Please note: Opinions expressed in the following articles do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.
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The six featured articles and the many related links in this issue of the Middle East Notes focus on praise and criticism of Elie Wiesel; the possibility of imprisoned Marwan Barghouti becoming the next leader of the Palestinians; critique of the Middle East Peace Quartet’s proposals; the slow reconstruction of Gaza and lack of war crimes prosecutions; the B’Tselem Report on Israel’s Military Law Enforcement System which in reality is a whitewash mechanism for the occupation; the use of black leaders by AIPAC to erase Palestinian suffering from the Democratic Party Platform; and other articles of interest.
Commentary: The killings of black young men and of police officers continues to shock and mobilize the people of the United States. Elie Wiesel was able to do the same for Holocaust victims. However the decades-long repression and oppression of Palestinians with its continuing killing and maiming of predominantly young Palestinian men still gets less attention in Israel and the U.S. than the far less numerous “terrorist” killings of Israelis. All agree that no man or woman should be killed or be asked to kill and maim. The IDF is seen by Palestinians to be an “occupying army”; young Israelis are being asked to control another population as a means of defending their country. The future of Israel and a longed-for Palestinian state lies in the hands of these young men and women who are being challenged to see and treat each other as brothers and sisters rather than demonized as “occupiers” or “terrorists.” Only a just and viable “two state solution” or a just and viable “bi-national state” will eliminate this challenge. The choice is in the hands of the government and people of Israel alone, since the Palestinians, although generally open to either alternative, have not the unity and nor the power to make either a reality. The status quo only insures that the killing and maiming continue.
- Ronen Shnidman writes in Haaretz of Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and renowned Holocaust survivor, author and human rights activist who made perpetuating the memory of the Shoah his life's work.
- Gidi Weitz and Jack Khoury ask in Haaretz whether Marwan Barghouti will be the Palestinian Nelson Mandela. Nearly a decade and a half after he began serving multiple life sentences for his role in the killings of the second intifada, Marwan Barghouti is still seen – among most Palestinians, many Israelis and world leaders – as the man who could lead his people to independence.
- Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau write in Reuters that the Middle East Peace Quartet recommended that Israel should stop building settlements denying Palestinian development and designating land for exclusive Israeli use that Palestinians seek for a future state.
- Middleeast Eye reports that two years after Gaza's last devastating conflict with Israel, NGO rights groups are frustrated over the slow pace of reconstruction in the Palestinian territory and lack of war crimes prosecutions.
- Jews For Justice For the Palestinians (JFJFP) have made the B’Tselem Report summary available stating that the occupation’s Fig Leaf is Israel’s Military Law Enforcement System which in reality is a whitewash mechanism.
- David Harris-Gershon writes in Tikkun that AIPAC is using black leaders to erase Palestinian suffering from the Democratic Party Platform.
- Other articles of interest
“Holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, prolific author and outspoken activist Elie Wiesel died Saturday at the age of 87. Wiesel was perhaps best known for his major role in promoting Holocaust education, and for perpetuating the memory of the Holocaust in the post-World War II era with his memoir ‘Night,’ based on his experience as a teenager in the Auschwitz concentration camp.” . . .
“In 1986, after receiving the Nobel, he and his wife established the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity to combat intolerance and injustice around the world through dialogue in general, and via programs for youth. The following year Wiesel served as a witness during the trial of war criminal Klaus Barbie in Lyons, France, during which he spoke of his bitter experiences in Auschwitz.” . . .
“Also in the latter years of his life, Wiesel was in the headlines for an entirely unrelated reason: as one of the more prominent victims of Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity lost $15.2 million it had invested with Madoff, and the Wiesels lost their own life's savings, reported to be around $1 million. The foundation later managed to raise about one-third of the money it lost to Madoff from sympathetic donors, and to continue to function. When asked to describe Madoff by a New York Times journalist, Wiesel said, ‘Psychopath – it’s too nice a word for him.’” . . .
