the denial of access to a driver's license, to Social Security benefits and to academic studies. In the list of sponsors of the rally, to be held tonight in Tel Aviv with the demand for "Equality in the Burden", are organizations which define themselves as belonging to the left (or at least "left of center ") - alongside "Im Tirzu", a grouping which some consider as a full-fledged Fascist organization while others dismiss it as simply extreme right.

And why is all this fuss? Because all must bear their part in the burden of military service. Because service in the IDF is a sacred duty and a moral act, the most important one which an Israeli citizen can perform. Because by definition the one who serves in the Israeli Defense Forces stands on a moral level a hundred higher than the "shirker". But what is the moral significance of military service in a country which is maintaining a military occupation regime over millions of people for more than two-thirds of its history? How moral is service in the army whose main business in recent decades is to maintain this occupation? And what about the moral implications of what the Israel Defense Forces did in Lebanon in 1982 and 2006 and in Gaza in 2009 and may well do in 2013 in Lebanon again or in Gaza again or in Iran? And who truly stands on a higher moral level, the one who serves in the army and obeys any order given to him without ifs and buts, or the "shirker"?

Such is one side in the titanic struggle unfolding in front of us. And on the other side of the ring - the Haredim or Ultra-Orthodox. Those who regard the study of the Holy Torah as the essence of being, and would fight tooth and nail to keep their students inside the Yeshiva study rooms. The Haredim who build and maintain the largest settlements in the Occupied Territories, Modi'in Illit and Betar Illit, and who extend and increase them at the expense of the lands of Bil'in and Ni'lin and dozens of other Palestinian villages. But they strictly require secularist soldiers to perform for them the theft of Palestinian land and the guarding of the Haredi settlements built on them, leaving their own sons free for full-time holy studies at the seminaries built on the same land.

The Haredim call themselves "anti-Zionists" but consistently support every  aggressive, warlike and adventurous step - as long as their own sons will not be required to pay the price. And the leader of one of the main Haredi parties has placed himself at the forefront of a campaign of incitement and hatred against African refugees migrant workers, and the manhunt conducted all over the country for citizens of South Sudan who are placed on airplanes for "voluntary deportation", and the detention and deportation of children who were born and grew up in Israel but whose parents were defined "illegal immigrants". And in all this Interior Minister Eli Yishai seems to enjoy the support and backing of his constituents and his party members and his spiritual leaders. Just as they strongly back his struggle to forefend any possibility of Yeshiva students being, God forbid, recruited into the army and forced to suspend their religious studies.

Whose side, then, can a decent person take in this titanic struggle? What result can one hope for? Maybe just that this free-for-all will weaken and undermine the government of Binyamin Netanyahu, a government which perpetuates and intensifies the occupation on the Palestinians and the enrichment of the rich and the impoverishment of everybody else. That Netanyahu's brilliant maneuver of two months ago, the adding of the Kadima Party to his government coalition to produce a huge Knesset majority, will turn out to an own goal for the Netahyahu team. That the crown would soon fall from the head of "King Bibi". May it be so.

Yesterday "Yediot Ahronot" published an interview with two reserve soldiers, Ethan Tiberger and Yuval Harari. Both of them are veteran reservists who over many years came anytime the army called them. In fact, they often volunteered for service above and beyond the time which was required of them by law. In 2002 they had gone without hesitation to fight in the alleys of the Jenin Refugee Camp - that event over which the debate is still raging, whether it was a massacre or just a brutal battle in which many civilians were killed because of regrettable mistakes and because of not having enough time to leave their homes when these were destroyed by the bulldozers of the Israeli Defense Forces . But now, both those reservists have decided that the continued non-recruitment of the Haredim is the last straw. Regretfully, they informed their commanding officer  that they would no longer perform military reserve service.

"Now they have really done it. They pissed in our faces. They sold us out. Finally, we have had it. I have no motivation left to continue. It is no longer an issue of Left or Right, of the occupation or the Iranian issue. This is about our children's future" said Harari.

One should perhaps not complain too much that it was this straw which broke the camel's back, and no other.