“Wiesel was concerned about human rights in general, serving on the International Council of the Human Rights Foundation and he spoke out against South African apartheid, Argentina’s policy of “disappearing” people during its Dirty War, and the Bosnian genocide during the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. In 2010, he came out publicly against the Netanyahu government’s decision to deport 400 children of migrant workers from Israel.” . . .
See also Link A: Remembering Elie Wiesel Means Recognizing Palestinian Suffering Even if He Never Could; Link B: The Tragedy of Elie Wiesel; Link C: Wiesel’s ‘tribal’ hostility to Palestinians
“Nearly a decade and a half after he began serving multiple life sentences for his role in the killings of the second intifada, Marwan Barghouti is still seen – among most Palestinians, many Israelis and world leaders – as the man who could lead his people to independence. Through a mediator, Barghouti tells Haaretz that he remains a staunch proponent of the two-state solution and that he intends to run for Palestinian president should elections be held.” . . .
“’To take a political leader into captivity is no trifling matter,’ Paz continued. ‘At the end of the day, he had not murdered anyone with his own hands. I wondered to myself about the need for the operation, which might end with him being killed. The reply I got was: ‘Moving ahead.’ In cases like these we implemented the ‘pressure-cooker’ procedure. You gradually degrade the event, in order not to risk soldiers’ lives, until antitank fire is directed at the house or bulldozers are called in. In this case, the event ended when we went, armed and with dogs, to the door of the building in which he was hiding. He came out, looking frightened.’
“Gershon, the division commander, took Barghouti’s hand and led him out of the apartment building. ‘I put him in the command car,” Gershon related in a conversation with Haaretz. “I took out my canteen and gave him water. He was kind of flipped out. Very frightened. I said to him: Don’t worry. We will not do to you what you would have done to us.’”
“Added Gershon: ‘In my opinion, he should be released unconditionally at this point. And not as a collaborator with us, but as someone who will see to the [future of the] Palestinian people, if there is even a small chance that he may become a leading figure on the other side. I say this even though I know he has blood on his hands, as the leader of the Tanzim in the second intifada. Peace is made with powerful enemies whose honor has not been trampled.’
“The myth will grow.
“The army officers who captured Barghouti are convinced that he should now be set free. The same view was held by Ehud Barak. Shortly after Barghouti was captured and taken in for interrogation by the Shin Bet, Barak – the prime minister at the time the second intifada erupted, but by then a private citizen – spoke to Chief of Staff Mofaz. “Have you lost your mind? What’s the story with Barghouti?” Barak asked rhetorically. ‘If it’s part of your struggle against terrorism, it’s meaningless. But if it’s part of a grand plan to make him a future national leader of the Palestinians, then it’s a brilliant scheme, because what’s really missing in his résumé is direct affiliation with terrorism. He will fight for the leadership from inside prison, not having to prove a thing. The myth will grow constantly by itself.’” . . .
“Even if he wakes up to a prison rollcall every morning for the rest of his life, Barghouti today appears to present a complete conceptual alternative to Abbas when it comes to key issues: reconciliation with Hamas, the immediate cessation of security cooperation with Israel, Palestinian Authority support for nonviolent mass protest against Israel and a boycott of Israeli goods. Barghouti thinks that the “intifada of knives” is a fatal mistake. In a conversation via a mediator who visited him in prison in late June, he told Haaretz that a popular protest should encompass hundreds of thousands of people from all the Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The protest has to be persistent and systematic, in order to create international pressure on Israel to return to the negotiating table and end the occupation.” . . .
“Barghouti is regularly visited by Arab Knesset members, some of whom see him as a future leader. “He has an 86-percent support rating among the Palestinians,” says MK Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List of Arab parties. Odeh recently brought Barghouti the massive 1999 biography of Nelson Mandela by the British journalist and writer Anthony Sampson.” . . .
“Signing the Robben Island declaration calling for Barghouti’s release were eight Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu, himself a veteran of the South African campaign. This year, Tutu sent a letter to the Nobel committee, urging it to bestow the Peace Prize on Barghouti. Adolfo Perez Esquivel, the Argentine human-rights activist who himself won that prize in 1980, together with several Belgian members of parliament, has also proposed that the prize be given to the man now serving five life sentences in Israel, after being convicted of murder – noting his commitment to democracy, human rights and equality between men and women.” . . .
“President Reuven Rivlin, who is today against Barghouti’s release, has held a few meetings with political figures in which the question arose of what Israel should do if Barghouti is elected president. Rivlin said in those conversations that the country’s leaders should, in that event, recalculate their course and do what meets Israel’s interests best. In Rivlin’s opinion, if the international community sees him as a Mandela-like figure and exerts pressure for his release, it will be against Israel’s best interests to have him remain in jail.”
See also Link G: Encountering Peace: My Enemy’s Leader
“Israel should stop building settlements, denying Palestinian development and designating land for exclusive Israeli use that Palestinians seek for a future state, the Middle East peace "Quartet" recommended on Friday in a an eagerly awaited report.
“The report by the Quartet entities sponsoring the stalled peace process - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - said the Israeli policy "is steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution." "This raises legitimate questions about Israel's long-term intentions, which are compounded by the statements of some Israeli ministers that there should never be a Palestinian state," according to the eight-page report.
“Amid a spike in violence, the Quartet criticized Palestinian leaders for "not consistently and clearly" condemning terrorist attacks and said illicit arms build up and militant activities in Gaza - controlled by Islamist group Hamas - must stop.” . . .
“Diplomatic sources said the report carries significant political weight as it has the backing of close Israeli ally the United States, which has struggled to revive the peace talks amid tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama.” . . .
“The Quartet said urgent affirmative steps needed to be taken to "prevent entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict." The report said Israel had taken for its exclusive use some 70 percent of Area C, which makes up 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and includes the majority of agricultural lands, natural resources and land reserves.” . . .
“The report said at least 570,000 Israelis are living in the settlements, which most countries deem illegal. "Israel should cease the policy of settlement construction and expansion, designating land for exclusive Israeli use and denying Palestinian development," the report recommends.” . . .
See also Link D: - Israel and Palestinians: Powers warn of 'perpetual conflict'; Link E: Palestinian official says Quartet is useless and should dissolve itself; Link F: - The Middle East Quartet: A dishonest broker in denial of the facts
4) No justice, no aid: Gaza on its knees two years after war, say reports, Middleeast Eye, July 7, 2016
“Two years after Gaza's last devastating conflict with Israel, rights groups vented frustration on Thursday over the slow pace of reconstruction in the Palestinian territory and lack of war crimes prosecutions.
“Amnesty International said it was ‘indefensible’ that no criminal cases had been brought for alleged war crimes committed by Israel or the Palestinians, while a coalition of leading NGOs urged Israel to lift its blockade of the impoverished Gaza Strip.
“The July-August 2014 war between Israel and Gaza killed more than 2,200 Palestinians and 73 people on the Israeli side, and destroyed or damaged thousands of homes in besieged Gaza.
“Reconstruction has been painfully slow, with the United Nations taking over a year to rebuild its first destroyed home.
“Israel has maintained a blockade on the enclave, limiting the entry of many goods essential for construction that officials fear could fall into the hands of Hamas and be used for another military build-up.” . . .
“In Gaza, although new roads have been constructed, many areas remain desolated and the economy has ground to a standstill.
“Over 120,000 homes were at least partly damaged, while around 20,000 were left totally uninhabitable in the war, according to the United Nations.
“The Mediterranean enclave's unemployment rate of 45 percent is one of the highest in the world, while child labour has doubled over the past five years, according to Palestinian estimates.” . . .
See also Link G: Encountering Peace: My Enemy’s Leader
5) Exposing the Occupation for what it is, JFJFP, B’Tselem Report summary, May 2016
“The military law enforcement system is supposed to handle complaints filed against soldiers for harm caused to Palestinians in the West Bank, including cases of violence and gunfire that resulted in injury or death. Such harm is endemic to the occupation, which has been in place for nearly fifty years.
“The role of the military law enforcement system has been narrowly defined to begin with: it investigates only specific incidents in which soldiers are suspected to have acted in breach of the orders or directives they were given. The system does not investigate the orders themselves nor the responsibility of those who issue them or determine the policy. As such, the system is oriented toward low ranking soldiers only, while senior military and government officials, including the Military Advocate General (MAG), are absolved in advance of any responsibility. In this state of affairs, even if the system had fulfilled its tasks, its contribution to law enforcement would still remain limited. However, an examination of the operation of the military law enforcement system indicates that it makes no attempt to fulfil even this limited mandate.” . . .
“Since the second intifada began in late 2000, B’Tselem has demanded an investigation in 739 cases in which soldiers killed, injured, or beat Palestinians, used them as human shields, or damaged Palestinian property.
“An analysis of the responses B’Tselem received as to how the military law enforcement system handled these 739 cases shows that in a quarter (182) no investigation was ever launched, in nearly half (343), the investigation was closed with no further action, and only in very rare instances (25), were charges brought against the implicated soldiers. Another thirteen cases were referred for disciplinary action. A total of 132 cases are still at various processing stages, and the MAG Corps was unable to locate 44 others.” . . .
“Among other things, the semblance of a functioning justice system allows Israeli officials to deny claims made both in Israel and abroad that Israel does not enforce the law on soldiers who harm Palestinians. In so doing, the state ensures that the military law enforcement system will remain in the sole purview of the military. The military, in turn, will be able to continue its investigation policy in which only the junior ranks are (ostensibly) investigated, while senior commanders and civilian superiors are absolved of accountability for unlawful acts committed under their authority.
“These appearances also help grant legitimacy – both in Israel and abroad – to the continuation of the occupation.” . . .
“B’Tselem will no longer play a part in the pretense posed by the military law enforcement system and will no longer refer complaints to it. The experience we have gained, on which we base the conclusions presented in this report, has brought us to the realization that there is no longer any point in pursuing justice and defending human rights by working with a system whose real function is measured by its ability to continue to successfully cover up unlawful acts and protect perpetrators.” . . .
“This is the story of how a powerful lobbying organization enlists black Americans – victims of oppression and state violence for centuries – to mask the suffering of another oppressed people. It is the story of how the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) strategically recruits and educates black leaders to defend Israel from critique. And it is the story of how Palestinians living under Israel’s occupation suffer in ways that reverberate upon America’s streets – where black bodies are bruised, bloodied and destroyed under the weight of police violence, mass incarceration, and disenfranchisement.” . . .
“At this hearing, the DNC’s 15-member Platform Drafting Committee heard public testimony on and debated many aspects of the platform, working through domestic policy and foreign policy and finally arriving at Israel. When they did, Robert Wexler, President of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, sat before the committee and presented Hillary Clinton’s version of what the DNC platform should look like, making sure to list Israel’s legitimate security concerns while neglecting to articulate the suffering Palestinians endure. Needless to say, absent from Wexler’s testimony were the words “occupation” and “settlements.” Though he did make sure to condemn Palestinian civil society’s nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, noting that Democrats must oppose outside forces pressuring Israel.
“Sitting opposite Wexler was Cornel West, a prominent author, academic and BDS supporter, who resides on the Drafting Committee as one of five members appointed by Bernie Sanders. (Six were appointed by Clinton.) When Wexler finished his testimony, West had this to say:
“’I think both of us can agree that a precious Palestinian baby in the West Bank has exactly the same value as a precious Jewish baby in Tel Aviv … A commitment to security for precious Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel can never be predicated on an occupation of precious Palestinians. If we’re concerned about security, it seems to me we’re going to have to talk seriously about occupation. I don’t know if you would allow the use of that word … but occupation is real. It’s concrete.’” . . .
“’For too long, the Democratic Party has been beholden to an AIPAC that didn’t take seriously the humanity of Palestinian brothers and sisters. We’re at a turning point now, though of course it’s going to be a slow one in the Democratic Party … So my first question would be: one, would you argue for the use of the word occupation in the platform? And two, how would you respond to those who say for so long the United States has been so biased toward Israeli security and has not accented the humanity of Palestinians, such that to talk about evenhandedness is always a version of anti-Semitism as opposed to a struggle for justice?’”
“Wexler responded, saying ‘what you refer to as occupation’ should be absent from the DNC platform. Why? To include mention of occupation and settlements would be to litigate sensitive issues which must be negotiated by Israelis and Palestinians themselves, not the Democratic Party. An absurd answer made even more so given Wexler, on Clinton’s behalf, advocated minutes before for Jerusalem to be recognized by Democrats as Israel’s capital, one such ‘sensitive’ issue.
“When the public hearing had concluded, the Clinton camp’s position was known: it opposed West’s proposal to acknowledge Palestinian suffering in the Democratic Party Platform, as well as the nonviolent movement he champions. What wasn’t known was just who would prevail on this issue. What also wasn’t known at the time was that in a matter of days, AIPAC would quietly aid Clinton by enlisting black politicians and church leaders to counter West’s efforts on the Drafting Committee, as though the only natural way to counter a black intellectual is with other black intellectuals.” . . .
“The debate revolved around a motion proposed by West and James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute and another Sanders appointee. It sought to have included in the platform a call for “an end to occupation and illegal settlements so that [Palestinians] may live in independence, sovereignty and dignity” as well as an acknowledgement that Palestinians ‘deserve security, recognition and a normal life free from violence, terror and incitement.’
“Debate on the motion was emotional, with West and Zogby pleading for the Democratic Party to simply acknowledge Palestinian suffering. Here’s Zogby:
“The term occupation shouldn’t be controversial. George Bush said there is an occupation, Ariel Sharon said there was an occupation, Barack Obama has said there is an occupation. There is an occupation. It denies people freedom … It’s an occupation that humiliates people, that breeds contempt, that breeds anger and despair and a hopelessness that leads to violence.
“We have to be able to call it what it is. Reality has moved way beyond just recognizing Palestinians [exist]. It’s hearing their voices, understanding their pain.
“West and Zogby, who pushed for the motion in committee late into the night, were fighting an uphill battle, in large part because AIPAC had already been invisibly working to ensure the motion would fail.” . . .
“Late into the night on June 25, after debate had finally ended, the Drafting Committee defeated West and Zogby’s motion by an 8-5 vote. The platform’s initial draft would not mention occupation, nor settlements, nor any acknowledgement of or concern for the violation of Palestinian rights. What would make it into the draft, however, were calls to fight BDS and for Jerusalem to be the “undivided” capital of Israel.” . . .
“While AIPAC, with an assist from Sellers and over 60 black leaders, had repelled progressive efforts for a more balanced platform plank, some progressive inroads were made, despite the BDS language. For the first time, Palestinian ‘dignity’ and ‘sovereignty’ were articulated, as well as their deserving ‘peace.’” . . .
“That organizations like AIPAC continue to support the right-wing policies of Israeli leaders like Binyamin Netanyahu, policies which are destroying both the lives and futures of Palestinians and Israelis, angers me to no end. As Israel slides farther to the right, wisps of fascism taking root, leaders rejecting two-states while also rejecting an end to occupation, it’s not difficult to see where we’re headed. And that’s worse than where we are, for both sides.
“Like Marc Lamont Hill, I’m outraged that AIPAC has chosen to enlist black leaders to defend the status quo and help ensure things only get worse. And I’m disappointed with such leaders, not as a member of the black community, but as one invested both in Israel and in the realization of full rights, dignity and sovereignty for Palestinians.” . . .
Other articles of interest:
We wish we could explain to Wiesel and others who choose to look away that we listened deeply to their stories.
B) The Tragedy of Elie Wiesel, Peter Beinart, Haaretz, February 18, 2015
Why does such a great man keep apologizing for a government that betrays his ideals?
C) Wiesel’s ‘tribal’ hostility to Palestinians, Hussein Ibish, Foreign Policy, July 4, 2016
Elie Wiesel’s Moral Imagination Never Reached Palestine. The great writer’s humanitarianism knew no bounds — except where it met his nationalism.
D) Israel and Palestinians: Powers warn of 'perpetual conflict', BBC News, July 1, 2016
A group of key world powers has warned of "perpetual occupation and conflict" between Israelis and Palestinians. In a long-awaited report, the so-called Quartet said ongoing violence, Israeli settlement-building and Palestinian splits were undermining peace hopes.
The United Nations Security Council should reject the Quartet report on the conflict with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday.
The Quartet needs to talk to Hamas. Instead the pro-Israel bias in its latest report could give Israel the excuse it needs to attack Gaza again
G) Encountering Peace: My Enemy’s Leader, Gershon Baskin, Jerusalem Post, July 6, 2016
Gershon Baskin, an Israeli, recognizes the need for Palestinians and his fellow Israelis to find compromises in a joint effort to live peacefully as neighbors. He understands that both parties identify the opposition’s leader as the enemy, but that Palestine and Israel representatives must accept one another as “partners of peace” in order to negotiate agreements.
In the conflict over the land of Palestine, Israel’s overpowering military superiority has produced decisive battlefield victories. But just as crucial to Israeli dominance in that region is its supremacy in the U.S. news media, which is captured in the title of an important new film from the Media Education Foundation, “The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States.”
I) How can Israeli leaders still argue that settlements boost security? Haaretz Editorial, July 3, 2016
The killings over the weekend prove that collective punishment against the Palestinians leads to a situation where the army can’t protect Israelis.
J) CMEP Bulletin - Low Water, High Tensions – July 1, 2016
K) CMEP Bulletin - Occupation is Safe for No One - July 8, 2016
With his usual capacity for describing horrors of genocide and acts of compassion, historian Yair Auron presents the unknown story of Circassians who in 1942 saved Jewish youngsters from slaughter.
M) Heinous Killing on Both Sides of the Israeli-Palestinian Divide, Gideon Levy, Haaretz, July 3, 2016
Tears have poured in Kiryat Arba, Sa’ir and elsewhere. The motives are different, but the results are identical and horrendous.
N) Holy See: Peace is Possible in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Vatican Radio, July 5, 2016
Permanent Observer to the United Nations Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic believes that peace is possible between Israel and Palestine He shares Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis’s encouragement of a two-state solution, as both Palestinians and Israelis have the right to sovereign homelands in which they feel safe and at peace.
O) Building Tomorrow’s Religious Peacemakers Today, Religion News, July 6, 2016
Drew University’s Center on Religion, Culture, and Conflict will host Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leaders from several nations including Israel and Palestine as part of the Drew Institute on Religion and Conflict Transformation this month.
Palestinian doctor Ali Shroukah from the West Bank aided victims of a terrorist attack last Friday on his way to Jerusalem. Several members of the Israeli family he helped were critically wounded and the father, Rabbi Michal Mark, was killed. Despite the current conflict, Dr. Shroukah provided life-saving assistance to the Mark family, temporarily relieving the strife between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Q) Palestinian doctor tried to save terror victims, Elior Levy, YnetNews, July 5, 2016
One of the first people to arrive on the scene of Friday's terror attack on the Mark family's car was Palestinian doctor Ali abu Sharkh; Doctor says he isn't a hero, 'just carrying out my duty.'
Ten years of siege, two years since the 2014 Israeli massacre – it’s high time for accountability and for a two-way military embargo on Israel!
Four months away provide just enough distance to see the madness and the cruelty for what they are. Who has set up this crazy system and kept it running for half a century? Is it not mad to deliberately deprive human beings—families, children, the elderly– of water at the height of summer in a scorching desert?
How bad have the tensions gotten between Israel’s security establishment and its political leadership? Pretty bad, and getting worse.
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